Same Shoes, Same Stars: WWE Numb to Anything New in Netflix Era

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Podcasting since two thousand and five. This is the King
of Podcasts Radio Network, kingo Podcasts dot Com.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
The outlook for wrestling in twenty twenty six looks downright scary.
Whoa Hey, isn't the name.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
You've more reck with and believe it or not, Whether
you like it or don't like, you learn to love
it because you.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Have to listen to wrestling and really it is the
best day going two day.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Whoa the worldwide leader of podcasting excellence. The King of
Podcasts Radio Network probably presents the Wrestling Is Real podcast
because wrestling nieves us.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
I'm gonna be honest with you, the best wrestling that's
going on right now is not in one of the
promotions you would think. Personally, I've been looking at one
particular promotion that shows up on YouTube, reggarly that is
really I feel like it's where I'm at once again
when it comes to wrestling back in the nineties or

(01:09):
even when I was watching I mean really in the
nineties when I was watching wrestling and I was like, Okay,
I'm not so caught up in all the extra things
that are going on in the attitude are and I'm
just like, Okay, we You know, I get the gist
of the of the good amount of wrestling that was
going on in WF and enjoying Austin Rock Tanker, Mankind,

(01:31):
Degeneration X all that sure, and WW going through lulls
as they initiated the start of the money night wars,
and we're starting to go and make a downfall that
was ninety eight and the ninety nine, two thousand and
then two thousand and one to the end. So at

(01:52):
the moment, I'll put it like this, one other of
the overall state of wrestling right now, WWE is struggling badly.
They are making the mistakes that Kevin Nash would have
made booking WCW when he had the wolf Pack, and
then after the wolf Pack, and then to lead up

(02:13):
into Vince Russo joining the company around this time in
nineteen ninety nine, right because we are so many veteran
stars at the very top, no room for a new
talent to go ahead and be made. You want to
tell me that we have some people out there. I've
talked about some of the things that I thought would
be the future right now, the pillars that should be

(02:34):
in the company. I did get a response back about that,
and we're going to read that up on the air
in just a moment. But when I look at the
current lineup of things, the original thing I was just saying,
right now, the best wrestling promotion right now, in my opinion,
is major Ly Wrestling hands down. WWE, as I said,

(02:57):
is struggling right now. They do not want to do
any lengthy storylines. They are playing it safe with the
stars they have on top. They don't want to really
take any chances on any stars that could fail if
given that main events slot aw's doing a little bit
better because they have less pay per views, but they're

(03:19):
also playing it a bit safe too. Tony CON's playing
it safe as well. To take the risk on putting
a star and doing some major storyline that's going to
really shake things up, No one's willing to do that
right now. But Major League Wrestling gives me a different
feel because I get characters, I have really compelling leadership roles,

(03:40):
and I have story listens are going across and some
stars that I'm seeing here that are and they're only two.
They're doing two hour shows, two and a half hour
pay per views on YouTube every month, and they're enjoyable
and they're just doing a better job. Look at them
right now in their current storylines. Okay, you have Matt Riddle,

(04:03):
who was worldweight Champion Kings of Coliseum in January, cash
in his golden ticket after bringing a Battle Right Right,
Battle Right seven. Then you have Riddle going up against
Donovan dje Jack and they have that rivalry going on.
Mads krew Krueger would get into a three way championship

(04:24):
match against Riddle and die Jack and Mads krul Krueger
is currently the world haveweight champion and Krueger had a
gravity Gamble contract so he had a way to get
into the match to make it a three way and win.
And then Mads krew Krueger goes into a storyline with
Alexander Hammerstone, who's returning back. Matt krul Krueger is a
very cool character. It's the character I didn't expect that

(04:46):
was going to do well after Jacob Fautu left Contrary,
but he's been really, really good. The other thing though,
that Alex Hammerson has done with well is Matthew Justice,
who kind of took the role that old Mancer had.
Mance Warner took that spot and they always do have
something with hardcore matches. They do definitely have something with that.

(05:09):
Then you have the Better Way Championship going on right now.
Misti Go was champion, had to relinquish. And now you
have a face off right now with the kuro Kwan
and Templario and the whole salml initiative being brought into
the vacant World World mineral Weight title picture and there

(05:33):
and then you have the Don Gatto storyline, which is
absolutely we don't know who this guy is, this gangster
type character. You have Danny McBrien being featured in vignettes here,
Don Gotoll being wonnered about his past, appears at fight Land,
brings a pair of gold brass knuckles which a hero
kwan that we're able to steal, and people want to

(05:56):
know who Don Don Gotto is, where is he in
this whole mix. And then you have the leadership of
Caesar Durant and Salinita the Renta in the whole mix too,
Die Jack being part of the Skyscrappers with Bishop Dyer.
It's great stuff. I'm enjoying the storylines they have now
in MLW because I have characters just more than the matches,

(06:20):
because he do go storylines. We also have a damn
feud right now with Paul London and Paul Walter Houser.
I like that kind of stuff. It's a big campy
there's matches that are very violent and very compelling, and
you know, even the cutting of the problems are pretty good.
Arol Kwan going out there, give me, you know, cool
Krueger and the deep, gravelly voice like that. It's just

