Jim Cornette’s Drive-Thru - Episode 409

Episode Date: September 12, 2025

This week on the Drive Thru, Jim reviews AJ Lee's return, and highlights of Smackdown & Raw! Plus Jim answers YOUR questions about Ronda Rousey's comments about WWE, Wardlow's latest injury, MJF's... wedding photos, Triple H, Seth Rollins, Paul Heyman, and more! Thanks to our episode sponsors: SHOPIFY:  Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com/cornette RAYCON:  Go to buyraycon.com/jce to get 20% off sitewide today CORNBREAD HEMP:  Save 30% on your first order and free shipping on orders over $75! Go to cornbreadhemp.com/jce and use code JCE at checkout. Send in your question for the Drive-Thru to: CornyDriveThru@gmail.com  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.

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 Hello again, friends! Jesus Christ! And you are our friends, Jesus Christ, we are here again. Jim Cornett's drive-through from one J-C to another. I'm your host, the Great Brian Last. We got big wrestling talk with a big wrestling personality, the leader of the cult of Cornett, Mr. Jim Cornett. What did you slap or hit or kick right as you ended that...
Starting point is 00:00:45 Oh, that's my dick. Now that was, I hit the desk, I hit the desk, what do you mean? Yeah. Well, you didn't hit any of the notes, I'll tell you that. That's what I started laughing about is there's, I hit every note. Normally when you do that, that thing that you do there with your organ, there's a couple of kind of bright peppy spots that that kind of gets me that I kind of look forward to most weeks. if anything, of that performance.
Starting point is 00:01:19 And somehow, from the start, you managed to just, it's like you purposely left all of those out and just played all the notes that I don't like and none of the little notes that I did like. Which little notes in the theme did a great Brian last? There was just, there was a variation today. It was more somber and fucking funeral. If it was the funeral for an organ grinder's monkey,
Starting point is 00:01:45 it would have been a funeral dirge rather than the up-tempo peppy light. That was, we're in an up-tempo mood. It's going to be an up-tempo show. That was the up-tempo theme here for this extravaganza. Well, it sounded more like it was daggum as sad singing and slow walking as the dream machine would say. Be ready to be laid out and have words spoken over you.
Starting point is 00:02:10 A lot of people are going to be talking about the dream machine in the months ahead. He's going to be talking about the dream machine in the months ahead. make a resurgence. That's right. Based on, we're not here to just plug my book right off the top of the bat, the big announcement, the incredible revelation that
Starting point is 00:02:25 it'd last six months to keep myself from going bat shit nuts over everything else going on in the wide, wide world these days. I have sat down and created a masterpiece, a piece of merchandise. It's going to go on sale at Jim Cornett.com on October 11th, since
Starting point is 00:02:41 we're just blurting out all the details here, Saturday, October 11th, noon Eastern. My new book, Heroes and Friends, with extensive essays, remembrances is what they are on a variety of great wrestling superstars that I have interacted with. Brian, you have seen an advanced copy of this adventure, and it ain't too bad for a guy in his spare time from what I'm being told by you, for government work. It ain't too bad for government work, as they used to say. I could say, I think people are going to really like it.
Starting point is 00:03:17 I think people are going to love the articles. But the thing that has blown me away, and I think people are going to see this, is the photography. And specifically, there are some of your photos that I'm familiar with that have been around. Other people have seen them, too, they may not realize that your photos, but they've been around and you have reproduced them in the highest possible quality. It blew me away. And I think, we're going to love it.
Starting point is 00:03:41 I don't want to give the people the idea that just every single picture is, and the thing is mine, we have some historic and some classic stuff too and stuff that people haven't seen in 50, 60 years, even before I was born and rare things like that. But some of the photography, specifically the chapters on Lance Russell
Starting point is 00:04:02 and the chapters on Troy Graham, the Dream Machine, who was a, as I sat down and wrote it and laid it all out, was a pivotal person in my career early, before I had a career. But nevertheless, back to Lance. You and I were looking at it, and we've been talking about this, and this is something that we'll see in a variety of projects I hope to be doing coming up, but specifically the first look is in this book.
Starting point is 00:04:29 Hotchkis Feather Bottom has been able to take my negatives, and we talked about this the other day on the experience, the state of the art of photo printing in the last 45 years has changed a little bit. And I was gobsmacked. I actually have one of the famous pictures of Lance Russell and Dave Brown at the desk in Memphis and the TV studio was one that I took. And I have the print, three and a half by five print from 45 years ago. And I have an 8 by 10 enlargement from 45 years ago. And I have the original negative.
Starting point is 00:05:09 And what they can do now with the negative, Hotchkis was able to. to reproduce this in such high-res and then turn around and put it into this printing program, it looks like completely different photo. And another one of Lance that we were looking at just earlier for we went on the air, you can see one of the gold molars in his mouth. And I was using, for anybody that's a 60-year-old photographer, 400-speed Kodak color film with a Canon AE1 and a 125-millimeter telephoto lens in a TV studio, which sounds great, but when you got the print back in those days,
Starting point is 00:05:55 it wasn't capable of reproducing what the negative had recorded, and now they are. And you can eliminate dust and smudges and whatever, it's insane. So anyway, since we got that plug in, Bobby Hennon, the Sheik, Bruno Samertino, Ray the Crippler, Stevens, The Dream Machine, Paul Bear, Vader, Sputnik Monroe, Lance Russell, Ron Wright, Boo Bradley, aka Balls Mahoney, and my favorite chapter, The Green Shadow, Pat Malone. We're going to find out a lot of stories have been on here, some haven't. Some are the product. of the research I've been doing over the last year and even stuff I found out a bit in Notre Dame. And all the Sputnik stories are there, but you and I were talking about, we believe we have a photo that I didn't know it. I knew the story of his interaction with Sam Phillips' sons, Knox and Jerry.
Starting point is 00:06:59 Sam Phillips, the founder of Sun Records, who discovered Elvis. Knox and Jerry and their friend who became the, Memphis radio legend Johnny Dark were the leaders of Sputnik's fan club in Memphis in the early 60s. And I tell the story of how Sputnik almost got Jerry Phillips stabbed when he was 12 years old by a mad fan in Arkansas. But we have a picture reproduced in that chapter of two of the kids that I just thought was his random fan club members. and you believe it may be at least one of Sam Phillips's kids. Yeah, I think it's Sam Phillips's son with the other co-president of the fan club. We'll find out during the break.
Starting point is 00:07:46 I will somehow get confirmation on this age. Yeah, we'll have a Freddie de Cordova, the producer, get back to us in the break over here. But anyway, so that is, again, only 2495 an autographed folks. 100 pages on all of these people and my interactions with them and all kinds of shit you ain't never seen before for the wrestling fan for Christmas. But in a related matter, as I was researching some of these people and their schedules and the things that happened. And Brian, we've talked about how the Nashville wrestling promotion of Nick Goulis and Roy Welch
Starting point is 00:08:28 is based in Nashville, Tennessee, it acquired the Memphis end. of the territory in 1957. Memphis had been its own separate city affiliated with the St. Louis and the Tulsa offices had its own promoter and they hadn't used any of the other Tennessee talent. So Goulis and Welch had set up
Starting point is 00:08:54 Nashville as a weekly town. The hippodrome, exceed 3,000 people a week, most time did. And every week was Chattanooga, 140 miles to the southeast in the memorial auditorium, seated 5,000 or 6,000 and often did. And Birmingham, Alabama was 180 miles south of Nashville. It still is, as a matter of fact. They hadn't moved it.
Starting point is 00:09:20 And that was every week as well. That was their main territory. And the spot shows in the small towns around to Huntsville, Florence, Alabama, and different places in Tennessee. when they got Memphis in effect instead of just getting one town they kind of added a different territory to their auspices because Roy Welch living in Dyersburg which is just about 75 miles north of Memphis right he had sat and waited he lived there and they had towns small towns all around the area with their wrestlers he just sat and waited to get Memphis
Starting point is 00:10:01 and they finally did. But they kept it separate. And Roy, as we've always told the story, Roy oversaw Memphis, whereas Nick was fond of Birmingham, his hometown, and they were both on Monday nights. So that was how that Memphis was always kind of the, the outsider town that got all the attention
Starting point is 00:10:22 still in the territory, because they had the big building. The Ellis Auditorium at that time, was bigger than could potentially be bigger when they, you know, used all the seats, then the other buildings in the territory, they had a big TV and a lot of towns around it, right? So would you like to know, Brian, or would you like to take a guess? If you lived in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1961, and you were a fan of professional wrestling, do you know how many times per week
Starting point is 00:11:02 if you were willing to drive 90 miles that you could see live pro wrestling matches well again I'm not too big on knowing how much mileage there is between different towns but I'm going to guess based on the fact that you're asking this question yes I'm going to say six or seven days oh god damn it you see son of a bitch. Well, would you like me to actually more than that, but you couldn't be in two
Starting point is 00:11:35 places at the same time, but would you like me to elaborate on this? Because this is, again, in this day and age, when, you know, live events, I mean, again, the WWE draws major crowds, but they only come to a city of three million people like Chicago twice a year. Did I just undercut Chicago, maybe it's 10 million now, I don't know, but you know what I'm saying. These were the old days when you're going to small markets and doing it the old-fashioned way. In 1961, at least part of it, for the time period covered in this program, they were inviting you to come to all of the matches that ran and were promoted off Memphis TV. And on Monday nights, obviously that was wrestling in Memphis, right, back then at the Ellis
Starting point is 00:12:27 auditorium. But they also had a deal. Herb Welch ran Blytheville, Arkansas as a weekly town. I've seen ads that I've uncovered up to the early 70s.
Starting point is 00:12:43 And Herb was the big name of the Welch brothers in the ring. Roy was the promoter, but Herb had a long career as a top baby face, but he didn't quit wrestling until he was like 60-something. And he was the salty old bastard that trained guys like David Schultz,
Starting point is 00:13:02 out in West Tennessee, stretching him in his barn, right? So he ran Blyville, Arkansas, I think, at the Legion Arena. And even in the 70s, they were charging like $2 ringside and a dollar general admission or some shit for two single matches and a tag. So they would run Blytheville, Arkansas on Monday nights also at that time. and that's again one of the old spot shows for memphis tv 70 or 80 miles across the the city of memphis sits on the mississippi state line so you can drive south 10 miles from downtown memphis and be in a state of mississippi but if you cross the river across the
Starting point is 00:13:44 mississippi bridge you're across the mississippi river across the bridge you're into arkansas and you're not far from the boot heel of missouri so that's why that that's why that that Memphis TV hit portions of three or four different states. On Tuesday night, they'd do a regular weekly show in Kennett, Missouri. Again, as an old Memphis town in the 80s that Buddy Wayne would run, but this was weekly on Tuesday nights. And Wednesday in those days, they were both running Jackson, Tennessee, which is 80 miles from Memphis up the road toward Nashville.
Starting point is 00:14:25 and Clarksdale, Mississippi, which is about 70 or 80 miles, kind of a southerly direction from there. Thursday nights was Tupelo, Mississippi. I don't know where they were running. I can't believe the building we were running in the 80s could have been standing that long. And then on Saturdays, they did their TV at W.HBQ, Channel 13, Even though it aired late afternoon in those days,
Starting point is 00:15:01 they would tape it in the studio at noon so that they could then go to Jonesboro, Arkansas, which is 75 miles away. Of course, known now worldwide as the birthplace of Randy Hales on Saturday nights and do a weekly show there. It was literally... Randy Hales, Hales from here. Randy Hales, hails from here.
Starting point is 00:15:26 they had their own territory off one TV and they could keep the guys busy that were living in Memphis every, you know, every week, you know, five or six times and plus bring in, obviously, they were still bringing in some of the stars from the other end of the territory.
Starting point is 00:15:49 But Sputnik Monroe was a main event guy and I don't know that he ever worked in Nashville on that run. 200 miles up the road. Hey, a couple questions for you. One, when would you say Memphis became the priority Monday night town? Because obviously Nick Gould has had a different town that was a priority.
Starting point is 00:16:12 At what point did it become the priority? Well, it depends on... Or did it not become that until Jerry Jarrett broke away? No, no. I think it was always Roy Welch's priority. I think it was because... They gave it a ton of opportunities. And he switched things up quite a bit.
Starting point is 00:16:36 They paid, from what I understand now, 30 grand for it, allegedly. And that was in Jesus Christ, what was that? That would be $300-something thousand dollars. To less wolf? To less wolf. And then they still used him as a frontman, a time or two. And they tried different things. You go back and look, they had a gorgeous George.
Starting point is 00:16:59 came in in 1958, and the newspaper publicity also mentioned that night lower prices for the summer. They lowered prices on Gorgeous George. Memphis wrestling, and this is talked about in the article in more detail, but Buddy Wayne, the Memphis guy years ago, was there. He had just had his first professional match like two months before the Sputnik-Menro, Billy Wicks match at Russ Wood Park, that popped the whole. thing. And he said, wrestling in Memphis was dead, and Sputnik Monroe saved it. And you can see where
Starting point is 00:17:38 some of the shows, they were skipping weeks, some shows didn't draw a thousand people in Memphis at the Ellis Auditorium. And then Roy Welch takes over the spring of 57, by the end of 58, I mean, there's nothing in the papers like, oh, anything's happening or interesting. It's just a drab results. And then he brings Buddy Fuller in from Mobile where his son, Buddy Fuller, had opened. That's what the Welch's did. They opened territories. He'd opened up Mobile.
Starting point is 00:18:15 And he got two guys over named Sputnik Monroe and Billy Wicks. So he brings Buddy up to be the front promoter and the Booker. and then Billy Wicks and Sputnik-Prenro show up. And, of course, by then, I don't know if it was a year later, Buddy Fuller was out because he got in trouble with the commission. Like, it seemed like he had a problem with the Tennessee State Athletic Commission over a period of years with paying the commission taxes. They were not fans of his.
Starting point is 00:18:46 But by then they had things going and I think Roy just took over fully. but the point is Sputnik Monroe appears and in three months the newspaper said we have the largest crowd in wrestling crowd in Memphis in five years and then the largest wrestling crowd in Memphis in almost 10 years and then by the summertime they're doing regular shows in a ballpark and drawing well Sputnik drew the two biggest crowds in Memphis wrestling history in the same month So whatever he was doing, it worked. And when did TV start? TV, they had gotten TV not long after Roy bought the town in 57. They got it first on Channel 5. And historically, a guy named Jack Eaton was the announcer.
Starting point is 00:19:42 He was a Memphis sports legend still with Channel 5 in the 80s. But then it didn't last. whatever, we don't know, more to come. But they ended up on Channel 5, or on Channel 13, I'm sorry, and that's where Lance Russell worked and was serendipitously the only guy that had ever done wrestling because he had done a little studio show they had done in Jackson, Tennessee a few years earlier. Yeah, and I have a lot of the programs covering that period of time where they got the TV,
Starting point is 00:20:15 when they moved TV, I guess, I should say, and I'm a big collector of those programs. and I have almost a complete year of 59. If anyone has any, let me know I need to complete my set. But if I think of the end of the 50s, early 60s, Memphis, I've seen some other programs from various towns throughout the Goulos-Welch area. But when you bring up all the different shows within 90 miles of Memphis,
Starting point is 00:20:41 you're the guess. How many of those shows were three matches? Most of them. most of them that's what they had in those days and and oftentimes the first match would be one fall and then the last two would be two out of three sometimes all three would be two out of three falls you'd still get your two hour show but it you know the expenses were low as they say and then you know actually i think do you remember you've seen the the lineup there but at russell would park if there was four matches on the card that would have that would have been big and
Starting point is 00:21:23 and an intermission and they drew and an intermission and they drew you know almost 14,000 people and they tore the fucking fence down and you know got in after they locked the gates so that's the thing is these guys had to get over in rudimentary you know conditions but sputton made a difference. He instantly, and in the, in the book, there's newspaper articles that tell the story of, you know, his encounter with the cowboy and the arrests and the civil rights situation, but he was all over the place for almost two years, but especially that summer of 59, and then, you know, it ends up, honestly, that the city, but they still, they just had a Sputnik-Munrow day. And they had another one, the first one was 20 years ago, but that was still the one place
Starting point is 00:22:23 where he could go, where they still remember, where he was still the diamond ring and Cadillac man, right? Because everywhere else, I mean, you know, he had been a security guard in the 80s, so they had long forgotten. But Memphis, he could always come and pull that, same suit out of the closet and, you know, and be thought of the way he used to be. All off of that one summer, it's incredible. You know, it's interesting, too, there's never another summer. You know, for Sputnik, you know, I guess you could say, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, he really isn't a political player in that office going forward.
