August 8, 2025 • 62 mins
The Duke is back, and he's got a bone to pick with the "humanoids" losing their minds over WWE's monumental PLE deal with ESPN. Get ready for a hilarious, no-holds-barred takedown of the wrestling internet's most ridiculous complaints. This isn't just an episode; it's a therapeutic session for anyone tired of the perpetual outrage machine.
In this episode, The Duke takes on the biggest topics with his signature wit:
ESPN $$$: The End of Wrestling as We Know It? The IWC is crying foul over WWE "selling out" and focusing on, gasp, making money. The Duke breaks down why this is the smartest move in sports entertainment history and why the complainers need a reality check.
Brock Lesnar: Unfairly Canceled? Is the "Beast Incarnate" being unfairly targeted by the IWC goofballs? The Duke defends the legendary champion and exposes the double standards of the online wrestling community.
Who's to Blame for the Hurt Syndicate Haters? The Duke connects the dots and points the finger at AEW's Dax of FTR and Snake Will Washington. Are they the puppet masters behind the negative press? The Duke investigates!
Stop scrolling through angry tweets and start laughing with The Duke. This is the only wrestling podcast that tells it like it is, with 100% more common sense and 0% more complaining.
#DukeLovesRasslin #WWE #ESPN #WWERaw #SmackDown #BrockLesnar #TheHurtSyndicate #AEW #DaxHarwood #WillWashington #WrestlingPodcast #IWC #WrestlingNews #Podcast
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
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(01:50):
That's right. Brothers and sisters, it is your
main man the Duke. With breaking news, WWE and ESPN
have reached a landmark agreement which will see all non
(02:14):
NXT Premium live events will be broadcasted on ESPN platforms in
the United States starting in 2026.
So WrestleMania, Survivor Series, Royal Rumble,
Elimination Chamber, you name it, all premium live events will
(02:35):
be broadcasted across ESPN platforms in the United States
of America. As expected, the Internet
wrestling community is up in arms.
And I'm telling you right now, WWE, on behalf of the IWC,
you're in big trouble. Mr. How dare you do what a
(02:59):
business is supposed to do and make blockbuster deals, make as
much money as you possibly can, and expand your ability and your
reach throughout not only UnitedStates, but the world.
How dare you, WWE? It doesn't matter if you have a
(03:21):
fiduciary responsibility to makeas much money as possible.
It doesn't matter that this dealis over a billion dollars which
will allow you to invest in moretalent, which will allow you to
expand upon your live events anddeliver even higher quality
product. It doesn't matter.
(03:43):
The folks in the IWC, especiallyon X, are furious and we're not
going to take it. We will tweet angry.
We will make memes. We will let you know as we watch
angrily that WWE has no businessdoing what a business is
(04:09):
supposed to do. Locked in?
Listen what we have here, folks.You're the only show that.
Matters the. Queen of the crop.
Duke loves wrestling. And there is no one that does it
better than your house. I have come here to chew bubble
gum and kick ass and. I'm all out of bubble.
(04:37):
Welcome back to Duke Loves Wrestling, the show about pro
wrestling and everything else. I'm telling you folks, I'm
telling you right now, the IWC is angry.
WWE being a successful business is just too much.
It's too much. It's greedy TKO.
(05:00):
They purchased WWE for $9 billion.
How dare they make business decisions that ensure they will
not only recoup on their $9 billion investment, but that
they'll actually make even more money on top of that, make an
actual profit for themselves andtheir investors.
This is preposterous. Has this ever been done before?
(05:22):
Has a business ever actually focused on making money like
this is? This is crazy, folks.
This is crazy. It's pro wrestling.
You're supposed to fail and go out of business.
You're you're supposed to, you know, close the doors so the
(05:43):
wrestlers don't have a place to,to work anymore.
Don't you know that? Don't you know the fans are not
supposed to have a diverse set of channels and apps where they
can watch your product? Fans of all income levels, when
you have NXT on CW, which is over the air TV, all you need is
(06:07):
is literally an antenna. When you have raw, which is on
Netflix, that's a streaming service that people have to pay
for. When you when you have Smackdown
on the USA Network, which is available on, you know, whether
you're talking cable or satellite, you know, slang these
(06:28):
things and now you have the audacity to put the non NXTPLES
on ESPN. If you have ESPN, you're in your
in your cable or satellite package.
You're going to get all of that included.
(06:49):
If you don't, you pay the $30.00a month.
So you can not only get all WWPLES, but you also get the
entire slate of ESPN programming.
Don't you know that this is? Wrong.
A business is not supposed to bea business and make money and
(07:10):
make it possible for as many people as possible to be able to
consume the product. Don't you know that WWE?
This is IWC logic, which means that it's no logic at all.
(07:31):
I can't even say this stuff witha straight face, folks.
It's so ridiculous. The whole thing is so
ridiculous. People are, are are online doing
these dissertations about this. They are shocked that WWE has
the audacity to continue to innovate.
This is this is literally a thing, folks.
(07:53):
I don't know where where some ofthese goofballs come from.
Why wouldn't a business do what a business is supposed to do?
Why wouldn't you do that? They want the WWE to not expand
for some strange reason. And, and I just don't understand
(08:14):
that because here's the reality situation.
Somebody is consuming this stuff, somebody's consuming it.
Somebody's fascinated and and satisfied enough to continue to
tune in, to spend money at the live events, to buy the
(08:35):
merchandise. Somebody's doing it.
Netflix subscriptions to the roof.
Peacock increased their subscription since doing
business with WWE. But somehow, someway, it is
unheard of for WWE to continue to expand and find other
networks to do business with. You have you have NXT Evolve on
(08:59):
Tubi, which is owned by Fox, by the way.
This is this is terrible. How dare they.
How dare the WWE make themselvesavailable across multiple
networks in, in, in apps. I'm telling you right now,
people are losing their ever loving minds.
(09:21):
And I just want to say to all all of these humanoids who are
carrying on about this thing, you're going to watch that whole
FOMO thing, fear of missing out.You're going to watch.
You're stomping your feet. You're you're you're tweeting
angry. You're you're trying to you
know, who could say the the mostclever one liner or come up with
(09:41):
the best meme? And then, you know, you high 5
each other online and all that good stuff.
Hey, Billy Bob. Hey, is Sally Stinky feet 123.
Hey Johnny Bread basket 361. It's it's ridiculous.
It's completely ridiculous. The whole thing.
I, I I'm here in a come to Jesusmoment for the entire IWC
(10:06):
complaining about WWE continuingto do what a business is
supposed to do, which is make money.
I'm here to just encourage everysingle one of you that have
complained about this to do something very important.
Turn up the volume. Tell everybody, quiet down.
(10:30):
You ready? On a count of 3123, shut your
face. Literally shut your face.
You you you you miserable child of God.
Shut your face please. The WWE is here to make money,
(11:01):
just like every business. If you have a problem with them
expanding and making themselves available to more people, don't
watch. No one's making you subscribe.
No one's making you TuneIn. Go watch some of the other
nonsense that's out there. Like like like the the, the
(11:22):
goofball over there down in Jacksonville, right, Who
continues to to do goofball things, right?
Go watch that product. I hear it's I hear it's
fantastic. They draw so many people.
They have so many stars. I hear it's an incredible show
(11:43):
down there in Jacksonville. Go watch that nonsense.
I'm not watching it, but you canI, I encourage you go watch it,
please. The WWE is great business and it
is wise for every single networkto try to do some kind of deal
(12:04):
with them. It just makes sense.
Somebody said to me the other day, well, you know, their,
their audience is shrinking. They, they only have about, you
know, like 3 million people in, in the United States.
And I'm like, OK, let's say that's true.
Let's say the WWE audience literally is about 3 million
people. That's three million people who
(12:28):
are completely engaged and will follow wherever the WWE goes.
That's three million people who are responsible for the WWE
right now in this very moment, maintaining at least five
separate billion dollar deals atleast.
(12:54):
Let me tell you something. I don't care what kind of
business you have, if you can get 3 million people to matter
that much that everyone is, is literally, you know, fussing and
fighting and, and, and having a,a war with each other just to do
business with you. They're trying to, they're
trying to offer you the most so you could, they can get some
business out of you. Hey, I think that's a pretty
(13:18):
good deal. I think any business would want
that. There are too many experts out
there, folks, too many self appointed experts who don't know
anything at all. It's fascinating.
It's completely fascinating. Listen, there was a time in life
where most people had some form of retail experience, right?
(13:46):
Most people if, if their first job wasn't like babysitting or
dog walking or you know, the paper route or something like
that. Most people worked at a mall.
They worked at a store where youhad to sell stuff, right?
Unless you were in the, in the, in the food service industry.
The alternative was that you, you work some place where you
(14:09):
were responsible for dealing with customers and selling them
a product. A lot of folks end up becoming
some form of leadership, team lead, assistant manager,
manager, right regional manager,GM, vice president, president,
(14:35):
whatever. People who have ever in their
lives been responsible for a business, in growing a business.
More most importantly, be responsible for the numbers.
Be responsible for for figuring out how to how to keep the
budget reasonable, maintain a workforce, most importantly
(15:03):
generate enough sales to turn a profit.
Most people who who have lived that life on any scale generally
don't react like most of the goofballs that you see online.
You can always tell who's never been responsible for for a
business just by the way that they they talk.
(15:25):
Well, this is greedy. How?
This is very greedy, $30.00 for the ESPN app.
This is greedy as if the WWE is not supposed to recoup on their
investment, right? TKO buying WWE for 9 billion,
they're not supposed to do that.They're not supposed to make
(15:47):
billion dollar deals everywhere so they can get their money
back. And they're actually ahead of
schedule. Quite frankly, what the at the
rate they're going, which is fascinating to me because $9
billion, a lot of money, they'remaking that money back quick.
And on the ESPN side, you act asif they're not supposed to make
(16:08):
money. ESPN is such a powerful brand
and and you know, they just signed with the NFL.
They they're getting, what is it, red zone, the NFL Network,
ESPN is going to be running all that.
Are they not supposed to charge you a fair rate so they can
(16:28):
recoup some of that investment money as well?
I don't understand it. I, I legitimately folks, I do
not understand who are all thesepeople that never had real
responsibility in their lives? Because clearly that's the case
when you, when you read some of their comments or when you hear
(16:49):
some of the things that they're saying, clearly that's the case
Completely out to lunch, the whole lot of them.
