Jim Cornette Experience - Episode 584: Men's Wearhouse

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

This week on the Experience, Jim talks about John Laurinaitis flipping on Vince McMahon, Meltzer star ratings for Double Or Nothing, Paul Heyman, the early days of wrestling on tv, ratings, and more! Plus Jim reviews AEW Dynamite & Dark Side Of The Ring's Muhammad Hassan episode! Thanks to our episode sponsors: RAYCON: Go to buyraycon.com/jce to get 15% off sitewide! SHOPIFY:  Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com/jce Follow Jim and Brian on Twitter: @TheJimCornette @GreatBrianLast Join Jim Cornette's College Of Wrestling Knowledge on Patreon to access the archives & more! https://www.patreon.com/Cornette Subscribe to the Official Jim Cornette channel on YouTube! http://www.youtube.com/c/OfficialJimCornette Visit Jim's official site at www.JimCornette.com for merch, live dates, commentaries and more! You can listen to Brian on the 6:05 Superpodcast at 605pod.com or wherever you find your favorite podcasts!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Like the midnight and the rock and roll. He's in a fight for wrestling soul using a racket and some mind control. He's in Kornet. The keys to the future. Hell by Nets. Here's to the neck breakers. We're going to cover this week's blooper reel from both of the big boy companies. Plus Johnny Ace makes a run at the Stoge Hall of Fame and so much more.

And joining me, Hawaiian Brian the podcasting Lion, the King of the Arcadian Bangard Podcast Network, Mr. Co-host to you, he ranks right up there with arthritis and polio as one of the three great cripplers. Be great, Brian Last, everybody. Aloha, Jim. A pleasure to be here once again for another fantastic week of wrestling talk. Again, another week where I'm really excited to hear what you're going to say about a variety of things. Oh, my God. I, you know, I actually am too, because I don't, I don't know what to say. we've just been talking about this and it's like on last week's programs, everybody in wrestling listened to our programs and said,

let's do the exact opposite of what they've been saying and just really try to break each other's necks. But I'm happy today, Brian. It's another rainy day here in Louisville and poured rain again this morning. Pored rain. Yeah, poured rain. and then it's going to rain a little bit more today and then it's not going to rain for three or four days

until it pours rain again. But I'm still happy. You know why? You're getting out of showbiz? No, unfortunately. I'm still booked on the Keith circuit through Peoria into champagne, but no, because Cornett's collectibles is caught up. I do not have the, you know, it is a burden, Brian.

It's a burden to take people's money and then owe them stuff that's got to be done correctly. Everything has to be personalized and autographed and autographed and autographized and done to order. This isn't a McDonald's of merchandise here. This is cooked to order for everybody, baby. And I've finally caught up. Everything through May 28th is shipping out this week to the fine folks if you don't have it already. Because this was like the last 200 packages or whatever.

but anyway, I feel a feeling of relief and exhilaration. All right. I guess you're sitting over there just puny as fun. It wasn't exactly a question, but is your show, you've got to take us in a direction. Well, I've got to take a breath every now and end. You're going to just play the organ while I've read. No, but if you want to order something from

Jimcornet.com, the t-shirts, the action figures, the books, the certificates of the cold. of Cornett membership, et cetera, you can order with impunity. But if I could ever, if I could ever stop autograph for this merchandise, Brian, I'd have time to make more merchandise. Is this what they call a catch-22? I guess so. I guess that would be.

Or maybe not. We got some cool stuff planned for the summer and the fall. A few people will stop spending money and buying this stuff. Then I'll make more of it. That doesn't seem right, does it? again, this is your show, your business concepts. Well, you know, corny coins still could make a comeback at some point. But yeah, we do have some cool stuff planned,

not only the vintage stuff, but stuff, something that I'm trying to get the time to put together, it's going to be wonderful for all the boys and girls out there. All the boys and girls out there can get into their parents' wallets and take all those pieces of paper out that are colored green and send them in, and I'll send them these fine things. Speaking of sending in green things,

I plug again, the WHAs crusade for children is June 7th and 8th, and I've been too disorganized to do a fundraiser this year because I didn't plan it and have time to execute it. But I am sending $2,500 on behalf of everybody into Colt to Cornette, and if you can figure out a way to give anything, it doesn't have to be that, obviously. WHA's Crusade for Children, just look it up, and you will see the various ways they can,

they take anything these days. You can actually, Brian, if you want to make a plon crusade weekend, when the telethon is going on, if you just call them and say, I want to give you money, they'll send a cab to pick it up. It's fucking amazing.

Or you can obviously do it all electronically now from the moon like all the kids do, but still the good old-fashioned entrepreneurialism of we're going to raise money we'll send a fucking cab to get your goddamn money that always tickled me I think it used to be it had to be $20 or more I think now it's 50 bucks they put a limit on it

but got to gas is expensive anyhow it's local television at its finest I'm telling you and before we talk some more television, I got an email from our friend Pork Shop Jack. And it tickled me that nobody actually has asked this question, or maybe I, because I don't live on the internet. This actually, I say nobody's asked the question. He's asking the question because he got on Reddit where there

was a discussion about this. So I guess somebody has asked the question. But he said, with the news of obviously Sabu passed away and they had a go-fund me, you know, set up by the family to help cover funeral costs, et cetera. That's what he's referencing here. And he said he found out that that was happening on Reddit where it sparked a discussion about how the lives of ECW wrestlers have largely turned out when compared to that of Paul Heyman, who is still featured prominently on WW television and no doubt making very good money. This shine a new spotlight on all the times.

Heyman is screwed over wrestlers with people bringing up such instances as Chris Candido and Tammy Sitch losing their house when they weren't reimbursed for charging company expenses to their credit cards. Remember that's when he put them in charge of travel and they had like $60,000 worth of some ridiculous amount of plane tickets on their credit cards and couldn't make their house payment, ruin their credit. or not paying talents on time, et cetera, and then using their contracts to threaten them when some, like Saboo and Mike Awesome, attempted to go elsewhere. So my question is, is Paul Heyman the luckiest person in wrestling history?

I can't recall him ever experiencing a comeuppance for anything he ever did and to still be thriving today on WWTV when many of the ECW originals are broke, broken down, or dead. granted the environment and style of wrestling was not conducive to longevity or mainstream success, but it's morbidly fascinating to see how Paul has lasted this long and has remained, to my eye, unscathed by his past actions.

Well, Jack, except for what Mother Nature has done to him. But otherwise, because Jack says, Tommy Dreamer wanted to assassinate him at WrestleMania, for goodness sake. How lucky is Paul? Has he ever experienced a consequence at all whatsoever in his life? Which would have been a fate worse than watching Tommy's booking. What do you think about this question? I mean, there's a lot there. I don't think he's the luckiest.

I think he's, in terms of self-preservation and survival, the smartest or one of the smartest ever. Yeah. Without question. I think he is today where he probably wanted to be 40, years ago, 50 years ago, he's there now. Is he a different person? In terms of to screwing people over, there were a lot of stories back in the day. Even before then, I mean, just the Heyman is a liar thing didn't start with

the downfall of ECW. Well, no, and to be honest, because I was there concurrently, as the kids say, for the evolution, the metamorphosis of this, at first, they were all entertaining stories that captivated you, even though you could kind of, if you were with it, tell that there was much bullshadow. But then he got better at it, and he got around people that didn't know it quite so good, and it, yeah, there you go. But go ahead. You know, he cost a lot of people, a lot of money. He let a lot of people on. People would catch him in lies, and he would be very charming and talk his way out of things. You know, typically, I think if you didn't talk to Paul you probably got mad. If you got him on the phone or he got you on the phone, he would probably

try to smooth things over in his own way and then a lot of you again. Yeah, yes. Well, that was part of the charm. Have you heard of him screwing anyone over or anything since he's CW? Because, you know, see, that's the thing, is he a changed person. He's an older guy now. He's gone through a lot of things. He's had children. They're grown. You know, is he a different guy today? I mean, he's still. Well, yes. Well, yes. And also, he's much better at it because he still continued to get better at And now his, what I was going to say overall of the whole thing is when he's not in charge of the money and or making the final decisions of the business, then that's where, you know, his heat past that is minimal in the overall scheme of things, right? So, no, since ECW, he has not had to be that person and has had to have had. more of a chance for his positives to come through than his potential negatives.

And it wouldn't even have, everybody said Paul was a rotten businessman, businessman, without even trying to be a rotten business. He couldn't hit deadlines and he wasn't organized for the sponsors or the pay-per-view commitments for blah, blah, blah, things like that. So, and, I mean, people can, he spent a lot of money in the sake of art or promised a lot of people money toward the end in the sake of art which some of that could be said of me also

but I didn't go crazy with it and think I was going to conquer the world so as long as he's not in those elements of responsibility Paul hadn't he's still still I mean

I'm not there now in the finish meetings but or the creative sessions but I would think there's an element of performative aspect of and those to people to sway their opinion to what might be wanted of them or whatever. But I think the main thing now that Paul, as you mentioned on the biography of him, was he performs as himself. And he creates this world and this, you know, aura and this whatever.

And he's able to apply his talent at bullshittery, except instead of the 20-something-year-old psycho yuppie, telling a Jack Nicholson story from the China club. He's now the Alfred Hitchcock of wrestling sitting back and analyzing things in a calm fashion. But it's all performance. And I don't even mean that in a bad way because I'm a fan of his work. But like that's, you know, you hear people every now and then say, oh, imagine if Paul Heyman had a podcast.

Paul Heyman's a really good podcast guest if you can get him. He wouldn't be a good host because too much of him in the performance mode, which is all you would ever get, it would burn out the audience quick. He used to say that he was going to, like if he hadn't started ECW, or started ECW, went to ECW and started doing things,

he was going to compete against Howard Stern in New York. Like, no, he wasn't. No, he wasn't. Well, and that's, but see, that's part of the charm of, you know, Jack Nicholson said he'd back him up. I mean, that kind of thing, we kind of got used to it because we saw it from the start, but other people, as he got better,

and other people were removed from the situation a little bit and just heard it from him. They thought, oh, these things are great. But Paul is, Paul is not, Paul's not naturally, Paul can tell a funny story, but Paul's not naturally funny. He's better dramatic. He's not going to do stand-up comedy. He's going to tell captivating stories and create characters and things,

but he's not going to fucking, you know, shit all over the fucking heckler, boom, boom, boom. But in terms of the question, in terms of the career span, again, he's one of the ultimate survivors. I have one of the fattest files in the correspondence files I have is the Paul Heyman one.

Now, did you mean to do that? I'm being serious. I'm not even, everything we'd use about girth. Well, I'm just saying, hey, a lot of people are in favor girth. What I'm saying is, this file is pretty fat.

Fuck, I can't say it. You see, you're such a dick. I don't even know who I'm defending or what I'm defending. You're defending that fat dick. But you see the way he was at a young age corresponding with Norm Kiteser. And you could tell even that, I mean, it was all performance. You know, we here at Wrestling Press International.

I mean, just all this. You know, it was all performance. And, you know, again, it's lying. But it's lying like the same way David Geffen lie. when he told them, you know, when he was working in the mailroom and he just, you know, stole the letter from the college saying he didn't go there. You know, he lied to give himself a career and give himself a chance, and he went from being a teenage kid shooting ringside at the garden

to working for small indie promotions in the Northeast, doing everything from interviews to the programs, doing a studio 54 thing, which is all... Oh, good for me. Remember, he took over the editorship of a couple of floundering magazines to, you know, again to do his thing. He was the editor of the wrestling news, I believe, maybe for a brief period of time. I got to go through. Everybody had a chance at that at one point in time in those dark years.

Who got away with more when you think about it, in terms of the tantrums, both privately, like the Flair one, which got out publicly because he had a lot of public. I mean, who exposed the business more on the radio before Paul and Eddie Gilbert? You know, and that's the thing. They were hand in hand for so long. Look, maybe, you know, and I'm not justifying anything that he did that fucked up people's lives in ECW, but maybe the Paul Heyman from 93 to 2001 running ECW with a crazy lifestyle. Maybe that's a different guy than he is today,

not to say that he's not completely full of shit. And you'll never get to see the real Paul Heyman. It'll never be out there. It'll always be just this performance and it's incredibly entertaining. Well, what exactly was the question? Is he the ultimate survive? What was the question? Well, has he ever experienced a consequence at all?

And of course, everybody's had the ups and downs. And of course, I think we worked out. He's been fired more than me from various places. But the overall thing is I got to tickle out of the email because it's like, is Paul Heyman the luckiest. of wrestling in history. I never looked at it that way, but Jerry Lawler broke his jaw.

There's a consequence. Jerry Lawler broke his jaw. Well, I was about to say, Lawler, you know, tag you're it. And, but Paul has had his ups and downs, obviously, and he went out of business and the bankruptcy and all that, blah, but nobody's actually, besides Lawler, now that you bring it up,

besides, Tommy didn't actually hop the rail and, you know, engage in. organized mayhem. But the thing about the guys, okay, so he went out of business. I can sympathize more with the fact that he owed guys money when he went out of business

than the state that some of them ended up in later because of the, we've been talking about this, it's topical. The fucking shit they were doing and you see the Sabu highlights that he's flying through the end of barbed wire and the fucking and throwing people over the top into the crowd,

not only the risk of lawsuits from actual collateral damage from citizens, civilians, you know, in those things, but the guys coming very close like they still are today because of some of this shit to breaking their fucking necks, or actually not coming close. How many broken necks were in ECW? Brian, you're not only a mathematical savant, but also a wrestling historian.

I mean, one of the Pit Bulls and Sabu... Sabu, one of the pit bulls, Taz? I mean, they have to be more than that. Those are the three early ones. Those are from the early days, the three I remember. Yeah, point being that we came up with three broken necks. Because they all happened on TV. Sabu got thrown in the air by Benoit landed right on his head.

Yeah. Pit bull, I think, I did DDT and just landed right on his head. And then Taz, I want to say it was like a stuffed pile of. driver or something and he just went and he landed right on his head right on his head well but the point is you know in his dream of trying to run a wrestling promotion if everybody if he went out of business and owed people money that's what that's happened uh but to have fostered the environment for that many years of well let's just fucking kill ourselves in the process of this that's where i've always had the problem that's what we were talking about

about last week. That's where somebody ought to step up. They already have stepped up in the WWE and told some people not to do some things. And apparently they need to step up and tell Pinta a thing or two. But AEW, nobody's controlling anything or trying to that we have heard. And, you know, that's the thing. Because Paul, I've said before. And I love his talent.

and he is one of the classic carry he's the jackfeffer of modern wrestling he's a classic character but he wasn't doing any of that shit he wasn't falling into the barbed wire or diving over the fucking deals and you know yes again i've i've called guys do a drop kick in the finish i couldn't do a fucking drop kick but it's i've always looked at it as if you are the booker promoters can be different. They can not give a shit. But if you're the booker, you wouldn't ask guys to do something that you either haven't done or wouldn't do in concept if you had the jumping ability or whatever, right? Try to not ask somebody to fucking kill themselves if you're not going to be out there doing some of the same kind of similar shit. And Paul wasn't doing any of that, but he didn't

bring the guys by even for the good of his business. Because in 1990 fucking eight or whatever it was when they were trying to be big, but they weren't yet and whatever, couldn't he just slow down a little bit? We don't have to do this every week because we have to be here hopefully in two or three years with everybody with their head on their shoulders, not figuratively, literally. I think his concern was less about people. getting hurt and more about people jumping to

WWE or specifically WCW? Well, God, if I was being asked to fucking set myself on fire and dive into barbed wire every time I went to work, I might jump to competing fucking package shipping office or whatever

to anything. Get me out of here. He had him convinced that with the Paul E. speech is that they were a movement and they were a revolution and it was it changed the business they didn't make any money out of it and we still can't get rid of it and the guys are still trying to break their neck if you know and that's

yeah i was thinking while i was thinking about this brian i was thinking while i was thinking about it did i ever tell you the only time that i as a booker in smoky mountain wrestling or when I was on the creative committee and happened to see anything in WCW or Ring of Honor or OVW, whatever the fuck. The one time that I can think of that I stopped a match as a Booker because I thought somebody was fucked up and nobody was going to stop it but me. Do you know, have I told you that or do you remember when that was? Oh, I don't know.

