Jim Cornette Experience - Episode 588: The Hostile Land Of Dixie

Episode Date: July 2, 2025

This week on the Experience, Jim looks at his TNA agent reports from 2009, as well as an old letter he wrote to Dr. Tom Prichard about a pest! Plus Jim reviews AEW Dynamite! Also, Jim talks CM Punk in... Saudi Arabia, Kast Media's monthly report for May, custard, small managers, ratings, and more! Thanks to our episode sponsors: HELIX:  Go to helixsleep.com/jce for 27% Off Sitewide exclusive for listeners of the Jim Cornette Experience! 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.

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:04 Like the midnight and the rock and roll. He's in a fight for wrestling soul using a racket and some mind control. He's in Kornet. The keys to the future. Hell by Nets. Fornett experience today. What happened on AEW this week? You tell me and we'll both know.
Starting point is 00:01:10 Plus more on my adventures in the hostile land of Dixie, Cata, that is. And miscellaneous tomfoolery for everyone and joining me Hawaiian Brian the podcasting line The King of the Arcadian Vanguard podcast network Mr. Co-host to you, he never went way down south on Dixie. Be great, Brian last everybody. Aloha, Jim.
Starting point is 00:01:32 A pleasure to be here once again. I did not go down on Dixie. I might have gotten a push like Hernandez if I had. Oh, now he was a fine, upstanding person. He did not partake in any of that thing. There's never been a Jewish Hernandez. It would have been a real switch on things. it uh well you could have been the hernandez brothers the hormanos hernandez i thought that was
Starting point is 00:01:57 japanese or japanese jesus christ i thought that was spanish for herman for the hermanos is apparently his brothers is that correct do you know anything about this oh no i thought you were right the first time it was for japanese jesus christ oh it was jesus all right anyway come on we're going to have fun today hot and wet Way down south in the land of cotton panties. You know, I went out to dinner the other night. I told you I was going to do this, and I indeed did that. I indeed did it.
Starting point is 00:02:33 Went out to dinner. It was Stacy's mom's birthday. She's a lady, so I won't mention how many. But she wanted to go to Outback Steakhouse, which I haven't been in just a blue moon, as Mama Cornette used to say. and I'll tell you when we were traveling, if I was by myself, I wouldn't go to the trouble of sitting down somewhere
Starting point is 00:02:56 and spending that much time and that, you know, I could be in my underwear. But if Stace was with me, we would always on a long trip, we'd find an exit with a Hilton property and an outback steakhouse. And that would just make everything swell. And boy, I ate my, just, I've dody,
Starting point is 00:03:18 even have a simile. I was so frazzled after I ate that. I was full for two days. It didn't stop me from eating more the next day, but I didn't want to. I had to make myself. When's the last time you went to Outback Steakhouse there, Mady? Outback Steakhouse? Jesus, I don't know. 2002, three? Oh, come on! It's not a place I regularly go to. What, do you, you don't love the Outback? I see, I see! You don't love a good shrimp on the Bobby, mate? Come on, you get, the blooming onion. Do you ever see that movie Shrimp on a Barbie with Cheech Marin after him and Chong broke up?
Starting point is 00:03:55 Cheech Marin. Or whatever you want to call him. He goes to Australia and he falls in love with a rich girl and she falls in love with him. And then everyone does, I forget if it was Rombada or Maniana. There's a dance at the end and they all do it. The end. I'm going to tell you, if there was a, if a Cheech and Chong movie came out after 1979, I've probably I probably missed.
Starting point is 00:04:19 After the first one? After the first one, I probably missed the rest of them. Well, no, I haven't been the Outback Steakhouse. I remember they had a steak. Yeah, that's right. It's a movie called Carlito's Way. What's it about?
Starting point is 00:04:35 Well, it's about this guy named Carlito and the way he does things. No, it's a one. They've got to, where do I start? They're a fine establishment. They're upstanding people. They're very, very consistent, I've noticed, from restaurant to restaurant. You can get the occasional SOB in every crowd, as they used to say.
Starting point is 00:04:58 But they're very, and also now, guess what they got? They got the blooming chicken. They take the big old chicken breast and they flatten it out real good and they roll it and bathe it in the blooming onion batter, seasoning, frying. mix or whatever the fuck you might want to term it. And then they fry it that way and then they give it to you with the blooming onion sauce. Oh, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. It was a man, and a bunch of fine appetizers, including the Cucobura wings that are just
Starting point is 00:05:34 different from, from just any other wings you're going to have. But nevertheless, and then we went over next door to Grater's ice cream. And I had some, I splurged and I had some ice cream too. In a cup. Well, it was more of a bowl-type-shaped apparatus. I wouldn't call this a cup. Was everyone else getting cones like a normal person? Well, they got the little cup that I guess you would call it,
Starting point is 00:06:00 whereas I got a, it was a long, oblong thing that looked like a battleship. But Sam, Sam over at Graters, listens to the podcast, by the way. He's a fine young man. He's one of the go-getters of the younger generation. Hello, Sam. Out there working to get ahead. Hello, Sam. One of these days, he's probably, he's going to own the place.
Starting point is 00:06:23 Which place? Well, the whole damn deal. He'll take over graders. And he'll own the store. He'll own the plant where they manufacture the ice cream. He'll own the cows that make the milk. He'll own the goddamn strawberry trees. Where they grow the strawberries and the sprinkled trees.
Starting point is 00:06:44 He'll own, are they bushes? Where they grow the sprinkles. own all that stuff. He's getting an early start. I better be nice to him then. How's he going to accomplish all this? Well, he's getting an early start. He's a young man out there in the working world now. earning his way, learning a trade. He's learning the ice cream trade. The fuck, you've got to admire the gumption. You think he'll ever take a step up and go to custard? I don't know. Custard is a tricky business.
Starting point is 00:07:15 It's about the eggs. Because some people, you know, and see, that's the thing. They shouldn't have named at custard, to be honest with you. Because if you just ask anybody walking down a street, hey, you want some ice cream? Yeah, everybody's face is going to light up, right? But if you ask somebody, hey, you want some custard? Well,
Starting point is 00:07:34 that just sounds like shit. It sounds like 120 years ago. That's what it sounds like. Well, it rhymes with mustard, first of all, and who wants mustard on a hot day? And then custard, what's, what do you make custard out of and what's happened to it? It sounds like it's some kind of
Starting point is 00:07:50 fermenting process or a curdling. Custard and curdling is not that. So then it just, it just sounds just nasty. Like it would coat your mouth and it would, it would taste like a fucking dirty Dalmatian just pulled his foot out of it. You know what's weird on this topic of ice cream that you brought up? Custard?
Starting point is 00:08:11 If you look at the grocery aisle, the things that you think are, I mean, that must be ice cream. It's a cone. And there's ice cream that looks like ice cream. there and it's wrapped in chocolate. A frozen substance. But it doesn't say ice cream anywhere on the package. They're not allowed to call it ice cream because technically, however they're concocting it, it's not the proper ingredients of ice cream.
Starting point is 00:08:34 So it just says like frozen dessert treat. Yes, a frozen dessert treat. Or it's like American cheese, Kraft American cheese says a pasteurized processed cheese food. a cheese food I never even picked up on that one actually yeah and that's some of the tastiest stuff actually I just regular old ice cream is a little bland
Starting point is 00:09:03 now that they've got the the dessert treats that they can put all kinds of extra shit in there well they're just swell you just take a spoon to them some bitches Anyhow, we got a big show today. Can't you tell? I'll have you know.
Starting point is 00:09:22 I want maybe later on you can tell me what AEW should start giving out study notes. And after the shows, or maybe even before the show, so you could follow along. And maybe even do some charts and some history. Here's what you need to research so you know everybody's. standings and relationships in Japan from 15 years ago in a third match on the card. And also some pie charts would be good, I think. Pie charts are always good.
Starting point is 00:09:58 So we can kind of analyze what the fuck is going on with these people. There's a million of them. They run around like ants in one of those. Did you ever wonder? Probably not. Did you ever have in school back before they had actual money to spend on things apparently. You'd get the ant farm thing
Starting point is 00:10:20 where you could look through the glass and see the ants doing their thing. We didn't have it in our school or any of the classes I was in, but they were still a thing, but it was kind of in its last days, I think, as being a cultural phenomenon. Sort of like the wrestling bear
Starting point is 00:10:34 went out about the same time. But yeah, they look like ants to me now. It's an ant farm over there. And we're also going to talk about the last week on the program we just started the TNA agent report thing it's it's getting closer to the point where I get fired so we'll do a little bit more of that and etc but I found something else I teased you with this Brian here I'm rattling the papers I teased you with this earlier this was a letter and I this is the era where I have the originals because we were facts and everything
Starting point is 00:11:14 right? It's like two from pages. Rick Bassman, you recognize that name, right? I do, and it's funny to bring us up every, I don't know, every year or so someone will post something like, hey, look what he said, he's responding to Jim Cornett, he's challenging Jim Cornett, and I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah. I thought he'd been, I thought he had had some type of ill health, been hospitalized,
Starting point is 00:11:44 putting a home somewhere or something. I haven't heard about him in years, because this is from 2004. Okay. But for the people who don't know, and that's probably a lot of you, his claim to fame was the picture
Starting point is 00:12:00 with Ultimate Warrior and Sting. He's the guy in the early, mid-80s, 84, whatever it was, he had some kind of gym in California and Los Angeles and he was looking to somehow get in a wrestling business. You want to get in a wrestling business, kid.
Starting point is 00:12:20 And he had, staying in Warrior, Steve Borden and Jim Hylwig, were two of the bodybuilders that he recruited from the local Southern California gyms to try to, it, the early publicity pictures, you've probably seen him, Brian, is him with these four muscle guys, right? It was like Power Team USA or some kind of shit. And anyway, the other two flaked off somewhere, whatever the fuck, who knows. And Sting and Warrior, the future Sting and Warrior said, let's get the fuck out of here.
Starting point is 00:13:00 Yes, let's get the fuck out of here because they just sent pictures out. And bless Jerry Jarrett, he'll take some green talent that'll work for cheap and a hard. heartbeat and that's when they went to Memphis and began their careers but he bassman like i think got them tights and had pictures taken in a ring was the total of his because you've seen the early video of staying a warrior and anyway then later on he set up some kind of wrestling school out in california in los angeles in the 90s and he was involved in some of those inside pro wrestling secrets documentaries that were going around where they showed everybody how to do everything before that was it was somewhat frowned upon still in that
Starting point is 00:13:53 environment let's say years ago but also i'm trying to remember the timeline but before i even had any sideways issues with him from o vw i'm thinking it was probably 97ish or something The first time I'd ever see him in person, I believe, as fucking guy shows up at a TV we're doing out there, the WWF television. And one of the dark matches, they've got two guys from whatever he's running. And one of them,
Starting point is 00:14:32 man, I'm trying to think of it is Howard. Tom Howard was his name. I remember him, yeah. And he was a big guy with a nice physique, you know, to 30, 40, whatever he was, and blonde hair kind of like, you know, early staying maybe, and
Starting point is 00:14:50 he would look at him and say, well, he should be a Viking instead of Ludwig Borga and he's not a psychopath, right? And he could do some shit. He was pretty good. But his partner was this big cartoon muscle. He looked even bigger than the early pictures you see of Warrior.
Starting point is 00:15:08 I didn't know how the fuck that they didn't have to custom make this guy's fucking clothing from scratch. He was just ridiculously big. And they're going to be a team. And I was like, ugh. And then there's Bassman. He's going to go out and manage him.
Starting point is 00:15:27 Is there a manager, Ricky B? This little bald peanut-headed dip shit is like five-foot fucking two or whatever. And he's out there with this cartoon muscle guy important. And Tom Howard's doing some shit. And he's trying to make most of his time. and there was two minutes of Tom Howard, where if you thought, you know, wow, he might be worth something, but it was weighed down by the other five minutes of this fucking muscle guy
Starting point is 00:15:54 might have had three wrestling lessons, and the manager didn't know how to manage, and nobody knew who the fuck he was or what he was supposed to be doing anyway. And, blah. But then, in the late 90s, Bruce started going to Bruce Pritchard, Brother Bruce, Brother, Brother, La, started going out there and visiting his school. And the only explanation I gave you at one time, he said, well, he flies me out and takes me out there and everything.
Starting point is 00:16:28 He was, it was like a vacation for Bruce to go from Connecticut to Los Angeles to look at guys at a wrestling school so he could go out in L.A. and be blinded and dined by Rick Baccard. And I'm like, I tell you, I'll stay here. You bring some bitches to me. But anyway, and to be fair, they did find Sina, they didn't find Victoria because they were in L.A. in a gym, right? That's what Bassman kind of like, he got into wrestling business the same way the people who buy a McDonald's franchise get in the restaurant business. you know it just here I've got a gym good looking people in California come here and
Starting point is 00:17:14 I'll teach you absolutely nothing but he was also doing a deal where he was signing guys the contracts where if they got a deal and they got a career and made money he got part of their money and there's several people I won't mention their names were actively for a while trying to get out of that so then while we're here, I'm here in OVW, right? This was, I'm going to say, again, early 2000s, not sure of the exact year, but we're running already. We're running the shows at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom.
Starting point is 00:17:56 And Bassman's deal out there at one point had had a developmental contract, but I don't even remember why they canceled it, but they canceled it for something else that he was doing or was going on. But we hear from our people at Six Flags over here, Kentucky Kingdom, hey, we just got this brochure in the mail from somebody. And they're saying they can bring us wrestling. And there's a picture. This is when Sina was here as a prototype.
Starting point is 00:18:28 So I'm thinking it may have been goddamn, it had to be 2001, right? Maybe 2002 before he left. And his picture is on the fucking cover of the brochure. while he's wrestling here on their shows. And I said, what the fuck? And anyway, come to find out, Bassman and his gimmick school out there had sent brochures to every Six Flags amusement park in a country
Starting point is 00:19:00 and claiming that he had an affiliation with WWF, he did at one time, but he didn't currently at that point, and put the most recognizable fucking piece of talent that he had produced on the cover, which was still just a guy in developmental for us in OVW. So I called the office.
Starting point is 00:19:22 And I told Bruce us to just a little fucking peanut-ed a piece of shit. Number one, he's saying he's still hooked up with you guys. And number two, he's fucking with our six flags people. And whatever Bruce did,
Starting point is 00:19:37 I then called the number on the brochure, which I assume was Mr. Bassman, and I told him something of the effective if he ever got in contact with our, you do whatever you want with Six Flags New Jersey, motherfucker. But if you ever contact our fucking people again, they will find you in a ditch. So I've always had a fond, you know, relationship with this guy, right? Yeah, you haven't ever gotten to the letter yet. It's already a great story.
Starting point is 00:20:10 So anyway, I didn't remember that this happened until again, looked at this letter, but the letter is to Tom Pritchard. And I still don't remember all of it, but apparently it happened because I'm responding to it. And this is from April of 2004. And it says, Dear Doc, Dr. Tom, to say I was stunned to hear of Rick Bassman's business offer would be an understatement.
Starting point is 00:20:41 So I'm responding on papers there could be no misrepresentation of my stand on this issue. Professionally, I think it's a wonderful idea for the OVW champion and myself to travel to UPW and in some heel way protecting the credibility of the champion in promotion. screw the UPW champion out of the title with an angle afterward to shoot a rematch for the following week. In that match as a professional, the OVW champion would put the UPW champion over clean after my interference had been foiled by any UPW baby face, parentheses S or faces.
Starting point is 00:21:22 Before the match via the internet, I could in my own inimitable way convince the internet marks that no matter what they think about wrestling, or think they know. I hate Rick Bassman. And shit would probably take place at the event and then I was bringing a seven-foot giant, Matt Morgan, to humiliate the UPW champion.
Starting point is 00:21:45 During the week as visiting wrestling school trainer, it would be natural for me to conduct seminars, explain psychology to the local students. So that was the offer that he was trying to pitch, hey, because I'd probably knocked him at that point, point somewhere, called the office on him for something. Hey, what about if he brings the OVW champion out? We do an angle with his guy and my guy and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? So I'm responding to the idea that he is pitched with what I think is a very professional
Starting point is 00:22:20 response, correct? As far, yes. Well, I continue. That says a professional. personally this little cretan has so much heat with danny davis and myself that i cannot begin to describe it exposing not only the business but how it's worked on national tv documentaries and train at home tapes i forgot about that he was doing that too taking percentages of the boys hard-earned money after they paid him to go to his school etc and again the six flags who is this little fart that he is qualified to run a wrestling school to begin with.
