Jim Cornette Experience - Episode 650: Hot Day In Louisville

Episode Date: September 8, 2026

This week on the Experience, Jim talks about Andrade's complaints about WWE's Samoan favoritism, Ric Flair's thoughts on Omega vs. Ospreay, Meltzer & Alvarez arguing over modern faces & heels, WWE's pay cut offer to The New Day, and much more! Plus Jim reviews AEW Dynamite! Thanks to our episode sponsors: RIDGE: One thing to pack, five ways to power! Get 10% Off @Ridge with code JCE at https://www.Ridge.com/JCE #Ridgepod HELIX SLEEP:  Get 27% off during Helix's Labor Day Sale exclusive to our listeners at helixsleep.com/JCE. FACTOR MEALS:  Head to factormeals.com/jce50off and use code jce50off to get 50% off and 1 free breakfast item per box for 1 year, while supplies last. 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. The episode of the Jim Cornett Experience, that's me. Labor Day, we're going to do as little work as possible. Rick Flair and Uncle Dave disagree on who can work and who can't work. Is the AEW crew working hard or hardly working, and Paul Heyman's always working?

all of that today on the program and joining me for all that and more Hawaiian Brian the podcasting lion the king of the Arcadian Vanguard podcast network Mr. Co-host to you he used to be a workaholic but he's on the wagon be great Brian last everybody oh loha jim a pleasure to be here once again we are almost in autumn continuing my trend of saying where we are and when we are here at the start of the show. Well, almost in autumn. Do you know what today is? I'll tell you what today is. Today is the hottest day in Louisville, Kentucky in the last two years. So I don't think it's very autumn. Congratulations. Congratulations. I hope you feel proud of. Thank you. We're baking a cake later on, out on a sidewalk. It's not near autumn. There's leaves falling from starvation. Remember we had the flood alerts

and the water rescues and don't drive through water-covered roads. It hasn't rained a drop here in two weeks, and it's 100 degrees today. It hasn't been 100 degrees since August of 2024, at least here. I mean, in Phoenix, I'm sure they're used to it, but it's a dry heat. When this heat gives me the dry heaves, and the pollen is off the charts. and my doctor is now, I was on the antihistamine, it cleared my ear up, and then he cycled me to another one, and then I ran out of that. He said, well, just take Zyrtec.

I'm like, what the fuck if it's over-the-counter shit that's going to help me in any fashion? Why have you been giving me the prescription stuff? And the over-the-counter shit costs more than prescription did. What are your thoughts on the names of medications? like Zyrtec, Ozempic, this and that, like, they all have these names, nothing's like, get the fat pill. Yeah, no, you can't tell what any of this shit is for

by the name of it. What is that, the little pill with the big story to tell or whatever the fuck on it cover? I don't remember, but there's all there, it sounds like goddamn people throwing up all it is Zyrtec and bra and frackamol, frackamol. Get some, ask your doctor about fracomol. See, at least in the old days, like when they would get to the part of the commercial where they're like,

here are all the things that will happen to you if you use this thing and anything goes wrong. You know, a slight case of death plus this and this. When did every bit of medicine that they now have on the market will cause you to have cancer of the taint? Have you seen that may cause swelling of the per perineum, which is in between your balls and your ass, is basically what they say, the taint. And if you have pain in your taint, oh, goddamn. I haven't noticed this. Do they say this in the commercials?

Yes. I'm telling you, there's a variety of commercials that talk about the fucking potential death due to some type of goddamn issue that's going to cause you in your taint to take this pill that cures baldness. I don't fucking know. or maybe somebody's got a skin rash

and it could cause your fucking fallopian tubes to fall out. But at least when they used to tell you what would happen, it would be a slow and sad moment, a moment of pondering or something in the video or the commercial where the person will be on the beach staring into the distance or looking out a window. It may make your loved one old grandma may suddenly not be there anymore. But now they tell you these things like, here's what will have. happen to you, and they show, like, people dancing and singing, like dancing everywhere,

like in the grocery store, these commercials, what are they? What, what the idea, is the idea, like, let's pretend reality's good. We'll just present all of this in this bullshit fashion. They cause projectile bleeding, eyeballs popping spontaneously, and cancer of the taint while they're at a square dance. Dennis Caruso years ago, he had like a wrestling radio show in Philadelphia in the late 90s, I think it was. Donnie B. was involved and Mark Carl Luzzo was involved. And Rick Ratchet at the time, like his shoot job when he wasn't Rick Ratchet was, I want to say he was a nutritionist. I remember that, yes.

And they did a thing on the air where they had Fred the Elephant Boy come on. You know, I used the Rick Ratchet weight loss program and I lost 65 pounds, including my left arm, my kidney. Well, so it's Labor Day weekend, that is. I don't know where the people might be hearing this on Labor Day. Who did it depends on how hard we work. But it's a holiday, but I'm in a good mood. I had plenty of quality puppy time this morning. And you, I don't know how I feel about you.

You know, when you got warm puppies, you can cuddle up next to, Well, you just get in a good mood, but I'm not sure that I'm feeling you this morning. I tried to explain to you a little earlier how that the boys play ice hockey, and you acted like you didn't want to hear it. You were like, rolling your eyes at me over the phone with how I was making over and praising my little cute little puppies, buddy and Alfie, and how if you give them an ice cube, they'll take their front left paw and they'll put it on it and they'll run with the other three legs

while pushing that ice cube around the TV room floor and they'll steal it from each other. And how I referee it every once in a while they get it in a crevice where they can't get it out and I have to get it out for them and throw it back into the field of play. It's a wonderful, just a joyous occasion. And you were just poo-pooing it.

I wouldn't say that. I would say a few weeks ago, we were on the phone and you were like, oh Brian you should see this it's so cute they're so cute they're here in my arms and I was like oh that is cute and then like the next time we talked you were Brian you can't talk too loud they're right here and they're almost purring in my lap they look at me the way you would look at an adoring father oh okay yeah that's really nice and it just keeps going so yeah I mean after a while when it's like they're sitting on my face right now I just love the sense of

of that, like, yo, all right. There's always so much I could say. It sounds wonderful. You sound so happy. Oh, you, fuck you. I'm sorry, I had to, oh, Christ, Eddie. Wait a way to, wait a while I get, come up with the stories here.

We're about six weeks away from the big snipping. Oh, anyway. Yeah, you did indeed say that to me, though, this word. They were playing ice hockey. I said, come again? Yes, play ice hockey. Well, that's what they do. We try to get them good, wholesome recreation.

I don't want them out wandering the streets. You know, getting in trouble, falling in with the wrong crowd of puppies, good, wholesome sports while they're young. Have they seen deer yet outside? No, no, because our deer, I think the family line, unfortunately, I think was interrupted that came every year by traffic in the neighborhood. but then last year we had evidence of them and every once in a while we'd see one but not anything regular like in the past and this year so far have not seen any but around when late

September early October that could be the time nevertheless I'm off on a tangent here they have seen squirrels and there was a they didn't see this but I did that's why we don't allow them outside unaccompanied. There was a fox or something fucking walking across a backyard the other day, to the day, with a dead squirrel hanging out of its mouth. So they've only seen the squirrels and the birds. They saw the dogs next door and fucking wet ape shit

and tried to kill them all. Thankfully they were all on leashes. Because they were well, they're territorial. I've told them all of this. is yours. As far as the puppy I can see, this is your kingdom. You will inherit this. Then they see these two dogs, they don't recognize the fence boundary. They think as far as the eye can see, baby, this is our place here. So they're probably not going to get together with the dogs next door for a while. I think when they get snipped, they calm down a bit.

You know, it's amazing. You know, everyone remembers Jim Cornetta national TV and I guess they kind of expect you to be a version of that. They never realized you turned into a grown-up version of Jim Cornett on Chattanooga TV with Fee-Fee-Fee the dog. With Fifi. That was Ronnie West's dog, Fifi. That's what Stace said. She keeps putting pictures up on the interwebs or whatever. People are like, oh, you'll kill his gimmick. She's like, if you want to get on Jim Cornett's good side, as long as you got fur instead of skin, you're fine. Nothing else is required. Was that the specific angle that caused Oly Anderson to cancel the show? of no the specific angle that caused him to cancel the fucking whole promotion was the angle that he got eyeballing the checkbook uh that was no he but it it certainly was the most memorable moment of that glorious eight week run we had uh no i like i said i don't feel i don't take it personally because he didn't just fire me he closed the whole fucking terror

Anyway, speaking of closing a territory, let's get started with a program today because we got a new book in the mail about the Texas wrestling wars of the 1950s. And Brian, we've talked about episodes of this long-running war here on the program and read from programs of the time where the sportatorium was burned down and the Houston and Dallas offices were at each other's throats, Ed McLemore, Morris Siegel. Well, Greg Klein has written a book about it. And we just got it. And honestly, this is not a review of the book per se, because I wanted to mention I

just got it and haven't had a chance to read it yet. But I did flip through the first couple of pages. And one statistic stood out from the rest of that. of that, which I just wanted to bring it up because I'm just gobsmacked. And once we read, and you've got a copy.

Also, I don't know that you have got a chance to go through yours either. We'll talk more about it, you know, when we do read it. But the one statistic, Brian, I want to read this to you. The Texas Department of Labor, remember

we've talked about before the Paul Bosch contracts from Houston, in Texas it was like their version of the commission the i think in the 80s it was the what was that the texas department of labor and standards or license they elongated the name but that was where the people that were licensed to promote wrestling in a state of texas had to report their gates and pay their taxes it's just so just like an athletic commission that's who issued the

wrestling licenses, promoters licenses, that's where you pay your taxes, etc. The Texas Department of Labor reported from September 1952 until September 1953, wrestling in the state of Texas grossed $1,761,000. Do you know what the equivalent of that is in today? money as they say, Brian. No. $20 million. $20 million

in one state. There were 31 weekly towns in Texas. 31 towns in Texas had wrestling every week 52 weeks out of the year, as many territories did at that time

and places. But imagine 20, and I know Texas is a very large state. But if you think about at the same period of time, in 1952 and 1953, that was the era where

Fez and Leone did the first $100,000 gate at Gilmore Field in Los Angeles. And the Hollywood wrestling was network television and they were drawn incredible crowds, the Olympic, etc., etc. You think of 19, I'm going to let you say a word here in a second, but I'm setting up the premise for this fucking conversation.

Chicago, in 52 and 53, they had five fucking show live events a week in Chicago land off that Dumont Network television. Fred Kohler, Pross opposition. Those weren't the only shows. There were other shows. Yeah, well, yes. But I mean, on a major level, Raqa was on his hot. run in the garden in New York and all over the northeast they were selling out Madison Square Garden um it the as a matter of fact Louisville Louisville was having a fucking hell of a

run with network television being close enough to St. Louis the promoter at the time Francis McDonough having the relationships to be able to get Thess and Longson and they brought in Leonie, the Derby Eve shows, there were a lot of hot places across country for wrestling. So while, yes, Texas is a big state and nobody was, they weren't grossing a million dollars a year in Montana.

Can just $20 million in today's money in the state of Texas, the point I'm making is can you imagine not only what the gross for the entire year, United States was for wrestling during that period of time, but how many millions and millions of tickets that were sold to make those grosses when the wrestling tickets were anywhere everywhere in the country a dollar to five, six dollars tops? You had to love to know some of the actual figures for Fred Kohler, because he must have been making a gazillion dollar. I mean, he lost a lot in the later days.

But for years, he made a ton of money, and he had so many shows. It really is extraordinary, and, you know, that's one of the things when you talk about territory wrestling, or in some cases even predating the modern territory system, just promoters in different places. It's all about serious people setting up, having a local area, treating it like you would any business that you own really seriously, and the money came in. and you just don't have that anymore. Who's a local promoter anymore?

And you fought to protect it and you hooked up with the big play. You hooked up with the Tutsmonds or the Jack Feffers or the fucking Fred Coalers or the Vince Seniors or whoever was in position to give you talent and help you out and blah, blah, blah, blah. And think about this. Here's something else. One other statistic along with his same quotation. from the gross of wrestling in Texas.

In 1950, so we're talking about 1952, but the 1950 census, Houston, the population of Houston was 600,000, and it was the 14th largest city in the United States. In 2020, it's the fourth largest city. And in Dallas, in 1950, Dallas was number 22. It was smaller than Buffalo.

and Baltimore in 1950 and now it's number nine. So they were, I mean, I don't know what, did they even put out a census in Amarillo and Lubbock in 1950 or did they just do a head count? Because, I mean, those, this, we're dealing with a ridiculously smaller population that they had to draw from. but that was as you mentioned before the modern territories as we knew them from the 50s through the 80s there was still live wrestling almost everywhere it was just more of a situation where there were local promoters in each market or there were king pins everywhere there were king pins but they all got and

fought for talent for from the major talent bookers, and it just wasn't formed that guys stayed in one particular area for months, and there was no television, so you didn't have to keep continuity, blah, blah, blah. But, yeah, there was always live wrestling, until now. You know, it's interesting. I don't know how you would apply it,

so just a crazy hypothetical. But imagine we're in the world we're in now, where we have WWE and AEW, TNA, the Lucha companies, New Japan, whatever's out there right now. But instead of any of these companies signing wrestlers, imagine if they were still booking offices.

Like if they were still just, you know, at least five, maybe more, guys who had a bunch of wrestlers under contract to them. And they booked them out, they can go from one company to the next, but whatever it may be. You know, we don't have that anymore. There are no more, I mean, Barry Bloom

may be the best example of a booking office and it's not exactly in any way the right thing. He's just an agent. So you're saying Barry Bloom is the modern day Jack Pfeffer. Oh, he wishes. I don't think anyone's buying his papers. Does Barry Bloom ever offer anybody a picket? Yvante Pico? But, you know, just the idea if they were booking offices now, because that's the one thing that when did it really just completely go away, the idea that there were guys booked by an office? the Andre had Vince Sr. I guess that may be one of the last big examples.

Well, I mean, there's always been Remember the Loller, Holt wanted Loller to be his manager, Loller and Jarrett, put him under a personal services deal type of thing when he first started and he said, Isaac I'll never make any money. There's been instances, but really

the television air, coming in, network television made big stars. Big stars went back home and bought into or stole their home territories or home offices, expanded those as regional territories. And when local television became a really important thing for wrestling by the late 50s, that's when the territories were starting to form where the goulous Welch booking office for example in Nashville. And when they started in 1940,

they ran Nashville, but there was a promoter in Chattanooga. There was a promoter in Birmingham. There was a promoter in Knoxville. They were the central booking office, and they would book talent out. Yeah, they'd send the talent, but over the period of time, as the television got more important,

and it started being more important to have regular talent on the cards, and it started to form, they systematically, and this happened all over the country, the big guys that were in charge either went in and bought out, took over or ran off

the other local promoters or made them employees and ended up being the big bosses. But there was always, that's why Henry Marcus in Columbia, South Carolina, was in a building when Frank Gotch came through.

but he was still there until TBS bought Crockett out because it was Henry Marcus and it was by God Columbia that was his town old high pockets but that's what that's what happened there was just there were many more wrestling promoters back in the days before television because they had to promote each and every town individually nevertheless you know on that topic real quick let me just say. I got Greg Klein's book here too. You know, I'm looking forward to reading this. I wish I, you know, I... You wish it was a bigger format book because you can't read the newspaper

articles, that's one thing. I mean, some of them you can, some of them you can. I think it's a bigger issue. I get a lot of independent publications, whether they're crowdfunded or put out by an author from various genres of things I'm into. and there's no reason this book should look the way it does. This is probably really great research. Greg Klein is a serious guy. He did a good junkyard dog biography years ago.

