Jim Cornette’s Drive-Thru - Episode 382: Jim Reviews Elimination Chamber

Episode Date: March 6, 2025

This week on the Drive Thru, Jim reviews WWE's 2025 Elimination Chamber, The Rock's press conference, and Raw on Netflix! Plus Jim answers YOUR questions about Lex Luger, Ricky Steamboat, West Virginia, Mighty Igor, being struck by lightening, and much more!  Send in your question for the Drive-Thru to: [e-mail]  Follow Jim and Brian on Twitter: @TheJimCornette @GreatBrianLast Join Jim Cornette's College Of Wrestling Knowledge on Patreon to access the archives & more! https://www.patreon.com/Cornette Subscribe to the Official Jim Cornette channel on YouTube! http://www.youtube.com/c/OfficialJimCornette Visit Jim's official site at www.JimCornette.com for merch, live dates, commentaries and more! You can listen to Brian on the 6:05 Superpodcast at 605pod.com or wherever you find your favorite podcasts!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The microphone fell. There we go. Hello again, friends. The microphone is up, and you are our friends. Welcome back to another edition of Jim Cornett's drive-thru right here on another sunshiney day as we get ready for the spring. We're going to spring into wrestling action. I don't hear a chuckle. I don't hear anything. I don't know if he's breathing right now, but here he is. I think I said my name already. The leader of the cult of Cornett, the star of the show, Mr. Jim Cornett.

I just want to get that out of the way, Brian. Right at the start at the top of the program, that is the sound of a human being that has watched hours upon hours of WWW wrestling here over the last very short period of time, the big elimination chamber weekend. You know, Smackdown's three hours now. Elimination chamber was about what, about a day and a half, No, that was about three and a half hours.

Raw is just, raw can be anything. They could do a raw marathon. Bring Jerry Lewis back to host it. Get people to fucking donate money. If you donate enough money, we'll stop this program. Are you there now?

Are you, my friend? I'm listening to whatever you're upset about now. What, it's just, it's, you know, it's just hours and hours and hours. hours and hours. And then there's hours of the other stuff. No wonder nobody's watching the other stuff. They don't have time.

Do people have jobs these days? Do they go to school? Do they have families? It is going to be weird, like a weird feeling going from the elimination chamber, all the buzz coming out of it, raw, to I was better to say to nitro, to dynamite this week. Just a

completely different feel, the darkness, the lack of star power. It's like two different worlds now. It's not even like they're in the same category. And that's a good thing maybe for AEW. You don't want comparison to WWE. You kind of want to have your own thing, but you also have to build that somehow. Well, they got a pay-per-view now this weekend, don't they? Sons of bitches. Revolution. Number nine. You say you want a revolution? And I say no.

No. We never said that. It was it was basically told to us that we were going to get it, whether we like it or not. So, but yeah, we're going to talk about all the stuff that I watched on the show today and much more. And I guess next week at some point on one of these programs, we'll be talking about that. But you know what else this weekend is, don't you? Don't worry about the paper. You know, you have to spend $50 for an AEW pay-per-view where you're going to watch four hours of nonstop fucking chaos and just endless repetitive nonsense or you can spend what does a movie ticket

cost these days brine i didn't actually pay to get into the world premiere of my movie i hate to reveal that i was mooching off of the theater but i didn't i don't so but a movie ticket twelve dollars maybe something like that these days yeah maybe i'd say 50 if you want to get a popcorn Oh, come on. Goobers and milk duds. What about a raisinette? I might have been raised a fine. But no, instead of spending $50 on a pay-per-view with all that nonsense,

you can spend a mere pittance, whatever it is, to go to the movies these days. You can tell I'm a sociable character, and see the Queen of the Ring in a small starring role. Why didn't they credit me also starring? or special guest appearance by. Now, see, I should have negotiated better. But nevertheless, I'm lobbying with the Academy of Arts and Sciences because what I did wasn't a science,

but it might have been some kind of art, and I'm going to get some kind of recognition at next year's Oscars. See, I'm afraid that this is coming out now right after the Oscar ceremony, if people will have time to forget about my brilliant debut, performance by the time of next year's honorariums roll around. But anyway, Queen of the Ring at a theater near you on March the 7th. So people either right now or soon after or a day ago or whenever this thing comes out, you got to rush and flock and cheer for me when I appear on screen.

I'm expecting that's going to be another groundswell of support across America, Brian, like the rock. People are going to get goosebumps when. they see me on the screen and they're going to burst into spontaneous, not combustion, but applause. Applaus is what I'm going for. I want the adulation. You know, we're going to find out he had those goosebumps surgically and planting his arm

or something. No, he's got some kind of fucking electric sex toy from Denmark stuck in between his taint and his balls and whenever he wants to, he just hits it in a boo. This is all the buildup to his new psoriasis, uh, or whatever fuck he's doing. Yeah, yeah, if you got the heartbreak of rock sciasis, I'm sorry. Have you thought about going to the theater, standing in the back of the room and just watching the reaction to your appearance?

Well, I just did. At the premiere, I wasn't in the back of the room. They knew you were there. They knew you were there. You didn't get the true reaction. No, I snuck in in the dark, see? Like, you know, I had sunglasses on because I wear my sunglasses at night so I can, so I can. but I got the biggest laugh of the

did I tell you this? I got the biggest fucking pop laugh of them because it's not a comedy. So it's not like it was hard to get the biggest laugh, but I got the biggest laugh. Did I tell you about this? No, you did not. Well, I don't want to spoil anything for people

that haven't seen the flick, but how can I say this just to give people impart the general idea? In one of the scenes that I am in, we mentioned when we talked to Ash Avilson, who was the director and wrote to screenplay, he's a one-man band. He's got a record company,

I think a comic book company, and he plays another small but pivotal role in this. But now don't think he put himself in because he was the booker, because his role is smaller than mine in his own movie. So he was very, you know, he was spreading it around. But when I introduce Mildred Burke to the character

that Ash Avelson plays in the movie, I won't tell you what the character he plays is. You got to wait and see it, but that's what gets the pop from the audience. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, see, I can't really explain it without blowing it, but it's funny who Ash is playing. Let's just put it that way.

So I got no finish for this bit. You drug it out of me. That was a great story. A really funny moment. and of course you can see more funny moments. Yeah. Queen of the Ring. They were rolling in the aisles, Brian,

but yes, Queen of the Ring at a theater near you and soon to be nominated for next year's Academy Awards for at least my performance. And the red, and Camille was great too. In all honesty now, not like I haven't been being honest, but even more honestly, she was fucking great for,

as acting wise, for somebody who's not ever been in a movie or acted before. That's what I was going to ask you. I obviously haven't seen the movie yet, but like someone like Camille, who's playing a pivotal role, how much of that role is just in ring

and how much of it is actually, you know, she did scenes and there's dialogue, et cetera. Yo, she has dialogue, yes, and that's, I mean, a lot of her scenes are, well, a lot of, there's more of Camille wrestling than there is anybody else in the film because she's kind of the best wrestler of anybody in the film and had the biggest part

in terms of, that respect, but she has a bunch of dialogue and has to have various emotions and say things and all the things that the actors do. And she very, very accomplished at that. It's, you know, boy, somebody ought to take this six foot, whatever tall, statuesque, muscular, athletic, well-rounded actress that is currently starring in a movie, that's opening across the country and later the world and use them in their wrestling company somehow.

Now that you saw the finished product, could you even envision Charlotte Flair in that role? Or did Camille nail it? It's impossible. You would have seen Charlotte. You wouldn't have seen the character. That's the thing that I was, and I said that to Ash, we talked to him. I think, in retrospect for a wider audience, because there were, there were, there were not, at least in the theater that I was in, there was two showings of the thing.

But it wasn't like a predominantly wrestling fan audience. There was many people there that didn't know anything about the wrestling business per se, but I think you would see Charlotte. And Camille maybe just fits this better because she's not as, the statuess, statuque, statuque, hey, ladies, statuess. She's a lady. She's a lady.

But she's not as statuesque and aloof and an ice queen as Charlotte is. And I think Charlotte also for a period piece, you know, the 40s and 50s, she doesn't look like, I'd have to see her in some kind of makeup to put her in the 40s or 50s. I don't know how they'd do that. She seems a more modern last, but anyway. Well, there it is, Queen of the Ring. And, of course, I think if you're watching wrestling,

you are probably seeing a lot of commercials. On Netflix, they had commercials for Queen of the Ring during Raw this week. I've seen them on, I think, AEW TV. I think I saw them on the CW for NXT. So they've got an advertising budget. Words getting around. And, again, a lot of the non-wrestling fan media the regular people.

The regular folks out there in society, they seem to be liking it as a movie. So I'm heartened by that. I understand he's already working on the follow-up about Tom Burke. Actually, we're going to find out in that one that Tom was the illegitimate son of Mildred Burke and Billy Wolf

when they were working in Massachusetts and they left him on a doorstep of an orphanage. But anyway, Brian, you know what? people are going to have to do now because now that I'm a movie star too. They're going to have to take advantage of the March sale at Jim cornet.com and get some of the fine Cornett's collectibles before I start raising the prices because I've got to charge more for my autographs. Because once that as a matter of fact, next week I'm going out and putting my handprints

and footprints and cement out in front of Gromond's Chinese theater. I've figured I've had somebody looking at the place and between four and five in the morning there's generally nobody on the street and he can use that quick drying shit and we can be in and out of there.

So anyway, the point is before I have to raise the prices because when I sign something it will turn into something as good as the gold in Fort Knox, take advantage of what's going on this month, which is if you go to Jimcornad.com and buy any

action figure, whether it be one of mine or one of the Midnight Express of the Heavenly Bodies, the tag team sets, any action figure, you get a free two-hour classic wrestling DVD of the 70s and 80s from the wrestling gold series. And for the next, well, however many days there is in March, till the end of March, the behind-the-curtain graphic novel, on sale only 1995 and can be personally autographed. That's $5 off the normal price. so you can look at my award-winning graphic novel before the lights go down in the theater and my face pops up on a silver screen.

And then on the way home, you can listen to our podcast until you tuck yourself in bed on your helix mattress after having consumed a variety of the products that we recommend to you, and you can say, I need some more Jim Cornett in my life

because it's never enough. Jim Cornett.com. That's right. Jimcoronet.com, home of the feather bottoms. Check it out today. But Jim, we have a big show, we have a big review,

the elimination chamber, maybe the most in-demand review from the listeners we've had in quite a while. We also have the Rocks Press conference. That's quite the show as well. Why don't we get a topic or two before we go anywhere,

before we travel through time, and if there are any audio issues in another part of the show, It's due to the time travel, due to circuits getting crossed. But Jim, this was posted in the Cult of Cornett Facebook group, and I wanted to get your thoughts on it. Oh, boy. Antonio Santos, a member of the Cult of Cornet, posted this.

He wrote, well, that escalated. Christopher Cruz, Chris B. Cruz posted something. Did you see this? Well, no way to hold on now. Just back up. Not Chris Cruz the announcer, is what you're saying. No, I'm saying it is Chris Cruz the announcer. It is, is Chris.

I thought you said Chris, Chris, Crizzby Cruz. I thought it was somebody taken off on his name. No, well, it's Christopher Cruz. It's using his full Christian name, I presume. Here's what he said. I see Lex Lugar is continuing on his never-ending redemption tour. He's a nice approachable guy now, always ready to meet the fans and talk about his prime.

Nice big smile. Yeah, yeah, yeah, people can change. Turn the page. Turn over a new leaf. Find God, G-A-W-D. Hard to tell if any conversion is real, but he's been out of it a while, so I guess we should take him at his word.

And he's in very tough physical shape, so we should have some sympathy for him. But let's not forget this is a guy who never like pro wrestling. didn't like other pro wrestlers, didn't like the fans, and was a condescending asshole. Oh, Jesus Christ. One time when I was hosting WCW Worldwide. Wait, wait a minute, hold on, are we sure this is,

well, he said hosting WCW Worldwide, that's Chris Cruz the announcement. I mean, I'm wondering why he picked now to just come out and start custom poor old Lex Lugar, who has, as he said, had his trials and tribulations physically, and the last, geez, I don't know how many years I've seen him has always had to smile on his face and being nice to everybody. But go on, I'm sorry to interrupt this fucking character assassination. I think he has been in the news a little bit or at least on social media because he's working with DDP.

So DDP, of course, only works with people if he could film them and exploit them. but no, he was working with Lex Lugar, helping him stand up and be able to do stuff, so we saw some video of it. That's the only thing I've seen with Lugar in a while. So Chris Cruz, again, who's shit and Chris Cruz's post-hosties? The poor guy is on video being able to stand,

and he's figured this was a good time to say, well, it's great he can stand up by himself, but I'd like to remind you what a fucking asshole he was. I've said, dude, tell me more. One time, when I was hosting WCW Worldwide, a ring announcer had gotten fired, and Jim Hurd asked if I would go on the road for a bit. I readily agreed and ended up having a lot of fun. The fans in the small towns popped when I walked out, and it was quite an ego boost. Oh, excuse me, I missed the sentence.

When I walked out to the ring, because they had been watching me on TV and had no idea I was going to be there, it was quite an ego boost. So I began to announce the talent as they... Hold on, hold on. I got to be honest with you. I was there for a while with Chris Cruz. Not long. It was toward the end of the WCW administration there and I working together,

but I don't remember... Nobody was throwing rotten tomatoes at him, but I don't remember Chris Cruz getting a lot of pops, except sometimes he was hosting the show, I think, with Terry Funk. Now, Terry may have been looming, Behind him, there might have been a small smattering of applause in those situations, but I don't remember Chris getting pops at the house shows. But go ahead.

Well, no, but to be fair, I think if I was a kid going to a wrestling show and all of a sudden mean gene, not to compare him to mean gene, but just someone from TV, if Gorilla Mansootland, not to compare him to Gorilla Man, I can't compare him to anyone, but if any of the commentators I was watching on TV just walked out to suddenly be in the ring announcer, it may get a, oh, wow, look who it is, and a few other people. Okay, but remember, this was WCWCW and 9. 1990 house shows. There were 700 people total in the crowds. How many of them were under eight? Well, let me go back to this. So, I began to announce the talent as they entered the ring

like they do with the TV tapings. But I didn't know that at live events you waited until they were in the ring and then introduced them. In comes Lugar, with a sour look on his face. He brushes past me In the ring and tells me I'm doing it the wrong way What a stupid fuck I am How the fuck did I get the job? You're supposed to wait until we get into the ring

To announce us, you idiot He did it quickly and no one outside The ring could hear him This is just one example of the complete asshole he was to many of the behind-the-scenes people in WCW and the no power announcers like me. And as we know. Hold on, hold on.

Pause there so we don't lose this thread of thought. Lugar was right also because that was a thing they started doing on WCWTV because they did it that way on WWF television. But they would announce the guy as he would either as he would come through the curtain or right before he would come through the curtain. and I always hate it in a center stage or whatever, it may be fine, but in an arena, it diminishes the guy's pop instead of boom, when the music plays and here comes down the aisle,

but in the arena you wait until he gets up into the ring where everybody can see him and then you announce him. And the guy can fucking hoot around by the time he gets to the ring if you've announced him coming through the curtain, he can raise his arms and fucking gesticulate about. but there's nobody screaming, Lex Luger or whatever. So it's flatter. But the agent that night should have told Chris Cruz what was going on beforehand.

But that's one of the minor cussings I've ever heard in the wrestling business. If he's been carrying that for 35 fucking years. And as we know, he was also a steroid abuser and cheater. Jesus Christ! He cheated on fucking cruise And an absent father I also heard that for about 10 years All he ate was grilled chicken and rice

What, what, chef? Wait, no, he didn't really write that He wrote that. It's in parentheses. That is the only thing in parentheses in this whole thing for whatever. I also heard this I'm going to say some awful things about him

and then in the middle. I'm going to tell people eats chicken and fucking rice, that'll show him. Had no good dirty chicken rice eating motherfucker. Oh my God. He's an abuser, a cheater, an absent father, and he eats chicken and rice. So let's applaud this guy for making a change. But let's not forget that he was one big fucking bag of dicks for the longest time.

So, Jim, I guess, so what are your thoughts on someone finding redemption? Oh, my God. You're chicken and rice. No, I have no Chris Cruz that I've worked with Chris Cruz. And Senator, you're not, no. I did a thing like 10 years ago in Tennessee with Chris Cruz announcing for their in the Roy

the Herb Welch-Resselplex in Dyersburg, Tennessee and Crispy has always been a stern and quick-witted type of fellow but I you know I mean there have been people who have literally broken motherfuckers necks and that the broken neck E didn't hold as much of a grudge

as Vuckin Cruz must hold against Lexford cussing him out about the ring announcement. How bad was Lex? I mean, beyond Chris Cruz, back in those days, let's say between 87 and 90. Well, again, you know, I don't know if he was, I've never witnessed him routinely yelling at crew members at TV tapings or whatever.

We've said before, Lex was not comfortable. He didn't grow up a lifelong fan. He was uncomfortable as a baby face trying to force it. He didn't connect with people that way. He was a more natural heel. And by what, 89 or 90, they'd switched him heel and he'd worked with Horseman in ring,

that version of Lex Lugar today would probably be one of the stunningly great workers in the business. If anybody wants to go back and look, you know, to compare things. But he just, he was, he wasn't a person who was trying to be a dick to people. He just came off that way in most instances. Now, after I left and moved on to other places, and this was the WWF thing, too. You know, I never had a problem working with him. He just, he was uncomfortable as a baby face, as I said.

I think it was forced. That's what people could tell. And he was just naturally kind of had the nose up in the air. But I've known many more accomplished flaming uncircumcised penises than Lex Lugar to, you know, that's why I wondered what the fuck else there was going on between him and Cruz and Cruz has carried us for 35 years because it can't just be he he cussed me out that time over that ring announcement so I'm going to paint him in the worst possible light yes when Lex got on drugs and shit with WCW where apparently everybody was on something

he did a lot of stupid things, which he's admitted to, but Cruz was not around at that point in time. He's talking about the early 90s, you know, TBS years. So I don't know what he could have done or why Cruz feels like after all this time, we should remind everybody that Lex did fool around on his wife and use drugs. And eat chicken and rice. and ate chicken and rice I'd...

Bastard. By the way, I'm going to go eat chicken and rice. If that gives you those muscles, I'm going to go eat chicken and rice right after this. Remind me not to tell Cruz that I'm able to stand up by myself. He might go off. Hey, real quick, on the topic of Lex Lugar, I see a couple listeners sent this in. I have an article here. This is from Fightful, Jeremy Lambert.

And it's just Fightful quoting something else. It's an interview with Lex Lugar from Chris Van Vleet. talk about how he was grumpy or whatever. This is about how A&E's biography portrayed the Lex Express. They portrayed it a little bit. My family was upset on the A&E special. They made it look like I didn't enjoy myself. We had a great time on that tour.

It was judiciously edited by Bruce Pritchard to make it look like Lex wasn't the guy, and he didn't have a good time. They took excerpts of that A&E special and made it look like I was healing on people during the tour. I wasn't upset. They're just spicing it up, I said. They're just throwing some stuff in there to tell their story.

It didn't bother me at all that they put that stuff in there. For instance, they would show me acting like I didn't get a suite at the hotel and I was making a big stink. I was joking around with the camera guys and a desk people. They made it look like an A&E portraying I was throwing a hissy fit because I didn't have a suite at the hotel, which was not what happened. But that's what it looked like on A&E.

I was laughing. I thought it was funny. They did a really good job on that. So there's him saying that even like the Lexus express. And then here's another part of it. Lex is not known industry-wide for his comedic talents. Maybe they didn't get the fucking joke. If anyone was going to miss that joke, it would be Bruce Pritchard.