Starting point is 00:22:59 He's never taught anyone anything except how to write a check, and he would not even be a blip on the wrestling radar screen, if not for his habit of smartening up everyone in the world of running a fast food wrestling school. Anyway, and if I did conduct a seminar, my advice to everyone there would be to run from this shister as fast as you can and try to find a legitimate school. so that actually there's again there's a page two personally there's no amount of money on earth that would convince me to in any way lend credibility to bassman's feeble attempts to ruin the wrestling profession but as a professional in the words of ted de bison i see every man has his price you want to hear this oh let's hear what your prices yeah this is like one of those hayman pitches well i offered Jim Cornett and the OVW champions live appearances,
Starting point is 00:23:58 the trip, angle, promotion of same, matches and seminars. He also pitched, well, he can do a seminar way he's out here. And all ancillary elements is $50,000. A cashier's check for 50% of the money would have to arrive in my hands at least two weeks prior to the dates, blah, blah, blah, contracts, cashier. check, balance on arrival, cover Matt and Matt Morgan's talent fees, transportation, lodging, and meals, all of which we would arrange on our own. And if there are any part of this arrangement
Starting point is 00:24:32 would be reneged on, a seven-foot giant would wreak some type of havoc, and I would explain it on the internet for the rest of time. And I said, as I'm ambivalent about the answer, either way, I will await your reply if any of this proposal. I don't, I don't have any other people work on it, so I don't think I heard back. See, Matt Morgan needed someone like this to talk for him on TV, even though he could talk, but what, you're building this up. I want to see Matt Morgan go out there and start. Yes.
Starting point is 00:25:05 Anywho, so that, uh, it's always something. Every time I stick my hand in the pile here, I find something to remind me of somebody else that tweaked me off at some point in time. It's so interesting, too, because obviously he would have known that he tweaked you off before he said whatever he said to Tom Pritchard, so that Tom Pritchard ended up as the intermediary or whatever you want to say in this, the liaison, attempted liaison in this situation. Yes. He had to know that, but it makes a question than anything after that.
Starting point is 00:25:36 And it makes you know, there are other people out there. How much of what they say is what you do, just saying what you think and what you do versus, you know, hey, we're actually working an angle. You know, now that we're talking, why don't you come work for me? why do you come appear on this show? That's what the Young Bucks. Remember that's what the Young Bucks thought years ago? Well, see, we were never even talking.
Starting point is 00:25:58 I never talked to this fucking guy. But I think, as I said, I think that I had either knocked him or Stoogged on him to the office recently enough that he had this idea because he's a mark. You know, it'll get some attention, hey, let's do an angle with the developmental and blah, blah, blah, and everything.
Starting point is 00:26:17 And if people will believe it, Yeah, I'll make them believe it all right. But anyway. When I did Yama pit fighting, he was representing MMA fighters at that point. That's right. Yeah. That's right. He was doing that.
Starting point is 00:26:32 It just... Can I tell you something? How many different brands of jock can he sniff? I'm sorry, go ahead. I'd put money down that he was leaking stuff to Dave Meltzer. Because Dave Meltzer had some like shit in there that was almost right. But it was like, there was like weird things that were awful. Almost like someone didn't really know what was going on.
Starting point is 00:26:50 And I was like, okay. Who's representing this fighter and this fighter, this fighter, this fighter, and this fighter, and knows Dave Meltzer. Well, I don't think you can actually accuse him of being a leak. He's more like an open fucking fire hydrant to get attention or publicity or credibility or leach one of those things off somebody. But nevertheless, hey, Rick, if you're still alive and they haven't confined you, how are you? Love to see you never. Well, you know, the other thing, well, then one other thing, I'll just say, say, though, even the offer, after Sina, I mean, forgive me for not knowing my UPW history or
Starting point is 00:27:30 whatever it is, who did wrestle? Did they have a champion? Did they have anyone of note? Was it anything like, like CZW had a little bit of a following when Ring of Honor and CZW did their thing? That's why it worked. I don't know who any of his folks were at that point in time. Let's do a cross-country inter-promotional feud between OVW and UPW? He was wanting to get over with the office. That's what you in some kind of way and the office and or the internet.
Starting point is 00:28:01 Not actually like it would sell large numbers of tickets for any reason. It was just some fucking markish thing. Do you think people inherently like seeing like a big baby face beat the shit out of a small like tiny heel manager?
Starting point is 00:28:20 Even if the person's like smaller than sometimes you would see someone small, I hope that person doesn't get hurt. But if they were a heel, you know what I mean? Like if they're a heel, then it's like, okay, I'd like to see him get punted or something. Yeah. Do you think that's something that we don't see enough of in wrestling, like the tiny, like tiny heel manager that you just can't wait to see him get his
Starting point is 00:28:38 ass kicked than he does? Well, yeah, definitely. I think we should see more. We don't see any of that. I mean, a tiny heel manager right there that eliminates poor Paul. I just turn it to this again. I just said the tiny heel manager. I mean, when you take his gravitational pull, it's hard to get away from him.
Starting point is 00:29:05 But no, yes, there should be tiny heel managers or wishy-washy, cowardly, you know, physically unimpressive heel managers that get to shit kicked out of them. but not every small person can be a heel manager that you want to see the shit get kicked out of it. They got to be good at it. That's, there's the rub.
Starting point is 00:29:29 Like the brief period of time where Harvey Whippelman was a manager and like kind of the top heel manager in WWF as crazy as that sounds, he looked really small because it was Sid, Kamala. Yeah, he's really small. And he's really small, but it looked really small, but he never took, like, if he took any bumps, I don't remember them. There weren't a lot of memorable. Like Jimmy Hart, I could see just,
Starting point is 00:29:52 I could see his little kicks, and then I could just see him taking these awkward falls all the time. Well, I love downtown Bruno. Mama says it bees that way sometimes, baby. Love Harvey, but he was not Bobby Heenan when it came to the physical aspects. Am I being nice enough? Sometimes you could have hurt him.
Starting point is 00:30:17 he was very frail, but you didn't want to bump him sometimes. Hilda brand would have bumped. Well, oh my God, he'd have been a fucking human super ball out there, but that was, see,
Starting point is 00:30:28 the Pittsburgh gods gave Bruno the mouth and Brian the fucking work. And in each of them, the 135 pounds of the 270, they would have been in it. You can figure out some kind of way to surgically graft. Um,
Starting point is 00:30:46 where were we going with that? We were, we were going, we were in Jim's letters. Letters to Jim. Oh, but no, but no. I finished the letter, but we were about the small managers. Tiny, tiny managers. Tiny, tiny little small. Almost, you can't see them.
Starting point is 00:31:05 Could Lord Little Brook have been an effective heel manager? Like the royal family really didn't take off, but the idea of a diabolical heel manager, but it's also a little person? like Mr. fucking evil or what was the guy? No, not saying that's small. That's very small. No, Dr. Loveless on the Wild Wild West.
Starting point is 00:31:25 But see, hey, think about this. Here's the perfect analogy of why what you just said would not work. And I'm agreeing with you, it probably wouldn't work. Lord Littlebrook didn't take off it. The royal family was not meant to be a top heel getting team. It was Jack Victory and Rip Morgan
Starting point is 00:31:43 and the office, J.R., everybody loved Littlebrook, that it's a feature thing, right? But you couldn't bump adult, not adult, but a goddamn, large, normal-sized, giant person, couldn't be bumping a little person,
Starting point is 00:32:01 even if they got that kind of heat. And that's the thing in the Wild Wild West, Jim West beat the shit out of 15 people every episode. He never once punched Dr. Lovelace, never struck him, never physically fucking manipulated him because that, no, then that's bad, that's bad heat. So you, but you can have a small,
Starting point is 00:32:29 if it sounds like the world's largest midget, you can have a small, normal size person, the smaller the better, but if they cross into the little person territory, you can't touch them. So take a yardstick to these some bitches for you hire them. That's what I'm trying to say. Is that it? Thank you for the clarification, yes.
Starting point is 00:32:54 Well, I just wanted to be clear on these things. Damn it. Anyway, you know what's clear and let's move on? Because I got something I want to ask you about is that we're currently up and running now at Jimcornaut.com and Cornett's collectibles. Hotchk's Featherbottom is back in the game again, baby. as they say on the knee replacement commercials. He and his family appreciate, as I said,
Starting point is 00:33:20 the well wishes and the condolences over the past couple weeks, but I've got him back in the salt mines or the action figure mines or whatever it may be. And you can now order with complete peace of mind from Jimcornet.com that your order will be processed in a hotchkis is pumping them out. So if you'd like Hotchkis to pump you and get on Jimcornaut.com and go to Cornett's collectibles and he'll pump for any purchase.
Starting point is 00:33:54 And they can get shirts now for the shows, possibly where they are currently listening to us right now on whatever platform that might be. By some element of the internet witchery, Brian, tell them how they can get the new shirts. That's right. You can pump yourself up with some fine, Kearney, Kearney, Kearney T-Shire. shirts available, corny t-shirts available, wherever you find your favorite t-shirts on the shop app. Look for Jim Cornett, look for Arcadian Vanguard. Go to Arcadian Vanguard.com directly
Starting point is 00:34:23 to get a whole line of shirts, drive-thru logos, Travis Heckel artwork, more to come. And, of course, the easiest way, go to YouTube. Any of the videos has a link to the store. You'll see various t-shirts underneath. Click one of those and support the show. Tell everyone else to go to hell. well no you can tell them to fuck off or kiss their ass or just you know
Starting point is 00:34:47 wherever the whatever fits best the road to hell may be paved with too many people trying to get in there now you may want to just tell them to fuck off speaking of the road to hell um yeah our friend Colin Thompson over there he's the major domo over there at cast media well he's got a new front man now like Roy Welch used to put in the new territories he'd open up. But nevertheless, we've given some updates on him, and you can find the deposition videos where he looks so uncomfortable on the Arcadian Vanguard YouTube channel.
Starting point is 00:35:25 Just go to that, and you'll see a bunch of deposition videos. But he's obviously, he's back in the game. He's got a plan. He's going to reorganize himself. He wants to get back heavy into the podcast, business and so we have we've been mentioning the press release he put out where he said he wants to be a beacon of transparency and truth and try to avoid the mistakes he's made in the future. And so in the interest of that transparency, something you can see practically through like it
Starting point is 00:36:01 ain't even there. And part of this little bankruptcy deal that we've been involved in with him, not part of the other little lawsuit that we're involved in with him. but he has to supply a, is it monthly, Brian? Is this the period of time we're talking about a monthly report? Every month. Every month he's got a supply report on how much came in and how much went out and how things are going. And maybe this might be, if you're looking to getting business with Colin Thompson or invest in his, you know,
Starting point is 00:36:37 maybe he, hopefully he can make a ton of money here and pay back the $6 million. dollars he owes people us amongst us being two of them of those millions of dollars um i hope he just tears it up but you know maybe if you're thinking about doing business with him you can listen to this and we'll keep you updated every month or so on on how he's doing and uh brian you know how to read these documents better than i do but did i give a halfway decent summation of what what we're talking about here you did i guess just a couple things before we're we get going with this, and this is, again, public record. So it's not like we're exposing anything that anyone can't access. We just have inside information that could talk about it. I think a couple
Starting point is 00:37:20 important things to note. One, we mentioned previously that it wasn't known to the public that he was working with a company called James Media. He told the bankruptcy court that Cast Media was an operations consultant running the operations of this company, as well as getting ad sales money, and we've seen the details. We have the contracts. And... Yes, and let me just jump in. That was another fun thing about this whole long,
Starting point is 00:37:50 grueling bankruptcy process that made Colin Tegg's jacket office many times was that we were able to find out that there was not just a level of incompetence, which there was, but there was also a level of things that
Starting point is 00:38:06 we could take action on. And we got that information during the course, of what, toward the end of some of it came in of this proceeding. That's right. That's right. We found out that we thought things may have happened and it turns out it did happen and it turns out it was a specific
Starting point is 00:38:22 person. It wasn't just cast media did something. No, it was a specific person and thankfully this is one of those areas the state of California actually has something where people like Jim and myself and actually other podcasters there are other people who
Starting point is 00:38:38 invested money. I mean, anyone, really. really can bring action against the actual individuals who committed the fraud, did the deed, did doing the thing, whatever you want to say. Deped out the back, Jack. I brought up the James Media thing. He's now listed on their website as the chief operating officer, Colin at Jamesmedia.com. Is James Media still representing like Frank Sinatra and Queen Elizabeth and
Starting point is 00:39:09 Major names. According to this website here, we got Pod Save America, we got Call Her Daddy, we got Club Random with Bill Maher, Joe Rogan show, the Trevor Noah, What Now Show,
Starting point is 00:39:19 the Adam Carolla show, Jordan Harbinger, whatever this guy's name is, Lady Gang, Theo Vaughn, Sarah Silverman, Julia Lee Drefis, Jim Rome.
Starting point is 00:39:31 What percentage of those people know that they're on the James Media website? Have we got that information yet? What percentage of those people have ever heard of James Media. But we'll get to that. Again, there's going to be a lot more in the future, but let's get back to cast media, and let's get back to the monthly report. And, you know, I hate to steal a line from you, but I'm going to,
Starting point is 00:39:52 and I hate to say I told you so. Uh-oh. Like we told the judge, the plan he confirmed is dead on arrival, in our estimation. Sure enough, cast media for the month of May, the month was just past May. 2025, as soon as the plan got confirmed, lost $25,572 for the month. Now let's break this down. Bring it down. And there may be some other issues with some of the things that are checked here, but we'll get to that error.
Starting point is 00:40:27 The lawyers will. The opening balance on all cast media accounts for May had $108,228. and 50 cents. So that's what they started with. Total cash receipts, how much they received during the month. $34,711.30 cents. Total cash disbursements, the money going out. 60,000, $283.00. The net cash flow is negative. $25,572.272.20 leaving cash on hand at the end of the month of $82,656.50. And 30 cents.
Starting point is 00:41:20 Well, now, just cousin Brian, that just don't add up. And now, but here's the thing, if he's not given anybody that he owes the money from the $6 million from beforehand, and not giving him any money
Starting point is 00:41:39 where's all that $60,000 going? What does he do with that? Well, let's get that information here. And of course, none of this includes the filings that were just made, I believe. None of this is in here. The filings that were just made to the court by his bankruptcy attorney
Starting point is 00:41:58 and the trustee asking for their money. Oh, they hadn't paid a lawyer? Well, he's been paying installments, and we'll talk about this. He's been paying lawyers for a long time, but I mean, apparently not, they're needing to ask for their money.
Starting point is 00:42:12 But it's just more money coming out of the general pot that was sold to gullible creditors as you're going to get something. You're going to get nothing. Let's go back to this. How much have you paid in the last month in professional fees related to the bankruptcy case? $20,000.
Starting point is 00:42:32 And that all went to, we believe, his lawyer Leslie Cohn in Santa Monica. Fine City, Santa Monica. How much has been paid in professional fees related to the bankruptcy since the case was filed? Up to this point, he had paid $134,148. And 27 cents. He claims that they have unpaid bills of $28,132.22. And $28,000. However, money owed to him, or excuse me, to cast media, $88,000.
Starting point is 00:43:06 279 and 88 cents. If we go down here to the breakdown, here's the money that came in. From subscription sales via Apple, for people that subscribe to whatever fucking awful content in my estimation, he's trying to get people to pay for. And if you don't believe me,
Starting point is 00:43:25 go read the reviews every one of his shows. People think it's AI. People don't even think it's real people anymore. That's how bad the quality is. But anyway, subscription sales to Apple. $3,637. and $58. Soundstack
Starting point is 00:43:42 advertising sales. This would probably be programmatic sales. $753. $11. You know, there's people that stand in front of stores with those sandwich board signs
Starting point is 00:43:56 that make more money in the course of a week that he got in a month from his, all right. Micro dose, which I believe would be a sponsor. Yeah, he's, He needed to do that during the deposition.
Starting point is 00:44:08 Well, they are a sponsor apparently of his programs, and they paid $2,625 in the month of May. Here's one payment from James Media for advertising sales, $25,481.96. So the attention getting some of money that I've heard so far has something to do with these James, media folks. Yeah, James Media, which all of a sudden popped up as a company in the summer of last year, and then we believe Colin testified that he was out in California meeting with them right after that. And cast media, although Colin Thompson is now listed as her chief operating officer, isn't that the guy you want running your operations, especially your books? Colin Thompson secured a deal with them, he says, for cast media, but now his name is listed there.
Starting point is 00:45:04 but they paid him that. Podcast 1. Advertising sales. $103.77. Now, to be fair, there's a little more from them. Advertising sales from James Media, $1,976.48. And one more time from Podcast 1,133.40 cents.
Starting point is 00:45:31 or that podcast one relationship has really paid off for him with a gold mine. Yeah, and again, he says here he's expecting a lot of money, and I believe it has here from podcast one. He's expecting a lot of money. You know what? A lot of people expect a lot of things, but as Mama Cornett used to say, and I paraphrase, expect in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up first. Yeah, Podcast One apparently, according to this, owes him 23,000.
Starting point is 00:46:01 and $444 over 91 days negative $737.37 between $61 and 90 days. $8,000 between 31 and 60 days. Another 9,000 between 1 and 30. And it says here current is 12,000. Well, it sounds like podcast. Well, finder fee type of things and stuff like that pile up. Yeah, or maybe the shows just don't have an audience and aren't generating the income.
Starting point is 00:46:31 Let's go here to what he spent money on. What cast media spent money on. Finuciary maintenance $25. Wait a minute. That was an overdraft fee. Well, that's what that was from East West Bank. Colin Thompson for reimbursements. His East West Bank went south.
Starting point is 00:46:58 I'm sorry. I'll be two shows on Friday. For reimbursements, the contractor, Colin Thompson, received $712.61. A freelancer, the production cost for Sarah McLaughlin, two times in a row, $1,300. Abby Newhouse, another freelancer for production, $1,800. Colin Thompson, contractor, CEO for April 13th through April 26th, $6,923. And I think that's an important thing to note.
