The Bruce Pritchard Paradox: WWE's Uncanny Resemblance to TNA's 2010 Booking (ep.859)

Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
WHOA edited the name you more requestand believe it or not, whether you
like it or no, like youlearn to love it because you have listening
to wrestling and really it is thebest day going to day. WHOA the
worldwide leader of podcasting excellence. TheKing of Podcasts Radio Network proudly presents the

(00:25):
Restling Is Real Podcast because wrestling thievesus. And welcome to episode one hundred
and fifty nine of the Wrestlers Podcast. This is Kob. Welcome you to
another program here. King of Podcastsdot Com is where you find it and
when I talked about after the recapof Forbidden Door, which you can find

(00:47):
now the website King of Podcasts dotcom where you can find on my YouTube
channel at King of Podcasts. Pleasesubscribe to the channel, like, comment
and share as well, because Icould really get the out there. Working
my way up to five hundred subscribers, it's not much. I'm at three
seventy three at the moment as I'mrecording tonight. Coming up on July fourth,

(01:08):
Happy for the July for all ofyou here in the States. Happy
Canada Day for those of you thatwere celebrating in Canada a couple of days
ago. And I don't know,a happy election day in England. I
don't know, just you know,just been the celebratory things aside. So
bear with me on this controversial subject. I'm going to burrow into tonight because

(01:29):
I know when you look at thetitle, I know you canna ask yourself,
King of Podcasts, maybe I've listenedto you during about a hundred about
a good eight hundred fifty eight episodes. Some of my p ones out there,
you might have listened to these shows, and sometimes you ask yourself,
where do I come off with thesekind of tangents some of my historical backdrops,

(01:49):
like when I come through an historicalaccount of talking about things, you
know, I get into this kindof trend here quite often when there are
things not going great with a particularwrestling broddigan b right, That's what I
do because for those that do notremember history, were doomed to repeat it.

(02:10):
And as far as we have folkslike tripa Ah, Shawn Michaels,
Bruce Pritchard, Paul Haymond for thatmatter, that are working in the back
right now, that would be themost formidable names in the creative process.
While they might have a creative teamof people from various backgrounds and storytelling of
television series you know that might bestreaming or on cable at one point,

(02:31):
or soap operas or wherever they camefrom, maybe even movies wherever they came
from. They're still the behest ofthe idea makers that are not Vis big
Man or Pat Patterson. Okay,because the people that are working right now
are they defy the stigma of sportsentertainment. Let's just put it like that.

(02:57):
What Vince bick Man created is notnecessarily the tour de force that they
want to do. They do notwant to go sports entertainment. Now,
the Y six is sports entertainment.You might not think it's so what it
is the live Morgan dominic mysterial storylineor less to be sports entertainment. And

(03:17):
these are normal trips where you normallywould get the spooky horror you know out
there, supernatural type of storylines,the romantic love triangle storylines. Yeah,
this is typical in wrestling. Butthey also have to be good. The
characters have to be believable. Youcan go back and recreate movies and rehash
storylines and recreate them for the forwhatever kind of screen that you want for

(03:40):
the screen, is on social mediafor clips, or for the small screen
for television, or for the bigscreen for movies. It works the same
way. You can go back tothe stories and retell them and re fabricate
them and remake them. Sure youcan't, but it's still got to be
good. And what we're getting rightnow is, you know, I listen

(04:04):
to a couple different podcasters now asa late you know, I do change
around what I listened to as oflate. I'll give you this. Randomly
listen to J and Eve and Whytwo six Wrestling Observer, I regularly listen
to. I catch a lot ofthe clips on YouTube post wrestling every once

(04:25):
in a while. Same thing withwrestlingantics. But more than anything now,
I've definitely I used to have thetrend to listen to Don Toni and Kevin
Castle recapping raw and everything else theywere doing, But since that show is
broken up for a lot of reasons, you know, I never went back
to Don Toni, not because therewas anything about him, It's just that,

(04:45):
you know, his presentation is goingto be different than what I would
normally be accustomed to. Because Iwant to move things along now, I
haven't listened to him in a while, so I couldn't tell you, and
I haven't seen any clips or anythingthat remind me to go find this show.
Like even th I had to learnnow whole idea, Yeah, you
better put some stuff out there tosome people recognize that you're out there,
you're doing stuff, So social mediaclips smart thing to do. At least

(05:06):
I'm trying to do it. I'mtrying. But what happens is, Yeah,
it is one of those things whereI was so used to so many
years, wanting to listen to somebodyrecap raw on Monday nights. Sometimes it
isn't the JD for meny and fora while was listening to it. But
the thing is that you know,when some people are just very much overly

(05:28):
positive and to many points, Imight disagree with their commentary, which we
all can do that because again,we are various ages and various mentalities of
what we feel about in the wrestlingindustry. Like again I'm going to make
my point to my fellow podcast wrestlingbrethren. I believe they're gonna be wrong

(05:48):
in many cases, or I mightagree with them on maybe what thirty to
forty percent of what they say ortheir thoughts on how wrestling is because many
of the of my fellow podcast wrestlingBrethren are WW minded, right, because
most of them will say that,really that's the more dominant brand, which

(06:09):
it is. I'm not disputing that, I'm not disrespecting it, but it's
because of the fact that the mostthe largest brand, that they are always
doing things better than everybody else.As that's a justification when I really don't
say it's that's such. Look,it's just like if you're going to a
fast food chain. You know,there's a certain quality that you expect from

(06:30):
that big chain that you can goand find anywhere. And there's that thought
process in sports where, yeah,if you find a team that has all
the big superstars and they paid bigmoney to bring them on board, mail
I'm the kind of guy that likesmoneyball. I like to see a team
from the farms isn't being brought upto become stars like I like underdogs.
I've always been an underdog myself.So when it comes to the secondary brands

(06:55):
of professional wrestling, everything from AWto Team A, which will be a
point of folks US Tonight, MLW, and WA Ring of Honor, Yeah,
those are my backs, you know. I mean it was always that
way. I pay attention to alwaysas much as the World Class Hip.
But you wrestling when I was growingup, or UWF when I was growing

