Jim Cornette’s Drive-Thru - Episode 364

Episode Date: October 23, 2024

This week on the Drive Thru, Jim reviews AEW Dynamite and WWE Raw! Plus Jim talks about Joe Koff, selling wrestling locally, Dave Meltzer's star ratings for AEW WrestleDream, ratings, and much more! S...end in your question for the Drive-Thru to: CornyDriveThru@gmail.com  Follow Jim and Brian on Twitter: @TheJimCornette @GreatBrianLast Join Jim Cornette's College Of Wrestling Knowledge on Patreon to access the archives & more! https://www.patreon.com/Cornette Subscribe to the Official Jim Cornette channel on YouTube! http://www.youtube.com/c/OfficialJimCornette Visit Jim's official site at www.JimCornette.com for merch, live dates, commentaries and more! You can listen to Brian on the 6:05 Superpodcast at 605pod.com or wherever you find your favorite podcasts!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hello again, friends! And you are our friends. Some of you are sick. Some of you are sickos. Some of you are just fine today for another episode of Corny's drive-thru right here. It is the fall, the fall of many things. I'm your host, the Great Brian Last, and here he is, the star, the leader of the cult of Cornette, Mr. Jim Cornett.
Starting point is 00:00:25 You've heard of the fall of the House of Usher, ladies and gentlemen, I introduce you to the fall of the house of last. You are falling apart. You are, you are pressing on despite your condition. Look, here's the thing, Brian, to clear your sinuses. To clear your, just do this along with me. Ha-ha-ha-ha. Take your thumb and your forefinger and pinch the bridge of your nose.
Starting point is 00:00:49 And do that, and you're going to be fine because you said, Hello again, friends, and you are our friend. get that stuff back up can you do that for me I'm going to unmute the whole time laughing you know that that makes me laugh but and also if you laugh you will you will again start wheezing and we don't want that so don't laugh
Starting point is 00:01:15 all right well if I'm going to be talking to you I think we can assure myself I won't be laughing we are back with another episode of the show here You see that? You set me up. Ding dong right out of the ballpark. Ding dong. Hello.
Starting point is 00:01:33 Well, see, I'm still trying to warm up here. I may build a small fire on the desk because it's freezing in Louisville, Kentucky here this week. I'll have you. Literally, it got down not at the official temperature of Louisville because they measure it at the airport in the middle of a goddamn concrete heat island and nobody lives at the airport. so we're about five degrees, seven degrees
Starting point is 00:01:58 cooler than the airport usually, but it got down to freezing here yesterday and it was nigh on close to it today. And I am wearing a, I am wearing a, I squeaked there. I'm freezing when I go outside to take Little Harley and inside I refuse to turn the heat on in the office this early in a year, so I'm sitting here wearing a coat.
Starting point is 00:02:22 but just keep doing this it'll be fine well some things may be fine I don't know about this show here today and of course there's a lot of wrestling to talk about a lot of wrestling to review we're going to get some questions in by God
Starting point is 00:02:39 yes and apparently no other conversation to be had between you and I oh what do you want to talk about hello Cody what do you want to talk about it's story time with Corny Remember what we didn't think that he was ever going to be able to get that over? I still don't think.
Starting point is 00:02:57 You and me disagree on how over it is. Well, now he could come out and say, you know, blow me, blow me, fuck you. And then they'd start chanting, blow me, fuck you. I don't know. So you can't really tell whether anything's over or not because everything's over. But you know what? It used to get dropped like a turd in a punch bowl. And now, yay.
Starting point is 00:03:20 Who's more over right now as a baby fan? Cody Rhodes or Roman Raines? You know, there are two different slots of baby face. And honestly, I still think in terms of overall
Starting point is 00:03:39 popularity and driving to business on a regular basis, it's Cody. But Roman, as we know, works a limited schedule anyway. And that's perfect for them because they got the champion that's that's into the grind and doing all these things. And then they got the
Starting point is 00:03:58 the Bruno Samertino figure, living legend that can come in once twice a year for the big mega main event, whatever fuck, or hire me times a year. You see what I'm, do you smell what I'm cooking, Brian? I do.
Starting point is 00:04:14 What do you, who do you think is on top there right now? I think there may be some Cody fatigue setting in soon if they're not careful and if he keeps, you know, he's like a well-behaved moxley on the microphone sometimes,
Starting point is 00:04:28 some of the big words he's trying to use and trying to unnaturally speak. You know, you have to be direct sometimes. And eventually, you know, Dusty can get away with it, but Dusty was flamboyant
Starting point is 00:04:40 beyond the language. Cody, you know, is more, you know, eh. Dusty's was more jive and Cody's is more thesaurus. Yes. That's a wonderful way to put it. Well, thank you very much, baby.
Starting point is 00:04:57 I appreciate the way you appreciate me. And I think him and Roman Reigns and having their recent interactions kind of exposed a little bit of the fact that Cody may not be, well, Cody wasn't as over as Roman in those settings. Roman, the fan saw Roman is the baby face and Cody having to acquiesce to him. Almost like they still thought he was the tribal chief. Well, it just depends on what tribe Cody's from. I think he's is he he's actually he's a member of the Georgia tribe even though the family comes from the the Texas tribes of Texas natives but if he ever wanted to go to Hawaii he'd have to bow down to Roman wouldn't he either that or buy a surfboard from King Curtis you see you wanted small talk this is what we got very small well let me just let me just tiny minuscule talk minuscule diminutive microscope amoeba-like in its minutia.
Starting point is 00:05:58 Let me then mention and get it out of the way, since apparently something needs to be got out of the way, that the merchandise sale at Jim Cornett.com for the holidays is going on now, and thank you very much. Folks, it's been, as we speak, what, not even two weeks, 10, 12 days or whatever, from our initial on sale, and already, due to the Feather Bottom speedy service system, the first I've lost count 100 or so packages are going to be going out this week and more to follow quickly. We're dividing everything up so that everything gets individual attention.
Starting point is 00:06:32 And as I mentioned on the last program, you can sign up now if you go to the Jimcornet.com homepage, go down to the bottom, says sign up for the newsletter. You put your email address in there. It is free. And we will not sell your information any four. countries. You're starting a newsletter, I see. Well, it says newsletter. I don't, that's a Hotchkiss thing. Oh, really? He invented the newsletter now. Well, yeah, it's something that we're going to come up with here in very short order. But he's invented a thing called a newsletter where I can send out letters with news. It's like, and it's going to go in conjunction with the email blast that he invented.
Starting point is 00:07:15 So you will get email blast from Hotchkis feather bottom. because one item from our immense merchandise catalog is going on sale each week in November at deep discounts up to half off. I'll have you know. Well, actually, you get the whole piece of merchandise. We're not going to cut it in half. We're just going to charge you half price. And each week, he will be informing the people that want to know which item is on sale and how much fur.
Starting point is 00:07:47 so you just go and put your email address in there and you're fixed or you can just go and order down take your chances there's so many items what the fuck is the odds that you're going to order the one thing it's going to be on sale that week in November or whatever Jimcornet.com what a great selling point Jimcornet.com well yes that's where you're supposed to go to buy the stuff they know that all the stuff is there they just need to know where to go so I'm telling these people people, where to go?
Starting point is 00:08:22 All right, well, it's my show. Where are we going to go from here? I will decide where we will go. And actually, Jim, before we get to some of the reviews, and there's a little bit about Rawl, luckily it's only two hours. And dynamite was filled with all sorts of, I guess, wrestle crap is a copyrighted term, but all sorts of nonsense we'll talk about.
Starting point is 00:08:41 But let's start with a serious topic, and obviously it's one that when the news broke, a lot of the listeners started reaching out, wanting to hear what you had to say, because it's a name a lot of people first heard from you in a lot of ways. Joe Koff, former head of Ring of Honor. He had been a vice president and then I believe a senior vice president for Sinclair Broadcasting just passed away.
Starting point is 00:09:07 And obviously you worked with him and you knew him. Well, and he had cancer that's been mentioned. And it had been known by, myself and, you know, certain people for a little while now, but he had made a public issue out of it. And I guess it was probably about six weeks ago that he decided to stop treatments because he wanted to, you know, they were not going to be successful and it was diminishing his quality of life to where he couldn't spend time with his family and his grandchildren. you know I think I was I was thinking about it in my mind I think besides delirious hunter
Starting point is 00:09:53 Johnston Joe Koff is the only person I didn't yell at the whole time that I was there with that ring of honor period from 2009 to 12 he was a every one of the wrestling fans if you're an AEW fan especially. But every wrestling fan should be grateful to him if for nothing else, then he kept Ring of Honor alive a couple of different times.
Starting point is 00:10:25 First, in, you know, when they bought it originally from Kerry Silken and then secondly, when he made the decision to sell it to Tony Con rather than just sell the tape library to the WWE, they wouldn't have picked up anybody's contracts, or hired probably, you know, a good portion of the talent or whatever.
Starting point is 00:10:48 But he was a tremendous, and I don't want to say this the wrong way, he was a tremendous fan of wrestling, not that he was a mark or that he was trying to throw money around or whatever, but he was a tremendous supporter of wrestling. And he appreciated the wrestling business, and he always had, and he didn't go crazy, wanted to be involved in it just to be a,
Starting point is 00:11:12 Mark, he was involved in, as we mentioned long ago, the Florida office, the Battle of the Belt specials they did, syndicating those. And it was to the point where Eddie Graham wanted, or Eddie may have been dead, but whoever was running the office. Eddie was dead already. Yeah, they wanted him to continue working for the company and trying to get him TV deals. And he just, well, you know, he was more established in the career trajectory he was already taken.
Starting point is 00:11:43 But so he provided a service for a lot of the guys in the business in that they had a place to grow and progress and flourish or whatever. And at the same time, he did everything he could. And when I've talked about all the chaos and the misery that whole period cost me, it was never Joe's fault. He's the one that got him to buy it. but even he couldn't get them to spend any amount of money. And, you know, part of the, they had the overall Sinclair broadcasting, the bigger vision
Starting point is 00:12:21 of buying up all these television stations. And, well, Brian, you know more about the business world, but it's Sinclair broadcasting had like at one point a number of years ago, last time I've checked, hundreds of millions of dollars, if not a billion dollar in, dollars in debt, right? They had taken on an incredible amount of debt trying to put together these regional sports networks and buying up all these television stations.
Starting point is 00:12:51 And it fell apart. It's not something that's very easy in this market and this day and age to do. If they had tried it 20 years earlier, it would have been a different story. But Sinclair, you know, in an era where less people than ever before watch network TV or local TV, they still own TV stations all over the place.
Starting point is 00:13:09 well and when we started and again let me go back and start at the beginning it basically started with when carrie silken called me after t and a had decided to let me go yeah with after the whole jeff thing and dutch was gone and they found and then you know russo had his way for a month till hogan came in whatever that whole bunch of chaos Carrie had talked to me about coming in and what can you do for you? You know, he was losing money and he loved the thing also. He loved Ring of Honor and Wrestling and wanted to keep it going. And I was pissed off at these other Yehus who were wasting all these opportunities.
Starting point is 00:14:01 And I said, Carrie, I'll find you something. I'll figure out a way to get you on television or a sponsor or health. some way, talent, whatever. And you know that because we had some conversations in New York. But one of the people that I'd talked to was Gary Jester, who I'd known from the 80s and Crockett and et cetera. And he came to one of the shows, and he said, this is an amazing live atmosphere.
Starting point is 00:14:30 And I said, how do we get in on television? He said, I know a guy that works for Sinclair Broadcasting in Baltimore, because Gary had lived in Baltimore for years before he moved down to Atlanta and had run the Baltimore Civic Center and bought time from Joe Koff that many years ago. So we went and that's where the talk started with Joe Koff. The idea originally was just to get on those television stations. And a reason why I talked earlier about how many stations they ended up buying at this time I think they owned like, was it 55 or 50-something television stations?
Starting point is 00:15:14 And they would get to where it was, what did they get up to? Like, 130 or 40-something? Am I exaggerating that? I don't think you're exaggerating. I don't remember the exact number, but I remember being over 100. So the idea was that, you know, as they got on more stations, we didn't know they were going to get on that many. It would increase the coverage of Ring of Honor.
Starting point is 00:15:34 and Joe got so interested and started talking and they ended up buying the company outright from Kerry. But the problem was, as we mentioned, they didn't want to spend a lot of money past that. It took a number of years for them to start spending any money on the thing. And, you know, that was my issue. You don't get a second chance to make a first impression sometimes. But also, you know,
Starting point is 00:16:04 That was the thing is that the corporate world always has a problem mixing with wrestling. We've seen that. And Joe was probably the greatest guy that has ever been the conduit between the corporate world and the wrestling people. He was gentlemanly and nice and articulate and smart. And he tried to do the best he could. but, you know, that's sometimes those worlds just don't mix. So Joe, I never had an issue with. And, you know, he did the best he could in those early years while I was around.
Starting point is 00:16:48 And he always did the best he could. But that's, you know, his primary position in Sinclair had been that he was the guy who trained and I don't know whether he oversaw him on an ongoing basis, but the different local sales departments at all the stations, he trained them. He had regular two-week seminars where they would bring all these people together, and he'd teach them out of sell television and sponsorships and value-added packages and et cetera. And that was another part of the idea for Ring of Honor originally,
Starting point is 00:17:31 was not to just suddenly make, you know, tens of millions of dollars with live events, but be a value-added thing for the local television stations. And that's what he was so good at because he had trained a lot of people in the sales departments. He regularly talked to all the, you know, local sales managers and everything in all these stations. So that was, again, that was part of the original plan.
Starting point is 00:18:00 We found out later on, Sinclair wasn't going to give us the credit, Ring of Honor credit for the sponsorship money that the local television station took in in conjunction with our live events. We've gone over that many times in Ring of Honor talks. This is not spot for it here, but that, you know, Joe sent me off to a number of stations to talk to the sales departments about how specifically to sell wrestling. And I enjoyed doing that because you could get them excited and go out and motivated. And boom, boom, boom, it made the program more profitable and more important for the local station
Starting point is 00:18:41 if they were getting revenue off of it. But anyway, you know, he was just a nice guy. And, you know, like I said, not only were he and Hunter the only two guys I don't think I ever yelled at, but when I cracked up and I had all I can stands, I can't stands no more moment with the whole thing, the only two people I felt like I were letting down, I was letting down, poor grammar, were Hunter and Joe.
Starting point is 00:19:13 You know, I fell back because Joe had done all he could and got him to buy the thing and was trying as best he could, and Hunter was there left with, you know, a lot of stress on his hands. But so I hated to hear this news. You know, another thing about Joe Koff, Jim, is that he is one of the people responsible for All In. And I don't think he ever felt that he and Ring of Honor got the credit they deserve because everyone pretended like it was just the Bucks and Cody doing a show, not that it was a Ring of Honor production produced by Cody and the Bucks.
Starting point is 00:19:50 Well, besides that, they were all under contract to him. so he had to let them do the thing to begin with. And then, yes, they used their office infrastructure and, you know, the ticket master, things, all the details of running a show and their production equipment and or department and et cetera. It was just, it was produced by the talent,
Starting point is 00:20:19 but the whole thing, basically, was pulled off by the Ring of Honor infrastructure. who got no credit for it really when you think about it I mean right this a lot of people who then had a billionaire come along and sign up all of the guys after they you know hey thanks it's a nice audition tape you made for me I think a lot of people that were involved with ring of honor behind the scenes for those couple years there have a good deal of resentment and for good reason with some of the people involved with all in who went to AEW because it was basically they gutted ring of honor well yeah they they basically held the company hostage because the Ring of Honor was still small enough to where when they brought there at the time audience of a few hundred thousand
Starting point is 00:21:06 indie fanatics to a company that size it made an instant difference and then they held the company hostage to do all of their cartoonishness and build it around them and then they bailed as soon as they helped them make an audition tape for the billionaire that was going to spend a fucking fortune.
Starting point is 00:21:30 But otherwise than that, it was great. Yeah, there are a few people who stayed behind who were like, what the fuck? But yeah, Joe Koff deserves a lot of credit for All In. And, of course, Ring of Honor does, but he was the person in charge. But anyway, you know, he... That's why they owned it. That's why they owned the actual footage until Tony Kahn bought...
Starting point is 00:21:52 Ring of honor and Cody said, What the fuck? Yeah. But anyway, you know, I hate to hear this news. It's bad news.
Starting point is 00:22:04 And Joe Koff has a couple of different places in wrestling history, which I think overall, I think he'd be proud to be included in. Well, there it is, Joe Koff. And, of course,
Starting point is 00:22:19 you worked with Joe Koff for a long time. You talked about how he you know, again, he was a vice president, then a senior vice president of training. And it wasn't like, you know, him going there teaching people out to build computers. He was training the sales departments. How tough is that to teach people how to sell wrestling? Forget about sales for a television network in, you know, in 2010 or whenever he was doing that. But to actually sell wrestling, especially if it's not WWE.
Starting point is 00:22:46 Well, see, here was the plan or the idea or the concept or what. whatever you want to call it, for Ring of Honor to have a somewhat profitable place in Sinclair, as I've talked about before, was to get ratings for the local television stations, which at that point in time, what is this 15 years ago now or almost or whatever, a good local professional wrestling program on a local station could do a one rating. And again, some people are so stupid about TV ratings. is either, well, a one, that would be 5 million people or whatever, no, local rating.
