5-10-24 - Rick Ucchino with Sean Ross Sapp

Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful joins Rick to discuss all things Pro Wrestling

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Fifteen thirty. Boy Tom Flies,when you're having fun. It is already
five six here on a Friday afternoonESPN fifteen thirty. Rick Uchino in for
Moe Egger today. One hour ofpower left and if you have missed it.
At the top of the show,I said, there's a new rule.
If the Reds lose eight in arow, I get to talk about

(00:22):
professional wrestling on this radio station.Tell him arn hit me, hit me
one more time. And to dothat, I got to bring in the
best in the business, my guy, pro wrestling reporter managing editor over at
fightful dot com and Fightful select thebest wrestling scoops in the business. And

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I may be a team member awCollision post show on the Fightful YouTube channel
Saturday night. But he's not payingme to say that. He is all
around good guy and French cheese connoisseurSean Ross app what's going on, man,
He's just living that life. Manus excited to be here. It's
been a wild week and plenty totalk about on the wrestling front. On

(01:06):
football front, just just a lotto talk about. Not that much on
the baseball front though, no,no. In fact, the part of
the couple of reasons why I wantedto get you on today is One,
literally, anything I can do tonot think about the Reds right now is
just kind of good for my mentalhealth. Two, it's a time of
year when football is not going on, the Draft has passed, college basketball
is over. This town doesn't havean NBA team, And you know,

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maybe it's why I'm an occasional fillin guy, but I can't feel three
hours just talking about the Reds inFC Cincinnati, and I refuse to garner
fake outrage about some NFL QB rankingsthat don't matter. I will gladly,
I will gladly tap into this oilwell that is year round content and professional
wrestling, especially Sean when the productis so much better now than it's been

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in decades, I'd say at thispoint, but with as on fire as
WWE has been from a revenue standpoint, from selling out arena's. You know
the massive success that was WrestleMania fortyjust a few weeks ago, you know,
to the creative renaissance that it's undergoingright now. You know, how
how close is it right now?Would you say to to entering that that

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threshold of being like that major culturaland mainstream attraction that it was during the
late nineties. Well, from afinancial standpoint, it's not only is it
there as well beyond that and wrestling, I'll say this, wrestling from a
ticket sales standpoint, a TIV mediaright standpoint, never really got it to
do until a few years ago.Now what they're doing is is they're really

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globalizing it. They're they're holding theirmajor major shows here in the United States
and Canada, and then they aretaking it to Berlin and France and over
to London like anywhere that they canto make more of a global footprint.
And that's that's, you know,really really expanding things for them. I
do feel like the product is justso much better from a common standpoint.

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You don't feel insulted to watch itanymore. A lot of that has to
do with the fact that a lotof the ancient people that were in charge
of that are are gone. Butalso I feel like they do need to
maintain that star power. They needto develop some star power because right now
there is no rock, there isno Roman reigns, and that was such
a major part of making it coolagain. But I think that they are

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man. I think they are afew hits away from being from a creative
standpoint right where they were back then. You know, no matter how popular
wrestling gets through the years, andthere's always going to be ebbs and flows.
One one constant is this just strangerelationship that the business has with media,

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and I mean as a whole.Most sports, most sports outlets don't
cover it at least on a regularbasis, say for WrestleMania season and then
you see Triple H in the Rockand Roman Reigns all over ESPN and Fox
Sports and the like. Most entertainmentoutlets don't cover it at least on a
regular basis outside of WrestleMania season,or if like a talent releases a book

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or a memoir, then you'll seeBecky Lynch on the Today Show. So
conventional wisdom would lead one to believethat well, WWE and aew is you
know, as well as wrestling fanswould really lean into and rely on the
pro wrestling media to get the coveragethat is lacking in the mainstream and yet
collectively, wrestling media, I feellike, is look down upon, not

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taken seriously save for people like yourself. You know, like, what what
needs to happen for that to finallychange, for either the sports and entertainment
outlets to embrace pro wrestling or forwrestling media to be embraced for the work
that so many are attempting to doin this field. Well, I mean,
it depends on the audience. Likemost of the wrestlers honestly at this

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point, have done that, whetheror not the general pro wrestling audience wants
to believe that fightful itself. Imean, we have great relationships with the
BWEAE, w MLW, New Japan, all that stuff. I felt like
a very important part of what Idid, which is breaking a lot of
behind the scenes wrestling news, wasI appear on screen with these people and

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you see that we're physically speaking withthem, that they are fine speaking with
us, whether it be on cameraoff camera. For some people, that
perception will never change. And wrestlingis so much different than football, basketball
and all that. We don't havedaily locker room access to those things.
So it's just such a shift therefor some people, they'll never believe it.

