Jim Cornette Experience - Episode 631: Random Order

Episode Date: April 28, 2026

This week on the Experience, Jim talks about WWE's recent talent releases, Dave Meltzer's star ratings for WrestleMania 42, Ric Flair's comments about Ludwig Kaiser, wrestler security concerns in Vegas, TKO executive compensation, and much more! Plus Jim reviews WWE Smackdown & recaps AEW Dynamite! Thanks to our episode sponsor: RAYCON:  Celebrate the moms in your life! Go to buyraycon.com/JCE to get 15% off the Everyday Earbuds Classic. 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.

The midnight and the rock and roll. He's in a fight for wrestling soul using a racket and some mind control. He's Jim Cornett. The keys to the future. Ornette experience when I do because it's random order day here and joining me. Pauline, Brian, the podcasting Lion, the King of the Arcadian Vanguard podcast network, Mr. Co-host to you, he's not as cranky as I am, just a little bit disgruntled. The great Brian Last, everybody.

Aloha, Jim. A pleasure to be here once again for a, it's like a hangover edition, based off everything we had to watch in the last week and how disappointing most of it was. But let's see what we can do to have fun today. Well, that's, that's one of the reasons why I'm, I'm ill-prepared here. I got a bunch of notes and thoughts and scribblings on various pieces of paper, but I haven't put it in any coherent order. I look like Paul Heyman tried to book television because after watching all of those things

and all of that stuff and et cetera, now we're trying to keep up in. Also, I'm having one of those weeks. At least the garage is getting painted. The garage is coming along swimmingly to match my new garage door. That's my big goal in life now is to have a clean garage.

Can you tell I'm starting to be elderly? It's a hell of a goal. Yeah. So anyway, the point is we're just going to pick out a few things at random and start talking about them today. And there's so much to choose from. But first of all, before we go any further, I want to thank Joseph from Eunice, Louisiana.

Have you ever been down to Eunice? I have not. Where is that? Eunice is way down yonder in the pawpaw patch, way down south in Louisiana, and Joseph sent me a custom-made Midnight Express jacket because he had done one of these for Dennis before. And Dennis even had,

I think tweeted at least one picture of him wearing it or whatever, but it's the picture of me and Bobby and Dennis that's on the back of the box of the action figures and our red and black, blah, blah, blah, but just takes up the entire back of the jacket. It's fucking huge and it's custom applique on this denim jacket and all this stuff. It's fancy.

So anyway, I wanted to thank him. And if I can find in the middle of my chaos in the order fulfillment room down there, if I could find his address, I'm going to send him something to thank him back. But just in case I can't find it. Joseph. I love you.

And I might as well get the commercialism out of the way quickly. We don't want to go too far with trying to sell things in a manner of the WWE, trying to rip people off. Here's the thing, Brian. But if you'd like to sit here on the air with me and Jim for one whole episode with your mic turned out, let us know how much you're willing to pay and we could set that up. No, you don't even have to have a more. Mike to turn it off. Just

fucking sit in front of your computer and we'll just, yeah, we'll look at you. It'll be a private show. You get to hear the show before anyone else does. A private... Oh, a private show. I wonder how much the private shows are going to cost in the WWE soon. Well, listen, it's for money. Each article of clothing is like another

fee. They really... It's disgusting, but it's a wonderful business model they have where you can just buy anything and do anything if you have money. They're going to be doing shows for some Saudi Prince is wedding, I bet you, before too long. Anyway, I don't want to be like that. The money grubbing, they're trying to,

they're grubbing money is what they're doing. It's been in all the news where they're just charging everybody for everything. And I feel like when you run a business, you've got to please your customers, right? And you got to, you got to go with the dictates of the people who support your business. And Brian, you know about, well, what was it? about three weeks ago, I did my ring-worn and ring-used gear sale thingy. And almost everything went to first down me.

People jumped at the jackets and the shirts and the suits and the rackets and the shoes and the eyeglasses and all of that. Boom, just almost everything went to first day. And everything that didn't pretty much went the next couple of days except one thing. Do you know what people have not done? bought out of that wholesale, what they don't want of my ring worn and used items. Was it the underwear? No, that was a private sale.

Those were never advertised. They don't want my pants. Nobody wants to get in my pants anymore, Brian. I feel unloved. That's the only people have not, and it wasn't the price or anything because the most expensive stuff went first, but I am recognizing the demands of the audience. They didn't want to buy my pants.

So beginning this week, Tuesday, April 28th, as long as Hotchka sees the memo, I'm doing a half-price sale on my pants. I'm not there, a hundred bucks. And that still comes with, I'll sign them, and I will also give you the handwritten letter just like authenticating them, just like everything else

that sold got for a hundred bucks and if nobody wants them for a hundred bucks and I'm gonna ball them all up and take them down to Goodwill and just drop them in the fucking slot. How about that? At Jimcoranet.com.

Did you have any socks for sale? I didn't have any socks for sale. I'm just wondering what would be the least attractive bit of clothing for a wrestling collector and pants is probably, I mean, shirt would be more attractive

than pants, but I wonder if pants would be better than socks. Well, pants, I would think, are better than socks unless you, you know, maybe Tony Atlas might differ with me on that. But no, I mean, these are not, like the bright reds and bright pinks, I acknowledge that I do not have my, my, you know, 80s peacock colored polyester pants there.

These are more of my announcer pants. Basically, you get blacky, you get blue, you get gray. But still, I've had my fucking whole ass in them and everything. That ought to count for something. They have been dry cleaned. There's only a few stains that they couldn't get out. But you see, when you walk in a dry cleaner,

Brian, they've got up on the wall. They don't, they're not responsible for taking out blood or semen or bodily fluids or, I can't remember, chocolate, whatever. You've already gone too far. anyway this week at jim cornet dot com forgive me was it a loose pair of pants or was it a pair of pants that actually corresponded with a shirt or a jacket

like it was it something no they're their pants their their slacks is what they are they're men's dress slacks and and they are that's what they are it's like i had suits and they bought the suits because that's a pair of pants and a jacket but this is just the pants themselves.

But I had shirts, they bought those. I had regular jackets. They buy ties. They bought those. They didn't want the pants. All right. So once again, half off. One leg at a time.

Yes, you get one leg. It's a one-legged sale at Jimcournett.com. Oh, no. John Lennonite has bought the wrong one-legged pair of pants. You know, That was what a mama Cornett's favorite jokes. What? This old guy walks in the tailor shop to get him a suit.

And the guy's salesman says, here, try on this suit. And the guy tries it on. The sleeves are hanging like six inches below his hands. And the legs are too short, one side, whatever, it just looks like shit. But the salesman said, no, look here. And he pulls the sleeve up and he tells the guy, Now, tuck your arm, there you go. Now, just keep your arm tucked to your side like that with your hand out.

And then the sleeve's perfect here, see? Well, what about the leg? Well, see, what you do is you just pull a leg up a little bit. Just keep your knee pressed to your knee like that where it'll hold it. Now, see, it's a perfect length. Well, what about this collar? It seems a little loose. Well, just turn your head a little to the side and I'll tuck it under your chin.

Oh, it's perfect now. So the fucking guy buys a suit and he wanders out into the street. he's got his one arm tucked into his side and his knees are knocking together while his feet are pigeon-toed out and his heads cocked over sideways. And this old couple sees him and the old man says, well, look at that poor old fella. And the old woman says, yeah, it's a shame. But don't his suit fit nice? All right. So anyway, well, it was funnier the way she told it, I guess.

Well, she was probably a lot funnier than you. Well, there's no reason to run. that in. Anyway, what are we doing here? Oh, let me hear, let me throw away that note about the half price. Speaking of people who make way too much money,

I just, this, I have nothing to know details, otherwise that I just saw this while I was waiting to be invited to this phone call we're having. Do you know what Ari E. Emmanuel and Morris

Shapiro made last year running this TKO fucking operation they got going on this enterprise? Mark Shapiro, and I actually just saw what the rock made. I did not see what they made. What did I say? You said Morris Shapiro. Is there a Morris Shapiro?

There's a Morris Levy. Well, there was a Morris Levy. No, there's a famous Morris Shapiro. It's Robert Shapiro. But that's not more. Anyway, nevertheless. Do you know what they made? I do not. Airy made $67.4 million. Slacker. And Morris made $42.6 million

between all of their salary and their bonuses and their incentives and their stocks and their trading stamps they give them. Did you see how much the Rock made? How much that was? they just give him stock every year to be on the board, right? They do. Like 20 or 30 million.

I believe he also has compensation and also they reimburse expenses. Hold on. Let me see if I could find this. Well, The Rock, I have an article here, Jim. This is from the Wrestling Observer website by Josh Nason. The Rock, who was also the only TKO board member to not attend at least 75% of the meetings. Got $30 million. of stock.

Jesus Christ. For 2025, he also took in $900,000 in royalties as part of the decade-long merchandising contract he has. Also, $600,000 in reimbursements for, and this is a quote, certain travel expenses associated with delivering services under the Johnson Services Agreement. What was he traveling on, Artemis? What's it? 600,000? How many times would you have to go around the world for it to cost $600,000? His seven bucks productions company also earned less than $120,000, quote,

to provide production services for a potential non-scripted project on customary terms. So the rock really made out, and apparently Nick Kahn made $24.3 million in 2025. which was $2 million base salary, $11 million in stock awards, and more than $10 million in bonuses. So there are some of the top people with TKO and on the board of directors. And I hate to say this,

because nobody deserves this amount of money, right? First of all, for doing anything anywhere except curing cancer, end in world hunger. unless you generate that kind of money. I mean, I do think if you're someone, that's why I don't get mad at baseball players who want the most money they can get. If you're generating that money,

you deserve it more than the owners do. Well, but that's what I was about to say, even though nobody deserves this amount of money, it's just insane. The only one who's not actually doing something for it is the rock, and he gets more than fucking Nick Kahn, who, I mean, they're out there. You know, fucking bending the sponsors over a barrel and drilling them in the ass and selling

goddamn superstars to go to billionaire's birthday parties or whatever they're doing. They're just, they're, at least they're grifting and strong-arming and extorting and pillaging for as much money for the corporate greed good as they can. But the rock just came in, disrupted a fucking angle. and got 600 last year and 610,000 in reimbursements for travel, even if you're flying him and Goertz and their whole team, like as a rush from a set. Who what?

Yeah, how could it be that much money? Are they blasting off? Because in 20, now this was for 2025. Correct. Also is what you're, well, last, he didn't even wrestle in 2025. That was 2024, correct? We only saw him, I believe, at the beginning of 2025 for the Travis Scott angle. And then we never saw The Rock again, right?

Was it two appearances or was it one? So they just give him. And he also attended less board meetings than anyone else. He couldn't even show up virtually. He doesn't show up on the set from reports we heard until 10 hours later. And he also doesn't show up for the board meetings that they pay him $30 million to be a part of. biggest scammer out there. What a scam! Well, anyway, hey, let's turn this over to people who aren't scammers,

and that's the dead gum cult of Cornette. And I wanted to recognize a couple of people who have sent emails in here recently and answer a couple of questions, and one is Jeff from Springfield, Illinois, lost one of his best friends who was named Zach, They called him Gonzo. He had a rare form of colorectal cancer, and he was only 31 years old. So Jeff in Zach's honor has helped start Gonzo's legacy, which is a nonprofit to raise awareness for colorectal cancer and help kids get access to hockey. And they run an annual tournament, have raised $60,000 so far while helping equinezsche.

equip 100 kids with gear for the hockey games. So sticks and slapjacks and things of that nature. But anyway, he said it's our way of turning something. Well, those hockey games get rough. Some mace, some pepper spray. Things like that go a long way for the kids. But it's our way of turning something awful into something that can help others. And I just wanted that, Jeff, we would appreciate it.

your efforts and Gonzo's legacy if you're in Springfield, Illinois, or I guess any of the surrounding towns, they wouldn't restrict just to the city limits or drive over to Springfield and give them some money. Well, we're all thinking of Gonzo and Camilla. And who? Camilla. Who's Camilla? That was Gonzo's girlfriend on The Muppets.

He was a chicken. Oh, God damn it. How do you not know that? This isn't like news I'm hitting you. with this is classic old school Muppet news. Did they have time to watch the Muppets? I was, I was busy becoming a superstar.

Anyway, um, and also, wait a but where is, okay, I'm now, see, I'm fucking lost my train of thought in my stack of papers here.

Rocky. Rocky. And where does he live now? He doesn't say, if he's still there. No, yes he does because there's his signature. Rocky, actually, I'll give his last name, Rocky McElhaney. If I can pronounce it, MC, E-L-H-A-N-E-Y. Rocky McElh-A-N-E-Y.

Is the founder and the lead attorney of the Rocky McElhaney law firm. And they have offices in Nashville, East Nashville, Hendersonville, and Clarksville. So if you fuck up, anywhere in the greater metropolitan Nashville area, then call Rocky McElhaney and tell him I sent you. But he sent a picture from the Morristown Citizen Tribune from January 15, 1992 of Tim Horner and Jerry Williams. Jerry Williams was the East High Principal, and he's in the God,

it was when we had the match where it was me and Stan against Horner and the principal of the high school at East High School. And we drew, I can't remember, but like seven to eight hundred people. This was before Smoky Mount Wrestling even went on television. It was just a spot show we ran. And that's where I've told you before the fucking principal. I had the shits that day. And I had the stomach flu and I was throwing up and I was shitting.

but I had to have the match because that's what to see the principal beat me up. That's what all those people had come for. I couldn't kill the town. So we had taught him to do two or three things, ended up with body slamming me and pinning me. And every time that I did anything, whether it was offensive or defensive, if I fell down, I shit myself, right?

And finally, the fucking finish, when he slammed me of course I've already I've had an extra a pair of trunks on because I knew what was going to happen plus tights and et cetera when he slammed me I shit myself again and then when he covered me

he put his his goddamn elbow across my Adam's apple and with a fucking shoot goddamn cover because he didn't know any better and so anyway there's the picture of them

that was in the newspaper that it was in the newspaper the next Wednesday because as I recall, the Citizen Tribune was a weekly. But anyway, Rocky went to East High School in Morristown and has now become a successful attorney.

