Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's business time, baby. You are listening to solo monsters
sounds off. I love you, mama, monster dude, I want
your soul.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
You got grown ass wrestlers in the back going on Twitter.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Come over here? Is that Pet Patterson? You have legs?
I was ninety nine percent positive it was just chessed up.
Now congratulations. Who hasn't beat Daniel Garcia? Killer Cross is
coming to House of Glory October tenth. There's a killer
(00:38):
in the house. For all the people shouting work, it's
a work, not a work. Not that that's going to
convince them, but all I can say is not a work.
His three shirts also finally went up on Clearanto this
week on WWE shop if you want to get them
for half off. I guess that's also a part of
(00:59):
the work. Matt and Jeff Hardy are also returning to
House of Glory that night, and we've already announced the
amazing red against Leon Slater, the TNA X Division champions.
So that is shaping up to be one hell of
a night. But you know, it was also one hell
of a night. August twenty second, twenty fifteen. That was
the first NXT Takeover show from Brooklyn. I was there
(01:21):
for that one where Bailey beat Sasha Banks to win
the NXT Women's Championship. Still my favorite women's match of
all time for me. It's in that ninety two rumble
category where there may technically be better matches, but it
just will never be topped, just from the story going
into it, to the match itself, to how influential that
(01:44):
match has become, you know. Indy Hartwell has said that
she signed up for wrestling school the day after watching
that match, like that's the match that made her want
to become a pro wrestler. Billy Starks has said that
she watched that match and thought, hey, that's what I'm
going to do one day. And I'm sure there are
others who are wrestling right now that may not be
were it not for that match that was ten years
(02:07):
ago this week and now Sasha has got nine belts
and Bailey is talking to the voices in her head.
This is episode nine to twenty six of These Solemn Monsters,
sounds up for Saturday, August twenty third, twenty twenty five,
a day early but never a dollar short. Aw has
(02:27):
forbidden door tomorrow afternoon. They are encroaching on my territory.
So we're doing this a day early, as we will
again next weekend because next Sunday is Clash from Paris,
and I will have predictions for clashrom Paris on the
show today and Forbidden Door as well. There's been a
few changes, and I've got a medical update as well
on will Osprey, as well as news on Chris Jericho
(02:51):
potentially returning to WWE. The WWE ESPN deal is taking
effect a lot earlier than originally expected. I'll get into that,
and the story around Hulk Hogan's death just took a
very dark turn this week. Be aware that the Raw
Post shows for the next couple of weeks are going
to be at eight pm Eastern Raw is airing earlier
(03:14):
on Netflix for everyone this Monday three o'clock Eastern time.
No VPN needed for that the following Monday there in Paris.
I don't know if it's airing earlier in the US
for everyone or if you will need your trust the
VPN if you want to watch it early, but it
will probably be on international Netflix, and if it is
(03:35):
airing there and not earlier in the US, that's what
I'll be doing. I'll be watching it earlier and then
going live at eight pm that night, so that way,
you know, I can wrap up a little bit earlier.
But also one of the reasons I do this is
I can maybe get some of my international fans in
on the streams where normally they might not be able
to join because I start so late. So I hear
(03:57):
from people saying, oh, I love it when you do
the earlier streams because now, oh I can actually join,
So it's an opportunity to wrangle some of those people in.
So just bear with me in the next week or
so because things are gonna settle back into a normal
schedule after that and we'll be back to the usual times.
If you would like to make a PayPal donation to
(04:17):
support the show, you may do so at any time
on theslo monster dot com. Ten dollars and more will
get you a nickname in a shout out. Get them
on in earlier again next week, since I'm going to
be recording a day early, so just be aware of that.
But I want to say thank you to the Portland
pop star Paul Hamilton. I think Paul was in the
YouTube chat on Friday night. I think I spied Paul
(04:38):
in there Big b Bryant, Visarah, thank you, the Diamond
Dallas Dance Machine, Harrison's Soepp. I know for a fact
that I saw Harrison in the chat the other night.
Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray, night Stalker, n f Alsafar, the
Chicago Slayer, Willie Iichord, Fast Blast, Tim Banks, Best in
(04:59):
the Game Porter, the Laredo Kid, Alberto Ortiz, who has
been listening since twenty sixteen and celebrated his thirty first
birthday last Tuesday. So happy birthday, Alberto. Dashing David Brown,
who wants to give a special shout out to his
friends Martin, Craig, Ryan and Patrick. They're back in London
(05:21):
for Forbidden Door after a fun night of dynamite and
collision in Glasgow this week, says I hope you, the
listeners and the Facebook group members enjoy Forbidden Door as
much as we will live at The two should be rockin.
I'm gonna have a sold out crowd inside the two,
all those crazy UK fans. Thank you, David, and happy birthday.
(05:44):
Not to Vince McMahon, who turns eighty years old tomorrow,
but to Marlin from Texas who was born way back
in the Wonderful Year of nineteen eighty eight, says I've
been listening to your podcast since twenty twelve and got
me through a lot of long nights working at CVS,
where to this day I have listened to some of
the funniest episodes, the Martha Stewart Hanging with Mister Cooper
(06:07):
one and the Vince McMahon Pastry Shop one. Ah yes, yes, yes, yes,
that was the mister McMahon's Pastry Palace intro from SoundOff
episode three sixty seven, one of my favorites. Happy Birthday, Marlin.
I also want to take a moment here to send
(06:28):
my condolences on behalf of the entire SoundOff family to
my friend and my Tuesday Night Titans co host jd
from New York, who lost his grandmother on Wednesday. We
had talked about what was going on the day before,
and it's never easy to lose a family member, especially
your parents. To your grandparents. Yeah, I was very close
(06:50):
with my grandma and she died twenty five years ago,
a quarter of a damned century. I haven't had a
grandparent in my life for twenty five years. You know,
my parents gone, so it just it doesn't it doesn't
get better. It never gets better. It only gets easier
to deal with as time goes on, you know, But
that herd is always there. So I'm thinking about you,
(07:11):
my friend. Having just announced their new media rights deal
with ESPN for their ple starting in twenty twenty six,
WWE at ESPN went and decided, you know what, why
wait until next year? Why not just start next month?
That was the big news this week. Not only did
the new ESPN streaming service officially launch on Thursday, but
(07:34):
the Peacock era is coming to an end with Clash
in Paris at the end of this month. At least
when it comes to main roster pls. Nxtpl's will continue
airing on Peacock as planned. That's through March of twenty
twenty six. In fact, that NXT has one airing tomorrow
night heat Wave. You notice how they don't even brand
(07:55):
them as NXT events anymore, It's just WWE now WWE
heat So this means that all main roster pls will
be airing in the US exclusively on ESPN's new direct
to consumer service, starting with a brand new ple being
added to the schedule on Saturday, September twentieth, that's going
(08:16):
to be running opposite aw all Out. This was just
a rumor last week, but it's all confirmed now. It
will be WWE wressel Palooza kicking off the ESPN era,
so the wrestle votes report proved to be accurate. Wressel
Palooza was the name of an old ECW pay per
view that ran from nineteen ninety five to two thousand,
(08:38):
which plays off the name of the popular Lallapalooza music
festival that started in nineteen ninety one and runs out
of Chicago to this very day. In fact, it just
concluded a few weeks ago. And yes, to those who
have asked, it was also the name of the wrestling
event where Bud Bundy had to wrestle King Kong Bundy
to get in to get initiated into the no Oh
(09:00):
Ma'am group on an episode of Married with Children. That
episode actually aired in October of nineteen ninety five, the
first ECW Wrestle Polouse. It took place in August of
that year. If you want to be technical about it,
ECW did it first, but look, it could always be worse.
They could do a show called Great Balls of Fire.
I mean, I know that would never happen, right, because
(09:20):
that would be awful. Why the wrestle poll loose a name,
especially when there was an independent promotion that was using
the name and had trademarked it for the last decade.
Why go through the hassle, Why go through the trouble
of buying it away from them? Well, Tony Kahan is
an admitted mark for the old ECW, and they're running
(09:41):
this show directly opposite the all out pay per views,
so it sure feels like someone in Stanford thought, Hey,
let's drive the knife even deeper and use an old
ECW name just to rub salt in the wound, because
wwe would never be that petty. I mean, come on now,
right they wouldn't be that petty, would they Na? Never,
of course not. So The show will take place at
(10:04):
the Gainbridge Field House in Indianapolis, which means that Pat
McAfee will be there at least for one night, you know, him,
being an indie guy in all not that kind of
indie guy, but you know what I mean. ESPN will
also carry the two remaining pls for the year after that,
which are Crown Jewel in October and Survivor Series in November.
(10:24):
If you live outside the US, nothing changes for you.
The shows will continue to air on Netflix internationally, so
you don't have to worry about any of this. ESPN
did not buy out Peacock's remaining rights. What happened is
WWE worked things out with Peacock and then brought it
to ESPN for approval because WWE felt that by splitting
(10:46):
WrestleMania and SummerSlam into two nights over the last few
years and then adding the Evolution Show last month, that
they had already fulfilled their commitment to Peacock for whatever
the number of shows was that they were contracted for.
And that's very interesting that that would seem to imply
that they only added the Evolution Show because they knew
(11:08):
that this deal with ESPN was in the works. So
by adding it, and you know, adding it the same
weekend as aw all in that was just a little
added bonus for them. But by adding that show to
the calendar, they were able to speed things up so
they could get the hell off Peacock that much quicker,
which is very interesting. I mean, look, there's any number
(11:29):
of reasons that you could look at for why they
did Evolution after not doing another one for seven or
eight years. But anybody who thinks that they just decided, Hey,
you know what, we really got to do another Evolution
show now, because boy, the women are killing it and
we just got to do one of these. Like I'm
always looking for some ulterior motive, and I think we
just found it. I think we just found what the
(11:51):
ulterior motive was for them doing that show when they did.
But as part of the deal that WWE worked out
with them, Peacock will be getting new main roster programming,
details of which will be revealed soon. Right now, we
don't know what that means, so, I mean, that doesn't
sound like documentaries right if they're talking about main roster programming.
(12:13):
I mean, the last thing we need is more shows,
So I'm curious what that ends up being. Now. For
his part on the Forbidden Door media call on Thursday,
Tony Kahn was asked about WWE running so many shows
head to head with AW and he gave a very smart,
very disciplined answer by not even addressing them and instead
(12:35):
saying that their focus is on aew and continuing what
he called their excellent year in twenty twenty five, and again,
whether you agree with that statement or not is completely irrelevant.
I thought that was exactly the answer that he should
have given. That's all he needs to do is just
focus on AAW and making it the best that it
can possibly be. And when asked about what Mark Shapiro
(12:58):
of TKO said that paper was dead the dead business,
Tony said their pay per views this year have been
successful and that he's looking forward to adding them to
HBO Max. That they've been talking about AW pay per
views on HBO Max for almost a year now and
they have provided no updates on where things are as
(13:19):
far as that's concerned. I have no idea what is
taking so long or why it would be so difficult
for Warner to have the infrastructure in place by now
to support this. That's something, and that's not even a
Tony Kahn issue or an AW issue. They're basically at
the mercy of Warner Brothers Discovery in HBO Max. Once
they get their shit together, you know, they can shift
(13:40):
their pay per views over to HBO Max. But we've
heard nothing new, and it's been almost a year, but
WWE is going to load up that Wrestle Paloza show.
You know, brock Lesner is likely going to wrestle his
first match back on that show against John Cena. He's
already been scheduled for SmackDown on September twelfth, September nineteenth.
(14:01):
That leads right into the show on September twentieth. I'm
thinking Cody Rhodes defends of the WWE Championship that night
against Drew McIntyre. All Out, we'll probably have Copeland and
Christian challenging for the AW tag team titles. I could
see John Moxley against Darby Allen. We don't know what
Hangman Page or MJF are going to be doing. You know.
(14:22):
The rest of the card is anyone's guess. But All
Out is typically one of their bigger shows of the year,
and I'm sure that Tony will load it up. Regardless,
it will be the better wrestling show of the night,
I have no doubt about that. But WWE is not
trying to out wrestle AW They're not trying to have
the better matches that night. I mean, if they do,
(14:42):
that's great, but that they're not doing it to dominate,
you know, the the wrestling ratings, you know the star ratings.
They're doing it to dominate the conversation and steal all
the headlines and around brock Lesner's first match back alone.
I mean, for better or worse, they're going to be
stealing all the headlines that we cand. What I'll be
doing that night, I haven't decided yet. You know, Head
(15:05):
to Head is going to screw up my recording schedule
that weekend regardless, but I'm going to review the show
live that I think more people are going to be
tuning in for. You know, let's see how the cards
shape up first, and then we'll decide. I did put
an early poll up on Twitter to gauge people's interest
without knowing the cards yet, still very early, but just
to gauge their interest on which show they plan on
(15:28):
watching live that night, and Wrestle Palooza won the vote
fifty eight percent to forty two percent, and that's with
over thirty two hundred votes in So that's a clear
win for WWE, but not exactly a landslide. So let's
see how the cards shape up. I mean, I don't
even have free access to the ESPN service since they
decided to launch this shit early. They still have no
(15:50):
agreement with YouTube TV, so I may have to use
my trustee Express VPN and watch it on Netflix until
they do. I mean, yeah, look, I could pay the
twenty nine ninety nine a month, you know, until they
reach an agreement. It's not that big of a deal,
but it's the principle of it, like just knowing that
most people are probably watching this shit for free, you know,
(16:11):
because they have ESPN and they have a service that
offers ESPN, so then you can get the service for free.