Starting point is 00:23:28 A one. And I've mentioned that OVW and Louisville did anything from 0.6s to fucking 2.8s or whatever. We were, you know, over the years in different ballparks. But if you could do a one rating and you could sell time on that, it wasn't like doing a one rating for, you know, a ball game or doing one rating for a
Starting point is 00:23:57 rerun of a sitcom because the stars of that program could actively come to town, could be involved with the car lot or the furniture store or the check cashing place or the wacky car dealer or whoever in town is sponsored. They could be in their commercials, Ed, that would air on the show where the fucking wrestler is a star on. And when we run a show, not only are we selling tickets, but also we can sell banners for the sponsors of the commercials on the walls and on the ring. You get the whole drift, right? It's all integrated. And Joe loved that because of his, you know, position, training and working with the local sales.
Starting point is 00:24:48 departments and we're in especially now but even then in local television really what what the local sales departments had to sell were if they were especially network sports on the weekend your local news every day and your primetime programming and they they weren't even really trying to sell other shit it was a wasteland so if you could get them motivated they could really produce revenue off the wrestling program. And I went to Charleston, Huntington, West Virginia. I went to Richmond, Virginia, the station there I believe we talked to. I know we saw the manager of WLOS 13 in Asheville.
Starting point is 00:25:35 And a lot of people were saying, oh, he was going to the old Crockett towns. Well, it wasn't just because I was a Crockett celebrity of the era, but because those stations had been Crockett stations and that area of the country was still strong enough in Charleston Huntington they had an incredible, they were winning the time slot on Saturday night at like 11 o'clock
Starting point is 00:26:02 I think it was 20 something, 30 something viewers in that market and they were doing a two point something or a three rating in Richmond. And so you could do something with that on a local basis to generate revenue for the television station. I've told when we went to Charleston, we did have advertised a wing eating contest at Hooters with the guys and had the car dealer have the brand new car in the lobby of the Civic Center when the people came in and banners everywhere
Starting point is 00:26:42 and it was $28,000 of revenue for the station and advertising on top of the gate that we did for Ring of Honor, right? But then we found out, like I said, corporate, oh, we don't count that. Wait a minute, what? If we had to come
Starting point is 00:26:58 and run this show, they wouldn't have got that $28,000. But we didn't get credit for it, somewhere or another. But that was the idea on once again trying to generate more revenue. So I was going out and talking to some of the sales departments on the specifics. I mentioned, you always want the wacky car dealer. You always want a furniture, rental, or check cashing, or pawn or jewelry.
Starting point is 00:27:24 You always want, you know, the basic shit that everybody needs, and now these days with sports cards, and at one point it was video stores and video game stores. and you know but whatever the whatever the general populace that watches or either wrestling or television in general at that particular time of the day and you get these people involved
Starting point is 00:27:53 where they can be not only in their own commercial because you see that all the time right even up there in New York big fucking TV market but there's a lot of local yokels doing their own commercials right Non-stop local attorneys.
Starting point is 00:28:08 Well, I didn't mean to call any of the attorneys up there, Yocals. Don't sue me. You know what's just the stupidest one? I'm going to give them a free plug because it's so stupid. 1-800 pain law, and their tagline is, because if you're in pain, you need law. What the fuck is that? Lazy assholes? Pain law.
Starting point is 00:28:27 But, well, then, like in Smoky Mad Wrestling, wrestling, I've told a story about classy motors. And, you know, Mrs. Winner's Chicken. whatever the fuck, in fast food places. We had, oh, who was the fast food place? We had to do something. God damn, I can't remember. Anyway, you get those people, those businesses, I should say, and then they can buy into the program,
Starting point is 00:28:53 but instead of just getting a commercial, they can have the wrestler come down, and we can advertise an autograph session. And as I've mentioned, they can have banners and a presence at the live event, and they can even do the commercials and blah, blah, blah, blah. So that is something that he wanted to try to spread.
Starting point is 00:29:12 You know, and that's why we wanted it. Once again, with some of the indie guys that were just darlings, either they looked like Ned, as Christine Jared would say, they look like Ned, or they'd be a half an hour late if you had them show up. Okay, 7 o'clock, you're going to be on the live local news. Some of these guys weren't as big as the goddamn newscasters, or they'd show up at 7.30 to be on 7 o'clock live local news,
Starting point is 00:29:44 or nobody'd ever heard of them. That's why we wanted guys like Jay Lethal, or Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin, guys that could still go in the ring but had some level of presence on national television, and were also responsible and would show up and had an aura of professionalism. about them. And, you know, or in the case of the briskos, who were, obviously, guys that would show up on time and, you know, do whatever the fuck, but they had an aura of unprofessionalism, but they were real, right? They loved them on TV in Baltimore.
Starting point is 00:30:24 They'd have Mark Briscoe do the fucking weather. But that's how, you know, you're not creating a star nationwide, but you're creating a local, name and celebrity that people know that they might want to buy tickets to see and you're integrating it with the local television station and the local businesses
Starting point is 00:30:48 and it gives the wrestling business in that particular market a little more aura of respectability. Does that make sense? I think it makes sense. Because if you're running a show at a recast center somewhere that you're just renting and setting up the chairs, that's all fine.
Starting point is 00:31:09 But if you can go to other businesses and say, yes, we're on such and such television station and we're working with Hooters and this other company you've heard of. And, you know, we're going to be on the newscast in the morning if you want to check it out. Well, then they're like, I might be able to work with these people. They might not be goddamn complete shysters. And that, still today, if anybody could figure out a way to just put together a regional network in a manageable, populated area of local television stations, especially where in some of these markets, they've got a TV station and a radio station, and look at 2,000-seat buildings where they may exist, and do promotions. you know, this shit's sellable. But nobody tries to sell it to the,
Starting point is 00:32:09 well, the WWE does, they try to sell it to everybody. As Christine Jarrett, you say, they'd sell you the glasses on your own face. But AEW and a lot of these other companies don't promote the local markets because they're too busy thinking about their television and, you know, the TV rights deal or whatever, that's why they've got 3,000 people,
Starting point is 00:32:33 in a 20,000 seat building when in some of the size of these cities you could draw 3,000 people to watch dogs fuck, couldn't you? I don't know. How many other thing is the change? If they were good looking dog. The other thing, if it was advertised on television and radio now, I don't know if it would.
Starting point is 00:32:53 Because you're not going to get anyone young. You're not going to get anyone under the age of 25 if you're relying on television and radio. So you limit your audience completely. well how many people under the age of 25 can afford the goddamn tickets the tickets to see the dogs fuck how expensive of these tickets jim how expensive do you envision these tickets are you talking are you talking thoroughbreds or are you talking you know just mutts do the dogs fucking get the big building like dynamite or they are small building like nxte that's why you know what if you go to a dog fuck and you see them doing cover pitches fuck. Yeah, if you go to a dog fuck and you see them doing cover pitches of the ceiling, you'll know that they didn't draw a house.
Starting point is 00:33:40 Or one of the dogs took a shit. One or the other. I'm sorry. You know, you're making more noise than some guy trying to promote on the fucking internet. You know, if they can see me in Ireland, I don't care if I'm promoting Pocatello, Idaho. I think they need to do, I mean, specifically AEW, they need to do work. World's better promoting locally just based on what I see here in the tri-state area. And this is one of the big, this is the biggest media market in the world.
Starting point is 00:34:07 And they need help here, let alone everywhere else they go. Local TV, you know, well, I mean, you're talking about just putting people on local TV, not actually trying to get local TV, like a regular weekly local TV show. Well, here's the thing. Here's the thing in theory, again, the thin, the thin. the thin, Lucy. The thing with Ring of Honor and Sinclair could still work
Starting point is 00:34:35 except it would need to have more commitment from the broadcaster. Yeah, you need synergy. Yeah. And it would also need to be in a concentrated area because, you know, that's one of the probably. We had TV in fucking Las Vegas
Starting point is 00:34:54 and Tampa and fucking somewhere in Minnesota, but God damn, we, you know, it's not like you're going to run the whole country. We see how that turns out, unless you have national television. But if you had a regional sports network in the Carolinas and Virginia, or potentially just the state of Texas, or what about the old Barnett, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan, and you had 15 stations, 15 markets,
Starting point is 00:35:30 in a geographic area like that, and they shot their own wrestling show, and they put it on their stations, and they put the wrestlers on their local news, because the one thing that people still watch on local TV is their local news, whether it's the fucking weather, the sports, or the fucking U of L game,
Starting point is 00:35:52 or whatever the fuck. And then you have, again, you're competing for a, smaller pie than it used to be, but it's more doable than before. Because when would a television network ever have paid what WBD just paid AEW for the viewership they're getting 20 years ago? Well, again, it's hard to compare the television world today to then.
Starting point is 00:36:22 No one is the answer. No, that's the point I'm making. No, no, 20 years ago, 600-something thousand people would be like, fuck you, that's an infomercial at 3 in a morning. But since it's all down, the value of having a television program that you own,
Starting point is 00:36:42 that you're establishing a library, that there's ancillary revenue like DVDs or streaming video now, you can watch the catalog, and that can go on your stations instead of you having to pay for programming, that also you can go and sell to the local
Starting point is 00:37:02 fucking fast food and car dealer that is already doing business with your station because they still run commercials on local TV and then the added value thing is still you're going to generate more money for your affiliate there with that program than you would with fucking Seinfeld because Seinfeld ain't coming to goddamn
Starting point is 00:37:27 Akron. Yeah, but you can run tape of Seinfeld not have to hire anyone. All these stations, it seems like every time I see anything, they're laying people off. It's never like anyone's expanding, anyone's doing anything creative to try to grow things, which technically is what
Starting point is 00:37:42 this would do. It's more about slicing everything as much as you can. But that's where if you owned a wrestling company and you own TV station, the wrestling company people in a manageable area,
Starting point is 00:37:57 in contiguous, states that are in a region, the wrestling company can have a guy that goes around to the local sales departments, even if there's three people selling time. There's always going to be a couple of salesmen at a TV station, trust me. And say, hey, let's go over and talk to this fucking guy to this pizza place, and he will give us a fucking fortune. Boom, and you just get your local sponsors, just like that
Starting point is 00:38:27 every other goddamn the University of Louisville basketball team is not playing in Portland, Oregon. So they don't care if anybody's watching them at Portland on the team, but by God, we can sell some fucking chicken by showing them on TV right here.
Starting point is 00:38:48 It'd be amazing if someone can get talked into a studio wrestling show. I mean, studio wrestling was shot in the, you know, where they shot the news. Well, and that's, Joe had just as the pandemic had just come on or was about to come on Joe Koff had talked him into
Starting point is 00:39:05 a live I don't know if it had been studio it wouldn't have been a giant building so it had been some type of center stage apparatus of nothing else a live weekly program that would go across all the stations and that ended up getting blown up
Starting point is 00:39:20 along with that's what doomed ring of honor was that they paid every Joe made sure everybody got paid, the contracts that they had signed, and they did the strictest COVID protocol. And, you know, so they spent a bunch of money and then they were like, well, shit, since we already owe billions of dollars, you know, this was not our first love. But, you know, it's like I always say about Tony Kahn, that's a sad thing. With Sinclair, it would have really been just a drop in a bucket to improve the production.
Starting point is 00:39:56 or improve anything or have a real person managing it other than Greg whatever his name is yes the office boy that's yeah I mean they could have done it's not like that that was the thing I agreed to work for Joe Koff I never knew that I was going to have this
Starting point is 00:40:12 27 year old kid trying to tell everybody what was going on that was the that was the beginning of the end but that was corporate but anyway that's that I still maintain because I loved the act and the process of going out and selling the show to everybody.
Starting point is 00:40:33 You don't just want to run the show. You want to have the fucking banners. You want to have the companies trying to, you know, buy commercials on your TV show. You want to have the meet and greet catered with free Mrs. Winner's Chicken or whatever the fucking case is. I love that shit. And you can still do that. Local events do it all the time.
Starting point is 00:41:00 I agree with that. Just not wrestling anymore because they don't look at, the only wrestling that they look at like local events, the promoters do, are the ones that are really too fucking local to generate any major income. The other problem is, you know, if you look at the independence 30 years ago versus now,
Starting point is 00:41:21 in terms of the presentability of the promoters and the ability to correspond and deal with regular everyday society. You know, even the territories. I mean, these are gruff, dirty men in some cases. But they knew how to deal with the establishment to get things done. You know, of the current crop of indie promoters,
Starting point is 00:41:43 who's going to be able to dress nice, talk the right way, and get shit done in the community? Probably not too many people. But they go run a show in a barn, and light each other a fire or whatever the fuck's happening. You know what I mean? Like that's the easy road out, and then people come and they find your barn.
Starting point is 00:42:01 But the real play, and it's a long-term play, would be what you're trying to say, and it's not just TV and radio, it's the community. It's making it so that people who have credibility know who you are, so they would tell people about your show. Well, yes, because that was the whole reason to get television. Because then once you got television,
Starting point is 00:42:22 and then you could go anywhere else and say, yes, I'm on channel so-and-so Saturday afternoons at 2 o'clock. And that immediately, especially in the 80s or 90s, that immediately told somebody that you weren't just some fucking jackoff who was walking in talking about some kind of rassling.
Starting point is 00:42:41 Maybe they'd seen some outlaw shit. And then it's even better that most of the time in those days, television stations, they would work with radio stations in the market. So you go, oh, I know so-and-so over at blah, blah, blah. And then you get guys on the radio. And then you can go to, as I said, before any of those number of businesses,
Starting point is 00:43:06 and you can say, yes, we're on such, such TV, and we're doing the radio. And then you put all these things on your poster, you mention them on television. And short of Eddie Graham doing the old deal where every time he got an award, from a civic group, it was on TV, that made you look as legitimate as possible in that market so people would spend money sponsoring
Starting point is 00:43:32 your fucking show. And I, again, with Tony, since he's obviously got the room in these buildings, why don't they go to in Houston? Remember the gallery furniture guy?
Starting point is 00:43:51 Oh yeah, he's Mattress Mac. Mattress Mac, that now he used to sponsor Paul Bosch's and I think he just passed away not long ago but this is an example in the 70s he sponsored Paul Bosch's TV show when it was he had a store in Houston right
Starting point is 00:44:10 and 40 years later he's a goddamn multi tens of millions of air that he bets a million dollars on his favorite sports team to win and does all these things for charity and has umpteen major stores why don't go to that guy and say hey we will promote you
Starting point is 00:44:32 as the sponsor of AEW all tuckered out in Houston on TBS on such and such a day we'll be talking about you for a month on national TV and how great you are and well and say give us goddamn $50,000 that will give you
Starting point is 00:44:55 5,000 tickets and just put them in all your stores. Well, again, using this specific example, but using this as something I could speak to the bigger question, the difference is Mattress Mac was dealing with Paul Bosch. One person, maybe he dealt with Peter, maybe Bruce answered the phone in between coffee runs, but he dealt with Paul Bosch.
Starting point is 00:45:19 There was a relationship. It wasn't just, hey, we're coming to town where you deal with our local sales guy. And, you know, Paul Bosch was a unique character. And you ended up on Houston. You know, that wasn't the only one. What was it, IW. Marks? Oh, yeah. There were long-term sponsors of Houston Wrestling that were there.
Starting point is 00:45:41 Yeah, because wrestling had an audience, but it was really based around the relationship with the promoter. And that's what would be missing nowadays. Well, again, no prisons, no workhouse. Is nobody in the company willing to fucking get a decent haircut and put a halfway decent looking suit on and go in these markets that they book six months ahead of time? Well, they can. I mean, that's the problem. Paul Bosch could go there and sell his product or someone could want to be involved in their product.
Starting point is 00:46:12 You know, you know what I do once we got this person because they, AEW. Wasn't it's Jeff Jarrett? Wasn't Jeff Jarrett supposed to be doing this? Jeff Jarrett. Well, no. Jeff Jared was going to do something with the live events,
Starting point is 00:46:25 maybe the buildings or whatever. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. That Jeff Jared is sitting there with RJ City and Rename Walshly Good. Instead of going out and selling,
Starting point is 00:46:36 think of who else has sold any more shit related to wrestling over the last 20 years. And Jeff Jarrett, he's sold these networks on putting on TNA and Global Force Wrestling and all this other stuff. But that's the point is, you know you're going to be in Piggottown, Chicago, at a building six months from now,
Starting point is 00:47:02 because they book that far out, they have to book these buildings out, because they need dates for their television. So right then, if I'm Tony Kahn, I send Jeff Jarrett or whoever to Chicago, and who is the cable company that handles the majority of Chicago? I don't know, but I'll find that out, and I will go to them, and I will say I am a representative of one of the highest rated programs on TBS and TNT.
Starting point is 00:47:32 You carry us on your goddamn service here. Tell me who the major advertisers are in town. Who wants to get their name out? who spends a lot of money with you, who's a big fucking player around here? And then you go to those people and you say we will give you, and it'll help if they're, you know, a major local concern, because then you don't have to go through corporate, but since you're offering national advertising, you know, maybe something can be done through corporate, but you don't just say we're going to sell you a minute of commercial time.