Can you believe that? Congratulations, Rocky. Obviously, the best move was getting as far away from Morristown as possible. He's in Nashville, you said, isn't he? Yes. Well, no, he could have gone all the way to Memphis to get as far away,

but he figured none of the Morristown would follow him all the way to Nashville. The stench of Horner. Yes, and he said his stepbrother recently found the picture. So that's why he, because he and his buddies loved me in the Midnight Express. The more shit you pull, the wilder the fans got, and the more we loved it. So anyway.

Right on. I have an update on something that we talked about, recently, remember we talked about poor Jonathan, the tortoise, who was the victim of a fake death scam by a fake veterinarian that was trying to garner sympathy to sell cryptocurrency in some fashion. I still don't know how you were going to make money selling crypto on a dead tortoise's memory, but nevertheless, Jamie from somewhere who it doesn't mention and I don't know whether Jamie is actually it could be a male or a female person, couldn't it?

So Jamie of indeterminate origin or sex and said while listening to the recent experience episode, my ears perked up when I heard you talking about Jonathan the tortoise. My late grandmother Sheila was born on the tiny island of St. Helena, which is also known for being the burial spot of Napoleon. Did you know that, Brian? I've heard it before. I hadn't thought of it, but yeah.

You just had, you know, had suppressed the memory. When we were talking about Jonathan, my first thought wasn't to go to Napoleon. That's right. Was to go, yeah, okay. Anyway, Sheila spent most of her childhood there until she left for England when she was 16 years old to start a new life. Sadly, my nan died during lockdown. But perhaps the biggest story about Jonathan the tortoise. See, that was an odd transition there.

But nevertheless, but perhaps the biggest story about Jonathan the tortoise is that he is gay. The story goes that locals tried to mate Jonathan with females, but he didn't take to him. However, he's been in a relationship with a fellow tortoise called Frederica since 1991. But in 2017, a veterinarian discovered that Frederick, Rico was actually a male

and is now known as Frederick. What the hell is going? What is this story? This, I'm telling you, this is from a person who's real. What? Grandmother Sheila was born there and knows the local scandals and the ins and outs

of these swinging tortoises. And how old is Fred? It's Frederick to you. Right, and Jonathan was 195, I believe. How old is Freddie? Well, they didn't mention Frederick's a... age. They didn't mention that. Are you saying this could be one of these Anna Nicole Smith and

fucking, you know, who was the billionaire's name, Marshall type of deal? She, he was 93 and she was 25 or whatever. Maybe it's like one of those Clive Davis things where Jonathan had a wife and kids and then later on he became successful. He was like, you know what? Maybe I'm gay. Well, I wouldn't have anything. It was the veterinarian or the officials. The fault because they misgendered. Yeah, how did they do that, by the way? Fred, well, I guess, working on this. You know, I miss the penis. Oh, my God.

Well, with a big tortoise like that, they pull everything right up into the shed. And then you don't, you don't know. And if, if Frederick is as old as Jonathan is, and maybe he's, you know, he's been pulling his up for a while, he could leave his in for 30, 40 years. It'd just be like a month or two to you and me. but anyway, Jamie concludes, I hope Jonathan's thrilling life is turned into a Hollywood story.

And I think, as a matter of fact, we should probably call any type of producers that we know, Brian, to take care of that. And a quick correction, apparently I have been wrong in the past what I've made statements. And I want to clarify this, because I'm nothing, if not scrupulously, honest. And

remember when I've said that for some bizarre reason the great 50s luchador Mexican wrestling superstar Miguel Blackie Guzman

ended up 20 years later as an old guy doing jobs for Dick the Brewzer in Indiana and I was like however the fuck that happened. Always I couldn't figure it out, right? Guess what?

It's because it wasn't him. Because I got a name. John Lawson, do you recognize that name, Brian? He may even be, he's as old as me, so he may be older than you. Is that an old name from the newsletters, like in the 80s? From John Lawson, from Tara Hut, Indiana, who had a newsletter that covered, and, oh, gosh, exactly what he called his newsletter.

now I'm trying to remember, but he covered the state of Indiana and Bruiser's territory. I think John's father was on the commission up, the state commission up there. I believe the name of the newsletter was, this state is so boring. Oh, come on now.

This was what he was still good. You can't blame poor John for 1982. But anyway, he wrote an email, it's been a wild old friend. I didn't know, was still listening or even still breathing at this point in time

with our fucking ages. But he likes to play guest the program, but he heard the mention of Blackie Guzman. They are two different people because Bruisers Guzman originally worked as Raoul Guzman

and also worked for Vern Gagne on his TV and some preliminary matches in the A-D but John says Sam Minnaker gradually changed his name from Raul to Miguel

Blackie Guzman in hopes that people may confuse the two. And you know it makes sense because Minnaker, where did Minnaker promote and live of various parts of his life was El Paso, Texas?

And Blackie Guzman would have been a big deal to Sam Minnaker. so he decides to make his own 20 years later in Indiana so he fooled me see I can still get worked so this was just some old fucking guy all righty then you know we've been going a while

should we keep having fun or should we start talking about bullshit should we tell the people what Uncle Dave has rated the the pay-per-view matches from last weekend so we can get that finally put to bed and out of our minds and move on to other things. Well, yeah, this should be something interesting.

We always talk about Dave Meltzer's star ratings for the AW events, which he typically fons over to a ridiculous degree. This was WrestleMania, two nights, one night universally hated, it seems. The second night, at least with a main event that everyone was talking about, we have the star ratings. well Brian again I don't have a drum roll anymore because of your goddamn noise filter so that's all right you've been drumming for half the show you just out it's like I'm aggressive

today I'm aggressive today Neil Perth I'll brook none of your foolishness Jim night one yes Jimmy and Jay Uso and LA Knight defeated Logan Paul Austin Theory and I show speed seven minutes, five seconds, two and a half stars. Well, actually, on the old original scale, that works for me. That works for me, bro, because that would mean that it was okay, maybe a little bit better than what we expected. Not quite three stars because it didn't really, you know, get there, but okay, better than average. Jim match two, which was also on ESPN 2, I believe. Jacob Fattu defeated Drew McIntyre in an unsanctioned match,

14 minutes, 8 seconds, 4 and a quarter stars. I think Dave's too generous there, actually. Well, that's what I'm saying. So that means either that he's just taking a big handful of his own shit and smeared it in the fucking six man's face or that this is the greatest match that's ever been seen. I don't know. How can they're not,

Jacob and Drew, I mean, I don't like the garbage match stuff for all the reasons that we talked about when we reviewed it as well as the fact of the cleanliness of the garbage that they use. But three, it could be three, is going to immediately go, Oh my God, Jesus Christ, they were standing in the aisles, screaming and throwing the babies at each other.

Again, I wouldn't have gone four and a half or four and a quarter stars there, but let's get to more matches. Pre, Bella, and Page won the WWA women's tag titles over Nia Jackson Lash Legend, Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss, and Bailey and Lyra Valkyria, 8 minutes and 33 seconds, one minute, for each competitor, two and three quarter stars. See, now, I mean, again, he comes down to reality, except the thing is on the original scale once again, this might have been about one and a half, but the way that he's normally scoring these days, he again has projectile vomited all over these girls. I mean, there's very little consistency.

Jim for the Intercontinental Championship, Becky Lynch defeated A.J. Lee, 8 minutes, 16 seconds, 2 and 3 quarter stars. Okay, and again, it's the same rating as the 8-girl scrambled eggs bullshit, which, I mean, you know, he apparently, he enjoys those multiple-person kind of matches, but if you're grading a wrestling match,

just the fact that this was at least one-on-one had a major head start on, you know, eight girls in a meaningless eight-minute match, but Dave can be day. Unfortunately, the next match, there was no star rating here. It must have been a printing error. Goonther defeated Seth Rollins,

15 minutes, 46 seconds, no rating listed. Oh, shit. Well, then how are we going to create? the official record on this. Are they going to print some kind of updates to make sure that they get this and enter it into the computers in Washington? I don't think Dave could let his star rating slide here. We'll see what happens. Liv Morgan defeated Stephanie Vakair to win the WWE World's Women's Title, 6 minutes 43 seconds, 2 stars. So strong, my God. We're getting into old Weasel Dooley territory when rating a Plowboy-Frasier match now, aren't we, Brian?

Jesus Christ. It's so interesting, too, looking at Dave writing the Times, because I hadn't thought of it. I saw the list of, you know, how much total time was spent in the ring versus on commercials or whatever it is, but I've always been a big advocate for a lot of these big events and a lot of Tony's events where not every match has to go 20 minutes and I love WrestleMania three, and that's a special event, but there are matches that went just a few minutes. Yeah. They're doing it.

They're doing six minutes and 43 seconds. The problem is, yeah, there's several matches here that have gone under 10 minutes on a show with, what, six matches? Well, yeah, see, that's the thing is the old formula was shorter matches except in the main event, even in the attitude era. The times are similar, but keep it fucking moving. And you would have, by the time you were finished with a two hour and 50 minute window, you would have had a good portion of it, would have been the wrestling, because it was a fucking pay-per-view with no commercials.

Now their time is longer, and the number of matches is lower, and the time of each is shorter. So, but nevertheless, he should have given at least Stephanie an extra half a star because she didn't give Morgan brain damage again. But she still was,

Maybe he's just being sexist. Have you saw that Morgan, her eyes are still messed up from getting concussed or whatever happened? Oh, yeah. No, with that kind of bleeding in her forehead, and then that's why the eyes get darker, when do you get a black eye before they get lighter, because the blood continues to settle and pool and everything, and blah, blah, blah, it'd take a few weeks. Well, Jim, we're finally here, the main event of night one. And by the way, and by the way, hold on here.

Now that you see it on paper, one, two, three, four of the four matches before the main event, three matches were girls' matches that went under 10 minutes. Yep. And then we got the main event, Cody Rhodes, pinned Randy Orton to keep the world titled, or WWE title, I should say, 22 minutes, 38 seconds, three and a half stars. I don't have a problem with that. Well, he's using the old scale kind of from long ago to grade the WVE matches and then A.W gets an extra of six because they're his friends.

I don't know. He can do this realistically if he tries, except for, again, and it may have been that he just overrated Drew and Fatu because Jesus Christ, looking at that undercard, that may have been four and a quarter. Well, Jim, let's go to Night 2. Obafemi defeated Brock Lesnar 4 minutes, 44 seconds, 4-star match.

You know, for what it was, again, you can't really argue, because the stars, the quality of a match has never been about the length of it. I understand one of these mark rating systems, they like if a match is under five minutes long or whatever, they don't give it a fucking rating. Jesus,

Bruno beat Rogers in 48 seconds. Do you think a match can be five stars if it's under five minutes? Not Dave scale per se, but just in general. Would you have an issue with that? No, it depends on what they do and how they do it and who's doing it, and how the people take it,

all together. And, you know, in some cases, you know, the thought process is, well, it wasn't really a classic match, but good God, look, because this wasn't a classic, it wasn't even a classic match for Brock, but because it was exactly what people wanted and what they should have done. And as, again, I said, they could have given us another, you know, Another F5 or a power slam or some bullshit. But for what it was, it was what they needed to do

and what people wanted to see, and they didn't shit the bed doing it. Nobody fucked anything up. So, yeah, I can agree with that. Jim Penta retained the Intercontinental title in a latter match over Jvonne Evans, J.D. McDunna, Ray Mysterio, and Dragon Lee, and Rusev. 15 minutes, 8 seconds. Wow.

Four and three quarter stars. Almost five. Here we go. He loves it when could you just take him to the zoo and take him to the monkey cage and he would be entertained for hours by watching him swing around on the fucking

trapezes and the things? it if you I if you're a newer fan I can understand because they've been doing it so long then now it's just accepted like it's a thing that should be done but the six man ladder matches with all of the stunts and the tables and the fucking tricks that they do

if you're a fan of wrestling from Dave's era, which is my same as mine, this is the kind of shit you go take a piss. But he's so desperately wants to fit in with the kids or whatever that he has, or that this is, now he's comparing it to Cirque de Soleil or a America's got talent production on tour where they just do stunts and tricks and it's not anything.

to do with the with the rasslin? What Dave wrote was, this was great stuff. Even better when you consider they were having to rush through because of time constraints. But the talent here really put on a show, and this was some of the most underrated guys in the company. Oh, yeah, almost five stars there. Trick Williams won the U.S. title from Sammy Zane, seven minutes, six seconds, three-star match. Now he comes back to reality. two guys they've got an issue they're turning sammy trick is getting over

trick gets the fucking win they have again technically a nice match and even little yachty doesn't come off like a celebrity stuck in a thing he comes off like a guy the trick is hanging out with and he doesn't get in the way three stars very athletic very very good not very evil, but very good. He's back to normal. Jim, the demon, Finn Bauer, the exact opposite of being back to normal, Dominic Mysterio in a street fight, 10 minutes and 26 seconds, three and a half stars.

Hey, I think it's a little, I would have said the same thing, three stars, but it's not far off, but I just, I don't get the, the demon business, but I like Dominic and, of course, another garbage match when we see that stuff every week, but again, nobody actively exposed to business with their phony shit or hospitalized their opponents, so three stars. Jim, a match that you didn't pay much attention to,

Ria Ripley won the WWE Women's title from Jay Cargill, 10 minutes and 8 seconds, three and a quarter stars. And no, remember, I watched this one because I wanted to, it's rea and I wanted to see, and I said it was one of the better matches that Jade has probably had,

and I hope this over with. But nevertheless, again, this, you know, I would have said this was a little bit better than the other girls' matches just if I was going to say that, and that's what, you know, again, he's, he's, he's not overly fawning fallacious unless it's the kids doing the stunts. Well, finally, Jim, Roman Raines won the WWE title from CM Punk, 33 minutes, 56 seconds, five-star match.

ha ha well so he had and he had to even give it to punk he's he had to give it to punk and he hates giving anything to punk but now the question is was it five stars because of of the match or because that everybody all of his readers probably told him that this was the only thing it saved a second night and he had to fucking say that whether he wanted to or not i don't know i'm looking in the Observer. You didn't watch Dynamite, I'm presuming, correct? You are, you are correct, and I know what they, I know what they've done to my boy. Well, he used to be my boy until I disowned him, MJF, but otherwise than that, no. Darby Allen defeated Tomaso Champa, 18 minutes, five-star match.