And just knowing that most people are watching this shit
for free. And I have to pay thirty bucks to
watch Brocklesner against John Cena, I feel like I'm being punished.
Do I want to spend thirty bucks to watch John
Cena against brock Lesner. Yeah, I don't know about that.
(16:33):
I don't know about that. Now, that wasn't the only
news to come out of this. If you think WWE
is getting out of the Peacock business and Peacock is
getting out of the WWE business, think again. This week,
the two sides announced a multi year partnership to become
the exclusive streaming home for Saturday Night's main event, which
(16:54):
will air live on Peacock four times a year through
I believe twenty nine, which is when the NBC Universal
deal for SmackDown expires, and even though there's already been
three of them this year. We had a Saturday Night's
made of it in January, we had one in May,
we had one in July, so you would think there's
only one left, but despite that, there are two more,
(17:18):
with the first one taking place on November first from
Salt Lake City, Utah, and the second one and final
one of the year, taking place on December thirteenth, and
that will likely be in Boston. That will be the
night of john Sen's retirement match. I don't think they've
confirmed Boston yet as the location, but they have confirmed
in the press release that will be john Sen's final match.
(17:39):
No one is happier to hear that news than Tony
Kahan because World's End is spared. There was talk of
them maybe doing the show on December twenty seventh, which
is the night of aw World's End on pay per views,
So Tony is relieved right now. Bill Goldberg, on the
other hand, he may be throwing furniture around somewhere. I'm
(18:00):
probably injuring himself that John Cena will get to do
his retirement on Peacock with no commercials like he had
on NBC. And that's why I really liked that decision.
I mean, does it lose a little bit of luster
by not airing live on NBC, Sure, But if it
means fewer commercials and ad breaks mid match, that instantly
makes the show better. So I'm fine with that. But
(18:23):
it also shows that NBC was not exactly thrilled with
how the shows were performing, because if they were, there's
no way that they would have taken them off NBC,
at least not for John Cena's retirement match. You know,
at least for that one, they would at least be
simulcasting that shit, and they're not, and I think that's
very telling. And also, you know, since they're losing the
main roster plees, you know, they want to do what
(18:45):
they can to keep people subscribed to Peacock. So how
do you do that. You've got to offer them something
exclusive that they can't get anywhere else, you know, by
making the Saturday night's main event shows exclusive to Peacock.
It's smart, and it also means that I have to
keep the cock now. So well played, WWE, well played.
(19:07):
So all of this is a lot to take in.
There's been a lot of This is a flurry, a
hurricane of news coming fast and furious these past few weeks,
so it can be a lot to digest. The WWE
archives are something I've been asked a lot about this week.
I've been curious about it myself, but there are a
lot of people that don't know what's going on, so
they've been asking me. The classic content will continue to
(19:28):
be available on Peacock through the end of this year,
and unless they strike a deal with Peacock or someone
else for the rights to the library, that means that
as of January first, there are no more archives. They
will no longer have a home. They're going to be
disappearing three months earlier than expected. Now. I'm sure they're
going to work something out before then, maybe it'll migrate
(19:51):
over to ESPN, But if they don't make a deal
by then, we will no longer have access to that
content until they do, outside of whatever they upload the
WWE Vault on YouTube, and honestly, I've been spending most
of my time on there anyway. When it comes to
the classic stuff, I love the vault. If they want
to add more content to the Vault, I'm all in
(20:12):
favor of it. But they still need to have that
one central location where you can navigate through full episodes
of whatever it is that you're looking for, And you
can kind of do that with the playlists that they
put together on the Vault channel, but it's not the
same thing, you know, It's not the same layout as
what the WWE network was or what Peacock is, or
(20:32):
what it would be on Netflix. So hopefully they will
land somewhere where they can store all of that, and
not just store all of it, but continue uploading new content.
The know the reasons that they slowed down on doing that,
and they really don't update a lot of classic stuff
anymore on there is because the audience just isn't there
for it. But I hope that they at least for
(20:54):
the people who are interested in that content, that they
will start uploading more stuff. It's not like everything's on PEAKID.
There's a lot that's missing and that they just sort
of stopped, and they need to pick up with that.
But I think they also need to just do a
better job of advertising that it's available, and they don't
do that because they just assume nobody's going to care.
But if they at least put a little more effort
(21:16):
into advertising the fact that, hey, you know, guess what,
we've got this entire library of stuff. Here's some highlights
of you know what happened this week twenty five years ago,
thirty five years ago. And you know, little almost like
little bumpers coming in and out of commercial breaks on
some of the shows. You know, that might go a
long way. You know, it's sort of like out of sight,
(21:38):
out of mind, and especially with newer fans, they may
not even know that this stuff is there or be
given a reason to care about it. So I'd like
to see them ratchet, you know, that up when when
the content moves to wherever it's going to move to.
But my fear is that it's just not important to them,
you know. The real estate on television is just it's
too important for them to waste it on promoting the
(22:00):
fact that you can get old episodes of primetime wrestling
from nineteen eighty eight. And I get it, I understand it,
but I just wish it wasn't like that. The mystery
of what's going on with Naomi is a mystery no more.
Adam Pearce introduced her out to the ring on Raw
Monday Night to announced that she and Jimmy Usso are
(22:22):
having a baby. Baby USO is on the way. Actually,
they announced it together on a bonus episode of Stephanie
McMahon's podcast, since the pod that they did together the
week before was actually taped before SummerSlam, before she even
knew that she was pregnant, and after the announcement was
made on Monday night, she immediately went back into heal
(22:44):
Naomi mode and cut a promo on Adam Pearce, telling
him that she knows what it's like to surrender a
title and hand over a title before and she wasn't
handing him shit, told him to get out of her face,
and then she put the entire women's division on notice
that they have nine months and some change to hold
the title before she takes it back. As far as
(23:05):
announcements like this go, like an injury where somebody has
to give up their title, this was one of the best.
This was the highlight of the show. Now, obviously the
timing of this is terrible career wise for her because
she was just starting her run as champion and really
settling in nicely in the heel role. There was a
(23:25):
void in that spot after liv Morgan got hurt, and
Naomi moved right into that spot pretty seamlessly. Now she
and Live are both gone, which presents an opportunity for
somebody else. But look, you can't predict when these things
are going to happen. You know, She's obviously very happy,
but you could tell from her demeanor on Stephanie's podcast,
she's still struggling with the timing of it, like it's
(23:47):
a bittersweet thing for her. She told Stephanie that she
found out she was pregnant on August tenth, the day
before she was slated to defend her title on Ragin's
EO Sky. She said, in my hotel room, I had
been feeling a little bit different, a little weird. Just
wanted to take a test to find out and make sure,
kind of rule it out, not thinking because it's been
(24:07):
a long journey with fertility issues that I've had, so yeah,
I really just didn't think it was possible. And she
revealed that before she made her debut on the main
roster as a funk dactyl, she underwent a procedure called
an oh aphrectomy where she had her right overy removed,
and then in twenty twenty, she underwent a procedure to
(24:28):
remove fibroids from her uterus. She said, I had tons
and big ones and it was only supposed to be
a couple of hours the surgery, but she ended up
being in there for six hours. Then she had to
take six months off to recover. Her last match. From
what I can tell, her last match was in August
of that year, which was a beat the clock match
(24:48):
against Bailey, and then we didn't see her again until
the Royal Rumble. As she figured due to her medical history,
the chances of her and Jimmy conceiving a child naturally
were just not that high. She said the sir was
more intense and severe than they thought it was initially,
and just the healing and also a lot of scar tissue.
On top of being older, I'm thirty seven now, and
(25:10):
on top of only having one ovary, we thought for
sure that naturally I just couldn't anymore. And she also
said her pregnancy is considered high risk, so she'll be
going for checkups more often, but so far everything is
looking good, which is great to hear. Well. I mean, look,
the other women have Jimmy Big Jim to thank now
(25:33):
for eliminating some of their competition. She said that she's
seven weeks pregnant, which means that when she cashed in
her money in the bank to win the world title,
she was with child, which makes her the first money
in the bank winner to do so, if there is
a category for such a thing, if not there is
now they didn't announce anything as far as the Women's
(25:54):
Championship goes, but with one raw left before clash in Paris,
they're going to have to make a decision tomorrow or
not tomorrow. But I'm month so used to doing these
shows on Sunday, They're gonna have to make a decision
on Monday. And I still maintained the easiest thing to
do and the most sensible idea is to make a
match between EO Sky and Stephanie Vcaire because Eo was
(26:14):
supposed to get a title match with Naomi, which never happened.
Right that's when she found out she was pregnant. The
match got called off. Stephanie won a Battle Royal and
Evolution to earn a championship match. Turning it into a
multi person match would not be very fair to Stephanie, now,
would it. Right, she earned a match against the champion
EO is owed a match. Just do EO Sky against
(26:38):
Stephanie Vicaire for the vacant title. That's all you really
need to do. Now. They could add Roxane Perez to
the match if they want to, because Roxanne could argue
she pinned EO two weeks ago, which she did. That
was the replacement match for EO against Naomi. They did
EO against Roxane and ro Sam pinned EO Sky, something
(26:59):
that rear Ripley has never been able to do. So
you could make it a triple threat. You could have
EO pin Roxand to get her win back, and that
also spares them from having to pin Stephanie because even
if they do EO against Stephanie, I would have EO
win the title back like Stephanie Vecer getting pinned in
a competitive match by EO Sky not a big deal.
(27:21):
I'm just saying if they turn it into a triple
threat or a fatal four way or something like that,
you could then spare Stephanie from having to take the
pin if that matters. If that's a big deal. But
I just think it's way too soon to belt up Stephanie.
She's barely even been on the show since evolution. She's
almost been forgotten about just put the belt back on
(27:43):
Eo until Perth in October. And in Perth, Ria Ripley
finally beats Eo Sky for the first time and she
wins back the Women's World Championship. She runs with it
for a few months until they're ready to do Rhea
against Stephanie next year. Maybe at WrestleMania, Stephanie wins the
championship from Ria Ripley. That'll be a big, big win
for her. That's it, that's really all you have to
(28:04):
do and live. Morgan is probably going to be back,
I would imagine in time for the Royal Rumble, probably
the beginning of next year. It doesn't need to be
for the championship. You can go into a program or
a story with her and Roxanne that would be a solid,
sort of underneath story that doesn't really need the championship
so as far as like the key players are concerned,
(28:25):
And that doesn't even include whatever Becky Lynch is going
to be doing. That accounts for most of the key
players on the Ross side. And that takes you right
into WrestleMania season, and that leads nicely into my clash
in Paris. Predictions for next Sunday with a two pm
Eastern start time, and just like Forbidden Door, tomorrow, my
(28:46):
plan is to go live at eight pm that night.
I think that'll work well tomorrow, and if it does,
we'll do the same thing for Clash in Paris next weekend,
and then we'll push the podcast out a day early.
I have not seen any attendance numbers for this show.
Is an indoor arena, but it fits a big one.
It fits up to forty five thousand people for concerts.
(29:07):
For a show like this, it's probably more like thirty
to thirty five thousand, which is still a lot of people.
But there was a note in the Observer this week
that tickets have not been selling that well because they
completely priced themselves out of the market with their most
expensive seats. People are not buying them up like they
expected them to. And look, they're still going to have
a lot of people there and it should be very loud,
(29:28):
but it definitely will not be sold out, which can
only mean one thing. Ari Emanuel is on the phone
as we speak to Dwayne. Dwayne, we need you, we
need you, We need you to come snatch up some souls.
So the card right now is incomplete. This is pending
(29:49):
their decision on the Women's World title situation and what
other matches they might add. They have a few possibilities,
Cody Roads against Drew McIntyre for the WWE title being
the most obvious one, but that's feels like a wrestle
Palouza match to me. Plus Cody miss SmackDown again this week,
so there's not enough time to set that up for
Paris anyway. Maybe Becky Lynch on that show defends her
(30:11):
Intercontinental title against Nikki Bella. Maybe Dominic Mysterio defends his
Intercontinental title against aj Styles. Sammy's ain we know is
getting a US title match against Solo Socoa in Leon,
France on SmackDown next week, so that will not be
on the ple. But here's what the card looks like
as of right now. Seamus and Russev, they have been
(30:33):
fighting like cats and dogs for weeks now, they're both
even at one win apiece and now they're actually getting
a pl spot. The only other ple match that Seamus
has been a part of all year was the Royal Rumble,
and if you can believe it, this will mark his
first singles match on a ple in three years. You
(30:54):
would have to go all the way back to Clash
at the Castle in twenty twenty two when he challenged
Gunther for the Intercontinental title. That was the last time.
Outside of that. It's been all tags and triple threats
and war games matches, and not even that many of them.
But this time it'll be a good old fashioned Donnie
Brook match, which is basically anything goes, but with barrels
(31:17):
at ringside. I mean, maybe they can play him out
to the ring to roll out the barrel. It would
still be better than that garbage that Deaf Rebel gave him.
I think Seamus wins this. He's one and one in
Donny Brook matches so far. He lost one to Drew
MacIntyre and he beat Pete Dunn in the other, but
this is his specialty. I think the Babyface wins this,
(31:39):
So I'm going with Seamus again. The Women's World Championship
will be decided on this show. How exactly we don't know,
but so long as eo Sky is in the match,
I'm picking Eosky to win the belt back. I know
she's got her own story going on right now with
Rheo Ripley and the Kabuki Warriors. It's probably building to
a tag team match. If they put the title on Stephanie,
(32:01):
I'm fine with it. I just think it's too soon
to do that. If they put the title on Roxanne,
because apparently they're very, very high on Roxand, I would
not hate it, but I really don't think she needs it.
