Jim Cornette Experience - Episode 566: Programs I Nearly Slept Through

Episode Date: January 25, 2025

This week on the Experience, Jim talks about his future projects, Britt Baker, Tessa Blanchard, Japan's big announcement, and more! Plus Jim reviews WWE Raw & Smackdown! Follow Jim and Brian on Twitter: @TheJimCornette @GreatBrianLast Join Jim Cornette's College Of Wrestling Knowledge on Patreon to access the archives & more! https://www.patreon.com/Cornette Subscribe to the Official Jim Cornette channel on YouTube! http://www.youtube.com/c/OfficialJimCornette Visit Jim's official site at www.JimCornette.com for merch, live dates, commentaries and more! You can listen to Brian on the 6:05 Superpodcast at 605pod.com or wherever you find your favorite podcasts!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Like the midnight and the rock and roll. He's in a fight for wrestling soul using a racket and some mind control. He's Jim Kornet. The keys to the future. Hell by Nett. Talk about the WWE programs I nearly slept through. Tony Kahn's nightmare talent relations problems. And hell hadn't frozen over, but Houston has.

And joining me for all this frivolity and more. Hawaii and Brian the podcasting line, the King of the Arcadian Vanguard Podcast Network, Mr. Co-host to you, he's as cold as ice, and he's willing to sacrifice all my free time. The great Brian Last, everybody. Aloha, Jim. I am here. I have arrived.

He has arrived. It's a pleasure to be here. That little ditty there is going to go down in history alongside the da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-a-na-of Batman. as the theme from last. It'll be the last theme that you think about. That was one of the funniest little asides ever. Like, sometimes you're telling a story and it's a great story, and then I don't know where you take a turn and it gets better.

I was playing, you know, go-karts and mini-golf with macho man, and then I threatened to kill Terry Landau. Whoa, where did that come from? This one, you're telling the story about this local guy who got involved with something, and then I don't know where you're like, yeah, and then the police officer brought his own entrance music. Yeah. voiceover and I laughed about that for days after that.

He has arrived and he is here, ladies and gentlemen, we are both here in the cold, snowy wilderness. You got snow. I'm still packed in a cocoon of ice and snow on most of the ground around here. And it's single digit temperatures will blow zero wind chills again until Wednesday morning, I think, more cold warnings. But did you hear about Houston? Houston, Houston, Houston,

4-C, up to 6 inches of snow in Houston. Did you see the footage? Did you see any of this video? Sounds like Gina Hernandez is back in town. No, I did not see anything about this, though. You being a New Jersey... I'm dealing with my own weather issues. A New Jersey...

What are you up there into? We're Kentuckians. What are you? A New Jersey-Ite. Jersey-in? A Jersey A New Jersey I don't know

Sounds better than Jersey You as a minion of New Jersey That doesn't sound impressive to you Do you know how often they get Six inches of snow in Houston, Texas? No, when was the last time I got any snow? Ever, I don't think ever I was there for a year

I didn't see six inches of snow And I saw Six inches of snow one time in Dallas Like the first week of January 85 that crippled the city and everybody fucking stayed in except for people riding Alaskan Malamutes over to the fucking 7-Eleven for some hot chicken nuggets. It was paralyzing and Houston is 250 miles south of that and they've got the forecast for South Louisiana, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Nalans all that they're going to get snow.

I was in New Orleans one time when they closed the schools because it was too cold. It got to below freezing. Below freezing was school closing weather 40 years ago in New Orleans. And they're going to get fucking snow. This was just below freezing. No rain, no snow. It got like 30 degrees. Oh, fuck.

Water pipes are bursting all over town. They had in world class, and I don't have the, book near me, and it doesn't matter about the date and the place exactly, but the first couple weeks of January in South Texas, they had booked an outdoor show. And they had to cancel it that the same year that I talked about snow in Dallas. It was like the same week, as a matter of fact, I think. Because they assumed that, yeah, we can run the high school football field in January in, I can't somewhere down next to Harlingen.

it's normally 65, 70 degrees. It didn't snow down there, but it was like 40 degrees in the daytime. It was too fucking cold to be out in your tights at night. But everything would be just fine. If there was six inches of snow, Buddy would have made every date that week. You know what his motto was, don't you? Was it no snow, no buddrow? If it don't snow, we can't go.

But that was right up there next to the next to. no hair, no flare, but times have changed since those Halcyon days. Did you hear now, when we talked about the shitty weather, I'm trying to lighten the mood a little bit before we get to the bad stuff. Did you hear about the National Archives, are looking to hire people? They're looking to hire people with a special skill that apparently is falling by the wayside with people that can't do this anymore, so they're advertising, they're wanting to hire people with this particular learned knowledge that they have.

You know what they're looking for? I have no idea what you're talking about, no. People who can read cursive. This was on the news. People who, because they still have all the old civil war documents, handwritten things in files of the last 250 years of democracy before it ended yesterday. You know, but isn't people who can read cursive. Don't teach it anymore.

And people who can read cursive, people who can fucking read, at least English. What do you mean that? How do you teach somebody to write without teaching them out of fucking right? Do they strictly mean cursive or do they mean like the old time-like language? Like, oh, ye maydie, I travel ye far. No, this is the national archives, not goddamn chapel at Notre Dame. we don't have shit from the 15th fucking century. This isn't medieval hear-yees and hear-yees.

This is goddamn Ulysses-Grant saying, yeah, we fucking kicked their ass over there in fucking Appomatics or whatever the fuck. Right? It may be old faded cursive, but they're just saying cursive, cursive writing. Well, here's the other issue. How much does it pay? Well, apparently the price is going to go up.

the fewer people can fucking do it. I'm gainfully employed here. I didn't investigate that aspect. That's the issue. If they're really having a problem, there'd be plenty of people that can read it, but they have to drop everything to go to move the Washington to work in the National Archives to do that.

Well, I assume that if you want to engage in the field of archaeology of manuscripts and things of that nature and get involved in curation of classic documents, that you might want to get your foot in the door. It's an entry-level position. You've got to be able to read. And you've got to be breathing. This is why Notre Dame's lucky.

Jack Pfeffer wrote in block letters. No problems there. Disdenite Christine Jarrett threatened to kill me. But seriously, is this why that young people, at least here in this country, are apparently fucking stupid? I don't know if cursive itself is that, I mean, again, I don't know how this, I mean, you're making it, I mean, you're making it's telling me no one's applying themselves to read cursive, it just sounds like no one's applying for this job.

No, they were saying that it is a dwindling skill in the overall population, which is why that they're putting out this plea, not just that nobody wants to work for us because we're a bunch of low-paying assholes. Again, I think part of the issue is this is one of those things that are a lot of schools, I don't know if every school. I don't know what the situation is, but at some point, I was taught it in second grade. And then, like, by the time I graduated elementary school,

I don't think they were teaching it anymore into any of the younger kids. I think it went away. Wait, what, okay, hold on here a second there, cowboy. Because I went to school along before you did. And I've been writing now and all of my life. And if you're teaching a kid to write, it's either got to be capital block printing the Jack Pfeffer method I believe they call it

in the in the scientific world or cursive how else are you going to write type it's teaching a fucking second grade kid to fucking type the teaching everyone you have spawned what do they do with your smaller spring offs

no she writes but she doesn't do any cursive they haven't taught her cursive I mean she's in first grade. Well, no, they're not going to teach her any cursing. They shouldn't teach your kids. She learns that by listening to the show. Yeah. Out of the years. But seriously, what does your daddy do? Oh, here, here's a tape. Play this. No wonder you can't come within 250 feet of that school. That's not true. You haven't confirmed that. Nobody knows it as far as we know. But anyway, I'm just, I'm amazed at what the

Fuck, people don't read now they don't write, and this is the shape we're in here. But if you need a part-time job and you're in the Washington area and you can fucking read, go to the National Arc. Well, what do they pay? You're in the Washington area. Get to fuck out of there. And by the way, if you are working at the National Archive, I have to think there are a lot of people working there are a lot of different people with expertise and different things. Where are they putting the cursive people in the basement?

You're not going to get priority seating or anything. We're not going to get an office. As long as they've got an overhead light so they can read the mounds of material that they are there to peruse, then I would think that basement would be fine. It's less distractions down there. You feel cozy and tucked in. It sounds like the person who drops their life and drops their job

to move to D.C. and take this job is going to hate their life. They're going to be stuck in an endless tunnel going nowhere. Well, but where else you're going to go, where you don't feel like that for the next four years? Not in the National Archives, I'll tell you that. But that's interesting. I didn't see that story. It's just, you know, there's a lot of things that when you went to school,

they taught you that they didn't teach me when I went to school. And then there were things that I learned when I went to school, they're not teaching my kids. It's crazy. I'm sure that the McMahon will fix it. I'm just about to say, I think somebody needs to fix these things, but then I realized that, yeah, the head of rewriting history department Linda McMahon, she's got so much experience.

I can't wait to see what we used to do next. And speaking of which, and I'm not going to browbeat it, but just so we are aware now, the pig that is currently officially squatting in the White House now, did you hear how he wanted to piss on Jay, I did piss on Jimmy Carter. Did you hear about this?

No, I know he was at the funeral. I didn't know he pissed on Jimmy Carter. Did he steal your gimmick from what you're going to do to Russo? No, no. He wouldn't even get up and walk his lazy ass over to the cemetery. No. The flag was flying at half staff over the Capitol, the White House, whatever the case, because of the 30-day period of mourning that is standard for ex-president,

and they're following the protocol. And he thought, well, that's disrespectful to him. This is what kind of self-absorbed pig. just as an excuse for a human being you can see what he is. It's disrespectful to me to have the flag down. So they raised it back up for the inauguration and then they drop it back down

which has never been done before. Nobody's ever even asked for it to be done before. But just a kind of fucking glory hog as a, I can't say person. As an individual, that's what kind of is, but also everybody, all the maggots were flipping out

and their heads were on fire when Joe Biden pardoned his son because he's a fuck up with a drug problem. I'm thankfully there aren't any more of those in the United States and the Republicans were trying to put him in jail for fucking millions of years for all these conspiracy theories.

But even then, they flipped out when Biden pardoned innocent people, Liz Cheney, Dr. people on the January 6th committee who might be and probably would be the subject of retribution for trying to tell people the truth about this fucking criminal succubus that they've fucking fallen under the spell of

and he didn't want them to be penalized so he pardoned them when dipshit when this criminal overlord takes over the first thing he does is pardon the January 6th in Surreact. legitimate, dangerous criminals that are already in prison. Sure, some of them were hillbillies that got carried away because they're suckers. But there's oathkeepers and proud boys and people who assaulted law enforcement and treason the insurrectionist. Whatever the fuck, they were in prison one guy for over 20 years.

Having been found guilty, dangerous criminals were taken off. the streets and out of the populace, but he pardons them because they were on his side. Here you go. I could list everything else, but we don't have time on the podcast, but this is

what you wanted, this is what you're getting, and more lunatics are going to be running more things so that more stupid decisions can be made in the future. But yeah, thankfully, the Law and Order Party has restored about 2,000 criminals with weaponry, most of them, back out onto the streets.

In the meantime, did we mention it was cold outside? It's freezing, below freezing. That's what you would say, yes. Yes, yes, below freezing. If you say it's freezing, does that just mean it's within that zone, or do you have to say below freezing? well actually you wouldn't definitely if you said it's freezing then that does pinpoint it into right at about 32 degrees

but if you if you say it's fucking just fucking cold well then that can encompass a variety of frigid frigid bone chilling all right here's another fucking day where I've got stuff written down everywhere and I watched

the shows in odd or but I wanted to mention something to you about something that I was doing because we talked about the negatives, my photographic files that now put the poor overworked feather bottoms he's helping me on another project

to scan these negatives and I said, boy, we don't really know how many there are, they're going to be. We found a place that can do at high speed, but they can't do it, the resolution that we need, but our in-house scanner can scan these things like goddamn NASA photographs where you can see the hair follicles and their beard. So we've got to get this in order somehow.

I didn't mention this to you. This may be news to you. But over the COVID-ridden holidays that I had, I put together at one of the books of negatives in sleeves. It is a big point. plastic binder that snaps open in a very authoritative way and it opens up and it's a three ring thing and you've got a hundred milar or whatever plastic pages that's the negative strips slide right in and you can you can turn the page as Bob Seeger might say you can you visualize what

I am what I'm cooking here I think so even with the Bob Seeger in the background well you have a good well it's my night moves I did a lot lot of this at night. But so now do this math with me. Each page, or each negative strip is there's four frames on it. Right? You got a

strip of negatives. You can imagine that the film strip. Right. Four negative, four frames on the strip of negative. And it holds each page seven of those strips. That's 28 per page, right? Right. And I did 100 pages. Oh, boy. So that's 28. 800 frames.

And if you look real carefully at what I started with, you can notice maybe that something is missing. Oh, boy. So we're thinking now this may be more in the area of 60, 70,000 frames. Wow. I mean, there's just no weight.

And it's obviously, we've talked about my trials and tribulations as a busy teenager and also trying to fucking keep this shit in order and it sat in boxes for years. So it's going to be a process, but something else you don't know that I've turned over to Mr. Featherbottom.

