Jim Cornette Experience - Episode 568: Jim Reviews WWE Royal Rumble 2025

Episode Date: February 8, 2025

This week on the Experience, Jim reviews the 2025 Royal Rumble! Plus Jim speaks with Queen Of The Ring director Ash Avildsen! Also, Jim reviews Raw and talks about Vince McMahon, Triple H going into the Hall Of Fame, and more! Apologies for some technical difficulties in a few segments! 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 Cornet. The keys to the future. Hell by Hornet. He'll rumble and regurgitate the roundiness of raw. Plus, we'll talk with the director of the Queen of the Ring movie Ash Abelson, all that and more.

And joining me, Hawaiian Brian, the podcasting Lion, the King of the Arcadian Vanguard podcast network, Mr. co-host to you, he's a star of stage, screen, streaming and screaming, the great Brian Last, everybody. All again, friends. Aloha, Jim. A pleasure to be here.

I just ran into the room as my music was playing. Yeah, was that the Royal Rumble entrance where he had three quarters of a mile to get from dressing room to ring, so you had to have extra music there? As a kid who loved WrestleMania 3 and WrestleMania 6, I wish they would bring back the ring cars. And a night like that, the Royal Rumble, an event like that, an entranceway like that deserves it. Yes, and because the guys are blown up by the time they get there. I've just dropped my pen.

We'll talk about all that today. Is that the sound of pen dropping? That's the sound. Well, I went, whip, because I drop my pin. Whip, whip, whip, well, I'm overclip. Hey, you've told me right before we went on the air and you've given me some news. It's making me nervous. You say, hey, I got a new device.

and I'm like, what, the, the, the, the, the, the people organ wasn't bad enough. He had to break into that ballpark and carry that thing out in a flat bed, but now you've got a new device. We don't know what form or fashion that's going to take here. Well, for instance, if I do this, what fuck is that? Now, if I do this and I play it back. So I think we're going to get more of this kind of feel, this kind of vibe going. What kind of feel is that? It sounds like a fucking ice cream truck.

an ice cream truck backing up Can you stop it? Can you stop it? I can't stop it or lower it god damn it Oh I think it stopped I still hear it it's echoing in my brain because my ears are hurting from these goddamn vice like headphones you sent me Oh you gotta have this be fucking headphones so all of our equipment matches Jesus right now I've got a headache every time oh I'm relieving the pressure now so that so that my ears can separate from the side of my fucking head from these vice clamps that you sent me

and now you've got a new device and you're saying... They're not that bad and you don't have a big head. And I didn't say I have a big head. I said I got tight headphones. There's a difference in that. They're not tight. I have the same ones.

You have like a thin and a head. You've got a tiny little pinhead. No, you have like a head like Bert from Bert and Ernie. Like there's an Ernie size head and a Bert side. You have like a burt size head more than an Ernie. Well, Ernie, let me tell you this. is they're still too they won't go on a normal adult human just because you're goddamn related to zip heat doesn't mean that and now it let's see this whole can you've got a new microphone that you that you're you've got constant settings on

it's your would you stop it is this thing on uh you've got all these settings and this equalizer the old graphic equalizer i had one of those in my first car I got the whole whole car stereo thing done when I got my 73 firebird in 77. It wasn't brand new. But I digress. You got the graphic equalizer.

You got the microphone and everything. And tomorrow, Hotchka's Feather Bottom, he's the Bill Gates of Louisville, Kentucky. You've heard of both of them. He's a computer whiz and genius. He is bringing me to Castle Cornet a brand,

new computer and monitor that I have got this is do you realize this is like I can't say it's like getting rid of an old friend more like an old enemy I can finally pitch this thing off the deck like I've been wanting to do for years but I have to replace it with one that I'll soon

want to pitch off the deck but it's all because of you demand these upgrades this is only I got my first computer in 2009 when Jim Cornet.com. reality in the world, right? So I had to get the computer to look at all that stuff. And then, I swear to God, in 20, so that was 2009.

In 2016, I believe we've narrowed it down, I had to get another one. And it was only like seven years. So I said, get me, the goddamn, I want the big boy, give me all the bells and whistles, whatever the fuck we'll get, you know. You said, get me the big boy. Give me the big boy, the best computer. I don't want to have to go through this every fucking few years. And I got what was supposed to be a state of the art fucking deal.

And that was in 2016. Here it is. It hadn't even been 10 years later. And we're replacing this fucking thing. You should have gotten a Mac. I wanted a Big Mac. I wanted a couple of them. Sit here and fucking stuff down my neck while I have people look at this thing.

You should have gotten the biggest Mac he could. You would never complain. about anything. Nothing lasts anymore. My mother had the same telephone sitting on the kitchen counter for 30-something years. I'd already

moved away and gone on to fame and fortune. The big black thing with the dial and the boy, when you hung that son of a bitch up, you could have committed aggravated homicide with this telephone if you'd have hit somebody over the head with it. It weighed 30 pounds. And boy, when you...

So I got to get this new computer. computer in here at your insistence. And this fucking thing, as I said, didn't even last 10 years. It freezes up all the time. The monitor, every time I switch pages from one thing to from the Twitter to the email to whatever, the monitor blacks out. I've got to turn it off and on again.

It's fucking slow. Sometimes only half of the web page pops up. Yeah, and your internet, I think part of the issue is whatever you do have, you're not getting the full use of a computer that you're using right now, the one that's dying right now. Well, and it's not that old. So it ought to be ashamed of itself. I should dig up the warranty card and call these people.

Who are these people? I can't, I don't have my glass. I know what you have. Now that we're in the new year. Obviously, you weren't the only person who had a big head. Things you could think of where they used a phone, like a Memphis TV or anything? Well, are you, can remember who calls? me on the phone on the TBS set.

No, no, I'm saying like a hard phone, like, that's... That was, that was a, it was a, they still brought out, remember? Right, no, they're, they, I'm talking about before then when the phones were actually still the heavy-duty phones. No, I'm not talking about Paulie. I'm not talking about Paulie's phone. Right. I'm talking about the actual desk phone that they brought out for me to fucking, to talk to

whoever the fuck. It was pretty good size. They just took one off. of the in the TBS wrestling studio when you went to the right you went through double doors and on the right hand side was the control room where the director and producer dusty everybody sat but if you turned and went down that hallway a little bit further those were all the offices they just grabbed a phone off the fucking desk and that's what they looked like in 1988 but no one used it physically in that angle well because that's the thing is there was no

area really where there was a phone cord long enough to get to a wrestling ring wherever it was positioned in an arena or a TV studio usually to be able to get it to the ring to use it in an angle. But it was used in plenty of fucking film noir

as a murder weapon because they were already in the bedroom or the living room or the drawing room or wherever Mr. Mustard fucking preyed on people and they could just pick it up and bam. But the average phone cord was like six feet long back then.

You'd had to gone to the front of the Louisville Gardens, gone in one of the offices, ripped it out of the wall, carried it all the way back to the ring, and then hit somebody over the head with it. That would have been unwieldy. I should get the ring sound when you did it. Well, yeah, but, oh, you mean the ring instead of the ring?

The squared circle ring. The internal ring of the internal bell. Yeah. Sort of like But only much Much heavier More like a gothic Bang

Yeah I hate the way I sound right now I'm listening to myself in this thing Oh come on I like it Oh what in the world Now you're gonna I mean you sound like the usual crap It's just your internet sucks

But I don't know if I could deal with me sounding like this What in the way I don't know if I can deal with you sounding like this I think you overestimate the fucking premium that people put on goddamn being able to hear a fucking mouse pissing on cotton on as long as they can understand

what we're saying for Evan's and we'll just be like everybody else and just belch and fart and chew and sound like Kevin Dunn on an IFB from the truck and and do it like everybody else does and then we here let me take a big sip of sprite boy that was refreshing no one wants to hear that we're going to have to edit that because it sounds disgusting

no no say that's part of the show disgusting. Don't censor me. Don't say it like Rousseau. It sounds disgusting. Disgusting, bro. Don't censor me because I have the right to free speech. You do. That's not speech. In all of these.

That's, that's, that was emitting from my mouth. It is, it's speech in some Galapagos fucking island where they go, me, whatever. No, I would get, I would get Stephen to argue that they didn't have Sprite on that island, so it's nothing like that at all. I think they would be free to speak on Sprite or anything else that they had, on any island. Because no matter what island in the world you're on, it's still America, God damn it. All right, before, we got a big show today.

What are you giggling at? No, we did be serious here. I'm a long island, but keep on. Well, the long and the short of it. We got a big show today because it was Royal Rumble weekend, and then it was a big raw Netflix. and there's things going on that we don't know to quote Ronnie Van Zanzance. We're going to talk about all of that.

But we also have an interview, Part 1, is going to be a little bit later on, because we had a conversation with Ash Ableton, the director of Queen of the Ring, the new movie that's going into general release, as we say in the business, on March the 7th, around the country. But we'll talk about where the premieres and sneak previews are. and that was such a long conversation.

We're giving you part one today, including a kind of a off-putting story about his attempted dealings with the WWE. And then we'll be talking about all the big goings-on in that company. But I must digress to talk about the big goings-on in my company. Brian, here's another reason why I'm getting this new computer because Hotchka's Featherbottom says,

we've got to bring you up to modern times because of this massive online empire that we got going on. He's got big ideas. You think the email blast was an incredible invention, and you think this thing that we're doing right now all month of February called a sale that Hotchkis came up with, you think that was big. Wait till you hear some of his innovations

that are coming up for 2025, it'll make your jaw drop. But right now, the sale that he is envision. Don't do it works on your internet. That's the only thing that matters. You know, you're single-minded, and you just, you're only out for yourself. You don't care about my empire.

You only care about your empire. The audio quality. We have internet, Jim Cornett variant figures coming out. We need the internet to be good. Hey, my internet is as variant as you can get. You know what? That's true. that's this yeah you know think about that so anyway all month in february at jim cornet dot com the tag team action figure sets are on sale whether it's the heavily bodies whether it's the midnight express either eating in lane or eaten in conger or whether it's the midnight express four pack all of them son of a guns $20 off the regular price all month long and if you buy one of those aforementioned tag team action figure sets you will get

any of the remaining Jim Cornett action figure variants at only half price and all of these things are autographed and some come with pictures and books and there may be, I don't know, Reesey rappers and some of the, you never know what kind of things are going to pop up in these boxes. And anybody that spends over $50 on merchandise gets a free two-hour classic wrestling DVD

from the Wrestling Gold Series. And that's all the month of February at, Jim Cornett.com. So get them while they're hot. It's a month of love, Brian. A month of love. You love everyone, don't you?

Handsome Jimmy loves love. That was a promo Jimmy Valiant did. I love you love, love. Handsome Jimmy loves love. And he was out there for a minute and a half just talking about loving love. And people are fucking dying. Sometimes it's not what you say, it's how you say it.

That's right. At Cornett's Collectibles. Yes, I was already finished with that, but thank you for bringing us back to it. Because we do want to regurgitate that point in people's minds. But Brian, I understand also they're doing another big football game. What do they call it to Super Bowl? It's the thing that's on every year opposite to Puppy Bowl.

That's right. I think you've said this line last year. maybe that's why it's not hitting me so hard but the Super Bowl the biggest annual television event in the year every year it's coming up soon it is it next weekend so what's today today is are you talking about this weekend or you talk about next weekend hold on maybe it's this weekend because now

this weekend is this and next weekend the same thing to you because it's this weekend this weekend but now I'm asking you another question now is this and this weekend a next weekend same thing to you like it is to some people. So you are aware, like normal people, that this weekend means the weekend in front of us, the weekend that is approaching. The Super Bowl, yes. And next weekend is the weekend after that.

Correct. Some assholes will try to argue that next weekend is this weekend because it's the next weekend. But see, that throws off common sense. So this weekend is the Super Bowl. Correct. What do they get, the Vince Lombardi trophy? Correct. Do you realize then, Brian, and are you aware that right now you can go and download

the Draft King Sports Book because they're an official sports betting partner of Super Bowl 59, they've done 59 of them, and you can bet on who's going to win the Vince Lombardi trophy, who's going to win the big Super Bowl? and you can bet on who's going to make touchdowns and you can bet on whose jockstrap is going to chafe them and at the end of the game they're going to have to have petroleum jelly applied to their taint. You can bet on all kinds of things

if you download the Draft King's Sportsbook app and if you're just salivating to win a lot of money then right now new Draft King's customers can bet $5 to get $200 in bonus bets instantly. Boom, goes dynamite just like that. If you put your $5, and I would say of hard-earned money, but considering our audience,

there's probably ill-gotten gains, put that $5 down, they're going to give you $200. You know, this is actually more profitable than going out and mugging people on the street. What's the odds, Brian? If you're walking down the street, you only got $5 in your pocket,

the guy that you happen to pull a Boy Scout knife on has $200 cash on him. What's the odds? Where are you? Well, let's say Wartburg, Tennessee. I don't know what that means. What part of Manhattan are you in? Well, you're in the garment district. What time?

3 p.m. 3 p.m.? Yeah, more than likely. But I mean, you're probably, I mean, depending on which street you're on. All right, well, everybody doesn't live in Manhattan. So for the people out there who are in more underprivileged locations, and whenever they pull a knife on somebody, they're not able to get a $200 fucking return on their goddamn investment there. This is easier. This is the point I'm making. Can you deny that? That this would be easier than pulling a knife

on somebody and robbing them for $200? And also, let's just say, do not pull a knife on anyone and rob them for $200. I think that's a disclaimer. needs to be set also before any other disclaimers here. Well, you're an idiot if you do that what I'm telling you this way is easier anyway. You're an idiot if you're doing it at a 3 p.m. in the garment district. Well, what about 9 o'clock at night in Cleveland? I mean, if you're on the avenue, you shouldn't do it. But if you're on one of the streets, I don't know.

You could probably get away with it at 3 p.m. Now that I think about it. Well, nevertheless, go in the alley, back in the alley. But nevertheless, don't do that because then you'd have to travel to Manhattan. or wherever you need to go to an alley, just download the Draft King Sportsbook app. You're going to put in $5. They're going to give you $200 in bonus bets instantly.

The Super Bowl's coming up. One of those two teams, whoever they may be, has to win. So you've got a 50-50 chance. And if you bet on both of them, you pretty much got it covered. I don't know why this is a... How does anybody ever lose at gambling when this loophole seems like it's so obvious? Just bet on both sides.

You're going to win either way. There are no loopholes, and let's not refer to this as anything with a loophole. Of course, this is straight up, you're doing what you're doing with drafters. Well, you're downloading is what you're doing, but I'm just telling you, it seems to me like that it'd be hard to lose if you bet on both sides, but maybe people with more experience than me can come up with something. Anyway, right now, download the Draft King Sportsbook app, use the code JCE. That's how you get the $200 in bonus bets instantly.

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Go for the gold, whatever it may be with Draft Kings. But Jim... Grab the brass ring. We've got an audio clip that we need played here at this point, don't we, from the home office in Lincoln, Nebraska. Well, that's right. He is entering right now. He didn't know you were going to go to this so early in the program,

so he was not prepared. He's warming up his vocal cords. He's putting down his tea and hold on. Just so happens, I'm clicking the mouse at the same time. Ought to be five minutes early after as long as we've given him off for Christmas. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler. In New York, call 8778-8-8-Hope-N-Y or text Hope-N-Y 4667-369. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling called 888-7-7-7 or visit ccpg.

Or visit ccpg-g-g-in-resort in Kansas. 21-and-over, age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction, void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.com slash audio. I couldn't have said it better myself. Draft Kings, the crown is yours, the official betting partner of the Jim Cornett experience. Yes, and as a matter of fact,

I'm going to try to talk to them as soon as possible to see if my idea is valid, because I'm really not sure how that anybody can ever lose. What's about how much money? I mean, a lot of people don't have the money to just bet on every single end of it. I'm sure. you go to the racetrack and you can bet on the trifecta and all the different things and you could win,

but most people just put a few bucks on one thing. Well, it seems like you ought to divide those dollars that you've got to put on one thing and put them on two things. Now, I'm not saying if there's 18 horses in the race, it might get expensive to bet on all up. You're no Mike Teney. I don't think we should be giving anyone advice on what they should do with their money when it comes to wagering. But, of course, the crown is yours with Draft Kings. Do what you may do. well do what you want to do go where you you know what we wanted to do earlier this week brian was while

we had a chance to intervene on his busy schedule the director and writer screenwriter of the the new movie queen of the ring ash ableston uh i would say sat down for an interview he may have been standing up we were on the phone we don't know what physical activity was undergoing at the time It doesn't sound like he was out of breast, so he probably wasn't on the treadmill, but he got together with us for an interview, and we are going to play the first half of that very shortly here in the program. Is that correct? That is correct, and we will go to that right now.

I don't even think we brought up, but he plays Vince McMahon Senior. Only in this period, he was a young man, so he was just Vince McMahon, and there was no senior because he had no junior. Is there at least not that he was in contact with at that point in time? Well, let's go to the actor, director, filmmaker, and so much more, behind Queen of the Ring, Ash Ableton, part one. All right, well, thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for sticking with us for this one, because we have on the phone now, the director and writer of the upcoming Queen of the Ring, the film about the life of wrestling champion Mildred Burr, Ash Abelson is on the phone with us now, and Ash, thank you very much for doing the podcast.

Well, thank you, guys. And let me just start by quoting a very wise man who once said, let me just explain something for all you genetic defects out there living downstream of the nuclear plants, okay? We got a major motion picture here to promote. We have a box office to stimulate, and I will have you know straight from the ugly horse's mouth. Hollywood does not care about pro wrestling pictures, okay? So we have to take it upon ourselves to stimulate a box office, to drive traffic, and to show the gatekeepers and the power that were, the power that was, and the powers that be that pro wrestling fans do want to go buy a ticket and some popcorn and be taken

away for a couple hours in a dark room. So thank you for having me today. We got some work to do. Ash, I'll tell you what, you sound like, I may have been somewhere around your mother about 40 years ago. It sounds like to me, maybe some of me rubbed off on you, but I tell you, I've had bad experiences when I do try to take the wrestling fans into a dark room for a couple hours. I don't know if I recommend that or not.

I went back and revisited your promo coming into the WWE. I forget what year that was. And the genetic defects living downstream with the nuclear plants, I was like, That is so good. I got to bring that back. That was, what a great fucking moment, man. Well,

the people know and can tell that you're a wrestling fan, but this movie that you have made Queen of the Ring, yes, it's about pro wrestling, and we think and hope that the wrestling fans will like it, but as a bigger overall motion picture, it kind of mirrors the come from behind, underdog success story that your father, John Aveltson, actually directed, what was it now,

my God, almost 50 years ago, the first Rocky. It's kind of in the same flavor of that, you know, against all odds, we're going to triumph motion picture in a ring. Yeah. You know, I met my father finally when I was 34 and we became very close for two, two, two, and a half years before, unfortunately, he got pancreatic cancer out of nowhere. But yes, there's a lot of parallels. You know, people think Rocky was a boxing movie, but it was really, you know, a love story about a man that wanted to prove that he wasn't just a bum from the neighborhood, and he was worthy to get, you know, the nerdy intellectual girl at the pet shop that he thought was out of his league. And with Queen of the Ring, we have fun and say, yeah, it's a pro wrestling movie,

but truthfully, it's a much more human story about a single mom and a little boy that grows up in an unorthodox family and an unorthodox environment pursuing their dreams. And it's a mom and her kid against the world. The odds are against her. And yes, she has a dream to be a pro wrestler in a time when most of America had it illegal. But it also is a very, just crazy family drama between Mildred and her promoter, manager, husband, and his son. So it's really the four of them when we were filming. I kept calling it the core four of where, you know, there's all these other characters and side stories that were developing throughout the film.

But the heart of it is really. the four of them. It's Mildred Burke, Billy Wolf, and their two sons from, you know, previous relationships. And the four of them go on this incredible journey. And I don't want to spoil anything because there's some really unique, bizarre, but, you know, just magical moments that happened between these two parents and their two kids. But that was what really drew me to the story. Of course, I grew up a huge pro wrestling fan, and I still am. I remember the match I went to when I fell in love with researching what happens behind the scene because I didn't know as a little boy that house shows were a thing.

I only thought what you saw on TV on the weekends was the only thing going on. I remember my mother, we were in actually dealing with some court drama. We were in Manhattan. And she comes in. She goes, hey, I'm taking you see the ultimate warrior and the undertaker at Madison Square Garden. and they're doing with whatever a body bag matches. And I said, that's not on TV. I thought she would just mess with me.

Here's my mom trying to talk pro wrestling with me. I was like eight or something. I was like, no, that's not real. You're confused. You must be looking at something. She was, no, here it is. And I looked at the newspaper article. And I go, oh, my God, is really happening.

And it was a house show in MSG. And I'll never forget that. That was the match that made me go, wait. So there's so much more to wrestling than what I see on television. And then the rest is history. Now I'm just another mark like that. the rest of you waiting for the new dark side of the ring season. But yeah, that was the moment.

The good thing is... Sorry, that was a long answer. Well, no, no, the good thing is with our audience, this is of all the publicity that you will do for the Queen of the Ring, our listeners probably know more about Mildred Burke's story and the issues with Billy Wolf and et cetera. Of course, this story was based on the Queen of the Ring book by Jeff Lean. how did you get involved with, you know, going from being a fan

or from thinking something of the story to, I'm actually going to write this screenplay. I'm going to make the arrangements. I'm going to delve into this thing and I'm going to make this movie. So I am friends with Jim Ross. The first movie I ever made, which is really this ridiculous state in comedy that me and my friends just created with our buddies was basically I was learning how to make a movie.

