15 YRS AGO LIVECASTS: MVP's release, Miz, Riley's DUI, Lawler & Cole, Sting's future, TNA PPV, NXT4 omissions

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 2 (01:36):
Now.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
Pw Torch and Spreaker bring you the Wade Keller Pro
Wrestling Podcast.

Speaker 4 (01:46):
Today.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
On the Way Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast, we jump back
fifteen years to a double header from December second and third,
twenty ten. James Caldwell hosted both shows. He was joined
first by Greg Parks to discuss with live callers breaking
news on MVP's release, covered the news from all angles
for the first thirty minutes of the show, and then
discussed how WWE handled Alex Riley's dy the Misses first
Weekends Champion, whether do bann ouncers could be shifted around

(02:10):
as a result of the Lawler versus Michael Cole feud,
Ceampunk's work on commentary and more. And then in the
previously VIP exclusive after show, they looked at a question
on what wrestling might look like today, had WCW bought
WWF or WWE plus missus ESPN interview and how he's
presenting himself as champion, the NXT season forecast, TNA's final

(02:33):
resolution pay per view, and more. And then the December
third episode follows up on a lot of that, a
lot of those topics with live callers, including some hope
from listeners on Raw going forward, whether and when w
would reveal to Raw GM and more. So, let's get
to it. This is the wayd Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast
fifteen years ago flashback for Friday, December fifth, twenty twenty five.

Speaker 4 (02:55):
You're listening to the PW tors live cast the assist
PW Torch Assistant James Caldwell hosting today on Thursday, December second,
twenty ten, and I'm joined today by Towards Calmus, Greg Parks,
Greig How are you today?

Speaker 5 (03:10):
I'm fine, James, how are you doing good?

Speaker 4 (03:13):
Sorry for the delay and you getting us on the
air today as usual when Greg and I get together
for a live cast, someone gets released. I don't know why.
I don't know. I mean, we even tried it on
a Thursday, Greg, I mean it's always on Friday when
we host that someone gets released. But we tried it
on a Thursday, and yet MVP literally moments ago. This

(03:36):
is why we're relate, because I was putting the story up.
MVP released from WWE. Effective today. Is announced that about
four to twenty five my time, five to twenty five
your time, MVP has gone to Twitter and had his
comments to make, So we'll dive into that. But Greg,
your instant reaction to the news of MVP being released today.

Speaker 5 (03:57):
Well my answer reaction is, perhaps we need to take
a few weeks off from doing this for the sake
of WWE employees everywhere, who are you know, we want
to keep their jobs of this holiday season, Maybe we should,
you know, cut it back for a few weeks and
give them a chance to breathe a little, because it
does seem to always happen. A couple of weeks ago,

(04:19):
on a big cutdown day, we were on. I remember
when Carlito was released, we were on I think even
before that, the last big Cutdown they had we were
on here we are now on Thursday instead of Friday,
like you said, and it's MVT. I'd like to say
this was surprising, but it's not. Given his reputation backstage

(04:41):
and issues with management in the past, and the basic
drop of his television character as far as where he
stands as opposed to the rest of the roster on SmackDown.
You know, he's been a key KG on SmackDown for
so long and then WWE for so long. It is

(05:05):
surprising that the SmackDown writing crew in Michael Hayes didn't
find a bigger role for him because his biggest success
was on Row, specifically the Matt Harry storyline from a
few years ago, and he was on SmackDown, sorry, the
Matt Hardy storyline from a few years ago, and he
mus were wrong, kind of floundered there. He had a

(05:26):
you know, a few but the miz there that wasn't
too bad. But then he returned to SmackDown and everybody thought, well,
Smackdowns where he tried previously and had his best run
of his career, so you would think that maybe they
would bring some life into the character. And when that
didn't happen. He had to figure people higher than Michael Hayes.

(05:47):
We're saying, you know, we don't, we don't want this
guy in the main events in the upper card scale
him back his punishment or whatever. But you know, when
when he wasn't standing out of the SmackDown pack, knowing
his SmackDown history with you know, the writing crew there,
that was probably a big hint that his future in

(06:09):
WWE was in doubt.

Speaker 4 (06:12):
Yeah yeah, I mean, you you've been covering his career.
I mean, most of his career on SmackDown. He spent
a little bit of time on Raw. Like you talked about,
there seemed to be I mean, just thinking about back
to last year when he was drafted a raw and
there seemed to be some upward mobility. Like you said,
he had that really good promo exchange with the Minutes
last year that I thought was that that was last year,

(06:34):
wasn't it. I think it was. Yeah, Yeah, there was
like one of the standout moments of the year last year.
And it seemed like every time they started to do
something with him, they just dropped whatever he was doing.
You know, It's just it's the strangest thing. I mean,
I mean half of this roster, I would say more
than half the roster is subject to hot called back burner,

(06:57):
front burner, you know, even even booking, uh, that sort
of you know, back and forth sugging pool type thing
that they do. It just seems like with MVP, it's
been for years. I mean he's been in this company
for about five years now. It seems like it's been
a constant and so, like you said, I'm not really surprised.

(07:17):
I think that I feel like there was a lost
opportunity here. You know, it's one of those things where
you kind of you wait for them to do something
with him, and you keep waiting, and you keep waiting,
and you figure eventually at some point you're either gonna
do something, they're gonna cut ties with him. But now
that they actually have cut ties with him, he's almost

(07:39):
this feeling of loss of a lost opportunity. You know,
he's not the greatest wrestler, he's not in the best shape.
He you know, he's sort of h He's good but
not great. But I still, fuck, there's a lot that
could have got out of him, and for whatever reason,
it just never happened. After he kind of exploded them

(08:00):
the scene. I mean, Greg, you've covered the last you know,
his last stretch here in we did he show something
where you said, you know what he is someone that
can market as a top star or did you ever
think that or did you do? You just feel like
he's not going to get to that level at any
point during his career the.

Speaker 5 (08:18):
Last year or so, especially since his return to SmackDown,
he doesn't. It just doesn't look like he's motivated out there.
It looks like he's kind of going through the motions.
And if the rumors are true about his unhappiness with
his push, and I think he's even made that clear
either on Twitter or and interviews in the past few months,

(08:39):
it's still surprising because those two go together, and that
makes sense. If he's so happy that this push, he's
probably not gonna put a lot of effort out there
into into his matches. But I think when he first
came out of the scene, he really has potential, especially
his character.

Speaker 6 (08:53):
I think the character, the.

Speaker 5 (08:55):
T O kind of attitude superstar character was a good one,
and I think it said him while as a heel
as a baby face, that character doesn't work and they
never did anything to retool the character to make it fit.
You know, all of a sudden they started kissing up

(09:15):
to the sands, and they never really addressed why, they
never really addressed, you know, what it was that he
stands for now. It was so clear what he stood
for when he was a heel as a baby face.
And I think this is the problem. You know, so
many guys we can sit here and pick apart the
roster of guys Randy Orton as another one that comes

(09:38):
immediately to mine who were better heels than baby staces.
And that's not only because of the performing, that's because
of the writing staff. You know, there's there isn't a
clear reason why he's a baby face up until the
fact that their aster and needs more baby faces, and
he was such a better heel. And I think a
lot of the reasons the guys were better heels because
they know their character more. And you know, WBP is

(09:58):
a perfect well of a guy who had a real
strong character at a heel. But his baby phase character
is just it's two dimensional. It's not even two dimensional,
it's one dimensional. And you don't really know what he's
about as a baby face and what he stands for
other than good, you know, dance for good as opposed
to evil. So you know, his heel character when he

(10:21):
first came on the scene, like I said, it was
it was something that was unique and it worked because
it was relevant in the wrestling worldland in the sports world.
But you know, he turned babyface and you know, he
had the internet with the with the wellness policy testing
as far as you know, issues with the guy watching

(10:44):
him pe allegedly, and then he had issues with his
push and things of that nature. And it's always been
one of those things that's been that you hear rumblings
of his attitude and stuff. So that's the reason that's
not really a surprise. And I think the writing has
been on the wall the last few months. I mean,
he took a pin in a sixth man tag match
when like JTG was in the match, and that really

(11:06):
Pater sits back and go, wow, that's that's how far
he's fallen at this point.

Speaker 4 (11:10):
Yeah, even Survivors Series. You know, he was the first
guy pinned in that match at you know time in
his hometown. Yeah, in his hometown Chris Masters and Tyl
Rex were and then you know it's uh, you know,
I look at the same you know, Lance Hoy did
an interview. Obviously a lot of the guys who released
last time were on a show where people released, uh

(11:32):
last two Fridays ago, there were you know, Lance Toy
came out did an interview talking about that he felt
like he was the economy and that was the main
reason for his release and budget cuts that sort of thing.
I just, you know, I think that with Hoyt, similar
to what you were just saying was saying, Greg, is
that they never developed his character. Who I mean, who

(11:53):
was Lance Hoy I don't even know who Lance hoy was.
You know, he's a big dude. He's got the tramp
stamp tattoo he's got, and he's tall and he's big. Okay, well,
you know there's like eighteen thousand guys like that out there.
You know what makes this guy special? And they never
developed that. And the same with the mid I'm miss

(12:14):
I've got miss on my mind from listening to his
ESCN interview today. But MVP, they never roll, like you said,
they never really established why all of a sudden he's
a good guy. What you know, what made him change?
What does he stand for?

Speaker 7 (12:28):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (12:28):
Is he just sort of happy, go lucky? Does a
ball and elbow drop and loses, and you know that
is that all there is to the character, and they
never And this is the problem that I have with
the way that W presents so many of their mid
card characters that we just don't know anything about them.
You know, the inset promos that we saw on the

(12:48):
old School Raw. I mean, those things are so simple,
but they could do wonders for a character, especially for
mid card guys who they don't want to invest, you know,
ten minutes of TV time on every month they invests
five seconds of TV time on a guy before his match.
That could go a long way rather than just completely
ignoring no basis for a character, having no basis for
a character.

Speaker 5 (13:10):
So yeah, and you know, one of the things here
you would hear from the writing staff if you brought
this point off, is we don't have the time to
give every restaurant on our offstar a three dimensional character,
even though they've got you know, six hours of TV
a week five, you know, if you don't count NXT.
But I'll kind of here for uh, for the sake

(13:30):
of argument, and you know, sometimes nine hours you would
think that, you know, instead of doing another Edge versus
Cane backstage segment where they joke around about edge stealing
Paul BarreR. You know, you could do a backstage promo
or an angle backstage with you know, a couple of
mid card guys to advance their character. But then you

(13:52):
hear from WWE, well, they're not the ones that are
gonna sell tickets. They're not the ones who were counting
on to draw in pay per view buys. So we
got to give as many segments to the main event
guys and those kind of players as we can to
get them over to the fans so they'll buy the
pay per views based on these guys.

Speaker 1 (14:10):
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Speaker 4 (15:06):
Yeah, and like you said, recommend that the amount of
time they've spent on that cane edge do I understand
that it's our top feud and and they're trying, I believe,
to sell a pay per view with that program.

Speaker 5 (15:19):
I I don't know about that.

Speaker 4 (15:23):
Yeah, I don't. I don't know what they're trying to sell.
It just it just feels like sort of a PG
storyline for the kids. But like you said, just take
you know, take one of those segments and doing in
set promo, do something backstage with anyone on the roster.
I mean, all the cuts lately are coming from the

(15:43):
SmackDown brand, you know, the last well, in the last
six cuts, except for Jillian Hall, who was kind of
an FDW, we're from SmackDown. So you know, it's a
it's SmackDown. It's kind of the nature of the beat
to that brand. But they don't really help these guys out,
you know, they don't help them out, but not developing

(16:04):
their characters. So let's go look at what MVP has
said on his Twitter page right before the announcement. I
kind of I saw this before it was analysis. I
just kind of glossed over because I had no idea
what he was talking about. It does one of those
cryptic Matt Hardy tweet Twitter posts, but he said, we
all have many dreams. Realizing one sometimes prevents you from

(16:27):
realizing another. Decisions must be pondered and made stand by
dot dot dot. And then after the announcement was made,
he said, no need for alarm. I did not get fired.
I asked for and received my release. I felt it
was time to go international. Oh maybe it's going I
didn't read that. I thought it was time ago international
on freshing things up. Maybe he's going to Japan, since

(16:49):
he has talked about that a lot recently. And then
and then in response to a follower on Twitter, he said,
they're not throwing me this time. They're actually doing right
by me. They've honored my request. So, Greg, what's your
take on this aspect. I mean, it sounds like it
sounds like he wants to go to Japan. I guess

(17:11):
that's what he means by it's wy international. But your
take on him asking for his release and what is
this going to add.

Speaker 5 (17:17):
To our discussion, Well, it certainly gives it a different twitch,
but again it's not completely out of left field.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
You know.

Speaker 5 (17:26):
One of the things we're discussing is the fact that
he was in the doghouse for complaining about his push, So,
you know, if he's not happy with his push, if
he feels he can be a better benefit to a
wrestling company elsewhere than asking for his release, maybe going
over to Japan. We're kind of crafts a little bit,
as Matt Striker would say, you know, good on him.
You know that it makes sense from his point of

(17:47):
view if he's not happy where he is, and clearly
he hasn't been lately. And I can't say that I
blame him based on the way he's been pushed on TV.
You know, it's I think that's I think that's a
good move. You know, maybe being pinned as the first
man out in the Forever Series match, uh In his hometown.
Maybe that was a message WW he tried to send

(18:08):
to him, but maybe he thought, you know, that was
the last straw. And you know, he's kind of tired
of things and now the way they are, and he'll go, uh,
you know, work on stuff and then hopefully come back,
and you know, his character not only would he be refreshed,
for his character would be as well if he if
he went away and returned after a while.

Speaker 4 (18:26):
And we'll get to phone calls momentarily here, I'm like,
you know what, one last point if you want to
go ahead and jump on the phone lines and if
you listening to his live throughout BLOGSTOK Radio, obviously we'll
talk MVP and in the miz se get an impact
to night, other topics in the news the last twenty
four hours or so, if you want to jump on
the phone line six four six seven to one ninety eight.

(18:48):
My final point is, Greig, you probably a good point,
which is that he could go somewhere else and kind
of hold his skills. And it just shows how much
the I don't want to kind of limit all the
territories are gone and that sort of thing, but it
shows how how important that I mean, I'm afraid of

(19:09):
this way. It would it would benefit the wrestling business
if there was some sort of territory system where a
guy like MVP, who is not being used, who's just
kind of treading water, could go somewhere else. It doesn't
have to be a w W level promotion. It could
be something that you know, it's on local TV. You
can go work for n WA Hollywood if they had

(19:31):
a if they had a stronger presence on TV. It
just go works in main events and be involved in
a main even scene where he's kind of forced to
draw money, you know, and maybe that's what he's doing.
Maybe he's saying, you know what, I need to go
somewhere where I have an opportunity to work on top
and uh, just be around a different a different group
of talent and work with some different wrestlers, be involved

(19:52):
with some different decision makers, be involved with them, two
different minds, just being in a different environment. It's kind
of like you know this analogies and maybe make Foley.
You know, in baseball there's thirty teams. You know, if
you're if you're not really getting opportunity with one team,
you know, your contract ends. If you have a you know,
let's say you have a one year deal, your contract

(20:13):
ins you can go try your hand to another team
if you feel like that's a better opportunity. Wrestling does
not have that, and it's just, you know, maybe it's
what MVP is doing. He's kind of it seems so
shocking because you know, that would be annalynced and somebody's
been cut, and we always assume that, oh, you know,
ww's releasing this person because this that or the other.

(20:33):
In this case, it might just be that MVP wanted
to go somewhere else and get some get some work
somewhere else. I think Tomko said that when he was
released a couple of years ago by w B. He said,
I didn't I didn't even post an interview with him.
He said, you know, I'm gonna go to Japan and
I just need to work somewhere differently. And we don't
have that system in the US. It's w or TNA.

(20:54):
And then there's this perception of a major drop off
to you know, ring a honor dround get USA and
then and uh, you know other places in California and
in the Northeast, and that's right in the Midwest, and
it's like there's a drop off and it's a step down,
and and that shouldn't be the way it should be.
It should be that, No, you're getting a different opportunity.

