Sound Off 902 - Why That Rock Segment Was BAD But What Comes From It Could Be GREAT - Solomonster Sounds Off

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's business time.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Baby.

Speaker 1 (00:03):
You are listening to Solo Monster Sounds Off. I love
you so mama monster dude, I want your soulier a woman.

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

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Come over here. I have the best move set. You
have legs. They've made Solo a monster. I was ninety
nine percent positive it was just chessed up. Now I
want out of my contract if I don't care what
I want. This is episode nine oh two of the
Solemn Monster Sounds Off. It is Sunday, February twenty third,

(00:40):
twenty and twenty five. I am the Solen Monster. You
know it's WrestleMania season. Because the Rock has decided to
descend from Rock Mountain. He has come down to grace
us with his presence yet again here on the road
to wrestle Media. We got a lot to get into
this week, not just with the Rock, about a lot
of other things as well. If you would like to

(01:03):
support via PayPal, as you well know, you can always
do so Ontosolomonster dot com ten dollars or more, we'll
get you a nickname. In a shout out, I want
to say thank you to Big Bee Brian Pisera, The
Diamond Dallas Dance Machine, Harrison's Soep, Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray,
the Portland pop Star, Paul Hamilton, the Man Himself, The

(01:23):
Chicago Slayer, Willie Eicherd, Knight Stalker, and if Alsaphar Killshot,
Keith Hart, Robert Loverboy Lopez. It has been a while.
Thank you, man, Carlos, Man of Steel, Manuel Big Homie,
Jonathan Burton, Thank you for the note, Jonathan, I appreciate it.
Peacemaker Steve Cliff, who is recovering from his second knee

(01:47):
surgery on the same knee, but he is enjoying the
sound off as he convalesces. Steve. Get well soon and
shout out to Nathan from Wressell Addict Radio, Brace for
Impact and The Game Changer podcast. His colleagues are celebrating
four hundred episodes. They are The Kings of the Ring
podcast hosted by King Ricky Rose, Queen B. K. Murphy.

(02:11):
I hope it's k I was gonna say, Kai. I
hope it's k IF not I apology. I apologize to
the Queen, but we have we have the Queen and
we have Willie t So Congrats to the crew. You
could check out their four hundredth episode this Tuesday. Again.
That is the Kings of the Ring podcast. It's WrestleMania season,

(02:33):
which means that it is time for The Rock to
show up two months before the show to take things
in a completely different direction, for better or worse. This
is now the second year in a row that this
has happened. Last year, it all worked out in the end.
It gave us some much more exciting WrestleMania. I'm hoping
for the same this year, especially since I mean I
was be honest. I know we still have eight weeks,

(02:54):
but the road to Mania has been pretty dull so far.
But that segment I'm Friday with The Rock and Cody
Rhodes was honestly one of the weirdest segments that I
have ever seen in all my years of watching wrestling.
Like I've seen great promos, a lot of them from
The Rock, I've seen bad promos. This was just fucking bizarre.

(03:19):
And it wasn't the first time that Rock and Cody
have shared the ring and it evolved into something very awkward.
This was actually the second time that this has happened,
but it was the only real interesting thing that happened
on SmackDown. I thought the main event was solid, and
there was a Kevin Owens video that was good. It
was brief, but it was good. But outside of that,

(03:40):
this was one of the worst Smackdowns that I have
seen in years. Even with Rock on the show, SmackDown
has been awful. And so it was with great curiosity
and excitement that I saw on Thursday the breaking news
that The Rock would be appearing on Friday's episode from

(04:00):
New Orleans. And when I realized where the show was
taking place, I thought, well, this is probably tied into
the announcement of next year's WrestleMania, because the chatter has
been that media was coming back to the Big Easy.
You know, there were rumors of there being another kickoff
event very similar to the one they did in Las
Vegas last year, and then that never happened. Rock said,
originally they were going to make the announcement at the

(04:21):
Super Bowl, but there were a few hiccups and it
ended up not happening. He didn't say what those hiccups were. Yeah,
the NFL said, you're not taking the shine away from
our end. You could take that wrestling shit somewhere else.
That's what happened, so it only made sense that they
would announce that, and they did. Rock said the WrestleMania
forty two in twenty twenty six will be returning to

(04:43):
the Superdome in New Orleans, the same Superdome where brock
Lesner ended the Undertaker streak, the same Superdome where Charlotte
Flair ended Osca's undefeated streak, and the same Superdome where
braun Stroman won the tag team titles with a nine
old Boy. A lot of history in that building. Now,

(05:04):
I love New Orleans. I love that they're coming back there.
I hope to be back there myself. Saturday April eleventh,
Sunday April twelfth, those are the dates. At least next
year it won't fall on Easter Sunday like it does
this year. But that wasn't the only reason that the
Rock was there. Now, I said that this was not
the first time that Rock and Cody shared the ring
for a very weird segment, Let's go back to the

(05:25):
night after WrestleMania last year. Cody finished his story, the
Rock joins him in the ring on raw. He's got
his Brahma Bull belt over his shoulder, and Rock asked Cody,
can I hold your title? I would like to hold
your title, the WWE title, And Cody is weirded out

(05:45):
by this and says, basically, I'll let you hold mine
if you let me hold yours. And people think there's
something wrong with me that I said the other night
that there were sexual undertones to that segment on Friday,
and so they swap belts, and the crowd that night
breaks that into a chant of this is awkward. Yes,

(06:08):
yes it was awkward. But Rock told Cody, your story
with Roman Reigns is over, but our story has just begun.
And everybody cheered because they assumed that we would be
getting a match between them, probably at this year's WrestleMania
and Cody that night he told him, you're my boss, right,
you're on the board of TKO, You're my literal boss.

(06:30):
But just remember I'm the champion, which means I'm your champion,
which is very interesting given what Rock said on Friday
about wanting Cody to be his champion. They already established
last year that Cody is Rocks champion. Rock said, you
are my champion, and there's one more thing, and he
pulled out a Rolex watch that Cody had gifted him

(06:50):
before their WrestleMania match, and he handed it back to
Cody and he said, don't you ever break my heart again.
That was the last time that the these two men
shared a ring together. Okay, fast forward six months. The
Rock returns. After Cody and Romans match against the Bloodline
at Bad Blood, he stands on stage, he flashes the

(07:11):
one two three, he does the throat slash, and that's it.
No follow up, no nothing, completely pointless outside of getting
people talking, which I guess was the point, but it
led to nothing. He wasn't seen again until New Year's
Day Raw debuts on Netflix. We get the Rock, but

(07:32):
we get corporate Rock. We got Dwayne the board member
who's breaking the fourth wall, and he's talking about how
great business is and what a great relationship they have
with Netflix and Cody my god looks over at Cody
in the front row. Cody's standing in the front row
like he's a fucking fan, and he looks over at him,
and he's talking about what a great champion he is
and what a great friendship the two of them have

(07:53):
been able to forge. He's given the man his flowers.
He even shared some Tereremana with him in the back.
People flipped out over that because it felt like they
were killing dead any potential match between the two of them.
Fast forward to SmackDown, Rock invites Cody Rhodes out to
the ring. Rock gives him a hug, and he gives

(08:14):
him a kiss, and again he lavishes praise on this man.
He talks about what a great champion he's been and
how they've become great friends over the past year. Even
our mothers have become friends. Right, It's just one big
love fest. But then he reminds Cody that he's a
director on the board of TKO. TKO happens to own WWE,

(08:34):
and that makes him the most powerful man in WWE,
which of course is not true, but that's the story
they're telling. And he says Cody is a great champion,
but he wants him to be more than a great champion.
He wants him to be his champion, which Rock already
acknowledged last year on that Postmania Raw that Cody was
his champion. So I'm not sure what changed from then

(08:55):
to now. A Rock said he was talking about something
bigger than just the WWEE title, and then he started
comparing Cody's Instagram followers to the number of followers that
he has. You know, you've got all these many millions
of followers, but I've got half a billion. And that's
what I want for you. And if Cody agrees to
be his champion, he can make all of Cody's dreams

(09:16):
come true. Even though Cody's dream already came true last
year he finished his story, he won the title that
was taken away from Dusty. But Rock said he needs
Cody to be his champion. He doesn't offer any good
reason why he needs Cody to be his champion when
he already established last year that Cody is in fact

(09:38):
his champion, and he acknowledges how great of a job
he's done, like he checks all the boxes, talks about
WWE's business has been booming under cody five billion dollar
Netflix deal, right, they got fucking new Gate records being
set every month, sellout crowds. But for some reason, he
desperately needs this man to be his champion. He said

(10:00):
Cody could be the one thing that Rock never had,
his brother, and that last year it was supposed to
be Rock and Roman for the title, and Cody fucked
it all. Up and then he ended up slapping the
Rock on that road to WrestleMania. And so for all
those reasons he needs Cody to be his champion. None
of that really makes any sense, but that's how he

(10:21):
tried to explain it as far as why he needs
him to be his champion. And he gave Cody until
the elimination Chamber in Toronto next weekend to give him
his answer. Go home, talk it over with your wife,
and you give me your answer. Like they're running for
office together, and he wants Cody to be his vice president.
He wants him to be his running mate. You know

(10:41):
what's scary about it, though, honestly, one day I could
see that when Cody is done in the ring. I mean,
I could easily see Cody getting into politics. Rock of course,
has said I don't want to run for president. I
got too many skeletons in my closet. But you know,
people still talk about Rock, but one day he might
run for president. It's scary, but I can envision a

(11:01):
ticket one day of the Rock and Cody Roads legitimately
running for off. That's what this felt like here. It
felt like he was making the pitch to Cody. To
do just that, Go home, talk it over with your wife. Yes,
because it's such a big life change from Cody. You
know what he's already been doing on the road every
single week, wrestling and doing media and make a wish

(11:22):
and meet and greets and everything else that this guy does.
Rock says, the thing that he wants more than anything
else in this world is that. And he's pointing at
the WWE title over Cody's shoulder, and Cody's like, is
that what this is all about? He goes, no, no, no, no,
it's not about that. That's not what I want, Cody.
I want your soul. There was a lot of mixed

(11:43):
opinion online about this segment. Some people thought it sucked.
Other people were throwing around the usual words like cook
and cinema. That segment was cinema because you know, of
all the things that it could potentially lead to, which
I'll get into and it could end up going in
a very interesting direction. But no, this segment did not cook.

(12:08):
And anyone who thinks that this was cinema has never
seen a fucking movie in their entire life. If you
took this scene in context or not, and you put
this in a movie, it would be battlefield Earth level bad. Okay,
the wrestling bubble is real, folks, Okay, it is a
very real thing. I'm in it too because I have

(12:29):
to be, but I still try to keep my head
outside of it a little bit so I can still
get some you know, oxygen to my brain. Rock was
trying to manipulate this man here in this segment, right.
He reminded him about the power that he has. He's
the board, and he's on the board, he's the director,
all to try to get him to be, you know,
his champion, whatever the hell that means, to attain a

(12:53):
level of fame and fortune that one would think Cody
already has. Right, Yes, he's not you know what Rock
is in Holly would but he is the top guy
in the company. He's the WWE Champion. I guess that's
not enough because you know, it's the Rock, and so
the Rock. Nothing is bigger than the Rock, as we
all know. The segment itself was not good, Okay, it

(13:14):
was It was meandering. Rock was out there repeating himself
over and over again, which is a thing that he
does in all of his promos now, and the crowd
in New Orleans did not react all that much to
any of this. Once he got the Superdome announcement out
of the way, they were very excited for that. When
Cody came out, they were loud. They liked Cody, They
obviously like Rock and you know, him being back on

(13:36):
the show. But they sounded after a while, they sounded
bored and confused by a lot of this the longer
it went. You know, one thing that it did do
is it added a big hook to the elimination chamber
by letting you know that Rock is going to be
on that show and Cody is going to be on
that show. Adding Rock to the show is smart, right,
It'll drum up even more interest in it. It should

(13:57):
sell more tickets. Right now, they've got around twenty seven
thousand tickets out in the Rogers Center. Okay, that's the
old skydough. That building fits a hell of a lot
more than twenty seven thousand, So this should help goose
ticket sales a little bit. Where I think the story
is going is Rock wanting Cody to be his corporate champion.

(14:19):
I talked a little bit about this on Friday night
in the review. Rock wants Cody to be his you know,
quote unquote corporate champion. It doesn't make a lot of sense.
It really doesn't. They did this story years ago with
Rock himself becoming the corporate Champion, but that made sense
because you know, Vince McMahon hated Stone Cold Steve Austin.

(14:42):
Austin was the antithesis of what he wanted in his champion, right,
Southern redneck, drinking beer, cussing, thumbing his nose at authority.
He wanted that title off of him and onto somebody
who would better reflect what he was looking for in
his champion. The Authority right didn't want Daniel Bryan as
their champion. He was a B plus player. He looked
like a goat. He wasn't what they saw as championship material.