(06:42):
a cool looking character and it's a throwback a bit
to what I expected in wrestling, whether it was WW
or TNA or three and the kind of wrestling that
I want. But I only get so much of that.
MLW is not giving me a full weekly format, and
n WA they tape their show so far in advance,
it really is kind of hard to kind of like

(07:02):
get into it. It's like even their new season, they're
ATWA seventy seven, which just happened what back in August,
So I need something more. But getting back to my
original point about how MLW is giving me better storylines
than all the other promotions. Right now, it's where I'm

(07:22):
at and I've had a fascination with MLW since they
returned to twenty nineteen. Being able to come back after
COVID and the setup they've done, and you know, they
quietly have done very well. They get good crowds for
their shows, and they always got good talent. Colir Crosses.
Coming back over to the promotion shots, see Blackhart is
doing more stuff in that promotion. Coming back over there too.

(07:45):
Talk about a spot that has become the new Ring
of Honor, even though we still have Ring of Honor,
but Ring of Honors become more of the developmental promotion
or just another backdrop like NXT is to w because
Ring of Honor, you know, until Tony Kahn gets a time,
I'm slid for that on a legitimate cable or screaming outlet.

(08:07):
He's gonna kind of rough. It's gonna just go rough
with it and kind of do his thing, and it's
not gonna have any kind of particular direction. I mean,
he's doing storylines over there, but it's the major storylines
in AW that I am invested in that lead to
the pay per views that's really my interest. I don't
catch my self watching Collision, I don't catch myself watching SmackDown.

(08:30):
That's where I'm at with my television right now, and
even tonight, I completely forgot about Dynamite and I cast
some highlights because I was watching basketball NBA World Series.
There's other sports going on for me to go and
think about wrestling right then and there. It's kind of
the backdrop because I'm thinking, well, more and more what
television does really get me interested? With MW it's like

(08:50):
pay per views. They are giving me good matches, good
storylines across the board. I am not bored by those shows.
So we are in wrestling time as I record this program.
It's gonna be fascinating to go ahead and do a
year ender on this, which I mean, look, we got

(09:14):
full gear savirus hurts coming up and we can talk
about those and what's leading up to it. There's not
much right now, but my commentary tonight is feeding off
of the fact that Wrestlmania forty two and the promo
set up that was done with the shoes. Oh my goodness,
So everybody's looking at different pairs of shoes walking like

(09:41):
four different clips on social media and then a poker
chip with the word twenty twenty six on it, and
you can see there was one point where Paul Hamman's
fat fingers on camera with a hall of fame ring
so thought it might have been like a new vision
being formed. I don't know, but that wasn't that either. No,
it's the same cast of characters being presented, first and

(10:04):
foremost for wrestlming He forty two in Vegas, going back
to Vegas. As a matter of fact, the Netflix era
of we is disappointing. And it's not the fault of
the wrestlers. Make that clear too, And it's not a
fall of the matches. It's the structure, the storylines and

(10:26):
what they're being given to do. It's shit. It's uncompromising shit.
It sucks. I have never been so detached from wrestling
like I have been, because w is supposed to be

(10:47):
the conduit that actually brings all wrestling fans together to
where we go to the other alternatives or something else.
But it's this kind of moment where I mean, I'm
fatigued by talking about the fandom because I think the
fandom is starting to catch on to this. They're not
happy about this either, but they were all buying into it.

Speaker 3 (11:08):
Man.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
The thing is is like in sports. Okay, I was
been it was a long time Miami Hurricanes football fan,
and I didn't even go to the school. But for
college football, we had college football right down the street.
We could go down to Miami, go to other Orange
Bowl and go watch games, and me and my brother
had season nickets with those games. But the one thing
we always kept doing was, Oh, these stars we got

(11:30):
coming in, new recruits, new people coming in, These you know,
coaches that we've had around that were so smart and
so agile and so area nite and you know, knowledge
and whys and all this stuff. And these are champions
We've had, you know, back to back national championships and
all this other stuff going on. Well, not back to back,
but you know what I'm saying, every year competing for

(11:52):
national title, the best of the very best of the teams.
And then every year in the two thousands, after two
thousand and one, we started getting that's what the Ohio
State Game in two thousand and two, the Rose Bowl
Game or was it just was it a Fiesta Bowl?
I forget, But two thousand and four, five six, going
into the twenty ten's just just disappointment all over. But

(12:18):
we were drinking the kool aid back then. I would
call it the orange green kool Aid. At the start
of the year, Oh, the hype is up. We're all
excited about things and then let down. And so I
feel like the juvenile, delusional fandom out there, you are
being let down. Now. It's very clear the Triple Ahs

(12:38):
that you thought is SummerSlam of twenty twenty two and
what he was doing had a good start off. I mean,
how even after Eric Bischoff was given, you know, a
leave of absence and you got Kevin Nash being the
in the part of the booking committee with Kevin Sullivan
whoever others, right, and I'm saying to myself, all right,