When Live Morgan comes back, EO Sky is the way
to go. She is your next women's World champion. Roman
Rains returned on Raw Monday Night. He came to the
(32:23):
aid of Jay Usso in his Extreme Rules match against
bron Breaker. He challenged Bronson reed to a match in Paris.
Reid accepted, and he promised to steal roman shoes again.
I don't see Roman reiins losing to Bronson Reid. Bron Breaker, sure, maybe,
but not Bronson Reid because he remember, he is Roman.
(32:44):
That is likely disappearing again after this match because he's
scheduled to go film for Street Fighter all of next
month through the twenty sixth, I believe is what p
W Insider was reporting. So, I mean, if he's going away,
you could destroy him first, even if you don't beat him.
I still don't think he's gonna lose, But you could
do an angle after the match, where you know, you
(33:07):
kind of destroy him and send him on his way.
The thing is, though, like he just got destroyed. He's
already coming off of an angle where he got destroyed
and he was gone for a few weeks. Yeah, granted
it was all of two weeks, but they already did
an angle like that. I don't know if they want
to do another one again so soon after the last one.
I don't even know if he's going to be on
(33:27):
RAW that Monday. He starts filming on September second. I
believe that's the day after Raw, and they're filming in Australia,
so he may not even be there. I mean, that
clash in Paris match may be it for him for
the next month. But I'm going with Roman Reigns to win.
John Cena goes one on one with Logan Paul. This
(33:47):
is not a match that I have been terribly excited about.
Although Logan Paul was the MVP of that tag team match,
the celebrity match at Summer Salam with you know, Jelly Roll,
and he's had some great matches absolutely and given credit
for the for the matches that he has. He goes
out there, and more often than not he tries to
steal the show, and a lot of times he does
(34:08):
so him against John Cena. In many ways, he's a
really good opponent for John Cena because whatever John Cena
can't do, Logan Paul can, and Logan Paul can, you know,
bump all over the place for him and do all
kinds of stuff that John Cena can react to. But
John Sen is not going to be the one doing
all these dazzling, you know, show stealing moves here. So
(34:31):
in that regard, I think he's a good opponent for him,
but I can't say that this match had to be
terribly excited. And then we got to smack Down on
Friday Night and John Cena was back, and John Cena
was on SmackDown in Dublin, Ireland, and he didn't even
get a word out before Logan Paul crashed the party
and Logan Paul cut a promo on John Cena, and
it was fine, It was a perfectly fine promo. But
(34:53):
then John Cena got to retort and he took the
microphone and for the next five minutes straight he cut
what was easily one of the best promos of this
entire retirement run so far, it is something that is
worth going out of your way to watch the whole
thing in full. I cannot say that he buried Logan Paul.
I mean, in some ways he did, but this was
(35:15):
not a promo where he buried Logan Paul. He put
the man over for his abilities. He was careful at
the beginning of this to put him over and call
him a future WWE champion, a future WrestleMania main inventor.
And he's looking at the fans and going, guys, I
know you don't like it, I know you don't want
to hear it. But he's not going nowhere. We're not
(35:35):
going to get rid of him. You know, he's here
to stay, and he's actually really really good. But then
from there he went the opposite way, and he focused
on the criticisms that a lot of fans have about him,
and a lot of the things the fans don't like
about him, and how disrespectful he can be. And now
they're kind of playing it up for the story about
how disrespectful he can be and all, you're only here
(35:57):
to take advantage of us and use us, and he's
showing us the prime hydration station at ringside and talking
about his drone and you're here for moments and all
this other stuff. But there's a lot of truth to
what he's saying. And even if there isn't a lot
of truth, there's a lot of fans who believe a
lot of what he was saying here in this promo,
and he's tapping into all these different criticisms, but he
(36:19):
did it in a way where it was some of
the best work I've seen from him on the mic
all year. Like when Sena is on, he is untouchable,
he really And we've seen that before, right, We saw
that in the promo years ago with Roman Reigns the
Big Dog, where he just eviscerated him and embarrassed him
on the micro. Like one of the most embarrassing moments
(36:42):
ever in a promo segment like that that I can remember,
especially with like two Top Guys, was when Roman lost
his train of thought in that promo and Scena literally
is just kind of leaning back up against the ropes
and he just goes, take your time, take your time.
And he said some other stuff as well, but that
(37:03):
he hit him with that line you know there at
the end about how you know I came back because
you can't do your job. He'll always get like, at
least that one line in there that just burns the
other person to the ground. And Austin theory, you know,
a few years ago, forget about it. That was just
a complete burial job, and Austin Theory was never the
same after that. So this wasn't quite that bad. This
(37:26):
wasn't as biting as that was. But even here, you know,
he's going on about how, you know, these fans resent
you because you've you know, wasted part of what little
time I have left here in this retirement run, where
I could be working with like future legends and stars
like Dominic Mysterio and aj Styles and Seth Rollins and
(37:48):
Jacob Fought too, and so you know, the fans don't
appreciate the fact that I'm wasting my time with you, you know,
And I'm wasting my time with a backflipping YouTuber who's
you know, pushing saltwater and just on and on and
on and just really lacing into this guy. But he's
all up in his face and he says, you know, look,
(38:09):
clash in Paris is an opportunity for you to prove
yourself it's a you know, it's a it's a proving
ground in effect for Logan Paul. It's really nice. You
know that you've had twenty three wonderful matches so far
in your WWE career, but I've had twenty three years
worth of matches in my career. You've got some catching
up to do. And so, just from start to finish,
(38:30):
top to bottom, I thought that this was just excellent stuff,
easily the highlight of the show on Friday. And now
there's a story there that I can buy into. Right now,
I have a reason to actually care about this match
just based on what John Cena was saying in that promo.
He was able to kind of reel me in, and
(38:51):
that's what I was looking for here. They made the match,
and it's like, Okay, great, you made the match, but
like there's no real there's no real hook there, and
I felt like he gave us that hook on Friday
night as best as they can now. Later on in
the show, McIntyre was in the bag, Drew McIntyre. He
was talking to Logan Paul and he's telling him like,
(39:11):
this isn't twenty ten, this isn't Super Sena. You've got
to show him what you can do tonight, like you've
got to retaliate basically for what he just did to
you out there. And it was very interesting that McIntyre
was the one giving him this pep talk and saying
all these things about John Sena, because it felt to
me like they're planting the seed for a future match,
(39:32):
possibly between McIntyre and Sena. I don't want to say
McIntyre is going to be John Cena's retirement opponent, but
I definitely think he's he's you know, under consideration for that.
I mean, I think that Gunther and John Cena is
the match that I would like to see. But if
they went with Drew McIntyre, I mean, that works too.
(39:52):
Or maybe the answer lies in the list of names
that Sena rattled off, you know, against Logan last night
in the ring, all those people you know that he
he could be wrestling instead of Logan Paul again. He
named Dominic Mysterio and I don't think it's gonna be
domb but he named AJ Styles. I would love to
see another John Cena AJ Styles match. Do I see
that as his retirement match? I don't, But you know
(40:15):
who I could see Jacob Fatu. Jacob Fatu is another
name that he dropped, you know, and it's another baby
Face like aj Is. I don't think that would stop
them from doing Babyface against baby Face and seeing his
retirement match. But Jacob Fatu maybe is on that short
list as well of potential opponents. If you were to
ask me right now, who do I think is the favorite?
(40:36):
Or there's a list I don't even have, like a
top three. I have a top two of guys who
I would a love to see wrestle John Cena, and realistically,
I think it could be either one of them. It's
Gunther and Drew McIntyre. I really do. I think it's
probably gonna end up being one of those two, and
in either case, I'm okay with that. But after what
(40:58):
McIntyre said to Logan in the back, it led to
the closing segment of the show on Friday, which was
nick All this rushing out. As Sena was leaving, nick
All this rushes over to him and says, I just
got off the phone with Brocklesner, and before he could
tell Sena whatever it is that he was going to
tell him, Logan Paul flies in with the right hand
and a knockout shot that missed by a good six
(41:20):
inches because this man was being very careful not to
really punch John Cena in the jaw. Probably has that
jaw insured for his next movie. But I was watching
it on International Netflix with the VPN, so I saw
it live in the afternoon on Friday, and then I
saw that when it aired on USA later that night,
it was it looked bad enough, and they recognized that
(41:41):
it looked bad enough from that angle that they actually
reshot the entire scene. And this wasn't just the same
scene from a different angle, like this was a completely
different scene. They just reshot it afterwards, this time from
a different perspective, so it didn't look as bad. But
he left John Cena laying, which I think he kind
of had to do to get that heat back. I
know they have one more SmackDown before clash in Paris,
(42:03):
but you know, whether it was last night or whether
it was next week, Logan getting his heat back in
some way makes sense because I just don't see him
going over here. I've got John Cena beating Logan Paul,
and then we have seth Rollins in the main event
defending the world heavyweight Championship against CM Punk, La Knight
(42:23):
and jay Usso. Rollins just cashed in to win the
title at Summerslim. No matter how hard they try to
sell us on his title being in jeopardy because it's
three other men and he doesn't have to be pinned
to lose the championship, it's a tough sell because no
one sees him dropping that title here. If Punk gets
(42:46):
the belt back, it won't be until WrestleMania. La Knight
winning the title just doesn't seem realistic anymore. And jay
Usso shouldn't even be in this match. I don't even
think he's in the match to eat the pin. I
think that's why Night is in there. Who gets the
next shot though, at wrestle Palooza or at Crown Jewel
(43:06):
That I don't know, could be Punk again. I mean,
it's the feud that'll never die. But one thing I
can tell you is that Seth Rollins is walking in
as the World Heavyweight Champion too Paris, and he will
be leaving as the World Heavyweight Champion. Seth Rollins will
win the fatal four way match. This week's episode is
sponsored by Green Chef. When you think about Summer you
(43:27):
want to have your best beach pod right, and what
you eat has a lot to do with that. But
even when the summer comes to an end, that doesn't
make it okay to just start eating whatever you want,
regardless of how bad it may be for you. Like,
that's my attitude. I want to make sure I'm eating
well all year round because my health is important. It's
about adopting eating habits that I know I can stick to.
(43:49):
That's the beauty of green Chef, the number one meal
kit for clean eating. Green Chef makes it easy to
spend less time in the kitchen and more time doing
the other things that you would rather be doing this summer.
And with their new heat and Eat meals, you could
enjoy a delicious meal in under three minutes with fresh, organic,
seasonal produce and one hundred percent responsibly sourced proteins to
(44:10):
help you feel your best, We're talking real ingredients. Enjoy
salads ready in just five minutes, protein filled breakfasts or
nutrient filled smoothies to fuel your entire day. With eighty
plus dietisi to prove weekly meal options, green Chef makes
it easy to find meals that fit your lifestyle from
Mediterranean and gluten free to plant based, in protein heavy
(44:33):
to gut and brain health and calorie smart options too.
The recipes change every week, and with week to week flexibility,
you can adjust your plan to match your mood and
your schedule. As someone that has tried Green Chef for
myself and had meals sent right to my doorstep, I
can vouch for how easy they are to make and
the fact that they passed my taste test. One of
(44:55):
my favorite meals I had a while back was their
chicken with basil pea stew, roasted red peppers, and jasmine rice.
It was fantastic. It's hard to mess up a chicken
dish with me, but it has been done before. Thankfully,
this wasn't one of those times. As far as getting
everything together, it was super easy. You know, they list
out everything you need, any food allergens that you need
(45:16):
to know about, which I appreciate and it was a
great time saver for me before getting ready to go
to work and do some live streaming for you guys,
make this summer your healthiest yet with Green Chef. Head
to greenchef dot com, slash fifty solom monster and use
code fifty solo monster to get fifty percent off your
(45:37):
first month, then twenty percent off for two months with
free shipping. That's code fifty solo Monster at Green chef
dot Com slash fifty solo Monster. Chris Jericho was in
the news this week, and not because he is scheduled
to be back soon on AW Television. He may never
be back on AW Television ever again, if these reports
(45:59):
are to be believed. Jericho has not been in the
ring since losing the Ring of Honor World Championship to
Bandido at Dynasty back in April and the following Dynamite,
where he told Big Bill and Brian Keith that he
was disappointed in them and until they changed that it's
best that he leaves. That was the last time we
saw him. The real reason that he left was Twofold
(46:22):
number one. He had a Fozzy tour coming up. That
tour ran through the middle of May number two. It
was reported at the time that Jericho felt his character
needed a reset and it would be best to take
himself off TV for a while, which was absolutely needed.
I mean, this guy was as stale as a month
old loaf of bread. Now it's been four months since
(46:43):
he's been seen on TV and there's a lot of
chatter about his aw contract, which is due to expire
the end of this year. Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer
Radio said, Jericho's actually a really big story. His contract
is up at the end of the year or late
in the year. There's certainly been lots and lots of
talk about WWE. I know, from a WWE standpoint, there
(47:05):
is lots of talk there about Jericho, you know, people
speculating royal rumble. Nobody has officially said anything, nor will
anyone officially say anything. So that's from Dave. Fightful followed
out with their own report on Wednesday that confirmed Jericho
is signed with AW until the end of twenty twenty five,
so he still has many months left on his deal.