And I'm going to tell you right now, I see this stuff and I
giggle. I giggle, I giggle because it's
all entertainment to me. You're going to sit there and
(17:12):
stomp your feet. You're going to complain, you're
going to tweet angry. You're going to do all these
things, but you're going to watch and you're going to show
up. You're going to spend money,
you're going to buy the merchandise, you're going to
weigh in because everybody else is doing it.
There are very few people who can walk away from wrestling at
(17:33):
this point. Very few.
You could put it down for a period of time, but you're
always going to pick it up because you love it.
And I'm talking WWE in particular.
Call it what it is, man. We saw the return of Brock
Lesnar, which welcome back Brock.
(17:54):
It's been what, two years? Guy's finally back, very
excited. You know, he comes back, he's
beaten up on John Cena, which iswhat he always does when he
comes back, which is pretty awesome.
And it really makes me scratch my head because, you know,
(18:16):
people are following this, this Janelle Grant lawsuit.
It's a civil lawsuit, which means it's not criminal.
This is literally just, you know, you're suing because
you're trying to get some money,which is OK.
Janelle Grant alleges that VinceMcMahon, you know, he breached
a, a agreement that they had together, an NDA and she feels
(18:41):
she was taken advantage of by Vince, which I think is
reasonable as a chairman of the board.
And at one point he was, he was the president and CEO.
He was the he's, he's Vince McMahon.
He's everything. She was an employee, they
entered into a consensual sexualrelationship with one another,
(19:04):
but she feels she was taken advantage of and she has
provided some evidence and they got to go through the legal
system. I get it.
That's fine. We had no issues with that.
She's suing Vincent, She's suingthe company.
Fantastic. In the documents, Janelle Grant
points out that Brock Lesnar is someone who Vince McMahon was
(19:28):
negotiating a new contract with.And Grant alleges that Vince
told her that he promised Brock that Brock can fool around with
her if he signs a new deal. And and Grant alleges that that
Vince had her text Brock a naughty video, let's call it
(19:55):
that. Grant alleges that Brock
responded and they entered into what we would call today sexting
and Grant pursued making plans with Brock to actually act on
some of the things that they were sexting about.
(20:16):
In the lawsuit, Grant states. Brock Lesnar did not actually
make good on their plans. Three time.
He blew this woman off 3 times. That's what the lawsuit says.
And this is from Grant, right? So I just want to make sure
(20:40):
we're comparing notes here and we're getting this clear.
And you know what I'm this is this is Duke loves Ross.
And we just look at the truth wecall right down the middle.
It is what it is. I got no dog in this fight.
I just believe in the Constitution.
I believe in the truth. Got to look at all the facts,
right? If we were on the jury, we'd
have to look at all the facts. So why can't we do that Outside?
(21:02):
Some lady at work starts textingnaughty things to you and she's
the boss's assistant, basically,and you're in the middle of a
contract negotiation and you're supposed to be this big hulking
person who's supposed to be a man's man and all this good
stuff here. What do you do?
(21:25):
He starts playing along because,you know, it's kind of weird,
but this is what it is. But he doesn't go through with
it because clearly I'm assuming if any of this is true, I'm
assuming the guy was not comfortable with moving forward
with something like that. What a lot of you folks seem to
(21:47):
to miss here. If this stuff is true, Brock is
being sexually harassed by Grantin those moments.
Now, Grant alleges that this is at the direction of Vince and
that's, hey, OK, But it doesn't negate the fact that she was
inflicting on Brock and in the end, Brock would not move
(22:11):
forward with these grandiose plans that she initiated.
So given, and this is all comingfrom the lawsuit, folks, given
these facts, why on earth would Brock Lesnar not be allowed to
continue to work and make money for himself and his family?
(22:36):
Because every time he steps footout there, new merchandise gets
put together. So he gets to make more money on
top of his contract. He gets to increase his value.
Brock Lesnar is one of the top earning box office attractions
in pay-per-view history. I know WW ES rebranded pay per
views as PL. ES, but Brock Lesnar, and I'm
(22:58):
talking to anybody, boxers, MMA fighters, what have you, pro
wrestling. Brock Lesnar is is one of the
top earners. He's one of the biggest draws in
sports and entertainment history.
So why shouldn't this person be allowed to continue to do their
job? Well, well, well, well.
(23:21):
She described him in the lawsuit.
OK, She's not suing Brock Lesnar.
Grant never even accused Brock Lesnar of committing any crimes.
And what is described in lawsuit, there's no crime there.
Tell me again why this guy can'tdo his job Well, well, well,
(23:43):
it's sleazy to to let him come back because he was in a
lawsuit. I, I just completely out to
lunch. These IWC humanoids just out to
lunch. So just so we could we're, we're
making sure we're clear here, right?
(24:03):
You want a guy who's not being sued, who has not been accused
of committing a crime, has not been arrested, charged like
literally nothing. Nothing at all.
You want that person to somehow,someway not be allowed to make a
(24:24):
living in the job that he legitimately is an expert in and
a legend in, while at the same time you continue to TuneIn and
watch actively discuss online and therefore market for his
(24:49):
employer, the WWE, which is literally being sued by the
woman in the lawsuit. I'm telling you right, These
folks are out to lunch. You want to punish the guy
that's not in the wrong legally,but you want to continue to
(25:13):
consume the company that's beingaccused of being in the wrong?
I wouldn't trust any of you to do anything for me.
Don't listen. If my life was on the line, I'm
in big trouble. If I have to depend on any
knucklehead who has a problem with Brock Lesnar being back on
(25:35):
WWTV, there was something wrong with you, in my opinion.
Seriously. A person who who has not been
accused of committing a crime, who's not being sued, not been
arrested, not been convicted, nothing.
Nothing and you have a problem with them being allowed to do
(26:00):
their job, but you're still consuming the company being
sued. I'm telling you right now, I
would not trust you to do anything for me.
I wouldn't even trust you to hold the door for me 'cause I
don't think that you, that you're a person that can make
logical decisions in life. Something's wrong with you.
I would be concerned if any of you were serving on a jury.
(26:22):
Something is wrong with you. No wonder there's so many
accidents on the road because a lot of you have your driver's
license. You, you guys make poor
decisions. It's clear, absolute, complete,
utter nonsense. It's nonsense.
(26:45):
But this is the IWC way I'm telling you folks.
It's. It's just, it boggles my mind,
the whole thing there. There is a lot of, and we've
seen this because of the pandemic.
It's like people's brains have been turned to mush with a lot
(27:06):
of this stuff. And they just say the most
irrational, nonsensical things consistently.
And it really makes you scratch your head.
We had the passing of Hulk Hoganand shout out, you know, Devon
and the Duke show that I do withWWE Hall of Famer Devon Dudley.
(27:28):
New episode will be up next week.
We just had Hogan's funeral and a whole lot of stuff going on.
Big man. Hey, give that man a break.
Come get his thoughts together. So many of you gave positive
feedback and thank you for that because Devon, you know, pointed
(27:50):
out that he forgave Hulk and he leaned on his Bible verses and
things like that to help justifyhis position.
You know, Hulk Hogan said some very racist things and expressed
racist philosophy on more than one occasion.
It's clear that this was a belief that this man harbored to
(28:11):
a certain degree. Did he change?
I don't know. I don't know Hulk Hogan.
I'll never forget what he did and how it made me feel.
It's pretty rotten, but a persondied, a person who was who's my
childhood hero at one point. So all I do is offer condolences
(28:36):
to his family and his loved onesand condolences to other people
in the same boat as me who grew up idolizing that person and who
were hurt by what that person ultimately revealed themselves
to be, which was a racist. He literally said I am a racist.
Can't hide from that. That's what Hogan said, right?
So I'm not going to forget that.But the man is dead and I'm not
(29:01):
going to dance on his grave. And it did hurt me.
And I do feel bad about the factthat that guy died before he
ever was able to fully redeem himself.
And hearing some of the things that his daughter Brooke Hogan
is saying and how she's had to estranged herself from her
family. Well, from her parents.
(29:23):
She has her own family now. She has her own children, she
has a husband and they have their own life, make their own
money. They never had to depend on Hulk
or anything like that. I feel bad for them.
I feel bad for Nick Hogan, who'sappeared in WWE numerous times
at tributes and things like that, 'cause he's very close to
his dad, just like Brooke was until they were estranged.
(29:45):
Feel bad for those folks. That's compassion.
Some of you have a problem with compassion, and I'm just going
to tell you right now, that's your cross to barren life.
I don't roll that way. I can.
(30:06):
I can compartmentalize life. I can have a problem with the
way that you have conducted yourself, things that you've
said, how you've treated others,how you treat me.
I can have a problem with that and be very upset with you over
that, and yet I could still showyou empathy and compassion and
(30:30):
and the extension of that empathy and compassion doesn't
have anything to do with you when it has everything to do
with me. That's who I am as a human
being. Just because you are a lowlife
scumbag, racist, Jackass, all the buzzwords, just because you
(30:54):
conduct yourself that way, that doesn't mean I'm going to stoop
down to your level. I'm not going to do that.
Treat people how you want to be treated, regardless of who they
are. Now, That doesn't mean that you
allow yourself to stay in the line of fire and continue to get
(31:15):
hurt by somebody who does not have your best interest at
heart. Don't misunderstand me there.
I'm not a fool. You identify yourself as a
racist. I'm not going to keep sniffing
around you and and trying to be your buddy.
Stay the hell away from you racist.
You're a jerk. But if you die, I'm not going to
(31:35):
say, well, yeah, good for that or damn him or don't Nobody,
nobody mourn his death because he was no good.
That's your problem. That's not my problem.
And I, I'm, I'm just going to tell you right now, folks, with
all due respect, I do not care how you feel about it.
I'm talking about how I feel in this moment.
(31:58):
How you feel is immaterial to me.
So some of you talking all that nonsense out there, and that's
exactly what it is. In my opinion.
It's nonsense. If your heart is so rotten that
you can't have any compassion orempathy for the fact that
(32:18):
somebody just died, then good for you.
Someday you'll have to sort thatout.
Whatever God that that you pray to or what have you.
Or maybe you don't and that would be between you and them.