He's already started working on these things. I mentioned a while back, I mentioned the audio cassettes that I had that a fan from Memphis had given me that she had recorded in her home. In her bedroom late at night, watching wrestling. Oh, Fargo! It was Saturday morning at 11 o'clock. and unfortunately Aunt Fannie apparently was in the room also because I'd never had time to listen to those

I got them right before I got starting a business and kept them all these years I thought well 1974 and 1975 Memphis TV you know this is she's in suburban Arkansas but they got the live show 90 minutes I said what treasures may be on here so Hoshka's transfer to me said the TV is on in the room and apparently they've got the tape recorder sitting next to them on the couch

and they are like cackling like are you they were big she was a big fan of believe of Tommy Gilbert and Eddie Marlin and so Spoh go get him time do you hear the cross talk and it's a Saturday morning living room out in suburban Arkansas so the sound quality may not be

all to write home about but then I got him started on the ones that I started recording back in 1976 and he is so far reported that he doesn't know what fuck's going on because he wasn't even alive then and you know it's not like there's a run sheet with these things it's it's a cassette tape labeled wrestling June 14 1977 so he's just transferring it, but he said he can adjust the things with all of the equalizers and equilibriums they've got on the computer these days where they don't sound too bad. And the thing with these are not, again, a lot of them are not the complete shows.

Some of them are, got to be that way. We hope everything still plays. I was using some of those Sertron audio cassettes, if anybody's old enough to remember those because of the price factor. But there may be stuff here that doesn't exist anywhere else. Well, there has to be stuff that doesn't exist anywhere else in the world. The question is, as we go through it, will there be a clamor for its existence?

So you started recording right after the split? Right before the split. So do you have like the week it went down? I'm hoping that there's still, possibly, unless we were at Ain't Lola's. and but also I think I still have Nick Goulis conducting some of the local Louisville interviews because he did that until the split. You couldn't pry Nick Goulis out of that

Nashville TV studio on Wednesday mornings hosting all of the local promos for his towns except for Memphis. They did those live in the studio, but else he did everything else. It was insane. I remember Louisville Wrestling Fest, Tuesday night you have stole for one of the biggest cons

I've signed in many years, Headlined by that return grudge, NWA Southern Junior Heavyweight Championship. I mean, just on and on. I never realized that, that he was doing the local promos for Louisville up to 77. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Because that was his thing with the NWA placard on the desk and the nice chairs that and the curtain they gave. Because he'd been doing them at the, I forget what station in Nashville, but for decades. And that's what they did on Wednesday was the promos for the whole territory.

there an angle or anything specific that caused you to finally say, that's it, I have to record this in some way? Well, I think part of it may have been the bill to Jerry Lawler and Coyote Calhoun toward Thanksgiving issue of 1976 when it was on TV and on the radio. And I've got some tapes of the radio call-ins that Lawler did and et cetera. But I know that people today are used to all of this, but I don't think they understand what it was to home record something when you're 14, 15 years

old in 1976. And because there was no home video of any kind. In 1976, they had home VCRs and nobody knew it. You still had to be

like, you know, you still had to be a member of the fucking development team at Sony. and wasn't there a oh my god what was the cartridge vision that they had for a year that flopped right before the beta max came out 77 at whatever but nobody had home video and most people didn't know that it was a thing that could be had and were you an audio file as a teenager did you get into steroids steroids because I loved audio I really wanted my ear muscles to grow Did you get into stereos?

That's why I hear so well. Did you get into stereos and speakers and, you know, turntables and a microphone, things like that when you were young? Or was that, again, because everybody takes audio for granted, now that you could have it on the little box that you said on the thing. What I had in 1976, I'm 15 years old, was a tape recorder from, oh, God damn, I forget, what brand that was, it wasn't even a realistic yet.

I changed up to the Radio Shack brand was realistic. And I traded the one that I had in. My mom had got it for me when I was like 11 or 12. And I recorded, the first thing I recorded off radio or television was the local WFPL radio station, Free Public Library, took to broadcasting old episodes of the Inner Sanctum and the shadow and shit like that. And I would

listen to them and record a few of those with the tape recorder that was in front of me which basically you pressed a button and turned a fucking thing and it recorded through this Mickey Mouse microphone until you turned stop and that was basically it.

And that thing probably cost $12 and this is what I started because when in 1977 76, 77, to have home recording capability where you could either tape audio cassettes off of records and make your own custom mix tapes or have a nice stereo that people would come over and say, wow, it was a fucking $3 or $4,000 investment at that point. And that would be closer to what, $12,000 to $15,000 in today's money. so it's not like you could just do this shit at your house have i made that point clear i think so okay so i would it started with the old tape recorder and then when i realized the microphone wasn't even

a microphone shape thing it was kind of square it was unwieldy it looked like a fucking microphone you'd key down on a cb radio i got the realistic tape recorder for like 12 or 15 dollars and because I wasn't even making money on pictures yet. I just started. And, you know, use the microphone with the little plastic stand and I just kind of put it in front of the TV and I would turn the fucking tape recorder on. And to save money, at first I just started recording like the interviews.

And if I knew that somebody was really a notoriously shitty promo, I probably wouldn't even turn it on. but because the blank tapes over at Radio Shack here in lovely suburban Louisville we're like $2 or whatever well that's almost $10 and I make no money and in today's money is what I'm saying so I would save tape and just record some promos

but then later on as I started making money I might record more of the show but again this is something you never thought anybody would want to go back and listen to Lance Russell call a match that you can't watch. Now, God damn it, if there had been home video at that time, I would have been turning to crime to find a way to get in on that, but more on that in a second. But from that period from 76 through 79, as I said, as I started being able to afford a few more tapes and also just getting more interested.

I recorded more of the show until at the end. There's probably a lot of them that are somewhat complete, except for the goddamn commercials. I'd try to edit those out, but I had to be right there in front of the TV to record anything anyway. There was no timer apparatus. And then sometimes it was hard to find 60 minutes aside tapes. They were all 45 minutes, so you'd have to, right in the middle of something,

the fucking machine would kick off, and you had to do. to flummox and turn the tape over and hit record again. So we don't know what we've got, but we'll have something that nobody's heard ever since it happened, probably, because everybody knows all those tapes didn't get safe. All right, I'm looking forward to that. That should be interesting. You never got to go into like high five buys or one of the big major,

I don't know, what was it, crazy fucking Eddie? Crazy Eddie? well it's down here in the 70s at the big malls and some of the standalone stores the big stereo retailers they were so cool to go into as I got started making a little bit of money and started being more interested in music and there was no way to home video record wrestling

but boy I started getting into stereos and cassette decks and turntables and nice speakers. And at the time, as I said, it was a goddamn investment because you couldn't just go in and me, you know, they came out with boom boxes, what, in the early 80s? But even then for people who were into sound quality, you know, if you got a really nice setup, a nice cassette deck with the fucking LED peak meters and all the flashy shit was $300 in the late. 70s. So that's like over 1,000 today. And then you need

a nice receiver, which is probably a little more, and a turntable, which may be a little less, but then you wanted the stylus with the cartridge on it that picks up the optimum signal. And they had a whole industry around that, and the graphic equalizer, and then the big ass bugging stereo speakers.

And all these stores had a room that you could go in, that you could go in, that you could only go into with a salesman with you, where all the high-end shit was. And this was like the equivalent of today's, I don't know, plasma fucking 10-foot screens or whatever, but this was the best-quality cassette deck available and the best-quality turntable with this optimum speaker system.

And people were spending tens of thousands of dollars to have today what they sell out of a box at goddamn best buy. I mean, all the equipment was high quality and it would last forever and it was incredible if you wanted to put everything together and have your own home theater

and do all this shit yourself, but it was goddamn, that's one thing the price has come down on. You don't have to do that anymore. The amount of things you need also. Well, and my first VCR, the MagnaVox. Wade 50, 50 pounds with piano key operation on top.

And it was built like a tank, and it cost $1,000 in 1979 for a VHS recorder, which would be what, $3,500, maybe $4,000 today. And the blank tapes at three places in Louisville that you could get them were the T-120, 120, 120 minutes, two-hour tape was $25. That'd be like fucking 80-something bucks today. in the only few places you could get them. So you had to be sparing at first there. And then things started coming down as the war was on.

But it was a fucking investment that you couldn't make to just record shit, even if you had a fucking, you know, desire to at home back then, unless you were already an adult and gainfully employed. My father had a lot of home audio recording equipment. So he used to be able to record if there was going to be a concert on the radio or if there's going to be something weird on WFMU or WFUV, he'd be able to get it, he had a good antenna and he can record it. And then, of course, he had a top of the line stereo system and everything.

Was he of the reel-to-rear? Oh, yeah, that's how he recorded it. He recorded his audio on reel-to-reel. I still have all these real-to-reel things from the 70s in the early 80s. The first audio recording of me is on one of them somewhere. Well, we need to keep that hidden away. The cool thing in like the early mid-70s when I was starting to get just, I always loved movie books, entertainment, television, history of radio, et cetera,

all of that type of thing. But also they had a variety of services. We've talked about Black Hawk films that had 16 and 8 millimeter films of movies that were obviously truncated. They were cut down like eight minutes, gone with the wind. Here it is. But that was the only way you get home video. They had companies that sold audio of the old again, the Abbott and Costello radio shows or the InterSanctum or the Whistler or whatever.

And they had the option because many people at that point, the real dedicated audio files and the people that collected audio preferred reel to reel because it was higher quality than cassettes, but you could buy it on reel to reel or on cassette for like more money than I had but people that's that was home entertainment in the 1970s and all of a sudden we got VCRs

and fucking then we got cable and then we got pay-per-view in the next five or six years it's like what's the fuck and now people have forgotten you know you couldn't just hey record that well fuck it wasn't that easy that's why none of this shit's around I recently found some home video of a family get-together in November of 1985.

And one of my uncle's friends, and my uncle was probably in his late 20s at this point in time, one of his friends had a video camera, and he's filming the party. And one of the other friends walks up to him slowly and you see the sudden, he goes, does that have sound? Like he had no idea what it was. He had never seen a video recorder like that. People didn't have them in their homes until all of a sudden they did. Hey, one of the most frightening memories of my childhood, and it will move on to something more commercial.

My dad took home movies, and we still have all of them, and I had them transferred to video sometime back, but I have the actual original film also. But I still have the camera, and I still have the lights, and that's the thing. when I was in 1963, 64, when I'm two or three years old sitting in the floor under the Christmas tree on Christmas morning

invariably my peace and tranquility would be shattered and I would be mortified and scared because suddenly down the stairs would come six giant bright, hot fucking lights

encompassing the room just like the sun was exploding on me and my father's feet underneath that coming down the stairs and somebody saying Merry Christmas Jimmy and I'm a way the fuck of these oh my God it's so hot because you couldn't even take video

with a movie camera inside the house unless you had these giant fucking lights I've got this apparatus was literally two feet across I've still got it and it bolted onto the goddamn video camera that took 8 millimeter

you know film and it was big it was twice as big as the fucking camera and we had to hold it on the side to hold that up and the whole nine yards it was that was just to take home movies in your house and now everybody's a TV studio

in their fucking ass pocket that's a good I guess that wraps up our look at society right? Yes yes very anti-social about certain societal trends. I'll tell you what's going to go on that's very social. Folks, February, we've got to try to get some love back in the world, right?

If February is Valentine's Day, February is the month of love. And in February, you can either take a ride on the Midnight Express or get your hands on the heavily bodies. At Cornett's collectibles at Jim Cornett.com. Because starting Saturday, February the 1st, and it's noon Eastern, by the way, is the exact point. when these price changes will go into effect. Saturday, February 1st at noon eastern,

all of the Midnight Express and Heavenly Bodies tag team action figure sets $20 off their normal retail price, even the four pack. We're throwing caution of the wins here. And the other feature of this fine happening is that if you buy any of those tag team sets, which include, by the way, the personally autographed photos alongside them and potentially the books if you choose that option, then you will buy any tag team set and get any

of the remaining Jim Cornett action figures for 2495. And I say any kind of optimistically, because we now have been made aware that there's like 29 of the commentator play sets left and they're gone. And the pink and black breast cancer, by the way, we still send $10 every month for every, or $10 for every figure sold every month to the City of Hope. Those are trickling out.

So basically we're down to the final variant and Santa Corny, but nevertheless, you buy any tag team set and you get any of the Jim Cornette action figures, also for half price. I don't know what else we can do. This is as far as we can go. I think he's crazy already. And anybody spends $50 and over in merchandise gets a two-hour DVD

of classic wrestling from the 70s and 80s from the wrestling gold series, absolutely free of charge, stuck right into your package, wedged up there sideways, at some bitch. It'll be the unreleased best of Tex McKenzie. Well, as a matter of fact, I've got Tex McKinsey against Bulldog Bob Brown. and that was the long and the short of it. But anyway, Jimcornad.com, all the month of February, starting the first at noon Eastern and continuing through the 28th, you lied to me the other day.

It's not a leap year, so there will be no 29th. Brian was trying to cost you people money. I corrected myself quickly. I was wrong initially. Well, you knew I'd find out about it. I told you about it. The first one. That's because you wanted to be the first one to get me the bad news.

See? You just proved my point. All righty. Anyway, before we, see, again, I'm unprepared today. I've got things written down. I've got notepads. We've got stuff. We talked about that type of thing.

Before we go into the WWE's land of milk and honey, there is some other professional wrestling news going around the world of wrestling, including with personnel. And I guess we should start with the one I'll just bury myself with. and then we'll go from there. But did you hear about the controversy with Tessa Blanchard on the T&A live event, big event, medium-sized event, whatever event they held over the weekend?

Well, their events are getting bigger and bigger, actually, it seems like. But I heard that she wrestled Jordan Grace. I heard people raving about it because several people said we should watch it. Apparently it was Jordan Grace's last night in the company. And then after the fact... I've been waiting to see her last night in the company forever. I wish somebody had told me. No, I'm sorry.