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But what I do is just letour track records speak for itself,
and we've been very fortunate to breaka lot of the biggest stories that have
ever existed in wrestling, and it'sgoing really well. But for those that
don't want to believe that that's areal thing, that's completely fine. But
there's plenty of people that do embraceit and we're very fortunate. You talked

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about ww taking you know, theirtheir their big shows outside of the Big
five, right their their premium liveevents, they call them overseas, which
again, you know, yeah,it's making them a lot of money doing
that, it's increasing their footprint.Overall of the shows are always they tend
to be better to Backlash was justinLeon, France, and my god,

(06:19):
the crowd just really really enhanced theshow, Like European crowds are where it's
at. Man, the atmosphere ofBacklash was insane. Their enjoyment and energy
genuinely made the show better, whereasmost American crowds, let's be honest,
they suck by comparison, or theyjust flat out suck, like we saw
Monday in Connecticut. But like asWWE takes more and more pls overseas,

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you know, how difficult is itnow going to become for some US cities
to get some of those bigger eventslike Cincinnati, for example, which despite
my wildest dreams and you know,best efforts, is never going to get
a WrestleMania And with the arena situation, it seems like SummerSlam or bust as
far as WWE is concerned, Andit was bussed this year with Cleveland getting

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it. I mean that it's gonnabe a difficult process for cities like Cincinnati
and Pittsburgh and even Indianapolis who havegotten premium live events in the last decade
and a half to get them movingforward. Yeah, because a Royal Rumble
in January that's not coming to Cincinnati. Survivors Series in November, that's not
coming to Cincinnati. Maybe, youknow, if we got very fortunate money

(07:30):
in the bank or something like thatin a June or July is a possibility.
But also we've only got the outdoorstadiums as well, So I know
that they felt a little burned bythat this year. And I know you
not only did you try, youmade as much of a personal effort and
almost got some wheels moving there asanybody I've ever seen, to the point

(07:51):
of where it was referenced in Ibelieve the minutes of a local meeting.
But it's gonna be tough to makethat happen, but I think the fact
that the city like shows that it'sinterested. It is a big step.
Now, granted, there are goingto be some people on the side of
well, it's sure would be niceto have a dome, etc. They're

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saying, well, you know,if you had that dome, you'd be
able to do any number of things. However, unless there was some like
long term agreement between the City ofCincinnati and WWE to regularly bring major events
here, I don't know that thatwould be a contributing factor. But I
also think the city wouldn't mind havingTaylor Shift concerts in December as well,

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you know what I mean. Yes, I think there's there's an awful lot
of things that have to go Cincinnati'sway in order to get that event,
especially considering that Cleveland is getting SummerSlam, and there are a whole lot of
people that don't realize that it's allthe way across the state. It's nowhere
close, but it's still an uphillbattle. Man. Yeah, I did

(08:54):
chat with Tony Kahn this week onSINCY three sixty with Tony Pike said Cincinnati
was on a short list for afuture aw pay per view sounds like twenty
twenty five at the earliest, butwe'll have to wait and see if he
was just blowing smoke on that one. Sean Ross had my guest here on
ESPN fifteen thirty. He's the managingeditor over at Fightful Sean two weeks from

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now, WWE is back in SaudiArabia for King and Queen of the Ring
now. Interestingly enough, ESPN reportedthis week that the two sides are working
on an extension to their deal tokeep bringing major events to the kingdom yearly
bi annually at this point, andthe Entertainment Commission is actually aiming to get

(09:35):
either the Royal Rumble or WrestleMania outof this new deal. Now, money
talks and never say never all ofthat, but could that realistically happen sort
of, so I don't think thatan actual WrestleMania would happen there. A
few years ago, Saudi Arabia startedthis deal with ww WEE and for those

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that don't know, basically, SaudiaArabia pay WWE so much money to help,
you know, at least change theperception of entertainment in Saudi Arabia and
the general culture that WDB didn't sayno. I can't say that they couldn't
say no. Of course they couldhave. They didn't say no. And
what they did was they started tobring things that would at least be perceived

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by the Saudi people as big events. They brought back King of the Ring
and all kinds of things, dida Greatest in the World Tournament. So
they also did a Greatest Royal Rumblewhere they did the like instead of thirty
people in one match, it wasfifty. I could see them doing that
again, or a spin off ofWrestleMania, like you know, the some

