Jim Cornette’s Drive-Thru - Episode 412

Episode Date: October 3, 2025

This week on the Drive Thru, Jim reviews reviews WWE Raw & Smackdown! Plus Jim apologizes, and answers YOUR questions about ticket prices for John Cena's last match, Dave Meltzer's star ratings for All Out & Wrestlepalooza, ESPN giving grades to WWE events, Hulk Hogan, Shawn Michaels, Baby Doll, territory merch, booking ideas shot down, and much more! Thanks to our episode sponsors: SHOPIFY:  Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com/cornette PRIZEPICKS: Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/JCE and use code JCE to get $50 in lineups when you play your first $5 lineup!  Send in your question for the Drive-Thru to: [e-mail]  Follow Jim and Brian on Twitter: @TheJimCornette @GreatBrianLast Merch! https://arcadianvanguard.com/ Join Jim Cornette's College Of Wrestling Knowledge on Patreon to access the archives & more! https://www.patreon.com/Cornette Subscribe to the Official Jim Cornette channel on YouTube! http://www.youtube.com/c/OfficialJimCornette Visit Jim's official site at www.JimCornette.com for merch, live dates, commentaries and more! You can listen to Brian on the 6:05 Superpodcast at 605pod.com or wherever you find your favorite podcasts!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Oh, Jesus Christ. Hello again, friends, and Jesus Christ, and you are our friends, and welcome back to another edition of Jim Coronet's Drive-Thru right here on a fall day and we'll see how far we fall here today. I'm your host, the Great Brian Last. We have some modern wrestling reviews. We have some classic wrestling topics, and the usual, whatever the hell it is, with this man, the leader of the cult of Cornette,

Mickey himself, Mr. Jim Cornett. Hey, Mickey, you, you, punctuated, I guess would be the proper terminology, you punctuated the freestyling, let's say, on the organ with the mystery phrase that people are still, it's going to be like the pop-ass chicken of recorded audio. People are going to be killing each other over, trying to figure out what this thing is and fighting over what they think it is. Because we got people either way with the Inoki keychain

that is either I just called to say I love you is what he's saying or whatever the fucking. A lot of people, I posted the video of this on Twitter and on Instagram. You can find me there, Great Brian last. I didn't know you were lost.

A lot of people think that he's saying Tiger Bomb. It's definitely not Tiger Bomb. There wasn't a Tiger Bomb. Tiger balm. He had sore, sore gluteus muscles. After wrestling Tiger Jeet Singh. And it just doesn't sound like Arrogato, somebody was saying. A lot of people said that.

We heard from people who said, like, I'm married to a Japanese woman, and I played her this thing. She says it's a regato. And then some other people started chiming in saying, no, Anoki had a famous phrase, which I don't know what it is, and I can't say it off the top of my head. It's that. So we still don't know.

And then he does the itchy knee Sondau, which we're cutting off there. Because your thing is stuck and that's all it'll play. I would do anything for this just to play the song once on the air. Instead, Tiger Bomb. It doesn't play the song. You just hallucinated that one time you thought it did. All right, we'll come back to it. I didn't mean to.

Yeah, it's just not. You're going to melt your battery there, Tiger. Anyway, I wanted to say here at the top of the program, for those of you who have been following the developing fluid situation concerning Stace's mom has been in the hospital for a few weeks now, a month, as a matter of fact, exactly, they transferred her this weekend to the physical rehabilitation place over here.

The people are nice and they got the 24-hour medical staff and et cetera, but also concentrating on she's been sitting in a chair or laying in a bed for a month at a hospital. So she's got to get back

up and about and they're working on that and we're going to have a meeting in a couple of days with them on her progress when she gets to come back home. They moved into their new place six months ago. And since that time, she's been in the hospital a total of about six or seven weeks. So she hadn't really got settled, settled yet.

But that was good news for those of you who have been sending nice thoughts and not enough Recy Cups. I wish more people would send Recy Cups, but a lot of people have been saying nice things and sending kind thoughts. But Risi Cups would be appreciated also. I got to get something out of this. Oh, for you? I thought you meant for her. No, she's diabetic. What are you trying to feed my mother-in-law,

Risi-C cups to be nice for? Why are people mailing you anything? Well, I'm sort of holding the mail. Trying to feed my diabetic mother-in-law, Risi-Cubb. I am not. You are talking about this woman who's gone through a lot and how, thankfully, she's on the uphill, or she's going uphill.

whatever we determine there. And then all of a sudden you're like, you know, people thank you for sending your nice wishes. Recy cups will be nice. Send those. I figure you're talking about her. I thought, you know, in my time of need also. Time of need.

I don't have any Reesey cups. Oh. But then also in my spare time, I'll have you know that I have been able to in my spare time laughingly. But no, while Stacey and her sister have been visiting their mom and the new facility over here, I've had a chance to sleeve a few more of my negatives. We talked about the negatives a few weeks ago as part of the process that the new book, which we'll talk about later, has been an offshoot of.

And I have now officially put the negatives in the sleeves of 9,000, frames of wrestling photos. 9,000. And boy, howdy, it's impressive when you look at it, but when you look at what I've got left, it doesn't look like that much. But I've, gold, Jerry, gold. I'm finding the gold, baby.

But in the process of that, see, some of these have not been taken out of the envelope, most of many of them, almost all of them, have not been taken out of the envelopes that they were in since they were last sent back to me from the photo finishing place. We had shit printed, right? So I'm not saying that every one of those 9,000 frames is,

you know, a gold star photo, but the majority of them are because we've had many of the films on the strips reprinted. Do you understand the words that are coming out of my, mouth poorly. I think so, so far. Poorly. Okay. So it says on the last sleeve, we had a hundred of these printed or 200 of these printed, and I'm sitting here going through just sleeve after sleeve after sleeve of these and

again getting a visual representation what we talked about before when I said how many tens of thousands of pictures that we sold at the souvenir stands in this territory. and I've realized now that if Jim Crockett promotions had been smart, they could have goddamn avoided going $2 million in debt by putting out a picture table. They could have saved their whole goddamn company by putting out a fucking picture table

instead of the haphazard t-shirts and the lousy big event, the big event programs were nice, but the regular programs if there was one for the events kind of sucked. Yeah, I own the rights stole out of those programs, actually.

They're not the greatest. So you can testify. Yeah. And oh, and the Memphis programs were nothing to write home about it. Loller to laid him out in 10 minutes on his coffee table. He had me write shit in long hand and just took a stag of my pictures and made it up.

I personally like the King's fun pages where it's like mazes and cartoons and games to play. Yeah. He would just draw a cartoon around an actual maze page that he had clipped from a magazine or whatever. But anyway, point being, think about this, let's say, in 1981 and 1982 where a lot of this stuff is from, was my big years in the picture business.

But I know how much that the, in a variety of the towns, the merchandise stands were grossing because my mother was one of the people selling the stuff and counting the money. And she got paid a commission based on what it was. So Louisville was a $1,000 a week town. And if it did $800, that's what it was a crummy crowd or just horrible for whatever reason, the fifth Tuesday of the month, whatever. But about $1,000 a week you could count on.

That's $52,000 a year. Let's write this down. 52 grand for Louisville. and now if it was a big crowd it could go above that as well but let's just keep an average over in evansville bless them bless their little pepicking hearts at the coliseum if we did four hundred dollars that was that was thank you you know that made it worth the trip and etc but that's still what's 400 times 52 brian you're a smart man graduate of a major university.

Around 20 grand. 20,800. Okay. The major university was Nassau Community College for the record. Well, they've expanded lately online and you can also marry people with a certificate from there.

It's a two-year school. Well, they'll be around much longer than that. Everybody's got to start somewhere. Well, don't laugh at them. They've been around for a while. Anyway, in Lexington, they ran once a month, right? And because they ran once a month,

the people only got one chance at the gimmick table. And because it was generally a bigger crowd overall, the goal going into every Lexington show was $2,000. And occasionally it might not reach that, but oftentimes it'd go a couple hundred bucks above that. But let's say, 2,000 times 12 is $24,000. Now also, Tini ran at least one spot show, the other three Thursdays, or potentially a Saturday once in a while, up here. And that was way off the charts, you know, depending on it could be a stinker and wouldn't do $200.

But on those big ones, we'd do $1,000 sometimes at a high school. Jim. So realistically put in another three or four hundred bucks a week for three times a fucking month, let's say you get another 15

grand just off top firehead. That is $7,96, $111,000 a year that they grossed just on the merchandise stand at Christine's towns

and Memphis was bigger business because it was the biggest crowd and then you had Jackson, Tennessee and then you had Nashville and all these spot shows around those markets where Ms. Coffee, good old guy coffee's wife, Bonnie,

traveled all around to Memphis spot shows and had her girls and at the table selling all the pictures, right? it was at least double it so you're talking over 200,000 a year in 1981 and 1982 in $1.1.5 by fives, $3.5.5s, $3.8 by tens, a 50 cent black and white four-page foldover program with an insert and my championship wrestling magazine. and that's today's money, Brian, at $220,000, let's say, would be almost 700 grand. So what year are we talking about for this average?

81, 82 is though the figures that I'm specifically quoting right here. What's interesting is while Memphis or the Memphis Territory, the Nashville office, whatever you want to call it, was doing this kind of business, what kind of merch office? operation, if any, did anyone else in wrestling really have? Vince McMahon gets t-shirts and stuff really going in 83. But in 82, 81 and 82, who was making merch money? What promoters were making merch money? Almost nobody.

And the thing, they were doing programs. They were, at Les Thatcher had pioneered t-shirts in the Carolinas and, you know, with the briskos and things, and Thunderbolt. some people and especially those within the business the veterans out there are going to say well a lot of times the guys would have put up a stink and say oh no i need part of the fucking money well yeah the guys were getting the guys on the other end as we've talked about and covered on this show the memphis end down there they got most all of the money except what they might have paid out of pocket the girls that were selling at the time or get miss coffee of bottle of tonic or something. But Christine was selling the pictures, obviously passed the cost of paying me to buy them, and that's how she paid her driver,

was the 20% to the salesperson who would then, you know, drive her to the matches and back. But it got to be so big, she had to have two people start selling it. That's where they brought my mom in, et cetera. And that she still gave the leftover to the boys. She kept a manifest. And they'll say, oh, it wasn't all that much.

Well, it added up. They didn't keep track because it was cash. Here, stick as your pocket. And the, but here's what I'm saying is that was a way that it, especially for the baby faces, made it more attractive to work in this territory because they were making money that to promote her didn't have to pay them. but what I'm saying is that on this level in this size of a territory with this size crowds there's yes 3,000 people in Louisville every week so he had to keep coming up with new shit

because the same people were coming so we took new pictures over and over and put them in different fucking situations whatever different color backdrops different outfits but that dollar everybody had a dollar. The kid wanted to go to the concession stand. Here, here's a dollar. Oh, I get a picture of somebody. Or the girls that would come and get the pictures every week, every picture of new Bill Dundee,

new Jerry Lawler, new fabulous ones. Here's $7. Boom. It added up and it was psychologically easy to part with. That's $3 today, but a lot of people wouldn't have $3 in their fucking pocket. And again, this was the gross, so they had to pay for the shit, which is where I came in. But we sold everything for at least three times what we were paying for, because I was getting those fucking three and a half by fives for $0.23 at the start. I finally up to $26.

And I was making $8 or $10 on $100. But I'd sell 1,500 packs of hundreds. And I pushed the 8 by 10s because I'd jacked them up. a set of those 25 bucks. Did you ever figure out how much money you made on just Fabulous One's photos? Jeez. I literally made in the thousands of dollars probably profit just selling them to them. Because it was into five figures of well into the five figures of three and a half by fives

and well into the thousands of color eight by tens that we sold. and they were out selling Lawler and Dundee when they got together? Oh, yes, that was the thing. Lawler could still draw the big house in Memphis and the big house anywhere with the right opponent, the angle. And Dundee was the favorite of the young ladies

overall for the longest period of time, but nobody ever sold pictures at the clip of the fucking fabulous ones. And idiot, take a picture of them doing anything and you would sell a thousand. I sold a thousand pictures of them in a barn laying on hay. It was goddamn unbelievable. But that's the thing I'm saying is in this territory, this size,

they were grossed over $100,000 a year if Crockett or Watts, when he had to Rock and Roll Express, especially or Magnum T.A. and Carolinas or the fucking road warriors, if they had expanded on this concept, instead of and shared some money with the boys. Because if the thing is, they were supposed to share money with the boys, they just couldn't sell anything. And the Rocker Roll Express fan club, as we've noted,

they said they took in over a million dollars, the Ricky and Robert got like 21 grand apiece. But literally all these, in Baltimore and Philadelphia, you wouldn't have just say a dollar. those were the prices for the folks that came every week in Evansville, Indiana, and the fair show in Mullenberg County. You're in fucking the spectrum in Philadelphia,

Madison Square Garden, a whole slew of the goddamn pictures when the guys became 80s rock and roll teen idols. Memphis started it all with the MTV videos and whole thing. They could have, Crocket could have fucking sold nude photos of the Rocker Roll Express in 1986 and made his $2 million and put it in the bank and kept it for when he needed it.

Did anyone ever say anything to Watts about the merch operation in Midsom? I mean, specifically the guys who came from Memphis that were baby faces that know what kind of, not just what kind of money it made, but, you know, the fact that you were getting repeat customers, people that would want one of everything, have you have these female fans,

that's a way to super serve them. I think Watts, part of it was probably being old-fashioned and not really wanted to investigate it further. But Watts didn't, he wasn't about to just let the boys do their own thing like Jared would. And he had to have a piece of it and he probably wanted enough of it that he didn't think that it was worth keeping track up. And they did some rock and roll express stuff too now.

And actually Jack Curtis was in charge of that. in the merchandise at the time we were down there, the whole merchant t-shirts and programs and things. And they did some Rock and Roll Express bandanas and t-shirts and stuff. And I think Ricky and Robert either got a cut or were supposed to get a cut, but they didn't want to go to the trouble, I guess. Plus, I don't think anybody was there to break it down the magnitude of it for him. And I'm not about to pitch him open in a fucking business with Al Cornett

and I wasn't take over Mid-South. But it just, and then with Crockett again, the merchandise was so shitty-looking. And, you know, you would get it or you see it on the catalog, and go, why are they doing this? And the horseman logo that was so rotten. And I took, they had no photographer in Mid-South.

I took some of the pictures in the programs that you now own and possess because they didn't have any pictures of all the new guys that came from Tennessee so I had to bring the camera a few places and take pictures of Terry Taylor and the Rock and Roll Express and I think Magnum with a motorcycle

and Duggin with a chair just to give them something to fucking work with to send a Norm Kiteser. I feel really bad for the Rock and Roll Express they got ripped off so badly with that fan club and now Power Town I can't trust anyone of the Carolina's with your money

and when Dave either remember Dave Dave Dave that's right L Dave you know it's an interesting conversation because it's also the period of time where everything was changing you know 83 Vince has full control the partners are gone and you start seeing more merch being introduced with the big rollout really 84 85 with Hulk Hogan coming in the LJNs are already being worked on in 84 But you always hear that Hogan, and yet with the Hogan story, you never know what's true and what isn't. But I've heard it before that he got pissed off because he found out that Vern had printed up a bunch of Hulkomania t-shirts and was selling them, and he didn't get a cut or anything. And when he brought it up, like Vern didn't see the problem with it. You talk about old promoters and the old way of thinking.

If that's true, that really is kind of the embodiment of the past versus now. Hogan leaves that deal, all of a sudden he's selling posters and workout kits and t-shirts and bandanas everywhere and getting a cut. If you, if you, yes, you, Brian Last, if you'd been there, no, if the royal you, if a promoter of the status of Jim Crockett or Bill Watts or could Lord, I was going to Fritz von Erick, but that's all that office needed was more record keeping and fucking competent personnel jobs to do,

if they had gone to any of these guys and said, look, we are now not selling any pictures of you and you're making no money as a result of saying. So we're going to just at every show that we do from now and we're going to lay out the picture table, just like they used to do in Tennessee, only probably twice as long to make up for the bigger crowds, and let these girls, especially,

buy these pictures of these hunky guys, and we're going to give you half of the fucking profit, and you don't have to do dick except stand there and pose for the pictures. They're already, with Crockett already paying guys in 1986, 87, 88, well into six figures, and them seeing the crowds that were there, I think all of them was,

said, yes, I will take half of the profit instead of jack shit, which is what I'm getting now, which means that the crockett or Watts or whoever the fuck would have got half the profit. Well, again, we're free. As we're seeing, well, I'm just saying any big company that was drawing the bigger crowds during those years, Vern, whoever the fuck, could have grossed with the amount of people that were coming to their matches, hundreds of people. thousands of dollars a year and in today's money

which would be three times as much by doing that now that I sit back here and look at it it was all a whirlwind when I was a teenager Brian I was so scared and again Fritz was a different deal because they did do a lot of photos and everything but they were for his kids so it's the promoter's sons who eventually at the end of

a day owned a little piece of the company Kerry and Kevin did but they had buttons they had pictures and it was all them. I mean, there weren't too many, I don't know who was buying a Bugsie McGraw photo. Hold on here. I saw this.

