Jim Cornette’s Drive-Thru - Episode 425

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

This week on the Drive Thru, Jim reviews WWE Raw, and talks about the 2025 South Korean wrestling awards, Chris Jericho, Vince McMahon & Endeavor's pre-sale plans, Dave Meltzer's top rated matches of 2025, the Dallas wrestling war of 1953 & the burning of the Sportatorium, WWE without former AEW stars, Steve Keirn & Nelson Royal at Crockett Cup '87, and much more! Thanks to our episode sponsors: PRIZEPICKS: Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/JCE and use code JCE to get $50 in lineups when you play your first $5 lineup! MANDO:  Control Body Odor ANYWHERE with @shop.mando and get 20% off + free shipping with promo code JCE at shopmando.com! #mandopod HELIX:  Go to helixsleep.com/jce for 27% Off Sitewide exclusive for listeners of the Jim Cornette Experience!  RAYCON:  Essential Open Earbuds are here to help you crush your new year goals. Go to buyraycon.com/jceOPEN to get 20% off sitewide 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.

again, friends, and happy New Year, a week or so into the year. But we are here the first new drive-thru of 2026. I'm your host of Great Brian Last. As you can tell, we're going to have a good time today, folks. We got a lot going on with this man, the leader of the cult of Cornette, Mr. Jim Cornett. You know, I was thinking, Brian, we had the holiday break. I haven't heard those malifluous tones from your organ for a couple of weeks. And as you started into it, I was starting to think, you know, I haven't heard this in a while. And maybe it'll be nostalgic and fun.

And then you went sour. And it just reminded me of what it is instead of what I thought it would be. And no one went sour. You just didn't. You went stone sour, baby. You're not used to that variety. not that version of the song, so you... And that version.

That version. Everything's a little free form with you. Didn't we just talk? See, here, I'm going to say this again. Because some way mathematically, I'm getting... I'm getting bamboozled and flim flammed out of what I thought was a vacation at the holidays because we recorded extra stuff beforehand. Now we just...

I just spoke to you. 36 hours ago to do the new experience or the first experience of the year 26 26. Well, I guess we got 600 more years. Anyway, we just did that. And now we're back here doing this. We're going to come back a couple days doing that. Did we just get a vacation or did we just rearrange our regular work? We got a vacation and we're doing as much as we can.

And for the people. The Pips, see, you play upon my heartstrings. Because we love them so much. You're fingering me again. You finger my heartstrings. And remind me, oh, boy, I tell you and my proctologist, I'll tell you, they've either. Nevertheless, you remind me that we're doing this for the folks out there. And actually, I was going to say I wanted to be cheerful and chipper and entertained.

but since I've spoken to you there's been a lot of letdowns. There was a, we'll talk about it later on. I thought the Netflix premiered, not premiere. They've been on, David, debut, anniversary is the word I'm grasping for. Anniversary, the anniversary of the Netflix debut. See there, it's, it all works.

That was going to premiere, just out. hours after we spoke last, and I thought that's going to be a big wing ding, a stem winder, as Lance Russell would say. They got Braun Breaker and CM Punk for the world title, and it's going to be a big thing. Last year was big. This year's going to be big. It's going to be just huge. We'll talk about it, but I was underwhelmed by the whelm factor of that.

and then I'm watching the new season of Curse of Oak Island, Brian, and I'll tell you, I may be so old they have to carbon date me by the time they find out what was, fuck was going on up there. I can't believe that's still on the air. You told us about that years ago.

I think it's like the 14th season now, but they keep finding... Watch out, Gunsmoke. Well, I'm telling you, and Marshall Dillon maybe a factor in the finish by the time they finish digging. They are finding archaeologically fascinating things, evidence of major construction for some unknown reason

in hundreds of years ago on this tiny little island off of the coast of Nova Scotia or whatever. They found dick in a way of valuable shit, but what the fuck were these people doing? and why on this that's the point and they they keep uncovering all this shit but so and boom but then thankfully Brian just moments before we were scheduled to go on the air today I have been tickled this is this is the greatest thing I've heard in a week or two as Jimmy Hart might have said one time the biggest rivalry the high hottest feud, the talk of wrestling fans across the country now, apparently, is the hatred,

the ill will, the animosity, if you will, between Steve Kurt and Nelson Royal from 38 years ago at the Crogate Cup. And that alone has cheered me up enough to make this day worthwhile. I don't get a lot of those. but that alone, because can you explain to the people how that this actually, because we just talked about Steve Kern's match at the Crockett Cup 87 in Baltimore just a few days ago or whatever it was on the show. Yeah, the question was about why he was there or what happened because the fabulous

ones were in the program or they were originally listed, obviously Stan, had replaced Dennis, joined the Midnight Express by then. Steve was still there and you know I never thought about it until someone asked about the booking but I'd never seen that match I'd never watched the entire show

I had the commercial tape for years which it wasn't on right they show a montage in the music video of who was on the show but you don't get to watch you know Giant Baba and Takagi face off with Denny Brown and Todd Champion

or some of the undercard mat Mulkie Mania in full effect on that show in the undercard. And one of the matches is Nelson Royal and Mike Graham, and this is when Florida and Jim Crockett Promotions was one, versus George South and Steve Kern. And I said, I've never seen this, let me go check it out. And almost instantly, I was like, well, there's something going on here. What's up with this behavior?

And then with the idea, because we saw some comments in our YouTube video, hey, what's up with Steve Kern and Nelson Royal, with the idea that maybe there was a problem there, watching it thinking there could be, it was one of the more entertaining matches I've watched in a long time. What was up with Steve Kern? Is there anything, am I overlooking? Am I looking too much?

But here's the thing also, if you, the genesis of the comments that we had gotten, were the WWE vault YouTube whatever had put up the entire Crockett Cup 87 and because I mean

it was a two-night deal at the Baltimore Civic Center and each show was three hours long because the main event one night was Big Bubba Rogers and O'Leanderson in a cage plus the tournament and the next night was Flair and Windham for the world title

plus the tournament. So this was like six hours of fucking material, right? Because even in those, a big show was three hours long. By the way, some of the best men that expressed stuff.

Stan had just joined the group. It's Bubba there. And it's you guys against the Garvins. Right after the burn angle. That's the thing is this is why I had never seen this match either until you pointed it out to me because everybody was asking.

But the comments on the YouTube, on the WWE channel, There were the vault deal of it. There were comments like, well, Kern and Nelson Royal and what the fuck, and that led the comments to us. And then you went and watched it, blah, blah, blah. And when I saw it, I'd never seen it either because there was no, they had a monitor in the truck,

but there was no goddamn guerrilla position in those days. They were shooting the thing for home video. with the TV crew and for clips or whatever, but it wasn't like there was a giant place where all the talent could gather and comfortably watch the monitor backstage, right? You go through the fucking curtain if you're not ready to go out

and you're the next match, get the fuck out of the way, there's no room. The Civic Center locker rooms, they were tight and hallways were tight. And if you had to, or you wanted to watch the matches, you had to go out on a stage and peek through, the curtain. And to be honest, since it was, there was a sellout, at least night two, night one was

close, they may have had seats on the stage at that point. So I'd never seen it either. But as we mentioned in the clip where we just talked about why the switch from the Fabs to Steve Kurt and George South came because the Crockett Cup was, what was it, April 11 and 12, let's say, Dennis Condry had pulled the old Houdini on March 24th. And Stan Lane made his debut as a member of the Midnight Express on the Atlanta TV that we taped the morning of April 4th. And the Crockett Cup was the next fucking week, right? So this happened quickly. The idea of the Crockett Cup It had started in 86 and they were still trying to do it in 87

was that there would be teams from all over the country and all around the world. And the problem is a lot of the territories they're starting to pass by the wayside and they, you know, they, for whatever reason, never got to deal with Fritz while he was in business and blah, blah, blah. So to get 24 teams, some of you know, you had to do the Denny Brown and Todd.

champion at the bottom but the thing is the fabs as you mentioned crockett had just bought florida so the fabs were in florida but as i'd mentioned kern at that point had gotten a real estate license and because they were making like 300 bucks a week eddie graham had committed suicide a little over two years earlier and as we've talked about on the show here before if vince mcmann junior had to work with any territory, it would have been Eddie Graham's, but Eddie Graham was gone.

And Crockett had just got Florida. And so, you know, the business is the shits down there, but the Fabs had a name for the previous five years as a tag team. So, boom, they're booked in it because they had to book and advertise this giant tournament, you know, weeks in advance. but then when Dennis threw us all for a loop, Dusty had the idea for Stan, brought him up, boom, so suddenly they've advertised, this is another thing.

The Rock and Roll Express, we were asking, I was asking the other day, and you answered correctly, Ricky was hurt, but rock and roll was on the, they had gotten a buy through the first round, Rock and Roll, Midnight Road Warriors, Dusty and Nikita, a couple of other teams didn't have to wrestle in the first round. The fabs were going to go over in the first round and then meet the rock and roll in the second round. Dusty is, that was his advance booking.

You could tell by the way they'd bracketed it from there, you could tell what was going to happen. But so now stands a member of the Midnight Express. Steve has no partner, but he doesn't want to give up the goddamn shot in Baltimore because that would be a payoff like two weeks worth of working fucking Florida easily, just that one match. And, you know, at the same time,

the whole thing that they've advertised kind of falling apart so they wanted as many people there that were actually booked to be there as they could, right? So this is where Steve is still there, even though the fabulous ones can't be. and as I'd mentioned in the earlier clip, they gave him George South because George was the go-to guy for Crockett. He could work.

But poor fella, he didn't have the physique or the over-the-top personality. I mean, Crockett's crew at that point was the best in the business. The horsemen and the midnight and the Road Warriors, the Dusty, and blah, blah, blah. But he could work. So he was there to fill in. because as I said, they probably didn't give it a lot of fucking thought past that. And then the other team, Mike Graham, Mike, they booked truthfully because he was a member of the Graham family. They just acquired his territory.

He was still in the office down there helping put together matches for what was going on in Florida. and they booked Nelson Royal because of the respect they had for Nellie more on that in a minute. But so that was the thing is that already this match is fucked up, right? But at least if it'd come off as booked, the fabulous ones would have beaten Mike Graham

and Nelson Royal and proceeded on to the second round. Have I made that clear so far have I muddied this thing up. Instead, it was like a battle bowl match. Like, they just pick names out of a hat. And this will be your partner, and this will be your partner. Go out there and have a match in front of these fans who aren't familiar with every one of you.

Yes. And it will. Go ahead. I was just going to say, and please comment on it. But there was a lot of weird things with Steve Kern from the beginning of the match to me. Now, you've seen more Steve Kern than most people. You've managed them. and 91.

Well, but besides, I mean, I saw him before he was even fabulous. And then I was supposed to manage the fabs. And then we worked with the fabs and the blah, blah, blah. Now, here, Willie, let me set a scene for you. From the standpoint of the people in the match, right? So George South, let's start with him. He is fucking thrilled because he gets to work in front of a fucking and sellout house at the Baltimore Civic Center

in the Crockett Cup tournament. And he's a dedicated young man at the time. Still, you know, wrestles and appears and trains and et cetera. But he was thrilled to be there. And he, this is an excellent tag team match. If you look at it as a tag team match. But this is kind of like an early example of what happens when you have a good match or even a great match,

when nobody in the crowd knows who the fuck you are or what the fuck's going on, right? Yeah. But George is happy to be there. His partner, Steve Kern, has his territory in Florida has been dying around him, but he was still part of a tag team that had been working on top in one place or another

for the previous five years, the fabulous ones. He and Stan, they dominated Tennessee. They made money. for Vern, even though he didn't know how to present them. And they'd had the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, W.A figures, right? And, and, you know, a good run in places. And he'd made some money. And all of a sudden, not only is his tag team gone, but his partner is

going to the fucking finals, uh, in his new tag team that he's been in for two weeks and he's making like 10 times of money, Steve's making. And he gets up there. And he gets up there and he's like well at least i'll get a pay off for this it'll be easy and then he hears it because of this fucked up with the rock and roll being hurt and the blah blah blah they've got to go 20 minutes broadway because a dusty was just like fucking eliminate both teams i just fix the problem with the bracketing just eliminate both of them baby just get the fuck out of you and see that's the thing there was no staff of agents at that point and the finishes came from Dusty or from JJ, his assistant and JJ had heard from Dusty what he wanted.

Or occasionally they'd tell Tommy Young. It was like the opening match. Tommy'd tell him go 15 through, whatever. And you could all get together baby faces and heels in Baltimore. You had no choice. These goddamn rooms were so fucking small. You couldn't get away from fucking people. They went out to goddamn parking garage.

but there's mass chaos going on with all these matches and that's why I'd never seen it another reason of midnight and I that weekend we wrestled the Garvin brothers Ronnie and Jimmy wrestled the road warriors wrestled fucking Dusty and Nikita I managed Bubba against Oli so you know I didn't see a lot of the shit that was going on but point being there's Kerns got it miserable anyway

and if I could just jump in and ask you had he just cut his hair? Because that may be the shortest I had seen his hair since the fabulous one today. Remember he was trying to sell real estate? Yeah. Remember that's that he couldn't go in and look at like goddamn, you know, fucking David Lee Roth at that point,

you know, and here I'd like to show you this wonderful two-bedroom ranch house. So he's like, where am I fucking going from now and the stands in the goddamn finals, whatever the fuck? On the other side, there is Mike Graham. Mike Graham and Steve Kern were one of the legendary baby face tag teams in the Florida territory for Mike's father, Eddie Graham. Kern, that's the place that Kern had been used best in Florida before his fabulous one's career. And he was a top baby face to the people down there because it was more serious wrestling,

et cetera. And that's where Steve said he had to come to Memphis and learn. learned a Gaga from Jerry Jarrett to, you know, soup it up a little bit. But Mike and Steve went way back, and Mike's territory has just been bought, absorbed, fucking, you know, somehow into the Crockett system. So they've booked him and Dusty. They've known him for years. They've booked him there as a favor.

