September 15, 2025 • 39 mins
WWE made a controversial announcement that WrestleMania 43 in 2027 will be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This marks the first time WWE's flagship event will be hosted outside of North America, and it's a decision that has sent shockwaves through the fan base.
The move, which is reportedly part of a massive new deal that includes the 2027 Royal Rumble and at least one other major event in the same year, is a clear signal of TKO Group Holdings' focus on maximizing global revenue, with reports suggesting these events could earn the company upwards of $50 million each night.
The outrage is palpable, with many fans feeling that WWE is "selling out" and prioritizing huge sums of money from foreign governments over the traditional fan base that has supported the company for decades. This sentiment is amplified by comments from TKO COO Mark Shapiro at the recent Communacopia tech conference, where he spoke candidly about a new strategy to maximize "ticket yield" and raise prices, further alienating fans who feel they are being priced out of attending live events.
Compounding the corporate-driven controversies are recent creative and talent-related developments that have left a bitter taste in fans' mouths. The Friday night AAA Worlds Collide event, a crossover show with WWE, saw the promotion's top prizes go to two of WWE's most polarizing figures: Dominik Mysterio and Natalya.
This mirrored the recent success of Trick Williams and Jacy Jayne in the promotion, leading to frustration from a fan base that feels a handful of "chosen" stars are being force-fed to them.
Finally, the recent and sudden release of Andrade has added fuel to the fire. The talented star's departure has left many fans fuming, especially given his recent return to the company and his lack of television time.
This move, combined with Triple H's own recent comments about the "internet following" not being "real life," has created a deep chasm between the company's leadership and its most vocal supporters.
The collective frustration over the WrestleMania announcement, the rising ticket costs, the perceived favoritism in inter-promotional partnerships, and the perplexing talent release of Andrade, has created an environment where fans feel unheard and unvalued in the TKO era of WWE.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/wrestling-is-real-wrestling-podcast--1559158/support.
Contact KOP for professional podcast production, imaging, and web design services at http://www.kingofpodcasts.com
Support KOP by subscribing to his YouTube channel and search for King Of Podcasts
Follow KOP on X and TikTok @kingofpodcasts (F Meta!)
Listen to KOP’s other programs, Podcasters Row… and the Wrestling is Real Wrestling Podcast and The Broadcasters Podcast.
Buy KOP a Coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/kingofpodcasts
Drop KOP a PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=3TAB983ZQPNVL
Drop KOP a Venmo https://account.venmo.com/u/kingofpodcasts
Drop KOP a CashApp https://cash.app/$kingofallpodcasts
The move, which is reportedly part of a massive new deal that includes the 2027 Royal Rumble and at least one other major event in the same year, is a clear signal of TKO Group Holdings' focus on maximizing global revenue, with reports suggesting these events could earn the company upwards of $50 million each night.
The outrage is palpable, with many fans feeling that WWE is "selling out" and prioritizing huge sums of money from foreign governments over the traditional fan base that has supported the company for decades. This sentiment is amplified by comments from TKO COO Mark Shapiro at the recent Communacopia tech conference, where he spoke candidly about a new strategy to maximize "ticket yield" and raise prices, further alienating fans who feel they are being priced out of attending live events.
Compounding the corporate-driven controversies are recent creative and talent-related developments that have left a bitter taste in fans' mouths. The Friday night AAA Worlds Collide event, a crossover show with WWE, saw the promotion's top prizes go to two of WWE's most polarizing figures: Dominik Mysterio and Natalya.
This mirrored the recent success of Trick Williams and Jacy Jayne in the promotion, leading to frustration from a fan base that feels a handful of "chosen" stars are being force-fed to them.
Finally, the recent and sudden release of Andrade has added fuel to the fire. The talented star's departure has left many fans fuming, especially given his recent return to the company and his lack of television time.
This move, combined with Triple H's own recent comments about the "internet following" not being "real life," has created a deep chasm between the company's leadership and its most vocal supporters.
The collective frustration over the WrestleMania announcement, the rising ticket costs, the perceived favoritism in inter-promotional partnerships, and the perplexing talent release of Andrade, has created an environment where fans feel unheard and unvalued in the TKO era of WWE.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/wrestling-is-real-wrestling-podcast--1559158/support.
Contact KOP for professional podcast production, imaging, and web design services at http://www.kingofpodcasts.com
Support KOP by subscribing to his YouTube channel and search for King Of Podcasts
Follow KOP on X and TikTok @kingofpodcasts (F Meta!)
Listen to KOP’s other programs, Podcasters Row… and the Wrestling is Real Wrestling Podcast and The Broadcasters Podcast.
Buy KOP a Coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/kingofpodcasts
Drop KOP a PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=3TAB983ZQPNVL
Drop KOP a Venmo https://account.venmo.com/u/kingofpodcasts
Drop KOP a CashApp https://cash.app/$kingofallpodcasts
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Podcasting since two thousand and five. This is the King
of Podcasts Radio Network, King of Podcasts dot Com.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
TKO's asking themselves, can we have more w fans that
pay fifty million dollars every night?
Speaker 3 (00:15):
WHOA?
Speaker 1 (00:15):
He isn't the name.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
You more request and believe it or not.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Whether you like it or don't like, you learn to
love it because you.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Have to listen to wrestling and really it is the
best day going two day.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
WHOA the worldwide leader of podcasting excellence. The King of
Podcasts Radio Network probably presents the Wrestling Games Real podcast
because Wrestling Nave sucks.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I'm a little lately doing a post show about trible
A and World's Clide Las Vegas. But that along with
a number of other things that happened since the last episode.
I'm not gonna wait to go ahead and review All
Out London and Wrestle Paloza this Wednesday because I'm gonna
have a super long show, so I have to cover
(01:06):
some of this now before Wednesday. It's just a lot
that's happened this weekend, but that's like every weekend now
in wrestling. It's becoming that And I tell you, even
if I did a podcast on the weekends and move
the show off of Wednesdays. I'd still probably do a
two hour show, and I'm doing that to you people.
Got to keep it around an hour or so. I mean,
even last week's show was an hour eighteen minutes because
(01:27):
it's just told a lot to cover and a lot
to rant about too. But anyway, King of Podcasts here
with you on a Sunday night recording here in the
main Cave Southward, USA, Kingopodcasts dot com where you found
all my content, and of course through all major podcasts platforms,
Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, YouTube, YouTube Music, among others Amazon Music.
(01:51):
I always forgot to go mention that now there's a
few things to go and cover right off the bat,
So wrestmingt you have forty three in twenty twenty seven
will be heading to Saudi Arabia for a two night
event that's already after the fact that the Royal Romo's
gonna be going to Saudi Arabia as well in twenty
twenty seven, So take that as you want, or is
(02:12):
it next year? I forget, I you know, it's just
too much to cover. And of course each of these
events could earn the company up to about fifty million
dollars each night. Incredible, but hey, people didn't like hearing
about that. I mean, I know the brock Lesters thing
was one bit of outrage, but then the fandom really
(02:33):
got into an outrage and tailspin once they heard about
Saudi Arabia and Russell Media leaving the country for the
first time ever. Not London, not in Toronto. No, well
it wasn't Toronto before, but yeah, outside of North America,
no London, in Australia, Saudi Arabia. But that's because a
(02:54):
lot of things are going to Saudi Arabia. Keep that
in mind. UF He's going there, boxing's been going there,
golf is there, out of events, and because there is
this particular anniversary coming in for re odd season, there's
a lot coming and so for Saudi Arabia to go
and do what they can to really build up tourism,
to really build up interest in what they're doing, to
(03:14):
try to really modernize as part of some thirty year plan,
I guess they have culturally the change and just transform
the mindset of what Saudi Arabia is and make it,
you know, this oasis of entertainment, fun, a destination awaits,
but I don't know if any there can be a
(03:35):
lot of fans there can be making their way to
Saudi Araba to go to that show. It's not sure.
And of course, I mean this is a big corporate company.
It's taken over this and they can do what they want.
You got that going on, and then you also have
base of the comments, so we had that I did
bring up on Wednesday that came out of Mark Shapiro
(03:57):
at the Communicopia Tech conference for Golden Sacks talking about
a new strategy to maximize ticket yield and raise prices,
alienaing the fans who were being further priced out of
anentity light of events because they're not dealing with his
big banniers to do making tickets available for families doesn't matter.
And then there's Wolds Collide this past weekend, where as
(04:20):
I predicted a number of titles were going to change.