(12:59):
they had the WO pack. They does get the nWo
back up going again. Okay, so the Bloodline was kind
of what the nWo was. Kind of how that feeling
like that Roman Rains was their j Cogan. You could
say ja Uso was the Scott Hall kind of said
Jimmy says the Kevin Nash Sammy's Aine's the six I

(13:21):
don't know, uh, And then you can think Eric Bischoff
was to Paul Hayman, it was like, Okay, you had
this group that was dominant and it was all around them.
And listen, we all praised the bloodline, but yeah, it
was gonna get old. I mean it didn't get old
after a while. They decided to go and just start
breaking things apart. When Roman Rains drops, the built the

(13:44):
Cody Roads, okay, the split off bloodline, civil war, right,
all that kind of stuff going on, great, okay, and
then we get to the point where souls CoA takes over.
So the bloodline storyline that we remember, that's the turning
point and you can't put it back, and they try

(14:06):
to put it back every time they want to it.
Let's reunite for savirusresses, reunit for something else. No, no,
because then you also turned room and Rene's face, so
he's not the tribal chief that he was. The OTC.
I hate that phrase. I've hated it the whole time.
And he's not even around right now, but we're gonna
put him in Savirus ries somehow, some way they're setting

(14:27):
that up. I don't know what that's gonna be. We
got Saturday Nights Man of that coming up this weekend,
and you know, do I feel like there's anything coming
out of that that's gonna be very exciting at all?
I mean, we have worldavweight title right seeing punk Jus,

(14:49):
so we'll go after each other for the World heav
Way title. That's this Saturday, and then you have another
title match with Cuddy Roads against Rumcatar. By the way,
this is on Peacock only. And they didn't give this
kind of Saturday Nights man event all year on NBC Why.

(15:14):
I don't know if they thought that NBC was gonna
be a lame duck anyway, so they were like, why
are we gonna put that much effort to it? But like,
come on, you got four title matches at Saturday nine
spin event. Really hu, So the show's on Peacock and
you got four title matches. We haven't had that on
a pay per view in a while. So all of

(15:34):
a sudden we have this seemp. I mean, Crown Jewel
Perth was weak compared to this, so seampun so we're
gonna get that match for the vacated we'll everyweight title.
Then you have Cody Rose against Rumcattire, undisputed w Chamionship,
Tony Stratton against Jake Cargill. They set up that match

(15:57):
now Women's title, and then do Stereo against pent and
Russev for the intercontinental title. Wow, that sounds pretty good
on paper, but like the setup for all these matches,
Dominicant Mysterio and his whole deal with Judgment Day and
like sitting up with that, and plus he has his
all this stuff with the Make A Championship and tripa A.
I haven't I mean, the Icy title has just been

(16:19):
a prop on him because I mean, I guess he's
defindited it, but not really is. I haven't really heard
or really thought about much about his Icy title ran anyway.
But either way, I mean, you know, like I said,
he's a pillar, so I'm glad he has a match here.
Pentha Russef kind of just hodgepodge. But then Pinton russeve
Ha been at each other. I'm not either getting added

(16:40):
to this three way title match anyways, not much rhyme
or reason to it. The j Car Gillhel turned on
Tivity Stratton got that, and the Dreamagutar attacking coderers. But
again it's the same people on top on those big
World of Away title matches, those two title matches for
both brands. You got people been around forever. They've been

(17:01):
pushing Jus like crazy, give it to him, took it away,
you know, I mean, it's what it is to that
Jaus will win the title again just to go ahead
and drop no seam Punk hasn't won that belt yet,
but he did, but then he lost it right the
cash in. So let's just go with it now, Okay,

(17:22):
seeing Punk he wins after all this time, coming back,
just before Saviari series, going into a second year, coming
back to the company, returning now I guess to be
champion again an absolutely odd ball way to get there.

(17:44):
I ainte that clear too, But I mean seeing Punk
has been championed before, so to put the bill on him, Okay,
I understand that. So that's your message, that's your setup
for matches. Okay, we'll do probably do a post show
for that. I think I'm gonna catch a movie that night,
but neither which way, I will do a post show

(18:06):
that night and we'll talk about it. I'm sure there's
some of the things that will be brought up as
I record that night, so we'll see what happens. But
getting back to the Wrestling Morning rest Maingear forty two trailer, Okay,
and then you see the promo for it, and it's like,

(18:28):
all right, as we look at the names that are
all across the board for this Restumandia promotion, and who
they decided to go and put on there. Let's get
into that now. You see Cody Roads, Roman, Reigns, Triple H,
Paul Haymon, Broad Lesser, Seampunk. You could have put these

(18:52):
same names five years ago, same thing. I mean. These
are all made stars that have been around and have
add decades of notoriety. Except for Paul him and all
from a World Champions you know what I mean. I
was like, Okay, here we go, and this is what

(19:15):
they're gonna promote for Vegas. These guys are on a
poker table. The most uncreative promo for Vegas. I've ever
seen in my life. You see WrestleMania promos and you're like,
oh my goodness, dude, trying to look like gangsters at

(19:35):
a crafts table doesn't do it for me. Okay, but
here we are, and I'm saying to myself, this doesn't
feel like WrestleMania. I mean, and I know people are
talking like that already. I know some of my fellow
podcast wrestling brothers and are saying that too. It's like,

(19:57):
all right, whatever, anyway, let's get I did a promo itself,
and just play it back for a second, just so
we can get the little taste of it.