They still looked like shit compared to the spread we had in Memphis. It would be black and white 8 by 10s with the fucking, well, and I'm not just putting myself over, but I will explain. The black and white 8 by 10s with the wrestler's name under it,

if you don't know who the fucking guy is, you probably didn't need to buy it. fucking picture. It was an old-time publicity picture style thing for a new phenomenon. The kids wanted the pictures of the free birds drinking

fucking whiskey in color in gimmick like the girls wanted the pictures of the fabulous ones wearing legitimately only strategically placed towels in front of Jerry Jarrett's goddamn pool. And they ate by

tens especially. They wanted to put them up on their wall or put it in whatever the fuck. And the other territory still had black of white 8 by 10s or they would run something off cheap paper that wouldn't last would crinkle and do all this other. And it would only be for certain people. We had a goddamn spread where you had sleeves, the plastic sleeves

that each of the pictures slid under. You could slide a stack into them so they were all under plastic somebody pointed we took it out boom here you go again a dollar for the small ones three dollars for the eight by tens it's nice and easy but there's like an eight foot table at least covered

with these things and it's all colorful shit and it's shit that they can take home and stick on their wall or putting their photo album or whatever the fuck and it was more attractive and if you'd done that with everybody again as big as these guys

guys became in the 80s for these companies and jacked the prices up for the big towns, the big markets, the big enchiladas, but do the same fucking thing. They could have fucking gone through multitudes of these things. Multitudes, Brian. That's all I'm saying. Yeah. I mean, I've always thought that it's amazing that there wasn't more merchandising earlier. I mean, we're talking about the lack of things in the early 80s.

It's amazing that there wasn't more being done in the early 70s. You just look at everything happening in the real world. Everything happening with toys, everything happening with sports, just everything. And there really isn't very much. Like you'll see like every now and then like, oh, there's a shirt big dust. Like that's the shirt they made for dusty. And you see the stuff that Les Thatcher did in the early 70s, which was wrestler created early days.

But by and Waller, I mean, Memphis really is the outlier when it comes. comes to just doing a lot of novelty things and then eventually just wrestling merch. Yeah. But there's really no one, I mean, it's one of the crazy things about the WWWF. There isn't much merch and the programs for the most part suck. They're very basic. If you look at any Madison Square Garden program or any house show program before 75, let's say, there's like nothing there.

It gives you almost nothing. Well, there was no centralization for quite some time in terms of every town not only had a different program, different program title, different program style. Somebody different was writing it because somebody different was in charge of the local promotion of the town or whatever. Because they were all over the page, size, method of printing, everything. And so, you know, it was like you got the, the pick, or not the pick of the crop, but you had, you had, it was random chance, Brian. It was random chance is what I was thinking of there,

that what you got, whether it was any good or not, or whether it was like whoever the simpleton was that wrote the inserts for the Indianapolis programs. You've seen those, haven't you? Yeah. Where they would build it. the most fearsome bloodthirsty savage wrestler ever Ox Baker versus the world's most scientific clean cut and clean living wrestler.

Wilbers, it was like a babbling idiot wrote those things. It was just all over the page. It just depended on who the promoter said, here, do the program. So some of them are embarrassing. Yes, to your point. And one last thing I'll say. I know you are not necessarily a fan or you find

it old-fashioned when they have the wrestler's name at the bottom. It's a different era. But I am kind of a mark for those WWF classic 8x10s. First they were black and white, then they were color, where they all have a uniform look for like 10 years straight. Yeah. I kind of like that.

Well, and those weren't for sale and those weren't for the general public unless you met a wrestler and they gave it to you, but I like the look of those. Well, and see, that's the thing is that's exactly what they were doing with this. was sending them out as publicity or having guys sign them if they were doing appearances or whatever, that's the original intent of the publicity picture. What I'm saying is where the money was made in Memphis was the repetition of the, when you had, for lack of a bear turn, the teen idle fucking fan, you know, hooked or the right, Rock and Roll Express, the fucking guys, right?

They're selling tons of these pictures. You make them pictures, make them different. Put them in different outfits and different positions in different places. We had, I had Lawler everywhere from, in Memphis, from the Mid-South Coliseum to Memphis comics to fucking the Pink Palace Museum to Beale Street, to the goddamn airport. I told you, we were driving by the airport. I'm in the car with him and I've spent it a day taking pictures of him

he said you want to get a picture of me in the cockpit of a plane I said okay he went in the airport he parked I could just up at the curb or whatever the fuck I don't remember exactly where he parked but we walked in and I'll be goddamn if he didn't walk up to the

what was the hub there at the time was it northwest or god damn it I believe it was Northwest Airlines was a hub at the time in Memphis. But he walked up to the counter and told him who he was and they went and got a supervisor and the supervisor took us to a goddamn guy

at a gate who took us onto a goddamn plane. And I've got pictures of Jerry Lawler sitting at the cockpit of like a 747. Anyway. Well, this has hit the ground like a 747. Yeah, boy. Oh, now it's way too soon no matter which one you're talking about.

But I'll tell you what you said, good joke. Speaking of those negatives, some of the fruits of those labors are going to be on display on the on sale of my new book, Heroes and Friends, Pro Wrestling Remembrances that's going to be available at Jimcornet.com on Saturday, October 11th at noon Eastern time.

And we've been talking about it for the last several weeks. If you now, I've been told go to the Jimcornet.com. There is a banner up there, which has been up for a while. But if you click on an appropriate button on that banner, it will take you to all the written information so you can see for yourself exactly how great that we've been telling you it is.

And that goes on sale, Brian, as well as because what have we been talking about here on the program and on my show, one that gets bigger ratings, so much over the last few months that actually for the last few years, anytime we talk about New York wrestling, but especially the Jack Pfeffer files, we have referred to the history of wrestling in Madison Square Garden, have we not? We have.

And where do we get all that history from, wrestling in the garden, the book by Scott Teal at crowbarpress.com? Because it's all there. So for the benefit of Mr. Kite and our listeners, at least the first hundred of them, a hundred copies, limited number of wrestling at the garden, the history of pro wrestling in Madison Square Garden that we have talked about and quoted facts from on so many occasions, we'll be on sales you can do one-stop shopping at Jim Cornett.com.

If you want to get both books together and learn an amazing. amount of shit in a short period of time about wrestling. We're only getting 100, though, of the garden books because we don't want to, we're not trying to go in competition with Scott. We have worked in conjunction with Scott for this. So that way you don't have to go to two different places, but we encourage you to go to his site too. Anyway, all that takes place on Saturday, October 11th, Brian, and it's going to be

stunning and wonderful and marvelous at Jim Cornett. But you know what I got to do here today, don't you? What's that? I got to apologize. I don't, you know, how I am about that. I don't have to do it very often because I'm usually never sorry about anything. But, you know, a lot of people were ticked off that I did not watch the match between Stephanie Vakur and the other person she wrestled it. and EO Sky.

An Eoskeye. You hate her so much. You can't even say your name now. What is happening? Well, I'll get to that shortly. I'll get to, I'm taking a drink. I'll get to that short. I'm taking a drink.

You need a drink. And I was the first one to be ticked off of you for now watching that match. I asked you to you, said I will. And then I asked you if you're watching it. You're like absolutely not. Hold on. Well, see now you're jumping way ahead of me. But nevertheless, so I didn't watch it.

And people got ticked off. Because this is the best match of the night. God darn it. Oh, God, dang it. And just vehemently, and, of course, at the end of the day, when I took all those comments into consideration, I still didn't give a shit because I had to watch nine hours of wrestling and then one day and then turn around and talk about it for a few hours here on this program

with all the other shit I had going on around here at the time. I still did not regret. saving my time over a basic non-issue ladies' match, regardless whether it's good or not. But one of the people that was ticked off about me not watched it brought up that I promised you that I would watch it because I completely forgot. Liar.

No, I swear. When I had completely forgot, because like you said, oh, promise me you'll watch on one of the programs, Promise me you watch such and such. Okay. Well, fucking five days later or whatever, I didn't retain that information.

So I would have watched it if I'd have remembered that I promised you I'd have watched it. So I apologize to you. Oh, great, Brian, last. But it was an inadvertent of fucking, not that I, again, that I regretted hindsight

for the lacking the experience, but I didn't mean to blow you off after I'd promised you. So I feel like... You don't have to apologize to me. I feel like it's the listenership that you owe this big apology to, maybe even EO and Stephanie.

And what a spectacular finish it was. For the record, it was the preview, I think we were doing. And even in the preview, you tried to skip over it. And I said, please, you gotta watch this. This will be good. Stephanie Bercour is really good.

And you said, okay, I'll watch it. And we know... Yeah, that left my mind pretty soon after. But I apologize there. So don't worry. I watched a lot of women's wrestling than I'd have preferred to watch here in the previous seven days. This is the result of that. I will say this briefly, and we're not going to do the review right now.

We're doing it a little bit later talking about Raw. But the opening segment on Raw was kind of everything you've been complaining about in terms of the behavior. you're the acting. I mean, I don't even know how you can call it acting. It's like you took a kid and you said for the first time ever you're going to do something you've never done before, the facial expressions. E.O. Sky, I think, is great in the ring. But if you're someone looking for anything believable, I mean, well, again, we'll talk about it. Anything that over an eight-year-old child would enjoy, but, ha, knock him out, John. There's no defending her acting in the segment on Raw this week.

But Jim, as we get moving here, we do have some modern stuff to review. I'd like to talk to you about what you saw on SmackDown. And if you don't mind, because I kind of have a hunch you watched it because of the demand we saw. Yes. Can we start with the main event? Because I'm kind of dying to hear what you have to say about the three-way match. One of the most remarkable spectacles, they held me during like multiple picture and pictures. Naya Jax

versus Tiffany Stratton versus Jade Cargill. Well, yes, we can start with that because that was they went from the penthouse to the outhouse. So it's only fitting that we start in the outhouse and try to climb our way out

through the hole. Boy, howdy. It was Jade Cargill versus our friend, the refrigerator, Nia Jax, versus is Tiffy time Tiffany Stratton. And did I ever think that Tiffany Stratton would be the Sherry Martel of any equation she was in? Boy, howdy.

I don't know why that they had Jackson Green and both the other girls in red, and it wasn't the Christmas episode. Did that because... Yeah, they were just like a tag team. we looked like a tag team against the jolly green giant she looks like a fucking cedar tree with hair when she's wearing that but see

swamp thing now don't body shame swamp thing but they start this late in the show it showed me they had confidence in it to begin with and they go 45 seconds, they go to the break. When they come back, they've only got like 10 minutes on the air.

And Nea Jacks is in front of the announced desk with Jade, and they are simulating fighting. They're locked together, throwing punches while they're watching for Tiffie to dive, right? And Tiffy hits the ropes, and I hope she's okay. And again, I'm not laughing about anybody getting hurt. here, but again, they were snake bet. Snake bet. And for the people who I, who say that, well, all Cornett does is criticize AEW and says

WW is always professional. No, I just don't see it as often in one place as I do in the other, but they were snake bet. Tiffy tries to dive through the ropes. and as she's going to dive on both of them, the spot is, is that Jade will move out of the way while shoving the refrigerator in front of her to catch the dive, but Tiffy caught her leg on a top rope, and it stopped her forward momentum, and she went straight down.

And she wasn't going to reach Nia Jackson any way who had to bend over and still missed her and just fell down beside of her because she needed to. And then they fought on the floor and Jacks posted Jade and beat up Tiffy and then Jade beat up Tiffy and then Jacks beat up Jade. And they were back to break within another three minutes. And apparently again, they figured, Jesus Christ, we'll show the bare minimum of this. They come back, they get six minutes on the air. Did you see...

Did you see Niagara Jax give the fans the double bird during the commercial break? Even on a big screen, I'm not watching the fucking picture and picture over a goddamn ad for vaginal refreshment or whatever's going on on the network. But Tiffany and Jade double superplex Jacks and everybody sells, and that was impressive.

And then Tiffany hit her moonsault, but there was a save, and they're still choreographing Jade stuff, obviously, and Tiffy is not, you know, the most natural worker yet, but she's athletic. But it's decent. It wasn't nothing bad. and then Jade hit her finish on Tiffany

and Nia Jax pulls the referee out and Jade rolls out and clears the desk off and she's going to try to pick up Nia Jaxx and slam her, give her whatever, the super duper wing bat or whatever the fuck on the desk. And Nia gets out off of her before she gets her up and shoved her into the stairs and Jade Buster head wide open.

I mean, I saw the picture on social media after the fucking fact and right down through her eyebrow very close to her eye and wide and jagged. As people you say, I'm going to cut you wide, deep, and repeatedly. It was... But at the same time, people are blay...

Nea Jack's crippled this and did this, and she shoved her and you're taking your own bump into the goddamn stairs. I'm not sure how to attribute, but did she shove her, I've watched it in slow motion. It didn't seem like she catapulted her with the gravity of a thousand suns, but boom, she just went right face first end of that fucking thing. Did you see the photos, Brian? I saw a little bit of it. I don't really necessarily like to see good-looking women with giant cuts on their face or anything. But I saw the spot and, yeah, I mean, you could say anything you want about Nia Jacks being sloppy, unprofessional, hurting people, and we've seen all those examples. But it didn't seem atypical the way she threw Jade into the stairs.

And did the stairs move? Did the stairs move when she threw her into them? Well, yeah, well, I was this, this, it could have been the stairs fault. You moved. That was the old deal. Some guys, some guy, if a guy had been complaining about you being stiff, you'd grab him and draw back, and you'd say, you moved and then punch him hard and him. I guess he had to be there. Well, Jay kept working, even though she was bleeding and she knew she was bleeding and was blood droplets on the ground, the referee seemed to be in a panic.

trying to figure out what to do this. Well, that wouldn't be the last time. She'd be the referee, this was a she, trying to figure out what to do. So Jade still, as a matter of fact, that fires you up. And I think this may be the first time Jade's ever been busted open like that, isn't it?

I certainly. I call another time. And I do think she actually looked the best we've seen her in a while maybe ever in there. I mean, not to say she's Rick Flair or anything, but I didn't think Jade looked bad. Well, but the thing is now, this was the same thing as Michael Elgin. Remember him from years ago? He was a hot prospect and he was in Ring of Honor.

He and Davy Richards had a match in Florida that became one of the independent matches the year and everybody was screaming at us because we hadn't made Michael Elgin the Ring of Honor World Champion and signed him to an exclusive contract. He didn't actually have papers at the time to work in the country. another thing we were trying to get Sinclair to fucking cough up. But nevertheless, it was an average match until about 15 minutes in. And Davey Richards, I believe it was, was going to some kind of superplex or super move off the top rope.

And he come within a goddamn pubic hair, as they say, of drop it Elgin off a top rope at a high rate of speed on his fucking head and almost landing on his head himself, but it woke them both up of nearly dying, and they proceeded to have like the five goddamn dismissment of a wrestling match you've ever seen in your life. People lost her shit, and that's what made it a great match.

The same principle here happened with Jade. She got busted open, and it fucking woke her up. She picked, Nea jacks up and Samoan drops her on the fucking stairs and fires up at the cat. camera and makes the face, ah, now that's some goddamn, that's the storm. That's an old promoter's thing.

Somebody got clocked and fucking finally woke them up. That's what I want to see out of you. That's the aggression, right? And Jade rolled in and hit fucking Nia Jacks with the big spinning abyss black hole slash Big Bubba Rogers Bubba slam. and boom one, two, and right then,

Nea Jacks kicks out and within one second Tiffany is coming in with a drop kick kind of save to make the save on the thing. And I saw again that Jacks was supposedly

quoted as saying, well, I kicked out because Tiffany wasn't going to be there. Did you see this or was this has this been verified as a comment? I didn't see the comment or anything. I saw the spot. I didn't see anything that anyone said after the fact.

Well, if you watch it back on video and you look down, don't look at the screen, and you fucking hear the referee's cadence of his count, I think she would have been there close enough for the save that by the time she had kicked that, person toward the referee that it would have broken it up.

But apparently the comment I saw somewhere was that Jack's kicked out because she didn't think that Tiffany was going to be there. But then after she's kicked out of the thing and Tiffie kind of kicks Jade out of the way, then Tiffany covered Jacks and she's flat as a fucking board on of ground, the referee counts one, two, and holds up without knee of Jacks moving, didn't kick out, didn't move a muscle, just held it held up the deal before she hit the ground on the three count. And then they looked at each other and the people start rumbling as it goes into outright booing.