Dominicant Mysterio is now your new triple A and make
a champion still holding onto the Intercontinental title, and Italian
is now the triple A. Reign of the renas breaking
some four hundred and forty some odd day reign of
Fabio Pacchi as champion there the same thing we're doing
(04:46):
with TNA with Trick Williams and JC Jane winning their
respective world heavyweight title and knockouts titles in that promotion,
which is kind of just turning me off the TNA
al together. I don't like this nxtification, nxtification of a TNA.
I just I don't like it. It's just too much involved.
(05:10):
I mean, they didn't do so bad with AW coming
in and helping out during the COVID time, but this
partnership is just it's cannibalistic. I mean, no doubt this
company is happy to go ahead and associate themselves with
(05:30):
a company one a company is just getting the promise
of getting a new television deal as part of their
partnership arrangement because W and TKO did not try to
go and buy them out. Maybe they will at some point,
but what's going on is with that is that with
TNA in North America, they're much more viable with a
TV deal and to get a TV deal, then Nicko
(05:52):
and c TKO wanted to go in maybe looking at
that asset for themselves. With TRIPAA, it's a player to
go in the my ago and take over with that
spot and whatever people thought that Tina was going to
triple A was going to become after Dube comes into play, Well,
they're already just by the second show, they're already starting
(06:13):
to go ahead and put their claws in a little
less luti libre, a little less of the exodicos of
the minis. You know, you're seeing less and less of that,
less of the novelty, except for the ones they decided
to go and put on there. You might have saw
a Microman on the last show, you didn't see him
this time. Ascaria Sungrata was he token mini in this show.
(06:35):
No exoticos, no Scarlett Pimpanella. They were going to bring
that back, okay, and none of the other women in
this as well. It's like, okay, when one woman's jim match,
keep it like that. And you knew that with Dominique
Stereo and Elehil de vinking Go, you knew it was
gonna happen eventually that they didn't make. They didn't pull
(06:58):
the trigger on Dominicusterio the right the first time. They
had to do it the second time around. So there's
not much I would say about what happened with this
particular show after the fact, But it's very watered down. Now,
you did get the LUCA Showcase, which only you got
(07:19):
a number of stars that are already recognized that were
brought on the first w ASSOCIATED TRIPAA event with World's Clyde.
So yeah, he saw the park and once again. So
it's like, oh, we all give these guys from the
bat the Gauntlet match, get them back in. Okayle Parker,
(07:40):
we'll bring him back. That's fine, Mascaritis, I grow, Let's
try him out. Let's see what he looks like. You
get Latino World Order in that, just to kind of
put something in there, and Octagon Junior in place in
that LUCA eight man tag team match, which was fine.
It was a good little starter. Italia over Fabio Apache
(08:01):
again for the rent of the Radio Championship. Oh this
was a singles match with numb one contender. But still eventually,
I know, maybe I'm pulling it a little too soon.
Fabio Patchi was champion before, that's my correction. And then
Flamaire is the current champion right now seven hundred and
sixty four days. But matter of time, if Natalia already
(08:22):
has this win, then the next time they get together
just basically book it. That Natalia will win that title,
so they're doing it eventually, they're doing it subtly. What
happens their enough the Triple A Latin American Championship Hill
heal of Doctor Wagner who won this title on the
last show, Well he was able to going to take
(08:43):
over Dragon Lee Ethan Page and they McDonough to win
that match. So that's fine. Note of those other three names
sound like anybody that was really set for that spot
right there anyway, And to fall back into Lola Vice
and Mister Iguana and Finnbauer Roxane Perez. So you got
the Demonico and Iguana thing to bring that back, Okay,
(09:06):
I got that part fine. And then you want to
bring my Pagana Cycle clowns, so put them in there
with New Day And now Grayson Waller has to go
and fill in for Sevir Woods in this match for
the Trivia A. We'll take THU titles, but at least
Pagana Cycle Clown held the belts. But that will also
(09:27):
possibly change sooner enough. But again, there was a lot
of influx of WRIT or NXC talent that was brought
in here anyway to go ahead and be a part.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Of this.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
And you can just tell that the styles starting to
go and get a little bit homogenized, a little bit
water down. It's changing quite a bit. That's the plan
sooner enough. No AJ styles involvement this time around at
this pay per view, So that's kind of telling as well.
The other thing that also got everybody up and at it,
(09:56):
and we'll talk about this in a few minutes, is
the release of Andrade, which does just happened today. We'll
talk more about that in a moment, but let's get
into everything here and someone the talk that's been said
so far.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Now.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
At the World's Collide Las Vegas event, there was a
package for WrestleMania in Saudi Araba coming up that was
played at the show, and the crowd bowed with chance
of you sold out and then go ahead and play
I'll put it that for you. When this was announced,
here is what it sounded like in the arena at
the coxs Pavilion on the campus of UNLV on Friday.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
You can express something like you I've never seen before.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
None too happy there, none too happy in Las Vegas
about that announcement. Excuse me, so the date of the
Royal Rumble twenty twenty six, will be January thirty first,
(11:24):
I was confirmed by tribally shuring the Wrestle for three
restatety forty three announcement. So Saudi Arabia will get the
Royal Rumble next year, WrestleMania the following year. That's the
plan of that One person who regularly I see on
my feed here on x says that he thinks that
TKO is absolutely selling to Saudi Arabia and eventually there's
already buyers remorse in the endeavor. End w is built
(11:47):
for only one thing, and it's sports washing. TKO's in debt,
there's boxing leagues. They've been launched. Netflix didn't spurn the
new era of fandom that they hoped. This is all
from the Netflix air, by the way, So now's what
was made alongside the besides GEA chairman Turk Turkey Al
Shaikh Levesque refers to as his excellency mentioning that the
(12:09):
WRESTLEMANI event will be happening. So they did put this
out there what we had heard as an announcement that
was prematurely put out by someone in Saudi Arabia on Snapchat.
It was done now. Brandon Thurston put out an op
ed and on post wrestling dot Com talking about quote,
I hate politics. That's why I'm going to love russele
(12:31):
Many and Saudi Arabia end quote. He goes on to
say that he just wants to enjoy wrestling without being
told what the thing again or getting dragged into another
argument and what I'm supposed to vote for. I want
to watch them to b for escaping for the world's problems,
not to think about them. So the fact that WrestleMania
is going to be in Saudi Arabia, not only ridiculously
enormous fees for w are going to be given to
(12:53):
them as a result, but that year's FORCEMANI will be
one hundred percent politics free. Now, he does have his
points about what the Saudi government has done. There's all
the political stuff in terms of how they are and
how they treat other Western democracies. But that's besides the
point that for the fact that gets a lot of
money for these shows, typically fifty million dollars per show,
(13:16):
and who knows how massive the wrestling your payment will
be for this one, but the chairman Turkey, I'll shake
ensure it's top to your production. Even though the women's
division is carefully managed and a dressed a scuba gear.
Those are just cultural differences. If you don't support that,
you're the ones who's a hypocritical biggot for wanting woman
to be allowed to perform and express themselves more freely.
(13:37):
But if you think about a hard and actually do
mental gymnastics abovement about it, excuse me. It's empired that
women are even allowed to stand of the ring inside
the ribbon now now trivial. H also said on Matt
pat McAfee's show this past week that you just can't
ignore people who just don't do things right. So they're
thinking of trying to be a world changer as being
a part of this incorporating Western culture into this particular community. Yes, fine, okay,
(14:02):
but right now. Brandon Thurst also makes a point about
that the king of Saudi Arabia has been deeply involved
in a variety of aspects of sports. What are we
supposed to do boycott form of the one practically all soccer,
stop tweeting? What about all those businesses with Saudi restiments?
Are supposed to say no, say not to all that money,
just give it all back. In fact, because the monarchy
(14:22):
is far reaching influence of business and cultures everywhere. That
should assure us, not concern us ubiquity and ubiquity and
persistence of autocratic regenies furthermore, should exhaust us, make us
critics give up, put it politics aside, and stop questioning it.
It doesn't matter to me at all by the fact
they go to Saudi Arabia. I just think the outrage
is because of the fact that for w you know,
(14:47):
they can't make the kind of money they can here
in America or in North America for that matter, with
what they're doing, and when the Saudis are going to
come in and put some real money in. Yeah, they're
just selling out, no surprise, but Vince started it. TKO
now is just going to take advantage of it. They're
gonna take as much money for those guys as they want.