(07:15):
up, or n WA when Iwas growing up. I mean, there
was a point where definitely was theone and only that I actually watched because
that was what got me first intowrestling, more or less, about eighty
percent of what I was watching wasWF, with a good portion of it
then after that would be like ifI caught the six o five show on
Saturdays on TVs, or I costso many of the shows at night,

(07:40):
whether it was par Wrestling ROS thisweek with Gordon Sulian what was it in
his name? Pinnaccini, I forgethis name, and then I would catch
GLOW or UWF or whatever else Icould find eleven o'clock at night on syndicated
TV on channel thirty three or yeahit was channel thirty three for the most
part those person fun days, orcatch AWNESPN. You know, it's one

(08:05):
of those things where you just catchit on the weekdays, and that was
fun to watch. But I wantto make my point that I also study
the craft of the booking that goeson in other territories, and how sometimes
that booking will be brought along toanother territory. Okay, when Bill Wats
moved from Mid South and moved overto w CW, brought a certain type

(08:28):
of thought process that he brought overhere to ww now and she'll agree with
it. Vince Russo taking his aspectoff and bringing to WCW didn't necessarily work,
but there are some certain aspects thatI enjoy of it. Like listen,
I could disagree with the booking decisionsthat Brunce Vince Russo has all the
time. It's not that his ideas. Some of his ideas are really good

(08:54):
and his And honestly, when Ilistened to him Monday Money Booking, Monday
Day Booking, after the watching Rawand he talks to doctor Chris Featherstone ons
ports Kida that show, I've beenlistening to a lot, and I keep
catching myself saying, well, youknow, Vince Brusa wasn't the best booker
in the world, but he doesget an idea of what is right.

(09:16):
But he's not the best person todo it either. I mean there is,
but who is Everybody struggles a doingthe booking here. But I also
have a I also to test whenI hear people that kind of just have
to be a bit of an apologistare starting to say that, oh,
well, what WWE's doing is right, and thinking that what we've watched in

(09:37):
the past pales in comparison to whatwe're watching now. Well, we see
obvious favoritism, nepotism. We seeobvious booking that is rehashed from somewhere else
because I think somebody thought the ideathat they took and used in what nineteen
ninety nine or twenty ten might work. Now, let's just go back and

(09:58):
use it again, back from theWell, let's just repost that one more
time. It's been long enough.People won't remember aj styles, you know,
wearing a blue suit instead of apink salmon suit like Mark Henry and
taking out Cody Rhodes to get upinto a what a two match feud for
the world title for the Universal titlefor against Cody Rhods. Yeah right,

(10:20):
I mean we can go ahead andlet that slide. There's just things that
happen here where what triple h inherited. I mean, look of the main
event storyline, let's forget about everythingelse that's been brought in the Bloodline storyline

(10:41):
has been maybe not so much tothis point, excellent everything of all,
the Roman reigns, the Usos,everything will Sammy's ain't excellent, souls,
the CoA involvement as the enforcer,excellent. But then the blood Line storyline
took a turn because they wanted togo and continue the blood Line storyline for

(11:05):
some way. I get it,I get it. But after Roman takes
time off and Solo goes and becomesa mutiny and now he has culminated it
completely incorporating new members to the pseudoblood line, the bootleg blood Line.
No problem with Tonga Lower Toma Tongacoming into the faction. But what have

(11:28):
they done so far? They haven'twon anything the blood line. Why cap
because they were so prominent is becauseRoman Range was such. We were such
an awe of Roman Range. Becausefirst of all, he's a specimen,
He's a mastodon. This guy greatin the ring, great heel heat,
great on the mic. Okay,the USO's accompanying him, and the whole

(11:52):
setup with the brothers and the animositybetween each other was magic. Was drama
that is best. Honestly, Imean it's Emmy Award winning good. I
really felt that way. The sameis ain stuff, same thing, but
then we're gonna, you know,try to do some of that kind of
dramatic stuff with alf Academy and thenjust kind of like completely missed the mark

(12:15):
in so many ways. Now,Credit the booking does try to go ahead
and corporate several different angles intertwined toother factions. I can appreciate that,
right, but still it's convoluted,it's not working. Coming into questions some
of the airtime that certain stars getthat don't really need it is the other

(12:41):
part too. I mean, look, when I talked about WCW the eighty
three weeks moment, when I wentback to that a few weeks ago,
right and I pulled that story togetheragain, all I can think about is
just reflecting back at some of thethings that are being mistakes right now.
So last week I made my point, it's a w W e eighty three

(13:03):
weeks more right now, and Ithink about it when I look at stars
like, and I'm saying stars notwith quotes, I'm just I'm like,
I can't even really consider them.The w W Superstars, lave Valcaria Alba,
fire a La Dan Listen, they'rethey're they're talented, but we're talking
about W talent. We're talking aboutthe high level, main roster talent.

(13:26):
When I look at di Y,nothing against them. They're talented, but
are they W talent? I meanthe caliber the bar is lowered for them
because they don't have the sports entertainmentvalue. They don't have character development to
a t. We don't have anyof that with them. Drew McIntyre,
seam Punk, Cody Rhoades, KevinOwens, Randy Orton. I mean they

(13:48):
all of the of the Old Guardbasically shamous, right, you know,
the veterans that we have right now, and so much being done with them,
with so many different games, makesome storyline seth Rawn's. They all
have so many different things we canidentify them by and recognize them for the

(14:09):
stars are trying to bring up intothe fold that were part of that NXT
twenty nineteen, you know, orthe Black and Yellow era that certain fans
right now, including my fellow podcastRushing Bethren are, we have always been
in awe of right, the samegroup mind you, that did not beat
aw Dynamite for another what sixty someodd weeks in the same way. Now

(14:35):
you want to make the excuse,Oh, remember they were not they were
you know, the developmental system.Well all there, we're not like right
now the developmental. But at thetime that the Black and Gold was in
play, it was not developmental whenyou were raping and pillaging. To be
ramping pillaging rosters, you know,because sometimes those words kind of come together,

