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October 26, 2025 116 mins
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It's the annual HaLLoWeeN SHOW with thoughts on THREE TITLE CHANGES at NXT Halloween Havoc, Vikingo playing heel on the AAA show and IYO SKY's match in Japan this morning with Mayu Iwatani.  Plus, thoughts on the death of Bobby Horne (Mo of Men on a Mission), the abuse he and Oscar endured during their time there and how he tried to make something of himself... Seth Rollins STRIPPED of the World championship, thoughts on how WWE handled the follow-up with Bron Breakker and Jey Uso's battle royal win... PREDICTIONS for Saturday Night's Main Event and who walks out with the title... the latest update on Andrade's status... Goldberg DISRESPECTS ASUKA yet again and Asuka responds... a wild story involving Bray Wyatt and Charles Manson... AEW's media rights partner UP FOR SALE, who's the favorite to get it and what this could mean for the future of AEW... thoughts on the Women's tag team tournament brackets and why Mercedes MUST FAIL at Full Gear... and a MAILBAG NOT TO BE MISSED answering your questions on people saying AEW will go under in 5-10 years, why CM Punk's HEEL DAYS are behind him, Damian Priest's new "IT'S WEPA TIME!" shirt, why Bret Hart was looking to leave for WCW in 1992, dropping out of high school to become a wrestler and POPPING OFF on things that logically MAKE NO SENSE in wrestling!

***
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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's business time, baby. You are listening to solo Monster
sounds off. I love your mama monster con dude, I
want your soul a woman.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
You got grown ass wrestlers in the back going on Twitter.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Come over here is that pet Madison? You have legs?

Speaker 3 (00:22):
I was ninety nine percent positive it was just chessed up.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Now congratulations. Who hasn't beat Daniel Garcia?

Speaker 4 (00:48):
It's the annual solo aust sounds off the Hallo Show,
and now he's the host with the most not afraid
of ghosts and he loves this a French toast.

Speaker 5 (01:01):
I really, do you just substituted regular milk with almond milk?
Oh my goodness.

Speaker 4 (01:06):
He is the solemn monster.

Speaker 5 (01:09):
Zombie, solemn monster, welcome back. I missed you last year.
What happened?

Speaker 4 (01:13):
I died?

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Oh I'm sorry to hear that.

Speaker 4 (01:17):
But not as much as the dynamite radins.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Are we doing this again?

Speaker 4 (01:24):
One more? One more?

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Okay, make it quick.

Speaker 4 (01:27):
My two zombie friends are eating Amy Schumer. One looks
up and says to the other, does this taste funny
to you? The other one says no, All right, okay,
I got you with that one, didn't I? Yes, yes,
yes he did see. This is why I keep him around.

Speaker 5 (01:49):
This is episode nine thirty five of The Solemn Monster
Sounds up for Sunday, October twenty sixth, twenty twenty five.
I am the Solemn Monster. It is the fun sound
off before Halloween. There has been a severe drought of
Halloween movies on in my house this month. I need
to change that, I really do. I did watch a
movie called Strange Darling a few weeks ago that I liked,

(02:12):
and Event Horizon from nineteen ninety seven. That's more of
like a sci fi horror movie set in space, so
that wasn't bad. But I've got more that I've got
to catch up on today. I've got Saturday Night's main
event predictions for next weekend, thoughts on how WWE is
handling the World heavyweight title vacancy, Warner Brothers, Discovery officially

(02:33):
putting itself up for sale, Osca's response to Goldberg disrespecting
her yet again, and there is some good shit in
the mailbag this week.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
This is not one to miss.

Speaker 5 (02:46):
I saw bits and pieces of a lot of things
last night and this morning I watched most of Halloween Havoc.
I've seen episodes of collision that have had more people
in the building than NXT had last night. I don't
even think they had three thousand people in the building,
you know, and I know it was a smaller venue,
but still, I mean, this is an NXTPL. At this point,
TNA is out drawing NXT on the road. I mean,

(03:09):
they've certainly benefited from this partnership. I think more than
NXT has. But three title changes on the show, Tatum
Pasley beat Jace Jane to win the NXT Women's Championship.
Pretty good match here. The fans love Tatum. I guess
she's really a babyface that happens to be hanging out
with a heel cult. I don't know that she's tabbed

(03:29):
for a long rain, but you know, it was nice
to see her get her moment. I do think that
Jac's title run did her a lot of good as
far as opening eyes to what she can do in
the ring. You know, she's not among the elite level
performers in that women's division, but she's better than I
gave her credit for when she first beat Stephanie to
win the belt. And it may not be John Ceda
turning heel on Cody Rhodes level, but her pinning Stephanie

(03:52):
Vicaire has to be among the most shocking moments of
the entire year. Blake Monroe, she beat Zaria to win
the women's North American title. Zaria was filling in for
the injured Soul Ruka as champion, and she lost the belt.
I don't believe Soul is really hurt, not seriously anyway.
I just I'm not buying it. This all feels like

(04:13):
an angle to me. They did a spot during the
match where Czaria's shoulder came out, so Soul, who was outside,
she had a cane. She shoved Zaria into the ring
pos shoulder first, and I thought it was the most
random heel turn ever at first, but then you know,
Zaria's shoulder was okay, and I realized they were doing
the lethal weapon spot. That's what I call it, right,

(04:33):
I mean, what is it with the Australians and popping
their shoulders back in? First we had Rhea Ripley, now Zaria.
I mean, you could even throw mel Gibson in there
if you want to. I mean, he was technically born
in New York, but his family moved to Australia, so
I think he counts.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
I don't know. There's something something about those Aussies down there.

Speaker 4 (04:54):
Man.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
They're tough. They're tough.

Speaker 5 (04:56):
The first title of many that Blake is gonna hold
and the no longer the NXT Tag Team Champions. They
popped their Tuesday rating for the Invasion Show a few
weeks ago. They got what they wanted to out of it,
so it was time to do the job and put
the belts back on Dark State. This is the second
TLC style match that the Hardys have been in this month,

(05:16):
including their Bound for Glory match with the Dudleys. At
this stage, I don't think the Hardys need to be
doing TLC style matches, you know, let alone twice in
a month. So hopefully they give these guys a break
and Ricky Saints beat Trick Williams to retain the NXT Championship.
There really isn't anything left for Trick to do in NXT.

(05:39):
It's only a matter of time now. You know, part
of me thinks putting Booker t with him as his
hype man could be entertaining, but you know, the Booker
would totally overshadow this man. He would go nuts. I mean,
do you hear his commentary. He's an absolute maniac. I
don't doubt that he would overshadow Trick if you put

(05:59):
him in that spot. So that was the NXT show,
and then this morning I saw some of the stuff
with Dominic Mysterio and Dragon Lee from the Triple A
Heroes Immortality show in Mexico City. Dom retained via the
usual shenanigans, but from what I saw, it was a
really good match. They brawled into the crowd at one point,

(06:19):
we got a Dragon Lee balcony dive.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
Dom was super over.

Speaker 5 (06:24):
It's a weird thing because you know Dom and El
Grande Americano, they're cheered wildly like babyfaces.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
In Dragon Lee.

Speaker 5 (06:33):
He wasn't booed, but he wasn't as over as Dom was.
And then you have Vikingo, who I sure think they
turned heel last night. He came out for a promo
and he was acting very heelish. I think it suits
him well. I don't know if his wrestling style is
really all that conducive to him being a heel. He
may have to change it up a little bit. But

(06:54):
I laughed when the crowd started chanting for Alberto and
vi Kingo just tells him get over it. Neddy called
himself the Canelo Alvarez of Triple A. So I mean, look,
if the fans booed me over Alberto and Dominic, then yeah,
I would turn heel to I mean, this is the way. Yeah,
it's just better to embrace it. They've been booing him

(07:15):
for months. You may as well just lean into it.
And Eo sky beat Mayu Ewatani this morning in Japan
on the Marigold Show. Their first match against each other
in over seven years, and it was a banger as expected.
You know, Eo is just a different beast in Japan.
I really wish they would take the handcuffs off her
in WWE, but I don't know how many of those

(07:38):
women could really hang with her at that level. You know,
she's been in WWE for eight years now and it
really only feels like this year was her breakout year.
It's kind of crazy, but I say it all the time.
She's the best in the world. If you would like
to make a PayPal donation and show your support for
the podcast, it's always appreciated. You may do so on
Thesolemn Monster dot com. You will see the PayPal link

(08:01):
right there at the very tippy top of the page
ten dollars for more, we'll get you a nickname and
a shout out like these fine folks. The Portland Pop
Star Paul Hamilton, Happy Halloween, Paul and Miss Madness Michelle Mills,
Oh my goodness, thank you so much, Big B Bryan Vissera,
The Diamond Dallas Dance Machine, Harrison's Soep, Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray,

(08:26):
The Chicago Slayer, Willie Aichord, Knight Stalker, nif Alsa Farm,
Best in the Game, Trey Porter and Killshot Keith Hart. Gentlemen,
thank you very much. House of Glory is coming to
Long Island for the very first time, only a few
weeks away, Saturday November fifteenth, in partnership with the Big
Event Expo at the Suffolk Credit Union Arena. It is

(08:49):
h og Super Clash. We've got Androde hopefully Nick Nammith
carrying Cross Scarlet Bordeaux will be in action with us
for the first time, teaming with Shatzi to take on
Priscilla Kelly and Ali Catch. Shana Basler is taking on
machi Ito. What a match that's gonna be. And we've

(09:09):
got an announcement coming tomorrow that will get people talking.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
It is signed and sealed.

Speaker 5 (09:15):
Tickets are on sale right now at hog Wrestling dot Net.
I will be there and I will be in Chicago
six nights later on November twenty first, for our return
to the Windy City. We've got Zillafa two in action
and we have the debut of Tyler Breeze. I'm gonna
make sure that he gets the music and everything. We're
gonna do this. It's got to be done the right way.

(09:37):
So you can buy your tickets for that on the
website as well, Hog wrestling dot Net.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
That one is almost sold out, so don't wait too long.

Speaker 5 (09:45):
But we start out with some sad news the death
of Bobby Horn, better known as Moe from Men on
a Mission in WWE and later as Sermo after his
partner Mabel won the King of the Ring tournament. So
both members of Men on a Mission are now gone.
He passed away last Sunday at the age of fifty eight,

(10:05):
and I did not get a chance to talk about
it on the podcast then, so I wanted to make
sure I talked about it now. He had suffered just
a myriad of health issues over the years. He had
been in the hospital in the intensive care unit for
the last two months fighting off a severe blood infection
and pneumonia and then septic shock. So I mean it
was just one thing after another. And in twenty eighteen

(10:29):
he had a kidney transplant. He had a liver transplant,
but his body rejected the new liver. He landed in
intensive care with a bad case of COVID few years ago,
and then he had an emergency hernia surgery. I mean,
it's been a rough ride. It's been a rough ride.
When he was in need of a kidney transplant, he
needed thirty thousand dollars for a down payment to get

(10:50):
the surgery done, and he went to WWE asking for it, saying,
you know, every year you send me a letter that
says you'll pay for my drug rehab if I need it.
But I don't have a drug problem. I need a
kidney and it will probably cost you a lot less
than rehab will. But they turned him down because it's
not their policy to do that. And really, I mean,

(11:10):
they're under no obligation to pay for his kidney transplant,
because then everybody would be coming to them to pay
for every surgery they need. I mean, if you wrestle
for twenty or thirty years. That's a lot of surgeries, right,
and knee replacements and hip replacements that.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
They would be paying for. But he makes a good point.

Speaker 5 (11:26):
You know, you offer to pay all this money for
drug and alcohol rehab, right, thousands of dollars. I think
they paid for Scott Hall's rehab like eleven times. They'll
pay for that, but they won't help out with anything else.
You know, even them paying for rehab is just the
public relations thing. It was born out of the depths
of Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoi when they instituted the
wellness policy, and they had gotten a ton of negative

(11:49):
publicity out of that, and they wanted to do something
to make themselves look good. And when Vince McMahon testified
privately to Congress and was asked why they extend did
such an offer to talents right, current talents, former talents,
he literally said it was two words, public relations. He
called it a magnanimous gesture on their part. So he

(12:12):
was a little bit bitter about that, which is understandable,
But he said, you know, he wasn't looking for a handout,
you know. He refused to join the concussion lawsuit against
the company many years ago, even though one of the
lawyers called him up and asked him if he wanted
to be a part of it because he didn't want
to get money, you know, that way for all of
his health issues. And he even said, like, I'll work
for it, so, you know, send me out for personal

(12:34):
appearances or some kind of ambassador work. I'd be happy
to do it, you know. But it's not as if
they ever came to him to do anything like that.
I don't think that he ever got any kind of
cameo on TV or anything like that. He got into
the business in nineteen ninety one. He was actually trained
in part by Ivan Koloff, or at least that the

(12:54):
school that Colof was running. He came in tagging with
Nelson Frasier, better known as Mabel or Viscera or Big
Daddy V. I guess it depends on when you started
watching wrestling, But together they worked as the Harlem Knights,
named after the Eddie Murphy movie, and they got over
his top Heels in Memphis before landing in WWE as

(13:15):
men on a mission.

