Jim Cornette’s Drive-Thru - Episode 429: Jim Reviews WWE Royal Rumble 2026

Episode Date: February 5, 2026

This week on the Drive Thru, Jim reviews WWE Royal Rumble 2026 in Saudi Arabia! Plus Jim reviews Tommaso Ciampa vs. Mark Briscoe from AEW Collision, and talks about The Great Mephisto, PWI's 2025 awards, the continuing saga of The Agent vs. Tony Khan's Burner, and much more! Thanks to our episode sponsors: SHOPIFY:  Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial and start selling today at shopify.com/jce PRIZEPICKS: Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/JCE and use code JCE to get $50 in lineups when you play your first $5 lineup! RAYCON:  The Essential Open Earbuds are here to help you go for gold. Go to buyraycon.com/jceopen to get 15% off. DRAFTKINGS:  Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now and use code CORNETTE to turn five bucks into three hundred in bonus bets if your bet wins. Send in your question for the Drive-Thru to: [e-mail]  Follow Jim and Brian on Twitter: @TheJimCornette @GreatBrianLast Merch! https://arcadianvanguard.com/ Join Jim Cornette's College Of Wrestling Knowledge on Patreon to access the archives & more! https://www.patreon.com/Cornette Subscribe to the Official Jim Cornette channel on YouTube! http://www.youtube.com/c/OfficialJimCornette Visit Jim's official site at www.JimCornette.com for merch, live dates, commentaries and more! You can listen to Brian on the 6:05 Superpodcast at 605pod.com or wherever you find your favorite podcasts!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello again, friends. And you are our friends. You have nothing to complain about this week. And welcome back to another edition of Jim Cornett's drive-through where the music gets you in the mood. I'm your host, the great Brian last. We have a powerful pack show for you today with this man, the leader of the cult of Cornett,

Mr. Jim Cornett. The mood to do what? Get it over with? What into what? That was the most perfunctory. It didn't even have the, like the cathedral sound. like the Notre Dame Cathedral, the fucking hunchback is coming.

That's the extended cut. That's the extended cut. Sometimes you've got to just get to it. You got to go right for it. It sounded like you were doing it with one finger. It was like the ice cream truck version. Oh, stop it. That was good.

That was a good one today. I know it was good. No, there was no. There was no. You should have been the fucking Phantom of the opera and the ghost and Mr. Chicken on the organ keys. But instead it was, like you were handing out good humor fucking bars

and sticks with frozen shit on it that the kids are supposed to how the fuck did we avoid all goddamn as children just choking ourselves by eating the stick along with the ice cream you know that there's still some people out there that would be stick eaters

if they don't you know they used to just hand them out everywhere on the corner the guy in a truck could you just stick that stick down your throat until you got to the end of it? How did children not die by the truck loads? I don't know. I miss a lot of the good humor stuff that went away. Fat frog.

Do you remember that was probably past your time, the good humor, fat, fat frog. The frog was still skinny when I had him. They had the baseball glove with a piece of bubble gum in the middle. And it was like strawberry ice. I don't need, it wasn't ice cream and it wasn't ice. I don't know what exactly the concoctious. A baseball glove with a, what in the world are you talking? It was a red baseball glove, you know, in terms of the look with a baseball bubble gum piece in the middle.

Oh, I thought you meant a real baseball glove, but the kids were supposed to somehow stick their face into and get the gum out of. No, that was a guy in a different truck. That was a different truck on the street. I'm talking about the ice cream man. It had this faint smell of ether in that glove. The guy said he bought the truck from the fabulous ones, I believe. Oh, no, it was. Stan Lane's

whorehouse on wheels probably still has some kind of a warrant. That's what Christine Jared called it. And she told Jerry one time she said, Stan Lane and Steve Kern have turned my Evansville parking lot

into a whore house. That's where they were playing the music one time. They went through fucking two and a half repetitions of Billy Squire everybody wants you because they changed the order of the matches

and because something happened to where somebody, I don't know what the fuck, but instead of going on last, the fabs were going to go on next to last, they thought they had more time in their rolling apartment. And that was when

nobody could find them, nobody can find them. They're playing the fucking music. People are sitting there what the fucking finally. Tini goes out in the parking light and she sees the van and she goes and she beats on the window. Hear music's playing. What were you saying?

Fat, fat frog. Fat, I don't know anything about the fat frogs. We've got some plump birds. We've been feeding the birds into squirrels because the weather has been so frightful outside. We've got some plump ones of those around here. It's been 260 hours. Brian, as I sit here right now since it's been above freezing in the city of Louisville, Kentucky.

And it may hit 34 here for about 15 minutes today. And then it's going to potentially snow again in the morning, just an inch or so. And then it's, it's very, it's very cold. Well, this has been the weather update. Yeah. You know, I'm making medical progress. I told you I'd been to the doctor on the last program we did on the, on the experience. I've been now, I'm still, I'm just about off of the steroid medication. I'm still

taking the antihistamine, but my sore tendon in my arm has almost gone away completely. And I've also, I've crossed another medical thing off my list, the podiatrist, because I got that callous. The callous that's got the, the doctor said, I keep scraping it. Stacey gave me the toe scraper thing, the foot scraper thing. but it just won't that one spot there. He said, oh, they need to get in there and take the core of that out. I said, oh, can it core a apple? He didn't seem to get the reference.

Oh, Chef of the Future. But he said, we're going to have the podiatrist set you up with an appointment. So they call me and they asked me a question. I said, well, I got to Calus and the burning pain. I've been scraping it, but the whole thing won't go away. The doctor says, you need to get the core out of it. Are you diabetic? no I am not I fear this is a good thing to say right I don't know a positive good right whatever no I'm not

diabetic oh well we can't see you that's what I just turned invisible no we're of our podiatrists are only working now dealing with patients that are diabetic now she gave me another name of some person that I could call but as I've thought about it I don't know if I'll just continue scraping the toes since it's not really bothered me and leave that core of thing alone for a while. It's such inclement weather. Why I make myself more miserable? So I've scratched that off my list. What have you done on a positive fashion lately about your health?

About my health? I go to the doctors regularly. I make sure I'm in tip-top shape. I exercise. I try to get some sleep every now and there. Try every now and then. Well, see. Now imagine when you're my...

Remember you said you were amazed that I was in the health that I'm in? For all of the dietary issues and other... I had meals with you in the 90s. Yeah, I mean, I think it's wonderful and keep going, but it's shocking. The shape you're in and the health you're in today, considering. Anyway, but I'll tell you that, Brian, before, I know it's your show, but this has just come across the news desk over here. You know, I've got a ticker tape from the Arcadian Vanguard headquarters.

Gives me all the news up to date to the minute, right? And this is, this is closer to you now, but there is a, remember when I lived in Connecticut, well, I was at the Monroe and Shelton area very near Fairfield, right? You've heard of Fairfield. You've maybe driven through Fairfield, Connecticut. I should know it well, yeah. well maybe it's changed the way it looks after what just happened here because apparently

according to the fairfield police department i guess is getting credit for this guy's picture i don't know who the fuck is reporting this oh news 12 Connecticut ABC 7 etc there it's all that's eyewitness news a snowplow driver in Connecticut is facing criminal charges after damaging property while using cocaine, a warrant alleges. A snowplow driver in Connecticut went on a wild ride while allegedly high on three bumps of cocaine, damaging a porch, two cars, and a garage all on his first day on the job. Mark Keene 46 of Fairfield was arrested on January 8th. This news is just making the wires here, but he was charged with reckless driving and operating under the influence.

His arrest stems from an incident on December 28th and 7.15 a.m. When he was doing a snowplow job in his truck near Glenridge Road and Tom Moore Drive in Fairfield, according to a warrant, according to the warrant, he allegedly veered off the road under the walkway of one house, drove across the front yard of that residence and hit the front porch of the home next door causing one side to fall. Three bumps. What the hell was in that stuff? Jesus.

Ring camera footage and then he hit three fucking different things. Ring camera. Oh, wow, there's a picture. I mean, you can see the picture. He ran into the garage door and apparently pushed the fucking car up on the top of a, bowed the door in and pushed one car on top of another car. But anyway,

Ring camera footage shows the truck hitting the front porch, driving over a stonewall, and through the neighboring property. The truck can be seen on the video obtained by News 12 Connecticut speeding across the street to another house where it slammed into a sedan in the driveway, pushing it into a closed garage and coming to rest under an SUV parked inside the garage. Did he just lose control? Cocaine doesn't make you just go crazy and start driving on the people. properties. Hold on now. Hold on now. He's got a he's got a story. Officers responding to a 911 call about the crash said they found Keen sitting at his truck

saying he had no idea that he was just involved in a collision. He said, oh what, I wasn't even there? Keene allegedly had slurred speech and pinpoint pupils in both eyes, the word ledges. Soon after, he began to foam at the mouth and turn blue. Jesus Christ, prompting an officer to give him Narcan and call for an ambulance. Inside the ambulance, Keen allegedly fought with EMTs who had a time to the stretcher. He allegedly bit an officer's hands and arms, the warrant states.

That's always good. That's great. So he's a member of the Blue Man group, but he's become violent. Later, much later, apparently Keen told police that before he went to play, plow some driveways, he had a verbal argument with his girlfriend on the phone. He allegedly told police he did three bumps of cocaine, and the next thing he remembered was sitting in the truck and the driveway where police found him. Which, hold, opens up, the one question is, you're on the phone with your girlfriend at 6 o'clock in a morning having a fight before you're going to fucking plow snow? What does she do?

On your first day of work. Yeah, that's a thing. Toxicology test. Done on him came back positive for the presence of cocaine, benzodiazepines, and can of banana nodes. When reached for comment, he said, well, they asked me to plow the snow. And if it don't snow, I can't go. The incident took place on Keene's first day working for a landscaping company.

The owner told police he hired Keen, the day before and told him to plow and sand two specific driveways, which he never did. Apparently, these were not even the driveways that he was allegedly supposed to be allegedly plowing.

See, that's the other funny part. There's some landscaper, and I know how this is how it works. When there's a big snowstorm, a lot of the landscapers, that's what they do in the winter. They have the thing to plow driveways. You see them going by. So this guy's getting calls from his clients, like, hey, can you do our house? Can you do our house?

can you our house? And he sends over the new guy and he does the front roll out of the backyard. Hey, O'Holio, your guy's over here, tearing up the place. I just hired him. I didn't know.

I don't even know this guy. He said he needed a job. He's 46. He is, uh, apparently he's off the, uh, off the team now and yeah while this happened in Fairfield

he apparently took the Vince McMahon driving course in Stanford but see that's a you know it's another thing I have not had my driveway plow because I don't know anybody particularly it has a fucking plow

and B I got four wheel drive and fucking it'll melt eventually. It's just, you know, because how would you see by driveway as the turns and the twist and how would you see where the goddamn drive is when it's all covered up with the snow? You can't really tell when it's a foot deep. So maybe he just figured that somebody built that fucking house in the middle of the road. Man, if this guy cleans up his act and gets his life together, he's got the greatest story for the rest of his life. I mean, the next time he goes to a meeting Yeah, I really needed a job and I got a job

And I lost the job in the same day Because I woke up, I got to do a big fight early in the morning My girlfriend, so I figured, what the fuck? I'll just do a bunch of drugs And then I ran over a bunch of people's houses And I lost my job Well, I think they said he's moving to New Jersey We're going to start

You're going to start snowplowing in New Jersey They may have some competition here I mean, the whole thing, his first day of work is the best thing. Gotta make a good impression. Maybe he thought like the cocaine would give him like enough energy to like, I'll get this all done quick. Yeah, and he called his girlfriend to wake her up out of a sound sleep to tell her about it. And she said, you're you fucking idiot at six o'clock in the morning.

He's like, fuck, I'll do some more cocaine. Maybe, I mean, I actually don't know if, what are the effects of a human body on cocaine? in freezing frigid weather? Well, do I look like either a... You look like the cocaine expert. That's what I'm saying here. No, do I look like a doctor or a rock star from the 70s? I don't know if...

Now, they say... See, there is something to this question that you've asked here because they say that the old fallacy of, you know, you see in the Western movies or on gun smoke, when a guy's out in the cold and they give him a slug of whiskey or whatever to warm him up or people take a drink of whiskey to fortify themselves from the cold that actually does the opposite it gives you a momentary warming effect and then because it violates or dilates your caposols or your corpuscles or your

whatever those fucking little capillaries are it makes you more susceptible to cold in long run people that are trying to get drunk to get warm and cold are going to freeze to death. So what would happen that if with the cocaine, would it then make you lethargy camp? Because if it is, I don't know. I miss how he's starting his day. How would that? Well, yeah, well, that's what he said also.

Now, bear in mind, it is. Oh, you think the day before may have never ended. Well, he, that's just what he said. that he did before he, after he had to fight with his girlfriend and before he went to work, what kind of state was he in before all of that began? Somnambulism or fucking psychedelicism? Too bad he didn't get to the Merit. Then it really would have happened.

No way to, on the Merit Parkway, he wouldn't have stood out. It wouldn't really have stood out. If he could have got to the Merit, he'd have been home for he? Well, I don't know if there's any merit to this story, but there it is the the sad arrest, the news of the arrest of the snow-taking, snow-plowing landscaper. Woo, I'm a snow-taking, snow-plowing, motherfucker! Oh, it says here he's now been hired to be Tony Kahn's driver.

Hey! Let's, uh, let's move on from the news. Jim, before, we have so much to cover here today. And, of course, there are so many things to be covered in a box and mailed out from Cornett's collectibles at Jim Cornett.com. There certainly are, and all those things are available at Jimcornaut.com. If you care to go and peruse the story, you will find my brand new book. Well, not brand new now, but still new.

It's four months old. It's starting to walk by itself. Heroes and friends and a variety of other things, but I haven't been pumping it heavy because just stay tuned, folks. You ain't seen nothing yet to the plans that Hotchkis and I have. for the next month or two with some never-before-seeing things and opportunities. But until then, catch up for cheap prices and quality merchandise and fast service and all the rest of those things at Jim cornet.com.

That's right. Jimcoronet.com and John... Jim, as we get things going here today, some sad news that I woke up to. let me get your thoughts Frankie Cain the Great Mephisto the Inferno various other names throughout his career

passed away born August 13th 1932 he just passed away as we are recording any thoughts and memories of the Great Mephisto did you get to see the Great Mephisto live as the Great Mephisto? Yes yes and the answer all of

but first of all he's what he's night he was 90 and I just did the math and now I've lost it 93 or 94 years old which was remarkable and that's the thing Scott T.L our friend Scott over at crowbarpress.com has known

Frankie Kane forever and has done a two-volume biography really in Frankie's own words just long form interviews about his entire career and it's fascinating because he

he was able to hang around the early days of the in Ohio as a kid, the Al Haft era, the Buddy Rogers, early Buddy Rogers era, some of the guys that still had worked in the carnivals, and he did in the carnivals as a shooter or an athletic show plant. I mean, just the most basic levels of wrestling all the way to, because he started so young as a barely a teenager and he did some boxing also. But point is hanging around all these guys and knowing some of the real pioneers of the business, the fact that he lived so long, he was able to tell these stories about these guys that

nobody else alive was still really ever personally in contact with and then still had a career in wrestling up through the 80s until what at what point did really Mephisto quit getting booked because I'm pretty sure he had a bad back injury had caught up with him because he was still I saw him wrestle live I saw him in jruch in 77 and he wrestling and he wrestling and he wrestled after that. Yeah, I think he may have been in Georgia in maybe 1980, 81, but that may have been as a manager. Well, you would see, he was still being booked

as a top heel manager in some of the territories in the early 80s, and because he also had a long and varied history as a booker. And as we've done more of the Scott's books, and I've looked through various records and guys like Tim Dills and Mark James have done their books.

Frankie Kane was an integral figure behind the scenes in a lot of the old, old-time Tennessee and Alabama area towns as the booker as a promoter. He opened markets and ran various towns for different booking offices behind the scenes. and but he really was again one of those guys that learned booking from the guys who really started the idea of booking and then carried some of that basic knowledge into the fucking 70s where he at, go ahead. Work the carnival shows.