It was almost probably 10 years ago now. We stunt casted some wrestler. There was Diamond Dalish Page and Jake the Snake Roberts. And then we put in Jim Ross playing a character's boss. He was kind of this funny heel corporate guy. Anyway, I became friends with JR through that. And through that, we stayed in contact. And once I felt like I actually knew how to make a real movie,

I called J.R. and said, hey, I want to make an 80s period pro wrestling story that's kind of a love letter to all these great books I've read from that time frame. And I want to ask you to work on it with me because I wanted to be authentic and I love just talking to you and you've had so much experience, especially in that era. Would you work on it with me? Because it felt like at the time there wasn't a pro wrestling. movie, and this was, you know, this was probably 2016, 2017, we started it. There wasn't a pro wrestling movie that had a more, you know, triumphant inspirational ending. There's the wrestler, which is a masterpiece, but that's, you know, Aronovsky telling a story about the decay and the decline of the star, but there wasn't like, you know, not to be on the nose, but there wasn't, there wasn't like a rocky or karate kid, a pro wrestling movie that was

truly in the sight guy. So I called J.R. asked him if he wanted to work on it with me. He said, absolutely by the way do you know who Milger Burke is and I said no I have no idea who's that and he goes I want you to check out this book Queen of the Ring I feel like it should be a movie it's on the first woman who really put pro wrestling on the map

for the ladies and I go wow sure okay so I ordered the book I read it that week probably the quickest quickest book I read that are my appetite for destruction Stephen Adler's Guns and Rose's bio

and I read it Which is a great read, by the way. That's a page turner. So anyway, I read it right away. I called him back, I read it that weekend. I called him back Monday morning. I said, fucking forget about the fictional 80s thing. We have to tell this woman's story.

I was so just enchanted. And I used that word with total intention. I was just enchanted by the book and her story. And I was also a mix of upset and embarrassed that I didn't know who she was. and none of my buddies on my pro wrestling group chats and text messages knew who she was. And this was actually, I think a year or so before the WWE put her in a Hall of Fame. So no one I knew other than JR actually knew who Mildred Burke was. I knew May Young and Mullah, of course, because they were still on WWE TV.

But I didn't even know about the Wendy Richter screw job with Spider Mula until I started really diving in to Mildred's story. and doing a lot of other kind of peripheral research on it all. So I was just like, then I just felt like compelled as a diehard pro wrestling fan going like, you know, unfortunately not a lot of people read books anymore, especially if it's not on a super famous person. And even though the author of the book won a Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism at The Washington Post, this book wasn't, you know, it's not some bestseller.

It's not something people know. So I felt like, well, if I can get it. the movie made and use everything I have in my resources, last name, whatever, to just help the world learn about this story, even if you don't even care about pro wrestling. That's what's so great about it. You could give a, I mean, you could give one shit about pro wrestling and just see this story for the, for the just magical journey it takes you on with this family. And I think it's got a real shot. And so, yeah, I just set out to figure out how to get it made. And, you know, I joked about it at the beginning,

you know, it's been fun cutting a promo, but the truth is, yeah, Hollywood doesn't, I think it's going to change now, hopefully, with Iron Claw and with Queen of the Ring

and whatever comes next, but there's not, you know, Hollywood doesn't really take pro wrestling seriously when it comes to cinema. And I hope that we continue to, to change that perception and that stigma or whatever it is. But,

you know, as you guys know better than anyone, pro wrestling has so many great, stories that deserve movies. And there's so few out there. So hopefully we change that. And, you know, a lot of guys, Stallone became a, I don't know if you would call him a wrestling fan, but he respected wrestling because at one point during the Paradise Alley shoot, when a lot of the boys were, it was about the underground world of wrestling in the old days. And a lot of the boys were in the movie and also Stallone had some stunt people there and there were stunt people over

in the corner making fun of the wrestling business and Stallone shot him down. He said, hey, those guys do what you do, but they do it in one take with people on all four sides. So shut to fuck up, right? Yes. And, you know, that's one thing. We've talked to Camille, who plays June Byers in the film. and you know one of the things is you've managed to capture the look and the flavor especially with the actors theater shoot that I saw with the match between Mildred and June you know it you have the the period piece flavor not only is it the I have the same problem with this movie I do with every other movie about wrestling nobody in the world looks like the boys and now the girls, right? And, you know, there's nobody walking the face of the earth today that really looks like Jack Pfeffer. But it's a period piece. You captured the look of the old time arenas. The city of Louisville, maybe you can tell us how you, you know, landed upon the Derby City because you were able to take the Sealback Hotel, the Pendinus Club. It looks like the 30s. It looks like the 40s. You've done an incredible

job there. How did Louisville come up? I appreciate that. So I was I was dancing between Savannah, Georgia, and Louisville, Kentucky, mainly because I needed a place that looked period as many, you know, there's no CGI. There's no, there's no, actually the only green screen that's in the whole movie, it's not even really in it. It was when you have an announcer bit that we use for television that quickly goes to black and white. So there's really, I would say there's no green screen, there's no CGI. It's all practical locations. And everything you see in the frame was, you know, except when we go to these black and white cutaways for, you know, passages of time, it's all real. Louisville has a lot of great historical buildings. And it also has OVW, you know, right down.

the road where we needed to train our actors so that the wrestling could be as authentic as possible. I almost did Savannah and I loved it and I met with the film commission there, but it was a more challenging location to get everything to because most things have to come from Atlanta and there's just a bunch of other challenges we had. And also there wasn't a wrestling set up like OVW. When I went to Louisville, everything was very close in the city, like within the, you know, four miles. Most of our locations can be there. And Kentucky has is very, you know, being aggressive from what I can tell with bringing more productions there, the tax rebate, all those things. And it just felt like Louisville was the right place. And look, a big part of that was OVW being there.

A big part of that was just all the wrestling history there. And then, and then we just started having all these like Easter eggs like you living there. It started going, you know, I believe people go, oh, the universe works in mysterious ways. I actually think the universe works in very obvious ways if you're tuned to the right channel or the right frequency. And then you kind of just got to go with the flow and start following the signs. And it kind of just create, you know, Louisville just all of a sudden became this.

Yeah. And then you have this and then you have that and all everything started falling in a place. And so I just said, you know what? I'm going to go with it. Louisville, Kentucky over Savannah. let's set up shop. I'm glad we did. And I love Savannah, but yeah.

And that's why, luckily enough, you not only got me, but the premiere, the world premiere, besides the film festivals, that there's been sneak peeks, but the world premiere for Queen of the Ring is going to be February 25th here in Louisville, Kentucky at the AMC Stony Brook Cinemas. And we're going to have more on that details

in the upcoming weeks on the podcast. The 26th of February, You're going to be in Chicago and the 27th in Nashville, Tennessee, which is your adopted hometown now that you've moved out east from California, right? I did. Yeah, I moved my company Samaria into Nashville, and I will hopefully have a home there raising my little boy there. But I've fallen in love with the city, and it just seems to be a better place where I can, you know, raise the family and have a little peace of mind. I've been in Los Angeles 20 plus years. I'm here right now finishing the movie.

I love this city, but now being apparent and everything and really just trying to focus on safety, I think it's a, it's a decision. A hard decision I made, but yes, Nashville. And we're purposely starting the premieres in Louisville. So the cut of the film that was in the film festivals has changed slightly. Nothing dramatic, but there's been a handful of tweaks to scenes. There's been some musical changes. One short scene has been removed, and a few other scenes have either been shortened or extended to make it easier to follow the narrative.

But Louisville were purposely giving the first city to see the finished theatrical cut of the film, mainly to say thank you to Louisville, because everyone that worked on. the movie that was local, as well as every background actor, every location. You know, it was met with such open arms that I get emotionally even just talking about it because I'll give a fun little difference for everyone to understand the difference

between shooting a movie like this in L.A. And shooting it somewhere in the heartland like Louisville. In L.A., people are so jaded about movie productions and they just assume movie a bunch of money because, oh, there's a studios there. So you'll be shooting in a house, and someone across the street will be, oh, look, they're shooting in the driveway of that house.

They got a movie, and he'll start mowing his lawn. And he's mowing his lawn. And then your line producers got to go across the street and go, hey, man, we're shooting a movie across the street. We got permits and everything. Do you mind, like, mowing your lawn later? And, you know, not even, just like I'm pro wrestling,

I know, not, man, this is the only time I can mow my lawn. I got a whole busy day. I got a moment right now in this hour as you're shooting in your driveway. Or you could pay me. That's it. Or for 15 grand. I'll shut off my lawnmower right now and going back in my house. And then you were literally caught and some guys guide you.

And it's just that's the reality. Now go to Louisville. Oh, you're making a movie. Oh, it's a true story about this fascinating woman that everyone forgot about. How can we help? And that extends from the location, and I don't get me wrong, we still paid plenty of money. Some of these locations were expensive because even though they're a period building their own by some corporation. However, some of them are still family-owned.

But the background actors, just the spirit, which we really captured in the final scene of the film, which you're all over, that there was just such passion and an earnest love for the fact that, you know, a major motion picture, baby, was coming to Louisville. So that was why we're doing Louisville first. It's a thank you to the city and to everyone that worked on it on and off the screen. And I just think they deserve to see it first. So we are doing L.A. and New York,

but that'll be the following week. Louisville, Kentucky, you guys are up first. And then everything buss open on March the 7th, nationwide, as they say. On screens all across America, the people will be able to go and see Queen of the Ring in their neighborhood. Brian, you've been sitting back silent because, you know, Ash is a big time Hollywood mogul and director, and I'm a major motion picture star, but would like, you know, one of the normal people like you,

like to ask a question? Yeah, you know, Ash, I was hoping you and I could maybe talk off air, maybe partner up on something. I've been working on this script for a while. Oh, come on. It's called Mustang Hill. and it's about this crazy mean old man who one day is sitting at home cursing at the sky and a car comes flying over a hill seemingly and lands on a fence and then he goes out there and verbally assaults all the civilians looking to help the victims

as well as the police officer and that's kind of the big ending is the police officer and him you're interested at all i mean we can incorporate some wrestling scenes if you want I know somebody can star in it. I've already worked out the material, but come on now. Let me ask you this, as you talk about growing up liking wrestling. When did you first start watching wrestling? And what was the first thing that got you hooked? I started watching it.

God, I would have been, well, the early, I mean, I probably started watching it on it was three or four, but I don't remember. But the earliest I can remember was probably kindergarten in the first. grade so five six years old my brother and I both watched it um and he he was a he was hogan and i was warrior going into russlemania six the first big like like 15 minutes um of like total memory uh as a kid where i could literally remember a match and me and my brother jumping up down on each other and jumping off the beds and all the twists and turns was, was Mania Six.

And there's actually a fun parallel to Warrior and Hogan in our movie in the sense that, you know, that was the, at least from my knowledge, as a little kid and a fan, that was the first time, you know, two baby faces, two good guys were going against each other. And I believe, but Jam, I'm sure you know better than me, but I believe that when Clara Mortensen, who Tony Storm plays and Mildred Burke, when, against each other. That was kind of the first time. And this is really just done so out of necessity from my research for them to have two formidable headliners to go against each other. But,

but Mildred and Claire were both, you know, good girls. They were baby faces, but they put them together and then I don't want to spoil anything because part of the magic of this story in what made me love it as a pro wrestling fan, but also just as someone who loves, you know, drama was that they had shoot matches. So when the, you know, promoters and the managers and the talent couldn't agree on a finish, they literally would just start shooting in the ring. And the lady did it with a live audience because there wasn't another solution for it.

But I don't want to go too much into that because that's part of the big reveal that all of you guys and girls will hopefully go see March 7th. But the Warrior Hogan match, I remember loving it so much because the twists and the turns in it, you know, and Hogan getting the first, you know,

three count, but the ref was out and all of those twists and turns, it was just such, it was so entertaining for me and my brother, because we were rooting, you know, I was a younger brother, and I think most younger brothers at that time were going Warrior and most older brothers were going Hogan. But that was the first memory I have of buying a pay-per-view, having to beg to get the money to do it from my mom, and like, that was a big moment. But we had been following it for WrestleMania 4 and 5 up to there. And I do remember that WrestleMania 3 I had to go back and watch. So I didn't see 3 live.

But, of course, I fell in love with that. It's like age like fine wine with Savage and Ricky. But the six, anyway, long-winded answer. The 6 was the first time. And funny little, and again, Jim, I love it if you believe this or not. Crazy little side story. 10 plus years ago Actually, no, it's probably long

at 15, 13, 14. I started managing a warrior. I was like, let me just look him up. I got some bands. Yeah, crazy stories. They say don't ever work with your heroes. All your idols will fail you in the end. Listen, he was a very complicated man.

There was a lot of great things about him and a lot of not great things about him, so I don't want to sit here and turn it into a hip piece. on him because I have a lot of great things to say about the Warrior. However, there were obviously a lot of challenging things when working with him, and maybe that's a separate episode. But the one thing he told me about WrestleMania 6th, he claimed that the morning of at the Toronto Skydome,

Hogan and Vince were sitting in a conference room with him. And again, I'm just telling you what Mr. Warrior told me, I'm not vouching for this being factual or hearsay or make-believe. he claims that still the morning of, they were going back and forth if they were really going to give the strap to Warrior. And he's sitting in a conference room and it's like nine in the morning

and Hogan and Vince are doing lines of blow going back and forth talking about the finish and Warrior sitting in the corner, eating tuna fish and drinking black coffee, just happy to be there. He told me that. I had my buddy in my office with me. It was a Sherman Oaks office 2010 maybe.

That story was told. It sounds interesting. I have no idea of any of it's true. But I just had to share it back about it. Let me ask Brian. Brian, do you remember Warrior ever being described as just happy to be there? Only when he has his tuna fish and coffee for the record. But have you thought about it?

He wanted to fart on Hogan's head. Have you thought about making a comedy like the Hulk Hogan story? You know, it would be fiction. The, the, the, I will say this, actually. I read David Schultz's book. And, yeah, and you know what's sad. It's like, John Kossper wrote that book, Louisville. Yes.

No, I don't think so. The guy that wrote that book lives in Louisville. I don't think that was Schultz. A lady was Shultz. That's, that's how I ended up first meeting, Cosper, because I called. him about the book. You're right. He called me. Absolutely. Yes. So I read that book and man, there are so many great moments in the origin story. And one of them stuck with me forever, which I'll probably put in a movie. Maybe it'll be something fictional, but like he was so broke

and he's in the classroom and this kid's making fun of him going, why are you wearing my shirt, Schultz? And everyone's like, what the hell? And they look in the tag and his his family got it from like the thrift store, the Hand Me Down or Salvation Army or something. And this kid, his family had donated it, but his name was written in it. And Schultz takes the shirt off in the classroom because he's so embarrassing,

gives it to the kid. And I'm like, fuck, that is a great moment for cinema. What a powerful, devastating moment for some little kid in elementary school to be humiliated for being poor wearing hand-me-downs. But that's another episode. The Schultz story, I thought it would be a great movie. have to make it fictional because unfortunately, I think Schultz was racist and was kind of a piece of

shit when it came down to it on the Mr. T backstage stuff and, you know, him just, I do think he was just, he had some inherently prejudice energy inside of him, which was sad because for my experience reading it up until that point, I felt like, you know, he was protecting the business and trying to do what's right. But there's something interesting about the, you know, and I'm trying to be careful on referencing any, you know, wrestlers we're talking about. But like, the just-a-position of the heel actually being like a sweet, you know, good person and then the big baby face, you know, behind the scenes being a... Well, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's just, there's, it's an interesting thing, you know, it's a great,

it's a great premise for a story that you can be fictional. And this, this goes back into what I was originally saying when I called Jim Ross, you know, I've read all these books, you know, Brett Hart's book, all these different books of, you know, faces and heels and industry. And I was like, I just want to make this love letter to all of them, make a fictional story, but litter it with Easter eggs of people going, oh, I think he took inspiration from that and inspiration from that. And that's, is what led to Queen in the Ring, because I just wanted to, you know, I love all these, these pro wrestling stories that have never been told on the screen. But I'll say this about Miljerk.

Go ahead. Well, I was just going to say again, as I mentioned to Camille, when we talk to her, she's not, you know, she's not somebody that's been herself on National Weekly Television for 10 years to where when people see this movie, they go, oh, that's so-and-so playing the part. This story, as you mentioned, has not been mainstream. And so people can lose themselves in this movie because, as I mentioned, nobody looks like these people. But at the same time, you're seeing people that are representing. the people that actually were in this story,

and it hasn't been told and done to death. Yeah, here's a fun story about trying to make it super accurate on how they looked. Obviously, you can only do so much with everyone you've casted, but when we were doing the screen test, which is basically the first time we put, you know, the actors in hair, makeup, and wardrobe and put them in front of the camera and do the lighting pal and see

what they're actually going to look like in the movie. Mildred, Emily, her cards, comes out, and they've done her eyebrows, like, what the eyebrows really looked like back then. They're very thin and very arched. And everyone's kind of, okay, here we go, we're showing the director. And I'm just like, never.

What? I go, absolutely not. It won't work. We're going to be the eyebrow movie. No one will even focus. That's all they'll see. Yeah. That's all they'll see.

And that was the start of me taking creative liberties of like, there's a time and a place to be very specific. on accuracy, and then there's other things where it's just going to take away from the story, which is the most important thing, is the human story in this. And I was like, forget about the slanted eyebrows. And it's nothing against the team that did them. They were legit, but it's just so distracting because we don't see anyone like that. You see the pictures of Mildred Burke and the eyebrows, but no, today people like, my God,

was she a burn victim? What has happened here? Literally. We would have been the two-hour eyebrow movie. That's what it would have been. And I was just to forget it. Nope, no, natural eyebrows. And they told me I had to dress like a businessman from the 40s and 50s.

Luckily, I just brought my own stuff from home. I did, actually. The third day, I was wearing my own shit. It looked like, you know, they're here. We'll give you a pair of shoes. And then I was under the desk where you couldn't see my shoes. I'm wearing those goddamn tight-ass painful shoes all night. You couldn't even see them.

You did a great job, though, Jim, truthfully. He really did. Well, I appreciate it. Brian, I'm sorry, we covered you up. Considering the talent that's in the movie, how much, or did you have any dealings with any of the wrestling companies today? WWE, A.E., TNA, that pretty much covers it in America. I'm sure New Japan stayed out of it.

But did you have any dealings with their different wrestling companies? So I started with Billy Corrigan for NWA because Camille was still under contract with, well, actually, no, I didn't. Okay. You know what? Fuck it. The movie comes out in a matter of weeks. Tell a story, baby. Tell a story.

Yeah. I mean, so here's the reality, guys. I'm going to break it here first. And I just, all I ask is all you cult of cornet, cornballs or whatever the lingo is, you marvelous marks of mayhem. Show the world opening weekend. Be part of the conversation. Love it or hate it. talk about it and go support an independent film that not only is it about an underdog woman,

but it was an underdog production. Every which way, there were roadblocks. There was, and I'll lead that into the WWE of it all. So when we send out the breakdown for cast to the industry, which is basically there's a go movie, a go picture, which means this, this movie is getting made. They're starting to cast. It's no longer a pitch. It's not, you know, trying to be put together.

They're casting. They're going. It's called a go movie. We put out the breakdown. So all the agents and managers go, oh, look, they're trying to fill this role and that role. And two of those roles, we had already had Emily, but two of those roles were June buyers and Claire Mortensen. So my agent at CIA gets hit up and says, hey, the Doug DeVee reached out, they're interested. interested in talking about the movie and getting some of their talent in it.

And I purposely never went to the WWE for casting because I just know all of the yellow tape and red tape to get any of their talent. So I just didn't even want to open up Pandora's box. But they say, no, go take the meeting with them. It was the head of scripted entertainment there or scripted film and television who is no longer there after the TKO deal. but he was there for many years, lovely guy, and he goes, we love the script, I want you to meet with two other execs. I go out to Century City,

I meet with these two other gentlemen, lovely guys. All these people were great. We love the script. We want to support. We'll meet, you know, we're going to send it to Charlotte Flair and with Morgan. And where you do Zooms with them? I go, of course, they're two of the best in the world right now.

I would love to. Nothing but love. and grace and respect to Charlotte and Lib. I get on Zooms, each one of them separately, and I have now gone, you know what, maybe I will cast some WWE stars. I've always wanted those two roles to be real wrestlers just because the amount of stunts that are going to happen that I wanted Clara and June to be people that could do their own stunts and that knew the art of pro wrestling. So they were always going to be stunt casted, no pun intended, but I wanted to be stunt casted, no pun intended, but I wanted to make sure that they were the right people to play those roles.

So I do this Zoom of Charlotte. She's fantastic. Then I do a Zoom with Lib. And funny enough, I don't know if she said this a lot before, but I'll share it because it's a great story. I asked Liv how she got into wrestling. And she said she was working at a Hooters as a waitress and a wrestler came in and asked to, she recognized. I mean, she was a fan and basically said, hey, you got to let me.

get a tryout, which is so serendipitous because... That's the way Mildred got started, right? That's it. I go, holy shit, this is literally our story. Now, I don't know if she wants to share. I mean, maybe you added out the Hooters. I don't know if she cares about that, but she was a waitress and a wrestler comes in.

I know who the wrestler was. Again, I don't know if she wants it in public because I don't want to disrespect anybody. But anyway, that's the heart of the story. She was a waitress. A wrestler comes in, give me a tryout, just like Milder's story. Charlotte had just so responded to the to the screenplay.

She's like, this is so real. This is how it is. And so we casted both of them. Charlotte comes out to Louisville and she's training with us. She's already been, you know, sized with wardrobe. She's at OVW. She's training Emily. She was so amazing.

She's just so committed, so excited. And I'm thrilled because I'm like, wow, Charlotte Flair is going to be our, our main villain and she's just, you know, one of the best in the world, one of the best of all time. And then days before we start shooting, not even weeks, literally days, less than a week, my producers can't get the paperwork sign from WWE. And we're still waiting for live to arrive, but Charlotte's already there. And then all of a sudden becomes this game of ambiguity where, oh, she's being pulled. what do you mean well they won't let they won't let her sign and i like well who's saying that you guys are the

one that that pitched me to cast them and i keep asking you know the the the people at w e in the film department and you know the cut to the chase no one can give me a very clear honest answer other than they believe it came from the very top which is what had been vince at the time and that he was mad about another wrestler who I believe maybe this was Seth Rollins shooting Captain America, which unfortunately I think his scenes got cut anyway, but he was mad that some of their talent wasn't shooting all their TV episodes because they were out doing movies. And he was like, if it's an independent film, we're not messing with it. And the punchline was they pulled Charlotte out of it because it was an indie film.