(21:15):
If there were actual thriving promotions that had, you know,
similar TV and similar house show opportunities and similar regular
touring where you can actually go to another promotion, it
doesn't seem like, oh, this is the end of the world.
So I don't know, you know, we'll see, you know,
we'll see how this turns out. But Greg, any follow
thoughts on MVP before we turn the phone calls?

Speaker 5 (21:38):
No, let's so let's go to the phones here.

Speaker 4 (21:40):
All right, let's go ahead and go to our first
caller today, and again, thanks for holding and welcome to
the show. Four one five. Let us know where you
call it from. And what do you have for a says.

Speaker 8 (21:50):
Going on guys to Jonathan from San Francisco.

Speaker 4 (21:52):
Hey, Jonathan, what do you have?

Speaker 2 (21:54):
Oh Man, just MVP.

Speaker 8 (21:56):
Probably a sad moment because when he friends came into
the company was so red hot, and I thought, why
didn't they give him the World Hayway title when he
was on as a heel because once they turned the
baby face, that's when his thing went really low, and
then they started pairing him off with Sherry Shepherd. Who
the hell was that lady?

Speaker 4 (22:17):
I mean, the thing was Sherry Shepherd, who was a
way to get as put it, cross promotion, reaching it
there for a demographic and trying to you know, they're
always looking for ways to find new marketing opportunities to
kind of, you know, expand the brand awareness. That sort
of energy center. She That's where I was looking for.
I was dancing around that word. But there you go, Greg,

(22:40):
I mean kind of going back to his early run,
I mean, I mean I was really high on him
when he was when he first came out, and other
people were like, oh, this character has no chance. I
was like, no, this character's got a great chance. It's different,
it's frashy. I thought he was pretty good on the
mike when he first burst on the scene. Why didn't
he get that title run Opportunity? I mean, he never
had a title run. I don't think he ever had
a singles title. He had the US title my mistake,

(23:02):
But why do you think he never held that one
of those major titles in on SmackDown that they were
kind of switching back and forth with the WDE War title.

Speaker 5 (23:09):
But my initial reaction is that while he was doing
very good work, he just didn't seem to be world
title material. But then I think back to right now
and how them is his champion, and you know, MVP
was only a little less hot back then than than
miss is now and we've had shame at his champion

(23:33):
when he was, you know, fresh faced and really new
on the scene in WWE. Yeah, so you know that
could be just a changing of the time since then
that WWE is more open to these guys getting title shots.
But you know, I think they just saw him as
a very good supporting player and it's all about the

(23:56):
opportunities on top. MVP wasn't going to get pushed in
the main event level, you know, and have they push
a big show or the Undertaker aside and put him
back down to the mid card. You only have so
many main events flats, and if that spot isn't open,
they're not going to you know, kick proven main event
or you know, a guy with quote unquote tenure down

(24:17):
to the mid cart or upper mid card from the
main events. So you know, he could have been just
a wrong place, wrong time where they just didn't have
that flat open in the main event to put him into.

Speaker 4 (24:30):
That's a good point because I believe I had to
go back to my SmackDown title history. But it seems
like that SmackDown has featured heel champions for the most
part the last five years, and that actually be an
interesting research project to go back through. But I mean,
JVL held that title for a while. Let's see, he

(24:51):
had Randy ort whin, he was a heel for a
brief second. Ray Massial held it for a second, and
if he went back to JVL. So like you said,
right also the time, I mean of you know, at
that time, they've probably weren't as willing as we've seen
this year, and we're really going back to TLC. It's
not come full circle. TLC O night they put the
belt on Shamus, and that seems so shocking. You know,

(25:13):
I'm a good they put the belt on Shamous, he's done.
He's been a rob Ran for like two weeks, you
know what. It seemed like. Now we've had Jack Swagger
hold the title this year, we had the miss with
his first Enterle reign. So there's a Shamus again for
the second time. So like you said, you know, it's
a it's a different time where they're more willing to
put that title on an unestablished star. So if if

(25:36):
MVP came around now, yeah, it might be a different story.
So I think the timing issue is probably the best
explanation for that. Greg, So a good point there. Trout
back to and you either fall up on MVP or
another question.

Speaker 8 (25:49):
Or comments, Yeah, I agree with you guys with m
v P. I just wish that he should have stayed
till his character was built, as you know Hill is.
You know, he had a lot of money. You know,
he was the first you know, Mike SmackDown, you know,
most signed player or whatever the hell he had Moniker
going on, and then all of a sudden he just

(26:09):
like I didn't like, no one was cheering for the guy,
So why did they turn them baby face? But that's
another story for another time. But second question is who
who determines who gets released? Is it a is it
a group of guys? Is it Triple H by himself
just you know, with a pen and paper saying you suck?
I mean, like who determines it?

Speaker 4 (26:31):
Great? I think we could have walked through this almost
every Live Cats now because of how many times we're
talking about releases, but I mean, I think this one's
a little bit different. If but when they have the
mass the mass cuts, it's sort of one of those
things where you know, John Laura Nidas and probably Vincent
Man might be a little bit involved in this, maybe
in Stephanie, and they kind of sit down with the

(26:52):
writers and they say, Okay, this is this sort of situation,
we need to make some budget cuts. We need to, uh,
you know, from the fat a little bit. Do you
have any ideas for this list of wrestlers? And if
nobody says that they have an idea or no one's
really struggling endorsed to a certain wrestler, that that person's
usually on the cutting block. Greg kind of kind of

(27:15):
added out on what you know of in the process
of how they go about cutting, either individual wrestlers or
a group of wrestlers.

Speaker 5 (27:24):
Yeah, you know John Laura and iis he's a guy
that technically hires and fires people. You know, when when
you get fired, you get a call from John Lauren IDAs.
Uh so he's a guy making the phone call, and
he's the guy doing it in the official capacity. I'm
sure they're the conflication with instive man somewhere along the way,
and like said Stephanie, being head of creative and all,
you'd want to keep her in the loop. As far
as the writers and you know, coming to them with

(27:47):
a list of guys that you think you want releasing
and see if they have any ideas for I don't.
I think maybe the head writers like the Brian Goertz
and the Michael Hayes. As far as the rest of
the writing team, I don't think there and a little
at all about who gets cut. I think they're just
kind of at the mercy of whatever. Laura and iis
McMahon do So if the writers have any notice at

(28:09):
all about guys getting fired or have any say, I
would believe it would just be the head writers Gorts
and Hayes. Barron SmackDown that that would be on the list.
And I'm not even sure that they really have any
say in him.

Speaker 4 (28:23):
And yeah, yeah, good, good summary. There a lot of
times it's just so political. I mean, Mike Knox just
comes to mind as someone I mean, Greg, you and
I I mean we thought we saw potential to him.
I mean, and athletic, BigMan about six foot five, and
you know, intimidating presence. I thought he carried himself really

(28:44):
well as a character, and he just had no one
who was backing him. You know, it was just the
victim of circumstance. It seemed like when he was cut
over this year, it just no one, no one was
backing him. He didn't have a top star behind him.
He didn't have a who was like, no, no, no, I've
got a great idea for him. Of course, we saw
the Lou Gallows claim, which is that he was on

(29:06):
the phone with Freddy Frinch Junior going over a new
character development for him on you know, the Friday he
was on Friday morning, and then he was cut Friday afternoons.
So maybe that's not exactly a good sign either. But
usually if you have somebody with some sort of power
behind you, you can really, you know, sort of last
through a lot of these different cuts. And you know,

(29:30):
you know, Mike Knox was someone who didn't have that,
and and Lance Hoyt didn't have that. Although I don't
know how much of a loss it is that they
lost hoy but it's just just sort of it's an
interesting time for w right now. It's it's a very
interesting time so Jonathan, good call. We appreciate you joined
us in the Live cap today.

Speaker 9 (29:51):
Need an extra dose of positivity in your wrestling podcasts,
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Speaker 4 (30:56):
Uh, just watch seventy two four. So seventy two four.
If you're still listening, call back and we'll get to
your phone call next. Let's get to the nine to
one to four eerie code ninety one four. Welcome to
the show today. Man, where you're from?

Speaker 10 (31:09):
How's it going? It's Johnny from New York.

Speaker 4 (31:10):
Hey, Johnny, let's go on today.

Speaker 10 (31:12):
Cool question?

Speaker 11 (31:13):
Does MVP?

Speaker 10 (31:14):
Does he even advantage because I'm not sure about the
trademark laws, but I'm sure they can't trademark the initials MVP.
I don't think it's trademark, you know, Mom tell them wusporter.
But can he go like you know, to Japan and
just call himself MVP?

Speaker 4 (31:26):
So good question, Greg, Do you what do you think
about that? And do you know anything about this?

Speaker 5 (31:32):
I don't you know? Life like you said, I don't know.
In addition to owning trademark, sales sell and another intellectual
property generally of these guys, which means the outfits and
the character, because that was the issue when Scott Hall
went to WCW and ww WCW. It wasn't because he
was using a trademark name which he was it was

(31:53):
because he was doing the trademark toothpick the hair curl
that WWE created in his character Raiser Amone in WWE,
which they own, so they may not own the initials,
they may own the specifics of the character that he played.
And James, I don't know if you know any more
about that.

Speaker 4 (32:13):
Yeah, I might have to look at the the trade.
W files all of their trademarks and patents in the
US posts postal the trademark and h U S t
POS I believe the acronym for the trademark government body.
But w W files all their trademarks for them, so

(32:34):
have to go check a look and what exactly is
trademarked in regards to m VT. But I would imagine
that he can't go to Japan and call himself m VP.
I really doubt that we have to see, you know,
kind of I guess the terms of the release because
this doesn't sound like a standard w W fire v release.

(32:55):
It sounds like it's a m v P wanted to
be released in w ranted it. You know that's said,
there's still no compete clause. The trademarks are still relevant,
and you know those issues are still the same, but
perhaps it was a side agreement worked out we don't
know about yet where he can go to Japan and
work as Montel or m v P or you know,

(33:18):
have some creative spelling of it, or porter mv porter,
you know who knows what he can do with that creatively.
But I have to go look, I have to go
research that and see what exactly is trademarked.

Speaker 12 (33:30):
But I and.

Speaker 5 (33:31):
James, you got to remember here this is also MVP
asking for his release, getting away from WWE, and perhaps
the w W created gimmick for him. I mean, you know,
we've seen a lot of guys come and go who
haven't had a really strong gimmick. They basically then themselves
turned up a bet. MVP has a character that we

(33:52):
don't see a lot much anymore. That w W doesn't
give the wrestlers the straight gimmicks like we've seen in
the mid nineties, and this is more gimmicky of character.
And if he wants to really improve on his craft,
he may want to kind of shy away from that,
and he may not be interested in carrying that game.
But even though it has name value and name recognition
from fans, you know, he might want to kind of
detach himself from that in his efforts to kind of

(34:15):
work on some different things overseas.

Speaker 4 (34:18):
That's a great point, and that's really a good point, Greg,
I mean that that could have been what was holding
him back, is that, you know, even playing the same
character for five years, and like we talked about in
the lifecats, when he turned face or wasn't the sort
of like reason for it. He was still MVP. He
was just now we cheer him, Okay, well why well

(34:40):
I don't really know why, you know, and WB never
really established why. So he was still the same character.
So it almost felt a bit like a retread because
it was still the same character he had. There was
no explanation for why he turned face.

Speaker 7 (34:53):
You know.

Speaker 4 (34:54):
It's just felt like they were recycling the same stuff
and the same material for him, just sort of with
different use different characters that to to playoffs. So you
can make a great point, threak, maybe this is a
part of the development, is that he needs to go
somewhere else and and be Antonio Banks be you know,
that's who he was in developmental b you know, somebody different,
you know, uh, you know, the Eugene character comes to mind.

(35:17):
As one of the last few real, uh sort of
gimmick characters, and you know, Nick, Nick Dinsmore try to
be the letter U dash Gene for a while and
it just it seems sort of silly. I mean the
character was still to begin with, but there wasn't a
sense of him growing as a new character or a
new uh you know, sort of developing his own persona uh.

(35:38):
And then he kind of went back to being Nick
Dinsmore who he was at ov W. And now he's
you know, he's doing okay in in in Louisville. I got,
I guess, kind of the trainer. But remember they brought
him they brought him back as Eugene again in that
lasted one week and he was cut again. Uh it
was that last year or earlier this year, sometime around
in the last twelve months, I believe. So m v P,

(36:00):
you know, he can take this opportunity to say, you
know what, I'm find my own person. I'm going to
try something different and of them gonna come back to
w w's and I'm gonna be that different character. So yeah,
if you segre, it's an opportunity for m grow and
he might be forced to grow in this area, he
might be forced to change and not be m V,

(36:20):
not be Monceva Natavius Porter. He might be something completely
different and that might be a good thing. So we'll see.

Speaker 13 (36:28):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (36:28):
But very very interesting, very interesting story indeed, But let's
go back to Uh's go back to you, Johnny, and
you need to follow up on that under the question
of com it. Yeah, one more question.

Speaker 10 (36:38):
You think w W S is kind of done any
backlash and like cause CM punks and maybe like tone
it down a little bit because I think during the
telecast I caught a homosexual kk K d U y
and basically persing on a live show like he was
doing a lot of stuff that basically w W had
been town down in the last years. So he didn't
He's gonna tell him to tone it down a little bit,

(36:59):
Gregor or do.

Speaker 4 (37:00):
You on an MVP. I've got so many things in
my mind with these stories today, But with Punk, I'll
throw to you Greg on your and outs of Punk's commentary.
The one issue that I had with Raw is incorporating
Alex Riley's d UI into a storyline to get heat
on him. I just I really really had a problem
with that. I put that in my raw report, it

(37:22):
just really rubbed me the wrong way. You know, I
know that you know seem Punk's trying to be as
you ass commentary and he's playing off with w W
is feeding him. I mean, TV's setting this gander for
what the storyline is, which is the duy is fair game?
Go ahead and comments on it, you know, get more
heat on on Alex Riley. I just have such a
problem with that. It's just it has no place and

(37:45):
in my eyes and a resting storyline. It's just I
thought it was really tasteless, and then, like I said
in my report, I was pathetic. So I have a
problem with that. I know things that just have been
incorporated in the storylines before, but I think DUI is such
a serious issue that you just don't go there. But
so Greg your response to your now is the Punk's
commentary so far and any thoughts on him incorporating the

(38:08):
dui into a storyline.

Speaker 5 (38:11):
I thought Punk was okay on commentary here, good moment,
he has bad you know, he'll improve it with more time,
and you know, I think he's finding it's a lot
different than doing a guest commentary spy during a match
for five minuts. But you know, I'm a big fan
of his and I'm willing to wait it out because
I think he can be really good at it. Will
they tone down his commentary, I'm not sure they might

(38:33):
a little, but you got to remember this is the
era of anything goes commentary and WWE, and I think
that Dui comment really showed it. You know, we've heard
from Michael Cole and and you know just about everybody
else how w W has kind of changed their philosophy
as far as producing announcers lately. And I know, James,

(38:53):
you're not a fan of that, and I think it
has his place, like on the internet on NXT and
not necessarily I'll for everyone to see an raw but
you know, with that in mind, I don't know that
they will scale him back watch at all. Uh. And
you don't remember also Jim Ross is still around to
how coach the announcers during pay per views they're prior

(39:15):
to pay per views, so you know, it all depends
on what he's feeling too.

Speaker 4 (39:20):
Yeah, you mentioned Jim Ross in one of the uh,
I mean, one of the potential developments with the Michael
Cole vert. I mean, we what we assume will be
a feud with Jerry Lawler. I mean, I don't see
how they reconcile the fact that they hyped this up
as Jerry Lawer's never had a w title shot and
Michael Cole straight up costs him that title shot in

(39:43):
the Max storyline. So I don't see how they reconcile
that and have them work together unless Michael Cole really
says something really nice and private cheers to Jerry Lawler
in the in the context of the storyline. So do
using this is leading to Jim Ross return to the air?
Greg Or is it just the latest development to kind
of keep Michael Cole front and center as one of

(40:04):
the main characters on Raw each week.

