Jim Cornette Experience - Episode 570: A New Era

Episode Date: February 26, 2025

This week on the Experience, Jim reviews AEW Dynamite, and talks about Shane McMahon & Tony Khan, Ricky Saints, Dark Side Of The Ring, KFC, WWE on A&E, ratings and much more! Plus Jim previews... WWE Elimination Chamber! 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.

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Starting point is 00:00:04 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 in Kornet. The keys to the future. Hell by Nets. Collect some and fancy free edition here today on the program. Will we talk about wrestling? I don't know.
Starting point is 00:01:14 Well, we're going to do something and joining me for all this and more. Hawaiian Brian the podcasting Lion, the King of the Arcadian Vanguard podcast. Network, Mr. Co-host to you. He has fun frolicking in a fancy fashion. The great Brian Last, everybody. Aloha, Jim!
Starting point is 00:01:33 And a pleasure to be here, I won't play the full entrance song today, just because... No, no, it might blow one of our new circuits. That's right. Oh, good Lord. I'm a raw nerve end. I am a rhyme shaking like a dog shitting peach seeds.
Starting point is 00:01:52 I am just... I'm ver-clympt. I'm I'm tensed up. I'm wound up. I'm afraid I'm going to get a case of the sour belches today. It's been one of those days, Brian. You've been involved in much of this with the, I told you a minute ago before we officially started broadcasting this episode that I feel like I'm in quicksand.
Starting point is 00:02:15 I feel like a drowning person that I'm trying to figure out. You're changing all of my habits, Brian. and a person with OCD does not like having their habitations changed. I've got a new computer here. I've got a new monitor. You've sent me these new headphones, more on that a moment, here recently, and now we're on a new program, as the kids say, or is this an app? What is this that we're on now?
Starting point is 00:02:49 Well, we're doing things in a different way. we're not going to reveal too much about how we do things because people don't need to know those things, but we're a whole way. Is this an app or a program? It's a whole new way. It's a mix of both, actually. Of recording this.
Starting point is 00:03:03 A mix. See this? God damn, it's a, it's a mongrel. It's a mongrel. It's a mix of everything. The point is I'm doing all kinds of different shit on my computer now with all kinds of different computer shit. And you expect me to be calm and real. reasonable and fun-loving.
Starting point is 00:03:24 No, I don't. Why would you start doing that now? You don't even know this yet, how my day started off here today. Because I've told everybody that Stacey's mother and stepfather and finally made the move from California. They got their stuff from the moving company
Starting point is 00:03:43 and their new place over there. We've been going over to help them, blah, blah, blah. They're having a new couch delivered supposedly today, right? Well, it was the date that it was scheduled to be delivered was today. And so when we left there yesterday evening, after helping with the unboxing and cardboard and things of that nature, we said, we'll be back over tomorrow or Stace will while I'm recording this episode of the program to help coordinate.
Starting point is 00:04:14 So, you know, the bringing in of the couch and all that stuff and everything. She's got her phone number on the deal. she'll be sitting right there mom you don't have to worry about running to the phone she'll take so the furniture company or the moving company or delivery company call this morning at 730 730 a.m. already at the location delivering a couch to a senior living community at seven and Stacey says, I suppose, hello?
Starting point is 00:04:53 Oh, yeah, we've got the couch. She said, it's 7.30. And the woman said, well, ma'am, it's 7.43. And Stacey said, I know what fucking time it is. I'm just the one that told you, what in the world are you doing delivering a couch to a senior community
Starting point is 00:05:14 at 7.30 in the morning. In the snow. And so she had to get her mom up and call. Oh, yeah, open the door or the couch is coming. There's a fucking rooster sleeping outside. So there was some level of panic over that. And then at your bequest and request, see, you're at the root of a lot of this, but I think you're trying to drive me slowly mad.
Starting point is 00:05:46 I had Hotchka's feather bottom over here this morning so that he could do this whole revamp of all of these new things that's going on and also my printer quit working again. You know what he did? He unplugged it and plugged it back in. I got that going for me now. But then you guys sat on a phone for an hour
Starting point is 00:06:10 with these new programs and these new apps and all these things. and well, can you hear me now type of thing, and you're using words and phrases foreign to me, Brian. I'm a simple man born in a small log cabin. And it gave me anxiety at my stomach to hear this shit going on. And I don't know what the fuck I'm going to have to figure out how to do or what to learn to do or whatever the fuck.
Starting point is 00:06:40 and so as a result finally now all of, and by the way, what's the first thing that Hodgka said when he put these headphones on? Gosh, these are tight. You're squeezing my head. So anyway, now supposedly everything, so you won't browbeat me anymore about my primitive apparatuses here.
Starting point is 00:07:08 Now it's just the case of the loose nut behind the wheel. but no i'm i'm a raw nerve in it's this is very upsetting to me i can see you're going to take no responsibility whatsoever i do not accept blame for the alleged activity of slowly driving you med i do not accept blame for the alleged activity of slowly driving you med i do not accept blame for the alleged activity of slowly driving you met i do not accept blame for the alleged activity of slowly driving you met i do not accept blame for the right well I think you get the point. He, he, ho, ho,
Starting point is 00:07:46 to the funny farm. To the funny farm. All right, anyway, I'll have you know that I'm encroaching upon the fat area again. I have been, since the in-laws have been in town,
Starting point is 00:08:02 and we've been going over there and helping out with that. We've also been, I have been in five restaurants in the last seven days, which is more actual restaurants than I have actually had a meal in over the last two years. But now I've discovered why that I was able to maintain
Starting point is 00:08:20 my healthy girlish figure. Because I wasn't going to any restaurants. Because then when I go in, instead of having to think after a long, hard day, you know, I'm going to binge eat and all this stuff, I've been in the house controlling portions, then I go to a restaurant and I've been under stress and I just say,
Starting point is 00:08:48 bring me all the food that you currently have and possess and I'll consume it in front of you. There will be nothing taken home. What have you been eating? One night we had barbecue at Mark's Feed Store. One night we had what kind of cuisine would you call that? Beef, oh, Brady's, need I say no more. One night we had Mexican.
Starting point is 00:09:16 One night we ate at the hotel. They stayed in their first night here. There was sushi involved. It's been a variety of things because we're trying to show them how close all these restaurants are. They had to apparently get on the, what, no, where they were living in California, they had to get on the 808 to the 405 to the 213 and get off the sloss and cutoff. I don't know. They're talking miles to just go to the restaurant neighborhood.
Starting point is 00:09:47 They have figured out the way to get free meals forever. Jim, we can't find the restaurant. Take us somewhere. No, we're showing them, you know, so they can see now if you take a person to dinner, well, then you've got to pay for it. But if you show a person how to eat, then they can eat on their own on somebody else's dime. That's an old proverb. Have you ever heard about that?
Starting point is 00:10:11 I've not heard that old proverb, no. It goes remarkably like that. You teach a man to fish. He'll eat forever. Yes, and I don't see how, because goddamn pretty soon you'd get sick of fish. Hey, what do you think about KFC leaving Kentucky? Well, and this is, it's a... Is it a big story locally?
Starting point is 00:10:34 Oh, yeah, well, people are incensed about... It's another one of those things there's a yeah-butt involved. but it's public relations and just on the surface of it, it just looks horrible, right? But apparently, because for some time, Kentucky Fried Chicken has been part of Yum brands. That's like the Yum Center here in Louisville when the WWE comes to town or, you know, they have the big basketball game.
Starting point is 00:11:03 It's literally it's the Yum Center. It's a 22,000 seat just fucking. incredible arena on the inside of the thing, right in the middle of downtown. They spent who knows how many hundreds of millions dollars, but it's called the YUM Center because Yum Brands is not only Kentucky Fried Chicken, but also Taco Bell. And I believe Long John Silver's was under that umbrella at one point in time. And they're, I forget with it, because they merged from so many different places.
Starting point is 00:11:36 I think Pepsi is they've got a deal or. whatever with Pepsi because that's at all of their locations and pizza hut. All of that shit is so they are now. Say it again. What about Kenny Rogers? Oh, no, he went out of business when they had that flashing sign and nobody could sleep. Yeah, he had to fold up all of those. They was going in and burning people's corneas.
Starting point is 00:12:05 but no, but to point, so to your question, Taco Bell is now going to have the headquarters in California. For whatever reason, they're having the Kentucky Fried Chicken official headquarters in Texas. I don't know what they've done with poor Long John. Maybe he just goes along with his peg leg for the ride. And they're, his office is offshore.
Starting point is 00:12:34 That's true. the international limit. And they're still going to have some type of corporate office here in Louisville with like over 500 fucking KFC executives that are still going to be.
Starting point is 00:12:48 So it's like they're just splitting this shit up for I don't know for what corporate purposes. Yeah, for tax purposes. That sounds well there, but there's going to be people here. There's going to be people there. Colonel Sanders is still buried
Starting point is 00:13:03 here, right? But, uh, It's just, it hasn't really been like this major local, I'm not tradition as what I'm not trying to say. This major local honor is all about us. No, it's been a big fucking conglomerate for years and years. They just have the nice southern mansion off the Waterson over there where they have their, with the big white columns, where it's where their headquarters is.
Starting point is 00:13:31 But it's not like it's a bunch of local fucking moms and pops. And we're, and by the way, nobody in fucking Louisville, all the KFCs have gone to dog shit in Louisville, Kentucky. So I can only imagine what they are everywhere else.
Starting point is 00:13:48 But if you're eating chicken in, with a discerning palette in Louisville these days, you're probably going to Popeyes or, I wish we could get a Bojangles, but they haven't come this far. What was the question? The question was about KFC leaving Louisville.
Starting point is 00:14:07 I was going to say, for the first time recently I got into a show, I know it's been on for a while, but I never watched it on the History Channel, the foods that made America, I think is the name of the show? Yes, I was telling you about that. Well, they've got everything that made America. The typhoons that made America, the cars that made America, the food that made America, the TV that made America. America's been made more times than a goddamn high school hooker.
Starting point is 00:14:31 Now, I don't know about their casting director, but I like the show. Because there's some questionable, like, you know, these are the Kellogg brothers, really? Have you ever seen a fucking picture of them? And the whole, the whole story behind the family feud when one created the cereal for the sanitarium and the other wanted to sell it to normal people. Yeah, the even crazier part is, so you have two brothers. For anyone who doesn't know this story or watch this stupid show on the stupid channel that only I just discovered, the Kellogg brothers, one runs the Sanitarians. in, oh, what's it called? Battle Creek, Battle Creek, Michigan.
Starting point is 00:15:10 Hello, RVD. I had no idea. But they had the sanitarium there, and it was world-renowned, and Dr. Kellogg was famous. His brother knew that this granola mixture, that there was money there, and the brother refused to sell it. One of the patients was post,
Starting point is 00:15:27 and he left there, and he's like, I'll start post-to-hosties, and he started making his own stuff. And then they eventually had a little bit of a war and then he killed himself. It's a very sad ending. But his daughter became very, very wealthy. Although she didn't know.
Starting point is 00:15:41 Marjorie Post. Yeah, it's still sad, I guess. But yeah, it was, that was, there was that. I saw Carville and Dairy Queen. It almost felt like Carvel versus Dairy Queen, but it wasn't. It was just like telling the two stories side by side. Yeah, well, sometimes it's a war now. Sometimes they had their claws out.
Starting point is 00:15:59 Well, that's what made me think of it. They had Colonel Sanders, a younger Colonel Sanders, and two of his friends shooting up. Oh, God. Well, no, that was the deal of the original Sanders Cafe was in Corbin, Kentucky, which is the nearest town, if you can call it that, to where my mother was born, Mama Cornette. And this was when she was a kid, actually, I can't remember the exact year that it happened,
Starting point is 00:16:31 but Harlan Sanders had a gas station on the side of the state highway. And to make more money and keep people, you know, stopping in, he put in like three or four tables with a couple of chairs and started selling fried chicken. And he fucked with his chicken recipe and how to cook it faster because the people stopping for gas didn't want to wait 20 minutes for fried chicken in a pan. and he did the pressure cooker thing
Starting point is 00:17:04 and that's how Kentucky fried chicken had the different jeunise croix than all the other fast food chicken, right? And but in the process of doing this but he was just owning a gas station there was another gas station on the other side of town and these guys, it was like an outlaw wrestling feud and they were pulling down Colonel Sanders'
Starting point is 00:17:26 and fucking signs and posters come get gas and chicken at my place and blah, blah, blah. In fact, they had a legitimate shootout where the colonel and a couple of his boys went down there to fucking goddamn, settle this thing
Starting point is 00:17:42 with these other people. And the colonel shot somebody, but he got off because he, I think self-defense, but somebody got killed. One of them got killed in the course of it. You can Google it, kids. I can't remember which side they were on.
Starting point is 00:17:58 But yeah, he was already known as a guy, damn local. It was the 30s in the fucking eastern Kentucky hills. These people were fucking lunatics, right? So all those years later, when they finally, when they built the interstate and bypassed his
Starting point is 00:18:16 gas station and restaurant is when he had to actually put everything in the trunk of car and go selling chicken because he was about to go out of business. But he was 65. And that's when the empire started. Have I told you too much about the colonel? No, I mean, of course, I just watched the show, but hearing you tell the story is so much better than the reenactment.
Starting point is 00:18:41 Well, see, that's because I paint a visual picture. So what you're telling? The guy who invented Coca-Cola going mad while he's invented Coca-Cola, like all that stuff. It was good. I liked the show. Well, there was cocaine in it. So let's go. Anyway, so again, folks, with all of these various
Starting point is 00:19:01 stresses on my mental state that I've been put through having to change my habits and figure out this new shit. And you better not tell me, there better not be, I apologize for Jim's audio in the course of this conversation we have here today. But in the process, I have several things jotted down to talk about. And we'll just try to go through them, hopefully, in some type of cohesive and coherent order. And did I mention it's almost March, Brian, is that correct? I guess technically, yes, that is correct. It's past the midway point of February. Yeah, yes, several days. It'll be March. That means the February sale at Jimcornad.com is almost over with. See how quickly time flies. And you think you get something that's just going on,
Starting point is 00:19:52 it's just fantastic in your life and you think it'll last forever and then suddenly it somebody says no four or five days cornette's cutting you off see that's that's that's that's something people don't want to hear so while you can ladies and gentlemen the february sale is closing soon but it's still open at least if this is still February you might listen to this next year and then you think well so i'll be specific February 2025 and you by going to Jim Cornett.com can get $20 off any of the Midnight Express or Heavenly Body's tag team action figure sets come obviously accompanied by an autographed photo. You also, if you buy any of the aforesaid tag team sets, you can get any of the
Starting point is 00:20:42 remaining non-sold-out Jim Cornett action figure variance for half price, also autographed, and spend over $50 and get a free. two-hour classic wrestling DVD. But that's the month of February, which is flying by fast. So hurry if you have not already jumped into the pool. And we almost caught up also. By the time you hear this, I would expect that I'm within just a few days of turnaround there from the time that it comes in to the time that it goes out.
Starting point is 00:21:19 Of course, now that's a loose description. some of the day, if you were a couple of days turned around on some things, that'd be bad. But just on signing, merchandise and mailing it out, I think we're going to be doing pretty good here. How's your turnaround, Brian? My turnaround is just fine, but maybe not as good as the one
Starting point is 00:21:38 at Jimcornet.com. Well, you got a point there. Oh, right, before we talk about some of the television programs that we've seen, Brian, can we talk about some of the television programs that we're going to be seeing coming up in the not too distant future?
Starting point is 00:21:58 Okay. You sound intrigued. I don't want to see where this is going. Tell me more. You have no idea what I'm talking to. Dark Side of the Ring is coming back. It's season six, right? Or is this seven?
Starting point is 00:22:12 I forget there's been so many. Every season, there's more episodes. They're doing the opposite of what I love Lucy. he did start with 39 an episode and then cut back or 39 a season. But I have a list here because I know people. I'm involved. I've paid off some shady individuals and I got a list of all of the
Starting point is 00:22:37 dark side of the ring topics for this coming season, which starts Tuesday, March 25th on Vice TV. They are still cranking them out. this time, 10 episodes this season. Are you ready for this? Do we have a drum roll? Not for this. Let's hear what it is.
Starting point is 00:22:57 Well, come on. I'm trying to be dramatic with my reading here. Well, let's hear what the shows are. Let's hear if it's a... Well, hold on. I want to wait a minute. I'll get a... How about that?