You see Jack's laying on her back just coming up supposedly covered but talking to the referee like I couldn't read the lips. I don't know what was going on there but it was like what the fuck and the referee

is obviously I don't know what they were going for if they well and there was confusion Tiffany got back on Nia Jax and hit her moonsault one, two, three. So the cover, the finish

was going to be Tiffany beating goddamn Nia. I don't understand. I thought that was the finish. It looked like it should be. Except here

here's what I'm saying is if they were going for Tiffany making a save when Jade had had her down and then stealing the win, right? Then it made sense. It didn't make sense for Jacks to kick out, except that if she thought Tiffany wasn't going to be there for the save, it would fuck it up.

But then she was still going to lay down. But why would the referee not have counted? then he's do you see what yeah and we've seen this in AEW I think is the most recent time where it was a clear three count because the person was not kicking out or even moving and the referee stops and holds up two fingers and the fans start booing which is what happened here

what do you think the referee should do again live show USA Network main event what should they do yes but again I'm still trying to figure out what the finish was and I can tell you it's easier to tell you what the referee should have done than to figure out what the fuck this was. If that wasn't the finish, then what the fuck was supposed to be the fucking finish? Out of that whole thing,

because they obviously had to go back to a moonsault that was flat and added afterwards. So I don't know why the referee, and again, the people are saying that, well, there wasn't heat on the referee. Well, how could there not be? if that was but ultimately

every promoter or Booker that I've ever worked for including I'm pretty sure Vince McMahon I'm pretty sure I've heard this come out of his mouth on several occasions but same thing with a dusty or a Watts or

Tommy Young the greatest referee in the world almost everybody tells the referees if the shoulders are down, count it. It's up to the guys to kick out. I have told guys in the past in OVW or it, it wasn't a revolutionary concept.

It just had to be reinforced sometimes. If the shoulders are down, the referee has to count them. It's up to the guys to kick out. Now there are instances where if there's some fumfer for some reason, and somebody else is hitting the mat doing something where it's not abundantly clear that the guy heard the referee's first two

to know where the three was or what sometimes shit like that happens. Or you've been rolled up tight on your head and your ear is squashed by some fucking green guy and you couldn't fuck it, whatever. And you didn't hear a count. That's why the referees always count out loud. Also, one, two.

that tries to minimize that. And otherwise, again, you know, the referees get hooted at if they count with a shoulder up when it is the legitimate finish, they get hooted at by the fans. They're the ones that have to take the heat for that when it's obvious that a shoulder is up, which is why a lot of times, again, promoters have always. taught if the shoulders aren't down, don't count it. They need to get there. You'll see, and you've seen Brian

a number of times over your fandom, the referees, hey, give them the Iggy and the ribs, the shoulder, it ain't down. They got to adjust. But I don't, I don't, and Jade was the one that had her goddamn brain just concussed and she wasn't involved in this.

It was all the people that weren't bleeding. But anyway, also i mean again all jade had to do was she hit her move and then she just either had to be kicked out drop kicked of shit can in some kind of way she got that accomplished i the somewhere in the other three this whole thing went to shit but that's what the referees ought to do and are usually told to do i don't know if it's different now but i i I don't remember a time when anybody, in my experience, in any wrestling organization from the 80s, 90s, 2000s, or even into the 2010s, where the referee could just not count when nobody fucking moves and they're not mad at the referee.

So if the referee did what she was supposed to do, it comes back to the same thing. It was Naya Jackson's fault. She didn't get a shoulder up. She lost track of where she was or what part of the match it was, and it was her fault, right? Well, but I think it was the finish, but I don't know, I don't know why they performed it so poorly that were having to try to figure out what to finish was,

but I think Nia Jacks is trying to, I don't know what. That's what I'm saying. We have Nia saying, well, I kicked out because she wasn't going to be there in time to make the save, but then that indicates that if he would be stealing the pen, why would the referee, I don't know. I'm saying that even if it wasn't the finish, ultimately the referee gets the heat because if the shoulders are down

and nobody moves, you've got to count it. But if that wasn't somehow the finish that they already had fucked up, I don't know what was supposed to be. so I'm doubly confused. What was the finish supposed to be, Brian? I think Tiffany hitting the moonsault, right? Didn't she do that right before the end? Yes, that's after that they had fucking looked at each other

and talked back and forth and like, oh shit, well, what the way? Here, boom, I'll do this and that. They made that up afterwards. They didn't just jump right up and start doing shit again. They all stood there with, I was going to say, their dicks in their hands, that'd probably not be an apropos analogy and figured out what to do from there to continue to have Tiffy pinning Nia Jax. And again, Tiffany Stratton's been very good, but she's someone who they drafted into

the Performance Center and trained from Square One. And she was kind of the ring general in there, because Naya Jax is no ring general, and Jade isn't either. So you have someone who has Does she have the least experience or the three of them? She may have the least experience believing in the three of them.

Well, yes, and the, the crippler. Nia the crippler jacks. Maybe we ought to start calling her now the fucking from Cedar Mountain, Vermont. She's been in the business for low these many years and she's got a quite a number of

notches on her hospitalization belt. I mean, I don't know if you can even go by time anymore. You know, we're at a weird time in wrestling, AEW and WWE, men are doing moves to women, and no one's complaining. It's happening. Could a wrestler get away with calling Nia Jaxax a cedar tree?

That's the big question I would like to know. Well, I don't see, because cedar trees do perform a lot of wonderful functions, so they provide oxygen into the atmosphere, and they keep you from having to all year round, to having to look at your neighbor if they grow up high enough. Well, I don't know if anyone would be high enough to consider that a classic, but it certainly was one of the more interesting matches of the week.

Naya versus Jade versus, I wrote Jade twice, versus Tiffany. And then Stephanie, oh, Steffie V, baby, she came out to stare at Tiffany, and I swear to you, I swear, I swore, I swore, Brian, with my hand in the air, that I will watch Tiffy versus Steffy without fail, no matter where it is or when it had, what type of streaming it's going to take place on. It's going to be Crown Jewel. I guess it'll be ESPN's app.

And I think because it's in Australia this year and not Saudi Arabia, it starts at 8 o'clock in the morning. Oh, well, good. Good. I can get up and take my morning Russo and sit down with a nice Sprite Zero and start. my day in a fucking brand new way. 8 o'clock in the fucking morning. That's right.

Breakfast with WWE in Australia. But hopefully that will be good. Stephanie Burekir is a very talented wrestler. And when they were staring at each other, she was probably thinking, what was the finish? I was thinking, she's thinking, I know I got to step into this mess. What the fuck?

Well, Jim, we'll get back to the mess of Smackdown and what you saw in Raw shortly. But when it comes to what we just talked about, I had asked you in advance to make some projections about how you think this will go. Will there be any injuries? Will there be any botches? Do you think you would have gotten it right or wrong? Let's just say if a friend of ours, like prize picks, offers such a way to make such a projection.

Some picks is what you're saying. I'm going to pick which one of these young ladies is going to come out of the match looking like somebody's taking a hatchet to their face. Or I'm going to pick which one lays their motionless while everybody figures out what else to do when they can't figure out what else to do. And then we put the more or less than over the top of that, and that's why they have horse races.

Isn't it right, Brian, that they have horse races simply to determine the upcoming standings in football so that you can pick more or less on, well, yes. because it's football season. So you can pick more or less on football games in more than 40 states now on prize picks. That's where, because there are still a few draconian local laws,

but most of the country can get prize picks. And you pick more or less on pass yards or rush yards or touchdowns or all of the things that daily fantasy people do. some of the things that people did for daily fantasies back when I was a kid you don't do on here. You can also make season long projections, Jim. Yes, see, all season long. And prize picks is the only app that offers stacks, meaning you can pick the same player up to three times in the same lineup.

Now, that sounds kind of shady to me, but apparently it means you're going to pass yards, rush yards, and touchdowns. that I've mentioned before, you can pick all of them now. You can gang up on somebody on prize picks. And you can follow the other prize picks players directly on the app and copy their lineups in one click. And boom,

you got their lineups. And then you can just make your plays based on what they see. What you need to do is hijack the lineup of an expert in the field and then just make all of their plays. and then maybe sometimes you don't even have to stick it back in before they notice they'll never be able to figure out who took it. I can't figure out where you're going, but of course, ladies and gentlemen, if you're watching well, you can copy the lineups and one click of the players that you follow directly.

If you're following the players and the big game. Whether it's a friend or a celebrity partner or just someone who picks you like and you want to pick the pocket of their picks, you just follow them around by hitting that follow button and sooner or later they're going to turn their head, boom, you got their picks. I don't know if that's exactly how it goes. Check out every lineup they create. Their life is like an open book.

My God, there might even be candid photography. It's all in the new feed tab on prize picks. You can feed on their personal information. Folks, again, download the prize picks app today, and you can use the code JCE to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That means if you just put $5 that you find laying around in the cushions of the couch and you apply this toward bettering yourself by having a daily fantasy, making some money with it,

I like that kind of girl. Then they're going to give you $50 in lineups when you pay or play $5 in the lineup. and giving away money like that, I'm surprised they're not in a lineup. But they'd wear their hats. You wouldn't be able to recognize it. I don't know what you're talking about. It's all on the up and up, folks. And of course, you could be on the up and up with the right projections, picking the right

players and the right stats and all the other jazz. While you hear that, Jim. Oh, I know what that means. That means you're going to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup with the code JCE at prize picks where it's good to be right. Still no song, just tagada. Jim, we have to return now to Smackdown, the prize and the picks. It's all over.

It's back to Smackdown. What else did you see worth reviewing? Well, we started at the end, so let's go back to the beginning, because we got something, at least this week, out of our talking one of our talking segments, but at least something came off well because when you've got Paul

Heyman in the ring and you got Cody Rhodes in the ring, I won't say it's magic, but it's better than fucking watching two other people stand there and jabber at each other. And again, Paul is now he's building

the mystery as to what his relationship is with Brock Lester and you know wouldn't you like to know and and people would like to know and so did Cody right but Paul comes out he gets his guys over he does the little smartly what do you want to talk about like Cody and he puts Rollins over and gets him booed and they chant for OTC and he all it's disrespectful to speak of the injured or how about the dog that's going to main event WrestleMania five or ten times in a row, Bronbreaker, or maybe the conspiracy theories regarding

Barak, Lester, Paul really, I'm afraid he's liable to pop something, some kind of vein in his neck, because there's so much pressure on his neck already from the weight. But he gets everybody in, and then when they really, really pop on Brock Lester, he starts to continue. Well, let me tell you, and boom. Cody's music interrupts even. He gets the big cheers and the woe and the Cody chants and they sing his name in a

multifluous fashion. And then Cody say, yeah, I want to know. Was it just a one-time thing, a one-night stand? Am I talking to the Oracle or the wise man or the advocate? You could almost hear Dusty saying, are you a warrior or an Ellen boy? And then Paul said, of course, you know, he gives him the smarmy Paul Heyman stuff.

And I understand why you're confronting me about Brock. Everyone is in danger when he's here. But he's not even here tonight and you're still in danger. And there's Reed and Breaker in the ring. And Paul steps out, of course, before, you know, The only thing is, I'm afraid he's going to tip the ring over when he steps out on these angles. Have you ever wondered if that could happen if there's only two or three guys in the ring when he steps on the apron? Shouldn't it tip up on one side?

I've not wondered if that wouldn't happen, no. Well, anyway, Cody then cuts a promo on them, and it was good. He tells him how Paul double talks people. He's going to tell you you're the future. and you and Cody that he name dropped all the great bookers his dad and Watts and it said Dusty etc and said he always knew why they were doing something but this one over here nobody's figured him out yet who is he loyal to well it ain't you and then Bronbreaker rips his shirt off and Cody said well hell and it takes his jacket off and the crowd

is up. They're good, yes, fight, fight. And Cody says, this may be a bad decision on my part, but what the hell? And he jumps them, and he's looking good, and then they stop him, and they get a little heat, and then Orton's music plays, and he hits the ring, and he hits an RKO on Bronson, and Cody clotheslines, Bronbreaker over the top rope, and Paul gets his shocked face on, and we got something. We got something out of our 15 or 20 minute talking segment, Brian. This is cause for celebration. At 15 or 20 minutes, there was also a little thing at the end, too,

when Randy Orden picked up the belt and looked at it. That's all it takes to tease the future. We've always thought at some point Randy has to turn on Cody, and it makes a whole lot of sense to have them get closer, or at least involved in something together, before that happens. But he gave him the little look, the little, you know, I'd still like to have this.

You know, next to the Monday night segment, this was like the Godfather. I mean, this was all right. You're talking about 20-minute segments that don't necessarily go someplace. Yes. There are other examples within this week. But I think this is good.

Cody interacting with Hayman brings out the best in Cody. Cody ripping off his jacket and fighting brings out the best in Cody. Yeah, he's got the passion. That's what, I think, despite some of the bad decisions they've made in his booking has kept him where he is is he's got that passion when he opens up.

And I think they've done a good job other than the stupid name of the vision, which I just don't like. I don't think it's good. They've done a really good job of establishing Bronson and Bronn to now wearing matching leather jackets. They're with Haman more than Rollins, who I think you've said it, doesn't really need him. Yeah, I like this.

Good opening segment. Well, then they gave us the street profits and Carmelo Hayes and the Miz. Remember when Carmelo Hayes was the number three draft pick? And I said, you've got to be out of your mind. And I wasn't the one out of my mind, was I? Ooh. And then we got Julia and Keanu James against Mia Yim and K Fave. But...

Mia, Yim and K Fabe. Who was the Mia Yom's partner? K Faye. But who was it? That's what I'm saying, third base. Oh, B-Fab. I'm sorry, K-Fade, B-Fab. But I couldn't figure out.

One of those things. But nevertheless, then by 9 o'clock, we got another talking segment. But this time, I'm not going to go through this whole thing. I love Drew McIntyre. He does a great, he's the modern-day Brett Hart. he complains about everything. So because that was when Brett's promos got to the next level and what 97 when he actually had legitimate shit to complain about,

whether complaining about Michaels or complaining about getting screwed or complaining about the United States treating people in Canada, whatever the fuck. That's when they got good. Drew McIntyre is brilliant as long as he keeps whining and complaining. but they then brought out Jacob Fatu, who has been missing for a few weeks or whatever the fuck, but he's not working with Solo and the motherfucking Tongans anymore.

Thank God. I thought, do you think they just, has he been hurt or they just said, you know what, let's just stop this shit, give him a couple weeks off and then let him. let him interact with another human being, not of his own clan. I hope it's that. I hope this isn't some way to get him back into a feud with Solo and the gang. At least it's something new, and it is an intriguing match.

Yes, and it's what both guys can benefit from because Jacob's problem, and he came out and he took the part immediately of Shut your ass up and stop bitching. And telling Drew that he cries, he complains, he blames. Sit your peg leg ass down. All that shit. And the people were chanting fatu, fatu. And then when they kept snatching a microphone away from each other also,

which I thought was good, instead of standing there with one in each hand and just responding to each other. They would interrupt each other. And then finally, Drew, headbutted, him sucker head butted him, but Jacob super kicked him and pulled Drew's non-WW medically approved walking boot off and hit him over the head with it, knocked him out. Jacob working with Solo or it was,

it was like watching Jacob work with a great value version of Jacob. They had the same style, same build, same approach. It was boring. And Solo's promos, or we're not really captivating either. With Drew, he's one of the best talkers in the company, and also he's tremendously athletic, but he has a completely different style

than Jacob Fatu does, but I think it will mesh well. And Jacob can't do long soliloquy promos, but he's perfect in short, George Burr, shut your ass up. I would tell you off and it were a fight. And he needs a guy that can sell as animatedly as Drew for his big shit, but still is big enough to get him down and as a baby face gets sympathy on him. So this I'm looking forward to, yes.

All right. Anything else from Smackdown? Will you know there was, brother, to quote Gary Hart. where has he been all my life Javon Evans I know where he's been he's been in NXT we saw

Javon Evans why did we watch NXT what happened that made us watch it well I've seen them a little more than you it may have been when NXT debuted on CW we watched it for like the first two weeks

or something but you there you go and I know people on again online oh Cordad of Love or not Cornyder to love, but we love Javon Evans. What do Cornett say? And I haven't, you know, I remember saying, well, he's painfully thin.

