Jim Cornette’s Drive-Thru - Episode 392: Jim Reviews WWE Backlash

Episode Date: May 17, 2025

This week on the Drive Thru, Jim reviews WWE Backlash 2025 & discusses the career of Sabu! Plus Jim talks about Hulk Hogan, FCW talent reports, WWE house shows, tv listings, Vince Russo's Mark list, and much more! Also, Guess The Program! Thanks to our episode sponsors: SHOPIFY:  Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com/jce HELIX:  Go to helixsleep.com/jce for 27% Off Sitewide + Free Bedding Bundle (Sheet Set and Mattress Protector) with any Luxe or Elite Mattress Order Send in your question for the Drive-Thru to: [e-mail]  Follow Jim and Brian on Twitter: @TheJimCornette @GreatBrianLast Merch! https://arcadianvanguard.com/ 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.

Hello again, friends. And you are our friends, the Great Brian Last Here. That's not how I begin this show. Well, we are here. Aloha. Happy day to you. I am the Great Brian Last. This is Jim Cornett's drive-through.

We're starting off with a good spirit here because it's going to be a fun show. We got lots of things to talk about, lots of topics. We have reviews. We have questions. We have apparently some Hulk Hogan audio. We have lots of things. Oh, good Lord. With this man, the leader of the cult of Cornette.

Mr. Jim Cornett. It's going to be another one of those shows I could tell from the way you started out and also. And you know, somebody said to me, Brian, the other day on the Twitter, said you don't get as mad Cornett as you used to. You don't encourage people to be drawn across the interstate like a spike strip in heavy traffic. You don't just get indignant. And because it's wrestling is ridiculous and the world is ridiculous now. And it is just to laugh. Sometimes we have to just laugh as things burn and crumble around us.

And the tomfoolery and shenanigans just come at us from all sides. But at Lee, today here, over here at the castle, it's peaceful and quiet, why you can't hear a pin drop on this side. Well, I think I hear something behind you right now, actually. No, it's all in your mind, Brian. All in your mind. Is that right? It's all in my mind.

Where did the ominous buzzing sound hurt you? All right. No, the lawnmowers are here. They couldn't come yesterday because it was raining again. Feels like I'm losing. And so they had to come today. And so the conflict of the, and it's going to rain tomorrow, may rain later today.

It's going to storm on Thursday. And Friday we might get severe storms. so I had to have the grass mode and you were already complaining I'm hearing the grass mowers out there well I just speak louder and you won't be able to hear them see I put my headset on it blocks the noise out completely

we were about to start and you just go the lawnmowers have rolled up like they just popped up on your lawn magically well no no magically rolled up with a gangster teen how they roll up on you they rolled up with a goddamn vehicle with wheels in it I don't know

how else to say it. They just rolled right in with a trailer with wheels on it too. There's wheels everywhere. It would be like if they popped in magically they just appear out of nowhere. But no, they were in the distance and then they grew ever closer as they rolled up. And they're trying to get the lawn mowing in before, because it's the only day for a week and a half that since the mowed it last time they could be able to come over and mow it. So you're going to have to live with it. It's faintly in the background. Yeah, well, see how faintly it ends up in the background.

Usually this is when they're far away, then they get closer. Next thing you know, it sounds like they're on the roof. They're far away, then they're getting closer. You know, I goddamn Kevin Sullivan, every time we would end up on a commercial flight sitting next to each other, and he knew how I was, he'd wait until I kind of got engrossed, and hopefully the middle seat would at least be in. but he would wait till I would get engrossed in a magazine with my head down and not paying attention to where I was on this airplane

and then I'd feel suddenly just a slight tap on my left shoulder or my right shoulder whichever side he was on and I would turn around and he'd be right up in my face going awful tight in here isn't it Jimmy? Anyway, you know you're familiar with the TV listings they have on the on the on the on the guide pages on the TV these days right I don't know if TV guide's still a thing but yes I'm familiar with a well no not the magazine but the the actual TV guide would you got your cable box there and you you say info you wouldn't have

more information about the program the guide pops up right right you know about this yeah used to be channel 14 on Long Island when I was growing up well no it's not even a channel it's just the on screen guide well I'm not talking about talking about when you were growing up. I'm talking about right goddamn now. See, now you've got some anger and pissed off in this and indignation. I have my remote here in my hand. If I press the guide button, I get a guide of what's on right now on this channel. Yes. The channels around it. Yes. And it used to be channel 14 on Long Island. Well, but it ain't anymore, is it? But right now, if you do that and you hit info on a television show, right? Like if you hit

info on Seinfeld, it would say, C. Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis Dreyfus, etc, etc, right? That's the cast. And it might say the director. It might say the year or the episode number or whatever. That's right.

You're fighting paper over there while you talk? I've got a note in my hand. I'm about to read to you if you'd let me establish this fucking bit. Because I just happened to see the listing for AEW collision. On the info on my guide there, on spectrum cable, I saw collision was on the guide as I was perusing the Thursday night programs. They switched it. They're trying to stay away from people or something.

But anyway, as I hit the info to see what it said, Brian, where they've got cast for AEW collision, would you like to one, two, three, four, would you like to know the five names? Wow. There's five names. And sometimes like if it's a sporting event or it's a hosted by or whatever, cast will be the announcers or, you know, something like that.

But would you like to hear the five names that are listed as the cast for AEW collision, at least on my spectrum cable listing here in the greater Louisville, Kentucky metropolitan area? Yeah. And this is in order. This is in order. Samoa Joe Okay Chris Jericho

That's a big star Okay Jake Hager Well he's been gone a long time Long time Number four Skyler Andrews Who the fuck is that

I did S-C-H-U-Y-L-E-R Skylar do that. Shiler? Shiler. Andrews. And the fifth name, possibly the biggest star on the roster, they saved for last, Maxwell Jacob Feinstein. Finesstein. That was his like name on the Indies when he first started, wasn't it? Maxwell Jacob Feinstein. I jotted it down so that I wouldn't forget this upcoming star's name. name. Skyler Andrews is the wrestler Scorpio Sky.

The fuck. Who's Martin Spectrum up? You know, they fucking killed his gimmick. I thought you were going to say like CM Punk, Kevin Kelly, like something like from like two years ago or something. No, but we don't even know that Skyler Andrews is Scorpio Sky's real name and he hadn't been with the company for years. I presume that's Skyler, just like you did.

or it could be Shiler Shiler. Shiler. Could be a lot. But in Maxwell Jacob Feinstein. All right. Thank you, A.E. W. Doing a great job promoting your talent

or someone's talent or talent that may have once been there. I think they got them. They may have accidentally sent Spectrum cable to goddamn social security fucking records or something. Hey, here's everybody's real name. What is some funny? I click on Skyler Andrews'

IMDB page and it's just a video of MJF doing a promo from like four years ago on Dynamite when he had his presidential address. For whatever reason, that's the video that plays on this guy's page. All right. Okay. Can I say something? Well, it's your show. Well, thank you. I'll take it back in a minute.

I'll mention this to you because I got this book a little while back and I've been moving things around the office and I just got it here because I'm trying to put it someplace here in the office, not the library. It's called The Schedule Book, Four Decades of Network Programming from Sign On to Sign Off. And this came out, I mean, it looks like it's from the early 80s, but, you know, for a lot of reasons outside of wrestling, I wanted it, but also specifically, you hear so much about the prominence of wrestling on early network TV. And although this is not a definitive book, I guess, it has a lot of the listings here. And, you know, I find this really interesting. I suggest to see what was on, but how much wrestling was on at different times.

Have you compiled a list of the various wrestling programs as of yet, or are you about to delve into this? I haven't really gone through it yet. It's been one of those future projects I want to do. But if I look here, winter 1951 evening on the Dumont Network, from 9 to 11 was wrestling from Columbia Park with Dennis James. that's a two-hour block and then did anyone else have wrestling in prime time at that point?

The Paul Winchell Show was here not there and then if I, that's Monday night so if I go to Tuesday night roller derbies on ABC from 10 to 11, not wrestling but a lot of people always think of roller derby and wrestling together

and then on Wednesday on ABC from 930 to 12 wrestling from the rainbow in Chicago. Wow, that's two and a half hours. And this is, wait a, this is Eastern Time listings, right? I believe so, correct. Then that would have been 8.30 to 11, so they were telecast pretty much the whole card from Chicago.

And then on Thursday, on Dumont was boxing from Eastern Parkway with Dennis James. I bring that up because Dennis James was the same commentator. And, you know, you bring up who the stars are. and sometimes you see this in the listings now, but a lot of the times back then, even though you had gorgeous George and Raca and Vern Gagne and Luthes, it was actually the commentator

who got star listing on a lot of these shows. Yeah. And also, the way that television worked in the early 50s, a lot of the major markets had even more wrestling programs than were on network. And some of the smaller

markets had to, that's why some of those sprouted up early, had to make their own, I give an example for what I've been working on here lately. Knoxville, Tennessee didn't get television until 1953. And I think Nashville was 1950. I'm talking television stations, not television wrestling. And then even in Louisville here until the year I was born in 1961, there were two television stations. So some of the smaller markets ended up, the TV stations picked and chose what network programs, they were affiliated with more than one network.

They picked and chose the shows that they wanted to carry because there were three networks, but only one or two stations in a market, they had to split programs up. And sometimes they would rerun the less popular network stuff. They'd do the kinescope thing, and they wouldn't rerun it, but they'd run it on a weekend or a delayed time or whatever. But a lot of programs didn't get, a lot of network programs didn't get carried in smaller markets at all for the first half of the 50s. But wrestling with Chicago and Los Angeles and the major markets that had multiple TV stations,

if you look through some of your wrestling as you like it, which you have many times, in Chicago there was some kind of wrestling on five nights a week on television. So it just depended on where the outlets were. And even here, obviously there are different gaps in the schedule for local programming. We're talking about just what was on the national network.

And again, we did Monday and Wednesday, and then Thursday was the boxing, and then on Saturday, on Dumont, I don't know what exactly this show is, from 830 to 11, it's Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. Not saying that's wrestling, it could be just anything, I don't know. Yeah. And then after that, from 11 to 1 a.m., wrestling from the Marigold in Chicago. So there was wrestling there, and again, this is not counting local television, this is just what's on national.

that's three different wrestling shows. The first one, wrestling from Columbia Park, is a two-hour show. The second one was wrestling from the rainbow. That's a two-and-a-half. No, that was also two hours. Excuse me. And then this one here was also two hours. So they had a lot of time.

Again, that's not counting all the shows you've heard of before from like, you know, Washington, D.C. or Texas Rasselin, which was a syndicated show. And wrestling from Hollywood. And, you know, the Northeast, there were so many different television shows at different times. They taped it in the studio on the west side. They used to be the Sony Studios. So, well, and God damn, where did I just see this? Because we've looked at the Wilbur Snyder book, this is a little bit before his era.

But Scott Teal, Crowbar Press.com also sent us the new book on Ed Don George, but I've been flipping through things. But there was a schedule that I saw. Los Angeles had wrestling on television, I believe, in either 1946 or 146, or 47, I think it was 46, especially with, you know, obviously kind of the center of television being New York and Los Angeles and pretty much nothing else in those days.

But the station it was on, they showed the schedule. And it was like from midnight to fucking 4 p.m. the next day, test pattern. And then they'd come on with some kind of block of local program wrestling and then sign off or news and then sign off. off or whatever. Nobody had a television.

The station was only on like four or five hours a day. See, that's what fascinates me. Wrestling was one night of the week in Los Angeles. That no one had a TV. This is fall 1947 evening. And on Thursdays on Dumont, from 9 to 11 was wrestling

from Jerome Stadium. And then the next night from 9 to 11 was wrestling from Jamaica Arena. So that's a New York, that's Jamaica, Queens. Yeah. And then there was sports from Madison Square Garden on CBS. Sports from Madison Square Garden was on CBS, as listed here on Wednesday from 830 to 11.

On Thursday, same time spot, on Friday, on Saturday, and on Sunday. It was a lot of sports. I mean, there is almost nothing on the schedule. Here's what's on the schedule. small fry club doorway to frame showcase swing into sports the jillette cavalcade of stars and NBC news Gillette cavalcade of stars lasted a while into the actual you know early 50s era and it was a big time show well there it is I'll go through this a little further in the future so we could do a concerted segment on it but well and you know I don't even know if I mentioned this to you but

I had known, again, Scott Teal, Crowbar Press.com, his books are great for research, but also we had known previously from Mark James at Memphis Wrestling History.com, his books that in Memphis, WMC Channel 5, that was the station that Jared went to in 1977 that all the modern Memphis tapes are from, WMC Channel 5, is the NBC affiliate in Memphis, and it was the first station in the market in 19, the end of December, 1948, they went on the air. And it was then known WMCT were the call letters, and I think they even, they were on a different channel number than channel five

when they went on the air and they had to switch over because of interference with channel four out of Nashville. But nevertheless, I knew that they had telecast in. the early 50s, at least some Ellis Auditorium matches from Les Wolfe's promotion before it became a goulous Welchtown. But apparently that led me to chasing some histories of Channel 5 on Wikipedia, et cetera, et cetera. The Ellis Auditorium apparently was across the street from the original location of WMC television, and they actually did go over. and telecast the live matches as early as when they signed on or shortly out,

like in 1949, because they were able to run the cables across the fucking street. They had no, you know, they'd had no remote truck or no whatever, but they were able to extension cords and audio cables and the camera cable. They could reach from the building across the street into the back of the Ellis Auditorium, and they had the actual cards on television for some short period of time. But that, obviously, none of that exists.

I can't even imagine it was ever recorded on anything. They just broadcast it. But that's the first time I've ever heard of doing a remote by actually being able to fucking run an extension cord from the station. That's pretty crazy. You know, there should be like a compilation. I don't know who would buy this book, you and I would. but just of all the different TV stations and radio stations too

when they aired wrestling from like the 30s up through the 60s I'm fascinated by that kind of stuff you know I bring up radio that's why I go to 30s just because it was on radio or there was some sort of radio coverage or even if it was a local weekly segment before TV that was all you had that in programs and newspapers yeah so yeah this has been a this has been a drive-thru well let's end on a good note this has been a drive-

Okay we'll see you later We'll see you on the experience in a few days. And, of course, next week on the drive-thru for Jim Cornett, I'm the great Brian last. Nice try. Shit, I was about to hang up if you'd have one more. Well, you can't. We haven't talked about Cornett's collectibles.

You can't have it. All right. Well, you know what? As a matter of fact, I will have you know that, hold on, I got my notes here. The first 200 orders from the mayhem that happened when we went on sale on May the 3rd, We'll be handed off to Hotchkis Feather Bottom this coming weekend, which is, as we sit here, May 17th and 18th,

he'll be slapping labels on them, and they'll be flying through the U.S. Postal Service, and more are to follow the following week. So we have this assembly line set up going, and if you want to get in on the action, for anything that may be left and all the regular type of things and attractive merchandise it is at an affordable price, Jimcornat.com.

but we're going to be caught up in two weeks, I bet you. Boy, howdy. And I got something, I got an update here on a topic, Brian, that we've discussed, and I wanted to just bring it up to the people's attention, see if you've heard anything about this. Do you remember we talked about the hundred men and the gorilla? Oh, yeah, last week, yeah. Well, and then it went into, you know,

some other various species and mixed martial arts rules and et cetera, but this is from Chad, my friend Chad over in West Virginia, he's still blind. He says, P.S., yes, I'm still blind. So he heard about this. He didn't see it, but he heard about it. He said after hearing the drive-through about the 100 men in the guerrilla, it reminded me a story from the early 2000s, where in Cambodia, a promoter of a midget fighting league was challenged by a fan saying that all 42 of his fighters could not beat a lion.

And the match was allegedly staged and ended in 12 minutes with 28 of the fighters killed and the rest of them crippled. And he says, you can always have Brian look up Cambodian midget fighting league and see if it's there. I'll take your word for it, Blind Chad. Well, I think we should look for this, shouldn't we? Is this a news story that's been missed? A lion killed 28 midgets and mauled the other ones?

What am I looking up? Cambodian midget fighting league. This is apparently, this is a story. At least they got it by Chad. No, obviously he knows about Googling. Well, you know, he... And even he says allegedly now, the Cambodian Midget Fighting League, or CMFL,

is the premise of an internet hoax that was widely circulated around the internet beginning in May 2005, the hoax was particularly significant as the article was taken on face value by a good deal of British newspapers and magazines. The British are so polite, they'll believe anything. The article was reported as a tragedy

at a midget versus lion fighting Cambodia. A fan of the Cambodian midget fighting league challenged the league's president in response to a recent league advertising campaign that the midgets will take on anything, man, beast, or machine. The fan claimed that one lion could defeat the entire league of 42 midget fighters. Accepting the challenge an African lion was flown to Kampong Chang, especially for the event. And then there's a quote,

the fight was called off after only 12 minutes and 28 of the fighters were declared dead while the other 14 suffered severe injuries including broken bones and lost limbs, rendering them unable to fight back. But it's a hoax, apparently. Aw, well, I thought they just had different rules over there in Cambodia about animal cruelty. Seems like he wouldn't want a bunch of fucking angry midgets ganging up on one poor little kitty cat. I mean, what kind of houses were they drawn that they had the money to fly in a lion? Well, now here's another thing.

That's not cheap. What's the native jungle cat in Cambodia? Is there one? Couldn't they have done, you know, domestic, the domestic animals? Is there like a jungle tiger or something there? What's the native animal of Cambodia? I've never gone on holiday to Cambodia, but do you think Tony Kahn should bring back this concept, have a lion versus his midgets?

I don't know. I'm still thinking the gorilla. I'd rather see the gorilla with his midgets. Oh, good Lord. Well, you see, the whole world. The whole world, Brian, is a bunch of ding-dong ding bats. That's what they are.

A bunch of ding-dong ding bats. If you insist, yes, they are. But this is your show. Oh, and I forgot. I need also, I would have, no, I would plug the crusade it's that time again the first saturday in j or first weekend in june i should say is the w h as i s crusade for children and we will talk more about it as it comes up but crusade dot org is the place to go or you can watch the telethon if you're in the greater

little if you're almost anywhere in kentucky you can watch the thing now first weekend in jr will rand the atra be appearing this year no he's not going to oh now quit making fucking mockery of all of me and Randy. I'm not making a mockery of him. I'm making mockery of you. Well, he's no longer with us to defend himself. For the long time listeners of the show, I'm not going to explain that to you.

Just go back and find it if you have to. But Brian last was messing with my mind. I didn't do anything. Yes, you did. How did I do anything? You're the one who said you saw this. And then you said, look him up. How old is he?

He must be 90. He has to be at least 9. Well, he would have been if he hadn't had to die 10 years before. It was a rerun. It was a videotape. I came in in the middle before the pitch. I don't know what to tell you. I got his autograph right over here in my office.

You were too distracted. If you had been paying attention, maybe you would have done a 10 bell salute at OVW or something. Oh, for heaven. I didn't get the word in time because we weren't all wired up to the internet like we are now, where the breaking news just instantly appear in front of you. All right. Well, you know, before we have a lot to get to, and we have a big topic we're going to discuss early on here

because obviously, as a lot of the listeners, or most of them are probably aware, Sabu passed away, and there's a lot to talk about there. But why don't we start on a lighthearted note or two? I'm going to read you a quote that a lot of the listeners have been sending over to me. Let me get your thoughts on this, Jim. This is from Dominic Mysterio, in an interview from the intoxicados podcast, if you go out there and wrestle 100 times

and you do a moonsault 90% of the time, the people are going to expect it. If I give it to them 10% of the time when I do hit that moonsault, everyone's going to be like, damn, did you see that moonsault? It's going to mean more. And listeners, I've been sending it over,

want to know what you think of the quote, but just, I think he's a genius. A few years ago, we talked about the idea of, you know, should Ray Mysterio leave WW, we can go to AEW? Would that be a better place for Dominic to train? And that was before we saw him as a heel

and we really didn't know what this was going to happen. But you always wonder about the mentality and understanding work, understanding how to work. And it sounds like, I mean, we see it, but it sounds like from this quote, he may have a good understanding. Well, yeah, and the thing is some people are going to say, oh, but Ray does the 619, I'll go,

Well, Ray's like Mick Jagger at this point. He kind of has to do some jump and jack flash or people would be disappointed. And he's in the later stages of his career, much as hopefully my lawnmowers are in the later stages of their work so that they can get away from the house. But he is exactly right in that if guys, especially at his stage of the game, just do something all the fucking time that gets a pop. Yeah, we'll get a pop,

but establish some different things besides your finish to get a pop. Your finish should always get a pop. One would hope. But you would also think that you've got different ways to do things and different moves to pull out, depending on the kind of match and the kind of opponent and whatever. And he's exactly right. If, you know, especially if he does something,

well, but he does it in every match, then they're going to expect it. And it's kind of, oh, there he did, you know, the thing, that they love Ray, that he's still walking, right? Well, I shouldn't even say that. He just got hurt again. But that he's still around at this stage of the game. But you don't want young guys to establish they have to do this, that, and the other fucking thing every time.