But will, what I got going on over here doesn't work like
that. I don't celebrate death on
anybody. I celebrate life.
(32:42):
I don't celebrate death. So just want to make sure that
we're clear on that because the topic it, it's, it's ongoing,
man. And it's not going to stop
anytime soon. Brooke Hogan has stated that she
wants an autopsy done on her father.
It's claimed that he had advanced cancer of some sort,
(33:09):
which ultimately led to him going into cardiac arrest or
what have you. And that's what caused him to
die. Brooke Hogan is is like, let's
do an autopsy. Why would you try to, you know,
just pass it off as that's the cause of death without doing an
autopsy. And I agree with Brooke.
I think that's smart. I think you should always do an
autopsy just to verify. That's a lot of pain and
(33:30):
anguish. I feel bad for that family, all
of them. When you lose a loved one,
especially a loved one who is part of an extended family that
wasn't the original family that you were born into.
In this case, Hogan had a whole different wife.
There's going to be a lot of finger pointing.
(33:52):
It's going to be a lot of he said, she said.
There's going to be a lot of hard feelings.
And Jesus, when you talk about an estate that has to be split
up and you got to figure out whogets what.
I got a lot of respect for Brooke Hogan who said, listen, I
don't want any of it. Whatever he's worth 25,000,050
million, 2 billion. I don't want any of it.
(34:15):
I got my own. I don't need it.
Leave me alone. I respect that.
Cause anyone who's ever seen an estate get dealt with, it's it's
years, it's a lot of legal fees and it's a lot of family
fighting with family. And that is just awful.
It's awful. I saw an interview with Brooke
(34:38):
Hogan on on TMZ and I encourage everybody check out TMZ.
You just Google TMZ, Brooke Hogan, you'll see it the latest
results there. But I saw a clip where she was
talking to Harvey and she said she's not sleeping, she's barely
eating and she's got kids to raise.
She got a business to run. She's got a husband to to, you
(34:58):
know, be with. But she's she's going through a
lot. She just lost her dad, who she
was for 99% of her life very very close with.
I'm not supposed to have empathyfor that.
I'm telling you, listen, shut your face.
(35:21):
Every single one of you that have the audacity to talk down
on empathy. I do not care how you feel about
that. I don't care.
I really don't care because you're rotten in my opinion,
simple as that. You're rotten.
(35:47):
And, and I'm going to tell you right now, every single one of
you, and, and it's happened. These listen, I've been doing
this for almost 10 years, folks.I've gotten death threats.
I've, I've been doxxed, I've been threatened more times that
I could count. It's, it's amazing that the, the
nonsense that you go through forhaving the audacity to put out a
wrestling podcast where, you know, I share my opinion, but
(36:09):
for the most part, I'm interviewing people who are
literally the subjects. So I'm, I'm getting first hand
information from the subject. And it's it people go crazy when
they don't like what they hear. And some of these folks through
the years have passed away. You know what you'll never find?
(36:31):
You'll never find me saying anything negative about somebody
like that. I'm not dancing on your grave,
man. No matter how rotten you were
towards me or other people that I've seen, I'm not dancing on
your grave. Why am I going to do that?
I love life. I don't celebrate death.
(36:52):
So if you're a person that is somean spirited that you can't
just say, hey, God bless, condolences to to whomever, then
good for you. But stay over there.
Leave me the hell alone. Please stay where you are,
whatever's rotten and whatever. I don't want that spreading over
here. It's like a sickness.
And I, and I'm going to tell youahead of time here, when your
(37:13):
time comes, condolences to your loved ones, OK?
I'm going to show you compassionbefore it even happens.
We got to get out of this mindset of being so negative to
(37:34):
the point where you can't even see the forest from the trees.
I don't understand why anyone would complain about WWE
providing more opportunity for people to consume the product,
(37:55):
especially when no one is forcing you to consume the
product. It's a choice.
I just, I, I do not understand it.
Listen, I'm not a fan of AEW, which is fascinating because I
there's a lot of people in AEW who I have helped.
Some of those people I've actually helped get in the
company. Sometime in the future, there
(38:17):
are going to be books written and you're going to hear about
some of the things that I've been responsible for and, and
the ways that I've helped people, whether it be helping
them put together their electronic resume, making sure
that they stay on top of dates and tryouts and, or connecting
them with such and such. And and, you know, giving my
opinion, providing information, scouting reports, it is
(38:41):
fascinating, helped a lot of people who are in that company
in various ways. But I don't like the product.
I don't like the way it's managed.
I don't like the leadership. I'm just not a fancy, you know
what I did? I stopped watching.
That's it. Just stop watching.
It's garbage. That doesn't mean that I don't
(39:03):
still care about my friends who are there and you know, even
other people, people I don't even know people who I generally
enjoy their their quality of work, but they're working in a
place that presents the product in a manner that doesn't fit my
taste. So I just leave it alone.
(39:24):
You folks can't do that. Stop it.
Speaking of stop it, I'm going to, I'm going to put something
out there since we're on the thesubject here, because I'm going
to tell you right now is the AEWsnake up to their Slytherin
ways. Again, that's a question that
(39:48):
I'm going to put out there. I'm going to pose that and we'll
end on this question. The Hurt Syndicate, which is
MVP, Shelton Benjamin and Bobby Lashley used to be called the
Hurt Business in the WWE and they had, you know, Cedric
Alexander with them. Cedric is now in in TNA.
(40:09):
But the other three, they're in AW, allegedly they signed big
contracts and all that. You, you look at the, the
ratings for their segments and they're some of the highest
rated. You look at the social media
buzz and they're, they're generating the, the, the most
clicks and, and, and what have you.
(40:32):
People are talking about them because they're awesome.
They're fantastic. The closest thing that we we
will ever have to the Four Horsemen.
And I love the Four Horsemen andI really love the, the Hurt
Business. So the Hurt Syndicate, I don't
like the way they're booked. I don't like the way they're
presented. And I think it's pretty clear
(40:52):
that they don't necessarily likethe way they're booked are being
presented either. But a string of negative
articles have been put out aboutthem claiming that they're
they're refusing to to lose to certain people, such as
Speedball Mike Bailey, who's whois just let me tell you
(41:14):
something. If you ever wanted to develop a
pro wrestler who was absolutely the complete opposite of
anything that I would find entertaining, Speedball Mike
Bailey is got to be pretty closeto the top of that list.
I think his stuff is the you know what's awful?
(41:35):
I just don't like the way that he works.
I don't like his gimmick. Everything about it doesn't make
sense to me. Kudos to this guy for being an
overachiever in my eyes, becausea guy that looks like that and
works like that somehow some ways on TV, damn it.
Congratulations, brother. You must have found your
(41:56):
audience or you must have hustled the money mark to, to,
to pay you to do what you do 'cause what you do is
legitimate. I would not put anybody out
there to lose to a guy like that.
That's just my opinion. I don't have to like it.
It's not for me, but I damn suredon't like it.
Terrible in my opinion. But the, the, the, the press
(42:21):
says that, you know, the Hurt Syndicate, they don't want to
lose to somebody like him. They don't want to lose to FDR.
I enjoyed the revival in the WWEI can't stand FTRI think this
Dax guy that you know the ball headed one.
I think this Dax guy is an IWC humanoid bastard.
(42:45):
That's exactly what I what he isin my opinion, who just happens
to be also be a wrestler. I think he enjoys being an IWC
goofball and you and just some of the things that he says.
It's just really, it makes me scratch my head because it's
like, bro, you know, you and your tag team partner, you have
(43:06):
the, the, the skill to put on some fantastic matches and
you've done it. Why are you online just talking
complete garbage all the time? Just complete garbage.
That's who he is. He he's a whiny little bastard
too. He, he really is.
He's always complaining about something and at the end of the
(43:28):
day, what it comes down to is that, look, man, you're probably
not as good as you think you areand you never will be.
So there's that. But I wonder if the snake has
anything to do with this negative press.
I was talking to a friend of mine who's well accomplished and
(43:48):
you know, they posed that question and it got me thinking
like, damn, that's a good question between the bald
headed, bushy mustache, humanoidbastard known as Dax.
And then we got the snake. Well, Washington, I can see how
how this negativity could be spread about the Hurt Syndicate
(44:09):
because let me tell you something right now, MVP is not
going to sit back and hold his tongue on anything.
And I respect that. Shelton Benjamin, I think he's a
little bit more reserved, but he's another one though.
He's a man and Shelton Benjamin could just whoop just about
anybody's ass. So you're not going to play
games with him either. And Bobby Lashley's Bobby
(44:30):
Lashley. And I've always, I've said this,
when I think of a pro wrestler who, if I could be anybody, this
is like my current superhero, that's Bobby Lashley.
That's how much I Revere that that man.
I just, I, I have all the time in the world for Bobby Lashley.
(44:50):
I think he's just, he's fantastic in front of the camera
and behind the camera. He's just as good of a, a human
being behind the camera as he isa bad ass in front of the
camera. I, I just, I, I really like
Bobby Lashley a lot. So it's not a surprise to me
(45:11):
that people would be spreading negativity about them.
And I wonder if the Slytherin snake has anything to do with
it. Would not surprise me.
I'm not accusing anybody of anything, but I'm just, you
know, somebody brought it up to me and it's not something that
would surprise me. AEW continues to be a mess,
(45:38):
which is why they ran off most of their their potential fanbase
and the casuals who were around for a little while.
I saw that that, that, that Andrew by Dalla, this guy, he's
a big shot athlete, right? Nice guy.
(45:59):
Somebody said he's the Mr. Rogers of, of, of wrestling
media. And I think that's accurate.
Likable guy. But sometimes he just says
things so off the wall that you got to wonder what the hell is
going on here. And I can't, I can't put my
finger on. I think he's clever enough to be
trolling half of the time. Maybe he's not because, you
(46:21):
know, he is an athlete. He could have taken too many
headshots, but I think he's clever or not.
I think he's clever enough, excuse me, to be trolling half
of the time. But he said, you know, AW should
invest in these content creatorsand give them more access and
and let them come around and be at the live of shows, at least
the pay per views and live stream and do things.
(46:44):
Because some of these folks, especially the reaction folks,
some of these folks have engagedfollowings and it might be
helpful to AEW, especially during this period of time where
they could use all the help theycan get.
On the surface, that is a a valid proposal.