Starting point is 00:23:10 All right. That means it's going to be a great season. I can't find my drum roll. Here they are the topics for season six of Dark Side of the... the ring as I mentioned I think premiering March 25th the hell and a cell match between mc Foley and the undertaker focused on the specifically rather than as part of the angle or part of the biography of whatever but all the participants gathering together to try to figure out
Starting point is 00:23:46 why that how why and how potentially that Mick Foley actually finished that fucking thing. What don't we know about that? I mean, there's been stuff done about that match. I mean, it's a big match, right? Is there something? It's like an angle that we don't know, like some kind of deep, dark secret,
Starting point is 00:24:02 like, you know, the Brooklyn Brawer was doing something under the ring during that match. Well, no, no, there's, that's never been proven. And somebody saw Harvey Whippelman in the parking lot anyway, so he couldn't have been under there. No, it's, it's, I'm trying to figure out, I don't want to not do it justice, and we'll probably be talking to Evan.
Starting point is 00:24:21 but it's more of an examination of Mick Foley's mindset and reasonings and determinations for doing these type of things to himself and trying for a somewhat scholarly, I think, appraisal of that. But I haven't seen it yet, the final cut, but that's what I saw was being talked about. I were probably, well, I was there. Right. That's why I think you did. So generally, if I was there, I'm generally in it. Did they get The Undertaker? I don't know that they got the Undertaker.
Starting point is 00:25:03 Did they get Francois Petit? I believe they got Francois Petit. You have to. Yes, you need an exclusive. That's the only one to get. Yes. They got Francois. But anyway, so that's, we shall see how that is presented.
Starting point is 00:25:22 Also, number two, Vader, as in Big Van Vader. And I might make an appearance in that as well, but that's something that, you know, that's new because how many, how much footage do you see in any of these highlights of Vader? He, he, or any of these highlights, any of these programs with highlights, or documentaries or whatever. I don't know now maybe going forward with a new administration,
Starting point is 00:25:59 but I totally think he left a wonderful fucking warm, fuzzy feeling and Vince's heart because you don't see a lot of him, do you? Hey, you know, speaking of that, real quick, as an aside, WWE's been uploading all these videos to their Vault YouTube channel, and it's really good stuff. If you actually like wrestling, there's some really good stuff they've been putting on there. They did a Terry Funk mix and all sorts of stuff.
Starting point is 00:26:23 You and Randy Savage go-karting. But they had footage of you with Vader backstage, just like this one thing on its own, and it was him headbutting the lockers while you're yelling. No pain! No pain! No pain! But they show it long enough that you see it cut off, and he's clearly in pain and you realize it. Did you see this?
Starting point is 00:26:45 No, I haven't seen that. Oh, yeah, the footage is going around. Well, we'll make sure you get it. Well, go around like a carousel, huh? He was wearing his, he was wearing his trunks backwards or his leotard backwards, however you'd put it away. Yes, yes. But I won't say that I even remember that specific incident,
Starting point is 00:27:04 but I remember he on a number of occasions who put his shit on backwards and not notice because it did look similar, you know, with the over-the-shoulder straps and everything. But there was some, yes. but yeah he would he would often get in the zone where he would realize until afterwards
Starting point is 00:27:26 like oh shit but it'll be nice to see and again this is going to focus on his entire wrestling career and not just the the WWF stuff which honestly was as we've talked about was the low light of probably of his
Starting point is 00:27:46 modern run do they do a reenactment of the riot in Japan when he debuted and beat anoki? I haven't I haven't seen any of these. These are, it's, God damn, it's a month away. I'm good, but I ain't that good. I think these are, these are still in production. Because remember, the original Big Van Vader was supposed to be Jim Helwig,
Starting point is 00:28:05 and he signed with WWF and needed someone else, and they got Vader, who had been just doing nothing really in the AWA, and he beats Anoki, crushes him the first night, and they riot in the sumo. They set the, they have pillows on, you know, for the seats over there. And they threw the pillows and they set the pillows on fire and broke up a bunch of stuff. But they were shocked. They hadn't ever seen Anoki treated like that.
Starting point is 00:28:33 And Anoki thought it was a good thing. Well, yeah, because it made news everywhere else. They didn't get banned anywhere they weren't there live. And they did tremendous business off of it. But that's the thing is that it wouldn't have worked with Warrior because Vader was the antithesis of a, you know, a muscle, a bodybuilder, a pretty looking body that also Warriors work with Cup. That would have been maybe a one and done against a nochi at that point in time.
Starting point is 00:29:09 Yeah, how would that have worked? I mean, even if you want to just put him over and said squash Anoki, would he be able to competently do that? I mean, Vader did it competently. Well, yeah. See, I mean, you know, people are going to say, oh, he always did squashes. No, he did the shit that didn't look like it could fucking break a Faberger egg and then one, two, three, but to actually beat Inoki like you just beat the shit out of him and beat
Starting point is 00:29:34 him in a convincing fashion, that was way above warrior at that time or any time in his pro wrestling career. And he wouldn't have looked as much like a monster to the people in Japan because they weren't as conditioned to, at that point in time, to the bodybuilders as they were to, they could understand from pro wrestling that they'd seen to the 50s and 60, the Great Antonio, for fuck's sake. A big foreigner, massive, you know, the whole Brody Hanson thing, but, you know, with Leon, he even had the weight. It was, that's exactly who the Japanese audience would have wanted for Vader. And I don't think Warrior would have got over his Vader over here either.
Starting point is 00:30:29 Because then you covered up that goofy face. I think that's the only thing the kids liked was the face paint. Plus, it wouldn't have lasted. Again, Vader was able to work that style. I'm not saying they would have worked as hard as they did with Vader with the warrior, but they would have worked a lot harder than he was doing in the WWF. Oh, God, yeah. But that's Vader. That's episode two. And then one that I'm not on, but I will wait with baited breath for Tony Atlas, Mr. USA. and his, I don't know how usually there's some kind of dark ending to the, you know, dark side of the ring. And Tony's still alive.
Starting point is 00:31:14 So it ain't, the light hasn't completely gone out yet. But he has had some stories and issues in his career. So I'm looking forward to seeing that one. You just know you're going to get a slow motion. reenactment of a foot coming down towards the camera of a foot sideways profile just coming down onto someone's face you already know
Starting point is 00:31:36 oh no wait a minute is that is that the proper term to use for a sideways foot is profile I guess so remember when in mid-south after Staggerly debuted like weeks later Tony Atlas was in the territory and they did a thing on TV where he was going to bench press
Starting point is 00:31:52 and they had J-YD and Staggerly there to help him because that proves that J-YD is not staggerly and Bill Watts was there and kids everywhere. Kids all over the place. Tony Atlas is wearing a shirt with his face on it, getting stepped off by a woman in front of all these kids. No, but there's a lot in there.
Starting point is 00:32:12 And remember, he married a girl that he referenced in his book as I think Lisa. And according to his book, he claimed that she said she was in the room when everything happened with Jimmy Snooka and Nancy Argentino because she was a girl that frequented the same places and she was around the same people. I guess that's the nicest way to say it. He called her a rat in the book.
Starting point is 00:32:36 I just want to put it out there. But I wonder if they're going to touch on that. And of course, he had problems. He lost his WWE. You know, he was gone by, what, 87? And then he didn't come back until he was Sabah symbol. By that point, he had cleaned up his life. And he has a very interesting,
Starting point is 00:32:54 Tony's an interesting personality. He's like, as Mama Cornett used to say, he's, he's, he's a character. It doesn't he, he's not, he has a character, but he is a character. That was one of the best chapters in that Brad Beluchian book when he went, and he hung out with Tony, but then he went to Tony's hometown to talk to all the people and like all these stories that Tony was telling and they all kind of remembered a variation of what Tony was saying. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:33:21 Because they're all crazy stories. Well, it's because he's, because he's, a crazy fucking guy what could I say but that's the thing is there is you know there's always wrestlers exaggeration about anybody but there's a root of most of what you hear about Tony
Starting point is 00:33:36 there's a pretty much a grain or two of truth in there but at least he's still around to be part of the show and this one I know everybody's looking forward to Ludwig of Borga oh boy
Starting point is 00:33:54 And maybe because when I first heard that, I said, well, like you, because what was he a wrestler for like two fucking years maybe? Oh, no, but he was the first wrestler I ever saw when I was trading tapes from Japan. The first wrestler I ever saw just like, like, not even yell it out, but just casually just start talking and cursing in a match. Yes. In Japan, it's like, what the fuck? Get the fuck. I was, holy shit. This is what they do in Japan.
Starting point is 00:34:23 It was just him. It was just him. Tony Holm, right? Tony Holm. And that's the thing is that, you know, I had remember when he passed away, they had written the obituary and things, but I hadn't got the full grip on just what a fucking nut he was in real life.
Starting point is 00:34:43 And the MMA and the politician and fucking, what's his got, Finland? Yeah, so that's the other thing. They have to be, they have to have something. in this dark side about, why did Vince think that the American fans were going to care about like a Finnish heel?
Starting point is 00:35:01 Well, he looked German. He talked, he sounded German enough to a kid. He didn't know like he's from Finland. What? Well, and I may be in this one trying to shed some light on that because remember I was his manager for Survivor Series as part of the foreign fanatics.
Starting point is 00:35:19 And it was a team because I was managing Yoko and basically it was like fucking Canada, Finland and fucking Japan or whatever
Starting point is 00:35:35 is the the objects of our derision at this point Is the idea Did you guys name yourselves the foreign fanatics? No, no. I've showed up
Starting point is 00:35:47 and there was shit on paper and this was before I was even on the creative team so I could in no way to say that they like sometimes I tried to throw my body on something but in this case
Starting point is 00:35:59 I was caught completely blindsided wouldn't the foreign fanatics actually be like the American fans who like Japanese wrestling and what and was it it was crush on it too but his gimmick used to be he was from Hawaii
Starting point is 00:36:12 but then they said he was from Canada but then he joined up with Yoko that's right yeah it's just but anyway point being Ludwig Borga that's what I asked Evan Husty
Starting point is 00:36:23 I said what does anybody in the wrestling business remember him? And then he started telling me about all the other shit he had done elsewhere. And in other lines of work, it was, okay, I'm on board with this. This guy's halfway fucking nuts. And see, that's another problem. After Yokozuna, that was the feud they went through with Alex Lugar. It killed Lugar.
Starting point is 00:36:46 No one wanted to see him against Ludwig Borg and then the matches were terrible. No, and when they were asking me, they said, what do you remember about him? I said almost fucking nothing. Because he just said, I mean, he was, the guy had talked like that, but he was over in the corner and I didn't know whether he was shy. Apparently now he was just like sitting there trying not to commit murder or whatever. But I didn't know about any of his, apparently he had tattoos. He had to cover up the, whatever Nazi or I don't.
Starting point is 00:37:21 Oh, really? Was it a night? What was it a Nazi tattoo or what was this story? I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I don't want to paint. If it wasn't Nazi, some type of supremacist or fanatical or whatever kind of tattoo, they had to have him cover up.
Starting point is 00:37:39 And I, you know, that's another thing. Everybody's like, this guy's a tattoo or whatever. I have gotten so used to just seeing guys with tattoos all of it. I don't know what the fuck. And I'm not going to stand there and stare at a guy's titty or whatever to find out, you know, oh, let me examine this art. What's the deep meaning behind this? It just, it's all a blur to me.
Starting point is 00:37:59 But anyway, this one, I know you're going to want to hear about Brian last, Billy Jack Haynes. And I've, again, trying to delve into from people around him and or us, you know, impartial observers, what the fuck is wrong, including, I believe, again, I believe they've got some of footage of Billy himself. So we'll try to examine that.
Starting point is 00:38:38 But some of it, I mean, I don't want to again spoil, but we're going to do more in-depth as it comes up closer with the director and producer Evan Jason, and won both, all the above. But Billy used to be able to remember when he was supposedly the witness of the murder on the tracks of the boys out in West Memphis, Arkansas,
Starting point is 00:39:03 the famous murder. Apparently he was telling everybody that he was there and he witnessed it. Did we talk about this? Yeah, we talked about it on the air. A couple of years ago on the air, whenever it was. But the problem is now, he used to tell people that
Starting point is 00:39:20 when he could just say I used to be on the road in the 80s. I used to, you know, just travel nonstop and I was all over the place as, you know, as a wrestler. Well, now there's an actual goddamn database, right?
Starting point is 00:39:36 Everybody's got all the results, the WWF shows especially. And there he was wrestling in like, I don't know, Springfield, Massachusetts. I don't know, he might have been spending a night with Tom Burke, whatever. when the murder happened and he was supposed to be there
Starting point is 00:39:52 in a wrestling mask with a video camera film and a drug deal and just happened to be there. I was at a murder sounds better than I was having a pillow fight with Tom Burke. Oh, come on, you know Tom is stiff with those things. That's about the way it sounds. It's about perception. Well, perception is reality.
Starting point is 00:40:12 Anyway. It can almost be two different things, though, when you really think about it. It could be one just focused on his career and then it could be one just focused on outside of the ring stuff and his stories because just his wrestling career alone he should have been a major star.
Starting point is 00:40:28 He was a big star briefly in a bunch of places. Yeah. But you look at the magazines from the early 80s, I mean, they didn't really hit the mark on a lot of the guys who were the first physique guys, Billy Jack, Harry, Tony Atlas, various others, but you would have thought, and seemingly every promoter he worked for
Starting point is 00:40:47 through 87 thought he was going to be the biggest thing. And it just, you know, the pattern started as I believe we've discussed before, is that you couldn't keep him happy, he couldn't stay happy. You know, something would always happen and he was gone from one place to another before he'd really establish himself anywhere but Portland because that's, you know, that was home and he stayed there the long. biggest, what was he going to do? Fucking move, right?
Starting point is 00:41:20 And then he turned on Don Owen. Then he ran against Don Owen. But yeah, finally he was on the outs with Owen and do it his own thing, which didn't last long and didn't do well. But by that point, everybody was like, well, you know, it looked great. And then remember in 96, he came back and worked for Randy Hales in Memphis. And he didn't have the, 95, sorry. I got to see him.
Starting point is 00:41:45 I got to see him in Knoxville and Louisville. Ah, well, that's true. And he didn't have the beautiful, you know, physique, but he was still big. And, you know, but I guess at that point, didn't he, and he had a little, not run, but a little employment with WCW at that point for just a very brief time, didn't he also, and something happened there? He was employed by WCW as bad blood, I think. Yes, not the title of the pay-per-view.
Starting point is 00:42:17 a few years earlier in the Big Josh era, but when he went to the USWA as a heel, Al Snow's 1995 promos were excellent. They became excellent very quickly, and you kind of had to see them if you were tape trader, but it was a different tone. Billy Jack Haynes was the best heel promo.
Starting point is 00:42:35 You believed he was a heel. You believe this guy was bad, and he was doing the promos of his life as a heel in Memphis. It was great. It was maybe my favorite stuff of his career, actually. actually. And unfortunately, it was the only territory left, and it was not doing well at the time.
Starting point is 00:42:56 But anyway, Billy Jack is going to be on the end. Here you go. Hot stuff Eddie Gilbert. See, that's a catch-22. I already know what the problem's going to be. The problem's going to be you won't get any family if you tell the truth. And then you can't tell the truth if you get any family. and I liked Eddie Gilbert.
Starting point is 00:43:17 I was a fan of Eddie Goberts and he was nice to me when I met him, but that's the problem. Well, and I, that necessarily remains to be seen because I may or may not have some comments on that and also may have contributed some photography for that. Did they get Missy and Medusa? one but not the other and we'll leave it as a surprise yeah
Starting point is 00:43:50 obviously Doug's still around Tommy passed away Peggy died too right is Doug I think so yeah Doug and Eddie's sister yeah I guess that'd be all but but it's going to be nice again because you know now it's coming that you're a in a story in par excellence but you're in the lower range of the age of the fan that's going to finally remember Eddie Gilbert at this point because he's been gone so long. And I think, again, he's a guy that they ought to be talking about
Starting point is 00:44:28 and a story they ought to keep alive and more people appreciate him and for what he could have done had he lived longer. And it's not something that's been regurgitated, which we'll talk about some regurgitation here after we finish the dark side lineup. But, you know, there's not that many documentaries about Eddie Gilbert, but it's in the wrestling genre, it's a fascinating story about a guy that did a lot and could have done more. And so I'm glad to see that instead of the endless rehashes of the great rivalries between A and B on the Monday Night War. now on Thursday and Sunday coming soon to Tuesday.
Starting point is 00:45:17 But I digress. Here's one I want to see, and I think I may be on it or I may not, because in the course of one of the other episodes from a previous season, I've talked about him, but superstar Billy Graham. And because when the Graham family episode, I think it was last season, when that aired it was primarily you know obviously they had some Dr. Jerry because you had to have context
Starting point is 00:45:48 of where the family came from but it was Eddie it was Mike it was that that branch of the family and because they said superstar deserves an episode all by himself so this would be an interesting one for again you know I know he I forget
Starting point is 00:46:08 Brian is he on with the or off with the he's dead well that's that's what I'm saying is but is he is he as a person is he somebody that they're they're able to embrace now
Starting point is 00:46:24 or was he on the permanent I can't remember how they left things he was definitely on the Vince permanent list I don't know about nowadays and especially with him passed well that's what I'm saying is have you seen anything they're not talking about super
Starting point is 00:46:40 Billy Graham when they're talking about all the great champions. So is, how is he with them in terms of, are we ever going to see anything major on Superstar Graham from the WWE? I could remember which side that he, he left on because every three years for 40 fucking years, he switched sides or they switched sides.
