Sound Off 931 - ESPN Review Causes CHAOS, Masha Slamovich EXPOSED And John Cena News! - Solomonster Sounds Off

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's business time, baby. You are listening to solo monsters
sounds off. I love your mama, monster dude, I want
your soul. Woman. You got grown ass wrestlers in the
back going on Twitter. Come over here? Is that pet patison?
You have legs? The week I was ninety nine percent

(00:24):
positive it was just chessed up. Now congratulations. Who hasn't
beat Dan nel Barcia Wrestle. Many of forty two tickets
are on sale for all you high rollers out there,
in case you were wondering why they're going back to
Vegas next year. These are the prices for people attending
both nights, and they don't include ticket Master fees, so

(00:46):
keep that in mind. Section A one on the floor
will only set you back nine thousand dollars. Section B
on the floor nearly four thousand dollars. The one hundred
level seat ranges from fourteen ninety five down to one thousand,
one hundred and seventy four dollars. Two hundred level ranges

(01:07):
from thirteen hundred down to eleven hundred and seventy four dollars.
Three hundred level seating eleven seventy four eighty and four
hundred level seating a mere eight hundred and fifty four
dollars and fifteen cents. But then you got the sweets.
It's all about the sweets. The cheapest one, a corner suite,

(01:29):
comes in at a cool twenty two thousand dollars. You
can get a club suite, which includes twelve seats in
an open bar, for twenty six thousand, five hundred dollars.
There's a more traditional suite that seats twenty six people,
which goes for thirty eight thousand dollars. Or you can
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(01:50):
six tickets, which will set you back a mere fifty
two thousand, five hundred dollars. Hey, you know, if we
get our own SoundOff suite at that price, divided up
amongst all twenty six of us, that comes out to
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grand doesn't include airfare, hotel, ground, transportation of food. But

(02:13):
what the hell I mean, just tack on another two
or three grand? What's the big deal. Don't be such
a cheap bastard. It's WrestleMania, baby, This is sound Off
Episode nine thirty one for Sunday, September twenty eighth, twenty
twenty five. I am the Solemn Monster. This show doesn't
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It is very much appreciated. If you want to become

(02:35):
a sound Off VIP, you can always make a PayPal
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nickname and a shout out here on this very show.
I want to say thank you to the Portland pop
star all the way across the country, our friend Paul Hamilton, Paul,
thank you very much, Big b Bryant, Bessera, the Diamond,
Dallas Dance Machine, Harrison Soep, Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray, The

(02:58):
Chicago Slayer, Willie I, Night Stalker, nif Al Safar Killshot,
Keith Hart, invest in the Game, Trey Porter. I also
want to wish a happy fortieth birthday to Chris from Bethlehem,
Bro Chris turns the Big Four to Row on Monday.
And I also want to wish a very happy birthday

(03:20):
to Matt. His name is not Matt, but we'll call
him Matt to protect his identity. Like he's in witness protection.
But I've been friends with this guy since high school.
What was that like fifty years ago? Now feels like it.
But he is one of my oldest friends. He is
my best friend, and I hope that he has himself
a great day. The next House of Glory show is

(03:43):
coming up quick with Glory comes Pride Friday night, October tenth.
The first five rows are already sold out. This is
the first time I could remember that we have actually
had to add a sixth row for a show. Sixth
row seats are still available for now, probably not from
much longer, and of course general admission is available. This

(04:03):
is going to end up being our biggest show of
the year, and we are not done yet. We are
hosting a special super Clash as part of the Big
Event Expo coming up in Brentwood, New York, Saturday, November fifteenth.
That's going to be our long Island debut with the
debut also of Andrade, his first domestic India appear and

(04:23):
since leaving WWE, at least the first one that's been announced.
And hey, you know, Brett hard and Bill Goldberg are
both signing at the Big Event that day. Maybe I
could get them both into the ring together at the
Hog Show. I feel like I'd be brokering peace in
the Middle East between these two. Then that Friday, less
than a week later, November twenty first, we returned to Chicago,

(04:46):
and we are going to be announcing our plans very
soon for our December show closing out the year. So
I hope to see you at all the shows. But
you can go to Hog Wrestling dot Net to buy
tickets to whatever show you wish. Coming off a less
than stellar ESPN debut last weekend, there was a lot
of hoopla this week about Andreas Hale, a combat sports

(05:10):
writer for ESPN, who gave the show a C grade,
which is an accurate grade by the way, C C plus.
I might even be generous and go B minus, but
it's somewhere in that range. I mean, you get no
argument from me, But this is someone who writes for ESPN.
WWE's new media rights partner, a partner that shelled out

(05:31):
over a billion dollars for the rights to air these
pls for the next five years, and people absolutely lost
their minds over this. He praised the women's championship match
between Stephanie Vicaire and Eo sky As did. I it
was the best thing on the entire show, but he
said everything else was either underwhelming or just to set
up for a future match. I thought the Mixtag team

(05:53):
match was fun for what it was. It wasn't outstanding
or anything. It was very long, but it was a
fun match. He gave brock Lesnar against John Cena a
C minus bron Breaker and Bronson Reid against the USOS
he gave a C. The Women's World title match he
gave a B plus the Mixtag match with cmpunk at
aj Lee against Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch, he gave

(06:15):
that a C. And the Cody Rhods Drew MacIntire main event,
he gave that a C. He said the women's match
saved this show from being truly average, and that for
a card that promised to have epic moments, it fell
a little short of expectations, which is what happens when
you use a lot of hyperbole to really hype up
a show like this and then deliver the show that

(06:36):
they did. They have nobody to blame for that but
themselves as far as the way people felt about it,
and if they don't like what people are saying about
it they should look in the mirror. There were a
lot of fans who agreed with him, but also a
lot of fans the tribalists, who lost their minds over
all this, and they couldn't believe that ESPN would post

(06:56):
something critical on their main page, right since they worked
together with WWE. Even though before the show one of
the ESPN executives said that it's wrestling writers would have
full independence in their coverage and there would be a
separation of church and state. You had jbl on his
Something to Wrestle podcast, which is basically his now since

(07:18):
Bruce Prichard clearly does not want to go back to
work and do it anymore. He actually said the writer
should have found a way to get creative and give
the show an a grade whether they believed it or not,
because this was their big debut on ESPN and they
shouldn't be criticizing the show or have someone writing on
their behalf criticizing the show. He really said this, He

(07:40):
said the quiet part out loud. I almost have I
have to hand it to him. I have to respect
him for saying the quiet part out loud, because you
know there are people in that company that share that
same opinion. I bet his life on it. He said
that when that's the first thing people see on the
website for the company paying hundreds of millions of dollars
for the pro I just don't think that looks good. Yeah,

(08:04):
no shit, Then put out a better product. What he's
saying is lie and pretend that it was a great
show even if you think it wasn't. If ESPN believes
would they say, and they said there would be a
separation of church and state in its coverage, then this
is what their coverage is supposed to look like. They

(08:25):
want it to at least come off like their coverage
is independent and fair and honest, whereas JBL is looking
at it simply as a business relationship. It's a product.
If you want it covered like a real sport, that's
not how this works. However much money ESPN might be
paying out to Major League Baseball or the NFL for
the games that they carry, if there's a major story

(08:47):
about either league that paints them in a bad light,
write some controversy about steroids or concussions or what have you,
they would have writers covering that story and amplifying that story,
no matter how badly the league might come across. That's
how it's supposed to work if you want to be
taken seriously. Evidently JBL doesn't feel that's important. And I'm

(09:09):
not saying ESPN would cover WWE that way. If there
was a big story that paints a WWE in a
bad light, like the Janelle Grant stuff or some other
big lawsuit that gets filed against the company, it's entirely
possible they would downplay it and they wouldn't give it
the coverage that it deserves. Time will tell how much
they really believe in Church and State when that happens.

(09:30):
But when it comes to these shows, it was a
breath of fresh air that they didn't pull the review
or they didn't try to hide it when he posted it.
It was refreshing to see it's still only one man's opinion,
just like when Dave Meltzer he drops his star ratings
for a show. It's one man's opinion and everybody loses
their minds over it. But his voice carries more weight

(09:52):
than most because he's been covering wrestling for over forty years.
The Observer was the standard for wrestling news for a
long time, so if you're in the wrestling bubble. You
probably know who Dave Meltzer is. You've at least heard
the name before. It's still just one man's opinion. I mean, look,
he just posted his star ratings for aw all Out

(10:12):
Okay in the last newsletter. I thought some of the
ratings were completely ridiculous. I mean, once he broke the
five star scale years ago, the whole thing became laughable
to me, like he ruined it, absolutely ruined it. But
that's his scale. If he wants to ruin it, that's
his prerogative. He can do that. But then I see
Dustin Rhodes quote tweeting the ratings and then posting that's

(10:35):
why we at ae W are the best, you know
damn well, if Meltzer would have posted something negative about
a Dustin Rhodes match, he'd be the first person tweeting
Dave asking if he's ever taken a bump before in
his life? You know, talk shit when you lace up
a pair of boots, Mark. But what I mean it's
like it's one person's opinion, but when that person writes

(10:59):
for ESPN, in the eyes of everyone, it becomes ESPN's opinion.
Right they've co signed it. They've endorsed it that Wressell
Palooza wasn't a great show, not really, But like, you
know what, if that's how people look at it, that
it's ESPN's opinion. If that's what gets WWE's attention, then good.
I hope it does get their attention, you know. On

(11:21):
Wressel Votes Radio, they claim that people within WWE didn't
expect ESPN to go out of its way to publish
such a low rating for the event, especially since this
was their debut on the platform, and backstage, the feeling
was that Wressell Palooza was no different than any other
pl which honestly is part of the fucking problem. But
to them, it made it feel like the C grade

(11:42):
was unusually critical, and the backstage reaction, they say, highlighted
a sense of confusion, as many assumed that ESPN would
treat the show more favorably given the significance of the partnership. Instead,
the review created a wave of discussion online, with fans
and critics debating whether the grade was too harsh or
an honest assessment of the event. Yes, it was an

(12:04):
honest assessment. It's an assessment that I happened to share
now We know Paul Levic doesn't give a shit about
what the critics have to say and what shows like
this have to say, because he made that very clear
earlier this year around WrestleMania time. If you remember that
interview where he sat down with Peter Rosenberg and he said,
this is going to sound defensive, because it did. He

(12:28):
was sounding very defensive when he said this, but he said,
I wish I could tell people fuck off being a critic,
be a fan. Go watch this and be a fan.
So what he's telling you is that you should not
be watching WWE and thinking critically about the show that
you're watching. You know, there are fans that aren't a

(12:50):
part of the online discourse. Maybe they watch casually, maybe
they watched with their kids. Right, that's fine, all different
kinds of fans who watch for all different types of
some longtime fans, some newer fans. But it's the ones
that dare say anything critical about the product. It's really
something to hear the chief content officer admitting that. You know,