Starting point is 00:48:12 we're coming to town with this show and we want you to be our corporate sponsor. They fucking corporate sponsor the arenas. Why can't they corporate sponsor the event? So instead of the Dunkin' Donuts Arena, it would be Dunkin' Donuts presents AEW stick a syringe in your face. Yeah, that's what WW does and AEW doesn't. And, you know, especially with AEW who have these issues with drawing fans,
Starting point is 00:48:39 but return to the same markets over and over again, You would have to think they should have local reps in every single one of these markets who are working all year round on relationships. And see, the WWE gets Snickers to present a pay-per-view. They don't have to do any work on the ground, but what I'm talking about, because Tony needs help fill in a building and making it look palatable for television, I'm talking about going to that, going to what was gallery furniture in Houston, or going to a big company in Chicago
Starting point is 00:49:13 or going to a big company or whatever and say, you sponsor this event that we're having at the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago or the fucking, whatever they call the big building in Houston these days or wherever. You're going to be the title sponsor,
Starting point is 00:49:29 but we're going to talk about you on national TV for the next month as we promote this show. And then that night, you're going to have banners everywhere, whatever your product is. If it's fucking fried chicken, we'll pass out your fried chicken. If it's goddamn cars, we'll have cars everywhere in the fucking arena. We'll shoot them on TV.
Starting point is 00:49:50 We'll have the fucking guys play bumper cars. We don't give a shit, right? And also, we will fucking give you 5,000 tickets to give to your customers that come into your businesses around town as a thank you. and all we want is a 50 grand, 100 grand, whatever the fuck it is. Right? Because then they not only get some more money, but they also have another several thousand people that come in the goddamn building
Starting point is 00:50:24 just to see what the fuck might be going on. And it might look better for television. But to wrap this up to finish it with AEW as we are, I think they've been trying to do that. We've seen things that people send us on Twitter and various other ways. various other ways via email too. Yes, many were wrapped around a rock and thrown through my window. You know, photos of, you know, come in, buy one, get one free, come in, free tickets if you
Starting point is 00:50:51 buy, you know, a burger or whatever the fuck, free tickets here. So obviously they're trying to do something on a, something on a grassroots level is just not working at all. It's not, you know what, I shouldn't even say that. Because whenever we see these tickets distributed things, we don't know how many tickets are sold. Maybe it's working great. Maybe they're getting 1,500 people of the 1,800 people in a building from the free tickets. We really don't know.
Starting point is 00:51:21 And, you know, we might, we have no idea. Also, depending on how they're given to free tickets away, we might not be hearing from that segment of society because they may not be regular fans. maybe that's why the reactions have quieted down. Maybe these are regular people wandering in because Hardee's gave it with their burger, gave them two wrestling tickets. It could be that, another thought I had, and then we'll really wrap this up.
Starting point is 00:51:47 You know, the people that were going to Ring of Honor shows in 2014, 15, whatever it was, when the Young Bucks were on top, these are those fans, and they've aged out of the enthusiasm. So they're sitting there watching the same people they were watching all those years ago
Starting point is 00:52:03 who were doing everything they did then just slower and with no reaction and you've seen them do it I think that's the problem they need to get past that audience and whatever they're doing to try to drag people that aren't already predisposed to liking AEWN
Starting point is 00:52:19 it doesn't seem to be working at all and based on who they're pushing and what they're doing on their show I mean there's nothing creating a buzz outside of their audience and half of the buzz that their audience has is how bad it is. So we shall see how good they'll do
Starting point is 00:52:37 when they're drunk of local shows. Yeah, a lot of the indie fans now have got to the age where they're more worried about their cholesterol. Jim, speaking of selling things, do you think you could do a good job selling a wonderful, chocolatey, protein drink to our fine audience?
Starting point is 00:52:55 A tasty beverage you're talking about? A delight, there I say. A delightful beverage. our friends over at Orgain have come up with the most delicious protein shake and all a protein shake history and we've been talking about it for weeks now. It tastes amazing.
Starting point is 00:53:13 Even I like it and I don't like anything, it's healthy. But I chug this right down and as I mentioned, Brian, it is great over vanilla ice cream too. But... Defeats the purpose, but... Well, nevertheless. Well, you know, you got your dairy there as well as your protein. But, you know, in all honesty,
Starting point is 00:53:31 I am going to, for the next couple months, I'm going to be trying to eat better, and that's why I'm glad I've got the organ, because I got to cut down on, I've gotten bad on candy and or cake every night after dinner. And this way, if I drink an organ, it's kind of like I've had a chocolate milkshake,
Starting point is 00:53:55 which is some type of sweets, and at the same time haven't had the sweets, because organe has 30 grams of protein, but it's only got one gram of sugar per serving. And a serving is not a tablespoon. A serving is the goddamn container. So you drink the whole container. You only get one gram of sugar.
Starting point is 00:54:16 I have, I'm pretty sure. I haven't added up, but I've had some 30 or 40 fucking grams of sugar evening desserts here lately. And I've got to go to the doctor in a couple months, have my annual checkup. So I'm not just, I've already got my weight under control. I'm 188 pounds as old as I am. All my contemporaries get fat and I remain thin and spunky. But I got to get, my cholesterol was creeping a little bit and my blood sugar. What do they call it your glucose?
Starting point is 00:54:55 It was creeping a little bit. It was just across the border. So on this next one, I'm starting to eat clean. That way I can drink one of these organs, the chocolate fudge shake, 30 grams of protein, one gram of sugar, no artificial flavors or sweeteners, and I'll feel good about myself. And then when the doctor tells me I'm okay, then I can go back to a bag of risi cups. But you don't want to do the racy cups right before the doctor.
Starting point is 00:55:27 No, and again, screw that other. brand. Let's talk about organ. We love them here in the house. I have to order another case in Suzanne. I probably shouldn't say this, but she started to like one of their other flavors, the vanilla, but organe, very popular here. Do they have strawberry? I don't know. You could check your local Orgain authorities. Well, we're going to check that at Orgain.orgian.com, because I've thought of that. If they have strawberry that tastes as good as the chocolates, I might even switch up. But the vanilla, you say, is tasty and good for you.
Starting point is 00:56:01 Oh, well, Suzanne says it. I've only stuck with the chalk. Chalk it. I've only stuck with the chocket. I'm very loyal to my chocket. Do you like the chocket? I'll tell you what, I'm not going to chuck it
Starting point is 00:56:15 because the chocolate is chock full of wonderful things that you can eat, as I mentioned, it's made without soy ingredients, so there's no soy sauce in this. That would just, that would ruin the whole thing. You don't want to put it.
Starting point is 00:56:29 put this stuff over sushi. You know, Dr. Andrew Abraham, the man with two first names, it was a genius in his field. He's the one that developed this stuff. He left his medical practice. He's alive. He's still alive.
Starting point is 00:56:43 I'm sorry? You said he was. He's still alive. He's not dead. Well, but he slowed down. He slowed down in his old age. He's not old, is he? I don't know.
Starting point is 00:56:55 It was a picture they sent at some point of him. He looked relatively young. Oh, I thought that was actually just a logo. I didn't even pay attention. But anyway, he left his medical practice. He wasn't run out, ladies and gentlemen. He was not disbarred. He did it on purpose.
Starting point is 00:57:14 And he founded organ to create foods and beverages that offer better nutrition for people everywhere. And the nutritiousness and wonderfulness of this drink cannot be overstated. especially from a junk food junkie. Oh, Lord, I'm a junk food junkie. Like me, if I like it, well, then you're just a prick if you don't like it. Are you, are you a prick, Brian Lass? Remember what Funk?
Starting point is 00:57:44 Are you a sissy Lance? Well, I know you remember that. You went for the runny o' life. But no, I love Orgain. I love Orgain. I tell all my friends about it. I'm telling all my friends right now about it. Orgaine.orgaine.com slash JCE.
Starting point is 00:57:58 what's that promo code that's a giant group of people your friends you can tell everybody all of your friends about it if you were standing in a phone booth but you know I found that if you just walk down the street and when people walk in the other
Starting point is 00:58:14 way walk up to you you just start telling them about how great organ is they look at you strange but if you do it on a commercial they believe you so these organ 30 grams protein shakes
Starting point is 00:58:30 stop it they're available at orgaine.com orgaine.com is orgianian in case you can't spell it organ.com they're available there and if you want to get in on the delicious protein packed nutrition today
Starting point is 00:58:50 go to orgaine.com slash J-C-E use the code J-C-E for 20% off your order. 20% off with promo code JCE for organ. It's delicious and filled with healthiosity, and it's also got all nine of the essential amino acids, including lysergic. No.
Starting point is 00:59:16 So get them, get them today, folks, because it's, again, deliciousness and healthiosity. How can you go wrong with a combination like that? Well, Jim, let's move on here with the show, and before we get to Raw and Dynamite. It's become a popular thing whenever these come out, so let's do it for the listeners. The latest observer star ratings for the AEW Spectacular Russell Dream, just outside of Seattle in Tacoma. Just outside of Seattle and down the road and across the bridge. And I know it's popular with the listeners, but it gets...
Starting point is 00:59:56 it's redundant with me because he just does the same thing every time, but maybe it could be different this time because a chink has appeared in the armor, the mirror has cracked, and Dave is even starting to
Starting point is 01:00:12 slyly and subtly give Tony some nudges on, well, you ought to be doing this, you ought to be doing that, because this shit's not working. So did he did he finally break down and give an honest
Starting point is 01:00:26 appraisal of any of the matches. Well, I see, there's a difference, though. There's a difference between trying to give Tony Khan tough love and giving a fair appraisal of this generation of wrestlers and what you've convinced yourself is the modern style. And also their feelings are so easily hurt, so yeah, he wouldn't want to do that. Brian Cage defeated Atlantis Jr., the Ring of Honor TV title on the line. Three and a half stars. That was the opening match. Anna J. defeated Harley Cameron, 818. Just barely, remember? That's right, two stars.
Starting point is 01:01:00 The referee had to put her shoulder down. Two stars, you're saying? Two stars, it says nothing here about the pin. I don't know how you leave out that detail. Again, if you're writing details of the match, how do you leave out that detail? The acclaimed, beat the
Starting point is 01:01:16 M&M collection, 11 minutes, 23 seconds, two and a quarter stars. Boy, he's not being real kind on his current scale to the dark matches or the pre-show or whatever they call. I don't know if he's ever given an acclaim match a good star rating. On the original scale, two was about right in the middle. Here's an interesting description. Tell me if you think this is an accurate description of what we saw.
Starting point is 01:01:44 Okay. Tony Kahn came out with Heroda Inoki and Naoto Antonio Inoki, excuse me. and did an Antonio Inoki celebration. He wanted everyone to do the itchy ni-sandah chant. If these people know New Japan, and obviously at a pay-per-view show, many do, it's going to be from the AJ Styles era at the earliest. So most did not get this. That's it.
Starting point is 01:02:15 That's the entire description of the second. Not Tony was out there out of his freaking mind screaming and nobody knew why and I don't think he realized he was doing it. Nothing about the behavior, nothing about the awkwardness, nothing about potentially needing someone to come and take Tony in for testing. That's where when we say that he deals with Tony with kid gloves, there's the perfect example because he could put whatever gentle criticism months after everyone else came to that conclusion in the observer?
Starting point is 01:02:52 Tony is not a camera-friendly personality. But when he doesn't say Tony looked unhinged, Tony looked like he needed a bath, Tony looked like a mess, he was screaming. Tony looked like he needed a canvas jacket with long arms. We've heard from multiple people in the room, and I gotta assume that means Dave did as well, that he did not come across well in the room,
Starting point is 01:03:13 and that segment died. If you're reading the observer, for details of the pay-per-view, how do you leave out all of that? Jay White defeated Adam Page 1629, 4-star match. Oh, come on! An exciting, hard-hitting opener. A flare and steamboat presentation. Mariah Mae defeated Willow Nightingale, 10 minutes, 51 seconds.
Starting point is 01:03:41 What is that? Three and three-quarter stars. It was almost as good as the previous match that was better than anything that the WWE has done in 15 years. Jack Perry pinned Shabbata to retain the TNT title in nine minutes
Starting point is 01:04:01 and 16 seconds. Three and a quarter stars. Oh, come on now. Seriously? That was not good that match. Tikesha won the international title over Will Osprey and Rikishay 20 minutes 40,
Starting point is 01:04:19 seconds. Every single bit of it. Hold on. I got to see one, two. I think it's five and a half stars. Five and a half. The stars are very little, so I'm trying to determine if it's five or six. I think it's five and a half stars. The greatest three-way match in history, I believe he called it here. Oh, Christ on a cracker. And again, whatever era that you prefer, he's saying that that that exhibition of aggressive parkour was better than anything that Sean Michaels or Kurt Angle or Rick Flair or Buddy Rogers
Starting point is 01:05:00 or anything that anybody's ever fucking done until about five years ago. Yeah, I mean, look, that's just the way thing. If Buddy Rogers had done a good shooting star press, maybe you could talk about this, but you know, you can't bring up Buddy Rogers, unfortunately. In a conversation by the greatest workers will time. Let me continue out here with the star ratings.
Starting point is 01:05:22 Hologram defeated the Beast Mortos 2 out of 3 falls, 16 minutes 44 seconds. Four and a quarter stars. Oh, come on now. What? What? At some points, weren't they just running past each other and waving as they went by? The crowd was dead early because it's like There were no moves possible that could compare to the prior match.
Starting point is 01:05:54 They had to work really hard to get the crowd, but they did. And this was a great match. The next match, Darby Allen defeated Brody King 12 minutes, 26 seconds. Four and a half stars. Another excellent match. Jim. So far, the last three matches have been better than Sean Michaels and the Undertaker. The Young Bucks defeated Private Party, 15 minutes, 50 seconds, 4 and a half stars.
Starting point is 01:06:29 Oh, what in the world? Mark Briscoe defeated Chris Jericho, this was your favorite match, I believe. 15 minutes, 20 seconds, 4 and a quarter stars. And finally... Well, wait a man, now, for the people who haven't heard the clip, I said, of all the matches, it was the only one-on-one match where they actually did the right fucking finish and got somebody over,
Starting point is 01:07:00 in this case, Mark Briscoe. But it, no, it wasn't better than anything that was ever done between the goddamn, you know, giants of the industry. Oh, Christ. All right. And finally, John Moxley,
Starting point is 01:07:20 the fate of Brian Danielson, to win the AEW World Title and end Brian Danielson's full-time career. And try to commit attempted homicide three different times in the course of an overly long 45-minute-plus fucking presentation. With my pals. 26 minutes, 55 seconds, four and three-quarter stars. Oh, for... See, again, he doesn't rip on the things that are rip-onable, like that Tony con segment. It's impossible even if you're friends with Tony. I've talked to friends of Tony
Starting point is 01:07:56 since then. They thought it was cringy and laughed about it. Dave didn't even mention that everyone reacted that way. And then everyone got four stars. And listen, anyone who wrestles from nine o'clock on, you get four stars. Everyone else, look, I can't help everyone. What is he, it kills any credibility that he might try to establish. at this point when just everything on that's the one two three four or five the last six matches were better what what do the kids generally consider the greatest match of the last 20 years i don't know how to answer that a lot of people thought sean michael's in the undertaker i mean that was a big one you heard for a very long time i think brett and steve austin stands to test the time
Starting point is 01:08:47 Well, that's been 26 or 7 now or whatever, but to point, no. Oh, yeah, I guess so. Yeah, yeah. But still all of these that are demonstrably, observably, incredible matches, pale in comparison to these fucking guys doing this shit with furniture over and over again. Because he don't want to hurt their feelings. That's got to be, that's the only explanation or elsewise is there, is there some medication
Starting point is 01:09:19 that they give to senior citizens or some chemical in hair dye that would just make you love everything some kind of skin-absorbable ecstasy? Again, I think AEW gets away with a lot of stuff that if it was on WWE TV that would get killed for, or made fun of at least,
Starting point is 01:09:41 but AEW is still the little underdog and some people are personally invested with the people involved at AEW. And when we say that Dave handles Tony with kid gloves and then Dave says, I call him out every week in The Observer, he says everything we've been saying in others. It's not just us for a very long time.
Starting point is 01:10:02 A lot of people are late to the dance, pointing out the problems with the booking, with everything. Now you can't avoid it because the crowds are so low when the ratings never came back. But these are all things that were said and a lot of people avoided. But hey.
Starting point is 01:10:17 We got one email from one of the listeners that was there live that said with that finish to Danielson and Moxley and the whole thing afterwards that the people were just disgruntled enough. The quote was, he may have killed Washington State as a live event market.
Starting point is 01:10:36 Yeah. And that match got four and three quarter stars. See, that's the thing too. There's a difference between heat and it's like, there's a difference between acting like a heel. and I was, I'm not a wrestler, I'm just someone who saw good shit. There's a difference between acting like a heel and having heat and any of those things actually happening.
Starting point is 01:10:53 There are fans who insist that the ending of that pay-per-view, it's good when the heels win. You can't always have the fans go home happy. They were getting heat. There's heat and then there's reasons people don't want to come back to your show again. People know wrestling's a work. A lot of people thought Moxley's going to probably win the belt. To go out like that, that goes past heat, that goes to a slap in the face to your audience.
Starting point is 01:11:21 It was the, we left the house and spent this money and sat here all this time, and that's what they did, heat. And they used to call it disgusting heat, where the people got disgusted, not mad. Someone, it may have been the email that you have too, because I've gotten a few emails in the last day or so about it. Someone said in one of them that as all this shit was happening, and the cameras went off and, you know, everyone's still around. Ringside all beat up from the vicious neo-Nazi gang or whatever the hell's going on. Justin Roberts is like, thank you, Tacoma.
