WWE Desperate One Night Booking for Divided Delusional Fanatics

In a televised attempt to justify its massive Netflix contract and squeeze every last drop of nostalgia out of its most famous living star, WWE rolled into Madison Square Garden for a Monday Night Raw that reeked of desperate "All Hands On Deck" pandering.

The evening began with a bloated, 50-minute tribute to John Cena's "Final Raw," a farewell so comprehensive it felt like an overlong eulogy for a man who will surely be back for WrestleMania. 

After cutting a heartfelt promo about his 23-year career, Cena was interrupted (as is tradition) by "Dirty" Dominik Mysterio. This quickly devolved into an impromptu 6-Man Tag Team Match as Sheamus and WWE Hall of Famer Rey Mysterio ran in for the save—a clear case of WWE stuffing the first hour with recognizable stars to pop the crowd. 

Cena pinned the jobber of the trio, JD McDonagh, to ensure his final televised match was a victory, but the spectacle of three veterans hitting the 5 Knuckle Shuffle simultaneously highlighted the forced nature of the "fan service."

The rest of the show continued the cynical trend of returns and distractions:
 * Nikki Bella (another Hall of Famer) ambushed Women's World Champion Stephanie Vaquer to demand a title match, signaling a classic "part-timer returns for a title shot" angle.
 * Solo Sikoa defeated the returning (and recently-fired) Dolph Ziggler/Nic Nemeth in a surprisingly long match, essentially using a familiar face to give Sikoa a strong, crowd-pleasing win before Ziggler vanished back into the ether.
 * The evening's biggest shock came in the Women's Intercontinental Championship match, where a returning AJ Lee—who hasn't wrestled in nearly a decade—distracted champion Becky Lynch, allowing Maxxine Dupri (an apparent nobody in comparison) to score a fluke pin and win the title. This massive, unexpected surprise felt manufactured purely for a viral clip and to launch a storyline built entirely on old rivalries, all while taking a championship off one of the company's biggest stars.

Filled with celebrity ringside sightings (Lin-Manuel Miranda, Eric Andre) and more last-minute returns than a poorly planned high school reunion, this Raw perfectly encapsulated WWE's current strategy: use every nostalgic weapon in the arsenal to deliver a "Best Possible" show, consequences be damned.



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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Podcasting since two thousand and five. This is the King
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Speaker 2 (00:33):
The King of Podcasts Radio Network probably presents the rest
Dame's Real podcast because of wrestling name zos.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
We have Full Gear coming up this weekend. Next weekend
is Survivor series and then it's Jelly over the Moon
on either one of them coming up. I'm actually more
excited about an event that's coming up tomorrow as I
record this program that happens to be MLW and their
Don Gatto event. Believe it or not, but I want

(01:06):
to bring that up real quick. I'll bring MLW news
up real quick. I think that's to be something we
should talk about real quick that has been reported today.
I'm gonna taking this from Wrestlingnews dot Co. MLW Major
League Resting is officially announced they're moving their league headquarters
from New York to Charleston, South Carolina. At court buyer,
MLWCEO explained it that Charleston's just not hosting Major League

(01:28):
ressling anymore. It's home and the movie will bring production,
creative and live event jobs to Charleston, So their home
base is going to be Charleston, South Carolina. A Southern promotion.
Interesting and the first event that will take place after
this announcement is the MLW and Don Gotto Tequila Live
Special that is on Thursday on YouTube. And what a

(01:50):
card for the live special you have. At the top
of the card the MLW World Haveway Championship and a
bunkhouse batch Old school wwnwe Stuff Mad's Cruel Kruger the
champion and taking on Brock Anderson accompanied by his father
Arn Anderson. That sounds great, mister, go Visus Volador Junior.

(02:10):
In the finals of the twenty twenty five Opera Cup.
The Skyscrapers that is Donovan die Jack and Bishop Dyer
the former Baron Corman. They are the sky Scrapers and
they will take on the Good Brothers Doc Gallas and
Carl Anderson. That should be a fun match, good big
guys match for sure. The Middleway Championship will have Templario

(02:30):
defending his title against Guerredo Maya Junior. Killer Cross returns.
He will have a match against Matt Riddle as Scarlet
Bordeaux will be by his side accompanying him. Shot Se
versus Priscilla Kelly, the former the former Gigi Dolan, and
a singles match you have got those Gauntlet match four
way trios match those Panthers versus those Ferninos Versusilos, Amantets

(02:53):
versus Ed Gallion Fantasma, it's all TMLL types, I'm sure.
And a lightning three way match with theill Okamura and Stigma.
But there's a lot of matches in my car that
sound pretty good, pretty fresh, and some of their stars
that you know we're nxt le the xt like go
from a NEXTT or from the W stars making their

(03:16):
way in. And look how many of these stars we
have in here that are like the big rock star
free agents you would expect like a TNA would pick
up or an AW would pick up MLW. They've done
a pretty good job with Shots bring her into the
promotion like they did before. Killer Cross wasn't here long
enough for a run here in MLW. To really make

(03:39):
a difference. He was more of in TNA and other
promotions before he got over to here, but he never
had a long run in MLW. But I think he'll
do great here. And this is the this is the
TV promotion I really enjoy among all of them. It's
just like our ECW was going back to the late nineties,
and I am really at that point now in how

(04:01):
I feel with wrestling right now. We're back to that again,
and it used to be we had good stuff going
on in the nineties and the Monday Night Wars, but
no one ever talks about the fact that, Okay, at
the end of the day, if you had an allegiance
to WW or WF, I was still at the end
of the day. If you had to give me a
choice of who I would watch and I had, I
would be pretty happy with. Was ECW the original ECW,

(04:24):
not THEW version we're talking about the nineteen ninety five,
the two thousand and one version of ECW that Paul
Hayman ran after you took it from Todd Gordon, took
Eastern Chimbjeate Wrestling to get it Extreme Timbuge Wrestling. That
is the one I watched four pay per views a month.
That's the show I used to watch, and preferably before
the tn AND era, before he got on national television.

(04:46):
I thought that ECW was fantastic. I loved it. Those
were great pay per views. Those were great shows to
the fact that I was willing to go ahead and
make sure I got my VCR set at two AM
to watch on such a network to catch them regular basis.
But then we look at the other sides of the coin,
the major promotions in front of us, and I don't

(05:09):
want to be a part of the fandom that is
throwing barbs at one of the other. If I was
gonna choose, AW still gets my attention because I guess
storylines there. There are some characters I really enjoy over there,
but what is happening over there is the same thing

(05:30):
goes with the because the bookers, Okay, I'll put it
to you like this. So we got to go and
compare Tony Kahan versus Triple H. Triple H with the
regalery of people that he has underneath his oversight, Paul Hammond,

(05:52):
Bruce Pritchard, whoever else, Roade Dog, Okay, Michael ps Hayes.
It's just not working. We're not getting storylines at all.
They don't. They choose not to do it. It's so
old school. It's old school, but not in a good way,
because I mean to try to build some kind of heat,

(06:13):
you're basically using what was used when Vince McMahon was
still running the show. These people do not want to
go ahead and create storylines. They do not want to
make something that might be make believe for fear that
they have to actually book the show around it and
they might screw it up. So they rather keep it
where the wrestlers are basically getting on something realistic. And

(06:35):
I don't know if that's to play to the behest
of the TKO brass. I don't know why. And as
for TKO, they're not worried so much about the TV
money because it's locked in. Okay, they'll worry about that
when the contract starts to run out. Then they'll figure
out way to get that back up and renegotiate it
or go somewhere else with it, whatever they want. But

(06:57):
no matter what, they think that what they're doing in
the arenas is what really is the attention getter for
w right now, they actually think that what they're doing
in the arenas is really gonna stir attention. Let me
put it to you like this, So they did say.
Netflix numbers came out and the global audience reached two

(07:18):
point eight million viewers worldwide. Remember it was at five
million global, which still sounds like a low number to me.
If we were catching people watching highlights from what was
going on on Raw, if they didn't catch the live show.
Now given us a massive Square Garden, given the fact

(07:41):
that it's the week before Surviro series, John Cena's final
return to Madison Square Garden, and they had a couple
of title matches also in the card, a lot of
things going on and throughout the night, a lot of surprises.
This time is now, My last time is now? Tournament
to the Turn and John Cena's final opponent at Saturday

(08:02):
nxt min event. They're going through that, and they brought
in a couple of stars all of a sudden, Oh,
we're bringing a couple of stars back for one off.
We're not gonna bring back Make Cardona, who has been
running the Indias right now as Matt Cardona. No, we're
gonna bring him in as his original persona Zach Ryder.