And they didn't want her, you know, I don't know if it was wasting her time or jeopardizing her time or her storyline. I don't know what it was. They, I thought it was some old beef with Mildred Burke and Vince or Vince Sr. I couldn't figure it out because I thought, why would they do this to us? Oh, Vince Sr. and Mildred Burke, they patched that up back in 1946. No, so basically they come to you and they say, we'd like you to book these two. young ladies to be in the movie and you bring them bring Charlotte to Louisville wardrobe her put her up trainer she's excited about it and then they say never mind we changed our minds she can't do it

yeah and by the way we have we have all these great videos which i mean i guess unless hunter if you're out there or or nick conn if somebody wants to call me and tell me what's up well like we'll probably just put them out there because they're great footage of Charlotte you know training Emily and how much the movie means to her and how excited. And the whole thing is just sad and tragic in the sense that they pulled her and it was so elusive. And again, I'm not trying to sit here and shame the WWU. I love the company. It's a huge reason why this movie got made in the sense that it inspired me as a kid growing up and watching it.

But like the whole way it was handled was fucked up. And then, by the way, here's part two to this story. So then TKO, right? they sell. Then we start getting good feedback in the film festival circuit. Then a guy from TKO who's like, you know, somewhat newer there, but really lovely guy, digital sponsorships, brand partnerships. They approach us, hey, we want to help promote this movie, want to get involved.

I go, you really? And by the way, I have whatever the kids call it. I have the receipts. I have all the emails, phone calls, text. Now they're coming to us again. Hey, we want to do this. We want to do that. I go, great.

I would love to have WWB help promote this. You guys have the target audience. Can we do something in between World Rumble and WrestleMania when it's coming out? I can get some of the P&A money, which is the promotional marketing advertising dollars to promote a theatrical release. I go, we'll pay you what you're asking to help promote this. Great, this is going to be great. All right. We have this whole thing coming together.

I'm going to go get the long form. two days go by God didn't call me back I go fuck this is the first time I've never had someone to want to take my money why isn't this guy calling me two more days go by hey I'm really embarrassed

I don't know what to say when this went up to the top they said oh yeah we can't be involved in that movie I go you really want to you again yeah this is post TKO so the first time the casting was pre TKO second time post TKO they come to me again

and look this is not to stir up drama. I asked this gentleman, actually, as recently as like a week ago, hey, he saw the trailer coming and goes, hey, man, congrats. You know, I'm really rooting for you. I'm sorry, we didn't get to, you know, help you with it. I go, dude, totally get it. Thank you for reaching out. It means a lot. I hope we work on another project. By the way, I'm going to have to start to impress for the film. And this is going to get brought up because everyone knows Charlotte and Liv were originally cast in it because, you know, 100 news sites ran that story when it was

happening. What do you want me to say in regards to that and what do you want me to say in regards to the WWE not having any association with it? He goes, you know what? Let me find out what that is and get back to you. And guess what? No one ever told me anything. So here I am with a cult of cornet shooting it left, right, and center. This is the reality of it all. I don't know why. I have my own series. But is it a Jim Ross thing? no one has told me anything definitively at all other than they left me at the altar twice and said thanks for stopping by it's just like on the second one on the second one nobody said we can't take your money because blank yes there was never a reason and again they up they

approached us i had left it alone i said you know what i'll work with tna a w NWA, OVW, OVW, P-DW, anyone who wants to party and help get Mildred's story to the world and show everyone these great performances of these actors, let's party. But yeah, I don't know, man. It's really, really bizarre.

And it's heartbreaking because I just, I don't know. I don't know what to say. But you know, as I told Camille, when we spoke to her, we didn't reveal that whole story, but she did say that she was, you know, cast at the last minute because of issues. And I said, you know,

it was probably better because, better for the film. Charlotte Flair, would it be an eyebrow movie, but they'd be, oh, there's Charlotte Flair. She's so famous. She's so, you know her instantly,

if you're any kind of wrestling fan. Was it better that Camille was able to come in with less fanfare behind her? and embody the spirit of June Byers and the character of June Byers better to where people can lose themselves in it. May have helped the movie. I think to your comment, the answer is yes. There is a thing called the suspension of disbelief in storytelling, which, to quote Google,

I'm just going to quote it here. Suspension of disbelief is the act of temporarily ignoring logic and critical thinking to enjoy a fictional story. It's a key concept in storytelling, especially in film and television. I've heard tell of it, yes. Yeah. The suspension of disbelief,

I do think it, what they say, oh, it took me out of it. I think because Charlotte is so recognizable and so famous and so terrific, it may have been harder to escape into this world and go to this other time and place because she's Charlotte Flair. Only because she's that famous and relevant and just, you know, it's harder.

To someone that doesn't watch WWE, it would have been fine because they wouldn't know Charlotte. So they would just be seeing her as, you know, this terrific actress playing the main opponent. But I think to wrestling fans, even to casual wrestling fans who don't know 40 different active women wrestlers, but they know Ria and Charlotte and live, if you will. It probably would have been challenging. And it's something that happens all the time when movies cast super famous people or they stunt cast people. Sometimes it can work like a charm. And other times, it breaks the suspension of disbelief and it backfires for the filmmakers. So I do believe that that could have happened. Look, that's not to knock what the hair, makeup, and wardrobe departments could do,

because sometimes they really can just take the person into a whole other place. So it's very possible Charlotte would have been just as terrific, if not better, than Camille. But if you're a betting man, the odds are, yes. The suspension of disbelief would have been more challenging with someone as famous and terrific as Charlotte. Hey, your makeup people would have had to pull some Lon Cheney senior bullshit

with Charlotte to disguise her. I'll tell you that. All right, we have arrived. We are here. I know what you're doing. What am I doing? I know what you're... Ash Avilsen also has a record company

and you are trying to audition for your Brian Las orchestral sounds of the space continuum album that you're trying to put out and that's what you're doing here. I have a new sound I'm going to be debuting on that album. It goes a little bit like this. Oh, wait.

Yeah, oh wait. It ran off and left you. Oh, no. Oh, yeah. I'll work on this a little bit later. But a good part one, but the conversation was so good, we didn't stop there. Well, no, we didn't. We're going to have part two.

When are we to have part two? Next week on the experience here? Yes, apparently we will be doing that. Consider it here or there on the experience there? Well, it'll be here because it's this show, but it won't be until then because that's where it'll be there. So there you have it. Well, we're here now. Yes, and you know, Ash Avilsson, I mentioned he's directed the movie, he's written the movie, he's acted the movie, he's also got a record company, he mentioned he's got a comic book company, he's doing all kinds of things.

I'm just wondering, like a lot of these big music and entertainment moguls, maybe Ash ought to get together with our friends over at Raycon and come out with his own line of earbuds he could call him everyday Ashbuds. What do you think? you think that would be the next thing because Raycon, I mean, they're just covering the world with these earbuds, but ash buds, well, that would be a bud of a whole different color. Do you think it has to be the color ash, like ash gray? No, I, you know, I think it could be any color,

any color of the rainbow. Because they're not necessarily burnt to ash, they're just built by ash. Well, let's talk about Ray. You can call them Ray, or you could call them Raycon. Well, we call them the cons over at our house

because they're good close personal friends, lifelong friends. Folks, Raycons, everyday earbuds are your perfect partner for the gym, work, phone calls, or life. Because you can take premium audio with you wherever you go.

As long as you remember to take your ears with you, the Raycon everyday earbuds can work. if you have removable ears or detachable ears of that nature then you might sometimes forget to bring one of the other you got to have ears and earbuds and Raycon's latest model is better than ever got the 32 hour battery life the multi-point connectivity for you daring folks out there

that just want to plug into two different devices you can spit roast a heck out of your audio with this thing folks and speaking of battery with the quick charge, was I speaking of battery, probably assault along with it. With the quick charge function, you can plug these son of a guns in for 10 minutes and it'll get you 90 minutes of battery. Now let's say you're committing a second story job.

You break into the apartment, you plug these in for 10 minutes while you're in there loading your bags, and boom, you're back out the window and you can listen 90 minutes of music on the ride back home to Sakon. caucus. And the everyday earbuds also come with active noise cancellation, which is often difficult to find at an accessible price point for what I'm told. Well, they got it. And they're not going to charge you out to ying yang for it either. You can just press that button and cancel your noise, just like the poor people do. Racon's everyday earbuds are also available at a variety of

vibrant colors, including ash, I bet. But they got all the colors of the entire... Imagine you got, I don't know, a 16 color box. You'll be happy for 30 days. And then at the end of that month, I don't know, strange things may happen. Your mood may change quickly, but you're going to be happy for 30 days. It'll have nothing to do with Raycon.

Whatever mood you are in, Raycon is there with the music for your mood. get your mood music right to your ears with Raycon. Yes, straight into your ears. No need to go around your elbow to get to your wrist or try to beam it into any other orifice. And right now, folks, you can save some money. Go to Buy Raycon. That's B-U-Y-R-A-Y-C-O-N-B-R-A-Y-C-O-N-B-R-A-C-O-R-A-C-O-G-E.

You're going to get up to 20% off site-wide. Up to 20% off everything on the website, including 20% off on. old headphones. I may look into that instead of these pliers that I'm wearing on my head right now. Oh my God, my ears are numb. Buyraycon.com slash JCE. I'm just, I'm, I'm massaging my ears.

I've got to start using the Raycons instead of these horrible headphones you gave me. Buyraycon.com slash JCE. That's right. Well, you know who's in need of listening to something else than what he's and lately, Vince McMahon apparently may want to cancel some noise. I know this happened what a week or so ago,

so many things have been going on, but people have been asking us to give our thoughts or knowledge or whatever the fuck on the amended complaint between Janelle Grant and Vince McMahon. And I got a couple of questions now that I wouldn't have had a few months ago when this thing was originally filed. But what is the update, Brian, from the legal desk at Arcadian Vanguard? Well, hold on because I'm a, I have a new microphone, so I don't know how far away I can get.

I'm reading off a... Oh, good Lord. Everything's now going to be blamed on the new equipment. Here are some of the details in the... See, that's why I never get new equipment. Here are some of the details in the new amended complaint. McMahon offered Mrs. Grant to WWE superstar Brock Lesner for a sexual encounter during his formal negotiation of a new contract with WW.

well now that we knew that but we weren't actually told it but it was narrowed down to one person well no we didn't know it was part of a negotiation well no remember they said

they said a former UFC and WWE champion who was in the middle of a contract negotiation but was unnamed well that kind of narrowed it down to one fucking guy and now they've actually just come out and say yeah it's Brock

so that is the they actually called him by name and McMahon ordered Mrs. Grant to set or Miss Grant I should say to send a Lesnar sexually explicit content of herself now we did know that that's how we found out that Brock's in the P McMahon said that we you know

I held on that let's not paint every we don't know whether it's Brock or whether it was Vince Vince I bet he'd like that yeah I thought he was past his days of needing clean But anyway, let's go to the next one. McMahon sent a text message to Miss Grant. He didn't feel the same about Harvey Whippleman's, did he? Where he fantasizes in graphic detail about watching as a group of men are, quote,

surrounding her, and leaving her physically another quote, wrecked, underscoring how he viewed her as a commodity to offer to others. A text message from, a plane's going by, a text message. from McMahon to Ms. Grant, where he makes clear that only McMahon has the power to, quote, arrange Ms. Grant's sexual encounters, an occasion where McMahon video-recorded

Miss Grant while nude for Laurinitis without Ms. Grant's knowledge or consent. Details about the sham investigation W.W.E. proclaimed to conduct in 2020 after it became public that McMahon signed NDAs with multiple women in which investigators

refused to interview Ms. Grant. And we'll stop after this next one. Well, I was about that was also about the same time that some of the outsiders with some honor were resigning from the board of directors, right? And we talked about what investigation

was going on at that point in time. Now, and I saw the full transcript of this. if you did, but the transcript of a voice message from McMahon to Miss Grant, where he attempts to coercer into signing an NDA, really fucking fast, that's a quote, so he doesn't get kicked out of his own fucking company. Oh my God, okay, hold on, stop, pump the brakes. Did you read that? No, I, I, here, I'm going to be perfectly honest with everybody of late over the last

few years, if I start trying to read legal filings, I get about halfway through the first paragraph and I want to take an axe and go all Joan Crawford and straightjacket on people. I just, I can't fucking stand it.

But when you get to, I have never heard Vince talk like that before. Like, you got to do something really fucking fast before I get kicked out of my own fucking company. That's a, side, another side

in this whole thing of the chairman that we never saw. Well, Jim, there's a lot of stuff, like I said, in this complaint, and I'm going to try to narrow it down and get some of the details. The complaint also here from Newsweek, introduced a disturbing claim that McMahon instructed Grant to create

pornographic content from Michael Hayes. A long-time WWE creative executives. Grant's attorney states that in September 2020, McMahon directed her to produce customized explicit material for Hayes and his team. And his team, wait, what kind of meetings are they having? What, no, I know, I know.

The creative team, I assume. Yes, that's what I, what kind of meetings? Again, when I was there, the creative team was sitting at Vince's fucking dining room table for 12 fucking hours every Wednesday, having to listen to fucking various people drone on and, and hoping, wishing and hoping that it was over soon. We didn't have these kind of fucking meetings.

Well, yeah, again, and... Well, again, and while you're looking... Let me ask this question now, and then if you've seen anything else there, it needs to be brought up. But at this point, why did they amend this and do... I mean, he...

Fucking... Vince is not going to get blistered for anything because the fix is in. Not only is his longtime, close personal billionaire friend squatting into White House and his estranged wife is a member of the cabinet,

but Trump's pardoning fucking violent criminals that he never even met before, just because they were on his side. They've already been re-arrested for rape and various things, many of them, some of them. You think

nothing bad is going to happen, to any of Donald Trump's friends or cronies. I don't care whether it's criminal or civil now, because people have said, well, civil trials are different. Bullshit now. A lot of things are going to be different now that this is heading toward a police state instead of a democracy. So why aren't they just folding their tent and going home?

What do they think they're going to get here? Why did they amend this? Well, because they added more details. And I mean, there's a lot more graphic details about Vince, you know, what he was doing to her sexually, what he was demanding, what he was saying, at a minimum. Oh, I'm sure it was all horrible. That's what I'm saying is that it doesn't matter now.

Vince McMahon has a get out of jail free card. If you're in the fucking click. Well, here's the voicemail. You're good. Here's the transcript of the voicemail. Oh, Jesus. Hi, baby. I'm still, I'm packing up because I got to get out of here.

and go to bed. I'm still at the office, and I got a board meeting in the morning at 10 o'clock. It's like, Jesus fucking Christ. Now, wait a minute. That is a phrase that I can hear Vince use it. In any event, on the agreement stuff, we have to do it. And here's why. Because there's a new twist in this fucking thing. Wow, is this ever going to end? So there's an audit committee. It's a public company. And if we don't get this. done by the 31st, I'm fucked because McDivet

is in charge of the legal. A voice from conference room speaker, nobody else on this call. Goodbye. It sounds like the board room. I don't, that's in parentheses there. It's the conference room. I'm in. Goodbye. It's the conference room.

That's Vince. So McDivit is in charge of the fucking audit of the books kind of thing. He's got to tell the audit committee there are no lawsuits. There's no pending this. There's no that. Kind of like thing.

And he won't do and can't do it legally. So we need to work on this really fucking fast. Otherwise, I'm double-fucked. I'll be divorced aside from that. It'll be fucking, you know, I don't know.

What this is going to do in terms of, you know, I mean, shit, if he, if I don't get it done, he's got to go to the audit committee and say, by the way, here's where we're say yada yada yada janele so now the board knows my story knows what's going on and it's like oh my god holy shit you know they kick people out of their own fucking company how long is this woman's voicemail that's not gonna happen here but um oh my god it's like public shit and all that kind of stuff so i'm fucking tired of this shit but in any event uh sorry to be responsible

responding so late, but we've got to get this thing fucking done so quickly, baby. I had no idea that McDivitt was, well, not turn on me, because that's not really the case at all. It's a legal deal, you know? And he can't say to the audit committee, no, I never told him any of this stuff. He wouldn't know, but now he knows. And now he's been involved in, you know, in writing some of this, and all that kind of crap and I gotta get this fucking thing done or I'm double fucked. So let's

please you and I can't do it first thing in the morning because it's 10 o'clock, but as soon as we can, let's please get this thing done in some way somehow, okay? I'm sorry, baby, we have to do it this way. Because

I like to do it on a napkin too but now I can't. Um, so I'm kind of fucked. But that's okay. Good Lord! Wait a minute. There's goddamn, is this a long playing album instead of a voicemail recording? Well, it's not okay.

But let's get this thing done, please, so we can go on with our lives. Okay, baby, I'll talk to you in the morning. I'm sorry to take up so much of your time. Okay, bye. So there's the voicemail. and the idea Jerry McDivitt, because he was aware of this, because he's the one who probably drafted the agreements in the NDA, he couldn't lie to the border.

It's a publicly traded company. He couldn't say he wasn't aware of this. And, you know, Vince said, I didn't say turn on me, but, you know, he can't help me. Yeah. You got, what do you mean you've got to tell the truth? I'm telling you, Vince McMahon, Donald Trump, with a better fucking hairstylist. what do you mean you can't lie for me we need to do this really

really fucking fast really fucking fast you gotta sign this that's why McDivitt retired he's well fucking I'm done with my major client anyway he got to the point where Vince was too much for him I mean again it was the end of his career McDivitt was closing in on 80 I think but still it was becoming more painful to work

with Vince you see yeah I was about to say 80 and 40 years of that with Vince that means he was like 120 old man chronologically. So what are your thoughts on what we've summed up so far and of course read this transcript, so I mean they have the original audio somewhere. I mean, they could have videotapes and a signed statement from Vince. Yes, I fucked this girl around in the most horrible ways imaginable. What are you going to do about it?

And I don't, this is not a country of law and order anymore. So I don't think that Vince McMahon is going to be. penalized in any great way for anything by anybody as long as the fix is in. Now the country's a fucking work, the legal system. So he's right at home. Well, again, to take it away from politics, what do you think of Vince McMahon?

And I mean, obviously... That's what I'm... You know, it's worse than we thought because he was also groveling like a... He was a 78-year-old love-struck teenager. Oh, baby. Oh, baby. please baby we gotta do this or was he a promoter mom's gonna

find out or was he a promoter saying what he needed to say to get her to sign that contract well yes but he that's the thing is whenever Vince would talk to grown adult men as a promoter to sign a contract he didn't sound

like he was wheedling and begging it's it's disconcerting and somewhat off putting to hear Vince go baby we know I'm so fucked we need to do this oh please Okay, bye. Good God.

He lived his life in reverse. He's become a fucking awkward teenager when he's almost an octogenarian. But also there were details, and again, like I said, I don't have them in front of me, and trying to find them, about John Laurinitis. Basically, Vince served her up to Laurenitis to the point where they, like, redid his office. and they made a point in the... Wait a minute. What did they put in a secret room?

Well, possibly. Hold on. Let me see. Again, I'm trying to find the exact things I read a few days ago. Well, now they've changed their story since then. But, I mean, they made a few other points. They stressed that the reworking of the office wouldn't have happened without Nick Conn and Brad Blum's approval and involvement. And also that it shared a wall with Paul of X office.

So now they're filling in names in the computer. You asked what they amended. They added details. They added some context. Again, all from their point of view, their side, but also they've added more names. And this is also the same weekend where all of a sudden they trotted Stephanie McMahon out there. I'm just telling you.

I'm just telling you. I'm about to tell you later on in this program, if you haven't already heard, you will hear, folks, because our recording schedule has been screwed past day or so. but I'm telling you, Stephanie being out there was not just to plug her cable television program, but they want a woman on their side that's all happy and smiling, and, well, they can't be doing things like that at that company. Well, there's Stephanie. They see that smile, though, believe it.

She should not smile. Just be serious. People would actually believe in her. Well, again, here we are. Are you surprised at Vince McMahon? we know how much money he has, we know much cash he has, that he hasn't just made a ridiculously stupid

offer to make this go away? Uh, I don't know that I'm surprised about that, because think of me, how many times did Vince ever want to settle anything or, you know, or admit any kind of defeat or take any loss or whatever,

and now with the company, you know, up in the air and his participation in it. That may have been one thing, oh, baby, please, baby, but now, okay, that shit's happened. He's got $2 billion in cash on top of what he already had to begin with, and, you know, he doesn't think, what the fuck now? Who the fuck's going to fuck with me?

Fuck these people. So, now it's like, I don't think he'd give a cripple crab a crutch, much less give them any money. Because he's probably blaming them for things he did. In his mind, this is blamed, as Aunt Loli used to say, everything you do gets blamed right on you. He's blaming them because he got blamed for the shit that he did.

And you know, he's got a production company now and he's got all these former WWE people working from, I can't wait to see what kind of nonsense that no one's going to want to see that they're going to put out. I can't wait to see that. Now, it's, they have not committed to a particular genre of entertainment, It's a production company, and they're going to produce productions.

They've committed to a genre of Vince McMahon. That's a genre of entertainment. That's a bullshit kind of entertainment that was all over WWE, obviously, but XFL. Every single other thing he touched had that Vince McMahon feel. We won't talk about it today because I don't have all the details, and it's kind of just happened just recently. But the Ringboy case is also moving forward. That's been allowed to move forward.

So we'll have more details about that in the future. and this has been Vince McMahon legal amended legal news. Well, let's go to straight to more WWE news of a less unsavory nature. There was a couple of things on SmackDown. It was three hours long, but there was a couple of things on it. And this was leading up to the Rumble, and before we get to the Rumble, just to be chronologically correct and not leave anybody in fucking confusion, I thought we ought to do this in the order in which it occurred.

Owens and punk was fucking hilarious. Owens and punk was great and that was the first 20 minutes of the program and it got a little bit slow from there but we got to talk about that for us and also to mention again the and I'm tipping it off

but the Royal Rumble Review later on in this program as a podcast we have already recorded because of our various recording and editing schedule snafus this week. But it was again, there's Pat McAfee.