(47:28):
Big Bill and Brian Keith are no longer listed as
part of the Learning Tree. The WWE rumors started up
after Jericho liked an Instagram post from somebody suggesting a
WWE return. That's really what got all this started. And
Jericho's very good at being able to kind of read
the room and know how to get people to talk
(47:49):
about him, and all it took was one liked Instagram
post and social media just got set ablaze with all
kinds of rumors and conspiracy theories and fantasy booking scenarios
about a Royal Rumble retired and a wrestle Radia retard,
like all these things that started really all from that
one thing. But the Fightful report also said that one
(48:11):
WWE higher up said Jericho is on good terms with
the company. The boys from Wressell Votes Radio have said
we can confirm after speaking to our sources, that there
is significant interest in Chris Jericho coming back to WWE
once his AW contract would allow him to do so.
We're told that several within WWE, including active talent, would
(48:33):
like to see him return. Despite spending the last six
years with AAW, Jericho has remained friendly with the number
of people inside WWE, we are told, and according to
that source, they ultimately do expect a deal to be
completed once Chris is legally able to do so. I
am still not convinced that this is not going to
end up being more of a way for Jericho to
(48:55):
leverage even more money out of Tony Khan for a
new deal, and it would be very smart of him
to do so, you know, if he does want to
stay with AW, how do you maximize your value with
your deal coming up by teasing a return to WWE.
When Randy Orton's contract was coming up for expiration in
twenty nineteen, he used AW, which was only first starting
(49:17):
up at the time. He used AW as leverage to
get himself a better deal and a lot more money
to stay with WWE. It's smart business. Jericho could well
be doing the same thing here right, liking a post
here and there, or if he starts dropping cryptic teases,
maybe he doesn't want to leave. But we don't even
(49:38):
know for sure that Tony Kah cares enough to keep
him around if he's effectively going to be bidding against himself.
You know, Jericho's an interesting case because he has done
so much in his career. He's reinvented himself multiple times.
He's gone through different character transformations and has been more
successful than not with it. But this most recent with
(50:00):
the Learning Tree stuff like it just it really felt
like the bloom was finally off the rows. If we're
being honest. It's been that way for a while now,
even before the Learning Tree. But no one can deny
his importance to AW when that company was first getting
off the ground. I mean more than Cody Rhoades, more
than the Young Bucks, more than Kenny Omega. The Jericho
(50:21):
signing in twenty nineteen was Tony Kahn's most important signing
for that launch. He was able to sign away a
major name from WWE, an established name on television that
people knew, with a proven track record of success on
the national stage. It's why I said at the time
when it was Jericho against Hangman Page to crown the
(50:41):
first aw World champion, that Jericho was the logical choice.
Hangman was not established yet and Jericho was right put
the belt on Jericho. It's a face that people watching
on TNT would instantly recognize if they're any kind of
real wrestling fan. And then from there you could build
your new stars up, up guys like Hangman in Darby
(51:02):
and MJF and Sammy Gavara. And there was value in
Jericho forming the inner circle and surrounding himself with younger
talent that he could try to elevate Sammy Gavarre that
he benefited from it to a degree. Sammy had his
own issues that killed his momentum there for a while.
Jake Hager and Santana and ortize it actually got to
(51:23):
a point where Santana and Ortiz they were wasting away
his background players to Jericho, like that stuff was going
on for so long and there was no upward mobility
for them that it was actually working against them, Like
how much did it really help those guys like Hagar
and Santana and Ortiz, like in the big picture, not much.
(51:44):
Then it was the Jericho Appreciation Society and they threw
Daniel Garcia in there, and Matt Monard and Angelo Parker,
two guys that WWE got rid of Jericho. Threw them
a lifeline, two fellow Canadians. Daniel Garcia. There was potential
there with him and Jericho in the ROH title and
there was an obvious story which they teased and they
(52:06):
never explored it after the big swerve they did. You know,
I can understand trying to get him to show more
personality instead of just being the great technical wrestler and saying, okay,
you know what, instead of having him in the Blackpool
Combat Club, will have him in the Jericho Appreciation Society,
and he'll know he came up with that silly dance
that got over for a minute, but he probably should
(52:28):
have ended up in the Blackpool Combat Club with Brian Danielson.
Then came the Learning Tree, which seemed to be building
to a split with him and Big Bill and an
eventual match between the two of them, and then Jericho
went on hiatus, and now we're never getting that blowoff
with Jericho and Big Bill because even if Jericho comes back,
it looks like the Learning Tree stuff is just over.
(52:50):
If he comes back, it'll be something completely new. You know.
I'll give him credit for working with Orange Cassidy and
putting him over, because oc he did come out of
that better off than he went into it. But for
so many others, this is why it became a running joke,
the Jericho vortex. It's a real thing. And I don't
(53:10):
mean that in a good way. You know, he would
work with guys like Ricky Starks, and work with a
guy like Action Andretti and a Hook and even put
some of them over in the end, But how many
of them were truly elevated by working with Jericho? How
many of them came out of those feuds and those
(53:30):
programs better off coming out of them. You can't put
all of that on Jericho. A lot of it is
also the booking and Tony Kahan's inability to follow up
with them in any kind of meaningful way. He gets
blamed for it too, But even Jericho's program with someone
like Adam Cole or the stuff he did with Eddie Kingston,
(53:50):
it was to their detriment. Like I remember, Eddie Kingston
and Chris Jericho had a really good matchup Revolution a
few years ago, but after that it just dragged on
endlessly for months and months. And the question needs to
be asked, what value does Chris Jericho bring to AW
in the year twenty twenty five. You know, the answer
(54:13):
in twenty nineteen was a lot, a lot of value.
In twenty twenty five, not so much. You know, we
helped get the company off the ground and they're secure
for the time being. They got their six hundred million
dollar media rights deal. You know, Jericho does not move
the needle for them anymore. He hasn't for a long time.
(54:33):
Tony Kahn put the Ring of Honor World Championship on
him twice with the idea that it might help them
secure a television deal for Ring of Honor, and that
never materialized. In the ring, with the right opponent, he
can still have a solid match. I mean, like that
last one he had with Bandido, right, and how much
of that was Bandido. Bandido is awesome, but I mean
(54:53):
those are few and far between these days. He's fifty
four years old now, and he looks at when he's
in the ring. Outside of being a veteran presence behind
the scenes and helping out in that capacity, I don't
see where he brings any value to the aw product anymore,
not on camera, and he won't move the needle for
(55:13):
WWE either outside of that initial return, and that's really
his best bet at this point. If he goes back
to WWE, it's going to generate a lot of excitement
initially because it's been almost a decade since the last
time we saw him on their TV, and there are
a lot of WWE fans that don't watch aaw So
Chris Jericho shows up all of a sudden as a surprise,
(55:35):
It's like, oh my god, where's he been. Chris Jericho's back.
I haven't seen him in eight years. Right. The last
time he wrestled for WWE was the Greatest Royal Rumble,
And think about that, that was the very first Saudi
Arabia show that they ever did. They've done a lot
more since then. They say absence makes the heart grow
fonder and also nostalgia. It's a hell of a drug.
(55:59):
So prize Royal Rumble return would be something I could
see happening, and that would be something that would generate
a lot of reaction. Funny enough, if he did make
a surprise Royal Rumble return next year, the Royal Rumble
is in Saudi Arabia, which is the last place that
we saw him working in the ring for WWE. But
(56:19):
like a surprise Rumble return, a Hall of Fame induction
is inevitable. And then a part time schedule that would
be the way to go with Jericho and WWE. When
I say part time, I'm talking no more than half
a dozen PL matches and working some international tours. That's it.
That's it, that's all it needs to be. So there
(56:41):
is value in him having one last run there, but
less is more with him at this point in aaw
He just overstayed his welcome. But there are other considerations.
If you're Jericho, he has outside projects. He's got his
podcast talk as Jericho. What happens with that? You know,
WWE's been building up their own podcast network. Do they
(57:03):
just add his show to their lineup. Did they take
ownership of that? I mean, Undertaker ditched his old co
host Matt and dropped him like a bad habit to
take the check from WWE and replace Matt with his
wife as his co host, Cody Rhoades. He's got his podcast,
Stephanie McMahon has her podcast, So I mean, I could
see Jericho's landing there. But that's not all he has.
(57:26):
He has the Jericho Cruise, which he's been doing since
twenty eighteen. He's got another one schedule for November of
next year. He took the cruise idea originally to WWE.
He took it to Triple H but they shot it down.
He wanted to get some WWE talents on the tour
on the cruise, and they basically told him, in so
(57:47):
many words, the fuck off. Once AW started up, he
was able to get all these AW stars to come
on the boat and do live matches. I mean, look
at the talent lineup for the most recent cruise. Will
osper Tony Storm, Bobby Lashley, MVP, Takeshta Ricochet, and like
twenty others, seventy five percent of the AW roster ended
(58:10):
up on that cruise. If he goes back to WWE,
he's not going to be getting aw talents on that
cruise anymore. He's going to lose access to all of
those people. Would WWE work with him and allow him
to book their talents on the cruise and get legends
booked on the cruise? Probably not, none of the big
(58:30):
names anyway. I mean, look, admittedly it's a little bit
different when Dynamite airs on a Wednesday in the middle
of the week. You know, WWE's got smacked down on Fridays,
they got raw on Mondays. I think the cruise usually
takes off on a Thursday, comes back on a Monday.
So no, you're not going to have access to you know,
that many big name talents. Does the cruse go away?
(58:54):
Does he want to continue to do it? Is he
willing to sacrifice it just to go back to WWE.
What about Fazi? He's got another tour scheduled in the
UK next February, right back in the middle of Royal
Rumble season, an Elimination Chamber season. So all that to say,
you know, for Jericho, he's got a lot to think
about because even if he's just part time, he's got
(59:17):
a lot on his plate that he doesn't necessarily want
to give up. Vince McMahon is not there anymore, maybe
they would be more willing to work with him now,
But in his mind, maybe it's easier to sign with
Tony for more money for another two or three years.
Take the money and just be able to do all
these other ancillary things that he's doing. Does Tony Kahn
(59:39):
want to keep Chris Jericho? That's the other question here.
I cannot imagine personally. I cannot imagine that he would
not make a play to keep Chris Jericho. Chris Jericho
is the first ever aw world champion. Tony loves Jericho.
Would he really just let him walk without trying to
keep him? I highly doubt that so, so it may
(01:00:00):
come down to that as much as anything. How far
is Tony willing to go to keep Jericho at a
time when Jericho has less value to him in ring
than he ever has in the six years that he's
been with the company. Is he willing to break the
bank Ocatta style to keep Chris Jericho, even if it's
just to keep him from going back to WWE, or
(01:00:21):
does Tony see things the same way that he's gotten
all that he can out of Jericho, and it's time
to move on peacefully, respectfully, without any drama. Basically the
opposite of how Cody Rhoades left and how Cmpunk left.
There's no need to burn any bridges here. Does he
let him walk or not without a fight. One thing
(01:00:42):
about Jericho, I will give the man his flowers. I
may not have been much of a fan the last
few years, but whatever he does, his body of work
and what he has been able to achieve in his
career over the course of thirty plus years is among
the greatest careers that anybody has ever had in the
history of the business. He made money and he found
(01:01:03):
success everywhere. He went from ECW to WCW, to WWE
to New Japan to AW, all of them. Tony Kahn
has said he credit to the match that Jericho had
with Kenny Omega at the Tokyo Dome as the inspiration
for starting AW because that match did big box office
and it confirmed to him that there was a market
(01:01:24):
outside of WWE for pro wrestling that was not being
serviced at the time. So he's had a very blessed
career and I know he's still having fun and he
has no plans to quit anytime soon, That's what he said.
But there's a right way and a wrong way to
use Chris Jericho, and whether he stays or whether he goes,
whoever he works for, I hope they're smart enough to
(01:01:45):
know the difference between right and wrong. Forbidden Door is
tomorrow from the two arena in London. At Wembley, they
get the bigger crowds and it's an outdoor stadium. This
is not They're going to be back at Wembley next year,
but there gonna end up sold out here with over
seventeen thousand fans in an indoor arena where it should
be very loud and very energetic. Whatever you want to
(01:02:08):
say about their domestic attendance, and it's not great. They
don't have any of those same struggles in the UK
since they don't run there as often, so these shows
always make them feel major league. It's you know, it's funny.
I was talking to my brother earlier today actually and
mentioned that, you know, tomorrow, I'm going to be watching
(01:02:30):
Forbidden Door the middle of the day, and he because
he doesn't watched aw week to week, he's aware of it,
but he doesn't watch it. So he looked at the
roster and he was appalled by how many titles there are.
Like he saw Okada was the unified champion, and he
assumed that he must be the top champion in the company.
(01:02:52):
So I had to explain to him why he's not
and how the whole unified title situation works. And then
he asked about Mercelle and all of her belts, and
I just gave up. I just I just said, you
know what, this is a lost cause, but just an
interesting perspective there from someone who is casual at best
(01:03:12):
when it comes to aw But here's the card as
it currently stands. This doesn't account for any pre show
Zero Hour matches that they're going to add, undoubtedly, because
Zero Hour starts either at eleven am or eleven thirty am.
The main card starts at one pm Eastern. Kyle Fletcher
defends the TNT Championship against Hiromu Takahashi of New Japan.
(01:03:37):
That will be a win for Kyle Fletcher IWGP World
Heavyweight Championship on the line. Zach Saber Junior defends against
Nigel McGinnis, who will have Daniel Garcia in his corner.