Well, yeah, see, that's a thing. Troy Graham, the dream machine had always told me about him because Frankie Cain was the booker for the Culkin family, the Curtis's when they were running Mississippi and they were on the outs with Watts, they were using their own talent. And Tom Shaft and the dream machine was Troy Hippie Graham, right? Weren't the Freebirds there?

The Freebirds worked there early on. Sugar Bear Harris would be Kamala. But, you know, guys like that that Frankie Kane would book and, I mean, he'd do the, the hard ways and the old-fashioned shit also, but at the same time, he was more modern thinking. It got way out with the the Mephisto gimmick, which wasn't really,

it wasn't a rip-off of the sheik as besides with the the slave girls and the Arab attire because he got into the wild spiritual, when he was in San Francisco, the Alastair Crowley shit they thought he was doing their thing. And he had to fucking back off of that a little bit because he was like, oh shit, these people are fucking crazy. But, you know, he was just around almost everybody in the business or at some point did something for 40 years.

And the fire that not only was, the fire that Mephisto did was compared to the Sheik, but Frankie Kane had been one of the masked infernoes in the 60s who threw the fire, hence the name the Infernos. And he was also the one that had the loaded boot, although I think sometimes he'd switch back and forth and let the partner do it, but I remember reading in his book specifically that a lot of times instead of having the loaded boot gimmick be what beat the baby face, the loaded boot would be what made it possible for him to beat the baby face.

They'd knock the partner goofy and then hit a two on one or something else to where they still got heat for two different things. But he, you know, whether it'd be boots, fire, the Mephisto, the masked gimmick, a booker behind the scenes, a finished guy, you know, whatever, he had done everything. Well, again, Crowbar Press.com, Scott Teal has put out a couple of fantastic books. I believe they're called Raising Kane. Again, the two-volume, long-form interviews with Frankie Kane, all about his entire career. We encourage you to check that out, and we send our sympathies to the friends and fans of the great Mephisto. He almost outlived all of them.

Probably has no fucking friend that he would have loved that piece of humor, by the way, ladies gentlemen, but he probably outlived all of his friends and his fans. You know, later on, I may have to spend a few minutes on Scott's website here. He has something I'd never saw before. Comic Book superhero and heroes' first appearances and origins. This 12-volume collection consists of 1,306 public domain comic books from 1933. to 1967. All right, I may have to spend some time

looking at this later on today. I have not seen that myself. Can I just, I'll be back in 15 minutes or something. I'll be back in 15 years. All right. We'll see what more we can find out about that, but Jim, I guess it's time that we get to one of the big main events here today.

The Royal Rumble review, the Royal Rumble taking place in Saudi Arabia. There's obviously a time difference. wasn't as bad as when the events are in the morning. I actually kind of started to enjoy the event in the afternoon. By the time the end was happening, it was dark here. It felt like nighttime. Let's talk about the Royal Rumble, 2006, in Saudi Arabia.

Well, let's talk about the time controversy over there and try to fare it because obviously I did not watch this live and thank God for I would have gone on a rampage. You would have melted the snow. Scream it at him. get the fucking point. But what time did it actually start Eastern time in the United States?

What was the official start time here in our domain? 2 p.m. Okay, so that means that apparently they started it at 10 o'clock at night in Saudi Arabia. In Riyadh, the actual town it was in, because it was a four-hour show

and it ended at 2 o'clock at a morning. Have you ever heard of advertising an event you got in a stadium is supposed to draw tens of thousands of people and it doesn't start until 10 o'clock at night? And I think you hit on a few things there that we're going to talk about. One, just how many people were there? And two, if they're starting at that late, what does it mean when you do the largest fireworks show in history?

at the end. How many people did you wake up? How many people thought the war had begun? Well, but also, here's another thing that somebody said, and I was like, wow, that's true. It's got to be true. Now, somebody can tell me, if it is, but it's got to be when you think about it,

it's Saturday night, right? So we're all going, well, Saturday night, you know, people off work Sunday or whatever. There's no reason for people to be off work. work on Sundays in Saudi Arabia. They said in Saudi Arabia, Sunday is a workday for many people. Brian, why is in the United States, the place you're more familiar with is most people don't work on Sunday.

I mean, that goes back a long way. That's because of church. It was church day. They don't believe in the same fellow. So why would Sunday be a day off for them? Now somebody said that on the interwebs, but maybe now we can get our well-versed in global geography and religious hosity experts out there to go, is Sunday a big deal in Saudi Arabia? Actually, we've heard from several listeners who are in Saudi Arabia, so we do have an audience who listens there, so we'll hear from someone. So otherwise, they'll keep these people out until 2 o'clock at the morning, and then while people,

are just snoozing, you know, even if they're not part of the festivities, they get the fireworks. Again, we'll get there. That's the very end of the night. But no, we actually, I'm trying to pull it up now, the Colt of Cornette Facebook group, that was something written in by one of the Saudi Arabian listeners about just a miserable experience at the show trying to get water. Apparently water wasn't readily available for everyone. Well, here's another that they built.

a stadium in a month to hold 25,000 people is what they said on the broadcast. So we'll go with that. 25,000, they build a stadium to hold 25,000 people from a parking lot in a month. Did they have time to put in the state of the art concessions that the big arenas are used to? Oh, I'll go out and get the overpriced food

and massive shlongy hot dogs and whatever the fuck? Or did they include that part? Or basically here's a goddamn stand with a pitcher. Hold your cup out. Well, Jim, I have a letter here. I'll read it. This is from Khalid F. Albogami in Saudi Arabia. He's a member of the Colt of Cornett Facebook group.

We've heard from him in the past. I recognize his name. Hi, Jim Cornett. You're going to think I'm exactly. I swear to God I'm not. So I'm in Riyadh. I buy my ticket, I do the responsible adult thing, I show up early, like 5 p.m.,

because usually the show starts around 7 and raps by midnight. I'm thinking, eat, grab water, catch the pre-show, vibe, then go home and sleep like a functioning member of society. Brother! Brother! They decided to start to show at 10 p.m. It's okay. Not seven.

Not eight. Not nine. Ten. In a country where Sunday is a workday for a lot of people. So the crowd looks like it's been drafted into a shift at a factory, and the main event hasn't even clocked in yet. And then the real main event began, finding water. there was basically a water shortage.

And if you wanted a bottle, you had to stand in a line in front of a restaurant like your rationing supplies in a 1970s documentary. I'm not even being poetic. I was literally thinking, so, this is how civilizations fall. The funniest part?

They didn't use the established arena setup they usually use for WWE shows, nice dining areas, proper bathrooms, and most importantly, water in a desert country. Indeed, some genius said, you know what the fans want? Barracks in a parking lot in the financial district so the camera can look at the nice buildings. So there I am, a grown man, a paying customer, roaming a parking lot like a dehydrated

extra from a post-apocalyptic movie, thinking, do I want to? want a burger? No, I want water, damn it! By the time the show finally started, I was already drained. And here's the part that makes me sound like a quitter. I tapped out and went home. I left after the women's match. Not because I'm not a fan, but because I've got a transplant patient to look after the next day, and it's almost midnight, and I'm standing in a parking lot waiting for permission to hydrate. So yes, I left the Royal Rumble event early because I'm a doctor and I need sleep.

Please clip that, frame it, and hang it in the Wrestling Observer Hall of shame. If they ever do WrestleMania like that, I'm predicting an epic logistical disaster, biblical proportions, like the Book of Exodus. But it's just me searching for a water bottle. regards from Khalid.

Oh my God. So that brings up a very, they're going to do WrestleMania over there, like what, a little over here? And are they, I found out, apparently it's been reported that the reason why they did it, the do it yourself stadium

was because they have four stadiums in that fucking town and they all four had soccer games that day. Did you see this? I did not see that. I'm not surprised. Again, the kingdom, the prince, Riyadh season, all of this. It's about spending endless amounts of money

to get as much stuff there all the time. I'm not surprised. But, well, I, and I don't know whether the government was behind all of the soccer games, but on everybody's... They're behind all of... Nothing happens over there without the government approving it and paying for it. Okay, but then what kind of stupid scheduling is

that where you they could certainly have figured out if we're going to spend however much it was for the Royal Rumble because they get 50 million for just the normal shows. So 100 million, whatever the fuck. Regular states,

just don't have the three soccer games going on that day. How were they all running this stuff against other stuff? I bet the soccer players had water. Well, but besides that, WrestleMania, they're used.

to being able to report a crowd of 50 or 60 or 70,000 or whatever, the big stadium, blah, blah, blah. Now because they're getting paid, but are they going to give that, you know, oh, and here's a pisshole and a snowbank at a part-time or a temporary stadium and people are lined up across the street to get a bottle of water? Well, I got to think for WrestleMania. it has to be a bigger and better setup than this. I was surprised, you know, we knew they were building a stadium from scratch,

stadium if we're going to call it that. I didn't know about all the stadiums they have there being filled up, but even if you get past the idea that at times it looked empty, whether it was or wasn't and we'll get into that, it didn't seem like that impressive a crowd. For a country paying all this money to TKO for the rights to have these events over there, It's a sold show.

They buy the show. WW is not getting any money off the gate or anything else. It's a sold show. For them to do it in front of 20,000 people, and it doesn't even look like it at times. And then you find out it's the middle of the night over there. Against four soccer games. It makes you quite, you know, it's almost like,

I hate to bring politics into this, although he wasn't a politician yet. When WrestleMania was at Trump Plaza, the energy was lacking because Donald Trump and all the other high rollers were sitting ringside. They weren't wrestling fans. You had people just staring at the ring.

You didn't have people reacting the way WWF fans at that time at 88 and 89 were reacting. That was the biggest news coming out of those WrestleMania in the business and amongst people who followed the inside of the business was Jesus Christ. You know, it was just a deal. deathly pallor of an atmosphere.

And at times the atmosphere for the Royal Rumble was questionable, and at other times the fans were really into it. Now, it seemed to be about 99% male. I saw a couple young children who were girls. I don't know if I saw any adult women there. But I guess we should talk about it now. The question going around about, was it full? Was it empty?

Were the reflectors on the seats? causing people to think seats were empty because they were seeing that whiteish, grayish pad. It seemed to me, at times there were a lot of people not in seats. And then at other times it seemed full. And at other times the lights, it seemed empty. So what are your thoughts on all this? It's blowing my mind, man. They're there and then they're not and there's people and I'm hidden in there.

they're in my head, man. I was going to basically ask you the same thing. I was going to say, what's your impression of how many people were there? Because I ended up, I stared and then I thought, and then I looked and looked back, and I at one point thought that they were auditioning or trying out some kind of new goddamn AI bullshit to fuck us up some kind of. kind of way so they didn't have to fucking have people in the building. All of those things that you said have some semblance of contribution to this.

And the reason why we're going into this is because that was a big topic online and amongst the fans watching all the empty seats. Why there aren't any empty seats? And optical illusions did come into play in some of this. It was a self-inflicted wound because the way they built the stadium and the seats there is some odd round

white dot. Would that be the way you would describe it? Just a round white dot? I don't know how round. It looked almost like the corners may have been rounded, but almost rectangle or square. See, goddamn, it's like one of these things. When you look at this, do you see a fucking green bullfrog

or a goddamn orange kangaroo. It's insane. Early on in the show, there was a camera shot where I thought, wow, there's a bunch of empty seats. But then later on, when they shot that same section with different lighting,

I could see there was people in it. There was an element of optical illusion with the reflector or whatever the fucking diagram was on those seats and the seating configuration where it's like the lighting effect they had on a big show several months ago we called out it. It draws your eye to that and you can't tell whether there's people in a seat.

But then again, having said that, there were shots that I saw that it didn't look like there was anybody, but maybe they were all out roaming around trying to find water. There wasn't vast sections of empty seats, but there were. were, it seemed like there were empty seats of viewable empty seats visible in a number of places throughout the show. How many bathrooms, if it was that much trouble to get a drink, how far did you have to go and how long do you have to wait, take a piss? And again, that's something in a temporary stadium.

You know, what the fuck? You can't have extensive plumbing done in that amount of time. Even if you've got slave labor working 24 hours a day and try to build a pyramid. It's still, it's just not possible, right? And they had such an impressive stage. It may be the most impressive stage they've ever had for a Royal Rumble. Yeah, well, see, they're used to putting those up and taking them down in several days, big television productions.

It's all portable, but not fucking plumbing and guys. goddamn facilities. And again, the way those pads, monitors, whatever you want to call them, it almost looked that they were mapping the room for like CGI, like to get rid of the crowd and put something else at its place. But there were definitely times where I was very consciously trying to look next to the pad because the pad was not really bright, but bright enough that it, you said your eye went there.

And sometimes next to it, you would see a dot. And sometimes there was clearly nothing there. You would almost think they were bringing in fans, bringing in people by like the wave. Like, you know, all right, your turn. You in. Now you're out. You in. I don't know what would cause that.

But there were definitely times where it looked packed and I saw people post photos. You know, look at how empty it is. And it's them shooting the fans behind them and it looks packed. And then I know what I saw. And there were other times where it was clearly an illusion or something. caused by those pads that cause you're not to see human beings. And I know it's, as a guy once said that it was working out here, well, it's a tropical illusion.

But you couldn't get a good grip on it as to, you know, but again, there could have been major, not major exodus of, you know, like thousands of people in the same section, but lots of people roaming around trying to find food, water and a fucking, and pot to piss in and a window to throw it out up. But it's still not, that crowd was not the level of what we have come to expect size-wise of one of these major events, but they grossed however many tens of millions of dollars

more than if they'd had 70,000 people there in, you know, a major football stadium in this country. And they had, this is the biggest county fair show Brian ever held. A sole show, a fair show. That's what we always wanted. All the territories, well, like Vern didn't and Vince, you know, Senior didn't, but the southern territories at even out in Texas,

you wanted fair shows where every time the county fair came once a year in the summer or fall, the entertainment board for the county fair would line up the entertainment, whether it was fucking bands playing or fucking skydivers or whatever. Wrestling was a big deal, and we could plug it on television

and get people to go to their fair and blah, blah, blah. And you'd get, I've done fair shows for $1,200. I've done them for $10,000. And it didn't matter because if you knew what you were getting, you just put enough people on the card and gave them enough that you could still make money.

And that's what, OVW, we did that and Spoky Mountain, we went and set up at fair board conventions early in the year when they were booking their talent and a boom. And this is just how much is, how many more times is $50 million than $5,000? See,

this isn't the county fair. This is the state fair. It's a bigger deal. Well, well, okay. I never sold a state fair show, but I've worked on a couple. Crockett, I think, got 50 grand

from the Indiana State Fair. Or what, no, was it, the Ohio State? Nevertheless. They didn't have any oil. That's the difference right there. So they couldn't necessarily give you a stupid amount of money. But the point is, it's still the same thing. It's a bought show.

And instead of working in a mud field, followed by the what do they call it a goddamn bungee jumping off of the fire truck lift immediately after the matches they had fireworks well we'll get to those big fireworks

at the end so I guess in conclusion on the question of if there were fans there or not your answer is there was a lot of them I don't think the place was jam packed but I think also there was somewhat of an optical illusion that led you, and then maybe as we find out that it started going on 2 a.m. in the morning,

some of them may have started to trickling out already. So all of these things are true. Well, Jim, of course, the opening match at the Royal Rumble was the Women's Royal Rumble, one of my favorite women's matches of the year. It's always lots of fun. You get to see who's really good. You get to see who's really bad.

What did you think of this year, the 2026 women's royal rumble. Are you just trying to pep me up to go into this thing? Well, there's always one of my favorite matches the year. It's fun. It's fun. It's the women's Royal Rumble. What he did?

Oh, geez, O Pete. Here's what I did this year. Because I say this every time, this year, even just this time, I say this every time that we have to do this, where there's a Royal Rumble or an elimination chamber or some goddamn, goddell. cataclysmic ball of doom match, that we got to have the girls do it before the guys do it.

Now you've seen two of them and the... So what I decided to do this year was so that it wouldn't spoil the taste of my mouth for a royal rumble. I would watch the men's rumble first and then I'd watch the women's rumble. And then, Brian, I'll have you know... Does this mean you gave it a chance?