But even if I don't talk about the reprints, the margins are non-existent. So you have to bend it all the way over just to be able to get to the end of each sentence. It's not formatted in a friendly way. The words are kind of dull on the page. and then the reprints of all these things, which look great. I mean, this is exactly the kind of stuff I'd like to see. It's as blurry as it can be, and it even says, like, what everything is, here are the credits,

and that's blurry. So I just, I don't think it needs to be this way for wrestling, and I think a lot of people do serious work and good work, and then by the time it gets out there, you're like, man, I just wish, even though it's self-published, I wish there was, there has to be a better way. It motivates me to think about us putting out books on our own just to throw money at stuff like this and maybe make it look really, really special, but I just, I...

Well, now, wait a minute, let's not throw the money. Let's just, let's deal the money out like a deck of cards. I'm with you on the, on, on appearances. It doesn't happen. But the reprint, the program reprints and all the imagery in here does not have to look like this. It doesn't, it shouldn't, and it doesn't have to. And it's, it's disappointing because you could tell me put a lot of work into, uh, I'm sure it's great.

I haven't read it yet. I'm giving you my first impression just holding it in my hand. I'm like, why is it like this? The content he worked hard on, but aesthetically, it's not cosmetically pleasing, as Vince might have said at some point. But it should be. Because this is a serious historical undertaking. And I don't know.

That's just my two cents. well this is this is why this is another good segue into this is why at cornet's collectibles at jim cornet.com especially during our holiday sale which is coming up on october 3rd that we go the extra mile to put in the high quality at a high resolution and a high fucking digital fucking fancy dan shit they got these days in color even because we're just that way and we're anal about these kind of things. Heroes and Friends, where do you see reproduction like?

Who uses paper like that? So slick, you can't even wipe your ass decently with it. That's how slick the paper is on heroes and friends. I think you can testify to that that there's no way you could successfully wipe your ass with a copy of my book. There's always time to try.

Well, now you can try. You would call someone to buy more. copies, wouldn't it? Buy a couple of copies and go through each page, see if it might be different. But nevertheless, I've said over the last couple of programs that we have done here, Brian, that the big attraction this year is the portfolios of my photography. From back of the territory days, we were just talking about that has been digitally remastered from the original negatives printed on a high-quality photo paper and

placed carefully and lovingly inside a nice portfolio with a black cover with protective pages for these fine quality photos. You can still take them out and frame them if you like or you can slide them right back in. They are limited to 250 each of the two

portfolios because all come with a contents list where I took them and when I took them and they are also signed and numbered one through 200 and we were talking about who all is in it and we'll bring that up again in a a second but i've got a bigger announcement to make well make how as boyd pierce once said how rough is rough how tough is tough how big is big guess what else we're going to have on

sales as we're talking about all this history brian just take a while again no don't guess because you know and then you'll blow it because i told you last year in special conjunction with Scott Teal over at Crowbar Press, we had copies of the history of Madison Square Garden book that he put out. This year, we are offering copies of Lou Thess's autobiography Hooker, the reissue that Scott did at Crowbar Press with updated information, a couple of hundred historical photos, and annotated comments, as they say.

And last year we ended up doing 500 copies of the garden book. This year were limited to 500 copies of Hooker, but it's one of the most important historical books on pro wrestling it's ever been written. Yes. Yes, I had to take a breath there. Most certainly, it was a landmark publication in a lot of ways, and the manuscript went around for a few years before there was a final print

version and the early nine-year script had stuff that didn't even get into there. But it was, it was a history of wrestling from the perspective of Luthes and certainly he has his biases and his favorites, but in a lot of ways it was the best true history of a certain era, even with the fall guys being out there. And obviously that's a book that's been broken down over the years, but Hooker was a landmark publication for wrestling. The problem with the fall guys was it was written in 1937, and in that style of prose of the sports writer of the time, which makes it hard for the modern eye to muddle through,

and then again it was heavily Fever-influenced. With Fez, yes, there's wrestlers exaggeration, which you can, you know, he was very proud of his accomplishments, or maybe he, you know, I remember the one, I hate to say anything about Lou, but to one comment, he said, I was working in Tennessee for Jerry Jarrett, and my agreement was I had an absolute minimum of $50 a night. That was the minimum.

Jerry Calhoun got $50, right? It was the time where Lou had, you know, financial problems with the divorce and things and had gone back to work for a while. But he, so the point is, yes, he skewed it in certain ways, whether it's himself or somebody he liked or disliked, but he was there through everything, knew everybody for 40 years,

and was figured in at all that time and had firsthand dealings with every major figure. So yeah, it was, it was incredible. For everyone that ever wondered, what does Luthaz really think of Antonina Raka? What is Luthas really think of Buddy Rogers? It was all in here. But, but all,

Also, nevertheless, we're going to have that. We're going to have some other cool stuff that I will be announcing. But again, the portfolios, as I mentioned, we talked about the other day, Paul Orndorf's rookie year photo. He'd been in the business three months and the first title that he ever won 30 minutes after he won it, the Southern Heavyweight title. He's there. But also, the Rock and Roll Express, the two portfolios are the legends of Memphis wrestling

and great wrestling champions. And in the Memphis wrestling legends as well, the Rock and Roll Express picture is from there. As I kept going through this, I was like, oh, my God, it's their first photo shoot as the Rock and Roll Express. Because they did it in Memphis, and then the week or the nine days later, whatever it was, we were the week behind on TV.

When they came to Louisville, that's when we had to get pictures. because they had to sell pictures because boy howdy they sold a lot of pictures but that is nine months before they would go to Mid-South Wrestling and spawn what how many imitators over the course of the 80s with the whole

rock and roll tag team gimmick how long did you think it would last like how long when you took their pictures did you think oh this will be a few weeks or did you think obviously you didn't think they'll be together 40 years later, but did you think, oh, they'll get a few years out of this? What did you think? You know, Ricky had been partners in a team with Ken Lucas for they did a couple of years

in a couple of different territories. They worked in San Antonio and they worked in Tennessee. And I think they were, I think they may have worked for McGirk before he went under. Nevertheless, and Robert Gibson had been partners with Ricky, his brother. brother, Ricky Gibson, for since he'd gotten in the business, that'd been six or seven years. So, you know, tag teams, if they clicked in those days, they might go a few different places, but I thought they were good

together and I'd seen Ricky with other people. I'd seen Robert with the other Ricky. And I thought they just, they looked good, they were closer in age, they got over fairly quick, but they were still under the fabulous ones. They were meant to be the B-Team Fabs. If Lane and Kern were in Louisville and Evansville, then maybe the Rock and Roll Express

could be in Somerville, Tennessee, or Batesville, Mississippi. It's one of the best B-teams ever, 83 Memphis. Yes. The Midnight Express, Rocket Roll Express, Terry Taylor and the future fucking Booker of Mid-South was really all at one time or another on the goddamn buttermilk run in Memphis.

But anyway, I did not think I was already in the business at the time they were put together. That's why I was taking the picture still and downstairs at the Louisville Gardens because they hadn't gotten anybody else. And I thought they might do well and they were fun to work with

because I was their first program managing Danny Davis and Ken Wayne to Galaxians. but I didn't think that, oh yeah, nine months from now, you're going to go to Louisiana with these guys and main event Superdome. Yeah. So, but anyway, the information on all of these things, including the portfolios and how you can get them,

will be up on Jimcornet.com on Saturday, September 19th, so you can take a look at everything. And the sale starts Saturday, October 3rd, at noon Eastern. And there's going to be some one-of-a-kind things this year. So everyone should mark that down because I don't want anybody not to have a fair crack at it. But these portfolios, I think. And Brian, how much, how much, if you went to one of these fancy Dan wrestle cons these days

and you bought a high-resolution photo from a famous photographer, of a fucking major wrestling star eight by 10 color quality photo paper how much would you expect to pay for just an 8 by 10 if you bought it singly all by itself oh I have no idea I don't go to these kind of things and I don't know if there are any major photographers selling these kind of things I bet you would have been

a lot of fun on the prices right you would have had to pay $20 30 $20 30 $30 because that would be just a minimum price that you would be jacked up for. But each of these portfolios contains 11 of these high quality

8 by 10 photos in full living color, digitally remastered, as I said, and the certificate of authenticity that signed and numbered and gives you the information on all that. Guess how much there are the retail one that will be there, fellow?

$220. You are incorrect, sir. 99.95. $200. Because I know I said 99.95. Fine. 175.

99. 99. 95. I feel like I'm going to show myself. What's happening over here? Because that is less than $10 a photo, but you're buying in bulk. And I want to, I'm proud of these things,

I want people to see them. So it's also an example of how I'm not trying to gouge people. Like these modern giant corporations are, gouge people for every drop of blood in their veins. I'm looking at you, T.K.O. Yeah, he just hanged the desk. You heard he was really serious that time, folks.

That's right. Um, so Brian, Brian, would you like to hear? I heard from a friend of ours. Would you like to hear from what that friend said to me? Is that friend Dave Meltzer? No, no. were just doing the Brian. I was just doing it. Because now, I can't say your name without, in my head, I hear Brian.

Imagine what poor Alvarez ears. It's like a modern day, Derek. But yes, what are you or Conan? What do you have for us now? Because you've given us so much so far. Yes, I've given you so much so far. I heard from an old freight, you remember

Richard Hunter out in Las Vegas, Nevada. Richard Hunter. The name sounds familiar. Is a longtime listener of the program. He also was the guy that was working at the brothel that Lamar Odom Odeed in and was the one who gave him CPR.

We talked about it the other day or months ago, actually now, when he was featured on, as a talking head on the documentary of when Lamar Odom Odeed in the fucking brothel. And he also, I think now he was managing running the Hollywood Horror Museum. out in Vegas, but who knows he may be an undercover agent for the FBI at this point, Richard, because he's been everywhere, done everything. Remember he had a couple of rescue dogs

from that piece of shit, Michael Vick's fucking dog deal? He rescued a couple of the puppies. He sent us several wonderful gifts, me and Stacey, including a portrait of Harley Quinn after she passed last year. And he sent me of said both of us, me and Stace,

a gift for Buddy and Alfie, which I got to tell you, real quick, a shadow box with trunks with Alfie and Buddy's name on the back of them, little tiny trunks with a little tiny set of tennis rackets crossed at the top.

And Stace just was over the moon when she saw it. She's putting it up on the wall. But with that, he sent a letter of a story that I had never heard before, and I thought you might get a tickle out of it, Brian. Do you realize that Paul Heyman has threatened to sue, to sue in court a listener of our program?

Were you aware of this? I don't know anything about this. Who's the listener? The listener is Richard Hunter. Ah. And Paul Heyman once threatened to sue him. I shall elaborate, according to, to Richard's letter.

In 2000, I was just starting out my radio career in Dallas. I was the nighttime host on a popular sports talk station, and the notoriety led me to receive an offer to work with a local wrestling promotion, first as an announcer, TV producer, and then eventually as a minority investor. Now, let me preface this by saying that apart from being a kid who grew up sitting ringside for many world-class cards during the golden age of the Von Erickson, the Freebirds. I had no prior experience with the wrestling business whatsoever. It was simply a fun way to get a peek behind the curtain and lose some new money.

While I found it to be very surreal in terms of dealing with some of the icons of my youth who were now on the backside of their careers, part of my role with the promotion was to attend weekly booking meetings at Denny's with Killer Tim Brooks. I found some of the more unsavory scenarios to be on par with what I would eventually experience decades later wrangling women of ill repute in a Nevada Bordello. Without a doubt, however,

the worst experience I ever had during my brief sojourn into the wrestling business centered on Paul Heyman. What did he have to do? Get him a piggyback ride? No, you remember, you're probably the more expert person on the chronology of the demise of ECW,

but you remember what was going on with ECW, late 2000-ish, when there's many rumors and rumblings passing back and forth, right? Yeah, that was a period of time where the ECW wrestler was still kind of believed in Paul, the ones who were still there. A lot of them had their own debt because of Paul, because they were trying to help the company. Paul was trying to get something going in Hollywood of Mike Tadros Jr. he did what was it roller ball

yes he did the fucking he was the announcer in rollerball uh and that that relationship with him and tadros continued after that and you know he was trying to find anything he

could to give ECW a lifeline if he hadn't lost his TV yet he was about to lose his TV it was a lot going on well nevertheless Richard says it was late in 2000 and ECW was scheduled to run a show in Grand Prairie, Texas, at suburban Dallas-Fort Worth,

at the famed Bowling Alley concert venue, the Bronco Bowl, on December 8th. By all accounts, ECW was running on fumes and ticket sales for the event had been soft. Having previously booked ECW wrestlers for our independent shows, we had relationships with some of their talent, and we were hearing numerous inside accounts

of the mounting back pay that was owed to them by Hayman. We had already announced a show in Fort Worth the night before the upcoming ECW event, and so several of the ECW talents who were undoubtedly becoming concerned about being stiffed by Paul Hayman yet again, began contacting us about the possibility of working our card as well while they were in town.

We subsequently confirmed and announced Steve Carrino, the Sandman, Tagerie, and Mike. Wiki Wiprek. And that's when the trouble started. On November 25th, two weeks before the scheduled ECW show, Onew Wrestling.com reported that the Bronco Bowl had angrily canceled the ECW event after learning that several of their wrestlers would also be appearing on our cart in Fort Worth. Mikey Whiprick told one of my partners over the phone that Haman had put the blame for the cancellation on him and the other three wrestlers going so far as to tell the ECW locker room that he would have used the money that ECW was going to make in Dallas to catch

him up on their pay, but the selfishness of a few had ruined his plan. Upon a hearing this from whipwreck and already being somewhat aware of Hayman's reputation, I smelled a rat. Working in Dallas Fort Worth Radio, I knew a number of local promoters and venue operators and the Bronco Bowles promoter Ray Compton happened to be one of them. I called him up to verify Heyman's story, but what I heard on the other end of the phone sounded like total surprise. Oh, that's not what happened. He explained that he had been notified by Steve Carell of ECW. Is that Carol, Carrell, what was it? Steve Carroll. Steve, it's K-A-R-E-L, so I guess the other

Correll would be Steve Carroll of ECW that Hayman himself was canceling the show due to financial reasons and that the notification from Hayman regarding the cancellation had actually come for the previous week which was before

we announced the addition of an ECW talent to our card so Hayman canceled his own show because he was out of money sat on the information for a week and then when he saw an opportunity, K-fabbed his own roster into thinking that the blame should actually be placed on four of their own

for taking our indie booking when it was already looking very doubtful there'd even be an ECW show at all. This is classic Paul. It's intricate and it's brilliant and it's genius and none of these people talk to each other so they never compare notes until 25 years later.

And he says, on top of that, we were told by ECW talent that Heyman then painted himself as the well-meaning victim whose pure intent to make financial restitution was thwarted by some indie promotion that nobody had ever heard of. So before we go on to the rest of the story, because it actually gets better. Oh, wow. Your thoughts. I thought that was the end of the story. Amazing. Not surprising I can't really speak to his reputation today in terms of this But back then it was kind of an open thing that people talked about

That Heyman lies Heyman will just say whatever he has to say to you to get you to do Whatever he wanted you to do in the first place When you get really mad at him He knows when to get to you And just be the best friend you ever had for a few minutes on the phone Like you know he was He was I know he calls himself

You know whatever Heyman hustle now It was a hustle. It was bullshit. He had something he always wanted to do, and he would say anything he had to say to get to where he wanted to go. And it didn't always work out, but that's exactly what he always did.