He's a hometown guy. They were in Indianapolis, but the Bainbridge Fieldhouse over next door to the stadium. And he got a huge pop and, you know, he's a hometown guy and played in the NFL, and he's got the

podcast and the shows that he does, and he's always been a presence for years in Indianapolis, but he was out again cutting that promo i love indianapolis indianapolis i love you and my god it's just it no other city has ever gotten this treatment but then again as we'll establish later on we're not sure what they paid for it but i think pat needs to calm down just a tinge because he and i think we just a month we're a five Well, no, we did.

No, he's a good personality, and he loves a wrestling business. But he's just so up now that I think he needs to calm down every once in a while just so he can go back up because he's, I'm afraid he's going to hurt himself. But he loves a wrestling, but you know, he trained with Rip Rogers, right? You knew that. Of course, yeah.

We've talked about that in the past. Well, I didn't remember how long it was a while back before he even got this. gig, it was even dealing with the WWE, he goes Rips from Seymour and it ain't that far from Indianapolis. McAfee put a ring in like a

barn or whatever on his property. He had RIP come up and train him before he was even doing anything because he wanted to explore that. So I'm pulling for the guy, but God damn Pat, hold on just a second. But anyway,

they They threw to Joe Tessatori. Is it Tessitore or Tessitore now? I've called him both. Joe Tessitore or Tessitore. Is it that's a More? No, that's not a More. Is he Italian?

I would believe so based on the name. Okay, then Joe Bambino asked Kevin Owens to come out because Owens has been saying, they're the announcers and everybody's against me and they're slandering me, whatever the fuck. But old Joe was reading his introduction

off the notes in his hand. Could you tell or do you even remember that we've seen so much wrestling? I've seen him read stuff on the show before. He does it really well. Well, but in this case, I thought it was kind of noticeable because it's not just, you know,

looking down at a format to see what you're pitching to next or we're going to the VTR or whatever, but he had this long explanation he was going to make as a journalist to Kevin Owens that we don't believe that we're misrepresenting you and we want to know how that you feel that we're treating you unfairly and sir if you make at a point like this then we'll be glad to correct whatever the case and but he was reading it off the notes like he you know I don't know I think that needed to come more from his heart he needed to be more

wounded personally than I'd have to read the topic of conversation but nevertheless Owens does the promo and you know it's about Cody obviously and the rumble and the ladder match

but he you know he won't fucking talk to Joe and Joe says again I want to give you a fair chance to you know register your complaint about how we've been talking to you and Owens I think you're a tough guy you got shes shove your apology up your ass.

Take this back and he grabbed, because they've got the two belts hung on the thing where he can reach him. He grabs the wing deep. And he's, I'm taking this and I'll take the other one tomorrow. And is it? Ah, Camuselani! NND!

And the place pops like, and here comes punk. And Owens has that look on his face. And we get the CM Punk chance. And punk's kind of amused and smirking. and they just stared at each other for a while and people like, holy shit, holy shit. And how big was this crowd in Indianapolis?

The night before they had 70,000 people in the stadium. Probably what was it, 10, 12,000 people? Jesus, H. Christ, but everybody's over here. And then Owens is like, can I help you? And punk's like, no. I'm sorry for interrupting you, but I'd heard my name invoked because Owens had mentioned him too.

And I'm sorry if you think I was looking past you, but when I win the Royal Rumble, if you make it past Cody, the main event of mania could be the two of us, and if you win, congratulations, it's not going to last long. And, you know, basically told him off.

and Owen says there's 29 guys in the Rumble that I like more than you. But the thought of me beating your ass at WrestleMania, I like that. But I know it's your goal to be the main event at WrestleMania, and it's right at your fingertips. And you never getting that is so good to me. And he blisters punk and tells him he's going to go to his grave of miserable failure. so Owens hopes he doesn't win and Owens again he's walking off

but punk says hey I'm not the one that's lost five title matches at the Royal Rumble I'm not the one that's lost to Logan Paul I'm not the one that used my friend to help me win whenever I and he tore him down what do you think of that line I'm not the one who lost the Logan Paul well that I think it shows and not only I

mean, there may be a little prickliness between punk and steen here, to begin with personally. Yeah, maybe. You know, maybe. They're two very disparate individuals. Everybody can agree on that it's probably something in the locker room amongst guys that have been busting their ass for 10 or 15 or 20 years or whatever they've been doing. It all of a sudden, Logan Paul's popped in. And it's like, well, you got to put Logan Paul over.

Oh, fuck. I'm sure nobody's you know really happy about that down deep they may you know have the match with him and want to make the money with him but but anyway that's when punk says hey I got a win at the Rumble

and you got to win at the Rumble but tonight you just got to get back in the ring and I'll kick your ass and Owen's milton and he's gonna and he's gone and he left and then they played the music and 20 minutes, but that was fun. That was an enjoyable confrontation between these two big mouse, I thought.

That's what makes WWTV good was when they have these enjoyable confrontations. Just guys who you know don't like each other who never interact having a few minutes to snark at each other. And then Drew McIntyre usually shows up. But here it didn't happen. And, you know, we saw Punk and Cody. We've seen Owens and,

Cody, we've seen Owens and Sammy, we've seen Owens and Punk, we saw Rollins and Sammy, I mean, these interplays, and again, you throw Drew in the middle of some of these. It's more interesting than the matches. I saw Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice once, but I was underage, so I had to sneak in the back door. Was it worth it for that movie? No. But anyway, otherwise than that on Smackdown, with the exception of our good close

personal friend Jacob Fattu they had a confrontation between Damian Priest because now he's on Smackdown now and his goal is championships and he's going to win the Rumble and blah blah blah and out came

Fatu and Tommy Tonga I'm loving me some Tommy Tonga now and Jacob cut to promo so they're really they're grooming him for major things. But did you the promo that now

Fitu did, did you hear the one thing and I think... Wonder where they got that idea from. Jacob cut to promo said, we both come from the streets, priest, you and me, but I was locked down in that box. They're acknowledging

jail or prison sounds better than jail. They're two different things, but it can be interchangeable. but I think the announcers he's been locked up what did we say not even months ago now years ago

now maybe when we first started talking about this was bring him in and acknowledge this is the most dangerous member of the family he's been in prison he's got a record he's fucking out of control that's where they're going and he said I'm off the leash now all gas and no brakes

and you either lay down or we'll beat your ass down because we run smackdown. And the priest, you know, bowed up at him and said, well, why are we even talking then? And Fatu just looked at him and milked it and growled at him. Then priest takes the jacket off and they circle and now Priest and Fatu getting a fight. And boom, and priest fought back, but they swarmed him.

So at least it wasn't like he just dropped, like a fucking limp wrist. And then the music played. And L.A. Knight comes in. And Tommy Tonga has a chair, right? He was going to use, but he kicked the chair. Tama. I like Tommy Tonga.

But it's not his name. It is now. And he kicked the chair into Tommy Tanga. And then Jacob Fatu is up and L.A. Knight swings the chair and Jacob punched the fucking chair and knocks it across the ring. And we, ooh! But Priest kicked Fattu,

but L.A. Knight then hit Fattu with the chair, and Fattu went to the floor, and L.A. Knight cut the promo and challenged for a tag team match, play later tonight. So, and that was the top of the 9 o'clock hour. We had to wait a while. And then, spoiler alert,

they had the tag team match, and it was a very fine tag team match. and priest chokeslammed Tommy Tonga one, two, three. He loves to Tonga about the things that he's done, Ranga. And otherwise, the big news from SmackDown, and we'll talk about that, and then we'll move on to rumbling,

was that did you see the big surprise announcement, Brian? A big shocking surprise that they pulled on the new inductee into the 2025 WWE Hall of Fame. He never could have guessed this was going to happen. Triple H. going to be inducted

in the Hall of Fame. They stunned him with it. Michaels was there. They were at the WWE headquarters. They showed the tape. Sean Michaels was there. Undertaker was there.

Then here comes Stephanie. Gives him a big hug. We talked about Saudi Arabia doing sports washing. Are they doing Stephanie washing? But anyway, do you think Triple H was full of shit or was he really surprised here? He had to know this was happening. He says he was surprised.

I saw him do an interview where he really put over Nick Con saying Nick Con did it to surprise him because he wouldn't accept it. Just like Vince never would. Thank God Vince isn't in the Hall of Fame now that you look at him. And he didn't know that Sean Michaels and the Undertaker were there. And he said that he was surprised when Sean Michaels came out, but he thought maybe he just read the format wrong. and he says he didn't. I mean, there are people who have a problem with it. Didn't they do a surprise induction a while back

that the person wasn't surprised? I'm trying to think of. I'm not sure. I wouldn't be surprised. I wouldn't be surprised. I wouldn't be surprised. But Triple H, again, he's in for DX. You can't argue that he would belong in a WWE Hall of Fame.

Do you have a problem with it? And do you have a problem with it? No. Do you have a problem with it at all, or what do you think? No, I don't have a problem. Because he was a big name as a headliner. Just, you know, the double inductions in anybody's Hall of Fame, I think, are starting to get a little carried away. Because, you know, to me, you ought to be in the Hall of Fame as a person for a thing, you know, for the cumulative.

I'm trying to say this properly. as a person for the cumulative career you had in the field that the Hall of Fame represents. I don't know Ray Stephen should be in the Hall of Fame as himself with Nick Bockwinkle, with Paterson. I mean, how many times, you know, when you can put somebody in wrestling that's done different things, do you put Babe Ruth in the Hall of Fame twice in baseball

because he played for New York and Boston? See, you didn't think I knew it? that, did you? Well, he played as one player, though. You don't put teams in the Hall of Fame and put players, so it's the total of your career. Now, if he was a commentator, he can go into the Hall of Fame. It's a different wing as a baseball announcer. They're in Hall of Fame, too, but no one considers them, you know, in the main body

of the Hall of Fame, but they should. But so, but so the point is, though, that you can't go in as a player on one team and a other team, so why would a wrestler go in as a member of one team and as a member of another team or as an individual? when he's already in with part of the team. Because there are members of the team that wouldn't be Hall of Famers without the team. And then there are members of the team that would be Hall of Famers without the team.

But do the people in baseball that are not Hall of Famers without the team get into the Hall of Fame? Say that again? Let's say that what's the greatest baseball team in a history of baseball teams? More than likely, the 27 Yankees. Okay, but somebody on that team.

Or the 86 months. Okay, let's say the 86 mess. because at least then we're talking about somebody, somebody may know. The best, yeah. There had to be some schlub on that team, right? They weren't all on their own deserving of being in the Hall of Fame. No, of course not. Raphael Santano was not going to get the Hall of Fame,

but it was a great building shortstop. So if Triple H technically is already in the Hall of Fame because he's a member of DX and they inducted DX, if they wanted to me to get the biggest bang for their buck, would induct Triple H as the single world champion multi-time individual major star that he became later on. And Sean Michaels was a member of DX at one point, but should be for his own merits. And he is.

Within that might leave Road Dog and Billy. That's my point. And Winston in the win. Road Dog and Billy would not, again, WW Hall of Fame anyone he did in. But you wouldn't think of them as classic Hall of Famers, but with DX as a unit together, and all those t-shirts they sold, that's Hall of Fame T-shirt sales. Okay, but now, again,

I'm not complaining about anybody being in the Hall of Fame, much less Triple H, but twice is too much. Twice for anybody is too much. They're just getting another ceremony out of it, which is the whole idea, but, you know, because they ain't making any more legends these days. There are... Although there may be.

a few on this crop that we've got here lately? Rick Flair was inducted twice as an individual and as a member of the four horsemen. That's what I'm saying. Hulk Hogan inducted twice, although he says seven times. No, inducted twice in 2005 as a single and again in 2020, booed as a member of the NWO. Sean Michaels in 2011 as a singles wrestler 2019 with D. Booker T

inducted twice once with Harlem Heat Brett Hart inducted twice once with the Hart Foundation Hall and Nash individually or is Diesel and Razoramone

I think or at least Razoramone and I think he went in as Kevin Nash and is the NWO Sean Waltman he may be the first three-time inductee

What? Not yet but he's in there as DX and the New World Order but you got to put the one, two, three, kid. And if this is the standard you're going for, one, two, three kid has to be in as his own

person. And finally, Barry Windham. One, one would think one, two, three kid would pass the Cocoa Beware Bar. Barry Windham inducted twice as a member of the four horsemen and for the USA Express. Huh. Well, they're double-dipping. But yeah, the point is, I don't, I don't know what to believe anymore.

It would be heartwarming if they support. prize triple H, but I have to think that, you know, these these corporate greedy capitalists, they've obviously they've got profit uppermost in their mind, they're going to maximize this thing, it's all a plot. Well, I guess that's part of the question, I guess, for the fans that are in an uproar, like, look at the shows that there's nepotism, this show, like, whatever, we all know what the realities are. For the people who think it's ridiculous that he would be the main event or for the Hall of Fame this year,

do you think it's ridiculous at all? No, who else could be the fucking main eventer. Who else have they not inducted twice now? Look at that goddamn all-time great list that are already in twice. Who else they're going to put in once to match that name level? But that's why they're doing it inducting people multiple times because they don't have anybody can draw on top anymore that can be inducted currently. And they got to they got to wait till the forest is repopulated with full of grown trees. Well, that tree will be inducted? It might be time for you and me, Brian. Shake

the leaves? No, we'll be inducted. I'm not going. The legendary podcast that we are. You can go for both of us. Well, I thought you'd go because you're closer. No, I would not give WWE my content. They would then own the rights

to my speech. I wouldn't do it. No, I'm just thinking they could give us a plaque and we'd go on a better way. I got plenty of plaque. I went to the dentist the other day. Oh, my God. I need a drum now. Oh, I got to get a drum in here now. That's what I got to do. Hold on. Wait a minute. Hold on. Well, there you go.

That was Smackdown to get us ready for the Royal Rumble. But I needed to get some rest in between. Brian, I really, because I was after Smackdown and it's three hours long now, and it's going to be that way to what May, June, somewhere around that area. I needed to take a good night's sleep in between just so I could refresh myself and watch more rassling. But I didn't have to worry about falling asleep

because as soon as my butt hit the mattress, I was, you know, you've heard the phrase, I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Don't even need to go that far, folks. When you're dealing with our friends at Helix sleep and the mattresses that they make, you go to sleep when your butt hits the mattress. You sit down on the side of the bed.

Eight hours later, you wake up, your feet are tingling. They've gone completely to sleep. You're still in the same sitting position. It's some kind of goddamn curare poison that they extract from the Guam trees over there in the Philippines with they. They don't.

They don't. In the Philippines to do this. But when they coat these mattresses with this Guam extract, then it instantly makes you go to sleep whenever you touch it. They don't. It's amazing. No, none of that's amazing. It's not true.

You will wake up refreshed besides. And sometimes your neck's a little sore because once you go to sleep sitting down on the side of the thing, your neck, your chin will go to your chest. So you got to move around a little bit when you get up, but I'll tell you what. Yeah. I'll tell you what.

Tell me. They make all kinds of mattresses for all kinds of people that want all kinds of things. If you want to sleep on something hard or just to go to bed with something hard and wake up with something soft, or if you sweat when you sleep and you need to be cooled down or you're frigid when you sleep and you need to be heated up or any of these things,

if you're unnaturally large in some type of way, either height and length or weight and girth, they've got shit for you and kids. They've got beds for you. Well, they've got shit for you in the way of putting on your beds. They got the mattresses for you. What else is Helix sleep going to make besides mattresses? Well, they got beds for the kids too,

and let's go right past, and let's tell everyone they got beds for the kids they don't have beds for the kids they got mattresses for the kids now get this shit straight Brian don't try to advertise anything that they're not going to do we want to be completely truthful here we would not want to misrepresent anything they don't have beds for the kids they got mattresses for the kids and these mattresses for the kids they've got a little slide pocket in where you can stick them like their lunch and maybe a comic book for them to read and they'll stay in these mattresses for days at a time children once they get used to no again they have mattresses for kids they're going to bend on at night have a good night sleep

and wake up ready for school ready to brush your teeth to breakfast and get off to school a good night's sleep you with the adult hewink sleep mattresses let's talk about you you you won't even have to worry about waking the kids up they're so comfy they're going to stay there for three or four days you won't have to get out they will get up on their own no This man does not... No. Hey Jim, what's that over there? Well, I'll tell you what it is.

It's the promo code. Because what you do is you go to helixleep.com slash JCE and you just take the little quiz on what type of mattress you're looking for and how you like to sleep and they will fit you up with the mattress that's perfect for you and they'll ship it right to you and then poof, there it becomes.

And you open it up and you put it on you. You got to have your bed frame now. or unless you can just put the mattress on the floor. Make sure that there's none of the children are laying on the floor before you put the mattress down. Or it might be a good way to hold them in place in case they are playing hooking from school. Your kids will go on top of the mattresses just like you.

Regular sleep for children and adults and whoever needs a good night's sleep. And they'll bounce on them. They certainly will. And right now if you go to helixleep.com slash JCE, you're going to get 20% off, and two free dream pillows. These dream pillows are excellent for dreaming.

Normal pillows you just lay down and... And there you are. It's foam rubber, but these pillows actually broadcast dreams into your subconscious. So you can program them whether you want a Gothic horror or a romantic comedy or potentially just some slapstick dreams.

Boom, you set the switch and you lay your head down on the dream pillow. There's no, no, no, you don't program anything it is a pillow that you don't know. Dream on dream until your mattress purchase comes. 20% offsidewide and two free dream pillows with a mattress purchase at helixleep.com slash JCE. Then why am I having all of those dreams lately

where it looks like a Western that was shot in Italy has been dubbed into English? Maybe you need the dream police. I guess Jim's not a cheap trick fan. Helix Sleep! All right, the rumble has been. been rumbled. It wasn't in the jungle. It was in Indianapolis, which is kind of, it's a jungle out there in Indy these days, Brian. I'm hearing it's the most fabulous city on earth. It may replace,

what is it? Plainview, Long Island is the most magical place on earth if Pat McAfee's writing, or reading a copy. Holy me, can we talk about for a second? How much did the state of Indiana pay for the Royal Rumble I remember that it was talked about but I don't remember the figure but the Royal Rumble they're getting a summer slam coming up at some point they got the

another big show maybe in that package they were in indie for Smackdown the night before over at the little bitty field house only seated you know 15,000 or whatever how much money did they get to have them just verbally fillate the city of Indianapolis and Pat McAfee

my God he wanted to I'm afraid if he was to go out on a street and take a manhole cover off he would stick his manhood and a manhole cover of the city of Indianapolis am I overstating this I don't even know what the hell that means I've never heard that analogy before

what the hell does that mean? If you want to make love to the entire city you just take off a manhole cover and go to town guessing it'll have to be a small manhood Manhood, manhole cover. Manhood, Willa Hood over the hole. We don't know, but the orifices were, they were very kind to Indy.

Well, they were, and if you saw the press conference, and I know you didn't, but Paul Aveck, the first thing he did was blow Pat McAfee and put him over the top for connecting them with the people from Indianapolis. So we'll see. But according to the Indy Star newspaper, Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, and, and WrestleMania stand to bring in excess of 350 million an economic impact to Indy when it's all said and done, more than 40 million is expected to be infused into the city

from the Royal Rumble alone. But how much did the city infuse into the WWE? Did we get, was that reported? I'm trying to find the number. I'll let you know what I can find. Because I think that infusion, it has to be significant for the level of, my God, Vince didn't talk about the garden

like they were talking about Indy, that, that tuttle in town. And they didn't even once mention a St. Elmo Steakhouse. Or St. Elmo's fire. Well, no, hold your tongue. Man in motion. No, well, yes, yes. But hold your tongue on, because St. Elmo's is a historic place. We don't want it to burn down.

And they still grill those steaks. old-fashioned way. They had dumb waiters. My mom and I went to St. Elmo's Steakhouse because it was across the way I can't remember. It's been 50 years or whatever.

But it's across the way in some respect from the Expo Center to where we went to Bruiser's matches. Unfortunately, I missed the promotional war live and I got more like Bruiser and Crusher

against the bounty hunters type of era. but nevertheless, but they had dumb waiters that brought up the baked potatoes. And I know the kids are now saying, well, why couldn't they hire some smarter people? Google dumb waiters. I don't, if I only had time to edjimicate you children. But that was cool watching a bam, bam, and the door opened up. And here comes 72 baked potatoes individually wrapped in silver aluminum foil. I had OCD even then.

I appreciated things like that as child. I'm trying to find anything about it and actually I'm not finding any numbers, just announcements, but here's something just went up this morning just a half hour ago from the Indianapolis recorder newspaper. Here are records that WWE set this weekend. Oh, boy. Largest gate in single night WWE history. Ticket sales surpassed all previous Royal Rumble editions and all non-Ressomania single night gates.

Well, as a matter of fact, they said on the broadcast, as we say in the business, that it was the fourth biggest game, was behind three of the double night WrestleMania's. I think last year's two and one the before, and otherwise it was an all-time record for anything. Record viewership. Domestic viewership on Peacock rose nearly 14% from last year's record-setting Royal Rumble, while international streaming numbers surged even higher following the shift to Netflix globally. Now, that's no firm numbers there, but they're saying 14% higher than last year,

which is a pretty hot Royal Rumble. I mean, that was Cody winning it. Right? Well, yes, but the bigger thing, globally, exponentially, many big numbers. We don't know, but it's a goddamn lot. You know, it's just gotten ridiculous. Listen to this.

The large numbers. Listen to this. Difficult mathematics. Go ahead. Merchandise boom. In partnership with fanatics, merchandise sales soared more than 95% over the previous record set in 2024,

making it the highest grossing non-Resslemania event in WWE history. Now, wait a minute. Wow. Wow. I'm just a small town bird lawyer, Brian. We've established that. But an increase of, 95%

I mean they doubled what they did last year which was a record sponsorship revenue soars 14 sponsors all matches featuring sponsorship revenue climb 94% over last year's record

God it's not even just like 5% increase 94% 95% and finally social media explosion the event set a new high for social video views in Royal Rumble history, a standout moment featuring Bronbreaker,

spearing popular streamer, I Show Speed, became the most viewed Royal Rumble social post of all time, generating over 300 million views. Jesus Christ. In less than 24 hours.