Starting point is 00:47:01 The last time they were good, they did a documentary on him. Then he fell out again. Well, and then they had done. the book. They did the book and the documentary and did something with the Hall of Fame and then he was suing them a couple years later, right? Yep. Anyway, this hopefully, I just, I want to see some more superstar Graham stuff on television.
Starting point is 00:47:28 Unless the fucking DX invades the goddamn Hampton Coliseum and a tank. Can you see I'm getting a surly attitude about the WWE's. new season on A&E already. I can see. The next on the list, Daphne. And Daphne was a great girl. I worked with her in T&A, and she got jacked around by T&A amongst other people, and that was a sad story.
Starting point is 00:47:59 But I'm not in this particular episode, but I think it's good. Again, she's somebody that, If you're into the wrestling genre, but you only have time to watch the big TV here lately, you might not have seen all of her stuff, but she's got a great story to tell. Or they've got a great story to tell about her, I should say. So it's not something, again, that everybody has seen, but it's interesting. So we're looking forward to that. and the the last two Brian are double whammies kind of the two sides of the same coin
Starting point is 00:48:45 I'll give you both at the same time Muhammad Hassan and the sheik the sheik Mohammed Hassan's I mean the sheik I don't know what else they could add to what's been out there Muhammad Hassan is one that has not been tackled that's a good one well and you've got to be all over that one too I'll be all all all all over that like a cheap suit. And I'm going to be on the Sheik, too, just because I had all the cool fucking
Starting point is 00:49:12 sheik memorabilia. But the Sheik made a fortune for 40 years on being an Arab menace and was one of the biggest box office attractions in wrestling and one of the richest men and richest promoters in wrestling. And Muhammad Hassan had a career as a fucking Arab menace for about a year and a half
Starting point is 00:49:34 and got canceled out of the pro wrestling. forever. It's a fucking opposite fucking tail of two different people. But timing was everything, as Abdullah the butcher used to say. But the chic, I think, is going to be fun.
Starting point is 00:49:52 And I just want to see more chic on fucking TV in 2025. But Muhammad Hassan, honestly, I said he's probably overall, he may not have had the high of highs, but he probably hadn't had the low of lows. He got out of the business and became a teacher and is now like, I don't know if it's his exact title. He's a principal or
Starting point is 00:50:19 some type of high muckety muck at a fucking school in his home up there in New York. He's probably been more successful overall and done better than if he stuck with the wrestling thing, or he probably better off at least. As Mama Cornette used to, to say, you're better off if you didn't. So that's going to be an interesting story. The only wrestler in wrestling history that got run out of the business by by demand of the network. Well, beyond that, beyond that, one of the most tasteless things they did is an overall
Starting point is 00:50:58 thing, and then the specific angle with the Undertaker was so poorly thought out. Well, yes, but the thing is, as a point that I raise on the goddamn show, depending on the editing. He's doing what they told him to do. They couldn't fucking say, oh shit, our bad, sorry, Mark. We'd like to, you know, give you a $100,000 salary to sit home for a year and change your look and will bring you back and make you from fucking Pittsburgh or something. And they're like, meh.
Starting point is 00:51:36 So it's not like he was. out there and just made that shit up on the spot. It was their fault. And they, you know, well, that's what I'm, I know you're not saying that. Nobody said, no one would say, he's tried to be, had the undertaker. Everyone blames WWE for what they did. And of course, he got screwed. He's the only one who got screwed.
Starting point is 00:51:55 They just went right along, offending people of other genres. And meanwhile, he got, after three years in wrestling school or whatever it was, beating himself up to fucking get there, then he does what they tell him to do, and boom. See, when he was Mark Magnus, that shit wouldn't have taken place. I had him all polished up and ready for him.
Starting point is 00:52:26 And he's fucking Italian. That's what I told him. When they called me, I would him to be an Arab, but he's fucking Italian. Well, yeah, but we think, you know, and then they had me, and him and Davari both,
Starting point is 00:52:42 they had me take them to the men's warehouse. They said, we want them to dress like rich Arabs. And I said, well, I don't think they have the goddamn wardrobe budget, right? So I had to take them in men's warehouse over on Shelbyville Road, the place I get my shit or used to at that point in time, and tell my regular sales lady, make these two fucking thugs look successful. successful.
Starting point is 00:53:09 And then I put it on my credit card and sent the office the fucking bill. I said, here's the fucking bill for the clothes for your rich Arabs. And it was a flop. You're going to like the way you look. Well, they didn't like the way he looked and they didn't guarantee it. Anyway, that's season six, a dark side of the ring.
Starting point is 00:53:36 It's got something for everybody, Brian. it's got the old, it's got the new, it's got the male, it's got the female, it's got the hell and the cell, it's got a little something for everybody. But that's the thing, Brian, is it's, it's got something for everybody, but you know what everybody needs? Everybody needs an easier life. Everybody needs it to be easy. And ain't nothing easy, Brian, in this world. Nothing is easy. people stress you out activity makes you sore thoughts that keep running through your head
Starting point is 00:54:16 and voices that keep talking in your ears they keep you from sleeping at night you know the only way to stop all this don't you Brian the only way to bring this agony and misery and blues despair to an end is CBD not even CBD but CB distillery that's the CBD you can write it down CBD for short but it should be CBE distillery
Starting point is 00:54:44 because that's the place that you get the natural plant-based solutions for sleep, stress, and post-workout pain. Now say for example you're like myself and you don't work out. You get tired when you jog your memory. It's still activity whenever you're just blithering through your daily life. folks you're going to carry something you're going to pull something you're going to lift something you're going to squat over something and you're going to hurt yourself it's a goddamn foregone conclusion pain is going to be shooting through your body on a daily basis for the rest of your life from
Starting point is 00:55:23 now on folks that's just called breathing so you got to start now on the CB distillery products because 90% of people report better sleep there's two minutes of million satisfied customers. There's a 100% money back guarantee. And if you're smart enough, you can even figure out a way to get somebody else's money back, have them pay for it, and then just get the refund. There's all kinds of ways you can figure out how to work this to your advantage. But it's going to make you feel better.
Starting point is 00:55:58 You don't want to be taking stuff you find in grandma's medicine shelf, the stuff that people have been taking for years. it don't work. You see it in the news all the time, how they've got these chemicals that when people put them together in a bathroom sink, they blow up the house and they get arrested for it. But they're selling it to you at Walgreens.
Starting point is 00:56:23 I call bullshit. You can trust CB Distillery because they're only the finest, most upstanding criminals in charge of that joint. So no longer do you have to sit back and say, well, I'll just attach three or four of these leeches to my leg, and when I wake up in a morning, I'll feel right as rain. That's medicine from back in the 1970s.
Starting point is 00:56:48 What you want is CBD products from CB Distillery that can help you take that magic carpet right over the rainbow, baby. And right now, if you go to CB Distillery.com, that's CB Distillery.com and use the promo code JCE, where you're going to get 20% off. 20% off
Starting point is 00:57:14 of feeling better. It's a bargain at any price. You should be giving your children, at least one of them. You can spare one to people that would give you this service, but instead you're saving 20%. And for
Starting point is 00:57:28 God's sake, it's not available in Idaho, Iowa, Iowa, and South Dakota, so those fucking buzz kills, call your congressman. But cbdistillery.com, 20% off with the promo code JCE. Brian, you're going to feel better.
Starting point is 00:57:45 Do you feel better already? No, I need some. Give me some. Well, you've got to go on the website. CBDistillery.com. Why can't you just be a friend? Well, because you can't even get regular mail to me here. How do you think I'm going to get you CV there?
Starting point is 00:58:04 If you only knew, ladies and you just, gentlemen, but I will go there because I could use some. What a stressful time. Luckily, CB Distillery is there for us. And, well, some of us, not Idaho, Iowa, or South Dakota. You guys apparently can just live in pain, misery, blues, and agony. Enjoy the winter out there in the Netherlands. Well, they're not the Netherlands, but out there in the middle of nowhere. Well, what am I saying? CB distillery, tell them one more time, Jim. Well, it's a 20% off with the promo J-C-E at C-B Distillery.com. And Idaho, Iowa, and South Dakota,
Starting point is 00:58:41 they're right up there next to Webb City. You know where Webb City is, don't you? No. Halfway up a spider's ass. But you know, maybe if you load up on the CBD, Brian, you might be able to forget things that you have seen or done in the past so you could watch them all over again and they'd be new to you.
Starting point is 00:59:01 Because I think that would benefit the WD, they're advertised the new season of WWE programming is on A&E I can't tell it from last season and that's their problem you didn't even know it was on I knew where you had
Starting point is 00:59:19 I knew that the concept of it was on but you didn't know what they had done yeah I knew that that new show was on where they keep showing like the Undertaker Mickey James Bubba Ray Dudley and Booker T training people and exposing the business on TV I knew that was on but I didn't really it was like a whole season of other things.
Starting point is 00:59:37 Oh, yes, because now, remember there's biography. Usually, I think, leading up to WrestleMania, it's been biography. I think they've run out of people to biograph. And it's been WW's greatest rivals. And there's been some other got heels was a program. But this year, apparently, it's WWE rivals. There was a 30-minute W. WWE Greatest Moments show on, this is on the Sunday night block.
Starting point is 01:00:13 And then the show you talked about, WWLFG Legends and Future Greats. Well, we kind of agree on most of the legends. I don't know about any of the future greats, but the point is nobody's watching this shit. Because not only how much can you watch now, raw is two and a half hours on Netflix, but Smackdown's three hours
Starting point is 01:00:38 on USA. And if you're a really motivated wrestling fan, there's a little programming they do on Wednesdays and Saturdays on the other networks, as they say. But then you've got the pay-per-views. You've got Saturday night's main
Starting point is 01:00:54 event. And now at WWW rivals, they did Steve Austin and the Undertaker. These are the two two of the biggest names of the modern era and a show on the rivalry between Steve Austin and the Undertaker did 178,000 viewers.
Starting point is 01:01:19 We do that for audio clips talking about shit that people want to watch. And that in season one, this is like season four now, they have plumbed a lot of the rivalries. There ain't no great Hatfield and McCoy deal left to go. Season one, they were doing between 300 and 500,000 viewers, except for when they had to shoehorn, I think, Stephanie and Breeze rivalry in there. And then the greatest moments show, I don't know if that's just a filler thing
Starting point is 01:02:00 or if they're going to do an hour now going forward or just do 30 minutes or whatever. 169,000, because it was the debut of Monday Night Raw and how it revolutionized television forever. And they had some clips from the first show in 1993 and then they concentrated on the attitude of the top 10 greatest raw moments were all between, 1997 and
Starting point is 01:02:32 1999. And we've seen it. They've had the rivalries. They've had the legends. They've had the biographies. They've had the fucking blah, blah, blah. And it's the same people talking heads,
Starting point is 01:02:47 even if they're legends, sometimes in sit-down interviews from the same shows we've seen in a repurposed and or outtakes about a different subject in the same clothing in the same place and the same footage. And then LFG, which opened the block and got the prime spot right at eight,
Starting point is 01:03:16 was the lowest rated show of the bunch of them at 160,000. Because people don't want to see goddamn the klutsy fucking wrestling school. students being bullied around by halfway interested legends. When they can watch six hours of the best in the world right now on the regular television show, but how much more time they got. So, yeah, 160,000, 169, 178,000, because we've seen it and how much, you know, go ahead Brian I don't mean to drone on and do a soliloquy I'm just trying to I'm I'm I'm pissed is what I am
Starting point is 01:04:10 it's the same shit that's at least the dark side shows are different subjects you know the other thing is I think WWE has this incredible archive of programming but they always produce the least interesting programming out of it you know everything's kind of cookie cutter standard really formatted and fake at times especially under vince like those documentaries they like they had the right elements the music and the cinematography but they looked great it felt cheaper though it was something about it didn't really feel correct to me and i think they've gotten better with that stuff but whose biography are you interested in seeing right now. Undertaker and Steve Austin, if you were a major crazy fan of theirs, of theirs,
Starting point is 01:05:00 if you were a major crazy fan of theirs at their peak, how old are you now? You probably got past the point of wanting to see a deep dive into that. It's kind of just incidental viewing. The only one they really hyped the most was that LFG. I'm surprised it did as bad as it did. Or maybe they consider that good on A&E. I really don't know. That's the, I mean, that's the craziest thing out there. Not to talk about ourselves or put ourselves over, but there are other people, too. We have more people on a daily basis watching your content than watching stuff like that that's on TV. That's not to say we're more popular than WWE. It's a statement about TV, the programming being produced. You know, TV's dying and part of it's because the programming
Starting point is 01:05:51 sucks. No one takes any risks, no one takes any chances. You know, Darkside ended up being the most successful show in the history of ICE TV to a point where, you know, kind of like that show we talked about earlier, the foods that made America. Now there's just copycat shows up to Gazoo. There's the dark side of football, the cage, the 90s, the basketball, and, you know, again, it's like the road war. is craze where everybody had the shoulder pads of spikes in a face paint. If something is wildly successful, try to copy it. But in this case, with the WWE, one would think that they would, they have copied themselves
Starting point is 01:06:38 instead of copying someone else's success. They're telling the same stories too often with the same people too often. They could, because of that incredible archive they have. they could do in effect a different thing of what Darkside is doing they own the AWA archive do a series on or they own the Florida stuff do a series which focuses on an incredible talent in this genre from the Florida territory in the year 1978 and tell a fucking interesting story about a guy. But it's the same shit that we have seen on every program, every DVD, every documentary.
Starting point is 01:07:27 They won't, you do new shit. Go ahead, I'm sorry. They should own their story in a way they never have. You know, they should do a documentary series. If A&E is willing to put up any money for any of this garbage content and no one's watching, I say garbage content. content that feels like free propaganda-based content that exists on your YouTube channel.
Starting point is 01:07:47 That kind of content. You know, the road to the original WrestleMania, looking at the year leading up to it and really talking about each event, even the ones that were bad, even the ones that hurt the company. It's a long time ago. You could do it.
Starting point is 01:08:01 And you know what? You don't have Vince looking over your shoulder. Tell the real story. You know how he really bought the company. I mean, there's all these things that other people. Darkside exists in part because it's always a demand for wrestling content, but originally, in part,
Starting point is 01:08:16 because WWE never really owned their story. It was the only one that would tell a true story. WWE went out there and WW told their story and you had to accept it, and that was it. WW is at a point now where they could tell that story. Talk about David Schultz. Talk about Roddy Piper. Talk about Mr. T.
Starting point is 01:08:33 Talk about everything and get real footage and make it a whole series. That at least is new. And if it's done right, because I know the content, it could be great but instead we get Michael Cole picks his favorite raw moments there's no demand for that
Starting point is 01:08:49 there's nothing and this LFG thing sounds like it's D-O-A so we'll see what happens and that's the thing the AEW MO is let's have the same goddamn match just to people just
Starting point is 01:09:04 can't tell one from another the WWEMO now is let's just recap and herald and praise the same shit over and over and not delve any deeper to tell the goddamn story of anybody that we haven't already beat to death with a stick. We could make it interesting. The Chris Colt episode of Dark Side of the Ring was, I can't remember, two or three or four away from being the lowest rated episode because people were curious because that's a
Starting point is 01:09:40 story they didn't know, and then they got to hear it. And for all the storytellers that the WWE claimed to be, they're just, goddam. It's like Captain Alu, every time you'd see him, he'd tell the same fucking joke. Pretty soon it's like, oh, God damn it. But I think that's the reaction people have. If you've been watching these over the years, if Bruce Pritchard pops up, that's kind of the reaction you have, because he's been the company lackey in all of these things. there's never any insight.
Starting point is 01:10:10 It's more, here's the company justification that I think Vince would approve of. And I think that hurts these things. I think that sort of element, it used to be Steve Lombardi. He would appear in these things and just like say exactly what they want him to say. And it didn't feel real.
Starting point is 01:10:28 And it didn't feel real. And honestly, in Brooklyn Brawler's defense, one of the reasons why he got started doing so many comments on the DVD releases and then the documentaries and stuff is because since he also worked backstage as the, you know, production assistant of all trades, he assisted every producer with everything, running errands and getting this and lifting that. He was sitting there when they had no talent, when they had nobody, everybody's fucking in a meeting or everybody's goddamn late.