Is this another one of those Russ McCullough stories? No, Smoggy Mountain Wrestling. I brought the moon dogs in. Larry Latham and folks, if you know, look up the moon dogs is all I can tell you. Don't stop now. Who was the other guy? Well, hold on.

I'm going to tell you here in a second. But for the kids who might not have even heard of the moon dogs, look up the moon dogs, 80s, WWF, but they basically were over in the Memphis territory and in Tennessee from the 83 run they had with the fabulous ones all the fucking bloodbass and the wild ass shit it was larry latham and randy spotting wrecks the moon dogs and then they you made some money with it in the w wf but then in the early 90s larry latham and a couple different partners had come back in memphis and did a program with jerry lawler and

and Jeff Jarrett and the wild ass matches and the trash cans and the chairs and it revitalized their business because somewhat not for the standard of the time they were doing well. But it was like bringing... It was pre-ECW actually when you think about it because that memph of those tapes were going around and the Moondog stuff

with Richard E. Lee and just a variety of moon dogs and it was wild stuff. Two befores and whatever. But it was like bringing the Sheik in, but the Sheik was too old. So now we've got another gimmick. It was the gimmick. And they were the ones doing it. And the baby faces only had to do it when they worked with the Moondogs.

And that was part of the deal. And it got attention. And you couldn't do it too long. But anyway, so the point is, 83 at Memphis, draw money with the fabs. They go to the WWF. The name gets out of blah, blah, blah. but Larry Latham was from God damn, somewhere in Arkansas

near, like West Memphis or somewhere in Arkansas near Memphis and he lived there and they had had the early 90s run as I said with Lawler and Jeff was in 93 I think he called me. I don't remember calling him but he was pitching the idea of the moon dogs. I said Larry you got a partner.

He said, well his kid, I can't remember what his kid's name was. I broke this kid in he can do the gimmick. I said, well, I think I said, I can give you all, you know, 300 bucks a shot for the team, which now it's, you know, like $900,000 or $1,000 today. But he said, I says, I says, well, now you just give me the 300 and I'll, I'll take care of him.

It's okay. So I bring him in to have a program with the Rock and Roll Express, classic monsters against my baby faces, and then had the moon dogs against Ron and Don Harris, the Bruce brothers, because now you got the baby face monsters against the heel monsters. And, you know, and then it was time for them to go. But when I first brought them in to television,

point I'm going to make, their deal is they jumped the job guys, and they beat the shit out of them, and they hit them with chairs, and they, I'm blowing the whistle, I'm their manager, and, you know, everybody's seen that drill that's seen the moon dogs. And I booked them against guys that they could just beat up. And, you know, you're working with the moon dogs. So it's kind of like in the 80s, working with Road Warriors.

You know what's going to happen. But there had been this one guy in Morristown, Tennessee, that every time of this convenience store that was on the way out of town when we went to the Kentucky towns, he'd been wanting to, he'd been working outlaw and wanted to get booked. And every time I saw him, he wanted to get. booked. And finally I called him, I said, well, work with the moon dogs on TV.

Okay. So I figure at least this will discourage him if nothing else. But they're having to match him. Brian Hillbram, Mark Curtis is the referee. It's the TV match. One of their, I can't remember if it was the first one they'd done or one of the first ones. And I think Brian's trying to control the shit in the ring and Larry's got this guy out on the,

on the floor of the high school gym that we're shooting a TV in. and Larry Latham picks up a steel chair just the same kind that you get at Home Depot, no padding, no nothing. And this guy was on his knees in front of him, and he just raised it up and hit him as hard over the fucking head as I've ever seen. I don't even know how to explain to you the sound or the force or the way it looked or just the guy crumpled.

And I said, well, shit, he's killed him. and I'm waving at Brian, I said, ring the bell. Brian turns around. Brian says, so what? I said, ring the bells. Just stop it. Just stop it. He's dead.

He's killed him out. I don't. Because Brian, I think, was still trying not to see all the chairs and shit so we wouldn't decue it or whatever. And he just could bring the bell. And then they still, the boondogs are still beating these guys up. I don't think that first guy was up yet. but they want to do more shit

and I'm blowing the whistle for real it's over we're out of time we've got to go we're in break and I finally try to get them to settle down and because I'm sure I've seen this fucking guy has got brained and we're going to have called ambulance here

in a minute and I can't remember I said maybe even had to go to the desk and do a promo first right or whatever but as soon as we got back in the fucking locker room I said, where's that fucking guy? And there he was and he came up to me.

He said, did I do okay, Mr. Cordette? Do you think you could use me again next month? Oh, my God damn, I never want to see you again. Oh. To fuck. Why are you going to blame him? No, I said, get out of the business. Consider yourself lucky.

No, there was no way he was ever going to. May he any money in a wrestling business. and, you know, Jesus Christ. But I stopped the match that I was in as Booker because I thought, well, no, that's too much. We can't believe.

We've gone too far, damn it. And I just, I don't know. Sure, I'll finally give you a shot. Against a moon dog. What did you think was going to happen? Well, now there's a line that needs to be cross. I thought he'd get I thought he'd get a good indoctrination into job guy,

and I didn't know he was going to get fucking brain damage. Now, it was hard to tell from before or after with this fellow if he suffered any ill effects in that department, but I didn't want to fucking hasten his goddamn decline. But then, see, this will remember, this was years before ECW, ECW also. So when I saw the chair shots at poor old Boo Bradley, Balls Mahoney was taken. And then, you know,

but anyway, that's what I'm saying is. Sometimes you got to, I'll tell you another one now that I've just thought of it. To be honest with you, did I tell you what I called an ambulance on somebody? In the middle of a match? As Booker, yes.

No, I don't know. I hate no laugh because I don't know where it's going to go, but no, I don't know this story. I was in the goddamn match again. But I was also the book. and spoke you about wrestling. We had, I think it was one of the fire on the mountains in Johnson City, Tennessee at Freedom Hall.

And it was the 10-man rage in the cage where it was Bullet Bob Armstrong, the Rock and Roll Express, and two of Bob's sons, which I'm thinking were Scott and Steve. And it was my guys, the bodies were in it. I'm trying to think who else my heels were,

and me, right? and you go in, war games rules where you go in one to time from each team and finally you're all in and the blah, blah, blah. And, of course, I'm going to be the last one in because I'm scared. But anyway, what I didn't know until we had the match laid out, and the match was going perfectly according to Hoyle, but what I didn't know, because I was doing promos or whatever earlier in the day, it didn't just sit there and stare at everybody's conversation,

But Riggie Morton and one of the Armstrong boys out of Scott or Steve were having a debate on, because they were both going to get juice in the cage match, right? But they were having a debate on the best method of the blading process. And one of them was favoring once across lightly. That was the Armstrong while Ricky Morton was favoring to stick it in and turn. and I don't know if they actually got goddamn, you know, heated over it or whatever, puts a match is going along and all of a sudden, boom. You know, Armstrong has got his juice and there's, you know, things are going on,

just fine, and boom, Ricky gets his and God damn, Ricky Morton starts fucking bleeding like Tommy Rich after a three-day bender in the Omni or something. And I'm like, fuck. the matches going on. You know, they've got Ricky down and he sells, he sells like Ricky Morton. Have you ever heard that, Brian, that Riggie Morton sells like Riggie Morton? I've not heard that, no.

So you don't know whether he's fucking dying or not, to begin with, even if he's not looking like he's ready to pass out from blood loss. And finally, and Sandy Scott, I'm still at ringside, right? You know, maybe one of the other heels waiting to go in. Sandy Scott comes up behind me and says, is he all right? I said, I'm not sure. Why don't you call an ambulance just in case?

It's like we're having this conference while all the people are screaming his cage matches going on. So Sandy goes back in the back and uses one of the pay phones, call a fucking ambulance. So there's a man losing blood. I can't think.

What did he say? He can't. he can't say because you know what the thing is it's number one if it's not needed we don't want to have to pay for it but also he can't say one of the wrestlers in the match is bleeding too badly but it hadn't been stopped or whatever the but he just says there's one of the wrestlers is losing blood he hangs uh did he call 911 well he called whoever you could call an ambulance and just Johnson City, Tennessee in 1990. On a pay phone? Yeah, 911 emergency. There's a wrestler losing blood.

Wrestler and Freedom Hall's losing blood. We need an ambulance. So then he walks back past me and he nods like I've called him, right? And Riggies hanging over the ropes and I mean, he's goddamn drenched. It looks like somebody's turned a bucket of red paint over his head. And finally my time is coming. I get in there. and obviously I'm trying to stay away from bullet Bob,

but in some way or another, the situation is not dire for me now where I can go over and get on top of Ricky Morton and I get on him. Are you all right? He said, yeah, I'm fine, Jimmy. He said, get on me. I said, well, what's the for you? God damn, going to bleed out?

No, it's okay. So then I start beating on him. And then we finished the match. Obviously, they beat me in some, fashion in the end. And then we get to the back, well, now the back of the fucking ambulance is pulling up.

And of course, Ricky's selling in the locker room, on the way to the locker room. And as he gets in the locker room, he's looking at the ambulance over there. He's kind of covered his head up and then the towel we've got for his blood. But the ambulance people come in and there's Sandy

and they say, where's the emergency? Oh, what do you? Somebody call you guys? I see it. Well, they, one of the fans must have called. They see one of the wrestlers was bleeding, but he's all right. They must have called you guys from a pay phone or something. So we didn't have to pay for the ambulance.

But it looked, for a minute, it looked like it might be necessary, so we wanted to have the option. And was that too compassionate, a booker, a matchmaker? I don't know. I don't know about that. I don't know how many ones ever talking about. about your compassion as a booker or a matchbreaker.

Well, see more people ought to then. Anyhow, was this, were we talking about, were we talking about, were we talking about, I don't know. We originally kind of went from there, but just dangerous stuff and stuff that shouldn't be too dangerous. And when do you, when do the people in charge have a responsibility to not let people fucking do stupid shit that is not worth the goddamn risk

or just set up a pattern of doing stupid shit so that that becomes the norm and then the next people have to do stupid or shit to get the same reaction and then that's where we are at today after all of this. Yeah, now you know not to really react unless the referee looks really concerned. Unless the referee drops down quick

to get in the other person's face and go, are you alive? Oh, yeah. And then, you know, well, but at the same time, a lot of this shit fools the referees. Then they're going to start doing that every time too. Then they'll drop down to say, are you alive? Is anyone alive out there?

We'll talk more about the blooper reel when we get to the modern wrestling. But we got another email, Brian, and you sent me this. It was to the corny drive-thru at gmail.com address. But from our friend Adam Smith in East Yorkshire, England, who does the great research and where does he get these crazy toys? He's got like any historical event or, you know, just evolution of wrestling. He's got the goddamn, the poop on the thing. And did you even read it or did you just forward it to me?

Do you have any idea what I'm even speaking of now? I glimpsed through it and I said, you know what, let me send it to gym because if we're going to do it on the air, let's do it on the air. but this guy has sent over a few things and seems like he really does his research and knows his stuff. Well, yeah, this is five fucking pages or whatever that I printed out of this email, but

we will not read chapter and verse the whole thing, but it got me started because we've been talking about it's pertaining to early television. Remember a couple weeks ago on one of the programs we talked about in Memphis we found out in like 1949

when WMC went on the air, they were able to brought wrestling from across the street at the Ellis Auditorium because they actually ran extension cords across the fucking street. And the, you know, pioneer days and primitive days of television and then the early network broadcast. We've been talking about that on and off for ages and eons. Well, he's got all kinds of research that he's done.

And, Brad, I will hit you with a trivia question that I bet you will not know the answer or two, because I didn't until I looked it up specifically, do you know where the world's first TV station was located? The world's first TV station? Yes. My first guest would have been New York, Manhattan, but if you're asking me the question, that probably wouldn't be at Columbus, Ohio.

Well, no, and see, I don't know New York City metropolitan geography, so you could have been close, but the world's first TV station was inaugurated in 1928 at the General Electric Facility in Schenectady, New York. Now, where is that? That's, you know, outside of New York. I wouldn't necessarily consider that. But basically, they opened a TV station because they're inventing television. They had to have a TV station to try to broadcast television in order to fucking invent television,

right? So that was the front, 1928. They had electricity in Menlo Park for a reason. Yeah, they were. They had to be able to turn the lights on and see. And I knew this already from, you know, I'm a TV nut anyway and documentaries and everything. But actually, a lot of people talk about the beginning of television as 1948. Because your book, Primetime Network, TV,

listings or schedules, 1948 to present or whatever. The schedule book, yeah. That was when it exploded, when it ballooned exponentially. But there was actually television. World War II delayed commercial broadcast television in the United States

and therefore in the world by probably four or five years because a lot of the advancements they had made leading right up to the war they had to put on hold because they had other fish to fry and then came back and did the last, what, two or three years of finishing everything. But there were TV stations starting to go on the air, you know, even during the war. And the first one, which was in Schenectady, is also the first one that recorded wrestling for television.

according to Adams research. WRGB TV located on Washington Avenue in Schenectady, New York recorded wrestling for television on December 18th, 1942. That was the first time in the United States, it says,

here probably in the world. And when you think about it... And by the way, that's my... Albany. I just checked. I didn't even realize where it was. Well, and I mean, you know, General Electric happened to be there, their head. headquarters for television at least, for that type of thing. It would have been wherever their, you know,

manufacturing place was. But it wasn't because of the population. Nobody had a television set at that point, especially, you know, until after the war. But they were trying to figure out what can we do with this. And think about it. When you're trying to figure out whether you can broad, any video signal or not successfully, you're not going to try to cover football or fucking baseball or basketball.

Wrestling, we can stick it in a room with lights and it's there, 20 by 20 feet. So that was just, you know, experimental. But who was promoting it? Well, there was it, I don't even, it doesn't say here in this research that he sent, whether it was even promoted or not, or whether they just said, hey, let's try to shoot wrestling, as one of the things we're trying to shoot. And the book I have, I believe that would really be the network era

because what you're talking about in 1928, that's before there was a network system in place for, you know, ABC, well, eventually ABC, but CBS, NBC, Dumont, ABC. Right. Well, the network, this was 1942, was before the radio networks, existed. And that's why NBC and RCA Corporation were trying to lead the charge into television

because they were going to branch off into NBC. But point being, at that point, you know, they were broadcasting to nobody. And then at this point, then after the war, we've talked about the Chicago broadcasts, the first attempt at a regular broadcast of professional wrestling occurred in Chicago, July 1946. In association, WBKB, in association with the American Broadcasting Company, ABC, started showing the Wednesday night shows from the Rainbow Arena. They had tested it in July, and the result in broadcast was deemed to be of sufficient quality to be. To be, begin a regular broadcast. And the show was an instant

hit with the viewing audience, such as it was at that point. We'll get to that in a minute. But, so that's another reason Chicago was always mentioned and was always talked about in the television conversation.

They were there from the absolute start for the, you know, viewing public for mass consumption. And that was ABC. And then in 1947 in St. Louis, they got regular television service on February 8th, 1947 with KSD Channel 5. It was owned by the Pulitzer Group that owned the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. And it was announced that the debut broadcast for KSD TV on the 8th of February, 1947,

would contain 15 minutes of sports interviews hosted by program director Harold Grams. Among those interviewed would be St. Louis Cardinals catcher Joe Gargiola and Wild Bill Longson. Longson would be demonstrating wrestling holds on grams during the program. And everybody loved the segment. Longson demonstrated some armholes before hoisting the host into the airplane spin. and the St. Louis Post dispatch reported that it seemed to many as if Longson was going to hurl grams through the television screen and into the lapse of the audience.

But for our purposes, this appearance made Wild Bill Longson the very first professional wrestler ever to appear on television in the city of St. Louis. Wow. Of all the wrestlers. He was the guy. Yeah. Wow. But and also...