Starting point is 01:11:54 Get home safe. Yeah. Thank you. Pay no attention to the corpses before you. Just drive home safe now. Don't get a ticket. Hey, is that Jeff Jarrett covered in blood? Come on, buddy.
Starting point is 01:12:07 Get out of here. Come on, go home. Have a safe ride home. Well, that was AEW a wrestle dream. We'll see what comes next, but Jim, let's get, after Russell Dream, in this past week, was WWRWA, a fine two-hour raw. Well, it's a two-hour raw. I'm not sure about the fineness.
Starting point is 01:12:31 And again, you know, I was thinking, honestly, I'm looking over my notes here on what happened. We had a nice conversation, the next big star in wrestling, Ria Ripley and then yeah and I'm kind of likening this now to one of the old daytime soap operas
Starting point is 01:12:53 out of Brian did you ever watch a soap opera in your life when you were younger and they still had those type of things I mean I've seen bits and pieces of them I think I've seen a couple episodes I mean I've seen episodes of Dark Shadows I don't know if you count that Well there you go well as a matter of fact Dark Shadows was a just
Starting point is 01:13:11 a regular soap opera for, I don't know how many years until suddenly at what, the 1968 season or whatever it was, a distant relative shows up and he turns out to be a vampire. And for two years or whatever, that was the hottest thing and the kids wanted to get home by 3.30, I think it was Eastern, to see dark shadows. Well, you see, too, it was part of a block on ABC. You had dark shadows. and then you also had where the action is. The Dick Clark produced show that had
Starting point is 01:13:44 Every Day Paul Revere and the Raiders and all the top musical acts miming their songs. They, because that's where the action was. So if you were a kid and you watched that and then you ended up watching a show about this fucking vampire. Yeah. And then they made the movie. Night of Darkshare, House of Dark Shadows.
Starting point is 01:14:01 Then was Night of Dark Shadows. But for two or three years it was hot, but the point is, if you go back and try to watch it now and it's not the phenomenon and you're not used to. And I used to watch the edge of night. Every so, especially, you know, you're home all day in a summertime
Starting point is 01:14:18 or whatever, eight years old. There wasn't anything else on television. The Secret Storm, but they were five days a week. And they filled their 30 minutes, but almost nothing happened of any major storyline progression. It was like,
Starting point is 01:14:38 Burt didn't drink his coffee? and you had to watch every day for a couple weeks for anything to fucking happen, right? Has Raw really become a male soap opera now? Is this? Because all their talent is so over, the fans chant the shit that they want them to chant without them even telling them to
Starting point is 01:15:04 or half the time even leading them that way. And the buildings are selling out or close to. And the sponsorships are through the roof. And nothing fucking happens. It's like watching a soap opera. Ria Ripley tells Liv that Dominic didn't drink his coffee. Dunt, not, not, nah. Do you see where I'm going with this, Brian?
Starting point is 01:15:31 Yeah, but I think with WWE in a lot of cases, based on who's going to these shows, the ticket prices for these shows, again, it's not, hey, I'm going to see Dominic, Mysterio versus Damian Priest. It's I'm going to wrestling and they're going to remember who they saw. Really, in a lot of ways, doesn't even matter what at this point, what they do or who they do it with. It's like
Starting point is 01:15:55 going to a restaurant and seeing Elizabeth Taylor. You have that story for the rest of your life. I went to the Barclays and I saw Cody. That's what it is because nothing happens. I'll tell you what, for the ticket prices they're charging now for some of these guys to go and look at some of these girl wrestlers, about 40 years ago,
Starting point is 01:16:16 they could have had the girl wrestler till next Tuesday for that same amount of money. Does that include Moola's cut, or is that a, the girl pay the cut? That, well, she could have been going into business for herself and, and cut Mula out. But even with Mool. She's an outlaw, I understand.
Starting point is 01:16:34 Yeah. But anyway, Rall on October 14th. Raw Roll Rolls on, yes. Raw Rolls on began with Ria Ripley coming to the ring to talk about Liv and Raquel and she wants the belt back and she's great but all she had to all any of them have to do they come out
Starting point is 01:16:55 big entrance they briefly mention the name of the people they're talking about and they call them out there and it music plays and people are happy with it but this time she called out Live and Raquel and Tiffy Tiffy's music played and she came out
Starting point is 01:17:14 and she opened her mouth and it sounded like somebody stepping on a cat's tail and Ria didn't have time for Tiffy because she wanted Live and Raquel and they argued until Liv and Raquel attacked both of them and I think that there's plenty of potential in Raquel
Starting point is 01:17:41 god damn it they changed her name a while back and then she's been gone. Did they change it from Rodriguez to Gonzalez or from Gonzalez to Rodriguez? I think they made it Rodriguez. Okay. Well, anyway, she's got potential. She's got size. She's got an intimidating look. I'm not sure her current ring attire is flattering, especially because to me it accentuates. You don't have to say it. I think we all understand. We all agree. And, uh... That just that... You know, she used to focus on her back. She used to show you her back.
Starting point is 01:18:14 Yes. If she ever gets thrown into the bay, she needs a life preserver because she's got no buoyancy. It's what you're trying to beat around the bush and say, right?
Starting point is 01:18:26 I'm not beating any bush. You're beating the bush. Now we don't even know. You're burning the bush. We don't know about the status of the bush. It's not a porn traffic program. Wait till Netflix. Oh, you think with Netflix,
Starting point is 01:18:41 are we going to get Bush? We'll get Bush on. If that happened, that would be an industry-changing moment, don't you think? I'd even settle for Cheney, much less Bush. And then you could sell it to Manscaped. There you go. Or a woman-skinned. But anyway, Raquel somehow tried to choke-slam Tiffany, and it didn't work, or Tiffany
Starting point is 01:19:01 couldn't take it or whatever, but they kind of fell in a heap there. And the heels left both Ria Ripley and Tiffie laying. And then they go to the back after the break where Raquel is highly pissed and tells Adam Pierce that she wants live in Raquel in the ring tonight, but Pierce said, well, you got to have a partner. And then Tiffy came in and started prattling on, and Adam Pearce had an idea. The old Grinch had a stupefying, astonishing idea. What about her? and Raquel, or not Raquel, but Rhea rolled her eyes and said, oh, fine. So now we've got Ria Ripley and the baby face, annoying Tiffie teaming up in the main event against Liv and Raquel.
Starting point is 01:19:58 And they set that up and then they got out of it. That wasn't bad. Well, did you think it was bad? You're laughing at it? I thought it was good. I mean, I laugh at you because you are. spitting out the name Tiffy. Like, Tiffy!
Starting point is 01:20:15 Tiffy! Her name's Tiffany Stratton. Fucking annoys a shit out of me. But anyway, it wasn't a bad way to set up the thing that they set up for the later time that they set it up for. But now we know, okay, we've just seen
Starting point is 01:20:33 one to the four girls. We got four girls in the main event. What's the next match? Four girls. Bianca and Jade versus damage control. And by the time that it was over, we were half an hour into this program. And it again,
Starting point is 01:20:55 it's more than 50% women now, isn't it? It's a lot. It's a lot of women. You know, I've been saying her for a while, I don't want to just keep saying the same thing over and over. I'll take a week off, but it's a lot. And I like Jade and Bianca.
Starting point is 01:21:11 Let me ask you this, because every week, it's all I think about when I see them together. When the turn finally happens, and I'm assuming Jade will be the heel, maybe that's not a fair assumption, but I think so. Does she need a manager? I don't know who, I wouldn't say yes, and I wouldn't say no, but I don't know who it would be that would fit.
Starting point is 01:21:39 But I'm, I think she needs somebody with her. To do a little speaking or to be a flunky or to her just there on her own at this stage right now. I don't know. I don't know. Raw rolls on. Raw rolls on. And they had a brawn breaker package that again, he can fucking talk. He's talking about Jay Uso.
Starting point is 01:22:13 He wants his belt back. they were showing highlights as B-roll with this thing. The point is, this guy is the future of wrestling. He's a star. That's what we... Unfortunately, he is unique, you know, these days.
Starting point is 01:22:32 But, you know, anyway, he's going to wrestle later on. And we look forward to that. And then Adam Pierce had to sit down with Bronson Reed to try to get him to come to Jesus. on all of the chaos and the destruction and the heartache that he's been causing. And Adam Pierce does a great job.
Starting point is 01:22:58 What did you think of Adam in this, first of all? I like Adam Pierce in his role as general manager. I think in general, I think the general manager does a good job. Well, generally speaking. But here he really, he, he, I mean, he's no Ross Abrams. Well, no, but nobody can be. who could live up to the bar that was set by that genetic jackhammer. But Adam Pierce does a great job here,
Starting point is 01:23:28 but Bronson Reed says that everything I've been doing, the splashing of the people on the cars and the mayhem and the destruction, was to get in the main event. I want to be the guy around here, and he wants Seth Rollins. and he's the one that put Seth out with the injury a while back and he promised Adam Pierce that there'll be no trouble
Starting point is 01:23:54 he won't be doing these things anymore if he gets the match he wants so they're building that now and that again I look forward to seeing that because Bronson Reed with a smaller guy that's more agile and provides a contrast you know the littler they are or the bigger they are, the harder they fall, but the littler they are, the further they fly.
Starting point is 01:24:18 That's an old saying. What did you think of this particular thing there? I thought it was good, and they've done such a better job lately with getting Bronson Reed as a character interesting and over than everything they did before. He's been around for a few years on the main roster, and he was, you know, Mama's boy or whatever his gimmick was. Mama's favorite boy. What was it? Yeah, yeah, what? Mama says him a good boy, whatever he was.
Starting point is 01:24:43 Mama said, there'd be days like this, there'd be days like this. My mama said, mama said, mama said. And then he was, he was also very well-dressed at one point. Yes. Looked like a fashion plate. Or a gangster. Mr. Nice guy. Mama said he was a nice guy.
Starting point is 01:25:05 Yeah, whatever the, Jesus Christ. So they finally, they've got it. I get Triple H probably always had it, but we needed. the stench of the rotted, addled brain events to fully leave the building. Really makes you wonder about the years of frustration for Triple H. Like you and OVW,
Starting point is 01:25:24 I'm sure you are the one person who could relate. You develop people, you believe in them, you think they're ready. In your case, a lot of times, they weren't ready. You think they're ready, and they get called up and misused from the jump, and it never recovers. And that happened so many times with guys from NXT, so many times from OVW, you can understand them, I'm sure.
Starting point is 01:25:46 I'm sure you can relate. Well, and then later on, I'll skip over this because it happened later, but Seth came out, or didn't come out, but Seth just told Pierce that he wants Bronson Reed too, and it's going to be no trouble to set that up. So I assume we've got Survivor series coming up, but we've got to get by a crown jewel. but are they going to...
Starting point is 01:26:13 Is that a place for feuds or is that a place for... Let's do big matches. Well, that's what I was saying. They're going to do the champion versus champion gimmick and so are they going to give Saudi Arabia all these big matches with Survivor Series so close? Maybe that's why they're doing champion versus champions. So they could tell Mahalahala Akbar bin Salamander
Starting point is 01:26:34 that, oh, we've got the biggest match possible, champion versus champion when we know that people want to see other matches more than that. So who knows, but it's coming up soon. I'm interested. You know what? I haven't thought, I can't think of a Rollins match
Starting point is 01:26:54 recently I was more interested in seeing than this one. They've actually done a good job of building it up. And in building him up, Bronson Reed specifically. Yeah, and hopefully in the next couple weeks they won't tear it down. and then we got the Vikings against Otis and Tazawa and the Vikings are not the Vikings anymore
Starting point is 01:27:14 they have moved from Norway and now they are the war raiders and remember what I said that I actually managed these guys on an independent show back in like probably 2016-ish or whatever and they were war machine and boy they were impressive
Starting point is 01:27:39 and they could move around and they did all this great shit and then I saw them up there I'm like what the fuck and then this Viking thing has been well now instead of the Viking Raiders or War Machine they are the war
Starting point is 01:27:55 raiders and they don't they're not they're not dressing up like stereotypical Vikings and painted faces and all that shit anymore I bet you
Starting point is 01:28:07 that they got complaints from the anti-viking defamation society. Because, I mean, those people are poorly represented as it is. Well, this again, this goes to our prior conversation. In NXT, they were the war raiders. So when Triple H had them, and when Triple H was using them well, they were the war raiders, and then Vince brought them up. Remember, at first they were the Viking experience.
Starting point is 01:28:34 Yeah, that's right. And then someone must have pointed out, what the fuck? What the fuck is a Viking experience? We're going to put you on a fucking old boat and run you through with a sword? So they got changed from the Viking experience than a Viking raiders. I guess maybe he thought he could have a fucking amusement park ride. Yeah, some of the ideas of old man Vince in the last several years were astounding. But it is a triple H NXT name for the tag team.
Starting point is 01:29:05 So they're reverting back to, you know, they're doing the Bobby Ewing thing. the last several of years it was all the dream well they look a lot better and they won quick so they got that going for them and then at 9 o'clock the 9 o'clock hour we got
Starting point is 01:29:23 the American Nightmare Cody Rhodes in the ring and since they were in St. Louis he got to name drop Sam Muchnick in the Kiel Auditorium and wrestling at the chase etc he said I'm a tradition but recent history
Starting point is 01:29:41 St. Louis was where the fans first started chanting we want Cody and of course that got you know the people to chant we want Cody or Cody Cody Cody or whatever so then he says
Starting point is 01:29:56 so what do you guys want to talk about and Gunther's music plays and here he comes and again yeah love Gunther love Cody love love love is in the air but they've just
Starting point is 01:30:13 they've got to do this because they're not building Survivor Series they're they're having to build they're having to build they're under the the burdensome chore of having to promote this show they're getting paid $50 million for before they ever do
Starting point is 01:30:28 a goddamn other thing but they got to do the champion versus champion thing and they've just had Owen's beat to shit out of Cody they can't have Gunther coming out and beat the shit out of Cody and who knows what Cody at Survivor Series could
Starting point is 01:30:45 is there going to be a team of four trying to settle a score or a team of five striving to survive they may be setting some shit up here so the point is they can't be doing angle angle angle angle so Gunther comes out and he does a promo I respect you but you love to be everybody's darling and I want you to sort out your issue
Starting point is 01:31:10 with Owens and be it your best. And Cody tells Gunther that he gets uncomfortable and he breaks when an opponent keeps coming and you've never been in a ring one-on-one with me before. Because I've already slain a beast. And then they shook hands. And then that was it. And it was well done.
Starting point is 01:31:33 They're both great stars. It looked wonderful, but this was a long, time to talk to get to a handshake, wasn't it? Yeah, and it had kind of a stale ending. You needed some... I know you can get away with that, but it needed something else. And I've become a really big fan of smug Gunther in a suit on a mic. He's been great lately. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 01:32:00 I mean, like you said, they're building to this, and then they're building to... I mean, I guess this is all just for Survivor Series. This is not what Goother or Cody continuing after that. So I guess maybe they're not survivors of Saudi Arabia rather than survivorship. You know, to your earlier point, they're giving Saudi Arabia that match and they're going to do the absolute minimal amount they have to do to have these guys do anything that would hurt the other. In terms of like an angle or just any, you don't even need to. Why do any angles? This is it.
Starting point is 01:32:30 That was the angle. Yeah, there's the angle. The handshake. What if one guy wouldn't I let go with the other guy? My God, that would have been killing heat. People would hit the ring. But honestly, as you said, they don't have to do anymore. They shouldn't do anymore in this situation.
Starting point is 01:32:48 But, you know, it's on a show where they're already not doing a lot more. Did you watch Braun Breaker and Kofi Kingston? Yes, I did. Again, I just think this guy is a fucking prodigy. And he's already, we talk about working to a guy's, level and we'll talk about that. We get the A-A-A-W-E-W show. But with this, you know,
Starting point is 01:33:19 and I'm sorry for fans of Kofi Kings to know there, well, he was a champion 10 years ago or whatever. I'm talking about right now. Braun's on the way up and Kofi's hanging around waiting on his partner to turn on him. So, Braun controlled a lot of this, had a nice, deliberate, he'll pace and attitude.
Starting point is 01:33:40 Everything he does is pretty crisp and a nice charge-in of the post to give Kofi an opening for a comeback, which was sloppy at best, kind of all over the place. And then they go back and forth, and Braun hits him with a big belly-to-belly and a super spear, one, two, three. It was a good win. He didn't give Kofi too much, but he didn't squash him. But he shouldn't have given him anymore because of the plans that they, they've got for him. And that's what was some of these guys in the other company,
Starting point is 01:34:17 it's just impossible for them to understand. Your friend may be able to do all these moves. I bet y'all could go all night. But your friend is the guy parking the cars and you're my main event attraction. So beat him in three minutes. The fuck, how hard is that? I'll save my thoughts for what we saw in Dynamite on what we saw in Dynamite because it applies to this issue, right?