(15:07):
So he won the title anyway. But a few months later,
seth Rollins joins the authority. He was more in line
with what they were looking for. They groomed him for
that spot. Cody carries himself already like the quintessential corporate champion.
He looks the part, he sounds the part. He's the
first one to the buildings, the last one to leave.
He does all the media, all the charity stuff. He

(15:28):
is that guy. So I'm gonna need a little more
explanation coming out, and now this was only the first segment. Yes,
but I'm gonna need a little more explanation as to
why he wants Cody, of all people, to be his
champion after already acknowledging previously that yes, you are my champion,
if he still had heat with Cody, if he didn't
want Cody to be the champion. You stole my match

(15:50):
with Roman Reigns, you blew up the biggest WrestleMania match
of all time. Then you beat my cousin, and you
took the title away from my family. And he enlisted
someone else to be his champion or his corporate stooge.
That would make more sense to me, And that may
be where things end up going when Cody ultimately gives
his answer and says no, I won't be your champion,

(16:15):
it may be somebody else in that spot. And that's
where I think this story could get very interesting. So
I'm not saying this can't wind up being a really
fun story, but this being you know, chapter one, let's
call it, or maybe chapter two if you consider last
year chapter one. Right now, I could only judge it
by what we saw and what we saw on Friday
was not the home run that some people said it was,

(16:38):
but it can be eventually. It can be that now.
They actually held a post show press conference on Friday
after SmackDown, the way they do for their plees, and
it was Rock sipping his tequila and killing k fab
as he answered questions about the storyline, saying that it
doesn't even necessarily need to lead to a match between
him and Cody. He said, in the world of pro wrestling,

(16:59):
as we all know, everything will culminate in a match.
Whatever happens, it'll end up being in the ring. What
I really love about this rare air space that we
have gotten to with this character of the Final Boss.
It's like this white whale unicorn in that with the
Final Boss and Cody Rhodes, it's not about the WWE title,
it's not about having a match. It never has to

(17:20):
culminate in a match. That's a really special place to be.
I think creatively, and just think character wise and how
much fun you can have to be able to have
a storyline and two characters who are very popular to
never have to get into the ring for a match,
but yet still hold this really unique, compelling off putting
kind of weird. He wants his soul. What does that mean?

(17:42):
I love it? And then he said that he and
Cody had a few tequilas after their segment. That's nice.
He got to plug his tequila and his movie during
that segment. By the way, on Friday, you can't rule
out Rock against Cody down the right, Yes, he said,
it doesn't have to culminate in a match. That doesn't
mean Rock and Cody is not gonna happen. At some point.

(18:04):
It could very well still happen, but it's not happening
this year. I don't think it is happening this year.
It's not happening because we have an elimination Chamber match
coming up this Saturday, which was kind of lost in
all the noise of this. John Cena is trying to
get to WrestleMania to win his seventeenth World Championship. Seeampunk
is trying to get his very first WrestleMania main event.

(18:25):
Drew McIntyre is in it, seth Rollins is in it,
Damian Priest is in it. Logan Paul is there. One
of those six men will be challenging Cody for the
title of WrestleMania so let's take this one by one. Okay,
is Cody Rhoades going to take the rock up on
his offer? I don't see it. I know people are
infatuated with this idea that Cody is gonna turn heel

(18:48):
and we're gonna get heal. Cody, Cody is the man
right now. It would be foolish to turn him heal.
This isn't a John Cena situation where he's getting mixed
reactions and they're sick of him being on top and
being babyfaced for so many years. Right, you got to
turn heel? Right The fans have stuck with Cody, you know,

(19:09):
and he's only been back for two years. The fans
have stuck with this guy. They have not soured on him.
They believe in him, they like him. There's no need
to turn Cody roadse heel right now. And frankly, there
are more compelling stories that you could tell with some
of the names in the chamber ending up his rocks again.
I'll call him corporate champion however they want to describe it.

(19:30):
But there's a lot more compelling names. John Cena. Now,
I dismissed the idea in my review on Friday, but
as I went back and forth with people later on
in the stream that night. Somebody pointed out that promo
that he cut after the Royal Rumble where he declared
for the Elimination Chamber because he didn't have to qualify.
He said, I'd like to think, with all my equity
and you know, me being who I am, I could

(19:52):
just declare for the match. And I thought it was
very odd how Sena argued in that speech that he gave,
like what's best for business is for him to go
to WrestleMania. It'll win his seventeenth world title. Sounded very
self serving, which is out of character for the John
Cena persona that we see on TV. But I've also

(20:13):
pointed out to you how long this losing streak is
that Sena has been on. The man has not won
a singles match in like seven years. He went to
the Royal Rumble and he lost. He sees the chance
to win number seventeen slipping away. If he's feeling desperate enough,
maybe we get Heal Sena siding with his old rival

(20:34):
for one last run before dropping the title back to
Cody at SummerSlam. I still think it's unlikely that we
get Heal Sena during his retirement tour. But you can
at least try to make sense out of it. It's
basically the Steve Austin He'll turn at WrestleMania seventeen, which
didn't turn out too well for the company. Even Austin
admits it was a mistake. But you wouldn't have that

(20:55):
problem now really, because Sena is not the guy anymore. Right,
Austin was the guy he was It was him and Rock,
But Austin was the guy back then, right, full time,
most popular babyface on the roster. John Cena, this is it,
This is it. This is a retirement tour. I can't
even call him part time. He's less than part time, right,
I mean, soon he may be part time, But so far,

(21:16):
I mean, how many times you can count on fucking
one hand in the last three years how many times
you've actually seen him. So you can pretty much do
anything you want with him. It's not like it's going
to have a major impact on the roster or a
major impact on business. If anything, you know, business would
probably boom for a short John Cena, he'll turn. He's
no longer their lone top babyface like he used to be,

(21:39):
or everything Vince McMahon built everything around this guy, many
many times at the expense of others who could have
gotten over and potentially ended up in a spot like that.
It was all about John Cena. They actually turned, by
the way they turned Steve Austin at the same time
that Rock was leaving to go film a movie, which
left them with the Undertaker and Cane as their top babyfaces.

(22:02):
I don't think there was a lot of forethought put
into that, Like, there's a lot of reasons why that
was a bad idea. But again with Sena, that's not
going to be an issue. They have other baby faces
they can plug in there to fight him, Cody Roman, Punk,
Orton aj Styles, right, they have lots of options there.
Then there's cm Punk And this is another one that

(22:24):
I dismissed the other night. But you talk about blowing
things up, this would blow a whole wide open into things,
and it wouldn't really fit for Punk to cozy up
to the Rock of all people, or for Punk to
go corporate. But if he's desperate enough to get that
Wrestlemanium main event, and if he's desperate enough to win
that championship, and he sees that window closing. You know,

(22:46):
it can make people do crazy things, or it would
just prove that Seth Rollins was right in what he
said about this guy all along. Andrew McIntyre was right
and what he said Punk said it when when he
first came back, he's here to make money, not friends.
That last promo he did with Cody that was great TV.

(23:07):
That was right before the rumble. I would love to
see Punk against Cody at WrestleMania more than I would
Sena against Cody. This would add a wrinkle to things
that nobody would see coming. Punk would just have to
explain the why because remember he still got that favor
from Paul Hayman that he hasn't cashed in yet. But
the idea of Punk winning the title and going heal,

(23:28):
it's not like he wouldn't have, you know, he wouldn't
have enough people to work with. Yeah, it's funny. Years ago.
I pitched the idea of having Sena go corporate in
like early twenty twelve, after the whole summer of Punk,
flip the entire dynamic and have Babyface anti authority. See
I'm Punk trying to take the title from Heel corporate Sena,

(23:51):
and here we are talking about just the opposite possibly happening.
But I'm intrigued. You know, if they focus on the
whole I'm here to make money, not friends. I'm here
to do business. To me, that's really the only way
you can make this work without completely betraying everything about
the CM Punk character that we've come to know over
the years. And then you can build to a John

(24:14):
Cena CM Punk match one last time. Maybe Punk is
the one that's seen a beats to win number seventeen.
Maybe it's not Cody just getting his belt back. Or
SummerSlam is where you do Punk against Roman Reigns with
Paul Hayman caught in the middle, right, You've got a
couple of different options there. The only thing is if

(24:34):
Punk doesn't cash in that favor with Hayman to headline
WrestleMania and win the title, I don't know what else
the favor could even be. Like once he does that,
what's left that he would even want? But I look
at the makeup of this elimination Chamber match, it is
easier to envision some of the other names in the

(24:57):
chamber ending up in the spot of Rocks Corporate Champion
Drew McIntyre would actually make a lot of sense, even
though he hates the bloodline. It was Rock who announced
that Drew had signed his new contract. Remember he gifted
him that sword all those years ago, right, anointed as
the chosen one. Now he truly would be the chosen one.
I just don't think it packs the same punch if

(25:18):
you do it with an existing heel. Right, If they
want that shock factor, it has to be a babyface
seth Rollins could work, obviously, we know the history with
him and Cody, but John Cena is winning number seventeen
this year. I don't think it needs to happen at WrestleMania.
If he's going heel, then it almost has to so
that he can drop it in time to turn back

(25:39):
and then get a proper send off. With Punk, you
don't have those issues, right. Either one of them would
make for some compelling TV so long as they're actually
on TV. Right, that's not going to be an issue
with Punk as much as it might be for Sina.
Cody going heel though you know to do it right now,
I think that would be a big mistake, and it

(26:00):
takes us into this weekend elimination Chamber at the Rogers
Center in Toronto, where things will become a lot clearer
as WrestleMania directions go. We already know Jay Usso is
challenging Gunther and Charlotte Flair is challenging Tiffety Stratton at WrestleMania.
But after this, all of the key championship matches will
be set. So let's run through the card and give

(26:20):
some predictions. It's a four match card, plus Cody Rhodes
gives his answer to The Rock. Will he surrender his soul?
Will he sell his soul to the final Boss? I'm
gonna say no, and The Rock will find himself a
different corporate champion by WrestleMania. I don't know that they
would shoot the angle on this show where let's say,

(26:44):
by the end of the Chamber match, somebody goes heel
and Rock has his guy and it's not Cody. I
almost feel like they would want to say that as
like a shocking moment in the main event at WrestleMania.
So I don't know exactly what else is going to
happen in this segment other than Cody saying yes or no,
you know, yay or nay, But I do think his
answer will be known. We have the women's elimination Chamber match,

(27:08):
with the winner challenging Rhea Ripley at WrestleMania for the
Women's World Championship, with liv Morgan, who is very familiar
with Rhea Ripley, Alexa Bliss, Bailey, Bianca, Bela Air, Naomi,
and Roxanne Perez competing in her very first chamber. This
is a tough one because I think it's Live or Bianca,

(27:28):
and I've gone back and forth here and Bianca is
more my personal pick. I would love to see Aria
Bianca match of WrestleMania, but so much of this comes
down to what happens in that tag team title match
on Monday Night when Bianca and Naomi defend their titles
against Live and Raquel. Naomi is not winning this, okay,
neither is Roxanne, who I think is I think might
be wrestling Bailey at WrestleMania, so if so, they would

(27:51):
cancel each other out. Alexa was just moved to SmackDown,
so her challenging for a Raw championship doesn't really even
makes sense. So that leaves Bianca, bell Air and Live Morgan.
I'm gonna go at Live Morgan to win the chamber,
but with a little Star next to it, depending on
what happens tomorrow night. If Livi and Raquel win the

(28:13):
tag team titles, then I think Bianca wins. Otherwise I'm
going with Live Morgan. I think the title match between
Ria Ripley and Eosky on next week's Raw ends without
a winner, and maybe Living Raquel get involved. We end
up with a triple threat match of WrestleMania. It's gonna
be Rea Ripley defending her title against liv Morgan and Eosky.

(28:34):
We have Tiffany Stratton and Trish Stratis taking on Naya
Jackson Candace Lay and I don't see this as anything
other than Trish and Tiffany getting the win in Toronto.
Trish gets the fall on Candace as a way to
protect Naya because she's gonna have one more title match

(28:54):
on TV with Tiffany. We still got time between now
in WrestleMania, and Naya is still talking like I'm going
to take that title from you, so we're gonna get
another championship match on TV at some point soon between them.
I don't see Naya, even if her team loses, taking
the losing fall her match with Tiffany last week for
the title ended on a DQ But I think the
baby Faces go over here. I think Trish in Toronto

(29:17):
getting the win makes sense. Sammy Zain takes on Kevin
Owens in an unsanctioned match. A lot of history between
these two. You don't need me to tell you that
this taking place in Canada. It feels very appropriate. The
only question is is this unsanctioned because we're gonna have

(29:37):
a proper match between them at WrestleMania, or is this
happening now to pave the way for the return of
Randy Orton. Owens and Orton go off and do their thing.
Sammy z Ain ends up, you know, working with Carrion
Cross because Carrion Cross is still cutting promos on him
and calling them out. They're gonna have a match at
some point. I just don't know if that's gonna be
a television match or if that's gonna be a WrestleMania

(29:59):
match as a way to try try to heat up
carrying Cross. So we'll find out what they do here.
I think because I'm looking at this and thinking this
is the perfect place in the time for Randy Orton return,
and it's unsanctioned, so anything goes and if Randy Orton
wants to drop Kevin Owens with an RKO, if he
wants to punk kick him into oblivion, if he wants
to hit a pile driver on him the way that

(30:21):
Owens did to Randy, he can do it and it's
all legal because it's unsanctioned. I'm going with Sammy Zain
to get the win with an assist from a returning
Randy Orton. I think it might even be a case
where Orton. I don't think that if Orton gets involved
and attacks Kevin Owens, it's going to get him heat
just because they're in Canada and people are gonna love

(30:43):
Kevin Owens. But I think you know one way to
try to avoid anything like that happening. Because I said
that back in November, because Cody and Ko were not
at Survivor Series, and Survivor Series was in Canada, and
I'm like, I wonder if they are not doing the
match on that show because they may be worried that
in a match in Canada between Cody and Ko, Owens

(31:04):
might get more cheers or Cody might get some booze. Right.
I wonder if that was the logic behind holding off
On like a proper match until Saturday Night's main event.
But if you want to avoid any risk of that,
not that I think there is much, but you have
him save Sammy from a package pile driver. Owens is
about to murder Sammy's a He's about to drop him

(31:26):
on his head, maybe on the announced desk or something
with a package pile driver. Here comes Randy Orton to
save the day. Big Pop gets his revenge or a
measure of revenge. Sammy wins Orton and Ko. They go
off to continue their story and they have a match
at WrestleMania and in the men's Elimination Chamber match for

(31:48):
a shot at Cody Rhodes and his Soul and the
WWE Championship. At WrestleMania, we have John Cena, CM Punk,
Drew McIntyre, seth Rolls, Damian Priest, and Logan Paul. Like
the women's match, I'm torn between two names. I'm torn

(32:08):
between John Cena and c I'm Punk, Damian Priest and
Drew McIntyre. They are likely gonna end up having that
match a WrestleMania. I don't know that they're gonna deviate
from that plan. There's history between them going back to
last year's WrestleMania priest eliminated McIntyre. Priest is still insulting
MacIntyre and some of his promos, like calling him a

(32:29):
cry baby and stuff like that's gonna come back around
on him. So I think that those two were going
to Mania, so they'll kind of cancel each other out here.
You know, I was thinking when I was going back
and forth, like if it's not Sena who wins, right,
you have Logan Paul eliminate John Cena after Sena eliminated
him at the Rumble, and we get that over exaggerated

(32:52):
expression on John Cena's face of shock and dismay and
oh my god, what am I gonna do? That's it
Number seventeen down down the toilet, And I could envision
a final two of CM Punk, who was actually dumped
out of the Rumble by Logan, and this time it's
Punk who puts Logan down. That's kind of what I
was starting to think before, But I keep coming back

(33:15):
to this damn favor. It's like I said before, if
Punk has that favor from Paul Hayman, I don't know
what else it would be if not him using it
to get a main event spot. At WrestleMania or get
a shot at the championship at some point. And if
he wins the chamber and he gets that on his own,
I feel like it basically negates the need for the favor.