How quickly do you think Fez turned off his TV set? As a matter of fact, that station also did the first successful transmission of television pictures west of the Mississippi River took place on October 8, 1946, when that station made a test recording of a parade and apparently aired it, blah, blah, blah. But anyway, and one more. thing here. We've got to go all the way to the end because this is another discussion

because there's so much information here, but Los Angeles. We won't even get into the start of the television era in L.A. because we'll do that at another time. This is all so detailed, but Brian, do you remember

have you did Rock Rims? The book that he did on Southern California wrestling may have been where I've read this or wherever the case, but remember there was a revolt amongst the Southern California wrestlers late 40s, early 50s, because so many of the matches were being televised around the territory that the live gates were down and their payoffs were down and the promoters were keeping the money from the television. And there was efforts at strikes or talks of strikes and I think the TV union people got involved or whatever,

and the promoters had to kick something in. Do you remember where we might have read that, or do you know anything about that? I'm pretty sure Rock Rims would have covered that in the Southern California. He did a Northern California book and a Southern California book. If they're still available anywhere, I don't even know how you find Google. I think every once in a while he finds five or six

and he sends out an email. They're like, you know, goddamn Faberger eggs. But he did great research, and I believe that would be where you read. I can't think of what other book you would have read that story in. Well, but at any rate, the point was that they started, see, there's some element of truth in all of the old rules of thumb in wrestling that the modern era and generation sometimes scoffed at as, well, it wouldn't be, you know, be the same today. There was a reason why that they were rules of thumb because the shit that you didn't

want to happen had happened before with negative result, whether it be exposing the business in New York and a wrestling business in New York goes to the shits for 12 years, or in this case, the studio wrestling shows evolved as a ways for the promoters to use television as a tool of promotion to their live events where people had to buy tickets. but originally when there was no studio wrestling per se and we were you know

all in wrestling were figuring all this stuff out they just showed matches and in some places like Chicago they were able to control it and make a boom out of it and the matches

all came from the the smaller clubs, as they say, and you didn't get Thess and Rogers. I know it's out on YouTube now from the archives, but that was not the normal fare that you would get on TV, even in a network day, right? But where that you had put main events on television, it had killed live attendance at LiveGates

or where you showed the arena matches themselves. It really hurt live attendance at the LiveGates. That was a rule of thumb for a long time. which is why it developed that you didn't see main event matches on TV and you had studios to advertise the big shows. Listen to this statistic, Brian, and tell me what you think of it. Because remember a few weeks ago, and I think it was Adam's research,

talking about how Los Angeles wrestling had been on its ass during the war and then had gotten hot again with the new talent and the new book, and was doing just land office business right as television got started. 1948, 49, widespread commercial TV. Well, the opposite happened a few years later. It says wrestling matches from the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles were not broadcast from 1949 until December 1952. This somewhat protected the Olympic from the box office downturned seen across Southern California.

When broadcast resumed in December 1952, it immediately decimated the live gate. Comparing ticket sales and grosses shows the huge decline. Listen to this, Brian, Los Angeles, Olympic Auditorium is what we're talking about. Not any other towns or any other buildings. in 1952 they sold 221,979 tickets and gross $311,9666. Is this based on what they filed with the State Athletic Commission? What is this based on? Yes, yes.

Well, this is, yeah, this is the figures that they reported, obviously, down to the penny, it has to be for the tax. but yeah for 221,000 tickets sold $311,000 because tickets then 75 cents dollar dollar $0.25, whatever the fuck. 1953, 38,000 tickets sold and they grossed $36,000. It went from 221,000 tickets to $38,000.

Same amount of dates? And $311,000 to $36,000. How many dates different? What did they say it was weekly. The Olympic Auditorium in those years was weekly. So they went from averaging, what is it, 221,000

divided by 50, 4 to 5,000 people a week every, every show to fucking blah, blah. Blah. I'd like to know what Hollywood Legion was doing at the same period of time. Well, and see, that's the thing is that they were doing all kinds of Ocean Beach Arena.

I mean, it's a fascinating. It's a book story in itself. But in 1952, matches from Hollywood Legion Stadium broadcast on KTTV on Mondays, Long Beach, on Thursday, on Thursday, Ocean Park, KCLA Friday, workouts, KLAC on Sunday. Some of those survive. We've seen some of those L.A. wrestling workouts, which are an interesting thing, just commentary over guys, like baby faces,

just working through moves with each other. But that's, you know, again, that's the thing is that there was so much on television and the boys' payoffs were getting smaller. And then they had to do deals where they would rotate. They wouldn't show every match from the Valley Gardens Arena every week. They'd only do it once a month. But they had the Wilmington Bowl, the Valley Gardens Arena, Ocean Park Arena, Southgate Arena.

And at 1952, this doesn't count, that was the year of the Gilmore Field show with Thess and Leone. So they were so hot because they were still showing the smaller town stuff, but they didn't show the Olympic. and when they started airing the Olympic too, it just completely burnt everything out and what else people need to pay to see. Well, I think a lot of it too was the morphing of professional wrestling in different parts of the country,

but specifically here, L.A., to a television product, not just an event being filmed and put on TV with commentators and very often in L.A., they'd Dick Lane. The commentators were as big as the wrestlers in some places, especially in the early days, Jack Brickhouse,

by the guys who did wrestling. But L.A., if you think about, like, the boom, thinking about, like, the business in the early 60s, the Destroyer, Fred Blassie, you know, eventually the stuff they did with Tolis and Blassie, it was all about the promos. It was all, not all about the promos, but the promos were a big part of it.

The Destroyer's promos were a big part of it. And I think L.A., as time went on, became a perfect wrestling television show. Eventually they had the studio. show with Dick Lane. And then that went away and it just all became Gene LaBelle yelling on the mic at the Olympic. By the way, Dick Byer, I found a clipping

some stuff I was researching from 1957 with a rookie, or almost rookie, Dick Byer, six years before he would set the all-time television rating record in Japan, he was working with Pat Malone. that's just classic to me those those generations crossing i just found the program i'll say it now i won't save me forgets the program i have it over here somewhere i think it's 1937 Dayton ohio edie malone is that him yes that's him he may have been the light heavyweight champion of

england at that point that point the closest pat malone had been to england was fucking oklahoma at that juncture but he was the light heavyweight champion of england of much of 1937 was Eddie Malone. But point being, yes, there's these things as wrestling and television was starting to intersect and form the modern era of both, a lot of this shit, you know, led to trial and error and sometimes it helped business. And sometimes that's why some promoters until the late 50s said, we don't want that television. Sam Munchnik wouldn't do a television wrestling program in St. Louis,

except for the two-year period that a brewery actually sponsored it, footed the bill, and then they syndicated St. Louis wrestling on TV to like Carbondale, Illinois, and I think maybe somewhere near Evansville, whatever the fuck. But when the sponsor dropped out because they sold the brewery or whatever, he said, no, we're not going to do any more TV unless somebody pays for the whole thing. So through most of the 1950s until wrestling at the chase started,

they were doing those fucking houses in the Kiel Auditorium with newspaper publicity. You know when L.A. Every place was different. When did L.A. get their studio show? Because they had a studio wrestling show for a while. Well, dadgummit,

let me just check here with, with Adam, who knows all the answers. Oh, my God, there's a lot of, it's so dark because it's raining today. Because I wonder just how much success was attributed to the concept of studio wrestling nationwide. I don't know that he is going into the era that the studio show would have appeared, because this is still all the early 50s and the television contracts and et cetera. So we'll have to revisit that. You know, in the stuff out of Chicago, the wrestling as you like it,

which eventually became wrestling life, but there's a period of time, geez, off the top of my head, maybe 50 into 51, where the big thing on the cover was now with television listings. And it was focused towards wrestling fans who were also going to watch

all the wrestling that they were advertising in these Chicago programs, hear all the places you could watch it, and it was all about getting the television viewer, the early television viewer. and and it's so cool because they would also be kind enough to go through they would list the television schedule for like the three or four channels that was in Chicago at the time of Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, by day and time, the old TV listings that folks like us remember you kids, but they would put the wrestling shows in bold so you knew when to watch the wrestling show. That's right. but it was a selling point because again for the kids and we'll wrap this part of it up

and then we'll go to something that happened this week on TV that is a horse of a different color the reason why again that 1948 is most often given as the start of television is because that's when the basic nighttime scheduling of network TV programs began even though that was still confined to the northeast for the most part. There was no transcontinental coaxial cable in those days, and they had to ship film canisters on, you know, planes or whatever for a day or two later on the West Coast, but people started buying televisions. And Milton Burrell and the Texaco Star Theater, and everybody always says, Gorgeous George, but the wrestling phenomenon in general are the things that were mostly given credit for between 1948 and

1950 out of the kids can Google it. But television ownership in the United States increased more exponentially than almost any, I think faster than the internet did, faster than cell phones, faster than any, even the radio, any kind of modern technology from being in virtually like single digit percentage of people's homes to be in in fucking at least half of them if not more

and so that was why everybody went wrestling crazy and a lot of the shows that were popping up were radio shows you know Arthur Godfrey was big on radio before he was the biggest thing on television and there were lots of cereals whether it was Ozzie and Harriet or whatever you know, having Costello

there were lots of things that went from radio Amos and Andy. I mean, there were lots of things. Jack Benny. Yeah, there were lots of things, lots of people that were major radio hits. So when all of a sudden something or someone you've been listening to for a while

has a weekly, or in some cases a daily television show, that's a big selling point. And of course, they were simpler times back then, Brian. Yeah, how big was the screen? Hey, right? When I was a kid and my father's mother, my grandmother, I'm a father's mother. on my father's side had had some kind of surgery.

I don't know. I'm three, two, whatever, three, I don't know. But she had to come stay for a while, right, while she recuperated. And they fixed her up or bed in her room and everything. And she had brought, or they had brought her TV from home. Now, this was, say, 1964, maybe, right? And this TV's at least 10 years old. so that means it's from the early 50s.

I didn't have an appreciation for it at the time, but I remember just that it sat on the tabletop there and it looked cool and the rabbit ears. But the goddamn pit was black and white, obviously. And the screen was like 12 inches. And I'm like, even then we had bigger TVs, right? But that's what they were sitting there. That's another reason why football didn't just run away

with the goddamn ratings like wrestling and boxing because you're looking at black and white at a 12-inch screen of a shot of a fucking 100-yard goddamn field, what the fuck have you got there, right? But they could actually see wrestling. But gorgeous George and his sequence coming out there. Yeah. Popped off the screen.

And so that's what worked. Anyway, would you like to talk for a minute, Brian about what doesn't work or who doesn't work? Apparently Pinta doesn't work. He's shooting, isn't he? What in the T-total? I'm trying not to cuss within your time parameter for the YouTube clip. Son of a gun!

You pickle, you cumquot. Shut the front door. What the French toast. If I've killed enough time yet or not. Did you say French toast? I quit now. What the fuck was this guy doing? What the fuck?

Get back on Penta because we now we, what we do is we call it where we see it and we, or we call it how we see it. We call it where we find it or we, we piss on it whenever we feel like it. I don't know what I'm trying to say here. But we got to be fair because we're going to poop all over the parade of the AEW folks when we talk about how they almost assassinated the roster on

their show, we must give equal time, even though Penta kind of qualifies as both because he's an AEW veteran that is now in the company that is supposed to tell him how to slow down and not kill anybody. And we didn't watch, I didn't watch Raw, because got that last weekend, Smackdown was three hours, Saturday night's main event was two hours, Raw was three hours. the pay-per-view from AEW was four and a half days even if we'd watched it how why would we talk about all of it my God is there no fucking mercy in the world

but so I didn't see this clip for a couple days but have you now seen this this act that Pinta perpetrated on Raw the other night I watched Raw this week so I saw it when it happened and I saw it in real time and it looked bad in real time. And again, when you see the referee as fast as he can get to the ground

and get in the guy's face, you know that the referee saw it the same way you did. And it seemed like the commentators thought it was bad. It seemed like everyone thought it was bad until he just kept working. Well, and he tweeted a picture of himself at. Chad Gable is who we're talking about. Tweet a picture of himself out the next day

when it is like the front right of his forehead was bruised and matte scraped and purple. And lucky him because he could have done the whole, you know, Kurt Angle thing, otherwise, I broke on freaking neck. But we'll get to, there was debate on the interwebs of which was worse or more dangerous. And I'm trying to think myself, between what we're going to talk about, with what Adam Cole got put through on AEW and this thing. But let's explain this thing first.

Because I don't know, in a lot of ways, it's a tie. This was... And I brought this up to you. I mean, this comes on the heels of Jamie Hater and Mercedes-Money, and it looked at Jamie Hater almost got spiked, and you said something and I go, yeah, that's not even the first time or the only time this week, because I had already seen the gable spot.

Yeah, when Mercedes small package, Jamie Hater on top of her fugget head. But here is the... I don't know. I can explain what other people that hurt themselves this week were trying to do, and it just didn't quite work, right? I don't know what this was supposed to be. Because what had apparently happened,

they're having some multiple man match. And you remember Dragon Lee, he's the little fellow with the mask. Yeah, of course. As opposed to Penta, who's a medium-sized, fellow with the mask. Well, Penta wears a full body suit. It kind of looks like a, you know, the son of La Parcha. Yes. Well, he needs to park it for a minute. I think he needs some bench time to think about his career options. But the point being, they've gone into this three-way move they're going to do where Dragon Lee is on Penta's back like he's a backpack.

back. They're back to back, but Dragon Lee's feet are around and his toes are sitting on top of Pinta's thighs and he's held by Pinta's arms with a, like in a, whatever kind of position is that, Brian? I'm trying to explain it verbally, but he's on the guy's back. Well, meanwhile, they think it's a good idea that Chad Gable's going to come at the guy at Pinta and Penta is going to tug his Chad Gable's head between his legs and give Chad Gable a pile driver

while Dragon Lee is on his back. But what happened, obviously, was that he got him up into pile driver and then they all just fucking crumpled with dropping Chad Gable sideways, not even straight down sideways is worse, ladies and gentlemen. Sideways is always worse when dealing with necks,

necks and knees. He dropped Gable sideways on his head and face and then sat on him with the guy that was on his back kind of crumpling on his back and then rolling off. If they had executed the pile driver, what would it have still done to the guy on his back? he would have just landed on his knees with his head straight up in the air.

What was he supposed to do? Fucking sell his, oh, my knees. Do you see what I'm saying to you? It looks like one thing, but when you actually try to figure out what the concept is, it may not make sense. If Penta had given Gable a pile driver perfectly,

the guy on his back would have still just landed on his knees straight up in the fucking air. So what was he going to do? In this dipshit should have known that with the gown on his back hindering not only he's got the guy's weight on his thighs but also his arms are somewhat hindered.

He should be picking a guy for a pile driver when both these guys are about the same size he is. The fuck. But that was, I mean, he could have just broke his neck right there and, you know, that could have been it. But for what, I don't even know what they were trying to do that they could visualize that it was safe and at the same time look like a logical, sensible maneuver to do to people. Down goes Gable. If someone's going to get hurt, it's coming sooner. I mean, these guys are doing more and more of this kind of stuff where someone's head is going like so close to the mat, it just takes the wrong judgment. Even good workers like Owen Hart

did it to Steve Austin. You know, it could happen to the best, but some of these guys, it seems like some of this stuff is, that seemed like too much for no good reason in this match. And if he gotten hurt there, it really would have been too much. Well, and the thing is, as you said, it can happen, it can happen accidentally. When, you know, occasionally the rope used to break or the turnbuckle used to snap off and throw somebody off or whatever. Of course, they do wonderful ring maintenance these days for the most part. But there's always something that can happen and something that can go wrong or go sideways.

But when you're, again, when you're trying to set something like that up, it's so contrast. looking, they're going more for, oh, wouldn't this be cool if we could do this rather than would it make any sense for us to do this? And then they're obviously cooperating and at the same time doing something that either hurts them or just fucks up and you're like, why?

