Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
So you want to listen to a pretty alright podcast about wrestling, do you?
(00:05):
Well the natural lag, jet swag has said time and time again that there's only one podcast
that's the most decent and the most alrightest in the industry today.
And that's whooooo!
It's the Game Rage Rasslin' Podcast.
(00:33):
Aw yeah, welcome back everyone to a brand new episode of your favorite internet rasslin' show,
Game Rage Rasslin', the show that we were too lazy to come up with a better name.
My name's Josh, I'm here today with my partner in laziness, Adam.
And today we're going to be talking about the most decent and the most alright podcast.
That's right, I think not changing the name just espouses the most decent and the most alright values.
(00:58):
I think that's why we should just keep it.
I'm going to have to change this podcast to the most decent and the most alright wrestling podcast.
That might actually be in the cards, I think that might be possible.
But anyways, if you guys want, today we're going to talk about Crown Jewel 2024,
we're going to go over the results and the further implications about Saudi Arabia and wrestling,
I guess kind of for lack of a better term.
(01:20):
Before we get into that, we can sure use your goddamn help by going to YouTube and subscribing to our channel.
We've now put a dent in the number, we only need 18 more subscribers to get to where we need to be.
So if you could go to YouTube and like, comment, and subscribe, we'd greatly fucking appreciate it.
Also you can go to Instagram and TikTok if you're into that sort of thing on Game Rage magazine, subscribe or follow there.
(01:41):
Twitter slash X, we're at Game Rage magazine, if you like Twitter.
We're all Adam at Allgasno, trash official on Instagram and yeah, that's pretty much it.
Alright, so Crown Jewel 2024.
We made some predictions, right?
But we also didn't get the match order.
That match order wasn't right, right?
No, it wasn't. It was the blood.
(02:02):
That started with the bloodline.
It was kind of like reversed, right?
From what they had said on Wikipedia of what the match order was going to be.
Yeah, which turned out for the better, somewhat.
Yeah, it was, I mean, dude, it's what you would expect of Crown Jewel at this point.
It's fucking house show.
Throwaway.
(02:23):
It's a house show for Saudi Arabia.
And you get to see all your favorites and do all the shit for meaningless bullshit, especially with the Crown Jewel Championship.
The bloodline, so we opened with the bloodline shit and I didn't particularly care for this match.
(02:45):
As I said before, it's a growing, it's growing stale and the only real highlight, I think my favorite thing really was,
so, or Jacob Fatu is doing this thing, which he's been doing probably since the beginning, where he goes like this.
And it's like, I don't know if it's in prayer of like Solosokoha and how he acknowledges.
(03:06):
Or like showing reverence or something like that, right?
Yeah, and I'm like, oh, look, it's some fucking Samoan Jutsu or some shit.
The Samoan Jutsu? He's going to start doing, hey, if he starts throwing fire out of his hands or some shit, that'd be awesome.
But yeah, it's, I think Jacob Fatu is going to be a solid, like if there was anything to take away from his tenure in the WWE,
(03:33):
it's that this dude is going to be a solo competitor, no pun intended, or rather a singles competitor.
And he's here to stay.
And he's, he is going to be one of the top heels in the company and this, this is kind of further perpetuating that.
Solosokoha actually looked like he dropped a little bit of weight.
(03:55):
Like he actually looks like he's more, he leaned up a bit, but the match was kind of boring.
You got your typical Roman spots with him doing the Cobra punches or the Superman punches.
But he was like not really in the match all that much.
(04:16):
And it was more Jay and Jimmy doing Jay and Jimmy things of like, you know, dropping elbows together and doing shit in tandem as they typically do in their tag fashion.
But, and then there was fucking, I can't remember which one, which was the, the one that's the least useless between Tomitanga and Tongaloa.
(04:39):
But he was doing that weird barking thing where you like, like he does that weird shit.
Now come the match, who gives a shit? They fucking won the, the new bloodline one.
Sami Zayn came out and, and so Solosokoha and Sami Zayn had a conversation on Monday Night Raw,
not knowing what the contents of that conversation was, but it already aroused suspicion between Jimmy and Jay that if they were going to fight the,
(05:07):
if they were going to fight the bloodline that maybe Sami is not, can be ruled out because now maybe he's betraying them or some shit.
So he comes out, makes the save, saves Roman and the Usos from getting their ass kicked from the new bloodline.
And, and then they eventually corner Solosokoha, or rather he's in the middle of the ring and all four of the guys are at each ring post.
(05:29):
And then as Roman's going for like the Cobra Punch, Sami Zayn goes to the middle of the ring as well.
And he ends up hitting him with like a super kick or some shit.
So then it further raises suspicion of whether Sami Zayn, whether that was intentional or wasn't, or if he's working for the, you know, the new bloodline.
Yeah.
(05:50):
So that's kind of what the outcome was. And it was whatever.
Like I said, it's, it was a throwaway match and maybe the more meaningful match is going to come at Survivor Series.
And we were incorrect in believing that The Rock would appear for this shit to solidify the victory for the new bloodline.
But again, don't really give a shit. Don't really care.
Yeah. And then we get match number two. Did you watch that one?
(06:14):
Nope. Skipped it.
Skipped it. But for those of you that care, which hopefully none of you do, but just in case there's one or two of you that do,
I mean, I would definitely be surprised if Shaka Bellaire and Jade Cargill retained their titles in the Fatal Four Way for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship.
I kind of feel like that,
you remember before when, like now,
(06:37):
I mean it's not as, I feel like it's not as defined
or whatever, or it kind of maybe is now,
but I really like those old tag team belts,
like from the Ruthless Aggression era,
the Raw and the SmackDown belts.
Yes.
Like those Raw ones, I don't know, man,
I wish they would bring those back.
Like those were fucking tight ass fucking tag team titles.
(06:59):
I don't know why, but I feel like they should,
they need to do that with like the women's division,
like two separate tag belts,
fucking bring them back to look like that.
That would be fucking awesome.
I don't think they have enough people to cover.
At the moment, no, but I feel like they can get that.
Both divisions.
Well, once AEW starts fucking having problems,
then you also got TNA.