Speaker 5 (40:07):
I'd like to think so, but I'm not holding my breath.
It'd be like WW to kind of sweep it under
the run next week. Remember Jr. Said during the last
round of negotiations and he wasn't, you know, a big
stan of having to travel every week. I think his
preference was to just do pay per views, So you know,
it might not even interest him to do Raw every

(40:29):
week because of the travel. So I'm guessing they keep
cold and maybe they switch the announcers around but I
don't know who they get to replace Cole because they
don't think Chrisham is one of this his favorites right now.
But you know, I would like to see for selfish reasons,
I would like.

Speaker 4 (40:47):
To do JR.

Speaker 5 (40:47):
Back every week, but I just don't think it's gonna happen.

Speaker 4 (40:51):
Yeah, I'd put the chances about seventy thirty, well seventy
that he's not turning in thirty that he is. I
think it's you know, there's always not an opening and
this kind of increases that that ratio with this development.
But I don't see him returning soon. I mean, I

(41:13):
I it's so hard to tell with Ross because it
seems to a lot of times he sends mixed signals
on his blog on uh, he doesn't return, but yet
he would, he would come off the bench quote unquote
if you were or if you were asked. So it's
somewhat hard to tell with him on what's what what?
What's him kind of saying the right thing and putting

(41:34):
a nice spin out there, and what is what? What
are actually what are his actual feelings? So it's kind
of hard to tell sometimes, but it's it's certainly more
possible than it was, oh, you know, before the old
school row and it's similar there was no possibility at
all that he'd be coming back. Now that he's come back,
now that they've kept his name on the air, I said,
it's increased the chances term zero to thirty. And that's

(41:56):
that's more progress in the last you know, two weeks
in the last year. So that's that's worth considering with
out of how they go with this. So let's see
where are we, Johnny good call, I appreciate that, which
got so much going on right before the live cast,
so kind of gathering my thoughts as to go along
with the show. But uh, Gregor, I want to talk

(42:17):
about the news and his big interview with ESPN skilled Simmons.
We might stay there for the for the after show,
or I might get through to it during the live
cast today. But again you're listening to the PW Torch
live cast. This is p B Torch assistant editor James
Caldwell hosting alongside towards calumnist Greg Parks, and of course
the top story today MVP and his release and that

(42:38):
was announced literally mois before we went live on the
live cast today, announced by w B IF you want
to jump on the live cast and give us a
call talking MVP or TNA impact tonight. Any takers on
that or the latest developments from w this week? Uh
the NXT season forecast. That's a pretty interesting cast for

(42:59):
who was now included and Greg, you and I can
talk about that as well. But if you want to
call up and talk about our listeners, if you're listening
to us live on blog talk Radio, the number to
call is six four, six seven one nine to eight
to eight. Let's go to our next phone call from
the eight one seven area code eight one to seven.
Welcome to the show. Please hit your name man where
you're from. This is Jimmy from for Worth, Texas. How

(43:22):
you guys doing today? Great Jimmy, what do you have
for say, Well, just a.

Speaker 14 (43:27):
Couple of little things you kind of touched on the
CM punk thank you know, especially if they are in
any form or fashion going to keep the straight edge
character alive for CM punk. I don't necessarily have a
problem with him mentioning the DUI because it's there. I
think the bigger problem is not so much in CM

(43:49):
punk mentioning and on air, it's the fact that he
has the opportunity to talk about it in the first place,
because Alex Riley is on TV not just a little,
but a lot. And WW It's like, as far as
I'm concerned, it just kind of sat there and just
said the DUI is no big deal and that I mean,
we talk about the responsibility of them on air and

(44:11):
what they're putting forward. I mean, there's no way if
that had happened two months ago, that Alex Riley is
on television, especially with the McMahon campaign.

Speaker 4 (44:24):
And all that other kind of stuff. So why is
it all of a.

Speaker 14 (44:26):
Sudden now where they would they would have pulled every
punch to make sure nothing controversial gets out there. Now
the campaign is over and now it's like, who cares?

Speaker 4 (44:36):
I agree complete with you. I think that's been one
of the most underreported stories the last two weeks, and
you know, part of that is I've got to do
a better job of covering that. I kind of blogged
about that when Jeff Hardy and that YouTube video came out.
I guess it was last week, the YouTube video with
them appearing to be in an altered state of mind,

(44:56):
and I still don't know when that was recorded. I
assumed that was during his time in TNA, and TNA
has taken no action to that, and from what I've heard,
they haven't even asked any questions about which I think
it's said.

Speaker 15 (45:08):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (45:08):
But when I analyzed that story, I said the saint,
I said, kind of what you're saying, Jimmy, is that
I think that w D has really dropped the ball
on Alex Riley's d u I. I mean he should
not be on TV, uh to begin with, I mean
the fact that he is on TV. Okay, well why
is he on TV? And I think they make it
worse by drawing attention to it to get heat on him.

(45:30):
I just said, it's so caseless. But Jimmy said, I
don't think he should be on TV at all. I mean,
what kind of messages it's then that you can't get
a DUI and yet we're not gonna punish you, and
that we're actually gonna reward you by keeping you involved
in one of our top programs on TV with a
miss becoming w Champion. I mean, what kind of messages
that's in the locker room. I assume that's just I

(45:52):
think it's awful business, awful practice. So I think it's
been really underreported. I drew attention to the last making
an analysis on a hardy story. But I haven't really
touched on this week, but I probably should have, so Jimmy,
good call on that. Greg, what's your reaction, I mean,
should Alex have been pulled from TV? Was there another
way to punish him? Do you think that perhaps there's

(46:14):
a way to punish him behind the scenes where you
can actually stay on TV. What's what's kind of your
take on the whole situation.

Speaker 5 (46:21):
Yeah, I mean, who knows. He may have been punished
behind the scenes and it just hasn't gotten out yet
or or hasn't gotten out at all. You know, WW
likes to compare their their drug testing to sports. I
have a feeling that this for the NFL, Alex Riley
would certainly be investigated a little more about the commissioner
as far as the DUI goes, because I know they

(46:42):
down on that.

Speaker 4 (46:43):
He would he would have already had a meetia with
good Dell.

Speaker 5 (46:46):
Yeah, exactly. You know, the NFL has certainly been cutting
down on that kind of stuff that shenanigans outside the
off the field. Uh, So you know, if this is
the NFL, he'd be could be facing some trouble here,
but who else. Gotta remember that this is WWE. They
certainly get a lot less press for this kind of thing.
In the NFL. They don't have, you know, major cable

(47:09):
networks on their case when their guys constantly get in
trouble behind the scenes, like the NFL has with you know,
the company Bengals notorious for their players having trouble with
the law and such like that, and uh, you know
a lot has been written about that and and magazines

(47:29):
on the internet and reported online. So the NFL was
facing a certain amount of pressure from the press for
to crack down on that, and we've seen that with
Roger Goodell. W W doesn't face that seam kind of pressure. Uh,
No one outside a select few as far as their
viewership goes, probably even knew about alas as the UI,
So I don't think there was that pressure from them

(47:51):
to do that. So I think that's one of the
main reasons they didn't do anything.

Speaker 1 (47:58):
If you missed it earlier, just the remind we're running
our second VIP sale of the year. We don't do
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(48:18):
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check out on our sign up form pw torch dot
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membership benefits and links to our sign up form.

Speaker 4 (48:32):
And just the fact that I understand that he's a heel,
but then he came on TV and said, oh, you know,
if you don't know what happened, go on the internet
and read what happened to me. It was almost got
a braggadocious way, and it's hurt of beyond the scope
of what a heel would say. It felt kind of like,
look what I got away with ha ha ha. It
just the whole thing is rubbed me the wrong way,

(48:54):
that whole bit with Riley and so Jimmy, I, I'm
glad that you brought that up because I think that
attention it needs to be reported on more, and that's
something I think I'll probably write something about Uh, this week,
it's just you know, here we are a wee can
half later and it just seems like it's been brushed
under the table or the rug whatever analogy. But it

(49:15):
bothered me on RAW. It's bothered me on the last
two raws. So that's something I'll kind of ask around
and see there actually has been some punishment, because I've
heard nothing about any punishment for that to UI. But
thank you, Jimmy. Either a question or.

Speaker 12 (49:27):
Foe of.

Speaker 4 (49:29):
Well.

Speaker 14 (49:31):
The other thing is in dealing with Cole and so forth.
Have we thought that maybe that this is their way
of being able to give Jerry Lawler the the graceful
farewell himself. I mean, I don't know, but just with
his health and so forth. I know he had the
issue with the knee and so forth, and maybe he's

(49:52):
it's time, maybe that he's thinking to kind of phase
his way out and they're going to allow somebody else
to step into that color commentary role that doesn't have
the heat with Cole.

Speaker 4 (50:02):
Yeah, I mean that that's an interesting thought. I mean,
it seems like they could build toward that final, that
final Wrestlemanium. I guess the final WrestleMania opportunity for Lower
to have his first match, and then maybe that's where
they're going with this. And I believe his contract. I'm
trying to think. He did an interview with Kevin Afkin,
the Baltimore's son, about six or seven months ago, and

(50:26):
I think he said that his contract was due at
the end of this year. I don't quote me on
that if you're listening to this, but I know that
he's talking about his contract and he kind of joked
at he wanted to have it written to his next
contract that he gets his first WrestleMania match. So either
it's a sign of he got his wish as much
as he's he kind of kind of kidded about it

(50:48):
in that interview, or that he's not going to renew
his deal. I mean, I don't know. I don't know
how much to read into that. But Greg, what's going
to your take on on where they go with Wawler
and is there an end game? Is this sort of
a week by week thing and they'll kind of take
it where it goes, or what's kind of your take
on where they're going and why they went this route
with Lawler finally get his first FB title shot on

(51:10):
Monday's wrong.

Speaker 5 (51:12):
If I had to put money on it, I would
bet that this would be more of Lawler's Swanson than
a setup for something for WrestleMania. I don't think of
all the matches to set up in November or in
December now, and for WrestleMania, Jerry Lawler's first WrestleMania match,
I don't think is one they'd be setting up this
far in advance. So I don't think that's that. So

(51:35):
if I guess said, maybe his contract is coming up
and it's the way to write him off, I've never
thought about that because Lawler is just such an institution
in WWE. It's almost like you know, you just expect
to see him there every week and don't think twice
about it. But now that you bring that up, it
could be a situation where you know his contract could
be coming due and it's the way to write him out.

(51:55):
That would make sense because Cole would then be able
to still stay on as play by play guy, and
they could bring up a match striker for Raw who
I think is much more suited for the A show
as it worried right now than Todd Grisham. H. So
you know that there's that possibility, and then again there's
a possibility that by next week they could be sitting

(52:17):
well pull with punks, but hopefully between them at the
announced table on ur on just to give, just to
give the show more of an edge, and just to
give the show more of that heel face give and
take on commentary that we haven't had on Raw in
a while, even with Michael Coles heels.

Speaker 4 (52:35):
I can even see something happening where they do a
sort of loser leaves Raw match. This this idea kind
of popped into my mind. As much as I don't
want to see Michael Cole in a match ever in
my lifetime, I could see them building toward Lawler versus Coal.
Loser leaves Raw, Mis helps Cole kind of sit for

(52:55):
tat Mis helps Coal win that match. Lawler's gone from
Raw and that's a Swan song, And like you said,
maybe Striker kind of shifts over to Lawler's position. I mean,
look at the last couple of pay per views, it
seems like Striker has kind of shifted more toward a
baby face analysts sort of you know, taking up the
cause of Daniel Bryan and Kobe Kingston and other baby

(53:19):
faces like that on the pay per views where they've
had those three man booths, it seems like maybe Striker
has been auditioning for Lawler's role as a raw baby
face analysts. Maybe that's where where they go with this,
and maybe seeing Punk shifts over the SmackDown where he's
on commentary with with Todd Grisham, we might be looking
at as sort of an announcer shakeup. Do you think

(53:43):
that's within the realm of possibility, Greg, as a potential
scenario coming out of.

Speaker 16 (53:46):
This, It could be.

Speaker 5 (53:48):
And I'll disagree with you about not wanting to see
Michael Cole in the match. The only way I'd like
to see Michael Cole in a match is if he
was playing the vincick Man role in a reprised a
lot of Deep Brett Hard vincock Man Rustlemania match which
somebody just came to crap out a call for fifteen
minutes straight. I could.

Speaker 4 (54:02):
I think I could.

Speaker 5 (54:02):
I could tolerate that, that kind of Michael Cole mash,
but anything anything other than that.

Speaker 14 (54:07):
I passed on.

Speaker 4 (54:07):
Probably there you go, There you go, good clarification, They're great,
good clarification. Jimmy. We appreciate your call. And your contribution
of the show today. Let's go ahead and get two
more phone calls here. Let's go to the seven seven
eight area code. Seven seven eight. Welcome to the show.
Please say your name and where you're from.

Speaker 11 (54:28):
Hey, it's Jason for Vancouver.

Speaker 4 (54:30):
Hey Jason, where It's what us today? Thursday? So we
didn't we got your day early thing. But I get
here fairly.

Speaker 8 (54:36):
Man.

Speaker 4 (54:36):
I gotta, I gotta, I gotta hockey game to thank
to watch.

Speaker 17 (54:38):
I want you to be able to watch Impact Soil later.
I'll call today.

Speaker 4 (54:41):
Okay, cool? What are you that? First?

Speaker 11 (54:44):
I got a couple of questions. First comments, It was
cool last week.

Speaker 17 (54:48):
Could hear the young way Keller talking about Survivor series
ninety one and and how the all the insight scoops
of back in the early nineties. I was pretty much
the same as now to hear that.

Speaker 4 (55:01):
And yeah, my.

Speaker 11 (55:02):
First question is with the Stinger. You know, I really
feel with Mania being in Atlanta.

Speaker 6 (55:10):
And I know they know they don't know what.

Speaker 11 (55:11):
Taker is gonna be able to look the show yet,
but that's a mass that they should do.

Speaker 17 (55:15):
Uh, Taker and Sting a sting.

Speaker 5 (55:17):
I don't know what what.

Speaker 11 (55:18):
His mindset is I'm sure Dizzy will pay him a
lot of money to stay, but it's like I feel
him in TNA, they've they've kind of gotten the most
that they can out of each other. Like, I mean,
he's not gonna help it anymore. And you know, tn
A doesn't really need him, and I don't think he
needs t and A.

Speaker 5 (55:35):
I think it would be cool.

Speaker 11 (55:36):
For him to go to WWS and do that one
match to take its just just take in Atlanta. And
I'm sure you know it's a younger crowd, but I'm
sure there's still a ton of Stings fans and they
can sell a ton of those masks as well.

Speaker 4 (55:50):
What do you guys think, Yeah, and owns his career.
I mean, if you think about it, they own the
library for w W. I mean TNA. Every time they
try to do that, they try to do a DVD
release and they try to do a couple of historical
things on him on TV. They don't have any footage
that they can't really capture his career and what it
meant to wrestling in in the era that he was

(56:12):
a part of. And you know, from the from the
nineties to the two thousands. Uh W B owns his career, So,
I mean, it's kind of weird to think about that
because he's never set foot in w W ever, But I
think that they could really hype a big time match
up with Sting used in all that footage they have
and put it to do some great video packages like
they did with Undertaker and Sean Michaels the last couple

(56:35):
of years. Greg, do you see it at all possible
that we're gonna see Sting in WW this year for
I guess this coming year for main Air or the
Hall of Fame or.

Speaker 18 (56:46):
What.

Speaker 4 (56:46):
Do you think the possibility is of that happening.