(15:10):
I I care less, it's what they're gonna do. Mark
Shapiro also talking about in a conference last March that
we like what we're seeing and hearing in terms of
the leadership there. They're seeing the right things. They're putting
in their money where the rat mouth is. We like
a direction that they're going in, and if we didn't,
we wouldn't be there. There's a longer part of the story,
(15:31):
but it's an interesting read nevertheless, so take a go
ahead look at it for yourselves. So there's now there's
some comments out there on x SID. I also looked
at when it came out about this particular deal. One
there was somebody that had a live channel on YouTube
and they show everybody's saying you sold out among the
juitial delusional fandom. Doesn't you understand business? That's what they're
(15:52):
gonna do. So no surprise here. The deal for us
of any of that they say in Sadi Riba is
worth well over one Hunter Main, a Saudi Arabian source, says,
I can't share with the enact number, but w asked
for a higher number that one hundred million dollars as
the show will feature the rock of the agreement that's
reached and will be a packed megastar's show as the
General Entertainment Authority requested is according to Wrestling Observer newsletter,
(16:17):
and Brandon Thurston also would make a point. I guess
I don't know if this is before or after the
op ed, but he says, if this is everyone that
truly changed, we have to educate the populace on the
importance the shareholder value and government rebanding strategy. Well, I'm
be trying to do that for years. Here, this is
an audience, or this is a crowd, well the lowest
common denominator. They don't want to hear that. They don't
(16:39):
want to hear and understand why business is making them
change what they love. You're not going to change that
at all. It's not going to be done. It's not
gonna happen. Not possible. Original WrestleMania was supposed to be
put in Saudi Ribia, possibly for twenty twenty eight, but
the Command they wanted to make us for twenty twenty seven,
(17:00):
and the General Entertainment Authority and Turkey out Shake is
the guy that's running the show, and if he wants
to have in twenty twenty seven, they're gonna clap and
say go. And you know, w's gonna say how high?
How many people do you want?
Speaker 1 (17:13):
That said? All?
Speaker 2 (17:13):
They're gonna do it. Triple H talk with Nightcap and
he makes a point and says that we is not
the sport or a movie about the sport. Okay, he says,
I say this a lot of times when people don't understand,
Like if we're talking to the nightworkative is they're trying
to figure out what we are. I say, we are
less boxing, more Rocky. We're not the sport. We're a
(17:35):
movie about the sport. Rocky is really a love story.
It just happens to be a have boxing as a
background and the metaphor for all the things he has
to overcome and do. Our business, when you talk about
the emotion, you talk about the storytelling, you talk about
all those things. That's what it really resonates. That's why
our business is ever green. It's the story is suspected.
It's all those things. That's what we're different. We're expectable
in storytelling. Well, you know when Vince Russo has talked
(17:56):
about the fact that when you watch shows from now,
it's like, yeah, you might be watching Rocky, you're watching
the last ten minutes of Rocky, the actual final match,
because there's nothing about the actual build of the storyline
that you really get in what you get now of
any of these feuds going on on the main roster.
(18:17):
There's just not And there's also an issue about certain
talent not being on the roster now in any prominent roles.
When you see Russo come back and he just gets
thrown into the background. It's just noise. Alstra Black comes back,
he comes back as noise, Andrede came back with just noise.
Same thing with you know, you bring in jacobou too
(18:39):
and they had such a push with him and the
MFT and nothing with them right now there are not
even in the picture. I don't even know if Jacob
Futhu has heard or what or anything from him. Interesting.
Also interesting to see Live Morgan in Saudi as part
of the Saudi Riven announcement. But yet she's not back yet,
(18:59):
but most likely Hole She's probably coming back, we guess
right for the most part. Feifel select also reporting that
the majority of the town in w are not bonus
for working saud Arabia shows, is simply worked at their
deals as part of their contracts now interesting. Also from Nightcap,
Triba h talked about the process of building a bigger
(19:21):
and better performance center. Really quote, We've tried to make
the pathway, were heavily in colleges. We have an mil program,
and he explains it the NFL is such a small
percentage of folks that get in there you can be
the best of the best, but then there's this moment
(19:42):
in time when you have the slightest difference and you're
not going to make it. And this is a career
choice for them. When they come to Orlando, Florida, they
see your facilities, they think, wow, this is like being
in a D one college. I have that level of professionalism.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Let me go.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
It's a shot and it's performance, so it's athletic performance.
So if they can make it work for them, then
the sky is the limit just to get any other sport.
It's in Orlando. We're in the processes of building another
one now in Orlando. It'll be even bigger and better.
Our main offices are in connecut In, LA. But the
Orlando's developmental I don't even know why they would go
(20:12):
and put that out there in the first place, But
all right fine. Eric Bischoff commenting now about the pricing
issue when it comes to w right on his recent
episode of eighty three Weeks that dropped on Saturday, he
took aim of the reasonship to ticket pricing following the
comments made by Mark Shapiro at the Goldman Sacks Community
(20:34):
COPE Conference and Eric Bischoff says, to get backfire in
a massive way. And of course I'm gonna say I'm
gonna try to do the Eric Bischoff voicer. Of course,
in the short term, you're going to make more money
as long as the market will bear it. You can
keep raising prices until you finally find the point where
you're gonna go you've gone too far. And then he
(20:55):
goes on to say that one of the reasons that
professional wrestling is we know it in the United States,
he's been as successful as it has since the beginning
of television time. It's because of it's family entertainments, a
generational experience. And then he goes on to say that
parents could take their kids and their kids' friends. You
could go to an event like w or AW or
t and A and afford to bring them. Those kids
(21:16):
grow up and they'll bring their kids one day. If
you break that generational cycle, you break the foundation of
your audience. Short term, he says, you'll make more money.
Long term, you'll risk losing the next generation of fans. Now,
Eric Mischeff is absolutely right, But let's talk about the
(21:38):
real story. Tako doesn't care. I mean, if they need
to go ahead and do something where they go ahead
and have to you know, unload this company somewhere else.
At the moment, they're gonna just use this for what
they can. They're gonna squeeze every dollar out. But this
(21:58):
is a very sensitive fandom right now that doesn't understand
what they were getting themselves into. And the truth why
is because you know, when the deal is still getting
finalized in twenty four and the sale of TKO had
to go ahead and get finished up. Once that, you know,
TKO didn't really get hands on into what's going on
here until the next Flix deal was finalized. Okay, Yeah,
(22:22):
So USA took over and puts back down on their
channel overaw raw goes of Netflix, CW picks up n XT,
and once those broadcast deals were finalized and everything started
operating on full cylinders in January, that's when you saw
everything change because once the deals and the reorganization of
(22:46):
broadcast deals was complete. Of course we didn't talk about
the change of what they're doing right now from ESPN.
That wasn't part of the mix. But eventually the ESPN
deal was gonna have to come into play because Peacock
wasn't going to go hold on to their setup right
now with w in the current setup, and I think
the library is going to stay there, and the pay
(23:08):
per view set up, I don't know if it was
going to stay there either, But ESPN had this new opportunity,
and of course TKO is so embedded right now to
ESPN and able to get into anything in terms of
what their company is doing because they're inroads that now
TKO in this Netflix era Triple H is just required
(23:32):
to go ahead and just get the content made however possible.
And the fact that he went to kill Tony and
took some time off and you know, didn't worry about
begin to show for once. He's not in charge. You
might be in charge technically, but it's all by committee. Now.
(23:58):
You have a lot of wrestling out that's there running
the show, and some of us seems some success in
your time, but some of them have also on their own,
have not done that well. They've had spurts of maybe
some good ideas here and there, but overall it's not
a consistent a lot of success. And the thing is
right now is that none of those people in creative
(24:22):
are only going to put any kind of idea together
that's going to risk them losing their spot. What you
don't understand too, is that if you're trying to do
something creative and a corporate fit outfit like this, you
don't take risks on something creative because in corporate outfits
(24:47):
like TKO, where W is down under the space more
than ever is that you were expendable. And TRIPLEA should
also know for himself, I don't know how much of
a relationship yes, when they but or with area manual
market up here on the rest of the team there
that's there where he is. I don't even know if
Stephane McMahon has that much pull there anymore. But it
(25:13):
doesn't matter Triple H supposedly being the face of this company,
I don't think it makes much of a difference because
what could very well happen is down the line. Once
these broadcast deals have gone through fruition in five years,
four years to know whatever it is the broadcast is
on to come back up negotiations come through. If Netflix
(25:36):
decides not to renew, if USA looks to go ahead
and ask for a cut, or NBCUniversal in dits for
a cut, if ESPN is a bit weary, if those
relationships are strained because of the content. I mean, it's
very easy for TCO down the line to use Triple
H does McMahon as some of those other people as scapegoats.