Daniel Garcia was one of the men that Nigel beat
out in the four way match on Collision last week
to earn the shot, and Danny looked very frustrated and
(01:03:57):
upset when he lost. Nigel looks thended the invitation for
him to be in his corner. He accepted. I have
questions about Daniel Garcia and what his motivations will be here.
I think we're headed for a Daniel Garcia heel turn potentially,
whether it costs Nigel the match or it comes after
the match. Nigel either way is not winning the title.
It's cool to see him in this spot and getting
(01:04:19):
a shot in London. But Zach Saber Junior will leave
still the IWGP champion, no doubt about that. Mercedes Monet
defends her TBS Women's Championship in a four way match
against Alex Winza representing aw, Persephone representing CMLL, and Bozilla
(01:04:43):
representing Stardom. And I said, you know with Bosilla, I
said it on Wednesday. They've got a German wrestler representing
a Japanese company on a British event being hosted by
an American company, and she is someone who is very young.
She's only twenty not a lot of experience, not a
lot of time in stardom. She's been there barely two months.
(01:05:05):
We didn't even know who was going to be in
the match until they put the graphic up on the
screen on Wednesday telling us, oh, Bozilla will be in there.
And I can imagine some people watching this going, who
the fuck is Bozilla? Well, you'll find out on Sunday
because she's going to be in the four way match.
She has no shot of winning, but she'll be in
the four way match. Yeah, there is no way that
Mercedes is losing her title here. There's absolutely no way.
(01:05:28):
And Mercedes, by the way, is now Mercedes nine belts.
She won her ninth championship. There's a Rev Pro show
on Friday night, and she won her ninth title and
only the TBS title on the line here, though, no
way she's losing, No way she should be losing. She's
getting very close to beating Jade Cargill as the longest
reigning TBS champion of all time. There's no reason to
(01:05:50):
think that Tony would do anything to jeopardize that at
this point or take the title off of her before then.
So Mercedes will win. We have the aw World Tag
team titles on the line. The Hurt Syndicate, Bobby Lashley
and Shelton Benjamin defend in a three way match for
the second pay per view in a row. They did
the same shit at all in Texas. They're doing it
(01:06:12):
again here three way match against FTR and Brodido, the
team of Brody King and Bendido. They had the finals
of this tournament on Wednesday to crown number one contenders.
Brodido and FTR went to a thirty minute draw. That
is how this ended up as a three way match.
(01:06:32):
And there have also been a lot of stories of late,
a lot of rumors, a lot of reports about the
Hurt Syndicate and or MVP specifically not liking pitches for
his team to drop their titles to FTR. And this
has come from multiple places. Now right. I saw the
Fightful mention something about this about a week or so ago.
(01:06:54):
I think there's smoke to the fire, and I've already
commented on how I feel about that, and it really
should not be anyone's decision. But Tony Kahn, who I
think has been more than generous with the way that
he has booked and presented the Hurt syndicate on television
for the entire year now that they have held those
tag team titles, and Tony has another story in mind,
and that story involves FTR winning the titles and going
(01:07:16):
to Toronto next month. And if Tony Khan wants FTR,
for example, to win the tag team titles, or Brodido
or anybody else, then that's exactly what should happen, regardless
of how the Hurt syndicate, regardless of how MVP feels
about it. And yet now amidst all of these reports,
this turns into a three way match, and I can't
(01:07:37):
help but sit here and wonder if that has a
little something to do with these reports that we've heard about.
But then I read on their Twitter and I didn't
realize this until yesterday because they didn't say a damn
word about this on television. But apparently this is an
elimination match. This is not even a traditional three way
like the one that we had in Texas. This is
(01:07:59):
an elimin nation match. So it makes me wonder, will
they have Brodido shock the world and bounce Lashly and
Benjamin out first so that guarantees that we're gonna have
new tag team champions and then from there have FTR
pin Brodido to win the titles. So that way FTR
(01:08:21):
does not pin Shelton, Benjamin or Bobby Lashley. I'm sitting
here trying to imagine Dax or Cash pinning Bobby Lashley.
I can't see it. I just don't. I don't see Shelton. Maybe, yes, maybe,
but I don't see it happening with Bobby Lashley. And
it may not happen at all. It may not happen
(01:08:42):
with them at all, because it may well be that
the Hurt Syndicate will lose, but they'll lose to Brodido,
and then Brodido loses to FTR. Either way, I'm picking
FTR to win the tag team titles. Here in this match,
Adam Copeland and Christian Cage, they have a reunited boy
that was quick. He has a little rush, doesn't it.
(01:09:05):
But they reunited and they're going to be taking it well.
They were supposed to take on Nick Wayne and Kip
Sabe and representing the Patriarchy or now I guess it
would be the Matriarchy. And then on Wednesday, Nick Wayne
was on the tron and he had crutches and he
was not there in Glasgow with everybody else, and he
(01:09:26):
said that he had a broken foot. And he said
that it happened to the segment the week before where
Christian came at him with that spike board with the
nails in it and in dodging him and weaving out
of the way. I mean, I went back and I
watched that segment. He was moving around fine even after
he got out of the rings. I don't know exactly
where the broken foot happened. I don't know how badly
(01:09:46):
the foot is broken, but apparently it is a legitimate injury.
He has a broken foot. I don't know what that
means for his Ring of Honor television title, but at best,
without surgery, he's probably going to be out a good
eight to ten weeks or worse if he needs surgery.
And Dustin Roajes just had double knee replacement surgery and
he's got two belts in Ring of Honor. He's the
(01:10:07):
Ring of Honor Tag team champion and one third of
the six man champions. So I don't know what the
title situation is gonna look like in Ring of Honor,
if they're going to crown new champions or not. It's
Ring of honor. I mean, does anybody even care. You
may as well just keep the belts on them. I
don't even think anybody'll notice. But since Nick Wayne is
(01:10:28):
unable to compete, he's not medically cleared, he tapped a replacement,
and that replacement is the returning Lucasaurus or a kill switch.
I guess he's still being called kill switch came out.
We haven't seen the dinosaur in almost a year, and
it was really good to see him because there were
some reports about his health situation earlier in the year
that were very, very scary, and I talked about this
(01:10:51):
in the Dynamite Review on Wednesday. You know, he collapsed
in his home late last year. I think his fiance
found him, and he had no ammonia in both of
his lungs. He was having breathing issues. It was blood
oxygen level was like eighty or something. It was. It
was scary. It was touch and go there for a while,
and at the very least there were questions about whether
(01:11:13):
or not he even be able to get back in
the ring. But there he was, and he looked like,
you know, the old Lucasaurus and he's going to take
Nick Wayne's place. In this match. It doesn't change the
outcome here Copeland and Christian they almost have to win
anyway if they're going to be getting a tag team
title match at all out, if that's where we're headed
with this challenging FTR. But it would be foolish to
(01:11:34):
beat them anyway. And it is going to be their
first match as tag team partners in fourteen years. Fourteen years.
This is the reunion that Tony kh has been dying
to do, and probably the two of them have been
dying to do. And I said it was rushed. We've
seen this. I think a lot of us who watched
the show pretty much figured this was going to be
(01:11:56):
the inevitable direction. We just didn't know when they were
going to actually pull the trigger and do it. When
they did it a couple of weeks ago, it felt
very sudden. I was not expecting it to happen on
that show. I wasn't even expecting it to happen necessarily
before Forbidden Door. Maybe at Forbidden Door, like doing the
hug and the reunion at Forbidden Door actually would have
(01:12:17):
made more sense. You would have had a much bigger
hot crowd for I mean, they had eleven hundred people
in the fucking building when they did this big reunion
between Edge and Christian on TV a couple of weeks ago.
If you would have done it a forbidden door, you
would have had seventeen thousand rabid UK fans there on
a major pay per view who would have gone nuts
for that. And then you saved their first match together
(01:12:39):
for all out. Whether it's for the titles or not
isn't even really relevant. But there they were a couple
of weeks ago, maybe it was Cincinnati, I think, in
front of eleven hundred people, and they did the hug
and it looked like Christian was a little resistant to it.
So I said, we really need some kind of an
explanation here about what's going on. We got to get
these two in the ring together. They were in the
(01:13:00):
ring with Tony Shavani on Wednesday, and it was Christian's explanation.
He said that it's not a case where things are
suddenly good between the two of them, but they decided
it's kind of like a you scratch my back, I'll
scratch yours. The enemy of my enemy is my friend
type of situation where he agreed to help Copeland with
his FTR problem, and Copeland has agreed to help him
(01:13:23):
with his patriarchy problem. So they have this mutual agreement
with each other. Not that they're best buds again, but
you know what, we have some issues here. I need
your help, you need mine, so let's come together. I
at least appreciated they try to rationally explain it, like,
I think that's a fine explanation. This is not the
(01:13:45):
way that I would have done all of this, but
at least it was an explanation that you can make
sense of. And here's the other thing about it that
I like. Christian wasn't really acting any differently, and Copeland
even said he's an asshole. But he's asshole. So we
kind of get the best of both worlds here because
for the people who wanted to see a Copeland and
(01:14:05):
Christian reunion, we're getting it without having to change Christian
too much from the Christian that he has been. Christian
is a baby face just feels wrong. I'm sorry. I
don't want to see Christian as a babyface yet. I mean,
he's been doing this, you know, the Heel Act and
the Father's stuff now for a few years, and I
think there's other ways that you can evolve it beyond
(01:14:27):
just the you know your father is dead stuff. But
Christian is just such a natural prick. He's just naturally
hate herble, just a great heel, and I don't think
you should stray too far from that. And if the
fans are gonna cheer, let him share it. But I
don't think you should stray far from the Christian that
(01:14:48):
we get on TV now just because oh he's with Copeland,
so he has to be a babyface, Like I don't
subscribe to that. So this is their way of sort
of you're getting your cake and eating. Not a doubt
in my mind though, that Copeland and Christian are going
to win this match. Then we have Kazuchka Okada defending
(01:15:09):
the Unified Championship against Swerve Strickland. Swerve is going into
this match with a legitimate knee injury, which would explain
why he hasn't wrestled the match since July twenty third.
Per Fightful, he has been working with a torn meniscus
in his knee for the last six years, not weeks,
(01:15:33):
not months. Years. It's an injury that he suffered back
in twenty nineteen when he was still at the WWE
Performance Center. I don't know why this is all of
a sudden an issue now if he's been working on
it for six years. Evidently he aggravated the injury, and
there's no word on whether or not he'll be having
surgery to repair the issue after the pay per view.
(01:15:54):
Tony Kahan has tapped into the Jacksonville Jaguars medical staff
to help him through this injury. But now they've got
their built in excuse for when he loses this match
to Okada, which he will, and Okada will retain the
Unified Championship. I don't know if that's going to play
certain limitations upon Swerve and what he can do in
this match, because I think with both guys healthy, this
(01:16:14):
could be a really good match. If Swerve is not
one hundred percent healthy, which obviously he isn't, I don't
know how that affects the match. If it's mostly him
just selling the knee, that could be very boring. We'll
see what kind of match they have. The long term
play here, even if Swerve was one hundred percent healthy,
he should not win the championship. The long term play
here needs to be Okada and Takeshta. I don't know
(01:16:36):
when I don't know if they do it at the
next pay per view. I don't know if they do
it at World's End or Full Gear or early twenty
twenty six. I don't know what's gonna happen with Takeshta
and the IWGP title because he just won the g
One Climax and he said that he wants to win
the championship before the Tokyo Do. He wants to go
into the Tokyo Do as the champion. I don't really
(01:17:01):
see them doing anything with him in Okada if that's
the case until he drops that title. But he hasn't.
He hasn't won that title yet, so we'll see what
happens there. But to me, that's the long term play.
The aw Women's World Championship is on the line. Timeless
Tony Storm defends against Athena Athena one the tag team
main event on Dynamite Wednesday night. She was teaming with
(01:17:22):
Mercedes against Tony Storm and Alex Windsor. She's also still
the Ring of Honor Women's World Champion, And as I
see it, there is only room for one belt collector
gimmick at a time in this company, and that belongs
to Mercedes. As I mentioned earlier, Mercedes just won her
ninth belt. On Friday, She beat Emerson Jane at the
(01:17:44):
Rev Pro show to win the Discovery Wrestling Scottish Women's Championship.
Discovery Wrestling apparently is a thing. I wonder how many
of these nine titles that she has are actually active times,
because I feel like not all of them are active titles,
like maybe six or seven of them maybe, But she's
(01:18:08):
got nine belts. Now, what an absolute nightmare that has
to be to go through the airport like airport security
every week with those things, because I think she brings
them all with her everywhere she goes, like all these shows.
I don't care if she has clear I don't care
if she has tsa pre check, like it doesn't matter.
That's got to be a fucking nightmare everywhere that woman goes.
(01:18:29):
As far as Tony Storm and Athena, I don't see
Athena winning the championship. This is Athena cashing in her
Casino Gauntlet contract that she won in Texas. She called
her shot in advance, and I just don't see her
winning the championship. I just don't see it, especially after
she won that main event on Wednesday. I'm like, yeah,
(01:18:49):
she's not winning that title. Hangman Adam Page defends the
AW World Championship against MJFF got Hangman on Wednesday to
agree to three new stipulations for their match, with some
help from Ricochet. In the Gates of Agony, they kidnapped
and tortured Mark Briscoe and MJF threatened to set the
(01:19:12):
man on fire. He poured gasoline on him. He had
a match. He was ready to set him a blaze
should Hangman not agree to his conditions, and as agreed to,
the AW World Championship now can change hands via count
out via disqualification. I think Triple H just got a
little tingle up his spine when I mentioned that word.