I just kid. You may be about to see her start in another company you watch pretty often, so we'll see what happens there. But after the fact I heard about the crowd taking over, I still haven't seen the clip or the match or anything. Well, I'll just, I'll chime in here. And then we can discuss some of the other things that maybe you can inform me about,

but I did see this clip. I didn't see the match because, as I said, nobody told me about it. And I don't know that I would have watched it truthfully because of our time issues. But I'm interested in what's going on with Tessa Blanchard because I remember, how long has it been five or six years ago, maybe before she dropped out of sight and was exiled to, I don't know, a goddamn plantain plantation? in Guatemala, wherever the fuck she's been. I think it was just Mexico.

Well, somewhere another, the border has been impenetrable for her. But I remember saying, well, come on now. It's a serious topic. Out of nowhere. Out of nowhere, ladies a gentleman. A serious topic deserves some kind of somber activity here.

I said when I saw her, like I said, it's been so long, I can't even remember who it was against, but I said she's one of the best women's wrestlers I've seen and I don't know how long inside the ring. And she looked great and she was in shape and her work was

as I was impressed by her work enough to leave a lasting impression on me and then of course whatever the fuck was going on she got married to some guy and moved to Mexico because he was a wrestler down there and then she got unpopular with the fucking crew and the law

locker room was it there or was it in the United States or on some indie level all of the above maybe okay you know people don't like her and she's a racist for some off of off air

unrecorded not for public consumption interaction or argument or conflict that she's had in the locker room with some of the girls in the locker room they don't like her and so she has been basically in Mexico

for however fucking long and I'm saying what the fuck again some now people are going to say well cordet's going to take up with this racist guy oh blow me blow me blow me blow me when there's real shit going on in the fucking world blow me about this phony stuff you imagine and delude yourself to believing

but it I would think to the the WWE or to I would say AEW but they don't count they defy logic over business but for

the WW or for TNA or for some major company to ignore this girl who is obviously highly talented and capable of performing at a high level just because

the other girls in the locker room don't like her be somewhat unusual. I'm so many unlikable and unsavory people have been signed by companies in a past. So I was always thinking did did she piss them off somehow but she hasn't even worked there in the

WWE and the T&A thing I don't use their toilets. And I don't know I don't know how she left TNA before, but it's been years. That was an entire previous bunch of people running the thing. So it doesn't seem like she should have heat with the promotions. Have I missed something that has been publicly reported, Brian,

that you can remember. I don't think she's heat with the promotions. Tell me why she should have heat with any promotion? Then why wouldn't you fucking at least bring this girl in and talk to her and say, you know, get some preliminary idea of, are you completely nuts, or are you a normal person as maybe... Yeah, that's why she's in TNA now.

That's exactly why she's in TNA right now. Let's see how this goes. And, you know, again, night one is the problem. And again, I don't want to just dismiss because we'll talk about AEW's most recent issue shortly, the idea that if someone is so problematic in the back that them not being there makes everyone's day better and it won't affect the business one way or another,

that's something to think about but if you get past that her in ring has always been great and it was great apparently on this return match people were raving about it but yeah but the entire audience started chant i mean it was a loud chant from what i understand she's a racist and that's what i'm saying that's where wwe if they're watching to see how this goes you got to figure out of way and i don't know what it is or how you do it to get that fan base not to do that and other fans not to do that, but it's a difficult position. But why would these weasels do that? Why would you do that? Because you don't know this girl, you've never met this girl, and she's having a good match on a show that probably needs some of them.

And she's a racist, because that's an audience participation thing you can join in on, even though you have no factual knowledge of that otherwise what a bunch of other fucking people have said in the fucking locker room and I've talked about it a while back on a program when potentially the last time anybody heard anything from her

in what context was this going on was she coming in just screaming racial epithets at people and telling them to fucking lick her shoes or had it maybe been somebody just dropped her

on her head or fucking kicked her in a fucking face. What kind of heated exchange was going on here? What was said blah, blah, blah. And I'm sorry, we have Hogan on tape. You know, let's not pretend she didn't say. I don't even think she's denying that she didn't say these things. But I don't know what exact things, but. She threw the N-word around in a fight with another wrestler.

Okay. And in what context? did she just drop her on her head or kick her in a fucking face? Were they about to be pulled apart? Or is she just walking in that day going, well, you fucking stupid? But the problem is if that happens on top of other incidents, and again, when it came out, it was like one girl after another after another, yep, this happened to me.

She spit at me. We had an incident here. She bullied us. And, you know, again, if it comes to the point where removing the doctor from Malacca, room makes the locker room a little happier and makes everything run a little smoother and it's not going to hurt the business you have to think about sometimes someone's too big of a pain in the ass or at least you think they could be she got removed from those locker rooms now the the bullying thing I'm like unless she was actually physically pushing people around then the bullying

yeah the racial epithets thing is something different and again we need context but what I I'm saying is that this was shit that was in, it wasn't in front of fans, it wasn't at appearances, it wasn't on tape, it wasn't on audio, it was their personal interaction, and so is she probably, most probably guilty

of saying shit or having an attitude that she might not have had and thought better of it when she was younger? Yes, but why does that determine that these people who don't know anything about the firsthand situation, can

chance she's a racist on her debut in a fucking company when apparently they want her there and she is not at that point pissed anybody off yet why the fuck would you do that to somebody it's like she's been noted for being busted on the front page of the newspaper at a clan rally or making major contributions to the american nazi party but again you're talking about you're not talking about the w ewe crowd you're talking about t and a which is like a ewe or a ring of honor in the past. A dedicated fan base. Dedicated fan base that follows everything to the T on the internet.

So they're aware of it. A.k.a. Smart asses. That's the problem. This isn't something that's as simple as her working it out in the back with the girls that she offended or anyone who has a problem with it. That's happened in the past for people. The problem is the fans are aware of it. And at least the fans there, and I don't know where they ran,

the fans there really wanted to be vocal with it and if that becomes a thing, that's a problem. That's not a thing you want. You want fans to get. That's like the worst check. I can't think of a worst thing to have chanted at someone in the ring. I mean, that's a go-home heat kind of chant. But again, that's why that unfortunately,

the fan base for the little small niche promotions, and I went through the same thing with the Ring of Honor group in 2009, 10, 11-ish, is that they're so obnoxious with their indie-minded shit that it sometimes it hurts your talent or it damages your perception to people who might be seeing it or you or the company or whatever for the first time and go, oh, what is it? What the fuck's the matter with these people? And, you know, and that's, but it's a shame.

So the point is, if any of the girls that she pissed off had wanted to hit the ring and start kicking a shit out of her, that might be one thing. But for the fucking fans who don't know her have never met her and weren't around and believe what they read on the internet, good, bad or indifferent, whether it's right or wrong, it wasn't any of their business. And if they wanted to not react or not cheer or not boo or not do whatever they're supposed to do, that's one of the, but she's a racist. Come on.

What the fuck? There are other people actually in public and on, yeah. They just booed Hogan out of the building. They didn't chant. There's other people actually on video. But now maybe they've given them the idea of. Let's see what happens on Saturday night's main event. But, you know, point is, do you get my point that it wasn't necessary for them to do that

to this girl as trying to, I mean, very talented and trying to continue her career. and if she causes a problem in T&A, then that might be one thing, but she hadn't got there, or just got, just got there. I don't want to blame the fans for reacting that way, because if they don't know anything, and all of a sudden she just shows up,

and again, if she has to address that, and remember, she did release some kind of statement, remember she released a statement where she, like, apologized, but didn't say what she apologized for? Do you remember that? Well, in that case, then just apply it to wherever the fuck you want to apply it to.

But this was recent. I'm saying. I'm just thinking out loud now. She released that statement a little while back. Now she's in TNA. TNA has to deal with WWE. Again, it all comes back to what WWE is seeing.

And I don't know if it's as simple as you book her to save an African-American baby face in the ring and all of a sudden they're friends. I don't know if it's that simple. It's because of the fan base. And they're not going to just all of a sudden shut out what they've heard. These fans run with what they've,

heard and we'll see what happens there, but that's TNA's problem right now. Well, speaking of other talent relations issues, apparently now one of the people that will not be getting phone calls from Tony Kahn and that we will not be seeing on television in the very near future and potentially even the far, far future, is Dr. Britt Baker DMD. She has been basically she has been

exed from their world like a member of the Manson family because she's hard to get along with

another talent relations solution to the problem just don't talk to her. Is this what's happening?

What are you saying is a solution to not talk to her? I'm saying it's another talent

relations solution of theirs. They're just not going to talk to her. do her. She's just gone home. From AEW, apparently. And again, this is in line with things we've been hearing for a while. One thing came out very publicly, if you remember a few months back, with MJF. I think it was MJF versus Will Osprey. They had a great match on TV. And the word was

that Britt Baker was in the women's locker room or in the back tearing it down. And how come they don't get enough time? She deserves more time, not this. and it led to an incident, a screaming match of sorts. But that wasn't the only thing. There have been rumors about her and Jamie Hater. Everyone wondered, why isn't Jamie Hater doing something with Britt Baker now that she's back? Apparently there may have been some issues there.

Because Jamie Hater hates her. And those are kind of the thunderosa stuff. I mean, that's been out there for quite a while. I think even some people who visited the locker room or worked one date or something. Lufisto. You know, there were these issues about the AEW women's locker room

and for a lot of the issues around the locker room, Dr. Britt Baker kind of put herself front and center because of her relationship with Tony. And I think... Well, now we... Because close friends, close person friends. I don't mean anything...

No, no, no, no, no. I don't mean anything... I'd be surprised. Wait, yeah. You may want to call Manscaped. I don't know. You may need some help, doctor. I don't know.

I didn't want to ruin our credibility in a variety of levels by insinuating that that was... But she was an early AEW person who, when they were a very close-knit group, she had a good friendship with Tony Connie, hired her boyfriend at the time, Adam Cole. And there are certainly people that thought

she got very cozy in her relationship and her position in AEW. And part of the other issue is she kept getting hurt, I'm not this isn't one of the issues with her behavior but if you're looking at the bigger picture about her versus other stars and hey you don't just you know freeze out stars you know they they paid her while she was hurt and we're sure that they you know took care of their medical but the point is life goes on you can't grieve forever and she's not really riply yeah she's not even Sasha banks like she's not well yeah but other people rose up to take those places

while they were still they were not ignoring young dr baker However, Dr. Baker may have still thought she was the queen of the castle. No matter what town that castle was in, even if it was half-filled or a quarter-filled or... If it was a bouncy castle. Whatever it may be. And A.W. is a changing company right now. And the women get a lot better when she's not around. There was an incident, I guess, where Serena D.

Remember her and Serena D. were briefly doing something. I've tried to put it out of mind. Well, Serena D apparently was like on the platform, I think, and Dr. Britt Baker was in the ring, and this is the last thing of Dr. Britt Baker on AWTV, I think. She said, who cares? Or nobody cares. Nobody cares.

Nobody, oh, that's when Serena came out, when is she waving her flag of... That's right, that's right. She's from the Isle of Malta or wherever the fuck. And, yeah, nobody cares. Apparently nobody cares for me. So again, reports started emerging that kind of were completely in line with everything we had heard. And I guess the new wrinkle is that she's being, I don't know what you call it, mirroed.

I don't know what you call it. You're home and you're paid and your contract's going to keep running. They just don't call you anymore. They don't call you anymore. And, you know, I don't think they're going to fire her. I don't think they want her doing interviews. I'll tell you that right now. The last thing Tony Con wants is Britt Baker doing interviews with her thoughts about AEW.

Whether they're true or not, that's the last thing they want. You know, I'm sure right before she re-books Rogers and O'Connor from Chicago in 61, she can give an excellent fucking dissertation on what's wrong with AEW. She was suspended over the summer, right? That was the MJF thing. She got suspended right before Wembley, and then she had to wrestle Mercedes-Money at then she disappeared again. Well, you know what?

They discovered when she got suspended that things were so much brighter, that everything tasted better and everything smelled better, and it was just a new way of looking at life when she wasn't around to yank their teeth. According to Sports Illustrator, I have an article here. She's wrestled just two matches since her TBS title shot in London. Most recently she defeated Penelope Ford on the November 13th episode of Dynamite That's when she was confronted by Serena Deeb

On DDP's YouTube show She announced that she's been off TV due to outside commitments Here's a quote I'm filming some fun stuff Can't wait to tell everybody what it is It's on the down low for now But it's really exciting and it's cool It's really cool.

I think people will be really excited about it. And of course she apparently has a role of some sort in season six of Cobra Kai with Martin Cove. I know someone who's friends with Martin Cove. Maybe they could ask. He's a nice fellow.

I'll see if I can get to scoop on this. But, well, you know, it's another thing. Outside commitments, that actually, if you had technically been picked up by the by the fucking county and committed you that would be an outside commitment

so we don't know what she's talking about there but has anyone's has anyone's stock fallen as far well that's and Tony con's eyes let alone ours in the women's division there like Brett Baker that's what I'm saying is how again this was what they were building around remember she was the original top baby face because and and I thought

and they could have gone further with it in a more professional tone but she's a professional person she's a medical professional she's educated she's purdy you know you could you could run with worse than that as the face of your women's division but then they switched her heel

and she twisted to win for a week or two and then potentially her natural personality came through maybe they were ahead of us on this, Brian, and they knew when we thought they were crazy for switching her heel, they said, no, you ought to know her. If you just met her, you know why we're doing this. But, you know, did she think that it was all going to last forever?

Or why is she so hard, I wonder, to deal with? Because, you know, it's not like she's replaced Wendy Richter in the pantheon of, you know, pivotal female figures in the wrestling business, is it? No, and that's the thing right there. She's difficult. At least some people see her as being difficult to work with. Like pulling teeth, as they used to say in the locker room back in my day.