It's just, nah, I agree with it. Especially if you're a heel. I mean, that's one of the things we see a lot, you know, especially I guess any indie footage you see, but AED. someone could be a heel, but they're doing things to get baby-faced pops. And WWE of heels coming out there with theme songs that people want to sing and dance to. It kind of defeats the purpose. Yeah, and I agree with you also that the singing of the music and everything is especially

hard to, it's hard for you to be a heel and it's hard for the people to want to sing the song, and then boo and the sing of the song is what they like because it gets them to be more of a part of it. But at the same time, you know, you've almost got to now they're backed into the corner where everybody knows it's bullshit and they just, they want to cheer the people that they really like that are stars.

And it makes it, you know, it makes it harder for the younger guys to break into that if they don't have the cool, to sing along and the fact that the stars mostly all can fucking talk and they talk much more than they wrestle. So we've got orators

and musicians and the wrestling just kind of gets in a way. Let me get your thoughts on one other thing I just was seeing this morning. Mark Shapiro, the TKO C-O was talking

to the J.P. Morgan Global Technology Media and Communications Conference and he said that... By the way, can I just... Wait, what was the name of that place again? The J.P. Morgan Global Technology Media and Communications Conference. Okay, Brian, if that's a place that I ever want to go to, I want you to shoot me in a fucking head. Well, I may not do it, but I may know someone who could help.

All right. According to what he said here, and I have something that Brandon Thurston of Brussels wrote, he defended slashing house shows by... 75% noting profitability is up on WWE live events and hinted further cuts to house shows. We've talked about this in the past and tying into Dominic Mysterio, who is one of my favorite people in the company. I mean, for a heel, I'm not saying like, I love that heel, but he's entertaining. His matches may not be five-star classics in the eyes of five-star classic hunters, but there's

always something. It's always entertaining. It's kind of, in a lot of respects, he may be the... most classic wrestling guy there sometimes, him and live. But he got this way without having to work extensive house shows. And traditionally, working frequently is the way that professional wrestlers hone their craft and figure out how to work and what works and what doesn't work. What do you think hearing that they have already slashed 75%?

They are defending it because profitability is up because they're running less of these shows and they said there's going to be more cuts well and first dom is not a typical case because also i mean he is obviously i would imagine had plenty of workouts with his dad and just talking sessions with his dad and i'm sure that because of his dad and because he apparently obviously he's been in the system this long without getting any heat on himself he must be a model employee everybody has wanted to help him and work with him between the way he looked when he was a baby face the way he worked when he was a baby face,

we thought maybe he had goddamn chosen wrong in his field of endeavor, but this whole dirty dom thing has, you know, just he's blossomed. But I would imagine still that he's had more time in the ring or more time speaking to and learning from a veteran or veterans than most people have with his experience level, right? So let's take him out of it. Point being, it's almost, even how shows are crucial in the same way that I'm trying to figure out a way to make it relatable to the average person in another, imagine you're a stand-up comic. But,

past being in a group of people who are being taught by a stand-up comic how to be funny in a fucking classroom, then you suddenly, you're on television, and there's nothing in between. And you've got to be funny from scratch on TV and on video forever in front of all these fucking people. What the fuck?

How shows are the comedy clubs? But the problem is, at the level that the WWE is now, even the house shows that they do, you can't call Madison Square Garden a fucking laugh factory, right? And with NXT, I don't know what their house show schedule is. I assume they still run some type of live events somewhere, don't they,

besides the big takeovers and PLEs or PPL, whatever the fuck they are. they got to be running Lake City, Florida or something, right? Help me. I actually don't know. I presume, you know, we don't get a lot of people saying, hey, I went to an NXT house show in Jacksonville. Well, I was just thinking that I haven't heard about that.

No, I mean, they used to, and then I quit paying attention, but now I'm wondering if they are. Point being, you can't, you can teach all day long, but the reason why OVW is successful, and I'm not just picking that individually, the reason why any training program would be successful is if you learn and then you're able to go out and apply what you're doing in front of regular fans,

regular people that are going to give you the fucking feedback and so that you can adjust and correct or, you know, find out whether you shit the bed or not, but that shouldn't be on national television and it shouldn't be in Madison Square Garden, it ought to be at the fucking flea market in front of several hundred people or whatever the case.

So I don't know if cutting down the house shows at the WBE level, especially if it means less traveling for the guys, is going to affect them anymore than the fact that goddamn, the ones coming through NXT better still be out you know somewhere in Delray Beach

working at an armory somewhere so they'll be able to figure this shit out before they go to national television it's going to be really interesting to see you know Vince McMahon did a lot of damage to the wrestling ecosystem which eventually affected him when he stole everyone's talent or just raided everyone's talent however you want to say it and killed the system for developing talent in the process.

And it took him a long time to recover from that. He had to have his own developmental eventually, but probably should have done that 10 years earlier, if you really think about it, because of the damage he did. Yeah. Now with no-house shows, it's another thing that's going to hurt the next generation of wrestlers,

especially if they want them to work the WWE style, not the indie style. Well, if they want to get them before they're crippled, regardless, it's, you know, that's why that I'm, I scoff at the state of the industry because the future is being left to the indie people. And, yeah, not a very promising or very pretty scene that you paint there. Well, Jim, one more thing before we move on to a big topic, and this involves you. I saw you tweet out something the other day or retweet something, I believe it was inside the ropes.

A list that they posted. Vince Rousseau claims you are a mark. if, and then it's a list of things. Well, yeah, and now we should claim for that, if it went past people real quickly, this wasn't inside the ropes posted, this was inside the ropes reposted, or retweeted or re-whatever, a list that apparently that the man himself had put up and perpetrated for our consumption. So don't blame inside the ropes for any kind of endorsement or authorizing of things.

this. Vince Russo claims you're a mark if you have convinced yourself that professional wrestling is real. Real is in caps. Yeah. The best part is just random things

are, not even proper nouns are sometimes capitalized and in random words are capitalized. It's like his memos. Vince Russo claims you are a mark if professional wrestling is the most important thing. That's all in caps,

in your entire life. Vince Ristel claims you're a mark if you own a lot. That's caps. A black shirts with pit stains. Pitstain from shit stain. That was that one. Hold on. That's why you wear a black shirt so the pit stains don't show.

Who is more pit stains than wrestlers wearing tight shirts? What do you know Speaking of you know Again there was a freeze frame of him In the state of him these days Where he's got the gray hair and the beard And for a while he looked like I don't know either

Fucking dehydrated Kenny Rogers Or some kind of grizzly Adams fucking deal But he was wearing a shirt With the sleeves that had been cut out Of where you know Just the little Almost like a little wrestling double singlet The little shoulder pieces are

hanging off of you and you can see your armpits and his concave, pasty white, fucking white boy armpits were just, oh my God, but I digress. Vince Russo claims you are a mark if you don't just want to go in caps to a wrestling show, but you want to be a part of it, part in caps. I'll stop yelling these. I'll just say what's in caps. What? It didn't.

you in the face better like it does on it. And I mean, he's actually even right with some of these, like if you want to be part of the show you go to for anything, not just wrestling your mark, but he's so not only obnoxious but grammatically incorrect when he

does these things, that it's hard to really rally behind him. Vince Russo claims your mark if you sing along with wrestlers theme songs at the top of your lungs. You know, again, when you use Mark, using it as an insult, and that's just describing what we talked before, like 90% of the fans that are going to wrestling nowadays.

So he's just, he's not even made at smart fans. He's mad at the fans fans. Well, he likes baseball too, right? I have no idea. Well, no, that's because we've talked about it. Remember when the fantasy baseball thing, that's what they all wanted to talk about in TNA, was all of their baseball and their fantasy baseball or whatever. And he loves the New York, one of the New York teams.

I don't know if it's your beloved Mets, Brian, or whatever, but he likes. Can't be. He likes the new. So the point is, the fans that don't, don't they sing sometimes in baseball, too? I mean, take me out to the ball game with the seventh inning stretch. Oh, no, no, in baseball, they actually get up during part of the later stages of the game and wave their hands in the air. Well, they don't call them marks, though.

They just call them fans. Ticket behind your hands. Yeah, but that's what I'm saying. And believe me, I'm tired of the people singing the fucking song, especially Cess, because I'd rather them get to the goddamn deal. But, you know, they do that all over. Vince Rousseau claims you're a mark. If Dave Meltzer is your God!

That's in caps. Vince Rousseau claims you're a mark if work rate in fake wrestling matches is important. To you. And see, he can some way, you know, find a way to insult both sides of the fence. He's both deriding the people who like the play wrestling and at the same time calling the whole business fake and disrespecting the people who do it professionally. Vince Rousseau claims you're a mark. If you hate any form of entertainment.

in your wrestling. His entertainment. I mean, I like Dominic Mysterio's entertainment to talk about what we were talking about earlier. Vince Russo claims you are a mark if, and we'll talk about this one after, you orgasm over Japanese wrestling. However, orgasm was spelled wrong.

Yes, and when I saw that, I had to get on the tweeter machine and make mention of it. And I got 3.7,000 or whatever of the little hearts over that because I said in unsurprising news, Vince Rousseau does not know how to spell orgasm. He actually, this is the, he went to the journalism school there in Evansville, Indiana. Doesn't say much for four county out there.

He went to journalism school. He went to college allegedly. he can't spell orgasm. I know he's had no personal experience with the actual act, but one would think that you could spell something that you might have seen written down before.

For the record, he spelled it. O-R-G-A-S-I-M. I've never seen a spell like that ever. Well, you know, he spelled it out phonetically. That's what he did, and it's because of his weird way of pronouncing the words, he uh it's it works in his mind just hear him reading it this is such a bizarre manifesto

Vince Russo claims you are a mark if you are opposed to seeing attractive women in wrestling if you're opposed to seeing attractive women down on their knees barking like a dog with a fucking hot dog dildo in their poop shoot now call her a tramp that's people didn't want that stuff people are fine with attractive women on the wrestling show about what was the one the all women showy pitched one of the gimmicks was toxic shock that's right yes if we could only have found an attractive woman to have a tampon related infection Vince Russo claims you are a mark if you walk around the arena with a championship belt over your shoulder now he ain't wrong about that and that yeah and especially if you claim to be a recording artist

you know it used to be like one person but when you have like a row of fans and you see multiple people with belts, it's like, man, that's a little off. Vince Rousseau claims you are a mark if you rent space free of charge in your mom's basement. You rent space free of charge. Is it really rent if you're not paying anything? There's, see, again, his mind is cluttered. His mind is like a hoarder's house. It's in, there's a lot of shit in there, but it doesn't come out clearly.

Vince Rousseau claims you are a mark if you are part of a tribe that loves one wrestling brand and hates the other wrestling brand. Vince Rousseau claims you are a mark if you hate Vince Rousseau. Vince Rousseau claims you are a mark if you are offended by anyone. Excuse me, you are offended if anyone refers to you as a mark. Vince Rousseau claims you are a mark. Wait a minute. But hold on here now. Wait a minute.

He may have solved this whole thing. It does read it again. Vince Rousseau claims you are a mark if you hate Vince Rousseau. Vince Rousseau claims you are a mark if you are offended, if anyone calls you a mark. So it's only if you get mad if he calls you a mark that makes you a mark. So therefore, if you're... not mad that he called you a mark, you're not a mark. So he went, he's, he's, that doesn't work, does it?

No, it doesn't seem to. Vince Rousseau claims you are a mark if you honestly believe triple H or Tony Khan are true bookers of the year. Oh, good Lord. I mean, why's he lumping them together, Triple H and T. I mean, that's what I'm about to say. It's like, it's not like Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Custon. it's like fucking

Costello and Goddamn Mahatma fucking Gandhi Oh what is he thinks that he legitimately thinks that he knows better than Triple H about the wrestling business

at this point Two more here Vince Russo claims you are a Mark if you cried when Cody Rhodes finished his story and beat Roman Reigns at WrestleMania and finally Vince Rousseau claims you are a mark if you make every excuse in the book

when your brand's rating is down for the week. All right. He's available for work, ladies and gentlemen. He does have some points, but the problem is the biggest one is on top of his head. And so, and he presents it in such a juvenile and childish and illiterate fashion that it's hard to get behind the substance of the issue. Why wouldn't you prove for it? I mean, how did the fake, the fake, how did the misspelled orgasm, the fake orgasm, how did the

the misspelled orgasm get on that? That's ridiculous. Hey, it doesn't surprise me. I've been reading shit. Well, I haven't lately, but I spent quite some time reading inner office shit, this guy wrote. Well, Jim, let's transition away from that. and let's talk about the biggest news story that's happened over the last few days

everyone's been talking about it since the news came out that Sabu has passed away a legend of the indie scene in the 90s who was really one of the main people involved with transforming ECW from just being a regional company to something that people needed to see why don't we talk a little bit about Sabu

and his place in wrestling history and 60 years old by the way and just wrestled his retirement match last month, which we'll get to. But, you know, here I've been dreading this because I don't want, I don't want people to think that I'm being disrespectful if I don't have all these great memories because, as I told you, I have literally in over the past 30 years said hello to him in passing at a

convention or a, you know, a wrestling show or two, as we'll talk about, like five times. And I'm seeing all these guys that, you know, that he worked with and that he knew, you know, posting things and everything. I have no personal experience whatsoever. And I'll explain again why we just were never in the same fucking place, almost never. and so I don't I don't have any personal anecdote but also I have nothing personally against him or you know so I am not biased in any way on a personal basis except what that I've you know heard and observed and you can probably help remind me of things as well but I mean the thing is you have to we'll get to this, but you have to just be, you're not shocked anymore because it's wrestling and with the amount of people that die, but still when somebody just did their retirement match last

month, it comes out of the blue is what I'm trying to say as I beat around the bush. So I, and the first time, and I think I told you this also, we talked about it on the phone, the first time that I had met him and just briefly was that Gordon Scazzari show in in 1991, right? That had to be when it was. Gordon Scazzari show was in 91, yeah. And for those of you who don't know real quickly, this fucking kid in Massachusetts had come into money and thought he was going to be a wrestling promoter and booked a show in a small building in Massachusetts somewhere. with the most eclectic group of wrestling personalities you've ever seen. And Eddie Gilbert was going to be his booker and wrote the TVs and then didn't show up.

Remember, he didn't come to the actual fucking TV. You want to talk about a good Eddie Gilbert story that Darkside Miss when Jeff Gaylord attacked him at the Sportatorium because apparently Skazari paid him off to teach Eddie lesson. Before the guy went broke and was committed to, from what I understand, to a mental institution, and he paid Jeff Gaylord to beat Eddie Gilbert up for stiffing him on the, but nevertheless, at that taping, Ed, Brian, you would have fucking blue snot.

He had booked the Sheik because Gordon Scazar was a big wrestling fan, right? I mean, you know, Paul Orndorf was there. Stan Lane and I were there. That's why I was there. There was a variety of talent from all over the place, but he booked the Sheik. The Sheik brought Saboo and some way or another, Dr. Mike Laino,

got to be the sheik and Sabu's manager and had a fucking turban on and was in his regular fucking Dr. Mike Lano's suit, but with a turban out there doing promos for him. The promos. Sabu, I think wrestled two matches. One of them, funny enough, was against Chris Candido. And the sheiks around ringside doing his thing. Lano, who was actually at ringside shooting photos earlier that night. Yes.

Walks out. Did it take that guy out? puts on a turban. You say he was doing promos. Yeah, they did a promo after the match. He got on the mic during the match. And as Sabu's doing moves that no one had ever seen before, he's like, look at the mighty Sabu, we've got all the money,

Juci and Lai. He's just saying random shit. No one's paying attention to him. They're trying to pay attention to the ring, but he's distracting. And then I believe he took photos again later that night. Yes, I went back out. Yes, and I was just sitting there watching most of the night because I was supposed to do the TV commentary,

but they forgot to set up a fucking announced position, the TV crew, and they had no way to do commentary. So the guy said, I'll bring you back and we'll do it in post, right? Yeah. It was commentaryless last time I saw it. But anyway, and yes, you're right,

he did work with Candide, and Tammy was there, because I remember, again, this was right as I'd met them, or right after I'd met them, you know, when they were working for Dennis Coraluzzo, So anyway, the point is I knew Sabu there from, you know, seeing him. And then, yes, the videotapes, which we'll get into.

But the next time I saw him was like 1993. I had just started for the WWF. And Sabu had some had got the trial match. And somebody retweeted it the other day with the time code numbers on the bottom of the tape and everything. So I don't know where it came from. But Sabu had gotten a trial match, I assumed from Bruce Pritchard, probably, because I don't think Paterson was paying attention to VHS tapes of, you know, indie shows at that point. And so he was there and I fear he's the sheikh's nephew and, you know, kids trying to get a shot because I'm talking to Vince McMahon in the hallway and Sabu walks through there. And I made a point of saying, oh, Vince, this is Sabu, the sheik's nephew.

does a lot of amazing stuff, right? And if it's all, I'll be sure to watch or whatever the fuck. And then he had the trap match was Scotty Taylor, Scotty Too Hottie. And they didn't get it. Because he, I think he suffered. The fans got into it. Well, but that's the thing is that Vince did, because part of it was Al Snow syndrome,

because Sabu a couple times he tried to do it. the deal where he jumps and he landed on the top rope and he flipped backwards and arm dragged the guy or whatever but it was ropes here doddy whatever he slipped on a couple things but also when he dove over the top rope he wouldn't tell he gave a tope hay or a flying cannonball or whatever it was to scottie and he just landed boom on the floor and i mean i wasn't on the creative team at this point in time so i was in no inner office discussion about it, but I can tell you that Vince was, he didn't, he didn't get it.

That's one of the things he didn't get it. He's like, what the fuck? This guy's going to kill himself, which to be, and that's, it, it was not the style that was in any way going to be featured at that point in time. And by the time that it was, everybody else had already stolen all of Cebu's shit and they were already doing it. And he never got the run to, to take advantage of it.

You know, in a lot of ways, I see him akin to Tiger Mask. Again, there's a lot of differences. But for a few years, everywhere Sabu went, he changed the way everyone who worked after him worked. And in 93, the buzz really started getting big early in the year. He had a match for Dennis and Minnesota, NWA Grand Slam, him against the Lightning Kid, right before Sean Waltman went to the WWF. And no one had ever seen a lot of that stuff before. That was one of the things they got the Lightning Kid over

because he was really skinny and everything, but he was doing a lot of stuff that no one had never seen before. And that match had a lot of buzz. And by the time he gets to the end of the year, Paul Heyman takes over as the Booker of ECW. He brings in Saboo on a gurney coming out there. One of his bodyguards was 9-1-1. That was the start of 9-1-1 in ECW,

and he became a big thing for a while there. originally managed by Hunter Q. Robbins III, Robin Hunt, and then eventually managed by Haman. I think, I tweeted this out, I'm not sure. I think he may have been the last person managed by Haman as Polly Dangerously. As Pauley Dangerously. Well, and that's it. And first of all, by the way, I think they should have stuck with it, and that should have been the thing they always did, the Hannibal Lecter on the board with the face thing, entrance of Saboo, that that is one of the things that I liked about what they did with him and what they could have done with him. And it is no secret.

I was in no way a fan of the actual wrestling style, which we'll get to it a second. But the gimmick and the fucking presentation, and again, he could have been produced. If he'd listen to somebody besides his uncle, he could have been produced and could have done something and Paul E saw that even Paul E wasn't going to, you know, go as far as Sabu would go later on having a top being Saboo. But the presentation and the gimmick Paul E saw, I've got the modern day chic, I've got to manage this personally. And because he knew part of the deal was he can't talk. Well, with Paul E, he didn't have to. And he had everything else.

and Paul E was the only one in the business willing to let guys go that far at that time with the, you know, various things they went that far with. I remember the first time I heard his voice. That kind of threw me off. It was backstage at a Dennis show in 95. It was a big show at that moment for Dennis with his local guys. Because Sabu was on the outs with ECW. And we'll talk about that in a minute.

Pauli turned the fans on him. And he was working with Devin Storm, who at that time, I would say was the top local guy for Dennis and was the top high flyer for Dennis. And it was a big deal for us nerds into that indie wrestling. And I think it was in Woodbridge or Woodbury. I always get the two confused. Woodbury, I guess it is.

Yes. And it was a great match. And we all went out to eat afterwards. But when I was with Georgie and Macropolis and she had a good relationship with Sabu and she, you know, oh, hi, honey. And he started talking to him. and I hear, yeah, I was like, it threw me off. I didn't know what I expected.

I expected something, but it was just very, like, almost like Beavis and Butthead-ish, you know, the first time I heard it. And it threw me off, but it was a spectacle. Everywhere he went, it was a spectacle. And back to ECW, you know, the buzz around Paul Heyman's ECW was around Terry Funk, who was doing amazing work considering his age, Saboo, and maybe a bit about Shane Douglas in the early days because of the promos because Yeah, but then Shane, Shane wore off quick.