Well, but it's just the intricacy and the effort that nobody else would put into things, right? Just that to make it spin the web of lies in such a fashion. It's a work of art, right? It's like, you know, Charlotte's Webb. nevertheless. So when Richard heard that this was going on,

he continues, I asked the Bronco Bowl promoter if he would mind sending me the letter from ECW initiating the cancellation, and he said, oh, sure. I got the letter and sent it straight to Onewrestling.com. And as the kids say, put Paul Heyman on blast, and that's when the phone rang.

It was Gabe Sapolsky, a name that I had seen on various wrestling news sites, but someone that I did not know personally. He said that he was calling on behalf of Paul Heyman. And while Sapolsky seemingly tried to play the good cop, he made it quite clear to me that Hayman was threatening legal action. If we didn't take down the incriminating letter and disavow our position that Paul Heyman was a fraud, because I had blistered Hayman pretty good in our official response that accompanied him. the document that I had sent. I told Sapolsky to tell Heyman that this wasn't happening, and then I called the father of my girlfriend at the time, who was an estate attorney. This poor guy had already been looking at his daughter sideways for getting involved with me, and now I'm

asking him to represent my interest involving a ponytail P.T. Barnum in a cesspool that I'm certainly never imagined himself waiting into. My girlfriend's dad got on the phone with Hayman's lawyer who I think was some long-suffering relative of his. Would that have been his dad? His dad was a lawyer? I don't know if it was his dad because it wasn't past Paul Heyman to do. Did he sometimes used to be a relative of his own? He would be his own roommate with a Spanish accent. He had all sorts of characters he would play for whatever the need was. Paul Heyman is brilliant on the telephone. He could change his voice.

He could sound more mature than he is. I wouldn't put, again, I don't know enough, but if you told me Paul Heyman was impersonating a lawyer on this phone call, I would not doubt it for a second. Would you? Well, I would you? Well, no, I, again, you know, you, it's, it's amazing the effort and the intricacy and the, but nevertheless, Richard says a resolution was never. reached because his fate would have it.

Heyman's accounting degree from the MC Hammer School of Finance sunk him for good the following month. He comes to Hammer. But here was, and I'll just, Richard says he went into an entire paragraph about he does hold grudges, but he says, perhaps Paul Heyman's greatest con is giving himself the gimmick of being so utterly full of shit that wrestling fans praise him for it because he seems so good at it. But he's not working.

Only those unfortunate enough to have a personal dealing with this charlatan will fully realize that when it comes to being full of shit, Paul Heyman is a shooter. He's the Danny Hodge of bullshit. Wow. So how much joy did you get out of

reading the Danny Hodge of bullshit for the first time? Well, that's the thing is, you know, as I've said before, Paul would rather climb a tree and tell a lie to stand on the ground and tell the truth, but the description, the Danny Hodge of bullshit

just tickled his shit out of me. But Richard, you've been everywhere and done everything, but we appreciate the story that I've never heard before. What do you think? Tajiri, is he back in Japan?

Where's he now? Mikey Whiprek might, this might be news to him. Mikey Whiprecks, I think, on Long Island. And he may actually listen. so maybe news to him. Some of these guys may be finding this out for the first time

that it wasn't their fucking fault. If it is news to Mikey Whiprek or anyone else, I don't think it would be news that Paul Heyman lied about something during that period of time. Well, I mean, I don't think it would be news that Paul Heyman lied about something, but I wonder, you know, if everybody else ever figured out the true story behind this

until we revealed something. Nevertheless, you know, that's the thing is it's the effort. It's the, it's a staying up late at night, Brian. He must not, never sleep, Paul, for all the past 40, 45 years, thinking of all these plots and these plans and these schemes and these strategies.

He have the ones he's admitted to from the time he was a mere wee boy, you know, bullshit and then lying his way into the press passes at the gardens, to take the pictures and blah. When did he ever sleep? He had to, I guarantee you that he never had a helix mattress in his home

or he wouldn't have been able to resist the urge to go to sleep at night. From everything we heard, he didn't sleep a lot during that period of time. He didn't sleep a lot. For some reason, he was always awake. Always. But no matter what's going on in your life, life, Brian, I think you will concur with me that if you lay down on a helix mattress,

you got to go to sleep. If you lay down, there's no two ways about it. If you lay down, how are you going to get to the China Club? Well, see, that's it. That was his problem. He never laid down because he didn't have anybody to carry him. You know what? That's what he should have done.

Like one of those ancient Egyptian rulers, he should have had a staff of of stuges that could carry him laid flat of. his back to the China club or to all these places so that he could get a little sleep on the way. Oh my God. And the sleeping man has shown up at La Barbat. Here he is. But then he would do the sit-up and he would sit-up and you'd know what you would see. You would see a slim trim Paul Heyman with a full head of hair.

He ain't doing no sit-up. Well, he would if he'd ever slept. See, that's what the problem was. Since he's never had a good night sleep in the last 45 years because he's constantly stayed up late at night, try to figure out some elaborate, intricate, convoluted, gordon knot of a lie to tell somebody that he's, now he looks the way he does. He's got the, not only the bags, but the steamer trunks under his eyes. He doesn't have a waistline. He's got a coastline. His bathtub has stretch marks. My God, look at the state of him and just the fact that gravity is a harsh

mistress and is pulling him ever downward. If he had been on a helix mattress for eight out of the 24 hour period of his life, then he would look now like a normal man in his early to mid-60s like I do instead of

a goddamn cross between a fucking of a pebble that wobbles and don't fall down and Alfred Hitchcock. Jim, let's again get past Paul Heyman here. We're talking about a helix sleep. Imagine if the entire ECW locker room had gotten a good night's sleep on several nights a week throughout the 90s.

Imagine how different wrestling history would be today. Well, imagine if they'd have had Helix mattresses to land on. If they had gotten a sponsorship from Helix mattresses where they were put all around the ring and they just threw each other out on those instead of in the middle of the fucking audience. Imagine that some of the mattresses they were sleeping on was the fucking fans in the third row. But folks, it's all about a good night's sleep.

That's what we've said many times. And that's what the folks that Helix are going to give you whether you like it or not. Because when I tell you that if you lay down on one of these things, you're going to sleep, well, you've got no fucking choice no matter. So don't just think if, you know, let's say you answer the phone and you just sit down on the bed and you're going to talk to somebody. No, boom, you're gone. If you've left the front door open, somebody's going to walk in and just take your

whole house because you're not going to wake up until a member of your family comes back and pulls you off the helix mattress you will wake up in a normal fashion and not it doesn't cause a deep sleep that will cause you to sleep through the robbery of your house you should be observed if you're on a helix mattress you should be observed you should have someone there monitoring you because you're not going to know anything until at the appropriate aforementioned time where you've left your your family member or parent or guardian in charge, they're going to pull you off the mattress, which will instantly cause you to wake up refreshed.

As long as you're on that mattress, you're fucking sleeping. So make sure that you have people on standby in case somebody gets called on the phone. Nobody's watching you. Fuck, you don't know what's going on. Folks, it's free shipping and a seamless delivery with 120-night sleep trial.

And, you know, again, if somebody was to go on a nice long trip to Europe, could start on day one, still be asleep on day 120 and miss out on that. So let the neighbors check in with you. And yes, it's very dramatic as we go into the clothes. I think, Jim, we should just stress for normal everyday use for normal everyday people, a good night's sleep, wake up, almost like you're doing right now, but on a better mattress, a great helix sleep mattress, the kind that we love in my house, and then we're at the Castle Cornyette. And of course, that's how we're going to end on a nice positive note.

We're waking up like I'm doing right now. I'm starting to wake up finally because I was on that thing for a while. Yeah. Fawkes, they forgot to get me for a couple of days. Folks, again, free shipping, seamless delivery, 120-night sleep trial, limited lifetime warranty, happy with Helix guarantee.

I don't need to tell you what they got because you know what they got, because we've told you what they got for years now. They've got everything, because they've been with us for so long that everybody now is sleeping on a helix mattress, which is a reason why now you've got to buy your next helix mattress where you can save the absolute most amount of money that I've ever seen a helix mattress discounted.

Because, holy gee, Hasefat, 27% off sitewide is the Labor Day sale best of web sale right now. and you're going to save 27% on everything that they've got. I mean, you can, as a matter of fact, the folks that run the place, they've just said, fuck it, just take it all, and we'll just all retire. So 27% off sitewide at helixleep.com slash JCE. Now you can't get the 27% without the code, JCE,

but that goes without saying, even though I just said it. 27% off everything they got, helixleep.com slash JCE. The best dadgum mattresses for anybody, man, woman, or child, or puppy. The puppies love the helixes too. They bounce and they don't even poop and pee on the helix mattress. They recognize the quality.

And you will too. You will not poop or pee on these mattresses. Once again, ladies, Boopi Bills. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, a great mattress for you, a great mattress for me, a great mattress for all, our good friends at Helix Sleep mattresses that we like, and you will too.

Once again, one last time, Jim, that promo code. It's nothing for you to poop on. 27% off, helixleep.com slash J-C-E. Helix! Well, we've had a refreshing sleep, and now it's back to the program, and Brian, from what I am understanding, apparently there's too many Samoans in the WWE.

There's a lot of them. They've been there a while. Time for some of them to get. Some things never change. Of course, this is, these comments were made either by or in adjacent to Andrade somehow. But is that the prevailing opinion? That's the prevailing part of his interview that went around on social media.

But it was part of a larger conversation, I think, about the opportunities or maybe lack thereof for the Latino wrestlers in WWE coming from the point of view of Andrade, who was there on a couple of occasions, worked for Tony Khan on a couple of occasions, and right now is getting the biggest push of his life in America. So there's a lot here. my issue is I want to play you exactly what he said or let you hear it. I have a

translation from Fightful from Fightful's Lewis Polito. However, checking out the video link, I discovered that YouTube now auto-dubs the language, so that when I went to this video,

Andrade was speaking perfect English at me because YouTube dubbed it themselves. What the fuck? And that quote doesn't necessarily match up exact with the transcript I have. So I don't know which one to trust. No, wait. I'm going to say, let's go with what was his name, Luis? He sounds Hispanic.

I would go with the Spanish-speaking human over fucking YouTube's goddamn robots. I don't know. How did they even do that? Where it's actually the same, it's an English voice coming out at you? Hold on. I'll play it for you right now. We'll play a little bit of this and see how it works out. This is from the Latin lover podcast.

Of course it is. You may remember you actually worked with them, a co-worker of yours from the Glory Days and the World Wrestling. Oh, you mean the guy that actually called himself Latin lover, not just some podcast guy called himself the Latin lover. It's the Latin lover. Antonio Pena's Latin lover. Well, now, wait a minute.

Maybe I shouldn't. We don't know how many of those might still be running around. Well, he has a podcast. We're narrowing it down to the one that's publicly wrestled as the Latin lover. This one's on YouTube under a Latin lover official. So obviously that means it must be official. Well, can't use that word unless it's true. And let's play some of this.

He's talking with Latin lover about the opportunities in WWE. Many things changed. It's just that WWE doesn't, when WWE wants to make you, they want to make you. It's that easy. Just like that. It's that easy. There are wrestlers that WW has given the opportunity 20, 30 times, and they keep them there until they make him stars.

No matter how bad you are. No matter how bad when they want to make you, they want to make you. Let me stop it for a second. What do you think of the translation and the voice here? So that is an AI rendering of what he's saying, even though he's speaking in Spanish, and they're trying to approximate the tone or whatever. Does it look like it matches his gestures or his body language or whatever?

It seems to. And I would say about, I don't know, 85, 90% matches the transcript we have, but there are moments where it differs. And that's why I find it a little interesting. I will also note the other day after the death of Titanic's N.L. Ringstar LaMomiya, I said, hey, let me go check out that video of him and Martin Cardagian. Like, they have that stadium footage from Luna Park. And he has music.

I don't know if you know La Momaia's music. It's like, La Mombia. And then, like, they just say a few other things. All of a sudden, I hear, The mummy. Fearsome death. Like, they're just saying things.

I'm like, what the, those are the words they're saying in that song? So now they're just translating things on their own. But back to Androdo. a Lidoa. I feel that. I never got the opportunity. I never got the chance, but when I was on TV, whether I won or lost, I would make the most of those 10, 20, or 15 minutes to sell myself because I knew the audience was watching

and I was still relevant. I thought that way, but they didn't give me the opportunity. I won a championship in WWE and all that, but no. I saw others who were given opportunities and they keep getting them. Yeah, with this. Yeah, let it out. And for Mexicans, they get very few opportunities. It's that simple.

I tell them, they have Hamberto, Garza, well, Garza, and Bito. They're very good friends of mine. I say they haven't been given the opportunity. When I was in WW for the second time, they told me, hey, we want you for AAA. Hey. I said, I sign with WWI. I don't want to go back to AAA.

I know AAA is a great company, but it's national. It's Mexico level. I mean, it's known in a few places worldwide, but it's not WWE. Let me only stop it there on that weird AI, WWE, he, he. Yeah, well, and also, why, why is the AI out of breath? Does the AI have a fucking artery blockage, or should we be calling goddamn EMTs on AI? Maybe that's just the way AI interprets, you know, Andrade's way of talking, which we're not

really getting at all in this translation. Well, and look, there's a lot of things. There's a lot of Mexican talent getting exposure on the TV these days. There's not a lot of Mexican talent at the top of the card. So both these things can be true. And now they own a Mexican wrestling promotion, and they want that to have stars in Mexico. So now there's Americans on top of that one, too.

Well, there's Americans. Some of the Americans, Dominic, have Hispanic heritage. But the point being, I'm sorry, but I don't think that he would ever be at a point where he would be in the environment of the Codys and the punks and the Romans and the upper echelon guys in the W. but he could be possibly the top guy in AAA if he is somebody that wants to work with him and they want to work with him, but he's always back and forth. But I, you know, I mean, there's something to be said for you use a lot of our guys, but you don't use them in meaningful positions, but I don't see any of those guys that I would think would be in that meaningful position.

Do you see what I'm saying? I hear what you're saying. We'll return to the audio this more in a moment, but you know, I think whatever you think of Andrade or Santos Escobar or probably several other examples, these were guys that WWE went out of their way to resign. And WWE really made a play for and wanted these guys. And then you'd hear they re-signed and then either you wouldn't see them on TV or when you did, it was clearly not a push. So whether or not Andrade is the guy, it didn't seem like that last round he was there. Like, they had any idea what to do with him or even try to do anything with them.

Like, Tony Con, whatever you want to say, and it's working with that fan base, but Tony kind at least tried something with Andrade. WWE was just like he was there. It didn't matter. Well, and refresh me, where was the AAA deal at that point in time? Because I'm wondering, did they sign a couple of these guys thinking they're going to have this AAA deal, we'll send them there, that's where we want them, and then it didn't materialize as quickly as they thought, and they're like, ah, we got these fucking guys.

You see what I'm saying. I can't tell you in the timeline of negotiations, but I believe they, I believe he resigned obviously before they publicly announced any deal with AAA. Yeah, nevertheless, one way or another. And I don't know if it, you know. And I don't know if it matters with Andrade, you know, you don't know who it is, but for certain guys, there are issues. with working for AAA.

