Did Tony Khan Become What He Feared? | The Still Real to Us Show | Episode #774 – 12/12/24

On this episode of The Still Real to Us Show:

• -- We recap & review "NXT Deadline!"
• -- Are you feeling nostalgic about the return of "Saturday Night's Main Event" this weekend?
• -- Can we get behind this gigantic push?
• -- And did Tony Khan become what he feared?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's still welcome everybody.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Welcome to this week's edition The snow Real Does Show,
episode number seven seventy four from Summer twelve, twenty twenty four,
which is your NXT deadline recap and review edition of
half Art. You. I am one alf of the show.
I am Jeff Peck joined every single week. Oh Mychael,

(00:40):
it's the only doctor Trey Franklin, Doctor Trey. If there
was a wrestler who was a free agent in the
world of professional wrestling who would receive the Wan Soto deal, my.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
Friend ooh so young and talented, I mean, AW has
two of those guys. I mean mjf Osprey. Let's see WW.
I mean Seth's how old is Seth? Ron's in like
thirty six.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Seth's like a couple. I think he's like maybe a
year older than me or younger. He's in that like
late thirties range.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
I mean, I guess the guys in their mid twenties
in WW haven't really proven themselves yet on bigger stages
to get that kind of deal, like the bron Breakers,
the Carmelo Hayeses, the you know the reason NXT graduates
the rest of the main roster. They're all in their
mid to late thirties and forties, So I guess Ospray

(01:33):
and MJF would be the top two people on my list.
If I'm gonna pay him seven hundred and fifty million
dollars over sixteen years, could you.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Throw Cody in there, even though he's on the older side.
Would you put Cody in that group?

Speaker 1 (01:45):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Because if you're talking one Soto deal, that's fifteen years.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Okay, let's take a step back. I'm thinking the money.
Who would you invest that money into?

Speaker 3 (01:57):
Okay, if you're saying, am I going to spend a
lot of money on somebody?

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah, you're going to do an overpay on a professional
wrestler as a free agent you are looking and turn
around your professional wrestling organization. Who is that one person
you give that overpay? Two?

Speaker 3 (02:12):
I mean, if I'm doing it off each major brand,
it'd probably be Cody and MJF. Because I know, well,
definitely Cody, because we know he can work babyface, he's
been doing it. We all assume he could work heel
and MJF would be the exact opposite and sense we
all know he's a fantastic heel and we think he
could be a good babyface. So you need that kind

(02:33):
of ability to work both sides. He needs solid workers
and great promo worker. I think those two are probably
the top of my list when it comes to that.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
So I would pick Cody one. I would have mjf
Osprey Swerve on that list as well. But the problem
with those three hold I want to tell you. So
the problem with those three, I would say, is based
on like the last six months. I'm a little bit
tripped padacious to give them amount amount of money because

(03:03):
they haven't really pulled through since the summer months. And
then you were going to ask me who's Seth?

Speaker 3 (03:08):
Would you put Seth above? Well, I can understand you
know mjf ospregular too. My would you put Seth above
Swerve or Swerve above Seth?

Speaker 2 (03:17):
I would put Swerve. Hmm, this is tough. I would
put Osprey ahead of Seth. I would put Seth ahead
of MJF because MGF is kind of falling off, and
I think I'd put Seth ahead to Swerve.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
Yeah, I would say yeah, because I think with like
when you look at Swerve, he brings an entirely different
demographic to the table than the other fours do the
other four do?

Speaker 2 (03:41):
How come we're not talking about Roman or seem Punk Uh.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Punk.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
I think it is just because if I gave him
that money, I think you would get hurt within six months.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Punk puts a lot of asses in seat, though, he.

Speaker 3 (03:53):
Does, and then he's gone for six months, and so
you got to like have a way to kind of
It's like like you guys, just like Yankee fan, you
guys just signed Max f Reid, huge deal, really really great.
Picture does get injured at least once a season?

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah, but what picture doesn't? Nowadays? That's true pictures break.
We're getting a little bit of baseball talk here. We're
baseball fans. I know that doesn't relate to some of
you wrestling fans out there, but it's like it's just
an interesting exercise. I'm like, all right, if I had
to do a huge overpay for a professional wrestler, who then,

(04:34):
if I'm starting a promotion, who would it be? I
would say, like Cody Roman, Seth. If I'm thinking upside picks,
Osprey Swerve, MJF. If I'm thinking long term, I'm thinking
Gunther bron Breaker. I don't think he's there yet, but

(04:55):
I could see the upside. That's somebody that I'm in
that's probably like like rookies Saki, like the International Pool money.
You're not gonna spend a ton of money, but you're
gonna get a steal on him, if that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah, No, I was in my head.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
I was like, like Gunther and and Braun are guys
that are on my roster in baseball and we just know,
like they just need.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
Him at bats. Yeah, they're putting, they're gonna, they're gonna hit,
They're gonna do it.

Speaker 3 (05:22):
It's like, who are the guys at like Double A
and Triple A, Like who's on your Baseball America Top
one hundred prospect lists.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
I actually think I would also put Damien and maybe
Sammy and Jay in that list of like Gunther Braun
as well, Like just some good fundamental high upside. If
there's a single or double A person out there, Uh,
this is gonna lead into NXC deadline. I'm gonna put
a ton of money into Soul Rucas stock.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
See. I think that that's the funny thing.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
If you go back to the North American title match,
the ladder match with you know the six way. I
picked Salt because I was like, I see more potential
in her than anybody else in this match.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
I will say Klannie Jordan is very uh. I think
there's a lot of high upside there.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
She's gonna show me a dark side to her.

Speaker 3 (06:12):
She's it's a little bit like when Live and Alexa
Bliss first debut in XT and they're kind of doing
like the Happy Go Lucky.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Or Rock sand Perez.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
Yeah, just I'm just glad to be here type person.

Speaker 3 (06:26):
I kind of like Colonie is a good worker and
she's she's good, she has decent promo skills, decent charisma.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
I just gotta see more depth to the character right now.

Speaker 3 (06:35):
But Saul is there's something about her that I'm like, yeah,
that's she's got it. It's there's something about her that
screams hit factor. But but going back, I want to
you said the ceiling like when you mentioned Damian Priest,
she also mentioned Sammy and Jay. I don't know if
Sammy has a much higher ceiling than he's at right now,

(06:55):
which would make me kind of questioned, like investing a
lot of money into that.

Speaker 2 (06:59):
But the flips, you're giving him a short term deal.

Speaker 3 (07:02):
Yeah, the flip side is aw they put all their
prospects out all the time, Like there's like they don't
have a farm system like NXC.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
You know, they don't have that go to show.

Speaker 3 (07:14):
And I'm like, man like, once you get past like
the young guys like the Darby's and the Orange Cassidyes,
and you know a few of those guys like where's
that bottom depth?

Speaker 1 (07:23):
Is it? Is it top flight? Is it? Action?

Speaker 3 (07:25):
ANDRETTI like, where's that lower level guys where you're like, Yeah,
he's a blue chip guy that we just have to
uh nurture and let him blossom eventually.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
There's a name I want to throw out here, but
I want you to think about it for the show
here because I'm going to bring it up in a
little bit because i want your thoughts on future investments
because he's had a really big four weeks in aw
and that is one Kyle Fletcher, just hold that thought
right now. Let's get into NXC Deadline and we'll pick

(07:56):
up the Kyle Fletcher conversation here in a little bit.
So NX deadl recap review this past Saturday from the
Minneapolis Armory in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Before I get into the matches,
to your doctor, Trey the venue a little bit different
than from what we typically see from NXC. This actually
is now starting to be kind of their calling card

(08:16):
is these small little shops and some major towns. They
did it in Saint Louis for the one of the
c first shows in the CW, and they'll be doing
it for NXC New Year's Evil in Los Angeles in
a couple of weeks for the first show of twenty
twenty five. What's your vibe right now when you watch
it home and you see these venues that they're performing in.