No, because then I was about to say I'll have you know I had the opposite effect because the men's rumble was so fucking boring that it killed it for me for the women's rumble but I put it on I jotted down who was in it and I watched it closely for the last five minutes because did I mention no I haven't but I will this thing went one hour one hour and fucking 15 fucking minutes. With new people coming in to keep it fresh. It's a fun match. It's the Royal Rumble. What's up fun with new people giving it to give it for you? You never know who it could be. Will it be the person you saw last week on TV or a surprise, Bella? You don't know. That's the

mystery of the Rumble. Well, the mystery to me is why they can't, why don't they do it like Dusty? Remember when every year Dusty had the bunkhouse Stampede Battle Royals, all the guys, 25 or 28 of them or whatever, and they got dressed up in their bunkhouse gear, and they had a big bunkhouse battle royal. And the same guy won every year. Well, not all of them. Sometimes some of the other guys won some of the battle royals, but he won the big one. But nevertheless, in the fall of 80, or the winner of 88, he did the manager.

Bunkhouse Battle Royal because he realized he had like seven managers it was what me, Paul E Humberdink Gary Hart, Paul Jones J.J. Dillon

I'm leaving somebody else out and we had Did I say Gary? Well if I didn't say Gary Hart Gary Hart was in there and the point is it didn't last long it was a little mini very it was like an appetizer a little soups on a poo-poo and then they had

instead of six managers they had 20 fucking five guys or whatever in the wreck why can't we do 10 women royal rumble just give me the top 10 why the one that they're doing works everyone seems to like it again it's one of the more enjoyable matches of the year usually How are you, who is now paying you to say these things, Brian? Have you been contacted by some giant PR firm? All right, let me try to get you off your little negative train because we haven't even talked about Eoske yet, so I know your negative train is going to derail and take a bunch of other trains with it.

Let me ask you this, two questions. Yes. Based on what I watched and what I saw. Are you impressed with Saul Rukka, Ruka. I actually don't know how to pronounce her last name, but you're just every time. Al Ruka, I believe it is. Yes. And also, while everyone else is raving about it,

did you think Lash Legend kind of looked not ready? I don't know. Those are like two big thoughts. I've always, I have continued to think that Lash Legend, because remember I said we saw her in developmental, we started watching this fiasco five, six years ago. And she was doing the Wendy Williams Talk Show take off. But then I

said here a couple months ago, if this is good as they've got her in five years, I don't think she's going to live long enough. And that's the thing is that you've got talent in this match, much like the men's match, which

we'll talk about in great detail. And the girls, I think it hurt the girls, they had more time than the guys did to actually do anything because all their fucking entrances took three quarters the time they had before the next guy comes in. But in this case, we had to see just all of these girls do a lot of these things that

nobody has any business of doing. And is 30 is too many for too long. I don't want to see anything for an hour and 15 fucking minutes. Is Charlotte started out first, I don't want to see her for an hour and 15 minutes. if it means going through 29 other women. And Alexa Bliss and Keanu James and our friend of the bridge. She was great. Actually, that's the first time I've really,

I've seen her on some Smackdown matches, but it's the first time she really impressed me. She looked great in there. Well, you got to remember that after I've seen the big rumble and the big rumble wasn't very big, I'm also zoning out on a lot of this. Oh, you're just hating everything. This is awful.

You're not giving anything a chance. stop me let's go with some of your favorites are coming come on let's go when I mention when I mention this list of names I want you to stop me when I get to someone that you think should be in a main event

pay-per-view match just on their own not because they're part of just a megalopolis of fucking people in the match but on their own who needs to be main event or you're saying big time main event match right now well you're saying right now or do I predict this for the future for this person.

No, right now, right now, who is a main eventer? And somebody that, it's a goddamn $100 million fucking fair show, right? It is a big pay-per-view premium live event all around the world. If we got to watch them for an hour, who needs to be in it? Charlotte Flair, yes or no? Main eventor, yes. Alexa Bliss. Not for me, but WWE's used her as a main eventer,

and their fans seem to react to her and her silliness. Keanu James. Excellent showing here or no? Excellent showing here, but not a main eventer. Okay. Nea-Jack. Unfortunately, they've used her as a main-a-vanner. I wouldn't.

Ivy Nile. Not a main-a-venter. Lola Vice. Not currently a main-a-vanner. Candy LaRue. Not a main-en-viner. Jordan Grace. She came in and dumped some people.

A jury may be out. Jury out. She was a main event or in NXT. They brought her up pretty quickly. They signed her from TNA. So I don't think you could say no. Okay, but at the same point, we're eight in already. Becky Lynch.

That's a gimmy. Yes. Saul Ruka, you asked about old Saul? I would say no right now. I think she's going to be, but we're talking about right now. She's not a main inventor. Well, yeah, and they're clearly pushing her toward that point. And she's very vivacious, blonde California surfer girl type.

I don't know what the fuck. She's got the gymnastics. And that's, I hate that fucking little flip she does in the corner because it's so preposterous. I mean, it just defies logic. And your eyes go, what the fuck? Why would that work? And that's why she's doing it because it's different, but it's fake. she don't care it's fake because she's in the new generation and she's a gymnast and

she thinks everybody thinks it's supposed to be cool and it doesn't matter if it's fake. But having said that, I don't think she has completely natural wrestling instincts yet of any kind. So I would suggest that she's still going to be green for a while and hopefully she'll get it. But she's not one of these girls like a Becky Lynch that wanted to be a wrestler from a young age, from what I can deduce. Anyway, back to, we got like three main eventors

in the first 10. Roxanne Perez. You said on our own, not with something, so I can't say I win the Judgment Day. Model girl. I don't care if they put 18 belts, on her or how they push her. She is a lost ball

in high weeds and I do not want to watch her in a wrestling ring. Not a main eventor. And Natalia, best worker in the bunch but not exactly. This part is going to set the gate on fire. And I like her as a heel, what they're doing with her right now.

Live Morgan. Main eventor, absolutely. One of the biggest stars in the entire company. I'll give it to you. Lash legend. Not a main inventor. Let's go back to the talk show. Zelina Vega. Not a main inventor.

Rochelle, Rochelle stopped by on her way from Milan to Minsk. They're pushing her. I, yeah, I'm not... I would say she's a main eventer, actually. I would be willing to entertain the prospect.

I think they're using her so well right now. I actually, I think she's a main inventor. We're already halfway in. We got better than halfway. we got five. Chelsea Green is the buddy Landell of the roster. She's just swell

and entertaining. Julia. Yeah. That's complicated. I think they want her to be a main eventer. They booked her as a main event or in NXT. They quickly brought her up and she's doing that tag stuff with Keanu James.

You know what Mama Cornette you say about wanting, don't you? No. You want in one hand and shit in the other one, see which one's going to fill up first. I'm going to stick with the hand with the want, I think, than the hand with the shit. There you go. And then number 20, Eoskai. Main eventor.

And again, I wouldn't watch. But then we get number 21 Oscar. Man of enter. 22 Rio Ripley now I'm just pissed Main eventer one of the biggest stars in a company she got a big she may have gotten the biggest pop of anyone coming out for this and that's exactly what I'm saying she's an international yacht broker from Tulan France

she's a superstar she would have got a fucking huge pop if they had a goddamn match with her and one of the other made eventers they could have gone 20 minutes tops and but nevertheless they have turned her again

did I say it the other day they instead of this star of a Tarantino movie she's become the big buddy to the little buddy of a Japanese Gilligan what was up with did you notice her nose was painted red

Ria had a weird lure I don't give a crap some people are like oh it's a reference to some horror movie I don't give a shit she came out there where her nose was red I don't think she was crying it wasn't good

it matched her eyes but I didn't know why the fuck her eyes looked like that I'm assuming like you are like you said that it was some homage to some kind of movie that were too old and white to know about but it wasn't a good

no I don't want to see her in the middle of all this shit. Boop. And then Bailey. Bailey came out. I would say main event or, although they don't always use her that way. You could always put her in a main event and it works and she works like a main eventer.

Well, yes. But it's Jane Wayne Gacy. Nikki Bella. Legend. Nicky Bella. Not just main event or legend. Yeah. All time legend.

Hall of Thamer. There are many things that are legends. Legends that existed before. The stories have been passed down. Like goddamn cholera. I don't want to bring it back. Then lyric. Not a main event.

Then Keelani Jordan. Not currently a main inventor. Then Kerry Seine. Not a main inventor. Then Bree Bella. So they got both bellas. Now, which Bella has been here and which one had just come back? Because at this point, I'm putting negatives and sleeves.

It's just running in the background. Nikki's been here for a little while. Bree is the one married to Brian Danielson. She has not come back. But she's allowed, it don't count in Saudi Arabia. She can cheat on the relationship, right? Because it's across the international date line. I don't think that's...

That's why they call it the international date line. That's where you cross that line. You can date other people. This isn't like a Vegas thing. That's not why they call it the international date line. But let's get back. We have more main eventers to talk about. Well, boy, they called it that when they used to charge me $5.99 a minute.

But anyway, then it was Tiffy time. Main eventer. And then all 30 were in. And it continued going from there forever. There were people, obviously, that had been eliminated at that point. but again, at almost exactly an hour and 15 minutes from the first entrance to the final, we get to the point of the matter.

But in the last five minutes, as I've jotted down, they've taken RIA from one of the five top stars in the company of any gender or genre to a member of the women's roster. and you know, bleh. So we got Lash legend, Rochelle, Ria Ripley,

Liv Morgan, Saul Ruka, and Tiffany. And Ria dumped Lash, okay, boom. And then Rochelle picked Ria Ripley up in like that choke slam Tejano bomb or whatever, but

did you see the chokeslam over the top rope to the apron and then the floor. It was somewhat controlled, but still a little fucking dangerous. Well, bump on the apron so she didn't take the bump on the floor, I guess. Well, yes, I know that, but sometimes people's aims are off here lately. But besides that, it was just, to me, it was abrupt when the one thing that Pat Patterson would do, and also his original version had 20 guys,

but he would not only give the people who needed to make an impact spots built into the match when he laid it out to make an impact, but he would also protect guys and or girls who needed to be protected by making sure that when they got dumped, it wasn't unceremonious and it was some, something big or something understandable

or suited the fucking moment. And yes, you know, it's nice that Rochelle dumped Rhea because Rochelle is getting the push. But it was a little abrupt. Okay, Bob, there we go. Okay, see you later. And then live dumped Rochelle who landed on her feet and stood there and stared

because they're friends in the judgment day. And so that's obviously going to lead to something, but that was a little flat-footed, a little flat. It was like, hey. Really? You thought so? I didn't think it was that flat. I think they could have set up where she was, Rochelle was about to really do something big to somebody

and let live fucking slip in rather than just, oh, here we go. Hey, just curious in advance, Did you fast forward through the men's match at all? Did you see the Brock Lesnar elimination? Oh, I almost, I saw it, although they tried hard to discuss it. Okay. No, no.

No, I watched the men's rumble. That's why I was so sick of fucking Royal Rumbles after watched the men's rumble. Usually it works the other way. This time it had a negative effect. I think this is one of those ways WWE gets it right. You should watch these events live, because if you experience the women's one first, you'll enjoy it. and it won't bother you when you get to the men's one

hours later after all those commercials. I wouldn't have really enjoyed this anyway, though. So, because they were down to Liv and Saul and Tiffy, which now we've got three blonde cheerleaders in there, and I hate to say this, but live would be the experienced veteran. So all of a sudden it was a bunch of,

fucking wild blonde hair waving sloppy shit that I don't know what some of them were trying to fucking do they really can't wrestle but if you need a cartwheel or a roundoff or a hand spring boom they could do it you know Olympic level and then they all three got on the apron and did the stagey tease fight thing where ooh weebles wobble but they don't fall down until Tiffy knocked Saul off and then lived knocked Tiffy off and lived to rumble another day. But how didn't even mention the clothing? I'm sorry, an hour and 15 minutes of watching girls do spots with each other just meaninglessly. it tips me over the edge

and especially when they're wearing now they've got designers working on full body scuba suits that start at the neck and go all the way to the wrists and the fucking ankles but at least have some type of

design to them that it's it's not like they would ever wear anything like this on purpose still but it's like it It matches their normal colors. But it's just, yeah, 10 or 12 girl rumble, like the manager's bunkhouse,

and then just get to the meat of the matter. They have a big roster of women. They have to do this. And again, it's good. It was a good match. I enjoyed it. You didn't give it a chance. You didn't give it any chance at all.

How many women into the match did you start fast-forwarding? I just left it sit when I was kind of listening to see if anybody's, oh my God, she did. and otherwise I was doing chores. Yeah, again, you didn't give it a chance. You watched it and listened until you heard someone had died, and it didn't happen so you didn't watch it. Well, and maybe I was a good luck charm, see?

So as long as I don't pay any attention, nobody would get seriously hurt. I thought this was really good. I enjoyed it. I think Sal Ruka, Sal Ruka, is a star. She should have worn a wetsuit like Medusa used to wear before she got to the WWF. They couldn't find any water.

Very good point. There goes stuff falling off my desk. Good match, though. And Liv Morgan won, so she gets a title match at WrestleMania, one of the biggest stars in the company. I thought it was a lot of fun. And there's going to be problems there in the Judgment Day with her and her giant Kevin Nash bodyguard type.

And Roxanne in the middle? Who are any women's champions? currently. Stephanie Vakere and Jade Cargill. So which one do you think that Liv Morgan is going to

want to fight? And which one she better pick Stephanie unless she was to get potatoed, but she'd only have to go about seven or eight minutes. I think she has to pick Stephanie too, although I worry about the build-up to that match being

the fans turning against Stephanie, because of Liv. Yeah. Even if she's a heel, how is one going to keep up with the other on the mic or anything? It's kind of like

handsome Jimmy Valyard is a heel against Joey Rossy. Boy, no one has put down Joey Rossi out of podcast more in a quarter of the year that Jim Cordon has in the last quarter of the year.

But that was the Women's Royal Rumble and Jim. Yes. You didn't really watch it. You wrote down names. You passed judgment on the names. Then you asked me to do the same. but what if you had done this in advance?

What if you had written down the names and made a pick? And what if I told you that pick could win you some prizes? Maybe then you would have watched a rumble and paid attention. But either way, there were more things for you to pick in the future. The big game is coming up. Jim, you know what I'm talking about. I were good friends at prize picks. I thought you were talking about me picking my nose.

I'll tell you something. I would have picked. I would have made some picks about that. if I had skin in the game, then I'd have paid more attention. If the girls had had some skin in the game, I might have paid more attention. But folks, if you've got,

if you got something riding on things, then you pay a little bit more attention. And this week, prize picks has got a special max discount for the big game live in the app right now. I'll have you know, from what I'm being told, Drake May just needs one passing yard

for the max discount to win. That max discount, of course, brought to you by Maxwell Jacob Friedman. He's spread some of his riches around and sponsored this thing. No association, no sponsorship. Let's be clear. I thought that's why they called it the max discount. I guess they'd have called it the MJF discount. Folks, if you download the prize picks app right now and you go down there and you make your picks, it's simple to play. You just pick more or less on two, three, four, five, even six players. stat projections. And if you get your picks right, you could cash in.

You can find your community on prize picks with the new social feeds feature. You've seen the social feeds feature, Brian. That's where they're getting a lot of people, especially in the wintertime, where the weather's cold, they're getting homeless people and people that need fed together. That's not what it is at all. They're feeding the whole society. That's not what it is. It's a social atmosphere.

No. And then they go around asking all these people who they think is going to win a big game, and that's how they determine they're on. It's not that sort of social atmosphere. It's the social atmosphere like a Tony con burner account. It's online. Well, there's a new feature alert for the folks that prize picks now has the early payouts.

We've been talking about this. You can get your money before the game even finishes. Of course, once again, you're playing with fire there. If a Hail Mary happens, you're going to have people looking for you for that. But don't buy a home with that money yet. And if you're missing your fantasy team,

if the league is already over with prize picks, you don't have to wait until next year's draft to keep playing fantasy. You can have a fantasy every night in the privacy of your own home, under the covers, in the dark. They let you play fantasy football every week, even in the playoffs.

