Sound Off 927 - Clash In Paris, Jake Hager SHOOTS on Tony Khan And The Raja Jackson Incident! - Solomonster Sounds Off

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
WWE on Netflix is truly the best thing ever. But
there's one catch. Not everybody gets that. A lot of
you are still watching WWE the old school way on cable,
dealing with boring commercials while I'm enjoying uninterrupted action. Let's
fix that with today's sponsor.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
I couldn't have said it any better myself, Stephanie. And
that's why you need Express VPN.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
It's business time, baby. You are listening to solo Monster
sounds off. I love you, mama, monster dude. I want
your soul.

Speaker 4 (00:38):
You got grown ass wrestlers in the back going on Twitter.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Come over here? Is that Pet Patterson? You have legs?
I was ninety positive it was just chessed up. Now, congratulations.

Speaker 5 (00:53):
Who hasn't beat Daniel Garcia?

Speaker 2 (00:58):
All the people I would have expected to be talking
about skipping boring commercials and basically calling you an idiot
if you pay thirty bucks for ESPN, Stephanie McMahon would
not have been that person. I wonder when she read
that copy off the teleprompter if she even knew what
it said beforehand. But I'm glad she's echoing what I've
been telling you guys for years.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
You need a VPN, and yes, Express VPN is the
only one you should be using, because I've got an
offer just for you, and they're not even sponsoring the
show this week, but I'm plugging it anyway. There's one
more early raw this Monday in Paris that starts at
two pm on Netflix. You don't need a VPN to
watch that one early, but if you want to avoid

(01:40):
the commercials and watch the action during the breaks, not
that there is a lot of action, but if you
don't want to sit through the commercials during Raw, make
sure you've got your VPN running in the background and
you're good to go. I have a feeling it's going
to come in real handy for a lot of people
once those plees moved to ESPN in a few weeks.
Hey shout out to our friend Flamethrower Fluff Salisbury on

(02:03):
the YouTube streams. He emailed a flyer to me for
a photo op that is being offered at the Scaridie
Convention at the Florida State Fairgrounds on Saturday, October fourth.
You can get your picture taken with Sting in full
wolf pack makeup and RoboCop and not just any RoboCop.

(02:24):
RoboCop himself, the RoboCop doctor Peter Weller, who will not
be in costume, which is a bummer, but still Sting
and RoboCop reunited. Sting's not wearing the makeup anymore after
the end of this year, so this is probably the
one and only time this is even going to happen.
I think it may have already sold out, because I

(02:45):
don't even see it listed on their website anymore. But
he says in the email to me, I thought you
might get a kick out of this. My fiance showed
this to me and said that she didn't understand why
they would be doing photos together at a convention. She
just started watching wrestling last year. I showed her the
Capitol Combat ninety footage and she said it's either the
greatest thing that she ever saw or the dumbest. All

(03:07):
I could say was, that's pretty much wrestling in a nutshell.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
Indeed it is.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Also Vice TV has released the full Dark Side of
the Ring episode to its YouTube channel on Daphne, who
passed away four years ago. I reviewed that episode on
SoundOff nine point fifteen. It's a powerful episode, very sad,
but it also ends on an uplifting note. Oddly enough,
despite her sad ending, so it's well worth your time

(03:35):
if you are not familiar with her story. This is
episode nine to twenty seven of The Solemn Monster Sounds
up for Saturday, August thirtieth, twenty twenty five, a day
early again with Clash and powis taking place tomorrow, and
I've got a final preview in predictions for the show,
as well as news on Raw moving to an earlier
start time next month. Jake Hager is no fan of

(03:59):
Tony Kahan. He made that abundantly clear in an interview
with Chris van Vliet. This week, I'll talk about that
there may be a lawsuit coming soon, the first of
possibly several, in the death of Hulk Hogan. I will
talk about why and by whom the suit may be filed.
And then there's the Rajah Jackson story. The podcast went

(04:20):
up earlier the same day as the incident happened last weekend,
so I didn't get a chance to address it on
episode nine twenty six, But I'm glad I didn't because
there was a lot more that came out in the
aftermath of the incident where he nearly beat a wrestler
to death in the middle of the Ring.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
I did speak my.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Peace on this On Wednesday, I dropped something for all
of you on YouTube. That is what you will hear
on the show today for those who may have missed it,
because not everybody listens on there, and even those who did,
it's twenty five minutes. That's well worth listening to again.
So I've got that for you as well. I'll save
that for later. If you would like to make a
PayPal donation, you may do so on the solomonster dot

(04:58):
com ten dollars or more. We'll get you a nickname
it shout Out. I want to say thank you to
Best Mode Brock, Joseph Rock, thank you.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
I hope you're doing well.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
Brother the Portland pop Star, Paul Hamilton, Big B Bryant, Bevisera,
The Diamond Dallas Dance Machine, Harrison's So App Velvet Revolver,
Robert Murray, The Chicago Slayer, Willie Iichord, Nightstalker, I f Alsafar,
Rule Breaker, Rakeish Gordon Raj must See Makwana. Thank you

(05:27):
my friend, kill Shot Keith Hart. I will see you
on Thursday, Brother, show your role Chris Ludeck. Check out
his What Could Have Been in Wrestling series on YouTube.
He's also got a video up right now reacting to
my list of the top babyface turns in wrestling history.
Just search for Chris Ludek by name on YouTube. That's

(05:48):
l U d E c k E. And my condolences
to Jake Jake the Snake Harrison, his grandfather passed away
last week. He said he raised him like his own
son and called him Jake the Snake, just like his
grandmother used to Sharon when he was a kid, and

(06:08):
the best way for anyone to honor him is to
always be kind and carrying to others like he was.
I think that's a fine piece of advice, and again
shake my condolences. I'm very sorry to hear that. This Thursday,
I will be in Philadelphia for House of Glory, streaming
live on Triller TV Plus at eight pm from Trinity

(06:29):
at twenty second. We ran this venue actually a joint
show with Sammy Callahan's promotion in Philadelphia last year over
WrestleMania a week and packed it in, so hopefully we
will be able to do the same this time with
Zillafah two challenging Bully Ray to try to get back

(06:50):
his Crown Jewel Championship bullies had a few nights in
Philly that have gotten rough. In his day's had a
few fights in that city, so this will be another
one to add to that list. Charles Mason defends his
Hog World title against wweid prospect Marcus Mathers, who was
very impressive last time we had him on one of

(07:11):
our shows. Cedric Alexander returns to take on Amazing Red
main event. Jylyon and Midas Black defend the Hog Tag
team titles against Leo Rush and Action Andretti and Shatzi,
who's been running in and causing all kinds of chaos
on our shows. We'll finally have to wrestle an actual match,

(07:32):
and if she wants to even be considered for a
Women's Championship match against Indy Hartwell, she will have to
first get past Priscilla Kelly. So all that and more.
Tickets are available at Hog Wrestling dot Net. I hope
to see some of you there. I know Keith will
be there, Shout out to Keith, but hopefully I'll get
to see some more of you.

Speaker 3 (07:51):
Guys there in Philly.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
WWE presents Clash in Paris tomorrow at the Paris La
Defense Arena. With a round thirty thousand fans expected, making
it the largest pro wrestling crowd ever in France. It's
also the largest indoor venue in all of Europe. Starts
at two pm Eastern from Paris, France, with a six
match card that was finalized on SmackDown last night. I

(08:17):
will be live on YouTube at eight pm Eastern for
the post show recap, my final show for the month
of August, so let's make it.

Speaker 3 (08:24):
A good one.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
Drew McIntyre is going to be challenging Cody Roads for
the WWE Championship, not on this show, but very likely
a Wrestle Palooza next month. But Dave Meltzer is reporting
that Cody will be done filming Street Fighter by September twentieth,
which is the date of the show, which implies that
he may not be around much on TV to actually
promote the match, which is hard for me to believe.

(08:49):
Cody and his wife Brandy just had baby number two
this week, a baby girl named leilani Ella Runnels, which
was a surprise given that there was no mention of
them expecting a second child. See and they say you
can't keep secrets in wrestling anymore, so Cody has a
lot on his plate lately, but again I would be
surprised if we don't give that match at Wressell Palooza.

Speaker 3 (09:11):
And I thought there.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
Might be a chance of them announcing McIntyre against Randy
Orton for this show and this would be the sixth
match that was added to the card.

Speaker 3 (09:20):
They did not do that.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
So if we are going to get Cody and Drew
at Wressell Palooza, which is the next pl after this,
that would imply that we might be getting Orton and
McIntyre as a TV made event. So because I just
I don't know why you would just go right to
McIntyre and Cody without doing a McIntyre Orton match, given
that we've had two weeks in a row now of

(09:43):
confrontations between them. But that will not be taking place
on this show. Another match that was supposed to take
place on this show and is no longer is Stephanie
Vaquer who won a Battle Royal last month at Evolution
to earn the right to challenge for the Women's World Championship.
She was supposed to wrestle whoever the champion was. It
was Naomi, and of course Naomi had to vacate the title.

Speaker 3 (10:06):
Jimmy Usso made sure of that, so the.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
Title is vacant and I thought that we would get
the announcement on Monday of who would be challenging Stephanie
on this show, but then Adam Pearce told her that
he needed another week to make things official. He's got
a name in mind, but he needs more time. So unfortunately,
Stephanie will not be wrestling in Paris. That means that

(10:28):
Stephanie Vicaire will have gone through the entire month of
August without wrestling a single match. That is beyond ridiculous.
And some people still think it's a good idea for
her to win the championship here. She's barely been visible
on TV. There's no story, there's no nothing. Why are

(10:52):
you going to put the championship on her? It would
be a complete waste. Hold off until WrestleMania for that,
or have her be the one to dee throw Becky
Lynch for the Intercontinental title. I would be okay with
that too, and then follow up with the NXT Blueprint.
They did the same thing with her there. She won
the North American Championship before she ever won the NXT

(11:14):
Women's Championship. I think that would actually be a great
way to go about it. That's what the IC title
should be used for, to elevate somebody newer to that
next level, and what better way to do that than
by having her beat Becky Lynch. You know, as much
as I would love to see Rhea Ripley against Stephanie Vicaire,
if they wanted to do Rhea Ripley against Bianca bel Air,

(11:35):
let's say in Vegas next year, then I would be
totally fine with that and let Stephanie have an extended
rain as the Intercontinental champion. But right now she's challenging
for the world title against who. We should know this Monday.
We should know the who, what, where when. As far
as that goes, Eosky would make the most sense. I've
been saying this for weeks. Both women were owed title

(11:57):
matches by Naomi. Based on what Adam Pierce said, it
doesn't sound like it's going to be that simple or
else he wouldn't have needed to delay the announcement by
a week, like if he was just going to announce
EO Sky, he would have just announced it. And the
thought that I had just based on what he was saying,
and I mentioned this on TNT Tuesday Night. What about

(12:18):
Bianca bel Air? What if the hold up is that
they thought she would be medically cleared in time but
she wasn't, but they expect her to be, and they're
planning on moving her from SmackDown to raw and we
get Bianca against Stephanie. Now EO makes more sense because
Bianca did nothing to earn the shot, and it gets
dicey if Bianca shows up and wins the championship, because

(12:40):
then they go to Perth, where you figure Rio Ripley
is getting the shot. But I just throw that out
there as a possibility. If it's up to me, just
put EO Sky in there and be done with it.
It doesn't prevent them from continuing with their little soap
opera story with EO and the Kabuki Warriors. You can
still do that. You could still play that out. In fact,
when EO then turns around and loses the title to Rhea,

(13:02):
it could be because of Oscar, so you could even
work that into the story. To me, that's the path
of least resistance and we still get a great match
out of it. That's what I would do. We'll see
what they announced on Monday Now newly added to the
show is the Wyatt Six defending the WWE Tag team
titles against the former champions, the Street Profits, who beat

(13:23):
Miz and Carmelo Hayes on Friday Night to earn the shot.
I don't see the Street Profits getting the belts back here.
I think the Wyatt Six retain. Look, there were more
exciting matches they could have added in this spot. I'm
glad they added a sixth match. Yeah, it's not going
to kill them to do that more often.