It reads like a press release. I don't know if it was sent it up as a press release, but it's from the Indianapolis recorder. Well, so, the, good Lord, if they could have only got rid of Vince 10 years ago, what the fuck may have happened? But you know what, if they had gotten rid of Vince 10 years ago, let's say, or 15 years ago, I don't know if everything would have ended up the same way.

It was kind of a perfect storm. Nick Con is the right guy. And no one can deny that in any way. And quite frankly, Paul Aveck right now is the right guy. And in tandem with Lee Fitting, when he keeps his hands, hands to himself or whatever that fuck his problem is. They're working well right now. I don't know if that group would have been put together.

Leave fitting would still be at ESPN. Yeah. If it was 10 years ago, would Nick Kahn have made the move 10 years ago? TV was in a different place. Media rights fees were in a different place. It all worked out best for everyone but Vince, I guess. I was just exaggerating anyway. They could have kept him until maybe six years ago.

Now, anyway, so we were in Indianapolis for the Royal. rumble where apparently every single son of a bitch of the 70,000 people that showed up to the Lucas Oil Lucas Old Lucas's stadium. Apparently every single one of them had an ATM in their

back pocket and just fucking pissed cash across the merchandise tables and lived like Caligula. I don't know what's going on with these people. And they started the show with lots of the walk-ins and the start

arriving, Owens comes driving in in a golf cart customized with black duct tape. You got to admit he's got style. And then Punk and Cody got the two biggest pops when the people saw him on the screen, and Seth was right there with it. And then Roman and Paul at the end, I think they got the biggest, ooh, kind of pop, like, ooh, they're here too. but a lot of people reacting to people walking into the building and then they opened with somebody in the building

that we didn't expect to see in the building is this the start of okay now that you know things have progressed a little while is Stephanie McMahon can we make her palatable again because of her maiden name since she is part of the the Levec family now and

you know maybe she we still want her to be rehabilitated in some kind of way to be on television is this the start of this so we can explore some of Stephanie's places yeah again I'm not sure if there's really much of a demand for this other than internally maybe at home to make her happy but

I personally don't think there should be a McMahon on the show let alone starting off the show in 2025 especially the weekend Janelle Grant just amended her complaint. Well, but does one have something to do with the other? Do they want a female face on the other side of the thing? Well, here's, we've got women too here that like us. I mean, you tell me.

I don't think it's necessary. I think it's actually just an unnecessary thing. I think right now they have a winning formula. Paula Vec starting off the shows is the right thing. He's Dana White. You don't have Dana's wife coming out there and doing it. And again, Stephanie's... And Lord knows what he might do.

she did. And Stephanie's been around for a long time, and a long time she was mainly a female Vince degrading talent on camera. I personally don't think she should be on the show anymore. And she doesn't have any position that I know of in WWE or in TKO. I mean, I guess she has shares. But other than that, she's going to host this soon-to-be-unwatchable show wherever you may find it on ESPN Plus, I believe. Stephanie's places. That's what we want. Then she could do Stephanie in the kitchen. And Stephanie on the road. Well, but she's going to have the, they said, you know, big superstars as guests, is it in a kitchen?

So what? What is it? What is, what is, what is, what is the thing that you will not get anywhere else? Them sitting there talking to Stephanie, like they haven't seen her a certain way for her entire life and now they see her a little differently? I don't know. I just, to me, it's a vanity thing for someone who's bored and she can't be the bullshit chief brand officer anymore. was a bullshit position made up for her by her dad. And this is a way I guess to keep her busy.

I really don't know. But again, nothing personal against her, but everything going on. Nothing personal and she's a horrible. I'm talking about as a television performer and everything. And what people are clamoring for is content versus what they are not. And this is going to be pushed down people's throat. So I'm sure a lot of people are going to watch it. But I also just think in general, Shane McMahon going to AEW, if that had happened,

would have been one thing. Shane McMahon showing up in the middle of the show would have been another thing. Shane McMahon starting off the show welcoming people. To me, it's a new era in a lot of ways, and I think you need a clean break. And Stephanie could be a Levec. She came out there as Stephanie McMahon. And, you know, let her enjoy the show. She could sit there with, you know, the Rock's mom at ringside or whatever.

But let's not pretend she was a seasoned executive or a talented executive. She was Vince McMahon's daughter, and she was put into executive positions because of that, and she's still getting gifts because of that. But, you know, I thought, especially with the complaint being amended this weekend, what the fuck? Come on. Well, I'm thinking that they're thinking the opposite. I think and they're thinking we need a female face out here. And well, here's Stephanie.

Have you seen that face? Have you seen her smile? Have you seen the photos of her smiling or trying to smile? I don't know how to explain it. She doesn't know how to smile. She looks like an evil clown in a Stephen King movie. but I'm just saying that, you know, that's, and, and a thing, she's obviously stayed in shape. I forgot how buxom she was.

She'll never drown. She's got that going for her. And, well, we, she has that. Well, we, she came out and did the big speech thanking Indianapolis and Netflix and the peacock. Again, in what capacity? What is she? What capacity?

We're so happy. I just happened to be related to the guy that's, you know, in charge of the creative so I thought I'd come out and but she welcomed us to the Royal Rumble where that was what the she had the most emotion in that because she was channeling her dad fence in the

yeah in the big and then the big pyro blew off and and she went back to her places yeah let's hope she stays in her place more well I think we're going to see more of Stephanie I guarantee we will and then they follow of that with Maccafee,

a big package of him doing the voiceover talking about the Indiana Love Fest and the introduction of the Rumble and for however many millions of dollars that's the state of Indiana paid for to have their

image. I don't know, was it varnished, shellacked, maybe glazed by this. I don't think you could find people in Louisville that would fucking go crazy. about our town or any other place like McAfee was doing it has to be he had to have bullet points anyway and there was McAfee and Wade Barrett and Michael Cole on the call as we began this

pay-per-view with oh for God's sake the women's royal rumble and you forget how long time can be until you sit down to watch the women's royal rum. And let me say this, I didn't watch this thing live. I didn't watch it Saturday night, but at the same time because of my interest was peaked in the men's Royal Rumble. I didn't want to get it spoiled for me. So I recorded the program. And in Sunday, I didn't get on the internet during the day while I attended various chores around the house and then when I got a chance to sit down and watch it, that's what I got on the

internet so nothing would be spoiled, although something was spoiled, but we'll talk about that here. But gee, many Christmas, 30 women is too much. I'm sorry, I don't mean to hurt anybody's feelings. But as I said to Camille, not to her face, we were on the phone to her voice the other day. I don't hate women's wrestling. I want women's wrestling to be an attraction. We're the top of women wrestlers are coveted, but not where everybody gets to play. And boy, there was some brutal choreography in this, at some points, it looked like some long-legged girls, you know, auditioning to be a rockette with a pre-arranged dance routine that just happened to involve hitting somebody else in a mush, Brian, am I overstating this?

No, I think there are several potential rockettes. B-fab, I think, could be a rocket. Oh, boy. What? I thought you were going to make a comment. I was taking a drink, let you sit back and analyze B-Fab's fucking, lack of fabb-fabness. As Buddy Holly said, oh, boy, B-Fab.

She was in here, but she did not start it off. She did not start it off. No, she didn't. E.O. Sky and Liv Morgan started it off, and I found out something else. else the aisleway in this stadium because they had 70,000, I don't know, we'll get to, they announced it, whatever. But the owlway was like, goddamn, a quarter of a mile.

And it would take Usain Bolt five minutes to get to the ring in this. You know, so there, at one point, during the men's rumble, they did an entrance and milked the whole thing to where nobody many content, content, contact by the time that the next entrance began. So, and especially Liv Morgan and Eos guys, little bitty legs are so little bity and short. They can't

cover a lot of ground. So that, they started. And if you think I'm, for an hour and 15 minute match, if I want to try to give you any goddamn it's the women's role. Play by play or blow by blow or critique everybody's wrist locks,

you're out of your mind. This is a big match. It only happens once a year. Well, we're good, don't worry, we've got plenty to talk about. Or if the Saudis want to buy it twice a year. Or, and then potentially what will happen when, you know, some other country gets all the money? Then we'll just lose all our events. They're going to Saudi Arabia issue. You should have appreciated this.

This is the last women's Royal Rumble with skin. Well, you know, I'm just, are they going to take 30 women over there and put them in scuba diver outfits? Should they use this as a chance to separate the two Royal Rumbles and do them as two separate events, the women's event and the men's event? Oh, please, please. They can do the women's event at the performance center. Anyway, number three was Roxanne Perez. She ran, and it took her almost 30 seconds to get to the fucking rig.

I mean, you know, thank God Jay Uso didn't have to do his big entrance all the way through this fucking thing. That distance, my God, he'd have been a candidate for a heart transplant. So then number four was lyric valedictorian. And number five was Chelsea Green, and she did her normal entrance with it. It's so over the top with the gesticulating and the facial expressions and everything

that it's almost off-putting the level of animation, but she took forever to get there because she was doing all that stuff and stripping as she went. And she got in, and the first two strikes that she threw was a forehand slap and a backhand slap, and she whipped both of them. You couldn't really tell she missed on the first one

because of the camera angle. But the second one, she tried a backhand and went six inches over his girl's head. Girl sold it like she'd been slapped by fucking Dana White's power slap champion. Or Dana White himself, for that matter. And then came B-Fab. And nobody, you could hear people asking the guy sitting next to him what time it was in this stadium of 70,000 people. It's like they all held their breath and thought if we think hard, maybe she'll go away.

She is worse than model girl. Because a model girl does have the endearing, confused deer in a headlong. look that she uses at everything, right? But she's a baby face. She's supposed to be somewhat simple-minded and pure of heart. But B-Fab's a baby face, and she walks around strutting around like she's a goddamn heel. And she's just rotten. It's an athletic girl that has no idea of the concept of wrestling

doing choreography as she sees it in her mind that as long as you do this and they do that there's no emotion or facial expression or level of aggression or try to any effect of realism or let me get you lost in this suspension of disbelief it's just I'm going to take my right foot and throw it up on your shoulder Am I exaggerating to find?

No, there were certain women in the company, and actually in the two cases you have right there, Maxine Dupree and B-Fab, they're both tall with long legs. And it's not like Barry Wyndham with long legs, but like, you know, he just looks so graceful running the ring. It's not like that at all. It's like you've said it before, like a deer on ice at times. Yeah.

You're waiting to see what's going to hit the ground first, the ass, the feet. Like they just, they don't know how to fall right, or, but they could both be rockettes. I think they could both be really good rockets. One could be the rock and the other one could be the it. Anyway, so then Ivy Nile came in to straighten everybody out, number seven. Zoe Stark number eight, I've noted they're not wasting the big names early, are they?

Except for Liv Morgan and Chelsea Levy used her a little bit. And here came Lash Legend. And she got in and fucked some shit up. Remember when we were still watching NXT like four years ago she was kind of hilariously bad at the start, right? I wonder why we haven't seen her in four years move out of NXT.

Well, they just started using her on the main show with a... She's a tag team partner. I don't remember her name, though. Lash legend and her friend. And Wyatt Earp and Lash Legend. I don't know, but the point is, if it's taken her four years to... get this fucking far.

She may not live long enough to make the main roster. And she fought with B-fab, some forearm potatoes and awkward kicks and then Chelsea dumped B-Fab and got a pop for that.

And then we started, okay, now it's the second 10, so we're going to step it up a notch. Number 10 was Bianca, number 11, Shana, number 12, Bailey. Now we got a few things going on. I didn't keep track of who all got dumped when

because then there's another 30 names to write down. Hey, what did you think of the graphics, though, here in this match and during the men's match in terms of at the bottom of the screen they had, how many people had already come out, how many people had been eliminated, how many more people were to come? That was brilliant.

And you can tell Lee Fitting, ESPN, any kind of, that it looked like a sports graphic where you could instantly tell, you know, depending on what sport it was, who'd scored the points, or who'd been in the quarter, whatever the case it was. So especially when it got down to the end,

you said, okay, here's the six that are active, 24 have been eliminated, blah, blah, blah, all that made it somewhat easier to follow than in previous years when they didn't have, they either didn't have the capability or the knowledge to line it all up like that where it was not just a garbled mess on the screen. so I like that part

but then getting back to what I didn't like that to the match number 13 was Crewella DeVille at least she came in at a dead run like she meant some business and then came model girl and she got in and she and Ivy exchanged some awkward moves and she whiffed a kick

over her head or past her face or whatever and then she stood around for a second looking confused and then she fired up and did the worm in reverse. And now that apparently is the thing, the people will cheer for the simple-minded little thing if she just gets in the middle of ring and tries to pose, and fire up and flex her muscles. And she's goddamn big round of muscles on her arm

looked like mosquito bites on a strand of spaghetti, and if she turns sideways, sticks her tongue out, she'd look like a zipper. And when she gets a sunburn, she looks like a thermometer. I could, she uses a Cheerio for a hula hoop. All right, all right. Will you leave her alone? I could go on.

But then came Naomi. That should be some kind of TV show on Bravo. Then came Naomi. And then was Jada Parker? And Piper, what's her last, Piper, Piper, Piper and the Gates of Dawn. Piper Niven. Her former punk rock group. No, and that's a great album.

You know, not a lot of people like to Sid, I shouldn't say that. A lot of people like the David Gilmore stuff more than Sid Barrett, but anyway. Well, you see what happened to Sid over it, don't you? You ever hear that story when they were recording? I think Wish You were here? He showed up in the studio. They didn't know who he was. Bald and fat, and he just, he said, when do I play my part?

and then they all started crying. And then he left. That's why they were a miserable band. They had some good songs, though. Well, but did they have any good songs in the Royal Rumble? The women's? The tune doesn't come to my mind. But next was Natalia.

And then number 19 came Jordan Grace. And this, you watch the same things I watched. This is the first time I've actually seen her. In the ring. Well, have we seen something I'm not remembering? The question would be, did we have this exact conversation a year ago? I don't remember if you watched the Women's Royal Rumble, so I can't say, but she was in last year. Was she?

Yeah, but I don't remember if you watched the whole thing. It could have been one of those ones where you zip through it. I think, because there was more matches on last year's show, wasn't it? Because they had a shorter aisle. They had room for three more matches. So I think I may have just said, oh, fine. watch two Royal Rumbles back to back and let the women, you know, ruin my taste buds for dinner.

But anyway, it's the first time I remember see it, her, and she came out, and they've obviously got plans. She beat up several of the girls and dumped Jada Parker and gave Piper a Death Valley driver and got a little holy shit chant going. And so they're obviously going to use her because they wanted her to make an impact and the people of course now this is not a sample of the audience in Dubuque

these are the most motivated individuals but they knew who she was and then she hugs Naomi because they said well they're friends from TNA so this TNA you know Vince didn't

mention the companies that he was working with few though they may have been to the level that they mentioned TNA on this show so their friends they hugged and then Bianca came up and snatched Jordan by the hair and tried to dump her because Bianca's a WWE lifer right she's never been to the other side of the septic tank and knows where her bread's buttered on as the old saying goes you've always buttered your bread over a septic tank haven't you Brian no I buttered my bagel though over the sink

the outhouse so anyway There's going to be bad feelings there with Bianca and Naomi over Jordan. So we'll tune in on days of our menstruation to keep track of that. And then here came Mia Yom number 20. Meachin. I'm reaching. No, Meechen. Her name is Meeching.

Oh, it would say it'll always be Mia Yim to me and Yem. And then number 21 and her and she. Alexa Bliss came back and the people were screaming and I don't know why what is the attraction of her and and she just came back

her last action was in January of 2024 why was she out for a year what injury did she she had a baby oh geez that's a serious injury it may have happened after an injury though but she was out and then she had a baby wait wait a minute you're saying the injury

caused a pregnancy No, I'm saying that she may have been hurt and then got pregnant. I don't remember the order of things. She wasn't able to run away with the test on her leg. That's not what I'm saying. I'm not her doctor. I don't know the schedule. I don't know what time.

Look, I don't know when she was supposed. I don't know anything. I just don't know. Have you not got the notes on her ovulation yet? We were supposed to forward those over in the files. Well, she's back. And apparently a lot of those fans, either they love surprises or they really like those awful segment she was constantly in, they seem to be excited, but she's awfully slight to have

had an offspring. If she was pregnant, that would have doubled her size, wouldn't it, from 80 pounds to 160? What would, that's the thing? Seems like that's a serious medical condition. I always think you're way too hard on Love Morgan when you say like, oh, she's tiny, she's this and that. Alexa Bliss, you could say that about. She's not only, she's not only smaller, but she's not only smaller than everyone, she also has supernatural powers. That's what I'm afraid of. She came out with that stupid doll. Remember the doll? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jerry Mahoney. She needs to upgrade to Knucklehead Smith. Is she going to join the Wyatt Six? Maybe she'll join Harley Cameron and they can throw their voices back and forth to the different dolls. Harley Cameron could actually do it. And, well, it depends on the doll you got. because really the doll is the key to the whole thing. Once you get your hand all the way up the, well, we'll talk about that way.

Back to the Women's Royal Rumble, ladies and gentlemen. And Wade Barrett is like, eh, people said she wouldn't come back. Stop reading the dirt sheets, Cole. So then number 22 was Zelina. Number 23 was Candy LaRue. Number 24 was Stephanie Vacker. And then number...

She got a big pop, surprisingly. Well, yeah. She did. I didn't say she didn't. I just didn't comment because... And then, number 25, Trish Stratus. And they popped big because she's a surprise.

She's a legend. She ticks all the boxes. But she got in there and did a bunch of stuff and looked better than, I don't know, 12 or 13 maybe of the previous entrance in this thing. How old is she now? She's got to be She's got to be up there

She's eligible for AARP at this point And she was No, she's only 49 What? She's only a few years older than me, wow Well, so there's still a chance That's critting, I don't know about that I got a good thing over here

Well, depends on I don't want some woman that's going to just run out In the night and go to the Royal Rumble To participate And lose and lose She didn't run out in the night It was 5 o'clock local time But she didn't even win

still daylight. Well, now you've spoiled it for everybody. So, I'm sorry. God damn it, you can't do that. People won't listen to us if we're going to spoil this shit. But yeah, unfortunately,

Trish didn't make it. But she looked good. And number 26 was Rochelle, Rochelle. And then came number 27. Charlotte has returned. Charlotte Flair, big pop.

comes out she looked like Theda Berra in a silent movie Big cowl and cape and robe and the pyro and she took her time on much of the walkout has a brace on the knee but it was covered up with Spangley LeMay

and again it used to be a Pat Patterson thing that the guys and there was no women's rumble then so don't complain, but the guys that you really wanted to feature going forward, you really wanted to keep strong, you really, whatever, they will make an impact when they come in.

And there was some of that in the men's rumble also this time, but it hasn't seemed as important, or maybe just some of these guys don't know how to feed each other and set up to feed a fucking guy coming in the rank, whatever. but at least Charlotte went over and chopped everybody and clothes lined everybody and boom boom and did some spots with Jordan Grace and dumped Piper and okay you know I've made an impact

everybody knows I'm here now that type of thing so that was good and then came Julia I liked her better when she was hosting that cooking show that's a different woman is that not the same one? No, this is a different spelling altogether. Oh, well, I thought it was a showbiz name for the cooking show. And then number 29 came up

and it was the refrigerator Nea Jacks. And she came out and dumped Trish with Candy LaRue's help because they were involved in a whole little tug-of-war thing there. And of course, the refrigerator gets in and wallers around dumping, or not dumping, but knocking over everything in its path, sort of like same way as when they bring any major appliance into your home.

And then finally, number 30, Nikki Bella, ain't got a big pop because people didn't expect that. And which one, she was the one that was not the one that was behind the one and 31 and one, she was not the one that's that's married to Brian Danielson, is she? No, that's her sister. Yeah, well, it had to be that one because I knew there's only two of them.

I just can't keep them straight. She's to date John Cena. He's here for his like goodbye year. All of a sudden, she's going to return now? That's awkward. Well, that's the way she can, with her and John, they can come and go at the same time. But is this the first time I've seen her wrestle? No, no, no, no.

I've definitely seen her years ago. Or was I just saying, I don't want to see this. She was the one that was excited to see Vader at the Hall of Fame? Well, yes, I remember talking about that and making fun of that. And folks, just so you know, he'd passed away at the time. She didn't know he was dead. That clips on YouTube. But I honestly can't remember.

I don't know what the fuck did her and her sister do. I can't remember. So I don't... Anyway, she got face to face with the refrigerator. And when they had their stare down, apparently the spot was going to be that then all the other girls who had been selling, they get up and they surround the fridge. Like hungry Girl Scouts on a sleepover.

But when they were face-to-face at Nikki and fridge, Nia had to turn around and you get up! and then they started standing up, right? And then they jump her, and she pushes all of them, like nine of them off, and then they stop her, and then Nikki tried to wrestle, and it was an hour and five minutes into this match, and there was still 10 girls left. So I decided to do the humane thing

and skip ahead until we got down to nut-cutting time, as they used to say down in the country, and that was Charlotte and Nia Jacks. And now we pick, and Roxanne also. She was in there too. And picking it up there, Charlotte was trying to mount some offense against the fridge. So Roxanne was really one to make a name for herself here.