(07:19):
They have the entirety of TNA
to be able to utilize on their roster,
essentially with this deal that they've got with them.
So, I don't know.
Anyways, we go to match.
Yeah, whatever.
We go to match number three.
Seth Rollins versus Bronson Reed.
I've watched this, but I don't think this is
(07:42):
a favorable match for either one of them.
It wasn't memorable.
And they're trying to build up Bronson Reed
as like this main event figure.
But then you bury him.
And then you have him lose to Seth Rollins,
and I'm thinking, why would you do that?
(08:03):
But the match wasn't even that great.
It was like slow paced.
It started with Bronson Reed giving Seth Rollins a tsunami,
which is just like a full body press or whatever.
Yeah.
Not a frog splash, but just pressing his body
against Seth Rollins, which was kinda like,
I don't care anymore, dude.
(08:24):
They had something good between him and Bronson Reed,
the monster versus monster match.
And it was like meat slapping.
It was fucking them wrecking the fucking ring
and all that shit.
I don't think Seth Rollins and Bronson Reed
should be in the ring together,
because they really didn't really have all that much
in-ring chemistry that I gave a fuck about this match.
(08:47):
It was kind of like fucking whatever.
Yeah, but Seth Rollins wins, and he is a Triple H guy.
So is this, you think Triple H fucking
kinda putting his guys first?
Seth Rollins needs a payday.
Well, you gotta feed somebody to him,
because you don't want him to lose.
So, yeah, you throw Bronson Reed in there.
I mean, they are kind of like, I guess,
(09:08):
feuding a little bit, I guess.
I don't know, but.
And he gave him like seven or,
I don't know what the number was.
There was like a previous encounter where,
to build up this rivalry, Bronson Reed had given
Seth Rollins like numerous tsunamis
to put himself on the map to be in the main event picture,
that if he wasn't gonna be put in the main event picture,
(09:29):
that he was just gonna start giving tsunamis to everybody.
Like, yeah.
You know, like free pieces and shit.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Just giving that to everybody.
All out to everyone.
But he's not convincing to me.
I just don't see how he's gonna be on the main event.
To me, at best, he's a fucking mid-carder.
At best.
Maybe a cannon fodder for your heavyweight champion
(09:53):
when you're gonna put him in that spotlight
to try him out and see what happens.
Maybe he's just cannon fodder for that.
I think him getting his due
and this being his first main event,
or rather, being on the main card,
I don't think it's a good sign
because it's in Crown Jewel,
like the house show of fucking PLEs
(10:13):
that where it doesn't mean anything
and you put him on this,
that means you don't have all that much faith in him.
Why isn't he already in the main event picture?
Or maybe it means the opposite
because every spot on this card
is likely getting a heavy bonus for this, right?
Just being in Saudi Arabia alone.
So maybe this is a sign that they do believe in him
and they think he's earned this payday, right?
(10:34):
So they're gonna fucking keep him going.
Maybe they're gonna keep pushing him, I don't know.
Now he's maybe gonna be in this feud with Seth Rollins
for the next couple of months.
Maybe.
Maybe till Netflix Raw, who the fuck knows?
Anyways, we go to the next match.
Did you watch Liv Morgan versus Nia Jax?
Nope.
But anyways, for those of you that care,
Liv Morgan won and she won
the Women's Crown Jewel Championship,
(10:55):
which I still don't know how the fuck this is gonna work.
What, do you gotta turn it back in at the end of the year?
Like, how does that fucking work?
I don't remember.
I didn't have the commentary on
because I think what also hurt this pay-per-view,
that this was probably some of the worst commentary
between Michael Cole and Corey Graves.
(11:16):
And I was giving Corey Graves props a couple months ago.
And this is probably the worst commentary
that they've done it.
It came off as flat.
I don't know if it was because they flew in
from the US to Saudi Arabia
that they just, they weren't themselves.
Like, they were adjusting to the time.
(11:37):
I don't know what it was,
but it just came out as flat and boring
and I wasn't interested.
So I didn't really get to hear about what Crown Jewel,
like being the Crown Jewel champion,
if you just end up giving the title back to Saudi Arabia
and then it just sits there
and then it'll set it up for the next person to win it.
Whenever, yeah, maybe, I don't know.
(11:58):
But anyways, after that, real quick,
I do wanna talk about Samantha Ervin.
Maybe after we get through this,
because she, you know, remember she left, right?
I kinda wanna talk about that a little bit,
but let's get through this nonsense
and then we'll get into that.
All right, so then we work our way to.
Kevin Owens versus Randy Orton.
Even this shit is not actually technically in order,
because I think the second to last match
was actually the tag match.
(12:21):
Oh, the bloodline match?
I forgot the order, but this isn't the correct order.
Fuck you, Wikipedia, like who the fuck did this?
It doesn't matter,
because we're just working our way through it.
Yeah, it doesn't matter.
Because we get Kevin Owens and Randy Orton.
And Randy Orton, which was a.
Supposed to be just a single.
Unsanctioned match where they didn't even get started.
They just started fighting around the ring.
And then I think it ended with Kevin Owens
(12:42):
doing a frog splash atop the higher end seats,
or rather the more elevated seats
and jumping off like the barricade
and putting Randy Orton out.
As Triple H had noted that this is a different Kevin Owens
that we're experiencing, that this is a more brutal
Kevin Owens, that he's out for blood,
(13:03):
and that he feels like he's betrayed
by Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes, that they've been a.
What is it?
It's about the bloodline, I forgot what it was.
God damn, I'm trying to think that they were,
they were friends with J Uso, and he's like,
man, you're still fucking with them?
(13:25):
And he just fucking leaves,
and then that's what leads to this feud.
But yeah, it was entertaining,
because they got to do a lot of things.
Randy Orton, RKO'd a fucking referee and shit,
so I don't know, it was whatever.
It didn't turn into a match, but you got what you wanted,
because they ended up taking it outside the ring
(13:45):
and started doing all kinds of shit, so.
All right, yeah, fair enough.
So let me get LA Knight going up against Andrade
and Carmelo Hayes.