Certain guys who come from the Lucha world, whether or not they've worked for a long time for CMLL or previously worked for AAA, there are guys who have issues working for AAA. Don't forget the previous ownership, they're still there. You know, the son, Dorian Rodin, Roldan, or whatever his name is,

the nephew of Antonio Pena, I should say. He's like in Angles and stuff. He's on the TV, and I believe they have a minority interest still. So there are people who have issues, but let's go back to Andrade Auto dubbed. I mean, you want to be a star in W. You don't want to be a star in AAA. Oh, I see. Yes, they already know me here. I mean, even with the role they gave them, the Peros de Mal and all that and all that. Hopefully it goes that way. I mean, it's just work here. But if you go to Saudi Arabia, they don't know. They don't know. What AAA is? Is? They have no idea what AAA is.

No, if you go to what can I say, Skyline? They don't know. They don't know. AAA, hey, and it's not about speaking bad. Let me stop for a second. Hey, hey, I don't know what's happening here with this translation. It turned in the Fonzie all of a sudden. I told you it's Labor Day, folks. We're not working. Hey, hey, hey.

That beat WWE. At least, just how things are. That's right. I mean, I said it. I don't want to be, they already know me. I was already a star in Mexico. I mean, I mean, I wasn't, I mean, I didn't fill that many arenas. not that many if it's outside.

But I want. But you don't say it, but you've already been there, you've experienced it, and you've already done everything you had to do here. Yes, yes, they tell me. No, we want you because now we're going to buy AAA and all this. And I say, well, I want the opportunity in WWE. I don't want it in AAA. I don't want it in AAA.

I tell them. Well, in that case, I tell them. And now I tell them, I say, why go back to the council? Yes, I mean, I'm going back to the council, but I'm going back for one day too, but I see the have Beto. The council is CMLL, I believe. Okay. They both have a good physique.

They look good and have height. They work well. They work well. And I say, do both have charisma and have everything to be superstars in WW? Why don't they give them the opportunity? They haven't given them the chance. Not even Escobar ever got the chance. I mean, there are many who don't, I mean, you see wrestlers.

Well, maybe this will sound. You say that they say they've laughed, right, right? Well, at those who are many, the majority, not all. Right? Roman Raines, well, of course he achieved it, he did it, he did it, but there are several of them. Who didn't? And they keep giving them chances, and they're there, they're there, they're there, they're there, they're there. I tell him, they've been doing it for 20 years now.

It's not by egg, and gentlemen, it's not by egg. I tell him, this guy's been doing it for 20 years. I tell him, and he hasn't caught on. I mean, I tell him, and that opportunity didn't come to us, right? Yeah. And now that I feel looser, like he... And let me stop it there, let me actually... I'm just...

Either... Either that's a shitty trend. translation system, or else was, this guy speaks in jibberish in two different languages. Even the fucking computer can't figure out what he's saying. And let me read the translation from Fightful for the end there. Then you see wrestlers. Maybe it's going to sound bad. But there are some jokes about the Samoans.

Not everyone. Roman Rain succeeded. He did well. But there are several that don't got it and are constantly pushed. I'm there. like they've been doing it for 20 years and they still don't have it and we never had those opportunities

obviously if you're talking about Samoans who have been on the roster for close to 20 years you could only be talking about the Uso's well I don't know if they're centering in on them specifically or just the broader statement that there's everybody from the Uso's to the Tongans' now to the other members of the Fatu family,

to the entire bloodline and all the related, the zillas and the tulas and the, just everybody, right? And it's been that way. It's been increasing exponentially over the last 20 years. And, you know, he's got a point, not even in his own favor, but just it doesn't do any of the bloodline members that are at the bottom of the food chain,

any good that there's so many of them, and it detracts from even the ones that are at the top of the food chain. When they had enough for a focused angle on both sides, that was one thing and that was fine. But when they began with offshoots of groups, and these are Samoans, but these are Tongans, but they meet in the middle on Gilligan, Island for the tribal council or whatever the fuck and there's been an developmental and you've got

nea jacks for whatever fucking reason they've kept her so long that but there was uh what was the rock's daughter um sandra sarah simone what was her fucking name was it eva eva eva eva eva eva maybe it was jaja i'm not sure but she was for no apparent her reason on that program for quite some time. So the point is when there's so many, it waters it down at the top even. And it reminds me of that time, I swear to God, this was 1996.

And in the creative meetings, the roster was not the biggest, did it ever, maybe early 97. Wasn't the biggest it had ever been by any means. It's not like we were trying to get rid of people, but we were trying to figure out what we were going to do with people and potentially bring some more an add to that. And I can't remember where he was in the stage of this.

I think it's what Fatu, the original Fatu, it became Rikishi, when he was possibly making a difference with the multicolored nonviolent street gang gimmick, help me explain that or does anybody care? Explain that gimmick, a gimmick was death. The gimmick was Rakishi coming back to help the youth. All the youths?

In a really awful mid-90s outfit. He and Samu had been the head shrinkers. And then he had been that thing. And I think then he became the Sultan, where he was amassed in Middle Eastern, supposedly. and just these awful gimmicks because he'd been there. He needed to be freshened up somehow, possibly by going away. How can we miss you if you won't go away?

So the point is Vince made an appointment, brought him to the office in Stanford to come in and meet with him with the intention of telling him he was letting him go and, you know, would be glad to, you know, entertain thoughts bringing him back in the future. to that meeting came not only Fatu, but also Afa with also, remember Rosie and Jamal. Umma. And who became Umaga and Rosie who was Rosie for a while.

And so I remember Bruce Pritchard and I and I don't know, maybe J.R. We knew he was about to fire Fatu. So after the meeting, I can't remember who asked, but somebody brought it up, how'd the meeting go? And that's what we heard. He not only didn't fire Fatu, he hired all the rest of them.

And that's when he was going to make Rosie and Jamal a team. And remember, off of then I think was just hired to make sporadic appearances and scout talent or whatever. But then I think it was, it was rosy. It might have been, one of them flunked

the pre entry drug test on such a variety of levels that they rescinded the contract before that he ever made it. And they showed up in ECW. And they showed up in ECW.

So the point is, you never do, the Samoans have had an end in that company since the 1970s. They had a relationship with that company since the late 70s, at least. Yeah, of course, worked opposition for pro wrestling USA

when they were briefly on the outs. But I think what solidified, it was the story that during the Vince McMahon steroid trial in 94, was it Afa or Sika? I think it was Afa. Was he admonished from mouthing the words not guilty to the jury? I think it was Sika.

Was there some kind of scene where he was like, they caught him like saying to the jury, not guilty. Yes. That Samoan fucking stare with the menace and the malevolence and... God, guilty. I think that was the moment where Vince said, I will sign them all as long as they keep doing this for me.

Not guilty. Alpha could be an intimidating looking fellow, but Sika was like, if Sika looked at you like that, you... I'm leaving town. But yeah, I... But anyway, going back to Andrade and his point, and by the way, I will tell you, the Uso's responded on Twitter.

It's, I guess, a collective account just as the Uso's at W.W.E Uso's. We draw. That's the difference between us and them. Stop bitching and do some shit. Well, I was shortened to the point. Yeah. But, you know, when you share an account like that,

isn't that kind of like, don't you ever wonder when Siamese twins would get married how the fuck that whole thing would work not only the naughty bits but just the day-to-day fucking wear and tear on always being around another motherfucker besides the motherfucker that you want to be around again the Uso's are not Siamese twins for the record but it would be it's the same thing when you're sharing the Twitter account

sharing my Twitter it's just like being a Siamese twin on my hip But again If he was referencing the Uso's and their responses, we draw, that's the difference between us and them. I don't know if them means all the Mexican wrestlers. Yeah, yeah, that is a 10-bit racist, didn't it? Maybe they're just Pink Floyd fans.

But yeah. I don't know. Are you talking about us? So you're talking about this? And again, Andrade did specify Roman Raines is a little different than the rest of them. But whether it's Andrade or anyone else, can you see a legitimate complaint from someone on the roster if, in their eyes, as they are trying to get somewhere and make some money, they see every six months to a year another guy gets signed and pushed right away.

I mean, we've seen, we saw Solo, Jacob, now Zillify. two's in NXT. I'm not even going to count the Tongans because technically they're not part of the family, although you can, you know, say that all Samoans, I guess, are included in this deal. I don't know how it works. But I guess you could, and the Uso's who, again, have been there for a very long time and, you know, it's a weird argument to me about the Uso's right now because although they may not be the greatest in the ring, they are over. And J. Uso's from a hot minute there. I'm not going to speak to how he's doing right now,

but it was one of the biggest merch sellers in the company. Yes. No, no, here's the thing. You can justify a number of them, and I've not been a fan of the Uso's work, as you said, in the ring, but we won't even go into that. The point is they were stale as a team because they'd been there so long.

And they, you know, try to push the greatest tag team of all time thing, just because they've been there longer, not better. But the bloodline saga there for a while re-evalor, not re-evaluated, but reinvigorated them and that justified their place. And they were an integral part of that. As long as they weren't in the ring, we love to watch them. And then, like you said, Jay got the hot run. They had to simmer Jimmy for a little while.

but at the same time, because of his loyalty and status with the company, even if he wasn't a Samoan, I wouldn't have just fucking cast Jimmy off. Remember, I said he was going to be the brother. It wasn't going to work out as well for as a single, but they kept him warm. And at the same time, Jay's thing was not going to last forever at that level because it's still Jay. So he came down and Jimmy came back up a little bit. They met in the middle.

they're a team again. It's freshened them up somewhat, but they have still been there a while, but they're still getting the yeet, yeat and all that shit, so fine, right? Just being honest, even though I don't like them, they should be there.

And Roman, not even in the equation. They should have solo. The way they brought Solo in, they needed somebody to fill that spot. They had a good story going there, and Solo's one they put in there. Remember I said, God damn, that should have been Jacob.

Fatu. Probably would have been better if it was for the whole thing and to start there. But nevertheless, he filled the spot. I can see what they did there. And then they got Jacob Fatu. And regardless of whether there was another Samoan in the fucking roster or not, I would have signed him because I kept screaming about him for five fucking years. Then we start really going overboard. Now there's the Tongan. and the Tomatonga and the taller Tonga and the tallest Tonga and the motherfucking Tonga. And then we've got a Zilla.

And Zillifatu, why not? Vince McMahon would have a connoption fit. He didn't want to call our fucking enhancement guys like Sean Casey. He made him change his name because of Sean Michaels. Sean Casey was going to do like three televisions in his career, whatever. but now we've got a bunch of fatu's muddy in the water up. That's what I'm saying. They've gone too far,

not even talking about the female contingent of the bloodline. That's what I'm saying is now you're watering down, even what you've got at the top. You can justify it four or five deep. Well, again, Jim, we will keep paying attention to this issue because obviously Andrade's not there, so he's able to speak freely. But he may be voicing the frustration.

Just not well enough for the AI to be able to figure it out. Hey, hey, hey. God damn it. It sounded like he was being tickled while he was doing that. Here's a little more of the stylings of Andrade. He tells me that he sees me. No, I do see you. The truth is, after I got divorced, after I got divorced, I started, I said, well, what is a Latino?

With respect. You're a Latino lover, right? What is a Latino? But he's cheerful. He's full of life. He's into the vibe saying that girl's cute or something like that, right? A compliment. Hold on, let me just stop what second here.

Someone married to a Latina. His definition of what a Latino is the funniest thing I've ever. I know. He sounds like a complete moron. We're wild and crazy guys, us Latinos. What is he saying? Is this, do you have a written transcript? Is there any?

Not this part. I can put close caption on the screen. It gives me that option, but a little more about what it is to be a Latino. Well, yes. Or among friends, right? A little dress looks good, things like that. Yes, that's how I see you with the girls and the refs and the audience. Because I tell him, well, that's how I am.

I didn't do it out of respect for my wife. Oh, I get it now. Out of respect for my wife, right? Hold on. He's doing this gimmick now because that's how I am, but he didn't do it previously because of his wife. The gimmick of how I am as I go up to women, I rip my pants off.

But my wife said, Keep your pants on. But it's a character, brother. But she had a strong career and going and being disrespectful. And I understand you know. Like it was out of respect. for her. More than anything, you know. Well, the divorce is passed and I say, now I can be,

now you let loose. I let go. I am who I am. I can grab the ref and give him a little kiss, and that's it. I mean, that's just who I am. That's really how I am. What? Go with that, buddy. I tell him, it's working for me. And then they're telling him, people already know that I can wrestle. How does Paul Turner think about this? How does Paul Turner think when he's written a referee and an Andre just grabs him and kisses him? What the Is this what he's been mumbling this whole time? I don't. I don't think so.

No, no. Yes. They know, they already know that. But, you know, you have to be the character. And they liked it. They really liked it. And you already built it. And that's it.

And so I said, well, since there was a promo once, that's why I called myself the real Latino man. Because there was a Dominic Mysterio promo. With my wife, Charlotte. And she says to him, I don't know the promo. Exactly. She says, I have, my wife tells him, but she says it in English. I have the real Latino man because Dominic is Latino, but he was born in the United States, right? He's as good as storyteller and dumbed.

I swear to God, I was going to say, he is as exciting to listen to in Spanish translated as he is in English mumbled. Well, we'll call it there, but you can hear more exciting wrestling talk like this on the Latin. Lovar podcast available on the Latin Lover official YouTube channel. Don't worry if you're not a Spanish speaker. They will dub it for you. Boy, I got to check out some other videos and see what else they've dubbed. And you can hear all about

AAA and WWE. And ooh, at one point I thought he had to shit. How could the Uso's be mad at him? No, he's such a a fun loving fella. I thought myself, what's a Latino? We smile, we dance,

we say hello to women. What is this definition? We kiss referees. We kiss referees. He could be talking about Aubrey-Ed. Oh, geez, that'd be worse. I wonder if he took some Ivermectin every. But nevertheless,

this is your show. Yes, well, here's something else, Brian, that you can translate into English for me. I understand. And I'm not saying this in a bad way this time. But I understand Rick Flair's been on Twitter again. And usually that's where I say, oh, my God. But no, he might have had a point this time around.

But the worlds are colliding and crashing because remember on the last program we did, your show, The Drive-Thru. That was at the point where we learned that, that Uncle Dave Belzer was feuding on Twitter with fucking Darius Rucker. And as I said then, I said, it's enough that he's arguing with Hootie,

but if he starts fucking arguing with the rest of the blowfish, I'm calling the authorities. Dave was arguing with Hootie. And then he got into a big fight with Toad the Wet Sprocket. It was a hell of a day on Twitter. Dave just talked about it. hold R-E-M to go learn. That's because he believes in a man in the moon.

But nevertheless, then, so Dave was arguing with Hootie, who was missing, just missing his wrestling. He just instantly tweeted, boy, I miss wrestling when it was good. Like a lot of us do, we miss wrestling from when it was good. And that's what he said to nobody in particular. And a guy said, oh, you've, never seen Osprey at Omega and fucking Darius Rucker said you've never seen

Flair and Steamboat and then Dave chimed in with well I've seen hundreds of flare and steamboat matches and blah blah blah I have the chain of events here so Darius Rucker tweeted out as much as I love the WWE and AEW and all the others out there doing their thing it can never be this great we believe this I had watched Dusty and Oli

hate for my entire childhood and then on the super station bang, I wanted Oli dead damn I missed the territories and it was a video of the famous Atlanta turn that's right yeah the big turn in Atlanta 1980 that we've all praised I used to give out

Oli's interview there to the OVW trainees well then a Twitter account I'm your Uncle Buck with a picture of John Candy and the role of Uncle Buck quote tweeted Darius Rucker and said Darius would all do respect Will Osprey and Kenny Omega

just had the greatest match of all time Darius Rucker obviously a fan of Uncle Buck responded You obviously never saw Flair versus Steamboat At that point Dave Meltzer who wasn't a part of any of this

And by the way Can I mention that the initial tweet was this guy is a professional entertainer and has been for quite a while and is not trying to give inflammatory takes he's that's why he started with all respect

to everybody that does everything I love it but boy it's never been this great and then here you know he's just it's not like he's one of the supposed alleged grifters that Dave and the indie

cosplay wrestling minded ilk have come up with to explain the criticism that is levied against them, but people that know what the fuck wrestling is supposed to be about and or enjoyed it for many years until it fucking went sour. He had, Darius Rucker has no reason to be a grifter. His income does not depend on, you know, what his opinion is publicly about pro wrestling.