Dave wrote this was probably the match of the week. Oh, Christ. So, they were both five stars, but that was. was probably the match of the week over the fucking only match on WrestleMania that kept the people from setting a seats on fire between the two biggest stars in the company. Yeah, I don't think you can compare Punk and Roman main eventing WrestleMania and having a classic to Darby and Champa

and Portland in front of 3,000 people. It's just not a fair comparison. Obviously, Darby and Tomaso really put it all out there. And those are the star ratings. All righty then. Well, let's, I mean, try to make sense of this. If it's the same person, you can't. It doesn't make sense.

And again, I would think somebody with the experience that Dave has in watching the Rassland and being from my era also as far chronologically, if not mentally, part of the problem that I have that most fans that weren't even in the business, but from my generation have, is that so much of the AEW shit and the indie shit and the stuff that he says is so creative and oh, it's so cutting edge, is it a match where the people are so fucking sloppy and half the shit they do is either fake or don't make sense? that it fucking kid that's what kills it it like the the hypocrite oath of wrestling first do no harm used to be first make it look good if you can't make it look good don't do it don't stand there like two nitwits balancing on a fucking clothesline

helping each other looking scared to death while you're goddamn supposed to be in a fucking fight there's one thing here's another thing fuck you that was the other thing what were we talking about we were talking about we were talking about

rustlemania and star ratings well that's what they were wasn't it those ratings that we just had it would be a lot easier if you could just listen to this stuff without without

having your hands all filled up and or you know, you could do two things at once. If you could just had something that you could stick in your ear where you could listen to our show or different podcasts or music or things without having to sit down in front of the television and look at something or sit down in front of your computer screen, just something to put in your ears to play audio of various kinds

from various sources with various features. Well, that would be the hottest product on the planet and something you could even give your mother for Mother's Day. Have I just had a good idea? Has anybody invented such a thing as that? Jim, I remind you of our wonderful friends that we regularly talk about at Raycon, and of course they have their wonderful, wonderful everyday earbuds. Son of a gun, that's when I thought at Raycon,

and my friend Morris Shapiro over at Raycon, they're the ones that that's what it was right on the tip of my tongue. Folks, Mother's Day is coming up and your mother, greedy little bitch that she is is going to want something. Let's not raise it like that. Everyone does not want

something every year. Oh, please acknowledge me. And you've got to leave your mansion and you got to go down to the wrong side of the tracks. You got to take mom a little fucking cupcake and a little candle in it to say happy Mother's Day and get back in your limousine and go on back

home. I don't know if this example is resonating. with the audience. I don't know if this is the best way to present this. Well, whether your mother deserves it or not, you got to get her something because she's going to make you feel guilty. How about that one? She is your mother. She is your mother. So it's her fault that you've had to endure this life.

All this goddamn strife and pressure, it's a heaviness, it's on me. I never know where the next fucking bad news is coming from. So to get even with her, the old bat at Mother's Day, find a gift that actually fits into your mom's everyday life and into her body, in effect. Whether she's going for a walk or running errands or commuting, well, she can have the Racon everyday ear, but classics in her ears and have both hands ready to defend herself in case

she's being mugged out in public or at least fend off these bands of roving children. I understand her attacking old people these day. Okay, why don't we talk about an area where there isn't crime or problems? just a nice stroll a nice Sunday stroll. Well, where is that Shangri-La? Do you think there's such a thing as a crime-free town?

There has to be a way. Yes. They've become a go-to for everyday listening with active noise cancellation. You can block out background noises like police sirens and fire alarms and fire engine emergency, a thunder,

fucking severe weather warning type of sirens where you just block all that out. You don't want to know that shit's going on. It's constant. It's not one thing. It's another. From disaster to heartache to tragedy. But they've got the active noise cancellation. What are you laughing at? Nothing. Nothing. It is super comfortable ergonomic design that stays put no matter what you're doing, especially good for mom. She doesn't have to use the polydent on keeping the earbuds in because when she starts head-banging to Frankie Valley into four seasons, well, they're not going to come out because I know sometimes if they put them in with that

dinsure stick them, you need tweezers to get them some. Anyway, here's the kicker. Hey, have you seen any recent footage of Frankie Valley last few years? Oh, no, I think they cut some footage off of his face, didn't they? Well, no, he still does concerts, but apparently he just lip sinks now. I mean, he's an old man. He's like in his mid-90s, but they still send them out there, and it's really awkward, his videos of him just standing at the front of the stage his little old man, holding the mic there, barely moving his mouth, yet it sounds like it's...

It sounds like... It sounds like 1963. It sounds as good as hearing the hits on your racon. On your racons, but without the plastic surgery. Folks, you know, you can wear these racons, whether you need plastic surgery or just had it a bunch like Frankie Valley or some of these other old fucks. You don't need to worry about that with Ray Kahn.

They don't judge you. You can have so many wrinkles in your face. You look like a Sharpay puppy. Your mother could have so many wrinkles in her face when she wears long earrings. She looks like a set of Venetian blinds. Ray Kahn doesn't care. She could be so wrinkly that when they give her a facelift,

they got enough left over to make a midget. Why are we picking your mom? Or you could give grandma a facelift and they'd take her so far up, She'd have nipples on her chin. But Raycon doesn't care. It's the ears and the ears. And even if, look you here, if Ma's a little hard of hearing,

just stick these things in, crank them up to 10, and then play her some fucking who or Led Zeppelin and watch your fucking eyes open up. And up to 32 hours of battery life. If it, depending on how old your mother is, they can fucking work out even. The quick charge function, 10 minutes, gives you 90 minutes of playtime, and the awareness mode, if you want mom to be a victim of all this strife and awareness,

you know, around the world, then she can hit the awareness mode, and she'll hear the sirens and the bombs dropping and the children screaming as they fall from the burning buildings. But celebrate the moms in your life, ladies gentlemen, go to buy raycon.com. slash JCE to get 15% off the everyday earbuds classic. One of our finest sponsors, Raycon, we love you, we use you, we can't live without you. That sounds like a Frankie Valley song. That's right.

Once again, compact size, active noise cancellation and 36 hours of battery. The wonderful Raycon, everyday earbuds, get one for yourself or mom today. Jim, one more time, that promo code. Buy raycon.com slash JCE 15% off. And you know, people, old people's ears get bigger. You see those old people get to big ears. I think they have washers. If your mom's got like a super giant earhole,

they got some special washers. They don't. I don't. At the end, I don't know why you're introducing, once again, features that are not there. Well, I thought they had something like that. Once again, buy raycon.com slash JCE. All righty, what, hold on here.

Let me cross that off my list. Speaking of the WWF while we're on the subject. And by the way, should we even talk about now that they admitted it was a work as soon as everybody, I guess, figured out it was a work, but in some fashion or form, Seth Franklin Rollins and some TV, some, some, some, Mr. TV announcer, like Ernie Ladd would say, on the NFL program, gotten a fake shoot, and Seth stormed off the show only then to come back out later on and hugged the guy.

And it was all of work. We fooled you all. Do you care? No, I don't care. I'm getting a little sick of these workshoots on other shows or wrestlers in character on ESPN. I just, this stuff's getting to be too much. They just did a work shoot with Cameron and Jay U.S. so a week ago.

And now Rollins is going into business and doing this one here. I don't think it helps people who aren't wrestling fans if every time they see a wrestler, they're doing some kind of fucking wrestler thing. I don't know. Well, but actually, in this case,

I think I think it's the other way around. Seth was trying to be real by not being a wrestler, but the other guy was trying to reel back and like a fucking wrestler axe. And so it was immediately phony

to me because of not only of how it wasn't entertaining or good, but nobody would actually act this way. The host was actively insulting wrestling and wrestlers in front of the guest who apparently they've been on before

and suddenly he's going to go off on this tangent and then Seth is just go, okay, and he get his phone and walk off and just like, I was like, This is the worst fucking shoot I've ever seen. And then they come back out and a hug. The problem is it's going to make the regular viewers. TKO and now ESPN and all these TV hosts,

and they see McAfee doing it. And we'll talk about McAfee basically being run out of the business by the fucking response that he got doing this angle. But their fans, their regular fans, they're regular fans, the football fans, the sports show fans, the people who don't get the red, they're going to get tired of this wrestling thing

being shoved down their throat and everybody acting like a fucking wrestler. But to people in TKO and ESPN and the hosts that are getting this opportunity, this is the modern day equivalent of finding a radio angel, which back in the old days was, you could,

find people at radio stations, obviously, that just disliked wrestling as a goddamn matter of principle, like, you know, in all walks of life. But most of the time, you would find that the radio people were more accessible to wrestling than the TV people, because the radio people always wanted to get, nobody knew what they looked like. Their voices were known, but they wanted people to know who they were, or they could get on TV, or they could go to the show, they could be somebody, people would see them. They have no audience, right? They have a big audience, but they got no live audience.

Well, now it's the same goddamn thing, but these people have audiences, but now they get to act like these people that they've watched it. You see what I'm saying, Brian, to where it's thrilling, whether it's thrilling the TKO people that are trying to get involved in creative because they think, oh, my guy that I represent, that I agent is perfect for this wrestling thing and he's going to be the next Stallone in the movies and oh, blah, blah, blah. Or, oh, this crossover, this age demographic,

we need some of these people. So we'll get high show speed to kill one of our wrestlers. Whether it's that kind of interference or just the interference of, all the show hosts and the assimilated personnel that now get to act like wrestlers and do wrestling shit with wrestlers. The fans aren't going to like it,

but their fucking regular viewers are going to hate the fuck out of it. There's my point. Yeah, I agree. But that comes to the other part of what I was going to talk about today also while we're on the subject of these people, at least. R.E. made 67 million. Morris made 42 million. The people, the boys, all the boys and girls,

all the talent at WrestleMania weekend are, were had horror stories and were up in arms and were physically involved in altercations with the various fans. And I know some of them you can't call fans, but they're all in various points. They're celebrities. and they were mobbed by people with very little assistance from the WWE, apparently. And at the hotel, the casino, they're part of this major casino, so they can't just take the whole place over, but they couldn't somehow provide any way for the guys and girls to get back and forth unmolested.

And there was multiple incidents over that. and a bunch of guys, as I said, complaining about it. And this is a complete opposite, Brian, of the most dangerous place for us in a territory days used to be from the time we left the locker room, went to the ring, had to match until the time we came back. And in getting out of, as I've mentioned, many times stories about getting out of the parking lot. but otherwise than that you know that that was not an issue now it's not people are wanting to

hurt the guys and tackle them and kill them or stab them because of the bad things they've done it's a spur of the moment thing it's that now they've the wwe has made these people celebrities and they can't go anywhere without being recognized and now they just throw them loose in the middle of a fucking Las Vegas casino with thousands of people

want fucking autographs and expect there's not going to be issues. How can they make a combined two guys made $100 million last year together but they can't spend what

50 grand on security? What would it have taken? It's an interesting thing. I don't know how this compares the previous years. We've heard a lot of stories come out about complaints from the talent that there wasn't enough security, specifically at the hotel, but not just there. And everyone from active wrestlers to their families to legends that were in town

have all had stories about being harassed, bothered, stalked at times by weirdo fans. It's interesting this year, I mean, unless I'm wrong about this, I believe it would be the least amount of international travelers they've had. Yeah. A lot more domestic, rich people, I guess, paying for. Well, and they said there were people from, they said there were people from 69 countries, but it could have been two people from the Isle of Man.

So, you know, that many people have remarked about the lack of accents. and I think just the musical performances that weren't done in the audience alone indicates less foreigners. I saw a video TMZ had a CM Punk slapping a phone out of a fan's hands, apparently the fan had. Again, I don't know what word you want to use. Stalked, bothered. A.J. Lee and Bailey.

and A.J. were talking and trying to hug in the hotel corridor leading up to the fucking elevators, and there's this person with the phone is. coming in and trying to record not only them hugging but what she was saying to her and privated during their hug and they moved away to get away from it and the guy followed him. So it came over a pow, here you go. And he was right to do that. And he was right to do that.

I have no problem with that. There is an element of the fan base right now that does not see barriers, does not see barricades. They'll show up at the airport no matter what time. It gets to the point where there are even some psychotic fans that show up at the houses of talent. We've seen that. Everyone from Arne Anderson to Randy Orton, we've seen video. I'm you. It happened to you. Someone showed up in your fucking house and just thought somehow, this is acceptable. I'll just show up here and ask for a bunch of free autographs. It's really bad too. And they're sticking a phone right in your face. If you're at the hotel, WrestleMania,

a weekend and your talent, you don't need someone sticking a phone in your face when you're walking in the lobby or anywhere you go. Well, here's the thing. They don't understand because it's just, well, it's just, I just wanted to, you know, get a picture or whatever, but yeah, but you're one of how many. Take a look around you. The problem is, well, one of the problems is that especially at WrestleMania or at any busy time of, you know, a busy show schedule.