Who again? That's true. He's flat out saying Bruce judiciously ended in the... the footage that looked like I was a dick to everyone. Well,

we'll see if Lex Lugar gets into the Hall of Fame now. He may have been a dick to Bruce particularly, and that's why Bruce decided to

because Jerry Jarrett was kind of a dick to Bruce. That's what led to the enmity between the two of them. When Jared went up there, he basically

he and Pat Patterson, spoke evenly and he was telling Bruce to get to coffee kind of thing. And Bruce did not appreciate that. But Lex. Yes, but, well, actually, let's go from Lex to another question here. Let's go to another Bruce. Let's cruise on to the next subject.

Let's cruise to another Bruce. This was sent to the official Cult of Cornette Facebook page by Bruce Siski. If Ricky Steamboat. I think I see a Siski. But if Ricky's steamboat had been willing to go heal at some point, how would Jim have booked it for maximum impact? Oh, good Lord. It's an interesting question, just the idea of steamboat

because we're coming off what we're going to talk about later, John Cena. There aren't a lot of guys you think of as just being the consummate baby face like that. Steamboat's on the list. Well, but then also for maximum impact, just take a lifelong pro-wrestling baby face and switch him heel, go. And I'm going, oh, well, here's how I'd do it. You know, the thing is with steamboat, he was just so perfect for all the reasons as a baby face, the look and the demeanor and especially in the Carolinas with the timing 70,

a 7, 8, 9, Bruce Lee Mania had not petered out. And here is a real life. And Kung Fu may have still been on. on TV or did they cancel that in 70s? Whatever. Real life martial arts superhero, look at his body, young guy, has a male, well-spoken male voice, but is not boisterous and over the top, but lets his actions and his terminal

cuteness speak for themselves. You know, why would you want to turn him baby face or turn him heel rather. I'm saying when he's when he's such a perfect, you know, you could say if he had to be in the same place for too long to freshen him up

and in that case I can't come up with the I put one foot in front of another and do it exactly this way but you would you would have to almost set it up to where definitely he believed he was doing the right thing that he believed he had been wronged, that potentially the heel manager or some

legitimately full heel figure had somehow orchestrated or caused a rifted between him and his best friend or tag team, oftentimes tag team partner, is something to get him in that area and then give him a choice to make it a crossroads where he's pissed off enough, he says, fuck it. So it's almost like you get him mad at one individual, make him believe he's right. Then when he starts doing shit that he shouldn't be doing and the people start turning against him a little bit, then he can get pissed and he can do something full out. Well, fuck all y'all then.

and then it's almost like maybe you don't just have him kick somebody in the balls out of nowhere, or maybe you do. I don't know. Do you think steamboat? I mean, obviously, you can't say,

do you think he should have turned heel? It depends on the situation and the circumstance. Should a steamboat heel turn have been used as a tool to heat things up? I mean, should a heel turn be used just to pop things or is it just sometimes the necessary thing? This question is awful because

see it's it well let me say this about that uh it's almost like when they turned steve austin heel in 2001 he was a heel early at his career that was fine but he was a new person to a wide american audience worldwide audience they don't remember stunning steve and WCW, whatever. And they didn't want to see him turn heel. And there wasn't really a great reason for it. Otherwise, they thought he needed to be freshened up. So let's say you need to be a freshening steamboat up.

But the thing is, do you devalue him long term by turning him heel? Because people may not ever forget that. He did it once. Other guys can get away with it. but not the people they really believe in. So I don't see why there was a reason at any point to switch steamboat heel rather than either to just give him a break

or give him a new program with a different opponent. I don't know what else to say. I don't know if Ricky, you know, maybe he might be able to be a believable heel verbally. I'm sure he could do anything physically. But I don't think he had the demeanor, as Howard Finkle would say, to be a heel and really pull it off because he was always such a nice fucking guy. I think you kind of have to treat it like early Brett Hart.

Here, put on these sunglasses, stand in the back, don't say anything. Bonnie, talk. And I think it would have worked. Well, now, if you wanted to have riots and call out the National Guard just, make Bonnie as manager on TV and in the arenas, and he doesn't have to change anything. And let me say I'm joking before Bonnie Steamboat tries to join the culticorne at Facebook group again,

whatever she said last time, the correct wrongs or whatever. I'm just having fun. It needed to be a rebuttal to these allegations. Yeah, or maybe we'll let you win because it may be fun, but we'll see. But Jim, maybe Ricky Steamboat could have turned heel very simply by switching his music.

and not only by switching his music, but by listening to his own music on the way to the ring. Or he could have turned heel by giving me a flat-as-fuck segue into a wonderful... As a podcaster, that's a good idea. Yes, he could be a heel podcaster. Here, just worked with this. Well, folks, let me just start from scratch and say, have you ever thought, God, I wish I wasn't having to listen to somebody,

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What now? What era of the stones? No errors. They didn't make any mistakes. What era of the band? Which band members? Which guitarist? Oh, well, the 60s.

And his name? The good stuff. And the guitarist name? he was that was the first one they had well now you scared it out of me it wasn't ron it wasn't ronny wood no it was not it was it was brian jones very good there it was yes and who was in between brian jones and ronnie wood uh anita ekberg folks the latest raycon model is better than ever with a 32 hour battery life and multi-point connectivity that lets you pair with two devices at once much like whoever was in between

Brian Jones and Ronnie Wood. And speaking of battery with their quick charge function, 10 minutes of charging gets you 90 minutes of battery and boy, that way you can listen a whole album all the way through both sides twice. Think about it that way.

And the Raycon started just half the price of the other premium audio brands with similar features because Raycon is not trying to give it to you up the yin-yang they're trying to give it to you in the ears. And once they get you in the ears, boy, when that tone comes on, you will say, Yes, I will follow your commands.

It's not anything that would do, no, no. No, no. There are no commands that will be given to you, and you certainly don't need to follow them. All you need to do is follow your ear, follow it to the right of the side of the break on. I was listening to him the other day, and I heard a command over and over,

get down tonight, get down tonight. And they come in a spectrum of vibrant colors, folks, for styles that complements yours, your style or your color. I guess both, really. If you're embarrassed easily, get the red ones. And if you're not liking Raycons, why wouldn't you? But there's some kind of SOB in every crowd. They offer the 30-day happiness guarantee return policy,

no questions asked. You return them to them to them. They're going to be happy to return them right back to you and you can send them back and forth. It's fun and they don't ask any questions. That's why nobody finds out anything. But right now, folks, you can save 20% off to best selling everyday earbuds

by going to buy raycon.com. That's B-U-Y-R-A-Y-C-O-N dot com slash J-C-E. You're going to get 20% off. that is brought to you by Raycon. Who do you think I'm talking about? Byraycon.com slash JCE 20% off, Brian. And again, just you don't have to listen to anything except what you want to.

That's right. With Raycon. Uh-huh. You couldn't find that button again, could you? I couldn't find that button, but you'll never have that problem. Our buttons have moved, ladies and gentlemen. Sometimes we're not as quick on the triggers as we used to be. You'll never have that problem with Raycon.

The button is in your ear one more time. What is that promo card? Yeah, you know what? You've got to be a sad, sorry, some of itch if you can't find your own ear. So you'll have no problem with the Raycon's by Raycon.com slash JCE 20% off. Ooh, that's good. That's good.

And so is Raycon. Raycon.com slash JCE. And Jim, with that, let's travel through time. And let's go to our review. specifically your review of the elimination chamber oh you're blaming me for the whole thing

huh well Jim here we are a big review I have to say I have not seen a demand for a Jim Cornett review video since maybe the CM Punk press scrum like maybe that night but everyone's talking about elimination chamber the things coming out of it and we have a lot to say even maybe some audio

from the from their scrum to play but there's their crummy scrum Let's go to the elimination chamber. Well, no, I don't want to go to the chamber. I'll stay here and talk about the one they just had. I don't want to get locked up in that thing for heaven's sake. It looks like it might be dangerous.

Brian, you've built up this anticipation, and here's the thing. I don't know whether it's because I'm getting older and mellower or whether it's... Actually, I think I do know. Instead of being angry and mad or instead of crying, it is to laugh. I must giggle a bit at what is going on with the WWE these days and not laughing in a derisive fashion, but it's like they're making a fucking fortune. They're making a ridiculous, ludicrous, ludicrous, re-tididiculous amounts of money.

And they're drawing incredible crowds. And they're just, what the... And I'm not going to rip this show apart, although the preface may seem like it. But when you think about it, that's why I'm laughing. I can't tear this down. I can't, you know, a crusade against this.

This is by far from the best wrestling that I've ever seen in my life. But they're fucking, it's ridiculous. They're making a fucking fork. They just had a pay-per-view, a premium live event. However, you paid in some respect a pittance or more to get this thing in your home with whatever, streaming service or television service or whatever around the world. It's being transmitted to.

You paid something for a four and a half. half hour show with four matches. There's like, sometimes there's 20, 25 minutes in between matches. The, the, remember when the pay-per-views didn't have commercials, Brian, back in those

Halcyon days of yore? Back when the knights stuck each other with, with Lancelots or whatever. Back when it seemed like a crazy idea to have commercials, to even sell commercial spots during a pay-per-view event. Yes, but also not even that.

Just the amount of They have sold us a four and a half hour show, or I'm sorry, three and a half hour show with four matches. A good portion of that show is them selling us other shit that obviously people are buying. Whether it be merchandise or the next pay-per-view or a goddamn immersive experience of we're just going to take you to Connecticut and tie ropes around your ankles and drag you through the office. We'll pay for that, whatever it is. And it's just, it's amazing. And so I can't crusade as vehemently as normal because this is fucking ridiculous. I think they're making more money than the U.S. meant.

Well, the problem is they're making lots of money. Then they bonus themselves lots of money and then they make $6 million in profit. Well, yes. And somehow it's still the only thing that trickles down to the, common workforce the workers brian the only thing it trickles down is the piss from the executive washroom but that's it's still the point is they are they are making this amount of people spend this incredible amount of money the house shows those streaming the what the the merchandise the whatever the fuck they're sell they're selling every goddamn thing and they had

38,493 people. I'm going to call it the Sky Dome. I don't know who Rogers is, unless it was Buddy Rogers. Fuck him. We're going to call it the Toronto Sky Dome like God intended. Almost 40,000 fucking people there for the pay-per-view that used to be the one in between the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania. So they only drew 40,000. I can a piss hole in a snobling a No bank, huh? Can you tell I'm just, I'm, I'm just dumbfounded for once. Cornett at a loss for words. Is that the longest statement you've ever heard from somebody at a loss for words?

I guess so. I mean, it was a big spectacle, and there was a lot going on, and they were able to build the anticipation. They didn't give away what people were really wanting to see until the very end of the night. And it seemed like everyone there was, you know, that you keep bringing up. I feel like every time you bring it up, they take a lot of the time you bring it up, they take a match off. It was like, oh, they only had six matches. Then it was, there were only five matches on this pay-per-view. Four matches now. We're going back like

a hundred years. We're going to have a two-match show coming up pretty soon. Well, and I bet it'll set a record. They're just saying, and these five guys or ten guys or whatever are going to go three hours. They could do it with one match. If they just did a Royal Rumble by itself in America, not like, you know, in Saudi Arabia where people have to go. But if they did it here, I think that one match could sell out. Like an arena, I guess, I don't know, what do I want to say? Arena, stadium, definitely an arena. I don't know about a stadium, but maybe.

I think they need to do a show in the Grand Canyon and see if scale it to where the most expensive seats are right at the fucking, what do they call the bottom of the canyon, right at the bottom of the canyon. And then you got the general admission seats that way up at the top of the canyon. How come no one's done the sphere yet in Las Vegas? Have you seen the videos and the pictures of that place? No, well, I saw some type of demonstration video, but the UFC did it, one show,

and I haven't seen any type of visual from that, but apparently Dana White said that it's the most expensive, again, do you call it an arena or a theater or a facility or what are most expensive one in probably in the world to run? And they just did it to do it, it because they didn't really make up much money on this like gait it was 15 million dollars or whatever so i know if they're being cost conscious over at uh tk o these days after dana did that i don't know if they want to have set freaking rollins come out on and everybody whoa in a fucking

complete circle like rollins at the planetarium maybe they could get pink floyd back together for that though at the sphere i don't think they're getting pink floyd back together for that though at the sphere i don't think they're getting pink floyd back together. Maybe they could play Pompeii or wrestle at Pompeii. They could pay who? Pompeii. Pay for play. Now that's illegal. That's payola. That's right.

Boy, ask Alan Freed. All right, let's talk about the elimination chamber. He got screwed. They could have taken down Dick Clark, but Dick Clark was just so nice and all-American, and Alan Freed was that bad Alan Freed, and they took him down, and he died a few years later, and Dick Clark had a wonderful career. Dick Clark was still on TV three years after he died.

So they did the women's elimination chamber on March the first they're bringing in the aides of March. Alexa Bliss versus Roxanne Perez versus Bailey versus Bianca versus Liv Morgan versus Naomi

was the the lineup there and help me out at the start of this the the winner of the women's elimination chamber since it's the women's version of the men's chamber the women the winner of the women's gets to pick the which women's champion they want to face right except well sure i thought the rumble was the right they get so they got a they get the other they get so which see therein lies part of this problem. What? Because they've not only got two men's titles, they got two women's titles. You know, it was Royal Rumble winner gets a shot at the champion of WrestleMania. Everybody had a grip on that. Well, then there's two titles and there's so the men's and the elimination chamber,

but now there's the women's, but there's two women's. So now there's the men's and women's. And it gets exponentially harder to keep straight exactly which of the cataclysmic confrontations that we are expected to consume and pay for the privilege, Brian. So forgive me my indignation. I think you're the only one having the problem, though. I mean, it's pretty simple. It's the same thing as the Cody one later on. The winner gets Cody.

The winner of this gets the... I mean, they made it out like it's the winner of Ria versus EO, but obviously no one expects EO to beat Ria for the... Well, that's another thing that confused the issue when it came out. When is Ria and Eia? Rio, Eo, not Eia. Rio, Eo, Eo. We ain't heard nothing yet.

She's wrestling Rio, not Rio, Eo, Roeo. Is Rio back Rio? I didn't even say Rio, I said Rio, and listen. Her name is Rio and she dances in the ring? I believe they're wrestling tonight as we speak. Well, see, again, so goddamn it's so. So, strong.

And then think about this now. Then Charlotte said she was going to go to goddamn NXT and check their champion out too, which further complicated the whole guy. I'm just saying people have lives. I understand some people impregnate other people and have children. You can't keep talking about this. Where have you heard about this? I saw it on TV the other night on the news.

This woman had a kid. anyway so and also in this case i'm sorry i have to be true to my morals and my principles and it's not just because it's the women it could be the men the royal rumble hell in a cell every other great goddamn gimmick match that is the centerpiece of every paper view throughout the year, you have to see one before you get to see one. And whether it's whether it's, whether it's okay, now we got our six guys in the main event, we got the punks and the Sinas and the Zabada. Now let's get the next six and put them on before.

Does that make sense to you, Brian? Well, again, there was a two-match buffer and the WWE two matches means three hours. No, it's the same fucking crowd. And you're watching the same fucking show. It's not even a goddamn like a double feature in the movie where they come to some conclusion of the first issue and then go on at a different direction, possibly in the same genre, but definitely with different actors and fucking script writers. So anyway, and also if it's the most dangerous match in the world, which we are led to believe at various times, eliminate. chamber, hell in a cell, Royal Rumble, a party at Daddy Ditty's house, all these things, the most dangerous things in the world.

And before we see these fucking giant, jacked up genetic freaks like Drew McIntyre doing it, we're seeing a bunch of 125-pound girls do the same thing. So I'm not sure how to help anybody. But nevertheless, We press on. Men, men, we must move on. We can't let this stop us here. We're going to charge up Liv Morgan Hill

and plant our flag at Mount Vovna. So the match was almost ready to start. What are you laughing at? This took a turn, ladies and gentlemen. I'm no longer with this army here. I don't know what happened. Oh, you're playing. You're fighting for the other side?

I don't know what hill and planting and sticking and whatever you're doing over there. It doesn't necessarily sound like it's a pleasant activity for anyone. But back to the match. Well, yes, speaking of unpleasant activities, let's get back to the match. Because it was about to start. It didn't even start yet. It was about to start at about 20 minutes into this show. By the time they got to ring,

was about to start when suddenly more music played. And here came Jade Cargill. We haven't seen her since, I don't know when. When will I see you again? When will we share precious moments? Are we in love? Oh, just friends. So Liv figured they weren't friends

and she was just shaking like a dog shit and peach seeds over this whole thing. Because here came Jade. and jade came into the ring and live was begging off and suddenly jade jumped naomi and just beat a teetotal dog shit out of her dog shit i say andy and bianca her the the friend and confidant of budd former partner that was she's in the middle of this triangle of violence she was in the the the the the pod as they say they're the pod people Brian they've come for us she's freaking I mean she needs to have an academy award not do they do best silent movie performance because you couldn't hear her but boy she was emoting yeah she was a very sad

mime she was a very sad mime oh she emoted all over herself and the referees got Jade off and Jade slammed the door on Naomi's head and stalked out in a huff, as they say. And so what Vince said about me one time when I was stalked out in a huff. And Naomi was stretched out or stretched out. She was stretched out and then they stretched her out, which is the past tense of stretching, stretchering. They carried her out. So then, before we go any further with it,

contest now that's why everybody's saying that jade has attacked naomi because naomi was behind she was the one that did the phantom injury to jade when jade got hurt from something we still don't know what fuck was going on there and so now she has come back to get revenge and bianca was unaware of this whole thing because naomi was just trying to insinuate herself in that spot and they obviously knew they were doing this because they conveniently switched the one of set of the women's tag team titles just last week. So this all comes together here. Naomi has been fingered publicly. Okay. Again, let's watch the way we say things here. Well, she, the blame has been put squarely on her by the perpetratee, Jade Cargill, that Naomi was the

perpetrator. In the last several weeks, have Live and Raquel denied that it was them? I don't recall. I know they've wrestled Bianca and Naomi and, you know, live and Raquel were heels, so they kind of act like heels, but if they said, like, that wasn't us? Well, I don't really know what their fucking story is, because I haven't asked them about it, but at the same time, I would think that the victim would certainly know who perpetratored their perpetrates. Jade was all in black whatever that still means

in this day and age whether you wear all white or all black whether you're a heel or maybe face. Has it been on an album cover lately? What do you think about doing this to start off the match, to start off the night? What do you think about doing

this kind of angle, this kind of payoff to something, or at least in part, we still don't know the story. Well, this isn't the payoff. This is a bump in the road, a speed bump. That's right.

But what do you think about doing it so early in the show, right to start? Well, I liked it because it shortened up the ladies contest. And nobody, I think, of anybody in this thought that Naomi was going to be the winner. And the poor, the feisty underdog Roxanne Perez probably wouldn't have a lot of the big Vegas money on her because she still knew. But it made an impression. And also, at the same time, you.

you've got the goddamn elimination chamber how was jade supposed to come out and do a cane thing and rip the door off and get once they'd got started and all that shit you know i've i like they kind of started it off with a bang to answer your question but having said that we were left with live and Bianca and Roxanne and Bailey and Alexa they're all baby faces except for Liv. Live has grown on me, Brian, like a tumor, just taking over my goddamn lymph nodes and it's just, it's, now it's huge now.

Maybe a more of a benign tumor. Why do you have to go all the way over there? Well, she may be benign or, you know, we might have to take a little biopsy of her. I know where I could get some DNA. I don't know what the hell is going on with you today, but you got to stop with this stuff, but I agree with you. She has become one.

Oh, you do? We should take a... No, I don't agree with you on new little stuff. I agree with you on Liv Morgan's become one of my favorite workers in the business because it's not just the wrestling. It's every... You say, you know, earlier Bianca should have won the Academy Award for flipping out in the pod,

and that was really something. Again, not to that level and it was a minor thing, but Liv selling, as Jade was coming out there, I thought was tremendous. She does all these little things really well, and, you know, she's pretty good in the ring, too. Oh, and here's the thing. I agree with everything except I still don't look forward to seeing Live Morgan matches for the sake of it, right? It's not like the Tony Khan mentality. I bet Liv Morgan and Momo Watnabi could be a dream match or whatever.