(14:56):
but that's not what I'm in here. So okay, pillaging rosters from
Ring of Honor, from TNA andbringing those stars into the fold to bolster
over there. Because Triple h thatwas his thought process. Let's bring us
some free agents of people that hereally liked out there and just polish them,
because it's much easier to do thatto stars that have had so much,

(15:18):
so much time, you know,they have so much on their bump
card, as Jim Rossick's put it, and so he had that and that
was when he wanted to prefer,like, we could just go ahead and
just take some of these stars thatare from the independence, scout them,
bring them in here quickly, andpolish them up. But the lesson that
wasn't learned was they don't work forthe main roster. You make them work

(15:41):
for the main roster now because TripleH is in charge, but is it
really paying off. It's just feelerfor what people that really care about.
When we get to talk about theratings that are going on for various storylines
right now. Okay, it's probablythree things. It's Cody and it's a
seampunkin Drew MacIntyre. It's the bloodline, anything with Cody Roads, Kevin

(16:06):
Owens and you know Randy Orton,or it's the Ya Six. Those three
things in no particular order. Soif they're going to go ahead and tell
me that you know, of allthose storylines right there, those are the
draws of what Vince brought in,of what Vince brought in and created and

(16:32):
created for all these years. It'snothing to do necessarily with what has been
done by Triple H. Of theother Town. Your Elliot Dragonoff's your bron
Breakers, your carryon crosses, youknow, your La Knights, they're just
filler and you can greet the smokeand mirrors, oh you know, and

(16:52):
even j Uso, which put inthat mix of the you know, the
veteran town by the way, beingunder used, being undrod used. But
that's another thing. It also goesinto what I call what is really essentially
the Bruce Prichard paradox, because Ihonestly feel like, for whatever reason,

(17:15):
there are certain stars that don't getthe rub. They just kind of get
held in the back and they're notmade a big deal. Okay, whatever
reason, I don't know, butif that's where I'm at right now with
what I see, and I thinkif Tyna and certain stars they did to
push it down their throats that nearlysilly worked out well and it didn't do

(17:36):
much for us. And remember thisis the time when the TNA, Hogan
and Bischoff were back in Dixie.Carter brought him back in, but there
again, Bishoff was a consultant.Oh, Cogan has created control once again,
and Bruce Pritchard was brought in torun the pencil, to run the
booking and kept moving up in thecompany. And it led to certain particular

(18:00):
booking decisions that I don't necessarily findthem favorite. I don't necessarily. I
mean, it was a bit ofa train wreck once again, and Russo
was part of it, and thenhe was gone. Remember this was after
Russo left, he was like theout of the whole picture. And things
were going okay, Yeah, Idid get kind of Spike A rating,
but then of course here I bushoff in Vince Russo and they folks and
Dixie Carter. Let's do Money nights. Let's do Money Night, you know,

(18:23):
let's go head to head impact versusRaw. And that was a mistake
when that show never needed to leaveon Thursday nights, and as a result,
there was another TV deal that gotlost because TENA would eventually lose their
deal to Spike. No more SpikeTV drops And it's taken forever for this

(18:45):
company to come back to its goodgraces to where it is again. Credit
to Scott the More and the AnthemEntertainment Group for what they've done to rehabilitate
this rehabilitate this brand like it wasreally what a mess that was left.
They almost did not survive. Itwas tough to see how much was going

(19:07):
on with them when they were leftwith the Pursuit Channel to be on a
hunting channel on Friday nights. Theyhad no other place to go. But
those are the last legs on PopTV Destination of America. They were struggling.
That was rough, but let's goand fast forward. I feel like

(19:34):
some of the same decisions are beingdone today. And I'm going to go
ahead and go buy a number ofstorylines and tell you why I think they
kind of resemble storylines that were beingbooked in TNA at twenty ten to twenty
eleven by Bruce Pritchard. I putit in here, and by the way,
isn't a description you want to readit, go right ahead. It's
a nice little read. So,as I say, and defiance of the

(19:56):
long standing stigma of sports entertainment,I want the good look at the strikingly
booking similar booking patterns of Bruce Pritchardand TNA in twenty ten. So he
was head writer in twenty eleven andtwenty twelve, but he was in there
already in twenty ten, but hewas already brought into the mix. So

(20:17):
when I bring up the Bloodline andtheir current storyline with Cody Rhodes, Randy
Orton, and Kevin Owens, whichby the way, we're gonna also coincide
us with the fact that Money inthe Bank is this weekend, and that
is a match that's coming up thisweekend, and we don't know if the
blood Line is going under freebird rulesthey haven't said that yet. No one
has said anything about that yet.But we have not heard anything that says

(20:37):
that under freebird rules are we goingto see three of the four members of
the blood Line. But who arethose going to be? I need to
find that out. So either SolskaToma Tonga Tongue lower or Jacob fat two.

(20:57):
I'm going to guess, man,I don't know. I'm guessing Jacobo
Tou doesn't get in this match.I'm guessing a Solo tom On Tonga.
That's it. I mean, Ithink Jacobo too should be in it,
but I guess he's the enforcers.They're not going to bring him in right

(21:19):
away again. They have brought himin slowly and he's done a few things
so far, but they have reallykept a tie on him. They don't
want to go. They've kept themunder wraps. He has not done that
much, just enough to get animpact out there, but he hasn't had
a chance to talk except to acknowledgeSolo Soca and the focus well and even

(21:40):
on the Bloodline members itself, exceptfor Solo so Coo confronting Paul Haman on
Friday Night, where Paul Hayman kindof has the same as moment where he
doesn't acknowledge Solo so CoA as thetribal chief. Got it, okay,
that was being set up for along time. And Paul Hayman now being

(22:02):
eliminated and neutralized. Okay, peoplewere asking about, well, then,
who's going to be the new wiseman. They feel like they're gonna have
to have somebody that's gonna take thatrole. Some people have talked about who
could be Armando. Alejandro Estrada hasbeen said, because of course of his
relationship with Umaga back in the day. It's been a long time though you

