Triple H War Games Booking Boast or Russo Reality Check

Triple H is trying to sell us a bill of goods. In recent interviews, he’s boasting about a "deep field" and a "wide open" future, conveniently glazing over the fact that WWE’s main event scene is essentially a retirement community. 

He points to the "thickness" of the roster underneath, citing names like Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed, yet the marquee remains choked by part-timers and veterans pushing 40 or 50—Lesnar, Punk, Reigns, and Cody. If the future is so bright, why is the present so reliant on the past?

The ugly truth is that WWE is currently suffering from the exact same "creative staleness" that fans used to skewer Vince McMahon for. The alarming rise in "no-decision" finishes isn't storytelling; it's procrastination. It is the hallmark of a booker afraid to make a choice.

But the most damning indictment comes from an unlikely source: Vince Russo. While wrestling purists hate to admit it, Russo nailed the current problem with both Triple H and Tony Khan. They are booking wrestling shows for themselves and the internet bubble, offering "90% wrestling" and turning the product into a niche echo chamber. 

They’ve forgotten the casual millions who don't care about "work rate" or "star ratings" but crave the variety, soap opera, and larger-than-life chaos of the Attitude Era.

Paul Heyman can hype WarGames as the "greatest of all time," but if it’s just another collection of "good matches" with no real narrative stakes or variety, it’s meaningless. 

Triple H has turned WWE into a polished, high-budget indie show. He’s satisfying the hardcores, but by ignoring the need for "a little bit of everything," he is capping the company's cultural relevance. The "depth" is there, Hunter, but your courage to use it—and entertain the masses rather than just the marks—is missing.


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Episode Transcript

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):
When the best wrestling show I've seen all month hasn't
even come from the Big two.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
Whoa, hey, this is the name.

Speaker 4 (00:15):
Your b requip and believe it or not, whether you
like it or not, I can learn to love it
because you have to listen to rough it and really
it is the best day going two days well.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
A worldwide leader of podcast and excellence, the King of
Podcasts Radio Network probably presents the rest of Dames real
podcast because of wrestling name zos.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Welcome to episode nine hundred and seventy four of the
Rest Ofers or Podcasts. I am King of Podcasts. I
welcome to the program. So at some point we're going
to reach one thousand, prior before the end of the
first month of January. We'll probably get to one thousand,
I'm guessing, or somewhere in February. But once we get
to that moment, we will go ahead and celebrate and

(01:05):
thank you as always for learned from this shows always do.
Of course, you can always find it first and foremost
at Kingopodcasts dot com, which I finally in my inevitable wisdom.
I realize the site doesn't look right yet. I did
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(01:25):
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(01:49):
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to comment on the program on any of my episodes.
Feel free to do that there because I do take
comments here all the time, just like I'm gonna do

(02:10):
right now. Because there were some comments that came out
in the last week or so. Since I did last
week's episode, there's been a couple of things. I haven't
really brought that back up, but let me just go
into this a little bit here and make some points.
So last week the Black Bolt fifty five to fourteen

(02:33):
wrote to me and talked about the my one night
booking for Divided Delusional Fanatics last week's episode, and he said,
I don't believe Mercedes Renee is winning. I think her
winning all those titles, but the one that really matters
her keeps this giving her is the story. She will
have to lose all those belts before she wins the
big one. You know, this was before Full Gear. If

(02:57):
you want to catch the Full Gear recap, I did
do one here on the website. Go ahead and look
for that and you can find out more on that
that came from the TikTok feed on some of the
clips I put out there as well. Just some nerds says,
this band said a whole bunch of nothing when I
was talking about the fact that any of the wrestling

(03:22):
promotions right now when it comes to w or AW
are not investing enough on the TV product. That's what
I said, and so many words didn't agree with me,
but that's what he says. And then Tyree Taylor says,
says some guy on the internet, and then another comment, Well,
there was nobody of comments on the other the other one,
but either which way, I got comments and I people

(03:44):
want to go ahead and you know, bash on me.
That's par for the course. Not surprised right there. A
lot of clips are going to play on the program
tonight that we had to get into because Triple H
spoke out leading up to Survivor series, Paul Hayman spoke
out leading up to the Survivor series. A lot of
that's going on now. There were several comments done because

(04:05):
Complex Magazine did an interview with him and they were
showing off the whole headquarters. But there were a couple
of things that stood out in this whole commentary. So
let's get into that. So I'm gonna take a story
from Sports Illustrated talk about effective how WWE is stacked
with the premier level stars performing at the highest levels,

(04:28):
Roman Rains, Cody Roads, and Punk brock Leicester, but to
a lesser extent, seth Ron, simmys A and Randy Orton,
and most of twenty twenty five has been built around
the retirement of John Cena, which we know Seen won't
be back next year and the future of the company.
All those stars we mentioned right there, all but one

(04:51):
or over forty Rawns is thirty nine years old. But
that's the stars they have right now. All forty year
olds go back the same way it was with WW
it was Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, k Cogan, Diamond, Dallas Page.
I mean that's what we had, like Sluger, Rick Flair,

(05:11):
Roddy Piper, like it was, you know, Brett Hart all
across the boarder. We were going with a lot of
older talent holding up the front. Macho Ban, Bandy Savage
all holding up the front right there, and that was
the top of the card, and it was very hard
for other people to go and get up to that spot.
Triple Age is he concerned about the aging roster. Hardly so.

(05:32):
With Complex, he spoke about the roster and only gave
high praise to the current crop of top stars, but
he also praised the up and coming talent that he does.
The propaganda he's gonna put out here, it's pretty thick.
Triple Age has gotten really good at creating the narrative
he wants to put out there, and he really believes
in it not okay with him, but it's not something

(05:55):
I'm gonna go with. Quote when people talk about the
business now and they talk about where our talent are at, Yeah,
the top players are all in top positions and they're
a bit older. But the thickness and the depth of
what is underneath them is what I'm most excited about.
Because of the field is deep, This pace is going
to be a good shape for a long time. But
we can, of course say that you have the talent

(06:19):
at the top, but we all know that the same
thing happens with that would be in the regular basis
the same people on the top that have been up
there for ten years or more. When you're looking back
at who in that list he talked about, Rumman Rings
has been up there since twenty fourteen, twenty thirteen, maybe

(06:41):
even more than that. Cody Roads we've seen on television
to two thousand and seven, See a punk we've seen
since what two thousand and nine, I think it was,
See the ECW days I brought liss Is two thousand
and two. And then we go to Seth Browns again.
So many has been around since the first full sale

(07:02):
edition of NXT that still counts but also part of
the Shield same a zen ten years on that main roster,
and Randy Orton also another two thousand and two. And
you're talking about guys that all came in through Forda
Championship Wrestling or Ohio Valley Wrestling. Let's make that the

(07:25):
only exceptions would be seth Rowns came from Ring of Honor,
Simms Simmysz would come from Ring of Honor. If we
could put Kevin Owens on that list, but of course
we don't know if he's ever gonna be able to
come back healthy til you ever compete again. But there
you go and Survivor series. You see the names you
have up front. Usso's Cody Roads, see him, Punk Roman

(07:47):
Reigns on one side. The other side brought Lester, Drew McIntyre,
Brosson Reed, broad Breaker logan, Paul, I mean, that's it's there,
and we got all the names, and that's the ten
names that they feel like are deemed worthy to be
on that little spots in war Games coming up this Saturday. Now,

(08:09):
he mentions the upcoming Men's War Games match.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
Quote.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
The thing about war Games this year is that the
field is wide open between a Bronck Lezard between Roman
Punk Cody to so many others, and that's not even
kind of the new generations of the bron Breakers, the
Bronson Reids and the other guys that are up and coming.
There's been a lot of stories coming out here that
have been critical about Triple has been doing right now
with the product from Bleacher Report, and they go on
to talk about the fact that between subpar booking and