Speaker 5 (56:49):
As much as I'd like to see it, I don't
think it's it's very likely at this point. I think Sting,
as much as he's kind of disenfranchised or distance himself
from the wrestling business, I think he does have a
certain amount of loyalty to Dixy Carter and to TNA.
So if they offer any kind of a deal to

(57:10):
come back, which it looks like the angles are headed
with this the Fortune Horgan's Immortals angle, I think he
will end up resigning with PNA. I think Jason is
right in that TNA has gotten the most out of
Stingings thing's gotten the most out of TNA that they're
gonna get. I don't think him going back is going

(57:31):
to do anything for either guy either while either Sting
or TNA, I just don't think. I think they've gotten
all the mileage they can out of each other, to
be honest, and I think now is a good time
to move on. But like I said, I think he
kind of has a sense of loyalty towards TNA having
been there for so long, and I play I think
to remember as far as talking a match with us Undertaker,

(57:52):
which under the perfect situation of the perfect scenario would
be a great match, well not as menually are a match,
but an interesting match and an interesting build, and I
think it would sell a lot of pay per views.
The thing to keep in mind is Undertaker, if he
makes it to WrestleMania, he is going to be very
beat up, and you're gonna want to put a guy

(58:14):
on there against Taker, who ideally can create a lot
of movement and has a lot left in the tank,
so you're not kind of exposing Taker's injuries in his weakness.
And I don't know if Sting's that kind of guy,
because The last thing you want if you're gonna have
Sting an Undertaker build up a hot match is to
have it be an absolute clunker. And Sting is you know,
he might be motivated, maybe in great shape for WrestleMania,

(58:35):
but let's face that he is. He's nearing fifty if
he's not now, so you know he's only got a
limited upside for this match. And if Taker's banged up,
you know that's that's that could get Bowlings too ugly
to borrow with jurism.

Speaker 4 (58:49):
Yeah, you're right, they would have to probably have a
special referee for that match, and who does they have
to give rock Lesser for that? But you know that, Yeah,
Sting at his stage and we've seen him for the
last five years, it seems like he's I don't want
to use a word interiorate, but it seems like his
physical condition is not being kept up. As he's gone
along in TNA, it seems like he's gotten worse and worse.

(59:12):
And you know, part of that's age, and part of
that is that you come to a point in TNA
where you're where you've gotta I think this is where
mcfoley is. You realize that nothing that you do is
going to make an impact. You know. It's just the
nature of TNA is that it is so hard for
anything to be important or to be presented as important,

(59:33):
more important than something else because of the way the
booking is. It's just such a disaster from a booking
perspective that you almost go to the point where you say,
why should I even get myself into shape? It's not
like it's going to matter. That's sort of a it's
a bad mentality to have, but at some point you
kind of get frustrated. And this thing's been there forever,
and I mean forever in the sense that he's been
there for more than half of TNA's existence, and mc

(59:55):
foley kind of got to that same point, it sounds
like with sort of the interviews that he's done recently
as well. So I don't know, we'll see. I'm obviously
the Hall of Fames wide open this year, so they
haven't announced anyone at all yet, and we'll see his
thing has included that and what his TNA future is
going forward. Jason, good to hear from you. Let's get
in one more phone call. Let's go to the seven
one seven area code seven one to seven welcome to

(01:00:18):
the show. I please state your name and where you're from.
Seven one seven you're on the ear. No, we don't
have seven one to seven, but two five oh joined
us the last second, so let's go to two five oh.
Welcome to the show. I please stay your name and
where you're from.

Speaker 14 (01:00:35):
Ninety seconds.

Speaker 4 (01:00:38):
Hey, Dustin are with BC. Well, could good to hear
from you. What do you have? First?

Speaker 12 (01:00:42):
Say might be a little off topic, but I just
had a quick thought. I guess I don't know what
to call it, but say WWF point out of business.
When WCW was running really hot, and and then w
CW like.

Speaker 4 (01:01:00):
Time Warner in the AOL closed, where do.

Speaker 12 (01:01:03):
You think the wrestling would be? Do you think there'd be?

Speaker 4 (01:01:09):
That's a I mean, that's a real good question. Greg,
give your quick response to that? And uh, well you
kind of talk about that more in the in the
after show, But Greg, what's your quick response to that?

Speaker 5 (01:01:21):
Well, I'd really have to give it a lot more
thought to give it a decent answer. I think I
think you have probably a better challenger to ww than
TNA is the w W e H simply because of
the quickness that w CW went down Hell quality wise.
As much as people rail on w w e's quality,

(01:01:42):
I think WCW was much worse than the early two thousands,
so I think you would have had a better shot
at a quality competitor than TNA has become for for
w w E.

Speaker 4 (01:01:53):
Down in the last ten seconds of the show a
second and be sure to check out towards dot com
and join us live coverage of the Impact as well
as Wadkeller dot com, and we'll talk to everyone on Friday.

Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
Anytime you're watching WWE Raw or SmackDown or AEW Dynamite
in particular, send us an email if you've got thoughts
on the show or a topic you want us to
address or a question for us. Wadekeller Podcast at pwtorch
dot com, Wadkeller Podcast at pewtorch dot com. If there's
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us to address on our main podcast during our mailbank segments,

(01:02:30):
that same email applies Wadekeller Podcast at pwtorch dot com.
We invite that interaction. Let us know what you think
of what we're saying, and let us know what you
want us to talk about and ask us specific questions
Wadkeller Podcast at pw torch dot com.

Speaker 4 (01:03:01):
Thank you for using blog talk radio.

Speaker 11 (01:03:03):
Goodbye.

Speaker 4 (01:03:05):
All right, Greg, We're now in the e FP after
show portion of today's live cast, and Dustin brought a
really you know, just one of those questions where it's
so hard to know because, like you said, there might
be another player that came into the mix. Maybe Paul
Hayman gets involved with another promotion or some investors and

(01:03:27):
he gets a TV deal and more funding. He comes
up with a new concept for wrestling. Maybe the the
restroom that we're talking about today is vastly different. There's
just so many different factors that could have come into play.
I mean, the FX might have gotten into the wrestling business,
and when we could been covering, you know, makeup three

(01:03:48):
initials impact on FEX on Thursday nights. You never know
what kind of rustling that we've been talking about, if
any rustling at all. So, but if you're kind of
layout the scenario so late nineteen nineties, let's say ww
buias ouf, I don't think the mcmons would have gone
away for that long. Even if the in the entire

(01:04:09):
WF was taken off the face of the of the Earth.
I think they still would have found a way to
use their TV partnerships and UH and find a way
to restart up for a new promotion or start a
regional promotion. I mean, it's so weird to think about
them doing a regional promotion, but they might have done
a regional promotion and slowly rebuilt to where they were

(01:04:32):
back on National TV Paul Hayman's ECW. I mean, they
would have been the number two promotion. Would they have
gotten on the on USA network, would they have gotten
on on FX or had an investor come to them,
or would the McMahons have come to them and formed
a promotion? Was with m with Hayman and his and
his sort of marketing and in his uh sort of

(01:04:53):
what you know, the strength that he brought to the table.
Who knows what kind of resident we've been talking about
right now. So Greg and you other thoughts out of that,
you kind of need to take more time to really
think about that and lay out the players and in
the different scenarios.

Speaker 5 (01:05:08):
I'll say one thing. I agree that the McMahons would
not have left for wrestling with the foot faces. That's
all dintnells. I think we would have seen maybe a hiatus,
see if he can dabble in you know, entertainment outside
of outside of professional wrestling. One hand to think, you know,

(01:05:34):
on what he would he still have created the XFL
and two does one without WWF machine behind it? Uh
And if he did what it has survived because he
was able to give it more attention. Then you know,
obviously w W comes first, the XFL was second, and
you know he around the time it shut down, he
bought w CW, which took even more of his attention.

(01:05:57):
So you know, one Reford wonder not only with that's
surviving one other business ventures would he get into outside
wrestling looking to succeed outside We're not playing and become
legitimate because that was around the time where he was
really dabbling these outside opportunities. So I think he may
have taken a few years off to do that, but
I think at some point he would have come back
to wrestling.

Speaker 4 (01:06:16):
Like you said, yeah, that's really interesting you mentioned XSFL
because I wonder if I mean, obviously you wouldn't have
had the big wave of the Attitude era behind him
to promote that league, and he might not have even
had the NBC relationship anymore if he was bought out.
But I wonder if we would be talking about the eleventh, twelfth,

(01:06:41):
I guess the twelve season of the XFL coming up,
you know what I mean? Like, if he was out
of the wrestling business and the only thing that he
could do was promote the XFL, would we be talking
about the twelfth season the XFL coming up? You know,
it's so weird to think about what could have been
different if his energies, if his energies were not split

(01:07:03):
on the WWF. In the XFL at the time, it
just there was such a I really agree with Wade
and his analysis of why the XFL failed. They started
that season too early, There wasn't enough training camp preparation,
The quality of play was not good. That after the
first couple of weeks of the buzz and oh my goodness,
is a new football league and oh wow, I look

(01:07:24):
how flashy it is. Look at the new things they
have and sparkles and and sizzle and fun, when he
got down the substance of it, there wasn't much. So
I wonder if if he were out of business and
he kind of went to still promote a new a
new football league without having the WWS behind it, would
he have turned out a successful football league, And that's

(01:07:46):
kind of an interesting thought. I don't know. He might
have still held on to the exact same way he
promoted that first season, and it might have gone out
of business the exact same way it did that after
one the year. So that's interesting. That's an interesting thought,
is the XSL and how the factors into the equation.
Greig Let's took up on a couple of other topics

(01:08:06):
in the news today the Miz He had a major
interview on ESPN dot com with Bill Simmons. Very good
timing with Lebron James returning to Cleveland. UH today today
opposite team the Impact with his first game as a
member of the Miami eat against Cleveland Cavaliers in Cleveland. Uh,

(01:08:27):
the Mids had a big interview talking about a lot
of W subjects, Lebron his first w title reign. What
was kind of the takeaway that you had from the
interview kind of reviewing the highlights of it, and UH,
just sort of what jumped out at you from the
interview with the Mids on on on ESPN dot com.

Speaker 5 (01:08:47):
I gotta admit I have not seen it yet I've
been visited. Actually today after I got the student teaching
and I rushed home to UH to watch SmackDown actually
to get ready for our chat which is Postball on
Tust tomorrow and the live cast so I could talk
about that. Because Thanksgiving the long weekend got in the way,
and then student teaching came in, and I haven't been

(01:09:08):
able to catch up on all the news that i'd
like to. But I will say that I've read some
reviews that have spoken highly of them. Is as far
as how he came off on the interview, So it
looks like they have a guy, a champion who if
he sticks around long enough to be champion, will do
w W a good as far as publicity and interviews

(01:09:30):
interest being an entertaining guy who they can throw out
there and interviews when necessary. I mean, he was already that,
and he was already kind of a go to guy
they had to do that, but now even more so,
I think he's he's a guy who who they can
rely on to, you know, say all the right things

(01:09:50):
in interviews and be a good company ambassador with the press,
even though he's a heel.

Speaker 4 (01:09:55):
Yeah, that's a really good point. That was my takeaway
from this. Well, and he's with the minute sometimes you
can't really tell if he's uh. I mean, this is
kind of the charm of his character in his persona
in these media interviews. Is he kind of walks in
between Mike Muzan and in the middes it's sort of
one and the same. And so a lot of his

(01:10:16):
comments do come across sort of like what a heel
would say, but a lot of it also sort of
what an ambassador for the company would say. Overall, though,
I think the package, like you said, Greg, is he's
a good representation for w He represents the company well,
he holds himself well, he's kind of, like I said
in my analysis, the face of a new generation almost
with the way that he presents himself with a brash

(01:10:39):
uh sort of you know, next generation, like a Shamus
kind of brash, cocky, confident star h And that's kind
of the impression I got from this interview. And we
can kind of dissect a lot of what he said
in terms of the the point by points, and I
kind of a kind of concern with what he said
about the off season. He said, Oh, I don't really

(01:10:59):
need one Okay, well that's good for you, but you know,
you're twenty nine and he just turned thirty. Someone's gotta
step up at some time and say, you know what,
I'm gonna look out for the entire roster and say,
you know what, we've got to have an offseason. Too
many guys are injured, banged up. Too many guys have
died who have gone through that system. So that was

(01:11:20):
a bit of a red flag for me, but not
really surprising. He is kind of about saying the right
things and being an ambassador for the company, so I'm
not really surprised by that.

Speaker 14 (01:11:31):
Greg.

Speaker 4 (01:11:31):
What is your take on him as the heel Champion
in the sense that he kind of he's kind of
marketing as oh, you know, you could tune in any
night of any night on Raw or on any pay
per view, and I'm I potentially could drop the title
sort of that vulnerable, undeserving heel champion where the attraction
is that you're gonna tune in and maybe he's gonna
drop the title. Jerry Lawler an any given an, any

(01:11:53):
given night, you know what I mean. So once you're
taking that aspect, is that marketable or do you think
that's the situation WHEV is trying to convince him that
is marketable, and he's trying to buy into that, and
he thinks that's what he needs to say, because that's
what there's stole him on.

Speaker 5 (01:12:09):
This is it's a fine line to walk between having
a credible champion and a guy who is shown as
vulnerable and a guy who can lose it at anytime.
The belt is put on the line because you know,
you kind of do want that sense that people need
to tune in because they might see that title champions
and them is losing. I think he's got enough heat
as a heel character where people want to see him

(01:12:31):
lose genuinely. So that's a fine line to walk. But
then again, I mean, titles have meant so little lately
that is that even a consideration to people watching and
people tuning in that they have a vulnerable champion who
might lose at any time, Is that a good enough
reason for them to tune in lately?

Speaker 4 (01:12:47):
I don't think so. And that's kind of what I
what I thought when they first put the belt on him,
and there was all that talk of you know, it's
sort of marketable because he's undeserving champion that belts not
and that's sort of been the problem with this year
and then going back a couple of years, is that
belt hasn't been over for a while, and so if

(01:13:08):
the belt's not over, then that gimmick can't be over
because no one is really concerned about a champion who's
not deserving enough to be in the champions. So I
think Ronnie Piper's promo on the Old School Raw was
like trying to do about three years of damage control
and trying to rewrite that story and in one night,
and to a certain extent, he did kind of do

(01:13:30):
a little bit damage control because of how effected that
promo was, but then he had to do a lot
of repair to the belt that for that to work
as a sort of a heel marketing scheme for the
miz And I don't know, I have to see more
of this, and we have to see how Randy Ortens
incorporated into this with his injury and and how much

(01:13:50):
he can be utilized on TV. So there's a lot
of questions thinking over that tin of rain and not
concerned about it because the belt isn't over, and I've
written about and that's my chief concern with it, so
we'll see, you know, we'll see what happens with that
going forward.

Speaker 19 (01:14:09):
I'm Chris Maitland and I'm Justin McClelland we host Wrestling
Coast to Coast, where we scour the wrestling scene to
find the best wrestling from the smallest places.

Speaker 20 (01:14:17):
There are thousands of matches happening every week, so Wrestling
Coast to Coast is here to discover the men and
women who could be big time stars in a few years.

Speaker 19 (01:14:25):
There are plenty of podcasts to voters to w W
and AW, but what's happening in the armories and gymnasiums
local wrestling hotspots around the country.

Speaker 20 (01:14:33):
We can't wait to help you find the true hidden
gems of the wrestling world. Plus, you can hear Chris
complain about bad referees.

Speaker 19 (01:14:39):
And justin bemoaning dog pole fins.

Speaker 20 (01:14:41):
Don't forget my feudal search to see a blue Thunderbomb
win a match.

Speaker 19 (01:14:45):
How can I like? The name says we cover the
hottest independent promotions from around the country, such as Prestige Action,
West Coast, Pro, Revolver, and Beyond Wrestling.

Speaker 20 (01:14:54):
Actually, Chris, I think we stick pretty much to wrestling.

Speaker 19 (01:14:57):
No I mean Beyond Wrestling Out of Worcester, Oh right
show part of the PW Torch Dailycast lineup that typically
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Speaker 4 (01:15:24):
Greg one final topic before we kind of wrap up,
and I'll look forward to Impact tonight if we can.
And uh in smacking on Friday with MVP now released
and he'll be on the show on Friday next. Season
four and your thoughts on the cast that was announced
does not include Tyler Black, does not include Consequence's Creed,

(01:15:47):
does not include Brett debiassei U, does not include a
couple other names from developmental who I thought might be
included with this group. Uh, your thoughts on the cast?
They did announce they're going to kind of jump out
of you off the bat, and why do you think
they held off with some of the bigger names that
could have utilized on this season. Season four coming out
next Tuesday.