(22:27):
could say, I mean I couldsee Hakku coming back the former ring.
I could see him coming back obviouslythe father of Tomatongo Tongueloa. And then
if Hicelo comes in and he comesin with a different name, I can
see that. But either which way, that's the most significant thing that the

(22:48):
bloodline has done so far. Thecurrent Bootleg blood line is they took out
Paul Hayman, so no more wiseman. But the faction is now complete,
you know, have four members andsoul Soka is now calling him tribal
chief, but without a wise manto go along and nobody putting the beads
around his neck. So now we'reat the point where now we need to

(23:15):
see are they going to actually beatCody, Randy and Kevin. If I'm
going to be booking money in thebank this weekend, you have to think
that the Bloodline has to win,Like, what are we doing here?
If the blood Mine is going tobe dominant right now, they don't have
any belts, They're not going afterany belts. I guess eventually soul Co
is going to take on Kelly Roadsfor the title, but they need to

(23:37):
go and build it up. Sothey build up the blood Line as a
faction and try to get heat onhim by now taking out Paul Hayman,
who was a heel and apparently nowPaul Haman's a face. Okay, but
people cared because of caout Robin Reins. But remember the focus of the heat
on the Store of this blood Linestoryline is the fact that Roman's not there,

(24:00):
Like more than anything, all wehave is it's something about Solo.
It's something about tom or Toga,and it's something about Jacob. It's about
the fact that Roman's not there andSolo is doing this. So that's almost
being said about it. No oneless is saying anything else. So for
the bloodline to be significant, theyhave to win this weekend. They have

(24:22):
to beat Cody, Randy and Kevin. Otherwise what importance is the blood line?
They're just afterthoughts, They're just notdoing anything on at all. So
we need to get that to happen. First, we need to go and
see that happen so we can actuallycare, so we can honestly see something
that makes us clearly notice that there'san important storyline to this. Now back

(24:47):
to my point, why do Isee the blood line? You know the
way that they look at because heremind me of the feud between Immortal and
Fortune. So Hogan and Bischoff hadtheir group right, and then there was
Fortune that was ag Styles, Causidian, Chrisopherginos among others in the group.

(25:10):
So Immortal and Fortune remember that inTNA, and we had Evy two point.
Oh oh my god, that's rememberthat's going back a while. Either
which way, the idea was Fortunewas gonna be the new four Horsemen,

(25:30):
and the aj Styles was compared toArnie Anderson, Frankie Cancerriant to Barry Wyndham,
Root and Storm to Ollie Anderson untilhe blanched, and desen Wolf Deleux
Luger. So it was a fiveperson group. And then you had the
group of Mortal right, and Immortalwas Hle Coogan, Eric Bischoff, Jeff

(25:56):
Charett, at Abyss and uh JeffHard. Yeah, that was immortal,
man, I forgot. I havenot forgotten about that. And you think
of some of the stars they hadin here that remind me so much of
what WW is right now, whatTena was, The Angel de Niro makes

(26:17):
me think of Elle Knight. Itdidn't really make much a difference about you
know, d Angel and de Naroright the pope, but really Elle Knight
is the pope. You know,promo good talker. But how much did
Dan Angel and de Niro do youknow, I mean compared to how it
was with Ellie Knight. I don'tKnowmber those guys refuging with each other in

(26:37):
n WA power. That sounds howfar back we go, right? And
then Douglas Williams. Douglas Williams remindsme a whole lot of you know,
Seamus or gun Through for that matter. Then you had Matt Morgan part of

(26:59):
all this thing, right, hereMatt Morgan reminds me of a Brown Breaker,
Like there's just something that kind ofmakes me feel like these certain particular
stars that just kind of feel likeif this was Bruce's working right here twenty
ten, twenty eleven, and thiswas like it's like he's just recreating these
stars and putting them back into thesame mix here, and I was like,

(27:21):
man, I'm just on into this. And then EV two point zero
okay, LWO reminds me of EVtwo point zero or even like you know,
say Final Testament. EV two pointoh was Brian Kendrick, Raven Rhino,
Sabu and Stevie Richards. It's likeyou just put a faction together,

(27:45):
just put a faction together, andl WO is the same thing. It's
just kind of like just a makeshift. But they they really did anything that
wasn't there anything really special, youknow, so like the mid card stars,
they just had something the doing overthere, and we're just kind of
like, you know whatever, it'skind of just in the mix. And

(28:07):
then I just think about from therewe have that comparison. The other comparison
I have is when I look atthrough Baguatar and see him punk on the
almost like this bloodthirsty rivalry, likehow far they're going along where they talk
about things personally, you know,when it comes to like the personal vitriol

(28:32):
between them, it almost makes youfeel like current anglevers is Jeff Jarrett,
Like the level of vitual and hatredthat had for each other, and like
how much they're putting themselves through tolike for hating each other. Like a
surprise, there's not like an agLee that comes into the mix and Dr
Magutar then attacks like it was somethinglike that, I mean, or or
that you know, Dr Mcutar dataag Lee or took aj Lee away from

(28:55):
her. You know, it's likeit's that kind of thing. But it
feels like that too, and I'mnot like munched that it either. Another
one is when we had a Mortaland fortunate and then like a Mortal was
being finally eliminated as a faction inTnahulk Hogan led it. So think of
the Rock and Roman Raines is stingand sting, just like he had to

(29:18):
go ahead and take down the nWo. Initially, Roman Raines is made here
to goh and take down the Rock. It feels like that, and of
course that match for Sting and Hoganwas at Bound for Glory twenty eleven and
Sting won. At the same time, we also had the aces and eights

(29:41):
they used to target DNA wrestlers.See, the other thing was targeting wrestlers,
creating atmosphere of paranoia and uncertainty.So initially, right aces and eights,
remember we didn't know who they werebecause they were covered up, they
were under disguise. Right, severalmonths there were people being taken out,