And it... Because the matches now are all about, getting ooze from the crowd. And even WWE has the thing that AEW has, which is, there's things happening in matches that may not always make sense. Maybe the outcome and the booking does, but

the matches are a lot of these guys just doing their things. And again, what if he had gotten hurt here? He's in the main event of that when worlds collide, it's not even a pay-per-view, YouTube special coming up. Well, but you know, you know what, this wasn't even, to me, this wasn't even like, oh, shit, he could have blown his knee, might have missed the YouTube's

special. This was, oh, shit. He could have broke his fucking neck. And, and I mean, again, there's, there's also, there's degrees of breaking the neck. I think I mentioned my cousin Larry, fell down the stairs trying to get to the garage, and I broke a vertebrae in his neck, so it's, or his back, rather. So he technically broke his back. You can break, you know, a vertebrae in your neck, and still, you know,

your head doesn't fall off, but you've got a broken neck, and that's not good, or you can go straight to, oh, gosh, I can't move any of my extremities level. When you're just from that shit, because Gable wasn't prepared for it, and he wasn't given the opportunity to prepare for it, because he didn't know that shit was going to happen that way. That's the majority of injuries, at least in the old days, I don't know about now or if somebody's tracking this.

But the majority of injuries that happened in the old days came from shit that you couldn't control and you didn't know was coming rather than the fuck up of a particular move that somebody just fucked up. It shouldn't have been going on to begin with. Did I make that point halfway clearly, Brian? Halfway, yeah. Halfway, almost all the way. But yeah, instead of trying contrived shit that went wrong that in hindsight, you should have known better to begin with, most injuries came from shit that just accidentally went awry, stuff that you would do over and over in repetition, but there was the one, the spot was slick, or the fucking guy was slick, or the fucking mark through beard my eyes.

go and fucking see the foot coming, whatever the fuck. It wasn't, well, we kind of figured we were going to get hurt. You know what I think they need, Brian? Over there, I think, you know what I think Penta needs? He needs a new way to make money. He needs a new opportunity to make money, get into business, possibly build himself an empire without having the opportunity to drop people on their head. masks. He should sell masks.

Yes, because if I drop people on their heads like that, I would want to cover my face in public too. Maybe that's why he wears the mask. Maybe that's why he wears the mask. So as he's walking down the street, people can't say, where's that son of a bitch and almost broke that guy's neck? I'll tell you what, folks, our friends at Shopify, they're not going to break your neck.

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slash JCE yeah all right Brian well I know before we go any further with the show here. We've got to cover what we cover every month, it seems like. Well, I guess it is every month. They do another one,

another pay-per-view from AEW, and then Uncle Dave chimes in and loves all over it because it was the greatest. He sounds like Nick Goolus. Nick Goolus every week. Goulis loved to be on TV, even though he was not a TV-friendly personality. and he had that accent and that droning on way of talking,

and he would do all the local promos for all of his towns, right? They'd come to TV station on Wednesday mornings, and he'd sit there at the desk with the big NWA logo, and Louisville Rassel and Fans Tuesday Night, US Store, for one of the biggest cards I've signed in many years, headlined by that Return Grud, Southern Junior Heavyweight Championship match between Jay Lala and the fabulous Jackie Fago. Get your tickets early.

It's going to be one of the all-time record-breaking crowds, every week. And Uncle Dave is doing the modern equivalent now by every month they have put on the greatest pay-per-view that has ever been put on in the history of wrestling pay-per-view. Whether they shit the bed,

set people on fire, it's all the greatest wrestling ever as long as his good friends are perpetrating it. And so we have new ones, right? Is what I was going to say. We have the double or nothing ones. These are from the June 2nd, 2025 issue of the Wrestling Observer newsletter.

But if I remember correctly, recent star ratings for AW pay-per-views have been a little more critical than they were in the past, or at least. Oh, yeah, he got all the way down to three, three stars for one of them. That was akin to blasphemy. Well, let's go to with star ratings here for AEW Double or Nothing. The first match from the pre-show, there's actually no star rating for it. Anna Jay and Harley Cameron beat Megan Bain and Penelope Ford

12 minutes 34 seconds. Well, boy, we've got another one of those to talk about here a little while, so maybe that's why he didn't give it any star. Here's what Dave wrote, actually. Jay was laying down on her chest, and Cameron smashed Ford's face into Jay's ass.

Bain did a German suplex on both at the same time, and Taz tried to make a remark about the country next to Germany, and Excalibur started listing countries that bordered Germany. What the fuck? There was a double superplex on Bain, and then Bain did a lariat on both. Cameron pinned forward with her Feel the Wrath finisher. The cameras also missed the finish. That review is a work of art.

Well, let's get to another pre-show match, Jim. Bandito, Yes. Hologram. Yes. Commander. Yes. And A.R. Fox.

Oh, yes. Defeated Tremperetta. Rocky Romero. Oh. Leo Rush. Oh. And Action And Dreddy. Oh.

13 minutes, 22 seconds. Four and a quarter stars. Oh, come on. I think he gave them a lot of those guys a four-star match on the previous pre-show. That's just they light up the crowd before people pay. Well, the the pre-show match involving

eight random people put together to do high spots for no apparent reason in an unadvertised situation is as good as flare and steamboat. Again, what... Well, we go now and that. the next match. This is now for the main card for double or nothing. Mercedes Monet

won the Owen Hart Tournament's Women's Final, the Owen Hart Tournament Women's Finals in English, over Jamie Hader, 21 minutes, 17 seconds, four and a half stars. Oh, Jesus Christ. Here's another quote about the match.

Well, wait a minute, do we take comfort? Do we take comfort in knowing, that at least that was only a half a star better than the fucking opening prelim match with nobodies or are we that no it wasn't it wasn't half a star better it was a quarter of a star better a quarter of us i'm sorry my math is wrong a quarter of a star better is there no if he went to a derby dinner playhouse production and all the actors in the play got the lines right and didn't forget anything,

would it still be like seeing the same thing on Broadway with the original cast? Isn't there something to be said about the art of while they're doing all these wonderful moves that they're jumping into each other's arms for? the selling and the aggression and the body language and the art of wrestling or are we now just judging on velocity of bump well let's continue on here the next match

FTR defeated Daniel Garcia and Nigel McGinnis 22 minutes 28 seconds four and a half stars and yes ladies and gentlemen FTR, a misused heel tag team, goes almost 25 minutes with an announcer who hasn't had but one match in 15 years. And who was his partner?

I've already forgotten. Daniel Garcia. And well, there you go. The ball of charisma. And the fucking walking case of amnesia. And that's better than anything that Undertaker and Kurt Angle ever did. Well, Jim, the next man. on the show. In a stretcher match,

ricochet defeated Mark Briscoe 15 minutes, 54 seconds, 4 and a half stars. This was the one they used the ring for 60 seconds for, right? That's right. And the rest of the time was spent in the back horsing around next to an ambulance. Not even the only match to use the ambulance. I mean, just incredible, the, literally the art, the artistry of Sean Michaels and Brett Hart and the drawing power of a Taco Bell fart.

Well, Jim, the next match, Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin defeated Dustin Rhodes and Sammy Gavara, 12 minutes 37 seconds, 3 and a half stars. Oh, now there, there's fighting word. he's dropped down below four, but the reality is, as we mentioned, is a TV match because they have no teams for the Hertz to wrestle. So that was actually somewhat more realistic.

I would, on the old realistic scale of things, I'd go three stars because nobody shit themselves and it was nice, but that's his way of showing well. You know, they didn't do enough fucking furniture work. Well, what do you know, Dave? Raids people. He rates people.

No, let's go move on here. Kizushka Okada defeated Mike Bailey 16 minutes, two seconds. Okay, hold on one second. You can't even tell me that as much as Uncle Dave likes the train chimpanzees and the Japanese legends that he gave this sorry, son of a bitch. And I'm talking about Okada. I'm talking about Okada. I don't know who you were talking about.

I can understand if old spitballs out there doing the high stepping like he's a member of the fucking Rockets chorus line. Well, that might tickled Dave. But certainly he has to see that Oblada is. slowed down to a chug here. That couldn't be four stars for him. It couldn't be. Four and a half stars.

Well, we go now. So that, again, I point out, is greater than almost every pay-per-view main event in history that happened before 10 years ago. Jim Tony Storm defeated Mina Shirakawa 15 minutes, 51 seconds, four-star match.

I got nothing. Is he rating you know extra for lesbian activity? I don't know. We'll find that if that affects the next match. Jim.

Kenny Omega. The lesbian activity or the rating? Kenny Omega, swerve Strickland, Samoa Joe, Katsuri Shabbata, Powerhouse Hobbs, and Willow Nightingale defeated John Moxley, Claudio Castignoli, Wheeler Yuda, the Young Bucks, and Marina Shafir, 35 minutes, 18 seconds.

Jesus. Five star match. So when it gets down to the meat of the matter, all the kids deciding we've got all the money in the world to spend and all the time on pay-per-view that we want to take, let's go play. and in the process, you know, just being completely ridiculous

and actually making a mockery of the business that they're allegedly in. And to him, that's a perfect performance. It couldn't have been any better. Well, Jim, we had more matches, as you remember. Yes, yes, they did. Kyle Fletcher, Kenosuke Takesh, and Josh Alexander defeated Adam Cole, Kyle O'Reilly, and Roderick Strong, 12 minutes, 48 seconds, three and three-quarter stars.

Oh, we've come back down to reality where not everybody's perfect. He was trying to still be kind to him, but at the same time show him that not everybody can achieve that incredible four-star level. Before we get to the main event here, do you think Dr. Martha Hart was watching on pay-per-view? What? I forgot about her. Yeah, she used to make your annual appearance at this event. right? She, as a matter of fact, she figured out how did she do it that she got booed the last time she showed up. She said something and got booed. What was it?

Did she say like Tony Con was a nice guy or she sang or I don't know what it was? I think did she plug the wrong sports team or something? I don't know. I don't know what she did. Yeah. Well, she's not back. She wasn't back. The main event, gym, of double or nothing. Adam Page defeated Will Osprey to win the Owen Hart Cup tournament. 36 minutes, 59 seconds. They had to go one minute longer than the garbage match. Five and a half stars.

Oh, for Christ's sake. This is the one where they did the great hospitalization finish. Stiles clash off the apron of the ring and then had 15 more minutes a match, right? That one? where by the time it was over with I believe as we said they made the fucking they made Paige look like

goddamn idiot to begin. He always looks like an idiot but they buried Osprey in the process and actually then Osprey basically fucking cried until Paige consoled him in the ring so they went the wrong direction in that thing on the way to the stadium

and it was just It was perfect plus a half. Well, that's just swell. 36 minutes, 59 seconds. It was very, very late. And that was AW, double or nothing. It sounds like it was one of the greatest pay-per-views of all time. It sounds like it, doesn't it?

See if you go rent a video wherever you find your favorite videos. But, Jim, this is your show. Well, speaking of my show, I was all over another show again this week, and we wanted it's the season finale, or it was the season finale, or it was the season finale of Dark Side of the Ring for this season on Vice TV with the topic of

he'll always be Mark Magnus to me, but Muhammad Hassan, the ill-fated experiment that Vince was trying to recreate his Iron Sheik fantasies or whatever. But this one,

thankfully, and this was the way to end the season, because it wasn't wasn't a story about a guy who had tragedy happened to him, made the wrong decisions, ill health, financial ruin, whatever the fuck. But at the same time, his career got ruined, but there was a positive ending and resolution of the thing is that he had another career and he's done just fine.

But this one showed, I think, better than anything, we've seen on television in a while, how stubborn and insistent Vince McMahon was when he wanted to do something and how that he would just not stop fucking with it until he finally went too far. Do you think that was the overriding theme of the whole thing, even though it was poor Mark Magnus that was at the center of it? I thought the overriding theme was, that Gene Snitsky seems like a cool guy. he is for a baby killer he's a he's a heck of a dog

ask him and he'll tell you because he was an OVW for a while I made him Mike Mondo's brother because they looked facially they looked like mean Gene Mondo one guy was the smallest guy in company that guy was the biggest but he came back because he was still living in Louisville after he'd done that thing where he supposedly punted the baby across the building he came back in the Davis arena

and I said, fuck, I said, get the fuck out of here. I don't want people to see you coming here. You're a fucking baby killer. Hated that angle. Love Gene Snisky, though. And really, this one was, they didn't have every, you know, goddamn famous in talking head individual contributing something.

It was down to people that were involved in Mark's career and his friends of Chris Masters and Snitsky and Maven. They had John Pollock as a journalist, and Michael Leonardi, apparently was one of the writers that was involved at the time in this or at the WW. And I've never heard his fucking name, but I believe it, because there was like hundreds of them. But I always, I thought more highly of Mark Magnus all around in NOVW than a lot of the guys, because, he had a little bit of everything. Because some of the guys took to the work more quickly, but not to talk, or sometimes the other way around,

or sometimes a guy could work and talk. But boy, if he just looked a little better physically. And Mark wasn't a giant, but he had a great physique. He had a great attitude, wanted to learn coachable. His work came along quick. His promos came along quick. This, Mark Magnus at OVW, was the kind of a guy that you would give the Daniel Garcia

or Wheeler you to push to, then instead of a guy with none of the tools, you find a guy with all of the tools. But you don't push him down people's throats from the start. You do, you give him the same amount of time, but you tell a story from start to finish. with Mark from from I think the tryout camp

first time we saw him one of the tryout camps when he comes here he starts in class because I don't believe he had had any training he starts in class and then he graduates to doing he's an underneath preliminary baby face because he's a good looking kid

why make him a heel right now he doesn't know what he's doing and he works the flea market shows or he works st terese jim or the small shit that we do and he'd get dark match on tv while we're setting the camera angles just and he put somebody over or in a tag match just to get him in front of people and then he started on tv as an underneath preliminary baby face and then surprisingly enough he switched heel and joined the heel group which already included the top heels in the company. So he's like in the group, he's associating with him, but it's not him.

But then as those guys move on or called up or then suddenly he breaks out of the group and becomes a single heel and he's got the girl Nikita with him. And now he's concentrating on challenging guys like Johnny Jeter for the OBW title where Jeter was at the same place. he was three years before, two years before. And you could draw the parallel stories of their ascent

and how Jeter still was honorable, whereas Magnus had stabbed everybody in the back and blah, blah, blah. But that's the way you brought somebody up from start to, okay, now here's something, somebody that you can do something with. They've been a baby face and a heel. they have had a couple years of experience. They have been used from the opening of the card all the way to the main event in that environment.

And they know the different gradations that takes place. Does this make sense, Brian? I think so. So that's what we did with Mark and he more than carried the ball with everything. And he understood it. And finally, what we had going was the with him and Nikita that made a great looking couple

this year's model, Mark Magnus, because it was the striving of everybody was trying to get the contract and go to Raw, and last year it had been Sena or whoever's going to be this year. And also the male model thing, because he was gorgeous. And we were trying to Rick Rood vibes

with been an updated younger version of Rick Rood, And I thought since he had done that well in, as I said, I think it was maybe two years a little bit over from start to finish, that certainly they weren't going to call us and tell us to make him a fucking error. And that's where they had some nice footage, you know, of his OBW run. They even had a shot of me leveling him with the elbow. We did the Crusade Rumble, I think, in 2004 for the Crusade for Children was. me and Johnny Jeter against Magnus and Nikita and I got two punches and the elbow in before they cut me off and beat the shit out of me.

When you say they called and said to make him an hour, who made the call? How did it go down? I'm trying to think it was Bruce around then? He was generally the one that would call and give me news I didn't want to hear because Johnny Ace didn't want to do it. But it was somebody from the office who just, we've got the idea. have been Laurenitis himself.

We want to make him an Arab, however they phrased it. And I said he's an Italian from Syria. Same thing I said on the Dark Side Show. He's an Italian from Syracuse. And he's doing it. But what, well, but we're going to bring in Sean DeVari. Well, I knew DeVari, I think at that point from Ring of Honor. And, you know, he was a great kid also.

but I was like, here's another time we're going to get somebody doing something in developmental that's natural to them and that they're feeling good at and doing well at and it changed everything

and after two years and fucking two months. But that was the thing is that Vince had the idea. And so he didn't care what anybody else was doing. I want to, that guy to do that thing.

So that's how that came. And then he says, so we're going to send Davari and, you know, and just make him an Arab. So I had to figure it. So we had, obviously, they knew who he was. We had him lose some kind of big milestone something. I think disappoint his cohorts. Maybe it was the revolution, bash him and those guys. And he just walked out of the building and quit wrestling in OVW on TV.