Starting point is 01:34:42 here. But yeah, Bronbroker looks good, and Kofi, you know, like you said, he's been there a long time? How long has he been there, like 15 years or something? I don't know. They're about to give him a gold watch. But anyway, and then Bron went back to Kofi, like he was going to do something else, and Woods hit the ring, and Bron bales so that, you know, Woods can take care of his partner. And then he comes back and gloms him and goes to spear him and they play the J-U's. music. And Jay came out and super kicked and speared Braun
Starting point is 01:35:18 who went to the floor and then jumped back up and Jay super kicked him again. I'm not looking forward to any matches with Braun and Jay but just because of the shortcomings of Mr. Uso and in terms of his sloppiness
Starting point is 01:35:36 sloppiosity but that's what they're built. well you have to figure he's going to get the belt back from juso and then jesus can spend his time dealing with the bloodline stuff can can yeat on off uh no that's the thing it looks like they're i believe the forces are starting to assemble is this the origin story of the avengers where now cody and roman have at least had one tentative alliance and jimmy's trying to talk to jay and you know the the the the the the
Starting point is 01:36:11 The teams are starting to come together. Ria Ripley and Damian Priest had some more dramatic dialogue in a scripted exchange. And our truth had a match with Mizz. They were partners, but Carrie and Cross got involved. That's why we didn't pay any attention to it. And before they even locked up in the match, Cross, and why are they doing this to Paul?
Starting point is 01:36:42 Precious Paul Ellering. He could say no. He could say, I don't want to do this. He wants to do this. Well, Cross and... I don't know what he's doing, but he wants to do it. He wants to not do this, apparently, because this is not doing something.
Starting point is 01:36:57 But Cross and the two fat guys and precious Paul come down to the ring and Miz turned his back and Hard Truth just schoolboating him, one, two, three. And then hug the Ms. and hug the referee. and jumped out on the floor and fist bump the heels and then Cross told the fucking fat guys to get him and they grabbed him and threw him in the ring and Miz gave him the facebuster.
Starting point is 01:37:24 So now Ms. is gone from being a superstar to joining this side show group. Anyway. He's been there a long time too. And it seems even longer, doesn't it? How long do frogs live? What is the lifespan of a frog? You and this thing about him being a frog, I guess, is he going to become like a demonic
Starting point is 01:37:50 version of himself? Well, they're not really demonic. They're kind of like bikers, but they don't have bikes. They're not really bikers. They're, uh... They have fat. What are they? What are they?
Starting point is 01:37:59 Do they have mystical powers across his group, or are they just, they wear black? They're just, they're, they're wearing black and being spooky. And Scarlett wasn't with them. Was she when they came out? Oh, she may have been. I don't know. I don't know. See, that's the bad thing. They're so boring we don't notice her. They used to have smoke, right?
Starting point is 01:38:18 Didn't they used to have smoke everywhere? I think they started testing for that again. Oh. But anyway, and then Jimmy was in the back looking for Jay and he found him. And he said, just listen to me. And Jay said, get out of my face. And get off of my cloud and off he went. And then we got the main event.
Starting point is 01:38:41 Ria and Tiffy versus Liv and Raquel and they rang the bell they had 11 minutes on the air and there was a commercial break in that so they didn't drag this out or anything but basically I think they're setting up
Starting point is 01:38:59 some kind of Survivor Series business with the females also because there's multiple baby faces and heels mad at each other in this thing where finally the finish of the match Ria and Rachel
Starting point is 01:39:22 Ria and Raquel finally got in a fight but Tiffy missed a moonsault and the refrigerator Nia Jax came down and nailed Ripley and got the disqualification in but then as the fridge went to Tiffany to help her
Starting point is 01:39:43 Ria came back in and went for a slam on the fridge but Liv clipped Ria's leg so that the fridge fell on Ria and then fridge grabbed Liv and headbutted her and leg dropped her and bonzied her and then told Tiffany to cash in her briefcase on Liv who's another heel and she grabbed the case but there was Dominic to pull Liv out of the fucking ring
Starting point is 01:40:11 before she could be cashed in on. These women can never get along. So are we setting up some kind of multiple person fucking round robin fiasco to go on here also? I don't know about that. They're setting up Naya versus Lib for Saudi Arabia. In the middle of all the live in Ria stuff,
Starting point is 01:40:34 they have to somehow get Naya mixed in just because of Saudi Arabia. But we have also. got Tiffany. She's Naya's pet on Smackdown. And we also got Raquel. She's lives muscle. Yeah, and well, and the love muscle.
Starting point is 01:40:50 And I thought, I don't know what the hell that means. What? But I think we ought to just put them all in the ring and give them all a big bat with spikes like Ox Baker had an escape from New York and let him sort it out. And that was raw.
Starting point is 01:41:07 It certainly was. That was. That was raw, Jim, did you place any bets on Raw? Did you make any wagers about how much, how many segments that would be with women's wrestling on Raw this? Well, I did not. I did not because I was, I was afraid to find out the answer. But you know what I found out? I'll tell you, I was watching the news, the NBA. Have you heard of them? Of course. The National Basketball Association? Yes, of course. Well, you might have confused it with a boxing organization. But the NBA is finally back.
Starting point is 01:41:46 And apparently, from what I understand, the NFL, you know, they came back and did another season. They did well last year. They came back and did it again. And now the NBA is copying them. And they're going to come back and do it again this year too. Can you believe that? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:42:06 Well, you don't seem to be astonished by how they're just doing this every year now. They're playing national basketball association games all over the world. You've got the Harlem Globetrotters and the Kentucky Colonels and all those other teams. Well, they're not in the NBA. They're not professional organized basketball teams. They're more of a show team. They're more of the WWE to the NBA's NBA. When I saw the Kentucky colonels in the ABA down at the Louisville Gardens in 1968,
Starting point is 01:42:41 they were playing some serious B ball, I'll tell you what. In 1968, how old were you? I was seven years old. You were not at the age to evaluate a basketball player. Well, I certainly evaluated the ball because the ABA was using that red, white, and blue ball, not that boring old orange thing that the NBA uses. But anyway, folks, the NBA is back. And that means that you can get the action at Draft King's Sportsbook
Starting point is 01:43:08 because they're an official sports betting partner of the NBA. And, you know, for example, you can bet on who's draining threes from beyond the arc? Who would you pick for that, right? Beyond the arc. Who's draining threes from beyond the arc? That's what the copy says. I want to know who's draining the main vein behind the goal post. But who is crashing the boards and grabbing rebounds?
Starting point is 01:43:40 Folks, you can get behind your favorite players. Get behind them and give them the old heave-ho. And the prop bets you can make on Draft Kings, well, they're limitless. You can bet on who's going to score most points or who's going to score least points or who's going to win the game or just any old thing your heart desires because the Draft King's Sportsbook app is the home
Starting point is 01:44:03 of betting on the NBA. and right now, if you download the Draft King's Sportsbook app and use the code JCE, then if you bet $5, if you're a new customer, you're going to get $200 in bonus bets instantly. And then if you bet all of that money too, well then, God damn, you'd have to be a sorry, bad luck son of a bitch to lose everything.
Starting point is 01:44:32 So, folks, every point counts with Draft King. Sportsbook, download the Draft King Sportsbook app and use the code JCE. New customers get $200 in bonus bets when you bet just $5 only on Draft Kings where the crown and the basket is yours. That's right. It's yours. And we have a special message from a special friend for all of you special people out there. Gambling problem.
Starting point is 01:45:01 Call 1-800 gambler. In New York, call 877 8.7-8-open Y or text hope. in Y 467-369. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-78-9-777-7 or visit ccpg.org. Please play responsibly. On behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas, 21 and over, age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in New Hampshire, Oregon and Ontario.
Starting point is 01:45:22 Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.com slash FT Ball. NFL Plus premium offer available only to new and former NFL plus subscribers. Additional NFL plus premium terms at, NFL.com slash terms. You know he's such a polite fella. He's always here, says all that, leaves. He's always in a hurry.
Starting point is 01:45:46 He's got a lot to say, a lot to do. He's a busy man. The crown is his, and yours, and whoever's, with Draft Kings. Ain't that right, Jim? That's right. That's right. Well, why don't we move across... That's a deep subject, as Mama Cornett used to say.
Starting point is 01:46:04 Why don't we move across the country? to California, where this week, AW, return to the Golden State for another action-packed episode of Dynamite, a highly anticipated episode coming off the big pay-per-view, the ending where there was almost a murder, and various other people turned or won.
Starting point is 01:46:26 Lots of things happened. We figured to be lots of answers on Dynamite. And only there were more questions. That's what the problem was. Questions, questions. And California, here we come. I heard there were 30 million people or more in a state of California, and they couldn't get, what is 3,000 going into 30 million?
Starting point is 01:46:50 Is that, that's not even one, is that a tenth of a percent? Or is that, how many fractions of a percent is that? I don't know. Well, why don't you know? Because ask your question again with English. Well, see, if you do the cypherin. Use your words. Use my own words.
Starting point is 01:47:17 Well, those are my own words. I just made them up on the spot. So what I'm saying to you is, if you're doing your cypherin, how many times does 3,000 Gazenta 30 million? It's like a tenth of a percent of the population of the state. showed up or is it even a tank who would it be a hundredth you should know these things brian are you are you finding your calculator three thousand goes into 30 million 10,000 times so what percentage then would that be of oh i can guarantee it is a percentage
Starting point is 01:48:03 oh no my calculator broke oh god well well i do we'll just have to guess. That's a small percentage of the... Okay, then answer me this while I'm talking about this show open. How many people does that building in San Jose, California
Starting point is 01:48:24 that they had this event in, how many people does it hold if you're running a regular event where you just don't block all of it off? How big is that building? Let me get you that answer right now. This was their debut in the market in San Jose for the record. In San Jose, not right on top of
Starting point is 01:48:40 of the Lollipop Guild's headquarters and right where the the home of their mouth organ, I mean house organ, the wrestling observer editor, Dave Meltzer lives in San Jose. They couldn't figure out a way to strong arm, bully, intimidate,
Starting point is 01:48:59 or otherwise ship more than 3,000 people into this building. I believe it is, I believe this capacity number is for, the NHL games, the San Jose Sharks, but the SAP Center capacity 17,562. Jesus Christ. All right, so three gazenda, they had about a sixth of a house.
Starting point is 01:49:26 But they started out not going directly into the arena, Brian. They started out with a cold open, a package, an interview with the plumber, John Moxley and his crew. in the back of a pickup truck riding around, apparently they were just going around in circles in the parking lot of whatever arena they shot it in, because every once in a while,
Starting point is 01:49:50 when they drove by what apparently was a group of fans, they would cheer a little bit, standing out in the chilly California night. But Moxley recites again lines from whatever movie or movies that he's been watching and studies, that are like indie underground cinema and it sounds like something the words as they come out
Starting point is 01:50:20 it sounds like something until it ends up never making any sense overall or really explaining anything but it's it's the some of the most wonderful verbiage that anybody's ever used to not say anything he's like a barfly Bray Wyatt It.
Starting point is 01:50:41 Nonsense. Just talks nonsense. Clearly, it's based on him wanting to be an actor. I don't know what the hell this is supposed to be. The pickup truck. Whose idea was the pickup truck? By the way, what does Jack Perry think about that? Hey, Jack, can you sit down?
Starting point is 01:50:55 Moxley's decided he wants to have a vehicle they drive to every show in now. And it's going to be a pickup truck. Is that okay with you? Well, but the thing is, you never see the front of the pickup truck. You only see these bunch of stooges in the back of it, Whereas you never see the back of Jack Perry's bread truck, you only see the front. So they probably got a, you know, I'll just stick to your ass and you stick to my front type of thing. I don't know.
Starting point is 01:51:19 This Moxley thing when I was waiting for something to make it better, the pickup truck, their new mode of transportation. Because that's the other thing that's funny about the whole thing. Moxley's this philosophical white national. I'm not exactly sure what the gimmick is, but it's also he can afford a bus. You know what I mean? He's making millions. The whole idea that like, even with Darby, like the whole, everyone's like still down and out. No one's like, yeah, I'm rich. I'm rich as fuck.
Starting point is 01:51:46 I can do whatever I want. That should be, I mean, that's part of the Moxley thing. He's acting like he's some street guy. He's making millions. Yeah, well, and they're showing the B-roll of the Danielson murder plot from the pay-per-view while he's doing this promo and he puts over, you know, AEW was the place where everybody could come to be the best.
Starting point is 01:52:13 This was the dream. And wrestling gave me everything, and I want that for other people. So now he's, is he a fucking sympathetic, empathetic heel or a baby face or what the fuck? And he said he starts saying, there's 150 wrestlers on the roster with big fat paychecks. where are they supposed to go
Starting point is 01:52:36 I hate what AEW has become Egos are out of control all the dancing and the partying well I'll burn down the forest to plan anew when I'm not sentimental is this angle the is the story of this that Moxley is mad at Tony Khan's shitty booking
Starting point is 01:52:56 or at a No I think it's gonna be like fight club Moxley's actually fighting himself he's mad and all the spoiled rich millionaires who are lazy and selfish with big egos and bad ideas turns out he's been punching himself in the mirror.
Starting point is 01:53:11 Ah, it is... Claudio, make sure you rent a truck. I'm thinking that maybe Renee is trying to do the thing. Have you heard where these... The wife slowly poisons the husband over a period of time to try to avoid detection?
Starting point is 01:53:27 How come there isn't a baby face who when they're interviewed goes, hey, Renee, before I answer that question, what the fuck? Like, what's up with you and your fucking husband. Well, yeah, well, that would, you know, beating up everyone in the company and you're just standing here like nothing's going on? Like, you're not going to go back to his room tonight? That would be too obvious to ask a guy's wife why that he was doing all the things he's doing and beating up me and everybody else that she's talking to. They should announce that they're separated.
Starting point is 01:53:57 Well, there you go. In character, right? That would make sense. They ought to pull the old John Laurenitis and Kathy Bella thing. Well, I guess that although that's not a work. Right. Now we get people talking. You know, it doesn't have to be real. Renee, I want to talk about your husband.
Starting point is 01:54:15 Actually, I don't approve of any of this. And we're in the midst of a divorce. Yes. You know, I can't explain what's going through his mind. You know, I just... Every time I want to be intimate, he runs around this stone-faced Moldovian girl. And yeah.
Starting point is 01:54:33 What about when Renee has to interview Marina Schaefer what's going to happen? Yeah. Well, let's hope Marina Shafer's not doing any – or Sheffeyer, not Shafer. Let's hope she's not doing any interviews anytime soon. You found a role that requires her not to talk. Will Renee have to climb up in a pickup truck to interview this group, or do you think they're going to be smart enough to keep them apart at least? Man, she's on every one of these shows in like a flowery dress
Starting point is 01:54:59 and dressing like it's her Oscar night. Like every week's a fancy outfit. fit, while her husband showing up in his green pants and doing this whole thing. And we're supposed to ignore the fact that they're to get... The interview, it could be like a segment after he jumps the entire locker room.
Starting point is 01:55:15 And then it's like, let's got her... The remarkable and then she's in the back doing some hammy interview. She looks like she's gone to the prom. He looks like he's just climbed out a pump and a septic tank. That's my thing. Anyway, that's... He closes the thing up we'll do what has to be done
Starting point is 01:55:35 if you're not with us run while you can get out of the way what is the new paradigm you work for me now that was his closing line you work for me now what did I say to you Brian last on the very last
Starting point is 01:55:50 program that we did they ain't going to be no Shane McMahon in this because Moxley is not going to come up with or approve or participate in a goddamn deal where he's not the boss. And I think I even said that where he's not running things, where he's not the boss,
Starting point is 01:56:10 and his exact words were here, you work for me now. He is a delusional. For no good reason. I've given no reason at all. Just accept these stupid ideas I have. He is a delusional. Fuck. He thinks he's a badass.
Starting point is 01:56:25 He thinks he's a great wrestler. He thinks he's some kind of goddamn Orson Wells as an act. actor and he thinks he's a superstar and he's not going to have you noticed that now he used to just not sell because his work was bad but now he's shrugging shit off when grown men do it to him and just not even register in it and it because he thinks this is going to be the thing that turns the company around you can tell this is the big angle he's he's finally said fuck it It's falling on my shoulders. I'm going to have to save this thing and my star power.
Starting point is 01:57:08 Well, the bigger issue, and we'll see how this plays out from what we've seen, there is a good percentage of the AEW fan base that is diminishing. It's a smaller fan base now than it was. They're into it. They think this is great. The problem is there's an equally big, if not bigger audience at this point, who think this is some wannabe bootleg NWO with bad acting and bad dialogue.
Starting point is 01:57:38 It's not connecting. Again, it didn't connect with those people in Tacoma. They didn't leave saying, let's get tickets for the next show. That was the last thing on anyone's mind. When can we come back and see more of this? So I don't know. This has a chance to be the thing,
Starting point is 01:57:55 especially because it's going to be the thing to drive the Bucks to be Babyface again. So then they're thinking, you know it's going to end up being the Bucks and Kenny and whoever have to save AEW have to step up from Moxley and the Green Card Express or whatever the fuck his team is.
Starting point is 01:58:15 Now with useless. But anyway, then they went to the building. The Saps Center. That's what the name of the building is, right? Saps Center. That's right. I believe it's owned by Fightful Sean Ross Sapp. In San Jose, California, as we mentioned, the capacity
Starting point is 01:58:35 for hockey, nearly 18,000. They had about 3,000 tickets distributed. We do not know the sold numbers on these things. And here came Adam Cole to do a live in-ring promo.