Well, like Dominic Mysterio talking about moonsaults, when you say fucking shit every time, it takes away the impact of the first time you said, you piece of shit. Oh my God, I don't ever heard anyone say that. But Sabu was like kind of the face and the feel of ECW. And when you think about tables,

when you think about public enemy in ECW and then leaving ECW going to WCW and walking to the ring with tables or the Dudley's, and quite frankly the tables were the most popular member of the Dudley's tag team that all came from Sabu and it wasn't just using tables and matches he did a thing where after his matches

he'd be so upset that he didn't cripple his opponent he would put a table in the middle of the ring and moonsaulted himself and moonsaulted the table even if it would win I used to say why is he mad at the furniture but he'd do it two or three times if it wouldn't break it was before they were cutting tables or trimming them or whatever they do so

They were just not gimmick tables. He would take in the ring and just moonsault the shit out of that. Well, I got news for you. They don't really, I don't know what some goofball indie guy might do, but they don't cut the fucking tables. They were, a lot of times, especially back in those days, they were just grabbing whatever kind of table it was around ringside to do that. And it was feast or famine sometime as far as what kinds you got,

whether it would go break or whatever. and there's there's little tricks for some of these modern ones but nevertheless we would get bogged down of this is the point that i'm going to make because again don't want to be disrespectful to the fellow that i barely had any interaction with whatsoever if he had been the only one fine because the sheikh was the only one that's why he was a huge draw but when everybody in ecw and i blame paul more than the talent. They're just after

Paul turned the ECW people on Sabu more in a moment. Everybody else got to steal his shit. But the table becoming now you can't get around it. You can't look away from it multiple times in every fucking match. It's so goddamn overdone.

That's why if Sabu had been able to have some type of protected status as the Sheik did, where he was the only one with this incredible fucking over-the-top bullshit stuff then it would have been fucking fine but when everybody started doing it now we can't get rid of it 30 years later

and so it's he's kind of like McFoly in that respect to take him bumps off of high fucking places we can't get rid of the furniture fucking either but Saboo never got a chance to cash in on it because everybody took his shit and ran with it and there was no structure to modern wrestling to make him the only guy. And like I said to you the other day,

if you had one Sheik, you had a mega box office attraction, but if you had same territory, 18 guys working like the Sheik, you were out of business. And, you know, he was one of the top stars in ECW, one of the most over guys by far. And I think when you went to a lot of those ECW shows,

you wanted to see Saboo. there was a buzz about him. And then off the top of my head, the way I remember was Sabu at a tour for New Japan because he had previously been working for FMW with his uncle. I mean, that was one of the first clips people saw was when the ring was on fire. He was with his uncle in that match.

Yes. You know, they almost killed a Sheik. And put him in the hospital with whatever degree burns. No, he had had a shot for New Japan and he wasn't going to be able to get back in time for the big triple threat match or whatever that Paul had built up to. But he got the chance to work for New Japan and he didn't want to give it up or whatever the case.

And so Pauley did an even bigger job than Vince did on Austin when Austin walked out not to do the job to Brock. Yeah, Paulie went in the ring and he turned Sabu into a heel in front of the ECW arena crowd. I don't even remember if it aired on TV or anything. I would think it was just him trashing Sabu in front of the crowd because Sabu took the New Japan tour as opposed to the one ECW arena date.

And again, we don't know what the communication was or anything else, but he went in there and turned the crowd on Sabu and those ECW arena fans. And a lot of them were smart, but a lot of them thought they were smart, but they were really just slurping up anything Pauli gave them and they were like fucking like walruses, you know,

just doing whatever he wanted to. Slurp is a good word. I like slurp. Whether it was the flare is dead shit for Shane or whether it was the fuck Sabu chant. And those ECW arena fans who had gone nuts for Sabu, Polly could have come out there

and said anything to them. They would just change on a dime what they thought about something. And Sabu all of a sudden became persona non grata there. That's when he started working for Dennis again. And Dennis and ECW Dennis Carluso had always had problems going back to pre-Paul because Dennis didn't get along with Todd Gordon. Dennis got along with Eddie Gilbert, but Dennis didn't get along with Todd Gordon,

but ECW wouldn't let their guys work for Dennis. And a lot of those guys worked for Dennis for Terry Funk, Sabu. A lot of those guys worked for Dennis before ECW was a thing. So that created a lot of the problems, but Sabu went back to work. Remember, that was supposed to be the handshake in the limo between Paul and Dennis for me to go to the ECW arena that time was supposed to be, and the ECW guys could work for Dennis

on their days off in Cherry Hill or whatever. Which didn't happen. No. And that was the year 95 where he showed up. It was like maybe the third episode of Nitro or something. It was Saboo against Mr. J.L. Jerry Lynn and a mask. I still don't understand

why. He was Jerry Lynn. Why? to put him on the mess, Mr. JL, not even a cool name. Mr. JL, who will figure this out? That's why the destroyer got even bigger as Mr. D.B. And, you know, this was the era where Nitro was only an hour. So they still had like a bunch of ship and nothing went longer than like six minutes. And maybe it should be like that today, quite frankly. And Sabu was in and out quick.

And then in 96, he returns to ECW. And you want to talk about another thing that was really popularized due to Saboo. if Hayman did it before then I can't remember a specific instance but the one I remember the most turned out the lights turned them back on Taz was already in the ring

and there was Sabu you could almost hear the fan Saboo! Oh they turned back all he had to do was come back and they turned back to loving them and that set up the big Sabu Taz thing

which maybe Paul Heyman's greatest job as a promoter because he convinced people that may be a good match and it never could live up to the hype because they did a better job by hyping up Taz then, Sabu also. And then they did a double switch where Bill Alfonso switched from Taz to Sabu. And that began Sabu with Bill Alfonso and eventually with Rob Van Dam.

And you're right. I don't, I'm not going to say the lights had never gone out before. But then again, lights went out all the time. and then other people started doing it and then they'd go out and come back on and go out and come back on again. I never liked it. I never liked it because even that instance,

Taz, I forget what Taz was doing. Taz's like beating someone up. Lights go out. Enough time for Sabu to run to the ring. Lights come back on. Taz has his hands crossed, his arms crossed. Sabu's pointing up in his familiar pose.

And then they get ready like they're going to do something and then the lights go off again and everyone's gone. Like that to me is the epitome of Paul Heyman When I was there I was in that building one time of my life And I and the lights went out for me to come to the ring That's like the ultimate Paul Heyman

Lazy booking thing And then you're like Paul why'd you do that? Well it worked people popped It worked Yeah but it didn't have an ending It went nowhere It made no sense

Yeah how did it happen Who's the light man? What's going on? Oh they work they popped And You know again Saboo when the WWE and ECW did the thing in 97

Sabu was involved with that but he was really I think for a lot of people Well and here's the thing I was there that night remember in 97 he didn't actually get on television because at the Manhattan Center it was him and Van Damme

that Paul had in the there was some kind of motor home or not a mobile home but a motor home of a camper, as they used to call it. And Paul was relaying back and forth what Van Dam and, supposedly what Van Dam and Sabu were saying and wanted to do or demanded or whatever.

But he was trying to, that's, one of them ended up working. I don't know if the other one did. I can't remember. We've talked about it before, but from a Paul standpoint, but that's when he was trying to protect his guys, but also put the heat on them rather than him just in case something happened. so he was communicating back as Lawler told Reggie B. Fine on Memphis TV, come out here, bring your guy out here.

Reggie B. Fine said, you just tell me what you want him to know, and I'll delay the information back to him. Paul was delaying the information back and forth, and Sabu never got a job again with the WWF. I don't think, well, no, then they redid ECW 10 years later, right? And then him and Van Dam got busted smoking weed in a car when Van Dam was the champion, remember? That's right, and they fired him again.

But, you know, him and Van, he's really responsible for getting Van Dam on the national stage in a lot of ways, because Rob Van Dam had worked for, first time I saw him was Eddie Mansfield's I-WF on Sports Shadow in New York. And then he was in WCW briefly in the beginning of 93 as Robbie, Robbie V. Not even Rob Van Damned, Robbie V. And he was such a bland baby face. and it really, it didn't do anything for me. And then he did some All-Japan stuff because I think Dory Jr. got him booked.

And his promos as a, you know, nice karate-loving baby face, it didn't really, he didn't seem like he had the voice for it or anything else. And then he started working with Sabu, his longtime friend in ECW in the summer of 96. I went to one match they had. It was a nightmare.

It was the hottest, it must have been like the middle of the summer. It was so hot in that building. The AC went down. And then the ring broke. And then they fit. the ring and they start Sabu versus Rob Van Dan and Sabu goes to do his triple jump Monsault where he puts up the chair and he runs and he jumps on the chair and then he jumps on the top rope and he moonsaults back and the top rope the ring broke again.

Oh Jesus Christ. It was just the worst night. That may have been the night Camona Juanalea dance to top the ECW arena. I'm not sure. But Rob Van Dam getting over in ECW was because they started doing a lot of stuff with him and Sabu and then eventually he turned heel and it kind of clicked. And I think the stuff with WWE was a big. part of that, the Mr. Monday Night thing, taking that back to ECW as a heel.

Yeah. And like I was telling you with what Vince got at that time, Van Dam by that point had gained weight and had a fucking physique and the flexibility. And cool trunks. I've called him, well, in cool trunks, but I've called him the modern version of Argentina Raqa because he did unorthodox shit, but it worked for him. nobody else could land on their various joints, knees, ankles, you know, in those positions contort themselves and do that shit.

But he also looked like a goddamn top guy and a little cleaner look. And that's what Vince was looking for. And with Sabu, the difference in the work, whereas Van Dam could jump off the top rope and do the five-star frog splash and land on you and bounce and that's physically impactful shit, but whereas Sabu's shit was launching

himself over or off the top rope or off of something onto somebody and, you know, cross fingers, hope for the best in the way he landed. And Vince's head would blow up at shit like that. And I, in this case, I don't blame him that much because you're looking at and we've seen the the uh the highlights that they've put

out of saboos you know ECW stuff and compilations and everything you've got to admit that in most of those things where he's diving somewhere with to take somebody through a table or into the barbed wire whatever you can't apply the standard wrestling logic that we can do this the two of us as trained professionals in this way and have a reasonable expectation of not getting hurt you can't apply that to that shit that's why Vince wouldn't fucking go for most of it and that's why because it's why a whole generation of wrestlers wouldn't go for it and it was the younger guys that were doing this shit because you couldn't talk anybody into it that was at the time over and already had a job. And I don't mean to

denigrate the man. But when I look at this stuff, even today, I'm going, you can't, there's the thunder now, Brian. Are you hearing the thunder? I thought there was no thunder over Louisville. Well, they rescheduled it for today. You can't look at that and say, okay, the people perpetrating this had a reasonable expectation that they could pull it off without getting hurt. And that's why I couldn't, I can get into the athletic aspect of wrestling and I can get into the violent part of it. But the violent, the art of the violence of wrestling is that the violent part has to be controlled as the athletic part. and and I don't I didn't want to be on either side pitching or catching of anything that those guys were fucking doing and eventually it really did go too far at least for me as a fan you know I in 94 that was kind of

the year that you got all these Sabu dream matches and all the best of Sabu compilation tape started going around because every match he had was a thing that had to be seen that was the year we got Cactus Jack against Sabu because Cactus left WCW and that was like the big dream. Two guys that don't care about their bodies wrestling each other. That was a big deal and they had a few matches. I think they had one in Hamburg that they aired on ECW TV later in the year.

And then that was the year that we got Sabu versus Terry Funk a bunch of times. And where I was going with this because I'll come back, the match they had a thing in 97, the Barbwire one, I love Terry Funk and I like a lot of that Sabu stuff. That was too much for me. Yeah.

was too gruesome and too far and too disgusting and I actually worried about people I like watching too much but if you go back to 94 he has the three-way match with Terry and Shane which doesn't really hold up as well now but at the time was a big deal and then one of my favorite ECW moments ever

it's supposed to be Terry Funk against Mr. Hughes the Bruce brothers come out and attack Mr. Hughes and beat him up I forget what their problem what Mr. Hughes was, I don't know, I've seen their tattoos. Who knows what their problem Mr. Hughes was? But now Terry Funk doesn't have an opponent. He says, I'll wrestle anybody. Paulie hits the ring and says, I know who you should wrestle.

And as soon as he's done, the fans already, Saboo! They know who it's going to be. And he says Saboo, and then when Terry Funk turns around, he clocks him with the phone. And then Terry Funk goes down, Paulie starts doing the promo to introduce Saboo as being wheeled out. Terry puts a plastic bag over Paul's head and tries to kill him. So then SABU gets in there and Sabeau and Terry have one of the best matches I think they ever had.

And at the end, the bodyguards who had helped like bring Saboo out on the gurney and everything and they were out there still come in there and they get unmasked and thrown out. And it's like some of the local guys like Donnie Allen or whoever it was. And eventually one of them is Bobby Eaton, beautiful Bobby. He hit the Alabama Jam.

People are like, what the fuck? Who's that? And then he pulls it off and it's Bobby Eaton and the place goes nuts out of nowhere, because who expected is Arne Anderson runs out of the back of ECW arena. And if you ever watch the footage, it's incredible because someone who must have been involved with ECW next to the camera yells,

holy shit! It's Arne Anderson! And it's not supposed to be there. You could tell us just someone terribly excited, and they go in there and the place goes, I can still see Sarge McGee in the front row, like lifting his arms up, I couldn't believe it. And then they had the tag match. I can't believe Sarge could lift his arms up at that point.

But Arm and Terry Funk versus Saboo and Bobby Eaton and. Well, and also we should say for the, again, the kids out there that think we're all on drugs, that was when Paul got a settlement over the copyright infringement, whatever lawsuit he had filed, which lawsuit was it he had filed against WCW? See, I think it was a different one because the copyright thing for when Worlds Collide, when they did the AAA pay-per-view, funny enough, they're using a, name for the thing coming up. That's what caused November 94

against the NWA tournament in Cherry Hill. In Philadelphia, Paulie got Brian Pilman, because he was supposed to get Steve Austin and Steve Austin couldn't do it, or he was hurt, I forget what it was, got Brian Pilman, I think he got Kevin Sullivan back that night, I think he got Sherry Martel back that night,

and I may be forgetting one other person. No, this was some kind of settlement that he got in the, some other infringement. It may have been for everything with Watts. Mike Awesome and Taz had a title match, that era of time. Anyway, Paul was always getting talent because he would sue WCW for something. And he got Arne and Bobby that night. And it tickled me what I heard about it because that's the same two guys I got.

Every time that somebody could get talent from WCW, they wanted Arn Anderson and Bobby Eat. Yeah, that feud went to three. But go ahead. That feud went to three different promotions in a year. That's what made it so cool. But that year also we got Sabu versus two. called Scorpio, which was again, another one of those like, holy shit, how's this going to happen? And then my favorite was from a show, Dan Farrin promoted in the middle of a residential

neighborhood in California. They did Al Snow versus Saboo. No one had ever heard of Al Snow outside of people going to Michigan Independence and fans of the late, late version of the fabulous kangaroo. No one had ever heard of Al Snow until those matches from Michigan started going around to him against Sabu. That put Al Snow on the map for a lot of people. That's what got him booked in ECW in 95.

And those matches are great. They brought it out to California for this show. And it was a really, really fun match. And at the very end, out of nowhere, because he wasn't on the card. He wasn't booked. And this is a residential street in middle of the day in California. Terry Funk runs in. And the place starts going crazy.

Terry starts beating the shit out of that. That's just a big fight everywhere. The woman who ran the building freaked out because she didn't know who this. man was attacking everyone. So she calls the cops. And now the video ends right before the cops get there. And outside, Dan Farrin, the promoter and referee here is on the ground. Again, middle of the day, he's on the ground.

Terry Funk is hiding under a car. Like the sheikh in Chicago. And the video ends with Terry Funk walking down the street. There are houses there. It's just that street. Just walking down the street, muttering to himself. But, you know, again, Sabbo, and Terry Funk, during that period of time,

if you were a tape trader, you wanted to see every single thing they did, no matter where it was. And even if it was under a car on a side street in Southern California, that's the thing is, I think, especially, you know, we know that Paul E. will let guys go too far

and didn't, you know, particularly look out for anybody's best interest, physically. But I think in his quest to go so extreme and to go too far and push the envelope and set people,

God damn it, wouldn't Saboo in the deal where they set people on fire too? Or where Terry got set on fire? Yeah, that may have been him against Terry, I think.

They swung the chair. They, yeah, and people, they had to evacuate together. The lights went out as people were on fire and they had to evacuate

the building. it was filling with smoke. Wonderful place to take the kids. They get two for one admission, folks. But I think if Vince had been more up to date at that point and Pauley had been a little less behind the times maybe, and there would have been a sweet spot in the middle, Saboo as a gimmick and as a personality

and with the stuff that he could do without even doing furniture in every match or the look too. You know, bleeding constantly from any orifice or the really dangerous stuff that requires surgical repair. With the cool entrance and a music and a manager and the whole thing, I think he'd have made

more money than he did diving off the roof through a bunch of shit in the fucking, you know, rec centers. But as well I was saying other day, he took the sheiks advice on how to be a star and stay over and maintain your drawing power and et cetera. But the part that he got, he skipped was the sheik didn't do all that until he was one of the

biggest, most powerful guys in the business and the owner of a territory. Then he'd do whatever he wanted. And Sabu skipped that part. He wasn't the owner of a major promotion or one of the biggest stars in the business before they let him do his shit, which is why nobody on a mainstream a, K.A. high-paying basis,

would let him do any of that stuff because with no control over it at all instead of the the danger with the sheik was that he was going to fucking blade somebody too deep, but he never put anybody in a hospital for surgery. But with Sabu,

you know, and guys cooperating with all of that on a mainstream big money basis, you can't. And now they, they don't even let guys in modern day do shit as out of control and as recklessly as the stuff that these guys were doing in ECW and then those indies in the early 2000s. If you look back at the clips, I can't imagine how some of them were not paralyzed. I remember Bob Barnett telling me a story that he went out east for a Joel Goodhart show, probably 91, maybe 92, but probably 91.

Actually, it had to be 91 now that I think about it. And Sabu was booked. I think he was in like a reverse battle royal, whatever it was, one of those early card gimmick matches just to get everyone on the show. But he was driving the sheik's limousine, and the sheik was with him, because I think it may have been the Sheik versus Abdullah or something. Okay, yes. And Bob Barnett somehow got to talk into them at the hotel or whatever, and

he was going through the building too, so they were going to follow him. And he said, I remember him to tell me. He goes, you know, his first time he met Sabu, Sabu came over to my car and he said, my uncle says if you get us lost, he's going to cut you.

And he didn't get lost. He got to the building. Well, the pressure is on. If I'd have got lost, I'd just spit off and left him. It's just gone back home. You know, he had a look, too. You know, in terms of what could have been

if different things had happened or anything, the scars all over his body. no one else in wrestling had that. And it worked for him. Not sure I'd want to go that far, but if they were already there, you could have used him. Yeah, it was a great look. He had a unique look.

Even when everyone started stealing every part of his, of what he did. His repertoire. He still had a unique look, even though there were copies, I remember when Pablo Marquez, first time I heard of Pablo Marquez, he was a Sabu ripoff called Ubaz. Yes.

Sabu backwards, Ubaz. Yeah. So, I mean, there wasn't influence, among some people from Sabu, but you know, he, to me, you know what? It is a lot like Mick Foley because there was a, the, I hate to say this, but for, you know, same thing with Mick and I love Mick to death and everybody knows it,

but they were both guys that all that, the young male audience at the time said, I'll never look like these guys. I'll never look like Brett Hart or Sean Michaels or Rick Flair or whatever, but that fat guy or that little fucking scarred up guy, I could do that shit. And it was kind of like a bonding moment for that generation. I remember Marty Gorman being asked years ago.

Marty, what's your favorite match of all time? And his answer was, Sabu. You know, that was because they didn't match, you saw Sabu in was his favorite match. And again, like I said, there was a period of time there where that's why I compare it to Tiger Mask, even though Sayama did the UWF and Seyama eventually had comeback matches later on

when he, you know, was not Little Tiger Mask anymore. For a couple of years there, everything he did influenced everything that came after it, from the weight division to the style to everything. And I think with Sabu, it's a lot of the same thing. Again, for good or for bad, I'm looking at it as a teenage mark from the 90s, not as an individual like yourself. Yes. But if you look at where we are today, how much of that is directly because of

of what Sabu started doing in front of wrestling fans. And also, what would ECW have even been if they didn't have Sabu? Now you're fired me up to get indignant again. That's the problem. Well, in all seriousness. And I hate, I hate the fact that, again, a lot of what people were talking about over the last day or so is that he never even made a lot of big money for doing this shit and was broken down his body and et cetera.

But with Tiger Mask, yes, you're correct in the same. the same level of influence with a completely different style, et cetera, because with Tiger Mask, you said, my God, that guy's a world-class athlete.

Nobody can do that like he can. This is amazing athleticism. With Sabu, you were like, Jesus Christ, this guy's going to kill himself. And I'm, and I just because

I came from the previous generation of wrestling, and was trained by the previous generation from that, I was like, what the fuck? Why is anybody allowing this to go on, to be quite honest with you? But it's goddamn exciting to watch. I remember you being asked when I was probably 14 a fan week.

If it wasn't 14, it was 15, you know, why don't you use Sabu? Because again, this is the period of time where he was the hottest thing, even though he's working a lot for Paul, that may have caused the problem. And you at the time, I remember, you know, not even talking about money or negotiating or anything,

you couldn't wrap your head around what to do with him because he'd be a heel. So he couldn't exactly do everything he's doing as a heel, but you may want him to do some of those things not necessarily in an offensive way. Am I saying this in any way that makes sense? Well, yeah. See, here's the thing, and we've talked about it in a different,

Eddie Gilbert when we were talking about the Darkside episode, what worked in Philadelphia, wouldn't work in Memphis, what worked in Memphis wouldn't work in Philadelphia, vice versa, right? And at the time for the audience, how do I bring Sabu in and introduce him when he doesn't speak as a baby face? And how does he interact with the rest of my baby faces against the fucking heels?