So pick your favorite players and win when they hit their projections and you get your fantasy. What baseball players do you like to fantasize about, Brian? I don't fantasize about players. Fantacize is not necessarily the word I would use. Oh, well, it's the fantasy. But life is just a fantasy.

And Old O Nova will tell you that. So folks, right now, download the prize picks app today and use the code JCE. You're going to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Again, that's 10 to 1. You get 10 more than what you put in. Play your first $5 lineup, get $50 in lineups with the code JCE at prize picks. And then again, whether it's LeBron or Patrick Mahoney or any of these people that you people fantasize about,

well, now you're going to win prizes off of them. Off of the backs of their hard work, you're going to profit. So I hope you people are proud of yourself. and prize picks is going to enable your ridiculously evil scheme to make these people make you rich off of their hard work by giving you 10 to 1 what you're playing. I think the whole thing ought to be investigated. No investigations are needed, and again,

sometimes the train goes off the tracks, but we could all get back on the train and maybe they send a ferry or a bus, but how do we get back to where we were going? Picks is away, ladies and gentlemen. You get on the bus. No matter what the weather. Of course, the ferry got on the bus, but we're not

talking about that. No, we're not. And what we're talking, what we are talking about is a great deal for the listeners, Jim. The big game coming up without any further metaphorical funnies. Why don't we let the listeners know about this great deal? Yes, once again, download the

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Well, Jim, again, there were lots of matches to make picks on. Let's continue on here with the Royal Rumble. Gunther versus A.J. Stiles. with his career online in a one-on-one match was my favorite thing that I've seen here last week or two. Because we had an actual wrestling match amongst guys that can actually wrestle. And the fans there, however many were there, whatever the official total may be, they were into it because they were chanting,

this is awesome before they locked up, you know, with the bell and they were, I wish they would have stopped hopping. As a matter of fact, because they were goddamn distracting me. But I don't know how else to say it, but I can see Gunther working any place that I ever watched wrestling.

And I can see Gunther, working in 1950 in Chicago against Buddy Rogers. If you can see him in black and white and imagine one of those old, you know, the Chicago films, he's timeless. He worked in any territory.

There's nothing he does that's that's just, that's the modern blah or that's dated in any way. It's just he's, a serious athlete who doesn't do funny ha ha and has logical fucking matches whether it's the big heavy hands or the goddamn cardio that he's got where he stays involved in shit i've said he looked like jean kineski but can you can see him working it with in florida in 1980 right same shit he's doing now with somebody else

from the territory at that time, or the Carolinas in the 70s or whatever. And AJ is not, you know, John Sino or Steve Austin, as far as level of star power at the box office,

but he's been there a long time and so they treat him as a main event guy and consider him that. And he can fucking work and he's still athletic enough that he can do shit. And I mean, I made a lot of notes on the back and forth that I could, it would just sound like a boring play by play.

But they, they had a wrestling match. AJ takes a hell of a backdrop. When is the last time you saw somebody just take a fucking backdrop? I can't tell you the last match I saw that didn't have somebody diving over the top rope out on a floor like a fucking idiot. But I can't remember the last time I saw somebody take a backdrop. The most

basic common pro wrestling move in the history of pro wrestling moves. They didn't have to do ridiculous shit here and they didn't need furniture. And Gunther, obviously,

is the big guy that stayed on AJ and was physically dominant most of the time, but AJ would have anything from a hope spot to a small comeback before Gunther would take back over, and then AJ could fight from underneath again. But then AJ gets his calf crusher hold, and Gunther gets the sleeper. And they start kicking it up and start getting some two counts. But again, they escalated. level of the conflict and toward the point of time where they were almost done,

Gunther was just in the vicious heat going and just chopping the shit out of him in the corner, pow, pow, and the referee be checking him and he's selling and the fans are chan, let's go, AJ. And Gunther wouldn't let up and then AJ would fight back. That's wrestling. Jesus, it's not hard to figure out. ever Gunther caught sleeper, AJ fought up,

Gunther took him back down, and then AJ tried to get to the ropes, but he couldn't. And then he passed out. And the only thing, honestly, that I didn't like about this match was, and it fits Gunther,

I know, and that's why I give it a passes, it wasn't just completely bullshit. But there's so many modern finishes that are just stationary finishes. it like I said it worked better here than most but I'm not a fan because it's especially flat when the heel wins that way it you may I know they're trying to be like mixed martial arts and build the tension oh he's in a submission hold is he going to tap or is he

going to whatever is he going to tap but god damn it I miss the days when you can could get either that elation of the baby face winning, one, two, three, when it was called for, or the fucking hope of the baby face with the fans until the last second he's going to win it, and then the heel takes it right out from under him, one, two, three, and I dash their hopes. It's like, ah, with these stationary finishes, is he going to tap? Is he not? Will he make the ropes, whatever? Yes, it can build some drama, but also people.

have time to see it coming. And when you see it coming, whether it's what you want to see or what you don't want to see, you reconcile yourself to it enough to where that it's not a big explosion either way. It's more like the foregone conclusion that you figured 10 seconds ago was going to take place. Does that make any sense? It makes sense. It is a standard finish at this point that we're seeing more and more. moxley's matches

so are four ways and three ways and fucking you know everything else they over fucking do and it actually if if somebody was going to do it I'd have Gunther be the one to do it so it again it fits him but it's just

it's always now but nevertheless a clear baby face a clear heel both main event guys both can fucking work both were serious about what they did both were hitting hard and safe places and stiff and emotional with their work. And it went 25 minutes, but it didn't seem like it because it wasn't guys just doing shit

to each other over and over at 100 miles an hour and kicking out of everything and lacking in logic. It was a fucking little ride there we took from the beginning to the end. So this was my favorite thing. And Sammy and Drew will talk about a minute, which I didn't suck pond water, but I think Gunther is the perfect wrestler. So I got a little bit of bigger of a tickle out of this. In terms of it being the last match for AJ Styles,

what do you think? Well, but now here's another guy getting this specific sendoff. Well, but I'm getting mixed signals. send to me because they gave him a big ovation after Gunther left the ring and fans are singing for AJ and everything and he makes a production out of taking his gloves off and the fans are like no no no and then he put his gloves back on well what what does that mean did he lie or what he left the ring then he came back and he posed on a turnbuckle and he didn't take his boots off. I guess the gloves were going to be the boots off, but he took the gloves off, but then he put the gloves back on.

Has he changed his mind? Is he going to say, well, I just can't leave you now. That would be kind of kabuki-ish. So he said he was going to retire this year. Then he said he would put his career up against Gunther. And then he lost in the. match, and then he takes his gloves off, so why don't he put him down in the ring?

Why'd he put him back on? I assume we're going to find out something when we next hear from these people. Nakamura put up that post saying that AJ told him in advance the Royal Rumble was his last night, and that is what happened. Of course, AJ Stiles, his past week was in the news because he trademarked the name AJ Stiles and phenomenal one, the logo that he had on the gloves. So he's making sure he's ready for a post-up. career if necessary.

How much would Tony Kahn give AJ Stiles? Well, that's the thing is that I can't say he wouldn't do it for $10 million or whatever. I don't think if AJ, who was still being used as a main event level

guy and I don't know why he would want to leave the day and we haven't heard about his contract coming up. That's not. thing. Nobody said his contract, or did I miss this?

That his contract was going to be up anytime soon, just that he was thinking about retiring. Is he trademarking himself so that he can own himself after his career? But I don't see any reason why he would leave and go there at this time with the relationship he has with the WWE. I think he's serious about not being. in the ring, maybe except if he wants to, once in a while for behind the scenes purpose or, you know, is he want to start a school or does he want to work behind the scenes in their program? I don't think he's leaving the company because... Yeah, and by the way, that's the only other option.

It's he stays with the company or he goes to AEW. For those you're writing and saying, what about TNA? He's not going to TNA. No, no. And he wouldn't have to quit the WWE to go to TNA anyway. But that's, I don't know why at this point unless he just said, you know what, this guy will give me $10 million for a year or two years or whatever. And how can I not?

I really don't see why he would leave in the position he's in and the good graces he's in and go wrestle for AEW. $10 million, 25 matches at most a year. I don't know. It's appealing. Again, I don't know if it's $10 million. We're just throwing that number. That's pretty excessive. Well, that's why I'm saying at some point, I guess anybody would almost do anything. But, you know, but AJ doesn't, is not in dire need of money.

And I don't know what he would think he could accomplish over there at this point that, Nobody else can, but nevertheless. It was odd, odd with the gloves. And again, Guther now choked out Goldberg, John Sina, who smiled, of course, at the end, and A.J. Stiles, where do they go next with Gunther? Brock! Brock! Brock! Brock! I want to see that fucking match. And I want Gunther to beat Brock. That is the victory that he needs.

that I've been saying that that's the natural one, the most believable physical guy in the ring of the previous generation against the most believable physical guy in the ring of this generation. And if Brock is motivated to do it the right way and put Gunther over rather than just losing a match to it. Well, we shall see. But Jim, there was another big match before the next Royal Rumble here on this event?

There was another big match before the next big match for one of the world titles. And I'm sorry, it's just another thing that, okay, because a Royal Rumble winner gets to World Championship match

at WrestleMania in the main event. But now we know the elimination chamber winner gets a WrestleMania main event. against another world champion. They've diluted this thing down by half. So the world title match was Sammy Zane and Drew McIntyre,

and that's why they put Sammy over in Montreal. We talked about this, the second part of the doubleheader. They love him in Montreal because he's local, and they love him in Saudi Arabia because now they love him there where they didn't love him before. It's a thin line between love and hate, Brian. And again, at least we have a clear baby face, a clear heel, a reason to get behind the fucking underdog, a one-on-one match with regular rules,

it doesn't need furniture. And, you know, that was the most refreshing thing is the, do you think, is Saudi Arabia the last place in the goddamn world, it hasn't been polluted? Well, no, they've done it there before. with the garbage matches, but the furniture. We didn't need the furniture. That was refreshing.

Sammy Zane is the best all-around baby face seller in the WWE. And that's the part that I liked the best about him when he was El Generico is that he could sell

so well as a baby face. And that was when he was 15 years younger. So he actually was a little bit better at it there, just because he was a little fresher of a pup. But also he's a little bit smarter now. But he opens up with his flashy baby face shit and does a dive, and then the heel takes over on him,

gets heat on him, and he fights from underneath. And Drew fit his part perfectly here because he's an excellent heel. And not only does his, athletic shit, his moves, his work, for the most part, look good, but also his body language and his facial expressions.

He's on. He's himself all the time. So again, Sammy's got to fight from underneath. And I liked most of this match, but then I thought in trying to make Sammy before they beat him, I don't know, they lost me and they may have lost to people already because now that we know that it was going, it was after midnight

by this point, because the one thing that I noticed was for Sammy to be so popular over there, when Drew hit the white noise, Seamus's move off the second turnbuckle or whatever and got a two count as Sammy kicked out, I was like, well, we're starting to go a little too far here in the heat, and there wasn't a big pop either. And then Drew hit three of his DDTs in a row cover and got a two count. And I wrote no too much.

And the fans weren't going ballistic. Now, was it a, was it a problem with the micing or was, my hearing, my ear still clogged? Or were the people kind of like not hanging on the edge of their seat when Sammy was kicking out of these things? again, this is one of those times where I started asking myself, how many people were there? You know, seriously, because you can't tell and at times the crowd seemed loud and at times they didn't. I don't know.

I agree with you that they may have gone a little too far, but I don't know about it killing the, whatever the house was. Well, I'm not saying it killed it, but my problem was is that, Drew in trying to, I guess they thought beforehand that if we do all these things to Sammy and he keeps kicking out that the people are going to be jumping up and down throwing babies near. And this is a kind of finish where it would have worked

if the people were throwing the babies. But because they weren't throwing the babies, I was like, oh, come on now. Let me give it again to you. White noise off the turnbuckle. Boom, big bump. Two count. Three of his DDTs and a row. row two count.

Drew hit two big clothes lines, then missed a kick, then Sammy tried a kick and missed it, and then Drew hit the kick. Two counts, Sammy got the ropes. Then Drew argued with the referee for no apparent reason for a second, and then Sammy hit the kick,

and Drew barely turned his shoulder, and it wasn't, you couldn't see it in that big building. And then Drew, crawled over to the desk out on the floor and Sammy followed him and Drew power bombed Sammy on the fucking desk

and the referees were checking on Sammy and I'm like Jesus Christ just shoot him then or just take a fucking axe and give poor Sammy 40 wax and then Drew rolled him back in and started beating on him and taunting him and Sammy

came back after all that with a super duplex in the corner, the exploder, and went for the kick and Drew hit his kick, didn't cover him, hit another kick, one, two, three. My God, damn, here's a sledgehammer. Again, I think it was just too much for Drew who is in this title picture, obviously, deeply, along with Cody and Jacob and all the challengers they've got, and Sammy, yes, is popular and needed to have a great showing, but they got into AEW territory with this,

and it's fucking, and look, Sammy is 75 pounds smaller and lower on the pecking order than Drew, and Drew need to fucking cannon. So besides for the last three or four minutes, I wasn't offended by this match, but I think it could have been better if they'd have shortened that down to just, euthanize him once and pinning.

But now you tell me. I thought it was all right. I was glad I drew one. I thought that was the right move. I thought they would do something to get a big pop and they didn't. Do you think Samuel will ever get the world title? You know, you had two moments now where you could say it was set up for it to happen if it ever was going to.

The match with Roman reigns in Montreal, which we didn't think they should have and they shouldn't have. Others were arguing that was the time. and now this one main event in Saudi Arabia a crowd that loves them they're not going to do it now either and again it doesn't seem like it's the time

but do you think there ever will be a time it was after midnight they didn't love even as that's another thing if they were jumping up and down like the old days of Steve Austin then that finish may have been justified but they thought apparently when they laid it out that was going to happen but it's after midnight but didn't happen

but I said at the time that would have been crazy to beat Roman rains with Sammy and Montreal even though yes the pop would have been massive for one night but it would have eviscerated all the carefully constructed plans they had for I don't know like other towns not Montreal any other towns not Montreal and they couldn't do that and it would hurt Sammy more

if they put the world title on him and took it off him two weeks later, then if he never gets it. Because then his fans can always one day or I wish he had of or whatever, but yeah, he did and he lost it two weeks later. And that's what would have to happen because no, he wouldn't be,

definitely when there was only one, you wouldn't make Sammy the world champion. and even now that there's two, you still, he couldn't be the world champion for months and months and months. He's a great bridesmaid. Well, there it is. Once again, the bridesmaid, Sammy Zane, Drew McIntyre retains the title. We'll see what happens on his road to WrestleMania,

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Once again, Jim, that promo code, which kind of takes the end. J-C-E. That's the end of that. All right, Jim. See, now you're using both hands. That was one hand. And there's no transition from there, Jim, let's use. It was all five fingers.

So at least if you only give me one hand when you do the job, use all five fingers. Jim, while we still have all of our body parts, let's try to get out of Saudi Arabia. Let's return. the Royal Rumble, one match left the big Royal Rumble, the Men's Royal Rumble. And Bonesaw McGraw did not join the Rumble. By the way, when the Men's Royal Rumble started,

which is kind of the thing that the show is named after, we were two hours and 45 minutes into this broadcast. And the fourth match was up. Well, one match was an hour. You're telling me. All right, so by the way, okay, so the first match was an hour and 15 minutes, and then 25 minutes for Gunther and AJ, so an hour at 45, and then 20 minutes maybe for, so they've still dicked around for almost an hour in

between this thing. Anyway, the men's Royal Rumble, and there was a pattern that you'll begin to notice when they've not only, remember I was telling you the story about, we were talking about the Royal Rumbles that I was involved in as a manager, except for the thing with Vader, where there was a big schmaws,

but like one year I just pointed to the ring for Jimmy Del Rey and Tom Pritchard to just run as fast as you can. Now with the entrances, and they're in a stadium, and they're doing some of the guys, the full entrance, Jay Yeed, for Christ's sake,

that by the time that they play the music, do the entrance and get in the ring, they literally do two spots, and boom, there's the next guy. But meanwhile, while that they're shooting the entrance and everybody's attention's on the entrance, all the guys in the ring most of the time

are just fucking laying there selling. So you've got a match that goes an hour that every two minutes it stops for about a minute to a minute and a half and then it starts again it goes for another 30 seconds. Am I over exaggerating this? Again, it's the Royal Rumble. It's a fun match. It's a fun night.