(13:11):
what he really wants to do is tell all of
those people to fuck off. You know, I enjoy talking
about wrestling. As if you couldn't tell I've been doing
it long enough. I enjoy interacting with other fans most
of the time on social media and in the YouTube chats.
There are things I like, there are things I don't like,
and the things that people don't like often get amplified

(13:34):
more than the things that they do. That's just the
nature of the Internet. Like I'll do a video praising
something or praising someone and it'll get five thousand views.
I do one segment talking about Brett Hart burying people
and it gets forty thousand views. It's like, that's just
how it is. You look at cable news. Actually, don't

(13:55):
look at cable news. It's fucking horrendous. But if you
do look at it, or really just the news in
general these days, it's probably ninety percent negative. You know,
fifteen people got shot, this person is embroiled in a
sex scandal. Hurricane Jerry just wiped out five cities and
is headed for New York. Russia and Ukraine are still
bombing each other. Unemployment was up again this week, Like

(14:17):
I feel like I'm singing a Billy Joel song here.
But then in the last five minutes of the newscast,
We've got a heartwarming story about an eight year old
boy who runs his own lemonade stand and the lemons
he uses might hold the cure for cancer. This is
the world we live in. This is what sells. I
try not being overly negative, because there's enough negativity in

(14:37):
this world. Wrestling should be an escape from all that.
But I'm not gonna sugarcoat shit, and nobody else should
feel compelled to do so either, no matter what outlet
they work for. It doesn't mean that you're gonna spoon
feed me even when it tastes bad, and I'm gonna say, oh,
thank you, May I have another scoop? He went through

(14:58):
his honeymoon phase Triple H did, and that was only
going to last so long. Now that people are being
more critical about what they see week to week on
these shows, his natural instinct is to tell those people
to fuck off. He probably wanted to tell ESPN the
same thing this week, but ESPN may be the one
party here that he can't tell to go fuck off.
He'll just need to do better next time, and if

(15:20):
articles like that one, if reviews like that one, help
make for a better show next time, then everyone should
be cheering that, not bashing the man for his opinion.
We got some news from fight Full Select and from
Body slam Down Net this week pertaining to Wrestle Palooza.
Per Fightful Select, ESPN wanted a big title match like

(15:42):
Cody Rhoades against Drew McIntyre to close the show, which
is why it went on last. That should be a
huge red flag to anybody listening to this that ESPN
is dictating anything related to how the shows are structured.
It's one thing to have an independent writer on behalf
of ESPN reviewing the show and saying he didn't like
this for that, but when the network itself, with the
company itself, is dictating, hey, put this match here and

(16:04):
you know, let's use this person. Let's not do this,
I'm sorry. That's a huge red flag. They said, ESPN
wanted the pomp and circumstance surrounding a world title match,
and that's the reason why the match went on last,
not because Brock Lesner wanted to fly out early to
get home to Saskatchewan. Thank god Lesnar has seen it
didn't close the show with that dog shit finish. The

(16:28):
Mixtag team match should have closed the show. I said
that that night, the Mixtag team match should have been
the final match on that show. If they had no
big finish or angle planned for the title match, the
mixtag should have closed the show, so I can totally
believe that the only reason it didn't was because ESPN
wanted it that way. Now, perbodyslam dot Net, both Cody
Rhoads and Drew McIntyre pitched a different direction behind the

(16:51):
scenes for how their match would go. Their idea would
have seen Randy Orton accidentally cost Cody the WWE Championship,
then would have led to Cody chasing again to get
the belt back, and upon reclaiming it from McIntyre, Randy
Orton would then turn on him after the match. That
is a much better idea than what they ended up

(17:12):
going with, which was a much more straightforward finish where
really McIntyre beat himself. He beat himself, he kicked a
desk and hurt his foot, so Cody Roads took advantage
and he beat him the same way. He took advantage
of a mistake that Randy Orton made in their King
of the Ring match, and he beat him there too.
Cody's whole stick is capitalizing off of other people's mistakes

(17:33):
to win matches. When he finished his story last year WrestleMania.
Roman Reigns had a choice. He had the chair in
his head. He could use the chair on Cody or
he could use it on seth Rawlins. He opted to
hit Rollins with the chair, and in the end it
cost him. That's another example, but that would have been
a much better way to go with the finish of

(17:53):
that first big ESPN show. Right, you want a big
title match in the main event, how about a big
title change in the main event, and then at Survivor
Series or at the Royal Rumble, Cody wins the belt back,
but Randy Orton goes heel on him, and we get
Cody defending against Randy Orton at WrestleMania. I mean, Cody's
been back in the company almost four years now and

(18:14):
I'm still sitting here talking about a possible feud with
Brandy Orton. So they can still do this. They still
have a chance. Book a triple threat match for a
Survivor Series with Cody, Randy, and Drew and have Drew
win the title there. Don't be afraid to shake things
up a bit. There's some good stories that could come
out of this. The Body Slam also reported that As

(18:38):
of late Saturday morning, the day of the show, WWE
was planning to have John Cena beat brock Lesner at
Wreussell Palooza, and it's unknown what happened to cause such
a sudden and major creative shift. Now. Meltzer, for his part,
claims that he was told that that is not the
case and Lesner was not brought back to lose in

(18:59):
his match. Now, of course, I thought the same thing
in twenty twelve when they brought him back to the
company and they beat him in his very first match
back against John Cena at extreme rules, So believe what
you wish. I always figured Lesner was winning that match,
but I would not have done the match in the
first place. They wanted one more John Cena brock Lesner match,

(19:20):
or maybe Sena wanted it, but what we got was
the worst of all the matches they've ever had. But
you would watch that match and figure out now we
know who John Cena's final opponent is going to be.
It's brock Lesner. They're gonna do the Rocky comeback story
with Sina where he slays the Beast in his retirement
match and he gets a big win and he rides

(19:42):
off into the sunset. But Brian Alvarez is reporting that
he's been told there will be no rematch with brock
Lesner and John Cena, that the match we saw at
Wresselled Palooza was their last match together singles match. Anyway,
it is always a chance they could end up in
war games against each other. So now that finish makes
even less sense if this is true. Now, I'm not

(20:05):
clamoring for another match between brock Lesner and John Cena.
So if that was really it for them, that's music
to my ears. But as dumb as that finish was,
it's even dumber now in hindsight. If that turns out
to be true, let's just kill John Cena and we'll
waste the match on this retirement tour to make brock
Lesner look strong. As if this was needed to make

(20:27):
brock Lesner look strong, they've been making brock Lesnar look
strong for fucking eleven years, twelve years, thirteen year, what's
it been twenty twelve he came back, thirteen fucking years.
They've been making brock Lesner look strong. Yeah, let's make
brock look strong by beating the forty eight year old
who's retiring because his body can't take it anymore. That'll
make him look super strong. So this talk of bron

(20:51):
Breaker as a potential opponent for Lesner next year, maybe
even as soon as WrestleMania, the move for WrestleMania would
probably be Brock Lesner and Gunther because that's the match
they were gonna do two years ago, So we know
it's on their mind either that or Lesner and Breaker. Now,
if you gave me the choice of picking one, I'm
going Brock Lesner and bron Breaker. That match intrigues me

(21:13):
way more, and it's a match that would benefit Breaker
in a way that it wouldn't benefit Gunther, who's not
beating Brock. Okay, I mean two years ago, I would
have said yes, especially when the Intercontinental title might have
been on the line. Brock should not be beating Gunther. Now,
I think if they did the match, Gunther is gonna lose.
Breaker losing in a competitive match with Brock Lesner it

(21:35):
wouldn't damage him much. But Breaker beating brock Lesner that
would mean far more to his career than losing in
a competitive match would. Now, after being slaughtered at wrestled Palooza,
johnsen His opponent for Crown Jewel next month has been revealed,
and it is someone who I was hoping to see
him back in the ring with one last time on

(21:56):
this tour. Thirty minutes before Raw went on the air
Monday night, John Sena did something that he has not
done a single time this entire retirement tour, or really
any other time in his career that I can remember,
and he more or less lobbied for a match on
social media. He simply posted the hashtag Sena versus Styles thoughts.

(22:19):
That's called planting the seed, and you don't do that
unless you either want the match or you already know
it's happening and you're giving people the match. And he
followed that up with I do not choose my opponents,
but I, even though or even through tough times, rather
always listen to the fans at AJ styles Org are
you listening? Better yet at Triple H? Are you listening?

(22:43):
And AJ Styles was quick to respond, he says, I
hear them loud and clear, Let's do it. I'm ready.
So of course Triple H chimed in like the Knight
in Shining Armor, and he tweeted John Cena versus AJ
Styles as a match we all want to see and
it crowned we will, So it's official. John Cena versus

(23:04):
AJ Styles one last time in Perth, Australia. What a
coincidence they announced this right after so many people shit
on what happened to Wressell Palooza. Dave Meltzer says Scena
versus Styles was always the plan for Australia, going back
to at least the week where Styles cut that weird
Workshoot promo during one of the commercials on Raw that
hasn't gone anywhere since then, now that I think about it,

(23:27):
If it was the plan, it's adorable how they had
seen a tweet about it first to make it seem
like the fans helped make it happen. But it makes
Triple H look like again the man of the people
all of a sudden, right he's giving the people what
they want. Well played, well played. Scena posted a photo
on his Instagram of that guy from the movie Captain

(23:49):
Phillips with Tom Hanks. I think it was the pirates
that take over the ship. It's the guy who says
I'm the captain. Now he posted that image no context. Yeah,
you're the captain now because again you know the implication
being that he's taken the reins now of his own
retirement tour. He's the captain now, Yeah, you're the captain

(24:11):
now when you have three fucking matches left on your tour.
Now you're the captain. Where was the captain six months
ago when we needed you? Mister. I don't lobby for matches.
I'm just glad we're getting the match because I had
given up hope of it happening with so few appearances left,
you know. As it is, he's not scheduled for any
television until Crown Jewel. So this is literally just throwing

(24:35):
you know, a match out there, a dream match if
you want to call it that, even though we've seen
it before. It's throwing a match out there that they
know the live crowd is going to eat up. Styles
has given seen as some of the best matches of
his entire career. Their Summer Slim match from twenty sixteen
is my favorite of the bunch. I had the pleasure
of being in the building for that one. That was special.
Their last match was excellent. Actually it wasn't their last match,

(24:57):
they had a TV match, but their last big pay
per view match was excellent. That was the Royal Rumble
match in twenty seventeen, where they never left the ring
one single time during the entire match. Nobody got thrown
into the ring steps, there was no big bump on
the announced desk. They kept everything in the ring and
seeing a tied Rick Flair with sixteen world titles. That

(25:21):
was John Seena's last truly great match of his career.
Up until the match he had with Cody Rhodes at
Summerslim this year, it had been eight years since he
had a match that great. Now they get to run
it back one last time. See, this is the kind
of thing I was hoping for to see out of
this tour. Now, aj Styles he may not be getting