Speaker 3 (08:37):
Anything's better than the Las Vegas one that they did
the UFC Center, Like that was I still cringe going
back and watching that one. It's different. I'm still trying
to get a feel for it, if that makes sense.
Like I'm watching it, I'm like, it doesn't seem too different,
but it just feels it's kind of like when ECW

(08:59):
left the Sad Ballroom and went in in the ECW
Radio went to like some bigger spaces where you're like,
it just doesn't kind of have the same energy as
you know, the hometown shows, but for the sake of
growth and also getting some of these people's names out there,
it's I like what they're doing kind of piggybacking off

(09:20):
you know, the the SmackDown shows or something that like
you already kind of have a built in audience from
the night before to kind of comes to this venue.
So I like that strategy, and I think it just
kind of depends on how hot the crowd is for
us to get that really good, solid vibe. I felt
like the crowd was okay, I just didn't think it
was great.

Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yeah, No, the crowd wasn't great. I thought the crowd
was a little bit too far space. And when they
would do the shots behind the commentators booth, it looked
extremely deep, but it looked like the sides like they
were performing literally in a bar, like you could see
a concession stands and like a bar.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
It looked like it's like when you take a picture
straight up and down and everybody goes, no, no, no, you
should have earned your phone sideways. Yes, straight up and
down shots where there's no there's no panoramicness to it,
no peripherals, it's just a straight line shot. Basically. That's
kind of how I felt too. And when they were
showing the commentary desk.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
So let's get into it, first match here, the Men's
Iron Survivor Challenge match to become a number one contender
for the NXC Championship in the Years Evil. The winner
of this match is Oba Femi, who was not in
this match originally. He took the place of Eddie Thorpe.
Oba defeated Wesley, Javion Evans, Nathan Fraser and Ethan Page.
In this match, we had I had Wes Lee, Doctor

(10:37):
Trey had Javion Evans, Jevon Evans. I sound like a
broken record, but this match concept is one of my
favorites in all of WI. Lots of different twists and
turns that make this match really exciting and go by quick.
It felt like once Oba entered the match that it
was a four on one match, as all the competitors
knew they couldn't get past Femi. Despite all that, they
kept the match exciting and entertaining, especially the spot where

(10:59):
Femmy and Ethan Paige we're in the penalty box. At
the same time, the victory already begins at potentially huge
twenty twenty five for Oba Femi in Wu Dutch Trey.
We'll talk about the women's match here obviously towards the end.
I love this match. I would love to see this
be in the same level of it as a Heritage
Cup match. Very fun, very exciting, very fast paced and

(11:19):
a very quick twenty five minutes. Your thoughts as Oba
family wins this one.

Speaker 3 (11:24):
Yeah, I Other than the first I think the first
couple of minutes were a little like Jvon Evans was
a little bit off. I felt like he was I
don't say nerves, but there was a couple spots where
he was just kind of out of position on But
once you know, it kind of got going and flowing.

Speaker 1 (11:38):
It was really good.

Speaker 3 (11:39):
I don't know if I liked the double choke slam
spot at the end, just because I'm a whole school
and I don't like double pins like that.

Speaker 1 (11:45):
That's weird to me.

Speaker 3 (11:47):
But Javon hitting his cutter at the end and trying
to get the pin on Oba and just coming up
a few seconds short was great. But I do I
didn't think if you go back to last year, I
didn't think of I was gonna like this match.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
I was like, there's a n box.

Speaker 3 (12:00):
Involved, there's these It almost felt like the Championship Scramble match.
We had a SmackDown years and years ago. I'm like,
there's pinfalls and then there's yet to go sit up by.
I didn't know if I like, I really enjoy these matches,
and I give a lot of the credit to the
producers for the timing of this stuff, Like some of
the timing spots are so well thought out. Who gets

(12:24):
the pinfalls when they get the pinfalls? I mean this
year's and last year's was fantastic. So I really really
enjoyed this match.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
Next match is Lolavice defeating Jada Parker in an NXC
underground match. I had Lola Ice talked to Trey and
Jada Parker. I thought this match received just the right
amount of time in this one. There was also some
good storytelling in this match. Is Jada Parker focused on
Lola's hand throughout the contest and Lola had to play
a little bit behind in this one before having a
good comeback that helped seal the victory. These two are
rising stars in the NXC Women's division. I hope they

(12:55):
both have a big twenty twenty five dot. Trey thoughts
this Lolavice wins the NX Underground match.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
Yeah, I thought it was okay.

Speaker 3 (13:03):
It reminded me a lot of the Basler Vice Underground
match because SHANEA Kind did the same thing work in
the hand, you know, Lola selling it. She can't you know,
she may not be able to do the bat the
spinning back fist. Jada impressed me because this is her
first real big singles opportunity, uh since coming in NXC.
I thought she held her own, uh. But it was

(13:24):
a little bit of like rigid repeat from the Shana
Lola match. But so for me it was okay. I
just this is the one concept match that I'm not
a huge fan of because I can't tell it's not
so much. I can't tell it's fake or real, if
it's a shoot or work. It's just I don't like
the blending. It's same with the Lions that match. I'm
not a big fan of this blending of MMA and wrestling.

(13:45):
I just like wrestling to be wrestling in MMA to
be MMA.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
Yeah, you've never been a guy that's enjoyed MMA matches
type matches in wrestling in general.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
No, not sinting. I mean if I want to watch MMA,
i'd go watch UFC.

Speaker 3 (13:58):
I mean, this is sister company, like it's it's to me,
the MMA is like, because that's always the go between
between the UFC fans and when they look at wrestling,
it's like, oh, you watched the fake stuff, Well that
were just faking UFC stuff, and it's like, that's that's
just it's kind of cheesy to me in a lot
of ways, Like the Lions didn't match with Riddle and
said at least that was a you know, to try

(14:19):
and settle some personal issues. I guess in a sense
they're trying to do the same thing with the Undergroue.
But then once again having the people around ringside banging
on the mat like that's it's just kind of I
don't know, I'm just not a huge fan of it.

Speaker 2 (14:32):
Next match is Nathan Fraser and Axiom defeated nor Kitt
no quarter catch Crew, Miles Born and Tavon Heights retained
the NC Tag Team Championship. I had no quarter catch Crew,
Doctor Trade had Fraser and Axiom. I like how they
played off of Nathan Fraser being beat up from the
Irons Hover Challenge match earlier in the night and Axiom
really having to carry the team in this one fun
tag team match and phraxiumas may have just cemented themselves

(14:54):
as the surprisingly best tag team professional wrestler that I've
watched in twenty twenty four. I really like where the
NIX Tackting division has headed with some renewed focus, which
seems to be a w in initiative company WYE and
when it comes to tag team wrestling, as we had
into twenty twenty five, Doctor Trey, your thoughts on this
one is Attack champs retain?

Speaker 3 (15:12):
Yeah, And I also liked that even though they retain,
there's still that tension there. The Axiom had kind of
having to carry the bulk of the work, and you
know that at some point. I don't know what happened
on Tuesdays. I missed NXT on Tuesday, but you know,
is there any blowback from Axiom for having to carry
the team. But Fraser still like trying to get a
single shot, you know, a little surprise result though, because

(15:33):
you have Charlie Dempsey as the Heritage Cup champion, So
I kind of thought we might go that way with
you know, Bourne Heigts because I really like them as
a tandem.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
I love their energy.

Speaker 3 (15:42):
But yeah, Frasier to Axiom have been on a roll
for the entire year and there's nobody really left to
show to put on their level as far as you know,
bell to bell year long run like fraxium, as you
so eloquently.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
Put next match year as Trick Williams defeating Rich Holland
and retain the NXC Championship. I had tricked Doctor Tray
at Rich Holland. I'm still having a tough time with
Trick Williams matches. Once again, the blueprint was that Trick
looked overmatch. It's a trick shot on his opponent and
gets the out of nowhere victory. I sound like a
broken record about them changing the way he has booked
from an entering perspective, and it doesn't look like it

(16:19):
will be changing anytime soon, Doctor Tree. I really like
Trick Williams, but I'm having a tough time watching his matches.

Speaker 3 (16:26):
Yeah, they book him like he's Raymysterio, you know, and
it says it's like, oh, he's just so overmatched by everybody,
let's let them kind of get a fluky victory at
the end. I mean he did it with Dragon off
of people as well. It's like, you do realize Trick's
like four inches and like sixty pounds bigger than dragging

(16:47):
off and this one, everybody's you know, he's wrestling these
big guys, but he's six four two forty two fifty.
The dudes are freaking you know, like prototypical build for
a pro wrestler, but they're booking him like he's a
small guy. I don't like the way they book the matches.
I don't mind Trick getting the win. The crowd still
loves Trick Williams, but yeah, it's like he doesn't look

(17:09):
strong as he might be the worst two time champion
in the history of pro wrestling.