I get it. It makes sense.
(47:07):
The problem with this by Diala guy, and I'm going to tell him
to his face, by the way, the problem with this by Diala guy
is it by Dollar Bay, Dollar, dollar, dollar dollar.
I don't know. The problem with this guy is
that he completely ignores the fact that the AW product is in
(47:27):
the toilet. It's not very good and it's not
very good because they focused on the key demo as opposed to
presenting a diverse enough product booked in a a manner
that is diverse enough to attract a diverse audience and
(47:49):
maintain a diverse audience. Tony Kahn loves angsty, probably
a little not preferred by women even though they would love to
be white males. The key demo, right?
(48:14):
That's who they market to, that's who they always market
to. And that's who they, they stood
firm and said that's what that's, that's our bread and
butter. And I've always said you can
only squeeze so much out of those pockets, man.
You got to diversify. And yes, they have more people
of color on their roster, but what are they doing with them?
Is there anything of substance happening?
(48:35):
You get a future Hall of Famer like like like Bobby Lashley and
dare I say Shelton Benjamin is also a future Hall of Famer.
You get 2 guys like that and youjust put tag belts on them the
first night in the company. Bobby Lashley should have
destroyed everybody and been theworld champion and he should be
dominating. Shelton Benjamin should have the
(48:56):
next title below that dominating, and you build up
your defender of AEW to eventually topple Lashley,
eventually topple Benjamin, the next one, spit, rinse, repeat.
It's not rocket science. It's pro wrestling.
The hell are we talking about it?
(49:18):
And that would have attracted enough people, probably myself
included, to give the product more of a chance.
Because you burned everybody, Tony.
So those guys know it. And I have a sneaking suspicion
that they've told Tony Khan to his face that he that he's a
(49:38):
complete moron with the way he'sbooked them and that they're not
satisfied with the booking and it needs to change.
And he and he's placating them with the tag belts.
But who the hell wants those garbage tag belts held by the
young nonsense Bucks and FTR? No one wants those titles.
(50:00):
At least they're now being. There's some prestige being put
on those titles. I'll give that credit.
At least some people who actually are worth putting belts
on. But these guys, they need their
single stars, man. They need to be in the singles
picture. Give me a break.
It's not a surprise that this negativity is coming out about
these guys because you have a lot of insecure, goofy people in
(50:22):
that company who do insecure, goofy things.
And I'm. Yeah, Dax, I'm talking to you.
That's my opinion. But is the snake involved?
Because the snake, he's he's effective, man.
This guy, you know, he's a content creator.
He's got all the people fooled, right?
The snake. And I'm not talking about my man
(50:43):
Jake, who's a friend of the show, but on the show and all
that I'm talking about, you know, Big Willie Washington,
talk about that guy. Is he involved in this?
I wouldn't be surprised. That's all I'm saying.
Now, if he's not involved in this, William, let me be the
(51:03):
first to say if you're not involved, then kudos to you.
And I would say to everybody, leave Will alone.
He's not involved. But I wouldn't be surprised if
he is because it's so nasty and it's so ridiculous and it's so
off base and it's so, it's so slimy that it's certainly is
(51:26):
reminiscent of the type of nonsense that that guy is
involved in, or at least has been in the past.
Based on what I know, You're going to, you're going to
literally trash the three peoplewho could probably save that
company. You take the Hurt Syndicate and
(51:50):
you take Mercedes Monet. You make a superfaction with
them and just let them run wild.One year of that while you build
whoever is going to who's, who'sgoing to topple them and you're
making money hand over fist TonyKhan.
The fact that you're not, I mean, look, we don't have to say
much about Tony. You can't even sell in
Jacksonville. People don't buy AW merchandise
(52:13):
in Jacksonville. Go to any Walmart in or around
Jacksonville and you tell me what the AW merchandise is out
there, especially compared to toWWE.
There's no comparison. Nobody wants to buy that crap.
It's inferior not because the talent is inferior, but it's
(52:38):
because the management is inferior.
So the trickle down effect of that is it's a it's a damaged
brand. People don't want it.
How come AAW didn't do ESPN deal?
Because nobody watches AAW. They don't want that crap.
AW is not a family friendly product.
(52:59):
I go to WWE shows, I see families man.
I see generations of people. I see harmony togetherness.
Every time I've gone to Aww event I've walked away with new
friends and all that good stuff.AW give me a break.
(53:20):
It's a members only club and it's dwindling year after year.
And don't get me started on MJF.That's a whole other story I can
get into with this goofball. Who, who, who had the audacity,
and I'm going to keep bringing this up, who had the audacity to
(53:40):
downplay the transatlantic slavetrade and compare that to the
Holocaust to try to act as if the Holocaust somehow was worse
than slavery, Right. The oppression Olympics trying
to pit 2 communities against each other.
(54:01):
Because he's a moron. He's a, he's a absolute moron.
MJF. But that's the person that Tony
Khan had the audacity at one point in a meeting to say.
What about MJF? There's a marketing company.
I shared some data with Tony Connor.
Everybody listen, man, Jade Cargill, she's hot right now.
We think she can draw more people of color.
(54:24):
Come to your product. You did the thing with Rick
Ross, Action Bronson. Keep leaning into the hip hop
thing. This could work.
Diversify. We can get some brands on board.
This is how this can impact yourcompany positively.
It can work, blah, blah, blah. Let me say it again, it could
work. It's already working.
You see these growth. They did a whole study and Tony
(54:45):
Kahn allegedly said, what about MJF?
That's what we're running with right now, which was just
complete nonsense. It's foolish.
And then you wonder why Jay Cargill left and you wonder why
you stopped seeing as many rappers in that company.
(55:07):
And then they put, they put MJF with Max Caster and, and, and
Bowens and you saw how well thatgot over.
This is this is Tony Khan booking.
So I'm not surprised that negative press is coming out
about the Hurt Syndicate. Those grown men who who are
(55:27):
over, who can draw, who can set up shop anywhere in this nation,
put on matches and people are going to show up and spend money
and see it. That's who they are, not
undersized, bushy mustache, having cry babies online because
(55:50):
God forbid somebody told you notas good as you think.
You aren't Dax. You couldn't shine any of their
shoes. You couldn't do it.
You shouldn't even be in the same sentence as the Hurt
Syndicate, Dax. I'm not even talking about the
(56:13):
one with hair Mr. Mr. Mr. Flash's gun around.
I'm not even talking about him. That's a whole other story with
that goofball I'm talking to. I'm talking to the crybaby.
I have a sneaking suspicion thatyou are at least participating
in the negativity, Dax. That's my opinion, but I wonder
(56:36):
if the snake is involved as well.
I don't know, I digress. Do close wrestling on Facebook
on twitterdoclosewrestling@gmail.com.
As always, let me know what you think.
Sending your your questions, your comments, all that good
stuff. Listen, we are in the top 5% of
all listen to podcasts in the world.
It is incredible. It's incredible.
(56:57):
I mean, last year we hit the the10% mark.
Now we're in the 5%. Hey, and we ain't stopping.
The numbers have been greater than they've ever been obviously
testament to to, you know, the friend of ours podcast, Big
Beetle Lagrosso we did that thing.
That was a good time. Devon and the Duke doing that
(57:17):
thing. That's a good time.
And then every now and then I squeeze in this Duke loves
wrestling thing. You know, we had that Savannah
Bananas episode, which is fantastic.
Mara Sharday, who is killing it in TNA, right, Ruthie J, which
I'm telling you right now, keep your eyes out on Ruthie.
If you're not following Ruthie J, folks, you're, you're doing
(57:37):
yourself a disservice. She's got some huge things
coming up, folks, Huge. If.
If you're not paying attention to Tiffany Neves, who's
currently in N.W.A, if you're not paying attention to her,
you're failing. She is incredible.
Have you seen go check out Tiffany Nieves and her body work
(58:00):
right now. She just came off a feud with
Sharmel and reality of wrestling.
She's holding belts on belts on belts.
She she's all over the place with N.W.A and what have you.
Tiffany Nieves is legitimately the best thing going today right
now. Fantastic.
Layla Gray just released a new album, Great friend of the show,
(58:20):
longtime friend, fantastic, beautiful, talented, her
husband, Luke Curtis, he's running a race, raising money to
do that. Definitely check out his social
media and all that good stuff. There a lot of positive things
going on. Great people who've been
(58:41):
featured on the show and who aredoing great things.
And you wonderful folks have been listening all these years
and supporting these these talented people and supporting
the show. And I just, I can't thank you
enough. I really appreciate it.
And you know that I've I've, I've lightened up on giving my
opinion. I've kind of, I save it for
(59:04):
these moments here. And then I just hit you with it.
You know how that goes. My man Danny G, he's always
saying, Duke, we need more Duke.We need, we need to hear more
from you. And I'm like, ah, Danny, don't
worry. We got to build anticipation a
little bit. Shout out to Danny G that
episode with the Savannah bananas through the roof.
Danny G, he finally, Danny G finally generated more listeners
(59:26):
than his kids. That's amazing.
That's amazing. So shout out to Danny G.
That's my boy. But seriously, I I really do
appreciate you folks. I know you noticed some of the
archive material from through the years.
I've been putting up different clips and what have you on
YouTube. So keep checking those out.
(59:47):
Reminder of some of the great folks.
Listen, I've interviewed so manypeople, even I forget I got to
go back. Oh, yeah, I did interview so and
so. So, you know, it's fun.
It's fun. But it's OK to have an opinion.
It's OK to express what you don't like.
Certainly is is OK to express what you do like.
(01:00:08):
But no matter what, there is a line that doesn't need to be
cross. Folks, I'm going to leave you
with this death. Is, is is forever.
That's the end of it. We we should never ever, ever
celebrate death. We celebrate life.
(01:00:28):
We give compassion when people transition.
But to be so rotten that you can't find it in your heart to
understand why people would would express condolences.
I don't know about that. You got to, you got to take a
look at yourself and figure out what's going on with you.
(01:00:50):
Something ain't right that tweaked that.
That's my opinion. It's OK if you disagree.
I'm OK with that. I'm going to be the first person
to tell you I don't care and I don't care if you don't like
what I have to say. It is what it is.
Anyway, as always, be kind to yourselves and be kind to
others. Catch you next week for Devon
(01:01:15):
and the Duke. Stay tuned for the next episode.