(08:22):
A long line I mean, I'm sure the money's fine.
I'm sure mat Cardona has no problem going out there
going woop woop, fine, go for it. So he goes
out there, reprises his character as Zach ryder Dahl Ziggler,
comes out to his old school, doesn't come out as
nicknameath who he's been running in tna F right now,

(08:42):
has been world champion, there, has been world tag team champion. There.
He's been doing just fine. So let's get him back
as doll Zigler. Right, let them move along into the tournament.
Of course, doctor go ahead and win. But you know,
let's let's get him in here just to go ahead
and do a little enhancement for the folks. No, let's
not let the older talent that we have right now

(09:05):
do this for us. Let's not do that. We're gonna
go and do this tournament. We don't want to go
ahead and put anything about that at all. No, No,
we don't want to do that. When you look at
the brackets, I mean, I haven't even paid attention to
the last time. It's now tournament honestly. So we get

(09:26):
through into the second round Seamus against rus Oven. The
next rown bracket, jay us at Ellie Knight at Ellie
Knight beat Zach Ryder for whatever reason, Gunther beats Javon Evans,
and you know, I don't see any of these folks

(09:49):
that really makes me think about, Oh, these are the
folks they wanted to go and decide to use to
take on John Cena, possibly that they could be booked
into the tournament to become Sena's last opponent. And and
I guess go after the intercontinental title, and who's still
left to go ahead and wrestled. There's Camalo Hayes and

(10:10):
Bronson Reid, Finn Baller and Penta Solsica and just saying okay, fine,
well I'm sorry sols go at winning. Excuse me? He
got that going as well. Now, Either which way, the
tournament means nothing. I don't think it really matters who
JOHNSONA takes on. Okay, Gunther's there. Let's just expect him

(10:34):
to be the one that asked to be the one
that will do the work with Johnson. And if Johnson
decides to go ahead and take the loss, per tradition,
Gunther gets a win. Okay, I could care less. That's fine,
And at this point I still believe that would be
where we should be with Gunther being the one that
gets over after the tournament's done to build him back

(10:54):
up intil another world title match they could be. We're
seeing Punkin Guther take on each other. Fine, and some
people got onto me about the idea of me saying
Dominic Mysterios should go ahead and already move forward into
being in the world heavweight title picture. Well, somebody disagreed
with me. Okay, they said too early for that. That's

(11:15):
when marcol Rimerez eighty five and well Quadruple MXSSS MXLUS, well,
I guess I don't know says dom can't sell the
move to save his life. Well, but he's also always
playing the heel. He doesn't have to pay the face.
When does he do that? So now Triple H doesn't

(11:40):
want to go and do any particular booking. He has
that to go ahead and Phillip TV time this tournament.
Then you have these title matches to try to bring
up some pop and then it's of course Survivor Series.
We need to find out who the final participants are
going to be. And all of a sudden you get
brock Lesser and Roman Reigns returning and then he did
some shock changes to the women's titles, where you have

(12:03):
Jay Carkill now as the women's champion and Maxine Duprix
becomes a champion on the secondary side with the United
No the intercaminal tunnel, yeah either twenty I don't know.
It doesn't matter, the titles don't matter, the same people,

(12:25):
the top stagnation and no storylines to speak of. So
I'm numb to what w has been doing since the
Netflix era. This whole year, have been numb to them.
I've watched the pay per views, I've caught up on
the clips of the TV shows. At a time when

(12:46):
I used to not do that. You used to actually
watch the shows at least even during the bad parts
from twenty nineteen, twenty eighteen going on. I would have
it on the background. But now I'm even bother doing
them anymore. It's not like I'm gonna go and go
to my to go and find the Netflix feed and
go watch it, because i don't feel like I'm watching
anything because it's all matches. Triple H only wants to

(13:11):
go worry about the matches, and that's fine, but when
there's nothing to it, there is a predetermined finish, then
we need a reason to understand why you went to
that finish and what it means after that finish. It's
a soap opera. That's what it's supposed to be. In
Aw's case, Tony Kahan is a different story. I mean,

(13:34):
he's getting the book Wrestlers the way he wants. Okay,
he has the money, he has the talent, he is
booking his own show. He's booking to his own taste.
He might be taking input from others, sure, but it's
the way he wants to book it. He wants this
feud with this feud, and then how are we gonna
get there? That's the storylines we get is we'll get

(13:56):
storylines where how are we gonna get there? I will
say is that we at least have characters in AW. Okay,
at least we have that. At least we have good
promos that come out that are built around a lot
of things, Because then you have a.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
Little more.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
Opportunities for talent to get over and do things with
the characters that they have they want to build out.
If they want to go and go crazy with it,
they can And I can appreciate that. So I want
to go into that example real quick by playing. At
least one promo that I got that was on Collisions.

(14:36):
I wouldn't have caught it because it was on a Saturday.
I'm watching college football. It's just not going to work.
But catching on Collision this past Saturday and Tony Storm
and enjoying how she put herself together just for the
match in the tag team tournament with Minister and Tony Storm.

Speaker 3 (14:54):
Five women.

Speaker 4 (14:56):
Maybe watch a muggy, a massacre, a murder. Now you
can do what you like to me. Tony's Storm lives
and dies every damn day. But when you touch the
woman I love, a woman who brings color to a

(15:17):
world that is black and white, then you gain admission
to a film a cinema verity. It stars five shit
ass slop tarts and two horror show who's with a
lust for vengeance? Who will love bomb the crap out
of you? And since it's your turn to watch, we

(15:43):
promise to look good when we do it. Anytime, any place,
the show must go on. Don't ask God for mercy.

Speaker 5 (16:01):
He's a big fan of our work.