Yeah, so this was interesting, as I thought this match
wasn't gonna matter, but it ended up being
the more entertaining match, because you have two people,
and Carmelo Hayes and Andrade, who are more on the acrobatic,
(14:09):
like Lucha, well, specifically like Andrade being more
on the Lucha Libre side.
Yeah.
But they were doing these incredible things,
and it ended up being, the finish for the match
was fucking sweet.
Carmelo Hayes was gonna do this Tornado DDT,
and then LA Knight ended up fucking catching both of them,
(14:32):
countering, and then doing his finisher on both of them,
and he covered both of them for the pin.
Oh, nice.
But then Andrade did this really sweet fucking moonsault,
like he was pointing at Carmelo Hayes,
and then he just does a blind jump backwards
and lands on LA Knight.
I'm like, whoa, this is great, this is fucking awesome.
Yeah.
So this ended up being the fucking match of the night.
It was great, there was numerous simultaneous tags
(14:56):
where both dudes were on their backs,
whether it was Andrade or LA Knight being pinned
by Carmelo Hayes.
There was great counters, there was all kinds of great spots.
This was definitely the highlight of the fucking pay-per-view.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like I said, full disclosure, obviously I didn't watch this,
but I totally forgot about this, I didn't watch it.
But I mean, this seems like this would have been
(15:18):
a workhorse fucking match for sure,
and I'm glad to hear that it was good,
that it went the distance.
It makes me believe that these guys should be getting
more important storylines and perhaps moving up the ladder,
but again, LA Knight's the person that just gets
the fucking raw end of the deal
when it comes to main event picture status,
but whatever, fuck it.
Yeah, whatever.
Anyways, all right, then we get to the final match,
(15:38):
which was Cody Rhodes versus Gunter
for the Crown Jewel Championship.
I don't know if I have anything nice to say about this match.
I don't really care, I didn't really care for it.
So I don't, as much as I would love to give a description
about it and what-
It's not even worth it.
I just don't care.
All right, so Cody Rhodes wins the fucking match,
which, I mean, listen, I guess he needs it
(15:59):
because he's a piece of shit and can't wrestle,
but like, you know.
My favorite part is that Triple H comes out to the ring,
and then you have like the, I don't know if it's like
the Saudi Princes that come out as well.
Yeah, all the underling princes or whatever.
So then they have Liv Morgan out there
as they're raising the hands of the champion,
but everybody's to the left, or rather to the right,
of Liv Morgan as if she were like a fucking leper.
(16:22):
Now, like, man, this is why I don't fuck with the WWE
taking money from Saudi Arabia and compromising
their values, like American values, for money.
Because you have all these women dress up in these garments
to cover up their body, and then for like Bianca Belair
(16:46):
and Jade Cargill to be bedazzled in all these fucking jewels
and shit to basically kind of cover up their shape,
the shape of their body, that it's like, man,
if you're just gonna bend the knee like that, man,
why even fucking bother?
Like, I know you're getting paid probably ridiculous
(17:08):
amounts of money, but that's not without your fucking
dignity, dude, or even your values as an American, I suppose.
I do think that the WWE being, I guess it's negating
(17:34):
the values of America or of the country,
of our home country, of America, to bend the knee,
like you said, to a foreign country for money,
that just seems fucked.
I mean, we know, again, the deal that was made,
they're getting paid about $50 million each event.
For how many years?
Well, I think it was 10 years, yeah, it was 2018 to 2027.
It was a 10-year deal, two events per year,
(17:57):
for $100 million a year, essentially.
So the, well, wrestling, they reported it was 900,
can't remember the numbers, the biggest gate ever
for a single pro wrestling event was $17.3 million
in 2016 for WrestleMania 32, okay, at the time
that they signed this fucking deal.
So basically, the five Saudi Arabia events
(18:21):
from 2018 to 2020 garnered $250 million.
Ticket sales for WrestleMania from 1985 to 2019
only made $210 million, which, that was,
so it's WrestleMania, from 85 to 2019,
didn't even make what they made in five fucking years
of doing two events a year at fucking Saudi Arabia.
You know what's AIDS?
(18:42):
When it comes to the event itself,
they get SummerSlam quality stage production.
They get the big-ass fucking Titan-tron
at the beginning of the entrance stage,
and then they get those four pillars
and the little canopy on top.
They get all that shit.
(19:03):
And I'm thinking, man, how come they can't fucking
put a little bit more effort here in the fucking US, dude?
When it comes to the production of the stage
and the ring and all that shit,
they go out for fucking Saudi Arabia,
but they don't do it for us.
All right, so WrestleMania 40, okay, across two nights,
the gate was $38.5 million for two nights.
(19:26):
Two nights?
For two nights.
The WWE is making $50 million a night
that they're in Saudi Arabia
because that's what they're paying for.
Now granted, there's no audience, all right?
There's literally like minimal audience
because they're not selling tickets.
Everybody gets to go, right?
They're getting paid $50 million by the Saudi government
for the event, to put it on.
(19:47):
So they're making twice as much as they are
almost on WrestleMania, okay,
just to do one night of an event twice a year.
They're making $100 million for two nights
as opposed to $38.5 for two nights for WrestleMania.
So it pains me to say this,
but Saudi Arabia will eventually get a WrestleMania.
(20:11):
And how they'll do it is say,
we'll give you $200 million
for two nights of WrestleMania here.
And who's gonna say no to that?
Yeah, but how are they, okay, I don't think,
are they just expecting people to show up
in droves for that shit because?
No one from other countries, I don't think, will be allowed.
(20:32):
I think it's only gonna be the,
for a WrestleMania for two nights,
you will have night one, you'll get,
because remember, we see this.
You have the important people have the couches
and they have their little private booths
in the front of the audience
and that whole floor section.
And then just recently, they started allowing
the extra part of the arena to be opened
(20:53):
to like essentially what would be like
the peasantry class, right, like the peasants.
And I don't know, I don't know if for a fact,
and I have to look into it,
but I think that they just, they lottery those tickets.
I don't think they make anybody pay for them.
I think they lottery them out.