You did it. Liv, was that really it? I was just, I was taking a stab. I think you got it. Son of a bitch. What did I say now? You can play it back for me later. Liv Morgan is a person.

She was a personality on the women's roster, but then the whole thing with Dominic and et cetera, I think I mentioned before, Tia slingshot at her. And she was interacting with the top guys as well and the mix there, just like it did for real. and she's taking it and run with it as a personality, as the facial expressions, and the way she has inserted herself into everybody's fucking business

and the heel and the promo, that has grown on me. So as a overall personality, she's a lot more valuable now than she was a couple years ago, which a lot of these guys and girls can say that they are. because of the change in the wins that change direction. You know, it's a weird statement to make, but in a lot of ways, one of the best things to happen

the women's wrestling in WWE in terms of getting over on a main event level has been Dominic Mysterio. The mommy and Dominic stuff, that blew up. Yeah. And it carried onto the live stuff, and that's turned into its own thing. If you really think about it,

I mean, he works ringside those matches, as like an old manager in a lot of ways. You know what? We ought to give him like the, the fabulous Moola award for the person who's done the most for women's wrestling in it. But now here the, here's the thing, Bailey was the only person above five foot three in this match,

right? At this point. Well, Bianca. Okay, Bianca, I'll, I'll give five, six. Is she five, six? I'll say at least that, so I'm okay with that. Okay. Well, but

And again, you have, Bianca pretty much was the person that you would think was going to win this if Liv Morgan didn't from the way that they have been presented on television. But besides that, it just, it's the fucking, I'm seeing the same kind of matches I'm going to see later on.

And we'll talk about when we do the review of the men's match how that it can't help but be, a collection of moves back and forth and stunts that are set up rather than any kind of flow of the art of having a wrestling match that the top guys that are tied up in the main event match would be so good at. You know, and it becomes every man for himself in a Royal Rumbler or a battle royal, okay, but every man for himself in this thing where they don't even have any room to fucking, get out of there for a minute and it's just back eh it's more stunt show than wrestling match to me because you just reach the point where what the fuck are we are we doing here it looks like a game show set so then i see one of these with the women before i see the one with the guys that i'm all interested in to find out who's going to fuck who around but having said that

that. Bianca and Live were the last two. Surprise, surprise. And Bianca hit her finish, boom. One, two, three. What'd you think of the whip spot with Bianca's brain? Oh, well, and I was

good at with not only that, but did you see the picture that, well, I don't think I follow Liv Morgan on the Twitter, maybe it was Instagram, but somebody tweeted it. that besides the... Maybe it was your burner. Now, say again? I said maybe it was your burner.

Your burner account. You follow Livmore. Oh, oh, I forgot that. That's the extra one that the kids have to. That's right. Everything quiet. Okay. But no, is it what, what Bianca whipped her with that?

What does she have in that hair braid or holding the end of that hair braid together? But she've whipped Liv Morgan across the back and she had a, big fucking welt like a goddamn country whipping match but also live was showing the back of her arm was bruised all over the place and and again that's it's special effects but that doesn't mean that it's all goddamn you know styrofoam that looks like plexiglass and metal framework and lights hanging and everything all that shit can fuck you up uh but so yes so point being is that it's it's And again, that's why, yes, it's rough as shit. But still, the girls survived.

And so how much sympathy can I have for Sina and McIntyre and Rollins and the gang? But nevertheless, after this contest was over with, Bianca was in the entranceway and Rhea comes out and confronts her. And there's two baby faces. Isn't that? They're both stars. But then, as I've asked you, before E.O. Sky wanders out to complicate the issue and looks like a kid asking for an autograph next to Bianca and Ria.

So what is this match supposed to fucking be? Well, let me ask you, too. You said they're both baby faces. Do you think it's a given that Bianca wasn't involved with Naomi and. Jumping Jade or anything? Well, then wouldn't Jade have been up in fucking Bianca's face trying to kick in the goddamn Plexiglass going, motherfucker, I'll get you too. Get out of here.

Get out of here. She kind of tortured her, making her sit there and watch her best friend get the shit kicked out of her. Well, she just happened to be there. I mean, if two people attacked you, are you going to murder one and then not even fucking acknowledge the other one that's watching out the window? I wouldn't murder them right in the middle of the squared circle in front of 35,000 people. Well, but you know what I'm saying.

In the course of any kind of logic, a forethought. Because, I mean, that's the other thing, if they're going to do Rhea versus Bianca at WrestleMania, and this whole Jade Naomi thing is going to play out, you know, just so happens, it's WrestleMania times something has to, you would think there'd be some sort of resolution or some sort of bump in the road there. Well, but would you be doing a major heel turn of a well-established baby face right at this particular point? No, I wouldn't.

So I think that Jade got Naomi because Naomi orchestrated this thing to fucking become one-a-half to tag team champions and get in good. And I think they thought of that

right after Jade got hurt however she got hurt. Because then Jade, because Jade came out and acted like a heel, was dressed in all black, stormed off, didn't even acknowledge Bianca.

But she, she's going to be the baby face? You know, because she kicked the shit at Naomi, who's never been anything but the baby face. I don't know. It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out, actually. And I like the match. I just want to say I like the match.

She'll blame Naomi at least. I thought Liv Morgan was great. I thought Roxanne Perez was really good, too, and a really good match. Roxanne. Oh, God. You don't have to win the elimination chamber to be in our hearts.

Just be as cute. as you are. Okay, yeah, that song took a weird turn there. I hope she stays in developmental if it means no more of that. Well, hey, come on. Speaking of developmental, can we, uh, can we get a petition up to send Candy LaRue back for a little more seasoning? The, the, the member of the, the Mr. and Mrs. Blandings, the dream couple. Huh. Can you imagine, can you imagine, imagine how many people are under contract on the wwee roster that weren't on this premium live event and candy laroo is is featured what kind of pictures do mike they have her at her hubby mr blandings pictures of sean michaels with uh what are they do they have goats in san antonio or what

would it be an armadillo that he was having unnatural carnal knowledge of that keeps them in this system with no look no size no physique no charisma no promo indie talent that do indie moves except she's not really able to do a lot of the indie moves because she looks like the girl that couldn't make the cut on a fucking junior high cheerleading fucking squad next to these goddamn pole vaulters and snowmobile fucking champions that they recruit did i say what the match was you have not said anything except put down candace laroo her name's not laro

her name's candace laray well now you've changed your story see in an instant i don't know what you're talking about now they should make her the sister johnny laru yeah go ahead i'm sorry uh well i'll tell you what and lash larroo would like to speak to you. So it was the refrigerator, herself, Nea-Jaxe and Candy LaRue against Trish Stratus and Tiffy Stratton.

Say the Trish and Tiffy. They could almost replace like Thelma Todd and fucking Elvirus Snodgrass as a great team. And this is well, what movie was that?

I missed that movie. This was the second match on the one of those ones Louis Mare kept locked away. Well, he hits because he and Joe Skank gave him a lot of trouble over that kind of stuff. This was the second match on the big event here. The bell rang for it one hour and three minutes into the show. And it was a second girl's match in a row. And Tiffy is over. and Trish looks great for her age, but in all seriousness, ladies and gentlemen, we've already had,

couldn't we have worked in just a single men's match, just as a palate cleanser in between in this, because there was about an hour and a half of dead time in this show. But anyway, Trish is great at, you know, again, at her, and it's not nice to quote a woman's age, but she's been around a while, so she's got to be more senior than most of the ladies on the roster. But she did a great job from what that I looked up and saw, and finally did a bulldog off the top rope on the refrigerator, and then Candy tried a moonsault somehow, Trish was covering fridge, and Candy thought the best way to break that up would be to moonsault both of them with her partner on the bottom but she missed it anyway when trish moved and she just

landed on her partner and then trish tagged tiffy god say that a couple times without spitting trish tagged tiffy and tiffy moon salted the fridge boom one two three in about 12 minutes and how could you ask for more i certainly wouldn't what about you brian uh there were only four matches, so there's only one match to skip to go outside and smoke a joint, and that was this match. I'm sure it was just wonderful. Trish Trattis looks great. I don't know what else I could say about this. I've heard that. I've heard that said. I did see a little bit of this match. I will, you know, before I went outside, I will say one other thing. Tiffany Stratton's really good. If you just watch her moving around in the ring, it's not the usual clumsy way way way too many

girls in both companies move around. Well, and some parts of her move in different ways than others sometimes. She's going in both directions at once. That's especially nice. So who is Travis Scott and why do we care?

Travis Scott is a musician and... Allegedly. He's a musician who's fairly big with a younger crowd. He's a producer, too. and you know it's kind of like Kendrick Lamar at the Super Bowl as opposed to like years past where it was someone who a lot of people, someone who was more of a legacy artist

if you were a fan of his it was a really big deal if you weren't you thought it was the worst thing ever and with Travis Scott I guess if you're a fan of his this is amazing however to everyone else I'll save my Travis Scott thoughts for later I think All right, well, they introduced him. He's here. He's here.

And we'll talk more about him later because he ain't leaving. And who is Poppy? I don't, I must have missed this on the show. I don't know who you're talking about. Poppy did the official theme song for this fucking. I did see that. Yeah, you know, that's the other thing. WWE, like I always say, if you want to go to the top of WWE right now,

become famous doing something else. Because they will let anyone in there and they embrace any level of celebrity because there are people like I said, everything is kind of because there's no unified, there's no three-channel system, there's no record labels controlling radio which is the only way you can hear music.

There's none of these things. Everything's segmented a whole lot more. So I guess this guy has fans, but I said it to someone earlier. I never saw like more celebrities introduced to no pop. Well now wait a minute, is poppy, a girl or a guy? I thought they showed a guy in the crowd.

Or am I thinking of a different guy they showed? No, they showed Travis Scott. I'm pretty sure he's a guy. No, not him. There was someone else. An awful ugly fucking girl. But then they had a graphic that said they wanted to thank Poppy. Oh, I thought you told him with a celebrity in the crowd.

I don't know what that was. Well, no. Then I haven't got to them yet. Then they introduced a bunch of celebrities on shows on Netflix that I've never fucking heard of because I've only got Netflix for Raw and I've never watched anything else on Netflix. But Poppy remains a mystery. There's some stuff for you to watch on Netflix you may like.

You know what I just watched you the other day? There was a four-part documentary show about in the 90s Pepsi did a campaign where you can get Pepsi points. You know, you could redeem T-shirts or sunglasses. And in the commercial, they had a fucking fighter jet for seven million points and it had no disclaimer. And this kid convinced this investor to go in with them, and they got the points, and Pepsi wouldn't honor it,

so they sued Pepsi, and then Michael Avenatti got involved. And this is like in the 90s. This is a long time ago. It's a crazy, fun story. You may like that. How much is a fighter jet cost? About $36 million. So, well, they should have made that significantly more points then, shouldn't they?

I wonder, is Hilton honors doing the same thing? Because I got a card. Do your points expire? You haven't been in a hotel in a while. Well, no, but members of my family have been at absolutely gratis. That means you pay nothing. And I continue to, no, the points do not expire, by the time I've rolled over with them anyway. Roll over Beethoven.

Anyway, let's get back to the pay-per-view here. After all these people, do you remember one of the stories that Bruce Pritchard has told? that's actually factual is, I would be telling a lie if I remembered which WrestleMania it was, but one of them, before I joined the company, they had the chance to have Joe Walsh, the Eagles, Joe Walsh, the James gangs, Joe Walsh, play at WrestleMania, and Vince had never fucking heard of him. And now they've got people down the goddamn block on their street haven't heard of.

And at least he could have played goddamn Rocky Mountain Way. I remember reading something from Haman years and years and years ago talking about when he worked for the AWA and just how out of touch Vern was and Heyman's like, we're doing something in New Jersey.

We should get like Bon Jovi or something. And Vern was like, how about Jerry Vale? I think Jerry Vail's from Jersey. I think he did. God. And Haman was, I'm sorry. I call a Haman. I call it. Heyman, wait a minute.

Hold on here. You don't think Vern Gagne would advocate for Jeremy Bell. Oh, come on. That's, love that Paul. Anyway, back to this show. So the big rock package that makes him look like the goddamn most known human being in the history of the universe. He's the most followed man.

followed American man in the world. How many agencies are on his trail? He's on every talk show, the highlights of him doing this and being there and all that type of thing, and the point where he loves being the final boss. And old Ari Emanuel, Emmanuel, Emmanuel. That was a series of movies in the 70s, Emmanuel, but she looked nothing like him. But anyway, did you enjoy the self-gratification package afforded to the final boss there as a member of the board of directors and the most famous human being on the planet taking over for Jesus in second place? It's ridiculous, but it's weird.

I expect it. But when you're watching it, you're just trying to understand how it fits into the context of the show. He's a heel. So is this propaganda that he has produced? He's a heel that's the most popular son of a bitch in Hollywood So that's my point Why would you show the video the way it was framed

That way you made him a big baby face Is the idea that he's Because he's in charge Producing these videos about himself Well See the commentators I'll put him over there There isn't like a commentator like Oh the Rock's disgusting

Like that's not happening And he talks bad I said we had syphilis Here's the thing is if this was a normal any normal mindset used in any other normal business I think having one of the most famous human beings on the planet

now we can agree on that to be on the company's board of directors to be the public face the company when they go on Jimmy Kimmel and they can talk about it along with their other projects on the WWE and blah blah all that's that's wonderful and that would have been worth and that was worth 30 million dollars to him

at their fucking you know level of income these days plus bonuses but what he's done to turn heel is because he still wants to perform and he still wants to be on the show and he still who knows whether how true it is brian your aspersions that you cast that he was trying to revive his fucking image or showbiz career or whatever after people are screaming that he pisses and bottles blah blah blah but those two things he's you know he's a and i've always said he was a great performer lately he's seeming to go out somewhat unprepared or as mama cornet used to say on some of these promos he protests too much he tries to get the the point over so much he's repeating himself.

Point being, I think it's cross purposes for him to be a heel on the actual program that drops in once every blue moon for the biggest show ever. Instead of being the baby face ambassador and board member and face the company that he could be every place all, all year long. Do you see what I'm, do you smell what I'm cooking, Brian? problem with these scrums, and we'll talk about the latest one later on, and he did the one the other day, he shouldn't be in a rush for a victory lap. Not to say he doesn't deserve it when there's big success, but how does that help when you see the nice guy, Jwayne Johnson, performance, right after you saw him as the most diabolical heel there is? Yeah. To me, it's counterproductive.

And again, if we're doing the whole thing where K-fabe's completely dead, the only things that matter aren't even what happened on the show, just what happens in individual matches, and then everything else can break hayfabe, that's an interesting road to go down. I guess maybe it's just him going down that road, but we'll see. That dusty road. All righty, up next was the star-crossed lovers that are Kevin Owens and Sammy Zane. As the history package remind us, they've turned on and rejoined each other more than Liz Taylor and Richard Burton.

You know, I thought they may go with this last, because when they did the rock video, I was like, oh, they're going right into the main event now, and then they're going to do the unsanctioned match after the show. That'd be interesting, but obviously they didn't. Well, and see, how are you going to follow the final boss? That's why the final is before boss. See, that's very important to remember, Brian. I'm the last boss.

Well, but if you're the last boss on the left and he's the final boss, and he's the final. final boss on the right, then which one gets their mail first? See? Think about that. The one who could throw knives. I'll win. Well, now you have knives, but how good are you at throwing them when the other motherfucker is running away from them? I have no comment. In fact, let me say the opposite. I have no skills whatsoever. If anything happens, it's pure luck. I don't know what, I have no idea what I'm doing. I just was trying to defend myself. The U.S. District Court for Northern New Jersey is hereby put on notice that Brian last knife throwing skills are a deadly, deadly weapon.

Come on, I throw knives like I play piano. No, I can't. Oh, okay. Well, you're getting off then. You don't have to worry. All right, anyway, Sammy Zane and I started to say Sammy Owens and Kevin Zane. Sammy and Kevin. The ring announcer, by the way, is ridiculous.

The hairdo is ludicrous. Chris, she forces everything, the voice is highly put on an unnatural, and we need old Samantha Irwin, Irvin, Irwin, Irwin, we need Sam back. I don't think she's coming back. It's unfortunate, and, you know, she was kind of, you know, a part of the whole winning team, it felt like, and she just didn't want to do it, and I don't think she's going to be coming back, especially, I mean, she's married the ricochet. Oh, well, well, then she ought to bounce back. So, God damn it. Think about that now.

That's brilliant. Brilliant. So Sammy and Kevin is what we were trying to talk about. And I said right at the start, right at the start, I jotted this down, my observation. I said these two are either going to have a great wrestling match or an outlaw garbage match stunt show. And it's Canada, so people are going to love it either way. But I'm wondering, can they help themselves from being too indie and try to have that? Because they're both great workers athletically in their own way.

Neither one of them looks like they ought to be able to jog their memory. Zane looks like he went to give blood and forgot to say when, and Owens looks like he ate Zane. But they can fucking, they can work. when I watched this match, my big thought was this match is Jim Cornett's nightmare every night in like 2009. Well, and that's the thing.

That's the thing. They were in front of 800 people in a goddamn wreck center somewhere doing his shit 15 years ago. And they've got a story behind them. And they got that wicked-ass pile driver that Owens does and that he's done on Sammy and Sammy can sell his ass off and exhibit pain and get sympathy and they can I'm not saying

go back to the you know 1975 Harley race pattern and you know then one head butt to the table they could put a couple of their their tricks as the kids say their tricks in but in in Canada the people as I said are going to love it either way but that's because they're into both these guys but they went in they went for they went in the other direction of the athletic contest between two bitter former friends now blood enemies and instead they said we're going to do every indie wrestling thing that we've ever liked that we've seen or done before now we get to do it on on the big screen if they were whacking each other with chairs that multiple chairs in the ring in the first two minutes of the fucking match after fighting on the

floor and then they got a hockey stick and they pulled out a table and again i'm not picking this apart with the vehemence that i sometimes would have because once again there's 40 000 people there and there's canada and they're Canadians and they're loving it and they a lot of these people now think that that is what wrestling is or that's supposed to be involved in a wrestling match is all this barrage of shit and these guys do it well I mean it's like

is that like kind of like a parent praising their kids poop oh look at he's he poop so good it's still shit but they do it better than the fucking delinquent kids down the street that his parents didn't teach him to poop properly. And they're pooping out on the porch. Brian, you've had that problem with your kids, haven't you?

Not pooping on the porch, but having better pooped than the kids down the street that are pooping on the porch. I think it may be a southern thing. Well, must be because of the weather. And I've enjoyed Owens lately personality-wise. I thought it was hokey when they were doing that thing with him where he would just flip out and want to fight

and start screaming like a maniac, you know, at the drop of a hat. And I think he did too, thought it was hokey because he was doing it in a hokey way. But now he's insidious and he feels wronged in the whole thing. Wonderful, but God damn it, they go through the crowd. They go into the back of the arena. And Sammy throws Owens through not one but two tables, one at a time. Set up his, you know, concession stand. areas and then they get back to the ring and Owens pushes Sammy off the top rope

flipping through two tables stacked on top of each other to the floor and then they wipe the referee out but the Owens hits the stunner and gets the cover the second referee slides in and it gets a two count and so Owens levels referee number two and number three comes in and at that point Kevin's bringing in another table and there's another chair shot and it's dragging because it's all stunts is that they're going from stunt to stunt and to me and it part of the thing that made the wild furniture brawl of the territory days more exciting if you watch the the old videos on you YouTube again comparing them to the modern crowds. Not only had they not seen it so much back

then, but also there was usually more of a frantic pace going on. It's like, oh shit, it's three wild minutes like tornado went through instead of, how damn, they're setting up a lot of shit and hitting each other. You got some popcorn over there, hon? So then, what was next? ah Kevin gave Sammy a fisherman's suplex buster off the top rope through a table and got a two count. At two, four, five, seven, about six tables in. Sammy pulled out more chairs and then a barbed wire wrapped chair. Where then at some, Sammy dropped toeholded Owen's face first into the barbed wire wrapped chair, which Kevin sold. brilliantly, screaming, but there's no blood, Jerry.