Speaker 1 (16:04):
Listen to me, Tony Storm still embodies one thing I though.
If we don't have MGF out there, give me Tony Storm.
She embodies what I want and wrestling Okay, She's very
good in the ring, good with a lot of ways
that you'll put her in, whether it's with a belt
or without. The character is sound. It has gone on

(16:27):
for more than two years, right, and it continues to go.
The Minia share Chrod character coming into this the Love Triangle,
it's like it's been wonderful and you know, whatever you
put her in. Encompassing the women's division, she's been the
most interesting thing in the women's division. Yes, Merceesne has
the belts and that's the other focus, but to me,

(16:48):
I mean Christatlander, Merceites as champions doesn't take away from
what Tony Storm does because Tony Storm is elevating everybody
when she does it. She's doing what MGF would do
on the men's side if you were out there right now.
But you know what he's gotten popular, he's doing projects,
he's hit in and out as needed, and that's the

(17:11):
kind of wrestling characters I want. That's what I expect
from the main rosters of both W and AW. And
then we get into the matches that we have right
now that are gonna be set up for full gear
and I'm like, eh, you know, it's fine, but it's
a little indie rific because we're not moving forward with

(17:32):
some of the garages we had. I mean, listen, now, Edge,
you took away the whole EDP thing from Matthew and
Nick Jackson Young Bucks. They're back to Young Bucks. It's
kind of like a throwback to now. Okay, we're still
kind of following along with a story of them where
they're broke on the EDP story after that, the follow
up to that hasn't been too interesting to me. I'll

(17:55):
just say, like that bloody guts. Fine. I know there
are some people out there. I'm gonna I'm gonna go
to a comment that was put out there from someone
of my one of the real disciples of the juvenile
delusional fanom out there. Okay, that's become the new phrase
for me. So of course the fanatics right there is

(18:17):
a disciple among them that is going to preach his
gospel the way he sees fit the way that wrestling's
supposed to be, which is what I don't agree with
it all. That's fine, but I want characters, I want storylines,
and I feel like if MG is gonna be a storyline. Listen,

(18:38):
when we look at what Tony Storm and MGF have done,
they make the most out of what they've had. Look,
people shit on MGF when he went after Jeff Jared.
I didn't think it was the best thing in the world.
But man, I thought I got into it because it
was a lot there and MGF given the chance to
work with Jeff Jared, a veteran like that, Okay, that
works for me. The Mercedes Bone storyline, okay, her with

(19:02):
the belts and Mercedes been a eating steak, you know,
and dinners as Tony Storm wrestles and all that part
wasn't the you know, you would think that, oh wow,
what a great storyline, But I think, yeah, it's fine.
But the story was good. The mattress good. I don't
have a problem with that. But at least those two
are indicative of what we have. But then in the

(19:23):
aw and we have here, we're looking at Okay, stat
Land or Monet Women's World title is on the line,
So another belt for Mercedes Bone to collect, and that's
just a bigger build for all the other stuff that
she's doing worldwide and all these other promotions he's working
at Samoa, Joe hanging out on a page. In a
still cage match with the world title by the way,

(19:45):
I expect Money to win. She'll have her thirteenth belt.
I think Samoa Joe becomes champion again in the still
cage match. I believe that'll happen. I think the ops
are gonna help out. Something's gonna be going with that.
I see it coming. Brodido in a tag team match
defending the world tag team tuttles against FTR and FTR

(20:08):
expect to go and win this time around. They'll take
the belts back because I don't know. They need to
be doing something Like FTR is always kind of attacking people,
but it's like, okay, let's get somewhere. Like FTR being
the heels here, they need to be doing something to
make themselves okay, that they are doing something with themselves,
that they're productive, that they're not just all talk here.

(20:31):
They just can't be like heels that don't get anywhere,
like we need somebody to go in boo at. Let's
get back to them doing it. Fine. Can you Omega
Jurassic Express in the Million Dollar Trios match?

Speaker 4 (20:43):
So?

Speaker 1 (20:44):
Can you Omega has nothing to do right now necessarily
just pairmen here to go after the elite fine, and
then Young Bucks. Like I said, I'm not digging too
much about their deal. It's not that much interesting to me.
After the whole deal of the me being EVPs and
how they were being used, the follow up after that

(21:05):
has not worked for me. Let's put a ledge just
like that, and then the teams title will be Kyle
Fletcher and Mark Brisco a good batch, like a good
match up, but you know, and Kyle Fletcher, I think
giving him a lot of different folks to go after
to build him up to that eventual world title is
an interesting story to me. His climb is very important

(21:27):
Darby Allen and Pack, they've been building that up a lot,
and Pack with the whole deal with the Death Riders,
that's been very important. So that's the storyline of getting
into and I can appreciate that at least we have
something there where there's a lot of heat going into
that match. That's fine with me. I can go, I'm
all digging about that. And then you have a four
way tag team match for the inaugural women's tag team title.

(21:48):
Have not paid attention to tournament much. The Baves of
Wrath with Harley Cameron, will A Nightingale, Sisters of Sin,
Julia Hartsky Blue, Tomless Love Bombs, Ministure Cowa and Thomas
Tony Storm and Marina Shafir, Meghan Bain, Fine tag teams, Okay, fine,
set up? Do I care much about the tournament?

Speaker 4 (22:08):
No?

Speaker 1 (22:08):
Do we need extra belts? Not necessarily, but okay, they're
gonna do it anyway. It's time, Peel, you want something
extra for Collision Dynamite, Okay, go right ahead. And then
John Moxy and Kloradigh and a note holds Barder match.
I have not paid attention much of this, but no,
it's whatever death Riders are part of this I have.
I think it's just depending on who they are facing

(22:30):
that matters to me. And with John Moxy already having
to go ahead and already went through the things that
he did with Darby Allen in the last pay per view,
I was like, Okay, what are we gonna do more
with the death Riders? I don't know, but we're gonna
leave it like that, okay. And then so far Casino
Gauntlets with the aw National Championship, another championship we don't need,
but they're gonna go with that, anyway, and so far

(22:52):
Bobby Lashley, Shelton, Benjamin, Ricky Shake, Kevin Knight and Speople
and Mike Billy are all entrance into the match. They'll
probably put some surprises in there. We'll see what goes
on again. A couple of matches I'm actually interested in,
and that's it. But they're not necessarily giving me anything
that is blowing me away. It's like, it's fine, Like

(23:15):
the matches are gonna be very good. They're gonna do
a lot with it. There are some storylines tied into
all this. At least it's something like I'll take a
little storyline over no storyline, and I'll take something where
we at least get some change around in the talent. Okay,

(23:36):
to see Seth Wrong's there year round, Seth Wrongs, see
him Punk, j U Soo, l A. Knight, Cody Roads.
It's the same casting characters over and over. You know
we're gonna go and just put the Vision into Survivor series. No,
still put them into any tournament where they get over

(23:58):
on John c. And now we're not gonna do anything
like that bron Breaker. We're not gonna do anything them
right now. They don't want to do anything. No, they
don't want to do that. I don't want to Mysterio.
You have him, you know, lose the scena for the
Icy title, So he's not me looked at either. There's
I mean again, it's the thought process of like, well,
we're gonna build guys up by letting him continue to
be beat and losing things is whatever it is, I

(24:21):
don't know. It doesn't make sense to me. But that's
on both sides here. It's like the whole setup of
both of these major promotions. Again, We're at the end
of the year. And once again I'm disappointed on both sides,
which is why I said, I feel like there's more
going on with MLW than it is with these two promotions,

(24:43):
believe it or not, when I just look at it,
and when I look at what I have here on
the Major leagueressing side, when I said, Mas Cruel Krueger,
what a character they built out to become after all
these years from Conjuring Unit. They've done a lot with
brock Anders did going build him up, Skyscribers has had
a lot of time out there, and then just what

(25:04):
they're gonna do with other stars they have in here,
and again they're limited time because they're not on the
regular TV broadcast. It's these YouTube shows. But the way
they use them and how they put matches up together
that are gonna lead up to something later on, it's
good stuff and I can enjoin that.

Speaker 4 (25:20):
Now.