And you can enter the lottery to win tickets
to go to Crown Jewel or whatever
and sit in the peasant seats.
So like WrestleMania would be the same way.
(21:15):
You'd have likely night one would be your peasant night
and night two, no peasants allowed.
No way peasants are allowed night two, all right?
Because that's when all the good shit's gonna happen.
But also, you know that WWE has to push their fake numbers
about selling out an event and having,
because it has every fucking year,
(21:35):
they say we're gonna top the numbers that we did,
which is almost like an,
we're gonna have a million people in a stadium.
I'm sure that's gonna be something they say in the future
for like 100,000 person arena.
Like they're gonna say, oh yeah, we packed in a million.
But for Saudi Arabia, I don't think.
I don't think it's about the number with that.
I think it's about the money.
(21:56):
And listen, we gotta remember too, TKO is the owner, right?
Like they're the fucking, the main guy, right?
When it comes to deciding what happens in WWE,
they get the final say.
So if Saudi Arabia says, hey guys, after this in 2027,
I don't think we're gonna see it now.
I think we're gonna see it probably in 2028, 2029,
maybe even 2030.
(22:17):
We'll see a WrestleMania that year be in Saudi Arabia.
And it'll be because TKO may give resistance
for a little couple of years and say,
nah, we don't wanna do WrestleMania here.
We don't wanna do WrestleMania here.
And then when the Saudis say, fuck,
it might even be higher than that.
It might be 250 million, it might be $300 million.
I think it'll be a billion.
Hell, if it's a billion dollars, shit,
what did they pay for WWE?
(22:38):
What did TKO pay for WWE?
Fucking 10 billion or something like that.
I don't remember what they paid.
I gotta look it up real quick, but.
If they can get one 10th of like what they paid for it
in one night or two nights.
Okay, they paid $21 billion for WWE.
Okay, or no, it was the $21 billion merger
(22:58):
between the Ultimate Fighting Champion.
Wait, wait, how much did they buy WWE for then?
So what was the actual number then?
Because that was just a deal to merge.
I feel like it was a couple billion.
Probably.
I don't know what the actual number was.
They bought, okay, so they bought.
Fuck, it's okay, so it's a total of $21.4 billion
(23:20):
for the UFC and WWE is what this whole thing is.
Let's see, the deal.
Okay, valued WWE at $9.3 billion.
So yeah, probably likely around $10 billion
is what they actually bought WWE for.
So it's one, they get one 10th of that in one night.
A 10th of that in one night.
And let's be honest.
If they got paid that.
Who knows how much money they've already made in profit
(23:41):
since they purchased the WWE?
I mean, hell, they just did this deal with Netflix
that was basically what?
A billion dollars right there.
So you're fucking slowly cranking up the numbers here.
It's like one fifth of the way there to recover their.
Yeah, and if by 2030 they're like,
oh, we're close to either getting to that number
(24:01):
or we've hit that number already of that 10 billion,
they might be like, well shit, guys,
this is a cool way to make basically
a billion fucking dollars in profit.
That's a quick fucking turnaround.
Because how much does it cost them to put WrestleMania on?
It may cost you like, maybe let's say between salaries
and paying people and sets and all that shit.
Let's say it costs you fucking $100 million.
(24:22):
Well then you're walking away with nine,
which there's no way it's gonna cost $100 million
because they only make 35 million on the gate
at WrestleMania and there's no pay-per-view money in that
because it's not a pay-per-view anymore.
So it probably costs fucking $10 million maybe.
Not even less, probably costs like $5 million
to put on the shit for WrestleMania.
So if it only costs you $5 million
(24:43):
and you're gonna get paid a billion,
that's $995 million in profit essentially for this event.
And the salaries may even provide you with some shit
to fucking put on the event for, you know,
to make some of the stuff I guess.
So they'll do it, they will do it.
That's what's depressing to me, they'll do it.
And then we'll get to see fucking Middle East,
the goddamn WrestleMania show and it'll be,
(25:05):
again, hiding all the things that we enjoy
as wrestling fans.
And yeah, you see Jade Cargill
and fucking Bianca Belair, right?
Yeah, sure, they're hot.
You see Liv Morgan, she's hot as fuck.
But they gotta wear these fucking jumpsuits or whatever
and like hide their shit that we as fans, you know,
enjoy about one of the things we enjoy about them, right?
It's also, we're desensitized to that shit too.
(25:28):
So it's not even a big deal,
but apparently they make it a big deal
by covering them up.
Yeah, and then it then becomes a,
it becomes a problem for us then, right?
Because now it's getting some different.
Yeah, now it's an eyesore.
And if the wrestling's not up to snuff,
then now it's just an eyesore and a shitty wrestling.
So like, it's fuck, man.
(25:49):
So I'm against it, but I think they will do it.
When the number, when the right number gets told,
they will do it, there's no question in my mind.
All right, so this Samantha Irvy shit,
is this worth the total episode?
I think that could probably be a total episode.
We'll do that and we'll do another episode of that.
Maybe whatever, next week or something, I don't know.
We'll do it right now.
Oh, let's do it right now, all right, fuck it.
All right.
I mean, not on this episode.
(26:10):
Yeah, let's do another episode right now.
So we'll put it out.
All right, we'll do that.
Samantha Irvy leads WWE,
because I just kind of want to talk about it for a few minutes.
But anyways, all right, well check out that episode.
If you want to check out more,
go to GameRage Magazine on YouTube
where you can like, comment, and subscribe.
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Twitter slash X GameRageMag.
You can follow Adam at all gas, no trash official.
And we will be it.
(26:31):
I'll catch you guys on the next one.
Bye.
That was another wonderful, amazing, powerful episode
(26:56):
of the GameRage Rasslin' Podcast.
And take it from me, ladies and gentlemen,
The Natural Lad, Jet Swag.
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(27:58):
and show us some love, show them some love
and show some love for The Natural Lad, Jet Swag.
The Natural Lad, Jet Swag.
So you want to listen to a pretty alright podcast about wrestling, do you?
(00:05):
Well the natural lag, jet swag has said time and time again that there's only one podcast
that's the most decent and the most alrightest in the industry today.