Like pulling teeth to work with. And again, when people talk about WW or NXT, I just don't know if the work is there with her. And I think she's been, to the best of Tony Kahn's abilities, which aren't great, she's been kind of covered up. And they've hit the weaknesses with her more than anyone else. Notice how many promos were in the back pre-tape because it may not have worked as well in front of the crowd. And her matches would fall apart often.

Remember one time she ran to the wrong corner? Well, yeah, but that was covered up by so many of the other matches falling apart so often. Yeah, the tooth and nail match. Remember that? Oh, we instituted a rule forever. And somewhat to this day of not watching Britt Baker matches because, and big swole. but fortunately that's become easy. Easy as pie to not watch her.

Yeah, and now every participant in that match is gone. Or, well, I guess Brett Baker's not officially gone. But that's the other thing. I bring up NXT. I don't know if they would, you know, what are you bringing in? And if she wants to go to NXT or WWE, you'll likely have to give up your dentistry completely. It's not like AEW where you, yeah, go play around with that on the side.

Oh, well, I thought that would have to be a deal breaker then because, you know, I can't imagine Dr. Britt Baker giving up servicing other people and their dental emergencies. She's a she's a lifesaver. I'll leave it at that. Dr. Britt Baker, that's the Dr. Britt Baker news, though, Jim. Is there any other news before we move on to new news? Oh, well, there's a couple of things. Oh, are they doing something over in Uncle Dave's homeland over in Japan?

understand the companies are getting together? I have a story here from Fightful by Skyler Russell NJPW, pro wrestling Noah, TjPW. Wait a minute, hold on. TjPW, what is TJPW? Well, we'll figure that out momentarily because it's an honest. And more, hold press conference

for official recognition of United Japan Pro Wrestling. And there's a photo here of all the executives and hairdos from the current crop of Japanese wrestling. Do the front office people have the hairdos like the boys over there

do now? What is going on with people's plumage over there? Some of them are front office, I would assume, but United they stand. On Monday, January 20th, new Japan pro wrestling led a press conference and announced the official creation of a new incorporated association.

United Japan Pro Wrestling. Hold on. The official creation of a new incorporated association. So what, it's this translator thing again, isn't it? I don't know. It says here that the guy wrote this. I don't know. Well, along with New Japan Pro Wrestling,

promotions such as All Japan Pro Wrestling, Big Japan pro wrestling DDT pro wrestling Dragon Gate Ganbar pro wrestling G-A-N-B-A-R-E Ganbar

pro wrestling Kiyushi-R-R-R-R-R-R-Restling Noah Stardom and Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling were all announced as participants in the partnership

Gleet and Marigol were nowhere to be seen. Gleet and Marig. Led by Chairman Sanchiro Takagi, the goal of United Japan Pro Wrestling is to, quote, support the people of Japan through pro wrestling. What? How are they going to support the people of Japan by buying tickets to see our wrestling shows?

and show the strengths of pro wrestling to the world. Takagi also noted that the creation of UJPW was inspired by the challenges that the pro wrestling industry faced during COVID-19 pandemic. Not the COVID-19 pandemic? Just like, again, translation maybe. Here's the press release. A special press conference on January 20th.

No one begins a press release like that point. A special press conference on January 20th saw the official recognition of the United Japan Pro Wrestling as a general incorporated association. The legal designation of the industry group strengthens governance and enhances public transparency, as well as allowing for more freedom in the scope of UJPW, while maintaining the commercial activity is not a core goal of the association,

which is a non-profit organization. What the... That's the problem. Too many of the Japanese pro wrestling companies are non-profit organizations. Not-profit organizations. Yeah.

Shared by San Shiro Takagi, the press conference explained the move to incorporation and its function in UJPW's mission statement once again to support the people of Japan through professional wrestling

and show the strengths of pro wrestling to the world. Takagi recalled the thought process behind UJPW's establishment. This is everything I just read here. Currently, and these are the same people I just read and remember, there are seven

requirements to join UJPW. And what would they might be, for example? An organization to be regularly running an active promotion in Japan. That's rule one. Two, to be a... Wait a minute. Isn't that like if you're breathing?

Well, that's the groundwork. To be in our organization, you have to be in business. Rule two, you have to be a legally recognized company. Rule three, you have to have at least one contracted wrestler working for you. Oh, good Lord. Rule four, you must have annual revenue of at least 50 million yen. Wait a minute, hold on here now. That sounds good, but there's a lot of them, yeah.

Can you type that into something? All right, hold on, because I was counting what my fingers here. 50 million. There's no K and million. Yen? Sounds like, again, a lot of yen, but as we know that there is a lot of the yen around. Approximately $322,000.

Well, now, if you can make $322,000 in a year with only one wrestler under contract, maybe you should be in this group. Rule 5. To have been established for at least two years. Hence, no marigold or glee. Ah, they're not old enough yet. Rule 6.

To have corporate compliance system in place for wrestlers and staff. And Rule 7. What the fuck does that mean? What? You have to have corporate compliance system in place for the wrestlers and staff. That means that there's a group of thugs making the fucking employees be compliant? I don't know, but Rule 7 to share in a vision of betterment for the pro wrestling space at large, even in competition with other members.

Takagi also explained a roadmap for supporting members of the association to join would be announced in the near future with the key, this is totally not making sense, with the key difference in barrier to entry being the annual revenue and contracted wrestling. distinctions are waived. Wait a minute. So they took out the fucking biggest barrier? Is that what you're saying? They waived the,

you got to make a couple hundred grand, and now just you're breathing again. Let me read that again. Takagi also explained a roadmap for supporting members of the association to join would be announced in the near future with the key difference in barrier to entry

being that the annual revenue and contracted wrestler distinctions are waived. So you don't even need a wrestler at that point. Takagi went on to discuss the broader vision of UJPW. The four central goals of the group, Takagi said, started with introducing more people to professional wrestling and elevating its status in society. In elevating social status, a core tenant will be charitable activities,

such as the support for no time. earthquake survivors expressed in the last year. Takagi also talked about more international efforts, explaining the need to introduce the world to the unique culture of Japanese professional wrestling. World? Meet Japanese wrestling. Japanese wrestling, meet world.

And using this as the basis to drive tourism to Japan. Takagi's fourth goal was to expand the marketplace of professional wrestling in Japan, with a vision to grow the entire. industry to double its current size within the next decade. Citing 1954 as the beginning of the current era of professional wrestling in Japan in the form of J.WA under Ricky Dozan, Takagi discussed a vision of, quote,

supporting the people of Japan as we approach pro wrestling centennial. Wait a minute, in 30 years. we got 30 years to do this. Well, they got a lot of time to help society. That's right. Takagi closed by discussing the immediate goals for the group, which will see further strengthening in regular meetings with the Japanese government, as well as collaboration between member organizations on policies for health and safety of wrestlers.

We end with a quote from Takagi. We look forward to your support and understanding in our ongoing mission. And there it is. A new day, a new face of Japanese wrestling. Obviously an exclusive organization to get into. You have to meet strict high parameters to be a part of this. You can't join unless you have 50 million yen. Oh, fuck, I only have 10.

Listen, we'll make an exception. You can join. Do you have any wrestlers? I'm looking for someone. Just join. Just join. We'll get you in. We'll give you a territory.

You can work, Yokohama. This is like the NWA, isn't it? Oh, my God. Except there are no territories. Everyone's just running the same building over and over and over again. Who's running the show today? I don't know, but we got to go see it to support the world. But the changing face of Japanese wrestling and the idea that this current form of Japanese wrestling

is what Japan should be using to show the rest of the world to boost tourism and cause the world to be better through the love of Japanese. I don't know what the hell is in. I don't actually know there was a lot of there was a lot of discussion there about what they want to do but not a lot of details about how they're

actually going to achieve those ends or does that mean that all the talent from these various companies can work on each other shows or they can trade or whatever. Why would New Japan particularly want to work with people

all the way down to Ganberry and Kiyushi what are they actually going to do? Or is this a board? Do they have some governmental heat? They said meeting with government officials. Generally, wrestling promoters don't want to meet with government officials, and it's not under pleasant circumstances when they do,

and they don't want to attract attention. Is there some issue that they think they can all unite and address? Mr. Prime Minister, please take this. briefcase. Please get Nippon TV to give us back a primetime show. We need primetime back. No, what they're going to do? I don't know what the hell this is. I think, unfortunately, Japanese pro wrestling is in a very sorry state, and there's a variety of reasons for it. And certainly, they don't have the foreign talent that they used to over there, because everyone's locked up to a contract here in the States. And a lot of the guys they get now would have been in the

the junior heavyweight division back in the day. Now they're the heavyweights. And there's very few people to take seriously. It seems like people creating American-style personas, or at least what they perceive them to be. And nothing really seems to be connected. And they're not making new stars. If anything, New Japan needs talent.

That Tokyo Dome show we read the results for is everyone that was on the show 10 years ago. Just older and less able to move. So you're saying it basically. the Japanese wrestling scene is almost exactly like the American wrestling scene, except that the WWE is kind of bubbling up above the fray and minting money. I think WWE is to facial hair, what Japanese pro wrestling is, to the buffant. I'm going to have to draw some kind of diagram on that, the facial hair and the buff.

Well, you know, I'll tell you, folks, if you think that they ought to get in another kind of business, we got a business for them. Brian, would you like to know what kind of business I think the people ought to get into? I certainly would. I don't even know. Yes. The Shopify business. Yes.

Because if you get in business with Shopify, you know what's going to happen. Right off the bat, you're going to hear that cash register. Do the children know what a cash register is, Brian? Do they understand that when you heard that sound back when you were in a brick and mortar store and you had a buffon hairdo and facial hair? you were servicing the customers yourself, that every time you heard something like that, it meant that somebody had given you money.

And for that, you were eternally grateful because elsewise you'd be out on the street or suffering under an alcoholic husband who mistreats you and gambles and steals things. I mean, you know, you could be Mrs. Wheeler at Wheeler's ready to wear and be a kindly old lady with a fucking carbuncle on your neck. But when you heard that sound,

you knew that you were making money and you were going to live another day and that's what you need to think about now folks we need to start figuring about how to make some money not only around the country but around the world and that's what shopify is and does for you they're around the world they're all over the place they cover the globe thanks to the interwebs that they're all connected to and here's all you got to do is you've got to take an idea or a product or a service or something that you've want to sell. Maybe it's sand on the beach in Hawaii or ice blocks for igloos in Alaska, whatever it may be. And you go to Shopify and they will take your idea and they will sell your stuff and you will hear that sound. Boom. And then you will be living on a Pacific Island with your feet up sipping a Mai Tai or a margarita. Or possibly while you've got Margaret tied up, you'll have time for yourself. And the best time to start your new business is right now before everybody else to the world loses all their money. They've got money now. You want to take it from them. And Shopify makes it simple to create your brand open for business, get your first sale.

They can get your store up and running thousands of customizable templates with no coding or design skills required absolutely no codes. Fuck that type of thing. We trust people here. We don't have to put our communications in secret code and lock it up like it's a government secret. They're going to take your information and just put it everywhere, out where people can see it so they can come and buy things from you. Again, the information that you want public, you choose what information is public with Shopify.

Well, they're going to take all the public information. They check the walls in restrooms at truck stops. They get everything that's out in public. and then they just put it out there for the world to see and all you need to do is drag and drop well it'll be a drag if you get dropped by Shopify because they're going to make you a fortune you're going to be beholden to them

because they're powerful social media tools let you connect all your channels to create shopable posts and help you sell everywhere people scroll somebody's going to be looking at their computer or their phone and they're going to be reading something on a website and all of a sudden, boom, up pops your face saying, hey, buy my shit, or I'll get off this screen.

That's not the way it works. It's a passive, so it doesn't bother anyone experience. No, everybody's going to have you saying, spend your money with me and I'll get off of your screen. They're going to put you up everywhere because they got all the tools to connect with everybody's channel, and they'll hold those channels hostage. Shopify makes it easy to manage your growing business. they'll take care of it, stay out of their way. And what happens if you don't act now?

Will you regret it to your dying day? What if somebody beat you to the idea that you had that could make a million dollars? Such as, you know, Brian, I had an idea once for a universal solvent, but I just couldn't figure out what to put it in. Well, Shopify can help you fix all of these things and you'll be selling stuff. Boom, regularly.

For your business to be established in 2025 or become profitable if you've just been a spinthrift and a waste drill up until now, sign up for your $1 a month trial period at Shopify.com slash JCE. That's all lowercase now, JCE in lowercase to get the wink wink, the deal, $1 a month trial period. It's a dollar for how bad can they be if they were rotten? Shopify.com. slash JCE to start selling with Shopify today. You know, Brian, that's a word

once you hear it, you can never forget it. Shopify. It's right on the tip of everybody's tongue. Speaking of tongue tips, should we talk about the... Where are you going here? Well, the Smackdown, San Diego sellout. That's a tongue twister, if not a tongue tip.

They were in San Diego. They were sold out for Smackdown. did it suck? That's what we're here to find out, right? I guess that's what we already would know, and we're here to reinforce it. Well, no, no, we're here to find out if it's up. We're going to give this thing a day in court.

We're going to present the pros, Nikons. Okay. And let the chips fall where they may behind the Buffalo. In this case, it'll be the Nikons, but yes. Yes, we're going to go over the pros, the people on the roster, cons, the people in the office, and I guess that means the fans are the chips that are falling where they

may. So on this program, again, this, the production, the announcers this time walked into the arena while old what's his name, the Italian fella, Tessatori, was

talking about, the Italian fella was talking about the history of the arena and things that had gone on there, the you know, the history of the place, and then they billboarded the show in the midst of the sea of people. I mean, it looks like a happening. They're the groovy hep cats that are really with it, Brian,

on this program from a television standpoint, don't you think? And as far as being in the arena, that's what fans love, the idea that you're near anything happening. So all of a sudden, they're doing interviews in the crowd. You have Jay Uso and other people coming through the crowd. Now the announcers are coming through the crowd. Yeah, everybody's in the crowd. You ought to see some of the things they did in the crowd back when I was a fan.