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special label on WrestleMania where it's notquite the show, but it's it's branded
as the show. Thus far,they haven't had any trouble running events like
that in Saudi Arabia. I haven'theard of any pushback, but it wouldn't
really be WrestleMania. But I thinkit's possible they use the branding in some
degree. Sean, this has beena big year in wrestling free agency,

(11:07):
maybe the biggest, and I canrecall we've already seen will Osprey, Ocodda,
Mercedes Monet join ae W, whileWWE has been in like full on
retention mode. Bailey Charlotte, DrewMcIntyre, Damian Price, Finn Balor Seth
Rollins have all re upped with thecompany long term, big money deals.
The news of many of those newcontracts were broken by you. Now,

(11:31):
I really try, and I hopeyou would know this. I try not
to take advantage of our friendship byconstantly hitting you up for inside information that
said I am going to use today'sshow. And the number of plugs that
we have made for five full andfightful select over fifty thousand watts. Here
is my inn about asking about BeckyLynch. The Women's World Championship is a

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rough estimate by her own public admissionto Ariel Hawani has about three maybe four
weeks left on her current deal withthe company. Help me sleep better here
at night, Sean, what's goingon with the man? Should we expect
the deal to get done or isthere something a reason why we haven't heard
anything yet. So WDW just hada big talent relation shakeup because they did

(12:15):
not like well. One of thereasons was they didn't like how long it
was taking the previous one who actuallywas worked for the Raiders for a while
until until the Bengals got him theheck up out of there with that playoff
win. They were not happy withhow long he was taking to re sign
many talent that were coming up.Becky's husband, Seth Rollins, just resigned

(12:39):
a big, big deal. Iwould be shocked if Becky first off there.
If Becky hits free agency, there'sgoing to be a bidding more.
AW will absolutely try to sign her, and I think that they would be
willing to overpay whatever it is thatWWE has once. However, we don't
understand the priorities of these people.Sure, and I would expect, regardless,

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Becky Lynch to be offered the biggestmoney deal for any woman in pro
wrestling history, And for those listeningthat don't understand the magnitude of that.
As far as like, on thefield earnings, women's wrestlers at this point
are among the top earners. Likeit wouldn't compare to some of the sponsorships
that some soccer players, tennis players, even Caitlin Clark is getting. But

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as far as like for the servicesrendered in the ring, on the court,
women's wrestlers are making in the millions, like they're doing incredibly well at
the high levels. So I wouldexpect her to stay with WWE and her
to get the largest contract that anywoman has ever received in WWT. And

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hopefully you'll have a report on thatlike tomorrow or Thursday, because hopefully,
Yeah, the more days tick by, the more nervous I get Sean.
WWE has been unfortunately hit by theinjury bug as well. You already had
names like Riea Ripley, the aforementionedseth rollins out of action for the next
few months, and then the companyannounces the field for King and Queen of

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the Ring and three of the participantswere not able to compete in their opening
round matchups. Is there anything youcan provide us on the health of Drew
McIntyre, Oscar and Bobby Lashley.So, Drew McIntyre had been injured since
the beginning of April, and it'ssomething that he had sort of talked about.
They knew both Oscar and Bobby Lashleywere injured as of Monday. I

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believe it was Oscar was at wto b raw Bobby Lashley. They knew
was going to be replaced as ofMonday. Although I'll say, if you're
a Cincinnati fan, not so badbecause Angelo Dawkins as fan. Since there
you go, he's getting a crackat it. This has real like elevated

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liver enzymes, vibes, and you, as a wrestling fan, will know
what I mean. There was apay per view where everybody got pulled from
that show for that. Yeah,But in addition, like they moved to
the King or King Queen of theRing matches off of Raw as well,
So like five or six matches thatwe were told we were going to get
to see did not happen as planned. And what I hope is that this

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doesn't discourage ww from doing this tournamentregularly because it's something that's been missed.
But I don't think it's going tobe long term for Drew. Osca is
a wait and see and Bobby Lashleyis just a big question mark there because
I don't have a lot of infoin that. But Osca has been around
this week, very very good.Seam Punk tore his try steps back at

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the Royal rummelind January, and fromeverything that we understand and believe, it
cost him a main events a lotof WrestleMania this year against Seth Rollins.
We have seen him on TV alot more recently mixing it up with Drew
McIntyre. Clearly a matches is brewingbetween these two. It's going to happen
down the line. The question iswhen we did get that reference on Monday
about you know, Glasgow Scotland couldclash at the Castle in June be a

(15:58):
realistic target. Obviously a lot's goingto depend on the health of both competitors,
so I think so. And obviouslythat's going to be a situation where
cmpunk walks into that place and everybodyhates him because of because it's Drew's home
territory. But I think that that'sthe type of thing that he would embrace.
I know that he wanted to comeback from this injury much quicker than
a previous one. And I mean, I hate to say it, but

(16:22):
this has been the knock on cmpunkis him staying in the ring. He's
sustained multiple injuries from triceps to footinjuries and it's been hard for him to
stay in the ring. And he'sa little bit older and he is coming
off of a seven and a halfyear gap of not wrestling, So hopefully
that once this heals up, he'llbe able to stay in the ring.