And that's whooooo!
It's the Game Rage Rasslin' Podcast.
(00:33):
Aw yeah, welcome back everyone to a brand new episode of your favorite internet rasslin' show,
Game Rage Rasslin', the show that we were too lazy to come up with a better name.
My name's Josh, I'm here today with my partner in laziness, Adam.
And today we're going to be talking about the most decent and the most alright podcast.
That's right, I think not changing the name just espouses the most decent and the most alright values.
(00:58):
I think that's why we should just keep it.
I'm going to have to change this podcast to the most decent and the most alright wrestling podcast.
That might actually be in the cards, I think that might be possible.
But anyways, if you guys want, today we're going to talk about Crown Jewel 2024,
we're going to go over the results and the further implications about Saudi Arabia and wrestling,
I guess kind of for lack of a better term.
(01:20):
Before we get into that, we can sure use your goddamn help by going to YouTube and subscribing to our channel.
We've now put a dent in the number, we only need 18 more subscribers to get to where we need to be.
So if you could go to YouTube and like, comment, and subscribe, we'd greatly fucking appreciate it.
Also you can go to Instagram and TikTok if you're into that sort of thing on Game Rage magazine, subscribe or follow there.
(01:41):
Twitter slash X, we're at Game Rage magazine, if you like Twitter.
We're all Adam at Allgasno, trash official on Instagram and yeah, that's pretty much it.
Alright, so Crown Jewel 2024.
We made some predictions, right?
But we also didn't get the match order.
That match order wasn't right, right?
No, it wasn't. It was the blood.
(02:02):
That started with the bloodline.
It was kind of like reversed, right?
From what they had said on Wikipedia of what the match order was going to be.
Yeah, which turned out for the better, somewhat.
Yeah, it was, I mean, dude, it's what you would expect of Crown Jewel at this point.
It's fucking house show.
Throwaway.
(02:23):
It's a house show for Saudi Arabia.
And you get to see all your favorites and do all the shit for meaningless bullshit, especially with the Crown Jewel Championship.
The bloodline, so we opened with the bloodline shit and I didn't particularly care for this match.
(02:45):
As I said before, it's a growing, it's growing stale and the only real highlight, I think my favorite thing really was,
so, or Jacob Fatu is doing this thing, which he's been doing probably since the beginning, where he goes like this.
And it's like, I don't know if it's in prayer of like Solosokoha and how he acknowledges.
(03:06):
Or like showing reverence or something like that, right?
Yeah, and I'm like, oh, look, it's some fucking Samoan Jutsu or some shit.
The Samoan Jutsu? He's going to start doing, hey, if he starts throwing fire out of his hands or some shit, that'd be awesome.
But yeah, it's, I think Jacob Fatu is going to be a solid, like if there was anything to take away from his tenure in the WWE,
(03:33):
it's that this dude is going to be a solo competitor, no pun intended, or rather a singles competitor.
And he's here to stay.
And he's, he is going to be one of the top heels in the company and this, this is kind of further perpetuating that.
Solosokoha actually looked like he dropped a little bit of weight.
(03:55):
Like he actually looks like he's more, he leaned up a bit, but the match was kind of boring.
You got your typical Roman spots with him doing the Cobra punches or the Superman punches.
But he was like not really in the match all that much.
(04:16):
And it was more Jay and Jimmy doing Jay and Jimmy things of like, you know, dropping elbows together and doing shit in tandem as they typically do in their tag fashion.
But, and then there was fucking, I can't remember which one, which was the, the one that's the least useless between Tomitanga and Tongaloa.
(04:39):
But he was doing that weird barking thing where you like, like he does that weird shit.
Now come the match, who gives a shit? They fucking won the, the new bloodline one.
Sami Zayn came out and, and so Solosokoha and Sami Zayn had a conversation on Monday Night Raw,
not knowing what the contents of that conversation was, but it already aroused suspicion between Jimmy and Jay that if they were going to fight the,
(05:07):
if they were going to fight the bloodline that maybe Sami is not, can be ruled out because now maybe he's betraying them or some shit.
So he comes out, makes the save, saves Roman and the Usos from getting their ass kicked from the new bloodline.
And, and then they eventually corner Solosokoha, or rather he's in the middle of the ring and all four of the guys are at each ring post.
(05:29):
And then as Roman's going for like the Cobra Punch, Sami Zayn goes to the middle of the ring as well.
And he ends up hitting him with like a super kick or some shit.
So then it further raises suspicion of whether Sami Zayn, whether that was intentional or wasn't, or if he's working for the, you know, the new bloodline.
Yeah.
(05:50):
So that's kind of what the outcome was. And it was whatever.
Like I said, it's, it was a throwaway match and maybe the more meaningful match is going to come at Survivor Series.
And we were incorrect in believing that The Rock would appear for this shit to solidify the victory for the new bloodline.
But again, don't really give a shit. Don't really care.
Yeah. And then we get match number two. Did you watch that one?
(06:14):
Nope. Skipped it.
Skipped it. But for those of you that care, which hopefully none of you do, but just in case there's one or two of you that do,
I mean, I would definitely be surprised if Shaka Bellaire and Jade Cargill retained their titles in the Fatal Four Way for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship.
I kind of feel like that,
you remember before when, like now,
(06:37):
I mean it's not as, I feel like it's not as defined
or whatever, or it kind of maybe is now,
but I really like those old tag team belts,
like from the Ruthless Aggression era,
the Raw and the SmackDown belts.
Yes.
Like those Raw ones, I don't know, man,
I wish they would bring those back.
Like those were fucking tight ass fucking tag team titles.
(06:59):
I don't know why, but I feel like they should,
they need to do that with like the women's division,
like two separate tag belts,
fucking bring them back to look like that.
That would be fucking awesome.
I don't think they have enough people to cover.
At the moment, no, but I feel like they can get that.
Both divisions.
Well, once AEW starts fucking having problems,
then you also got TNA.
(07:19):
They have the entirety of TNA
to be able to utilize on their roster,
essentially with this deal that they've got with them.
So, I don't know.