Speaker 1 (25:26):
Let me get into it what I have on. Let me,
first of all, go to what was being commented out
there from the disciple of the jubial delusional fanom out there.
I should go ahead and speak from him first. Because
Monday Night Raw everybody's praising right now because of all
the returns. The title changes the suspense to expite the
excitement of things that went on. So there was a

(25:47):
lot of stuff that happened on the show. This Madison
Square Garden show was probably more exciting or entertaining or
more compelling than any pay per view they've had all year.
I don't know if Russell Media lived to what Madison
Square Garden got on Monday Night or SummerSlam or Money

(26:08):
the Bank, or I don't know. I don't know if
any of the pay per views this year, besides the
elimination Chamber that really gave me a pause and said, Wow,
this was something special, because that's what it is that's
what Madison Square Garden was. Now let me take this

(26:30):
from the disciple of that you've a delusional fandom. Here
he says that the returns of Broncola's Room and reines
to the Wargames matches. I mean, there's no value to
the Wargames matches at all. Now he makes the point
here about the fact that we don't need to have
this here just because it lands at the same time

(26:50):
of year. The same problem with Vin McMann ahead where
hell and us cell is coming up, so we have
to go and build something to a hell andsll match
or money the bank, same thing goes there. It I mean,
there's I can understand the argument of that where yeah,
we don't want to with so many more pay per views,
where it's always the same thing that happens every year,
and TKO is trying to go and do away with

(27:12):
some of the predictability. And I think that's something where
when I have given myself more time to think about
why TKO is going out there, Mark Shapiro saying that
we don't only what don't we be doing what Vince
McMann did is because they need to make the we
something that is going to be a year round product

(27:34):
because we know that WrestleManias has always been a season.
They need to do something more so that there are
events all year round that will draw because if it's WrestleMania,
they can't just do that. They want SummerSlam, They want
others to be two night events, and so if they
could do something where they have major events that are quarterly,

(27:54):
because that will go alongside of the line with their
shareholders with their earnings calls every quarter. They want to
be able to do that. So started the year, first
quarter earnings will always have royal rumble and to lead
up to WrestleMania. WRESTLEMANI will be in the second earnings
call of the quarter. Second quarter of the year, then
you get the Summer Slam. What's that last quarter going

(28:16):
to be? Well, since Survivra Series is whatever it is,
they can't let the fourth quarter of the year take
a dive because it normally does. What TKO wants is that, well,
we need to do something more to build out more
to it. So their idea is let's get this spantas
the Square Garden Show eighteen thousand plus. Let's pack it

(28:38):
to the gills, put a lot of things on it,
and then let's go and buildings up towards the John
Cena Final match and Survivor series. Bring all these folks back,
bringing back Broncken Roman, and you know, do something more
with it. This a Square Garden show was all hands
on deck what they have available, without necessarily going after

(28:59):
Legends or anybody else. What WWE provided to the Madison
Square Garden crowd was all hands on deck. Everybody that
they have, every punch they could pulled, that was all there.
Now back to the commentary here, I mean this wholeheartedly

(29:20):
as a progressing fan because I want better, and right
now we're not really getting better. The Women's war Games
doesn't really need to happen. I'm tired of the narrative.
Oh we need to have two, he says. The Men's
war Games has been building since they're after WrestleMania, or
if you even want to go back to WrestleMania, has
been building since then and before WrestleMania. So yes, the

(29:40):
Men's Wargames match is very much needed. It's the finality
of what we've seen play out and television for the
last seven months. And then he goes on about the
women's match, and he says Triple A is cheating the
wargames match as an every November thing. Here we are
instead of legitimately building something up where it warrants the
match taking place like he did with the Seaham Punk

(30:01):
and Dreamgutar. How long before that did we see hell
in a cell We got hell on a cell back
and got those two guys in there. No Shenanigan's, no
funny games, no bullshit, no escape you the cage. Because
the cage is supposed to keep everything contained within. We
got blood, and the feud mattered, and the Hell in
a celle was warranted for the feud because of what
happened throughout the entire year. One match, two match, third match,
the final match happened there and the end of the feud,

(30:24):
and it was over a bracelet like the aw Sicco
seemed to think. No, the feud was not built over
an e fing bracelet. Okay, sorry that your guy. He
means Tony Kahan can't tell consistent the stories. And we
got two money matches of full gear narrow by the way,
one for a million dollars and one for two hundred
thousan dollars man, Okay, And then he talks about the

(30:45):
men the Men's War Games see him, so Cody Roads,
se him Punk, Theoso's Roman Ranges is a great team.
That's an all star team, stars stars. That's something that
Men's Blood and Guts didn't have. On the other side,
bron Breaker, Bronston Ree, look at Paul Drumcattyre Brock Lesser
stars all some of the Men's War Games and the
Men's Body Guts match didn't have stars, got it. So

(31:09):
leading into Survivors series, let's go with what he's saying
here about the star power that they have. Well, there's
star power, but that's also what you're doing with the
star power. You're living off the legacy of what was
done before, what Vince mcmahn put out there. So what
are we getting more of that? That matters at the moment.

(31:32):
We have the Servi series match for the Men's War Games,
it's seeing Punk, Cody Roads, Neuso's and Roman Reigns. We're
not getting much different than what last year's Savior series was. Okay,
So if you want to go back to the last
year Survivor series and say there was some storyline we
got off of that, Okay, So these are the same
guys that have been facing off from Lee the last year,

(31:54):
bron Breaker, Ronson Reid. There's no seth wrongs in this,
but that would also make sense that they could. Logan
Ball dropped into the mix because he wants to go
to the World Heavway title and he's had his own
really hasn't any other issues with anybody else necessarily. I mean,
we'll see him punk right now, and that's why he's
dropped into this as part of the Vision. Drewmacatire also

(32:15):
because he's had issues with Cony Rhodes after going to
the Universal title or the Championship and then again Bloodline
against Vision. I guess, but and rerumand Rains has been
out there in a while. I don't know if I
really care about that much. The Winds Wargames match, No,
I don't really care. I want to other even bring

(32:37):
it up. But then you look at an Inner Continental
title match, a rematch for Dominant Mysterio to go after
John Cena. They got that set up, and then stuff
you have a care in the Cubella for the women's
World title. That's all you got? Four matches, is that right?
Four matches we're gonna.

Speaker 4 (32:57):
Have for this.

Speaker 1 (32:59):
That's a big stadium crowd they got in San Diego
for this too, Petco Park. That's all We're giddy, Savva sis.
I'm surprised it's so small. Four matches, that's really crazy, Okay,
and that's what they got. So those Survivor series matches
they're gonna probably be super long. The War Games is
gonna probably be like an hour each. But you're telling

(33:21):
me that the build up for that. Okay, brock Lester
just came back and he has a history with others.
That's all you're living off is history. All the Men's
Wargames matches off of history. The only recent history you
have is the vision after seem Punk. That's it. And
that's like some kind of retcon because of everything going

(33:43):
on with seth Ron's where he's not out there going
after seem Punk, because that's what they probably will be
doing by this point now, because then I don't know
if Logan Paul would be in this match in the
first place, or brock Lester for that matter, I don't know,
but it doesn't really make any difference. Like I mean,
I don't see the benefit of these all have been

(34:06):
starting him up there. I mean isn't for the vision.
Everybody else has all been up there. Those are all,
what except for Jimmy, all former world champions, and they've
all had some kind of facing off each other, you know,
in some way, shape or form. I don't get the

(34:27):
whole mindset, the whole logic behind saying, oh that we
got stories here. Yeah, stories that were told by Vis
mc man might have started off with viswick Man. For
that matter, What has Triple H done necessarily been storylined
besides the bloodline, which I don't think he had anything
to do with. I think it was Paul Hamidon did that.
But what do we have now? Still heat of these matches?