(08:34):
untimely injuries the antagonists have led to dwiddling fan interest
in the main events seen on Back Down and Raw.
Drew mcintar can't seem when it matters. Most said, Seth's
wrong on the Sidelined and definitely, I mean his biggest
push ever. Breaker Broston reed cannescend me on a certain
level until nobody wants to pull the trigger on them,

(08:57):
and there's creative stillness on both brands. Being the biggest
heel for the company. The final few months are traditionally
a low period for restling, but basic storytelling and repetitive
matches haveing a recurring issue for the company throughout the year,
and whether something might have caught fire, they almost immediately
extinguished it due to a failure to follow up accordingly,

(09:19):
they bring up Archus's departure and couldn't a company wouldn't
capitalize on that. John Cena's healed turn another reason. But nevertheless,
Survival Series is fine. Tickets are selling, no problem. It
goes to the rest of the things right now, the
creative stealing this seeing punk me world every way. Champion
does have potential, but there's nothing new about him being

(09:40):
involved with a vision and the bloodline judgment. David stuck
in Murder mid Car purgatory for many months waiting for
Me to live, Morgular return from injury to move their
story forward. El Grand and Americano spinning his wheels. Becky
Lynch's rivalry with Maxine the pre is progressing in a
snales pace. Cody Rose has decided decisively defeated You Back
Guitar on two separate occasions to retain the undisputed championship,

(10:03):
but all signs point to them facing off for a
third time Survivor Series. Then you have Dmian Priests, Alistair
Blackett Oz. After five months, the Women's US title has
been horribly handled, The tag team tititle scene has cooled off.
The MFTs are dead end group. Let's not even mention
why it's six only the same you've seen it, Eliot

(10:25):
Dragon All. So many challenges with the US title have
indiculately sort of lights in the Blue brand in the
last few months, and ticket sales for spack down shows
have been struggling sluggish returning to the same cities there
were where in months ago, with less fans in the buildings.
It's a cost for concern. TKO and the other powers
of be in the company are gradually come to the
realization that not everything they touched turns the gold. So

(10:48):
in the story they also closed out and say that
Trible is created plenty of good rugle of fans when
he took over from Vince McMann and December twenty two,
TKO has entered a picture given the company more of
a corporate field of bending the moves that have been
made both in front and behind the cameras and can
it remains more capable capable of than ext you to
me a satisfying fans with strong shows when it wants

(11:08):
to under this booking hierarchy that we have of Triple
H at the top. It's not gonna change and I'm
gonna continue to be on this show continuously saying if
you want to see changes at all, it's gonna be
what Triple H goes. It's not going to get any
better under Triple H. Let's just make that clear.

Speaker 4 (11:31):
He is.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
A coach with a lot of talent on a team.
It's like a football coach or NFL coach that will
never make the super Bowl because he's never gonna be
able to go and do anything to really take that
roster to the level to make it mainstream. Once again,
he's not gonna able to do it, and let's just
be clear about that. Let's just make we can't beat

(11:57):
around the bush anymore. And until the point I will
get to you to good Harper around this point, and
I will continue to say this. We'll repeat it like
a broken record because it needs to be said. And
there's a lot of reasons why. And this problem is
not isolated to w I said it last week. The
aw's in the same place. Just because I'm not putting

(12:19):
Tony Khn's face on the front of the graphics and
putting him in the headline doesn't mean he's not without criticism.
It's very clear on both sides. Russell Nomics put out
a new report because everybody's talking about the fact how
many Raw and Speckdown matches ended with another DQ or
no concepts because of a running account out and it

(12:40):
shows how much W into an extent AW is relying
on match non finished match results. Using data source by
Cage Match, they noticed that that this outcome became non
existent when Triple H took over. And I say that
way for a while, but then last year non it
just started coming back again. And I've really taken off

(13:02):
in twenty twenty five, the raw week after week of
Judgment Day and now the vision interfering to match SmackDown
going from the bloodline to the M and f's MFTs
rowing everything. But how bad is it? Wrestnomics says that
going into twenty twenty two, twelve point five percent of
Raw Spackdown matches ended with DQ count or no contest,

(13:23):
and when Trivile H took over, pretty much took that
down in half. But then the last year you're seeing
raw nonm finished this back up to ten percent and
twelve percent on spack Down, and then when you look
at an XT, four percent of matches go for DQ,
no contest or connouts or one percent when it comes

(13:47):
to a ring roster peelise, they just kind of stay
where it is most part. They don't let that happen.
They at least have the right idea to say, okay,
give us a finish at the end of everymatch on
a pay per view. They at least do that. So
that's an interesting stat They brought it out this week.
That was pointed out this week, not about what's been

(14:07):
said out there in the media about this week, because
there's been a lot of commentary out there that have
gone to bash away at what is not going right
so far, but let's give a little bit of glass
half full. So ESPN actually coming about the fact that
they were promoting Sviro Series. You could see it all
across their NBA coverage, across their coveragere across the board

(14:29):
on sports and having folks on First Take and other places.
Brooke Magnus is gonna be the ESPN president, says the
partnership has been great so far and Saviors Series will
be a good measuring stick.

Speaker 1 (14:42):
Quote.

Speaker 2 (14:42):
We are obviously very familiar with Nick Connon, the team
over there. We've had engagement with them for years in
much smaller ways. They're fantastic to work with we're looking
forward to Wrestling of this year, which would be our
first we've had the shows we've already done, and Survivor
Series this weekend will actually be a good measures stick
to see how it's going. But in terms of the
interaction between the team at the V and US, it's

(15:03):
been great. So we're not talking about the content. It's
the relationship that w has Nick con Ori, Emmanuel Mark Shapiro.
Those sucks and I guess Trible's to an extent, So
they're all buddy buddy right now. But we don't know
if that's gonna just stay like that always like at
some point that that relationship is so fresh. We're only

(15:26):
what two and a half months into it, so it's
gonna take I mean, we least two months into it. Now.
You can't really tell anything about the ESPN relationship yet
about where they gonna be at. So let's get into
that part and we'll we'll move on and take some
of the things we're brought up now. There wasn't much
being said about what had happened with Wrestling this month

(15:50):
or wrestling right now in terms of how is performing.
We just seed to leave a lot of things out there,
but we'll go ahead and bring some of this own
here and talk about it. First off, someone on asked
X actually asked them about what was the worst booking
move of twenty twenty five by the W one person
saying gun Thro tapping the j Uso, Jewett la and
eight booking seeing as retirement sure choices, Travis Scott impacking

(16:14):
the main event Mania main Event result, Juso winning the
Roll Rumble, Champion's not Wrestling Weekly on TV, them not
pushing l A. Knight. There was a lot of comments
when people were asking about that. Interesting. ESPN put out
recently their top thirty best pro wrestlers under thirty in
the world today, and of course your top of the

(16:39):
chart here are mostly the w folks. Okay Dominom Mysterio
is number one, Kyle Fletcher from aw Is two, Rarbally three,
MJF four, Tivity Stratton, five, bron Breaker, Blake Monroe, Obifemi
rex A and Perez Leonsilator round out of the top ten.
So MJF at Kyle Fletcher the only two that make

(17:00):
it up to that top spot as in the top thirty.
Said very interesting on that, but of course a skewed list,
so everybody took those bulletin board comments right there from
trivile H about the age of main event talent and
how war Games is being set up, and Trible Ah

(17:23):
can feel good about himself. That's how he wants to
feel about it. He feels like everything's doing really well. Okay,
fine that the company, the business is going to be
in good shape for a long time. So the business
in terms of the financials with the broadcast, those they
have in place, with Tako brokering all these deals for them,
of course, the business is going to be fine, but
the creative is going to suffer as long as drivile

(17:46):
Age is in charge. That says it, and Tony kh
in the same face will also have that same problem.
But for Tony Khan it's just there's no movement up
now who says all this, Well, there's a lot of
things we can talk about. This aw could also go
to theme route because they just crown some old Joe
their world champion once again, and you want to figure

(18:09):
out what are you gonna do with that coming up?
Dave Meltzer says that as a world chament, I think
they should be focusing on young guys now because when
the company has to be in a rebuilding mode because somebody,
their top talent are older. Let's go into that part.
Well's hear what Day says.