And she jumped in from behind and clipped Charlotte's knee and then jumped on her, started getting some heat on her. And then she jumped up and she started getting on Nia Jacks, literally. She was up on Nia's back, and the fridge is trying to dump Roxanne off of her, and she's trying to hold her over the rope, and Charlotte came up from behind and dumped Nia right over the top of Roxanne and the top rope, and boom, the fridge was out. And now it's Roxanne and Charlotte, and you're thinking, well, my God,

could there be an upset here? As we'll find out later on, any weird thing can happen. But they went back and forth a little bit. Roxanne ain't bad. She's painfully short, but she ain't bad. And Charlotte knocked Roxanne to the floor after an exchange, and Charlotte wins the Women's Royal Rumble, so she gets to pick whatever champion she wants to face

out of all the available champions at WrestleMania. So good, good triumphs over evil in the end. Well, is she a baby face? I don't know, I'm just glad to see her. What do you want to see, Charlotte against Ria Ripley again, or Charlotte against Tiffany Stratton? Selfishly, I think Charlotte and Ria Ripley, again, they're always going to have a great match,

but to be honest, again, they're both, rea's a baby face regardless of how they portray Charlotte she's got some goodwill because she's just returned from an injury and and Ria against Tiffy can kind of be like the you know the the battle of the nature boys in terms of this arrogant older

more experienced and now possibly beloved blonde female icon versus this new bratty new kid on the block type of this spoiled brat type of thing so that probably would be easier to promote right now but that's just me well we'll see what happens but big royal rumble live morgan not live morgan what's her name Alexa bliss's big return we'll see how that you can't use the word big in any way about Alexa bliss but you must be happy the person you would probably want to win out of everyone in that match won yes so at least and

But also for business. She's a big name. She's been gone for a while, so therefore we miss her because she went away, and that's perfect to me for a WrestleMania main event in the women's division. I was about to say that they had legends in the crowd. Godfather and Mickey James and Kurt Angle.

So right there, you know, you know they made some money on the, show because right there's three plane tickets plus family members. Fuck, what's that? That's, it would be $15, $1,800. Son of a bitch. Well, Mickey James' family member is also the GM, so I don't think they have to worry about extra airfare or anything.

Well, hey, does the general, does the fucking GM of General Motors' wife come to the fucking board meetings? I'm sure he brings everyone he wants. The head of GM, he could do whatever the hell he wants. I'm telling you, they got to watch their budget here on this travel. There's not going to be a shareholder revolt here that will be, well, who knows, but let's go back to... They've got some revolting shareholders.

No, I'm just saying they've got to watch the budget here. You know, I'm telling you, they're spending money handy. You never know this could all end tomorrow. Anyway, the WWE tag team title was on the line, and I don't know why after I've seen the match. With the Motor City Machine Guns versus Tomaso Champa and Johnny same-face Gargano, two out of three falls. and they did

they did three falls in 15 minutes not that I was advocating they should have gone longer but I I will never get Gargano so I'm not even going to go any him or his lovely wife it's people that can do moves that have no star look no physique no

over the top personality no great ability to cut promos, no incredibly gripping television presence. They're trained movedoers. But anyway, everything the guns do is perfectly executed. It's very, they're sharp, their teamwork is great, but they started off so fast, especially after an hour and 15 minutes of 30 women wailing,

on each other. I feel like they ran off and left the people. And they, again, they started with a flurry. They stopped the guns for a little brief heat on Sabin in the first two minutes. And then Shelly got a tag. Gargano, Champa was reaching for a tag, and Gargano pulled his hand away so Champa didn't make it. So due to that, the referee was flummoxed and the opponent was flummoxed and Shelley had started his comeback but turned into a knee lift by Chanpa. Tampa, one, two, three in like three minutes the first fall, no reaction. Totally flat. The people didn't get it.

And the announcer, whatever her name is with the Star Trek hairdo, instead of saying, the first fall goes to or so-and-so has scored the first fall, she would only say, so-and-so have scored a fall. and if the people in the stadium weren't paying attention two out of three fall because when's the last time they had a two out of three fall match in the WWE then they're like what the fuck is that it is it over and there was no star power in the match

or anything that was presented at this level that when they're expecting to see Sina and punk and Drew and blah blah blah so the people just kind of sat there for this thing second fall they got heat on Shelley Sabin made a comeback and they hit their neck breaker splash finish one two three no pop and in the third fall the guns had gargano about to beat him and some guy in a hoodie jumped up on the apron and drew the referee it was montez ford and dawkins came in and hit shelley with a crutch and then champa and gargano double knee lifted shelley one two three and in the street profits beat up gargano and champa and champa with the crutch after they'd beaten the machine guns and left them lay in and they and people were up a little

bit for the the crutch action but eh what'd you think not comparing the workers or the work or anything else right but it reminded me of rock and roll express for us heavenly bodies at the survivor series in 93 okay I agree with that too no matter what you did that crowd didn't care but that was a different situation. The Rock and Roll Express weren't on WWF TV that was not a feud with a WWF audience history. These guys are on Smackdown every week, and that crowd did not care.

There were no reactions, there were no hot tags that caused anyone to react. And the pins, the finishes of every fall, no one gave a shit. I wanted to like this match, and I couldn't get into it at all, and the fans didn't get into it, and it was one of those matches

where if there was crowd energy, it may have felt different, but I really didn't like it. Well, and that's the thing, and you said they're on SmackDown. The referees are on SmackDown every week, but people don't really jump up and down and get warm, fuzzy feelings for them,

it's not only how they're presented where the tag teams are all, and they're fucking around with purely deadly or whatever their fucking names is, the tag team division in this little quagmire they're in, but also these people are as 70,000 people in a stadium and they came to see stars, they paid big ticket prices and they send out guys that are presented

no matter how good they may be and I'm a fan of three out of the four people in a match they're, you know, not the big box office guys. They're like the fucking opening act and we've already seen an hour and 15 minutes with a lot of stars and now we've got to sit through this and what's the two out of three fall thing?

What? And it just, it didn't work in this environment. Pity, pity as they say. But guess who was at ringside, Brian? I don't remember at this point who was there. I'm not sure. Well, there was Ron Simmons, and there was Rick Steiner, and there was RVD, but the biggest name,

I don't know why he wasn't the one singing the national anthem instead of that girl it looked like she was scared shitless. John Mellencamp right there at the big stadium to see the Royal Rumble. The little bastard himself.

He was born in a small town. Did you know that, Brian? You can see it on his face. He was miserable. And he lived in a small town. He'll probably die in a small town and fairly soon giving the state of the way he looked. He gave the most half-hearted smile

for a man that must have gotten those tickets for free. He doesn't. he's not a happy person. That's not his gimmick. He doesn't smile. Well, ain't that America? You and me. And then we were ready for the latter match

for the WWE championship with Kevin Owens and Cody Rhodes and they're going to climb the stairway, the ladder to heaven, and get both the real belt and then the winged eagle belt that Owens has held hostage. That's going to everybody on this one.

And Brian, This was the third match on a show, and the bell came two hours and 20 minutes in. I don't think there's ever been a royal... I have to check. I don't think there's ever been a Royal Rumble before where there were only four matches in total, including two Royal Rumbles. I can tell you, when I fucking was responsible for booking a one or two of them, that goddamn Vince would have had a shit fit. Well, let's just do four.

What? But again, they've set all the records in the world, so... the fans for this one were going bat shit before they touched, and they milked it because they knew they had them, and that was the thing. Again, with the poor tag team guys, people were waiting to see something like this. The title match or the Royal Rumble or, you know,

what surprise are we? Is there fucking some legend showing up or whatever, and they knew none of those things were going to happen in the tag team match. But now they're, ah, yes, they flipped a switch. So Cody and, and, Owen's getting to fight. Boom. And then they're down on the floor in the aisleway.

And Owen's body slammed Cody through the struts of a ladder that was turned over on its side and beat him with them. And they fought into the crowd. But here's the thing. I like the first half of this match better than the second half. And I'll tell you why, because they kept each. Even this shit that I complain about all the time, now they're going to fight out in the crowd, now they're going to fight in the aisleway,

now they're going to, they kept it moving. There was some animosity it looked like to it. It wasn't like where the guys on dynamite are just going to put their hands on each other and stagger out somewhere and throw a few punches and then stagger back somewhere.

They were moving. They kept it interesting. Owens grabbed a hold of the camera and Cody's head and ran Cody's face into the fucking camera lens. they were keeping it lively i even noted that it looks so much better than the typical indie level fighting in the crowd they just they had more oomph to them but they did a lot of fighting on the floor and owens beat shit out of cody for a while and they got a four-foot ladder

i don't must maybe that was needed for a midget to saddle a shetlin pony i don't know but they beat each other up with that and then right about the time that I said I'm really liking a ladder match for once because it's clear they're trying to make it a struggle and they're keeping it moving but there's no stupid risks

Cody's selling great Owens is getting heat and then Cody backdropped Owens on the edge of a ladder that was laying sideways and he landed on like the edge of it with the small of his back and I wrote well that was a stupid risk and then Owens power bombed Cody on one of the ladder as soon as I'd written you know they're having this match

and not taking any stupid chances that's when they started taking it stupid chances and in Owens built an erector set structure with the ladders and gave Cody a fisherman buster suplex off the turnbuckle onto the fucking ladder and Aldous and the referees and the agents all come in to check on them because they're both selling and Sammy Zane came out to check on Owens and then check on Cody too and

you know it appears everybody came out okay but again they got WrestleMania coming up and regardless of what Owens wants to do you've got Cody it's going to draw you some money I don't know that he needs to be being battered with furniture eight weeks out, but nevertheless. Owens, you know, went after Cody, but Cody hit to crossroads.

And Cody bounced Owens' his head off the desk and apparently, and I don't think he hardweighted Owens. I think Owens hardweight himself. The corner of his contact would be made right on your eyelid, would it?

No. Or did he just fucking accidentally headbutt the fucking desk with his eye. But anyway, and then he beat the shit out of Owens, and then Owen stopped Cody and tried to go for the package pile driver on the desk,

but Cody stood up under him and gave Owens the Alabama slam through a ladder that was bridged from the apron to the announced desk, and the ladder broke in the middle, we didn't break, but bent in the middle. And Owens went up, down with his head. Did you see going in between the rungs of the ladder as he was

ass over tea kettle upside down in amongst it? Yeah, that looked brutal. And actually my sister was here and she's not really watching wrestling, but she saw that when she left a little while later, she turned, she goes, I hope that wrestler's okay. Jesus. Well, but she never has met him in person, so she would be. But I mean, again, how the fuck? that's kind of a good way to break your neck if that goes awry. But they love to do that shit. I don't know they're getting millions of dollars. But one would think that you can come up with another way to get millions of dollars

that doesn't revolve around getting thrown on your head at a high rate of speed through a goddamn piece of metal. Just a thought. And then Cody climbed the ladder and got the belts. And it was 25 minutes or so bell to bell, I said, I liked the first half a little bit, maybe a little bit more than the first half. And then the ring got cluttered up with the ladders broken and turned over and the stunts took over from the fight.

And, you know, it, obviously, it was good and people enjoyed it. And they worked their ass off. But I'm just like, ah, fuck. Somebody's going to get paralyzed one of these days. Yeah. I mean, we'll, uh, we'll see what happens. We definitely saw more feedback from people, one. wondering if Owens was really hurt or not than we have in a long time,

and it looked pretty brutal. Well, yeah, and I mean, I assume his neck is okay, but the goddamn shot to the eye was, because it was swelled up by the end of the, you know, five minutes later it was puffed up and you could see where the cut was. And as I said, if he was trying to just say, I'm just going to headbutt the desk and see if I can get some color because they don't want me to,

you wouldn't headbutt the corner of it with your fucking eye. No. That's a bad idea. Either that or he's just got bad aim. I don't know. Maybe he's, you know, he's got depth perception issues. Where do you think they're going with him and Sammy? Sammy didn't help him win.

Well, and that's another thing that is left open and we're going to find out about as we get to the chapter on this week's as Raw turns. But at the same point, Sammy has been making a lot of mistakes and kicking a lot of people in a face by accidentally. lately, hadn't he? You never know. Of course, he could be the victim of circumstance. Hey, Jim, before we go to the men's match, just because it follows up on the earlier match and the winner of the

Women's Royal Rumble, we have some Charlotte Flair news. Breaking news. Breaking news. Well, it looks like it broke a while ago, but people are just discovering the breakage. TMZ reporting Charlotte Flair divorces Andrade. Oh. Charlotte Flair is ditching her tag team partner in

life. T.MZ Sports. I'm glad they're treating this with the gravity that it deserves. These people's lives are in turmoil here and, you know, so we need to approach this with some level of decorum. Go ahead. TMZ Sports has learned she's divorced Andrade. Court records we obtained show Rick Flair's daughter filed to separate from her wrestler hubby, real name Manuel Alfonso Andrade, or a in Florida back in June of 24. And a judge appeared to sign off on the divorce in October of 2024. It's not yet clear if a reason for the split was listed

in court documents. I've never seen that written like that before. Charlotte, a W.W.E. superstar who just won the women's Royal Rumble Saturday night in Indianapolis, began dating Andrade in 2019. They got engaged in 2020. In 2022, they tied the knot at a lavish wedding in Mexico. But apparently, they've got lessons from a Boy Scout on how to untie it.

The couple had appeared happy in the months following the ceremony, with Rick even opting the team with Andrade for his last match. Oh, I forgot about that. I forgot that was his partner in that train record. In fact, there were little to no signs of any recent trouble in Paradise, as Charlotte had actually posted about him, helping her with her knee injury recovery just months before submitting her court docs. Charlotte will have plenty on her wrestling plate to keep her mind off the breakup.

As the winner of the Rumble, she now has a ticket to WrestleMania 41. As for Andrade, he, too. He's got a ticket on the last train to Clarksville. We'll have time in the squared circle to keep him busy. Although after he was eliminated in Saturday's Rumble, he'll have to work a bit harder to get some run at mania in April in Vegas. So obviously TMZ is taking sides. Well, again, I mean, you know, it's not like,

we've criticized ESPN and some of the other legitimate news outlets for writing puff pieces. You can't expect critical journalism from TMZ. It still sounds like a jaw condition to me. But that's sad. These two crazy kids caught up in this star-crossed world of wrestling, and their ships have passed in the night, apparently shearing off significant portions of the hole on the way by. You know, we have so many couples in wrestling nowadays.

It's a big thing because there are women and men at every show now, so everyone just starts dating and hook it up. But now you're going to have wrestling divorces. People in the same company, I guess you've had that before, but... In larger numbers, it could start getting awkward. And yeah, that's the thing is, I don't know if there had been... A call for extensive women's division, 50% of the roster or whatever in the territory days,

my God, that any business would have ever been able to be done, it would have put everybody out of business because of the inter-cohabitating and mingling and inter-species contact and conduct that would have been going on. It would have been a madhouse. So I don't, what are they, are they, give it everybody salt Peter and K. now that only a few of them actually end up couples or whatever because this this would uh when you think about how many guys and girls are in close proximity all the time it's not as plentiful as one might think once you study it do you think you would enjoy being a star in the business now and

all the women you would get or do you think you would hate the fact that you'd be a pariah in the locker room for being a male slut who are you asking that question to stan lane oh well uh boy I tell you what the baby oil fucking stock would have gone way down if Stan had not been allowed to to

pursue his interests back in the old days baby oil like puffy oh I forgot now baby oil's got a bad name now that was in Mick's book you don't remember that I don't remember that Mick Foley in one of his books he's written so many he's he's fucking more plentiful than

Stephen King. He's got a lot of time. Well, he's got a lot of stories. But he said that he was at a hotel one night. We were on the road for WCW and he saw Stan Lane entering his room next door with like three bottles of baby oil and several extra towels or whatever. And he tells the story better in the book than I am here, but nevertheless. Well, that is celebrity gossip news. We are back. Well, yeah, and again, you know, it's none of our business, whether they've, they've

They just couldn't make it work in this fast-paced world. I think TMZ should lay off of them. Who is it for us to cast the first stone while living in a glass house? Of sin. I don't know what the... All right, so anyway, so the men's royal rumble began three hours into the show. There had been three previous matches. And that was the point where Michael,

Cole said, and we have 70,347 fans here tonight. They had a bunch of them. I mean, they inflate a lot, but there were legitimately, has anybody questioned there had to be 60 to 65,000 people there that had tickets, not counting the parking attendance and the fucking, you know, miscellaneous staff? Or do you know, have they, have they have they inflated this to a massive degree? According to Russell Ticks

the day of, there's a plane going by. That's not good news in it here lately. That's a scary thing to say out loud, yeah. According to this, at 5.30 p.m. the day of the Rumble, there were 313 available tickets. Tickets distributed 67,000 590 Jesus Christ

So then add 5,000 for the magical people WWWW Well not not even Not even They added 2,500 That ain't bad

They probably had 2,500 legends sitting in the crowd Anyway they started The men's match And I see where they were going And they didn't get there Ray Mysterio and Pinta

were the first two to start And when you think about that the pitch sells itself. The iconic Ray Mysterio, he's a legend, he's a Hall of Famer, whatever. The cutting-edge guy of the Lucillebrae style 20 years ago versus Penta, our new Lucha star, who's the, he's today. So we've got, you know, a meaningful couple minutes there whereby can see them do their thing by themselves, right?

that was the pitch and that I mean I would have gone for that before I say anything did it materialize in your mind Brian as wonderful as what people might have thought it would have been the Penta Ray Mysterio the two minutes they got to just do their thing I mean it was okay I don't know what people could have expected it's not like they can do anything to the floor and uh Well, they did. You say two minutes, it's like three minutes, because when two minutes happened, the next person came in, but they had a long way to go. And a short time to get there. Yeah, I know it took five minutes for both these guys to acknowledge the crowd and get to the ring, but then did you look away when you saw that basically Penta was eliminated one minute and 30 seconds into this thing?

Well, you have to go over the top rope to the floor with your feet with both feet underground. Yeah. Well, it wasn't clear if both feet touched at the same time. The referee said one. Referee said one. I recorded, I recorded this on real television, Brian last,

and I got slow-mo and freeze frame on my cable box, because that's real TV. And both his feet touched and he pushed off. And you could tell. Point is they did the handshake. Pinto wouldn't let go. He pulled him in. He did zero me.

people were into it. They started into their spots. They're doing some things, and then they did the deal where they both went over the top almost, and it was going to be teased, and they'd say, and Penta's feet both touched. And Wade Barrett said, oh, it was only

one foot. And Pat McAfee said, we need a review. Guess what we didn't get, Brian? The review, my kid was asking me about that. You never watch us. You wanted to watch the Royal Rumble. Hey, where's the replay? Yeah, there wasn't, Wade. We're going to wait long time on that.

Long fucking time. They've fucked around trying to be a little cute. But anyway, they did some stuff, but it wasn't. And before anybody says, oh, fuck, you just hate Penta, you don't like the Mexican people, or whatever the

fuck. I was watching it concurrently when Ray Mysterio showed up and was doing the shit he was doing and everybody was going, holy shit look at that and I didn't get that from this it's pent it's pen to to give us the holy shit

and it it wasn't there yet I don't know but we didn't get a review maybe if we'd got a review how fast do you think that the producer was in Pat McAfee's fucking ear said we're not gonna fucking replay it don't mention the review don't say it again so then number three was Chad Gable number four carmello hayes number five

Pablo Escobar number six Otis and i'm thinking jesus christ they're doing the same thing they did with the women but then number seven was brawn breaker and again you can tell who they've got the plans for I talked about it in the women's match and the old paterson philosophy

a star comes in you want him to be portrayed right he makes an impact He speared Carmelo Hayes and tossed him out and hit the Breckensteiner on Gable and suplexed Otis just picked him up and just fucking flung him and leveled Ray Mysterio and speared Escobar while Escobar had Penta up on his shoulders and then he tossed Escobars.

He just running roughshod here, right? And that people remember those highlights. and then the low light came when number eight was Tzawa and as he's coming out and I haven't with the new more adult grown-up sensible approach to the WWE have they outgrown to Zawa

is it funny anymore to anybody well he's part of the comedy act with model girl and Otis is it funny anymore to anybody no it's not funny i wouldn't say any of it's funny well then how could a comedy act not be funny send them to the fucking cat skills it's a wrestling exclusive thing let them get booked on their own merits and see what happened odus will be washing dishes and model girl will be washing dishes alongside otis so carmello hayes is going back while tazawa's coming out and

A's just leveled him in the entrance way and knocked him goofy. And they follow with the camera, they pick him up and take him back to the gorilla position. And there's Triple H. And he's like, Tazawa's hurt. He can't go. Well, somebody's got to go.

And then he turns around and tells somebody, I thought, because the gorilla position wasn't lit that well, and I see the guy, I thought it was Leo Rush. But it's somebody that you mentioned earlier that people on social media acknowledge or whatever named I show speed. Now, how does he show speed?

He showed speed. Well, he may have taken some speed. You get the courage to go out there, but he's an influencer. Have I mentioned how badly I hate that word, influencer? Like, has anybody ever aspired to be an influencer? And if you have, how sad must your life be? Yeah, how many of these influencers are just trying to influence you to buy their meme coin? How many are them are just trying to influence their way on a WWE pay-per-view now?

That seems like an easy thing to do. That actually seems like the easiest thing of all. Yeah, well, this guy, but he was under the influence, and so they sent him out there. And I wrote, what the fuck? Who is this? Because I didn't know at the time that he was the social influencer. So he slid in the ring and ran up behind Braun, who was trying to dump Otis, and helped Braun dump Otis.

So he technically got credit for an assist on an elimination. And then he did a standing backflip in the middle of the ring, like celebrating. And then Braun Breaker speared him so hard he turned his toenails backwards. And then he picked him up and bodily threw him over the top rope to Otis who caught him on the fly and gave him the SOS. the sack of shit slam overhead over the announced desk and wasn't even looking where he threw him.