(33:39):
So Sena could win. Punk could get Hayman to use
whatever influence he has with the Rock, him being so
close to the family at all, to get Rock to
add CM Punk to the match at WrestleMania to make
it a three way. That's how he gets in. He
doesn't win the chamber to get in, but Punk Cash
is in that favor. He gets added to the mat.

(34:01):
And if Punk is going heel you do the turn
there and you keep the fans guessing who's going to
the dark side right by the time that match is over.
Is it John Cena, Is it CM Punk Or maybe
it's Cody and then boom, it's CM Punk and it's
wrestle Maybe he is seventeen all over again. It's fun

(34:21):
to think about and play out all the different scenarios.
I'm going with John Cena. He was my original pick
after he lost the Royal Rumble. I'm gonna stick with that.
I think John Cena wins the elimination chamber, and then
I think Punk uses the favor from Hayman to work
his way into things. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

(34:41):
Today's episode is sponsored by HelloFresh. If you're tired of
trying to figure out what you're eating for dinner every night,
I know that frustration personally. All Right, what do I want?
I don't have enough time to spend a couple of
hours cooking up something good, but I'm tired of the
same old stuff all the time. Well, you don't need
to be tired of it anymore, because HelloFresh is here

(35:02):
to make things a hell of a lot easier. That's
why HelloFresh is America's number one meal kit. Now you
don't even need to make a trip to the grocery
store to grab what you need. HelloFresh makes home cooking easy, fun,
and affordable. Their new ready made meals go from the
fridge to your fork in just three minutes, made with
the same high quality ingredients and restaurant quality flavor that

(35:25):
you expect from HelloFresh without any of the work. And
there's over one hundred add on items that you can
add to your weekly box, like quick breakfasts, packable snacks,
beverages and more. HelloFresh offers a flexible plan to match
your lifestyle, and each week you'll get a box with
step by step instructions, complete with nutritional information and fresh,

(35:45):
pre measured ingredients to get you whipping up delicious meals
in no time. And if you ever need to cancel
or change meals or skip a week, they've got you covered.
Now I can tell you, well, look, I got a
bunch of meals recently. They hpped him to my house,
packed him in, packed him in real good too, with
the dry ice and everything, the whole deal, to make

(36:05):
sure that everything was fresh before I put it in
my fridge. And there was one meal that I had
in particular. Yeah, I stay away from anything cheesy or
creamy because I just can't have it. But they had
chicken ramen in a shaw U style broth on the
menu that week, with mushrooms and crispy onions, and it
was so good, so good. And they sent me the

(36:29):
box with all the ingredients already inside and a giant
card listing everything out step by step. Here's what to do,
here's when to put this in, which is perfect for
an idiot like me, because I'm sure I would screw
something up without it, but it's all right there for you,
and there was enough there for two people, so you
could even share it with someone else, or maybe there's
maybe there's some leftover even right, I mean, I certainly

(36:51):
was not left wanting. More like if you're hungry and
you're worried that you'll still be hungry. I certainly wasn't.
And the whole experience was super easy, and it probably
took me around I would say forty minutes or so. Right.
Some meals take less, some meals may take a little
bit more, but for dinner, it wasn't very long at all.

(37:11):
Get up to ten free meals and a free high
protein item for life at HelloFresh dot com slash HelloFresh Podcast.
One item per box with active subscription. Free meals applied
as discounts on first box new subscribers only. It varies
by plan. That's up to ten free Hello Fresh meals.

(37:31):
Just go to HelloFresh dot com slash HelloFresh Podcast, HelloFresh
America's number one meal kit. There was some news this
week on mounting frustration in the WWE women's locker room,
at least with some talents, maybe not all of them,
but certainly some of them. Speaking on Fightful's YouTube channel

(37:52):
on Wednesday, Sean ross Sapp stated that he has spoken
with many women in WWE who were frustrated with how
the women's division was being booked. He said, somebody asked
me about women's booking, and I said, yes, I have
spoken with plenty of women in WWE who were frustrated
with how the women's division is booked. This isn't a
new issue, but it's nowhere near the level of frustrations

(38:13):
seen around the Royal Rumble in twenty twenty two. Royal
Rumble twenty twenty two was so bad that I developed
sources because of how bad it was booked. This is
nowhere near that now. The twenty twenty two Rumble, for
those of you who may have forgotten, is the one
where Sasha Banks came out at number one, dressed the
Sailor Moon. She had been gone for like a month,

(38:36):
so this was like her return, and then she was
eliminated ten minutes into the match by Zelena Vega. Tamina
lasted longer than Sasha Banks did. It was fucking ridiculous.
So Sean said that one of the Vince McMahon pitches
for that Royal Rumble was to have Ronda Rousey come
back and eliminate the entire field all by herself. Thankfully

(39:00):
that did not happen. She did win the Rumble that year,
but she entered at number twenty eight. I don't need
any convincing, but because some people do, it's nice to
be reminded every now and then why that company is
better off not having Vince McMahon running creative anymore. When
we hear about shit like this, can you imagine Ronda

(39:20):
Rousey coming back and eliminating twenty nine other women to
win the Royal Rumble as awful as that second run
was when she came back, That's how it kicks off.
The fact that it was even pitched in the first
place should have gotten him barred from the building at
Titan Tower. They should have revoked his key card for that.
Sap continued, though, he said there was a situation where

(39:43):
one Women's WWE performer reached out to me and said, dude,
can you find out if I'm listed internally as a
heel or a babyface? And I was like, damn, okay.
I also that's what I was wondering on Monday when
Roxanne wrestled Riquel, I wouldn't be surprised if it was her.
I was like, wait a minute, rox Emperez is a
heel in NXT, and yet in that match with Raquel,

(40:05):
you know, especially the way they were talking about her
on commentary, you would think that she was a babyface.
He says. I also know that there have been wrestledmany
of pitches that were rejected because some talents don't want
to be just in a token tag match. They want
things put on a more even plane. In the women's division,
contracts are going up, viewership is adjusted accordingly for when

(40:26):
women are on screen. You're adding more titles, add more matches,
all that stuff. There's not that element of where a
lot of the men not only have one thing going on,
they have a lot of different things going on. And
that's just not the way it's been for the women.
And I don't know if that's a triple H thing
or what says. There's a lot of people that have
been parked. For example, I'm not going to say Natalia

(40:49):
is frustrated, but they signed Natalia, they wanted to keep Natalia.
They had creative plans for Natalia. What has Natalia done since,
hasn't been on NXT, hasn't been doing anything. Now, whether
or not you're a n Italia fan, you can understand
why she or anyone else would be frustrated, right, It's

(41:10):
not hard to see why if she is. You know,
he's not outing her as a source, he's just using
her as an example. Here. They threw a lot of
money at her to resign her. She obviously wants to
keep wrestling. I can see her being a very important
part of training future female stars, maybe ending up with
a coaching role at the performance Center or with NXT

(41:31):
at some point. But she wants to wrestle. And so
if they resigned you with the understanding that you would
still be wrestling, and you're not wrestling, then yes, that
would be pretty frustrating as an example. And by the way,
you know, when Sean says, I don't know if that's
a Triple H thing or what, I can't imagine that
there was some edict from Ari Emanuel and the people

(41:52):
above Triple H and Nick con that said, hey, we
want less women's wrestling on the show, or you can
feature it, but don't feature it as as cohesively as
you do the man like. No, when we're talking about
creative issues like this, you could say it it's okay
to say it's a triple H thing now or whether
or not there's a method to the madness or not,
I don't see what it is. But when you're the

(42:12):
head of creative and you're the chief content officer, I'm
sorry for all the people, myself included, who would lay
all the shit at Vince McMahon's feet when he was
in charge of creative right, and he was in charge
of everything right. It was his company and he had
his hands in everything, good, bad or indifferent. It starts
and stops with whoever is in charge of creative in

(42:33):
that case, for many, many, many years it was Vince McMahon.
There would be good stuff and it's like, okay, even
if he didn't come up with it himself, he green
lit it, he allowed it on TV, so you can
give him credit for that. But for the bad shit
that we saw, whether he came up with it himself
or he okayed the idea from somebody who thought that
he would like it, that's his responsibility. That's on him.

(42:53):
You want to blame Vince, go ahead. It's no different
with Triple H. I don't know why some people, you know,
and I'm not saying Sean is doing but I definitely
see people who will treat him with kid glove. People
accuse me of doing that and I just laugh, like,
I can't take you seriously if if you say something
like that, because numerous times I've called Triple H out
for things I don't like or things that I do like. Right,

(43:15):
there are things he does that I do like and
I think are great. But there are people out there
and it goes back to the tribalism where if you
say anything bad or anything negative about the company, about
Triple H, about Tony Kahn, about aaw they can't handle it.
They can't and they leap into defense mode. But it's
okay to say that Triple H. He's not infallible. There

(43:36):
are things he does that are not good or that
the women's division or the tag division. There are certain
aspects of the show and of the roster where improvements
can absolutely be made. He is the head of creative,
He is the chief content officer. If you have issues
with that, then you lay it at his feet. So, yes,

(43:57):
it is his responsibility. Now, Fightful Select had additional details
about this Kashawn. Initially he brought this up. It was
during a show that he was doing. It might have
been a super chat or something that came in. So
now they had a formal report about this whole thing,
and he said, we were asked to expand on some
of the frustrations of the women's division. It's important to

(44:20):
note that it does not reflect the entirety of the division,
but was echoed by numerous talent. Several women on the
WWE roster spoke with Fightful and noted the lack of
focus on developing contenders the tag team division and screen
time for women outside of the top of the division.
This was said to be specifically in comparison to NXT,
where main roster women's talent have noticed how much screen

(44:43):
time and focused those talents get and how emotional investment
then follows. It was also a point of redundant storylines,
with the same talent not only being featured at the
top of the card, but even in the mid card
title scene. Those that we spoke to were happy for
those who get that screen time and said that it
shouldn't be a they're getting too much time conversation. It
should be give other people more time. In addition to them, conversation,

(45:07):
those that Fightful spoke with pointed to Sonya Deville effectively
being cut while negotiating a new deal is something that
didn't instill confidence when they are not being used by
the company. We're told that Deville had been told as
recently as four days prior to her release that the
company was looking to keep her. Several who have inquired
about their creative plans were told that their time would

(45:27):
be coming, and they were asked to be patient. I
understand not all of the women can be featured in
prominent roles at the same time. Some of them are
going to have to wait. And if they have ideas
for them and they're just waiting for one story to
end and then theirs begins, I totally understand that. So
is it a case or triple h or whoever you
Are they being honest when they say that, or are

(45:50):
they just trying to get them off their backs? I
don't know. There are only so many segments on one show,
and you're sharing time with the men as well, and
the men's ross are on Raw, the men's roster on SmackDown.
It's bigger than the women's but this is not a
new problem. This has been an ongoing problem now for
a while. The lack of focus on the tag team

(46:11):
division since they insist on keeping those titles, the lack
of attention to stories outside of the top handful of
women in the division, Rhea Ripley, Live, Morgan Nya, Jack's
Charlotte Flair now that she's back, Tiffty Stratton, Right, they
get all the attention. I'm not saying they shouldn't, but
you know, or at least in most cases, but they
get all the attention. But now you have mid card titles,

(46:34):
two of them that you just introduced, and nobody cares.
Nobody cares. Triple H has done a terrible job of this.
Look at fucking Ivy Nile. Ivy Nile has been talking
about challenging Lyra Valkyria for the Intercontinental title, then has
a match on Monday with Dakota Kai to determine a

(46:55):
number one contender. You would think that Tomaso Champa snuck
out there and asked for a moment of silence. It
was so quiet in that building. Nobody cared. Why should
they to number one contenders match for a title that
nobody gives a shit? About because they haven't been given
a reason to care. And this is not a problem

(47:17):
unique to the women, by the way, It's the same
reason the men's I see and the men's US titles
were in the doldrums for so long. You know, Gunther's
run in the way that they protected him, that really
elevated that Intercontinental title to a place that it had
not been in many years. I would argue it hadn't
been there since Miz had that run back in twenty seventeen,
and before that. I couldn't even fucking tell you the

(47:38):
last time the Intercomminental Championship meant a damn thing. Shinsky Nakamora.
He won the US title from La Night. He spends
most of his time now stalking people backstage like Japanese
Jason Vorhees right, I mean Lyra beat Dakota to win
the title on January thirteenth. It took them an entire
month to get her a match, and when they did,

(48:00):
what happened. She lost non title. It was a qualifying match,
but she lost in the same week that their other champion,
Chelsea Green, also lost. Yet Ivy Nile is talking about
challenging Lyra for her title and then she goes out
there and loses to Dakota on Monday, So Dakota is
challenging for the title tomorrow night. But forget that. What

(48:23):
have they done with Ivy Nile on TV to warrant
her getting a championship match or to get people to
really invest in her? When Ivy is out there, people
are silent because they haven't taken the time to let
people know who she is or care about her interviews,
backstage segment, I mean the backstage segment that she's in.