Speaker 5 (18:22):
I don't think Joe should have been the guy. I mean,
Joe's been in that spot before and he'll do well
in the spot. It's just that I think that if
you're gonna make your world title, you know, something to
be used for your for your future, you know, put
somebody in there for your future. Whether it's Kyle Fletcher,
you know, who's the obvious choice, you know what I mean.

(18:42):
It's like it's like yeah, you know, like it's like, oh,
well he's young and he can wait. And it's like
I think I've been hearing that about so many people
in wrestling right now. Then it's kind of like just
do it, you know what I mean. It's like, let's
get some young guys. Let's get make some young guys stars,
like real stars. Not given him some wins that are
on the card. And I know they've done a really

(19:03):
good job with Fletcher, don't get me wrong. I mean
he's really improved as a star. But you know, you
make some superstars. You know, Joe was a big star.

Speaker 1 (19:13):
You know.

Speaker 5 (19:13):
I mean, he's a very reliable guy. You can put
him in that spot, he'll do well. But I think
that as a world champion, I think that they should
be focusing on young guys.

Speaker 2 (19:28):
Now, okay, but this is where all some book is
really are kind of likeness in the spot that they
don't want to go for somebody younger or at least
just get somebody the chance to go and try to
sink or swim, because that's the biggest problem we have
for AW and for w They don't want to take chances.
I said this several weeks ago. That also doesn't change either.

(19:51):
It doesn't change what I said either about this because
I really feel that way. So what are we going
to do about that? We're still in the same place
we were before. And it's no surprise at all I've
talked about it. Let me go back a couple weeks ago.
There hasn't been as much damage done by Triple H

(20:12):
or Paul Hayman or Bruce Pittchrian and others to completely
go ahead and say, okay that this is not fixable,
this is not richewal. The stuck can be brought back.
It absolutely can be brought back. I mean we already know. Okay, look,
you get a new coach in there, with a great
trove of talent, you can turn this whole season around

(20:32):
like a football metaphor, like a baseball metaphor, like a
sports metaphor, all the tools needed. You know that cliche.
They have it to go ahead and get themselves right
into the right place. We talked about rebuilding. I said
that two weeks ago. In this program, you build four pillars,
you rebuild the brands. And I don't know if the
creative process in the writer's room is really getting that

(20:55):
much chance to go and do anything like that at all,
But I'd rather give them a chance to go and
you know, not get shot down every time. Let's see
if you come with something better, like you know, let's entice.
Let's try to motivate these people to go and do
something better, because I'm sorry the folks in the writer's
room that are telling the writers that what they're giving

(21:17):
they're going to shoot down. The leadership doesn't know what
they're doing. They're all wrestlers. They book a certain way,
they have their favorites. That's what they're doing right now. Yeah,
And I also say the same about Tony Kahan going
back as well, because we're in that same level of
everything where there's just not an answer, and I feel

(21:42):
like I've been stuck in this rut for several weeks
now having to talk about this, like even go Michael
last week or actually two weeks ago. Over the last
couple of weeks, I've been talking about the fact that
Triple H his days are numbered. I said that last week.
The product that they have out there is not working,
and eventually there's gonna have to be a change. Now

(22:05):
TKO needs to have reasons for that to happen. Don't
forget that out soon enough. But now I believe more
and more every day that when Triple H was given
the chance to go ahead and run creative on his
own after Vince McMahon was let go in twenty twenty two,
he ran with it and was able to go ahead
and work with what he had until there was nothing

(22:27):
else left in the creative been for him anymore, nothing
new to think of, which is basically what all these
former wrestlers and Triple H as the booker are at
right now. There's no creativity at the top, nothing fresh
at the top, and the same thing goes for AW
listen AW is not without their own issues. They're back

(22:47):
to the lull they had before last year. At this time,
Triple H, at the end of the day, should have
only been a transitional figure in the booking committee. That's it.
But somehow Nick con I think has to do with

(23:09):
this where he vows for Triple H and Triple H
was going to be able to take over and do
what Vince McMann could do. But it's very clear that
Triple H is incapable of booking or leading the charge
for the future of this company like Vince McMahon did
when he was at the Helm. And I'm not talking

(23:30):
about the last couple of years. I'm talking about from
the eighties into the Attitude era. Because he did make changes.
You have to give Hi credit. He did make changes
and then made changes a second time when we got
into after the invasions of WCW and ECW and went

(23:51):
to the ruthless Aggression era. He at least made changes,
so I give that credit where credits due. And they
did try other ideas that did not work. The whole
point is that you did see new stars that would
find their way up. The biggest problem we always had
was look at the way they got there, But somehow

(24:12):
they did because the talent still supersedes whatever bad booking.
There is Triple H right now with Paul Haymon and
Bruce Pritchard and everybody else. They are holding back on
purpose talent. They're incapable. I think in AAW is a
bit of a different story because you're gonna see stars
like mjf or Kyle Fletcher that will break through somehow, somebody.

(24:34):
They're gonna still be able to break through the mold,
and when the crowd gets into it, they're gonna realize,
you know what, Kyle Fletcher I think next year will
become a world champion. I do believe that's gonna happen.
I have better odds. I would give better odds to
that happening. Then I expect bron Breaker or Bronsa Reid
or any of the pillars I talked about, Trick Williams,

(24:56):
I want to talk about Jacob Faut two. I don't
expect any of them to become world champion next year.
I don't see it. But if you had to make
me a betting man, I expect AW will actually put
someone younger in that world title spot as a world
champion before the w does, because they're gonna stick to

(25:17):
the stars they have. But if you're not going to
create something new around some of these stars, then what
are we doing? Because that's what has to happen. I mean,
at least, if you're gonna have the older stars here,
let's start making some changes with them, freshening up their
gimmicks a little bit. But they don't want to do gimmicks.

(25:39):
They don't want to make any changes like that at all.
We're moving storylines at a sluggish pace because they don't
know what they're doing. And who's been talking about that?
Who was somebody who listened to on a regular basis
on Monday nights before sports Keiter decide to go ahead
and drop the wrestle beanch stuff. I would listen to
Vince Russo several times a week with doctor Chris Featherstone

(26:01):
or with Mac Davis reviewing Ross Backdown, and I'd watch
Vince Russo doing the podcast in bro or his own
content that would pop up in clips on YouTube. He
was along with Ario Hawani this week, and I've heard
a lot of the same commentary before. But we're gonna
get to this once again. So let's get into that part.

(26:31):
Now here's Triple H with Aero. So this is about
Triple H to Tony Kahan and their booking styles. Vice
Vince Russo now on the Ario Hawane Show. This happened
today as we're recording. Let me go and get to
what Vince Russo was saying to Ariel Hawanne today about
that in the booking styles of AW and W right
now under Tony Conna Triple H.

Speaker 6 (26:52):
By the way, you know it's I enjoy all the
wrestling content, the YouTube channels and all this stuff, and
I do believe if I'm getting this right you Bishop
Jim Cornette, probably not, you know, going on a dinner
date or the best of friends. But you all agree
as far as your criticisms towards Tony Kanane w there
is something to that, right Like it seems like a

(27:12):
lot of the old guard, if you will, And I
say that with the utmost respect. All are preaching for
him to make changes. Do you think he pays attention
to any of you? Do you think he listens to
any of this?