Speaker 4 (13:16):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (13:16):
Maybe they thought the Harlem Knight's name was too similar
to Harlem Heat and made them change it, I don't know,
but they brought with them Oscar as their manager. Now,
Oscar was a rapper who was looking for his big break,
and the way Oscar got noticed by them is actually
a cool story. He was out in Vegas performing with
Andrew Dice Clay when WrestleMania was there, so that would

(13:38):
have been in ninety three, and he just so happened
to end up in the same casino and he noticed
Macho Man Randy Savage was there and he said, well,
this is my chance. So he walked up to Savage
and he told them, hey, I have a singing telegram
for you. He didn't even know Vince McMahon was with him.
He went over to Savage and then he noticed that
Vince was with him, and Savage was cool of it,

(14:00):
and he said, sure, go ahead, and he did a
quick freestyle rap for them, and he threw a bunch
of like wrestler names in there because he looked around
he saw mister Perfect was over there, this guy's over here,
Jerry Lawler standing over there. So he was like on
the spot incorporating their names into this freestyle, and that
was it. You know, Vince was impressed and Vince told them, Hey,

(14:20):
give me a call on Monday, and the rest is history.
So that's how Oscar got added to the group. I
remember when they debuted that song, Whoop There It Is
was very big on the radio back then, and they
would have fans in the arenas chanting Whoop there it is,
you know, during their matches. And you know, look, as
far as Men on a Mission goes, they were a
decent team.

Speaker 4 (14:39):
They were.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
They were fine. I'm not going to tell you they
were great or anything. They weren't.

Speaker 5 (14:45):
You know, when people make lists of the top twenty
five greatest tag teams of all time, you're not going
to find Men on a Mission on there.

Speaker 1 (14:51):
But they were really good.

Speaker 5 (14:52):
Babyfaces as far as getting the fans to get involved
and swing their arms back and forth and just getting
them engaged in their Man and Mabel. You know, for
as big as he was, he did hit a mean
rolling kick that you wouldn't expect him to be able
to do. But he also had a rep for hurting
people in the ring. You know, he hurt Diesel in

(15:13):
their Summer Slim match with that sit down splash on
his back. He broke Undertaker's orbital socket and the match,
you know, giving him a clothesline. I think he caught
him in the face with his fist. That's why Undertaker
had to wrestle with that Phantom of the Opera mask
for a while. They didn't even like being babyfaces to
begin with, you know, Oscar has talked about that before.
They worked as heels before they came to WWE, and

(15:34):
they were more comfortable working as heels. So when the
opportunity came up for them to go heel in WWEE,
I mean they jumped at it. Oscar didn't like it
because he thought they had more juice in them his babyfaces.
I'm thinking Oscar didn't like it because Oscar knew when
they turned that he was probably the odd man out,
so which he was, and because they didn't just turn heel,

(15:56):
they attacked him too, and that was the end of Oscar.
But before where they turned, they did have a quick
run as tag team champions, quick as in two days
they beat the Quebecers for the belts at a house
show on a European tour and dropped them right back
two nights later. I think Oscar has said that he
thought maybe it was a shoot and they weren't supposed
to win the belts, but Mabel fell on top of

(16:18):
Pierre and Pierre didn't kick out like he was supposed
to do, so then they just had them drop the
belts back two nights later. I don't think there's any
credence to that story at all. It was a planned
title change. Yeah, they did that occasionally. They would do
a quick title change on a tour and then switch
the belts back right after. They did that with the
Steiner Brothers and Money Inc. When they were working together.
I mean, they traded the belts back and forth a

(16:39):
whole bunch of times. But then they turned heel on
the smoking Guns and they turned on Oscar, and the
idea was to push Mabel as a top heel, which
is why he won the King of the Ring in
nineteen ninety five, one of the worst shows in the
history of the company, by the way. So we had
King Mabel and Moe became Sir Mo and he basically

(17:01):
became Mabel's manager until they left the company. He still wrestled,
but I mean, if you want to know how low
down on the totem pole he ended up, they had
him jobbing on house shows to Barry Horowitz. Barry Horowitz
was the ultimate jobber, but he was beating Sirmo every
single night. So they ended up in Memphis again, where

(17:24):
Moe became part of the Nation of Domination. Yes, the
Nation of Dominations started in the USWA before we ever
saw it on WWF television. They were led by PG thirteen,
and Moe was part of that, not as Sir Moo.
He became Sir Mohammed and I think Jacqueline was part
of the group two. PG thirteen were the only ones

(17:45):
who ended up as part of the main version of
the group that we saw on TV many years later,
and even then they were only part of the group
for a few months. I don't think they were with
him for that long, good old j c Ice and
Wolfie d.

Speaker 1 (17:58):
But that was it.

Speaker 5 (17:59):
You know, Mo worked indies for years after that. He
never showed up anywhere big on TV again. But his
time there wasn't always so great.

Speaker 4 (18:08):
You know.

Speaker 5 (18:08):
Moe had talked about almost committing suicide while he was
working there. He had just horrible depression, and a lot
of it was due to the way that he felt
he was treated. Not all of it, but at least
some of it was and not just him, you know,
but Oscar too. Oscar, I'll tell you something about Oscar.
Oscar was obviously very new to the business when they

(18:29):
brought him in. He again, he was rapping before that,
so he wasn't a wrestler. He didn't go through you know,
wrestling training or anything like that. And men, you know,
they hazed him. I know about the birthday incident. It
was his birthday and they were backstage at a live event.
And he never said who the guys were who took

(18:49):
part in this. I'm pretty sure the Steiner brothers were involved.
But there were like twenty of them, and they pulled
his pants down and they threw him face down on
a table and they held him down while they gave
him thirty one birthday lashes with a belt to the
point where he was bleeding. Like these were not friendly

(19:09):
little love taps like these were like they full on
abuse this man. And then they duct taped him to
a urinal. I don't think they urinated on him, but
they ductaped him to a urinal. And this was that
was his birthday gift. And Oscar has said, like Mow
and Mabel, they were down the hall when all of
this was going on. They had no idea, Like, they
were pissed about it after when they found out what happened,

(19:31):
because they tortured that guy, you know, and they tried
to run him out of there. And that's the only
reason Oscar said he didn't leave right then and there.
It's because he knew that's what they wanted and he
didn't want to give them the satisfaction. And he said
he told JJ Dillon about it after JJ was one
of the agents. He said, they beat me thirty times.
And JJ's response was, thank god you didn't turn sixty.

(19:54):
That was management's response. This is the type of shit
that went on back then.

Speaker 4 (20:00):
You know.

Speaker 5 (20:00):
He even said a little ribbing is fine, but to
physically abuse him like that, that's not cool. That's a
line that should never be crossed. Yeah, I'm not surprised
if the Steiners were involved in that there.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
I mean, there's some.

Speaker 5 (20:13):
Pretty disturbing stories out there about them abusing referees and
jobbers backstage. Kevin Nash said he once walked in on
Rick Steiner sticking a sharpened pencil up some guy's ass.
I assumed the guy was tied down, and Nash was like,
you do realize that's soddo me right, like like this
is a crime, this is a felony. And he says
he turned around and walk right out of the room

(20:33):
because he didn't want to end up in a deposition
over it.

Speaker 4 (20:35):
Someday.

Speaker 5 (20:37):
Eric Bischoff he told a similar story. They duct taped
this referees feet and arms together, it might have been
Nick Patrick, and they taped his mouth shut and this
guy's buck ass naked, and they shoved the pencil up
his ass. And that was the first time that Eric
ever met the Steiners. This is what this is what
he walked in on that day. And I think his

(20:58):
response was, well, it was all good fun.

Speaker 4 (21:00):
You know.

Speaker 5 (21:00):
The guy must have done something to warrant that kind
of response, Like I've been a wrestling fan my whole life,
but there are a lot of fucked up, psychologically damaged
people in the wrestling business, like it just seems to
attract them. But for Mo, you know, this wasn't a
hazing incident, but it did lead to him losing a

(21:21):
lot of money and not wrestling for months after. There
was an incident, and it was an incident involving Sean Michaels.
I think it may have happened in Israel, but it
was some I think overseas show. Some of the wrestlers
were upset that Mabel got sick, I guess on the
tour and he got sent back to the hotel. So
what was supposed to be a tag team match, I

(21:43):
think it was gonna be met on a mission against
the Headshrinkers turned into a singles match, and so now
it was just going to be Mo against Fatu. I
think now, back then, if you didn't work, you didn't
get paid. And they thought Mabel was being a pussy
for not gutting it out and going out there. Ye know,
like in a tag match, you could just stand on
the apron. You don't have to do much. So he claimed,

(22:03):
Shawn Michaels got out of the shower and just blasted
him with a forearm right to the back of the
head and it busted his ear drum, and you know,
Mabel wasn't there, so they took it out on Mo,
even though Mo didn't do anything wrong. Well after that,
he says, the company starved him out. You know, there
was a period of like eight or nine months that
went by where he did not wrestle a single match.

(22:26):
He was on the road, he was making all the towns,
he was going to the shows, but they were not
putting him in the ring, so he wasn't getting paid, right,
or he wasn't getting paid any more than whatever a
small stipend for travel that you know, the guys may
have gotten back then. And he suspects that now he
had no proof of this, but his suspicion for all
these years was that it had to do with the

(22:48):
Shawn Michaels incident, you know, and then they just starved
him out. They took it out on him, you know,
because he was going on the road, paying for his
rental car, his food, his hotel, but he had almost
no money because he was and working, you know. And
it's it's sad to look back at the end for
some of these guys, you know, Mabel at the end
of his life. Most said once that you know, Nelson

(23:09):
didn't have two nickels to rub together. Three weeks before
Mabel died, he broke his arm on some indie show.
But he didn't have health insurance for the surgery you
know that he needed, so he put his arm in
a sling. He took some pain pills and he left
the hospital, he went home, and he was depressed and
he was in pain for all those last few weeks
of his life until the day he died, you know,
and then you see what Moe went through. It's just

(23:32):
it's a shitty situation. But wrestling is what saved them. Yeah,
that's what's kind of ironic about it. Wrestling is what
saved them. They were on the streets and they likely
would have ended up dead or in jail a long
time ago or it not for wrestling.

Speaker 4 (23:46):
You know.

Speaker 5 (23:47):
Most said that both of his siblings had drug problems.
His sister landed in prison and that could have been him.
And you know, he even went back to college fifteen
years ago. He got one degree in criminal justice and
he got another one in business administration. So he tried
to make something of himself. And maybe he doesn't get
the love that a lot of the bigger names get

(24:08):
because he was never a major star. As someone who
grew up watching wrestling when he was on TV, I
can tell you that I will always remember his name,
and that's more than I can say for a lot
of people.

Speaker 1 (24:20):
Hey, it's Chris fan Fleet.

Speaker 3 (24:22):
And since you clearly enjoy great wrestling, podcasts like Solo
Monster Sounds Off. When this episode's done, go check out
my podcast Insight with Chris van Fleet. This week, I
sit down with Jelly Roll for an extended, almost two
hour long interview where he breaks down everything that went
into his WWE debut at SummerSlam and trust me, he
knows exactly what you were saying about him before that match.

(24:43):
Some other recent guests include Seawn Michaels, Rhea, Ripley, aj Styles,
Chelsea Green, seth Rawlins, Scott Steiner, Samoa, Joe.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
And Bailey, just to name a few.

Speaker 3 (24:54):
Also, every Friday, I give you my take on the
big wrestling headlines of the week. Listen to Insight with
Chris VanVleet on Spotify or Apple or wherever you're listening
right now, or look for these interviews on YouTube as well.

Speaker 5 (25:09):
On Monday night, seth Rollins, who was not there, was
stripped of the World Heavyweight Championship by Adam Pearce. Bron
Breaker is the one who showed up holding the title
and he surrendered it to Paul Hayman. Hayman then handed
it to Pierce, who made a Battle Royal, with the
winner going on to challenge CM Punk to crown a
new champion at Saturday Night's main event. I believe Rollins

(25:31):
has already had shoulder surgery. The exact nature of the
surgery or how long he may be out for that
has not been announced. He could be back in time
for WrestleMania. Maybe that doesn't seem likely to me, but
we don't have all the details yet. But he won't
be back for a match with Roman Reigns anyway, which
was said to be the original plan, because even if
he is back just in time for Mania, they're not

(25:53):
going to hold out Roman Reigns on the hope that
somebody who's hurt might be back in time for WrestleMania.
They're gonna move on to Plan B. So this is
art imitating life here. You know, this is tempting fate,
is what this is. Faking an injury and trying to
convince everybody it's real, only to turn around a few
months later and suffer a real injury.

Speaker 1 (26:11):
And it sucks.

Speaker 5 (26:13):
But with injury comes opportunity, and they had the opportunity
to do something different with bron Breaker after that great
closing angle the previous week, And remember the way he
told Bronson, Reid and Paul Hayman like, you're either with
me or you're not. Make your choice, and they chose
to stick with him. Then you tune into that show
on Monday, and you would never know that he was

(26:34):
the alpha male. You know, Hayman had him on a leash.
Breaker and Reid. I mean, they were not entered into
the Battle Royal because and it makes sense that Adam
Pierce would not want to reward their bad behavior, but
it was a very lame way to follow up on
what was a hot angle the week before, you know,
instead of capitalizing on something they were handed.

Speaker 1 (26:54):
It looks like they've decided to shuffle it off to the.