Speaker 3 (20:06):
Oh that they say in Vegas, everyone's got to tell
a blink, a breath, a moment that can't be controlled.
But the great ones they use it to their advantage.

(20:30):
They own it. They've got them right where they want them.
The rest I just haven't.

Speaker 2 (20:47):
Figured it out yet. Horrible nothing on New Stars. I
don't even know what kind of idea they're gonna have,
if they're gonna be any real kind of setup leading
up to WrestleMania next year. I don't know what they're
gonna have. And to think about the fact that you

(21:10):
got other shows. They're gonna be two night shows. They're
gonna have to try to figure out someemessis company. But
it's this kind of mess. Before that WSW went through
that Vince Russo would come in and shake things up.
It didn't go well, But that Vince Russo moment is

(21:32):
gonna come to TKO eventually. I'm predicting Triple H will
no longer be chief Content Officer by the end of
next year. Mark this podcast right here, Episode nine hundred
and sixty nine, October thirty, twenty twenty five. I predict
Trible H will not be in creative control. I don't

(21:57):
know if he's gonna be out of the company, but
I don't he'll be a creative control by the end
of twenty twenty six. It's just an intuition, a feeling
I have because in this moment, I can't expect WWE
to continue to operate like this. The direction of NXTTNA,

(22:23):
you know the NXTNA that I've called that, right it's
different than what WSW dealt with in the nineties. Okay,
there are a lot of differences. WWE is a powerhouse
that I've been able to go and buy some of
their competitors, just sweep them right up. They basically have

(22:45):
TNA in a choke hold. By the way, we don't
have a TV deal for TNA after Bound for Glory.
What happened to that, Carlo Silva? You didn't get your
TV deal yet yet these this company continues to hold
on to everything right now, Is that good for business?

(23:05):
I'm just saying teammate being controlled right now, in the
fact that they do have Mike Santana, who beat Trick
Williams at Bound for Glory. We got that, Okay, Leon
Slater who was with a n XT at one point
is your current NXC this to be your exhibition champion,

(23:31):
Harty's are your World Tag team champions, and currently Kilnie
Jordan is still Knockouts champion. So the stranglehold that W
and NXT have over TNA is still there. Well after
Bound for Glory, make that clear. And then Trebla dominic

(23:58):
as Seria right now is your make a champion. Flamaire
is fortunately still champion ran on eight hundred and nine days.
It'll take some time. Lerato kid now is Cruizweight champion,
who of course worked over in WE and is he
still there with them? I guess I'm not sure. But

(24:24):
also they have their own set up where there are
champions right now in play that could easily go and
become champions in tri BAA under the W banner because
W is in control of that promotion and what they're
doing of it. By the way, no TV deal for
them yet either, since they were bought at WrestleMania. Keep

(24:48):
that in mind too. So where are we going with
all that? I mean? The thing is those companies are
just taking under hostage. That's it. The opportunities for some
of the younger wrestlers. The ID program basically folded. You
got evolved that they're using right now, and a lot

(25:09):
of NXT stars are over there because they have nothing
to do with them. You know, they're kind of like
the lower end of the potent pole. And now they
just take it some of those folks and putting them
to evolve. There's just no rhym of reason as to
where they're going. There's just assignments for certain stars, and
none of them are the main roster, none of them

(25:33):
on account soul Ruka. I guess, and we want to
talk about, you know, if you have some favoritism stuff.
A care has a lot of favoritism right now, which
is where she's at right now as a women's champion,
Women's World champion, Eli, you're dragging off in the United
States title. That's favoritism. Pretty clear of that too, So

(25:57):
Tribal Aid, Shawn Michaels, whoever. They have their favorites. But
there's nothing going on on any of those shows that
are compelling to me right now as it is, as
far as I'm concerned, none of these TV shows right
now on w or AW are compelling enough to keep
me invested into appointment viewing of their TV shows For Mondays,

(26:22):
and Fridays for Ros's Backdown, or for Collision and Dynamite
on AW on Wednesdays and Saturdays or whatever night collisions on.
I don't know, so let me give them my original point.
The comparison that I wanted to make creative is running

(26:43):
in circles right now in the WE there is no
progression of storylines. It is just running a circles. And
it's a very good analogy of that because of who
you keep seeing back in that world title picture as
Seth Rongins. We're not champion right now, if you were
not injured, it's still the same cast of characters, Drew
Mcatire or Juso or seem Punk. You know, it's just

(27:08):
like that. So I pulled a report together about the
comparisons of where W is right now in the Netflix era.
There's no impending merger because we don't have the AOL
Time Warner deal two thousand that's not going on or