These guys are going from this place to that place. And if you get to the hotel, you've got to get to the room. Maybe you've got to turn around and go right back. Or maybe you've got to eat something because you've got to be here or whatever. It's not just stopping for you. If I stop for you, then I've got to stop for the next three or four people that come up. And then here comes six or seven. And then you've got to be the heel and piss people off because you can't do that, blah, blah, blah.

and so everybody's just thinking about it's well it just was I just wanted a picture but it was 50 other people or whatever that's one thing and secondly as you know as you said to be just swarming and you know and chasing and blah blah blah is not cool when again that's not where they're supposed to be sitting down and talking to everybody they're trying to get up to rooms they could take a shit and go to where they're supposed to be sitting down and talking to everybody before they get fined for being late but that's where the fucking the office is apparently making a few dollars these days so they should have had and this is what it's gone from it's gone full circle because I mean in the in the real beginning days

the guys just stayed in whatever fucking hotel in town it would give the boys a rate or whatever it was close to the airport or convenient whatever even at big shows and then it gradually became by the time i was there vince was say okay we'll get all the guys rooms at this particular hotel or whatever the one in chicago it was across the street from rosemont horizon and we were there for nice hotel, I can't remember what the fuck it was, for WrestleMania in, what was that,

whatever year, in Chicago, 97. But that was kind of the start of people figuring out that they could go to the hotel and, you know, the 90s where they'd hang out and try to get autographs. But then by the time that the business got big

in the 2010s, like when I was, again, in Orlando for the Hall of Fame deal. They had the WrestleMania Hotel was this goddamn golf resort. I told a story at the time. It was a massive place, and it was a high dollar place. And from where you had to park your car to just walk to get to the elevator to even get to your room was like two football fields. And they had security where they had floors for the guys, and you couldn't, nobody could get on that floor unless they had the pass because they had a blah blah blah

you couldn't even get a goddamn pizza delivered unless the guy had the I was like what the fuck I just stayed three miles down the road to fucking Hilton Garden and you know park right at the entry door but they they went from kind of the same thing as now as everybody fending for themselves to fucking all this security and in the last couple of years this thing's blown up. Everybody's celebrities now and they just throwing them in the middle of

goddamn casinos expecting them to get their way across when everybody knows who the fuck they are and everybody wants to talk to them. I don't get it. How can you not have more coordination than that? Yeah. And if you're someone who sees a celebrity or a wrestler and I understand if you see someone on TV it's still a big deal

it's not as big a deal as it used to be but you know celebrities are celebrities but if you feel the need to take out your phone and film them walking or eating or doing nothing but wanting to be left alone you're the problem and no one wants or needs that content

no one gives a fuck about seeing a wrestler walk to the elevator leave them alone. Not just wrestlers, just anyone famous. What the fuck? You're not TMZ. You're a fan looking to bother a wrestler. Well, that's because they see this shit on TV, so they figure they're supposed to do the same thing.

And somehow, maybe the wrestler will think, well, this guy's somebody, because he's interviewing me for a blow-me channel or whatever. Weird question, because I don't know Vegas, and you, I don't know the last time you were there. You may know it better than me, though. Is it a different hotel situation there than other places in terms of being able to secure the location and not just let anyone into the hotel to wander around? Don't just you, are you out of your mind?

I've run shows in towns smaller than an individual casino. You can get anywhere, except where they're storing their money, you can get anywhere in a casino if you're trying to, to sneak. I'm probably not wheeling a fucking cannon in, but just to try to get access to see wrestlers or celebrities, unless the celebrity has a specific security detail, you can't block off any part of a casino or the hotel or the elevators. You're in an enclosed small town. And that's it we didn't used to have rooms in fucking casinos.

at least I don't know I wasn't there when they did Trump Plaza or whatever for those WrestleMania's but since had Trump's name on it probably all the rooms were empty anyway but no I've I can't imagine how that they could possibly just say okay this is the WWE area of this goddamn massive complex you got to get from one

place to another, you have to go. Well, that's the way they do. The casino is when you go in the front door, to get to where you check in, you have to go through the casino. Because they want any, the whole life there functions on getting people to go through the casino. Anyway. Well, probably the last mania in Vegas for a while. But see, that's the thing is, it's, it's actually, when I think about it, it's the exact opposite problem, but it's the same thing. the promoters now that nobody wants to, we hope, fingers crossed, nobody wants to shoot the guys or stab the guys or cut the guys or tackle the guys and beat the guys up because they're mad at them

because they're heels. They just want to get free autographs and all this weird, weird personal contact that some people want. It crosses the line. But in the old days, the only time that they would change the building, You've seen the, everybody's seen the pictures of the setups of the arenas in those days where I've worked places where there was literally five feet between the front row seat and the ring. And I'm supposed to stand on the floor and be the heel manager in front of four feet away from all these people can reach over and just tap me in a fucking head or the tight aisle ways or the whatever. And the only time they would make a change is when the building had a long.

or the promotion had a lawsuit. And that's why in New Orleans at the downtown auditorium in those old videos, you'll see that that bicycle rack barricade had New Orleans police barricade on it. Because they had so much trouble in that building that the cops put that barricade railing up. It was, I think, 15 feet on all sides of the ring. So it was the only building I really felt safe in. but it would take a problem to get them to change where we were fighting our way to the ring

and or fighting our way back every night or that close to people getting us or hitting the ring with those little goddamn clothesline fucking ropes around the ring instead of railings. And it's going to take some kind of goddamn incident or lawsuit probably now. Now the safest place to be in the professional wrestling industry

is between the entrance ramp and the ring and back. Right? Then nobody can fucking touch you. You can see them coming a mile away. They'd have to be picking you off with a fucking high-powered rifle from the fucking bleachers.

And nobody has any heat, so it's not like anybody's going to goddamn come across and try to attack you. But then once you're out in public, it's like you're a guy, damn movie star, but you're just walking down the street with your fucking girlfriend. And anybody can, you know, so it's, that's what it's going to take maybe as an incident or a lawsuit to cost them some money and say, well, maybe we better keep an eye on these

fucking people while they're out in public for us. Well, that was WWE news. All right. Well, Brian, I am again for the past week clean and sober from 8. EW programming as far as a visual inspection. But there was one thing that I have to note, not because we're not going to critique the performances. I didn't watch it.

We're going to acknowledge that it happened. And I've criticized Tony's booking often in the past, but this is, I just don't understand how you can drop a ball that is set up on a T in front of you and left alone there for you to caress if you want. MJF was the champion, whether you like it or not, and he disappointed me when he became one of them, gobble, gobble, but he's even proven to the AEW fans that he can do the freak show matches. He can talk.

He's still over to that fan base, despite all they've done to him. He's the world champion. And then you've got Will Osprey, who whether again you like it or not, out of the choices they've got, he's the baby face. He does ridiculous shit and he doesn't know what wrestling is mentally. He thinks he's in a video game. But he's athletic. he's a nice looking young chap

if he slows down you can understand him he tries to have a personality and the people like him so it was made and you've got Wembley Stadium in August and you have a dream scenario as a Booker where your top baby face that I just mentioned Will Osprey suffers not one injury but accumulated injuries. It requires surgery and it may be career ending.

And it's a shoot. And then it's also a shoot that he recovers from that and he comes back and he can still do all this shit. So now you've got the chance for six months that here is AEWs in the grip of this fucking evil loud mouth obnoxious motherfucker MJF and here is

God damn Will Osprey who has battled his way back and even with the bad neck he piles up the winds and he's coming for MJF and it's a redemption story my God we thought we'd never see him in a ring again and in a month or month

and a half or whatever the fuck then you have MJF drop the son of a bitch on his head in some meaningful way the first time it's been done. And then he's got, well, as a matter of fact, two months out. And then he's got to come back in a fucking, and he's going to come back against doctor's orders. And boom.

How the fuck can you not do that? Brian, help me. Maybe Tony believes that he could still do something big with those guys and just set it up closer to the date. What the fuck is the matter with him? Will Osprey being kidnapped by the death riders is not something that AEW fans really want to see. It's not about a heel doing something to a baby face. It's about who wants this?

Well, that's the point I'm making. First of all, he's got this story that he can tell and he ignores it instead. Just out of the blue for no apparent reason. I'm sure some ridiculous reason at some point will come up. but he it just throws Darby back in there to win the title in an angle match

for what out of the blue when he wasn't even figured into this thing like inserting McAfee but only smaller and confuses the issue and then Osprey does nothing but get beat when on his big return he gets beat

and then this past week and again a lot of people on the internet they were trying to defend it said well didn't didn't you know that MJF was going to make a movie why he's been on the on the sheets for months

or whatever is it the tweet you dumb shit he's still there not going to make a goddamn if he's going to make a movie he was close enough to goddamn make Wednesday night and next week you dip shits but like that that if he was

going away to make a movie suddenly would explain just, well, let's just switch it out of the blue in a bullshit match with a person not involved in anything that we've done. But MJF comes out to cut a promo on Darby and his promo is interrupted by Kevin Knight, who now think about this, Kevin Knight is a champion in AEW and MJF is not. Did you watch this?

No, I didn't watch the, I read the transcript of the thing. I didn't watch the show. Okay, because I had it on one of the monitors on mute. I was watching the Mets game. They ended up winning for the first time in a while. It was a big deal. But I went back and watched this. So let me just preface whatever you're going to say.

MJF was fine here. Kevin Knight was embarrassingly bad as a promo, like not ready for TV, not ready for developmental. Like no one talked to him in advance. It was really, really bad. Really bad. He shouldn't be talking. Well, then there's a bigger problem because I said, I didn't watch it. I read the transcript of what happened, but just the point is, is that

MJF and they set up a match with Kevin Knight for next week, I assume, hopefully, for MJF to win, but is it? for his belt because then is MJF going to be the TNT champion now? And it would, but in the same program, Osprey wrestles Mark Davis, then tell me if you saw this, they did a doctor stoppage where Osprey couldn't continue

against Mark Davis. So Osprey loses again. Mark Davis finally gets a win. the only person he's beating is Will Osprey. Hey, listen, they're milking the Will Osprey's hurt thing because he's just nonstop selling and you believe it because you see how he works and he's covered in tape.

So they're really going for that, but the result of this match, and I wouldn't book any of this the way they're doing it, that wasn't the most troubling part of this whole thing. It was the post-match. Well, and then as you mentioned it earlier, I understand that he was assisted by the big group of heels. Yep, they kind of dragged them off the way.

You ever see the movie Ghost when the evil spirits come and carry someone away when they finally die? It was kind of like they just took them off to wherever the fucking death riders go to not bore us. It's horrible. Horrible, horrible, horrible. So that's what I'm saying. they've taken the belt off MJF out of nowhere suddenly for no explicable reason in a match it wasn't even advertised days ahead of time

and now he's working with Kevin Knight who's not ready for prime time and Osprey has not only not won since he's been back but they dropped him on his head enough in his return match that it's bullshit now to do an angle dropping him on his head because how could you do it anymore?

He'd be dead if it was a problem. But now he can't even fucking make it through a goddamn match with a guy who hasn't beaten anyone without the doctor stopping it. So what they've told me is he's a physical fucking wreck and he shouldn't be the world champion. Not he's a goddamn athletic marvel. and he should be the world champion.

So what? And then they kidnapped him. Yeah, and further AEW news, apparently Britt Baker was spotted in the crowd at the NFL draft wearing WWE merch. We'll stay on top of this story. It's happening as we are recording. Oh, good Lord.

Again, I tried to pay attention to what was happening on Dynamite, but knowing we didn't have to review it. I just kind of cared about like any angles where there was a promo involved, so I went back and rewatch to Kevin Knight MJF thing, which MJF shouldn't be winning the TNT title, but also if he doesn't win it, what the hell is this? The Osprey stuff is frustrating. The Derby match, which got five stars in the Observer,

it was certainly a spectacle. It was certainly a pounding match. Another one of those matches like, damn, how is Darby walking? but dynamites uh you know when w w it's a sad state of things when w ewee right now is what it is and a w just remains aew except now tony's going with his instincts which are to have will osprey kidnapped by the death riders before wembley those are his instincts yeah that was dynamite any any other dynamite notes you have or is that it no that was i just wanted to just compare the fortunes of the two people who should have been

the main event for Wembley and by the time that Wembley rolls around, I don't know if anybody will want to see them any opening match. But they need an international star. That's what they need. They need somebody known

internationally or someone from not from here to go there. This is a transition I'm trying to do to the fact that Rick Flair is mad at a foreigner. Well, Rick Flair's mad at someone who's not Egyptian, which is a rarity lately. But on the other hand, he may not know exactly who he's mad at or why.

Rick Flair appeared. I have not heard this. See, you sprang this on me right before we were going to go on the air. You heard that Rick Flair was mad at so-and-so, but he's not sure exactly who he is. So what are you talking about? He said, let me just play it for you on the air, is what you said. So I don't know what's going on here. And what he's going to reference, I'll tell you that, is when in an awkward segment on Smackdown we reviewed last year, Tiffany Stratton and Charlotte Flair went at it.

And Tiffany brought up that Charlotte's been divorced. And then Charlotte said that Ludwig Kaiser was jumping into her DMs. Yes. I remember we talked about that? And that's where, and Tiffany had done the slide out real quick so Charlotte couldn't get a shot at her. And then everybody thought they were going to shoot. and then they didn't shoot. And since that time, Ludwig Kaiser,

real name, Marcel Barthel. See, that just, that fucking just pisses me off because I just want him to be Ludwig Kaiser. Well, Ludwig Kaiser, no longer together with Tiffany Stratton, they've moved on. He's actually dating the Latina commentator from AAA that we saw in the segment where he made the big save as El Grasme.

Wait a minute, so Ludwig Kaiser is from, from Austria or Germany, one of the other, correct? West Germany. But yet, first, he had an American girlfriend, and now he's got a Hispanic girlfriend. He must be a very cunning linguist. One of his former nicknames that says here, the International Coxman.

No, but let's get back to the story. So he's now in Mexico's El Grande Americano, but all of this is the important backstory to where Rick Flair is about to talk about. He was on the Ariel Helwani show, and let's listen to this audio and see what he said. You know what I've accomplished. I know what I've done. I feel like, and I do feel this way, that I should have a red carpet or wherever I go. And I'm not afraid to tell you that.

I didn't get invited to WrestleMania this year. I threatened to beat up Tiffany Stratton husband a lecture. I wasn't allowed to go. A 24-year-old kid being threatened by a 76-year-old man, and I can't go to WrestleMania. Are you kidding me? That English kid, he's going to go as far in wrestling as a net. Let me stop it there.

There's more. First of all, he's not English. Let's just say that. He's from Germany. And second of all, he's 35 years old, not some 23-year-old or whatever Rick's. So far, he's wrong on both accounts. But also, I'm trying to follow Rick's logic around that loop there, where he says. So a 20-something-year-old guy gets threatened by a 76-year-old guy, and I can't go to, well, you're the one that threatening him, though.