(25:43):
a tour of his own, but if we take him
at his word, his career is coming to an end.
Also very soon, a lot sooner than people may have expected.
And speaking with Tokyo Sports this week to promote WWE's
upcoming tour dates in Japan next month, he said that
the these shows coming up maybe the final times he
gets to perform in Japan. He said, I will probably

(26:05):
appear at WrestleMania, but it's not confirmed yet. The details
are still undecided, but I will definitely retire within the
next year. I don't want to show my fans aside
of me that isn't AJ styles. That's the main reason
I've decided to retire before my body can no longer move.
And regarding his plans after retirement, he said, I haven't

(26:25):
decided yet, but I think I'll probably work for WWE.
It might be good to train young wrestlers to be
worthy of being on the main roster, but I don't
know yet. Six months ago, he sat down with Chris
van Vliet and he told Chris that he will not
wrestle at fifty. I promise you that, he said, I

(26:46):
will not be wrestling at fifty, although he didn't say
anything about fifty one. Take that year off, AJA, you
deserve it, then come back for that second run. No,
he's been saying that for a while, that he's done
at the age of fifty. He's forty eight right now.
He'll be forty nine in June, so I mean, technically
he could still live up to that, but he could

(27:07):
still get through the entire year next year. I don't
know if that's something he wants to do, but man,
it's like I hear him talking about that, John Cena,
Hiroshi Tanahashi, now Aj Styles. It really feels like the
end of an era playing out right before our eyes.
But Feiful reported some time ago that AJ's contract is

(27:28):
up around February of next year, so that's probably why
he said it's not confirmed yet that he'll be at WrestleMania.
I'm sure they could extend him out to WrestleMania if
his deal is up before then. I cannot imagine that
they allow AJ Styles to retire in February or March
when they're that close to WrestleMania. If we're going to

(27:49):
get a John Cena retirement match in December and not
at WrestleMania, then why not give AJ Styles one at
WrestleMania next year. I don't need an Aj Styles retirement tour,
not after the way these people book John Cena's retirement tour,
no thank you, but his last match being at WrestleMania,
that would be a worthy sendoff for this guy, a

(28:09):
guy that has been one of the elite performers of
his generation. He really has been the body of work
that he put together in TNA, the work that he
did during that short run in New Japan, winning the
IWGP title and leading Bullet Club. And then in WWE
he was pushed harder right out of the gate than
I ever thought he would be. But in his first
year he had that great Rumble debut, back to back

(28:31):
title matches with Roman Reigns on pay per view, then
a program that saw him beat John Sena twice in
two months, first Money in the Bank and then at SummerSlam,
and then a month after that he won the WWE Championship.
That's not a bad first year. I wish I could
say the same for all of his other years there.
You know, the last few have not been kind to

(28:53):
AJ Styles, between the injuries and the booking. The man
deserves a major sendoff. He may not have been a
WWE guy the way John Cena was a WWE guy.
John Cena was a product of WWE. You know, AJ
Styles made his name outside of WWE. But next year
is going to be his ten year anniversary in this company.
Ten years of Aj Styles in WWE. It just sells itself.

(29:17):
Now watch them run back Styles in Jericho again. In
AJ's last match, that was his first wrestle media match,
it was against Chris Jericho. They may give it to
us again next year. So after Crown Jewel, Senior's got
four appearances left by my count Boston on November tenth,
Madison Square Garden on November seventeen, Survivor Series in San

(29:39):
Diego on November twenty ninth, and Washington, d C for
his final match on Saturday Night's Main event on December thirteenth.
And I could see it shaping up like this. You've
got that Boston show right on November tenth. There's been
some chatter about Dominic Mysterio being considered as an opponent
at some point on this tour for John Cena. Do

(30:00):
John Cena challenging Dominic Mysterio for the Intercontinental title in Boston?
Since people seem to want so badly for him to challenge.
I get so many fucking questions about John Cena. Should
he challenge for the Intercontinental title? He could win the
Grand Slam, right, there's enough people out there who clearly
want to see it. He's not gonna win it. You know,
he's not winning the Intercontinental title. But you do that

(30:22):
match on that show in Boston. Then at MSG we
get John Cena against Seth Rollins. Not for the world
heavyweight title. But if they end up leading their own
respective teams in wargames, or even if Seen is not
the captain, let's say he's in war games, he's on
someone else's team. If they're on opposite ends of that
wargames match, you could do Sena against Rollins one last

(30:44):
time at MSG for the man advantage, and then in
his final match in December, we get John Cena against Gunther.
Like in dom he gets to work with a younger
talent who could get the rub from it. Against he's
in there with another old rival and there's something tangible

(31:04):
on the line as far as wargames goes. And then
with Gunther, it's a newer name, he's never wrestled before,
but it's somewhat a little more well established than you know,
someone like Dominic would be, So that way you get
some variation with all three opponents. Now. Watching Obafemi lose
the NXT Championship last night at No Mercy, the thought

(31:24):
did cross my mind of putting Oba in there and
letting him be the one to retire John Cena and
really launching him. But the brock Lesner match just killed
it last weekend because the only way that works like,
in my mind, as dominant as a champion as Obafemi
has been, and the man is just that he's a
physical specimen. You just say, you look at him, and
he just looks He looks like a gladiator, this guy.

(31:48):
The only way that works is if Oba goes in
there and just decimates John Cena, Like it can't be
an overly competitive match. I'm sorry, I don't care how
much more experienced John Cena has. You can't do that
to me. That just doesn't work. But you've already done
the Sena decimation against Brock, and frankly, nobody wants to

(32:11):
see that in johnsen his last match. Nobody is gonna
want to see John Cena go in there in his
last match and get absolutely slaughtered by somebody in four minutes.
I mean, I would build that entire Saturday Night's main
event show around the Sena match. So you need to
be able to deliver one last, really great match that
has some length to it. You know, whoever wins, it's

(32:31):
got to be a competitive match. I just don't see
that with Oba Femi. Oba is not the right guy
for that spot. John seen his dad, by the way,
should mention this was no fed of his son's match
with brock Lesner. He called it a squash match. He
said the images of crying children is not how you
want business to go. This is what he told Chris

(32:54):
Featherstone on the Unscripted podcast on Sports KEDA. He also
said the start of his son's healed was great, but
the storyline was destroyed when The Rock and Travis Scott
were no longer involved. He said that wasn't something he
was too hyped up on. I agree with mister Cena,
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Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. The
rest of the Crown Jewel card is shaping up like this.
We have the two Crown Jewel title matches Cody Rhodes
against Steph Rollins and Stephanie Vequerre against Tiffany Stratton, who
retained her WWE Women's Championship on SmackDown Friday Night in

(35:25):
a main event that just completely fell apart there at
the very end. Whatever could go wrong did go wrong.
It started with Naya Jacks throwing Jade Cargill into the
ring steps outside hard and Jade suffered a nasty gash
on her left eyebrow. If you saw the photos on

(35:45):
her Instagram, it is disgusting. They actually slapped the content
warning on it, that's how bad it was. And it
honestly reminded me of the gash I got on my
leg on my knee. I mean mine was bigger, but
it's kind of got that same shape to it. It
looks like a slot machine. It looks like a slot
that you would shove a quarter into to play a
new game. That's what it looks like. There's blame to

(36:09):
go around on this one. Nya should have put a
little more distance between her and the steps when she
threw Jade into them. There really wasn't much room there,
but Jade should have gotten her hands up, so I
don't think you could just put that on one person
and not the other. But then after they got back
in the ring, Jade dropped her with the eye of
the storm and she had her pinned. Tiffany was supposed

(36:29):
to break up the fall, clearly, but she was going
to be late. You can see the panic on Naya's face,
so Nya kicked out. Then Tiffany comes flying and nails
Jade with a dropkick, and Jade rolls out of the
ring and Tiffany went to go steal the pin, which
was clearly going to be the finish of the match.
But Nia had already kicked out right because Tiffany was
going to be late on the previous spot, so Tiffany

(36:52):
just covering her and pinning her really wouldn't have made
much sense anyway. The finish was already ruined, but she
covered Nya anyway and referee Daphnie Lashan. She counts one,
she counts two, and then she held up at three,
even though Nia did not kick out, and the crowd
went silent like it looked awful. I thought the match

(37:16):
was a mess, honestly, even before all of this happened.
But at that point it just fell off a fucking
cliff and Tiffany went up. She hit her prettiest Moonsalt
ever and she pinned Nya to retain the title. She
was going to win the match anyway, so it didn't
affect the actual finish of the match. It's gonna be
Tiffany against Stephanie at Crown Jewel. They were really pushing

(37:38):
that Tiffany, you know, coming into this triple threat, they
were really pushing that Tiffany is undefeated this year. I
think that needs to end at Crown Jewel. Stephanie should
not be losing to Tiffany Stratton, and Seth is not
losing to Cody Roads again, not after Cody won the
Crown Jewel Belt last year. He also won it Wressell Palooza.
Seth did not. And if the vision is for war Games,

(38:01):
then Rollins needs this win a lot more than Cody does.
So we have those two matches, plus Sena against aj Styles,
and it sure feels like we're going to get a
tag team match with Rhea, Ripley and Eo Sky against
Osca and Kyrie Saine. We actually got a great main
event on Monday night with Ria and Osca. As much
as I disliked the main event on Friday, I love

(38:22):
the main event on Monday, and it finally happened. We
got the Oska heel turn. She's been trending that way
for weeks, but they made it official and when the
match was over, she missed Rhea in the face, turned
her into a smurf. EO came out to try to
calm things down. Osca gave her a hug and then
turned on EO and then forced Kyrie to do the same.

(38:44):
Eo is going to be wrestling Mayu Ewaitani on The
Marigold Show October twenty sixth. Marigold posted a video on
Friday of EO challenging Mayu to a match at their
Dream Destiny show. They were tag team partners and started
many years ago, twice whole the trios titles together and
once holding the tag team titles. This will be their

(39:05):
first singles match since Stardom's Cinderella Tournament in twenty eighteen.
And this is going to end up on a lot
of people's Match of the Year lists, I can guarantee it.
WWE is running back to back shows in Tokyo on
a Japanese tour the week before, so I guess Eo
will just stay over the extra week and then work
the match with Mayu and then fly back. But WWE

(39:25):
has announced some of the initial matches for those shows. Friday,
October seventeenth, Get this, Julia defends the Women's United States
Championship in a three way against Eo Sky and Ria Ripley.
Now that's a fucking match. Put that on my TV.
Seth Rollins defends the World Heavyweight Title against cmpunk. I

(39:47):
am just so over the punk and Seth stuff. It's
just not even funny. Shinzke Knakamura. They're in Japan, so
they're gonna dust them off. How's this for a random pairing?
It'll be Knackamora and jay Uso teaming up to take
on bron Breaker and Bronson Reid. Then on Saturday, October eighteenth,
Julia defends her US title. Assuming she's still the champion,

(40:08):
of course, and doesn't lose it. The night before she
defends the US title against Kyrie Sain with Osca in
her corner. Rhea, Ripley and Eosky take on Rakel Rodriguez
and Roxane Perez and Cmpunk, Jay Usso and Shinsky Nakamora
take on Seth Rollins, bron Breaker, and Bronson Reid. The
annual PWI five hundred rankings dropped this week. I usually

(40:32):
cover this each year. This is a list based solely
on k fabe, although that doesn't stop people from passionately
debating it. The evaluation period for this was August one,
twenty twenty four through July thirty first of this year,
and it weighs the following criteria, and this is important

(40:52):
to keep in mind. This is what they go by.
Your win loss record, championships won, quality of competition, major feuds,
prominence within a wrestler's promotion, and overall wrestling ability, so
all of those things are factored in here to these rankings,
and topping the list at number one for the second

(41:13):
straight year, becoming only the fourth wrestler ever to do so,
after Brett Hart nineteen ninety three and ninety four, Steve
Austin nineteen ninety eight and ninety nine, and John Cena
two thousand and six and two thousand and seven. Coming
into number one this year is the American Nightmare Cody
Rhodes winning for twenty twenty four and now twenty twenty five.