Speaker 5 (01:16:07):
Well, none of the names really impressed me, and one
of the reasons that I'm thinking is they held off
on the Tyler blast and the Kunts Country's creed is
that basically this is still gonna be online and no
one's gonna see it. So, you know, if you have
high hopes for a guy, or you have a guy
with name recognition, even though you've changed the name obviously,

(01:16:28):
do you really want to debut them on an internet
program they know what's gonna watch. I don't know, but
one would think that maybe debuting Kyler Black on NXC
on the internet wouldn't be that bad of an idea
since he's known for his time in r o H
and those are mostly uh, you know, in the no
Internet fans, so that would seem to make sense to

(01:16:50):
want him UH on an XP. But I can also
understand ww's point of view. You know, maybe they have
maybe they want to debut on or r smack Down
in the next month to two. Maybe they're holding off
in case of injury happens and they need to plug
someone in and can't have them wasting away if from
doing eight weeks of NXT or whatever online and can't
plug him into the roster. So you know, there's a

(01:17:12):
bright side and a dark side to.

Speaker 4 (01:17:14):
Look at it if you're if you're these guys.

Speaker 5 (01:17:15):
I mean, on the one hand, you're not getting the
opportunity on the main roster to get their rub with
with some of the main roster guys, and the you know,
even on the internet is a broader audience in FCW gets.
On the other hand, you know that you could take
this to the sign that they don't want to waste
you in in something like that and maybe have bigger

(01:17:35):
plans for you.

Speaker 4 (01:17:37):
That's a good point. It's sort of my fault on
that is that do you think that NXT will ever
be back on TV? Do you think that? I guess
we'd have the reviews from the international TV contracts to
find out how long they have these these sort of
TV contracts to air NXG and you know in Canada
and around the world, because obviously they're still getting paid

(01:17:59):
you know, sci Fi is not airing XT, but they
are getting paid by these other networks globally. So I
don't know how many more seasons they might have. You know,
I don't know if this goes you know, six step
eight seasons. But do you think that going up back
on TV anytime soon? In the US, and that might
be why they're saving some of their bigger name, bigger
names they viewed them with actually back on on US TV.

Speaker 5 (01:18:23):
I don't especially with Tough Enough coming on on the
USA network and you know, just being another WWE show
that's going to be on I just think if you
put NXT on TV, it'd be even more over and
overtill then than they already have. And you know, it
didn't draw when it was on TV the first time,
so what makes anyone think the same concept would draw

(01:18:44):
a second time around. I just I don't know why
w W is running another season other than the fact
that it gives these guys sometime in front of a
camera and in front of big crowds wrestling main roster guys.
I mean, that's the only reason I can think of,
because I don't know what other reason they would be
still holding this show on for.

Speaker 4 (01:19:06):
Do you think there's a possibility, with you know, the
number of three hour raws increasing lately, that they perhaps
do a thing where they put NXT on the hour
before RAW and have a three hour block of TV.
And you know, they could even have a break in
between seasons and do their traditional three hour raws, you know,

(01:19:27):
King of the Ring or Slammys or whatever sort of
in between seasons. Is that a possibility or do you
think that's I mean, I don't agree with it because
I think they would be overkilled out three hours of
any programming on Monday nights if I think they really
have to kind of focus on those two hours that
they have and have that be the bread and butter.
But do you think the USC network coming to w
B and C. You know what, let's put NXT on

(01:19:50):
the hour before Raw. So it's not like we have
a three hour raw show every single week, but we
have a three hour block of ww programming. Is that
a possibility to think? Or is that do you think
that somebody we have a you know, sort of brighter
minds would prevail and say, you know what, that's not
a good idea.

Speaker 5 (01:20:07):
I don't think to be honest, the USA would come
to them for that. And the reason I said it is,
you know, if this was ten years ago or you know,
five years ago, maybe even I could see that happening.
The ratings aren't strong enough right now in the two
hour ras to you know, makes sense of at having

(01:20:29):
the USA asked them for an additional hour. And the
other thing is, you know, the three hour raws used
to be special and they used to do good numbers.
And if if the USA was looking at that saying, Okay,
their three hour shows are doing good, let's give them
an additional hour, I think that would make sense. But
the three hour raws aren't doing as well as they

(01:20:50):
used to be doing either, So you know, I don't
think it makes sense from USA's perspective, let alone WWE's,
which obviously we've kind of put this questions for the
ringer that you know, Frey Auuraz, that's just aren't something
this week, done every week or every other week as
they seem to be going now, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:21:09):
Or three over a six week period, five or six
week period. Yeah. Greg found up topic before we wrap
up today TNA's final resolution on Sunday. I mean, I
feel like there's I mean, looking back to December November
of last year, those pay per views had little buzz,

(01:21:30):
you know, because everyone's kind of waiting for the whole
Coagaan and Nerek bishop er to begin January fourth, so
it's sort of like a lame duck period of pay
per views. Now, I feel like these two pay per
views in the year are in a worse position because
there is nothing to look forward to. We know all
the players, and yet it feels so lame duck for
TNA right now, it doesn't feel like it really matters.

(01:21:51):
But looking ahead to Sunday's pay per view, Greg, does
any kinda jump out at you as is anything worth
ordering for? Is it is Matt Morgan's TNA title Chase
worth being interested in? What's your take on on this
paper coming up on Sunday night?

Speaker 5 (01:22:09):
Nothing really jumps out at me. I gotta be honest.
You don't have to remind me because I didn't get
this from Impact or anything. Does Jeff Sharretto is that
on for final resolution?

Speaker 4 (01:22:21):
Yeah? In a uh, what's the simulation submissions match? I
think every sub match as a stipulation.

Speaker 5 (01:22:28):
Or title CNA. You know that could be an interesting
match only to see you know, Jeff Sharrett. I think
this this whole character of the self profess m m A,
you know professional. I think it is hilarious. You know
it has been hit or miss on TV, But I
think the the idea I love and I mentioned that

(01:22:49):
either last Monday when we did it or the Friday
before and I think it's a character that people would pay,
if not tune in the TV to see Stamojo just
kick the crap out of them. Uh. So I'm interested
to see how that closes down on Sunday, whether they,
you know, Jared pulls it off and as Eagle gets bigger,
leading to and even bigger beat down later, or if

(01:23:10):
it ends here and Simon Joe just kicks the crap
out of him.

Speaker 4 (01:23:14):
Yeah, yeah, I imagine that because I mean, you know,
Jimmy advertised Kurt Angle returning in January, so to me,
it would seem like the booking would be Jared gets
another one up on Joe, but they find a way
to protect Joe. However they strategically come up with that

(01:23:34):
in CNA.

Speaker 5 (01:23:34):
You never know, they might not even do that. I
mean it was away.

Speaker 4 (01:23:39):
Yeah, yeah, that's why I say that it was with
concern for Joe, but it might lead to, like you said,
Jerk gets an even bigger ego and then Kurt Angle,
uh you know, the next level, Babyface comes in and
they had the match at Genesis with Ingle and then Jared,
and they might blow it off there. So that's kind
of how I think they might book it. And we'll

(01:24:01):
see on Sunday if that's where they're going. But there's
an entertainment value in that, and is there worth ordering
a pay per view for? Probably not, so it's DNA.
There you go. So I don't know. We'll see if
there's anything that they do on Tonight's impact that makes
it a little bit more interesting and worth ordering the
pay per view. Obviously, we'll be covering it on Pivot

(01:24:22):
Towards dot Com on Sunday night or for your casual
viewers who are on the fence. I don't know that
there's anything significant yet to order the pay per view four,
but we'll see Tonight's impact that they can sell something
on that show. They do a decent drop of reaction
the night before pay per view typically, so maybe they
can get people excited for the pay per view using
a reaction show if anybody watches it tonight. So there

(01:24:46):
you go, Greg, any final thoughts before we wrap up today.

Speaker 5 (01:24:50):
I think we about covered the James.

Speaker 4 (01:24:53):
There you go, MVP, the Miz Impact, and Jerry Lawler.
So yeah, I think we've about touched on all the
main stuff today. Good to hear Fandi again. Greg, again,
like we like you mentioned We had to reschedule the
chat as I was pretty much recapping that miss interview
for about spent about two hours on now listening to

(01:25:13):
it and then recapping it. Spread a delay the chat.

Speaker 5 (01:25:16):
We'll try to get that.

Speaker 4 (01:25:17):
On Friday and then we'll get that on a pb
Toorch dot com. Yeah, thanks again Greg for joining me
in the livecast today. That is Torch called it's Greg Parks.
This is Torch Assistant editor James Colbo. Sign it off.

Speaker 1 (01:25:30):
If you missed it earlier. Just a reminder, we're running
these often, take advantage of it now. It is a
a one month, three month or one year sub It
V twenty twenty five as in November n o V
twenty twenty five, and that takes nine dollars off. When

(01:25:53):
you check out on our sign up form PW Torch
dot com slash go vi Ip gives you full details
on membership benefits and links to our sign.

Speaker 4 (01:26:01):
Up form you're listening to the PW Torts live cast.
PW Torch Assistant Editor James Caldwell hosting today on Friday,
December of the third, the thirdday, twenty ten and I'll
be flying solos today taking live phone calls for the

(01:26:22):
next sixty minutes here on the live gasts with pay
per view weekend on Sunday. With final rounds lution from TNA.
Just into the newsroom, we have the TNA Impact ratings
for last night's show. Stop me if you've heard this before.
The show did a one point one rating and the

(01:26:43):
show pete in the first courter hour, peaked again in
Q five to begin the second hour and then dropped
off the rest of the show and finishing with a
zero point eighty eight rating in Q eight. Don't have
the reaction numbers yet to see what the overrun was.

Speaker 12 (01:27:00):
As we know with.

Speaker 4 (01:27:01):
Impact, the name event typically spills over two in the
beginning of reaction and that usually helps sometimes helps the
boost reactions numbers. So don't have those numbers yet for
the show after Impact, but TN the Impact, like I said,
one point oh one rating. The show opened with a
one point oh nine and Q one and they had

(01:27:21):
the hot opening with the MotorCity machine Guns and Generation
Meet tag Match dropped off to blow a one point
oh rebounded to a one point oh two and Q four,
so that was the end of the second hour. They
were still below Q one Q five to start with
the second hour, like it's said, one point nine rating

(01:27:42):
the same as Q one. After that slight drop off
in Q six, drop off to a below one point
h and Q seven, and then the point eight eight
in Q eight. So the same story as usual with
TNA uh you know, starts off okay, above average, peaks

(01:28:03):
in the beginning of you should have peaked at the
you know, the end of the first hour or the
beginning of the second hour, and then there's a steady
decline the rest of the show. So it is what
it is. It's t and A impact, and this is
the numbers they have. Putting the overall number into perspective, obviously,
it was up from last night, sir, I'm sorry, last
week's Thanksgiving show, which did a zero point eighty five

(01:28:25):
on November twenty fifth. The outside of that number, the
one point oh one rating was the lowest since the
same rating on September twenty third. Sou and then going
back lower than one point oh one was August nineteenth,
so the last time they had that level, so it's
not a good number. Maybe they lots of momentum from

(01:28:46):
Thanksgiving preps. You know, everyone watched the Lebron James Returning
to Cleveland on T and T. That one did that.
I think seven million viewers. Well, I thought Kenna actually
might benefit because that game came on about my time, right,
I believe that game came on an hour before Impact
up against Superstars, So I thought that with so many

(01:29:08):
people from the TV sets, that might actually help Impact
with people tuning over to Impact once, you know, once
you kind of got an hour of the spectacle of
Lebron James back in Cleveland. I thought TNA might actually benefit,
But it looks like their their numbers did not benefit
outside of a strong first quarter hour rating. So that's

(01:29:30):
that story of TNA. And we'll take phone calls on
the last night's impact as well as reaction, your thoughts
on the pay per views coming up find a resolution
on Sunday. Also still in the news MVP, they we
had the question of the Day today on p tob
towards dot com. Your reaction to m VP's release and
now it's yesterday, about twenty four hours ago. So we'll

(01:29:53):
take phone calls on that if you want to talk
that or WDE was SmackDown tonight and a pretty interesting
SmackDown would be added intrigue of m VP's final match.
It he'll be at tag match that was taped on Tuesday.
So let's go ahead and jump to the Ball Lives.
Let's go ahead and go to our first caller today
from the seven two four area code seven to four.
Welcome to the show. Please sit you an eight man

(01:30:14):
where you're from?

Speaker 6 (01:30:16):
Hey James, This is David Pittsburgh.

Speaker 4 (01:30:18):
Hey Dave, what's going on? To say?

Speaker 16 (01:30:20):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (01:30:20):
Not too much.

Speaker 6 (01:30:21):
Usually whenever I call into the live cast, I have
a lot to complain about the WW but I actually
have to commend them. As of late, it seems like,
since I don't know, probably the early part of two
thousand and nine, I basically watched out a habit. Everything
was dull. Most of the wrestlers were dull. You know,

(01:30:43):
guys like Drew McIntyre, Kobe Kingston, MVP, uh was one,
Ted Dvosty, guys like that. They all just they're all
just planned. In my opinion and have been planned. But
I actually want to tune in a wrong on Monday,
and it's been that way probably for about the past
three weeks. I'm I'm looking forward to watching raw because

(01:31:07):
I want to see what what's gonna happen between Michael
Cole and Kerry Waller. And I like I like that
they put the belt on the miz. At first, I
thought they should have kept the belt on or or
kept the money in the bank with them, uh.

Speaker 4 (01:31:21):
Into the new year. But yeah, I like them.

Speaker 6 (01:31:25):
I like THEMS being the champion better than Randy Orton,
Uh he seemed he's boring too. And whatever they're doing,
I I like. I like the fact that I know
I can tune in every Monday. This is a good
wrestling match, more than likely with Daniel Bryant too. So
there's there's some positive things, uh in my opinion at

(01:31:46):
the w W is doing. I just think that this
has been a huge transitional year and hopefully, uh, the
dividends will pay off, you know, in the next year
and and here into the future.

Speaker 4 (01:31:59):
Yeah, I mean you mentioned Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler
and what the fault on that is under normal circumstances,
I would have a real issue with the main storyline
on Raw but being announcers and the few that they're having,
which I just in principle, I think it just takes
so much away from the wrestlers that should be the

(01:32:22):
focal point of the show, and I think that's been
one of the main reasons why they's business and pay
per views house shows has been down the second half
of this year is because of the focus on the
announcers and el Michael Cole and not having anyone to
sell the product with a sane thought. You know, obviously

(01:32:42):
the cold scripted to be delusional. But that said, I
am intrigued for the follow up of Colin Lawler. I
agree with you on that, but in principle, I don't
agree with it because I think the emphasis should be
on the issues amongst the wrestlers, whether it's MS Randy Orton,
whether it's Sina and Wade Barrett, which I thought lost
a ton of team on Monday Show. But you know,

(01:33:05):
Cole Lawler is an intriguing developments. I mean, the Lawer
is a guy who's been around forever. The audience knows
his story, or at least they know of him, and
they don't necessarily know his background, but they know that
he's Jerry Lawler. He's the guy who's been on TV
for fifteen years, and they know that Michael Cole is
an annoying announcer. So there's two issues right there, and
there's a conflict and there's an intriguous to how it's resolved.

(01:33:27):
I don't know that it's gonna help business unless it
leads to Jim Ross back on TV. I think that's
the only way it helps business. So we'll see what that.
I mean. I'm intrigued by it too, and it goes
against everything I stands before in terms of putting the
emphasis on the wrestlers. But this is kind of where
go to be is going in the direction of making
everyone on their show a character, even Michael Cole. I mean,

(01:33:50):
the next time, they even turned Tony Shimble into a character.
So yeah, So Dave, I understand your enthusiasm for for
that angle. It is up in different and I don't know.
I'm really interested to see where it leads to. Before
I did make a decision on whether it's a good thing.
So that's kind of where I am on DA because

(01:34:11):
Monday Show it was such a mixed bag for me, uh,
and Greg Park's kind of just broke broke it down
in our weekly chat that we did this afternoon. I
just posted on pptorch dot com looking at a lot
of different angles un raw and to me it's such
a mixed bag on what can we look forward to
and what can we draw from that gives people hope

(01:34:32):
for that brand answer to his business And I need
to see more, especially the NEXTUS, because I thought I
thought I really did them a disservice on Monday Show
with John Teena coming back. So there's a couple of
highlights from from what Greg and I had talked about, Uh,
dave fact you I mean give from the fall up
on Colin Lawler or anything else to kind of jump
out of you from Monday's raw that gives you hope

(01:34:53):
going forward.