Starting point is 00:23:09 Him and Fargo apparently didn't get along. There's not a lot of big runs of Sputnik after that, and Billy Wicks. you know, he eventually goes, whatever it is, the sheriff's department, or you would know better than I. Yes. Well, that was the thing is that the other lost part of the equation was Billy Wicks, but he, after, I think another year or two, went full time with the sheriff's department and still wrestled on those towns on the weekends, closer Arkansas and Mississippi, just to stay, you
Starting point is 00:23:42 know, in the business. And he was a shooter, competitive wrestler. trained guys until his, what was he, 80 or whatever. Had you met him before you brought him to the Smoky Mountain Night of Legends? No, no, because, see, he had been out at that, not only at that end before that end became Jarrett's end, but he'd been out of the business for so long, but the old timers, you know, still remembered him, but that's why nobody does, because he went, instead of sticking with the business and being integrated into the full Tennessee territory.
Starting point is 00:24:16 then in the 60s and getting on more TVs and wrestling more places, he just worked for the sheriff's department and did those other things and wrestled on weekends for a while through, I guess, the end of the 60s. Well, we could do this all day. We can do this all day. It's a lot of fun. Once again, when's the new book go on sale? Saturday, October 11th at noon eastern at Jim Cornett.com,
Starting point is 00:24:45 along with action figure discounts and more. excitement, a couple of more new things going on, and various other holiday cheer. We start our holiday sale in October, so we got time to keep up with it, folks. So, and I hope you like this book, because I'm actually, we've talked about the pictures and shit, but I wrote it too. And goddamn, that took longer even. I'm proud of that too. Once again, Jim Cornett.com. Learn more about Sputnik-Monroe and so many other
Starting point is 00:25:12 important figures. And Jim, speaking of important figures, I guess in the modern day sense. Why don't we talk about what you've watched over the last few days? A lot of buzz around certain events on SmackDown and Raw. Why don't we start with SmackDown? Well, why don't we just lay the smack right down there on Smackdown? This is amazing when you look at what they're fucking doing. And again, you know, some people are saying, before I get,
Starting point is 00:25:47 get stars. People are, oh, Cornats blow the WWE. Cornett's getting paid, but you know, I used to get a royalty check back where they had those things, but then they started the network and fucked everybody out of their royalty. But I don't get any money
Starting point is 00:26:01 from the WWE, and I'm not, they actually think that I'm blowing the WWE when I say, God damn, this show is so fucking boring, except at least at the top they do some good shit, rather than this fucking incendiary car wreck on
Starting point is 00:26:17 the interstate known as AEW over here. He's not being fair. Someone accused me yesterday at being on AEW's payroll. What gave that away? When I said Tony Kahn can't do this, he's not the one? Only if in the words of Big Bad John, they just love being whooped. Then they might pay you.
Starting point is 00:26:42 But no, what they have done here, Chicago for Smackdown was sold out, That was 16,000 plus people. They just came back from Paris, where they did 30,000 for a pay-per-view and 23,000 for Raw. That is 70,000 tickets in three shows in six days for no more than what they're doing.
Starting point is 00:27:08 See, that's how I don't know if the people get the fact that it's not really a compliment when it's more astonishment when they're doing these giant numbers and they've got like two and a half things now that are really, they got John Sina back back in the saddle again. Jesus Christ, they bought six, seven months of that fucking thing
Starting point is 00:27:34 just because the rock couldn't keep his yap shut. But they got Sina back, they're going bad shit, and now they've got the goddamn modern day equivalent of Jimmy Garvin and precious and sunshine and fucking insert baby face here, Chris Adams. This is tremendous. And Smackdown featured both of these things and was the best Smackdown that they've done in ages
Starting point is 00:28:07 because they only had an hour in between the Sina stuff and the punk and AJ and Seth and Becky stuff. to, you know, to bore us with. Normally you got to wait an hour and a half at least in the middle. Am I exaggerating, Brian? Oh, no. At least an hour and a half. At least.
Starting point is 00:28:31 But no. And after seeing what they did with John Cena's interview, which opened the show, can somebody go find the rock and ball gag him, bind his, hands behind his back, tied along with his brain up his ass. Why did they, he gave the most incredible baby face promo with the huge ovation with thank you seen a chance where he couldn't talk for minutes because it's his last time on Smackdown. And three months ago they had him coming out and telling all the people to go piss up a rope.
Starting point is 00:29:18 What the fuck was a matter with them now that I see this? Remember when everyone jumped on me and said, this will all make sense, you're wrong. This is all good. You see, it got a big pop. Everyone's talking about it. It was not well thought out, not well done. Forget about Travis Scott, who was kind of in the middle of the whole thing.
Starting point is 00:29:42 That didn't work at either. The rock now looks like he's half the size that he was six months ago. Oh, he's half the man he used to be. And apparently he's trying as hard as he can to be considered serious as an actor right now. It may be hard because everything you see him in, it's Dwayne Johnson trying to act. But he ain't going to be back anytime soon.
Starting point is 00:30:03 No, at the same point, though, now since he's lost 50 pounds, we're sure of one thing, he ain't going to wrestle. And you know, and if I could, now you can make him a baby face. If a bunch of heels beat up on the sickly looking rock, doesn't it make my baby face? No, but if I was the rock and I could have got in the shape that I was in as he's in,
Starting point is 00:30:29 or you know what I'm saying over the last year or two, I'd have had a goddamn match with Roman Raines just to do a family member a fucking favor instead of trying to be the final boss and pissing everybody's post-toasty. But anyway, back to Sina in the ring here. Even said, I've dodged roadblocks and pivots. but you guys you know I'm so grateful to Chicago
Starting point is 00:30:56 for always being critical of him but making him work for it and he left it all out there on his final tour and he put him over strong and talked about how they they bring their power they got the power they bring people back and the people start chanting AJ Lee
Starting point is 00:31:15 which was a brilliant little this I'm just saying this was so well all put together. It's his last time in Chicago, last time on SmackDown. It was 23 years ago in that very building, and I, of course, did not remember that,
Starting point is 00:31:31 where he came down and slapped Kurt Angle. And he talked about the big matches in Chicago, but he got pops for each one of them. He wasn't somebody standing there saying, and when I faced Oblivion J. Jones in Coriquin Hall in fucking Tokyo and people are reedy, reedy.
Starting point is 00:31:54 And he said Chicago was the greatest WWE crowd and the people were left chanting thank you, Sina. One of the great baby face promos of anybody's history and he said, thank you for the beautiful ride
Starting point is 00:32:11 and the music plays. It is Sammy Zane's it's that Kami Dirt bag Sammy Zane. Who could ever like him? seemingly no one, the fans were ready to boo him right away. Didn't it seem like that? Well, because no, here's the thing. If you had played
Starting point is 00:32:33 goddamn Tinkerbell's music and had the fairy come out and sprinkle fairy dust and they would have booed because they thought it was a turn coming. And it was great. Because you knew the guys in the ring knew that was going to happen and they didn't fuck with them. They got their shit in and had a ball doing it.
Starting point is 00:32:55 Because Sammy Zane can talk his ass off. It was again, so fucking, I had him when he was a mute. Again, what is my timing? What is life? But that's the thing. As soon as his music came down, as he started to speak, they were booing the shit out of him
Starting point is 00:33:14 because they just knew, oh my God, he's going to kick him into balls or some shit, right? and a scene even said it's happy hour in Chicago, I'm here for the booze. And then as Sammy, they're booing him, but when he starts talking, at least they're not just doing the fake boo where they're trying to drown him out. It's where they're genuinely expressing displeasure at what they think he's going to do. But when he says, John, I want to say, thank you from the boys in the back.
Starting point is 00:33:48 thank you for what you did for me. Now they started warming up a little bit. They were like, okay, well, now we don't know, but we'll just not shit on him right directly. And then little history, and I'm sure this is why they had this match. Again, I'm sure there's folks out there that will remember this happening fondly.
Starting point is 00:34:13 I didn't even see it and didn't give shit. But Sammy's debut was apparently against John's, Sina for the U.S. title when Sina was doing the Open Challenge thing, right? So now he is the U.S. champion and he wants to pay it forward. And he wanted to
Starting point is 00:34:34 introduce or institute the Sammy Zane U.S. Open Challenge. And John's like, I like the idea. Okay. And he starts to, yeah, do it. And he's going to leave. And Sam, not so. quick and now again they're like,
Starting point is 00:34:51 hmm? But then you can kind of tell by the demeanor, Sammy wants to defend the U.S. title against Sina, to share a ring with him, to give him what he gave Sammy years ago, I shot at the U.S. tie and now the crowd's roaring.
Starting point is 00:35:07 Yay, yes. And how about in Chicago? Yay! Right now. Yes, yes. I mean, people are just throwing the babies and goddamn fondling themselves. And then Sammy says, if you want some, the whole crowd says, come get some.
Starting point is 00:35:27 And Ceda milks it. And Sammy's got his hand out. And Ceda say, you're on. And they shake and they pop again. It was like, Jesus Christ, Brian, I'm just, how could you have done this any better than what they just did this? I mean, in terms of setting up an angle for a match on the show between two baby faces, I guess they did it pretty good. It did seem like the fans were kind of ready to boo Sammy.
Starting point is 00:35:56 And I think there's something interesting there. I don't think it was just about someone's coming out here to confront Sina or talk to Sina. I think it may have been specific to Sammy, too. You know, we have seen like kind of the pacifist pansy character for a long time. And I know they tease the idea that like Haring Cross was trying to get to his soul and change him back to who he's supposed to be. and I think there was a Who unemployed?
Starting point is 00:36:22 I think there was a segment of the fan base that was kind of like getting behind that and then carrying Cross is gone and we're just right back to Sammy being you know again the pacifist pansy guys so you well you think
Starting point is 00:36:34 maybe some people who like Sammy were like oh shit if he turned to heel he get a bigger push I think there is some of that too because there is a dedicated Sammy Zane fan base that like think he should be the world champion but well it did seem like Chicago it did seem like
Starting point is 00:36:49 they were ready to boo Sammy and he had to kind of work overtime to get to them and not boo him. And again, he wasn't going to kick him in the balls or anything. So now with that said, I thought it was a really intriguing segment. And like you alluded to at the top, when I watched Smackdown or Raw, I'm just always waiting for the ball to drop. You know, I'm always waiting for like, something's going to happen. And this is going to become unwatchable anytime now. And they kept my attention throughout this, and I was very curious to see how they're going to do the match, because I don't think Cina's going to win a U.S. title. Is Cina going to put over Sammy?
Starting point is 00:37:27 I mean, that'd be an interesting move on his way out before the Brock match, and then, of course, we got the match, but I thought it was a really good angle. Well, and that's the thing is that I'm sorry, but it's just obvious. They have a large crowd that knows everything it's going on because it's simple enough to keep the basics of the people that you like in your head rather than this constant chaos and you get other places. And it's stars and it's people that are recognized. And it's a show that's produced well. And details are not forgotten. And now you've got two baby faces, but they're just amped to see Sina's last match in Chicago and still what's going to happen.
Starting point is 00:38:14 or you don't know. So anyway, they're 25 minutes into the show. They come back from the break. The match is already underway. But now they're back to booing Sammy. When he's on the offense, they booed, but they're doing arm drags. They're having a wrestling match.
Starting point is 00:38:35 And the people are into it and they're invested. And if Sammy arm drags, Sina, they'll boo. And if Sina arm drags, Sammy, they'll cheer. And it said Sammy is not healing, but it doesn't matter because the crowd has a clear favorite. And Sina can't go as hard or as fast as he used to, nor can he bump as hard. But they don't care because it's him and they're seeing it and it's the last time and blah, blah, blah. But think about this for a second, Brian, because a lot of people, is it, Sena's got what, three months left on his retirement tour, right? And that would mean, I don't, he stopped doing the
Starting point is 00:39:22 countdown. But if he's going to be there 10 or 12 more times, and that's, I assume, Survivor series and a network debut and a big Saturday night show, wherever the, a couple of other pay-per-views, right? During that time? Is that correct? You would think so. They're going to end, I guess the last match is, what, Saturday night's main event in Washington, D.C.? It's supposed to be Boston. That's now a house show, I think. And then a Survivor series and whatever December pay-per-view they have. He's in the main event or feature match of events that are going to gross
Starting point is 00:40:00 or because of the rights fee be paid. They're going to be compensated for whatever, $50 million. Is that an exaggeration based on the figures that you've seen publicly reported? They're going to gross $50 million on just the events he's got left. is that a terrible exaggeration again i don't have the numbers in front of me it doesn't seem like a terrible exaggeration it might even be undercutting them what kind of pressure this is what nobody is asking what kind of pressure is it not only on him but whoever he's in the ring with because he's doing these these moves that he doesn't normally do is a tribute to other people
Starting point is 00:40:39 he didn't get to work with like he does the pop-up power bomb for owens and he does this and that thing whatever the fuck, right? Well, that's shit he doesn't do regularly. Plus, he hasn't had a regular schedule like this. He's doing these long matches. And yes, he's in great shape, but what kind of pressure must it be on him think? I better not fucking, you know, hurt myself.
Starting point is 00:41:05 Or it's throwing a $50 million fucking wrench in this deal. And for the people in the ring with him. but when Sammy Zane gives him the exploder he's very he's at a very safe distance from the turnbuckle because what kind of pressure must it be on Sammy Zane to say when he's picking up the guy that's going to be in the feature match of $50 million worth of business
Starting point is 00:41:32 in the next three months and he needs to make sure he puts him down right they he's John's going to do as much of what he wants to do as he can, but he's not going to be stupid, and they're going to have him work with people. I know I can't believe I'm saying,
Starting point is 00:41:50 even Brock that are not going to be stupid with him. You see what I'm saying? Yeah, I mean, you don't want him to get hurt, and if someone did happen to be the guy to hurt him, there would be a lot of pressure. With that said, how is he going to wrestle Brock Lesnar and not be a physical thing? Well, it's going to be a physical thing,
Starting point is 00:42:07 but it's not going to be a stupid thing. because I mean, I would hesitate to say that John probably figures he's going to get tattered a couple of times in the side of the head, but he's not going to be picked up and thrown in such a way that he's going to have to have surgery, right? That's the thing is Brock has the ability and the mental acumen for this thing to know how, you know, when to control himself a bit, but still projection. the aura, but he's not going to be goofy with Sina. But it's still going to be physical, but that's something that they will take pride in rather than taking stupid risks.
Starting point is 00:42:51 And sometimes guys are good enough that they can make the safe shit look more painful than the dangerous shit. And that's what he did with Sammy here. fucking up, however many tens of millions dollars. But they had a smart, logical, professional wrestling match. And the fans were into everything because the guys in it were over. Isn't that the most important part? They didn't have to do anything.
Starting point is 00:43:23 They did exactly what those fans were ready for. Yes. And again, you know, it made sense. And it was a wrestling match. And the crowd was into it. And it harkened back a little bit to that's the way that the crowd used to be in a kind of almost all the matches years ago before everybody got smart and became,
Starting point is 00:43:44 looking at it like Rex Reed instead of, but they went through several breaks. They put some time in. They had some big false finishes. And then Sina even hit the GTS, and then he hit a spear. And he was getting big pops on these two counts, right? And the fans started chanting RKO.
Starting point is 00:44:06 So he tried the RKO, but Sammy shoved him off and Sina hit a clothesline and hit the AA off of the turnbuckles and got a big pop and both them were selling after this, they went about 20 minutes and had a heck of a match. And the fans were chanting, this is awesome as they're both laying there after the big move. And that's when they hit Brock's music.