And he's still painfully thin. But if they've had him in the program, you know, since then, I don't know how long he's been there at the start, but he's evidently a quick learner. Part of it benefited that he was with Sammy Zane and Sammy can work. always said that. But he had a tremendous performance. And I know you say, well, it helped. It was in Orlando because that's where NXT is,

but NXT draws, what, 200 people and there were 10,000 in Orlando, and they were all going crazy for the guy. So it can't just all be NXT friends and family, can it? It can't. I think he is someone who connects with the crowd, though. and some people knew who he was and I think he won over other people by having a competitive match

where at times it looked like he may and you could even think about it and go well this could be a way to make somebody but it looked like a couple points he may win yeah and again they had a good match in terms of building the new guy

and you see that they try to do it in AEW you, but they just think that a regular match where they do all their regular shit, but longer is the way to get a new guy over. This guy is answering the U.S. title challenge that Sammy's got out. Even though they bill him at 190 pounds and bless him for that, he could use a cheerio for a hula hoop. But, you know, at least they're trying to bring some fucking credibility into it.

I don't think he can weigh 190, but he can work. The difference here is they're not just doing moves. Technically, he was fine. He was there for everything. He didn't fuck up anything or botch anything. The timing reactions. He had facials. His shit was sharp, but it was safe.

He took great bumps, but he's got the leaping ability. He didn't rush. He's a bean pole with all the potential in the world. And it's a baby face match, and that's how Sammy got a little baby face heat during the break, but the whole thing was built to feature him, as I said before, rather than just having a long, regular match.

Ed, Ed, Evans hit a big dive on Sammy, 10 feet out from the ring, from inside the ring over the top rope, and Sammy is down the aisle. and a spinning kick and got a two count. And then they did some more shit. And then again, Evans foiled Sammy and hit a Hurricane Ron off the top rope and got a two count. People are chanting, this is awesome.

This kid is foiling what Sammy's trying to do more and more. They've built it at first to where Sammy had control, but then they let him break out. And then they did a back and forth. and you thought there, Sammy's going to hit him with the kick, but he missed the kick. And fucking Evans hit the biggest Cody cutter ever. Like 10 feet above the top rope for a two count, and people started chanting Refu's suck.

They wanted him to beat Sammy, but they were going crazy. And then Evans missed off the top rope and rolled up to come back, but into a kick, and then the blue thunder bomb one, two, three. Sammy won by the skin of his teeth against this guy because he underestimated him. They built the story perfectly. They didn't do a million high-risk things. They did the ones that mattered.

They didn't use any furniture. They didn't bury the referee. Nobody looked like he almost broke his fucking neck and was paralyzed. But the crowd went ape shit. and obviously you still need to you need to tune this guy a little bit i wouldn't do the cody cutter no matter whether you call it a different name or not 10 times higher and 10 times better than cody is actually going to be ever be physically able to do it but he can do so many things you hit the things feature the things that he can do that nobody else can

and don't let anybody else do that. This is a guy that if I had him on the roster, then I would just say, okay, nobody else will dive out of the ring over the top rope on anybody. Because this guys is the best, and the rest of it's just blah. And that gets this guy over. Or that nobody else is going to do the quadruple backflip,

whatever the fuck this guy's shit is, because he's not just a trained circus chimp doing fucking moves. He's doing, like, I can walk up here and balance myself and backflip off the top rope. But the other guy's got a weight on me, and it doesn't look like I've got, I'm mad about anything. I've got a blank look on my face. I'm executing shit that I've memorized. There's none of that. He's got oomph to him.

so this is the guy that you then say okay this is going to be what gets him over and it makes his size more palatable by giving him another superhero feature that nobody else has and that's how you make something like that special but in a it'll still stand out but in a company where everybody is doing a variety of diving of things it's not going to be as big of fucking deal. But I like this kid. He's got it mentally, apparently. So, Bravo. Oh, wow. That's the highest thing you can get here

on the show. The applause from you. I clapped four times. I believe he's young. I want to say 22 years old or something. And I've watched him in NXT. The fans have really gotten into him, and he's good. He's skinny, but, you know, David von Erick was skinny at the very beginning. And, He never filled out much from that point forward. Oh, God damn. No, wait a minute.

I put a picture of Kevin standing next to this guy. But here's the thing. I hope he doesn't gain too much weight, but he needs to gain some. If he could maybe in the appropriate ways and kind of gradually all over his body, he could put on 20 or 25 pounds maximum, then maybe that. But if he gets too much heavier. Okay, Dr. Zahorian. Well, if you could just put on some mass.

Well, no, but if he gets too much heavier, he won't be able to do the stuff that he is, that is unique to him and or, you know, might accentuate the possibility of injury. But I'd like to see him just for the sake of being able to knock something down, even flying at him, I'd like to see another 20 pounds maybe or whatever, all distributed around.

In general, but also specifically about this, what do you think of just the idea of bringing up someone who, for lack of a better term, is a top prospect in your company? He's young. People have started to notice that just about all of WWE's top guys right now are aging out or about to. They're getting older. You know, Braun Breaker's a breath of fresh air.

He's younger. So you have someone who, unless he's a headcase, you could build on for the future, potentially. What's the benefit of... You know what I mean? I guess the question's about just the idea you bring people up now and you beat them. Sure, they have long competitive matches,

and this isn't the first time we've seen this with someone. They have a long competitive match, but they lose. Again, we don't know what the plans are for him if it's to go back down or to stay up here, but what do you think of him losing versus him winning in a situation like this, especially with the fans react in the way they did. Yeah, and see,

that's why they are a little bit smarter over here and do things a little bit better, so the people take them appropriately. This was a baby face match. The people like Sammy, but they got behind the underdog. It gives a different, and then Sammy builds the whole match

to feature the guys, guys big moves and to create the doubt where it looks like he's going to win looks like he's going to win he doesn't even need the win at that point because especially then well he needs to be the u.s. champion from now on but that's the kind of example of coming that close and just coming up short helps a guy it wasn't that they brought this young baby face in had him work with a heel and after 25 or 30 minutes the heel just beat him and then you don't see him again this is a way to show the guy's talent, but he's going to still not just debut

at the number three draft pick at the top of the charts, but I would assume we'll be seeing more of him. It's just it makes sense. It's more logical to feature a guy, especially in a baby face match, where wrestling is the key and there's no harm in losing to Sammy because he's the experienced veteran, etc.

But you can't, you also, you can build around Javan for the future because he's 22 years old, but this incarnation of Javon Evans will not ever be the guy like Braun Breaker. We know that because, yes, he can be, he can be, the next Sammy Zane. Every bit as big as that.

Maybe even bigger. Maybe the next Ray Mysterio. Or the, he's going to be popular as a baby-faced with that level of athletic ability and that level of underdog charisma that he showed. But at the same time, who's not to say that a 32-year-old Javon Evans, who may or may not have hurt his knees by then,

might have slowed down to stay a little bit more on the ground and put another 30 pounds on and is really jacked up and becomes the next goddamn, you know, Sean Michaels or Brett Hart. Right now we don't know because he is so young. But he's already, to me, ready for a upper mid-card position as a really exciting underdog baby face that can hang out around, there for a couple of years and get better.

And then we see what happens to him. But he's got all the time in the world. Well, again, high compliments from you. And maybe at some point in the next few weeks, we should revisit NXT. See who's currently down there on the farm. Oh, God damn it. See who's down on the farm and, you know, just see what the future could be.

Every time that I say something nice about somebody, it comes back to bite me and he I'll make this easy for you. I will say that you should not watch any of the women's segments, only the men's segments of NXT. We'll discuss that during the next show conference with the Arcadian Vanguard Board. Was that the end of SmackDown? It was, as far as I was concerned.

Yeah, we talked about the main event fiasco, the main event massacre, blood was spilled. We talked about that at the start. Well, Jim, before we get to WWRWA, I got an email that just came in from WWE. John Cena's final match ever, VIP packages on sale now. Oh, boy. I have not purchased a WWE ticket since 1995, so I don't know why they're sending this to me, but I got it. Let me click this.

Well, you're a media mogul. They're probably wanting you to spread the word like you're doing now. In the email is a picture of John Cena. It says the last time is now, December 13th Capital One Arena, Washington, D.C., witness history with Priority Pass access. For the final time ever, the legendary John Sina will step into the ring. With Priority Pass VIP access, you'll secure premium seating and exclusive WWE experiences to make this once-in-a-lifetime farewell unforgettable. Make it once in a lifetime.

Secure your spot now only with on location, the official hospitality provider of WWE. And it says I can lock in my package. Here's what we can get. We can get the gold package. There are two packages offered here. The gold package, which is ticket and priority pass, December 13th, 2025.

Lower or upper level seating. access to Johnson. That's kind of a wide range, isn't it? You're either in the lower level or you're in the upper level? Yeah, that is a little weird. The lower slash upper level? How many levels is there in the goddamn building? You either have to be in a lower one or an upper one.

You're in the horizontal section? You're out in a parking lot? Where else is there? It doesn't specify if it's the mezzanine or not, but... What about the loge? Loge reserved, possibly. You get access to John Sina memorabilia display. Wait a minute.

You get to look at his shit. You get, and I don't know exactly what this is, it just says John Sina gifting. I don't, do you give him a gift? Or is John Sina? I guess you're allowed to come up. It has to be wrapped in a certain way. He wants to, like, his yellow color.

with his blue and you come up and you genuflect before him you go down to one knee and you place the gift at his feet and then exit to the right. You're allowed a special John Cena gifting. Also an all-inclusive pre-show hospitality

with appearances by John Sina and WWE superstars. Also a dedicated priority pass entrance, WWE credential and Lanyard. And professional... Don't wait a minute.

it doesn't, doesn't that kind of make the rest of the boys look like the Pips? John Sina and the WW superstars. How are they going to troop the whole crew in there?

You're going to get fucking Tazawa. Well, you also get professional on location, on-site support staff. $900 a ticket. Jesus Christ. That's the first

package. So, wait, hold on a second now. Going back through that, what do they, what do they actually give you that would cost any money? They're selling you a ticket. And above that, what would cost them any money whatsoever to do? To let you look at things and show you people and see, see, I think the value would have come if they actually had free parking, but it doesn't say that here. You get a ticket to the upper or lower level. You get access to a memorabilia display, which, what does that mean? You could take a picture in front of a wall of pictures. Like, what does that mean exactly?

John Cena gifting is still ambiguous. Is there anything on here that says what that is? Nothing says what John Cena gifting is. Hospitality with appearances. So I guess, meet and greet. I mean, that costs money. Hospitality, maybe, you know, a... But it doesn't cost them any money.

These people are already there. They're being paid to be there. the superstars, oh, go out and meet these fucking suckers. Credential and Lanyard. Oh, okay, I'm sorry, 50 cents down at Kinko's. Well, that's the gold package, you know, not everyone can afford ringside. Jim, the champion package. Uh-oh.

Ticket and priority pass December 13th, 2020-5, you get premium floor seating. Premium floor seating. So no upper bowl. Also, a photo op with John Sina. So you actually get to get your photo with them. Here's another thing. Is that with your phone? Or do they have a professional photographer there that will give you your digital photo printed?

I'm guessing it's your phone, but I don't know. So again, what are they got in this? John Sina Gifting, also available here, whatever the hell that means. All-inclusive pre-show hospitality. Give the gift of John Sina. all year round. Once again, the all-inclusive pre-show hospitality with appearances by

John Sina and WWE superstars. The other people get to go to that, too. Is that where the photo op is? Do the other people just get to watch all the other fans get photo of John Sina? No, wait. If they did, it would be mentioned in their package. Watch others have photo taken with John Sina.

You also get a ringside photo op. Talk about things they weren't selling at the gimmick table back then versus now, you never thought about the idea, hey, give us some money, we'll just let you go to ringside and take a picture next to the ring. But that's what they're doing. Also, premium reserved seating at six feet under with the Undertaker.

Where you get to watch The Undertaker and his wife have coffee time. Also, access to the John Cena memorabilia display, a credential and lanyard and professional on location, on-site support staff. $6,500 a ticket. Jesus Christ!

That escalated quickly. $900 to $6,500. Is there... And they're blind emailing people, because again, I don't buy WWE tickets and somehow they sent this to me. They sent this to me on location, sent this to me, I would assume, actually.

There would have to be some kind of On location, private meet and greet at the fucking bunny ranch for $6,500 for fucking me to be interested in purchasing that ticket. Here's the form at the bottom of the page here on the website, first name, last name, the usual stuff. Will you be purchasing on behalf of yourself or your company? And you have to mark myself or my company. Yes, so someone's using company funds. Hey, let's all get together. Instead of going to club getaway, let's go to...

spend all of our money at WWE. And there it is. Two packages offered. You know, again, we're talking about the changing times and catching up. Imagine gimmick sales like what they had in Memphis now with how much money wrestling fans will spend now. You talk about marking up eight by tens. Imagine what you could do with that now.

But no. No, you couldn't. Not the same way because their own. in Memphis once a year. I've only got access to 10,000 people one time a year to buy these pictures instead of seven or 8,000 people 52 times a year. There's no wonder they need to charge $6,500. They've got a fucking tenth of the amount of people.

But that, again, that's insane. Who, that's per ticket per person. And we were just talking about a business model where multitudes of people regularly every week or every two weeks or every month paid four or five or six dollars for their ticket or a dollar for their picture or two dollars for their magazine. But they did it week after week, month after month, year after year, some decade after decade. whereas now they get $6,500 from a guy to basically tell his wife or his kids or whatever. Yeah, I want to go spend little dipshit's used car money for his first car on a one fucking wrestling ticket. Huh. Well, there it is.

I mean, the other thing you worry about, and they haven't had this problem. They've been really lucky. But in the past, I saw it with baseball. And you know, we're talking 25 years ago, it really started getting bad, 30 years ago, where ticket prices went up and tickets were sold. But instead of having

the really baseball-hungry, aggressive fans sitting down by the dugout or down by the field, you had companies. Sony used to have, I used to sit in the Sony seats right behind home plate. No one was making any noise because a lot of them didn't care about baseball. It was company tickets.

from this company, from that company. So you get a lot of people who they'll attend the thing, but they don't make noise. But again, WWE has not really had that problem. I don't know about the little corner where Nick Con sits with the VIPs. I would know. The fans make plenty of fucking noise.

I wish they'd shut up sometimes. Well, we'll stay on top of the story of WWE ticket prices and Cina's last match. The rich bastards, the rich bastards control everything. Now they've got all a good season. Well, Jim, one of the things that levels the playing field and one of the great things about America

is that you can right now go to your garage, well, you can go anywhere, but you could start a business, you can come up with an idea. You can go to hell if you aren't you. You can go wherever it is you want to go. But the point is, we're basing this on ideas. We're basing this on ingenuity. We're basing this on entrepreneurialism.

We're basing this on the ability to create something and become a billionaire tomorrow, but you have to start somewhere today. And of course, you need help. You can't just do it all by yourself. Well, no. You need a partner you could trust a partner who understands commerce, a partner who understands how to get your products all over the place. And we're talking about our friends at Shopify.

Well, if you want to become a billionaire in one day, you need a partner that understands the nuclear codes. But otherwise, it's going to take a little longer. If you want a partner to join with you at the hip and take you every step of the way, to create your own business, to pull yourself up by the bootstraps, to live the American dream while it's still possible, which could be by tomorrow. Then you need Shopify because they are packed with helpful tools to get your business off the ground.

They're going to take you from the, well, there you go. They're going to take you from that, and they're going to turn you into a whole one-man band with a whole dagum percussion section and a tuba and an organ. And folks, you're going to feel like that somebody has taken your organ and put it through the ringer. You're not going to feel like that, ladies and gentlemen. I don't know why we would say you're going to feel like that.

I'm telling you, because it's hard work. Part of the achieving the American dream is getting in there and working hard and Shopify is going to make you work hard to take your idea and make it become a reality to create your own business, to take control of your own destiny, to provide for your family and your children in uncertain times.

They're going to be out there with you on a sidewalk when you're selling that apple out of a tin cup. They're going to be out there with you when you're selling pencils to blind people. They're going to be out there making money with you from the very bottom to the very top. And then when you get to the top and you're making millions, you're going to turn around and you're going to say,

where's my money? And Shopify is going to say, here you go, and they're going to hand you most of it. And the deal you have with Shopify is the deal. They're not just going to hand you over most of it. You will get your money. And that's the Shopify way.

That's the Shopify promise. That's the American way. And Shopify is your commerce expert with world-class expertise, that's what you're going to be paying for. In everything, from managing inventory to international shipping to processing returns and beyond, you're going to be selling stuff out of that garage or that tiny one-bedroom apartment or whatever type of dungeon-like apparatus you may sell your product out of. You're going to be selling it faster than you can hear the word,

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$1 a month trial period with the code JCE at Shopify.com slash JCE. Oh, Jim, you know what that means? That of course means there's still more WWE to talk about here. I thought it was a riverboat. A riverboat? What river? The river of no return.