I'll tell you what, especially that that's back when you wanted a small house, so there wouldn't be as many people up in the back row of general admission. But I digress. So then, again, the entrance of Ray Mysterio. They're in San Diego. He's a hometown hero, the 619. And he declared for the Royal Rumble. And, of course, you know, got cheers for.

it and reminded everybody in 2006 he came in at number two and he won the thing. Not reminding people that was 19 years ago, but, you know, and in at WrestleMania, he became the World Heavyweight Champion. And Vince was cursing under his breath the whole time. Yeah, he probably didn't like that. But he put over the competition, but, you know, when he won in 06, he did it for a friend and the people started chanting Eddie, Eddie, because they're, they're, they're with it, they understand what's going on here.

That really is incredible, though, when you really think about how long ago it was that Eddie passed, it's 20 years. Like, it wasn't like in the 80s people were chanting for, you know, Yukon Eric or anything. Yeah, well. Not to compare the two guys, but just there weren't that many that you could think of guys that just died and the... But, you know, well, what did we talk about earlier in the program? The difference is home video and the ability to record things and see things.

when you want to and, you know, the mass availability of them in the documentaries. And besides the fact that they're, you know, in San Diego, which is Ray Mysterio's hometown, if they're fans of Mysterio, they'd be more than apt to know about his connection with Eddie. But all these fans can keep up with the history of everything from the attitude era. And then the 80s, they've seen enough that they think they know. and then everything's a mystery from that point further back. But anyway, the point is

Ray Mysterio's over this crowd. And then here comes Owens. Kevin Owens with the winged eagle belt and did you see what his shirt said or did you jot it down? I saw what it said. I didn't put the exact order. The Canadian son of a security salesman or something?

The Canadian dream, the son of a security systems technician. he's just but they've he's got to have that he's got to have that tongue and cheek business and anything he does

but they've hit on his personality where it doesn't make it phony and silly it just makes it you know he's odd so I kudos to them and his promo was that he respected Ray more than anybody

but since Kevin is the true rightful W.W.E champion, and he's never faced Ray one-on-one. He wants Ray to win the Royal Rumble so that he can pick Kevin Owens as the champion that he faces at WrestleMania, and they'll be in the main event and blah. And Ray says, I love competition, but you're not the champ. It's Cody.

But if I go on to win the Rumble, then this is what he, this was Ray's line. If I go on to win the Rumble and you win, I'd be glad to face you for the title. There was something in there that he left out a word or something, but what to fuck? They're still getting it. And Kevin's mad because he is the champion and he starts yelling at Ray.

And Ray say, you're delusional. You remind me of Dominic. Well, that was too much for him. He's crossed the line now. When you compare somebody to Dominic Mysterio naturally, Owen swings the belt, Ray ducks, they get in a fight. And Owens bailed. And of course, they come back, you know, later on in the back, and Aldous gives Ray a match with Owens tonight since they've never wrestled.

And then they start the story that they're teasing through the thing where Cody comes in and says, I'm not, I'm sorry I wasn't out there for you. I was back with medical trying to get cleared. I couldn't get the doctor's finger out of my ass in time to, But he got fully cleared and Aldus now announces that he needs Cody and Owens to sign an addendum to the contract for their title match. And Cody says, I'll sign it when Owen signs it. So now they're starting that for later on in the program. But Ray Mysterio, good baby face promo, receptive and large crowd.

And, you know, Owens is entertainingly bat shit at this point. without being too over the top like remember when he was losing his temper every five seconds as a baby face let's just fight let's just fight this is a little better yeah it's been interesting

especially when you think about where it goes on Monday and beyond that what do you think of the idea they've really made it something now that it's promo worthy to come out there and announce that you've declared yourself eligible how do they put it

They declare for the Royal Rumble. I'm declaring for the Royal Rumble. Of course, now, you know, when it gets up to a week out, they're like, well, fuck, you were indecisive before now, or I'm surprised they didn't book you in another match since you waited to make that decision. But it makes it mean something. It's a big match.

It's a big deal. It's in a stadium in front of 50,000 people, and everybody wants to get the shot at the title. that's the whole logic of the thing. That's why they started doing this to begin with. They're just doing it better now with building the rumble and et cetera. Let's come back to the Owens and Mysterio match

because that keeps a chronological order and then we will digress. But they head at the top of the 10 o'clock hour. That's where they had Owens and Mysterio and again they got the 619 chance and Owens was working like a heel. He's taking his time. He's working spots.

He gets the heat. Ray fights back. It's a standard formula with Mysterio. And then finally, Ray hits the 619, which everybody wants to see, goes to the top, and Owens gets up and pushes the referee into the ropes, which makes Ray crotch himself on the rope, and then Owens hit him with the power bomb boom, one, two, three. and but of course then as we know the afterbirth is the story

where Owens then shakes Ray Mysterio's hand he's like he's going to be all gracious and then he gives him the boot and goes for the packaged pile driver but here comes Cody because he's out of the doctor's office and they get in a fight and the referees and the agents and the frantic pull apart over the announced desk and boom boom and his chaos at ringside and they go to the break and when they come back there's aldous and cody in the back and aldous said enough is enough at saturday night's main event because now owens by the way is

previously said he ain't going to sign a thing till cody does cody same thing so at saturday night's main event you're going to hand over these belts and you're going to sign the amended contract and sean michael's is going to be the one moderating the contract signing this shit writes itself Sean Michaels will be the person to make sure that the title match gets in the ring and comes off without a hitch. Is that the first time that those English words have ever been uttered in that order before, Brian? That would be funny when they do the segment if he just turns to Owens and says, Take the bell, go home. Lose your smile.

So, but that happened there. your thoughts on this whole issue before we go backwards in time. I like it. You know what? They've made me interested in Kevin Owens again the last few weeks after I got really tired of him. It kind of coincided with him stealing the version of the wing belt they're using because obviously Mr. Perfect destroyed the original one in 1990. No, this is good stuff. And I like the idea that people are declaring for the Rumble. Top stars, legends, because I don't think you could say raise one of the top stars anymore just because of age and everything.

Right. But one of the legends, one of the living legends of, uh, WWE, good opening to the show. Well, but then a lot of the rest of the program

was after the original Ray and Owen's promo, we got Bianca and Naomi talking in the back. We got Naomi and Bianca wrestling the refrigerator and candy. We got a Bailey promo. We got Mia Yem and B-Fab talking to Piper and Chelsea. And then later on, we got Piper versus B-Fab or K-Fabe or whatever. Some people are not natural workers.

And they may be somewhat athletic in a volleyball or cheerleading way, so their matches look like awkward dance routines. and old K Fabe here gives that a whole new meaning. She makes the AEW women's roster look like Ria Ripley. It's just... And then we got Bailey and Tiffy for the last 20 minutes of the program,

so it was kind of like an episode of wow. We got Jimmy Uso against Carmelo, which Fatu and... Tama continued to harass Jimmy at and then we got to bloodline in the ring interview because after Jimmy basically fucking

got disqualified Carmelo got disqualified against Jimmy when Fattu and Tama interfered and then they laid out both of them and Solo came out in a red jacket that looked like he was a matri-D at a fucking 60s supper club and

he was getting booed out of the arena and as he was trying to talk and trying to talk they wouldn't stop booing they wouldn't stop doing and finally solo quit trying to speak and just walked out of the ring and left through the crowd and the announcers were trying to reinforce the idea well he's lost his confidence and he's not in control anymore

And then Fatu picked up the microphone and cut the promo. He's tired of the hate and the disrespect. I don't give a damn if you cheer us or boo us, but you will respect us. And I'm just getting started. Of course, then Thomas standing back there, can you say we? You bring me into it. And then LA night's music hits. And he hit the ring and jumped both of them and started wailing on him.

And then they stopped him. and they started beating on him, and then they played more music. And here came Brown Strongman. We haven't seen him since the last time he came back from when we hadn't seen him. Braun Stromen, for those of you that weren't here, the last time we saw him,

which was the last time he came back from the previous time we saw him. That's right. And he took out Tama and had a face off with Fattu and the people were into it. They wanted to see the two bulls, and Tama pulled Fattu out

and it'll have to take place another day. Yeah, they announced it already. Saturday night's main event. I'm looking forward to that one. Well, that's right. They did announce it, didn't they? It'll be that's another day. It'll be Saturday.

Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday. Saturday nights all right. You know what they should have done. They should have got the music. Wouldn't that be funny? They should have done. They should just say, fuck it. Because what Elton John's going to say,

okay, I'd rather this fucking off-friend show in front of 300,000 people has my... Actually, that may raise his antenna. It's probably just right now with AEW, it's just one of many licensing deals. If all of a sudden, WWE tried to swoop in, then it's like, wait a minute, what's going on here? Why are all the wrestling companies trying to get my music? Will they take Crocodile Rock? Well, as a matter of fact, maybe that's what Tony could switch to.

He could get Crocodile Rock and... I was thinking more Goodbye Yellow Brick Road for... I don't know. Anyway, and yeah, and that was pretty much Smackdown, wasn't it? Bob Euker. They had a package on Bob Euker. Were you a Bob Euker fan, Brian? Absolutely.

100% not really from baseball because I didn't watch Milwaukee Brewer games or listen to them here in New York. And when I saw them, it was back in the day on WGN, it was the Cubs feed. But as a personality, when I was a kid, he was on Mr. Velvadier, on ABC, which I to watch. And he was in Major League, which is the best baseball movie ever made. And he had just memorable line after memorable line. And his talk show appearances going back years later, because I never saw the original

airings. Well, he's incredible. He's funny. And, yeah, I was a fan of his. That's the thing is, I knew him, but not from baseball, because he, in the 70s, he was always on the Tonight Show. and he was always on Johnny Carson and Johnny would introduce him here

Mr. Baseball Bob Euker and because I didn't know anything about baseball and didn't give a shit it was a while before I realized that they were making fun of him with the Mr. Baseball because that was his gimmick that he was one of the worst players in the league but then he became a broadcaster and an announcer and actor and icon and all that stuff

he leaned into it that was the smearly. He leaned into it. That was the smart thing. He leaned into it and developed lines. He developed bits about how bad a player he was. It was brilliant. And as a kid, my dad taped WrestleMania 3. So for whatever reason, two years later, when I became a wrestling fan, I had that video. And that event always has a special place in my heart.

It's WrestleMania 3, Hogan Andre. They didn't have the celebrity power of a WrestleMania 1 or just the balls to the wall. Anyone who's even close to a celebrity get them of WrestleMania 2. They had Herb and the old-fashioned Burger Lady and G. Gordon Lady.

That's right. The Herb from Burger King and the fucking, where's the beef woman? I mean, it was just the shit show of celebrities. They only had a couple for WrestleMania 3. Samantha Fox dropped out. Mary Hart from Entertainment Tonight

and Bob Yooker and Bob Yucer was perfect. They had him on commentary. He was sitting there at Monsoon and Ventura. It was like he was a natural. Was the build to that, the famous clip where Andre is choking him and his hand is so huge.

Oh, no. That's WrestleMania 4. That's the next year. They brought him back. They brought him back the next year. And that was for the tournament. And they did that bit with Andre where you, and you can tell just by his face as Andre's choking him back and forth.

his face kind of blows up like harpo marks or soupy sales he's leaning into it i mean that's what made it cool he was someone who didn't look down on wrestling he said if i'm here i'll make it memorable well we we uh send our sympathies out to the friends and fans and fam i don't know he was 90 years old does he have any family left maybe he's got some offspring but he's almost a hundred years old so he's lived a long full life even though he was a rotten baseball play And he worked until the last season. He was still commentating when the Mets played the Brewers in the playoffs. Well, I wish he'd have done better to where he could have retired earlier.

I don't think that's... Maybe enjoy his golden years. I think he loved it. I think he loved what he did. That's baseball. You'd have to love doing something to when you're 89 years old to go and fucking inclement weather and be around people and fucking suffer their stupidity. Plus it's the groupies.

well that's true i understand he was quite a uh a ladies man if it could happen for hugh hefner it could happen for bob yuker couldn't it well i mean money you know celebrity what well what do you think the idea the were the odds on bob yuker uh betting on the baseball games is he a secret pete rose or was he clean of this type of thing i think he's a hundred percent clean there's never even been an allegation i I don't know why you decided. Now is the time to accuse the late. Kindly old non-generalian.

That's right. Well, I'm wondering if you ever better because, you know, that would, and he knew a lot about it, so that would be a temptation because it's so easy now to place your wagers on the baseball or the football or the basketball or whatever sport is being played at that particular time. Now that we've got the ease and convenience of our friends at the Draft King's sports book. You know, they're an official sports betting partner of the NFL. That means that the NFL, much like the, you know, the Treasury Department ensures your deposits at federally funded loaning institutions up to a certain amount of money.

That's not what that means. They don't insure anything. Well, being an official partner, I would think that would mean, hey, if our friends over here at Draft Kings, if they take your money, we'll go get it back for you. I thought that was how they worked hand in hand. WW is not paying TNA's debts. Well, but TNA has so many. But you know, scoring touchdowns is key to winning in the playoffs, and it's also key to winning at Draft Kings.

If you score big by betting on them, and they're the number one place to bet touchdowns. Do you know that surveys have shown, Brian, that more average Americans bet on touchdowns with Draft King's Sportsbook than they do at any other Appleby's restroom in the United States of America, I don't know if that's true.