(30:02):
and so far the WYAT six istaken out Chad Gable, but unfortunately Chad
Gable bounce right back in two weeksand he's in the money the Bank Ladder
match this weekend. But then theother part of the aces and eights angle,
the invasion angle of aces and eights, reminds you of WYAT six.
But even YA six we can usefor not somebody else, but aces and

(30:23):
eights. I have said it alreadytime and time again. Feels like Judgment
Day changing where they had groups leaderschanging group across and you know, Judgment
Day gives me that kind of feelthe clubhouse like it just faes okay,
and they're wearing like certain jackets likeit's just and they had the prospects like

(30:48):
Geric Bischoff. Remember that. Ohmy goodness, man, I mean I
do not remember all this stuff,aces and eights, And it's hilarious remember
all this stuff because Aces and Eights, like we remember, it finally has
a train wreck, because it wasit was Aces and eights was absolutely was

(31:11):
absolutely a deal of pure train wreckwhen they did that in TNA. It
totally was. And so when Iremember the name with who they had to

(31:33):
pretend when they had Aces and eightsand they brought in people Jesse Goddard,
No, sorry, it was aGarrett Bischoff and West Briscoe. That's right,
that's right. Oh my goodness,man, say like Carlito and Jada

(31:56):
McDonough feel like Garrett Bischoff in Westbrisco Okay, And again Aces and Nates
might have run things the way theyset it up there, like it was
so caught up in the whole sonsof anarchy think at the time that's exactly
why they did that, and theythought it was such a good idea.

(32:22):
And then if I want to goand use why at six I can also
remember them remember them in TNA.Do we need to remember that too?
These are like some of the worstfactions and ideas that was in TNA.
Okay, it really was or they, wasn't it they? Because they was
the mortal, wasn't it. Ithink that's what it was was. Yeah,

(32:47):
I think they ended up becoming amortal. Remember all this stuff,
this is wild, but this isexactly what it was. And this was
all Bruce Pritchett, and Bruce Pritchardis definitely well entrenched and involved right now
in the company. Remember he camein as an executive director back on with
twenty nineteen. And this was afterthey tried to have Eric Bischoff and Paul

(33:09):
Hayman executive direct separately Raw SmackDown.Remember, we were doing going to do
that, so Vince was going totake a step back and he was gonna
let Eric Bischoff and Paul Hayman runindividual shows. Paul Hammon on Raw.
Eric Bischoff never ran SmackDown. Itnever happened. But that was the original

(33:30):
idea, remember, but it didn'thappen. So the moment, now,
you know, Bruce Pittchrick can go, you know, give Revision's history.
What he's doing right now over youknow, doing what some of they wrestled
with and he can still do hisstuff that he does right now. Good

(33:52):
for him. But at the moment, you know, he is set up
what he's doing right now, soyou again, he's executive director currently right
now in the company, and he'sstill very much an important connection when it

(34:14):
comes to what he's doing right nowall together. And we never really talked
about the fact that Bruce Pitcher stillhas a whole lot of pool when it
comes to what happens in NXT,what happens on rows back now, but
it has never really been defined who'shandling W creative right now. When we
know that Trible h is, youknow, hence all in howus he's the

(34:38):
final say on that things now lookslike. But we don't know who is
right now as we speak. Imean, I don't think anybody really knows
what that is right now. Whilethere are writers and other people that are
working right now for W right now, let's just keep this in mind too,

(35:01):
some of the names that worked inTNA as well that might take some
of these ideas and bring them intothe current day. Okay. Gimby Borey
Ash the serior director of Content andDevelopment. He was all over TNA back
of the day. Let's just makethat point across to Drake Maverick is writing

(35:22):
for Raw, the former rockstar spot. Let's keep that in mind too.
And let's keep in mind we havea whole bunch of people from TNA that
are also a part of what TNAwas doing back in the day when it
comes to producing or being you know, agents. Now these days you have

(35:50):
Pete Williams, Robert Rude, SeanHolmes took us to spend a time over
there, among others. So that'samong the other people that are in the
whole space right now. But itstill comes down to the fact that it

(36:12):
wasn't necessarily good. That's the partI need to make a point of when
I think of other parts that arebeing done right now. During the Pruce
Picture era, Austinarians, remember hebecame like this breakout star and like he
was. They were showcasing him andmaking a big thing about it. But
you know, we liked him,but he really didn't have much more of

(36:37):
anything after that. I mean,Austinarios was really good. I don't remember
what happened, but we just kindof dropped off the map out of TNA
and then out of mind and wereally never heard more of Austinaris after that.
It was just a shame. I'mworking with Bobby Rude and their fight

(37:01):
for the nw WORL Way Championship wasgreat stuff. In a way, I
feel like that's like Carmelo Hayes andTrick Williams all right. Now Austin Areas
is Trick Williams. And then Ilook at NXT and I feel like NXT

(37:22):
is like what TNA had with gutCheck. Remember gut Check. Everything feels
the same like it was before.But TNA was a sub standard brand,
which, by the way, thestars and the people that had over there,
you know, bad talent over there. But again same thing, the

(37:43):
certain level of character development and whatwas being done with these stars to kind
of put them up and forward,and the cringeworthiness we had certain stars over
here, same thing too. Nowwe're not not as we know. It's
just about the all the men's divisions. I haven't talked about anything about women's
division because I'm not gonna say anythingabout the women's division because the women's division

(38:07):
was hot. The NIGHTHOUSE division wasfun. They had a lot of good
stars over there, Like if youlook at the graphic I put up for
this week, and you see thecertain stars they had at that time of
that main roster in TNA. It'sa pretty good names. You had Tar,
you had the beautiful people like therewere that was important, and you

(38:30):
had others. But for the mostpart, it's like history has repeated itself
and there's just certain things that arebeing done right now that I just don't
feel like are It's mattering much,And it's a shame because we have stars
right now that are taking up timefor other stars that should be on that
main roster, that should be doingsomething more because right now it's just not

(38:54):
working. Okay, it's not workingfor me when you look at the roster
they have right now at the momenton the main roster. If I look
on l ROL roster, I mean, look this thruso comparatively constantly. Han't