(01:19:33):
And also, MJF is no longer using his Casino Gauntlet
contract for a guaranteed title match, meaning MJF if he
loses this match, he still will have the contract as
a backup. He will still have it as an insurance
policy that he can cash in at any time, even
that night, if he chooses to do so. I don't
think he will not that night, and since he still
(01:19:55):
has the contract, that doesn't make any sense for him
to win the championship, since with that make that would
be dumb. So I got Hangman retaining. The only question
is do you see Mark brisco get some revenge. Yeah,
I've been saying I could see Mark Briscoe getting involved
and trying to stop MJF from using the dynamite Diamond ring.
Do they do some sort of shock finish where a
(01:20:18):
Mark Briscoe gets involved and it backfires and because he
gets you know, Hangman gets disqualified. That's how he loses
the title. What a lame fucking way, by the way
for him to lose a championship that would be I
just can't see it. I just can't see it happening. So,
however it goes down, I got Hangman retaining that title.
MJF will live to fight another day. He can cash
(01:20:39):
in that contract some other time. And then this is
the match that I think they may possibly be closing
the show with. They've certainly done this before with these
types of matches. It is unsanctioned. It is a lights
out ten men, five on five steel cage match with
Will Osprey, Darby, Allen Kenny, ome Koda Ibushi, and the
(01:21:01):
Ace Hiroshi Tanahashi taking on John Moxley, Claudio Castignoli, Gabe Kidd,
and The Young Bucks. On Dynamite, Osprey talked about how
he wasn't medically cleared to wrestle in this match, but
since it's unsanctioned, he knows the risks and he's wrestling anyway,
and obviously he is medically clear. That's part of the story.
(01:21:25):
He strongly implied that he was getting next surgery sometime
after this show, and he said, if there's a chance
that he can't be the same, well, Osprey after Sunday,
before doctors take a scalpel to my neck, I'm leaving
it all out there now. He previously revealed that he
has two herniated disks that are pressing on his spinal cord.
Pw Insider has confirmed. I mean, it seemed pretty obvious,
(01:21:49):
but for the people who just think everything's a fucking work,
PW Insider confirmed, this is not a work. This is
a very legitimate injury and he is absolutely looking to
have next surgery in the near future now. Osprey spoke
to Sports Illustrated this week and he said, I am compromised.
I've got a few herniated disks pushing against my spinal cord.
(01:22:10):
Which is affecting a couple of my nerves. But I
can do stuff, and I can perform one last time
before I need to go get it all corrected. I
got told, after all in that I was going to
need to rest and take some time off to see
how this is going to go. And then the MRIs
came back, and I got told that this is worse
than what we thought it was going to be, but
that it's manageable. It's absolutely fine. The surgeon even told
(01:22:33):
me that it's not going to get any worse, it
just needs to be corrected. I love how he says
in one breath, I got my MRIs back and it
was worse than expected, and then at the next he
says it's absolutely fine. Clearly it's not absolutely fine, but
I get what he's saying. It's the Cody Rhodes thing right,
wrestling with a torn peck inside hell and a cell.
(01:22:54):
It can't get any worse. So if you can tolerate
the pain, we'll let you wrestle. And that was a
torn peck, though these are discs in his neck that
are pushing up against his spinal cord. Wrestlers, man, they
are a different breed, but He also told CBS Sports
that he is terrified of the surgery. He said, I'm anxious.
(01:23:16):
I'm scared generally, I'm terrified not about the match, but
just about afterwards. I don't know what it looks like afterwards,
because for the first time in my life, I have
been disqualified from doing the thing that I love doing.
I've never had anybody cut into me. I've never had surgery.
I've never broken a bone other than my nose, which
everyone can tell because it looks like I've been hit
(01:23:36):
by a frying pan. If I think too much about it,
I'll fucking cry. I think humor is honestly the best
way I can lighten the mood in this type of situation.
For the first time in my life, I have to
realize that this is something serious, and I don't know
how to navigate those emotions. And on the fans being
concerned for his safety in the match tomorrow, he said,
(01:23:59):
I understand they're worried. They hear this type of shit
and they're going this sounds bad. But what people need
to remember is that I've been doing this for ten
months now at the highest level. Nobody can tell me
that I haven't been doing this at the highest level.
I've been working at my best. I know what I'm
capable of. I know what I can do, I know
what I can't do. Most importantly, the medics know what
(01:24:19):
I can and can't do. The surgeon knows what I
can and can't do. And the most important thing is
that my safety is utmost guaranteed. I can guarantee my
safety in this. I'll make it through. When I heard
what the procedure is that I'll be doing, I heard
other wrestlers have had this and they haven't come back
the same. So if there's even the smallest chance that
I'm not going to be the same after this match
(01:24:41):
and after the surgery, then I need to for myself,
for my pride, I need to go out there and
be me. I might have to kiss this part of
my high flying offense goodbye. Now. It's something that I'm
not ready to let go. I'll be honest with you.
I'm not ready to let go of that side of
me because I think that should be done on my terms.
I don't know if that's on the card. So I've
(01:25:02):
got to hope that after this I can still pick
up where I left off. But if not, all the
greats have done it, Juice and thunder Liger's done it.
Aj Styles has done it. I call myself the Billy
goat for a reason. I think I can adapt. Look,
I trust that he's got people looking out for him.
(01:25:23):
It's bad enough if Swerve ends up needing knee surgery,
losing Swerve and Osprey, he's going to be a big
body blow to the baby face side of that roster,
and Osprey is too important to them to be taking
any kind of unnecessary risks. I don't know what this
procedure is that he's talking about, if he's if it's
some sort of fusion, or if it's something less serious.
(01:25:43):
If it's the former, he's gone for a year. If
it's the latter, yeah, like kind of what Kurt Angle
had done after his WrestleMania match with brock Lesner. He
could be back in a few months. So it all
depends on what type of surgery he ends up getting.
I just I cannot see him getting medically cleared for
this if he needs a fucking fusion. So maybe it
(01:26:05):
isn't quite that serious. But even will Osprey, it's seventy
five percent is better than a lot of wrestlers at
one hundred percent. Now, originally I was going with Team
Ospray for the win. I am changing my prediction. I
am going with the Heels to win this match. I
just think it makes more sense with Osprey going in hurt.
(01:26:25):
Tanahashi has the jelly knees, and if the goal is
to get a Moxley Darby match at all out, then
I think the Heel should probably go over here, and
that's the card as it stands. There's not a lot
about this show that screams Forbidden Door. I would say
this is the weakest of all the Forbidden Door shows
they've ever done, if you're really into the inter promotional
(01:26:45):
aspect or seeing stars from New Japan and CMLL. Tony
Kahan did acknowledge that it was challenging putting the car
together this year because normally they do these shows before
the g One climax, and this year they ended up
doing it right after, so they didn't have access to
a lot of those talents, so they had to make
the best of a not so great situation. It should
go back to normal next year with this show in
(01:27:06):
June and all in back in August at Wembley. I
don't think there's a need to even do these shows anymore,
except that they're going to sell it out with seventeen
thousand people and do one of the biggest gate numbers
in the history of the company. So he really doesn't
have a good reason to stop doing them until people
stop buying tickets. Other news and notes, the Undertaker and
(01:27:29):
Mike Tyson are both in talks to appear on an
Indian reality show. Big Boss, hosted by actor producer Salman Khan,
is entering its nineteenth season and features celebrities living together
in a house while being filmed twenty four hours a day.
Contestants are eliminated through tasks, nominations, and audience votes. According
(01:27:52):
to multiple Indian outlets, including The Times of India, Undertaker
is expected to be one of the three wildcard entries
this season. The show began filming in Mumbai on Friday,
and it is rumored that Undertaker will stay in the
house for between seven and ten days, so basically it's
like Legend's House. Another WWE Hall of Famer, Mike Tyson,
(01:28:14):
has also been rumored as a potential wildcard entrant. Big
Boss has not officially confirmed either name. The Great Collie
was previously a wildcard entry on the show's fourth season
in twenty ten. He advanced to the finals before finishing
as a runner up. Man. You know, the Undertaker has
(01:28:34):
been keeping very busy in his retirement. If you would
have told me that, we would be living in a
world where not only is the Undertaker a podcast host,
but the Undertaker was apparently helping run the show behind
the scenes at Triple Mania in Mexico City last week,
and now he might appear on an Indian reality TV show.
(01:28:57):
I would have told you maybe the fake Undertake would
be doing that, but not the real Undertaker. But here
we go, here we are. I don't know if this
is actually gonna happen or now, but it sounds like
conversations are taking place. So he's keeping busy in his retirement.
As long as it keeps him out of the ring,
then that's fine. There has been yet another update in
(01:29:19):
the death of Hulk Hogan, and this story just took
a very dark turn. Hulk's daughter Brooke and his former
best friend Bubba the Love Sponge have been very vocal
these last few weeks about the suspicious nature in their
view of the circumstances. Around Hogan's death and their desire
to see an autopsy performed before Hulk's wife has him cremated,
(01:29:42):
which still has not happened yet. Brooke has even offered
to pay for the autopsy herself and the results. She says,
they don't need to be made public whatever they find.
They could just keep it private, but they would know
then exactly what happened and just be at peace with it.
On Wednesday, Brooke took to her Instagram and made a
bombshell claim that she has been contacted by people in
(01:30:04):
the know legitimate phone calls from authorities in the know
about her dad's death that she needs to ask. This
is them telling her you need to ask questions about
body camera footage and the nine to one one tapes
from that day. So these are people who could get
into serious trouble, she says, if they are outed as
sharing this information. But they have told her that those
(01:30:26):
tapes could potentially shed enough light to change the narrative
around her father's death. She said she's still being frozen
out by Hulk's wife's sky from gaining access to any
of the materials that she's being told to try to
get her hands on. This is what she posted. Here's
all I know, she said, so stop speculating and stop asking.
(01:30:46):
I've one hundred percent gotten legit calls from professionals, from
police officials to nurses that were supposedly with my dad
on the day of his death, telling me that I
need to see bodycam footage and I need to get
a hold of the nine to one one tapes because
they support contained information that could potentially shed enough light
to change the narrative that we I and everyone has
been hearing. Those same professionals feel so passionately about the
(01:31:11):
what they witness that they have continued to contact me
and push me to find specific answers to this very day.
They are quite literally putting their careers at risk because
they feel so compelled to do the right thing. I
have zero control, I cannot do anything. My hands are tied,
and I have no say in anything regarding my dad,
even as his daughter. Those are the rules that I've
(01:31:31):
been told. I do not have any information on if
or when he is being cremated. Could have been right
after he died, could be tomorrow, I don't know. I
have been told by my brother that there will be
an autopsy. I do not know who will be performing
the autopsy. Any information I received from an autopsy, if
one happens, whether I believe it or not, I will
(01:31:52):
be keeping private out of respect for my father. I
have to trust that my brother is doing his best
to get answers. At the end of the day, answers
would be great, but none of it brings my dad back.
And my hands are tied. So please stop misquoting, speculating,
and asking me if I know anything. I cannot get
any information. I know you would think that I could
(01:32:13):
being his blood, but I can't. We are already dealing
with enough. I will not be talking about this mystery anymore.
That was on Wednesday. Then on Thursday, TMZ broke the
news Hulk hogan cause of death may be medical malpractice.
Who remembers that Dustin Rhodes tweet that he posted right
(01:32:35):
after Hogan died. It's a little more eerie now looking
back at it. Posted a tweet that he quickly deleted
saying that hospitals kill people. They really do. I really
mean that it was something to that effect. This is
the TMZ story. Hulk Hogan may have been the victim
of medical malpractice. Malpractice that may have cost him his life.
(01:32:56):
This according to sources connected to the death case, law
and hforsement. Sources tell TMZ Sports. The Clearwater PD police
report regarding the nine to one one response the Hulk's
home the day he died says that an occupational therapist
was present at the Wrestling Legends Florida residence when he
stopped breathing. According to the report, which is on lockdown,
(01:33:17):
the therapist told responding officers Hulk was the victim of
medical malpractice. The therapist says during a recent operation. It's
unclear if it was the surgery to repair his heart
or a neck procedure, the surgeon severed, quote unquote severed
his frenic nerve. The frenic nerve stimulates the diaphragm, which
controls breathing. Our sources say Hulk did not have a
(01:33:41):
chest clenching episode before his passing. Rather, he merely stopped breathing.
We're told it was his wife, Sky who sounded the
alarm when his breath halted, and that's when the nine
to one one call was made. We're also told there
were conversations among the officers at the scene where they
talked about what the therapist had told them, and this
is on bodycam. It's a fair assumption the conversation between
(01:34:01):
the occupational therapists and the officers is also on body cam.
Hulk's daughter Brooke has called for an autopsy. As of
a week ago, we were told Hulk's body was not
yet cremated, but we have not gotten any clarity of
cremation has taken place. Hogan's widow, Sky later confirmed the
TMZ Sports that Hogan's frenic nerve was compromised during one
(01:34:22):
of his recent surgery. She added that an autopsy on
Hogan has been done, but declined to reveal its results,
so unless she changes her mind, we will never know
for sure what the autopsy actually revealed. She also said
Hogan's body has not yet been cremated. From what I
can gather, there's actually two frenic nerves in the body,
(01:34:42):
a left one and a right one, and they start
up in your neck and they run down through your chest,
past your heart and your lungs and into your diaphragm.