Speaker 5 (26:57):
Future because they want to say bron Breaker's first big
title win in for some other time. So the Bloodline
stuff now moves from being the number two story on
the show to the forefront at number one. Some things
never change the blood Line then, now and forever. So
they had a Battle Royal. La Knight was in the
Battle Royal and he got eliminated. AJ Styles was in

(27:20):
the Battle Royal and he got eliminated. We could have
had CM Punk against AJ Styles for the title this Saturday,
but instead we got Jay Usso Jay Usso won the
Battle Royal, one of the most disliked videos on their
YouTube channel all year. I know that doesn't mean shit
to them, but it's just funny to me. And look,
I defended this earlier in the year when he won

(27:42):
the Royal Rumble and everybody was pitching a fit because
I said there was a story to be told there
with him finally winning the big one, and you know,
the yeat stuff was sort of at its apex, and
you could see how popular he was. And I got it,
you know, I understood it. And then it happened we
got World Heavyweight Champion Jay Uso or WrestleMania, and I

(28:04):
never thought he was destined to have a long run
with it, and he actually had a shorter run than
even I thought he would have. I thought maybe he'd
carry it to summer slime. He didn't even make it
that long. But he had it okay, and he's a
made guy. There's no need to go back to it
and do it again now, because as matches go on Monday,
they went with the least interesting option out of all

(28:25):
of the realistic options they had in that Battle Royal.
Jimmy Usso was not happy that his brother dumped him
out after saving him earlier in the match. You know,
if you save anybody in a battle Royal, you deserve
to be eliminated.

Speaker 4 (28:38):
Okay.

Speaker 5 (28:38):
People are not meant to be saved in a match
like that, They're meant to be eliminated. So Jimmy had
no leg to stand done there. I mean I would
throw my grandmother out of the ring if she was
in there with me and there was a World Championship
match on the line. Okay, sorry, Grandma, I'll visit you
in the hospital after the hip replacement.

Speaker 1 (28:57):
But this is the story that they're.

Speaker 5 (28:58):
Telling with Jay acting very romanesque, right, which doesn't sit
well with his brother. Jay cares only about himself and
his own ambitions. So is Jay Uso going to turn heel?

Speaker 4 (29:09):
Right?

Speaker 5 (29:09):
Jay Usso was at his most interesting in the Bloodline
as a heel when he didn't like Sammy's ain being
a part of the group. So I'm not even against
the idea. What I'm against is then possibly putting the
title on him this weekend. What I'm against is making
him champion and possibly building him for a WrestleMania match
with Roman Raids for the championship. Because the last time

(29:34):
we saw them in the ring together, it was so great, right.
I mean, then, don't think it's not possible with Seth
Rollins being out now it is.

Speaker 1 (29:42):
Oh, it's very possible.

Speaker 5 (29:45):
Jimmy costing Jay on Saturday, that's another possibility.

Speaker 1 (29:48):
Jimmy didn't have a very good week.

Speaker 5 (29:50):
Jimmy got dumped out of the Battle Royal on Monday,
and then he got beat by Drew McIntyre on Friday
after trying to avenge the attack on Jacob Fatu from
last week, which he lames McIntyre for even though McIntyre
didn't do it.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
Wink wink.

Speaker 5 (30:06):
They're trying to get something going with Jimmy. I guess
since Jay already. Jay's already been built up as a
single star. You know, Jimmy never really was. You know,
Jimmy was meandering around on SmackDown for months but no direction.
I'm not against them coming up with a story for Jimmy,
but it should not revolve around the World Championship. It
doesn't have to revolve around the world title. If anybody

(30:28):
is walking out of Salt Lake City with that belt
this weekend, it should be cmpunk. But I'm not convinced
anybody is walking out with the championship, not with bron
Breaker and Bronson Reed lurking around. Dave Meltzer. Last week,
if you remember, he reported on plans for Austin Theory
to return as the newest addition to the Vision, and
he was even listed on the heel side in Wargames

(30:48):
and then Seth got hurt. So this week Wressell Vodes
said there are voices in WWE pushing to keep Theory
involved in those creative plans. So Dave was onto something here.
So the idea of Theory joining the Vision was at
least discussed, and he still has internal support moving forward
to reappear on TV in a significant manner. And now

(31:11):
Meltzer is saying the plan for Wargames is still a
Punk and Roman Reigns led team against a Vision led team,
not the MFTs against the Wyatts.

Speaker 1 (31:21):
Thank god.

Speaker 5 (31:23):
I mean, they didn't do anything on TV this week
with the Wyatts, Right the MFTs. They worked a match
against Ray Phoenix and Shinsky Nakamora. Maybe we see Theory
on Saturday. You know, I figured if Rollins was defending
against Punk, we would have seen him return there.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
Anyway.

Speaker 5 (31:37):
I mean, if you know what Meltzer reported was true
about theory being in wargames, He would almost have to
have debuted this weekend. What I pitched on Monday was
and they're not going to do this. But what I
pitched on Monday was them doing a Deadly Game style
tournament to crant a new world champion. Right with the
match on Saturday between Punk and j that it goes
to a no contest, the vision gets involved. You know

(32:00):
the Deadly Game tournament they did almost thirty years ago.
Thirty years ago, that was done in one night at
Survivor Series. So I get that they can't do that again.
I mean, they've been advertising war games for months now.
You can't do two War Games matches in an entire
tournament in one night plus whatever John Sene is going
to be doing. But who says they need to do

(32:21):
two Wargames matches?

Speaker 4 (32:23):
Right?

Speaker 1 (32:23):
You could do one. You could do one with the women.
They don't have to do one with the men. This year.

Speaker 5 (32:28):
It already feels kind of forced, to be honest with
you do a women's Wargames and then you get John
Cenas match, right, maybe against Dominic Mysterio, since that's the
match that's been rumored and a WWE Championship match, and
then have the semi finals and finals to crown a
new world heavyweight champion, with bron Breaker winning the world title.

(32:49):
And then they could build to the first bron Breaker
Roman Reigns match or WrestleMania next year, and at the
end of that match or after it, assuming he's ready
to return by then, that could be where Seth Dollins
reappears right to save Roman Reigns. Holy shit, Like, is
he actually coming to Roman's aid or is he just
coming out there to go after the vision? I don't know,

(33:12):
But how's that for a parting image, right, Seth Rollins
staring a hole in Roman Reigns, Roman Rains staring one
right back at Seth Rollins having been saved from an
all out assault.

Speaker 4 (33:23):
Right.

Speaker 5 (33:23):
Shared enemies can make strange bedfellows, right, But that's the
match I would like to see in Maynia.

Speaker 1 (33:29):
If they're not going to.

Speaker 5 (33:29):
Do Roman and Seth Roman and bron Breaker, that's a
WrestleMania level attraction. The one thing about doing a tournament,
and the reason I'm almost positive they're not going to,
is that they may already have a tournament planned to
decide who wrestles John Cena in his final match at
Saturday Night's main event. Because if you remember, that was

(33:50):
the report a few weeks ago that they were going
to do a tournament and Gunther was going to win.
So they may not want to do two tournaments one
right after the other, which I can understand, even though
they've done King and Queen of the Ring before at
the same time, but this is a little bit different.
I can understand them not wanting to run two different
tournaments so close together. But Saturday Nights Made event is

(34:11):
coming up next weekend. They are in Salt Lake City, Utah,
with a pretty disappointing advance, not even five thousand tickets
sold yet for what is shaping up to be a
pretty big show. It's airing on Peacock only in the
US from now on, not NBC, which makes me optimistic
that there may not be as many commercial interruptions here,
and usually internationally these air on YouTube. But I'm seeing

(34:34):
conflicting things now about it airing possibly on Netflix.

Speaker 1 (34:38):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (34:39):
WWE's UK Facebook page is still advertising it as airing
free on YouTube, so I'm not sure what's going on there.
All my international people, you might want to check on that.
I wouldn't be surprised if they moved them to Netflix.
Going forward just in time for that John Senior retirement
show in December would make sense to me. But this
is the card so far. It is not complete yet.

(35:02):
I could see them adding a match they have not
yet done so, but they could between Eosky and Osca.
If they do, I think Oscar wins and then both
women end up on opposite sides. In the women's Wargames
match at Survivor Series, what is official is Tiffany Stratton
defending the WWE Women's Championship against Jade Cargill. Jade made

(35:24):
her return on SmackDown, Badass, Eyebrows, Scar and All to
seemingly come to the aid of Tiffany at the hands
of Julia and Keana James, only to then turn heel
and beat the shit out.

Speaker 1 (35:36):
Of Tiffany Stratton.

Speaker 5 (35:37):
And this was absolutely the right move to make Jade's
better off as a heel anyway. She won't be better
off though if she loses the match. Just think about it.
She lost its SummerSlam, then she went to a double
count out in the rematch, and then she lost again
in the triple threat match a few weeks ago with
Tiffany and Naya where she got busted open. They turned

(36:00):
her heel. You can't beat this woman after all that,
you can't. She needs to win this and she will.
Jade Cargill will be your next WWE Women's Champion, and
then that naturally pays the wait for the return of
Bianca bel Air, who has been sorely missed on this show,

(36:20):
and that's how we end up with Bianca feuding with
Jade over the title. I'm not even sure they would
hold off on it necessarily for wrestle Mania. I could
see them having a series of matches, but I can't
imagine we don't get Bianca back soon, and that's just
the natural match to do. See, I'm Punk Wressell's jay
Usso to crown a new world heavyweight champion. I think

(36:41):
Punk wins the title. I really like the idea of
holding off until Survivor series to crown a new champion.
But we know they're doing two War Games matches, you know,
we just know they are, and Punk is going to
end up on the baby Face team, so he'll be
the champion. I think going into that and not defending
the title on that show, but the Vision gets involved

(37:01):
after they lay waste to both men, I predict, which
then brings out Roman Reigns for his latest return. How
many returns is that this year for Roman Reigns, I've
lost count. He returns to get revenge on the Vision,
and we get an uneasy standoff not only with Roman
and Jay right. Remember he said he didn't want to
see the usso's until after Christmas. We got a little

(37:23):
bit of an uneasy standoff with them, but also Roman
and Ciampunk right, because they're all gonna end up on
the same Wargames team. But I do think we see
Roman on Saturday. So Punk wins the title, and then
we have Cody Rhodes defending the WWE Championship against Drew McIntyre.
And I am all for McIntyre winning the title here

(37:46):
because he already lost basically clean to Cody or wrestl Palooza,
but I just cannot see them doing a title change here.
If they're changing the women's title and they're crowning a
new world heavyweight champion on the same show like this,
there's no way that we see three new champions crowned
on this show. I know we had three new champions
crowned last night at the NXT show, but I just

(38:08):
don't see it happening here, and I think that bodes
very poorly for Drew McIntyre.

Speaker 1 (38:11):
He's the odd man out.

Speaker 4 (38:13):
You know.

Speaker 5 (38:13):
If Cody or if Punk wins the title, let's say
and then or even Jay, but we get a new
world champion, whoever it is, and if Jade wins the title,
I think Drew's the odd man out. I think Cody retains,
but I think they almost have to get Randy Orton
involved here in some way just to avoid Drew taking
another clean loss, because that kills him.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
It just absolutely kills him.

Speaker 5 (38:35):
There's no need to run this back again if that happens,
and I think they should run it back at Survivor
Series and do the title change there. If they're not
going to do it here, then I think they should
do it as Survivor Series, And if Randy Orton returns here,
it could even be a triple threat match in San Diego.
If they don't put the title on Jade, then that
makes it a lot more likely that Drew wins the

(38:57):
belt here. But I just don't see it working out
that way. So it's a small card so far. Again
it's incomplete. They'll ad at least one more match, maybe two.
I will be live on YouTube next Saturday. They may
be on Netflix internationally. I will be on YouTube for sure.
I will not be on Netflix, although if Netflix wants me,
they know how to reach me. But I will be

(39:18):
on YouTube next Saturday for the post show, so you
get two podcasts out of me next weekend. Some other
WWE related notes. Nothing really new on the Andrade front.

Speaker 4 (39:29):
Again.

Speaker 5 (39:30):
He debuted on Dynamite at the beginning of the month.
He has not been seen since, reason being WWE informed
him that he is bound to a one year non
compete and is not allowed to appear for anyone else,
at least not in the United States, and the belief
per pw Insider, is that WWE is trying to leverage
the enforcement of that one year non compete as a

(39:51):
way to bring Andrade back into the fold. That is
the word making the rounds in Mexico. Meanwhile, David O'tanga
chimed in, I remember the NEXTUS man, David O'tanga. Haven't
heard that name in a while. He chimed in on
this a rare instance of an ex wrestler with an
actual law background, a Harvard educated lawyer, no less. On
his YouTube channel, he chimed in on the whole legalities

(40:15):
of the non compete that WWE is holding over on
trade and he believes a court would rule in Androd's favor.
So for all the people shouting, well, he's signed the contract,
so he's bound to it no matter what. Here's an
actual lawyer chiming in on this, and one who I'm
sure had a noncompete written into his own contract with WWE.
Here's what he said. Under this non compete clause, technically

(40:39):
a talent could sign a contract. WWE could turn around
the next day and fire them for no cause and
then say, hey, we're not going to pay you for
one year and you can't wrestle anywhere else for one year.
This is in the contract. This would be enforceable presuming
the contract is valid. This is WWE being smart because
they're trying to keep these disputes out of court. They

(41:00):
don't want talent to take them to court to challenge
this because a judge would likely rule this invalid. The
fact that you are preventing somebody from working to support
themselves in their given field for an entire year, and
you're not compensating them that right there, we can go
back to contract one oh one. It has to be
equal on both sides to where you're giving up something
in exchange for something else. In this situation, the talent

(41:23):
would be giving up their right to earn a living
in exchange for nothing because they wouldn't be compensated by WWE.
It's different when WWE pays them because now they have
a little more leverage for the contract to be seen
is somewhat reasonable, but the argument can still be made
when WWE is not compensating the talent. I don't know
how they could enforce this if he were to take

(41:44):
this to court. I think a judge is very likely
to rule in his favor and just throw out the
entire clause in the contract. You cannot prevent somebody from
earning a living for an entire year. So it's what
I said last week. You know they could enforce it.
But if Andrede he really wanted to challenge it, and
I don't know that he does, but let's say he did,

(42:06):
there's a pretty good chance it would end up in
his favor, and an even better chance that they would
end up settling at court because WWE's done that before
with other wrestlers. I don't see this becoming a whole
big thing. I think that he's going to be back
in the ring soon enough. But could you imagine if
they leverage this as a way to lure him back

(42:26):
and he agreed to go back, Like what a legend
he would become. He would be making wrestling history. He
walks out, he shows up on the Opposition show, lays
out one of their top stars, and then immediately goes
back to WWE. Like, I don't see how Tony Kahan
ever lives that.