There is no one is bleeding. He just went face first into barbed wire, allegedly, trademark. So what I don't, and why is a chair wrapped in barbed wire? Is that to discourage people from sitting during their match? Well, we don't want to sit down. We better give them a standing ovation. And then, Sammy stacked chairs up and made a bridge with the barbed wire chair in the middle

and gave Kevin a blue thunder bomb onto the barbed wire chair stacked on the chairs two count. And then finally Kevin ended up putting a chair around Sammy's neck and running him into the post a couple times and power bombing him on the apron. But then Sammy fought back, so Kevin powerbombed him on the apron again, and then rolled him in and covered him one, two, three. All that shit that they'd done and it, it didn't build to a Peter Northish explosion rather than Sammy went down with a fight and a slight wind.

I would have liked to match better than a 30-minute-long collection of stunts involving doing as much damage to various pieces of office furniture as they possibly could. Am I being too critical? Maybe. Maybe not. I mean, this was clearly a very... Is it self-indulgent if it's two people? Is it more than self-indulgent if it's two of people? No, it's, it's duo indulgent.

You know, and I'm not saying there aren't tons and tons of fans who like it, but it's hard for me to watch something when you know, these two guys are best friends who just love doing this shit to each other, and they've been doing it and trying to do it for, I mean, 20 fucking years. That's what I'd say, it's close to 20 years now, yeah. So, you know, the fans were really into it. I was surprised when Owens went over, although there was obviously a bit of an afterbirth that explained,

didn't explain why Randy Orton doesn't wear clothes, but it explained why he went over. Well, yes, and they've got, and Owens is doing some great work. Sammy is always a guy that can lose in these situations, and it still doesn't hurt him because they like him as the underdog. And if the underdog wins all the time, then he's not an underdog. And, well, then what would Polly Pure Bread do? Much less Simon Barr, sinister, what's he going to, how's he going to support himself? What are you people trying to fucking pull here?

Anyway, so Owens went to get more heat on Sammy because he's nefarious that way when suddenly music played an air camer Randy Orton. Played by Wally Cox. Just to finish what we were doing. Doon, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. All right. So, Orton comes out and gets in the ring,

and they have the big face off him and Kevin and they get in a fight and Randy hits the RKO on Kevin, boom, and gets a big ovation and the Randy chance. And Orton goes for the big kick to the head, but the agents and security kind of ran in right as Owens rolled out, disoriented and fucking tagging off, heading for higher ground as they say.

And then Orton RKO, every single member of the security force who were kind enough to come at him one at a time and then stop, throw up their hands and remain immobile while they were delivered their punishment. The first guy was the best because he went down and he was kind of curled up in an unnatural position

and then he stayed there like that. Everyone else took it and then rolled out of the ring. Yeah, well also, do you know why the first guy was the best? Why? Because the first time you see it, you have, you might know that it's coming but you can't visualize it the second time you see it you start noticing things when you do something five or six times that's when people can pick up on if there's holes if there's daylight if there's anything untoward about it or the just exaggerated amount of

cooperation from the from the folks taking it they're all trying to get over and do the best job they can, but as a result, when you repeat something like that, you give the people more chance to see through it. That's the succinct version of what I was trying to say. In some fashion. With the Randy Orton return, and I get the idea that there's a philosophy that wrestlers should always be seen

in their wrestling gear, and Jade returned earlier in her dominatrix gear, but would it have made a bigger impact of Randy Orton showed up in street clothes for this kind of thing where I'm showing up to kick the shit out of the guy who injured me. He was dressed for a match. And again, oh, go ahead.

I'm sorry. Well, I was about to say, I'd remember now he is one of the original Rip Rogers disciples. And Rip was not only a body guy, but always like, go out and look your fucking best and fucking wear your gear and show the fucking body off. And Orton looks phenomenal. And I think he looks more of a. star that way than he does in the normal street clothes that he wears now he could dress up in street clothes like set franklin rawlins custom-made shit and look like elvis or whatever but that's not orton

so i think in his case it doesn't work for everybody but in some people's like his i think it works better if you always see him in his gear as as as a fucking giant fucking jacked-up wrestler but now if he if he if he he changes and starts teaming up with Don Fargo when they go to the Hells Angels or the chain gang, then he can just come right in wearing what he's wearing. They should do some kind of angle where all the heels get together, women and men, and beat the shit out of the sound guy, who always has a heads up who's going to run in and hurt them. You're in on it.

You son of a bitch. Of course, you know what that sound means? We need to take a short time out, and we weren't planning on it, so we're completely out of wits and we don't know what we're doing. And when you're like that, when everything's just hitting you hard and you don't know what to do and there's still so much wrestling to watch, sometimes you just want to sit back and have a drink, a nice classy drink, a nice classy wine. And here to tell you about that, Mr. Class himself, Jim Cornett. That's right, because we're classy winos, all have you know. We're out of wits right now is what we

are apparently, Brian. Is that what you're saying? I'm still in possession of my wits. You know, why? Because I can tell you where the smart people are going to get their wine these days. Have you heard about our new friends over at nakedwines.com? Nakedwines.com. More on that in a minute why that is the way. But

Brian, you and I've told you this. Stacey is a more accomplished connoisseur of wine. She know the reds from the whites and the rosays from the perignores and things and such. that nature. You know, I'm just, give me the standard little sparkling martini and Rossi. You know, that's about as far as I go. So she, whenever she goes tells me to go out and get wine,

I walk in the store is what I do. And I'm staring at the giant wall of wine. I have no idea what's what. I don't know whether wine my ass or scratch my watch. Have you ever had this feeling, or are you a connoisseur of Divino? Suzanne knows her stuff. I'm not really as knowledgeable as her, but she loves wine, and she was extremely happy when a package from naked wines recently arrived, and we were so happy, we got naked. Well, there you go, and see, that's part of it, because once you can get a couple of drinks in them, boy, I'll tell you what. Well, no, that's not what I was saying.

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And there'll be no people coming to your house and panel trucks with wine in the back of them anymore. Instead, it'll be the folks from, from naked wines and you'll know when they get to your porch because men or women, they're going to be naked because that's the trademark of naked wines. No, it's not the trademark and no one will be the first of all, I don't even know how that would work, but no one will be delivering the, the, they're actually allowed to, they're allowed to take their clothes off in the truck and then just hop out naked right

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There is no nudity applied, but again, there will be someone to deliver this wonderful wine right to you, wine that you choose, the wine that is right for you from our friends and naked wines. That's right, and it's been stomped by naked people, folks. Well, no. As a matter of fact, also there's a place. If you go to the Naked Wines headquarters, they have a gift shop, where they have videos of the naked girls stomping on this wine.

No, it's naked wines. If that was the case, it would be nudist wines. That's not what this is. You don't have to worry about anyone being in any state of undress while your wine is prepared. Just worry about the class and the taste. Ask yourself, what would Nick Bockwinkle drink? And go there.

Do that. Do you want them stomping on the grapes with their old dirty shoes, or do you want them the nice bare feet like Tony Atlas would want? This is a notion of a naked fox? There's a notion a naked foot and a naked, naked everything. Well, and then how far up are you willing to go? Back to you, Jim. Well, folks, right now you can head over to nakedwines.com slash JCE

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JCE for the code and the password. And it's worth it because you're saving what, but depending on your state or general geographic locale, you could be saving a hundred bucks on six bottles of wine with that type of pricing. How are they allowed to do this, Brian? That's a wonderful deal for the listeners, and I think they should take advantage of that. Remember, this is wine that is amazing. You will love it.

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the young lady that might bring it to your door naked I don't think you have to tip the guy he enjoys it you know well first of all I don't even know what any of this means but there will be no one that has nothing to do with naked wines they are not the courier they are just the supplier of the finest wines for you at a great price especially if you're a listener of this show promo code JCE at password and uh is the password I should say yes yes yes yes yes yes

And a lot of these delivery people are working their way through film school, and they need the extra tip. So they will occasionally, they'll at least strip down to the waist. Again, no, but I'm trying so hard, ladies and gentlemen. Let's get back to the Elimination Chamber. Welcome Naked Wines. We're very happy to have you on board. And Jim, some people think the rock drinks before he goes out.

I don't know what's going on. Let's go back to the Elimination Chamber. All right. Speaking of being in on it, should we cover the men's elimination chamber contest at this point? This was the main event match for elimination chamber, the men's match, where we were not only promised this match with big stars, but obviously a big post-match with Cody Rhodes and the Rock of some sort, so let's talk about it. Well, Ian, and we weren't promised a post-match. We were promised that Rock and Cody would interact and we found out as we went along that it apparently was going to be

after this match because there wasn't nothing left but the men's elimination chamber featured logan paul versus damien priest versus c m punk versus john sina versus drew mcintire versus seth franklin rawlins and in all honest priests still ain't quite there and they're trying and he's trying and it just some's happening he might be you know a little too flowery sometimes when he does this jump down spin around and slap my leg and nail you type of thing he's trying a little too hard with that prettiness maybe i don't know something's going on but everybody else you could buy as being the winner of this thing you know because of their the star power the way that they've been presented their current positions and everybody had an issue with each other pretty much going in and then

seen has got the story of the his retirement tour and everything so there that's what i was saying earlier in the show there's there's a reason for these individual people to be mad at each other and they didn't fall into the trap but when there's it's a multiple man match like five or six guys that there's more baby faces than heels and they you put the baby face is in the position of having to fight each other, you know, and try to rip each other's eyeballs out and not even have an issue with each other.

That wasn't the case here because everybody had a goddamn issue. And they're all either heels or shades of something, right? And then Logan Paul, who came out waving the American flag after they'd already booed the national anthem, he is a fucking he what a heel and again all you have to do nowadays is wave the american flag and you're automatically a heel everywhere except russia they like us now over there but again as i was saying

earlier even though there's reasons issues amongst all of these guys why they should be fighting as well as for the title shot and you got a couple pretty much full-fledged heels in there it it's six sides against each other in an enclosed environment as they feed them in gradually but it becomes a series of moves it doesn't have the drama of a of a match a contest a fight between two opposite sides or two entities where you have the dramatic ebbs and flows and you can lose yourself in the art of wrestling. It's more like, oh shit, who's going to dive off the top of the pod? And punk's a great storyteller, and he and fucking McIntyre were incredible, and Rollins can do quite well.

And Sina has the experience to be a storyteller, and hopefully local. and Paul can be told stories, because he's still green, but you know what I'm saying, it's just, it's just stunts of people doing things to each other involving the cage and the pods and the, and the lions and tigers and bears. You know, I would typically agree with you, but I actually, it didn't bother me at all here. I thought the match was good because of this story. You know, who's getting into the title shot? We assumed it was Sina, but as the match was happening, I'm like, well, you know, punk

is an interesting thing in this whole thing. and, you know, the anticipation of when guys are going to come out, the way Rollins and Priest went at it in front of Punk, you know, that was a good, that was pretty cool, actually just seeing him rude on both guys, kicking the shit out of each other. So I thought there was enough little anticipation. And like you said, other than Priest,

who was in this match but really doesn't have like a, I guess they're trying to do something with him in McIntyre, but everyone had something going on. Even McIntyre, the way he was eliminated. It was all part of, like, the storytelling with these guys in this match was really good, I think. Yeah, and that's what I'm saying is the issue amongst the guys I liked. I know they work hard and all the shit looked good.

But again, the elimination chamber to be, we've gone so far into, is this game show on Nickelodeon, you know, gone wrong? Is this modern-day roller ball? the pod opens when the overhead shot and the horn sounds and did you see the fan camera footage of punks they've got like a couple of fluorescent lights in the top of the the pods right that the guys are in and every time somebody would hit or jostle whatever punk's light was falling and he was picking it up before he got in the match he was picking it up and sticking it back in the socket and then they'd hit it and fall down again he was put it back up again It's just, it's a little too much for me. I'm sorry, just, you know, good Lord, just because we have all that money doesn't mean that we have to do all the special effects. Nevertheless, Drew and Seth started us off and they kicked a shit out of each other. And here came priest. And he beat up Seth and Drew, but then they stopped him.

And I'm blowing through this like this. and then we'll talk about the general analysis, but you can't really, you know, jot down the high points or call a blow by blow on this thing because it's just, it boom, and it takes a while because of the time for everybody to come in. Logan Paul number four, and he does his shit. And then finally, number five, it was down to Sina and Punk, and it was Sina. and he gets the big pop you would expect and he got the biggest really the biggest comeback so far he came by Seth and priest and Logan Paul and hit the AA on LP as they say the attitude adjustment on

Logan Paul but Drew hit Sina with the kick and went for the cover and priest got Drew from behind and rolled him up and got a little crucifix one two three and as you said they're trying to and they have set something up with drew and priest but that seemed it seems sudden it almost seemed like one of the you know the the the junior heavyweights as they used to say stealing something real quick instead of the drew's because drew got his elimination in the rumble stepped on didn't he and now he gets fucking crucifix from behind. Boom, one, two, three. No wonder he's feeling like he's being screwed.

I was going to say he needed a new grievance. And now he's got it. And he's great with the facial expressions too when he has to express, when he has to express, I can't believe this happened to me now. I can't be out of here already. I thought that was great. Well, but you know what they say about grief? You can't grievance forever.

But then, as Drew was shocked, He got up and fucking ran over and fucking Claymore kicked Priest and knocked a shit out of him. And left and Logan Paul got up on top of one of the pods and did the frog sprasch. The frog spash is what he did on Damian Priest and beat him one, two, three. So now there went Drew and there went priest and we've still got. got Punk to go because he was number six and he joins Logan Paul and Sina and Seth. And then they get in a dagum fight. Does Logan Paul and Punk? And punk beats up Logan Paul. I think everybody enjoys kind of beating up Logan Paul. And then punk sees Sina and they have the

face off and the crowd is up and what's going to happen and Seth spoils it and levels punk. it gets and so then sena and seth getting a fight and they do a big yay boo because now they were taken vast majority of we're taking sina's side over set in that exchange even though seth is still the the darling of the fashion set and logan paul broke that up and punk hit logan paul with the go to sleep boom covered him one two three and got a big pop for getting Logan Paul to fuck out of there. So now we were down to Sina and Seth and Punk. And Sina and Punk took Seth out and went back to their face off.

And then Sina offered his hand. Punk came in for a hug. They hugged and then they got in a fight. Old frenemies, you might say. And they go back and forth. and Sina foils the go to sleep and gets the STF, but Punk reverses to the anicana va anicana. Anticana on account of, he could do it, the anicon device.

It punk hit a cross body off the top, but Sina rolled through and gave punk the attitude adjustment, got a two count. This was good shit. Now it's down to a couple or three people where you can get into the mid, the turgid rock hard me to the matter. And so Seth's buckle-bombed Sina into the cage and ran him through the pod door. And then went back to Punk and pedigreeed him. We got a two-count. Punk hit the elbow off the top

rope on Seth, but Seth hit the buckle bomb and the curb stomp on punk. Two-count. Punk with a go-to-sleep on Seth, and Seth sold into Sina's attitude adjustment, and then Punk covered him one, two, three. So Seth took the finisher of both the top guys boom before it could take him out. And we were about 30 minutes in,

which for this thing wasn't the worst thing ever. I've seen worse. And we're down to Punk and Sina. And now you're okay, how's this good? They've teased it. How's it going to go? Sina offers his hand. Punk takes it and pulls him into the go-to-sleep,

hits it gets a two count but their punk was opportunistic at that point and then sina hit a surprise attitude adjustment got a two count and then punk kicked sena off but punk's head was over the bottom rope as he turned around and was selling up and seth was still on the outside and ran down the apron or the ramp or whatever they call it and hit the curb stomp on punk on the hard rampway and Sina pulled him into the ring and got the STF and punk passed out and a referee rang the bell because of Seth again we still got that we still want to see that fucking match Seth and punk and he caused punk to lose this thing and you can could even say at this point,

Sina was still a Raven baby face because the little detail that Punk had earlier taken his handshake and jerked him into his finish. So why shouldn't Sina have jerked Punk into his after he got curbstomped? Yeah, yeah. You hear me what I'm telling you, Brian. I hear you. A lot of fans jumped on that and said that was the tease that Hina was that Sina was about to turn heel.

was the idea that he was so opportunistic with the punk pin. But it had just happened to him by this guy just moments before, jerked him right out of a handshake. But again, this stuff, it was very, very, the stories and the interplay and the issues between everybody going in this thing was very well done. And I like what they did. I guess the best way to say it is the atmosphere in which they're doing it

has gotten a tad ridiculous. Maybe that's the best way to... I thought the Sina and punk stuff was great. Yes, because we finally got down to nut cutting time, as they used to say. Mama Cornett never said that. She was not an advocate of the cutting of nuts of any description. But speaking of nuts, we get back to this. Sina has won this thing.

Sina has won the elimination chamber and it will go on. to to face Cody at the big WrestleMania extravaganza and they did the replays of the the the match and the finish and the celebration there and then boom Cody music hits and Cody comes to the ring and they're Cody and Sina couple different generations but the the guy and the company and there, you know, Cody's gesturing you and me at WrestleMania and Sina is and they shake hands. Looks like it's going to be a friendly contest, Brian. And then suddenly, the rock's music hits.

And you look, and it ain't the rock. It's Travis Scott. And with his own title belt, and apparently coming to the ring accompanied by some of his own shitty music. If this was his music, I don't really care to see any more of Travis Scott. But it didn't look like that he was bringing a house down in the Toronto Skydome either until after a bit of milking, the Rock stepped out. And then I thought his, you're biased, but tell me what you think,

was the Rock's ovation kind of muted because they had seen Travis Scott there and they thought they were being fucking Zoom somehow? I thought it was a little bit, but I don't know if that was the cause. I think it's a bit of a misstep. I understand leaning into celebrity and Travis Scott wants to wrestle. And they're, WW. He wants to wrestle? And WWE's all about, TKO is all about embracing celebrity.

But this isn't Mike Tyson and this isn't Dennis Rodman. Like this is not someone who all of America knows. And it just seemed ridiculous that he was a part of this whole thing. Yeah, well, standing in the ring during an angle, which we'll get to in a minute, and trying to get physical. I think, did I see... Did he slap Cody in the ear? Well, I saw it when it happened, and then we'll talk later on about the press scrum, what was said about it, but it appears he shoot, slapped Cody in the face, and it appears the rock told him, you know, you better get blood on your hands. And he did.

He took the rock at his word, and he actually hit Cody. If I was Cody, I can't wait for my fucking receipt. Oh, my God. Well, fuck on his ear drum, he might have got the blood from. He slapped him in the ear from what I, if I was been codiac, I said, fucking I'd got up and made Rock knock me out again after I killed that son of a bitch. But nevertheless, so point being, we're getting ahead of ourselves. The Rock came out with Travis Scott and his Mark Belt.

And they took forever to get to the ring. and there was a lot of milking of this. And the rock did the, tried to lay down the premise again, where, you know, I want to open my arms and Cody Rhodes will come into my arms and I will embrace him as his brother and my brother and we're all brothers.

And just in return, I want Cody's mind and soul. And this got to the, did you hear it? It wasn't. They didn't rock the house with it. but the crowd was starting to what the rock and it was not in places it was i actually didn't hear that i didn't notice there was a there was a bit of them starting to what the rock not in places designed to be whated it was it was like the who's and whoville it was faint but it was there and it was starting to get bigger i think that's why he switched up gears but if the point if the answer is

yes then cody will live forever and if it's no Then tonight the dream dies again. And the people didn't respond to that. He was obviously talking about Dusty because he has a weight belt with the date of Dusty's death and Cody's soul written on it. Rock loves visual aids. And I mean, they are quite good. But so I was getting the impression from this

because nobody is screaming at Cody, no, no, don't do it, don't do it, no. It's like they would have been previous generations that would a baby face would have to make a choice at a crossroads. And I don't think they've wanted to, I don't think they, the fans I'm talking about they, I don't think they've liked the pitch of this. I don't think they liked when it came up to begin with. I don't think they wanted to see Cody. involved in this.