It's the one match where you don't know what's going to happen or who's going to come out or who will be a... Or how long it's going to take. It was two minutes in the past. It's 90 seconds here. It was 90 seconds in the past as well. Well, and here's another thing. Was it two minutes?

Because the men's rumble went an hour. The women's went an hour in 15 minutes. Did they start cutting time when they realized, oh, fuck, it's 2 o'clock in the morning? Who's timing this show? I do it. But the point is, but again, the Royal Rumble traditionally was you run down there and jump in and there's the chaos that I mentioned in the girls, you know, match run down that we did, that Paterson would have spots for guys to shine that you wanted to protect and different ways

for guys to, that were top guys to be eliminated with all the focus on them, but that they had an out or an excuse, they were ganged up on whatever. And in this one, and I'll give it away, but we'll get to it, the biggest elimination brought. Lesner was barely caught on camera while some other fucking knucklehead was making his goddamn entrance. And it was Jay Uso. It was the biggest entrance anyone got, yeah. The biggest entrance anybody got.

And at that point, while he was yeeting through the whole stadium, Cody and L.A. Knight teamed up to eliminate Brock because it had taken so long to do the previous shit. they just, when Phoenix came in, Brock caught him and slammed him and Germaned Oba and dumped Phoenix. And then Oba had to close line Brock and hit Logan Paul and try to dump Paul and Brock dumped him. Well, here comes Jay Hussob, but it's time for Brock to leave, but they just did it anyway. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

So number one was Oba Femi. And there are still people, oh, Cornett fucking shits on Obafemi because he had a Nigerian accent. Remember we've seen, we saw him the one time. And I said, why is he putting on the fake accent? And come to find out he's really from Nigeria, but he exaggerates the accent. And ever since then, everybody's like, oh, Cornet hates him. He looks great. I don't know that I've seen him yet in a particular position where I thought he was

ready to be the fucking world champion here in modern times. He had that little match with Cody, right? Not bad. But nevertheless, he's first and Braun Breaker is second because that's the thing that Paul Heyman's pissed at Adam Pierce because Braun Breaker got the number two spot and Pierce's saying it's a blind draw, but I remember them giving out specific spots in the past.

They just make this shit up. So anyway, Braun Breaker's coming down the entranceway and the guy in black, the black hoodie, the black, the black outfit. He's not a ninja, but it's all black, jumps Bronbreaker, runs him into the stairs, beats him up,

stomps him, rolls him in, and then Obafimmy clothes lining him out. and the guy in black ran off and Paul had a fit screaming, that was Seth Rollins, that was Seth Rollins. And Braun just staggered out. No, it wasn't time for him to win it. Maybe they thought that that would be received better than it. Should they have let the thing get started before they did that?

just so it wouldn't be just like people be like, oh, fuck. Quite a letdown. What do you think? Yeah, somewhat. I mean, I guess you have to look at it like they do. It plays into the bigger picture, which will be Braun was screwed over, Drew McIntyre style, and he's going to be on the rampage,

maybe against Adam Pierce, maybe against Rollins. And if it's not Rollins, who's the new Austin theory? Well, I think it was Austin. I think it was Austin theory. Because whoever that person was doesn't have to be the person that's revealed because he didn't reveal himself. And if they wanted to be Seth, then, I mean, I did the same thing one time. I couldn't get to heavenly bodies in town, so well done under ski masks, attacked Storm and Jericho in the parking lot. and we just said it was the heavily bodies.

But this was a little flat, but I think it was theory because he moved the same way, he did the fucking stomp, and they just said, here, you go out there and we'll reveal later on. I'm not saying it's going to be theory in the end. Who knows it may be? Because I don't know if they know what they're doing.

Anyhow. So that was that. And then here came solo. and you got a little solo and Oba and then Ray Mysterio and then Rusev and Rusev got dumped in 30 seconds what did he do here now

where they just said well fuck it then he just got back I'll take a one way trip to Bulgaria please it is surprising you thought they were to book him stronger than he was booked. I mean, he's just not been booked at all well

since he came back. I don't know if it's an issue we just don't see. But when he was for a little while booked well in AEW, he was really effective and really good. And he's just a non-entany right now in WWA. A non-entity. But anyway, so Oba, that's where Oba broke out he dumped Rusev 30 seconds after he came in and then he dumped solo and he dumped Ray and got booed

for that because, you know, again, if I was a new baby face in the Royal Rumble, the last thing I'd want to do is dump any of the legendary baby faces, whether they think it'll get me over or not. And then out came Matt Cardona, Cordona, Cardona, Fred de Cordova, de Cuboda, de Coboda, and he had an exchange with Oba and got dumped again. So now Oba was alone again, so they're doing the thing where the big guy, you know, commands the ring.

So they have plans for Oba. And at Damian Priest, at least he ran down. But Damian Priest and Oba Femi, they're trying to do some kind of lackluster choreographed aggressive parkour routine with the block

and the kick and the duck and the I don't know if that got it because they're both priest doesn't have the umph

that he needs and Oba don't need to be doing fancy dance stuff but then Javon Evans came in and he ducked and dodged and bounced around because as we've mentioned many times, that boy bouncy.

And he does the cute stuff. And I'm saying, okay, again, this is a kind of showcase where this kid can last a little while by doing all this fancy stuff. And he's the underdog and he works hard. People want to like him. But then the next guy was Mr. Iguana with the puppet in his mouth. And now instead of Javon Evans, who is athletic and at least it's a real person wrestling or whatever.

Now the iguana guy makes everybody look stupid having to, even though like priest double choke slammed iguana and the puppet, even if they're not cooperating by getting beat up by this guy, the fact that they're cooperating with the spots with him makes everybody look stupid. the fans were conflicted because do you think it AAA's a big deal in Saudi Arabia have they ever seen Mr. iguana? Do you think over there?

Well, the internet is everywhere. Well, I shouldn't say everywhere here. King has to let you have it. Well, do you think he's uppermost in the minds of all the fans in Saudi Arabia whether they got the internet or not? I think whether it's Mr. Aguana, who I'm embarrassed by what I see him,

I don't give a fuck how much people like him and Lucille. or Powerhouse Hobbs, I don't think the fans here know anyone outside of WWE. By and large, the majority of the, when I say fans, the people that the royal family invited to this event. However they got there, it didn't seem like a lot of the people knew what the fuck this was

or what was going on, did it? No. So, then Trick Williams, who dumped iguana and became my new hero, that was number 10 and then number 11 Cody and the crowd woke up because here's a star but he did the full entrance with the pyro

while everybody else was laying there and by the time that he threw his weight belt out to the people and threw a couple punches with Oba it was time for number 12 that's what I'm saying if you're the TV broadcast at least you're

looking at the guy coming down the ramp and the announcers are talking about him and the music's played or whatever. But for the people in the arena with the view of everything, it's a match that goes for 30 seconds and then stops for the next guy to come out. Who was El Grande Americano? Who was followed at number 13 by the original. El Grande Americano. Who's Chad Gable?

So you got Gable and Kaiser. they're both ripped and they look great and I just hate that. And we've got heat people on Twitter because you said that was a stupidest gimmick. But what the fuck? It's just they could do whatever they want in Mexico if they're over in Mexico, but it's just clown show bullshit. And again, Saudi Arabia did not seem to understand that they're the hottest thing in Mexico, did they?

Huh. Again, they're broadcasting to the world. They want to make sure that the stars of the WWE system are seen by the entire world. Thank you, Bruce Pritchard. So then the Americanos fought with each other an original dump number two. So that's kind of like Coke Classic Beaten New Coke.

And then Trick dumped the original one, and then Cody dumped tricked. Cody dumped trick, not Cody dumped tricked. Or dumped trucked. Did he dump truck it over? Speaking of dump trucks, Powerhouse Hobbs, they put up on the entrance video, Powerhouse Hobbs. And then the announcer said, well, here's the guy formerly known as Powerhouse Hobbs,

and it morphed into Royce Keys or Hoyce Keys, for those of you in Brazil. No pop, because they don't know who Powerhouse Hobbs was. but at the same time why were the announcers saying have they ever done this when a guy's changed his name well he used to be so and so but now he's a completely different name that sounds nothing like the former name

and didn't explain why that he's changed as he's trying to stay ahead of the law but nobody knew who powerhouse Hobbs was in Saudi Arabia in the building and they've gotten guys who were much bigger stars under other names and didn't mention their previous name

but I guess what I'm saying, Brian, is what the fuck? This was very odd for them to do this. The way they did it was really odd and we heard from a lot of listeners because the story came out the name Royce is a tribute to his son name Royce and the name Keys is a tribute to the maiden name of his mom.

And that's very nice. Yes. We were just saying Powerhouse Hobbs a better name. It's a more marked-able name. Powerhouse Hobbs is a better name for the guy that is standing there I'm looking at right now. He looks more like Powerhouse Hobbs than he does Royce Keys. But if you were going to do that, if you were going to bring him out. If you've taken that name away from him, then why do you mention all this was before he was?

But now, why wouldn't you just bring him out as Royce Keys, even if you want to want to reference anything to pass. Not only what they mentioned. They had an image. They had his name Powerhouse Hobbs on the screen for like, you know, two seconds. And you're like, oh, shit, it's hot. Oh, no. And then, like, it breaks and it's voice keys.

Like, the new name overpowered the old name. Why even mention the old name? If you're never going to use it and the fans there don't know them? But it was the whole thing was a questionable presentation for someone who hopefully you'll get a really good fair show. shake of things in the WWE? Well, he power slammed and dumped priests and he spine-bustered

Javan and he had a face-off and a fight with Cody. And then here's theory comes in. And theory hit Evans and hit Cody twice and just went over to the corner and started fighting a guy. And in

Bronson Reed. And it started, again, the entrances started overpowering the match. Elia, he made a comeback on everybody for 15 seconds and it has settled down. They're not, they're not letting a lot of these guys or if they're not producing it down to the nub like they used to where it's, okay, you just get in and do whatever, then if I have some of these guys, I'd go to another couple of guys, say, hey, let's do a spot. but they just kind of hop in anyway

number 18 La Parca and I wrote fucking hell dead silence it's not even the real La Parca when I last saw him weighed like 300 fucking pounds this guy weighed like 190

I think it was it was a fucking cruise guy that was Abraham Lincoln for MJF and LaParka suit. Did you hear what they were saying on commentary? It was really funny, actually, because, like you said, the original LaParca from WCW from AAA lost the rights to use that name when he left AAA, Antonio Penao in the rights. So he became L.A. Park doing all of his funny mannerisms and everything else, and there's just some new LaParca.

So this guy's not the original LaParca, and they said that on commentator, like, when they're giving his history. They're giving the history of the character, not the person. They're like, oh, this is a famous character, his history. And I'm like, what? This guy has nothing to do with the other LaParka at all. So he got credit for all of the fucking inanimate objects that Indora turned the Dick York Darren into, even though he's Dick Sark. That's right. That's exactly right. So then he beat up theory and Ilya and danced and then 19 dragon lee and i wrote this is just watching guys enter and then number 20 logan paul so then all of a sudden with kind of a little not much fanfare miniscule amounts

logan paul read and theory ganged up and dumped royce keys and then bronson reed drummed drumped dragon lee and then at 21 l a night they might not know who L.A. Parker is, but they, by God, know who L.A. Knight is. The people popped and started chanting L.A. Knight, L.A. Knight. What is it? That they, are they just being mean to the fucking fans at this point? That everywhere this guy goes, the people chant for him, and they fucking say, yeah, and he gets a big pop. He never does anything. That's the story of his W. Whether he was

used well or not, he's always over him more than they want him to be. Which should be a good problem, but you've got to

capitalize on it at some point before it runs out. So the vision triple teamed him, but he dumped theory and dumped Reed and the fans were up

and he got on Logan Paul. And then it was time for number 22, Brock Lester who came out with Paul. And that made me think.

Paul was headed the ring with Bronn Breaker, why had Paul already been out there with fucking Bronson Reed or Austin Theory or Logan Paul? But now he comes out with Brock, who suplexes Cody at L.A.

Knight and Evans and F5 Evans and faces off with Oba Femi. And as soon as we get that face off, the music plays and it's Miz. And I'm like, what the fuck? The people were up they want to see Brock and Oba.

Ms. slides in, realizes what he's going to get into, slides back out because he's scared, but everybody else then jumped Brock and Oba. So Brock dumped Elia and Brock tried to, or he did German Cody, but Cody sandbagged him halfway, tried not to land on Logan Paul. It started a little tight. And then they go back to Brock and Oba face off again, but now more music. I'm like, motherfucker. And it's Phoenix.

So he dives off the top rope, why wouldn't you? And Brock catches him and slams him and germined Oba and dumped Phoenix and then Oba clothesline Brock and nailed Logan Paul and went to dump Logan Paul and Brock dumped him. It's like, why did you turn your back on this guy that you've been facing off with for the past 10 minutes after one clothesline? And it was just kind of a flat way to get rid of Oba. But then speaking of flats, that's when Jay Uso's music played.

And then Brock was still doing shitty, German Logan Paul, but now we're looking at Jay Yeaton through the whole stadium. And that was the spot where Cody at L.A. Knight eliminated Brock, which was lost because of the entrance. And then I swear to God, when Jay got to ringside one of the referees came over with his hand on his IFB gimmick

and fucking cut his eyes to the ring like getting a ring and he did and the music stopped and then he stood there and had him run it back and start it up again and by the time his music stopped the music for the next guy started which was Roman Raines who has to walk to the ring purposely with pyro.

And then they face off Roman and Jay while everybody else is just laying around. And Roman tells Jay to start his music back up against. Jay gets a big smile and he starts it and Roman draws back and knocks the shit out of him. And then Roman leveled everybody and dumped a miss and had a face off with Cody and we're ready for more music. Have I droned on enough or do you want to get in here? Or do you get, it's, we're going to walk out, we're going to do two fucking moves and more music's going to play. You know, the other day, in advance of the Rumble, I ended up watching the January, well, they're all January, I ended up watching the 1989 Rumble, which you don't hear people really talk about too much

as being an all-time classic. I just wanted to, like you said, I hate to say it, I wanted to enjoy entrances. And back then the entrances were the guys ran to the ring. Some of the big guys walked. But it was so exciting. And you got action. One and two, demolition ax and smash. And they go in there and just start kicking the shit out of each other.

And then how do you stop this? Because, I mean, it's pretty interesting booking. Made me face tag team beating each other up. Number three, Andre the Giant. And it just, it went from there. and I enjoyed the hell out of it, but there was time in between the guy getting in the ring and the next guy coming out

to get some stuff done. Yeah. And you don't get that as much now. Because they have entranceways that need cars, to be quite honest with you, to get you to the ring quick. If it was in the same area code, it would be as the ring, the locker room, it would be better. But so anyway, we get to face off with Roman and Cody.

and the music plays, and it's Jacob. And Jacob, as he's coming down, Cody goes to dive out at him, and Jacob stopped him and beat him up on the floor and super kicked L.A. night, big Samoan drop on Javan's, and then he has the face off with Roman. But Cody knocks Jacob out of the way

and has a face off with Roman. And then Roman rains, Jay Uso double team Cody and I wait a minute what the fuck Roman range just punched Jay in the fucking face 10 minutes ago why are the their family

number 28 was Penta and I wrote who gives the shit at this point LA night hit stuff on everybody but then Cody knocked him off the apron and he was eliminated and Cody got booed for eliminating LA night number 29 was Orton.

He did two power slams. The fans sang his song. He did a double DT, double DT. He had the DTs. He had a double DDT on Jay and Pinta and two RKOs on Logan Paul and Pinta. And then here's music. So little.