Speaker 1 (42:43):
One down if that were to happen.

Speaker 5 (42:47):
And on the non compete front, we'll stick with this
here because this is timely. We heard from Samantha Irvin
this week in response to a follower on x noting
that it has been one year since she left WWE.
She replied back and said, it's one year down, one
year left on my non compete, can't wait. I hope

(43:08):
you enjoy my songs in the meantime and look back
on all the memories as fondly as I do, love
and miss you all, and remember I never left for music.
I am Music. Hope to see you soon. So she
had a two year non compete. We're sitting here talking
about Andrade to having a one year non compete. She's
not even like an in ring talent, and she had

(43:29):
a two year non compete. I thought a one year
was unreasonable. And she still has every intention of returning
to wrestling in some capacity. She told USA Today earlier
this year that it's guaranteed that she will return to
wrestling at some point. She said it would be a
waste of everything that she's done so far to not
continue the story. She says, I gotta finish my story.

(43:53):
I think we all know where that story is taking
her next. I was surprised that Tony Kahn never brought
her in to pair her off with Ricochet, you know,
since she hates announcing. I know she wanted to maybe
be a manager in WWE said no, I'm sure Tony
would though I'm sure Tony would allow her to do that.
Now we know why they never brought her in because
he legally couldn't. She would likely be on an employee deal,

(44:16):
not a talent deal, as an independent contractor would be
my guess. WWE has moved money in the Bank next
year back by one week. Originally, it was announced for
August twenty ninth in New Orleans, which was already the
latest that a Money in the Bank show has ever
been held. Now it will take place even later at
the Smoothie King Center, still on Sunday, September sixth, which

(44:38):
is Labor Day weekend. This is a make good for
New Orleans after WWE announced they would host WrestleMania their
next year and then TKO said, psich gotcha and they
brought it back to Las Vegas instead, So they got
money in the Bank with the promise for a future WrestleMania.
The earliest that could even be would be twenty twenty

(45:00):
eight because they're already committed in twenty twenty seven to
Saudi Arabia. And don't forget Indianapolis. You know, they signed
that big deal a few years ago with Indy, like
a seven year deal to bring a whole bunch of
events there. They had the Rumble there at Lucas Oil Stadium.
They're owed to WrestleMania too. We just don't know what
year WrestleMania is actually going to be there. But if
we assume that New Orleans and India are getting the

(45:22):
next two after Saudi. Then the earliest we might hear
about a new city like some other city we're not
even thinking of hosting WrestleMania would be twenty thirty. It's
ways off. Let me talk real quick here about Bill Goldberg.
Bill Goldberg was a guest on the Real Talk podcast

(45:43):
with Mike Burke and was asked about his undefeated streak
in WCW and when the host said that that was
something that'll never be broken, Goldberg said it already was.
He said, wwe had quote some girl break it to
get back at him for being a part of WCW. Now,

(46:04):
this is not the first time that he has disrespected
Osca by referring to her as some girl. In an
interview last year, he said, well, a girl beat my
winning streak. Asuka is her name, some Japanese girl, and
people were very upset about this. Well, Oscar responded in

(46:24):
a post on x and had this to say, Goldberg's
comments about me are all over the news right now,
but honestly, I'm not bothered by it at all. What
he said came from his own perspective and that's fine.
So there's really no need to make such a big
deal out of it. Listen to my philosophy. It's not
about what I accomplish. It's about what I try to create,

(46:46):
philosophy and vision. That's where the real value is. I
don't find meaning in anything without beauty. I've achieved every record,
every title, but those are just milestones. What really matters
is opening a new era, creating the mo that separates
before OSCA and after OSCA, having the power to change
an era. That's where true value and beauty exist. I

(47:08):
don't chase records or championships. They're the ones that come
to me. There's not enough art in this world. A
very classy response, and then she yelled or Kyrie had
to very sheepishly walk off to go find Osca. But Essie,

(47:29):
when they go low, she goes, Hi. Look at that.
What a response there from Oscar. See here's the thing
with Billy Boy. Okay, he genuinely doesn't know who OSCA is.
He doesn't care, he doesn't watch the product. He's not
in the wrestling bubble. He got into it because it
was a paycheck and that's it. He's not up on it.
He doesn't pay any attention to it, So of course

(47:49):
he's not going to know who Osca is. You know,
to him, she's just some Japanese girl whose name he
can't pronounce properly. He doesn't have anything against her. He's
just an ignorant fool. But you know, ignorance is no
excuse for being flippant about her every time he brings
her up, because this is at least the second time. Now,
you know, the least he can do if he's going
to bring her up in these interviews is learn her

(48:10):
fucking name and put some respect on it. And here's
your batshit crazy story of the week. Former WWE writer
Nick Manfredini was a guest on Freddie Prince Junior's podcast
and claimed that infamous cult leader Charles Manson wanted to
meet bray Wyatt once. You know, I totally read that

(48:31):
wrong when I first saw the story this week, and
I thought it said Charles Mason wanted to meet bray Wyatt.
I mean, Mason is a sick puppy. I have to
deal with him all the time, but he's not Charles Manson.
Manson was an inspiration for the bray Wyatt character. Manfredini
even said that he would spend a lot of his
time if you were to look at his search history
at the time on his computer. He spent a lot

(48:53):
of time researching every Manson quote and video that he
could find, Like if you've ever seen some of these
Charles Manson interviews, like from prison or whatever he cuts
him like wrestling promos, but they would incorporate a lot
of that into those early Bray Wyatt promos. That's where
a lot of that stuff came from, so he said.
Wyndham's teammate, former teammate in college football, became a prison

(49:15):
guard at Charles Manson's prison. Allegedly, this guy showed Manson
the Bray Wyatt promos and he wanted to meet him.
And this was a whole thing. Mike Rotunda knew about it,
and I think he brought it up to somebody, I
don't know if it was Hunter or Vince or who
it was, and they immediately squashed it. Obviously, that's a
terrible idea. We weren't going to go because they were like,

(49:36):
can we shoot a network special with Charles Manson? It
was immediately squashed, and then afterwards I was like, let's
just go next time. We're in northern California, Me and you,
you know, let's just put on a hat or something.
Nobody will know it's you. Let's just go meet him.
But I thought more about it, and obviously it was
a terrible, terrible idea. Would have been a good story,

(49:58):
but a bad idea.

Speaker 1 (50:00):
It was.

Speaker 5 (50:00):
It was like, wait a minute, this would be so
weird to do.

Speaker 1 (50:03):
Yeah, no shit.

Speaker 5 (50:05):
But obviously bray Wyatt probably would have never seen TV
again if we did that. Oh, he would have gotten
the Mohammad Hassan treatment. If he had done that, the
backlash would be swift and he would take the fall
for it. His career would have been ruined. You know,
if bray Wyatt was smart, he would have said absolutely not,
regardless of whether WWE wanted him to do it or not.

(50:27):
You know, there's a certain line in the sand that
you don't cross. That would be one of them. I'm
actually surprised WWE squashed the idea so quickly. These are
the same people who consider bringing in OJ Simpson after
his murder trial for a guest spot at WrestleMania. It
might have been a match, actually not even a guest spot.
They think they wanted him for a match. Bruce Pritchard

(50:47):
has said it was a Vince Russo idea. Russo denies
this and says it was a Vince and Bruce idea. Yeah,
but Russo also takes credit for coming up with the
Montreal screwjob, which I don't believe for a second. Jim
Cornett takes credit for coming up with the actual idea like.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
How it would work.

Speaker 5 (51:06):
But for all the people that have taken credit over
the years for the screwjob, the one guy who hasn't
taken credit for it is the one who I believe
actually came up with the original idea, and that's Paul Eveck.
And now you know why Brett Hart has no love
for Triple H. This made headline news this week, but
if you've been listening to the podcast I talked about
this weeks ago, aw's media partner, Warner Brothers Discovery announced

(51:31):
this week that it was officially up for sale, saying
that they have initiated a review of strategic alternatives to
maximize shareholder value. It's the same thing that we heard
two years ago, almost three years ago now from WWE
when they announced that they were commencing a review of
strategic alternatives, and then three months later Endeavor announced the

(51:53):
WWE and UFC were merging under the same corporate entity,
and thus TKO was born. This is all just a
fancy way of saying that they're open for business and
they are looking to sell. They already announced the plan
in June to split into two companies next year, one
for its film studio and HBO Max streaming service, and

(52:15):
the other one for its sports and news programming. David Zaslov,
the CEO, said it's no surprise that the significant value
of our portfolio is receiving increased recognition by others in
the market. After receiving interest from multiple parties, we have
initiated a comprehensive review of strategic alternatives to identify the
best path forward to unlock the full value of our assets.

(52:39):
He didn't say who the bidders were, but said that
they have received unsolicited bids for the entire company as
well as for just the streaming and just the entertainment assets.
So if that doesn't happen, the plan right now would
have them separating into one company called Warner Brothers, which
would house HBO, HBO Max and its TV and movie studios,

(53:03):
and then another company called Discovery, which is where CNN
and TNT sports and Discovery Live all their TV offerings.
They would be housed there now. Paramount is definitely one
of the bidders. Okay, David Ellison runs the company. He's
already made several offers that Zaslov has rejected. There was
a story this week with comments from an unnamed White

(53:23):
House official that the sale of the company is very
important to them, and Ellison is the one that they
would want buying it, and anyone else should they outbid
them may face challenges getting such a deal approved by
the FCC or the Anti Trust Division of the Justice Department.
This whole thing is an antitrust nightmare. None of these

(53:46):
should be approved, Like, none of these potential deals here
should be approved. All the companies putting in bids presumably
again not all of them have yet, but like, there's
a lot of rumored companies that are interested here. All
the companies put in bids are too big as it is.
It's like a fat guy saying, I think I'll have
one more pint of ice cream. I think you've had enough.

(54:09):
But you read this and it sounds like the fix
is in, you know, which is really disgusting. You know,
the White House, I don't care who occupies it should
have no involvement in a process like this as far
as who they want to buy it. You know, like
all of this media consolidation is bad enough, let alone
when it's in the hands of one person or one family.
But no one should be putting their thumb on the

(54:31):
scales like this. I mean, this should piss everybody off.
And this is not getting nearly as much attention as
it should, you know, which is what happens when these
companies own the news, like Disney and Comcast and Paramount.
That's ABC, NBC and CBS News all right there, Like
no wonder they don't want to spend too much time
talking about this stuff.

Speaker 4 (54:52):
Now.

Speaker 5 (54:53):
Netflix is said to be looking at it, which is
interesting to me only because of the relationship with WWE.
I have no idea what Netflix would want to get
involved with linear television, but maybe they're just interested in
the streaming assets, you know, in merging HBO Max's subscribers
with their own Amazon and Apple. They're also said to
be interested, Yeah, because because merging with a tech company

(55:16):
really work wonders for them once before, didn't it. We
haven't forgotten that AOL fiasco. My guess here either Paramount
gets it because it sounds like there's a lot of
very powerful people who want Paramount to get it and
they're gonna have the easiest path to getting it approved,
or it just goes unsold and Zaslov just moves ahead
with his plan to break up the company into parts

(55:37):
next year. How this all affects AW is too early
to tell. You know, they're locked into a media rights
deal that runs through twenty twenty seven, They have an
option for twenty twenty eight, and they just started offering
their pay per views through HBO Max, so they should
be safe for the time being. But you know, all
it takes is one person who doesn't like wrestling or
wrestling that isn't WWE anyway, or someone new comes in

(56:02):
and doesn't like the numbers, and you know, any renewal
would be cast into some very serious doubt. Right now,
they're happy with AW, but it's very much what have
you done for me lately? Scenario. You know, who knows
what aw's business is going to look like in two years?
Who knows who ends up taking over TBS and TNT,
who ends up running those networks. They may not have

(56:23):
a favorable a view of Aw's product as the people
in charge right now, especially when it comes to a
lot of the blood and gore and violence that we
see on those shows. Yeah, the bigger issue is the
people that Tony Khan says he works with on the
Warner Brothers Discovery side that he has these great relationships with,
including David Zaslov, you know who runs the entire thing.
If any of those people end up leaving so they

(56:45):
get booted, two years from now, Tony Khan may have
an entirely new group of people to deal with that
he doesn't have those relationships with. So then what happens
right nobody knows, But how a deal like this might
affect pro wrestling pales in comparison to the bigger effect
that a deal like this is going to have depending

(57:06):
on who buys it.