(25:58):
But you just say, well, you know, we we trusted
these people because they were here as part of the
regime before and the success they had some success prior to.
But you know, if they're not able to go ahead
and keep up well the expectations that we are holding
for our shareholders when it comes to yield, when it
(26:19):
comes to profit, when it comes to the bottom line,
then they can say, well, trible h step a Man,
Bruce Pritchard, all you, Paul Hayman, all you, Yeah, five
years will be extinct. They'll just let you go. It's
why didn't like being in corporate anyway. It's ruthless. And
(26:41):
if you're middle management, you're afraid of always looking behind
your shoulder because what could happen You just don't know.
That's where we are at right now. Very bitchoff makes
a point. Now, one last story I'll bring up here
before we wrap things up is Dradde. A lot of
things being brought up on him as to what happened
to them. Oh well, take a few more comments here
(27:03):
on the card so far. Make this point real quick.
Is the fact that with WrestleMania, Saudi Rubia is reportedly
pushing for certain matches to host at WrestleMania. De emails
who reports this trying to tempt stars at a retirement Quote,
they're paying the money for it. They have the matches
they want, and they're working really really hard to get them.
(27:23):
So a lot of stars that have been in retirement
are going to get flashed a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
I don't know if they're going to be able to
get them, but they're going to spend a lot of
money to get what they want. Yes, we're talking about
anyone coming out of retirement that wants to come out
of retirement a big name value will be able to
get a lot of money on the show. So Rock
Stone Cold, Yeah, and I presume all those people will
be contented and the ones who would want to do
it will be able to. The ones who have any
interest in a great payday, they'll be able to get
(27:51):
on that show. Now, as for what's going on next week,
Russell producer all out again. We'll be talking about that
on Wednesday. We'll cover what they're gonna do with those
two shows, and you know, the culmination of what has
been a bullying tactic overall by w to go ahead
and go after AW with their show, only to go
(28:15):
have a twitch around because Recipoluca now is standing alone
at night up against college football next week because AW
all Out went to three o'clock in the afternoon. So
let's look at what they have to currently on the
schedule coming up now, because we now we have a
little bit of finalization of what games will be going
(28:37):
on during all out in Toronto at the same time
Oregon Oregon State will be going on three o'clock, Michigan
State and Nebraska. Those are the two top twenty five
games you have, no nerdme versus Purdue, those are the
top games you'll have. In Aubert, Oklahoma will be at
three thirty. Nothing that's going to really be taken out
of that. Now you have three top twenty five games,
(29:01):
some big ones coming up on prime time up against
Russell bal Loza as I had predicted, Number eleven in
South Carolina versus number twenty five Missouri, a big SEC
battle that's gonna be seven o'clock. You a Foorida, the
Gators up against Miami. That's always just the rivalry matchup
that we'll be looked at and we'll get a lot
(29:22):
of eyeballs on it. And Illinois Indiana, which, as I said,
Indiana number twenty two, Illino number nine, a big college
football rivalry. Seven thirty kickoff for that game, so it'll
be on all through Russell Baloosa And by the way,
restlal Losa has not sold out tickets yet at last check,
(29:44):
they have not sold out the show. The Indiana show.
That Indiana Illinois game has been sold out for months,
and that game is about an hour down the street
from Bloomington. In Bloomington from Indianapolis an hour southeast, and
just in the state of Indiana alone, there will be
a lot of people watching that game over Wrestle Looser.
(30:09):
So is it the smart thing that we decided to
do was to get into the games on Saturday and
put themselves into I mean hard enough for them tore
gonna do shows right now up against college foopar NFL anyways,
but they're doing it now because they're just gonna do it. Nevertheless,
(30:31):
here we are. Did they have to book this show,
by the way, and the ticket's also very high compared
to what people for going to that college football game
are probably paying. I haven't took I haven't seen the
last check on the tickets right now, but it's still
a lot. And what are you getting there for that
(30:51):
particular pay per view coming up on Saturday? John seen
at brock Leicester, which the setup for that has not
great for brock Lisner. He ripped his pants the last
time he was out there. On Friday, Ice back down,
Cody Rose, Drew mcuitarre, a quick little setup for that.
All of a sudden, Cody Rose, we just learned what's
coming back and they're just put together match with Drew mcutarre.
(31:14):
Why not you s guy? Sign of a care for
the women's world title. You have USO's versus bron Breaker,
Brons and Reid, USO's back together and then the mixed
tag team with Ron's and Lynch versus A J Lee
and Sam Punk, which is the setup for that and
the first time they're gonna be on pay per view
on ESPN. But of those games right there I just
(31:36):
talked about, I gotta think about which I mean, are
they gonna be?
Speaker 1 (31:41):
So?
Speaker 2 (31:43):
The Miami Fordy game will be on ABC. The Illin
Indiana game will be on NBC Big Ten Action. The
South Carolina Missouri game will be on ESPN on their
own champ the main ESPN Now interesting comment here on
(32:05):
exit I want to go to read for somebody. I
will not put out the names out there, but he
says that the Triple AH pacing a slow rolling crumbs
for a guy every few weeks and if they're lucky
to make tangible career advancement after a year, is just
ways too slow and it's not going to work for
a lot of people, especially when they see the same
people waltzing all the sting up pay per views every month.
There has been a lot of talk about on Draday
(32:26):
and how he was handling right now things coming out
of AW going back to W and now currently said
he was escort of a escort out of a W
taping before exit. There has been talking about him having
at least one wellness policy violation during the latest run,
suspended without pay as a result, and escort out of
the building during the show last month, in which was
(32:46):
in relation to his most recent suspension, according to John
Albert at Sports Illustrated. Another report out there they're saying
is that their speculation everywhere from Dave Milser, he says,
and other than the whole story, he says, but I
do know it was a disciplined thing. It was not
his own doing at all, not as his doing it all.
It was like, oh, he's just not being used. Well,
so he's unhappy. I mean, yeah, I'm positive he's unhappy.
(33:09):
But it wasn't him asking out. He was not fired
until today. But a couple of weeks ago there was
a disciplinary thing. Ah knows. It was at a TV shoot.
He was told to go home. And he's not been
used since. We don't know much more than that right now. Anyway,
Now one interesting, I got a thing I make of
so all a Night comes in here. He has not
been a world title holder yet. Even Kevin Nash is saying,
(33:31):
why don't you put the belt on him? Well, you remember,
was it last week I talked about Drake being on
the Bobby All Talk podcast and refrared to Ree Ripley
being his muse. Well, how about this, Let's talk about
Dallas Cowboys and Brian Schotenheimer getting his first win as
(33:53):
a head coach at the Cowboys and it went over
the Giants, and he decides to go all l A.
Knight celebrating after the win.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
Touchdown Jam touchdown, mill Stairs on touchdown picking dag got touchdown,
fifty one yard field goals, forty four yard field goal,
sixty four yard fiel.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Wait ain't over time with the walk off. I mean
you didn't hear the cadence, but still that's basically them
doing L. A. Knight and Ellie Knight start a champion.
He's just kind of a throwaway on the sorting the setup.
(34:40):
GBL was some good comments on his on some of
the wrestle and I thought what he said out here
is very interesting when it comes to the competition part
of w and AW and how it relates to how
what WCW was. So I want to close out with
his comments real quick. This is from Wressell talk. They
picked us out so well.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
I think it makes it better. I think makes it
a lot better. The times that visited things that were
crazy was when.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
He was bored.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
He came up with Icopro when WCW had no ratings.
Of course, then he had unfortunately the government trial against
him at the same time, which took his time away.
They came with the XFL wh WW was no longer
go around later. When you have no competition, creative guys
need to fill a void somewhere, and there's a reason
no reason to fill it with wrestling because you don't
have competition. That's my opinion. I would imagine when you
(35:28):
don't have competition, it's hard to put your feet to
the fire. I know events when things went bad, I
would see him. It was almost like fantastic, I get
to go to work. He gets to pull to the
company out of his tailspin or get to do something
out of a fire. He loved that, and I think
all creative guys do and we don't have somebody to beat.
I think it hurts the business. It's like, it's really
good for w I think there show is absolutely on fire,
and all the stuff that they're doing is response to
(35:50):
I don't think AW is big competition. You could argue
how big they are is competition. I don't think it's much,
but they do respond. I think it has a huge
positive effect on the business. And then you have the
companies that are trying to be a part of this.
I think it's huge to have two companies when you
have WCW around, absolutely huge. You wanted to beat them.