Well, let's go back to the state of euphoria, wherever we are over here. W.W.E. Raw aired last night, as we are recording. Boy howdy, it sure did. I still try to watch it live because I find that I'll watch more of it live than if I have to go and fast forward through it or whatever on DVR. And I keep forgetting they have a new start time. So I keep tuning it at 8 o'clock. And then at 9.30, when it ends, I'm like, what happened? So I got to remember it's 7 o'clock now. Yes. Well, tape a note to your computer screen where you do all your big business. remember to watch raw

because you don't want to miss an acting experience, a theater in the round type of emoting like we have never seen. Folks, it was like that the actor's studio met the Stanislavski method

and there was Betty Davis and oh, those Betty Davis eyes. This was the single cringiest phoniest, fakedest, most childish,

what the fuck that I have ever seen on this was not even routine AEW stuff. This took it to a whole new level. And you alluded to it earlier in the program, Brian, when we were talking about it,

but now the time is here. Can you in any way defend the performances of EOS Sky Carrie Sane and Oscar the Grouch that we saw poor Ria Ripley mired into on raw

Poor Ria Ripley, come on. She comes out again, looks like a movie star. She talks like goddamn movie star. She wrestles like a movie star. She's the most overwoman on the roster, and she comes out,

and she has to interact with this group of, I can't even, amateur Thespians would be a compliment to what this was. It's also, you cannot tell me that it is not a racial slap in somebody's face to make these women act like they are acting or act as stupid as they're acting. and it made it for phony wrestling.

So if anybody's, are they trying to cool Ria Ripley off on purpose because I've anointed her as the next female action star in the movie business, that she's too big for all of this, that she needs to go on to Hollywood, and now they're trying to cool her off by making her swim around in this pool of amateurs, did go ahead and defend any of this the Eos and the carries and the Well I didn't think I was going to defend any of it but based on what you said there is a little bit I'll defend

let me just say with Ria maybe she is going to the movies not in a bad way like some others we've seen but she's noticeably dropped a lot of weight and again usually when people do that they're going to auditions

and try to get a roll or something so it makes me wonder if that's what's going on there. The critiques you just had in this segment of Aska and Kyrie saying, I don't think, are necessary. Because I didn't think they were the problem here. I thought one person was the problem here. Well, I said that all three had a hand in it. Eoskeye was embarrassing in this segment.

And the facial reactions from the moment she walked out, I remember thinking, oh, I've never seen her walk out and not do like that weird, you know, dip, that little dance that she does that kind of, I think was one of the things that originally from the moment she came out turned you off to her, just like, what is this shit? She didn't do that. She walks out there regular, but when you get to her face, she's making almost like childish facial expressions to attempt to illustrate that she's upset, but it was so unbelievable.

Lee Strasberg said, no. Now, it was just so unbelievable. It was a frozen crying face with no tears. It was really bad. Again, I didn't have a problem with Oscar and Kyrie Seine. They were the heels who ran in there and caused a bunch of damage and did a bunch of shit. But hold on, hold on. An amazing elbow drop from Kyrie Seine.

I just thought E.O. Sky, this may have gone a little long, but I thought Eoskeye. I thought Eoskeye was specifically, and I've defended her and I defend her in-ring work to you. but this was really embarrassingly bad, I thought. Ria Ripley comes out there and she's mad at Carrie and Oscar for what they did to E.O. And they've missed it her also, Oscar has. And out, she calls them out and out come the Kabuki Warriors. But instead, EO came out, as you said with the, it's a frozen crying, face with no tears like that.

If she just scrunches up real hard that people will think that she's crying and upset and it breaks her heart to say it. But Ria, you were right about Oscar and Carrie. But they're my family and I still

love them. And the crowd booze that. And again, why is she being presented made to talk, allowed to talk like this, like she's eight years old and a mental simpleton. And then Oscar and Carrie pop up on the screen with subtitles.

Oscar's talking. Part of its English, part of its Japanese, but there's subtitles. But while she is cutting the promo that, well, you know, what you call it? EO can apologize. And then both you and Carrie can be my students again. and Carrie is next to her nodding and smiling like she's doing a hostage video, like she's scared of this woman, and just please do what she says,

and then you can come home and I won't have to act like I'm crying also. Why is she eight years old? We can be family again. What the, all this material is this for, take your daughter to work, Dave? what is this for? And then they said, but for Ria, it's too late.

And I'm like, Ria looks like she could kick the shit out of all three of you people. But then Eio, again, was looking like she was going to throw up to try to register the upset that she has over these horrible threats. You won't be able to be our family anymore on the wrestling show. and Ria tells Aska to go to hell and says, Eio, you have to trust me. You can't go back to them. And then Eio makes another scrunch face and no tears.

Just, and Eio said, I'm sorry, Ria. And she screamed, I need time! And she leaves the ring to faint murmurs from the crowd who is fed up with his fucking idiot. why the fuck would you want to go back with these babies? Oh, they're so childish. And Ria having to reason with this girl like she's giving advice to her young niece. They're all presented like their simpletons.

And then Oscar and Carrie jump in the ring and jump on Ria and start beating the shit out of her and Eo turns around. and it looked like that she was either to try to act like she was conflicted as to what to do, whether to make the save or not, she was Bruce Banner turning into the Hulk or she was trying to shit a porcupine. I'm not sure which. Can you deny that either of those descriptions, Brian?

Again, I don't think you are being unfair about Eoske's performance in this. I thought it was embarrassing. So then finally, she says, all hell I'll go on in there and she went in and threw oska down and carry overacted and eo made weird faces and stagey waving arm motions and screeched and then oska sprayed eo in the ios and then i sprayed eo in the ios and then ria tackled oska but carry jumped ria and ria beat up carry but went to give her to gil

the riptide and then continuing in the streak of women's matches on the W.W.E. program containing the the botches. Ria's going to give what you call it the riptide and Oscar comes from behind with a roundhouse kick that was supposed to hit Rhea in the head but that completely missed her wasn't even close. And everybody saw it and then Ria was like flinched like oh shit I didn't feel anything but I was supposed to sell it and just kind of let go the hold and the crowd went oh and then they posted Ria Ripley twice gave her two back fists and an elbow off the top rope so the only legitimate professional in the ring of this band of Mary Misfits that either botched physically or verbally or or

fucking performance-wise despianly was the one that was left laying in the middle of the ring and everybody beat her up. Jesus fucking Christ. Yeah, this seemed to be convoluted. Yeah. On top of the bad acting, it went a while.

And, yeah, I don't think anything negative you say about Eoske's performance of this is unfair. was terrible here. What, but who is, who's approving these things? Who are the, are there no prisons, no workhouses? Who's the producers and who's the head? Well, I mean, who's encouraging this?

As Dusty said one time, who's the head you bangy? The fuck. Well, Raw's off to a great start. What else did you see on Raw, Jim? Well, Rusev wrestled Dominic Mysterio, and Dominic beat him with a ball kick and a tight pull. And Bailey wrestled Raquel and Lyric ran in and they fought, and L.A. Knight beat Kofi Kingston. And none of this was grabbing my lever or tickling my taint. About an hour and a half into the match, here comes Seth Rollins.

I said, okay, we'll leave. We're back in the main event scene. See what's going to go on here. And Brian, they sang, whoa, forever. And then they chanted CM Punk. And then they chanted OTC. And then they sang Cody, Cody Rhodes. And I was screaming, let him talk.

His entrance started. And five minutes later, or Seth Franklin Rollins said his first word. Well, he milks it too. At some point, he could just say, he could stop them. He could say, I'm a heel. Let me stop these fans having a great time and deliver. You know, what would really stop them,

what would get him started is that they'd stop on their own and say, okay, motherfucker, we bought a ticket to see you, not sing to you. You do something for us. Actually, I think some of those fans may have bought a ticket so they could sing to them as opposed to actually care about what he's going to do. That's where we are. I understand getting milking crowds and getting reactions. We taught that at wrestling school.

That's as old as the hills. The problem is they've never before in history. If we had crowds where they're just happy to just sit there and sing and chant names instead of actually getting to the point of any fucking thing. Anyway, it's one-on-one. Had crown jewel, which is not in Saudi Arabia. It's in Australia, Wallaby darned.

It's in Australia. And the winner is not only the crown jewel champ, but according to Seth, the winner will decide the direction of the industry for the next 10 or 20 years. What kind of math is he doing? He knows how old he is. He's going to be doing this.

He's like 50 fucking 7 or what, what's happening here? Yeah, I don't know. Anyway, I don't know if that makes too much sense. Last year, Cody beat Gunther at Crown Jewel. Where is Gunther? He's, I guess, taking time off.

When was the last time we saw him? Was it SummerSlam? Son of a bitch. I'd like to get, if Brock's going to be around, maybe we'll get that out of the thing. That would be just swell. But anyway, Seth talked for five minutes. I don't know, hold a gun to me.

I don't know what the fuck he said. It just, it was, he's getting him, he's talking to people. And then Cody's music played and his entrance and his chance and they sang Cody Rhodes again. And it was about three minutes from the time the music started

until he got into ring and actually spoke a word. And then he wants to know who's in control, Seth or Heyman, that thing, and that's good. That story is fine. I think it could be told in much less time. and Seth is saying that everything goes through him all the decisions but he's touchy about it and they proceeded to go back and forth for about another five or six minutes and then Seth left and this whole thing was 20 minutes for them to come out

be serenaded talk to each other and leave without any revelations or revolution Yeah, this is a big, long ball of nothing. Took forever, went nowhere. They're doing the match. It's just weird how they're doing a lot of these things. It seems like these things just pop up and then there's a big event or a pay-per-view or Saturdays main event. Right around the corner, it's almost like a weekly wrestling promotion promoting weekly events, but it's just one big central event.

But they're coming so fast and frequent now, the build seem off. and I'm sure it'll be a good match, but it just feels like they're rushing into it. They had a period of time there, and remember we talked about it, where they had, oh, they could do this match, that match,

the other match, they got so many different directions. Now they're doing all those matches, but they're kind of coming to, it's been a while since some of them were called for. But they got to do something to me, you know, because fuck,

they're just a poor sports entertainment company trying to make a living in this brave new world. They're hurting for money. They need to make $50 or $100 million every time the sun rises or elsewise they'll be out of business. Anyway, there was one more thing

that I saw in this program, which was the main event, the tornado match with the Uso's and the bronze, reed and breaker, where it's all four guys in the ring is legal, no disqualification, et cetera,

etc. And I didn't. I'm loving Braun Breaker and Bronson Reed as a tag team. And that's what we've needed is two guys together that are both at the main event level to be in team matches so that it means something. And I get that the Uso's are by virtue of that they were tag team champions for so long and they've built up how they were allegedly the greatest team of all time, because of that, et cetera. I can't look forward to Bronson Reed and Bronbreaker wrestling if they're wrestling the Uso's because as over and popular as the Uso's are.

Brian, they're the shits, aren't they? As an actual wrestling tag team, aren't they kind of the shits? They're not my favorite. Not a big fan of the way they work. And again, it's two of them doing the same thing. it's sort of like when one of the Samoans wrestles, the other one of the Samoans.

Now we got two guys on one side doing the same. It just, anyhow, Braun Breaker for a break spot, I see what they did there, the breaker spot, came off the railing of 10 feet to the announced desk and clothesline

Jimmy and just knocked him ass over tea kettle and he was out. So then the next segment they come back, and they're getting heat on J, but it's two on one, two heels and one baby face, and it was long. But that's, here's the problem. The way that you do this angle

where they've taken one partner out and the heels get heat by being, it being two on one with one guy's sideline is when it's a regular tag team match, the heels are tagging in and out, but the fresh man can always come in so that the baby face can't capitalize on his little underneath flurry because the guy tags out and boom.

And the heat comes from they're taking advantage of the numbers instead of breaking the rules. Well, here there are no rules, and it's just two heels beating up one baby face, and the referee has to stand there and look at it. but finally they're going to splash Jay and Jimmy came back and made a comeback. And even with his ribs hurt,

boom, boom, boom, he was able to do some shit until Bronson Reed hit a Death Valley driver and Bronbreaker speared Jay and they stacked him up. We're going to go to splash them. And Roman's music plays. And here comes Roman out carrying a chair. And he gets a big pop.

but Brian did you notice there's the Uso's laying their unconscious in the ring when his music starts playing the camera goes to the entrance way here comes Roman rains by time he gets the ring the Uso's have disappeared they're not they're not in the ring they're not even visible on the floor where they're hiding somewhere did you notice that bloodline magic so he shit cans breaker he hits Bronson Reed five times with the chair. Then he beats up Braun, rolled him back in the ring, and the Uso's double teamed him, double, super kick, super kick, and double splash and beat Bronbreaker one, two, three.

So the baby faces, the odds were even. It was two on two, but they needed help from the third guy to even to even things out. and then Roman Raines beat Braun Breaker up five times more with the chair and bug it off they went and Roman and Jimmy shook and hugged and Pep talked and all that stuff and Jay was in the middle of the camera shot being left out of the the little confab there but was this constructed oddly to where in the summation of things when it was two against two, the baby faces couldn't handle things, but when the third guy came out with a chair,

well, that helped them win. Well, the other thing, too, is this whole episode almost felt like Vince was in charge. Everything was drawn out so much. Like, especially here at the end. Took forever for everything to go down. Took forever for Roman to walk out, walk out, took forever for him to get his beating in. Him and Jay were just standing there holding each other for quite a little while.

again, it's a It feels like it's a cooling down in a lot of ways, even though there's a lot of star power and a lot of tickets being sold, but not a lot is happening. Not a lot seems to... Not having booking logic isn't just a Tony Khan issue

at times, and it may not be as egregious, and things may not be as chaotic and con-like as they are in AEW, but it doesn't mean everything in WWE is done the right way or makes the right sense, or makes any sense. Sometimes they do confuse me too over here. But the bronze are getting over.

Boy, it takes three of the top Samoans to kick their ass. So fuck, watch out for these two guys. That's what I've got to say. Well, that was WWE Raw Jim. And of course, if you watched all of that wrestling from WWE and you're expecting action, you may say, where's the beef? Or you may say, I'm going to sue. Or you may say, where's my lawyer?

Well, I'll tell you where he is. He's in Beckley, by God, West Virginia. Call Stephen P. Newney. A mud show for two. Those are the rest. That's right, ladies and gentlemen, the man that is the subject of that chart-topping hit, Stephen P. New at new law office.com, 8775-0, Steve can take your case as matter of,

he can take your case and turn it into a whole steamer trunk. That's what he can do. He can get you paid in gross tonnages of money. You will have to measure the money that he will get you awarded in court on a scale, ladies and gentlemen, because that's the way the Stephen P. New operates. If somebody has screwed you around, and remember, they've got to have some kind of resources

to begin with. You can't just sue a goddamn homeless bum on the street. I guess you could, but you're only going to get a stink. But you can get money from people with money. And if they've done something wrong, Stephen P. New will find out and get you that money. 87750 Steve, new law office.com.

Get even with Stephen. All right. This is where we have arrived. We are here. We have arrived. He is here. We are now going to fill up the rest of the show with fun and hilarity And as much of the likes of which they've never seen before

I've got a few things here by popular demand we kind of have to get to Jim we have Dave Meltzer star ratings for a couple recent events I think his first one may be brief but here are the Dave Meltzer star ratings as seen in the wrestling observer newsletter for WWE wrestlepalooza Brock Lesnar beat John Sina 8 minutes 49 seconds, two-star match. Oh, come on! At this point, yes, it left something to be desired as far as when we got to the finish, you're like, well, that was something.

It was a little flat, but it's still John Sina, it's Brock Lester, the people were in it, and all the shit that they did was just fine. They just didn't do much. So are we really going to give the flying Zamboni brothers on the tightrope five stars and give Sina and Lesnar two? Well, Jim Bronbreaker and Bronson Reed defeated the Uso's with L.A. night as a special referee, 16 minutes, 50 seconds, three and a quarter stars. See, I've just got finished here a few minutes ago saying how much I like Reed and Breaker,

and the Uso's are over. Their in-ring work is bleh, in my opinion. But I don't see how, given those conditions, you can give that match three and a half stars just because it had a finish he liked better than John Sina and Brock Lester getting two stars with a rotten finish. Well, Jim, the big controversial match for you.