Anyways, we go to match.
Yeah, whatever.
We go to match number three.
Seth Rollins versus Bronson Reed.
I've watched this, but I don't think this is
(07:42):
a favorable match for either one of them.
It wasn't memorable.
And they're trying to build up Bronson Reed
as like this main event figure.
But then you bury him.
And then you have him lose to Seth Rollins,
and I'm thinking, why would you do that?
(08:03):
But the match wasn't even that great.
It was like slow paced.
It started with Bronson Reed giving Seth Rollins a tsunami,
which is just like a full body press or whatever.
Yeah.
Not a frog splash, but just pressing his body
against Seth Rollins, which was kinda like,
I don't care anymore, dude.
(08:24):
They had something good between him and Bronson Reed,
the monster versus monster match.
And it was like meat slapping.
It was fucking them wrecking the fucking ring
and all that shit.
I don't think Seth Rollins and Bronson Reed
should be in the ring together,
because they really didn't really have all that much
in-ring chemistry that I gave a fuck about this match.
(08:47):
It was kind of like fucking whatever.
Yeah, but Seth Rollins wins, and he is a Triple H guy.
So is this, you think Triple H fucking
kinda putting his guys first?
Seth Rollins needs a payday.
Well, you gotta feed somebody to him,
because you don't want him to lose.
So, yeah, you throw Bronson Reed in there.
I mean, they are kind of like, I guess,
(09:08):
feuding a little bit, I guess.
I don't know, but.
And he gave him like seven or,
I don't know what the number was.
There was like a previous encounter where,
to build up this rivalry, Bronson Reed had given
Seth Rollins like numerous tsunamis
to put himself on the map to be in the main event picture,
that if he wasn't gonna be put in the main event picture,
(09:29):
that he was just gonna start giving tsunamis to everybody.
Like, yeah.
You know, like free pieces and shit.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Just giving that to everybody.
All out to everyone.
But he's not convincing to me.
I just don't see how he's gonna be on the main event.
To me, at best, he's a fucking mid-carder.
At best.
Maybe a cannon fodder for your heavyweight champion
(09:53):
when you're gonna put him in that spotlight
to try him out and see what happens.
Maybe he's just cannon fodder for that.
I think him getting his due
and this being his first main event,
or rather, being on the main card,
I don't think it's a good sign
because it's in Crown Jewel,
like the house show of fucking PLEs
(10:13):
that where it doesn't mean anything
and you put him on this,
that means you don't have all that much faith in him.
Why isn't he already in the main event picture?
Or maybe it means the opposite
because every spot on this card
is likely getting a heavy bonus for this, right?
Just being in Saudi Arabia alone.
So maybe this is a sign that they do believe in him
and they think he's earned this payday, right?
(10:34):
So they're gonna fucking keep him going.
Maybe they're gonna keep pushing him, I don't know.
Now he's maybe gonna be in this feud with Seth Rollins
for the next couple of months.
Maybe.
Maybe till Netflix Raw, who the fuck knows?
Anyways, we go to the next match.
Did you watch Liv Morgan versus Nia Jax?
Nope.
But anyways, for those of you that care,
Liv Morgan won and she won
the Women's Crown Jewel Championship,
(10:55):
which I still don't know how the fuck this is gonna work.
What, do you gotta turn it back in at the end of the year?
Like, how does that fucking work?
I don't remember.
I didn't have the commentary on
because I think what also hurt this pay-per-view,
that this was probably some of the worst commentary
between Michael Cole and Corey Graves.
(11:16):
And I was giving Corey Graves props a couple months ago.
And this is probably the worst commentary
that they've done it.
It came off as flat.
I don't know if it was because they flew in
from the US to Saudi Arabia
that they just, they weren't themselves.
Like, they were adjusting to the time.
(11:37):
I don't know what it was,
but it just came out as flat and boring
and I wasn't interested.
So I didn't really get to hear about what Crown Jewel,
like being the Crown Jewel champion,
if you just end up giving the title back to Saudi Arabia
and then it just sits there
and then it'll set it up for the next person to win it.
Whenever, yeah, maybe, I don't know.
(11:58):
But anyways, after that, real quick,
I do wanna talk about Samantha Ervin.
Maybe after we get through this,
because she, you know, remember she left, right?
I kinda wanna talk about that a little bit,
but let's get through this nonsense
and then we'll get into that.
All right, so then we work our way to.
Kevin Owens versus Randy Orton.
Even this shit is not actually technically in order,
because I think the second to last match
was actually the tag match.
(12:21):
Oh, the bloodline match?
I forgot the order, but this isn't the correct order.
Fuck you, Wikipedia, like who the fuck did this?
It doesn't matter,
because we're just working our way through it.
Yeah, it doesn't matter.
Because we get Kevin Owens and Randy Orton.
And Randy Orton, which was a.
Supposed to be just a single.
Unsanctioned match where they didn't even get started.
They just started fighting around the ring.
And then I think it ended with Kevin Owens
(12:42):
doing a frog splash atop the higher end seats,
or rather the more elevated seats
and jumping off like the barricade
and putting Randy Orton out.
As Triple H had noted that this is a different Kevin Owens
that we're experiencing, that this is a more brutal
Kevin Owens, that he's out for blood,
(13:03):
and that he feels like he's betrayed
by Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes, that they've been a.
What is it?
It's about the bloodline, I forgot what it was.
God damn, I'm trying to think that they were,
they were friends with J Uso, and he's like,
man, you're still fucking with them?
(13:25):
And he just fucking leaves,
and then that's what leads to this feud.
But yeah, it was entertaining,
because they got to do a lot of things.
Randy Orton, RKO'd a fucking referee and shit,
so I don't know, it was whatever.
It didn't turn into a match, but you got what you wanted,
because they ended up taking it outside the ring
(13:45):
and started doing all kinds of shit, so.
All right, yeah, fair enough.
So let me get LA Knight going up against Andrade
and Carmelo Hayes.
Yeah, so this was interesting, as I thought this match
wasn't gonna matter, but it ended up being
the more entertaining match, because you have two people,
and Carmelo Hayes and Andrade, who are more on the acrobatic,
(14:09):
like Lucha, well, specifically like Andrade being more
on the Lucha Libre side.