I don't, what's happening here? If any of this is true, the way he's saying, but let's go back to more from the nature boy. He'll be a fly on a wall in a year. What happened there? Well, they had that thing, you know, where Tiffany made a smart remark about asking his divorces, which we both know she's not smart enough to have written.

Somebody gave her a script. And then he implied, that, you know, I'm just going based on social media, once again, which is a lot, that he was implying that he wouldn't bum one-off Ashley. And I went, okay, I need your number. I got it, which I can get anybody's number. I want any minute of any day. And I called him.

I said, hey, when I see you, I'm going to beat the shit out of you. So he was like a little bitch. told Hunter, and I wasn't allowed to go. All right, we will return to this. There is more, but let's stop it there. What did he, what did Ludwig Kaiser say on, I have a hard time believing that he would say I wouldn't bum one off of, that doesn't sound like terminology he would use.

How did they say that in Austria? Well, I'm looking it up to see, uh, okay, how can you look that up from a year ago? This is from a year ago. Oh, Jesus. Ludwig Kaiser responded to being mentioned on Smackdown. He took to Twitter, tagged Charlotte Flair, posted a video of Sean Michaels telling Diana Smith, please do not flatter yourself.

That's the angle you were a part of. That was more than my lines. Well, in that case, Stu called you, and in this case, Rick called Kaiser. God damn. You know, these... These angles say they never draw any money, but goddamn they get the fucking family members all fired up. Jesus Christ.

Diana wanted to do that whole long flowery response. I said, just, please, Diana, just say, look at Sean in the eyes and say, you know you want me. And the fucking people went insane. Fuck you. But anyway, of that I'm sorry

but even for a person with my particular hair trigger temper and anger management issues especially if I know that that's really Tiffany Stratton's boyfriend and he probably felt some need to show some solidarity

that them ain't fighting words, are they? On Twitter, a fucking a clip? Well here's the other thing. Do you want your dad calling someone up and jumping in the middle of it? Oh, God, not if I'm a 40-year-old, nature boy, I'm going to kick your ass. Not if I'm a 40-year-old professional wrestler of either gender, do what I want, you know. But besides that, again, it's not like, no, your fucking twat stinks like a goddamn outhouse sewer.

It was, don't flatter yourself. Rick made it sound a lot more. Well, what did Rick say? Yes. He said he was trying to say that the guy said he wouldn't bum a fuck off of Charlie. That's what it was. He wouldn't bum one. Yes.

He was trying to, well, he kind of said he wouldn't bum one. Like it was really, he came out and said, I wouldn't bum a fuck off of your used-up bucket pussy, you whir? Well, he didn't say that. No. He said the nicest thing you could say. He didn't say anything. Well, you didn't really say anything. He just played a clip of something.

Well, let's go back to the Nature Boy and Ariel Hwant. trying to do his best to get an answer or figure out exactly what Rick is saying. Let's go back to this. So since then, there's... He's going to really go far in the business. A 76-year-old man does the 24-year-old kid

is going to kick his ass. And where is he now? Is he even on a roster? Is this Ludwig Kaiser? Yeah, a little punk. Yeah. He's actually Mexico right now. I'm sure he is. I hope he stays.

So since then, since that interaction, you've been told to stay away? No, but I just, you know, I know this is sad to say, but because of the arrangements I have the guys like Taker, who's real, Austin, who's real, and all this.

If you were behind the lines, like even though I'm not there, I know everything because I know everybody there should be a red carpet for me a red carpet. Let me stop it for a moment. What does this have to do with Ludwig Kaiser?

He's just talking about why he wasn't welcome to WrestleMania. Isn't Rick Flair under contract to AEW right now? Still? Well, isn't that that turned out to be the bone of contention of the roots of fight clothing thing is that they're doing a deal with the WWE so that they removed people who weren't under contract or whatever the fuck. I don't know what the legalities were, but what is he was just mad a couple weeks ago

about that. So I don't. Well, there's a little bit more. Let's go back to the end of Rick Flair's thoughts from the Ariel Hawani show. Please don't say it like the. end of Rick Flair's thoughts. Don't say it like that. On this subject. This was the last what he ever had, folks.

To the front row. And that's how I feel about it. My contributions in this business and the work that I put in hours, hours, hours of trying to make wrestling something that it is today. And I got to have problems with politics. Give me a break. I mean, I'm not mad at anybody. I understand it's politics now. It's too much politics and not enough wrestling.

Well, there it is. Rick Flair on the Ariel Holani show. It's undeniable what he's done for the business, and I can't even say that he shouldn't have a red carpet rolled out for him, but I don't know if he's the one to be saying that about him. Is there an element of lack of humility to the point where people are, oh, come on now? Should he be doing less interviews now if he wants a better legacy, as they say?

They should invite him to a show and obviously put out the red carpet. That's a big deal to him. and then Louvig Kaiser should go up to him and say, hey, Rick, let's go find that 20-something-year-old English guy you're looking for. I'll help. I'll hold a son of a bitch down when you kick him. Is he even on the roster anymore? Yeah, he's like the number one star in Mexico right now for AAA.

Well, good. Tell him to stay there. Well, there it is. Well, at least that way, at least that way, if Rick remembers what he looks like he's going to be wearing a man. the next time he sees. Well, that's the, a lot of listeners have sent that over. That's the Rick Flair on his thoughts about Ludwig Kaiser.

Well, you know, a lot of people have thoughts, Brian, is what they have. Before we go, we'll close out with our review, if that's what you can call it. And we're giving Smackdown, folks, one more week before they piss us off, too. just so you know, because we've been so unimpressed by the raw after WrestleMania that by the end of this program, we're going to tell you about the Smackdown after WrestleMania, and if they don't do a better job,

we might just start filing that one in the fucking circular file as well and stick to Raw and maybe not Raw, not Dynamite. You know, Brian, here's what we're going to start reviewing episodes of the wonder years from 1988. I understand Jason Hervey gave some stunning performances. But anyway, before we do that... The whole Cogan documentary series on Netflix, we're going to watch that and talk about that.

I forgot. I forgot. Yes, we will... We'll watch that and say, as someone I know used to say, have I ever told you that story? You'd say, yes. Well, how long has it been since I told it to you? The ending may have changed. We're going to see if they...

which story they tell of Hogan on this one. And we'll have that, what, on the drive-thru? That's right, on the drive-thru. That's right. Find out how many of Jim's photos from 1979 were used without permission in this documentary. I understand that's happening also. But anyway, here just real quick, before we get to the final part of the program, I wanted to, and this is a legitimate open offer, Brian.

This is a request for knowledge. I want to be edgimicated from the people. out there who keep records on these type of things. Because I want to know this is this is a, this is not a self-serving exercise. I want to know who the people are that rate above me. Because I looked this information up last week

and I was going to bring it up and I just didn't. It was something that I had thought about because I keep getting the people on Twitter and the naysayers, the Cubs of the AEW fans and go, well, his opinion doesn't matter. And it was started by, you know, what, 10, 15 years ago when the younger generation of some of the wrestlers didn't like the critiques I had of their performances,

instead of saying, you know what, maybe I fucking suck because this guy's, you know, kind of made a lot of stars and shit. Oh, he doesn't know what he's doing. He's a shits. And all of his companies have gone out of business. He doesn't know how to book and he's totally out of touch behind the times because he don't like me. Right.

Specifically, it was the Young Bucks and Colt Cabana that spread this because it helped them. Well, and there were others that would hop on the gravy train with it. And it went in that direction. but but so I thought okay legitimately let's ask this question Brian you have a pretty good of memory when it comes to wrestling history but I open this to all the we've had so many people in the cult of cornetth listeners out there that done research and said you know X amount of people went to this show and this did such and such rating whatever they do all kinds of research so enlighten us who on the list of promoters and bookers

that is alive right now in the year 2006 and I know there's six billion people in the world so it might be hard to track all of them down so let's just go with North America United States and Canada that way we're confining ourselves to around

what around 500 million people that be give or take a little bit approximately that's the pool we're going for. Of those people, who alive as a promoter and booker has drawn better than Jim Cornett's business. Now, you can't be a multimillion or billion-dollar corporation. Remember we talked about this one? I mentioned this one,

Brian Armstrong, Road Dog, quit, left Smackdown. The show is not probably going to get appreciably better or worse just because he's one guy,

even if he was good, he's filtered by bad, or if he was bad, he's filtered by good. But you can't judge anybody's work as a booker unless they've been responsible for it themselves,

basically. Have I made that point correctly. I think so. So we're not talking WWE. We're not talking about WCW. Big corporations with changing rosters and

giant fucking creative staffs, whatever the fuck. We're talking about, if you're so fucking smart, either go out and start you a promotion as a promoter or get you a job as a booker, and do better numbers than this.

In the wrestling business, in the last 35 years, since the closing of the territories, except for Tennessee, which will mention, pretty much the last 35 years, who is on that list? That's the fucking question we're asking. You said, 35?

So back to 1991? Well, even 1990. I mean, just 36 sounds like an odd number. Okay, so back to 1990, not counting Vince McMahon, which is WWA, or WCW, which had Ted Turner's money. And to be quite honest, it wasn't like Dixie Carter was writing a check out of her checking account, Panda Energy, which was worth at least in the hundreds of millions from what I understand, was the, corporate overlord. And again, nobody was the booker.

Obviously, Paul Heyman is still breathing, so he's on the list. Well, I'll tell you what. Maybe not more successful, because I mean, we're talking about, what are we talking about big houses? Well, here's the thing. Since everybody likes statistics, because you can judge this in a variety of ways.

And by the way, with Tony Kahn, he's not really a major, corporation, but he spent so far, regardless of what has come in, what the revenue of AEW has been in the last six or seven years, we can probably easily believe he spent $750 million out, right? So I'll even give Tony his asterisk and put him right over at the top of the paper. He's a class unto himself. Nobody has ever spent a tenth of the amount of money that he spent to get a wrestling promotion off the ground.

Nobody has ever done this. Let's let Tony be all by himself to top of the page, okay? This is a special case. I'm not even going to argue. And then. No corporations except for Tony Kahn? Except, well, because he's not a corporation. He is a billionaire.

with a corporation behind him or at least a corporate office. Well, no, but it's his father giving him money. So he's not, it's not a real fucking company. I got to invent something. That's the key. It's that patent. No, but that's the greatest fucking money there is. But that's what I'm saying.

This is not like, it's not like even when Vince McMahon was the chairman of the board and 80% shareholder and this guy, blah, blah, blah. It's not even like R.E. Manuel and, Dennis Shapiro and all these other people in a TKO group, it's like he's got a billion dollars and he wants to spend it. And so it's a special case. It's never ever happened before, but I will acquiesce to put Tony on the list right up to top

at his own little category. Are we talking promoters who booked or are we specifically talking about bookers who kind of did everything? Again, I will give you an example because how do you compare me and Paul? I've mentioned before, me and Paul are really the only one and know what it's like for good or bad to do shit like this for a long period of time by yourself, I went back and looked up my three biggest crowds in Smoky Mountain Wrestling and my three biggest crowds in OVW.

And I would like to submit those numbers. And then I would like to figure out who besides Paul Heyman belongs on a list of individual people who have been the promoter and booker of. of shows that have been this successful and who they are and what they did. And then you talk about how to compare success. Smoky Mountain Wrestling lasted about four years. And we went out of business. Paul had ECW for what about seven years.

And he went out of business. But when Paul went out of business, he went to bankruptcy court. A lot of people were owed money, whereas when Smoky Mountain went out of business, the only people had lost money were Mia Rick Rubin. And if you take as a percentage, Paul was in the whole $8 million in the bankruptcy paperwork, which is, as I mentioned, like four times as much as me and Rubin together, lost during the whole four years of Smoky Mountain. So did I come out better because I lost less money?

I'm just saying there's different ways that you can quantify you know was it successful or was it unsuccessful or the length of time it ran or whatever OVW is still running today obviously with different ownership as we've covered but you know I just went with okay booking and promoting a show and putting it together that put people in the fucking seats and sold tickets is what I'm thinking. Well, because I'm trying to think of candidates who would actually be someone I could pick. Giving you someone who I don't think we could say had more success than you, but just trying to come up with people from this period,

would Gabe Sapolsky be eligible or because he wasn't the owner? Is he not eligible? Gabe Sapolsky would be eligible, but he didn't have these numbers. right i'm just trying to figure out who i'm allowed to so game sepolski was a booker of a company they didn't have regular television but they were doing regular shows so with with smoky mountain wrestling we were a regular regional promotion

doing a weekly television show on broadcast television and running an average of three events a week with ovw we were really more localized, obviously, just the Louisville market in this part of Kentucky, but we were still running a weekly television show and running an average of three events a week. With Gabe and Ring of Honor,

they were running fewer events, but obviously more major events than on average than the OVW events, but they didn't have OVW's ability to draw the major crowds and it was a ring of honor obviously was much smaller than Smoky Mountain just being honest

right but Gabe would be on the list and obviously he booked in other places but still I don't think you can compare the two things who else would be on the list Randy Hales Randy Hales yeah didn't think of that Randy Hales because Ed here's the thing Randy is actually

I believe and that's why I'm going to give you these numbers and I'm in it. I know some people are going, what the fuck get to it? Because I want somebody who knows Paul's who studied the history of ECW to try to help us out on this. But Randy Hales, I believe, would be number three on the list behind me and Paul. Because the last regional territory, the left in the 90s, besides Smoky Mountain Wrestling, which started in the 90s, was the Memphis Territory. and in that period of time where Randy was booking, they'd had rough early 90s.

But Randy got the book and Brian Christopher was young and PG-13 was young and fresh. And he got to what from 94-95, the USWA and Spogie Mountain feud. He did the Memphis Memory Show. They did 8,000 people for that one, but they also did Memphis Memories prices. It was like $3.

But the point is he was drawing the biggest for the Mid-South Coliseum shows and some of the Louisville Gardens events. He was drawing the biggest non-WWF or WCW crowds just because of the buildings and the history of those two towns in the country. And just their ticket prices were because they were weekly towns were lower. But Randy is, I think, number three until we find a different one. What about Bert Prentice? Bert ran a lot of shows. Bert never ran. Here, let me give you these numbers.