Starting point is 00:44:33 And the people go bat shit. and you will recall Brian that when was it about a month ago he came out and just fucking F5D Cina and off he went right and we say he didn't come to TV or what the fuck well just to make sure everybody remembers what he did he came out and he F5Demgetty F5 Sammy F5 Cina and F5 Sina again. And then he put his fucking hat back on and walked out of there.
Starting point is 00:45:15 And but here's the thing. And that's again with Brock, the most dangerous thing he did when he pulled the referee out. Poor old Rudy Charles, whatever his real name is that goes by now. He heard him.
Starting point is 00:45:29 That was fucking stiff. He pulled him and he couldn't control his fall to the floor. Yeah, that was rough. but the F5s on Sina were just, just fine. So he knows what he's doing when he wants to. And, but again, F5, F5, it laughs says nothing and walks out. And then, you know, when they go to break, they come back. And it's the replay of his run-in and Brock in the back saying,
Starting point is 00:46:01 I'll see you at Russell-Paloza, bitch. Doesn't sound like... Just him having to say wrestle Palooza just didn't, yeah. But, and then they made the match official for September 20th, Sina and Lester. So the first 50 minutes of the show was all Sina and this business
Starting point is 00:46:21 and it flew right by. You didn't want to just go, what the fuck are they doing every couple minutes? Because it wouldn't go away. You know, I know ECW used it and obviously Lollapalooza is a big deal. But Russell Paloos is like one step up from WrestleMania. It's just like a stupid soundy name.
Starting point is 00:46:42 It just sounds stupid. Hearing Brock lies to go, I'll see you at Russell Paloza. You know, why don't you just invite him to wrestle rock? Like, it just sounds so wrong. Yeah, I'll see you that that pansy name they've given for this wrestling event, bitch. The fuck. Yeah, I mean, you know, again, it's so interesting that all this is happening around the idea of a pay-per-view
Starting point is 00:47:03 in whatever, a week and a half, two weeks, and then Sina leaving in a few months, they said Brock signed the new contract, or I read that Brock signed the new contract. So they have to have more plans for him down the road. Well, and let's clarify that because there was stories that when he was announced as having been legally cleared
Starting point is 00:47:24 from this rigamarole by their staff, people were saying he'd been paid the whole time. and then they said he signed a new contract. Both was apparently true. He was paid through the end of the contract he had for a while, even though he hadn't been used. So again, hooray for him, but what a bunch of duggleheads. I'd have put a hood on him if I had two.
Starting point is 00:47:48 If I was paying him that kind of money, come to fucking work. But anyway, they signed him to a new contract going forward because it expired during the term of the brew, ha-ha, is I guess what the official detail is. But he's back. So who's going to win? Sena's retiring. Brock signed a new contract.
Starting point is 00:48:11 But does anybody want to see Brock beat Sina now? Now that he's back to his former Vim and Vigar is an honest, righteous, upstanding babyface simpleton? Or what? I mean, what's going to happen here? No one wanted to see Brock beat the Undertaker. And they did it.
Starting point is 00:48:32 You know, I thought the idea is that Brock is supposed to be the guy that looks like he can beat everybody, that you want to make somebody, you want to make people see somebody beat him, but you would have to beat him for that to happen every once in a while. But see, that's why they make horse races, as Lance Russell would say. Or don't make horse race, that's why they have horse races. Do they book horse races? What would be the verb for the horse races? I don't know.
Starting point is 00:49:04 I can't answer that. I thought you came from a long line of horse racing people. I mean, I've had some fun of Belmont. Saratoga. But Saratoga. Well, that's a place in New York I can think of. But you know, Jim, John Cena, getting ready for the big match, having to know, Brock Lazzner who just throws referees around and everyone else around.
Starting point is 00:49:27 Yep, yep. He's got to be sore. Gotta be. Maybe even having a rough time sleeping with all these pressures on him. Tossing and turning. He could use some help, some friendly help, and it wouldn't be the first time
Starting point is 00:49:41 that John Cena got some help from Louisville, Kentucky from our friends at Cornbread Hemp. You know, that's exactly right. And I would encourage John Cena to think about this and all the people who like and support John Sina now that he has seen the light. and they want to follow it his example and live an exemplary lifestyle like him.
Starting point is 00:50:02 You got to think that he got trained in Louisville, Kentucky, and now he needs to turn back to his roots and come back to Louisville, Kentucky, for our very own hometown product, cornbread hemp, baby. Because I knew these people were over with me, and now they've proved that they're sponsoring the University of Louisville basketball program and the football, and I believe they play some type of
Starting point is 00:50:26 of lacrosse and tidly winks and possibly competitive disc golf. I'm not sure, but they're sponsoring the U of L athletic program. And that's because they're a big deal in this town, Brian. I hope you know cornbread hemp. Their names are on the tip of people's tongues all over town because all over town people are popping their cornbread hemp CBD gummies in their mouth to deal with the constant stress of daily life. If you just need a little relaxation or you got the,
Starting point is 00:50:56 stress or you got discomfort. Now, it won't help you with granny's sour belches. But if you're getting granny's sour belches because of stress, eat in a way at your insides and you're making your liver quivered, your knees freeze, your spleen turned green, ladies and gentlemen, if you can de-stress and get rid of that discomfort, it, well, it'll just do a world of good for your stomach, too. It won't be all knotted up. You know, the CBD gummies, Brian, are used? Well, they're only used. They only use.
Starting point is 00:51:28 You know, here's what they do. You know, Brian, they only use. Yeah, what do they do, Jim? Or what do they use? Not what do they do? What do they use? Well, they only use, Brian, the best part of the hemp plant, which is the flower, the purdy flower,
Starting point is 00:51:47 for the purest and most potent CBD configuration there. So it goes in these gummies. so they're formulated to, again, you sleep much better. If you got the sleeplessness, you'll start sleeping with these things. You know, if you don't sleep for long enough, then sooner or later you're going to enter into some type of anaphylactic shock of the body. This has been proven by many studies, Brian. I don't know what study, no, we don't know anything about studies either.
Starting point is 00:52:16 You don't know anything about studies? What are you talking about? Let's say you go seven to ten days without sleep, and then suddenly your arm starts shaking. shaking and your knees are weak and you can't seem to stand on your own two feet. And that's what you need to sleep much more often than every seven to ten days, folks. So if you're sleepless, whether you're in Seattle or not, take one or two or three or as many of these gummies as is formulated on the bottle there.
Starting point is 00:52:43 Take the recommended amount. Whatever is recommended, whatever they say, you know, or if somebody's written it on there in Sharpie, you can go by that too. Of course, that would be an aftermarket addition. There won't be any Sharpie on the official releases from cornbread hemp. Thank you. Well, see, that's why you got to go to the official site. Cornbreadhemp.com, C-O-R-N-B-R-E-A-D, Cornbreadhemp.com.
Starting point is 00:53:08 See, a lot of people spell it B-R-E-D, bread, because we're in Kentucky. But there is an A in bread. Cornbreadhemp.com slash J-C-E, and you can save 30% on your very first order. just because you're listening to us, just because I'm coming from Louisville and so are they and so are we and we are all together in this, folks. So save 30% cornbread hemp.com slash JCE. Use the code JCE at checkout. That's easy to remember J, C, and E and for CBD because they're USDA organic.
Starting point is 00:53:49 Remember I told you, Randy Hale started that U.S. DA farm after he closed the USDA wrestling promotion. And he was actually the third party that owned that lab that tested these things to begin with to ensure the safety and purity of the products at cornbread hemp
Starting point is 00:54:07 and the packaging alone. Oh, you hear that, Jim. That's the bullshit detector. We need to get back to the real deal, cornbread hemp, a great deal for the listeners. The packaging alone from cornbread hemp will tell you that this is not some kind of shade tree operation, but they are
Starting point is 00:54:23 indeed very professional and organized and they're a multi-county firm now they're just all over the place and they're going to fix you up 30% off cornbread hemp.com slash jCE use the code jcee at checkout oh there's that that sound again but uh the hell cornbread hemp a friend of ours they can be friends of yours we love them around here you'll love them there jim yeah if you're in suddenly interrupted from anything with a giant screeching sound like that, and you almost have a heart attack, take a CBD gummy. Well, Jim, Smackdown still had more action, and a lot of it we both mutually decided to skip past.
Starting point is 00:55:14 I'm sorry, I know Alistair Black has fans, I'm not one of them, and him against Damien Priest is like not an appealing match to me in any way. I'm not sure I want to take that kick. I don't really see how he's got full control of that kick when he's going that fast from that far around and it's behind his head. He's kind of looking around. Damien Priest wasn't sure about that kick either. His head turned and his hand went up.
Starting point is 00:55:41 And he still may have caught at least a French fry if not a potato. And they had a girls match, Brian. And what was that match? I don't know. It was girls. They were doing the things that girls do. Well, Jim, there was another big segment on Smackdown one that was, although the SENA thing ended up being a big deal, the real big deal, the reason a lot of people were tuning in was the idea that someone could be returning and there was a big segment around it. Someone apparently got 178 million.
Starting point is 00:56:21 social views. Now, having a social view of somebody used to get you arrested in some states, but now it's just, it's not frowned upon at all, and they got a bunch of them. We knew this, it was set up so perfectly and again, and I'm going to explain to people that may not yet get it
Starting point is 00:56:46 why this is fucking money. They start out with cess music, so They can woe and do the whole thing. And we know he's in the stands. Then they go to a break. And again, I'm wondering, after they played the music, he comes out. He's in the stands up there with the spotlight, and they're all woeing, and they go to the break. And they came back three and a half minutes later.
Starting point is 00:57:09 The music's still playing. They're still woeing. Does he have to stand there and just woe? And do these people continue to woe? during the whole goddamn commercial break, Brian? I don't know. Any of this makes me feel like I'm tied to the trio wo. I mean, it used to be,
Starting point is 00:57:29 you didn't have to work so hard when you paid to go to see the show without having to woe for so. But anyway, he basically does the introduction. Tonight, the legend of CM Punk dies, and of course they're in Chicago. So, of course, he's got nuclear heat, already and he gets the big CM punk chance and Seth introduces Becky and Becky comes out
Starting point is 00:57:59 that makes her entrance down the aisle gets in the ring and she's got big heat and it's same thing we were talking about with this whole scene of thing and blah blah blah these people are over the fans know what their interactions are with these other people and with the references they're making And it's a personal fucking issue, which we'll get to in a minute, but it's understandable. And the people are with it. And the crowd immediately, as soon as Becky's music dropped, was chanting, A.J. Lee, A.J. Lee, how dare you chant somebody else's name? and she every time she screeches at them like this shrewish you know bossy bitch they they boo the
Starting point is 00:58:58 shit out of her and again not in the fun way like now's where we're supposed to scream over dominic or whatever it's no we don't we don't like you you're saying shit we don't want to hear this boo you're a bad person i'm not saying they want to stab her we're not going at far but it's the same different tone but you know what she does good with it too because she changes her tone and she raises her voice like they're not going to stop her as opposed to other people we've seen they just keep talking the way they're going to talk she does good with it I think well yeah and and again she's so good at being this bossy shrewish condescending nasty nasty woman just brow beating people and she's bitchy
Starting point is 00:59:46 and she went down the list and she named all the Chicago sports teams. I mean, she covered football, basketball, baseball, basketball, baseball, fucking hockey, whatever. It said they all suck. And so to see him punk. And they boo again and suddenly, like a Mussolini to talk to Becky. Here comes punk now and the place blows. and he comes a big pop and it's clobbering time.
Starting point is 01:00:21 And he's coming down to the ring. Becky's in the ring. Seth is up in the stands. The people are chanting C.M. Punk. And punks, it's not about you, Becky. It's about your coward husband, hiding behind his goons and hiding behind Heyman and hiding behind his wife. And again, they're chanting A.J. Lee, A.J. Lee.
Starting point is 01:00:49 and people are like well they should have kept it a surprise and fuck this is perfect because it's telling everybody at home even if they don't know what the fuck's going on shit we've missed something we need to be tuned into this thing here what's going on these people are going bat shit who's a j they she haven't seen her in 10 years they're going to fix that but anyway and punk says you will let him chant a j lee and he's got chicago his backup and he mentions you know he could have called bailey or he could call ria if he wanted and then becky goes off and slaps him again and paint brushes him again and slaps at him some more and cut a promo on him just like she did last week as he's walking out of the ring berating him but this
Starting point is 01:01:47 time he goes to the entrance and he says i would never put my hands on a lady but i've got somebody who will and they play a j's music here is the person that these 16 000 people have been chanting for we've got her here go the babies and she comes out and and brine here's the thing I don't know that I've ever seen an AJ Lee wrestling match because remember she's been gone for 10 years well it's been more than 10 years now right because punk was gone for more nevertheless wasn't paying any attention back then
Starting point is 01:02:33 to what the WWE was doing but I know that basically crazy is her superpower and how do I know that people are scared of her, Brian? Because as she comes down all smiley about to fucking go crazy like a goddamn Chuckie doll or whatever, Becky Lynch is in the ring shitting herself. Oh, shit.
Starting point is 01:03:03 That's the way you get shit over. Because I saw somebody on Twitter is like, why was Becky acting like she was scared of, this little girl, which she doesn't act scared of goddamn, what fucks her name? The refrigerator, Jacks. Because it sells tickets. Becky has to be afraid that this fucking wife of the man that her husband has been fucking around and now she's fucked him around.
Starting point is 01:03:36 His wife's crazy and here she comes. And if she's not scared, it kills the whole. whole deal. They're telling a story here. And AJ skips around the ring and smiling while Becky's begging off. And the people are chanting, holy shit, holy shit. And then when AJ gets in a ring, she snaps and double legs her and beats the shit out of Becky. Apparently for real, because she had a black eye on Raw, right? But she just, she's wailing on her and Becky gets out from under it and AJ Thess presses her and pounds on her again and the big slap and Becky takes a big bump and is selling all over ringside like when I sold
Starting point is 01:04:25 for Bill Watts and the people are going crazy and punk and AJ celebrating the ring and Seth and his wife and it got it was perfect this is a personal issue this is what wrestling has been missing for a long time. The only thing that will ruin it is if AJ and Becky in this tag team match that they're about to set up here soon on Raw, when they have it, if AJ
Starting point is 01:04:56 and Becky start trying to wrestle and do one tackle, drop down, hip toss, Hurricane Rana, fucking dive, it'll kill it. They want to see these two beat the shit out of each
Starting point is 01:05:12 other. I'm not saying they can't body slam somebody, but if they start doing just goddamn cert de solet cartwheel wrestling, it'll kill it, but they want to see these two
Starting point is 01:05:26 fucking fight and beat the shit out of each other. It's classic wrestling, a guy and his wife against a guy and his wife and everybody knows who they are. And this was perfectly built.
Starting point is 01:05:42 And then, again, they're going to introduce Becky for the newer, I'm not Becky, but AJ for the newer audiences, more on Raw to make sure that everybody's with it. They're telling the fucking story. I don't care who else is on Lollapalooza. I just want to see this. I don't care what the fuck the rest of it is. Are you muted?
Starting point is 01:06:11 No, that wasn't really a segue or anything. I was listening to you. Well, that's a safe listen every time, but what do you think there, son? You know, I was a bit conflicted on it. Everything you just said is right, and you're almost convincing me not to think what I thought. But, you know, my original, I think my original statement was if she comes out there skipping, it kills it a bit for me, something along those lines. And she came out there skipping, and the fans went crazy for her skipping,
Starting point is 01:06:43 kind of what she did 10 years ago plus when she was there, which was a period of time I really didn't like. You know, it wasn't like, man, the whole show sucks, but the A.J. Lee stuff is great. I mean, she was part of the show, and I wasn't really into the show at that point in time. Not to say I won't get into this. And, you know, we'll talk about Monday when we talk about Monday.