Speaker 3 (27:22):
Arian?

Speaker 7 (27:23):
Let me tell you basically what the problem is, and
this is the problem with wrestling in general. This is
the problem with the WWEE. This is the problem with
ae W. They only want to hear the positive. They
don't want to hear people like Vince Russell and those
other people you mentioned. That's why I'm with JCW because
Violent Jay wanted to know Vince.

Speaker 3 (27:42):
What do we have to do here? Here's the problem.

Speaker 7 (27:46):
TRIPLEH and Tony Kahn are writing a wrestling show that
they like, and by writing a wrestling show that they like,
they have turned the audience into a niche audience. Because
there's only a niche audience that likes ninety percent wrestling.

Speaker 3 (28:08):
It's not about what they like.

Speaker 7 (28:09):
When I write for JCW, I'm not writing a Vince
Russo show. I'm writing a show for the masses. I'm
writing a show for the world. These guys are writing
a show that they like, and at the end of
the day, it doesn't matter what you like.

Speaker 3 (28:25):
It's not about you. We all have different tastes. It's subjective.

Speaker 7 (28:30):
You want to write a show that's gonna get you
as many eyeballs as possible, and what that means, Ariel,
is you need to have a little bit of some
of everything. That's what the attitude Hero was we had
something for everybody.

Speaker 2 (28:46):
We're gonna go more into Vince Russo in a moment,
but I also want to go into the example that
there is wrestling out there that is doing a better
job of redefining, renovating. And it's just like this when
you have companies out there, the smaller companies out there.

(29:09):
They're not the major brands, Okay, they're not aw not
the three okay. And I'm not saying it in a
pretty particular order. I'm just doing about alphabetic order. Now
I've talked about NWA. Okay, they have now taken a shot.
Three Ill Billy Salacepason is now their new World Heavweight Champion,
and to the credit of them, they decide to go

(29:29):
and put the belt on him. Great, and this is
now a star thirty four years old. He's thirty three.
He's gonna be thirty four December twenty fourth. And Salas
Spasin has worked his way up and he's been around
for a long time. We had in twenty fifteen, so
he's been ten years in the business and has gone

(29:49):
through quite a bit to get himself to where he
is now. But at the time he got to the
national heavyweight Championship. Billy Corgan booked them as such, now
what have we champion? NWA seventy seven the biggest show
of the year for them through Billy Slace Spason beating
Tom Latimer because this is months ago, but they're just

(30:12):
starting to bring it up now on TV, you know,
and everything that's going on with that. But I did
get to catch this show until lasterwards. I don't know
if they had it on the paper view or not,
but I couldn't catch it. But they did do the
match and Salas spaceon is now your champion? MLW also

(30:32):
taking their chances and putting somebody else out there to
be their champion and also just taking a shot at somebody,
which is not easy to go and say either. Now,
Mad's cruel Krueger forty years old, but the one thing
about him is that you have him under the mask
and he's a very interesting set up under the country

(30:55):
in it and to create a character he has right now,
which has been around for what a good four years
maybe five. I've seen this character which was just an
enforcer figure where Jacob Hatou and Justice mal were the
leads with the Kira Kwan and all the others. Of

(31:15):
contry unit mass Cruel Krueger being built up over years
becoming the World have Weight champion incredible. And I mean
even though they don't necessarily see mass Cruel Krueger as
World of Weight Champion to be the main event of

(31:37):
the MLW Don Gato partnered event that they had last weekend,
that's okay. But what they've done so far, when you
talk about the booking and what you're able to go
and do, what you can change up and do, one
of the things that's been done so far with MLW
is that they are taking ideas from other things and

(32:00):
just trying to bring together something different, something fascinating. Danny
McBride is the owner of Don Gotto Tequila. They decided
to go with a role of having a luchador dressed
up as the owner Don Gotto himself. So back at
Variety Dot Variety actually reported back this and this is

(32:23):
what August they actually report on this that the brand
that Danny McBride created with this boutique tequila brand, he
is helding using it and McBride would be involved in
the creative elements of the MLW showcase in Charleston, South Carolina,

(32:43):
and it was put out there for folks to watch,
which it was a great event by the way that
it went out there, great crowd and by the way,
I must say, the Don Gotto Tequila event, it was
amazing how to look because if it was also taking
an experiment on presenting the show, because it was done
in a state like it was actually like a concert
hall that they did it at, something that goes back

(33:05):
to what eighteen fifty they had sent on the broadcast.
That's what Joe Dobrowski said. And then he took video wall,
which we've seen in other shows. They usually like in
the backdrop of an entrance, but what you're seeing at
this show was they actually put a big video wall
to cover the back of the stage and they had
it differently visualized for every match they had on the card,

(33:29):
the Opera Cup, they had like a whole opera hall
looking kind of thing to it when some of the
matches they had whatever, and it looked good on television,
actually looked really good. I was very impressed by that.
It's something that I think you could have already done
if you were to try to do it on back
in COVID days, if you were trying to go and
do something that was gonna be a little bit different
because of the fact of you didn't have the crowds

(33:51):
that you could have watching. But it actually works for
what they're doing, and the show they had this past
weekend was really good for what they did. Killer Cross
beating Matt Riddle and one of the first matches, the
first appearances we see on Killer Cross on a TV.

(34:11):
I don't know if it was any other promotions where
he's been at. I haven't followed along, but Killer Cross
wasn't that long ago. In the minds of fans on
either W or aw Right, it was main roster star.
He's in here Matt Riddle. They did a nice little
number leading up to the match to show the animas
between Killer Cross and Matt Riddle. In just five minutes,

(34:31):
they set up the feud, they set up the heat,
Matt Ruddle acting on egotistical because he had already become,
you know, a real asshole heel right now in MLW,
and that's kind of going with this bad boy image
because of what went on, how he left W with
all the issues with so many different things. We know,

(34:54):
all the controversy that left with him. Anyway, Mystico wins
the Opera Cup. Right, Anderson had a pretty good match
with Cruel Krueger. But and also we saw Arn Anderson
out with him and CW. Anderson. So the Anders is
all brought together. We're able to go and do some
damage to Matts Cruel Krueger. But at the end of
the day, Mats cool Krueger one. They didn't go along
on that match, but they put the match in there.

(35:16):
It wasn't a major thing they set up. But in
this they also did a thing where they featured Don
Gotto on the broadcast Tilthy Tom Lawlers taking shots of it,
you know, and their feature you get throughout the night.
But again the Don Gotto character, they have it as
a figurehead along with Caesar Duranz, Salidon to the Rent
and all those as part of this whole thing. And

(35:37):
Don Gotto's this figure that is been repurposed into the
product to sell Tequila Town's pretty good to me and
it works. I don't know how well the show did,
but I think that's creative and that's something where you know,
the opera compans so that they did their own. They're

(35:59):
working on certain matches and certain things we're doing to
build up the stars that they have, and they're more
than happy to go ahead and take on their partnerships
and utilize them without taking away from the feuds they
have that are MLW specific throughout when it comes to
skyscrapers and they're dominance of the taxing division going against

(36:22):
the Good Brothers, right, and then their Kirk Kwan Than
with his issues when it comes to Caesar Durant and
with conturing and all those other things that are going on.
They have things that are happening in there, and I
can appreciate what the Major leagueressling is doing. And I
only get to see them what once a month, and

(36:43):
it's fun and it's enjoyable. I like it. It looks
like they sold out this hall. They're not getting any
bigger venues yet, but you know, give us some time.
And as we said last week, they decided to go
and go into Charleston and become their home right there.
The production has gotten much better in terms of of
all the backstage stuff. All they're doing with their vignettes
looks much better. But it does really look much better.