Bert didn't do these. For Smoggy Mountain Wrestling, I was the promoter, I was the Booker and a performer as a manager. Our top three shows were the Sunday Bloody Sunday show, February 13th, 1994, which was really a package show.

So you can't call a main event, but Bob Armstrong and Terry Funk and the Texas death match was heavily featured. 3,900 people did $31,080. The Night of Legends on August 5th, 94. I was there. And that was

the Funk Brothers and Bruiser Bedlam with me against Road Warrior Hawk, Bullet Bob, Tracy Smothers, and Ron Wright. Ron Wright in their corner. Ron Wright and right. their corner. Yes. A lot of people like, oh, you know, they try to say, well, Cornett, especially some of the guys that were pissed about it. Cornet brought in the WWF guys and they only came to the shows with the WWF guys were on the show.

No, the biggest one's actually the only big, the only one of the big three that had a WWF guy on the show was the next one, Super Bowl. But nevertheless, Night of Legends did 4,243 people and $35,120. And the Super Bowl on August 4th, 1995 with Buddy Landell and Sean Michaels in the main event, did 4,887 people, $3775. Your totals there are 12,430 people and $103,975, and a dollar then is $2.20 or so now, so, it would be 200.

So there's three shows that sold 12,000 tickets. And again, I'm willing to put the money over today because the financials have changed and ticket prices. But that's still three shows that sold 12,000 tickets and did the equivalent today of 225 grand at the gate. Hey, if I could say something about what you said before, but the WWE guys and people who say, well, Cornette, you had them.

I was there. Sean Michaels and the Undertaker didn't draw the house. It was about the way they were being used that made it effective. It wasn't just, look at what WWE's crowds all around the country were in 1995. It wasn't, Sean Michaels will be here, we're guaranteed a crowd. It was the story of the match with Buddy. And really, it was about Buddy. And then the Undertaker, you built him up.

You had that blue oyster cult video that you loved so much. that you know what I mean? It was about seeing him and Unabom. You know what I mean? It was about the way he was used, not just that the undertaker's going to draw a house because no disrespect to him.

They didn't draw houses in 95. Well, yeah, and I didn't just bring the match in from the, oh, here's Lex Lugar versus whatever. The WWF match, I brought in a talent to wrestle one of my guys that it fit, whether it was Buddy Landel challenging for Sean Michaels because he was the Intercontinental Champion or whether it was the Unabom facing the Undertaker because they're both seven feet tall and monsters, whatever, it had to fit.

And then you've got people all over town seeing Smoky Mountain Wrestling guys in competitive situations with some of the biggest stars in the business. and then we worked out finishes, but we didn't particularly beat any of our guys unless it was the blow-off or, you know, in the case of everybody wanted to see the goddamn, you know, Undertaker win or whatever, but it was a mixture that made us different,

but nevertheless. Yeah, and by the way, if you came, if you bought a ticket expressly because the Undertaker and Sean Michaels were there, the thugs in the heavenly body stole the show. So if you were there... And we got people hopefully to come back then. Yes, because they were like, oh shit.

We haven't seen these guys before, but they were better than the other guys. That's the whole fucking idea. But nevertheless, we're backtracking it. I'll say one more thing. If you go to the number four house in Smoggy Mountain Wrestling History, as far as number of people attending,

that was August 20th, 1993 in Knoxville. We had 2664 people paying $17,962. And I booked and promoted that. And I was in the main event. That was me against Bullet Bob. So that's my record in Smoky Mountain. So if anybody for their top four shows of their promotion, besides the fact that we were running a weekly television show,

show on multiple broadcast outlets that ran for 200 episodes besides the fact that I was booking live events on an average of three days a week in other markets as well as the all these big houses that happened in Knoxville if you can compete with 15,000 tickets for your big four big shows then write in and let's hear from you I want to put you on the list but I'm because I'm here And again, the whole premise of this is so many people are going, Cornett doesn't know what he's doing. Oh, Jesus Christ, so-and-so could do so much better and so, well, who has done better? But this is, Brian, this is kind of, it's way back there.

And by the way, those shows are all bigger crowds than the majority of the dynamites we've seen this year. So, you know, for everyone it says, look what time he's done. Well, it's not like they're drawing on the road. It's like being the nicest guy in prison. now you're not complimenting me that much but now here's the thing i know some people are going to say that's 30 years ago so let's crank it up a little bit because that was just that was a promotion that i started from scratch and cultivated the market let's go to ovw i didn't start the promotion danny davis did so technically while i was part owner and did a lot of promotion

Danny Davis really figures as the promoter. He was always the boss of everything. But I was the Booker and the television announcer and was, even though I wasn't responsible for the entire talent roster like I was in Smoky Mountain, whoever came and went was totally up to me. The WWE would send me a certain talent that I might have to make use of.

and but in return they would send me hopefully some guys that would help me out so that it would balance out but i booked everything i did the announcing put all the shows together so and this is more recent this is still this in 2000 2001 but at my age that's very recent what's a mere 20 or 30 years when you're this old but filling those functions especially as booker the the rocker the rock and Rumble, June 23rd, 2000. We did 2789 people at the gardens and drew $30,27777 at the gate. That was literally five weeks after we actually got on full power television. And even though we had co-promotions with Clear Channel Radio on all of these events,

up until five weeks before that show, nobody really knew we were on goddamn television in Louisville because it was a low-power station that nobody watched. But anyway, six months later, Christmas chaos, we've talked about it many times, January 31, 2001, we did 5,010 people and $72,166. at the gate. And then at the last dance, on June 27, 2001, when they closed the gardens, we did 3,060 people to pay 52,619. So with the increased ticket prices, whereas in Smoky

Mountain, my top three shows sold 12,000 tickets, did 100 grand. In OVW, my top three shows did 10,859 people, but drew $155,000 at the gate, which in today's money would be approximately $286,864. So if you don't want to compare records with me in Smoggy Mountain, then let's just make a list of all the individual motherfuckers that have gone in and taken over the book of a wrestling school, gotten on television and run three shows at a one-year period that sold 11,000 tickets and gross to 150 grand. All right, Brian, let me know. Where are you starting?

That Northeast Wrestling has done well. They have an annual show at a ballpark or something, and they bring in all sorts of stars. You know what? They have done. Yeah. I think they've done some two or three thousand people crowds up there, Northeast Wrestling.

It was a Mike O'Brien? I think so. That's right. So again, I'm just telling you, if everybody's so much better at this than I am, AAA!

AAA in Los Angeles in 1990, what was that, 3, 4 had the run where they ran the sports arena. Ron Scholar, IWC. Ron Scholar was the legit, even though he wasn't an owner of AAA,

who were the technical promoters of record of the company. He was the promoter of those events and what made it. And they did 18,000 or whatever at sports arena. They've got a time or two at a couple of other big crowds. No, they caused the traffic jam. Like they destroyed. They drew a bigger house than anyone expected, and that was a big story. So, but, and Ron Scholar, the promoter, who was the Booker?

Does anybody know who the Booker was of AAA? It was Antonio Pena and Ron Scholar would give him thoughts about who he wanted on shows. That's how you had that one show where Vampiro was all of a sudden working with AAA guys, which did not work out well. And that's why Tito Santana was on the When Worlds Collide pay-per-view, because Ron would have his suggestions, but it was Pena booking. Okay, but Pena's dead, right? Pena's dead.

Scratch him off. How's Ron doing? He's out of wrestling. He's doing great. But he's still alive. Yeah, absolutely. Good guy. So he gets to go on the list as an asterick. He wasn't the Booker, but he was the promote. Paul Alperstein drew a lot of big houses. Oh, come on.

In terms of people. In terms of people. He paid them to come. They were there. They came. No, you have to be something said for them. No, no, I was listing the tickets sold and the gates, not the tickets given out and people paid to come to sit in them, their seats.

So again, we're talking bookers more than. promoters. Bookers more than promoters, but I'll, you know, again, poor Pena, he didn't make it, but we've got, we've got Randy Hales, we've got Tony off at his own little category, we got me and Paul, we got Randy Hales, we got Ron Scholar with an asterisk, and we got Gabe Sapolsky, who by the nature of his companies, was not a put in a position where he could run buildings to draw this many people. And even if someone was a Russo defender, you can't defend...

He's never booked anything by himself? But he didn't draw houses. Like, his whole argument was... He didn't care how he doesn't care howdy housing? I don't care about the ratings, but that was the thing. He let the houses go to shit wherever they went. Do you know that when did TNA start in 2002? I believe so.

Yes. Do you know who promoted the biggest grossing house show that they did in the first four years of their existence. Was it OVW? You? Me. They ran the gardens and I promoted it for them locally here in 2006 and it did like 30 grand. And that was the biggest house show that they had ever done at that point in time.

Nevertheless. Eddie Gilbert was a good booker, but he didn't draw houses especially. I mean, even if he ever going based on 1990 and after, he booked in Memphis, he booked in Dallas when Dallas was dead, he booked in Philadelphia when they didn't draw ECW was just starting up. So you can't put him on the list. Well, hold on, you just made me realize. Puerto Rico, maybe.

I was about as well, but I don't know about any's business. We have to write Dutchman tail down because I just thought about Puerto Rico. And I don't know the details, the ins and outs of what they drew, but, you know, there was a reason he was down there for a while. he was making money. Well, yeah, with Puerto Rico, it could be feast or it could be famine. You could cite that they did a ballpark show that had 12,000 people in the next week, you know, they were in front of 300 people in a fucking bullring or whatever. Dutch Mantel basically because of a variety of different places,

whether it had been the times he'd booked in Continental or Florida early on in the 80s or Puerto Rico in the 90s. I don't know about the business records, but definitely he believed. longs on this list. So again, we've got Eric Embry. Oh, come on. I'm just name it bookers. I'm just thinking of bookers.

Who else booked her? You know, Leo Garibaldi was dead. Uh, who else booked? There's got to be someone. Who booked windy city wrestling? Paul Heyman, Dutch Mantel, Randy Hales, Gabe Sapolsky, Ron Scholar with an asterica's promoter. Somebody else out to, come on, people.

Game change of wrestling. Oh, come. You see, that's the point. That's where we are today. All right. Well, then what are their top three crowds? Because I won't compare, even with some mud show, I won't necessarily compare Gates, as I said, with anybody,

because this is 25 and 30 years ago. And the finances have changed. but on top three crowds, I will compare my record with either of my companies where I was to the decision-making person and not part of a group with anybody walking around out there today. And I say, like I said, I think it's me, Paul Dutch and Randy Hales. So if anybody, if anybody.

wants to join the party, go ahead and do this shit. Otherwise, blow me. But let's say, anybody that's willing to do a little research and come up with something, who else beats those totals for their top three shows and their promotion, wherever it may be. Pro wrestling gorilla! Oh, J. They ran a building that seated 400. I drew 10 of a minute. You couldn't get anyone else in there. I drew 10 in one night, multiple time. You know what? hold on well no because they got that Sting retirement show I was going to say

remember when we compared they sent in the research on the Bucks main event top three shows that they drew that they main evented on yeah and it was 18 for Sting's retirement 10 for another one

and then five or four maybe so 33 I I promoted fucking seven shows here that just about the same number of people as their entire main event career. Anyway, I'm waiting to be blown out of the water with all this competition I've got, Brian. We will see what happens, some research for the listeners to do.

And you know, by the way, Brian, before we go any further, I must mention that all of those events that I mentioned that I promoted and or booked made five figure profits for whichever company that it was, OVW or SM, so it's not like oh yeah well he drew those people but what did he spend so there you go because we've seen promoters draw nice i mean Joel goodhart drew some nice houses did he make any he got he went out of business on a sellout didn't he like fucking he drew 40 grand for an independent show in philadelphia in 1990 when you couldn't do such a thing he went out of business on the way to buddy rogers versus buddy landel

yes and who was goddammit was it was it Tony hunter I don't want to accuse him it might have been snow it was somebody else that was drawing big houses in virginia at one point like 15 years ago or whatever and then just went away oh i'm trying to think Marvin ward there oh Doug ward Doug gibson Doug Gibson Fucking L I haven't thought about him in forever

Is he still around? No there were a lot of people looking for him at various times I know but usually he reemerged years after that each time Right every time we heard that people were looking for him He disappeared for a short period of time Then reemerged and booked some big star against him

And I don't think I think he's submerged this time Instead of e-merged I don't think if I seen him in a while But yeah he did the paper view with Kevin Nash and Ricky Morton. Oh, that's right. Yeah, that's right.

But when he teamed with Terry Funk in Waynesboro, Virginia. Is it? Well, he was from Waynesboro, Virginia. Is it too soon? I haven't told the story in maybe five years. We've got younger kids in the audience now. For the age two to sevens out there. So years ago, when I was running Smoky Mountain Wrestling,

Waynesboro, Virginia, and there's another town up close to it, that our TV, I think, from Harrisonburg, Virginia was hitting, but we didn't, it was a long way from Knoxville, and we'd have sent Sandy Scott all the way up there to blah, blah, blah. And Doug Gibson, which is the name he was using to wrestle on his own little independent shows that his father ran for him at a time, contacted us and said, hey, I'll run you a weekend up here Friday and Saturdays so book the guys and all promotes shows and blah blah blah okay we put him on the car and we even did a rib he came down to do local promos for it and they introduced who was doing

the promos i can't remember was brian matthews whoever and here he is Doug gibson to talk about wainsborough and he starts doing the promo and then robert gibson comes out of the corner and says this is a little prick claiming to be my cousin oh no i have the video of it i know exactly that's right because we saved it right yeah well the thing was Doug Gibson gave the promo of his life that he's been practicing for and waiting for and now I've got a chance that there's a camera and a microphone and an interviewer and I could do it and I could show this whole room of people I admire that I'm ready to hang with them. And he gave this promo and then I think it may have been Brian Matthew still.

It may have been Tommy Noe. I'm not sure. I think it was Brian Matthews. He goes, and now here they are, Ricky and Robert the Rock and Roll Express. And Ricky's about to talk. Robert stops him. And Robert never talked in these promos. He goes, oh, who the fuck's this guy calling himself Gibson? And then the next thing you see is you run across the camera laughing. Oh, God. Well, the point is the laugh was up.