Starting point is 01:07:09 But I still wonder what it would have been like if she wasn't in her gear and somehow just reached over the barricade and started punching Becky Lynch and you realize, oh my God, that's AJ Lee who we expected. But, you know, instead it was back to Raw from 12 years ago
Starting point is 01:07:29 and I did not like that product. But here's the thing, do you know what Vince McMahon would have said about that idea? We're K-Fabin ourselves because sometimes you can get in a position where you can actually manipulate the people
Starting point is 01:07:50 into demanding something that you then can just give them, but if you bring it out of nowhere, you've missed a lot of that anticipation and a lot of that pop. And for the set with the skipping, again, that's why I said, I haven't seen any AJ Lee matches.
Starting point is 01:08:12 but I understand the gimmick is she's crazy. So I view this as Ruff House Fargo. She can come out and skip and look all. And by the way, they're the same size because somebody's going to say, well, she's like a little girl and you don't like a little girl. Well, Becky's fucking minute also. So here's the thing. And Ruff House wasn't that big either.
Starting point is 01:08:34 Well, in Ruff House wasn't that big either. I thought that's what you meant. I thought you were saying A.G. at least the same size is Ruff House Fargo. No, no, no, no. I mean, she's the same size because some people are going to say, well, she's a little tiny girl,
Starting point is 01:08:45 but so is Becky. They're the same size. And the rough house fargo thing is if she comes out skipping and the people are going crazy, they're chanting her name, and they're screaming, why step on the pop?
Starting point is 01:08:56 And then she snaps and go and kills the girl, which she did. Then, okay, that's her gimmick, and I want to see that. She can fucking skip and smile all she wants to around the and with the fans and whatever, and she can be animated like that
Starting point is 01:09:17 as long as then when she snaps, she's goddamn crazy. And then there you go. Now we got something. And that's, again, what I'm saying? They don't need to wrestle. They need to fight. And I think they both probably can.
Starting point is 01:09:36 I don't know how AJ's work is, but again, they don't need to this doesn't need to be a scientific classic that all the fucking indie wrestling fans will love so they know she's got no move set no they need to be slinging each other into shit well that's another thing I mean considering what this is
Starting point is 01:09:57 which was Becky Lynch slapping around AJ Lee's husband they shouldn't lock up or anything right they should just start pounding each other well I mean they should the guys are going to start I would think because I can't see any way in the world with the people involved, they wouldn't want to build it
Starting point is 01:10:14 to where the girls get to each other. And at that point, it's, no, I wouldn't think it'd be a situation where they're going to circle around the ring and lock up. I think they'd had, this needs to be like a Ronda Rousey debut. Remember where they worked everything around her and Stephanie and it was fucking brilliant and then she never had to match that good again? I'm not, these girls could actually work already,
Starting point is 01:10:38 but they need to they need to build the match around in large part around the girls getting a hold of each other and in different creative ways, but not too much till the end. But yeah, again, this could be the main event. I don't, I don't, you know, bless Sina and Sina and Brock, that's a strong match.
Starting point is 01:11:02 But this could be the main event of any regular pay-per-view. It could main event any arena in the country, and I'd be happy. And again, we'll talk about Raw shortly, but another thing that's reminded me of, it's been a long time since AJ Lee's been on this show, and again, it wasn't one of my favorite times. I forgot how much I hated her goddamn music. Just that music. As soon as it hit, I was like, oh, no, I remember this. But again, they super, they super served their fans and the fans that were there to see this.
Starting point is 01:11:33 This was Chicago, which is like her adopted hometown, I guess, because she's married to someone from Chicago. I don't know how that works. It's her place now, too. Well, she, they know she resides there. Larry would get a pop. You know what? God damn it.
Starting point is 01:11:49 Oh, Rollins has to get a dog. Rollins has to get a dog now. Well, hold on. They need to have Larry come out and bite fucking Rollins in the ass first. And then Rollins goes and gets a dog. And they have a six person, well, not even a six person.
Starting point is 01:12:06 A six species. Well, it wouldn't be six species. an intergender Well, it wouldn't be that. A six entity, three on each side family contest. See, I like the idea because he's a heel.
Starting point is 01:12:18 You would think he would get a bigger dog than Larry and then you would get to the point in a match where the match is about the beginning and you would have to hand the leash over to Haman who would have to control the dog. I like that idea. Have you ever seen Alfred Hitchcock walking a dog? Or picking up after it?
Starting point is 01:12:35 No. No. Well, he's used to pick it. up after people. He would tear his pants. If he bent over to pick up some crap,
Starting point is 01:12:41 I don't know why we're fantasizing about Paul Heyman walking a dog. Well, I wouldn't go to use the word fantasize either about any of this.
Starting point is 01:12:48 Well, that was the AJ Lee return on Smackdown. And Jim, of course, this big return means something. And what it means is that AJ Lee
Starting point is 01:13:01 may have a little less time to focus on that new business she was going to start up. This is a awful transition. Maybe now she really wants to start up that business. Look, if you have a business and you need an online friend, a support system there for you, get your items into the biggest possible storefront. Help me. Ladies and gentlemen, our friends at Shopify. You got some business to attend to, ladies and gentlemen. You want some risky business, Jack? If you have no business doing a
Starting point is 01:13:38 transition to a commercial, then you may be Brian last. Folks, I think that what Brian was trying to say there and failing miserably is that you need to have a business because you've got to support yourself somehow. Apparently still in this day and age, they've not made it where you can just wander around aimlessly through life without any means of support or sooner or later somebody's going to get mad at you. So let's say you've got an idea, you've got a brilliant, concept. You've got a strategy. You've got a product. You've got a service. You've got something
Starting point is 01:14:13 you want to sell. You've got a song that your heart wants to sing and you need to sing it. But you got no way to there. See, there you go. Zing, zing, zing, went the trolley. Ting, ding, ding, ding went the bell. Zing, zing, zing went my heart string because my business went to hell because I didn't team up with Shopify. because Shopify will take your business and it will shove it straight to the top. It will cram it all the way inside the hearts and minds of people all across the world. And then they will instantly know that you are selling succulent seafood. Or...
Starting point is 01:15:01 Why would that be the example you went with? Or perhaps... You're selling a natty embroidery product or some type of things that help Boy Scouts dig holes. Whatever you're brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant idea is Shopify can help you. Well, you know, Boy Scouts are of the age where they like to dig holes and put things inside of them. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of holes in the ground.
Starting point is 01:15:37 And behind millions of businesses around the world. That's right. Yes. 10% of all the holes in the ground in the United States or is, no, I'm sorry, 10% of all e-commerce in the United States is run by Shopify. And they can get you started and they can run you all the way through to the finish line, but they can help you with not only setting up your website, your beautiful online store, your own, you can consider them your own design studio.
Starting point is 01:16:07 but you can also accelerate your content creations, writing product descriptions, enhancing your product photography. They've got a marketing team that will all around the world. They will say, old Joe over there digs the best holes in town, and he'll dig a hole for you no matter where you are, and then you can run around the world digging holes.
Starting point is 01:16:33 And you can create email and social media campaign, that tell people all about the holes that you're digging. And they've got all the expertise you need to hear that magic sound of revenue, commerce, money, pouring in, cash money. They even take green stamps. Have you seen the Shopify green stamps, Brian? I don't believe that's a thing. Let's just say that it's not a thing. That may be still be in development.
Starting point is 01:17:01 A. Lola had books and books of S&H green stamps. I don't know. She got a lamp. one time. But folks, you're going to sell more than a lamp on Shopify because they will turn your big business idea into that little chinging noise that you just heard there that signifies that your trolley to the top of weights.
Starting point is 01:17:24 You're going to take a trolley car to the top of the world, Ma. And you can right now get Shopify on your side with a $1 a month trial period. No, they're not going to send you a dollar. you got to send them a dollar but for that one dollar in a month you will have access to their brilliance and their ability to take whatever weasley low class idea you've got and turn it into something that people will actually pay money for and start selling today or at least during the one month trial period at shopify.com slash jcee chinging yes Shopify.com slash JCE1 month trial period. How can you beat it?
Starting point is 01:18:12 You can't beat it. Not at all. There it is, of course. Rice errone, the San Francisco treat. Jim. Zing, zing, zing, let the troll.
Starting point is 01:18:29 Alrighty. I don't know why that got me. I hadn't thought of a trolley yet as an option. I've been thinking so much about a little kid on a little bicycle ringing their little bell. But Jim, it's time to... Riceerone. It's time to go back to WWE.
Starting point is 01:18:45 They were in Milwaukee. That's in Wisconsin. Yes. And of course they were there for... That's next to Illinois, which is right down the road from Chicago. See how this works? See, they're only 90 miles. They only got 90 miles in three days.
Starting point is 01:19:01 Well, WWE Raw in Milwaukee. Again, a show with at least one big angle and maybe some other things you watch. well why do you always set the expectations so low here well maybe some other things you watch again we're just trying to we're not trying to bore the people unlike the wwe we're going to get to the meat of the matter they got two things percolating over here the rest of it is filler and travel long the usos are back together and they are opposing the bronze reed and breaker
Starting point is 01:19:39 and what did I say last week Brian if you wanted to have tag team matches mean something it was last week or week two ago whatever if you have tag team matches mean something the read and breaker are perfect heels to start and they've got to face some guys that have been featured
Starting point is 01:20:00 at some level of the main events to make them interesting And now they got the Uso's history, and they see that maybe, you know, poor old Jimmy may be malingering a bit, you know, so let's give him a little bump. But at the same time, we can put them back together short term. I'm sure they've still got individual plans, at least for Jay, whatever. But this helps the tag team situation. It doesn't help them be fucking matches between the Midnight Express to Fantastics. we're not going to get that, but it's at least putting some focus on,
Starting point is 01:20:38 on, you know, tag team matches involving guys that are seen as main event left. It's what I'm trying to say. And it happened last week on, on Raw, they had attacked Jay and Jimmy had saved. So now they're both coming out together in Milwaukee, as I said, down the road from Chicago. So you've got the knowledgeable fans, they're predisposed to like the punk deal later on, but this is another big crowd, however the
Starting point is 01:21:09 fuck many of the building holes. And that's double the yeats. So they just again, it's endless. They just, they play the music, they yeat, they scream, and then as soon as the baby faces say 20 seconds worth of shit, here comes
Starting point is 01:21:25 the fucking heels. And Braun Breaker started cutting the promo. And he fomford something about it, tried to express how many was what they did to Heyman, but it works for him. And he has intensity. And he needs that that's why I don't know why they, okay, Heyman was put in the hospital by a front face lock.
Starting point is 01:21:55 God damn, I believe my Aunt Lola could have come back from a front face lock in a fucking week or whatever. but poor blessing, poor thing, bless his little heart, as we say down south. He can't take a bump. He might pop and the splatter would kill somebody. But Braun and Bronson need the manager. Braun Breaker right now needs to speak because he can and very well, but he needs to speak an explosive bursts that get his personality over and just go off
Starting point is 01:22:28 and do his thing and be natural, but he doesn't need to give any details. He doesn't need to tell any long, winded stories. You see what I'm saying, Brian? He needs to just be himself. And Bronson Reed right now needs to speak as little as possible because his voice in no way matches his intimidating look. And the less that he opens his mouth till he really gets over,
Starting point is 01:22:57 the better off he probably is. So I really wish that they had Heyman for this bill. Did he actually injure himself falling down from a front face lock? Or did they just agree to give him some time off to go have some type of medical treatments? I have no idea. Maybe they've got him on something. They've sent him to Duke. He's got the Yokazuna suite.
Starting point is 01:23:27 anyhow, the idea of this match and probably the execution of this match will be better than this promo was, but Jay and Jimmy have a cute little brother promo style where they call and answer each other, but they're relying on personality. They're not relying on substance because they can't really tell a fucking story either. It's personality and its charisma. They've got that point across. but finally LA Knight jumped on both of the bronze
Starting point is 01:24:01 and had a fight and the Uso's finally helped him but it was kind of it wasn't a particularly earth scorching fight and it was a little too choreographed because they had to make sure that LA Knight almost accidentally fucking hit Jay again
Starting point is 01:24:20 but then he moved and the heel hit Jay anyway and so Jay was unhappy with L.A. Knight. There was a lot of choreography there, and it wasn't a real just blistering fight nor a smooth execution. Do you see what I'm saying to you? Yeah, and obviously they were setting up
Starting point is 01:24:39 that little thing with L.A. Knight and Jay Uso, do you think there's a problem with the fact that the baby faces outnumbered the heels? Well, I mean, if that was the only time it happened, it wouldn't be horrible. It's just that they're trying to complicate this issue
Starting point is 01:24:57 they're trying to promote the Usos versus Reed and Breaker while at the same time the issue is going on with L.A. Knight and J. So there has to be some crossover back and forth, but it does muddy the waters a little bit.
Starting point is 01:25:17 Now, is L.A. Knight going to end up turning heel? Because it obviously ain't going to be Jay Uso. Or is this just going to be a red herring if L.A. Knight's turn and heel, and maybe that means he gets a more favorable push than I'm not necessarily against that. But if they're all just going to stay where they are, I think it's muddying the build a little bit of the tag match. Do you feel me, bro?
Starting point is 01:25:45 It seems like W.W.E.'s been doing that a lot lately, though, muddying the build-the-things. Like something else happens on the way to the thing that you thought was about to happen. Well, sometimes that can be a pleasant diversion, like when you find a envelope of money laying in the street. Well, I didn't expect that to happen, but it's nice it did, but other times it, you know, oh, golly, I was rolled by a drunk and a gutter at knife point. Really didn't want that to happen. Well, Jim, since we're talking about the opening segment in this angle with the Uso's, and I know there was a promo backstage later on where Jay talked to Jimmy and. Boy, they don't even look alike anymore.
Starting point is 01:26:26 You wouldn't even believe they were twins if he didn't know they were twins. But, you know, I was telling him that L.A. Knight's an all right guy or whatever he was saying. Did you watch the main event match? Well, yeah, that's why I was going to say there's another chapter to this thrilling episode. And also, when Jimmy and Jay were talking in the back, Jimmy's trying to say to Jay, well, L.A. Nights all right. L.A. Nights all right with me. L.A. nights all right.
Starting point is 01:26:53 Oh, yeah. I knew you were going to go there. Well, I went there, baby. But Jay had his bag, and he was heading out. He was on the way to the wing place or something. He was like, hey, we'll deal with our shit at Russell Paloza. Fuck L.A. Knight, he's on his own because L.A. Knights in a main event against Big Bronson Reed.
Starting point is 01:27:14 And Jay, you know, Jimmy can't talk Jay out of it. Jay's got. So anyway, they have the match. Again, okay match. but the finish is the thing as we're aware by now and finally LA Knights got him where he wants him he's going for his finish the BFT Bronn jumps up breaker so he runs over and he nails Braun Braker but then when he turns around Bronson Reed gives him the
Starting point is 01:27:41 big death valley driver whatever he calls the thing one two three so I mean these are these are simple fucking finishes that you could find laying around most of the houses in America, right? It's just average everyday shit, but they're getting to the meat of the matter. They get a little bit more heat just in time for Jimmy to come out, but they stop him. And boom, boom, boom, they get him down.
Starting point is 01:28:11 And then, no, Jay didn't leave. Jay's music plays. And here comes Jay and makes a comeback. And then Braun speared him. and they had them both laid out and Bronson Reed was going to go up to the top and splash both of them when L.A. Knight comes up with a chair
Starting point is 01:28:31 and waxed Bronson Reed knocks him off the rope and fucking chases him away and he looks at Jay says, all right, we good now? And he goes over and helps Jimmy up and they exchange pleasantries. And then he turns around and Jay spears him.
Starting point is 01:28:49 and boom and now Jimmy's like oh shit you've seen oh shit man you shot Marvin in the face you speared hell a night there Jay
Starting point is 01:29:03 and Jay's like well fuck him now we're good that type so I don't know where it's going and I don't know where it's been but if they're going to do something with somebody
Starting point is 01:29:18 obviously Jay Uso is not going to turn heel So again, as I said, if L.A. Knight maybe gets a little prickly about this, then that may be something, but elsewise, I think it's a little confusing with the other two heel fellows there. Well, that was the confusing setup to something there at the end. Yes. No Haman. But, of course, another Paul Haman guy. Maybe I should phrase it differently, but another person who, is in the stable of Paul Heyman
Starting point is 01:29:55 is Seth Rollins, Seth Franklin Rollins, and he was a part of the big angle on Raw. Well, and a Paul Heyman girl too, because if Becky is in the stable of Hayman, then she's one of his horses also. But she's a Philly. She's one of the Phillies. But they weren't in Philly.