I don't even know why that would be a statistic that anyone would look for. Well, there used to be a thing going on here at my neighborhood Applebeast, but the DEA cracked down. If you're ready to place your first bet, try bet on something simple, like whether or not I will ever do a straight commercial or a player to score six. You can go to the Draft King's Sportsbook app and make your pick. If you want to score with a football player,

the people at Draft Kings can set you up. especially if you're a female, but, you know, we're not ruling out anything here. We are ruling out that they are going to be setting up anyone with anyone. It's a tight economy. You've got to do what you can. It's an honest economy. Don't tell people they're going to be getting free dates that may cause problems. Well, I didn't say free. And new Drap Kings customers can bet $5 to get $200 in bonus bets instantly. So right there, boom, they're, they're hooking you. You spend $5, they're going to give you $200. You'll be eternally grateful to them.

You'll win a fortune. You'll live a life of religious fulfillment. One of these days, they'll ask you for a favor. But folks, right now, download the Draft King Sportsbook app and use the code JCE. That's how you get the $200 in bonus bets instantly when you bet just five bucks. That's if you're a new customer. Draft King Sportsbook, use the code JCE only on Draft King Sportsbook. can't use it other places because it might not be good.

Now, some of our other sponsors have that code, but you won't be able to place wagers with them. Draft King's Sportsbook, the crown, is yours. That's right, it's yours. Do we have that tape in yet? You know, it'll be probably at least one more time around the horn, as they say in sports. Well, I'm getting a little horny for it.

Are you ready? You're not ready? I was trying to hold back from making any gambling jokes. I'm ready. Okay. Gambling problem? Call 1-800 gambler in New York.

Call 877-8-8-Hope-N-Y or text Hope-N-Y-4-67-369. In Connecticut, help is available. For problem gambling, call 888-88-88777-7-7-7-7. Or visit cCPG.org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boot Hill Cascee. and resort in Kansas. 21 plus age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction.

Void in Ontario, bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance for additional terms and responsible gaming resources. C-DKNG.g.com slash audio. That's right. The crowd is yours. That audio. Audio, audio. Well, while I take a hit off my oxygen tank, Brian.

Why don't you tell the fine feathered fiends out there What's going on at the Arcadian Vanguard network this week? You were doing that. It's about to think I hit off something else over here. The Arcadian Vanguard Podcast Network, Wherever you find your favorite podcast, of course, Facebook.com slash Arcadian Vanguard and, of course, on Twitter at Super Podcasts.

Don't forget the wrestling news each and every day. Get your wrestling news for free. Everything that's happening. Find out every morning. Get it for free, the wrestling news. directly from the wrestling news.com or wherever you find your favorite podcast. Please stop laughing behind me. Will there be any wrestling news involved?

If there is news, there is one place to find it, no matter where it comes from, you can hear it on the wrestling news. And of course, listen to Stick the Wrestling with John McAdam. A look back in 1985, 40 years ago, McAdampod.com, or look for Stick to Wrestling with John McAdam, wherever you find your favorite podcasts. What about you shut up and wrestle? With Brian Solomon, wherever you find your favorite podcast,

S-U-A-W-Pod.com. If you like Smart Wrestling History Talk, shut up and wrestle with Brian Solomon, wherever you find your favorite podcast, and of course the 605 Super Podcast. The Mothership! I'm coming in loud, sorry, Jace, I'll try to see what I could do.

Go through the archive, 605 pod.com. The Mothership. Sounds like the funeral march of a marionette. could you play Alfred Hitchcock? I said Alfred Hitchcock, not Sparky Anderson. Oh. All right. We'll get there.

We'll get there. Hopefully I won't be on that trip with you. All right. Hey. For Raw on the Netflix, January the 20th, they were in Dallas, Texas, at the American Airlines Arena, not really, Union Arena.

That's gone by the wayside with the big new building. 15,572, another sellout. They were sold out in San Jose the other night for Smackdown, sold out for Raw in Dallas on Monday. And again, you know,

the show comes on the air now with the Netflix presentation. They've got great graphics, the crowd shots, the arena lighting is scaled up, everything looks big, and you see all those fucking people. And passed a quick thing where during the walk-in of the talent, the refrigerator, she attacked

Ria Ripley and beat her up on the walk-in, but then they basically just go into the arena and Jay Uso, who comes in in the waving, and the yeeding, and the whole place is going nuts or neats. and needs over the yeats It would be nuts You don't change the other words It's not like speaking of Karnie

Well, I'll change any goddamn word About my nuts I want to They're my nuts It's not Karnie here Fucking Riggie Morton Every once in a while A new guy would be sitting in the locker room And Riggie'd be sitting there next to him

And Robert Gibson would walk up And Ricky'd look up and say Hey Robert, show so-and-so, you're nuts And Robert would lean down And put his thumbs in his ear and go, blah, la la. But anyway, so... The innocent old days of pro wrestling.

I watched this program in a few pieces because now they're not on real television anymore. They've taken a bribe to go over to the streaming. And on Monday night, I was going to try to watch it live because, as I believe I've mentioned, my trials and tribulations with, not only is there no on-screen fast-forward ability that I've been able to determine on this Netflix business.

So I don't know how people find where they're fucking... going to, but also on the TV room television. I can't figure out how to do most of it at all on that remote. So I didn't want to spend all morning on Tuesday morning in the bedroom using that TV to try to skip through a lot of this shit. So instead, I was trying to watch it live again, and I figure, well, if I start it later on, I can skip the commercials. But when I started it like at 8.30, it was already goddamn, it didn't start from the

beginning. It started right there and where it was. So I saw the last hour and a half and then I went back to the following morning and I found the first half hour. Well, you have that option. You have the option to go to it live or start from the beginning. Well, it's all so complicated. Push the button. On TV, it's just you got your cable remote, you hit your DVR and you hit the thing and it starts right from scratch. There's so many, just, there's hoops you have to jump through. here on this streaming stuff, Brian. It's very unwieldy. Well, it's getting easier by the day, so that's a good thing.

Oh, man. Easier for you to say. Because I ended up watching it last night and going back and watching a couple things today, and today, when I went back and watched it, no commercials. Fast-forwarded through it and rewound it, no commercials. Well, that's what I was trying for. But then later on, when I paused it to go get something else to eat and, and, attend little Harley Quinn's needs. Then I started missing commercials later on,

but that was when I watched the last part of the show first. But we're talking about the first part of the show now, right? Yes, because we're going in the order of the show, not in the order you watched it. Yes, well, that's what I was trying to do, till you interrupted me. But this is your show. Well, that's...

Remember that. So anyway, Jay Huso was out there, and all he has to do is do the entrance, and they're going crazy. and as soon as he started to talk, boom, here came Gunther. And, you know, and now they're booing again. Nobody has to even do anything.

And the building's full, and they're fucking screaming. And Gunther comes out with a suit and no socks. What a heel. And they're promoing their match at Saturday night's main event, which was set up basically because Jay wants the world title. And Gunther has disrescently. expected him. He laughed at him.

Are you serious? And he doesn't consider Jay any competition. And again, Gunther, what a heel. He says, you know, you really are a funny little man. Acting like the company mascot for all these fans

here. He's got an amazing way with phrases, doesn't he, Brian? And go ahead. He's used it more than once now. Well, that's because it fits. And then he said,

when your cousin Roman whistles or Jimmy needs you or Sammy or Cody, you're a useful idiot. But I'm going to expose you as a flash in the pan. This is the way you knock a baby face. You don't come out there

and you talk about all the shit that's really the matter with him. How that he looks like a fucking concentration camp survivor if he really does or how he you know is old if he really is or how the people don't give a shit about him if they really don't

Gunther looks down at Jay because he's one of the common people he's helpful to his friends he's you know he's all these fans you like to yeat and wave you're just a flash in the past that's the way you knock the baby fae you don't say your mother is a Canadian call girl and your father sold secrets to the Nazis or whatever. And the fans are yeating like crazy at this. And then Jay says, hey, again, you're telling the truth, dog.

I am the mascot, but this is my team. He points the fans and they start coming up. And he turns all that stuff around to get the fans behind him. So I'm going to do this for them. You're going to respect me because I represent. at them, boom, it's perfect. And Jay said, you're going to respect me too because only one of us

ever main event at WrestleMania and it wasn't you. And that's when Gunther's head all he had it. Now that's just, again, a bridge too far. And boom, Gunther jumps him, but Jay turns it around, hits him with a super kick, Gunther rolls out, Jay grabs the belt, lays it down,

dares Gunther to get it, Goethe's like he wants to get up there and then he reaches in and grabs it and takes off real quick. Again, Jay didn't have to talk, which is very much, which is always a plus. Gunther's a great heel. The people are into this issue like everything else, and they did enough to tease the people to watch the match on Saturday. So, you know, it's not rocket surgery.

or brain science, but they keep doing it better than they have in a long time and I would say better than the other guys are, but the other guys aren't doing it at all. Your thoughts, young Brian. Jay Uso excels in scenes. That's really what it is.

He excels in the scenes he has. Not really looking forward to the match necessarily. I think Gunther can corral him if anybody can. While the Yeats stuff is just, it's nonstop, if you listen to what he's saying and how intense he gets Jay Uso is still great in these segments and we'll see how Saturday night's main event is an interesting lineup this time

Ah, you sound like Mr. Burns there rubbing your hands together Saturday night's main event is an interesting lineup this time Why do we let's talk about that Well we'll talk about something else in a minute But anyway then we moved along in Raw New Day was in the back harassing JBL A new day are heels now and more on that here shortly

because we had to see Bailey and the refrigerator argue again and be introduced to some professional bull riders at ringside. Brian, we were on top of that son of a bitch. How did we know? We didn't want to come out and just overtly say it, but there was a reason why all of a sudden we were covering bull riding here on the show.

WWE, you got a problem. We know everything you're doing. We've got a mole all the way at the time. And you'll never figure out who he is. Not only is he a mole, but he's a bull mole. That's right, the worst kind of mole. Can't stop him. You know, I swear to God, if I'm lying, I'm flying,

and my feet ain't left the ground. Now that some of the snow and ice have melted in the backyard right outside the back door that gets all the sun, even though it's still been cold, we've got a bare area and a goddamn mole got stuck under the ice and could not get through it and has gone everywhere in a panic

all around our sitting area right up next to the back door around the little fire pit thing it's just every fucking where he couldn't get out when I was a kid there was a cheap

Sesame Street ripoff show on Nickelodeon called Pinwheel like is that a Burton Ernie they had plus and minus like it was just the cheapest ripoff wannabe Sesame Street but it was endearing in some bizarre way because I don't have to watch it anymore.

And they had a character, Molly the Mole. And at the same time, kind of had this, you know, unfortunate-looking, you know, not that she was like the form, but she was just not an attractive woman across the room. She had an unfortunate face. My father started calling her Molly the Mole. The Mole? Well, anyway, where were we going with that?

With Molly the Mole. Molly, well, the mole couldn't get out and Molly couldn't get back in. But now we're back to the match. So Ray Mysterio, he's on everything now suddenly. He's on, is he part of the transfer portal? Or are they just excited to have Ray on the show?

But he had a single match with Kofi Kingston with JBL on color. And I never thought I would say this. I like the new day. this is this it's a new day for the new day they came out and they said cut that music and turn those lights off we didn't have to see the bootios and the pancakes

they're dressed in street clothes the whole arena is booing the shit out of them and chanting new day sucks and Woods gave cofi the big introduction and the fans were into it and cofi's he's wrestling in jeans and tennis shoes

and they're full heels and we can no trombones so again a typical Ray Mysterio match in that he shines a bit at the beginning and then he likes to he likes to have the heel

cut him off where he can fight from underneath and get sympathy on this one did you see Kofi go for the power bomb and they were going to do a Rana spot and he lost him on the floor You know, I ended up not watching this match. Oh, and this was one of the highlights. Not this move, but this match, but

he went to power bomb or pick up Ray for a power bomb. They're on the floor, and they're going to do the spot where Ray does the Rana out of it, blah, blah, blah. But when Kofi went to pull him up, he lost his grip and lost him, and Ray did kind of like a front somersault landed back first on the goddamn floor.

and it wasn't a big enough bump that, you know, it would kill you, although I'm glad it wasn't head first, but nobody panicked. They didn't immediately go right back to the same thing. Kofi stalled and did a couple of basic things. And then they got in a different place and kind of went back to it and Ray Hurric and rounded him into the stairs. And that was their break spot. But nobody got hurt and nobody panicked.

And then they came back from the break, had a good match. And Ray went for the 619 and Woods tripped him. And the referee kicked Woods out of ringside. And then Ray did the 619. And went for the splash, but Kofi brought his knees up, got a two count.

And Kofi went for something, but Ray got a quick roll-up one, two, three. And then Woods came back out and they got some heat on Ray until here came the Lucha faces. What, whoever the fuck they are Joaquin and Joaquin was walking and Randy was running

but then the new day bailed out and then came back and jumped one face real quick and then ran out so I'm liking the new day as heels it's it's different and boy howdy was it time for it right I mean and you didn't watch them

you're prejudiced Brian against the new day because they used to like pancakes and you're a dirty pancakeite. Well, I don't know about that, but no, I saw the promo they did in the back with JBL and I was like, man, this sucks. They're still talking in such a fake way and I don't know. I didn't like that. So I said, I'm not watching this match. Well, baby steps, baby steps.

They got old habits die hard and most nuns can't afford their first habit. All righty then, moving on, Sammy Zane, happy to find out he's a, officially in the Royal Rumble, did the big in-ring promo, and by the way, now we're into the part where I was watching live as it happened. Actually, it wasn't live. I'd started late, so that was live. It's just, it was about 8.40 or so in the night.