Starting point is 00:47:38 Contractor. He's no longer an employee of the company he owns and is the chief creative officer, I believe of. He's a contractor. This is some kind of fucking AEWVP kind of shit. He's working for himself. Well, like that old country song, I'm my own grandpa. Leslie Cohn Law.
Starting point is 00:48:00 Legal services, $20,000. Ouch, he's on a payment plan, I would imagine. Google Office Expense Software and Apps, $789.60. There's someone named Connor M. Powell, a freelancer for production. He received $27.50, and then this next one is in italics, so I'm not sure exactly what that signifies here. $2,88.38.38. Colin Thompson, reimbursement as a contractor, $2.16.97. And then again, second time this month, $6,923.8 for being the CEO from April 27th through May 10th.
Starting point is 00:48:47 So he's paying himself about $3,000 a month of running a company that's going in the hole and is just trying to come out of bankruptcy. No, he's paying himself a lot more than $3,000 a month. Well, I mean, you know, just in those, no, did I say a month? I mean, a week, $3,000 a week. Yeah. In those, just in those $6,000 payments. Office expense, software on apps, $65. East West Bank, an analysis of the activity, $116.80.
Starting point is 00:49:20 Yeah, it cost us a lot more for the people that analyzed his activity, but they did a better job of it. Jared Einson, a consulting content development person, $3,500. So it looks like he's trying to develop some new shows. QuickBooks for software and apps, $235. Colin Thompson reimbursements, $1,122. $91. Again, he has a company card, doesn't pay rent, lives with his father-in-law, doesn't pay anything on the card that he already took for himself from the
Starting point is 00:49:57 company. Why? What are the reimbursements? But anyway, that's it for another time. And then finally, for Colin at least, contractor CEO, May 11th through May 24th, $6,923. So I paid himself now three times within the month. Jesus Christ, I thought, wait a minute, how could you get three, two-week periods out of the same month? Has he changed the calendar? He's the Master of Funny Math. Maybe we'll have to ask him to that question. Abby Newhouse, a freelancer for production, $1,200, and finally Connor Powell, freelancer production, 1493-99. Well, it doesn't sound like there's anything free about them either. You know whose name wasn't there? The new CEO. Hmm. That's interesting.
Starting point is 00:50:49 Wonder if it's an honorary type. Yeah, well, we'll see, because the next month will be the first month that it would have to be reflected there that what is listed here as contractor to be CEO, that should no longer be what Colin's job would be. So that would be there for Colin, and then we should see the CEO's name and how much he's making because that's what they needed was another expense on the books, was another person to pay on the books. That's a CEO and executive too. So by the way, if this guy's an executive and he's getting paid like $500 a month or something, you can make this guy's a jerk off. If he's getting $2,000 a month, you're going to say, this guy's a jerk off.
Starting point is 00:51:26 He's a CEO of a media company that's trying to pretend that they're bigger than they are. But that's the main points of the monthly report. Again, what's there and what isn't there is important. And the month before, when he had to impress upon the judge that they could meet the requirements to get their plan confirmed, all of a sudden there was a whole bunch of payments coming in, including $10,000 from his lawyer, Sackler Entertainment for content development
Starting point is 00:51:54 or whatever he said he was doing. All of a sudden that was there that month. Who knows? We'll find that more and again. It's important to know we are suing Colin Thompson and his co-conspirators and podcast one and live one for everything that they did to us. And we're not going to stop
Starting point is 00:52:13 until so. Let's keep playing. Don't stop till you get enough. Ow! You know, Brian last, somebody else had enough, had enough. They couldn't take no more over there in Saudi Arabia. Did you see the CM Punk trended on Twitter? The video, the memes were everywhere.
Starting point is 00:52:46 He's just an atrocious person. apparently from what some people saw, he just flat out, just football punted a kid trying to get an autograph from. Of course, what other people saw was him patting a young man on his shoulder. How can there not be a happy medium? Maybe he just slapped the kid lightly as he went by.
Starting point is 00:53:10 It's a smarten up, kid. I don't believe he just patting him on the shoulder, though. He definitely kind of wanted to have some distance, it seemed like. You didn't think so? No, I think he was reaching out to go like, hey, kid, how you do it? He didn't want a kid to walk in front of him, blah, blah, blah. But let's set the scene anyway, because it's not a perp walk.
Starting point is 00:53:29 It's the walk you make when the people that are there to take you to the goddamn promo room or the press conference or whatever, like, okay, here we go. And then they got the fucking badge around their neck or whatever. That was the parade. That was the parade. Hear all the wrestlers parade them through to all the rich people that we allowed. to be here. Whatever he was going to it. I don't say bad, but the
Starting point is 00:53:51 backstage pass, the laminate thing around the neck and the fucking t-shirt with the fucking logo on it. They're taking them. And I can't remember who was in front of his. Orton was in front of him. And they're walking through like an arena hallway and it's not like there's a
Starting point is 00:54:07 screaming throng of people there. It's mostly empty, but I guess there's a few people standing around. But they're walking through the hallway going to wherever these people are taking them go and there goes Orton and here comes Punk and punk and punk has one of the guys with the laminate yeah here we go and the little kid comes up
Starting point is 00:54:28 and he's want to say hello or whatever and as the camera is panning I see punk reach out like hey kid pat him on a shoulder and but then the camera loses them but I also see the fucking a guy with the laminate reaching out doing the arm thing like okay kid we got to go to the thing nobody was struck
Starting point is 00:54:54 nobody was goddamn assaulted and that's what attracted my attention to it was when I saw on Twitter first thing when I turn it on is Sam Punk shoves kid and I'm like what what fucking there's no there's no shoving there's no violence say they walk on pass and everybody's gone to the deal he didn't have time to stop and
Starting point is 00:55:17 chat unfortunately because they were doing the hustle walk i don't know you know how else anybody got anything else out of that but there were memes of you know like punk drawing back with the karate stance or whatever and child's point of view trying to ask for punk's autograph what the fuck he's being he's doing he's being hustles The thing is it was one kid I don't know there was no one around him
Starting point is 00:55:46 It just seemed like Where'd that kid come from? Yeah, so it stands out He was probably the fucking son of the guy that was setting up the goddamn concession stand Who knows?
Starting point is 00:55:57 But it wasn't like Funny if it was the prince's son And the punk gets arrested over there I thought the prince's son would have had long flowing robes And somebody carrying his train This kid was dressed As a normal
Starting point is 00:56:09 Everyday fucking small all street urchin on, you know, on the periphery of the event. Did you see punk just, oh my God, someone just sent this in? Punk apologized on a stage there to the people for his tweet about Saudi Arabia. Told him it wasn't about them, it was about the Miz. Oh, oh, I thought he'd tweeted something lately.
Starting point is 00:56:32 No, he apologized and said he woke up in a bad mood it wasn't about Saudi Arabia. But look. How much is they paying him? How much is he getting for this? But wait, it was just about he just wanted the mills to suck any kind of dick. Just any, just any kind of dick, miss. It had nothing to do with the murderous kind of dick, yes.
Starting point is 00:56:57 But back up a second. Oh, now he's holding a sign that says fuck a shogi. No way. Oh, back up a second. Oh, he's wearing a headdress. But he can be Chief Thundercloud. He's being sold by Ken Patera to the Arabs. Jerry Blackwell.
Starting point is 00:57:22 Ken Patera, see him, punk. Sheik punk. The Honorable Sheik Punk. Ayatollah punk. I was going to ask you something. No, I know what it was. Did he just divine himself? Does the average...
Starting point is 00:57:42 person in Saudi Arabia, even average wrestling fan know that, what, 10 years ago or five years ago, whatever it was
Starting point is 00:57:52 that he tweeted to the Miz and fucking knock Saudi Arabia? I'll play you the audio. I have the audio here. Let's check out the audio.
Starting point is 00:58:02 It is interesting to know like punk apologizes for nothing. He is all of a sudden on a stage there and let's play the audio right now. This guy wants me to apologize for a mean tweet I wrote six years ago. Hey, listen, legitimately had nothing to do with Saudi Arabia. I woke up and I was crabby and I wrote a mean tweet to the Miz.
Starting point is 00:58:29 And I apologize to the Miz. And sir, what's your name? Mohammed? Here, watch out. I'm going to step right here. Muhammad, I sincerely apologize to you and I love Saudi Arabia. Well, there it is. He apologizes to Muhammad the fan and the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Starting point is 00:58:52 Well, besides the fact that they were chatting to shut the fuck up lightly in the background, they were trying to bleep. So some of his apology was garbled there, but... I apologize to Muhammad and the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and please give me back my passport. Please. Please. I understand he's over there. They've said, because again, my question is, does the average person,
Starting point is 00:59:18 or was it just that the fucking prince and his royal train carriers? So he tweeted bad about us, so they said, oh, you've got to apologize in front of people, whatever. I can understand apologizing to the prince and the kingdom and the little people down at the bottom of the valley. But why did he have to apologize to the Mids? See, that's the crime. No, I, you know, somebody had to go and say, okay,
Starting point is 00:59:57 they had to go, okay, there's certain things that you need to say to smooth over our relationship with the, and he's, again, he's over there, what's he going to fucking do? That's why I've never been an advocate of a proponent of going into situations like this where people can do their own thing to you. Well, and actually we're in one right now. It's bad enough we're in the United States right now where you can be kidnapped off the streets, but at least you can understand them when they tell you why they're doing it.
Starting point is 01:00:34 Well, so. This is going to fire up the AEW punk haters. Like this is going to fire them up because this is this is also right before we are recording this right now, obviously right before. Actually, not even right before. Well over a day before the night of champions event. But they're going to cheer Sina and they're going to do punk. Hold on now. If in the next day, again, we don't know how media necessarily works there.
Starting point is 01:01:03 Social media is a thing in some form. I don't know how the company, the company, the country, the country, the country, the oil fields, I don't know how they restrict it. Will the fans, if they see CM Punk, not just apologize to Muhammad, the fan, but apologize to the kingdom. Apologize to Muhammad himself. No, he's apologizing to the kingdom.
Starting point is 01:01:25 So, I mean, there... I know, but what about if he had apologized not to Muhammad, the fan, but to Muhammad, Muhammad? I apologize to Muhammad. Well, no one's ever done that before. See, hey. break new ground. Or you can say it's clobber in time, Muhammad.
Starting point is 01:01:43 No, what if he wrote a camel to the ring? Didn't they think he was Lawler in the Mid-South Coliseum? But here's the thing I'm thinking is, overseas audiences traditionally cheer for people based on not only star power but long how long you've been a star, how much of an icon you are. And because they're getting to see Sina and it's the retirement tour and everything,
Starting point is 01:02:07 and there is a there is a segment that hates punk with every fiber there being and can't stand that anybody doesn't think he's anything other than just a slimy, no good, disreputable gum bump and sack of snake feces.
Starting point is 01:02:24 And with that mixed together, do you think, will it go, will it go the Sinaway? The scenic route. Or apparently you don't. You know? Anything.
Starting point is 01:02:38 Again, Sina got cheer. for the pipe bomb, but that's in the States. Not like they haven't seen it over there. He's the bigger star. Here's the question I have for you, and I don't know the answer off the top of my head. Any of the Sina appearances over the last six years, did he make several of the Saudi shows? I don't remember.
Starting point is 01:02:57 Oh, good Lord. I don't know off the top of my head. Because that's the other thing. If it's his first time there, obviously. Well, it's his last time there, one way or another. Well, at least for wrestling. Who knows? maybe a big party somewhere.
Starting point is 01:03:13 First time last time. Hey, they may, but the prince may bring him over on a private jet to to get him to apologize to Muhammad sometime. We don't get you to send over more wrestlers to apologize next time. Yes, can we get some fresh apologies
Starting point is 01:03:29 on the next super show? This could be punk's new gimmick because now he has another thing to apologize. And by the way, I didn't push that kid. I didn't even see him. I thought I was being attacked. play a dwarf. I know a lawyer in Greensboro that can get, get him off for the same,
Starting point is 01:03:45 same thing happened to me, the kid's dad sued. I've told that story before, but I can, I can refer punk to the attorney because, you know, God damn it, anyway. You know, Brian, sometimes it makes me just want to just throw it all away, just get away from all this madness and pursue my dream. build me a new business, plant it in the ground and watch it grow into an empire from scratch with a new dream that I have that has nothing to do with wrestling and all about the all-purpose solvent, the formula that can dissolve anything, I just can't figure out what to put it in.
Starting point is 01:04:32 Folks, if you've got a dream, if you wake up every morning thinking I could leave all this hustle, bustle, hurry, scurry, riffraff of the world in my job that nobody appreciates. And I could break away from this burdensome life and this family and his wife and his kids. And that mother-in-law and holy mackerel, the neighbor I'd like to kick him and he asked. Just get away from it all. And have your own private island. You got to start somewhere, don't you, Brian? You got to start somewhere.
Starting point is 01:05:05 And I say, you start with your dream and you go to Shopify. and let them do the rest. They can do all that stuff from then down to purchasing the vacation home on the private island and the South Seas. They can do it and just give them a dream. Just say, I have a dream and they'll do the rest and they'll send you a lot of the money. It's amazing what they do. They've built international conglomerates like Shmiblum and Shmooby.
Starting point is 01:05:33 And they can do the same thing for you. Because, folks, Shopify is the conversation. platform behind millions of businesses around the world, 10% of all the e-commerce in the United States of America. Household names like Mattel, all the way down to the little mom and pop shops, just getting started. As soon as pop gets mom to sign that insurance policy, double indemnity on accidental death. You can get started with your own design studio with hundreds of ready-to-use templates. Shopify helps you build a beautiful online store. Accelerate your content creation because Shopify is packed with helpful tools that write product
Starting point is 01:06:16 descriptions, page headlines, enhance your photography. You know they can take a picture of your wife and take all the clothes off of it. She'll be standing there completely starkers. It's amazing how they can enhance these photos. Amazing is the word. Amazing as in it's not happening. It's an amazing thought. Get the word out like you've got a marketing team behind you, pushing you.
Starting point is 01:06:39 every step of the way, giving you an elbow and a ribs. And you can create social media campaigns. And of course, best yet, Shopify is your commerce expert with world-class expertise in everything from managing inventory to international shipping to processing returns to diagnosing that lump that you've got in your armpit. Oh, my God, it's painful, especially when I hold my arm. They told me. They didn't do anything with your armpits.
Starting point is 01:07:09 so no, they did not. I sent them a picture of it. Who? Who'd you send? Well, you know, I said, hey, what can you do about this? Because they said they got world class expertise and everything. But I'll tell you another thing, they have got a new sound effect. They have said to show you how much money that they're going to make you,
Starting point is 01:07:29 our friends at Shopify sent the new, cha-ching, that they've got copyrighted and customized. And we're going to play. Brian, can you play that right? now when I ask you to play that right now. What the fuck is that? You didn't hear that? There you go. No, I heard it, but that's not a cash register.
Starting point is 01:07:52 No, it's like a... It's like a hamster going up and ringing a bell to get more seed. I guess what is the start there? Is it you throwing change in the jar? What is that? I think it's the rat that's pulling a rope on the little desk bell, on the hotel. desk. See, it's like a hotel desk with a... I hear coins, like coins at the very beginning. Like Vince McMahon. Three coins in the fountain. Well, folks, Shopify can do everything except make
Starting point is 01:08:24 sound effects, but they can turn your big, big business idea into Kaching. Oh, that was the sign. Yes. With Shopify on your side right now, you can sign up for a $1 a month trial period and start selling today at Shopify.com slash cornet. That's Shopify.com slash cornet. That's the way you get the $1 a month trial period because actually where else are you going to find any world class expertise like this and everything except sound effects for any amount of money, but especially for a dollar a month. So just come on.
Starting point is 01:09:04 Just come on. Go to Shopify.com slash cornet. come on Kaching that's right Shopify they power our online store Arcadian Vanguard.com
Starting point is 01:09:18 and they can power yours our good friends at Shopify we use them you should too listen to this again see I don't know what's going on there
Starting point is 01:09:29 is a variety of things happening possibly somebody's trying to get the traffic light to change so they can walk at the crosswalk Shopify.com slash cornet well Brian
Starting point is 01:09:44 last week I guess it was on the program here. We started another thing that I found in my files, the TNA agent reports that I'd sent out weeks before my departure from the company. Terry Taylor had asked for him, want to be honest, tell us, tell us just like you'd tell us in person, Jim. And on the matches that I was directly involved in producing and in my overall thoughts on everything else that happened at the taping. And I guess if people want to catch up, it's on YouTube. You can go back and watch, or watch, listen to last week's experience, or you can go to YouTube and listen to the clip, but it's the agent report we did the pay-per-view and the first TV after Hard Justice 2009 was the pay-per-view and then the TV afterwards. And that's kind of what we're doing here. We're reading through what I was telling them. that I thought was going on with their television show
Starting point is 01:10:49 as of that period of time. This was after Jeff was gone, and then Savio was gone, and then Road Dog was gone, and then Dutch was gone. And I'm trying to not only be the lead producer, but also, as Jeff had asked me, try to not let our friend go too far
Starting point is 01:11:13 and the whole thing go to shit. Right? So I got a lot of people I'm trying to make happy here. Have I summarized that? I think so. And just something to point out after the first one, first installment, the first two different things that we did went up. Matt Morgan was on the YouTube page making comments about this time
Starting point is 01:11:33 because you talked about him. And we have something here from the culticorna Facebook group. Wait, wait a minute. Don't hold on, don't gloss over that. Matt Morgan was on the internet making comments. A lot of times people would think, he have to say he's bitching. No, he was very complimentary and kind of was
Starting point is 01:11:49 validating what we were saying. I just wanted to not gloss over that, but go ahead. This was posted in the group on Facebook by Doug Dirtle, aka Doug Williams. Oh, okay. Color me surprised to hear Jim talk about the six-minute street fight myself and Nick had with beer money
Starting point is 01:12:07 and TNA on the experience. I remember it specifically due to the following exchange after the match. and he wrote me, any good? And then your response, no, but you got the best out of it that you could. I took it as a compliment with a smiley face emoji. So we hear from some of the talent you've talked about in these already. It was a trying time.