Speaker 2 (17:15):
It's hard to get my head around him. It really
is entering performer. Doctor. I really want to like him.
I see the upside, I see where it's going, but
it's like, why are they booking him like this? Are
they covering something? It's getting to the point where I'm like,
are they covering up that he's not a good ring performer?
Like why are we doing this?

Speaker 3 (17:32):
Yeah, I mean it's it's it's because his name is
Trick and so he has to have a like Trick win.

Speaker 1 (17:37):
I mean, it's just the weirdest thing.

Speaker 3 (17:39):
And plus I don't like the Trick shot Trick knee.
I don't like the name of that either, like it
just sounds everything about it sounds fluky, and it just doesn't.
I mean, the guy is, like I said, like, if
you're building a guy to be a pro wrestler, he
has the he has the charisma, he has the my skill,
he has the look, he has you know, a couple

(18:01):
of really good moves.

Speaker 1 (18:02):
It's they're booking him.

Speaker 3 (18:04):
Like he's our truth, which is a sad thing, which
because we love our truth. But they're booking him like
he's our truth. When he wins, we're like, oh my god,
I can't believe he won. Like book them like he's.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
A badass dude, Like that's the way he should be
being put together, book them like he's Booker t for
crying out loud.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
Well, well, this is what's funny, because now we're heading
to Oba Femi Trick Williams at New Year's Evil, and
it's like, I think Oba's going to destroy him. I
don't think it's going to be this like clash of Italians,
something that we've been waiting for. I mean, they built
NXT in twenty twenty four around these two guys, and rightfully,
so you're getting ready to have a very big match

(18:40):
with the same two guys that you built in twenty
twenty four, just kick off twenty twenty five. And I
don't think Trick, I mean just the way that he's
been booked them, like he's gonna be overmatched by Obafemi
and he's looking at Oba eyed eye, which is something
that Oba doesn't typically do in matches. It's very very
strange booking.

Speaker 3 (19:00):
Oba's kicking out of the trick shot. I'll grantee, Oba
dominates the whole match. Trick gets his little run, hits
the trick shot, everybody goes, oh, it's over one two,
there's the kickout. Trick's completely bewildered and flustered, and then
Oba dominates to finish the match.

Speaker 1 (19:13):
The match is not going more than twelve minutes.

Speaker 3 (19:14):
None of these guys can really go more than twelve
minutes and have a good match. I mean Oba's matches
with wes Lee. It was wes Lee carrying the match
in a lot of ways. You know Trick's best matches
because otherwise have carried him. To put these two guy
these together, it's I don't want to say Goldberg Lesnard
type matchup, but maybe Drew Lesnar tighte matches where it's
just big move, big move, big move, constant kickouts.

Speaker 1 (19:36):
There's your finish.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
I don't know if we'll get to it. But on
Tuesday's NXC, Eddie Thorpe came out interrupted Oba and Trick Williams.
Eddie was laid out to close out last week's The
week's prior's NXC had an in the deadline, he was
removed the match. Obra replaced him as we discussed, and
then at the end of the show on Tuesday, Eddie
Thorpe revealed that he just faked an injury to get
out of the deadline match and now is a title

(19:58):
match on Tuesday's edition of NIX see in Lotte, Massachusetts
against shrig Williams. Any thoughts on the development of the
Eddie Thorpe character.

Speaker 3 (20:06):
Uh, interesting development, because have I can't remember the last
time somebody faked an injury to get a title match.
Maybe Flair and Sting back in the days, but like
recent in recent memory, I can't remember anybody pulling this angle.
So I liked the angle, I liked the psychology behind it.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
I thought it was really well done.

Speaker 3 (20:24):
Plus you had the interaction of Sean and Eddie Thorpe from.

Speaker 1 (20:27):
A couple of weeks ago. So they've got some you know,
they've got there.

Speaker 3 (20:32):
They're seeing some qualities at Eddie Thorpe that maybe I
haven't seen yet. But I did like the character development
in the way it played out. Plus, not to mention, Lowell,
Massachusetts is the home of NYC title upsets because that's
where a bell or beat Joe.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
If I'm not mistaken it is.

Speaker 2 (20:46):
That is where it happened. And also I think it's
most famously known for WE fans. Back in December ninety seven,
the DX Christmas was in Lowell, Massachusetts. So I'm hoping
that they kind of do a little wink wink, nudge
nudge to that.

Speaker 1 (21:03):
Yeah, you can hope for that.

Speaker 3 (21:04):
But uh, I mean, really, is there anybody on NXT
that has d X type qualities.

Speaker 1 (21:09):
I mean, let's Sean Sean.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
I'm thinking it's Sean.

Speaker 3 (21:12):
If Sean comes out and like, what was it the
CM punk outfit that they from from a couple of
months ago, would but have Sean come out in the
Santa hat in a thong or something, And.

Speaker 2 (21:23):
I'll do that nowadays, but yeah, something close to it.
I love by the way that NXC just as a
nostalgic fan. I love that NXC is starting to run
some of these like classic venues like Lowell, because they
don't go to them anymore. Like these old school throwback
raw venues. Give me, give me Manhattan Center, go back
there where the birthplace of raw was hit up Hammerstein.

(21:45):
I love that AW is going to Hammerstein. So I
love that these like small venues or ECW Arena obviously,
I love that they're going back to these arenas where
there were some really cool nostalgic moments.

Speaker 3 (21:58):
They could go to Fayetteville because if enomous taking, that's
in Fayeville.

Speaker 1 (22:01):
I've been in several shows they are paid on North Carolina.

Speaker 3 (22:04):
That's where they did the dumping poop on Vince, I
mean on the Spirit.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
Squad, because I was there that night.

Speaker 3 (22:10):
That was the night of the Vince in Shane parody
and then dumping the poop on the Spirit Squad.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
Look up right, yep, so I was there that night.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
And then finally the main event here, doctor Trey Julia
defeats Sol Rucas, Stephanie vakor Zaria, and Rent Sinclair in
the Women's Iron Survivor Challenge match to become the number
one contender for the NXC Women's Championship at New Year's Evil.
I had Julia duc Trey at Sephanie Vakcor. I thought
sol Ruca really broke out in this match and is
someone to keep an eye on twenty twenty five. What's
really cool about the NC Women's division right now is

(22:39):
their homegrown talent sol Ruca, Cloney Jordan are holding their
own with the import of big name talent like Julia,
sepfanevoarkcor In Zaria. I like the finish in this one
and how came down to the wire. This match concept
doesn't feel like it's twenty five minutes long, keeps me
engaged the entire time. Like I mentioned earlier in the pod,
Juliet getting the title shot makes the most sense to me,
while protecting all the other girls and slowly developing what

(23:00):
I believe will be an eventual feud between Julie and
vadkort Trey. Your thoughts on this one. As Julia wins
the Ironsaviv Challenge match for the women.

Speaker 3 (23:08):
Yeah, I actually like this one better than last year's
women's match and once again credits the people that produce
this match.

Speaker 1 (23:14):
The timing on. There's never really any lulls.

Speaker 3 (23:17):
I mean, even you and I both love the Rumble,
but there are times in the Rumble where you're kind
of like, all right, can we get to something? There
are lulls at times, and this one it feels very fluid.
The time goes by very quickly, but you give each
character enough time to develop stuff in the match as well.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
I thought Saul Rucas stood out as well.

Speaker 3 (23:37):
I kind of felt bad for ren Sinclaire because even
though she had her moments, she felt kind of like
the awkward step kid in this mix, like everybody else
kind of shined, and I just didn't feel as she
had as much as the other four. But overall, like, yeah,
to me, it's leading to Julia and Stephanie at some point,
which to me also means that, you know, maybe Roxanne
and Korra are getting moved up to the next level

(23:59):
because you can't have Julia, Stephanie, Sahl and Zaria all
be babyfaces at the same time.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
That's a little too overloaded.