And now I'm in the bedroom, and I'm laying there with my pad, Brian. You can envision me laying in bed with my notepad and my pen. Intently watching this program in a supine position, I'm going to start getting sleepy because it's almost 9 o'clock. So some of my recollections may be hazy, and as I'm looking at some of these notes, it kind of looks like when Jerry Seinfeld wrote down a joke

that he woke up in the middle of the night and wrote it down so he wouldn't forget it, and now he can't read it. But we'll soldier on. okay well you didn't watch the segment no I watched them I'm just saying sometimes my notes are a little you know I was nodding sometimes and my notes are a little incoherent so you know there was sometimes I would what happened that type of thing but anyway so Sammy's in the ring and he declares for the royal rumble and he does a great baby face promo about a wanting the world heavyweight championship

and blah, blah, blah. And again, he can talk. And he's over as that nice guy, the Mick Foley, that tries to get everybody together and, you know, sees the best in everybody and always tries to be the voice of reason. And they love him. And in Owens' music plays.

And the place comes up because now here comes this dickhead, but most of them know, because they've had such a checkered history that they're friends and a blah, blah, blah. It's not like they've tried to hide the fact that they've been longtime lifelong friends. So Owen said, I'm not going to get mad at you, Sammy,

because it's not the same as when Cody teamed up with Roman Raines, because you've forgiven me, you forgive others, you forgive everybody, you're a good person. And I believe that Sammy, that you're going to win the wrong. Royal Rumble and he gets all fired up.

Because then he says, I remember what he did on Smackdown. You know, this is the same fucking thing. Win the Royal Rumble and choose me. Well, we could accomplish all we ever dreamed of to main event WrestleMania for the W.W.E. title, you win the Rumble. And then you pick me and I walk out there with the W.W.E.

heavyweight title. Blah, blah, blah. you know, all you got to do, you win the rumble and I've got your back and I know that when I go for the WWE title that I know you'll have my back. If I need you, I know you'll be there. And Sammy's looking at him and like,

uh, so basically Kevin says, oh yes, we can main event WrestleMania for the title. All you got to do is win the rumble and it help me win the belt Saturday night at the main event. And then he walks out. and leave Sammy standing there without having answered him because Sammy's like, homo,

homina, but again, this is, now he's putting his friends in awkward positions and everybody wants to win the rumble. And Owens has an issue with Cody, but now because Sammy's probably not going to help him, that means that he's going to have an issue with Sammy,

but later on, Sammy's going to have an issue with Seth. Because of, this is great shit this is some Leo Garibaldi level shit here isn't it? Oh maybe beyond that it's interesting because if they're going to settle everything with Cody and Owens for the belts

the belt that wasn't there until all of a sudden he stole it I always said it the one thing I expect these two to get is their match at WrestleMania at some point is this the year that we get Owens versus Sammy at WrestleMania? Well they ain't getting any younger Yeah, you have to want them.

I mean, they're teasing something here, and unless Owens is going to win the title from Cody, and I do not see that happening. Yeah. I don't know. They're teasing something. Could maybe somehow something is, I'm sure that Owens is going to get offended at Sammy,

and that maybe costs Sammy the Royal Rumble. Sammy's not going to help him beat Cody. He said, you know, you watch my back, because I'm going to watch yours. So that means if Owens is not watching Sammy's back correctly in the Rumble, maybe Owens gets even with Sammy in the Rumble, and then, well, there you go, and now we got to go to Rasselmania. But then we actually had some more wrestling,

The Refrigerator against Bailey. For fucking ever. It was like Bailey was trying to work with a small two-bedroom condo. And I congratulate Bailey for, for going this long and getting this much out of her and not getting hurt, but this awkward parade float. I just, that long, I can't,

I zoned out. I nodded off. Refridge, one with the bonsai, one, two, three. And then it picked up because Ria Ripley came out, was all over the refrigerator, and they had a big pull apart with agents and security. Boy, at least when I was an agent, I never had to run out and break anything up.

people have thought, well, fuck what the fuck's Cornyette doing out there? He's going to fuck somebody. And they went all over ringside and the people are chanting, mommy, mommy, what do you mean? What's about? I'm a heel. I'm a heel. That's why they would think that. Not in a biblical sense.

So they say what Paterson was running out there. Oh, he was trying to fuck somebody. Yeah, that was in a more biblical sense. But, you know, when you get fucked in a biblical sense, that's when you know you've been fucked. but finally Rhea challenged the refrigerator for Saturday night's main event. So five days, four days ahead of time. Well, let's add another one.

But anyway, are we moving on, Brian, from this segment? Yes, we are. Yes. We had Judgment Day doing their dialogue, and then we had a package on Lyric Valedictorian, and then we got Pete Dunn, aka Butch, against Pinta. And again, now that they're going all

the way with this, with the lighting and the paro, and the people like Pinta, and they gave him all kinds of entrance and pomp and circumstance and the announcers are pushing him. They're doing it right.

Small opponents, Pete Dunn, is, you know, street urchin sized. And the opponents are athletic so they can do the stuff, and he's not going to look bad in that respect. And I like this match better than I like the debut match because he didn't start off with the nerves and flummoxing some things.

They still, they started out at 100 miles an hour like we got to get everything in. And it settled down a little bit when Butch started getting his heat. But again, I think, you know, he's settled down a little bit. He's a little anxious to wow everybody. but this was much better. Then Butch got the heat and then Pinta suddenly made a comeback and it's 18 things from 18 directions

and I don't know how Dunn was supposed to sell some of them. But he hit the, he being Pinta, hit the Canadian destroyer, the Mexican destroyer at a big dive, but then Dunn foiled the destroyer and got a two count and then they went more back and forth and finally

Pinta hit his finish one, two, three. And as I said, I think it was smoother. I think Gable did a better job because Gable's better than done. But Penta was smoother here. And again, as you brought up, the people are predisposed to like him. Again, Dallas is a major metropolitan area.

There's more liable to be people that know who he is and of his previous reputation. but they're pushed him on TV to the point where people should get the picture anywhere fairly soon. But I still think, to be honest, I'll say this and then I'll unleash you. It would have been better with his brother.

As a tag team, they would kind of look like a super team in this environment. They'd be like Jade and Bianca, they'd be on top. He'll be an attraction here as a super team. single, but you can't tell me I don't think he's not going to be on the main event level of the punks, the Rollins, the Drews, etc. Not only size-wise, but, you know, language barrier and experience at this style, it's going to take him a while.

He wasn't, he's not a natural American worker like Eddie Guerrero was trained to be by his older brothers who had already been established here, or, you're not. truthfully, the phenomenon of Ray Mysterio where he could just do any goddamn thing in the world flawlessly. I think it would have been better as a team, but they're still doing the right thing. Tell me what you think.

I think he's doing great so far, and I think he's been super over so far at two different markets. And, you know, sure, there are some fans that know him. I mean, that's how they know Cerro Miato right away. But this is two times in a row he got the ooh reaction. He got it the first time he did the Canadian or Mexican Destroyer with Chad Gable. You heard ooze.

He got that again here, and then when he did something relatively simple for Penta, the handstand in the corner, or the headstand, I guess I should say. Yeah. Same thing. Ooh, you never really hear that.

So, yeah, they're doing it right with him. So far, the fans are really into him. He's had the right opponents, and luckily, W.W.E. does have a good amount of guys that size. as far as Ray Phoenix goes, you know that's what they wanted. Yeah.

And Tony started, again, there's two different ways to look at it. Tony started fucking around with the contract. Tony said, I'm not doing you any favors. I've paid you for a lot of time you're out. I'm extending your contract. Apparently, Tony also just pulled down his merch, so we won't be getting any merch while he's sitting at home on the couch. I guess now the question is, how do they introduce Ray Phoenix one day?

because that day will come eventually. But right now they're doing everything right with Penta, and he's getting a great reaction, and he looks, look, he has a cooler look than the average Luchador. He just does, and, and if they don't fuck it up, he'll have a nice run, you know? Maybe Intercontinental Champion at some point, who knows? I don't see a main eventing, like you said, punk, Roland, no.

I mean, that's ridiculous. He's never going to be there. Could they, if they were a tag team, would they be on top of the tag team division? Yeah, I think so. Would people pay as much attention to them against the tag team division as they will him as a single right now? Well, but the important thing is he shouldn't be losing for some time and it's easier to go up the tag team ranks without racks without losing than it is the singles here with the amount of talent they've got at the top. Well, we will find out.

It's interesting to think about that, though, the Lucha Brothers and the Moto City machine guns. Lucha Brothers and even Lucha Brothers and DIY of it, that would tear the house down for them. Yeah, and maybe they could put a match, mask on Gargano, too, so we wouldn't have to look at that face. That could be the gimmick. He becomes like the opposite of Penta.

Well, how about this? Just loser of the match has to put a mask on. Mask off versus mask on. You can make it a gimmick where it's each seat, each seed. Each team put something on the line. What about a strip poker match? Now it sounds like fucking shit-stain is booking this thing. All right. They had a package on Logan Paul. He's coming back to Netflix because that is the streaming TV is where all the cool hep kids are. And I guess they want Logan

Paul, the social media celebrity on Raw now. But they did a night. package on him. Nice package, Logan. But then another example of doing different looking interviews and getting out in the crowd

in the middle of the people all of a sudden he, like Mussolini walking through the breezeway. That punk come in through the I mean, you know, Moxley's probably thinking,

God damn it, gimmick infringement, I was the one who walked through the arena. The problem is that Moxley should be walking through the front door of the arena and being checked for a ticket. The camera shot follows Punk as he does the walk through the boom, into the arena and in the, not in the stands themselves,

but up at a platform area in the stands with old Jackie Redmond, who is the only one of these female interviewers that sounds like a real news personality, a real courtside interviewer, that she is speaking extemporaneously off the top of her head

than somebody reading a recited, prepared question. I don't know why that she has that quality in her voice, but it's just it's night and day different than anybody else. and that works with punk because punk sounds more real than most of the guys himself. And he does a great promo, not only on the Royal Rumble, but his feelings on the guys in it. And he mentioned, and again, my notes that I did in the dark in the bed, he mentioned Seth, and he mentioned fucking Roman,

and he mentioned a lot of the top names you would think. but then how Sina and all of these people were getting the reactions and you again you want that you want this is another mega single star and he's dropping

names of all these heavy hitters and goddamn who will win this rumble you could make a case for a lot of these guys but I forget how did he bring up our friend from from Florida the one the only Terry the Hulk Boulder, how did he tie him in? I'm trying to think.

He was saying how, no matter who it is, he'll throw them over the top and win the rumble, even if, I think the line was something like, even if Hulk Hogan wants to come in there, I'll throw his dusty old ass out. Yeah, his dusty ass. And the people booed Hogan there, as said the mention of the name. They were popping on the other names Isn't it against to Hulk Hogan? Now, okay, some people said, well, in Los Angeles, at the raw debut, you know, it's a big city, Los Angeles,

it's a democratic state. Hogan was a Trump supporter. Maybe that's why they, well, Texas is as shit-kicky as it gets. That's the farthest place from being a liberal bastion of democracy, redneck, white socks, and, Blue Ribbon Beer in Texas,

and they booed Hogan there. Has maybe people started to come to realize it's not me, Hulk. It's you. They just want to boo Hulk Hogan. They are fed up with him. And that's the point I was trying to make. When we talked about the booing debacle,

you know, when he and Jimmy Hart, poor Jimmy got scooted out of the building, he's appeared recently in years after the videotape came out. That's been baked into the cake, as they say for a while. The sudden not only resurgence of venomous response, but the over-the-top venomousnesses, when he's been around a few years ago, and now it's even worse,

is just because of his general bullshit or, right? The lying and the bullshit stories and the ridiculous reliant that the Trumpiness has to be part of it because that's been he's been out in public with that but just the ridiculous behavior overall as a person in these public situations and when he's full of shit right? That has to be the difference. See the political stuff certainly turned off a lot of people or at least caused a lot of people just to go, oh, that's it.

But it's not like this wasn't already happening before then. He's had a lot of issues where you don't know how the crowd's going to react, depending on what city you're in. This is now... Where was it? Was it San Jose last time? No. No, I was Los Angeles. Los Angeles, that's right.

It was Los Angeles, which is a city he was a big star in. They booed him, okay. Like you said, Liberal Bastion. Dallas You know As you put it as shit-kicky as it gets They boot them They're gonna be in Texas still for Saturday night's main event

In San Antonio Which is southern And shit-kickier than Dallas Is Jesse Ventura gonna be there? Well, one would think that it's Saturday night's main event Jesse would be showing up also That could awkward Oh

See that's the kind of thing Jesse would do in the classic days, he would point out how bad Hogan was. So the fans start booing Jesse Love Field Day, I told you, I told you! Yeah, I don't know what they're going to do, but the reaction there, and the other thing I think that's important to say is punk must have known. Oh, yeah. That they were going to react like that, so it's him making a statement as well, a statement of fuck Hulk Hogan.

Yeah. That's a statement. Punk said in his clearest farcy, fuck de Hulke. Hogan. All right. Good promo though, but the look of it. The different energy you get from the crowd

when you shoot amongst them. Yeah. And no one's acting like a fool. And you get the wide shot, you just see people everywhere. Jackie Redmond's as excited as they get. I don't know. She's really excited.