I mean, it was 20 seconds. And the last guy was Gunther. At number 30. And again, he's great because he was limping just slightly. On the way, he's already had a hard match. On the way to the ring, he was beat up, but he wasn't, cartoon he beat up and he was selling his leg.

So at that point, you've got most of the top guys left. Orton R.K.O.ed and dumped Evans out and Gunther dumped Penta. And then they did the spot where Orton Cody decided they were going to team up on Gunther, but Gunther moved and Cody, Cody Cuttered Orton, which when that eventually happens, going to be the Battle of the RKO and the Cody Cutter. But this may be, if it's not the start, it's one of the, what are the kids call them breadcrumbs?

It's one of the things that when they do the turn, they're going to go back and refer to this and or play it. but when Cody had cuttered Orton and Jacob threw Cody over the top, but Cody hung on, but Drew came out and boom and knocked him off and eliminated Cody. So again, there's multiple run-ins in the Royal Rumble now. Did there used to be run-ins into Royal Rumble, or was everybody officially running in?

Every now and then, but, you know, Drew McIntyre is on a revenge tour. well and as well as the guy in black and then Roman Reins from behind dumped Fatu his own the member of the family and then Roman Reins dumped Jay so it was Logan Paul Roman, Orton and Gunther Hey can I just say Logan Paul was pretty excellent in there Yes because

And here's the thing I know a lot of people will say well, he's green, even though he lays out his matches, you can't really practice something like this. But there's not periods of time where he has to go through long, intricate spots in this thing. We know he remembers his shit well, and he's very athletic, and he's been a star performer at, you know, the high-level matches.

But in this one, as long as he doesn't get lost, it's, you know, it's not like all the, burden is on him to go 20 minutes with one other guy. But nevertheless, you got okay. And we just talked about it on the previous show, Roman Rains, but hey, y'all got to get your creative shit together. Because I don't know that I would have particularly predicted this or wanted it, but Roman dumped Logan Paul and Gunther dumped Orton.

And then Gunther got a sleeper on Roman. Roman fought it and ran Gunther into the turnbuck and speared him and dumped him. It just seemed like, you know, that kind of happened, but now Roman Raines is the winner. What champion, do we want to see Roman Raines fight, Brian at WrestleMania? Or let me give you this idea,

do we want to see him call out the people's champion? I think that would be, you know, I'm thinking about Roman versus punk, which could be good, especially if Haman's involved with DeLey. However, if the Rock is really going to be able to do anything, they got to do it with Roman. I mean, Cody, he owes Cody a pinfall if he's going to do stuff. But they've been teasing the thing with him and Roman for years.

There has to be a payoff. What I'm saying is that I don't particularly want to see Roman right now against any of the world champions they have in the WWE. And I know that we said he's lacking something, maybe right now, maybe they put him over in this because he is as a baby face, lacking direction, lacking oom, flacking whatever. But I don't know that to whether I would rather see Roman Raines come out and say, if I get my pick a champion, I'm calling one out, the people's champion,

because this son of a bitch was my tag team partner and got in all this and then where the fuck he went to Hollywood just manufacture some goddamn I want to show who the head of the table really always has been and I want one more chance so I want the people's champion and let Rock come in and put him fucking over but otherwise I don't know but you know I think that the issue is and they're also one more thing and then I'll let you just run away with it. They're getting in the same

fucking predicament that Tony's in where a lot of their baby faces are bitching and whining at each other instead of having strong heels to fucking bitch and whine at. Go ahead. I don't think there's too much you could have done what Roman other than have him win.

If he doesn't win, he has nothing at all. At least with the win, he has something now for the next few months into WrestleMania. And it's a main event thing. other than that, again, he's been popping in and popping out. You know, he hasn't been around for like weeks.

I mean, it's going back to when he was champion, but now that he's not champion, him not being there, he becomes a forgotten thing until he shows up again. So at least this will put him in the mix until WrestleMania. Well, I guess you're right. But still, overall, I... I like certain people in this thing. I wish I could have seen more of them,

but everybody has to walk to the ring for a minute and a half while everybody else lays around. And this, as I said, was an hour long, which was 15 minutes shorter than the fucking girls. Imagine an alternate universe where Gunther wins, and he calls out the people's champion. I've retired these other guys, has one more on my Mount Rushmore.

The people's champion. We can do it the easy way or we can do it the hard way. And then all the boys would say, here, Gunther, here's an extra fucking payoff for you that night. Get even for him coming in and fucking up all of our booking. But that was the Royal Rumble. That was the Men's Royal Rumble. We'll talk a little bit about the post show in a moment. But of course, winning the Royal Rumble is a big deal.

Flying back from Saudi Arabia is a big deal. You want to hope to get some sleep? maybe listen to some tunes and Jim we have a friend who can help the listener or the wrestler listen to some tunes wherever they are our friends at Raycon

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I got mine here my kids haven't stolen them yet get yours today buy raycon dot com and stay away from Brian's thieving children slash JCE Jim before we wrap up everything with the Royal Rumble I can't imagine you would have

watched it because it doesn't seem like you were really too interested in watching anything past what you absolutely had to. No, I got out. I got out at the end. I heard there was a big display afterwards, but I got out at the end of the Royal Rumble match. And I grew up in New York seeing the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, the Fourth of July fireworks spectacular each and

every year. They aired on TV. It looks great. You have Thunder over. Louisville most years. Thunder over Louisville, the biggest ongoing annual yearly fireworks expedition, exhibition

in the United States. Thunder over Louisville. Well, what if you combine those two things and you lit up the Saudi Arabia night sky for about 10 minutes straight? No exaggeration. After the final

match, they had a fireworks show. It wasn't like there was a field. with the Gucci family running the fireworks or whatever, they were shooting them off the tops of the buildings. Like it was all over the entire city. And then they had drones up with the WWE logo or the belt. And you can barely see the drones because there's massive fireworks going to go everywhere.

Putting off too much light to be able to reflect the drone, yes. What we know is, because the commentators said it, it's two in the morning. It's two in the morning in Saudi Arabia. And there's a 10-minute fireworks show, not from one centralized location. It's getting shot off the rooftops of every building in town.

Well, besides that, they said that they had the soccer stadiums were filled in the city of Riyadh. They had four stadiums. They all had soccer games, but they obviously weren't still going to 2 o'clock in the morning. and you would think that most other activities out of it is it is

Riyadh like New York the city that never sleeps a lot of people how many people are in Riyadh can you Google that real quick what's the population of Riyadh let me look it up that suddenly at two o'clock in the morning people all over this city are hearing this these explosions that can't be a comforting thing in that part of the world or any part of the world to be woken up in a major city with explosions in the air at two in the morning and what the fuck is going on?

And by the way, is that just for wrestling? Yeah, is that just for wrestling? Is that for all these big events they're doing for the nonstop Riyadh season? Well, but they didn't all end at the same time as the Royal Rumble did. It would have been physically impossible for him, too. That's what I'm saying.

Did WWE get it for this night? But like every other night, when there's like an event? Like, all right, the comedy spectacular is over. let's light up the sky. Fireworks. I got an answer to your question. The population of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia,

is approximately 7 to 8.6 million as of 20204, representing massive growth from roughly half a million in 1972. Massive growth is an understatement. Half a million 50 years ago to almost 8 million today, is what they're saying. That's right. Boy, they fucking...

They built a city in the middle of nowhere. Well, besides that, they must be injecting rabbit genes in these fucking people. But okay, so where is New York? What is the population of New York? I remember the number eight or ten million being thrown around a few years ago.

New York City's 8.4 million. Riyadh's about to catch New York? Good heavens. And what would happen if suddenly at 2 o'clock in the morning in New York City, even though many people still are awake in New York, if suddenly the world's largest fireworks display just went off? If it was a one-time thing, it would be non-stop complaints, it would be an issue. If they thought it may happen again, it would unite New Yorkers like nothing else ever before

to stop whatever force was doing 10-minute fire. Work shows at 2 in the morning off every building. Everything was just shooting off fireworks from every direction. And then there's drones everywhere. To advertise WrestleMania, the waterless WrestleMania next year coming to Saudi Arabia. Eight million people are not going to sleep all night because the WWE's back in town. How many people woke up thinking like, we've gone to wall? We're at war right now.

That's what I'm saying. I mean, in today's world, I don't know anywhere where it just two o'clock in the morning, if this would start going off over any major city in the world, and some people wouldn't go, oh, shit, what the fuck? And they look out the window and they see lights and fucking whatever, what the hell's going on? It was stunning to watch live because you keep thinking, okay, that's the end. All right, that wasn't the end.

this is the end. It was like a modern match. Like it was something that could have been done in a minute and it went for 10 minutes. They do that at Thunder over Louisville too. They have the false finish. And of course there's a musical track also. But they're shooting it all off of the bridge,

the bridge and barges in the river that's not over the goddamn city proper. And it's advertised for weeks on end. Everybody in town knows this is going to happen. And it's 9.30 at fucking night, right when it gets dark. I can't imagine the level of,

and we don't have no skyscrapers in Louisville to speak of that they shoot things off the top of anyway. So is the level of this had to be jarring to some people. I'm so thirsty. If I could only have a drink, what's that?

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Some good, some good refreshing soot and ash can follow me from the sky guys as I search for water. But think about that. The fact that Riyadh, the capital, and again, everything there is run by a family,

it's a kingdom, the classic old biblical style, it's a kingdom. It's on every rooftop. You know, it would be difficult for New York City to do that. You'd have to get every building owner on your side. You'd have to incentivize them, whatever it may be. And permits. And again, I know that there was no instance with the stadium

that they built in a month. but between the lack of facilities and or just the the codes, the building codes have to be a lot different safety codes I'm talking about to ensure that the public is not at risk of somehow. Well, we just put this thing up for 25,000 people in 30 days, and we'll take it down. You know, there's got to be a whole different level of

approval you have to go through over there when you know the right people than in any other civilized country. I wish you would have seen it. It was hysterical because it was so excessive and none. There was no end in sight. I was like maybe they're not doing a post show. Maybe they're just going to do this forever.

Maybe it's never going to end. But that was it. That was the Royal Rumble. Speaking of things that are never going to end. That was the 2026 Royal Rumble. and with that, Jim, we shall return after this short commercial timeout. All right, Jim, you know what that sound connotates?

That means there's been so much action. There's been so much action, but there's still more to come. No clue what the connotation is of that. Says it just appears at random times. Like the tingler in a William Castle movie. Well, we'll see how much tingling you do here with the final portion of the show. we still have a good deal of things to talk about.

English, not our specialty today. But Jim, before we go any further, there was a big match for AEW collision this past Saturday. Yes, yes, there was. And I didn't realize that it was actually going to be right away, and it was. I wish I would have done it on dynamite. It seems like that would have been the better decision.

But Tomaso Champa versus Mark Brisco, and a lot of people wrote in asking for your thoughts on the match, knowing you've always spoken highly of both of these men. Well, and like you said, Tomaso Champa makes a big debut on Dynamite last week, or the last dynamite, hadn't even been a week ago. And faces down with Mark Briscoe, the T&T champion, and won with a boy, let's have that next week on the flagship program.

Here's this brand new talent that we're obviously, intending to use in a meaningful way or as best we can over there, we being AEW. And okay, next week on down, I'm like, no, it's Saturday on collision, which was the Saturday of the Royal Rumble, even if they weren't opposite each other in exact time, who's going to watch that whole fucking Royal Rumble show

and say, oh, I got to catch collision, right? It just, and they have the match on collision the following Saturday, four days after this guy has shown up. Now, not to spoil the result, but my God, we're talking about it's been a few days ago now. Champa won the belt. But we'll break it down here in a second. But I agree that there's a famous instance, the Rocker Roll Express, their first night into Crockett promotions beat.

Ivan Koloff and Crusher Crucev for the NWA World Tag Team title. That's the way you blow a guy over. Boom, here he is. He's a champion. That's been done. But at the same time, one would have thought that they would have waited enough time to actually promote, shoot the, book the match on Wednesday night, promote the match on Saturday and have it again the following Wednesday. but Tony has no self-control.

So on the lowest rated program they do, four days later, three days later, whatever, out we come with it. And I think I said this when we talked about dynamite. Champa on this roster, in this environment, he's not going to look like a little guy like he did in the, he's in great shape. He's got a great look. His cardio is fantastic. His work is solid. He seems

serious about things. I haven't heard him cut a promo at a while, but as I remember, he can make you believe that he's saying what he's saying. So he is completely different than most of the AEW roster in all of those respects. And so I am hopeful again, but you know what happens when I get hopeful around these folks, that he can be a meaningful addition in the ring, but as we've said, and he can probably show more of his real self than he has in quite some time in the other place. but can anybody can the reanimated

corpse of Strangler Lewis mean a difference at the gate in AEW? I mean a giant star if they signed them could but other than that no one else I don't think can overnight. It would take time and proper booking. And then the problem becomes is there enough people for him to

work with to accentuate his strengths and not get into the fucking lunatic fringe of the trampoline cowboys or the people that have to trash the furniture or the death riders or, you know, whatever crazy clicks exist on this roster. With Mark Briscoe, again, people don't get it. When I praise Briscoe, he looks like, she looks like shit. He looks like an indie guy.

He's got no teeth. he looks like every other fucking guy you'd knock or whatever. Mark Briscoe is the living definition of a fucking crazy baby face gimmick. With him it works. That's why only certain people can pull shit off. Because sometimes with people it just doesn't work. but Mark Briscoe makes you believe, and to an extent that, again, he's turned up to 10, but that he's real.

And when used properly, which of course there is the caveat, and he hasn't been, he can fill your crazy baby face gimmick, and that's why you don't have everybody doing the shit he does because nobody else can carry. it off. Nobody else should really look like that. He ought to be the one breaking the furniture and nobody else. And then you'd have a massive fucking crazy baby face star. And I've never advocated that he was going to be the WWE champion.

He's never going to be the guy in a major company, although he could have been. And that window closed, and we've all talked about it. the guy in AEW for a period of time. But that's why, again, instead of having 18 fucking crazy baby faces, breaking furniture and doing nonsensical interviews and doing wild shit, and then you've just got a mess,

just like 18 giants, or 18 of these fucking acrobats, or 18 luchadors, you let the guy that does it best do it. And then it's unique. On that topic, if I could ask you a quick question before you even get to the match, Tomaso Champa comes in there,

and I'm actually excited to see what he could do in AEW. Fresh matchups. I'm sure it won't be, you know, I'm sure something will disappoint me, but I'm excited to see where they go. But in terms of his look, do too many guys have that look? And I'm not saying you could do anything to change it right now,

but, you know, you brought up in the past, Gabe Kidd looks like Moxley and Josh Alexander looks like Moxley and now you can say Josh Alexander looks like Champa I mean like they all kind of have a similar look again that's their look that's this is their life but if you're a promoter is there an issue with too many guys that kind of look the same well if you're going by the channel real quick for whoever does that there's a bunch of bald guys apparently we can't do anything about that these days but the with Champa I think he because of the big

gray beard and the gray hair doesn't bother me because the way his body looks, right? So he looks like a goddamn grizzled individual. Champa's look and just the way he carries himself and et cetera stands out enough from those other guys that I don't think it's egregiously over the line. But like you said, Josh Alexander and Gabe kids the other one, they look like, or Davis and Doyle, so they made them a team. And then now we've lost one already. But a lot of the indie guys do have the similar appearance,

but Champa just comes, he has more charisma to look at the guy. And then you see the body and the fucking intensity and the whole thing. And I think he stands out. I don't know that anybody's going to confuse him with anybody else. But that's, this match I liked most of it. I have hope at the same time they still have to do

some of the things they got to do but they use some wrestling when they did trade the forearms and the chops they were laying the shit in at Lee well the chops I've given up on asking anybody to lay in a fucking forearm like Buddy Landell in 1984 and they just can't get it. But then toward the middle part,

it turned into a lot of punch, chop, and kick, which I thought as athletic as those guys are, they could have done a few more wrestling-oriented tactics, but all in all, they beat shit out of each other. And they were serious. And, you know, that's the thing, a serious within Marks obviously is but you had a struggle.