(37:07):
The live broadcasts. Yeah, they still got to figure that out.
It's not perfect, but it's good enough. For me, I'm
not gonna appreciate that, Sae. It's basically I feel like
Major League Wrestling is the ring of honor that we
had ten years ago with Sinclair Broadcasting had them. These
have a TV home, and you know they're smart enough

(37:27):
to go and put their stuff on YouTube. Easy, go
and watch it looks good. They had a lot of
formidable stars. You had Shatsi Blackheart Andbreca Kelly out there
tearing it up. Scarlet Bordeaux out there working a match.
Haven't the kind of chances going to see her wrestle
in a while. It's all good stuff. So you got

(37:48):
stars you really like over there that are doing really well,
and overall I enjoy it. Oh that's right, Ala Dawn
facing Scarle Bordeaux as Scarlett getting to win. Good stuff
in that pay per view. Go forward on the YouTube.
It was really worth watching. Now back to Vince Russo
and the fact of how Trible h and Tony Kahn

(38:09):
are booking for themselves. They are booking for the most
loyal of fans when they have to go and book
for mainstream and we can see it over and over.
But we were hoping Tony Kahan would be capable of that.
We're starting to realize that's not going to be a
strong suit. That's not for him. And for Trible H.
We absolutely know he's not the one, and Tony Kahn

(38:33):
owns the company, aw so it would be up to
him to remove himself or be convinced to remove himself
from that booking spot. That's probably more possible than Trible H.
Trible H would have to be removed, and it could
very well happen. And if he gets removed from that spot,

(38:57):
the stuff even mainstay around in that spot, because I
think there's a lot where that whole family's there. I
just think there's gonna be some point where anything that's
with McMahon relations is longer going to be a part
of this product. I think Tiko will eventually no longer
have anyone with the relation of his mcmah of any way,

(39:20):
shape or form as part of this programming. I think
he will get let go. And I'm gonna make the
prediction right now that by the end of twenty twenty six,
Triple H will not be chief creative officer. He will
not be booking the show. By the end of twenty
twenty six. We're not gonna see him in charge of booking.
He's not gonna be part of creative. I don't see

(39:42):
it happening. Maybe it won't be exactly the way I'm
saying it, but I don't think the Triple H will
have the kind of authority that he has right now.
He's going to lose that. Who knows if he gets
reassigned or whatever he does, but I think that's what's
gonna happen. Back to Vince Russo on Ariel.

Speaker 7 (39:58):
Hawane doing that. Now, you open up your window. Now,
you allow yourself to let people come in to watch
a wrestling show that would have never watched wrestling before.
Tony Kahan is writing a show that he loves, but
it doesn't matter what he loves.

Speaker 3 (40:16):
What does the world want.

Speaker 7 (40:18):
There are millions of casual wrestling fans out there not
watching wrestling anymore. And again, I'm gonna go back to JCW.
That's why I'm here, because they understood.

Speaker 3 (40:31):
That and violent JKNW.

Speaker 7 (40:34):
We've got to go above and beyond those that watch
wrestling on a weekly basis.

Speaker 3 (40:41):
There's an entire world out there that's not watching anymore.

Speaker 2 (40:46):
With them on W I'm make it the point because
when I look at what has been incorporated right now,
the Looke Underground stuff was something the l Ray Network
and Robert Roriguez, They're going to be brought in because
he was trying to bring in something special, something different.
Rustling Society X was the same idea. It was something

(41:07):
that was an outside concept that could be bringing could
be bringing in a different audience to wrestling because of
the storylines they had and the characters and what the
everything was being built around the Lucha libret type of aspect.
That was part of the thing they'd done. So it
has that flare, It has that flavor, and that's what

(41:29):
made MLW stand out to me because right now they
are the best mantaged, best book promotion there is in
the country. Now. Of course, there's are independence out there
that could probably you could say otherwise, but I'm watching
the ones that can watch on TV, and I can
watch the MLW monthly on TV. They give me a
good TV product and I'm very happy with it. Looking

(41:51):
forward to Battle Riot. Of course as a concept that's
the same as Royal Rumble, totally fine, but I enjoy
it all through it. Now, there is another part that
got a lot of this is in here. Another name
you could put into the mix of who was doing
really well in wrestling, and Vincerus is not the first

(42:13):
Personh're gonna say it is Logan Paul. He's praising Logan
Paul here with Aria Hawani. Here's what he said.

Speaker 6 (42:19):
What do you like about WW right now or pro
Wrestling JCW Sykes. I know you're very excited about that.
But to end on a positive note, if you will, riol, you.

Speaker 3 (42:27):
Keep getting me in trouble.

Speaker 7 (42:29):
So positive nothing, not one thing.

Speaker 3 (42:32):
I'll tell you who I like. I'll tell you who
I like.

Speaker 7 (42:34):
And it's really, seriously, it's embarrassing. It's embarrassing because the
best guy in professional wrestling today is not a wrestler.

Speaker 3 (42:48):
That's embarrassing that Logan Paul.

Speaker 7 (42:51):
Is a star, a star unbelievable. You talk about the
it factor, this guy reeks of it and the fact
of how long he's been doing this and how good
he is. Listen, man, that should challenge every professional wrestler

(43:12):
out there.

Speaker 3 (43:13):
And you know, here's another thing.

Speaker 2 (43:15):
And we'll leave that there. But with Logan Paul, he's
not a pillar that I brought up in the top four.
I'm still saying younger stars. But if you wanted somebody
right now that's going to push the needle, that's actually
going to make an impact right now if he got
the belt is Logan Paul. And I'll tell you this too.

(43:36):
Of course, the juital delusional fandom, they're not in support
of Logan Paul. They don't like the fact he was
the US champion, they don't like the fact that he
was money to make holder. They don't like he's been
given these spots. He's looking at the part time wrestler.
How is he going to come in here and do wrestling?
Got it? But Logan Paul, we need more of that now.

(43:58):
One of the folks I saw that is coming out
and trying to do some more stuff as I show speed.
I saw him working in an NXT setup where he
did a whole thing it looks like at the performance
Center and did a whole event where he did his
first match. Okay, great, So you can do that kind
of stuff and you can bring out a Logan Paul
that has a large following, and they's actually done pretty

(44:22):
good job of holding him in there. So if you
want to do something pretty soon where you want to say,
see MP punk and Logan Paul. They were already kind
of sending that up. You want to put him to
the main event. I don't think it's then necessarily go
after Seampunk. I mean you could do that, but I
actually would like to go to see Logan Paul and
Cody Rhoades, and I'd like to see Logan Paul win.

(44:43):
Logan Paul would absolutely be he would be getting the attention.
I don't care if you're gonna like it or not
like it, but you're gonna pay attention to him. It's
going to shock the world. There will be mainstream fans
out there that'll be like, really this guy. And imagine
if Logan Paul gets in here and does this. Imagine

(45:04):
if you brought in Brother Jake and you're bringing them
to mix. Oh, look here the best of boxing, the
best of wrestling, and do a whole deal with them.
Imagine what you could do Logan Paul. There's a lot
of upside. We've already seen. He can wrestle pretty well,
and he can still work this limited schedule that he
already has. This contract. You got a contract with him,
You got a contract with him. Use them, not every

(45:26):
time you have to go back to Cleveland. But you
know what, let him go and become champion, let him
be on every pay per view. It's fine. I would
actually prefer that over what they're doing right now with
the same four or five six characters they have. Logan
Paul would be a move that I could see Triple
H and Paul Hayman and Bruce Pritchard and all those

(45:47):
folks doing. You could make that move. You could probably
make them buy into that movie, and TKO should actually
be lobbying for that move to happen. Put the belt
on him. You already put a belt on him, he's
already want to candary belt. But make him a champion
in twenty twenty six. I agree with that too. As

(46:07):
Survivor Series, they got him in the match. Can we
do something with him to lead into the feud That
absolutely steers up the pot and says, okay, Logan Paul
is destined to be world champion, and let's just do it.
It's not going to be an issue. If you want
to do it now during WrestleMania season, go for it.
You can bank on Logan Paul. I don't see why

(46:29):
nobody doesn't think that way, But at this point the
company is in such a in such a position that
they can't afford not to do it. I really think that.
Now there's another part when it comes to when it
comes to the WTNA partnership. Vince Russo talked about that

(46:50):
with Ari Hajwani. Here's what he said.