Speaker 3 (13:43):
There were other.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
Potential matches that could have been on this show that
would have excited me more than this. But at least
the tag titles are being defended again on a PL
I mean, they went so long without, you know, and
then they did the TLC match at SummerSlam, which was great,
so you know, I can't hate them at least adding
one tag team title match to this card. But again,

(14:04):
I can't say that this really does much for me here.
Nicki Bella is going to be challenging Becky Lynch for
the Women's Intercontinental Championship. Becky won the title of Money
in the Bank and she has defended that title on
every PL since, including Evolution SummerSlam and now Clash in Paris.

(14:28):
It pays to be a top name holding a mid
card title. I wish Triple H would at least make
an attempt in good faith with Julia in the US
title on SmackDown, because that woman won the title in
June and has had a grand total of one defense
this entire summer. The summer is almost over, and that
one defense that she had was in a rematch with

(14:50):
the former champions Zelina Vega that was back on August first.

Speaker 3 (14:54):
That is awful.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
You know, I can understand not wanting to saturate the
shows with world title defenses. You want to keep those special,
But there's no reason these mid card titles should not
be defended on a regular basis. Otherwise what's the point
in even having them. But on Monday Night, Becky and
Nicky they traded insults back and forth. Nicky held her
own just fine, But it was some comments that Becky

(15:19):
Lynch made to get heal heat while they were in Birmingham, Birmingham, England.
They got her in some hot water this week, and
I think that I think this is all much ado
about nothing. But Kelly Osbourne, the daughter of Ozzy Osbourne,
who passed away on July twenty second, was not happy
with the comments that Becky made in her father's hometown
when Becky called Ozzy the only good thing to come

(15:42):
out of that city, the only good thing that came
out of here died a month ago. But in fairness
to Ozzy Osbourne, she said he had the good sense
to move to a proper city like Los Angeles, because
if she lived in Birmingham, she said that she would
die too. Now, clearly it was aimed toward Birmingham and

(16:05):
not Ozzie himself. She said nothing bad or degrading about
Ozzy Osbourne, but Kelly posted on her Instagram stories, you
are a disrespectful dirt bag. Birmingham would not piss on
you if you were on fire hashtag Birmingham forever. Shame
on the WWE for allowing such things to be said
about my father and his home. I'll tell you who

(16:28):
I feel bad for. I feel bad for the Becky
Lynch fan page that she tagged, thinking that it was
Becky Lynch. She actually tagged at Becky Lynch dot fan eleven.
I was like, whoops, oh well, Ozzie's in the WWE
Hall of fame. He probably would have had a good

(16:48):
laugh about it all. And look, nobody can tell his
daughter that she shouldn't be upset or that she doesn't
have the right to be upset about it. I'm not
going to tell somebody who just lost their father and
is probably still grieving, you know what she should or
should not be upset about. All I can say is
it didn't bother me. Like I've heard things said on
wrestling shows that were in poor taste. I didn't see

(17:08):
anything wrong with what she said. But Dave Meltzer says
that there has been talk of WWE issuing an apology
or having Becky apologize for it, you know, whatever, whatever
they feel they need to do. But Becky's been entertaining
with the heel stuff. She's not losing her title here,
nor is Nikki Bella the one who should be taking

(17:28):
the belt off of her. So this will be a
Becky Lynch win Shamus and Russev. You know I mentioned
the tag team titles being defended on a pl How
about Shamus getting.

Speaker 3 (17:39):
A pl E match or Russev for that matter.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
They're gonna have a good old fashioned Donnybrook match, which
should be really good. Both men come into this one
win apiece and they finally get that elusive ple match.
Anything goes, but with barrels of Irish whiskey at ringside
beats the hell out of that stupid prime hydration station.
I've got Shamus for the win. We have Roman Reigns

(18:04):
against Bronson Reed, tribal chief against tribal thief. Roman wants
his shoes back. On Monday, Reed gave Roman a history
lessons just to add a little more depth to the
story here, saying Roman's tribe from Samoa is civilized, but
Reeds is not. Reed's tribe was exiled to Australia and

(18:25):
Roman's tattoos were all paid for, but Reeds were earned.
And Reed said that he was the samoan that Roman's
dad and uncle had warned him about and he was
about to find out why, at which point Roman responded,
hold up this guy's samoan. That means your ass belongs
to me. It was a fine segment. It also went

(18:46):
twenty seven minutes and did not need to be twenty
seven minutes long. The only chance that Bronson Reid has
and I still think Roman Reigns is winning this match.
But the only chance that he has is because Roman
is leaving after this to go film his part as
a Kuma in the Street Fighter movie. He's gonna be
gone all of September. Why not give Reed the biggest

(19:07):
win of his career. What do you have to lose?
No one has ever kicked out of the tsunami splash before,
Like squashing seth Rollins with those six tsunamis is what
put this guy on the map. Why not let him
beat Roman? If Roman is going away anyway, bron Breaker
has no match on the show. He could provide the

(19:27):
assist If you want bron Breaker to distract or get
involved in some way, fine, But if Reid beats Roman
when Roman comes back in a month, you've got the
natural revenge story for the rematch in Perth and Roman
gets his win back. Right, he could even become the
first man ever to kick out of the tsunami. Don't

(19:48):
be afraid to beat your top names. Like I like
the fact that nobody has ever kicked out of the
tsunami before.

Speaker 3 (19:55):
So if they were to have the balls to.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
Allow Reed to go over on Roman with the tsunami,
even if it takes multiple ones, like I'd be okay
if Roman came back and Roman reigns. You know, only
one of the biggest names in the company ended up
being the first person to kick out of a tsunami.
Like that would be acceptable to me if they already
went out of their way to allow Red to get
a win over. I really don't see the harm in

(20:20):
doing that. Like I said, don't be afraid to beat
your top names every now and then. But they are,
so I'm predicting a Roman rains win. I suspect if
they were going to have one of these guys beat
Roman and give them the rub, it would be bron
Breaker and not Bronson Ree. John Cena goes one on
one with Logan. Paul Sena has schooled Logan on the

(20:43):
mic the last two weeks, daring him to step up
in Paris or get left behind, putting him over for
his ability, but also putting him down for being selfish
and arrogant.

Speaker 3 (20:54):
He did it again on Friday.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
That one wasn't as good as the promo from the
week before that, but both I thought were some of
the best promo work that Sena has done all year
on this retirement tour. Although he didn't seem too bothered
about Logan knocking him out with that punch last week
and then running away. Nothing ever, seems to bother John Cena.
Like even years ago in his prime, he could get
screwed out of the championship on a Sunday and then

(21:18):
he would walk out be the first one to walk
out there on Monday with a big smile on his face.
He used to annoy the shit out of me, Like
that's what sociopaths are.

Speaker 4 (21:26):
Like.

Speaker 2 (21:27):
There's a heel gimmick that could have worked for Sena.
Think Christian Bale and American Psycho. My favorite part of
that promo was seen of finding the kid in the
crowd that he had insulted in March in Brussels and
apologizing to him, saying that.

Speaker 3 (21:41):
He had a bad night.

Speaker 2 (21:43):
Everyone has a bad night, more like five months worth
of bad nights. But they would like for us to
forget about all that. It was all just a dream,
It never happened. Now they could be setting up for
Sena to put over Logan, but Sena just you know,
to be going out there and losing all of his
matches that are left between now in December, which is

(22:05):
probably what's going to happen if he loses this one
I think would be terrible. I mean, he may be
putting everybody over from here on out, and I can
understand them wanting to use him in that way, but
it's almost like if they were to do that and
you have him putting over everybody, then nobody gets over.
So I think he wins here, and if he loses,

(22:28):
it should be to someone else, so it means more.
So I think he absolutely should win this match. I
think he will win this match because I look ahead
to who his potential final opponents could be. It's a
short list. Drew McIntyre is on that list. Gunther is
on that list. I feel like whoever that person ends

(22:49):
up being should go over and should win. I will
see who they ultimately choose. Maybe I'll change my mind
on that. But there's a time and a place for
him to lose, and I just don't think this is it.
And then we have the World Heavyweight Championship on the
line in a four way match seth Rollins defense against
CM Punk, Jay Usso and La Knight. Rollins helped cost

(23:13):
La Knight a win on Monday against bron Breaker. I
still think I've been saying it for weeks. I still
think that La Knight is taking the losing fall in
this match, which now would be even worse for him
given that he just lost on Monday. So for him
to lose on Monday and then be the one to
take the pin on Sunday would be pretty awful. So

(23:34):
I'd love to be wrong about this. You know, you
got jay Uso in. There no harmon beating jay Uso.
It's just not the sense that I get. You know
that they're building up this drama with Punk and Knight
and usso they're all not getting along. They continue to
fight each other instead of focusing on the one guy
they should be trying to take out, which is Seth Rollins,

(23:56):
and that will lead to their downfall. On Sunday, seth
Rawlins will retain the World Heavyweight Championship. That is your
clash in Paris card again. I will be live on
YouTube at eight pm Eastern for the full recap.

Speaker 3 (24:12):
Now.

Speaker 2 (24:12):
Last week, I mentioned a number of raws coming up
in September had their ticket times adjusted locally, and Netflix
was listing those weeks for a seven pm Eastern start time,
one hour earlier than usual. Those are the September fifteenth,
twenty second, and twenty ninth dates. Now we learn from
Wrestle Votes Radio that those shows will indeed be starting

(24:34):
an hour earlier, and the reason is due to the NFL.
Both WWE and Netflix want to see how the shows
perform against Monday Night Football on ESPN with the earlier
start time, so this will minimize the head to head
competition between the two shows by an hour. On the
fifteenth and twenty ninth, there will be some NFL double
headers that role will be going head to head with

(24:56):
since the first game starts at seven Eastern and then
I I think the other one is seven fifteen. It's
not currently known if this is going to be a
permanent change or if it's one that might extend throughout
the entire NFL season. Anything earlier is fine by me.
It just means I get to go live with all
of you an hour earlier than usual, so I love it.

(25:18):
And Vince McMahon's attorney is trying to get the charges
against him dismissed from his recent reckless driving case in Connecticut.
This is according to a TMZ report. Mark Sherman said
in a statement to TMZ that if the dismissal is granted,
it would ensure a complete dismissal of the case, but
still allows Vince to convey contrition and concern for the

(25:41):
other drivers, which is his top priority. Oh, I'm sure,
I'm sure the safety of others on the road is
his top priority, which is why he's been driving around
like an absolute lunatic for the other sixty years of
his life. At this point, it's only marginally safer to
be on the road with Vince McMahon that it is

(26:03):
Tammy Sich. So he had an arraignment hearing in Stanford
on charges of reckless driving and following too closely resulting
in an accident. This was after the car accident on
July twenty fourth, which was the same day Hulk Cogan died.
McMahon's next court date is October sixteenth for a disposition hearing.