Starting point is 01:12:37 We were all trying, but there were forces beyond our control. Oh, Dixie Land. and I'll take my stand anyway. So would you like to pick back up with another one of the episodes of impact? This was 448. And that was the episode number and no, I don't think they had done 448 of them. No, they'd have been on for 10 years in 2009. I don't know what their numbering system was, but I went with it, okay?
Starting point is 01:13:09 The first man to suicide, who you will remember. was a masked wrestler that at least at a lot of points was Frankie Kazarian. I think, right? You remember? I think so too, yeah. And then I think they had somebody else do it if he got hurt or whatever the case.
Starting point is 01:13:30 But anyway, suicide versus Samoa Joe and then it was to be the Pope D'Angelo De Niro, Elijah Burke, and Chris Daniels were to get involved and turn it into a tag team match. suicide and Daniels, Joe and Pope.
Starting point is 01:13:48 Suicide versus Joe was good. Joe worked hard again, but Pope and Daniels' involvement came a little too quickly. It all happened at the same time. The fans didn't know and liked it. The cause was Pope not knowing he needed Pope's street clothes and having to go shopping that day, which delayed everyone getting together until late in the day.
Starting point is 01:14:10 It wasn't a big problem because the fans couldn't tell and the show was heavy anyway. The tag match was good and got everything accomplished it was supposed to. They jumped their spot, right? And sometimes it happens, but they saw their cue was A, will body slam B and B accidentally body slammed A
Starting point is 01:14:30 and whatever the fuck, right? But the problem was, Elijah Berg shows up his debut, he's got all his fucking gear. He doesn't have. have goddamn clothes to make him look like huggy bear on Starsky and Hutch. So he had to go out and find some shit because our friend Mr. Russo, who I will call by his Christian name during the course of this so that
Starting point is 01:14:59 everybody knows exactly who to point a finger at. He said, oh yeah, you didn't really going to do that. Oh shit. So you had to go out and buy shit, right? Anyway, comments on that. On that match, I don't remember the match. I watched it, but... I mean, it's interesting to hear your perspective as...
Starting point is 01:15:19 I mean, technically you're the agent. You're filing an agent's report. Were you the agent for the match? Yes. These that I'm talking about, I was the agent for the match, and then I have other random thoughts on other stuff. Because I was the agent in the truck for everything, as we covered. And by the way, we mentioned that Matt Morgan comment on YouTube earlier.
Starting point is 01:15:37 It starts with this. I don't think fans understand how difficult it was for Jimmy to turn to these agent reports. Knowing the head of our creative was an absolute moron. Well, that kind of gives you the tone of the thing. Anyway, Rhino versus Jesse Neal. Do you remember Jesse Neal? I remember the name. I hadn't thought of the name in forever.
Starting point is 01:16:04 I don't remember the person. I remember the name, though. Well, and as a matter of fact, you know what? Google him if you can, if he's even Googledable at this point. for a second because he got badly injured. He was a young rookie. I can't remember how they found him, but it's another thing.
Starting point is 01:16:24 Oh, everybody, Dixie was high on everybody. Let's get this kid over. Really, again, I don't remember where they found him or how he got trained or whatever. But he started out and got badly hurt and couldn't wrestle anymore. And they said, well, you've got a job for life as a producer.
Starting point is 01:16:43 or whatever the fuck, and then not long after that, they fired him, and I don't know whatever happened to him. I hadn't thought about him either. I looked up this, or looked at this paper. Can you find anything on him?
Starting point is 01:16:55 Wikipedia, I'm just scanning through. There's a lot. Whoever entered the stuff here is a big fan of his stuff on the Indies. They entered a lot about it. Oh, yeah, he was, right. They found him. He was already working Indies or whatever.
Starting point is 01:17:09 Well, while you find that, I will say the quick match, but exactly it was a little. laid out no problems. Rhino is still a baby face to the fans because they tried to switch him heel. But this mistreatment of Jesse got him a little heat. I know Jesse is supposed to be a rookie quote unquote, but he continues to wear a sweatshirt and gym shorts to wrestle in. The deal was that he was brand new and they had introduced him some kind of way in a typical Russo-Marcish. I said, I feel it makes him look outlaw or indie and folks just switching on.
Starting point is 01:17:43 our show makes us look Bush League. If he needs to wear tights, if people are expected to buy him as a pro on a program of this level. Anyway, more on Jesse Neal. Here we go. Jesse Neal revealed in an interview with Brian Alvarez that TNA wrestling refused to pay his hefty medical bills
Starting point is 01:18:03 stemming from the neck injury he suffered at the May pay-per-view event, sacrifice. The injury... What a hell of an event to get hurt on. The injury occurred during the conclusion of the match pitting Inc. Inc. Against Mexican America when Hernandez executed a dominator-like finisher on Neal.
Starting point is 01:18:25 Oh, geez. An MRI showed he had a bulged disc after being spiked into the mat. Oh, geez. You remember it now? No, but what I'm fixing to get to here just a little while shirt is going to tie in. Neil parted ways with TNA last month after organization officials asked him to relocate from Florida to Louisville, Kentucky to further his wrestling training at Ohio Valley Wrestling.
Starting point is 01:18:53 That's when they had made a deal with Danny Davis. He was unable to comply with the request because the money they were offering, quote, wasn't even anything close to live on. So there's a little bit of info. Yeah, well, that's one of the things. It's been forgotten is how they dealt with him when he was, you know, well thought of at one point until, oh, shit, this might cost us money. I wonder if they gave him action figure. He wasn't around long enough to have one. And that what paper via sacrifice, that would have been since he was just starting here.
Starting point is 01:19:29 They said, man. I was about to finish. That would have been 2010. Right? There's not a date on this. So I couldn't tell you. I'd have to look it up. But he, yeah.
Starting point is 01:19:40 but it wasn't long. Anyway, the next match, and then we'll get to something here at a minute. Matt Morgan, Scott Steiner, and Booker T. versus Hernandez, AJ Stiles, and Sting. Good six-man tag. Everyone was easy to work with. Booker did everything I asked of him,
Starting point is 01:20:01 which was very little and nothing more. Wow, what's that? What's that about? after his recent talking to's he was not going to cause any problems and instead came off to everyone as if he was humoring us with his presence and was clearly disinterested whoa what the fuck's going on above the tea everyone knows his M.O. and just worked around him. Oh, Jesus right. Well, I mean, here's the thing. Certain people that came from the WWF, set aside completely because he was a case by himself. He was just a maniac with working, injured, heard, do the best ever.
Starting point is 01:20:46 He's Olympic champion, whatever the fuck. But other people that came from the WWF at the E, whatever, had different ways of processing what the fuck they walked into. And in some cases, it was sit back and just bilk them for all the money that they can. and other times it was, oh, we're going to try to do a good job here to not embarrass ourselves. Mick Foley was always, oh, I want to pitch in.
Starting point is 01:21:16 Booker at first came in and was going to change the world, baby. And then when he realized it was a fucking disorganized shit show, he just checked out and started auditioning accents for his acting career. He had a British accent one week and a Jamaican accent one week. and and then he just, you know,
Starting point is 01:21:39 it was like, ah, what the fuck? This shit doesn't make any, that was the whole error that he had. This doesn't make any sense. I don't give a shit. What are you in a devil? And then they talked to him every once in a while, as I referred to it.
Starting point is 01:21:53 It wasn't me. I wasn't giving him the talking to. And then he, you know, because it was hard for a while. Dixie and or Terry Taylor. I don't know whoever, because Jeff was gone. But at first he questioned everything because there was a question for everything. But a lot of people realized the parameters they were working under and just let's take it and make it better.
Starting point is 01:22:26 But he didn't want to take it and make it better. He just wouldn't ask what all the fuck was wrong with creative all the time bogged down. why would we do this? What the fuck would that be about? Why would we say a thing like that? But none of this shit makes any sense. So let's make it better, not just bitch about it, blah, blah, blah.
Starting point is 01:22:47 Like I said, everybody processed it in different ways. What now? He wasn't wrong in a lot of cases. No, he wasn't wrong, but he was goddamn pain to get anything done with while everybody else is sitting around going, all right, let's figure it out then. And that's because he was, you know, gobsmacked at, Why? Yes, well, look at this fucking idiot over here. That's why. Now let's figure it out how to fix it.
Starting point is 01:23:12 And then what he got talked to for fucking over-questioning everything? Then he just sat back and what the fuck and practiced accents and whatever. Anyway. However, going on with the description, in this match, my priorities were Hernandez being supermex, furthering Morgan's story with angle and making AJ as strong as possible since his first matchback from nearly quitting after all his setbacks. That was a storyline thing. And as we mentioned, Hernandez, they wanted him to be a Latino superstar as a single
Starting point is 01:23:49 when they broke him away from homicide. And he had never been pushed as a single before. And he had actually not worked before T&A for any major league promotion at a high level so he still needed some work, but he was in his 30s and time was running out, so they wanted me to especially invest in Hernandez. Anyway, continuing, I deliberately had Booker and Sting starts
Starting point is 01:24:20 so we could shine Sting a little, and Booker couldn't pull any shenanigans with him. Then had Steiner, who understood the situation who was my veteran anchor, Shine A.J., then saved Hernandez and Morgan for the spotlight of the break spot. everyone including myself has always told Matt as a giant he shouldn't let anyone manhandle him like i had Hernandez do because then it meant something when he did uh Sean gave and Sean Hernandez's name Sean gave Matt a 15 second delayed vertical suplex
Starting point is 01:24:50 then hit his air Mexico dive for the break so he was gold then I had AJ sell for the heels heat sting actually offered to sell and give Hernandez the tag but I explained that I I see AJ as a Ricky Morton who gets over by selling and then triumphing over the long odds, and especially in his first match back from his losing streak, I wanted AJ to do most of the work in this situation. AJ hit a great hot tag, parenthetically not the WWE simultaneous tags that suck, to Hernandez who cleaned house and looked strong doing it, breaking into a six-way sting and Booker got tangled up with the referee and took him to the floor with him.
Starting point is 01:25:35 AJ and Steiner went where they were supposed to on the floor. This left Matt and Hernandez in the ring as Matt stopped Hernandez Steiner, who I put in this position because I knew I could rely on him to be there, came in with the chair. And Matt said, no way I'm falling for that again. And as they argued, Hernandez blasted him into a double knockout and tagged AJ in for the flying press and the pin on Morgan. the baby faces got over and left
Starting point is 01:26:02 Morgan laid out Steiner and Booker and we went off the air with Morgan and Angle staring each other down. There was a lot of different stories that we had telling that match because of the paper views ongoing that we had monthly where we were trying to build those people
Starting point is 01:26:21 and those issues, but at the same time that we had a creative director that was just booking all the top stars in big fucking matches every week for ratings. So you had to straddle that balance beam. So looking back now, because I mean, you talk about a match
Starting point is 01:26:43 and the people you're naming or guys today that are either freshly retired or like Sting, even though he was an older guy, who were still active, but maybe towards the end of their career like AJ, I don't know where Hernandez is. I have no idea what, if he's still wrestling somewhere, I don't know what I doubt he is, because we haven't heard anything, but looking back now,
Starting point is 01:27:05 was it that he wasn't the right guy? Was it just the booking? Was it more than the booking? Did he have a ceiling? Like, they obviously wanted him to be their big star for at least a time. If George Scott in 1978 was booking, could it have happened? Like, was he the right guy from that, or what would you think? Yeah, he was the right guy for the spot.
Starting point is 01:27:27 In most ways, he was little early. and I mean, I'm not all done with Hernandez here, but I'll jump ahead. I'll jump ahead in this after the random thoughts because here's what I was trying to get done. The bottom of the report, also I spoke to Hernandez about coming to Louisville sometime in September for a weekend to watch tapes,
Starting point is 01:27:51 get in the ring with sparring partners, and have a personal course in selling and promos from myself and Danny Davis. he's all for it. He only asks that it be private as he doesn't want it on the internet that he is being sent for training. And I wholeheartedly agree, we can keep it quiet here,
Starting point is 01:28:09 but everyone in the TNA office that needs to be aware of what we're doing needs also to know it's not for public consumption. I'm going to meet with Danny early next week to get information on when the arena would be available and request two specific individuals to work with Sean. So please send a DVD of all. of his recent matches and promos.
Starting point is 01:28:31 And when we get the date nailed down, I'll pull some stuff from my library also. They had, as I said, and here's another thing. He was from Texas and he is of Hispanic origin, but he was not actually not only not fluent in Spanish, but I don't think he spoke it at all when he got started. They wanted him to learn because he was. you know, he hadn't grown up in a house where they spoke Spanish.
Starting point is 01:29:04 But they were also, they wanted to send him to Mexico where they thought that, you know, he might get more ring time, but I explain that the problem is, again, if you want to teach somebody how to work on American television, the last thing you want to do is start him out in Mexico. Right? He might get some fucking ring
Starting point is 01:29:25 time, but who knows what fuck he's going to learn. I was trying to lay his stuff out. He was incredibly strong, just incredibly strong, and could demonstrate it like a doctor death or a goddamn road warrior animal. But at the same time, he had a few snazzy moves he could do, the splash and the flying slingshot shoulder block for a guy that size, that was impressive.
Starting point is 01:29:54 And so I kind of did what, you know, in a lot of his little angles and the things before people, several people might get him down, is choreograph a burst of 30 seconds or a minute where he would just fling people one after another and make a big impression. And then I wanted to be able to teach him how to sell without dying and staying immobile as a big powerful giant.
Starting point is 01:30:22 You can't just take the guy down and hold him in a leglock. He needs to be selling and fighting and off balance. et cetera. And I thought that might be better done in, you know, in Louisville here where we could take some time with it because we didn't have any ring time down there. And clock was ticking because he was in his 30s. So that's why he's not wrestling. This is 15 years ago. He was in his late 30s. I hope to God he's not still wrestling. I forgot he was that old. So, but he was the right guy if we could have taken more care with him. If the booking helped him and if we could have brought him up speed in the ring.
Starting point is 01:30:59 He was a tremendous person really wanted to get better and had gifts that you couldn't teach, being as strong as a goddamn ox, and being able to move at that size and having the dedication to want to learn. And the trip never happened, right? No. I'm about to get fired, as I mentioned. and that's one of the big reasons why Hernandez never happened because, you know, then Dixie had all kinds of other shit to worry about
Starting point is 01:31:34 and Rousseau didn't know anything about how to get a fucking guy like that over. So, you know, he was too serious for Rousseau. And anyway, well, let's, so thoughts on that and then I'll go back and finish this report. Well, no, I have no other thoughts. I've asked you a few questions. We can keep moving. But that's the thing is when you said Hernandez dropped the guy's head. I'm like, oh, Jesus Christ.
Starting point is 01:32:02 You know, he didn't do it on purpose. He didn't do it from being unprofessional or not caring, but he could have used, he could have used some reps in the training center, as they say. That's what we were trying to do. And to teach him to think also about as a single. And as a top guy, he was very. very humble and he didn't think like a fucking main event guy because he'd never been in that position before anyhow if any of you millionaire main event wrestlers want this treatment one-on-one
Starting point is 01:32:32 treatment with jim and danny davis working with you for a weekend at Louisville it ain't cheap but get in touch well now well danny davis would have to do it on the beach down near pensacola at this point it ain't cheap and uh if you could do if you can do yard work and we'll clean out to Creek. The rest of this report in the world elite interview. Now this is another group. Again, Rousseau was taking. Eric Young was from Canada.
Starting point is 01:33:02 And Sheikh Bashir, who was Sean Davari, was from wherever the fuck you're supposed to be from in the Middle East. And they had a Japanese kid. And I think, and the Brits, our friends, the Brits, they were in it for a while. Just the world elite group of. everybody that's from another fucking country on the roster, whether they're elite or not, honestly, in some cases. But I said in the world elite interview,
Starting point is 01:33:29 Bashir gets a ton of heat in his promo and takes Vince's material, makes it his own and adds great stuff. Eric Young mostly recites what is written for him and does it so slowly that in the truck we were queuing the crickets. And I'm not... Eric Young will be a bone of contention here as we work our way through these last days.
Starting point is 01:33:54 Eric Young was a nice guy. Eric Young was a good hard worker. Eric Young was a very good in-ring guy. Eric Young was not an exciting promo. And Eric Young had been presented as an underneath comedy baby face that was, when he would do his entrance, the power would go off and it would scare him and he would fall down on the ramp.