Speaker 6 (46:51):
I do you think ww is doing this having this
business relationship with them?

Speaker 7 (46:56):
Man, Listen, the WWE is global, the bigger, the better,
and I think that's the way they look at it.
You know, there are some people look at it that
they're personally doing this against AEW listen.

Speaker 3 (47:09):
Having work there. I don't believe that.

Speaker 7 (47:12):
I don't believe the WWE is really looking at AEW
as competition. I just believe, man, they are trying to
build a global empire and you know, acquiring you know,
TNA is.

Speaker 3 (47:25):
Just part of that plan.

Speaker 6 (47:26):
So okay, that's interesting. You say that you don't believe
that wwvu's aws competition, yet they do actively counterprogram them,
and so why do you think they do that? I mean,
it's not a coincidence, right that they're popping up on
the same days as their big shows, So why do
you think they do that?

Speaker 7 (47:41):
I think they do that to f with them I
think they do that because they can and there's a
lot of that involved in wrestling. There's a lot of
showmanship involved in wrestling, and listen, man, here's the bottom line.
If they can do that, then Tony Kahn can do
the same exact thing. Stilling games have been going on forever,

(48:03):
you know.

Speaker 2 (48:03):
So I didn't even talk about the fact that at
Triple Ad actually had an event. It was on YouTube
and it was put out there at the same time
as Full Gear, but it did not get any kind
of the press that Full Gear did. But even then,
Full Gear, you know, it lacked what I really wanted
on that pay per view. That's just really clear about that.

(48:25):
But the thing is that at this point we're getting
towards the end of the year, we've already been about
a month removed from Bottle for Glory, and Carlos still
still doesn't have an announcement. I when Teena's gonna have
a new TV deal. The whole talk about AMC TV.
I'm sorry, it's not gonna happen. So where are we
going with this? I don't know. But we haven't seen

(48:46):
anything yet that really stands out about what's going to
be happening. With it anyway, and then Arie Hawane asks
about how Tony Kohm's been doing booking aw and here's
his points too.

Speaker 6 (48:58):
So you know what it's like to write a TV
show on a weekly basis, sometimes multiple right, Tony conright
now has that job. He's the CEO, he's the head booker.
He's all that, plus is in a very important position
for an NFL team, the Jacksonville Jaguars, plus a Premier
League football team Fulham. He's got this analytics business as well,

(49:19):
knowing what it's like to be a head writer. Are
you shocked that he is able to do all of
this at the same time that he's able to have
all these different jobs.

Speaker 7 (49:28):
I'm not shocked, but the question is.

Speaker 3 (49:31):
He doing it well?

Speaker 7 (49:34):
And what I mean by that is, listen, we've had
six years to grow these numbers. Have these numbers grown
in six years? That's what I'm looking at. I'm looking
at the same thing with the wwe have these numbers grown.
I understand social media, I understand hits, I understand you know,

(49:56):
globally and international.

Speaker 3 (49:57):
I understand all that.

Speaker 7 (49:59):
But the bottom line is, has your television product increased
over the last five years? And it hasn't so, And
I've got to tell you this, you know, Ario, Listen,
it's a full time job. There's no question about it.
When I was writing just Raw before SmackDown, it was
twenty four to seven, no question about it. So the

(50:22):
fact of the matter that Tony is doing all these things,
and God bless Tony.

Speaker 3 (50:26):
I mean, seriously, the dude's a workhorse.

Speaker 7 (50:29):
But I'm here to tell you this is a full
time job and you are not going to have, you know,
maximum audience unless you're doing this full time.

Speaker 2 (50:41):
It is now, I get where Vince is coming from
with this, but when it comes to the television product,
the two main promotions are not doing a good job
with television. I'm at the point right now where it's
hard for me to go ahead and really put on
dynamite and say, okay, what am I going to go
and catch the just in full Gear, Sure, they got
a couple of things that can bring off out off
of what happened at Full Gear, but like you know,

(51:02):
they're dealing with other things. They got cut in Classic
and you know, it's thanks every weekend they're kind of
just like going along. They'll have shows for Christmas at
the Hammerstein Ballroom or the Yeah that's Hammersteon, right, and
so you know, everybody's kind of just doing their own thing.
It's a lull right now after a Survivor series. We're

(51:25):
not paying attention to too much of what's going on. Well,
we'll have sometay nice to an event in three weeks,
we can talk about that coming up or less than
actually in two weeks, right, so we can talk about
all about that. What it comes down to is television
is not doing well anyway. But both of these companies
are profiting immensely from the TV deals they have.

Speaker 3 (51:53):
With w E.

Speaker 2 (51:55):
The fact that they could they're not performing, not giving
a new audience, not trying to go and build a
television product that's going to bring in a mass audience.
I'm sorry. Two point eight million viewers on Netflix globally
is embarrassing. You have a lot more fans out there

(52:16):
that you could be drawing in from social media to
watch the content. It could absolutely be done. Watch watch
a Strangers thing comes out right now, season five. It
just came out today as I'm recording. I guarantee you're
gonna hear like the numbers that go across for Stranger
things are gonna go across the board. For weekly content,
it's much different. And for Netflix they don't necessarily have

(52:38):
any programming that is weekly content like that, especially three
or two and a half hours like they do now.
It looks great, absolutely, I mean, the whole presentation is great,
but what they're actually delivering in terms of content, neither
program is really giving us anything right now that's super
compelling bits and pieces, maybe you could say, aw and

(53:01):
for I mean, I don't see it. The creativity is
just not there anymore. It's just match match match, and
whose line is it anyway. I try to go back
and look, I really do, but I don't feel anything's
there that I'm really interested by. But that's the part
of what they have now, the ratings. I mean, the

(53:24):
thing too, is that if you're not making all the
changes you're on to go and do when it comes
to the ratings, you're already at a crossroads because of
the fact that TV linear television continues to fall smaller
and smaller each time. We already saw that the Nielsen
Big thatt of numbers. You got CW complaining about it

(53:44):
on Behalf of W for their NXT show aw Right now,
took a hit as a result, But for the most
part they're in a spot that's you know, not as
big a company and not as big as WREE with
the kind of issues that they have with TKO. Because

(54:07):
here's the thing, Tony Cohn only has to answer to himself.
Trivali has to answer to a lot of people. He
is not in charge, not in control. He's a cock.
He's a mid level manager. And so if anything's gonna
change on that, that's where Tiko wants to go and
do that. For Tony Cohn, Yeah, he's doing all those

(54:29):
other things, but what did he do in the Gun?
Push the needle to create other programming. They've kind of
done what they can with some of the stars. They
have to do something a little bit more, a little
bit more interesting, and they've done that. The Gun help
compliment the other programming they have on the other channels
along the Warner Brothers, Discovery set of networks or whatever
they have. They've done a good job of leverging for

(54:51):
DC Comics, for you know, TCM, or for tb S
or TNT. In terms of the content they have of
their two they've done quite a bit. So they're doing
a lot to go and help and the cross promotional
effort for themselves with their partners. Of course, you could
say the same thing right now with the w B,
but like, really, neither one is really kind of breaking