Starting point is 01:11:04 We have to hear her. Let's shoot some comments with Brawler for so-and-so. and that way they could get ahead of their work if they shot a bunch of comments ahead of time. Anyhow, they need to shoot more comments with other people and tell more stories about other fucking people. And they might have more people watching A&E on a Sunday night and prime time as listen to us pontificate
Starting point is 01:11:31 on many of our programs here. Yeah, they should have done something like we do. Like they should have done wrestler or porn star. I think that would have been a bigger hit on A&E on Sunday nights than this stuff, than seeing the same. I love Steve Austin. I've seen all those clips so many times because it's the best stuff. And you're right, you feel like you've seen this stuff before because it almost felt
Starting point is 01:11:58 like they rotated shows so that if the Rock and Austin were on biography, then the next season they were on rivals, then the next season they were on you know, hidden feuds or whatever the fuck they were doing. Oh, and I forgot about hidden treasures. Then we get to watch people buy their shit. We used to get to watch Top Dollar harassed John Pantosie on that show. Yes, yes. Now, he's...
Starting point is 01:12:23 Flop Dollar started out by being a fucking bad flea market negotiator for... But that's... I mean, I think they've plumbed the well, as A. Lola might have said. Unless they're going to do some different people from a different era, what's the matter with, if you're telling a good story, does it matter that it's in the 80s instead of the 90s? Or potentially, you can't, was there any good stories that I've overlooked that they haven't told from 2009 or whatever?
Starting point is 01:12:59 I don't know, but just something different. See, I'd hit up all those guys from the 80s they haven't done, even if you don't think they're worthy of a biography. I think you'd be surprised at times who triggers people to watch. I would do a Coco Beware. I would do it Greg Valentine. Have they done Jim Duggan? I would do a Jim Duggan if they haven't done Jim Duggan.
Starting point is 01:13:18 No, they did a Jim Duggan biography. They did Jim Buggin. Oh, Buggin. Jim Buggin. They did Jim Buggin and his partner, Jim Duggan. Buggin and Duggan is what they called him down south. I would really mind that well. And you get a lot of content out of it.
Starting point is 01:13:35 Again, I don't think it's going to do remarkably worse than what they've got on there, which is more of the same. Fluff content. Fluff content. Yeah. And that's the thing is it's all put together well because they have a wonderful crew, but it's the same thing. Let's stick with the WWE news or related news.
Starting point is 01:13:59 You know, we've been off the WWE for the last 10 days or so because of my change of schedule and sort of things going on. But they got a paper view coming up. Should we look at, can you tell me, is this public knowledge, what the fuck the card is for the elimination chamber paper view that's coming up
Starting point is 01:14:19 on March 1st, which is rapidly approaching us? Oh, Joy, O'Brien, Bliss. A W.W.E. Elimination Chamber taking place March 1, Toronto, Ontario, at the Rogers Center. Now, that's the Skydome, right? It was the sky. than used to be the Skydome.
Starting point is 01:14:36 That's right. It's a better name, Skydome. In an unsanctioned match, Sammy Zane versus Kevin Owens. Yes, I heard that they had officially booked that, so they're not saving
Starting point is 01:14:53 it for WrestleMania with Sammy and Kevin, but they're doing it in Toronto, which is probably as close as you can ask for to their hometown for a situation. like this, so you know, they're going to pull out all the stops. And with the WWE's governance or, you know, producing and keeping an eye on them where they
Starting point is 01:15:18 don't just impale each other with goddamn medieval lances, they can both work and they're motivated and they're best friends. So I bet you, unless it gets just really furniture heavy, that that'll be a really good match. The next match, a tag team match, Nia Jax and Candice Larray. Oh, Christ. Versus Tiffany Stratton and Trish Stratus.
Starting point is 01:15:50 Well, I see what they're doing there and I can't fault them. It's Toronto. She was in the rumble. They had, they rumbled in the rumble. And she's going to get a huge hometown pop. and from what I saw in the rumble, she's still better than the refrigerator and candy put together. So I'm not saying it's going to be a good match,
Starting point is 01:16:15 but I see what they're doing to get a heck of a response from the crowd and a legend on the card where they're not going to embarrass themselves. Hopefully the refrigerator door won't fall on Trish, and she'll be fine the next day. And again, I'm assuming they're going to be adding more matches in the next week and a half or so, but the other two matches we have,
Starting point is 01:16:39 the women's elimination chamber match. Oh, God, damn it. They're going to do the men's and women's of this shit, too. This is what you're doing. Your audio is really peeking there. Yeah, so is my blood pressure. For a women's world championship match, a WrestleMania 41,
Starting point is 01:17:01 Live Morgan versus Bianca Bel Air versus Alexa Bliss versus Bailey versus Naomi versus Roxanne Perez Is there anybody in that match that's over five and a half feet tall? Bianca Bel Air?
Starting point is 01:17:24 Bianca's what about five sevens? Maybe I think she may be a little taller but I'm not sure. She's one of the taller girls. I think Bailey maybe, Naomi maybe, definitely not live Alexa. All right. It's still, I ain't far off. This is a pretty fucking tight range. Narrow as a I can't say that word on YouTube anymore, hair.
Starting point is 01:17:49 But yeah, women's elimination chamber. So that'll go on first. And at least we've got nowhere to go but up. and then hopefully they'll they'll give us Sammy and Kevin as a pallet cleanser and then what's in between that and the men's elimination chamber that's the only other match
Starting point is 01:18:13 now we have the men's elimination I thought there was a that's only oh Jesus Christ are they going to just now do this again where Survivor said not Survivor Series the Royal Rumble was four and a half hours with four matches are these eliminations
Starting point is 01:18:29 Chamber is going to take as long as it does the gestation period of a hippopotamus to fucking get finished with? Why am I asking you these questions you have no control over? The Men's Elimination Chamber Match for an undisputed WWE Championship at WrestleMania 41? John Sina versus CM Punk versus Drew McIntyre versus Logan Paul versus Damien Prue.
Starting point is 01:19:01 versus Seth Franklin Rollins. You know what, that one is, and again, this is another reason why don't have an elimination chamber match in front of this elimination chamber match, because you've got several, a few of the best minds and several of the biggest names in the company in that thing, and why take the fucking edge off of it? I think a case could be made that almost anybody in that match could legitimately,
Starting point is 01:19:41 in the in the, in the eyes of the fans, you could, it could be a question, is he going to win? Is he going to win? Except if Priests is a long shot, right? And obviously, I don't think Logan Paul particularly needs it. But it's, again, there's so much going on with those names and those guys. and this high stakes match, why give the people of, you know,
Starting point is 01:20:10 half-ass fucking chicken wing before you give them a whole fucking chicken dinner? Your thoughts? Well, that's Toronto, Elimination Chamber. They've been doing these paper reviews with just a few matches, and it appears this will be another one of those, just a few matches.
Starting point is 01:20:27 Certainly, couldn't they announce one more thing? Maybe they will. I mean, there's still two more TVs before then. this fucking eight days from the time that we're recording this. No. Well, yeah, maybe not even eight. Is this leap year? We established that.
Starting point is 01:20:43 It's awful fucking close to be announcing anything of any consequence. So I guess that's what we're stuck with. Son of a bitch. Well, I wonder if they're going to add to the card on the pay-per-view, the newest sensation. I guess he's still down in NXT, though. But he's say, Ricky. we can't call him by his former name anymore that was his slave name
Starting point is 01:21:11 Ricky Starks he's now he's now with the the big league and he's changed his name onward and upward to Ricky Saints is that what I'm hearing is that correct that is that that is what happened on NXT he had his contract signing with the ever awkward Ava the fucking lurch of the Johnson family. I don't know why they have her on TV. She's not a performer. Would you sign a contract of any kind with her unless she was a receptionist at a fucking doctor's office?
Starting point is 01:21:45 No. But again, I guess anything to get into NXT, they never say his name. So they're all talking about him. He's being presented. He's there walking around. But no one's like, hey, Ricky, how you doing? No one's doing that.
Starting point is 01:22:02 So it felt a little weird, and at the very end, after a few people came out, Ethan Page came out and had a confrontation, when you saw the contract that he signed, it said Ricky Saints. Was it Ricky Saint or Ricky Saints? Well, that's what I was going to ask you, because now this could mean everything. See, now that I've got you here, is it Ricky Saint or Ricky Saints? He's Ricky Saints. Ricky Saints. See, that makes less sense.
Starting point is 01:22:31 Oh, when the Saints go marching in? No, the New Orleans Saints are the football team, and he's from New Orleans, and I've seen reported online that that's where the connection when he chose or maybe when he chose or helped choose or advised or begrudgingly accepted, whatever the goddamn proper description was. Apparently, Riggie Starks was off the table,
Starting point is 01:22:57 but at least he can still be Ricky. Why? Why, though? Why's Ricky Starks off the table? It's weird. Ethan Page came in as Ethan Page, although he came in from TNA. He didn't just come in as a free agent. Ricky Starks does. I see that? I mean, Ricky Stark's initial value is the fact that everyone knows him. The thing is whether he came from TNA or whether he came from being a free agent
Starting point is 01:23:25 shouldn't really I understand that they want to do they want to own things they want to trademark things intellectual property whatever but I don't know why they make certain exceptions
Starting point is 01:23:41 I can see where they make it for John Sina but you know right now but not even back then they let him be Jai he they didn't want the prototype that he thought of but they let him have his real fucking name Hey, Julia and Stephanie Vakor, or Vacker, whatever it is, those were the names they used in Japan and Mexico.
Starting point is 01:24:02 It wasn't like they got their names changed. So I don't understand what plays into the differentiation of one or the other. But the thing is, I'm not entirely, I think Ricky Saint might even please me just a little bit better than Ricky Saints. but I'm not entirely against it because it depends, is he going to have a nickname or some other type of, you know,
Starting point is 01:24:37 a presentation verbally or whatever, Ricky Saint, you can see maybe something there with his look and he dresses up and, I don't know, saints, I don't know. It just feels weird though, the idea that you would want to do that.
Starting point is 01:24:54 again, he was on AEW TV when there were a lot more viewers. The fans always reacted to him and took to him. He's not a complete unknown. And to bring him in and change his name, it just almost seems like, I don't know, it's almost like they're treating AEW and appearing on AEW TV as being as good as being on the Indies, which is crazy. Well, that's, that's about where it is.
Starting point is 01:25:22 But in terms of television exposure, Ricky, Starks has been a part of a lot of stuff when they had a lot of viewers. I don't understand the logic. I mean, again, like you said, they want to own everything. What's the value in that name, really? How much more money are you going to make because you own this name that he can never use anywhere else versus you make money with him as a partner on his name? I don't see it.
Starting point is 01:25:45 That's the point that I've made often is when guys used to become stars after they had worked for you, they went somewhere else and they'd come back in. they could use the same name to get over and then you could advertise and people knew who it was, blah, blah, blah. And the links that they've gone to to change people's names in that company for years now is ridiculous in a lot of cases. Sometimes, you know, you'd never heard of a fuck, a motherfucker, and he had a shitty gimmick or whatever.
Starting point is 01:26:19 Yes, but in a lot of cases, they changed. Remember they wanted to change Vader's name? name, McFoly's name, everybody's name. But the point is this one, maybe it's not too bad, maybe it's a Walter to a Gunther, and it won't matter anyway because he'll get over. Does it pass your name test? See, that's the thing depending on what he,
Starting point is 01:26:46 if he continues to look like a star and present himself like the guy and he's slick and he's dressed nice, I can see a Ricky Saints. You know, it's what he does with it and what they do with him. So it could pass the name test depending on, you know, it's not Freddie Joe Floyd. It's not like, no, under any circumstances, nobody's going to ever give a shit about a person just specifically because of this name. Well, we will see what happens with Ricky Saints. Well, Brian, it's, you know, it's just the odds are up in.
Starting point is 01:27:27 the air. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's get over or not. Does it's, it's, it's, it's, it's going to the casino, baby, but you know, at least you can go to the casino now and not have to hop on a plight, a plight, hop on a plight to Las Vegas and to play at the casino. That's a play on words I've never heard before, but it sounds good. He's going to hop on a plight. He's You're going to hop on a plight to Vegas. Or you don't have to go to a Atlantic city or even, you know, some of the river boats on the Mississippi River.
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Starting point is 01:30:51 ends March 16th, 2025 at 11.59 p.m. Eastern Time. That's right. The crown is yours. Well, now, it's yours. It's not mine. Who's going to be responsible for this crown? If the crown is yours, it can't be mine. Void in Ontario. That's true. And Connecticut. I can vouch for that.
Starting point is 01:31:16 Anyway, folks, speaking of being void, apparently a business deal that was void, null and void, dead on arrival, wasn't going to happen. I hate to say I told you so, Brian. You know, I say that all the time when I say I told you so, that I hate to say this, but I told you so. Shane McMahon, the story now has been revealed apparently where the deal or not the deal, but the proposal that was made for him to become a part of AEW. you and I think it was probably kind of what I thought he said, well, I'll politely give this guy an offer that he absolutely can refuse and he did. But is that, where did this information,
Starting point is 01:32:03 where was it disseminated from? Do you have that? I think you may be too kind. I think it's also maybe an example of Shane really wanted to do something in wrestling still and thinking this was a chance, not realizing nobody sees him as a, as an executive, we should be running a wrestling company, let alone Tony Con who sees himself. That's an executive. He should be running a wrestling company. The story came from a few places. Obviously, originally, we heard a rumor that they met.
Starting point is 01:32:29 We heard that Mercedes Monet ran into Shane in an airport. Then we saw a photo that was a bizarre photo, because Shane was like leaning over the desk and Tony was acting because it was clearly an act, like he was shocked that someone was taking a photo. Yeah, yeah. Oh my God, turn that camera off, put out that cigarette type of thing. And then that got leaked. According to, I have a couple things here on the official observer write-up, but
Starting point is 01:32:57 Russell Talk put out something. A big new update has emerged regarding Shane McMahon potentially joining AEW after meeting Tony Khan last summer. As reported by Russell Talk and Fightful in July 2024, Shane met with Tony Khan and an airport in Arlington, Texas. As reported by Sean Ross Sapp at the time, the meeting was regarding, quote, possibilities moving forward.
Starting point is 01:33:28 However, despite plenty of speculation afterwards regarding McMahon working with AEW or potentially appearing on AEW TV, nothing would materialize in this regard. And let me stop there for a second, we didn't even bring up. the rumor that he was going to be behind the Moxley thing. Well,
Starting point is 01:33:49 that he was the mastermind of whatever gibberish Moxley says every week. Well, and that was on the face of it was just ridiculous because they would have nothing to do. And Shane being a higher power was just fans wanting Shane to be a guy with money that was going to come in and try to, you know,
Starting point is 01:34:11 buy the company or run the company away from Tony or whatever. but then Moxley because of those rumors had to put that fire out by putting that line in and I can't remember what his exact words were but where I'm the boss I worked for me or whatever the fuck just to make sure that everybody knew the buck ended there I think I made a pun but here's what I think I think that Shane liked the former Sasha Banks when they worked together and they met in an airport and she told him about this wonderful guy she was
Starting point is 01:34:50 working for and boy they ought to talk and say okay and if they wouldn't have met in an airport because I have nothing to do well he has plenty he's got plenty to do which with the money he's got is whatever fuck he wants to do right it's not like he's been flying
Starting point is 01:35:09 that's what I'm saying it's not like he's been flying around the country trying to get a job in a wrestling business. They probably met an airport because they were going to be ships passing in the night at a connecting city. I agree with that, but I think there, I know plenty of unfulfilled millionaires.
Starting point is 01:35:26 I know plenty of people that on the face of it, they are rich enough, they should be really happy, and they're miserable because they just, whatever it is, the work thing or whatever. With Shane, you could understand that because he really believed, there's a lot of us did at a certain point, that he was
Starting point is 01:35:42 going to eventually one day be the era parent. Yes, and I agree with that. He thought he had a chance to buy UFC. He thought, I mean, all of these things. It disappointed him. It disappointed him that he wasn't, but that's his father's company.
Starting point is 01:35:58 That's the WWF, the WWE. He's not tried to, he's done, made overtures with mixed martial arts. He's not tried to get in any kind of wrestling business. And they've been around for five years without him making any overtures, because you think Tony wouldn't have met with Shane beforehand, and obviously it's not like he's going to keep it a secret.