(34:54):
Oh you want to talk about with the Rhea Ripleyan
Kabuki Warriors or Becky Lynch with you know, okay, whatever,
Just nothing here. This is very bland and there's nothing
that happens that repercussions. Does anybody get over more than

(35:20):
they are as a result of any of these matches here?
I expect Steff ever Care to win and retain over
Nikki Bella. I don't think John Seen is gonna drop
the belt the dominant macsterio going into his last match.
I don't expect that and the Women's war Games of
the men's wargames match pick them. It doesn't make a

(35:41):
difference to me. I don't see any benefit to what
happens is here. This is like bragging rights. Believe it
or not, these wargames matches are bragging rights. I don't
even know if we're even doing war versus back down
on this either, because I don't think it matters either. Really,
it doesn't really matter. You brought the talent together and

(36:06):
there's just nothing to it. So dare I say AW
has a couple of matches that might be more important
to me because there's something more to the build of
some of the stars they have over there. If you've
made me compare the pay per views, I'm just telling
you AW has a much more favorable, much more enticing card.

(36:31):
If you asked me which one I'm gonna go spend
money on, I would go to the AW show. But
if you had to make me choose between AW or
W or MLW, I would pick MLW. That's where I'm
at right now. And I've always had an offendity for MLW,
but now it's like, Okay, well, that's probably the better
choice of the three what's kind of interesting right now

(36:53):
is NWA's actually kind of interesting. They have the tapings
right now through a Billy solid space and just became
the their world heavyweight champion. Awesome. Didn't know he was
already being built up to that level, but you know,
to think he was out there with the the valet
and I forget her name, his or her name whatever,
and the build up for him because after it was

(37:14):
all said and done, he became what national champion and
worked his way up and they built him up to
be world champion. Awesome, a fresh new champion with you
know a lot of upside to him.

Speaker 2 (37:27):
I like it.

Speaker 1 (37:28):
That's good stuff. But like I said, if I look
on the other side, on the aw side, okay, I'm
not much into saying okay, we're ana patimo Joe. I
felt like, well, okay, someone just back in the same
place as he was before. Stantleydermanname, that's fine. It's you know,

(37:54):
it'll probably be fine. But like I mean, they've had
some storyline that went with it. It has some storyline
has gone along with the women's tag team title tournament. Yeah,
and there is a storyline with the trios match for
the million dollars. There's no storyline with it. Is it great?

Speaker 4 (38:08):
No?

Speaker 1 (38:08):
But this is just a storyline with it. That's what
I want give me. Wrestling with storylines, that's what I
want give me that. I'd be much more, much more
interesting than that if I could have that. Some of
the commentary I have had out there for some of
the clips I put out there. Let me go to
my tiktokra fee where Aaron Campbell says, I honestly don't

(38:31):
think it's triple h I just think he's the face
that catches all the behind the scenes crap from TKO,
A lot of the issues of the TKO group, and
they're using W to make up their debt. Knows we
don't hear much from USC, which they also owe. Yeah,
but USC's already got a new do a paramount. You know,
they're set up going to do shows in Saudi Arabia
and all the like. They're making their money back. The
debt's gonna be cleared. If they don't have it cleared

(38:54):
out on the right way, they're gonna probably you know,
take care of the books to make it look like
as such. For W they're their own entity within TKO.
They have to be able to deliver just as much
as YOC does because UOC right now is still pulling
more money than ww is. Keep that in mind. It's
just a WV did not have any debt. That's one

(39:14):
thing that should be said about that too. Grim Leon,
what if Triple H is not to blame, but maybe
TKO it could because they want to make the call
and Triple has Triple has to do what they tell them.
But I don't know, that's just be speculating now. It's
TKO doesn't worry about that part. Listen, they what they're

(39:35):
doing right now when it comes to Wrestle Paluza and
building that up along with SummerSlam, that was to make
sure the third quarter had money coming in and now
a Survivors Series and John Cess, you know, Last Match.
They're trying to go ahead and monetize those like so
they can because the revenue they are going to make
off those gates and the merchandise, that's what's importing to them.
The TV they're not worried about that because they lock

(39:58):
those TV deals in and they're not worried so much
about the ratings, like the loyal following that is out
there SmackDown God themselves back up after Halloween, and you know,
they're pulling one point one million viewers right now. The
odd thing is they're gonna go back to three hours
again on SmackDown. You know why because USA wants the
extra ad revenue and TKO is willing to oblige to

(40:21):
make that partner happy. So keep that in mind, all right.
So I made my comments about the disciple of the
juvital delusional fandom. That's done. Now let me give in
to what I got in here on x that. I'm
pulling out some of these bookmarks that I've taken because

(40:41):
we gotta talk about Tony Connor real quick. He was
on the Aerol Hawani show this week. So there's a
few things to bring about that. Do I want to
bring up anything here before about the raw that's going up? Oh,
here's the thing out. Las Vegas is going to be
paying six million dollars to host WrestleMania forty two the
entire week. That's the two nights of Wrestling forty two
that's backdown before the Raw, after NXT stand and deliver

(41:04):
the Hall of Fame ceremony and the world. So Las
Vegas is actually going to help prop up WrestleMania, because
they're going to be showing up for a whole week
there to do the thing in the second week of
April next year. Interesting, good on them. That's the kind
of money they want, that's the kind of relationships they
want as well. There were some comments being said about

(41:28):
the fact that Jay Usso beat the Miz in the
first round of the Last Time as Now tournament, and
he says here the Merchant Jusa had zero history with
John Sena. Yet he goes, oh, the one man who
deserved a singles match with Sena during his farewell run.
Now that same guy gets knocked out of the tournament
by someone with the theme song built on yeat. Yeah,
the Miz had quite a history with John Cena and

(41:52):
does not get a match with him in the farewell
He's absolutely right about that. I mean, look, we know
the Edge and Randy Orton had, you know, very great
feuds with him throughout the years. The mis did as well.
Several times when the Miz did hold the world held
the world title right after running the bank the cash

(42:13):
in him with Alex Rally wasn't he went around with
Alex Rowley right at that time and then the Miz
when he was doing the whole deal in the mixed
tag match with his wife Maurice against John and Nicki Bella,
and that whole storyline with the reality show that I
played back a few weeks ago, a couple of months ago,
which was hilarious. Yeah, and there's an actual history with them,

(42:36):
but yeah, they didn't want to put the mis in here.
But I guess the MI is, you know, it's not
doesn't matter right now. He's he's company line man. He
will tow the company line, and whatever he's told, he
does it. He's smart for the business for himself. Make
that clear. Another persons says, Chelsea is the United States champion,

(42:56):
Maxine is the Intercomental champion. On the women's sides of
those secondary titles, they don't care about straps right now.
And like I say, Chelsea Green won the women's United
States title over Julia Whatever and Maxine winning those belts
don't matter to me either. But for Maxine to good

(43:17):
on her. I'm glad she's doing it. She's been working
working her butt off, so good for her. I can
appreciate that. And then looking back at Middy Night Raw
and how they do things. It's about the pop. Was
there any real reason for brock Luzer and see Him
Punk to confront each other? Not necessarily, but here's what

(43:39):
we got. When he did come out to the ring,
Hey like clapping seals Massive Square Garden Pop big, the
Bully's all.

Speaker 2 (43:46):
Falling down see him?

Speaker 4 (43:49):
No no, no, no, this can'taigne past New York what.