(41:34):
So last year, let's see here. Last year would have
included him leading his team to victory and war Games,
winning his second straight Royal Rumble, feuding with the Rock,
headlining both Knights of WrestleMania, and finishing his story to
win the WWE Championship and really becoming the face of

(41:55):
the company. Becoming the face of WWE. Right, you can't
really argue against that, So that was last year, though
for this period it would include his Crown Jewel win
over Gunther, his entire feud with Kevin Owens, including their
ladder match at the Royal Rumble, his WrestleMania loss to
John Cena, and his King of the Ring win over

(42:18):
Randy Orton. So still a strong year, but not as
strong as last year. He took more of a back
seat this year to Sena since it's Sena's retirement year.
Number two is John Moxley, up from number eight the
year before. That's largely based on him holding the aw
World Championship for nearly that entire period, and he was

(42:39):
leading the Death Riders wrestling in multiple pay per view
main events. I mean, when you consider the criteria that
they're using here, I can't argue with this pick. Number
three is Gunther, who spent a good portion of that
period as the World Heavyweight Champion, and he also retired
Bill Goldberg. Hail Hydra. I mean Gunther still waiting for
a gold old Berg to tell his side of the

(43:01):
story that he teased on Ariel Helwani show. He said,
wait a couple of weeks. That was a couple of
months ago. Sounds like someone was gotten to number four,
Hangman Adam Page. Number five is Hiroki Goto, who had
a nice unexpected run as the IWGP World Champion and
is also one of the wrestlers that is filming for

(43:23):
the new Street Fighter movie. I believe he is going
to be e Honda. Number six is Jay Usso, cracking
the top ten for the first time in his career.
Number seven is Swerve Strickland, who falls from number two
last year to number seven this year. Number eight is
Seth Rollins, down from number four last year, and he

(43:45):
was actually number one the year before that. Number nine
is Mystico, who is legitimately one of the biggest names
in the history of the business. I mean that's the
kind of success that he has had in Mexico and
continues to have. At Number ten is will Osprey, down
from number three last year, jay Uso over will Osprey.

(44:07):
I get it based on the criteria, but man, it
hurts my soul. Now rounding out the top twenty five,
I'm not gonna read the whole list, but we'll go
through the top twenty five. Number eleven, Kazuchka Okata, number twelve,
Joe Hendry number thirteen, Zach Saber Junior number fourteen, Oba
Femi number fifteen, cm Punk wow Oba over punk Oba

(44:33):
was very important to the NXT brand though. You know,
your your prominence and significance to your your company and
your brand is a big part of the criteria here,
So I kind of get it, but yes, number fifteen
to Cempunk number sixteen is Bandido number seventeen, Kenoski Takeshta
number eighteen, Damian Priest number nineteen, Trick Williams number twenty

(44:57):
Jacob fa II number twenty one, Nick Nemeth number twenty two,
La Night Yeah, number twenty three, Mascerriderata number twenty four,
bron Breaker the number twenty five, Masha Slamovich and oh
the fire storm that set off this week. I'm gonna

(45:18):
get to that in a bit. Her appearing at number
twenty five on this list, that was the catalyst for
all the shit that came out this week. So people
who say the PWI five hundred doesn't matter, you can't
say that this year. It's also weird that she was
on there at all, because they have a separate list
for the women that comes out later this year. But
Masha's on here, Meghan Bain is on here, Billy Starks

(45:40):
was on here. The only thing I could think of
is that if they wrestled any inter gender matches, that
that would make them eligible to be on the main list,
because otherwise, I mean, to not have people on here
like Tony Storm and Rhea Ripley is ridiculous. Uh, you know,
my top five, I don't even know what my criteria is.
It's called my gut. My top five would be in
no particular or Cody Rhodes, Seth Rollins, Hangman, Page, will Osprey,

(46:05):
and Gunther That would be my top five. But since
I mentioned Masha Slamovich, this is as good a place
as any to talk about this because she was involved
in a major controversy this week. The former TNA Knockouts
champion had allegations of domestic abuse levied against her. She
was scheduled to challenge ash By Elegance, the former Dana Brook,

(46:29):
for the title on Friday at the TNA Victory Road
pay per view, but was pulled from the show as
she was several independent dates that she was scheduled for.
I'm not sure if those promotions pulled her or if
she pulled herself. TNA definitely pulled her, and that made
news in and of itself. Ashby Elegance came out on
the show on Friday and vacated the championships, saying that

(46:51):
she is no longer able to compete and she would
be stepping away from in ring competition. And it definitely
did not come off as a happy announcement for anyone thinking, Naomi,
maybe it's a similar type of deal. It didn't come
off that way. Hopefully it's nothing too serious, but it
was serious enough that she gave a speech and she
vacated the title, so instead they held a Battle Royal

(47:13):
with the final two women Killanie Jordan of NXT and
Lee Ying Lee, the former Zileee, moving on to a
singles match later in the show to crown a new champion,
which ended up being Killannie Jordan, another TNA title claimed
by a WWE talent, but I heard it was a
really good match. I did see the spot circulating online,

(47:34):
the botch where Jordan came off the apron with what
looked to be Irana that maybe she was going for
on the floor and Lee just dropped her hard with
what ended up being a power bomb, and then she
just popped right back up and no sold it because
that wasn't the planned spot. This is how they're teaching
these wrestlers. It's like they're not capable of thinking on

(47:57):
the fly, which is a terrible quality not to have. Like,
if something like that happens, especially as devastating as this looked,
fucking sell it. Don't pop right back up like nothing
happened just because it wasn't supposed to happen. It happened.
Like even if you just sell it briefly and then
pick up with whatever you were supposed to do, fucking

(48:18):
sell it. But anyway, Masha wasn't there. And it started
on Tuesday with her ranking number twenty five on the
PWI five hundred list, after which came a flood of
allegations and photos and text messages on social media after
a friend of her ex boyfriend who's also a wrestler
named Akira. He has performed for MLW and GCW and CMLL,

(48:43):
among other promotions. His friend called out Slamovich for allegedly
abusing Akira physically and mentally over the course of their relationship,
and those allegations included a link to a dropbox with
over one hundred screenshots of texts alleged texts between the two.
They haven't been authenticated, but there's no reason to believe

(49:03):
that they're fake. That feature Slamovich admitting in these messages
to hitting Akira, alleging demands for money and what could
really just be described as emotional abuse, and the social
media posts also featured photos of cuts and bruises on
Akira's face and wrists. The texts range from twenty twenty

(49:24):
two to earlier this year. As a result of this,
Masha is now under internal investigation by TNA. The promotion
told Sports Illustrated on Tuesday, we take any allegations like
this very seriously and have begun an internal investigation. WWE
sources also told Fightful Select that any plans of using

(49:45):
her for their TNA Invasion angle would be paused. If
there were any plans, Fightful Select also learned that Masha's
contract with TNA is up relatively soon, and it was
still up in the air whether or not she would
even remain with the company. She was scheduled to lose
her TNA Knockouts title match against ashby Elegance, which of
course ended up not even happening, so none of this

(50:06):
is a good sign for her future in TNA or
even possibly WWE. Now. Akira posted a statement of his
own on social media on Tuesday, admitting that, among other things,
admitting that he tried to commit suicide on three separate occasions.
He said, I woke up to this and people asking
me if I was okay, kind of want to throw up,

(50:28):
kind of want to go away forever. My friend held
back for months because I asked her to, and I
would have never said anything. I still really don't want to.
I didn't want to lash out in anger because I
was angry, suicidal, and depressive since the end of January.
I'm not alive, though. If she didn't take my calls
every day while caring for her sick grandfather, I'm not alive.

(50:50):
If my roommate didn't laugh with me at stupid videos daily,
I'm not alive. If Dale Patrick's and Simon Gotch weren't
there for me. I gave a lot with little in return.
I had a lot of growing up to do, and
despite my progression, I was always told I was never
doing enough. The things I liked and did were stupid
and waste of time. Things I told about my thoughts

(51:12):
on my gender and the confusion I was feeling was
turned on me. I was lied to about finances and
spent more than I should have because I thought we
were struggling together. I almost killed myself three times as
the life I tried to build with someone was torn
apart and I became nothing to that person. It was
like a withdrawal. Every time I went to the hospital,

(51:33):
that person I put on a pedestal was gone. I
didn't matter. I would have never said anything. I only
came out with my prior experiences of sexual abuse because
I was spiraling alone in Japan. I tried my best,
but my best was never good enough, and all my
accomplishments and money were nothing but tools for someone else.
Many things said in confidence turned and used against me.