Starting point is 01:36:21 He ran into Sasha, and Sasha said, oh, do it, blah, blah, okay. And I believe that Shane, after he talked to Tony, and said, it's to himself, this is the guy that is running this company, said, I tell you what, you give me a piece of it, and let me run it and we'll talk business because he doesn't want a salary. He doesn't want to work for somebody in a wrestling company that comes off to most people in the wrestling business like Tony comes off. Now, whether they're at a place where they can admit it or want to admit it or whether
Starting point is 01:37:04 they're too naive to pick up on it. But for somebody that's been around a wrestling business for a long time, Tony does not come off like a general patent that you would follow into battle to invade fucking Normandy, right? Well, let me go back to this report here, some more details. Apparently, I won't name the show because based on the name of it, I'm guessing it's a show with Vince Russo, but Jonathan Coachman is a podcast now, and on it, he claimed that McMahon asked for equity in AWD during the meeting with con
Starting point is 01:37:41 and allegedly wanted to come in and run the entire show, which apparently led to Khan ghosting Shane afterwards. While Fightful wouldn't verify Coachman's claims that McMahon wanted equity, several new details were learned via a source close to McMahon. The source told Fightful that Khan did not follow up with McMahon after the meeting, and while they couldn't confirm the claims that Shane wanted equity in AEW, it did seem like he wanted to run things, but he did not have much knowledge of AEW's product
Starting point is 01:38:18 or business model, whatever that is. I'm not sure there is anybody has knowledge of a business model. But no, again, and Hayman did the same thing with Dixie and T&A, remember, but this time it was specifically to, I think, to run her off because he knows that he couldn't have done anything under those circumstances. but with Shane he's not looking for a job he's got all the money he wants he sees this guy that has national television a wrestling promotion and he talks to him and he realizes what how the fuck did this
Starting point is 01:38:53 happen by sheer happenstance and the striking of lightning and he probably figured you know what if he and I when people are saying that by running it or he wasn't wanted to run the whole show, like he wanted to do everything by himself. No, I bet you he didn't want to book or he didn't want to do what. He wanted to run the company to be whatever they call, the guy calling the shots in that corporate structure, the president or the whatever, because he could see that, you know, Tony, I mean, do I have to fucking spell it out?
Starting point is 01:39:33 And he wanted a piece of it rather than a salary because that's an old Bill Watts technique that he used in WCW. Give me a piece of what I save you by cutting this budget where you're losing money. He's thinking if I can make it go then I'll make money on owning
Starting point is 01:39:51 a piece of this thing. Not to take anything away from the incompetence of Tony Khan. Shane's not a proven executive. Shane's not an executive with a history of turning things around. Like there's no background for that. So even if you like them, I mean, there's no
Starting point is 01:40:07 You know, the idea that he went in there is some seasoned businessman. Well, but hold on a second again. Again, when the comparison is Tony Kahn with the fucking, you know, the wild hair and the crazy eyes and the hippity hop attitude, Shane looks good. He's been dealt with network people and all these people for 30 fucking years or more than that. He knows people from all of the deals that they've made in. done. He was into the thing with Tyson.
Starting point is 01:40:41 He, just contacts that he has, people that he could talk to, things that he would put more experienced and or learned people in a lot of these positions than Tony has because he wouldn't give a fuck who his friends were.
Starting point is 01:40:58 I mean, somebody's going to say, what's a rib? Pete Gas and Rodney got jobs. But, yeah, as flunky fucking wrestlers, not as a goddamn head of marketing. But Shane would just put, if Shane just put people that he knew from WWE, that doesn't help AEW.
Starting point is 01:41:13 I'm not talking from WWE. I'm talking from everywhere. He has, he knows all of the years that he spent in the office dealing with people from Hollywood to fucking New York to business people,
Starting point is 01:41:27 to sponsorships, to the fucking people with the Skittles, whatever. He's worked and dealt in a bigger company with a better infrastructure, with more contacts for major league sponsors and the whole nine yards.
Starting point is 01:41:42 I'm talking business. I don't think anybody, whether you like Shane or not, or whether he wanted to do too many leapfrogs and his punches were the shits. He looks and acts and comes off as a more stable adult experienced businessman than Tony Kahn does.
Starting point is 01:42:03 When he's in a suit and in that environment, not being, right, but that doesn't mean he's a good, but that doesn't mean he's a good businessman. That's my point. He comes across better than Tony Con. I'm not saying he's goddamn,
Starting point is 01:42:13 my kids come across better than Tony. He'll be able to, that's why I don't know why you're arguing with me. I'm not saying he's John D. Rockefeller. I'm saying he'd be a grade up in terms of an administrative boss of a wrestling company. I'm not,
Starting point is 01:42:27 that's the point I'm not willing to submit. I'm not willing to submit to that because there's no evidence of that from anything. There's no, Tony Khan and Shane are very, similar in a lot of ways, and obviously they're very, very fucking different in a whole lot of ways. But there's no evidence of Shane outside of his dad's grip ever being able to develop anything, do anything, come up with ideas. Let me read you real quick. I didn't even finish this
Starting point is 01:42:50 report. And then I got to read you what Dave wrote about this. Oh boy. Hold on. While Fifell didn't confirm Coachman's claims, they had a source close to Shane McMahon. Despite Khan not following up with McMahon after the meeting, Shane didn't seem to take it personally. And it reportedly seemed as if Khan thought that Shane was joking when mentioning the possibility of running everything in AEW. That's funny, too. The idea of you said it. Okay. And again, to my point, Shane didn't hear from him.
Starting point is 01:43:22 And it's not like he was waiting by the phone. He didn't, you know, is like, eh. I'm just telling him. According to the source, McMahon viewed his insight and abilities to run a show as valuable. After years of witnessing fans and people in the industry, want someone to replace his father in his role in charge at WWE. See, right there is very interesting. His insight and abilities to run the show were valuable.
Starting point is 01:43:47 The report notes that there was never an actual plan for Shane McMahon to appear on AEW TV or be involved in the company, with sources within AEW telling Fightful that Khan hasn't spoken about it extensively, outside of acknowledging that the meeting took place, and the two sides aren't working together. Despite that, the source close to McMahon didn't rule out a potential cameo appearance at AEW.
Starting point is 01:44:13 Oh, come on. But didn't think that there would be any full business relationship between them at the time. And that's the story there. Here's how it was reported in The Observer. Jonathan Coachman on his podcast claimed that Shane McMahon in his talks with Tony Khan asked for an equity stake in the company
Starting point is 01:44:33 and wanted to run it and then afterwards Khan never called him back Khan hasn't commented on the report I mean seriously Khan is never going to just give a significant equity stake to somebody nor is he going to let somebody else run the company it's the same situation
Starting point is 01:44:51 when the first time Shane left WWE that he met with UFC and I told people there's no way a deal will be made because I knew Dave would come into this somehow. Because Shane will never accept the salary position and then the idea of them giving him ownership, just giving it, that was never going to happen. He's not going to come in and
Starting point is 01:45:13 work for a salary and I'm not even sure what role he would, and I'm not even sure what role he would do. In WWF, people rolled their eyes at the idea of him doing creative there and he doesn't know the talent nor the landscape of AEW and has never run creative or been a key part of it anywhere. Well, see, he's harpened too on the creative. It's more than the creative. It's the running of the actual company putting responsible, experienced, non-wrestling people in the places where non-wrestling people are the best for those places, marketing and advertising and live event, etc. And then you you try to teach them and direct them the genre. But accounting, maybe some responsible accountants to say,
Starting point is 01:46:06 how much goddamn more money are you going to spend? We heard about this, and then the next time we saw Shane was at the Super Bowl with his dad and The Undertaker. I'm just saying this sounds like a guy who... You think it was recon? You think it was a recon mission? No, I think this was a guy who met with him. the guy in the business he used to be in the family business because of a friend that he met.
Starting point is 01:46:33 And he said, well, if this guy's really serious, I'm not going to take time out of my day unless it's worth it to me. And I bet you Shane did think that he could run the company better than Tony. And I bet if you put the two of them in a room, that ought to be a reality show. But Shane McMahon and Tony Khan in a room and interview them. to see which one comes off as a person to run anything if you would not know any specifics about anything. I completely agree, and I bet Shane's mind was blown by the spectacle of Tony Con.
Starting point is 01:47:08 And considering that he grew up Vince's son, how do you think he reacted when everything he said Tony Con was sitting there nodding at him? Right? Because Vince hated that, and that's all Tony does. He nods at everything you say. And just the hyperactivity and the, the over
Starting point is 01:47:26 confidence would be a word, the over exuberance. I'm not violating the NDA when I just described the tone of a man's conversation as being, again, convinced everything's great. Nothing can fail. And because I guess if it doesn't matter,
Starting point is 01:47:47 he's used to. It doesn't matter if something fails because you can't give as much money away as they have. So he's never really had a failure in his life because what does it matter? If something doesn't work, do something else. It's not like, you know, we're not going to eat or anything. But I think that that's the thing is that Shane would have figured,
Starting point is 01:48:10 all right, if he really wants me to do something here, I'll pitch this. And if he politely declines, then I'll go about my day type of thing. I think Shane's going to do something with his dad. That's what I think. his dad who can't turn to Stephanie anymore. Well, and from what we have been led to believe, that's not going to be wrestling. So I don't know that I would,
Starting point is 01:48:37 I would argue with you there. Dobokato. Shane might still do something with it. Raw underground or raw after dark. What was it? Raw in the dark. What was it? It was,
Starting point is 01:48:47 was it underground? It was underground, right? Raw with writers in the dark. It was raw underground and it should be buried about six feet. But anyway, so that's, and we caught up with it. That's all going on in the WWE right now. We're going to start watching the TV again leading up to the elimination chamber.
Starting point is 01:49:08 So more on that to come. Well, I guess. That's what Shane McMahon said when he left the meeting. More on that. To come. Before we talk about the TV show that I did watch, Can we talk about the ratings of the TV show that I didn't watch? Oh boy, you're talking about the one I think you're talking about collision in Australia?
Starting point is 01:49:34 Yes, the Grand Slam. We did a report on, you know, well, no, I did. I did watch that. Son of a bitch, that's the one I did watch because we did a report on that. But now we have the ratings, which we didn't have then. And we were guesstimating as to they're supposed to have the big lead-in And anyway, we said the big leanin wasn't the NBA All-Star game. It was the NBA night before the All-Star game festivities with a dunk contest and shit.
Starting point is 01:50:07 But that was supposed to be a big lead-in, so they were looking forward to it. And now we know what happened. Do we not? Oh, we do. We do. And the rating came out on February 19th. A.E.W. Collision.
Starting point is 01:50:24 February 15. Grand Slam, Australia, 1052 to 1 a.m., according to Ressalonomics, preempted airings. They even got a runover on the fucking Saturday night, late night. All right. According to Resslenomics, a preempted airing, on average, watched by 502,000 viewers. That is the highest overall and key demo number since December 21st. and that on the surface of it would sound kind of impressive that they got it almost back up
Starting point is 01:51:03 to where that they had it when CM Punk was on it every week, and now they haven't done that in a few months, but there's more to the story, Brian, than one would be led to believe by just that number alone. Let's go to the ratings. These were compiled by WrestleMania's Quarter 1, 1052 to 11 p.m. That famous eight-minute quarter, quarter one, 1052 to 11 p.m. Kenny Omega and Will Osprey versus Konosuke Takesta and Kyle Fletcher with picture and picture ads.
Starting point is 01:51:38 One million, 30,000 viewers. So that's the first time they've been over a million since Punk did something important. I think. I don't remember how many shows have been over a million, to be quite honest with you. I don't know. It's been a long. time. Well, again, we say quarter. That was eight minutes. Let's go to quarter two, 11 to 1115, a full quarter. Continuation of the tag match and an ad break, 669,000 viewers. Good God. So they lost
Starting point is 01:52:11 361,000 people in 58, in eight minutes. Okay. As expected, I guess, because obviously NBA fans are going to turn it off. the whole goal is you want to retain them. Well, remember that first eight minutes was people that they had never seen or heard of walking to the ring. Remember? I remember. Do you remember the boring entrances?
Starting point is 01:52:45 It wasn't November, though. Let's continue to remember remember, but we go to quarter of 3, 11.15, or 11.30 p.m., Mercedes Monet versus Harley Cameron with picture and picture ads 567,000 viewers. There goes another hundred thousand in a quarter.
Starting point is 01:53:10 Well, we go to the next quarter, the continuation of the Monet versus Cameron match for 1130 versus 1145, the post match with Momo Watambay an ad break. Anyone named Momo is fun of me. Kenny,
Starting point is 01:53:25 Hey, now what? Sam Giancana would like a word with you. Kenny Omega and Will Osprey's backstage promo and entrances, I assume for the next match, 525,000 viewers. And there went another 42,000. So we're down now, it's almost half. 1,030,000 to 525,000 in an hour, 50% of the audience.
Starting point is 01:53:52 Well, we're going out of quarter 5, 1,145 to 12 a.m. Cope and Jay White versus Claudio and Moxley with picture and picture ads. 453,000 viewers. There goes another 472,000, and of course, the death riders again strike the death blow to the ratings. This is plummeting. How far? How low can they go? Well, we know go.
Starting point is 01:54:26 go to quarter six, the big midnight hour, 12 to 12.15 a.m., the postmatch with the Death Riders, an ad break, and the start of Okada versus Buddy Matthews, with picture and picture, 421,000 viewers. And that's down another 32,000, and now they're fighting bad booking and sleep. well we continue now into uh i've lost track of what these arcs it's all out of order here
Starting point is 01:55:01 1215 to 1230 p.m o kada versus buddy continued and an ad break 401,000 viewers okay we're officially down 629,000 viewers from the start of the program and uh we got quarter eight and an overrun uh i'm not not sure about an overrun. We'll talk about that in the moment here. Quarter eight, I guess that's what this is, 1230 to 1245 a.m. And according to this, we have another 11 minutes after that. So I don't know if that's an overrun because it ends at 1256, but 1230 to 1245. Somebody's got to answer for this. Mariah May versus Tony Storm with picture and
Starting point is 01:55:50 and somebody's got to answer for that too. I believe that's the main event here. 351,000 viewers, the final 11 minutes, 294,000 viewers. Oh, my. So they started at a million and 30,000 and ended up at 294,000. That is a loss of 736,000, or basically 75,000. Has there ever been... See? Shane McMahon doesn't understand the business model.
Starting point is 01:56:35 They just ran off the entire... I mean, again, it's late at night, it's after the NBA game. You're not going to have a big audience, but they were building this thing up for a while. It makes you question why they did this on collision. Why not just make the Australia event dynamite at that point? But they just lost the entire audience. nothing held, nothing built, and certain things hemorrhaged more than others. The quarter from the Mercedes Monet match 525 to the Moxley tag match, 453, that was the most alarming one, or not alarming, that was the one that stood out the most to me after like, you know, the first, the NBA fans turning off their TVs a minute in the...
Starting point is 01:57:18 I don't know, I think from the start of regulation quarter seven at 401 to the overrun at 294 was, like, you know, a little shocking. For the main event with Tony Storm, who they hype up as being one of their biggest stars. Has there ever been, I guess everything's happened, but a television show that in two hours lost from start to finish,
Starting point is 01:57:41 75% of its audience before. The Chevy Chase show. The Chevy Chase show. You ever see that? You know what? As a matter of fact, I think I remember the tales of how rotten that was. And then it was canceled.
Starting point is 01:57:56 But even my mother of the car got numbers. Well, there you go. That's, um... That was the best friend's gimmick, my mother of the car. I think you need to workshop that one. Are you eating right, Brian? Uh, right the second I'm not eating. I'm talking to you.
Starting point is 01:58:19 No, are you eating right? Not, not right now eating. Or sometimes I left. Are you, no, are you eating correctly? Are you taking care of yourself? Are you, are you eating? the proper things to make your body do the proper things. I would like to think so.
Starting point is 01:58:37 It's very important that you do. You know, a lot of people have the hectic lifestyle or a lot of people don't want to take the time and the trouble to make the healthier or more nutritious items for themselves. And as a result, they eat the crap. I've been going to the restaurants lately. I talked about that. I'm just ordering the crap, just eating the fried food and the crap.
Starting point is 01:58:59 Well, you don't have to do that anymore. And I don't have to accept, unfortunately, I'm stuck with the family. So I have to go out and be sociable. But let's say, Brian, for example, the listeners at home, let's say you have no family and no friends. No one to turn to and no one to keep you company. And you want to drown your sorrows in a gourmet chef-made meal that you can also eat well while you're eating good. something that's dietitian approved and ready to heat up and eat in two minutes.
Starting point is 01:59:34 So you can fuel your body up and feel great no matter what's going on in the rest of your life. Let's say you're just dying to have somebody give you a good gourmet meal. Our friends at Factor can do that thing. And it's even for people who feel loved and have friends and family in their life, let's not limit who we're talking to here. If you are happy and having a great time and you feel fulfilled, you need to make sure your stomach is fulfilled with the right ingredients. Chef crafted just for you, filled with whatever you need.
Starting point is 02:00:09 You know, they have protein here. Protein's always good. We need muscles, especially if you're a wrestler. Go gym. Well, what's the chances of that, though, that somebody's actually going to be happy and well-adjusted and have a loving family and friend? That never happens.