Do we get, let me ask you this. Now, if this was American, has got talent or American Idol. Do we give extra points to the singers if they just sing loud and a lot? Or is it, can they just sing real good for a short period

of time or that doesn't work? I get the point you're making, but Jim, the match, people were talking about Stephanie Vicarre versus EO. Sky. Stephanie Vicarre won 19 minutes, 42 seconds to win the world's women's title. World Women's Title Not multiple worlds

World Women's title How many worlds have collided here? What world are you in right now? Four and a quarter stars All right You don't need to rub it in I missed it I'll never see it's like again CM Punk and AJ Lee

defeated Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch 29 minutes 15 seconds 3 and a half stars and finally Jim I just I don't even here's again here's the problem

are we I don't know what we're grading on we're grading on whatever fits it for Dave sometimes he grades on if the the woman on stage sang a wonderful song but it was opera and it was a

fucking crowd of metal heads or if the if they just sang long and loud, that's all it takes. Or if you can't say that, okay, the mixed tag team match was what drew the house. The people were more into it than anything else. And you got Punk and Rollins who held up their part and you got their wives having a cat fight. I didn't need to see any goddamn technical brilliance.

That's three and a half stars. but the girls that have a match that I know everybody praised, but it was brought about by another girl getting pregnant, and it had a build of like, yeah, we're going to fight for the title now because there's no champion. And I don't know where everybody's heads at anymore. And finally, Jim, Cody Rhodes defeated Drew McIntyre,

16 minutes 52 seconds, three and three quarter stars. I would have dropped that a little bit. Of course, I'm on a realistic four-star schedule like Leonard Malton intended. But Cody and Drew had a good professional match that wasn't a barn burner and didn't botch anything or hurt anybody.

So that's about three stars. but apparently you know he liked that because they they were better than AJ and Becky when they were pulling each other's hair I don't know what he's fucking looking at you know I will say obviously they're doing these shows with very few matches as opposed to AEW which has tons of matches but the match times here to me tell a story because the punk match I thought it went too long and I didn't even realize that that was a little bit long I I will admit. But 29 minutes, 15 seconds, that's a long match for that match.

There was, there was, I was full. There was a little steak left over on the plate. I had to get a doggie bag. Well, Jim, those were the star ratings. I don't know if you saw it, but I'll bring it up here. What are your thoughts on the fact that ESPN graded the Russell Paloosa event as well? And they gave it a C, which became a story. It's the first WW event on their new app, and it's a C.

I get some poor woman Andrea Hale wrote the review of the match or the show and it was all over the internet that they gave it a C. It's a man for the record. I think it's Andrea's Hale. It's a man that has this little picture here. I didn't know there was a drava over the A at the end. I thought it was Andrea. I apologize to Andrea and Andre and who is. whoever else was involved.

These French fucking people, you never know what's going on with the French. But anyway, the point is, I saw this and people are going out of their minds, but didn't ESPN say that they were still going to cover news? See,

this is the problem when they're in bed with multiple people. Sometimes people get their feelings hurt. back to business, are they going to show the product and make money on it and talk about it like it's the greatest thing ever to make more money on it, or are they going to be the news for sports channel and report on the news, Vincenzo? This is the battle they are having,

and it was kind of a sea show on their scale. It won WrestleMania, but it wasn't what's the last, really rotten show they had, you know. So, but poor Andrea, whoever he or she may be. Andreas. Got fucking blistered on the internet from all the fans about it. Like, how dare you do this?

Well, here's the final right up here at the very end. Final grade C. The excellent Vakere versus Skymatch saved this show from being truly average. It was a phenomenal display inside this week. Well, wait a minute. A C is truly average.

is the definition of average. That's why they spells average with a C. Everything else was either underwhelming the short Rhodes and McIntyre match or a setup for a future match like Lesnar dominating Sina. For a card that promised to have epic moments, it fell a little short of expectations.

Is that unfair? No. I don't think that's the most inflammatory thing anybody's ever said. And now they're saying, though, that they're putting out the word that, no, Cina's not going to wrestle Brock again, and that's to build Brock for the future.

And that was, you know, the call it was made or whatever. In that case, that would probably take it from a C to a D, wouldn't it? Because what the fuck? That is puzzling, isn't it? It's very puzzling. Does he get a few feel-good moments left with C?

before he can't feel you up and make you feel good anymore and you use it to fucking let Brock lay him out when Brock's got what five more matches in his career at the pace he wrestles if he wants to wrestle till he's 56. Well, I guess the other question is if someone writing for ESPN's website where they dropped AEW coverage,

it's all WW coverage now. It's all about WWE and the person writing the report gives it a C and says it fell short of expectations do you think there's anyone else at ESPN feel in the same way? And have they quickly gotten annoyed yet with the process of dealing with WWE and having Stephanie McMahon plug VPN services right before they go right before they go to the brand new app? And then the reporter's giving it a C on the website.

Well, but here's another thing. They're just now getting a taste of what can happen when they rile the fucking fans up the other way. Much less the company doing things or whatever, but when they rile the fans up and now they've got these crazy wrestling fans harassing them on social media all the time. Baseball fans do not go to the extent against networks and or promotions that the wrestling fans do, do they?

Brian, you're the baseball guy. I mean, baseball fans, you know, vent and rant about a lot of things, bad owners, bad commissioner. Is the flavor of it anywhere near the wrestling fans who are like, they should be killed and hung and thrown and off the turrets of the castle? It depends which town. St. Louis, they're very polite. New York and Philadelphia, you may have an issue, depending on the player.

Ah, I see. Well, that's the Sam Muchnick influence over there in St. Louis. They're a very kind and passionate fan base who sit there and, you know, don't boo. That's the best way I can put it. New York don't boo popular players if they mess up or don't hustle or don't do what's expected of them. Like that's happened.

Some of the best players who New York fans love have been booed out of the building. It's kind of a right of passage. So they're just fickle fucks is what you're saying. Hey, there's Fred fickle fuck and his wife Francis. You remember Francis fickle fuck. Well, Jim's... She had all the little kids, you know,

little Fred, Frank, and then their daughter, Fern. Well, Jim, let's stay on the topic of the fickle. Let's get to the Observer Star Ratings for AEW All Out, 2025 Toronto. Here are the matches we did not see. And do you think this is why they have so many matches because they think, okay, our cumulative stars will just blow away all of the WWE's totals? I think Tony Kahn is an observer reader is trying to find ways to fill up as many pages as he can,

and he knows if he does a 20-match card, it ends up being three pages in the Observer. But here are the matches. Samoa Joe and Powerhouse Hobbs defeated J.D. Drake and Anthony Henry, five minutes, 19 seconds, two-star match. Daniel Garcia. The same thing as John Sina and Brock Lester

in the main event of a highly viewed premium live event. Daniel Garcia defeated Katsuri Shabata 15 minutes, three and a half star match. Oh, okay. Can you imagine 15 minutes of Shapoopy? Versus Garcia. I think Garcia is the bigger problem there than Shabata. I don't know. At least you can kind of laugh at the funny motions that Garcia makes.

With Shabata, because of the brain removal, you're always waiting for something crazy to, like, happen. Just like he starts walking backwards or something. You just something off. The fucking wire fell off and oh shit, we got to connect that son of a bitch back up. Jim hologram. He farting at his mouth and shoving cake up his ass. Jim hologram, who apparently is injured, so is that. Oh, what the fuck happened?

I don't know, but his undefeated streak is intact. He's injured. But no, they shot, I say shot an ag. They issued a challenge. on last week's dynamite for this coming week's dynamite. And it's only possible for him to have had one match in between that time, and he got hurt in that match and has already been replaced?

I believe Commander took his place in the match with Kyle Fletcher, which I heard was a really good match. But no, wait, that was the match had to be what he got hurt in because they've changed the match on TV next week to, what's his goddamn cowl and pockets. Oh. So when did the, he came at, was he already hurt?

When they did the goddamn deal where I challenge you for next week? What? Do you think someone finally told them in Spanish? Tony will pay you. Stay home. Be a hologram. literally they only work once or twice a week at most and it was in the show from Wednesday they'd next Wednesday we're going to have this match on TV

and then they've already changed the match days beforehand because he's already hurt how did he get fucking hurt that quick was he hit by a cab they can't keep any no well that happened to Darby remember was it a cab or a truck something hit his face in New York City it was a bus that's right a bus hit his face Well, once again, Hologram out.

AEW can't keep any of their baby faces healthy at all. Hologram, Roderickstrom and Kyle... Roderick Strong and Kyle O'Reilly defeated the frat house of Griff Garrison, Preston Vance, and Cole Carter, three minutes. Hey, with Roddy involved, it might have been a real frat house. Remember, he's the one that fucking, for a free case of beer. and some fun got choked out on a reality show by a midget.

They were in a frat house. I don't know anything about this, no. Weeks after Sinclair broadcasting. I don't know anything about this. Weeks after Sinclair broadcasting bought Ring of Honor and we were planning to debut on television and Roddy was featured in the main event mix as one of the top individual single,

young new stars hard-hitting combatants in the Ring of Honor promotion is going to be debut on television. I'm going somewhere. Stacey's driving. I'm trying to do paperwork, and I get a call from Delirious who tells me that I call Roddy. He is about to be on goddamn true TV

on some kind of reality television show involving the midget wrestlers and it was shot two years beforehand and he did it in Florida where he lived and he did it as a lark where he ends up being one of the people in his college party that gets choked out by a fucking midget and I say you mean

and they're going to air it in like a few weeks you mean to tell me that I'm going to have to explain to the executives at St. Clair Broadcasting that why the new television television show they're about to debut features a fucking professional athlete supposedly in competition for the world championship of said promotion that is going to be on another channel getting choked out by a midget and he got paid a case of beer for it. I hung up on him.

He said, but he was two years ago and we were just having fun. I said, you were Steve were still a wrestler. Why would you do that on tape when you're a professional wrestler? And you just for beer. So fortunately, apparently nobody, either nobody watched it or unfortunately nobody knew who the fuck he was.

Because we didn't hear much about it. Once again, they defeated the frat house, three minutes, 18 seconds, one and a half stars. I can't make a comment either way. Willow Nightingale and Mina Sherikawa and Queen Amanata and Harley Cameron.

Defeated Julia Hart, Sky Blue, Megan Bain and Penelope Ford in a tailgate brawl tornado match. 1134, tailgate. Two star match. Giggedy. What the fight? Two stars from Dave for AEW? This must have been embarrassing. Well, we go to the main show now, Jim.

Adam Copeland and Christian Cage defeated FTR 18 minutes, three seconds. Four and a half star. Okay, it was a good tag team match, especially when the people were into Edge and Christian. As we mentioned, they really had them at a point where they could have gone home and they went about another minute and a half too long. But this is, no, that's not a four and a half star level tag team match. I'm sorry, and FTR and gin and juice. was, it lasted almost an hour, was the greatest tag team match of modern times,

and did he give it five or just under five? I think it went over five, maybe. Did he go, well, I guess he broke the scale for that. But there's a lot of room in there for flexibility. I would think this, any of the matches FTR had with the briscoes, or with Gable and Jordan were better except in the terms of with Gable and Jordan,

they didn't have the Edge and Christian in Toronto hometown edge. The Briscoes, I believe, were at home in Philly for at least one of those, but nevertheless, here we go. Jim Eddie Kingston returned and defeated Big Bill 7 minutes, 19 seconds. Now, okay, if he's already given two stars to, especially to John Cena and Brock Lesnar,

then a glorified TV match with a finish that was a whiff that the people groaned over has to be under two stars, does it not? One and three-quarter stars. Glory, hallelujah! Oh, wait a minute, now I'm worried. I'm thinking about the same fucking direction as Meltzer.

I may need a doctor. That may be the lowest star rating we've ever seen for an AEW match. I'm not sure. Oh, no, well, one and a half stars, I guess, is lower than one and three quarters, so. in most mathematical tables. Jim, Mark Briscoe defeated MJF in a tables and thumbtacks match, 19 minutes, 20 seconds, 4 and 3 quarter stars.

Oh, God. Ricketts... Did he do the old... Well, it's not for everybody, and I don't particularly like it, but here, I'm going to come all over it. Did he approach it that way? No, I think the match he comes all over

as a different match on the show. No, he wrote, um, this was super... for what it was. In other words, if they'd have just brought the donkey from Tijuana in there, and here came Vanessa del Rio, 72 years old and still looking as good as ever

and got down on all fours and they gave us the whole show, it would be good for what it was. Not my cup of tea, but five fucking stars, especially for the burro. All right, let's get away from show world here, Jim. Rickashay and Bishop Khan. And why do you got us immediately as soon as we're talking about jackasses

as you bring up ricochet? And Toa Leona defeated Bobby Lashley, Shelton Benjamin, and MVP 13 minutes, 41 seconds, three and a half stars. Nothing unreasonable there. Not anything to grump about. and he's probably trying to insult him with that, but that's actually what, you know, realistic people might give something

that was realistically okay. This next one is interesting. Mercedes-Money defeated Rio, 15 minutes, 55 seconds. Oh, here we go. Four-star match. It says here at a few points, the crowd was not with it down the stretch, and then at the end it says

the crowd cost this match a good half star. It's their fault. But that's how he, so that's why that how he figures that Mercedes is personal assistant and personal writer

and personal chauffeur and personal friend that gets lost in the woods with her won't all get mad at him. the team, you know the team. That's right. Remember the new, is it Mona Mag or a Mercedes-Mag? I guess it can't be Mercedes-Mercad. It's Mon-A-Mag.

No, Mercedes, B-M-W, Mercedes, all those people got upset about that. She tried that first. We may have to revisit that in the future. This next one's interesting. Oh, boy. I have pictures of her as a hood ornament. They didn't release them to the public. All right, let's get back in line here, back in proper order.

Okada, Kazushka Okada, won a three-way over Kanosuke Takashita and Mascaro Dorada. Okay, okay, now wait a minute. 20 minutes, 56 seconds. Just hold on a second. Again, you have Okada is just see-through at this point with the shortcuts he's taking and the lackadaisical attitude and he can't move to begin with. and we know everybody likes our boy take, Uncle Dave especially, and then the bump on the log, the third one of the group, the little masked fellow that was just added into this out of nowhere,

how can he justify this? He could justify it with five and a quarter stars. This was one of the best three ways of all time not just athletically, but story-wise. Well, Jim, we'll go to the next match before you throw up in your mouth a little more. John Moxley defeated Darby Allen in a coffin match,

19 minutes, 20 seconds, four and a half stars. Oh, I bet Darby got his feelings hurt by that one. But everything is... It just has to be all, no matter what they do, or what goes out, it has to be four and a half, and then five, and then four, and because he has to have this self-fulfilling prophecy of every AEW pay-per-view is loaded with great matches. And then he's the one calling him great.

Chris Stathlander won the AEW women's title over Tony Storm, Teckla, and Jamie Hater, 11 minutes 58 seconds, three and three quarter stars. Basically, twice as good as Sina and Lesner. Brody King and Bandito defeated the Young Bucks, Hachichiro, and Josh Alexander

and JetSpeed in a ladder match, 24 minutes, 33 seconds, four and three quarter stars. Well, you had to put the Cucamunga contingent in there in the middle between the four and a half and the five, so they didn't get their feelings heard.

And obviously, neither you nor I, Brian, paid any attention to this whatsoever because it's goddamn ridiculous that the children get to play like this. So we can't say we watched it and it wasn't, but we didn't watch it and we doubt it. And finally, Adam Page to feed a Kyle Fletcher, 38 minutes, nine seconds.

And we watched this. this one, five and a quarter stars. Oh, Christ, almighty! Better than anything that flare and steamboat and angle and et cetera, and that whole company ever accomplished. The hang ma'am and his juvenile delinquent fucking doppelganger. And for the record, Jim, the match, You reviewed Mystico defeating MJF and CMLL's anniversary show for the

light heavyweight world, the world light heavyweight title, 17 minutes, 38 seconds. Dave gave that five and a half stars. He can, he can sit there and see two completely different things and rate them exactly the same way. That's what it appears to be. Those are the all out star ratings. Jim, I was going to go over the PWI 500, but, We'll save that for another time just so like...

There's 500 of them. Let's get to some other stuff first. A few questions here from the Culta Cornette. This one was sent via the Culta Cornette Facebook group, Jim, by Josh Patton. What is the origin of the fisherman's suplex, and why is it called that? I can answer the second part first. If you just look, when you hook the guy's head and you're bending over and you're hooking his leg,

you're turning him in the position, you're contorting his body to where he looks like a fish hook. So that's where that came from. It's as simple as that. That's not even up for debate. That's an easy one. The problem is who's the first person to do it? Because Kurt Henning popularized it. Right. The perfect but I don't I don't know truthfully and honestly it would it would that be some kind of thing he learned from like the likes of Billy Robinson and the AWA one of the old fashioned

little things that you didn't see anymore at that time or did he invent it straight out I do not know it seems like one of those things that would have been around but you can't visualize anyone doing it. There's not like a fisherman gimmick, because then it would at least like, you know, tie into that. I'm trying to think of because I watched Billy, and he would have been around Billy Robinson a lot more than I was in the AWA.