Starting point is 01:58:51 And we have always said Adam Cole can talk. That's probably the strongest part of his game. And he could do, when he was 19 years old, I remember he was doing interviews, Ring of Honor in one take, and sounded convincing and sounded like he meant what he said. This was like Pavarotti singing happy birthday to me. The material is, they have tried to now tell this story like Adam.
Starting point is 01:59:28 Cole was the baby face all along and did the whole devil thing with his cohorts, Taven and Bennett and Roddy or whatever, because MJF was such a rotten human being all along that we did it to get him. This thing has been cursed.
Starting point is 01:59:53 It's been snake bit. The whole thing between Adam Cole and MJF. They started it. And remember when it was over? What about a year and a half ago? It was the most over thing on the program. They couldn't wear the kangaroo kick and the tag team matches
Starting point is 02:00:08 and the comedy videos. And we hated a lot of it, but this group of fans that likes silly, phony wrestling were goddamn over the moon about it. And then the devil program, who got hurt first? MJF was gone, that Adam was gone,
Starting point is 02:00:29 or was it Adam gone, then MJF gone, that Adam gone again? Adam got hurt jumping off the stage and he broke his foot, which required like two years worth of stuff, which he was out for for a while. And then I think MJF got hurt because MJF was there through the end of the year, wasn't he? And then Adam Cole made an appearance as a heel doing a promo and that's what MJF made his surprise babyface return. And then Adam Cole returns again now as a baby face. because MJF's now a heel.
Starting point is 02:01:02 Because MJF's a head. And again, the promo that Adam Cole did so wonderfully and performed so well here made huge liars out of both of these guys multiple times over in this story. And if you actually watched the whole thing from the start on video, culminating in this, and through their last interactions and then, this promo, it would make not one fucking lick of sense, would it? And the only reason that they think they can even get by with this is because,
Starting point is 02:01:41 like you and I, a lot of people have forgotten. It's been so long what the order of events was and who did what to who. But this is, doesn't make any sense at all, does it? I don't think there's any way they can make sense of it. That's the dilemma. they want to address it, they want to have something to do with it. I guess you kind of need to if both guys are there at the same time for even a second. There's no way to talk through.
Starting point is 02:02:12 Bill Watts couldn't make sense of this if he was on commentary. But then not only that, that's not the only problem. Because also this promo and did you get this vibe off of it, it reminded me of a Sean Michael's Brett Hart exchange where they were nominally keeping in the angle so they couldn't technically be screamed at but they were still saying shit that they knew would piss the other guy off for real.
Starting point is 02:02:46 Why is, why would Adam Cole be saying these things? Personal issues draw money but when you call MJF fake, phony, an insecure little boy who will cry in the corner of his room if you fuck with him on Twitter
Starting point is 02:03:07 and talk about his hair transplant, does that help this issue draw money and be a personal issue, or does that diminish the guy and why was he constantly hammering home and putting an exclamation point on, trust me, Max, I'm telling you the truth.
Starting point is 02:03:33 Everybody in a locker room hates you. Well, there may be something to that, I don't know. Well, that's the thing. But he was going overboard than if he was trying to convince the fans of it. He was like he was trying to make that point clear to his opponent as a shoot. I lost sunny days or whatever the case.
Starting point is 02:03:57 I don't know if Adam Cole and MJF have a problem. I haven't heard that, but there are certainly guys there that are resentful of MJF because he's either at the same age or around the same age as them, but he's accomplished a whole lot more. I mean, it's not just that he's gotten a push. Lots of people in AEW got a push. MJF produced ratings, merch, ticket sales. Look at New York.
Starting point is 02:04:23 Look at New York when I had MJF on that show. and I think there are a lot of guys there similar age without naming names who may have a bit of resentment towards MJF for being successful at his age you know and not being at their level I've never been able to work up being mad at somebody else for being more successful than I am
Starting point is 02:04:51 when they were better at something it's only when some jackoff gets propped up that you get indignant or should and I'm sorry but if all these guys can't see well you know I'm good but I can't talk like MJF or I can't have the fucking match MJF can have
Starting point is 02:05:13 but I'll keep trying and I'm still better than most or whatever than fuck them can't handle the fucking truth but that's the point was I going around telling people well fucking Heenan, boy, he couldn't talk as quick as I'd or whatever. What the fuck? No.
Starting point is 02:05:30 But that's the point though. Whether MJF is liked or not liked by the locker room or whatever factions in the locker room, who is that for? How does that make the fans interested in this? Yeah. And so anyway, that was the thing. The story's nonsense. And this went on a long time.
Starting point is 02:05:50 Very long. story nonsense, been fucked up for a while, tore MJF down in a weird way to diminish him instead of making him a bigger heel or getting interest focused on this issue, and then he called MJF out. And MJF's music plays, and then MJF pops up on the screen.
Starting point is 02:06:13 And obviously, wherever he was, he was not in the building. I don't know. of any major hockey arenas that have a room set up that looked like the goddamn you know the club room back in the fucking 50s in New York on Broadway somewhere some opulent gentleman's mansion or whatever
Starting point is 02:06:37 but he obviously had not heard any of what Adam Cole just said because he had the wrong tone and attitude if he had and didn't refer to anything in specificity. So it was a pre-tape. Right? That was obvious to anybody.
Starting point is 02:07:00 And his story was Adam Cole, it was all your fault. Which it was because Adam Cole was the goddamn devil. It was all your fault and I'm going to get even with you. You will never get me in the ring. So they're obviously going to milk this
Starting point is 02:07:19 until what's the date of their next pay-per-view? are they they're at I want to say it was November 23rd maybe sometime at the end of the so they're going to milk this for a few weeks but again MJF great material
Starting point is 02:07:35 fantastic delivery nobody talks like that it's just it's not even a fair contest anymore but the story behind it was incoherent to begin with and then MJF is obviously that's a tape he didn't refer to anything
Starting point is 02:07:51 but then when that was over Adam Cole in the ring responded well let me tell you something Max like he's talking to the fucking guy on the pre-tate I'm going to give you the ass beating of a lifetime I don't know
Starting point is 02:08:11 but if you stood Adam Cole up next to MJF these days I know which one's been doing push-ups and sit-ups and I know which one has been fucking up and throwing up So, I don't know if he, I don't know if he ought to be bandy in those threats around when right now MJF, one of his arms makes a good goddamn thigh for fucking Adam Cole. Since there are no rules to this feud and kind of you could just erase the past, MJF should make up a Wardlow and get Wardlow come back to his side. That was the best usage of Wardlow.
Starting point is 02:08:49 Can anybody find Wardlow? No. I don't know where he is. So, but, and the fans didn't go crazy for the story that Adam Cole told either. They were happy to see him, but when they heard what came out of his mouth, it was more like just, what? The bro-chacho thing getting over the way it did for the short period of time that it did, disguises the fact that Adam Cole's entire AEW run was a complete disappointment, and I think he turned off a lot of, I mean, I know he did, because he did it even with me.
Starting point is 02:09:23 He turned off a lot of Adam Cole fans. Yeah. So the reaction wasn't what you would expect from a big returning, so I'd say baby face, big returning wrestling star who can fit into any genre of baby face with you. It wasn't that. And the other thing is in terms of them doing something together, in a time where it seems like everyone in AEW is getting a very, very fast.
Starting point is 02:09:49 is getting a better physique. If Adam Cole looks like he used to and doesn't have a tan, for that reason and a variety of others, there's no way he could do something with MJF and MJF doesn't go over, right? Well, one would hope,
Starting point is 02:10:05 but, you know, look who we're dealing with here in this environment. But I think... Vince was right. I hate to say it, Vince was right. Adam Cole would be so effective as a manager who never... took off his clothes, who ran his mouth,
Starting point is 02:10:22 and every now and then you get past this big beast and you get to punch him in the face. Yeah. That would have been the best use for him. It really would. But if he hadn't changed the way that he looks physically and he gets in the ring with MJF, it's, eh, it's, look, it's sad.
Starting point is 02:10:41 All right, real briefly, till we get to the next major event, Chris Jericho says Mark Briscoe cheated and he wants a rematch, and Mark Briscoe is mad that Jericho keeps talking about Jay, it is going to give him a rematch, and next week they're going to have it on TV in a ladder match. Oh, Christ. You know what? Give Jericho credit other than the stupid thanks guys at the end, and again, it wasn't the usual one,
Starting point is 02:11:06 but the whole thing is just a bomb doesn't work. This is one of the best promos I've heard from him in a long time. Well, but now I'm afraid he's going to win the goddamn belt from Mark Briscoe. Oh, yeah, I think so. Well, that's the problem. He can be the face of Ring of Honor. He realizes how bad things are getting in H.E.W. Hey, Tony, I'll just work for a Ring of Honor.
Starting point is 02:11:28 What was the one thing that I praised about that over-long, overdone, over-booked fiasco of a pay-per-view? They had a single match between Jericho and Mark Briscoe and Mark Briscoe won with the J. Driller, and that was the right result. The one thing they did right, they're going to bring it back. and I guarantee you now Jericho's going to beat Mark and win this fucking belt. Anyhow, how long has it been since we saw FTR on dynamite? Have they not, they've been exiled to rampage or something, haven't they? They are very proudly, I think, were a part of collision
Starting point is 02:12:08 and maybe some of the creative muscle behind collision at times. And they've been stuck on collision, and we've rarely seen them on dynamite. maybe I think the build up to Wembley or something, they were there for a little while, and I know I've heard that they've been, and AEW had some stuff on the show, very active by raising money for all the victims in Asheville and all over North Carolina
Starting point is 02:12:29 and beyond, I guess, people that were affected by the round of hurricanes that just hit. But other than that, no, we never see Montanatamite. Well, at least we saw them again, because they had a match with Big Bill and Brian Key, and I was I was scared because they're in the Jericho periphery but it was a tag team match that's good that's the thing Brian Keith ain't bad he's just painfully small
Starting point is 02:13:00 but all of a sudden shit was getting laid in wrestling spots were being done tag teams were doing double teams there was crisp work there was no gymnastic bullshit the big seven-foot giant was being kept strong. It was, what the fuck is this in this environment? It was professionalism being exhibited. They kept Big Bill strong, and they had to work to get anything on him,
Starting point is 02:13:33 and then they got some heat on cash, big Bill missed a charge into the turnbuckle, cash scampered past Brian Keith and dove, and made a hot tag and Dax came in and did a comeback. But again, Big Bill is the one if they need stopping, he stops them. And they did some back and forth.
Starting point is 02:13:58 Bill dumped cash over the top. He took a tremendous bump. And then Brian Keith hit some kind of fucked up move. And Big Bill hit a boot and a cover and cash saved. And then they went to the floor. and they did a beautiful blind tag spot.
Starting point is 02:14:18 And where one member of FTR, I can't even remember now which is which, but one member of FTR had the guy that was in the headlock and he backed up and they blind tagged and shot Brian Keith off, a double drop down, a leapfrog, and into the shatter machine, one, two, three. That's the first tag team match I've seen in wrestling in weeks. They've had some they've called tag team matches, but they don't do tag team shit. So I like the match,
Starting point is 02:14:51 and then as they're celebrating, music plays, and here come the Outrunners. And they got in the ring and danced and posed and danced and posed. And I don't get it. What are they saying? The Outrunners are allegedly
Starting point is 02:15:10 a throwback to an 80s, tag team. Is that the gimmick that I've read on the internet that that's what they're doing? I think that's the gimmick. The only problem is, as someone saw wrestling in the 80s
Starting point is 02:15:23 ever did any of that shit. Yeah, no one ever behaved like that ever. No. No. They're like an 80s video game tag team. Well, whatever it is, I don't get it.
Starting point is 02:15:35 I don't get it. But this is, well, and I'll say what I do get, though, is that because the fans have decided that they don't like what they're being given in a large part, they decide they're going to get somebody over
Starting point is 02:15:54 just because they want to work with themselves to get them over, to cheer them or to chant for them, but they did it with hook. We had a guy in OVW years ago named Rod Steele, Rip Rogers trained him, don't hold that against Rip but he was a big guy like six feet five
Starting point is 02:16:16 and he had a good body he was like 250 pounds but he was already I think like 40 years old this was 20 years ago and he wasn't going to be a big star and the WWF wasn't going to sign him but he was local and the crowd liked him
Starting point is 02:16:33 I'd put him in a dark match and his big thing was he would pick a guy up and slam him like five times in a row and the people would go, Scoop, slam. Scoop, slam. To listen to the reaction
Starting point is 02:16:48 you would think Rod Steele was the goddamn biggest star in wrestling and would sell you out any building you went to. But no. Sometimes the people just decide if we're already here, we're going to like somebody for some weird reason. But if you try to,
Starting point is 02:17:10 to put them in a spot where you actually put him in main events and maybe that was the thing with pockets. Maybe even the indie fans knew okay this guy's a fucking joke but let's as a rib, let's cheer
Starting point is 02:17:26 for him. And then the bubble brain fucking promoters and other boys thought the guy was really over. You can't put some of these people in the main event or it wears off because the whole idea of the fans liking doing that
Starting point is 02:17:43 is they're cheering for some underneath guy that doesn't look like you ought to be cheering for him. Does that make any sense? It does. And again, it's the team, it's the act to use a Dave Meltzer term that the AEW fans have decided right now
Starting point is 02:17:58 that they're going to get behind. I mean, it's another team that maybe once, twice, have they ever been on dynamite? They're never on dynamite. So the reaction is from the AW hardcore fans from seeing them as a cult act on the show that you have to be a diehard fan to watch and obviously they were on collision
Starting point is 02:18:18 that must mean they're FTR guys and they probably all want to work together. Well, anyway, Renee Moxley Good had the acclaimed and Billy Gunn in the back and the question was posed to them what's next for the acclaimed? And Billy Gunn said,
Starting point is 02:18:37 well, we're going to the gym right now, and as a matter of fact, I'm going to go get the car ready. And he left the interview so that he's not standing there. But think about this, Brian. They can't work hard and talk about lazy booking. By the way, folks, some shirt's still available at Jimcornet.com, but that's been discontinued now that we brought Thank You, Fuck You, Buyback. So get your lazy booking shirt.
Starting point is 02:19:07 Why, he's there at the show. No. It's like the other night, somebody pulled up and then decided they were going to get the car and leave again. Or they went to somebody else on an interview and they said, well, we got to catch a plane. At fucking 8.30, the TV show comes on the air at 8 o'clock. So they couldn't even come up with a better excuse for Billy Gunn to walk out than I got to go get the car ready because we're going to the gym. Do you see why I'm insulted here? No, they've established this on the show. Osprey was going to drive to the arena once the show started, even though he didn't have a license
Starting point is 02:19:45 and never drove in America. And then, I think Don Callas and Takeshda left at the start of the episode. A couple weeks ago. Because they had to catch a plane, their travel agent fucked up and booked them to leave in the middle of the show. It was Bryce Remsberg. No, whoever's booking AEW's travel is obviously screwing with all the heels and baby faces. Yeah, so anyway, so Billy leaves and the acclaimed and especially
Starting point is 02:20:10 castor did a promo and they're acting very heelish. I don't know whether they're trying to get more balls and bass in their voices, baby faces or what, but MVP and Shelton come in and offer the card, the business card, to talk and the acclaims say, we don't need anything from you. But apparently that was enough reason to run Billy Gunn out of a fucking back. backstage one-minute pre-tape. And then Mercedes-Mone
Starting point is 02:20:46 and Queen Yai Aota had another chapter in their vicious blood feud. Remember when I mentioned last week, who was it? It was the, ah, Margaret Cho, that, or was it Emmy Sassie?
Starting point is 02:21:09 Sakera, same difference. They've established Camille as this giant that towers over Mercedes. She's very volumptuous, the opposite of Raquel Rodriguez. She's the bodyguard or whatever she is. She's got a striking look. And the first thing they do,
Starting point is 02:21:35 three weeks into this thing, is have Emmy Sakara fucking pushed her and bumping her and she gets no retribution. Now this girl got to bump Camille around and woman handle her in some fashion with no retribution.
Starting point is 02:21:53 And then Mercedes is the one that turns around and stops the girl for the heat. It ought to be the opposite way around. That's the opposite of correct. Get your baby face over by establishing that Mercedes, can't handle her straight up one-on-one eye-to-eye
Starting point is 02:22:14 and have Camille do something from behind to allow Mercedes to be able to take over. Camille earns her money as the bodyguard. Mercedes gets more heat as the heel. The baby face gets more sympathy as a baby face. And you're building Camille for the eventual showdown with somebody that may be her size
Starting point is 02:22:39 and as physically intimidating as she is. Or just have every one of these goddamn middle card miscellaneous girls pushing her around. Which would you pick, Brian? Obviously, this doesn't do anything to help Mercedes-Money and nothing to help Camille. So Mercedes-1 with a fucked-up move of some description
Starting point is 02:23:02 and a chin-lock. She's a member of the Gracie family now, Mercedes-Mone Gracie. moan is her maiden name. She gets the same reaction, Hoyce Gracie got when he won the first UFC when people didn't know what the hell was happening. All that money, no one gives a shit she's on this show.
Starting point is 02:23:23 She doesn't matter. She doesn't help the business and the fans sit there silently. Otherwise, not she's doing great. Well, we can get through the next part fairly quickly because Private Party and the Hardley Boys were in the back in some storage room. where there was such an echo it was hard to make out all the scripted
Starting point is 02:23:46 verbiage but private party wants a rematch and the buccaroos take a long time to cheesely tell them never again will they face private party and then Stokely
Starting point is 02:24:00 Carmichael came in and told them that they were just he basically tore them down some more private yeah you should have listened to me you guys you're just done you're just I don't know what that was.