Starting point is 02:00:25 everybody's miserable and alone and you want to put this meal in and you want to make sure that you're still looking good because one of these days somebody might love you. So you don't want to just eat shit and old swans and TV dinners
Starting point is 02:00:41 and you'll just go to pot. You still want to eat good while you're alone and suffering and misery. You say you got pot? No, you don't want to go to pot. Well, you might want to turn to pot. But the folks that factor folks, folks have 40 options across eight dietary preferences on the menu each week like calorie smart
Starting point is 02:01:03 protein plus keto friendly and you can lose up to eight pounds at eight weeks with factor keto meals because it was based on a randomized controlled clinical trial how can something so random be so well controlled but you know about those clinical trials folks with factor keto the results will very depending on diet and exercise. Now, if you want to go out and run about 30, 40 miles a day in the hot desert sun and Phoenix in the middle of the summer, you probably lose 10 pounds in eight weeks. Factor could help you feel your best all day long
Starting point is 02:01:38 with the wholesome smoothies, the breakfast, the grab and go snacks, and more add-ons. And as a matter of fact, the salmon egg souffle is a favorite of mine, but they may have discontinued that, Brian. But right now, you can reach your goals this year with ingredients you can trust. Because as a matter of fact, these ingredients come with a certificate
Starting point is 02:02:01 of authenticity. Before they strangle and pluck the chicken, they make that chicken sign a form that it had no steroids in its body. That's, they're going to factor is going the extra mile to protect you people. They will not be doing any of that.
Starting point is 02:02:18 They are not going to be supplying any certificate of authenticity signed by a chicken. Let's not false expectations. to people. They're not doing the actual testing. That's up to the USDA. But they will get that fucking Cox signature on that form because they don't want anybody to think that they're giving out tainted substances. Folks, anyway, again, chef made, the signatory co-meals. That's right. chef-made gourmet meals make eating well easy dietitian approved the dietitian's not the one that has to heat it up though that's you so it only takes
Starting point is 02:02:59 two minutes so now wait a minute it says ready to heat need in two minutes so apparently you have to heat and eat it within the two minute time frame you don't want this stuff to cool off no heat and eat doesn't mean you have to do everything within two minutes that means it only takes up to two minutes to get it prepared to eat not not that you have to eat within that time for it. You could take your time, the meal will be hot, and your belly will be full with the right ingredients chef crafted for you, and that's guaranteed from our friends at Factor.
Starting point is 02:03:29 You need to factor that into your life. So you're saying you can eat at leisurely pace. Just hurry up and heat this shit up. A gingerly pace. Get that out of the way. A gingerly, leisurely pace. I am saying that, yes. Well, no, you could eat ravenously while still leisurely,
Starting point is 02:03:45 but you can't eat gingerly and ravenously. You could be in a gingerly mood while ravenous. I don't know why you're going crazy on this food. It's delicious. Enjoy it. I'm telling you why I'm going crazy on this food. And you will too, folks, eat smart with Factor. Right now, get started at FactorMeals.com
Starting point is 02:04:06 slash Factor Podcast. You use the code Factor Podcast to get 50% off. That's half. almost 50% off your first box plus free shipping they will send these meals to your door ready to put in and heat up and then you eat them and take as long as you want you can sleep with part of it eat rest of it the next day for breakfast just set it over to the side of you and don't flail your arms at night factor podcast at factor meals.com slash Factor Podcast to get 50% off plus free shipping on your first box. And of course, at Factor Meals.com, they'll tell you all the specific kinds of wonderful gourmet meals that they prepare on a regular basis that they will send out to you. And here's another thing. Finish your plate.
Starting point is 02:05:02 There are people starving in Cambodia. Don't be leaving things laying around. They send somebody to check and make sure that you, you've cleaned your plate. They, being Factor, do not do that, but they do supply you with great chef-crafted meals. Delicious and nutritious. Factor. One more time, Jim, what's that promo code?
Starting point is 02:05:22 FactorMeals.com slash Factor Podcast. Well, I guess it's about that time, Brian. We ought to pick up our main event, AEW Dynamite for February the 19th from Phoenix era is actually Glendale. Arizona. How far is that from Phoenix? Do we know as the as the vulture flies? Is it somewhere in the metropolitan area or are they trying to zoom us again like suburban Nashville was Clarksville? I was trying to look this up. I thought you had a summer place out in Arizona. It's 10 miles. Ted, well, that ain't bad, especially if if you're driving. The Arizona
Starting point is 02:06:09 a financial theater, it looked like an airplane hanger draped in black sheets behind the ring. Because it's a theater. They have all the seats like a movie theater on one side. So the sweeping crowd shot of that looked great. But then when they shot the ring, they just
Starting point is 02:06:27 had to cover the rest of it up with black, right? The blank walls. The sweeping crowd shot looked amazing. I love that look of just endless rows going all the way back. I think that looks so cool. And unfortunately, it was only on, well, I mean, they'd be lucky if it was on two sides or three sides. Well, but that's, I mean, I'm not trying to pick everything.
Starting point is 02:06:47 We said they ought to run smaller buildings. But I just, it, it, they couldn't get far enough back on the other side from the ring to have a real good hard camera shot of that. So they had to either shoot some of the blank walls on the other side or shoot the crowd, one of the other, but sometimes not both. or one from column A and two from column B. But like you said, we've been saying they have to run smaller buildings. This is the reality of smaller buildings. Some of them are not really configured for boxing or wrestling or anything to be filmed that way. Yeah.
Starting point is 02:07:21 So you take what you can get. Again, at least on one side you had a great look. It looked really cool from a certain angle. From a certain... Yeah. What if you... If you laid down on your back and put one leg up in the air and balanced your elbow... just right, it looked great.
Starting point is 02:07:39 But anyway, the opening segment, I swear to God, it's a real roller coaster, this opening segment, because they managed to take something that I wasn't really interested in seeing, started getting me interested in seeing it, and then by the time they finished off, I was less interested in it than I was when they started.
Starting point is 02:08:06 How long did this go? I think it was like 20 minutes. It seemed like days. And again, MJF, they have, I mean, he's trying. He and the hangnail Adam Page were going to have a face off, a confrontation. They were going to air out the grievances. And the announcers made sure to tell us during MJF's entrance that he and Page are not allowed to touch. If they get in a fight, there's going to be fine suspensions.
Starting point is 02:08:41 this is the same thing as the no interference rule in the intercontinental what title is whatever where they say in those matches there's no outside interference allowed there's supposed to be normally no outside interference allowed if they can stop it here they can stop it there if they can stop it at once they can stop it for all why do they set the precedent that all this tomfoolery could be stopped if they just say you're not allowed to do this. Do you see what I'm saying? Yeah, and we had just talked about recently how it only works in certain scenarios and it's overdone. The idea here are the two guys and they're going to stand in opposite corners and just give speeches to the other one about a variety of things
Starting point is 02:09:36 apparently. And you have to listen. You have to stand there and listen and then you'll get your chance to respond. There's not even a representative of the promotion, the announcer holding the microphone, some general manager in to keep any order. It's just two guys running each other down endlessly because that's what they see on the WWE programs and that's what they're trying to do. But the problem is all the guys that are allowed to talk for 20 minutes in the WWE are over as fuck to a big audience who wants to hear this shit and understands what they're talking about and they like it and even then sometimes it's burdensome on us as we've joked about the you know the wrestling matches getting in the way of the oratory but yes mj f can can talk
Starting point is 02:10:31 his ass off but god damn you need two to tango or watusi or watoosey or whatever. And then you need somebody to either, MJF can write his own material, but he's got to have a direction and you got to have somebody write for this other fucking guy. And he sounds like that he set like a book report in 10th grade overnight writing this that he thought would sound, I'm talking about a hangnail, that he thought would sound literate and flowery and the verbiage is just is grandiose and he's fucking fake and he doesn't use words like that in real life. If he does, he's a fucking nerd. And I didn't care.
Starting point is 02:11:20 Then MJF started talking and I kind of started, okay, this might not be bad. And then by the time the page had finished and they both had rebutted the rebuttal, I was like, God damn. I mean, MJF started talking after nobody said, anything while they just stared at each other. Then MJF started back in 2019 and already I was like, oh God. Page cost MJF, the casino battle royal and the shot at the title. So MGAF beat all of the fans' favorite wrestlers, including Paige for the first time he won the diamond ring. And he main event at Wembley and he won the world title because he's better than you because he's
Starting point is 02:12:00 MJF and you know it or whatever the fuck. Okay, that's fine. And, then Page responds, and he does the complete baby face promo about how that he worked for everything, at least he may have done some horrible things, but he's always been, he's had some kind of moral compass when he was burning people's homes down and terrorizing. But MJF can't be happy because he hasn't won something from the fans, and he's starting to allude that MJF has not won the fans' respect. And MJF does the thing where he flips out and screams, shut up, shut up, and then he catches himself like, oh my God, I've lost control.
Starting point is 02:12:47 The problem I have with this is, while yes, he's trying to plant the subliminal message that he's secretly so insecure and that people can hit his button. His button's too touchy, Brian. Was there any reason for anybody that was trying to hide any inner emotion to flip the fuck out at that vague illusion is what I'm asking you. That's the question. You wouldn't think so, but I guess the vague illusion is supposed to be part of a bigger picture where MJF seeks the approval of the masses, which causes him to do the wrong
Starting point is 02:13:24 thing in terms of good versus bad all the time. Yeah, yeah. It just, it's too much. You know what? It went too much in the direction of emotions again. Like it just... Yes. Not just with MJF, MJF and Adam Page, both. They both needed like a restart in terms of attitude.
Starting point is 02:13:47 And this went a long time and... Well, well, but hold on now, because we haven't got to the rebuttal of the rebuttal, because MJF responded to the response with all the dirty stuff that Paige had done and the people cheered him, including burning swerves house down, And the people chanted, or not chanted, but cheered. They were chanting cowboy shit. And by the time M.GF got finished here, so he accomplished that. But they cheered the mention of Adam Page burning down another one of the baby faces houses.
Starting point is 02:14:21 This is the amount of control that they have fucking lost. And then MJF says, they love you, but do you love you? Do you love you because what you did to Christopher Daniels? Because they said Paige ended Daniels his career. Well then Paige got pissed off about that and said, I would give Chris Daniels my own spine if I could. What the, then why'd you fucking hurt him?
Starting point is 02:14:51 And he put Daniels over. He said he died a warrior's death. If people didn't know the story, they would think they're talking about a dead person. He didn't, wait a minute, are they trying to say he killed Christopher Daniels? Because no mention was made until we see him here in a minute that Daniels was still alive. Because Paige, instead of saying, I didn't mean to break his neck, he said he died a warrior's death. You say that all the time in fucking heated conversation with somebody you don't like.
Starting point is 02:15:28 And then Paige started rambling again about how great Daniels was. to the point that he was losing the people. There was a small fall, an angel chant, but he was losing the point of what they were trying to do here. Daniels was a side note to where they were going, and they took the turn and went to check in at the motor lodge. And then, Paige S, what would the fans say about you, MJF, if you died tomorrow, if your career was over tomorrow,
Starting point is 02:15:59 and blah, blah, blah. and that's what I jotted down. I said, MJF had me and kind of the fans interested in this, and the longer that Paige talked, the less interested I'm at. And the verbose and flowery verbiage turned into a bad actor, MJF answered him back again, made fun of Paige being a child and naive, and then he went into a soliloquy about how Paige came in in 2019 and was pushed from the start
Starting point is 02:16:31 and given the ball to run with, even though MJF has always been better. And then they built up to a big exchange where MJF said, name one thing you do better than me. And Page's response was, I am real. Okay, we phrased it in a form of a question.
Starting point is 02:16:57 and that's a great statement and it was in a fake tone by the way but it's not the answer name one thing you do better than me the answer is not I am real that's not a thing I do but this comes on the heels of announcing that someone died a warrior's death
Starting point is 02:17:13 yes and then they had a long face off where they got an even smaller cowboy shit chant and then MJF finished up with I've got no problem being the bad guy but it was just back of so, so long. Then they took their jackets off and threatened to fight,
Starting point is 02:17:33 but security came out, but they couldn't touch each other. MJF spit in Paige's face and ran off, and so Paige started beating up security until Chris Daniels returned from the grave and came out looking chipper and stopped him. And then the fans were chanting Fallen Angel louder than they'd and chanting cowboy shit. And then Daniels gave Paige
Starting point is 02:18:00 a pep talk. You're better than this. He's not who you are. And by the time they walked off, like you said, we were 20 minutes into this thing. It's just on and on. They feel like they have to, it was a, not counting commercials, they talked the length of a 30 minute sitcom.
Starting point is 02:18:22 And it, I thought they were going to go Broadway. You know what? That's what they ought to do sometime. Just have a two-hour interview segment. We have standby matches. We didn't know this. We keep going. It keeps going. We'll be back.
Starting point is 02:18:37 But anyway, Ted, talk me down off the ledge. I wish I could. The length was probably the single biggest issue because the length caused a whole lot of superfluous stuff to be thrown in this. then it just it was all over the place the reasoning was all over the place whatever this is was all over the place hangman who
Starting point is 02:19:04 completely seems like a you don't even want to say a gimmick because he's not like interesting like a gimmick but he doesn't seem real and then he says I am real in a fake way who thought this was a good idea that's what gets me is who was this a compromise
Starting point is 02:19:21 did they ask him what he wants to to do when he said, I want to talk like this? Who thought any of that was a good idea? You know, I think they also have a problem where MJF, specifically, I don't know about Adam Page, MJF's usually responsible for one of the better quarters, if he's in a quarter, on a show. I can understand maybe wanting him to take up the entire quarter so that it would do that, but this went forever.
Starting point is 02:19:49 Like I said, I thought it was going to go Broadway. by 15 minutes in, I didn't know when this was going to end. And then it finally ended and they went to a really, really, really, really long match right after it. But I want to be excited to see these two wrestle. It's coming on the heels of all this.
Starting point is 02:20:08 Where did Jeff Jarrett go? Is he gone? Did they just remove him from all of this? I don't know, but I think you hit on something there, though. I want to see Paige and MJF wrestle. I want to see him wrestle more now. if they will wrestle instead of talking again. Can we make that trade?
Starting point is 02:20:26 Don't let Page talk anymore. And I saw Jeff this morning. What? I had a glass of milk. See, yeah, see now you've got to be a certain age. You know, I'm not a fan of Jeff Jarrett, you know that. But I'm always honest about his good matches or good things. That would kind of suck if his last thing on national TV was that really bad promo.
Starting point is 02:20:53 There has to be some, I'm sure they're going to do something with them. They couldn't. Well, yeah, they announced this big year he's going to have to prove himself. It's not even the end of February. We have to see him again, don't we? They were moving from TV before the end of February. I don't know. Well, back to Dynamite, a wonderful show on Dynamite.
Starting point is 02:21:18 Let's talk about who was there. Yeah, they didn't have a long match right after they, went to the Grand Slam package. So you can see how glorious the program was that lost 75% of its audience over the course of the two hours. And then they went to Christian, Nick Plain, and Pip Sabian against the team of Samoa Joe, Hook, and Shippoopee, who are now known as the ops, O-P-P-S. The ops.
Starting point is 02:21:49 who has a special forces operation background here? This is another shooting group since the Blackpool Combat Club did so good. Samoa Joe is back in the ring on television and is bereft as they are in this company of any major talent for the world title picture or the top singles. spots and he's having six mans involving Shepoopi and Pip Sabian among others. Did you watch this because I didn't? I didn't.
Starting point is 02:22:33 It was a combination of my boredom with the patriarchy and Samoa Joe. It's like a bad A team, you know? We take this man, we put him with a kid and a man with no brain or a removed brain. His brain was returned and now he's with Joe. Whatever the fuck it is.
Starting point is 02:22:50 It's just, it's, they have all these. Return to cinder, brain unknown. They have all these factions, and now they got to the point where they just throw anyone together and put a stupid name on it, like the conglomeration, which was basically, who's not booked? Put them together. Now you're a group. Samoa Joe has value on his own.
Starting point is 02:23:12 Whatever Hook's value is, you got to work on that. And again, you got, and you need stars now and you need to develop stars. but this this ain't gonna cause hooker Shabbata to become stars so Shamoa Joe Shamoa Joe should be he's a Shmo Joe. Joe Schmoe sponsors Shamoa Joe he should be using a lot better. What happened to the Joe Shmoe show? There was two episodes and I've not seen it again. They moved it to another time slot.
Starting point is 02:23:40 So people would see the first five minutes of it, I guess. And Renee Moxley-Good was in the back with Chris Jericho. now he's not doing the silly voice. It's still a silly promo, but he's not doing the silly voice now because now he says he's not getting the respect for the size of star that he is and he threatened to have Renee Moxley Good
Starting point is 02:24:07 thrown out of the arena and was kind of pissed off. Bandito beat him in the Australian Grand Slam match or whatever in the Ring of Honor portion. so now Bandito gets a title shot at the Ring of Honor title on collision against Jericho. That was boy howdy. And then he got bleeped for saying, I'm Chris fucking Jericho. But they bleeped Jericho because nobody wants to hear a word like that.