Speaker 6 (01:34:55):
Well, I have a few follow up points and then
I actually have another question.

Speaker 4 (01:34:59):
Sure Basically.

Speaker 6 (01:35:02):
Like with John Cena, I think I think that w
W is too scared uh to not plaster him all.

Speaker 4 (01:35:10):
Over the place.

Speaker 6 (01:35:10):
But at the same time, I don't think it's working.
It's the way that they wanted to and and quite frankly,
the way that they needed to, because oversaturation is something
drives people away. And uh and and John Cena and
and kind of Randy Orton too.

Speaker 4 (01:35:28):
I mean, he's these guys are shoved.

Speaker 6 (01:35:30):
Down our throat. I mean I I certainly wouldn't buy
a pay per view to watch some fight. It just
it just wouldn't happen. Also, Jim Ross, I know it's
like everyone talks about this all the time, but I
mean that's the main reason. And and I don't think
anybody could could tell me differently that the ratings have

(01:35:53):
gone down. There he sold a product so well and
and and everyone knows that he he made you his
voice alone, his enthusiasm alone. And I hope somebody from
the w W is listening and takes takes the uh
people's buzz into consideration. But he would sell the pay
per view. I would want to buy a pay per

(01:36:14):
view for fifty dollars if if he could sell it
to me, because he's done it before many times. You know,
you you want to buy a pay per view because
of him, and uh.

Speaker 4 (01:36:25):
His voice alone, it gets you excited.

Speaker 6 (01:36:27):
It makes you think there's a real issue, and and uh,
you know, I I kind of like Michael Cole's character
because it's different, but that you know, there has to
be a follow up, and that that brings me into
my next question. And and before after that, I want
to I'd actually like to hear like Wade's opinion and

(01:36:47):
maybe a couple of the other calumnists on the on
the staff there. Sure it's about the rog GM and
I've never heard anybody else, but it is impossible that uh,
we'll never find out the row.

Speaker 4 (01:37:07):
Yeah, the security.

Speaker 6 (01:37:09):
I mean, who says there has to be a payoff
with it?

Speaker 4 (01:37:12):
Yeah? I mean yeah, I mean do you would think so?
But I mean I remember, I mean it was three
or four months ago we were sitting here on the
live cast speculating who it might be and what the
possibilities are, and we said every time we came to
that theory, the conclusion was, well, how can.

Speaker 14 (01:37:29):
We really see it come up with a conclusion when.

Speaker 4 (01:37:31):
We don't even know if it has anyone in mind?
You don't have they even have they even come up
with anyone. And I'm sure they've had different people toss around,
uh you know, sort of brainstorming sessions, but I don't
know if they have anyone in mind. And I I mean,
I iree with you, Dave, like I could see this
going on forever, you know, until they either find someone

(01:37:53):
that fits to where it wouldn't be too illogical, or
they just they just do away with them. You know,
one of those things where all of a sudden, he
just disappears and they don't mention it again. You know,
a classic going to the storytelling is in the story
without really telling the audience that it's over, which just
happened so many times before. But I stopped, I stopped

(01:38:14):
trying to analyze the clues because I'm with you, I
don't know that they have anyone in mind, and I
don't know that we're gonna get the revealed anytime soon.
It looks like we're getting pretty close to that. When
Edge was futial with the GM was that two months ago?
Now it looked a We'm not going to pay off then.
But you know, unless there's some sort of deal where

(01:38:34):
Da've parlay Michael Cole and his power trip into a
reveal either this week or in the next couple of weeks,
or the end of the year or beginning next year,
or WrestleMania, I don't really see them doing this. I
think if They like it. They like being able to
kind of get heat on Coal. As I said, he's
a character now. They like to kind of have that

(01:38:55):
as a profit. It's sort of a means to to
advance the story, set up matches, to be an unofficial
matchmaker on TV, so it has its purpose. I think
there's so many logicals if you look back in the
last five months of this gimmick. But I think Dunby
just likes it. I mean for the house shows as well.
They like it for the house shows, something that the

(01:39:16):
audience kind of recognizes and they react to. So I
don't think they feel the need to pay it off
anytime soon, and maybe not for a long time. You know,
a lot of time is in years. Who knows, so
good good call days. Appreciate your thoughts and your comments.
Definitely good, good items that you brought to the table.
So I appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (01:39:41):
You don't have to wait for the Waight Keller Pro
Wrestling post show to find out what I thought of
Monday Night Raw and SmackDown. Each week, you can check
out my reports that are updated live throughout Raw and
SmackDown at pw torch dot com. My written report will
tell you what's happening in detail in case you missed
the show, and it will also analyze key segments and
give my rant thoughts quips on what I am watching

(01:40:02):
as it airs. So check it out every Monday night
and Tuesday night at pewtorch dot com. That also applies
to wwepayperviews. I cover those live at pw torch dot
com with a detailed written report with star ratings, and
of course you can find other TV reports from other
contributors to pw torch such as nxt roh, Impact Wrestling
and more. Check it out pw torch dot com your

(01:40:24):
first stop for TV and pay per views written reports.

Speaker 4 (01:40:37):
Again, you're listening to the pw torch livecast and this
is p tow Torch Assistant editor James Caldwell. Have you
mentioned this At the top of the show. It broke
down DTNA Impact ratings with a one point oh one
rating for last night's show, peaking in Q one and
Q five and then dropping off to the lowest point
of the show in Q eight. The story of TNA

(01:40:57):
Impact in a nutshell. So let's go ahead, get back
to the phone lines. Let's go to the ninety three
one erie code Wave. This is Ian out of Tennessee.

Speaker 7 (01:41:05):
Ian.

Speaker 4 (01:41:05):
How are you today, Hey, could how's it going? Guys
doing good? What do you fir say?

Speaker 12 (01:41:11):
Well?

Speaker 15 (01:41:11):
I just wanted to give kudos that first caller because
he was right on the head with a lot of
his points, and you know, it really made me think,
we're all it's pretty hot right now. But how do
you save SmackDown?

Speaker 5 (01:41:22):
It just seems like I.

Speaker 15 (01:41:24):
Don't think I've ever in the last few years seen
both brands going in a positive direction that you know,
with MVP getting released, they really could have used him
in the main event against Edge.

Speaker 4 (01:41:38):
And it would have been good.

Speaker 11 (01:41:39):
And they've got all these.

Speaker 15 (01:41:40):
Talents on there and they just don't do anything with them.
What what do you think would be be the way to.

Speaker 4 (01:41:50):
Give that brand a new life? I honestly don't know.
I mean, they've gone through so many network changes. The show.
I mean, this show has written almost the same way
as Raw Now. I mean, we've put up a flat
I did this intentionally put up a flashback to SmackDown
seven years ago and they had two matches on their

(01:42:12):
Rock Left servers Crispin Law and Crispin Wilbers John Cena
that were above three stars Rocks Rock Versus been while
with four and a half stars, they both went about
twenty minutes. It was a restling brand, you know, it was.
It was different from raw in the sense that you
got to see quality, guaranteed great wrestling, and that's been
SmackDown's calling card and it's kind of gotten away from

(01:42:34):
that in sci fi. They've done the whole Edge and
Caine hostage deal, which I mean, my goodness, just too
much time to vote to that. They gave us a
good Jack Schwacker vers Kobe Kingston match last week. I
thought that was one of the even drum ross point
in the seventh blog. And I mean just anything anything
to draw attention to SmackDown is good when it went
in a positive direction. But I mean, SmackDown had a

(01:42:58):
pretty good Kobe Kings and Jack Swacker match last week.
I think I read did it three and a half stars.
They need to have more of that. They need to
have more of that quality wrestling that SmackDown has delivered
for ten and a half years. And I in the
mid two thousands, pretty much the only way that show
was watchable it was because the quality wrestling. It's kind

(01:43:18):
of you know, the Matt Hardy versus MVP feud and
I think it was that seven O eight. I think
it's O seven. They've got to find that wrestling nichee.
And I know they've moved away from network TV where
a kind of appeal to a different audience. Now they're
on cable TV where they kind of have to be
a little or dramatic and kind of like raw to
kind of draw that audience in. But they've got to

(01:43:38):
find a way to sing where said that brand And
like you said, Ian, I don't think that the talent's over.
I mean there's just too much emphasis on sort of
these silly storylines. They don't really have a main feud.
I mean, throughout their their timeline Scientifi, it's been it's
been the Cane Magic Show or you know, the Cane Undertaker,
Caine in the in Edge almost at the Edge, Canaan

(01:44:00):
Edge with their sort of I don't know how to's
ride but just sort of a PG kids, happy go
fun time show. So they've got to go back to wrestling.
They got to find a new way to present the show,
and it's gonna be They're not going to present a
completely different show because all the shows must look uniform.
But they've got to get away. They've got to find

(01:44:21):
a way to utilize what they have, which is some
pretty good wrestlers give you know, put Kobe Rothers in
a match that means something. Put Kobe Kingston in a
match that means something. But Jack Swagger in a match
that means something. And we'll see a little bit of
that on tonight's show with Swagger versus Kofe in a rematch.
And uh, there's another I mean Canaan Edge. It's Canaan Edge.

(01:44:43):
But I don't know. I think they gotta go back
to wrestling. I think that's their main thing, or find
it just a different way to present their current characters,
just to find a different way to focus on the
younger talent they have, so they don't just blend together
like MVP and that I think that's kind of what
happened to his character, or it's just blended in. He
didn't really stand out of the baby face so he

(01:45:05):
thought on that ant a question for a comment.

Speaker 15 (01:45:07):
Yeah, I mean, I just think it's stupid that they're
putting the Edge and kne Mash on Free TV. Just
a simple point of do you really want to show
how bad. This match is everybody. You know, Edge is
my favorite wrestler. He has been for years, and it's
just making me embarrassed to even be a wrestling fan
watching him become this goofy dumbhouse who just throws pizza

(01:45:31):
at Paul Beer. And you know, I have an interview
with one of the writers on another show the other night,
and you know, they apparently they were wanting to go
in a direction where he was more like the joker
and sinister. But you know, if that's what they're going
to do with it, then they just need to stop
because it just makes them look stupid and it makes

(01:45:53):
the show suffer.

Speaker 4 (01:45:56):
Yeah, I mean, and I hear your concern, and it's
I mean, to me, Edge could have could be so
much more value. I mean, he's gonna main event programs,
you know, but I think it could be so much
more valuable to the brand if you weren't doing this.
It just it feels silly. I mean, and I know
why they do it. It's pg They think it's funny

(01:46:16):
to have everyone at point and laugh of the fat
guy would be, you know, being Paul Verror. It's the
classic w humor, and they think it appeals I mean
it to a certain extent, it does appeal to the
PG audience. But is that good business. I don't think so.
The way they presented, I don't think it's good. I mean,
I like to see edgend matches, you know, with Jack

(01:46:36):
Swagger and Kobe Kingston and uh, you know, Kobe Rose.
I mean, I'd like to see some other Alerta del Rio.
I like to see edgre some other matches, you know,
and not involved in this program with Kane. And I mean,
I know Edge is kind of you know, he's seemingly
always banged up, so they can't really have they kind
of have to conserve his his matches and his touches,

(01:46:58):
if you will. But I mean, this is the way
to do it. I don't want to put them on commentary,
you know, I have him just sit on commentary if
he if he's not able to work, uh, you know,
except on you know, pay per views. So it is
what it is, a SmackDown. It's a kids show, and
it's uh, laugh at the fat guy. And that's kind
of the theme of the show right now. Uh and

(01:47:20):
and he and you know it's so ironic. You say
you're feeling stupid because then she came on SmackDown. Uh
when he was when he was traded from Rome, and
he said, uh, what was the blind He said about
my mission in w is is to rid the company
of everything that's stupid and wrestling or something like that.
And here he is involved. I said, it's in my report,
you know. So here he is involved with this deal

(01:47:40):
with club error last Friday. So I mean, it is
what it is. It's it's what they believe is the
right way to market the show, and I disagree with it.
The ratings have not performed as well as they could have.
They're they're doing okay amongst amongst males and the key
malee demographic, but they're underperformed in my book, and I

(01:48:00):
think I and you kind of hit a hundred couple
points of why so good call there. I appreciate that. Ian.
Let's go on and get some more phone calls in.
Let's go to the four one two. Herey code four
one two. Welcome to the George Lovecast. Let's know where
you're calling from.

Speaker 7 (01:48:14):
Hey, James, it's JD and Pittsburgh.

Speaker 4 (01:48:16):
How you doing, Hey, JD doesn't do What do you
have for a second?

Speaker 21 (01:48:19):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (01:48:19):
Not much?

Speaker 7 (01:48:20):
You had a couple of callers back from the Guy
in Pittsburgh.

Speaker 4 (01:48:22):
He brought up some good points though.

Speaker 7 (01:48:23):
I'll tell you that though, But I'll tell you one thing.
The reason why I think RAW. I mean, I'm gonna
talk first off about the MVP issue and then about
the RAW in general as far as the MVP goes.
I heard there was a lot of people saying that
he was unhappy the last few months, the way his
character's been going and everything like that. But you know what,
I think it was kind of stupid that he's gone
from the WW because I think he was one of
the most popular guys around for a while now. And

(01:48:44):
the question is, I mean, how are they gonna react
to all this? And it's gonna be interesting to see, obviously.
But the real thing I'm talking about, however, is obviously
about Michael Cole. I mean, I've talked about this on
another show with some people, and I think Michael Cole
is the biggest douchebag when it comes to announcing. Is terrible.
He is absolutely horrendous. I mean, he always has to
suck the miss every week. Basically it's his character. I understand,

(01:49:06):
and he sucks up other characters, but you think about it.
I'm hoping that this Monday Night someone puts him in
his place. I mean, Punk obviously did it last Monday
we saw in Philadelphia, and I'm glad he did that,
but I think WWE needs someone else to move over
from one of their shows to take Cole's place. I mean,
there's been a lot of people saying Nicole is going
to be a pro for the n XT four.

Speaker 4 (01:49:23):
I don't know if it's.

Speaker 7 (01:49:24):
Gonna happen or not, but like I said, Michael Cole
to me is the reason why the rains are being
bad in the WWE right now. As far as Monday night'sgo,
he is a big pull. He sucks everyone off every
week and he just can't announce where the damn I'm
sorry used to back in the day, but he can't.
Now what's your thought.