And then when Cody milked it, I don't think they've wanted to see Cody seriously considering this, which is the way it's been portrayed that he would be seriously considering it. And considering what though? That's my whole point. Considering what? Well, considering this, the idea of selling out to the, the man and becoming the Rock's puppet is what's implied with I want your soul.

but again it's such a nebula I'll give you everything you ever dreamed of if you'll just go in the sauna with me on Thursdays. What does he have to do differently than what he's doing right now to sell his soul to the lock and be his champion?

That has not been delineated as to how he would have to modify his behavior which is another one of the reasons why that I don't think people have been into this except to see it over with. And that's what when Cody finally says, I want it all, Rock. I want it all

I want all the fame and fortune and blah blah blah but my soul no longer belongs to me why because I've already given it to this ring and these people and they say hey rock go fuck yourself and they didn't even bleep fuck

because it's a premium live event a premium fucking live event is the way they ought to sell them now and he got a giant pop with that hey rock go fuck yourself because that's what they wanted to what is my number one rule of a baby face promo going back to anything i've ever said in public about it the baby face at some point needs to say what the fans want to say about a guy

or to a guy or about a situation or whatever but they don't have the platform and a lot of people would want to say hey rock go fuck yourself yeah They love that and then the rock kind of stood there, somewhat dumbfounded. And that's when Sina comes up and he hugs Cody. They're laughing about what he said to the rock and he hugs Cody and they're all smiles and everything and then they get the, and again, you know, Brian, I wonder if they have those things in the WWE called production meetings. You know, the things we were talking about recently that AEW doesn't have,

because their show isn't finished in time for them to have one. I wonder if WW has production media. Or do you think the handheld camera guy is just so, he's Nostradamus, he knows exactly where to be to get the over-the-shoulder facial shot of the change in expression that can then be cut to the shot of the rock where he gives the signal and Sina frowns, And that frown is turned upside down when he stands up and he kicks Cody Rhodes right in a balls.

That was, again, they're cutting back and forth of a live event that is happening in real time. And they're getting close ups of people's facial expressions. This is goddamn major league shit. Kevin Dunn was in summer school. maybe when they taught that stuff he was in detention or whatever but that's what happened

is as soon as Cody said go fuck yourself to the rock Sina hugs him for it and looks at the rock the rock gives the signal and Sina stands up and kicks Cody right in the balls and then

Sina grabs Cody's watch I believe. Who was it? Was it Michael Cole or somebody? He's got breast knucks. He obviously picked up a watch. You could almost see Timex on it. But he picked up the watch and put it on like Nucks and punches Cody.

And hits him with a microphone and he hits him with a title belt. And hits him again with a title belt. And by now Cody's bleeding. And Sina rips Cody's shirt off and he chokes him with his tie. Brian, do you think they thought to fire him like they did Danielson with the choking with the NXT announcer or whatever with the tie that time? We got a fuck, the commentator said shit, and then we got this, I think it's a whole new era.

I thought you meant the commentators actually had, took a shit. And then the rapper, as we mentioned, tried to do something and was very awkward and potatoed Cody and in the rock whipped Cody with the weight belt and then they stood on him and the one thing again there should be there's enough attention to detail in this and with with the rock that it's something that they didn't want to do and they made the choice rather than nobody thinking about it nobody tried to fucking stop this you've got what in what other business anywhere holly would to fucking Manhattan, Wall Street,

do you have a member of the board of directors of a company beating up one of the most valuable employees of the company, and nobody else of any kind of goddamn standing in the company is even trying to get in to separate them and help save

it. No, please let's not hurt Cody as to main event $100 million show in six weeks. If there was some effort, it would be nice, but it went for quite a while because the final boss, I believe, likes being the final boss. But now we got John Cena in the grip of the corporate puppet masters.

And before we get to my thoughts on that, this angle in your mind. I think the moment was exceptional. from the go fuck yourself to the rock to the rock standing there to the Sina hug and Sina's face this face that we've seen smiling for years all of a sudden he turned into a cop who's been on the beat for way too long

his face dropped and again they shot it well but he did great the rock doing the signal somebody on Twitter said Jim Varney has turned into a sullen bastard The rock doing the cutthroat signal was perfect. It was just vicious the way he did that. And it was great.

I agree with you. No one ran in to make a save. I know Triple H can't get physical, but he could be at ringside ordering people to save Cody. Something. I didn't like the idea that no one saved Cody and, you know, that's the way the show ends with them standing over him. With Sina turning here,

potentially you also give him a reason to turn back at the end of his year. because he gets fed up with the rock. Because I can't imagine he's going to retire as a heel. That would be the most stunning thing of all, I think. Yeah. And obviously he's sick of make a wish as the other big takeaway. No, I thought the... Well, now he's going to start another organization called Take a Wish.

He wants some back. That's funny. They should do... We're going to have to go to his place and start doing shit for him. Cody, the only way you're going to beat me a mania is if you make a wish. But I think the angle was great. I think the moment was great. I wouldn't compare it to the NWO,

which a lot of people have done the Hogan turning heel and joining with Hall and Nash. There the reaction was very different. And although Sina's been a baby face forever, although you got to see him as a heel, obviously, he's been a baby face forever. It's different than when Hogan turned. I wouldn't compare the two,

and I wouldn't compare the visceral reaction. Also, he's turning kind of, of under the rock as opposed to Hogan turning to be revealed as the leader of something. Well, and besides that, Hogan was reviving his career at that point, whereas Sina was already hot and he was about to leave anyway. And that's what I agree. And again, I said earlier, I believe I did in the course of this diatribe, the rock I've always thought was a great performer.

I said he could come out and read the phone book. But lately he's been reading the same page as the phone book twice, or he came out on NXT just not knowing what was going on. And he seemed somewhat, both somewhat full of himself as a heel on camera, that's fine, but also quite a bit full of himself off camera as, is this another Russo-esque type of thing where I invented air and water and I have an opinion on everything? and I'm making everything better because I'm in it.

The way that they got here, I know everybody said, well, just enjoy the ride the rock has taken you on. He insinuated himself into this thing, kind of switched back and forth a couple of times between, are we supposed to like you or not, then establish that we're not supposed to like him on TV, but we're supposed to like him more in real life because he's doing such a great job of being an asshole,

on television and turn John Cena heel. If they were going to turn John Cena heel, I'm not sure they needed the rock in the middle of this. It was done brilliantly, but also, business-wise, I'm thinking, and I'm not even talking about what's best to make the best show or, you know, what a win angle of the year. But they've got a lifelong baby face, the most popular. guy that they had at one point for a 10-year-long period, John Sina, who's announced he's going to make one more appearance in 30 cities or whatever, and some of those are going to be on premium live

event, and the kids have always loved him, and as a chand of merchandise, and, you know, he's taking a farewell lap. If this, I would have said, yeah, go for it, wholeheartedly. and without reservation if it hadn't already said he's only going to be here for another fucking 30 shows this year and he's done a turn this big

with somebody of that stature you could almost you could get a few years out of it but they've got a limited amount of time are they losing millions of dollars in merchandise sales do they think the people are smart and it doesn't matter

but does the eight year old kid that they might have caught this time around because of their parents? Do they want the John Sina? Is it hustle, loyalty and respect, or is it hot lesbian action with the rock? I don't know what the fuck's going on. They've turned a guy that's almost done. I guess is my thing is, would they come out as well or ahead if they had just had the John Sina retirement tour

and sold all that merchandise, sold all those tickets, seen him one more time, instead of doing an angle that would set him up as a top heel normally for the next two or three or four years. Your thoughts? I mean, that's more of a question for you because you are really more of the expert with this stuff. That's the question.

You're doing the scene of heel turn now. You know, we heard from a lot of people that are like, you see, you see it all, it all gave us this. And you're right, it's going to run out pretty soon. It would have been a lot different if he had, turned in 2015 or something. It would have been a lot different. It would have been under Vince too.

But it's still big and it has a big impact. Again, he's kind of the champion for the rock, which is interesting. Sina is big enough to turn heel and be his own guy. It's an interesting role for him to have right now, and that is what it is. It's a role where he's going to kind of be working for the corporate rock, I guess. And he's a movie star too.

he doesn't need the auditions. Obviously, the rock can't work. I don't even know if the rock could bend over and touch his toes at this point without going to the hospital and needing surgery or something. So it's interesting that they're going to try to incorporate him as this heel over boss, but he can't really do anything in the ring beyond injuries or anything. And the real reason why the injuries would matter is they would screw up his films. And that's the priority, not this.

So it's going to be very interesting. the moment and the angle was great. For everyone who tweeted out or something, you need to apologize to the rock, you need to get off his dick. He's not gonna buy you a fucking truck unless he can film it and unless you're famous already. Seriously, the way it was set up to this, see it made complete sense that he was incoherent in the ring on NXT. No, it doesn't. I'm starting to wonder if he's drinking when he comes out because he's drinking during the scrum. the angle was great, the moment was great, let's see where they go with this,

but don't try to sell me on everything making sense or being good up to this point. The reaction he's come out to the last couple of times has told the story. You can get the murderer in a fucking murder mystery without the fucking story leading up and it'd be an exciting finish

without the story leading up to it making any sense. If you pick it apart, well, what about all these loopholes? The guy couldn't have been. He was in Phoenix the whole day the murder happened. But it does it. The point is it's a good fucking deal. That it was executed exactly as they wanted it to be done. And the people reacted to it live

and they've been talking positive or negative or indifferent. They've been talking about it ever since. but it started off a little shady and I think they polished it based on what was being talked about was going wrong. Based on the way you're reacting, do you think it's crazy they're going to have seen as a heel for his last year? Would I say crazy or just I don't know, I don't know, you know, if that's a thing that they should have done or not?

It's probably something he wanted to do. He's probably going to have a great time doing it. Well, yeah, because he'll have fun, you know, because he don't give a shit. He's done at the end of the year. And it's not like John's a guy that takes, you know, he's not Bruno in terms of taking it that seriously that he would always be a baby face. I think he'll drink wine around children. But I get, you know, that's the thing. I'm not saying that he doesn't want to do it.

I'm just saying if I was running the business and what would I get the most out of, I don't know that it needed to be done at this point. or whether he should have been allowed to go ahead and ride off into the sunset after having sold $17 million worth of merchandise or whatever. It'll be interesting, too, because one of the things we anticipated was all the merch for the goodbye tour, like Derek Jeter coming to every stadium for the last time. Sina was going to go to all these different places. The final time, it'll be the, you know, the last time here, T-shirt in every single town. I guess they still could do it.

They still may do it. But now the people are going to be saying, yeah, good riddance. Or they, for the first time, we'll ever do heel, seen a merchandise now. I mean, it's a very interesting thing. And, you know, you say that a lot of guys are kind of riding that wave where their heels or baby faces based on a situation. This is clearly someone being a heel. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he absolutely, he looked at a guy and kicked him into balls at the behest of another man.

or another person. It wasn't in a sexual way. No. The way his face dropped, that was the best act. That's the best acting he's ever done. That was amazing. And again, the rock, the viciousness with which he delivered the cutting of the throat. The whole way that was done was perfect.

And they shot it well. If it was AEW, we'd see Christopher Daniels punching himself in their head. Well, Jim, from there, let's go to the media scrum, the press conference, whatever they're calling it in WWE. Triple H spoke, some of the wrestlers were there. But the story was really about the rock who went for a long time, took questions when they told him to stop, drank his tequila, the whole time, drinking his tequila. So let's go to this and, as always, treat it like it's Tony Khan. stop me when you want to mention something, but let's go to at least the first few questions.

There may be some things that answer questions we've had. Well, that was a fun night. Hey, everybody. Am I picking? Everyone's, I'm happy to pick. Sure. Ladies first. We have one right here.

Second row, left-hand side. Denise Salcedo, Instinct Culture. So I'm going to start off with the big moment that just closed out the show. A historic moment leaving so many fans completely shocked from your point of view being in there in the ring as this

unfolded. Talk to us about how you felt in the moment. Is that Fran Dresher? No, this is a wrestling reporter. Oh, these are not people from like the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Dallas Times Herald, the Atlantic Constitution,

the Pixley Beagle. I think it's a mix between wrestling journalists, local news and radio, up in Toronto and websites. So let's go back to this. Okay. And coming out of it, of course, and seeing this different side of John Cena.

It was an amazing moment. Lisa, is it? Sorry. Denise, sorry. My ch tequila. Denise, it was an amazing moment. And, you know, we as entertainers, whether in pro wrestling or whether in film or television

or whatever it is that you do, you really live for moments like that where you can, hopefully create something that could be very compelling and moving for the audience and take tonight 38,000 strong here in Toronto. And what we have collectively thought about and talked about in the back before and certainly after this moment is no one knew really what was going to happen. Maybe if you called it, but for the most part, I thought the moment was incredible. And I personally love that and I've been around the block in terms of being a pro wrestler and being I grew up in

this business so I love this business and so I grew up in this business and I love this business so that's why I want to go out and do something and then go to the press conference and tell everybody how great it was pat myself on the back for me and all the people in the back making it up to surprise everybody so he's he's looking for Emmy nominations or whatever for his work here rather than wanting to be a heel. He wants, he wants, he wants to have his Kate and Edith too. You rascal, you, haughty-hoo. He wants to be both a heel and a baby face.

You think of like the Undertaker, who we never heard a peep from until, that was, until the end of his career. We never heard him talk about, oh, yeah, me and Vince were talking about that. We never saw him in documentaries, nothing. Imagine if during his career he came out, hey, it was, really, it was a lot of fun flying to the ceiling tonight, and I finally got to work with Kabuki. That was a dream of mine. I go would have killed it.

But let's go back to Wayne the Rock Johnson. Tonight, and I've been a part of some really phenomenal professional wrestling angles. And as a kid growing up, I've seen some, we all have seen some amazing professional wrestling angles. I felt like tonight stood beside all of those that were. the iconic angles. So it was really incredible. So I was very, but overall, I

thought the performances by everybody across the board, all the women, all the men, they put it out. The choreographer, the set designer, I'd like to thank all the little people. What do you think of him already thinking minutes after it happened that the angle he just did as one of the all-time great angles?

That's what I'm saying. And I don't remember any of the all-time great angles where one of the participants 15 minutes later was said, yeah, boy, we fooled all you guys. We, we thought of some good horse shit tonight up there. And I'm very, very proud of them. Uh, I know their schedule.

I know it well. I lived it at one time for many, many years. I grew up in it with my dad and my grandfather, my uncles, my grandmother. I mean, everybody, my cousins. So I understand the grind of the schedule and what everyone was able to do tonight from top to bottom from the opening match to the final match was, was really phenomenal. And I was very, very proud of everybody. what a night it was.

Let me stop it there before we get to the next question, even though we stopped it a few times. Do wrestlers want that or not want that? The idea that here's the rock who just shows up whatever, and he's saying, I understand, I've done the grind, my family, everything in my family. As you didn't know, I grew up in a wrestling family. Yeah, I've kept it a well-kept secret up until now,

but, I don't know. Again, I don't know what more to say about this. that he's just, it's, he's treating this like it's a movie role and he's talking to the Hollywood press and it, he seems again to want to insert himself under the guise of, well, I'm the, you know, the biggest in the business, so it'll do the biggest business. But every WrestleMania, when he ain't been part of the fucking story thus far. Well, let's now go to some more. audio, the next question of the rock.

And apparently this one, according to the notes here, he discusses the criticism of being a baby face and a heel and then a baby face and then a heel all in one long, long promo. Sure. Inside. Thank you. Sam Roberts from Not Sam Wrestling. I have two questions, if you'd bear with me, because one I woke up with and one I came up with on the floor as we just watched, you know, this huge moment in wrestling. But my first is

about the final boss. And I've been pretty public about how much I've loved the character and how much it kind of elevated storytelling and pro wrestling. But at the same time, when the final boss came back. Why don't you? Back last week on Smackdown. One minute, the final boss is thanking everybody for the amount of money that Moana made and helping people with their phones that had fallen on the floor. The next minute, he's talking about syphilis and he's asking for Cody Road's soul. Sorry, Sam, for the record, not that I have syphilis. Oh, sorry.

I was pointing it out to a fan. All right, sorry, go ahead. Poorly phrased question. That's fair. My question is, for us, are we to take the final boss as a baby face, as a heel, as a heel, at this point, who is the final boss? Good question. I feel like Sam, in a way, perhaps, and I'm not knocking you at all.

I listen to your podcast, and I feel like there is a, that might be a little limiting. And what I mean by that is because the final boss is a lot of things. He's a heel, he's a baby face, but also he's one. He's a father. He's a brother. He's a man. Who doesn't adhere to the. the typical professional wrestling tropes that we find.

Oh, boy, anybody that uses that phrase is too full of his own self and loves the smell of his own brand. Yeah, that's when Cody was the most full of himself. Then he backtracked off that. But let's go to this. Talks like this or Babyface talks like this. I feel like I've reached this point in my career where I'm able to go out there as the final boss and address the crowd.

Hey, New Orleans, 20, 26. you have WrestleMania 42 coming to the Super Dome. Final ball starts singing. Oh, when the saints come marching in. They start singing with me. I tell them, no, you shut your mouth. I'm going to sing by myself. It's not going to happen like that.

So I like vacillating between a heel and at a baby face, but also I feel like it's important to, I have reached this point in my career where I feel really comfortable in my own skin when I go out there. I can do whatever I want to it. I don't give a shit. film or whatever it is I do where I say what I want to say, but more importantly than that, and I don't mean to be defined or sound defined about that, I say what I feel.

And in that moment, that's the luxury and the brilliance. And that woman really did have syphilis all over her face. And in that moment, I felt I've never been to In-N-Out Burger before. This must be the very first time. I need to let the world know. I think of, I'm sorry, that's the luxury and the blessing of being in person. When you have a live microphone that you could say what you feel. And in that moment, if I feel like having fun with the crowd, I do it.

If I feel like telling him, I shut up, the final boss is going to sing. Or asking their champion, hey, you're going to give me your soul. So I like that. And I like, and also, again, I'm comfortable, man, and being in my own skin. And I like that. That's why he sticks needles in his ass all the time. Listen, when you first met him in like 96, I guess it would have been.

Yeah. Was this the way he talked? I mean, is this just the way he explains himself and talks? No. I mean, he, he's always been a smart, very articulate, you know, young fellow. Not saying he was, do, you know, wrestling has been very, very good to me. But he wasn't, he was more humble about his position, first of all. and then even if he was

you know when he got on top a witty you know sharp-tonged great promo whatever there was not this element of how great I am how great I am I'm gonna say how great I am

he sounds like Hogan like when Hogan would be like and you know the family were there too they were all Hulcomaniacs and you know I did like it's just this way of talking all the talking himself to say all the things he wants people to think. Let's go back to this.

With the final boss, there are no constraints and there are no handcuffs. And we can go out and have the reaction that we had tonight is the final boss because people were waiting and create an experience with Travis Scott and going out and embrace me, Cody Rhodes, and then eventually putting his blood on this belt

and beating him with it. And more importantly, Travis Scott, deafening Cody, Rhodes with a slap to the eardrum. I would say that regarding being a healer, baby face. And lastly, Sam, I do want to say that I encourage that where we can. And that goes for all the other talent in the locker room.