You wanted to see what they had on the on
(36:11):
their show. You wanted to go up against it. You
wanted to be that guy to bat. And when there's
no competition, when you happen, if you should, what happens
if you shop the bed, it doesn't really matter. I
understand you're products a performer. I get all that stuff,
but there's no consequence for like, Okay, it wasn't good
that that week, I'll try to get next week. It's
not good if you're not good. When you have competition,
you're going to go up against something that competition has.
(36:32):
And you lose, you've either gotten rid of or you're
way put down the roster. You won't be in that
spot against. So you love the competition. And I think
the WWE has not been creative, and they try to
find their own competition within themselves. That's what they did
with ECW, and that's when they did the w A
and all the kinds of stuff hasn't worked really wrong,
that's true. They don't want to look at AW, they
(36:55):
want to ignore them, they want to bully them. But
a competition that AW brings doesn't warn w to b creative.
I think j Bo's got a pretty good point right there.
I agree with that. Now I asked for ab all out.
They already have a matches confirmed so far. Hangman out
(37:18):
of Patriots is Kyle Fletcher for the world title. Support
sheet Wardlow was going to be in that bottle. Looks
like that's what they were planning to, but then you
got hurt again. You got Tony Storm in a four
waight with Jimmy Hayter, christat Leander and Thickla for the
Women's world title, Mercedes Been Neigh versus Riejo for the
TBS title, John Mox versus r Vy Allen FTR versus
(37:40):
Christian Cope Herdson and Get versus Ricochet and the Gates
of the Gates of Agony, MJF Mark Brisco Ocata and
Oku versus Takesha and Anthony Bones versus Morts and the
Rada in a three way man that's all scheduled to
(38:01):
come up next Saturday. I mean, still, it's gonna be
tough for both of these wrestling companies going to go
up against college football, and now I mean even for myself.
They're trying to go and cover these shows while going
I mean, the one thing I have for me is
that FAU is not playing next week. They got a
bye week, so I had that there go and work
off of among everything else. But like, still to do
(38:24):
this in college football is crazy. Okay, it's a lot
to ask for for me to have to go and watch. Well,
I got college football to watch too. You're gonna get
and keep myself consuming with wrestling for the entire Saturday
way too much. I'd prefer these two shows were on
separate but anyway, we're not gonna get that. We'll cover
(38:46):
it all here on Wednesday on the next Wrestling of
your podcast, because wrestling needs us
Podcasting since two thousand and five. This is the King
of Podcasts Radio Network, King of Podcasts dot Com.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
TKO's asking themselves, can we have more w fans that
pay fifty million dollars every night?
Speaker 3 (00:15):
WHOA?
Speaker 1 (00:15):
He isn't the name.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
You more request and believe it or not.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Whether you like it or don't like, you learn to
love it because you.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Have to listen to wrestling and really it is the
best day going two day.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
WHOA the worldwide leader of podcasting excellence. The King of
Podcasts Radio Network probably presents the Wrestling Games Real podcast
because Wrestling Nave sucks.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I'm a little lately doing a post show about trible
A and World's Clide Las Vegas. But that along with
a number of other things that happened since the last episode.
I'm not gonna wait to go ahead and review All
Out London and Wrestle Paloza this Wednesday because I'm gonna
have a super long show, so I have to cover
(01:06):
some of this now before Wednesday. It's just a lot
that's happened this weekend, but that's like every weekend now
in wrestling. It's becoming that And I tell you, even
if I did a podcast on the weekends and move
the show off of Wednesdays. I'd still probably do a
two hour show, and I'm doing that to you people.
Got to keep it around an hour or so. I mean,
even last week's show was an hour eighteen minutes because
(01:27):
it's just told a lot to cover and a lot
to rant about too. But anyway, King of Podcasts here
with you on a Sunday night recording here in the
main Cave Southward, USA, Kingopodcasts dot com where you found
all my content, and of course through all major podcasts platforms,
Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, YouTube, YouTube Music, among others Amazon Music.
(01:51):
I always forgot to go mention that now there's a
few things to go and cover right off the bat,
So wrestmingt you have forty three in twenty twenty seven
will be heading to Saudi Arabia for a two night
event that's already after the fact that the Royal Romo's
gonna be going to Saudi Arabia as well in twenty
twenty seven, So take that as you want, or is
(02:12):
it next year? I forget, I you know, it's just
too much to cover. And of course each of these
events could earn the company up to about fifty million
dollars each night. Incredible, but hey, people didn't like hearing
about that. I mean, I know the brock Lesters thing
was one bit of outrage, but then the fandom really
(02:33):
got into an outrage and tailspin once they heard about
Saudi Arabia and Russell Media leaving the country for the
first time ever. Not London, not in Toronto. No, well
it wasn't Toronto before, but yeah, outside of North America,
no London, in Australia, Saudi Arabia. But that's because a
(02:54):
lot of things are going to Saudi Arabia. Keep that
in mind. UF He's going there, boxing's been going there,
golf is there, out of events, and because there is
this particular anniversary coming in for re odd season, there's
a lot coming and so for Saudi Arabia to go
and do what they can to really build up tourism,
to really build up interest in what they're doing, to
(03:14):
try to really modernize as part of some thirty year plan,
I guess they have culturally the change and just transform
the mindset of what Saudi Arabia is and make it,
you know, this oasis of entertainment, fun, a destination awaits,
but I don't know if any there can be a
(03:35):
lot of fans there can be making their way to
Saudi Araba to go to that show. It's not sure.
And of course, I mean this is a big corporate company.
It's taken over this and they can do what they want.
You got that going on, and then you also have
base of the comments, so we had that I did
bring up on Wednesday that came out of Mark Shapiro
(03:57):
at the Communicopia Tech conference for Golden Sacks talking about
a new strategy to maximize ticket yield and raise prices,
alienaing the fans who were being further priced out of
anentity light of events because they're not dealing with his
big banniers to do making tickets available for families doesn't matter.
And then there's Wolds Collide this past weekend, where as
(04:20):
I predicted a number of titles were going to change.
Dominicant Mysterio is now your new triple A and make
a champion still holding onto the Intercontinental title, and Italian
is now the triple A. Reign of the renas breaking
some four hundred and forty some odd day reign of
Fabio Pacchi as champion there the same thing we're doing
(04:46):
with TNA with Trick Williams and JC Jane winning their
respective world heavyweight title and knockouts titles in that promotion,
which is kind of just turning me off the TNA
al together. I don't like this nxtification, nxtification of a TNA.
I just I don't like it. It's just too much involved.
(05:10):
I mean, they didn't do so bad with AW coming
in and helping out during the COVID time, but this
partnership is just it's cannibalistic. I mean, no doubt this
company is happy to go ahead and associate themselves with
(05:30):
a company one a company is just getting the promise
of getting a new television deal as part of their
partnership arrangement because W and TKO did not try to
go and buy them out. Maybe they will at some point,
but what's going on is with that is that with
TNA in North America, they're much more viable with a
TV deal and to get a TV deal, then Nicko
(05:52):
and c TKO wanted to go in maybe looking at
that asset for themselves. With TRIPAA, it's a player to
go in the my ago and take over with that
spot and whatever people thought that Tina was going to
triple A was going to become after Dube comes into play, Well,
they're already just by the second show, they're already starting
(06:13):
to go ahead and put their claws in a little
less luti libre, a little less of the exodicos of
the minis. You know, you're seeing less and less of that,
less of the novelty, except for the ones they decided
to go and put on there. You might have saw
a Microman on the last show, you didn't see him
this time. Ascaria Sungrata was he token mini in this show.
(06:35):
No exoticos, no Scarlett Pimpanella. They were going to bring
that back, okay, and none of the other women in
this as well. It's like, okay, when one woman's jim match,
keep it like that. And you knew that with Dominique
Stereo and Elehil de vinking Go, you knew it was
gonna happen eventually that they didn't make. They didn't pull
(06:58):
the trigger on Dominicusterio the right the first time. They
had to do it the second time around. So there's
not much I would say about what happened with this
particular show after the fact, But it's very watered down. Now,
you did get the LUCA Showcase, which only you got
(07:19):
a number of stars that are already recognized that were
brought on the first w ASSOCIATED TRIPAA event with World's Clyde.
So yeah, he saw the park and once again. So
it's like, oh, we all give these guys from the
bat the Gauntlet match, get them back in. Okayle Parker,
(07:40):
we'll bring him back. That's fine, Mascaritis, I grow, Let's
try him out. Let's see what he looks like. You
get Latino World Order in that, just to kind of
put something in there, and Octagon Junior in place in
that LUCA eight man tag team match, which was fine.