Starting point is 01:30:18 If they were, Haman would have showed up in a goddamn neck brace. or an oxygen mask or something. Anyway, we mentioned it before. They reported that A.J. Lee's return on Smackdown, got 178 million social views, people, you know, peeking in the curtains, couldn't get enough. And they also had done earlier,
Starting point is 01:30:39 they did a package on her with some highlights, which she was there before and whatever, went in the belt, because it's been 10 years they recognize, I think, as I said before, that not everybody out there knows that so-and-so had a grueling match with such and such in Mexico City in 2014. So just to make sure, and then when AJ comes out to the big response and the welcome back chance, she did the same thing.
Starting point is 01:31:15 She introduced herself to the new fans, but in a charming way, self-deprecating way or whatever, not like I'm this and I'm that, but you may not know, because it's been 10 years. They wanted to see her there, they were ready to see her, and they were, I will say, I believe that it could have been a little shorter. I think it's also her first promo in 10 years, so not bad for that on national TV. but the basic story was that she retired 10 years ago, she was sure or she was sure that she wouldn't be back in the ring and she did other things and she said she went on a mental health journey
Starting point is 01:32:03 and went to therapy and got the fans to chant therapy. So again, they're listening to these people. They're not just sitting through it like they do on some of the, the other programs waiting for a zinger that they can ooh at. They're picking up on this shit as it goes. And anyway, in a roundabout way, and I do like her facial reactions to things, and especially when Becky comes out here in a minute,
Starting point is 01:32:35 because this is the first time I'm here to talk also. But she finally got to the point was she was doing good until she watched raw and then she was not doing good seeing her husband in the ring with Becky Lynch and as soon she starts talking about Becky here comes Becky's music and here comes Becky
Starting point is 01:33:00 and she has got nothing to do with your skank-ass husband and Becky by the way I forgot to mention AJ Lee when she comes out she stole the belt she's wearing Becky's intercontinental belt, right? That's the women's intercontinental title, right? Correct. I wasn't sure what they had named it, but oh, I'm shifting my hip hurts.
Starting point is 01:33:26 Nevertheless, Becky's pissed. You're wearing my belt. I'm the greatest of all time. And the people chant, you suck, you suck. And Becky starts having that meltdown again where she's screaming to people and she's losing her temper and they start chanting therapy again it's perfect becky takes off her glasses she's got a black eye from what a j did to her the other night and anyway she's scraping give me my belt back and a jay's like oh i'm sorry i completely forgot that i've been skipping around my
Starting point is 01:34:09 house with us for the past few days and just being a smart ass and she said tell you what come and get it Becky here it is come and get it and Becky doesn't come in to get it now the people start chanting chicken it's like they've paid these people to be extras in the goddamn deal they're on queue they're perfect and then Becky says where where's your husband and they chant see him punk see him punk and Becky cuts the provos and brings her husband out they play Seth's music
Starting point is 01:34:48 Seth comes down the aisle to Becky and says I'll take care of this and he tells AJ it's easy just give Becky your belt back and we can all leave and AJ said well we could do that or Becky could take it
Starting point is 01:35:08 and get another black eye or I'll give it back to you if you'll agree to a tag team match player and Becky's like no no no no we're not going to know no no no no no and says I'll take care of this and he goes in the ring and he's going to get the belt and he starts to pick the belt up and AJ steps over and she jumps sideways and she blocks
Starting point is 01:35:33 and she jumps the other way and she blocks it and Seth starts getting stern with her and suddenly here comes punk out with no mute or whatever from behind Seth picks him up for the go to sleep Seth slips it and bales out and now Seth is pissed if you want a match you got it
Starting point is 01:35:55 and Becky's like no no no and AJ tosses the belt at Becky and now we got the match for wrestle plooser this is fucking great again it's wrestling the guy and his wife are going to fight the guy and his wife. I want to see that shit. Nobody has to be hospitalized to do an angle here.
Starting point is 01:36:21 It's made. The people are working with them. You know, you brought up world class earlier in the show, and the big difference is obviously that precious and sunshine were valets. They weren't wrestlers. What should the match be going with the idea that this match won't be the end of the feud? well and again i you know mentioned earlier they they shouldn't wrestle because if they if they all work if this is a family fucking fight and if they all work a fight and i'm suggesting that
Starting point is 01:36:59 seth and punk have more of a fight by a fight i'm not talking about a garbage match with furniture all over the building i'm talking about a rough believable conflict and do enough to milk the girls getting a hold of each other because Becky's not going to want to fucking get a hold of AJ. It's almost like an old-fashioned manager match where the heel manager might get a shot in against the baby face girl, you know, before the baby face girl finally gets her hands on him, we get on her to get the heat right.
Starting point is 01:37:36 But Becky and AJ don't need to be doing her. and Rana's off the top rope and dives out of the ring unless it's a flying Fez press off the apron to tackle the Becky when she's trying to get away or whatever, that type of thing. They need to have, and for lack of a better word, a good old cat fight. People are going to want to fucking see. They don't want to see them wrestle. That defeats the purpose.
Starting point is 01:38:07 They're supposed to be mad at each other. and it's a wife against a wife, not a girl wrestler against a girl wrestler. And I don't know if I would be mad if they brought this back, if the heels went over the first time in such a way that it necessitated some type of not ridiculous stipulation to bring it back again, or to do some kind of offshoot where
Starting point is 01:38:36 Seth and Punk have the match, but whoever wins their wife gets the other wife for five minutes at a disadvantageous position or whatever. Keep the personal issue going. And what do you say to that's, you know, and what do you say to the fan that says Jim Cornett's being unfair, he hated it when Kenny Omega teamed with a woman or whatever intergender stuff they did on AEW? What's the difference?
Starting point is 01:39:05 Those people, number one, weren't over. number two, the fans weren't demanding it before they actually did it. Number three, the performers involved didn't nearly have the verbal talent or the booking philosophy that this has had so far and that they have behind it. Need I go on? It's just mindless, oh, this girl does wonderful cross-bodies like I do. Maybe we can do a cross-body together in the match. Rather than, no, it's my wife who's also a fucking ex-wrestler and can come in and have a mixed tag
Starting point is 01:39:43 with this other famous main event level married fucking couple. Jesus Christ, it's not that hard to fucking figure out. It's just doing silly wrestling moves versus getting people involved in a goddamn issue between main event level stars that they can believe down deep or at least put aside their knowledge to the contrary are mad at each other, want to pull each other's hair out. Cat fight. Weird thought, but in some ways this is so much
Starting point is 01:40:18 this period of time, not just this angle, but this is so much more the way this is set up, like, the way it would have been done in a territory versus wrestling in terms of the turnaround. They're doing angles now to set up pay-per-views, like, within a week or two out. You used to be months out. You kind of knew two months. You kind of knew two months before a pay-per-view what a lot of the matches were going to be because it was going to be building towards it.
Starting point is 01:40:42 Now there's so many that it's like you're building to something that's going to be on next week. Yeah, and the thing there is because there's not only the monthly pay-per-view, but there's the Saturday night's main events and there's the, well, multiple night pay-per-views,
Starting point is 01:41:00 two of them now and et cetera, so you can't, you can build talent always, just individual talent and you can start teasing issues amongst talent that are over but you can't really
Starting point is 01:41:17 specifically promote a match or a goddamn specific stipulation or whatever more than a couple weeks out now because like you said it people forget about it it'll get confused with the other shit so there is a bonus
Starting point is 01:41:34 to that at least if you if you have it planned out in advance, if nobody gets hurt and nothing goes wrong, here's what we want to do, then when you announce it at least when you're doing something like this, it has some level of immediacy where people are like,
Starting point is 01:41:50 oh shit, if they like something and it's going to happen next week, they ain't got time to get sour on it, or forget about it, or just get used to it. So there's that. That's why, you know, the old weekly territories that could pivot around and bring stuff back if it got over
Starting point is 01:42:08 they had that immediacy working for them well that was WWE Raw did you watch anything else on Raw there was a really good Lyra Valqueria Raquel Rodriguez match which surprisingly pulled me in I thought it was really good did you watch that
Starting point is 01:42:23 I avoided being pulled in by that vortex but I'm glad you enjoyed it really good what else did you watch what else did you watch not a goddamn thing on that shit. No, that's the thing. They've got two things going on and the other show has two things going on. And kind of one of those things is fucking on both shows. So otherwise, there's nothing going on. And that's, again, that's what the point that I'm making, it's so incredible that the WWE is doing this kind of business with just a couple of things going on at any one time that people give a shit about. and the other side can't get out of their own way to just slow down and let me figure out who half these people even are before they're sent to the hospital.
Starting point is 01:43:18 And it just blurs into mind-numbing insanity. And they've got 900 people in a bingo hall. We can still say the bingo hall insult in 2025. Can you imagine that? We can still quote that. And it's still true. It's a 900-seat toilet in a bad neighborhood. And that you look at the other show and they've got 20,000 people in a goddamn stadium.
Starting point is 01:43:47 They get people to chant for therapy. Yes. The other show that picks need a therapy. Yeah. Oh, do, do, do, no, no. He still won't play the music. No, just Haegada, whatever the hell that is. All right.
Starting point is 01:44:07 Well, that was WWE Raw. And Jim, there's a lot of contemporary wrestling news and topics and things going around. On the topic of Raw, because a bunch of listeners have sent this in, I have not seen it, I read a little bit about it. AJ Stiles apparently was on the mic while the show wasn't commercial. Did you hear about this? I did not hear about this. Was he trying to keep the people occupied where they were, you know,
Starting point is 01:44:37 know in break or what was going on? Well, let's play this because I have not heard it, but there apparently is a fan base that believes that he was shooting, whatever that's worth. Let's go to this. Okay. Dominic Mysterio got his little buddy, that coffee being Americano,
Starting point is 01:45:00 to get involved in my match and cost me the Intercontinental Championship. Right, he's just, uh, and to be honest, would you? It could have been my fault. You see, for the first time in my career, I've got no one watching my back. Gallows, Anderson, they're not here.
Starting point is 01:45:33 Meachin, she's on Smackdown. It's like someone orchestrated away for me not to win anymore. Not to have help. I'll let you make your own conclusions. By the way, we are here right now and all over the world, but arrest everybody. This is in a commercial break.
Starting point is 01:45:57 I'm telling you something that you're probably not supposed to hear, but somebody doesn't want me here. All right. That's the big moment, I think. But he's stolen. Oh, okay. So what we're going to do is you're going to beat the piss out of Grandi Americano tonight.
Starting point is 01:46:22 Well, he's back into a working voter. Okay. Well, he never left. He never left. I'm, maybe the reason why people thought he was shooting is because he was doing a poor job of getting out whatever the point was he was supposed to make.
Starting point is 01:46:41 It sounded to me like knowing AJ that he was supposed to say something and there's something they're going to be doing or something making out of somebody's against me or orchestrating, I ain't got no backup or whatever. He was supposed to make some kind of point and he struggled making it and then went on to his other thing, but that's what it sounds like to me.
Starting point is 01:47:04 I don't believe he was just announcing to the goddamn world that the office hates him in a commercial break on the microphone before the match. Not the office, Paul Hammond. Well, nevertheless, whoever the case. Do you consider Paul Heyman office now? He's part of that writing team. Well, yeah, he's kind of the office.
Starting point is 01:47:24 but again I don't know why that he would unless they told him say things why would he just pick up the microphone during the break and say shit unless he was told say things and that sounds like he was either trying to make a point
Starting point is 01:47:44 or trying to fill time or whatever and he was struggling with it but I don't think it's a revolutionary shooting statement indicting the kids. It's not a pipe bomb. All right, Jim, well, as we are recording, Triple H has done an interview with the Pat McAfee show. Of course, known for their scintillating conversation.
Starting point is 01:48:06 Known for their Pat McAfee. Here's a quote about the criticism that WWE or he have received about Unreal. Let me get your thoughts on this. Oh, boy. It's funny that the Internet is all complaining that we're lifting the curtain and showing stuff. Meanwhile, they're doing a podcast that all it does is talk about the behind-the-scenes
Starting point is 01:48:30 shit that's going on. I don't understand that logic. The world knows. An eight-year-old kid picks up his iPhone, Google stuff, and it tells him all the behind-the-scenes stuff right there. Now, is that legitimate? Are there eight-year-old children working phones these days? Younger than that, yeah. I mean, I don't know if they're saying like, hey, babe, I don't know what they're putting into their search engine, but do you think what he's saying is a justification for them exposing what they do on that show?
Starting point is 01:49:01 Well, there was always a difference in the people, some people say, well, people have always known wrestling was phony, and other people say, no, they used to believe it all, and neither one is true, but there was some
Starting point is 01:49:16 middle ground in that, and I lived through a lot of it, so I can tell you, A lot of people always knew. Some people didn't know it all. Other people were capable of being convinced, but nobody really knew how and why for sure because the people involved in the business
Starting point is 01:49:38 didn't come out with it, or at least on a regular basis nationally, where everybody had access to the information. But it's still different when the people actually involved are not only showing you how they say exactly when you're seeing how they set it up beforehand and then how they hug each other afterwards it's so much even more cooperative and friendly and choreographed and pre-planned and homogenized and sanitized and pasteurized
Starting point is 01:50:14 then one would think it is in their imagination when you actually it it it it's there's some element of Santa Claus ain't real there's some element of the fucking tooth fairy ain't real there's some element of the Easter bunny doesn't really shit fucking colored eggs I don't know what the how the Easter bunny got involved in Easter but nevertheless when you're seeing the the people that are up till now you have seen have these violent altercations and you've heard their works you've heard they cooperate but you've never actually seen them sit down and tell you how they're going to do it and then hug and kiss on each other afterwards that that still takes away some of the hoomph to it and even if David copperfield or
Starting point is 01:51:09 who's a modern day magician Chris Angel he was 20 years ago is there is there is there a modern day magician franz Harari you do and you'll clean it up. He was the black scorpion in 1990. Oh, Christ on a cracker. Well, any great magician, you know that their tricks are tricks, but if they sat down
Starting point is 01:51:34 and showed you all the false pockets and the fucking whole deal and the patter that conceals the movement and everything, then you ever see that Penn and Teller show where like different magicians. Yeah, and they don't come out and expose anything.
Starting point is 01:51:52 they let you know that they know they say enough that the person admits they know and they never tell you exactly what it is and it's better for that. I saw once or twice the thing was so fucking rudimentary that they said oh come on. I've seen several of them
Starting point is 01:52:09 but for the most part they'll go no they won't blow the fucking guy's trick even if they know how it's done they'll you know they'll cave it to some extent because it's respect and but this is
Starting point is 01:52:25 it means more glory for them and how great they are as creative writers and another show they get paid a fortune for and just more egotistical methane up your own fucking ass type of stuff right and there's a difference between people online saying it or even podcasters saying it and you as the wrestling company saying well they're all saying it
Starting point is 01:52:51 so we might as well just show them everything and turn the cameras on all the time. Doesn't seem like it makes too much sense. I think it only hurt them, too, some of the exposure to the behind-the-scenes stuff from around WrestleMania. Would have been better for them if that stuff didn't get out. Well, yeah, especially when they have to go back and doctor things
Starting point is 01:53:14 or rewrite a little history or, you know, whatever, because some of their some of their shit turns out not to be a good fucking idea in the first place, and they've got to pivot. But, you know, I just, like I said, the unreal aspect when, and take all those goddamn boring-ass fucking plain-ass writers completely off the air because the idea that they would tell any wrestling personalities, what say, when they look like they've never said,
Starting point is 01:53:49 Boodoo a fucking goose just kills it. But when you had guys like punk and Rollins saying they really didn't like each other, so we're going to magnify that. Oria's real injury. And, you know, things like that, that I can go for the real side of it because it still makes these people look like stars
Starting point is 01:54:11 instead of actors that are told what to do. You may get a goddamn Oscar for being an actor. that's told what to do by a famous director, blah, blah, blah, but people don't want to see their wrestling heroes as people that are told what to fucking do. And the whole idea that heels get over is because there are people that don't do what you tell them to.