No, it does not. It depends on the... Yes, it does not. Depends on hold my hand being played on the radio still. Now, but let's go back to this, Jim. Yes, but nevertheless, but that's what Dave chimes in in something that nobody had mentioned his fucking name.

And that's actually what happened before with Darius Rucker, where he posted out the Oli thing, the guy who responded, who quote tweeted, wasn't like he was tagged in it. But Dave, quote, tweeted Darius Rucker and wrote, I saw countless flare steamboat matches. Seriously, Osprey v. Omega had more emotion than any Flair Steamboat match, and Flair Steamboat was state-of-the-art from 1977 to 1989. We've seen this from Dave. He likes jumping into the fray.

He has a lot of time, it seems, to jump into the fray. Even when he's not tagged in things, he seeks things out. To lend his condescending professorial point of view to... Well, only when they are comments about certain specific subjects. Certain things trigger him to want to respond to, what did you say earlier? Any any egg with a fucking number on it? Well, a day later, Rick Flair took to Twitter,

and he had a picture posted with his tweet here. It shows him and Ricky on the bottom, and it shows Will and Kenny on top. I got to phrase it differently, but here's what Rick Flair wrote. No one has more respect for Kenny Omega and Will Ospre than me, but to compare them to Steamboat and I is like comparing the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. When they have a great match 300 times a year and 200-hour broadways, get back to me. until then there's no problem with being number two you are great young talent but let's get serious kids

you should only hope that you have people talking about your matches 37 years later wow oh every once in a while he nails one that well i don't know about calling kenny olmeger great young talent he's like 40 something i don't know flare knows that well it's all relative But, you know, here's the thing, and yes, there's wrestlers exaggeration in there. They didn't do 200 hours in the same year. But it's a diff, it does a disservice to flare and steamboat to compare Osprey and Omega as if they were doing the same thing, trying to accomplish the same purpose. It might be a disservice to Osprey and Omega to compare it to Flair and Steamboat because they were even attempting to do the same thing.

And I know before we're going to go into the rest of this in a second, but just I wanted to comment on Flair's statement, two reasons. Number one, I'm sorry, whatever if Dave thinks is emotion, Maybe it's the overacting. Or I didn't see more emotion from the people in the crowd. Yeah, they were screaming and yelling at certain parts, but you've seen the goddamn 70s and 80s NWA audiences for flare and steamboat and other people. And short of goddamn needing defibrillators, those people couldn't have got much crazier, could they?

and if it's emotion in the ring when you had flare and steamboat or any of the flare or steamboat versus any of the other guys or steamboat versus any of the other guys of that era in there with those dramatic matches

with them hitting each other and you can see the fucking sweat flying and you can hear the meat slapping and they're not obviously cooperating they're keeping the level of a contest where you can suspend enough of your disbelief to take the ride with them, where they both look like grown adult men professional athletes,

where they have talked you into the building with their personalities and their promos over a period of time that they've gotten over and then headed into this collision course because they're polar opposite human beings of each other and they can't stand each other. and they're never at once during that match, whether they're doing believable shit on the ground or whether they're taking bumps over the top rope like pro wrestlers, they never once drop the intensity that they believe they are who they claim to be,

and they are trying to kick the shit out of this other guy. And they do it within the realm of the rules, where they don't bury the referee, where they're not outside the ring, for minutes without being counted out, or not doing stupid shit with power tools, that the referee would have to see or be an idiot, that they're not using furniture

and goddamn setting up things to have set on fire to take bumps through, that they're doing the art of pro wrestling. It's harder. It's the difference between the great billiard players, not only fucking sink the shot, but then control the cue ball to land in perfect alignment for their next shot.

Or you can just go out there and hit the thing as hard as you can and see what happens. There's an art to this that they practiced and they learned over thousands of matches in front of thousands of crowds that Kenny and will, for whatever the fuck else they do, cannot and never will be able to match.

Kenny doesn't want to and will, it's too late for him to be taught. So that's why if I was the flare, I would feel the same way about somebody comparing Osprey and Omega to me in Steamboat, like I would have somebody compared Darius Rucker to my singing.

Darius Rucker would probably be upset because everybody knows I'm better. And again, the whole idea that it was the most most emotional thing. You know, again, you kind of said it a little bit before. It's two different worlds of professional wrestling right now. You know, Flair and Steamboat didn't have 10 minutes on the floor where no one got counted out while they're doing everything at the beginning of the match,

which Kenny does frequently. A random heel turn right before the match, which leads to the crazy, zany heel behavior, but everything reverts back to normal as soon as you lose. fans there certainly wanted Osprey to win but how do you compare that kind of fan to the fans who like you said in the 70s really wanted to see Ricky Steambo get even for getting his face burned yes and Ricky Steenbo was selling for the whole arena

you want to talk about emotional wrestlers he got people into it there were women crying regularly into Carolinas especially in his matches when they would abuse him. And that was emotional. There were people that tried to fucking stab the people that were abusing him. That was emotional.

But also, the one thing that everybody remarks on when they watch tapes from the 80s versus today is how much grittier and more intentional everything looked. Like, these guys look like they're trying at least. And so I don't know what the fuck he's looking at. besides ham-fisted overacting on Kenny's part with the, ha-ha-ha, the maniacal laughter. And again, I really liked it. I thought it was a really good match.

And I thought the entrance, the open with Will Osprey, was one of the best things AEW has ever done. And fans were really into it. And Dave, I mean, people predicted how Dave would react to this because people knew how Dave has reacted to everything with these guys who wrestled the Dave style. but Dave's you know again saying it's the most emotional I think if you're into it

I'm sure if you were into you know Dream Slam watching those all Japan women's matches all day it may have been one of the most exhausting emotional experiences of your life but I think Dave I think Dave misses the point on a lot of these things because he conflates his feelings with the general populace do you have Dave's comment there that well

you know flare and steamboat had to do that match, you know, every night, whereas they wouldn't have been able to do Kenny and Will's match every night. That's something you can, you know, you can't recover from. I got to try to find that one. Unfortunately, Dave Meltzer at this point tweets out so much that it's hard to narrow in and find something that took place more than a few hours ago. So I got to... Well, the point, and I'll make this point, we'll move on. But the comment that he made was the gist of was well kenny and will you know they have that match they can't do that every night so flare

and steamboat had to have a match that they could do every night so that's why theirs might not be as good as wills and kennies when it's the other way around but that's the fucking point again morons fler and steamboat and other guys i don't mean to just single them out but other top guys in that era and in many eras were able to go out and do all the things I mentioned. They were able to look like professional athletes, to

look like they were seriously trying to fight the other person to give a performance that was both exciting and certainly not flawless, but definitely not slapping you in the face that it was a fucking fake allowing you to take the ride with them

night after night because that's why they were professionals. It looked like they were killing each other, but they weren't. Now, these nitwits have built a business where to have an acceptable matched by their parameters or the parameters of their P-Brain fan base, where they have to nearly paralyze each other and can't work for the next two or three weeks, just to, to have what Uncle Dave, who's older than I am, wants to call a great match. Fuck you.

The idea is to the art of this, the performance aspect of this is to try to make it look like you are hurting someone without actually doing it and the great ones can succeed at that. not let's just all just fucking kill each other and a people will believe it because then you're just setting shit up that looks awkwardly phony that you get thrown through or fall through or hit each other with. To get back to this thing because we have another tweet from Rick Flair. Oh, God. Apparently this is in response to something from Jim Ross and something from Eric Bischoff.

What I have found from Eric Bischoff is a quote about Omega and Osprey. a bizarre quote It was like watching a nasty boys match It was hardcore Slow-paced match And yes It was bloody And there were great spots

Of all the comparisons I don't know about the nasty boys For that match But Rick Flare responded Please don't put me in the same category As Eric Bischoff I thoroughly enjoy enjoyed the match. I know both Kenny and Will and have sung their praises to them personally.

I have nothing but respect for them. When I tweeted this yesterday, it was just an opinion. Like every other sport. I wasn't even drinking yet. Like every other sport and watching get up or first take on ESPN. Doesn't mean it's right. Doesn't mean it's wrong. It's just an opinion. Eric should focus on his new amateur wrestling project. The same applies to Jim Ross and his comments. If you mention my name, of course I'm going to respond. So it ends with a threat. Holy Christ.

What did Jim Ross say? Did you see anything attributing to Jim Ross? I don't know. I don't know what J.R. said. Maybe he just, maybe he was one of the. the people that said maybe Rick ought to stay off Twitter and he's conflating that. I don't know what happened there. He was one of the people Flair previously maligned on Twitter what he said he was looking for attention when he announced he had cancer. Well, but then I think he took that

back. Surprisingly, Rick Flair never takes anything back. You know where to find me. Until the following day when he takes it back. No, but I see what Bischoff is going for. I don't know that the nasty voice would have been the best reference, but just the excess and the lack of coherent flow instead of just, oh, let's do this stunt now, let's do that stunt now. But I think he could have probably reached and found a more cogent simile. But then, so Rick done, I think maybe Rick caught some shit because he, then the people jumped on him like, now you're knocking the boys and he don't want to be knocking the boys. Now he's got to take that back.

But he's, I'm just telling you, if this was the 1980s and Will Osprey and Kenny Omega walked in the Jim Crockett Promotions locker room, not just with Flair, but with everybody that was there from the road warriors and dusty and Magnum and every on down, I think if Osprey was polite and willing to listen to guys that I think that he, from what I can tell, because I've only met Kenny once, I think, 20 years ago and I've never met Osprey, but I think from what I see that Osprey would have been okay. And I think that the boys would have run Kenny out of that locker room in three months for being some kind of weird fucking doucheback.

and I'm just telling you and whatever Rick says now especially if he was working for AEW and they were buying his energy drink or whatever I'm sure he was nice to Kenny but no I think Will Will would have flown

in the Carolinas and Kenny would have got probably stuffed in somebody's trunk well Jim before we wrap this up just on the Rick Flair beat he has put up a video I guess he's cutting a promo out on the street for an autograph signing he's doing.

He's just standing out on the street. Let's go to this. Apparently there's some music in the background. Let's hear how he handles this. Hey, it's a nature boy. Reminding the world that tomorrow at the Tampa Bay Comic and Pop Culture, Comic-Con.

The Nature Boy is 16 times the world champion. John Cena, 17 times world champion. Greatest ambassador of the WWE ever. And Anne Margaret, Albert Presley's ex-girlfriend. And I'm coming to meet you. I'm hopefully, I sign a lot of autographs. Hopefully I take a lot of pictures. But Anne Margaret, I want you to meet this first.

version of Elvis Presley. Only one, baby. Rolex wearing, diamond ring wearing, limousine riding, private jet flying, and the best dressed man in Tampa. See you tomorrow, kids. Woo! All right, that was Tampa Rick Flair.

Ah, and that'll be on YouTube if we determine that that's karaoke instead of copyrighted music in the background. But I think he was, I think he was using a cue card. I think somebody maybe Yeah, there was a lot to know there.

Just did, was there no, was there, are there no prisons, no workhouses? Was there no way to get him anywhere but on the street in front of a bar to shoot this promotional video? Possibly even a quiet indoor location for, for an event of this import, Brian. I'm just wondering why they didn't take him over to the local NBC,

Network Studios. Watch out Anne Margaret. Also, Connie Francis, I'm gunning for you. Old is Ann Margaret. I'm telling you. I'll be at the ball with cookie buns. No, I haven't seen her in a while, but I would be interested. I would be of interest.

Anne Margaret's how old is Ann Margaret? 85 years old. Is there a recent picture? What does she look like? She looks like an 85-year-old Anne-Marg. There isn't like, oh, she still is... I mean, I might try to insult her, but now you're... You set it up.

Is there any recent nudes? There weren't any past nudes that I'm aware of, let alone recent. I've got some playboys from the 60s. She had to be in there somewhere. And Margaret, I'm coming to the Tampa Comic-Con to play a little game with you, I call. Bye-bye, Bertie. Woo!

He's going to be at the airport Marriott. The airport Marriott. Yes, with Anne Margaret. can you imagine if somebody was able to get a picture of Rick Flair and Anne Margaret at the airport Marriott? Well, you know, if you really think about it, when he started getting into like the crazy old man character or the crazy, you know, disgruntled man on Nitro, whatever, he kind of adopted a lot of her frenetic dance movements, just the shaking and the frenetic dance movements and the shaking and the shimmering and the jimbing about. He's got the Anne Margaret shakes. I guess that's what I'm trying to say.

Boy, put those together with Betty Davis eyes. and you're working on something. But let me ask you this, Brian. You looked at the picture of Anne Margaret there, and she's 85 years old. You said she looks like an 85-year-old Anne Margaret. But has she gained weight as she become fat, portly, obese, overweight, chunky, chubby? She looks like a perfectly healthy 85-year-old woman.

You know why? No, I don't know why. Do you know why? Because she eats right. Ah. Because she don't eat the crapola. Not the crapola, just the granola. That's what it is.

And now we know what Rick has definitely drunk if we don't know what he's been eating. So that's why that he looks like, you know, he looks and she looks like she looks. And folks, if you'd like to look like one instead of the other, then all you got to do is eat right. And that means you need to head over to factor meals. com F-A-C-T-O-R means you will E-A-T-G-O-D because at Factor Meals.com, what you will find, ladies gentlemen, and Brian, you can testify to the veracity of this is a plethora of meals ready to go, ready to eat, chef-crafted, dietitian designed, packed with the loving hands

of grandmothers from Weehawk in New Jersey. And you don't have to choose between real food and convenience because this way you get the convenience of real food that somebody else has done to work on. And they have banned, as you know, Brian, all kinds of ingredients because you see the recalls in the food these days and you see the banned ingredients, and you see the broken glass and the thumb tacks and the barbed wire.

It's like they've run our entire food supply through an indie outlaw mud show wrestling group. Well, Factor doesn't do that. That's why they've got people out there right now digging in the earth of the ground and slaying the beasts of burden, they make their own food from scratch. You ought to see the son of a bitch

that has to milk those cows every morning. His fingers are worked to the bone. But they're keeping an eye on this stuff from the start so it doesn't have time to get contaminated or contaminated. And that's why you can get salmon burgers or shredded pork or your ever popular

terriaki salmon, Brian. And it's not polluted or contaminated with all of the plethora of everyday household items and chemicals that you see if you're going to the grocery store. Stay away from the grocery store. Go to

factor meals.com. There's somebody, from the time a cow is born until it is slain for the meatloaf, they've got somebody watching it. They've hired a whole bunch of people around the country. They're helping with the unemployment situation to just go keep an eye on fields of lettuce and fucking herds of cows. And that way, if anybody tries to monkey with any of this stuff before it gets to your plate, Factor will know about it. they're the food detectives. Brian, you've heard about this. It's a huge hiring program.