And he's got a part in Nelson Royal. Nelly was a guy that in that era and amongst those. guys he was respected as one of the best in-ring workers in the business but again it's a it's a lesson that has parallels with today in that Nelson had used gimmicks and I mean in the early 60s he was an English lord sir Nelson Royal right with a top hat or a bowler or whatever the fuck it was but really No, he was the world junior heavyweight champion in 70s after Hodge had the wreck because they said, okay, we're not going to, most territories aren't going to feature the junior heavyweight title, but we wanted on somebody that's a version of who we picked to be the NWA world champion. A guy who can go in and carry himself as a professional, work his ass off, be legitimate and believable, be a baby face or a heel, have the match. like Harley has where he makes everybody look better, whatever.

That was Nelson Royal. He didn't necessarily, you know, have the size physique, or by that time he was in his 40s and great shape could wear everybody out. He and Bobby Fulton went 40 minutes one night at a spot showing to Carolina's outdoors in 40-degree weather. He just loved to fucking wrestle. But the thing is, so, that's what all the boys respected it. He trained George South. He trained all the guys that

broke in with Crockett, Carolinas in the 80s. He was training him up in Moresville and he had the cowboy gimmick, started the bunkhouse stampede because he had the Western store up there. So anyway, I watched this match and examining all these guys' reasons for what they were doing. They get there and they're in Baltimore. Nelson has been on Crockett TV, which has been in a kind of of on and off role for what Baltimore got Crockett TV at 84, maybe,

late 85 or late 84, early 85. Nelson Royle's not a featured guy on Crockett TV at that point in time that people in Baltimore are going to go crazy for when they're waiting for the road Warriors, right? And Mike Graham, poor Mike Graham. out of Florida for 20 fucking years.

People in Baltimore are like and again Steve Kern they're the only place maybe they don't know the fabulous ones fucking on that side of the Mississippi

is you know, Crockett's territory and poor George mentioned he was happy to be there and then they sit them down and say,

well we got to eliminate both of you just go 20 minutes in front of that fucking crowd. I know that Kern was the one that had to be going, what the fuck?

And I bet you that Nellie came up with the idea, hey, let's you and me do something. And again, George was going to work with it and Mike Graham can go with anything. So you heard the people in the building, they were hooting and boring. And the crowds even didn't go boring in Baltimore back in those days. They were chaining boring before they had a chance to be bored.

It was because they didn't recognize or know the guys. It was nobody, and they knew what it was going to be like, right? So I guarantee you that Nelly said to Steve Kern, hey, let's do something like this, because Nelson Royal, it could use salty language and he was a cowboy and all that, but he's not a person that would scream motherfucker where children were around. He was a very polite gentleman. unless they were working something.

So they went into business for themselves for this match and created their own storyline because the only direction they got was go 20 minutes Broadway and eliminate both teams. And they were sitting there coming up with something. And Nelson and Kern, and I'll explain Kern's goddamn actions here to me. Yeah, I want to know about what he was doing on the,

when he was just holding the head rope. He was laying there like he was dead when his arm over the rope. Okay, well, let me tell you now, Kern had a, Kern had very kinetic movement to him. He would make sudden and almost robotic movements in the way he had a style that worked for him. It didn't look phony or anything when he did certain things, but certain movements he made, he had a style different than anybody else, and it lent itself to you believing that something was going on with him,

right and one of the things that he would do in tag matches he would either put his hand on a turnbuckle if there wasn't a tag rope and he'd stretch his arm out or if there was a tag rope he'd grab it and hold on to it but it'd be stretched out and he'd lean over the top rope where the top rope was underneath his armpits and his neck and he would fucking bend his knees and start bouncing up and down on the goddamn rope like that and sometimes he'd have his head bent all of way over and then he would pop straight up, turn to the right, take a couple of steps, spin 180 degrees, take a couple steps the other way, and do the same goddamn thing just to show that he was on the apron, fucking into the goddamn thing, watching what's going on. It's just, he's whatever the fuck, right? But everyone's on just a spot show,

which is what he was considering this thing, to be honest with you, just this fucking thing. Sometimes he'd just fucking lean. over the goddamn rope and just fucking watch the match with his head propped like it's on a pillow, right? And he'd be watching the match, but they even did a spot the fabs worked it in as a spot where if they were at a high school gym somewhere, you know, small, Tupelo, whatever it may be, to kill time, to confound the heels and get the fans into the fucking thing, let's say

stands in the ring and grabs the fucking heels arm and cranks it up. up, right? And Kearns over the rope like that with his head held down. And Stan shakes his ass at the heel's partner who comes in the ring and the referee goes to him. And then Kern immediately pops up and pops in the ring and they switch places. And Kern grabs the arm and Stan stands like that with his head down. And when the referee turns around, he sees two blonde-headed guys wearing matching fucking tights with matching fucking tans with matching amounts of oil, right? and the heels are going ballistic. No, they switched.

They didn't tag. And the fans, yes, they did tag. You went back and forth. They worked it into the fucking deal. But Kern was treating this as a spot show match in some respects. But because he and Nelson had decided they were going to do something, as soon as Nelson gets in the ring with him, because there was a little exchange on a tag.

and Nelson screams, what's a matter, motherfucker, or something like that? You hear the people go, ooh, because you weren't supposed to cuss back then. He might have got reprimanded. I couldn't make out everything, but it gets to a point where Mike Graham backs Kern into the corner,

and then Nelson goes to grab his arms and hold him there, and Kern very quickly jets off them and turns around. Yeah. And then Nelson Royale, like, angrily comes in the ring, And that's where this first thing happens where it appears he's saying, I'm working with him or I'm wrestling him, motherfucker. And then again, you can't hear Nelson Royal. I convinced myself for a little bit he was saying,

you can't stop selling in the corner. But that's not what he said. That's not what he's no. He wasn't doing that. But let me just say this, watching this match with the idea that something could be off with Kern, and he behaves so weird and he looks like he's so not interested. It's like if someone was trying out for him,

job by showing they don't give a shit. Yes. It becomes a fascinating match. Nelson Royals really fucking good. That's the thing. Who's the heel? That's the only issue you have. Is Nelson Royal who's working like a heel to heel or is Kern who doesn't give a shit

and it's acting like a heel to heel? Actually, that's the thing is they knew they had to go 20 minutes so they figure, okay, there's heat between me and you, Steve, if Nelson's saying, and Nelson and Kern both can work to the point. And that was kind of Nelson's calling card. He can work a professional wrestling match of the style that existed at the time with pretty much no fucking holes in it.

You can't really point out any bullshit. He's so aggressive and he stays on you and blah, blah, blah. And Kern liked to do that shit too, the old Eddie Graham days. And or they did a little cheap shot. and I saw one of the comments on the YouTube channel was, it looked like Nelson Royal really tried to knee Kern and the nuts there. And that's what they were doing and fucking being a little rough with each other. And at the same time, by the end of the thing,

they were turning one team heel depending on your viewpoint of the thing so that after the bell rang, they could have that brief flurry of a four way and leave them up some kind of way, rather than having to shake hands. And really, it was more Nelson Royal and Mike Graham being the heel team just because of Nelson's work.

Yeah. And poor George South being the, you know, again, the guy who's happy to be there and, you know, just holding up his end. I encourage everyone to watch this. It's on the W, is it W.W.E or WCW. Vault, whatever the official channel is, if you put in 1987 Crockett Cup,

it'll come right up. The tag match, the fans there don't give a shit at all. Start chanting boring right away. And it goes a while. But if you'll watch it with the idea that there's something up, it's a great match. However, by the end,

when they're doing the countdown to the draw, the fans are cheering. They really wanted to end. Yes. Oh, the biggest pop was when the bell rang to end the match. And the countdown, they were with it. They were counting with the draw. nine, eight, seven, six.

But that's what I'm saying. You can, and, and again, this match was completely called in the ring by the guys that, no, I'm telling you, when you're watching this, with the modern eyes for all the folks out there, the guys in the ring, and really Steve Kern and Nelson Royal and Mike Graham is more than capable of doing it, but he probably just laid back and went with the flow. but they called the whole thing in the ring for 20 minutes based on the fact that they knew that nobody in the match was over with this crowd

and they were told to go 20 minutes to a flat fucking time limit draw and again Kern compounded by being so fucking I would have to think despondent his lot in life at that point and then Kern and Nelson Royal just deciding to have some fun and working in a way both physically and verbally and an attitude to see if they could hook any of these fucking people to believe that they were really fucking pissed at each other, which again, it wasn't a novelty and nobody was looking for it in 1987 because those fans

thought everybody was pissed at each other. So they didn't get the fuck out of here. We don't know who you are. We want to see the road warriors. but now 38 years later with people just going back and looking at it cold they bought it. They finally, it took 38 years,

but Nelson Royal and Steve Kern's fucking shoot match, they finally somebody bought it. And it's great. That's the greatest goddamn thing. Second biggest pop of the match and probably the biggest populous has ever gotten in wrestling history, two minutes remaining, two minutes.

And people came out of their seats. Like, they were ready for, for that. But it's really good. Like I said, it's a different pace, obviously, than what you see now, and the fans aren't into it. But if you can kind of tell yourself the story of the match, it's a really good match. And that's the thing is that, again, it's not just about the talent involved.

Because the talent at my Graham was not only a hell of a worker, but he had drawn money in Florida, not just because he was the son. And he held up his deal. He wasn't a Greg Gagne type of situation. But Nelson Royal, again, had never been the main event guy on a national basis, but a 25-year veteran at that point in his 40s, great shape, but could not only fucking work, but had drawn money and featured in territories over the years.

And tag teams also. And obviously, Kern, we just talked about the run he'd had. But if you're just in a cold match for no reason and the people don't know who you are there, you can't just have a great match and expect, anyway, there's a lesson for you, but 38 years it took, but I wish Nelson was still around to see this.

Real quick, I'll just say this because I brought up the team a few times, Denny Brown and Todd Champion, who must have been a rookie at that point. Denny Brown is, one of my least favorite wrestlers ever. He just looks so ratty. He has the worst mullet.

It doesn't go with anything else. He looks cheap. Eventually, he had the biggest beer gut. I never thought he should ever be on camera in wrestling. I'm sorry to say. But he carried Dusty's bags, but Dusty needed someone to carry things around. Well, no, he didn't even really,

here's the thing. It wasn't even really that he was carrying Dusty bags because then he would have had to travel with Dusty. I don't think Dusty wanted to travel with him. I just got a kick out of having him around in a locker room. But downtown Denny Brown, baby, was from Florida, you know, and it was like a mascot.

But yeah. They beat the Mokies. Denny Brown and Todd Champion defeated the Mokies. If you ever want to see the Mokies, you get the best reaction to their life. That's the match right there, right off their win-off TV. No, if you ever want to see the Mokies,

Mokies get the best reaction of their life, wrestle them in their fucking hometown at the rec center. But there's no footage. No, there was almost about eight feet of rope around our fucking necks. That would have been the footage. Again, Jim, people can go back and check out this match, Cricket Cup 87, but watching the match, Jim. Yes. You would almost think Steve Kern's listening to one song, and the rest of these guys are listening to some other song, maybe a country and western song. as Steve Kern's listening to some Billy Squire or something,

it didn't work, but that's one of the great things about life and about music. You choose what you listen to, and whatever you choose, you have to make sure you hear it right. You need the right earbuds, and we have the place to send everyone. Well, I know where I'd like to send you, but folks, if I can just muddle through some of the tangled verbiage and twisted vernacular

that was just foisted upon you, I will tell you this, that our friends over at Raycon, which by the way, this message and this, this fine, fine podcast is sponsored by, our friends over at Raycon, they're no con, their fact, because they have now,

not only the infamous everyday earbuds, but they have the essential open earbuds. Now, you're going to ask me, you're going to say, Jim, what is the difference? between the essential open earbuds and the everyday earbuds. One of the earbuds, the everyday earbuds, goes in your ear, and the essential open earbuds, go hook around your ear.

Now, why do you want this, Brian, you may ask, go ahead and ask why. Ask why, why, why, why, why? Well, Jim, why would you want this wonderful feature? Because apparently a lot of the people that had the earbuds stuck in their ear got hit by trains because they couldn't hear the things, because they couldn't hear the thing coming. That's not the reason. I thought you were really going to give me an official reason.

It wasn't that, no. Well, they didn't, they don't have a reason here, so I'm just speculating. You know, all I can do is speculate. Why would your mind go there? But because the essential open earbuds, they, they do not block out the car honking or the people screaming, stop! It's a cliff! Or anything like that. they sit outside your ear canal so the sound goes into your canal while at the same time the train does not go up your anal canal because you didn't hear it coming and you know the the statistics show that people who have had trains run up their ass has increased exponentially over the past number of years since that actually earbuds and headphones and methods of excommunicating yourself from the world have been

invented. There are no statistics. And then boom, and they stop on the tracks to bend over and pick something up and boom, there's the train goes right up there. Listen, less tracks, more ears. Let's get back on track here, Jim. Let's talk about Raycom. You can hang, you can hang these off your ears. Because it's got the open ear design where you hear your music and you hear the world around you both at the same time because of the multi-angular hook. The multi-angular hook it's got. It's very lightweight that is flexible and adapts to any ear whatsoever, except they're still trying to make one for the African elephant. I understand the Indian elephant size has been made, but the African elephants are a little bit touchy. But otherwise, any ear.