Now the problem is during the match, I'm thinking, okay, Tomaso Champa comes out and his first night in a company confronts Mark Briscoe and he's called the psycho killer and he looks like a goddamn nut. So I guess he's the heel, right?

Was that what you were thinking, at least going into? this? That Tomaso's the heel. Say again. That Tomaso champ is the heel. Yes, that Tomaso's, that's what you would think. Absolutely.

He was presented as a, I mean, again, Mark, Briscoe's been nothing but a baby face. Yes. And he was the one who was confronted by him, yeah. Yes. So then, when they have the match, the one thing I'm thinking is, well, they're doing some, they're doing their stuff.

Mark's doing all his shit. Tomaso's doing some of his stuff. They start getting some two counts, the froggy bows in there, but I'm like, Champ has done nothing to establish himself as a heel. And then, spoiler alert again, we come to find out after the match. It's because he's not. He's a baby face too. After he beats Mark Briscoe cleaning the ring,

they shake hands and a hug. The psycho killer is a baby face. So the thing that, that I didn't like. They had to get the fight on the floor in, and they had rolled around a little bit on a table there, and then Tomaso, Chuck's Mark Briscoe, back in the ring, and gets up on the table and stands there with his back to the ring.

You know, like, yay, it's me. If he's going to be a fucking heel or a baby face that's hugging the guy that he just beat and shaking his hand afterwards, why did he fucking throw him in the ring and then turn around? around like, yeah, look how great I am. And he turns around and Mark Briscoe comes off a top rope with the fucking elbow and puts him through a table. They had to break the table. They weren't even anywhere near there beforehand and they didn't ever go back there. They just had to get a table breaking in. Well, that's kind of the problem. It was very professional.

Like it was set up perfectly. If you were going to do a how to take a table bump in wrestling school course, this is how to do it. Tomaso Champa timed it right, turned, jumped in the air when Mark Briscoe jumped to make sure he landed on the table perfectly, and he did. So look great in the, here's how you do it, kids kind of way, very professional. Yeah. And they were milking the 20-minute time limit.

They'd gone about 18, and then, you know, they went back and forth, and Mark hit some stuff, and then Tomaso caught him with a German suplex and hit him with that knee lift, which looks a lot better than the goddamn, Buccaroos's little pissy little fucking knee lift that doesn't ever hit anybody

and beat him one, two, three. And again, it was an okay match, it was brilliant compared to most of the AEW matches that are either just excessive everything or concentrating on, you know,

being on the floor for 10 minutes or whatever. The table spot was unnecessary, but then they shake hands and a hug and so they brought the psycho killer in as a baby face and Mark just got beat clean in the ring so thank you for coming and then Kyle Felcher comes out to stare at Tomaso. Tomaso Champa looks like he would eat Kyle for breakfast. They should have had Tomaso beat Kyle

to build for a match with Briscoe because these two guys at least look like fucking fighters of some description instead of this he looks now like he's a 14 year old nerd in study hall they have just made cow look like a complete fucking idiot

I guess you don't like his wardrobe I mean he dresses well no that that's one thing yes that goddamn they've shaved all his hair off they've got him with those goddamn goofy glasses on and in a suit that doesn't make him look like nature boy Rick Flair, it makes him look like he's dressed up for his high school pictures.

And who thinks that he could give either Mark Briscoe or Tomaso Champa a fucking fight? Jesus Christ. What Kyle's got, he's like a goddamn. Yeah, he's got size. He looks like a juvenile deliq. I know, and they made him look like a juvenile delinquent instead of a Juvenile old are still wearing pink suits. Well, they do in certain parts of the country.

I don't know about that, but, you know, again, it's an interesting dynamic to have Kyle come out there who, I guess, is still technically a heel with the Callas family, although the fans now treat him more like a baby face, and he's dressing very prim and proper, I don't know, I mean, I don't think there's an issue with, you know, people think that anyone's going to eat him alive. You know, when he takes off his shirt and a ring, he looks like a big, strong guy, so it'll be okay. What are your thoughts on them doing this on collision? Should they have had this exact match on dynamite this week?

Yes, that's what I said at the start of the thing. They could have at least promoted it for seven days instead of just boom. And again, if you want to get a guy over this debuting as a big baby face, why do you have him come in and be one of your fucking baby face the one of the only baby faces you got that most everybody likes why would he come have beat some asshole heel he'll get another bell everybody's got a bell just beat one of them for their belt oh christ the last thought that i would have in my mind if i was bringing in tamaso champa to be a big baby face and I believe me I would think about that also because I don't know why the psycho killer otherwise they're just glad to see him and Tony knows he doesn't know how to put any heat on anybody but the last thing I would think of is I'm going to bring a big baby face in to have

his debut beat one of the other of my baby faces you know psycho killer his booking is fuck fuck fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fuck fuck ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha hey hey hey hey real quick because I don't I don't think you brought it. Run, run, run, run, run, run away. We didn't, I don't think, discuss it during the Dynamite review. Did you see the two backstage promo segments, Kyle doing his promo and Okada came and apologized to him? And then the second segment with Kyle and Tekechita, where Tekechita in English, you know, all of a sudden everyone speaks and everyone can understand each other, where Tekechita turns to him and says, you accepted Okada's apology? You didn't see No, I didn't watch any of that.

And the reason why is because you just told me what it was. And now they've got the fucking idiots apologizing to each other in the back. I don't care what Okada does. I barely care anymore what take does. And I'm not really

thrilled with what they're doing to poor Kyle. It's interesting that the Cowlis family always has like a little corner of it that's like kind of half baby face, half heel, not associated with DeKalus family, but we'll be there now for months at a time. We'll see what happens. That was the TNT title change.

On TNT, AEDAW Collision, January 31st, Jim. Yes. You know, it's almost like this was a draft pick for Tony Kahn. He said, I get to pick one of the guys from their side, someone with talent and skill and wrestles good matches. I'm going to take Tomaso Champa.

That will be my draft pick. And of course, speaking of drafts, there are draft beers that are consumed by a lot of wrestlers at the hotel bar afterwards. There's some wind blowing through here right now. There's some wind blowing from our good friends at Draft Kings, Jim. Boy, that was anguish how you got there.

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Jim, as you catch your breath and we move on here with the show, a quick programming note. The next experience will have the review of WW RAW after the Royal Rumble and AEW Dynamite, and next week's drive-thru will be all history and your questions. So stay tuned for that. Well, Jim, as we begin to wrap up, we have a couple more things, and one of them's a bit of a follow-up, and just like we did the first time,

I don't know exactly how to deal with all this, just because I still don't know up from down the Nick, Lopicole. That's his name. Oh, good Lord. Nick Lick Lick Lick Lickickickickicklews at it again. That's right. Already.

You know, again, there's been this back and forth with him and a lot of people online. He apparently, as the kids say, Docs Tony Kahn, put his phone number and his email address up on Twitter so that people can, I guess, submit booking ideas. I don't know what. but a lot of listeners have gotten in touch. A lot of listeners apparently have thoughts on what exactly this is or what's caused it. Here's one. I'll just go to this real quick.

This was sent to corny drive-thru at gmail.com from JP in Columbus. Rather than give the detail blow-by-blow of this ridiculousness, I just wanted to share how the whole thing started if it hadn't been shared. It stems from Lopico and other entertainment, industry folks, being invited to a show that AEW had at the Kia Forum. At the event, Nick and others complained at the lack of VIP treatment they received at the event, from lack of valet parking to the non-existent spread and bad seating location. He claimed that this is what...

We're not non-existent spread like they were supposed to feed him, too? I presume that's what he meant there, and that may be what. And valet parking. If I invite you somewhere, hey, come to my show for free. I'll get your tickets. The only thing so far I'm hot about is they didn't get them good seats. Well, again, you expect it a different way if the other show in town does it the other way. If WWE runs L.A.

And they're going to have valet parking and give you catering and take care of you, give you good seats next to Nickcom. It's a little different than here. You can sit opposite the camera side or whatever it is. But let's go back to this email. Nick claimed that this is why AEW is not taken seriously when compared to TKO and WWE. That is really the genesis of this whole ridiculous thing. Instead of saying his piece and going about his business, he chose to get down in the mud with the worst that online wrestling fandom has to offer, and it may cost him way more than he expected.

and again, this is just a viewer here, or someone has seen it, JPM and Columbus, apparently some of the AEW supporters slash accounts that he's accusing of being bots or whatever it is posted photos of his children. So, I mean, it has gotten too far, clearly. But I have an article here that can maybe sum up at least things from the Lopico side

because it appears to be a... Well, how to, and again, from the other side of thing, So, well, if he wants to get fed for free, hey, when I was on WWF shows, they didn't feed us, so I have no sympathy for anybody. But how can you possibly get mad enough at somebody for complaining about the fucking lack of VIP treatment enough to put pictures of their children out

and bring their kids into it because he's complaining about Tony's lack of catering? This is the most ridiculous shit I've ever heard. And someone said that letter we read last time that we said we couldn't really figure out like who it was about. Someone visited someone at their door. Someone said that was his mom, that someone apparently went to his mom's house about that. I don't know. I don't know.

Because again, I wish somebody to come to my mother's house about me sometime to see what fucking happened to them. She would have pulled a shotgun, wouldn't she? Yeah, well, no, I said it wasn't a shotgun. Oh, I thought it was a shotgun. No? No, he was a rifle. Oh. She wasn't going to spray the whole neighborhood.

She's very good. A 22 rifle. She was very good. She slept in bed with it under the covers when she lived alone. You asked why anyone on that side would be mad about his complaints about catering and stuff. And I agree with you, it's kind of a frivolous thing. But playing devil's advocate, if you're Tony Khan, let alone his bot army or whatever the hell it is that he's saying is out there and people that help him, co-conspirators, he called them. it's not just an agent and some Hollywood type at our LA show expecting perks.

It's the agent of CM Punk and Jade Cargill going on social media ripping on AEW. And it didn't take long for people to realize, oh shit, that's the agent for CM Punk and Jade Cargill. So that changes the dynamic a little bit, wouldn't you say? Well, I get, well, then why didn't Tony call him up and say, oh, geez, Nick, I'm sorry we didn't get you the fucking pizza or the Mrs. Winner's Chicken or whatever we were getting everybody else. Let's make

it up to you. Instead of just back and forth on Twitter. Well again, several listeners, and this is where we'll end it this week. We'll see what happens next week. Several listeners sent over this article that was posted on Twitter by John McMullen. And if I go to his profile here,

it says NFL Eagles Insider, S-I-Now on Eagles, so that's Sports Illustrated. J-A-K-I-B sports, host of Birds 367, ESPN. So apparently this is a football report. He's a busy man.

He's a busy fellow. The article says exclusive, Wrestling Wars. A.E.W. owner tried the silence, outspoken critic. Professional wrestling's top feud is in headlining WrestleMania in April. It's the no-holds-barred match between the owner of

W. Tony Kahn and former paradigm talent agent, Niclo Piccolo. Khan is one of the most powerful people in professional wrestling, as well as the chief strategy officer of the NFL's Jacksonville

Jaguars, and vice chairman and director of football operations of the English Premier League's Fulham FC, organizations owned by his billionaire father, Shad Khan. Let me stop right away. Again, we'll go through this and see what facts are adhered,

but you can tell this is a very one-sided thing right off the bat. Lepicoa rep some of the pro-wrestling industry's biggest stars, like C.M. Punk, Drew McIntyre, Tiffany Stratton, and Liv Morgan, along with X-A-E-W talent, like Jade Cargill, Blake Monroe, and Rusev. Lopikikilo is. has been a vocal thorn in AEW side for many months, especially on social media, where the outspoken insider has pushed back against a tribalistic fan base,

often fueled by the industry's longtime voice of record, veteran reporter Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer. An agent for nearly two decades, Lopico has unique insights into the business end of pro wrestling, tied to his representation of top talent, which allows access to proprietary business information not available to the general public. Let me stop there because it's going to get to the roots of the feud here.

Any thoughts on this so far? Well, it sounds like that old Nick is a legitimate guy and then he's been in a legitimate business and that's why I'm so stunned that he has been speaking the way he does. and doing this whole thing on Twitter and sounding like one of these regular lunatics

if he's, or has he had a meltdown because did getting involved in wrestling drive a fucking normal goddamn executive crazy or what's going on with him? Well, back to this article. The roots of the feud elevated quickly from petty trash talk to significant allegations of harassment

and even stalking based on criticism of a wrestling company. Lopicole would often downplay Meltzer's business analysis, which Khan grew up with, and now covets, according to multiple AEW sources.

Hold me stop there. He covets Davis. I mean, I'm not saying, not even putting that Dave's business stuff. I mean, it's one thing I read it. He covets it. Covots it? Covets? The goal is to enhance AED status as a challenger brand to the

industry juggernaut, TKO's WWE, and its nearly $40 billion market cap. The back and forth between Meltzer and Lopicoleau was often entertaining, albeit childish at times, until it suddenly stopped when someone in the industry instructed Meltzer, and this is a quote, to stand down while signaling Lopikolo's status in the industry. Let's stop there.

Have you ever heard of anything like that? No, who could, in what industry? What industry are we talking about? The newsletter industry or the wrestling industry or the football industry or the agenting industry? It's a newsletter industry. Steve Beverly's on the line. He says, stand down.

Stand down, Dave. God damn it. But who can tell Dave to stand down and why would he give a shit? I don't. Well, back to this. Behind the scenes, Khan or someone close to defends.

family had already called in a favor to silence the bombastic Lopicollo at one-time safety at the University of Delaware. It worked to an extent. Paradigm gave Lopicoe explicit instructions to refrain from making or publishing any statements on any platform, including X, that could be interpreted as disparaging, defamatory, or antagonistic towards any individual or entity, including but not limited to Tony Kahn or AEW. Wait a minute. To any individual or entity in the world, he can never say another negative thing about anybody?

Well, not necessarily negative. He can't say anything disparaging, defamatory, or antagonistic. Antagonistic's the one that may be a step too far. Defamatory and disparaging is fine, but you can't antagonize? I would go with disparaging and antagonizing, before I'd go with defamatory, because defamatory sounds like the only thing is legally actionable. Paradigm was also contacted by a reporter around the same time, not believed to be Meltzer, who complained about Lopico's online behavior and statements, believing them to be veiled threats,

and that's a quote. It came off as a concerted effort to damage Lopico's reputation and threaten his job status, according to a talent agency associate not authorized to speak on the matter. Lopico's anger stem from that alleged effort to harm him and his family, from those loyal to con, and perhaps even the executive himself, with troubling accusations of doxing and threats from the extremes of the internet wrestling community. Let's stop there for a second. The extremes of the internet wrestling community.