I don't know anything about this. You don't know anything about it's because it's not true. I can't get past the idea of Rick Flair dances like Ann Margaret. I never thought of it before. Now, it's a very funny thought that's been living in my mind the last few minutes. Rick Flair and Viva, Las Vegas. And Factor Meals.com. Of course, delicious.

Yes. Terriott and salmon, as you mentioned. And some of this food even tastes like Anne Margaret. And 97% First of all, I don't even know what that's supposed to mean. She's an old lady, leave her alone. They've got a tuna dish. 97% of users agree that factor meals help them live a healthier life.

So right there, it's hard to get 97% of people to agree on anything, but they feel healthier. They feel this because they are, they're still alive. So they got that going for it. Anyway, folks, and right now what you got going for you is saving half the money. Would you like to get food at a 50% discount? You want to get half off food while still getting the same amount of food, but only pay it half for it.

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Exactly right. Love here. Love that Castle Cornette. We think you'll love it in your home. Factor! All right. Well, I guess at this point in time, trigger warning, as they say,

we got to start talking about the AEW. just wanted to, this next content may be disturbing. But before we talk about what they've actually done in the ring at least, there was speculation. Now the new, new day has debuted in AEW. There was speculation that was not proven until just now that they were among the teams, the most prominent talents that were asked to take a big pay cut in the

WWE, and that's why they left, let their contracts expire and showed up here. And nobody knew for sure until they apparently just confirmed this. Is this what I'm hearing that they have actually come out and said, yeah, they tried to fuck us around? Yeah, the new day or the former new day, the new level, Kofi and Austin Creed on the Ariel Hawani show, they were asked about the rumor. and Coffey Kingston said it was more than 50%. More than a lot of people know.

And at the same time, I should point out, the former Ridge Holland, Luke Menzies on Twitter. Honestly, I think I may have been the first to experience the new TKO version of contract negotiations. 56% pay cut. Ouch. So obviously that's a little more than 50. I don't know if that's the same figure as the new day,

but it's important to note at the same time where they're making record profits and at the same time where the executives are paying themselves astronomical amounts of money. It's not the same as cutting someone when you go to them and you say, we want to keep you and pay you more than half less. What do you think of all this?

millions and millions of dollars is what they're making. There's some to be said for everybody here, honestly, being truthful, even though, let's face it. The TKO is in a position at Tony Kahn's in where he can pay people to not work or to work very little or to whatever. He can pay anybody he wants. They can too. They just don't want to. And to be fair to them, they're a publicly traded company. They're supposed to have to answer to the stockholders.

And apparently the stockholders just turn a blind eye to the fact that they get tens of millions of dollars as individuals because the stockholders don't give a shit as long as they make their money. That's all they care about. Having said that, we said this at the start when this whole thing came up that they were leaving, no matter how good they are. One guy had been there, what, 19 years? Was that Kofi? Yeah.

And they'd been there so long. They had worked themselves up with the raises and whatever's gone on with the previous administration to where they had to be making really good money. And we've seen some of these figures bandied around. We don't have any specific knowledge, but I think it would be safe to say they wouldn't have even made an offer to these guys for 250 grand. So that means that's even less than what they would have offered them.

That was less than half what they were making. Were they making a million dollars a year? If that's the case with what they were, with how long they've been there, what their ages are and what the plans were, They didn't want to pay them that much money. I can understand that. And I could also understand if you've been making that good of money for that period of time or a good period of time.

And they say, well, we're just going to give you less than half. You just know. Even if you just went home, I could understand that. Because if you still need money after you've been making that kind of money, what to fuck? But they had an option because Tony Kahn will pay that kind of money. And here is what they had to, they had to make a trade. They know that they're not going to enhance the public image of their wrestling career

to the general population by going to AW. you. They're not going to become bigger stars than they are right now, but they're going to make a lot more money than they would if they'd have stayed in the WWE, and they're not as young as they used to be. They will probably, some of the guys that have been in WWE and go there,

it's like when some of the guys went to the WWE and went to TNA, they're not going to take it as seriously because it's not as structured. And they're going to enjoy getting to work with their friends and get guaranteed money for doing much less probably than they were. They're probably not going to enjoy having to fucking take bumps through furniture much more often. I don't know. I actually think those are two guys that are looking forward to wrestling at AEW

because they're going to get to do a lot of stuff that they never got to do in WWE, a different style. Coffey Kingston, I could be wrong because I don't know what he did before WWE, which is 20 years ago. He may have never worked in a ring without ring ropes that were actual ropes. So it's going to be a lot of interesting things. But here's the question is they may like the even like the in ring. They may not be as fucking cranky about the old school as I am.

But are they going to enjoy the what we've heard, the complaints about the lack of direction, the lack of communication, the lack of pre-production, the lack of, you know, just, hey, kids, let's put on a show type of atmosphere after they come from a place that is so overly micromanaged.

I don't know. It seems like right now there's a lot less complaints coming from the locker room than maybe any other time before. So something right now is working internally in terms of everyone being on the same page. everyone trusting Tony, I guess you could even say. Now, the interesting thing, though, about the pay- Everybody trusting Tony's checks won't bounce.

The pay cut thing is interesting because they traditionally, and obviously they're not as hot now, I shouldn't say that. They wouldn't have been as hot now in WWE as they were six years ago, 10 years ago, whatever. But they were big merch movers. Like, they had merch up the gazoo. So, I mean, it's interesting because that's always the barometer for WWE.

I guess it's probably not as hot now as it was, but it'll be hotter at AEW right now than it is in WW. Nothing lasts forever when you've had to say. It's been the same. AW merchandise with these guys is first time. We've never had that before. And that audience will have a reason now to buy that because they, oh, they're not with the bad promotion anymore. they're with our promotion. So that's what the territories made them work.

That's what the layout, the model was. You don't stay one place forever unless you're Vern Gagne or Jerry Lawler or fucking Bruno or whatever. You constantly change the talent in and out, but it stays over. Imagine the same thing. The new day got stale in the WWE. and they had finished their run. There wasn't much more they could do. So they could imagine if they could go to AEW

and make the same or similar amount of money and be featured on top there while the WW programming did something else with somebody else, but they could still be the new day. And then they would stay. And if AEW was run more like a fucking logical professional organization, they could stay over as the new day as Coffey Kingston and what was the other guy's name? He's had so many names now.

Xavier Woods. Austin Creed, whichever. In the old days, you could move from territory, territory, keep your name, become a bigger star, and come back to the WWE having become a bigger star from doing something else somewhere else, whatever the fuck. now you can't keep your name. There's a place you can go to make the same amount of money, but you can't become a bigger star. The only people that have come from AEW, that the people can honestly say,

AEW made them bigger so WW wanted them more, are punk and Cody, and that's for what they did outside the ring instead of on the actual program. So that's what I'm saying, as there's tradeoffs now you have to make. I think it worked out the best for everybody. New Day keep on making the money.

The AW gets a new attraction until they make them just two of the boys. And the WWE didn't need them. And it was stale there. And they didn't want them for that much money. So everybody got what they want. To circle back around. And I agree with just about everything you just said. but if WWE doesn't want them, release them or do something, not insult them.

And not just talking about the new day, obviously. They're doing this to a lot of talent. And I feel awful for anyone who's accepted this pay cut deal. So I don't know. I mean, well, see, that's the thing. Tony Kahn has a reputation if he thinks you're going to go to WWE or if he just loses it for you, he'll keep paying you, and you will stay home, and then your contract will run out, and you can do whatever you want.

WWE has a long history of cutting guys, of letting guys go. You don't think it's an extra insult to just say, hey, we'll pay you more than half less? Actually, for some people, and we've heard some people may have taken it. Here's the thing. promoters used to be able to go to a guy when the run was over with and say, okay, we're going to need to finish you up. We've done what we can do. But I'm going to get you booked with Eddie Graham in Florida or Bill Watson, Louisiana.

I've already got you another job lined up. Okay. And everybody parts friends and they want to come back. And now we're in a situation where they can't do that. It doesn't work. that way anymore. They either have to tell a guy, we're going to release you or not renew you, or we want to renew you. What of the other? There's no, we'll get you a spot someplace else. So did they think that maybe they would just say, okay, we don't want to fire these guys

right out or say we don't want to renew you at all, but we're not going to spend any more money than this. So we'll offer it to them and see what they want to fucking do. I don't, think they cared either way at that point, WWE, as far as whether they took it or not, but it's not as bad as just said, no, just leave. They offered him something. The other guys got insulted.

I can see that too. And they had to know that they would go to AEW. If there was ever a slam dunk of someone who would leave WWE and go right to AEW, it was the new day. Yeah, and it's not going to make a difference to AEW's business either way. as far as they may sell merchandise and they you know whatever they do in the ring the i think the wwe has passed to point they've realized now we'll just fuck with these guys

with you know where they book their shows and fuck with their arenas or do that shit but it doesn't matter what talent goes there because the end result is always fucking saying well they arrive in a w they got the fans excited to see them swear so excited he's become a smiling baby face. Let's see how long it lasts. But I think you said it best. This was the best for WWE, best for AEW and the best for them,

probably. Yeah, and it's just a shame that there's no more situations where guys can travel from promotion to promotion and keep their name and keep building their reputation that it accrues to them rather than whatever company that, you know, they're working for that gives them

whatever name they're going to use at that point. And, you know, there's a certain amount, yeah, I guess if you're a W.W.E guy, they get you booked in TNA now. Thanks. You know, it's not like you can make lateral moves anymore with good, a good parting. It's not like that Vince Sr. can send you to work for fucking Watts or whatever, and you're just fine either way. But anyway, so we'll see how long it takes for them to be just another

cog and the flywheel of AEW. But of course, I'm sure that after they turned in that stellar performance where they were lost and mired into the middle of a fucking mess in Wembley with 15 other guys in the ring that they've started off on the right foot, and I know that Uncle Dave has put his traditional ratings out, the star ratings. I have not seen any of this because I wanted to be surprised. But one would think that Dave had to think that this whole thing was just swell.

Well, the first paragraph of the observer here, the first sentence, Kenny Omega put on one of the most incredible performances in a pro wrestling ring in his part in setting the stage for as perfect a coronation of a world title reign as you probably could get in modern wrestling. So I think Dave liked it. I don't know which hurts me worse. The grammar in that sentence or the overall meaning?

All right, well, here's a lot to say. And, you know, by the way, it's important to note we could say what we want about the wrestling, but it wasn't a full Wembley Stadium, but it was an overwhelming success. Khan apparently said it was a $6 million gate. They're saying that it could be over 210,000 buys.

So this was a pretty significant success for AEW. Let's go to the star ratings. Jim, the Rascals of Zachary Wence, Myron Reed, and Desmond Xavier, and Leo Rush. Defeated Hook,

Anthony Bowie. Owens, Shabbata, and Action Andretti, 9 minutes, 12 seconds, 3 and a quarter stars. This was the pre-show that we... The buy-in. For the buy-in that we didn't buy. And Desmond Tutu was on the cart. I love that there's a restaurant named Myron. You know, I just say, you know what?

There's not enough guys named Myron anymore. There's nobody to be picked on. Remember Stanley Myron, the comedian? Yes. But I think Myron is the perfect name of someone to pick on in class. And Myron. Anyway, three and a half stars opens it up on the pre-show with an eight-man tag in the middle of nowhere.

Three and a quarter, for the record. Three and a quarter. Chris Stathlander and Harley Cameron defeated Sky, Blue, and Julia Hart, nine minutes, 55 seconds. Two-star match. Jesus Christ. what did they do fucking just all explode

and spontaneous combustion at the same time to stink that bad in his eyes according to Dave Meltzer the crowd wasn't into this past a light chant for Cameron Statlander pinned heart with a tombstone Jim QT Marshall and Big Boom A.J

and Shelton Benjamin and Bobby Lashley Good Lord defeated the team of Shane Taylor Lee Moriarty Sean Dean and Carly Bravo 11 minutes 22 seconds

2 and a half stars Did Uncle Dave have any comment on why in the world that Shelton Benjamin and Bobby Lashley two of the biggest literally not only in terms of perception but in actual size and most experienced, well-known superstars

on the entire roster were teamed up with a fucking Costco cookie cutter? MVP wasn't there, nor was that acknowledged. The story was that AJ offered the Hurt Syndicate money to team with him. So it was a financial deal. I guarantee you that Shelton, Bobby, or both said, hey, just give us some goddamn reason why that we would lower ourselves to do this. Okay, we're getting paid.

All right. Just say something. After the match, Jim, Big Justice gave Lashley and Benjamin a giant check for $50,000 with the Rizzler's face on it. So you miss that with the pre-show. A giant check. Persephone.

Well, you know, you know why the kid had to give him a giant check couldn't give him a regular size of, don't you? I don't know, no. Because the kid's so fat, the people wouldn't have been able to see the check. check because he'd have been blocking it out. All right, will you leave the kid alone? Because he's fat. He's a fat child.

What the hell's the matter with you? What is he done to you? Is it personal? He's a fat, fat, fat, young man. All right, I guess we've seen the next feud that's breaking out here. Jim Persephone won the TBS title from Maya World,

11 minutes, 19 seconds, two and a quarter stars. Boy, at least he's trying to be halfway legitimate about the girls matches from what I've noticed, although two and a half for most of these AEW girls matches is still a bit, a bit generous. Swerve Strickland and Kofy and Austin Creed won a 17-trioz rumble-style battle royal

for the AEW Trio's championship. Ravens, seven times three is 21, unless you're in an Abbott-Costello movie. So there was 21 guys involved in that match. 38 minutes, 43 seconds. Jesus Christ. Three and a half stars. No wonder they ran long. By the way, they were supposed to be done at 10 o'clock local time and they weren't.

Jamie Hater and Alex Windsor, the Brawling Birds, won the women's tag title over Megan Bain and Lean Across 11 minutes and 40 seconds, three and a half stars. Oh, come on now. Yeah, that's bullshit. With a straight face, I mean,

I'm not saying that Alex Mountbatten Windsor and, you know, Jamie, the brawling broads, they're, you know, not capable, but come on, those other two fucking Central Park statues, Jesus, H. Christ.

Listen to this from Dave. The finish saw Hater and Windsor use a sandwich lariat and heart attack and then both pinned cross. I'm not sure how that's legal, but there you go.

Remember I said they did the old fucking midget spot or a spot show spot where they piled on and it's to make the kids pop? John Moxley retained the Continental title and won the Continental Cup over Nigel McGinnis, 17 minutes, 12 seconds,

four and a half stars. Oh, come on. In all, in all reality, this is the same type of rating or a better rating that he would give the Undertaker and Michael's matches or the Kurt Angle matches or the flare and steam. boat matches. And he thinks this fucking want to be tough guy and bless Nigel, but a semi retired 40-something year old

announcer was, all right. Dave wrote great technical match. Kazushka Okada won the international title and a three-way over Kyle Fletcher and Konoske Tekeshta. 13 minutes, 11 seconds.

Now, wait a minute. We know that he's been a, an Okada supporter in much the same way as a jockstrap as an athletic supporter for quite some time. And he loves him some Kyle. So this had to be a five-star match, didn't it? You're losing your touch. Four and a half stars.