Starting point is 01:34:18 every show for like months and months. And suddenly, as I mentioned, because he was Canadian, Russo wanted to put him into top fucking heel group he's putting together of these guys. So anyway, Bashir, in my opinion, is the key to the world elite heat and by far the group's best promo. I had a long talk with Hernandez about this promo. He is still nervous about speaking
Starting point is 01:34:49 and was also smart enough to know that if he goes too far with the USA flag waving because he was supposed to come out waving the fucking American flag even though he's the Latino super and of course it's not as bad as it would be now but still it was, we're trying to go in another direction here, right?
Starting point is 01:35:10 Let's not confuse people. He's concerned that he could be seen as a Latino uncle Tom. that was a quote unquote, to his people because ultimately if the Latino people have a superstar, he must be Latino First American Second. I explained to him how to bring the Impact Zone fans into it by saying us and we and hitting his cadence to deliver his go home line and he did very well.
Starting point is 01:35:38 He did, however, break eye contact with the heels while telling them off, and I'll work with him on how to pause to regroup his thoughts without dropping the intensity and eye contact. Do you notice that, that some guys do that? Yeah. They will, they'll be telling somebody off and all of a sudden they might not be sure of exactly the thing
Starting point is 01:36:01 they're going to say next, so they will stop and turn and they'll walk off like they're so disgusted with that person, they must gather themselves. You don't need to do that. Take a fucking couple of breaths and stare in a guy's eyes and fucking make it look like you're meaning
Starting point is 01:36:20 to gather up some vehemence and venom and then fucking do your thing but when you break the eye or when you break the eye contact and still keep talking, it's even worse. But nevertheless, guns, machine guns, that was them, versus Abyss was good for what it was, but it just continues to marginalize the guns to have both of them beaten easily by one guy.
Starting point is 01:36:44 the guns have a lot of talent or the best in the business at what they do which is a fast-paced high-spot match so I feel we should play more to their strengths they will never be the main event tag team and I may have been a little fucking harsh there but at that point in time in the field they probably weren't going to be used that way
Starting point is 01:37:05 I said but they can add to our cards and under etc I was very happy to see Delo Brown there and hear that he talked to Dixie about a possible agent wrestler spot we need a guy like him in the ring a veteran that's still young enough to go to provide in ring experience to our next generation while not needing a $500,000 a year salary to be used in the main event and if anybody think I was undercutting Dilo nobody was making 500 grand but staying and maybe angle at that point in time I've known Dilo for 15 years he's a dedicated
Starting point is 01:37:44 hard worker who will give us exactly what we ask for if it's clearly defined for him what his role is to be he's an intelligent college graduate a former CPA and an accomplished worker so i was trying to get him as some semblance of sanity in the ring and in the office and i don't remember whether they brought him in then i wasn't there i may have mentioned but I don't I don't think they brought him in then or you know what I think they've I think they made him an offer but they wanted him just to be a producer and retire from wrestling and that was the fucking idea he was a better worker than fucking most of the guys on a roster he could actually do the shit in the ring and then tell him what they did wrong afterwards but I don't know about that as I mentioned I wasn't even that Slap some more papers.
Starting point is 01:38:43 I'm just, I'm trying to find my paperclip. I don't want to get this stuff out of order here. Here it is. This is very important. Let's see, hard justice. What page is that? Got to keep this for goddamn posterity. Do you want me to go any further?
Starting point is 01:38:59 Yeah. All righty then. Well, this is for the following set of tapings where we did hold on one two we did two nights of taping so how many shows did we do here 449 450 and 451 so we did three two hour shows in two days all right now we're getting to the meat of the matter so the previous bunch of reports that I have read so far here and the last clip that was the first set of major reports I did for the pay-per-view and the two days of taping after they had asked me to do these things to begin with. So now this is the set of major reports for the last set of TV tapings
Starting point is 01:39:52 that I made in TNA. And I know I've told this story I'm hating because a lot of people are going to say, oh, fuck, I don't want to go back to YouTube and hear the story and blah, blah, so I will try to condense it as much as possible. Rousseau had booked another tournament. Something was going to happen after this tournament. We might get some insight in these notes. I haven't read them word for word. But in the tournament,
Starting point is 01:40:25 and at this point, I was being sent the TV formats like three, four days beforehand. If we were going to shoot on Monday, I might get them on Friday, whatever the fuck, right? And in this tournament, they were going to have, he was going to have, Hernandez end up wrestling Sting, two baby faces,
Starting point is 01:40:50 Sting and Icon and Hernandez, as we mentioned, the Supermex, and we're trying to get over and push as a Mexican superhero. And they're both baby faces and they end up in this tournament. But, Brian, Sting earlier on TV, in another tournament match, Rhino has gored him and broken his ribs. And so now when Sting goes in this match, he's got broken ribs.
Starting point is 01:41:25 And this was 2009, this was 15 years ago, so Sting was somewhere raised 50 years old, let's say. So he got a 50-year-old man with broken ribs going in the ring against the super mex. it's 300 fucking pounds and goddamn built like a fucking brick wall. And they're both baby faces. So Hernandez doesn't want to take advantage of the guy's broken ribs, but they were going to have him sneak up from behind staying and pin him while the heels were trying to interfere.
Starting point is 01:42:01 I said, you mean to tell me that not only can the 300 pounds supermex superhero, that everybody thinks is 20 years younger than Sting, even if he's not, and he's a baby face, and Sting's got broken ribs and he's 50 years old, but the guy still has to sneak up behind him while Sting's attention is distracted to beat him. So you're going to turn our Mexican superhero into a backstabbing fucking prick and that he couldn't beat the fucking guy up until then
Starting point is 01:42:35 that is ready for AARP and should have been taken to the hospital. am I overstating this, Brian, or do you get the picture here? I get the picture. Okay. So when I got that, I'd done something that I didn't do ever before in the three years that I'd worked there or afterwards since I wasn't going to work there very much longer. And I actually got on a phone with our friend Vince Rousseau to register how that we couldn't fucking do this. and let's do. Oh, and I'm sorry.
Starting point is 01:43:10 I'm sorry. I left out one important thing. After he snug up and rolled up, rolled him up from behind, then Eric Young was, because the heels, the other members of the world elite had done all this distraction bullshit.
Starting point is 01:43:22 There's like four, five, six heels at ringside. But then Eric Young is going to come from the crowd with a baseball bat and lay both Hernandez and staying out and then cut a promo over. Man, by the way, at our pay-per-view that was coming up in like fucking two weeks or whatever it was. Hernandez was in a big match
Starting point is 01:43:42 and Sting was in a big match and I don't know Eric Young was on the cart. And did I mention again that Eric Young had been the guy that was falling down from his own pyro, now he's going to lay waist to our top baby faces and stand over him and talk for a while. So I talked to Rousseau
Starting point is 01:44:00 in the car on the way down with Stace driving so I could talk and write. And I said, let's do something different to get to the same place and do a disqualification. And everybody I don't want to do a DQ because he's a mark also. He had read on the internet, oh, disqualifications are cheap. You know what the alternative would have been? Don't book the fucking match.
Starting point is 01:44:23 That would have been an option. But the tournament. So we talked for a while and agreed on a finish where the disqualification would take place somehow, even though nobody cheated because the heels came out and intervened. And it still got Hernandez fucking advanced or whatever, but nobody had to get beat or take advantage of anybody in the baby face side and nobody got laid out with a baseball bat. So then I get to the taping and I see the format. They put it back.
Starting point is 01:45:04 and so in the production meeting I had to go and litigate this whole thing over again what the fuck are we doing this they will all end up looking like shit with their dicks in their hands if they try to do this all this interference and this and that with these multiple people
Starting point is 01:45:20 and you think and you're making Hernandez look like a prick and an idiot because he can't beat the guy anyway and blah blah blah and let's put it back so they put it back and there were a lot of people still in the room going,
Starting point is 01:45:36 oh, we don't want to do a DQ because this was the newer generation of the indie crowd from the 90s who had also learned, oh, you can't do disqualifications? Don't book the fucking match. So anyway, this is that set of tapings. But we start out.
Starting point is 01:45:56 We show 449, Rino versus Sting. Both these guys were no problem whatsoever, very helpful in cooperative setting this up. And I thought their match was good and the finish was Sting over and then Rhino's two gores to crack his ribs. Told the story perfectly. Both executed it well. I didn't have Sting used the blood capsule to bleed from the mouth after the gores because of the high rate of those things looking kabukiish. And the guys as well agreed if he was bleeding from the mouth from cracked ribs.
Starting point is 01:46:32 he might need to go to the hospital. Because that was, again, this is what Russo would just write bullet points on the fucking format, match. Rhino, Gore, Sting twice, bleeds from mouth. And they both looked at me like, because Sting was even looking at me, like, I'm coming back again to wrestle.
Starting point is 01:46:55 And Rino's like, you know, he didn't want to say it, but he's like, if I gore to motherfucker, twice he's bleeding from the mouth, I think he needs surgery, you know, so we don't want to goddamn fuck it up at that point. So anyway, keeping it simple, Sting, sold, be gores well, and it looked more real to the fans. We also asked for AJ not to have to do the save since it would involve Rano just leaving the ring with no contact, and AJ had two matches later in the show, plus a big run-in in the show closing brawl so the fans wouldn't get tired of him.
Starting point is 01:47:29 Rino left with the heat. Good job by everybody. And again, this is, you know, an hour later, after Sting, the icon has taken these vicious gores, he's got to come back and wrestle this 300-pound beast who's a baby face. And how do you have a match without taking advantage of his broken ribs? What do you do to him? You know, either that or it's, it looks like Hernandez is, oh, this fucking guy, his ribs are, you know, so anyway. But first, Hernandez has to get there, right?
Starting point is 01:48:02 he's got to advance. I'm sorry, did you have any comments on? No, this is fascinating. This is absolutely fascinating. Keep going. Okay, so Homicide versus Hernandez. Obviously, I had high hopes for this match.
Starting point is 01:48:17 Both guys were anxious to get with me and work stuff out, no problems at all. I gave him the framework of a match and had them put their moves to it. I also requested specific things Hernandez do or not do to remain supermex. Homicide worked hard to shine him and the first part of the match was good, but it slowed down with homicide got the heat on Sean's leg.
Starting point is 01:48:40 I wanted him to stay all over the leg like a rabid Nelson Royal, and he was methodical like a tiny Don Jardine. This combined with Hernandez just not being able yet to sell without dying and losing his aura meant that the match didn't have the passion I'd hoped for. Again, that's what, you know, the big guy bounces the little, heel around like a super ball. But then the little heel has to be a pit bull. He has to be
Starting point is 01:49:08 aggressive. We went after the leg, keep chop blocking, tearing, ripping, kicking. Hernandez had to keep trying to stand up, pull himself up on the ropes, and get his base taken out, not just lay there in a leg bar, right? And that's the, you know, that's the fine point that they
Starting point is 01:49:28 needed work on. anyway um the finish was fine the story got told well as i said in the meeting the reason i suggested homicide finally accept the handshake but it looked so bummed about it was to not telegraph quite so much the following night's turn uh any mistakes these guys made were from inexperience and doing these types of angles and not any lack of effort i explained to both the next day especially sean in more detail and they understood when you get a chance please email me, open dates on Sean in October. Well, this is, the dates of the tapings are August 31st and September 1st. So dates on Sean in October so I can see about availability of myself in the arena
Starting point is 01:50:11 to give him the clinic. And I think he may have been, they may have booked him to Mexico already at that point in time. He may have had something going on. But anyway, so now these two guys have to wrestle each other, right? Because they've won their tournament match. And here we go. Hernandez versus Sting.
Starting point is 01:50:32 I know that there was a lot of discussion back and forth on what to do in this match, and to be fair to everyone, there was no way this match at this time could have been a positive thing, no matter how it was done. We just had to get Sting advanced in the tournament. I'm sorry, Sting was going to get advanced. I had it the other way around. Vince and I talked on his original. finish because so many finishes happen. Vince and I talked on his original finish and I thought
Starting point is 01:51:02 what we had was a good way to get out of it, but what I got to TV and saw the revised one, with all due respect to anyone who contributed to that when the reason why I argued so strongly against it was because there was just no way those two guys on that night under those conditions with that amount of interference in that amount of time could possibly have performed it. we kept the original premise of sting with cracked ribs facing Hernandez to see who gets a title match. Hernandez didn't want to fight a guy with an injury,
Starting point is 01:51:33 but he had to in order to advance. Just a few minutes into the match, Eric Young, disguised his homicide, came out and attacked Sting in order to show Hernandez he was on his side, but the referee caught him and disqualified Hernandez. After the DQ security accidentally revealed it was Eric Young who had cost Supermex his title shot.
Starting point is 01:51:58 With that being the simple version, I thought the guys did a good job getting out of an awkward situation. Nobody hurt their image. Security and Eric were right there where they needed to be and everybody performed this well to get story over except whoever was the costume person that dressed Eric Young up as homicide sunk the ship. He didn't even have a cap on that big melon head and his bare arms when no tattoos were showing
Starting point is 01:52:24 to the point where live Taz couldn't even call him homicide as it was obvious but then there's more there's more to go on anyway we went to break with the reveal and came back with Hernandez in the ring he did all right calling Eric Young back out and we had it set up for world elite
Starting point is 01:52:45 to attack Sean and him to make a comeback on all except Eric Young before they stopped him I didn't like the way the heels fed him. Doug and Brutus took one bump each and rolled away before Bashir and Kiyoshi were there. Again, they're all over the country, all over the world here, these countries. It left Sean wandering a bit looking for someone to hit. The heels got okay heat.
Starting point is 01:53:11 Then the run-ins and brawl with AJ Beer Money 3D Booker and Steiner started and was wild and exciting. So again, it's just like it was 18 people. I know, I know. You couldn't. The next day I got with Hernandez and World Elite and explained to them that they didn't have the luxury of one of them getting the other one over. Both their pushes are new,
Starting point is 01:53:36 so they have to get each other over. They have to make Sean look like King Kong and then pick his bones when they get their heat. They understood, and in that day's TV, next report, they were perfect. But anyway, this was just, again does this sound familiar 16 people have to run in
Starting point is 01:53:58 people have to be disguised coming over the rail and and I'm taking a shit that believe that was the simple version that was the like here can we do it this way so that people will understand it version would you like some thoughts on random matches
Starting point is 01:54:22 oh yeah random thoughts on other matches Sabin versus AJ Stiles was very good. Christy Hemmys forte in this business is not wrestling. Doug Williams versus AJ was good. Our biggest problem on this night was from a production standpoint. We had delays in between many of the segments. In one case, we had to hold the truck in the live event to shoot a location promo offline,
Starting point is 01:54:49 but in real time backstage. As a result, the audio had bleed over, bleed over of people. Pins are promoing the crowd because there was no communication between the truck and offline crew. Keith and David are working to make sure these segments are done differently from now on, but they still cause a delay for the crowd. I think we should only do them when absolutely necessary. We ended up doing a two-hour show and half of another in three hours, 45 minutes, more than real time with no commercials and not rolling in the pre-tapes.
Starting point is 01:55:22 the crowd was tired we lost a lot because even though individual matches and segments were good no rhythm was established dip shit would stop the goddamn live event while we had it going out in the building in front of the people because one of his backstage promos it'll have more impact if it's shot live bro it needs to be live because they've done some other things
Starting point is 01:55:50 It's got to be, so he would hold the goddamn live event up to shoot a fucking location promo offline somewhere in the back, but in real time because it would make it fit better that way. Anyway, random thoughts. Random thoughts, random matches. Then I've got one more TV taping before I'm done. Would you like to hear that? Yeah, one more. This is good.
Starting point is 01:56:24 Okay, there was an in-ring interview with the world elite and Hernandez and homicide, where homicide was finally going to turn on Hernandez, full-fledged apparently. And I wrote, as we discussed in the meeting, I laid this out to be as big a shock as possible when homicide turned. We had to first not tip off that homicide was in on the plan, have Hernandez hit and be supermex, surprise them with the turn. then get a heavy heat on Hernandez and have homicide welcomed into the family by Eric Young. So again, now,
Starting point is 01:57:03 homicides from fucking, actually, I think Brooklyn, but he's Puerto Rican, so he's going into the world elite group with the Japanese guy, the Canadian guy, the British people, the fucking,
Starting point is 01:57:17 where else was the other fellows from? Eurasia. Eurasia. Yeah. So anyway, Eric Young did okay with calling Hernandez out or else homicide would suffer. So apparently, oh, they had kidnapped homicide and they had him down and they said, Hernandez, get out here. But he didn't exactly rouse up a lot of fear or suspense.
Starting point is 01:57:43 Old Eric, Young. Hernandez hit strong doing the spot I gave him where he chucked Doug and Brutus and Rob and Kiyosha and Bashir from the ring in seconds. And they all fed him great. Eric was right there with the chair for him to snatch and then bailed. We can't let the baby faces get to Eric Young or his heat will be gone. He's not a guy they want to see beaten up all the time that badly. Homicide was right on target with the stiff chair from behind.