Speaker 4 (57:08):
Now.

Speaker 5 (57:08):
Speaking of HBO Max, as with most streaming services, Max
is hiking their prices again. This is the third price
increase in three years. Warner Brothers Discovery announced that as
of October twenty first, the cost of HBO Max plans
would increase to the following the basic plan with ads.

(57:30):
The monthly price would be raised to ten ninety nine
a month annually that's one hundred and ninety one hundred
and ninety hundred and nine. That's quite the priceike. One
hundred and nine to ninety nine would be the annual fee.
HBO Max Standard with no ADS is eighteen forty nine
a month now annually. That's one hundred and eighty four

(57:52):
ninety nine an HBO Max Premium no ADS four K
content twenty two ninety nine a month annually two twenty
nine to ninety nine now. Disney Plus and Hulu they
also had price hikes go into effect on Tuesday. That
follows on Peacock, Netflix, and Apple TV increasing their prices

(58:15):
earlier in the year. And if we should see more
consolidation with these companies and streaming services being merged. As
ridiculous as it is to have half a dozen different
streaming services to pay for if you want to watch
this shit, imagine how much worse it's going to be
when they start merging and raising prices even more and
you have even fewer options to choose from. Today's episode

(58:36):
is sponsored by Better Help You Know. World Mental Health
Day recently passed on October tenth, But just because that
day may have come and gone doesn't mean we can't
take a moment to say thank you to all the
therapists out there. Better Help therapists have helped over five
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be coping with a loss in their life or finding

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that journey. Solo Monster listeners get ten percent off their
first month at betterhelp dot com slash Solomonster. That's better
help help dot com slash solom Monster. The final episode
of aw Collision for the month of November, will not
air in its normal time slot because that would put

(01:00:47):
it head to head with Survivor series, so to avoid this,
they will instead air Collision that Thursday, which happens to
be Thanksgiving night. Thanksgiving used to be a big night
for wrestling, even before Survivors series started airing on Thanksgiving night.
Then it became the Thanksgiving Eve tradition, and then they
said to hell with tradition, and they just made it
another show. So now when you're sitting there at the

(01:01:09):
dinner table with your parents and your in laws and
Uncle Buck, who just wants to sit there with his
pants unbuttoned, talking politics, which is always fun, you can
distract him by putting on aw Collision with another seven
hundred and forty eight three hundred and ninety six dollars
all star sixteen man tag team match. They're also doing

(01:01:31):
another three hour block of Dynamite and Collision on Wednesday,
November nineteenth, which is the Full Gear go Home show
Dynamite this past Wednesday, that was their post Wrestle Dream episode,
and I didn't love it, but I did think it
was more focused than a lot of their post pay
per view episodes tend to be. They had a clear
focus on building towards the Blood and Gut show on

(01:01:52):
November twelfth and Full Gear on the twenty second. You know,
it's tough right now, they don't have MJF there without
will osp right, They're without Swerve, Strickland, Jay White is
still out. Coda Ibushi just came back and immediately got hurt.
Kenny Omega wasn't on the show on Wednesday. Neither was
the Champion Hangman Page. They saved him for collision, you know,

(01:02:14):
outside of a pre tape promo, that was the only
thing we got from him. Adam Copeland is gone right now,
Christian Cage has been missing. You know, they're missing a
lot of big names, so you've got to work with
what you got. And one thing that I hated is
how many feuds are just continuing. After Wrestle Dream, they
just picked right back up with almost everything. You know,

(01:02:35):
Hangman and Joe, they're headed for a rematch first though,
they're doing a four way match on Wednesday to decide
on a challenger for Hangman at full gear. Gee, I
wonder who's gonna win. It's Samoa, Joe, Bobby Lashley, Ricochet
and Hook Hook is in there to take the loss.
I'm sure Kyle Fletcher and Mark Briscoe they're headed for

(01:02:58):
a rematch. The Hurt Syndicate and Rikish Crew, they're headed
for a rematch. And the one that bugs me the most,
Darby Allen and John Moxley Darby and the Death Riders.
The feud lives on. Darby forced this man to quit
last weekend now, and so think about it. They've now
survived a coffin match and an I quit match, and

(01:03:20):
still this must continue. I would assume all the way
to blood and guts, not not even the full gear,
because they gave a very strong hint of what the
men's blood and guts if there is a men's blood
and guts match, what it's going to be. When the
Death Riders and the Conglomeration they had a big brawl,
it looks like that may be the match in Greensboro.

(01:03:41):
And if it is, then that needs to be the
beginning of the end for John Moxley and the Death Riders.
Because I said it coming out of the pay per view.
John Moxley quit at Wressel Dream because he's a coward.
He's a coward who cannot fight his own battles without
his friends there to help him.

Speaker 4 (01:03:57):
Right.

Speaker 5 (01:03:57):
He talks a big talk, he talks about fighting for
a cause greater than himself. Then he acts all noble
and all high and mighty, but at the end of
the day, the Moxley character is a coward. He's a
coward who quits when he's all alone. He did it
with Hangman in Texas, and he did it with Darby
and Saint Louis. And so for the Death Riders to

(01:04:18):
continue to blindly follow this man around and act as
his shield doesn't really make a whole lot of sense.
He should be the one surrendering in a blood and
guts match, and that should be when the acts falls
and the Death Riders turn against him. It's time to
take this thing out back and put a slug.

Speaker 1 (01:04:34):
In its head now.

Speaker 5 (01:04:37):
Brody King and Bendido. They had an excellent match with
Okada and Takeshta at Wrestle Dream last weekend, and Okada
followed that up with a hell of.

Speaker 1 (01:04:45):
A match with Bandido on Wednesday in the main event.

Speaker 5 (01:04:47):
That was a great main event, the best on any
of the TV shows this week, and the teases for
Okada against Takeshta they continue. I don't know if they
do the first match at Full Gear or Night. It
feels like they probably will, but then you have the
Continental Classic coming up, and then a week after the
finals of the Continental Classic, which I presume will be

(01:05:09):
a world's end is Russell Kingdom at the Tokyo Dome
and Takesha is the IWGP champion. He's going to be
defending that title in the main event on that show.
I don't know if they want Okada for that match.
I'm sure New Japan would love to get Okada back
for a big match at the Tokyo Dome. I don't
know that that's the right main event to be doing,
but it's possible they run it back there too. Now

(01:05:31):
they release the brackets for the Women's Tag Team Championship
Tournament and they look like this. We have Queen am
Nada and Jamie Hayter taking on Julia Hart and Sky Blue,
and we have Willow Nightingale and Harley Cameron taking on
the team of Mercedes Monet and Athena.

Speaker 1 (01:05:51):
Athena is back.

Speaker 5 (01:05:52):
She showed up randomly in a backstage segment with Mercedes
on Wednesday. She's pretty much been out since Forbidden Door.
There might have been a Ring of Honor pay per
view that same week. That probably was the last time
we saw her. So it's great to see her back.
But she and Mercedes are going to be a team
in this tournament, and I don't see there being any

(01:06:12):
chance they don't make it at least to the next round,
and then am Nada and Jamie Hater should be moving
on as well, So that looks like the semifinal round
match to me. On the other side of the bracket,
we have Alex Windsor and Riho taking on Timeless Tony
Storm and Mina Sheirakawa, who of course I mean Tony
and Mina are moving on. And then we have Megan

(01:06:34):
Bain and Penelope Ford taking on TJ team of ty
Kanti and Ana J. I should mention here that Tigan
Knox made her AW debut on Collision last night under
her old name Nixon Newell. Just out of nowhere. In
a backstage segment, she and Miranda alize the Luca Baddie

(01:06:55):
she wrestled Rhea Ripley in the first May Young Classic.
The two of them interrupted TJ's promo in the back
to set up a match between them soon. I hope
things work out Fatiguing. You know, she's had a rough
go of it the past few years. I hope it
all works out for her now. They have not yet
announced when the finals of this tournament are going to

(01:07:16):
take place. One would assume it would be at full gear.
But the thing about that is that Mercedes has already
booked to wrestle Chris Statlander for the Women's World Championship
on that show. I don't think they want her wrestling twice.
Not that it's impossible, Not that it's impossible. I mean,
you know, Adam Cole and MJF did it in Wembley
a few years ago. They had them holding the Ring

(01:07:39):
of Honor tag team titles and then they wrestled in
the main event that night. So it's possible, but it's
not ideal. Right, let's assume that's not going to happen.
If the finals take place at full gear, then that
would likely mean Mercedes and Athena are getting bounced before that.
You know, whether they make it to the finals or not,

(01:08:00):
they should absolutely not be winning those titles. They already
have titles of their own. Mercedes alone has twelve of them.
They cannot win. They cannot win, They should not win.
I could see Hater and Ami Nadis squeaking by to
the finals. If the finals are on the pay per view,
I've got Tony and Mina winning. Because I do think

(01:08:21):
it's smart to put the titles initially on a big
name like Tony and it should mean something when her.

Speaker 1 (01:08:26):
And Mina then drop it to somebody beneath them.

Speaker 5 (01:08:30):
So I can understand people looking at it and going, well,
you know that sucks, because why would you just create
these new belts just to put them on, you know,
people who are already established and have already won championships.
But I also, you know, I look at what they
did in WWE, and the first women's tag team champions
were Sasha Banks and Bailey Right, two established names, two

(01:08:53):
former champions many times over. I think it was important then,
and I think it's important now that you put those
belts initially on a team that people are actually going
to give a shit about. And it's actually no different
with the introduction of these women's mid card titles in WWE.
You look at the difference in terms of booking Becky
Lynch as the Intercontinental Champion on Raw and look at
what they've done with the US title on SmackDown. It

(01:09:14):
is night and day. I'm not saying they have to
win the tag team titles and hold them for a year,
but I think you want a team like a Tony
Storm and Amina Sheikala or a Mercedes in an Athena
if they did not already have belts of their own.
So I don't have an issue with that. I think
Tony and Mina are my pick. I think they're the
favorites to win. The story with Tony and Mina also

(01:09:37):
is that they've lost everything, right. Tony lost her championship
and she lost the rematch. She looked like she was catatonic.
Mina lost her interim title. They were in tears, we
have nothing, and then Mina said no, we have each other. Right,
But that's the story here. They've lost everything. This is
where they find their redemption as far as Mercedes goes.

(01:09:58):
You know, the reason they did the open chal with
her beating Mina for her interim Ring of Honor television
title is because that win gave her the record of
eleven over Ultimo Dragon. She already had a title match
scheduled in Winnipeg Pro on Sunday against Jody Threat, so
had they not done that, the record would have been
set in Winnipeg Pro, and Tony Kahn wanted it to

(01:10:20):
happen on his show, so that gave her eleven, and
then on Sunday she won number twelve. Now Red Velvet
who's been out with an injury since June, is about
to come back and she's already challenged Mercedes to a
unification match for the TV title, so that's going to
be coming up soon. And holy shit, it is true.
If you listen to that red velvet promo does a

(01:10:43):
red velvet promo, They even posted it on their social media.
Go listen to that promo and close your eyes, you
would swear it was Zelena Vegas speaking. Someone told me
to try it, and they were absolutely right. They didn't
even tell me who they thought of, like who she
sounded like. They just said, watch this and tell me

(01:11:04):
who you think she sounds like. And I close my
eyes and I listened to it, and I thought it
was Zelina Like It's just it's wild. But Mercedes is
also defending her Bestia Women's Championship in Rome, Italy on
November ninth, So you know, when it comes to all
of these different promotions and the titles that she's won,
you know, you see why she keeps winning championships because

(01:11:26):
they get to have her back at least once to
defend it, and they're gonna sell more tickets when she does.
She's also defending her CMLL Women's World Championship on Collision
next week against Olympia, who squashed Tia Valkyrie last night
for Taya. As far as full gear goes, Mercedes is
challenging Chris Statlander. I mentioned that Mercedes must fail at

(01:11:50):
full gear full stop because for all of these belts
that she is holding right now, if the plan is
to eventually drop them each one by one, why in
the world would Tony Khan want his world champion to
go around the world country to country, city to city,
jobbing out one by one. Let her do that first,

(01:12:13):
and then she can win the world title next year
at some point. Let the aw world title be the
one championship that, no matter how hard she tries, she
cannot win it. She couldn't beat Tony Storm for it,
and she shouldn't beat Chris Statlander for it either. Statlander,
by the way, who already lost to her at full
gear last year, So she's got something to prove. But

(01:12:34):
the story is far more interesting if Mercedes, you know,
smug as she is carrying all that hardware around, cannot
win the one title that matters most to her, right,
you want to see her descend into madness. You want
to see that the CEO go bankrupt. That's how you
do it. It should start at full gear. All right,
let's get to your mail bed questions. You could email

(01:12:55):
me the Solo Monster at gmail dot com. Please include
your name of where you are from.

Speaker 1 (01:13:00):
You right in.