Starting point is 02:24:16 Did you get any insight into why they just decided to just tell private party what pieces of shit they were? The Bucks can't book a tag team division. The Bucks don't know how to be wrestling performers on a national stage. I mean, there's a variety of problems here. None of them are private parties.
Starting point is 02:24:35 Well, and then they went to a break and then came back, and there were the Harley Boys again with Jungle Jack O'all. and their bonus baby O'Code. And they were doing a promo, it's Kenny Omega's birthday. And since he had 20 feet of his putrid intestines out, we got him a little gift.
Starting point is 02:24:57 So happy birthday, Kenny, and they dumped a bunch of like pig intestines or whatever they got from a butcher shop out on a desk. And O'Codee earned his, $200,000 or whatever this month by saying, get well, bitch, so everybody can laugh at it. What a waste of fucking money for this broken down, colorless, tasteless, odorless,
Starting point is 02:25:28 chak, charisma-less fucking... Cake, you're talking about the cake. I'm talking about O'Code. Oh. What the... And then the next match, and we're going to skip this one to the end. real quick, but it was the Hardley's
Starting point is 02:25:43 and O'Code against Kyle O'Reilly, Rocky, Romero, and pockets. And obviously, the mascots matches are unwatchable to anybody with any respect for the business. But again, I tried
Starting point is 02:26:00 to see something worth any amount of money to sign this broken down shell of a human being, there have been people
Starting point is 02:26:16 that have just come out of a medically induced coma that could move around a ring better than Okada. And focus on him in every match the crumble bumps, the slow-mo, the concrete shoes, nothing gets
Starting point is 02:26:33 laid in. He takes every shortcut imaginable. And they're paying him millions of dollars. Bitch? Anyway, bitch. I mean, it's embarrassing.
Starting point is 02:26:51 Can you tell me I'm right? What's embarrassing is the lack of reaction all of this is getting at these shows. Because the one argument to shut you down would be, well, you don't like it, but everyone else does. Well, there's no one there and they're barely reacting. So all this stuff with the elite and Jack Perry, Jack Perry is the most. most cringe-worthy promo in wrestling. Because you don't believe anything from him at all. I mean, Okada's a problem, and he's certainly not the Okada of old.
Starting point is 02:27:26 He's the old Okada, all right. He's positively retirement-worthy. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. There's nothing I can really say to save any of this. It's not good. They had a match, and then suddenly Wheeler Useless came in and leveled pockets and got the disqualification. Remember when they would never.
Starting point is 02:27:45 disqualify anybody for anything? Yeah, for like the first couple of years AEW never had any disqualifications, right? And now they've just said, oh, fuck it, as soon as we're ready, just run in and we'll just ring the bell. It's gone from one extreme to the other again. So then here came the Moxley. Moxley, Moxley, Moxley, Moxley, Moxley, Moxley, Moxley, Moxley.
Starting point is 02:28:07 The whole crew and the heels led by the Jackson kids go to the entrance and mocks and the minions beat up the baby faces. All of them beat up pockets. And then here came Top Flight and Action Andretti.
Starting point is 02:28:27 And they got the shit beat out of them. And by the way, those three now are a thing, apparently, they're together. I know that the Martins are brothers, so they should have similar size, similar features. But Action Andretti,
Starting point is 02:28:44 he's about the same size. He's got hair. When they're all three out there running around doing the old shell game, I can't tell which one's which. And then Moxley was not registering anything. A guy sprung off the ropes to give him some kind of flying dingbat, and he just reached up and just knocked the guy out of the sky. And other people will come up, he'll just grab them and hold them.
Starting point is 02:29:14 And then the dork order. came out and they got beat up and moxley choked out fat uno so and then marina schaefer hung one of the dork order jobbers from the ring post with a belt around his neck and then moxley said if you're involved with a e w you're under attack and then they squished him in between the stairs and the ring post while moxley was slobbering this This is the cost of doing business. So they beat up all these jobbers. And again, they go to the back and Garcia and private party are yelling at the
Starting point is 02:30:07 Hardleys and Jungle Jackoff for letting that all happen. They're fucking heels. Why would they stop anything from happening? It doesn't, any of it makes sense. They're EVPs. They're EVPs. So this is supposed to trigger them to all of a sudden become responsible businessmen. They're doing the same shit.
Starting point is 02:30:25 They beat up the owner of the company and spiked him on his head. So why would they stop these psychopaths from... Why doesn't someone make a deal with Don Callis to stop them? Tony's got money. Callis' stable seems a whole lot more badass. Yeah, and he's got a screwdriver. Yeah. What would you have brought me if I'd asked you for a bloody Mary?
Starting point is 02:30:52 I am a plumber. I don't have a screwdriver. Don't even say that. He'll come out with a wrench next one of fucking monkey wrench gimmicks. Anyway. What do you think of the AEW Civil War or whatever is that's happening? Where all of a sudden the guys who have been on the roster forever have decided that everyone in AEW works for them for no definable reason. or for any cause.
Starting point is 02:31:20 And we were Yuta, who last week got the shit kicked out of him by the Blackpool Combat Club is now in their little group. Did he dye his hair? Was it like grayer? Or was it just the way I was, uh, was it just my monitor? I, it may have been your monitor.
Starting point is 02:31:37 It may have been, I don't know what it might have been. But this, this is just not good. And again, it's Moxley just jerking off all over himself. When you watch, him no sell guys jumping at him
Starting point is 02:31:52 that's not done for any other reason than self-pleasure there's no booking reason that doesn't help anyone that helps no one he sells nothing remember remember last week on the flory front face like two guys and just held him there well he were trying to fight him private party I think
Starting point is 02:32:12 private party yeah I saw someone right and this made me laugh they should get that guy that made him lose or one of the guys that made him lose in the grappling tournament if this is what Moxley's doing to the roster, the other guy will kill everyone. This is a great way to make someone new. Tony Con could say,
Starting point is 02:32:29 I have found the guy that beat Moxley, and it could be anyone. It could just be anyone that no one knows. And there's your new star. And this isn't even the end of it. Oh, no, I'm sure it has much more left to go. After all this, what do you think of what? I said earlier that this is all to set up the eventual baby face turn of the bucks to help save AEW.
Starting point is 02:32:52 Well, it might be. It might be. And actually, now that you've said that, I hope it is because then we can hear the people not cheer the bucks as much as they've not been booing them. Because Kenny's obviously on the way back. They wouldn't have bought that cake. If Kenny was, they were setting up something, it may not be imminent, but he's coming back soon, I think. Have you priced pig intestines lately? I mean, that is not as cheap as it used to be inflation and all, so if they spent that much money, he's got to be coming back.
Starting point is 02:33:32 I think that's what they're going to do. It's going to be Moxley and his crew versus the reconfigured elite eventually. You could have, you know, Moxley and Omega, the Bucks and Pack and Claudio, Marina and Jack Perry Oh, poor Perry. But then does that mean that Tony will have to make up with the people that Spike Powell drove him because they're fighting for the company against the evil people that want to take it over rather than the evil people that already run it?
Starting point is 02:34:05 Maybe they can knock on Tony's door. Boss, can we talk to you? He's got something to say. We were really inspired by you. So why don't we all come together and together do that, famous catchphrase all together now. Are you ready? And I think that's how you make it up. You do his favorite thing. You start screaming at each other yelling catchphrases of Antonio Anoki.
Starting point is 02:34:30 All right. Can we get to the one highlight of the program? Blame Shinma. I'm going to Iraq. Sorry, I'm just doing various Antonio Anoki catchphrases. Yes, the highlight of dynamite. Leo Rush versus Shelton Benjamin. and now they can't say that none of them know how to do this because they got a tutorial on their own program. If anybody was watching the monitor, this is what it looks like.
Starting point is 02:35:03 Leo Rush came out with a girl in his corner. I don't know who the fuck. Layla Gray. Okay, well, there you go. Especially everything I like. Layla Gray and Leo Rush has always entertained me. Wait a minute. I thought she was a point.
Starting point is 02:35:16 porn actress. Layla Gray? Layla Gray. No, but every woman in wrestling is kind of named after like, they're all have porn names. Sasha Gray is who I'm thinking about. Oh, that's what you're thinking about, really. A fine young woman. Where is she today?
Starting point is 02:35:32 Many talents. Where is she today? I don't know, but if anybody's got any phone numbers or contact information. Keep it to yourself. Forney drive through at Gmail. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, at Gmail. Anyway, so the point is, Sheldon's got MVP with him. They're reforming the hurt business under another name, and Bobby Lashley is imminent.
Starting point is 02:36:00 But Shelton looks great. He's in shape. He's a grown man. He's a veteran. And this was very close to perfect. I think he was a little nice to Leo at the finish, but nevertheless, the whole story of the match. Leo Rush is smaller than everybody, so he's also quicker than everybody. He's using the speed and agility to duck and dodge and stick and move.
Starting point is 02:36:26 And the only chance he has to rock Shelton Benjamin is to catch him off guard. And Shelton Benjamin dominated him physically. He'd take him lightly once or twice and get rocked, but he never took big bumps or was what you could call in serious trouble. He worked to the level that Leo Rush is presented at on the card and his size. And he still gave the guy stuff and he made it work, but he didn't make it ridiculous. And even though Leo got some hope spots, really the outcome was never,
Starting point is 02:37:13 in doubt, and you didn't want it to be. Because this is Shelton's first appearance on television. And because he was trained by very smart people, and he's got a smart guy in his corner, I'm sure they set this match up because it was different than every other debut of a big star that you have seen on this television show. Because the big star got over for the good of the business. he didn't go out there to fucking have the greatest match
Starting point is 02:37:46 his opponent had ever had because he's such a nice guy. So anyway, everything looked good. They were serious. It made sense. Power slam type of suplex 1, 2, 3, Shelton wins. That's what I'm taught. That's the way you debut on television
Starting point is 02:38:04 for fuck's sake. Is this hard to figure out? Well, Shelton look good. He looked gigantic in AEW. My only complaint would be I thought it went slightly too long. Well, that's what I say. I think he got a little nice to him at the finish and gave him a couple more extra Zabodaz,
Starting point is 02:38:23 but overall, you know, that's the picture. And Leo Rush did great. Every time Shelton threw him around just his facial expressions, the way his body folded up, you know, beyond just a natural folding from being thrown by Shelton Benjamin. Yes. Yeah, Leo did great here too. Well, that's why we said that kid could be a million-dollar manager
Starting point is 02:38:43 because he's got a slapable face and a loud mouth and he's so minute. Nobody will ever take him seriously as a wrestler and he'll never be in a main event, but as a manager that could be pressed into getting his ass kicked when it called for it, you could make a fortune with that guy. But apparently he's convinced he's going to be a wrestler because it's more fun.
Starting point is 02:39:10 I don't fucking know. And then MVP cut a promo that was, again, very good and heelish, and you believe him. And he called out Swerve to, well, he didn't call him out, but he told Swerve to reconsider his offer. Kind of an or else type of thing.
Starting point is 02:39:36 And then, I can't remember whether it was after a break just in the back, you had Renee Moxleu Good with Swerve and Nana. And Swerve basically said, anywhere, anytime, any place make it happen. May be happening very quickly, but I guess they need something for Swerve to get into. But I'll be interested to see Swerve and Shelton
Starting point is 02:40:02 because I guarantee you there will be no hypodermic needles involved on Shelton Benjamin's part. and I bet you that he will get the best match out of Swerve Strickland than anybody has because they won't be doing buchus of gymnastics or tons of dangerous indie shit. They're both athletic and Shelton can channel him to where he uses it as a strength instead of as a weakness.
Starting point is 02:40:32 Beyond the match, the promos, the look, everything. What have you thought so far of the presentation in AEW of MVP and Shelton, Benjamin? they're making them look like a big deal and they're making them look like a main and MVP hasn't been like Mark Sterling or Stokely Carmichael or you know Don Fowles or any of these other way for those new listeners Stokely Hathaway sorry who well the more famous Stokely wins out but he's not been a silly flippant frivolous comedy figure he's been a fucking star from a big company that has a big track record
Starting point is 02:41:15 of putting together stables that has come in and it's being serious and you know that MVP or Shelton either one are not really going to do it any other way so we'll we'll see what happens and how many people that they can find that can actually work with serious professionals in this company and then we speaking of serious professionals we went the other way
Starting point is 02:41:45 Tony Chivani was in the ring with Don the leader of the Fowless family with his new men Brian Cage and Lance Archer and of course Don said he thought they should have a press conference but there's no real journalists in pro wrestling anyway
Starting point is 02:42:03 so we'll just do this and I want was Dave there you think they were in San Jose how far is the building from his tiny one bedroom apartment he doesn't live in a tiny one bedroom apartment but we heard I thought he moved in with Don LaPray
Starting point is 02:42:19 he not only was there but we heard that he stayed late after the show talking with talent well then Don was sending him out of message there you know no real journalists in pro wrestling so those two are going to take the tag team title apparently Brian Cage and Lance Archer that's what Don says and then he brings out
Starting point is 02:42:38 Kyle Feltcher and our friend Take. If they ever get Take out of this and start using him every week, I'll actually learn to pronounce his real name. But the surprise of this was, did you hear? The promo that Take did. Well, it started in Japanese, and then it switched over to English, and although not perfect, it was perfect for what he needed to sound like.
Starting point is 02:43:06 Plus, he's got good face. expressions too. This guy, I swear to God, this guy's bigger than Okada, he's younger than Okada, he's much better in the ring than Okada, he can talk better with less of a goddamn accent than Okada.
Starting point is 02:43:23 Why aren't they paying him the money they're paying Okada? The fuck. If I was our friend Take, I'd get somebody like Barry Bloom on the phone, or maybe even Matt Bloom. And then, so Kyle Feltcher then stepped up and spoke and he needs a manager. He's done wonders with his physical appearance.
Starting point is 02:43:53 He's building himself up. He's got a little bit of a gimmick going on, the hair and everything. But I don't know about doing promos. He said he needs a manager. His manager's right there. Oh, fuck, I forgot. He has a manager. Well, the manager didn't do the promo for old Mr. Felcher.
Starting point is 02:44:15 So, but anyway, so now it's Cage and Archer and Felcher and Take. That's the Fowless family. You know, this ended up being like my favorite thing on this episode. I think out of all the heel stables, this may be my favorite one right now. I like the Kestha. I like Kyle Fletcher. his promo, I like it because I like that Weasley little voice.
Starting point is 02:44:40 It lends itself perfect to him because he looks like a big kid. And then Brian Cage all of a sudden being there, I'm all for giving him a shot with something, I guess, and Lansar, we haven't seen Jake since Jake make that deal. Was he killed? Shut up. Jake, he's in Mexico. He's doing
Starting point is 02:44:59 background on his new team. He's going to all the various places in Mexico that you go to do background. Now, I like this segment. I mean, the problem is you have this strong, or they're trying to present them strong here, heel stable. If you do with Will Osprey,
Starting point is 02:45:16 maybe the best presented baby face of 2024 in AEW. And you have all these other shit happening in every other segment, independent of this. The Bucks and the Moxley crew, all that stuff's going on. And then you have this in its own separate universe. I like this. This is the best stuff on the show.
Starting point is 02:45:35 it's a good heel crew if they only had a manager the manager was there I forgot I forgot but anyway so in the back Maria May wanted some competition and Anna Jay came in and they just started arguing and finger pointing and Chris Daniels came in to try to separate him and Anna Jay went to slap Maria May and
Starting point is 02:45:59 clocked Chris Daniels and as you know I'm sorry I'm sorry and he's like oh I'm okay Renee Moxley Good was in the back with Rickettsay. He looks and talks like a substitute high school science teacher. That's perfect. Oh, my God. It's not that he's not well-spoken.
Starting point is 02:46:22 He's not an unintelligent individual. It's just like, what the fuck? Did you guys have the new sub? Yeah, is he cool? He seems young. Well, he's young, but he's boring. Yeah. Very boring.
Starting point is 02:46:34 and he'll be on collision Saturday. So watch out for that. But suddenly, in the back of the building again, what is the name of the group that Moxley is, Moxley's Midnight Runners now or whatever they are in the back of their pickup truck, they were in the back of the building again,
Starting point is 02:46:56 beating up the same job guys that they'd beat up before. And round two. one of top flight again I can't tell which is which when they're moving around so quick but one of top flight did a dive off an equipment case onto the pile of people in a straight fight they're doing dives and there's Marina Schaefer beating everybody up but have you noticed somehow nobody ever even takes a swing at her
Starting point is 02:47:29 how is that possible that nobody has had an opening to take a swing at her yet? I'll tell you, it'll be an interesting thing when one of the baby faces gives her a kick right in the pussy. What kind of pop on that get? See, this is another, it's like when they had Stephanie
Starting point is 02:47:46 just telling off all the baby faces and the heels and everybody on the WWE program and emasculating them and cutting their balls off and nobody would ever do anything about it. And I said that one time years ago on a show, people say, well, how dare you advocate for the punching of a woman or the beating of a woman? Well, then don't put the woman in that position because it is no win. If your TV network will not allow you to draw back and haul off and punch a woman in the face, then don't have the woman telling off especially the baby faces.