He was there for so long, but I watched Robinson and Bill Dundee have matches for the CWA title. And I've been recently going through negatives and seen some of the pictures. and I'm trying to visualize the only, it seems like I can see a Billy Robinson or a Tony Charles or someone of that nature doing something like that, but I can't call it. And I'm trying to and don't remember anybody else

before Hennig got it overdoing it. Again, we might fight, is it, was it a Brad Ringen's fucking amateur type of thing that in Vern's camp that he might, have stolen. I'm just, I'm blurting out loud thinking. I just quickly Googled it to see what would come up according to AI. This is AI on Google's response.

Oh boy. It was invented by Kuniaki Kobayashi. Okay. Which I didn't realize if that's true. Huh. And I'm a big movie fan. Well, there is a big fishing industry in Japan. A lot of them are fishermen.

So that makes some sense that, uh, that Hinnig would have seen that. at some point and appropriated it. And Kobayashi was, but again, he was tremendous, and those matches are very underlooked with Tiger Mask and he, because of Dynamite was, you know, even more impressive and blah, blah, blah. But Tiger Mask and Kobayashi both were guys that they sent to England and Mexico. I know Tiger Mask went to both. Maybe Kobayashi just went to one of the other.

But from those worlds, he may have picked that up and translated it from something. The Dynamite Kid matches are the big matches because of what they mean, and they're great, not to take anything away from them. Some of them are just spectacles worth watching because of the reaction like the MSG match. But the Kobayashi matches, I think, are the better actual matches. they actually are and it was more like at the time this was still important and cool

they were like a live action martial arts movie that you could buy into not where the guy was doing fucking four flips off the trampoline off camera but some Bruce Lee you know really good working shit it was the hair see him having that big hair helmet

I think really helped the look and also he could fling his head and sell and there was some movement whereas dynamite being baldheaded was just yeah Jim another question here from the Cult of Cornette Facebook group was sent in by Kevin Dancerow is the double turn the most difficult angle to pull off in wrestling well now the most difficult angle to pull off in wrestling

would have been getting George Goulis over as a top baby face I mean, I don't have a list of every single angle here and with attributed a degree of difficulty to each, but yes, a double turn is a difficult thing to pull off, and you have to not only have the situation needs to be right, the way that everybody has got to that point, their interaction with each other, the build, the way that the fans are seeing them at the time

and in the way they execute it. And they not only have to do the finish right, but they have to do the match, which you can't tell, you can't teach, you can't, well, now you can plan out every move in advance. But in those periods of time, the guys would have the match in the ring and lead the people in the manner in which they wanted them

to be thinking at the end so that they were accepted to the accepting to the finish but not tip the finish off ahead of time, not be so broad, the pie in the face type of thing, ham-fisted with it where you're like 10 minutes ahead of time, I bet he's going to fucking turn. But just leading him in that direction

subtly, that type of thing, it was very difficult to do. And Hart and Austin did it. and you can watch through the whole thing and just kind of see a verbal example or a visual example of what I just said verbally. The Midnight and Road Warriors did it in New Orleans for the World Tag Team title in WCW,

which it was done well, but it eventually it didn't take fully because the people weren't, The people in the building booed the road warriors for doing it, but the people overall weren't ready to boo the road warriors. And that was to get them ready for Dusty to be the big baby face, but then they weren't ready for that either. They still wanted to cheer the road warriors.

So they are very difficult to do unless everybody's on the same page and the conditions are right. Jim, our next question sent via the call to Cornett Facebook group, was sent by Chris Hunt. Can Jim recall any... Is he Mike's brother? Can Jim recall any creative ideas he may have had that got shot down? Good Lord.

Recall any... We don't have time left in the program. I'll tell you one of the first ones I had that... And I mean, creative ideas could be anything from, oh, golly, I'll get the Galaxians Ray Guns for the publicity photo. I mean, you know, or shit props we used to bring out on TV, we'd do that on our own.

You know, you had some freedom with that. But actually, taking part an official creative meeting, one of the first, at least, good ideas I thought I had, everybody poo-pooed in Dallas. And I came, have I told you, Brian, because we've talked about Dallas sometime times,

I mentioned that they asked me, me sometime in April leading into the May, Texas Stadium show. We had been there since Christmas, right? And Fritz was the owner. He was not the booker. Fritz was the owner. Ken Mantell was the booker. But going to the booking meetings were also David Manning,

the head referee. Gino and Chris, Gino Hernandez and Chris Adams, as the heel champions of Gary Hart, they also included them often. Kevin Von Erick was usually in the meetings, at least the four or five I went to. And I'm trying, Bronco Lubitsch, so it was like a fucking group, right?

And they asked me, we see you're pretty creative with the finishes, with the, you know, Midnight of Fantastics, would you like to come to the boogging meeting? Well, geez, of course. You know, I didn't know what I was getting into there either. And I don't, Ken Mantel didn't have control of anything. He was just sitting there with a pencil behind his ear, scratching his head.

And then I think he kind of collected ideas and tried to formulate it some way or another. But they would all just throw out stuff, but it was basically always about the Von Erick boys and what their issue was going to be, because imagine that, at least one of them and their opponents were in the goddamn meeting. But we were coming up on Texas Stadium, as relates to the idea. And, Brian, you may remember that year, 1985, they had the main event,

one of the main events was for the NWA title with Flair and, I think it was Kevin. Flair versus Kevin, NWA title, match and because they were going to have the two-ring 10-man fucking tag team match that was going to be where everybody came back and worked twice they were going to have two rings there so they made it legal that the world title match could take place in both rings also so that's the stipulation Rick Flair Kevin von Erick NWA world title match can take

place in both rings. Didn't say anything about no time limit, no disqualification, no count out, whatever, right? And also, you'll remember our match with the Fantastics for the American tag team title. It was that night and I'm in the corner sitting next to Little John and they had the match in both rings

also trying to jazz it up a little bit because it was so dreary with John. Anyway, what are they going to do for a finish with Flair and Kevin? And they said, how about a countout? Because they, this is 1985.

And the Kerry was the year before and he won. But they, on the reunion arena, Texas Stadium, Cotton Bowl, they couldn't have the one of the boys just do a controversial job to the world champion. And I'm sitting there thinking, well, geez, they always do. They've been doing countouts here since, was wrestling a champion, right? And it was, they mentioned the, oh, well, they've, at an appropriate time, maybe they take a bump over the top rope and the one guy's grabbing the other guy and

pulling him down and trying to get in. How many times have you seen that, Brian, as a wrestling fan? They pull each other down over and over until they get counted out. Seen it a bunch of times, of course. Yes, and everybody knows what's going to happen as soon as they start. My idea was this. I said, let me ask you a question. What are the rules of a world title match taking place in two rings?

There are no set rules for that specific stipulation because it's never happened before. Therefore, David Manning, you always usually referee the world title matches. What about if you just so happen to referee the match before that? and you get bumped or turn your ankle or whatever. Don't even have to do it in the finish, just turn your ankle getting out of the ring. And instead, here comes the rookie referee, Ralph Pully, to referee the match with Flair and Kevin.

And they're having the match in two rings. And Flair gets heat on Kevin. And he beats the shit out of it. He waltzes him across Texas, makes him sell like he's going to the electric chair. and he's chopping him and he's figure for it him and he's whatever the fuck he's doing to him and finally Kevin starts his comeback and the people are coming up and Kevin's kicking his shit out of flare and he shoots flare off and upside down into the buckle and over the top rope and he falls into the apron in between the two rings and he to get away from Kevin he gets

into the other ring so Kevin follows him and he grabs him there boom boom boom boom and he shoots him off and Flair goes upside down again and falls into the middle of the goddamn two rings and this time Kevin comes in the middle and gets him and he grabs hold of Flair at his left hand by Flair's blonde hair and he shows the people the claw hand and he slaps the claw on Rick Flair and who is fighting to keep upright and slowly going down onto the aprons of the rings where they meet in between the rings outside the ropes. And meanwhile, the rookie referee

placed in a position of pressure refereeing his first world title match is counting these fucking guys out because they ain't in ring one and they ain't in ring two, they're in the middle. And right as fucking Kevin gets the goddamn claw hold on flare and he's fought him all the way down. And he presses him down to the canvas and flare is out,

flat on his back on the aprons of the ring in the middle. Pully gets to the, it was 20 in world class, gets to the 20 count and rings the bell. Double count out. What do you think? That's pretty good. Well, they said, no. And if you go back and watch the fucking tape,

they take a bump out of the ring and each one pulls the other one off the apron until they're counted out. That's pretty good. So that was disappointing to me. Did they tell you right to your face? Like, now we can't do that? I mean, how did they deal with you? Well, no, they just, oh, and then they started talking about doing the other thing the way they wanted to do it. All right.

But I'm only 23. What do I know? It's my first booking meeting. So did you have any say in the Little John stuff? somewhat they wanted I was I was his kind of on-site producer whispering at him what reactions to have

or to stand up or sit down or whatever but they wanted him there beside me and it was just to neutralize me from interfering getting in the ring they could sell to the fans well you won't be able to fuck the fantastics now because this giant's

next to him. But I knew I wasn't going to have a lot of interplay because he was an idiot as well as green and had never been in the business before. But they wanted him to have some part to play in the Fantastic's getting the win. And because they had gimmicked it up, it was all four in the rings,

tornado match in two rings. It was already confusing to people and we were relying on this guy for anything in the way of timing and the finish. So as you go back and watch it, I think Bobby Fulton was paired off with Bobby Eaton and Dennis Condry and Tommy Rogers. May have been the other way around. But nevertheless, it's supposed to be a near simultaneous double pin with one of the Midnight up and one of the Fantastics up.

But the legal fantastic is the guy that, gets the pen, all little John has to do is slap Bobby Eaton on the fucking leg to turn him around so he can be schoolboyed, I believe. And I'm sitting there going, slap his leg, slap his fucking leg! With my goddamn Walter Winchow, not Walter Winchell, Paul Winchell, ventrilochus. Walter Winchell, that's right. Well, yeah, maybe he could have heard Walter Winchell, Paul Winchell without doing the ventrilochrist. voice without moving his lips, slap my fucking leg!

And you see Bobby's even looking down like, where's the feet? And so in effect, the double pin ended up with the midnight getting the pen first because the other guys did their shit correctly. And so we really won the fucking match. The people are like,

and then the one spot they wanted me to do with little John was to take my racket and hit him over the back with it and it break. well I couldn't use a metal one because you can't break those it had to be a wooden one but the wooden ones are graphite and god damn you would have to seriously hit a hard stationary object pretty fucking strongly to break one of those rackets in half like they wanted it so we tried to gimmick it and we saw it at part of the way but he was such a big fucking schlub and his bench press was like 180 he was seven six and fucking 400 pounds or whatever

and so they get me they sawed it too far and i tried to take care of it through the whole match no i know what it was i'm sorry i told a lie they wanted me to hit him over the back with it and him not sell it and then him grab it away from me and snap it in half but I said if we gimmick it where he can snap it then I can't hit him with it and they say oh yeah you just work it well I was fucking hit him real light

and the goddamn head fell off just fell a boom and I said that was a metaphor for the whole match to lose the titles to the fantastics we actually won the fucking match and then the only time that I've ever acquiesced anybody actually breaking the racket and it was a fart in church like that so then we gave our notice when we got the check

but yeah with that whole thing was a goddamn mess well that was a great question but I still like that finish I remember that show you were also out there with Rip Oliver for the two ring was a 10 man tag yes Yes, yes, I was.

But I will revisit this question. You could have time to think about ideas that were shot down by Dusty or Watts or Dundee or Jerry. Well, and remember, Jim Hurd went back on the deal to make Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane part of the four horsemen with Flair and Arne when we only had two horsemen. And we started that in motion and then he canceled that. And I was highly ticked off about that. that because I didn't want to do it to begin with. I came, because I was then going to become a full-time announcer instead of manager, but since the boys

would be taken care of and the horseman would be replenished and herd would get off my back, I agreed to it after I had the idea and Flair said, okay, and then Hurd canceled that. I said, well, fuck you then. I quit too. Flair had quit the booking committee like the week before I went on vacation, came back, found out that they had ex-nade that idea, said, well, tell him I've quit also,

so he can have his fucking booking meetings in private now. All right, Jim, our next question sent via email to corny drive-thru at gmail.com is sent by FG. The title of the email is right place, right time. I have a question about Tully's... Dr. John! I have a question about Tully's Perfect Ten. The story is,

when Crockett and Tully went to Texas, they were in search of Sunshine, who at the time was in rehab, and they went with Nicola Roberts. How would the whole angle with Dusty Magnum, and later against you and the horsemen played out differently

if Sunshine was hired instead reminds me of how Ray Trailer, who became Big Bubba, was just a perfect person in the right place for the role at the time. Okay, where does the story come from? Have you heard this story before, Brian? I had never heard that, well, certainly not that Jim Crockett and Telly Blanchard went to Texas looking for sunshine. I never heard that. Well, yeah, this is not like,

Watts took Jim Ross and a cameraman to fucking search for Stagger Lee. No. No, okay, for one thing, no, Tully didn't ever say, hey, Jimmy, let's go to Texas and try to find sunshine. At the period of 19, when Baby Doll started with Tully for Crockett,

It was, what, 1980, early on, right? Or late 84? If it wasn't late 84, I think it would have been early 85, I think. Because Starkey 85 is obviously one of the moments I always think about with her or with Tully. Well, yeah, and they'd already established that. So, because I know she was there by the time we came in in summer of 85,

the point I'm making, it wouldn't have been hard to find sunshine. She was working in goddamn Dallas against me in fucking April and May and June and July of 1985. She wasn't in rehab. It may have been a blessing at the time, but she wasn't there. And the way that they found Nicola was that she was Nick Roberts's daughter.

Nick Roberts was the promoter in Lubbock, and I think he had taken over Amarillo by that point, the West Texas towns for the, Texas office, but Tully had seen her, you know, before Tully being from San Antonio, they had, you know, she was not a secret that she existed, that suddenly she was standing by, oh my God, look at her. They knew her. She was part of the wrestling family.

And I can't remember whether it was Tully or whether it might have been Flair going out there for title defenses and just seeing Nicola backstage, you know, visiting her dad's business. And obviously she was interested in the, in the wrestling business, but the only story I ever heard centered on, she was a strikingly tall, healthy looking young lady that either flare or somebody had seen when they were out there and suggested that, you know, and Dusty would have been no stranger to who Nick Roberts was.

And the perfect tin thing was kind of the rib. They found a girl bigger than Tully. And she was dressed up at first in the punk rock, you know, kind of shit like as a mad Maxine type of, she's his bodyguard, and she's bigger than he is. And that's how she was dressed when she was in Dallas as Andrea, the lady giant. That's right.

And she had worked for what, two or three months maybe? Yeah, she was aligned. Already on the shows. She was aligned with Gino and Jake Roberts and that whole crew. As a matter of, okay, and Flair went down and defended the title

and came back and said, oh, you got to see Nick Roberts' daughter is dressed up and she's six feet one or whatever. That's what it was. But yeah, Andrea the Lady Giant. That's gladly or thankfully

she slipped that one early because that would have been kind of but yeah, baby doll and the promos that Tully did the perfect 10 is coming the perfect making you think you're going to see

some supermodel out of a magazine and here's baby doll and that was part of the fucking heat. Do you remember when the movie 10 came out with Bo Derek and how that kind of did you know I do brother? Did that popularize the phrase

with you? The idea of she's a tant What, it didn't popularize it with me. I've never went around, you know, using it frivolously. But it made everybody in America aware of it. Everybody knew that's what the, when, what was 10 came out? 78. I bet you. I bet you'd be looking up.

Hold on, let's see. I got the Playboy, too, by the way. 79. All right, prick. But, yeah, so this is nice. 1984, it's still part of normal daily terminology. So everybody knew

what the fuck the deal was. Is there any joke about the idea that, you know, maybe thou next to Tully is kind of like Dudley Moore next to Bo Derek. I don't think he looked more like Dudley more than she did Bo Derek. But you know, Brian, the thing is I never fucked a 10, but one night I fucked five twos. Did anyone ever hear?

hit you harder in your career than that one shot that's on camera where you're backing up and she punches you as hard as she can right in the back of the head? Yes. You want to know who? Yeah. Baby doll in St. Louis when she hit me in the front of my fucking head. She dislocated my jaw with a slap she was supposed to miss. I was supposed to have, I missed an elbow drop on magnum or whatever and he rolls over and tags Baby doll and I come up and I'm supposed to turn around and see her and go, ah, like that, and fall backwards on my ass and tag out as she swings a slap at me, like, oh, missed it by that much, and then they'd milk it till the finish when she really got a hold of me. When I went, ah, she slapped me and dislocated my fucking jaw while my mouth was open.