It wasn't the indie style presentation that Paul was doing, picking up from ECW and from Joe Goodhart and all that type of thing. it was regular weekly episodic television monthly show territorial wrestling. If he was a heel and had a manager could speak for him, he'd get a lot of fucking heat doing some of that shit to Ricky Morton or what, or Tracy Smothers, but at the same time, there was too much margin for error with most of his,

I didn't want people to, I didn't want the fans to see that stuff because that's the problem once they see it. it, they can't unsee it, then they want to see more of it, and then you give them more, and then gradually the stunt show aspect takes over, and that's what they pop on rather than the personalities and the issues and what you can give them safely. And then you have a situation where guys have to fucking hospitalize themselves on a regular basis just to give the normal performance, kind of like what we've got today. So I was trying to slow that shit down. Well, again, Sabu, you know, when you look at the 90s,

it's definitely one of the faces of wrestling in that era. Unlike a lot of guys that were indie stars, again, independent wrestling really changed. Right around the time Ring of Honor became popular, it may start a little bit before them, but that really was like the point where independent wrestling became a different animal. But the big stars in indie wrestling

were the Terry Funks, the Cactus Jacks, the Eddie Goberts, the guys who had national TV exposure. With Sabu, it kind of started, at switching. It was all about buzz from smart wrestling fans trading tapes, which aren't necessarily the people that are going to fill the room, but they'll be in the room making noise while other people were discovering it. And again, for good or for bad, there are very few people that had as big an influence on everything we see today, then Saboo, whether it's the tables, whether it's the lights being put out to do something. You know, a lot of these things... And now, you know what,

a lot of people are going to say and cornet was taking a piss out of him for it no i took the piss out of everybody that copied it and the promoters that allowed it and the promoters that fell back on the lights as a crutch or the tables as a crutch or the people that controlled the shows not saying okay we're going a little too far here when we're lynching each other with fucking barbbed wire around our testicles or whatever and if saboo was going to have that gimmick which was the update of the sheik, the wild, hardcore guy, but instead of cutting people with a razor blade and wrapping a snake around their neck,

he was throwing him through tables, then it should have been protected, and somebody should have been able to produce him well enough that he could assimilate into a major promotion so that if he was going to take that many chances with his body, which didn't, obviously, you know, he didn't emerge unscathed, that that he would have got compensated for it.

Yeah, that is one of the sad things that apparently he did not do. I mean, it's not a surprise when you think of some of the places he worked, but apparently he did not do very well throughout his career financially, or at least to the level of a top star in a major company. Although even if he did, you have to wonder if he would have still been working. I mean, he, you know, we'll talk about it a little bit later. He just had his retirement match a couple weeks ago. He hadn't really worked too much in the years before then because of,

things that were happening physically. I mean, he had gone through a lot physically. But, you know, like his, like his, I was going to say his grandfather, like his uncle, not his grandfather, his uncle, ladies a gentleman, like his uncle, the sheik, you know, sheik, I think, would have kept doing stuff. As long as someone was willing to pay, the sheik would probably find the way to get there. No, it was sheik, it was 70 when he did the, how old was he when he did the burning ring match in Japan? He was already 70, or was he 72?

He was in his 70s when he was working for FMW. that's for sure. Yeah. So, yes, the point being, because we talked about that on the Sheik Dark Side episode, he couldn't, he fell on hard times financially over the last, what, 30 years of his life. Because of the first 40 years of his life, he established that he lived at this certain level,

and he couldn't downsize and have the fame taken away and not, you know, whatever with, With Sabu, he never lived at that level, but he had the Sheiks example to look up to. So it was, you know, nevertheless, they liked the limelight. 60 years old, Sabu, and again, go back and watch some of the footage of him in 93 and 94, if you want to see him at a period of time, where the fans had never seen anything like that before, so you get some really interesting reactions from people. but that is our look at Saboo.

You know, Jim, in the awkward transition department, Sabu had a lot of scars all over his body, and he wouldn't have had that problem if he was just focused on his face and using a safe razor like our friends at Harry's Well, you have that exactly right, Brian, because for heaven's sake, if you're talking about the sheikh or any of the

sheikh's relative, you've got to mention that this show is partially sponsored by a razor blade company and our friends at Harry's, they've got them covered up, so you can't cut yourself accidentally. And even if you take one of these things and try to just run it across your forehead, willy-nilly it, you couldn't really do too much damage, because they're made to scrape your face in a safe and affordable way rather than cutting your head in a dangerous but potentially profitable way.

but they got the German engineered blades made in their own factory that stay sharp longer, the customizable delivery options for scheduled refills, half what you're going to pay for the big brands, and you get the five blade razor, the weighted handle, the foaming shave gel, and a travel cover for only $6. It's regular $10, but now you're going to save $6, or you're going to save $4 because it's $6. You see now 10 minus four is six Unless on one side The 100 gorillas have a fucking

Is it 100 guerrillas against one man? I guess that wouldn't be fair That seems like it would be a problem The guerrillas may start fighting with each other Well so what you need to do is you need to get your Harry's customized trial set And you need to shave a couple of the gorillas Put them on the right side of things

But again folks if you want to make your face Your face smooth smooth and attractive to others, possibly of the opposite sex, or maybe the same sex, which if, you know what, with most of the listeners,

I wouldn't rule anything out because you'll increase your potential gene pool. Once again, but if you want to, your face, you've got to make yourself attractive. Your face will be smooth and kissable if you do your razoring the right way

with the right razor. Whether it be man, woman, or puppy, you might want a puppy to give you a puppy kid. I believe these are, um, these are, if there is a disclaimer or anything, but I believe these are recommended for human beings only.

No, if you want to, if you want to shave your face slick so your puppy will give you a puppy kiss. I thought you were saying shave the puppy's face. I was like, what's wrong with this man? No, you don't shave the puppy's face for heaven. What do you ever shave the puppies? You shave the puppy's ass. If you get your hairy five blade razor with the weighted handle and foaming shave gel and go

to town on Fido's spankter, go to town on your mustache, the shit stains on the carpet will will vanish instantly. Fido sphincter is a term we use on the show to describe. The facial hair on someone's face. Go to town on your face. Get rid of that beard. Clean up that beard. Get rid of that mustache or do something else.

Whatever it may be. You need a razor and you need the right razor and we can recommend our friends at Harry's. You know, I saw Santa Claus on a Christmas special and he had a long Fido sphincter hanging down to his belly. Folks, right now, normally that trial set is $10, but you can get it for just $6.

So if it really means that much to you to save $4, you fucking cheap bastard, go right now to harries.com slash J-C-E. That's h-a-r-r-R-Y-S dot com slash J-C-E, $6 for the trial set that's normally $10, save that $4, you cheap bastard you. If that's the only thing that's kept you from just buying some Harry's before is that lousy $4, $4, I'm. I hate to think of what kind of fucking life you've led or how much a loser you are.

Harries.com slash JCP. For all the winners, harries.com slash JCE. Yeah, shave that face or that sphincter. Be a winner, shave that face with Harry's. No, it says be a winner, shave that sphincter. The face, the sphincter of the face, I don't even know what that means, but harries.com slash J.C. All right, that wasn't necessarily clean or appropriate, but here we are now.

We are in the future. Minutes after. We just did. Minutes after. Jim, I know we have a bunch of big reviews. We have the pay-per-view backlash. We have that incredible press conference afterwards, or at least a moment of it. And then a little bit from Raw, a little bit of Smackdown.

But I know there's a little bit more about the Saboo story, apparently, that a lot of the listeners have, a lot of the listeners have been posting about or sending over. let's talk about this. This is, again, this is why I say the world is ridiculous. Wrestling business is ridiculous because now within 48 hours or whatever of Sabu passing away,

there's controversy over whether Jelly Nutella killed him or not. I can't even believe I'm saying this. And of course, he didn't. It's probably one of the only things he's been accused of he's not guilty of, but just that we're having to talk about this. We talked earlier about old Shetstein himself, Vince Russo, using marks as a derogatory term for the wrestling fans.

And you may be a mark if the list that he made up. I think where we ought to use marks as derogatory terms in wrestling is when people don't know which side of the goddamn rail to stay on. if you're a fan and you know you're a fan and you stay in the in the in the in the seats in the arena and enjoy things then it doesn't matter if you're a mark or not you you're not a bad mark but you're a mark like old rousseau or like jelly or like the guy that runs garbage wrestling that employs jelly when you don't know enough to realize that that's all you should ever be is a fan in the audience watching something. You see Mick Jagger on stage, so you instantly put your own band together and make yourself the lead

singer. Or that's the problem. And now apparently what we're finding out is, because I'm used to legends having matches in their golden years, and

you know, guys find a way to work around it, and you, you know, sometimes it's okay. Sometimes it's sad, but I've just now seen highlights, if you can call him that, of Sabu's last match that he had with Jelly Nutella of all people, like three weeks ago or whatever. And it's ridiculous. And now we're finding out that he was to get in the ring to do the match. He had to take something that we're just now, we might have to Google as well.

we're talking about it. They were just now hearing about. And Jelly was told the story between the time the match happened and the time that Sabu passed away. And now they're trying to walk it back, as the TV commentators say, oh, no, he wasn't really fucked up. And so what do you know about this, Brian? I'm kind of playing catch up because I've been pretty busy. And then all of a sudden it was just.

just an inundation of, again, emails to CornyDrythru at gmail.com as well as posts that tried to get through to the Culta Cornette Facebook page. We have one post there so people can comment on it, but then more people wanted to just have their own posts saying what they thought or posting it again. It's been a popular topic of conversation, so I have a few things here. I presume, based on everything I'm seeing, it all originated from this Yahoo Sports article by Phil Schneider. Saboo was Saboo

until the very end and those aren't my gardeners, they're the neighbors, and there's nothing I could do. My gardeners have learned. If I scroll down here, there's some quotes joining midway through this article here, that was the impossible standard

Sabu aspired to live up to, and Lauderdale, that's the GCW promoter, Brett Lauderdale, was fully aware of what Sabu meant to the fans coming to the show. A quote, I talked to Sabu a couple of days before the match, and he was telling me, my knee hurts, and this and that. And I said, listen, Sabu, every... Listen, Samu. I'm sorry. Listen, Sabu, everybody knows you're hurting. You're 20-something years older

than the last time you did this, people's expectations are realistic. No one is expecting this to be born to be wired, his iconic no-rope barbed wire match with Terry Funk, and he said to me good, because it's going to be better than that. Predictably, the night of the April 18th show was chaotic. Nothing was going to be easy with Sabu. Here's a quote from Jelly Nettella, his opponent. I was fairly confident that he was fine. I was kept in contact with him, and he has a team of people around him.

guys this time. They were all saying he was ready to go, that he was going to the gym, that he was on a training program. I believe them until the day of the show. Then two hours before the show, I get a call. Sabu can't walk.

Let's just stop there for a second. The guy's 60s, not 40. It's not like, go to the gym and get ready to do this. You know? Well, let me go ahead. I'll say it now so that when we get to the details here later on, you'll know what kind of people we're dealing with. Because let's face it, Jelly is, he's a mark,

and that's why he's in the wrestling business. If he hadn't been a mark for wrestling, then he'd be some other kind of con man. He'd be selling siding, or he'd be a drug dealer. But because he was also a wrestling mark, he decided to apply his natural apparently ability to be both an attention whore, a fame whore, and a con man to fucking get in a wrestling business

because that's the most important thing to him. He wants people to know that he's around. He didn't get in wrestling because he had great athletic ability or a striking look or a wonderful physique or a natural personality to be a showman, he got in it because he wants to be a guy that gets known for doing stupid shit on videos on the internet. He wants to be famous in some respect.

He's like the geek at the carnival. He will, there's no depth to which he won't stoop to get some attention. And when you make fun of him for being a bloated fucking used condom physically and fucking things up, he loves it because it's still people paying attention to him. He's a kind of, if he got made national news

for having projectile diarrhea in a crowded theater, it'd be the proudest day of his life. Well, you have to think this is not the attention he won't. We haven't heard anything about this guy here forever, and this is the first thing we hear about him is that he, you know. No, this week wasn't the attention that he wanted, but last month was the attention he wanted with this match. Right.

He either he attaches himself to these, let's face it, girls aren't too bright into wrestling business, thinking, giving them the line that he can get them places or he can train them or get them booked or whatever the fuck his deal is with them. He talks to these outlaw promoters that are marks like this Brett Lauderdale that does the garbage wrestling and has got more money apparently than since. and it should have been on the other side of the rail. But he buddies up to him. He tried to do it with Tony Kahn, but even Tony had some kind of standards and let him go.

One white claw too many. But he buddies up to the fucking promoter who's a mark. He's, oh, look, I get all this attention on the internet. And then he lets him do these fucking garbage shows where he gets to get in the ring with talent that has least been recognized and legitimate in the past. And he gets his thrill by getting to, it's like a fantasy camp where you get to perform on stage

with some famous celebrity. That's Jelly's whole fucking existence. He's, you know, the pond scum at the bottom of the mud bug at the bottom of the lake that revels in, you know, when he gets to come up to the surface and people go, oh, look, there's a mud bug. And then he pops back down. I think you may have just coined something new

for the champions of the Outlaw Mudd show, the mudbugs. He's the mud bug. But anyway, so that, so they booked Sabu in his big retirement match against Jelly Nettella because Jelly's a mark and wanted attention. And they're out there, well, before we get to what they did when they were out there, let's get to the rest of the story about how the match got put together

when you said Sabu's can't walk. Samu can't walk. I think that was the re-ended. And by the way, I got to double check this, but I believe they previously put them in their indie wrestling Hall of Fame and he notes showed.

So, you know, the relationship was... I don't know whether there was this company or somewhere, but no, they, that was last year. He was in the hotel and he was going to be put in the Hall of Fame, but it was on the other level of the hotel, and this is a shoot.

He refused to get in the elevator. Sabu, would not get in the elevator to go up to the next floor to do the Hall of Fame thing. And nobody's explained to me why there were no stairs available, but that was the legitimate reason given by witnesses. So they gave it to him this year, I guess, on a, in a fucking ranch house environment. Well, back to Jelly Nutella. What do you mean, Sabu can't walk?

They said, yeah, Sabu, something with his knee. They're locked up. He can't walk. And his feet are bleeding. He's not coming. Sabu's not coming. I said, Sabu's fucked. So we talked to Matt Tremont, or Tremont.

He's an indie wrestler, it says here. And Tremont is about to be the replacement for the match. And I feel like this is going to be the most embarrassing moment of my wrestling career. Oh, now that's not really possible. There's 2,000 people here. This is one of the biggest spring breaks ever. the biggest crowd mania weekend indie-wise. And I'm going to have to go out there and announce that Saboo,

once again, no-showed. And no-showed his own retirement match. Brett Lauderdale was less concerned. In the back of my mind, I knew Saboo was coming. I never once worried. If we didn't hear from Saboo, then I would be worried. But the fact that he was communicating, I knew he was coming. So now we're back to Jellyman.

Natella. We are an hour into the show and I just said, just get Saboo here. So they gave him something called Kratom. Kratom. I haven't seen this word too many times. K-R-A-T-O-M. You could buy it at the smoke shop or something. It's like a legal opiate or something. A lot of things are like something to him. They said he's hopping on the bed. He's hopping on the bed. We're going to get him to the show. What's the thing? It's like, do you hear about John Kennedy got a shot from Dr. Fieldgood at the fucking Waldorf? And then he was running down the hallway naked, just hopping around, just so happy. So he shows up two hours into the show.

Sabu was on a different fucking planet. Everyone in the back was like, what the fuck? Is this match going to happen? And my God, did it happen? And then it talks about this morning here about Sabu apparently being knocked out in the match. I didn't realize that. Oh my God. Well, hold on before we go any further.

So now you've got a 60-year-old man with a history of major injuries to his body, including he broke his neck one time too, didn't he? Oh, Benoit, 94. Benoit threw him straight up in the air and he came right now a minute and a half into the match or something, yeah. So you got a 60-year-old man with a history of major injuries in various parts of his body and a legitimate documented history of not only substance abuse, but actually overdosing at fan fest and being carted out to the hospital in front of the fans,

and you're going to book him under the best of circumstances in a barbed wire match with some indie fucking jackoff. Was it a barbed wire match? Yes. Oh, I watched the clips on this. you know, make the garbage people some money. They'll probably need it to defend this court case that may come up.

It was a barbed wire match where not only did Sabu fall into the barbed wire, but actually at one point he fell out of the ring through the barbed wire and head first like to the floor through some furniture and shit and was knocked goofy, goofier, whatever. But no, if this was two 25-year-old, guys, you'd say, well, they're fucking idiots. They're going to kill themselves. But this was a 60-year-old man on drugs, having been on drugs for much of his life and major injuries that they put in there on purpose so this fucking little cum stain could have his

markout moment in front of his 2,000 fans. Oh, it's the biggest crowd we've ever had. Well, back to some of the quotes here from this story. It was an immediate sign to the audience. It wasn't going to be a nostalgia match. Sabu was going to go out on his own terms. Then minutes later, Sabu got whipped into a barbed wire board, which was resting on the barbed wire ropes, and flipped backwards out of the ring, landing in a heap.

Here's Jelly Nutella. He was definitely out cold. He was done. They were telling me, there was no way. The reps were communicating to me. There was no way he was continuing this match. Like, holy shit. That is the one time you want Barb wire to stop you.

He just blew right through it. And then the Sandman came out, and that was all Saboo needed. Oh, that's all we need. That was all Saboo. The voice of reason suddenly appears. And that was all Saboo needed. then the resurrection happened Jesus resurrected two days later

the anniversary couldn't fucking believe it dude he was ready to go again I guess that concussion knocked him back into 1996 or something I don't know so let's stop for a second he called it a concussion

he also said he was out cold well yes you do you know you can get a concussion without even being knocked out so if he was out for a say yes that's a concussion but again, this is what drives me absolutely out of my mind of why I just threw up my hands a number of years ago pretty much gave up because of indie wrestling mark bullshit

to where, yes, Bob Armstrong was in the ring when he was in his 50s and physically looked like he was in his 30s and would dwarf half of the fucking A.E.W roster today, but we didn't fucking have him launching himself through barbed wire and going through tables. And the whole idea of these, the whole outlaw bullshit mud show wrestling mindset that these marks have for themselves,

that everything's got to be wrapped up in barbed wire and falling through tables and fucking jumping off the goddamn deal. And oh my God, did you see that holy shit thing? They want to cripple themselves and they're of appropriate age and feel like doing it fine. You know, it does damage the business,

but I gave up on that because it's their own fucking fault. But when you're just, when you're running a promotion where you will put a guy with this amount of problems in his past and in his health and in his physical health, his body, to do stupid shit like that with this fucking, again, little fat chubby fucking wannabe blob

on your garbage show in front of 2,000 people. 2,000 people, so I'll dive into barbed wire. All I needed to do was get put in a diaper in front of 25,000 in a Superdome. If they'd had told me diving at barbed wire, I believe I would have dove in my car and gone home. Have we lost our fucking minds? So, so no. It's their own fault for the publicity they're getting.

I don't believe that they contributed to his death, but they didn't contribute to his good health either. They couldn't have honored him in some other way than put him in a fucking barbware match for a bunch of fucking goofs that fucking like that kind of shit. You know, I'm sorry, continue. Well, that's really, it seems like the end of what we need from the Yahoo story, but after that... Well, I've got one, I've got another quote here.

From that story? No, from Joey, defending himself. Have you seen this? I had another one here from an article I found on the Observer's site that may be the same one you're going to, sure. Well, you start and I'll finish. We didn't give him, Cratum, his team did. It's also not illegal. And 85% of professional wrestlers do it.

it, especially the ones on TV. What the fun. So fuck you. Sabu was a grown man. He did what he had to do to get out there. Hold on that. Hold on. Hold on.

There's more, but we got to stop there to make this point. He said it's also, it's not illegal. And 85% of professional wrestlers do it, especially the ones on TV. So this guy is such a goddamn sleaze ball. And this is, again,

indie wrestling, doesn't have to be sleazy and dirty and the people involved in it just low class. Jelly makes Rousseau look like he's got class. You think 85% of the professional wrestlers making legitimate money that you see on TV from the WW or from billionaire Tony or even from TNA, they pay a little something these days,

have to resort to truck stop opiates. Like fucking Jelly because he's used to gargling meth from underneath somebody's fucking bathroom cabinet. What the fuck? Fuck you, Jelly. Let's go back to this. Where did we end? Did we end with fuck you?

So fuck you. Sabu was a grown man. He did what he had to do to get out there. I took care of him to the best of my ability, and I didn't think what happened halfway through would happen. It was all to get him one great payday and one last shine in the spotlight. That night wasn't about me.

It was about Sabu, and I wouldn't change a thing. So wait a minute, wait a minute. Sabu was a grown man, he did what he had to do to get out there. So you've admitted that this fucking 60-year-old senior citizen had to take truck-stop drugs to go out there and perform the match that you booked him in, then it you came up with, and to get him a payday, you couldn't say in a special ceremony honoring Sabu.