Just walked out with his bags on TV. Gave us big promo, I let everybody down, I screwed up, I'm done. And then a month later, he came back with Davari, the rich Middle Easterner, that he'd found while he was, you know, depressed and trying to find himself, and he'd given him a new ideology. And so that's, I said, because how else? do we make a fucking Italian guy from Syracuse, a Muslim Middle Easterner?

And we just did, we did the bare stuff with the whole Middle Eastern thing that we could and concentrate on them just trying shit, but the people didn't want to, the fans actually ended up being kind of a cool atmosphere, and they showed a clip of that also. On their own, they decided every time

that Mark and DeVari would do a, promo, they'd stand up and turn their back to them. And so the whole crowd would get up, stand up, and turn their back to the ring. And we don't want to hear it, all that shit while they were doing their promo. But it was, again, making the best of a bad situation because they already knew who he was and this was completely the opposite. So we had to figure out a way to make him that so that then they could try all of their, you know, the prayer rug and the fucking headdress.

goddamn whatever the fuck, right? What are we doing here? Because they did, and that's this writer guy, this writer guy, admitted they didn't really know what it was until they started to do vignettes. And that's when they, oh, well, you know, we're going to present him from a sympathetic point. He's an Arab American that's being discriminated against.

They came up with that the day they showed up to do the finiates. Yeah, it's all they said before. Well, he's going to be an Arab, but he's got an Arab guy that can speak Farsi. So, fucking do shit. And they didn't show, and Brian, I'll let you speak. I don't know, you could have had a small stroke and be unconscious over there. No, keep going. This is good.

They didn't have time to put this story in the dark side show. But when DeVari got there and they said, okay, you know, they need to dress up and act like a blah, blah, blah. So I said, guys, you know, bring a suit. and he said, I don't have a suit. Mark, you got a sit. I ain't got a suit. I had to take him to men's warehouse and buy them the fucking suits. I think we talked about this.

We had Evan Husney on. But they had come up with it. The guy was doing well in developmental of what he was doing. The guy had all the potential in the world. They come up with this cockamamie idea on the sperm of the moment. And then they had to send him. me money to buy them $2,000 worth of clothes because they had no fucking clothes to look like they had any money.

And then they don't know what they're going to do with until they get there. Then they decide on that thing, which Mark was happy with. And everybody was happy with that, you know, well, there's truth in this put upon, you know, discriminated against Arab American, whatever. And what is it? And it's, you know, not even a year later or whatever by the time. Vince is finished with it, they're beheading people with piano wire. I'm sorry, give me your thoughts. I don't know what else to say, based on the stuff you're talking about so far. They gave him a big

push right out of the gate. He's upset about discrimination, but that made him to heal somehow. The thing with Hogan, I mean, that is a pretty big deal, the idea that he actually got to work with Hogan at WrestleMania. Yeah. Again, it was old Hogan broken down. That may have been the year, is that the year Hogan went into the Hall of Fame? It may have been the year Hogan went into the Hall of Fame. I think it was 2005. That may have been the year Hogan went into the Hall of Fame. So it was a big deal.

I mean, you haven't talked about yet. I don't know if you're going to, so I'll just bring it up. In terms of him being fired, what could they have done? And did Vince owe him something? I mean, we always said that Vince, you know, at the end of the day, does a boss owe everyone who works for him, whether an employee or an independent contractor? Do they owe them lifetime employment? Do they owe them this and that?

In this case, where this guy. Did nothing wrong? Did Vince owe him something or just do something for him? I mean, not have him leave the business and question why he's doing anything. Yeah, well, there's a difference between lifetime employment and a two-year-long career. There should be some middle ground in there. And see, that's the thing. Again, it was Vince, and they all said this.

It was Vince pushing the deal and making him more of a real terrible. And Mark said he's, you know, registered his, not complaints, but, you know, I can imagine, because he's a nice guy, I can imagine as diplomatic as he could have possibly been to ask Stephanie. And she said, hey, basically, shut up, we know what we're doing. Because she's not the one who got canceled off television. But they, because he was Vince's pet project, that's why they gave him the push. the match with Hulk Hogan, working with Sean Michaels, with Undertaker,

with all the top guys. And at the same time, it was hard for him in the locker room because he mentioned the wrestler's court story. Because Kurt Angle, he goes up to him and says, hey, you know, you're using a camel clutch, but geez, Eddie Guerrero's using it.

Guys get out of it. You can see they were setting him up. And he'd only been an OVW for two years, right? So he couldn't ask every question in the world. If he'd have been an OVW, he probably would have asked me, hey, should this other guy be using the, and I would have, yeah, don't open that can of peas,

but they were setting him up to get ribbed. And nobody was shitting in his, you know, his lunchbox or whatever, like has happened in the past. But there was some level of scrutiny and some level of heat on him. and he was going to get ribbed a little bit because coming in with a push like that. But it wasn't, that's a thing, it wasn't like the way that some of the 90s guys treated some of the other underneath guys. There was a little difference there.

But they kept pushing the deal on television. And Maven, bless him, doesn't know the difference between money, heat and disgusting heat. Because he was like, wow, this guy's going to have so much. heat, wrong kind, especially with the network. So they did the angle with the Undertaker and then the London terrorist attack happens and Smackdown is that night and they still show it and the bad publicity. And then the writer said he complained to Stephanie about it and she demoted him. So boy, they were touchy back then. But they had they had. They Mark basically figured it out that he wasn't going to be long for there

when he asked Johnny Ace about, hey, I'm supposed to be buying this house, and Ace said, don't buy the house. The only time Johnny Ace has ever been a baby face right there. Yes, the only time he's ever told the truth in his life. It's gone the other way a lot in wrestling history where guys, especially in territory, should I buy a house? Sure, buy a house. Now you got them.

Yeah, now you got to stay. But in this case, they didn't want him to stay. and they booked him on pay-per-view because the network had said, we don't want this character or whatever on TV anymore. So they booked him on pay-per-view and finished him up, power bombing him through the stage or whatever. But Mark told a story, it was sad he was heartbroken because he had done everything they asked him to,

and he had been a, again, a model, you know, a trainee, developmental employee, student, however you want to phrase it, never got in trouble. And again, something I said for the show they didn't have time for, but I would have fucking paid him for two years. Here, we're going to sign you to a new contract for two years for a decent amount of money, not millions of dollars, but at the time, you know, developmental guys were getting a grand a week, 15, whatever, to come back to developmental

and just maybe, maybe take a few months off and then come back to developmental and wait for a year and a half or two years and then come back clean-shaven with longer hair in different outfit. I mean, for God's sake, it's not like people don't know wrestling is fake and you can't mean to tell me that they've never changed anybody's name

it's ever been on television. And you also can't mean to tell me that the network two years later would have called and complained if the same guy playing a completely different part not doing any of those goddamn terrorist things and he was a baker from the Bronx showed up that they would have complained.

but instead they sent him back to OVW for like I think a couple months that was right when I had left so he came by the time I got them up there boom then I'm gone he comes back for like two months and then they just dropped it

and it depressed him because of all the sacrifices he's made and the you know as hard as he had worked but finally he realized that he needed to change shit if it wasn't going to work out and he went back to school and got the teaching certificate and became a principal and now is the well thought of member of the school district and it looks like a normal human being.

So as I said, I think maybe he came out ahead in the long run. But they just, they went too far because Vince didn't have any goddamn restraint. Imagine that. And ruined his career and then made him pay for it for doing what they said to do. and anyone who spoke up against it was penalized or threatened with being penalized. Shut the fuck up. We know what we're doing. Of course you do. You're getting heat with your fucking television network. But anyway. I agree with you. I think it sucks that it all happened that way. There's a lot of big what-ifs. But in the end for him, it seems like it was the best thing. He has a family. He's got a secure job. I would guess. A pension.

maybe a union, who knows, but he doesn't have to worry about a lot of the things that a lot of the wrestlers have to worry. He doesn't have to rush to a convention or anything. He's kind of got his life together. Like Tito Santana, you know, when it became a teacher. And he was, you know, had something secure

for a lot of the time. He retired now and probably got a nice pension, everything else. And Mark also, he doesn't have headaches or concussion syndrome or, you know, bad health. hips or knees or whatever or neck. And, you know, he was never going to be the WWF champion.

And I'm not insulting him by saying that. He was not going to be that guy, the guy. But he was just equally as talented as a number of people who made a decent amount of money in a fairly short period of time during some of that era if he'd have gotten the opportunity. but otherwise for long term I think yeah I think we're both right he'd probably better off in school with those children instead of some of the children that he would have been working with otherwise

so you had two unique opportunities to rebook him if you had been there when he came back because obviously he left one day and he came back and he had found a new ideology now he can come back and either he drops that ideology completely and apologizes to the fans and says he'll go back to being who he really is He's a young guy going through a lot. Or he finds a new ideology, and that's his new gimmick now. He comes in and now I'm a guru, you know, now I'm this or that. Now I'm a Buddhist monk.

But what would you do? I mean, like you said, I don't think it shouldn't be that there was no way to rehabilitate the wrestler with a new gimmick, even if the gimmick didn't ignore the fact that he had been Muhammad Hassan. I, again, for the sake of the OV. universe, which was small in the overall scheme of things, but on our television and our program, I think if they'd have said, hey, we'll give you a two-year contract,

take a few months off, rest your weary mind, and then we'll keep you in developmental to get you back in the ring, and you don't get rusty, and you don't get, you know, you still learn. I would have had him come back and fucking apologize to everybody and blame Davari. because DeVarie and if they were keeping him he could have been a heck of a heel because his son of a bitch

I was so depressed and I was all lost to this fucking guy. I listen to you. I joined the Manson family. Yeah. And then because just for that and our fans who many of them knew him and

you know they would have accepted that and then you just kind of see where he goes. Let's see how long can his hair get so he doesn't look like that guy and let's see what he looks like clean-shaven and what different kind of gear and colors can we put him in some fluorescent spandex, anything that's the opposite of what he was wearing, just see what else that he could look like different and see where he goes at that point. That's what I would have done.

But you never know. Maybe Rip Rogers was there then. Rip Rogers could have given Mark Magnus his old gimmick when he first went to work for Nick Gullis. You remember that? Which one? The disco kid. Oh, that's right.

1978. And Rip Rogers, Mark Shera is just like a rookie and he gets booked out of Indiana. Bruiser sent him to work for Nick Goulis and they made him because disco was hot. They made him the disco kid. And he had a fucking set of headphones that used to remember the headphones you'd have to plug into your turntable or your receiver. You had to plug them in, right? They'd have wireless headphones back then, but he would goddamn come out with headphones on and they'd play the music. It'd be like he's fucking dancing to it, trying to disco dance.

It didn't last long, the disco kid, but it was the summer of 78. And it's the summer of 2025, Brian. And the summer's a time to be out and about, enjoying every moment from sun up to sundown. But you know what that means when you're outside? That means you need something that runs on battery power to stay up on everything, the podcast and the music and the severe weather warnings. And you can't just walk around like the disco kid in 1978 with headphones on, not plugged in to anything.

Well, people have put you, they'd throw a net over you. You know what you got to do, don't you, Brian? By now you have to know what you got to do this summer to stay up on everything. what you got to stick inside your head. Of course, you're talking about those great Raycon earbuds. That's what I was talking about, the everyday earbuds. You know why they call them at? Because you've got to wear them every day.

As a matter of fact, they keep track of these. They have a special sensor. It tells whether it was body heat, whether you're wearing them or not. If you don't wear them every day, you're penalized. The next time you put them in, you're going to get a short, sharp shock. Boom, it tells you, don't fuck. with your everyday earbud schedule from now on every day or elsewise you're going to get zapped because Raycon's latest model is better than ever for the summertime when the feel it is easy

with a 32 hour battery life and the multi-point connectivity you can pair up with all kinds of you can pair two devices at once Brian that means with this thing when you got your everyday earbuds in let's say you go to the park you see a good looking young lady she's listening to earbuds. You can walk up within 50 feet of her and punch a button and pair up with her shit and listen to what she's listening to. No, that's not how it works. That's not how it works. If you take the earbud out of the left side of your head, your left ear, and you speak into it, she'll be able to hear your voice. Again, none of this is how it works. Let's just focus on how it works. You can beam suggestive phone calls into these people's heads. Oh, just the heavy

breathing alone will drive them crazy. Ladies and gentlemen, you can't do any of these things, but what you can do is hear the finest tunes, the greatest podcast, great audio, with Raycon, everyday earbuds. Take them with you, wherever you go, every day, and just do that.

And just whisper into the one, just say, what are you wearing? Because Raycon started just half the price of other premium audio brands, and they come in a spectrum, Brian, a spectrum. A spectrum is a literal array, a plethora, a cornucopia of vibrant colors to match your summer vibe. Does that mean, they vibrate too?

So when you punch the button for the noise cancellation, does that mean they stop vibrating these vibrant colors? There's no vibration, but there are. Well, it'll help your ears. Healthy ears. Help, did you say healthy ears? Helpful ears. Do you say helpful ears? It'll help your ears reduce their stress.

vibrator. That's right. Helpful. You turn this vibrator on in your ears and stress release happens about five to seven minutes. There is no vibration except for the natural, or is it natural, but the sounds of the bass and wherever you're listening to. The colors, the colors are vibrant. I don't know what colors they, do they have red? I'm not sure. Let's focus on the fact that Raycon has vibrant colors, the fact that Raycon has great audio, the fact that you can listen to whatever you want wherever you want to go great battery great quick charge function 10 minutes of charging you're going to get 90 minutes of battery they got that and half the price did i mention that of the other premium audio brands the active noise cancellation alone that's up on the tip top of the accessible

price points there with everybody else they've got it they got you all covered you can listen anything you dead gum well want to and and just have that look on your face when people are staring at you bopping your head or nodding and agreeing or shaking your head and disgust they'll go well that son of a bitch is ready for a rubber room at the puzzle factory but no it's just because you have the racon earbuds in your head and we're going to put in your head a way that you can put more money in your pocket because if you go right now to buy raycon b you i r a y-o-c-o-n dot com slash j-c-ce you're going to get 15% off Raycon's best selling everyday earbuds, 15% off, not like less than, not up to, but a whole, solid, complete, unadulterated, 15% off the everyday earbuds by Raycon.com

slash JCE. Stacey's always getting these things. They don't wear out, she loses them, because she goes out in the backyard, she gets on the swing set and she's swinging amongst the trees. Swings. So, yeah, and then she'll get some more. And then we see the raccoons in the trees that are bopping to the sounds and the tunes. And they're listening to us, Brian, you know, we have more raccoons listening to you and I on this

show than any other podcast in America today. They're all in my backyard. They're agreeing with us. Everything we say in that you will too. You'll agree that the racon. Everyday earbuds are the things you need to listen to for the music, the podcast, the warnings of impending doom. You can tune into DefCon on these things, can't you? Oh, I see now that the...

Jim, you hear that tone? That means we got to wrap it up. I hear that tone. That means that the Academy, I'd like to thank the Academy by Raycon.com slash JCE 15% off. All right. That's your show. We're back. Raycon, good friends of ours, get them support.

them, do you think? Get them, support them. Slash JCE, but Jim. Get even with them. That's right. Well, here's something, Brian, that you haven't had to have your earbuds in. If you've just had ears at all, you've heard the news. It's been spread around everywhere. Reversal, Johnny Ace, my old friend, head of talent relations and other types of relations

that he got head in, John Laurenitis is making a run at the Stoge Hall of Fame, Brian. He's a strong candidate. This is some Hall of Fame level stoojury. Because ever since back in the days, well, 25 years ago, when he got the office job in WCW,

the accusations began being bandied about in the locker rooms in some areas that Johnny Ace was a stooge. And for the kids out there, that means he likes to tell on people. He's a tattletale. If Ace knows that he's going to stooge to the office on you. And there have been throughout history, numerous people in the wrestling business that have attained the level of high stoojury.

And there is a stooge hall of fame. But I think that this is a level of stoojury, Brian, that I don't know that I've ever seen anybody else aspire to. Not only has Johnny Ace managed to be a stooge inside the office of a wrestling company for 25 years, he's managed to stooge first as on the boys in his position as talent relations.