Starting point is 01:58:13 Then all the heels got a shot and it was better though not yet classic heat. I thought the touch of homicide bearing Sean in the LAX flag was nice heat. we didn't play any music in the truck so we could hear fans mad and yelling and homicide played off of it and got some heat and good camera shots. Sohadi was very happy. All these guys did a good job. They listened and were very diligent in all their segments.
Starting point is 01:58:41 So now, you know, we were setting up again Hernandez in this battle with these international menaces including homicide. Random thought. got random thoughts and then I've got more match, but we'll get to that in a second thing, I guess. Random thoughts. Oh, Devon versus Rude versus Williams versus Steiner. This never got going for me. It was supposed to be a tag team gauntlet match. There was an idea to change it to a four
Starting point is 01:59:11 corners match, et cetera. The match had already started before we came on the air because the teams were about to get into it. And they did a pretty good job with the partners in the ring getting worked on to set up their partner's tag on his entrance. Yeah, this was this. They've got, the teams aren't out there. They're like a guy's wrestling and he might be in trouble, but suddenly music plays and his partner comes out. And you can see how this was going.
Starting point is 01:59:42 And then I said, James Storm, the last entrance, came out on stage as his partner was in the ring selling. He was wearing a football helmet with two beer cans and slapping two noise sticks together. I got hot and he came to the truck later and I told him why. I said he's better than that. Then they have to always be silly or funny or wacky.
Starting point is 02:00:04 The fans may like it, but when it's constant or over the top or uncalled for in a situation like that, yeah, your partner's fucking in trouble, but you're going to ride a customized beer cooler to the ring. I told him the fans want a cool beer money like a Tully and Arne-type wrestling heel team with personality,
Starting point is 02:00:26 opposite personalities that are, you know, the odd balls, the odd ducks, partners that can wrestle. I believe Storm and especially rude or main event players in T&A, I'd like see Storm work on being serious. And he had, finally, when they let him do some shit, he had a plitty good, a pretty good run, as I recall. down there.
Starting point is 02:00:52 What is he doing these days? Where is James Storm? You don't hear from, I mean, I'm not advocating for everybody to wrestle into their fucking 50s. I can't remember how old he is, but this was 15 years ago when he was 30, had to be.
Starting point is 02:01:07 Where's his old partner? What was it? Chris Harris? Was that it? Oh, my God. America's Most Unwanted. Poor fella. He just, he pooped to bed.
Starting point is 02:01:20 Who poop to bed? Okay, here's a match. Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe with Matt Morgan against AJ Stiles and Christopher Daniels with Sting. Wow. I don't even remember
Starting point is 02:01:33 while those people are friendly with each other. All six of these guys are always easy to work with and no exception here. I had a private talk with Joe to pep him up stemming from our agent meeting last TVs. I told him he can't lose focus whether in singles tags.
Starting point is 02:01:49 part of a group heel or baby face just be the badass explosive Samoa Joe regardless of the situation and he'll get over. He certainly worked very hard here and in his singles match with Morgan and this was when, remember, he'd been kidnapped and thrown in the trunk of a car.
Starting point is 02:02:07 We forgot to mention that one last week. They had him a goofy fake tattoo on his face. He was wearing pants. He had been a heel or baby face I know what the fuck is going on. And he just got, again, he had a different way than Booker T. He was just, ah, fuck it. He just was, you know, sullen about it and depressed and needed to pick his fireback up.
Starting point is 02:02:35 Anyway, this was a real good tag match. They did the finish with Morgan's quote unquote miscue, just as laid out in both Morgan's facials and his elevator on angle did wonders for him in the store. and then the following show was show number 451, Bashir and Kiyoshi versus Hernandez. That dreaded Middle Eastern Japanese alliance against Mexico. Okay, I explained to the heels that they had to make Hernandez look unbeatable for this angle, and they both did it cheerfully.
Starting point is 02:03:14 Even though they had never done a couple of the strongman spots I asked for, explained them and they did great. I tried an experiment for Hernandez selling. After manhandling both heels, I had him get rid of Kiyoshi and Bashir stop him. I told Bashir to light him up with chops, punches, and broad arms for 45 seconds and told Sean to sell around the ropes to the right in a circle. Selling but staying on his feet, he does better, but he still forgets to swing back. That's a Rip Rogers drill. Because Rip in wrestling class would say, you know, a lot of guys say, well, I got a TV match, but they only let me get a minute of heat.
Starting point is 02:03:57 You can't get any heat in a minute. And he would have guys take a stopwatch and click it. And he would take a guy in the ring and get heat on him for 60 seconds, one minute. And in that minute of time, he would take that guy and chop him and broadarm him and rake his back and thumb his eyes and run his head in the turnbuckle and boot him in the gut so many times that in the end of 60 seconds the guy's chest and his back could be black and blue they said, did I get enough heat? He beat that fucking shit out of that guy in 60 fucking seconds.
Starting point is 02:04:34 And I said, but at the same time, the guy sells to the right. Chop, boom, he spins to the right and he grabs the top rope and he's caving, holding his chest in. That's when you fucking broad armic across the back. Oh, my God, he bows his back out with the pain. You boot him in the gut. Oh, he bends over and grabs his gut. You grab his hair and ram his head in a turnbuckle. He's pretty, and he's still going to the right around the ring. And you'll do, in the 60 seconds, you'll waltz that some bitch around all four sides of the ring and beat him like he owes you trance. And that's what we were trying to get accomplished there. I said, and Hernandez is supposed to be swinging back or pawing back or trying to throw a blow,
Starting point is 02:05:20 but the quicker the smaller guy ducks at her stays underneath, whatever. And I said he forgets to swing back. Also, no one will mistake Bashir for Gene Kineski. I mean, you know, I had to put that in. Anyway, Hernandez made a good comeback and beat him. Then Homicide and Eric Young appeared and they got good heat on Sean after he just got his hands on homicide for a second. the driving the spike in the throat with the chair and briefcase looked good and Sean sold it well okay again I don't know if I would have come up with that spot so I have
Starting point is 02:05:56 a feeling that's one of the bullet points that was written in the format have them take the briefcase and drive a spike into his throat uh Sean sold it well the Alka-Seltzer just blew up into foam from his dry mouse so it didn't work And then there's a six-man tag. I wrote nothing. And then the last match, Samoa Joe versus Matt Morgan. These guys worked very hard. It will be smoother when they've had experience with each other.
Starting point is 02:06:31 When Kurt came over the desk on Matt, it really kicked it up a notch. Daniels and Joe added a lot with their schmaws, and we went to break hot. On the other side, Kurt and Matt and I had worked out three spots, Matt breaking loose and hurling a security guy. guard, Kurt breaking loose and diving over some guards, and then Kurt putting Matt through the table. They did all three perfectly, and we got great shots. Keith and David enjoyed it in the truck. The only other thing I'd like to mention is that I think Bashir is underutilized in the world elite group, whereas I said, Eric is the kind of guy people don't want to see get beaten up
Starting point is 02:07:07 all the time. Bashir is if Bashir speaks more and his promos do get heat. then Eric can still be the leader, but make Bashir his general or whatever. Then Eric doesn't have to carry the whole thing. The group gets more heat. And Eric stays the guy in the suit that no one gets his hands on to put in his place until the blow off.
Starting point is 02:07:30 And, you know, again, now, see what he's reading these things going, oh, fuck. I'm telling him how to make his shit better because it's all over the page and he's using the wrong people. Or I'm telling them, well, we shouldn't have had this man.
Starting point is 02:07:45 now. But, you know, we shouldn't have this match now. They said, be honest, so I'm being honest, and we're trying to work with what we got. But that's the last thing that Mr. Rousseau wanted to hear was any goddamn coherent criticism with obvious logic thrown in of the goofy shit that he was doing on TV. So next week on the continuing installments, we'll get to the letter that I wrote to Terry Taylor after I got fire. Oh, we're there already. That was my last taping. Enough of that. Enough of that. We can't
Starting point is 02:08:25 have any more of that shit. Well, it was indeed a hard night's work there at T&A at the Impact Zone, Brian. And, you know, every time I'd get out of there, I'd just think if I could only just get back to the hotel and lay down in that bed and crank that air conditioning up. But you know what the problem was? When I did that, Brian, the hotel did not feature the line of mattresses from our friends over at helixleep.com.
Starting point is 02:08:56 That was the problem. So even though I would have laid down on a bit of rusty razor blades if I had to, and actually some nights it felt like I was, but that's what would have made the whole experience worthwhile, Brian, is if I could have just dove into a cloud, dove into a box of fluffy ducks, dove into a a fucking hummingbird's ass what other things are soft how soft is a hummingbird's ass
Starting point is 02:09:23 if I could have only have never heard that before yeah right in there boom it's got a it's got a a relaxable sphincter if I could have just dove in to all any of those things courtesy of a helic sleep mattress that would have been Shangri-La
Starting point is 02:09:38 but you can do it Brian you and the people out there the cult of cornet you don't have to go to a hotel and sleep on a bag of rusty razor blades, you, into privacy of your own home, the privacy, you can order a helic sleep mattress, customized just for you, for your likes and preferences,
Starting point is 02:09:58 staying away from your dislikes and your grievances, and you can get it delivered to your home and you can put it on your bed and you can dive into the wings of the angels. Because that's why, if you've got sleep apnea, Well, if you've got sleep apnea, they will apply themselves toward making that apnea go away. What is the opposite of apnea? Who is they?
Starting point is 02:10:23 What are you talking about? The people at Helix, they got mattresses. They will apply themselves to making your apnea go away. Let's not make that guarantee because I don't even know what it means. Well, I'm saying, what is the reverse of apnea? Non-apnea? They'll make you have non-apnea with their, they got mattresses. They won't do it.
Starting point is 02:10:42 do it. Well, they won't make you, they'll ask you nicely. They won't do a thing when it comes to this topic. Sometimes they'll recommend strongly because that's what you do. You go to helixleep.com, H-E-L-I-X, sleep if the people don't know it by now.
Starting point is 02:10:59 And you tell the people there, the fine people there, how you like to sleep on your back, on your side, are you hot when you sleep, or are you cold when you sleep? Do you wake up screaming and dialing nine for no apparent reason, otherwise
Starting point is 02:11:14 and there were voices in your head. You thought you saw somebody in the room? And then they'll send you a mattress that's designed to correct some of these many issues that I just mentioned. Don't know if I want to use the term correct, but they have mattresses customized for you. They will ameliorate.
Starting point is 02:11:31 They will ameliorate then the problem. If you sleep and you sweat when you sleep, they got a mattress that makes you feel cooler. Now, certainly that means that they will help the problem. I'm not trying to just go over my head or anything here. Now, if you have for some reason a large bowel obstruction, you put that down on the quiz, I don't know if they have anything that'll help it,
Starting point is 02:11:57 but make sure you put it down, they'll want to know. Not one of the inquiries on the quiz. Because that way, if you try to use the guarantee, well, if you try to use the guarantee and, you know, well, the guarantee works. If you've got a bowel instruction, they might need to know if you've had an obstruction.
Starting point is 02:12:12 The bowel on there. Oh, obstruction. Yes. Obstruction. I thought you said it. They might need to know if... Boul instruction. No, everybody knows how to work their bowels.
Starting point is 02:12:20 That comes, you know, you're kind of wired factory setting for that. Let's get away. They kind of do their own thing, usually. Let's get away from the bowels. Let's get away from the bowery. Let's go to the Waldorf, the Waldorf of mattresses. And of course, we're talking about a great mattress. You tell them what you like.
Starting point is 02:12:36 They will give you the mattress just for you. Well, they won't give it to you. You got to buy it. Well, you got to buy them. and we have them here in the house. You have them over there, Jim. Yes. Big fans of the Helix.
Starting point is 02:12:46 We can save you money. We can save you money on it too. That's right. That's a good thing. Because the big 4th of July sale is going on right now. 27% off. That is, that's the biggest discount we have ever offered on the fine Helix sleep products.
Starting point is 02:13:02 I don't even know how they're doing this. They must be, they must be laundering some money or something. But right now, Helix. No, they aren't. let alone they must be. They are certainly not. Let's say that.
Starting point is 02:13:17 They certainly launder their mattresses. Now, you can't deny that. They'll send you, it smells clean when it comes in. Helix Sleep. I'm trying to say the words, helixsleep.com slash JCE is the 4th of July sale. It's how you get the 27% off sitewide. Helixleep.com slash J.
Starting point is 02:13:41 check out the variety of the the the the lux collection the elite collection the the very specialized mattresses they have the litatini weenie wins for the kids i mean if you got the jimmy legs just put they you want the jimmy legs mattress comes with little hooks you put your ankles in do not have any beds with they don't have a jimmy legs mattress with hooks it's actually it's loops instead of hooks i misspoke it's loops it's not it's not it's It's not. We're going to look back to what we were saying before. Jim, we have a great deal.
Starting point is 02:14:17 27% off. There's never been anything like it. A great time to try Helix sleep. What's that promo code? That promo code is JCE. I guess those little loops on the side of the mattress are for when you want to hang it on the ceiling. No loops.
Starting point is 02:14:33 We guarantee no loops, and they will not be adding loops. And again, I don't know, this is the end. I don't know why you go here at the end. But Jim, let's also end with the link that people could use. Helix.com slash JCE 27% off. Hurry.
Starting point is 02:14:53 Fourth of July, it's coming, it's going. You hear that music playing. You know what that means. Yes. There's nothing we can do about that. I've tried many times. Oh, boy, howdy. I got to tell you, the AEW program the other night,
Starting point is 02:15:10 As I said earlier, they ought to give you study notes, maybe a PowerPoint presentation, some pie charts would good. We were talking earlier in the program about the TNA agent reports and how Mark Bookers book things. Marks, like Rousseau, the previous generation marks, and like Tony, they see all these moments in their head and these, wow, this would be great. these will attack each other in the back and they'll fight and they'll break furniture and this will happen and they just can't not only restrain themselves from doing it so constantly that it becomes meaningless or figure out the right people to do it with or in many cases
Starting point is 02:16:01 lay it out so that if it had a chance of being good if it was done properly, they leave all the loopholes because they don't have any experience with actually making shit makes sense. So some things never change. We were the same, except TNA in 2009 was doing three times the viewership of what they've got right now. But Tony Kahn is the kind of guy that would book the two top baby faces to have a 50-year-old guy with broken ribs, roll up the 300-pound beast. trying to get over.
Starting point is 02:16:39 I know I said it the other way around before, but, and also a roll up with broken ribs, Brian, I just thought of that. Is that the finish you'd want to use if your ribs were broken? Let me just roll this 300 pound guy up.
Starting point is 02:16:51 I may avoid that one. Right over the top of me. Yeah, I may avoid that one. But anyway, we were in Seattle for the come back to reality edition of AEW dynamite.
Starting point is 02:17:02 They weren't, they weren't in Mexico anymore, and they weren't in Kansas anymore either. they were back to reality. I think they had, would they have 1,800 people in Seattle, bless them. It may have been a little more than that, I think, but in that range.
Starting point is 02:17:19 That's what Uncle Dave said. Oh, did he? Oh, I thought it was like- I think that's what Uncle Dave said. So maybe we ought to take that one with a grain of salt. Well, we'll find that when we do the ratings. We'll see what the numbers are in. I thought it was a little higher, but I could be completely wrong.
Starting point is 02:17:31 That counted the people also work in a concession stand. But again, this whole show. just people doing things. They're doing the walk-ins, because now since W.W.E. has their stars walk-in the building on camera, they do the walk-ins also. But apparently we are to believe it, Tony Storm, just at least the walk-ins in the
Starting point is 02:17:53 WWE many times are, you know, you can tell it's earlier that day they came in the building, and then they'll have somebody walk all the way through and go out. But it's just Tony Storm, here she comes and Mercedes-Mone comes in from the blind side and just jumps on her and shoved because Tony Storm has Luther,
Starting point is 02:18:15 the butler with her, with her. And Mercedes shoves Luther down and he takes like a pratfall and he's never seen again. Did she give him the fucking vibrating palm strike that the fucking Kung Fu Masters gave Bruce Lee to, you know, get even for him
Starting point is 02:18:36 revealing the secrets. How does this grown adult 280 pound human waterbed of a man be fucking wiped out forever by the girl shoving him down? And then they fight into the arena and they have a fake fight on the stage forever.
Starting point is 02:18:59 Forever. And then finally, six male referees run out on the stage and our Mercedes has the hold on Tony Storm and is crank it on her and they're screaming,
Starting point is 02:19:15 please stop, please stop. There's six men there. It's a 125 pound girl, pull her off. But are they determined now to Tony Storm is the only one they've got that's really over over.
Starting point is 02:19:31 Are they determined to just make her look like an idiot too? And she got saved by Mina Melons. and Mercedes was so scared she backed up 20 feet grabbed the microphone and it made a little statement to him and Mina was just squatting there next to Tony oh you heard her
Starting point is 02:19:54 why can't they close up any of the loopholes and any of the logic I thought Mercedes had her own writer Will Wheaton shouldn't he be staying up on it was Will Washington and he wasn't her writer he was swerves writer
Starting point is 02:20:13 I thought she got her own writers too Pepper Day I'm sorry she has a writer but I got the wrong writer it's Alexander Pepper Day that's her writer shouldn't Pepper Day
Starting point is 02:20:25 be fucking staying up thinking about ways we can close the loopholes and all this fucking goofy logic well I don't know here's a loophole let me ask you about a loophole that may or may not close
Starting point is 02:20:36 if the rumors are true that Tony Kahn sees the value and not bringing Chris Jericho back does Luther come back? Oh, good Lord. I forgot Luther's not one of the Lollipop Guild. He was one of the Canadian contingent, right?