Duke loves wrestling. That's right, strictly for the
country, every day stepping style.
You know you need your way, pants and colours.
So define all about the perfect life.
(01:01:39):
Be yourself, let your spirit liein this house, you'll touch the
sky. Strictly for the culture.
We're so fine dressed to impressand show your shine.
(01:02:03):
Strictly for the culture. Every day snip in style and then
you need a way. Visit
www.strictlyfortheculture.ca. Mr. Tony Shivani and we're
(01:02:36):
desperately out of time on Duke Love Wrestlers.
Brothers and sisters, one of thehealthiest things you can do for
yourself is staying hydrated. And you know what I'm talking
about. You go to your basketball game,
football game, pro wrestling events, and suddenly you get a
little parched. Well, one of the best ways that
you can keep yourself safe is using liquid.
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You got to stay hydrated. Liquid IV has your back.
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(01:50):
That's right. Brothers and sisters, it is your
main man the Duke. With breaking news, WWE and ESPN
have reached a landmark agreement which will see all non
(02:14):
NXT Premium live events will be broadcasted on ESPN platforms in
the United States starting in 2026.
So WrestleMania, Survivor Series, Royal Rumble,
Elimination Chamber, you name it, all premium live events will
(02:35):
be broadcasted across ESPN platforms in the United States
of America. As expected, the Internet
wrestling community is up in arms.
And I'm telling you right now, WWE, on behalf of the IWC,
you're in big trouble. Mr. How dare you do what a
(02:59):
business is supposed to do and make blockbuster deals, make as
much money as you possibly can, and expand your ability and your
reach throughout not only UnitedStates, but the world.
How dare you, WWE? It doesn't matter if you have a
(03:21):
fiduciary responsibility to makeas much money as possible.
It doesn't matter that this dealis over a billion dollars which
will allow you to invest in moretalent, which will allow you to
expand upon your live events anddeliver even higher quality
product. It doesn't matter.
(03:43):
The folks in the IWC, especiallyon X, are furious and we're not
going to take it. We will tweet angry.
We will make memes. We will let you know as we watch
angrily that WWE has no businessdoing what a business is
(04:09):
supposed to do. Locked in?
Listen what we have here, folks.You're the only show that.
Matters the. Queen of the crop.
Duke loves wrestling. And there is no one that does it
better than your house. I have come here to chew bubble
gum and kick ass and. I'm all out of bubble.
(04:37):
Welcome back to Duke Loves Wrestling, the show about pro
wrestling and everything else. I'm telling you folks, I'm
telling you right now, the IWC is angry.
WWE being a successful business is just too much.
It's too much. It's greedy TKO.
(05:00):
They purchased WWE for $9 billion.
How dare they make business decisions that ensure they will
not only recoup on their $9 billion investment, but that
they'll actually make even more money on top of that, make an
actual profit for themselves andtheir investors.
This is preposterous. Has this ever been done before?
(05:22):
Has a business ever actually focused on making money like
this is? This is crazy, folks.
This is crazy. It's pro wrestling.
You're supposed to fail and go out of business.
You're you're supposed to, you know, close the doors so the
(05:43):
wrestlers don't have a place to,to work anymore.
Don't you know that? Don't you know the fans are not
supposed to have a diverse set of channels and apps where they
can watch your product? Fans of all income levels, when
you have NXT on CW, which is over the air TV, all you need is
(06:07):
is literally an antenna. When you have raw, which is on
Netflix, that's a streaming service that people have to pay
for. When you when you have Smackdown
on the USA Network, which is available on, you know, whether
you're talking cable or satellite, you know, slang these
(06:28):
things and now you have the audacity to put the non NXTPLES
on ESPN. If you have ESPN, you're in your
in your cable or satellite package.
You're going to get all of that included.
(06:49):
If you don't, you pay the $30.00a month.
So you can not only get all WWPLES, but you also get the
entire slate of ESPN programming.
Don't you know that this is? Wrong.
A business is not supposed to bea business and make money and
(07:10):
make it possible for as many people as possible to be able to
consume the product. Don't you know that WWE?
This is IWC logic, which means that it's no logic at all.
(07:31):
I can't even say this stuff witha straight face, folks.
It's so ridiculous. The whole thing is so
ridiculous. People are, are are online doing
these dissertations about this. They are shocked that WWE has
the audacity to continue to innovate.
This is this is literally a thing, folks.
(07:53):
I don't know where where some ofthese goofballs come from.
Why wouldn't a business do what a business is supposed to do?
Why wouldn't you do that? They want the WWE to not expand
for some strange reason. And, and I just don't understand
(08:14):
that because here's the reality situation.
Somebody is consuming this stuff, somebody's consuming it.
Somebody's fascinated and and satisfied enough to continue to
tune in, to spend money at the live events, to buy the
(08:35):
merchandise. Somebody's doing it.
Netflix subscriptions to the roof.
Peacock increased their subscription since doing
business with WWE. But somehow, someway, it is
unheard of for WWE to continue to expand and find other
networks to do business with. You have you have NXT Evolve on
(08:59):
Tubi, which is owned by Fox, by the way.
This is this is terrible. How dare they.
How dare the WWE make themselvesavailable across multiple
networks in, in, in apps. I'm telling you right now,
people are losing their ever loving minds.
(09:21):
And I just want to say to all all of these humanoids who are
carrying on about this thing, you're going to watch that whole
FOMO thing, fear of missing out.You're going to watch.
You're stomping your feet. You're you're you're tweeting
angry. You're you're trying to you
know, who could say the the mostclever one liner or come up with
(09:41):
the best meme? And then, you know, you high 5
each other online and all that good stuff.
Hey, Billy Bob. Hey, is Sally Stinky feet 123.
Hey Johnny Bread basket 361. It's it's ridiculous.
It's completely ridiculous. The whole thing.
I, I I'm here in a come to Jesusmoment for the entire IWC
(10:06):
complaining about WWE continuingto do what a business is
supposed to do, which is make money.
I'm here to just encourage everysingle one of you that have
complained about this to do something very important.
Turn up the volume. Tell everybody, quiet down.
(10:30):
You ready? On a count of 3123, shut your
face. Literally shut your face.
You you you you miserable child of God.
Shut your face please. The WWE is here to make money,
(11:01):
just like every business. If you have a problem with them
expanding and making themselves available to more people, don't
watch. No one's making you subscribe.
No one's making you TuneIn. Go watch some of the other
nonsense that's out there. Like like like the the, the
(11:22):
goofball over there down in Jacksonville, right, Who
continues to to do goofball things, right?
Go watch that product. I hear it's I hear it's
fantastic. They draw so many people.
They have so many stars. I hear it's an incredible show
(11:43):
down there in Jacksonville. Go watch that nonsense.
I'm not watching it, but you canI, I encourage you go watch it,
please. The WWE is great business and it
is wise for every single networkto try to do some kind of deal
(12:04):
with them. It just makes sense.
Somebody said to me the other day, well, you know, their,
their audience is shrinking. They, they only have about, you
know, like 3 million people in, in the United States.
And I'm like, OK, let's say that's true.
Let's say the WWE audience literally is about 3 million
people. That's three million people who
(12:28):
are completely engaged and will follow wherever the WWE goes.
That's three million people who are responsible for the WWE
right now in this very moment, maintaining at least five
separate billion dollar deals atleast.
(12:54):
Let me tell you something. I don't care what kind of
business you have, if you can get 3 million people to matter
that much that everyone is, is literally, you know, fussing and
fighting and, and, and having a,a war with each other just to do
business with you. They're trying to, they're
trying to offer you the most so you could, they can get some
business out of you. Hey, I think that's a pretty
(13:18):
good deal. I think any business would want
that. There are too many experts out
there, folks, too many self appointed experts who don't know
anything at all. It's fascinating.
It's completely fascinating. Listen, there was a time in life
where most people had some form of retail experience, right?
(13:46):
Most people if, if their first job wasn't like babysitting or
dog walking or you know, the paper route or something like
that. Most people worked at a mall.
They worked at a store where youhad to sell stuff, right?
Unless you were in the, in the, in the food service industry.
The alternative was that you, you work some place where you
(14:09):
were responsible for dealing with customers and selling them
a product. A lot of folks end up becoming
some form of leadership, team lead, assistant manager,
manager, right regional manager,GM, vice president, president,
(14:35):
whatever. People who have ever in their
lives been responsible for a business, in growing a business.
More most importantly, be responsible for the numbers.
Be responsible for for figuring out how to how to keep the
budget reasonable, maintain a workforce, most importantly
(15:03):
generate enough sales to turn a profit.
Most people who who have lived that life on any scale generally
don't react like most of the goofballs that you see online.
You can always tell who's never been responsible for for a
business just by the way that they they talk.
(15:25):
Well, this is greedy. How?
This is very greedy, $30.00 for the ESPN app.
This is greedy as if the WWE is not supposed to recoup on their
investment, right? TKO buying WWE for 9 billion,
they're not supposed to do that.They're not supposed to make
(15:47):
billion dollar deals everywhere so they can get their money
back. And they're actually ahead of
schedule. Quite frankly, what the at the
rate they're going, which is fascinating to me because $9
billion, a lot of money, they'remaking that money back quick.
And on the ESPN side, you act asif they're not supposed to make
(16:08):
money. ESPN is such a powerful brand
and and you know, they just signed with the NFL.
They they're getting, what is it, red zone, the NFL Network,
ESPN is going to be running all that.
Are they not supposed to charge you a fair rate so they can
(16:28):
recoup some of that investment money as well?
I don't understand it. I, I legitimately folks, I do
not understand who are all thesepeople that never had real
responsibility in their lives? Because clearly that's the case
when you, when you read some of their comments or when you hear
(16:49):
some of the things that they're saying, clearly that's the case
Completely out to lunch, the whole lot of them.
And I'm going to tell you right now, I see this stuff and I
giggle. I giggle, I giggle because it's
all entertainment to me. You're going to sit there and
(17:12):
stomp your feet. You're going to complain, you're
going to tweet angry. You're going to do all these
things, but you're going to watch and you're going to show
up. You're going to spend money,
you're going to buy the merchandise, you're going to
weigh in because everybody else is doing it.
There are very few people who can walk away from wrestling at
(17:33):
this point. Very few.