(26:25):
My take, he'll worm his way out of this. I mean,
people with that much money always, do you know. If anything,
he'll get a slap on the wrist, don't do it again,
and then he'll just go out and keep doing the
same thing. The guy's fucking eighty years old. He's not
going to change. He is who he is. He's never
going to learn his lesson you know what, You don't

(26:46):
need to have billions of dollars for though, to improve
your mental.

Speaker 3 (26:50):
Health and well being.

Speaker 2 (26:52):
And on that note, today's episode is sponsored by Betterhelp.
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(28:56):
dot com slash solo monster. Jake Hager, who is officially
retired from the wrestling business, I shall light a candle.
Tonight in Memory sat down for an interview with Chris
van Vliet that was posted this week, talking about his
career in WWE and AW Among the things that he mentioned,
he was outright told, he claims, by someone in WWE

(29:20):
at the time, that John Cena refused to lose to
him when he had his money in the bank contract
to cash in, which is why he ended up beating
Chris Jericho instead to win the world title on SmackDown.

Speaker 3 (29:31):
He also once.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
Pitched an idea that Tony Kahan rejected when he was
doing the Purple Hat gimmick where he would basically turn
into Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy, but instead of
saying I am Groot, he would say I like this hat,
and everybody in the Jericho appreciation society would know what
he was saying when he said it, which is why

(29:54):
it's not always a good thing to let the talent
have creative input.

Speaker 3 (29:58):
There's exhibit A.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
He also said that he now runs his own trucking
company called Hall and Oates. Now, I know he's not
the only one using that name for their business, but
he earns points with me just for being a haul
and oats fan.

Speaker 3 (30:12):
I'll give him points for that.

Speaker 2 (30:14):
But what made headlines here were his comments about his
time in AW, which came to an end last year
when they allowed his contract to expire. He said he's
very jaded from his time in AAW and he wishes
that he would have just stayed doing MMA, where he
was undefeated in four fights, three wins and one no contest.
But he says that he felt disrespected after being offered

(30:36):
an eighteen month deal to stay with the company, which
I believe he said he did sign, but he felt
like it was a sign that Tony Khan really didn't
want him there. He said the negotiation process was very
one way, and I could tell that. Well anyways, I
always find a way to say this every day, so
I think everybody should too, say fuck Tony Khan. I

(30:56):
could tell that he didn't want me there. He offered
me like a year and an half. I was like, bro,
I just did Stadium Stampede twice. Don't act like Stadium
Stampede didn't put AW on the map. I was in
the debut episode. I was the big spoiler, and you
offered me eighteen months after all that. So it was
at that point in the way that he started running

(31:18):
the business, that it really like he wasn't a professional.

Speaker 3 (31:23):
I said it the exact way you just said it.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
He wasn't a professional because he only offered Jake Hager
a year and a half deal. Really, of all the
things that you could say, Tony Kahan that he's not
a professional.

Speaker 3 (31:34):
And here's why.

Speaker 2 (31:35):
That's why he's not a professional, because you thought that
your worth was more than it really was and that
he only offered you a year and a half. He
claimed that after all of the punk shit went down,
there was a meeting that was just between the wrestlers.
Veterans like Sting, Paul White, Chris Jericho, Brian Danielson, and
John Moxley were talking through the situation when Tony Kahn

(31:58):
stormed into the room. Lo and behold, He said, who
comes into the room storming in Daddy's little billionaire and
he's yelling at us because I think it was Dax
Harwood and Cash Wheeler didn't want to come in. They
didn't like the storyline, so they refused to come to
TV that day. And he was like, listen, I'll put
you in a six man six minutes before the show
and you're going to do it, and we're all just

(32:20):
like feeling disrespected. And I still to this day wish
I would have stood up and said, you know a
lot of things, but like you just told Sting that
you're going to put him in a six man and
six minutes, but then you're going to honor him for
his retirement. We all became his little playthings. I do
remember it being reported there was a talent meeting at
the time led by Moxley, Jericho and Danielson, But this

(32:44):
is the first I'm hearing of Tony kh storming into
the room like that. I would actually be impressed if
he put his foot down like that, and so maybe
he did, maybe he didn't, But the entire story is
called into question when FTR responded since their names were
mentioned first, with Dax Horwood refuting Hager's claim, saying Cash
and I were at the all talent only meeting that

(33:05):
was called by Brian, Jericho and mox Tony never interrupted.
Cash and I have never refused to show up to work,
and I dare say, if you look at our schedules
since Collision started, were the most consistent talent that make
both shows every week. I'm not really sure where all
of this is coming from, but it is mostly not
true Cash. Wheeler then responded, and he never responds the

(33:27):
shit like this on social media. It's always Dax. Dax
is always the one who's up at his feelings about something,
So for Wheeler to respond, you know it must be serious.
Not only did he respond to Hager's claims, but he
brought the receipts as well. He shared a DM exchange
with Hagar where Hager said, I apologize if you're upset.
I said, I think it was you two didn't say

(33:48):
it definitely was, but that meeting happened, to which Wheeler replied,
I know. But to say that, I think, and then
to actually say our names makes us look like assholes.
And it wasn't even us. We're assholes, but we show
up for work, and Hager replied, I apologize. I should
not have said your names, especially when I didn't know

(34:08):
for sure. So at least he apologized, But then later
he must have been upset that Cash went public with
that screenshot because he tweeted the meeting happened, FTR was
not there. They can't deny the story, no matter how
many text messages they post Meanwhile, the story wasn't even
about them. Yes, the story wasn't about them, but you're

(34:29):
the one who brought up their names. I would be
upset too. He doesn't really seem to understand that. In
the end, who really gives a shit? He's talking about
a meeting that happened three years ago. But he had
more to say about Tony, saying he was good with
starting storylines but could never follow through with them. He said,
you couldn't tell him anything. He couldn't take criticism. He

(34:52):
was fucking up, and we were all just having to
deal with it, you know, like we all had blood,
sweat and tears put into that company. We were all
there at the beginning, like we had our careers behind
us that helped build that company, and then we all
had to just sit side by side and couldn't do
anything because he wanted to run it the way that
he wanted.

Speaker 3 (35:11):
To run it.

Speaker 2 (35:13):
I mean, it's almost like it's his company. That's the
way it goes. Same with Vince McMahon, for all those years,
it was his company, and nobody could tell him to
do things that he didn't want to do, no matter
how many talents or fans said they wanted him out
of there. It was his company. That's why the product
was in the shitter for so long. That's why we

(35:34):
got the Dark days of Raw back in twenty eighteen
and twenty nineteen. Now, I'm not saying Hagar is wrong,
that people there didn't have a right to be upset
or frustrated by that, but aw is Tony's little playtoy,
That's what it is. He runs it like his own
personal e fed. It's always been that way, and there
have been stories that were started storylines but then never

(35:58):
had a resolution, or they did but they weren't very good.
I mean, some of that may be due to injuries
and other factors, like the Devil stuff, you know with
MJF and Adam Cole.

Speaker 3 (36:06):
That was a major.

Speaker 2 (36:07):
Storyline that just got completely derailed. But then you have
someone like Daniel Garcia a few years ago when they
were teasing a split with him in Jericho and it
looked like maybe he was going to be the one
to take the Ring of Honor world title from Jericho
and then kind of branch off on his own, Only
it ended up being a dumb swerve and a terrible
wanted that the acclaimed. Remember when they got thrown through

(36:31):
a plate glass window by a bunch of mass guys
which turned out to be the Undisputed Kingdom, and then
they never got their revenge after they were off television
for I don't know how long they were off TV,
four weeks months, never bothered to get their revenge. And
the guys that threw them through that window. I know
if somebody threw me through a glass window and put
me on the shelf, I'd want to get revenge. Evidently

(36:54):
they didn't feel the same way. Britt Baker and Serena deeb.
Just this year, they started a storyline with Jeff Jarrett
going after the world title that was so poorly received
that Tony at least had enough sense to drop the
entire thing.

Speaker 3 (37:07):
That was a good thing.

Speaker 2 (37:09):
That's an example of a storyline being started and then
stopped that was actually a good thing. But yes, you
can absolutely find examples of Tony Khan doing this. Hagar
is not wrong about that. He also admitted that Tony
did pay him well while he was there, so that's
definitely not something that he was complaining about. Here's the

(37:29):
deal with Jake Hager, big guy, good wrestler. He was
never over in AW his hat was over. Okay, don't
mistake it for Jake Hager being over. His fucking hat
was over. He had the personality of a coffee mug.
Like if you put a little purple hat on a
coffee mug and drew a face on it, it would
be just as over, if not more so, than Jake

(37:51):
Hager was. I wouldn't be surprised if Tony Khan didn't
like him and just didn't want him there. I mean,
that's basically what he was saying. Chris Jericho is the
one who got Hager's job in AW in the first place.
Tony hired him as a favor to Chris Jericho, and
the first thing that they did was put Hager with
Jericho when he debuted on that first Dynamite right, they
put him in the inner circle. It's the same reason

(38:14):
why I've been saying that Killer Cross should not go
to AAW because Tony. If Tony would even take him,
Cross shouldn't go there. It's not a good fit for him.
He would not know what to do with him. Cross
would end up working matches on collision against Big Bill,
another big guy that Tony doesn't seem to know what
to do with. Tony doesn't know how to book these

(38:34):
physically bigger guys from WWE for the most part. You know,
Bobby Lashley is one of the few exceptions, But those
aren't the types of wrestlers that Tony likes. You could tell,
You could tell what he likes if you just watch
the product. Cross does not fit that, and neither did Hager.
You know, he was lucky enough to have a friend
work there who had some clout, and that got him

(38:57):
gainfully employed, making, as he admitted, really good mind for
five years. You know what, that's nothing to be bitter about.
Hager was simply out of touch with what Tony Khan
was looking for. Now he gets to go be a
family man to his two kids. His kiss was not
on Tony's list. He lost that love and feeling. All right,

(39:18):
that's enough, Sorry, I couldn't help myself. I still love
the Hall and Oates thing though it's a great name
for a trucking company. Speaking of Chris Jericho, amid all
of the rumors and speculation about his future with his
aw contract expiring at the end of the year, Tony
Khan was asked about Jericho on a media call Thursday
ahead of the Ring of Honor Death before Dishonor pay

(39:40):
per view, and Tony strongly put over Jericho's legacy in
aw and ROH and said that he thinks the world
of him and that if and when the time presents itself,
he would love to have him back, if and when
the time presents itself. Those aren't the words of a
man who thinks the Jericho was a lock to stay

(40:01):
in his company. But beyond that, there is nothing new
to report on that front. Sammy Gavarro was teasing that
Jericho could potentially be his partner on the ROH pay
per view last night against the Outrunners since Dustin Rhodes
is out for the foreseeable future and they were the
ROH Tag Team Champions. There were actually a lot of

(40:21):
streaming issues with the pay per views, so midway through
the show, Tony Khan decided to put the remainder of
the ROH pay per view on YouTube for free, which
was very cool. He said all Honor Club subscribers will
get a month free as a result of the problems,
and that it would end up costing him hundreds of
thousands of dollars, but that's okay because they made new fans.