Starting point is 02:24:37 Is he dropping this thing now? Thank God that he's buried everybody involved in it with the high guys. Is he getting back to being just a pissy whiny, bitchy type of thing? fellow. I think, you know, you joke about MJF, you want to talk about someone who really wants people's approval. I think it's bothered Chris Jericho when people criticize some of the stuff that he personally liked that was terrible. And I think the number of people that are doing that are more now than ever before that are at least paying attention to what he's doing. Not too many AEW fans like this Learning Tree shit. Even with the Observer fans, didn't it win,
Starting point is 02:25:14 did it win worst gimmick? Was that what, I think that's what won worst gimmick. Did it win or just place highly? I don't want to be incorrect. I'm not sure, but the point is there isn't an audience for it. No one wants to see it. Chris Jericho needs a run where he's serious and not someone pretending to be serious. I just don't know if that's going to come out of this.
Starting point is 02:25:37 I'd like to put the Jericho team in a feud with the Death Riders and just let them kind of ride that out on collision. That'd be my personal pick. matter versus anti-matter. Well, speaking of... But Jericho's a non-entity right now, and I think everyone kind of knows that, and he's paid as a much bigger star than he currently is,
Starting point is 02:25:57 and he had a lot of value early on, but he's a non-entity, and most people don't want to see him anymore. But otherwise, everything's cool. There's still time. There's still time. He's only 57 or whatever. Here is...
Starting point is 02:26:17 what I couldn't watch this match, but I couldn't turn away from the idea that they did it. Powerhouse Hobbs versus Big Bill. Hobbs again, but time is ticking now. It's running out. He's had money written all over him since he was a rookie, but he's never been booked, trained, brought along, coached or managed, developed, as Gary Hart would say, he's been in and out. and putting stupid positions, made to do stupid things, made to look like an idiot. Big Bill, I don't think, has the upside that Hobbs has, but he's got a lot more upside than most of these Yehus, definitely what they stuck in the main event on this program. And so they put him in it, what did they even call it?
Starting point is 02:27:10 Another, anything goes, street fight, no DQ, no count out, shove a deal. up your ass fucking match so they could go out there and do garbage wrestling like all the other indie fucks that look like somebody that ought to be bagging your groceries or changing your oil and these guys look like something and they're treated like this it offended me as a goddamn professional maybe do this shit with people who can't do anything else that's what it's therefore. That's what garbage hardcore wrestling is, a way for people who have no talent to still participate. The entranceway had a shopping cart with a street sign in it and junk because Tony liked ECW when he was in the basement of his mansion when he was 14. And they had tables
Starting point is 02:28:10 wrapped in barbed wire. And they immediately went to the floor and fought up into the stand so they walk, fight back to the ringside area and use a trash can and a monkey wrench and the chairs and taking bumps on the stair steps and Hobbs bleeding. And then Brian Keith runs in so they can throw him through a table. And then Hobbs hit Big Bill with a backpack full of bricks to get even for when Big Bill hit Hobbs with a backpack full of bricks. and they fought on the stage and right at nine o'clock, Hobbs tried to choke slam Big Bill off the stairs sitting on the stage
Starting point is 02:28:57 through two tables on the floor that were wrapped in barbed wire. But Big Bill didn't jump. I think he saw that he was going to fucking overshoot the thing anyway, but regardless, instead of the chokeslam, Hobbs just shoved him off and he cleared one table completely and broke the second one and hit the fucking floor and knocked a shit out of him. And referee Aubrey Ed
Starting point is 02:29:23 counted him out and awarded the match to Hobb, which was apropos she was refereeing for this horseshit. And I will finish with this, the same bad indie outlaw, fake-looking bullshit that the pretend indie wrestlers do
Starting point is 02:29:42 because they don't have any talent. but it ruins guys like this that could be stars. It gives them bad habits. It makes them look like fake idiots like the rest of these knuckleheads. It's just endless repetitive horseshit that makes neither guy stand out. And invariably, while they're taking a chance at getting hurt, the things they're trying to do look phony because they're also trying not to kill each other if they can help it.
Starting point is 02:30:12 your thoughts young Brian last oh i don't know how much i could really add to that it's kind of a weird mid-card feud in the middle of a bigger thing that's played out mostly on collision so why not have a street fight on dynamite and uh hopefully everyone moves on from here return to your homes there's nothing more to see here do you think it's almost time brian that either Big Bill or Hobbs or both just go ahead and fold it up on the wrestling business and start a new business, get a new career, start planning for the future when they can't fall off the stage through barbed wire tables anymore. I mean, I guess they could start considering that.
Starting point is 02:30:59 You always want to think about the future, and it's always good to have different revenue streams, I would agree with that. You got to have something to fall back on, because when Tony Kahn's stream turns into him pissing on your head, you need to be able to go home. home and still make some money, still bring home the bacon, still put the chicken in and fried up in the pan. I'm getting hungry. Folks, if you'd like to start a restaurant or any other kind of business where you sell things that people would like to buy, whether it be cooked animals that were formerly alive but have now been nullified, or whether it's just a product
Starting point is 02:31:35 that maybe you make with your own two hands or I don't know, sometimes I've heard that people sell their farts bottled up in glass bottles on the end. internet. I don't know, but I've heard the price is going up. Whatever you want to sell, the people at Shopify can help you find your customers because they have the number one checkout on the planet. And after all, you want people shopping, but more importantly, you want people paying. Because if they just come in and carry stuff off, you're not going to be in business too long. And if you're an online business, then they're going to theoretically have to just come to your house and just start boxing shit up and carrying it out.
Starting point is 02:32:14 And you might not want that to happen. So Shopify will send people to your front door to stand watch and make sure that people don't come in your house and carry off all your merchandise. They're going to pay for this shit, by God, if they get it. Because that's the Shopify way, right, Brian? Exactly what, I don't know if I could say right. I mean, I agree that Shopify is great and they can help you, but based on what you just said what exactly am I saying right to? Well, you're just agreeing with me because everybody
Starting point is 02:32:44 knows that Shopify is the not only the home of the number one checkout on the planet, but also they boost conversions up to 50%. They keep carts from going abandoned. They feed and clothe them and find them new homes. And if you're into growing your business, your commerce platform, better be ready to sell wherever your customers are, whether it's on the web, in your store, in their various feeds of social consciousness, everywhere in between, you want to hear that sound. That sound means you're making money. And businesses that sell more sell on Shopify, they can take your ideas and concepts,
Starting point is 02:33:25 and they can build the whole thing out until you're just ubiquitous across the planet from Maine to Spain on a Choo Choo Train or Bolivia to bang cock, if you're going to bang a cock, let Shopify help you bang it. Upgrade your business right now. What does that mean? You get the same can. Well, that means money.
Starting point is 02:33:48 No, no, no, you know what, don't. I was asking facetiously. Don't say, don't answer that. Don't just keep it. It means, have you priced the banging of cock like you? I think we're talking about chickens. And don't be a chicken. Set up your business.
Starting point is 02:34:01 spectacularly so that you have a wonderful harvest once all those eggs come in with Shopify. Yes, and you'll rule the roost with your cock. Upgrade your business. Sign up for a $1 a month trial period right now at Shopify.com slash JCE. That's all lowercase now. Make sure you do that.
Starting point is 02:34:24 Elsewise, there's going to be some terrible punitive action taken against you. Shopify.com slash JCE. upgrade your selling today, get a great platform, a wonderful checkouts, and they'll take any kind of money or trades, barters, sometimes in the agricultural state, they'll take beans and corn and trade and then convert it to American currency. They won't do that. Shopify being they will not be doing that. You could do that on your own and then set up your business with Shopify. Well, yeah, you can sell the corn and the beans then.
Starting point is 02:34:59 See? See it to be double dipping. Shopify.com slash JCE because that's where you know you're going to make some money, honey. Well, what in the world is going on in the Arcadian Vanguard Network
Starting point is 02:35:20 programming this week? All right, right in the middle of the dynamite review. Hello, everyone at AEW. How are you today? This week on the Arcadian Vanguard podcast network, of course, listen to The Wrestling News. Each and every day, get your wrestling news devoid of opinion. Nothing but facts, no clickbait, no paywall, just the wrestling news, wherever you find your favorite podcast, or of course, directly from thewessingnews.com. Want to make mention of shut up and wrestle with Brian Solomon.
Starting point is 02:35:49 A look at Jim Londis. Hear it today at suavewpod.com. And, of course, look for the show wherever you find your favorite podcast. and stick to wrestling with John McAdam continue their look 40 years back 1985 in the WWF McAdampod.com wherever you find your favorite podcast
Starting point is 02:36:07 stick to wrestling with John McAdam of course we're on Twitter at Super Podcast Facebook Facebook.com slash Arcadian Vanguard and the 605 Super Podcast The Mothership All right there was a scream back there but I go through the archive
Starting point is 02:36:26 605 pod dot I really felt that one 605podcom available wherever you find your favorite podcasts, the 605 Super Podcasts, and thank you to everyone as we're listening to all the shows on Arcadian Vanguard. The Mother Ship, baby. By the way, is that like,
Starting point is 02:36:44 is the Arcadian Vanguard like some other things in Ontario, devoid in Ontario? You said they were devoid of opinion. No, we have, we, the wrestling news is devoid of opinion, the broadcast that is only facts, and we actually have a very strong presence in our Ontario. Thank you very much. So it's better to be devoid than just void?
Starting point is 02:37:05 Depends on what you believe in. Depends on devoid. You could be a voidoid or you could be D-E-V-O. All right. Well, we are Devo. I can't watch the Tony Storm promo. This is just ridiculous. It's just ridiculous. Tell me it's not just ridiculous. I'm It's one of those things that we complained about early on in AEW. I'll say that we complained because that's what it was. And even before AEW, the thing that gets over, what do we call it, the ironic wrestling fan? Yes.
Starting point is 02:37:45 The fan that wants to feel like they're in on the thing. Something. Again, we saw what the ratings were for her match, for the title match, where she won the title. But what did you think of this? Well, that's what I'm saying. I just, I'm sitting there listening to her talk like that. I just, I just, I hit the button.
Starting point is 02:38:03 I can't. I'm sorry. It's just ridiculous. All of this stuff is like, you know, kids in drama school somewhere or an acting school or some kind of school trying to audition for different shit. You got to the first she has amnesia. Now she's back to doing the fucking takeoff on Gloria Swanson and Sunset Boulevard or whatever the fuck's going on. and I just I don't I'm not interested I don't get silliness to me and if if that audience likes it unfortunately they'll do more of it and that's why they've got 500,000 people watching it
Starting point is 02:38:44 and no more because that's the only amount of people who's not going to go what the fuck is this silly shit so that was what I thought about the Tony Storm in ring promo with the return of Luther Oh, and that fat fuck. Jesus Christ, has anybody ever leached more money off of the wrestling business than just in five years of AEW with Brandon Cutlet, that Michael Nakazawa that they finally got rid of, and Luther? Just because he's friends with Jericho, just because somebody's friends with somebody, they get jobs for six figures to wander around. stink the join out.
Starting point is 02:39:28 Did they get rid of Nakazawa? Well, he hadn't been on TV. I'm sure, you know, he might still be up Kenny's crack. He was Kenny's assistant. Wasn't that his real job? What does Kenny need an assist with? Well, he could have used an assist with making the video game. But apparently that wasn't the Nakazawa's specialties.
Starting point is 02:39:48 Apparently, at Nakazawa, all of his specialties involved baby oil. We've come to that conclusion from watching television. Let's slide on into the next segment. Sliding on into the next segment, Renee is back there with Willow, who's mad at the boar horseman because of what Marina Schaefer did. So Marina Schaefer comes in
Starting point is 02:40:11 and beats the shit out of Willow with the briefcase. And then they walk out into the arena with Wheely and Claudio, and Dick the Boozer starts cutting that promo on edge. and life in general. And again, he's twitching, he's snorting, he's making weird movements that one would imagine
Starting point is 02:40:38 he is attempting to make you in the course of his character presentation believed that he's goddamn tweaking out on some kind of fucking homemade meth. That's the vibe I'm getting. He's reverted back. He's reverted back. If you remember,
Starting point is 02:40:56 when he first came in, he wore the vest, and he would kind of do the Bez from Happy Monday's shoulders, moving walk thing. He's doing all that stuff again, the funny walk, the vest, the screaming and foaming at the mouth over nothing. He's reverting back, even though he's in this other group,
Starting point is 02:41:16 he's reverting back to what he was at the start. I don't mean that as some deep thing. I just mean, it sucks like it sucked back then. We are Devo. He's going back. backwards into shit that isn't any good. But speaking of shit that isn't any good, as he cuts this promo on edge,
Starting point is 02:41:37 then music plays and here comes light switch Jay White. And he's going to come out and have something to say about this. But remember now that the four heels are in the ring, but there's another one. Pack is with this group every once in a while when he bothers to fly into the country. so pack is walking out behind j white like he never noticed he was there he's only 10 feet behind him and then edge is music the only guy never wearing clothes well yeah you know you could see him a mile
Starting point is 02:42:12 away because he don't want to cover that physique up that's the only thing he's got going for him and then edge's music plays and they the promo that moxley had just done was like at edge isn't even here tonight. So now they play Edge's music and Edge appears in the ring behind Moxley and they get in a fight. And then the baby faces actually for once
Starting point is 02:42:37 beat up the fucking heels in this cave. The Boer Horseman were actually on the losing end of this thing. And then Edge pulled out a bat with spikes sticking out of the end of it. I mean hundreds of spikes
Starting point is 02:42:53 and I swear to God, I almost could see him flapping in the fucking breeze when he'd swing it like they were rubber. But he's, go ahead. Remember last week because you didn't see it? Remember I told you on Dynamite that Edge and Jay White kidnapped the,
Starting point is 02:43:09 well, the kidnapped. They stole the briefcase with the belt and they got it in the ring. And their attempt to break it open was to swing that thing, which they pulled out from under the ring, to break it open as if that would ever happen. but that's where we first saw that apparently
Starting point is 02:43:25 I thought it was a throwback to WWE and we heard from people that said we've never seen that before ever no they wouldn't have that on the WWE television to begin with and this thing looked ridiculous and besides that they're horrible criminals because you can't break into a metal briefcase by smashing it flat you have to pry it open
Starting point is 02:43:45 you're going the other way but nevertheless he's swinging his thing at Moxley and Moxley is ducking and so Edge can hit the steps or the ring post or whatever and Moxley ran off but the fans didn't care. It was mild amusement. It's fake as fuck. Fake as fuck. And it's just ridiculous visually. It's like trying to get somebody mad by showing him a fucking silent Keystone copse comedy. It's just fucking slapstick. And then Edge cut the promo in the crowd with the fans around him on Moxley and said, he's going to take out the Boer Horseman one by one until he gets to Moxley.
Starting point is 02:44:34 So they're doing that again where he's going to, but is this the young, exciting new baby face that they're grooming to conquer the Boer Horseman? Edge is 53 years old He's the only one that they're selling for What is happening here, Brian? That was one of my thoughts too. This can't all be done to give Edge the rub. Now, Edge has been choked out by Moxley multiple times,
Starting point is 02:45:07 including as they finished in the tag match last week in Australia. Based on Tony's booking and classic booking, you would almost think he has to win the belt from Moxley at the pay-per-view. I told you my fears about Christian cashing in. But again, he shouldn't be the guy. If you've been doing all this and spending all this time with John Moxley, it has to be someone to get that win where the rub from whatever that means will last a long time
Starting point is 02:45:33 and help someone, not someone who's ridiculous out of nowhere, not like a Wheeler Yuta, not a Daniel Garcia, not an Orange Cassidy, but it should be used to help someone get elevated. and it doesn't, you know, right now, who's that going to be? But anyway, we move on. Dynamite rolls on because a lot of people were talking about this.
Starting point is 02:45:59 Even Uncle Dave had to make mention of it and how really just horribly awkward it looked. And I don't know who was confused at what, but I... One thing Uncle Dave hasn't done is presided over a wrestling school. I have. I can't believe that this happened with people that had been in any type of, any type of wrestling training situation more than three or four months. And I'm still grasping for a solution.