Speaker 4 (01:49:41):
It's it's night and day. When you look at Cole
and Jim Ross. I mean you look at the passion
that Ross exudes when he was on the mic, it's
so different, it's so refreshing compared to Michael Cole. I
mean two things on Cole. One is I don't agree
with his ca just it just the way it's presented

(01:50:02):
I think it takes to lips the product. I think
it's you know, if it's not, if it's not the
top three, it's the top five reason why business is down.
As we talked about in the live cast throughout the
last three or four months. The other thing is that
he just feels so robotic and so uninspired, not even
on the next team. Is intentionally just being a jerk
and just acting completely above the entire product. I'm talking

(01:50:24):
about a raw with the main show. He just seems
so disingenuous and uninterested in robotic and not interested in
the show. It just feels a good job to him,
and that carries over to when you're trying to sell
the product, even just taking stripping away the sizzle of
Michael Cole being a heel and and talking up letting

(01:50:47):
them is and and endorsing the Heels and uh Maggan
on the baby Faces, just stripping that away. When you
look at the core of Michael Cole as an announcer,
there isn't the passion for the product, and you've got
to have that to sell wrestling. Otherwise the audience kind
of looks at it and says, you know what, this
isn't worth my money. It's kind of simulated scripted storyline,

(01:51:08):
so proper drama not worth my money. You know, I'll
watch on TV when something cool is happening or I
hear about something cool, but I'm not really invested in
the product. I'm a fringe viewer because if the voices
that are here aren't that enthusiastic, but the product, then
you know what, I'm not gonna be enthusiastic. You get
Jerem Ross on there, and I couldness he's selling you

(01:51:28):
WrestleMania every night, you know, and he doesn't really have
to try at it. He just there's just a certain
passion and intangible quality that he brings the broadcasting booth
where you feel enthusiastic and enthralled, and you just you
just feel what he feels. I mean, he's trying to
He's trying to take you along for a ride that

(01:51:49):
you want to go along for the ride on with
Michael Cole. He's trying to take you on a ride
that you don't want to go on. You know, it's like, no,
give me out the car, so I mean it's to me,
I mean, you're trying to dress up. Cole is a
more interesting announcer, trying to make him a little bit
more edgy as a heel announcer, but when he stripped
it all away, when you look at the core, he's

(01:52:11):
not a productive announcer. It's just it's just plain and simple.
He's not a productive announcer on SmackDown. He's serviceable, he's fine.
He's fine on SmackDown. Uh. He was fine with with
Taz on SmackDown for a long time. He's pretty decent.
Even JBL is pretty decent, but you put him on
the flag Ship Show, you put him with with Jerry Lawler,
it's just not a good dynamic. Uh. Seem Punksman added

(01:52:33):
to the mix. He has helped a little bit, but
it's still it is Michael Cole. So my issue is
not with the character itself, although I have an issue
with that because I disagree with making an announcer a
character to distract from the wrestlers. But my issue is
Michael Cole the announcer, and it's just night and day
with jam Ross, and I mean, the business has suffered
since then, and I just I just don't think there's

(01:52:56):
any dispute about that. So JD. Good Call appreciate that
be sure to call back again. Next week. We're gonna
get to some more phone calls with several people on hold,
about six people on holders who want to go on
and give us the phone number. If you want to
join us in the last half hour of the show,
it's six four six seven nine eight two eight, And
if you're listening to us after the the live edition

(01:53:18):
of today's live cast, you can email us at PW
Torch live cast at gmail dot com. If you have
a question i'd'd like to have us read on the
air on a future episode, So shout out to our
listeners on iTunes and on blog talk radio in the
after the after the live show, I want to give
a shout out to you guys if you want to
email us with the question ask on the air. But again,

(01:53:40):
if you wanna join us live, if you listen to
us live in the next half hour six four six,
seven to one nine eight two eight to call in
and participate in today's show, Let's go to our next
phone call from the four one five eeria code four
one five. Welcome to the show. Please say your name
and where you're from.

Speaker 8 (01:53:59):
Go on.

Speaker 4 (01:54:00):
James and Jonathan pro Sancosco, Hey Jonathan, what's going to say?
Not much, not much, just about the whole wrestling in
general with the kind of insider shots you know when
they're on commentary, can they key stop that and just
Kate David? Because when I want to hear the inside stuff,
you know, I go to you guys, and you know,
I go to the podcast. I don't want to hear

(01:54:20):
it on my wrestling show. It's kind of safety, I agree.
I mean, are you are you speaking more toward ther
TNA or both all wrestling just inside insider stuff. You know,
if that's the case, then they need to hire you guys,
and you guys could just do that announcing for now
on or you know, have have the guy that deserve

(01:54:41):
or do it or something. You know, I don't want
to hear inside. You know, when Michael Cole does the
where you're a SuperStar's not a wrestler, it's like, oh, no,
he said he's a sports entertainer correct, uh correct? Then
see him punk. I'm like, Oh, that's not what I
want to hear. I want to I want to hear
that these guys are rest These guys are athletes, not

(01:55:02):
sports entertainer, just like do NBA people call themselves sports entertainers. No,
they called a self basketball players. They ballers, you know,
football players, they're ballers. You know. They go out there
and they you know, to make a living.

Speaker 12 (01:55:16):
They don't.

Speaker 4 (01:55:16):
They don't go out there and just we're in. We're entertainers,
you know, and they don't do a ring or something like.
Den'tre not what I want to see.

Speaker 1 (01:55:27):
We are running our second VIP sale of the year.
You want to take advantage of this. If you've thought
of going VIP or let your sub laps had to
step away for a while, it's a good time to
come back. Pw torch dot com slash Go Vip tells
you about VIP membership. There is a link to our
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three month subscription and you can take nine dollars off

(01:55:48):
any of those three options. The coupon code is n
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V twenty twenty five to take nine dollars off. That
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(01:56:12):
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(01:56:33):
podcast length, and it is a new feature. I'm running two,
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increase that as my schedule adjust to this new feature.
So check it out. Pw Torch dot com slash go
VIP coupon code n ov twenty twenty five to take
nine dollars off a one month, three month or one
year sub.

Speaker 4 (01:56:53):
Yeah. To me, it's just a consistent with the language,
you know, if you're going to call them sports entertainers,
as much as we hate that term, as much as
it's just such an ambiguous corporate speak makes you feel
icky inside type label just be consistent with it, you know,
I mean, I know that seeing Punk's kind of you know,
give a little bit of free reign, kind of explore

(01:57:16):
the broadcast position, add a little bit of color, just
do some experimentation with you know, sort of what you
want to say and how you want to be edgy
and how you want to present yourself. But there's got
to be certain parameters of just just stay stay on
the course, you know, if you're going to explore it,
stay within certain parameters. And you know, it's just to me.

(01:57:40):
Whatever the second match of the show was, I think, Jonathan,
this is what you're talking about. I believe it was
the second match of Raw on Monday. It was just
so cringeing news and I couldn't focus on the match
because it was just such a back and forth banter
about nothing. No Lailler and Cole and Punk were talking
about nothing. That was horrendous commentary. I have no idea

(01:58:03):
what the second match of the show was, but I
remember that was the match where I just, you know,
review of that show. I was completely taken out of
the match because the commentary was so horrible. For those
reasons you identify, Jonathan, where they're talking about you know,
terminology and and just things like that that don't matter
in the context of a wrestling show. And it's just
such a distraction. And again it gets to the point,

(01:58:26):
which is that it takes away from the product. It
takes away from what you're trying to do, which is
get over the guys in the ring. So I agree
with jobs, and there should be a ban on references
like that either, you know, if you're gonna call them
sports entertainers, just stay a sports entertainer and don't stay wrestling.
Don't debate whether it's wrestling or sports entertainment. Don't debate
whether the wrestlers or sports entertainers. Just stick to what

(01:58:49):
it is and go with that. It's so frustrating watching
wrestling when the the Inside of Terminology comes on and
Hulkoga is talking about raising the bar and ratings, and
it's just so cringe inducing. Just tell us the story,
get over the story, and leave it to us to
analyze what you know, how you present the story, and

(01:59:10):
whether it's effective or not. It's just such an inferiority
complex that wrestling promoters have that they want to be
able to acknowledge that. Okay, we know it's not real.
So we want to wink at you. We really want
to wink at you so you don't think idiots. But
that's not what makes money. That's not what draws. What
draws is telling the story with a straight face and

(01:59:32):
being consistent. And I think wrestling promoters are just have
the inferiority complex that they want to be able to
wink at us. They want to be able to knowledge that, yeah,
we know it scripted. You know, here's a wink in
a nod to you. So that's frustrating when you're trying
to review the product itself and they're trying to insert that.
So John's and a group you one hundred percent on
that good call. Uh, thanks for thanks for introducing that

(01:59:54):
topic into the live cast today. Again. You're listening to
the Peter B. Church Live cast his Torch assistant editor
James Caldwell flying solo today for the next twenty five
minutes or so. On the show. If you haven't checked
out ptodoitorch dot com Orwaightkeller dot com. The last twenty
four hours have lots of news and then Alisa's coverage.
It features on TNA Impact. Last night, Wakekeller broke down

(02:00:18):
Impact with this sort of sort of hit a new
hit list kind of looking at the jerk of the
show and various items that jumped out from last night's show.
That's on Waightkeller dot com. TNA impact ratings we opposed
of that just for the live cast. If you're joining
us midway through, we broke down the impact rating to
the top of the show usual ratings pattern for TNA

(02:00:39):
with a one point oh one rating peek and Q one,
PK and Q five, lowest rating in Q eight. So
that information that news is on PDB Torch dot com.
Right now, let's go to our next phone call from
the three four seven area code three four seven, Welcome
to the show. If we just see your name and
where you're from.

Speaker 2 (02:00:58):
Oh, my name is Chris from New York.

Speaker 3 (02:01:00):
I have a comment of like what people are talking
about the fact that why wrestling this is down. I
think the fact is that this McMahon is consumed with
promoting his company as a circus in the way he
doesn't want to like critics to take it seriously, Like
he gets offended when critics point out about wrestling death
as they want to blame him. So I think he's
consumed with promoting the plot as a circus in order

(02:01:23):
to say to critics, you can't take this stuff seriously,
so he won't be investigated. At the same time, it
might turn off hardcore fans who actually have respect for
the industry. They respect the titles, they respect the history.

Speaker 2 (02:01:37):
So I think, do you think that that could be
a problem that well McMahon wants to promote his product
as a circus for the kids, so they don't have
fun and everything, he's turning off a hardcore fan who
actually have respect for the industry and the history of it,
so to speak.

Speaker 4 (02:01:52):
Yeah, it's definitely the case. I mean McMahon has promoted
at various times, promoted, you know, like you know, he's
called himself the greatest promoter since P. T. Barnum. And
there's a reason why it's an attraction based business the
way he presents it. You know, if when the circus
comes to town and nobody goes to house shows, then

(02:02:14):
he knows that whatever the attraction is didn't work and
use that information to find out, Okay, well I need
to change direction and I need to find a new attraction.
And that's when you get a lot of stuff fu
of the deck with the top stars, or in this case,
you get a youth movement and the hope set. You know,
some newer stars will be more attractive the next time
w brings the circus to town. So to your point, Chris, yeah,

(02:02:37):
I think these already turned away a lot of the
hardcore audiences and they're going to to UFC. That that
audience and maybe if you go to a w House show,
and I've kind of studied this over the last five years,
going to uh, you know, house shows here in Houston.
When they come to Toyota Center, the audience in two
thousand and five versus the last time w B was

(02:02:57):
here for Howse show, which was nothing in June or July,
it's so different. I mean, it's been a progressive trend
where the shift has gone away from sort of eighteen
to thirty four males who attend the shows towards the
families and the kids. I mean, it's it's ninety percent
family and kids in the house shows now and if

(02:03:18):
the circus isn't interesting, then they're not gonna go. And
that means and they've already turned away they're hardcore audience.
Most of them they've already gone to UFC or somewhere
else or DNA. Uh So they're not gonna go because
it's such a kid oriented kind of silly. I mean,
if you don't get it, then you don't understand it,
you don't enjoy it. I think it's enjoyable, but it's
hard to get people in the building when the attraction

(02:03:41):
is not strong. And that's the case right now. And
to your point about you know, is in the way
to stave up investigations, yeah it is, Yeah, that is.
I mean you look at the Linna bit Man campaign.
I mean the entire campaign. Anytime an issue came up,
the entire campaign response was we're family friendly, we're PG,

(02:04:02):
we have a wellness policy, and we care about the talent.
Those are the talking points. And that doesn't be a
consideration the attitude era when a lot of these wrestler
health issues were set in motion, when it was just
out of control, and what we have are you know,
the bill came do the wrestlers are going. It doesn't
matter that you that you went PG in two thousand
and eight has nothing to do with what you did

(02:04:23):
in nineteen ninety eight, nineteen ninety seven, nineteen ninety nine,
two thousand where there was no wellness policy when you
were Attitude era, and you did to push the envelope
way too far. You can't get back from this. So
that's you know, being being's family friendly. I think there's
two main reasons why. One is business changed the you know,

(02:04:45):
UFC took away the hardcore audience. That hardcore audience grew up,
you know, and W W. Hope said that hard core
audience will come back with their kids, and that's where
the model is. To get the kids interested in the
product and create that generational connection, you know, with with
you know, two or three or four generations of a
fan of a family. So they shift toward that because

(02:05:07):
of business reasons and to define themselves in a tough economy.
And also, I believe to have something where they can
point to and say, oh, no, no, no, we're PG. You know,
all those things that people write about us, all those criticism,
no no, no, no, no, we're PG. It doesn't hold up,
but to the general public it's okay. I guess I
can believe that. So, yeah, Chris, I think you hit
on that main point. I think the other main point

(02:05:27):
is business and they feel this is the business direction
they need to go to to differentiate themselves from UFC
from TNA on a smaller scale, Tyly, those are the
main two reasons why, and because Johnson appeels the kids
and Johnson is their their big money draw, so it
makes sense to do that as well. Good call, Chris, appreciate

(02:05:47):
Tyche joining us on today's live cast. Let's go to
our next phone call from the nine to one to
four EREA code nine to one four. Welcome to the show.
Please say to your name and where you're from. Be
from Florida. Hey, Steve, what's gon said? I just got
two questions for you.

Speaker 21 (02:06:06):
Three things you would do to shake up Monday Night
row if you could, obviously, And the second.

Speaker 4 (02:06:13):
Thing is.

Speaker 21 (02:06:15):
Do what are what would you like to see like a.

Speaker 4 (02:06:22):
The reveal of the GN be somebody?

Speaker 21 (02:06:28):
How do I want to say, somebody that we honestly
wouldn't think like a.

Speaker 5 (02:06:31):
Good payoff or do you.

Speaker 21 (02:06:33):
Expect it to be just a humdrum payoff.

Speaker 4 (02:06:37):
I'll take the second question first, good question, Steve, appreciate it.
To me, this just kind of popped in my head
and I don't really thought this through, but to me,
they might be waiting for Shane McMahon to come back,
and maybe he would be the reveal of the GM.
I don't know that would be the case. I'm kind
of grasping a straw's looking for a reason, but they

(02:06:58):
might It might be a deal with a wait for
Shane and he might be the reveal, or he just
kind of falls into the lap says okay, okay, Shane's
ready to come back to the company. What's making the GM.
Maybe they they never had it in mind and it just
happened to work out that way that that could be
what happens the reveal. To me, I just wanted to
take a little bit of sense, you know, I really don't.

(02:07:19):
I really don't have a preference on wrestler, non wrestler,
Big surprise, no surprise, as long as they has a
little bit of sense, as long as it helps business
and it makes business sense and it leads to a
wrestling match with the conflict between two wrestlers that can
make money and if people want to see then I'm
okay with that. I would prefer to live in the

(02:07:40):
logic hopefully. I don't know that we're gonna get that
with the reveal of Canne who it is, but on
your sticking question on the on the top three things
I would do to shake up Raw one, bring back
Jim Ross. And that's just that's just so needed for
business purposes to sell that product. Uh So, bring back
Jim Ross to established the importance of the title, established,

(02:08:04):
the importance of a quest for the title, established, the
importance of championship matches. Established the importance of seeing a
title match on pay per view. When you get to
see the tree, I mean they've got to present as
a tree to see your top champion and your top
challenger matched up one on one. I mean it's like
every single time the title is defending on pay per view,

(02:08:27):
it should be presented like you know, in Monday Night Football.
This Monday it's the nine to two Jets and the
nine and two New England Patriots, and so I mean
it's the top matchup that money Night football's had I
think since nineteen ninety I s all in Sports Center.
That's twenty years. They haven't had a matchup back compelling
in terms of wins and losses this late in the season.

(02:08:48):
So when you match up your champion, that should be
I mean, that's your top that's your top guy and
your challenger. That should be your number two guy every
single time you're on pay per view. That should be
presented as Jets Patriots, you know, your top two, I
mean just your top two guys that on that show.
That's how it should be presented. So I aways the
number one is Jim Ross's number two is established, the

(02:09:08):
value importance of that title to help business and to
help establish request to get to that number two slot
to challenge for the title. Number three would be I
guess we go to the GM and kind of move
along with that and you know, establish who that is
and whether it's the NEXTUS higher power, whether it's unrelated

(02:09:31):
to nexus, you know, get that over with, get a
payoff to that, and build to have the payoff, and
then move along and go back to putting the focus
on the wrestlers and the wrestlers we're trying to move
up the ladder to be in that number two slot.
So those are the three things I would do steam
So good call there, appreciate you, And toward the show,
let's go ahead and get some more phone calls in.