Yeah.
But they were doing these incredible things,
and it ended up being, the finish for the match
was fucking sweet.
Carmelo Hayes was gonna do this Tornado DDT,
and then LA Knight ended up fucking catching both of them,
(14:32):
countering, and then doing his finisher on both of them,
and he covered both of them for the pin.
Oh, nice.
But then Andrade did this really sweet fucking moonsault,
like he was pointing at Carmelo Hayes,
and then he just does a blind jump backwards
and lands on LA Knight.
I'm like, whoa, this is great, this is fucking awesome.
Yeah.
So this ended up being the fucking match of the night.
It was great, there was numerous simultaneous tags
(14:56):
where both dudes were on their backs,
whether it was Andrade or LA Knight being pinned
by Carmelo Hayes.
There was great counters, there was all kinds of great spots.
This was definitely the highlight of the fucking pay-per-view.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like I said, full disclosure, obviously I didn't watch this,
but I totally forgot about this, I didn't watch it.
But I mean, this seems like this would have been
(15:18):
a workhorse fucking match for sure,
and I'm glad to hear that it was good,
that it went the distance.
It makes me believe that these guys should be getting
more important storylines and perhaps moving up the ladder,
but again, LA Knight's the person that just gets
the fucking raw end of the deal
when it comes to main event picture status,
but whatever, fuck it.
Yeah, whatever.
Anyways, all right, then we get to the final match,
(15:38):
which was Cody Rhodes versus Gunter
for the Crown Jewel Championship.
I don't know if I have anything nice to say about this match.
I don't really care, I didn't really care for it.
So I don't, as much as I would love to give a description
about it and what-
It's not even worth it.
I just don't care.
All right, so Cody Rhodes wins the fucking match,
which, I mean, listen, I guess he needs it
(15:59):
because he's a piece of shit and can't wrestle,
but like, you know.
My favorite part is that Triple H comes out to the ring,
and then you have like the, I don't know if it's like
the Saudi Princes that come out as well.
Yeah, all the underling princes or whatever.
So then they have Liv Morgan out there
as they're raising the hands of the champion,
but everybody's to the left, or rather to the right,
of Liv Morgan as if she were like a fucking leper.
(16:22):
Now, like, man, this is why I don't fuck with the WWE
taking money from Saudi Arabia and compromising
their values, like American values, for money.
Because you have all these women dress up in these garments
to cover up their body, and then for like Bianca Belair
(16:46):
and Jade Cargill to be bedazzled in all these fucking jewels
and shit to basically kind of cover up their shape,
the shape of their body, that it's like, man,
if you're just gonna bend the knee like that, man,
why even fucking bother?
Like, I know you're getting paid probably ridiculous
(17:08):
amounts of money, but that's not without your fucking
dignity, dude, or even your values as an American, I suppose.
I do think that the WWE being, I guess it's negating
(17:34):
the values of America or of the country,
of our home country, of America, to bend the knee,
like you said, to a foreign country for money,
that just seems fucked.
I mean, we know, again, the deal that was made,
they're getting paid about $50 million each event.
For how many years?
Well, I think it was 10 years, yeah, it was 2018 to 2027.
It was a 10-year deal, two events per year,
(17:57):
for $100 million a year, essentially.
So the, well, wrestling, they reported it was 900,
can't remember the numbers, the biggest gate ever
for a single pro wrestling event was $17.3 million
in 2016 for WrestleMania 32, okay, at the time
that they signed this fucking deal.
So basically, the five Saudi Arabia events
(18:21):
from 2018 to 2020 garnered $250 million.
Ticket sales for WrestleMania from 1985 to 2019
only made $210 million, which, that was,
so it's WrestleMania, from 85 to 2019,
didn't even make what they made in five fucking years
of doing two events a year at fucking Saudi Arabia.
You know what's AIDS?
(18:42):
When it comes to the event itself,
they get SummerSlam quality stage production.
They get the big-ass fucking Titan-tron
at the beginning of the entrance stage,
and then they get those four pillars
and the little canopy on top.
They get all that shit.
(19:03):
And I'm thinking, man, how come they can't fucking
put a little bit more effort here in the fucking US, dude?
When it comes to the production of the stage
and the ring and all that shit,
they go out for fucking Saudi Arabia,
but they don't do it for us.
All right, so WrestleMania 40, okay, across two nights,
the gate was $38.5 million for two nights.
(19:26):
Two nights?
For two nights.
The WWE is making $50 million a night
that they're in Saudi Arabia
because that's what they're paying for.
Now granted, there's no audience, all right?
There's literally like minimal audience
because they're not selling tickets.
Everybody gets to go, right?
They're getting paid $50 million by the Saudi government
for the event, to put it on.
(19:47):
So they're making twice as much as they are
almost on WrestleMania, okay,
just to do one night of an event twice a year.
They're making $100 million for two nights
as opposed to $38.5 for two nights for WrestleMania.
So it pains me to say this,
but Saudi Arabia will eventually get a WrestleMania.
(20:11):
And how they'll do it is say,
we'll give you $200 million
for two nights of WrestleMania here.
And who's gonna say no to that?
Yeah, but how are they, okay, I don't think,
are they just expecting people to show up
in droves for that shit because?
No one from other countries, I don't think, will be allowed.
(20:32):
I think it's only gonna be the,
for a WrestleMania for two nights,
you will have night one, you'll get,
because remember, we see this.
You have the important people have the couches
and they have their little private booths
in the front of the audience
and that whole floor section.
And then just recently, they started allowing
the extra part of the arena to be opened
(20:53):
to like essentially what would be like
the peasantry class, right, like the peasants.
And I don't know, I don't know if for a fact,
and I have to look into it,
but I think that they just, they lottery those tickets.
I don't think they make anybody pay for them.
I think they lottery them out.
And you can enter the lottery to win tickets
to go to Crown Jewel or whatever
and sit in the peasant seats.
So like WrestleMania would be the same way.