And then he was given the opportunity by Vince McMahon to after he had been stoogeed on, and was fired from his current position back in what 2010, 11, 12, for sexual harassment. They kept him on and covered him up a little bit so he didn't seem too much. And then as soon as Vince got the chance, he not only brought back his stooge that had been his stude, even Kevin Dunn never got his Bucky Beaver chompers into Vince's ass like this,

he'd been his stooge all that time now Vince is hooking him up with three ways while he's an executive and then when he when they all get sued for it Johnny A's turns around and says no I was a victim too so he did a flip flop then a couple months later he flipped back and said wait a minute none of this shit happened and now he's flipped again and he's not only said yes i'm going to cooperate with the person that said all this happened but i've settled with her because i'm going to give her information on vince mcm if he's not the most successful stooge in the history of wrestling he's going to be the most famous one because he's going to stooge the stoogeiest that has ever been stooge that's got this much publicity.

If you were a defense attorney, Brian, last, would you want to have, would you want him on your side or would you want him on the other side? Because, you know, you can't believe him if his tongue is notarized. I'd hate to think what Mrs. Bobba would think of all this, but Jim, you have a statement that was released. There's a statement on behalf of both Janelle Grant. and John Laurinitis, although put out, I believe, through Janelle Grant's attorney, John Laurenitis has agreed to cooperate

and provide evidence in Janelle Grant's lawsuit against Vince McMahon and WWE. His agreement to a confidential settlement is a pivotal next step toward holding McMahon and WWE accountable and bringing justice to Ms. Grant, after years of sexual abuse, and trafficking. Mr. Laurenitis looks forward to moving on with his life. We cannot provide any additional details at this time. Now we have a follow-up from Vince McMahon's lawyers,

but let's stop there for a moment. Well, that pretty much sounds like that he said, please leave me alone and don't hurt me, and I'll tell you things you need to know about Vince McMahon and or testify to things that happened that support your case, doesn't it? What else could it be? Vince McMahon and WWE.

It's not just Vince here in this lawsuit. Well, but yes, I mean, again, the current WWE, they didn't even own the thing when this was going on and who knows what that whole can of fish is about. but the suit is technically they're referring to a suit against Vince McMahon and WWE so if Laurenitis provides information damaging to Vince McMahon it would also be providing or information against the previous people in WWE is there still anybody there that was there

then thou who would be there in any position of power that was there five years ago when anything was happening Nick Con, Triple H, Bruce Pritchard. Well, now Nick Con and Triple H, I said position of power. Come on, Bruce couldn't pull a greasy string out of a cat's ass. I have a statement here from Vince McMahon's attorney, Jessica Rosenberg. Today's dismissal of John Laurenitis as a defendant doesn't alter the facts of this case in any way. Vince McMahon never mistreated Janelle Grant.

No matter how many press releases her team issues. the truth remains unchanged. As Mr. Laurenaitis's lawyer previously said, Mr. Laurenitius corroborates Mr. McMahon in publicly declaring that Ms. Grant's allegations of sexual abuse and coercion in her complaint are completely unfounded. Well, that's what he said before,

but if you were Janelle Grant's lawyer and the best John Laurenitis could say was, well, these statements are completely unfounded. Do you think you'd settle with him? Or would you settle with him if he could say, do, or provide something that would just pull up the fucking limo and pick you up and drive you right to the fucking bank? Yeah, did Lauren Nitis's lawyer finally turned to him and say, look, you're going to be in a lot of trouble if she gets this lawsuit to go forward and it looks like it is right now. it may cost you everything or not has probably said, you know,

all right, and made a deal. And Vince McMahon, you know, this comes on the news as today as we are recording. Do I have this? Words coming out about Vince McMahon's new company. Have you seen this?

Uh-oh. What kind of monkey business is he operating? I saw from Brandon Thurston, who had the first report I saw. Let me see if I could find it real quick on Twitter. But Vince McMahon, according to a report from WrestleMania,

has launched a new business venture forming an investment firm called 14th and I, pursuing opportunities in sports, media, and entertainment. This is all from public filings in the state of Connecticut for LLCs. 14th... But 14th and I? Does that roll right off the tongue? Well, according to what Brandon Thurston wrote here, the firm's name appears to be a reference to a location of historical significance for McMahon and

WWE. A 2006 article on www.com noted that the Capital Wrestling Corporation, the predecessor to WWE, was headquartered at the corner of 14th and I Streets in Washington, D.C., around the 1950s and 60s, when the company was led by McMahon's father, Vincent J. McMahon. Oh, my God. 14th and I, a little inside, a little inside reference. The worst dating site ever for a perfect. That's what I was going to say is that the 23 and me went bankrupt, but 14th and I is that only if you're, you know, a minor can you have your DNA scanned or whatever?

Yeah, I don't think 14th and I. It's not even third and goal. And you name your company that, so everyone asks you, why did you name your company that in every meeting you go to? So, but again, any specifics about what are the things that he wants to do in the sports and the entertainment? They are all entities formed in Delaware. They're all the Stanford, Connecticut as the principal office. Does it have the address in Stanford? Not that I need that, I guess, at the moment.

They have filed trademarks with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for Fourteenth and I, and Brad Blum is listed as the president of Fourteenth and I, the former W.E. Executive. It's a private investment firm focused on sports media and entertainment sectors. We are a disciplined, flexible, long-term capital, and strategic partner, primarily targeting buyouts, majority deals, as well as selective growth-oriented minority investments. We seek to partner with and empower exceptional management teams provide deep expertise, capability, and relationships

to help drive significant long-term value. What the fuck does that mean? They're going to buy shit. That's what that means. If they're going to buy anything in wrestling, what's available for Vince McMahon to buy. Is he going to buy T. If he buys TNA, does that change the way you see everything with TNA

over the last year? But it couldn't be TNA. I would hope not. He ain't going to buy New Japan. I don't think that if he were to buy any existing wrestling promotion, I don't think it would change the way that we would look at that individual promotion past what the fuck's he going to do with it and what changes are going to come. But again, in all honesty, TNA is owned by the entity, the network, as they say.

I'm sure they're open for business and they'd sell anything, but would they keep the show on or would it be a... See, it's a deal. A lot of these times WCW tried that before that it fucking happened. There was a Sinclair shopped around the idea of selling. Ring of Honor once before they actually did. But you'd have to either pay for the television or the television time wouldn't come with it. So, you know, they're looking for things to purchase. And again, it says sports, media, entertainment.

It can be anything. Now we've got to be, you know, have our eyes looked at it if he's going to try to buy one of these podcast companies because that's like the hot thing to do. And then they find out there's nothing there and you lose your ass. Well, at least we won't have to worry about that because we, the independence out here. That's right. But, you know, that's the thing. If they're looking for things to purchase,

what's going to really be available for sale? Now, we're figuring he's financing this with his own money, a good portion of it, and we know he has plenty of cash. He's got $2 billion. The question is, what's there to purchase? What could he buy? What could WWE's expert team from years ago do to improve whatever? Is it a big purchase?

Do they try to buy a Feld entertainment? And get a whole variety of things like Ringling Brothers? or do they look for a sports team? Do they look for, you know, distressed media assets? This is going to be interesting. I mean, the fact they're moving forward with it, the same day John Laurenitis is saying, it was him!

I don't know if those distressed assets may be positively despondent by the time that they get finished with them. Well, we'll keep an eye on Vince's maneuverings and machinations. over this whole thing and see whether whether Laurenitis fingers him before he gets his finger back in a wrestling business or not. Which do you think? I think Loronitis may have some tall tales to tell about

unfinished business. I don't know what Lauren. I mean, I remember a few years ago Bobby Fulton tried to book him and there was enough of an outcry over that that that didn't happen. I don't think he could do. really anything in wrestling. And that's booking him, let alone a job against an executive. I don't, that ain't going to happen. No, that's, that's why I'm saying. Do you think that Vince will start another wrestling company before Laurenitis gets the chance to publicly

proclaim whatever the fuck he's got to say about Vince? Start a wrestling company or buy a wrestling company? Well, start by get involved with one. I don't know. Again, you know, if we just think about what we've seen publicly, he made a very public showing of being at the Super Bowl with the Undertaker or and Shane. He don't go anywhere with The Undertaker unless you want to be seen. He's gearing up for

something. He's clearly gearing up for something and he's got money and he still owns a giant chunk of WWE. Let's not forget that. All things consider a giant chunk, more than the average person. Yeah, what was it still like 8 million shares or something? Was it like 5% or a little less than 5%? I mean, it was still a good amount

or whatever he had. And plus, he's really, he's on at high fiber diet. He's got better fiber than he has in years, so he's ready to go. Well, we don't have a fiber. I haven't heard about the fiber diet? I don't know. Let's not talk about things that may get the bowels in motion.

Get the bowels in an uproar. Well, if you want to get your bowels in an uproar, why don't we talk about Wednesday night's AEW television? That sounds like a good idea, Jim. Yes, because there was plenty of bowels and an uproar about this. This was the blooper reel. And I was, again, I just wanted to hit the high points for, because I didn't want to just go into my new detail about everything with this show. But it's just stunningly one thing after another. This week, it was, what else is going to screw up or what different way or one of these guys or girls going to find to fucking fuck each other up?

and and then the or production snafus or just they shouldn't be doing this and again they're going to go all the way apparently with this hang nail Adam Page business he that Tony thinks

for some reason that this guy is going to be the answer to his troubles of some description and from the introduction on this show when Tony Chavani introduced Page, he's a baby face, but he walks out to a video of him burning a guy's house down.

Do you see that on the background? That's on his entrance video. And he looks like just any guy now that you would see stocking a shelf at Target, just he's trying to emote. He has these

Shakespeare speeches in his head that and because of it he comes off as a bad actor speaking in a forced and unnatural way and you don't believe him

he's performing a fucking scene that he's written for himself and he is supposed to be mitigating the loss to Osprey says

hey Osprey thanks for the fight of my life you can be the guy to carry this company forward. Who, a loser? What the, but victory is fleeting. And he gave the Owen heart belt back to Tony because they're going to have a new tournament next year, crown a new champion.

What the fuck did you go through all that trouble? Why'd you wear it out there? Yeah, and why did you get your head caved in to win it? Okay, here it is. Thanks. But here was some quotes again, because this material speaks for itself, for these people that are thinking, oh, isn't this great, you know, piffy comments? He said for seven months, that title has been locked in a briefcase.

And then he had a meltdown about how offended he was on behalf of the AEW championship. not because anything has been done to him personally, not because nobody can explain what Moxley has been saying or doing for the last six months. So there is no angle, there is no story. He said for seven months, the title's been locked in a briefcase. And it's not for he,

the AEW title was to be a shining light, a beacon to show the world of what these three letters meant. it was about competition creativity compassion passion the human dignity with which we all treat each other

he's talking about a heavyweight wrestling championship what does that have to do with compassion and human fucking dignity I heard Everett Marshall I heard every Marshall give the same speech many years ago it's ridiculous no and there are people who swear by Adam Page's promos they think they're great, and it's practice,

and it's over-the-top stupid. I don't like it at all. The human dignity, with which we all treat each other, the thrilling competition, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. So Paige came out and promised in seven weeks he's going to win the world title, and that's a promise that I will keep,

so he promised twice. So he's winning the fucking thing, or he's an idiot or somebody else, else in the company is an idiot for letting him do it. So that result is foregone now, but swerve's music then plays. And swerve gets a bigger reaction still than Page does. They pretty much character assassinated him. And they're chanting, blah, blah, blah. And swerve showed a video of the buckaroos saying when they cost swerve the title in the three way with page and whatever the fuck they said we did it to help our friend adam page you're welcome adam and so swerve tells

page and there's page standing there like a dip shit he said i had the same chance at moxley that you have and i had it won but your friends came in and did that for you and now you've got a clear pass so I call collusion and Paige said that he would never let Swerve be the champion again and don't so basically don't lie to me did you do this and now Swerve by the way is right

page is an asshole but confronted with that instead of saying I can't control what my ex-friends do or no, I didn't have a part to play in this. He looks at the other baby face and and then Paige says, well, dumbass. At Dynasty, I locked my eyes on you and even thought about helping you, but I would have cost you the match to your face if I had been involved in it. I've done it before. And so, again, all these baby faces are fucking pricks or dicks.

or incompetent or backstabbers. And then as they get face to face, here comes Osprey. And I'm Jesus, because this was long already. And Osprey came out, his hair looked like a goose shit on it. And he gets in between and tells swerve that he's wrong about Page

because Paige shook my hand. So did the fucking con man that sold you the door-to-door burglar alarm system, right? What the fuck? Again, they have no angle with Moxley because nobody has understood what the guy has said or done for months. So the baby faces are now having to argue amongst themselves about how bad they want the shot and tear each other down in the eyes of the fans in the process. And in Osprey says, we've got one shot at this since when? People are getting shots of box all the fucking time.

We've got one shot at this and Paige is the guy. We can either make this easier on him if we all work together or and fucking swerve slaps the microphone out of his hand. He gets a pop. Because now he's shutting up this other fucking nattering white boy. The swerve said, I'm not ever going to trust Paige. And that's just it. and he walked out and people were booing.

And then Osprey and Page argued, and Paige left, and people were booing him. So in 20 minutes, besides the fact that this would not end, at one point, Swerve was the most over guy, most popular, so they buried him. And then Osprey was the most popular guy, and now they buried him and beat him.

And Paige was never the most popular guy, and they're putting the belt on. on him. Two out of three of their top baby faces got booed. And the only reason they've come up with to have the match for the world title is to get the belt away from the guy that's got it now because the fans want anybody to beat him because he's the shits. There's their world title picture.

Help me, Brian. You know, looking back, you probably could figure out they were going in this direction when they had him, when they had him, when they had Adam Page to feed MJF. And it was like, oh, that's an interesting thing to do right now. They're getting them ready maybe for Moxley. Now, if Moxley comes out of that with the belt, that'd be the worst thing. So you have to figure they're going to do a big title change.

And they're coming together like they're getting ready to attack the Death Star. They got to work together. There's our one shot. Our one, why? Why is this your one shot in Texas maybe? But they're getting behind Adam paid. They're getting behind all. all the usual suspects from the very beginning,

minus Cody, they're getting behind all those people again. And Adam Page, you know, he's, it looks like Tony Khan really believes in him right now. I think that Page may be the only person that would be worse than Moxley as the champion right now. Because then it just delays Osprey.

And I don't know that they ever get swerve back or not where he was, where he ought to have it, but Page is just so bleh. We've seen it. It ain't going to change. It ain't going to get any better. AEW is different than WWE.

The WW Championship doesn't make me think of creativity and human dignity. The AEW Championship does. So it's a different thing altogether. Compassion. It's what it's all about, Brian. Human dignity. What the f-

Human dignity. Human chess, I've heard, but not human dignity. How would you describe that other wrestling League that you watch AEW. Well, I would say, you know, they really, they go for creativity and human dignity and compassion. It's an entire den of human dignity. It's a very compassionate wrestling company.

I need to start a den of indignity. I'll be over there on the other side completely. So it was time for Dick the Boozer and the Boer horsemen to pull up in their pickup truck. And when they walked in the back of the arena from the parking lot, did you see Boozer almost got lost and walked into the wall. Stopped short and turned right and went the complete opposite way to get in the building. And it was a six-person

mixed tag team match with Boozer and Schaefer and Gabe Kid with Claudio and useless in the corner against Mark Briscoe, Willow Nightingale and Hong Kong Fooey. I have a couple of questions.

Dad, in the mixed tag team environment, the men wrestle the men, the women wrestle the women. So first off, spitball was confused. There were no children. They had one team where they had two men and a woman, but his team had the man,

the woman, and he was the child. They had no opposing child. so he didn't know which side attack. Did you see when he threw the kicks at Moxley? And then Moxley just... Unfortunately. Moxley sold it by just not selling it and rolling out of the ring. And normally,

I would be upset, but I wouldn't sell that fucking grasshopper bullshit either. It looks like an actual legitimate grasshopper trying to kick somebody. Have you seen Gabe Kidd before? Now is this the first time... I never watched a full match. I've seen clips of his stuff in New Japan.