So you could tell that those two guys would have spent money to do those spots because they enjoyed that. And whoever this fucking guy is, when he wakes up, I'm sure he'll have had a wonderful time. The anticipation was awesome because as I smell speed, what's his name? I smell

What is his name? I show speed I show speed. I wrote it down. I show speed. I feel pretty. Oh, so pretty. Well, as he's standing there,

Braun Breaker starts running the ropes and you know it's coming and you're like, oh, and he backs up and Bron hit him as hard as he's ever hit anyone. Boom. Well, that's because the guys resent this. But don't you have to? Even if you didn't, don't you have to?

because if you're light on the celebrity there, it kills you. Yeah. Of course, you know, and that's why all the guys who, it was a big thing, it was a thing in a ring of honor. I'll get back to this match in a second, like 15 years ago or whatever. When guys would go out after the show, fans would want the guys to chop them. And we actually sent a memo out at one point when Sinclair took over,

said, don't chop any goddamn, because there was videos, popping up on Twitter or whatever. I said, number one, if you cave the guy's chest in, or if he has a heart attack walking away from the fucking fan fest or whatever ambulance chaser

gets a hold of him, he could suffer ill effects and sue you, but more importantly, if you don't hurt the motherfucker, and he stands like, oh boy, yeah, that stings. And look at the state of him, then what does it say for your opponents

when they go down? so nobody can ever go down from your chop ever again. So what are you fucking doing here? Tell the fans, I don't get paid. I don't fucking hit people. And I'm not going to hit you because then you'll sue me or your family will because you'll be dead. Anyway, so I show speed was shown the door.

And then number nine was Seamus. And number 10 was Jimmy Uso. And number 11 was he's, he's saying, single girls and looking to mingle, Andrade. And then we get to number 12, Jacob Fatu. And again, here's a guy they got plans for.

He needs to look good. He kicked Gable and Samoan dropped Andrade and gave the ass to face to Gable. And Penta tried zero me to go and got to zero and got punched. And then he picked Pimelo, and Ray Mysterio up and gave them a double Samoan drop. Tost Gable and tossed Mysterio and tossed Andrade.

And just had turned and he and Bronbreaker were about to face off and there was some anticipation and the rest of people that were in the match cat, got in and broke it up and diverted their attention. But they shot it well. You got that moment of Bronn behind him in the crowd.

Ooh, like waiting for it. we'll have to wait a little longer, but I bet it'll be worth it. Well, and if you notice all these shots where they get a guy's face, but there's a guy behind him and the over the shoulder and all the... It's not like that they're just grabbing that on the fucking fly.

And now, again, this is another reason why if you're at this level and they're doing this as a talent and you're doing this kind of stuff, you've got to be able to know where you are in the ring. I'm sure they're... walking through it or going over it or giving some kind of briefing beforehand about, oh, if we get this shot or whatever, but to be able to, you're in a stadium, 70,000 people,

you're in a match with a bunch of fucking guys, and still you've got to know that you're on the east side, you need to be facing to the north to look over the guy's shoulder, it's very, it's very complicated. Fortunately, back in my day, we didn't have to worry about that because with the cameramen we had, we were lucky if they were actually shooting. the ring. Jackie Crockett was shooting the fucking the blonde from Spartanburg

in the front row half the time. Anyway, number 13, Ludwig Kaiser took his time. He had that that, you know, a pissy face walk that he does and he didn't get in the ring. He went to

ringside and he kind of hung out and hung out and finally he saw his chance. He rolled in and grabbed Pinta. and went to throw him over the top rope and Pinta reversed it and tossed Kaiser and that was it. So actually, it's better if that happens to you than if you go out there and you're cannon fodder for 10 minutes and then somebody dumps you and they don't make a big deal at it. And by the time that you've been in for 10 minutes, they forgot when you came in anyway.

So if you're an underneath guy, you're not going to get a pop for being dumped after 10 minutes. But after 21 seconds, they like it. a little less than a month in, and I don't think he was on last week's RAW, but the two matches, then the rumble, what do you think of the way they're treating Penta? Oh, they're definitely, again, they're trying to push him.

And, well, they are pushing him. And he did better in the first TV, or the second TV match than I thought. He did the first TV match. And the first one was with Gable. So a lot of that was him. The language issue is, you know, is going to play some level in it.

That's something that Ray Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero didn't have to really contend with. So I think they're trying, and he's going to be very valuable for him, especially in the Hispanic markets and as a merchandise seller. But I still think that he and his brother coming in at the same time, they would have been a bigger splash

as a tag team. than possibly that he's going to be carrying on his own. Yeah, Tony knew that too. Exactly. That's the point, yeah. But then number 14 was the Miz, and we come back to reality. And then number 15 was TNA champion Joe Hendry.

And he hit the ring and got to come back on several of the guys, got a big ovation from the crowd, choke slammed Ms, so he got over with me. and then as he was celebrating all these things, Fattu stopped him, and they started to do a thing where Seamus was there, and he wasn't happy that Fetu stopped him, because he was like, I was enjoying that.

He was doing the boom, boom, boom, clap, boom, clap thing. But we didn't have time to see if that was going to lead to a fight because number 16 was Roman Reigns with Paul Heyman. And you know what? Now that I saw that, I'm pissed off. You know why? No, pissed off at what? Because back in my day,

they told the managers don't go to ringside for the royal... I have a picture of, I think it was the... It had to be the 1995 Royal Rumble with me standing in the entranceway pointing to the ring telling Jimmy Del Rey, run, run! Because the manager would just come out and like, go run, be free, go, go. win the Rumble for me and then you'd go back.

They didn't have the managers at ringside back in my day. Well, now there's only one manager. Well, but he takes up as much space as like four or five of us did back in the day. I thought we were clear and free of any insults and here we are again. Well, I'm not just stating facts. You know, we could all, me, Albano, Harvey Whippelman, the Johnny Polo, the other, Bobby Heenan, we could all fit inside a. a cargo elevator.

You know, that walk to the ring maybe the most steps Paul Heyman's put in in a year. Exactly. Normally he calls a cab in New York to get from one place to the other. It's that far apart. Anyway, here came Roman Raines.

And he tossed the Miz, and he tossed Seamus, and he tossed Hendry. And then Braun speared him. And Braun went to toss Roman Reigns out, but Roman reversed it and tossed Braun Breaker out. So again, the guy that got early offense on Roman Raines after his initial flurry was Bronn Breaker,

and it fell to Roman Raines himself, one of the most over guys in the match to dump Braun. So anytime that Braun talks about from now on about if he's confronted with not winning the Rumble, well, it took Roman Rains. So this was very good. And in Fatu jumped Jimmy Uso. and tossed him about the same time. So now we got Roman and Fatu for the first time, a little tease. And they did the, I got to be honest,

the big, okay, now we're going to fight one, two, one, two, one, two, may have been slightly overdone. It was appropriate for all the people that did it, but it was a lot in the end of this match. But the big one, two, and then Jacob took over, but Roman came out with a big spear. Boom! And wouldn't you know just at that time number 17 was Drew McIntyre.

And he wants Romans. Now we got Roman and Drew in a big one too. Roman and Drew in a big one too. And how about you? Dosey do. And then Fattu stopped Roman, but Drew helped Fattu because obviously he doesn't like Roman. So strange bedfellows here. Actually, that was a German video series.

I don't know if they can subtitle the paperview Strange Bedfellows, can they? I don't know. I don't know this video series. Well, then, while all the big boys were fighting, here came Finn Baller to give Pinta something to do, because he'd been laying around for a while, while McIntyre and Roman and Fatu and everybody mixed it up. And then after Finn and Penta got going, then 19 was Shaky Nakamura.

and then number 20 was Jay Uso and he got the big pop and there was 70,000 people waving and yeeding but like if he'd had to come from the top of this arena Coliseum stadium all the way down to the ring he would have again he would have needed to fucking defibrillator by the time he got to the ring but Jay made a comeback on everybody it a little awkward some of these guys are not the best at feeding him and he does have the timing situations and he tossed

Nakamura out but he's not a big like you know braun breaker hits the ring he's got to toss three or four people he's not an animal he is a human being and then number 21 comes about AJ styles number 22 Brown Strongman You have nothing to say about AJ Stiles is the first time we've seen him in a while I forgot that he'd been gone I'm so but I don't know what's going

Welcome back AJ Yeah thanks for coming And Brown Strongman This was where they needed Andre the Giants motorized cart Right this poor guy His fucking legs or

people have had polo are more mobile than... Were you surprised he was here after the angle they did at the end of the match with Jacob Fatu on Saturday night's main event? Yes, kind of, especially when he was, you know, not in any kind of plaster or cast or wrappings or anything. And then I think they did a great job getting Fatu over in this, but for this guy to come out and then getting a fight with Fatu,

eliminate him that wasn't well thought out in my opinion somebody else that is going to be money going forward with the bloodline story and the world title picture and whatever the fuck should have been the one I think to eliminate Fattu but he threw him completely over the top and then Fahoo cleared the desk out

and threw the desk chairs around and pitched a fit but he had to leave in the end and that yeah that's why I was kind of bleh about Fatu's elimination and especially again after he had been

pretty much run over by a fucking truck the other night right but he is one big SOB that's what I've heard indeed he is how big a boy is he I don't know 610 what time you think his brother gets off of work

who is next in the rumble You wait till my brother gets off. I'll be down there. See, if you know, you know. Roy D. Mercer. The next... What is happening? What do you do?

This is Roy D. Mercer. All right, number 23 was John Sina and the place blew as soon as you heard the the crickets chirping of his music. And did you notice that John had a look on his face of the whole time like, oh shit, what have I gotten into here?

It was almost, he almost looks like, what the fuck? He's come in from a time warp. He's still wearing the gimmick. He's almost 50. He's in great shape for his age, but he doesn't see the sun a lot. And the bald spot was bigger than ever. He's starting to morph into Jim Varney. again it's john sina

he's as skinny as a big muscular guy can be for hollywood but he's still in great shit no i mean he's not as like big and thick as he used to be he's skinny as a great muscular guy well they don't want big thick muscular guys they kind of want skinnier muscular guys because i don't look better on the silver screen but um he looks i mean he looks like he's in great shape and he's got all the charisma so he's all right well i know he he's good why you put it down john sina what did he what do you do to you know i'm not i'm I'm just saying it was just, it was odd. Seeing him in this,

actually in this company with Drew and Punk and everything, it's like, suddenly there was somewhat of a time warp in terms of presentation when you see what got over during Cinas. No, it felt cool though. Like when you saw it was Roman Raines and punk and Cina, it was like, wow, you know, that Jay Husser was like, oh, well, I guess he won't be there too much longer, but.

And here came Gene Stanley. And we were amazed at the program, but Sina, the place blew, he came in, he dumped Brown's strong man, and tried to attitude adjustment, Finn Baller, into Brown's arms when Brown was standing on the floor, and Finn fell short, and basically on the back of his head, and Brown kind of bent over and grabbed his legs on the way down, and then stood up and said, ah, fuck, and walked off pissed,

like he missed the fucking cat. I don't know if he was mad at his own catch or at Sina's pitch, but if you go back, again, look, that's why I love the real television. You slow-mo that, but he's like, oh, fuck this, shagdammit, damn it, damn, risen ratting, red and fratting. So then Roman Spear drew and Roman and Sina faced off. And as soon as you got Roman and Sina there staring there, eye to eye, nose to nose, toes to toes,

like a Mussolini in the stadium. And interrupted that thing, and he walked purposely as the crowd was singing his song and he's got the game face on. And here comes punk and now you got punk and Roman and Sina were up on their feet and AJ and Drew and Jay Uso were down on their face. and the crowd was roaring

and punk and Roman and Sina said that's what it I noticed Sina was like oh shit his facials were just hilarious to me but they milked the whole two minutes and they didn't touch they didn't do anything and it boom the music played number 25 and it's Seth Franklin Rollins and now people oh shit and

Seth came in and tackled punk right away and then Sina and Roman got into it. But then Drew went after punk and then Seth was fighting Drew. So this is what we came to see here. All of this intermingling. And then suddenly number 26, Dominic Mysterio.

And he ran straight up to the top rope because Sina was laying there and splashed Sina and tried to three Amigo Roman and Roman just picked him up and gave him the Samoan drop and stopped his ass. And boom, but now that everybody's mingling about again.

Number 27 is Sammy Zane who comes in, he kicks Drew, and then he kicks Seth, and then he gets in a fight with punk, which was four mingled and ghost shadowed on Raw the other night. And then came number 28.

Damien Priest. This poor boy, it wasn't a big reason, reaction. He made a big comeback that was set for him to do. Everybody fed him. But did you, could you tell that it was like, no, we've seen

punk, we've seen Seth, we've seen Sina, we've seen Drew, we are not here for you. He chokeslammed and tossed Dominic and that got a big pop, but I could choke slam Dominic and eliminate him and I'd get a big pop because they wanted to see that happen, but

was that kind of a real-time peak meter that Damien has not cracked into that echelon yet? Yeah, and I don't think that is a good example because I think with him and Dominic there is a specific history that may get a bit of a pop, but I'll give you a great example, not to play spoiler, Drew McIntyre. When they're looking at each other after the elimination,

my first thought was, oh my God, I don't want to see this again. Because we've seen that, right? We've seen Damien Priest and a judge. judgment data issues with Drew McIntyre. But they got to do something with them, but can they send him a TNA for a while? I mean, seriously, just to retool and just kind of experiment or do something on a show with no viewers,

just something, because this isn't working. There's no buzz, there's no energy. Guy was a world champion. My kid said, who's that? I'm like, he's a former world champion. And then it hit me. Wow, he's a former world champion. No one's reaction. to him. Yeah.

And then number 29 was L.A. Knight, who came in and made a nice comeback. I think some of it he might have just taken on his own. Did you see the rumor is that it may be him? And let me just say it's a rumor we don't know. But apparently the story is that Drew McIntyre left the building or left the match really upset and other guys had problems too with one of the talent trying to get all this stuff in. And a lot of people think it may have been LA night.

And if you watch the match, you can understand why that may be a thought. Well, but at the same time, didn't Drew McIntyre stalk out of a big show about a year ago and everybody was trying to read things into it and he was just working? Yes. And also, when he got eliminated here in this match, it appeared, him and priest bumped into L.A. night and whoever he was doing his spots with. So they, like, collided right when they were doing obviously a very planned elimination. But who knows?

Well, let's keep up. But who knows? Let's keep our eyes on that. But Ellie and I got all this stuff in. That's what sure. Because he was running out of time. Because number 30 was up and here came Logan Paul. And again, right as Logan Paul was coming, suddenly Damien Priest dumped Drew McIntyre

in a flat way from behind. that you almost didn't see. Maybe they were running a little long. And then L.A. Knight tried to dump Logan Paul, but Logan Paul broad jumped from the apron to the desk, so his feet had not hit the floor as of that point. And then that's when L.A. Knight dumped priest. And Logan Paul walked around on the railing

and jumped to the stairs and AJ was about to springboard off the apron, but Logan Paul foiled AJ's springboard attempt, his feet hit to ground, and he was eliminated. So a lot of things happened there in a short period time. So again, you may be right, Brian, but I may be crazy, but it just might be a lunatic you're looking for.

Or it may be Logan Paul. I mean, those are really the two prime candidates, right? L.A. Knight or Logan Paul? If he ended a match, who would have come in there and just tried to get their stuff in? Well, but L.A. L.A. preceded Logan. And as a result, Drew's elimination got no pop whatsoever

because there was other things going on. My money would then, in that instance, between the two of them, go on L.A. night. Yeah. You know what I hate? When people have to get all their stuff in... Uh-huh. Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. It doesn't make you feel too great.

Well, we're here at the great end of the Rumble because now we got big stars in the ring and one of them has to win. Yes, we got Roman, we got Sina, we got Jay Uso, we got C.M. Punk, Seth Franklin Rollins, and Logan Paul. And then they all started cooking their various spots and Seth gave the curb stump to everybody and then faced off with Roman. And they milked it forever and then they got in a big one too. They did some back and forth shed and they were both hanging. over the top rope, and punk came from behind and dumped both of them, Seth and Roman.

And then as soon as he looked down at what he had done and saw that it was good, Logan Paul came from behind Punk and dumped him. And everybody's kind of like, well, wait, what the fuck? And Punk and Roman were both on the floor mad, and Seth ran over and gave Roman a double-footed curb stonk,

stonk, double-footed curb stomp on the floor, and then Seth and Punk got to fight, and the referees were pulling them apart, and Seth was chasing Heyman around and gave Roman a stomp on the stairs, and punk tackled Seth again, and all this stuff's going on. But then Seth left, and then Punk left, and Roman was selling, but eventually he left, but then now we had John Sina, Logan Paul, and Jay Uso.

And you could tell that with punk and Roman and Seth out of this picture that everybody thought pretty much John Sina had to win this. Wouldn't you say that was now what was in everybody's mind, right? It seemed like the thing that made the most sense, figuring he has to get one of the big matches at WrestleMania.

Right. So Logan, Paul and Jay had kind of the awkward one too because remember Logan Paul's still not a veteran as far as timing and Jay's timing is a problem even for the veterans. But Sina picked up both of them

for an AA, but Jay slipped off and kicked Logan Paul and dumped or he kicked Logan Paul and then John Sina dumped Logan Paul. So now it's down to Jay Uso and John Sina which was again

kind of not what you would have expected, because they're both so terribly popular with the fans. And they milked it forever, and then they had a big one, too. And the crowd got with that, and Sina got to do that you can't see me for the last time, as he yelled, and the five-knuckle shuffle. But then Jay got the super kick, and again, and a spear. And then Jay went to toss John,

but John reversed it. We've seen that spot a couple times, but Jay held on, and John ran at Jay, and Jay pulled the top rope down. My God, it was like he barely cleared the top rope. I right now could get farther over the top rope,

and Jay was pulling it down somewhat. But John, instead of being the low bridge thing, he kind of got over it, and they were both on the apron, And they traded the punches, and they milked it. And then Sina picks him up for the AA. But Jay dropped behind in the ring and shoved John Sina to the floor,

where he landed basically feet first. And I wrote all that for that. Jay Uso won the Royal Rumble. And then John Sina got in and hugged him. And we were four and a half hours in. And of all the people that a lot of people thought might win the rumble, I don't think that a lot of the people thought that the people that was going to win it was Jay Uso. And there was a lot of consternation and uproar on the internet for that result and General Zabodah, but it kind of left

people going, eh? Tell me what the feedback is that you're hearing from all of your sources. You know, it's weird because obviously he's super over. he gets a great reaction. Now again, a large part of it is this is the audience participation era of wrestling. It's the most expensive tickets for people that want to feel like they're at a concert or want to feel like they're involved. They like it.

The matches are another story. We just saw Goethe beat him. Not really aching to see more of him against Goother. Think it's going to be him against Cody? Don't really want to see him. and Cody. It ain't going to be, so we don't have to worry about it. So, and the other thing, again, though, he's super over, and a lot of fans loved it and went crazy for it. We did see a lot of feedback, not just to us, but just generally on social media,

from people who thought it was the wrong move. I guess the big thing is the Royal Rumble maybe shouldn't be looked at as an end destination. It should be looked at as something to further along a story, whether it's from Sina, whether it's from Jay Huso, whatever. That's really what this is. Elimination chambers coming up. The winner of that gets a title shot, right? Well, but it would have to be at the other champion that the first guy, the Rumble winner doesn't pick then, though. And if they established from last year, can the championship be defended two nights in a row? They can do anything they want to do. But here's the issue. And this is what that people are trying to figure out how to explain, but they can't really explain it. Jay Uso

because of the whole bloodline story, which we were talking about as it was happening, he was presented and the booking was genius as the sympathetic figure that finally broke away from the yoke of servitude under Roman reigns, right? And they were leading people to make him a baby face. And people responded. And then they pulled the trigger on that.

And now with the bloodline versus the rogue bloodline, They all got back together, but Jay was on the side of right, right? He had opponents that people wanted to see get their comeuppance. They like Jay Uso. They like the yeat. They like the sunglasses. They buy the merchandise. They love the entrance, like you said, the audience participation,

the lights and the waving. That's all part of it too. They like Jay Uso, and they want to see him get even with the bad blood. bloodline or get even with people or fuck away. Gunther! Gunther called him the company mascot and a silly little man and denigrated him and didn't respect him.

They wanted to see him beat Gunther. But in the Royal Rumble, the problem becomes, and this is sometimes people don't think about this, even people in creative positions. To win the Royal Rumble, Jay Uso didn't just have to beat the guy that called

him the silly little man and made fun of him and disrespected him or the rogue bloodline that everybody hated or the whatever the fuck for Jay Huso to win it meant that Seth Rollins couldn't win C.M. Punk couldn't win. John Cena couldn't win.

Roman Reigns couldn't win. In effect a lot of those people, you know, because those have been the stories. Those are the main guys. Those are the meat of the matter. The titles, the the blood feuds. We want to see these guys intermingle

and suddenly none of them get the fucking deal. Jay Uso in effect beat other people that a lot of the fans wanted to see win more than they wanted to see him win as much as they like him. Does that make sense? Makes a lot of sense. That's the backlash, that's the feedback.

Do they see Jay Uso at that last? level. If Roman at 1, are we going to see Roman and Cody again? If Punk at 1, we're going to see Punk and Cody? If fucking Seth, we're going to see Seth and Cody. But nobody wants to see Jay and Cody. And truthfully, nobody still views the secondary world title that Gunther has as the one that the winner of the Royal Rumble should want to challenge for.

But now if they do the deal that Gunther beat Jay just, when was that? Not long ago. Where was it? Saturday night's main event. Yes, last Saturday or whatever the fuck it was, two weeks ago. But now does Jay say, I want another chance, and they heated up with Gunther disrespecting him

and calling him a silly little man and try to lead the people into wanting to see Jay get even. And then, I'm not really sure I'm a fan of that, because if that does happen, Jay's got to beat Gunther at WrestleMania. Or elsewise, he's a dead as a flounder, in a fucking sandbox.

So, but that's, that's the reaction from the, from the fans, they want to see Jay succeed until they realize that Jay succeeding caused punk

or this guy or that guy not to. And they're like, well, wait, but we wanted to see those other, they, what the fuck? Now there's the elimination chamber and, so it's not like they're going to bait and switch that,

but he's not going to wrestle Cody. it's going to have to be Gunther again. They're just going to try to make people want that, and he's going to win it to justify their faith in him. But that's my take on why that some people were like, when it was Jay, which, you know, was not, not uppermost in most people's minds amongst people that might win the thing.

All right, well, there was the Rumble Royal. And here we are back where we began. That's what they called it originally. They didn't know what it was when Pat Patterson came up with it. So if you watch the early television episodes where they're plugging the original event in 88 to destroy Crockett,

they're calling it the Rumble Royal at first. Well, but then they transposed their alliteration and became famous. Can you hear now the pouring rain that has just started on my roof? I don't want you to bitch about background noise, so I'm telling you at a time. I still will, but I hear it, yes.