You could put it down for a period of time, but you're
always going to pick it up because you love it.
And I'm talking WWE in particular.
Call it what it is, man. We saw the return of Brock
Lesnar, which welcome back Brock.
(17:54):
It's been what, two years? Guy's finally back, very
excited. You know, he comes back, he's
beaten up on John Cena, which iswhat he always does when he
comes back, which is pretty awesome.
And it really makes me scratch my head because, you know,
(18:16):
people are following this, this Janelle Grant lawsuit.
It's a civil lawsuit, which means it's not criminal.
This is literally just, you know, you're suing because
you're trying to get some money,which is OK.
Janelle Grant alleges that VinceMcMahon, you know, he breached
a, a agreement that they had together, an NDA and she feels
(18:41):
she was taken advantage of by Vince, which I think is
reasonable as a chairman of the board.
And at one point he was, he was the president and CEO.
He was the he's, he's Vince McMahon.
He's everything. She was an employee, they
entered into a consensual sexualrelationship with one another,
(19:04):
but she feels she was taken advantage of and she has
provided some evidence and they got to go through the legal
system. I get it.
That's fine. We had no issues with that.
She's suing Vincent, She's suingthe company.
Fantastic. In the documents, Janelle Grant
points out that Brock Lesnar is someone who Vince McMahon was
(19:28):
negotiating a new contract with.And Grant alleges that Vince
told her that he promised Brock that Brock can fool around with
her if he signs a new deal. And and Grant alleges that that
Vince had her text Brock a naughty video, let's call it
(19:55):
that. Grant alleges that Brock
responded and they entered into what we would call today sexting
and Grant pursued making plans with Brock to actually act on
some of the things that they were sexting about.
(20:16):
In the lawsuit, Grant states. Brock Lesnar did not actually
make good on their plans. Three time.
He blew this woman off 3 times. That's what the lawsuit says.
And this is from Grant, right? So I just want to make sure
(20:40):
we're comparing notes here and we're getting this clear.
And you know what I'm this is this is Duke loves Ross.
And we just look at the truth wecall right down the middle.
It is what it is. I got no dog in this fight.
I just believe in the Constitution.
I believe in the truth. Got to look at all the facts,
right? If we were on the jury, we'd
have to look at all the facts. So why can't we do that Outside?
(21:02):
Some lady at work starts textingnaughty things to you and she's
the boss's assistant, basically,and you're in the middle of a
contract negotiation and you're supposed to be this big hulking
person who's supposed to be a man's man and all this good
stuff here. What do you do?
(21:25):
He starts playing along because,you know, it's kind of weird,
but this is what it is. But he doesn't go through with
it because clearly I'm assuming if any of this is true, I'm
assuming the guy was not comfortable with moving forward
with something like that. What a lot of you folks seem to
(21:47):
to miss here. If this stuff is true, Brock is
being sexually harassed by Grantin those moments.
Now, Grant alleges that this is at the direction of Vince and
that's, hey, OK, But it doesn't negate the fact that she was
inflicting on Brock and in the end, Brock would not move
(22:11):
forward with these grandiose plans that she initiated.
So given, and this is all comingfrom the lawsuit, folks, given
these facts, why on earth would Brock Lesnar not be allowed to
continue to work and make money for himself and his family?
(22:36):
Because every time he steps footout there, new merchandise gets
put together. So he gets to make more money on
top of his contract. He gets to increase his value.
Brock Lesnar is one of the top earning box office attractions
in pay-per-view history. I know WW ES rebranded pay per
views as PL. ES, but Brock Lesnar, and I'm
(22:58):
talking to anybody, boxers, MMA fighters, what have you, pro
wrestling. Brock Lesnar is is one of the
top earners. He's one of the biggest draws in
sports and entertainment history.
So why shouldn't this person be allowed to continue to do their
job? Well, well, well, well.
(23:21):
She described him in the lawsuit.
OK, She's not suing Brock Lesnar.
Grant never even accused Brock Lesnar of committing any crimes.
And what is described in lawsuit, there's no crime there.
Tell me again why this guy can'tdo his job Well, well, well,
(23:43):
it's sleazy to to let him come back because he was in a
lawsuit. I, I just completely out to
lunch. These IWC humanoids just out to
lunch. So just so we could we're, we're
making sure we're clear here, right?
(24:03):
You want a guy who's not being sued, who has not been accused
of committing a crime, has not been arrested, charged like
literally nothing. Nothing at all.
You want that person to somehow,someway not be allowed to make a
(24:24):
living in the job that he legitimately is an expert in and
a legend in, while at the same time you continue to TuneIn and
watch actively discuss online and therefore market for his
(24:49):
employer, the WWE, which is literally being sued by the
woman in the lawsuit. I'm telling you right, These
folks are out to lunch. You want to punish the guy
that's not in the wrong legally,but you want to continue to
(25:13):
consume the company that's beingaccused of being in the wrong?
I wouldn't trust any of you to do anything for me.
Don't listen. If my life was on the line, I'm
in big trouble. If I have to depend on any
knucklehead who has a problem with Brock Lesnar being back on
(25:35):
WWTV, there was something wrong with you, in my opinion.
Seriously. A person who who has not been
accused of committing a crime, who's not being sued, not been
arrested, not been convicted, nothing.
Nothing and you have a problem with them being allowed to do
(26:00):
their job, but you're still consuming the company being
sued. I'm telling you right now, I
would not trust you to do anything for me.
I wouldn't even trust you to hold the door for me 'cause I
don't think that you, that you're a person that can make
logical decisions in life. Something's wrong with you.
I would be concerned if any of you were serving on a jury.
(26:22):
Something is wrong with you. No wonder there's so many
accidents on the road because a lot of you have your driver's
license. You, you guys make poor
decisions. It's clear, absolute, complete,
utter nonsense. It's nonsense.
(26:45):
But this is the IWC way I'm telling you folks.
It's. It's just, it boggles my mind,
the whole thing there. There is a lot of, and we've
seen this because of the pandemic.
It's like people's brains have been turned to mush with a lot
(27:06):
of this stuff. And they just say the most
irrational, nonsensical things consistently.
And it really makes you scratch your head.
We had the passing of Hulk Hoganand shout out, you know, Devon
and the Duke show that I do withWWE Hall of Famer Devon Dudley.
(27:28):
New episode will be up next week.
We just had Hogan's funeral and a whole lot of stuff going on.
Big man. Hey, give that man a break.
Come get his thoughts together. So many of you gave positive
feedback and thank you for that because Devon, you know, pointed
(27:50):
out that he forgave Hulk and he leaned on his Bible verses and
things like that to help justifyhis position.
You know, Hulk Hogan said some very racist things and expressed
racist philosophy on more than one occasion.
It's clear that this was a belief that this man harbored to
(28:11):
a certain degree. Did he change?
I don't know. I don't know Hulk Hogan.
I'll never forget what he did and how it made me feel.
It's pretty rotten, but a persondied, a person who was who's my
childhood hero at one point. So all I do is offer condolences
(28:36):
to his family and his loved onesand condolences to other people
in the same boat as me who grew up idolizing that person and who
were hurt by what that person ultimately revealed themselves
to be, which was a racist. He literally said I am a racist.
Can't hide from that. That's what Hogan said, right?
So I'm not going to forget that.But the man is dead and I'm not
(29:01):
going to dance on his grave. And it did hurt me.
And I do feel bad about the factthat that guy died before he
ever was able to fully redeem himself.
And hearing some of the things that his daughter Brooke Hogan
is saying and how she's had to estranged herself from her
family. Well, from her parents.
(29:23):
She has her own family now. She has her own children, she
has a husband and they have their own life, make their own
money. They never had to depend on Hulk
or anything like that. I feel bad for them.
I feel bad for Nick Hogan, who'sappeared in WWE numerous times
at tributes and things like that, 'cause he's very close to
his dad, just like Brooke was until they were estranged.
(29:45):
Feel bad for those folks. That's compassion.
Some of you have a problem with compassion, and I'm just going
to tell you right now, that's your cross to barren life.
I don't roll that way. I can.
(30:06):
I can compartmentalize life. I can have a problem with the
way that you have conducted yourself, things that you've
said, how you've treated others,how you treat me.
I can have a problem with that and be very upset with you over
that, and yet I could still showyou empathy and compassion and
(30:30):
and the extension of that empathy and compassion doesn't
have anything to do with you when it has everything to do
with me. That's who I am as a human
being. Just because you are a lowlife
scumbag, racist, Jackass, all the buzzwords, just because you
(30:54):
conduct yourself that way, that doesn't mean I'm going to stoop
down to your level. I'm not going to do that.
Treat people how you want to be treated, regardless of who they
are. Now, That doesn't mean that you
allow yourself to stay in the line of fire and continue to get
(31:15):
hurt by somebody who does not have your best interest at
heart. Don't misunderstand me there.
I'm not a fool. You identify yourself as a
racist. I'm not going to keep sniffing
around you and and trying to be your buddy.
Stay the hell away from you racist.
You're a jerk. But if you die, I'm not going to
(31:35):
say, well, yeah, good for that or damn him or don't Nobody,
nobody mourn his death because he was no good.
That's your problem. That's not my problem.
And I, I'm, I'm just going to tell you right now, folks, with
all due respect, I do not care how you feel about it.
I'm talking about how I feel in this moment.
(31:58):
How you feel is immaterial to me.
So some of you talking all that nonsense out there, and that's
exactly what it is. In my opinion.
It's nonsense. If your heart is so rotten that
you can't have any compassion orempathy for the fact that
(32:18):
somebody just died, then good for you.
Someday you'll have to sort thatout.
Whatever God that that you pray to or what have you.
Or maybe you don't and that would be between you and them.
But will, what I got going on over here doesn't work like
that. I don't celebrate death on
anybody. I celebrate life.
(32:42):
I don't celebrate death. So just want to make sure that
we're clear on that because the topic it, it's, it's ongoing,
man. And it's not going to stop
anytime soon. Brooke Hogan has stated that she
wants an autopsy done on her father.
It's claimed that he had advanced cancer of some sort,
(33:09):
which ultimately led to him going into cardiac arrest or
what have you. And that's what caused him to
die. Brooke Hogan is is like, let's
do an autopsy. Why would you try to, you know,
just pass it off as that's the cause of death without doing an
autopsy. And I agree with Brooke.