(48:43):
They're useless. Backstage segments, interviews, video packages, matches, whatever. You
can't just give her a token segment here and there
and expect people to care. So she's going to continue
to wrestle to crickets and then she'll be cast aside
for the next challenger and they won't do anything with
her because, oh, she's not over. Gee, I wonder why
that is. I understand the talent. They have to get

(49:08):
themselves over, Yes, that is true, but they need to
be put in a position to succeed. In order for
that to happen, they need the support. And if they
fall flat on their face, then they fall flat on
their face and you move on to the next but
they're not being given anything in a lot of cases.
Zelina Vegas, she got a video package on Friday Night
on SmackDown. Good. That's a step in the right direction.

(49:30):
But what else are they going to do to get
people to care about her challenging Chelsea for the US
title when that day comes? They point to the ladies
on NXT and how they're being used as a point
of frustration. Why they're not doing something like that with
them on the main roster. The NXT women's division right
now is stacked with talent, right you hear that word
thrown around a lot man. Look how stacked the division is, right,

(49:52):
guess what so is the main roster. People don't talk
about that so much, but look at the main roster.
I know people love to rave about Julia and Stephanie
Vicaire and Jordan Grace now is there and oh my god,
soul Ruka, she's such an athlete, She's going to be
such a big star. Zaria is great. Yes, so are
Eo Sky and Rhea Ripley and Tiffany Stratton and Bianca

(50:15):
bell Air and on and on and on. They've got
plenty of great talent too. But look at what Sean
Michaels is doing with them on NXT, and look at
what Triple H is doing. Yeah, I went because I
watched the show this week, and I went back and
I counted it out. This week's episode of NXT featured
thirteen different women in matches on a two hour show.

(50:35):
You're lucky to get half that on Raw or smack
Down any given week. NXT is the closest thing, honestly
to an all women show that WWE has ever had.
The first two matches this week were women's matches, and
they shot an angle with Julia, Stephanie, and Jordan making
the save for Carmen Petrovic and fighting off fatal influence

(50:57):
that set up the six women tag that we had
in the main event of the show. And evidently the
ratings for the women's segments generally do well on Tuesdays.
I'm not saying that it has to be even Stephen
do on the main roster exactly what they're doing in NXT,
but they can learn from what NXT is doing. Right.

(51:19):
They do a better job of fleshing out their characters.
It's not always good. I'll tune in sometimes and I'll
see these backstage segments that belong on fucking public access TV,
not the CW network. But they take the time to
develop their characters, not just at the top level, up
and down the show. Some of the stories I just
can't get into, but at least they're taking that's what

(51:39):
developmental should be for. They're taking the time to develop them.
There are lessons to be learned from what Shawn Michaels
is doing down there. But if these anonymous women are
worried about a lack of equity when it comes to
TV time, or if they're worried about the company focusing
on the same ones over and over and over again, boy,
it ain't going to get any better for them. Once

(52:00):
Becky comes back, and when Julia eventually gets called up
and Stephanie gets called up and Jordan gets called up.
I'm looking forward to it. I think it's going to
be great to see those women mixing it up with
all the big names on Ron's backdown, But I don't
see it getting any better for the women underneath. Now.
Speaking of NXT, I did catch the episode this week.

(52:21):
I'm not going to do a full review, but I
wanted to especially see the contracts signing with Ricky Stocks
who came into this show with no name this week,
but he was signing his contract. But there were a
lot of things that happened on this show. They had
Oba Feme coming off of his win over Waller in
Theory at Vengeance Day, the NXT champion. He comes out

(52:43):
for a promo and he said, those four fools who
attacked him after his match, that was the new Retribution
group whatever they're going to be calling themselves. I hope
it works out a lot better for them than that did.
But he said, those four fools who attacked him after
his match made one very big mistake. They didn't finish
the job. And he told them, get your ass out

(53:05):
to the ring and finish what you started. And the
lights went out, and who should show up? It wasn't
you know Retribution two point zero. It was Moose from TNA,
and the place went nuts once they recognize who it was.
This was his debut and they circle each other in
the ring. That had a big stare down and Moose

(53:25):
said that he just burst Oba's bubble because he was
the one man that Oba could not rule over. And
Oba said that that place where you're the man that's
your bubble here. I'm inevitable and Moose said that this
had to happen Oba Femi against Moose, and Oba said,
don't worry it will. I love the idea, by the way,

(53:47):
that like that place where you're the man completely ignoring
who the raining TAA World Heavyweight Champion is. I understand
that Moose, I guess, you know, ex division champion, but
it's you would watch this segment and really think that
Moose was the like, he's their world champion, He's their
top guy. Oba's enxt's top guy. Poor Joe Hendry. I mean,
he's just relegated to concerts on Thursday and he's not part.

(54:09):
He's not part of what's going on here. He's still
busy challenging John Cena to a match that may or
may not happen. So this was interesting. This was a
nice surprise. The fans reacted well to it. Later in
the show, we found out there was a backstage segment.
It was actually the way it was done was kind
of very underwhelming, but they had the no quarter catch

(54:30):
crew backstage and in the middle of this promo segment,
they turned to the camera because they have a challenge.
They want to issue and it's Miles Bourne and Tavian
Heights and they issue a challenge to Matt and Jeff Hardy,
who are currently the TNA World Tag Team Champions. So
then later in the show we have a promo that

(54:50):
was inserted into the show because we have a response
from Matt and Jeff and they accepted their challenge. And
on Matt's pot cast, he said that video that aired
on NXT that was a last minute thing. It was
not even made until like an hour or so before
it was posted. So now we got the hearties are

(55:11):
on NXT. But also on this show, we had the
contract signing and Ava was in the ring for Ricky
Starks still not identified the man with no name. She
said that she was in the ring with the hottest
free agent in wrestling. Ricky said that there were some
things he wanted to get off his chest. He wanted

(55:33):
to main event every NXT pl e and become the
NXT champion. I'm the man here. He said he was
going to do what he always did, which would show
up and show out because the revolution was beginning, and
he was interrupted by Ethan Page and so Ethan was basically,
you know, cutting a heel promo here and let me

(55:56):
guess you're in here to sign your new deal. And
in that d it says that your first match you're
going to be challenging for a championship. And he says,
you're a genius. You're following the Ethan Page playbook to
a t. But I want to tell you as a friend,
there's only one Ethan Page. And Ricky told him you're
wearing your insecurity as tight as you have that jacket

(56:18):
on right now. And you should know that I walked
the walk and I talked to talk and I'm here
to take this place to a different level. And Page
said that you'll never reach the bar that I set.
And Ricky said, let's not do this right now. Let's celebrate.
I'm signing with NXT. You just beat Javon Evans a
vengeance day. But remember people like Javon, they always come

(56:38):
back around to whip that ass. And wouldn't you know,
Javon Evans suddenly hit the ring, he brawled with Ethan
into the crowd. Ricky was finally about to sign the
contract and then he was interrupted by Wesley Now in
the back. There was a segment earlier where Wesley was
being interviewed, and when the interviewer spotted Ricky walking by,

(56:59):
she basically said, Okay, I'm done with you. I want
to go talk to Ricky. So I guess this offended Wesley.
He says, look, I know who you are, but you're
new around here, and there are rules, and the number
one rule is you don't disrespect Wesley Ava If he
signs that contract, I want to show him the ropes
and I want to be the one to welcome him
to NXT. And Ricky said, why is everybody so angry

(57:22):
all the time? Said next week, you and I in
the ring. No problem. So he goes to sign the contract.
West tried to take a shot at him. Ricky clotheslined
him out of the ring. He finally signs the contract,
he strikes a pose and the cameraman then zooms in
on the on the contract which is sitting on the table,
and the name and giant letters on the contract it

(57:44):
ain't Ricky Starks, It's Ricky Saints, And finally the announcers
acknowledged Ricky Saint says, come to NXT now. Ricky went
on Busted Open Radio after the show went off the air,
and he talked to the new name. This is what
he said. He said, it's as close as you're going
to get to Starks. I like the name. I know

(58:07):
a lot of people are going to be, Oh, it's
going to take time for them to get used to it.
I respect that they care so deeply about me that
they rebel against any name change. But at the same time,
I am a product of New Orleans first and foremost,
and I want to pay respect to that as well.
I think this is the best of both worlds, and
that means a lot to me. Obviously. I think it's
cool to have a piece of home with me and

(58:29):
the person doesn't change. I'm still that guy, and so
it is what it is. And I thought that last
it is what it is line was maybe the most
telling of the entire thing, because there is some people,
I think, who just assumed that this whole thing was
his idea, Like they were going to let him keep
the name, or he could have kept the name, but
he was like, you know what, I want to change
my name. I don't think that's what's going on here.

(58:50):
You know, bron Breaker opted to change his name because
he wanted to blaze his own path without the Steiner
name Brian Pillman Junior. He went with Lexus King to
do the same thing and get away from his dad's name.
I don't think Ricky Stark sat at home for a
year waiting to come to WWE, thinking, first thing I'm
gonna do, I'm going to change my name when I

(59:11):
get there. So I don't know what the reason is.
I assume he just didn't want to surrender the rights
to his name because he's one of the very few
that had to change it. There's been so many people
that have come in from other places, including aw and
they're they're using the same name that they were using before.
So he chose to come up with a name that

(59:33):
sounded similar as similar as possible to Ricky Starks, same initials,
but just incorporate a little piece of himself into it.
What do I think of the name. It's fine, It's
not a bad name. I mean again, I've seen some
of these fucking names they've been trademarking left and right recently.
Some of them are not that terrible. Some of them
are fucking awful. It could have been a lot worse,

(59:54):
especially if they came to him and said, hey, we
have a name, we want you to use. At least
he had input into it. It's not dramatically different from
the name he was using before. Ricky, you know, thank god.
I mean it could have been worse. He could have
been born in Tampa Bay. Okay, Ricky Buccaneers doesn't have
quite the same ring to it. So Ricky Saints is fine.

(01:00:15):
Bully ray On busted up and then gave him the
floor to talk a little bit about his departure from
AAW So he talked about that. He said, I don't
know the specifics of what it was. Some people you
asked the internet it was because you were at the
Royal Rumble. Screw you. The footage got leaked from me
being at the Rumble. I wasn't backstage. I left after

(01:00:36):
the first match. Some could say, well, you were at
WrestleMania last year in a suite and you got on
camera you were cheering. Screw you. You're an idiot with
no friends and no passion in life. If you think
the damnedest thing that I've done is cheering somebody on
in another company. My boss was okay with it. I
can't tell you exactly what the moment was. You could

(01:00:58):
say it was punk leaving and things kind of fell apart. Absolutely,
I probably agree with you on that, all right. Or
you could say that Ricky didn't play the politics well enough,
all right, for sure. There's so many things you can say.
What I can say for myself is that when I
got hurt in March, that was it. I never came back,
and even then I wasn't hurt. It was a precautionary

(01:01:21):
thing where I got scared because I had a stinger.
Then I was fine after that, no dice, no communication,
no nothing. And that's okay because I ended up here
and it's fine. Everything worked out. I don't know explicitly
where it went wrong. I can't point to one thing.
I can say. It was a storm of things. Probably
did I do something that may have, you know, tipped

(01:01:42):
them off, Sure, asking for my release whenever, this past whatever,
that could have been it. But never once was I
not willing to do something. Never once was I sabotaging anything.
And Bully asked him if he felt that it was
a personal or a professional reason for the release, and
Start said that it was probably personal, because if it

(01:02:04):
was professional, his departure would would not have happened. This way,
he says, I'll say this. There are some people who
stuck their nose in my creative business that should not
have happened veterans, and that's it. I'll leave it at that.
And if they got a problem with me, they got
my number, they could text me about it. I think
what it was is that if it didn't work for

(01:02:24):
their creative then someone had to get the boot. That's
how I see it. But I'm not trying to be
negative in my thought process. If you want to step
on me to get ahead in your illustrious career, everyone
has an illustrious career. Everyone should have an illustrious career.
That's perfectly fine. But at the same time, I'm not
wet behind my ears. So that was a lot to

(01:02:47):
say that. At the end of the day, he doesn't
know exactly what it was. As far as why Tony
Khan wouldn't bring him back and wouldn't have him back
on TV working, It could be as simple as Tony
Khan really did just think he's going to WWE and
it doesn't matter what we do with him, so fuck him.
I don't want him on my television show. Could have
been as simple as that could have been backstage politics.