Any human ear on human beings for human consumption? Did you know they used to had to glue fake ears on Indian elephants to make them African elephants and the Tarzan movies. And also, folks, the multi-point connectivity still works. You can connect to multiple devices and switch

seamlessly. It means you do not have to sew these things in. They will stay on. 36 hours of battery life, eight hours of playtime. Holy mackerel. I don't know why in the world you would not listen to something.

if you would or why you wouldn't want to listen to something on these fine earbuds. You know what I'm saying, Brian. I've got the tense wrong there. Oh, yeah. If you want to listen to something, you're wanting to listen to them on these fine earbuds. Well, Jim, I'm sure we have a great deal for the listeners. What is that deal? What are we now?

We've got to give them more money off in 2026, too. We've saved these people a fortune in 2025. and now they just expect deep discounts on everything. All right, 20% off everything into place. 25% off everything into place if you go to buy raycon.com, you just said two different numbers. You said 20% and then you said 25% the next second. No, I said 20% twice.

You said 25% off everything into place. 20 run the tape back. Well, never mind. Just listen to me now. Now, 20% off everything in the place over there at buy Raycon, B-U-Y-R-A-C-O-N dot com slash J-C-E-O-E-O-P-E-O-P-E-O-P-E-O-P-E-O-P-E-O-P-E-O-E-O-T-E-E-E-O-E-O-E-W. 20% is what I've said, and I maintain all along, buy raycon.com slash jCE open 20% off

you will not be run over by a train or penetrated by any other moving object unless you're willing to be and in which case you've probably taken off the earbuds to negotiate the whole deal separately. Let's get back on the track here and once again by raycon.com

slash JCE open a great deal, a great earbud, The ear hook part rotates. So if your ears are facing backwards, you can just flip it around. Well, Jim, let's try to flip ourselves around. Let's go from the joy of talking classic wrestling to WWRAW, the big anniversary on Netflix, one year on Netflix, the first new raw of the new year. And of course, a tie-in with Stranger Things,

a tie-in which included a van. some lighting, and music. Not one star from the show was there or anything. But let's talk about WW Raw one year on Netflix. Well, and that's how I was going to ask you. Because, and you'll, folks out there in podcast land, you'll find out in a minute why I was skipping through most of this program, trying to get to the meat of the matter.

No pun intended as it's going to turn out, to get to the meat of the matter. but I've got to be honest Brian I don't lie to the people you can testify to that I've heard the name stranger things in relation to a television show I have no fucking idea what the things are or how strange they truly are I don't know what it's about I don't know who's in it

I don't know if I have time to find out I'd rather sort negatives to be honest with you at this point in my life as I'm winding things down toward the end. But I didn't, I saw them at the open when they had the weird vehicle thing,

whatever the fucking, the lighting and the Zabada and as I was zipping through, I never saw anything else related to a thing strange or otherwise. Was that just, was that it?

Did I miss something or was that it? Again, it's a big deal for Netflix. it's a big popular show and this is the last season they just debuted the last episode so it's the time I thought there was going to be something

I was afraid it would be like AEW where the wrestlers come out dressed like characters and that kind of stuff but we didn't even get that. What were some of the ghosts on the show going to come out and beat up some of the boys? I'm not, I don't know that I'm advocating for

that. I don't know why there was a why do you I understand they want to promote and advertise the show on their network, but how do you advertise it's a crossover when nothing crossed over? Yeah, the stranger thing is why WWE book this show? Because they seem to be booking worse and worse TV shows. And this is one where they had a lot of attention. What are they going to do?

There has to be something big. Some fans would like Jericho would be there. I didn't think it would be Jericho. Some may have even thought the rock will reappear. We didn't think that would happen in his new slim-down phase. But there was nothing. I mean, it was a big main event. Can't take anything away from Braun versus Punk.

Oh, I'm about to. But it just felt like a raw. Did it just feel like a raw with a van? No, it felt like fucking glow with a main event is what it felt like. The only men's wrestling match on a two and a half hour program was CM Punk and Braun Breaker. And not only that, but for God's sake, if you're talking about main event quality, Becky Lynch and model girl, what's her name, Maxine Dupree? I was going to say Maxine LaPrey, but she would have had to.

live in a one-bedroom apartment. They've had that already a few times. They had it again. Becky Beater. Liv Morgan beat Lyric Valedictorian. At one point, Rochelle, Rochelle in the back of the arena, beat the shit out of Stephanie Vacker. Who was doing a promo?

Who was doing a promo? Who was doing a promo? In a walking boot. And E.O. and Ria against Oscar and Carrie again that Ria's been stuck in the land of Japanese Lilliput. And that was the show. A.J. and Gunther talked mean to each other. And the Uso's cut a promo.

Did you see any of the A.J. Gunther stuff? Because that kind of continued briefly in the back later on. No, to be honest, I did not. I did not because I had read the recap and when I skit, because I didn't have on-screen fast forward either this week. for whatever reason, it comes, it goes. And when I'd already seen that it was Becky, I knew I'd gone too far, but it was too late to turn back now.

Because I believe, I believe, I believe I'm getting so bored. Let me ask you this about Gunther, because obviously everything now centers around him still saying that he tapped John Cena or made John Cena tap out like a little bitch. Like a little bitch. He even had like a shirt made up. consider John Cena's not coming back should they move on

should they have him say something else or do something else instead of having AJ Styles get offended that he's insulting John Cena well there's a middle ground there between shadow and superstition

Brian I think he should keep it up I mean think of you know all the heels in the past I broke Wahoo's leg that have gotten mileage out of something and yes, I made John Sian tap out like a little bitch. Well, but at the same time, it kind of lasted. I don't know.

Do more people remember that Wahoo actually came back and got even now, or do they just remember I broke Wahoo's leg? But you know what I'm saying? It's a method to generate heat, reminding people what he did to their icon, and well, he can't come back and get even, you son of a bitch, whatever. But at the same point,

what was the second part of your point that I was going to point AJ Stiles is defending John Cena's honor AJ should not be that's no that's the part that I don't agree with in that I think AJ needs his own reason as a grown man

you know maybe Gunther stepped on his fucking toe walking out or whatever instead of just hey don't talk bad about my friend who left here to me make movies and no, it should be more personal there. So while I agree

with one half of that, the other half AJ needs a personal reason rather than just taking up for good old John. Well, any other thoughts on anything other than the main event from Raw? Oh, no, I didn't know we were there already. Well, I didn't know if there was anything

as you saw. That's what I was asking. Well, no, I was going to again make the commentary they're in fucking Brooklyn. I know that sounds to some people like they're a fucking street quarter playing stickball.

But this is the big building. What is it? Brian the Barclays Center. Yeah. So it's not like Berwyn. It's Brooke. It's a big building.

It's the Netflix anniversary. How many people did they have there? I don't fucking remember, but it was goddamn sold out. And we get three girls matches, a promo with a tag team that doesn't just, hey, we're back.

And AJ and Gunther with a slap in a face, literally. And besides the main event, that's the whole fucking show. Help me try to, that's that's the point that I'm making is that I, you don't, just because,

Jericho wasn't going to be there and people like, oh, they'll save that for whatever the fuck. There's major goddamn stars that already worked for the company. I'd like to have seen some of them. I mean, what the fuck was this? It was also an Uso's promo, I think. I mentioned that as a tag team. Hey, we're back. Yeah, okay.

And I'm not saying you've got to get in a fight in every promo, But then AJ and Gunther, it just, Jesus Christ on a cracker. I think that unless the philosophy is, hey, let's cool everything down before we have to heat it up because we can do really well even while it's cooled down. Or if they really think they're doing good TV or Vince is sending in the TV. I really don't know. The TV sucks. It's raw and Smackdown. Smackdown's not three hours again.

It's both shows. they're not cool. And we saw when things were hot, a two-hour Smackdown flew by. Raw was easy to watch. These shows are not easy to watch, and the problem is the creative. They got the stars.

The problem is the creative. Brian, you know what I'm going to be saying every Friday night now, don't you? Shoot up here amongst us because one of us needs a little relief. But anyway, that's the point. Even if they wanted to have a three, ladies' matches.

Can you put a couple of guys' matches in just to change it up and make it different? Did we need a two and a half hour program where there literally were only four fucking wrestling matches on it? So anyway, one hour and 54 minutes

into the presentation. Here came Bronbreaker, the big match we've been waiting for. And then they transitioned to Lackamoussela. And it's, you know, CM Punk is a big city guy, Brian. Because if you notice the big markets, the L.A.s, the Chicago's, the New Yorks, they sing louder, they cheer louder, they clobbering time more efficiently together. And at the same point, if he was to go to Greenwood, Mississippi, well, there might be three or four people on the card that they might share louder, but he's fucking over in the, in the, in the big markets.

And he got the, the punk chance and the whole thing. And I like the little touch. He wore a varsity club jacket like the college letterman thing with that Steiner and Rotunda used to wear. And the announcers actually were able to call attention to that. I guess the new administration is letting them freely say that Braun Breaker is a Steiner, he's a Breaker Steiner. Shouldn't he just be hyphenated now? Braun Breaker Steiner. Does it pass the name test?

I think they've used it long enough that they're going to stick with it and it has to be one or the other. They went with Breaker and that's the way it'll be until he goes to AEW in 10 years. Oh, I got news for you. God damn it, will I? Well, fuck it. I'll remind me and I'll put the money in escrow because I don't know I can't guarantee that I'll still be around at that point. But if Bronbreaker is still in the wrestling business at all, 15 years from now, he will still be with the WWE or I will pay you $10,000. How about them apples? With inflation, $10,000 then or $10,000 the value? of it now. Oh, God damn. Now you got it. You just got to just be that way where you just think of all kinds of different ways to flummox me and confuse the issue. I'm saying that

no, this is not a kid that's going to be going anywhere unless he leaves a wrestling business through hopefully other opportunities or he gets hurt or whatever the case. But no, he's going to be there for a while. Anyway, here's the point though. He probably probably, probably wishes he wasn't. I think there was an element of snake-bittedness to both participants here. And I don't know if maybe Braun over-analyzed in his head or whatever. They did some nice wrestling at first, and then Braun cut him off just within a minute. And I mean, it's not a thing they do anymore where you shine the baby face that much. Because I mean, back in my day,

if you had a 15 minute match, well, you might shine the baby face for seven or eight minutes, get five, six minutes a good solid fucking heat and take a minute or two for your finish. Now they just hip toss, hip toss, fucking cut him the fuck off. But the problem was bronze heat, was uninspiring. I sound like James Lipton now.

Look him up, kids. But it was uninspired. It didn't seem to flow. He didn't seem comfortable going from one thing to another. Maybe part of it is he's been used to tag team matches for a little while. I don't know. Or was it that potentially was punk trying to call it all in the ring, see where the kid was and he's not all the way used to that,

but when Braun had the opportunity to do things, it seemed like he was more hesitant. And punk would fight back, but then Braun would cut him off again and keep the heat going because again, they're trying to elevate. Punk's already a star. They're trying to elevate Bronbreaker, so he's kicking a shit out of punk for most of this match.

But then Braun missed the, the Breckensteiner off the top rope, and he reminds me again so much of Rick, because I would watch Rick when he was young. And I get, how old was he in 1984, Brian, Mr. Listmaker? Do you even remember, is Braun about the same age now as Rick was then, probably?

Rick wasn't on the list because he wasn't doing anything in 84, but he was born in 60. That's right. 60. Okay, well, 23, bronze, what, 28 now? So during the first couple years of Rick's career, about this same period of time, Rick would take bumps that you go,

Jesus Christ, and he would get up and it wouldn't phase him. And there was an element of, yes, he's such a physical beast and a specimen that he can take a bump better than a skinny guy or a fat, guy with no fucking muscle or and he's also such an athlete that he has a rolling way of doing some things and a situational awareness of his body in the air at the time that he can tuck and do

things it's kind of brawn looks a lot like rick did in that aspect but launching himself into some of these things no matter how good you are at it or how tough you are or how good of shape you're in. Eventually, last time I saw Rick Steiner, he'd probably wish that he'd done a few fewer of those. I'm not saying he was in a goddamn wheelchair, but he wasn't wanting to take any more fucking bumps. Right?

He'd still probably stretch the average person, but nevertheless. In this case, when Braun missed the Breckensteiner, he landed on pretty much on his head, but his arms were underneath him and because of the Steiner freakiness and situational awareness and he got tough just enough,

he didn't just snap his head. But what happened was he got up to the top just fine. And I'm trying to figure out how to explain this. He does it so often one would think I guess maybe that when he got up to the top

he was up and upright and he was able he would have been able from there to do the Hurricane Rana but instead he started leaning backwards before he reached up and did the fucking finger thing that he always does at the top

and it looked like when he was going backwards he said oh shit instead of he had to get the finger thing in first and by the time he did the finger thing and then he fucking kicked his legs up he was already going and he just whipped around and punk just collapsed on the top rope

because his legs were gone in an instant there was no where the commentator said oh punk was able to hold on and foil it or whatever but he just hurricane Ronid Casper the friendly fucking ghost off the top rope

and landed on his head and I'm old-fashioned. I was like, all right, they did it where it looked like punk countered it. I would have gone on. But they ended up, because I know the people loved to hear the Stones play satisfaction or whatever fuck it may be, where they went within a minute back to it where he went up and did hit it. And actually, punk may have called it again, said, just do it goddamn right this time,

just so he didn't have a complex. Braun, that is, about doing it again and leave it like that. But then, ah, I think the, then they had to, the finish had to get complicated, which to me took some of the momentum away from the thing. When Punk was making his comeback and hit the elbow off the top and he's calling for the go to sleep. And Paul got up on the apron.

and old happy Haman and distracted punk. And then reading and Logan Paul and Austin theory came out and punk is fighting them off the apron, but they bump the referee in the process in the ring. And then Theory was able to hit the curb stomp and cover and got a two count when the referee revived. But here comes Penta and Dragon Lee and they're fighting the heels off.