Starting point is 02:20:54 That's right, the Canadian friends. Well, in that case, I don't, but you know, at the same time, Tony might think he'll be offended. Jesus Christ. So then, again, I talked about power Point presentation, notes, help me explain some of these things.
Starting point is 02:21:15 The Bucceroos show up on camera, the Harley Boys, Maddie and Nikki, and they use their EVP power to move Osprey and swerves match up to right now from later on in the show so that they have to come out all unprepared and still tying their shoes and blah. Have we ever established how, why are they allowed to do these things? the EVPs. Tony is right there. Yeah.
Starting point is 02:21:45 He can overrule whatever. He later on in the program, within 10 seconds of two guys have an interaction, he's booked the match for next week. So why doesn't he just come out and say, no, you guys are being pricks and it's my company and that's not right.
Starting point is 02:22:03 So don't do that. Have we ever gotten a reason why that cannot take place? No, they beat them up. and then no one really cared so that kind of went away the bucks weren't getting over as the right kind of heels
Starting point is 02:22:17 it was the we don't want to watch this heels not the oh my god they're heels I can't wait to see someone beat them up person beat them up and it wasn't filmed it was in the back it was fucking see him punk but uh you know they've established at Tony Zechirilla
Starting point is 02:22:31 they've established just recently with MJF and Shelton Tony was back there like a ventriloquist dummy just all of his motions So they've established that. How could they say these things? And what could they do to make it happen?
Starting point is 02:22:45 And why doesn't Tony overrule it? They haven't even come out and produced a contract that Tony was stupid enough to sign in 2021 that gave them the ability to do this and that and the other thing. They just, it's inexplicable. So anyway, here comes Osprey and swerve to come out for their match early, and it's against Blake Christian and Lee Johnson.
Starting point is 02:23:08 and I know you're never going to believe this, Brian, but they had a competitive match. The two top baby faces had all they could handle from these two guys that have never had a television win. And the Buccarus came to ringside for a break, they went through a break with this, but they come to ringside to fucking watch, right? So then finally Swerve makes a comeback.
Starting point is 02:23:41 He hit the heels in some fashion, whether a strike or a kick or whatever the fuck, nine times before either one of them fell down. And when they did fall down, it was he shoved the guy out of the corner so he could run and kick at him again. And then he won with a kick to the head. And then Swerve and Osprey tried to go after the Hardley Boys,
Starting point is 02:24:07 But security was right there and held them back and got in between so there could be no violence. And so then they had to challenge them to a tag match at all in. And Osprey had his garbage disposal voice cranked up to high on this one. But now Osprey and swerve at their big stadium show and pay-per-view are tied up in a match that won't contribute a single dime to the take. and they're putting the EVP titles on the line, I think, because of Osprey's voice, but the announcer has backed it up. But what does that mean if the baby faces win, they're the EVPs, or if they beat the bucks, the bucks can't be EVPs anymore?
Starting point is 02:24:57 Is this a way to finish off the whole goofy thing because of the reasons we just said? It's never made any sense. Does that how you can get an executive position? I challenge Tony Kahn to a fight. yeah well yeah i'll i'll take that one i'll fight tony god to run the company i'll take that one and even at my age um but and by the way here's something it's going to be a thing we'll talk about the security was right there they've shot themselves in the foot in another way on this program because indiscriminately there is no rhyme or
Starting point is 02:25:37 reason to whether security and referees come instantly on the slightest hint of a violent altercation or a guy can be goddamn ravaged and have his intestines pulled out through his sphincter by a fish hook for 10 minutes and nobody comes out. And there's no rhyme or reason or logic to why either one happens. they've established it's because each person or entity is coming up with their own angles and laying their own shit out and there's no supervising producer as I was attempting to be in those agent reports that we've read or anybody thinking about the show overall and you've got to establish a baseline with here is how we respond to incidents
Starting point is 02:26:38 like this. And it's got to be somewhere about, oh my God, we were caught unawares. It took us a few seconds to scramble out there, whatever. But there's ways you can set it up and you can still get your point across, but you just can't take five minutes to do all this goofy shit that by the time when you're trying to get a heat in an angle and it takes five fucking minutes and nobody's trying to stop it and the baby face is just laying there, you ain't going to get any son of a bitch
Starting point is 02:27:09 violent enough to come over the rail in that situation. The heat does, it's not urgent heat. That's what they're doing stage plays instead of angles. And they could stagger their run-ins while I'm talking about it also with the security where you don't, that 12 guys are not just standing by.
Starting point is 02:27:32 Yeah, really. You know, first a two or three referee he's come. Holy shit, what's going on? And maybe the bells ringing, ding, ding, ding, ding. And then a couple of T-shirt security guys are coming down. Oh, my gosh, we've got to stop this. Hey, Joe and Fred, two more come down. Then
Starting point is 02:27:47 maybe a couple of the fucking job guys with no shirt on. So people in the cheap seats can tell their wrestlers. And they come down there and get leveled or whatever. But it's a gradual thing where you're building the scene and you're building the urgency rather than here they all are. They can't do anything over and
Starting point is 02:28:05 over. There's fresh hope coming in. Things like that. Anyway, so what is the Oblada or is friends with Trent and Rocky and they all have some kind of past apparently in Japan with the buckaroos. and at one point Oblada was in the Lollipop Guild, but now he's in the Callas family right now. That's right. But Trent and Rocky are in a group in Japan with him. Chaos. The Bucceroos suspended swerve and Osprey
Starting point is 02:28:50 because they attacked the EVPs. Well, then Oblada came in and introduced them to his friends Trent and Rocky, but we know them well, we've got a past. What is their past? Were they all rent boys together in the Red Light District of Osaka? What was going on?
Starting point is 02:29:09 I don't know what they did, but obviously they all have a New Japan past. Well, they were calling Ibushi Kenny's golden lover. And I know that was the, folks, for those of you who live in the normal, world. The name of the tag team that Kenny Olivier and his friend Coda Obushi or Ibuci, the name of their tag team was the golden lovers. Not to Bedoude Express, the road warriors,
Starting point is 02:29:43 the powers of pain, the brain busters, the golden lovers. But this is American television. 10 years later, they've seen Ibushi like three times before he crippled himself and's been off for two years. Isn't it off-putting to any normal person who would try to watch this program when they're talking about Ibushi being the golden lover of another one of the baby faces?
Starting point is 02:30:19 Yeah, I don't think it resonates. I don't think Abushi resonates, but I don't think it resonates. well it bushy was about to resonate because this was his big return against Trent and I mean he doesn't look as pudgy as he did the last time we saw him
Starting point is 02:30:41 remember we remarked on the pudge but he still is he five foot four I don't know if I would bet on him against the outlaw Japanese girls no he's not that short he's not that short he looked like the you know if If the Beatles had come from Nagasaki, he looks like the Pete Best of the group. Well, again, now, you always say that, but you forget Pete Best never had a mop top.
Starting point is 02:31:04 That's why he really didn't fit in the same way that Ringo did. But, you know, he comes out there. He's got his mop top. He looks like he's in better shape than the last time we saw him, both in America when he was pudgy and in Japan where he broke his feet. And he just has no, how do I, I don't even, it's not even charisma, no reaction, no No pulse. Personality.
Starting point is 02:31:26 Yeah, it's just like a guy in a coma walking out. He has like the reactions of like a wrestling character in a video game 25 years ago. Like they didn't have the graphics yet to give them good react. He just walks out there and he gets in there. And again, I mean, the kicks looked okay. But everything about this was just, you know, eh? You know, I don't think if Bushi resonates in American, I don't think he will. And that's the thing is after he goes eight minutes or whatever with Trent.
Starting point is 02:31:55 And by the way, if take a shit ain't getting paid what Ibushi is, if I was him, I'd be pissed. Because again, this gay did little of whatever. But eight minutes, he wins with a knee lift, and then Oblada comes out, and they stared at each other. They stared at each. And all 1,800 people in Seattle are going, holy shit, holy shit. Holy shit, for what reason? Big shit. Big shit.
Starting point is 02:32:24 O'Kada hasn't had a good match yet and it probably ain't going to try and this little short squat black hole of charisma that he's nose to nose with what do they think they're going to see because they ain't going to see it and then
Starting point is 02:32:47 Okada walks out and Tony sends the word within 10 seconds next week Okada versus Ibushi Gee, what in the world is that going to look like? One guy... A 598,000 viewers. But one guy can't, won't fall down, and the other guy probably shouldn't really hurt himself again.
Starting point is 02:33:13 What do they think they're going to see that's a holy shit moment from these two? That makes me want to see it, but the problem is it'll probably be a big ball of nothing. I don't remember where they are. It depends on the crowd, too. But yeah, Abushi has this blah match And then they stare at each other right in each other's faces
Starting point is 02:33:32 And no one does anything Because Abushi's defending the honor of Kenny Who was previously hurt You know what this really is If you think about everything right now happening with the bucks Who are pushed despite How little they mean to the business of AEW Omega
Starting point is 02:33:50 Who's in the middle of a push right now and doing this thing with Okada, his long-time opponent from 10 years ago. Adam Page getting his run. Ibushi's showing back up for the stadium. It's the last hurrah of that gang. You know what I mean? You're like... You know, in terms of age, in terms of everything,
Starting point is 02:34:12 it's the last hurrah of that like little click of weirdos. And I think we're going to have to sit through it for a little while. Well, speaking of a click of weirdos, the next match was ricochet and AR Fox against Kevin Knight and Hong Kong Fooey, who are now going by the tag team name Jet Speed. Because Hong Kong Fooey is speedball and Kevin Knight was Jet Blue, whatever. Jet something. The jet, Benny and the Jets. The Jet Kevin and the Jets. Yeah, I guess that's what it is.
Starting point is 02:35:00 So this was recess for the kids. And there's another story that R. R.C. She is trying to recruit him a group, but then he teamed up with A.R. Fox and then walked out on him and left him to get beat. And old spitballs still doing his thing. And so anyway, they win the match. and then my God, they let these two talk.
Starting point is 02:35:28 Actually, Kevin Knight ain't bad. He's got more oomph, but old Hong Kong, Jesus, what a nerd. I mean, I'm just sorry, it's just, what a fucking nerd. And you just want to slap him, that voice and that face. And he's doing a promo on the tag team. They still want a tag team title match. with the Hurt Syndicate.
Starting point is 02:35:56 Explain to me how it shouldn't be against any criminal statute in the country for either Bobby Lashley or Shelton Benjamin to fight this little squidget. So. In a stadium. In a stadium. And in the Hurt business or Hurt syndicate attacks them and beats up the kids in the entrance and set up a table. And they put Kevin Knight on the table and Lashley choked Hong Kong fuy.
Starting point is 02:36:25 choke slammed him through Kevin Knight on the table. And then MVP cut to promo on the baby faces while they were laying there. It wasn't as bad as Sina and Punk because it didn't last 10 minutes. And these are preliminary cannon fodder guys. But then when they go to the ring and cut to promo, MVP apparently agreed to give them the tag team title match if they can stand up. and I assume they stood up because they were gone by the next segment. So what the fuck?
Starting point is 02:37:02 Seriously, they've got a tag team that's over that gets a reaction. Looks like a million dollars. Looks like grown adult athletes. And the only thing they can program them with is children that are so green, they can't even take advantage of all the spots that Lashley and Benjamin are trying to give them. and MVP's out there begging somebody. Does somebody stand up, a tag team? My God, they may have to call T&A or something.
Starting point is 02:37:35 I don't know if that's going to work right now, but. I mean, some other company. That's the problem. What companies can Tony call? CMLL and New Japan. Jesus Christ. So then MJF did a promo and the fans booed the shit out of him. But next week, he's going to be,
Starting point is 02:37:53 in a qualifying match where the winner goes into the men's casino gauntlet match at all in, where the winner of that gets a guaranteed title shot. MJF, another of their money ball players, if they have any,
Starting point is 02:38:11 is in a meaningless casino bullshit match on pay-per-view because they can't, they're so creatively bereft at this point, that they can't set up money matches for their tag team champions.
Starting point is 02:38:27 They can't set up money matches for MJF. They can't set up, they can't set up money matches. All they can do set up dream matches that the same people that like this kind of thing by every month there is no growth and they're running out of the dream matches. And then Mark Briscoe's music interrupted.
Starting point is 02:38:52 And he actually came out and said, well, you're going long. I need to get in the ring for my match. And then he and MJF start going back and forth. And MJF calls him a blue collar bitch. And Briscoe emphasized empathized with MJF, the fans actually chanted empathy because he feels insufficient with his little kosher pickle.
Starting point is 02:39:17 And then the fans chant kosher pickle. This is a Saturday night live sketch. I think Mark Briscoe's great. I think MJF's great. But they come out, it went too long. They're being funny. The fans then amused themselves by chanting about MJF's small penis.
Starting point is 02:39:39 And then MVP says, let's just go watch Briscoe do what he does best, which is lose. So for the first time in history, Briscoe wins. He won a four. four-way, Brian. This is all interconnected.
Starting point is 02:40:01 It's all the same thing going on. He won a four-way match versus Bandito, Roderick Strong, and Take a shit for the number one spot in the casino gauntlet match. Which seems to me like that would be punishment to get the number one spot because then you got to fight all the other guys. But who says this is supposed to fucking be a lot? any in any way explicable. So what started at the first of that? Who was out first? Was it the, it was the baby faces?
Starting point is 02:40:37 Yeah, it depends on what you consider the start of that. The baby face underneath baby face team had a match which they won and then they got the shit kicked out of by the people that they're wrestling on the pay-per-view who did a promo who then were interrupted by the guy that was in the next match. And then that guy had a match and won the chance to be in another match. Any thoughts? Very much like Mr. Show with the transitions from one thing right to another. You got to appreciate that.
Starting point is 02:41:14 I hear what you're saying. MJF's a proven draw for them. Also, he's had great matches on big shows. Why isn't he in a high-profile match? if they did put them in one and we kind of have to happen out of nowhere the Hurt Syndicate they can't put in one because they don't have opponents
Starting point is 02:41:31 Well really MGAF doesn't have an opponent either set up for him and this MGF joining the Hurt Syndicate has been one of the only entertaining things that have actually for a wrestling fan instead of a fucking spot monkey on this show
Starting point is 02:41:48 but because their roster of baby faces is so weak and feckless and impotent and erectally dysfunctioned, there's nobody you want to see him fight. So I think, unfortunately, he ends up in this casino gauntlet match, whatever that is, a ladder match out of, I think that's what it is. It's something.
Starting point is 02:42:09 You have to retrieve something. I don't remember what it. Oh, they got to grab the big poker chip. Oh, that's right. It was a poker chip. If he wins it, it creates a good dynamic going forward with him and the Hertz syndicate and him having this ability to get a title match anytime he wants, which obviously is a copy of money in the bank.
Starting point is 02:42:26 But then which world champion would he want to wrestle for real? Moxley or fucking Page? He said to go, which one of these two jackoffs do I think I can get any kind of a match out of? And the idea they're setting up something, at least it looks like, with him and Mark Briscoe, you know, I don't want to get my hopes up, it could be promising. I mean, they've booked Mark Briscoe so poorly. and I think unfortunately they get a little bit of false security that because he's over and we have him lose every week, we could do that with everyone we bring in now.
Starting point is 02:42:59 Just book them, they'll lose, and eventually people will like them. But yeah, I mean... The Fiosauri-Syte heat. You know, the MJF-Hurt Syndicate stuff has been the highlight of the show, and in a lot of cases the highest-rated segment of the show, in a lot of cases, I mean, the Mystical match was the highest-rated segments of that show. And it's almost like, like I said before, the Codyverse.
Starting point is 02:43:23 It exists like in a little universe of its own within the wider universe. If MJF all of a sudden has title, title demand abilities. Yeah, he can get him as soon as he wants, if he wins that match, it kind of ties him into the bigger picture. But again, who the Hart Syndicate going to wrestle?
Starting point is 02:43:43 That's the big question still, but we'll get there, I guess. well and then they in course they got to do what the big boys do you're going to have a men's casino gauntlet match you're going to have a women's casino gauntlet match
Starting point is 02:43:58 can't wait for that and of course they had a four way to determine who was the number one spot in that was statlander versus Athena versus Willow versus Thunder Rosa and the highlight of that for me was
Starting point is 02:44:16 in full view of the referee Marina Schaefer walks down to distract Willow and Wheeler useless pops into the ring and he and Willow start doing a running spot which ends with Willow giving him the pounce and he fucking flies away and then Willow beat Statlander but again it just looks so ridiculous
Starting point is 02:44:41 and the overused crutch of the uncreative mind. No DQ. And let's just have one of the guys run in and do a fucking spot in the girls match in front of the fucking referee and then we'll do the finish later. You fucking morons.
Starting point is 02:45:01 And then, Brian, it came time for our main event of the evening. Is it just me? Or is it a lot of people saying it on Twitter that good old Frank Mark Mortis is getting a lot more big main event matches now that he's publicly been seen going out and dating Mercedes Moon.