(40:43):
I will say they had upwards of twenty thousand people
watching live on YouTube at the peak during the Bandido
Hetchesero match, which was awesome, a little too long at
thirty seven minutes, and it wasn't even the main event,
but still an excellent match. I got to watch the
last few match since I got to wrap up my
SmackDown stream early, and my mets had a victory well

(41:05):
in hand against the Marlins nineteen to nine, the poor outrunners.
They still cannot win any gold. They lost to Sammy
Gavara and his mystery partner turned out to be Rouche.
They are the new Ring of Honor tag team champions.
It looks like Sammy is gone heel again. I watched
the Fight Without Honor between QT Marshall. Yes, I watched

(41:26):
a twenty minute QT Marshall match against Paul Walter Hauser,
who won a Golden Globe award. If you didn't know that,
just ask them. They'll tell you at least half a
dozen times. And they had all the garbage with the
barbed wire and the broken glass and the thumb tacks
housers walking out of there. He's got a thumb tax
sticking at the back of his skull. I will give

(41:49):
credit to him though he put the work in, he
earned his stripes in there. It's not for me, but
the fans in that building in Philly. They were at
the twenty three hundred Arena. They got a residency there
for the two weeks. Those people have seen far more
violent matches in that venue than this one. And Athena
retained her Ring of Honor Women's World title over Mina Shirakawa.

(42:11):
They got twenty five minutes. Bandido and Hetchisara got thirty
seven minutes. Twenty five minutes was more manageable, and they
had a very good match, with Athena retaining because she's
less than a week away from a thousand days as champions,
so she wasn't losing. But those last two matches were very,
very good. That was the rohpay perview aw pay perviews

(42:33):
may soon finally be available for purchase and streaming through
HBO Max. Andrew Zarian of The Matmen podcast posted on
Thursday that he is hearing that there will be an
announcement about this sometime in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, HBO
Max has updated its terms of use for subscribers, and
now features a new section on one time purchases, set

(42:54):
to go into effect on September twentieth, which just so
happens to be the same day as aw's All Out.

Speaker 3 (43:00):
Pay per view.

Speaker 2 (43:01):
So it's looking very likely that All Out will be
the first pay per view offered on HBO Max now.
It is important to note this is not like the Peacock,
where it's exclusive to HBO Max necessarily and you get
all the shows for free. It's still a pay per view,
so you would still need to pay, but the belief

(43:22):
is that you would be able to pay a reduced
price if you watch it through HBO Max. I don't
know that that's ever been confirmed, but you would think
they would offer it as some sort of reduced price.
So instead of paying fifty bucks through YouTube or Triller
or Amazon Prime, you would pay, say thirty bucks. Twenty
would be even better, like Triller in a VPN, you

(43:44):
pay twenty bucks. Somewhere in that twenty to thirty range
would be the sweet spot. Hopefully there is some discount,
otherwise there would be no incentive for people to watch
on HBO Max. You may as well just stick to
whatever platform you already use. But I mean, we've been
waiting almost a year for some sort of update on
this thing. They have not had the technology to be
able to support this until now, and who knows. There

(44:07):
may even be issues and glitches with the rollout, But
hopefully they have all the bugs worked out and we
will hear something in the next few weeks. I would
love to be able to watch these shows on HBO
Max for half the price.

Speaker 3 (44:18):
Now.

Speaker 2 (44:18):
Last weekend was forbidden Door and Swerve. Strickland has since
had surgery. Since his loss to Okata, he has undergone
surgery for his torn meniscus. He said the surgery was
a success. We have no idea as far as how
extensive the surgery was. If it was a full tear,
I mean, it could be the difference between him being
out for a few months or being out for six

(44:40):
or seven months, So we don't know. Same for will Osprey,
he has not had next surgery yet. We don't know when.
We don't know exactly what the surgery is going to be.
Is it a fusion, is it not as serious as
a fusion. What is safe to assume is that we
are not going to see Swerve or will Osprey back
in the ring for many months, and that's a big
blow for Tony Kahan. But the good thing about all
talent that he has under contract is you can't say

(45:02):
that he's got nobody else to step up and take
their place, So there will be an opportunity for someone
to get slotted in there.

Speaker 3 (45:08):
They are in the middle of a.

Speaker 2 (45:09):
Residency of the twenty three hundred Arena in Philadelphia. That
is where they were on Wednesday. They were there again
on Friday for the ROH pay per view, and they
will be back there again this Actually I think they're
there tonight for Collision, but they'll be there again this
coming Wednesday for Dynamite. On Dynamite, they set the stage
for Darby and Moxley at All Out, even though John

(45:31):
Moxley continues to refuse to accept Darby Allen's challenge that
match is coming. What they did on this show was
Darby Allen and Claudioake Casignoli in a false count anywhere match,
and Darby got the win, and then he went running
out of the building because the numbers were too much.
The Death Riders tried to attack and so Darby fled

(45:52):
because evidently nobody bothered to come out to help this guy,
But the Death Riders ride on. You know, when Moxley
lost the championship in Texas, I thought that might be
the beginning of the end of this group. And they
have given no indication that the Death Riders are going
anywhere anytime soon. So the question is when does it end?

(46:12):
Are they Waiting's the thought that I had because I've
been following on the Seesar Bonani's YouTube channel. He has
been documenting the training that he has been doing with
Eddie Kingston. Eddie Kingston's been recovering from his broken leg
has torn acl I mean, his leg was all fucked
up and he's been out well over a year at

(46:33):
this point, and it sounds like and looks like he's
on his way back very soon. And it makes me
wonder if maybe the reason that this Death Rider stuff
is continuing on for the time being is they want
to work Eddie Kingston into that story. You know, maybe
in the Moxley in the Darby match, especially if Darby
were to beat mox does that shake Claudio's faith in Moxley?

(46:55):
You know, do the cracks begin to show? Because Moxley
already lost the championship. If Moxley loses again, the believers
may no longer believe and is this where maybe we
see an Eddie Kingston return. Are they going to factor
him into the Death Riders stuff? Because Wednesday would have
been the perfect place for an Eddie Kingston return in Philly,

(47:16):
in that building at the end of that show, coming
out to help Darby, that would have been the perfect
spot for it, especially with Claudio out there.

Speaker 3 (47:23):
He hates Claudio.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
I mean, remember, Eddie is the one who tried to
convince Moxley years ago on TV that Claudio was a scumbag.
You know, I don't trust him, so I do wonder
if when we see him back, this is what he
gets factored into. And it's Eddie Kingston ultimately who causes
you know, the Death Riders to crumble and kind of

(47:48):
pulls John Moxley away from this and convinces him that, look,
you don't need to be associating with this guy. You know,
he doesn't have your best interests in mind. Meanwhile, Hangman
Page is going to be defending his championship. It looks
like at all out against a member of the Don
Kallis family because MJF and Mark Briscoe are continuing their issue,

(48:09):
and it's not that surprising. I mean, there was a
report a few months ago that MJF was the one
who pitched for this, that he really wanted to work
a program with Mark Briscoe, and they've already had a
few matches. I didn't know it was going to extend
this long, but it looks like he's going to wrap
things up with Briscoe before you know, he worries about
getting his rematch or cashing in his Casino Gauntlet contract

(48:30):
for another championship match. So MJF and Mark Briscoe looks
to be the match for all out.

Speaker 3 (48:35):
Possibly.

Speaker 2 (48:36):
As far as who Hangman could defend against, there's really
only three options, even though the Kallus family has probably
fucking eighty five percent of the male heels in this
company under a contract to Don Kallis. But who realistically
are we looking at here? We're looking at Kazusko Okada,
Kenoski Takeshta or Kyle Fletcher. Okata is the unified champion.

(48:57):
Fletcher is the TNT champion. I look at Takeshta. Takeshta
has no title right now in aw you know, he's
the g one winner. He may have the IWGP title soon,
but he has no championship. To me, I think Takesha
would be the play here. You do Hangman in Takeshta
at all Out. They are continuing to tease dissension though
we saw it on Wednesday between Takeshta and Okada. That's

(49:21):
the right way to go with this, and you could
do a slow burn. I don't know when that match
actually happens, but Takesha should be the one ultimately who
takes that unified title from Okata. It could be a
few months from now. It doesn't have to be right now,
but that's where things appear to be headed with Hangman.
For the pay per view Adam Copeland and Christian Cage,
it's already been made official. They will be wrestling FTR

(49:43):
in Toronto at all Out. No tag team titles at
this point on the line is just a straight match.
The tag team champions now, of course, are Brody King
and Bandido. I don't know where they fit into any
of this. It almost feels like a late decision on
Tony CON's part, where it should have been FTR who
ends up with the Belts in time for Toronto, but

(50:04):
he just decided Okay, there's some political bullshit going on.
Let's put the belts on Brody and Bandito. That's what
this feels like to me. The Hurt Syndicate no longer
tag team champions. They are based on what we saw
on Wednesday, going after Ricochet and the Gates of Agony.
So when you look at that show from Wednesday, not
the best episode of Dynamite coming out of a pay

(50:25):
per view, And honestly, when it comes to these Dynamites
rarely just Tony Kahan hit a home run with these
post pay per view shows. I don't know what it is,
but it's almost like a post pay per view hangover,
Like they leave it all out there on these pay
per views four and a half hours, five hours, they
throw everything at you and then guys get hurt, and
then they sort of limp into Dynamite a few days

(50:46):
later and they just they give you what they can
and it usually isn't that much.

Speaker 3 (50:50):
But what they did do, and.

Speaker 2 (50:51):
You can't say they didn't do this, is they didn't
set things up in terms of some of these stories
for matches heading into all out. That's what I just
laid out there for you what they should have done
on that show absolutely should have done more to establish
Wardlow coming out of Forbidden Door. We had two returns
on that pay per view last Sunday. Wardlow was one
who we hadn't seen in a year and a half.

(51:12):
The other one was Jamie Hayter, which is a great
pickup for the women's division. There were some women who
got hurt. She's not the only one. Jamie is back.
I think Mina broke her hand and so Mina Shirakawa
is back.

Speaker 3 (51:26):
Oh God.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
There was somebody else who got hurt and I think
is back now. So as they start to get some
of these women back, let's see what happens. I mean,
Tony Kahan has indicated that that was the reason why
he had not already introduced women's tag team titles. As
he gets some more of these people back, I think
we're going to see those titles sooner than later. I
think Chris stat Lander and Willow Nightingale are going to

(51:49):
be your first women's tag team champions when that time comes.
I mean, they got their own little story going on there.
But as far as Wardlow goes, he just showed up
at Forbidden Door and attack Swerve in Prince Nanna and
to my knowledge, has no connection to them. There's no
specific reason why he would have specifically targeted them in

(52:11):
his comeback. And then he went over and he hugged
don Kallis, and they established that he's now part of
the don Kallis family. And I said, well, I don't
like this on its face. I don't like this, although
time will tell, but the don Kallis family has a
lot of members, like close to a dozen members at
this point, including some who are currently out injured, and

(52:32):
who knows, maybe if and when they come back, they
won't even be part of the Callus family anymore, you know,
Mark Davis and Brian Cage and Trent Burretta. So I
think the exact number might be eleven. I don't even
fucking know. It's in the double digits. Be very easy
for someone, look at Josh Alexander. Be very easy for

(52:53):
someone to just sort of get lost in the background.
And we've seen this happen before, where Wardlow had been
a part of a faction and it didn't really do
him any good. I don't really see it where the
Pinnacle did much for him. The Undisputed Kingdom stuff was
just a complete and total failure. In every sense of
the word. So the first thing they do when he
comes back on night one is they just throw him

(53:14):
into another faction. And this is the biggest one yet,
and it's like, whatever you do, don't let this guy
just fade into the background. We need to hear from him.
Where has he been, why did he target Swerve, Why
is he in business with don Kallis Wright. There's a
lot of questions to be answered here. And so we
see him on Wednesday on Dynamite of what is he doing.
He is standing there in his suit and he's standing

(53:36):
there to watch don Kallis's back, and we don't hear
a single word from Wardlow. He's barely even mentioned outside
of when they pointed out, hey, look, Wardlow came back
and forbidden door and here he is with don Caallus.