(51:55):
I can't get that time back. I can't get the
money back. I can't get the last four years of
my life back. I was just trying my best to
come back and be with my family and friends and
dog and try to get signed. I dreamed of doing things.
Maybe it won't happen now. I'm not angry. I'm not sad,
not anymore. I'm apathetic. I've moved on, and there's still

(52:16):
bitterness in my stomach. I don't let it guide me.
I've grown up as a person and a wrestler. I've
grown up mentally, physically and spiritually. I'm still fighting or
figuring rather things out and have nothing to say to
that person. I adored them. I still feel phantom pains
in my heart every time I see a photo. They're
a part of my life in history. I don't get

(52:37):
to where I am now, a mature and thoughtful person
with a healthy dose of CTE without the experiences I
went through and the isolation I experienced in a foreign country,
but it is what it is. Whatever happens happens. And
he followed that up two days later with a message

(52:58):
where again he appreciates everyone coming to his defense. He
wishes no ill will on this other person, obviously referring
to Masha. He talks about forgiveness. It's a long message,
but it's a more sort of positive, uplifting message, more
optimistic message about one of forgiveness and growth. Masha finally

(53:21):
responded to all of this with a message on social
media on Wednesday night. She said, up until the beginning
of this year, I was in a toxic and mutually
destructive relationship. We hurt each other deeply and in private moments,
failed to treat each other with the consideration and respect
that we both deserve. I take responsibility for my actions,

(53:43):
and I am sorry, embarrassed, and ashamed of the role
I played in our relationship and the way things turned out.
In the time since, I have sought help to reflect
on this time and deal with conflict and more mature,
healthier and sustainable ways. I apologize to those that I
let down, including my former partner. I hope he is
able to heal. This will be my only statement on

(54:06):
the matter. So she did apologize and claimed to take
responsibility for her actions. She didn't deny any of the
photos or screenshots that were posted were anything but genuine.
But it is interesting how she goes out of her
way in that opening sentence to make it known that
it was a mutually destructive relationship. That's certainly a choice,

(54:31):
it's one that really angered their former roommate who posted this,
and then we'll move on. I'm awake, thought about a response,
typed one out last night, deleted it. I realized the
only thing I truly need to say is that it
wasn't mutual, and if I wanted to, I would post
what videos I have of their fights that would go

(54:52):
hours on end, waking me up anytime from midnight to
three am, where it would be hours on hours of
her screaming at him, repeating herself over and over the
time she would physically assault him to immediately, asking why
he wouldn't just put his hands out or try and
stop her. I had talk after talk after talk with
both of them that they needed to break up with

(55:13):
each other. And for as much as Akira would simply
respond that he loved her and thought that they could
work through it together. She was on the opposite spectrum,
believing her actions were justified and actually needed to help
turn Akira into whatever image suited her fancy that month.
If it wasn't his gear, it was his body shape.
If it wasn't his body shape, it was his move set.
If it wasn't the moves, it was the companies he

(55:35):
worked for. If it wasn't the companies he worked for,
then it was the matches that he was taking on.
If I ever spoke up about anything, I was threatened,
physically told that I would be put in the hospital
or fucking killed. My first year there is actually I
actually told him I needed to leave and go home
to take care of my mom. Her health started deteriorating

(55:56):
worse in twenty twenty three, and I tried to bring
this up. Kiro wanted me to stay because that's my
best friend and brother, and we made a promise to
each other. Mash's only reason for wanting me to stay
was because she didn't want to have to pay more
for rent and who was going to take care of
the dog and cook for us? And then what also
guilt trip me about staying, reminding me how she had

(56:18):
helped me out with rent months prior. She cares only
about herself, and the longer I stayed there, the more
I realized it. But because I thought I was with
people who wanted to help me achieve my dreams, I
looked the other way and let a lot of shit slide.
But nothing about that situation was mutual. I have no
real regrets over my place in that situation. I probably
prevented more shit from happening than whatever did. If anything,

(56:41):
I'll regret losing friends for saying anything, because I'm sure
it will happen. So this is just one giant mess,
is what this is. And there's enough there to where
I think it'll be a while before we see Masha
back out there wrestling again. Her best move right now
would be to lay low and do some soul searching,

(57:01):
because it wasn't even her her, you know, her ex
who came out with this. It was other people that
she angered enough to where they just couldn't hold it
in any longer. You know, they just they could not
hold their tongues any longer. And it just goes to
show you, you know, domestic abuse, It goes both ways,
because I saw a lot of comments this week about, oh,
this is a different than what you usually hear about,

(57:23):
and this is this is unusual. You know, you just
assume the victim is the is the female, right, That's
what a lot of people do when you hear a
domestic abuse story on the news with a celebrity or
an athlete or someone of note, or really any situation, honestly,
but it absolutely goes both ways, and I'm sure there's
still a stigma attached to that with a lot of
men who choose not to out themselves right as a

(57:44):
victim because they think that it will somehow make them
less masculine. Like I'm not saying that's the case here,
but especially in a business like the wrestling business, or
really in sports in general, you don't think that that
isn't a problem with being afraid to speak up for
fear of how they'll be perceived. I'm sure it happens

(58:04):
way more than we'll ever know, But abuse, physical or otherwise,
is not gender specific. It is very much gender neutral,
and no matter who you are, it's not right. Nobody
should have to live like that or feel like they're
trapped at a toxic relationship and if Masha is the
monster that these people make her out to be, I

(58:27):
can only hope that she learns from this and becomes
a better person, because she looks absolutely awful in this
entire situation. We did get a TNA invasion on NXT
this week, lots of TNA stars in the house, many
of which were watching from the crowd. During the Title
for Title main event between Trick Williams and Obafemi for

(58:47):
both the NXT and TNA World Championships, Mike Santana joined
on commentary. He's wrestling Trick for the TNA title of
Bound for Glory. The match broke down after Trick slapped
Santana and Santana struck him back, which, if you think
about it, really should have been a disqualification since Trick
got hit, not Oba. Trick should be the NXT champion

(59:08):
right now. But all the TNA names got into the
ring and started fighting with the NXT roster. Matt Cardono
was there, Steve Macklin, Frankie Kazarian, Cedric Alexander, and others.
Then last night on the NXT No Mercy Show, General
Manager Ava announced an NXT versus TNA Invasion show. They

(59:28):
even brought back the old Invasion pay per view logo
from two thousand and one. It will be a special
episode of NXT on the CW Network on Tuesday, October seventh,
which just so happens to be the same night that
AW is doing its title Tuesday episode of Dynamite. They're
doing Dynamite on Tuesday and Collision on Wednesday that week

(59:48):
from Daily's place in Jacksonville. And so NXT's answer to
this is to do an Invasion show on Free TV
that will feature two Survivor Series style elimination match, one
for the men and one for the women with NXT
talent wrestling TNA talent. The members of each team will
be announced this Tuesday, I guess by their respective authority figures.

(01:00:10):
Ava will be there and Santino Morella will be there.
Plus Dark State will meet the Hardys in a battle
between the NXT Tag Team Champions and the TNA Tag
Team Champions title for title. We got the Hardys coming
into House of Glory three days later to challenge for
the hog Tag Team titles. They may well be walking

(01:00:31):
into the NYC Arena that Friday. Is the NXT and
TNA Tag Team Champions. How wild is that they should
win the NXT titles. It's about time somebody from the
TNA side took some titles from the WWE side instead
of the other way around. Now. I don't think WWE
would mind much because they probably look at the Hardys
as WWE guys. Anyway, Ridge Holland will not be there.

(01:00:55):
I saw he was injured at the TNA tapings in
Edmonton last night in a match against Move. Looked like
he hurt his foot or his ankle. Couldn't put any
weight on it at all. Moose even helped him to
the back, So that is not a good sign. But
I watched the rest of the No Mercy card I
thought it was a good show. Javon Evans had himself
a great twenty four hours. He wrestled Sammy's Ay in

(01:01:16):
the US Title Open Challenge on SmackDown in what was
an awesome match, and then beating Josh Briggs. He didn't
win on Friday, but he won last night, beat Josh
Briggs in a good match, not nearly as great as
the match on Friday, but still it was a good showing.
His stock has definitely been elevated this weekend. Jordan Grace
beat Blake Monroe in a weaponized steel cage match. I

(01:01:40):
thought that this was adequate. That's a word I should
probably start using more often when I review these shows. Adequate.
These two were better than the pink weapons and the
hair dryer and the diamonds and all the bullshit. Jordan won,
Blake lost. Get him both up on SmackDown, please as
soon as possible. Like I know if Shawn Michaels doesn't

(01:02:01):
want to give these people up, but smack that needs
them a lot more than NXT does. At least one
of them. Okay, I'm willing to compromise here at least
one of them, but the women's division needs them. Ethan
Page retained his North American title over Tavion Heights, who
has star potential. I didn't expect him to win here,
but I thought he looked good. J C. Jane keeps

(01:02:23):
the NXT Women's Championship over Lola Wece. Lola is someone
who is tabbed to be a star on the main roster.
I don't feel the same about Jac's chances. I think
Shawn Michaels likes her and she's gotten better. But when
I see Lola, I see a star when I see JC,
I don't when it comes to the main roster, I'm sorry.

(01:02:43):
And then in the main event, Ricky Saints ends the
dominant reign of Obafemi to win the NXT Championship. I
wasn't too surprised by the outcome here, just because what's
left for OBA to do on this show, right? I mean,
they either had to pull the trigger on Ricky here
or call him up to the main roster, and instead
it looks like OBA may be headed up soon, and

(01:03:04):
he should be. You know, if he isn't in the
same conversation with guys like Bron Breaker and Jacob Fatu,
then he should be, because a lot of people talk
about Breaker, and even on TV now, they're talking about
you know, Paul Hayman comes out with the same stick
every every fucking week, you know, And this guy's gonna
headline WrestleMania for five years in a row, and which

(01:03:24):
will be great, by the way, because that's a surefire
way to get people to turn against him. But yeah,
this guy's got a main event wrestle Mania. And people
say the same thing about Jacob fa too. I've been
saying it, but I definitely think Oba needs to be
in that conversation because he has all the tools to
be one of the men carrying this company for years

(01:03:44):
to come. I've set it before. Call him up and
give him the gunther push, start him out with one
of the mid card titles, and let him run undefeated
for at least a year. You've got Sammy Zain doing
the Open Challenge gimmick right now on SmackDown for the
United States Championship. As much as I'm gonna hate it
when it's over, because it's the best thing on Friday

(01:04:05):
nights right now. And I'm not saying do it this week,
but debut him in the Open Challenge and have him
kill Sammy to win the US title. Have him show
up one week and just wreck shop. That's how you
make a new star. And finally, TNA announced this week
that Mickey James and the Beautiful People Velvet Sky and

(01:04:26):
Angelina Love will be inducted into the TNA Hall of
Fame Class of twenty twenty five next month. A bound
for glory Mickey is a no brainer. I mean, a
five time knockouts champion, Velvet and Angelina they also had
runs his knockouts champion Gail Kim was inducted in twenty sixteen.
Awesome Kong was inducted in twenty twenty one. As that

(01:04:47):
division goes, those two were a must to go in first, right,
they put the knockouts on the map, and then it
was Tracy Brooks in twenty twenty three. Now Mickey and
the beautiful people are going in. So they're showing a
lot of love for the women and we'll see if
that's it. That's three. They've never inducted more than three
people in one class before. Now on the aaw front,

(01:05:10):
speaking of Gail Kim, I was going to talk about
this because that was the other big the Masha thing
I talked about. But the other big controversy exploded on
social media had to do with Gail Kim responding to
somebody on Twitter and then giving her opinions on ReHO
based on a clip that she saw from many years ago.
And people did not like Gail's opinion about ReHO. And

(01:05:33):
I didn't think that what Gail said, honestly, with that
initial opinion was any big deal. I really didn't see
what the big deal was. People talk about ReHO being bullied.
She wasn't bullying ReHO. Okay, these people need to stop.
She wasn't bullying ReHO with that first comment she made.
Rehos not even on social media anymore, at least not Twitter,
because she was bullied off the platform a few years ago,

(01:05:55):
and people said some very unkind unnecessary, disgusting things about
her to equate these comments that Gail made, and it's like,
are you not allowed to have an opinion about somebody?
Apparently just having an opinion now is bullying. So I
was gonna get into the specifics of what was said
and everything, but then Gail has been tweeting the entire weekend.