And I couldn't chew without pain for three or four days. And for years, the left, because she's right-handed, right? So my left side of my jaw here right outside your ear would click when I opened it a certain way or width or whatever. So yes, the only time anybody ever hit me in harder than she did in the back of the head was when she hit me in the front of the head. I know it's not like there's any heat right now, but this is years after the fact, but at the time, in the moment, is there anyone, was that the first person you worked with who

you actually didn't get along with professionally, like there were problems in the back. You guys, you know, she was, she literally shoot punching you whatever she could on camera. Well, no, no, we got to, no, we laughed about it at the time because I knew she didn't know how to work. I worked with her for big time wrestling in Spartanburg.

Like what in 2017? We had a fucking reprise of our goddamn feud and had a single match for 10 minutes. So you don't think it was revenge for her, for you going off on her when they tried to pull the ribble, on you being arrested? Well, no, a lot of this shit was before that. Okay.

See, and that's the thing also is, she could work any better in Spartanburg in 2017 and she could in 1986, but I couldn't, you know, I would joke about it, but I couldn't get mad about it because she didn't know how to work, but that I did get a little grumpy the one night at the Orange Bowl in Miami. Again, the finish, I think it was her

and the Rock and Roll Express maybe. But at the finish, they tagged me in and one of two things was going to happen. I was either going to run from the male baby faces and turn into her knockout punch or she was going to chase me down, tackle me, and fucking give me the knockout punch.

She chased me around the ring when she tackled me. She shoot tackled me. She was on top of, we were going down face first with me on the bottom. And so I put my hands out to cushion my fall And she was so tight on back of me That when my hands landed Her face went into my elbow

And it cracked her teeth Chipped her front teeth And she actually got mad and went home to go to the dentist Because I chipped her teeth I'm like, God damn, you tackled me like Dick fucking buttkiss And you're on me so fucking tight that when I try to protect my face from being smashed in, you chipped your teeth on my elbow.

But yeah, she consistently pated me more than anybody else that I ever worked with in my career. And what about Sunshine? Just to finish the comparison, when you worked with her, how many times did she get her hands on you? And what was that like? Oh, no.

Did she, she get her hands on you? Well, no, here's the thing. In the angle leading up to, This was one idea that I had that they didn't shoot down. The thing to lead to Tarrant County Convention Center, the Fort Worth Star Wars event, we did the interview, Sunshine and I, where our men had ill dealings in the ring,

but then I got personal with her, and we would joust verbally back and forth, and then I challenged her to a Battle of the Sexes, where I would prove that women ought to be in the kitchen, rattling the pots and pans. I'm doing the Andy. Kaufman thing, it's fucking June 1885, right?

They had seen it, but they hadn't seen it on local Dallas wrestling. You gotta be rattling the pots and pans around, and I hit her with the lines. You know, Sunshine's not her real name. A real name's Virginia. They used to call her Virgin for short, but not for long. She's been on more street corners than the Dallas Times Harold. I got bleeped one time, but I

I said, Sunshine, you're nothing but a, oh, I wish I could say the word slut on TV. And I made sure the lip readers got it. And we're Saturday night in fucking Dallas, right? I'm goddamn, I'm auditioning

for Saturday night live. So, finally, she does the promo. I told her, I said, just go out and talk about how hot you've gotten over the things I've said. Cornette really makes me hot.

and so she does the promo, you know, Mark Lawrence there, like he stepped off a wedding cake, he's dressed in the deal. Ed Cornett just makes me hot. Everything he says, everything he does, he just makes me hot. And I come out in my workout outfit, the sweatsuit and the towel around my neck, and I got a cup of water that I'm sipping because I've been doing jumping jacks and shit,

and I do the whole promo. Richard Simmons is a family friend. I've been trained and working out. I did push-ups. I did sit-ups. I did chin-ups. I threw up once. I'm okay now.

I'm ready to go for you, Sunshine. I'm going to prove it takes a good man to beat you, but it don't take him long. But I heard you say that I'd made you hot. And I wanted to come out here and make amends for that because I didn't realize you were getting so hot at me. So I would just like to take this opportunity to say, I'm very sorry, and I would like to cool you off.

and I threw the fucking big jug of water in her face and she's drenched in her goddamn finery and she had a, what's that, a suede, suede skirt on, which it really fucked up. I think I'd made a comment about how she was dressed also. But I threw the water, I embarrass her, she's screaming mad, she wants to get a hold of me.

And then they say, well, we can't advertise a man versus a woman in the state of the state of, Texas because of the, that what they were calling the commission at that time, Department of Labor and Standards, I believe. So it's going to be an exhibition. And I got tricked into, well, I'm going to be blindfolded. But instead of having a match, all Sunshine has to do is prove that if I'm

blindfolded, she's got to knock me off my feet. And if she doesn't, then I'm going to take that blindfold off and I'm going to give her what she's got coming. And once I'm blindfolded, Bronco Lubich is distracted by Sunshine. Kabuki, her guy, comes in, gives me the super kick, knocks me the fuck out of me, dives out of the ring.

I fucking grogly pull the hood off as the people are screaming and yelling, yay, and there's Sunshine standing over me. I think she did it. The referee raises her hand. We built that for six weeks for a 30-second payoff. But it was one of the feature fucking matches. But that's With sunshine

The question was physical It we couldn't I couldn't hit a woman On their TV or anywhere else Especially at that time And she couldn't really do anything Because she couldn't work either So we built it up

To where the people wanted to see it more than They wanted to just see her humiliate me And it didn't care how it happened the one time she did something to me I took her down to the sportatorium one day before we went to a spot show or whatever and showed her how to arm drag me and so when we were doing a confrontation

in one of the promos and she said well Kabuki has been teaching me a few things I come out and interrupt oh yeah you're learning martial arts you're Bruce Lee, ha, ha, ha, ha. And I pointed her, I said, you think the, to ask the fans, I said, do you people actually think that this puny little girl could even take me off my feet? And when I point at her, she grabs my left arm, she ducks down, she arm drags me, over I go. And I pop up, oh shit, and the place blew.

And then I get out of the ring because I'm scared. That's all they needed. One last question. answer the question. One last thing about this, now that we're talking about women being stiff with you or not being stiff with you. I've been stiff with a few women, I'll have you know. Misty Blue, when you worked with her, could she work? I mean, was she able to do anything? Well, they, Misty, they were very nice, nice young ladies that I didn't have any problem with, but they were self-trained, indie trained, Misty's husband that was her agent that had her in the

not only the wrestling business but also the starring roles in the world's absolute worst pornography that's ever been shot on the planet. The other girls were too, right? Linda Dallas and the... Yes. Yes, the whole group

and it would put you off fucking this porno was so bad. And he was in one of them. Good Lord, that really... I don't know how he talked to anybody and doing anything, but nevertheless, they were just self-trained and they weren't real good, but they weren't like trying to hurt you or anything. But when we did the angle on TV, on TBS,

where Misty Blue wants me to show her how Bob Eaton flies off the top rope, and when I turn around, she's supposed to drop kick me. That was to set up the eight man in Baltimore with me and Bobby and Stan and Murdoch against Dusty and, Barry Windham and Misty Blue and who was, Nikita Koloff, I turn around and she jumps up and she dropkicked me literally if she'd have pated me, I would have been sterile from that point on. She'd drop kick me in the lower belly upper crotch.

And that way, I still went down, but it wasn't the most sparkling bump I ever took because how do you sell a drop kick to the fucking crotch? but you know I had good matches with Sherry Martel and a good one with Luna Vashon she knew how to work too but but yeah but

and Misty Blue in the cage again it was kept till the end and I can't even remember exactly how she beat me that night but we did $103,000 in Baltimore in a snowstorm in 1980 fucking seven so there you go

all right Jim a couple more questions and I know we said, I guess the program, because of how long we've run, we will bring guest to program back next week. Guess when we're going to do guest the program? Next week here on the show. Jim, a couple more questions that we'll get out of here. This one

was sent via email, the corny drive-thru at gmail.com from Noel in Ireland. What if, by some miracle, Sean Michaels was actually a stand-up employee and a team player during the mid to late 90s?

How would the wrestling landscape have changed? and would other wrestlers like British Bulldog and Vader have gotten a run with the world title. There is also the knock-on effect of no curtain call, Triple H winning King of the Ring 96, so no Austin 316 promo, so a lot of WWF history depends on Sean Michaels being an immature asshole. Well, you know, now that you look at it that way,

maybe it's better he was a flaming uncircumcised prick. I mean, there is a cause and effect between, you know, the Austin 316 and that whole nine yards that cannot be denied. And to be honest, you know, Vince had missed Austin to that point and wasn't really interested. And the ringmaster thing sucked. And he was being himself. But who knows if he'd have gotten that opportunity or that kind of opportunity at that point, if Triple H hadn't fucked up. But with Michaels, he was never going to be a transformative guy, like a Bruno or a Hogan or an Austin or whatever.

But he was the best worker in a business in the ring. And not just the best worker performer of moves in the business like a Chris Benoit type, but the best worker he had the head for it, the way to have matches, the way to do things, he was so far ahead of most people, that if he hadn't been on pills and the smell of his own farts,

he could have, Vader definitely would have gotten a run because Vince was ready to do it. And Vader probably would have been effective in short term as a champion, and then Sean would have been better off for winning it back from him. I don't know they would have made Davy champion

just because Davy was, Davey never went a long period of time where he didn't do something of his own accord or outside the ring to get in his own way. And I don't know that he ever would have been the, the WWF champion. But business would have been easier to conduct, probably a little bit better,

certainly more consistent if Michaels had not been you know, childish and been himself. How different would the locker room atmosphere be if Sean Michaels had not been who he was in the 90s? That would have probably been the best part about it is just everybody would have got along a lot more instead of having all the groups and the divisiveness

and the assholery going on. But I don't know that Michaels would have drastically changed the business in, you know, many multiples or took it to another level like the guys that I mentioned. But, you know, he was the best at what he did, and it certainly could have been easier and probably could a little bit, a little bit better. All right, Jim, one final question here this week. This one was sent via the Culta Cornette Facebook group by Donnie Howard.

Hypothetical but what would have happened if Hogan had tried to hold up Vince for an ownership stake before WrestleMania or WrestleMania 2. I always wondered why such a prominently important star never tried. Ooh,

an ownership stake. I'm trying to I would suggest that Vince was obviously never going to give up any ownership in the company because he had gone to such pains as the new book that's out now. The new Solomon books here, Brian Solomon wrote Irresistible Force on the Life of Gorilla Monsoon. Vince went to great pains to not only

buy his father out, but make sure that he bought all of the partners, had everything all to himself. he wasn't going to give any up two years after he had done that. What I'm trying to think is to what he might have told Hogan at the time to get him off of that if Hogan had tried it. And if Hogan had come to him and said, give me some ownership percentage, I mean, even Hogan, even WrestleMania, he would have had to have been somewhat realistic.

He wouldn't just say, you know, give me all of this. and your goddamn family and let me live in your house. He would have known there. He had a chance at something maybe. So would he have said, give me 10%, give me 20%, give whatever, change my deal, whatever it may be. I think if he had asked for ownership, Vince would have probably scared him off with the idea

that this experiment was still unproven. If he was part owner, he might be liable. for the losses as well as in line for the fucking share of the profits and or any potential lawsuits that may come from these promoters that were starting to fuck around. So maybe Hulk, you might just want a large cash payment

as your ransom for holding me up instead of a piece of the company which could get sticky and legal matters, maybe something like that that Hogan probably would have fell for and bought and been happy to just get, a suitcase full of fucking money. What do you think, Brian?

You know, there are very few wrestlers who could have pulled off anything like that. Bruno San Martino, and in certain towns, he had a better cut than any other wrestler, but he didn't actually own a piece of the territory. He had a set percentage that he got himself, which no other wrestler had, but he didn't have ownership,

but at the same time, I don't think he wanted ownership. I think he wanted, because he turned, turned down because he didn't particularly trust everybody involved, but Vince Sr. at that point, he turned down the opportunity to buy Tutsmont's shares, which is what eventually went to guerrilla in 1969, I believe. Yeah. I mean, Hogan, again, different than everyone else in history, even Steve Austin.

And Steve Austin should have had leverage, considering they turned it into a publicly traded company off on the back of Steve Austin. But Steve Austin, I don't even think he was ever the central focus that Hogan was in the 80s. No, Austin was, he was a, as big a part as you could be of a much bigger pie, whereas Hogan was just as big, but the pie was smaller and he was more necessary to the survival of the pie. And in terms of merchandise, I mean, he was outside.

selling everyone. And, you know, the LJN figures, Hulk Hogan was the biggest seller. Hulk Hogan's Rocket Wrestling was in production, merchandised up the gazoo. It would be interesting if that had ever happened. Now, they were close. I mean, Vince moved Hulk Hogan to Connecticut.

Well, but the thing about he had no reason to hold him up early on. See, that's the thing is a lot of times also guys could be short-sighted. but usually the time that you held a wrestling promoter up in front of the big show for a big payoff he didn't intend to pay out was the last time that you had dealings with that promoter. Hulk was already figured in.

He was already making multiple times more money than all the rest of the guys in 85, 86, 87, 88. Where he may have made a mistake is not ever picking a spot. in that 9091 period to hold up Vince for a fucking life-changing amount of money before he got to the point where he couldn't really hold Vince up for anything that Vince couldn't fucking suffer through. But if he'd held him up in 85, he'd have lost a lot more years because Vince would have known he's my guy now and he's drawing money,

but I can't trust him, and I'll work more actively toward finding a way to replace him. And without knowing the specifics of his deal with Vince through at the 80s and 90s, he would kind of get the deal you were talking about earlier. You know, the best possible deal you could have, an ownership deal without actually being an owner from WCW. And he had the leverage there. He knew they needed him. He knew Bischoff really wanted him.

He was able to get the best deal for a wrestler ever. But he still, he wouldn't have been able to get any kind of ownership there because of the TBS corporate ownership. Right. But again, and I know there's been some debate about this here recently. I've seen online and people asking various things, and I'll say this and then let you take over. But there's been some, and especially Uncle Dave,

has weighed in on some of this. The story that I heard about the WrestleMania 3 payoffs was that Jim Barnett was the guy, was the guy in charge of doing payoffs at the time that WrestleMania 3 happened. And Barnett gave Hogan and Andre $250,000 a piece and Vince overruled it and gave them $750,000 a piece.

And the comment was out there when Hogan passed away here recently that I think from Uncle Dave that that was the biggest amount of money that any wrestler earned in one night until was it Tyson or until I don't until some other time but I also always heard that to placate Hogan and Warrior for different reasons that weren't they WrestleMania 4 or was it 5 Hogan and Warrior is WrestleMania 6 in Toronto

6? Okay six what I heard that they got one million a piece just because Vince wanted to be able to claim to them that they got more than Hogan and Andre did, even if it wasn't as important to business and potentially that they had earned it as much. So for whatever that's worth. Well, Jim, with that, the drive-through has closed. A pleasant ending. Good Lord, has it slide me some fucking green tea over here and let me sit cross-lose.

it on the floor and contemplate the orange blossoms. We'll be back on the experience in a few days, and of course next week back here in the drive-thru, go through the archive, patreon.com slash cornet. $5 a month gets you access to the archive going back to 2013. And don't forget the official Jim Cornett YouTube channel. Go to YouTube, subscribe today, full episodes, clips of the episodes, omnibus collections, with that very popular George Livinitis artwork and so much more, the official Jim Cornett YouTube channel. Jim Cornett's collectibles at Jimcornett.com. You and Hotchkiss are about to be

very busy. Boy, howdy, Saturday, October 11th and noon Eastern time. Heroes and Friends, the brand new book goes on sale. Go to Jim Cornett.com. Click on the banner. It'll give you a lot of the information there. You can see pictures of the bad boy, as well as wrestling in the garden. A history of Madison Square Garden wrestling from Scott Teal and Crowbar Press.com. Limited amount of The $40, $20 and $10 off action figure sale, go look at the banner for details and more and new pictures and what do you want? A rubber biscuit? At Jimcornet.com, of course, the drive-thru is brought to by the law of this is Stephen P. New. No rubber biscuits there.

877-50, Steve. Get even with Stephen at new law office.com. Listen to the wrestling news each and every day. wherever you find your favorite podcasts, just look for Arcadian Vanguard's, The Wrestling News. But, until next week back here on the drive-thru and in a few days on the experience,

for Jim Cornett, I'm the great Brian last. God damn it, I think the battery's going to go to. Tally-ho! Robber Biscuit!