(55:14):
out and trying to break to a mainstream Moneen is
And the thing is, if you're gonna put this all
out on social media, you're repurposing television that people are
not sitting down the gun and watch regularly. I mean,
look for the fact that Spackdown still pulls about a
million viewers. That's amazing. I'm still surprised by that. But

(55:37):
that's all you got. You have not found a way
to draw the six billion or so social media followers
you have across all platforms for WIT to even go
ahead and come in and watch the television. If you do,
you get what sub three million viewers globally to sit

(55:59):
there and watch the television product. That's it. That's what
we're down to. And with all social media, we used
to have it where we had seven to eight to
ten million viewers on a given night watching. With social
media and the magnazue that has, you're incapable of creating

(56:23):
long form programming and it can be done listen. The
matches can compliment to what they're doing, but there's nothing
compelling or interesting that it's bridging together all these matches
and all these feuds in a way that people care
about the conflict. There's nothing there that people can relate

(56:48):
to or feel like, Oh, so these all these athletes
facing each other and just being mad at each other.
No love triangles, no outside things that people can relate to.
To relate to the wrestlers, they don't want to use gimmicks,

(57:09):
they don't want to use personas, they don't want to
create characters. But those things were done so that you
could bring in an audience outside that could relate to
someone being that we don't like this rich or someone
who's successful, or someone that is you know, picket or
the horror crowd to watch some of the things they

(57:31):
do with some of the wrestlers and the gimmicks that
they make took done all the way, like all the
other different genres. Yeah, the comedy, the whore. It's like
almost like movies. You're creating. Here's a comedy, here's an action,
here's a thriller, here's that, And you're trying to bring

(57:51):
things in that people would watch on television or in
a movie, and you're trying to draw them in to
be a part of it. When you had soap operas,
we had drama, we had thrillers, suspense, humor, and a
lot of different things, and horror, you can do a
lot of that. Soap oppers had all those things. We

(58:13):
don't have that right now, and that's the part that
all these wrestling companies need to gon to have more of,
but they don't. Like I said, when we're getting to MLW,
we got the cartel type stuff right which is very popular.
We like darcos and things like that. You got the
horror stuff with mass Kool Krueger, you got you know, Shatzi,

(58:36):
Black Heart, Rebecca Kelly and the kind of level that
they go over the horror with that, and then all
this international flare with the Japanese talent, with the Mexican talent.
They'll lotaly break kind of feel to it. There's a
lot to be fascinated by, curious of if they can
get the more people to watch on their platform. Hell,

(58:58):
if MLW had a the ability to go and get
on Netflix, I'm sure they would probably get a pretty
good audience off of that. It probably would go viral
with some things, but we don't know. Now, let's get
back to the focus of what's going on with Survivor
series coming up this weekend, and we'll talk with the matches,
do quick preview predictions on that. But here is Paul Hamon,

(59:21):
a true propagandist right now, who at one point with ACW,
when he was his back was against the wall and
he couldn't pay his wrestlers put out quite an amazing
revolutionary product. Well, he's living all those days now some
twenty five years later, and here's kind of stuff he's
saying about Survivor series to go and promote that on
first take on ESPN.

Speaker 6 (59:41):
What will make this War Games different from ones in
years past?

Speaker 8 (59:45):
Well, I mean, first of all, the cast that did
this War Games is just this is the greatest assembly
of talent on either side. I mean just the three
people that you saw inside to ring at the top
of the segment, Roman Ranged the tribal Chief. They see
him Punk the world Champion. There's Cody Road, the undisputed Champion.
These are three of the biggest stars in ww he
plus the greatest tag team of all time, admittedly the USOS.

(01:00:06):
And then on our side. You have my god brock Lessner,
you're a bron Breaker. You have Drew McIntyre, you have
Bronson Reed, you have Logan Paul, and you have Paul
Hayman out there as well. Plus this is not only
something where we understand the tradition of war games and
we have to deliver the greatest war games of all time.
And we're very cognizant of that fact.

Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
Now he blurts out all his names, and I can
think about, all right, what Broncolus you think about? Like
the tear that he was just destroying people left the
right F five Suplex City. Not long ago there was
Suplex City was such a big deal and everybody would
say it and everybody got shirts and a whole deal
with it. Or Brocolas would go out there with like

(01:00:49):
a money to make briefcase and he's holding it like
a stereo, like a like a boon box, all those
kind of things. Where's Brocolas today? He's just out there
because he's been out there before. Roman Rings, the Bloodline
that was drama, that was soap opera, that was suspense
and everything that was emotional and heart wrenching and dramatic

(01:01:13):
in that spot, the sibling rivalry, the brotherly love, all
that was encompassed in the bloodline. That's why we enjoyed
that storyline so much. That's why I brought attention from
other people. Aspecna used to go and get two point
five million viewers at that time on Fox, up to
three million viewers because of that. Where's that all gone?

(01:01:36):
Cody wrote story to go ahead and finish the story
of his father. That was a great story they told,
where does that like? The thing is all these names
you brought together now and then you put in Brons
and Rebron Breaker because they're part of the vision. Okay,
what do we got left? It's flat coming in. Sure,
you got all these stars assembled for this match, but

(01:01:58):
they're all coming in flat, all of them. Now, that's
the biggest brom Now, here's what we got. With Paul
Hayman saying about savera series which also got some interest
in here, you got a lot of people going viral
about it.

Speaker 8 (01:02:11):
We have to top all the previous war games. But
also this is really an infomercial for WrestleMania because, as
you must know by now, there's such a huge publicity
push out there that the individual tickets for WrestleMania Saturday.
WrestleMania Sunday go on sale on Black Friday on this Friday.
So we're out there just showing the world. Hey, check

(01:02:32):
out this spectacle, check out what ww is about. In
our biggest show of the year, WrestleMania. Individual tickets going
on sale. This is our audition for the world to
come to Vegas for WrestleMania at the same time giving
the most bang for the buck in the greatest war
games of all time.

Speaker 2 (01:02:50):
See, the thing is, Paul Haman was great doing his
own stuff when it comes to East w and proventing
that product because it was his. At the end of
the day, he was part of it, and he was
you know, an alternateous ownership to prove himself to do
it for this company right now under TKO, it doesn't
feel sincere, It doesn't feel honest. It does just feels

(01:03:11):
like he's just doing his job. And the guy that
had a passionate spirit some twenty five years ago, Paul
e he's not this guy. He's not He's gotten fat
off the calf and he's here now and he's still
part of this because of his legacy. But he has
not done much lately to contribute to anything that we've

(01:03:35):
seen right now. I think the Bloodline was the last
thing we saw. This vision thing has not worked. It
has been da since day one. I have felt nothing
for this. It just feels like another variation of the
Monday Night Messiah the Seth Brons did several years ago,
prior before COVID the same thing here. It's just no

(01:03:56):
change to it, and it's just Seth Wrongs needs to
have another shield. I don't know, he needs to have
an entrage. Anyways, Ceth Rowl's had some opinions. He was
on Bird Christier show. I'm not going to talk about that.
He's deal with social media whatever. And there was a
part that Dave Meltzer Kim on Wrestling As the River
Radio talk about the Gripters of AW and making the

(01:04:19):
case of why AW is in good shape right now,
even though you could say things about the ratings and
they're not doing well in that respect, but everything else
they are.

Speaker 5 (01:04:28):
It's really funny, you know, kind of like the Grifters.
They're so anti AW. I had to have a budget
and he doesn't have a budget, and it's like, dude,
they used to cut my budget. It's like they cut
your budget because the fricking company was on virtual losing
eighty million dollars in a year, they had to cut
the budget. Like with the cornette talking about, oh, you know,
you guys like Ricochet are stealing money from a rich kid.

Speaker 2 (01:04:51):
And it's like, by the way, he was referring to
Eric Bishop before that, but let's continue.