Speaker 3 (53:49):
That was it.

Speaker 2 (53:49):
That was the extent to which we heard anything about
Wardlow on Wednesday. Now you got Collision tonight's and you
got Dynamite this Wednesday. But that first show, that first
Dynamite coming out of the pay per view, that's the
most important time. That's where you need to establish this guy,
re establish him. Let's hear from him. Let's hear more
about him, maybe he'll be in action. Nothing. Nothing. That

(54:12):
was a mistake. That was a huge misfire. And it
shows me that Tony Kann at the end of the
day really doesn't give a flying fuck about Wardlow.

Speaker 3 (54:21):
And also nothing really.

Speaker 2 (54:22):
Doing on that show when it comes to Tony Storm
or Mercedes Monette and their next programs. Although it looks
like we're headed for another match between Mercedes and Alex Windsors,
so their issue is going to continue. But for Tony Storm,
at least on the Wednesday show, they didn't do anything
to establish, you know who her next challenger might be.
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restrictions and important safety information. Other news and notes. The
latest on the death of Hulk Hogan per TMZ. Brook

(56:58):
Hogan says there was no foul play involved in her
father's death, saying that she can rest easier since she
has now seen the body. She says that she wants
to keep it real with the fans, telling them that
she's satisfied that everything is on the up and up.
She says that she never expected murder or anything like that,
but she wanted to see the evidence for herself just
to put her mind at ease, and Brooke says that

(57:21):
she was worried Hulk would look totally different five weeks
after his death, but she says that he was already
embalmed and she could almost imagine him jumping back into
the ring. Today, Brooke confirmed that her dad has now
had an autopsy done. She saw his chest so presumably
stitched up after the procedure, but she admits that she

(57:42):
hasn't seen the results yet. So it is likely that
Hulk's widow, Sky Daily knows the status of his franic
nerve since she has the autopsy results, and on that
note now comes this. Hogan's widow is reportedly planning to
file a lawsuit against at least one of Hogan's doctors
and others for medical malpractice that she says led to

(58:04):
his death. Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ Sports the
suit would center around the neck operation that Hulk under
went back in May. Sky first told us that she
believes Hogan's frenic nerve, which controls one's breathing, was compromised
during that procedure. Those issues are thought to have played
a significant role in his demise, as sources who have

(58:25):
heard the nine one one audio tell us that Sky
informed the authorities on the emergency call. My husband's not breathing.
He just stopped breathing. Our sources say the nine to
one one call makes it very clear that the seventy
one year old did not suffer a sudden heart attack,
and instead he just stopped breathing, and speaking with The
Daily Mail, Sky said, we are investigating for possible malpractice.

(58:48):
If you have shortness of breath for a long time,
that makes you very sick. It's not something that's a
sudden cause of death. It's something that wears on you,
makes you weak. Asked if that could have contributed to
Hogan's death, she replied definitely. TMZ also broke the story
that an occupational therapist at Hulk's house the day he
died informed police about the alleged frenic nerve damage. Sky

(59:11):
ordered a private autopsy done as part of her investigation
into potential medical malpractice. While she has yet to release
the findings, the fact that she is planning to sue
strongly hints at the results of that autopsy. So that
is the update on Hulk Hogan. Real American Freestyle Wrestling,
by the Way, is hosting his debut event tonight in Cleveland,

(59:32):
billed as a tribute to Hulk Hogan. They are up
to thirty one hundred tickets distributed, not necessarily sold, but
distributed in a building that fits thirteen thousand. So that
will be airing on Fox Nation if you should care
to check it out. It's the Eric Bischovs Show now,
so start taking bets on the over under for how

(59:54):
long do you think this is going to last? You've
all heard about this Rajah Jackson story by now now,
the son of former MMA fighter and TNA star Rampage Jackson,
nearly beating a wrestler to death and an independent show.
This all happened after I dropped the sound off a
day early last weekend, naturally, so I didn't have a

(01:00:17):
chance to cover it until now. There's been a lot
of things coming out, new video clips being posted. It's
a very fluid story and there's a lot to unpack here,
but it's one of the most disgusting things I've ever
seen in a wrestling ring. Outside of some of the
worst injuries that I've ever seen, this one takes the cake.
I have never seen someone nearly beaten to death in

(01:00:39):
a ring before, and it happened at a Knox Pro
Wrestling event in Los Angeles. This was last Saturday, which
was at the time. It no longer is a WWEID affiliate.
It's the promotion co founded by Rikishi. Although he was
said to not be present for any of this, his
name is still attached to the promotion though right his

(01:01:01):
name is on it. He's been associated with it for
the last seventeen years. He's been radio silent on all
of this. And it all started before the show. Rampage's
son was live streaming on a platform called kick. He
and his dad both do a lot of in real
life type of streams. Rampage was live streaming on his
own platform when all of this went down. He actually

(01:01:23):
got the news in real time about what his son
had done at the event, and he was watching the
video of it and you can see his expression change
and then he left the stream. So these guys feel
the need to live stream all aspects of their lives.
And Rajah, who is not a pro wrestler, has never
trained in pro wrestling, doesn't even watch it, is not

(01:01:44):
even really a fan of it. Was invited to the
show by one of the wrestlers named aj mana real
name Andre Hudson. He's the one dressed up in these
videos like a member of the village people. And it
starts with a video outside the venue where before the
show there's a bunch of wrestlers hanging out back, and
in the video you can see Reno Aniwai, who goes

(01:02:07):
by the name Black Pearl, who co founded the promotion
with Rikishi, I believe, and actually runs it. He was there,
He was right there for all of this. And Raja
is standing around outside and there's a wrestler named Psycho
Stu Real named Stuart Smith. He's a US Army veteran
who apparently wrestles to deal with PTSD from his time

(01:02:31):
as a vet. And he walks over and he smashes
a beer can over Raja's head. It may or may
not have been an empty can. It doesn't really matter.
And Rajo was not expecting this because nobody warned him,
No one smartened him up. Of course, he doesn't sell
it because he's not a worker, he's not a wrestler
and this guy who he doesn't know, just smashed a

(01:02:53):
beer can over his head. Now, if Raja would have
swung at him and knocked him out with one punch,
we're not talking about this story right now. This story
is not making national headlines, and there is not a
whole lot of outrage over this story. If that's all
that happens, not unless he knocked him out and killed
him with one punch, then we are But I honestly
don't think anybody would have blamed Raja for reacting that

(01:03:16):
way in that circumstance. You know, if someone walks up
to you and smashes you in the head with a
beer can, especially if you're a fighter, your first instinct
is probably going to be to take a swing at him,
or throw something at them, or whatever it may be.
So he doesn't sell it. Black Pearl steps in between them,
as does aj Mana, who now realizes the gravity of

(01:03:38):
the situation. He's the one who brought this man to
the show in the first place. Raja was his guest.
It should have been his responsibility to step in and
smarten him up. And Black Pearl, who runs the promotion,
is trying to explain to Raja and a Psychostu thinks
everything is a work. You know, it's all good. He
thought you were a wrestler and everything's a work. And

(01:04:01):
Stu later apologized to Raja three times in fact, a
sincere apology once he realizes that this man is not
a wrestler. You can even see Stu tell him, look,
I'm sorry, man, I saw the camera filming. I thought
you were a worker. And after initially refusing his handshake earlier,
Raja finally accepts his apology and they shake hands and

(01:04:21):
it looks like everything is smoothed over. That's where this
should have ended. It was a misunderstanding. It's like the
most boring beef in the world, and it's over and
done with. Right, shit happens. He apologized for it, and
you move beyond it. Then we see video of Aj
with Raja backstage at the event where they have decided

(01:04:44):
to turn this into an angle. So Raja is going
to do a run in during Stu's match, and as
Aj says in the video, you're going to run in
on his shit and give him a receipt. And he
asked him because you remember what a receipt is, right,
give him a receipt and tag that shit. They got
a fucking problem with it. I'll run out there. There

(01:05:06):
is so much wrong with this, not the least of
which is according to his father, Raja had suffered a
concussion in a sparring session days before this, and he
should not have been doing anything physical at all. I
don't know if his quote unquote friend AJ was aware
of that or not, but that's number one. Number two
if all this guy knows of wrestling is what his

(01:05:30):
friend AJ has told him, and he had to explain
to him what a receipt is by telling him, you
got to go in there and give him his receipt
and tag that shape, right, it sounds like he's giving
him permission to go in there and fuck this dude
up for real. Just completely irresponsible on his part. And again,

(01:05:50):
this man was his invited guest. He brought him in.
He has to bear some degree of responsibility here for
allowing any of this to happen in the first place.
And the promotion had to know, or someone in the
promotion had to know, because the wrestler here is not
setting up a spot for a non wrestler to run
in without somebody being clued in about it. I mean,

(01:06:11):
someone gave this man his cue to hit the ring
when he did, so, the promotion had to know about
it or approve of it.

Speaker 3 (01:06:17):
In some way.

Speaker 2 (01:06:19):
Now, I'm not a wrestler, but for a wrestler to
tell a non wrestler that it is okay to get
a receipt on another wrestler.

Speaker 3 (01:06:28):
Sounds insane to me.

Speaker 2 (01:06:31):
Aj issued a statement later on trying to explain that
he was in character when he made those comments to
Rajah backstage about getting a receipt. He said, everything I
said was part of the show. Spoken like someone who
knows he could be in a lot of hot water
if he doesn't cover his ass. Nobody with a functioning

(01:06:52):
brain believes that. But he may be hoping that the
district attorney is dumb enough to believe it because it's
pro wrestling, and if you blur the lines just enough,
he might be able to create just enough doubt to
where this shit won't blow back onto him even though
it should. And he wasn't the only person who bears
some level of responsibility here for getting this man hyped

(01:07:14):
up to do something. What followed was actually really sad,
because Rajah sat there in the front road during the
show with his face buried in his phone, scrolling through
comment after comment after comment on his live stream feed
from people who are egging him on telling him he
has to do something right, like, as a man, you
can't let that stand and calling him a bitch. Sitting

(01:07:37):
there for an hour reading the chat absolutely played a
role in this, because when you have a person like
this who is clearly mentally unstable, it does not take
much to send him over the edge. And this man
is obviously very unstable. So then he's sitting there on
video telling everybody exactly what he is going to do
because he's all miked up, right, it's completely pre meditated,

(01:08:01):
not just premeditated as a wrestling spot, like I'm gonna
hit the ring and take him down, but like popping
off about how he's always wanted to hit a pro
wrestler or knock out a pro wrestler like he's he's
openly saying these things like this should be the easiest
police investigation ever with all of the video that's out
there of him saying these things and the lead up
to the attack. But his followers clearly got him all

(01:08:24):
wound up before he ever set foot inside that ring,
and when he did, it was terrifying. He slides into
the ring, he picks up Stu like he's nothing. He
slams him down hard to the mad, hard enough that
it looked like Stu was knocked loopy before the first
punch was even thrown. And then the punches rained down,
twenty two of them in total, almost two dozen punches.