It was a good little starter. Italia over Fabio Apache
(08:01):
again for the rent of the Radio Championship. Oh this
was a singles match with numb one contender. But still eventually,
I know, maybe I'm pulling it a little too soon.
Fabio Patchi was champion before, that's my correction. And then
Flamaire is the current champion right now seven hundred and
sixty four days. But matter of time, if Natalia already
(08:22):
has this win, then the next time they get together
just basically book it. That Natalia will win that title,
so they're doing it eventually, they're doing it subtly. What
happens their enough the Triple A Latin American Championship Hill
heal of Doctor Wagner who won this title on the
last show, Well he was able to going to take
(08:43):
over Dragon Lee Ethan Page and they McDonough to win
that match. So that's fine. Note of those other three names
sound like anybody that was really set for that spot
right there anyway, And to fall back into Lola Vice
and Mister Iguana and Finnbauer Roxane Perez. So you got
the Demonico and Iguana thing to bring that back, Okay,
(09:06):
I got that part fine. And then you want to
bring my Pagana Cycle clowns, so put them in there
with New Day And now Grayson Waller has to go
and fill in for Sevir Woods in this match for
the Trivia A. We'll take THU titles, but at least
Pagana Cycle Clown held the belts. But that will also
(09:27):
possibly change sooner enough. But again, there was a lot
of influx of WRIT or NXC talent that was brought
in here anyway to go ahead and be a part.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Of this.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
And you can just tell that the styles starting to
go and get a little bit homogenized, a little bit
water down. It's changing quite a bit. That's the plan
sooner enough. No AJ styles involvement this time around at
this pay per view, So that's kind of telling as well.
The other thing that also got everybody up and at it,
(09:56):
and we'll talk about this in a few minutes, is
the release of Andrade, which does just happened today. We'll
talk more about that in a moment, but let's get
into everything here and someone the talk that's been said
so far.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Now.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
At the World's Collide Las Vegas event, there was a
package for WrestleMania in Saudi Araba coming up that was
played at the show, and the crowd bowed with chance
of you sold out and then go ahead and play
I'll put it that for you. When this was announced,
here is what it sounded like in the arena at
the coxs Pavilion on the campus of UNLV on Friday.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
You can express something like you I've never seen before.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
None too happy there, none too happy in Las Vegas
about that announcement. Excuse me, so the date of the
Royal Rumble twenty twenty six, will be January thirty first,
(11:24):
I was confirmed by tribally shuring the Wrestle for three
restatety forty three announcement. So Saudi Arabia will get the
Royal Rumble next year, WrestleMania the following year. That's the
plan of that One person who regularly I see on
my feed here on x says that he thinks that
TKO is absolutely selling to Saudi Arabia and eventually there's
already buyers remorse in the endeavor. End w is built
(11:47):
for only one thing, and it's sports washing. TKO's in debt,
there's boxing leagues. They've been launched. Netflix didn't spurn the
new era of fandom that they hoped. This is all
from the Netflix air, by the way, So now's what
was made alongside the besides GEA chairman Turk Turkey Al
Shaikh Levesque refers to as his excellency mentioning that the
(12:09):
WRESTLEMANI event will be happening. So they did put this
out there what we had heard as an announcement that
was prematurely put out by someone in Saudi Arabia on Snapchat.
It was done now. Brandon Thurston put out an op
ed and on post wrestling dot Com talking about quote,
I hate politics. That's why I'm going to love russele
(12:31):
Many and Saudi Arabia end quote. He goes on to
say that he just wants to enjoy wrestling without being
told what the thing again or getting dragged into another
argument and what I'm supposed to vote for. I want
to watch them to b for escaping for the world's problems,
not to think about them. So the fact that WrestleMania
is going to be in Saudi Arabia, not only ridiculously
enormous fees for w are going to be given to
(12:53):
them as a result, but that year's FORCEMANI will be
one hundred percent politics free. Now, he does have his
points about what the Saudi government has done. There's all
the political stuff in terms of how they are and
how they treat other Western democracies. But that's besides the
point that for the fact that gets a lot of
money for these shows, typically fifty million dollars per show,
(13:16):
and who knows how massive the wrestling your payment will
be for this one, but the chairman Turkey, I'll shake
ensure it's top to your production. Even though the women's
division is carefully managed and a dressed a scuba gear.
Those are just cultural differences. If you don't support that,
you're the ones who's a hypocritical biggot for wanting woman
to be allowed to perform and express themselves more freely.
(13:37):
But if you think about a hard and actually do
mental gymnastics abovement about it, excuse me. It's empired that
women are even allowed to stand of the ring inside
the ribbon now now trivial. H also said on Matt
pat McAfee's show this past week that you just can't
ignore people who just don't do things right. So they're
thinking of trying to be a world changer as being
a part of this incorporating Western culture into this particular community. Yes, fine, okay,
(14:02):
but right now. Brandon Thurst also makes a point about
that the king of Saudi Arabia has been deeply involved
in a variety of aspects of sports. What are we
supposed to do boycott form of the one practically all soccer,
stop tweeting? What about all those businesses with Saudi restiments?
Are supposed to say no, say not to all that money,
just give it all back. In fact, because the monarchy
(14:22):
is far reaching influence of business and cultures everywhere. That
should assure us, not concern us ubiquity and ubiquity and
persistence of autocratic regenies furthermore, should exhaust us, make us
critics give up, put it politics aside, and stop questioning it.
It doesn't matter to me at all by the fact
they go to Saudi Arabia. I just think the outrage
is because of the fact that for w you know,
(14:47):
they can't make the kind of money they can here
in America or in North America for that matter, with
what they're doing, and when the Saudis are going to
come in and put some real money in. Yeah, they're
just selling out, no surprise, but Vince started it. TKO
now is just going to take advantage of it. They're
gonna take as much money for those guys as they want.
(15:10):
I I care less, it's what they're gonna do. Mark
Shapiro also talking about in a conference last March that
we like what we're seeing and hearing in terms of
the leadership there. They're seeing the right things. They're putting
in their money where the rat mouth is. We like
a direction that they're going in, and if we didn't,
we wouldn't be there. There's a longer part of the story,
(15:31):
but it's an interesting read nevertheless, so take a go
ahead look at it for yourselves. So there's now there's
some comments out there on x SID. I also looked
at when it came out about this particular deal. One
there was somebody that had a live channel on YouTube
and they show everybody's saying you sold out among the
juitial delusional fandom. Doesn't you understand business? That's what they're
(15:52):
gonna do. So no surprise here. The deal for us
of any of that they say in Sadi Riba is
worth well over one Hunter Main, a Saudi Arabian source, says,
I can't share with the enact number, but w asked
for a higher number that one hundred million dollars as
the show will feature the rock of the agreement that's
reached and will be a packed megastar's show as the
General Entertainment Authority requested is according to Wrestling Observer newsletter,
(16:17):
and Brandon Thurston also would make a point. I guess
I don't know if this is before or after the
op ed, but he says, if this is everyone that
truly changed, we have to educate the populace on the
importance the shareholder value and government rebanding strategy. Well, I'm
be trying to do that for years. Here, this is
an audience, or this is a crowd, well the lowest
common denominator. They don't want to hear that. They don't
(16:39):
want to hear and understand why business is making them
change what they love. You're not going to change that
at all. It's not going to be done. It's not
gonna happen. Not possible. Original WrestleMania was supposed to be
put in Saudi Ribia, possibly for twenty twenty eight, but
the Command they wanted to make us for twenty twenty seven,
(17:00):
and the General Entertainment Authority and Turkey out Shake is
the guy that's running the show, and if he wants
to have in twenty twenty seven, they're gonna clap and
say go. And you know, w's gonna say how high?
How many people do you want?
Speaker 1 (17:13):
That said? All?
Speaker 2 (17:13):
They're gonna do it. Triple H talk with Nightcap and
he makes a point and says that we is not
the sport or a movie about the sport. Okay, he says,
I say this a lot of times when people don't understand,
Like if we're talking to the nightworkative is they're trying
to figure out what we are. I say, we are
less boxing, more Rocky. We're not the sport. We're a
(17:35):
movie about the sport. Rocky is really a love story.
It just happens to be a have boxing as a
background and the metaphor for all the things he has
to overcome and do. Our business, when you talk about
the emotion, you talk about the storytelling, you talk about
all those things. That's what it really resonates. That's why
our business is ever green. It's the story is suspected.