And the highlight of our event here, everyone come and honor Sabu, and we're going to give a portion of the gate to him for his contributions to wrestling. He said, hey, Sabu, we'll pay you a lot of money that you need if you get in a ring with me and do this garbage bullshit. That night wasn't about me. It was about Sabu, and I wouldn't change a thing because it was about me getting to wrestle Sabu. Normally I would never be in the ring with any big

major star, but now since he's old and broke, I can pay him to do this stupid shit. They were throwing chairs at each other's head. They were hanging themselves in barbed wire. They're covered in blood. It's a goddamn freak show fucking thing, like Janella's always involved in. And it wasn't about Saboo, or they'd had a nice ceremony for him

and give him a nice payoff and let everybody stand up and applaud him. Instead of making him load himself up on goddamn something that C.W. McCall mixed up in the back of an 18-wheeler and sells out of the trunk at a gas station. The fuck. Well, I'll go back to... Oh, sleazy! We have more from this story, if you don't mind before we get off this convoy here. No worries, no worries.

This is an update from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. site in an article by Brian Rose GCW owner Britt Lauderdale released a statement defending his usage of Saboo at last month's spring break event saying he would never put someone in the ring who he thought would be a danger to themselves or others

after this 60 year old man that just they said couldn't walk two hours ago he's going to jump through the goddamn barbed wire to the fucking floor here's a quote any suggestion that or G.C.W. or Jelly Nettella forced him to do this match, supplied him with substances, or somehow caused his death, is irresponsible, disingenuous, hurtful, and false. It's upsetting

and discouraging to see people so eager to cast judgment without knowledge of the facts. I would never knowingly put someone who I believed was a danger to themselves or others in the ring, and my track record shows this to be true. I have pulled people, in a public and painful manner, from big matches before, sometimes literal moments before a match was to begin, and would do it again if I had to. I spoke to Sabu moments before the match, and he was Saboo. He was the same Sabu I had encountered in years past when I participated in his match. as a referee and later as a promoter.

He was the same Saboo I met the following day at RussellCon and the same Saboo that made multiple appearances on podcasts and at conventions in the weeks that followed. So there is... Hademi's been carted out of some fan fest too, to be honest. But nevertheless. I didn't know that. Is that a recent thing or that happened a while ago?

I didn't know anything about that, actually. Within the past few years, I lose track of time these days, but it hadn't been 15 years more like three or four or five. I mean, somebody can look it up. I'm willing to be corrected. But yeah, they had to take him out of more than one from what I remember. But before we go, I just saw this because I clicked on this thing. It's Jelly's tweet and said, we didn't give him cratum.

His team did. and it's also not illegal and 85% of wrestlers do it, so fuck you. Well, he got like 18 responses to this because, you know, nobody follows jelly anyway. But of the responses, one of his, and yet you sit here tweeting this with no shame. You acted stupid in AEW. You acted stupid with that flaming kick, and you act stupid and inconsiderative actions now. Sabu was a grown man, but so were you. And regardless of what happened, a man is dead, and you sit here doing this.

and another one said you still wrestled a man who was 60 years old and couldn't fucking walk without taking a drug to make the pain disappear, have some shame, dude. Another one says, why did you at Lauderdale kill Saboo? Another one said, it's fine you killed a 60-year-old man because his team forced him to wrestle after you told him to do whatever is needed to force him to work. This is all caused by his quotes.

It's not like it's caused by the match. This is people that follow him apparently, on Twitter because they saw his tweet. Here's that, well, here's an opposing view. What a complete piece of shit, Joey is for this. Nothing's stopping you from apologizing and owning up to a legend's death. Karma's going to head hard for sure. But the other side of it, what do they want them to say?

I'm sorry I killed Saboo? Well, and again, you know what? I'm sorry that I was involved in the map. Like, what is the mob wanting? Because, you know, they're mad and sometimes that doesn't go, away and, you know, it may not go away, but. I think some kind of shame of, you know what, we're so sorry that he, this is happening in hindsight, maybe we shouldn't have booked him to wrestle a few weeks ago or something

to mitigate the circumstances. Well, fuck you. I didn't do it. Because that just, well, fuck you too, whether you did or not. Because he's such an obnoxious twat, Joey or jelly or what is his name again? Jelly. Jelly, Joey. People want to dislike him anyway

because of that fucking smirky look on his little midget face. If they start testing for Kratum, they're really going to dislike him. If 85% of the business is on that shit? And why? If Sabro needed that so that he could hop up and down on his bed

and go to the show to get knocked out, what are the wrestlers on TV using it for? Just for an energy boost? I don't think that I don't think he understands what anybody in the actual real wrestling profession is doing I think he's talking about a bunch of fucking indie guys because I'm sure that's all that they can afford

but I don't think that millionaires are taking truck stop fucking heroin or whatever to but regardless they have to to have their mark moments where they get these guys that need a fucking payoff and they're induced to get in the ring and cooperate with this bullshit so these guys can live out their wet dreams in front of 2,000 people, which they think is a crowd,

and risk their fucking necks and their backs and their knees and whatever the case. And you know why they're in panic mode too? Because aren't they doing stuff with WWW? like WWE has been working with them in the nice way they do before they destroy your company. You know, the last thing you want is WWE saying, fuck you, because Tony ain't going to say welcome home. Well, and besides that, they just don't want this publicity

because the indie audience that's more likely to know who Saboo is than anybody else is the only audience they've got. So they don't want to piss those people off. But anyway, Natella strikes again. Maybe he ought to be the new vice president. One killed a Pope, the other one killed Sabu. You know, one last thing on Sabu, I just remembered. He was the first guy I heard about supergluing his cuts closed.

He wouldn't go to the hospital and get stitches. He would use super glue to close him. Yeah, and I mean, there is some medical precedent for that, depending obviously on location of the cut and etc and conditions in the field or whatever there's but when he fucking ripped his bicep open and got somebody to run out and get duct tape and just taped his arm back together there's not medical precedent for that that's just and that's another thing these fucking these fucking indie outlaw goofs that were praising Oh, what a fucking beast he was.

He just taped that. The bicep is laid open to the bone, but he just taped it up with duct tape. And they're, oh, what a guy. Fuck you. I'm not putting myself in that fucking position. They'd shit themselves if they were in a good old-fashioned riot like I used to be,

but at least I didn't goddamn do that to myself. I would rather be in a riot than be duct-taping my arm closed from being ripped apart with, barbed wire. But they think that's an element of tough. That's just kind of an element of fucking goofy. Well, Jim, what's, uh, it's my show? Let's stay on, yes, it is. Let's stay on the topic of goofy and let's talk about the world of WWE. They had a pay-per-view, and I would love to hear your thoughts on that. And there was a Smackdown that there was maybe one thing worth

talking about. There was a raw that I just gave up by that point. but why don't we talk about a weekend of WWE festivities? Well, really, the Smackdown was you waited two hours and 45 minutes and John Cena came out and cut a promo. And the promo was lovely. As a matter of fact, the audience gave him a little prop to work with because one of the ringsiders, and there was actually from one of the people sitting underneath the hard camera, they tweeted a, fan camera of this where you caught the guy that threw the bottle at Cina throwing the bottle because it came from the hard camera side.

So when you're watching the TV, you see it appear and then it lands at his feet. This angle, you saw the guy throw it and the security had him in like 12 seconds. And then Cina picks the bottle up and does the bit with it where he looks at it with disdain and throws it away. And so this is what you're reduced to throwing bottles. It. Yeah, Smackdown's three hours long, Brian. And there was matches and there was promos and nothing is unprofessional.

Everything's shot and produced very well. And the work is with the rare exception where something goes awry, very professionally done. Eh, yeah. And then John Cena came out two hours and 45 minutes in and did a fucking interview. And he was selling the match at backlash and did a good interview. And again, I maintain, I have no idea how he will be a heel when he retires and they just ain't going to care. Because there's no way to fucking say, I'm sorry and I apologize for the level in which he is verbally eviscerating all these people, is there? he can't just, what does he do, get hit on the head and he cures his amnesia?

What's going on? How can this be reversed? I don't know. And, you know, I'm really down on WWE right now. I've not been enjoying the show by and large and the current angles and everything. I just, I'm not feeling it right now. And as much as I get a kick out of the Sina heel promos, it does feel like there's like a weird disconnect between whatever he's doing and everything else.

I don't know. It doesn't, you know, the constant 10-minute promos talking down to the fans, I think we've had that enough. The stuff about Randy Orton was pretty good. I mean, it was pretty harsh. No one knows who your grandfather is.

Your dad was best known for, you know, losing or whatever it is he said. but no, his dad was best known for having sex with his mom to produce him. I think that's what he said. Well, what he said was your dad was best known for knocking up your mom or the only successful thing or something to that effect. But, you know, talking about the show beyond the scene of promo, they're kind of training me not to give a shit about the show

because I could just wait for the pay-per-views and actually see stuff that matters. And those commercials are 10 minutes long in between matches and not just in the middle of the match. And the week-the-week show is just not doing it for me. And... Yeah, that's the thing is that right now there's nothing happening. And after WrestleMania, obviously, you would think it will slow down. A few new people will be, you know, thrown into the mix.

Few others get kicked out the door, that type of thing. But there's nothing happening. There's things happening, but nothing... that you really want to sit through three hours of a show to see. I'd rather hear about it after the fact and seek out a YouTube clip of part of whatever they're talking about than have to watch that show. Yeah.

But having said that, that was SmackDown. So let's go to Backlash, May the 10th, St. Louis, Missouri, sold out. I think they said 17,000 something people. And, of course, it's, It's Randy Orton's hometown, so that's the main event, the feature match that night, but they opened up with the U.S. title match for the Fatal Fourway, L.A. Knight, Drew McIntyre, Damien Priest, Jacob Fatu. And we love Fatu, and we love Drew McIntyre. We're very, very fond of L.A. Knight, and we'd still like Priest to grow on us.

I wrote at the top of this, it's a four-way match so the match won't be any good. But all four guys are over and their work is good. And the people are going to be, especially because Fattu's explosive, Drew has the fucking heat. They were loving L.A. night again. And they did give L.A. night a win, believe it or not, on Smackdown on Friday night. which the people loved. So what they giveeth on Friday, they takeeth away on fucking Saturday.

But nevertheless, it was guys doing good-looking wrestling stuff to each other, and then they take turns. One guy gets to beat everybody up for a minute. Within five minutes, the crowd, we talked about Sabu and the legacy. The crowd was chanting, we want tables five minutes into the match while nothing regarding a table was going on.

Everybody was going about their business normally in the match and that crowd just started, we want tables. I don't want any more tables. I love, again, Fatu, the people are really getting into him and they're chanting for him when, when he and Drew faced off, they did a big, yay, boo spot. The people are on Fatu's side. But while they did that, the other two had to disappear and hide for minutes.

You didn't see them. And then finally, you know, the spot comes and suddenly they reappear just fresh as a daisy. But again, I think Fatu probably got the people up more than anybody else in this match. with the stuff that he does and when he opens up. But finally, boom, boom, boom. Drew had covered L.A. Knight after the Claymore and when he covered him, Priest pulled the referee out and then Drew and Priest went to the floor and over the rail

and they're fighting in the back of the arena. And then in the ring, Fatu missed a moonsault on L.A. Knight and L.A. Knight hit two of those elbows off the top. rope and got a two count and people were about to buy that there and then you see drew and priest in the back of the arena standing on an equipment box and priest choke slams drew and of course he goes with it the way he does it they go off the box through a table that was set up next to the box and it looked to me like Drew went past it and fucking landed a lot on the floor

but that took them out but no he definitely did it's not just you that saw that head first they have to get and I mean you would never even think in the course of figure to finish to a wrestling match okay you guys go fight out into the back of the arena get up on something about 10 or 12 feet in the air

and take a double bump off through table to the floor. And then we'll do the finish in the ring. You guys are fine. What the fuck? And so anyway, back in the ring, L.A. Knight and Fatu were fighting and went over the desk. And L.A. Knight was going to go for the elbow. But Solo pulled Jacob off the desk and L.A. Knight went to grab solo.

And that's where Jeff Cobb came in. Brian, they couldn't change that name. They wanted to change everybody's name and a history of wrestling. But a guy comes in to join the Samoans. We got Solo Sacoa. We got Jacob Fatu. We got Tamatanga.

We got Jeff Cobb. He says like Boomhauer's fucking neighbor on King of the Hill. maybe they're going to play into his actual background. Does anybody know what his actual background is? And so we're going to find out. And now because they use his real name, you'll be able to do a Google search. What is his actual background?

See, it's a mystery to me too. Well, see. He's so intriguing in this guy. Sounds like a star. Nobody's ever heard of him on this level. So you've got a chance to, you know, oh, we could have a cool Samoan name for this guy, Jeff Kopp. fucking out

maybe they'll give him a Samoan name they just had him come out and they the announcers didn't play stupid then why did the announcers say oh my god that's the hottest free agent in the world Jeff Cobb that sounds like that's the most flamboyant entertainer on Broadway Joe Smith he's getting brought into the bloodline

I guess the bloodline's a thing again and he'll be given an official name but what did you think of Jeff Cobb's debut what did you think of I think well he beat up LA night did he look very good doing that. And one night they used him better than Tony did all those times they brought him in and he would

do a job to someone or just appear randomly on AEW TV? One night. Well, yes. And Fatu looked surprised to see him and was not happy. And Fatu finally hit the moonsault one, two, three after Jeff Cobb had done damage.

That might be something. I mean, it will be something, but Jeff Cobb versus Jacob Fatu. I'm intrigued by that. But now the problem is Jeff Cobb is a little vertically challenged also. So they start getting shorter because Solo's not a giant and Jacob Fatu is not as big as he presents on television. So they all work well together. But then you get Jeff Cobb, they started to get smaller.

Pretty soon we're going to have to find fucking Cocoa Samoa again. Remember the original Saboo? That's right. He was only like five foot four, but he had Jimmy Snooka's body underneath it. Anyhow, that was the four-way match, Brian. What did you think? It was okay. I'm not a big fan of these multi-man matches, as I've said, dozens of times here on the show.

L.A. Knight's still super over, and they still want to do more with the Drew McIntyre or Damian Pre stuff. The spot where McIntyre hit the floor, you know, Triple H was asked about it to the post show scrum because you, you know, can't ignore it, it looked bad. And we've seen a few things recently. I saw a clip from T&A that someone sent me of a guy on top of a cage doing a super spinning whatever landing face first because no one caught him.

Oh, good Lord. On here, there was no one to catch you. There were crash pads and they overshot it. But, you know, I'm not crazy about that. Intrigued about the bloodline, seeing where they go here knowing that we say this Hicolayo is somewhere developmental. and now they got Jeff Cobb, so let's see where they go. Hicolaya, Hicolaya.

All righty. So next up for the women's championship of some description, one of those women's titles, it was Becky Lynch and Lyric Valedictorian. And I'm sorry, but she ain't going to get over. the name sucks the birds of prey outfit looks ridiculous she's tiny her facials are bland do you see her she doesn't she looks like underlying all of her expression she's nervous and distracted i don't know how to explain it other than that but between that the outfit the name No, but this ain't working.

I'm sure Becky and she are friends. That's why Becky's doing this. And, but it just, I don't think, are you seeing the fans care about lyric? No, and when she came out with the wings again, I couldn't believe it. I thought maybe that was a one-time WrestleMania thing. I didn't realize it was going to be

an every-time thing. And she starts flapping them. And my daughter, who seven was here, you would think maybe that's the audience. for a young woman who's an athlete flapping her wings who flaps her wings she said why is she flapping wings she said I don't know I really don't know

she seems like she's competent in the ring and Becky Lynch came back to work with her but I have not seen I've not seen anything that says she's going to break out I think she's just fine but I don't she's competent she's competent in the ring but she's just doing the stuff. There's no, they know oom-th.

And did you see Becky, when she was getting the heat on her, grabbed it, they were out on the floor, and she was taunting her, Becky was, in front of what I thought at first from the camera angle was lyric sister. And then they said it was her boyfriend. And then the angle switched around, and my God, I'm thinking, he better hope she gets fired

the next three weeks because with her in the WWE locker room and him looking like Tiny Tim's daughter, that relationship is doomed. I think they said fiancé. It's going to be a reverse Sammy Guevara. That's what it's going to be. Oh, look. The only way I knew the only way that I knew that when they said,

and he certainly, because it looked like her goddamn ugly sister. The fuck. Anyhow. I'm sure he has nothing to worry about. Nothing to worry about. After about 20 minutes of this, Becky tried to schoolgirl her and Lyric reversed it

and held her with one arm in some kind of something, one, two, three. And then Becky got back on her and got the arm bar and the officials had to pry her off. The end. I'm sorry to shortchange this classic confrontation, Brian, but that's all I got on now.

There's only so much to say. I mean, there's only so much to say. The match was just fine. Again, Becky Lynch came back. She wants to work with her. I just don't think anyone... I just think I'm not fully invested in Lyric Valid, whatever her name is. The name sucks. You were right. The name sucks. Having a bad name, you could push someone to the moon. The name sucks. And... To the moon, Lerick! After the last time she was... came out flapping her wings, no one said, you know, maybe drop that. Or is someone fucking with her? Is she friends with Terry Taylor?

Like, is it like, oh no, if she really showed some personality, she would really, you know, take flight. What is? Why the wings and why flapping them? It's so ridiculous. It was fine. I don't really care about this feud in the women's division right now, despite it being one of the main things they're pushing just because it seems like she's not in above her head, but just it doesn't feel like now's the time, I guess. Yeah, yeah, not ready for prime time.

But we are ready for the Intercontinental Title contest between Dominic Mysterio and Pinta. And now they're starting to cheer for Dominic. even though they still boo him when they're supposed to boo him because it's cool to boo him, but they like Dom now. They like everybody. These people are a kind and friendly bunch. And they did dueling chance for these guys.

And, you know, again, both guys worked hard. They laid their shit in. There was lots of lucha. But it wasn't the really insulting, overly choreographed type where they get lost. don't know what the fuck's going on. They, you know, they kept it to a minimum in that respect. And finally,

Penta does the Mexican destroyer on the apron of the ring. There ain't a lot of margin for error there either. And I don't know why everybody feels like it's necessary to do this shit on the apron. if the apron moves are the only thing that brought the people into the building, you've made a mistake in your promotion. But Carlito came out and drew the referee's attention,

and Finn and JD got on Pinta, but Finn waited. He's, oh, wait, wait, let me go get a chair, and he kind of dicked around to the referee caught him. And as the referee's trying to kick them out, Pinta, it was a cool little spot. the referee's bending over through the ropes and Penta runs from behind him and flips over the top of the referee and dives on the heels on the floor. And then as the referee is seeing that they scurry off, Pinta goes the top rope, but Gable comes out with the El Gulf of Mexico or whatever his fucking name is, the mask on and gives Pinta the loaded headbutt with his mask. and then Dominic gave him the splash off the top, one, two, three.

So, nice little match with about 16 people interfering, and the referee can't find his ass with both hands, one, two, three. Yeah, just fine. I don't even know what to say. I don't even know what to say. It was just, I'm not a big fan of the El Grande Americano style. Every match has something I'm not really crazy about. I like Dominic.

Dominic's really getting height on that frog splash now. it actually looks good but uh no live Morgan either apparently she's making a movie so there was no live Morgan oh really I'd like to get a copy of that is it a candid photography it will be a regular movie

from a studio or someone who wants to be one well we'll look forward to that all righty moving along to one of the feature events of the evening you know why I like this pay-per-view also Brian because it was less than three hours and only had five matches. Because if given a choice of five and a half hours and 13 matches

or three hours and five matches, I'll take the short one. But it was time for Gunther to tell that Pat McAfee a thing or two about wrestling and teach him a lesson and blah, blah, blah. and they gave the statistic this was McAfee's eighth match ever. Do you remember eight? I don't remember eight. We were talking the other day. Was it three or four?

He had the one at WrestleMania, right? Yeah. Right? Yeah, it was it him against Vince? What was the match at WrestleMania? He was involved in the thing somehow there. Was the actual match against Vince? No, no, that was.

It was the aftermath of him against someone else. So there were two matches technically. But that's when Austin came out too. Austin Theory? No. Steve Austin. Steve Austin, wasn't it? Well, that's one match at least.

There was the Adam Cole match. Well, nevertheless, he's had eight matches. Or this was his eighth match. He's had that now. That's what I was saying. I will not argue. But I don't remember that many. I accept your word.

And they did this right for the most part, almost all the way through. Gunther toyed with him. and he got the fans behind McAfee because he's embarrassing McAfee and he's toying with him and he's throwing him around or showing him what, you know, what he can do. And when McAfee would try to fight, Gunther would level him.

And again, Gunther was taking his time. He wasn't approaching it like, you know, he was desperate to beat this guy before something bad happened. And he was laying the kicks and chops in and chopping the shit out of McAfee. and whenever you know Pat would try to hulk up, Gunther would put him back down

and he'd play with him a little bit more. He started inviting coal in the ring. Why don't you get in here? And laughing at the fans. And then they had to give McAfee, as we mentioned when we talked about it beforehand, they had to give him some hope spot, not just beat the shit out of him and emasculate him.

and at one point McAfee escaped a German and kicked Gunther a few times, and then Gunther got up and dared him to chop him. Go ahead then, Ken, that's the way you're supposed to do it, like you had significant peon. And they traded a little bit, and Gunther staggered but didn't bump. He never threw almost the entire, you know, entirety of the match till the end never took an actual bump for McAfee. McAfee never knocked him down until the end.