(01:06:15):
This has been going on for days now. She has
been replying to everybody who will tweet her. She has
been quote tweeting and replying. I just stopped tracking this
shit after a while because it just got to the
point where it's like, I don't know what the fuck
she's doing. I really don't. Now she's getting into it
with every single person control and everybody who has something

(01:06:37):
to say, and she's just going back and forth and
it's exhausting, and I just said, you know what, fuck this,
I'm not gonna I'm not even gonna talk about this.
I'm not even gonna get into the nuts and bolts
of this. How does she have time in her day
to respond in the way that she has been responding
to all of these people? Is this all she does?
There's responding to a few people, and then there's whatever

(01:07:00):
the hell this has been? So you know what, fuck it.
I have nothing else to say about this situation. Whatever
she says from here on out let her answer for it.
I have nothing else to contribute to this. Today's episode
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for full details, restrictions and important safety information. The first
dynamite coming out of All Out was in Pittsburgh on Wednesday,

(01:09:09):
and there was no Britt Baker, which tells you all
you need to know about her standing in the company
and whether they intend to ever bring her back. They
don't because if they did, that would have been the
place to do it, so she is benched until her
contract is up. Not the best follow up to the
pay per view. I don't understand how you don't put
a live microphone in Eddie Kingston's hand and let him

(01:09:31):
talk to the people after sixteen months on the shelf.
Like Eddie, more than most in this company, has a
very special connection to the fans, and he was gone
for a very long time. He wasn't even on the show.
They saved him for a tag team match on Collision instead.
I thought that was a missed opportunity. But there were
some solid matches on the show. They had a good

(01:09:53):
angle at the very end with Chris Statlander, who defended
her newly won Women's World title in the main event
against Mina Shirakawa, she rejected an invitation to join the
Death Riders. After that, Darby Allen walked out with a
flamethrower to chase away John Moxley and the Death Riders
and issued the challenge to an I Quit match with
Moxley at Wressel Dream The Statlanders stuff was good, though,

(01:10:16):
Brody King and Bendido. They retained their aw tag team
titles over the Gates of Agony. Coming off their win
with Ricochet over the Hurt Syndicated All Out. They were
due for a trios title match, but they claimed that
Kattiori Shabbata was not medically cleared to Wressel, so they
got a tag team title match instead. I don't know
why it needed to be for the titles if they
were just going to beat them, but the right team

(01:10:37):
won anyway, So long as they do the match for
the trio's titles, I would put the belts on Ricochet
and Goa. And if they don't, since they already lost
to Brodido, I don't know where they go from here.
Orange Cassidy is back. He teamed up with Mark Briscoe
and Hologram against Okata, Takeshta and Hetcheesero. I take it

(01:10:59):
the plan may have been to have Brisco challenge Okatta
soon for the unified title, or it should be. If
it isn't, it should be right. I mean, he just
picked up the biggest win of his AW career over
MJF at all out, a former AW World champion, mind you,
the longest reigning AW World champion of all time. If
Brisco is not next in line to challenge Hangman, then

(01:11:22):
a match with Okada should be the goal. But I
thought they really needed to make a bigger deal out
of him beating MJF and they really didn't. But it
was Hologram who picked up the win here. Because Hologram
was supposed to be challenging Kyle Fletcher for the TNT
Championship this week on the six year anniversary episode of Dynamite.
It was to have been title versus streak since Hologram

(01:11:45):
is undefeated at thirty four to oh take that, Undertaker,
and they've also been teasing the arrival of Hologram's evil
Lucha twin el Clone, so l Clone was probably going
to cost Hologram his streak on Wednesday, but the match
is now off after they opened Collision last night with
Kyle Fletcher attacking Hologram backstage. This felt like their way

(01:12:09):
of writing him off as quickly as possible. Tony con
now says that Hologram suffered significant injuries and is likely
out for the rest of twenty twenty five. This does
not feel like an angle to me, so he must
have gotten hurt, although I don't know how or where
it would have happened. It would have, I guess had
to have been in the Trios match on Wednesday, but
I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. So instead

(01:12:30):
of title versus Streak, it's now going to be Orange
Cassidy challenging for the TNT Championship and likely losing his
first singles match back. What that means for l Clone,
who knows. Maybe they'll debut him anyway. I would debut
him anyway. Debut him anyway, let him run up his
own thirty four and oh streak so that when Hologram

(01:12:51):
comes back, they could do Streak against Streak and all
two hundred and thirty five thousand fans watching on Collision
will rejoice. That's what they did two weeks ago. College
football is really kicking their ass right now. By the way,
They announced randomly last night that Kenny Omega is back
on Dynamite this week to team with Brody King and

(01:13:12):
Bandido against Josh Alexander and the Young Bucks. The last
time we saw Omega, he was stretchered out of the
twenty three hundred Arena by Kyle Fletcher. But apparently Kenny
Omega just wants to get back in the ring here.
They want him back in the ring on this anniversary show.
But that should be the Wrestle dream match, Fletcher against Omega,
and if they do it, Kyle Fletcher needs to beat

(01:13:35):
Kenny Omega. He lost to Hangman already didn't win the
world title. I don't think anybody expected him to, but
he says he proved that he could hang by going
forty minutes with Hangman Page. That's great. What's the excuse
if he loses to Kenny. You already prove that you
can hang, right, That's not enough. You're the TNT champion.

(01:13:58):
What good does it do him now? If he goes
in there and loses, that's a match he should be winning.
Hangman Page defended the aw World Championship on Wednesday in
an open challenge against Lee Moriarty. The reigning Ring of
Honor Pure Champion. Since they were in Moriarty's hometown of Pittsburgh.
I guess Mark Briscoe's great sin was being born in

(01:14:21):
Delaware and not being born in Pittsburgh or else Maybe
he would have gotten the match with Hangman. See that
would have made far more sense, Ashley, I'll tell you what,
setting up a title match between Page and brisco for
the Anniversary show this week that would have made the
most sense. And then really drive home how much that
match means to Mark Briscoe and what his brother would

(01:14:42):
have thought, Like, really rally the fans behind this man
for this major match, the biggest of his career, fighting
for the world championship. And then if you want Hangman
to go off with a member of the Death Riders
at Wrestle Dream for the title, which is what it
looks like they're doing, then you can have the Death
Riders spoil the party at the end of the match,
or you could have the Kallis family so Briscoe could

(01:15:03):
go off and fight with them. Instead, they gave us
Hangman against a low level name that's never on Dynamite
and who should not be wrestling for the world title
in the second match on the show on Wednesday, since
Hangman was doing a run in later, they had him
come out to save the Ops from the death Riders,
so they put his aw World title match on second

(01:15:24):
from the bottom. And then this Wednesday we're getting Hangman
in the Ops against Moxley Claudio and Daniel Garcia, which
is far less appealing than a Hangman brisco title match
would have been. It's just one of those booking pet
peeves that I have. You know, we spent weeks watching
Hangman tell MJF you get no title match. You want

(01:15:44):
to wrestle for the championship. You got to cash in
that contract because you haven't earned it. You've got to
prove to me that you can earn a shot on
your own. Evidently, the champion gets to call his own shots.
So Mark Briscoe beats MJF. But Hangman doesn't think Briscoe
I was deserving of a shot. I guess he hasn't
earned it, but Lee Mori already has because he's from Pittsburgh. Okay.

(01:16:10):
But the big announcement on the show that was promoted
for days. Tony Kahan's important announcement was the addition of
new women's tag team titles, titles that were created over
a year ago and have been sitting in a safe
collecting dust. He was waiting for the right time to
unveil them. And look, the last thing this company needs
are more belts. I saw Mina Sheerra Cowell walking out

(01:16:33):
for her match with Chris stat Lander with a belt,
and it took me a while to figure out what
fucking belt she was wearing around her waist. She is
the interim television champion in Ring of Honor because the champion,
Red Velvet's been out hurt since June. It's almost October.
You would have to go all the way back to

(01:16:53):
April to find the last time that TV title was
even defended. Why does Ring of Honor need an interom
champion for the women's TV title? Just strip her of
the fucking belt? Why? Because she's been champion for over
a year. You don't want to ruin that run? Who cares?
Nobody cares. The title is not that important that it

(01:17:15):
needs an interim version. But there was Mina with the
interim title, and we've got roh belts all over these
shows again. So this is the last thing this company needs.
Are more belts, but they have them now, and the
best thing I could say about this is that they're
in a much better position to actually have them than WWE,
for example, because unlike WWE, AW has more of an

(01:17:36):
actual division. They've been pairing different women up now for
months in preparation for this. They have the teams to
make this work if he really puts the effort into it.
You've got Tony Storm, who just lost her World championship.
She was practically catatonic at the end of that match,
it all out. I don't know what the direction is
for her, but Tony and Mina, I could see them
being a team Mina. Just before her match on Wednesday,

(01:17:58):
Mina was talking about Tony st in the back. I
haven't talked to her, but you know I'm here for her.
I'm you know, I'm her best friend. I could see
Tony and Mina becoming a team. Chris Statlander is the
AW Women's World Champion. It doesn't mean that she can't
also go for the tag team titles. Her and Harley Cameron,
or at some point her and Willow Nightingale. I'm sure

(01:18:19):
they're gonna end up being a team. You've got Megan
Bain and Penelope Ford. You've got Sky Blue and Julia Hart.
You've got Anna j and Tyme Mellow. You've got Athena
and Billy Starks. You could put them together as a team.
That would be a way to keep Athena on AW television.
I mean, Tony Kahn says that Athena is all banged up.
That's the only reason we haven't seen her. Diana Parrazzo

(01:18:41):
and Tia Valkyrie. I mean, nobody would benefit more from
this than Deanna Parazzo and Tia Valkyrie. They can't buy
themselves time, you know how they have those infomercials, they
have those time buys. They can't buy themselves time on
this show. So for someone like that like Deanna and Tya,
this could be a great thing. And of course she
got Mercedes over in the corner. She's licking her chops

(01:19:03):
right now trying to find a partner for this. You know,
she got that little shiver up her spine when Tony
was making that announcement and unveiling these belts. Not only
are the women getting tag team belts, but they're also
getting the first ever blood and guts match for the
women in AW after Jamie Hayter beat Julia Hart on
Collision last night, she was attacked by Tekla and sky

(01:19:25):
Blue Queen am Nada ran out to even the odds,
and Hater said she was sick of this and there
was only one way to settle all of this three words,
blood and guts. And if ever it felt like there
was a time to do one with the women, this
is it, especially because there's no need to do one
with the men this year. They did not give any

(01:19:45):
other details about who would be involved or when the
match is taking place, but my guess would be the
homecoming show at Daily's Place. They're going back home for
Title Tuesday on October seventh, and then they also have
a home coming up episode of Collision the next night,
So if they want to load up the show against
the NXTT and a invasion special on October seventh, then