I think that's smart. I think you should always do an
autopsy just to verify. That's a lot of pain and
(33:30):
anguish. I feel bad for that family, all
of them. When you lose a loved one,
especially a loved one who is part of an extended family that
wasn't the original family that you were born into.
In this case, Hogan had a whole different wife.
There's going to be a lot of finger pointing.
(33:52):
It's going to be a lot of he said, she said.
There's going to be a lot of hard feelings.
And Jesus, when you talk about an estate that has to be split
up and you got to figure out whogets what.
I got a lot of respect for Brooke Hogan who said, listen, I
don't want any of it. Whatever he's worth 25,000,050
million, 2 billion. I don't want any of it.
(34:15):
I got my own. I don't need it.
Leave me alone. I respect that.
Cause anyone who's ever seen an estate get dealt with, it's it's
years, it's a lot of legal fees and it's a lot of family
fighting with family. And that is just awful.
It's awful. I saw an interview with Brooke
(34:38):
Hogan on on TMZ and I encourage everybody check out TMZ.
You just Google TMZ, Brooke Hogan, you'll see it the latest
results there. But I saw a clip where she was
talking to Harvey and she said she's not sleeping, she's barely
eating and she's got kids to raise.
She got a business to run. She's got a husband to to, you
(34:58):
know, be with. But she's she's going through a
lot. She just lost her dad, who she
was for 99% of her life very very close with.
I'm not supposed to have empathyfor that.
I'm telling you, listen, shut your face.
(35:21):
Every single one of you that have the audacity to talk down
on empathy. I do not care how you feel about
that. I don't care.
I really don't care because you're rotten in my opinion,
simple as that. You're rotten.
(35:47):
And, and I'm going to tell you right now, every single one of
you, and, and it's happened. These listen, I've been doing
this for almost 10 years, folks.I've gotten death threats.
I've, I've been doxxed, I've been threatened more times that
I could count. It's, it's amazing that the, the
nonsense that you go through forhaving the audacity to put out a
wrestling podcast where, you know, I share my opinion, but
(36:09):
for the most part, I'm interviewing people who are
literally the subjects. So I'm, I'm getting first hand
information from the subject. And it's it people go crazy when
they don't like what they hear. And some of these folks through
the years have passed away. You know what you'll never find?
(36:31):
You'll never find me saying anything negative about somebody
like that. I'm not dancing on your grave,
man. No matter how rotten you were
towards me or other people that I've seen, I'm not dancing on
your grave. Why am I going to do that?
I love life. I don't celebrate death.
(36:52):
So if you're a person that is somean spirited that you can't
just say, hey, God bless, condolences to to whomever, then
good for you. But stay over there.
Leave me the hell alone. Please stay where you are,
whatever's rotten and whatever. I don't want that spreading over
here. It's like a sickness.
And I, and I'm going to tell youahead of time here, when your
(37:13):
time comes, condolences to your loved ones, OK?
I'm going to show you compassionbefore it even happens.
We got to get out of this mindset of being so negative to
(37:34):
the point where you can't even see the forest from the trees.
I don't understand why anyone would complain about WWE
providing more opportunity for people to consume the product,
(37:55):
especially when no one is forcing you to consume the
product. It's a choice.
I just, I, I do not understand it.
Listen, I'm not a fan of AEW, which is fascinating because I
there's a lot of people in AEW who I have helped.
Some of those people I've actually helped get in the
company. Sometime in the future, there
(38:17):
are going to be books written and you're going to hear about
some of the things that I've been responsible for and, and
the ways that I've helped people, whether it be helping
them put together their electronic resume, making sure
that they stay on top of dates and tryouts and, or connecting
them with such and such. And and, you know, giving my
opinion, providing information, scouting reports, it is
(38:41):
fascinating, helped a lot of people who are in that company
in various ways. But I don't like the product.
I don't like the way it's managed.
I don't like the leadership. I'm just not a fancy, you know
what I did? I stopped watching.
That's it. Just stop watching.
It's garbage. That doesn't mean that I don't
(39:03):
still care about my friends who are there and you know, even
other people, people I don't even know people who I generally
enjoy their their quality of work, but they're working in a
place that presents the product in a manner that doesn't fit my
taste. So I just leave it alone.
(39:24):
You folks can't do that. Stop it.
Speaking of stop it, I'm going to, I'm going to put something
out there since we're on the thesubject here, because I'm going
to tell you right now is the AEWsnake up to their Slytherin
ways. Again, that's a question that
(39:48):
I'm going to put out there. I'm going to pose that and we'll
end on this question. The Hurt Syndicate, which is
MVP, Shelton Benjamin and Bobby Lashley used to be called the
Hurt Business in the WWE and they had, you know, Cedric
Alexander with them. Cedric is now in in TNA.
(40:09):
But the other three, they're in AW, allegedly they signed big
contracts and all that. You, you look at the, the
ratings for their segments and they're some of the highest
rated. You look at the social media
buzz and they're, they're generating the, the, the most
clicks and, and, and what have you.
(40:32):
People are talking about them because they're awesome.
They're fantastic. The closest thing that we we
will ever have to the Four Horsemen.
And I love the Four Horsemen andI really love the, the Hurt
Business. So the Hurt Syndicate, I don't
like the way they're booked. I don't like the way they're
presented. And I think it's pretty clear
(40:52):
that they don't necessarily likethe way they're booked are being
presented either. But a string of negative
articles have been put out aboutthem claiming that they're
they're refusing to to lose to certain people, such as
Speedball Mike Bailey, who's whois just let me tell you
(41:14):
something. If you ever wanted to develop a
pro wrestler who was absolutely the complete opposite of
anything that I would find entertaining, Speedball Mike
Bailey is got to be pretty closeto the top of that list.
I think his stuff is the you know what's awful?
(41:35):
I just don't like the way that he works.
I don't like his gimmick. Everything about it doesn't make
sense to me. Kudos to this guy for being an
overachiever in my eyes, becausea guy that looks like that and
works like that somehow some ways on TV, damn it.
Congratulations, brother. You must have found your
(41:56):
audience or you must have hustled the money mark to, to,
to pay you to do what you do 'cause what you do is
legitimate. I would not put anybody out
there to lose to a guy like that.
That's just my opinion. I don't have to like it.
It's not for me, but I damn suredon't like it.
Terrible in my opinion. But the, the, the, the press
(42:21):
says that, you know, the Hurt Syndicate, they don't want to
lose to somebody like him. They don't want to lose to FDR.
I enjoyed the revival in the WWEI can't stand FTRI think this
Dax guy that you know the ball headed one.
I think this Dax guy is an IWC humanoid bastard.
(42:45):
That's exactly what I what he isin my opinion, who just happens
to be also be a wrestler. I think he enjoys being an IWC
goofball and you and just some of the things that he says.
It's just really, it makes me scratch my head because it's
like, bro, you know, you and your tag team partner, you have
(43:06):
the, the, the skill to put on some fantastic matches and
you've done it. Why are you online just talking
complete garbage all the time? Just complete garbage.
That's who he is. He he's a whiny little bastard
too. He, he really is.
He's always complaining about something and at the end of the
(43:28):
day, what it comes down to is that, look, man, you're probably
not as good as you think you areand you never will be.
So there's that. But I wonder if the snake has
anything to do with this negative press.
I was talking to a friend of mine who's well accomplished and
(43:48):
you know, they posed that question and it got me thinking
like, damn, that's a good question between the bald
headed, bushy mustache, humanoidbastard known as Dax.
And then we got the snake. Well, Washington, I can see how
how this negativity could be spread about the Hurt Syndicate
(44:09):
because let me tell you something right now, MVP is not
going to sit back and hold his tongue on anything.
And I respect that. Shelton Benjamin, I think he's a
little bit more reserved, but he's another one though.
He's a man and Shelton Benjamin could just whoop just about
anybody's ass. So you're not going to play
games with him either. And Bobby Lashley's Bobby
(44:30):
Lashley. And I've always, I've said this,
when I think of a pro wrestler who, if I could be anybody, this
is like my current superhero, that's Bobby Lashley.
That's how much I Revere that that man.
I just, I, I have all the time in the world for Bobby Lashley.
(44:50):
I think he's just, he's fantastic in front of the camera
and behind the camera. He's just as good of a, a human
being behind the camera as he isa bad ass in front of the
camera. I, I just, I, I really like
Bobby Lashley a lot. So it's not a surprise to me
(45:11):
that people would be spreading negativity about them.
And I wonder if the Slytherin snake has anything to do with
it. Would not surprise me.
I'm not accusing anybody of anything, but I'm just, you
know, somebody brought it up to me and it's not something that
would surprise me. AEW continues to be a mess,
(45:38):
which is why they ran off most of their their potential fanbase
and the casuals who were around for a little while.
I saw that that, that, that Andrew by Dalla, this guy, he's
a big shot athlete, right? Nice guy.
(45:59):
Somebody said he's the Mr. Rogers of, of, of wrestling
media. And I think that's accurate.
Likable guy. But sometimes he just says
things so off the wall that you got to wonder what the hell is
going on here. And I can't, I can't put my
finger on. I think he's clever enough to be
trolling half of the time. Maybe he's not because, you
(46:21):
know, he is an athlete. He could have taken too many
headshots, but I think he's clever or not.
I think he's clever enough, excuse me, to be trolling half
of the time. But he said, you know, AW should
invest in these content creatorsand give them more access and
and let them come around and be at the live of shows, at least
the pay per views and live stream and do things.
(46:44):
Because some of these folks, especially the reaction folks,
some of these folks have engagedfollowings and it might be
helpful to AEW, especially during this period of time where
they could use all the help theycan get.
On the surface, that is a a valid proposal.
I get it. It makes sense.
(47:07):
The problem with this by Diala guy, and I'm going to tell him
to his face, by the way, the problem with this by Diala guy
is it by Dollar Bay, Dollar, dollar, dollar dollar.
I don't know. The problem with this guy is
that he completely ignores the fact that the AW product is in
(47:27):
the toilet. It's not very good and it's not
very good because they focused on the key demo as opposed to
presenting a diverse enough product booked in a a manner
that is diverse enough to attract a diverse audience and
(47:49):
maintain a diverse audience. Tony Kahn loves angsty, probably
a little not preferred by women even though they would love to
be white males. The key demo, right?