I'm like, I'm an AEW. It got busy there when hopefully they had created a little goddamn momentum on their own. I'm not saying don't have anybody try to interfere, but maybe five people within 45 seconds and then they're all, and a referee bump, and it just kind of was a little distracting, like leopard print wallpaper. and then they continued the match. And Braun speared the post and Punk hit a go to sleep and got the two count.

And then Punk got him with a pile driver barely, got a two count. And then Braun foiled a GTS and got the arm bar, but Punk escaped and got the anaconda vice. And now they're doing some good shit. Okay, Braun with a gut buster and a clothesline. I have a feeling it, Braun is somewhat also like his father and or uncle and or similar folks from the 80s. When he's laying those fucking clotheslines in on a comeback,

he looks like he's excited. So I'm not wondering if maybe punk might be black, blue or some other kind of orange by the time his thing's over with. Braun called for the go-sleep, and Punk foiled it into an STF. And then Paul came up again, and Brian, I don't know when the last time I saw this, but Paul Heyman took a bump.

Punk punched him right in his penguin-like head, and he took a bump off the apron of the ring. Did you feel the earth tremor about a 7.8 on the East Coast when that happened? Although I'm not too far from, Brooklyn, we did not feel that, no. No, they reported it at NORAD. They thought it was some kind of fucking alien goddamn advance invasion. So anyway, boom, down goes Haman, down goes Haman.

And then they went to do a deal where punk was going to dive out and Braun was going to do the deal where you've seen the guy when the guy's going to do a dive, but the other guy on the floor double crosses him and reached up and nails him whatever and i've never really liked that spot anyway because when you're diving through the ropes how do you goddamn reverse your momentum to sell most of the time it's like the guy takes a swipe as best he can at the guy as he goes down well in this case as punk dives through the ropes and brawn hits him with a form or whatever he's trying to do, Pung just went not only straight goddamn face first down

of the mat or the floor, but also somewhere another blew his foot out of his boot. Did you see that? I did. And I'm like, how the fuck? Because I went back and rewound as much as I'm trying to follow the guy's

foot to see when did he blow out his boot. And it had to be on the dive. And I don't know how on a dive you blow out a wrestling boot, but his foot was coming through the goddamn thing. It was like flopping. A piece of it was flopping off. And so now he's face first on the goddamn ground.

And his boots blown out that he staggers over the desk to do the goddamn spot. And Bron comes off the top rope all the way the announced desk with a clothesline and they go through the desk. Boom. And then fucking finally they both get in and punk's fucking woozy. And Braun goes for the spear. And to me this was the same comment I just made about the reversing the trajectory on a dive through the ropes and somebody punches somebody. Braun went for the spear and the concept was that punk would catch him with a knee lift to the

fucking head, boom. Oh, shit, he knocked him goofy. Hit him in the head with the fucking knee when he's coming that fast. But you can't, especially with Braun, and especially with it being a work, but with Bron coming that fast for a spear, even if you did knee lift him for a shoot, he's still going to keep going forward. It's awkward to show the impact to get the people to understand it. Do you see what I'm saying? This is awkward to pull off an actual execution. Yeah. And so I thought it was a little eh, because the announcers called it right. Oh, I hit it with the knee, but it just, it didn't. I don't think there's any way to stop Bronbreaker's spear on a dime. So if they want to foil it, they should concentrate on ducking

or diving out of the way of it when they're in front of something hard or dangerous or some way using his forward momentum as he goes by them to drive him into something or whatever rather than trying to stop it on a dime

and have him portray that he's got knocked goofy. It doesn't translate to a big building. But go to sleep, one, two, three, and there was the finish. And it poked toward the rest of the piece. of his boot off and threw it down on the mat. And then he was probably sitting there going, well, thank God, at least that's over. He didn't kill me.

My fucking, God, he didn't kill himself on the bump on his head. And we got by with this thing. And he jumps up and goes to grab the belt from the referee. And as he grabs it, he loses grip on it. And he drops the belt on raw, as they say. literally dropped in the middle of the ring and had to pick it up again fucking who was if somebody did that one night with brian hildebrand and smoky mountain and just pitched it halfway across the fucking ring but anyway it wasn't the shining example of what

either either fellow can do between the lackluster rest of the show then the equipment malfunction, then the near fatal occurrence of Bronbreaker's mid-air gyroscope not working and then a finish at the end that got awful cluttered.

So I'd still like to see them just maybe go one on one again and at some point I'm sure I will. But without some of the, I'd love to see Paul take another bump. I don't know what you think, young Brian?

There were elements of the match or moments in the match I really liked, but altogether it felt disjointed. Obviously, things didn't go perfect. Whether it was the boot or the Brekenstein or, I guess it is. Someone's going to hurt themselves, whatever company

landing on their head. I'll just say that here real quick because we just talked about it. But the cluttered finish, that's becoming another big problem with all the WWE main events, it seems like. There is some that don't have that. But man, the interference on every single

man-in-men, especially with the aim and stuff. And again, it's a heel-stable. That's what heel-stables do, but I don't know. Well, yeah, but there can be just one designated interferer that could get a point across, and again, when I saw

Dragon Lee and Right, that they ran them off. What's the other fellow's fucking name? Penta. Yeah. I'm like, I should this be a kind of a Codyish type of level. You know, I'm not saying Cody himself, but,

and he's on the other program, most of it, but I'm just saying a top level individual, which they didn't have many of on this program for the fine folks in Brooklyn. So that's where I was a little, I was a little disappointed by the lack of magnitude of it all, Brian, when they're supposed to be making major motion pictures and sitcoms.

Big main event for a big role, but looking at it as just the first CM Punk Bronbreaker match. Is it an okay first match for the two? I think they're glad they got it out of their system, so now they can go on from here. I think that's probably what they're thinking. Okay, we got that one out of the way. Well, you know, maybe CM Punk, Jim, maybe what he's thinking, especially after a match like that, is I want to get the stink of this off of me. I need to make sure I don't have the odor

of what just happened, whether it's my boot or everything else, that odor must go. We know someone, a friend of ours, here on the show, that can help CM Punk, smell good, be clean, and really those are the big features. Smell good and be clean, our friends at Mando. That's exactly correct, Brian, as I answered so perfunctorily,

punctually. Folks, Mando, and of course that is spelled M-A-N-D-O. Now, we had some problem. We had some problem with some folks going to M-A-N-D-O-U-G-H, but that is a place that sells special molds to make plaster casts of your manhood. M-A-N-O. That's not it.

This is M-A-N-D-O. That's where you're supposed to be going, unless you want to deal with a bunch of dicks. but the folks at Mando, shopmando.com, boy, howdy, they ain't nearly prickly. They want to help you out because if you stink right now, Brian, the studies have shown that you're not going to get laid as often as you could. And let's face it, if we go by some of the people you see walking down a street,

if that's twice a year, well, they're lucky right now. They're missing out on at least something every three months. Because smelling better naked, that is the hope and the wish for everybody in the New Year. No, that's what it says right here. There's one New Year's resolution that's right within reach, and that's smelling better naked. I mentioned on the experience last time that if you wear clothes, well, you can conceal that at some point if you're smelling like a man eating from Monday cheese in a septic tank of a slaughterhouse. but if you're naked walking down the street, if the breeze goes the right way,

people are going to pick you up and you can clear a public park or a shopping mall, whatever the case. So you want to make sure, and in the warm climates, Brian, even this time of year, a lot of people walking around naked because it's 70-something degrees.

So you want to know this is created by a doctor who saw how normal B.O. And you know what B.O. stands for it, don't you? Ball odor. Body odor. Well, both of those. He saw it was being misdiagnosed and mistreated.

Some physicians back in the 30s and 40s, especially before they got rid of the iron lung, were just chopping your testicles off to keep them from stinking. And that led to all kinds of problems. You've been misdiagnosed. It's not hepatitis. It's B-O. And boom! So this is clinically proven to help you keep your balls. Now, if you get another problem with them, well, and we're not responsible,

but they're not going to cut them off just because they stink. It's going to block odor all day and control your odor for up to 72 hours, folks. The Mando deodorant, the solid deodorant stick that is formulated and powered by mandelic acid. Nelson Mandela invented this in prison. He did not have anything to do with this in prison. He got the copyright soon after he got out. You're not allowed as a felon, you know, in prison to have a copyright. But nevertheless, it stops odor before it starts.

And they've got the spray deodorant, which is aluminum-free or aluminum, as they say across the pond, and ideal for the hard-to-reach places. Now, because the spray deodor, you can just take one finger on the sprayer and bend over and you can cover all kinds of ground, but the solid stick. you got to put that at least just the tip at least all the way and it's harder to reach that place and all of the products are baking soda free so you do not want to try to make biscuits with these things and paraben free if you look up paraben you'll see that it's something that you don't want to have anywhere around you and you can choose from a variety of fresh scents like bourbon leather boy you can get cropped on that shit

too. No, it's a wonderful sense. It's a wonderful sense. You sniff enough of it because it's 40 proof. You do not know that. We don't know what the proof is. We know that it's a wonderful scent. I've got the proof right here.

Bourbon leather clover woods. That's where you're lost in the forest and you're trying to smell your way out. Pro sport. That's where you smell like an athlete competing in the Olympics. Alone, away from home with no access to clean laundry. And, of course, the Mr. Fuji scent.

Mount Fuji. Mount Fuji. Well, there's a replica of Fuji's face on the label. It's clinically proven to control odor better than a shower with soap alone. And never take a shower with soap alone. Always take a shower with soap and somebody else to grease up the right places. Once again, 12 hours after a shower,

yes, you're 12 hours after a shower if you're still trying to get rid of her. The average man's grundle odor level is a 5 out of 10, only 12 hours after a shower. And of course, you don't want your grundle

to be nearly that high. Who did that study? Professor Grundle. You don't remember Bernie Grundle? You don't remember him? He managed the Eagles for a while. before they found Ronstadt. With Mando, the average grunder odor level is a zero out of 10, 12 hours after a shower.

So take a shower every 12 hours and nobody will be able to smell you. Even the police bloodhounds. Here's another thing. If you shower every 12 hours from now on, you can commit any crime you want because the police bloodhounds will not be able to smell you. If you want to try America's number one. That is not true. not something we're going to endorse. Don't commit any crimes. And if you do commit a crime because

you're a crook or just a bad person, they will find you because your scent will be so lovely after you deodorize and wash up from these fine Mando products, you will be found and that dog will be happy with that scent. It'll be a pleasant scent. They'll track you down. No, I'm telling you, if a shower every 12 hours, I'm not recommending they commit a crime. I'm just saying if they do, you know, I mean, if you're a moraless, morally bankrupt individual and you want to commit a crime, just know the dogs won't smell you. But what you can do? Keep going.

It's power through. Yes. Let's go. Let's go. Mando can get the job done right of masking your B.O. Don't mask it. Mando it. Available in retailers near you or head to shop Mando.

because for a limited time, new customers get 20% off sidewide with our exclusive code JCE shop mando.com, M-A-N-D-O, 20% off sitewide, free shipping with the code J-C-E, and tell them we sent you and told you that you stink. Mando! All right, we continue on here with the big show. continuing on there. I've got something for you, though, just real briefly, just before we go on to our next topic. This tickled me today.

Somebody tweeted the other day. The article on, we've talked about the Ox Baker riot in Cleveland with Johnny Powers and Ernie Ladd. Ox, the natives are getting restless. And people, we've directed people to see the video on YouTube and a lot of people have seen it. Well, this is a newspaper article on, I guess,

the day after. And a fan storm ring, wrestler is hurt. A wrestler suffered head lacerations requiring six stitches after fans stormed the ring and hurled chairs during last night's pro wrestling matches at the arena. And apparently, it was the second incident in two nights at the arena. They'd had a hockey game the night before. And it says, Coach Bill Deneen and winger Gordy Howell of Houston, attack some fans in a stance.

So they were two for two in Cleveland at that point. And this is the quote that tickled me. By the way, Ox Baker was taking to charity hospital six inches or six inches, six stitches to close a head wound. But Dave Ott, the chairman of the Cleveland Boxing and Wrestling Commission, would you like to hear his quote, Brian, on the incident? Yeah. This is the chairman.

It was a mess. I'll tell you what. I've been on this commission 20 years and this was only the third time something like this has happened. It only has, it's like once every six and a half years, folks, believe me. Oh, so the commission had a firm grasp on the goings on there and we're cracking down on that. estimated 3,000 fans in the crowd that night. And only 40 or 50 of them ended up in the rings. That's not bad.