Speaker 3 (24:09):
So somebody's you know, one or two are at the
switch sides to balance things out. Once rock Stand and
Cora probably get the call up here before long.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
I don't think there's any division professional wrestler right now
that I like Fantasy Book when I watch the show
more than the NXC women's division, because it's like, it's
so it's so incredibly deep. There are so many talent
for performers. You have like a core, you have rising stars,
you have stars that are developing as time goes on,

(24:39):
and they have a good base, they have a good
solid foundation, they have a good top of the level talent.
I mean, it's it's incredible, Doctor Trey, what like NXT
has done with the women's division, and it's it's part
credit to the talent acquisition that they've made and the
development that they've made with people that were not professional
wrestlers previously and then developing them on camera so that

(25:00):
I give a crap, and then having really good matches
in creative So again I gush about them. I've gushed
about them all year long. I don't And there have
been some very historic NXC Women's Division. I don't think
that there has been one this good ever in the
history of NXT.

Speaker 1 (25:18):
I don't think there's ever been one this deep. I don't.

Speaker 3 (25:21):
I still don't know if you have and maybe Julie
is that person. I don't know if you put rock
sand on the level of Bailey, Sasha, Becky, Charlotte, you know, Osca,
you know, I don't know if you put her on
those levels. But from top to bott like the women
you named off in this match, doesn't even count that
the North American Champion. If Fallon Henley was on the show,

(25:42):
the rest of Fatal Influence was on the show, Gigi
Dolan wasn't on the show. Like it's just, you know,
it's just so deep. Colonie Jordan wasn't on the show.
It's just so deep from top to bottom. Like you know,
there have been time to d XT where you'd see
a women's match and you're like, oh, that woman's really good,
I have no clue who that person is. You don't

(26:02):
have that with this women's division. And this is the
one thing about NXT we've talked about over the longevity
of it is it goes in cycles like the women's
division will be really strong, but the tag division sucks,
or the tag division be great, but the men's division
is down. It's this right now, that women's division is
the best division in any of in.

Speaker 1 (26:25):
All of wrestling and from top to bottom.

Speaker 3 (26:26):
As far as depth, I don't think any other shows,
any other divisions have the depth that the women's division
has right now.

Speaker 2 (26:34):
No, they absolutely do not. And it's very, very exciting,
and it's so cool it's coming from NXT pay per
view prediction In this record, I went three and two
Doctor Trey, one, one and four. So the random uh
guessing that Doctor Trey last week?

Speaker 1 (26:47):
Did I got one?

Speaker 2 (26:49):
I guess that's not sustainable, Doctor Trey. I'm at one
forty five and forty three on the year, doct trays
at one fifty nine. We are coming up on the
last pay per view of the year, which is AW
World's End, and then we'll close up twenty twenty four
pay per view predictions. Match of the night in event
rating for NXC Deadline, I gave NXC Deadline three point five.

(27:09):
I thought it was a fine show, and my match
of the night was the Women's Iron Savivor Challenge Doctor Try.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
I was in a three point five also, but I
gave it to the Men's Iron Survivor Change.

Speaker 1 (27:18):
I really I did enjoy that match.

Speaker 3 (27:20):
So the ways match was good, but I thought last
year's was a little bit better.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
Do you think that there's any few, you know, I'm like,
I don't want this to happen because then all of
a sudden it's overdone. But do you think that there
is a potential future for them to make the Iron
Survivor Challenge match something that we see a little bit
more regular on TV or which you prefer just seeing
it at at deadline every year?

Speaker 3 (27:44):
Now, I mean I kind of like it. This kind
of like Elimination Chamber in a lot of ways. It's
like we only see it once a year. I'm much
more of a fan of keeping things special. We only
see the Rumble once a year, you know, things like this,
Keep it special, keep it mean. If you start sprinkling
it too much, it becomes like hell and his cell
was at one point, whereas like we see four or

(28:06):
five of those a year.

Speaker 1 (28:07):
At one point it's.

Speaker 3 (28:09):
Like, just keep it this way, let it run his course,
because I'm sure within five or six years you and
I'll be like, oh I got another Iron surviver Challenge,
Like seriously, it might lose this luster over time. By
the way, think about this. Thank God the last pay
review is World's In because there'll be thirty seven matches
on it and have a chance to.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
Get you up.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
This is true. This is very very true. All right?
That moving along here, sticking with w WEE This Saturday,
Doctor Trey on NBC. It is the return of the
Saturday Night's Main Event. They are teasing some nostalgia. We've
seen a lot of hype with the old school music,
the graphics, and then Triple H ran a promo with
Cody Rhodes where he said one night only and that's it,

(28:50):
and they open up a briefcase. Lights are shining, Cody
closes it, looks at the screen, closes it and moves on.
Everybody is obviously thinking that Cody will be coming out
with the winged Eagle belt, which he has been pushing
for for some time, which will make people's minds explode.
I don't think we've seen the wing Engle belt since
like nineteen ninety seven. At this point, Doctor Trey, you

(29:15):
and I are longtime fans, so I'll start with you.
Are you feeling nostalgic for this Saturday's return of Saturday
Night's Main Event?

Speaker 1 (29:24):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (29:24):
Yeah, I mean you got Jesse the Body of Venture
going to be on commentary, I mean monsoon.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
I mean that's my childhood like I grew up.

Speaker 3 (29:32):
I mean, people often forget how important Saturday's main event was,
not just to the wrestling world, but to pop culture
because it was the first.

Speaker 1 (29:41):
Time, really people in prime time.

Speaker 3 (29:44):
This could be We're gonna get a chance to actually
see what the WWF at the time was doing. You know,
for the most parts, people just kind of it was
Saturday Night or Saturday morning shows, Sunday morning shows, Tuesday
night Titans. I mean, this is before Monday Night Raw.
I mean, that's how important stuff was, you know. To me,

(30:04):
I'm a nostalgia for that. I'm you know, some of
the people they've mentioned showing up. It's gonna be great
because it's very eighties centric in a lot of ways,
which is, like I said, literally my childhood a nutshell.
I don't know if I like the Winged Eagle coming
back for this vie really And here's why.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
Here's why.

Speaker 3 (30:23):
It kind of tells me who's winning, because it's like,
are you going to do a championship celebration for a
guy holding a belt that's only gonna be seen one
time for the next twenty years.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
But is there any part of you that thought that
Kevin Owens could be leaving Nasau with the title heading
into like Mania Rumble season. It's difficult.

Speaker 3 (30:43):
I thought you, I thought you might see it where he'd.

Speaker 1 (30:45):
Win it and then lose it right back.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
I could see that a.

Speaker 3 (30:49):
Quick change something like that, but you know, still, like
I for me, I'd rather if they're going to bring
it back for one night, just bring it back for
a while. Like I'm I'm not a fan of the
titles looking the same, just the colors are different. I
still harken back to the days when you had the
big gold belt on one brand and then you know,
the WF title on the other brand. Like I miss

(31:12):
the differences in the brands, and I feel like you know,
right now, the only thing different is the inner continal
in US titles, Like even the tag belt still looks
kind of similar. But at least on one show you
have a US title, there show you have an air
Continental title. Other than that, it's the same belt designs,
they just changed the colors.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
I'm I'm hyped for the Wing Eagle belt. That's the
belt that I grew up on. I hear you that
it's it's potentially spoiling the main event, but there is
part of me that still thinks that there is. I
think of all the Cody matches coming out of Mania,
I felt like with this feud and this match, that
this is maybe the closest that I've thought that Cody

(31:51):
may not walk out with the championship.

Speaker 3 (31:54):
This is the first time since Mania. Yeah, I'd agree
with like, there's there's something special about this, But I
also think there's the possibility that leads into something even
bigger because obviously at some point, I think the bloodline
angle is probably gonna kind of come to an end
around WrestleMania season, and it's so you kind of need

(32:16):
another big faction to be born out of this stuff
to kind of come out of it. So you hear
a lot of the rumlings of maybe a Seth Drew
Ko stable group type thing, and if that's where this
goes and leads to that, like I'm four because those
are three of my favorite guys to watch it they
end up working together.

Speaker 2 (32:34):
So Saturday Night's main event ran from eighty five till
about nineteen ninety two, and then it ended and then
it went to what was it the main event? Was
it more main event that was on Fox for a
period of time.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
I thought they still did a couple of Saturday It's Made.
I thought they did one like in.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
Well it did come back. I'm just talking about the
regular original one. And then in six to eight they
ran a couple of Saturday and It's Main events.