They don't say during which surgery this would have happened,
assuming he's had multiple surgeries in the last few months,
but the one that he originally went in for for
his neck was back in mid May, and he had
(01:35:04):
not been heard from since then or seen on video
or anything, which leads me to believe that whatever happened,
it happened during that surgery. The Clearwater Police Department later
issued the following statement to TMZ. We have been in
communication with family members, including his son Nick and daughter Brooke.
The unique nature of this case has required us to
(01:35:25):
interview multiple witnesses and seek medical records from a variety
of providers, and our detectives continue to do that. All
of this takes time. The Hogan family has been appreciative
of our efforts and our communication with them. If there
was medical valpractice involved, that's going to be one hell
of a lawsuit. But this it just reminds me. You
(01:35:47):
hear malpractice celebrity, and I know we just had the
Matthew Perry death, but it makes me think of Michael Jackson.
Michael Jackson's death which was ruled a homicide due to
an overdose of propofol, which is a really powerful anesthetic
that's typically used during surgery. Michael Jackson was using it
(01:36:11):
to help himself sleep the way people take fucking ambient,
which is not its intended usage, and his doctor was
convicted and sent to prison for a couple of years
four years, but he got out in two Any sound
off Oge's listening to this, remember me talking about his
death at the time and the media circus around it.
I mean, that's some old schools sound off right there.
(01:36:34):
This isn't exactly the same thing, but malpractice or negligence,
that's a serious thing all the same, you know, especially
if it led to someone's death. So I don't know
what the autopsy showed or if they intend to pursue
this any further. Evidently there are people directly connected to
the situation who wanted his daughter to push for all
of these things that she has no power to push for.
(01:36:55):
So if there is something suspicious going on here, and
it sure feels that way, it looks like a man
up dying with Hogan. The Hollywood Reporter put out its
list ranking the top ten pro wrestlers turned actors, and
there have been many wrestlers that have dipped their toe
in the Hollywood pool over the years. Some have been
(01:37:16):
more successful than others. Macho Man Randy Savage will forever
be known and by a generation of non fans as
non wrestling fans. That is as bon Saw McGraw from
Spider Man. They're not going to look at him and go, hey,
that's the macho man. They're gonna be like, hey, that's
bone Saw. Whatever happened to that guy. They also used
his voice for an episode of Space Ghost. He played
(01:37:37):
Space Ghost's grandfather. But beyond that, you know, he did
a bunch of voiceovers and that's about it. Terry Funk.
You know, he did Roadhouse and Paradise Alley Stone Cold.
He did a bunch of B movies like The Condemned
and Hunt to Kill. But he also had roles in
The Expendables in the Longest Yard, so did Goldberg. He
(01:37:58):
was in the Longest Yard. He was in Sand to
Slay in that one Universal Soldier movie. Chris Jericho's done
some B level horror movies. MJF right now is going
around gloating about being in Happy Gilmore too. There's lots
of wrestlers that have been in movies, But who are
the best ones. Well, let's see what they had to say,
(01:38:18):
and I'll chime in here with my own. At number
ten on the list, they have Andre the Giant. Andre
literally did two movies in his life, and one of
them he was in a giant monster suit and he
wasn't even credited in the movie. You never saw his
face and he had no dialogue that was in Conan
(01:38:42):
the Destroyer, the role that he's most known for, is
one of my favorite movies of all time. I watched
it many many times when I was younger. The Princess Bride.
Andre played Fasick Fasick the Giant, and he was perfect
for the role. And honestly, it's such a memorable movie.
I would have him up higher on my list. I mean,
(01:39:04):
they have Adam Copeland on their list at number five.
I can honestly say I have never seen a damn
thing that Copeland has been in outside of wrestling. I've
heard he was good on that Viking show, you know,
and he did that other show Haven. I mean, he
could be a great actor for all I know that,
but there isn't a single thing that he's done in
his acting career that is as memorable or that people
(01:39:25):
talk about like they do Andre in The Prince's Bride.
They have Jesse Ventura at number nine on their list.
Predator is the role he's most known for. Running Man
Demolition Man. He had a small part as a guard
remember in Batman and Robin. He's not a great actor.
I mean a lot of these guys are not great actors,
(01:39:45):
but he's not a great actor. That's as far as
his acting career went, as far as movies. And again
I should point out like as we go along here
we're talking movies, we're not really talking TV shows. But
I think he went on to do a right for himself.
So you know, number nine sounds sounds about right. Number
(01:40:06):
eight is the Big Show Paul White. To me, he
will always be Captain Insano in the Water Boy and
Giant Santa. Can't forget Giant Santa and Jingle All the Way.
Jingle All the Way is a great movie, by the way,
if you've never seen it. And I just realized, you know, Schwarzenegger, Man,
he has shared the screen with a lot of wrestlers,
(01:40:27):
hasn't he, Man, Jesse Ventura, Big Show, Andre stone Cold,
I remember the Big Show Show that didn't last very long,
but that's TV. Then they have Hulk Hogan at number seven,
and the author makes the point that without Hulk Hogan
in Hollywood first, there would be no Rock or John
(01:40:50):
Cena doing movies, Yes and no. If your point is
that Hogan's success in wrestling paved the way for wrestling
to become hot the way that it was, and that
led to people like Rock and John Cena having the
chance to eventually become big stars like in wrestling, then
sure you could argue that. But the idea that Hogan
(01:41:11):
dabbling in Hollywood and failing is the reason that the
door got kicked kind of kicked open for guys like
Rock and Sena, I think that's giving him too much credit.
You know, Rock was a charismatic guy. I mean he
still is. But Rock's a charismatic guy, very successful in wrestling.
Hollywood would have come calling for him regardless, Same with
(01:41:33):
John Cena, same with Roman Reigns right now, right, you
think Street Fighters the only movie he's going to be in.
You don't think he's gonna get bigger roles or not
get bigger roles in the future. Of course he is.
Hogan was doing Suburban Commando and Mister Nanny. Okay, him
doing those movies has little to do with their success.
Hogan's biggest role with Thunderlips and Rocky Three, which he
(01:41:55):
has always claimed that he was fired for for taking
the role by Vince mcma and Vince told him that
you'll never be welcomed back if you say yes and
do this movie, even though he was already doing jobs
on his way out of the territory. It's like it's
it's it's a Hogan story, so you have to take
it with a grain of salt, you know, whether that's
actually true or not. He's told that story for just
(01:42:17):
years and years and years, But it's like the story
he's told for years of hero Matt Suda breaking his
ankle on purpose during training when he was trying to
become a wrestler, and Matt Suda supposedly broke his ankle
on purpose to try to run him off, but then
when he healed up right, Hogan valiantly came back. He
showed up again, and he proved that he was serious
(01:42:37):
about wanting to be a wrestler. Like even Brian Blair,
who started his career with Hogan and stayed friends with
him for all these years, has said, like, what really
happened is that Hogan sprained his ankle by accident one
day and he missed a few classes, Like you know,
he ended up spitting it into some heroic comeback story
of the evil veteran breaking his ankle, Like it's just
(01:43:00):
Hogan being Hogan, but like Andre with the Princess Bride,
Hogan has thunderlips. It wasn't just his first movie role.
It was his defining movie role, right, it was his
most memorable movie role. No Holds bart is a guilty
pleasure of mine. Okay, I'm not gonna sit here and
tell you it's a great movie. It's not a great movie,
but I owned the DVD. I've watched it many times.
(01:43:22):
I still enjoy the movie. Suburban Commando is another one.
I can go back and enjoy that one too. And
I got a kick out of his cameo in Gremlins
Gremlins two. Remember he was sitting in the movie theater.
At one point, he's in his gear. He's got the
bandana on, he's got the winged eagle belt around his waist.
He's eating popcorn, and the usher is like, he's got
the flashlight and he's going row by row and he's
(01:43:43):
looking for someone and he finds Hogan and he goes
over to Hogan and I'm sorry to bother you, but
like we've got Gremlins in the projection room and then
Hogan stands up and he turns and he cuts this
promo on the Gremlins. Like that was great. That was
a memory moment. That was a memorable role for him.
Nobody will ever mistake Hulk Hogan for being a master thespian.
(01:44:07):
Him being on this list, yes, he should be on
the list. They have him here. What they put him
at number seven? I think, yes, they have him at
number seven. That sounds about right. I would not have
him in the top five. Kevin esh is number six.
I mean, you talk about legendary roles, Come on now,
Super Shredder in Teenage Mutant Ninja, Turtles Too, The Secret
(01:44:31):
of the Ooze. Unless you grew up during that time,
you have no idea how big of a deal Super
Shredder was. Like in the movie, he's on screen for
ninety seconds and he ends up committing suicide. But he
brings that whole that doc that wouldn't dock down on
the Turtles and he ends up killing himself, Like they're turtles, dude,
(01:44:54):
what did you think was going to happen? But he
was the Russian in that Punisher movie with Thomas Jane.
He was in the Longest Yard. A lot of wrestlers were.
He was in the Magic Mike movies, which I never saw,
but I know that was kind of a big deal
for a while. And then he did a B level
horror movie. My god, he did this movie called River
(01:45:16):
of Darkness that I saw years ago with Kurt Angle.
Kurt Angle is the star. He plays a sheriff in
some po dunk town. He's killing zombies. Kevin Nash and
Psycho Sid play two of the zombies. So if you
ever want to see undead Kevin Nash and Sid Vicious
in a movie with Kurt Angle, I think glaciers in
that movie too. River of Darkness. I cannot recommend it.
(01:45:41):
I'm not going to sit here and recommend it to you,
but that's that's the name of the movie. And then
he did some awful movie about a COVID nineteen outbreak
or something. I mean, it was a payday, so Nash
is not going to say no. Then we get into
the top five. Number five is Adam Cope. Again, I
(01:46:01):
cannot speak to him because I have not seen anything
that he has been in. And then we get into
the top four, and I agree with their top four.
Number four is rowdy Roddy Piper. Piper did a little
movie in nineteen eighty six called Body Slam with Dirk
Benedict from the A Team that I very much enjoyed.
(01:46:24):
Piper's tag team partner in the movie is Sam Fatu,
the Tonga kid who is the father of one Jacob Fatu.
After that, he did a movie called Hell Comes to Frogtown,
which was terrible. I'm sorry, I know for some people
that's a cult classic. It's a terrible movie. And then
he did They Live, which is the opposite of terrible.
(01:46:46):
It is a great movie. It has become a cult
classic over the years for a reason. I'm a mark
anyway for almost anything John Carpenter does. But this became
the defining role of Piper's film career with one of
the greatest fight scenes that you will ever with him
and Keith David. Piper didn't need to film anything else
after this, not It's always Sonny nothing. This will forever
(01:47:10):
be what Roddy Piper is known for outside of wrestling.
Number three is John Cena, Number two is Dwayne the
Rock Johnson, and the number one wrestler turned movie star
is Dave Bautista. And I agree with that one hundred percent.
(01:47:33):
If this was purely a box office list, then Rock
would be number one. Rock would be one, Sena would
probably be too. Batista throw all though Batista did the
Guardians of the Galaxy stuff, eh Sena would probably be
too and Batista would be three. So if you're going
purely based on box office receipts, then the top three
(01:47:53):
would look a little bit different. But Rock is not
a better actor than Batista. John Cena is not a
better actor than Batista. Batista has shown more acting range
than either one of them, more so than Rock, who
plays the same character in almost everything he's in. And
I'm not even saying he's bad. I've enjoyed a lot
of Rock's films. I mean, look, I even like Doom.
(01:48:16):
I may be the only one. That movie came out
in two thousand and five. I liked it Walking Tall,
Gridiron Gang Snitch that doesn't get talked about. Snitch was
a good movie. But those were before he really blew
up and started doing these big budget blockbusters. But you
watch Batista in a movie like House of the Rising Sun,
(01:48:37):
and then you watch him as Drax and Guardians of
the Galaxy, and then you go watch him in Bushwick,
and then go watch him in a comedy like Stubor
I went to the theater to see that, and then
go watch him in a movie like Knock at the Cabin,
which was that m Night Shyamalan movie. These are all
very different roles. And by the way, he was the
best part of that Knock at the Cabin movie. He
(01:48:59):
played this character Leonard. He was great. He's very versatile
as an actor. I don't know if any of those
three will ever win an Academy Award, but I could
totally see Batista doing some kind of art house type
film one day and that nets him at least a nomination.
Although I will say there's chatter that Rock actually might
get a nomination, an Oscar nomination for the movie that's
(01:49:23):
coming out I think in October he did on Mark
Kerr The Smashing Machine. It's possible. It's possible he could
actually get an Oscar nod for that. But like, I
could totally see Batista doing an art house type film
and then you know, being nominated for an Academy Award.
So I think they nailed it with the Top four.
You could flip flop Rock and see his spots and
(01:49:43):
I'd be okay with that, but Batista is the best
wrestler turned actor. Let's take some mailbag questions. You could
always email me the Solemn Monster at gmail dot com.
Please include your name or where you are from when
you write in. I want to start here with Mike
in Binghamton, New York. And this isn't really a question,
(01:50:03):
but it was a nice email that I got, and
a nice note on Ron Killings as well. Says first
time writing into the mailbag, I stumbled upon your podcast
a few years ago and was instantly hooked. I wanted
to start off by saying that you are one of
the best wrestling media pages in the entire business. I
appreciate you covering wrestling like a reporter and not just
a fan who shows bias. Your tone and approach should
(01:50:26):
be modeled by others, and it's refreshing to hear someone
who not only knows what they're talking about, but also
presents this information with news style analysis. And your interviews
are outstanding, not just a fan marking out with talent.