Starting point is 01:54:37 So where does that leave us? Yeah. I don't do no jobs in front of 70,000 people either. So where does that leave it? And again, look at it the other way, too. If they had been doing Unreal 10 years ago, maybe we would have been able to stop Vincent, and war on their depravity tour.
Starting point is 01:54:54 They would have had more cameras in the, is what you're saying in the, in the office. Potentially. I don't, I have a feeling Vince would have still had some type of pit down in the basement. Underneath the, oh, what was the fellow's name that used to run the, the lunchroom? He made great chicken fingers.
Starting point is 01:55:14 Can't remember his name, but under that level, there was a pit somewhere where Vince had people captive in it. and lowered lotion down by a rope. Well, we'll see what Triple H does with his lotion, I guess in the future here. I've heard he puts it on the skin, or else he gets hosed again. He does what he's told.
Starting point is 01:55:36 Who knows who's telling him that. But Jim, maybe Triple H just needs to listen to some music and lighten up a little bit. Stop being so hard on the online fans and on the podcasters and just, you can sit back, and just listen to whatever it is that, I'm sure he has an awful music taste,
Starting point is 01:55:54 but whatever Triple H listens to, he can listen to on his RACOM. Well, no, he listens to all of that music where the people rev the motorcycles and drool and spit the water and do the thing and make the mean face there, Brian. That's the kind of music that he listens to. Time to play the game.
Starting point is 01:56:15 He's from New Hampshire. And things like that. But, you know, I'm sure that now that he's a father and he's a major corporate executive. Maybe he's, he's listened to listen to the rhythm of the falling rain telling me just what a fool I've been, just something pleasant and peaceful. But it doesn't matter what you listen to, folks, as long as it sounds good. Because you can listen to Bach and Beethoven and Lennon and McCartney. And if it's on a soup can, then it ain't going to sound good. If it's on a soup can connected to a wire, connected to a pole, connected to
Starting point is 01:56:54 the leg bone of a chicken, your audio quality is just is not going to come through. You have to have professional equipment and that is what the Raycon everyday earbud classics are because they brought the classics back. But now they're packed with upgrades. Active noise cancellation, and multi-point connectivity, you can pair with two devices at once, right out in public, on a sidewalk or in a parking lot, near schools, believe it or not,
Starting point is 01:57:26 you can do this anywhere you want. There's no law against it. And you got that super comfortable, ergonomic fit that stays put. Brian, you just take these things and you stick them in your ear and that little ergonomic part at the end hits the Jesus.
Starting point is 01:57:45 spot in your ear and hooks right on to it. No. And no matter what you listen to, whether it be top 40, whether it be classic rock, whether it be soul or jazz or whatever, every time you turn these things on, it makes you come. Again, that's amazing. It's amazing the lengths you'll go to to say what you got to come. Ladies and gentlemen, this is not how it works. No, no, no, you cannot pay to come here, ladies and gentlemen.
Starting point is 01:58:13 and you need to get the finance earbuds. No, you would pay to go there to come back. Oh, Jim, you hear that. They're landing. They need us to make sure we only let the people know what's really happening here. Raycon, great earbuds, great sound, podcasts, and music for you in your ears.
Starting point is 01:58:30 Raycon, no G-spot. Well, see, that's ergonomic. That's what that means. We found that gnomic, the G-spot, the g-domic spot. And so if it goes in your ear, boom, it'll naturally trigger some type of sexual climax as soon as you turn these things on and there's a new cool mint color.
Starting point is 01:58:49 So that's the color your face turns when you're, can you imagine turning these things on on like the bus or the subway and people will just see you go, I'll have what she's having. It's Raycon every day earbuds, folks. Every day. And they've got up to 32 hours of battery life. You may be dehydrated by the time that they get finished with you. And if you want to come back to your hydrate. ladies and gentlemen. Well, boy, if you climax for 32 hours, you could certainly be a little bit muscle strain, I would think. And if you want to come back for more because you're just insatiable like that, you get a quick charge, 90 minutes more worth of power just 10 minutes of the charging. So then you can just trip the light fantastic again and go all over the place. Once again, we're not talking orgasms. We're talking eagasms, Jim. Let's get back on track here. Are they getting closer? Ray Koppel.
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Starting point is 02:00:30 for before. But I still recommend a dog, because then you can listen to the earcons or the Raycons, the earbuds, or the earcons. You can listen to the Raycons while you're walking the dog. ladies and gentlemen once again a great deal we love them here everyone in my family has a pair i know they love them at castle cornet you could have great sounds great music great podcasts that stacey's listening to them all the time no wonder i didn't know until they told me about the new earbuds classic feature with the ergonomics i didn't know why she had them in all the time
Starting point is 02:01:03 even when they weren't turned on again i'm not sure you understand ergonomics but this is not the time nor the place to explain them but what we can do What we can do, Jim, is let the listeners know. Oh, again, that's a different tribe there. Yes. We can let the listeners know this great link and, of course, this great deal. Yes. Yes, buy raycon.com slash JCE 20% offsidewide today.
Starting point is 02:01:37 There's no good ending to that. Good Lord, no, there wasn't a beginning either. We are here in the future. Thanks to the sounds of Raycon. No, we are here in the future, and now we have more topics, more things happening, Jim. How are you? I'm okay. How are you?
Starting point is 02:01:53 Doing all right. Let's move on here with the show. Jim, have you been following? No, I wasn't even there. It wasn't me. You can't pin it on me. I've got an alibi. Well, I haven't really seen these, but I heard that there was something. Rhonda Rousey did an interview with the lapsed fan, and there are some quotes that people are talking about. Here's one. The fact that they had me fighting Alexa Bliss at all was fucking ridiculous. And you want to know why they had me against Alexa Bliss?
Starting point is 02:02:27 Because she had the most merch sales at the time. Like, what the fuck? That's your decision-making process? So let's stop there. That's the first quote. A lot of people have a problem with the fact that she's complaining about working with the Lexa Bliss or that the wrestling promotion will push
Starting point is 02:02:49 the person with the most merch sales. Well, and you know how, what did they say the internet meme when the worst person you know makes a good point or whatever, there's some element here.
Starting point is 02:03:07 Rhonda Rousey with the reputation she had, UFC fighter, baddest bitch on the planet, whatever the tagline was, Alexa Bliss, as we've mentioned, is stretching it based on her size and diminutiveness for anybody. But she was popular, as evidenced by the merchandise sales. But the thing I was about to say is,
Starting point is 02:03:33 the problem is, Ronda Rousey was so rotten. She was rotten Rhonda for that last run because it wasn't a fun little friend, frolic for her. You know, she and her friends, when she was in the UFC, always dreamed about being wrestlers together when they would sit in the hotel room and eat pizza and play with fucking Barbie dolls.
Starting point is 02:04:00 I don't know what the women do these days. But when, after that initial run, and then she went home to have babies and breed goats or breed goats and have babies or breed babies and have goats. know. She came back. She was rotten and we talked about it. She looked like she didn't want to be there. It was a job. She couldn't be bothered. Very unimpressive. How did, did anybody ever fall so far so fast? That type of thing. And that's when she's telling them, your creative sucks. And I don't want to work with this person or whatever. So she was no better at that
Starting point is 02:04:45 point. She was a disappointment because she didn't give a shit and she didn't want to do it. So all of these, Alexa Bliss doesn't have any fault in this besides just being small, but there's enough
Starting point is 02:05:01 blame to go around, is what I'm saying. Jim, I have another quote here also from the lapsed fan interview. Who is this guy and why did he lapse? Was it a lapse in judgment or a lapse in character? I believe it's more than one person and it's program. Oh, a lot of them. Well, you know, a lot of them follow the road to ruin these days. Apparently, she was talking about how when the regime change happened, they only cared
Starting point is 02:05:27 about the bloodline because it was spearheaded by Paul Heyman. Let's get this quote. They were only spending a little bit of time on the bloodline because Heyman was the head of all that. And he was like the Vince whisperer of being able to get shit through. And it shows. It shows that it's like, oh, we're going to spend some time on it. and run this and fuck everyone else. That's why they were doing the same rehashed shit over and over and over again, because that was just what Vince came up with
Starting point is 02:05:59 the night before. Wasn't, didn't she used to be a Hayman girl? Wasn't Hayman a big proponent of hers? Has she turned on the worm, as the old saying goes? I don't know, but I mean, is that a... I mean, the bloodline wasn't always perfect. but it was also the biggest thing and the longest lasting thing they've done in the most recent period of time. Is she crazy for criticizing the amount of time they gave the bloodline?
Starting point is 02:06:27 Yeah. Compared to the... Once again, how delusional is she that, you know, she thought she needed to be on screen anywhere near as often as the bloodline. and basically her friends and her group of girls all flunked out and Schaefer's over now looking lovely in a fucking tight top and Stogeing for the worst wrestler in the world and where'd the other girl go?
Starting point is 02:07:01 What was her name? Jessamine Duke? Was it Jessamine Duke? No, but there was another one. Shana Bezler. Sheena Baisel. Baisler? Where's she at? They let her go, I believe, or her contract expired.
Starting point is 02:07:16 Okay, the point is, they were supposed to give them as much time as they gave the bloodline? I think not. Well, here's another quote, this one from the... Oh, no, this is from a different interview. This is an interview with Cagedside Seats. Apparently, she's doing the rounds. The other guy must have lapsed. She said that superstars like Logan Paul or the Bloodline got special attention that people like her didn't get, they were handed things the day of the show.
Starting point is 02:07:42 Here's the quote. The Bloodline is able to plan things out a year ahead of time, and they won't even talk to me until I get to the arena. About anything. Proved in my first match that if you give me the time, the resources and preparation. Oh, Jesus Christ! I can put together an amazing match.
Starting point is 02:08:03 And I feel- If you give me the time, the resources, and the preparation, it was her first match. They practiced it nauseatingly to get it right. And it was a masterpiece of the booking. And they carried it off. And she carried it off. It was the greatest debut of all time.
Starting point is 02:08:21 But it was that, as I was explaining earlier, talking about the mix tag with Punk and A.J. and Seth and Becky, they need to work it out ahead of time so that the girls are the highlight of the thing and give them the spots like they did that. match because that's a special fucking match also but she can't expect that every goddamn time she was ever going to get in the ring and here's another yet they may have planned out some of the bloodline essence a year out but i'm sorry if you sat down a year ago or two years ago when this was going on and said to any member of the bloodline even hayman tell me everything's going to
Starting point is 02:09:07 happened right now for the next year. They would have gone, what? Huh? Everything? It's no. They're, she was an attraction, but she dumbed herself out of a position
Starting point is 02:09:22 Rhonda Rousey by being rotten and showing the people that she didn't give a shit. And then they turned on her, the fans and the office. Because she didn't give a shit. And they knew it. And I had an email from someone in the office.
Starting point is 02:09:39 office who said, however difficult you may think she was to work with, it was worse. So. Well, let's finish this quote here, and I apologize for any modulation issues here on the line. And I feel like they're- Oh, now you're directing it that way, aren't you? It's late in the day. People are using up the electricity around here. And I feel like they're really doing that with Logan Paul,
Starting point is 02:10:04 and allowing him to rehearse and put these things together and have all these different resources and producers to bring him to his highest potential. Because he's now only had 23 matches and to be quite honest, almost every single one of him he's knocked out of the park where she debuted with a bullet and fucking lost ground until she fell off the charts.
Starting point is 02:10:29 So again, Logan Paul, bigger attention, bigger gross, bigger performances, gets more attention. Ronda Rousey was asked by Raj Prashad of Yahoo Sports, another interview, about if she would go back, I really have no reason to go back. I wanted to do a run with the four horsewomen, and I never got to do that. And now I feel like, and now I feel like I've already accomplished everything that I wanted to in WWE. And all that's really left for me is to go there and have fun with my friends.
Starting point is 02:11:06 and none of my friends are there anymore. Uh-huh, and breed goats. I know we're one of her friends is. She ought to go there to the ultimate to have fun with my friends' fucking resort. What was it? Didn't she, like, do a dark match, like, Ring of Honor? Like, the weekend of a paper? She did a, yeah, she did a Ring of Honor match so she could team up with one of her friends.
Starting point is 02:11:28 I just don't know if I could ever be on the road with that company again. I have two girls now, and hopefully we could have some more soon. I'd love that. And there's just no room in my life to be able to maintain that lifestyle and a family at the same time. Well, and I'm firmly in favor of Ronda Rousey picking her family over wrestling. I think it'd be better for everybody. Have some more babies.
Starting point is 02:11:52 Just pop them right out. Well, Jim, one more quote from Ronda Rousey. This one is about John Moxley and what he has done for Marina Shafir. Going from being like, how do I do an arm drag to being put? part of five-star matches and stuff like that, it's really great to see her just having so much joy with it and rising to the top of the... And rising to the top level of the industry. Hold on, wait a minute, I've got to find something sharp so I can start sawing at my jugger. Five-star matches and stuff like that.
Starting point is 02:12:29 I think so much has to do with John Moxley being the most incredible human being ever. He is just so supportive and so kind and so passionate. He's just so humble. Has she had some type of relations with him? I thought she was married to some other M.MA fighter. But John Moxley is so kind and caring and passionate and giving. And he always makes sure I come first. He's just so humble that I feel,
Starting point is 02:13:01 I can't read it after what you just said. He's just so humble. He's a giving lover. And I feel like so much of that success stems from his talent. And not just his talent, but his willingness and passion to give back. See, now I can't read any of this, you fucking get. Which is how perverted you made it.
Starting point is 02:13:24 And to bring up... And the things he can do with his tongue. And to bring up everybody with him and have his rising tide lift all of their boats. Boy, I'll tell you what, somebody's tide is high. And I'm so grateful for him and the kind of friend that he's been to Marina. See, that's all that it takes is for someone to glorify her in her little circle of friends, and she thinks they're incredible.
Starting point is 02:13:52 But the actual talented, successful, smart people in the business that don't think that there's any money in them anymore, well they're just horrible people like Moxley are the real lifeblood of this industry and I hope that continues and that it's encouraged and that it's not like some cutthroat me versus you kind of environment
Starting point is 02:14:18 it's the culture and the giving back to each other and the constant hands helping each other up that's what makes it continue to be great hands helping each other up. And we'll continue to make pro wrestling rise in cultural awareness. How about in goddamn tickets sold?
Starting point is 02:14:42 Fuck rising tides and boats and hands lifting each other up and cultural awareness. Sell me some fucking tickets, bitch, or else why, I'm going to cut you and find somebody that can. That's the goddamn wrestling business. You don't get to play with your friends all the fucking time. Jesus Christ, go have goats. That's, you know, my advice to her. No wonder she likes Moxley. She likes goats and farm animals. So it's right there in the same fucking personality
Starting point is 02:15:16 traits. But with Marina too, she's been used with the main event act at AEW. To stand there and walk around and do a judo throw. And I mean, I'm not pushing for her to have a larger part. a thing, but nobody still, nothing has been done in a year with, she's still doing the same thing. She wanders around with the Buster Keaton face and she does a judo throw and interferes every once in a while. And now on pay-per-view, she's allowed to take a bump every great so often. It's the same thing.
Starting point is 02:15:51 There's no development here. What have they done to make her draw money by, like, not just Marina Schaefer, who they've been pushing for a year on AEW television, in some role, whatever this is, whatever, she's the straw that stirs whatever. They got A.J. Lee over in two weeks to draw money in a main event of a fucking pay-per-view. They've been pushed this other girl for a fucking year in AEW, and she hasn't sold a ticket to do anything because she hadn't done anything. And again, go back to look at it a different way.