(01:20:07):
you do it on Dynamite. But honestly, this is really
a lot of the stories with these women in these
feuds have been playing out on Collision, not so much
on Dynamite, So I could see it happening either one
of those two nights. But Daly's Place feels like the
right place for this. It's the place where they did
the first ever blooding Guts match. So what are we

(01:20:29):
thinking here? We got Jamie Hayter, Queen Aminada. Maybe throw
Chris Statlander in there, Willow and what maybe Tony Storm.
That's five against Tecla, Julia Hart Sky Blue. You could
have Marina Shaffir in there if Willow is on the

(01:20:49):
other side, since they've been beefing lately. But then who's
the fifth member. Mercedes is the only other one I
could think of. I mean, she really doesn't have anything
to do with any of this though, unless you do
Tony Storm, Mina Shirakawa, Chris Statlander, Jamie Hayter and Queen
Amanada and they take on the Triangle of Madness Megan

(01:21:11):
Bain and Penelope Fourth, then you have five Jurassic Express.
They were not on the show this week. They just
reunited it all out. They were not on the show
at all on Wednesday. They had a brief video package.
They're saving them for the anniversary show this Wednesday. And
Adam Copeland is gone for a while. He's going to

(01:21:34):
be filming for the third season of Percy Jackson and
the Olympians for Disney Plus. So no, he is not
wrestling John Cena in his final match. I don't know
where this got started, probably just people assuming, oh, the
timing of it, and then they let their imaginations run wild.
But this became a thing on social media this week

(01:21:54):
where maybe Adam Copeland is going back to WWE to
wrestle John Cena in his final match on Saturday Night's
main event. In your dreams, it's not happening. Do not
set yourself up for disappointment. If that is the match
that you are looking forward to, you are not getting it.
He is not going back to WWE. And frankly, even

(01:22:18):
if his contract was up next month, and I think
maybe this is where it started, people started putting pieces together, Oh,
his contract is up in October. In fact, I think
his contract is up in October of next year. But
even if you assumed his contract was up next month,
you don't think Tony Kahan is well aware of all
the chatter about him going back and doing this retirement

(01:22:38):
match with John Cena. He broke his leg. He was
out for like eight months. Like Tony would have so
much injury time that he could tack onto this guy's contract.
It there's no possible scenario in which this happens, but
I will say it was very entertaining looking at people
trying to explain how well it's possible. There's a chance, No,

(01:23:01):
there isn't. Some other news and notes all movie related.
Per deadline dot Com, Drew McIntyre has been cast for
a role in the upcoming Highlander reboot. This just seems
so perfect for him. This is set to star Henry
Cavell as Connor McLeod. Mcmcintyre will star opposite Cavell as

(01:23:23):
his older brother Angus. Dave Battista has been cast as Kurgan,
the villain of the film. Russell Crowe, Karen Gillen, and
Jimen Hansu have also been cast in the movie. The
project was in pre production earlier this month before everything
was halted when Cavell was injured during training. Production is
expected to begin in early twenty twenty six. The original

(01:23:46):
Highlander film was released in nineteen eighty six, followed by
several spin offs and a weekly series following the adventures
of Connor McLeod, one of many immortals at war with
each other until there is only one left. Yes, you know,
I never won the Highlanders series on a regular basis,
I would see episodes here and there. I think it
probably started in like nineteen ninety two or something, But

(01:24:08):
I still remember the theme song. I still remember the
theme song and the whole premise that the only way
you could kill him was to chop his head off.
But that song is still stuck in my head. And
two days after I answered a question on the podcast
about wrestlers that would have made great movie characters, we
got this exclusive from Deadline dot com on Tuesday. Artists

(01:24:33):
for Artists, the production company of Keenan Thompson and Johnny
Ryan Junior is developing a feature biopic on iconic wrestler
Macho Man Randy Savage. We can tell you first. Thompson
and Ryan Junior come to the project, titled Macho as
lifelong fans of Savage, Thompson having worked with Savage on
a Nickelodeon promo all the way back in nineteen ninety nine.

(01:24:56):
The project stems from a completed script by Savage's brother
Landy Poff, who died in February of twenty twenty three,
and Eric Shapiro. In a statement to Deadline, AFA's Ryan
Juniors said Macho Man Randy Savage was the greatest showman
of all time and the og bad boy of entertainment.
His outfits were as electric as his personality. And he's

(01:25:16):
so much more than an artist, He's an icon. Lanny
and Eric did a great job capturing this story in
the crazy eighties wrestling era that turned wrestling figures into
lifelong pop culture icons. Ryan Junior's partner Keenan Thompson told
us beyond excited for this one. Macho Man his hands
down one of the greatest of all time and can't
wait to bring his story to the screen. Here you go.

(01:25:38):
One of the wrestlers I said last week who would
have made a great movie character was Macho Man Randy Savage.
And now we hear they're making a movie about Macho
Man Randy Savage. What else can I manifest into reality?
All right, let's get to your mailbag questions. You can
email me the Solomn Monster at gmail dot com. Please
include your name of where you are from when you

(01:25:58):
write in we got Damon in Jacksonville. I agree with
you that it seems we are heading to wargames with
Sena and Brock on opposing teams. I also agree that
Brock will likely be seen his last opponent. In telling
this story, how likely is it that Brock pins Sena
in Wargames? It furthers the story of his dominance over
Sena and thus prompt Seena to challenge Brock one final

(01:26:21):
time in his last match. Well, you could tell that
this email came in prior to the reports that came
out this week, and if the reports are to be believed,
we are not getting Brock Lesner as John Cena's final opponent,
which is just fine by me, but again, it makes
what we saw Wressell Paluza look even dumber. If they
do end up in war Games together and the plan,

(01:26:42):
let's say was for Brock to be his final opponent,
then yes, Brock beating Sena again in war Games would
make sense. You know, with Scena demanding one last showdown
with Brock, you know where it's do or die, last chance,
But it doesn't look like that's going to be happening.
Carlos from Gaithersburg, what are the chances that seen his
final opponent is the Rock. It's a big name, main

(01:27:04):
event match, and there was a story there considering Sina
was Rock's enforcer for his failed exorcism of Cody Rhodes.
I have no interest in seeing it, and I don't
think there's a very good chance of that happening. I
don't know what Rock is his schedule is. I know
he lost a bunch of weight to play the Chicken
Men in some new movie. I don't know when that's filming.

(01:27:26):
I don't know when that's gonna be done filming. But
it doesn't matter. I mean, the match is not that
long away, right that December thirteenth date, It's really not
that far off. And if Rock just lost all that
weight and you saw the way he actually looks healthy now,
he looks he looks like a normal person now. But
even if he was to film this role and then

(01:27:47):
have some time to try to train, like see, I
don't see it. You're not gonna get the Final Boss
Rock in time for that match. He doesn't look like
the Final Boss. So I don't think it's happening anyway.
But I think just physically, I don't know that he
can get himself into shape he would want to be
in to be in that match. So the answer is no.

(01:28:09):
David from Sacramento, I wanted to run this idea by you.
How would you feel if aj Lee challenges Becky Lynch
for the Intercontinental Championship, but is screwed over by Nicky
Bella to subway into that feud for a brief time,
the story being that Nicky has been outshined and overlooked
upon AJ's return. Would this be a good story to
distract AJ and then she could come back to Becky

(01:28:31):
sometime next year. If the idea is to wait to
have Becky lose to AJ for the title of WrestleMania,
let's say then sure. I mean you can have her
go off and do any number of things with different people.
I mean I personally, if you're asking me, I have
no interest in seeing AJ Lee against Nicki Bella. But
if they wanted to go heal with Nicki, that would

(01:28:53):
be a natural explanation for it. You also have to
have her bring up the fact then that she passed
AJ's record as the longest reigning Divish champion of all time.
There's that little bit of history there to play off of.
But I mean, I didn't want to see AJ and
Nikki Bella back then, why would I want to see
it now? Chris from North Jersey, do you think Triple

(01:29:15):
H getting the nod this year? And Stephanie getting in
next year to the Hall of Fame is a signed
that they are a firing triple H soon B selling
the company soon see both A and B. D Lack
of headliners or E none of the above. I mean

(01:29:35):
they are running low on headliners, you know. They look
they could put Sena in as early as next year
if he's available all right, once he's retired, it's just
a matter of picking the right year for John Cena
to go into the Hall of Fame. Rock also still
has to go in. Batista still has to go in.
If Jericho comes back, he'll be in big show eventually,

(01:29:56):
he's got to go into But he's still with aw
But it's a combination of wanting a big name in
there and not having that many left to choose from,
you know, or at least the ones that are available.
And also he's putting his wife in the Hall of Fame.
I mean, I'm not saying that she doesn't belong in there.
She would have gotten in there eventually, as will Vince

(01:30:16):
and aswill Shane. But it's his wife. You know, he
wanted to put his wife in the Hall of Fame.
That's just what it comes down to. It's exactly what
it looks like, you know, because in his mind, she's
this iconic figure when it comes to women in wrestling,
and she more than deserves it. But it's his fucking wife,
so of course he's going to want to put her in.

(01:30:38):
They're not selling the company and he's not getting fired
anytime soon, so it's not that green from Morocco. Rank
these legendary referees Earl Hebner, Mike Keyota, Tim White, and
Charles Robinson. Those are four of the greats right there
that you just named. Tommy Young is another one. I

(01:30:59):
got to throw him in their iconic and wa referee
and probably red Shoes in Japan red Shoes Whuno. But
of those four, I am partial to Earl Hebner at
number one because he refed all the big matches of
my wrestling youth, and he took some of the biggest
bumps too. Now I see where he also loved the camera,

(01:31:22):
and he would put himself in situations where he should
have been in the background. I can see why some
people really don't like him. There's some people that don't
like the cadence of his counts as well. They thought
that the way he would count near falls, gave a
way that it wasn't going to be a three count.
I honestly never really noticed that with him. There are
certain referees who had a very weird cadence. Nick Patrick
and WCW was one of those people. I never liked

(01:31:44):
the way that he counted it just it was just
very strange to me. So I just never thought much
of him as a referee. But again, so with Earl Hebner,
you'll get a mixed opinion. But for me, he's got
to be number one, and then I would go Charles Robinson,
and then Kiyota and then Tim White. Jabron from Germany.

(01:32:09):
This weekend, Brett Hart was in Germany for an event
and I finally got a chance to meet him in person.
He was super nice and friendly, which gave me a
chance to put up a quick question. One of my
all time favorite matches is the Survivor Series nineteen ninety
five match between Brett and Diesel. Apart from the excellent
match they had together, what made this match even more
special for me as a kid was the table spot.