All right. Well, that's the Ox Baker update, folks. For those looking for the latest news about the Cleveland riot in 75. Jim, as we move on with the show, something else that happened during our break. We're catching up with a lot of things on the experience in the drive-thru. messages came out, I guess due to the shareholder lawsuit against TKO, the shareholders who were accusing Vince McMahon and TKO being in cahoots that, what is that motorcycle or something outside,

that they're coming, they're coming to get you. That the sale to TKO was kind of, wouldn't you know who won the pony? It was a work. Wouldn't you know who won the company? And there wasn't a fair bidding process and other people who early on I thought may have been a bigger player's, like Liberty Media, they felt like something was, something funny was happening. And it turns out there was something going on. Well, and Mark Shapiro, and this is the thing about discovery and lawsuits and this newfangled electronic communication. besides for Jack Pfeffer back in the old days of wrestling,

nobody kept anything on paper, even the limited amount of things that they would reveal on paper that Pfeffer kept, because Pfeffer was a paperkeeper. But now there's all the electronic communications, the text, the emails. Your Honor, these here crooks here are busted because they get the evidence right there in front of them. And the text came out that Mark Shapiro, I can't remember what his title is, but he's one of the head-muckety-mucks. Number two.

As long as Ari Emanuel. He's number two. Yeah, Ari's number one. Mark Shapiro is number two. That's right. And he feels like shit right now, I'll tell you that. Because he was texting his close associates there in the big flywheel they've got. what was going to happen nine months to a year before it happened when Vince retired the first time?

He told him that, yeah, Stephanie and Nick are going to run the company for X amount of months, and then Vince is going to come back, and he might have to bring a new board with him, and then he's either going to take it private or we're going to do the deal. Hey, the courtship is on. Do grown men speak to each other that way? especially in incriminating text, the courtship is on. Hollywood agents? Absolutely.

Christ on a cracker. Have you ever met an agent? Thankfully, no. I've never been agented. I understand a lot of times it doesn't end well. But he called it, and that's exactly what happened. And he had been communicating this to his people inside endeavor and the whole nine yards.

And while it was going on and then saying saying some wishy-washy things in public about it, and then that was their plan. And, you know, going back, we, you and I, Brian, on the show at various points, identified some elements of pony winning going on at certain times, but they had the whole thing

fucking plotted from the start and now they've basically been outed. Now, you being more of a versed person in the area of litigation than I am because my brain explodes, the shareholders and the people bringing this, the spurned paramours of the purchasing world,

have brought this suit on behalf of the shareholders because they said, well, they didn't give it. a fair sale process and the shareholders could have got more money. Well, they proved the process wasn't fair, but how can you prove damages when the fucking stock is worth twice as much as it was when they started the scam? You see what I'm saying here?

Yeah, and they had an exchange. I don't know how this came up in the discovery between a couple of executives from Liberty Media, who I would have thought would have been the big players here in the state. states at least. And one of them said, the exact quote, looks like they had been cooking this one up for a while. And the other one replied, yep, pre-wired. So people in the industry were saying, yeah,

Endeavor and Vince McMahon set out to do this. When Vince McMahon left, the idea that they all knew, Stephanie and Nick will be the face of the company and Vince will come back and they'll get rid of whatever board members they need to get rid of so Vince could have complete control. and he's going to say publicly that he has to do this in order to sell the company

because he knew where he wanted it to go. The question is what's going to happen now? Well, and because, and here's the important thing, the only thing that didn't go according to plan, Smithers, was that Vince made this deal because that way he was going to be the number two guy. He was going to be more important in TKO than Dana White. He was a higher, more important to hire up on the,

fucking bullshit corporate chain of command they all make up for themselves to spend more money on each other. They're greedy lining their pockets that fucking should burn in hell. But nevertheless, Vince was going to be like number two, number three, and the whole enchilada of the $25 billion corporation. They didn't know that the Janelle Grant head pooping case was going to hit the news like gangbusters and running. off again. That time, that one was not a work.

You know, it really makes you wonder, too, if they were making public comments that weren't necessarily true or truthful about Vince McMahon and the company and the future, how true are they now when they say Vince has nothing to do with anything with the company? I think Vince has burnt his goodwill with the Hollywood agents. again what was the words of betty davis to a fellow movie star actress who was getting run around by her husband is the fucking you're getting worth the fucking you're getting Vince gave them a big black eye right at the start and they excommunicated him at least publicly but Vince has gone to great pains to do whatever the fuck he's doing.

doing with this new company and he's very rarely seen or referred to and never live at the shows and they've seen that the flywheel will keep on flying and big flywheels keep on turning with hunter and whoever the fuck else and I don't think they're in love with him as much as they once were and convinced he had to be the key to the thing. I think about what TKHAO really did. I mean, the creation of TKO. All the debt that Endeavor had, they put on TKO. So that's on WWE and UFC. And that's why it's going to be nonstop commercializing everything. And there's nothing wrong with that to a degree. But everyone notices it. When everyone's pointing out nonstop sponsorships, commercials in the middle of commercials, you got a problem, and they need

to do that. Because that's the only way they're going to get. get away from all their debt until they sell it to the Saudis, which will be the next thing. I agree. But when Vince McMahon, if the case goes away with Janelle Grant at any point in the next year,

you don't think he's going to instantly be back involved with WWE? I don't really think so. Because, just to be honest, they still don't, it's like, like in the old days when they quit trusting Tommy Rich to rent a car.

on the Ohio tour because he was wrecking them all and it was ruining it for the boys. I don't know if they can trust him again. Not only the public image to the fans that go to the arenas, they would, I'm sure, cheer events, but the sponsors, the stainlings longer there in the memory of big corporations, do we want to be involved with,

oh, the last we heard of this guy, he was shitting on people. and do you do you trust him again like is there anything else we ought to know Vince even though you're fucking 80 anything you've been up to lately they don't know

I don't think it's necessary I think the the younger McMahon generation is going to be spotlighted just fine without Vince well we will stay on top of this story to see what more we can find out about the shareholder lawsuit

lots more will be coming out Brandon Thurston's been extensively covering it. So whatever comes out of discovery, or whatever comes out publicly, will be something that we talk about here on the show. We'll see what happens. Jim, what has become a requested holiday tradition or New Year tradition,

I have been sent the results of the 2025 Korean Wrestling Awards. I don't know if you remember this in last year. Oh, yeah, this was quite popular with our audience. Last year, John Moxley almost swept the worst awards, everything. Worst gimmick, worse move, worse push, worse match, worst wrestler, everything was John Moxley. That's why when you first brought it up, I was like, oh, this is going to be off the wall, and it came to find out that the South Korean folks had more of a grip on reality than most people over here in the United States of America. Yeah, I guess this would be exclusively South Korean.

I don't know if the North Korea wrestling fans. get to participate in this. They got other troubles. They have other internet. Jim, the best male wrestler of the year, John Sina. That's not controversial because when you think about it, all of the shows that he was on this year drew appreciably proportionally bigger houses and gates and crowds and sold more tickets or the big event was widely viewed, whatever. So,

he was featured in all the main events, blah, blah, blah. That's a non-controversial choice. The female wrestler of the year is E.O. Sky. The tag. Okay. I'm just going to say everybody. Everybody loves E.O. Sky. So who am I to argue?

Not my cup of tea, but at least she doesn't go out there and shit her pants and you know, miss the table every night. The best team of the year is the Vision. Ev Bronson Reed and Bronbreaker. The entire group, I believe, is counted as one for this example. You know, they ought to have a goddamn big six-man tag or whatever the fuck guy.

I would say that based on, again, prominence of position on the card, that would be correct, because all the other tag teams and all the companies are just doing an endless four-way in the middle of the card somewhere. All right, at some point we may have to start running through these. Best baby face, John Sina, best heel, Dominic Mysterio. Again, not controversial there, Dominic Mysterio.

He's done a wonderful fucking job. He's over like crazy. The people love to hate him as the, they used to say. The best champion, John Sina, the best worker, AJ Stiles, the best match.

John Sina versus AJ Stiles. Hold on now. I was about to say now I'm seeing a pattern here. Have we got Sina and AJ's press agent? I don't know. Why wouldn't the South Koreans seems like they'd be into Gunther as best worker? That's what I was going to say there.

I would have thought that. I don't know why you would have thought that. That's a random pick there. Because he's the best worker, and they're kind of more serious. Let's go back to this. The best segment. John Sina sells his soul to the rock and ruthlessly attacks Cody Rhodes and turns heel.

Ruthlessly. The best moment. John Sina turns heel by selling his soul to the rock and mercilessly attacking Cody Rhodes. Without mercy. The best feud, let me get your thoughts on this, CM Punk versus Seth Rollins. Well, I'm glad we got somebody besides Sina and AJ and Sina there.

I can't argue with that, because they really, they had the extra special little soups-on of, we don't like each other for real into that. Punk and Drew was the year before, right? punk and Drew sounds like a fucking Halloween beverage That's right So yes

And also we broke that Sina pattern We were developing there here a minute ago Jim the best catchphrase The last time is now John Sina The best newcomer Joe Hendry Thought you were going to say John Sina Well again Joe Hendry's very popular

But as he really is he the best newcomer Is he just the newcomer that everybody cheers when he pops up and doesn't really have to do anything? I've answered your own question there. The best mic worker, John Sina. The best non-wrestler, Paul Heyman. At least, at least Sina wasn't going to win that one. Well, I mean, you can't argue with that. I don't even know anybody.

It's even close to second place. The most improved Dom Mysterio, the most notable. Whatever this is. The most notable Austin Theory. Okay. For 2025 off that one return, I guess. Hold on, wait a minute. I'm going to the American Heritage Dictionary.

Now, it may be different. I don't have the South Korean Heritage Dictionary, which may change things somewhat, but hold on, obtuse, oblivious. What was the word I'm looking for? Notable. Notable. nose cone, notable,

worthy of note or notice, remarkable, distinguished, imminent, a person of distinction. Well, that's like a consolation prize. All right, the best move? Braun Breaker's Spear. I'd argue with that. The best gimmick?

John Sina, the last real champion. The biggest news is, of the year, John Sina turns heel by selling his soul to the rock. The best return? Brock Lesner. What do you think of that? Best return? Well, now that we've broken again, the Sina stretch, and again, somebody is really a fan of

John's. Who else came back and made such a stir doing it a couple of different times? because he only shows up often enough that when he comes back, he's gone long enough. Oh, shit, he's back again. So every time you see him, it's really it's a comeback or a return. And then he just kills somebody. So, yeah, I could see that. The best entrance.

John Cena, my time is now. The best brand? WWE Raw. The best event, SummerSlam Night 2, headlined by John Cena versus Cody Rhodes. The best part timer John Sina The best booker Interesting here

Sean Michaels NXT Oh God Out of left field That came The best main event The Elimination Chamber match Which John Sina won

And then sold his soul to the rock Best face turn Jacob Fattu Best heel turn John Sina John Sina And the best entrance the Seth Rollins' leg fake-out

money-in-the-bank cash-in. That was a good moment. That's the best-of-list. Let's go to the... By the way, who would have been the one who dominated that list, in your opinion? Is there one clear standout, or was it kind of spread around fairly even?

The Never Seen 17, or whatever the hell that was. Jim, let's go to the Moxley's. The worst-of-list for the Korean Wrestling Awards for 2025. The worst male performer, any guesses? John Moxley. Jay Uso. Oh, he won the Moxley. Yeat.

The worst female performer, Mercedes-Money. Boom, Mercedes Moxley. That's her new name. Worst tag team, not tag team, worst team of the year, the Death Riders. Well, at least they've, they're still representing Moxley at the top of the, uh, the bill here. Worst baby face.

Jay Uso. Worst heel. Mercedes Monet. Oh, so I detect a pattern also in the other direction. No matter who did it if it's good, it was John Sina. And no matter who did it if it's bad, it's either Mercedes or fucking Uso. the worst champion New Japan

pro wrestling strong champion Mercedes Monet the worst worker Jay Uso God damn the worst match of the year Gunther retires John Sina

let's stop there for a moment oh wait a minute oh come on now that was the worst wrestling match of the year I see favoritism there. Hey, listen, there are people who hate that finish. Looking at the best of awards

and all the awards that John Cena just won, you can imagine the people who voted on this hated that finish. Let's go back to this here, Jim. Worst segment, Triple H provokes booing audience during Sina match retirement. The worst moment of the year?

He got in the way of John. John Sina taps out, the worst moment of the year. the worst feud Jay Uso versus Goonther the worst catchphrase Yeat Jay Uso

The worst newcomer Julia That's an interesting pick What do you think of that Out of nowhere Poor Julia She must think What the fuck did I do

I haven't seen enough of her to comment But as far as Newcomer If it means somebody that I didn't see before last year, she ain't by any means the worst. The worst mic worker, Jay Uso. The worst non-wrestler, Travis Scott. I think we can all agree on that.

I think so. The most overrated, Jay Uso. The most underrated, Drew McIntyre. What are your thoughts on that? Well, there at least, again, there's, There's a flash of brilliance in the middle of the bias here towards certain people that I saw somebody saying that the other day, Drew needs to win something. Drew is, he's been so good in everything he's been involved in, but at some point, the guy that's complaining that he gets screwed all the time needs to win a big one

so that when he gets screwed out of it, he can go back to that, because otherwise it wears off. Does that make sense? It does. Jim, the Christian Award, and if you remember we didn't know what that was last year, apparently it's the most pitiful of the year. I thought it was when they were dunked in the fucking

pond and blessed at the same time. To your previous point, Drew McIntyre. Isn't that interesting? Most underrated and most pitiful. I guess that's the same award, Steve Kern would have won at the 1987 Crockett Cup. Poor Steve, he's so pitiful.