(27:28):
two thousand and one that's not going on here, there's
none of that part. W has all these wonderful broadcast deals.
Right now, their ratings, regardless of Nielsen plus big data,
are suffering Netflix. You know, they're saying they're behind the scenes.
They are satisfied with their products. Okay, fine, but I

(27:49):
don't know if there is the AI wrestling thing kind
of subsided, but like it was a couple of weeks
ago and thinking, wow, that's something kind of interesting. But
you know, I mean, there's nothing that's going to deter
the company right now in the current form because you
have all these former wrestlers going on right now, and
it's the booking of wrestlers we've heard about with WW

(28:12):
because Dusty Roads might have had great ideas, but he's
not necessarily like the right booker. Cowboy Bill Watts also
might have been able to go and run promotions, but
the same way, wasn't the best booker. Jeff Charon in
TNA might not have been the best booker book yourself
to win the world title. No, maybe not so much.

(28:32):
But at least he would get some of the younger
stars and they would get some chance to be on
the adrenaline rush right tena impact. I'll give him some
of that that credit there. So nineteen ninety eight you
had the world New World Order storyline that started going
back into what was it July fortnite. Itt meanly of

(28:56):
nineteen ninety six, and then we move forward by nineteen
ninety eight. Then you have the split between WAW Hollywood
or the Black and White and nWo wolf Pack. And
that's where we're at right now. I mean, at the

(29:18):
moment you have the MFTs, you're kind of like fitting
what was the lingering effects of the bloodline, and they
keep changing something out of them, these little changes that
they think is going to make the biggest difference. Let's
put war paint on them. Oh, that's gonna put asses
in seats. I don't even understand what they brought it

(29:40):
back to do this. Solska is the only star in
that group. Why he's not staying alone on all this,
I don't know. But we have top heavy booking, tone
deaf marketing, and corporate overreach strangling creative instincts. So there
are five different aspects going on right now out in
what's going on here. But corporate pivoting is what changed things,

(30:10):
because when you lose that creative person in a big
corporate company, that goes away. This big man was the
creative conduit, like Ted Turner was the guy. He wanted creativity.
He might not have created the ideas, but he was
the trendsetter. He wanted wrestling, and he wanted to give
whatever resources and whatever means necessary to make wrestling successful

(30:33):
on his channels, and he did. But once Ted Turner
lost some of his poll he couldn't support Eric Bishoff
that he once did. And that's what changed because Eric
Bischoff mean somewhat of a visionary he was. If he
had Ted Turner's big deep pockets, he could have kept

(30:55):
going with things the way they were and spent all
the money that he did and somehow make a lot
of money off of it. But they spend a lot
of money to make a lot of money. The difference
now is that TKO is a real structure corporate company.
They are micromanaging and they are making sure that they

(31:15):
are keeping their expenses limited to make as much profit
as possible because they did incur debt off the UC deal.
But when TKO picked up the three USC is part
of their debt now like de Thrie is also responsible
for that dead because they're in that same company under
the same fold. So both companies and their other ancillary companies,

(31:40):
whether it's the professional bull rodeo tour or boxing or
whatever else it's going to make up that three billion
dollar debt. But either waile tko Vis big Man getting
out of the deal nine billion dollars in stock or
basically in cat and stock equity. He's been out in
more than three years, and you know, triple H being considered.

(32:07):
Oh he could do the same thing that Vince McMahon
can do. No, he's proven he cannot. He had a
good thing going in. It wasn't great, but it was
really good. People were really happy at that point. Some
are say twenty two. Ever since then, it's changed. A
lot has changed. We're getting pops returning stars may make

(32:36):
a big deal out of that, or we get you know,
when title changes happened. Didn't even have it on paper
view they have it on TV. Sometimes there's just not
any real rhym or reason for it, not real strategy
really any kind of plotting or planning to it either.
So in the same way, for Vince mcband is longer involved,

(32:59):
he's out of the whole area of having any creative control.
Eric Bischoff would not have any more creative control. He
was out. The creative power vacuum would go to Kevin
Nash in a booking committee, a group of wrestlers protecting
their own positions rather than company's long term health. Now
Trible Age at least is not an active wrestler. There's a
difference there. But Trible h and Kevin ash there's still

(33:21):
that same click, still the same mindset, same idea on wrestlers.
I never hear Kevin Ashley question a lot of Triple
Ah's booking in the first place, or probably Paul Haym's booking.

Speaker 3 (33:32):
Of that matter.

Speaker 2 (33:37):
But both eras showcase the same fatal corporate mindset. When
profit metrics dictate the product, creativity withers. But that's in
corporate In general, profit metrics, if they dictate the product,
creativity gets crippled and it will wither and probably go away.