(21:15):
You'd have likely night one would be your peasant night
and night two, no peasants allowed.
No way peasants are allowed night two, all right?
Because that's when all the good shit's gonna happen.
But also, you know that WWE has to push their fake numbers
about selling out an event and having,
because it has every fucking year,
(21:35):
they say we're gonna top the numbers that we did,
which is almost like an,
we're gonna have a million people in a stadium.
I'm sure that's gonna be something they say in the future
for like 100,000 person arena.
Like they're gonna say, oh yeah, we packed in a million.
But for Saudi Arabia, I don't think.
I don't think it's about the number with that.
I think it's about the money.
(21:56):
And listen, we gotta remember too, TKO is the owner, right?
Like they're the fucking, the main guy, right?
When it comes to deciding what happens in WWE,
they get the final say.
So if Saudi Arabia says, hey guys, after this in 2027,
I don't think we're gonna see it now.
I think we're gonna see it probably in 2028, 2029,
maybe even 2030.
(22:17):
We'll see a WrestleMania that year be in Saudi Arabia.
And it'll be because TKO may give resistance
for a little couple of years and say,
nah, we don't wanna do WrestleMania here.
We don't wanna do WrestleMania here.
And then when the Saudis say, fuck,
it might even be higher than that.
It might be 250 million, it might be $300 million.
I think it'll be a billion.
Hell, if it's a billion dollars, shit,
what did they pay for WWE?
(22:38):
What did TKO pay for WWE?
Fucking 10 billion or something like that.
I don't remember what they paid.
I gotta look it up real quick, but.
If they can get one 10th of like what they paid for it
in one night or two nights.
Okay, they paid $21 billion for WWE.
Okay, or no, it was the $21 billion merger
(22:58):
between the Ultimate Fighting Champion.
Wait, wait, how much did they buy WWE for then?
So what was the actual number then?
Because that was just a deal to merge.
I feel like it was a couple billion.
Probably.
I don't know what the actual number was.
They bought, okay, so they bought.
Fuck, it's okay, so it's a total of $21.4 billion
(23:20):
for the UFC and WWE is what this whole thing is.
Let's see, the deal.
Okay, valued WWE at $9.3 billion.
So yeah, probably likely around $10 billion
is what they actually bought WWE for.
So it's one, they get one 10th of that in one night.
A 10th of that in one night.
And let's be honest.
If they got paid that.
Who knows how much money they've already made in profit
(23:41):
since they purchased the WWE?
I mean, hell, they just did this deal with Netflix
that was basically what?
A billion dollars right there.
So you're fucking slowly cranking up the numbers here.
It's like one fifth of the way there to recover their.
Yeah, and if by 2030 they're like,
oh, we're close to either getting to that number
(24:01):
or we've hit that number already of that 10 billion,
they might be like, well shit, guys,
this is a cool way to make basically
a billion fucking dollars in profit.
That's a quick fucking turnaround.
Because how much does it cost them to put WrestleMania on?
It may cost you like, maybe let's say between salaries
and paying people and sets and all that shit.
Let's say it costs you fucking $100 million.
(24:22):
Well then you're walking away with nine,
which there's no way it's gonna cost $100 million
because they only make 35 million on the gate
at WrestleMania and there's no pay-per-view money in that
because it's not a pay-per-view anymore.
So it probably costs fucking $10 million maybe.
Not even less, probably costs like $5 million
to put on the shit for WrestleMania.
So if it only costs you $5 million
(24:43):
and you're gonna get paid a billion,
that's $995 million in profit essentially for this event.
And the salaries may even provide you with some shit
to fucking put on the event for, you know,
to make some of the stuff I guess.
So they'll do it, they will do it.
That's what's depressing to me, they'll do it.
And then we'll get to see fucking Middle East,
the goddamn WrestleMania show and it'll be,
(25:05):
again, hiding all the things that we enjoy
as wrestling fans.
And yeah, you see Jade Cargill
and fucking Bianca Belair, right?
Yeah, sure, they're hot.
You see Liv Morgan, she's hot as fuck.
But they gotta wear these fucking jumpsuits or whatever
and like hide their shit that we as fans, you know,
enjoy about one of the things we enjoy about them, right?
It's also, we're desensitized to that shit too.
(25:28):
So it's not even a big deal,
but apparently they make it a big deal
by covering them up.
Yeah, and then it then becomes a,
it becomes a problem for us then, right?
Because now it's getting some different.
Yeah, now it's an eyesore.
And if the wrestling's not up to snuff,
then now it's just an eyesore and a shitty wrestling.
So like, it's fuck, man.
(25:49):
So I'm against it, but I think they will do it.
When the number, when the right number gets told,
they will do it, there's no question in my mind.
All right, so this Samantha Irvy shit,
is this worth the total episode?
I think that could probably be a total episode.
We'll do that and we'll do another episode of that.
Maybe whatever, next week or something, I don't know.
We'll do it right now.
Oh, let's do it right now, all right, fuck it.
All right.
I mean, not on this episode.
(26:10):
Yeah, let's do another episode right now.
So we'll put it out.
All right, we'll do that.
Samantha Irvy leads WWE,
because I just kind of want to talk about it for a few minutes.
But anyways, all right, well check out that episode.
If you want to check out more,
go to GameRage Magazine on YouTube
where you can like, comment, and subscribe.
Instagram and TikTok at GameRage Magazine.
Twitter slash X GameRageMag.
You can follow Adam at all gas, no trash official.
And we will be it.
(26:31):
I'll catch you guys on the next one.
Bye.
That was another wonderful, amazing, powerful episode
(26:56):
of the GameRage Rasslin' Podcast.
And take it from me, ladies and gentlemen,
The Natural Lad, Jet Swag.
If there's one podcast, one show you should be listening to
that you should be absolutely grateful for,
it's the GameRage Rasslin' Podcast.
(27:17):
And one of the things you can do to show your appreciation
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It's that you can go and you can subscribe
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(27:37):
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then go to their website at www.gameragemagazine.com
(27:58):
and show us some love, show them some love
and show some love for The Natural Lad, Jet Swag.
The Natural Lad, Jet Swag.
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