(48:14):
That's who they market to, that's who they always market
to. And that's who they, they stood
firm and said that's what that's, that's our bread and
butter. And I've always said you can
only squeeze so much out of those pockets, man.
You got to diversify. And yes, they have more people
of color on their roster, but what are they doing with them?
Is there anything of substance happening?
(48:35):
You get a future Hall of Famer like like like Bobby Lashley and
dare I say Shelton Benjamin is also a future Hall of Famer.
You get 2 guys like that and youjust put tag belts on them the
first night in the company. Bobby Lashley should have
destroyed everybody and been theworld champion and he should be
dominating. Shelton Benjamin should have the
(48:56):
next title below that dominating, and you build up
your defender of AEW to eventually topple Lashley,
eventually topple Benjamin, the next one, spit, rinse, repeat.
It's not rocket science. It's pro wrestling.
The hell are we talking about it?
(49:18):
And that would have attracted enough people, probably myself
included, to give the product more of a chance.
Because you burned everybody, Tony.
So those guys know it. And I have a sneaking suspicion
that they've told Tony Khan to his face that he that he's a
(49:38):
complete moron with the way he'sbooked them and that they're not
satisfied with the booking and it needs to change.
And he and he's placating them with the tag belts.
But who the hell wants those garbage tag belts held by the
young nonsense Bucks and FTR? No one wants those titles.
(50:00):
At least they're now being. There's some prestige being put
on those titles. I'll give that credit.
At least some people who actually are worth putting belts
on. But these guys, they need their
single stars, man. They need to be in the singles
picture. Give me a break.
It's not a surprise that this negativity is coming out about
these guys because you have a lot of insecure, goofy people in
(50:22):
that company who do insecure, goofy things.
And I'm. Yeah, Dax, I'm talking to you.
That's my opinion. But is the snake involved?
Because the snake, he's he's effective, man.
This guy, you know, he's a content creator.
He's got all the people fooled, right?
The snake. And I'm not talking about my man
(50:43):
Jake, who's a friend of the show, but on the show and all
that I'm talking about, you know, Big Willie Washington,
talk about that guy. Is he involved in this?
I wouldn't be surprised. That's all I'm saying.
Now, if he's not involved in this, William, let me be the
(51:03):
first to say if you're not involved, then kudos to you.
And I would say to everybody, leave Will alone.
He's not involved. But I wouldn't be surprised if
he is because it's so nasty and it's so ridiculous and it's so
off base and it's so, it's so slimy that it's certainly is
(51:26):
reminiscent of the type of nonsense that that guy is
involved in, or at least has been in the past.
Based on what I know, You're going to, you're going to
literally trash the three peoplewho could probably save that
company. You take the Hurt Syndicate and
(51:50):
you take Mercedes Monet. You make a superfaction with
them and just let them run wild.One year of that while you build
whoever is going to who's, who'sgoing to topple them and you're
making money hand over fist TonyKhan.
The fact that you're not, I mean, look, we don't have to say
much about Tony. You can't even sell in
Jacksonville. People don't buy AW merchandise
(52:13):
in Jacksonville. Go to any Walmart in or around
Jacksonville and you tell me what the AW merchandise is out
there, especially compared to toWWE.
There's no comparison. Nobody wants to buy that crap.
It's inferior not because the talent is inferior, but it's
(52:38):
because the management is inferior.
So the trickle down effect of that is it's a it's a damaged
brand. People don't want it.
How come AAW didn't do ESPN deal?
Because nobody watches AAW. They don't want that crap.
AW is not a family friendly product.
(52:59):
I go to WWE shows, I see families man.
I see generations of people. I see harmony togetherness.
Every time I've gone to Aww event I've walked away with new
friends and all that good stuff.AW give me a break.
(53:20):
It's a members only club and it's dwindling year after year.
And don't get me started on MJF.That's a whole other story I can
get into with this goofball. Who, who, who had the audacity,
and I'm going to keep bringing this up, who had the audacity to
(53:40):
downplay the transatlantic slavetrade and compare that to the
Holocaust to try to act as if the Holocaust somehow was worse
than slavery, Right. The oppression Olympics trying
to pit 2 communities against each other.
(54:01):
Because he's a moron. He's a, he's a absolute moron.
MJF. But that's the person that Tony
Khan had the audacity at one point in a meeting to say.
What about MJF? There's a marketing company.
I shared some data with Tony Connor.
Everybody listen, man, Jade Cargill, she's hot right now.
We think she can draw more people of color.
(54:24):
Come to your product. You did the thing with Rick
Ross, Action Bronson. Keep leaning into the hip hop
thing. This could work.
Diversify. We can get some brands on board.
This is how this can impact yourcompany positively.
It can work, blah, blah, blah. Let me say it again, it could
work. It's already working.
You see these growth. They did a whole study and Tony
(54:45):
Kahn allegedly said, what about MJF?
That's what we're running with right now, which was just
complete nonsense. It's foolish.
And then you wonder why Jay Cargill left and you wonder why
you stopped seeing as many rappers in that company.
(55:07):
And then they put, they put MJF with Max Caster and, and, and
Bowens and you saw how well thatgot over.
This is this is Tony Khan booking.
So I'm not surprised that negative press is coming out
about the Hurt Syndicate. Those grown men who who are
(55:27):
over, who can draw, who can set up shop anywhere in this nation,
put on matches and people are going to show up and spend money
and see it. That's who they are, not
undersized, bushy mustache, having cry babies online because
(55:50):
God forbid somebody told you notas good as you think.
You aren't Dax. You couldn't shine any of their
shoes. You couldn't do it.
You shouldn't even be in the same sentence as the Hurt
Syndicate, Dax. I'm not even talking about the
(56:13):
one with hair Mr. Mr. Mr. Flash's gun around.
I'm not even talking about him. That's a whole other story with
that goofball I'm talking to. I'm talking to the crybaby.
I have a sneaking suspicion thatyou are at least participating
in the negativity, Dax. That's my opinion, but I wonder
(56:36):
if the snake is involved as well.
I don't know, I digress. Do close wrestling on Facebook
on twitterdoclosewrestling@gmail.com.
As always, let me know what you think.
Sending your your questions, your comments, all that good
stuff. Listen, we are in the top 5% of
all listen to podcasts in the world.
It is incredible. It's incredible.
(56:57):
I mean, last year we hit the the10% mark.
Now we're in the 5%. Hey, and we ain't stopping.
The numbers have been greater than they've ever been obviously
testament to to, you know, the friend of ours podcast, Big
Beetle Lagrosso we did that thing.
That was a good time. Devon and the Duke doing that
(57:17):
thing. That's a good time.
And then every now and then I squeeze in this Duke loves
wrestling thing. You know, we had that Savannah
Bananas episode, which is fantastic.
Mara Sharday, who is killing it in TNA, right, Ruthie J, which
I'm telling you right now, keep your eyes out on Ruthie.
If you're not following Ruthie J, folks, you're, you're doing
(57:37):
yourself a disservice. She's got some huge things
coming up, folks, Huge. If.
If you're not paying attention to Tiffany Neves, who's
currently in N.W.A, if you're not paying attention to her,
you're failing. She is incredible.
Have you seen go check out Tiffany Nieves and her body work
(58:00):
right now. She just came off a feud with
Sharmel and reality of wrestling.
She's holding belts on belts on belts.
She she's all over the place with N.W.A and what have you.
Tiffany Nieves is legitimately the best thing going today right
now. Fantastic.
Layla Gray just released a new album, Great friend of the show,
(58:20):
longtime friend, fantastic, beautiful, talented, her
husband, Luke Curtis, he's running a race, raising money to
do that. Definitely check out his social
media and all that good stuff. There a lot of positive things
going on. Great people who've been
(58:41):
featured on the show and who aredoing great things.
And you wonderful folks have been listening all these years
and supporting these these talented people and supporting
the show. And I just, I can't thank you
enough. I really appreciate it.
And you know that I've I've, I've lightened up on giving my
opinion. I've kind of, I save it for
(59:04):
these moments here. And then I just hit you with it.
You know how that goes. My man Danny G, he's always
saying, Duke, we need more Duke.We need, we need to hear more
from you. And I'm like, ah, Danny, don't
worry. We got to build anticipation a
little bit. Shout out to Danny G that
episode with the Savannah bananas through the roof.
Danny G, he finally, Danny G finally generated more listeners
(59:26):
than his kids. That's amazing.
That's amazing. So shout out to Danny G.
That's my boy. But seriously, I I really do
appreciate you folks. I know you noticed some of the
archive material from through the years.
I've been putting up different clips and what have you on
YouTube. So keep checking those out.
(59:47):
Reminder of some of the great folks.
Listen, I've interviewed so manypeople, even I forget I got to
go back. Oh, yeah, I did interview so and
so. So, you know, it's fun.
It's fun. But it's OK to have an opinion.
It's OK to express what you don't like.
Certainly is is OK to express what you do like.
(01:00:08):
But no matter what, there is a line that doesn't need to be
cross. Folks, I'm going to leave you
with this death. Is, is is forever.
That's the end of it. We we should never ever, ever
celebrate death. We celebrate life.
(01:00:28):
We give compassion when people transition.
But to be so rotten that you can't find it in your heart to
understand why people would would express condolences.
I don't know about that. You got to, you got to take a
look at yourself and figure out what's going on with you.
(01:00:50):
Something ain't right that tweaked that.
That's my opinion. It's OK if you disagree.
I'm OK with that. I'm going to be the first person
to tell you I don't care and I don't care if you don't like
what I have to say. It is what it is.
Anyway, as always, be kind to yourselves and be kind to
others. Catch you next week for Devon
(01:01:15):
and the Duke. Stay tuned for the next episode.
Duke loves wrestling. That's right, strictly for the
country, every day stepping style.
You know you need your way, pants and colours.
So define all about the perfect life.
(01:01:39):
Be yourself, let your spirit liein this house, you'll touch the
sky. Strictly for the culture.
We're so fine dressed to impressand show your shine.
(01:02:03):
Strictly for the culture. Every day snip in style and then
you need a way. Visit
www.strictlyfortheculture.ca. Mr. Tony Shivani and we're
(01:02:36):
desperately out of time on Duke Love Wrestlers.
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