Speaker 5 (01:13:01):
Let's kick things off here with Sam from Lancashire, UK.
Since Jay Usso won the Battle Royal on Monday, I've
yet to see anyone really suggesting Jay winning the belt. However,
what if Jay beats Punk at Saturday Night's main event
and turns heal. The infighting between the ussos can be
revealed as a red herring to put us off the scent,

(01:13:23):
and Jimmy turns heel too to assist him, with Jay
going full Roman in the following months. I think a
heel Jay might be the perfect foil for Sammy Zain
to defeat at WrestleMania, given their history. You know, I
hate that you said that, because if Sammy's Ain wins
the Royal Rumbland Saudi next year and goes to WrestleMania

(01:13:45):
to fight for the title, a heel Jay Usso would
be the likeliest opponent for him, because, especially now that
Rollins is out, I mean, I know the rumors were
Rollins and Rains, but you know it's either going to
be Rollins or McIntyre. And I don't know that Drew
is gonna have a belt going into WrestleMania next year,
so like a heel, jay Uso would be the likeliest

(01:14:07):
opponent for him. I just don't want to see jay
Uso as World Heavyweight Champion for the next five months.
I don't I don't. You know, if Jay go's heel
and he wins the title, it's more likely he faces
Roman at WrestleMania, and I just don't have any interest
in seeing that. David from Essex, UK just finish watching

(01:14:29):
the Battle Royal on Raw this week and I got
to thinking where this could be leading. This may seem
a bit out there, but hear me out. We now
know that it's going to be punkin Jay Saturday Night's
main event. They have been teasing animosity between the usos
for a while now, and everyone assumes it will be
Jay turning heel. Would it not make more sense for
Jimmy to turn on Jay. I can see the match

(01:14:49):
ending in a DQ with interference from the vision. They
could have Jimmy run out and just watch his brother
get beat down, or alternatively, he joins the Vision. If
he does join the Vision, the and that builds up
the numbers for a potential Wargames match. Jimmy USSO in
the Vision is a hard pass for me. That is

(01:15:09):
a hard pass. Jimmy costing Jay the match. Though I
could see that that, I could see, you know, but Jimmy,
and I know you didn't exactly say it that way.
You said the match ends in a DQ and then
comes the turn. But you know, Jimmy could do something
to actually end up costing Jay the match. And that's fine,
because they're gonna they're gonna do something to further that
USO story along. I don't think they're in cahoots. I

(01:15:31):
don't think they're both going heel. If anyone's going heel,
it's one or the other. You know, you mentioned wouldn't
make more sense for Jimmy to go heel. Sure, I mean,
he might have more incentive to go heal. It just
it doesn't appeal to me, you know. And and Jimmy
joining the Vision, I mean, I don't want to see that.

(01:15:51):
I know David trying to think outside the box here,
but I definitely don't want to see that James from
Staten Island, New York. Nick Nemet's recent interview with Chris
van Vlie regarding his WWE exit should give everyone some
insight as to the ridiculousness of WWE management in the
last decade plus. I can't help but think back to

(01:16:14):
how popular he was at his peak. However, it seemed
that because of one man's opinion, his potential was stunted.
But he wasn't the only one to fall victim to this.
Dove Ziggler, Bray Wyatt, Dean Ambrose, Cesorrow, aj Styles, Samoa,
Joe Daniel Bryan and even CM Punk all seem to
have their potential stunted or screwed with at one point

(01:16:35):
or another. I am of the belief that when you
get over to the degree that these men did, you
should be given a fair shot. In your opinion, which
of those men would have benefited from WWE having a
similar hierarchy as they did in the Attitude era where
your push was determined by how over you were. So,
first of all, if you don't think that there weren't

(01:16:56):
politics in the Attitude era or people who who could
have been bigger than they were, and then for whatever
political reasons or otherwise ended up not being so. Boy,
do I have news for you. That's been a thing
in every era of wrestling, regardless of the promotion. But yes,
generally speaking, in the Attitude era, if certain people got over,

(01:17:19):
or if a gimmick got over, they did something with it.

Speaker 4 (01:17:22):
Right.

Speaker 5 (01:17:23):
One thing about Vince Russo back then, I will give
him credit. He tried to give everybody something to do
on the show, and it helped that the product was
so hot back then. Right, the Godfather was over, the
oddities were over, Crash Holly and his super heavyweight gimmick
that was over the brood right, so on and so forth.
Everyone was over fucking Dlo Brown. Okay, with his chest

(01:17:45):
protector shaking his head back and forth, he was over.
Every one of those men that you mentioned could have
done more than they did. Not all of them would
have been main event players. So Sorrow right, Csorrow could
have gotten a short run. I'm not even saying as champion,
but just like a short run even on Top. I
advocated at the time for a pay per view match
with brock Lesner.

Speaker 1 (01:18:06):
I think it could have worked.

Speaker 5 (01:18:08):
You could have built to a Royal Rumble title match,
like even just a one and done between Brock and Cesara,
Brock would have won and that would have been the
end of that. But they never even did that. You know,
bray Wyatt was pushed, but he wasn't protected. He would
talk a big talk in his promos and then he
would go out and lose and that hurt his character.
But they all could have benefited. I mean, keep in mind, though,

(01:18:29):
there's only so many spots at the top. So if
you're looking at you're looking at this right, all these
guys should have been main eventters. Not all of them
can be main events all the time. Some guys are
made men and they're always going to be on top
no matter what. Right top top guys. Some guys have
main event level talent, but they're not top draws. If
Vince McMahon gave Cesorrow a fair shot, would he have

(01:18:52):
drawn him money like a main eventor maybe not? You know,
would Dolph Ziggler have been a big draw?

Speaker 1 (01:18:58):
Maybe not.

Speaker 5 (01:19:00):
But you're right in that a lot of them deserved
at least the opportunity, and it felt like they would
they just get their legs cut out from underneath them.
The Csorrow Paul Hayman pairing in twenty fourteen is one
of the best examples of this.

Speaker 4 (01:19:11):
Right.

Speaker 5 (01:19:11):
It had so much potential story potential with brock Lesner,
and they never did anything with it, and then a
few months later they just parted ways amicably. Why because
they never intended to push Cisorrow at a high level,
no matter how over he was coming out of that
Andre Battle Royal in twenty fourteen, It did not matter.

(01:19:31):
What it was was them wanting to give Paul Hayman
someone to hitch his wagon too for a few months
while brock Lesner was off TV away on vacation, so
that he could get a few months on television, to
get that catchphrase over every single week on TV and
remind people that brock Lesner was the one in twenty
one and one and that he ended the Undertakers undefeated streak.

(01:19:54):
That's literally the only reason they put the two of
them together, and Paul Hayman has since admitted that it
had nothing to do with pushing Csorrow.

Speaker 1 (01:20:04):
Nothing.

Speaker 5 (01:20:07):
They never even gave the pairing a shot because that
was never the plan. Ziggler right coming out of that
Survivor series win in twenty fourteen, had a ton of
momentum and they stalled it. Samoa Joe absolutely should have
gotten at least a short run as the Universal Champion,
but it didn't happen. And then there were injuries that
wreaked havoc on his run there, Right, it wasn't It

(01:20:27):
was a mix of different things. He did get hurt
a few times, but before the injuries, right, he should
have been given that shot. When he first signed with
the company, if you remember, it was an NXT deal,
the had no intention of calling him up to the
main roster. They gave him a very unique NXT deal
that I think still allowed him to work some indies.
But he got super over and that changed their mind

(01:20:49):
real quick, and they signed him to a regular deal.
I remember he started working NXT in May of that year.
I mean he worked a show for House of Glory
that month, right, I think Ring of Honor after that.
This was after he had already signed I don't remember.
Maybe they were just letting him finish up, you know,
prior commitments. I don't remember. But they realized very quickly, like,

(01:21:10):
oh shit, maybe he is Maine roster worthy. Imagine thinking
Samoa Joe is not Maine roster worthy. Samoa Joe on
his worst day is better than a lot of wrestlers on.

Speaker 1 (01:21:21):
Their best at any age.

Speaker 5 (01:21:24):
But it was all down to what one man thought
about you, Yeah, which I think is Jimmy's whole point.
And now you know Triple H maybe the head of creative,
but I don't think it's that bad where it's Vince's
way or the highway, and no one can talk him
out of something once he's made up his mind. Right,
he was very stubborn. And to think that one man

(01:21:45):
had the power to derail an entire career just because
he didn't get it, or it didn't jive with his
existing plans or he didn't like the way that you
looked is sick, right. But it was his company. It
was his sandbox, and he can play in it and
say who can play in it and who couldn't play

(01:22:06):
in it? And what toys he was gonna use? Right,
he could do with it what he wished. That's just
how it was. Carlos from San Juan, Puerto Rico. I
was watching one of JD's videos and he said that
AW has five to ten years before.

Speaker 1 (01:22:24):
They go under.

Speaker 5 (01:22:25):
On one hand, I do believe that they might go
under in that time span because of their creative decisions.
But on the other hand, TNA is still a thing
and they made worse creative decisions than AAW. Do you
think AW will fold in that timespan? And if not,
how long do you give them before they go under?
What a question? No? No, they are not going out

(01:22:47):
of business in five to ten years. You know, there's
this narrative out there that because their numbers are dwindling
and they can't fill big buildings anymore for their weekly
TV that the end is near or if they lose
their TV, right, if Warner Brothers Discovery gets sold, that
that's the end of AAW. And nobody can say with
one hundred percent certainty what's going to happen five years

(01:23:09):
from now, ten years from now. But do I think
that AW will cease to exist? Absolutely not. Do I
think they will still be on TV somewhere, Yes, I do.
I don't have a time span for them to die.
I don't think like that. You know, TNA is actually
a great example. I thought for sure, and maybe I

(01:23:30):
don't do it anymore because TNA proved me wrong, because
years and years ago I thought for sure that just
because of the changes in ownership. You know, it was
being passed around so often, and they had a lot
and they had a lot of issues. But the changes
in ownership and everything that it was just a matter
of time before TNA was gone, right, And yet they persevere.

(01:23:51):
Not only do they persevere, they're thriving more now than
they have in years, and they're about to announce a
new media rights deals soon. The people who own t
ANDA were not nearly as big wrestling fans as Tony
Khan is right, and he's got a lot of money
to burn. I don't think he's going to let AW
go under. AW going under, by the way, would be

(01:24:12):
terrible for wrestling and anybody rooting for that, and I
know there are people out there who do. Is not
someone that I would take seriously. Okay, they have some
serious problems that need to be addressed, and their business
may dip, right. There may come a point where they
have to do some very serious downsizing of the roster
tr I know Tony has tried to avoid doing. But

(01:24:33):
they will exist in some form. They will continue to
be a thorn in WWE side, and that's good. We
need someone to be a pain in their ass. They're
not going anywhere, and anyone saying otherwise is being overly dramatic.
Anton from London, longtime listener of the show since twenty thirteen.

(01:24:56):
I had a quick question on whether or not you
ever see see Punk turning heel again. I was watching
some clips from his feud with the Undertaker leading up
to wrestle Mania twenty nine, and he did some great
heel work leading into that. I used the Pall Bear
segment as an example, where he walked out while Undertaker
was paying tribute. That's just one in a list of
examples that you could choose from from his various heel runs.

(01:25:20):
Do you see a Punk heel turn ever coming again?
Or has he reached that status where he'll be cheered
no matter what.

Speaker 4 (01:25:27):
You know?

Speaker 5 (01:25:28):
Never is a long time in wrestling, and Punk has
talked about wrestling until the wheels fall off. He's had
some bad injuries to where I don't think that time
is too far off. A few more years maybe, No,
I don't see him going heel. I think the fans
love him now. His wife is back and she's super popular.

(01:25:48):
We already got the heel husband a white thing with
Seth and Becky. I don't see them doing that with
Punk and AJ. And if Punk goes heel and she doesn't,
you know, that's kind of awkward. Not impossible to do it,
but awkward. I mean he literally walks out on television
wearing merch. Now that says AJ's husband, Okay, So it's
hard to separate the two. I think he's close enough

(01:26:10):
to the end of his career to where I think
the time for heel punk has passed. I mean, I
would love to see it. He's a great heel, but
I don't think it happens. I mean, the thing with
the Punk stuff is that he comes off as genuine Okay, Now,
he doesn't come off as a character when he's on TV.
There are a few people who have this ability when
they're on TV and they're cutting promos and they're speaking

(01:26:33):
to the audience. Punk is one of these people. Kevin
Owens is another, Eddie Kingston is another. I would throw
even like a Samoa Joe in there, but it's a
very elite few who have this authenticity about them where
they don't come off as just a character on a
television show. They don't come off like they're just performing

(01:26:54):
to be something that they're not, and it's a great
quality to have. Very few people have, but he has
that in him. He has that connection. And I just
think at this point, this late in his career, if
he did ever go healed, there would have to be
a damn good explanation for why, because we saw what
happened when John Cena turned heel and that explanation didn't

(01:27:16):
cut it right. They needed a real good explanation for
John Cena after all these years of being a babyface
and never give up and being you know, the people's
champion and mister make a wish, and they had to
have a really damn good explanation, and they didn't, and
they fumbled and they fucked it up, and that was
John Cena. So it would have to be a really

(01:27:38):
good story, a really good explanation. Is it just desperation?

Speaker 4 (01:27:42):
Right?

Speaker 5 (01:27:42):
If he keeps getting screwed out of the championship and
he has been screwed now many times, I mean, what's
the story? Does he just finally snap?

Speaker 1 (01:27:51):
You know?