Speaker 1 (44:03):
And you know that's all set up. But then of
course Rouman Rains comes after that, and again it's this
good feeling of like, oh, look these people are all
coming back. It's kind of a feel what they did
for Massive Square Garden to bring all those Savira series
members of the World War Games match out. It was

(44:24):
almost like they were trying to replicate the same thing
they got. That happened absolutely great. When Cody Rhoades won
the w Championship you Undisputed Championship over Roman Reigns, It's
like that. It's like, oh, look another pop, another pop
and then the big you know reveal out there. That's

(44:45):
what they wanted. They were happy to give that. Oh
there was another part where Stevie Ray Stevie Richards, excuse me,
who's does a lot of work on Vince Russo's brand
channel right, he made a claim that Logan Paul better
than anybody else in AW. Kyle Fletcher took offense to
that and a response saying, quote, I think I said

(45:08):
the same thing with his comments on me. I think
a lot of these things are done with the thought process.
Oh this will get a reaction, Oh this will get clicks.
I don't know if he believes this wholeheartedly. If he does,
like I said, everyone's to tell their opinion, and I
think that opinion is bullshit. Personally, I think the roster
we have at AW, the matches you see on a
weekly by weekly, monthly basis, I am astounded, like I
can't even keep up. I watch match, then I go,

(45:29):
that's the best match I've ever seen this year, And
then the next week I'll see another match and I
think it's the best match this year. Is an absurdly,
absolutely absurd claim. To make no hate on Logan Paul
doing great stuff. Good for you. He's been in the
business five years. If that so, the level he's performing
at is insane. Do I think he's better than the
Kenny Omega well, Al Spray, not an effing chance. He

(45:49):
told that the inside the ring in TMZ. You know,
I don't know Steven Richards really fixed with Logan Paul's
but as good. I think Logan Paul, if he were
an Awa, would be in that upper tier of main event.
I could see that. I don't know how you'd use them,
but like, I mean, look, I mean, Lookan Paul's got

(46:12):
his deal. I think personally they could use more of
him out there. I know that would be something that
a lot of people disagree with, but I think Logan
Paul overall, he's got a character to himself, this influencer thing.
He's the one guy that has that down because he
actually is. And I think the whole influencer deal and

(46:35):
how he plays it up is a great foil. So
I think him with seeing Punk, after seeing Punk wins
the world everyweight title, was a great move. But now
he's all titled with Vision and I was like, whatever,
we don't even need that. I don't even I don't
know even look at Paul ever having any alliance with
anybody else. So him being aligned with a Vision, I
hate it, and him being aligned alongside Paul Hammon, I

(46:58):
hate it too. Make that clear as well, Locbaul doesn't
need that but I do like the fact that him
being involved, how he is in there, and then there's
comments about there about people asking was this what the
raw episode that we had from the Massive Square Garden?
Was that the best episode that would be raw in years?

(47:18):
Who cares if it is or not. Again, the audience
you brought in for that show is absolutely positively the
only audience that's going to watch. You're not going to
grow for that audience, mark my words. Monday Night Raw
is never going to crack three million viewers worldwide and
they're run on Netflix. I doubt it. I don't think

(47:44):
it's possible.

Speaker 4 (47:46):
No.

Speaker 1 (47:49):
Getting back to Pops brock Lessler, you just had him
go out there and run rough shot. He's you know,
puling up with Paul Hyman. And again the Cody Rhoads
world title when when everybody all came out the same
thing happens again those hours at the brock Liser. Let's
get romanarines out there, wallkids time. He just cleared them

(48:12):
all out the beast. Of course, the copyrights up just
twelve days away and he hasn't and Atri lay Fashion,
Oh we're not done yet.

Speaker 4 (48:20):
So what they all tay same?

Speaker 1 (48:30):
The thing is for the crowd. This is wonderful, and
I gonna understand why it's wonderful. The TV audience and
Brockluster and Roumann show up for a Wargames match, you
know're not going after titles. They're just they're just involved
in a Wargames match. That's not Then Nobey's even gonna
remember after this. The only way you remember is if

(48:55):
the Judah's usual fandom because he is the rail over
the fact that, oh how great it was. I guess
the only reason I even remember it not for the
match itself, but for the kind of awe struck overinflated
enthusiasm over the product that is just flat and stagnant
and not going anywhere because there are still some people

(49:19):
out there that have not seen the light. Kind of
take the cloud out of your eyes, you know, get
get the cold out of your eye, as in a
notorious big song. So what what is that song that's
all ready to die? I forget what was called? Anyway?
You know what I'm talking about?

Speaker 2 (49:40):
Break down and damage.

Speaker 4 (49:44):
Always taken too.

Speaker 1 (49:50):
And then somebody writes out saying that the ending sequen
to John Cena's final match on Raw one of the
most beautiful things I've ever watched for basically control Backbreaker. Oh,
and now Ray's getting calmed as well. Atomic a rare
six band tad by the way, because of the fact

(50:11):
that this is a masson square garden? How many how
often does that happen?

Speaker 4 (50:15):
Right?

Speaker 1 (50:17):
So John said then that you can't see you along
with Seamus and raymus Terio and Unison all three, it's
just too good.

Speaker 6 (50:33):
Track five knuckle Shuffles.

Speaker 1 (50:39):
House Show howse show Loop a different house show loop.
This is a different house show altogether. And then we
get gun Through coming back. Oh, he got back to
his old theme crowd on his feet quiet because whatever

(51:07):
they're doing with her with him before was doing so well.
Oh let's not. Let's just change him back up. Let's
just put him back in his old NXT stuff. That's
what's gonna make it work anyways.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
Oh.

Speaker 1 (51:20):
Then, of course the other pop we have is for
no necessary reason at all because a g Lee and
seem Punk won the match at Wressel Palooza. But now
Beggy Lynch has to confront a g Lee again.

Speaker 3 (51:33):
Oh are you.

Speaker 4 (51:34):
Training made best place?

Speaker 1 (51:36):
It's gonna explode?

Speaker 3 (51:39):
Hey, Jay waie.

Speaker 1 (51:42):
Like tell me that right there? All this is like
overly giddy and excited. I mean, yes, I am the
opposite opinion of any out there that are wrestling podcasters
that are all gonna go ahead and get in on
this and be super excited. I'm not like a Twitch
streamer out there, no mm hmm. But I get nothing

(52:03):
out of all this here happening and ag Lee helping
out with Maxine de Preed so that she wins a title. Okay,
that's fine. So instead of paying attention to the real
problem that's going on in w where Okay, they did
this one shot booking night to try to build up

(52:24):
for Madison Square Gardener because they had a full house.
They had to make sure those guys keep coming back,
because they also spent a whole lot of money to
be there, especially for John Cena's last match on a
raw and for all the other stuff that they did
the set up the Survivor Series Wargames match. So to
the juvenile, the delusional fandom out there, oh, they're giddy,

(52:45):
they're giddy. And of course with full Gear coming up,
there's the publicity right now that Tony Kahn and others
are doing right now. So Tony Kunn goes on Ariel Hawani.
He answers questions, let's screw through a couple of comments
that he made up there, and let's just see, you know,
what everybody's all shirt up about, because obviously the disciple

(53:09):
of the jutial delusional fantom was all ripping apart because
he has a personal animus towards Tony Khan for whatever
access he never gave him, whatever, But Tony Kahan had
his thoughts on how he books and how he had
certain things were going on with aw thought I'd pull
a couple of things that came out here we go.

Speaker 6 (53:27):
That you can't go backwards, you can only go forwards,
and you can only learn from the things you've done.
So I'm very fortunate. I think about it all the
time to still be in the chair, because you can
make a mistake, and if you make a series of
mistakes and you go down a wrong path in pro wrestling,
you can end up in a place that nobody comes
back from. And look how many people in pro wrestling
went down that door of making a mistake after a mistake,

(53:48):
and then they were gone. And sometimes it's not their fault,
it's due to extenuating circumstances. You can't control. But I'm
fortunate that if I make a mistake that I've always
been able to go back and look at it or
figure out what can we do to make the next
show perfect, or make make sure I don't do that again,
Because I really think that course correcting, making sure that

(54:09):
we are always on point for the next show is
a really strong aspect of AW.