(39:15):
talked about the fact that the SamA Zain just looks like a slob out
there because he just looks, youknow, shaggy like case, shaggy hair,
shaggy beard doesn't really present himself likea champion. But that's just because
who he's been all this time doesn'tcome to the level whe Damian Priesce.
Deman Priese looks like a champion.I mean he looks Demian Priests. Of

(39:36):
everything that's been done right now inthe booking process, Demian Priest has been
booked very well. And when he'shappened right now, especially when it comes
to money in the Bank, theyneed to go ahead and have him split
off. Like if they're already settingthat up right now with Finn Baler already
confronting him. Good because Judgment Dayis an anchor. Now, if you
want to make something interesting, okay, well, then let Finn Balor break

(40:00):
off of the Judgment Day. Onthe Judgment Day just you know, just
piss away. You can break thatup right now. That faction doesn't need
to be anything anymore. We canjust let that whole thing fizzle. The
fact that Jade McDonough and Fenn Balorbeat Awesome Truth to become World Tag Team

(40:21):
Champions, those are a doormants.Those it's just ornaments. They don't matter.
It doesn't matter. When you lookat the stars they're putting up now
for the Money in the Bank laddermatch, have who they think in some
of those stars they think are importantthat to put into this money in the
Bank ladder match amongst the stars theyalready have on the roster that could be

(40:44):
up there. So coming up ofthe World have Weight title is gonna be
Damian priests seth wrongs. Damian PriestI expect to win, and I think
there will be some kind of animositywhere Demi Priest has to break up with
Judgment Day unless something happens with Drewmcatire. He happens to win the money

(41:06):
the bank briefcase and he does cashin on Damian Priest and takes the belt
back or does a screw job inthere anyway. So whatever Damian Priest's death
wrong is what happens there that kindof just changes everything by itself. It's
like, I don't know what willhappen, but I think something will come
up that will change everything. Sothe fact that Demian Priest's death wrongs are

(41:27):
facing each other, I think that'llbe a non factor when it comes to
Drew mcatyre and the fact that thatWorld Heayweight Championship match is going to be
hijacked by Drew mccutarre and seeing Punk'sstoryline at least I want I think it's
going to be so in the moneyof that back ladder match. I am
of the opinion that listen, Iam in approval of Eo Sky Naomi activity

(41:58):
Stratton being in that ladder match,no question there Leah Vikiria. They want
to put a rocket on her back, and they want to make her this
star that's gonna be coming up inthe way. I don't see it in
her. I never saw an xt. I don't see it here. But
for whatever reason, leer our Killersguilt start getting pushed. They let her

(42:20):
win the money the Bank Ladder qualifyingmatch, and now she's in this match.
They're gonna make a big deal abouthaving her in there, and she's
gonna get a chance to go upto the top of the ladder and maybe
can almost catch the briefcase. Thenyou need to add Zoe Stark, which
I never saw the appeal of ZoeStark necessarily. I think we were gonna
get somewhere when she was paired withTris Strattis. I thought we were gonna

(42:43):
go somewhere, but that ended quickly. There was not much done for her,
like Zoe Stark benefited nowhere from thatand her being compared of with shanea
Bezer doesn't really matter either. ChelseaGreen getting into this match and it's not
Piperneven this time, and Chelsea Greengets the fluke win. I don't know
what they're gonna do with Chelsea Green. They're gonna make her more than just

(43:06):
a joke character now, if that'sthe plan. But in my opinion,
Tivity Stratton I expect to be Bundythe Bank winner. The real, the
real booking decision should be Tiffany Stratton. You didn't let her go far,
you know anything with Wi in thering, or it really was not a

(43:27):
factor. You had the whole dealwith Naomi and Bailey and she was just
kind of like just the third legin that that hole setup. But Tiffoty
Stratton should be the winner of theBundy of the Bank Ladder match, and
she says should have a long runcarrying that briefcase. That's what I think
should happen. Give her something towork with. So let the and honestly

(43:51):
Tiffy time and let her like decorateand accessorize the damn briefcase. Absolutely,
let's do that. Ask for themen's money to the Bank Ladder match.
Carmala Hayes feels like the same thatyou would have the same Actually I have
Leo Virkiria is the same thing issueI have with Carmela Hayes. You haven't
done anything with him. Carmela Hayesnecessarily to win anything, win me over.

(44:15):
Okay, So he wins a qualifiermatch and gets in. Meanwhile,
the other stars you haven't here,Jay Usso Andrade, Chad Gable, La
Knight, Dramaguitarre. Yeah, totallyapprove that booking's good for that money,
the bank ladder match for that match, sure, absolutely so it could very

(44:35):
well be Truemacatyre winning it and cashit in right away. And I think
they're going to do that. Ido now when it comes to the Icy
title, Sammy Zaan and Brown Breaker, so Bron Breaker so far was given

(44:57):
the squash push for a couple ofweeks, a couple of months maybe,
and then him dominating over Ricochet onthe way out, and Eli, you're
Dragonov and now we're here, andthey've had a whole set up with Bron
and Breaker and Sammy zin at eachother. Just some physicality, but that's
pretty much it. Are we gonnaexpect that on the main roster what they've

(45:21):
done with bron Breaker so far willwarn him to become Icy Champion just like
that. I mean sam Musine,you know, for what they've done with
her and Chad Gable. With himand Chad Gable, I don't know.
I'm like, when it comes tosam us In, what they've done with
him and Chad Gable, you know, hasn't really done much for me because

(45:44):
that the Icy title was such asecondary thing when it came to Sammy z
Ain carring up at the Alpha Academybecause of his own personal dealings with the
bloodline and how he has to feellike he needs to go and try to
help those folks out that underneath ChadGable's thumb, I mean whatever, But

(46:07):
now we're at this point where I'mnot saying that bron Breaker shouldn't be able
to go and win the title.My problem is, how are you gonna
book him? It could be soquick to go ahead and put the title
on him. And I'm gonna justsay this too. The NXT run as
Champion, I wasn't necessarily impressed witheither. For bron Breaker, this is