(33:58):
So at the moment, right now, now, the Netflix era,
who are the Stars? Cody roads seth Ron's John Ceder
returning for a retirement tour and by the way, an afterthought,
he's not even resting on this Saturday night's an event.
He won the next one. But I mean, is there
any kind of plans for him at all? Nothing? Really

(34:23):
kind of just there. There's match with brock Lester forgettable
AJ styles. Yeah, it's great, so one time moment with
no rual significance that led to anything for those guys
who're just you know, having basically just a tribute match,
a great match that stands alone but means nothing in
the context of storytelling to anything else. It takes a

(34:47):
spot from some of the other stars that could have
been there, but they have earned the right to get
that spot. The company's still making money hand over foot,
They're still selling off shows, They're still making a whole
lot of money on merch. In WCW we had the

(35:10):
wolf Pack and the split had of Red versus Black,
had endless variations in the same angle, betrayals, swerves, power plays, recycled,
Hogan Nashing Company always on the spotlight still even during
the Wolfpack phase. In that way, I feel like seeing

(35:31):
punk seth Ron's Coddy Roads are also in that same
kind of respect, just a different different setup. The younger
town that you had underneath Hogan Nash Hall and the
rest Chris Jericho, Eddi Guerrero, booker T. They were out there,

(35:52):
and who are the guys that are kind of like
in that same Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero Booker T kind
of feel right now, I would say La Knight. I'd
say braun Breaker a probably dominant stereo right there, probably
put Sammy's Ain or the USO's in that category. That's
kind of like where they are. But even Jay Usa

(36:12):
now and the USOS themselves have been in that hot
in that top spot in the WO, like in the
Bloodline compared to WO. But where we're at right now.
WW forgot how to make new stars, and they had
stars that would come across the board, right you know.
I mean you brought in eac W stars like Raven,

(36:33):
and you brought in, you know, talent that just never
really got the chance to go and showcase themselves at all.
A lot of great Cruiser weights over there. NXT says
it is the Villa mental pipeline, but it's not. So

(36:53):
you have bron Breaker. I mean, you gave him the
Icy title and then he's been in this whole thing
right now and at the moment he's still not looking
at a tittle match yet he's still on the outside
looking in him and Bronson read Eli Dragon Off. They
gave him the Open Open challenge some random mattres Semi's
A and Tendy One. I mean it was a long match,

(37:15):
but like there was no set up to it. They
draggonoff coming back from injury and instantly just becomes a
US champion, just like that. Okay, Toronto Hayes such hype
when he came out of NXT and they gave a
little bit of time, dropped him writing in the mid card,
way down to the mid card where he's dealing with
them is on a regular basis. Then you have the

(37:42):
death of authenticity right, and WCW storytelling was in coherent
and self indulgent. You'd have shock value for the pop.
WCW did that. Kevin Nash and his book Unity would
do that. And that was the old time because they
were trying to go and get ratings because they were

(38:02):
losing on ratings and they trying to do something trying
to keep ratings. So they were just going to trying
to get the pop, trying to get the rating pop
the rating pop the rating in WW and W is
just get to pop the fans and that's it. I
don't know what'll get me wrong. W right now does

(38:24):
their job to get the fans engaged. They have gotten
their fan base, the most loyal fan base, to come
back and start buying tickets and now they're one to
go ahead and gouge them like crazy, and they're unabashed,
they're not afraid to say they're doing it. They're happy
to going to ask somebody what like thirty thousand dollars

(38:45):
go and get tickets over two nights for WrestleMania. They
don't care, and they'll get those prices now creating decisions
in W right now. Currently they're not to tell compelling stories.
They're making moments rather than the organic emotion. Every feud
is a streaming friendly highlight reel. Nothing's live and unpredictable,

(39:09):
which makes a TV irrelevant, and that's across the board.
By the way, live and unpredictable, it's now rehearsed and
risk free. There's nothing that matters in W and in
some cases AW except for the pay per views, where

(39:30):
it doesn't matter if it's live or not, the only
thing that we used to care about if we were
watching it live is that if it was taped, you'd
have spoilers. Otherwise it doesn't even matter right now because
the live component of either of these shows is not
being utilized, well, not at all, not at all. I'm

(39:53):
actually still kind of surprised that ratings for a show
that might be live or on tape still does the
same thing it does for Collision. It's always tained, it's
not always live, but people complain about the fact that
it gets three hundred four thousand viewers, right, But the
live comput it, what are they What are these shows
doing that they're doing live that's making any difference. There's

(40:15):
more predictability and Major League Wrestling than there is in
any of these other shows, more than an NXT or
TNA or Ring of Honor, orchard LA or w or AW.

(40:36):
I'm thinking like that. It's just as simple as that.
Fans are being given days to decode Easter eggs, but
then the reveal is revolving around the same megastars, and
they love to do Easter eggs. So it's just enough
to keep people kind of compelled. Oh, look at this,

(40:56):
it's just for social media. Is just going for no
he thinks that's the best thing ever. Oh, that's really monetizing.
But it's delusional thinking because you're not trying to go
ahead and play caate or satisfy your TV broadcasters. You're
just taking their money. And these broadcasters, in the infancy

(41:21):
of their deals, this honeymoon period. They're getting horse waggled.
They're getting swindled right now. They're not getting anything out
of this deal right now at all. Live and unpredictable
should be what these programs are getting, but they're not
ross backed on both live shows, lots of air time,
nothing live or predictable whatsoever. You could just put this

(41:43):
in the can and you probably better off.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
Now.