Speaker 1 (54:14):
I think see with Tony Kahan, there is a shelf
life of how long you can be booking, and I
feel like for him, I mean for him, I know
the billions of dollars that were spent that he has
for AW to be able to get and operate it
as it is. Listen, it's a business, is operating well,
it's making a profit, and you know he's doing fun

(54:38):
with the partnerships that he has right now with Warner Brothers.
Regardless of what people want to go and talk about that,
with some potential deal from Saudi's or Paramount Skydanceer who
we're all say it's going to try to buy Warner Brothers.
We'll worry about that when we get to that moment,
when the crossroads come to it, we'll talk about that then.
But until then, they still have a they have a
broadcast deal for another two years. Make that clear. But

(54:59):
with Tony, you know, as a CEO of this company,
I would have liked it if he would have pulled
himself away from the every day the day booking and
have it where he has a team that's handling it
and some other creative help. But the thing is that

(55:20):
he's never going to fire himself from being head of creative.
Triple Age can be replaced, okay, and others that came
before that were booking. Eric Bischoff was replaceable, Jeff Jarrett
was replaceable, okay, because they weren't in charge. They were
given authority. But Tony Kahan is of the authority where

(55:43):
it doesn't matter. I mean, he can make mistakes all
he wants or do things right, but he's never replacing himself.
He's very young in the business and in this business acumen,
and he's made a lot of good decisions with aw
when it comes to business. I can't deny that. And

(56:03):
what he's done to satisfy his partners is a better
job than what Triple Ah has done for TKO in
the aspect. I mean, listen, for TKO, They're gonna find
a way to go and build shows what they're gonna do.
But Triple H is doing what he can what he
can with his lack of ability to get and book

(56:26):
and do storytelling and do some real booking that's going
to be you know, to book for the future. He
can't do it. At least Tony Kahan has a little
more forward thinking than that. At least he has a
little bit more to say. Okay, he is willing to
go and take some feedback, works with some other stars
that can help with the creative ability of it, and

(56:49):
hopefully find favor with him to be booked in something good.
And he has his favorites as well, which is fine,
every booker does, but at least his fits are kind
of refreshing. I mean, it's not the same people over
and over again in the area history of aw In
the six years we've had this organization, there have been

(57:10):
different people that have been at the very top of
the card. And you know, there are still something that
stay up there. John Moxley can even make us still
up that way and no, that's fine, but we see changes.
You know, different people are champions over there and there
are new stars that come in that we start seeing
the climb up at the moment is Kyle Fletcher, and

(57:32):
we'll see who else. Like you know, there's people have
been around. It's like there's at least something there. But again,
for him to go and figure out how to book
at this point six years into booking, is and trying
to do Ring of Honor as well, which I've always
said was something that that extra undertaking was too much
to bear because he's trying to go and do businesses,

(57:54):
trying to get another broadcast deal for govern to have
his own TV network. Right And for those that think
the TNA is gonna go to AMC network, I read
that John Alba reported it. I don't know how much
to believe in that either, Okay, But TNA going to
AMC network makes no sense. AMC is not a big

(58:16):
cable organization. Sure, the acts of the AMC channel is great,
but AMC, as far as I know the parent company,
they're not that big into sports, okay. And I don't
even know what you get from them in terms of
streaming content because AMC has their own streaming platform under
a paywall, So what are we getting out of that

(58:36):
For TNA, I don't think it makes much of a
difference for people to go see AAMC as the home
of TNA. So that deal that whatever Carlos Silva is
saying right now or anybody else talking about TNA, thinking
that that's gonna be the home, I don't believe it.
I don't believe AMC, of all places, is gonna pick

(58:56):
them up. That doesn't make good businesses for AMC anyway,
because even if they spent the kind of money that
AW had, it's getting from TBS and T and T,
they're not getting that. That's just a real stretch to
see that. Like every time everybody talked about, oh that

(59:18):
some show is gonna go to FX, they always kept
talking about that. I don't believe that either. That never happened.
But you know everyone's going to talk about they're gona
talk about whatever. Tony Kahn should be oversight and I
don't think he's ever gonna let himself let go of
the rains like that to be possible. He and Riel

(59:42):
Hawani as the interviewer that he is, He's good at
what he does. Don't get me wrong. I think he's
one of the better interviewers out there of sports and
of wrestling itself. And I thought it was an interesting
question for him to go in confront Tony Kahn about
the c him punk Jack Perry backstage brawl and how
he ha, well, I'm not gonna play the clip, but
the fact that in retrospect Tony Kahn thought, well, the

(01:00:04):
ratings were good for it, and he doesn't mind what
he does. And Brian Alvarez talking on his Brian and
Vidie podcast with Craig I think right, and he made
some comments about Tony Kanna his booking acumen, and what
Brian Alva says is kind of aligns with what I said.
Why does Tony book his National Wrestling Company like it's

(01:00:28):
an indie.

Speaker 3 (01:00:28):
Show, because listen, it's his money, and this is what
he likes.

Speaker 1 (01:00:34):
I understand it.

Speaker 3 (01:00:35):
It's just like this show, it's my show.

Speaker 1 (01:00:38):
Do whatever I want.

Speaker 3 (01:00:39):
He doesn't care. He likes matching problem. He likes wrestling matches.
That's his favorite thing, and so he books wrestling matches.
He thinks of a bunch of matches he wants to see,
so he books backwards to do angles in matches, just
set up other matches. He just throws matches out. He

(01:01:00):
likes matches, He likes wrestling, and he likes belts. But
more power to the guy.

Speaker 1 (01:01:05):
If he's the only one that cares about it, he's
not gonna sell tickets.

Speaker 4 (01:01:09):
Who cares.

Speaker 1 (01:01:09):
He doesn't care about that he's bookinges he wants to see.

Speaker 3 (01:01:12):
That's a mad business plan because here's the thing. He
is booking for sickos like himself. The rest of you
fuck you.

Speaker 1 (01:01:23):
And that's the other thing too, that Tony Kahan, as
long as he's booking aw it'll be just like w
is where they will not build an audience outside that
will cross over from the mainstream into this what Vince
McMahon with Vince McMahon to a point, allowing Vince Rusel
to do what he did or what Eric Bischoff did,

(01:01:45):
you did things where they were booking to try to
cross over into the mainstream, and both of them did that.
I mean, for any booker to be out there, you
need to be booking outside the crossover to mainstream. Nothing's
said much about this, but you know what, when I

(01:02:07):
think about Paul Walter Hauser, that guy's going to get
an Academy Award somedaymon I forget if he's gotten one
yet or he's been nominated at least, but that guy
continues the at work. He is a very busy movie
actor and a damn goodwin at that. Paul Walter Hauser.
This guy in his free time does wrestling, and he

(01:02:28):
wrestles in MLW. What and he wrestles in other promotions
and he's become champion over there. Paul Walter Hauser. It's incredible.
But that's somebody that's the mainstream that you know, that's
a legitimate you know, that's not like, okay, you know
bringing in some of these other stars that might be

(01:02:48):
you know, might not be so active in their career
coming into AW or W or for that matter, right,
But like, seriously, Paul Walter Hauser, active movie actor, got
a good career, and MLW has a chance to go
to work with him in there. It's pretty good stuff
with MW as well. I don't even bring this up enough.