Women and men, if we could find that place, and that's a really special place, rare air, where you can, like, don't think about, well, a heel should say this or a baby face should say this. That's old school. And it worked for decades and decades. but today it's okay stretch the aperture out and go out there and say what you feel bring it from here

let me stop it there before sam gets a second question what are your thoughts on heels shouldn't worry about how heels i guess what heels should say and what baby faces should say what are your thoughts well there's no a script or guidebook or rule of thumb on what a baby face or a heel should or shouldn't say past somewhat common sense in that a heel should try not to be too likable. Now you've got, you know, we've said the great heels or the great heel turns or whatever, they feel they're in the right and they've been wronged and we're seeing it with varying degrees with Drew McIntyre or Kevin Owens to some degree. But they still have to come off as whining about it as they remind Drew that he

he's whining all the time or etc it's not you can't go back and forth between making the people cheer and love you and then suddenly saying they have syphilis on their face but then back to but you like me now it's it's confusing you're bouncing back and forth between polar opposites there can be some shades of gray but let's not ricochet too far back and forth without putting somebody's eye out Is there anyone in that company that could put him in check and say, hey, Jwayne, this isn't good, do it a little differently, or maybe you should try it a different way? Is there anyone who gets consulted? And is there anyone who could actually do that? Nick Conner, Triple H, I guess, or Ari Emanuel.

Well, apparently Ari Emanuel now, it might be the one because since their best buds, that's probably why the Rock is, you know, convinced and rightfully so that he has. card blasts do whatever. But at some point, if Triple H and a contingent of people from the company went and said, hey, can you calm him down a little bit? We're trying to plan this shit six months in advance and he walks in with this great idea

that, you know, creates a domino effect. And say what you feel. Bring it from here. I appreciate real quick. I appreciate you say that. You should come by the basement sometime. But John Sina,

you have this moment. And I think one of the criticisms that has come up about the Rock and the final boss, whether it was January on Netflix, whether it was whatever, is this idea that where is he going? Is he the guy who's going for Cody the night after WrestleMania? Is he this? All of a sudden tonight, I feel like one of the things that made this moment so significant was that everything got tied together from John Cena's promo in the press conference. It wasn't even a promo after the Royal Rumble to you showing up at bad blood, which at some point people said that meant nothing but the same throat slit we got tonight. How long, for lack of a better term, has this been cooking? It meant something. And you said a word, it's long, and that's what it is.

I'm a long gamer, and I like long gaming, and I like creating with Paul and with Brian Gourtz and Maya Lazarie, who's on my side of the team. and I like creating with Paul and his team as well. We're long gamers. And so what a lot thought of bad blood when it was a pay-per-view that the Rock attended and I just did a very small, subtle thing, there was a lot of criticism. Like, oh, it didn't mean anything.

Well, it did. It's okay. It's okay if you're not thinking about it now, but just trust me when I tell you, we are thinking about this stuff and long gaming this. And I love that. Same thing last week. same thing when we opened up with Netflix in L.A.

Where I came out as the director of the board and welcomed everybody and welcome the Netflix executives. I thank Cody Rhodes for carrying this company in such a tremendous way on his shoulders. I gave him DAP. I gave him a big hug. Well, I knew this night was coming. So we're long gaming, Sam. And by the way, I hear you on your podcast. Well, let me stop it there.

That's why the game was so long last year when they came out and made their brilliant announcement of the people fucking almost rioted until they changed it. And then they tried to make it seem like that was their idea the whole time. Does what he just said justify the way it's gone? Again, it's one thing if you say, okay, make an appearance of bad blood, that teases something going forward, do the segments, the debut on Raw, the debut on Netflix, I should say, the NXT, the previous one with Cody on Smackdown. The angles or the moments may justify things,

but the actual execution from the Rock and him clear, I mean, he said it here, our side of the team. He has his own writers that he works with, and then Paul and his team. So it's all of the roster under Triple H in his team and the Rock under him and his own team. And I wonder what happens with those teams

when they are at cross purposes and are not together. Whose team wins? I don't know, but let's move a little bit forward. We'll get a couple more things in here. Here's the Rock being asked about, apparently, Travis Scott. Thank you. Third row, right-hand side. Roger Prashad from Up Rock Sports.

Hey. Hey, man. Travis Scott. We see him tonight, obviously. He's had this incremental. involvement, right? He's in the crowd and then he's a part of entrances, now he's in the ring. Could we eventually see Travis Scott in the ring perhaps as a partner with The Rock and John Cena? Yes. Yes. That's why we're doing it. Absolutely. It's a great question. Long gaming.

So look, I love Travis. That's my guy. Where we have expanded to, I think, in the WWI, I feel like professional wrestling has always been has always found its unique place in culture throughout the decades. I grew up in the business, right? We remember rock and wrestling, Cindy Lopper, Hulk Hogan. We remember the attitude era, et cetera, right? So I feel that... Why did he have to say I grew up in the business again? I think he forgot between the time he said it and the last three shots of tequila.

Professional wrestling has had its place in culture for some time. And I think we are tapping into a unique time now. I'm not quite too sure what we name this era. We'll figure it out. Someone will come up with something cool. I'll say it outlawed and I'll take credit for it. But I feel like with Travis, Travis loves the business. He loves pro wrestling. And he's a culture guy. Travis Scott is, he's one of the greatest already of all time. He's a goat. He's a legend. He's an icon. He loves the business. We get guys and girls like that who want to come in and who are already tapping into culture and disrupting culture in their own cool way. I can believe this guy disrupts culture. At the show, maybe they want to sit, maybe they want to enjoy, maybe they want to be on camera.

We're here. We're supporting. But then some want to get involved. And then some, like Travis, deeply want to get involved. And that's what you saw tonight was this, oh, we have this opportunity to create this big moment in pro wrestling that is arguably one of the biggest, maybe the biggest. Some fans' words, not mine tonight. And we also have an opportunity, I think, to bring Travis Scott into as well and start to form a union and alliance with the final boss. Why is Travis Scott so important to this fucking guy? What does Travis Scott have on the Rock?

What is he the greatest of of old time? His relationship with the Rock is the big thing. And, you know, the difference between Travis Scott and, you know, someone with his popularity today versus Cindy Lopper and Mr. T in 85 or Mike Tyson in 98, they brought people in. I don't think Travis Scott will. Of course not. I don't think anyone's going to say Travis Scott's wrestling.

I need to watch. Those other examples, that's what happened. People had to see what was going to happen. Yeah, I think it's doing more for Travis Scott or puffy or poppy or poppy or poopy or whatever. It's doing more for these people than it is for the WWE. Well, let's go back to more from The Rock. Got.

And he wanted to get in a way to steal a term. He wanted to get his hands bloody. And I whispered to him as he was going out, I said, if you get your hands bloody, make it count. Make it count. He slapped the shit tonight.

He slapped the shit out of Cody. But he was really, really hyped up. I mean, it was really amazing. When Travis landed, by the way, I went in, we had some words. We just chopped up what the night is going to look like. I caught a contact high for about three hours. It's like crazy.

And I loved it. Let's stop it there for a second. The Rock telling him, hey, you want to get your hands bloody? You want to get him dirty? You better make it count. What do you think of that? Better lay it in again.

He's not the one that this fucking Mark was hitting. You can't say something like that. Yes, you want to lay slaps in, but I don't think that it was particularly safe or well-placed. And you can't just say that to people. But now, see, that's the final boss, aka Dwayne the Rock Johnson, working with a little bit with people when it's convenient for him.

Maybe he said that and maybe he didn't. Maybe the guy just said, can I hit him? Oh, slap him or whatever. But now he's making it sound more grandiose, because now he works when it's beneficial to him, not to make people believe that the wrestling matches are any way real, but to make people believe that he's the greatest thespian in the world. Well, Jim, let's go back to one last thing from the Rock here before we move on.

This is the Rock talking about the plan all along, if it was the plan all along for John Cena to sell his soul to the Rock, which I guess is technically what happened. I don't know. Let's go to this. time for one last question what that's it's what they're telling me let's do two more two more hello mona no was that the one mona it looks like you have it out for cody first you put blood on about for mama roads now you have something with uh his father so was it your

were you the influence and was it the master plan all along for john sina to sell his soul to you i don't know if i was the influence but i will tell you this is that um It's the part of the business that I love. It's a part of the business that I love. And I grew up in this business, as we know. I was very fortunate to grow up in this. And part of the business that I love is that we can create things like this where I can create this belt. But I just didn't want to put a belt that's at Cody's soul. I need a date that memorializes things, but also a date that means something to me, but really means something to me. It's going to tie into my second part of this answer regarding John, which we're going to

was, you know, June 11, 2015, when Dusty Rhodes passed away. For those of you don't know, Cody's dad, Dusty Roads, Cody's dad and my dad, Rocky Johnson, they were best buds. And we were both dads. Riding horses, et cetera, especially down in Florida. We would go to Dusty's house all the time. So, but right before Cody was born, because I'm about 10, 12 years older. Hold on one second.

Did you ever hear that Rocky Johnson and Dusty Roads were best buds? No, I can't. just flat out categorically state that that was not true, but I, at the same point, they were together in Florida, on the roster together, and some when Dusty was booking, they may have been to each other's house,

but I don't know if they were like, you know, lifelong close companions. They were best buds, Dusty would have booked them. Let's go back to this. And so Dusty was one of my heroes. So I thought, well, what's a thing that I could really, anytime I come back home to WWE and I do something, I got to have skin in the game.

I got to have really sink my teeth into something. What's real? What feels real to me? Well, your dad was one of my heroes. So I'm going to put his date here. And if I get the opportunity, and if you tell me no, and if you tell me in his very eloquent way,

he told me no to him. That was now bleep. I don't know. He said that in front of 38,000 people like that. What a moment. But as I was saying, like, it's the most fun part. What were you saying? About our business that we love in creating moments.

So with John, I think you said that 18 times. I don't know if I was the influence to this. Perhaps maybe I was a conduit to help him in a way, in my small way. I want to take any credit for this because this is John, in my small way, a conduit to help John get to the place he's gotten tonight. So storyline, more storyline, fiction, nonfiction. This young pup get over. What you guys felt tonight out there was decades of what John has experienced as a performer and as a human being. And I felt it in the ring.

I've had conversation with John. We're good buddies. I knew what his why was going into this. And it is so incredibly moving and compelling. And it just, it gripped you by the knack when he talks about it as he's talked to me about it. And this is why I'm doing what I'm doing tonight. And again, storyline, no storyline, fiction, nonfiction. The greatest, I think, angles in wrestling is when it's anchored in some sort of

of authenticity. And what you felt tonight. He didn't say, wait, look you can't. And then you don't blow that authenticity by analyzing it and how great you were to have thought of it and performed it so well 15 minutes later. And I just,

he's putting me to sleep because it's just more about, oh, it's wonderful, it's wonderful, it's wonderful. You know what? Hold on. It's great. You told me treat him like Tony Kahn. Well, you know what,

we can stop it here. It goes on and on and on. I'm sure it does. He says two more questions, but he ends up, he keeps adding questions to the thing, because he's having a good time and drinking. But what is your takeaway, hearing the rock again,

it's one thing down the road if you do something analyzing what you did. Nowadays, with wrestling, that happens. But to turn around and do it right away. Right in the middle of it. And the issue, the angle itself may have been over, but the issue is not over.

And already, he's just, he wants to be a baby face to heal at the same time. He wants to play a heel on TV because it's fun. And he wants to be praised as a great guy for doing such a wonderful job of it. And at the same point, it confuses people and gets in the way of the goddamn story in front of them. when he's back and forth like that and what the fuck and but uh and again there's a lot of repeating himself lately not only in the press conference but on television and a lot of really you know it's not the goddamn greatest promo in the history of the world as it normally would be so i'm just what is i don't know i don't know that

John Sina needed the Rock to turn, if he was going to turn heel, he could have done it on his own. He's one of the biggest stars ever. If Brian Goertz and whoever else is on the Rock's team were doing just the greatest shit of all time, wouldn't it still be just an issue of the idea that Triple H is here all year round with his team, his producers, his writers, his wrestlers, and then someone comes in again, even if it is the best thing ever, how does that not disrupt everything? It does. There's no way it doesn't. And because if you change, plan, include or disinclude even one major person in something to do something else, then that person had

a dance partner, was married to somebody, as they say, that changes them. Well, then they got to find somebody. Well, then you got to switch somebody out of something else. It, it's Not that fucking easy. Well, there it is. Tony Kahn and Chris Jericho balled up into one. The Rock at a media scrum. Having the time of his life,

we will stay on top of this. But with that, ladies and gentlemen, we return to your normally scheduled drive-thru. All right. That's fitting. Here we are. Back in where we are. That wasn't a leaf fitting.

I'll tell you that right now. Well, Jim, any final? thoughts on everything we saw, everything we heard from Elimination Chamber? Yes, I think we need to get in a new business. We need to get in a new line of work. We need to have some way to make money where we don't have to watch the wrestling. It's going to drive us all just stark staring mad. I wish there was somebody that could build us some type of platform

to where we could have one of our genius ideas and put it into practice and build and grow and take over the world and become megalithic corporate overlords, telling the peons where to go and what to do, having thousands of people depending on us for their families' welfare. Oh shit, we can do that for a dollar a month, can't we? That's right, with our friends from Shopify. I forgot if you want to be, ladies and gentlemen,

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They will keep your carts from going abandoned. They will take your product or service and give you a commerce platform that's ready to sell wherever your country, customers may be, whether they're walking around on the streets, whether they're a captive audience, they're big in prison. Shopify is taking over the prison selling system. I don't know about that. Boy, I'll tell you, you ought to see what shanks gross. Again, no. Every month on the various platforms, you'd be amazed at the growth in the shank industry. Again, that's not one of the things that

you will find on Shopify, but if you are a business owner and you have product and you need a perfect partner to help you sell it online, Shopify is there for you. That's right. And what you're going to hear, because you hear that, you're going to make money. Or in some cases, if you hear that in prison, it means somebody got shanked. Folks, if you're into growing your business, Shopify is the one because businesses that sell more or sell on Shopify and businesses that want to grow, grow with Shopify and businesses that want to be threatened or potentially put out of business the hard one.

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you will upgrade your selling, make yourself more money, and be able to push the peons around and kick the lemmings off the edge of the cliff, just the way that God intended. Shopify. Well, Jim, traditionally, after a big pay-per-view, you can't wait until raw.

It used to be a Sunday night pay-per-view. You couldn't wait until the next night. Now we have a couple of days to sit there and ruminate and think about what could happen. And this was the big raw after elimination chamber. Well, and they were in Buffalo. They shuffled off to Buffalo. So they were sold out there.

They said, I don't know you might be able to find out through your sources how many people they had. But they had Toronto. They ran Smackdown Friday night in the Iraq. arena. Then they had almost 40,000 in the stadium, and then Buffalo and Toronto, as I recall, what, is it 120 miles? Something like that. And they've got a giant mob in Buffalo, Pedro Martinez, probably spinning in his grave at seeing this house. And the emphasis all night, obviously, with the packages and the recaps and, you know, people keeping,

going back to the topic was Sina turning and the shock and the, let me get this straight now, Brian, they are showing reactions of people who broadcast their reactions to shit that they see on television on the internet. And people apparently watch, the people reacting to something that the people are watching the people reacting to something

that those people are watching but can the other people see it too? How does that even fucking work? I think it depends on the person, it depends on the platform, but I will say this. And a lot of them look completely pretentious. Like, you know, again,

you're filming yourself waiting to react to something. You're going to react a little different when you know you are filming yourself. Well, yes, they're jumping up and down like goddamn chimpanzees in the fucking zoo. But this is WWE's continuing attempt to infiltrate and have relationships with anyone who's a star on social media.

And while it may seem crazy, it's one of those things Tony Kahn and AEW need to do better. At WW is owning this right now. And they're getting anyone, some of these people you see, I mean, I don't think most wrestling fans would know them. and they're boosting people that also do their PR work, which is what this really is. I don't have time to watch all the things that I might want to watch on television,

much less watching other people watching fucking television. I don't have time to do that. I'm not sure how that becomes a thing. I did see I show speed amongst those people. I remember him from the speed of the world level. Oh, yes. Yes. They showed him the door. but I can understand if many of these people, well, not many of them,

but I can understand if a few of these people are watching TV and they're naked at the time and then it's on only fans if there's a whole TV department over there. But anyway, I was just wondering about that. And I guess we fed to Pat McAfee had to apologize to Canada. You were complaining to me off the air about McAfee's commentary, but I've pretty much zoned out on the commentary. trying to keep up with the tom foolery in the ring and and thereabouts. But I know he was mad because Canada booed the national anthem.

You know, but that's the other thing. Was he mad or was he just doing an over-the-top performance and now he can't walk it back? Well, that's what I'm saying. He was mad that, you know, that whoever, the character Pat McAfee. Yeah. The announcer character Pat McAfee, who I understand has a 12-inch dick, but not the real person, Pat McAfee. I haven't measured his, but...

Go back in the old episodes for anyone's going to miss that reference and wonder, what the hell is he talking about with the... Well, see, they should have been here since the start. They would know these things. I thought he was unbearable on commentary. I think he's getting worse and worse because he's just screaming words. He's like a young coped up chavani. It's just, there's nothing in what he says. He's more of a cheerleader. And again, I think the main stuff of elimination chamber at the end with the Rock and Sina and Cody, I thought the Rock and Sina and Cody all hit home runs. Travis Scott didn't need to be there and the commentators needed to shut the fuck up.

Yeah. But Pat McAfee's getting on my nerves and I'm not the only one on commentary. Well, he had to apologize to some degree on his show for getting carried away with knocking what a rotten, horrible country, Canada was. Well, well, they were booing that they're booing the national anthem at hockey games, or the U.S. national anthem at hockey games up there now because of obvious reasons. Everybody's booing us, again, except Russia. And by the way, as we're recording today, is the day that the tariffs go into effect,

and that's what's causing all this. So it's not about wrestling. And apparently some wrestling journalists had no idea that it was happening outside of wrestling. but to answer your question from earlier, people have, are they that insulated that they didn't know that this is, the market knows for the past couple days. It's been in the newspapers.

It'd be pretty hard to miss, but I got to confirm it. I heard a certain observing wrestling journalist had no idea what was happening in the real world. But Jim, to answer your question, Key Bank Center, Buffalo, New York, as of 7.30 last night, according to Russellticks, 13,861 tickets distributed, 82 tickets available.

Jesus Christ. On one of those, if I was the promoter, I'd go to the box office and buy the 82 tickets as they fucking just shut it down. Here we go. Anyway, this opened with the best segment of wrestling television that I have seen in many, a day young fella

I remember back in the old days it had I will sidetrack for a second because we're not going to talk about much of Rob because the rest of it was quite sad for the most part and something made me sad at the end but I want to give some context to the first part

because it was fucking beautiful a member of the cult of Cornett who's I don't have his name here in front of me but I did send him a thank you in the mail, sent me, Brian, a, I don't know how many discs is there, like a six or eight disc compilation of early 80s Georgia wrestling, of TBS when it was Georgia Championship Wrestling, 1980, 80, you know the era. Great stuff, yeah.

And some of this I'd seen, some of it I have on a VHS tape somewhere in this house that I probably won't live long enough to find. But here it is altogether. So as a palette cleanser from the modern wrestling that I've been watching, which good, bad, or indifferent, you have to, everybody has to admit that it's mostly either one style or another today. Either you got the WW product or you got the AW slash RohH slash even TNA. A lot of those guys, it's the more indie style product.

And there's not a lot of variety anymore. and I put one of the Georgia DVDs in. And just not only the variety, the different kinds of matches, but the faster pace and the level of aggression or level of simulated aggression, but it didn't seem simulated. It just a more,

and you can go back some of the hot stuff in the attitude era. with Brett Hart and Sean Michaels, imagine that, legitimate aggression. But, you know, Flair and Ronnie Garvin in the 80s, we were talking about on TBS, legitimate aggression. And finally, we see some modern legitimate aggression here that gets the people up.

And it doesn't, I guess that's what I'm saying is the pace, for everybody that says old-time wrestling, used to be so slow. When you were watching TV matches with the top guys and TV angles, they were fucking moving. And whether it was the high spot match where there's Terry Gordy at 300 pounds, taking those fucking arm drags from DB I.C. Or Steve Kern and Kevin Sullivan doing the fucking mix of amateur and pro wrestling where you

kind of can't see through it. or the crazy bullshit and there's Plowboy Frasier dropping legs on people. It was all different, but there was aggression and there was a pace to it and there was legitimate urgency when people were trying to do things to each other. Then now everybody, they bonged them on the head once and they're laying there and now everybody's taking their time and they're milking more than the American Dairy Association. Have I established this state of mind that? I'm in about the modern stuff.