Oh, golly. Well, are we really arguing? Yes. I think four and three quarters is his good as five, but four and a half is not as good as four and four. That's right. That's where we have to pull pocket knives. It's between four and three quarter four and a half. Then, then you got to draw blood. Jim Andrade won the casino gotlet, 21 minutes, seven seconds, four and three quarter stars. Oh, what did they even do? As good as five. What did they even do that that way, it was just a bunch of guys

coming out and doing fucking stunts over and over. What was there even to really to grade? Dave brought a big long breakdown of the match, but nothing is standing at as far as an explanation for his love of this match. It was fine for what it was, but I don't know about as good as five stars. Let's move on. Whose feelings are he protecting? Is he, are he?

Maybe his English teacher, I believe. Yes, yes, well. MR. Ducks, M-R-N-R-N-O-S-A-R-C-M-E-L-I-B. Adam Copeland and Christian, Jim. Whose feelings are he protecting, though, is what I'm saying? Is it Tonys? Is it the boys? Is it his own? It's his own.

He has to keep up this charade. For the same reason, he has all the hair dye. He has to keep up with the younger generation. Jim, Adam Copeland, and Christian retained the AW World Tag Team Championships over the Young Bucks, 20 minutes, four, seconds, four and a quarter stars. Uh-oh, I bet there'll be some cussing and kookamungo when the buckaroos find out they only got four and a quarter. Your love is fading. Darby Allen, Jim, defeated Kevin Knight to win the TNT Championship 15 minutes, 46 seconds,

four and a half stars. Oh, and the end. And the, uh, the attempt, the suicide of the lighting rig and all of the other, and the, the ever-present immediate stretcher that the EMTs placed Kevin Knight on before he was even out from under the stage for the next spot and just the, all right. Mercedes Monet. Defeated Willow Nightingale to win the A.W. Women's title,

22 minutes and one second. five star match. Oh, come on. Better than anything Kurt Angle has ever done in his career, ladies and gentlemen. By the way, by the way, do you know in this hard-hitting contest it got five stars from Dave Meltzer,

do you know how Mercedes Mone got her nose broken? I'm not sure. She did it to herself. The baseball sloth, At one point, she went to baseball slide drop kick. Willow, while Willow was on the floor. And she came running across the ring and did the baseball slide drop kick

underneath the bottom rope and whacked her fucking face right on the rope. Broke her own fucking nose. Five star match. Jim, finally, Will Osprey, Pincenio Mega to win the AWT title, 33 minutes 51.

seconds, six and a half stars. Oh, come on. Not really. Even with the Tiger Driver at the end, this was probably the second best match I've ever seen. Even with it at the end, like, oh, that almost took it away with everything else they did. I thought all the Japanese moves were supposed to add stars.

The second best match. What was the best match he's ever seen? Mike Lano versus, I don't know, I really don't know. But there it is. If people thought he would lose his mind over that match, six and a half stars kind of In all seriousness, in all seriousness, I'm asking you a question. Do you not find the overall existence of Kenny Omega, the way he acts, his facials, his speech, his body language, the things he does the way he moves, the things he thinks and says,

is all of that not just off-putting to you as a wrestling fan? I wouldn't say off-putting. I think he's a very talented guy in the ring for someone who's going to wrestle like one match every, let's say, month. He's going to put everything into that match and probably really hurt himself, and it'll be a really dramatic show with lots of kickouts of every big move. his promos have never been there I'm amused by him

I'm amused by the decisions he makes you know I'm not sure if I'm answering your question I'm not I mean I'm not the biggest Kenny Omega fan I would never buy a Kenny Omega shirt I would never like want people to think that guy's with Kenny Omega I can't imagine any wrestling crowd in any point in history until today

not wanting to just fucking carry him out in the parking lot and throw him in a dump I don't see any other era where they would ever have tolerated all this bizarreness in every aspect of his presentation. Well, Dave likes him. Six and a half stars. Doesn't matter what you think, Grandpa. Dave likes him.

This has to be, if you really think about it, this is like the culmination of a whole period for Dave. Because Omega was in a nice position in Japan. He was a name that some people may have known if you were into like Ring of Honor or Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. But Dave anointed him. And Dave went crazy about him and the Young Books to the point where as I witnessed firsthand, he was willing to blow up friendships if people didn't go with his point of view about Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks. And this is kind of the end of the era.

with more people than moi. Yeah, and this was the end of the era with this match and anointing Will Osprey. And the bucks are on their last legs. I don't know, it just feels like, you know, the movement that Dave kind of willed into existence because he gave that Okada Omega match

more than five stars, knowing it would cause a stir and a discussion. It kind of feels like that era is kind of coming to an end and we're beginning something new. Oh, I'll hate to see that era go. Because, you know, it's just, it's, it's sad to see the end of an era, just like Brian. It's sad to see when your battery power just runs out. When you just got no more charge, when you just got no more, no more juice, you just got no more zap.

You just nothing works and you can't plug nothing in. then you're just, it's a black screen. It's silence. It's peace and quiet. But nevertheless, you still got to plug your stuff in and charge it up, right? And that's why our friends at Ridge have you covered. And do you know, what are you hitting over there? I'm hitting my hand to vehemently make this point.

I'm pounding my fist into my palm as any good salesman would do when he makes a point about the quality of this product. Do you know, Brian? Hey, hey, calm down that. You got to have to slap you around. Hey, hey, calm down over there. Buckle up. What are you doing? Hey, bite this.

Do you know what Stacy's been doing here lately since we've had the puppies? The puppies started attempting to chew on electrical cords, and so she couldn't plug and charge her things in the way that one would normally do with the regular cords. but she realized that I had given her, gifted her, one of the Ridge Power Banks before. She had it in her bag, she was going to travel with it. But you can use it at home, too. You don't have to be in an airport or a coffee shop

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Ridge! All righty, well now without further a do-do, young man, should we talk about the most cluttered-up television program that I have ever witnessed in my life this past Wednesday night from our friends over at AEW. That's why I told you a little earlier. I have to speak about these things because this is the goddamnest weirdest shit that I've ever seen in my life.

I don't, do they expect people to be sitting? I'm sitting here with a goddamn pad and a pen trying to take notes on who's mad and who and why. Do they expect people to retain all this goddamn shit at the end of the program? Are they just hitting people with car wrecks over and over? Yes. Yes. I don't know how to answer that.

They must expect people to retain everything. They do throw a lot of kind of, not nothing, but you know what the result's going to be. You know it's going to go over 10 minutes. You know they're going to do tons and tons of moves. Well, but just, I mean, just everybody interacting with everybody in every fashion. I will explain the first segment alone, the first segment alone. they paper view they paper view they recap

they recap the paper view they do a package with all the happenings and then they introduce Osprey the new champion okay great out of the gate here comes the new world champion he comes out wearing the belt he's also wearing tennis shoes sweatpants and a Walmart shirt

so the belt is worth 20 grand everything else that got on him is $20 in total he couldn't what the fuck is his gimmick that he's just a slob is that part of the the brough appeal or he couldn't come out looking like a fucking star on this occasion i don't know i think a w is kind of a come as you are promotion but it just he just looked like he walked in off the street i did well things change when he puts on his giant muppet robe sang his name and they chanted, you deserve it.

And again, he's popular. That was my whole point of reviewing the match and how, you know, he's the guy they got a shot to make something out of. But his promo was, oh, I've been on a bender for the last few days. I nearly missed the plane. I basically said he was drunk, but he talked his way on the plane. Yeah, what was this, again, we've had this issue now with several of his promos in a row

where you're kind of with him for 30 seconds. Yeah. And then he starts saying shit that you're, you know, if there was anyone next year, you turn and look at them like, what is he saying?

Why is he saying this? Does he think this makes him cool? He thinks it's endearing and it may have been on a vendor for three days. It got a little pop, but then when he went into the detail, yeah, nearly this is the plane.

I was fucking pissed, but I'm charming, so I talked my way on. So I committed a federal offense. Vince. Can you hear somebody coming out on Raw and saying, yeah, I was almost a drunk. They almost wouldn't let me on the plane, but I got out of here. I was with my wife, but I charmed the stewardess to let me on the plane. I don't understand anything.

And then he started acting it out. He was like Billy Crystal on stage. Yes. Well, he likes to do the, and for a while they were shooting him with the handheld in the ring, but he would turn his back to it. He was looking at the people instead of the. camera. And Ed, then he went on,

he said, I struggled to find the words and I wrote and pronounced them also. But he thanked all the fans. He's not going to let them down. He thanked Kenny Omega, my dance partner from Sunday. Is there any way we could make it

sound less intimidating, more possibly effeminate than we were dancing, dancing, dancing. He said for 10 years, Kenny's been in the best of the world, and he still is 364 days of the year, but I won the one day.

I wrote, what is he doing? He's the first time ever a new champion comes out. I got lucky. We got to beat me every other day of the year. And then he said, hey, we're two and two now. They're two and two they are. And I'm happy with that.

I just wanted Kitty to say that I was his equal. but if he's satisfied with two and two, fine, but if he's not, name the time and the place, there is so much love, friendship and sportsmanship that this is the most boring, softest fucking wrestling product I've ever seen.

And he yelled and growled some that he was the world heavyweight champion and you're going to have to walk through fire to get it. And when he yells and growls, we know that he means it, and he kept doing go-home lines and not going home. He would have to have a strong point, he hit it, and you have to walk through fire to get it from me. I'd like to thank my friends from Japan. He loved the training he did with his friends in Japan, so he's going to bring the United Empire over to AEW.

I thought he liked the training he did with the fucking boar horseman. Is he just, is he liking training in close quarters with other men on a regular basis, just whoever it is in whatever country? Yeah, I guess so. I don't know. And then he said, I'm going to go to Thailand. I'm going to bring United Empire here, but it won't be United Empire. It'll be a new United Empire.

My new, like, what the hell is happening? Well, yes, it's going to be his United Empire, but then he brought out the other United Empire. And after he'd said all that, here came Rick. Ricochet and his two stooges out on the stage to interrupt. And by the next to those two, Rickashay looks like he's fucking 10. He's just minute.

And he starts talking like a baby face, congratulating Will for his match. And he's saying that the fans don't know, don't know me like you do, Will. That's why they're booing me. Because Rickashay said, well, you know, if it wasn't for me, you wouldn't be in the main event in age. have they ever interacted

in the history of this television show I don't remember it maybe but it's more about the match they had in New Japan years ago remember where they kind of did mirror spots no I don't remember at the beginning of the match they each would flip in unison but against each other

but it would of course they would but no I don't remember that and and it's you know I'm sorry I've you know I didn't put it up next to the Hindenburg and God damn D-Day, as things to remember. So Riggaschet wants the title shot, but Gabe Kidd interrupted him.

And he claimed that he would be the first British champion if it hadn't been for Will Osprey. Has Gabe Kidd ever been a position where he could carry the belt unless he was the valet at the fucking marry it? I believe he's got a good push in New Japan. But I'm talking about this title. this belt right here, the one they're talking about. He's just another guy that has to get in line.

Everyone wants a shot at the title on this episode, as it turned out. Well, then Rick Oshay and Gabe Kidd were arguing about which one would get Osprey first. But then they decided that since Gabe Kidd was out there with another one of these fucking job guys, that there was five of them and Osprey was standing in the ring, Sage Dahl just beat him up. But as they go to the ring to start beating him up, Osprey's unknown jobber friends from Japan hit the ring with chairs and block them off. And now you've got not a different United Empire, but apparently these are the United Empires.

And we've seen, what's his fucking name? God damn it. Francesco Akira looks like a grade schooler. Hanari is a discount Samoan. and this Callum Newman, I swear to God, if Ethan Page just gave up on life and let himself go and got a drinking problem and never went out in the sun again,

he would look like Callum Newman. This guy looks like he ought to be changing fucking oil. And then Osprey said, we could all fight now in street clothes or we could go back and change and come back in the main event. So the new world champion and the face of the company

is teaming up with three guys that are completely unheard of in this country and they're taking on ricochet and four undercard heels. This is the best use of the first week of Will Osprey's title reign to set up money-drawn fucking action. Seriously?

it wouldn't be the way I did it again I would have had a shorter Will Osprey promo it would have maybe set something up if you wanted to do a match right before the pay-per-view and now after it they've had the United Empire on yeah I mean this was this was uh I mean there's more with Will Osprey obviously with the match

and well yes but we're 20 minutes into the show and I and I'll agree even though I think Rick Shea's a goof he's got name recognition he's been somebody. So yeah, I could say, why didn't they have Will Osprey against Rickashay, give Osprey a good fucking win? And let him fucking thank people in half the time. Instead, they muck it up with these fucking guys that

there is nobody in that combination that is any money except for Osprey. And like I said, Rickashay's got some recognition. And Osprey is the guy. And everybody else, it's fucking preliminaries. and it's complicated, it is confusing, and it's bullshit. So then, just to make sure that we know that the new, new day is going to be, I say eight weeks, they will be just more guys on the card.

They show up in a 21-man fucking mess and team up with a heel just because he's black and so were they apparently is the common thread. I'm not making this up. It's obvious. Tony did the same thing they did with hoist keys, bringing in the other two guys. Well, they're all black. They must be friends.

And they put a middle card fucking six-man tag set of belts on them. They have them come to TV and the new, new days debut on television is a six-man tag team title match against the rascals who we have barely seen on this program at all, who are, let's face it, preliminary and middle card talent, and they kicked the shit out of the new day

for 15 minutes. You bring in a hot baby face team from the WWE, the biggest promotion in the world. You team them up with a heat, heel just because, like I said, you put mid-card belts on them. You put them in six-man tags. And then it's everything they can fucking do to beat people that have never done anything and nobody halfway gives a shit that they're even there to begin with.

All due respect to the rascals. And you have them have maybe the worst, most egregious modern-style match that I've ever scene with pissed off parkour combined with what looked like Raygun breakdancing at the Olympics. If there was an actual professional wrestling move in this match, I missed it. It was all the made up swing dancing bullshit that they do lately. And the jobbers kicked the shit out of the baby faces for the majority of the match. So you got a team that's probably making a combined couple million dollars a year and the $150 a night job guys almost had them.

And then finally, the new, new day hit one of the guys with a double team double stomp power slam off the top rope. And then instead of covered of swerved. let the guy get up to his knees so swerp could kick him into fucking head one, two, three. What in the fuck? Why not just bring out a goddamn gun or maybe one of those things they slaughter cows with in a slaughter house? Make sure he's dead. What the fuck are they all thinking? I'm afraid if these guys have to wrestle main event talent, they're going to get hurt.

This is a fun match. Lots of fun, innovative fun spots. Lots of fun moves. Again, there's a guy named Myron. That's something that should be celebrated. This is how Tony does it. Who has Tony ever signed or brought in? There's probably a few.

I'm just trying to think off the top of my head that he has had on TV for the first week, let alone any other weeks, that just come out and win a squash match or win a match in five minutes or less. It doesn't happen. Or just look good. Everyone who gets signed immediately is in a long

competitive match with guys that you know aren't going to win. Every match is a long competitive match, I mean, if you're into the moves and into watching it like you're watching the Olympics, that's one thing. And again, I like this match. I actually had no problem with this match. For what it was, it was perfectly fine. But you have a point there with, you got the new day. Showcase these fucking guys.

Yeah. And then as they're leaving the new. music plays and the buckaroos come out and they all smirk at each other with the smirkiness that they have and again what i said earlier this time it's the mattie and nicky next to swerve and these guys they look like they're 12 years old but besides who are the baby faces and the only tag team that nobody has inserted into this fucking mess where there's all these tag teams are the one tag team that could kick the shit out of all the other tag teams that were actually serious and got over Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin to hurt business, hurt syndicate,

and they're on the pre-show with the fucking cookie monster. So then the Hartley boys were in the ring. Can they either one of them weigh 170 pounds? You know, is it possible? It's funny. I was watching this and I had to thought, Matt Jackson, pie face buck, road warrior buck, his arms may be the biggest they've ever been.