And then he had Roger Anderson, right? Oh, yes, yes. And because Roger Anderson, it was an homage to the Anderson brothers because he was from Virginia or North Carolina. But at any rate, he was bald. He was like, I have a bald guy. I'll make him

at Henderson. The laugh ended up on us because we did the, we redid the promo, right. And it was like a week and a half or two weeks ahead of the shows. He called me and he said,

well, we can't run. I said, what are you talking about? Apparently he had run some fucking other show on his own with some big star that they paid to come in

so he could work with him. and it didn't draw shit and his father cut him off and said he couldn't run any more shows and I'm like you motherfucker I didn't ask you to run this other show you came to us we got a deal we promoted this that blah blah blah so

that was one period of time I didn't see him for about 10 years after that and then he was the knucklehead that I was in a I don't mean to turn this into the Marvin Ward hour but I was was at a fan fest or a show somewhere when they were going to do that fucking Riggy Morton, Kevin Nash, pay-per-view or whatever.

And he was going to run another big event after that. And he was like two or three aisles over from me and I'm doing my own thing. And so one of the boys or somebody came over and said, hey, Marvin Ward really wants to book you on that show. Let's fuck Marvin Ward. I want you to come to whatever butt fuck Virginia I said tell him I'll do it for five grand

because I was still working and traveling in those days and the guy came back he said he'll do it I said what just sighted and say don't know who I'm going to manage or what I'm going to do he'll just pay me five grand to just be there

I said of course he said that so I actually talked to him a phone about it. After, you know, the show was over and everything, I said, Marvin, if you really want me to come to wherever for $5,000, I'll do it, but I need X in advance and then why when I show up and the blah, blah, blah, and the reservations and a whole nine yards, okay, no problem. And then X never came.

And he had always going to be, and then I never heard from him again. and he didn't run that show and he was gone again somewhere. I think as a matter of fact, at one point, when did that John Cena movie come out? Which one? The Marine or the one with Amy Schitt? The original one.

The Marine, I guess it was. They blew up a bunch of shit in that, right? I believe, I mean, I believe so. He was the Marine, yeah. Yeah. Well, Marvin Ward actually paid me and Dennis Condry. 2006.

2006 paid me and Dennis Condry to come up there and give him advice on how to run his a fucking show and a fucking promotion and la la and took us all and Teresa was with Dennis and Stacy was with me and took us all to see

the Marine and paid for the tickets and literally paid us like $1,500 bucks piece to have a meeting with it. And never listened to any goddamn thing we said. All right. This has been easy paydays with Jim Cornett.

Who else paid you to do nothing? What a good role here. Well, I mean, no, I did something. They just didn't listen. But anyway, speaking of people who are not getting paid anymore to do anything, boy, what a goddamn transition there. You know, times are tough, Brian. We've heard about it.

They're cutting back. They've taken the water cooler's taking out a Titan Tower again. 30 years later they're cutting corners you know the revenue just didn't coming in fuck I don't think they grossed more than $150 million last month and they've had to make the

tough choices to I guess since their family instead of employers and employees it's a WWE family have have they disowned some of their children now well it's not like you're being let go. It's like you're being sent away from home because W.W.E. is home. It's everyone's home. It'll always be your home. Except when they send you away from it and they won't feed you

anymore and you don't have a place to sleep. Do they get to take their clothes when they leave home, Brian? They don't get to take their name when they leave home. Give me your fucking driver's license too on the way out. We just talked earlier this episode about the compensation for the executives of TKO, the parent organization of WWE and UFC, Dwayne Johnson got $610,000 in travel reimbursements. How many of these salaries would have been covered under that? Well, actually, the NXT ones, they say now the average there is about 100 grand, which ain't bad to go to school.

But some of these fellows and females were on the main roster, and they were making a bit more than that, and when you look at the list, you wonder why. Well, I have the list here. Would you like to go down it, give your opinions on some... I don't want to go down on any of the people on this list, but I'll talk about them. Again, some of these are pretty surprising.

I know you're not a fan of hers, but she's been used pretty prominently on Raw, Kyrie Seine, who's been a part of the whole thing with Aska and E.E.O. Skyrie Seine has been released. Maybe. sanity is prevailing. How long before she is Kyrie Hojo again and an AEW?

She has to be one of the ones I would think if she wanted to stay in the States, I would have to think Tony would want her. Good Lord. I'm sure. Do you know what? Is she or is she, is there like any of the heat between her and the other Japanese girls over there?

Maybe we don't know about that. That might be a problem. Well, Jim, another couple names on this list, I'll give them together. Again, somewhat surprising because of how they've been used, Alistair Black and Zelina Vega, who were married, both released on the same day, till death do us part, they say.

Well, you kind of figure that if they're going to let one go, they probably figure the other one will probably get mad and be bummed out, so just make a clean break of it. But, I mean, I've never understood, any appeal of Alistair Black, Malachi Black, the fucking spooky thing that he was trying to do that

maybe if he was like John Caradine or someone, he could get away with it but it just, it's been I don't know what the fuck to think about it. Remember when they had the entrance? Was that an AEW where they would, the lights would go on and off and they would be posed in different places

and the goddamn... Oh, that was AEW. Here they do the entrance that Cross and Scarlett were doing. They got released, and then all of a sudden, Alistair and Zelina kind of got their role, even though they obviously are really married, but he was Malachi Black and AEW,

got over pretty big early on in the feud with Cody. Eventually, whatever the problems were, he wasn't there a lot, and you started hearing rumors that he didn't want to be there, Do you think he's going to go back to AEW? Would Tony give him another chance? Well, I mean, Tony will do anything for anybody if they talk to him nice because they're his friend. So that's not, the issue is, what the fuck difference is it going to make?

Yeah, he's one of the guys I don't get. I think Zelina Vega is really talented, but she hasn't been used well in quite a while. She's been there a while. Maybe we'll miss her if she goes away. and she could come back. I'm going to try to give you all these names at once, and you can give your thoughts about them individually or together. Uncle Howdy slash Bo Dallas,

Nikki Cross, Dexter Loomis, Rowan, and Joe Gasey, collectively, formerly known as the Wyatt Six, have all those. There is a God. This has been a complete mess,

and I don't know what the fuck they were thinking that they could do. Bray Wyatt was over. Bray Wyatt was popular. I didn't particularly ever get Bray Wyatt either, but the fans loved him. But this was like a fucking,

you know, a bad Led Zeppelin Tribute Band type of thing, where it was just all characters from his universe without any meaning or rhyme or reason. They weren't invulnerable anymore, but they were still spooky, but they were, I, individually, Dexter Loomis has had size and a look

and something about him if he could ever turn on the personality, because sometimes the lack of personality has been the gimmick. But that, that whole thing with him and Gargano, remember where they were doing that, in NXT, it just, he's, he needs to have a complete new package and presentation. There's talent there if it looked and acted and was called completely different things. Joe Gacy, I never understood.

He should be in AEW because he's known one of these pudgy indie looking guys that you would think would fit right in there. Nikki Craw, I don't know what the fuck. Bo Dallas is probably a nice kid and a good worker, but he, no, just come back as your own deal sometime. So that'll probably enrolling. Oh, they'll get rowing, won't they? Over in AEW because he was friends with Brody.

other than a few one-off appearances they didn't get him after Brody passed away you would have thought maybe they would have done something he was on the tribute show right after I think he made another appearance later on I can think of at least two different appearances but for whatever reason they didn't bring him in well then maybe everybody here needs to Shopify build your own business that's right we trust them you can to Shopify.com slash JCE I already saw something that Jim that someone sent us earlier,

Vince Russo apparently went to Twitter, I think it was Twitter, and he said, WWE completely dropped the ball with the Wyatt 6. He hopes that there is room for them to come to JCW so he can do it right.

So he could do the Wyatt 6th. Oh, my God. I hope they take them up on the challenge. I would hope that since they've been working for the WWE for some time, that they have saved enough money that they wouldn't have to lower themselves to fucking

the county fair side show just that quickly upon being released. Well, Jim, another name who I think it was earlier this year, maybe last year we talked about, they made a big effort to re-sign him when it appeared he was out the door,

perhaps maybe to keep him away from CMLL, but who knows. And then we heard he was hurt recently. But that doesn't stop them from releasing people anymore. Santos Escobar has been released. Pablo! We barely knew you. Santos.

Well, whatever. Um, I mean, in all honesty, is, is anybody going to notice if you hadn't told him? He has not been on the main roster shows. I want to say it's at least over a year. He was pretty good with the LWO as a baby face and then as a heel. and then they just didn't do anything with him.

It's amazing he would get released and some of those other LWO guys are still there. It's amazing Gargano's still there. I mean, there's a few names that I'm surprised I'm not on this list, but let's go back to this list. Gargano has to have pictures of somebody in high-ranking places in embarrassing situations

because elsewise, how the fuck? Jim, Chris Sabin, and Alex Shelley the Motor City Machine Guns. You know, I hate it for those guys because they're good workers, they're technically proficient, they've been in the business forever,

they've got a ton of experience now, they're hard workers, they're good employees. But what the WWE is doing now these days, you know, they would probably be the best addition to AEW. Because they're not young guys, but they look young, athletic, fit, in shape, and they still have experience and they can work with the kids, but they know how to do shit so they're not going to kill people.

And they might be able to slow a few of those suckers down over there to where they could get some matches out of. So if Tony really wanted to fucking add to his roster of all the releases, is these are the only two guys that would really up the quality of the in-ring. Well, we'll see. It's a surprising run. I was surprised when they got signed, and they had a pretty good little run.

They got the tag titles and everything. Obviously, tag teams are not a priority in the WW are on Smackdown. It's just filler. And I think they would probably be an asset to AEW. Before we go any further, Jim, what will tell you, if anything, if any of these people immediately go to TNA? Well, I forgot about TNA. I think everybody forgot about T.

No, well, TNA, just because they are working with the WWE doesn't mean they can't sign guys that WWE is released. And maybe there's a, you know, that's used to be what bookers and promoters would do when they had finished a guy in the territory. And so, well, you know, you just been here a while. we've got to change things up, but I've called Charlotte, or I've called Atlanta, or I called Tampa, and I talked to whoever, and, you know, if you want to, you can go down there, or do your own thing. I'm just trying to help, that type of thing. Well, Jim also released Apollo Cruz. I mean, they were going to do something with him forever ago and never did, didn't they? Weren't they? Or is that a coherent sentence?

No, I know what you mean, and it seemed like a few times in the past, I don't even know at this point, years? I'm not sure how long. There were chances to do something with them and they didn't and they never are going to, it seems. So you don't want anyone to lose their job, but they're also, obviously there are people not in their plans. Well, I mean, the thing is, again, we mocked at the beginning, they're making a fucking fortune and they could pay everybody in the world if it was make a wish, but they are running a business. And to be honest, is anybody going to miss any of these people except their immediate family. Jim also on the list, and I believe she's recovering from an injury, or maybe just

got cleared, Zoe Stark. And I know I think she's still been recovering. She's still hurt, okay. Or whatever. I don't know, but, I mean, you know. Eh? Alba Fire, who was one of the secret service agents. I'll be damned.

She was one of the secret service. I can't talk. One of the secret service agents, I believe, for Chelsea Green. Well, it was the secret hervis, not the service, the hervis. No surprises. All right. Andre Chase of Chase University from NXT. He was one of the bravado brothers in Ring of Honor back in 2010 and that era.

It's interesting the amount of time they gave him on NXT for a few years that he never gets called up. What does that tell you? Well, that's what I was going to say is that the gimmick with the whole college group thing, it fucking stunk from the start, and they did it forever, and I think he's still doing it. And, you know, they were never going to bring him up. In that, I wouldn't think. Why would you?

So I don't know why. Thankfully for him, they just took seven or eight years. to make their fucking decision. Well, Jim, I have some names here. I believe these are from NXT. I don't know who these people are, but I'll give you the names. Also released.

Tyra May Steel. Oh. Sarina or Cyrina. Linton. Tyson. Tyreek. Wait, Tyson is just a name. Tyson is a name and Tyreek is a separate person.

I don't know if they were a team because they both had TY to start. their name. Chris Island. Chris Island is gone. No man is an island. Malik Blade. Malik Blade, another one of these

completely realistic names in NXT. Trill London. Trill London has been released. And finally, Luca Crucifino. Luca Crucifino? Released. What about Bill damn Fino? There was this great Mets video they made for the 86th season.

It was like the history of the Mets up until 86, 25 years. And every time they talked about one of the great players being traded, they'd play David Bowie for a second. Chachia change it! And then it would just like go back to the next thing. That's what I'm hearing in my head as I see all these names here. We'll see. I mean, obviously you brought up the big point

because you see people that get mad anytime anyway. is released because everyone every one of these people, even the people we've never heard of, there is someone who really likes them. And you don't want to see people just released. However, there is a reality. It's not like they're not going to replace

bodies on the roster, but at a certain point, if no one there has a plan for someone, they're not just going to keep them around maybe as much as they used to. Some of these names just came in and out within the last couple years. And then the thing is,

you can complain if they don't give a young guy in developmental enough of a chance to really show what he can do or get comfortable, but when you've got people that have been in the system for five, six, seven, eight years, whatever, and it just ain't nothing happening. No, you can't keep everybody. That's what Tony does.

and that's why Tony the WWE pays talent a very small percentage of their overall annual income and Tony pays his talent probably more than a half because he pays people you know he's paying Rick Flair he pays people you never see

they're not going to do this they're Tony is a doormat and these people are goddamn heartless, cruel capitalists. There is no middle ground anymore where it's like, we've got to halfway be reasonable, but maybe he could work in fucking catering. You know, whatever.

Well, those are the releases. Obviously, there are recent NXT call-ups happening in the last couple weeks, so they're replenishing the main roster and probably going to have to replenish NXT, at least who's used on TV, because a lot of the main eventors of the last year are now on the main roster, but that's the ebb and flow of the WWE roster.