Speaker 5 (01:04:56):
The rich kid's making money. They you know, it's like,
I mean, imagine like a wrestler from the past of
all things, getting mad. The talent is getting paid because
the company's revenues are high, you know, I mean super
high really other than not compared to w WE, but
compared to everybody else in history. And it's like, you know,

(01:05:17):
you're you're how are you stealing money from a rich
kid from a rich kid when the company is a
profitable company. It's like kind of like, you know, it's
like you can criticize it all you want, but update
your material because the stuff about losing money that not
just certain people, but all these people they come at

(01:05:39):
me and all this how much profit are they making?

Speaker 1 (01:05:41):
It's like a lot.

Speaker 5 (01:05:42):
Okay, do you know what one hundred and eighty five
million dollars list here it's one hundred eighty million. You
know what one hundred eighty million dollars does to a
budget in a wrestling company. That's a lot of money,
you know. So if you want to say that the
ratings are down, they are. You want to say they're
struggling with live attendants, they are. You want to say

(01:06:02):
the pay per views are too long, sometimes they are,
you know some but the pay per views generally very
well received. But if you're going to talk about the
idea of budget and money and losses and all of that,
it's like you need to get some new material because
the stuff doesn't work anymore.

Speaker 2 (01:06:23):
Now when it comes to AW. Remember they now have
their paper view on HBO Max. So whatever advertising revenue
they're making, the audience are bringing in, and the pay
per views, and what HBO Max is able to collect
from those pay per views or subscriptions, they're monetizing the
one hundred and eighty million dollars a year that they're

(01:06:45):
getting off of AW. Again, I asked, what is Netflix
getting for the what, you know, the fifty million dollars
the five hundred million dollars are spending on w Right, Like,
what's the return on investment? For them right now. I

(01:07:06):
don't know if subscriptions have gone up. They're not charging
an extra fee for the pay per views over there
for the international audience, just a subscription fee, and then
for ESPN. Yeah, they're just getting for subscriptions over there.
On that CEAW is still selling pay per views. You

(01:07:30):
got to buy the pay per views outright, like no
matter what. The model for AW is the old school model,
which has worked before. So either which way, if they're
getting one hundred and fifty two hundred thousand buys at
thirty nine ninety nine, forty ninety nine, whatever it is
from Amazon Prime or whatever else, they're making money and

(01:07:52):
their broadcast partners are making money. That's the difference with
them broadcast partners. When it comes to Warner Brothers with
TBS and T and T, with HBO, Max, well it
was on Prime and whoever else, they're making money off
of them because they are selling pay per views. Now.

(01:08:15):
The good thing for AW is they have those people
buying pay per views and still in the process in
the habit of buying pay per views. With W you
only have people that are buying subscriptions, but there's no
extra money that is being made off of this. I
don't know how much money is being made off the

(01:08:36):
advertising for Netflix they have to go and take off
of that, and what do they do well, They've also
butchered the ring that we had to watch on a
regular basis for whichever show by doing that, ESPN, they
have to gun leverage off of advertising, sayingty for Netflix
and for SmackDown, it's just whatever advertising they can make
off of it. But there's no other extra money they're making.

(01:08:57):
All those broadcast partners are spending three times as much
for DE three because of the brand, because of the
content they would deliver that they have delivered over forty years,
fifty years. And what I'm coming from is the content
that we does deliver right now is not as quality

(01:09:21):
as it once was, and they're not returning on investment.

Speaker 1 (01:09:31):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:09:31):
TKO is going to do a good job of showing
these broadcast partners that they're getting a return on investment.
For Tony Kahan, it's very easy. Look at the payview numbers,
look at your and you look at your subscriptions. There's
everything you gotta say. The paperview buys, they can find
out what the show. Oh look, that's what we got
We see the ratings numbers for two of their shows.

(01:09:51):
We know all their numbers. We don't know all the
numbers on Netflix. Those are not gonna be go out there.
And I'm sure we don't know about HBO BAX number.
But we know the pay per view numbers, we know
the buys. We hear that on a regular basis. Tells
you a lot. So financially, both companies are still gonna

(01:10:13):
be a good shape going the next year. That's not
a question. They're both going to other broadcast deals. They're fine,
but the quality is the contents lacking on both sides.
For Tony Kahan, you know, it's the point that he
isn't going to be capable of growing this company to

(01:10:33):
surpass the W. That's not gonna happen. He's always going
to do what he can to stay at number two.
Will TNA down the line become a competitor to AW,
I don't know, but under Anthem Entertainment, I think they
want to go and sell to W anyway, like Vince
Berstell saying, I don't think TNA is going to stay

(01:10:54):
with Anthem for long. I think once they get the
TV deal in then they'll be away for them to
go ahead and parlay that because I don't know if
they're gonna hold onto it, because if the TV deal
doesn't come in, I could see Anthem finding a buyer
for it, and they'll hopefully leverage their partnership they have

(01:11:16):
with the brit to that because of the value they
put already put into it and the time and the
investment they put into that, and sure with rig of honor,
Tony Khan also has put his time towards that to
a certain point. But he's also got a subscription service
solely for people to go and watch that content, So
he's monetizing that. There's money being made in all those

(01:11:38):
areas and merchandise, you know, those other things. And of
course they also make a big deal about merchandise. I
don't know how much they make now because of their
deal with Fanatics. When they took the whole deal of
merch off of their own site and gave the Fanatics
to go ahead and leverage, you took away all that.
I don't know if that was a good idea or not.
I don't know if they've sold more as a result,
more merch I don't know. For Debrie, what's their return

(01:12:03):
on investment for TKO, All those seats are selling, all
these major tickets are selling for WrestleMania, for all the
Big four paper views, and for all the events. For
the most part, it's a lot to ask of. Okay,
I went really long. Let's just give you what savers
rates is going to provide to us this weekend, and
I will be around to go into this. We'll talk

(01:12:25):
about it. I will do a postal on it on
Saturday night. Four matches in the card. That's all we got. Stevey,
a Care, Dickie bella women's world title. If that Care
is gonna win, that's not another question. John Cen versus
Dominic Mysterial for the Intercontinental title. I think Dominant is

(01:12:47):
gonna win. Some screwjob will happen, but I think he's
gonna beat John Cena, and John Cena will drop that
belt and then they'll figure ot whoever the Last Time
is Now tournament winner is gonna be. By the way,
interesting that the Last Time as Now tournament, the finals
and anything like that. That's all being kept on television.
Nothing on the Savar series very telling about important. That

(01:13:09):
is just saying Women's Wargames match is Rio Ripley, Eosky,
Alexei Bliss, Charlie Flair, A g Levers's Last Legend, Nia
Jack's Kabuki Warriors, and Micky Lynch. It'll be the Faces
that will win. That's just make that clear. And on
the men's side, seeing Punk Cody Roads Usso's roomin Raines
and the Vision versus The Vision, bron Breaker, Bronson Reid,

(01:13:30):
look at Paul Drew Macutar brock Lesner. Faces will win
that match too, So I see it. It'll be interesting
to what they do with the Wargames match and who's
gonna get hurt and what kind of extreme stuff they'll do. Otherwise,
nothing much more to go and say about it, But
like I said, I will do a postion on it.
We'll let it happen, see what they're gonna do. I

(01:13:55):
don't have any expectations towards it. We'll just see if
they make anything good out of it. Any good storylines
come from in these matches. But of course, some people
out there in the given delusional fandom, they think, oh,
Survirus series a couple of years ago, they did so
much from it, and it created so many storylines.

Speaker 1 (01:14:11):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:14:12):
I almost see what they were talking about. Anyway, enjoy
survirous seriess we can enjoy thanksgimming and come back from another.
Rest of his real podcast were Wrestling thesa