And Gunther power bombed him and put the crab on him. And that's when Michael Cole got up from ringside and was trying to cheer him on. And McAfee tries to get the ropes, but Gunther pulls him away. And then he sees Cole and he goes over and he grabs Michael Cole and pulls him into the ring. and goes to power bomb Michael Cole and McAfee from the side saves Michael Cole and in Gunther Boots Boots Gunther Boots

McAfee down and McAfee got a little roll up there and I wrote right at that point because I'm taking notes too long now that's where they McAfee should have saved Cole and Goethe should have booted him down and fucking pinned him and then tried to go back to Cole for a second

and let McAfee come back from behind and distract him and then a bunch of people come out or whatever the fuck but they went too long because they were given Maccafell. It was a little too much even if the crowd liked it. Gunther went for a suplex, but Michael Cole did the fucking leg pull spot where McAfee came down on top and Michael Cole is holding the leg down like a heel manager. We got a two count.

And then McAfee got a sleeper. And Gunther escaped it and clotheslined him and sleepered him. And McAfee fought up, which he shouldn't have at that point. And back down and McAfee went out, the referee rang the bell. I think it should have been 12 minutes instead of 15. right as after McAfee saved Cole, they were burning daylight. I think he should have put him out of his misery right there. But I'm willing to be argued with.

I think it should have been eight instead of 12, but then again, they only had five matches there that filled this pay-per-view. Michael Cole was unbearable during this match on commentary. And then when he left, he did a good thing, made me realize, you know what? I'd be okay with Wade Barrett as a Lord Layton kind of solo announcer on these shows.

I'd be perfectly fine with that. Well, Michael Cole did apologize at the open of the match saying, I can't be impartial or good in any way. A micro example, but the way we were saying how the rock wasn't needed for the scene of turn on Cody and it only took away from everything, I don't think Michael Cole was needed for there to be an issue between Pat McAfee and Gunther. And I didn't like that part of the match, especially when Michael Cole started to get,

when Michael Cole's in the fucking ring. I didn't like that at all. It could have just been what it was a couple minutes shorter without the commentator being the focus of the thing. Well, yeah, and I don't even mind Gunther pulling Cole in and going to power bomb him and, you know, Pat saving him from the blind side. That's fine. But when you got Cole doing the leg pull and the old manager spots, it's too much. It's odd. It's out of place.

But nevertheless, Gunther rains. Supreme and and tipped his hat, gave a tip of the cap, if you will, to Pat McAfee on the way out. See, I didn't like that either. I think that's unnecessary. He's a heel. Shouldn't be doing that. Yes. Well, and also it's unnecessary that the announcer shouldn't really impress anybody with their

athletic prowess, even though he has played football. I know. But nevertheless, it was time, Brian, for the main event of the evening, for the world heavy, well, not even the world heavier. the WWE title, which is bigger than the world title, Randy Orton in his own hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, challenging for the title against 17-time champion John Sina, who we can't see anymore after another, what, 25 dates now, or is it 24?

And we knew going into this, just because everybody's smart in the whole world. that Randy wasn't going to win it this quick because they've got other fish to fry while this is going on. So we knew Orton there was going to be no title change and Orton was not going to win, but at least it's a pay-per-view worthy main event against two of the biggest names of the past 25 years. And it is somewhat of a box office attraction so I can see why they did it. and I wish it was like the old days where you thought that somebody might win at any point, but since we are all smart,

we knew that wasn't going to happen. But I'm just, there was a few things I'm wondering. And one of them is, God damn it, I'm thinking John Sina could have gotten a tan for this match, but it gets him more heat as a heel being that pale, doesn't it?

Well, let me stop you there, and obviously you're not knowledgeable, about this, and I just learned about it yesterday. There was an article in maybe people or something. John Cena battled skin cancer. Oh, geez. Which is why he's not tanning anymore. Well, what about the spray on shit? Let poison your kidneys or something? Oh, I don't know. I don't know. Because, I mean, I'm not like the AEW spray guy, where you look, you know, phony or like Godfrey Cambridge, but I'm talking like a professional job where he might have just a little color to him.

Have you seen what Hayman looks like? Have you seen what Hayman looks like? I don't know if there is a professional out there who could do that job right. Well, but now look what the canvas is to work with. Even if Hayman was a slim, slight, good-looking man, it wouldn't matter. It's the paint job I'm talking about. Well, no, see, they didn't bring enough to cover his whole gigantic. bucket-sized heads

and they had to dilute some of it with iodine. I didn't know where you were going to go and now I know where you were going. Yeah. But iodine, okay. Anyway, so the the WWE history has John Seat at 17 titles,

Flair at 16, and Orton and Triple Age tied at 14. And that's where we stand on that scoreboard. And I've got to admit this was bittersweet for me, because they were having a wrestling match. I mean, one of the first spots they did was that Sina the heel poked Orton in the eye. And then they did a spot which paid off

with Orton poking Sina in the eye, which got a huge pop. Rip Rogers would be proud. That's wrestling. And we're talking about guys that just have nearly paralyzed themselves. And these guys are getting a big pop in the main event of a fucking sold out building by poking each other in the eyes.

But that's rather. wrestling and they did headlocks and drop downs and leap frogs and shoulder tackles. And I say it's great to see that there are a wrestling match happening again after all the stuff we have to watch, but it's a shame that the only guys that still have wrestling matches are between 45 and 50 years old minimum. And I'm thinking what's going to happen when these guys are. gone and we can't see John already and nobody will be able to have a goddamn professional wrestling match because they're too worried about being in the next year's Olympics on the

gymnastics team. Sina took a walk and Orton chased him and brought him back and the fans got up for that. Orton gave Cina the 20 punches in the corner. The fans counted for it. I thought he was going to break out into the full garvin stomp, which one of the announcements is even called was it Wade Barrett, but he didn't go all the way around him.

But the fans were bat shit with Orton doing very little because they built it properly. And it's driving me crazy that Sina won't stop talking because he is no ventriloquist. He ain't even fucking Paul

Winchell. You can see Paul Winchell's lips flapping a mile away. And I think it's also kind of sad that Sina was trying, but Orton's work is way ahead still. It's faster. It's sharper. It's crisper.

And, you know, John was trying to keep up with him in that respect. But again, you know, the draping DDT when he hit that, the fans went crazy for Randy. And then they started doing the big yay boo exchange where they got the let's go Sina and Sina sucks chant out of of the out of the people and then orton hit the RKO out of nowhere both of them were down they just started building these things into the two counts or either the attitude adjustment or the RKO and then finally Orton went for an RKO and Sina shoved him into the referee Cita hit the attitude adjustment but there was no referee so Sina went and got the belt and Again, this is where the WWF takes over in them.

Instead of the referees down, I have a very limited amount of time to cheat. I need to rush and get away with this. Then time just stops. I already know the referee is going to lay down until I instruct him otherwise. I'm going to get the belt. It's the milk hour. And he gets the belt and comes in, but Orton RKO's him out of nowhere. And then suddenly the referee's up and he gets a two count.

Oh, shit. And then Orton clears off the desk at ringside, but Sina knocks him into the referee again. And posts Orton and Orton slips the AA again and AAs Sina on the desk. And it kind of, you know, boom. And then Orton pulls a table out and sets it up. And I wrote, even them, even them. so disappointing. And he

A.A. John threw the table at ringside and the referee had been down for minutes at this point. But the fans are chanting, this is awesome. So it's all showbiz these days. And Randy hit the RKO and covered him and a second referee came in and got a two count.

And then Cina went to hit Orton with the belt, but Orton ducked and Nailed the, Ercina nailed the referee, the second referee. And in Orton hit the RKO and covered him. Why? He just saw the referee go down. So the fans can count to 10. And then all the agents and Nick Aldous come into the ring and check on the referee.

We're 25 minutes into this fucking thing, right? and Orton gets up and he's pissed off that they're checking on a referee so to show his pissed off on this and also because he's about to get fuck so he's got to get something out of this he are K-Oed Aldus and all the agents in a row like what five or six of them boom boom boom and people love that and then Orton goes back to scene and he goes to punt him but here comes our truth who as we know is long but a John Sina supporter. And he's like, no, don't kick poor old John Sina. And Orton R. KOs Our Truth, who rolls out. And then Sina hits Orton into nuts and then hits him with the belt and then covered him. And the first referee who had been down for somewhere around a day and a half at that point, rolled in and counted one, two, three.

I thought they had a good match. I thought that it was over, overcomplicated at the end, and that was just stupid with our truth, but they, I'm, apparently want to get some kind of goddamn TV match out of this. Your thoughts, Brian. I, I like both these guys,

and I think Orton's work is still incredible. John slowed down a bit. but the finish was just cluttered up real, real bad to me. They were trying to give everybody a fucking out. The finish was cluttered up and it went a while. That all took a long time to go and you kind of said it without saying it. You say the WWE in them or whatever you said, the WWE comes out. This felt like Vince shit from 10 years ago.

That felt out of place. Yeah. Just too much and You know, I know I know Seena's not 35 years old and he's not used to wrestling a regular schedule or even a semi-regular schedule for a while You're not expecting him to go out there and have

Incredible highly physical matches We're probably going to get a lot of this kind of stuff around his matches To make them work, but I don't know, it was kind of a deflating ending to the show Just the way the ending went down, how long it took and you knew Randy wasn't going to win, but I don't know. There's no sense of urgency anymore when anybody's trying to cheat and get away with something.

And that makes the fans not, when you've got time in your mind, when they're constantly milking, oh, the guy's got the belt and he's drawn back, and he's waiting for the guy to stand up for some reason. I want to beat this guy, so he's down now, but I'll wait until he stands up and knocks him down again. but everything takes so long that yes they're teaching that and there is some element of truth to it you've got to milk it you can't just run off

and leave people or not make something picturesque to where that they see it and understand what happened in a big building they may have missed it but you've also got to keep moving from one thing to another because if people have too long to think about what they're looking at a lot of them are going to come up with the right idea.

Sometimes it's either he's going to hit him or he's going to duck, one of those two things. The more time they have to think about it and come up with their own conclusion, the less they pop when they turn out to be wrong or right because they knew it was going to happen. Some of the biggest pops in finishes like that come when shit's happening

bang, bang, bang, and it's shit you don't expect. Oh, shit, no, who. That's why I used to teach in OVW especially that each finish when we're calling something for everyone to do because however many people are involved in the match, including referees,

managers and anybody running in, you have to account for them when you give the finish, when you lay it out beforehand, everybody has to have something to do and a place to be to make it all come together. But the important thing is everybody doesn't do their shit all at the same time.

I used to tell them, okay, Spotlight is on you two people to do this, boom, but once that happens, that's when you two take over because, boom, you're going to do that, and that's when the referee and the manager are going to do this and the spotlight goes boom, boom, boom, because you don't want it all to happen at the same time, people are miss it, but you don't want it to take for fucking ever

like this is where everybody's already calling it ahead of time. There needs to be a happy medium. Anyway, well, that was the main event, Randy Orton versus John Cena, and just recently WWE uploaded to the Vault channel, them against each other in OVW. We may have to do a watch along of that. Everyone's begging for one.

One that you actually critiqued in the past. Just not on camera or on audio. Yes. But Jim, you know, John Sina, Randy Orton, one thing that they learned how to do an OVW and it has helped them well throughout their career is learn to sell. But not everyone knows how to sell. And in fact, mom and pop businessman all throughout the United States and beyond. But let's focus on a mom and pop businessman.

That's right. It's a new era and mainstream. is a whole new thing, but the point is, everyone needs an online presence for their store. Everyone needs to sell, and here's the man to sell you on everything I just set them up for, Mr. Jim Cornett. I don't know what you're talking about now, Brian, but I'll tell you what we were talking about earlier was people that want to be things that they're not, or things that they're not capable of being, like Jelly Nutella wants to be a pro wrestler.

Well, sometimes when you're a kid, you want to be a pro wrestler. to be an astronaut or you want to be a princess or you want to be the president of the united states i guess that's the bar is fairly low there these days but when you grow up brian as they used to say you put away the childish things and you focus more on realistic goals instead of being a princess or a double not spy instead of going into outer space or owning your own castle you want to own your own business. You want to run your own little empire and make money, make profit,

be a capitalist so that you can provide for your family and potentially pay child support later on. The wife leaves you and takes the little cretons. But you're still on the hook for it? Let's focus on the good times for this. For the good times. But when you've got your own business, it's a dream that lots of people share,

but you know what you're going to need, Brian? You're going to need a website. You're going to need a payment system. You're going to need a logo. You're going to need a way to advertise to new customers. It can be overwhelming. It can be confusing. But thankfully, you have friends.

You have the people at Shopify. At Shopify, they're going to sit down on your side and they're going to give you that right in the ribs. Say, hey, we can make you some money, kid. You just listen to us. and you're going to be farting through silk. And what if you can't design a website? Shopify's got you from the get-go.

Why, they will make you a website that's so delicious, you will slap your mother. And what if you need a hand? Metaphorically speaking. Well, yes. And what if you can slap her forehand or backhand, whatever kind of? What if you need a hand with everyday tasks,

everyday tasks like like speaking, speaking, speaking English and enhancing product images and writing product descriptions. Hey, that thing sucks. Stuff like that. Or generating discount codes. What about if people haven't heard about your brand, Brian? You might say, how do I get the word out there?

Well, Shopify helps with easy to run email and social media campaigns. You just give them your entire address, book and they will go through it. And they will call everybody you know on the phone and they will say, hey, no. Joe over here is in business. And if you know what's good for you, you're going to support emailswise. We're going to call you every goddamn day.

Shopify will not be making any phone calls. You won't be getting any phone bills for calls made on your behalf. Shopify will be there so that you can put your store online and sell your products without any problems or any people causing problems every time they speak about this wonderful product. Yes, no, there won't be any phone bills. don't charge for long distance anymore, Brian, but the Shopify phone bank team will be harassing your customers daily

until they spend money. No, they won't. No, there will be no harassment on behalf of the fine people at Shopify or on the behalf of mom and pop businessman all across America. Yeah, and speaking at mom and pop businessman, Shopify has the birth records and they know who everybody's mother is and everybody's father is. Oh, my God. No, they do not. Where do they hold that out of them? No, they don't. Well, because that's the way

that they can go to mom and pop with all these products that you make, that you sell, that they want to help you sell, and they can go to mom and pop, they say, we know where your kids are. So you just buy this stuff. Mom and pop, have nothing to worry about. The kids are safe. And so is, as a matter of fact,

so is their product. The FBI, the FBI got a phone call on tape. The only sound they could determine was a screaming child. But nevertheless, Nevertheless, never the truth. Never the truth. None of that was true, ladies and gentlemen. What we want to tell you about is the truth, which is that Shopify is there for you.

You have your products. You need to sell them. You need them in the biggest online resource and storefront. And here's Jim Cornice. Yes. And you can turn your dreams into reality and give yourself the best shot at success with Shopify. By signing up for your. $1 a month trial period and start selling today at Shopify.com slash JCE.

Shopify.com slash JCE a $1 a month trial period where you will be put on trial and you will be cross-examined and if they determine that you are a quality person that can join their team, then they will make you money. But just watch it. Don't admit to certain things and the age of consent. is no. This has nothing to do with Shopify, but once again, Shopify is there for you.

Shopify. One dollar a month. How much cheaper can it be? It's like Shopify magic. But one more time, Jim, how can the listeners? Yes. Use what we use because they power our store, Arcadiavanguard.com and the fine drive-through t-shirts.

Yes, they will design your website. They'll market your products. They'll write descriptions. They'll take your money. And they'll take all of the money. No, they go. And then they'll give it to people. No.

No. They will take their share when the time is right. They will take the money from, they'll take your money, a dollar a month. And then they'll take the money from the other people they're selling stuff to. And then some of it will come back to you. Well, some of it being. But they will do this all for a dollar a month. Once again, we use them for us. How do you know what the exact amount is?

If they round off to the closest dollar, I don't think anybody's going to be upset. Round off. If this keeps going, I'm going to drink some round up. Listen, ladies and gentlemen, we're trying to let you know. The store is there for you. Yes. Yes. A dollar a month trial period, they'll show you all this great stuff.

They'll show you all their shit for only a dollar. That's why they wear raincoats. Shopify.com slash J-C-E. Well, there it is that Shopify jingle that you've all come to know and love here on the show. Jim, before we finish with Backlifle. and move on to, again, I didn't watch, I can't, I just can't. But Backlash, the show didn't end with the show or the event didn't end with the end of the pay-per-view portion, which is never ending.

It's just the content rolls right into the next thing. There was the post-show, and there was the media scrum, and I guess part of what happened in the main event continued to play out in a very interesting scene in the media scrum. Have you seen this? Well, yes, I didn't watch the entire scrummy scrum, but I did see the main event portion, I guess, of it. Because Triple H is sitting there, and he's talking,

and suddenly John Cena comes out and stage whispers, I'd like to have a word. Okay, well, I didn't know this was happening, Triple H says, but let's let the goat have his say. and the Cina sits down and he starts talking for a minute, and then suddenly you hear, oh, wait, where's John? Where's John? And our truth comes in.

And he's like, John, John, I can't even remember what he said. I'm just like, oh, my God, I can't believe they're going to do this. But he's always been the John Cena fan. And he didn't want to leave it like that, that, you know, they had a miscommunication or whatever. and Ceda picks him up and gives him the attitude adjustment through the desk that they're sitting at. But it's in a press conference atmosphere, and I guess they didn't tell everybody this was going to happen, and nobody knows whether to cheer or boo or say boo to a goose, as Adrian Street would say.

So everybody in the room sits there in complete silence. So the guy goes through the tape. and it's like somebody just did it in a library. And it, Brian, help me describe how odd is it when somebody... It was awkward. Oh, it was awkward.

Pick somebody up and throws them through a table and nobody makes a sound in the room. Well, I guess the first question is, do you think that they anticipated everyone been like, oh, do you think they anticipated like everyone

jumping out of their seats? What do you think they thought was going to happen? I don't, I don't think they thought about it. I think, oh, it'll be cool. of yeah if our truth comes out and Cina picks him up and gives him the A.A. through the desk and they're building up a match to give John a night off a personal appearance in tights, but nobody knew what to do. So they just sat there. And people come running in to check on him as

he, as Cina walks off and Our Truth is laying there. It's just complete dead silence. It was just very odd. It's hard having a backstage fight or a fight with no people there because there's no feedback and no, you know, crowd noise. But in this case, it was the oddest thing I've ever seen because there were people there and there was still no crowd noise. So it was, it was odd, off-putting, possibly. It would have been nice if like Bill Apter or Keith Elliott Greenberg did a run in and tried to save our truth. Just something to make it a little more believable. Wally Yamaguchi.

Who was it? Jimmy Suzuki, Eddie Gilbert made bleed on TV. Yes. Something happened there. What do you think of the idea they're doing this in the last year of Sina with limited dates? In a way, the end of a long-time sub-story line of some sort of this weird friendship slash idolization of Sina?

by our truth. What do you think of them doing it? And we'll see where it is. Did they announce where it's going to be? Is it going to be Saturday night's main event? I would think it's going to be Saturday night's main event. But that's the thing. It's an easy match for John Cina to have.

They can advertise him wrestling. There's some type of story behind it. Our truth is going to take good care of him. So I'm not even opposed to them having that match because they can't all be 25-minute main events, you know, in his last year, but the, just the A-A

through the fucking desk and the silent room was just odd. It just, it was very strange. What do you think they were thinking, too, like all the media people, like, oh, okay, they're doing one of these things here. Well, but now, what kind of media people, was it all website people like it would be at one of

Tony's AEW scrums, or was it legitimate reporters? of some description? It didn't sound like the usual suspects to me. They had a few people ask Triple H some stuff that I saw on the pre-show, but at no point did I go, oh, I recognize that name.

None of them. I didn't know who they were. Well, a lot of unrecognizable names were there, and that's why they didn't know how to react. Well, there it is. That's the end of Saturday. And, of course, on Monday, Jim, as has happened every Monday,

seemingly forever and ever and ever WWE Raw a show that goes on forever and ever and ever aired on the USA Network and uh... No it didn't. No it didn't. It's on Netflix. See, I don't even... The other ones on, yeah, yeah, we don't care. I watched the first segment because that was

all the people needed to know. They were in Louisville at the KFC YUM Center. Boy, we used to have the cool arena Freedom Hall and that's the YUM Center. But they did a package on last week with Paul Heyman and Seth and Bronbreaker and Jay Uso and Sammy and Punk.

And, you know, set up that story that is being told now. And then they'd had the walk-ins and suddenly they go to the back and like a Mussolini in Kentucky. Out he comes. C.M. Punk is back in Louisville, back home. You know what, Brian? I didn't know anything about the ticket sales beforehand.

I remembered they were coming to town. I was obviously not moved to tears by that, but it ain't like the old days here in Louisville because they're drawn some big crowds. 17,000 in St. Louis or whatever, they only had 10,000 or so in the Yom Center. It seats 22,000. And this at Lexington and Louisville,

in the attitude era, I think we sold Freedom Hall out twice and Rupp Arena once. So things have not come back everywhere. Rupperinas, how many seats? Ruper, well, it was sold off for a pay-per-view. They did 20-some, 21, 22, thousand people there. Wow.

I mean, you know, if you had a regular wrestling set up and no television, you could get 24,000 fucking people or 25 for wrestling and ruff. But it wasn't that big. Still, point being, and remember, that's when Triple H had to get juice and did it right in front of the fucking commission, even though it was against state law, and they didn't do another fucking television or pay-per-view in the state of Kentucky for 15 years because Tim Gonderman wanted to have their license pulled but they just ended up finding them like $20,000 or something. Anyway, point being, here came punk to the ring and he's pissed

off about everything, but he's most pissed off at himself because Heyman stabbed him in the back. He did it before, but twice is on me. I thought we had all matured and moved past that, but Paul's a fat little snake, and Seth Rollins is the T.M. C.M. Punk said he wanted to get his hands on Paul and squeeze him till his eyes pop out. And then Haman appeared. And Pug said, oh, come on, Penguin, get in the ring. Come in here and explain why you did what you did, and remember, when you choose those words, they will be your last. And in Seth's music play, and Seth and Bronn came out and that got the big CM Punk chance going

and Seth took up for Paul and said that punk's the problem and he's the reason that Seth is not champion and punk said as long as I'm on two feet you'll never be champion but Seth went on for a little while and then sent Braun to the ring and Braun got on punk

but punk fought back and tackle Seth and Braun got on Punk again and Sammy came in and Braun stopped Sammy, but Paul gave Seth a chair, but Jay Huso came in, but they stopped him, but then Punk and Sammy got their own chairs and the heels bailed out. And they set up a tag match for Saturday nights made of it. And it's like we talk for 10 minutes, we're going to jump in the ring, a little dust up, make a match, get the fuck out of here. And it worked. And it's going to be punk and Sammy against Seth and Braun

at Saturday night's main event on May 24th, which by the way is the night before the pay-per-view event by the Children's Wrestling League. And it's going to be a busy weekend. And I know a lot of, let me just say this, a lot of people are going to say, oh, the WWE is obviously persecuting AEW. I don't think that the that the WWE has that much control over NBC television's network schedule.

Do you? Not now, no. So, Mama says it bees that way sometimes. But anyhow, we'll see what happens, but that was all of WWE Raw that I watched. Do you think Sammy's going to turn on CM Punk?

No. I really don't believe that it would be in Sammy Zane's best interest as over as he's gotten and as popular as he is for being the pacifist and the baby face who sees the good and everybody, I don't think he needs to stab anybody in the back anymore. All right, so it'll be a big boring tag team match at Saturday night's main event in whenever, a few weeks.

That was raw, ladies and gentlemen. You're just demoralized by this. You know what? I've just stopped enjoying their program. It started shortly before mania. You know, everyone points to the rock, but it wasn't just the rock. You know, it wasn't just the lateness in WrestleMania this year on the calendar. Something's felt off booking-wise or lazy booking-wise.

Now, look, maybe part of it is, you know, when you think of the WWF in the early 80, the WWF that Paul Vec would have seen as a kid. They really gave you very little. Yeah. And everything took forever to happen. Maybe this is part of that. Because look, they're giving everyone enough to make the money they want to make. They just had another, you know, quarterly profit announcement and it was through the roof.

They're making so much money. And they're giving people less and less. More commercials on the pay-per-view? There's advertising everywhere. The fucking mad at Morgan and Morgan in the middle of the fucking ring. It's just over-monetization. And again, you want to make money with every angle of it. And someone's going to go, well, you try to make money.

money, yeah, there's a little bit of a difference. They've got a sponsor for every sponsor. This is the Snickers match, brought to you by Towellette. They're just all sorts of shit. Cody's doing really bad acting in his commercials for Wheatley Vodka,

which is a commercial in the middle of the pay-per-view. He can talk about vodka, but he can't come back to get even with everybody's kicked him into balls. And Cody, they took a lot of steam off Cody. Everything with the Rock, the Sina stuff, the match, the things that he did as a baby face in 2025

Roman Raines is like in and out I guess he's out of it he was just something in Vanity Fair they did a big article about him and his acting I don't know just I thought this was going to be like a big boom year and it feels like they've got the elements for a boom but they don't got the

I mean they've got big interest but there's not like anything that's really just hot right now or am I wrong argue with me No. No, I'm actually, I can't find anything to argue with it. I'm looking. I'm hot right now having to watch this shit. All right.

You heard it here first. Less reviews. If there's good shit, we'll watch it. Otherwise, we'll watch plenty of bad shit somewhere. Or we'll just talk about some stupid people. All right. Well, Jim, that was raw. And let's stay on the topic of people.

People being people. They're the luckiest people in the world. Jim. Several listeners have sent this over to me. Hulk Hogan did an interview with Ariel Hohani. According to the split screen here, Eric Bischoff was there too, obviously promoting their brand new. I don't even know if it's theirs, actually. Apparently, it's the guy who put up the money for the Rick Flair drink and the Hulk Hogan. Like, it's a guy who puts up money for all sorts of, like, old wrestlers to have branding on projects. This is his thing. And here's Hulk Hogan, play this audio, why he thinks fans are booing him.

It's been a big story. He started getting booed a while back, but it really blew up after that Raw in Los Angeles. Yeah. Let's hear some audio here and get your thoughts on this. I think you're in a real interesting point in your life and career, because I think that there's a sector of people who were with you in the 80s, who ride it with you, who will always ride with you and always support you. And obviously, there are some fans who don't feel that same way anymore, who have turned against you. and we see you at Raw and they boo you when you come out. But then there are other fans who want to support your beer,

whatever product that you're attached to. How do you feel, without beating around the bush, how do you feel about your relationship with the public right now, your relationship with the people, especially coming off the last time we saw you on a major stage, was that Netflix show back in January at the Intuit Dome? Well, you know, they're still nipping at my heels. You know, I can go out there and get booed as the last time I was in L.A.,

I was Hollywood Hogan with a black beard and doing the... Actually, it paused there as a buffer, but that was a good point to stop it. Was he Hollywood Hogan in Los Angeles? No. He was... No, he came out with Jimmy Hart waving the fucking flag. That's right. That's right.

Dressed in his golden red attire and trying to be a real American, and they were booing a shit out of him. He's trying to claim that he has the people. in the palm of his hand where he can be a bad guy. He's doing like the rock shit. I can go out and be a bad guy and they'll boo me and I can go out and be a good guy and they'll cheer me because I'm controlling this rather than, no, I've been so full of shit for so long and done and said so many stupid things in

public and on tape that a lot of the people don't like me anymore. He can't say that, so he's got to act like he's in charge. of it. Well, let's go back to the holkster. Talking to Ariel Hawani on the Ariel Hawani show. Especially coming up the last time we saw you on a major stage, was that Netflix show back into a dome. Well, you know, they're still nipping at my heels. You know, I can go out there and get booed as just the last time I was in L.A. I was Hollywood over and with a black beard and doing the bad guy thing. I can go out there and get booed in L.A. or the Rock can get booed in LA or John Cena gets booed in LA. But when I get booed, there's a whole different reaction

media-wise. For some reason, I've laid some type of groundwork that people are still interested. For some reason. For some reason, I've laid some kind of groundwork. Yes, you get booed more than the Rock and John Cena because the people legitimately don't like you. They are booing the Rock because they're kind of pissed at him for screwing up their WrestleMania and they're booing John Cena because they know it's a work but with Hogan they're booing him to say you are full of shit please stop lying out your ass we are tired of you is what I'm doing I just now he's got to I've laid this groundwork where

I've done so many stupid and offensive things that it's really working out for me now Well, you know, I keep thinking about what Shelton referenced the other day in the tweet back about how Hogan should stop mentioning his name. When he had to apologize at a locker room for being caught on tape, it wasn't just that he said the N-word. It was that like, I think the conversation was like, we're all racist. Like, it was just like some kind of crazy declaration. Usually people don't just declare themselves to be racist. He did. And then his apology to the locker room was like, don't get caught.

Don't be careful what you do. You're all public figures. You've got to be careful what you're. you do because there's somebody waiting out there with a recorder. What's it doing? Well, let's go back to the hulkster here. And so for those that are on the team and are riding with a train to the station, that's great.

For those that are the haters and still have a problem with me, you know, there's nothing I can do to fix that, except, you know, just keep proving by my actions that, you know, I'm still in the game. I'm still pushing hard. You know, I took a lot of time off because I had like 25 surgeries. And I was down for a long time. And, you know, I've always loved the hunt. I've always loved to get back in the game.

But it's always been that way with me because my whole career, I had that top spot, no matter what it was, even through the 80s. It was the fastest draw. Let me stop for a second. Are the people booing him because they're jealous of his spot? Yes, he goes, I've always been on top, even in the 80s. And he's got to go back. And again, you know, it's always been.

I'm the greatest. And he's just so full of it. He's just so... I mean, everybody has a big ego if you're a star, but you don't have to just slap people in the face with it constantly about how it's all me and I did this and I was going to be in Metallica and I was going to be George Foreman and I was going to be this. And that it's just too much.

Well, let's go back. We have more from the Hulkster. You know, during the 80s, it was just a situation where everybody was knocking me. everybody was trying to knock me off that top spot. I'll trade that for not being on the bottom of the card, if you know what I'm saying, or being on the bottom of the pile of life. So for me,

it's just part of the territory. I mean, it's kind of like, you know, when you get booed and then you get 3.2 billion engagements all of a sudden, you know, and then you rock that whole world in L.A.

with how much interaction there was on the internet. I'll take it. Okay, so actually. Let me stop for a second. The interaction was Hulk Hogan's a racist liar. I want him off my TV. That was the reaction from people. I'll take it.

3.2 billion people said that. Well, but to be fair, they asked a couple people twice. Well, there's a little more here. Let's stop for a second. He takes accountability for nothing he's ever done. Well, and that was the problem with the apology speech for the WWF locker room that was supposed to be an apology speech and was instead, hey, guys, you know, don't get caught.

you know, I know I'm a big star and all the attention was on me but it can happen to you too. They didn't like that apology. They were expecting to hear something like, you know, I'm sorry I use that language. I know some of you were uncomfortable

or something like that. Could have said anything. Could have said anything other than don't get caught. Make sure your best friend isn't filming you when you fuck his wife. That's the thing I really want you all walking out of here thinking about. Let's go back to this.

And by the way, and if that does happen and who doesn't find themselves in that position every once in a while, don't make racist comments on the tape. How was Hulk Hogan? Was he good with Pillow Talk? Oh, he was putting down every single fucking race and gender there is. He hates the Italians. Let's go back to Hulk Hogan talking to Ariel Hohani on the Ariel Hohani show. After that, you didn't view that as some sort of like indictment on the state of your career, how people feel about you. you felt like they were just booing the character? No, no, no, all the above.

All the above. You know, there are certain people that, you know, boo the character. There are certain WWU superstars that had an opinion and they had advice for me. But I would like to ask those same guys when I go to New York or Chicago and the people cheer, you know, out of the rooftops. You know, I would like to know what their advice is then and what their opinion is. So it's a double-edged sword with me. And it's always been at least part of the character. as part of, you know, me personally,

as part of my professional life, as part of my personal life. Let me stop it for a second. What the fuck is he talking about? I don't know. I don't know. I was hoping I'd find out. It's all the above.

I mean, and at the end of the day, I'm just like an old scarred up seal with a bunch of scars on me. And I'm really relatable to most normal people because a lot of people have been through the other stuff I have professionally. A lot of people have made the same, not the same mistakes, but personally made mistakes.

And I'm still relatable to so many people. If they boo me, fine. If they're on the team lead, that's great too. So not hating on anybody, brother. I'm just, I'm still here. I'm still moving forward. And it's kind of like the old Rafi move. It depends on how hard you can get hit, get back up and keep moving forward.

And, brother, I'm always leaning into the wind. Well, that's the end of that. Let me just encourage Hulk Hogan. I agree. You've got to lean into it. Make more appearances. You mentioned New York at Chicago. Hit those markets next.

Yes. They seem to be big fans of yours. I would love to see the live reaction in New York and Chicago and then maybe do a southwest swing. But Jim, on the topic of Hulk Hogan, I have to hit you with this. This was posted the other day. Where is the actual quote from? Okay, apparently it's a 2009 interview

that was just recently uncovered by Essie Scoops. Hulk Hogan claimed that following Vince McMahon's purchase of the WWF from his father in 1982, Hulk Hogan played a crucial role in educating Vince McMahon about the business. I moved in next door to him in Connecticut and taught him all about lifting weights and riding motorcycles and partying like a madman. Oh, good Lord. And then I taught him about the wrestling business and making money. What are your thoughts, Jim, on the idea that Hulk Hogan taught Vince McMahon how to... to make money or how to learn how to make money, whatever the hell he said.

Or taught him anything about the wrestling business or taught him how to with the ride motorcycles and, well, for one thing, no, Hulk Hogan didn't live next door to Vince in Connecticut because you would have heard if Hulk Hogan had one of those giant fucking mansions in Connecticut and Vince's neighborhood. I believe when he did come to work there in 84, Vince did have him I don't know where exactly the house was in Greenwich. It's always been said they were neighbors. Did he put him down in fucking Shane's house, the servants quarters?

Oh, I don't know. I don't know where. Vince had a, actually, it was a garage with like an apartment business over the top of it in a detached building down the hill from his big mansion. And when Shane and Marissa got married, he spent a couple of hundred thousand and had it renovated into a nice house and gave it to him. But it hadn't been renovated at the point. Hogan first went up there.

You think he fucking just stuck him into servants quarters? When did he have that house? Well, I was there in, I started going in 96 on the creative team, but I was at that house, I think, in 94 at one point. But that's 10 years after. It could have been a different house. Could have been. nevertheless, even if he did live next door to him,

everything else he said was bullshit. Vince had already been in the business for 15 fucking years with his dad. When Hogan began the Hocomania fucking run or whatever, and I think Vince was, Hogan had been in the business five years, Vince 15. Vince was a millionaire, the owner of the company, and Hogan was a, Rising Star. I don't know who was teaching who, what.

Well, that is the Hulk Hogan update here this week, fans. Fans of Hulk Hogan News. Seriously, if he thinks this is good for him, make more appearances, please. Will they even put him on the air if he wanted to right now? I don't know. I don't know whether it would be beneficial to anybody or not to put him on the air right now. And what had taught him about lifting weights Hasn't Vince always been jacked up

Even when in late 70s When he was wearing the multicolored announcer suits I guess what Hulk Hogan would want you to believe Is that Vince McMahon saw superstar Billy Graham And then said I'll wait And then for the next six years He didn't lift weights

And then Hulk Hogan moved in He's like riding motorcycles and shitting him heads And fucking lifted weights just craziness and Greenwich. If you've ever been to Greenwich, you know that really is crazy. But all right, that's the update on something there. Jim, yes. I believe you have an email that contains

FCW Florida Championship Wrestling Talent Reports. These hit the internet the other day. Profiles of several wrestlers that were in developmental at that time. with comments from the trainers. Yes, and, and boy, they got fancy. Because I was used to the ones they just sent down, you know, typed out, whatever. But this has pictures and graphics and apparently the times that they've been in the ring and the times they've done promos or whatever and their stats, birthday,

the day they turn pro, whatever the case. this is quite fancy. Indeed, I assume it is. I don't have the previous version here, but what do you think of some of these, because you know these trainers, obviously, Steve Kern, Gerald Briscoe, Tom Pritchard, Dusty Roads, Ricky Steamboat.

Yeah. Am I forgetting anyone? Norman Smiley is on here. I don't know him, but I know everybody else. I've got a kick out of a few of these. there's Evan Bourne who is Matt Seidel, right? That is correct. In his younger days, what year would this be from?

This has to be, what, at least 15 years old? Well, Nemet is there. When did you have Nemethe and OVW? Well, that's what I was going to say. Just about Matt Seidel, there's nothing really, no comments from Tom. Dusty says ECW, good for him. Apparently he went to work for ECW.

I don't know. But Nick Nemath was here in OVW in 2004 and 2005, as I recall, and maybe even just part of 2005. But it has in his injury history, April 8th, he had his right, or April of 08, rather, 2008, he had his right elbow drain. So this is probably 2009-ish, 10-ish, something like that. But nevertheless, Gerald Briscoe comments about Nick Nemith. This guy's ready.

We're wasting time with Nick at FCW. Great bumps. Look, work, great moves, sell and can wrestle. Move up. Tom Pritchard, after being in the system 34 months. So if he started in OVW late 2004, this is somewhere around, well, he was in a system longer. Did we get him before they signed him, though?

Did he come from one of our tryouts camps? We may have had him before they signed him. I don't know. Anyway, Tom Pritchard feels we have to feel it's time to find a place for Nick somewhere on the roster. He can be an asset to any brand. He's ready as he's going to be. Steamboat said he's ready. He could tell right away he was the captain in the ring.

Does everything well. Dusty's comments, ready. That must be frustrating though, when all the, and this isn't exclusive to Nick Nemith here in this one situation, it's other talent author at the years, everyone's saying this guy's ready, this guy's ready, they don't see it the same way. It's frustrating.

That's what we say, he's ready, go. Well, the creative doesn't have anything for him. The fire the fucking riders. What the fuck? That was constant. And I've made the joke, but it was true. It was just funny that JR one time said, rank the guys from number one through number 21

because we had 21 of them. And in what terms of what order they're ready to come up. And they brought up 18, 19, and 21. They skipped over 20 because he was fucking hurt. And it was, and Bruce Pritchard would normally, he knew all the guys that they, Laurenitis and those Yehus really wanted to succeed, the Sean O'Hare's and the Gendracks

and the guys that we didn't think were any good. So he'd find ways to compliment them and find something else to pick at about the guys that we said were ready and we're model employees and ready to go. Seamus is on here. And again, his injury history, March of 2000,

strained right something and twisted left ankle. Gerald Briscoe, like look and good promo, white skin. Steve Kern comments, Seamus is really trying hard to understand storytelling and matches, but he still needs experience to become more season. Tom Pritchard, progressing well, has the passion and dedication, needs more ring work. Dusty was high on him.

I don't, you know, I'm not understanding what the graphics are at the top when it says ring April 7, May 7 June 7. Promo, April 7. Is that a numerical ranking? I guess it is. Yeah, I guess it's a grade. T.J. Wilson got a 10 in attitude. Well, so does Seamus, actually.

So to Seamus. So to Nick Neith. Everyone just has a good attitude. Well, Evan Bourne only got an 8 in June. He was getting a bad attitude. Yeah, maybe that explains Dr. Tom Pritchard's comment. None. Yeah.

Dusty's comment, good for him. Yeah, I guess he went to work for ECW. Steve Kern comments, Matt has already appeared for ECW. Yeah, good for him. T.J. Wilson, everybody was kind of how on him. He must have been high to get that haircut. What the hell is that? Yeah, that's not real attractive.

active. The Bella twins, Nicole and Brianna Garcia Kalachi. I feel like people should goddamn stick to a fucking name. What is it with the hyphenated, pick a name. No hyphens. Especially when your first names are already multicyllabic. I like the injury history. Nicole, February 8th, strep throat. Strep throat, Briana, sinus infection. From India. From India. Wouldn't that when Steve Regal they sent, or William Regal, they sent him to Indian and it almost killed him, didn't it? Wasn't that where he got that horrible disease?

Gerald Briscoe comments, Twins work well and ring his partners, have moves that work as a team, can move up, seem to have a heel attitude. Steve Kern comments, we feel they are both ready. Tom Pritchard,

They're getting better each outing and do well in any situation on the card or any brand. Dusty, their improvements have been very evident. So they must have known that somebody in the office wanted these fucking girls to go up. Because how could they all get this many raves and then turn out to do what they did? Well, the other thing is you have to remember where we are now versus where we are then, where we were then. How many other women were there? how many women were on the main roster who couldn't work? It was still the divas era.

And they were part of that, but they actually went through developmental as opposed to, you know, you win the diva contest. Now here's a walk out to walk idiot walk by the hives. That was the theme song for one of the diva winners. Walk idiot walk. But anyway, that's the bell is, what did you think of cult cabana? Well, hold on, Drew McIntyre. We got a, he got eights in the ring.

Eights and a nine on promo, tens on attitude, had no injury history. And Kern commented, doing a tremendous job as half the tag team champions. We've tried Drew in singles. He seems to have more of a problem telling a story by himself. But we feel strong that Drew will be an asset, look forward to educating him. Tom Pritchard said, Drew is progressing fine, has good size, finding his confidence, has become a good worker, has a lot of promise. Dusty. Drew continues to impress, but in my opinion is not ready at this point in time.

Steamboat, you could tell that his attitude in the ring has completely changed from when he was sent up a while back. So areas for improvement, experience and continue within ring confidence and relax. But boy, he looks different back then. He doesn't look good as a young guy. He looks better as a grizzled veteran. The facial hair adds so much. But anyway, let's get to Colcabana because, yes, this fucking clown was actually in developmental at this point in time.

And how long had he been in the business at this? We don't know what year of this somewhere around 2008, 2009. He'd been in the business 10 years at this point. and let's see uh steve kern colt is pretty settled in his ways i don't foresee him making any changes in his work or body it is what it is and if there's a place for him with this character he's ready that's the best honest review there well tom pritchard comments colt has a combination of styles that are similar to a regal and Finley because that's what he was trying to do

in their system was do he Colt did study world of sport wrestling and was very good at that and we actually on Ring of Honor shows booked him a couple times against one Dave Taylor and somebody else one time that could do that

and when he was serious and did that you know it was okay but he couldn't stop being the unfunny unfunny face making an unfunny joke telling, unfunny match-haven comedian. And it just, you couldn't put him in the ring with anybody that you cared about wanting to use seriously because he would funny him up.

And then people would be laughing at him. But Tom says he has got away from a lot of the hokeyness at the same time keeping some of his entertainment factor, needs to work on his body and lose the baby fat around the waist. but I think this guy could have some entertaining and competitive matches. He needs to combine enough showboat with wrestling, which I think he can do. Dusty, Colt is charismatic and exciting, but most brands have seen him, so in order to move forward with Colt, we must have some direction.

And otherwise, we keep sending him to all these dark matches. Tell us what you want us to do different with him because... Oh, is that what that means? Yeah, most brands have seen him. He had done a dark match probably on each show they had split by then, Raw and Smackdown. In order to move forward with cold, give us some direction. If you don't like what we're sending you,

what do you want this fucking guy to do? But yeah, area for improvement, this month's initiative, getting better shape and continue to find his niche. He's still looking. Oh, and Tiffany, old Taryn Terrell. Apparently she got fives across the board on ring and promo. Well, no, she got a six for June for promo. Oh, okay, for promo.

Dusty's comments, work in progress. Do you know her? No, but God damn, that's the lowest score that anybody got on these fucking little grades here that slipped out. We didn't give people, again, numerical scores and shit when I was getting these are doing these. I got to get in the files and dig up some of the OVW stuff.

And there was never anything particularly helpful that came from the office on feedback, but we would try to encapsulate the talent to send to the office. This guy's better baby face or a better heal. This guy's in rotten shape, but he's entertaining. This guy's in great shape, can't stick his thumb

in his ass. Whatever the case. We would try to give them a description instead of put a numerical value to anything or and we figured we didn't need to put pictures on the sheet because they signed them so they knew what they looked like. So who would this have been going to, John Laurenitis's office? Yeah, well, yeah, it would have been Laurenitis then, whoever was in talent relations, or if Laurenitis, because see, that's the thing.

A lot of times, especially when Laurenitis first took over talent relations, he didn't want to sit down and watch the OVW TV. so they would make somebody in the office do it. One time they were punishing Bruce, they made him do it. But most of the time, for the first few years, nobody up there even said. Kevin Kelly watched the TV every week because he wanted to see it. But none of the actual goddamn office people ever watched the TV

because it was a wrestling show. They were going to watch that for goddamn entertainment. And that's why they, you know, they had to redo everybody when they got there because they were making up all the bullshit entertainment gimmicks for them instead of concentrating on what kind of talent they had and what they could do. So it was, yeah, keep track of the developmental talent.

Well, fuck, let somebody else do that. We're too busy trying to pretend to be writers up here. Well, that's our look at FCW talent reports, report cards, from some year in the past that we're not sure of. Now, Jim, if you were a wrestler and you weren't happy with the book report you got, I'd sue the son of a bitch. You may want to sue.

Well, I know who to call, the man who gets even with everybody that variates or vacates the legal standings of America and goes into the shady side of life and misrepresents you, mistreats you, gives you a wrongful termination or a deadly illness by poisoning or chemicals or any of those other type of horrible things, or if you go to jail in West Virginia and they don't treat you right,

you can call this man. Call Stephen P. News. And outlaw mud show for two. Those are the rest. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you are correct. That is right. Stephen P. New at new law office.com. 775 oh Steve can be your champion in the court of law and order.

As a matter of fact, Brian, they should have made CSI about Stephen P. New or law and order, do, do, that they, or all those series. CSI West Virginia. Steve can star in all of them. CSI West Virginia. CSI West Virginia. That's right. They'll, CSI West Virginia, they'll show you how to track cows through the wilderness and trail

the raccoons and the opossums and then track them into court and sue them for every penny they've got and that's where new law office.com comes in because if you find a raccoon that's got a lot of money well he'll sue the pelt off that

little raccoon's ass once again I don't have any disclaimer to give on this one fuck the raccoon Stephen Pino get even with Stephen new law office.com 877 5-0 Steve where do you think he got that coon skin cap from?

He doesn't like raccoons or weasels. So more about that in the future. Yeah, he's going to have weasels, britches. Jim, we ran along with just about every single thing we had planned to do and lots of things that just popped right up. Why don't we end with a short edition of guest program to put you in a good mood, to put me in a good mood, and put the audience more importantly in a good mood.

To leave the people on an up note. All right. This one right here. Let me find. Oh, I have the tickets. I predict. I'm going to win two out of three here. I predict. Of course, guess the program. I go through programs in my collection. I quiz Jim. He guesses every single detail he can about the town, the town, the, the town. And everything else. We're trying for the year and the town is what we're trying for. And here I have two ticket stubs. Which building are these in? These are. Oh, the are here, okay. The opening contest, Jim, one

fall, 20 minute time limit. Ramon Torres versus Fred Blassie. Lord, the opening match? A tag team encounter, 20 minutes, one fall. Enrique Torres

and Enrique Romero versus Curtis Iukea and Kit Fox. The next contest, 45 minutes, out of three falls, San Arzobo versus the Alaskin

and the main event two out of three falls two hour time limit Lucez versus Edward Carpontier. Shee, Manelli Shelley, all right. At first when you mentioned a Torres and a Blassie I was thinking we were going to be

potentially in Georgia, but this then Enrique Torreys Is that Enrique Romero? Is that Ricky Romero? I would have to look. I don't know. Let me see if there's a picture.

King Curtis and Kitt Fais. Sandor Zabo is an old timer. But this would have been toward the end of his career. One would think that Thess and Carpontier two out of three falls with a two-hour time limit.

that would be for the NWA title one would think is that after the, I know you can't answer me, but the disputed decision which led to Carpontier and Thess both being recognized for a short period of time was in 1957. With Torres and Blassie in the opening match, this has got to be on, and Sandor Zabo, this got to be on the West Coast. Well, let me just say opening match as it's listed here. They may have added matches.

I don't know. Well, yeah, but then also you've got King Curtis who would have to be almost a rookie at this point. And what year did he start? I'm trying to remember. Or could this have been, is everybody taking a vacation to Hawaii? And he was already there. And I don't know who the Alaskan was, but I bet you it wasn't Mike or Jay York. This is either California or Hawaii from 1959.

Impressive. This is San Francisco Wrestling, the Civic Auditorium. I have here ticket stubs for Section F3, Rodee, Seat 6 and 7, August 16th, 1960. Ah! Missed it by that much! And this is Referee Magazine. on the cover, Luthes versus Edward Carpontier,

Civic Auditorium, San Francisco Tuesday night, two hours, two out of three falls, International Champ versus N-A-W-A-Champ. So they obscured that a little bit. A little bit. Let me get another one here.

Oh, this one's interesting, I guess. Let's pull this one out. Jim, the opening contest Randy and Bill Mulkey versus Colt Steele and Jack Hart and by the way, Jack Hart was Barry Horowitz. Eddie Roberts

versus Mitch Snow. Good Lord. A Mitch Snow was one of the young guys that was trained by Nelson Royal up in Mooresville, North Carolina. Brady Boone versus Tijo Khan.

And Brady Boone What the fuck? Robinsdale High School. But they gave him a gimmick in the WWF for a brief period of time. Oh yeah, Battlecat. Battlecat, that's right. And Tijo Khan was from

Minneapolis also and came down with guys like Warlord and remember Al Blake, Vladimir Pietro. The Tahitian Prince versus Dennis Brown. Denny Brown was the former World Junior heavyweight champion when it was a job guy belt and Dusty liked him and he used him a lot in Florida.

The Tahitian prince was that Samu? It was one of that generation of Samoans. I can't remember which one. I'm not sure. Ron Simmons and Scott Hall versus Shaska Watley and Ed the Bull Gantner. Pez-Watt. Obviously from Chattanooga, standout amateur broke in for Goulis and Welch in the mid-70s

was doing the Shaska-Watley thing at this period of time, which is going to be 1987. Ed the Bull Gantner had got broken in Florida. He had a football background. Didn't last long. Ron Simmons was a rookie at this point. Maybe he started 86. And Scott Hall was still floating around before he was. was going to be more famous when he became a Cuban.

Keep going. For a tag title, I will not name. No disqualification. The Mod Squad, Basher and Spike, versus the Southern boys, Steve Armstrong and Tracy Smothers. Did the Mod Squad have their manager, J.D. Costello with him? He is not listed here, and here's a picture. no, it appears they may be managed by Bill Dundee.

Aha, yes, as a matter of fact, they were now that you think about it, because Dundee, well, now that may have been a picture from Kansas City, though, because Dundee was with them when they were in Kansas City. Keep going, and then I'll explain all of this. For a title, I will not name, Mike Rotunda versus Kevin Sullivan, and the main event, Barry Windham

versus Big Bubba No trouble. This was in Florida first of all, and it was after that Crockett promotions had bought Florida Championship Wrestling or Championship Wrestling from Florida, whatever the legal title was.

They bought the territory. The Mokies were there because Dusty wanted to reward Randy and Bill for those memorable TV matches. and their dedication and their determination. And he sent him to a territory. And it's that Colt Steele, another guy, the world's biggest calves was trained by Nelson Royal

up in Mooresville. Barry Horowitz at that time had worked Florida before for Dusty. Mitch Snow and Brady Boone, T. Joe Khan, Denny Brown, they were all guys that had worked for Crockett underneath and were getting a chance to be more featured. The Mod Squad was Mac and Jim Jeffers from Greenville, South Carolina, and they were a brother team that did jobs on Crocket's TV, but J.D. Costello had been the goddamn ring announcer in Greenville

and wanted to be a wrestling manager and was friends with Mac and Jim and paid to have a video done with them as this gimmick, the Mod Squad, where they were the police brutality thing and he was their manager in the odd suits. And I called Randy Hales and got them booked in Memphis for a little while at one point. And then they came back home and Dusty wanted to use the Mod Squad gimmicks.

So he sent them at one point, Kansas City, when they bought that, and then at one point to Florida. And Steve Armstrong and Tracy Smothers, the Southern boys, they had been in Florida when they bought the territory. and that was the first time we got to work with them on a couple of the Crockett TVs in 87, three years before they came into the rest of the territory.

And Barry Windham, Mike Rotunda, Kevin Sullivan, Florida names, and Bubba in the main event with Barry, because this was during the period of time. Dusty had started Bubba in spring of 86, worked the angle with him and Dusty and Bubba through the bashes in 86 in the summer and the fall. And then as 87 started, they'd bought Kansas City. He wanted to send Bubba to Kansas City for a little while. He sent him to Florida,

and then he sent him to the UWF when they bought Watts out and put the UWF belt on him because he was so confident in Bubba, he wanted to make him more than just my bodyguard. He was going to become a top heel. And that's why he was sending him to these different places and putting belts on him, letting him work as a single. Akbar managed him in the UWF.

And he was always being pushed in these places, even if he wasn't on the national TV because the thought was to bring him back to Charlotte and, you know, having main event Starcade one day. but things got in away of that. He got a shitty payoff for Starcade 87, and Hulk Hogan needed an opponent, and the big boss man was born.

So this was Florida, and I would bet you by the number of matches, even though there wasn't a lot of high-priced talent, this had to be either St. Petersburg at the Bayfront Center, if they were still running that big a building, or Tampa, or potentially, Miami Beach and it was definitely in the later stages of

or the mid stages, summertime of 1987. How close am I? You're pretty close. I'll tell you the town because you missed completely on that. Fort Myers, the Lee Civic Center. Fort Myers. All right.

Friday, April 17th, 1987. And they were having one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight matches. Fort Myers, which wasn't a major market town, but all these guys were cheap and they all needed experience. Well, let me ask you this, because I have a program, I actually got a bunch of programs from this period of time recently. This is 10 days earlier, April 7th in Tallahassee.

Pretty much the same crew with one big difference. Well, Rick Flares in the main event against Barry Wyndham. They spell his name wrong here in the program. But it's the Mod Squad and the Southern Boys for the Florida tag titles. I didn't say before. Rotunda, Florida heavyweight champion versus Ed Gantner, Brady Boone versus Shaska Wattley,

the Malkies versus Eddie Roberts and Mitch Snow, Kevin Sullivan, Tijo Khan, and the Tahitian Prince, and I think it is Samu, versus Scott Hall, Ron Simmons, and Stan Lane.

When did Stan get the call to join the Midnight Express? This is April 7th. Well, I don't think, he made that show. Oh, okay. Because shit, can I reach? Hold on. I'm taking my headset off. Jim Cornett has taken his headset off. He's walking across the room probably to get that midnight-experced scrapbook.

Putting my headset on. Going to 1987. Trying to find 1987. Because I'm going to say that it was, yes, April 4th at it TV and that night in Boston at the Garden was Stan's debut. And then on the seventh, we did TV in Spartanburg, South Carolina. So Stan, but see, those cards would be booked three weeks, four weeks in advance for the TV advertising. And Dennis didn't disappear until March 25th.

So we pretty much, between March 25th and. April 4th, looked for Dennis, couldn't find Dennis, determined that Dennis wasn't coming back. Dusty said we got to do something. I came up with and pitched Tom Pritchard and Dusty had already said, well, what about Stan Lane? He got him up to the fucking office in Charlotte in time for us to all say yes. And he debuted April 4th. So we were not dicking around. And obviously you wouldn't have been managing Bubba on the 17th against Windham.

No, no, he was down there by himself. On the 17th, I was in Macon, Georgia with the Midnight Express against Ron and Jimmy Garvin. But now, you know what? Having said that, in Athens, Georgia on the 16th, the midnight, Bubba and myself had an eight-man tag with Wahoo, Windham, and Ron and Jimmy Garvin. So, and then he went from Athens to goddamn... Against Windham. Where was it, Fort Myers? Yeah.

against Barry Windham. But listen to the schedule. So this is 87. So this is really late for Florida wrestling. April 12th, Orlando, it's a Sunday. Monday, West Palm, April 13th. Tuesday to 14th, Tampa. Wednesday to 15th, Jacksonville.

Thursday to 16th, Port Ritchie at the Southland Roller Palace. Friday, April 17th, Fort Myers. Saturday, April 18th, Lakeland. Back to Orlando, Sunday, April 19th. week later. Melbourne, April 21st, April 22nd, Wednesday, Miami, April 24th, Friday, Arcadia, and Sarasota on the 25th on a Saturday. So, you know, even though the promotion was dying to the point where Crockett took it over, and, you know, that didn't help save it or anything, they still had a full schedule of events. Oh, yeah, well, in those days, you had those buildings

booked months and months in advance. And when business went down, you were still running the towns, you had to run the towns. You didn't cancel towns in those days because then the regular fans in each. Louisville ran every week for 20-something years at the Louisville Gardens. I don't remember a show ever being canceled, except for the ice storm that delayed the Jerry Lawler, Coyote Calhoun match for a week.

The DJ from Louisville, Coyote, the fucking local people sold the building out. I've told this story, but the wrestlers couldn't get here from Nashville because of the ice. So they brought the same card back the next week. But in all those years, you didn't cancel shows low advance.

Don't pay the fucking boys. But you didn't cancel shows otherwise. So up until the end, they ran the schedule that they had to run. and then they just say, well, we can't do this anymore. All right, Jim, one more program. This has been fun here today. This one,

just written what it says on the cover here. The opener, one fall 15-minute time limit at 8.30 p.m. Jolting Joe Blanchard versus Bronco Lubich. Oh, good Lord. Preliminary, one fall 20 minutes. George Scott versus Johnny Walker. The semi-final, a terrific six-man tag team match, star-studded teams.

This team, Tim Woods, Mr. Wrestling, Thunderbolt Patterson, Joltin-Joe Blanchard, total team weight 746 pounds, versus this team. Bronco Lubich, Chris Markoff, Toru Tanaka, total weight 746 pounds. the Europeans manager George Harris will be in charge of this trio two out of three falls 45 minute time limit the first main event

Kowalski answers Wahoo's challenge and accepts Indian strap match Chief Wahoo McDaniel versus Waldick Wildeck whatever you want to call it Killer Kowalski W-L-A-D-E-K, it's Polish, and yeah, there's a variety of pronunciations.

Both gladiators asked the promoter to make it one fall to the finish and to allow it under brass knuckles rules so everything goes. And the second main event, Coliseum fans in a frenzy demand this match. Let me go back to the cover and read what it says here. primitive maniacal action on tap tonight this is definitely a championship match rugged Johnny Valentine Texas champion

I gave that away fuck Russian Johnny Valentine versus formidable challenger Pepper Gomez psychological intervention of ring announcer Florentino Sheldon who will second Pepper See story inside program

well we'll see that story in a minute you I know it's Houston already okay so you didn't really give too much away um with Blanchard and Lubich being it's a Texas gimmick the can Blanchard Lubich in a single and then coming back in a six man it's a captain's match they stretched the card without having to pay extra guys back then they did the same thing in Dallas one time Dennis Condry the the the minimum was $50 and the spot show was the shits but he worked twice so he got $63. They gave him a $13 extra payoff for wrestling twice. Like they shaved that fucking right down to the nub as much as we can give you. But Blanchard and Lou Bitch, obviously Texas names, Joe would later promote San Antonio

and Sire Tully. Bronco was a great guy, became a referee later on. George Scott, brother of Sandy Scott, my least favorite Booker ever in history, George Scott. Boy, two brothers couldn't be more different. Well, Bruce and Tom. Johnny Walker would later on be Mr. Wrestling number two. Tim Woods would be Mr. Wrestling number one.

Thunderbolt Patterson would be Thunderbolt. Chris Markoff and Professor Tanaka. George Harris, George Two-Ton Harris. George Two-Ton Harris. George Bunk Harris, the baby blimp, was from Tennessee and was a childhood friend of the Welch families and got into business that way and ended up working a ring crew and maintenance for Crockett promotions in the late 80s.

Killer Kowalski and Wahoo and Johnny Valentine and Pepper Gomez, that's what gave it away. Wahoo, Valentine, and Gomez were huge in Houston. and by some of these names, I want to, I just think because of the main events, it would be early 70s, but at the same time, the preliminaries, I might even go 68 or 69.

I'll split the difference. Houston, Texas, 1970. Oh, the date Thursday, February 11th, 11th, 1971. Corpus Christi, Texas. Corpus Christi! The Sheldon and Emerson's Memorial Coliseum for their weekly...

Son of a bitch. I thought it was Houston. 20 cents for the program. Corpus Christi never got fucking cards like this in the 80s. Corpus Christi was not one of the major towns at that point in time, except when we did the clash there and Moschorus drew all the fucking

money. Corpus Christi. Well, son of a bitch. Love the holiday inn's room service there by the Holiday Inn and Corpus Christi in the late 80s, early 90s, wonderful room service right there on the water. Prices this week, ringside $4. Dress Circle, $3, balcony, $2, all children under 10, $1 balcony when accompanied by an adult admission. And wrestling's on Channel 3, K-I-I-I-I, if that's what this is. Saturday, 10.30 p.m. in color. It is in color. So there we go.

What was the story on this fucking weird situation they had going on? Psychological intervention of ring announcer Florentino Sheldon, who will second pepper. Pandemonium to engulf Coliseum as Valentine Risk's belt. Opposite Fiery Pepper Gomez and Wahoo Tescoalski. Let me see specifically about this Florentino. Here we go. It was because of this match and our good friend ring announcer Florentino Sheldon, Jr.,

became the victim of a pulverizing Johnny Valentine right to the jaw that saw the rotund official catapult to the canvas in agonizing pain. Our good friend, the rotund, Sheldon. Sheldon told this writer that all he said to the champion was that the match was over, and that unexpectedly Johnny approached him, and before he knew it, he felt the impact of what he thought was a cannonball on the side of his face,

and the lights seemed to dim, and the whole Coliseum was whirling, and momentarily his eyes closed an involuntary slumber. It was an experience, he says. Um, Sheldon, who has been a good friend at Gomez for many years, will be Pepper's second in this match. He says that he has seen Valentine so many times that he knows his moves to the letter, and that he will avenge Johnny's brutal attack by signaling Pepper the champ's next move. It is a psychological impulse more than anything else, Sheldon says, and that he strongly believes it will prove effective.

We told him we would have a stretcher ready for him just in case. And he gave us a faint smile, very faint. And there it is. You think Paul Bosch wrote that. He's using a lot of big words. I don't know. I mean, this is obviously a Houston town. These are Houston wrestlers.

I don't know. We'll see what we can find. I have a whole bunch of these from Corpus Christi, so we'll see it. Not that I could use them now in this game. So see what we can find out. But there it is. Guess the program.

Where is this thing? And with that, the drive-thru is closed. Drama. All right, of course, we'll be back next week. And songs will return next week. Send your songs to corny drive-thru at gmail.com. We have a lot of questions. We ran along on stuff.

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And next week back here on the drive-thru for Jim Cornett, I'm the great Brian last. Tally-ho.