Speaker 5 (01:27:51):
Is that the story? That's the Drew McIntyre story. He's
on television every week talking about getting screwed. You're gonna
do the same thing with cmpunk because I hope we
get Cody and Punk at some point, and they're both babyfaces,
and if anyone went heel for that, I would prefer
that it be Cody Rhodes and not Cmpunk. So again,
never is a long time. I can't sit here and

(01:28:13):
tell you with one hundred percent certainty, but I'm ninety
eight percent sure that no. I think the days of
heel CM Punk I think are over. Jonathan from Charlotte,
North Carolina. Do you think more people would talk about
Mercedes Monet being Wrestler of the Year if she wasn't
a black woman? What is stopping her from being Wrestler
of the Year When you consider the number of good

(01:28:33):
matches that she's had, as well as the revenue and
attendance records that she has set across multiple promotions. I
truly believe no non WWE wrestler, aside from maybe Mystico,
has had a bigger impact on the wrestling business in
twenty twenty five than Mercedes. Wrestler of the Year is
a subjective thing, first of all, and I don't think

(01:28:54):
her being black has anything to do with people not
wanting to vote her in as Wrestler of the Year.
I think it has more to do with those people
being sick of the belt collecting stuff. You know, she
has met more this year to companies outside of the
one that she actually works for. I don't think she's
had as much of an impact on AW itself this
year as she has on these other promotions. No matter

(01:29:14):
how many good matches that she's had, she's had plenty
of them.

Speaker 1 (01:29:18):
You know, a lot of.

Speaker 5 (01:29:18):
The stories and segments that they've had for her on
TV this year have largely been terrible. Right, Thank god
that she goes out there and has good matches because
everything else that they've done with her has been mid
like some of the worst television all year. And if
she was white, if she was black, Asian, or a
mix of all three, it would not change a thing.

(01:29:40):
It comes down to creative. It is always about the creative.
Michael from Long Island, what do you think about my
Survivor series predictions? Assuming that Punk and Drew win at
Saturday night's Mainevan He says World Heavyweight Championship Match CM
Punk defending against Roman Reign and bron Breaker, and bron

(01:30:01):
Breaker wins. I am all for bron Breaker getting the belt,
but there's no need for that to be a triple
threat match. Women's War Games aj Lee, Alexa Bliss, Charlotte Flair, Rhea, Ripley,
Eo Sky against Becky Lynch, Kabooki Warriors, Naya Jacks and
Julia with team aj Lee winning. I mean that sounds

(01:30:25):
fine to me. Intercontinental Championship Dominic Mysterio against John Cena.
John Cena wins. I think Sena beating dom is fine again.
I maintain that there's no reason to put the Intercontinental
title on John Cena. Men's War Games Uncle Howdy, Eric Rowan,
Joe Gacy, Dexter Loomis and Sammy Zain against Solo Socoa,

(01:30:47):
Tomatonga tongaloa Tallatoga.

Speaker 1 (01:30:49):
My god, sounds so ridiculous.

Speaker 5 (01:30:53):
Tomatonga tongaloa Tallatonga and Jace Matteo and the Wyatt six
and Sam Win. I have no interest in seeing the
MFTs against the Wyatts in a war Games match, none, none, whatsoever.
And for the undisputed WWE Championship, Drew McIntyre defends against
Cody Rhoads and Randy Orton in a triple threat match,

(01:31:16):
and Cody Rhodes wins. I don't know why you have
two triple threat matches on this show for each world championship.
I don't know why there's a need again for that
World Heavyweight title match in this scenario to be a
triple threat match. I would not do that. This one
being a triple threat is fine. And you had me
until you said that Cody wins. That's where you lost me,

(01:31:39):
Curtis in Waterloo, Ontario, when Andrade came back, I believe
it was Meltzer who reported that part of the reason
Tony Khan brought him back was that he was looking
for another Hispanic star to help bring in the Mexican
audience and establish more of a presence in Mexico. This
got me thinking. For years, there have been reports of
North American promotions looking for that next big Hispanic star
to help them establish more of a foot in Mexico

(01:32:01):
and other South American countries. For a long time, Eddie
Guerrero and Ray Mysterio were those two guys. WWE tried
to bring in guys like del Rio Sinkara and to
a moderate extent, Penta and Ray Phoenix. Damian Priest could
possibly fall in that category. Even in aaw they have
a good contingent of Luca wrestlers, but it doesn't feel

(01:32:21):
like that. It doesn't feel like they have that guy.
My question is, post two thousand and seven, who would
you say is the biggest or most successful Hispanic star
in a North American promotion not named Ray Mysterio. I
don't know why AAW needs Andrade for that when they've
got Bendido right there. Like Bendido is one half of

(01:32:43):
their tag team champions, he's the Ring of Honor World Champion,
He's charismatic as fuck, and he's great. He's got all
the tools WWE they've been searching for that next big
Hispanic star for I mean, it feels like a couple
of decades now, and there was even talk that Antos
Escobar could be that guy when they first brought him in,

(01:33:03):
and maybe he'll even be back on TV by the
time some of you listen to this. I think it
would have to be Alberto del Rio, like maybe Damian
Priest if we're talking Hispanic stars not Mexican. You know,
Priest was a world heavyweight champion. He was part of
the top Heel faction on Raw for a couple of years.
But del Rio won a Royal Rumble. He won money

(01:33:25):
in the bank. He won the World Championship, he won
the WWE Championship multiple times. He beat John Cena to
win the United States Championship, then he had that run
in TNA, and he won the Impact World Championship, and
even his recent stint in Triple A he was very
over and he was their top champion until the WWE acquisition.

(01:33:47):
People are booing Vi Kingo now because they booked the
Kingo to beat Del Rio. So I mean, in terms
of the success that he achieved, it has to be Alberto.
By the way, on the subject of Damien, I'm glad
you brought this up. On the subject of Damian priest,
I have to ask this question.

Speaker 1 (01:34:06):
He walked out.

Speaker 5 (01:34:07):
I didn't mention this in my review on Friday, but
he walked out on SmackDown wearing a new shirt that
says it's WETA time. Okay, Now, I'm gonna need all
my Puerto Rican friends to chime in on this. I
know WATA is definitely a thing that people say. A
couple of Puerto Rican girls I used to hang out
with would say it a lot, But is there any

(01:34:27):
Puerto Rican alive that actually says it's wet by time.

Speaker 1 (01:34:33):
That just sounds very cringey to me.

Speaker 5 (01:34:36):
It sounds like WWE co opted it just to sell
T shirts and didn't actually stop to think, like do
people actually say this? I just think it makes them
look less cool. You know when when they try to
force shit like this, it's web by time. Like it'd
be like Triple H coming out wearing a shirt that
says it's game time, except Triple H would never allow

(01:34:59):
the merchan to to sell such a thing. He would
have that person fired instantly if they tried to. But
I need to hear from people like is that actually
something that people will verbally say? I just I've never
heard that before. But then I see him coming out
in a T shirt wearing it, and I say, is
this supposed to make him look cool? Because it doesn't.
I think it has the opposite effect. Brianna from Jackson, Mississippi.

(01:35:24):
I recently watched your Brett Hart versus Mister Perfect review
from your Top ten Greatest SummerSlam Matches playlist on YouTube,
and you mentioned that Brett came very close to leaving
ww WWF, she says, in nineteen ninety two and signing
with the WCW. Do you know why Brett wanted to leave,
and hypothetically, how would you have booked bretton WCW in

(01:35:47):
nineteen ninety two. Well, if the plan had gone through,
Brett would have come in still as the Intercontinental Champion.
It would have been WCW's way to get back at
WWA for having Rick Flair show up the previous year
with the big gold belt.

Speaker 1 (01:36:05):
Brett would have.

Speaker 5 (01:36:05):
Been used as a pawn essentially, but I think debuting
him as like a US title level star would have
made sense. Right, he wasn't there yet as any sort
of main event draw. But WCW back then, in like
ninety two ninety three, they had a ton of great
talent that he could have worked with. I mean Sting Invader,
I mean they were main eventters, but like, he still

(01:36:27):
could have worked with those guys. But you got Rick
Rude was there, and Ricky Steamboat and Steve Austin and
Brian Pillman. You know, Brett should have been mixing it
up with those guys to help level him up and
get him to where they were, because he was still
trying to shed the skin of being just a tag
team wrestler at that point. But the reason he wanted
to leave. It really was just him trying to cover

(01:36:49):
his base. Is Vince would pitch ideas for him that
would constantly change, and you know, he talked about this
in his book and his biggest fear was ending up
like a Tito Santana and of and look, Tito had
a great career for himself, and Tito was super talented,
but Tito was never like he got to a certain
level and that was it, that was where it ended
for him, and that was his fear. He didn't want

(01:37:10):
to end up like a Tito Santana or some of
these other guys that had been the Intercontinental champion who
after their run was over, just got shuffled off to
a mid card role for life.

Speaker 1 (01:37:21):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:37:22):
He didn't want that. He knew he could be more
than that. So he had discussions with them and it
ended up not going anywhere. He also didn't realize his
contract had rolled over, I think through September of that year,
so he was stuck anyway. But you know, as with everything,
it comes down to two things, the cash and the creative.

(01:37:43):
And I think Brian Pellman was actually the conduit between
him and WCW. And he told Brett he could get
more money if he came over and worked for the
other side. So that's what got the ball rolling. It
was money as much as anything, but the creative was
an important part of it too, have worked out for
the better. I don't think WCW would have known what
to do with him after that initial debut. He definitely

(01:38:06):
would not have ascended as high as he did working
in WCW, especially not after Bishop brought Hogan in two
years later. There was no way that Brett was ever
going to get to the level there that he got
to in WWE Dallas from Minnesota. I get that Drew
McIntyre and Solo Socoa are both heels, but is Drew
an idiot? It's been three years and Drew is still

(01:38:28):
fighting every Samoan except the guy that actually screwed him
over a clash at the Castle. First he blamed Jay
Usso for his problems, then Jimmy, then Roman again, then Jacob,
and went back to Jimmy again. On Friday Night, they
teach Drew going after Solo once and dropped the bloodline
Hunter storyline altogether. And now they're doing. All they're doing

(01:38:48):
is making Drew look like an idiot. Did he just
forget that Solo was the one who cost him the
biggest night of his career and messed him up so
badly that he was singing American Pie with Tyson Fury Or.
Is Drew a complete idiot? No, he's an idiot. Mohammed
from Brussels, Belgium. I am watching the Monday Night War

(01:39:11):
from September nineteen ninety five to two thousand and one,
and I had just arrived to the raw episode where
Team USA Austin, Dude Love and Undertaker faced the Heart
Foundation in a flag match. I am just so entertained
by Brett Hart's heel run he was Austin. In these
last couple of months, I gained a new appreciation for
Austin pre Summer Slam injury. In a perfect world, let's

(01:39:32):
say Owen doesn't injure Stone Cold and Brett stays until
WrestleMania fourteen. Could it have been the greatest WrestleMania main
events of all time? Between the rivalry, the story of
Austin finally beating Brett after a year and a half,
the fact that we have two proud workers who are
going to try to outdo their WrestleMania thirteen match, and

(01:39:53):
the inclusion of Mike Tyson as the enforcer. It could
have been the recipe for a legendary night. What are
your thoughts about this dream scenario? Well, if you're asking me,
do I think that there was the potential for Brett
Hart and Steve Austen one year after having arguably what
may be the greatest match in the history of that company,

(01:40:15):
do they have the ability to go out there and
have the best match of all time at WrestleMania. Yes, sure,
I would say yes, that is certainly a possibility.

Speaker 1 (01:40:25):
It would have been.

Speaker 5 (01:40:26):
Very hard for them, though, I think to outdo what
they did in Chicago, like right down to Austin bleeding
and that shot of him blood pouring down his face,
you know, like it would be hard to beat that,
you know what I mean? Like, it's possible. I think
they would have gone out there and had a great match.
And I always felt like if Brett stayed and the

(01:40:50):
Montreal stuff never happened, that they could have kept the
belt on him and had him drop it to Austin.

Speaker 1 (01:40:55):
I don't know what Shawn Michaels would have been doing.

Speaker 5 (01:40:58):
I'm sure he would have pitched a fit if he
wasn't involved in, you know, pooh pooed the whole thing,
but it would have made sense, you know, to have
that one last blowoff between Brett and stone Cold where
Austin actually beats him, and when he beats him, he
doesn't just beat him for the first time, but he
wins the championship. I don't even think any Mike Tyson involved,
but obviously if you can get Mike Tyson in there,

(01:41:18):
then you bring in Mike Tyson, so he probably would
have ended up serving the same purpose. But sure, I mean,
that would have been a great match. I can't sit
here and tell you it would have been the greatest
of all time.

Speaker 4 (01:41:28):
Though.

Speaker 5 (01:41:29):
I just think that wrestlemany A thirteen match would have
been very difficult for them to top Neil from North Carolina.
Do you think that if Sting went to WWF instead
of The Ultimate Warrior and Warrior went to Jim Crockett's NWA,
would they have risen to as high a level as
they did.

Speaker 4 (01:41:51):
Sting.

Speaker 5 (01:41:52):
Yes, Warrior No Warrior working for Crockett just seems like
a complete mismatch to me, and I don't think they
would have tolerate did his bullshit the way that Vince
did Sting would have done very well under Vince McMahon.
He could, he could work, he was charismatic, he had
he had a good look, he had a great look.
All of those things would have served him well there.