(01:08:46):
And these were not worked punches, okay, and he wasn't
pulling his punches. This wasn't like fifty percent of his
punching power. He was punching this man who was completely defenseless. Mind,
you're not even getting his hands up because again he
was probably knocked out already, but hitting him as hard
as he possibly could. Like, if this happened in the octagon,
Herb Dean would have dove in for the stoppage after

(01:09:07):
the second punch. He would have called the fight right
then in there, but Herb Dean was not the referee
for the match. They may as well have had fucking
Paula Dean out there as the referee. She would have
been about as useful as the guy who was. He
probably had pissed running down his leg. We just couldn't
see it. And then look, I'm sure he was scared
to death by what he was seeing. Even if he
at first thought it was a work, it became pretty clear, though,

(01:09:29):
pretty quickly, that it was no longer a work and
it had escalated to something a lot worse, but he
just stood there waving his hands like, no, no, get
off of him. Oh yeah, that's really gonna help. So
nobody did anything. It took thirteen punches before the guy
in clown makeup got into the ring to try to
stop him, and even he wasn't making much of an
attempt until finally another wrestler, Doug Drago, runs into the

(01:09:51):
rink to get this man off of him, and he
busts his own head open with a head butt trying
to subdue him, and you can see Stu laying there
on the mat with which just blood pouring out of
his head. Had dug not intervened when he did, we
would be talking about a murder charge for Rajah Jackson
right now, not attempted murder or assault or battery or

(01:10:12):
whatever you want to call it. Because he wasn't gonna stop.
He said in the video before the match, he was
going to punch this man for real until somebody pulled
him off. And even when people try to stop him
and pull him off, he continued to assault that man.
He absolutely would have killed him or at the very
least punched him into a coma with permanent brain damage

(01:10:34):
and the referee would still be standing there waving his
arms around like one of those wacky inflatable tube men
that you see at the fucking car dealership. Stu was
not conscious when they rushed him to the hospital. They
couldn't wake him up. There was a very real fear
that he could die. Rajah, who was being filmed for
his kickstream throughout all of this, Okay, still streaming. They

(01:10:57):
kept the stream going. They followed him whoever his friend
was who had the camera and was filming him. I mean,
it really felt like something out of a wrestling show,
Like it's following him as he's being led out of
the building after the incident, and he's in the street.
He's walking down the street and he just starts raving
like a lunatic about how he's tired of everybody playing

(01:11:17):
with him and people calling him bitch. He was talking
about his father. There's another clip of Rampage calling him
earlier before the beating. But Raja is sitting in the
front row with the wrestling show. So it happened that night.
But like in the clip I saw, they kind of
spliced the two videos together because they were both streaming again.

(01:11:38):
It's like they're each streaming twenty four hours a day,
and Rampage is giving him a hard time for hugging
some dude. I think it was one of his coaches.
I'm pretty sure it's in reference to something completely unrelated
to the incident that we're talking about in the wrestling stuff.
But Rampage has just given him shit for hugging this guy.
And then later on is Raja is sitting there at

(01:11:58):
the show, scrolling through his chat, he makes the comment,
watch my dad can't never call me a bitch. So
after everything happens and he's leaving a walking down the street,
completely unhinged and he's screaming about people calling him a bitch.
Like I'm telling you, he's talking about his dad. In
some warped way. Part of this was him proving to

(01:12:20):
his father that he's no bitch.

Speaker 3 (01:12:22):
It's like, watch what I do. I'll show you.

Speaker 2 (01:12:25):
This is someone with severe daddy issues and a lot
of pent up rage inside of him. He was a
powder keg waiting to explode, and from the moment that
beer can smacked him in the head, that lit the fuse.
Now Stu diffused it with the apology, but then the
cowboy but old Aj. He lit it back up again

(01:12:45):
when he told him to go get his receipt, and
it was only a matter of time before he exploded
after that. There are a lot of people who bear
responsibility for this, and even if you believe that Psycho
Stu should bear some of that too, it does not
excuse his behavior here. Thing that Stu did earlier that
day warranted what we saw in that video nothing and

(01:13:07):
anyone trying to blame the victim here is just as
disgusting as this piece of shit is, Like, how morally
bankrupt do you need to be to make any kind
of excuse for what we saw in that ring. Now
the LAPD is investigating the incident. Meanwhile, Raja still walking
around to Freeman. Maybe not for much longer, hopefully not

(01:13:28):
for much longer. Someone that volatile should not be walking
the streets. Knox Pro issued a statement later on that reads,
first and foremost, our thoughts and prayers are with our
brother mister Stewart Smith, Psycho Stu, as he remains a
priority and we are monitoring his well being. What was
supposed to be a plans and agreed upon wrestling spot
turned into a selfish, irresponsible act of violence against mister Smith.

(01:13:51):
This egregious act is reprehensible and never should have occurred.
In the seventeen years of operation of Knox Pro Wrestling Academy,
there has never been anything heinous to take place as this,
and we apologize to our patrons and our fans. They
have since rightfully been stripped of their WWEID designation. I

(01:14:13):
mean that was a no brainer, not only because WWE
would want to do everything in its power to distance
themselves from this school and this promotion, but because when
you accept a designation like this, there should be certain expectations.
One would think that you are going to conduct your
business in such a way that aligns with a designation

(01:14:34):
like that, and Knox profailed to do that, from using
a non wrestler and a wrestling angle without even going
over what it was that they were supposed to be doing,
to the assault itself, and then the way that it
was handled to one of the wrestlers covering Psycho stew
in the video as he laid their unconscious, literally choking

(01:14:54):
on his own blood and teeth, so that the referee
could count the three because kfab I guess the man
is laying there dying, but let's count the fucking fall.
When you are given the WWE designation, the ID designation
in theory, you are being given their seal of approval
that this is a credible group where people can safely

(01:15:17):
learn right and train and be prepared for the next
phase of their career. And everything about this screamed amateur hour,
like as amateur as it can get. So WWE had
no choice but to make an example out of them now.
Stu's brother Andrew posted on Monday that Stu is stable
but in critical care. He only has some recollection of

(01:15:39):
what happened from early parts of the day. The latest
update on Wednesday is that he is talking a little bit.
He's alert, but he still has injuries that, you know,
while not life threatening at this point, are still very serious.
But it did come with a photo of him sitting
up in his hospital bed surrounded by friends, which was
nice to see. A GoFundMe page has been set up

(01:16:00):
to assist with medical expenses and a loss of income. Obviously,
he's not going to be able to work for a while.
I don't believe wrestling was his full time career, but
whatever else he does, he will not be doing it
for a while at the very least, last I checked,
and this is as of a late day Wednesday, it
had raised over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

Speaker 3 (01:16:21):
Mister Beast, who has over.

Speaker 2 (01:16:23):
Four hundred and twenty million subscribers on YouTube alone, became
aware of the incident because it made national news. And
I saw that he dropped ten grand a loan on
the campaign, so he's been getting a lot of support.
Then there's the legal aspect of this. Now, legally, the
question should not be if he will face punishment for
what he did, but how stiff that punishment is going

(01:16:45):
to be. And it shouldn't matter whether somebody wants to
press charges. I see some people asking, you know, is
he going to press charges? Do they need him to
press charges? What you see in that video, I mean,
at the very least is clearly bad. The question becomes
in the state of California, how do you define attempted murder?

(01:17:06):
Which is what this looked like. I mean, if you
watch this video, right, you don't have to be a lawyer,
just as a layman person. You watch this video and
it looks like you are watching an attempted murder, but
that boils down to intent you need to be able
to prove that he intended to kill this man, not
to seriously injure him to kill him. So the intent

(01:17:28):
to inflict bodily harm, that's not enough. I would argue
two dozen shots to the skull to a man who
was clearly knocked out and unable to defend himself, and again,
he wasn't going to stop if somebody didn't intervene. That
tells me he was pretty intent on ending that man
once those emotions took over and the adrenaline kicked in.

(01:17:48):
But proving intent, it looks like that's going to be
a heavy lift. So if he was to be charged
with a crime here, he could be looking at felony battery,
and a felony battery conviction in California, from what I've seen,
may result from a sentence of up to four years
in prison. So even if he gets locked up, it's

(01:18:10):
you know, it's not like he's doing twenty five to
life or anything like that. It'll be very interesting to
see if he is charged, if he tries to use
the concussion as part of his defense. You know, as
his father brought up in that statement, I mean, it
would be a hell of a reach, But I mean
that's what lawyers do. They defend their clients. For him
not to be charged with a crime here for what

(01:18:31):
he did would be just an absolute injustice. And then
you consider the civil aspect of this, where he could
be sued by Psycho STU for what he did, and
that to me, I mean, that's a slam dunk case.

Speaker 3 (01:18:43):
If he does.

Speaker 2 (01:18:44):
STU might even have a case against the people at
Knox Pro if you wanted to pursue it. And what
an unsafe work environment that turned out to be. They
come off looking bad enough when it comes to how
we even got to this point in the first place.
But then on the Scaling Up podcast, it was alleged
by a former talent there named Ian that the promotion

(01:19:07):
has instructive those who work there not to speak with
the authorities or any attorneys should they reach out to them. Instead,
they said they should come to the promotion first for guidance,
and in the podcast video they show screenshots allegedly from
Kevin Thomas aka k T King instructing people to quote

(01:19:29):
please refrain from engaging in comment sections on social media
posts about this tragedy. It will be weaponized in potential
criminal and civil cases fly low. Another text advised, if
law enforcement or an attorney for the suspect contacts you
in any capacity, let someone here know right away for
guidance on how to address them. So don't talk to

(01:19:51):
the cops, talk to us first. That sounds like something
that a company would tell its employees if they had
any sort of legal exposure or they thought they might
be sued if there was some kind of an incident,
so that they can direct all inquiries to their own lawyers.

Speaker 3 (01:20:07):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:20:07):
A lot of companies have their own their own firm
that they contract with, or maybe internally they have their
own lawyers. PRO wrestlers, though, are not employees, they're independent contractors,
and telling them not to talk to the cops if
they reach out, these wrestlers are under no obligation to
listen to anything these people have to say. This should

(01:20:29):
not be about protecting Knox Pro. They need to be
held liable for what happened, just the same as Raja does.
What that looks like, I don't know, but they definitely
bear a lot of responsibility here as well. Now, Doug Drago,
the guy who finally pulled Raja off of stew he
worked for Knox Pro for three years. He was on
that same podcast to talk about the incident. He doesn't

(01:20:50):
work there anymore because, like he says, they would watch
me die. These people showed that they would just watch
me die. How can I trust you with my body
after something like this. He also said that while he
doesn't like Rajan, he thinks he's a shit person for
what he did. Aj Mana is a bigger shit person

(01:21:10):
for gassing him up and causing him to ruin his
own life, And in his view, aj ruined two people's
lives that night, and he's not wrong. In fact, he's
absolutely right. He should be punished in some way for
his role in this as well. I don't know that
he will be punished legally, but at the very least,
no promotion should want to work with him after this.