I'm not a big fan of modern New Japan. I haven't been in a while, so I haven't really watched it. I haven't watched him. Never saw a full match before. So I was just going to ask, is this as good as it gets? Because what the... Well, they set him up for a good feud with Willow, I think. Well, and he might be able to handle her,

but I think she may be a little fucking too much for him. Because we just mentioned, as they brought in Josh Alexander... a fucking bald guy with a beard. And now they bring you this other guy, a bald guy with a beard. But now that I've seen Gabe Kidd without a shirt on, he don't look anything like Josh Alexander. This pale, ponchy, flabby, fucking, what the fuck?

He looks like he just got off work at the fucking Valveline and ran over there. He's wearing sweatpants with it. Was it a karate belt or just some kind of belt that was hanging out the front of his fucking pants about a foot and a half? and he started out to match with a phony punch and forearm exchange with brisco and then they all jumped to six way and blah blah blah and this thing went through two breaks but gave kid seriously that who looked at that fucking eight by ten glossy and said boy we need him

on television and then finally the finish was a mess. Claudio got up and distracted Mark Briscoe right in front of Aubrey Ed. He actually stepped in the ring and Mark goes that way and he steps out. But then they both had to stand there forever. Claudio on the floor and Mark Briscoe in the ring just staring at each other while time stood still because commander was supposed to come out from the other side, jump up on the top rope, walk the top rope from one side of the ring to the other, and then jump off on Claudio, who had to stand there and catch him, because they're fighting on collision Saturday. And then they fought off, and then Moxley got the choke on Briscoe and the other's heels grabbed

the other faces, and Aubriette ignored that the other illegal people were in the ring fighting and whatever and just called for the bell that again a team with a girl and Hong Kong fooie on it and they beat Mark Briscoe. It just stationary fucking finish where they just held the baby faces down and just beat them. What'd you think? I hate the Death Riders.

I hate Moxley's matches. I wasn't really impressed with Gabe Kidd. I don't know about him spitting at Willow. They're really pushing the man versus woman thing as far as they can go right now. It's going to go further, I think. think. Well, they beat him up on pay-per-view. You can do that over there.

I'm not a Claudio fan. I wish he wasn't on this show, but I guess if there was any kind of consultation, consultation, consolation. If there was a consolation, there'd be a lot of other things. If there was anything to look forward to, it's him versus Commander in a feud, or I guess just a match.

Why did Commander interfere? Commander was a match with him. There's no feud, is there? No, they're just there. They have a match on Saturday. So in Tony's mind... So he's got to change. way? Anyhow. Yeah.

And, yeah, no. No to any of this. Yeah, no. Would you like to talk about the no disqualification girls tag team contest, Brian? Man, and this was a big rematch. I told you to watch that match at the pre-show.

Harley Cameron and Anna-Jay, obviously have been put together as a new fresh tag team. Fans are really getting behind them against dastardly Penelope Ford and Big Mean Megan Bain. This is a big, big thing they had the match the other day apparently the feud wouldn't die apparently they didn't know when to quit they couldn't count their lucky stars so they brought it back with this no disqualifications say it with me together folks lazy booking this was the first ever

fashion street fight penelope pitstop and megan brain came out with matching tights on and a matching painted garbage can and lid and a gold painted chair because it's a no DQ match. And then here come Anna J and Harley Cameron with matching tights and the same color scheme. They had decorated a two before in a fake lead pipe. And these four girls get in there with these goofy gimmicks and these stupid looking outfits. and they proceed to have the imitation of every indie garbage match that they've ever seen. They don't know how to work with gimmicks, so it all looks fake. Megan Brain apparently doesn't know how to work at all.

At one point, they did a spot where the baby faces, one had a, the chair, and the other one had the plastic, lead pipe, and they did a spot where one would hit Megan Bain in the back with a chair, and she wouldn't sell it because she's a giant. She'd just turn, and like, how dare you? And the other one would hit with the pipe, and she wouldn't sell it, and she'd turn, like, how dare you? But all she was doing it was they'd whack, and she'd just slowly turn around,

like, why'd you do that to me? And it'd whack from the, and then she would turn and get into position and stand there something they're thinking it was a fakes thing of her she took the shot she didn't sell them she didn't go down she didn't rest she just grimaced and got into position and they went through a break with this and at one point again penelope she just don't have it as ernie ladd said about junkyard dog to bill what's one time yeah boy just don't have it bill because she's got that face where she looks like she's concentrating. It's like, which routine is this?

Oh, we have to go over here and chop now. And she got in there with Anna Jay, and it looked like two strippers at the Gold Club fighting over the last night's tips. And they did a spot where Megan ran Harley Cameron's face into the stairs. And as they, as Bobby, you say they burnt the bread on themselves, Brian.

I think that's what cursed them for the rest of the night because they did a gimmick injury and then everybody else got hurt for real. At one point in the middle of the match, I was like, man, Anna Jay, because I remember she had a street fight years ago, I think maybe with Penelope and it was Anna Jay and Tai Conti, Ty Mello, whatever her name is.

Tie Mellow Jello. And I remember thinking, man, watching this match, I'm thinking, man, Anna Jay, I guess she kind of knows how to do this without getting hurt and then boom. Well, no, but now the Harley Cameron, it was gimmick. You know that, right? Harley Cameron, they gimmicked it here

to hide the fact that she really got hurt at the pay-per-view, I guess. And she's going to have time on. Well, yes, but I don't know if she, see, that's the thing. If she got hurt at the pay-per-view, how did she have this 10-minute fucking street fight? And now she needs to take time off. So they heard her in a gimmick to explain, Help me make it make sense.

But they did a halfway decent job with this, but here's where they, unfortunately, for my discerning eye, where I knew bullshit. She picks Harley up and she gives her the facebuster into the stairs, boom, and immediately the floor camera goes to the pan in tight of the heels celebrating,

which usually means they're trying to stay off of somebody getting color. But the referee ran over there. and signaled to the doctor, and the doctor was on his feet and headed that way in the twinkling of an eye and already had a towel in his hand. And there should have been some more flummocks. We need a towel. Oh, God, she's bleeding, whatever.

But anyway, they did a pretty good job. But then the problem was that everybody else for the rest of the night got fucking hurt for real. So while Harley has got her face bashed in, the heels take a while to set up the Doomsday, the Road Warriors Doomsday device, Brian. Megan is going to be, I guess, animal, and old Penelope is going to be Hawk.

Well, first of all, Penelope looked like she was either blown up or she was dazed because she couldn't hardly get up on the rope. and Megan leaves Anna Jay to go over and kind of boost Penelope up on the corner. So then Megan picks up Anna Jay as on the shoulders and Penelope's up on a top rope and she's right there in front of the girl and she yells something at her like, and she jumps off with the clothesline and went straight the fuck over her. head, not even close. Megan and Anna took the bump anyway. Anna came down,

Megan put her down right on her ass on the mat. The fans laughed, but Penelope had to be two feet over the top of her. And she went right by her. She had to almost miss on purpose. How did she miss now? To be fair, old Anna was not sitting up straight like she should have been.

she had her head ducked down, probably because she didn't want to get her fucking neck broken when she took that bump. I don't think Anna J was the problem here. But no, no, I mean, still, you could have, I mean, she was close enough to her. She could have whispered in her ear and she still missed her with the arm by a fucking yardstick. One, two, three. So there was the win there.

So that was the match you wanted me to see, rematch. Well, again, the first match wasn't all gimmicked up. You really got to pay attention to the work of them. I agree. Penelope... Yeah, the work of them. Penelope Ford's... How much work if they had done on their, on their buttoxes? Penelope Ford's been there since the beginning, and she has not gotten any better, and, you know, really, anytime she works, it pops out at you. Harley Cameron's been trying, so now she's hurt. Megan Bain is a star, but, you know, we'll see what happens with her. Well, no, she looks like a star, but I'm afraid as long as she's been around, what we're seeing now, there may be the reason,

the reason that we've been looking for as to why she's not up north in the big program. We'll keep an eye out for it. We'll keep an eye out. Who boy. Speaking of who boy, the debut of a new combination, Brian was next, another six-man, well, a six-person tag team match, almost all men in this one for the six-man tag team titled the ops of Samoa Joe, Shepoopee, and Powerhouse Hobbs

against the frat house, Preston, Vance, Cole Carter, and Griff Garrison. Griff Garrison's got to be 30 fucking five years old by now. He's been doing college fraternity shit for the fucking past 10 years, I mean. You don't even think about that. The fact that he was in the not the convertible blonde, the varsity blondes. The varsity blondes. How long does it take him to get out of

fucking college? And they won't give up on Preston Vance. It's almost like he knows the right people. Boy, howdy. I'll tell you, and again, have you seen that face? He's like a fucking model home and a subdivision. The lights are on, but nobody lives there. It,

and it's just, this was so ridiculous. they get a bunch of indie clowns together and to send out to the ring with them and they've got that goofy manager who is that guy? Who is that guy? I've never seen that guy or heard of him before. No, he was that goofy manager

that was with the fucking bear guys and one of them got fired for doing something, wasn't he? I think he beat up his wife or was accused of beating up his wife or something. I was arrested for beating up his wife. The bald, jacked up manager. Oh.

was I think was with them, but there's like nine of them out there. And they actually did a video of them partying in El Paso the night before and doing stupid college kid shit. And then the job guys had the manager, the manager did a promo about throwing parties and looking for their next member of their group. And it was like, I wrote, how low budget can a big budget show look? They're spending a fortunate. on this and it looks like cable access.

And so anyway, this finally the manager got in the ring and hit Hobbs with a board. What is that? Was that a cricket bat or a boat paddle? What the fuck did they have? I don't know. It was a board.

Probably a pledge thing. What do they call them? The boards that they hit the pledges with? The spanking. Well, the paddle. A pedal, a paddle, a pedal, a paddle. I stepped in a poodle. That's how I knew it was raining cats and dogs. So then Hobbs shit cans the manager right in front of the referee, because the manager comes in while a referee's back is turned

and hit Hobbs with the board, but Hobbs didn't sell it, but then the referee turned around and sees Hobbs throwing the manager out of the ring. Then in front of the referee, as he stood and stared, three of the stooges ran in to take spine busts. They're interfering in the fucking match. The referee's standing there looking at it. Then Preston Vance comes back in with the board, but the referee takes that away.

And in Hobbs, Spinebuster, Vance. And then, apparently is Cole Carter, I know because he, by process of elimination, he's the only one left. Carter tried to climb to the top rope behind Hobbs. So the spot was going to be that Hobbs would, he spine-bustered all three of these guys, then he's spine-busters vans, then he's going to catch the guy coming off the top, and he's going to spine-buster his

ass too. Well, as Hobbs turns around to catch him, Carter fell off the top rope. So he fucking catches himself on the apron and he climbs back up, scampers back up as quick as he can, Hobbs standing there. He jumps off, and Hobbs is going to catch him and spine-bustering. but now the guy's rattled. So when he landed, right as Hobbs was going to grab him, the guy fucking jumped already,

and he jumped right out of Hobbs's arms. So fucking Hobbs lost him. And he tried to grab him again as he came back down. He grabbed him again. And as he grabbed him again right as he's going to tell him, Carter jumped again and almost jumped away from him. again and Hobbs said, fuck it,

and just held him about halfway up up and turned around and just planted him from halfway up the end. Big debut for the Frat House. I don't know where this gimmick has been, I would say AEW dark,

but that went off the air, so to speak, a while back. Yeah, it should have been dark before it was. The Frat House. All right, well, this seems like one of those things

to try on an NXC House show to see how it works out, and we'll see what happens. Maybe they'll turn it into a thing where people will really get into partying with the frat house the day before the wrestling, the night before the wrestling. I think that that might be fun. Then they don't have to go to the wrestling the next day. Be more fun that way. Well, before we get to the episode that the, or the segment of the show that was sponsored by Marie Antoinette, off with their heads.

Tell me, Brian, whether I don't know whether this next segment was what they were, intending to do or what happened or what. But Renee Moxley Good was in the ring and introduced Jamie Hader and she came out. Look at all colorful. And Renee said, well, what's next for you? And the lights went out. But nothing happened for like 10 seconds. And the announcers are like, well, I don't know what's going on.

And then music started playing, and there was a logo on the screen. But just as soon as you saw that, the lights came back on and they cut to the ring. And Jamie Hader was laying there at the feet of this blonde girl in a black jacket who was standing over her. We didn't hear any blimp. We didn't hear it. We heard the announcers. We heard the crowd, but we didn't hear any whap. or attack or oh my god or anything just all of a sudden boom there they are rene was gone

and the blonde picks jamie hater up and punches her again and whipped her jacket off and spun around and did the bray wyatt back bend and and looked at the camera and the announcers were oh it's tecla it's tecla tecla's here who the fuck is tecla Where did Tecla come? What the, has anybody mentioned Tecla? I've never seen or heard of Tecla before, no. Well, she's here. She has arrived.

She has arrived that she is here. By the way, I swear to God, Officer Yancey, I saw on the news the other day, I think he's running for sheriff down here. So did they miss a shot? Was that what they were trying to do? did they, the music didn't work. What the fuck happened here? I'm not sure

because they screw up a lot of things and then you find out, oh no, they wanted to screw that up or they wanted to do it, they didn't know who was a screw up, whatever it is. They wanted to do it that way. I don't know. Where did Renee go? I don't know about any of this. I don't know who Tecla is. She's from Austria, they said. Tecla.

And she liked posing for the camera. they're really doubling down on the women's division right now in terms of the amount of time the women are getting on dynamite and the focus on them maybe it's helping AEW in the state they're in I don't know but for me it's a lot but I just again how

how does this woman control the lights how did it well not only that but how the fuck did Jamie Hater I mean there had to be somebody sitting in the building that could see, you know, outline shadows. They can't turn all the goddamn lights off with thousands of people.

There'd be a free-for-all. What the... How the fuck did they cover? Did Jamie just lay down in the middle of the ring? Or did the camera and the lights coming on miss this girl leveling her? Well, if she leveled her, why didn't we hear it?

And where the fuck would Renee have gone in 10 seconds to just disappear? I don't know. We'll find out more about Tecla. You think is she the technology guru of the future? There's old Tecla. She's got the technology. How do you spell that?

I don't know. What did you write? T-E-K-L-A, that's what I heard. I don't think we'll probably need to write that name much. It could have been T-E-C-H-L-A and she could have been like into like the rave scene. Could have been F-U-C-K-Y-O-U. and we could just move on. Maybe it wasn't F, U-C-Y-O-U to you this segment.

Well, it was to somebody. Maybe it was to Tecla. All right, here we go. The T-N-T title was on the line. I forgot Adam Cole has a belt, too. He's a T-N-T champion. And he had a single match with old Kyle Feltcher. And these two look like a before and after ad

for the Charles Atlas Bodybuilding Corps. and Adam Cole is definitely the ones getting sand kicked in his face. I know I've just gone over the heads of the millennials or whatever, but again, I feel sorry for Adam with whatever physically he's experiencing. This was pretty rough. They're doing the moves, but within two minutes, here comes Trent and Rocky, the ring side. And they're going to do something,

but Roddy and Kyle O'Reilly come out and all four of them fight off. So while they're fighting off, Kyle and Adam Kohler on the floor, Kyle hits him with a super kick and then picks him up for the deal where they're going to, they do

the power bomb on the apron, where they pick the guy up and they power bomb him on the apron, and the theory behind this stupid move is that the guy spreads his arms out, tucks his chin, takes the edge of the apron across his shoulder blades, kind of upper back where it will make a sound and look like an impact, but it's not the lower back

where he'll just break all of his goddamn vertebrae. And then you just hope that the bottom rope isn't in such a place that it hits you in the back of the head, even though you got your chin tucked and fucking fucks your neck up. So you can see this is a move that everybody ought to do at every match. But in this case, Kyle picks him up and turns

and instead of taking a step toward the ring and putting him down on the ring, he fucking threw him. He was standing there. He was like four or five feet from the ring and he threw him like he was going to buckle bomb him. And instead of landing with the edge of the ring across the shoulder blades,

Cole was flying downwards and part of his right arm hit the apron, but his left arm, the shoulder, he came like an inch short of the ring. And you had to play it in slow motion to be able to see that his head did not hit the edge of the ring. ring, but it was like a half an inch off. And he went to the plane and landed on the floor hard. And if he had literally gone an inch farther, it would have broken his fucking neck.