Starting point is 02:16:33 WW has AJ Lee set to headline a fucking pay-per-view, and AW brought back Rio. What? I'm excited for that. For the record, I'm excited for Rejo versus Mercedes. Oh, Christ. But I mean, that's the problem is that some of these people who get handed these positions like Rhonda Rousey because of
Starting point is 02:17:00 who they were previously never get a chance to go through the process and be fully smartened up to the fucking business and they naturally then gravitate to these indie-minded small timers
Starting point is 02:17:17 who have the attitude about the business that she just expressed in hands helping hands reaching out, touching me, touching you. sweet wrestling and they want to play with their friends versus if you started not thinking you were smart and you were broken in by experienced professional people and you were
Starting point is 02:17:46 told how to think about the business then you would be with the smart folks over here making all the fucking money knowing how to think about the goddamn wrestling business and a guy and his wife against a guy and his wife is going to draw more money than every Japanese legend and fucking friend that loves to do their routines with each other because that's what people want to fucking see. Can you run a company if you have multiple?
Starting point is 02:18:19 I mean, you can and they have the money too, but you know what I mean, practically. If you have multiple people on your roster who require you to give them a producer that will go through everything, weeks in advance and work over matches. If you have a bunch of people like that, it can't work.
Starting point is 02:18:35 Well, no, besides that, again, it's a special, a special occasion when you have Logan Paul in his first four or five matches or Rhonda Rousey and her first match with the daughter of the goddamn boss at the time, whatever, and you've got to work this out. Or some big main event that's drawing tens of millions of dollars
Starting point is 02:18:59 if for some reason one or both of the talent feel like they got to rehearse or whatever. But no, that's not what the majority of this is, even if you know what you're going to do, or even somebody tells you what the finish is. You know, you still, you get there that day and go to the ring and work something out. It's not like that you can just have everybody up and down the card. You know, oh, we'll send a producer down to Tallahassee or wherever you live. next week to work this out for your third match on the fucking pay-per-view what no if you're professional and if they think it's bad that again i've mentioned that for the entire time that i was in the
Starting point is 02:19:44 business as a manager you found out what you were going to fucking till i got on the booking team obviously then i had some clue you found out what you were going to goddamn do when you showed up a TV that night an hour before the bell. What the... Yes, it's gotten more complicated, but if you know at noon that day and you can't figure out something to do, then call Shopify and find a new line of work.
Starting point is 02:20:17 Should Tony Khan consider signing Ronda Rousey, maybe even Shana Bazler? Should he consider it? He needs stars. I'm not saying she'll be the easiest to work with. She may not even want to do it's a light schedule well but then besides that then the rest of his girls division would have a cow because then
Starting point is 02:20:36 well rhoda didn't want to work with alexa you think she's going to work with rio is there any kind of heat or Mercedes I think she'll work with her friends and then it'll be kind of like a hurt syndicate situation where there's no one to work with so you just kind of see them every now and then they stand around and tell you something
Starting point is 02:20:53 I think she needs to go back to the farm Rhonda Jim, speaking of AEW, some AEW news, let's get to that and we may not go too much longer. Wardlow Your voice is giving out, you're starting to feel puny. It's getting there, but Wardlow,
Starting point is 02:21:13 speaking of feeling puny, Jim, Wardlow, Wardlow, God damn. He just had his big return at Forbidden Door. And he's gone. He just had his big return, he beat up Prince Nana at the pay-per-view
Starting point is 02:21:31 and then he showed up that Wednesday on TV standing there with Don Callis while other people did the physical stuff according to a report from Fightful Select Wardlow is dealing with another injury and it is apparently
Starting point is 02:21:46 or at least rumored to be a torn pectoral muscle which would keep him out of the ring for an extended period of time he could possibly stay on TV as some kind of enforcer, but... Yeah, the one-armed enforcer.
Starting point is 02:22:02 Man, how bad is that guy? At least we know he could take David Jansen's wife. Well, Wardlow, Carl Pavano, no, Wardlow. Been laid low. Yeah. I'm not laughing at the guy getting
Starting point is 02:22:18 hurt. I'm laughing at the preposterousness of just the whole situation with... And I wouldn't ever want the guy to get hurt. We've been wondering where he might be and when he might show back up and now he's gone again but you you have to laugh there it's what we used to call snake bit not just with injury it's bad luck it's not just with injuries it's with again they pick the same week to have 900 people in a barn in Philadelphia that the
Starting point is 02:22:51 w-wees in Paris in front of 30,000 on their TV all of their top baby faces are hurt hurt. WWE gets A.J. Lee. They get real. WWE gets ESPN. I don't know what the fuck. They're snake bit. And a lot of it's self-inflicted, but some of it is just, they just can't buy a break.
Starting point is 02:23:17 They can buy a big house every now and then or buy their way onto the various things they bought their way onto. but this is ridiculous and the thing is if what we're led to believe is true that Wardlow got hurt on the angle that his return angle then we mention how preposterous that was that the goddamn main baby face
Starting point is 02:23:47 was already down and beat up and Wardlow came in and beat up the manager but we're expected to believe he got hurt beating up the manager we're going to find out he got hurt, hurt trying to take off his jacket. Well, and that's it. Remember, I said, my God, it looks like they stuck an air hose up his ass.
Starting point is 02:24:03 He was blown up huge. He wasn't, he was always a big guy, but he wasn't, I don't know, a goddamn Jeep Svensson big. And did lack of ring activity for a year, he doesn't wrestle anywhere else. He doesn't do Indies. so he gains all this weight and looks massive for his big return but he's fucking stiff as a board he hadn't been in the ring in a year and he fucking does one move and he tears a peck
Starting point is 02:24:38 I see another report here he has now moved to Bulgaria oh come on now he's on the AEW pension player you can't he has been, literally he's been paid for one match in the last year, right? I don't mean, I mean, he's been paid for a year to have one match. I don't mean he's been paid for one match. That's the thing. He's worked one time, I think.
Starting point is 02:25:07 Has he worked? Didn't he? Well, maybe longer than that. Yeah, I don't know. And then he had American gladiators, apparently, and he'll have his arm to sling. No, it was the British gladiators. Is that what it was? You're the UK gladiators, some gladiators away from us.
Starting point is 02:25:24 Oh. I didn't know that. And that's why he came back so big, it looked like he was glad he ate her. He ate everything else. He went from Meat and Porkies 1 to Meat and Porkies 3. But now, whatever they had planned, and I mean, it didn't, it didn't look like the return, like they had very much planned because he, as I said, he returned and beat up Prince Nana. But whatever, now that's out the window.
Starting point is 02:25:55 If that caused him to get hurt, that's embarrassing. Just because that was even the way he was booked and then it led to that. Yeah. But now I would say, he's in his late 30s, right? No, he can't be that old. Hold on. I think we said that one time. We said, how old is he and you found out he was 30-something?
Starting point is 02:26:14 Oh, 37 years old. Wow. Well, I think he needs to be talking to Shopify at this point because five years ago, when this fiasco first went on the air, everybody thought, well, he is a goddamn future star, breakout star, and for a little while there when he just power bombed people, if he had at that point
Starting point is 02:26:40 gotten to fuck out of there and gone to NXT, we would have seen by now whether he's going to make it or not. The only reason he wouldn't make it is if mentally he just can't get it. And that's a possibility. we've heard him speak a few times, but he would either be, we would either know now he wasn't going to make it
Starting point is 02:27:03 or he'd be probably on the main roster. And now he's never had that opportunity to learn. He's practically forgotten about. He comes back and hurts himself again, and now by the time he gets back in the ring, he's going to be almost 40, even closer, they're not going to take him now over there in NXT. If he got the, the itch to go.
Starting point is 02:27:36 So I think the ship has sailed. He could have been there, Batista, you know, an older, you know, not a young guy and you could still do something. I don't know, though. I don't know, though, because, well, but I get with the age and the, you know, those similarities, but Batista had the incredible magnetism and the appearance
Starting point is 02:27:57 that Wardlow doesn't have that. He can get to people behind the power bombs, but he doesn't look like Batista. But again, there was a moment. At 32, yeah, at 32, you saw enough that, okay, with training and somebody to explain
Starting point is 02:28:16 what fuck's going on to him instead of the indie level stuff, he was a candidate. Now he's going to be 38, and he's done nothing in five years, and you can't teach an old dog new tricks. I predict the ship has sailed. And it's another one of those things that we criticized at the time
Starting point is 02:28:36 and now years out, you look back on it. And yeah, I mean, it deserves even more criticism now. But he was so hot coming out of that MJF match. Turns baby face because the fans are demanding it. They're chanting his name. Beats MJF. Now, of course, the next Wednesday is when MJF did that promo calling Tony Khan a fucking Mark that disappeared after getting the shit kicked out of him by Wardlow.
Starting point is 02:29:02 And didn't Wardlow then get into a violent angle with the security guard? That's the thing. That's the thing that really took it down. The security guards led by Mark Sterling. Oh, I forgot about that. That's what it was. He's worse. Stokely looks like Heenan next to Mark Sterling.
Starting point is 02:29:19 But if he had come out of that paper, if you're beating him, MJF no matter what he did the next Wednesday. If he had been in a top thing, it would have meant something and you would have had something to build on. Instead, they took him right back down. Right back down. Well, get well soon,
Starting point is 02:29:35 Waldorf, or Wardlow, excuse me. Yeah, well, see, and unfortunately, by the time that he's ready to come back, they won't know the difference between Wardlow and Waldorf. Jim, on the topic of AEW,
Starting point is 02:29:51 This got into the news, and several listeners have sent over various things about it. Photos from MJF's wedding. Have you seen this? I just heard about this yesterday. I didn't get my invitation. It must have been lost in the mail. But apparently he married Alicia Atute. That is right. That is correct. She's now Alicia Atut. Fine, fine, what's his name? What's his name? Friedman.
Starting point is 02:30:19 Fur bag. What is it? Well, you know, it's funny. He took his name. It's funny, Jim, the first time I saw, I think either one of them was in a promo together, the one where he called her Tits McGee from Hoar Island. It was the first time I saw either one of them, and now they are married, but the photos... That's a good name, Tits McGee.
Starting point is 02:30:45 I got to fucking write that down, use that something out. Well, the photos have gone around. according to Dave Meltzer, apparently MJF is saying that he's not happy about it, that people went on the social media pages of various friends and family and distributed the pictures. But these pictures... Well, wait a minute, wait a minute. Now, are you mad? Are you mad then at the people that walked through the parking lot found the lost money and gave it to charity?
Starting point is 02:31:15 Or are you mad at the people that were careless and lost the money in the parking? a lot to begin with. Huh? I'm asking you. You're the... I just asked you a question. But I'm turning it around to you. You're the star on the show.
Starting point is 02:31:30 Then he ought to be pissed off at his friends that had to plaster it all over social media if he didn't want to goddamn pictures. That's why I had to quit taking pictures. Long time, because people just put them every goddamn where. Well, Jim, as we're talking about this, some of this needs to be visual. So I've just sent you an email with an image.
Starting point is 02:31:51 A group show. a large AEW contingent, baby face and heel, man, woman, and human, all together. Persons with other people. Various persons here. I've sent you this to your email address, and of course... It ain't got here yet. The question the fans are wondering is, what do you think of this going public? The idea that you have this group photo, somehow the groom is not the man in the middle.
Starting point is 02:32:21 but this group photo of everyone from AEW what are your thoughts on this disseminating? Well, it just landed here so I will look at it right now. Jesus Christ, it's a big crowd. Who are, wait a minute, why is Tony Kahn next to MJ? Where is the MJF's wife? It's Tony Kahn hugging MJF. And then some fucking.
Starting point is 02:32:51 and bald guy that looks like he works for the building is next to Tony and then the wife. I think that's MJF's father based on AEW TV in the past. So Tony got in between MJF and his father at MJF's wedding? Well, again, it looks like an AEW group shot. Of course, Tony wasn't going to be in the middle. Tony Chavani, where does Chivani live these days? He's still in Charlotte? He live in Atlanta now.
Starting point is 02:33:16 I thought he was in Georgia at least a few years ago. Yeah, he's lived in Atlanta in Revan. recent times. Where was this wedding? Why would you expect a man, the age of Chivani, to fucking travel that far? Well, if Tony's flying, everyone in, why not?
Starting point is 02:33:34 Boy, if you weren't married and you were going to get married, and I had to get on a plane to go to your wedding, you wouldn't see me at your wedding. You know, the good thing about this, though, with there's the girls and there's the guys, and there's baby faces and heels, but luckily, I only know who about three of these
Starting point is 02:33:51 people are. Tony Shavisi, Danny Garcia, trying to peep his way over MGAF's shoulder, and otherwise, you wouldn't really know who any of these people are if they were walking down the street, so it's not breaking K-Fake. Well, obviously, Karen, Jared and Jeff behind her on the right there, and on the left, one of the big things that people are complaining about,
Starting point is 02:34:12 or at least people are talking about. Wait a minute, okay, I see Karen now. I didn't know that was Jeffa, but see it's a very small photo, But I thought that that was Kenny Rogers or a Kenny Rogers impersonator rather than Jeff Jared. But Hangman Adam Page is in this photo. What are your thoughts? Who is the guy that either looks like a vivid video porn agent or a wannabe Barry Gibb on the left right next to page? Who is that?
Starting point is 02:34:44 I believe that's Kip Sabian and Penelope. Well, Pip looks bigger than he does on television. I guess just next to all these people that are smaller. What did you ask about, oh, but Paige? Page shouldn't be there with MJF, should he? Aren't they mad at each other? They're in a feud. They're in a top feud.
Starting point is 02:35:02 Page is the babyface AEW champion who's been having these issues with MJF and this photo gets out. Well, no wonder he's standing all the ways 10 feet away with like eight or 10 people in between them. So thankfully, elsewise, the whole thing could have degenerated into a brawl. Is this an issue?
Starting point is 02:35:20 Should it be an issue? Well, yeah, it's not an issue that they all went to the wedding. It's an issue that none of these dumb shits are smart enough not to put pictures of baby faces and heels up on Facebook or wherever for everybody to see it. But you don't expect anything different because most of this generation thinks there's nothing wrong with it and hasn't been taught properly. And apparently nobody in this generation has been taught how to take. take a good picture or how to pose a large group either. Because half these people, you can't even see who the fuck it is. Their heads are obscured.
Starting point is 02:36:00 Their faces are obscured. Many of them, their appearances improved by that method. But goddamn, what you needed to do was get the tallest people to stand up in the back and then get the shortest people to kneel down in the front and then get the medium people to stand in the middle and now you don't have to go out so wide and you can get a little closer on people's faces. There are pictures of the moon
Starting point is 02:36:28 that are farther away than these people are not recognizable. There's terrible photography. Did they pay this person? Again, I don't know who's taking. I have no idea what the hell is. Well, how did you get this picture? Because it's all over the internet. Were you there?
Starting point is 02:36:47 I certainly was not. Well, it would have been a bigger haul also if you'd have had anything to do with it, it looks like they're in the goddamn breezeway of a Hilton Garden Inn. Well, listen, the question has come up. What would Bill Watts do? How would Bill Watts? He'd have come in there with a big stick and walk tall and knock the punch over.
Starting point is 02:37:07 Take it a big piece of cake and fired everybody, or at least find them $50. The idea of baby faces and heels, let alone the top baby face, and you could argue one of the top heels who are feuding with each other, both being there, Tony Kahn jumped into the fray and said, Alicia is a great person, and the fan favorites came to support her on her big night.
Starting point is 02:37:32 Now that's a Bill Watts explanation. Oh, Jesus Christ. Is that acceptable to Watts? No, that explanation would, the only connection to Bill Watts would be it smelled as bad as one of Bill Watts' jockstraps. Uh, no, that's ridiculous. And also nobody knows who Alicia is because she's only on a Saturday night show
Starting point is 02:37:54 that when she interviews people for 30 seconds. And so it's not like she would engender this goddamn outpouring of, and besides, why would they have to go to support her? Because they realize she's making a mistake of her life, married a weasel like MJF. Why didn't they just elope for heaven's sake? They could have saved everybody all this trouble. We wouldn't have had to fucking dissect this,
Starting point is 02:38:23 none of these people would have had to left their homes to go to this goddamn wedding. Does anybody go to a wedding for fun? Have you ever gone to a wedding where you enjoyed yourself? I'm not a big fan of other people's weddings. I don't have a good time at these things, though. So it's a lot like other people's children. You're happy that they have them, but you don't want to fucking participate your own self. Well, again, maybe they've been dreaming of a big wedding for years filled with all their
Starting point is 02:38:52 If these are all their fucking favorite people, then goddamn they need to go back to dreaming. But how did Vladimir, the super fan, how did he get in the back row there? What? See him peeking up over? That's not, is that Vladimir? Next to the,
Starting point is 02:39:11 I don't think that's Vladimir. There's a guy over Danny Garcia's shoulder that looks like he's auditioning to be the next Svenguelly. Yeah, that guy does look ghastly, like something's wrong. Is that, is that cash we, or a guy cosplay and is Timmy White next to him
Starting point is 02:39:26 and then there's Vladimir over the top of his head. I don't know that's Cash Wheeler, is it? Well, he, I don't know. He's,
Starting point is 02:39:32 see this, again, it's a bad photo. Who's the guy? It's a guy with a round head and a beard. And there's a guy next to him pointing at his dick.