(01:03:08):
We don't know because we were in backstage with politicking,
So who knows. I know a lot of people have
been floating the segment from Collision. I think it was
not long after Adam Copeland joined the company and there
was a promo segment and Ricky got some shots in
and then clearly he rattled Copeland, and honestly, in that segment,
Copeland did not come off well at all. Some people

(01:03:29):
are like, oh, Ricky got cooked. No he didn't. Adam
Copeland looked very insecure and very kind of knocked off
his game. In that segment. He went to the old
vanilla midget thing, which is fucking low hanging fruit. It's like, really, dude,
that's the best you can come up with. So he
clearly was not happy with Ricky. Did he say something

(01:03:49):
backstage to Tony Kahn? Did he say something that would
have negatively impacted Ricky's push? Yeah, because Ricky was still
on TV after that for a few more months. I
don't know. I don't know. People are throwing names around
Ricky or not Ricky, you know, Copeland and Jericho, who knows?
Who knows? All that matters is that he's gone. He

(01:04:09):
wanted out of there. He got out of there and
now he's where he has always wanted to be, and
hopefully he will have a great run down there that
isn't too long, and then eventually he'll end up on
Raw or SmackDown, and you know, as popular as he
is right now, I see Ricky really shining when he
has a good heel run. I think when the heel

(01:04:30):
run comes, that's where he'll really shine. But we have
coming up on NXT this week. They announced a bunch
of matches. Stephanie Vequier will defend her Women's North American
championship against Carmen Petrovic. Moose, the TNA X Division champion,
we'll defend his title against Lexus King. The Hardys are

(01:04:51):
going to defend Actually I don't think they are defending.
I don't think they said it's a title match, but
they are the TNA Tag Team champions. They're going to
be facing the note Quoder Catch Crew. Ricky Say will
have his first match tagging with Javon Evans against Wesley
and Ethan Page, and they're gonna be in Cincinnati on Tuesday.
They're gonna beat the same music venue where AW did
a show last month. That was the night that John

(01:05:12):
Moxley defended the aw title against Powerhouse Hobbs. I love
the look of that place, so I'm assuming it'll be
set up more or less the same way. I think
that's gonna be a great venue for that show. TNA.
They had back to back shows this week from Full
Sale University. They actually had a live show there on
Thursday and then tapings on Friday, and Obafemi, the NXT Champion,

(01:05:34):
made a surprise appearance on Thursday's Live Impact alongside Matt
and Jeff Hardy came to the aid of Leon Slater
from a beatdown at the hands of Moose and his
faction the System, Brian Myers and Eddie Edwards, and they
made a six man tag team match. It's gonna be Oba,
Femi and the Hardy's taking on Moose, Myers and Edwards

(01:05:59):
on Impact this coming Thursday, which has already been taped,
so there's spoilers that are out on that already. Just
be aware of that. Also, the date and place of
the match with Oba and Moose has been set, so
for any Impact watchers who don't want to know, I'm
not going to mention it. It's not hard to find
if you want to look it up. But they all

(01:06:21):
but said that they're going to have a match, right.
They said that on Tuesday, So that's not really a surprise,
but as far as the win and where that is
floating around out there, to just be aware. Speaking of TNA,
one quick note here. TNA star Jake Something launched a
GoFundMe this week to help with his medical expenses after
undergoing surgery recently for a torn biceps, and he said,

(01:06:44):
being uninsured, the medical bills are crippling. Add to that,
his dog Leah had to get surgery the same day
that he did, so he's got bills from that as well.
And I know recently he had to vacate a couple
of independent titles that he held, and he specifically thanked
I think it was Deadlock Pro for their help when

(01:07:05):
he first made the announcement. He really put them over.
So I'm not sure if he got hurt in their
ring or not. His last three matches were all in
a TNA ring, his last match coming against Joe Hendry
on the January twenty fourth episode of Impact. It's possible
he wrestled those matches he was already hurt. Maybe he
wrapped it up. He did the matches and then he

(01:07:26):
went off to have surgery. If he was hurt on
TNA's watch in their ring, then I don't understand why
they're not covering his medical expenses. I know they've taken
good care of Chris Bay after he got hurt in
their ring. They should be taking care of Jake two.
Unless he got hurt in someone else's ring, then I
can understand it. Still shitty, but I can understand it. Hey,

(01:07:48):
it's Chris van Fleet.

Speaker 2 (01:07:49):
Big thank you to Sola Monster for letting me hop
in here for a minute, since you clearly like great
wrestling podcasts.

Speaker 1 (01:07:54):
When this one's done, go check out mine. It's called
Insight with Chris Van Fleet.

Speaker 2 (01:07:59):
All of my interviews that you may have seen clips
of on social media or on YouTube, they're all available
in podcast form. Ludwig Kaiser just did his first podcast
interview that's on the show. Some other recent interviews are
seth Rawlins, Jordan Grace, Kurt Angle, Otis, Chad Gable, Baron Corbyn,
and lots more. Go check out Insight with Chris Van

(01:08:19):
Vleet on Spotify or Apple or wherever you're listening to
this right now, or look for those interviews on YouTube,
as well.

Speaker 1 (01:08:28):
Some other news and notes. Carmela is no longer with WWE.
Masked j of pw Nexus on Twitter and Sean Ross
Sappa Fightful both reported that her contract recently expired and
she is no longer with the company. She was also
moved to the alumni section on WWE dot Com. She's
been out for a while. You know, we talked about

(01:08:49):
Alexa Bliss coming back at the Royal Rumbles. She was
out for two years, and Carmela has also been out
for two years. She's been out since early twenty twenty three.
She had her first child with Corey Graves later that year,
but she ended up suffering from drop foot, which is
a nerve condition that could be caused by childbirth, basically
nerve damage. It can paralyze the foot or part of

(01:09:10):
the foot, which can make it hard to lift the
front part of the foot. Scott Steiners had drop foot
for over twenty years. You know, he can barely stand
watching any of his WWE stuff back when he came
back to the company in two thousand and two because
of it, because he had some really bad matches. The
only reason he was able to work with it is
because he would tape it up. It was almost like
a cast, and he would just hope that he didn't

(01:09:33):
fall or get hurt. He was unbusted open just recently
and said that he stumbles at least twice a day,
you know, like he won't fall, but like he'll trip
because his foot doesn't come all the way up. But
she said she wrestled for eleven years and outside of
some concussions, she never had a major injury until she

(01:09:54):
delivered her son, and then she had her first major injury.
And it wasn't a case where she got hurt in
the ring and they released her like they did Carl Anderson,
but they just let her contract expire. They did the
same thing with Sonya Deville. Her deal runs out at
the end of the month. I don't know if she's
ever going to wrestle again. It sounds like she wants to,

(01:10:15):
so I hope she can somewhere. But if she never
works another match for WWE again, she had a respectable run.
I would say, SmackDown Women's Champion, tag Team Champion, first
ever Women's Money in the Bank winner. You know she'll
be getting that Hall of Fame induction one day. It
looks like Goulberg, will not be haunting wrestle Mania this year.

(01:10:37):
On his weekly car Cast podcast, Bill Goldberg said that
he expects to be back in the ring for his
retirement match sometime this summer. Says, I don't know exactly
when it is, but I know it's coming up, and
I know, at fifty eight years old, I have to
be in my underwear in front of everybody, and I
hold a very high standard for myself. I do too,
by the way. You know, I'll look at myself in

(01:10:59):
the mirror in my own to where sometimes and my
standards are very low. But he says, I need to
get to work yesterday, But the long term benefit and
the benefit for me in the ring will be much
more if I just calmed my ass down. So this
all came up as part of a discussion about stem
cell therapy injections, which he recently received in Columbia, where
a lot of wrestlers have gone to get similar treatment.

(01:11:22):
Kevin Nash is always talking about that bio accelerator. He
swears by them. He goes down there maybe a couple
of times a year, because they only last for so
long and you have to constantly go back, not every month,
but you have to go back and get more injections.
But he swears by it, you know, raymisterio, He's gotten
it for his knees especially. It's probably added years to

(01:11:43):
his career if you look at it, Ray fifty years
old and wondering how the fuck is this guy still
flying around the ring and doing what he does when
I mean, my god, like legitimately, like twelve or thirteen
years ago, I thought he was washed. I thought he
was done. Yeah, it was like every other month we
were hearing about n injuries with him, and so he
had all of this time basically that he added onto

(01:12:04):
his career. And I'm sure the stem cell therapy is
a big part of why. So Goldberg apparently is going
the same route. So a summertime match could be Summer Slam,
not necessarily Summer Slam, although they've added the extra night,
so it's gonna be a big one this year. They're
gonna be back to back nights in MetLife Stadium, so
they're gonna have some tickets to sell for that one.

(01:12:26):
That would be an attraction. I guess that they could
add to that, but it could just as easily be
their next Saudi Arabia show, which is said to be
taking place sometime in June, so long as he doesn't
headbut his locker again and knock himself silly. And Michael
Cole appeared on Logan Paul's Impulsive Podcasts for an hour

(01:12:47):
long interview. I watched the entire thing. I thought it
was very good. You could tell he's having a lot
more fun with his job now that he did in
his first twenty five years there. I know that he
re signed with the company last year, but he revealed
that his new contract will take him to retirement age.
He's fifty eight now, and later in the interview he

(01:13:09):
clarified that he's got eight years left on his deal.
He said, the company really made me feel for the
first time like I was really important to this place. So,
you know, from contemplating retirement to signing a new contract
for ten years. I assume it was around ten years
when he signed it. If he's got eight left, it

(01:13:30):
would be weird to sign a fucking nine year deal.
But yes, he was thinking about quitting when Vince was
still in charge. To go from that to like, yeah,
I'll sign a new freaking decade long contract. Sure, So
he was asked what about the deal made him feel
that way, and he said, the paycheck is part of it,
but the new regime had a lot to do with it.
When I went to sign the new deal, I sat

(01:13:51):
down with my wife and I'm fifty eight years old now,
and I'm like, they want to get me to retirement age.
And this is because we had talked about me getting
off this out of this for a long time now
because of the travel and everything else. Yeah, I think
it's the everything else that's the key here. And she
was like, you gotta do it. This is your legacy.

(01:14:12):
Like you're going to be miserable if you don't finish
this up the way that you want to finish it up.
And she was great about it. So she was one
hundred percent on board with it, and so I'm here
for a while. He was asked about the Corey Grave
situation and had this to say about it. I still
don't understand all the dynamics of it. I know that
he sent something out on social media that was pretty

(01:14:32):
critical of the company. He tried to explain to everyone
that he was trying to generate some interest in maybe
a type of storyline. I don't think the company saw
it that way. I think he and the company are
working that out. I love Corey to death. He's an
unbelievable commentator. Besides McAfee, he's probably the best partner I've
ever had. Oh. I think there was some very real

(01:14:53):
frustration behind that tweet that he deleted, and I think
it's very telling that they did not call on Corey
to fill in for Joe testeditour a couple of weeks
ago when he missed SmackDown. They called on Vic Joseph,
as they did last week when Jackie Redman missed Row
for the NHL Nations game. They had Vic Joseph doing
interviews with the wrestlers up on the concourse throughout the
entire show. It may have just been during the ad breaks,

(01:15:16):
but Vic filling in for Joe and not Corey, I
think was very telling. He also spoke about Vince McMahon
and how things in the company have been since his departure,
and he also admitted that he was a puppet for
Vince for many years and that's how the fans looked
at him. But he said, listen, I will never ever
disparage Vince McMahon. He's got his personal issues and what not.

(01:15:40):
From a professional standpoint, I will never disparage the man.
I would not be where I am today without Vince.
He gave me everything. I'll never disparage the man. But
Vince was very heavy handed. It was his company, his sandbox,
whatever he wanted, so I was never really able to
break out and be myself, with the exception of a
little bit of a heel run that I had over
a decade ago. But when Vince left and Paul came

(01:16:02):
in and was in charge Triple H, he really changed things.
Then we brought in Lee Fitting, who came from ESPN.
Lee coming from ESPN where the talent is the announcer,
he came here and said, I don't understand why our
guys at the desk are not bigger and have bigger
personas and are as respected as the people in the ring.
What Lee and Paul have allowed us to do is

(01:16:23):
bring our personalities out, and you're seeing the real Michael
Cole now. Professionally, sure, Vince did a lot for him,
so I'm not surprised by his answer, but he went
out of his way to make sure that he said professionally,
I will never disparage Vince McMahon and here's why, and
this is why things are different now. You know, his
way of saying that Vince micro managed everything was saying

(01:16:45):
that he was very heavy handed, which we already knew, right.
People have said that, people that have done commentary have
said that. I mean, there's videos. I don't know where
they are now, but like over the years, I'm going
back to like small down in two thousand and three,
for example, and you would get these satellite videos that
would pop up from the satellite feed didn't err on TV,

(01:17:09):
and you would hear you couldn't hear Vince, you couldn't
hear who was in his ear, but you would hear
Cole on commentary. And I can't remember what the circumstances were.
There was one video Vince was lacing into him about
something and JBL has been filling in for Bruce Pritchard
on his podcast now for several months, and there was
a clip going around recently where he was talking about

(01:17:29):
Cole and how Vince McMahon went off on him one
like there's so many stories about that, and it's amazing
he lasted as long as he did, either because he
didn't get run off or that Vince didn't get tired
of him. I mean, the turnover with so many people
in this company, announcers, writers, is astronomical over the years.
How Michael Cole survived in that spot for so long

(01:17:52):
is a credit to him. Obviously, Vince saw something in
him that he didn't with other people, and he survived
a hell of a lot longer than people I think
thought he would when he first came into the company.
But he also talked about the evolution of WWE and
he said something that and I take issue with this,
and this just made me shake my head. He's not
wrong in a lot of what he's saying here, but

(01:18:14):
there's one part in particular that really got on my nerves.
He said, we're a storytelling entity. First, we're not professional
wrestling anymore, we haven't been for many years. We are
an entertainment product, and we need stories so our fans
can emotionally invest in our characters. They also said, you know,

(01:18:34):
Jim Ross came to WWE already a wrestling guy, and
I think me, being new and fresh and not a
wrestling guy, Vince was able to mold me how he
wanted me to be an announcer. I think people are
beginning to understand now that, yeah, you know what, you
don't have to call every single move in a wrestling match.
You make sure you call the big spots, the big moments.
But it's more important for me to explain to our

(01:18:56):
audience who you guys are first. Let me just say
a lot of what he said there is one hundred
percent true. They are a storytelling entity, and you absolutely
need to tell those stories to get people to emotionally
invest in your characters. Oka story is so important, and

(01:19:16):
you don't have to call the name of every single move.
Jim Ross said at once, like it's not radio, it's TV.
People can see what's going on. It's a little bit
different if you're a radio announcer, right, you have to
give these details. People can't see what's going on on television.
It's different. You don't have to go all in on that.
But Michael Cole is clearly still Vince pilled Vince McMahon.