With the speed that he was going and the trajectory that he had, it would have literally, if the ring had hit the back of his head, it could not have failed to have snapped his neck right there. I'm not talking about just a broken vertebrae or what I'm talking about disconnect the goddamn spinal column type of bump and there was a huge gas from everybody and that was their break spot and it was almost a decapitation but here's the thing and I've been waiting to say this there were people Brian on Twitter the apologists that think oh these old men they don't know what they're talking about they thought it was great

they thought did you see how safely they did that his head didn't hit like that that was what they were trying to do to begin with and that it wasn't a massive fuck up and that only by the grace of luck

and God if you believe in that did Adam Cole not get a broken fucking neck because an inch further would have been curtains but these people actually thought, well, they did it right. His head didn't hit. His right arm made the noise on the ring.

Did you see any of those? I saw some of that feedback. I saw a lot more feedback. People concerned before people obviously looked in slow motion to see that. I still haven't done that. I only watched it in real time and then heard after the fact that he wasn't dead. Yes.

I mean, many people were concerned and saying, oh, my God, and that could have been fatal and all this other stuff, but there were people actually saying, no, they did it perfectly. they don't even know what the fuck ups are. The people in the ring don't know when they're fucking up. So of course they don't know how to avoid it. But anyway, they came back from the break and went a few more minutes and then Adam Cole had him.

And here again, this is Kyle Feltcher that they have, say what you want about the outfit and that there's been no focused booking or push of him. what is his personality, but he has worked on his physique. He's grown up as best he can. He's a hell of an athlete. He's got the size. He can do some shit.

He's never going to learn anything where he is. He was reckless and he should have been reprimanded because I can't believe the unprofessionalism of letting a guy go in that position. But they've got now, Adam Cole's ready to beat him and ready to give him the knee. and Josh Alexander runs in and tackles Cole and gets disqualified. So, no, I'm not in favor of killing Adam Cole like they tried to do, but how the fuck they're going to get Felcher over if he can't beat a guy half his size that, let's face it, poor Adam, it just ain't happening.

And they booked that whole group into insensibility. So now Adam Cole almost won, but Josh Alexander runs. in and the DQ and they get heat and then they were trying to play the music for the same but the CD got stuck.

I didn't know they were still using CDs but what is the last thing that you ever heard that sounded like that na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na- That's a CD getting stuck, right? It could be a digital file. Something got stuck. So the music is a video.

music got stuck. So then they had to get more heat on poor old fucking Adam Cole. Then the music plays. And Brody King comes out with a chair and the heels bailout. Again, just one more time for the learning impaired. No, they didn't do that power bomb spot right. That's not what it was supposed to be. It was reckless and dangerous.

It was a miracle. freak luck that Adam Cole didn't at least get a concussion and not a broken neck. And you can apologize for your favorite wrestlers or your favorite wrestling company all you want. But no, that was ridiculous. It shouldn't have been done. Anything I missed before we go to part two of this saga, because now we got Alexander and Brody King at ringside. I guess I'll just say I don't like watching Adam Cole matches, especially against Kyle. Kyle's big.

For AW, he's a big guy, and he's put on muscle and size. Never wins. But he's a big guy with a heel manager, and Adam Cole's half his size, doesn't have a tan on his back. Just nothing. It just, it feels like you're watching. That's because he always does jobs. His chest is tan. It feels like you're watching an unhealthy guy.

And I always, you know, We've been saying that for years, like, I hope he's all right. The fact that we're still saying it, and we still are like, you know, there's a chance he may be sick. That's a problem. I, uh... The only reason that I say that kind of jokingly and go on with the criticism is because one would think that if he's having these wrestling matches that physically, he doesn't have a terminal illness. But...

So then Brody and Josh Alexander was the next match, and we can... came right back with the bell and they started out with a hockey fight. And then they did some bits with Brody King's t-shirt or, is it Alexander as Brodys. And then they went to the floor and Brody King, Alexander was right in front of him. And Brody King just threw a forearm and just potatoed him right in a fucking nose. And I'm like, how?

How? You had to do that on purpose. He wasn't moving and he fed you his face, just punch him in a chin. He threw a forearm, bam, and Taz was joking like, well, I came all the way from Idaho. So then they spent minutes on the floor, minutes on the floor. And I started fast forwarding because they weren't ever going to get in the fucking ring. during a picture and picture in the break they actually got in the ring but by the time they came back full they were trying to balance on the turnbuckles to do the oh i'm going to suplex you

off the wrong way to the floor oh no you're not and alexander almost fell off up there but then they went down to the apron and started teasing moves on the apron forever they still wasn't getting the ring. And then finally, Josh Alexander hit a German suplex to Brody King on the apron of the ring. And then they both took a bump

back to the floor. So I fast forwarded while they were still on the floor. Then they got back in the ring. They get back in the ring and Josh Alexander waistlocks Brody King with King's arms trapped to and gave him a German suplex. And I swear to God, 53 years of watching wrestling.

There's still new shit that I can see. I have never seen a son of a bitch be so unlucky that he can give another guy a German suplex and bust his own face open. That is exactly what happened. He German suplex, Brody King, I guess, the back of Brody King, King's head, hit

Josh Alexander's head? I don't know what would be sharp because it looked like somebody cut him with a razor. But what would be sharp on Brody King's fucking face? I don't think his wit is not sharp.

Does he have any sense, maybe? I'll tell you what, next time I got a ring with him, might start pulling him out. Because he fucking German suplexed the guy. he comes up he's fucking bleeding from his head like god damn somebody just fucking hit him with an axe so now Alexander is kind of stunned and brodie king just he's laying there in the middle of the ring but he knows what spot is next as soon as his opponent finishes bleeding to death so brodie

king rolled into position he rolled over twice very slowly and deliberately to get in position that so Alexander went to the top, did the moonsault, Brody King raised his knees. And boom, and he hit him, and then some kind of gut wrench over the shoulder into a fucking sideways pile driver. God damn with Brody King hit Alexander with that with the track record of this show so far, I would have never gone for. One, two, three. So they beat Alexander again. they ought to send Gabe Kidd out and let Gabe Kidd do Josh Alexander's jobs.

Nobody know the difference. Who's the last new person we saw in the show who didn't lose, even if it's the frat house, Kevin Knight? Well, I mean, they deserved it. The frat house deserved to lose, but when you bring a guy in that looks like halfway of something, he never wins either. How many stitches you think he took from that German suplex?

If you'd have called that finish, in the old days 20 years ago I'll German suplex you get some juice on myself and I go what what you're what

anyway we know go ahead no that was that match and of course I think that was a was that another one of the qualifiers for the big Kenny match

the four way with Kenny I don't even know I don't know we know we know Adam Cole is okay because in the back Kyle was doing an interview

said 10 words and Adam Cole jumped in and they had a big fake fight and security ran in. So Adam's all right, thank goodness. And then it was time for the last segment, and Brian just may break your heart. But Mercedes Moon came to the ring with 18 belts and her camel face on. And Tony Storm came to the ring in black and white. And I knew we were about ready to see 10 minutes of emoting between the two of them.

And I just can't. I just, I was done. I don't know. I don't care. Have I squandered my goddamn responsibility to the audience? I think you owe it to the listeners who rely on your review based on all your years and your expertise. I think you owe it to them to give this a well-thought-out review.

This is obviously building to what they called the biggest women's match in wrestling history. I think, you know, if you want, we could track. travel through time and you could go watch it and we can come back. How do you feel about it? Well, I'll tell you how I feel about it. I just can't. Did I miss an epic promo with a blistering angle that would do sellout business for this cataclysmic

confrontation? Or did I miss the two of them in their own individual ways doing some bad fucking acting auditions. I don't know if I think that's fair. I don't think Tony Storm is really a bad actress on an audition. I think she's got her rolled out and she's really good in it. It just doesn't belong here. Okay, then she's doing a good acting audition.

And the other one's doing a bad acting audition. The other ones come up with her own character and she really loves it. The rest of the world just needs to catch up, I guess. Read Monet. Did either one of them get lost in the woods? No, they stuck to their characters. Did anyone's team come in? No.

Well, and we didn't miss anything. Well, I watch. I want to, I want to, I want to see the reality show lost in the woods with Mercedes mode. We'll see if Destination America still in the wrestling business. Hey, if they found Bigfoot, they can find Josephine Camel. All right. Well, listen, let's go now. Yes.

Where are we going? I was going to, I was going to send you somewhere. Where would you like to go? Wherever you want to go. I want to know what the hell's going on at the Arcadian Vanguard network this week before we find out whether anybody watched this television show or not. Oh, another very big week. Some cool stuff I got to tell you about this week on the Arcadian Vanguard podcast network

and information about all the shows on Twitter at Super Podcasts or on Facebook. Facebook.com slash Arcadian Vanguard. Of course, the wrestling news. Both of us are having trouble with our pipes this week. Of course, the wrestling news each and every day. Find out what's happening in the pipeline of, professional wrestling news. Only the news, no opinion, no gossip,

no star ratings, no paywall. The Wrestling News.com, wherever you find your favorite podcast. Want to make mention, shut up and wrestle with Brian Solomon, a brand new series. He's starting on his show. A look back at the NWA champions, going back to the beginning. So this week, a look at Orville Brown. Hear that at S-U-A-W-Pod.com.

I look for Shut Up and Wessel with Brian. and Solomon, wherever you find, your favorite podcast. Brian, let me ask you this. Do you think that Orville Brown would have made it big time if the accident hadn't happened because has there ever been a big wrestling star named Orville? It would have been interesting. I mean, we were still years away from learning of Orville Redenbacher. That kind of normalized Orville relations with the American population.

Normalized Orville relations. But Orville Brown. find out about the first NWA National Wrestling Alliance. Of course, there was a National Wrestling Association, also a different National Wrestling Alliance, also the Midwest. There are lots of world champions everywhere. Lots of them. They all came together and said,

Orville, you're our guy, and he drove right off the road. Orville, Orville, he's our man. If he can't do it, we'll get another man to do it. Call Fez again. Call Fez! But hear about Orville Brown, learn about him. Put up the Fez signal, Commissioner Gordon. Once again,

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The mothership. Well, Mother, did anyone watch the episode of AEW from May 28th that we have titled The Blooper Reel, where they did their best to injure each other in very different, exciting, creative, and compassionate ways? Well, I'm pulling up the ratings right now, and just for the record, for anyone looking for the AEW roster review from the letter K on, that will be continuing on the drive-through this coming week. Yes, I have the notes standing by here who we've discarded and who we have kept so far and we're going to continue with that process.

I think we left off with Jeremiah Jackoff and now we're starting with the K's. I don't remember that, but let's go now to the ratings, A.W. Dynamite, May 28th, 2025 on TBS. From 8 to... Fucking, you broke... What are you laughing at them?

You're doing your silliness. God damn it. You fucking made me laugh after the fact. 8 to 10.05 p. Jeremiah Jackoff? 8 to 10.05 p.m. I think that's the musseling manager's name, isn't it? Jeremiah Jackoff? Jim, on average.

Yes. Watched by 636,000 viewers. Last week they fell in a hole and they come back to it's the same thing they do every fucking week. 626, 636, 606. I'm sick of 6. 1% up on the 4-week trend of 629. So like you said, right in that range. Last week was 575 and 11% hit, according to WrestleMania.

Let's go now to the quarterly hour breakdowns. These, once again, compiled by WrestleManiaics. Quarter 1, 8 to 8.8 15 p.m. The Adam page, Swerp. Strickland, Will Ospre live promo? 689,000 viewers. Oh, much lower to start than traditionally, which on the good note means they don't have as far to fall unless they hold up for the first hour and jump off a cliff in a second hour. But we will see what transpires. We will now move to quarter to 815, 8.30 p.m.

The continuation of the page Strickland-Ospere live promo. the start of Mark Briscoe, Speedball Mike Bailey and Willow Nightingale versus the Death Riders with picture and picture, 634,000 viewers. Okay, and again, it's only 55,000. Normally it's 100 and something thousand. So the good part, again, we're finding that silver lining when they don't start high, they don't have as far to fall. We're going out of quarter three.

8.30 to 8.45 p.m. The continuation of Briscoe Bailey and Nightingale versus the Death Riders with picture and picture ads. The Hertz Syndicate MJF promo and Penelope Ford's backstage promo followed by an ad break. 606,000 viewers. And they

pretty much need to stay within spitting distance of that to hit their average at this point. And so far they are kind of within the trend line, so nothing abnormal. Quarter four, eight, 45 to 9 p.m. The Rickache promo. Megan Bain. I forgot.

I glossed over that because he said nothing in a boring way, but the summation is he needs to have a group. Minions that will do his bidding to help out against all these other groups. So now old, old Ricochet is going to have a group too. That's all, that's exactly what we need is some more groups. well we go now to quarter four a 45 to 9 p.m. the ricochet promo filed by Megan Bain and Penelope Ford versus Anna J and Harley Cameron. And the invisible woman. Picture and picture ads.

599,000 viewers. That's a gift right there. They only lost 7,000 for that thing. And they're at the top of the hour. They should go up according to these numbers, I would think. And that's also the low point in the key depth. 1088,000 for those four women out there. We continue now to the big 9 o'clock hour, 9 to 9.15 p.m.

The continuation of Bain and Ford versus J. N. Cameron. The Mercedes Monet angle. What was the Mercedes Monet angle? I don't know. I don't know. And the ops versus the frat house, followed by an ad break, 637,000 viewers. There you go. So they picked up $38,000 at the top of the hour. They're back to the second best quarter that they've done all night. This is not losing mass percentages of the audience like they normally do, but they started with more of their faithful.

We go now to quarter six, 915 and 930 p.m. The Jamie Hater Tequila live angle, spelled T-H-E-K-E-E-K-E. The Mystico video and the start of Adam Cole versus Kyle Fletcher with picture and picture 648,000 viewers. Amazing. They picked up 11,000 in quarter six, which is usually where they're starting to fall off that cliff. So this is going to be pretty consistent. I wonder what time was halftime during the basketball game.

But anyway, back to the schedule here, the quarterly hour breakdown. quarter 7, 930 to 945 p.m. The continuation of Cole versus Fletcher, with the Don Callis family and Brody King in the post match, an ad break, and the start of Josh Alexander versus Brody King with picture and picture 618,000 viewers. Well, again, that's a gift. That's only 30,000 down for that. And I have a feeling that people are going to give up quickly

in the next segment. Well, the final segment, and I remind you we have a five-minute overrun, quarter eight, nine, 45 to 10 p.m. Continuation of Alexander v. King and the Mercedes Monet Tony Storm Live promo 636,000 viewers. Oh!

Five-minute overrun, 705,000 viewers. Okay, now, I call bullshit there, but 636 for those two, they ought to be turning cartwheels. They actually gained another 18,000, but 69,000 for the five-minute overrun, modern family has not been that popular here lately. And I'm sorry, but I don't believe that they would have tuned in

just for five minutes of these two continue to talk to each other. But if you do what we used to do and take off the first quarter that always starts the highest and take off the overrun because that's artificial, then you have pretty much got 600 to 630,000 people. That's their base audience. Yeah, they've been steady with this. Even the key demo, it doesn't really fluctuate too much from week to week. It's steady. this is their cable base right now.

Who knows what Max really is or isn't. Some people say it's... I think he's a member of the Hurt's syndicate now. Well, some people say it's one of the biggest sports shows on Max and other people say, well, Max points out the other ones that are bigger. So who knows? But those are the ratings and they're kind of... You know, they're in a place right now.

We'll see what happens after the NBA playoffs if that really changes anything. But right now, this kind of... This seems like the base, like you said. that's who they are and that's where they are and that's what they've done and that's why we said that because we tell you all about it here

on our various programming Brian has this program come to an end based on the way you just said everything you just said what you said yes well I'll tell you what my tongue got lapped over my eye teeth and I couldn't see what I was saying but if you will come back next week folks to the

experience we'll say it all again and in just a couple of days on the drive-through we'll say more stuff that we can then talk about that we said but i've said enough for now so in parting for brian i'm jim thank you fuck you and bye everybody