Starting point is 02:39:39 Who's that? Well, now, too many pronouns, pal, are you saying he's pointing at the other guy's dick or his own dick?
Starting point is 02:39:46 Well, look, there's only one guy with his hand out, like, look at this. It's not really, well, it looks,
Starting point is 02:39:50 It's not really like he's pointing at it. It's more like he's about to cup his balls. You're like, here it is. I'm going to weigh this thing right now very carefully in my hand. Did someone say, hey, everyone A.E.W. Let's all get together. Let's have a big A.E.W. photo. And then Tony just jumped into the middle.
Starting point is 02:40:08 Because Tony's the only one like not standing still. He should have also, well, he's not, he's standing still. Look at everyone else in here that look at him. He's squirming a bit. But because he's mashed himself in between MJF and his father, his coat is pulled because it's not unbuttoned. And it's just, it's like they've wrapped him in some type of vinyl bag that they're trying to contain him in.
Starting point is 02:40:34 And then apparently there's a waiter over by, see the guy behind Jeff Jared. He's not even looking at the camera. That's Max Castor. He's probably a, sir, you need to put your card down for another hour on the ballroom. I think that's Max Castor. If you notice, he's a head taller than everyone else.
Starting point is 02:40:50 he's wearing glasses he wants to be able to read looks like well all right looks very bookish to me is it a good idea to invite Tony like do you think like if you invite Tony and you give him a few drinks
Starting point is 02:41:02 and he has a good enough time that maybe he'll just say it's on me how do you know he was invited he had to be invited there's no way MJF you could argue a political player
Starting point is 02:41:14 in AEW there's no way he's not inviting Tony Khan no way well I've just said Tony might have just showed up on his own. He's like me. His invitation got lost in the mail. No, I'm sure
Starting point is 02:41:27 he was invited and he may very well have paid for something. Who knows? Who do you think he gave the best gift? Who do you think gave the worst gift? Again, without knowing who all these people are, I would have to think Chivani would have been the cheapest. Yeah, Chivani was probably just there for the free
Starting point is 02:41:45 champagne. All right. Jim, well, of course. Who are the girls? I recognize Karen. I believe that's Funderosa in front of Karen. She's gained weight. Will you be nice? She looks fine. I am.
Starting point is 02:42:01 She was painfully thin before. That's a compliment. She looks very nice. And behind her, I believe, is the widow of Brody Lee. I think Amanda Huber's her name. And that's Aubrey Edwards. Okay. Well, then I wouldn't be expected to.
Starting point is 02:42:16 Is that Aubrey Edward? Jesus Christ, is she standing on a box? That's Aubrey, Edward, she has a very defiant grin on her face, but again, she looks, she looks massively tall. She says, maybe none of these people are very fucking big. Well, we will stay on top of the wedding news and see what more photos and whatever else we can find in the future. Jim, yes. You had a big wedding and your photos somehow escaped after.
Starting point is 02:42:49 Sucked like this. After they were posted all over social media, you may want to sue. I'd want to, I'll tell you exactly what I'd gall darn do. I would call the best lawyer that I know, and I would say just go scorched earth on these some bitches and leave no stone unturned until you have broken them and put them in a poor house and put all their money in my pocket, and I know who I'd call.
Starting point is 02:43:18 Call Stephen P. New. A mud show or two. Those are the rest. That's right, ladies and gentlemen, Stephen P. New, the wizard, the man behind the curtain that pulls all the strings in the jurisprudence world, new law office.com, 87750, Steve. He will quickly determine what the right course of action is, and then he will blister a son of a gun, leave no meat on his bones, and leave the remains out in the desert for the vultures to pick and choose. from and he will get you compensated for the wrong that has been done to you and that wrong will be righted. The frown will be turned upside down by the man, the myth, the legend, the barrister of
Starting point is 02:44:26 champions, Stephen P. New 770-50, Steve. That's right. Get even with Stephen, new law office.com. But Jim, let's get a few more questions or a few questions. We haven't had any yet, really. I've got some questions, but go ahead. Jim, let's get some questions here.
Starting point is 02:44:43 before we wrap things up. Speaking of West Virginia, this one was sent via the Colta Cornette Facebook group by Caleb Hinchman. As a native West Virginia, I'd like to know Jim's go-to-tutor's biscuit order.
Starting point is 02:44:59 Well, first of all, it's not Calib, it's Caleb. Caleb, everybody knows that. And I can't remember what the ding-dong name of the thing is, but I'll tell you what, I like a sausage, egg, and cheese, cheese biscuit.
Starting point is 02:45:15 A big old sausage patty and nicely fluffed up scrambled eggs on top of there with some cheese and maybe even a piece of bacon. But at Tudor's biscuit world, they have a variety of biscuits to fit all tastes and shapes and sizes. Promocode JCE. All right, Jim, our next question, sent via the Culticorne at Facebook group. was sent by Rob Diggity Diggity?
Starting point is 02:45:48 Does Jim think Paul Heyman or Jim Ross could have taken TNA higher than Hogan and Bischoff or was it always doomed? Okay, well Hogan and Bischoff and J.R. and Haman
Starting point is 02:46:05 so is he saying that we want to compare, we want to J.R. and Haman are going to be the team or either one of them. individually versus what Hogan and Bischoff did? What is the exact? He did say or so it could be or.
Starting point is 02:46:20 Or, or, okay. Heyman definitely. See, here's the thing in what job would they have had, what power would they have had? It's not fair to compare something that might have happened with something that did happen. Whether or not
Starting point is 02:46:39 Hogan and Bischoff could have done a good job or not, they probably couldn't. but they were unfairly handicapped also by the fact that Dixie still owned the thing and was involved at some point, and they had no office staff whatsoever to compete in a major national type of situation. Having said that, if you just, if you said, okay, here is T&A owned by Dixie Carter, but she is going to turn over complete creative control and complete control over what talent is brought in and utilized and what talent's fired and et cetera,
Starting point is 02:47:21 and they've got 18 months, and nobody's going to fuck with them. Then, even though the TNA office and the office personnel and all the interns that Dixie had hired out of college and et cetera, weren't anywhere near competitive with the giant office staff in Stamford of Titan sports, Paul Heyman would have done the best job, Jim Ross would have done the next best job, and Hogan and Bischoff would have done what they did, which is have shitty ideas, hire all their old friends, and run the place pretty much into fucking,
Starting point is 02:48:08 ruin. But yeah, Heyman could have done a better job than anybody, but only under the conditions that they give the guy full control and they stick with it for a period of time to see how it's going to work out. In the case of Hogan and Bischoff, they couldn't really stick with it any longer because they'd have been out of business. But you know what I'm saying. All right, Jim, our next question sent via the cult of Cornet Facebook group was sent by Tony Curranes. I pose this question to the... You think he's just changing his name a little bit there to avoid detection? I posed this question to the cult a little while back, but I wanted Jim's opinion.
Starting point is 02:48:53 Does Jim look at Seth Rollins the way he did Triple H? In that Rollins is not the guy, but the one who works with the guy? So the question is, how do you see Seth Rollins? You know, that might... That might be the case, but I don't know that it's pronounced as much now as it was then, because you had at the time four or five really megastars, Austin, Rock, Taker, Foley could fit in there at that point at that level over that, you know, three or four or five year period. And Triple H was right there with all of them. but he was never, and this is, this is maybe, you know, what the revisionist history has done for us with all of the, you know,
Starting point is 02:49:46 footage that's been replayed of all his victories and championship wins and et cetera. But at the time, and I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, Brian, but from 1998 to 2003 or four, whatever it was, Triple H was in a lot of those main events and a lot of that picture, but he was never seen as a box office draw at the level of an Austin or a rock or a taker or a Foley or maybe one or two people in that rarefied air. Even a cane at one point. It was, it just wasn't comparable to the gates, the crowds, the ratings, the whatever that those other guys had done.
Starting point is 02:50:30 Or am I misremembering this? No, I mean, I don't think you can compare anyone to Austin or the Rock, and the Rock may be the closest comparison just because they both kind of came up at the exact same time. But Austin, and I'd say the Rock, those two on top, really, changed the business. Undertaker and Mankind were a big part of that, main event mix, but I think Triple Age benefited from that, from everything getting built up the way it did more than any of them did. well yeah and also the guy that works with the guy that draws the money is an important spot because the the one key thing is that he was able to work with all those guys you want a guy that can have a good match and do shit with all of those stars and he did that but so there's no shame at that level necessarily in being the guy that worked with the guy
Starting point is 02:51:27 that drew the money, but I always saw him at that point. And then in the mid-2000s, when I quit watching and he and Stephanie were even closer and he was a member of the family, I know he was beating everybody and his brother. I don't know or care about that point, but they, you know, they didn't have any bigger stars at that particular time. They did in that attitude era and shortly after. And when you started watching Seth Rollins or working with him specifically in Ring of Honor, what did you think his limit was? Where did you think he'd go?
Starting point is 02:52:06 Well, I, again, you know, I go back to watching him and Davy Richards at night in Toronto and thinking this is a modern flare and steamboat kind of thing because they're so athletic and they're hitting hard and safe places. They weren't doing crazy shit, but it was definitely impactful. I said, this is a modern version of that and they're being athletic, but there's entertainment in it. I think Seth,
Starting point is 02:52:35 and he, of course, he's, it's been 16, 17 years or whatever. So he's slowed down now in terms of just doing crazy shit that he did. I don't even mean crazy. They weren't going through 15 tables, but just 40 minutes all out athletic shit. He's picking his spots now. he's learned to slow down and sell.
Starting point is 02:52:56 He's a more professional all-around performer now. But I always thought that he was going to be a top guy because not only did he have the size and the good looks, but he had the ability in the ring. And we were just starting to see a point where maybe whether he could cut a promo or not. because he still had a bit of the whiny voice. And so that was, I was disappointed when, as I've told the story,
Starting point is 02:53:32 when he left and took the deal in NXT, when we were just getting started with the Sinclair version of Ring of Honor because I wanted to work with him longer. But I was happy to have helped advise and or delay him from signing an offer that T&A gave him. it was just bogus horseshit so that he would be not tied up when NXT called, which they did shortly thereafter.
Starting point is 02:53:58 So, and that was the same time as Chris Hero and Claudio went to NXT, and they were my favorite heel tag team in Ring of Honor. And I knew what was going to happen. They were going to like Claudio because of his physique. They weren't going to like Chris because of his physique.
Starting point is 02:54:16 They didn't realize that Chris had taught Claudio most of what he knew and they were both better off together as a tag team because they were tremendous that way so they pushed claudio they buried chris they ran him off and then claudio never really made it to the upper echelon but now he's stuck over in la la land so there you go what were we talking about? Seth Rollins. Well, I'm done. This question was sent
Starting point is 02:54:51 via the cult of corner at Facebook group by Michael Mills. Not Mike Mills of booking the territory, I don't believe. But hello, Mike, if he's out there, but here's a question from Michael. Does Jim know why they assign Hayman to Brock Lesnar when he went to the main roster?
Starting point is 02:55:07 Hard to imagine them not being linked now after all these years. Well, yes. I mean, that it was even more important then than it is now because Brock was still new, he was still green. He needed somebody not only setting up things for him or, you know, giving him pointers or tips or advice or whatever, but somebody that would also be at ringside to maybe throw in a comment or two, but just the same thing that that Heyman does for a lot of guys in that position is try to had their greenness, cover up their weaknesses,
Starting point is 02:55:47 and accentuate their strengths. So that was perfect because remember, Brock started in OVW was not a natural, as we've talked about many times, natural pro wrestler, especially not next to Shelton, because Shelton had been a fan and was a freak. But also then Brock pulled strings to get out of Louisville early and go back home to Minnesota.
Starting point is 02:56:14 claim his previous girlfriend was pregnant or whatever. I can't, yeah, that was his excuse. And he ended up training some with Brad Rangans in a barn. So he really, when they brought him up there, he still had a ways to go as far as figure it out how to think about the business. Now he's got it. But that was 20-something years ago,
Starting point is 02:56:38 and he had not been in the ring with every major star up to that time at that. that point. So, you know, he needed somebody to guide him in the proper way. Were you surprised that it worked out so well, personally and professionally? I mean, I never would have thought that Brock and Hey, Hey, I never would have thought that Brock and Heyman would have ended up good friends because Brock hates people. And while I know that Paul recognized the incredible financial benefit of being associated with Brock Lester, I didn't think he could tolerate a fucking, you know, cowboy from Saskatoon or
Starting point is 02:57:21 whatever. They're completely different people. But I knew it would work out professionally because it's a perfect combination. I just, I didn't know they'd get to be bosom buddies. All right, Jim, one last question here this week. We'll have a lot more questions next week here on the show. Jim, this was sent in via the cult of Cornette. Facebook group, that is.
Starting point is 02:57:48 Yes. Cory Pogue. Can Jim explain what the difference is between beating someone clean and beating someone flat? Well, no. Sometimes when you beat someone clean, it is flat. It's too... When you beat somebody clean, that means you've... just beat them with your move or with your talent.
Starting point is 02:58:12 There's no, they have no bitch. You didn't cheat in any way. They didn't suffer some kind of, you know, injured body part, which played a part in failing them at the end. You just, you won the match straight out, boom, one, two, three. No doubt about it. When you beat somebody flat, that's the same thing,
Starting point is 02:58:33 but it's more described as flat. Like, he just beat him flat when it's an angle match, when it's, because I mean the finish of every squash match was you beat him clean, the finish of every match where it's just a chance to show the big star against maybe one of the preliminary guys, you beat him clean, there's nothing wrong with that, but when you beat somebody flat,
Starting point is 02:58:57 it's like this was an angle or a grudge or some kind of allegedly big match that might have sold some tickets and you just beat the guy flat. What's, there was no, No meat to it, nothing to chew on, nothing to get excited about, no reason to bring it back. It's just kind of flat.
Starting point is 02:59:18 You expect a one-sided squash to be flat in the finish by the nature of it, but you don't expect a goddamn alleged competitive main event or angle or storyline match to be just flat at the end. Slight difference.
Starting point is 02:59:39 Well, the only thing flat here will be the notes with that Jim, the drive-thru is closed. That was a flat way. See, there was a flat one. It was supposed to be a big angle, a big show, and instead it was a flat finish. All right. Lots of fun. That brought it back up. Yeah, sure it did. I am losing my voice. We'll be back on the experience in a few days, and next week back
Starting point is 03:00:04 here on the drive-thru, patreon.com slash cornet, $5 a month, get you access to the archive. Going back to 2013, the official Jim Cornett YouTube channel, subscribe, watch, watch, videos, all the videos they are there. Cornett's collectibles at Jimcornet.com. What's going on, Jim? Heroes and Friends, the new book, ladies and gentlemen, it cures horseness. Available Saturday, October 11th at noon, eastern, and how come I'm the one does all of talking and you're the one losing your voice?
Starting point is 03:00:34 At Jimcornet.com. Of course, the drive-thru is brought to you by the law office as Stephen Pidu, 877505-0, Steve. Get even with Stephen. new law office.com but until next time if there is a next time and of course right back here next week on the drive-thru for Jim Corvette
Starting point is 03:00:53 I'm the great Brian last Tally-ho! We need more time to rehearse these things

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