And at the same time, Nick Jackson, balding buck, dim-witted buck, whatever you want to say, he's never looked scrawnier and less like a wrestler. And I've criticized his look in the past because he seemed to never work out or anything. But he looked the scrawniest he's ever looked out there. Maybe I just noticed him because he was standing in front. I didn't notice any significant improvement in the physique of the other one.

But standing next to his brother, he probably did look big. They were out there. They were going to complain about being screwed over like they were because by gum, they've done worse to people. But do Edge and Christian really feel good about how they beat us. Why don't they come out here and tell us to our faces that they can actually feel good

about the way they won? But then FTR's music plays. I'm all not again. Every time they come back, it's stuck with these two fucking children and they come out in their gas station outfits because now they fucking pump gas.

I don't know why they need their... It's like Cole Cabana with that stupid service station attended outfit he used to wear it with his name. on his fucking pocket. I wanted to just take a knife and just plunge it into the fucking name followed by his heart.

So then Stokely cut a promo. We're getting our feelings out today, folks. Well, it just, what the fuck? What do you want to look stupid on television for? And when Stokely cuts promo, then Dax tried to cut a promo, but the fans don't want to listen to him. He has poisoned.

The fans love these guys three years ago. They stood up when they came out and then they were booked into oblivion and Dax wouldn't shut up. Yeah, that's pretty much exactly. And then they started arguing with each other and then Edge and Christians music played. And Cage came out doing the heel promo that he's been doing, but it's kind of like he's going through the numbers now. Because it's just there's no material and it's no, it's dragging everybody. down. And I was wondering if Edge was going to be heelish too, but then he tried to be the voice of reason. I'm the

voice of reason. No, I'm not pleased with the way things happen at Wimbly, but I've got a way to make it right. So it all out, which I forgot is the next one of their paper views after all in. We're going to have a three-way match that may just involve chairs, tables, and ladders. I'm like, well, for fuck's sake, now, We had one tag match at Wembley Stadium,

and now they're back to multiple team garbage matches with furniture, because how can you not? So there we go. That's what that's going to be. Oh, joy, we've never seen one of those before. Do they ever get tired of it? I'm going to do the boys ever get tired of doing them and risking their fucking necks

and do the fans ever get tired to see in the same shit over and fucking over? That's a rhetorical question, but you could answer it if you have a pithy comment. Will this be the first three-way tag team ladder match? I mean, are these the three oldest tag teams to ever have this kind of match? I guess that's the better way to phrase it.

I would think they'd almost have to be. That's what I was thinking. And what Dax and Cash, are they 40 yet? they have to be because the bucks are and edge and christian are into 50 why do they want to keep climbing these ladders well i know the the buckaroos are stuck because they can't do anything else but the shit they do but bless edge and christian they ought to be able to come now nevertheless all right are you ready brian for the derby allen update see what this mischievous little minks got into uh this time around

Yeah, I'm a big Darby fan. I swear to God, I swear to God, I, I'd like to have somebody call somebody to commit this fucking guy and do a study on him. I would love him if it was a gimmick, as I said the other day, but it ain't a gimmick. He's just a fucking goof. But he's got to peel. And if he, again, if he could be produced and maybe he, some things explained to him,

and you could use this. If he listened to what he was told to do and never given the right to say or do anything on his own, he would be one of the biggest superstars in the WWE. I'm telling you that right now. It will never happen because he'd rather sleep in his car, which he's done before, because he's got a lot of principle.

very little fucking sense, but a lot of principle. So Darby entered and was attacked from behind by Mark Davis, who beat the shit out of him on the floor and they went to the break. And I swear to God, during the entire break, Davis was beaten Darby up throughout the entire arena. And they came back from the break and Darby started to come back and dove on Davis from out of the stands. and then they fought back to the ring and used the skateboard and bumped off the announced desk and etc

and then Davis grabbed Darby and rolled him into the ring and Aubriette rung the bell for the TNT title match to start what is the matter with these people in what world do they live in that this everything has to be a joke and phony and preposterous and something that completely would never happen ever, even by accident. And then, as I mentioned, Darby, the appeal he has, he can sell in a wrestling context without the stupid stunts and the goofy furniture or the tax or the fire or the IEDs. He's got an underdog charisma and a unique aura about him. but he can't be left to his own devices. Because I like parts of him.

And even after seeing something like this, I'm about done with him and think that he's a fucking socially maladjusted, face-painted fucking ferret. And then they took another break when Davis was beaten on him and came back

and Darby was still making comebacks. And then he went to the top and did a missile drop-kick off the top rope to Davis on the floor where Darby took a flat back bump. He jumped off the top turnbuckle, put both feet in Davis's chest, and it took a flat back bump on the floor. Davis staggered over and bent over the announced desk. But yet Darby got back in the ring first and Davis barely beat to count at night.

Whereas then Darby hit him with two coffin drops. and beat him one, two, three. And then, and then, Brian, you may comment if you wish, here came Rocky Romero and Trent fucking, what you call it, looking like Don Johnson and the other guy in Miami Vice. That gimmick is timely based. They kicked shit out of Darby Allen until Sting Jr. came in and made a comeback and he can jump.

That was a fantastic drive. drop kick. Oh, yeah. What a fucking, oh, boy, just jumping, just jumping at boy bouncy. But then he challenged Davis to get in the ring, but Josh Alexander, who I just realized, hadn't been there in a while because it's Josh Alexander's back. I forgot he left. See, he went away and we still didn't miss him. But he came in and beat up Darby and Sting Jr. Fucking hell. I enjoyed the match because I liked Darby. I thought the Sting Jr. drop kick was incredible.

I know he's in his mid-30s and there aren't a lot of guys. Seriously, he's that old. That's what I read. I'll double check right now. I thought he's, well, why has he just suddenly made this decision? Did goddamn real estate not work out?

If he can drop kick like that and he's that size and he's in his 30s, he's been a major fuck up because he could have goddamn done this. Well, no. He has committed a major fucking faux paw. He could have done this 10 years ago and been a multimillionaire by now. But in his 30s to start, he's fucked. Anyway.

34 years old is what I'm seeing here, but I don't know if that's... Yeah, well, he's fucked. He should have made this decision 12 years ago and he would have right now, like I said, been a fucking multimillionaire. Speaking of multimillionaire, Oh, did you want to say anything about that,

what I just said about that thing there? Yeah, I enjoyed the match until the RPG vice run in. You know, when it's the B team of the Callis family or the C team of the Callis family, you can't care. And Josh Alexander returned, and I groaned because it's like, man, there's another guy in the Callis family. I completely forgot about it, another,

just another guy in the Callis family. So every segment of this program had a dozen, people interacting over and over in various ways for various reasons and, and, you know, punctuated by Darby Allen is impossible to kill. And it's not done yet. There's much more mix-up left to go. But that's the point I'm making. And it all, it's all underneath guys, preliminary talent, mid-card guys.

There's no money ballplayers here on. display. Or if they are, they're in the middle of a goddamn crowd. And I've never seen anything like this being done on purpose. And as I mentioned, the million dollar ball players continuing Mercedes had an in-ring celebration. She loves these. Has anybody had any more of these than she has? Did you see Dave Meltzer just called her the greatest American women's wrestler of all time? Oh, crap. I'm sure.

I'm sure he did. She loves this stuff because she believes it, and he is one of the people that makes her believe it. There are a lot of people in this company and around this periphery of this thing that believe that they are much grander than they are and much more important to the world to keep on turning. And they got the ring set up with the flowers

and the pictures of her and the balloons and apparently, you know, all of the history of her leading up to this big moment, she thanked the fans for all. There was no reaction to most of what she said, light booze in some instances. She's wearing an over-the-top clown hat of some kind. Again, Tony pays her millions of dollars, so she's got this wardrobe budget that she can just go out and spend,

all this shit on all this preposterous fucking gear. And she's not an effective heel to me because people are not booing her and ramped up to see somebody

beat her and somebody stop her and I got to pay to see this reign of terror come to an end at the hands of this savior of AW women's wrestling. It's they don't like her because she's a rot.

performer, a rotten actress, but she's still an egotistical bitch that is in love with herself, and they can tell that. That's the way she comes off. She comes off as being a rotten actress who has gone through a lot of fucking trouble to show you how much she thinks of herself. Am I lying, Brian? I think the AEW fans are pretty accepting of her.

I mean, they like her. She was a baby face for the first minute or so of this celebration, and then she turned back heel, got them to boo her again. She was a baby face at the start of the run until people started listening to her talk, and then they started booing her. That's why they had to turn her. She's insufferable. Well, the segment got really good.

Well, but then she finally started promoing Willow and called her a bitch, and then got, on the fans when they were cheering for Willow and showed her broken nose and the fans did the chanted you deserve it for the broken nose but that's the thing is she recited her stuff and she's a rotten actress but then suddenly Fekla interrupted from the stands to celebrate with her and oh my God it's like flipping a switch you've got somebody with some personality that got a line of bullshit that can run their fucking mouth. And Thekla was like, you may be a legend and an icon, but you've never been toxic.

I think she's probably been poisonous to the ratings of time or two, Mercedes. And she told Mercedes, hey, I can't do whatever accent she's got. But I see you like to swing that belt between your legs, but nobody swings it better than Tecla. And she did this line where she said, I heard you calling people dumb bitches. Well, I hate dumb bitches calling other people

dumb bitch. It just that was a great promo and she's a huge baby face. And I don't know if they know that or they know what they got. Last time I remember she had friends, they were healed friends. But she said, let me

know when you're ready, Mercedes, to do this and we'll do this. I want to see Tecla kick the shit out of Mercedes. So it started ridiculous and went to sublime. But I know what you think, but what

were your thoughts? I thought Tecla was great. And she always gets the fans behind her. And she's funny without like it's seeming she's trying to be. She's doing her rap. She's like she's somebody that, well, it's somebody that would be a

fucking hoot to just be out at the goddamn restaurant with or the bar or whatever the fuck. Hey, and they're telling a story. Yeah, and I really like this. I've liked everything with her for a little while now. In terms of the segments, I mean, in terms of the match, we'll see it may be a little bit of a styles clash, but I certainly want to see the promos building up a match like that. Tickla's being really good. And

I think if the styles clash, I think Tecla can just kick the shit out of her for real. So we got that going for us, too. And then Brian. At the same time that you have Netflix censoring WWE. You have AEW with stars drinking on TV calling each other

pricks as blood as cursing. Dumb bitches and shitheads. She was drinking tequila. She said, I got my tequila here. Where'd you get that? Well, she's got her own line. Tecla tequila. See, she bought it and read,

remember Tila tequila? When she got old and her coochie got worn out, she bought the intellectual property and now it's going to be tequila. Anyway, then we had, I'm not even going to say a goddamn word except to say that we had it, a continental eliminator match where Moxley beat A.R. Fox. They just leave Moxley off TV one fucking week and give us all a break.

but then it was time for our main event Brian of course which began at 10 o'clock right after the program had ended and we were in the overrun this is what they expect us to to do every week and it was ricochet and his two stooges and Gabe Kidd and Chuck Connors against Osprey his friends from Japan the three nobodies and Andrade who agreed to join them for this to make the side

even. And I've mentioned how embarrassing Newman is just visually and that these guys small, unheard of, same shit as it's just a bunch of

jumping beans. The match was a plate of scrambled eggs when it wasn't fake and stupid, it was fake and silly. Because there is not one legitimate money talent. Out of the 10 of these guys, except for Osprey for sure, Andreid under the circumstances,

and ricochet if you need somebody to do a high-profile job. Everybody else is, what the fuck? And this is what the world champion is doing on television, his first week in the office, as they say. And the gymnastics were way over the top. And finally, the baby face is one. Andrade and Osprey together hit Connors with the elbows. So it takes both the world champion and his number one contender to beat his fucking.

Then they do the thing, the visual thing where Andre, at least he didn't have to speak. But he showed Osprey the thing they've got where he's won the AW World Title contract and they were posing with that. says oh what's going to happen when they face each other but then the heels got back up and gotten a big fucking fight and the security came down and the fans were standing around just staring like more of this and kid jumped on Osprey but Osprey came back he went to kick Gabe Kid in the head he whiffed it kid sold it then kid got him with a nut shot and got a was going to kill him, but the music play.

Let the music play, because we can't get away. And here came the boar horseman, and Moxley took the chair away from Gabe Kidd and yelled at him, because Gabe Kidd used to hang out with the boar horseman, remember? I didn't, but they told me. And Moxley won't let Gabe Kidd hit Osprey with the chair, but then Andre tackled Gabe Kidd and they fought off. But Moxley got the belt and handed it to Osprey and made some goo-goo eyes at him

until they heard a slight rumbling from the audience and they both looked up to the screen and Osprey and Moxley both see the graphic for the main event and all out. It's Will Osprey versus John Moxley for the title. And then they make shocked face like they just found out from the graphic. So the heel saved the world champion from a job guy and will now face him at the next pay-per-view. And it was 10.25 p.m. Eastern Time.

Your thoughts on this big reveal, Brian? You know, you knew they were going to eventually do Moxley and Osprey. they kind of had to that's been building up and it is something that would make sense for it to happen. Yes, it is a big angle ever been a fucking graphic? Well, not only just that,

the fact that they're doing the match right away and they announced it like this is a bit surprising. What are we supposed to believe that Tony Kahn was like, let's surprise them? What would be the reason that this was the way the reveal happened? I don't know.

I have no idea. It's never been done like this ever, and that's not necessarily praise. This is not revolutionary. This is stupid. But like you said, also already, they've just had the biggest show of all times. So now, even for people, I know there are some, I don't know why, but I know there are, that like Moxley, this would be a big match for them. So one would think that they would then start crafting the weeks and months leading up to

like they would have done for, I don't know, Cody and Orton, or something like that, where they, they, you know, plant some seeds for a while. I thought it was going to be Osprey and ricochet, like at the start of the show where they started, when Osprey did his program when the ricochet came out, I said, okay, they got a paper meeting coming up. This will be a pretty big match for AEW. fans. If you're into that style, like this is a pretty big match. Good win for

Bruv. And yeah, no, they're not doing that. And then for a second, I thought, okay, they're going to do Osprey and Gabe Kidd. All right, they've got this stupid story that Gabe Kidd's mad that Osprey was the British champion before he was. It wouldn't draw 15 cents in Chinese money, but a good win

for Will Osprey. I did not think, I'm surprised. I probably shouldn't be that Tony would go right to Moxley. I'm surprised by that. I mean, that's pretty surprised. Yeah. But yeah. So that's that.

But this, it gets more and more cluttered. And the real legitimate talent that is over, could be over, can be used in major ways, is constantly hidden with just every, Everybody, everybody, all around them, running around like goddamn Keebler elves. But that was the show, Brian. That's what I thought of the show.

That was the show there. Well, maybe Smackdown will save the day. Maybe Smackdown will redeem the wrestling reviews for this week. We may or may not find that out. I think, you know what? If this is the end of the show, then you'll know that we didn't give two shits about Smackdown. And if we talk about SmackDown here in a minute, you'll know that there was at least one or two things

that we thought we had to talk about on SmackDown. I don't know whether I should even say, thank you, fuck you, and buy now or not, or just leave the people hanging. And maybe if I stopped talking in mid-sentence, then they just realized that, well, they didn't give two shits about Smackdown, and that's why they...