It's all those things. That's what we're different. We're expectable
in storytelling. Well, you know when Vince Russo has talked
(17:56):
about the fact that when you watch shows from now,
it's like, yeah, you might be watching Rocky, you're watching
the last ten minutes of Rocky, the actual final match,
because there's nothing about the actual build of the storyline
that you really get in what you get now of
any of these feuds going on on the main roster.
(18:17):
There's just not And there's also an issue about certain
talent not being on the roster now in any prominent roles.
When you see Russo come back and he just gets
thrown into the background. It's just noise. Alstra Black comes back,
he comes back as noise, Andrede came back with just noise.
Same thing with you know, you bring in jacobou too
(18:39):
and they had such a push with him and the
MFT and nothing with them right now there are not
even in the picture. I don't even know if Jacob
Futhu has heard or what or anything from him. Interesting.
Also interesting to see Live Morgan in Saudi as part
of the Saudi Riven announcement. But yet she's not back yet,
(18:59):
but most likely Hole She's probably coming back, we guess
right for the most part. Feifel select also reporting that
the majority of the town in w are not bonus
for working saud Arabia shows, is simply worked at their
deals as part of their contracts now interesting. Also from Nightcap,
Triba h talked about the process of building a bigger
(19:21):
and better performance center. Really quote, We've tried to make
the pathway, were heavily in colleges. We have an mil program,
and he explains it the NFL is such a small
percentage of folks that get in there you can be
the best of the best, but then there's this moment
(19:42):
in time when you have the slightest difference and you're
not going to make it. And this is a career
choice for them. When they come to Orlando, Florida, they
see your facilities, they think, wow, this is like being
in a D one college. I have that level of professionalism.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Let me go.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
It's a shot and it's performance, so it's athletic performance.
So if they can make it work for them, then
the sky is the limit just to get any other sport.
It's in Orlando. We're in the processes of building another
one now in Orlando. It'll be even bigger and better.
Our main offices are in connecut In, LA. But the
Orlando's developmental I don't even know why they would go
(20:12):
and put that out there in the first place, But
all right fine. Eric Bischoff commenting now about the pricing
issue when it comes to w right on his recent
episode of eighty three Weeks that dropped on Saturday, he
took aim of the reasonship to ticket pricing following the
comments made by Mark Shapiro at the Goldman Sacks Community
(20:34):
COPE Conference and Eric Bischoff says, to get backfire in
a massive way. And of course I'm gonna say I'm
gonna try to do the Eric Bischoff voicer. Of course,
in the short term, you're going to make more money
as long as the market will bear it. You can
keep raising prices until you finally find the point where
you're gonna go you've gone too far. And then he
(20:55):
goes on to say that one of the reasons that
professional wrestling is we know it in the United States,
he's been as successful as it has since the beginning
of television time. It's because of it's family entertainments, a
generational experience. And then he goes on to say that
parents could take their kids and their kids' friends. You
could go to an event like w or AW or
t and A and afford to bring them. Those kids
(21:16):
grow up and they'll bring their kids one day. If
you break that generational cycle, you break the foundation of
your audience. Short term, he says, you'll make more money.
Long term, you'll risk losing the next generation of fans. Now,
Eric Mischeff is absolutely right, But let's talk about the
(21:38):
real story. Tako doesn't care. I mean, if they need
to go ahead and do something where they go ahead
and have to you know, unload this company somewhere else.
At the moment, they're gonna just use this for what
they can. They're gonna squeeze every dollar out. But this
(21:58):
is a very sensitive fandom right now that doesn't understand
what they were getting themselves into. And the truth why
is because you know, when the deal is still getting
finalized in twenty four and the sale of TKO had
to go ahead and get finished up. Once that, you know,
TKO didn't really get hands on into what's going on
here until the next Flix deal was finalized. Okay, Yeah,
(22:22):
So USA took over and puts back down on their
channel overaw raw goes of Netflix, CW picks up n XT,
and once those broadcast deals were finalized and everything started
operating on full cylinders in January, that's when you saw
everything change because once the deals and the reorganization of
(22:46):
broadcast deals was complete. Of course we didn't talk about
the change of what they're doing right now from ESPN.
That wasn't part of the mix. But eventually the ESPN
deal was gonna have to come into play because Peacock
wasn't going to go hold on to their setup right
now with w in the current setup, and I think
the library is going to stay there, and the pay
(23:08):
per view set up, I don't know if it was
going to stay there either, But ESPN had this new opportunity,
and of course TKO is so embedded right now to
ESPN and able to get into anything in terms of
what their company is doing because they're inroads that now
TKO in this Netflix era Triple H is just required
(23:32):
to go ahead and just get the content made however possible.
And the fact that he went to kill Tony and
took some time off and you know, didn't worry about
begin to show for once. He's not in charge. You
might be in charge technically, but it's all by committee. Now.
(23:58):
You have a lot of wrestling out that's there running
the show, and some of us seems some success in
your time, but some of them have also on their own,
have not done that well. They've had spurts of maybe
some good ideas here and there, but overall it's not
a consistent a lot of success. And the thing is
right now is that none of those people in creative
(24:22):
are only going to put any kind of idea together
that's going to risk them losing their spot. What you
don't understand too, is that if you're trying to do
something creative and a corporate fit outfit like this, you
don't take risks on something creative because in corporate outfits
(24:47):
like TKO, where W is down under the space more
than ever is that you were expendable. And TRIPLEA should
also know for himself, I don't know how much of
a relationship yes, when they but or with area manual
market up here on the rest of the team there
that's there where he is. I don't even know if
Stephane McMahon has that much pull there anymore. But it
(25:13):
doesn't matter Triple H supposedly being the face of this company,
I don't think it makes much of a difference because
what could very well happen is down the line. Once
these broadcast deals have gone through fruition in five years,
four years to know whatever it is the broadcast is
on to come back up negotiations come through. If Netflix
(25:36):
decides not to renew, if USA looks to go ahead
and ask for a cut, or NBCUniversal in dits for
a cut, if ESPN is a bit weary, if those
relationships are strained because of the content. I mean, it's
very easy for TCO down the line to use Triple
H does McMahon as some of those other people as scapegoats.
(25:58):
But you just say, well, you know, we we trusted
these people because they were here as part of the
regime before and the success they had some success prior to.
But you know, if they're not able to go ahead
and keep up well the expectations that we are holding
for our shareholders when it comes to yield, when it
(26:19):
comes to profit, when it comes to the bottom line,
then they can say, well, trible h step a Man,
Bruce Pritchard, all you, Paul Hayman, all you, Yeah, five
years will be extinct. They'll just let you go. It's
why didn't like being in corporate anyway. It's ruthless. And
(26:41):
if you're middle management, you're afraid of always looking behind
your shoulder because what could happen You just don't know.
That's where we are at right now. Very bitchoff makes
a point. Now, one last story I'll bring up here
before we wrap things up is Dradde. A lot of
things being brought up on him as to what happened
to them. Oh well, take a few more comments here
(27:03):
on the card so far. Make this point real quick.
Is the fact that with WrestleMania, Saudi Rubia is reportedly
pushing for certain matches to host at WrestleMania. De emails
who reports this trying to tempt stars at a retirement Quote,
they're paying the money for it. They have the matches
they want, and they're working really really hard to get them.
(27:23):
So a lot of stars that have been in retirement
are going to get flashed a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
I don't know if they're going to be able to
get them, but they're going to spend a lot of
money to get what they want. Yes, we're talking about
anyone coming out of retirement that wants to come out
of retirement a big name value will be able to
get a lot of money on the show. So Rock
Stone Cold, Yeah, and I presume all those people will
be contented and the ones who would want to do
it will be able to. The ones who have any
interest in a great payday, they'll be able to get
(27:51):
on that show. Now, as for what's going on next week,
Russell producer all out again. We'll be talking about that
on Wednesday. We'll cover what they're gonna do with those
two shows, and you know, the culmination of what has
been a bullying tactic overall by w to go ahead
and go after AW with their show, only to go
(28:15):
have a twitch around because Recipoluca now is standing alone
at night up against college football next week because AW
all Out went to three o'clock in the afternoon. So
let's look at what they have to currently on the
schedule coming up now, because we now we have a
little bit of finalization of what games will be going
(28:37):
on during all out in Toronto at the same time
Oregon Oregon State will be going on three o'clock, Michigan
State and Nebraska. Those are the two top twenty five
games you have, no nerdme versus Purdue, those are the
top games you'll have. In Aubert, Oklahoma will be at
three thirty. Nothing that's going to really be taken out
of that. Now you have three top twenty five games,
(29:01):
some big ones coming up on prime time up against
Russell bal Loza as I had predicted, Number eleven in
South Carolina versus number twenty five Missouri, a big SEC
battle that's gonna be seven o'clock. You a Foorida, the
Gators up against Miami. That's always just the rivalry matchup
that we'll be looked at and we'll get a lot
(29:22):
of eyeballs on it. And Illinois Indiana, which, as I said,
Indiana number twenty two, Illino number nine, a big college
football rivalry. Seven thirty kickoff for that game, so it'll
be on all through Russell Baloosa And by the way,
restlal Losa has not sold out tickets yet at last check,
(29:44):
they have not sold out the show. The Indiana show.