Well, you know, there's a lot of things to complain about today in this modern world, Brian. And did you see, I just saw it on the news. I think you were talking to be about something similar that now there's the equivalent of a plastic spoon of plastic in brain samples that they've been taking, that we're absorbing plastic from the atmosphere.

Have you heard about this? Not from the atmosphere, but from what we touch and the world we live in. Yeah, I know all about it. I'm the one who told you about it. well I saw it on the news too that's when I started believing it I don't just take your word for anything

but you never know what kind of toxic sludge that you've got coming into your body even unwilling on a daily basis you know I saw something else on a news people in their sleep swallow like 300 spiders a fucking year and that's why I quit sleeping

years ago and it didn't affect me at all affect me at all but you never know what's penetrating your environment. Hoke dokey, would you like a dose of raw to finish us off here today? This was another, I get with the commercials, I guess it would have been three hours. Because I watched it after the fact, I can't stay up for this thing. It's just too late at night.

Daddy got to get some sleep. But so I watched it without the commercials. And I still don't have on-screen fast forward, but it's easier to hit to high points when you don't have to fast forward to commercials. You're probably wanting to fast forward some of this review, aren't you? I watched a lot of it live, so I couldn't really fast forward through anything

and, yeah, I watched a lot of it live. The Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, did that used to be the Gund Arena? Have I asked you this on a previous program? Is that where we did SummerSlam 96? I don't know. Let me find out. It's next to the stadium. Well, there you go.

Another one of these big major corporations, these corpulent corporations have bought naming rights for a gunned arena sounds like it's some bad shit going to go on, right? Some fucking heavy stuff is going to take place. Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse

sounds like they're all going to be snapping each other with towels in a shower. But there were 13,432 of them there. And Cleveland is not that appreciably far from Indianapolis. So when you're talking about drawing

about the 13s, 8, 390, almost 100,000 people over three shows on a weekend. That ain't bad. But we got to talk about, you know, it's not that far from Indy to Cleveland as the crow flies,

but the crowd reactions were somewhat different, weren't they? On several people, including Charlotte, which we'll get to, but Jay Uso. This is the reaction Charlotte gets. I just don't think you realize it. I mean, she got a little bit of a surprise reaction when she returned, but...

But what is she accused of skinning Dalmatian puppies to make a coat? She's a major star that's been gone for a year because of a major injury that people know is legitimate. And she came back as a surprise at to rumble, and people were like, yeah. And she won the thing, and nobody... The snipers didn't pull out. out their scopes and nobody was drawn switch blades, but

then two nights later in Cleveland, they brought monkey feces to throw at her. Because she's not a baby face. She shouldn't be booked as a baby face. But she was about to do a baby face promo that they told her to do until the people said, fuck you, all right.

I'll say it until we get to that part, yeah. But also. There's a lot of stuff on this shit. I mean, none of it wrestling relate, well, a little bit of it, but. Well, who cares about to wrestling? We want to talk about the show. But also, whereas the internet and the

general, what do they call it, the IWC, the internet wrestling commandant was like Jay Uso, and we talked about in the Royal Rumble Review that you just heard, but that we had done a day or so ago, this fucking Frankenstein of a show,

people there when they were thinking punk and Rollins and they had them right in front of them, they were kind of eh. And people on the pay-per-view they were the way we got punk and we got Rallens, we had... But these people were right there live and they

get to fucking see him and they went insane to begin with with the waving and the yeeding and the whole place was as they used to say the whole place was live and when he got to the ring

they wouldn't stop and went on and on to the point where he the fans started chanting one more time and he gave him the signal and they restarted the music and the eating they saw him in this building he's in front of him he's a star and they came to like it

so this wasn't your snarky worldwide you know somewhat jaded internet wrestling community it was the people in Cleveland and then he desperately needed to do a promo not only they got to people with him

as the main event guy but also what we say in the review nobody wants to see Jay and Cody Jay and Gunther they just did it but now it kind of makes sense that if they do it again Jay's going to win

and he did both not only did he nail the promo but then they did the face off or standoff with Gunther that made the people want to see Jay kick the shit out of that guy and make him the pick that he's going to pick when he picks. So this was, the segment was incredible, I thought. And it was 13 minutes into the show

before he even had to speak words between the chanting and the eating and the cheering and the people standing up for him and him being overcome with emotion for real that you could tell it just kept going at 13 minutes in he says thank you guys for that and they fucking roar again so now work aside and we pick the work apart we should pick the work apart but he is nailing this as far as being the guy that they know shouldn't actually be there because he's not that great compared to all these other guys but he's so

fucking likable you want him to be there and and you'll overlook it and he comes out and tells the story I was a tag team guy and I was part of the bloodline but I didn't think I could ever be the singles guy I didn't I wasn't confident I didn't have it but tonight I got it now and yeah and they chair you deserve it and he was break his voice was cracking and it to work because he's telling the truth. I worked really hard to get to this position but I got it because of you.

His voice broke up. Thank all of you because of you guys I'm the Royal Rumble winner and they gave the applause. This is the only thing that he could have, the only perfect thing he could have done to come out and say

to make this is he's likable and he's likable and he's telling the truth to him I shouldn't be here you guys helped me just by liking me and doing the yeet and the whole thing and now look where I am and thank you now he's their fucking horse if he never wins another race but anyway he says I'm going to WrestleMania the main event just me and then Gunther's music hits and before we get into the Gunther repartee what did you think

of, you had to think Jay nailed this. Of course he did. And he always does. I mean, that's what we always say. Well, he's not, no, this is an all-time classic. It's not like when you do it. This is when you do it. You're the man of the people. You just won the rumble and the place is going nuts for you. They did it. It transpired the right way. It felt right. But I mean, usually he does the, I'm blown up anyway, so I'm going to spit out a few words where you can yeat promo. And that's good to fire him up at everything. But this was very difficult to do because he was emotional and it was true. And that's what it should have been. So it all worked out well. And with

Gunther, in no way am I looking forward to the match, but I think the week to week build, promos, emotion, I think those intangibles will make the build of the match and the weeks leading up to the match if he actually gets the match. I mean, we're assuming he will get the WrestleMania match in a few months. It's probably a fair assumption, but... Well, now that would be, If Jay and Gunther is not, for the world title at this point is not part of WrestleMania, they'll be pissed again at something. Because now they want to see it. And again, assuming it is, it's the same thing as if it wasn't.

I'm sure the story in the build will be good, and the match will have an exciting, energetic entrance, and maybe some drama after the bell, and everything in between will be a problem. Well, not a problem, but not optimal. Well, not optimal. So Gunther came out, and he did another great heel interview where he belittled.

Jay Uso, you can't lace my boots. If I beat Sina or punk or Roman, yeah, but not you, you don't mean anything to beat you. But if you choose me, I'll make every week hell and WrestleMania be the worst. I want to fuck you up. So consider your options, and he starts just walk off and leave him,

and Jay says, I'm tired of people telling me what I'm supposed to be and what I can do and can't do. I mean, the man of the people, the people. And whoever he chooses, he's going to walk out main event Jay Uso champion. And then, of course, they're saying same thing with the women. I'm going to talk to Cody on Friday and see what's going on. They're not having the pick being picked yet. but it will be a disappointment, I think,

if this is not where it goes. So it seems like that's where it's going. And I'm sure it will be. And I'm sure it will be. Wait a minute. It will be a disappointment or it will be where it's going. I'm sure it will be where it's going. Okay, well, the way that it, when I phrased,

what I phrased it, the way I phrased it, and then you came back with that other phrase, it was unfraised. But that's what happened there. I will, again, I'm not going to dissect the match, Ludwig Kaiser against Penta and the cool statistic was Pinta was

in the Royal Rumble for 42 minutes if you don't count that he was eliminated about a minute and a half in and Kaiser was in for six seconds so they had the long and the short of it there but again Kaiser great worker and he was calling it

either that or he was having a fucking long conversation with this guy in between the middle of their match and he was working his ass off I don't I don't see Pinta as being easy for a lot of these guys to work with because of a timing issue

and a when he's trying to sell which nobody's ever asked him to before he doesn't get the body language I don't think but the people like him and the gimmick and the merchandise so they're trying to have

a lot of these guys that can get the best with him and finally the finish was Ludwig had some kind of big whoopty-do and got a two count and then went for an O'Connor roll-up and out of the roll-up instead of rolling him all the way

over on top of him he schoolboid him out of it and fed Pinta the arm and Penta finally got it and did the arm snap thing which I don't know if that's translated yet that people understand what's going on there but then he hit his finish where he drops the guys

on their head folded up. One, two, three. So, and then they give him another in-ring interview where he was cut off after he said, thank you, and Pete Dunn came out

to stare at him, and while that was happening, Kaiser jumped him from behind and gave him a kind of a crossroads DDT deal and then left the ring and left Dunn standing there. I don't know what Dun is done to deserve that. but the Penta experiment, what did you think of this contest?

I thought it was all right. And obviously it's a little different because it's the first time he's taken any punishment after the bell. Just all right. Nothing else to add. Just all right, dog. It's a little pitchy for me. I was surprised when Pete Dunn came out. I didn't think we were going to get a Pete Dunn-Penta feud.

I didn't think that was the way we were going to go after he beat him a few weeks ago. But maybe they liked the way they worked together. Ooh. All righty then. Let's talk about the... I was going to say the 800-pound elephant in the room, but Jax wasn't in this segment. Charlotte came out to Queen Charlotte.

Charlotte Flair has returned and came out to the ring. As we said earlier at the top of this review, we were talking about how different reactions can come from different crowds, even if the sounds aren't that far apart. They booed her like she owed them money. She started out. I saw this promo before. Where?

It was almost to the day. In 1993, I went to the third raw taping at the Manhattan Center. And that was the night Brutus Beefcake, made his return, gave the longest promo of his career, and got heckled because he's just given this sob story that leads up to he was all alone and Hulk Hogan came to his hospital bed and held his hand and now he's back in the ring. But I remember when he had recounted that it is the parasailing accident. The way it happened in the room that I'll never forget, and I may be getting it slightly wrong, it's been a long time,

but the footage is out there. He starts going down the list of things. He's like, and then my wife left me. And there was this one guy in the crowd that was like, good. And then my parents died. Good. And then my face was destroyed in a parasailing. And the guy just goes, let's go sailing.

But they shit all over him, and he had always been a baby. face. There wasn't really any question. Well, at least since 87. This is a different story, but same promo. Well, that's a thing. You could tell she started out there was, she had something that she needed to say. She was starting to say, I missed you guys. I missed, I loved doing this. The last year broke me mentally and physically. And every time she'd say when they booed her more. And, you know, and it looked like it was throwing her off for real, because she's like, how am I going to, she had to think on her feet.

And she ended up doing kind of a heelish promo and said, but I came back and I'm the greatest. So boo me now. I'm going to drink it all in because I love you guys. Even I'm, you know, trying to somewhat follow the framework of the promo she was going to give when every time she would say, I love you and I'm so glad to be back. They're like, fuck you. Well, again, she's always better as a heel.

I don't think she could deliver lines as a baby face even when they're sincere. And the other thing is where this promo went unless she's wrestling Tiffany Stratton, she's not a baby face against Ria. No one's getting cheer more than Ria. So it's, what were they doing exactly? I'm thinking, did they think they were going to have like a

punk and Seth kind of thing where he had dueling responses or dueling reactions that Charlotte would be somewhat heelish, but did they think like I did that, well, she just came back from a goddamn horrible surgery and she is a name and it was a surprise to rumble, hey, there might be, I don't know, but you agree with me that it looks like she, it looked like she was

switching gears in midstream to try to salvage the thing because they're just like, fuck you. I thought she did a good job because that's what she had to do, but again, the question becomes if she wasn't supposed to be booed in a heel, why do you have the most popular baby face come out there to have a confrontation with it? Well, I'm thinking they, you know, the Battle of the Icons, whatever. But she was getting hooted with Charlotte and then said,

but I fought every day to get back here and heal his knee in the whole nine yards and then Ria Ripley's music plays. And she comes there and Mommy is over. And now it's just like, oh, yeah, the opposite reaction. And they went back and forth a little while. They've had a couple of matches at WrestleMania. and Ria says, yeah, I respect you, but please pick me, because at the last WrestleMania we faced each other, I beat you.

And then Charlotte said, well, the first time I beat you. And Ria said, well, you're right, but I was just a kid back then. Oh, sick burn, as the young folks say. But that's when Charlotte said, well, I got nothing but time. I'm going to see Julia. I'm going to see Tiffany, see if they inspire me. but Ria you've shown me you're still just a kid

I'll see you next week and Ria bowed up at her and said you you show me by the way you talk to me that you don't respect me like I respect you so pick me and I can beat the respect into you and one would think they're going in this direction

and I don't with this response if it was Charlotte and Tiffany Tiffany'd probably be the baby face actually she may have been anyway just because even though Tiffany I guess Is Tiffany a heel I guess technically she was

That she turned baby face or she's still No I think she's still snotty They just like her because she's snotty I don't know It doesn't put Charlotte in a really good position there I mean these are the two most popular women on the roster right now It's hard to get cheered against them

So Charlotte kind of has to be a heel And that's the best way for Charlotte to be used She's better in the ring as a heel I think Yeah, well, I mean, I'm not going to argue that. I just thought that she would have more oomph as a, well, we're glad. Any, no sympathy, we're glad any, any sympathy. We're glad you're back, but it's like, no, can you please leave again? I had the toughest year of my life, but I missed you.

Boo! Fuck you. We didn't even notice you were gone. I've worked so hard to get back because of you. Boom! That's even worse! Don't blame us. it's not our fault

all right but so there's that and then there was other things which I don't particularly care about and then the whole thing was Seth and punk and Sammy we'll just we'll talk about that because Sammy was in the back

he's going to have an elimination chamber qualifying match tonight with CM Punk the first time they've ever wrestled apparently legitimately in their careers. And he was talking about that for a second. He said, oh, wait a minute, I need to talk to somebody. And he walks across the backstage area, and it's Jay Uso. And he hovers up next to Jay and the people are, is their attention?

Is there heat? I can feel it. And he grabs him and gives him a big hug. I'm sorry, I kicked you in a rumble or wherever it was. It was an accident. and Sammy gave him a pep talk. You know, you got to go out there and do it for your son. We love you and you're great to blah,

because Sammy's the reconcilator. Reconcilator? He's the person that wants to bring everybody together and reconcile their differences. And then Carrey and Cross walked in and started talking to him and I quit paying attention. Well, I mean, isn't that generally the normal response? you know, oh, this fucking guy again.

I don't know, maybe he'd be a baby face against Charlotte, though. Let's see what happens. And then Punk later on in the back responded that he didn't win the Royal Rumble but neither did Roman and neither did Seth. And I apologize

and advance to Sammy Zane but I'm going to go to the elimination chamber tonight at his expense. And now Roman is injured and out for the foreseeable future is what they're saying. So is he the last man to enter the elimination chamber? Or what's going to go on with Roman?

I mean, that's part of the story. Again, it's all Game of Thrones. Like everyone wants the throne. Everyone wants the belt. There are multiple people who want the belt either for the main event position at WrestleMania or just to be the champion again. And Roman is not giving up on that belt. So you've got to figure between now and WrestleMania,

he has to get back into the picture, at least trying to hunt for it and make sense, the elimination chamber. Yeah. And also another. cliffhanger but speaking of people who should be hanging off a cliff

so Seth Franklin Rollins came to the ring in a black leather cowboy outfit he looked like Trish Stratus without the proper chest development and

they did the deal where he made his entrance and everybody's whoa and they go to the break and by the time they came back from a break and they went to backstage and they went to a plug and they went to this and that.

They may have gone to another break. He had to have been out there for 10 minutes by the time they came back to the actual ring. And what do they do with even a guy as big a star as Seth Rillins? How do they have him stand out there for 10 minutes? Does he go away somewhere? One of the live event members of the cult of Cornette, please chime in on this. Is he just stand there in the corner of the court? corner like, oh, God damn it, it won't

fucking come back to me. What the fuck? So, he had a lot of shit to get off his chest. And he is happy for Jay Uso because he wants to see people get what they deserve, and Jay deserved that.

Just like punk, I love seeing him get embarrassed. He lost the rumble and Roman. He lost and he may not make it to Manny at all because he's hurt and I'm the who hurt him. I love people to get what they deserve.

And I lost the rumble. That hurts, but there's still the elimination chamber. And old Sammy Zane better take care of his business tonight. As I need to talk to him. So he brings out

Sammy Zane. And Seth gives him the pitch that he needs to beat punk tonight. And all the reason, he said, weren't on his level, Sammy. But it's your night. He gave him the pep talk. Put his dream of WrestleMania in the

dirt for good and go to the elimination chamber and fight me. I'm going to be there. And as he's making this pitch to Sammy, of course, is you know, standing there non-committal, he finally gets to

that part and suddenly her, like a Mussolini coming out early. because here comes punk and he's like, what the fuck's going on? As he's coming down the aisle, Seth says, fuck it jumps out and goes to meet him

and the referees are in between them and they're separating them in the aisle way. There's bad blood and horrible feelings. The mixed emotions between these two. But then punk goes to the ring. Sammy is in the ring.

And the first time ever we got punk and Sammy. But now again, Seth is trying to convince Sammy to fuck with punk, even though Sammy and Jay and everybody, they're all happy with each other until somebody stirs the pot here. And then we had, imagine this, a wrestling match, where they started with a lockup. They did headlocks and takeovers.

I mean, they did a couple of spots. It was refreshing. to see wrestling on a wrestling program. And then the tempers flared and they started pie-faced and each other and then they started laying in the chops, but it wasn't the indie level stand here and you hit me and then I'll hit you. It was, they were blistering each other

and they were selling them. And Sammy works well in the environment like Ray Mysterio where he's selling and fighting from underneath. And then he'll fight back and he'll pommel punk, but then punk will fight. back. And at one point, you know, they had a CM Punk chance. At another point, they had Sammy chance. And here, one thing, did you have the video glitches? I saw on Twitter, I was not alone, but no, I had them, I watched live and they were all throughout the night, but especially there

was a moment here in this match where it was pretty frequent. Yeah, and that's, was that, was network transmission from Cleveland then, right? Because if Netflix's signal live was going out and doing that, then they would have been able to fix it on the replay. It had to be the signal they were getting. So... Do you think Tony Kahn has sent the plant, like, into the truck?

We had the audio issues the other day, where all of a sudden we got the Spanish feed, now the regular feed is just cutting out? Very AEW-like. Well, no, the Spanish feed was, was on the pay-per-view, right? No, Saturday night's main event. Saturday night's main event, that's right.

That is because it's NBC, it's not their regular network, that I can believe may have been something at Master Control and they couldn't figure it out until they figured it out. This was not a mistake that they made in the truck

and feeding audio to the wrong place or not going to the right video or whatever. This was just going black and breaking up. That's why I'm thinking somehow there was a problem in the transmission between Cleveland and wherever the Netflix network

receives its shows to fucking put them out. But it was hard to follow for a minute. But anyway, Sammy hit the Blue Thunder, got a two-k, and they chanted, this is awesome. And punk had been working Sammy's bad left arm through the match and hit a divorce court on it like Bobby Eaton.

And got the Anaconda Vice, and the people are chanting Sammy, Sammy, and then Sammy squirmed to the ropes and got the rope with his foot and got to pop for a rope break. Imagine what you can do when you're having a wrestling match. And then they had, let's go Sammy, see him punk. And boom, some more two counts and false finishes, and the fans were screaming.

And finally, Sammy hit that, what do they call it, the expletor suplex in the corner and milked the kick. And as he went for the kick, punk scooped him and hit the fucking go to sleep, one, two, three, and got a big pop. And it was a great wrestling match because it was refreshing that it wasn't the same shit that everybody does, and the people were into it. And then we've established that the elimination chamber

will be CM Punk, John Sina, and four other folks to be named. And then right as punk is offering his hand to Sammy, and Sammy takes it. Like, okay, we're going to put all this behind us. Owens comes from behind out of nowhere and nailed Sammy from behind into punk. and both of them went down, but instead of getting on punk,

he grabbed Sammy and gave him the package pile driver. Boom, and as he landed, folded up and boom, we go off the air. So now Owens has turned on Sammy again. Boy, Sammy's a forgiving guy, isn't he, Brian? How many times does a son of a bitch

over a 15-year period have to stab you in the back? Isn't this four now? It's been maybe more than that if you go back to the Indies. Counting Ring of Honor, it's been at least four. We said it a few weeks ago. You got to figure out at some point in their career and they're not getting younger, they're going to want their crazy WrestleMania match.

They've been working against each other their entire lives. They only wanted to work against each other at various times. They came into the business together. The only thing they don't have is a Kevin Steen, L. Generical, Balls to the Wall, WrestleMania match. well now their balls will be taped up to the wall I predict that I predict we're going to see

Steen and Generico Part 37 and what's going to happen between now and then to see him punk obviously has an issue someone bumped into him and knocked him out of the ring I think he'd be more than happy to be bumped and knocked out of that whole program if he could just take a bump past the ropes

past the apron and all the way to the locker room. Okay, you guys finished. Well, that was WWRWA. It certainly was. And this was the Jim Cornett experience. How long did we go today reporting all this news? Officially, too long. Officially?

Well, in that case, we'll be back officially next week to do it again. Is it this week or is it next week? Oh, come on. Not again. All right. Technically, you know, I don't know. Technically, we'll be back in a couple of days with the drive-through, that's your program,

and we've got all kinds of comments and recipes and organ playing. People's organs will be manipulated on the drive-thru this week with Brian Last, and next week on the experience, we'll part two of Ash, Ableton. He's not like Cher, I guess, Ash, and more of that stuff.

You're trying to hurry me. All right, thank you. No, no, I'm giving you background music. I'm trying to get you in the mood for the question of the show. Well, in that case, I'm trying to hurry me. If you're going to play music, thank you, fuck you. Bye, bye, bye, everybody.