Speaker 2 (41:51):
The big difference also there was with w's fall and
these current dominant dominance is also the strength and weakness
of their competition. WF had competition, even though we didn't
talk about the if it was just kind of faltering,
we had ECW and keep it like this. Right now,

(42:12):
I'm back at that that mindset again because if I
felt there was a little bit of faltering between the
attitude era that was going on and was getting saturated
by the time nineteen y nine rolled around, Okay, it
was clear that the domination was being felt by WF
Worldrusting Federation was okay, they were kicking ass on all

(42:33):
across and WCW was just kind of struggling. I'm always
the underdog, always going for the underdog brand. But ECW
was the brand that was really getting me compelled our
long shows Saturday ninety two am on Sunshine Network and
watching those pay per views four times a year, so
beilinking of the four pay per views a year. That
worked for me. I kind of talked about the fact

(43:00):
that if you have less TV time, you're doing better
because for w right now, yeah, they are struggling because
you have to go and fill so many hours and
they don't have the ability to go ahead and put
anything good out there now. Granted, the rest of the
TV landscape is struggling also to try to put out
TV that's compelling and good. How many good scripted shows
are out there? Not many. So three has current rivals

(43:28):
AW with Ring of Honor and MLWNWA, but none have
that cultural heat. They're not many. They're not I mean,
AW is somewhat mainstream, but not. The others are not MLWNWA.
They are on the ouse I'm looking in. At least
we have access to them, which is nice. NWA, nichs

(43:54):
nostalgia appeal, little mainstream pool and also had some of
the same stars that have been around for a long time,
and like they have some young stars. It's just tough
because it's i mean, the talent pool is very tough
when you're not one of those major two promotions. You're
not trying to go work with Tony Kahan or work
in the WREE and TKO. It's tough, but little two

(44:18):
places to be right now. But you know, I mean,
there's only so much money that NWA and MLW can do.
MLW obviously, you know, for a smaller promotion. Cor Bauer
Nick folks there. They're doing a pretty good job, Chris
and Joseph being over there, the Lucha underground type kind
of team doing stuff over there too. It's working pretty good.
I enjoy it a lot at MLW. When you see

(44:43):
certain stars that are heading out. Yeah, you might see
them in the random GCW promotion in some pay per
view that are doing over there. But how many times
do you can see certain stars and they fall away
from we they go to MLW. I mean, after the
time we kill across, what does W do you know
they had killed across the Scarlet Well, the gimmick, They're

(45:05):
just gonna go ahead and amplify Alister Black and Selena
Vegan instead, That's what they're saying themselves. Okay, it's like
a screw you to kill across Okay, we're taking your
gimmick basically, and we're letting Alister Black and Selena Vegan
do it. We don't need your couple. We don't need
two of the same thing. It's basically what they said

(45:26):
to him. But the other thing that they're doing right now,
which is taking away across the board because w doesn't
have the talent that they should have all in the
right place. The NXT and A thing is a mess.

(45:47):
They have good talent they could have brought up to
the main roster. Their animosity with anything that's Tony Kahn involved,
they don't want to go ahead and put up to
the main roster Ethan Page, Ricky Saints, Blake Monroe is amples,
Jordan Grace, who's not Tony Kahan you know, involved with
either which way the TEENA thing is like anybody that's

(46:08):
in those brands. They don't want to have anything to
do with something about Okay Scott the Moore or Tony
Kahn involved, they don't want to do anything with them.

Speaker 3 (46:17):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (46:19):
There.

Speaker 2 (46:20):
I say, if MGF would have ever taken a deal
to work and he probably would have been thrown an NXT,
I guarantee you I feel positive even more so now.
And MGF is doing off other things right now, so
he's not the main focus there. I mean, it's something
to be said where AW does lack a bit without

(46:42):
MGF in that lineup when he's not out there working,
I lose interest because he is the most compelling person
they have on that brand. I like the wrestlers over there,
but you want to tell me the one wrestler that
gets my attention and I will watch on a regular basis.
Maxwell Jacob Freeman still by far one of my favorite stars.
And where has he been? You know? On top of

(47:03):
everything else? MLW even went back to MLW to face
Mystic Goo. How about that? But history is repeating itself
right now with w Okay. They're not any breaking point.
We know that the company is as strong as ever,
but creatively running on fumes in circles. And dare I

(47:31):
see if Netflix and USA and ESPN start realizing that
they've been sold the back of goods that is not
really doing enough, that the cool lad they've been drinking
doesn't taste good anymore, there's not any growth from this.