(01:19:38):
For as much as he grew up around the wrestling business,
and he will go down as the most successful pro
wrestling promoter of all time. It has to aggravate the
shit out of him that people would still call him
that a professional wrestling promoter. Right. I'm sure he just
must hate that because he has spent his entire adult
life outside of trying to fuck anything in his s art,

(01:20:00):
he has spent his entire adult life trying to differentiate
his product from everyone else's because he didn't think pro
wrestling would sell tickets to the masses, right, and pay
per views and sell merchandise. It's like wrestling became a
dirty word to him, even though it was in the
name of the company. Still they shied away from it

(01:20:21):
so much. And I'm not even saying he's totally wrong, Like,
if you wanted to bring wrestling more into the mainstream, right,
you focus more on some stuff, you focus less on
other stuff. Play stuff up, play stuff down. Where I
take issue with this is that pro wrestling we don't
do pro wrestling anymore. We're not a pro wrestling company anymore.

(01:20:42):
Pro wrestling has always been about the personalities and the stories.
You could take it all the way back to the
advent of TV and Gorgeous George right, that man was
ahead of his time. Go to the seventies, Dusty Rhodes
and Superstar Billy Graham, other territories into the eighties outside
of his own, the Road Warriors, the Four Horsemen staying,

(01:21:03):
the evil Russians right, the stories they were doing in
Mid South, Jyd being blinded and not being able to
see his baby girl, you know, the Freebirds and the
von Eerics. Like, I hate this idea that we're not
professional wrestling anymore. We're a storytelling company, as if they
were never a storytelling company, as if they weren't telling

(01:21:24):
stories on their shows twenty five years ago, thirty years ago.
Like this is some kind of new era that they
ushered in with the Bloodline. I mean, they may be
more cinematic in the way they present things, but they are,
and always have been, and always will be, first and
foremost above all else, a professional wrestling company. But Vince

(01:21:47):
was so worried about the stigma around that word that
he managed to convince these people that everyone looks at
wrestling the same way, and so you know, what we're
going to do was something innovative and completely different from
what is anyone else is doing. It's not it's really
not like it's not that deep. You're a pro wrestling company, dude,

(01:22:09):
Like no father is telling their son, hey, let's go
to the entertaining show. Tonight, Hey Winston, they're telling stories
tonight at the Barclay Center. Want to go? You don't
want to do matches just for the sake of doing
matches with no story? I agree with that, right, unless
there's squash matches, right, you're just trying to get somebody
new over, that's fine. But this idea that like we

(01:22:30):
tell stories and other companies don't like it's something trademarked
and patented by WWE. It's just so fucking laughable to me.
Pro wrestling is storytelling. It has been for a lot
longer than Michael Cole has been around. It's the story
of good versus evil, right with larger than life personalities.

(01:22:51):
That's what pro wrestling is. That's what WWE is. You
are a pro wrestling company. Over on the aew C
per pw Insider Max will be adding AW pay per
views from twenty twenty, twenty one, twenty two, twenty three,
and twenty four to their streaming service on March first.

(01:23:13):
They already have all the big events from twenty nineteen.
Once those are added, Max would have every pay per
view and special event in AW history available for their subscribers,
so just be aware of that. According to Programming Insider,
this week's edition of NXT drew six hundred and eighty
nine thousand viewers, which is a big drop from the

(01:23:35):
eight hundred and one thousand that it did the week before.
The eighteen to forty nine demo also dropped from point
one eight to point one seven, and that's coming out
of Vengeance Day and they had a Ricky Starks contract signing. Meanwhile,
per Wressel, namiks Aw Dynamite drew five hundred and sixty
three thousand viewers on TBS, which is a decrease from

(01:23:55):
last week's five hundred and seventy nine thousand, but eighteen
to forty one nine improved slightly. It was up a
little bit from point one six to point one seven,
tying what NXT did this week. And this doesn't account
for whatever audience now watches the show on Max. I
happen to be one of those people, and no, I
don't think it's anywhere near the number they do on TV.

(01:24:17):
I see people online they're like sometimes they're like, they
could have a million more viewers watching on Max. You
don't know, Like, yeah, sure they could, they could. And
if my aunt had balls, should be my uncle that's
possible too. As far as I know, my aunt doesn't
have any balls. That would be news to all of
us if that was the case. I don't think that's
the case, but one can't ever really fully be sure.

(01:24:38):
I guess, but I don't even get into the ratings
discourse anymore really on these shows, because especially once they
started simulcasting on Max, because without having access to those numbers,
it's all kind of pointless. But the usual bad faith
merchants on social media, they were tripping over themselves this
week to point out that Dynamite dropped coming out of

(01:25:00):
Grand Slam. Oh, look at the drop. You know they
dropped for Hangman at MJF. That's their big storyline. So
I thought it was only fair to point out that
NXT also dropped, even though they had more viewers and
even steeper drop coming out of Vengeance Day. So it
wasn't really a good week for either show in that regard,
and to twist it any other way really exposes you.

(01:25:21):
So don't be one of those people. While speaking on
the Coach and Bro Show, which is typically hosted by
Jonathan Coachman and Vince Russo, Bro the Bro was out
this week, I saw that JD was co hosting the
show with Coach on Thursday. But Coachman mentioned how people

(01:25:41):
started talking when that picture was floating around last year
of Shane McMahon and Tony Kahan meeting at the airport
in Arlington. They had rumors about Shane possibly joining AW
and then all of that talk, all of a sudden
stopped and there's been no indication that any progress was
made between the two sides. And if you remember, Shane

(01:26:01):
even put a statement out in the days after the
meeting that the statement said Tony and I were connected
through a mutual friend and we had a great meeting.
We talked about many things, but mostly about our shared
love for the business and the rewards and challenges of
working with family. I congratulated him on the five year
anniversary of AAW and I look forward to how he
evolved the business going forward. And that was that well.

(01:26:24):
According to coach Shane asked for a significant deal, including
equity in the company and control over the entire show.
Tony Kahan ultimately ghosted Shane, not the other way around.
This is what Coach said. I remember the picture that
surface with Shane and Tony in their meeting and there
was all this speculation that he wanted to come into AAW.

(01:26:46):
Then all of a sudden that talk disappeared. Well, I
have it on good authority that Shane McMahon asked for
the world. He wanted equity in the company. He wanted
to come in and run the entire show. And honestly,
it was probably the first time that I said to myself,
I actually agree with Tony Kahn ghosting it. Because Tony
ghosted Shane. It wasn't the other way around. So fightful

(01:27:07):
Select followed up on this and reported that a source
close to Shane confirmed that Tony Khan made no effort
to continue discussions after their private meeting near Arlington Airport.
While rumors swirled that McMahon had asked for equity in
the company, the source could not confirm that, but did
acknowledge that Shane wanted to run things. It seemed like

(01:27:28):
KHN almost thought Shane was joking when he mentioned the
possibility of running everything, the source said. Despite AAW's lack
of respond Shane apparently didn't take it personally and understood
that nothing was going to come from the talks from
AAW side. Sources stated that Tony Kahan never talked much
about the meeting, only mentioning that the two sides had
met and that nothing was in the works. Those we've

(01:27:49):
spoken to and AAW say that Tony hadn't spoken about
it extensively outside of noting that the two met and
are not working together. The source close to McMahon that
we talked to claimed that they would not rule out
a cameo appearance, but did not think that they would
extensively do business together at this stage, to which I say, yeah,
no shit. I would have done the same thing that

(01:28:11):
Tony did. Somebody walked in and said, I want everything.
I want to run everything, I want equity, I want this,
I want that. I would have said, you know what,
it's nice meeting you. We'll talk soon. And I would
have ghosted him too. I don't blame Tony for that.
Why would Tony Kahan surrender basically control of his company
to a McMahon. That sounds like a very bad idea.

(01:28:34):
You know, at least when Paul Hayman met with Dixie
Carter and told her what it would take to bring
him into TNA. Hayman, you know, he had a track
record creatively where you could say We could really use
a guy like this, right, we could use his brain.
Maybe I handle the business end of things, but we'll
let him run wild with Creative. Right, this could be
exactly what we need to turn this company around with Shane.

(01:28:57):
This is what I said when this story first came out.
Where is the track record? There is no track record.
You're bringing a McMahon into your company and giving him
full control to do what he wants with it. Why
what warrants that outside of the name, Why would you
do that? If somebody said to me, you know, when

(01:29:19):
Scott Demore got fired from TNA last year, and obviously
he was under a non compete and so he couldn't
do anything. Now he's running his own company. But let's
say none of that existed, right, they like WWE is
doing now. They let his contract lapse. Right now, Scott
de Moore is a free agent. If you would have
said to me, Scott de moorehead a meeting with Tony
kan and said, look, if you want to bring me

(01:29:39):
in like as far as working together, or bring me
in in some kind of a role, I want full
control over Creative. I want you to let me. You know,
you let me run this the way that I want
to run this. I don't want meddling or anything like that.
I don't want to be co writer with anybody. Even then,
I can understand Tony being hesitant, but at least with
Scott de Moore, like, Okay, you could point to his

(01:30:00):
record and say it's it's a great record or it's
spotty record. He has success doing this or maybe you know,
not doing that. You have a record to draw from,
And frankly, I think Scott Demore would have actually brought
a lot to the table in that company. What Shane
McMahon you don't have that? People were so in love
with the idea. Oh my god, Shane. He's like the
one McMahon that I like, yeah, or he's like the

(01:30:22):
one McMahon that didn't get on my nerves or was overexposed. Right,
let's bring in sh Shane seems like a nice guy.
He's got a good head on his shoulders. We heard
stories about him helping out behind the scenes. I'm sure
he could do this stuff. Yeah, let's just give Shane
control of the show. That would be fucking dumb bringing
a McMahon into your company and giving him full control

(01:30:44):
to do what he wants with it. I don't blame
Tony for being reluctant to do that. And I was
reminded as I was talking about, like Paul Hayman and
the stuff from all those years ago. I want to
say it was two thousand and ten, twenty eleven. I
don't remember what year that would have been. Maybe oh nine,
maybe it was like oh nine, twenty ten it was.
It was probably before Hogan came in. But that was

(01:31:05):
a real thing that happened. But I was reminded that
Billy Corgan, he did an interview on Kurt Angle's podcast
back in twenty twenty three. So I went to go
find the exact quote. This is what he said about
that whole situation because he I think he had equity
in the company. This is before he had his whole
big falling out with Dixie. And this is what he

(01:31:26):
said about that whole situation because he tried, he tried
to convince her give it to him whatever Hayman wants,
give it to him. He said, I'm sitting at a
table and she says, if you were me, would you
hire Paul Hayman? And I said, give him whatever he wants.
She told me what he wanted. He was a big
pile of money, and he wanted absolute total control. He

(01:31:47):
gave one interview Hayman did where he later said after
the whole thing didn't happen and he was back with WWE.
He said what he would have done, and he said
that he would have cleaned everybody at every veteran out
except for one that being Kurt Angle. He would have
kept Kurt. He would have gone younger, and he would
have went more Mma shooter style. He says, it was

(01:32:09):
very interesting. I said, please give him whatever he wants. Well,
he wants this, and he wants that. He wants total
control of my company. And I said, please give it
to him. Number one, your ratings will double overnight. Number two,
you'll get all the smart marks off your back instantly.
Number three, they'll hail you as a genius for bringing
in Hayman. Number four, the company will be on fire

(01:32:31):
within six months. I guarantee it. Just do it. And
she said, well, what about giving up control? I said,
I don't care. Just give it to him. I begged her.
Imagine what that company would have been with that roster
or whoever he would have brought in. It would have
been hot fire. I think she was very reluctant to
give up control, he says this, but also in the interview,

(01:32:54):
he then admits, he concedes that as somebody who now
runs the NWA, he would have to think long and
hard if he was faced with a similar proposition. And
that's really the key, right, Unless you're in that position,
it's easy to sit here and say, oh my god,
just give of course, Paul Hayman creative genius, right, just