Speaker 3 (33:01):
I don't think I ever watched any of the Fox
main events. I don't think I I might have caught one.
I don't on the top of my head unless you
tell me a particular matchup, I cannot remember a Fox
main events.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
I think it was. I think it was like Bulldog
and HBK. I think HBK won the inter curt Level Championship.
I want to say, that's like a semi like hidden
Gem match.

Speaker 3 (33:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:25):
The only.

Speaker 3 (33:28):
HBK Bulldog match I remember is European title.

Speaker 2 (33:32):
Oh back in ninety seven.

Speaker 3 (33:33):
Yeah, that's about the only one I can remember on
top of my head.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
Yeah, well, February nineteen looks like, uh no, that was
an episode of Saturday It's Main Event.

Speaker 3 (33:43):
They're saying, I can't remember a single Fox main event.
So well, was John Madden on the show?

Speaker 2 (33:51):
I did?

Speaker 1 (33:52):
Did they do that?

Speaker 2 (33:52):
Did they do a crossover one time?

Speaker 1 (33:54):
He did?

Speaker 3 (33:55):
There was something I remember back in the mid nineties
when Madden and Summer All went to Fox that there
was some kind of WWE crossover like cross promotion of
stuff for like a couple of special events. But honestly,
I guess that out the top of my head because
at the time, like, yeah, they were on USA, but

(34:17):
NBC had kind of disavowed them to the abyss that
was USA, and SmackDown was on all of the Like
I don't it's actually smacked Own wasn't around you, so
it was just raw. So like at that point, they
didn't want any pro wrestling on NBC, so that's why
they were able to license out stuff to Fox.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
But I thought there was some kind of Madden Summer All.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
I think you're right now that you mentioned that. It's
like coming back to me now this is I think it.

Speaker 3 (34:43):
Was like Madden on the telestrator, like highlighting a match
and doing like the boom and the pals and that stuff.
That's how I kind of vaguely remember. But dear god, Jeff,
that was thirty five years ago.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
Yeah, I mean, it's difficult for two guys our age
trying to remember this stuff. So h Nonetheless, you've got
Saturday Night's main event this Saturday back on NBC Jesse
Ventura behind the microphone. I'm actually very disappointed to hear
some wrestling fans have no idea who he is. I
think they're in for a treat. I think Jesse is
going to really like blow my mind that he's back
in there. And I guess they're doing for these years,

(35:18):
Doctor Trey. So this is we get this one December,
and then there's one the Saturday before the Royal Rumble
in San Antonio, Texas. I think on January twenty fifth
next month is.

Speaker 1 (35:28):
It Cole and Graves on commentary with Jesse.

Speaker 2 (35:31):
So I don't know how there's they're promoting that Jesse
will be a special guest comment color commentator, but it
doesn't sound like it's for the whole show. So I'm
thinking he is going to be on with Graves and Cole.
I would love to see front to back start to finish,
Michael Cole, Jesse Ventura, Corey Graves.

Speaker 1 (35:51):
I kind of wish it was Graves, McAfee and Ventura.

Speaker 2 (35:54):
That'd be cool. Maybe that happens next month.

Speaker 3 (35:57):
I love Corey Graves, but you know you and I
have been Resie Evans a long time. Graves in a
lot of ways is what Ventura was in the eighties.
He's not nearly as corny as what Lawler was in
the nineties. I love Jerry Lawler, don't get me wrong,
but Lawler had a lot of jokes. It was basically
straight heel Ventura and when Graves first came up as

(36:18):
straight heel commentator, Graves, I just don't know if I
would like heal heel commentators with a play by play.

Speaker 2 (36:26):
Guy, I'm going to give you a topic for an
entire this should be a podcast episode, but I'm going
to ask you to answer this very quickly because it's
just that it's on here. But since we're talking about it, Graves,
Jesse Ventura, Jerry Lawler, who, in your mind is the
greatest color commentator in professional wrestling commentary.

Speaker 1 (36:44):
History, Jesse Ventura.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
I think it's Lawler.

Speaker 3 (36:48):
To me, Lawler was good with Ross, Lawler was not.
Ventura was great with Vince and Gorilla Monsoon.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
Yeah, he was awesome, without a doubt. But I loved
Lawler before they castrated him.

Speaker 3 (37:04):
Yeah, I mean, but Jesse was so good, Like even
Jesse with Tony Shavanni and WCW was pretty good.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
See that's often forgotten about that. He did a run
there for a little bit.

Speaker 3 (37:14):
Bobby Heenan also is in my top three to four.
Like I loved Bobby Heenan on commentary as well.

Speaker 2 (37:21):
Yeah you can't, Yeah, you can't not love those guys.
So that is a podcast in itself for another day,
Switching gears talking to Tony Shavanni and his current company,
AW Doctor Trey. I mentioned earlier in the show when
we were talking about who would you give a lot
of money out to, I wanted you to think of
a name for the entire show in regards to how

(37:42):
much money you would spend on this particular wrestler, and
that is one Kyle Fletcher. As he defeated kazitsco Ocada
in a Blue League match in the Continental Classic on
this past Saturday's edition of AW Collision, and now he
has defeated kazitsco Ocada and will Ospray from feed Ospre
at Full Gear in the last four weeks. We love

(38:05):
a good push and professional wrestling. We love seeing a
young star get an opportunity. But this is a peculiar
case because I don't necessarily know if everybody was like
this is a future star, this is a guy that
they need to start pushing. So when it comes to
Kyle Fletcher in AW and this push where he's defeated
Okada and he's defeated Ospray in the last four weeks,

(38:26):
do you agree with the push and r to you
or can you get behind it? So?

Speaker 1 (38:32):
Am I okay with the push? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (38:34):
Because AW, we got to create some new stars. We
gotta create some guys to kind of break out and
stand out. Kyle Fletcher, when you look at him, like
we're talking about with Shrick, has the look, has to build,
has the move set. I am just nervous in a
sense that he's not a great promo less he's talking

(38:55):
about Osprey. I kind of feel like when I watch
him at times, I don't know if I'm watching him
or like the Mark Jenrax of the world, the Sean
O'Hare's of the world, the Chuck Blombo's of the world
in the early days, where you're like.

Speaker 1 (39:10):
He's got a lot of the qualities you look for.

Speaker 3 (39:13):
I just don't know when I see him if I
see the it factor. Like when I first saw Randy Orton,
I was like, that guy's got it. There's something about
that that he has like, if you go back to
the early days of the show, like we saw about
Cody Rose, I was like, Cody's missing something.

Speaker 1 (39:31):
There was something here.

Speaker 3 (39:32):
I used to hate When Cody Rose wrestled without kneepads
drove me nuts. There are certain things you see and
you're like, if he can just tweak this or do this,
he'll be a star. I just don't know if I'm
there on the Kyle Fletcher train yet.

Speaker 1 (39:51):
I see a.

Speaker 3 (39:53):
Lot of the building blocks you want when you want
to create amen event star. I just I don't know
if he has that natural arristhma, that natural in factor
that some of the other guys we talked about have.
There's to me is this is why you have a
don Callis with him to kind of cover up those
flaws until he can break away.

Speaker 1 (40:12):
I just I think he's if you're RIDI.