He's a great worker, but God damn, he hates his life. Jim, the worst move? Jay Uso Spear. The worst gimmick. The belt collector, Mercedes Monet. The worst news story. John Cena taps out. Not Hulk Hogan dying or anything bad.

John Cena taps out the worst news story. of the year. Worst entrance, Travis Scott. Narrowly beating out Jay Uso. Worst brand, A.E.W. Worst event, Russell Palooza. The main event were Lesnar squashed John Cena. The worst part-timer, it's funny, I hadn't thought of her this way. The worst part-timer, Mercedes Monet.

Wow. Do you see her as a part-time? her? I'll see her always as a two-timer. Whatever you want to say, she works all the time. We always see her. Well, wouldn't you think, well, that's all the time is twice a week now, so that's part-time to me, so I'm not one to judge. All right. Well, the worst booker, Triple H. Ooh, South Korea, not happy with Triple H. The worst main event,

Gunther versus Sina and finally the worst face turn John Sina. Wow! He must have loved Heel Sina. Because all the heel Sina stuff was the big deal, but that was the worst. He wanted him to continue on pillaging and burning villages.

You say he, it was a voting body. It wasn't just like the Korean Dave Meltzer writing these up or anything. I got the idea there's one body writing this up some kind of way. Why you think that? There was voting here. Obviously, it's a united culture, united around their hatred of John Moxley and Jay Uso and Mercedes Monet. And then united by their absolute worship of John Sina and anything he does.

Oh, big missed opportunity for T.K.O. to do John Sina and Korea for the retirement tour. Well, that's another thing. You know, when they gave an award, a fan award to Tony Kahn the week, he got on the air or on the Twitter or whatever he got on, whatever he was already on, and he thanked him for it. So they ought to get Mark Shapiro to break his busy texting schedule to come out and thank the South Koreans for this fine publicity.

What do you think about Brom Breaker's Spear-winning best move and Jay Uso's spear-winning worst move? The spear won both awards. Considering the look of both of them, I think they're properly placed there. Well, there it is, Jim. Those are the picks, the annual picks we look at from the Korean wrestling community. And of course, many of the listeners may have their own picks. Maybe it's your nose.

Maybe it's your wrestling. Maybe it's what's going to happen in the big game. And if you got those picks and you want to win those prizes, Well, Jim, you know a place we could send everyone. Well, I can pick it up from here because right now you need to go to prize picks because that's where you're going to make money. And not only are you going to make money, but you're going to get the satisfaction of being right. Let's say, for example, it's a satisfaction you don't ever get around your home

when no matter what you do, you can never get the praise of being right. But, honey, I was right. No, you weren't. You were wrong. and you go to your job and you can never get the praise of being right because you always say but boss I was right

oh no you were wrong but when you go to prize picks it's like buying a whore they'll just tell you anything you want to hear it's not like that and that's not what it is at all at all not no that's not it

well at all because if it's good to be right it always feels good to be right in life and on prize picks. That's what it says. And if you want to feel good, will you go hire this whore called prize picks? Because prize picks is going to get you the opportunity.

Not a whore. Well, they're going to get you an opportunity, though. They will get you an opportunity. They've got early payouts. A whore doesn't have that. No. Well, I'll tell you what, try to get your money early from a whore. Prize picks is even better than a whore because if your player gets off to a hot

start and haven't we all with a whore? I don't understand what you're... But you've got the option to cash out the winnings before the game even finishes. Imagine if you could apply that to the other scenario that I'm talking about metaphorically. Let's ignore that scenario. However, you said when you get the money from the whores, are you the pimp now in a situation? Why are they giving you money? Well, no, that's what I'm saying.

This is even better because otherwise it'd cost you money. But with prize picks... They carry and change? They can blow you and pay you at the same time. No, they don't. Metaphorically, maybe, in a sense. Metaphorically. Let's be nice and clean.

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See tail comes back into it again. And if you don't want to pay, you just fade right into the background. But on prize picks, how you play is up to you. They're not judgmental. If you've got a kink, if you want flexibility, you can choose flex play. That's where the girl that brings your money can bend over and stick her head all the way between her legs and up above her spinal column. That's not what it is. It's not hot and flexible. It's flex play.

Yes, and you can get paid even if one of your picks misses. And if you want the biggest payouts, go for the power play. That thing so big, it requires a nine-volt battery to power that son of a bitch. that's how big it is. No matter your play, prize picks is a great way to put your takes to the test. You can get in on the action now

in all 50 states. You can do all kinds of things that look to me questionably legal because picking the same player up to three times in the same lineup. That's putting a lot of pressure on that young man, playing three different positions like that. But prize picks put you the users first.

That's what they do they accept most page your payment methods. They accept most major payment methods. There'll be a manifold match. Yes. And they'll pay you and you'll pay them and in some way or another

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Prize picks, it's good to be right. and if somebody asked you any questions, just say you want a lawyer and plead the fifth. Again, there are elements of the truth in there. Read between the lines, ladies and gentlemen, have a good time. Oh, you're going to have a good time.

Have a good time with prize picks and the picking of... That's where I first found the number. Is it for a good time call? Whatever your fantasy sports are may not be everyone else's, but once again, prize picks, promo code, JCE. Jim, as we move on here with the show,

I have a question, a very interesting one, sent in via email to corny drive-thru at gmail.com. This was sent by Vatsalia. Where? Where? What?

Vatsalia. Here's Vatsalia's question. W.W.E's current main event scene consists of CM Punk, Cody Rhodes, Jade Cargill, and Blake Monroe and Ricky Stark's at N.S.

all of them are AEW alums. What would the status of WWE's main event scene in 2026B if all of these stars were still in AEW? It's an interesting thought. The main event scene may be a loose description. That's the individual champions, including NXT, really in the main event scene of WWE is not literally correct. But I get the point of the thing, is that at one time or another,

everybody with these singles belts was over any other company. You know, to me, it would have damaged WWE's business if Cody had not been there for this story arc of the finishing the story and the blah, blah, blah. And obviously, they got a big bounce from punk from his comeback and the merchandise that he sells and a couple of different high-profile angles.

None of the other, who was the rest of the names on the list, Brian? Jade. Jade Cargill, Blake Monroe, and Ricky Starks. Ricky Starks. None of them have, I'm not saying anything about their talent, but they haven't been put in a position, whether they could or not to make any appreciable difference in the business. So I got to think that the WWE main event scene or the business would be everybody else in the main event scene, the Drew McIntyre's, the Brock Lesters and the Logan Paul's and the Braun Breaker and blah, blah, blah, would still be involved.

The business would have been somewhat different in terms of the revenue that Cody at that whole story at the peak and punk. to come back in the big matches he had, but it wouldn't be appreciably different because with the giant figure, mass money figures that they're using today and the guaranteed rights fees and blah, blah, blah, it'd be hard if they didn't have six guys on the main event roster that they've had to still make an appreciable difference. It's the brand now and the company and the,

It's the show, not the players. So those two guys specifically, punk and Cody, have given them bumps over their already obscenely high bar that they've set for income, but it isn't like a make or break thing. Nobody is anymore, are they? It's hard to say. I mean, if Cody wasn't there even more so than punk, that's the one where you really have a tough time picturing what they do for a while.

Do they keep things going with Sammy and try to make, you know, Sammy's big babyface run against Roman go a little longer? If there's no Cody, does Rollins have his issues at Roman a little earlier? It would have changed the trajectory of a lot of things. Drew McIntyre was kind of floating around, not doing anything. But nothing was the difference, I guess, of what I'm saying, between, The business they did in empty buildings. They were going to be, you know, they weren't to be suffering regardless. But as Cody started chasing the bloodline, it just so happens the bloodline got to the hottest point they ever were.

And again, there's a lot of drama. The Uso's, would they have elevated J. Uso a year earlier, two years earlier? I mean, it's the best thing for W.W.E. They got Cody and Punk. Yeah. Because they need those kind of guys you could slot into the top because there aren't that many. and I don't know they could have elevated Jay any earlier. The people did that for them first because they liked the silly Yeat thing.

Again, an interesting question, notwithstanding any issues in AEW or anything. If everyone had stayed there and everyone was happy, who does WWE have ready the last few years instead of Punk and Cody? Like, you brought a Bronn Breaker, this would have been a few years ago. He wasn't ready to be pushed at that point yet. No, I mean, it would have been appreciably. more difficult for them to get the great matches and business and programs they got, et cetera out of what they got.

That's why I'm saying they gave them a bump. But at this point, so much of it business-wise is guaranteed they could have, I think maybe the interest level they brought rather than the revenue they generated is probably more important because it kept WWE from losing fans' interest while they were going through all other bullshit with the ownership and the sale and the new players and blah, blah. You know, on the topic of wrestlers' stars in WWE that they could slot in, let me get your thoughts on the rumors about Chris Jericho. We've talked about him a little bit in the past, but now there have been photos going

around of Chris interviewing people on his podcast, and when people see him in shape, their first thoughts are, he's going to WWE. He cares again. He got himself in a really good shape. that is legitimately the reaction we've seen from people what are your thoughts on how to use Chris Jericho or returning Chris Jericho if he's in shape

motivated won't have a hissy fit if they don't go with his ideas and willing to do business what business is there to do with Chris Jericho in 2026 well I think I've said this months ago when we were talking about the potential of it that is the best use of Jericho right now for everybody. Tony is if he keeps,

you know, keeps him for some reason in AEW, which he's not, I'm just saying if he were to, then he would be paying him to contribute almost nothing. Because in that environment now, it's not like anybody's going to really make a big difference in that environment right now,

but Jericho's way past stale over there, and he didn't really fit in with, the whole thing and he's getting older to blah blah blah. So Tony's saving a bunch of money. He can pay some other lazy, broken down Japanese legend to fucking come in and stink the join out.

Jericho has history in WWE with that fan base and with the company and they have footage and they can monetize all that footage again by adjoining a Chris Jericho return with a

I don't know if a DVD now is uppermost in their minds, but some kind of documentary project and the blah, blah, blah, and the merchandising, and a, if they call it a retirement tour or even since they've already done that, just building up to his retirement

and the Hall of Fame. And so that's, you make Jericho a TV character that works a very limited schedule. Maybe he doesn't even show up at TV every week, but, you know, you get him a state. established first with whatever it's going to be and give him a rivalry or two, something hopefully at the start that he can look good in,

and then maybe something to get somebody over, and then maybe a little fucking run for whoever's going to be the retirement match or whatever. And I don't know that, Brian, you tell me, would it be a landmark event if anybody beat Chris Jericho? in the WWE in 2026 or 2027, is that passing a torch? Or is it just another bummer? Would you just want Jericho to have two, three, maybe four matches over the course of a year,

year and a half on premium live events and maybe a television appearance or two to promote same and have him win most of them, not all of them, but the last one probably definitely? What do you think? I don't know. Does Gunther get any benefit? If he retires another guy, whether it's AJ Stiles or after that, Chris Jericho?

Well, but I think, aren't they, hopefully they were doing that to lead to Brock. And if Gunther retires Brock, then that, he might as well retire the retiring gimmick, because how do you top that? does what happens if he doesn't though does it kill the whole thing if brock leaves beating guinthor i don't i don't brock if they have brock and guinthor brock ain't going to beat gunther i do not think they either have brock and gunther and gunther beats brock or they don't have brock and gunther so point being i i you know i don't know that it to to retire jericho at this point since he hadn't been there in fucking five years or whatever anyway.

And he's been somewhere else and people have beat him. And I don't know if it's the same, same gloss on it. Well, we'll see what happens. A lot of people assume it'll be the Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia. From pictures I saw earlier today, they're still building the stadium where they'll be housing. I saw that too.

And yeah, they're still building the fucking thing. And in three weeks or whatever, they're going to have a, you know, 50,000 people there watching. in the show. You know. Because they have slave labor.

I guess they overtax requirement. It's because Saudi Arabia is still a slave labor. I think that's a big part of the issue there, but I'm as they're not building a pyramid. Well, Jim, speaking of pyramids,

a real quick aside since you brought it up, when talking about Rick Flair's cameos, you brought up a nickname me ad for his ex-wife. Do you remember what it was? Cleopatra.

Why did he call her that? That was Beth's nickname. Just because she was the the queen. Queen of what? The queen of the Nile. The queen of the Castle Flair, whatever the Was she an Egyptian?

A lot of people were like, that's where he got his first trouble with the Egyptians. That's what I saw. But no, that was a that was legitimately a pet name that Flair had for his wife, Beth, who was Cleo. And she got 50% and now I hate the Egyptians.

Woo! What kind of stupid motherfucker you don't want to get married? Automatically, half of everything is hers. All right, I had to bring that up because I didn't even think about that when you said Cleopatra. I found that to be so funny. It's a joke that never ends. Jim, as we continue on. here with the show.

Jim, I have a list of Dave Meltzer's top-rated matches of 2025. Apparently, I just saw... I can hardly wait to hear what Dave has spent the most time obsessing over in the past year. And as we are doing this, he's on Twitter

and kind of the same topic. A few notes about 2025, it was the year with the most four-star matches in history. It was the biggest year for attendance at major shows worldwide in at least two decades. The first is subjective. The second isn't. And then a follow-up. The same city that had the most four-star matches in 2025 also drew the most fans in 2025.