(01:33:14):
give it all to him, whatever he wants. Just give
it to him, give him a blank check and give
him a contract, and that's it. Let him have at it.
But if you're Dixie Carter, or if you're Tony Kahn,
or if you're Billy Corgan and you're running the show,
it's your baby, it's your company, right, you're the head
han show, right, you control everything. It's a lot easier

(01:33:35):
for somebody on the outside to say give all that up,
but not if you are that person in that position
at that moment, the idea that I'm going to give
all of this up. Why this is my company, And
if you think you're doing a good job, you're certainly
not gonna want to give it up. I can remember
that period though TNA definitely could have used somebody like Hayman.
It's one of those what if things. How would things

(01:33:57):
have turned out? Who the hell knows. I think it
would have been a big help to them. Years later
there was a similar story. So actually the Hayman thing
probably was like nine because I think it was like
twenty thirteen. Jeff Jarrett was going to buy the company.
I think it was going to be Jeff Jarrett and
Toby Keith, and they had plans to buy the company
away from Dixie, and it all came down to Bob Carter,

(01:34:17):
Dixie's father, I guess, the head guy Panda Energy, insisted
that his daughter would maintain either a role or even
just like an executive title, you know that she would
still have that I guess to save face. And Toby
Keith said no, like he wouldn't agree to it, and
that caused the entire deal to collapse. That was like

(01:34:39):
the one deciding factor in this. He's like, fuck this,
I'm not going to like. This is either mine or
it's not, and so he walked away from the entire deal.
So there have been multiple instances where t Anda could
have ended up looking very different than it did, had
Dixie just you know, surrendered control or had they sold
the company. But yeah, I can understand, like, when you're

(01:35:00):
in that situation, you don't want to give that up.
It's that power. This notion that people are Tony Khan
sucks and he should just give the company up to
somebody else, let them run it, like that will never
ever happen. I don't know why there are some people
who still talk like that, like it will never happen.
Vince McMahon, he would still be in the same position

(01:35:21):
he was in if all that stuff didn't happen. He
would still be there because it's all he's ever known
and it's his baby, it's his company. He built it
to what it's become. Right, He took it from his father.
He didn't really build it from the ground up, but
he took it from his father and built it into
what it is today. And so Dixie, I'm sure had
some of that. And Tony Khan feels that way too.
He built this from the ground up, he bankrolled it,

(01:35:41):
he's still bankrolling it. This is his company. Why would
he give that up? So I would have done the
same thing, honestly, if I were him, I don't care
what your opinion is about Tony and his creative abilities.
And yeah, I know they're on a bit of a
hot streak recently with some of their shows. Whatever you
think about that is irrelevant. Like if I'm in his position, yeah,

(01:36:01):
I'm not giving everything up. Like why the hell would
he do that? Doesn't make any sense? And maybe Shane
didn't really think he would accept the offer. Maybe Shane
is like, you know what, I'm just gonna shoot my shot.
He'll probably say no, but fuck it, maybe he'll say yes.
Maybe he didn't really expect an answer out of him.
I don't know, but I would have done the exact
same thing if I were Tony for being honest. And

(01:36:23):
this notion about him bringing Shane in in some kind
of creative role. Who knows, maybe one day Shane does
end up in that company in some kind of role.
But again, even just like giving him creative I don't
know where people were getting this from or what they're
basing that decision on, Like why would he do that?
What is the track record? I would love to see
what his track record is that people think Shane McMahon

(01:36:44):
could have been the creative force to turn things around.
A AAW in a way that Tony Khan couldn't. It
was all just so ridiculous to me. The card for
AW Revolution is stacking up pretty nicely. John Moxley, of course,
is going to defend the AW World Championship against Adam Copeland.
We have MJF against Hangman. Adam Page is Official or Revolution.

(01:37:09):
They had a face to face segment on Dynamite Wednesday
night that I thought was excellent and I loved how
they tied it back to the start of the company
in their match from twenty nineteen, the only match they
ever had. Yeah, you got two men here who have
gone on to become world champion, but they took very
different paths to get there. And I look at Revolution

(01:37:29):
as step one or chapter one of their story because
there's still a lot of time between now and all
in when they go to that stadium in Texas, which
I think is where Hangmen. You know, if I had
the pen where Hangman would win the AW World Championship,
But there's plenty of time before we get there. You
can have MJF win the first match of Revolution, you

(01:37:50):
get a second match out of it. And I said
this on Wednesday, and it could even pay it off
with a third match in the finals of the Owen
Hart Tournament, which I assume is going to happen in
June this year since All Out We're All In rather
is in July. But that would make a lot of sense,
all right, the rubber matches in the finals of the
Owen you get another great match between those two with

(01:38:12):
real stakes on the line. I like that idea. We
have Kenoski Takeshta defending the aw International Championship against either
Kenny Omega or Orange Cassidy. We'll have to wait and see.
Because Orange Cassidy beat Roderick Strong on Wednesday, he is
now going to challenge Takesha for the title this Wednesday
on Dynamite. The winner of that match, whoever the champion is,

(01:38:34):
will then defend against Kenny Omega. This entire thing is
completely asked backwards because we had Kenny Omega in Australia
last weekend cut a promo and you know, challenge Takeshta
to an international title match. But it wasn't just about
the championship. It was about the fact that Takeshta holds
two wins over Kenny that were never avenged because Kenny

(01:38:56):
got hurt and was out for a very long time.
But there was a six man tag team win where
he pinned Omega, and there was a singles match. It
all out a couple of years ago, and so Kenny
was like, I dare you to do it for a
third time. So it's not even just about the international title.
It's about the history between these two men. And so
then they go ahead and they announce this basically number

(01:39:17):
one contenders match that could completely turn everything upside down.
Now it won't. We're still going to get Omega into Keshti,
I'm sure, but the idea that it's like these two
were fighting for the right to wrestle Kenny Omega, that's
basically what this is. At this point. The whole thing
is is just completely ass backwards. But the match is

(01:39:39):
going to be great. So we'll find out this week
that it will be Takeshta defending against Kenny Omega. We
have Tony Storm putting her brand new AW Women's World
Championship on the line against the former champion, Mariah May.
They did an angle on Collision last night where Mariah
ambushed Tony in the back as they were showing people

(01:40:01):
arriving at the building. They were showing Harley Cameron arriving,
and then there's Mariah made an ambush. Tony dragged her
out by her hair out on stage the top of
the ramp, demanded that there'd be a spotlight shown on
the two of them, and she's cradling Tony's head in
her arms and she's crying and issuing a challenge for Revolution,

(01:40:24):
which was made official later on. But she said, you know,
let's have a Hollywood ending, very appropriate with them being
in Los Angeles for that pay per view, and so
they didn't announce a proper stipulation. Even in the match
graphic it says the Hollywood ending, So we don't know
what that means. But I'll tell you what you know.

(01:40:45):
I wouldn't mind a cinematic Hollywood backlock brawl type of
match between these two, you know, similar similar to the
one that Piper and gold Dust had at WrestleMania, but
you know, cinematic and they can make it their own
and they can go all over the place. Since we're
talking about Hollywood and cinematic and Hollywood endings and everything,

(01:41:06):
because I was thinking, yay, they could do a last
woman standing, or they could do a first Blood or
lights Out, but I would dig a stipulation like that, honestly.
Will Osprey against Kyle Fletcher is now official. Are going
to have a steel cage match. Mercedes Monet not confirmed
yet but very likely defending her TBS title against Momo

(01:41:28):
Watanabe on that show. And Big Boom Aj of the
Costco guys is coming back. AW hasn't said a word
about it, but last month they told I say, ay,
I don't know if it was Aj or his son,
Big Justice, but they told cult to Halick that Aj

(01:41:51):
would be recovered from his broken foot by then. They
were in conversations with AW and it sounded like he
was going to have another match of Revolution. So zero
hour would be my guess. That's their pre show. Say
what she wants to about the Costco crap. But he
had a fun match with q T Marshall on the
pre show last time. You know. I was going to
say he could answer Max Caster's open challenge, but that

(01:42:14):
open challenge gimmicks should be building to Anthony Bowen's accepting
the challenge, not Big Boom Aj. So I'll hold off
until we get a little bit closer to do predictions.
I'm sure the card will be fleshed out a little
bit more, but it's looking like a very strong card
so far. And finally here. While speaking on TBS's Meal

(01:42:34):
and a Match, which is on YouTube. It's co hosted
by Renee Piquette and RJ City, Mercedes, Monet talked about
what she loves about Japanese wrestling, saying that it's not
just about fighting or strength, but entertaining, and she mentioned
a conversation that she had recently with Rocky Romero about
doing something fun outside the ring, and she revealed her

(01:42:57):
interest in having a match throughout the entire city of
Tokyo and not just limited to a wrestling ring. She said,
I think that's the greatest thing about Japanese wrestling. It's
not just about fighting or the strength. They're so entertaining
and funny. Yeah. I was just talking to Rocky Romero
the other day about doing something fun outside the ring,
and I think having a match throughout the entire city

(01:43:19):
of Tokyo would be fun. Doesn't even have to be
in a wrestling ring. Just get me in a real
street fight on a train, then get me off of
it into a taxi and then let's just go all
around Tokyo. I endorse this idea. I think that would
be a lot of fun if we can see Minora
Suzuki wrestling on bullet trains and we can have Mercedes

(01:43:40):
having a match all over the city of Tokyo. Let's
take some mailbag questions, shall we? You can email me
to Solo Monster at gmail dot com. Please include your
name of where you are from when you write in.
Stefan from Washington who is celebrating a birthday today, Happy birthday, dude.
The Rock made it seem like there may not be
a match with him in and it was more about

(01:44:01):
the story. It feels like we could be seeing someone
else take the deal and become the corporate champ. What
if it's Punk. In their last promo together, Punk asked
Cody if he was all right that all of this
looked like it was starting to take its toll on him.
He mentioned how it was about this time in his
title run that he gave into the pressure and he
became a bad person. Cody is now faced with a

(01:44:24):
deal with the Devil, much like Punk with Hayman, and
it is likely Cody will turn that deal down and
show that he is better than that. Punk and then
take the deal, stab Cody in the front like he
said he would, and sell his soul to the devil
to achieve his dream. Once Seena's best rival becomes the
new scene is Foil feels like great story potential and

(01:44:45):
naturally sets up matches for Punk against Roman as well
as Sina later this year. What say you, Yeah, I
mean I could get behind it. That's what I talked
about earlier. I think going back and forth between whether
or not Sena or Punk would be best in that role.
I think both of them could be very entertaining and
they both intrigue me, but I would go at Punk.

(01:45:06):
Give me that choice. I think Punk just make between
the two of them. I think you can make more
sense of Punk in that role, and I think Punk
would take it, and I think he would knock it
out of the park because I think it would be
right up his alley if he can play the heel
role again and just a matter of telling the right
story and getting there. So yes, I think that that

(01:45:29):
could work. Chris from Phoenix, Arizona. In recent podcasts and streams,
you've politely turned down fantasy bookings from people for the
Death Riders because they are lame finishes to the story,
But isn't that what this story really deserves? Just pull
the plug. At Revolution we get another lame interference finish.
Moxley wins big scrum, Christian cash is in the team

(01:45:52):
implodes because who cares. Then we get Edge against Christian
in a singles feud that runs the AW Championship through
Dynasty and onto MJF or Hangman, et cetera. Heading into
all in see you mentioned MJF said that right there
that intrigues me. Edge against Christian. I mean, yes, you

(01:46:15):
could do Edge and Christian on a short term basis,
Edge versus Christian being your top Like AW Championship feud
is not the answer, but as a means to get
the title onto the person that it should be on,
and if it means the death of the Death Riders,
I'm on board. But you mentioned MJF. You mentioned Dynasty.

(01:46:37):
Dynasty is their next pay per view after Revolution, So Dynasty,
I think is on April sixth. I want to say,
and the idea that MJF beats Hangman to the punch
and that MJF would win the title because it still
fits with what I just talked about as far as
Hangman really should be the one to go to Texas
in July and win the championship. So if you're going

(01:46:59):
to do this first match with MJF and Hangman, I
said MJF should win the first match. What if MJF
wins that match ends up winning the aw world title
of Dynasty the following month, holds onto it until we
get to all In and we get the rematch. So
maybe they don't do three of them, but they do
the rematch, it all in circle back around to MJF

(01:47:21):
and Hangman. That's where Hangman gets to win. I like that.
I'd be on board with that, especially if it kills
off the death Riders Like you got my attention as
soon as I saw that, But now that I'm thinking
about how this might play out, I actually like that.
Kevin from Chicago, I wanted to get your opinion on
if you think it's possible the Jade car Gills attacker

(01:47:43):
could potentially be NXT's Lash Legend and Shakara Jackson at
the behest of Naomi, which would lead to them forming
a stable between the three women. The reason I think
it could be the case is because they've been building
Jade to be this monster. So I can't imagine one
person being responsible for taking her out for months and combined, well,
I mean, it doesn't take a whole hell of a lot.