That Indiana Illinois game has been sold out for months,
and that game is about an hour down the street
from Bloomington. In Bloomington from Indianapolis an hour southeast, and
just in the state of Indiana alone, there will be
a lot of people watching that game over Wrestle Looser.
(30:09):
So is it the smart thing that we decided to
do was to get into the games on Saturday and
put themselves into I mean hard enough for them tore
gonna do shows right now up against college foopar NFL anyways,
but they're doing it now because they're just gonna do it. Nevertheless,
(30:31):
here we are. Did they have to book this show,
by the way, and the ticket's also very high compared
to what people for going to that college football game
are probably paying. I haven't took I haven't seen the
last check on the tickets right now, but it's still
a lot. And what are you getting there for that
(30:51):
particular pay per view coming up on Saturday? John seen
at brock Leicester, which the setup for that has not
great for brock Lisner. He ripped his pants the last
time he was out there. On Friday, Ice back down,
Cody Rose, Drew mcuitarre, a quick little setup for that.
All of a sudden, Cody Rose, we just learned what's
coming back and they're just put together match with Drew mcutarre.
(31:14):
Why not you s guy? Sign of a care for
the women's world title. You have USO's versus bron Breaker,
Brons and Reid, USO's back together and then the mixed
tag team with Ron's and Lynch versus A J Lee
and Sam Punk, which is the setup for that and
the first time they're gonna be on pay per view
on ESPN. But of those games right there I just
(31:36):
talked about, I gotta think about which I mean, are
they gonna be?
Speaker 1 (31:41):
So?
Speaker 2 (31:43):
The Miami Fordy game will be on ABC. The Illin
Indiana game will be on NBC Big Ten Action. The
South Carolina Missouri game will be on ESPN on their
own champ the main ESPN Now interesting comment here on
(32:05):
exit I want to go to read for somebody. I
will not put out the names out there, but he
says that the Triple AH pacing a slow rolling crumbs
for a guy every few weeks and if they're lucky
to make tangible career advancement after a year, is just
ways too slow and it's not going to work for
a lot of people, especially when they see the same
people waltzing all the sting up pay per views every month.
There has been a lot of talk about on Draday
(32:26):
and how he was handling right now things coming out
of AW going back to W and now currently said
he was escort of a escort out of a W
taping before exit. There has been talking about him having
at least one wellness policy violation during the latest run,
suspended without pay as a result, and escort out of
the building during the show last month, in which was
(32:46):
in relation to his most recent suspension, according to John
Albert at Sports Illustrated. Another report out there they're saying
is that their speculation everywhere from Dave Milser, he says,
and other than the whole story, he says, but I
do know it was a disciplined thing. It was not
his own doing at all, not as his doing it all.
It was like, oh, he's just not being used. Well,
so he's unhappy. I mean, yeah, I'm positive he's unhappy.
(33:09):
But it wasn't him asking out. He was not fired
until today. But a couple of weeks ago there was
a disciplinary thing. Ah knows. It was at a TV shoot.
He was told to go home. And he's not been
used since. We don't know much more than that right now. Anyway,
Now one interesting, I got a thing I make of
so all a Night comes in here. He has not
been a world title holder yet. Even Kevin Nash is saying,
(33:31):
why don't you put the belt on him? Well, you remember,
was it last week I talked about Drake being on
the Bobby All Talk podcast and refrared to Ree Ripley
being his muse. Well, how about this, Let's talk about
Dallas Cowboys and Brian Schotenheimer getting his first win as
(33:53):
a head coach at the Cowboys and it went over
the Giants, and he decides to go all l A.
Knight celebrating after the win.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
Touchdown Jam touchdown, mill Stairs on touchdown picking dag got touchdown,
fifty one yard field goals, forty four yard field goal,
sixty four yard fiel.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Wait ain't over time with the walk off. I mean
you didn't hear the cadence, but still that's basically them
doing L. A. Knight and Ellie Knight start a champion.
He's just kind of a throwaway on the sorting the setup.
(34:40):
GBL was some good comments on his on some of
the wrestle and I thought what he said out here
is very interesting when it comes to the competition part
of w and AW and how it relates to how
what WCW was. So I want to close out with
his comments real quick. This is from Wressell talk. They
picked us out so well.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
I think it makes it better. I think makes it
a lot better. The times that visited things that were
crazy was when.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
He was bored.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
He came up with Icopro when WCW had no ratings.
Of course, then he had unfortunately the government trial against
him at the same time, which took his time away.
They came with the XFL wh WW was no longer
go around later. When you have no competition, creative guys
need to fill a void somewhere, and there's a reason
no reason to fill it with wrestling because you don't
have competition. That's my opinion. I would imagine when you
(35:28):
don't have competition, it's hard to put your feet to
the fire. I know events when things went bad, I
would see him. It was almost like fantastic, I get
to go to work. He gets to pull to the
company out of his tailspin or get to do something
out of a fire. He loved that, and I think
all creative guys do and we don't have somebody to beat.
I think it hurts the business. It's like, it's really
good for w I think there show is absolutely on fire,
and all the stuff that they're doing is response to
(35:50):
I don't think AW is big competition. You could argue
how big they are is competition. I don't think it's much,
but they do respond. I think it has a huge
positive effect on the business. And then you have the
companies that are trying to be a part of this.
I think it's huge to have two companies when you
have WCW around, absolutely huge. You wanted to beat them.
You wanted to see what they had on the on
(36:11):
their show. You wanted to go up against it. You
wanted to be that guy to bat. And when there's
no competition, when you happen, if you should, what happens
if you shop the bed, it doesn't really matter. I
understand you're products a performer. I get all that stuff,
but there's no consequence for like, Okay, it wasn't good
that that week, I'll try to get next week. It's
not good if you're not good. When you have competition,
you're going to go up against something that competition has.
(36:32):
And you lose, you've either gotten rid of or you're
way put down the roster. You won't be in that
spot against. So you love the competition. And I think
the WWE has not been creative, and they try to
find their own competition within themselves. That's what they did
with ECW, and that's when they did the w A
and all the kinds of stuff hasn't worked really wrong,
that's true. They don't want to look at AW, they
(36:55):
want to ignore them, they want to bully them. But
a competition that AW brings doesn't warn w to b creative.
I think j Bo's got a pretty good point right there.
I agree with that. Now I asked for ab all out.
They already have a matches confirmed so far. Hangman out
(37:18):
of Patriots is Kyle Fletcher for the world title. Support
sheet Wardlow was going to be in that bottle. Looks
like that's what they were planning to, but then you
got hurt again. You got Tony Storm in a four
waight with Jimmy Hayter, christat Leander and Thickla for the
Women's world title, Mercedes Been Neigh versus Riejo for the
TBS title, John Mox versus r Vy Allen FTR versus
(37:40):
Christian Cope Herdson and Get versus Ricochet and the Gates
of the Gates of Agony, MJF Mark Brisco Ocata and
Oku versus Takesha and Anthony Bones versus Morts and the
Rada in a three way man that's all scheduled to
(38:01):
come up next Saturday. I mean, still, it's gonna be
tough for both of these wrestling companies going to go
up against college football, and now I mean even for myself.
They're trying to go and cover these shows while going
I mean, the one thing I have for me is
that FAU is not playing next week. They got a
bye week, so I had that there go and work
off of among everything else. But like, still to do
(38:24):
this in college football is crazy. Okay, it's a lot
to ask for for me to have to go and watch. Well,
I got college football to watch too. You're gonna get
and keep myself consuming with wrestling for the entire Saturday
way too much. I'd prefer these two shows were on
separate but anyway, we're not gonna get that. We'll cover
(38:46):
it all here on Wednesday on the next Wrestling of
your podcast, because wrestling needs us
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com