That in no way means four-star matches draw money on their own. they don't. But in that specific case, it also wasn't coincidental. So is he saying they did draw? I don't know. Some way or another, you can never disprove

anything that Dave says because he leaves everything open, kind of like all night 7-11. Jim, the following is a list of five-star matches in 2025. Five-star is for many years was the very best

nothing could be better. Nothing could be better. Nothing could be finer than to get five stars in Carolina if you flare. And we're going to start with the most recent ones. John Moxley versus Kyle Fletcher, the Continental Classic Final at AEW World's end, December 27th. Oh, that's where he almost killed poor Kyle. That's right. Okay, well, that deserved five.

I bet Kyle saw more than five stars. Jim from November 23rd. Commander versus World Historic Walterweight Champion Mascaro Dorada at CMLL Domingo Familia. Also on the list? Yeah, yeah. TNT champion Kyle Fletcher versus Mark Briscoe, no-d-Q match, full gear November 22nd.

Oh, that was the bloodbath with the thumbtacks and the razor blades and the sabers and tigers and lions. Yeah, that's correct. Also from the same show, five stars, AEW World Tag Team Champions Brodito versus FTR. Yeah, I remember that one too. A couple weeks earlier, AEW Dynamite November 12th, men's blood and guts match. Almost a month earlier, AEW World Tag Team Champions Brodito versus Okada and Takesha at Russell Dream. Oh, good Christ.

I mean, that's, we're getting egregious now. We're getting egregious now. He still tries to cover up for anything that Okada's involved in. At this point, shouldn't that be? Give up the cause. Are you dying on that hill? It's over for the guy. If he ever had anything, it's lost.

Back to the five-star matches in 2025, Jim. August 29th, CMLL-L Grand Prix internationals Tourneo Cybernetico. What? On August 24th, it was a lights-out cage match at Forbidden Door, the Death Riders and the Young Bucks, versus Darby Allen, Tanahashi, Omega, Osprey, and Kota Ibushi. Wasn't that with Tanahashi walked out to the ring,

it looked like that somebody had surgically reattached his legs in catering. That was a horrible match, and Abushi didn't look that good either, of course. But I'm starting to, notice a pattern, either AEW or CMLL, but no, nothing else anywhere at all. I'll speak too soon. August 3rd, five stars for W.W.E. SummerSlam's Cody Rhodes versus WWE champion John Sina's street fight. Well, see, there you go. He had to put one of them in there.

Which was a couple days after John Sina turned baby face in a promo and just said, I was wrong. Let's go have a street fight. Jim, July 31st, T&T champion Dustin Rhodes versus Kyle Fletcher, street fight on AEW collision from CMLL Viones Espectacular or something like that, I apologize,

July 25th, Mascar Dorada versus Neon in a Tourneo La Lenada de Plata finals. Princess, yeah, and Dave has something for Mascaira Dorito, doesn't he? He's got something for that young fellow.

Jim June 20th from CMLL Fantastica Mania, Bandito and Hologram versus Mascarra Dorada and Mystico. Yeah, okay. From CMLL Martes Populares, June 17th, Ring of Honor World Champion Bandito versus Moscair Dorada. This is, is Dave a native of South Korea?

he doing the same fucking thing. Jim, May 25th, it was AEW double or nothing for anarchy in the arena. Another WW won April 25th on Smackdown. It was the Motor City Machine Guns versus the tag team champion street profits versus DIY in a tables, ladders, and chairs match. The second WWE match on this list, we're already way all the way back to April, and it's a underneath tag team TV match with garbage rules. Let's make it a third match.

From April 20th, WrestleMania 41, the women's champion Eoskeye versus Rio Ripley versus Bianca Bel Air. Giving equal time to the women. They can have garbage matches too. Jim A.W. Revolution, March 9th, Will Osprey versus Kyle Fletcher, Steel Cage match. That match went too far, too, actually,

now that I remember it. Yeah, well, one of them has went all the way out since then. So maybe that's from going too far. Jim, the same night, AEW Revolution, March 9th, AEW International Champion Takeshda versus Kenny Omega, five stars, as well as the Hollywood ending match, World's Champion Tony Storm versus Mariah May. Three five-star matches on that one show, amazing.

Wow, it's almost like it's an AEW show or something. from March 3rd Jim Loser Leaves Town Match at Stardom Knighter in Carican Hall Saya Kamitani versus Tam Nakano And at this point you wonder why that anybody can possibly buy into what Dave is doing these days, that it's just so, he gets so ridiculous

with this unknown niche fucking nobody's wrestling with the girls. And this is somehow greater than the major companies that actually have trained professionals every once in a while engaging in a wrestling match. Jim March 1st, Elimination Chamber, Kevin Owens versus Sammy Zane, unsanctioned match. Followed by A.W. Grand Slam, Australia, February 15th. Omega and Osprey versus Takesha and Fletcher.

Fletcher may be on this list more than anyone, it looks like. I think he's the American version of Dorito. He's Australian. Well, close. Two more five-star matches, IWGP Global Champion, Yoda Suji versus Gabe Kidd at New Japan Pro Wrestling, new beginning in Osaka, February 11th.

And finally, AZM or Azumi, or however you pronounce that, AZM, Mayu Amasaki, and Starlight Kid versus Natsupoi, Sayori Anoa, and Tang Are you just having a stroke? Are you what I'm doing? Are you underwater? You're singing opera underwater. Startup's 14th anniversary Supreme Fight on February 2nd.

Amazing. No five-star matches in January. That's news. But Jim, that's not the end here. more than five stars. Here are the matches that got more than five stars. December 10th,

winter is coming, A.E.W. Dynamite. Kyle Fletcher versus Mike Bailey, five and a quarter stars. Oh, Jesus. September 20th, All-Out.

Hangman Adam Page versus Kyle Fletcher, four and a-quarter stars. A.W. Unified Champion, Okada versus Takesha Mascara Dorada

at All-Out. Five and a quarter stars. Surrey versus Surrey. At stardom, the conversion. Wait a minute, it was Surrey versus Surrey. Surrey with a fringe on top? What is going on here? S-A-R-E-E-E-E-E-Y-Y-R-U-R-I.

Surrey versus Surrey. This is at the conversion, four and a quarter star. Five and a quarter star. I keep saying four. Five and a quarter stars. from AEW Dynamite's summer blockbuster June 11th, Swirr of Strickland versus Will Osprey, five and a quarter stars.

Fujita versus Yo! From the best of the Super Junior's final, five and a quarter stars. Sayha Kamatani versus Tom Nakano, career versus career at Stardom's All-Star Grand Queendom, five and a quarter stars. Now I know what's the matter with Dave. It ran him absolutely out of his fucking rabbit-ass mind

watching this fucking bullshit over and over again until he's like a prisoner of war that's been fucking programmed. Jim Kenny Omega versus Gabe Kidder at Russell Dynasty on January 5th, 5 and a quarter stars. And now we move up a notch. Oh, Jesus. The IWGP world champion, Zach Sabre Jr. versus Konosukee Takesh at New Japan King of Pro Wrestling.

October 13th, 5 and a half stars. Looks like Take wrestling a Q-tip. Mystico versus MJF, Mask versus Title, CMLL Anniversary Show, 5 and a half stars. We watched that and liked it, but good God. Bandito, the Ring of Honor World Champion versus Hetchocero,

and Ring of Honor Death Before Dishonor, August 29th, 5.5 stars. John Moxley versus Hangman Page, Texas death match, AW All In, July 12th, 5 and a half stars. Just beat me in the head with a club. From the same show, the Young Bucks versus Swerve and Osprey, 5 and a half stars.

Hangman Adam Page versus Will Osprey in the Owen Hart tournament finals at Double or Nothing, May 25th, 5 and a half stars. Tchaesta versus Osprey, the final of the Owen Hart tournament, oh no, the semifinals, excuse me, at A.W. Dynamite's spring break, five and a half stars, and Dave Meltzer's top-rated match of 2025. Brum-roll, please.

Bandito, the Ring of Honor World Champion, versus Kinosuke Takesha, July 11th, Super Card of Honor, five and three-quarter stars. On a show nobody saw with two guys that can't fucking talk and nobody gives a shit. I would actually say, I would say if they were walking through the mall or down the street, nobody would know who the fuck they were, but Bandito's got an excuse. Well, they say five and three quarter stars is just as good as six. Why are we arguing that?

It's just as good. Obviously, everyone in the world had a great year except for WD, Except for anybody else except one company in Mexico, one company in America, and a bunch of unknown women in Japan. Well, Jim, after hearing a list like that, you may want to get a good night's sleep. If I'd like to lay down, I'll tell you, I don't know whether I can sleep. I'd be tossing and turn and tossing and tossing and and turning, thinking about what in the world is the matter with Dave Meltzer mentally. and folks if you'd like to know what in the world is a matter with Dave Meltzer mentally the last thing you wants a good night's sleep because you're going to be staying up a long time

but if you want a good night sleep because you don't give a shit about Dave Meltzer's mental state let me tell you what we're going to do we're going to save you some money on the absolute most scintillating sexy surface that you will ever supine yourself on and lay yourself down for a good night's rest, a rejuvenation, a renovation. You know, Brian, all day long, you're up on your feet, you're walking around, gravity is taking its toll. It's dragging you down. It's a heaviness.

It's weighing you down. You feel sluggish. By the end of the day, you can barely lift your own weight. It feels like that the weight of the world is on your shoulders, but you lay down on a helix sleep mattress and instantly that weight drops off your shoulders and drops through the specially formulated mattress

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when you get up, you just open the window and you toss away your troubles like you would toss piss out of a bedpan out the window. A lot of male men are not happy about the Helix mattress. This is not a good example. We're talking about beds, not bed pans. And of course, the finest beds we have them here in this house and we love them. And I know they have them over Castle Cornette.

The finest beds, everyone loves the helix. Well, it's not a bed. It's a mattress. Now, you can put this mattress on a shitty bed if you want to. You don't have to spend even a shitty bed frame. will feel good with a helix mattress on it. Or you can get a nice bed frame that won't collapse whatever you're bumping uglies

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not even a straight slant, but a crooked slant because it was a leg on the right end side because at the moment of, well, nevertheless, folks, this won't happen because you can just put your Helix mattress on a floor. As a matter of fact, you can put it on a floor, you can put it on the wall. If you'd like to and just sleep leaning backwards. Because, folks, I'm telling you, as soon as your shoulders hit this canvas, so to speak, you're going to be out like a light.

and the returns if you need to and exchanges if you need to be to are all covered with the happy with helix guarantee and it's seamless that means you will not be tied to this mattress until you've officially approved it and paid for it then they're going to come and they're going to bind you down to it so you can't lose it the happy with he'll one is going to bind you down to anything why don't we get back to the happy with helix and talk about that. Well, now, but now, between consenting adults, once you purchase this thing, you can do what you want in your own home. That's right. The happy with Helix guarantee offers a risk-free customer-first experience where you get to be the first one to sleep on your own mattress. And then they're going to have some other people come in every once in a while and try it out just on a, they'll call first. But they want people to know about the thing. So you can tell them, yes, I've been sleeping on it for three or four weeks now.

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no folks again one last no for everything and then we got to wrap this up but ladies and gentlemen that won't be happening that's not anything you have to worry about that is certainly not anything the supreme court has ruled on back to you jim because i understand we have a great deal with very little extraneous comment a great deal and an even more fantastic promo code a deal where you can save money especially you can save on your legal defense and also save on the mattress it's 27% off site-wide on the New Year's sale extended through January the 11th, and 27% off, that is, and then 20% off from the 12th through the 15th.

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Jim, we're going to do a history segment here to wrap things up this week. We're still getting caught up at a lot of things. Next week, we'll have guest a program back on the show, retro figures, and more. But Jim, let's talk some wrestling history. I have been organizing my programs and filing things away recently during our break. And I have in my hand three consecutive weeks of programs. Uh-oh. May 5th?

May 12th. in May 19th, 1953, Dallas, Texas, the May 5th program being the final one build is taking place in the Sportatorium for a while as the Sportatorium had burned down the previous Friday on May 1st. The Tuesday, May 5th show would not take place at the Sportatorium.

So these are the programs around the period of time where the Sportatorium in Dallas, Texas burned down. and now I guess we shouldn't just leave that dangling. And also it didn't burn down because part of it was still there. They just kind of put the extra wall up and called it a day. But the fire was allegedly, although never proven, set by the opposition promotion because there was a promotional war taking place.

And so the established promotion went over to the, what was the state fair park arena? for a period of time while the world-famous Sportatorium was being built back up to what it then became world-famous for later on in the world-class days. Well, the May 5th program, again, produced in advance. These were mailed out so people would get them in their mailboxes in advance of the show. The May 5th program, the final one produced for the Sportatorium, although it burned the previous Friday, the first. Down at ringside.

The Dallas Wrestling War, which has been gradually spreading to neighboring cities, became a full-fledged Texas wrestling war last week, as new promoters in San Antonio and Corpus Christi staged their initial matches with wrestlers furnished by our own promoter, Ed McElmore. Did the fans like the new deal? Well, in San Antonio, promoter Klein racked up the... the largest wrestling house on record in that city last Monday night, and judging from the write-ups in the San Antonio Papers,

the reception was enthusiastic. Then last Tuesday, Corpus Christi fans bought out the new arena as proof of their pleasure of the change. Why don't we stop there for a moment? Bought out the new arena. Would that have been, I can't imagine, that that was the building that we were running in the 80s when I was there either with world class or later on

when the clash of champions with Mosquirus and McFoly, Cactus Jack, was in that building. And I, the, what was that, the Memorial Coliseum? Point being, that was a 6,000 seat building. I don't know that it was that old that it would have been around in the early 50s. And that's the point I was going to make is that Texas back in those days, when they say, well, the biggest house ever in San Antonio or, you know, sold out in Corpus Christi, it was not a big money, big crowd territory.