(47:54):
And dare I say there might not be any growth
as a result of this. We don't know, but under
this corporate deal we need new creativity. They will make
a change. Will it be the right decision. I couldn't
tell you, but I think there's gonna be some fatigue
where Triple H will not be there at the end

(48:16):
of twenty twenty six. I predict that right now, and
I'm not going to be surprised if that prediction comes true.
So I did get one email and Particutar that was
a long one that I wanted to get into, and
I'll talk about that in just a moment. I know
I've been holding off on it. I want to just
take a few things that came off from the YouTube

(48:39):
fee that was brought up and bring those to the forefront,
because I should say that real quick. Actually already did this,
so never mind, I did this on the post show
for Wrestle Dream Either which way, we'll get back to this.
Let me get into this story from Antonio Garcia, who
wrote me he specifically wanted to go ahead and bring

(49:02):
up my discussion on the four Pillars of from last week,
and he writes, I've been listening to your Rescuers podcast
in the past five years, felt compelled to write on
the subject of the four pillars. For the most part,
I think you are onto something. But with a few
further ideas, he says, when it comes to bron Breaker,
I agree he should embrace Scott Steiner's mentor and drop

(49:23):
Paul Hayman and drop and break off with Bronz of Reid.
He should embrace the Steiner background and reject anything in anything,
everyone that made him anything other than a Steiner. So
he should be the embodiment of the audience anger with
creative and not only have a volatile relationship with Paul Hayman,
but also with Triple H himself. When it comes to
character development, Scott Steiner should be the only voice he's
willing to listen to. Scott has recognized himself to Steiner Klan,

(49:48):
and I could see him adopt some of the same
alpha male aspects of Scott Steiner, but turn it into
his own unique personality. For Jacob out two, he thinks
I hit the nail on the head that he should
be the destructive force to destroy the MFT, become the
loner on the roster that everyone's afraid to mess with.
But I think he should stick with a style he's adopted.
It gives him some realism that casual audience can relate to. Well,
it's pretty much just moves it from when he was

(50:09):
at MLW. Anyway, do I need it, not know what
I mean? Kind of like the Bay Area talk. No,
not necessarily. It's fine. It's his character. He wants to
do it because that's really who he is. I enjoyed
the contre unit version of Jacob Fatwo, but that's okay,
you know, I mean, if it works for him and
everybody's into it. Obviously he got over raw talent. You

(50:33):
cannot dismiss raw talent like Jacobar too, because Oliver and I.
He did it for Trick Williams. He says, I grew
with you again. He needs to be someone that can
verbally take out his opponents, and he needs to be
a pusher of his merchandise, devope his own style, fashionable
appeal to the audience that would want to dress like him.
A valet is an excellent idea for him. A strong
woman who decides who is worthy to speak to him. Well,

(50:55):
I mean, we'd love to gud and see that. And
I mean it doesn't have to be his girlfriend, it
could just be anybody. Let's just get somebody that would
work with him in that space. He disagrees about dirty
dominant mysteria. I can see him turning dirty dom into
a face character. True, he needs to break off the

(51:18):
Judgment day, but I can see him taking the women
a judgment day with him, rather than going down a
certain typical path of having live Moregan angry over being
jealous of Roxan Perez giving him attention, have her rather
share him than lose him half dirty lead a stable woman.
He gulps get over like he did for Raey Ripley.
He can still be world champs that character. It would
be a tweeter, not of a great character, but also

(51:39):
not despised either. And then he says he doesn't think
that jus Son seem Punk are gonna have a clean match.
There will be some DQ finished a Saturday Nights an event,
you know. I'm they want to do Survivors series, so
they're not gonna go and put a title match there.
They're gonna probably just try to get it all cleaned up.

(52:01):
So seeing Punk winning as that's what I expect to
have happen. And something will happen where Jimmy Ooseo will
get involved in the match and the new Ussos will
face each other and there will be a big riff
with the blood line something like that. I figured, I
don't know, I'm just making it up as they go.
And then Jay is like, I'll see the light. You
and Roman are right, and you just stay out of

(52:22):
your way and let you be a champ Saturday. That's
an event. Jimmy will cost you the match and become
a heel seeing Punk becomes champion. But with the negative
reacting and there is around Jay win in the Battle
Royal as seems the audience is won to break Jay
as a heel. If they do that, Jay should just
win the title, give him a media hate and boot
on the arena. But the promo Jay usso's he can't.
He can't do promos now. Look how he was when

(52:44):
he was champion before. He's not a good champion in
that respect. He needs a mouthpiece at that point. I mean,
as the Ussos, they always work well as a tag
team individually, they can wrestle great as seagulls wrestlers, but
they both kind of lack on the promo department. When
they're on their own, if they don't have someone to
bounce off of, it's rough and in all this Roman reigns,

(53:11):
who is the one guy, Like it's so important he's
not involved. I need this. They were originally gonna have
to plan for rawns and rains, which is like, okay, fine,
but like we could have done that two years ago.
I don't care seeing Punkin came back or not. We
should have had that feud. We never got it, so
easy to do, but they chose not to their choice. Quickly,

(53:39):
give predictions, real quick of just some quick predictions. What
I think will be happening at Saturday, and it's an
event Saturday, and it's an event coming up this weekend.
I'll say it's going along with Antonio here. Yeah, Seampunk
will be well, hope to be a champion, Cody Rolls
will retain over drew back attire, and I expect retaining
pativity Stratton and the mysterio for the women's championship and

(54:01):
the I see Toddle respective s that sae how it's
gonna work. But we will talk after a Sunday ninth
an event right here on the Wrestle for a podcast,
because wrestling needs u

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