Speaker 3 (40:14):
Him like on a ten star scale, he'd be like
a seven point five or and eight.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
So here's my issue. I love seeing young stars get
an opportunity to rise the ladder and climb the ladder.
I do think Kyle Fletcher is a guy that will
be a future top star in professional wrestling. I've actually
felt that way since he was in United Empire with
Mark Davis. I thought there's something about Kyle Fletcher that's
very appealing, and he has a lot of charisma, good

(40:41):
entering skill, and I could just see as time goes
on that this is a guy that can be potentially
a decent star in the company. However, when I think
about the current build of Kyle Fletcher, it just makes
me go, they're doing this with him, but right now
they're kind of botching the way that they've built Jay White,
Orange Cassidy, currently building will Osprey, Swerve Strickland. You've got

(41:06):
a lot of guys I want to see at the
top of the card, and for some reason they're either
like booked in a weird light, or they're not booked
in the top spot at all, like Darby Allen. Like
you and I have been thinking that Darby Allen's going
to be the guy that eventually takes down the Death Riders,
but he's losing clean to Claudia Castinelli getting his ass

(41:29):
kick before pay per view, and it's like, what, why
are they doing this? It's making no sense at all,
And that's kind of where I am. I feel like
Kyle Fletcher to me is a victim of how I
perceive AW creative. Right now, I like what they're doing.
He's leading the Blue League for the Continental Classic, but

(41:50):
I think that there's a possibility that, like he could
lose the next two matches against Daniel Garcia and Mark
Briscoe and you know, somehow fall out where he is
not showcased at World's End in a couple of weeks,
and it's like, hey, remember that we could be talking
like in three weeks and going. Remember when we were
talking about Kyle Fletcher after he defeated Okata and Osbray
in a four week span. So it's just there's been

(42:14):
a lot of start stops. I was thinking of myself today,
I'm like, we're the Hell's Wardlow. I know he's injured,
but there's a guy that was getting a push in
AW that completely fell off. We're Scorpio's guy. I think
he's injured, but he's had a bunch of like pushes
in AW then completely gone and vanished. So I mean,
there's a possibility that Kyle Fletcher could be a top

(42:35):
guy for the next three to six months, and then
six to twelve months from now he's fallen off the
ladder or He's in some sort of mediocre feud that
isn't getting a lot of attention that fans necessarily don't
care about. So I'm a bit torn dot try. I
like that they're doing it, but it's not something that
me as a fan watching at home, that I necessarily
want to see. I want to see Darby climbing the ladder.

(42:57):
I think they should be using the Continental Classic to
be really showcasing because it's Cocta heading in twenty twenty five.
So I do not like Okata taking owls. O'cott has
been barely booked in aw in twenty twenty four, and
I feel like that they need to be pushing Okada
a lot more heading in his next year. I want
to see Will Osprey pushed harder. I want to see

(43:17):
sort of Strickling pushed harder. I want to see Hangman
Page and Jay White pushed harder. I don't want to
see Orange Cassidy play like this second Fiddle. I like
that he's in world title feuds, but I want to
see him pushed harder as like a guy that is
a top star. So sucks for Kyle Fletcher, but I
look at some of the other things and I'm like,
I just don't believe it quite yet. So that's kind

(43:39):
of where I'm at right now.

Speaker 3 (43:39):
Doctor Try, don't forget Curtis Axe will beat Triple H, Right,
Lord Tensi beat John.

Speaker 2 (43:46):
Cena, Fandango defeated Jericho.

Speaker 3 (43:48):
I mean, there's been some things where we're like Man's
It's it could be a breakout, hey.

Speaker 2 (43:53):
Doctor Try. Yeah, Action and is Ready defeated Chris Jericho.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
That is true.

Speaker 3 (43:58):
But you know the problem I have with this booking
right now is Kazushiko Kata is in the Blue League.

Speaker 1 (44:05):
He's your current reigning continental champion.

Speaker 3 (44:08):
Are you going to have him lose a title and
not be in the title match at all? Like it?
I don't like that, So to me, it kind of
blows up the whole spot because to Meka, doesn't cut
back and win this league and head on head onto
a world's end and you know, defend that title much
like we saw with Eddie Kingston last year. You know

(44:31):
to me that if you if you go that route,
what does it mean for Kyle Fletcher, Like he's got
two big wins, but if he doesn't win the Blue
League doesn't do anything for him, doesn't put him in
a title picture. You know, so to me and we've
seen AW, they get the shiny It's the We've talked
about this for five years.

Speaker 1 (44:50):
It's the Tony Kahan shiny new toy syndrome.

Speaker 3 (44:53):
He gets a new play toy, he uses a bunch
of it, and then the next toy comes long he
forgets a by the one he just had. That's why
we I had so many start and stops pushes throughout
this entire run of AW that you and I have
been left frustrated by. So I like it for Kyle
Fletcher because he can always hang his hat on. Hey,
I'm the only guy in AW has beat Okata and ouspray.

(45:14):
He could always bring that back up. But you know,
how long does that whole credibility if you lose your
next three or four matches in the Blue League. So
it just you know, this is one of because we're
tking about beginning the show, like is he a guy?
Is he a double a triple A prospect that you
just go ahead and sign to a long term deal
because you know he's going to hit for you or

(45:35):
he's going to pitch for you and be a star,
or is he you know, a Mark Jindrak, who looked
really good in his suit walking next to Evolution but
never got in Evolution.

Speaker 2 (45:46):
It's amazing. It's it's it's like cool to see because
the way AW does things. It's like, I don't know
if I can get behind the yet, I just I
don't want to invest because it could very well be
in three to six months time, or even three weeks.
Kyle Fletcher is forgotten. He's not in the final four
of the Continental Classic at World's End, so I don't know.
It's just I was very, very surprised they had him

(46:09):
defeat Okada on Saturday's Collision. It's like, this is your
opportunity to showcase Okada to an audience that may not
know him, and it's like, this is this is what
you're doing. I like seeing Fletcher climbing climbing the ladder,
but it's like I want to see Okada be showcased
because he should be someone that has a big twenty
twenty five for AW.

Speaker 3 (46:30):
By the way, did Okada get cheered by the fans?
He did, okay, because I missed the match I had
to catch highlights of, but the highlights didn't have the
entrances because Okada like, you got the Bucks who just left.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
Jack Perry's kind of off.

Speaker 3 (46:45):
We're doing weird stuff acause on his own, on his
own right now, So it's like, is he a baby
face now?

Speaker 2 (46:51):
He is not acting as a big face. He's stills
doing the metal finger stuff. One of you does the
Rainmaker pose.

Speaker 3 (46:57):
But doesn't it frustrates you that if the Bucks knew
they were taking time off and that you were going
to take the belt off Jack Perry, wouldn't you have
a game plan for Okada? So he's one of your
biggest signings, and it just kind of feels like he's
middling right now since all that stuff.

Speaker 2 (47:12):
Happened, well, since he signed really well.

Speaker 3 (47:15):
Yeah, I mean they gave him a belt right away
because he was a shiny new toy.

Speaker 2 (47:19):
Well yeah, it's just funny. I like, I was like,
man was because I just saw all the promos for
All In Texas at They're running like crazy, and I'm like,
I don't remember Okada being it all In and I
was like, he didn't have a match, and I was
trying to think of myself. Was he in the Casino
Battle Royal? I don't remember, And it's like that fucking

(47:39):
Kozitsko Okada. A year ago, we were like, this is
like Osprey already signed at this point with AW. He
announced it a full gear last year, and then Ocada's out
there and you're hearing the rumblings potentially we having some
interests and we just think that he's going to AW
and it's like, Man, Okada hitting the open market is
something we never expected. This is a big deal. Is

(48:00):
a guy that may be the best pure professional wrestler
in the last ten years, had some of the best
matches that I've seen ever with Kenny Omega, and he
has an opportunity to come to the United States and
he comes to the United States and he's like barely used,
and it's like, what are we doing. I don't know
if it's his contract, I don't know what it is,
but it's like, the only reason I know anything about

(48:23):
Okada is because I watched New Japan. If you are
an AW fan that does not know Okada from New Japan,
or you've only heard the name and you're waiting to
see how he is in all EAD wrestling, I think
you are mistakenly like like shocked that people love this
guy as much as they did. I would watch Okada

(48:44):
matches in twenty sixteen to nineteen Doctor Trey, and every
single one of those matches, I was like, this is amazing.
He was just on one of those runs, like him
and Kenny were on one of those runs.

Speaker 3 (48:55):
The crazy thing is is if you were ranking the
most famous Japanese wrestlers in America right now, Okata might
finish third behind Knackamoor and to Zawa.

Speaker 2 (49:05):
Well eo Sky, Yeah, I've.

Speaker 3 (49:08):
Just made out on the men's side. I didn't want
to go deep. I mean throwing an oscar eo. You know,
even I still think he might be better known than Kyrie saying,
but definitely Knackamore is a bigger star in the US
right now than Okada is. And that's crazy to think
because I'm like, look, if I'm trying to grow my
audience and grow my international agreements, and also I make

(49:28):
Okada a focal point of my show to grow that,
and he's like, what twelve on the pecking order in
eight fifteenth.