Starting point is 02:45:26 Is there, is there nepotism going on? Is he a nepo bull? Would it be a nepo beast? I mean, why did you go right to bull? He's the beast mortals. He's wearing a bull head in me, or what head is that of an animal? I don't know for sure, but I know it's a beast. It might be a bison.
Starting point is 02:45:46 It could be a place. Well, no, think about this. Now, what kind of animal is that that he's wearing the head of? Is it a bison? Is it a buffalo? Is it just a regular old bull? One big old humpbacked bulls down in Texas? And if so, is that the common thread that has linked these two little crazy kids and
Starting point is 02:46:13 Star Cross lovers together? You got a bull, you got a camel. is they're made for each other does he do promos have we ever heard him talk and he speak English or are you going to get I don't know but he you're going to get that Charlotte Andrade thing
Starting point is 02:46:27 where it's like you can't imagine him ever having a conversation well but here's the thing I want to hear him give a closing argument in Spanish but with the bull on his head in gimmick but because he's a lawyer they've established this he's a lawyer Frank
Starting point is 02:46:45 so Frank rank the lawyer. I want him to dress up in full rigor mortis outfit here with the bullhead and everything and then give a closing argument in Spanish. I think that would be fantastic. To answer your question, I thought about it. I hate to say I did, but I obviously did. I thought about it a couple weeks ago. I thought about their New Mexico show where he filled in for, it was like all the top heels in the company and him. It was like Death Riders, Young Bucks, and Beast Mortos. It's like, yeah, it does seem like since he, since word came out that he was dating Mercedes-Money
Starting point is 02:47:23 and I can't wait to read the next issue on Mercedes-Mone's Monet mag for all that is school by this. Hey, this time she's not going to be lost in the fucking wood. She's going to be lost out in the bull pasture. Well, it definitely seems noticeable now that, yeah, this guy's getting used in a very nice position for someone that
Starting point is 02:47:40 is fine, I guess, for AEW mid-card. Midnight at the Oasis Put your camel to bed So hangnail Paige wrestled Frank rigor mortis In the main event Which ran of course past 10 o'clock Because they all do
Starting point is 02:48:01 And then Paige beat him with the buckshot But then the lights went out And the lights were out for a little while I didn't time it exactly as to the number of seconds. But Brian, you can vouch for me. Tell me if I'm not depicting this correctly, but while the lights were out, the announcers were still talking.
Starting point is 02:48:28 They were saying, folks, we're still on the air. The lights have gone out for some reason, right? You can hear the people murmuring in the arena. The audio is unmarred. It's exactly the same as it would be. just got a black screen. Is that a fair appraisal? Yeah, fair appraisal. Okay, well, then the lights come back on and now in the middle of the ring where it's just been Paige standing there when the lights went off now, Paige is down on both knees and there are Maddie and Nikki, the Harley boys,
Starting point is 02:49:04 holding each of his hands, ready to give him their little knee lift that they do. The problem, is, in no time during the time the lights were off, did you hear any struggle, any noise, any, who are you? Any, get down on your knees. A bump. Any, any, any, any suck it, bitch, any bump, any, any struggle or conflict of any kind, total silence from the ring. And they've established all the microphones are still on.
Starting point is 02:49:40 You can hear the people. You can hear everything. And then when the lights come back on, he's on his knees. He's looking up at him. And he goes, oh, my God. And they look at the people to milk it. And then they draw back. And then they give him the knee lift.
Starting point is 02:50:00 He's a foot taller than either one of these guys. All he had to do with, they're just holding his hands. All he had to do was stand up. Jerk them off balance. Hey, come here, you little pricks. No wonder they get the shit kicked out of them every time they get in a fight. None of these fuckers know how to fight. But what was that?
Starting point is 02:50:24 He just looks up horrified like, oh, don't do this to me in 10 seconds. Yeah, that face he made was ridiculous. It was like they had guns pointed at him. But also, again, no effort to move to, to, oh my God, I can't have. imagine how painful this thing you're going to do to me in the next 14 seconds will be. How did they get him down? How did they get him down? Why did it make no noise?
Starting point is 02:50:53 Why didn't he yell? Why didn't he yelp? Something. So, I mean, again, how did he get down? It took them a while. I know Tony loves it because ECW did it where the lights going out, but it's so lame. And all the stuff with the bucks is lame. And that wasn't even the end of it.
Starting point is 02:51:06 It somehow got worse. Oh, yeah. Well, then the music plays. And here comes Dick the Boozer and the Boer Horseman, except for Claudio, who's I read on the internet. Internet, he asked for time off, but he's not injured. Maybe he's just fed up. I don't know.
Starting point is 02:51:25 But they come out and get in the ring and everybody stands there. Because Page is selling dead from this shitty double knee lift. Again, these people are hit with chairs and thrown through furniture and dive off balconies and they're up in seconds, but this little shitty knee lift from these two children that never connects anyway. And he's laying there dead.
Starting point is 02:51:51 And the heels stand there until Moxley brings out a logging chain and puts it around Page's neck and gets him in a stationary choke where he's just way, he's not throttling him or shaking him around. There's no motion. He's just twisting it.
Starting point is 02:52:08 And again, nobody. Nobody trying to, to help as we talked about earlier. It's either feast or famine, either the security is there in a heartbeat, or they'll let people commit aggravated mayhem for 15 minutes. Well, this time we've established that there's not only a bunch of referees, but we've also established there's a bunch of security that nobody came out. Until finally, here comes Samoa Joe and Hobbs and Shepoopee.
Starting point is 02:52:41 But they can't get in the ring because the heels are playing king of the hill and won't let them in the ring. And then finally, Osprey comes out and suddenly just him, he just dives right in. And the heels leave and everybody stands around. And everybody's mad at everybody. Nobody really remembers why. A lot of things take place. You can't process it all. There's matchups going on
Starting point is 02:53:18 at the pay-per-view, but we still don't even know what is going to be the point of this briefcase? When they open the briefcase and the belt isn't there, is it going to lead us into some fabulous other dimension of creativity? What the fuck is going on here? That would be interesting. They opened the briefcase. There's nothing in there
Starting point is 02:53:38 and then Renee comes out wearing the briefcase, or wearing the briefcase wearing the belt. You know, maybe they could do that. I thought you were going to say Renee would come out of the briefcase. Now, I'd pay to see. I don't know. That'd be pretty magical. She did used to be a contortionist in her younger days.
Starting point is 02:53:53 She was able to be folded up into a small wallet and credit card holder. I think despite people claiming that the Moxley title run has been a big success, people are ignoring the fact. Who claimed that? Oh, no. I mean, Dave Meltzer has claimed it. Other people have claimed it that his title run has led to a business increase, not a business decrease.
Starting point is 02:54:15 But it's been a complete. creative failure. AEW's own fans hate it. And I think fans right now with their fingers crossed that hopefully we're in the last days of it, but... Well, but then we end up with Paige. I'm not going to put money on that either.
Starting point is 02:54:28 I'm not going to, you know, we'll see what happens, but this stuff has got to go away. Then after that, we're going to get Paige in the bucks, because that's what we need. More of that shit. Maybe they could program Paige with Mina. Nick Jackson has never looked like a wrestler. He's never looked less like a wrestler
Starting point is 02:54:45 than he does right now. He has like no shape to him. His hair that was always receding has receded to a whole new degree right now. He looks ridiculous. When you accidentally drop. He has to wear the full body suit like Randy Savage when he got off steroids.
Starting point is 02:55:02 This guy wasn't on steroids? Imagine what it looks like. It's just not good. When you accidentally drop a glob of face lotion in a sink of water, that type of indiscriminate shape where it just kind of floats around.
Starting point is 02:55:19 That's what you're saying Nick Jackson's body looks like. I think that's part of it, yeah. The fact that they can't talk, that the promos suck, that the fans don't have the right kind of heel reaction to them. I think there's a whole number of things.
Starting point is 02:55:30 And, yeah, I think they're going to double down and all that for one last run for all these people before their bodies break down and they're not worth what Tony's paying them. Well, they've never been worth what Tony's paying him, but that hadn't stopped him before now. But again, if I was, If I was taking shit, I would say, okay, you're giving Okada how much,
Starting point is 02:55:50 and you're giving Ibushi how much? And what about me, boss? I'm still young and able to fall down. For real? I'd say, if you want me to stay, you pay me now for my future. Well, he's paying everybody else for their past. That's right. And what other place, I'll say this and we'll move along to,
Starting point is 02:56:12 if anybody watched this fiasco, but it, if what, What other company of any endeavor in the world, can you actually get a lot of money, a guaranteed job, and a nice contract because you used to be good at the thing that they did 10 or 15 years ago? Where? How, when? Why? Well, there are talentless executives who always get a second or third chance. A lot of it's about relationships. And of course, that's the AW story. A lot of it's about relationships. But that was AEW Dynamite. Hey, that guy used to be great. 20 years ago. Let's fucking put him on the team. All righty, speaking of the team, Brian, before we talk about the Nielsen team
Starting point is 02:56:57 that evaluated this broadcast, what's going on from the team at the Arcadian Vanguard Network this week? Another final week of shows on the Arcadian Vanguard podcast network and information about all the shows on Twitter at Super Podcast or on Facebook at facebook.com slash Arcadian Vanguard. Of course, every day, get the wrestling news for free.
Starting point is 02:57:17 get your wrestling news from the wrestling news.com or wherever you find your favorite podcast, no clickbait, no paywall, just the wrestling news. Also want to make mention of shut up and wrestle with Brian Solomon. He continues his look at NWA Champions of the Past. This time, Luthez, talking with someone who trained with Luthes, Mark Fleming. Mark Fleming. Hear that today. Did you ever work, he worked crock of, pocket tapings, yeah.
Starting point is 02:57:45 Oh, yeah, I worry. He was still there in 85. Mark's from Norfolk. I believe so. Yes. Well, hear more from him and hear more about Luthez, S-U-A-W-Podd-com, or shut up and wrestle with Brian Solomon,
Starting point is 02:57:57 wherever you find your favorite podcast. And, of course, the 605 Super Podcast, The Mothership! Go through the archive, 605pod.com, available wherever you find your favorite podcasts. The Mother ship. See, that sounds like a... Sounds like a sale to me.
Starting point is 02:58:16 we're ringing these bad boys up that sounds like a reason to give somebody some money to stop what uh what did anybody watch the program this past Wednesday before we go well Jim let's go to the ratings AW Dynamite June 25th 2025 to answer your question from earlier according to Russell ticks 2,370 tickets distributed in Kent Washington from 8 to 10.08 p.m. Now, wait a minute.
Starting point is 02:58:49 Okay, hold on here a second, though, because I swore, I swear, wait a minute, they did two shows, didn't they? They did two shows there in Seattle at that particular location, and one of those, you're 1,800 people. Outside of Seattle. And I'm, well, how far outside, by the way?
Starting point is 02:59:11 Is it what he's doing like at 70 miles or what? Kent Washington. I don't know where that is. Well, that's, uh, Kent Washington. They said Seattle on the graphic. Wait a minute. Hold on.
Starting point is 02:59:26 Ah, hold on. I got something for you. It is part of the Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue metropolitan area. Okay, June 21st, it was the collision and Ring of Honor tapings in Kent, Washington that did 1894. And then... The dynamite taping did 2370. So put that together, that's about 4,200. That's about one-third of the amount of people that fucking WWE did on Raw the other night.
Starting point is 02:59:59 But go ahead. Well, let's go to the numbers from 8 to 10.08 p.m. On average, watch by 613,000 viewers. Ouch, we're back to reality. and now I still do otherwise into curiosity factor will let other people figure out why that an extra hundred and some thousand people watched last week but the tournaments are all done and over with right did they have any just they had one competition free week and then boy they got killed with high rated programs or did they just go back to normal without being in Mexico for a big show maybe a mix of things. It was also the NBA draft, which is a big deal on ESPN.
Starting point is 03:00:48 But let's go to Tony's draft. These are a quarter hour. Let's get a little drafty in here now. We can't even fucking fight the draft now. I guess that's a strange way of phrasing that. But go ahead. Well, these are the quarter hours. These were compiled by WrestleMania 9.8.8.15 p.m.
Starting point is 03:01:07 The Mercedes Monet, Tony Storm, Mina Shirakawa, angle, the Young Bucks backstage promo, and the start of Swerp Strickland and Will Osprey versus Blake Christian and Lee Johnson with picture and picture 643,000
Starting point is 03:01:26 viewers. Ouch, okay. Not only are they back down to normal on their average, but that's one of the lower starts in recent memory, is it not? It's considerably off the trend, which is a
Starting point is 03:01:42 slightly above 700,000, so yes, it is. But in looking at it, in a positive light, they're not going to drop as far as normal. They can't. Well, we go to quarter two, 815-8.30 p.m., continuation of swerve and Osprey versus Blake and Lee, the post-match with the Young Bucks, a recap, an ad break, the Young Bucks and Don Callis family backstage angle, and the start of Trempereta versus is Kota Ibushi. 576,000 viewers.
Starting point is 03:02:18 Wow. Okay. That is 24, 60, that's 67,000. It's not as much as they usually lose from one to two, but now they've got to come back up at some point in this show just to make their average. Or is it going to come back up now that people are convinced the bucks are off their screen or what?
Starting point is 03:02:42 Well, we go to quarter three, 830 to 845 p.m. The continuation of Beretta versus Abushi, the post-match with Okada, the John Moxley backstage promo, an ad break, and the AR Fox Rikishay backstage angle. Good Lord. 608,000 viewers. Well, they're doing everything they can to run to people off, but they got back 32,000 again. Okay, we're safe
Starting point is 03:03:13 from the Buccane. Was that the thought? I don't know. We got a quarter four, 845 to 9 p.m. The continuation of, or actually I guess the start of, Fox and Rickashay versus JetSpeed with picture and picture heads. And the JetSpeed Hurt Syndicate Live Angle, for the start of it, 623,000 viewers. Okay, we're going in the right direction again.
Starting point is 03:03:42 Now the Hertz Syndicate are coming up. I would think that that would mean maybe at the top of the hour, they're going to gain a few. Well, you mentioned the top of the hour, the big 9 o'clock hour, quarter 5, 9 to 9.15 p.m. The continuation of JetSpeed and the Hertz Syndicates, live angle, now with Mark Briscoe, and an ad break, 644,000 viewers.
Starting point is 03:04:09 they now officially, about 1,000 people, the top of the hour at 9 o'clock is better than the first quarter. That never happens. Never happens. So it happened last week. Well, and it never happens until the last two weeks. But think about that. What was last week?
Starting point is 03:04:28 It was MJF and Mystico. But for years, for years, the first number was always bigger than every other number on the show by 50,000, 70,000. 100,000, whatever, because it was always in the eights, and then it was in a sevens. Now it's in a six. Sixes, so they're not losing as much, but they're coming back and doing a thousand people better than the start at the top of the hour, and that's not usually heard of. Well, again, 10 million people on max, but let's now go to quarter 6, 915, and 930 p.m.
Starting point is 03:05:06 Roderick Strong versus Mark Briscoe versus Conno. Kosuke Takesta versus Bandito with picture and picture, 620,000 viewers. Well, that's not as bad as it could have been. They are still, that is only, there's two quarters previously that were lower than that. Well, we're going out of quarter seven, 930 to 9.45 p.m., Adam Cole's backstage promo, Athena versus Thunder Rosa versus Wool. Nightingale versus Chris Stalander. I don't know how long I can go without seeing you.
Starting point is 03:05:47 Picture and picture ads. And the post match with Marina Shafir and Wheeler Yuda, 623,000 viewers. So they're fairly steady there. The going home stretch. We've only got one quarter in an overrun. Can Frank bring it home? We'll be going out of quarter eight.
Starting point is 03:06:09 I remind you, 8-minute overrun, 9.45 to 10 p.m. A recap. An ad break. The FTR and Stokely Hathaway backstage promo. And the start of the Beast Mortos versus Hangman Adam Page with picture and picture. 582,000 viewers.
Starting point is 03:06:31 8-minute overrun with the Bucks and the Death Riders and Will Osprey and the ops. 579,000 viewers. Well, again, looking on the positive side, for the first time I can recall, quarter eight had 6,000 more viewers than quarter two. But then they fool those people who had bailed out specifically so they wouldn't have to watch the bucks,
Starting point is 03:07:00 and the bucks came back at the end. So the buck, and the bucks, the overrun, the bucks get the three, lowest, oh, the two, we'll be fair, the two lowest quarter hour ratings of the bunch. It's every time it's the bucks and it's the Moxley stuff. If they can only find someone the program the Hertz Syndicate MJF with that mattered, you'd have something because they're the only thing that ever pops a number. But that was dynamite.
Starting point is 03:07:31 Well, it was, and this is my show, isn't it? Indeed, caching. then that means that I can say when it's over. And the sale has been made. Folks, come back. What is it? The drive-through, we're going to have the pay-per-view extravaganza from Saudi Arabia and hopefully no other activity will take place besides what's scheduled over there
Starting point is 03:07:57 and we'll talk about all that. And next week, more from T&A and all the rest of the gang. And until then for Brian and me. Thank you. Fuck you. And bye-bye, everybody. K.R. The experience.

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