So now when it was different, when you see people that actually are trying to get people into a fucking fight and look like they're trying to get at each other, and everybody's playing their part, to use the Hollywood reference, it's refreshing, right? And I mean, have you ever done that,

gone back and looked at one of your old tapes or videos or whatever and immediately said, God damn, it's just, it's a different level of animation amongst the participants. I think a lot of it goes back to Vince McMahon and the whole idea of drawing everything out forever.

And as the shows got longer, everything got longer. Because when you really think about how many hot things you saw for so many years that lasted five minutes or less, actually, the actual fighting part may have lasted a minute or two minutes or less. There was buildup around it,

but now things go on forever. Guys from the world champion to anyone else on the card could just be laying there, dead, and no one comes to check on them, and then they get security guards that are clearly wrestling students. On Raw this week, at one point the security guards are running around, and behind the barricade,

you see the real security guards who are all old men. They're all old men who look like they're six foot six. And I'm like, you know, I put my money on that old man against all those wrestling students running around there as fucking security guards. And the people in the arena can see them and they're like, send in the fucking reinforcements over there. The fight's right in front of them and they had their back turned and their arms crossed it and looking at the crowd. They're like, man, those are the tough guys. But that's the thing is that, and yes, Vince, and a lot of people with a superficial understanding of the wrestling business are going to say,

but Jim, we've been told by the veterans that less is more, and then you'd say don't do everything. And I'm not saying doing every move, or I'm not saying hitting people with a goddamn weapon 15 times. I'm saying even when you're, the level of aggression and animation is even if you're in a fucking hold or somebody's got your arm, you're fighting it, and you're trying to get out of it,

and it looks like the other guy's trying to keep control of you. And then when you burst into the running spot, one guy's off balance while the other guy's in control, but there's the arm drag, blah, blah, blah, then you pay the spot off and give them room to breathe. Or maybe the baby face needs to fucking approach you with heels leaning through the ropes, and then they get into something to keep the fucking pace going.

Doesn't mean commit aggravated mayhem and attempted homicide every 30 seconds. and in angles, again, like you said, don't just have people lay in there while you walk around and you just know that nobody's ever going to stop you from doing this because it's all fake. There needs to be senses of urgency. And that's when in this first segment, which we'll finally get to here now, with punk and with Seth Rollins, the people were reacting to it because when you get them to a place

where they legitimately they can suspend their disbelief and they can say this shit has gotten out of hand it's going to go on oh shit look at that that's where that's where you get them and also by both people being

legitimately over and not just some fucking average simpleton on the, you know, the indie level show, having another of the constant pull-a-parts that they have in every segment, the people sit there with their hands crossed and look at that.

But when it's two top guys on a hot show and they lay it out and execute it this well, the people were going, they were chanting for a pull-apart. This is awesome. I've got ahead of myself. We've got to talk about the promo first. punk comes out, walks through guerrilla, clears off the desk, stands on it, he's pissed off,

he's going to give his state of a union address and address his enemies, which right now is everybody. And he starts with the rock, who he calls a bald fraud. And again, it's, you would like to think that you know that everybody was in on this but I'm thinking that maybe he might have slipped one or two of these in

and Dwayne hasn't seemed like he wanted to participate in anything that makes him look bad these days and punk was getting to the meat of the matter so again we're skirting the lines here folks we're walking a tightrope but punk's story is that he marched through hell for opportunities. And Mr. Midlife Crisis walks in and thinks he's a bigger star than everybody and a blah, blah,

blah. I'd say it to his face, but he hasn't graced us with his presence to do. Then he was looking at the camera. He hadn't graced us with his presence. He said, to do your bullshit, hit your arm and pretend you care about this business. Again, Brian, we talked about it earlier. Do you think that the rock has one of those Danish? electric fucking stimulators up his taint

that he can hit and get the goose bumps, the goose pimples, as Mama Cornett would say? I think punk has gone too far. I mean, who is he to question one man's excitement over and over again in a really pretentious and fake manner that never seems genuine, and everything about him just seems to be completely full of shit? I think, who the hell is punk?

If not me, who? I don't know what the hell I'm saying. But I agreed with everything he was saying, You know, we just saw the rock at that press cover and say, guys have to go out there, say what you feel. I want guys to say what you feel. And punk was the next promo we saw on TV. So maybe he felt a lot of this. And of course, punk is really good about saying shit that either he feels or we think he feels and then going right back into the story seamlessly.

And he did it in. Yes. And he did. Well, and he also said, I've never been so desperate as to have to wear a. fake title belt and blah, blah, blah, and sell my soul. And then he goes to Sina. You can't see me. We can all see through you.

And this was great. You stole something from me. And now it's proved that John Sina has been selling all these kids bullshit. And that's kind of, you know, that's a shame. Again, I wondered why if it's not a guy that's got a three-year run with a spot like that instead you turn him to Babe Ruth. Suddenly, it's revealed that he's a goddamn horrible human being before he plays his last game for the Knickerbockers or whoever the fuck.

The Yankees? Whoever they were. And then he says, I'm going to get my hands on both of you bald frauds and you're going to make a wish I never did. And I had to have shot down. I was wondering who's going to use Make a Wish and he was right there. And he was the next promo.

But the thing, his delivery, and his tone and the way he's animated and he's spitting these words out with some contempt when he's met, you feel it. This is what I'm talking about, people. This is how you doing. Uh-huh. And then finally he gets to, now the man of the hour, Seth Rollins,

lynch come get your man before i do or i'll put him in a wheelchair and immediately the music plays and even though seth came out hot i wish set that had just run on they don't need the music people would have recognized you and punk ran to meet him in the entrance way and boom boom boom here they started and that's what i'm talking about the pull apart with the breakaways and the end of the ring and out of the ring and across the desk and they had peaks and valleys and they kept and punk's facials are so animated and there's

animosity and his animation and fucking they're snatching and grab it at each other and all the agents and the referees and peers is out there trying to get them apart and they kept it going and the crowd as they kept going got more into it and they were chained at holy shit And this is awesome from a fucking, you know, a pull apart is something that the wrestling fans,

unfortunately, see a lot these days, but this had, as I said, all of the elements. And they did this for about six or seven minutes, which is a million fucking years, by the way, even for well-conditioned athletes in a fucking pull apart. and it's more energy than you would think. They'd rather be in there hitting the ropes and taking hip-tosses and backdrops and Inzugiris and things like that and that pull apart because it'll fucking drain you because you've got all those people are on you in some cases

almost for real. And I've seen wrestling school students that weren't exactly smart to the fucking program that actually pulled the fucking guys apart and wouldn't let them fight when they wanted to. They were supposed to. So, but point is they kept this going. The people were into it.

And finally they split them up and, you know, Seth was in the entrance way and they had punk over at the ring. But this now, again, we got to see this, these two, say what you want about the rest of the business. But I think these two are mad, Brian. It was a week ago that I was looking forward to a potential Logan Paul C.M. Punk thing. and I said, you know, I'm kind of sick of the Rollins stuff and the McIntyre stuff, and I'm not sick of it anymore.

They did the stuff to heat it up because of what happened at the Rumble, the Rumble, the Elimination Chamber, which Sina took advantage of. Punk was right there in the mix. He could have won. And, you know, we talk so much about Cody's chase for whatever it was, his dream. See, and Punk's been talking about wanting to be in the main event since he's been back. So there's that whole big story that can go on for a while. I thought this was tremendous

and the fans were super into it. It was super hot. And it kept going and it was action and because there was so many people there the action seemed so big. I thought it was great. This is a great opening. Yeah, again, it was a scene of chaos

that even the people up in the cheats, cheat seats. They cheated to get in. Up in the cheap seats they can see all of that fucking scurrying going on and it's just it adds to the excitement and it builds if the guy, if they care about the guys involved.

And if they, again, if it was just guys taking bumps and falling through furniture, they couldn't do that for seven fucking minutes at that pace. But this was orchestrated to where that it had its peaks and valleys. You think it would be over

and then it starts back again. excellent timing on everybody's part. And again, we want to see that, but now, I'll spoil it now because not to be disconnected. And later on, in the back, Seth cut a fucking promo screaming at Adam Pierce, and Pierce said, okay, next week on Raw in Madison Square Garden, Seth Rollins versus CM Punk in a cage. they're giving it away. Well, I mean, they get paid $500 million for television, but they're giving it away.

What are these guys going to be doing at WrestleMania if they've got a cage match next week on television on Netflix? Well, again, it's from the garden. I think there is still a special connotation about anything that's from the garden. Well, yes, but now that we've seen, is this, are they going to do an angle in a cage match that might pretend.

I want to see Punk and Seth probably more than I want to see either one of them do anything else at WrestleMania. After all of this nonsense going on, all of this bullshit taking place. Hey, can I ask you a question? I wish you would. As a side topic from this,

what's Roman Raines doing for WrestleMania? Boy, I wouldn't, he could come over here. We're going to have dip and chips. If I asked you who he's working with, do you have any idea? I don't. No. But they got

six or seven weeks to tell us because they're in the middle or toward the end of April this year. Is it going to be what's going to go on with Solo and Jacob? Is Roman going to get pulled into the Roman?

Is he going to get pulled into the Roman, to the Cody Sina rock stuff? Would he potentially be the special referee that Rock would assign and then have a moral dilemma in front of him, whether to follow his family and the final boss or do what he thinks is right and blah, blah, blah.

That'd be tough having a moral dilemma and turning to Hayman for advice. Oh, well, that was the opening segment of WWE Raw, a memorable Raw. Again, that was the highlight of the show, not to take anything away from all the other people. I thought Gunther and Otis was really good. I doubt you watched really any of that. Well, it's Otis and et cetera. And, you know, also, Bron and Finn are mad at each other.

And, you know, they had a back and forth promo situation with, Braun is put in the baby face position here. And I just wanted to note this. Basically, Finn goads him into the ring and he beats up the judgment day, affiliates Carlito and Dominic, but Finn gets on him, but he comes back. But, you know, Finn escapes and Braun levels Carlito. Bron, I think we've been talking about this,

was going to be a baby face sooner or later, but he hasn't turned, and I think this is good, because it's just he's still being himself, but him being himself lends itself to an easy transition into people's eyes. I don't know if I'm explaining this right, but since he was being a heel by being a surly aggressive, physically dominant, brute of a person with amazing speed and cool moves. And now he's just being that way to the other heels.

So he's one of those guys. And I think they've realized they've got a fucking, well, I know they've really. for a long time they've got, but apparently they want to, want more people to start aligning with bronze, so they're leaning him in that direction. I thought that was interesting. Carlito has become one of my favorite characters on the show. And since he's the flunky of the thing, and that's his gimmick,

you can do anything to him and he can take the bullet for the other guys and and still, you know, he's still enjoyable. He's not going to draw on his own. He's like, he's the croutons. He's an important part of the salad. But if you just got the bowl of croutons, you'd think, well, fuck, I need some goddamn dressing at least. So there you go.

All right, noted salad expert, Jim Cornett. Well, you know, I gain weight when I eat salads because the salad is only really there to hold the dressing up. and I like the good high fat. Anyhow, so we'll get to the main event of Raw, or should we? Are you ready to go there? I'm dying to know what you thought.

I watched it. I thought it was a good match, and I was shocked by the ending, and I immediately thought about what you would say. Ria Ripley versus E.O. Sky for the women's title, and we tell you, at the Elimination Chamber, EO had come out when there was Ria and Bianca face to face because Eio as we were asking, what the fuck?

Is she got a match neck? Well, it's on wrong. And I don't know what to say. Yes, it was the last 25 minutes of the show. So as much as I love Ria Ripley, I did not want to watch this blow for blow and move for move for that long. But the point of the whole thing was at the end of it,

because Bianca is sitting at ringside, trying to find out who she's going to face at WrestleMania. And as I'm sitting, I thought, you know, I've sold myself on Ria and Bianca. Because, you know, as athletic as Bianca is, and Ria is a master. and, you know, boy, they can put something together, right? This will be a confrontation.

They're both baby faces, but... And then Ria gets in an argument with Bianca at ringside here because Bianca was cheering for E.O. Oh, you want to fight EO instead of me, huh? I don't know if that's a significant enough reason, Brian, to you for a professional in this situation to turn around leave her entire goddamn match, leave her opponent laid in the ring

to engage in an extended shoving match back and forth with somebody for cheering for the other person. Did that immediately strike you as what the fuck is going on here? It was the first sign that, you know, they're doing a lot for Ria to go over. Maybe there's something else going on.

Well, and the other thing that went on was they shoved each other. Ria and Bianca shoved each other back and forth a couple of times and then the referee got in between them. So then Ria goes in and said, well, I'm going to do something to her because it's your fault and goes to give Eio who's another baby face, right?

Eo is a baby face. The riptide off the top rope. Ria's a baby face. Well, that's what I'm saying. Eo's a baby face. Ria's a baby face. Bianca's a baby face. Yes.

But she's, now one of the baby faces is mad at the other baby faces. She's going to take it out on the innocent baby face. And she goes for the riptide off the top, and EO turns it into a have a corona off the top rope on Ria, and then does a moonsault and pins her one, two, three, and wins the title. And I, what purpose could this have been? been done for. Because now we've got

Bianca against Eoskei at WrestleMania. And Ria is is Ria going to take time off to shoot a movie? Because what the and I'm not even saying

EO. Sky is horrible. Yes, I'm sure for the people who like that kind of thing. It was a wonderful 20 minute back and fourth match. But you got Ria Ripley, who is more over than many of the guys. on the roster, who the people chant for Mommy Mommy, who is a goddamn superstar and a movie star.

And if you got Bianca, who is a multi-time champion and has been there for you and has a fan base and is athletic and looks the fucking part. And then you have little teeny, beady, beady, E.O. Sky who can't speak English well enough to do the promo that the women's world champion, in my opinion, should be doing and is also microscopic and in the in between Bianca and Ria Ripley don't look like she needs to be the face of the women's division. So how have they, if it's now going to be EOSCai against Bianca,

does that mean Bianca now has to switch heel between now and then to make this make sense? been starting the wonder of Bianca's switching heel coming out of the Jade thing. Well, that's what I'm saying. I was disagreeing with you because she looked so shocked. She was shocked that her accomplice got the shit kicked out of her. That's the way I kind of saw it. But maybe I'm wrong. Well, no, not her. She was shocked at Naomi, that she was doing that to Naomi. Right, but if she's turning heel. If you're a partner, not her accomplice. If she's turning heel, either she's the one who set up Jade or she was in on it with Naomi and their best friends and they didn't give a shit.

Okay, see, it's starting to get too complicated anyway, but back to this other fucking deal. What the, again, what the fuck? Yeah, I can see Rhea, Ripley, and Bianca Bel Air as a WrestleMania match, but Eos guy and Bianca Belair and what's Ria going to be doing? And the other with Tiffany is facing Charlotte, correct? as of this moment. That is correct.

Yeah. But I don't know. I mean, the Rock may decide he wants to be in the women's division and then it could change everything. The Rockette. So, aye, aye, aye. But that's what's happened on Raw, ladies and gentlemen. And I don't know what's the purpose of that is, but business-wise, how the fuck? I don't understand that.

Well, a big surprise. I think everyone was kind of shocked by that finish. I thought it was a little telegraphed beforehand in the match, but everything is less about the match and the finish and more about the story and where it goes, and we have no idea what's going on with Naomi or Jade, now what's going on with Rhea for WrestleMania? Does she get back into the mix?

Is it a three-way? We shall find out. But Jim, yes, when you think of the various women in the history of the women's division in WWE or even the Divas Division, you could probably close your eyes and think of all the different hands hair color. We've seen red, we've seen white, we've seen blonde, we've seen brown, we've seen

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Simpler hair color, and of course, do what you can, when you can, at the right time to stay on top of this, don't look like Vince McMahon at the end. Well, as a matter of fact, even if you're 60 years old, you use this stuff, they're going to card you in all the finer establishments. All right, well, let's get some questions. Oh, bye, bye, bye, I got some news here real quick. Brian, you don't know about this. But basically, we've been wondering where we haven't seen Camille except in the movies,

but we haven't seen her on TV in a while. You know what happened to her? I found out what happened to Camille, why she disappeared. Oh, she married Sam Minnaker and moved El Paso. All right, this has been humor for the WFIA convention hosted by- Right now Tom Burke is slapping his knee and blowing snot all over himself. I'm telling you right now. There's a lot going on here.

Ladies and gentlemen, let's get a few more questions before we wrap things up, Jim. This one sent via the Colt of Cornette Facebook group by Dalylon Berry. Is there a wrestler? That way of a dingleberry. What? Dailen Berry. Why do you have to make fun of this man's name and make it funny? I don't know what it was.

Parents had a grudge against him that early? Go ahead. Here's a question from Dalyenberry. Is there a wrestler that Jim would say he was completely wrong about? Hmm. Well, a recent example would Drew McIntyre count, but not really because I never said he was just worthless and should go away and submerge in quicksand. I said it was boring.

I didn't get the sword and the fake ropes, all that stuff. He changed him. They allowed him to change himself. I wasn't really wrong. He was boring then, but now he's not. Help me, Brian. Who have I... Was there anyone ever...

Who have I changed my mind and come around on that I was just convinced was not worth a flying French-fried titi-fook? Was there anyone that you could think of that you ever said, I'm not booking this person? I will never use them on my TV. I will never book them. and then you ended up doing it, and it worked out better than you thought. Well, until you got to that last line, I said, I'll never book Jake,

and then I booked even Smoggy Mountain, but it didn't turn out better than I thought. I think in your head you may have at one point said, I'll never book Eddie, and then you did, and he did exactly the same thing. Yeah. Um, I don't. And again, wrong about, it can be applied in different ways. I might have been wrong about a guy saying he's the shits

and he'll never get over. He might have got over, but he still be the shits. I don't know the answer to that one and I'm not trying to just make myself look good. Is it fair to say Dominic? Is it fair to say Dominic Mysterio? Because when you had only seen him as the baby face smiling son of Ray Mysterio who towered over him, you didn't see much of a future for him at all. did you? No, not really, because he was just kind of bland and lumpy Rutherfordish, just kind of hanging

around there, but as he, you know, going to prison for that stretch, where he did some boarding with the warden and lived on the bounty of the county, that, that grew him up. So yeah, I was wrong about Dominic, because I thought it's just, this ain't going to last long. All right, Jim, our next question sent to, sent via the cult of coordinate Facebook group

was sent in by Johnny Sousa Jim, I've heard the story I remember him and his brother him and his brother Philip John and Philip Sousa they used to do good marches

I've heard the story of you being somewhat struck by lightning while on the phone with Whitey Caldwell's widow what happened afterwards did you eventually call her back and tell her

I never thought about this and tell her the crazy ordeal that you had experienced? Yes, I did, actually. Sometime after the fact, you know, the last time we were talking, you know, because obviously the conversation

ended abruptly, and it's not like, because the power was still out in my house, it's not like I could call her right back because the phone was plugged into the dab-da-da-da. But basically, for those of you who have not heard real briefly, this is one of the reasons why I have hearing issues, I'm living in Morristown, Tennessee. I'm running Smoky Mountain Wrestling.

I'm doing the setting up the Night of the Legend show. I'm talking to Whitey Caldwell's widow Nancy about her participation while a thunderstorm is going on. And the phone that I'm talking on is the combination telephone answering machine and fax machine that old white lightning and Horner got at Smoky Mountain Wrestling.

Also, that was the fax machine that we all had, me and him and Sandy Scott, the famous facts. And lightning hit my house. And suddenly, it sounded, to me, it sounded like somebody shot a gun off next to my head and punched me in the side of the head at the same time. because I had the phone receiver up to my left ear, but it damaged the hearing because I traced my right ear hearing problems back to this incident.