(01:03:09):
But then you have the entire as tek a Lucha
portion of it, the old Temple Lucha Underground stuff with
Selenda de Durenta and Caesar Duran and that whole involvement,
which is the encompassing of the entire setup where you're
getting Luca Underground feel once again, which was storyline driven
across the board and was really good and to the credit,

(01:03:32):
I think Jodambrowski does a pretty good job it is announcing,
and whether it's Austin Aire's or its filthy Tom Lawler,
I think it does a very good job. I think
he does really well. Another mention to Mammo w Corbauer
doesn't pay me for this, but this is my personal opinion.
I enjoy they're doing on that product, just saying that

(01:03:53):
once again. So yes, Tony Kahn is going to continue
to go and book again towards and why they call
aw fans sikos whatever. But I think you're going to
be limited to the amount of people that you have,
and as a wrestling booker, you have to be thinking
bigger than just the fan bases out there. Sure, there's
a fan base out there that you can get, and
of course you can get five hundred six hundred thousand

(01:04:15):
viewers to watch Dynamite on a regular basis, and enough
people to go pay for a sold out show at
whatever stadium or whatever arena that you have for a
pay per view. Absolutely, and you're getting buys pay per
view buys. That's you know, as long as he's seeing
that he's getting revenue, but to grow it out. He's
not worried about trying to grow this out. There'll be
something more than just you know, anything more mainstream, I

(01:04:37):
guess now. Tony Kahn commented about what Matt and Jeff
Hardy said to Ari Hawane about the TNA partnership with
DERI that is meant to be to hurt AW as promotion,
and you think there's some truth to that. Jeff Matt
Hardy absolutely said it was. And I agree to a

(01:04:58):
point with the Hardy's that too. I think that's absolutely
a point of how they want to do that. But
again also narrow minded and short thinking. Why W I
me that was the other part that I had earlier
in the year, But now it's the point where it's
noting us so much. In a way, we also got
to look like like this. In the course of the year,

(01:05:21):
of course, we had the counter programming of W what
they did, and now P and A being brought into
this along with Tribla is in a way trying to
go ahead and put pressure on AW. And Tony Kah
talked about the counter programming of his events. So he
talked about that with Aria Hawanne.

Speaker 5 (01:05:42):
You know something that I was really curious about, and
I hadn't really heard you asked about this, so would
love to hear your thoughts. It is very clear to
me as an outsider that when you're putting on a
big show, WW tries to counterprogram it. How do you
react when this happens? Do you think this is being
done on purpose?

Speaker 6 (01:05:58):
I do think it's done on purpose, and I understand it,
and it's part of wrestling, and I think we've seen
a lot of it. But I think other wrestling promotions
that have been the challenger wrestling brand in our lifetime
have seen a lot of it. Jim Crockett Promotions, which
was the forerunner to WCW, saw a lot of this
and Jim Crockett Promotions ended up having to sell the
company to Ted Turner, who then made a great run.

(01:06:21):
It took a while, and really, if you look, Ted
Turner took over at the start of nineteen eighty nine
and the strongest run came over six years later, almost
seven years later. It started really when business peaked and
took off their peak years. So it's interesting because as
a challenger wrestling promotion, you've got a great opportunity, but
it's really hard. It involves tons of investment to build

(01:06:44):
up to be a true strong challenger, and that's why
we took the risk with aw when we did. I
do think that we've seen that kind of counter programming
in those things, and I understand and looking back at
wrestling history, kind of expect that and frustrate you. I
think it's okay because for us it's always worked out
and we're in a great position, so it hasn't ever

(01:07:06):
been a thing where it's cost us anything. And even
when you do something like aw All in Texas where
we do the show in the afternoon, it really worked
out for us great and it was and I.

Speaker 1 (01:07:17):
Agree with that. And it goes back to even what
I said before when it comes to Tony Conn when
he had that counter programming, it didn't hurt him at all.
He expected it and that's fine. I mean, look, he
says it himself because WCW went do the same thing.

(01:07:39):
Jim Cracker Promotions went to the same thing, and you know,
the dow for its matter, I mean, and justifiably so, yeah,
they want to make sure they keep their top spot
and also for the detriment of TKO. TKO wants to
make sure that they are the holders of the number
one wrestling promotion of the world that matters them. And

(01:08:01):
there's so much difference between who is the top and
everyone else at the bottom because AAW is still not
at any certain level. I mean, we just look at
the audience. They have three million viewers worldwide to what
Tony American audience is a six hundred thousand. If you
want to build the worldwide audience, let's say what one

(01:08:23):
point two one point five million worldwide. I'd put it
like that, But it also takes time. And I don't
think that AW has done anything to really thread the
needle to make themselves crossover because remember, and as I
just said before, Tony connat make this point, but Eric
Bischoff did force the hand of the REE when he

(01:08:46):
started doing things to cross over the mainstream and took
advantage of the weakness for Tony Kahan. This is a
weak point for WREE that he should be capitalizing on,
but he's not. But I don't know what AW has
to do to we're gonna be able to make that possible.
I don't know what that's supposed to be in this
time age, because we don't have that many people glued

(01:09:07):
or willing to go ahead and make the investment to
watch on television. I don't know if it's a social
media campaign or what that's going to make that possible,
but this is the time where he should be as
the challenge arresting promotion as he calls it, should be
doing something more aggressive to build up and make de
wree more competitive because the w right now is all

(01:09:30):
playing on defense. And just like at a sporting event,
just like in a sports contest, you know, if a
team is dominant, they're gonna play defense, they're gonna try
to prevent. But when you need to do is be
more aggressive to make them be on offense. Because you
want Wree to go ahead and be more aggressive and

(01:09:53):
what they're doing to make sure they keep their top spot.
But they need to see that you're actually doing some
of the going to push them. That's going to motivate them,
bring out their competitive spirit and say, Okay, something's going
on with our product. We need to fix the ship.

(01:10:13):
Tony Can also asked about his assessment of the ratings
and audience and attendance. So, I mean he made his
comments about that he doesn't get stats from HBO Max
doesn't know what they are, so all he knows is
the ratings that he has from TBS and T and
T of Collision and Dynamite. But other than that, he
has no inkling. Nothing's been purported to him about the

(01:10:36):
HBO Max numbers, so we he didn't want to answer that,
and that's fine, but again that also is at at
testament to streaming companies not want to give their numbers. Again,
we're not getting a real gauge of viewership when it
comes to what Netflix is giving us or any other
networks out there, unless they are being tracked under Nielsen

(01:10:58):
Big Data, which is the only they're honest, you know,
trusted source of viewing data. We don't know what it
really is. Netflix is proprietary, they are private. They don't
need to worry about that part. They don't have to
go and divulge those kind of information. That kind of information.
They could just give the top ten and whatever the
viewer numbers are. They can just kind of give a

(01:11:20):
fudge of it. They can say whatever they want. I
think I said enough well a little over an hour
with the show, but you know, there was a lot
on my mind, man, stream of consciousness. It just kept
rolling through. So anyway, you already got my comments about
what I see coming up for Full Gear coming up

(01:11:40):
this weekend. It's on Saturday, Prudential Center, Newark, New Jersey.
If you had to give me me go to pick
who I think is gonna be winning what, I'll give
predictions just one more time to make sure that you
know where I'm coming from with this. Like I said,
some matches might not care about it all, but hey, whatever,
it's what it is, It's fine. But I will do

(01:12:01):
a post show for Full Gear here on the program
King of Podcasts dot Com. Look for that. So, like
I said, I expect money to win. I expect to
become a new World Champion, FTR New Tag Team Champions,
and I expect Helflucher to beat Mark Riscom retain the
TG title. Those are the matches that really matter to me,
and I think Garbian will beat Packed. Anyway, come back,

(01:12:26):
enjoy Full Gear this weekend, and come back for Ano
Wrestling Drial podcast because wrestling in Sex