Well, speaking of ebbing and flowing, Smackdown will be a short report because this was the Smackdown after WrestleMania where we're supposed to get excited for the rest of the year. Do you want to see Fatu mad at the other Samoa? Owens and Tongans again, because we saw a lot of that here. I mean, that was the thing that book ended this episode. The stuff with him and the Uso's, Jacob Fatu and the Uso's, that I didn't mind, because

that really hasn't been played out yet. Yes. The stuff with the solo group has been played out. And it's natural for solo to be involved in that opening segment because he is there. and in the history of the bloodline he had a big role and he's the actual younger brother

of the Uso's and Jacob loved him but I don't think anyone sees solo as someone who's going to win a match or someone they should care about so I don't know what to think they're giving Jacob Fatu a nice little push right now

coming out of WrestleMania and a feud that no one cared about but they're just going to the next pay-per-view and that's the main event right away, him and Roman? Well, I guess, I mean, here's the whole thing. Here's what happened. Jacob comes out to the ring and he announces that he told Roman Monday,

he doesn't want that title, he needs that title. And they cheered. And he said, and Roman told me I'm not ready. And they booed. And he said, everybody's told me that I'm not ready all my life. So now I'm saying step in the ring and prove it. And the Uso's music plays. And I'm, okay.

where is this going to go? And they tell him, don't, don't come at the OTC like that. Join us, run to play with us. And these people started booing. And they started chanting fatu, fatu. And I said, I don't, again, Jimmy said, Fai T, don't listen, none of these fools, the fans. None of these fools are going to put your kids in better schools.

I'm like, my God, they're turning the Uso's heeling this thing. And then Jay says, hey, it's too late. You've already done this. So we're going to see if you can swim or sink or whatever. Next time you look at Roman rains, get ready for war. So it's like they're turning heel on Jacob, but then Solo's music plays. And here he comes with these fucking tongans.

And I swear to God, I'll get to it in a minute when we talk about the match. But I just, I don't get these fucking guys, especially with the face paint to make them look more bumbling and foolish. And Solo tries to tell Jacob that the Uso's are lying to him. They didn't want you here a couple years ago. I did. I brought you.

And if you want to beat Roman, well, I can do that for you. You need an army and I've got an army. But while Solo was talking to people were, what, in him? Because that's the, is that the way that they tell you now that you're a fucking underneath guy that don't want to hear from you? What? What? And so anyway, then Tama, it was Tama Tonga, wasn't it? Took the microphone and said, why are we wasting time? He's a lost cause. He can't beat Roman. He can't even beat you. And then Jacob's super kick, Tama and most people it wasn't like oh my god he was like ah and jacob said the only one ought to be

talking to is roman so it's going to be me and solo tonight i don't whatever the fuck i i'm with you i think the usos and roman and fatu this needs to be explored and i think they should hopefully they'll just this is fodder for this one night and they're not going to be in this thing regularly because the others to me now beat solo establish that just that you can and get them out of the way because when Jacob is working with solo it diminishes Jacob because solo is Jacob light and it's not a clash of styles it's two similar styles. Where they're both doing the same thing,

one's just better at it. Does that make any sense? It does. Makes a lot of sense. So, anyway, let's skip ahead to the match because the match was the main event. Because I just, again, we've seen it.

They had a match. The Uso's came out to watch. I thought Solo was in control way too much because we know he's doing a job. and finally Jacob beat him with the moonsault one, two, three. But then the heels started getting heat on Jacob three on one. And the Uso's have been watching, so they come down like they're going to come help. But by the time they get to the ring, Jacob made a comeback and beat up all three of the heels by himself, including whacking them with a chair.

And then he put Tonga Loa on the table at the announced desk at ringside so he could splash him through it and Tonga Loa for a shoot fell off the goddamn desk accidentally. Did you see that part? Oh, yeah. Tongoloa. How the fuck can you fall off a goddamn desk? He fell off the goddamn desk.

So he had to go get him, put him back, and then he splash him through the thing. Jelly roll didn't fall off the desk. Jelly roll stayed up upright. What in and had Tongalo is laying down. All he had to do was just not roll to his left, so he rolled to his left and fell off the fucking table. And then you can see him and try to catch himself, oh, we're going to fall. So that's the main fucking business on this smackdown, pretty much.

I can just mention they had a girls match. They had another girl's match when a tag match. They had Cody do a promo in the ring, which the interesting thing was, he said, to all be outside forces that keep interfering with my WrestleMania plans, you're 0 for three. So either send your best or count your money

and mind your damn business. There are elements of this problem. that weren't very good too. It was, uh, Cody has this thing. Some of these other guys do too were, I don't even know what to say. Like, he does like this fake like, like, like he's trying like, he moves his jaw to the side, like, like he's like, you know, really getting ready for it. But then he had this thing about how Sammy Zane called him the golden boy. And his comeback was, you're right. I am golden. My family's gold. My fans are gold. Everyone's gold. And I was like, this is awful. This is just a worst comeback. It's not gold.

It's not gold. No, it's not. And then he left. Nothing happened. And yes, and, you know, and that's sometimes that's not bad, but he didn't make any announcements about having discovered a cure for cancer or gotten to the bottom of the Kennedy assassination, so it wasn't that newsworthy. I like Trick Williams and Yaddy, and Yaddy said he's here to stay.

I think they've got a winning combination here. And he did the promo with the, they were in the rest of it. with the gingerbread man. And if you want a handout, find a clinic. If you want an invitation, find a wedding. But if you want the U.S. champion, find Trick Williams. And then while Yaddy was throwing money in the air, the gingerbread man took his fucking,

or hit both of them with a candy cane and then took his fucking head off. And it was Sammy. And the fans just hate Sammy now. They've been waiting apparently to hate him. there's some pent-up frustration here that little do-gooder and otherwise in that, and we had,

do you even want to speak about Danhausen and Ms. And Danhausen at Ms.'s house who's ever mentioned they got to play the fucking part of Ms.'s house? What I'll say is this, I hate this sort of nonsense appearing on wrestling. And also, I don't have a problem with TKO producing a shit of this nonsense, that is just this nonsense.

And I'll watch it. Maurice is very good-looking. Danhausen is funny. I'm going to start with Maurice. Danhausen's funny. And, you know, the Miz is the Miz. But, you know, Danhausen and Maurice. I mean, that's really what I'm thinking about here.

Can Ms. overact anymore? The, you know, again, it's not like it was a static camera filming incidents. There were camera cuts. It was just, it was too set up. It's fake. You need to show. I mean, of course it's fake. is paid. I mean, just give it a show. I don't like things like this appearing in the middle of

Smackdown. I, again, I get a kick out of the Danhaus and stuff, but I don't get a kick out of bad wrestling comedy and bad wrestling skits and unfortunately... The skit, it wasn't even a wrestling skit. Whatever the skit was, the home-based skit was the fakes thing you've ever seen, and it... It just, I don't... I don't... I don't... don't think, I think it's fake in two different ways. It's fake for wrestling and it's not convincing comedy. It's that they're, they're both playing with each other. It, when Hardy got, you know, full of consternation over Laurel or fucking one of the, you know, Abbott got fed up with Costello. It wasn't like that they were still playing with each other.

They were in their fucking gimmick, right? This is just, children playing on cable access. And the match ends when he cursed him and they pirowed him again and he schoolboyed biz. So the guy that they just reminded us beat John Cena at a WrestleMania just got beaten three minutes by a magic curse and a schoolboy. Well, no, and for the record, people have corrected us.

Apparently, this was not shown on SmackDown, but if you follow all their social media feeds, you would have seen it. Danhausen paid off the pyro people. that's how Kit Wilson got blasted in the balls last week and that's how it happened again this week he's paying off the pyro people and they show that not on air but on social media

yeah but how did they get in the right position to be shot with the pyro unless the pyro guys just loaded every goddamn ring post and every fucking part of the ring side with shots that can be fired in all directions in which case if I were the pay customers, I believe I'd sit farther back from the ring. They didn't explain that part.

Yeah. So anyway, and then the debut of Jane Wayne Gacy from NXT with her friends from fatal influence, Fallon and Furnum. I can't remember the other girl's name. And they had apparently come out earlier in the night and beat up

some of the other girls on one of the fucking matches I didn't watch. And then they came out and interrupted Ria Ripley. Well, they didn't interrupt her. She just said, I'm a fighting champion, so who's next? Which is, it's so creative. I'll just walk

out there and just blindly say that I can whip everybody, so send somebody out. I have no idea who's coming. And they had so much heat, they booed over the promo from the stuff they were, the heat they'd gotten before. So the fans,

pretty much booed them and chanted for Ria. And they all just talked to each other until Aldus came out and made a match. And then it was Ria and Jane. And Jane is not a bad heel. And then they got disqualified in a three-on-one Ria. And that was the Smackdown after WrestleMania, which is supposed to get us excited for all the wonderful things that we've got coming up in the next year.

Are you excited, Brian? No, not at all. I miss tape trading. I miss having someone that can make me a two-hour compilation of anything I need to see that week or that month. You know what I miss about tape trading? Having other shows from other places that I wanted to see. With stars that you wanted to see. Yes.

You would only read about or heard about. You finally get to see. Or people I'd like to see again. There's some. some of these fucking people I can do without seeing it for the rest of my life and that's not a big insult I probably won't live that much long

I can't stand that fatal influence team I know they're a fucking NXT perverts that love them because they're female NXT you know feminine warriors you can't say anything bad about them but oh my God you want to talk about people playing the role of wrestlers

watch them walk to the ring it's just all fakery it's just you don't believe any of them are the person that they are, you believe that it's someone playing the role of someone. And I don't like that. That takes me out of it completely. Well, that's why that 90%... The one that looks like Anna J's all right, because she, you know, but the rest of them.

90% of the guys and the girls in the business are not over because of that reason. They have grown up being conditioned that wrestlers act like wrestlers, whether it's the way that they would act or not. and so they create personas in their mind. See, the good thing when I got into business, I only had a week's notice that I was going to be in the business, and I really had the barest idea, if that of any kind of personality that I was supposed to have on TV to begin with,

so I didn't have time to make up a fake one. And then I figured, well, I got maybe three or four weeks, I could suck a little bit because I just started, but I better get good or else why they're just going to fucking run me off. So I figured out how to have a bit of a personality. But I didn't sit and say, oh my God, well, let's see. What is my backstory? Yes, I'm a warrior from Spain that is landed in a spaceship from Alpha Centauri

and fucking paint my face. That's not even the worst of it. Just what will be my move when I come out of the, runway, what will I do every time I'm on the stage, my special pose? Like, that shit that became superfluous. It's everywhere. Everyone is doing like, here's my stage pose, and now here's my fake walk to the ring. It's just, you see Brock Lesnar come to the ring, and not everyone could be Brock Lesnar, you know, one of the all-time greats, really, when you think about it at this point. You believe he is who he is when he's walking to the ring with Haman. You believe that that guy,

he's not doing anything that seems like, oh, he's putting on a show. And some of these people, and again, I saw fatal influence here, I've seen him on NXT, it's three girls, especially the main one, who's the one getting the push, putting on a performance of being wrestlers, bad guy wrestlers, and I don't like it. And I think there's a lot of people that turn a blind eye to it, and a lot of it is because people don't know any better, because this was what Vince McMahon wanted, and this was the predominant wrestling. If you're 25 years old now, this is what you grew up on.

Was performance-based, just all this bullshit, the bad segments, the fucking poses, just all this stuff. This is what you grew up on. This is what you think wrestling is. It's when people do something else that they really stand out. I wonder if I had been born, let's see, I've got to do the math here. If I started with 72, let's say I've been born... 30 years later, and I didn't start watching and wrestling until 2002, I wonder what my career would have been.

Because I would have never gotten this shit. I can't imagine young me wanting to do this stuff. Oh, well. But if I'd have been born 10 years earlier, maybe I could have worked for Eddie Graham. Son of a bitch. All righty. We're going to do this again soon, aren't we?

We have the drive-thru coming up, the Hulk Hogan documentary. We have questions. We'll have a bunch of other stuff as well, but a lot of fun coming up. And even with wrestling in the doldrums, there'll still be things to talk about. And also, obviously, the Hogan documentary, we have to watch that Sean Michael's documentary. Oh, good heavens. Why do I know so much about these people's lives? Yes, fun, fun, fun.

we're going to have more fun. I apologize for today. I'm in one of those moods. Banging everything. I keep hearing just random punching. Yeah, I'm punching things over. I'll hit you high. Now, I think it's important to remind people here at the end,

if you are a billionaire and you'd like to spend a good deal of money to sit in on the show with us, you won't get to talk, and you may not even get to listen. I don't know. But you'll get to just be here with us as we do the show. let us know, we're accepting bids starting at $100,000. A mere pittance, a mere bag of shells for all the billionaires out there that apparently like wrestling. You know what?

We'll let you say $100,000. We will turn on your mic and let you say hello to the listeners. Well, now, wait a minute. I thought we were going to go for $150,000 for that. I think that's asking too much in this economy. I think we have to kind of be realistic. I think $100,000, you get to $1,000. you get to listen to us do the show

and one of us will call you on the phone during the break in a match on a WWE pay-per-view and just say hello. All right. Well, as long-distance charges apply. 100,000.

How greedy do you have to be? How greedy a man can you be? Well, that's because I'm cousins with Ari Emanuel. You're the only person I've ever heard pronounce it that one. How do you pronounce it? Emmanuel.

Are you Emmanuel? Emmanuel. That's what I just said. All right. Ari. Is he or isn't he? Every TV show you see that has an agent named Ari is all based on him. Larry Sanders show, Conan O'Brien,

used to have a character named Ari, which was based on Ari. Obviously Entourage. There have been other shows with agent characters based on him. He was notorious before he ever got involved with Vince McMahon. Well, who'd Ari ever beat, though? what title is he ever won Mike Ovitz Oh I don't know what title he's ever won

All right Anyway we're done here Ladies and gentlemen We're going to have so much Fun on the drive-through That we won't be able to stand it And we'll probably giggle ourselves Into the hospital

And then we'll be back next week Here on the experience For more frivolity And things and such of that nature And until then Thank you Fuck you And bye bye everybody

You get the experience of Jim!