(16:45):
But it's also one of those thingsRick to where I'm like, well,
when he gets healthy, I wonderif you put him in the ring before
you do the Drew match, becauseyou run that risk. But I know
that he wasn't hoping to spend nearlyas much time out of the ring now
as he did this last triceps injury. A couple more here I want to
I want to talk about AW,which you know, back when you know,

(17:08):
Vince McMahon was still with WWE andthe on screen product was floundering.
AW was absolutely thriving, picking upbig free agents, you know, ratings
revenue wise, big show wise,they were really really hitting their stride and
had excellent growth through the first youknow, three years. It is started

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to come down here a little bit. And they've had three shows in Cincinnati,
for example. I think the firstone at Heritage Bank Center did six
or seven thousand people, The secondone did I think right around three,
and then they moved it to NorthernKentucky University. The third time they came
around it about twenty five hundred.You're seeing, you know, struggle selling

(17:51):
some tickets at some of the Dynamitesand Collisions. The ratings are not as
high as what they once were.And that's despite the fact that again they're
dealing with some key entries and somemissing pieces of their own. But the
product is really, really good.They're just not getting as much traction anymore.
What do you think they need todo to get back really firing on
all cylinders, get back some oftheir big stars. I mean, the

(18:15):
cmpunk debacle did I don't want tosay irreparable damage, but did some real
damage to their momentum. A lotof people were just like anything but this,
And right now they're missing MJF whoI believe they'll get back very soon,
maybe by the end of the month, if what I'm hearing is correct.
They've got Hangman Page who sidelined.They've got Adam Cole who has been

(18:37):
out for eight nine months. They'vegot Kenny Omega been out for four or
five months. They have been missingsome of their heart and soul of their
company, Britt Baker, Jamie Hayter, even Ricky Starks hasn't been on the
show, a guy that has beenperpetually promoted. But also from a perception
standpoint, it does not help whencmpunk Cody Rhoads go over to the other

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company and then get used in sucha creatively satisfying manner. Because a lot
of what launched AEW was creative dissatisfactionwith WWE, and now WWE does not
suck anymore. It's fun to watchthe audience slights the show, so w
or AW has to really lean intowhat they do and make sure that they

(19:25):
creatively satisfy their audience and their talent. Sean, you're the man. Tell
the fine folks the wrestling fans listeningwhere they can find all your wonderful work,
sir. That's fightful dot com fI g H T f u L
dot com. We run an exclusivewrestling news service. It's the most inexpensive
in wrestling history. It is justfive dollars a month that gets you exclusive

(19:48):
news before it goes anywhere else,straight to your phone, your email.
We've got tons of podcasts. Wehave the most. Hey, we have
the most paywalled and free content inthe world across both of those plats patforms,
and you can find us on YouTube. We are there every single night
doing live post shows and podcast platformseverywhere. Just look us up at Fightful.

(20:10):
Thank you so much, sir.Always appreciate the chance to get to
talk to you. We don't getto talk nearly as often as I'd like
to, so this was fun.I appreciate it. Man, invite me
up to that press box. Rick, it's warmer there. I know it
ain't that warm, but it's gotto be warmer there. Actually, actually,
Rick, I've got club seats now. Oh there you go, There

(20:32):
you go, Sean, we didn'tget a chance to talk of the Bengals.
Big Bengals fan, get plug that. You got a Bengals YouTube too,
right? Oh yeah, I've gota Bengals It's basically a vanity project
just for fun. It's called CommonBengals. W. I go on there,
I talk a little bit of trashand have some fun. It is.
It's my passion outside of wrestling.I have loved learning about football.

(20:53):
It's it's my escape. So yeah, please check out Common Bengals W.
I appreciate it, man, takecare, thank you. Yeah, there
you go. Sean rossapp fightful dotcom boy. I am uh, I
am really late. I have putoff talking about the Reds about as much

(21:14):
as I possibly can, so wewill dive into the Reds hitting woes coming
up. Also sports headlines next ESPNfifteen thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen