Jim Cornette’s Drive-Thru - Episode 405

Episode Date: August 17, 2025

This week on the Drive Thru, Jim reviews WWE Unreal and recent highlights from Raw & Smackdown! Plus Jim talks about UFC & Paramount, WWE & ESPN, Dynamite ratings, retro figures, AEW's streaming future, Paul Heyman & Hulk Hogan, Vince McMahon, referees, and much more! Thanks to our episode sponsors: SHOPIFY:  Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com/cornette HELIX:  Go to helixsleep.com/jce for 27% Off Sitewide exclusive for listeners of the Jim Cornette Experience!  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. I think I'm losing my voice. And you are our friends. Hello, I have friends. Welcome back to another edition of Jim Coronet's drive-through on another fun sunny day here in the fun sunny land of Cornet. I'm your host of the great Brian Last, and here he is the leader of the cult of Cornette, Mr. Fun and Son, Jim Cornett. You know, I was laying back just to see how long that you would tickle those avories, Brian. and play that funky music, white boy, but without breaking up or trying to break your train and just to see how long it would go on,

but when you finally screeched out like some kind of elementary school, Wicked Witch play, Hello, I had friends, and you are my pretties, all of you. Is that the way it's going to be today? I've had some, oh, I'm not even going to go into it over because I'd have to be talking about family members medical records, but we had a little stressful incident for about two or three hours of the day, or just evening and a half ago, but everything's fine now.

And all of the other thing. It's a oppressive heat has returned and various things like that. but at least Brian I'll have you to I'm trying to go for the positive the happy talk as you term it and you've come up with this phrase that you use every once in a while there's there's a good thing I can talk about Brian the Bundy family is is growing and flourishing here on the grounds of Castle Cornett you know the Bundy family don't you is this like some kind of role playing you guys do

like your Al and Stacy's Peggy no no no No, for parents or Steve and Marcy. Why can't you get your mind out of the gutter? And besides, it wouldn't be Steve and be the other one. What was the other one's name? Was it Jefferson? Jefferson, but nevertheless. Ten McGinley?

Yeah, there you go. Yeah, Ted McGinley. Whatever happened to him, it seemed like he just vanished. Nevertheless, that's the family of deer that live here on a castle and adjacent to it around the area of the castle ground. They wander and migrate and mitigate around. But as Stacy named them, Al and Peg and Bud and Kelly,

because it's the Papa Deer, the mama deer, the little girl deer and a little boy deer. And the kids are growing. They're almost fence-hopping height at this point. It's amazing that they have expanded at the rate they have over the last. Of course, I've got the deer feed down in the bucket under the red bud tree

that says it's guaranteed to grow in the flossy coat, whatever the goddamn attributes are of a growing deer, it promotes them. What are you saying? There's a sign that you have that says this? No, it's on the bag of the deer food. It's how I got, yes, on the bag there.

You made it sound like I had a sign up on a property. No, well, it's a sign from above that it's going to be growing. No, it's the labeling on the product is what I've been feeding them. And Peg will now, it actually expects it at this point. At almost the same time every evening,

she comes up to the back door to get her apple. She loves apples. Oh, you guys are just dying for ticks. You guys are just begging for Lyme disease. Please, please. Oh, come on now. For heaven's sake, we have a, we have a professional fumigator come and spray

on a regular basis of the perimeter of the house. Nevertheless. So you're poisoning them too. It's like some weird portrait shame. No, just the perimeter of the house, not out in the goddamn, what does it matter with you? What we do is we open the back door and if there will be peg and we'll have the apple and our hand will hold it up in the air and she sees the apple and then you bowl and ball and ball roll it.

They don't like things thrown in the air, but if you bowling ball and ball roll it, then we walk out slowly, you get about 15 feet away, bowling ball roll her the apple, and then turn around and go back, and she walks right up and takes it and gives us a pawing motion with her front paw.

No, every time you give her the apple, she walks up to the apple, she paws like two or three times on the ground, like, thank you. And it takes the apple. So I've ordered some little fun outfit and hats for them. And I'm thinking about

some kind of traveling act. Little hats on the little deer. It'd be lovely. Do you take the stems out before you roll the apples? These are just goddamn apples

in a bag from the store. Oh, bagged apples. Well, what other kind of? Not even the good stuff. You're poisoning them and then you're giving them like the crap apples. No, not crab apples. regular apples they sell

in the grocery store for people to eat not to not to crab apples I said crap apples what kind of apple what are you talking about road apples crap apples we call them road apples down here were you a fan of married with children

yes I mean did you have enough time to even watch it really when you were it was on mostly when you were working actually oh yeah but then it went into syndication and then also you know you could record the thing because there was Kelly Bundy so there has to be some enjoyment to life

I wasn't just recording all wrestling I've got a bunch of fucking I think probably two seasons of in living color also the first two seasons I hope well yes of course and all six episodes on a beta tape somewhere of Erie Indiana do you don't remember that? I used to like it

that was a show that was my dad told me about that one day came home he read about in the paper and he put it on. And I loved it. I actually bought a digital copy to show my kids. Greatest show in the world lasted six episodes.

Well, maybe, was it more than six episodes? I say six. Actually, police squad lasted six. Erie, Indiana probably lasted a half a season. They used to do half seasons in those days and send the hook out for the shows that didn't get

about 15 or 20 million viewers. They said, I'll get that shit. out of here. They're taking up space. This may have been more something Stacy would appreciate, but did you ever see Freaks and Geeks? You have asked me about that before here on a program, and it elicited, elicitated,

necessitated someone who may or may not have even been you. I'm not sure to send us the box set of Freaks and Geeks, which resides on the shelf in our TV room, and I've still never seen it. You should watch that. You may really

like that. I don't know if I'd like the geeks, but I'd like the freaks. No, the geeks are the coolest ones, actually. Are the geeks better than the freaks? The geeks are, I mean, they're not getting any action or anything, but they've kind of got the adventures that you could probably relate to. I don't know how to take that blind, having not seen the program, so I will assume it's not an insult. I'm guessing, I'm guessing you weren't picked first for like Dodgeball, correct? No, generally I avoided either side of the, of the, dodge ball team because at some point you were good at.

I only threw things of people I was mad at because I had a tendency even when I was a smaller child to take things personally quickly. Like apples to deer. Well, no, the animals are a different thing. But people, if you throw something me and hit me with it, chances are I'm going to chase you at some point and fucking throw it closer range.

Like that's the point is, anyway, Freaks and Geeks, another great show that lasted one season and it was clearly brilliant when it aired and whenever it aired was like, who knew? It was like Saturday one week, Wednesday one week. You couldn't keep up with it, but great show. And I'm, you know, I'm struggling now to remember all the characters, but you say that there is a, there's evidence that this show aired now besides my beta cam or beta TV. A beta, beta, beta, TV. Beta. Beta. tape off TV. You say there's evidence of this.

Is it a professionally produced thing or some kind of bootleg operation? Wait, what did you say you recorded on beta? You were in Indiana? Yes. You recorded that on beta? That aired in, what, 91, 92? Yeah, well, I had my first beta in 1983.

No, I know that. But the idea you were still recording on it, I didn't realize, I guess, that beta blank tapes were readily available still at that point in the early 90s. Well, everything was readily available to me because I was ordering my VHS and beta tapes from, oh, goddamn, what was the company in New York? I was getting them by the case. They had a case of 10. I was getting them a case at a time for both formats.

And see, that was the thing. And now I would go mad. I'm glad I was 20-something years old and had all this energy. Because in integrating into my schedule on the road. wherever I was, especially from 1980, late 85 through the end of my tenure in WCW in 1990, right? So that's a five-year period. I lived in Charlotte, and I still recorded all of Crockett's television programs that we produced that aired in the Charlotte Metro Market, which was all of them, as well as the TVS.

shows as well as potentially paper views or any other goddamn thing that was going on that I needed to get and then as we mentioned before my friend Norman Dooley would send me the other stuff from around the territory days

via the U.S. Postal Service. But Brian, it was more difficult to do that then than it is today because I had, I'm trying to visualize the setup, but I'm going to say between four and six, four or five, one or the other,

four or five different home videotape machines in my setup, in around my television, and back in those days, in those days of cable, it was very basic. Charlotte, North Carolina, you could get like 44 fucking cable channels, right? That was it at that point. and but it was possible instead of going through the fancy Dan DVR box or just the cable boxes they have today, if you had cable service and you went into a goddamn high-end video machine tuner, you could set different channels. And the reason why all these different goddamn video machines set up was because when I would leave town on a tour for Crockett or whatever, I would have to set the VCR for the Saturday and Sunday TBS shows.

Then we added the one on Friday, the power hour that I was hosting, right? But then there were two different local stations that aired the Crockett syndicated shows of NWA Worldwide and NWA Pro or whichever, whatever they were called at the specific time. and if it was a pay-per-view weekend I had to call the local cable company that's where that line comes from in those days you had to call and order it over the phone

and then I had to set a machine for this so I had at one point in my setup you know four or five different video machines running to record all these different programs have I bored you? Not at all I guess my question still... That wasn't a full-throated fucking denial, but go ahead.

My question still comes to you recording on beta in the 90s. When did you stop recording on beta? And were you recording anything on VHS? Do I stopped recording on beta when I stopped recording? Um, beta was a better format. No, I'm not disagreeing with that, but again, I never hear about anyone recording anything in the 90s on beta. I figured that it was...

Again, you were getting it right from a good source, but I figured it was near impossible. to even, I don't remember seeing it in stores. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, all contrary, Mo Frere, but no, I could get the tapes all day long up through where I stopped recording. To be honest, once I left WCW, I did not feel the need to follow their programming, right?

And then with Smoky Mountain, most everything was on VHS because that was easier to deal with. obviously with everybody else involved. And I'm getting the master tapes on professional quality tape anyway, so it's not like I need to preserve this shit at home. And because I had the beta machines, and one of them, knock on wood,

my pride and joy that I got in 1986 is still fine and functional today. But I would just, if I wanted to record regular programs, I would set them because I still had several video machines set up, and that way it left my VHS as clear if I'm using them to copy something. Don't you see? It's amazing. I've got the Rolling Stones pay-per-view concert from when to that was in like 19- Was it 89?

Well, I've got that one, but I think they did another one. Or maybe I'm thinking, I'm not thinking of it. I have several concerts on pay-per-view that were done from the 80s through the 90s that I did on beta because it's a better video quality. and why not? Because I'm the only ones if I can watch it. Hey, since you opened his door,

why don't we discuss one of the big issues happening right now? And again, I'm losing my voice a little bit. I apologize. Although some listeners may like it if I lose my voice.

But some listeners have offered to take your voice away or at least interrupt the fucking normal flow of it from your fucking throat to your goddamn mouth. You have recently talked about the fact that

you couldn't order the pay-per-view. And we had to talk about the fact that pay-per-view is a dying thing. In-demand is done. UFC just announced their new deal with Paramount Plus, or I should say just Paramount, because they're going to be simulcasting things or airing things directly on CBS, the Tiffany Network. But they announced this major deal,

and we could talk about some of the specifics and how it, we could discuss monopolies, too. We could discuss a lot of things. But what do you think about the fact that they are very public, coming out and saying the pay-per-view model is dead. We're getting away from the pay-per-view model. There's nothing there. I mean, I saw some quote is like, there's nothing there except movies and boxing.

And I don't even hear about boxing anymore. Well, and that's most of the people that are boxing these days are doing it at Costco. Here's the thing with, and a lot of people, there's going to be, by the way, Brian, I'm pretty sure some type of chatter or rumors or just people not known what fuck's going on over the next few days at least on some kind of social media maybe it might not be widespread but in my in my little town here

in my little town it was on the news today the local news that but while they were talking about paramount to having the streaming rights for UFC to as you said you just said go to their fucking thing that they do the graphic on the screen at the bottom just said Paramount buys UFC because I was on the phone, right?

And I had the TV on, but it was muted. I'm on the phone and I look up and I see that graphic and I wait, what? And I pause it when I get off the phone. I go back and they're talking about streaming rights. And it wasn't even my afternoon man, Gilbert Corsi, that did OVW and understands the, the world of this. It's the noon people,

and they're reading the copy that, you know, the story, but they didn't really specifically, they said, oh, yes, Paramount has bought the rights to televise these events, but they didn't, there was a lot of ambiguity as to who bought what and whether they just sold the UFC. So I bet you we're going to hear some, if it was like that in other local news areas or whatever,

we might hear some rumors. Hey, I don't know what these fucking services all are or what I need to do, how I must qualify, what paperwork I need to fill out, do I need to show proof of citizenship, and then they have to come to my house with an organ grinder at a monkey and play the saber dance while I jump through hoops. Oops, Brian, I say, oops, to see these things. Well, for UFC fans, this is a big savings.

Previously, they were with ESPN, where to get the pay-per-views, I believe you had to subscribe to and pay for ESPN's app and then pay an additional, whatever, $69 per pay-per-view event to stream it through the app. Now, Paramount Plus is like $11, $12, somewhere in that range.

So it's a great savings, and a lot of these fights will be on CBS. The question is, will it expose that maybe there isn't as big an audience for UFC as has been touted, or will it go the other way? And will it show a big audience and lead to a big new exposure on that growing format television? But I understand. I understand.

I understand. I understand. I understand. I understand. That's just insane. But I understand the words that are coming out of your mouth. but in the first place again a lot of people whether it'll save money or not they if they were the most dedicated like the wrestling fans that are the most dedicated they're they're figuring out ways to get the wrestling right i would assume it's same thing with the ufc people they're most dedicated they've already got this shit now they need to get some other shit they need to drop that shit they got they need to get this other shit but in the case of the wrestling is we're talking about talking about as we'll be talking about or we're going to talk about it here in a minute

that the shit they need to get ain't even there yet and how and how are you going to get the shit who's going to be bringing the shit to you who will be shipping the shit to you brian and who will be receiving the shit this is all questions that still need to be asked and answered about this whole fucking rigamarole Yeah, that wasn't really a question or anything I could easily jump in and follow up with, but Jim, we will continue discussing this. It was a statement of my goddamn position on the matter. So let's look at the big picture here.

And last week, as we were doing a classically themed show, we did have one story that we addressed, which was the WWE ESPN announcement. And I guess it's still being ironed out, which cable services will offer free access to subscribers through cable. That's something we've seen in the past. I get Peacock for free through my Xfinity Comcast cable. But again, if people aren't paying for cable,

if kids aren't paying for cable, it really doesn't affect them, it affects just us funny dutties with cable. But they've done that deal. Brandon Thurston posted something. Between UFC and WWE, again, same parent company, TKO. Yeah. They will have media deals in 2026 with Netflix for Raw and International WWE,

with Disney, which is ESPN, for WWE premium live events, with NBC Universal for Smackdown, with Next Star for the NXT with CW, Paramount, the UFC. It says here a smaller deal with Fox, which is Evide, on 2B. Or not 2B. And it says here WBD is the only major I could think of without.

And of course, they have A.E.W. But I could tell you another one out there, and there's a couple rumors going around about this, especially with the talk about what's going to happen to the WWE catalog. YouTube. Don't be surprised if YouTube jumps into the fray here because WWE started these vault channels for a reason. And they've seen the potential revenue.

So don't be surprised if there's another deal there. Well, that's going to be the only place for us old folks with the, you know, the old crotchiness to be able to see the classic library. But with that classic library, they could put shit out there forever. The idea, though, that this company, WWE's parent company owns, I shouldn't say owns, that they have all these deals in place with all the major players. by the, when you read, when you read, when you read those off, I counted five confirmed and one that you speculated on, which as you said runs the gamut of every major goddamn outfit

except for poor old Tony Kahn's friends. So whether you're Tony Kahn or anyone else, let's say there's a different billionaire right now who ran a company and it's not AED. You know what I mean? It could be anyone. And let's say that's a really great wrestling company and everyone likes it. it's the same situation. There's a shutout taking place

where if Tony lost WBD, he would have nowhere to go. Not to say he couldn't, again, with his money, he could do whatever he wants. He can create a platform. He could buy a platform. But in terms of what's there now,

WWE and their parent company are locking down every single major media player. It's going to be like venues. Do you think any of them are going to want deals with AEW? They probably can't have one contractually. You can't set up in this venue until 24 hours after we leave or whatever it is. But what do you think of the idea? Again, it could be Tony Kahn, and it is.

But no matter who was a number two right now, the next number two in the States is TNA and they're under the WWE umbrella. They're all but sold to WWE. They're like the Beatles on the top 40 chart and see. 64. What the fuck? And that's the next television deal. And they got AAA, and they'll get a television deal in the States for AAA.

What do you do? Like, how does it number two, this is so much different than it was under Vince, who did everything he could to crush any competition. This is, some of it deliberate to hurt AEW, but they're not signing these deals to hurt AEW. They're just trying to get as much as they can out of this before they try to sell it eventually. but they're creating a situation where no one else. You're asking 18 questions with commas at the end.

I'm sorry. There's a lot here to think about. Yeah, there's all kinds of stuff. But here's the thing is that Vince tried to destroy competition and didn't want to work with anybody else. And, you know, usually if he did work with somebody else, it was either that with me in Knoxville, I was no threat and didn't want to be. or with everybody else at Ken and went in Lawler in Memphis.

But, you know, he couldn't work with AAA, but it didn't matter. He was doing his thing. But now that they want to control the literal fucking world, and they have those Beatles spots in the top five where, okay, we got the Smackdown, we got the Raw, we got Saturday Night's Made Event, we got NXA, we got, and T&A under their umbrella, and AAA coming in. you know, you said Tony Kahn

could buy his own outlet. Actually, that's not even true anymore. Because now for any, poor old Shad's only worth $12 billion and for any type of media outlet, these days, it's more than that to just buy the fucking thing. They can't,

this is a vast, a vast, WWE conspiracy to basically shut it. They're not even trying to shut a lot of people out because there's not a lot of people that are even going to get close enough to the door for you to slam it in their face. But they want a presence with every media and every media outlet so that they can milk as much money out of each one of them as possible. So they can get as much as they can when they go private and sell to the Saudis.

And, you know, and I'm not saying that any of that thing, you know, ain't going to happen either. But I'm just saying right now, it's, you know, yes, they can, they can choke off Tony, but there's not even anybody else that can even play this fucking game anymore. That's what I'm saying. Like, if you started up a wrestling company tomorrow and you had funding and you had talent and you were ready to go, what are you going to do? I mean, anyone can right now go on YouTube and I don't know if a WWE deal with YouTube would prohibit anyone else.

I probably wouldn't. Everyone could upload their own stuff. But at this point, social media and YouTube, maybe the best way to, I mean, Amazon's still out there and stuff, but again, it's a shrinking marketplace and some of it's intentional because you're preventing any competition from ever being able to exist. But, but, you know, every streaming platform locked down in an exclusive deal,

how can anyone else exist? And I mean, to a lesser extent, maybe, the mixed martial arts world at boxing. We don't know that we're not experts. Who knows who has the power these days? But they do have somewhat of a conglomerate monopoly on any kind of combat sport. And here's the thing.

If there is a well-off fan of wrestling who also was a multimillionaire, and he said, you know what, for the love of the game, put something together and on a regional basis I say that you could probably if you put significant time, money and effort

in it had a location that you could afford and the conditions were right had access to fucking local sponsorships and people that would get other media that would get involved you could do independent shows

in a regional area like the southeast or the Carolinas. Or maybe, you know, I don't know whether it be every couple of months basis you do two or three shows in a row where you're bringing in talent, figure out some kind of TV thing. And if a guy was willing to just say, fuck it, we're going to do this and hopefully find the people to do it well. And just say, I don't care whether I make money or not, after a couple years if you did it well

and you had still local television for something like this, you could probably do some big independent shows and you would do okay. But I don't know if you'd live long enough to make all your startup money back. But I mean, otherwise you ain't going to be in the big time wrestling business, boy.

So you know how I think because I've been saying it. Again, irrespective of the content of AEW. I think Tony needs to fight back and he needs to fight back harder and he needs to have a team of people ready to fight back because they're fucking with them every way they can. And even when it's just like an inconvenience,

they fuck with them. Just like there's no excuse sometimes. They've announced they're running a pay-per-view against All-Out. Directly against them because, you know, why not? But Tony has to do something too. It can't just be giving cute quotes to the rest of, wrestling press, I think they should be a fucking campaign and it should be like, you know, WWE makes all this money. How come they don't pay their wrestlers as much as we do?

I just really just make it everything, every discussion they don't want to have publicly and just bring it to them with that. That's all you could do right now because all they care about is that stock price. That's the only thing they care about. Yeah, but here's the thing. for the people that they would be speaking to or that would listen to them, they already know these things,

and it hadn't really been a goddamn issue so far. And so I don't... I'm not saying advertise it to the wrestling fans. I'm saying forget about the wrestling fans. Bring it to the Wall Street Journal. Take out a full-page ad. Bring it to the business community. That's what hurts them.

It doesn't... How you trashed WW, may hurt WWE to your own existing fans, but it's not going to do anything to grow AEW or not going to do anything to really hurt their company. If you bring it to the business community, then you have a shot. Okay, but then tell me why

the Wall Street Journal or the business community or these people care of when either here comes this Rick Moranus looking motherfucker in. Fuck it, full page ad. Do what Vince used to do. Nobody reads the ads. It would get attention. Listen to me is what I'm saying,

consider the source. You hear you've got the WWE, the worldwide leader in sports entertainment with all the fucking billions of dollars on the stock exchange and the goddamn superstars, they're everywhere. This is goddamn just, they're the big deal here. The goddamn, you know, people are in the goddamn administration. These people, they're all over the place. They're filthy with them.

And here comes Tony Kahn, as he, talks for Tom Burke you know and maybe one other person out there he reminds me that Kenny Leavitt his younger days

got a lot of energy oh come on that's ridiculous and you know and or you know they can the WW could say in response to anything that AEW could say well look at this

here's a montage of their programming and there's the blood drinking and the good head slicing and the fucking nonsense Hey, listen, they're not embarrassed by it. If WWE brought that to anyone else's attention, they're still not going to be embarrassed by.

That'd be a favor. I'm just saying that, to me, if you said, look, here is who is knocking us and they saw that. They'd say, we don't want to get involved with these people. I think if you had a serious campaign, Tony Kahn shouldn't talk, doesn't have to talk. A serious campaign against WWE, for good reason, for everything they're doing the fuck with you,

it could really hurt them in the long run. if done right. And again, I don't think Tony Con should be sitting there. Well, if done right, yes. And the ex-edities would work also if done right. I just don't think they could do it right. I don't think anybody will listen to them in the face of this financial

juggernaut. And, you know, they can be discredited by look at the way that a lot of the shit that they come off or that they do. And you're, you know, trying to criticize us. And and they can't hit them with the monopoly or the antitrust or whatever because they're on TBS and T&T and the WBD and the VD

and what other things they're on. As of now, from what we understand, Tony Kahn has not shopped Ring of Honor or any other AW programming he could create to the point where we heard that, what, CW was interested and he wasn't interested in even talking to them. And then they gave NXT a bunch of money that Tony could have used.

But if Tony goes and he starts trying to shop these shows, if he gets to the point where he's not just going to give WBD everything, which may be tough if they own a piece. But if you're going to try to shop any of those shows and you can't get any conversation started because of that, that's where you can start the Monopoly talk. I'm glad he's not my defense attorney, Tony Kahn. What do you think this says, going back to

the TKO thing ending with this. What do you think this says about the future of TKO, of WWE and UFC, the deals they've all just announced in the last week, week and a half, the commercialization of everything on these shows? What do you think the next

five years is going to be like? Do you think it's going to become more fan-friendly? Do you think it's going to become more just a complete money grab? What do you see this is? Well, fan friendly. I'm sure they'll be as friendly to the fucking fans as they can possibly be, Brian. They're going to be patting them on the back and rubbing their tummy and reaching in their pocket. And they can come here, friend.

Let me tell you all about it. They're going to be friendly to those people. They're going to introduce them to new different shows and that they can watch and merchandise they can buy. And they're going to give them happy lives with all this. Of course, they're going to be friendly. And yes, that's the thing is that we've seen. Now, there's goddamn Slim Jim logos on the tables that are under the ring

for still for no reason that they pull out to violently throw each other through. And we're supposed to be worried about when it's just, it makes the whole sight comedic. The guy's being thrown through a Slim Jim table. They'll logo anything. They'll sell to the Saudis. they'll do whatever they need to. Well, I mean, don't mean sell the company, but they'll sell shows to the Saudis.

Eventually they will. Hold on. They'll sell shows to the Saudis. They'll sell secrets to the enemy. I don't know. They'll sell anything they can sell. And the same thing with UFC, and the same thing with the bull riding people.

Whatever they can fucking sell, they're going to sell until it doesn't. It's either not a, just a license to print money. anymore or as you said the Saudis or some other goddamn who knows somebody will strike oil in Switzerland

and it'll be an evil Swiss billionaire but yeah they'll sell it unless they're making so much money off of it they can't fucking afford to sell it not that kind of Vince von Trapp

sell it to me the hills are alive with the sound of music. You want to play chicken. He only plays chicken with a real chicken. He only plays chicken on the Merritt Parkway. Ah, well, this has been

cable news. And Jim, why don't we stay on the topic of... Yes. Oh, I'm hitting things in my mouth. Why don't we stay on the topic of the world of cable television? We did not review AEW Dynamite last week on the show.

I'm going to get it. Yes, you didn't watch it knowing we weren't going to review it. Is that a fair guess? No, because there was a lot of things going on over here, and I took the opportunity not to watch that week's program. And I'm sorry for the people who are living and dying with this, but it does be good every once in a while to refresh myself. All right, so that means you'll be ready to go this week,

and we'll have that review coming up in a few days on one of these shows. But Jim, let's talk about the ratings, and you'll get a little bit of information about what you missed this, past week. Oh joy. AEW Dynamite, Wednesday, August 6, 2025, 8 to 10, 12 p.m. On average, 711,000 viewers. Holy mackerel, they're back up into the megashow territory. What in the world did they do to deserve a thing like this?

This is up 16% from last week, which was 612, 16% from the 4-week average, which is 6-11. so this is a big, big success. I mean, was there suddenly, did they advertise something heavily that I didn't pay attention to? Or was there some reanimated corpse of Buddy Rogers was in the main of what happened? Well, you know, they do announce their matches beforehand, obviously, on social media. But the biggest thing with AEW going into this event, I think, was the buzz about there being potential problems between MVP and Speedball Mike Bailey. the two baddest motherfuckers in the locker room. You hate when those are the guys who have heat with each other.

Hold on now, MVP. We're not laughing about you now. Just so we make that clear, he can strangle me through the fucking phone line. But there was some buzz about that. Again, I don't know if that led into this, but that was the biggest thing people were talking about around AEW. And quite frankly, if I was Tony,

I would have put MVP out there for a promo to start to show. Build into what people are buzzing about, but let's go into it. You'll find out what they did do. Uh-oh. These were compiled by WrestleMania 8-8-8-15 p.m., MJF's backstage promo, and the start of John Moxley versus Speedball Mike Bailey. Oh, good Lord. With picture and picture, 766,000 viewers.

okay and they started much higher than they have been over the last recent weeks i'd say so was there some big lead-in that led to this or did they retain this audience or what's where are we going from here and and moxley and so one would think as you said that since that was out there one ought to either make something out of it or something, but instead they're feeding the spitball to Dick the Boozer. Well, that's got a quarter to 8.15, 8.30 p.m. The continuation of Moxley v. Speedball. Tony Storm and Alex Windsor's backstage promo.

The Death Rider's Darby Allen angle. An ad break. And Mercedes-Mone's promo. 727,000 viewers. Well, again, a drop, but not nearly the drop that they normally have. That's only 39,000 people. That's not close to the way they used to drop. More in line with what they've been doing lately,

where they start low and stick with it, but this is still a little higher. We got a quarter three. This is going to be interesting. This match, that this match in Hemorrhage viewers is amazing. and what a spectacle it was. Alex Windsor, 830 to 8.45 p.m. Alex Windsor versus Billy Starks versus Queen Amanata

versus Sky Blue with picture and picture. 718,000 viewers. You saw this. You were a witness to this? I watched this and, you know, it was sloppy at times and it went so long. All I'm thinking is, you know, even if you're a fan of these women in this division, this match seems like it's going a long time.

And then apparently did not chase everyone away. Well, we must applaud their efforts. We got a quarter four, eight, forty-five to nine p.m. The post-match of the previous match with Mercedes Monet, Tony Storm, and Athena. an ad break, the Young Buck's backstage angle, and Don Callis and Kyle Fletcher's live promo,

76,000 viewers. What in the world? And the high point in the key demo, 263. For the last 15 minutes of the first hour, that never happens. They're back up to where they started from. That is... Did many of the other networks go off,

off the air suddenly for an extended period of time. There's no, what is different about this show than everything else they've been doing? It's fascinating. I'm not even knocking them. I'm just genuinely puzzled now. Well, we got our quarter five, the big nine o'clock hour, 9 to 9.15 p.m.

Cope's backstage promo and the start of the Young Bucks versus Brodito, the team of Brody King and Bandito, Bro Dido With picture and picture 744,000 viewers And that I would think is their biggest start To a 9 o'clock hour in months, isn't it? I think so

Oh yeah I think that was also the biggest quarter four In as long as I can remember Yeah But now here's the question Now that they've actually put it to the ultimate test The Buccaroos where do we go from here, Brian, now that all of the children have grown up?

We go to quarter six, nine-fifteen, and nine-thirty p.m. The continuation of the Bucks versus Brodito with picture and picture ads, the Mark Briscoe MJF video, and the Hertz Syndicate backstage angle, 728,000 viewers. Okay, they're down 16,000, but still, remarkably consistent for a show unlike in, I would think, years at this point at this level.

And what did they do with MJF and a Hertz syndicate? Well, he's not in the Hertz Syndicate anymore. Well, that's what I'm saying. What is happening about that? MVP loves him like a little brother, but it's over, and he better watch out when he gets the world title because Bobby Lashley is hungry. That's it. now.

But Jim, quarter seven. Do we have any idea what it was going to be before they said, oh, fuck, no, we ain't going to do this shit. All right, never mind. But we go to quarter seven, 9.30 to 9.45 p.m. An ad break. The FTR Stokely Halfway backstage angle.

Did you see this promo where, because Stokely has to wrestle cope next week? somehow that's the punishment he has to wrestle cope he does this promo he goes you don't think I know how to fight I've been fighting my whole life I'm short I'm bald

I don't get no hose and as he's saying this cash wheeler can't keep a straight face it's like Gene O'Kerlin standing next to him but that promo and by the way

that would work if they'd ever bothered to make him a respected legitimate established main event manager and put some heat on him But now it's going to be another one of these fucking things you'd see down at the rec center and on an indie show.

The swerve Okada video, a swerve Strickland ramp promo, Mark Briscoe and Adam Page's backstage angle, and an ad break, 669,000 viewers. Again, that late in the show, they started with that, the last couple of, the last several episodes. So, Bravo. But what is what is it about this? They had a goddamn cage world title loser leave and gets chainsawed fucking deal a few weeks ago

it didn't do this. What the fuck's going on? Again, the only thing I remember was the buzz around the Hertz Syndicate speedball problems and nothing really came about on this show dealing with that. We got a quarter eight, 9.45 to 10 p.m.

We have a 12-minute overrun. Queen Arminata and Willow Nightingale and Chris Statlander's backstage promo, and the start of Mark Briscoe versus MJF, who a picture and picture, 620,000 viewers, 12-minute overrun, almost a quarter, continuation of Briscoe versus MJF, and the post-match with Adam Page, 646,000 viewers. Good Lord. Okay.

When you've read that main event off, I was going to say, well, you know what? Brisco and MJF, that's what they wanted to see. That's the thing they all tuned away from. That's the only thing in that parade of terror that you just read off that would have interested me in the least was MJF versus Mark Brisco. And that was the worst thing on the show in the ratings. So I, and now I guess they've. officially nullified MJF with this wishy-washy bullshit with him. You know how I feel, and I like Mark Briscoe, but I think the way he's been booked

up until this very recent period where they've kind of started trying to push him, but even that, he started losing during that period too, I think the way he was booked and specifically losing match after match, sometimes meaningless match on this show, I don't think fans are tuning in for him. It would have to be a rebuild. You'd have to really spend time and do it right and get people clamoring to see him. And he deserves that, but it just hasn't happened.

But that's AEDW, and the key demo did rise in their defense. It went from 212 to 231 to 250. But that was AEW Dynamite. And I got 231.2.5. And I got 250. What do I hear from you, Brian? Well, that was AEW Dynamite for August 6. but Jim, you know, another thing we're not talking about here at the end of the show is

it's summertime. People are outdoors. They're getting sun. Yeah. For a swim. You get tired. The sun beats you down. Swimming.

It's like a heaviness, Brian, over you. That's exactly right. Hello, heaviness. And what we're asking you to do is say goodbye, heaviness. And have a heavenly mattress and a heavenly night's sleep from our friends at Helix sleep. That's right. we want you people to take a load off. And if you'd like to dump a load,

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Very theatrical, but here we are. We're back. Hope everyone's in the mood. Jim, we have a whole... That's what you've been trying to play. In the mood. In the mood. What are you in the mood for?

Can we talk about this? Can you answer, help me figure out. out how we're going to be watching all these things. And now, not even the, I can answer how the UFC and the MMA, but I told you a couple of weeks ago, I guess now it's been, the wrestling was getting harder to watch. And I mean harder to fucking watch.

And they just announced the WWE deal that we were talking about with ESPN and this and that. So somebody sent me because I was saying, how are we going to get this? and the service isn't even up yet, right? You remember the whole conversation. So somebody sent me an explanation. It's an excerpt from the wrestling observer, old Uncle Dave.

Now, I know somebody's going to say, well, you expect Uncle Dave to explain anything in any kind of coherent fashion. No, this is printed in it, but it comes from an actual media professional. this is quotes from a statement that he made explaining on CNBC how that this thing will work, Brian. Have you read this? Are you familiar with this? No. So this is not from the observer.

These are actually quotes from Dave on CNBC. I did not see this. No, no, it's not from Dave on CNBC. It's from the guy on CNBC explaining the big business, the big business transaction, how that the service that they are talking about is going to work. Yeah, let's hear this. It's not from Dave.

He just printed the quotes from the fellow. Hey, you stop slapping it around. What are you doing? I say, you get... Yeah. Anyway, guy named Alex Sherman. You have any idea who that might be on CNBC? I do, yes.

Well, he's one of these big business typhoons that are telling the people how this is going to work. So stop me, you know, if I'm not clear on this thing, Brian, because I think this will explain. everything when I get to the bottom of it. Anyone who currently pays for a bundle of TV networks that includes ESPN will eventually get ESPN's direct-to-consumer service

for no extra charge. Well, that sounds just fine, right? You'll download or click on the ESPN application on your mobile device or SPART TV. There will be a login screen that asks you if you're a pay TV subscriber. You'll then be able to authenticate that you do in fact pay for traditional pay TV

and get ESPN in your bundle. Once you authenticate, you'll get access to the new ESPN direct to consumer product with everything in it. That means that starting in 2026, you'll get access to all the WWE Premium Live events as well as everything else on ESPN, Monday Night Football, NBA games, et cetera. You won't get NFL network yet. That deal needs to close first, but once it does, the NFL network and the games that air on it will be integrated into the direct consumer service too. The WW live events won't be available on ESPN Plus.

You'll need to upgrade to the 2999 ESPN product. But again, just to be clear, if you're a cable subscriber that gets ESPN, you'll get it for no extra charge. And ESPN will not charge an additional fee for the live events. No return to pay-per-view here. But now, first of all, before we go into the rest of it that complicates the matters,

what the fuck? It's easier to goddamn get into a foreign country that it is to prove to these people after logging in and downloading and authenticating who you are and that you are who you say you are to watch fucking television? Help me understand this. I mean, I don't know what there is to explain here.

He sort of explained it, right? I mean, one of the issues is it's actually not currently with every cable system. That's still being negotiated. Apparently, it's not available for me. Yes, we're going to get into that, but already you've got to log. log in and do this and that and et cetera. Are people going to want to jump through all of these hoops to watch?

It's hard enough to get people to watch television. I think the hope is you jump through the hoops the first time to log in or set up your account, and then it should be as simple as pushing a couple buttons. Well, there you are. Regarding the companies that don't have deals for their subscribers, I'm told discussions with all these pay TV providers are ongoing at Disney hopes to have most of done by the end of the year. It's still unclear to me at this point

if Disney can accelerate some of these discussions if their pay TV's carriage renewals aren't until 2026. Long term ESPN plans to have authentication deals with every major pay TV distributor. Disney doesn't want existing cable customers leaving the bundle just because ESPN is now available outside of it,

but when the average, application is ready for showtime on August 21st, there are going to be a bunch of pay TV subscribers who aren't going to get their authentication access that they're paying for. It's possible this may lead to some pay TV distribution swapping. In other words, if I'm a YouTube TV subscriber and I want ESPN's direct-to-consumer product, maybe I switch to direct TV or charter if I live in that territory. I'm told that

when ESPN does reach a deal with these pay TV operators, subscribers will receive an email from the distributor notifying them that they now have access. It's easier to get into the fucking state capital. You know what though? That's a good deal for

people. And who's going to change their whole goddamn television service? just to chase a fucking wrestling show. Oh, crazy wrestling fans will do anything. I saw some video to have a day of a fan show of a Randy Orton's front door. Oh, good Lord.

Yeah, I'm sure. Well, I wonder if he came all away from Virginia Beach. Wrestling fans would do crazy things. Yes, all of the same nuts that are currently now supporting AEW and keeping them in business and a few more that like the WWE, but large amounts of people to make these billions of dollars, worth while.

You're going to have to have four or five different services if you get them, if they'll let you to watch all of just all of the wrestling shows. It's ridiculous. Did you see about the AEW business, their online business?

I don't know where you're going with it. I was just going to say, for cable customers like us, it's actually a good deal. If you can embrace streaming in any way, it's a bonus, it's an ad on. Other people. I embrace streaming when I get up the first thing in the morning and relax my fucking squeeze them's muscles.

That's what I embrace the streaming. As long as it's not in your fine mattress, some Helix sleep. AEW, no, you know, that one's for later. In the middle of the night, though, if you get these super absorbent geriatric mattress, but just real briefly, I'm not going to read all this gaga, but AEW in their line of the world, the Discovery Global is planning a new streaming service. And it would seem that AEW might move to the service. But they're splitting all the companies up and listen to this quote.

I'm trying to find where it starts. Okay. Wrestling, this is from Uncle Dave. Wrestling is a weird one because HBO Max does list AEW under sports and those with knowledge of how it does say it was number two behind the NBA. But they've lost the NBA. However, it isn't a sport, and it's not under the T&T sports umbrella. And the new service in theory is taking the T&T sports properties.

But from what we are told, AEW is under contract to Max as part of the deal they signed through the end of 2027. So they would be unique being on TBS, TNT, and HBO Max through the end of 2027. but basically with the discovery people breaking up all of their goddamn TV networks and streaming and etc. They don't even know whether AEW's fish or foul. What are you going to goddamn have to have to watch them? Read a book. That's what I say.

A survey just came out. That's the most attractive hobby to women, men who read. Well, no wonder I've always done fairly well. Well, yeah. This has been a sidetracked. I don't know where, ladies and gentlemen. I just, it's what the, it's a pain in the ass already. Hours and hours of your week that we are expected to give up our attention to these people

and their various ongoing dramatic remittitions. And then now we got to chase how to fucking watch. I ought to just get the goddamn antenna. I had when I was a teenager. I don't know if it'll work now. A big giant wine guard antenna about 22 feet long with a 10-foot mast on it with a rotor where I could turn it 360 degrees.

I could pull in all kinds of TV stations and I didn't have to, once I bought the thing, didn't have to pay a penny for it. See again, you ought to look at streaming, I guess the best way to look at it is a smart TV, which you've now seen. The streaming services are just channels, and you go to the channels,

and you pick what you want to see on the channels. You just have to log in, set up your account, And then hopefully the TV doesn't reset itself and make you do that over and over and over. Uh-huh. Which sometimes happens. That's why I haven't watched TV in the office up here in about the past four years because I got one of them in a every two weeks that has days. Can you come over and hook this thing up again? Says it's offline.

Hey, realistically, let me give you three options. Here are the options. We're going to change a topic here, ladies and gentlemen. Yeah. Let me give you three options. Survivor Series Between Survivor Series and Royal Rumble We have four options

Between Royal Rumble and WrestleMania Or after WrestleMania When do you think Vince is going to be back on WWETV? Oh, good Lord. Honestly, I don't know that they're going to do that Because it will overshadow the work they're doing with Paul Levec now. It's hard to even call him Triple

H. It's like the old Eddie Graham thing. I've got to get dusty out of Florida because I can't get anybody else over. They're painting Triple H as the picture. Unless they just

or painting the picture of Triple H, I should say, as the leader, as the guy, as the new visionary that's taken them into, you know, the promised land, whatever the fuck. If Vince comes back in anything meaningful in any kind of speaking part even to just say hey thank you i'm back

meeting the you know the ladies out back or whatever it overshadows triple h and his aura and his authority and if i can't believe that he would just come back nor would they feel it was necessary to do one of him while he's just here he's sitting in the crowd he's not going to accept an award Vince McMahon and then he can stand up and people go Oh my God, look at that face Yeah, no, he's not going to do that

And he's not, they're not going to give him nor is he going to accept an award I don't think they're going to do that They're not going to They showed a clip of him in the Hogan tribute You know, holding his arm up, etc. Something like that, they're not going to erase him from history. is he still on YouTube?

He's not on those Saturday night main event intros. It makes it sound like Jesse Ventura was a one-man commentary team. Well, but they're not going to stick it down anybody's throat. And also because they were featuring, and I guess still are contractually obligated to have Jesse as a part of Saturday night's main event.

That made sense. The point I'm making is they're not going to remind you a bunch, but they're not going to erase him. But I don't expect seen back on TV. I don't know what good it, what good it would serve either side to that extent. It's going to be funny when he tries to start something up and he can't get a deal anywhere because WWE has all the deals everywhere.

Well, and that's, you know, another of the things is they may not be anxious or if he would want to, but would they ask him when they know that he'd just as soon meet somebody at one of their TVs while he was making a guest appearance and then take their deal away from him. Jim, I have some quotes here that a bunch of listeners have been said. sending in, let me ask you about him. I guess this is filed under the category of, is this true or not? Or what do you think? Oh boy. Paul Heyman was recently on the Ariel Hawani show, talking about his relationship with Hulk Hogan. Here's a quote. He was always

super cool to me. You know, and even cooler to me, once he knew that I was riding with Afa and Sika, the Wild Samoans, because he loved the Wild Samoans, and they loved him. every time I saw him, he was a complete gentleman to me. The best thing he, I know people have both their glowing love of Hulk Hogan, and I know people have their behind the scenes how much they hated him. And that's a sentence there somehow. But first thing he's just saying he had positive experiences when he was a photographer as a teenager.

Well, yes, and that's, you know, again, a lot of time that I was around Hulk Hogan was when I was a teenager, at least. little bit before that because since I'm a few years older than Paul, even though, I mean, look at the difference. But, you know, and if he's riding, Hogan would have treated him like some gibroni if he didn't know that he was riding with Afa and Sika and he was kind of halfway smart to the bed. Of course, I'm sure Paul exaggerated his credentials like he does everywhere else.

But, but yes, Hogan was very polite to him. And you've always talked about the story where Haman ran up to you one day. showed up and said, you're not going to believe this. I ran into Jack Nicholson at the China Club, and he said to watch out for the racket. Yeah. And you just thought it was bullshit. You couldn't believe, you don't buy it in any way. Exactly. Yes. Yes. Okay. So this would have been the same time period here. Hamon recalled starting in WCW in 1988, managing his version of the Midnight Express against Jim Cornett's team. A few months in, during tour in Chicago

Heyman had a memorable interaction with Hulk Hogan Uh-oh Here's a quote I pull up A limousine pulls up behind me I get out of the car Hulk Hogan gets out of the limousine Brother how you doing brother

Hey man So since you're still doing it right I don't know if this is translated Or what this is You're doing it great Talk to me for a minute brother No so wait a so Hogan comes up to him.

He's like, oh, I see, Polly dangerously, is what you're saying. That kid who used to ride with Offensica. He established that they would have known him or Hogan would have known him from years earlier. Yes. Well, and now, to be fair, he's on TV, he's worked for Vern. He's been into business about a year and a half at this point, Paul has. But I'm sure Hogan was watching like I was, taping every wrestling program available at that point. So we get into his limo, and we get into his limo in the first.

First thing he says, he goes, how long's your contract for? I'm a big fan of your work. Oh, boy. Paul Heyman was surprised to find out that Hulk Hogan, the biggest start in wrestling, was his fan. Before Haman could even express his respect for Hulkster, Hogan began praising him, saying, All he's doing is, Brother, I'm only as good as the opponents they bring me.

They always need opponents, and you could talk for my opponents. And there's only so many times I could bounce around Bobby Heenan, only so many times I can throw Jimmy Hart over the top rope we gotta get you in here Heyman found the moment touching he said Hulk Hogan treated others He found it touching He said Hulk Hogan treated others the same way And always acted graciously

Why was it? Why did he go? Well again there's no firm conclusion to that story here My question was What he had told you What he would have said something to you during that period of time if Hulk Hogan had pulled up behind him in a limo had a secret meeting with him saying come to the WWF. Well, possibly, but at the same time,

if it was legitimately it happened and no, he wouldn't have told me, because I wouldn't be standing in front of him because he would have gone. Because it's the thing. Yes, they signed a contract to him and Dennis and Randy when they came in. Actually, I don't know if they signed a contract

when they first came in, because Dennis left after three months and nobody fucking made it. think about it. And they finished Randy up not long thereafter. And Paul, as we know, between the time he came in with him at 88 and the time that I left in 90 had already been fired once and he got fired again.

I don't know what his contract status was the first six months he was in a company, okay? He might not have even had one because Dusty had brought them in when we asked them to because we needed somebody to work with. But is certainly, what time period did you say that he said this was, this was 89 or when he first went in? They said it was right after he went in after a few tours in Chicago. So I'm placing that at early to mid-1989. Okay, maybe.

Again, did they run, did the WWF run in town against us in February 89 when we did the pay-per-view, Shytown Rumble? Were they even in the same town as us that night? that was February. But nevertheless, Pauli dangerously had just left the sinking ship of the AWA, had come to Crockett promotions pretty much almost at the same time as they were on the say-so of of me and the Middoubt Express through Booker Dusty Roads, at the same time as they'd just been bought by Turner Broadcasting, where they bring in George Scott as Booker and put them,

Paulie calls me the first thing, oh God, we're doomed. He never used managers. And they took me and Paul and the rest of the managers off the road at the live events for a couple months until they relented. And Paul and I were trying to pay our own way to go to make the fucking match. And our angle with the midnight midnight

was basically cut off and ended by that February paper view. And Paul was as miserable as I was. So do you think that if the biggest star in wrestling had made a personal invitation to him, I need somebody to manage my opponents, please come and work for Vince McMahon, and you'll be my, the sunshine lollipops, rainbows, and, you know,

creamsicles. What the fuck do you think he would have done? If he was under contract, he would have done it in six months? I can think of one reason why he wouldn't have. Why? What did Hulk Hogan say? How many times can I throw Bobby Hennon around?

How can I bounce him around? How many times can I throw Jimmy Hart over the top rope? Hammond wasn't doing any of that. If Hulk Hogan, if he was looking for a manager to take a bump, that wasn't going to happen. Well, but he was working with me. No, he would have worked around it. Believe me. He would have figured out a way he would have carrying cross that some bitch.

You think I'm taking a bump, but I'm not. but no no that's because again a lot of people are thinking about well Paul Heyman's a big name in the industry and he you know had a he didn't even have ECW he didn't have shit he had his own press agency and he'd been on TBS for four months so it's not like I'm trying to be detrimental to his his talent but no Hokogen didn't beg him to come there four months into the fucking run This would have been right after Jack Nicholson told him to watch out for the rackets.

I mean, he's hearing it from every side. He's hearing, you know, every celebrity he meets has something to say about this. See, but I get that's why he didn't go to work with Hulk because our angle was so hot even Nicholson was a fan. All right, Jim, our next question sent via email the corny drive-thru at gmail.com is from Ken Miller. What is Jim's favorite breakfast cereal?

Oh, good Lord. Do you know how long it has been since I have had any type of breakfast cereal in my mouth? Do you have it in your pants? Where else would you have it? Well, I used to keep some in my pocket just in case I got hungry on the road. I have probably not had cereal since I lived here at home with my mother before I ever moved away. So, let's say, since I was 20 years old, and because she would have it in the pantry,

and when I would want a snack, I would take Rice Krispies and put them in a bowl of milk and then put extra sugar on top of them, because that's the only reason I was eating the goddamn shit to begin with. Just sugar, just sugar everywhere. Well, all my teeth are crowned. And otherwise, that I've never eaten cereal in my fucking life. And Stace has cereal, but she had, like, the healthy wheat type of this.

It's like chewing roofing tile and all that stuff. And even milk doesn't help that. So it was rice crispy's because they were, I got to have some crispness and some crackily and some poppy. But at the same time, it's got to have a bunch of sugar on it. So you've never tried cocoa puffs? Corn pops? Well, I went cuckoo for cocoa puffs when I was a kid. but my mother didn't

eat cogo pups so I still like having cereal around just I can grab a handful and chew on it well see you're a strange strange individual maybe so maybe so but I have good cereal otherwise but no and in the 80s when I went on a diet and I was trying to stay away from fried food

I came up with a recipe from somewhere where that you would break up the the Kellogg's corner and mash them into a goddamn chicken breast and bake that. And it was like an oven fried chicken. But now they have actual oven fried chicken mix, so I haven't had the need to smash my own corn flakes. All right.

Well, that was your favorite cereal. Jim, let's get another question here. Jim, this next one was sent via email. Actually, my favorite cereal, if you want to just know the truth, was the Green Hornet, yes, the 40s version. and then followed by the perils of Pauline. But go ahead. Jim, our next email sent the corny drive-thru at gmail.com.

Zombies of the stratosphere was another good cereal. This is sent in by Brian, but people call me hutch. I'm a fellow Lovillian as well. Anyways, I was wondering if you ever had any problems with any referees in Smoky Mountain or WWF or any other promotion. Did you have any arguments, fights? or disagreements. Thank you for the show. Keep up the great work.

With referees. You ever just have like a prickly referee that you had problems with? That wasn't one of the regular ones? Well, remember that fucking weasel son of George Scott's Byron Scott became a referee in WCW for a little while when they hired him during the period we just mentioned. And even Bobby Eaton didn't like him. He's the one human being.

I remember Bobby just coming up on his own rather than even agreeing with a It was like he'd come out with it on his own. Look at that stooge. But we never had words with him. I didn't have any problems with or issues with the referees in Smoky Mountain because I hired all of them. I wouldn't have ever once in a while, we had one referee in Smoky Mountain that I would have to encourage him to up his game every once in a while. But it wasn't in a flash. Well, he just.

he was dedicated but every once in a while he'd do so inexperience you know whatever but no um i mean you know there was the the the referees that they had from the state athletic commissions when crockett first started going up i mentioned new york new jersey i think maybe oh god damn a pennsylvania was another one and and maybe you know one of the other northern states that they were just so old and they didn't know our spots. They didn't, they couldn't keep up with the pace and it hurt the match, that type of thing. But I can't remember just outright having a, out of all the stories I've ever told you, Brian, has a referee ever just completely fucked up and had to be throttled within an inch of his life?

I can't think of one. I'm trying to just think of referees you didn't like working with even. Taking the person out of the equation as a referee, was David Manning tough to be a heel in their work? No, I mean, I got along with David Manning. He was, he was, the, the referees in Dallas were a little bit glory happy, except for Bronco Lubits, you didn't care, bless him. But then you've got Bronco on the spot shows he's counting with his foot.

Yeah, he couldn't get up and down by that point. But David Manning was, you know, he was like the Bruce Pritchard of the, of the Fritz von Eric world-class wrestling office. He was dedicated and there from daylight till dark and that whole thing and a little bit full of poop. But he was another Rick Hazard even who rode with me in the Midnight Express on some of the shows while we were there. He was one of the referees. He was from Georgia originally. he was a fun guy we'd have a problem with him are there ever any issues with that with it well

that's quite with David manning you had to you know it was hard to get heat because he was going to stay baby face but he was going to be there forever so he had a point I'm sorry go ahead you know there are issues with baby faces and heels riding together any issues with the heels riding with the referee well no that that's the thing it's you could tell a referee in the territory days with K-Faib, was neutral.

In terms of, you know, if guys had to get a ride and make it to the show, you know, a promoter or the booker or whoever was not going to yell at a referee if he rode with one of the boys, or a lot of times the referees would drive and they'd charge some of the underneath boys trans to ride in their car so it helped them make ends meet. So referees were neutral. But you could tell the top referee. in most of the territories, the main event referee,

he would choose to ride with the baby faces on purpose. And sometimes that Jerry Calhoun in Memphis was Jerry Lawler's brother-in-law at the time. So people kind of knew anyway. So there was sometimes reasons why Jerry Calhoun wouldn't be seen with the guy that was about to kill Lawler next week. But if Thomas Marlin was in a he'd ride with Dundee all the time or some of the top baby faces, but Paul Morton bless him.

It was whoever is usually going to pay him trans or maybe Pat Malone just for the conversation or whatever. And it was accepted. But the baby face referees were harder to work with for the heels because they wouldn't, even if you were good at distracting them, they wouldn't stay distracted for two more seconds long enough for you to do your deal. They had to turn around and catch it.

They were strong baby faces. That's the thing. We're just baby faces. They were old, like strong baby faces. Yes, like how broke, none of your nonsense here tonight when you're trying to have the fucking match, right? But Fergie used to, with Carl Fergie, they brought him to Louisiana to be a referee. He had wrestled in Tennessee, but he was making more money referee in in Louisiana than he was

wrestling in Tennessee. But every time I'd jump up on the fucking apron to distract. him in a finish where I had to and the boys are going to do something behind his back. He's like, oh, Courtney, let me turn around. You're killing my blowjobs. You're killing my blow jobs. And then if it was the spot where then he would shove me down and turn around and the baby faces had foiled it and he would count the baby faces and they'd win, I'd go, okay, Ferg, get

your blow job, but he'd shove me down. He'd turn around and count one, two, three. Yeah, the Rock and Roll Express wins. every time he shoved me down he thought about getting blown who was the referee the night that the local ring announcer or the local timekeeper went in the business for themselves it wouldn't ring the bell because they wanted to see the rock and roll express beat the midnight express oh god um because what are you do in that situation

if you're the referee i would i would almost want to say that it was Tommy young just because you know chances are it was a main event in Charleston, South Carolina in the Crockett territory that early in January 86. But it may have been Sunny Fargo, Roughhouse. Oh, really? Because he was still a referee into 1986 and refereed a lot of, that's why me and Bobby especially always got a kick out of it because her referee is Roughhouse Fargo. And he was a stiffest son of a bitch.

boy if he touched you in any way and or to try to get him to if I can turn his back but if that's the thing it was like it took a few minutes to realize and I guess we've lost a few members of the audience but early in the Midnight Express

and Rock and Roll Expresses run in the Carolinas it was a world tag team title match it was, I guess probably, was it, when did they want from the, it was January or February, before we won it on the Super Station, the Superstars on the Super Station special?

February 86. Okay, sometime in January, I don't have them in I Express book in front of me. But we're defending, or they're defending, or no, they were defending. So that, wait a minute,

have I fucked this whole story up? I'm not sure. You've started, several matches. No. It was us defending the title against them, so it was right after we won it. Because the point being, we were supposed to go with 60 minute Broadway and that, well, you know, but the timekeeper was one of the local in Charleston, was it the

VFW, Veterans of Foreign Wars or some type of, he was an older fellow that had been there forever as part of the sponsoring group, or whatever. And we'd gone the 60 minutes, but he wouldn't ring the bell because he was convinced the Rock and Roll Express were about to win.

And they had been calling the time like five minutes remaining, you know, Crockett did that back in those days, five minutes gone, 10 minutes gone, whatever. And the boys had timed their shit to where they,

the rock and roll's making it to come back. We got a minute or two left and you're doing some false finishes. and after one minute we didn't hear shit. And everyone like, what the fuck? And that's why I look over in the time kit's a local timekeeper too. And I'm like, what the fuck? And they're just not looking at me.

So they went a couple more minutes. And that's when we had to say, fuck it. And we did a top rope DQ or whatever it was. It's in the book. But the promoter, Henry Marcus, went to, the guy afterwards and said, why didn't you ring the bell? And he said, I was just, I was watched, I was so convinced the Rocker Roll Express was going to win if I just said, if they just had a little more time. And if fuck.

So, but in all the local towns in those days, you had local ring announcers from the radio station or even just a local guy and local timekeepers from the sponsoring group, the V.S. FW and the announcer in Evansville, Indiana for years, was just a member of the state athletic commission that was a nice fellow, but as dry as fucking toast. But just, you know, it just happened to be whoever it was. Do you remember the first time you worked with Tommy Young? And did you guys like gel right away? Did it take time? I mean, you worked really well with him.

No, the first time we worked with him was the first time. week we were working for Crockett. I can't remember the exact match or a specific show, but he was the main referee. So the first week we worked in it, and well, we came to work for Crockett. We were in Georgia, but still, you know, we did the syndicated TV. So shortly after we got to work for Crockett, mid-85. And, I mean, you didn't really need to work hard to gel with Tommy. He was brilliant.

He was best in-ring referee that we ever worked with, and he was just natural. And he was fun for me to work with and play off of because he was so good at not, he had his own personality, but it didn't look phony. It wasn't over the top. It was legitimate for him, and people could tell.

And just the little things that he did, we've talked about it a million times in the ring in matches or the way he went for the counts or the urgency with some things or the puzzlement of other things or registering on his face when he saw he had made a three count but he looks up and he sees the champion's leg on the ropes and then there's the oh my god i've made a mistake it would just flowed with him and we could argue back and forth with the people all day long and they liked it, but it was a natural you know, back and forth rather than something

that we really planned. He just picked up on shit, and then we did it. All right, Jim, our next question sent via email to corny drive-thru at gmail.com. I'm moving my mouse around the lot. I apologize. Was sent in by Alex and North Carolina watching some old WWF matches from 1999. and it got me to think, would Big Bubba Rogers had gotten over as Jim's bodyguard

if he had the leaner but intimidating look he had in 1999? Interesting question, because shortly after he turned babyface in 1990, he did get a lot leaner then than what he had been previously, but to the question, would it have made any difference

to the success of Big Bubber Rogers? Well, what, but he said in 1990, is that I got confused there at the start. Help me out with the start of it. He's saying he's watching WWF from 1999, and when Big Bossman was there, as part of the corporation, I would presume, he was leaner and more intimidating,

he thought that when he was bigger and intimidating. Well, yes, but he wouldn't have gotten over as my bodyguard in 1999, because I wouldn't even on television. Would 1999 Big Bossman work in 1986 managing Jim Cornett or managing bodyguarding. Thanks for the question.

Yes, worded so well as it was. Here's the thing is what I'm trying to tell you there. I think Bubba was perfect when he was Bubba Rogers for the thing that they were doing just because he was so much bigger at 350, 360 pounds, you know, when he first started, he was so much bigger than the baby faces and everybody else. And even he was heavier than the road warriors.

But he could move so flexibly and so quickly and for a big guy, but he could do all that shit. And he didn't look like a bodybuilder type of fellow. So it was a completely different kind of a more healish, kind of size and bully. And also, nobody had any frame of reference for what he had never been anybody before. They'd never seen him before. Nobody knew anything than what, that they were being presented, that he was just

killing people and just didn't sell anything. And you didn't often find in those days a guy that could be put into a top spot and last more than a short period of time because he sucked. You were just trying to steal a house out of him. You couldn't find a guy that they had never seen before and stick him in a top spot and have them get over on an ongoing basis. And he did. And but at the same time,

people forget it in 1986, 1987, he was only like 23 or 24 years old. Yeah, see, that's the thing. Once he has the full beard, he looks so much older than he is. Yeah. Well, and that was by design

because he had such a baby face. They wouldn't have taken, they wouldn't have been scared of Big Bubba Rogers without, you know, a little, a little disguise there. But by the time he's boss man in the early 90s,

and also he needed the size with Hogan. But then he had to slim down not only because he was having, he had any issues. I can't remember chapter and verse, but just because he needed to lose the baby fat if he was going to continue to perform athletically at that level, in 1999, you know, he's almost 40. So, yeah, he couldn't be that big and be doing that stuff.

But by then he was over as two different people. so it didn't it didn't harm his aura i don't know that even though he was in better physical shape in 1999 if we'd have started him out like that you know 15 years earlier if he'd got over as as well does that make any sense i think so what do you remember about the match with the rock Olli Anderson at a Crockett Cup 87. Oh, good Lord. Actually, if you go back and watch it now, for a guy that's only been in the business at like a fucking year at that level,

Bubba, I thought was fucking tremendous. And they had a believable fucking fight. Because, you know, Oli's not going to back down from anything. But Bubba sometimes would, and Oli would be going, make me, make me. You know, so with, I didn't. I didn't know he said that. What? No, yeah, no, make me, beg me.

If he's going to be backing up. You know, that kind of shit. So that's what in the old days, especially the Anderson brothers, they'd get in those exchanges or the funks would do it too. Guys would be throwing punches and the baby face would start coming back.

And they'd either say, keep going, keep going, or make me, make me. Work for it. Work for it. I get such a kick out of baby face. kick out of baby face holy like trying to get the crowd going he's like marching in place just everything about this guy who's been a heel forever all of a sudden being mr baby face

yeah and and the same thing when he was a baby face selling he start firing back up and if you didn't make him stay down he would fire back up and just take over uh but when you look at those matches now they're so different from it's so refreshing from what to see what that looked like versus the shit you see every day now from everybody. Jim, our next question was sent in to Quarney Drive-Thru at gmail.com from Jason in Baltimore, Maryland. I have a what-if type question for you.

How would the Midnight Express errors have differed if Dennis and Stan had swapped their runs? For instance, how would your time in world class at Mid-South have been different with Stan? and how would Dennis have done in the late 80s NWA? I firmly believe they came in the right order because honest to God and Stan had had a little bit more success

with the fabulous ones by 1983 or the end of 83. I think Bill Watts, not him personally, I think Bill Watts is scheduled, Bill Watts's company, Bill Watts's territory, would have run Stan Lane off in six months. And I think he would have said, I don't want to be here anymore, and he would have gone and done something else.

Not even personal with us or just, we can't live like this. Maybe we would have all left and gone somewhere else, but I don't know if he'd have put up with it that long. The first time somebody tard and feathered one of his cars, but the road. schedule and the fans, belligerence and violence and the, did I mention the road schedule and even for the money?

Because he and Steve had been doing quite well, even in Memphis to that point. Dennis and Bobby were a little more motivated to get the check. But I can't see poor Stan have, because even the schedule. that he took on to come in as part of the midnight with Crockett and then he'd already started expanding so across the country a lot more airplanes but I think we spent more time in the van that Dennis bought from Stan than Stan had spent in it to begin with and just the multiple shows and the you know the territory it would have driven Stan out of his mind that he wouldn't be able to go out to a

a nightclub that you didn't think he was, you know, he was going to end up stabbed with a broken bottle in and fucking, just that level of heat down there. He would have had to have, Dallas he would have loved. He would have loved Dallas

because you could, you were a star on television and you could go to all these fancy places and the Hoy Ploy would make over you and everything. But he wouldn't have made it through Louisiana before he said, fuck it, I'd rather goddamn, as Sid said one time,

go sell farm chemicals. What about the money? I mean, without revealing anything that, uh, you know, you don't need to reveal. Well, no, Stan had been, Stan and Steve, the fabs for the previous two years,

they probably weren't between the pay they got in Memphis and the gimmicks they'd been selling. They weren't far from making what me and Bobby and Dennis were turned cartwheels and handsprings for in Louisiana, all things considered by the time you take in the extra travel. I firmly believe with all of my heart that they were making Stan and Steve 75, 80 grand and maybe more with gimmicks because of the level they were at. and they were certainly not making less than $1,000 a week just from wrestling.

And then, you know, pictures on top of it, and they were the hottest picture sellers, and they were doing $4,000 a week in pictures and T-shirts at their hottest run, 83, 84, something like that. So they're splitting that, but still, my last check before I left Memphis was six, $60 as I believe we read off on the program here a while back. So with $4,000 a week, I'll entertain the option of letting somebody take a stab at me, literally.

And again, he left Memphis, Stan and Stephen. They went to the AWA, which, although the weather may not be to what Stan like, the schedule probably was. You know, the weather outside was frightful, but they worked 17, 18 days and all big buildings and major towns. So, you know, I don't think it would have just been a, he would have been miserable. That's part of the reason. That's part of the reason why he didn't stay longer and smoke him out. We finally decided to retire because instead of being in like the, not even staying at the Marriott, but being within distance of it while we were at the Red Roof Inn,

he could walk across the street to the airport Marriott in Atlanta or whatever. now he's at the Super 8 in Morristown, Tennessee, and there ain't nowhere to go. And that didn't, Stan Lane cannot live like that. Tom Pritchard was fine. He's going to the fucking room. He don't give a shit.

And what about Dennis? Let's say you had 1984 Dennis as you were going through everything in 1988 with the sale to Turner and the booking. How would that have worked? I think, Dennis was always, always the guy who was able to get more heat,

but Stan was always the guy that was more cosmetically pleasing for the pay-per-view era. And I'm afraid that again, in reverse, Dennis may not have carried off the spot that we had for the last, what, year and a half of Crockett and then WCW was just the blonde pretty boy heel team to go out and have the tear down the house match on the upper card be the U.S. tag champions, whatever the case,

and be able to be plugged back into the main events if necessary. And I think Stan looked better for the pay-per-view era and more television-friendly than Dennis did. Part of his tan and flowing locks. Jim, our next question sent via email the corny drive-thru at gmail.com is from Mac. Just a quick question. Do you think that Punk and Rollins

is this generation's Michaels and Brett? Two guys that hate each other, but we'll work together to make millions. Do you see a comparison at all? Well, I mean, I guess I didn't know exactly where he was going, but I don't think that Seth and Punk have anywhere near

the what's the word I'm searching for, the irritation amongst each other. They don't, they don't dislike each other nearly as much as Sean and Brett did at one period of time. I know they were friends first and then they made amends to however degree years afterwards, but at the height of the thing,

I can't imagine that Punk and Seth dislike each other anymore because they were they were going into, well, I say they, mostly Sean, but potentially Brett was sandbagging a few interviews, but they were sabotaging each other on live television. Whereas so far, Punk and Seth haven't done that. So in the ring, classic rivalry, you've got a point going there, two guys that at various points

or four guys that at various points are kind of like the state of the dark guy in the ring in the company or whatever. But I don't think the real life negativity is anything like what Michael's and heart was where it's just going to spill over where they're fighting in the fucking bathroom. Maybe I'm wrong, and they just hide it better. Yeah, the money may help. But who knows?

Jim, let's talk about some retro figures. I have some here, some. recent arrivals. Let's get your thoughts on some of these. I have here from a rather new toy company, La Tooney. Now, what? I thought it was L-A-Tuny, but apparently it's La Tune, L-A-T-O-O-N-I-E. Latunee! It's a very catchy name, I must say. They are doing... It's on the tip of your tongue. They are doing a line of retro L-J-N-style figures called Wrestling Giant Series, and I have here Andre the Giant Was that his footstep coming?

That's her! So that's one of those big Peter North rubber jobs that just clunks down on the desk there. This is the biggest Andre the giant LJN in size ever, LJN style and size ever made. If you put it next to an LJN, it's approximately two heads taller

and he's in his... What's the... girth like. Let's let's not talk too dirty, but if you're through it at someone, they would go down quick. Oh, so you can go down on it at the same time. All right. I'm trying to keep this clean. That's one of those specialty items. This is not what you're supposed to do with this fine, fine toy. It's gigantic. Did Vince name it? Did Vince name it? This is my Andre the Giant. That you mean, like, did he say this? Oh, boy, howdy. I'll tell you what. Oh, come on now. Talk about a square peg in a round hole.

Do you know Andre the Giant was so big as bathtub at stretch marks? You've heard about this. What do you think you should do with Andre the Giant? If you're making toys and let's say, let's look at WWE's Mattel line, for instance, because they try to, I think, to the best of their ability or something like that, make it to scale so that a wrestler who's 5 foot 10,

that figure would look the same scale next to someone 6'5. Yes. If you're doing Andre, what do you do? Do you make them seven foot four? Do you make him six foot ten? No, you make him eight feet tall. He's got to accentuate the positive and deliminate the negative. And don't mess with Mr. Inbetween. Go all the way. Be Jack Pfeffer with it. Make him about a time and a half bigger than the other ones because that's the idea of Andre the giant. And then the little kitties could all swarm Andre and take him down and tie a net around him like they did. Gulliver when he visited the land of Lilliput.

Gulliver. And set fire to his toes. All right. Well, let's move on from there. Maybe someone will put out a new line of Gulliver's Travels Toys. Well, yeah, he went all over the place. Jim Hestell Toys, we've mentioned them in the past. They're brand new grapplers and gimmicks.

It's not brand new anymore, but their grapplers and gimmicks line has several new figures. I have here the model Rick Martel with his perm a sweater wrapped around his neck and a can of arrogance in the Hasbro style Rick Martel

does he get his due as a baby face or as a heel? Oh, I thought you meant from the toy company. No, and by the way the finishing maneuver is the arrogance splash.

Oh boy. Which has never... Yeah, I don't know. Did you ever see him do a splash? Not the arrogant splash, no. And you know, that is a shame because Rick Martel does not, he was a tremendous worker, both as a baby face,

he was good-looking, white meat, as they used to say, guy that when he sold, you know, the fans get behind him, but he was a very good in-ring technical worker as far as executing the moves, but also in terms of psychology and knowing how to sell and et cetera. and as a heel, he's French-Canadian,

and, you know, with love to our friends up there in the French-Canadian parts of Canada, but they're a bunch of heat-getting motherfuckers. And so the accent helped, and the model look helped, and I can see where they came up with the gimmick for him because he was so smiley and purdy, but excellent worker, but nobody,

you don't see any Rick Martell, matches is Rick Martel on any of the highlights they play of other people. Now that you've brought him up, why do we not see more Rick Martel these days, just even by accident? Was he never even in with any of the guys they still like? Well, one thing to remember, he is one of the guys that during his career, which he took very seriously, invested his money, I believe in real estate, and made a fortune to the point where he doesn't have to do conventions or any of these things that

some guys have to do. Well, no, I didn't even say that. I'm just saying it seems like there's no footage played of with it. I don't remember all these other documentaries that they've done on these other people or specials, them, them beating up Rick Martel, do you? They're just not showing any footage. He's not mentioned. He's not talked about.

Well, again, it would be old footage at this point, but he was a world champion. If he don't need any goddamn money, then what are they doing in these figures? Is this some bootleg shi? or is he raking these people over the coals over at Hastel Toys? I don't know how it works, but it's a very nice looking figure, and again, a very cool little can of arrogance, the spray. What's it smell like? It doesn't not have a scent.

Jim, another figure from Hasdale Toys? They should just put a little alcohol in there with a hint of taint. Jim, I have here. Yes. Damien Demento. Oh, Jesus Christ. With this finishing move, the demented drop. This is apparently Damien Demento,

and it comes with, I don't know what you would call his shoulder pad situation, but a very nicely put together figure. It looks like it's in the Hasbro style perfectly. Jim, was he still there when you came in? Because he was there early 93, and let's talk about guys that look like killers in the magazines, and then you saw them wrestle. Yeah, you know, and that's the thing is,

I'm trying to remember, was he there? We came in late July 1993. I agree. You know, he's one of those guys that, yeah, it was a great look, but you don't really remember the matches. I only remember him standing there. I don't remember one match he ever fucking had. See, I was seeing him on local TV here. He was an IWCCW Mando Clean. And he kind of had like a, you know, I hate to say road warriors because he didn't have face paint, but like that kind of looked. He had the crazy hairdo and the shoulder pads and. Yeah. And I'm thinking maybe he might even. have been on a Dennis Coraluzzo show or two that I might have been around. I'm not, but also there was a Damien Demento and a Danny Demento, wasn't there.

Well, this is Damien. Well, this is, Daniel is Flats Domino. So the point is, yeah, great look, but hey. Which name passes the name test? Mondo Queen or the name Vince McMahon gave him, Damien Demento. Well, I mean, I don't know if I would put the bet the farm on either one of them. them, but I would go with Damien Demento over Mondo Clean unless I was baldheaded with earrings and peddling Lysol.

Jim, one more from the Hastel Toys, Grapplers and Gimmicks Line, brand new Santa Claus, a new Santa Claus Hasbro-style figure with his finishing move, the sack attack. And it comes with a big white sack. You know, Santa Claus, even when I was a kid, he had a big white sack. What do you think of the idea of doing a Santa Claus figure? There have been numerous appearances by an alleged Santa Claus on wrestling throughout the year. Sometimes not as a heel.

Well, that's the thing is, I don't, is this part of the, you know, Christmas toy line of Santa and his evil dwarves? Or do they have, you know, Mrs. Claus to go with it or just because Santa sometimes pops in on a wrestling show, they should do Santa Claus? I actually I believe that is in the works because I saw he's doing a Bals Mahoney and a Santa Claus it looks like. Oh my God. Okay. Mitch and Haskell Toys.

Hello Mitch. Well, then do Boo Bradley and you've got him covered. But poor old Santa Claus, maybe I could see that, but I don't know about Santa Claus because, you know. That is one of those things we still need as a line of guys in their Smoky Mountain. I hate to say character, but as they weren't Smoky Mountain, we have a Tony Anthony as a plumber. Apparently there's one coming up with him as a hill.

billy but not one of him is the dirty white boy which he was for like 15 years well Jim let's go to another line of toys here these just came in

a lot of people like me were waiting for him and these are spectacular these guys deliver every time epic toys their wrestling megastar series four new figures

I'll start with this one Barry Windham and he's wearing the vest it's a soft goods vest little leather vest here that he wore in the early 90s but it's like the 1988

89 version of Barry Wyndham blonde hair you could change his hand to give him a claw hand with the black glove what did you think of Barry Windham when he finally turned heel in 1988 oh and again you know BW from

what 1984 through 1989 or thereabouts was just a surreal in how good he was in the ring for a guy that tall and that body weight,

how he could move that fast and that gracefully and the effortless bumps he took and the way he threw himself into everything and he had the he could sell his ass off as a baby face but as a heel he had the mulligan demeanor he was

incredible in the ring and everybody considered him one of the top five guys in the ring in the business when it came to strictly pro wrestling performing. And, you know, again, with today's eyesight or today's glasses on, as they say, he was a dead gum good promo because he didn't sound canned and overdramatic and phony like the guys do today,

but he wasn't the promo of the people that surrounded him, the flares and the Arns and the Dusties and all of the NWA guys. So, you know, that's what everybody always wanted him to be the guy in the NWA, which he was in the ring. His promos may have been good enough to get by because he was so good in the ring, but he wasn't the charismatic vocal draw of, you know, the top guys. and then everything just kind of over the next few years went to hell. What did you think of the idea of him using the claw and wearing the black glove?

That was great because even though another generation had gone by in the Carolinas and Georgia, since Black Jack Mulligan had been the top guy there, and there was a whole other part of the country that maybe had not even seen Black Jack Mulligan. it wasn't like they were playing off of the thing with the like the new black jacks when Bradshaw and Wyndham were the new black jacks that ended copy lands in Mulligan it was just here's this fucking big

tall kid from Texas and he's got the fucking glove onto this claw hand that he's using and his hands were fucking big as the rest of him was big too don't take that the way it sounded and so it worked on his own, but it was an homage if you were in the know to Blackjack,

but you could also slip something in the glove and the blah, blah, blah. It was a thing as a heel to get heat. It wasn't just kind of corny because his dad did it. It was his own thing. I didn't mind that as a heel, he did great work at that time period. Were you surprised when they turned them? I mean, him and Lugar were just put together just before that. Lugar had just turned just before that.

Were you surprised when he turned on a Uger? You know, to be honest, I may have been, but I can't remember exactly it. I can't remember why they did it because it didn't involve us at that period of time. The horseman's money. That's right. And women. But I think at that point, they also, Oly had bowed out by that point, they wanted to beef up the horseman. and Flair loved Wyndham, and so JJ Dusty obviously did.

So it was just like, let's beef up the horseman. Jim, another figure from this line of wrestling megastars, epic toys, the barbarian. This is the look he had in the early 90s in the WWF after Bobby Heenan started managing him. after he kind of dropped the road warrior-esque look, grew his hair out, no more face paint and had fur. This figure here has a...

Did he also have antlers on a helmet? Or am I thinking of Nord? This figure has a removable antler crown. It also has a soft goods furry. It's actually very... It feels very nice. A furry... This is not a vest.

It is a cape, I guess you would say. the barbarian what do you think I mean he's got that name and it's such a great name what should his look be should it be something like that should it be something like the face painted

crazy guy in the Paul Jones family well I see where they were going with you know the the face paint and the leather wristbands and accoutrements that guys were wearing at that point in time if they were a big guy with you know a good

body was kind of an homage to the road warriors, well, not kind of an omai, outright ripoff for the most part of the road warriors. But the barbarian, to me, I can see if you would have more of a medieval type of, but I would hope maybe more of a Thor God of Thunder type of, you know, boots and, you know, whatever, maybe the furry cape but not like a caveman where it's kind of over the top funny because barbarian at that point was like looked like he would eat you for lunch or maybe a Conan type of thing is more what I'm trying to say but as I recall the antlers didn't look any any more serious on him than it did when the boogeyman tried

to wear him and it just kind of it it looked like it was a little too too carter as Frank Hickey would say and doomed him to the mid-cart. I just saw Body Slam again the other day for the first time in a while. I forgot how much I like his voice, the barbarian, because he could barely speak English, it seems like, but one of his lines, the M. Harry Smilak is, your name Smittick. He can't even say it, but his voice sounds so funny. Is he your name Smetik? He's been in his country for 45 fucking years, and he still talks,

Kind of like that. You know, they would have worked as a tag team. Look at them in that movie. T. Joe Khan and the Barbarian worked well together in terms of look and style at that point. Jim, two more figures here. Same line, epic toys. Steve, Dr. Death Williams. This comes with his white and red robe, his Dr. Death boots.

A fine looking figure here, Steve, Dr. Death Williams. Will we ever get an 84 mid-south, Dr. Death? Blue singlet, big gut. We will find out this one's in good shape. Finally, Jim, from Epic Toys, wrestling megastars, Rick Flair, and this is Rick Flair in his green robe with the green trunks and everything, but they actually have a fancy little robe here

that the figure comes with and give them credit. They are the first toy line to put out a Rick Flair figure in the last few years that doesn't have blowjob mouth. I know everyone wants it to go but when you actually try to put it in a figure it just looks he's ready to blow someone. Yeah, it's like a six-inch tall version of a sex doll, right? And I want to not only the rookie Dr. Desti Williams

before he lost the weight and trimmed down and had the blue singlet on, but how about the real rookie when he had a T-shirt on underneath that? That was real early. The white shirt? And with Flair now, is this the green, the lion, jungle robe, like Elvis's Jungle Room, the Jungle Robe?

Uh, yes, I believe so. It's, uh, yeah. So the, the figure only costs $39.95, but the robe costs $5,000, is what you're saying. Yeah, and I wonder if, uh, the estate of Mr. Restle to his wife gets a cut of these little robes that are made off her design, but this is a very nice looking figure. What do you think about Flair's colors? I've never been a fan of Flair and purple, even though there are matches I'd love. of a flare that he's wearing purple.

I never liked it. Green was okay, but the older he got, green wasn't really a flattering color. Red, I thought always worked, but he kind of stopped wearing red so much. White every now and then when he was a baby face or even a heel. What color was Rick Flair Bestin?

I liked, I'm with you on the green. I was never a big green fan. Remember that light blue robe that he had, I think he and Valentine when they were tag team champions had some type of blue concoction. But really, all of his stuff looked so nice and it was different designs.

And even if it was the same color, it was a different style or whatever. So except for, like I said, the green and honestly, I didn't have a problem with the purple. I thought the purple was cool. And he had different color tights, knee pads, or trunks, I should say, knee pads, boots for every occasion. Only the green. You see anything green?

Not a fan of the green. So you aren't a fan of the light blue trunks. You're not talking about the robe from Starcade 83, because I never like that robe, even though that's one of his most famous ones. I can't remember. But I like, I like blue. I'm a fan of blue, baby blue, robin's egg blue, navy blue, blue velvet, cordon blue. Well, again, very cool figure.

These are from Epic Toys. And on the topic of figures, you may want a Jim Cornett figure and there's a place to get it right now. And that's Cornett's collectibles at Jimcoronet.com. Well, that's exactly right. And folks, I don't even know if I can reveal the news right now because it may take till next week to get set up. But we have new product coming up on the website at Jim Cornett.com. You just go there and click on collectibles. so you'll want to tune in next week when we make that announcement.

And there's also always DVDs, books, T-shirts, action figures, and more. And big news coming up next month, it's just a couple weeks now. I will be able to reveal and revelate what the fine wrestling connoisseurs are going to be wanting to purchase out there this holiday season. For Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Arbor Day. and everything everybody celebrates. Cornosaurs. The cornosaurs. The cornucors of fine cornet collectibles.

Corners. That's right. At Jimcornet.com, all of those things. Right there. Well, you know, Jim, we're talking figures and we're talking commerce and we're talking storefronts. I actually don't know if we're talking storefronts,

but everyone needs a storefront, either real or virtually. Or imagine. If you have a business, a real business, not an imagined business, but you could use a virtual storefront. And of course, we have talked about how our online stores powered by our friends at Shopify, and we think we could tell a lot of other people something else, right, Jim? Something else, anything else. Just stop it.

Just stop it, man. I'll tell you what, right now you're going to get more than a storefront. You're going to get the whole dagum store. people when they walk through the door, they're not just going to automatically be in the backyard. You're going to get a store to go behind that storefront because that's how good Shopify is. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world.

10% of all e-commerce in the United States of America today is tied up with Shopify there and you can be, you can make it 11%. and they will send out a team of contractors and carpenters to build your store front and put your store behind it. And then they'll tell you how your shit ought to look when it goes on sale. And then they'll find your customers and they'll tell them all about it. They will send people up and down the streets of every major city tapping people on the shoulder going, hey, do you hear about Herb's seasoning? He's got seasoning for Dalmatian flanks. and you can buy it from us right and they'll pull it out of their pockets.

That's how personal the service from Shopify is. Brian, you've, well, as a matter of fact, you've seen the Shopify team wearing our show shirts. That's hard to say. Shopify team wearing our show shirts. They walk down the streets. They tap people on the shoulder. They say, hey, you ought to buy this shirt off of me?

That's not how it works. And some people will give them $10 just to get them to go away. They don't even want the shirt. Again, let's go back to the very beginning where we all began, ladies and gentlemen, virtual storefront, and you need a partner for your business, someone who can make sure your products are available everywhere on the World Wide Web, if we are still indeed calling it that. Of course, our online store, you can go to Arcadian Vanguard.com, but the great thing is, you can just go to the shop app and search for Jim Cornett, boom, drive-through t-shirts. The shop app is where you want to be for your products. And that's where that purple pay button is. is it purple brine or would you say that that's more of a lavender moth?

But nevertheless, even if it's more lilac-licky. Lylac. I would say it's lilacly-lucky. It's a very lilacly-y color purple that you can just punch that. Everybody knows what that is. You punch that button, the elevator comes the whole nine, nine yards. So anyway, Shopify, they'll help you with product images, product descriptions, generating discount codes,

social media campaigns, they will tell people about your product, and then they will enable them to give them money where they will then turn over and give it to you, and you will have the money

and you'll send out the product, and boom, and there goes the kid in a bicycle. And they've got 24-7 customer support in case you want to call a lawyer to sue that kid that ran you down with that bicycle. But you can turn your dreams

into reality. Reality. And cha-ching. Let's focus on, well, we can talk about kaching. There's kaching. I can't say it, but we can focus on it. Yes. Let's focus on reality.

The thing that is scaring me so much at this moment. Jim, yes. Reality is every businessman needs an online store that they know and trust a partner they can rely on. We trust Shopify. The wrestling toy makers can shop, can shop trapify, can trust Shopify. And so can the listen. and we have a great promo code with a sale, which with a great deal, I should say. We should probably get to all this before this all goes even worse.

Why don't you just stop, man? Sign up right now for a $1 a month trial period because Shopify is reality. Shopify.com slash JCE. You're going to get a $1 a month trial period so they can hook you. They can get their claws into you and they can show you how indispensable they can be in your life, ladies and gentlemen, Shopify.com slash JCE, $1 a month trial period. Start selling today. Well, there it is, the official caching of Shopify.

We trust them, you can too. Check them out. Jim, let's get to some modern wrestling talk before we close out with some talk about something we promised to people a few weeks ago, With other talk, we'll do this talk before we do the other talk. Real quick, before we get going, I don't know if you've seen the images on social media. They're going around and a lot of people naturally are sending them over. Vince McMahon was on a special that I believe they aired on Fox.

I did not get to see it. It was a TMZ Hulk Hogan special hosted by Harvey Levin of TMZ, where he had a sit-down interview with Vince remotely. Yes. In an office that had 14th an eye behind him, his new corporate office. Did you see any of the footage or at least the images? Did you see anything? I have seen a couple clips and the couple of the pictures that people were,

my God, now he looks like Sputnik Monroe. With the gray... Peppy Lapeu. But what is he done? And folks, what I'm trying to describe, and I don't even, I'm flabbergasted here, bum-fuzzled, Before when we saw him, he was the silent movie villain and his hair was jet black. Well, now a lot of it is still jet black, but there's a gray streak in the front where he looked like Sputnik Monroe if Sputnik was five minutes into his own cremation.

And between that. With a lilaclylicky tint on his lips. His lips look, well, no, no, that's not lilac. lilac around the eyes, that's some kind of shade of gonorrhea magenta. But hold on, we'll get to the eyes. The lips, it looks

like that he's got some kind of tube in him that's literally sucking all the oxygen out of his body because your lips turn blue when you're you're suffocating or whatever. And he looks, his cheeks and his chin now look

like his dad Vince Sr. But the shape of them, because he was a kind of a jolly fellow, never met him, unfortunately. But Vince Sr. aged naturally, I guess, is the term to say, and also didn't make it to 80s. So the rest of Vince's faith, the eyes,

it's like they're not, the holes of his eyes are getting smaller to where all you can see is the pupils peaking out and it looks like he's, is that rosacea or some skin condition around the eyes that caused them to look like two red piss holes in a snowbank? See, I don't know, because the other thing is that you're looking at visually what he looks like now, you hear his voice and it's,

hey, you know, I mean, I do a bad, goofy, awful impression of it, But it's not too far off. He sounds so gruff now. So between the look and that, I can't imagine any meeting isn't uncomfortable. And that's before he says anything. Yeah, it's like what he's looking at, the eyes are so watery and constricted of some kind.

It's like something's pleading to get out. I'm sure there's plenty pleading to get out. What do you think about him being upset about not being invited to the Hulk Hogan tribute on Raw? Well, that was the two things. he felt that Hogan didn't deserve to be booed like he was in Los Angeles. That was terrible, and he was offended at being left out of, you know, and he didn't say offended, but he felt he should have been there.

I can't remember the exact verbiage of it, that he should have been there on stage with everybody else. But here's the thing, it's TMZ. Now, for people who talk about fake news, I mean, does anybody even consider? consider TMZ news, or do they know that that it's, you know, puff pieces on celebrities, I would think. So there was no shocking, unplowed ground that was

covered in this, was there? Not really. I mean, again, TMZ, it's typically stuff that celebrities want out there. Their publicists will say to the paparazzi be here at five. There's stuff that's unflattering to celebrities. And then there's just, hey, we're going to air 911 calls of celebrities you love, which is disgusting in my eyes. But this wasn't really a news thing.

This was like them doing a Hogan special. We've been talking about, I think on this show we joked about when will Vince be back on WWF TV, WWE TV. He's doing interviews. Again, Hogan dying is a big deal. Obviously, it affected him tremendously. He crashed his car two hours before it happened. He was so affected by it.

But the universe had told him, what was about to take place. But again, knowing that Vince McMahon has a company and a staff and a lot of money to burn and they're looking for properties to purchase that Vince can run the creative of. Meanwhile, the Janelle Grant thing is still happening. Brock has just returned to WWF TV. I keep doing it. W.W.E. TV.

What do you think it says about the fact that Vince is reappearing publicly? Because this is the most we've really heard from him since that Netflix. documentary, right? Oh, yeah. I mean, there are not that many Vince McMahon, you know, television clips and interviews or magazine profiles or whatever these days. And it's, when he's at a ballgame, people tweet pictures of him. It's a Vince citing in the wild. But I agree that, again, you know, Hogan was a big deal and I'm sure they, TMZ having Vince McMahon on. and WWE having Vince McMahon on are two different things because I mean

as you said TMZ you know plums the worst of the sewers of the celebrity world. Yeah no one's going to say how dare you have him on your Hogan special. They'll just say like oh wow he was interviewed let's look at this freak. And I that's two different things I still don't think there's a need or on either side for Vince to be back on WWE television. I think he's

he probably agreed to do it. with TMZ because, oh, they're Hollywood, pal, or I can't, I don't want to do the horse voice now, destroy my vocal voice. Because he wants to be out there. You know, that's the other thing. I think Vince would love to be, despite the way he looks and the way he sounds, I think he wants to be out there in the public because he thinks that's the way you can defend himself. That's why you read your smackdown right after everything happened, you know?

Do you think that it's just that nobody else has asked him to be out there in a public so are? Probably no one else has asked him to be out in the public while agreeing to not ask questions about the Janelle Grant case or any other sexual harassment among former female talent in WWE. Or anything else except. Yeah. Yeah. I heard that he was at the Hogan funeral and Laurenitis was too. What was that like? Awkward. Right? Jesus Christ. All families are in Larson. Well, there was not I'm trying to think of who was messing around with who and who was related to who, but was there,

are the, is the Bella side of the family that has excommunicated Laurenitis over the thing, were they involved with the Hogan side of the family, or what kind of in-laws were present in this thing? Oh, I can't speak to that. I believe Laurenitis has no current affiliation with the Bellas. He has no current affiliation with. With any family. With any family at all.

As a result of, yeah. The Laurenitis family put out a statement and said, who? So, I mean, he's having a lot of problems right now. One last thing on Vince, if he had appeared on Raw, if WWE had invited him, they invited Nick Hogan and Jimmy Hart and Sergeant Slaughter and various people, Bruce, front and center, if Vince was there, wouldn't it have... Would have killed it. It would have overpowered it.

It would have become the story. Yes. But no, if he's, I mean, Vince is brilliant in a self-promotional way, usually, and that he's saying, oh, yes, I was, you know, was hurt, I should have been there, whatever, since it's already passed, and that, you know, but if he really, in any way, wanted to honor Hulk Hogan, if they'd have been dumb enough to ask him to stand there front and center, he would have turned it down because he would have known that that would be, all that anybody would be looking at,

concentrating on, talking about afterwards, it would have shit on the whole thing. And would Triple H have been able to do the promo if Vince was standing there next to him? Or would Vince, or would they have said, well, Vince, you'd do it. Can you imagine that? You know, and the talent who had, any of the talent who had an issue with standing there for the Hogan thing,

which was a responsibility of being, you know, one of the talent, I believe, they may have had a bigger issue of all of a sudden Vince was there for the first time on TV because again it ushers in the idea they're making it regular for Vince to be around again. Yes, that would never have worked. Somebody would have put to stop to it, I would think, before it ever got off the ground if it had been suggested and he was there. Are you surprised?

Are you surprised more people? I mean, seeing what happened with Linda McMahon's face and Vince's face, and I mean, they're not together and they live in different parts of the country, so I'm going to assume different doctors. That may not be a fair assumption. But are you surprised that more rich senior citizens don't sue plastic surgeons for the games they're playing on their face? I mean, what the fuck? There's no way Vince doesn't look better now than before he had whatever done, done. Well, and or do do. You know, as bad as he, as bad as it is, Linda looks worse.

Linda looks like... Yeah. You know, the character in arsenic and old lace, the brother that had his fucking face worked on by the plastic surgeon. So the criminal, they change his appearance. Linda looks like it's fallen over. And I don't know. She was not a bad-looking woman.

Yeah, other than her hair color, I never saw her and it's like, oh, she looks so old facially. I never thought that, ever. But for fuck's sake, if she's 75 years old, then she ought to have some wrinkles. Why would anybody expect a 75-year-old person to walk around without wrinkles? And it's just, it's bizarre that you would want to. It certainly, it's painful. Would it not be?

I would think so. Have your face fucking operated on, and all that other shit just for that? Please, shoot some more rat poison into my forehead. It makes me look young. Jesus Christ, the fucking bad. special effects on Lost in Space looks more natural. You call those special effects?

Well, I mean, you know, whenever they make the creature of the week, you know, she looks like her face has come out of Erwin Allen's fucking costume closet. I just got this book of like, it's a gigantic book of a collection of like all the props and everything that Erwin Allen ever used on any of his

productions. I want a Lost in Space Ray Gun. Did you ever have a toy robot? I have... From Lost in Space to Lost in Space Robo. Well, I actually have a toy robot right now.

As a matter of fact, I turn left and I look about 25 feet and it's sitting there. Well, before we leave Vince and get on to the classic stuff on the topic of toy robots, I think I've told you I'm obsessed with the Zantoneo andoki keychain I got because it's... Oh, no. It's gigantic. It wouldn't even work as a keychain. I actually took the keychain part off of it, so now it's just a giant, robed Antonio Onoki standing on a platform that does this.

It's a keychain. People are supposed to walk around with this. He's chanting Ichi Mi Sanda. It does that, and then it does this. I don't know what he says there, but it sounds awesome. And then I can never get it to do... Nope, see, it went back. All right, I'm going to give up.

It has his music, too, but I can't get it to play his theme music, which is so... Oh, that would be the best part. I know. It's the most rewarding theme music. It's so uplifting and, you know, nice. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Sounds like he's also got a problem with constipation. Anyone who speaks Japanese, please let me know.

What is he saying here? And it sounds like he has a lot of reverbs. I don't know if he's in a studio or where he is. All right. Let's turn us off. All right, Jim, well, yes. No time better than the present to talk about the present. You watch some highlights, and specifically the main event stuff.

on Smackdown and Raw. So why don't we get caught up on, it's been a while since we talked about WWTV. What did you watch on Smackdown last week? Well, we did it. We had the extra show that we did to fill in the things last week while our schedules were ver-climped. And so I wanted to get back and get caught up

with the main goings-on of the top fellers on the roster in the WWE. And Smackdown, this was August the 8th, and I mean, I'm not going to engage in any kind of breaking news or, you know, blow by blow description of what was said. But the concept of the thing, it just, again, astounds me. They're in Montreal. They're sold out 17,000 for 747 is what they said.

And they had played the video of Sina and Cody and the Brock return and the whole nine yards. Yet in out comes Sina. and yet again Montreal, the Canadians are very forgiving people. And remember when Hogan was supposed to be a heel in Toronto? They, oh, no, we love him. But they play his music, he comes out. It's a huge pop. It's the Sina chance.

All is forgiven. He's the king of the world. Through the flowery intro, he gets a, he's a standing ovation. And he just is a couple of lines to put the fans over. and gets the scene a chance and he's got him in the palm of his hand. And remember, I was saying four months ago, three, but two months ago,

when you listened to the things he was saying to people, to the fans, about the fans, whatever, remember we say, how do you ever apologize to any son of a bitch for that? What if anybody knew would say this shit to you? How would you have, no, they'd never speak to you again. They don't give a fuck.

it's all phony now and they just want to see people come out and talk to him and he's having so much more fun being his old self and obviously they have realized even though they might try to tell you a different story over on unreal we'll talk about that eventually but it's obvious they've realized what the fuck the fucking rock he jumped in trying to turn somebody heeled to be the final boss he fucked us up again the second year in a row with our booking and this is a stupidest thing we've ever done and nobody likes it

let's just apologize and move on and so now they got the fans chanting thank you sena and he's saying i'm afraid i'm going to let you down and know you'll forget about me i'm even afraid of Brock Lester, I'm so vulnerable now. But he won't back down. But then he turned around and did a fired up promo and told Brock and anybody else, if you want some to come get some, and a place is going crazy. Before we talk about the next segment of this dramatic monologue, Brian, so can you even turn heel anymore since everybody knows it's just bullshit?

I think you can. I think you have to really do it. I think the Sina He'll turn. We'll talk about Unreal after we talk about the modern stuff you watched, but the Sina Hill turn was awkward. It had its moments. But the longer he talked, the more he put down his opponents, people realize why they liked Sina in the first place.

And it was near impossible to sell W.W.E fans, wrestling fans, on the idea of come out and spend all this money on a ticket to see John Cena the last time he'll be in your town and think they're just going to boo him. And at the same time, he's in a feud with Cody Rhodes. You know, Cody Rhodes, up to this point, this is the most lukewarm he's been in WWE. Yeah. Since the beginning of the year. WWE has not done Cody any favors this year, and I think that's,

that played a big part of it. And again, it's John Cena's last year. you're saying it. Some fans will boo because he's a heel, but you're grateful you get to see him. I would assume if you're spending all that money for a ticket. One would have thought they might have anticipated that. But anyway, then here comes Logan Paul, because he did say anybody, right? So Logan, and Logan Paul gets booed and the fans get bleeped. you know, when he comes out and everything on his entrance, and he's got a great heel attitude and demeanor in the whole nine yards, but I just wonder if anybody wants to stab him.

I just wonder if you can really just get any heat when there's footage of the people that the heels are insulting and crippling, hugging them and thanking them for doing it after it. But nevertheless, so he wants a match with John Cena in a great French city not here in Paris after we haven't even talked about now they're going to Paris

to Gay Paris but they did last year too right I thought that was Puerto Rico I think they did they do a bunch of different places like Spain Paris Puerto Rico Asbecistan Yeah I don't know

Yeah well anyway from Moscow to the Hague from from Milan de Mence Milan de Mence I couldn't remember Milan all of a sudden

They went to Milan too didn't they Yeah they mowed my lawn I don't know about you All right so as soon as they He challenges for the clash

in Paris Drew McIntyre's to ring and Glom Sina and they get maybe 10 seconds of heat and Cody's music hits and he hits the ring and the baby faces start making a comeback.

And Cody, Cody went to throw Drew's head into the turnbuckle, grabbed him and spun, and he was propelling him that way, but Drew thought he was going to top rope him. And I've seen this happen before it. It's funny as fuck every time. The guy going to throw the head is headed toward the turnbuckle,

and he realizes that the guy that he's throwing has already left him and has just launched himself 90 degrees the other way. And he turns out, I'll wear the shit thing, and he tried to go push him over like he meant to do it. Oh, God. But anyway, so then they challenged for a tag team match player. So, Sina and Cody, remember it took Dusty a year and a half to trust Oly. It took Cody nine days or whatever it was.

But that was the setup for the tag team match. Have you ever seen anything like that on WWE television, Ryan, where guys come out and talk for 20 minutes and then set up the tag team match main event. Every week. You know, these are really becoming boring tropes. And, you know, when you really think about it, it's just the way WWE's been doing TB for a long time. What makes it better than it used to be is there's no heel authority figure. But all this shit's been happening forever.

Opening promo, music, come out, talk. Someone else's music. They come out and talk. Another person. There's either going to be a tag match or a three-way or a four-way. way and the GM's going to come out and say, hey, you know what? I was standing in the back and obviously I didn't have a main event

because we're on the air. So now I thought, you know, got started. I got a main event. Nothing was planned. Jesus. You know, that's... You mentioned this is the setup for the match and how this is something they... I mean, you were joking about the fact that this is something I always do. What do you also think of this is the follow-up to the Brock thing?

Well, that's a point I was going to make here. in a second besides the fact, and they're going to do the same thing on Raw. They could come out and talking and they're going to set up a fucking, but Brock, the footage was shown back in my day, children, or at almost anybody's day that's ever lived on the planet, when you have a major superstar return and lay out, you know, goddamn another major superstar. He wasn't on TV, on any TV, on Raw or Smackdown. Was this so last minute?

They just say, hey, just come and we'll work the rest of it out later. Vince would have yelled at us back of the day if we shot an angle like that and turned into formats. Where's the fucking guy that did the angle? Oh, we don't have him for TV. What the fuck? I don't know what the fuck's going on here anymore. But then Logan Paul and Drew

wrestled the super team of Sina and Cody and they rang the bell with 10 minutes on the air and then they stopped so the fans could sing Cody, Cody Rhodes. And then they went two minutes to the break. Yeah, thanks, Europe. Not stop on every show. Thank you, Europe.

Really appreciate it. And we're not even talking about the super group. We're talking about the continent. They're about to go to France again. It's going to kick off a whole new season of Cody Rhodes to the tune of Boni M. When Jack Curtis came back from vacation to mid-south one time, we said, where are you been, Jack? He said, oh, I've been in Greece.

I said, well, we've been a lot of hot water around here ourselves. So they came back with four minutes on the air. And we're getting some heat on Cody. And finally, Sina hadn't been in yet. They milked that until the end. Finally got the tag on Sina. You can see it coming a mile away, but they still wanted Sina. And it got a big reaction.

So, you know, Cody was... Cody, the top baby face in the company. And now that they've succeeded in throwing a little water on his fire, they have him sell and set up the tag to the big guy. and Cody and Drew are on the floor and Logan Paul nutshots Sina and there's a DQ. And then I swear to Logan Paul and Sina just

fought through the entrance, they just fought off. And Cody and Drew were on the floor and Drew hit Cody with the title belt and Claymore kicked him into the front of the announcer desk and busted it out and Cody was left laying in a heap, if only he'd have had a partner he could trust that wouldn't have fought off

when he was still in trouble. But maybe they'll revisit that at some later date. But that, you know, there you go. I mean... And we talked about what's next for Cody. What do you think, I mean, at least temporarily for at least the Paris show, what do you think about this is the next thing for Cody?

Well, I mean, it's busy work. Kevin Sullivan might call it a maintenance show where you're not really taking any steps forward. You're just kind of keeping everything going and giving them something. And, you know, and it's Paris. I'm sure they'll sell out for, they'll probably draw 747 million francs and at least 18 beans. But that's the thing is we're getting more and more where the WWE shows have this pattern. and they have all the stars and the professional workers and the people you want to see,

but they talk for 20 minutes. They've worked for maybe eight or maybe they'll go 20 or they'll do the same amount of shit and that both periods of time. And then they'll de-Q it. And in the middle is Gaga. And over on AEW, they'll take a rusty fishing hook and disembowel somebody

at the top of the Seg 1 and then it gets crazy from there. So I, you know But they should use it I've been saying this for a while They should use this even though they have crazy content It should be you go to WWE You pay this amount per average per ticket And this is the average amount of action you get

In that entire night AEW on average this is how much our tickets cost And here's how much action Because there's no way it won't be like triple Or quadruple the number Right? There's just no way If you actually did it that way So, I mean, they should use that because, you know, eventually people get sick of the things aren't as hot as they were.

They're going into new markets or, you know, foreign markets and that helps. But, you know, there's a reason why I kind of started getting sick of this show earlier this year and you're not that far behind me. It's slowed down. Well, let's talk about Raw on August the 11th, Monday night. They're not in Montreal. They're in Quebec City. Montreal's little brother down the road. And they lead with CM Punk.

And again, like with Sina on the Smackdown, he's over. And the people are going crazy and they're chanting for him, C.M. Punk, blah, blah, blah, big entrance. He's a star. But now we're going to list of people talk to us for about 20 minutes. And even though they're the best talkers and I got to be out of punk said he did the promo. He's pissed because he should be the world heavyweight champion and he's not.

And he's got a problem with Seth Rollins and he's even more determined to get the championship back. And when he beats Seth, he's not going to have to pretend to be injured. But then LA night's music plays. And L.A. comes to the ring and they have a handshake, but there's a little tension that builds because last week, Punk came in during L.A. a's match and he got disqualified.

So basically the whole thing is you get in the line, I get the title match, the rematch first, and then punk you get in line. And then they get prickly. But they got prickly, they also got long. And this was not L.A. Knight's brilliant verbal performance. This was not, it didn't suck and it's better than a lot of people. But for L.A. Knight, did you think he was,

was a little back and forth here. He's saying a lot of words to not get points out. Yeah. Yeah. He should do that more. Just go to that more often. When you get lost, just go to yeah. Yeah.

Well, anyway, Haman interrupted them because I think they were also, they were going long because punk started to reply to him. and he'd only said a thing or two, and Heyman's voice interrupted, and punk said, I wouldn't done. And he was kind of laughing, like, goddamn, you know,

cut us off already? His facial reactions all throughout this were great. Yeah. I mean, you know, that's the thing is only, there's only a few guys with the talent to weave what they're supposed to be talking about

in with legitimate shit and sound like they're talking, to you instead of at you and sound like they're being real instead of performing and react to things as you would instead of as you're told to. And that's the problem. There's only a few of them. Anyway, Paul comes out with the bronze and he spoke French, even mentioned Frank Valois, and some other French words. And the fans were chanting at him in French. They didn't bleep it, but I don't know what the fuck it was, so they probably didn't either.

But basically, Heyman cuts the promo and tells L.A. Knight not to trust Punk. It has a breakdown about it. But then punk dares them to come to the ring, and Paul likes the idea. How about we have a tag team match? Where have we heard this before?

And L.A. Knight starts to accept it, but punk, or starts to answer at least, but punk accepts it. And then L.A. says, don't talk. for me and he accepts it and then Braun Breaker jumps in and says what are you going to do?

You're 47 and you're 40. You're 100 years old combined. Steiner Math 2.0. But so we got a tag team match for the main event. Thankfully there was no main event planned. Thankfully, luckily. That should be a thing. That should be a thing one week.

Hey, I thought I had the main event. What the fuck? You bumping me for this match? But that, I mean, can't they even just do it once a week? Some people do watch both shows, right? You know, we're talking to how tired this is. We just talked about it during a Smackdown review. I even thought Heyman was kind of,

Heyman by the numbers here. Like, there was nothing special about it. And, yeah, they should mix up the formula. They're stuck in a formula for these shows right now. and before it completely stops working, make some changes. It's boring some of us of long-time fans. Long time. It seems so long.

Time is not flown, but then so L.A. Knight, C.M. Punk, and the bronze, breaker and reed. And again, at least they gave them more time, but they did. I'm not even fault in them. It was a tag team match, and everything was done professionally. and everything made sense. But it's also you've got a couple of the biggest stars in the business that you've got that you don't want getting hurt so you're not wanting them to go out there and fucking create mayhem.

So it's a TV tag team match. And they got two sets of heat on both the baby faces. And then finally, punk makes a big comeback on Braun. LA Knight takes out Bronson Reed. Punk hits the big elbow off the top rope, and here's Seth Rollins. Boom, DQ.

Stops to go to sleep. What did we just see? Friday night. Help me. And then they got heat on punk and heat on L.A. night, and Jay Uso's music played, and he came out with a chair and cleared the ring out, and here came Adam Pierce.

and said, well, enough of this. I'm going to make this match for the world title in Paris. It's going to be Seth Rollins defending against Jay Uso and L.A. Knight and C.M. Punk. In a four-way match player. And then Punk and L.A. Knight got in a fight. And Uso pulled them apart, but L.A. Knight elbowed him, but the heels came back in while they were distracted and beat him.

up all of them. And Bronz speared L.A. night and Reed Splash J. and then Rollins curbs stomped every one of them. And I feel like I'm, you have to take notes on the shows now to remember which one was wrong, which one was Smackdown because it's different people doing the same thing. What's Ed Kosky got to do with this? I thought he was a big genius writer.

The hell. AAA. This is the Triple H booking regime, and he's getting away with a lot of these things that aren't too exciting, but again, you look at the business. Hey, Ultimate Warrior may not be everyone's thing, but he's doing business. You know, you look at that, but there's a lot of the same

thing over and over again, and just like with AEW, I'm sick of the multi-man matches, the three ways and the four ways. They don't seem creative at all times. They just seem like a sloppy attempt to get everyone on the show as a placeholder in between things.

Well, again, there was a history of business of having programs with people where you didn't have to add, you could make them tag matches with their friends or whatever, you didn't have to add multiple people because you could keep interest in the same matchup being rematched

with different stipulations. And it doesn't mean that a stipulation doesn't start with no disqualification. Stipulations can be, be anything. And many of them don't affect the regular rules of wrestling. But there's no, there's no effort even being made to that practically. It's just, oh, let's these two, and then let's put two more and two more in and two more. And it's unreal, Brian. Well, that was raw. And it certainly was. And Jim, on that time,

topic, let's talk a little bit about WWE Unreal. We previously reviewed episode one of the five episode series. We'll talk about episode two, maybe episode four today. We're not going to review episode three, the episode that focuses on women. If you close your eyes and think what would Jim Cornett say, you're probably right. Oh, I'll tell you exactly what I said. I started watching episode three, and there was a few minutes of Chelsea Green. And I, I'll I'm not opposed to Chelsea Green. She's got a very animated spirit and an expressive face. But after I started fast forward to see when maybe we would get back,

you know, more of the world title match or what's going on with the Rock. You were looking for Ria. You were looking for Ria. Who you're kidding. No, Ria was on the previous show. She didn't have to be on every show, but something at the main event level. And I kept seeing girls.

And I realized I was all the way through the end of it. and hasn't seen any guys on the, because I some, for whatever reason, I can get some indication of the freeze frames on the fast forward on these programs, but not on the goddamn raw. I don't know what's going on. But that's why we didn't watch three,

because my time was limited. But go on about two. Well, let's talk about WWE Unreal episode two. Again, this is all kind of the road to WrestleMania. Let's pick up from what we, left off with episode one, episode two. Well, they were coming up at this point on the Royal Rumble, and they started the show with a nice piece on Dusty and how Cody was saying, boy, you know, wish he could have been

at WrestleMania to see him finish his story. And they showed Triple H given Dusty's Rolex that he had sold previously to Cody as a gift, as a present. Of course, making Triple H the benevolent, you know, ruler of the kingdom. How in the world did they find that? If Dusty pawned that watch... Well, no, they didn't say he pawned it. They said he sold it. Oh, okay. Okay. I thought it was a... I thought it was pawn, but maybe you're right. Maybe that makes me easy. No, well, I would think if you got a Rolex and you want to sell it, Dusty Rhodes was probably, you know, realize that I can... He had contacts it might have money to buy a Rolex.

Danny Brown, you're looking for a Rolex. I'll make you the World Junior Heavyweight Champion and sell you my Rolex kid. But so these moments are nice. And again, this show is very well shot and edited and produced. It's very visually appealing and et cetera. And I said the things I liked about the first episode.

There were things I liked and things I didn't, but I didn't hate as bad as I thought I would. But there were more things I liked in episode one that I've seen in any of the episodes since. You had Punk and you had Ria and you had the people that they were focusing on, with Seth and Punk were talking about, well, we really don't like each other. There was, and Ria, her real injury that she went through rehab for and the surgery. That was kind of making it, okay, this shit is dangerous. And there is an element of, there's heat,

between these people, I thought they were going to maybe try to lean into some of that and make it like a really cool, you know, a boost, a bonus to their programming. Behind the scenes, there really is strife and people jockeying for power and trying to cut each other's balls off, that type of thing, where it would be interesting instead of it's all fake, fake, fake. but one of the first you know times you see the people at guerrilla in this episode number two are no i'm sorry it was in one of the uh writers meetings are we going to let owens pal drive cody eventually are we going to let these fucking guys and girls in suits and little fucking sissy sweaters sitting around a board table

with laptops talking about whether they're going to let the top heel give the top baby face a fucking move to me kills wrestling. Again, the whole idea

these motherfuggers are supposed to not give a shit whether you want them to do shit or not, they're going to do it anyway. That's what makes them start, the Steve Austin principle. Can you imagine if in the Stone Cold Hayday

if they'd have had some big Ed Kosky again as I've said the blandest white human being I can possibly imagine well I don't want to let Steve Austin do this

what the fuck should we let Steve Austin give Vince a stunner should we let him do that it would kill the whole Vince Steve Austin thing it would have killed the biggest program and history of programs Austin McMahon

but again this is all about showing you how brilliant the creative team is, putting things together, tons and tons of whiteboards, and lots of things planned out, sometimes days in advance. And that's another sign Vince has gone. They've got things planned out days in advance, so they did a long recap of Cody and Owens

on the Saturday night's main event match they had where he piled drive him. And again, that package pile driver was one of the things of beauty I've ever seen in wrestling. It just, perfect. Owens gave it perfect. Cody took it perfect. Look great. And they've got the chaos with Triple H and Owens yelling and cussing to each other and shoving each other. And then they come back to Gorilla and Owens and Triple H are hugging each other. And oh, thank you, thank you. You know, yeah, I just went with it.

Have you noticed that whenever so far they've had a camera in the right, room and Hayman has been there. He just sits there and silently humors people, but you don't hear him speak. That's the secret to his success. The brilliance comes from not speaking until everyone else has aired out there, dumb ideas. Well, yeah, and also I get the idea that he's not anxious to have any of it broadcast either. So they were at the Rumble. Again, Cody beats Owens in the ladder match and then they talk to each other in the back and Owens is apologizing like did I set you down okay? I wrote and also I was just writing brief notes because I was laying in bed because it was late and I was trying to catch up with this shit. Somebody needs to mess up Ed Koski's hair.

I just, I'm offended by the presence of him on the planet. They showed Triple H laying out when they put the mark in the rumble, what was his name? I show speed. I show speed. So that he was telling him everything is going to happen and everything. And then they showed it just as he said it was going to be. At least Braun murdered him. What did you think of Triple H sitting there on Gorilla with Stephanie by his side the whole time?

What, it wasn't surprising. I mean, she was there that night too. Most people don't bring your wives to work to sit next to them while they're doing their work. Well, no, she was there. to fucking welcome them all. Wasn't she? Wasn't that the first night? She was back in some type of welcoming segment. And it's easier for her to get on camera

if she's sitting next to him, even though she has absolutely jack all of shit to do the rest of the show. Next time on Stephanie's Places, this is her place right here next to her men. Hey, there's no demand for seats in Gorilla. There's plenty of room. Everybody doing actually work can sit elsewhere.

but I'm not liking it as much as I even did at the start because they're focusing more on the fact that they know everything that's going to happen, every move that's going to be made, everything that's going to be said, and they're calling it. And when I see one of these fucking blobs saying, I'm going to tell or I'm telling a fucking wrestling star what to do or what not to do or what they can't do. It just, can you imagine if we'd have seen backstage footage

in the movies from the 40s of like Don Knott's trying to tell John Wayne how to shoot a Western. It would just have killed everybody. Well, again, a lot of people thought a lot of the focus of this was about showing you the genius of Triple H and there certainly is a campaign beyond this show to make Triple HE as you put it

the Dana White of WWE, the face of WWE, this show seems to be something that they're using to help solidify that. Well, it's solidifying for me, sort of like goddamn constipation.

So are those all your thoughts of episode two? that's pretty much yeah because did I go to sleep on the end of it or was it anything else happened I can't remember why don't we go then to episode four because this is really the big one I guess you know is the big one alice this is the big one the johnsina heel turn the rock and goertz and their ideas what do you think of episode four of unreal the title was heel turn and we've talked about some of this when the stories were going around of what had happened and what had really happened potentially and et cetera and we said how are they going to the WrestleMania documentary last year right was when they had to rewrite that that was last year

right when they had to take a while for that one to come out yep and because they had to figure out a way to reshoot shit to work around everybody being pissed at the rock and they may have had to do it again to some extent this year. They start the show with the big buildup of the rock. And Jesus Christ, he deserves it. He's one of the biggest stars in history of the business. But since he has lost his mind and thinks he's a creative genius, apparently when he's not and has a team around him,

including this little pimply-faced greasy Gerwitz, to fucking tell him, how great he is and carry his piss around. He comes in every year, biggest show of the year, and fuck shit up and causes them to do shit that people don't want to see.

And he's not really, he called himself in the start of this program the greatest heel wrestling has ever seen. This is supposed to be a behind the scenes real thing. So it's not, like he's working, like he's a heel, and saying, I'm the greatest ever. He really believes where he's trying to tell people that it was. It was a stink bomb. He talked like it worked.

He's becoming this version of, it was the most gratifying thing I've ever done. Jesus Christ. Then Nick Kahn put him over. Where we saw after WrestleMania 2024, there was huge fandom man to see the rock again. And they started trying to tell the, as we pointed it out months ago, the story, which is what it is. Well, Elimination

Chamber in Toronto, it was a tough Canadian economy. How do we over-deliver? The fucking show was almost sold out before anybody knew the rock was around as we went back and looked, remember? Yeah, I mean, I'm sure they got a boost for the show, but

Well, yes. It doesn't justify everything else. They're trying to, Nick Kahn is trying to tell us to, oh, and also we would get Travis Scott. How'd that work for you? Right? But so they're trying to tell a story. Elimination Chamber was soft and that they had to do something to spice it up with the rock.

That wasn't true. It was selling just like all the other shows were selling maybe better or whatever. and I don't know if the Canadian economy was tough but it didn't seem to be hampering the people that were there they overdelivered by fucking up the booking when Rock made Cody the offer for his soul and that whole rotten pitch That's the thing

listening to the Rock and Goertz admit the stuff this is the stuff they're admitting to on camera their creative and their ideas were you know there's a difference between Bob Dylan and Benny King. Benny King's a fantastic singer. He needed Doc Pomas or someone else to write the words, and he would knock it out of the park.

Bob Dylan was a singer-songwriter, wrote his own words. Sometimes the wrong person thinks they were singer-songwriter. Actually wrote better than he sang, too. But I think the problem is the Rock believes he's a creative force, and the reality is the Rock is an incredibly talented wrestling actor. and he needs someone else to do the creative, not him. And Brian Gortz, when you say I was the head writer from 2002 to 2015. Those were legendary years.

The people who discovered wrestling during those years probably really loved some of those years. For those of us who had been watching wrestling for a while, the shows were juvenile and awful for a long time. And he's admitting he was the head writer during that period of time. The period of time that led people to saying, I wish there was another billionaire who would just start a wrestling company. It was all of that period of time that led to people hating WWE. So this is the creative force behind this rock stuff, which look at where we are today and the scene of baby face turn

and the lack of the rock other than commercials for his movies on these programs. And that's not even getting into the disaster. That's Travis Scott. And why WWE, other than the fact that Ari Emanuel may be representing them, why would WWE bend over backwards for Travis Scott? He meant nothing to the business. This wasn't Cindy Lopper appearing with Hulk Hogan and their picture in every paper

and people kept talking about it. They may have gotten a picture of Travis Scott and the rock and John Cena in the paper. No one focused on Travis Scott. And then he smacked Cody in the ear. If somebody saw a picture of Travis Scott, would they know what the, who the fuck it was? Besides that, to begin with.

And yeah, they, they, enabled a celebrity come in and give their top guy hearing damage and then get away and emerge unscate. But yes, Zikoski called this seismic when Rock asked for Cody's soul. Rock pit, he wanted Cody to

that's how bad it was from what we can put together. They really wanted Rock and Hoosie, what's he? Wanted Cody to turn heel and be subservient to the final boss and when Cody was like, nah, no. Then Cetus said, well, I'll do it.

I thought it's because he wanted to do it. Maybe now he was just like trying to be a team player, but... Yeah, and you know, people have been wanting a Cody, some people, especially in AEW, had wanted a Cody Rhodes turn for a while, maybe right now some people are even starting to think about it. If the reason it finally happened was the Rock, and then he had the same schedule, and he never appeared on any show ever again, and wouldn't have helped him? Yeah, it wouldn't have helped him. No. Well, anyway, everybody tried to explain what a heel was and how to be one.

Michael Hayes, I think, did the best job of explaining it somewhat and had some free bird highlights. But the new day, they talked to, remember, that was a great deal where they turned on Big E and then they ended up wearing the same kind of shit and doing the same kind of thing and the same kind of spot? I thought they were going to be like a top tag team. And if you listen to Xavier Woods there, he's saying, you know, we are without a doubt the greatest tag team of ever of all time and we did this. And then they show the clips and it's like, man, this is exactly the kind of shit I started hating on this show. Just childish nonsense for an audience of Vince. Yeah.

And then they did that heel turn with Big E and it was brilliant. And they showed the clips again, Big E. Those facial reactions while that was going down were amazing. and then the next time we saw him, he was just hosting the pre-show. And they were a heel tag, confuting with the LWO or whatever. So yeah, completely dropped that ball to the point where no one cares about the new day again. Again. And Triple H said the hardest thing to do in this day and age is to keep a secret.

Because everybody agrees that the audience wants to be surprised. Nobody knows what's going to happen. that's, you know, but they're not keeping any secrets here. They acted like there was a big call for John Cedar to turn heel. For years there was maybe long ago, but not recently. But then Bruce, of course, Bruce is like, how in the world are we going to feature John Cina? Do it the easy way with the baby face matches?

or Nick Con again, well, we had to spruce up Toronto and called the Rock. And Greasy Gerwitz thought that Cody versus Sina baby face match felt dry. So this was a quote, myself and Rock got together and pitched a few things. Well, you see, that's the thing too. He's saying that we thought it was dry. He's not saying that as a member of the writing team that are in these Paul Levec-led meetings. He's saying that as the Rock's outside creative person that according to what they said here and what we've already known,

they just drop in when the Rock's ready to come back. That's a monkey wrench is what that is. And then did you hear the pit? They wanted Cody to turn Rock down, then at Elimination Chamber, and then Rock make a match and have Owens beat Cody for the title. And again, I'm not even disrespecting Kevin Owens. but no, they really wanted to fuck with Cody from the start of this thing. And by the way, that would have been a disaster because his neck went out right around the three of time.

There you go. And then, so now who did it actually, who actually said, you know, Triple H doesn't remember. Bruce says that it was him. Triple H and Koski were challenged with an idea. Koski said Rock and his team made the original offer what we could do with the chamber blah blah blah and nobody remembers the only thing they could agree on

it happened a couple months ago but no one can remember and so Koski said well what if Cody accepts and drops Sina and sells out to the rock he admitted pitching that as a thing and this fucking guy what is the matter with you

and then Bruce says well, what if we turn Sina? And Triple H loves it and Kosky blesses it. So all these people are either had these ideas for real and are stupid or are having to take the heat for having these ideas because the rock and greasy Gerwitz are stupid. But to protect the rock from people knowing that he's a glory hound and fucked up all the booking,

they all act like it was their idea it was good. Again, the Rock began this by saying his final boss character, which had one match, I think, and a handful, to maybe two handful of appearances over two years, was the greatest heel in wrestling history and the most rewarding thing he's ever done in wrestling. And that's why he didn't bother to fucking continue any of it.

It was that they shot it all down and nobody liked it. What I thought was interesting about this, and again, even though this is reality or a docu-series, whatever you want to say, there are certainly things that are set up for the camera. And things that are done for the camera. With that said, watching Triple H to diplomat have to deal with the Rock was fascinating.

Because those are two guys doing everything they can to be respectful to each other, knowing what reality is. And of course, they said they kept the knowledge of the turn on Cody into the circle of trust, Triple H, Rock, John Cena, Nick Conn, and Travis Scott, again, who the fuck is this fucking guy that he should be consulted on any of this?

And that they were including him and is that he's lucky to even be there. And what the fuck? And by the way, considering the way all this went down and the fact that wrestlers are now openly ripping on him, because they're allowed to, should they drop his music as the raw theme song? I didn't know that's what that was. Yeah, that's what they announced when he went to Netflix. It was Travis Scott's music.

I've tuned the music out because it's all unlistenable, all the shit that they use. I've just tuned it all out. But anyway, then John Cena's reactions, well, if you believe it, I'm in.

And Triple-A's like, no, really. And Cina, I like it. I like it so much that I'm going to turn back baby face in one night on a whim for no reason right before the pay-per-view. Cody's quote was, this is the most confused the fans have ever been, you think?

And so anyway, Hayes said he didn't know till the day of the show, but they showed him going over the elimination chamber with the talent. I don't like, again, that part of it, where even if it's Michael Hayes, they're going over move for move, what's going to happen ahead of time, all sitting there chiming in ideas like you would do when you're talking about a match. But I don't need to be on camera. and I wrote Triple H's and Rock's talk seems strained. Yeah.

Did you like the way the Triple H kind of manipulated Rock into at least letting Sina do all the physical stuff to Cody? And let Rock giving the signals because that at least kept that part of it on Sina who they knew they could count on if the Rock decided to fucking fly off to Hollywood again. I thought it was great just the way he agreed. with the Rock while also giving himself an out because he knew he had to, again, be a diplomat where here's what the Rock said, he goes, oh, I like it, it's good. Why don't we get everyone together, see if we can get everyone on the same page?

Yeah. That way someone could say, that's not my page. We need to turn the page. But anyway, and then they recap the chamber match, which was a long recap, but better than seeing some of this other stuff. And they had even k-fabed the truck.

But they showed AAA. calling the entire turn for the truck, which again, step by step, it just takes some of the magic out of what you see. And then, everybody congratulated themselves afterwards and patted each other on the penis. But now we know it didn't work,

it didn't make any sense. Travis got bailed, Rock didn't come back. Sina apologized, and Cody never got to potato, that fuck went back. Cody came out again looking worse than everyone else. Not not as a person, but the way he was booked. Yes. What's Rock gonna do this year for WrestleMania?

When he shows a Royal Rumble this year, what's... Oh my God. It's gonna happen again. You know what's gonna happen again. No, I'm telling, if he does it three years in a row, somebody in the office is going to take a stick to it. That movie comes out in a few months. The Rock is going to reappear on this show.

And again, in his mind, admittedly, He thinks this is the best heel character of all time, and it's his. There's no way he's not going to immediately fuck everything up again. If he shows up again and fucks up their booking leading into WrestleMania a third straight year, I guarantee instead of going postal, people will start saying that he went Stamford on a guy. Some one of those fucking, because look at them. The pussy whipped guys into suits and the sweaters sitting there all meek and everything on. their laptops. They're the ones that

fucking can't take the pressure and they're one of these days they're going to fucking go off. Goddamn set the whole building on fire, whatever. Too much pressure. Well, that was WWE Unreal Episode 4. Awful Titan

here. Jesus Christ. Oh, my God. All right. Well, those are the words of Annochi. Antonio Anoki. Noki, Nose and Jesus Christ, what are you doing? over there. I'm in your head.

Well, you sure are. I can't talk at all today. Any closing thoughts on Unreal? We'll do episode five next time. I think that's the last episode for now. Next time here on the experience or the drive-through or whatever this is. But yeah, I mean, it's programming

to glorify their new creative leader and get paid hundreds of millions of dollars from Netflix. I'm not a fan. I wouldn't have a camera sitting in my production or my finish meeting if I was one of the talent and I was me. All right, well, that was WWE Unreal.

And who shows? This is my show. Hold on. With that, ladies and gentlemen, we are done, but why don't we get a song? Why don't you ever just run me over with that bicycle at the end of the show? Oh, you know, I already closed the bicycle.

I can give you some of this. What are you that? All right, well, that's not nice. Hold on, let's get a song or two. Song? We got a song? We got a song, and, of course, you could send in your submissions. We got a song, and we got to sing it. Corny Drive-Thru at gmail.com.

We're looking for original songs or parody songs. Something that actually talks about what we do here on the show. Not, I wrote a song, so I want to send it in, and it has nothing to do with anything. I wrote a song that the whole world hates. I wrote a song while I masturbate. This one was sent a corny drive-thru at gmail.com from Jerry, aka J. Diddy. Let's go to this.

The name of the song is No More Monet. That is AI. I was about to say either that or we got the greatest undiscovered fucking musicians ever in history of the... Jerry, you're being disqualified. That is AI, so we cannot use that. There's no way. If he wants to send us video of him playing all that shit from scratch, go ahead. Well, let's go to another song, Jerry, sorry.

That's automatic disqualification. We follow the rules here. Ding, ding, ding. This one was sent to corny drive-thru at gmail.com from Aaron D. Donato, aka Captain Corum. It's been a while since Captain Scrotum sent in a song. Let's go to this. This is entitled, I won't even say it.

Let's just play this song. right now. A surgeon who takes out a wrestler's brain is the kind of thing Uncle Dave studies and a surgeon who puts back a wrestler's brain is Uncle Dave's kind of story but a wrestler on Jim's TV set

wearing sweatpants paid by Tony's dad he's the one who makes Jim Cornette Matt he's Jim Shapoopee Shapoopee Shepoopee the one who lost his brain Shepoopee Shepoopee Jim learned from all Dave

Take a brain out And then what happens Put a brain in Was it someone else's The shrieu-piki Knocking Nakes this stuff So do you believe him

Take a brain out And in Was it someone else's Does your booby have an empty knocking Dave said he's this stuff So you believes him Now Uncle Dave's a real journalist

He has a journalist But on the actions Win in was it someone else's Does your booboo be have an empty knocking Inxed his list of So did he believes him Shapobee, Shapooby, Shepoobie, the one who lost his brain. Shepoobie, Shepo bee, Shepo bee, Shepo be, Shepo be, Jim learned from Uncle Dave.

Shepo be, Shepo be, Shepo be, Shepo be, Shepo be, Shepo be, Jim learned from Uncle Dave. Yay! That was tremendous. Donato, Captain Corum, another winner here. The line that got me was, take one out, see what happens, put one in. Is it someone else's? Someone else's? All right, well, thank you again.

Corny drive-thru at gmail.com. Great job from Aaron. Please send it more again in the future. Send in your submissions. Once again, corny drive-thruheatheam. I don't have it in my thumbs today. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll be back in a few days on the experience. And of course, next week here on the drive-thru, go through the archive, patreon.com slash cornet.

$5 a month. Get you access to the archive going back to 2013. All right. I just want this music to play once. So annoying. Okay, wow. Of course, the official Jim Cornett YouTube channel go there and check out all the videos, full episodes, clips of the episodes, Omnibus, Collections.

Jim Cornett. All that type of thing. Just go to YouTube and search. What about Cornett's collectibles? Well, just go to YouTube and search for Jim Corvette. It'll come right up. What about Cornett's collectibles at Jimcornaut.com? Well, we're selling them. Look at them all. I just wanted to play the music once, but once again, Cornett's collectibles, Jimcornaut.com. Jim, the drive-thru is brought to you by the logs of Stephen P. P. New. Anything you want to say about Stephen Pino? Yes, there is. If you don't like the drive-thru, blame him because he's the one that brings it to you. And he gets up early in the morning, too. Every morning, he'll get in his car and he'll drive around before dawn putting the drive through in everybody's mailbox and nobody appreciates it. Stephen P. Newlawface.com

87750 Steve. That's right. Get even with Stephen Newlawoffice.com. And with that, we are out of here. Let's give it one more chance. Come on. I'm going to break this thing. Don't hit it. You're abusing the thing. We'll be back in a few days on the experience. We'll be beating up Antonio Onoki. Tagabah! Whatever the hell he's staying there.

Next week here on the drive-through for Jim Cornett. I'm the great Brian last. Oh!