(01:48:06):
I mean you could take freakin' Raymistereo and have him
shove Jade off of I mean, if she got shoved
off a platform of a certain height, fell through a
car windshield, I mean, it could have been a fucking
cat that scared her and she fell off. You're falling
off someplace through a car windshield. I don't know that
it really matters if it's one person or three, but anyway,

(01:48:29):
I can't imagine one person being responsible for taking her
out for months, and combined with the fact that they're
already trying to sell us on a tag team being responsible,
So I think you could easily swap out them for
two more women who have a similar stature to make
it work. Naomi could also justify her actions by claiming
she did it for Bianca, believing Jade was holding her back,

(01:48:49):
and this could all be setting up a potential six
women tag match of Lash, Jakara, and Naomi against Jade
and Bianca, with bel Air having to go recruit the
woman that she doesn't trust. Bailey to even the odds
at WrestleMania. Yeah, I mean that could work. I mean

(01:49:12):
they already did the war Games match though, where Bailey
and Bianca they had to coexist. I know Bianca wasn't
happy about being her partner, but it all worked out
and they even started working together in that match. So
to now go back to Bianca like, oh, I don't
trust this woman, I mean, you could do it. You
could do it. I think them already being partners kind

(01:49:32):
of softened it a little bit. But yeah, I mean
you can make it work. I just I kind of
don't want to see Beyonca relegated to a six woman
tag match at WrestleMania. But I haven't really been able
to figure out what to do with Bailey if she's
not going to be wrestling Roxanne. I mean, there are
some people who think she'll win the Chamber and she'll Wrestleria,

(01:49:52):
which I really I don't see the appeal in that
match personally. I mean nothing against Bailey, but there's just
more interesting opponents for me that I would like to
see in the ring with wherea Ripley at WrestleMania, She's
not one of them. So outside of a match with Roxanne.
I don't know what else you would do with Bailey,

(01:50:13):
so maybe some variation of this is what ends up happening.
I don't know. Alvin Fromteville, North Carolina. I was recently
watching some old WCW matches with Alex Wright. I thought
this guy had a good look. He say worker had well,
he was a worker. You didn't say he was a
good worker. He just said he was a worker. He

(01:50:34):
certainly was. He was in the ring. Eddie had charisma.
When WWE brought he means bought WCW, I was surprised
they did not bring over Alex Wright. Do you know
the backstory to why he never came over to WWE.
He still had a few years left on his contract
with Turner after w CW close, and I remember him

(01:50:57):
saying he didn't like the offer that WWE gave him.
I guess to buy him out. There were a lot
of guys who are like, now I'm just gonna sit
at home and collect my guaranteed money. You know, it
really was only Booker, T and DDP who gave up
free money to take a deal for less money with WWE, figuring,
oh well, I'll come out well on the other end,
I'll be a bigger star for Booker. It worked out

(01:51:19):
well for DDP, not so much as far as him
being a big deal in WWE. I think Ddp's doing
stuff now that's far more important than he would have
done in WWE. So yeah, he was like I guess
they just in his mind, low balled him on an offer,
and he just didn't want to take the offer. But
he also said that he was just very burned out.
I see interviews with him that pop up on my

(01:51:41):
YouTube timeline every now and then. He's talked about how
with WCW sometimes he would wrestle up to seven matches
a day, which I know that sounds hogan esque, but
you got to remember, like those tapings they did at
Universal for their syndicated shows, like you would have guys
coming out multiple times in his single taping. I don't

(01:52:01):
know about seven times, but it's at least conceivable that
he did. So he was burned out in the backstage politics.
I know he didn't like that, so he retired and
he opened a wrestling school, which I believe he still
runs to this day. It's crazy to me how he
never ended up being bigger than he was he was
only twenty five years old when WCW shut down. I

(01:52:26):
never understood when they had him shave his head and
he did the Berlin gimmick, unless that was his idea. Yeah,
he did have a look to him and then he
shaved his head, and it's like, I don't know what
these fucking people are doing. But he was still only
twenty five when WCW got sold to WWE, Like he
could have been a much bigger star for sure, but
it just sounded like he was sick of it all.

(01:52:49):
Aaron from Tulsa, Oklahoma. This year marks fifteen years since
NXT's debut. Well, kind, I mean he puts it in quotes,
I assume because you realize NXT as a show started
in twenty ten, but that was a very different NXT
than what we ended up getting on the network when

(01:53:10):
it debuted. There. What, in your opinion is NXT's best
matches moments and who were the biggest success stories coming
out of NXT to the main roster? Oh, I mean
when you say that Charlotte Flair, Bianca Belair, I think
you can put Alexa Bliss on that list. Ria Ripley

(01:53:32):
to an extent, But I mean not really, because she
wrestled on the indie scene in Australia before coming to
the States, but she started to really find herself in NXT.
You know. That's the thing. You know, lots of names
were a part of NXT, but they just kind of
passed through, you know, guys like Kevin Owens and sammy's
Ain and Finn balor Seth Rollins. Roman Reigns was more

(01:53:55):
a product of FCW, which was under Steve Kern. So
I don't think it's fair to really call Rome and
It like as big of a star as he became
later like the greatest NXT export or a success story
of all time. Like he doesn't really have a genuine
connection to the brand, unlike Seth Rollins, who was the
first ever NXT champion. Like you could definitely make more

(01:54:18):
of a case I think for Rollins as the greatest
NXT success story over Roman Reigns, even though Rains is,
you know, Rains is definitely the bigger star of the two.
Bray Wyatt started in FCW also, but when they rebranded
as NXT, that's when we got bray Wyatt, like the
bray Wyatt character, but like more recent names, I think

(01:54:43):
could end up being their greatest success story. Bron Breaker,
Tiffany Stratton, Oba Femei. Right, it's still too early to know,
but I'm looking at those names like five years from now,
we're going to be talking about, if not all of them,
some of them I think as the great success story
in NXT. The best matches, There's too many to name,

(01:55:06):
but Sasha Banks against Bailey and Brooklyn that's one of
the most important matches in NXT history, especially for the women.
Sammy Zane's underdog rise to the NXT Championship. That was
a great story. Kevin Owens turning on him that same
night that he debuted, That's a pretty memorable moment. Shinsky

(01:55:26):
Nakamora's debut for the brand coming Over is this huge
star from New Japan and he ends up in NXT.
That was a big deal. Oscar's run. Oscar's run is
the NXT Women's champion. That undefeated run that she went on,
you know, that was a legendary run. Nathan from Wisconsin.
I'm getting into the year twenty ten of TNA and

(01:55:49):
the outrage fans had going from a six sided ring
to a four sided one. Yes, it does make them
traditional but it also does take away the original feel
that TNA had because no other company used that ring. Well,
I don't think that's true. Triple A uses this excited ring.
I don't know if they use it all the time,

(01:56:10):
but I know Triple A was and I think still
does use this excited ring. Add to the fact that
they brought in Sean Morley, I thought that said Sean Mooney.
I was like, what did I miss? They brought in
Sean Morley who beat Daniels and then basically left. Despite
the CMLL fallout, the Nasty Boys who brought nothing, and

(01:56:30):
Bubba the Love Sponge, TNA definitely started losing momentum because
of bad ideas like this. Other than moving to Mondays
for that brief period, what do you think was the
worst decision TNA made that really hurt them as a company. Well,
especially if we're talking about that period, I got two
names for you, hul Cogan and Eric Bischoff. There you go.

(01:56:53):
I'd say that hurt them pretty good. They made a
lot of dumb decisions over the years. We'll be here
all day if I talk about all the stupid shit
that TNA did over the years. But since you brought
up that period specifically, and people like the Nasty Boys
and Morley coming in and the switch from the six
sided ring. That was all Hogan and Bischoff. Hogan got
his buddy some jobs. Hogan had his ideas for how

(01:57:15):
things should go. That was definitely something that when you
look at where TNA was before he came in, and
then where they were at the tail end of it,
and when he literally on television walked out on Dixie
Carter and she was hanging on to his leg like
a little child, I don't see how you can look
at that and say that TNA was in a much
better position at the end than they were at the beginning.

(01:57:40):
And Christopher from East London says, I am binging all
of the in your house pay per views on Netflix.
All of this is before my time. And I found
Sewn Michael's celebration after defeating Diesel very interesting. He kind
of mocked Hulk Hogan there hitting his pose and whatnot.
Was this the case? Was he trying to say that

(01:58:02):
he was the number one wrestler in the world or
was it deeper than that. No, I don't think it
was any deeper than Hogan was the top star in
the other promotion. You know, Diesel was on his way
out to that same company and he was mocking the
old guy in that other place. You know, Sean had
just won the title at WrestleMania the month before. I
don't know if Hogan was champion in April of ninety six.

(01:58:23):
It was it was either Hogan or Savage or Flair.
I'm sure it was one of those three. Maybe the Giant.
I don't know. The Giant won the title around that
time too, But you know, Hogan was the guy over there.
He used to be their guy, but now he was
w CW's guy. Shawn had just won the title. I'm
sure there were some people in his mind who you know,
didn't see him in that role, and that was just

(01:58:46):
him taking some shots, you know, with the other guy
in the other promotion. So no, I don't think he
needs to look at it any deeper than that. They
were not fully getting their asses kicked yet by w
CW because the nWo angle hadn't started up for another
few months. But that's really all it was. Wait, wait
until you get to nineteen ninety seven, like you're going
through all the in your house shows, Wait until you

(01:59:07):
get to ninety seven. You should really do a watch
through of that entire year, at least in WWE, just
because ninety seven ninety seven is when they had their
backs against the wall and it ended up being one
of their best years creatively. But he says, also, who
would you deem as mister in your House? Ugh? Uh, dude,

(01:59:33):
that's a tough one. That's a tough one. It's really
between two people though, either Brett Hart or Shawn Michaels.
It's one of those two. But that's tough, you know,
with Brett. The in your House matches that stand out
to me with Brett are the Hakushi match, which was
from the very first one. Later that year, I know,

(01:59:56):
he had a match with Pierre when he was doing
the Pirate Gimmick. They had a very good match. The Hershey,
Pennsylvania match with the British Bulldog was a great match
that was better than their Summer Slim match at Wembley
a lot bloodier too. The final four match for the
vacant title, which literally just I just watched this on

(02:00:18):
their Vault channel yesterday. They posted it several days ago.
I watched it yesterday. They talked about bloody poor Vader
he gets his eye busted open five minutes into a
thirty minute match off a chair shot by the Undertaker,
and he's got the mask on and like all throughout
the match he's like repositioning it and stuff. I'm like, dude,
take it off. And then finally, it was like two

(02:00:40):
minutes before he gets eliminated from the match, he finally
takes the fucking mask off. I'm like, why'd you wait
so long? He looked like he could barely see. But
that was a great match, and the ten man tag
a Canadian stampede. It's a legendary match, one of the
greatest matches in the history of that company. With Sean,

(02:01:02):
first thing I think of is him beating Jeff Jarrett
in Nashville for the Intercontinental title. He had a really
good match with Owen Hart. I forget which show. That
was the match with Diesel that you just mentioned. Good friends,
Better enemies. That's the best match that Kevin Nash ever had.
Mind Games against Mankind is an excellent match, even with

(02:01:25):
the shitty finish, and the Undertaker matches their ground zero
match and their Helen is Cell match the following month.
It's pretty incredible. You know, three of the best matches
in WWE history all took place in the same year.
Brett Hart and Steve Austin, Wrestlemani at thirteen Canadian Stampede,

(02:01:45):
ten Mantag, and the first Helen of Cell. And really
it's between Wrestlemanti at thirteen and Helena Cell. If you
made the argument that either of those two matches were
the greatest match in company history, I wouldn't argue with you.
But all of that happened in nineteen ninety seven. See
that's why I say, make sure you go through all

(02:02:06):
the ninety seven stuff. So honestly, it's pretty even between
the two. I have to go Seawan Michaels, though I
think Sean Michaels is mister in your house. The mind
Games match and the Hell in a Cell match, that's
really what puts it over the top for me. But
good stuff. Keep emailing me the solom Monster at gmail
dot com. Make sure you follow me on x That's

(02:02:28):
where I'm most active when I am active at solo
Monster on there. But if you go to the solo
monster dot com, all of the socials are there. I
have links to a whole bunch of different the pro
wrestling tea store. I put a link up to Hardy
the Horse, my mother's children's books. Sometimes people ask me
about that. I got the Amazon link up there on
the bottom of the page as well, so you can

(02:02:50):
get all that information there. I will be live on
YouTube this week coming up as I am every week,
Live on Monday for the Raw Post Show, live on
Wednesday after Dynamite, and live on Friday after SmackDown, and
of course Tuesday night will be another episode of Tuesday
Night Titans with JD. We've been crushing it with the shows,
so you could find me over on his channel on Tuesday.

(02:03:12):
A lot of good stuff coming up, and of course
next Sunday that will be episode nine three of this
very show. Solom Monster sounds off. So thank you for
all the support, thank you for the questions. Leave a
comment on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or wherever they accept
comments and reviews, and I will see you back here
for a brand new podcast next weekend. Until then, take care, guys.

(02:03:36):
The Solom Monster sounds off. Not only did Powerhouse Hogs
not win the aw World Championship tonight, which is no surprise,
but they actually destroyed his leg and right after they
stomped on the fucking share you think you know me?
And here comes Adam Copeland and FTR who were standing
there that't the go position, just waiting for their cue, watching,

(02:03:57):
I'm sure on a monitor as this man was maimed
by the death go out there without my music. I'll
leave my music right now. Come on, as soon as
they hit the music out they can see now if
I'm Powerhouse Hobbs when I come back from this in,
I'm going after Cope and Bald and Hair for not
coming out and saving me here in this spot, for
being a couple of selfish, spineless asshole where's the fucking music.

(02:04:18):
You can't go anywhere until the music hits, So let's
let this poor fucker get his leg destroyed first and
then we'll run out. Please, for the love of fucking God,
put the music on. That's who Hobbs ought to go after,
very very stupid. 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

(02:04:38):
Solo Monster on Facebook, Instagram, and Ax The Solon Monster.
I love you so young,

All Episodes

Sound Off 902 - Why That Rock Segment Was BAD But What Comes From It Could Be GREAT

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Sound Off 902 - Why That Rock Segment Was BAD But What Comes From It Could Be GREAT