You could see her chest swelling up with pride. That's Jim Cornett, ladies and gentlemen, Louisville, Kentucky. A good segment, good promo. You had nothing for punk to do on the show except do this promo. It was good. Well, but that's the thing is, you know, again, it promotes the rumble. It gets another star

on television. They get the benefit of punk for a quarter hour. And he's selling stuff and the people are happy to be sold to. That's the thing. It's not like these people are groaning when they're, oh, another interview. They're like, yes. Oh, God damn, we love him. Let us chant while he speaks. they're not forcing any of this stuff down people's throats they want it

what do you think it's going to happen in san antonio do you think he gets booed oh hogan yes i think he will i said now it's become a thing and now again if they the one thing whether it's yeat or whoa or whoa or the other singing or the chanting or the or the It's crowd audience participation. They're involved. And, you know, much like they wanted to hoot it Tessa Blanchard on the T&A show, now this is going to be a thing where, oh, they booed him in Los Angeles and they boot him in Dallas, and now we're going to boo him in San Antonio also because they don't like him.

But now it's becoming a thing, so it'll feed on itself. they should have him manage tessa two birds one stone let him take all the heat well no you can't do that to tess i don't care what she's guilty of tessa comes out there with jimmy heart and hulk oaken yeah but uh and they can't switch hawk heel because he's supposed to be a goodwill he's a goodwill he's a goodwill ambassador with no goodwill and they can't turn him heel because people think he hates black people. That's not like a good reason. All right, let's just turn you here and run with that. No, that's not how that works.

And can they blame his beer? We found out little Hokomaniacs, there was something in this beer that caused me to be a so I am I'm a real American. I'm drunk on my ass and at the bottom

of a can. I think if they want him to get cheered, they better stay in like Clearwater Beach or maybe Tampa. I don't know if that'll do it. It's just because now you're dealing with a narrow audience also, just of the people that are wanting to go to a live wrestling event. Maybe he might still get cheered over at a neutral event like a bull riding thing or a fucking rodeo or whatever. And here's the other problem. What are they going to do with

him? We saw the last time we saw him, he can't walk. He couldn't even get to the ring. They just had him come out by the entranceway and he's an older guy now with lots of you know you never think of him as a bump guy but when you're really thinking of him taking doing that leg drop yeah for a big guy and I was loaded to the tits on steroids that'll do it and now they're singing he is a real American riding around Walmart in a hover and he is a real all right then we had a match uh that I didn't watch with Shana and Joey or Shana and Zoe

with their manager Joey Shana and Zoe with their manager Sonia against EO and Dakota and that was at the point where I went to get something else to eat I think or potentially

Harley needed a belly rub but then we got the WrestleMania rematch because remember thankfully on Netflix the show is only two and a half hours long now they think that's the sweet spot my sweet spot would be I think 37 minutes

top to bottom but at least it's better than three hours they got more time to develop things than two hours but they don't have to stretch things out for three hours are you saying 37 minutes for any wrestling show or just for their wrestling show maybe 24 minutes for the other wrestling shows and 37 minutes for theirs,

because they need longer to enter the ring because they're in bigger buildings. No, because you're a great person to ask because you got to see both. Like the 90-minute Memphis show. Did you feel like 90 minutes was a better time for wrestling than 60 minutes? Yeah, actually, in that instance, it was.

And the same thing with Houston. And being serious for a second in the middle of this folderall, the average wrestling show was always an hour because the television stations, especially for local programming, back in those days, they wanted to program an hour blocks. And of course, there'd be half-hour programs that were originally network that were placed in a syndication, and they'd strip those

like between five and six in the afternoon before the local news at six o'clock or seven to eight network adjacency, whatever. That's where the half-hour programs would get in. and yes, you had regionally syndicated 30-minute fishing shows or whatever, but most of the time, if you're programming a sports show on the weekend, a wrestling show, from the dawn of syndication of television in the 50s until the end of the 80s when everything started going to shit, you needed an hour program.

They weren't going to take a half hour, and they weren't going to take an hour and a half. But when you had specific markets, whether it be Atlanta had two hours, on TBS. That was a whole different animal. Or Houston was 90 minutes or Channel 5 in Memphis was 90 minutes.

The television station wanted that because the program was so popular and did such big numbers. And that's why in Houston they were fine because Channel 39 they shot in the Coliseum. Later in later years, they used an hour of the Mid-South wrestling program

and then shot 30 months. minutes of content in the Coliseum, but they did their own thing. But in Memphis, the 90-minute program in Memphis is also the program that aired in a shortened version in the other markets, Louisville and Nashville and Evansville, Indiana, Lexington, Kentucky, etc. So the reason why it worked in Memphis was because you not only had the basic part of the program that, you know, everybody could see the matches and the live studio interviews setting up the big angles,

but then you got local tape from Memphis, the Coliseum last Monday night that the other markets wouldn't see and promos just for that, and that was different. It was the people that watched Memphis wrestling on television got to see three or four minutes probably of the top three or four matches from the previous Monday at the Coliseum, so that was better than watching some dry studio match. So they had programming that was part of the promotion for this coming week

that could still keep you occupied for an hour and a half, and they didn't need any extra wrestlers or whatever. But then that stuff would be edited down and the main tape that went everywhere else would just have the main body of the... So it was tailored to fit a variety of purposes. What would it made your life easier? like in Smoky Mountain or OVW, wherever. But Smoky Mountain, if you had the option to fill up 90 minutes,

would that have made your life easier? No, it would have made my life harder. Because then we were, this was another era still yet, we were doing three and sometimes four television shows per night at our TV tapings. Because we didn't have the luxury of doing a TV studio show live every Saturday morning. So if we needed to fill up 90 minutes, that

taping would have lasted from 7 o'clock until a quarter to 1 in the morning. So it would have made it harder. Would it have been better promotion? Every fan that watched our one hour program would have watched our 90 minute program if we'd have had one. That wouldn't have been

a fucking problem at all. And we could have put more videotape potentially from the arenas to promote shit instead of having to shoot so much at the live tapings, maybe. But we couldn't have got any of the TV stations to run it because that would have then

not only taken up one of their one hour blocks, but it would have fucked up another one of their hours where they had to find a 30-minute program to go behind and blah, blah, blah. And we were having a hard enough time getting an hour without having to try to get an hour and a half and think about this, what hour and what 90-minute network programs

can you ever think of in the Virginian went to 90 hours and 90 hours. They went to 90 minutes, the Virginian, in the 60s because it was such a, not only a popular program, but it was one of the network's prestige programs and it was like a,

a 90-minute television movie every week. And they did that with a very few drama programs, and they usually didn't last long. And otherwise, and they realized that it was impossible to syndicate those. So that's why you never saw an hour and a half program on the networks unless it was the movie of the week, and then that was specifically timed to go into a time slot whether it be 90 minutes, in which case the movie would be 72 or 74 minutes

or a two-hour slot where they'd make a movie that was 108 minutes. And that's why the made-for-TV movies never needed to really be edited. I digress, didn't I? Yeah, Johnny Carson went from 90 to 60. Well, you know, he originally went from 105 to 90. in the in the first when johnny carson first took over the tonight show a lot of the local markets the 11 o'clock news was only a 15 minute program a 15 minute newscast

and the tonight show would start the network feed at 1115 p.m. Eastern and go to one o'clock in the morning but when carson got some clout after he'd been doing it for about a year year and a half as the local news started expanding in major markets like New York, L.A., Chicago, he said, he went to the network, he said, half of the country, including all the big cities, is not seeing my monologue. They're not seeing the first 15 minutes of the show.

And so he refused to come out. There's an old example of this on YouTube. Ed McMahon would introduce the Tonight Show, and then they would do a bit with the band and the leader, band leader was Skitch Henderson then, and they would kill 15 minutes, and then they would introduce Johnny Carson at 1130, and he'd come out and do his monologue.

And finally, they just said, fuck it, we're just going to make the whole thing an hour and a half, and that forced the local stations to expand their news. Uh-huh, see there? Very good. anyway and how it pertains to the main event of this wrestling show is the goddamn show is only two and a half hours long

so we were already at the main event which was the big rematch from WrestleMania between I started to say Seth MacFarlane Drew McIntyre and Seth Rollins Seth Franklin Rollins our friend and confidant and I don't know what all they showed before this but when they started the package, I started trying to fast forward.

And I went 10 minutes until I got to the fucking bell at least. So they had long entrances and et cetera. But did you watch this match, Brian? I did. Two guys that look like stars and looked like professional athletes, it had a big time feel

because they're pushed guys and the people where it's a big building, it's a big crowd. they both can work. And that's the whole thing is that this was a basic match and nobody was going to get fucking hurt nor should they.

And the people were liking it and it's in a big building with a big feel with two guys that looked like stars. And that's the problem right now is people look at this and then they look at AEW and it's not just

in some cases the real dedicated wrestling fans especially, they don't worry about the production value they want to see the wrestling. but AEW looks like a flea market next to this talent too that's the biggest problem with AEW's perception is not necessarily that they're

they're not able to match the television production because a lot of people understand that it's that their talent looks like goddamn idiots compared to these guys and that that's a problem because except for their basic audience, the average person that they may ever try to get to watch the Macs or the cock or the flicks or whatever,

doesn't matter who it is, they don't want to see some local indie-looking jackoffs that aren't as impressive as their brother-in-law. And therein-law is one of the big problems. But anyway, you know what the other big problem is? Go ahead, go ahead. You want to know what the other big problem is? I think it's very similar to the WWE

under Vince McMahon, AEW started disappointing their fans more and more. Yeah. And now there's a feeling that they're going to disappoint you. You're not going to get what you want. It's going to be a letdown. And that's what you need to turn around. It was easy for WWE. It was as simple as, hey, everyone, Triple H is in charge.

And everyone kind of took a breath. But AEW doesn't have that. And when you burn out your fans, it's hard to bring them back sometimes. Well, and, you know, it's not like that people, including us, but other people, we weren't the only brilliant prognosticators, hadn't been saying from the start, you can't just, people won't just love you for no reason forever. Yes, at the start, it's a crowdfunding thing. They want so badly for this to succeed. They want there to be an alternative. They hate Vince the evil. empire. He takes advantage of their favorite wrestlers. Now they found out that their favorite wrestlers when they get a big time job on national TV

and are working for a billionaire. They're just a bunch of fucking assholes too. You know, they've got all the goddamn issues with each other that everybody else had. But it's not all, hey, kumbaya, kids, let's put on a show in the barn. It's no, fuck this fucking guy. He's not my friend. and again, you have to leave the fans somewhat happy. WWE does that. Those fans are like to have that time of their fucking life, but we know how much to pain for that.

They're paying a fortune with AEW, you know, their fans look like they're walking out with their, their shoulders slumped. You're not giving them like anything they want, like in terms of angles, in terms of who's pushed, in terms of the matches, in terms of the results, the booking. The WWE fans look like they're at a rave, and the AEW fans look like they're at a funeral.

Jeez. It's just like they're resigned to their fate. Yeah, this fucking thing's going to happen again too, isn't it? Hey, somebody almost got killed. Uh, more of this. But anyway, so they had a nice match, did Seth and Drew. They did the superplex into the Falcon Arrow spot, which is always stupid, no matter who does it.

And lots of back and forth. forth, some two counts, and finally Seth got him with a surprise jackknife. Didn't solve anything, because it's a TV match and why should they? Drew got some heat on him afterwards, and then

Sammy came out, trying to save the day, gets on Drew. Drew gets back on Sammy, sidelines him, turns back to Seth, and he's pickling him, Sammy runs, he's going to give Drew the big kick. Drew moved, and Sammy moved, and Sammy kicked Seth right in the mush.

And boom, and then Drewbacks, and now we're all, because now Seth is going to be mad at Sammy. And there's another fucking natural thing we've got set up for the Royal Rumble. How is he going to react to this? So they really are coming close to everybody is still a baby face and a heel, but at the same time they're coming close to giving even the baby faces and or the heels

legitimate reasons to be mad at everybody else and even the heels think their baby faces this is deeper shit and more connected than one has seen in a while this is what they were kind of trying to tell us that AEW was early on that everything's situational no heels or baby faces but didn't work out that way here it's starting to become that way

Well, that's because it was a situation comedy, not a situation. But here, I mean, there are clear, clearly Drew's a heel. Yeah. But Seth, it kind of depends on what he's doing and who he's working with. Sammy's a clear-cut baby face, but Rollins, you don't know. And again, the long-term tease earlier was Owens and Zane, so we'll see what happens there. But they got a lot of places to go, and a long time to get there. They don't need to rush anything.

this is one of more amazing business turnarounds I've seen in wrestling in a while, isn't it you? I mean, you know, they've turned around business before, but the product kind of still wasn't that great. But now the...

The show feels alive. The show feels alive. That's the thing, like, from the beginning of the show till the end, and now you don't even know when it's going to end. It just so happens. It was around two and a half hours the last two weeks.

it can go three and a half hours. It's whatever they want. It just, it feels like it's the happening thing. And they're paying a fortune those fans to go sit there. So it's not like it's just a working man going to these shows or anything. Yeah, I think they've priced themselves

out of the septic tank pumping fan base. It's hard times for anyone wanting to buy wrestling tickets at a reasonable rate. Well, there you have that. That was the Monday. Night Raw. I'm sure there were some things that I've nodded off on, but we got the main parts out of the way. Did we get your parts out of the way? My parts are never in the way. They are, I don't know what I'm going to say here. But yeah, we are done with everything, but the drive-thru,

action-packed, classic wrestling talk, dynamite, from the files, part three, Dave Meltzer, some guest to program coming soon. Maybe this week we will see, and more. Maybe this week we will see. We will sell, can't you see? What this segment has done to me. And we'll be back next week here with more on the Jim Cornett experience, including Saturday night's main event, the report on the big network extravaganza leading up to the Royal Rumble. And plus, if anybody else says or does anything, particularly stupid, egregious or embarrassing, we will be there to chop it up, as the kids say. Until then, for Brian, I'm Jim, and you're whoever the fuck you are. Thank you, fuck you, and bye-bye, everybody.