(02:09:52):
Let's go to the eight one seven eerie code eight
one seven. Welcome to the show. Please state your name
and where you're from. This get me from Bartwark, Texas.
How you doing today? Good Jimmy, what's going on today?

Speaker 14 (02:10:04):
Well? I first want to say to you and Wade
and uh Greg, who does your DNA impact report on
the iPhone app? Kudo because y'all have kept me intrigued
and interested in DNA. And then I watched DNA last
night and I said, okay, I have officially wasted a

(02:10:25):
few hours of my life that I could.

Speaker 4 (02:10:27):
Never get back again. Y'all at least makes the show.

Speaker 14 (02:10:30):
Interesting in your report because a lot better than what
you can actually see on TV.

Speaker 4 (02:10:34):
So kudo appreciate that. That's kind of the especially the
TNA paper of your roundtables. You know that if there's
a if there's a bad TNA pay per view, you
can always depend on us to get you through it
and give you some analysis and value. So some added
value with the audio roundtables and the VIP audio stations.

(02:10:56):
So we feel like we provide a better value oftentimes
with the round tables, and TNA does with a pay
per views and oftentimes have to be I would say
Survivor series has not very valuable, so I believe the
pay per view roundtable as well for VIP members, ask value,
which you can hear on Sunday night after the final
resolution pay per view I believe would be Wade and

(02:11:16):
Pat and Bruce breaking down the pay per view And
if you're not towards the VFP member, you can get
that information to find out how to subscribe at GiB
towards dot com slash go VIP. So Jimmy appreciates the
plot going and give us your thought on or your
question or anything else you have online for today.

Speaker 14 (02:11:33):
Well, you know, just just one I think. Unfortunately, when
I was watching DNA last night, it was just it
they've made to me, they've almost kind of made the
show predictable, whereas some mark you know, I agree with
one of the earlier college law has become at least
somewhat intriguing.

Speaker 4 (02:11:52):
I mean, you've got a couple of little different things.

Speaker 14 (02:11:54):
That you don't know where they're going to go. But
they're just too many things in TN anywhere. It becomes guessful.

Speaker 4 (02:11:59):
But here here's my big thing.

Speaker 14 (02:12:01):
We all can agree that something needs to be done
with Cole now, whether that is replacing with jim Mont,
whether that gives having him have an old you know,
come to Jesus meeting as a character and goes straight
and just call everything straight, you know, however you want
to do it. But is there, aside from Jim Ross

(02:12:24):
and past or present, is there anybody that you can
bring in that may not necessarily have to gravatize the Ross,
but is functional. And I keep kind of flowing back
to my mind, he's going back to Tony Shavani, And
I don't know if he would do it, and I
don't know if it's would ire him. But at least
Tony when he was on, was passionate. He didn't care,

(02:12:49):
He was knowledgeable about the wrestling business.

Speaker 4 (02:12:51):
He was.

Speaker 14 (02:12:53):
Something that you could compare on a very very very
small scale.

Speaker 4 (02:12:57):
He Ross, but he was.

Speaker 14 (02:12:59):
More comparable to Rockinton.

Speaker 4 (02:13:00):
Paul has never been. I don't know that there's anybody
out there. I was, I was gonna joke with the
Jammie and Saint Mike Adamley, but then I thought you
might have slapped me across the phone line. There just
adn't anyone out there. I mean Shavani, I mean, I
don't know how much he's kept up with the product.
I know he's doing. I guess radio broadcast for Baseball,
So I don't know how much he's kept up with it.

(02:13:22):
He doesn't really fit u w's mentality of what announcer
is supposed to look and sound like. And when they
brought Scott Stanford in and I think Stanford was serviceable
on Superstars before last night's show. Last night's show, I
just thought it was a horrible, horrible that of commentary

(02:13:43):
from Stanford and seem punk and in the last two
matches un raw from the raw brand, I mean, my goodness,
it was awful. I mean, Kurt Hawkins was great on smacking.
Kurt Hawkins was the best announcer on the entire show
last time Superstars. I think Hawkins has found his voice,
but I mean the effort is who they see in
an announcer sort of that the guy you can you

(02:14:05):
can kind of pull off of, you know, a local
TV broadcast. And it looks good as a good air guy.
It's about forty years old, sound professional, looks corporate. Uh,
doesn't look too old, doesn't have an accent. What it
makes it a little bit of of an orthy accent,
But that's okay.

Speaker 22 (02:14:23):
You know, are you a fan of aw looking to
sit back relax and listen to some like minded podcasters
who share your passion.

Speaker 18 (02:14:38):
Do you want to be topped off the ledge after
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they thinking?

Speaker 22 (02:14:43):
Do you want to join a discussion on what AW
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Then join me Joel.

Speaker 18 (02:14:50):
And me Greg for the All Elite Conversation Club every
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Find full details on the PW torch Dailycast lineup at
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Speaker 4 (02:15:19):
So it's one of those things where there isn't anyone
out there, you know, Jimmy, And that's kind of the
frustration with this is especially when you look at where
to draw talent and I'm not said a by wrestlers,
but authority figures, bookers, writers, announcers. There just isn't a
pool to draw from. That's kind of the the side

(02:15:42):
effect of WW going national and WW being bought out
was the lack of talent made available on the national
scale to draw from. You don't have. I mean we
talk about this all the time. There aren't thirty promotions
out there, you know, like in baseball or if you
look at each team as a promotion, but certain level
of talent. There aren't thirty promotions out there making money

(02:16:04):
and touring and regularly drawing good houses on a regular schedule.
There aren't. There isn't a cropit talent out to draw from.
So they're some of these opportunities are limited and who
they can draw from. But it's also their own doing.
They haven't developed a developmental system that has produced a
ton of talent. They had one in OBW to produce talent,

(02:16:24):
but they broke ties with that. They want to do
their own thing at SCW IT it's had okay results,
but I don't think they've developed anyone who's gonna blow
you away just yet. They've tried to with Drew and
Seamus and Swagger and guys like that, but they haven't
had anyone. I would argue shame Is is upparably the only
one who's really sustained a major run coming out of FCW,

(02:16:49):
and I think that's mainly because of Triple H. So
I don't know there's anything the road to do with SCW.
I mean, he's a great talent, don't get me wrong,
but I think it's more of Triple H than FCW.
But that's another topic for another day. But I mean
to answer your question, Jimmy, they just don't have the
talent resources. And if I had to pull someone, I
don't know. I mean, I don't know. Shravannis might be

(02:17:11):
even if he has no even if he hasn't kept
up with a product for ten years, he might be
as good as he can get. Chris Cruz someone who
I mean, I'd interview him about four or five years ago.
I don't know that he keeps him the product anymore
because he's really busy in real estate. But he was
on w CW programming back in the day as that
CNN background. I don't know that that that he would

(02:17:31):
be a good fit in w ME. He's kind of
a WW typing outs like Shavanni. But who knows, you
know who knows? But Jimmy, appreciate your call. Let's go
to some more phone calls. Let's go to the nine
to one oh aery code. But this is a hannibal animal.
Are you with us? Deya know what good here for
me today. What do you have? First day?

Speaker 16 (02:17:52):
Okay, yeah, well actually you know from well if you know,
continue up.

Speaker 4 (02:17:55):
Well other day was that you.

Speaker 16 (02:17:56):
Know, why did the w W while was the fight
by a lot of Spike TV allow for the WWE
to give away.

Speaker 4 (02:18:03):
With all the stuff when it was on? Well, definitely,
I'm just.

Speaker 16 (02:18:06):
Trying to get quick down, trying to get it brough.

Speaker 4 (02:18:09):
Yeah, yeah, I heard you on Tuesday ask and that
I think that different time. You know, I think, you know,
Spike TV at that time they're trying to be more edgy.
But wait, put it like this. You know, this is
you know, they're transitioning away from TNN. Uh, they're you know,

(02:18:30):
sort of the national network. They turned into the national
network and they came Spike. They were trying to find
a niche and so they were willing to let w
W push the envelope with the amount of sort of
edgy things that they didn't like, violence against women. They
allowed ww to kind of do that. It was the
marketing of w W. It was marketing of Spike TV

(02:18:51):
at the time. They were trying to find a niche
in that market. Now they've found their niche, you know,
do they need to have people coming after them for
violence against women in twenty ten, probably not, So I
don't know that it's a double standard. We know, okay,
we let WWD and violence against women DNA, we won't
let them have violence against women.

Speaker 5 (02:19:11):
Why.

Speaker 4 (02:19:12):
I think that Spike is sold into who they are
is a network, and I think they want to limit
the amount of risk a sort of controversial things they
have on the network. And now I say this with
TNA still, I mean sorry with Spike TV still having
a show like Mansers on which I think is just
an appalling show from my own personal taste, and they've

(02:19:34):
shows like that which I just really think objectify women
just from the the a little bit I've seen of
that show. I'm seeing them my shows Mancers. But I
think with sort of the violence against women thing, they
have wanted to go get away from that just because
they know who they are is in network, they know

(02:19:55):
the boundaries they've established. It's not such an outlaw type
deal as it was in the late nineteen nineties when
they had w w UH. So it was I guess
those two thousands when they had w after after eh
w H at the same time as they were kind
of crossing over. So I think it's just a different time, Hannibal,
And I don't think it's a double standard interest a

(02:20:16):
different time and it's just not worth the risk for
them right now. And that's kind of my answer to that.
It's not gonna answer your question, Hannibal, or did you
have another fault on that?

Speaker 16 (02:20:26):
Okay, yeah, answered the question. I got the question too. Also,
you know what's ill thinking about this whole deal? You
know where you know, this whole match between the eighty
thousand Doug Williams, it didn't really have a proper build
up and Doug WI does didn't even never mentioned men
think about fighting for the title.

Speaker 4 (02:20:39):
Only ag is given the.

Speaker 16 (02:20:41):
You know, the call foot of the fans for the
you know, the fend of the title.

Speaker 4 (02:20:46):
It's it's why I say this is what I said
the Great Park to our chat that's supposed uff. I'm
pet be towards dot Com that we did today. That's
what I say. Just watch your reaction, you know, I
mean especially the not the day before, but three days
before a pay per view reaction is a pretty good
show hyping the pay per view. I say, just don't
watch impact. They're gonna you're gonna feel confused, deflated, frustrated, angry, annoyed.

(02:21:13):
Did I say angry? Did I say frustrated? You're gonna
feel those emotions when you watch Impact because the booking
it just makes a mockery into pro wrestling. If you
watch Reaction, you're gonna feel a little bit excited about
the pay per view. I felt pretty excited to see
Matt Morgan with Jeff Hardy. I felt excited to see
Generation Me versus the machine Guns. I felt pretty excited
to see Doug Williams in a match. I thought, Doug Williams,

(02:21:36):
that are pretty good sit down promo on a Reaction
last night, I'm kind of talking about, you know, his
strategy going in the match with aj Styles, how styles
kind of stuff above Kazarian, and he believe it's gonna
be a longer match than he had on Impact with Kazarian.
I thought, my goodness, that's the most logic I've heard
of the promo and in years from TNA kind of

(02:21:57):
explained why that match might be a little bit longer
than it would be on So to me, you'll watch
Reaction if you want to, if you want to be
excited about the product, and you watch the impact. It's
gonna be frustrated. That's come of the takeaway that I
had from last night's show, So handible to answer your question. No,
they're not going to hype in match with Doug Williams
and aj Styles on TV. But if you watch Reaction,

(02:22:17):
they probably will, and you'll probably have a better understanding
of why they're having the match and the importance of
the title and why you should care. So that's my answer.
Watch it Reaction, skip Impact. There you go. Let's go
to our next phone call from the seven to seven eight.
Here you code. By the way, Hanil, thanks for calling in.
Appreciate hearing from you today. Let's go to the seven

(02:22:38):
seven eight. Welcome to the show. I please say your
name and where you're from.

Speaker 11 (02:22:42):
Hey Jason for Vancouver.

Speaker 4 (02:22:44):
Hey Jason, we got you back to back this week.
Good to hear from you.

Speaker 11 (02:22:47):
Right on, just I had a question, but actually just
to elaborate on what Hannibal was talking about with the
violence to women, you know, there's been different from what
Hogan needs to you know, give Sherry atomic crop. There's
a difference between that and when Bubba Ray used to
slam him through tables. Like there's a big difference, you
know what I'm saying. And my question is, uh, my

(02:23:10):
question for you is I remember calling in a couple
of months ago when you had Dave Lagana on and
I was talking about kaz Is commentating and how well
TNA commentating sucks. But Taz Is, I mean, he's kind
of hitting this, He's up and down. But I can't
stand like Tonay, like Mike Tonay, to me, he's so vanilla.

Speaker 4 (02:23:29):
He's so bland.

Speaker 11 (02:23:30):
There's no excitement when he announced his matches when he's
kind of hype jumping up. He's just so boring. And
then the worst is when they show him, like when
he has to do some acting, he's even worse. But
if anything, like I know, he's been with the company
since Dave one, and I mean I just feel like
like WW has Joey Styles and Jim Ross, who I

(02:23:51):
think are both actually pretty good. I'm obviously Jr's best,
but I think Joey Styles is pretty good too, And
just I mean, I don't think they're going to come
to TNA. Is there anybody like, I know you need
to talk about this. A couple of calls to go too,
but is there anybody else that they could put into
that bought beside Openning.

Speaker 4 (02:24:11):
Four ash. Maybe I know that they tried him out
on explosion. I think he's done pretty well on explosion.
I don't know that they are so high on him
that they would put him on impact. Bringing Scott Hudson,
I don't know about that one. Like we're talking about Shravanni,
I don't know about he's I don't know that he's interested.
I mean Mike today, I feel for the guy a

(02:24:34):
little bit because he's had to call some really really
bad stuff over the last eight or nine years. I
mean some bad stuff. I've been talking about Wednesday and
I paid for He's not just Thursday nights. So Today
has had that I think has kind of the way
that he's kind of become the voice of the fan
and the sense that he recognizes a lot of the
booking issues kind of with a little bit of wink

(02:24:56):
but also getting know the story, not so much of
an insight of terminology type wink, but yeah, I recognize
it's kind of silly and kind of heal on a
little bit, you know. It's kind of that that tone
that he has. I think he's kind of through that
tone as the voice of the fans, he's a little
bit frustrated with the product. Of times you kind of
hear in his voice at certain points where he just

(02:25:18):
kind of questioning a little bit, but in the context
of the story. So, I mean, it's so hard to
really get enthusiastic about Kenna's product as an announcer because
a lot of times whatever they're talking about doesn't matter,
or it doesn't it's not going to matter in the
next episode or four months from now, or or four

(02:25:38):
weeks from now. It's just why should I get as an announcer,
Why should you be enthusiastic about something if you don't
look there's gonna be a payoff or it's not going
to matter. I know their job is to act like
every hoone matter, but when you've done it so for
so long and it's an Ay's case or Taz, when you,
you know, appear to be frustrated with the product, it's
hard to kind of get up for every single item

(02:26:00):
to get to sell, especially when they're so overpacked and
overbuilt and I'm sorry, over uh just overbooked. So it's
a little bit of an announcers, a little bit of
booking and in a lot of the products and uh so, Jason,
I understand your frustration. It's not all announcers, but you
find the purplase them. They're just they're just aren't people

(02:26:22):
out there, and that's kind of the unfortunate reality of
the announcing business today. So good call. We're gonna get it.
One more phone call in last thirty seconds here at
nine to one nine. Give us a quick question, uh
comments or thought?

Speaker 11 (02:26:34):
All right, do you think any former GCW Wrestlers qualifier
will ever callify for w W Hall of Fame?

Speaker 4 (02:26:42):
Good question. I'll give a quick response to that. Uh
Taz Maybe, I don't think Dreamer, I don't think Raven
uh Samon, I don't think you know, unless they've resumed
in Philadelpa and they want to kind of induct a
group of guys into sort of an East Whull fan
type deal and do that, that might be a possibility.

(02:27:03):
But individually, Kaz might be in the top fl list.
That's that's my guest. So one, I think everyone fill
listening into the live cast today and Joints been on
Monday for a coverage of Monday's Raw, going into that show,
and we'll talk to everyone then and we have a
great weekend. This is Torch Assistant editor James Caldwell signing off.

Speaker 1 (02:27:40):
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