(46:30):
not a well fleshed out, welldeveloped character. Yet he's one dimensional,
but bron Breaker could be mean anddoes something so much more, but they
done nothing like He's just He's nota gold Work character. It's not a
ride back character. It's not evenlike a Bronze Stroman character. He's got
a spear and a temper. That'sit. That's all he's got. You

(46:54):
cannot just go ahead and just putthe Steiner stigma on Ube because most of
your younger fan base really doesn't knowabout it. They don't put that connection
together. You can't assume that whatwas having on NXT and the run that
he had over there constitutes what happenshere and can be carried over. No,

(47:19):
the main roster spot is a differentspot because there are plenty of people
that do not watch the developmental Theyonly watch the main roster spots, and
so when they see these people newand green, they're gonna think at sea
of them green. No matter howmuch time they had in NXT, it
doesn't matter. And that's what itcomes down to, which is why I

(47:43):
want to say. With Timothy Stratton, she's already made herself pretty much a
name overnight. Something about her hasalready gotten her flare. Jay Cargo kind
of got that feeling for By theway, why is it that all of
a sudden, Okay, I seeBianca Balaire, who I saw on TikTok
a couple of times yesterday. She'sin like incredible shape. Why is she

(48:06):
not on TV? They Jade andBianca don't get a rematch. They lose
to Alba Fire and a La Dawnat Scotland and we don't see these folks
back. So this is all thoughtprocesses that Jay Cargo, you know her,
her green work in Scotland might haveburied her a little bit, so
they're keeping her off TV to gether more seasoning. But then at the

(48:29):
test, but that's also at thehindushow of Bianca Belair. It's hula hooping
on TikTok or where else she posts. I mean good for her, I
mean hell she she's like jamming alongand hula hula hooping, and that's good,
that's great, But damn it,we don't need to see biancaplaiir like
you know on my TikTok for youpage. Let's put her on TV.

(48:51):
She's a star. Listen. Somuch was well done with Bianca Blair under
Vince's tutelage. By the way,before Vince was on the way out,
before they got got him booted outand the whole scandal with him came across.
You cannot tell me that Bioncablair wasn'treally booked badly. She was booked

(49:13):
great through the work that was beingdone. Whoever was part of this?
Okay, twenty twenty one, twentytwenty two, you know her run out
of NXT and coming up to thatmain roster. Just agreea Ripley made into
a star. And when you loseBecky Lynch, why are you not putting
Becky Brionca Butlair out there once again? Why is she in the backdrop right

(49:37):
now? Why do you not haveher on TV at all? Like somebody
helped me understand this here. Imean, Bailey's champion, so like there's
nothing nothing else they're gonna have he'vebeen doing. But why why is she

(50:00):
in the bank and the money thebank ladder match? Like where's Bianca Butlair?
Why is she off TV? Isshe just doing the TV show?
And is she gonna like is shegonna be a mom? Like what's going
on here? Explain to me,yeah, explain to me that. Why
is it? I'm getting there's moreTV time for Canadas, Array and Indie
heartwell than beyondabl Why is Chelsea Greetinggetting more getting more airtime than Beyoncablair?

(50:29):
Please, somebody explain this to me. Beefab is getting more time than Beyonca
Belair, Blair Davenport is getting moretime than Beyondaple there, please explain that
to me. I don't get it. She's not on this card. Okay,

(50:52):
So that's what we already have sofar. We got five matches set
up, the two money, thebank lad matches, the Icy title,
what have We Championship, and theCody and Crew versus bloodline. That's it.
No woman's tittles on the line.I mean, that's how we got

(51:17):
so some are somebody have to sipwe are gonna do in terms of what
they're gonna be on the building upfor that. Fine, But my back
gone of matter is that, Okay, they're missing out a lot. They're
kind of missing the idea of likewho they have on their roster and who
they're gonna be working with, Likeat this point right now, they're a

(51:37):
little bit light on like people whosetime should be out there and should be
doing more. It's one of thosethings that I just kind of have to
consider, Like I like, somebodyhelped me out with this, So Ag
styles a little bit of a takenaway. You know, he's off to
decide what he did. Bobby lastYe's on the show, so I understood,

(52:02):
we understandably. We can't see muchof him. We see a whole
lot of Jody Gargano and Tamassa Champa. And now aren't they getting altho were
getting of this on Friday Night's Backdowngetting a title shot that's right against Grays
and Waller and Austin theory pretty deadlyis back. I didn't ask for them.

(52:24):
I didn't live Borgan being completely consumedwith Dominique Strio and she has not
defended the belt. I mean shedid on Monday night, but otherwise,
you know, not much being saidabout that, and we don't hear much
about anything with an opponent unless thisrearbally coming back. So just holding off
on that as well. And Ijust I'm just trying to figure things out.

(52:50):
There's so much going on right nowthat doesn't really do too much for
me booking, and many pieces areflat when I look at how they're booking,
and I am starting to create correlationsto Bruce Pritchard Booking and TNA in

(53:13):
twenty ten, twenty eleven. Somethingis wrong. Something is seriously wrong.
Do you understand this? Because Idon't want it to be this way,
I really don't. I hope inmy heart of hearts that underneath the bloodline
storyline, which a lot of peoplecare about it dru mcatarre Seat and Punk

(53:34):
all the people care about right thatthe mid card they need to prepare for
the future, and that feature isgonna be coming closer than you think.
I mean, are we just gonnaexpect that? Okay? So Drew mcatire
Sea and Punk, Cody Rhodes,Kevin Owens, Randy Orton, seth Wrong's

(53:57):
like the main veterans of the roster, they're just gonna see up there for
another five years because that's how muchtime we're gonna need to rebuild or to
build some new stars from NXC theybring them up to the level of these
other stars because they're not the currentmint cards that are out there. They're
not going to reach that level.Bron Braker is gonna need time and among