They weren't like Chicago or Los Angeles or New York or even some of the bigger cities down south where they had histories of drawing these major crowds or outdoor shows or whatever. It was the days of the weekly matches where you drew 2000 or, 3,000 or 1,500 or whatever, and so they were still in that stage of the game down in Texas at that point.

Kind of like Florida. While promoters McLeer and McLeia were rubbing their hands in high glee at the results of their initial venture. Come on, McLeia! While they're rubbing their hands at the results of the initial ventures in the South Texas,

we can picture an entirely different reaction on the part of the boys from the bayou. As we reported last week, they were more than a little discomfited by the forthright challenge of Roy Dunn against their pseudo-champion the aging Luthez.

Now they are hit where it hurts most, their own pocketbooks, in their own backyard. And see, that Roy Dunn was a legitimate shooter from the old days that they had brought in, to be their champion because, you know, they were trying to do the old grandstand challenge. How about our guy takes on your guy and their guy was theirs? So they needed a shooter of their own. By the way, 1953, the aging lose.

The aging, yeah. He's still on top 20 years later. Money talks, and it talks about the only kind of language those boys understand. What exactly the conversation was all about? We don't know. But it must have been something like this. Well, boys, you started this ruckus up in Dallas, and now it looks like the fans all over Texas are about to render a decision on the match.

It looks like from here, the decision will be two straight falls to McLemore. The story on page five this week gives us only an inkling. of what is to come in the way of further developments. But the word from the front office is that the news is startling, and the news is good. Promoter McElmore has promised the definite tidings would be forthcoming

next week. Meanwhile, may we remind you racing fans that the Devil's Bowl changes over to Friday nights this week with time travel... That's off wrestling. Yeah. But you can hear they mention page five will go there, and they're basically saying next week,

we're really going to fuck with you. We've now come into your towns, but next week, what do you think about doing this out in the program? That's what I was going to say is wrestling wars and promotional wars have been common through the years, but it wasn't often common

for one promotion to really give publicity to it and call attention to it in the programs, but they're gloating. And the thing is, this was a, I can't remember the participants in exactly the way it went, but it was a temporary split. And Ed McLemore would still, he would own a piece of Dallas, the Dallas office, for years after that, and still be figured in enough to where his name was still being used in the 80s when Fritz had taken over. so he lasted along and he rejoined the NWA.

McLemore, the way I remember it, Dallas was his, the other Texas office, McLemore got on the outs with the NWA and it was early in the NWA existence anyway, the early 50s. And one of the other Texas offices started getting fucking froggy in their territory. so they went back to run their towns. And it, go ahead, Brian, but it didn't last but another what year or so, if that, or that long. Well, and again, Dallas is a big town. We think of it as a big city.

I shouldn't even say town. But the center of Texas wrestling for the NWA was Houston. The Houston booking office was the booking office. It wasn't the Dallas booking office. Fritz von Erick corrected a lot of this shit for Ed McElmore. You know, 10 years later, 15 years later. But page 5 of the program, Jim, once again, May 5, 1953. Startling surprises to shock Sportatorium fans Tuesday.

And there's six question marks all around the page. Possible news? Wrestling War Nears Showdown. This may be the news you have been waiting for. It's good news for everyone who loves wrestling. but this news will not officially break until a few weeks. Next week's program will tell you more about it. And before we go any farther,

the big news we are talking about isn't the marriage of Johnny Dobbs, who's one of the wrestlers on the show. He's building the program here as romantic Johnny Dobbs. Promoter Ed McElmore has had his back against the wall for nearly nine months. facts that he should have revealed have never been revealed by him because he chose not to discredit the persons with whom these facts would hurt. Now, next week, pertinent facts

never disclosed before will be revealed. And I love this is like the way that somebody writes their own lawsuit complaint also. You people who have wondered, as to McElmore's abrupt discontinent, of employing syndicate wrestlers since the first of the year, will have your answers next week. You fans who thought that promoter Ed McElmore was wrong about certain rights, that's in quotes,

and wrongs, also in quotes, muchly publicized in local newspapers, will also get your answer within coming weeks. It was all a raw deal. The reason? facts. Facts. Facts that have never been publicized anywhere about the wrestling system in Texas, about the National Wrestling Alliance. To summarize, there will be facts that clearly explained promoter Ed McElmore's position in the Texas wrestling picture, especially in the Dallas

area, and more especially in the nation's wrestling picture. It will explain why McElroy's is doing what the NWA once intended to do. And there it is. And then, of course, they burned down the building before the next show. So let's stop there for a moment because, again, they're doing this in public. It's in their program. They're taunting these guys. They're going into the NWA cities and running against, you would imagine, established promoters.

to say next week, next week's the big reveal and then the building burned down. Wouldn't you know who won the pony? Any thoughts on all this? I don't know if how. And that again, that's why that it was so convenient that the fire just happened to occur and that's why they blamed it on, you know,

the ongoing promotional war, which behind the scenes And I know people are going to say Thais was involved. Thes wasn't involved in any of this. Thes was being booked by the other side because that was the N.W.A. and McLemore had gone off on his own and was going to reveal all these ways of how he was getting fucked around by other people. But the promoters on the ground that they were taunting there, they were the ones that would have been responsible for whatever happened.

Well, the next week's program, Jim, May 12, 1953, the Livestock Pavilion, Fair Park, no longer the Sportatorium, the first article here down at ringside, a little over two weeks ago, the syndicate had the brazen effrontery to publish a wrestling card billing Ray Gunkel against Roy Dunn.

if he shows up, that's in quotes. As we told you before this match, Roy Dunn did not show up, nor will he show up for any match with a syndicate stooge or so-called champion, unless the syndicate agrees to pit their alleged world champion, Lou Fez, against Dunn the same night.

And by the way, that's another thing. So now McLemore has Roy Dunn, say, I'll take Luthez on, the NWA champion. And the NWA side comes back with, well, why don't you take on Ray Gunkel first? Ray Gunkel, this was 1953, had he just, what, two or three years earlier, been the NCAA heavyweight champion, the same title at Brock Lesnar won. So they're like, yeah, we got our shooter. And of course, that match did not happen.

As usual, the syndicate again. acted in bad faith with the fans, the paying customers, in advertising a match for which they had no contract and when they well knew it would not take place. The fans know that any match must be entered into by both parties, and they also know that when a done match with the NWA Puppets is finally arranged, it will be well publicized by both sides and the daily papers. Again, we say, in caps. Don't be fooled! The syndicate is afraid to let Roy Dunn in the same ring with their appointed, that's in quotes, champion, and they will go to any lengths to camouflage the true facts.

Roy Dunn has chased the aging fess all over the country. The aging, wait a minute, he would have been 37. All over the country, only to meet the same runaround he has received in Texas. He will not be forced into any phony elimination meet, nor will he be content with a match against anyone but Thes. This is in caps now. But he will meet Gunkel or any other wrestler they name on the same night he meets Thes. So let's stop there for a second, the old switcheroo.

Hey, we can't give you Thes. We'll give you this other legitimate wrestler who they probably had a lot of faith in. Okay, I'll wrestle him. if I get Fez the same night. Yeah. Again, it's just they're selling the sleeves on their vest because they know none of these matches are actually going to take place, so they want to figure out a way to present it like their side is the most magnanimous

and, you know, we'll do this and that and the other thing, and so the fans will be on their side. Meanwhile, here's a tip on the best way to come to the wrestling matches at the new arena at Fair Park. Merely drive into the big cotton bowl parking lot at the south end of the fairgrounds, walk through the big center aisle of the livestock barns, right on into the livestock pavilion. Pass the cows.

Thus you will be protected from the weather in case of rain. But watch the cow shit on the floor. The new arena is roofed, but open-sided, and promises to be cool, during the coming summer heat. Oh my God, they had to go to a fucking place that didn't have walls. You will find the grandstand seats even more convenient to the ring than the old Sportatorium, and all the conveniences that you have been used to at the Sportatorium are on hand

at new location. What fucking conveniences? I was there 30 years later. They didn't have air conditioning. They had rats in the goddamn French friar. the toilets backed up in what did work of the of the restrooms what conveniences did they have in 1953 walls they had walls unfortunately that's one of the conveniences you can't expect at the new building we have all the modern conveniences the sportatorium has except walls coming soon the wheel

The Big D. Jamberie will also be held every Saturday night at the new location. So come on out next Saturday with no walls and enjoy the Carlisles in person. The Big D. Jamboree was the country music show that they did once a week. That's why that ring in a sportatorium was so fucking hard. It didn't move because in those days they would take the ropes down. and the canvas off the ring and use it as the stage for the country music band. And those ring posts were bolted

into the fucking Sportatorium floor so they never took the ring down. Well, Jim, one final thing here this week, and this will be a two-partner. We'll return next week with more of this Dallas Wrestling War stuff the weeks around the burning of the Sportatorium, but on that topic... Yes, and do they get walls?

From page seven of the May 12 program, Sportatorium burned down. New Sportatorium is promised. End of era inspires new sports arena. As this is written, Thursday night, May 7th. We are happy to report to you that workmen have almost entirely cleared away the debris. Oh, God, see. Oh, Christ.

We think we found off. All the survivors of the old Sportatorium destroyed by fire last Friday, a little after midnight. That means that soon the new Sportatorium will be going up, and that we will soon be back at the old location in a brand new building. Other good news we received today was the tidings that Doc Sarpolis returned as promoter Ed McElmore's matchmaker. A hastily written story in another page of the program tells of Doc's reasoning and returning.

And we'll have that story next week here on the folks on the show, folks. Looking over the situation, we have a very nice and comfortable location out here at Fair Park for the match. Very nice, very evil. For the matches until the Sportatorium is rebuilt. The new arena is, Well roofed.

Yeah, that fucking carport that we're in out in a parking lot, it's fucking wonderful. Yeah, once again, the arena is well-roofed and open-sided. That's what it says. Then there is a vast parking area to the south of the new location. The area can accommodate 5,000 cars. It's easily accessible by bus and streetcar transportation. The only disadvantage is that it isn't the same old Sportatorium. The Sportatorium was built in the Texas centennial year of 1936.

Wow. At that time, it was a great achievement in the architectural world, so far as arena construction was concerned. Yeah, how they were able to build something that would hold that many people that cheap is what the achievement was. It was a Dallas landmark. The blaze that destroyed it in less than 40 minutes will never wipe out the fond memories of the many years. Because it was almost all wood.

Well, the fond memories of the many years of... The fond mammaries. I had a few fond mammaries in that building, but... And I've said before that's what happened is it originally was bigger, but the fire primarily damaged the one side of it, so they, when they rebuilt it, they put that corrugated aluminum wall flat down the left-hand side of it.

And that's why the inside shape was so odd in that one blank wall that you would see the flag hanging on, you know, was there. In the 80s, the parking lot was gravel. So what the fuck? What, quicksand in 1953? Well, back to this article here. But to serve the selfish interests of some outsiders, the Dallas landmark was destined to go,

evidently at any cost. It will be a long time before forgetting the old Sportatorium. But as we stated, to start with, the remains of the nationally famous structure are just about carried away. Now, it is time to think about the new Sportatorium. What kind of building would you wrestling fans like in the future? Any suggestions you might.

have as to the new plans for the new arena would be appreciated by promoter Ed McElmore. It will be a modern, brand new construction, but it will still be the same sportatorium just for the fans of Dallas who enjoy the sportatorium type of entertainment, be it wrestling, boxing, or other sports, or any other type show, just remember that the building will be there for your enjoyment. So again, that's where we'll wrap up today. We'll come back to this next week, but two weeks of the Dallas Wrestling War, next week we got a big announcement,

and then the next week, the big announcement is we're going to be here in this building with no walls. The building burned down. And they had much grander plans. It apparently sounds like to rebuild the Sportatorium than what they actually followed through with. Yeah, in terms of the remains being carried away, I mean, if there was still that much left, you can't really pretend like everything was gone.

It's kind of weird the way they're wording everything. Well, I think there was a lot of damage to what was left, but they, again, put up new walls and fucking just, they probably walled a few rooms off in that thing. It was goddamn, especially you go up in the crow's nest and up in those offices where Fritz had his offices and everything and guys would go up at the top of the arena and look at the to watch the matches through a cage apparatus they had up there. Who knows what kind of goddamn hidden chambers were in that thing? There was actually, not only was the ringposts bolted to the ground

so you couldn't remove the ring, but there was some time. Joe Pedicino told me this, when he was running global down there and was trying to get a new ring, because that's the first thing I told him, get a new fucking ring. You know, the guys are killing himself. he said it's bolted to the ground and there's a door underneath the ring, a hatch door that leads to something.

He said, do you know what that might be? I said, no. And I don't know if he ever looked. Well, as we said, we shall return to this story next week for acoustics, Jim. What's better? No walls or no ceiling? The acoustics,

it depends if it was a tin roof, which it sounds like it was, that was probably louder than having walls but no roof. Because the sound goes up and then gets reflected back down. All right, and with that, the drive-thru is closed. We're reflecting the sound back to you. I don't have it in my thumbs today. I don't have it.

There you go. Once again, we'll return more of the Dallas Wrestling War next week as well as guest to program retro figures and the usual nonsense. Cornets collectibles at Jimcoronet.com. Let's start with that, so we didn't get to it at the top. We're back in business, baby. After the holiday break,

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