Kudos to you and the great work that you do. Mike.
That means a lot, it really does. I appreciate that.
But he says, I wanted to write up a quick
(01:50:46):
shout out to Ron our Truth killings. He did a
meet and greet at the Speedy Fest in Binghamton, New York,
earlier this month. He was genuine and spent so much
time talking with fans before absolutely killing it on stage
for his music concert. I hope they do a little
more with him as a tweener. He's a great character
and an even better guy. We've heard all year about
(01:51:08):
John Cena getting his flowers. Our Truth deserves some love too.
Keep up the great work. Yeah, Our Truth is great,
and you mentioned you look forward to seeing more of
him as a tweener, and that doesn't look like it's
going to happen. And so that's that's the shame of it,
which is that it looked like they were finally allowing
him to take his character in a different direction, and
(01:51:30):
then because they abandoned the John Cena heel turn and
wrap that up, it's like, well, we got goofy Our
Truth back doing nothing but comedy. And I think there's
a lot of potential there that I hope that they
can explore, but it's not looking good. But yeah, I mean,
look all the things I've ever heard about Our Truth.
When he does, you know, appearances, meet and greets and
interacts with fans. It's all positive. You know, he's awesome.
(01:51:52):
There's a reason why he has stood the test of time.
He is timeless in many ways. He certainly doesn't look
his age. I don't know how much longer he intends
to do this for, but you know, he looks like
he can go into the twenty years if he wants
to so. Yes, Our Truth is great. Dane from Saint Louis.
(01:52:12):
This is just something I came across. It's a story
about Paramount possibly planning to buy Warner Brothers if this
does happen. Any thoughts on how this could impact wrestling
in the larger sense, given the TKO owned UFC just
signed a multi billion dollar deal with Paramount and TKO
has WWE under its umbrella. First of all, this is
(01:52:35):
just a rumor right now. It is not one that
I see as having a lot of legs, at least
not yet. Could this be something maybe in a few
years possibly, but I don't think Paramount is buying Warner
Brothers anytime in the near future. I could see why
they might want to, you know, if you if you
combine their streaming subscribers, it would make them the number
(01:52:57):
two streamer in the world behind Netflix. Disney is merging
Hulu into its Disney Plus service at the end of
the year, so if you combine those two subscriber bases,
it puts them in the same ballpark, but it's still
a little bit less than what Paramount Plus and HBO
Max would make up. You've got two movie studios in
Paramount and Warner Brothers. I don't know why they need
to be merged together, and you know, to be merged
(01:53:20):
together into one giant studio, which is what I assume
would happen here, because why maintain two separate studios. So
I hope this doesn't happen. If it does, how it
would affect AW since they have a big media rights
deal with Warner Brothers Discovery and Paramount is in business
with TKO. The honest answer is I don't know, and
neither does anyone else. You know which company would they
(01:53:43):
be acquiring because Warner Brothers Discovery is splitting into two
companies next year, one for streaming in their movie studio
and the other one for their linear networks, So think
TNT and TBS is it just one or the other
or is it both. If it's both, why even by
they're splitting them into two companies in the first place,
(01:54:03):
because aw is on HBO Max two. So either way
it could affect them, probably not in a good way,
but no one really knows. It depends on exactly what's
being acquired. But this is where these mergers and these
acquisitions can become very messy. It's like, sure, one way
to look at it is if streaming services get merged together,
that would in theory, cut down on the number of
(01:54:24):
subscriptions that you would need, like if you're the consumer.
But it also creates less competition and fewer options, which
is why it might make business sense for these companies.
But I don't see all of this consolidation being a
good thing for you and me, and we're seeing a
lot of it these days. Jose from New York City.
Do you agree that this year has been the worst
(01:54:45):
year of Tripleh's era and his best era so far
has been Summer Slam twenty twenty two all the way
to wrestle Mania of forty. Yes, this year has certainly
been the most boring. I will agree with you on that.
Christopher from Pensacola, Florida. There have been three men to
win King of the Ring, Royal Rumble and Money in
the Bank, Edge, Seamus, and Brock Lesnar buy Sell and
(01:55:11):
rent on their overall wrestling careers. I'm going to buy
on Brock. I feel like that's an easy one. I
know Edge has accomplished a lot in his career. I
Brock's got to be on top. So Brock is who
I'm going to buy on. I'm gonna rent on Edge,
and I'm gonna sell on Shamus. Jordan from Washington, d C.
(01:55:38):
Buy Sell and rent on who had the best wrestling
career out of these three Jeff Hardy, RVD and seth Rawlins.
That's not really a fair question since two of the
three are still active on a regular basis. I mean,
I guess from the other question, I guess Brock and
Seamus and Edge are all active too, but I wouldn't
(01:55:59):
necessar early say full time. But like, it's hard to
answer questions like this because these people are still active.
But as I sit here now, I have to buy
on seth Rawlins as having the best career of the three.
I'm gonna rent on RVD and I'm gonna sell on
Jeff Hardy, which is gonna sound crazy, and there's gonna
(01:56:20):
be people who are gonna be fucking hanging from the
ceiling here trying to jump on top of me for this,
because look, Jeff is a big star, and he's an
influential name in the history of the business, no doubt
about it. But Jeff is someone who should have been
number one on this list, and through his own mistakes,
he's not. You know, Jeff is a class a what
(01:56:41):
if case. If he had his head on straight all
those years ago, how far could he have gone? How
big of a star truly could he have been. I mean,
I'm not saying he would have been John Cena or
Roman Reigns. I mean, but he could have been so
much more. He could have made so much more money,
He could have won more championships. He could have been
in seth Rollins spot, you know, cashing in his money
(01:57:02):
in the bank at WrestleMania to win the title. Headlining
WrestleMania's RVD. Has had success across multiple promotions ECWWWETNA. It's
won major titles in every single promotion that he's been in.
But it's a similar thing to Jeff where in WWE,
one mistake ruined what could have been a legendary run
(01:57:24):
for him. And were it not for politics, you know,
back in two thousand and two, he could have been
so much bigger than he was. Rollins had some success
in Ring of Honor, but he has spent the vast
majority of his career in one place. It just so
happens at the one place he spent most of his
career and is the biggest promotion in the world. And
(01:57:44):
he's conquered the mountaintop there several times over now, and
he was part of one of the great factions in
WWE history. And if you say the authority, I'm going
to punch you in the mouth. In terms of match quality,
I would put his resume up against either RVD or Jeff.
I mean, he's had a lot of great classic matches
over the year. So it really all depends on what
criteria you're going by here, But by all of those
(01:58:07):
key metrics I have to buy on Seth Rollins. Chris
from Bethlehem. I saw a reals clip from a guy
named Tom Green talking about how WCW's PN News got
slapped by Rick rud for stealing money from the locker room,
but then also got slapped for bragging about beating Rude
in an arm wrestling contest. Was pn news known for
(01:58:30):
stealing money from his fellow wrestlers, or was it that
Rude just didn't like him bragging about his arm wrestling win.
First of all, I don't believe for a second that
pn News beat Rick Rud in an arm wrestling contest. Okay,
so that's number one. Number two, the story goes that
a bunch of wrestlers got money and jewelry stolen out
of the locker room. I think it was a European
(01:58:51):
tour that WCW was on, and they accused PN news
of being the thief. He has claimed year later that
he had his money stolen too. He was also a
victim and it wasn't him. I have no idea if
he stole the money or not, but I know that
if I know that if I did steal the money,
I would say the same thing that he said, My
(01:59:12):
buddy was stolen too. That's exactly the sort of thing
that a thief would say. So I mean, who knows?
Who knows? You know? For a guy who's claim to
fame was the one year he spent in WCW in
like nineteen ninety one. I see things pop up about
PN news every now and again. He should be happy
people remember his name. Kent from Philadelphia. When would have
(01:59:35):
been the correct year and event to do the following
dream matches? And he lists a whole bunch of different
ones here. I shaved a couple of them off, but
I'll run through these real quick. Brack LESNAR against Steve Austin.
The correct year to do that would have been two
thousand and three, but Austin got hurt he had to
(01:59:57):
go away, but it would have been around had he
not gone away, that would have been that year. Shawn
Michaels against the Rock. I'm gonna also say two thousand
and three when he was Hollywood Rock. I think Hollywood
Rock against Shawn Michaels would have been awesome, or that
could have been the wrestle media magine in two thousand
and five had Rock not left. But then see, then
(02:00:19):
we wouldn't have gotten that Shawn Michael's curt Angle classic
from WrestleMania twenty one. So it worked out okay. But
I think two thousand and three or two thousand and
five Sting against the Undertaker. I'm gonna say nineteen ninety eight,
nineteen ninety eight, or twenty eleven. They could have done
it in twenty eleven. They didn't a lot of reasons
(02:00:43):
for that either of those two years. Goldberg against Steve
Austin nineteen ninety eight, there was no other good year
for it. Goldberg came into the WWE literally the night
after Austin wrestled his last match, and even if Austin
had not wrestled his last match that night, I don't
(02:01:06):
know that Goldberg and Austin in two thousand and three
would have had much appeal. Honestly, it was never gonna
happen in ninety eight, but if you were going to
do that match, it would have been ninety eight. Eddie
Guerrero against Sean Michaels. I think a good year to
do that would have been two thousand and four, Raymisterio
(02:01:27):
against Brett Hart nineteen ninety eight, Brett Hart against Hulk
Hogan WWF nineteen ninety three. Obviously, Brett Hart against Hollywood
Hogan WCW see. I don't look at that as much
of a dream match at that point, but if you
were going to do it, it should have been nineteen ninety eight.
(02:01:49):
I think they worked the house show match. Actually, it
might have been the ninety eight they worked the house
show match together in Los Angeles. I don't remember if
Hogan and Brett ever had a singles match on TV
brock Lesnar against Batista. See, I never saw that as
a dream match. But I'm gonna say twenty fourteen, when
(02:02:10):
Batista came back, Rick Flair against Hulkgan WWF nineteen ninety two,
and finally Ultimate Warrior against Brett Hart, that was never
going to happen. I don't care what Brett says he
was told in his book. I'm not even gonna I'm
(02:02:30):
not even gonna put a date on it because it
was never gonna happen and it never should have happened.
By the way, I have to say this, Kent didn't
leave a name with his email, so I went back
to see if he left it on a previous email,
And imagine my surprise when I see the last email
(02:02:52):
that I ever got from him was back in twenty seventeen,
and all it says is thanks for blocking me on
twit Twitter. Dickhead. It's okay. Just realize your podcast sucks too.
Much Internet smart bullshit anyway, have a nice life smart,
which just goes to show you that when people leave
(02:03:14):
comments like that on Twitter or on YouTube or in
this case, an email, I always say, more often than not,
they're still going to be listening, or if they stop,
they're going to come back. They got to get their fixed.
This is exhibit A. He called me a dickhead and
said my podcast sucks, but eight years later he's still listening.
(02:03:38):
They always do. Can't no hard feelings, brother, It's all good.
I just had to share that though, because it just
made me laugh. I wasn't expecting that. See, I'm like
a nicotine addiction. You can't quit me. You can't quit
me that easily. Actually, the sound off is the safest
addiction you can have. It's much safer than alcohol or tobacco.
Keep emailing your questions to me sol Monster at gmail
(02:04:01):
dot com. Just remember the the Internet never forgets and Gmail,
Gmail never forgets forbidden. Door begins at one pm Eastern
tomorrow and you can catch me live for the review
on YouTube at eight pm Eastern. Same for Raw on
Monday that Arizon Netflix at three pm Eastern. I'll be
live at eight and then next weekend, going to plan
(02:04:23):
to get the sound off up a day early as well,
Episode nine twenty seven. That'll be on Saturday, because next
Sunday is Clash in Paris, So the schedule is a
bit up and down for the next week or so,
but then we'll be back to normal after that. So
until then, be well, stay stafe, have yourself. Is a
great rest of your weekend. And if you're watching, enjoy
Forbidden Door and I will see you on YouTube for
(02:04:45):
the post show tomorrow night. Until then, take care, guys.
The Solemn Monster sounds on July twenty first with Stephanie
Vecaer and EO Scott and that match ended in a disqualification.
Then you fast forward to July twenty eight, we had
Jay Uso against Bronson Reid which ended in a disqualification.
August fourth, you had seth Rawlins one on one against
La Knight for the World Heavyweight Championship in a match
(02:05:07):
that ended in a disqualification. And then we arrived tonight
you'd see I'm punk in La Night against bron Breaker
and Bronson Reid, and wouldn't you know how did this
match end? It ended in a disqualification. As a match
it was fined. It was a good main event until
we hit the finish and then I realized. Boy, I
feel like I have suffered from deja vu. It almost
feels like I've seen this before. It's almost like I'm
(02:05:28):
watching a rerun. Jamis comes out. He talks about banger
after banger. We could talk about DQ after DQ after D.
Speaker 2 (02:05:35):
The Solo Monster sounds off bringing you the good, the bad,
and the ugly. Check out the weekly live streams bonus
content for subscribers, and follow The Solo Monster on Facebook, Instagram,
and X The Solo Monster.
Speaker 1 (02:05:49):
I Love you so long.