Speaker 2 (49:38):
To be fair about Knockamore, I mean that's just within
like the last three weeks. Let's not like go crazier
they have. They kept Knockamore off television for months.

Speaker 3 (49:49):
Yeah, but even then he was he still did the
match with a mudha. You know that was a while back.
But I mean, but you got.

Speaker 2 (49:54):
That's like a hit in GEM. You've got to be
a hardcore to know that that match even took place,
you know what I mean, Like a normal wif is
not knowing that match happened.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
So does that make Tizzo with the biggest Japanese star
in the US.

Speaker 2 (50:05):
Then I don't think it makes tizza I honestly, if
I mean, I can't say that without saying EO. Sky
And I know you're just talking about the men, and
I think if you're saying the men, I think I
would still say Okada. But I think overall it's like
EO Sky and it's it's not even close.

Speaker 1 (50:23):
I think to wrestling fans, you're right.

Speaker 3 (50:25):
But I think if you went off just like hey,
person on the street, like who are these people?

Speaker 1 (50:28):
Do you recognize?

Speaker 3 (50:30):
I think Knakamor would still get more recognition in the
United States from just casual.

Speaker 2 (50:34):
You are probably right, yes, everybody else, Yeah, I would
agree with you there if you're doing like man on
the street, do you know this person? Oh yeah, that's
uh the guy that they sing the song to in
w W yep. And then who's this other guy with
a really long coat and blonde hair? No idea, no
idea at all. Why does he call himself a rain maker?
Does he come to bring in an umbrella?

Speaker 1 (50:54):
Is that Japanese M and M? Who's uh?

Speaker 2 (50:57):
Finally here, Doctor Trey wrapping up this week's edition of SRT.
The last thing I want to talk about is whether
or not Tony Kahan has become what he feared. And
this is a story that could have opened this week's
edition of SRT. You honestly so. The big thing of
the news this week is the Ray Phoenix contract ual issue,
showcasing aw's practices and adding injury time. Rumors out there

(51:22):
that AW had heard that the Lucha Bros Were leaving
and basically made them sit on the sideline until their
contracts ran out. So pentas contract has ran out, he
is a free agent. Ray Phoenix has a decent amount
of time on there because of injuries being added, and
he tweeted out which I believe since we are now

(51:45):
recording this he has deleted. He said that they had
inhumane practices, which is very damaging thing to say and
allude to. This is also coming in the last couple
of weeks where Ricky Starks has been on the sideline
since March, and he pops up in GCW. One of
the GCW guys, f E goes out there on his

(52:07):
podcast rips Tony kN Apart, and then they start pulling
AW talent from the GCW shows, leaving Ricky Starks back
on the sideline and hit some independence. There's a lot
of rumors out there that the reason why he's on
the sidelines is because AW thought he was gonna be
leaving for WI soon. There was the what is what

(52:28):
is Dolph Siegler's brother's name? Again? There Nemes Ryan Ryan
Nemeth on the sidelines. He wasn't used. We talked about
the cempunk stuff on last week's show. I mean, there's
potentially Miro sit on the sidelines because he wants to leave.
It's these things where WW would be often criticized for

(52:49):
releasing people and firing them, and now AW is like,
we never wanted to do that. But it's almost like
AW is punishing people when they want to leave the company,
so they keep him under contract and don't use them
for months. So that there's stock completely drops and now
it's completely flipped my mind where I'm like, damn, WWE
was doing a solid for some of these guys where

(53:10):
it's like we're gonna release you. Everybody's got to know it,
and then you're gonna have three months to sit at
home and get paid and then you'll be able to
do anything and have a ton of buzz once you
hit AW, Independent Scenes, GCW, Impact Wrestling, TNA, whatever. It's
it's an interesting practice and I'm seeing a lot of
people online going that Tony Kahan has become what he feared,

(53:35):
where he may be worse or on equal ground to
Vince McMann as a boss. I don't like these practices.
If a wrestler wants to leave, let them go. I
know you're paying them, but they're doing a lot of
damage to Ray Phoenix's career. And we only get time
on this earth for a short amount of time, essentially,
and for professional wrestlers, that time that they have in

(53:58):
their prime to be successful is a very small window.
And while Ricky Stark's Penta and Ray Phoenix were collecting
checks with Aw's name on them, which is great for
their family and their finances. When they get out, there's
gonna be buzz, but people may forget about them. And
I think that they're doing a lot of damaging things

(54:18):
there to guys like this. I don't like this practice,
doctor Trey. I think it's worse than what we does.
And it just a lot of things that you've heard
punk interviews, the Ryan Nemeth story. It starts to really
question the type of boss that Tony Khan may be. Actually,

(54:39):
everybody says he's a nice guy, but there are also
sides to every nice person where there's a little bit
of being a vindictiveness and being a jerk, and I
think we may be seeing that right now. So do
you think Tony Khan has essentially become what he feared
when he entered the world of professional warresting and become
an evil boss at times he portrayed Vinceicmannabe.

Speaker 3 (55:02):
Yeah, because if you remember when aaw was first putting
stuff together and they're like, oh, all of our talents
to be paid about the same the men are gonna
get paid here, the women and men are be treated
as equals.

Speaker 1 (55:13):
And they actually one of the things that actually came
out and said.

Speaker 3 (55:15):
They weren't going to do was add time onto people's
contracts if they got hurt, because that was one of
the sticking points. I can't remember which WW talent it was,
but they had gotten injured, their contract was coming up,
they added more time on to them before they could
made it might have been Adam Cole actually before they

(55:35):
could make the job. They added more time on to them,
before they could become a free agent. And AW is like, oh,
we're never going to do that, and now.

Speaker 1 (55:42):
They do it.

Speaker 3 (55:43):
And by the way, this is the worst practice I
think in pressure wrestling, where you sign a four year contract,
you get hurt performing in the ring for that company,
and you're out for six months, and they add six.

Speaker 1 (55:56):
Months on your time.

Speaker 3 (55:57):
Could you imagine, as a baseball or football fan, if
like your favorite players in a contract, like you know
your favor players in a contract year, he gets hurt,
he's out for the year, but now you get to
hang on to him for another year because of that,
Like it's it's a ridiculous practice. But yeah, I mean,
and also I mean the talent relations in AW. You

(56:18):
think of all the guys that they just their contracts
came up and they've never heard from AEW and just
let the contract run out, like the Joey Janella's, the
Marco stunts, you know, those those early day aaw guys.
Well when all the new shiny toys came in and
those guys weren't being used anymore, Oh well, yeah, we're
gonna let your contract run out.

Speaker 1 (56:36):
But they don't even tell those guys that.

Speaker 3 (56:38):
So that there's a lot of talent relation issues, and
a lot of it is I just feel like Tony
Kahn is one of those non confrontational people. Like he's
very passive aggressive about stuff when it comes to that.
So he just kind of lets stuff go and just
you know, kind of you know, backhands in a.

Speaker 1 (56:57):
Lot of ways.

Speaker 3 (56:58):
I mean, hell, I go back to the the brawl
in press conference where seem punks and they're burying people
on the microphone and Tony Conston right next to him
and never says a word, like to me, he's just
he's a nice guy, but he's not a great boss.
Sometimes you gotta be the hard ass, you gotta draw
a line, and he just doesn't do that. And that's

(57:21):
why you get stories like this, or the Janello stories,
or the Ricky Stark stuff. Stuff comes out it's like
you're just not using me.

Speaker 1 (57:28):
I mean, I.

Speaker 3 (57:29):
Saw a Scorpios guy on Chris Van Valet show of
a couple months back and he says anything. He's like,
I was hurt. I've been healthy for four months. Just
they gotta find a spot for me to jump back in.
It's like, Okay, find a spot, Like it's shouldn't be
that hard to find a guy.

Speaker 1 (57:46):
I mean, put him in the ring.

Speaker 3 (57:47):
But yeah, like he's he's in a lot of ways,
he's worse than Vince because he's not drawing those lines,
he's not putting his foot down on certain things. He's
just being passive and in a lot of ways kind
of shading underhanded.

Speaker 2 (58:04):
I've heard from a friend who knows a former AAW talent,
which is similar stories that you've shared from former AW
talents as well, that Tony Khan is a very nice guy,
but he's not a boss. And these are wrestlers that
were utilized for a period of time and then all
of a sudden stopped and it's the shiny new toy.