Starting point is 02:46:37 There was a match between Megan Bain and Chris Statlander. And now, poor Stadlander, she was the big girl that had all the promise and potential once she moved from Alpha Centauri, Alpha Centauri, Alpha Centauri back to the planet Earth. But now they found, well, you know, it's a long way off. But they found this wildebeest, Megan Bain that's three inches taller than Statlander. It has a tan and bigger boobs. And so now I guess Megan is the new toy and Statlander had to put her over. but nevertheless
Starting point is 02:47:16 Megan Bain won and Penelope Pitstop is apparently affiliated with Megan Bain and she helped out in this victory because they're the heels and then they start beating up Statlander getting heat
Starting point is 02:47:32 after the match and Thunder Rosa comes running out to make the save with a chair and slides in the ring and draws back and not only did the heels not run, but Penelope Pitstop did not hide behind the big girl, Megan Bain, because now they're trying to recreate the Mercedes Moon
Starting point is 02:47:56 and Camille dynamic with Megan Bain and Penelope. We'll see if they can get it right this time, off to a rocky start. Penelope stands in front of the big bodyguard girl and says, come on, Do something about it to Thunder Rosa who's standing there with a chair. So Thunder Rosa is trying to like advance on them without doing it because they're not backing up. And there's the awkwardness of that. And then Rosa draws back the chair and starts to swing at Megan Bain who doesn't move a muscle. And Thunder Rosa has to pull up and not do it.
Starting point is 02:48:38 now she's deader than four o'clock, flatter than a plate full of piss. And the fucking, the heels are just laughing at her. And the referee has to get in between them and is like telling the heels, you go that way and he's trying to help hold Rosa back so she doesn't get any more buried than she already was.
Starting point is 02:49:00 It would be hard to. You'd come out the other side of the earth. And I couldn't figure out what the fuck at one point Penelope grabbed the chair and they had a tug of war she was trying to take it away and rosa wouldn't let go of it and then finally when the heels got out of the ring and were walking down the entranceway not that far away it's under rosa threw the chair at them and i i wrote was there a fight in the locker room about this afterwards that hadn't been publicized or are the two heels just this fucking stupid or Or was this a personal issue where they decided to, you know,
Starting point is 02:49:44 basically start a fucking fight? I can't believe there wasn't one, a real one on national television. There is no explanation if they knew. They, I'm trying to figure. There's nothing, because even if she was going to do a run-in without the chair, they would have left the ring or something. It was almost like they either didn't expect her to do a run-in and therefore didn't react to it,
Starting point is 02:50:14 or they decided they weren't going to react to whatever Thunder Rosa did. Well, but not even because, okay, let's say that in the finish, they were supposed to just get heat, and suddenly Tony from Gorilla said Thunder Rosa run in. Here comes a baby face with a chair, and she's fucking drawn it back. You've got to back up, even if the bodyguard you know, shouldn't back up, then me and Big Bubba.
Starting point is 02:50:40 Dusty comes in with a chair, I would grab Bubba, and I would pull him out because I'm in control of him. Penelope could pull her big bodyguard out to live or fight another day. But that's if they're, are they just making finishes up now? You said they knew she was going to run in, but maybe didn't know she'd have a chair. If somebody suggested that she run in alone against the two heels, one the big newcomer, the first thing, if I was the baby face, I would have said was I need to bring
Starting point is 02:51:09 something, like a chair. So if they knew the run-in was coming and they knew she was going to have a chair, did they not walk through the rest of it? Like, we need to get to, that's the first thing I learned when I got in a wrestling business. If you are the heel and the baby face is hitting the ring to make a save, if you don't get out of the way, it's your fucking fault. What happens? And in those days the baby faces were trying to catch you because they wanted to fucking not look like idiots and it looked like they were doing something and get a fucking pop. So you had to really fucking exit quickly.
Starting point is 02:51:49 And there's no... And again, if they knew she was coming, they knew she was coming with a chair and they were supposed to bail and she didn't, then she should have hit him because that's the second thing I learned. if you're coming into the goddamn ring and the fucking heels don't move hit the motherfuckers because then you
Starting point is 02:52:12 you end up like Thunder Rosa you look like a complete fucking befucking phone where was Statlander she was selling she was she was safe she was out of it she couldn't get any on her she's probably looking up going on what the fuck but that's there is no explanation
Starting point is 02:52:29 and that Rosa didn't just go ahead and hit these two with the chair is stunning. That's what would have happened in any other era. She ran out there with so much enthusiasm with the chair. And then she had a standoff where she had a chair and they had their faces. Yes. Didn't move. And they're just laughing at her. And then I'm not saying that somebody would have hauled off with a killer blow the first time,
Starting point is 02:52:57 although many people would have, but at the very least, you would have got one working shot that you had the opportunity to sell before the second one came and you were going to sell that, regardless, unless you were ready to fight and take the chair away from the motherfucker.
Starting point is 02:53:12 But none of that happened because they're so goddamn lost out there anyway these days. They don't know what to fucking do. And if, I'm sorry, but if Thunder Rosa didn't go back and punch Penelope in a fucking face, even Megan, I might,
Starting point is 02:53:27 could understand she's the big girl. Penelope, if she didn't punch her, then I have no respect for Thunder Rosa. Because that's the same thing as pissing on somebody in front of their fucking family. And you keep saying her bodyguard, did they establish that? Because this is the first time I saw Megan Bain with Melisie.
Starting point is 02:53:43 That's what it was looking like. What else would be? You think fucking Penelope's going to fight Megan Bain's battles? You know, so the whole thing, it just, it was it was odd because they should have known what was going to happen. They did the exact opposite of anything they should have done with what was happening in front of them.
Starting point is 02:54:08 And then we didn't hear about a big goddamn fight and cussing match taking place afterwards. So are these girls smart enough to know when they're supposed to be offended? I don't fucking know. Well, we'll see what we hear. But that was a very interesting, awkward segment. And then speaking of awkward, I don't know about interesting, Rikisha did a promo in the ring. And he's stolen Prince Nana's robe from the embassy and he's wearing the robe.
Starting point is 02:54:41 And he was the biggest heel so far on the show with the crowd there live, but I'm not sure it's because it wasn't really a great heel promo. I think people just don't fucking like him. But then Nana came out. And for once, they let Nana speak and they explained something. He came out and he said, I told Swerve to stay home so that you and I could speak one-on-one ricochet.
Starting point is 02:55:09 Now, of course, that doesn't explain necessarily why he told Swerve to stay home because Nana's O for life amongst people one-on-one when he's interacting physically with any other person. But nevertheless, he told the story, the robe doesn't belong to Rickache. The robe below. Nana finally got to put himself over. And he did a pretty decent promo
Starting point is 02:55:33 about how much the robe meant to him and what it meant and what it stood for and who could wear the robe and the honor it bestowed on him. And Rickashay doesn't deserve it. And Nana says, give the robe back. Remounded me of put the candle back. Give the robe back.
Starting point is 02:55:53 And Rickashay said, I think you need to take it. And then he just basically told Nana, you're not getting this robe back. And then he turned her out and left with the robe. So. And he made his little noise too. Yeah, yeah. So that matter is solved. Nana ain't getting the robe back.
Starting point is 02:56:22 End the story. Move on. But again, what, I mean, it was a good promo, but the idea that it ended with, do the right thing and give this back. Do the right thing, Mr. Stab, everyone in the head with scissors, and give me back my clothing. How did they think this would go? But it's like the ending, it shouldn't, you're not getting this rope back unless you take it from me. Let Nana try to take it.
Starting point is 02:56:50 Let give him one and a half things. things of offense on surprise and then let Rickashay get some heat on him and then let swear be mad and come back to get even about it. But they said, no, fuck you. I'm going to walk right out of here with your shit. You ain't going to do goddamn nothing about it, even though you're a grown man. Fuck you. And he left with the rope.
Starting point is 02:57:14 And then we went to the main event and this won't take long and we'll get to the ratings because the main event, it's back. It's back just when we thought it was safe. to watch television. The company mascot is back. Our little puppy pockets wrestled Roderick Strong in the main event of a show that's been losing viewers
Starting point is 02:57:37 like the Titanic was taking on water over the last few months and they thought it'd be a good idea to put this fucking clown. Roddy and Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilly were baby faces three weeks ago and now Roddy is wrestling this fucking idiot who's allegedly a baby face also.
Starting point is 02:57:56 and it started at 15 minutes till 10 and still ran over. And of course, I'm not going to try to seriously critique a match involving Pockets, which would be like trying to do a scholarly dissertation of a fucking cat's shit. But at one minute after, just so they could say they ran over, pockets quote unquote hit Roderick Strong with a Superman punch that didn't come within a foot of him. And there was no doubt. It was the hard camera shot right there.
Starting point is 02:58:34 It was a sideways angle. There wasn't no mistaken that it's just so fake and silly and stupid. He's clownish indie jackoffs that get featured on this program in this middle of this mayhem. One, two, three, beat Roderick Strong. And then Chavani comes in the ring to interview the cretness little fucking weasel. But here comes Don Fowless out with Take a Shit and what's his name? Mark Davis, Kyle Davis, Sammy Davis.
Starting point is 02:59:12 What is Mark Davis? Mark Davis. And they jumped on pockets and got some really brief, sorry, bad, phony looking heat. And then here came Kenny. Kenny came out and he made a save but then they stopped him and got some fake looking heat on him but then the baby faces made it come back again
Starting point is 02:59:35 and the heels rolled out and stood in the entrance way 10 feet away from them and nothing else happened and five minutes later, five minutes of the overrun, five minutes after the hour they were off the air. Why would you, again, you're struggling to keep the viewers that you're getting and you put that on last to tell people, okay, it's all, you know, 20 minutes, fuck it. I'm done.
Starting point is 03:00:06 Hey, also, listen, Kenny Omega, one of their bigger stars, surprise appearance. Why wouldn't you have him do something to build up and announce to your fans? Because he could save a fucking string bean that's lucky that he could get a job parking cars at a wrestling event. He'd come out and save his ass. Well, that was dynamite. And good news, you know, we said that it'll probably be any day now that Pockets returns. Tony's, Tony likes to cycle people in and out. I'm sure Jungle Jack and the Bucks will be back any time now.
Starting point is 03:00:43 Yeah, they'll be back on their cycle. But Jim, do you want to talk ratings? Sure I do. What, did anybody watch this journey through hysteria? This journey through hysteria, otherwise known as AEW Dynamite on TBS, Wednesday, February 19th, 2020. 8 to 10.05 p.m. According to Russellnomics, 563,000 viewers on average. Ouch, they've been up around 600
Starting point is 03:01:12 the past two or three weeks, right? Well, actually, this is down 3% from last week, which was 579. The trailing four-week average is 611. So 8% of that. That's right. Last week was below 6 because the previous couple of weeks had been 6. Now, this is even worse. There was like a 604, a 6, 6%. So 5 and then this week. And so they're going
Starting point is 03:01:35 in a southerly direction with these numbers. Once again, a note, this does not include Max viewership, which I'm sure is in the millions. So wait a so, instead of 563,000,
Starting point is 03:01:47 it's 563,386. Well, Jim, let's go to the quarterly breakdown. These were compiled by WrestleManiaomics. Quarter one, 8 to 8.15 p.m. The MJF.
Starting point is 03:02:00 Adam Page Live confrontation, 664,000 viewers. Ooh, okay, they're in lies a bit of a tail. That's much lower than they've been starting with traditionally until recent times, and still not a really good opening number. So the good news is they can't lose 75% of their audience like they did on collision. That's right, and I'll just say it here too. Every single quarter appears to be off the time. trend line of 90 days, so everything appears to be a little lower than that. Quarter 2,
Starting point is 03:02:35 815, 8.30 p.m. The continuation of MJF and Adam Page. Now with Christopher Daniels. A recap, an ad break, the Undisputed Kingdom backstage promo. We didn't even talk about that. Is Adam Cole on the gas? His arms all of a sudden have some size. Did you notice that? I honestly, I think I was trying to get some distance between me and MGF and page, and I overlooked it. Next time you see him in a promo backstage where he's like from the waist up, look at his arms because when you see him a ring side, he just looks like a little guy running around.
Starting point is 03:03:09 But quarter to that and then the beginning of the patriarchy versus the ops, 565,000 viewers. So automatically 100,000 go away, but now we're down. We're down to the faithful. They can't make their average and lose very much more through the course of the program, but they're already under 600,000 people in the second quarter. Well, we're going out of quarter three, the continuation of the patriarchy versus the ops for mate 30 to 845,
Starting point is 03:03:43 with picture and picture, and an ad break, 554,000 viewers. Yeah, so they're down 11,000. Now it's going to just kind of trickle. we go now at a quarter 4, 845 to 9 p.m., the Chris Jericho backstage promo, and the street fight with Big Bill versus Powerhouse Hobbs with picture and picture, 589,000 viewers.
Starting point is 03:04:12 Okay, so they picked up a 35,000. That's unusual to actually gain in the middle of the program. And because I don't... I just, because I don't want to attribute that to Jericho in a 90-second backstage interview, but maybe there's still some interest in Hobbs. And that's something to just point out because the key demo, the previous segment,
Starting point is 03:04:35 212,000 viewers, Hobbs versus Big Bill, 248. So that's the only match. That's almost the entire difference. Yeah, I think that's the only match that picked up any number in the key demo at all. And then after it, it goes to 222. But we go now to the big 9 o'clock hour, 9 to 9.15 p.m. quarter five.
Starting point is 03:04:56 Lance Archer and Brian Cage's backstage promo, Tony Storm's live promo, an ad break, the ridiculous Willow Nightingale getting attacked by Marita Schaeffir segment, then the Death Riders Cope J. White live angle, 548,000 viewers. Good Lord, so with the world champion of this popsicle stand, involved in all this shit and the top of the at 9 o'clock hour
Starting point is 03:05:24 and they lose 41,000 people and that's the lowest quarter yet. Well, we go now to quarter six, 915 and 9.30 p.m. The Cope Live promo in the crowd, the Mercedes Monet backstage promo, and the start of Megan Bain versus Chris Stathlander or picture in picture,
Starting point is 03:05:43 566,000 viewers. Good Lord, the girls' match picked up 18,000 people from the world champion. Hey, you know, we spent so much time talking about the Funda Rosa angle of it. Beyond that, Megan Bain stands out. She's got size, she's got a look, she's got a demeanor.
Starting point is 03:06:05 You know, I don't know if she could do a 20-minute match or anything, but... There's something there to build on if you knew how to build. Yeah, compared to a lot of the other women that just pop up in AEW, Mo Mo Mo Mo, whatever her name was, sitting at ringside. But Mo Moji and Connor. She stands out. So again, I don't know about what happened with the Thunder Rosa thing, but back to this.
Starting point is 03:06:28 We gave that number, 56. Quarter 7.9.30 to 9.45 p.m. The postmatch with Penelope 4, Thunder Rosa, and Thunder Rosa. Max Casters at a separate segment. Max Caster promo, the Rickashay Prince Nana confrontation, and an ad break. 547,000 viewers. And they lost everything they picked up in quarter six plus 1,000 more people. Now they're down to 547.
Starting point is 03:06:59 And we go to the main event, the big return of Orange Cassidy, the man who we've been told for so long, is one of their biggest stars that he does great in the ratings, the key demo. Quarter eight, I remind you, we have a five-minute overrun. Roderick Strong v. Orange Cassidy, 9.45 to 10 p.m. with picture and picture. 507,000
Starting point is 03:07:19 viewers drops under 200 for the key demo at 196. Five-minute overrun, 467. Oh, Jesus. So they not only managed to lose 40,000 more people in regulation for putting this buggy-whipped
Starting point is 03:07:34 armed embecile on television, but they lost another 40,000 for a total of 80,000 from the time that they first saw the guy, until the end of the finish of his match and the overrun. And they still, they only started with 664,000 people
Starting point is 03:07:55 and managed to finish by losing almost 200,000. 197 to be exact. Well, there's always next week. Not always. At some point, the meteor hits the fucking planet and everything is sent out of orbit. Yeah. Can this continue where next year at this time we're talking about,
Starting point is 03:08:25 wow, they actually cracked 500,000 and got more than that, but they finished up with 300,000? Because last year they were starting with 8 and 900 and finishing with 6 and 700. Now they're starting with 6 and 700 and finishing with 4 and 500. how low can you go? I think there's a trend line for the last few years, and you would have to believe they're going to be in the 400s regularly within the next 18 months. I'm still dying for somebody to tell us whether there's a performance clause in their big multi-hundred million dollar contract that says that if 14 people and somebody committed to a state home are the only audience for this program, we don't have to pay you $100 million.
Starting point is 03:09:17 $100 million anymore. I still want to hear from someone that they're at a deal memo, that they actually have a finished signed deal. But who knows? Well, you know what? We've got a finished program. Yeah. I think we have addressed all the topics that need to be addressed until
Starting point is 03:09:36 we've reversed places now. We're recording the experience when we used to record the drive-thru and vice versa. I don't know how to keep track. I will sign off this program for now. we'll be back in a few days with the drive-through and next week with the experience. We're going to talk about the pay-per-view, who gets eliminated and all that other stuff.
Starting point is 03:09:55 But until then, thank you, fuck you, and bye-bye, everybody.

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