(54:19):
others, I mean, you're waitingfor factions that maybe come together and do
something where there's probably need to bea couple of factions. They need to
get dropped. Final Day feuty withNew Day a final testament, a final
testament if you know a New Dayand you know that's completely a shot thing,
like what is what good is finalTestament? The Kadi get Xavier was

(54:43):
to come on to their fold,like what is that all about? Oh
man, let me tell you what. Like when I saw the beatdown of
Kofe and Xavier, I thought Biggiewas gonna come out from the back and
come back from injury and be ableto go ahead and bank the safe.
That will have been the only thingthat would have saved that storyline. Otherwise
the stinks down on the arrival theaway what are we doing anyways? I

(55:10):
want to think a few things thatcame away from Dynamite that were really good
because I did enjoy what they'd setup with Dynamite. Tonight we get a
we get MJF making the heel turnback. This guy has our modern day
Rick Flair. I'm all in forit. And of course there was attention

(55:30):
to detail because of the fact thatyou know MGF confronted Daniel Garcia I wasn't
on collision last Saturday, right,and it was in Buffalo leading up to
did your Garcia's match with will ofSpray, of which Will All Spray is
coming off a loss, putting theInternational Tunnel online, and MGF offers a

(55:57):
way for ther Garcia to go andwin the match, of course illegally,
but he could have done it andgone to the dark side, but then
your Garcia didn't, and so MJF, what a reason, decides to go
and like he sees something in DinielGarcia as one of the pillars, one
of the young stars on the upand coming, right, So this is

(56:20):
MGF working with Denie Garcia toga tohelp build him up, and then you
put him into the mix here andwhen, just like when MJF had a
faction, if somebody didn't do whathe he told him to do or suggested
that he did, he turned onhim, and you know, he took
it out on him, and MGFnow turned heel once again. Hey,

(56:45):
I have no problem because back toturns heel, I really don't you know.
He had his run of the faceand it worked out well, and
we're gonna have to kind of makean explanation for the Undisputed Kingdom once they
come back. But again he gothis revenge on the Peter keing my guess
pretty much. So we're just movingalong to this MGFF. Now we'll come

(57:07):
out on Collision on Saturday night.By the way, the show's pretaped,
but we're gonna see MGF start offCollision confront of the crowd at the start
of the Money of the Bank.I wonder if there's gonna be any kind
of rating to see MGF and whathe says to start off that night,
because that is interesting. They're goingto book that and then hang Man.

(57:30):
Adam Page returns back from injury andhe goes on against Jeff Jarrett. He's
against the EVPs and obviously he wantsto win the oen justin Dan Brian Danielson
does, So you got that goingfor you. Britt Baker returns and they
get a nice start of heat whereMercedes ben A if you didn't s she

(57:52):
was heal yet, she's absolutely healnow, she's totally hell now. And
Britt Baker looks amazing. I feltso sorry for when she talking about her
medical situation and feeling that she wasto the point of a mini stroke.
I'm so glad that she's doing okay, and I'm so glad she's back because
she sorely missed. Listen, Ilove Tony Storm, just a bunch of

(58:13):
everybody else, but you know,we need some other women on the roster
to kind of come back and workwith. Okay, Well Nightingale awesome,
love her too, but let's getBritt Baker back in there. Okay,
I'm glad she's back, and let'sget Britt and Mercedes Moon a all in
Wimbley Stadium. Let's book that match. I'm all in for that. That
sounds fantastic. So among other things, and now we know that Well Nightingale

(58:37):
will face either Mariah May or hercar she had it in the finals of
the Women's Own Heart Foundation Tournament,and will Nightingale and christat Lander kind of
heading each other off in there setup because of what was going on with
the breakdown of that team and thatfriendship. Brandy will either take on Adam
patro D White and the finals ofthe Men's Own Heart Finational Tournament. I

(59:00):
Owe Heart Foundation Tournament. That's goodstuff, a good setup for all that
people might not be vibing too muchof the Learning Tree. I still love
it. I think what they didright now with Taz banning it from ringside
that was pretty crazy in a while, but yeah, it makes sense.
Like now Jerico's turning, you know, he's getting demented into the Learning Tree

(59:21):
character. I like it and enjoyingit. It's getting over to me,
so like, maybe not everybody's outthere into it, but I do like
it. I do so one ofthe things I gotta bring up. But
I don't know if I MEAs inthis at all. But no, congratulations
to Selena de de Rena who's expectingnow, so I wish the best for

(59:42):
her. And you know her newBundle of Joy coming up and how she's
gonna use it in a storyline againstSaesar durand what is the mlw uh Annivers
she's coming up, and I thinkthat show's coming up forgot tonight or tomorrow.
It's on YouTube. I gotta gofind out when it is. But
that's coming up. I'm waiting forit to come on my YouTube feed.
But that'll be coming up sooner enough. Oh, that's right. For Collision,

(01:00:06):
they set up matches so far,so it'll be Adam page g White
will be in the Men's Own HeartFoundation Tournament semi final. About that's for
collision, Tony Storm will take onTrhador and there'll be other things coming up
after that coming up for collision.But again, they have everything set up
they're gonna be doing, and ofcourse it's been taped, but I'll probably

(01:00:29):
have that on while I'm catching moneyin the bank this weekend. That'll be
the plan on that. So ifI didn't already say it before, let
me give a final again predictions.I'm gonna just had one more time to
make sure everybody knows where I'm goingto be coming from when it comes to
this and what I expect this weekend, because this should be good. I

(01:00:51):
will be doing a post show.King of Podcasts dot Com should go and
find that and you'll catch me thereand we'll do it all over there.
So remember I say, Amy ofPriest over Sets Wrongs, Kasey Sharon will
be won the women's money in thebank, Drew mcatur won the men's money
the bank and we'll try to cashthem that night. Bron Breaker will beat
Sammy Zing. You know they're they'regonna probably pull it off. I don't

(01:01:13):
know if they're gonna do it,but they're gonna do it and bloodline,
if they're right in their minds,should beat Cody, Randy and Tevin enjoy
Money the Bank come back this weekof another Wrestlers Real podcast, because wrestling needs us

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