(58:26):
It's like the favorites that Tony Khan likes for a
period of time and then they get like thrown to
the side. I would say right now, if you're watching
AW a lot, you know that he loves the Beast
Mortos like I like Beast Mortos too. But he's on
dynamite rampage and collision more than any wrestler right now.
And there's been periods of times where he really likes

(58:48):
Scorpios guys. Doctor Trey mentioned Sammy Gavara used to be
a favorite of his, and now we're Sammy, he's working
r Oh. I don't know. I don't follow ro Oh.
It's it's like once you start to get behind some
of these guys, whether it's due to injuries or lack
of being used, Miro Wardlow, Scorpio Sky, Samy Cavara, and

(59:11):
then they disappear. It's crazy. I mean, I never would
have thought that Scorpio Sky or Sammy Cavara or Wardlow
four years ago would not be on AW television potentially
in top level feuds right now. And then maybe the
part of the reason why you can't really get behind
some guys like a Kyle Fletcher or trust in the
process at the upper card of AW because they may come,

(59:35):
they may go, and sometimes it's warranted due to attitudes,
maybe like with Samy Cavara, which has been reportedly said
or it's because of injuries. But the thing is that
AW doesn't tell you when people are injured. They'll run
something where like Scorpio Sky is up in a skybox
during collision watching a match, and then I don't see
Scorpio Sky on my television for another five months. So

(59:58):
I don't know that's Trey. It's it's bizarre. I know
there was a ton of feedback online last week when
we talked about the AW coverage, and I just want
to like clear that up a little bit. I think
people think that we're not going to talk about AW
at all anymore, and that's that's not the case. We
certainly talking about on this week's show. It's just a
matter of like how close we watch the n ring product.

(01:00:19):
I think when there's news ring news items that is
coming up, it's going to be something that is we're
going to be watching like newsworthy items. But I mean
maybe in twenty twenty five, sitting here and going let's preview,
predict Revolution, let's recap and review Revolution, I don't know
if we're going to do that in twenty twenty five,

(01:00:40):
essentially because I don't know if they're a company that
warrants it anymore. And like I said, I watch AW.
I watched Rampage Collision in Dynamite this past week. There
are parts that are very entertaining, but overall, it's like
this is not as entertaining as we right now and
it's showcasing the viewership. So I just want to clear
that up a little bit because people we're like, if
you guys stop talking about AW, you know, I don't

(01:01:02):
know if I'm going to listen or anything like that.
And it's like that's not the case, Like they like
us here being critical of both wing AW when it's
warranting and praising it when it's warranted as well. I
think just think we may change things up a little
bit because it's like twenty nine pay per views we're
covering each year and we're not being able to have
these types of conversations anymore. So that's kind of my

(01:01:22):
perspective about Doctor Trey, I know, kind of wrapping up
the stuff with Tony Kahan and then our conversation on
last week's show. But that's kind of like my vibe
on AW overall right now.

Speaker 3 (01:01:31):
Yeah, I think we still have to pay attention to AW.
I don't know if it warranted warrants in depth, deep
dive coverages in this stuff. I mean we could recap
an AW pay per view, like, hey, so we did
the previews and preditions. Doctor Trey went thirty seven and
two on this show and I went thirty nine and one,

(01:01:52):
what's your review rating match of the night, and not
have to go match by match, But yeah, I mean
we have to pay at ten attention to it just
so that way when big stuff does come up, we're
knowledgeable of the situation. Like one thing that I pride
ourselves on is even you know, like I I now

(01:02:12):
have connections into all three major companies, and if you
start showing throwing in some of the super indies, I
know guys there as well. So I pay attention to
all of it, just because I have friends everywhere and
all of this stuff, and I don't want us to
turn into that that podcast, whereas just two guys who

(01:02:32):
you know, do talk hot takes on stuff just based
on what they're reading from from dirt sheets. Like yeah,
I still I'll still watch AW if something piques my interest.
And that's how I am now, It's how I've been
for a while. If there's something going on where I'm like, oh,
I got to see that. Oh I gotta seehere that's going. Yeah,
I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go look it up. But

(01:02:54):
just the sheer volume of AW Wrestling and it being
a bad television product, that's like telling me I have
to sit through Dumb and Dumber two three times a
week like that. There's no way I would do it
without being in a drug induced coma. So there are
things about AW that I like. There's a lot of
things right now that I feel are out of out

(01:03:16):
of whack, and that kind of leads me away from
watching the product. But it's no different now than it
was in twenty eleven. Word to the show, and I
hated watching WWE because the show was got awful. Back then,
I was doing kind of cursory overviews and paying more
attention to the Tnas of the world because I thought
they had a better product at the time. So it's

(01:03:36):
it's I don't will never completely take our feet out
of the AW waters just you know, right now, I
just have a pinky toe in Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:03:45):
Yeah, And that's that because we were rooting them on
all right, Well, that said, let's close up shop on
this week's edition show and get a couple plugs and sponsors.
Either way, you could download the show every Thursday or
Friday at Real Guy Radio dot com. Russell chattannadd on
X and it's still a real to show iTunes feed.
Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to help us
cleming charts on iTunes. You could follow us individual on
X for myself at SRTU Jeff or for Doctor Trey

(01:04:07):
Franklin at The Doctor Trey. And of course don't forget
the follow show on X at SRTU podcast. With that
being said, what is going on in one for world
of doct Trey Franklin this week?

Speaker 3 (01:04:17):
Well, like Jeff said, you can follow me on X
at the Doctor Trey. You could find me on Facebook
and Instagram and threads as well Bystaly on there too.
Just search out Doctor Trey Franklin when you're on Facebook.
Be sure check out rock A City Championship Wrestling. We
just had our eight year anniversary show this past Saturday.

Speaker 1 (01:04:35):
Really cited that first and first part of January.

Speaker 3 (01:04:38):
I don't know the exact date because I don't have
a calendar from me, but the rock A City Rumbles
Coming Back Up, which is my absolute favorite show of
the year that we do looking forward to that one.
Check out Spartan Championship Wrestling. Those guys do a great
show as well. And most importantly, pay no attention to
the pre agency period because the Yankees pretty much sign

(01:05:00):
everybody in my Cubs get nobody.

Speaker 2 (01:05:02):
They'll make some trades the Cubs and the Yankeys have
not signed everybody. Well, you've only signed like one person.

Speaker 3 (01:05:08):
If you guys, get Cody Bellinger from us after letting,
Anthony Rizzo goes like, you guys, get my favorite Cub
player and then you get rid of him and then
go get my next favorite Cup player somehow.

Speaker 2 (01:05:17):
You guys, you guys may get Kyle Tucker.

Speaker 1 (01:05:21):
That's true. If we get Kyle Tucker, I'll trade off Cody.

Speaker 2 (01:05:23):
Bellingcher for Kyle Tucks see and I want Kyle Tucker
and Cody Bellinger. But that's neither here, no there. So
there you go. Support all the great things that support SRTU.
And then more importantly, we are now entering holiday programming schedule.
For those that have been longtime listeners, this is the
time of the year where Doctor Trey and I put
a lot of shows in the can and take a
little bit of time off recoup, get ready for the

(01:05:45):
road to Wrestle Mendia forty one, which is right around
the corner, and it all begins. Next week was next
week show. On the nineteenth, we will do our twenty
twenty four wrestling recap special. Doctor Trey hates that episode
because we open up the vault from the first show
of this year and go back and listen. Doctor Trait said,
he sounds like Kermit the Frog.

Speaker 1 (01:06:02):
Hich hoel kirmitty frog.

Speaker 2 (01:06:04):
Here, there you go, there is the Kermit the Frog compression.
In two weeks is our twenty twenty four SRT Award
So Special on December twenty six, and then we kick
off twenty twenty five on January second with our twenty
twenty five Wrestling Preview special. So that'll be all taking
place in the next three weeks. I think we're gonna
try to jump in here and give you our predictions
for aw World Zen. If not, we'll post them up

(01:06:27):
on Facebook and on on x SO. With that being said,
thank you for downloading the show, Thank you for making
us part of your week. Check us out now for
the holiday programming schedules, Spread the good word about SFTU,
Rate review and subscribe, and until next week for Doctor
Straight Franklin, I am Jeff Peck. This has been this
still wal with Us show