(01:32:30):
I asked Brett who came up with that, and he
confirmed that it was his idea and also admitted that
the gimmick table was a really hard one to go through.
As a ten year old at the time, I had
never seen a wrestler go through a table before, and
I'm quite sure this was a very, very unique spot
in mainstream pro wrestling at the time. Table break itself

(01:32:50):
was picture perfect, and you can see from the crab
reaction how special that moment was. Maybe I'm a bit
biased since Brett is my favorite wrestler of all time,
but I truly feel this is such an underrated moment
in WWE history, and a moment which made table spots
a staple of modern pro wrestling. I don't think Brett
gets credit for introducing the table. He puts introducing in

(01:33:13):
quotes the table spot to mainstream audiences. What do you think? So?
First off, very cool photos he shared with me, so
I thank you for sharing that. I have met Brett
in person. I met him at Caroline's on Broadway here
in New York for a signing many years ago. It
was him and Rick Flair. I got my Spotlight magazine,
my WWF Spotlight magazine signed from nineteen ninety four with

(01:33:37):
Brett on the cover. I have it framed. Never got
a photo with him, though that's still on my list
of things to do. I almost had the chance to
host a Q and A with him this summer, but
it fell through. That would have been very cool. But
as far as introducing the table spot to mainstream audiences,
I mean, there have been table spots in wrestling going

(01:33:58):
back to at least the seventies in some of the territories.
I'm sure mainstream. Brett was not the first. I mean mainstream.
The earliest one that I personally remember was from the
Hulk Hogan Harley race match on Saturday Night's Main Event,
so that would have been in eighty eight. I believe
that was the spot where Harley came off the apron

(01:34:21):
very slowly, but he came off the apron. He literally
just fell off the apron, more so than he didn't
jump off so much as he fell off. Hogan moved
and Harley landed belly first through the table and he
injured himself very badly. The spot itself, if you watch it,
it doesn't look bad. It's just that internally he really

(01:34:41):
fucked himself up and he needed surgery. And that was
a Hulk Hogan match on NBC in the middle of
the Hogan Era like I would say, it doesn't get
more mainstream than that back then. And then in eighty nine.
The following year, there was a famous angle where Terry
Funk gave Rick Flair pile driver on top of a table.
I don't remember if that was a Clash of the

(01:35:03):
champions or if it was Wressell War, but it was.
You know, it was an NWA event. So no, Brett
was not the first to do it, but you could
say he was the first to popularize it in the
WWF since it's the one most people probably remember unless
you were an ECW fan and you saw shit like
that all the time. Alberto from Laredo, Texas, I was

(01:35:29):
wondering if you could tell us about the match between
Rhino and Tijeri. He was a house show match that
Vince McMahon found so boring he came out in the
middle of it and stopped it. Have there been other
stories similar to this. There was a house show here
at the Nassau Coliseum. Rhino into Jerry, they had a match.

(01:35:50):
There was an agent. I don't know who the agent was.
I don't think Rhino ever said who it was, but
according to him, the agent told them before the match,
if the fans chant boring at you just grab a
hold and sit on it. And sure enough, the fans
started chanting boring because NASA is a tough building. Notoriously
it always has been, which is probably why the agent

(01:36:11):
said that. I mean, I was at a raw show
in two thousand and one. Had to be two thousand
and one, because Paul Hayman was on commentary during one
of the commercial breaks, Hayman and I'm sure they had
him do this, but Hayman put his headset down, he
stood up, he stood on the stairs outside the ring steps,
and he took the house mic and he called us
the worst crowd in the history of wrestling. That's that

(01:36:34):
Assau Coliseum. And then he went back to commentary and
the show continued after insulting the audience. So anyway, they
start chanting boring and Vince marches to the ring and
he tells them to get out. The match is over.
Rhino thought he was joking, and then the referees like,
I think he's serious. So he kicked these two men

(01:36:54):
out of the ring in the middle of their match,
embarrassed them in front of thousands of people so he
could get an early start to the bikini contest that
they were doing with Sable and Tory Wilson and whoever
else was out there. I think Vince was the EMC
for it. So then later on, when Rhino confronts Vince
about it, he said that Vince told him the fans
were chanting, boring, the two of you, and he told Vince,

(01:37:17):
he said, one of your agents told us that if
they chant boring, to just grab a hold, and Vince
tells him, well, obviously that agent wasn't a top guy.
Top guys saved their money so they don't have to
become agents. But he says Vince must have felt bad
about doing that because the check that he got you know, however,
many weeks later for the match that night was a

(01:37:40):
lot bigger than it usually was. He got a good
payoff for that match, So, I mean, I can't think
of any other stories of Vince storming out to the
ring like that, other than the Royal Rumble where Cina
and Batista fell out of the ring at the same time,
and then Vince was all pissed off and he marched
down to the ring and he tore a squad. I mean,
there had been stories about him not liking matches. I mean,

(01:38:02):
there was it in your house in Winnipeg with a
fucking terrible main event between Diesel and the British Bulldog
that was so bad. When the show went off the air,
Vince threw his headset down in disgusted. I remember that.
But I mean, that's the closest thing I could think of.
I can't think of anything else. Kennedy from Orlando, Florida.

(01:38:23):
What are your top five wrestlers who were the biggest
waste of potential, people that completely ruined their own careers?
All right, So that's an important distinction to make, because
you have people whose careers were ruined by others and
by booking, But then you have people who were basically
their own worst enemy and couldn't get out of their
own way. This is probably closer to a top ten

(01:38:46):
than it is a top five. I don't know how
I would rank them. I jotted down a bunch of
names here. I'm not ranking them necessarily. I will say
this though, Teddy Hart has to be at the top
of any list. Teddy Hart is somebody who had a
world of potential and should have been much much bigger
than he was, and through no one's fault but his own.

(01:39:07):
He was not. When I think of wasted potential, Teddy
Hart is at the top of the list. Another guy,
and you may or may not hear this name mentioned,
but another guy is Buddy Landell. Nature boy. Buddy Landell.
How many nature boys have there been? We had Buddy Rogers, right,
we had Rick Flair, we had Buddy Landell. I'm sure

(01:39:28):
there were others. What is a nature boy exactly? Still
haven't answered that question. Buddy Landell. This is a guy
who should have had a Hall of Fame career. Dusty
Rhodes was going to book him against Flair to win
the NWA title right the Battle of the Nature Boys,
because their matches were doing big business, and the problem

(01:39:48):
is the booze and the drugs they took over. I
think he missed the TV taping that he was booked
for and Dusty fired him. I know years later Jim Cornett,
because he's talking this, He's talked about the Moon River
incident years later in Smoky Mountain, and he liked Buddy.
But you know, there was a good buddy and there
was a bad buddy, and in that one he was

(01:40:11):
booked in an I quit match with someone that he
didn't like, and so he's trapped in a submission hold,
and when the referee holds the microphone to his mouth
and asks him, do you give up? He starts singing
Moon River, which sounds funny, but Cornett didn't find it
very funny and he fired him. But I remember they
brought him into the WWF and like the end of

(01:40:32):
ninety five, I think they brought him in for like
a week. He did a bunch of matches, right he
wrestled on Ed Johnson on In Your House pay per view.
I remember that. I want to say it was the
night that Jeff Jarrett came back to the company, because
Jarrett had lost the Intercontinental title to Shawn Michaels in
July at In Your House and then him and Road
Doug they literally left the building like they stormed out.

(01:40:56):
Road Doug. I think did it more just in solidarity
with him, but Jarrett just was not happy with the
booking and he was gone. He was gone for a
few months, but he came back at the end of
the year, and I think he was there that night,
but instead of him wrestling, if I'm remembering this correctly,
he brought out Buddy Landell, who of course got killed
by Ahmed Johnson. But then he worked a bunch of

(01:41:18):
matches that week for like some of the tapings, he
wrestled Brett Hart for the WWF title. So that was
the end of ninety five and obviously they didn't call
him back after that week. I think the last match
he ever worked for them was against Triple H. It
was on like a shotgun Saturday night taping and it
was during the Attitude era. This so this was years

(01:41:40):
later after that. I can't remember a fucking thing that
he did. But you know, as they say, he fumbled.
This wasn't Vince McMahon's fault, this wasn't any other person's fault,
but his own. Buddy fumbled. He fumbled what should have
been a Hall of Fame career because he was unreliable
and out of control. Matt Bourne is another one. Just

(01:42:04):
watch the Dark Side of the Ring episode they did
on him. Matt Bourne was immensely talented. He was also,
from the sounds of it, a piece of shit, but
he was immensely talented. I mean, evil doink, Come on, man,
that should have been a bigger run than it was.
So there was more potential for him to be a
bigger star than he was. Two names I talked about

(01:42:25):
last week. Somebody asked me in the mailbag low Key
and Austin Airis just couldn't seem to get out of
their own way. Matt Riddle. We've seen Matt Riddle in
the news. Matt Riddle should have been a world heavyweight
champion in WWE. The reason he isn't has nothing to
do with WWE velveteen dream talk about wasted potential. He

(01:42:49):
would have been a world champion as well on the
main roster. Tessa Blanchard. Tessa Blanchard should have already headlined
a WrestleMania with Charlotte Flair. She should already be in WWA.
She may eventually get there yet, but her career is
stalled out, not because of anybody but herself. So those
are some of the names that I would have on

(01:43:10):
that list. I'm sure we could add others, but keep
emailing me to solom Monster at gmail dot com. I
do read everything you send me, even if I can't
get to it all, but I will try to follow
me on x at solo Monster, that is where I
am most active, and of course on the YouTube channel.
I'll be live this week for the Raw post show
on Monday night. We have Tuesday Night Titans back in

(01:43:31):
its normal slot this week. Over on JD's channel. We
were bumped to Thursday for this week, but we're back
on Tuesday this week. Wednesday Night the Dynamite six year
Anniversary show. I'll be live when that's over, and then
SmackDown coming up on Friday. Of course, next Sunday, back
with you for episode nine to thirty two of the
Sound Off. Until then, be well, stay safe, have yourselves

(01:43:55):
a great week. When I see you back here next time,
it's going to be October. It's my favorite month. Until then,
take care, guys. The solom Monster Sounds Off. They closed
the show with the contract signing with Drew McIntyre, wh
and Cody Rose. Andrew said, no, Cody doesn't even think
about himself. He thinks about what's best for the company.
He's the corporate champion. So he says, they, being the fans,

(01:44:17):
are going to turn on you because you're the flavor
of the money. And then Cody is gonna say Drew
was right. Cody said, if Drew is wrong, his legacy
then becomes the man who lost to Cody on their
debut espn PL. E Let's talk about a mouthful here.
He definitely went into corporate Cody mode. Here, do you
lose to me? You're gonna be the guy who lost
to me on the espn PL debut for the Undisputed

(01:44:40):
WWE Championship presented by Netflix. The fuck up, dude, I
want Drew to win the title. Fuck it, put the
title and Drew. Shake this shit out and just put
the title on Drew. I officially I think I've turned
on Cody here in this promo. I think Drew was right.
He's way too corporate for my liking. The solom Monster
sounds off bringing you the good, bad ugly. Check out

(01:45:01):
the weekly live streams bonus content for subscribers, and follow
The Sola Monster on Facebook, Instagram, and X The Solo Monster.
I love you so long,

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Sound Off 931 - ESPN Review Causes CHAOS, Masha Slamovich EXPOSED And John Cena News!

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