Starting point is 02:48:25 because then the baby faces are diminished because all the guys in the audience are reminded that they can't do anything about it when their wife or their girlfriend tells them off either and now my hero won't punch Stephanie McMahon in the left tit so I'm doubly upset
Starting point is 02:48:48 well Marina Shafir's not cutting promos on them she's actually kicking the shit out of them she's beating the shit out of and if it was legit I'm sorry, I don't advocate for male on female violence either, but if the female in question is a trained jujitsu expert and is currently beating a fuck out of me, I'm going to haul off and do what needs to be done
Starting point is 02:49:11 to get the fuck away from this. And it's ridiculous. Yes, jump from behind or put the choke on or part of the, but just over and over, and everybody's ignoring her. and stay away, and that's not natural. If this was real, somebody would come from the side and clock that bitch.
Starting point is 02:49:34 And if this is real when they're fighting like the 20 people they were fighting, one of them went a broken away and cut the tire. Something. The Jeep was right there running. Yeah, you know, flatten their fucking tires so they can't get away. Anyway.
Starting point is 02:49:49 And again, every time any of this is happening, in the middle of it, Moxley finds time to like turn to the camera. And, you know, like he's Confucius or something. He has some kind of fucking expression he needs to make. We warn you, we're coming, and you can't do anything. Also, you should have known. What?
Starting point is 02:50:09 What are you fucking talking about? And, but now, and here's the other thing about this, even in their own world of insanity, this is a top heel group, Moxley and his gang, and they're beating up jobbers. It's dork order. It's top flight. It's who have miscellaneous people. And they get in the back of the pickup truck.
Starting point is 02:50:33 And they drive off. And then, of all people, fat Uno, is on his feet and starts cutting a promo on the fucking heel group, Moxley's group, to the camera. And I wrote my God, it's a shitty heel group. Yes, but totally.
Starting point is 02:50:52 totally, totally out of place to let jobbers still be standing on their feet cutting promos on them when they've just kicked the shit out of them. And then top flight and Andrade did the same thing. Well, if you're so tough, start running, catch that pickup truck. Don't be telling the camera. What the fuck? They get beat up and they're down long enough for the guys to get in the truck
Starting point is 02:51:17 and drive off and then they're up cutting promos. All right. And again, this wasn't like the top baby. faces going down. Private party in the dark order. No, private party weren't even on it. Excuse me. Top flight action Andretti, the dark order.
Starting point is 02:51:36 John Silver went running after the Jeep. And then... Oh yeah, I forgot. One of them did go running after it. No, that was Little Brutus. Yeah, that's John Silver. I thought John Silver was the one with hair. No.
Starting point is 02:51:50 See, that's a thing. That's Alex Reynolds. Oh, okay. Well, see there, it's been years since these motherfuckers have even been on goddamn television regularly. Thank God. It's, but they're down to the core. They're down to the core people. It always comes back to it.
Starting point is 02:52:10 Moxley and what he wants. The bucks in dark order stuff going back to the very beginning. They're down to their people. Jack Perry getting a push. There are certain things outside of that window. But we're going to get to see these guys destruct us. company altogether. I want to see Shelton Benjamin in a shoot four-on-one with Moxley, Utah.
Starting point is 02:52:37 What's the other one? Pack and Claudio. Pack. Not Claudio. Nah, he's guilty to. I wouldn't, but I wouldn't want to see Claudio get stretched. And it, it might at least have to save him for last. He might give Shelton a brief skirmish.
Starting point is 02:52:54 but the other, what the fuck? That's the move. You want to get the hurt business over? Dynamite opens in a couple weeks after Lashley shows up with Tony Kahn walking down the hall, and he knocks on the door, and insides, MVP, welcoming, of course, Tony Kahn in, and Tony says, I'll give you guys whatever it takes. Clean up my locker room.
Starting point is 02:53:16 Done. And then MVP and Lashley and kicked the shit for two hours. They kicked the shit out of everyone on the show. Last Man Standing gets to stay. Everyone else goes to Ring of Honor. Well, there are you, and I'm trying to think who would be just on this show. Would anybody be the last man standing? Let me find him.
Starting point is 02:53:39 Uh, yeah. There's no star power. They wonder why their numbers are going down. They're trying MVP. This is not an indictment of like MVP and Shelton who just got there. MJF wasn't on the show, but that star power, he wasn't on the show, despite the tape. No, I'm not even talking about star power. I'm trying to find somebody on this show that could actually compete with Shelton Benjamin,
Starting point is 02:54:03 much less Bobby Lashley. Because Lashley, the size difference is incredible. Shelton's more human size, but he'd still put a ham sandwich on their back and starve him to death. You know, I'm sorry, it got me thinking about the Moxley thing. That could be long-term booking. And we were so stupid we didn't know it. Tony Kahn can't stop these guys from taking over his show. What's he going to do?
Starting point is 02:54:24 he starts calling in all the guys that he sent home. Miro, Wardlow, Ricky Starks, like this whole crew of people that have been gone reemerged to rid the company of Moxley. And I know somebody's out there going, well, Cornyett just loves Shelton, Benjamin. He ain't that big, he ain't that tough. Has it been long enough that people don't know
Starting point is 02:54:49 that Shelton was a goddamn amateur and was Brock's coach at the University of Minnesota Shelton was an assistant coach at that point. He'll fucking stretch your ass from asshole to appetite. Anyway, are you ready for the main event?
Starting point is 02:55:07 As ready as I was when I watched it. Jay White, the light switch himself with Juice Robinson and one gun. He wasn't the two-gun kid this to where was the other gun? Did they ever say I can't listen to the announcing? I don't know, actually.
Starting point is 02:55:24 Why would you send one gun out there? Seems like it'd be like having one midget. You can't really do anything. Anyway, Jay White would use and one gun against Christian Cage with Nick Plain and Nick Plain's mom. And the match started at eight minutes till 10.
Starting point is 02:55:46 And I swear to God, Christian, at least he knows. He's like, fuck it, we're just going to walk and talk, as we used to say. And nothing really happened before the break. The referee kicked juice and gun out of ringside, and they grabbed Nick with him and drug him by his feet. And Nick's mom went after him protesting,
Starting point is 02:56:09 so they got all the clutter out of ringside. And they went to break and came back right at 10 o'clock. They're back from the break for the overrun. And finally, Christian was ready to spear Jay White, Pip Sabian jumped up on the apron and drew the referee and Adam Page came in and hit the buckshot on Jay White
Starting point is 02:56:32 and Christian covered him one, two, three. And that was it. Now, we've just got used to light switch, be it a baby face, but is he the kind of person that gets any sympathy at this point from people?
Starting point is 02:56:50 No, absolutely not. With the guns who are full-fledged heels, you know, still involved with them. Are they full-fledged heels? Where are you getting that from? Well, I thought they were. Weren't they? Last time we saw them?
Starting point is 02:57:04 Weren't they the heels? When is the last time we saw them? It depends on who you feud with. I don't know. When was the last time we saw them? I don't know. But anyway, you got to... I don't know what the ratings are.
Starting point is 02:57:20 I'm blissfully ignorant. You're about to tell me here shortly, but... I don't know how anybody made it through to this point in this program. Well, I have the ratings here and actually just so we could do an honest comparison because we've been doing it lately, let me pull up what, uh, NXT this past week on CW. We won't do the quarter hours, but just in terms of, because I didn't watch it and, I don't know if you watched it. Well, no, but they impressed me the first two weeks.
Starting point is 02:57:48 And we have been corrected. Apparently all along, the mafia hitman was. the baby face and the giant muscular good looking fellow with the weird name was the heel. So it wasn't a double turn. Tony DeAngelo was the baby face.
Starting point is 02:58:06 That's why he puts a mint on your pillow when he makes you sleep with the fishes. And Obafemi is apparently as the heel. Well, NXT, October 15th on CW Tuesday night, 8 to 10 p.m.
Starting point is 02:58:24 on average 639,000 viewers. Okay, after the first two weeks, that is a drop, as everybody figured it would be, the first couple weeks being loaded up. 27% drop. But 639,000 is still into ballpark for the developmental program with no names as to what Tony's been doing on his flagship show
Starting point is 02:58:51 with all of the captains on the ship. Well, Jim A.E.W. Dynamite, October 16th on TBS, as reported by WrestleMania, from 8 to 10.09 p.m., on average, 633,000 viewers. Oh, Jesus, Marion Joseph. What is that down from last week? from last week that is up 92% last week was 329,000 years. Oh, but no, that was that was Tuesday. That was last week was a Tuesday. 8% off the traveling four week average of 690.
Starting point is 02:59:34 Yeah, they, so they've lost another, was there, was there an all-night gas station open up across the street? What, what, what's the excuse that Dave Meltzer is giving? Well, according to WrestleMania, was ranked sixth amongst cable originals in primetime in the key demo, outranked by Dodgers versus Mets, Fox News, and the WNBA finals on ESPN. So it's come to this that the WNBA is drawing a better rating
Starting point is 03:00:06 their wrestling program. Well, again, these quarter hours were compiled by WrestleManiaomics. Jim, 8 to 8.15 p.m. quarter one. The John Moxley promo, the Adam Cole, confrontation with MJF's video, and Chris Jericho's promo, 76,000 viewers. Okay, and apparently, since they're starting much lower than usual, the Big Bang episode before them was not as appealing as normal, or what's going on there? I don't know. That shows awful. I can't believe anyone watches it, but let's go to quarter to
Starting point is 03:00:44 8.15 and 8.30 p.m. The Mark Briscoe. F.T.R. backst angle, FTR versus Big Bill and Brian Keith with picture and picture, the postmatch with the outrunners, the Billy Gunn acclaimed MVP Shelton Benjamin backstage angle, 679,000 viewers. Ouch, okay, so 21, 87,000 people in 15 minutes. Same pattern as normal. The pattern continues into quarter 3, 830 to 845 p.m. Mercedes Monet versus Queen Amanata with Picture and Picture and the postmatch with Camille, a recap, the Young Bucks and Private Party and Stokely Hathaway backstage, 665,000 viewers.
Starting point is 03:01:36 Well, that's only 14,000 more, nothing to really get too upset about yet. Well, quarter four, 845 to 9 p.m. An ad break. The Elite's backstage promo and the start of the elite versus the conglomeration with picture and picture 633,000 viewers. Okay, remember when I said nothing to get too upset about? Yeah. Start getting upset. So, these fucking children,
Starting point is 03:02:14 have conned this guy into not only paying them more money than they've ever seen before in their life, but making them officers in his company with their intestine gift and their whole thing come on a screen and they've already lost 101,000 people and in 15 minutes they help them lose another 62,000. Now certainly, oh, but I forgot. I was going to say it might be better at the top of the hour, but that thing with the lollipop guild and their ilk ran over the top of the 9 o'clock hour. It is going to continue into quarter five.
Starting point is 03:03:00 Well, the big 9 o'clock hour, usually it is a bounce. 9 to 9.15 p.m. quarter 5. The elite versus conglomeration continued. The post match with John Moxley. Pack. Wheeler Yuda. Claudio Castignoli. Is there a plane going over my head?
Starting point is 03:03:16 What the fuck is that? Marima Shafir And a pickup truck. Top flight. Action Andreddy. And the Dark Order. That's a long list. Plus, the elite, private party, Daniel Garcia backstage angle.
Starting point is 03:03:35 A recap. And Shelton Benjamin versus Leo Rush, or at least the start of it. 628,000 viewers. They got 25,000 back. That was 1,000 viewers per person in that segment. Well, we go now to segment 6, quarter 6, 915, and 9.30 p.m. Shelton Benjamin versus Leo Rush continued with picture and picture and full-screen ads, the postmatch with MVP, the Darby Allen promo, and an ad break,
Starting point is 03:04:11 603,000 viewers. Dan, they turned around and lost them again. Well, Jim, we go now to quarter 7, 930 to 9.45 p.m. The swerve Strickland backstage promo. The Don Callis Family Live promo in the ring or celebration, whatever it was. In the ring? The Mariah May, Anna J. Christopher Daniels angle. And an ad break.
Starting point is 03:04:38 627,000 viewers. My God. So, they're stuck in this pattern when, the people see the buckaroos and that gang, they 25,000 of them leave, then they come back to leave again before the last weasels, and then they've come back. Are they going to leave again, or are they going to stick around?
Starting point is 03:05:00 Well, let's go to quarter eight, I remind you we have an overrun, but quarter eight, 945 to 10 p.m. Rickashay's promo, Moxley Pack and Yuta and Castignoli and Shafir beating up Top Flight, Andretti, and the Dark Order backstage, before leaving in a Jeep, or a pickup truck, I guess.
Starting point is 03:05:20 And they left in a huff, too. In a minute and a huff. Christian Cage versus Jay White with picture and picture. 563,000 viewers. Oh. Ten minute overrun, Cage versus White continued post-match with Adam Page. 521,000. Oh, my God.
Starting point is 03:05:43 So not only did they live. lose for that last 15 minutes when here was the plumbers crew beating up some more people and in that dry main event they lost 64,000 people there and then the overrun lost another 42,000. So from where they started to where they finished they lost 245,000 viewers, if my math is correct.
Starting point is 03:06:15 to 7-6- Yeah, so what percentage, Brian, you're a mathematical genius, what percentage of 7666,000
Starting point is 03:06:26 is 521,000? They had, they lost, they lost 40% didn't they, of their viewership? Give me those numbers again? Well,
Starting point is 03:06:41 if, 761? How do we do that? Did you say 761? They started at 766, and they ended up at 521. That means they lost 245,000. What percentage of 766,000 is 245,000? It's 245.
Starting point is 03:07:01 Okay, hold on. 245. That would be 31.98%. You're not as bad as I thought. Only a third of the audience decided, fuck this, we can't take it anymore. But like I said, with all the stuff with Danielson leading up to the pay-per-view, a few paper-views ago, maybe it was Wembley. I'm not even sure. It's the main event stuff that people are tuning out for.
Starting point is 03:07:27 You know, whatever we want to say about some of these guys out there, the commanders and the heliums and the whoever they fucking everyone. They don't just actively drive people away while being the main focus of the show and the main angle on the show. And being paid all the money. The bucks do it. We've seen Jericho do it. Jericho took himself off the show, or he's not there right now. But the Moxley stuff drives people. And Danielson, they did everything to Danielson,
Starting point is 03:07:56 and people were losing their investment in Danielson. So not good. This is not looking good for the future. Yeah, you know, that is true. That's something a lot of the show is rotten, but the only thing they really tune out big is the kukumanga contingent that are the main event and the most highly paid fucking guys. That was AEW Dynamite.
Starting point is 03:08:20 And ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to blame this one on me. I said questions, and we have questions, and we're going to do questions. Even if we have to drag them over to the experience, we're going to do them. But we've been recording a long time. You're sick. You're puny. I'm still feeling, I'm sweating right now, and I'm afraid to turn on the fan, because I'll hear the sonic noises that are coming out of it, and I'll just want to help all the people
Starting point is 03:08:44 because that's the kind of person that I am and not let these be in the production. So I guess the point is we're going to close up shop early. Hold on. Whereas I'm available to make custom songs for people. And for weddings, bar mitzvahs, and birthday parties. That's well, certain birthday parties. Some of you are freaks out there.
Starting point is 03:09:10 Of course, you can hear more of this freakdom on the Jim Cornett experience. Are you accusing some of our listeners of having did he freak off? for their birthdays. I resemble that remark. Well, get your freak off or on or whatever it is on the experience in a few days, wherever you find your favorite podcast.
Starting point is 03:09:31 No pay-per-view this week. It's nice. Yes. And, of course, wherever you find your favorite podcast, we'll be back next week with the drive-through. Patreon.com slash cornet. Go through the archive $5 a month. We sound much better than I feel right now. Patreon.com.
Starting point is 03:09:47 We were younger then. Patreon.com slash cornet. Of course, the official Jim Cornett YouTube channel, the Travis Heckel artwork, George's artwork, and of course full episodes, Clipsody episodes, omnibus collections, and so much more, the official Jim Cornett YouTube channel. Why do you say George like he's Madonna or Elvis
Starting point is 03:10:08 and everybody knows it's George, living on the edge? Yeah, I just, I feel like I get his name wrong. Livinitis, I believe. It could be Livinatus, but I believe it's living on. Now it's living on George, living on the edge. They used to be a wrestler, Con Cavitas, remember? He was from Australia. Anyway.
Starting point is 03:10:27 All right. I don't know where we're going. And, of course, that's the best way to get to a place you've never been before. Like Cornett's collectibles, what's going on, Jim? I'm selling stuff. Please go there and buy a few things. And if you have a problem with those things, you could sue the law of Stephen Pino, 8775. No, you can't sue the law office of Stephen Pee new.
Starting point is 03:10:49 No, well, you can't sue him. You'd have no reason to sue him. Well, that's what you said. If you have a problem, you can sue the law office of Steve. No. You could sue, and then there's an implied, you must call, or you should call. You can call 877-50, 5-0, Steve. Get on your telephone and call somebody.
Starting point is 03:11:07 Get even with Stevennewlawoffice.com. Until the experience in a few weeks, a few weeks and a few days. And next week. I wish, oh, please, can it be a few weeks for that? And next week, right back here on the drive-thew for Jim Corvette. I'm the grit, Brian last. It's late in the day, folks. Tally-ho!

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.