(01:21:31):
I don't have a lot of faith that that's going
to happen. There are people in the wrestling business that
have done far worse things who get hired again somewhere
because that's the wrestling business. Usually, though, it's people who
actually draw money, like the promoter can excuse bad behavior
because that person has a name and they can sell tickets.
I don't know that AJ's a big draw, so it

(01:21:52):
would be nice to see other promotions stand up and
say you're not welcome here. Then you got wrestlers like
Rob van Dam tweeting out so far I got Raja's
back as a tease for his video that went up
the next day on YouTube. He didn't have his back
so much as in the video he was explaining how
he could understand the reasons why this guy would have

(01:22:15):
reacted the way he did. But he knew what he
was doing when he tweeted that out, and he rightfully
got flamed for being an idiot.

Speaker 3 (01:22:23):
And I get it.

Speaker 2 (01:22:24):
His other content doesn't look like it gets much in
the way of engagement or views. Then you have Mark
Henry speaking to TMZ saying, if what I saw was
what I saw, which is people before the show drinking
and intoxicated or partially intoxicated, you bust a bottle over
a guy's head and talk trash like that guy was

(01:22:44):
not going to do anything. Yeah, you're at fault.

Speaker 3 (01:22:48):
Very nice. It was a can, not a bottle.

Speaker 2 (01:22:51):
But I assume Mark didn't see the multiple apologies and
the handshake that followed. You know, he was just going
off half cocked. It's one of the reasons I like
waiting a few days for things to settle in some
of these situations if I can just to try to
get a fuller picture of what actually happened. There's so
much more video that I came across in the days
after the incident that adds a lot of context. But

(01:23:13):
you only need so much context in this case to
know that the one at fault is the man who
beats someone half to death. He also said about Psycho Stu,
what kind of example are you, as a veteran for
inciting a riot with a kid. I've seen that word
thrown around a lot this week. Also, kid, He's just

(01:23:36):
a kid. He's twenty five years old. He talks about
him like he's some rookie out of high school. Stop
talking about him like he doesn't know the difference between
right and wrong, Like he's a child who should be
given the benefit of the doubt. He's a grown ass
man behaving like a child, But that doesn't mean he
should be treated like one. Chail Sonnen was the worst

(01:23:59):
of them all to dignify what he said with a response,
But Shale is terrible anyway, so I'm not surprised he
would say a bunch of stupid shit. There is no
justification for what Rajai Jackson did. You can try to
make sense of it, and he would have ended up
so blinded by anger that you know he would do
what he did, but there's no justifying it or assigning

(01:24:21):
anything even remotely close to equal blame.

Speaker 3 (01:24:23):
To the victim.

Speaker 2 (01:24:24):
Here, it's like, imagine after Travis Scott tag Cody Rose
with that open hand slap at Elimination Chamber where he
busted Cody's eardrum. If Cody came back at WrestleMania to
get his receipt and he proceeded to pound Travis into unconsciousness.
Obviously that would never happen, but I don't doubt that
you would have had people praising Cody for defending the

(01:24:46):
business Travis started it. You know whatever, There would be
no justification for something like that because that is not
how a well adjusted, stable.

Speaker 3 (01:24:55):
Human being acts.

Speaker 2 (01:24:57):
This is a man that needs psychological help, and he
can get that help while he serves out his sentence.
Let's take some mail bad questions you can email me
the Solo Monster at gmail dot com. Please include your
name of where you are from when you write in.
I want to start here with Keish from New Jersey,
who has an audio question regarding Oba Femi.

Speaker 5 (01:25:20):
What's up, Solo. I know you usually don't do fantasy booking,
but I've been really impressed with what I've been seeing
from Oba Femi. He has Superstar RN all over him,
like Jacob fad Too and bron Breaker. I just want
to know, how would you book his first year on
the main roster. Would it be like a brock lessener
O two star run or like a Gunther run, slow
build up through the mid car to win a mid

(01:25:40):
card title then eventually world title.

Speaker 3 (01:25:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:25:44):
I mean, look, I've been very impressed with what I've
seen from Obafemi. I mean it looks like he's got
all the tools to be that guy, and I think
going the Gunther route. I think going with the Gunther
blueprint is the way to go here. Know, if you
remember they debuted gun on the main roster and they
almost instantly put the Intercontinental title on him, and he

(01:26:05):
went on this undefeated run until he ultimately got beat
by Samy Zay in WrestleMania. I might not even beat
him then. I mean, just have him run through guys
until you're ready to strap that world championship around his waist.
He can be that special. So the blueprint worked with Gunther,
I think it could work with O. But two, I
just worry, you know, with some of these guys, you

(01:26:27):
just rush into things too quickly, and then maybe it's
too much too soon, or even if it's not and
he can handle it as fine, do the fans resent
him for it. I just think you take your time
with it and just have him rampage through that roster
and then ultimately work his way up to that championship.
I'm not saying it has to take two years, three
years for him to get to that point. It may

(01:26:48):
happen very quickly. It may happen within six months. You know,
it might happen in less than a year. But that's
how I would do it. James from Staten Island. I
watched the entire interview that Roman reigns the discussing the
attitude era, specifically Steve Austin and the Rock, and I
have to say that I could not hold back the laughter.

(01:27:09):
He discussed how easy it was for them with catchphrases
and what not to get over, and how the modern
era requires more nuance now Jimmy, I don't know what
interview you're referring to, because you didn't bother to mention
it or link to it, So I'm assuming this may
have come from Roman's interview on Stephanie McMahon's podcast. I
don't know, but he says, I don't know how Roman

(01:27:31):
could ever talk about it being easy at the top
for anyone when he himself has had the easiest ride
to the top of anyone in WWE history, even more
than John Cena. As much as I may not like him,
I can at least say that when John Cena got
the top spot, he was massively popular as the Doctor
of Thug and Amis before he became a great value
version of Hulk Hogan. But Roman, when he got the

(01:27:54):
top spot, he wasn't even the second most popular guy
in the roster. And this has always been my issue
with Rowan as a performer. I have never had an
issue with him being a top star. My issue is
that they made him the only top star. Who else
did they push and protect to that degree, no one
He flopped as a top babyface, and instead of giving
someone else an opportunity, they gave him a promotion by

(01:28:15):
making him an unstoppable villain and fed him the entire
roster for four years. So for Roman to talk about
anybody having it easy at the top just makes him
a massive hypocrite.

Speaker 3 (01:28:28):
What do you think?

Speaker 2 (01:28:30):
Again, I don't know what interview was that this is
specifically from. There was an interview that Roman did years
ago with Sports Illustrated where he actually talked about this,
and I had to go find the quote because I
couldn't remember the exact quote. But this is what Roman
had to send again. This is a few years ago

(01:28:50):
to SI. He said, I feel like John Cenas said
it before. It's a challenge to be PG. It's a
challenge to not have to go the cheap, being able
to shove everything up everyone's ass, to do that stuff,
to just chug beers. I'm not taking anything away from
the performance and the physicality of what they did and

(01:29:10):
the stories they told in the ring. These guys were
great performers and great in ring wrestlers, But the character
development was easier. If I could just start chugging bourbon
and smoking cigars, imagine what my character could be. We
could go even further on this mob boss thing. It's
more challenging what we do now. It's the facts. That's
why the business is bigger. So when he says that,

(01:29:35):
he's not totally wrong. It is a more restrictive product
now than it was thirty years ago. Back at that point,
they weren't even a public company yet, they didn't go
public until late ninety nine. It was still a private company.
Their backs were against the wall leading up to that point.
Than the Attitude era exploded, and that's when they're rating

(01:29:58):
soored and they started to make all this money and
they just I mean, they just took off way beyond
what WCW was doing, and so they just kept doing it.
And when you do that, you're doing crash TV and
you're being risque, and you're allowing all of this foul language,
and people are drinking beers and they're telling people to
suck their dicks, and they have Godfather and the whole train.

(01:30:19):
I mean, all this stuff that's going on. Of course,
that's gonna get over to a predominantly male audience, especially
at that time it was a heavily teenage male audience.
So I understand what he's saying. There are things that
were allowed back then that Austin and Rock and all
these people were allowed to do that in today's WWE,
especially when Vince was still there let alone. Now, you

(01:30:42):
couldn't get away with that, right, there's handcuffs put on
you to some degree where it's like, Okay, you can't
rely on all that stuff to get over. You're gonna
have to get over on your own merits. Not only
are you gonna have to get over on your own merits,
you're gonna have to get over at a time when
Vince McMahon was out to fucking lunch and just didn't
have it anymore and didn't know.

Speaker 3 (01:31:02):
What he was doing most of the time.

Speaker 2 (01:31:05):
And if anybody knows about that, it's Roman Reigns, because
Roman Reigns is the one who had to go out
there when Vince was personally handwriting his promos for a while,
and he had to go out there on smack that
and say suffer and suck atash. So if anybody knows
about that, it's Roman Reigns. I don't even put that
on some of the stuff they had Roman doing because
he was Vince's little pet project. I can't even put

(01:31:28):
all of that on Roman. Roman was not ready for
the spot that they were pushing him. In at that time.
He just wasn't ready. You see that now, like the
version of Roman reign the Tribal Chief version of Roman
Reigns from twenty twenty one, really twenty twenty two. It's
a totally different person than the one that you see
in twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, twenty seventeen when

(01:31:50):
he got embarrassed by John Cena in that promo battle right,
totally different person. So he makes some good points. He's
not totally wrong to imply if that's what he's doing.
And again, I don't know what interview you're looking at,
so I'm just going off what you're telling me here.
But if the implication was, well, it was, it was
just it was easy for those guys to get over it.

(01:32:13):
It's you know, a lot harder now for us to
get over Yes, and no, whatever restrictions may or may
not be put on you, it's.

Speaker 3 (01:32:23):
Not an easy thing to get over. It's not.

Speaker 2 (01:32:26):
And the fans can be very fickle about what they
like and who they like and for how long they
liked them. So I wouldn't I wouldn't ever say, oh,
it's easy to get over, right, Some people are going
to get over. Some people are not going to get
over ever, no matter what, because they just don't they
don't have that quality that the fans can get behind,
or they're just not that good at their job. And

(01:32:47):
then there are some guys where it just comes more naturally.
But I would never ever sit here and say, oh,
it's so easy to become a top guy. I mean,
there's such limited real estate at the top. You have
to be a special performer. Yes, Roman was shoved down
people's by Vince McMahon because he had the long hair,
and remember he had the blue contact lenses in, and
he had a certain look that Vince was probably, you know,
touching himself every time he looked at him, and he

(01:33:10):
wasn't ready for that spot. Roman grew into it. So
you say that, well, instead of him being punished for
not being the guy, he got promoted. No, they course corrected,
That's what they did, because he should have been a
heel all along.

Speaker 3 (01:33:27):
They course corrected.

Speaker 2 (01:33:28):
They put Paul Haymond with him, and they did what
they should have already been doing, and he got over
as a heel. And the product as far as like
the business they're doing, you know, all the billions and
billions of dollars and media rights and everything. It did
come at a time when Roman was their top star.
I'm not saying Roman is the one who's responsible solely
for all of that, but you still have to have

(01:33:50):
the right people in the right spots. Roman was the
right guy for that spot at the time, and the
company exploded business wise. They've done more business in the
last five years and they have in the entire existence
of the company. So how can you sit there and
say that he was promoted to this spot is the
top villain when he shouldn't have been. The numbers prove otherwise.