(01:42:12):
But then we get no crows Sting in ninety seven
fighting off the nWo. You know, so, I think things
worked out the way they were supposed to. I just
wish he didn't wait so long to come over and
kept signing those little one year extensions with TNA year
after year after year, because had he come in a
few years earlier, there were a whole bunch of matches
that he could have had that by the time he

(01:42:33):
actually came in, it was too late. Daniel from Maryland
been listening since episode five point fifty three. Man, what
are your thoughts on wrestlers that have dropped out of
high school to pursue a career of becoming a pro wrestler.
Do you think every wrestler should at least have a
high school diploma before entering the business. I think that

(01:42:56):
when you have a passion for something, you have to
pursue that passion. But I would highly advise against dropping
out of school before you do it. Very few people
will actually find real success in wrestling to where they
can make like a comfortable, full time.

Speaker 1 (01:43:11):
Living out of it. It's not a very high percentage.

Speaker 5 (01:43:15):
Like you've got your weekend warriors, right, who work a
regular job and then they wrestle on the side because
they love it. You've got your people who pursue something
bigger than that, but they don't make it for whatever reason.
You have your people who do get their foot in
the door, right, or they do get recruited, but then
it doesn't work out or they get hurt, and so

(01:43:38):
then what, like what do you have to fall back on?
How are you going to support yourself, especially if you
have a family, you have kids. Yeah, it would be
irresponsible not to have a backup plan because even if
you excel at wrestling, like you pick it up really
quick and you have like a natural aptitude for it,
you're always one bad knee injury away from the end

(01:43:58):
of your career.

Speaker 4 (01:44:00):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:44:00):
I understand college is not for everybody, but to drop
out of high school, like, I would highly advise against that.
You know, find something else that you love, or find
something else that you're really good at. Get your diploma preferably,
I would say get a college degree, because that's really
the baseline.

Speaker 1 (01:44:19):
Now.

Speaker 5 (01:44:19):
Like years ago, you at least had a high school diploma.
Today you're expected to at least have your bachelors. That's
going to open up a lot more doors for you
than a high school diploma will. And look, you could
even take online courses and get your degree that way.
A lot of people do that. A lot of wrestlers
have done that, And if you want to wrestle, hopefully

(01:44:40):
you'll never have to use it, but if you do,
at least you've got something to show people and you
can get a job in that field. Like there are
wrestlers who take college courses while they're wrestling. I'm talking
wrestlers that are signed right now with WWE and AEW,
like Nicki Kross, she earned her master's degree a few
years ago. Deana Parrazzo, she's talked about ge her degree online.

(01:45:01):
Now she's pursuing her masters because AAW has a tuition
reimbursement program that they offer to their talents where they'll
reimburse your tuition up to a certain amount each year.
So even people in wrestling right now who have found
success and have careers are getting their degrees with an

(01:45:21):
eye towards what they might want to do after wrestling. Right,
There's got to be a life after wrestling. Not everybody
is going to have a twenty or thirty year career.
Not everybody is going to be Sting wrestling until he's
sixty four or sixty five. Even Sting, I think the
famous story about real estate Steve. You know, I don't
know what his background is there, if he's got certifications

(01:45:42):
or whatever, but I know he's got something going on
in real estate for many years. And Vader did too.
I know, I think Vader was also involved in real
estate in some way. But not everybody's going to have
that kind of career where you're able to wrestle that
late into your life and not do anything else and
make millions of dollars.

Speaker 4 (01:45:59):
Right.

Speaker 5 (01:46:00):
A lot of people when their career is over, they
don't just retire, right, or maybe they're still young enough
where they want to go do something else, Because not
everybody has the luxury of just doing this. So the
answer is get your diploma. Steven in Baltimore, Maryland. Do
you think once Cody's in ring career is over and

(01:46:20):
his contract is up, that he could return to AAW
in a management or writing position. I think it would
benefit the company, seeing is how things started to go
downhill creatively the minute he left. I don't think we
ever see Cody Roads go back to AW ever again.
I think that there is lingering bad blood there that
was never resolved. I think Cody'll talk about it one

(01:46:41):
day in his book. I think when Cody is done
in the ring, he's got his eye on one of
two things. Either Paul Avex's job I think he wants
Triple H's job at some point, or a career in politics.
I mean he is just tailor made for it. Like
Brian Danielson once called Cody an incredible liar, so he
would fit right in and Joanelle from Huntley, Illinois. Something

(01:47:07):
that always bugs me is when referees try to stop
a wrestler from using a weapon by either getting in
front of them or by taking the weapon away from
the wrestler. I never understand that logic. If the referee
is supposed to be non biased, then let the wrestler
use the weapon and disqualify them instead of protecting them.
What are some things that annoy you that logically make

(01:47:27):
no sense in wrestling? Well, how long you got because
I have found in many years of watching wrestling that
logic and wrestling they don't go together very well. So
I mean, where do I even start with his weddings?
We'll start with weddings. Wrestling weddings? Okay, Why would anyone
in their right mind want to get married on a

(01:47:49):
wrestling show? Seriously, you know it's going to go poorly? Like,
just play it safe, any lope? Oh, we get wrestling weddings, right,
waiting for your muse to hit before coming out to
make the save?

Speaker 1 (01:48:03):
How many you have them up? And do we see that?
How many weeks do we see that?

Speaker 4 (01:48:06):
Right?

Speaker 5 (01:48:06):
Although I don't think anything will ever beat Jeff Hardy
coming out in aw and stopping to do a dance
before rescuing his brother, that's still the best you got.

Speaker 1 (01:48:15):
Moves like a superplex, right?

Speaker 5 (01:48:17):
Why would anyone ever choose to suplex someone off the
top rope? I mean, you're landing just as hard as
they are. Why would you do that? You're hurting yourself
just as much as the other person. Like Randy Orton
he goes to rko someone on top of the announced desk,
You're only hurting yourself dude, you're landing on your back.

(01:48:38):
You're surgically repaired back. Referees right for decades. Referees they
take bumps and they're down for an extended period of time,
only to then very conveniently revive themselves just in time
to count the fall. How convenient. You've got dipshit tag

(01:48:58):
team partners and dipshit who distract the refereesa that their
partner right or their guy can get double team by
the other team. That's genius. Yeah, why don't you go
ahead and occupy the refereesa. He doesn't see your brother
over there in the corner getting his ass handed to him.
You got wrestlers that are easily distracted when someone comes out.

(01:49:18):
This is probably my biggest one. This right here is
my biggest pet peeve, just because Triple H relies on
it so heavily in almost every single match. It's like
these wrestlers they never learn or they're about to kill
someone when someone's theme music hits. Oh gotta stop what
I'm doing? Why kill them and run?

Speaker 1 (01:49:39):
Nope, we got to stop in our tracks. We're frozen.

Speaker 5 (01:49:43):
Promos, promos in the ring where one person is really
lacing into the other one and the other person just
stands there politely waiting for them to finish, instead of
double legging them and beating the shit out of them. Oh,
I'm just getting warmed up here. We got a whole
bunch more here. What about wrestlers who get kicked in
the dick repeatedly and then they fail to wear a

(01:50:04):
cup right after the first time. Someone pulls that shit
on me? All right, I'm running out of that arena
to the nearest dick sporting goods. You can do whatever
you want, That's where I'm going. How about trying to
literally murder your opponent and no one ever gets the
police involved, Like actual felonies that are committed on the show,

(01:50:25):
and no one is ever charged with a crime. What
about a basic Irish whip into the ropes?

Speaker 1 (01:50:31):
Why are you still running?

Speaker 5 (01:50:34):
Stop? Turn around and punch them in the mouth. We
got wrestlers they get misted in the face or they
have powder thrown in their face and they end up
getting pinned.

Speaker 1 (01:50:45):
Like, does the.

Speaker 5 (01:50:45):
Referee not see the green shit all over the person's face?
They look like the jolly green Giant just splooged all
over their face. That doesn't set off any alarm. Bells
for you?

Speaker 1 (01:50:56):
Does he or she not see the powder all over
the person's face?

Speaker 4 (01:51:00):
Maybe?

Speaker 5 (01:51:00):
What do they think it did a little too much
nose candy behind their back? I mean if this was
eighties WWF, then sure, but you know not today?

Speaker 1 (01:51:10):
What else?

Speaker 5 (01:51:10):
What else haven't I general managers the gms who make
these impromptu matches during the show. I specially like it
when they make multiple matches during the show. So you
mean to tell me that you had all week to
book a card and you waited until that night and
you add three matches to the show in real time?

(01:51:33):
What would you have done if they didn't get into
a fight at the beginning of the show, Like, how
were you planning on filling time during your main event.

Speaker 1 (01:51:40):
Open challenges?

Speaker 4 (01:51:42):
Right?

Speaker 5 (01:51:42):
We got this Iliya Dragonov now is doing the US
title Open Challenge after he beat Sammy's A. Right open
challenges for championships. Why aren't there people fighting at Gorilla
to go out there first? Like one of these days,
I want to see them cut backstage and we see
like six guys in an all out brawl, just like
crawling towards the curtain to be the first one out.

(01:52:06):
Weapons underneath the ring That's another one that gets me,
like who is stocking all of these illegal weapons that
are not allowed to be used in a regular match,
Like why aren't the general managers doing anything about this?
They have chairs, they have tables always every week. There's
no PTA meeting happening in the ring. It's a wrestling match.

(01:52:28):
You don't need shaars, you don't need tables, and they
brand them. They brand them. Now they're endorsing this illegal activity,
but they've just slapped slim gym logos on these things.
I could keep going. Climbing ladders. Why is no one
able to climb a fucking ladder? You've got eight guys
in one match with multiple ladders. It takes twenty five

(01:52:51):
minutes for someone to pull down a briefcase. Why you
can climb to the top rope and you can do
a fucking phoenix splash, but you can't climb a ladder
from home depot wrestlers who turn heel when it doesn't
make any sense, And then they show up to TV
the very next week and you could already predict the
promo before it even comes out of their mouth. They
tell the fans, I don't know you an explanation I

(01:53:13):
don't know you a damn thing. Yeah, of course not,
because there is no explanation for it. It didn't make
any sense. Security geeks, Oh my god, why are the
security guards so inept?

Speaker 1 (01:53:26):
Every week?

Speaker 5 (01:53:26):
They're incapable of doing their job. Where are they recruiting
these people from? But the job market sucks? This is why,
no wonder they're hiring people for positions who aren't qualified
for those positions. There's probably a bunch of people with
actual security experience watching these shows sitting on their couch.
They've been unemployed for the last six months, going what

(01:53:48):
the fuck cleaning off the announced desk before putting someone
through it? Why so they don't get hurt? Then why
are you putting them through a table in the first place. Yes,
I would be putting more shit on the table, not less.
That's enough for now. I could go all day with this,

(01:54:09):
but I'll still be here trying to apply logic to
an illogical world, no matter how many times it may
drive me nuts. And you can keep emailing me the
Soolom Monster at gmail dot com.

Speaker 1 (01:54:20):
Also follow me on x at solom Monster.

Speaker 5 (01:54:23):
I will be live in all my usual spots this
week Monday for the Raw post show Tuesday. Of course
I'll be live with JD on his channel for Tuesday
Night Titans, Wednesday Night the Dynamite post show, and Friday
night it is Halloween Night, and I will be live
after SmackDown, so we're gonna have some fun with that,
and then next Saturday, I will be live after Saturday

(01:54:43):
Night's Made event next Sunday, episode nine thirty six of
the sound Off. Then we start all over again the
week after that. So I appreciate all of the support
that you throw my way, whether it's here on the show,
whether it's the super chats and memberships and everything else
on YouTube Tube. I appreciate it all very much. I
hope I will see you there, and I hope I

(01:55:03):
will see you back here next Sunday. So until then,
be well, stay safe, have yourselves a great week, have
yourselves very happy, and say Halloween, and we'll do it
all over again next Sunday for episode nine thirty six.
Until then, take care, guys.

Speaker 1 (01:55:17):
The Solemn Monster sounds off.

Speaker 5 (01:55:18):
So you got Moxley on one side, you got Darby
on the other. Moxley said, look, I did what I
could for Danielson, but this is a war for the
future of the sport and for their crazy you know
they're running What is it with these Shield guys? You know,
here on this show, you've got John Moxley forming his
own faction, coming out every week and talking about the
future of the industry, the future of the company, the

(01:55:39):
future of the sport. You got Seth Rollins on the
other show, forming his own faction and coming out and
basically doing the same thing. I'm fighting for the future, right,
everything is so epic, like this match that you and
I are about to have, Cody, It's a fight for
the future of this company.

Speaker 1 (01:55:52):
Like, aw, what is this nonsense?

Speaker 5 (01:55:54):
I don't recall like Stone Cold or The Rock or
the Undertaker coming out of television every week with John
Cito or Ran or even if you want to use
a different error as an exam, coming out on television
and cutting these fucking boring promos on television every single week,
over and over and over again about the same fucking shit.
We gotta save the future of the company. How about
you worry about yourself? How about worrying about the here
and now and not fucking five or ten.

Speaker 1 (01:56:15):
Years from now? What is it with these Shield guys
at least.

Speaker 5 (01:56:17):
Roman Reigns doesn't give a fuck about the future he
comes out. He just cares about himself. I respect that,
fuck everybody else.

Speaker 2 (01:56:23):
The Solo Monsters sounds off, bringing you the good, the bad,
and the ugly. Check out the weekly live streams bonus
content for subscribers, and follow The Solo Monster on Facebook, Instagram,
and X the Solo Monster.

Speaker 1 (01:56:37):
I love you so long.
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