Somehow, even though it was on the left ear, the right ear is the one that got bad from it. And I remember falling over on the couch. And then the next thing that I knew, I was in my, it was an office that I had in a, house I lived in then downstairs and I was walking around in a circle behind my couch just in the area where I was walking around in a circle no electricity in the house come to find out later on it fried see what was it um a cube refrigerator that I had down there one of the things that

had plugged in in the kitchen a couple of it blew the lights out of the bulbs in three or four and I think fried one of the TVs upstairs. And so I was like, well, I was a bit disoriented, but I said, well, fuck, I got no fucking electricity and I got this ringing in my ears. And I got to go to a town tonight anyway, so I'm just going to leave now. And I drove down the hill to the next intersection where the convenience store was, and I'd always stop. and something drink or whatever and went in and two guys were talking as I went up to the cash register about the weather and they said the one guy said yeah I saw a big bolt of lightning go right over the hill a few minutes ago and said yeah it hit me what did they say they looked at me like I'd been

hit my lightning oh well that's what did whitey called was widow think of this action later on well I believe I had screamed fuck as I went over the couch and I don't know whether she didn't admit to hearing that or not when I talk to her the next time she's oh yes the phone went dead she's such a pleasant woman but I don't know if she heard me scream fuck but it ain't fun to get hit by lightning I would encourage people to try to avoid that at most of the time our next question Jim sent via the cult of cornet Facebook group by Alex Hedges

is there any hope saving the current state of tag teams? Does Jim think it's possible to rehab the current state of tag team divisions? I mean, it's possible and it would take time in a concerted effort, but I don't see that the effort is going to happen, and it would have to be...

AEW had a nice little tag team division there for a while until they dismantled it. where is Juice Robinson? I still think back to FTR against Jen and Juice being the best tag team match of modern times and how that stands atop the

AEW match cannon like a goddamn monolith on top of a fucking ant hill because it's a fur drop from there. It would have to be the WWE and they would have to start not just putting

top singles guys in tag team matches against each other, but having at least a couple of tag teams that were good enough and were pushed in the spot and were treated as main event guys on the levels of the punks and the Rollins and the reins and the, et cetera, like it was in most companies in every territory, with maybe a few exceptions. You know, Sam Mutchnik was. was not, you know, he liked to feature a single's main event. But for the most part, the NWA World Tag Team title was seen as on a par with the world heavyweight champion.

They could be co-main events or, you know, one could be on a main event of one show and the other could be the main event of the other show on another town that same night. But that's because the guys in those tag teams were seen as big stars. and presented that way. So the reason why that, and I'll shut up, that the tag teams are so now is because look at the fucking tag teams

compared to the quality of the guys at the top in any company. The tag teams are a secondary and not just because all these guys are not telling, many of them aren't that fucking great. But none of them are presented at that level

So, which comes first, the chicken or the fucking embryo? Have you ever heard an argument from someone you worked for, worked with, against pushing tag teams for strictly budgetary reasons? Because if we have two baby faces who were over, you need two heels, as opposed to having a top baby face and a heel in that spot, two less people to pay? Well, no, because for one thing in the territory days, It didn't matter.

That's why our main event payoff for the Superdome was $2,000, whereas if it had been a single match, instead of split five ways including the manager, it'd been five grand apiece. The promoter would just split the main event money between however many people were in the main event. Now, with the contracts, but if it's a company that's got guys under contracts, whether they get paid,

whether they work or not, then they shouldn't be worried about the goddamn budget on two more guys. Jim, our next question sent via the cult of Cornette Facebook group by Nick Bennett. My uncle Jack passed away a few weeks ago, and he always mentioned that his favorite wrestler was the mighty Igor. Oh, my God. I was wondering if Jim had any stories about the mighty Igor, as I've seen that he wasn't

as big a name as others were back in the day. Thanks. Well, he was, but it was a day, the day was far enough back that people, people don't realize. But the mighty, I never met the mighty Igor, nor did I actually get to see him in person, but I saw him on TV, especially when I first found wrestling and would go to Aunt Lolas and get the Sheeks TV off Cincinnati television. But the got a lot of people still, it may be thinking even Ivan Putzky is the bodybuilder,

you know, the teamed with Tito Santana or whatever in 1981. but the mighty Igor was a Polish descent for real, I think, right? Because Dick Garza, what would that be? See, Polish or was he maybe Greek? Greece. I don't know. I don't know. But nevertheless, he was a bodybuilder and a weightlifter in the 50s and from somewhere

in the Detroit area and ended up getting involved in a wrestling business. and he was a good-looking, well-groomed young man with this nice body, but that was when he didn't have a gimmick somewhere along the way, pardon me for not having boned up on the mighty Igor, but they gave him the gimmick that he's this simple-minded Polish, you know, he's a big muscle-bound character, but at the same time he's very childlike. Boo Bradley was an homage.

And he dressed in kind of a funny outfit with the long, John's cut off and over his shoulders the little top and he had a cap and he would come to the ring eating Polish sausage. And in some cases his manager was, oh, goddamn, Ivan Kalmakov, right? Oh, that's right. Early on, yeah. Yeah, who was an old-time wrestler. And then he would speak for the mighty Igor because the mighty Igor would, oh, yes, Igor like, because he's simple. minded and he's Polish and he can't speak English. And but don't get him mad.

And what a baby face for the kids and the kids like to take a bite of his Polish sausage. I don't know what's going on. But he was a strong man and he was especially over in Detroit and Michigan and the Sheeks territory where he was a main event baby face, made big money. And I think other like Toronto, he was over there. he was one of the guys pushed on the Eddie Einhorn TV show. Yes, when Eddie Einhorn ran the IWA and tried to run opposite of the whole country for a while there in the 70s.

He was with Ernie Ladd, Mill Moschrist, Mighty Igor was a major name. And he was so big and the gimmick was so over where I think he had a run in, oh, God damn it. Didn't he have a run in Georgia? Am I thinking about Putzky? I was getting confused too because I was wondering which one was in Texas and when. That's what I was just thinking. Well, but Putsky got over, Putsky got over in Texas with the gimmick.

Because that's when Paul Bosch, Paul Bys said when they made him just Ivan Putsky with no gimmick and he could speak just fine. In the WWF, they ruined him. But the mighty Igor gimmick was over so good that Ivan Putsky. with a Joe Bednarzky, right? He came along as a copy of the Mighty Igor and did it in Texas in the 70s and various other places. And then, as I said, you know, when he went to work for the WWF, they dropped the simple-minded Polish guy,

but they would pull little toys on ropes to the ring or goddamn have the stuffed animals. This was always, so much of this was Boo Bradley. Right? But the Mighty Igor just came along in the 60s and early 70s, where there's still not really any footage that exists where people have heard of Putzky because of his modern run. But they might not know that he had that gimmick.

All right. Well, let's get another question here, Jim. This one sent via the Culta Quartet Facebook group by Aidan Hardy. why isn't West Virginia wrestling has talked about as other territories with the amount of territories and outlaw promotions that used to run it it surprises me we don't talk about them

well brief and to the point question you know one of the reasons honestly is it's been so long and there's so little that exists I mean there was a a studio wrestling show out of W-O-A-Y channel 4 O-Kill West Virginia that ran for years and years in the 60s and into the 70s. And the guy who announced it, he was a guy, but his name was Shirley, Shirley Love.

He ended up in the state legislature, some elected office, he's known or was known throughout the state. But think about this, the people that were watching it were the people in and around Oak Hill in Beckley, West Virginia. And, you know, before Stephen P. New grew up and started, so it is wild oats, and made a population explosion out there in Beckley. It wasn't that big of an area. So these people were watching a local TV show with, you know, I don't want to say

unheard of talent. Gypsy Joe worked there for a lot. Yes, the Cuban assassin. He was from that area. but and those guys along with more local crew and some smaller known, you know, guys in a wrestling business from the Southern territories or the outlaw promotions. It was a, ICW, the Pafos had a heavy presence in West Virginia because there was no athletic commission. Those small towns didn't get a lot of entertainment.

They had the TV and I think they, at one point they had TV. and Charleston and Huntington, but they definitely had it down in Beckley for a while. But the West Virginia, until Crockett kind of annexed it in the early 80s, because he originally only had North and South Carolina and Virginia. But he moved in there. It was, you know, a variety of promotions coming in from Sheik would run part of West Virginia because it was next to Ohio. but the WWWF in the 70s might run

a few small towns in West Virginia for spot shows that were adjoining Maryland and fucking that area. And the locals that were set up there for a long period of time were maybe a step above outlaws at some point because they had TV, but it was still, it was a smaller time thing, but you could make money on a small time basis with wrestling in those mountains at that time

because the people had no other live entertainment. And the economics were very different than they are today trying to rent small town buildings or get sponsored shows at these little high schools. You could do that then without having a bank loan behind you. A lot of the guys who worked Pittsburgh, obviously, worked West Virginia. Well, and some of those outlaws is where when Guys graduated Danucci school in Pittsburgh, McFoly, Shane Douglas,

Brian Hilderbrand, Mark Curtis. Those guys would get experienced by working on those outlaw shows in West Virginia. Zoltan, the Great. There you get, Kenny Jugin. And there were outlaw promotions all over the place in West Virginia because no major promoter had claimed it didn't give a shit what went on. So you could do whatever. Do what you want to do.

Go where you want to go. Well, actually, Jim, they correct that. If you're in West Virginia, you can't just do what you want to do. You can't just go where you want to go because if you go against the law, if you go against the people, there's a man in West Virginia there to take you to task. That's right. And if we had the Law and Order music right now,

we would play it, dung, dunk, but instead we'll just play this funky tune. All Stephen P. New, a mud show or two. That's right, ladies gentlemen, Stephen P. New Law Office.com, 87750, Steve, he is the law, he is the order, he is the hammer of justice. And he will plead the case, he'll decide on the case, and he'll administer the justice therein, because he is the judge, jury and executioner around. As a matter of fact, you know, he sent 17 people to the gallows last week. That's what Stephen P. News doing.

He's cleaning up West Virginia. And if you have a problem, if you've been wrongfully terminated, abused by a major corporation, poisoned by somehow against your will and better judgment, or some of the many ways that people can screw other people around in this day and age, and you want representation in court, Stephen P. New law office.com. 87750 Steve is the man for you The compassionate Hammer of Justice

He's got a hammer Brian but he keeps it in a velvet case Well I always encourage him to take out that hammer And smash away but let him smash for you Stephen Pino 87750 Steve Newlawoffice.com Jim

A couple more questions we get the hell out of here This one From the Coulter Quartet Facebook group Was sent in by Warren Howler can Jim explain the purpose behind a tape fist match? I saw footage of a tape fist match from 1986, which was Ronnie Garvin. He wrote Ronnie Marvin.

Ronnie Garvin and Tully Banchard. And I was curious. You know that hands of stone Ronnie Marvin. He was a hell of a guy. I was curious as what was special about those type of matches? Well, it depends on the setup. up and I'll explain a few of the, for instances. In some territories, they would call it a brass knucks match.

But then you would end up, you'd think, well, they're going to have brass knucks, and then they would come to the ring, their fists would be taped, right? And Cyclone Negro in Texas or, oh, goddamn, who else was that? Don Fargo would do those. Don Fargo actually, I think, had a few matches where the brass knucks matches, they had real brass ducks and they were just trying to work and hoping for the best. But in other places, it was more, you know, realistic, a taped fist match. Ronnie Garvin was the man with the hands of stone.

They said he had a knockout punch, right? That's what he was using as his finish. But I can't remember what specific angle they did for Ronnie and who was a Tully, right, to be in a taped fist match, but it might have been the Tully, knocked him out with a fucking roll of quarters in his fucking hand. Yeah, see, I got hands of stone too, motherfucker, because that's an angle that you would do. The heel used brass knucks or sometimes chain around his fist,

a dog chain or quarters or whatever. So now the baby face says, fuck it then. You want to fight, we'll just tape our fists up and go at it bare knuckle. So taped fist match. And theoretically, the guys would, tape their fists like the boxers do before they put the gloves on because the gloves are to protect your opponent where you're not punched him in a face in boxing, where you're not punched him

in a face with your bare knuckles, but the taped fist underneath it is to protect the fighter because it's easy to break your fingers or your knuckles or bones in your hand or whatever when you're punching a guy in a face. So the tape prevents you from having such fragile hands and being able to punch harder, and that's why guys would sell the punches bigger or get color from them or whatever. But point being, that match would probably be instigated when one of the guys was noted for his knockout punch, had a boxing background. The other guy had done something with a foreign object where he had punched the baby face and knocked him out or something like that, and that's why they're going to settle it that way.

Is that Brian fairly succinct and adequate explanation? I think so. And if you grew up a WWF fan, especially in the Northeast, and eventually when they spread beyond that, it was a gimmick that you never saw. You never saw that kind of match. You know, now that you mentioned that, I realized, yeah, I never even thought of it specifically

that you never saw that in the north. That's right. What a sad idea. You didn't get coal miners' glove matches either. No, and I still think that one. Man, I was at Halloween Havoc, Navig 92, spin the wheel, make the deal. They were building it for weeks.

But no, it... And then it was that match, and oh, my God, they had, like, the most amazing... Again, you know, everyone's a mark, but especially back then before you saw everything, they had everything that you were going to see in that next decade. Barb, wire, this, and all sorts of gimmicks,

and then Coal Miners Glove won. It was the worst stipulation. But here's the thing. If you were, again, if you were in a territory, where they not only did them on a somewhat normal basis, but the guys knew how to do them, they were fucking great. It's only because people, even in the 90s, were booking shit from memory that they'd never actually seen

they'd heard about or trying to fucking gimmick it up with gimmicks and a bigger budget. One of the best Coal Matters glove matches I saw was a tag team with Phil Hickerson and Dennis Condry against George Goulis and Pez Watley. in Louisville and they had to go like 45 minutes and they made that fucking thing with George Goulis in it because Higgerson and Condry were great but you could work the pole and trying to get the glove and the whole nine yards and it it but you have to know how to do that and the people have to understand what they're seeing they can't just see it out of the

blue and have never seen it before and don't get it and you didn't educate them and it's over and it's goofy. You can't do that. All right, Jim, our next question sent via the culticornef Facebook group by Benny Shaw. Why do wrestling promotions put commercials during matches? Wouldn't it be better suited to place them at the beginning or end of the segments? It just tells me that the match doesn't mean much if I got missed parts of it. Well, you are correct, sir. Yes, and here's the thing. it is evolved.

It used to, again, when wrestling promotions started having longer, more main event matches on television, by the nature of television, especially when the shows were only an hour long, you had to take a break in a match that was 20 or 30 minutes long or whatever. That's understandable. And, you know, even back when, they showed the briscoe and dory hour Broadway from st petersburg on florida tv they still had to take commercial breaks right and go in and out and that was the early 70s so it's not new but it's

been overused because again i think as vince went along even in wcd when i was on a creative team in 1990 only the main events the main event on the clash of champions or the main event on saturday night TBS with two segments, maybe three if we put the entrances and the introductions in a segment and then had two full segments of match. And that was for long main event matches. Otherwise, you'd try not to to not break it up. But finally, Vince started redoing all the rules and they were convinced that, well, if we go to break, you know, with something

big happens and we go to break, it'll hook the people and they'll stick around to we come back, and we get all these breaks in. And then it just became a matter of course. And then they lost sight of, well, something big has to happen. And now a break spot sometimes is the guy gave the other guy the finger. And then they just crashed a break with no pitch or whatever. Hate that. So, yeah, it's one thing being in the middle of the match.

It's another thing when the commentators don't even reference that there's about to be a break. Well, yeah, and that was a Vince thing that he didn't like. I just say they know, well, God damn it. But also when you go 90 seconds to the Brett's ridiculous, when the last TV that I formatted in the modern era was the Ring of Honor TV, and they had to have long matches. So we would try to figure it out where we could get the match in the ring

without ringing the bell and then come back and ring the bell and give them six or seven or eight minutes or whatever we could give the segment and then have the turning point in the match, the heat spot, where the heel takes over. When that happens, then you can say, oh, my God, baby face, Bill is in jeopardy, and we've got to take a break, but we'll be right back. Is he going to be able to come out of this and create some goddamn wonder in their mind about how Bill is going to do, so they'll stick around. and then come back on the other side and recap it.

During the break, he'll Hank has really put the pressure on baby face bill. And at least then you had a turning point to go to break on rather than, oh, now we've got to go sell some fucking douche cream. They've had 90 seconds to wrestle. Because then it's just in every match, whether they're long or not or whatever.

So yeah, overdone too much. Takes you out of it. And we would all. try to purposely save if we were going to have a long match, save as much time as we could for the end of the show to give it to them. So they had time to establish what they were doing, then hook the people, and then come back and have plenty time to get some fugging heat, go home, have a finish, whatever.

I'm sorry. Go ahead. Well, Jim, our final question here this week sent via the Colta Cornett Facebook group and thank you for all the great questions. Send them also to corny drive-thru at gmail.com. along with your songs. This was sent by Ryan Sorrell. Ted DiBiase... Is he the son of Buddy Sorrell?

I don't believe so, but Ted DiBiopped by throwing his arms up over his head instead of to the side. I've never seen anyone else take a back bump like this. Has Jim got any background on why Ted DiBi Biasi bump like this? You know, it's not something that I've particularly noticed now I might not do.

be able to unsee it the next time I watch any of Ted's matches. But when he first switched heel, he really worked hard. And he was a guy that took more of the rolling bumps where, boom, he'd go down, but he'd be rolling into the position to get up to feed or take the next bump. But I didn't see anything odd enough to, do you remember anything odd enough to attract the attention of people to break down his flat back bump, Brian? Like you said, I've never thought about it.

Now maybe I'll see it and never unsee it, but I've never noticed. I can't picture it in my head, for instance. And I mean, a lot of, that's another thing is that, yes, there is a correct way to give a guy a bump and to take a bump, but there's room for interpretation based on the individual human anatomy of different people. And there, even though you should try to land as flat as possible and distribute the, the force of the landing across as much of your entire body as possible and et cetera. It's all these little rules of thumb. There's always guys that for one reason or another,

their size, the way they were built, a previous injury, they're going to take bumps differently from we talked about Eddie Gilbert having that neck injury and he never, he took big bumps after that, but he was never a head snapping guy. his whole head and body went straight because he couldn't snap his neck Flair took the backdrop on his side for 40 fucking years that everybody's like oh Jesus Christ you're not supposed to do that but after the plane crash that's the way he ended up doing it you know there's numerous

examples of Bill Dundee because when he would go over the top rope he was short his arms were short he couldn't go over the top rope the way that most guys did grabbing the top and going over and putting a hand on the apron. He developed this way of going over that was 20 times more dangerous and looked great. But goddamn, he was going over head first and then doing a handstand on the apron of the ring and fucking going over backwards from there to the floor. And for a while he wasn't holding on to anything.

But it just is a way guys do things and it works out for them. Well, with that, the drive-thru is closed. That's the way we do things. All right. Oh, I don't know. That sounded like some wind chimes that were running out of steam. Hold on. I'll give you some new sounds to hear it.

Oh, no, no new sounds. It's heavy. Well, there'll be more heavy talk on the experience in a few days. And, of course, next week back here on the drive-thru, we're on the road to WrestleMania. And we're not actually on the road. We're kind of on a different road. and watching everything happen, be there with us on both shows.

The official Jim Cornet YouTube channel, just go to YouTube and search for Jim Cornett. It'll come right up. And of course, patreon.com slash cornet, go through the archive, $5 a month going back to 2013. Cornett's collectibles, Jim Cornett.com. What's going on, Jim? Well, I've told them earlier,

but it bears repeating that if you order now, any tag team or single action figure set in the month of March, you get a free two-hour DVD along with it, and behind the curtains are on sale, $5 off, only 1995 autographed. At Jimcournet.com. Of course, the drive-thru is brought to you by the law of the Stephen Pino,

877-5-0 Steve. Get even with Stephen at new lawoffice.com. But until next week back here in the drive-thru and a few days on the experience, it's a rushed ending, it's a long day. For Jim Corndet, out of the great Brian last, telly-ho! Oh!