(01:34:12):
And if he sucked then the fans would have rebelled
against it. The fans embraced it to the point where
he hasn't even changed much about his character. But he
came back and everybody cheers for him and they put
their fingers in the air and they say, oh, TC OTC.
So again, yes and no, it's not a simple black
and white answer. But you know, you can't say that

(01:34:37):
Roman in the spot that he's been in for the
last five years should not have been in that spot,
because their success proves otherwise. You may not like the
guy you may have an ax to grind with him
or some of the things that he says, but that's
just the way that it is. So yeah, I would
never agree with that saying, well, it was a lot

(01:34:58):
easier for guys back then. Yeah, it might have been
easier just because of the restrictions that are there now
that didn't exist then.

Speaker 3 (01:35:06):
But and I don't know that he was implying that
it was easy.

Speaker 2 (01:35:11):
It's not easy to get over and become a top
guy in the biggest company in the world, right, That's
not an easy thing to do. But they did have
a certain freedom that guys just don't have now. My god,
I mean, if if they even tried to do half
the shit that they did back then in the late nineties,
they would be fucking canceled in a heartbeat.

Speaker 3 (01:35:32):
I mean, are you kidding me? It would be controversy.
There'd be controversies every week. It would be great for me.

Speaker 2 (01:35:37):
I'd have stories galore, I'd have stories up the ass
to be talking about on the podcast every week. Every
week there would be a new controversy to talk about.
So he's not wrong on that front. So there were
from Paisley sixteen years strong of listening to the sound
of I have a question, but also a side note
on the podcast, you said that you might have to

(01:35:57):
keep Peacock for Saturday Night's main event. Would your VPN
not allow you to watch the event free on YouTube?
I'm sure here in the UK it streams there. That
is an interesting point. I don't know where Saturday Nights
main event airs in the UK. Oh, all my UK
peeps out there, let me know. Does Saturday Nights main

(01:36:18):
event air free on YouTube over there? Because I'm sure
with the VPN it would work. But I just hadn't
thought about that. Actually, I just assumed everything over there
is on Netflix could probably just use the VPN and
do that. Also, I was thinking about WWE and its
counter programming against AW. Do you think they could end
up licensing out their match concepts to Triple A and TNA,

(01:36:42):
for example, a Triple A Royal Rumble or TNA Elimination Chamber.
I would imagine in these situations they would have the
creative control on how the match was presented. I know
these companies have their own matches, but these brands would
certainly grab headlines away from any AW events taking place
on those days, and might even assist TNA in getting
a TV deal if they can promote these match types

(01:37:04):
as a one off or do you think these match
concepts are things that are uniquely WWE and set them
apart from their competitors. Yeah, I mean these are WWE concepts,
Like I wouldn't want to hoore them out. I mean
not that TKO is above hooring themselves out, I'm sure,
but these are concepts that are unique to WWE, and

(01:37:25):
I don't think that they want anybody else using them.
But also like Triple A and TNA, they have their
own match concepts, So why would they Why would they
be you know, borrowing WWE concepts when they have their
own and their goal should be to to make their
own concepts bigger and better. I wouldn't be you know,
stealing from WWE or taking from WWE. Oh, we'll just

(01:37:49):
we'll do an elimination chamber, you know, we'll do a
whatever money in.

Speaker 3 (01:37:53):
The bank match. They have their own. They don't need
from WWE. Believe me.

Speaker 2 (01:37:57):
If they want to counter program AW with some of
these other promotions, they could just send their talent there.
Like if there's a t and a pay per view
running opposite in AW pay per view. All WWE has
to do is take one relatively big name on the roster,
it doesn't even have to be the biggest name, and
just promote them for the show. They can fuck with
aw that way. Jesse from Johannesburg, South Africa. With all

(01:38:23):
of the Chris Jericho chatter of late, I figured I
would ask what was Jericho's best run slash gimmick in
all of his WWE stints. Personally, I love the eight
to eleven run when he was the stoic heel. That's
when I got into wrestling, So I may be biased,
That's what I was gonna say. I think that uh
eight to eleven run. I think he has said before

(01:38:45):
that he kind of modeled the character off of Anton
Sugar from No Country for Old Men, who was a
great villain, great movie, and a very disturbing villain.

Speaker 3 (01:38:55):
That run was probably number one for me, though.

Speaker 2 (01:39:00):
I think you and I are in agreement on that.
Malik from Queens, New York been a big fan since
twenty sixteen. Clash in Paris could be the perfect night
to crown La Knight as the World heavyweight champion. Not
only does he overdue for a run with the belt,
but it would give that unpredictability element that WWE has
been missing for a long time.

Speaker 3 (01:39:18):
Plus Seth Rollins can win it back.

Speaker 2 (01:39:19):
In a month or two and WWE can continue with
whatever plans they have for WrestleMania. Staying on the subject,
who are your top three WWE wrestlers who should have
won a world title.

Speaker 3 (01:39:30):
But did not?

Speaker 2 (01:39:33):
Putting the belt on La Night for a month just
to give it back to Seth Rollins and then demote
him back down the card doesn't do a whole hell
of a lot for me, and it doesn't do a
whole hell of a lot for La Knight unless they
have a damn solid plan for him coming out of that.
So without a top storyline for him moving forward coming
out of that title loss, I don't see the point

(01:39:54):
in doing it. I wouldn't bother and top three WWE
stars to never hold a world title.

Speaker 3 (01:40:01):
I mean, there's a lot of names that can go
on that list.

Speaker 2 (01:40:03):
My list generally revolves between a few names, Roddy Piper,
Ted de Biassi, Mister Perfect, and Samoa Joe because they
absolutely should have put the Universal title on Samoa Joe
in twenty seventeen when they had the chance, so you
can't go wrong with any of those guys. Zach from Liberty, Kentucky.

(01:40:27):
I just wanted to tell you that this month and
this year marks ten years I've been a follower of
your podcast and I love the great work that you're doing.

Speaker 3 (01:40:33):
Thank you, Zach.

Speaker 2 (01:40:35):
I have a by rent cell on these outstanding women's matches.
Tony Storm against Mariah May Revolution twenty twenty five, Bailey
and Sasha Banks Takeover Brooklyn twenty fifteen, and Rhea Ripley
against Charlotte Flair WrestleMania thirty nine. All great matches. I

(01:40:56):
think that Tony and Mariah match, that's the Hollywood Ending match,
which was a great match. I have to buy on
Sasha and Bailey. That is always going to be tops
on my list. It was not only just a great match,
but just a great build up and story to it,
and just the atmosphere and the historical significance of it.

(01:41:17):
You put it all together, it can't be topped. I'm
gonna buy on that one. I'm gonna rent on Charlotte
Flair and Rhea Ripley and wrestle Mania thirty nine, and
I'm gonna sell on the Hollywood Ending between Tony Storm
and Mariah May.

Speaker 3 (01:41:31):
It's close.

Speaker 2 (01:41:33):
I went back and forth on whether to rent on
that one and sell on the Mania match, but I
gotta stick to that order. And Jonathan from Charlotte, North
Carolina buy sell and rent on the biggest storyline that
WWE dropped the ball on the Invasion, the Summer of
Punk and twenty eleven where John Cen his heel turn.

(01:41:56):
This is an easy one, always now and always the Invasion.
I buy on the Invasion. The Invasion it was such
there was so much money left on the table, more
than any of the other things that you just mentioned here.
It is it's almost sickening. So the Invasion is absolutely
number one. I'm gonna buy on that. I'm going to

(01:42:20):
the biggest drop ball on.

Speaker 3 (01:42:22):
I'll go at the.

Speaker 2 (01:42:23):
Scene heel turn, and then I'll sell on the Summer
of Punk. Summer of Punk and twenty eleven absolutely could
have been done better, but it's not as egregious as
the other ones. The John Cena heel turn, I just
I can't put that in number one because I just
don't think it just wasn't the right time for it.
You know, had rock stuck around short, you know, it
could have been a lot more fun it was. It

(01:42:44):
was just the wrong time. They just waited too long.
It just wasn't gonna work in his retirement year. So
I'll rent on that one but now and always have
to buy on. The invasion just an absolute wasted opportunity
for a lot of reasons. It's not just creative malfeasance
on the part of WWE. There were other circumstances involved

(01:43:08):
where guys were making guaranteed money and they wanted to
just sit on their ass for a year or two
and then come And I can't blame them, but if
they had greater access to that talent, then maybe things
could have been different.

Speaker 3 (01:43:22):
But yes, the invasion was not what it should have been.

Speaker 2 (01:43:28):
But you can keep emailing me your questions and I
shall do my best to answer them. The Solemn Monster
at gmail dot com. Again, please include your name of
where you are from when you write in. Not everybody does,
so I remind you every week. You'd be surprised how
many people still don't. But if you want to get
your question on the show, that's the best way to
do so. I'm going to be live with you tomorrow

(01:43:50):
eight pm Eastern Time on the YouTube channel Solemn Monster
sounds off. If you're not subscribed, I don't know what
the hell you're waiting for. Go make sure you're subscribed.
We'll talk about Clash and Power tomorrow night. There is
another early raw on Monday. It airs on Netflix without
a VPN even you don't even need the VPN two
pm Eastern time. It airs early. I will be going

(01:44:10):
live most likely eight pm. Yeah, I would say eight pm.
I'll stick to the I didn't stick to the eight
pm time on Friday because there were other things I
wanted to watch, and I was like, you know what,
this show's going to be over at four o'clock. Fuck it,
let's go live now, and then we could have dinner
at our relatively normal time and then go about the

(01:44:31):
rest of our evening raws two and a half hours.
It's a little bit longer, so we'll stick to eight pm.
So eight pm on Monday night will go live for
the raw recap. That is, well, God, I guess that's
September first, right, We're already into September. So anyway, that's
what's coming up in the next few days. And now
on Thursday, I'm going to be driving down to Philadelphia

(01:44:53):
because we have House of Glory in Philly and I
hope to see some of you there. So until then,
be well, stay safe, have your sales a great. I
will see you back here for the flagship next Sunday.
Back to our normal day, Episode nine twenty eight of
the sound Up. Until then, take care, guys. The Solo
Monster sounds off on July twenty first with Stephanie Vequier

(01:45:15):
and EO Scott.

Speaker 3 (01:45:16):
That match ended in a disqualification.

Speaker 2 (01:45:18):
Then you fast forward to July twenty eight, we had
Jay Uso against Bronson Reid, which ended in a disqualification.
August fourth, you had seth Rawlins one on one against
La Knight for the World Heavyweight Championship in a match
that ended in a disqualification.

Speaker 3 (01:45:32):
And then we arrived tonight.

Speaker 2 (01:45:33):
You'd see I'm punk in La Night against bron Breaker
and Bronson Reid, and wouldn't you know how did this
match end? It ended in a disqualification. As a match,
it was fined. It was a good main event until
we hit the finish and then I realized, Boy, I
feel like I have suffered from deja vu.

Speaker 3 (01:45:48):
It almost feels like I've seen this before. It's almost
like I'm watching a rerun.

Speaker 2 (01:45:52):
Jamis comes out. He talks about banger after banger. We
could talk about DQ after DQ after DK.

Speaker 4 (01:45:57):
The Solomonster Sounds off thousand seven, bringing you the good,
the bad, and the ugly. Check out the weekly live streams,
bonus content for subscribers, and follow The Solo Monster on Facebook, Instagram,
and X The Sola Monster.

Speaker 3 (01:46:12):
I Love you so long.

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Sound Off 927 - Clash In Paris, Jake Hager SHOOTS on Tony Khan And The Raja Jackson Incident!

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