Because over the last 10 years, you and I have seen the bottom of the barrel when it comes to the Internet wrestling community on several different occasions they've come after us. Well, yeah, but I mean, here's the thing for the Internet wrestling community. Okay, block them on Twitter. Done. There you go. Again, for both these guys, Tony Kahn as an executive, an owner of this multi-alleged, allegedly. million dollar company and all the shit he's got going on to be back and forth on Twitter or whatever with this guy this guy is a sports agent with a big agency

if he wants to fucking joust with a guy on Twitter every once in a while fine but to have this war go on and and then quine about it if somebody had knocked on my mother's door about something that I did related to the wrestling business in an antagonistic way, I would not be tweeting about it to the guy. I would be fucking on the phone because actually Nick's an agent, he flies around. I'd be knocking on the guy's office door. Hey, Tony, we got some shit to talk about here. But it wouldn't be on Twitter. When it came to real world consequences, Any social media accusations paled in comparison to a, and is a quote, manager with a relationship to Mr. Con and AEW, who complained repeatedly to paradigm

about Lopico's criticism of Khan and AEW. Wait a minute, a manager. Does that mean a wrestling manager or a manager of a company, or how is that, is it in quotation marks, or what the fuck is... The manager's name was Jim Cornett. The tennis rocket wheeled and troublemaker. I don't have any I don't have any connections to

Tony Con or whatever. But anyway, back up, start over. I'm sorry. No, no, that's all right. Interrupted. The manager was Bernie Cahill, a founding partner of activist artist management, a full service talent management,

integrated media and advisory firm based in West Hollywood, California, funded in large part by Shad Khan. The pushback was enough. So wait a miss. So this Bernie guy is head of a company that Shad Khan put the money up for or whatever the fuck, and he did what again now to who? According to this article, he called Paradigm, which were the former employers of Nicola Piccolo, the agency,

to make multiple complaints about his behavior towards Tony Con and AEW. So Shad's Cadbury is Butler there that is calling it up. Hey, you're picking on my friend's son. Well, this guy's a big deal in Hollywood looking here. He owns... He's got a lot of things going on. He used to date... Apparently, all these people are big deals in Hollywood,

and they can't get their shit together. Well, back to the article here, Jim. The pushback was enough that paradigm again warned Lepiccolo to keep quiet about AEW, citing potential legal exposure stemming from defamatory remarks against financially well-heeled adversaries. A source with AEW said that Khan was, and is a quote,

particularly troubled by Lopikilos claim that A8W's media rights deal with Warner Brothers Discovery wasn't the $185 million in cash per year. Most wrestling reporters have cited. Let's stop there for a second because that's an interesting little twist. We see what Dave reports about AEW, which coincidentally enough is almost exactly what AEW wants people to think about everything, but we never see anything tangible when it comes to the buy rates, the ratings for max, and in terms of the money... Or the television rights deal, more specifically, the amount

of sane. The amount, the expenditures, I mean, everything with AEW. So here's this article, and it appears, I mean, if you asked me, as a layman, I would tell you that Nicola Piccolo was absolutely the source for this article? That would be my guess. I don't know that. But he's saying here that that's one of the issues. That's an interesting thing that Tony would be bothered by that. Again, they've been hiding who owns

AEW for a long time. They're desperate not to let that get out in court for some reason. Who are the actual owners of AEW? On paper. Let's go back to this article. Why the semantics of a deal worth up to

170 to 185 million, according to an industry insider, versus 185 million in cash was so important to con, is unknown. Although the all-cash presumption has prompted Meltzer to consistently proclaim AEW, a private company that keeps its books behind closed doors, is now profitable for the first time based on his own internal guesswork. Let's stop there for a moment. Down deep in my heart, I guess the following is true. So again, this is saying the semantics of a deal which is worth up to 170 to 185 million versus 185 million in cash, which is the version of facts that AEW has allowed to permeate, whether or not. Well, what's the, what's the option other than cash? Would they be giving Tony stock?

in their company like some kind of souped up podcast one deal how else would they be paying him besides cash unless there's there's something tied to the fact that we just found out here recently that wbd owns 9% or whatever the exact percentage is under 10% of a w which would give them obviously no particular voting power per se because talking He always said, nobody has decision-making control over AEW but me. Well, that's true. But somebody else could own a piece and be a silent partner, which we now know is true also. So how they are compensating them on this television rights deal, is there some caveat that, well, but we take out this as our part of the paper views,

because it's on max or is that part of the pay that we're paying to you or you paying to us for our 9% what the fuck is going on tony don't want anybody to know this and we don't know it again it's a private company they don't have to reveal anything things quieted for a time but amped up again in recent days with l'o piccolo announcing his exit from paradigm which many aEDW fans celebrated on social media. One-X account of particular interest was started a few months after the debut of AEW in 2019 at Ron 114-79281, a self-described burner account, which seemed to possess some significant industry knowledge despite having under 10 followers.

The account began tweaking L'O Piccolo, but went dark after the agent-tagged NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell earlier this week. The at-ron-11479-281 account, and similar X accounts also began disappearing after Lopicoa brought them to light. Let's stop there. You know, we talked about whether or not Tony Khan was behind that specific account

and whether or not Tony Khan has burner accounts, I would put money on Tony Khan having multiple accounts everywhere. It was pointed out to me a long time ago, one of his aliases on a message board. I won't even point it out, so to ruin that for anyone else who enjoys it. But he's out there. Again, this has been his life going back to the mid-90s, an online life. It just so happens he has a billionaire dad. But this is a guy who if his dad was making a million dollars or $10, whatever it was, he would be online all day. That's just who he is. So, the idea that he's out there

shit posting, causing trouble, acting like a heel online, I would put money down that he's doing it. I just don't know if he's the one behind this Ron account. It's just, it's insane to me that all of these people have this much fucking time on their hands, that they can do these things

and make these fake accounts and do all the posting and the tweeting and the, et cetera, et cetera. But I agree with you, Tony, if anybody, if anybody, Tony, would be in multiple places on the internet under multiple names and talking to people constantly. Khan, meanwhile, did a quick video from the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, discussing how busy he was with the NFL draft prep, the EPL transfer window, and Wednesday night's AEW Dynamite show.

By the way, that seems like he's too busy for all. all of those things. There is no direct evidence that Khan has turned into the wrestling world's version of Brian Colangelo with an actual burner account, but Lopicolo believes the AEW Kingpin is behind the shenanigans. Ironically, in April of 2022, Khan intimated that WWE was funding anti-AEW bots. The below-the-belt back and forth has continued from there, with useful, that's in quotes, from both sides of a toxic community,

turning to the kind of low blows that would make heal John Cena proud, accusing both combatants of everything from mental health issues to elicit drug use. Lopico also left X for a short period, citing concern for his clients before returning on Friday. I think somebody could have got just on the phone and could have. somebody in three or four minutes and prevented all of this. A good three or four minute cussing on a phone sometimes can prevent, you know, a continued drama. You know, I don't know.

I think even if you want your agent to be kind of a bulldog, and there's lots of guys who do, there's lots of different agents, and some of them are just fighters. Are you a manual? Famously, a fighter. I just don't know if you want them doing it online against just any Twitter account. they see. I'm not saying that he's wrong for, I'm just saying, I don't know if I would want that from my agent, if I was a star with an agent. Well, but you know what? He's trying to make him think he's crazy. And that way they'll be like, oh shit, we got to give this guy whatever he wants

because he's crazy. Well, again, my advice for everyone, for Nick, especially Tony, get off Twitter. Stop booking by Twitter. Stop causing trouble on Twitter. And Nick should probably get off Twitter too. And breathe. Go touch grass, as has been said before, all of you.

But Jim, one more thing before we wrap things up this week. Why they always trying to steal Tony's weed? One more thing before we wrap things up this week. I have on my desk the... What is this? Does it have a month on it? Is it covered up by this label? I don't know when it's from.

The latest PWI, the 2025 Wrestling Awards. Oh, good Lord. People love getting your opinions on these things for some reason. So why don't we go to it, the 2025 Pro Wrestling Illustrated Year and Pro Wrestling Awards. Jim, the rookie of the year. Who would you give Rookie of the Year to? Braun Breaker. Kendall Gray, rookie of the year, with 28% of the year.

send of the vote. Kendall Gray from NXT, I believe. Also on the list of... Have we seen him? It's a girl. It's a girl. Kendall Windham wants a word. Well, with his long hair, he looked like a girl too, actually.

But the Texas Outlaws got 24% and those are Wayne and Wyatt Rhodes. Reese Maddox, that 8%, the son of WWE referee Jason Ayers. And finally, Cali Armstrong.

Jim, the most improved wrestler Those are the rookies of the year. Okay. That's a different world than it used to be, Jim. But when we talk about 2025, most improved. Who did you see and you said, you know what?

They've improved a lot. Oh, good Lord. Who has gotten better? None of the above? With 23% of the vote, Harley Cameron. the most improved wrestler of the year. Followed by J.C. Jane with 17%

Raquel Rodriguez with 10 and with 6% Bear Bronson. I think if I was... She's gotten better. If I was Rochelle, Rochelle there, I would be pissed off at the company that I was in and not beaten. Jim, the comeback of the year.

Who had the comeback of the year for 2025? Who came back? Let's see. Who went away? Comeback is usually from a big injury, but did somebody come by, oh, one of the bellas. They'd say one of the bellas came back, and that's a big deal. Well, you're kind of right, with 27% of the vote. John Bella, John Cena, come back of the year.

27% of the vote, followed by 21% for A.J. Lee, 10% for Bandito, not from Bandito, and 8% for Kenny Omega. Well, I forgot about it. Actually, it should have been A.J. Lee. More than Sina? Well, Sina came back in 2024 to tell us he was retiring in 2025, didn't he? I guess so. Yeah, you're right.

So, see, so I've caught him. All right. Well, the most inspirational wrestler of the year. Who inspires you, Jim? Gunther. All right, not a traditional pick. Interesting. He inspires me that there's still hope for the wrestling business.

With 17% of the vote, Mike Santana, the TNA world champion, Mike Santana, the inspirational wrestler of the year. What did he inspire in me or in us? He overcame the crippling disorder of working for Tony Khan. Well, that's okay. That's often fatal. 10% for Adam Page. 9% for Dustin Rhodes.

8% for Jay Uso. the most popular wrestler of the year, Jim, the most popular wrestler of the year. Who do you think of this would be? Well, one would immediately go to Cody Rhodes because he is the nominal top baby face in the WWE, the largest company, but still is he the most popular.

Because possibly CM Punk might be more popular or perhaps, I would say Jay Uso six or eight months ago. Punk, punk's the most popular. Interesting pick. I'll go backwards here with 11% Jay Uso, with 13% John Sina, with 15% Cody Rhodes, and the winner, most popular wrestler of 2025 with 18% Timeless Tony Storm. Oh, for Christ's sake.

I wasn't really arguing with much until they got past Cody Rhodes. If Tony Storm is in their minds more popular than Cody Rhodes to be popular, people have to know who the fuck you are. And the comparison is staggering. And that's not even reflective of either one's ability. It's just mathematical fact. Many more people know who

Cody is, see him and watch him than Tony Storm. Jim, the most hated wrestler of 2025. Who do you think? Well, maybe a year before that, I might have said Dominic Mysterio, just because he had the heat thing going on, but now they're liking him.

And at one time, it probably would have been MJF, but that's long gone. I don't think these, since they're trying to appeal to smart fans, they're not going to say Drew McIntyre, because he's the

biggest heel in the biggest company Moxley old Dick the boozer was still a heel so they got to give him something Well you actually named a couple of the finalists but with 9% one of the finalists John Moxley 10% although not a wrestler

Don Callis 15% Dominic Mysterio and the winner with 16% of the vote Logan Paul forgot about Logan Paul I can't argue with that. And he's posing with the photos,

so WWE allowed their talent to take photos with the awards. Feud of the year for 2025, Jim. I can't remember who was doing what in what year over the last couple years that we've talked about so much. But the few,

Punk and Rollins, because of the highlight for me was the mixed tag match. Well, you got one. Few to the year, 30% of the vote. CM, Punk versus Seth Rollins. There you go. Followed by 21% for

Mariah May versus Tony Storm. 8% for Adam Page versus John Moxley, and 7% for... Who the hell is this? Oh, NXT versus TNA. The Indy Wrestler of the Year. Oh, Christ. Jim, who would win? And I'll play spoiler. For some reason...

Maybe the editor's crush. I really don't know. For some reason, this person got the cover for this issue. The indie wrestler of the year for 2025. Who do you think? Well, then now you've told me it's got to be a girl then. If the editor's got a crush on her. Who's an indie girl?

Well, you're not going to get it, so I'll just give it to you. Shotsie Black. Shotsie Black. With 31% of the vote, and she got the cover. Again, we're talking about 2025 year in wrestling. If I wanted to sell magazine, Zines, no disrespect. I don't know if I'd be putting Shotsie Blackheart. Did she wrestle this past year? How long has she been gone? We haven't seen her in ages.

What's happened? I'm reading the description here. She had a battle with Matt Cardona, who came in second place with 22. And it sounds like a battle with psoriasis. He made it sad. She had a difficult battle with cancer, but fortunately, it says that she wrestled in Canada, Japan, the UK, and the United States. So I don't really know what the hell she was doing. followed by again Matt Cardona, then with 7%. One called Manders. And at 6% Effie. Jim, match of the year.

What was the best match you saw in 2025? I'm sure it didn't win. What was the best match you saw in 2025? Well, besides the mixed tag team match, uh, goddamn. The mixed tag team match. At least I remember it.

With 12% the winning match. Cody Rhodes versus John Cena, August 3rd. Followed by Mariah May versus Tony Storm on... Oh, boy. What is that? March 9th. Awful type they're using here. Followed by Bianca Bellar versus Eoskeye v. Ria Ripley,

which I think won a different award. Followed by Adam Page versus John Moxley. Tag team of the year, Jim, your specialty. Bronbreaker and Bronson Reed. The Hardy Boys. The Hardee's... What year is this? They got 18% of the vote, followed by Brodito with 13%

The Allies of Convenience of Charlotte and Alexa with 12% and the Hertz Syndicate with 11. The Hardees, any thoughts? Years ago, yeah, but I mean, well, now it's just It's an indictment of there are no tag teams anymore, or the few that exist have been made meaningless. That's why I went with Reed and Breaker because they've been featured on top.

Boy, some of these really are an indictment of whoever's voting for this. Faction of the year, Jim, the faction of the year. The Vision. They came in fourth with 12%, in front of them was the Judgment Day with 15%. And the Death Riders were 21%, but the winning faction, the Don Callas family. Oh, come on.

24% of the vote. There's 24 people. Each person in it got 1%. Nobody can stand there with a straight face and say that that slopped together bunch of individuals with a manager that doesn't even try to manage is better than the goddamn main event heel stable under Paul Heyman and the goddamn WWE. I'm sorry, you can dream all you want, but it ain't happening.

Well, Jim, woman of the year, who would get your vote for Woman of the Year? Michelle Obama I don't believe she was one of the candidates here this year Oh you mean woman wrestler of the year This may not be her year Yes Then I'm going I know they won't say Rea Ripley

Only because she's so dominant that everybody's jealous So let's go with Liv Morgan With 28% of the vote Mercedes Monet Oh for Christ Woman of the year, followed up by Tony Storm with 24%, Stephanie Vakere with 14%, and finally, E.O. Sky, with 7%. And again, none of the major actual box office attractions in women's wrestling made the top. Okay.

And that's woman in the year. Instead of male of the year, they have Wrestler of the Year. Jim, who would you give Wrestler of the Year to? Well, maybe they're making a subtle little knock at that, the, the, women's grappling. Boy, at the very top guy this year in the entire business.

Again, one could say Cody, one could say punk, one could say Rollins because this, you know, his injury. This would have been before the injury. Cody. Once again, you got one. Cody Rhodes, 27%

wrestler of the year, followed by with 12% Mercedes, Monet. Oh, cop. 9% for Adam Page and 7% for CM Punk. So they just have to spread it around so that, you know, one company doesn't particularly get mad at him, although I don't know that the WWE would even care, right?

So they're being charitable to Tony, so he'll still give them access. Well, Jim, those are the awards. It was also the Stanley Weston Award, which went to, it looks like two people. for lifetime achievement, Sean Michaels, the famed cross-eyed kid of the new generation of WWE Lifetime Achievement, as well as Brian Danielson, a trainee of Sean Michaels, actually. He also wins.

Well, I see how they tied that in there together. Well, that's just, that's just swell. Stanley Weston must be spinning in his grave. Stanley Weston would burn this. I'm sorry. this could be so much more. Whenever. There it is the PWA 2025 wrestling awards. Any final thoughts on this, Jim?

Yes, again, they're just writing names down late at night to say, who won't be mad at us if we say this, and we'll still get some of the fans to buy the magazines because these are the people that fans who buy magazines like, the end. You would think this magazine's definitely catering towards pervy wrestling fans, as well as fans. who just like things that aren't popular. I really don't know. Questionable votes here, but those are the awards.

And Jim, with that? Oh, shit, did I lose this? With, uh, with that? Uh-oh. Those all sorts of shit fucking fuck. Sounds like a barbed wire fence being unstrung. Jim, with that, the drive-thru is closed. Do do do, do, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Of course, we'll return in a few days on the Jim Cornett experience and next week back here on the drive-through, go through the archive. Patreon.com. Someone's stuffing a duck. Patreon.com slash cornet. $5 a month gets you access to the archive. Going back to 2013, Patreon.com slash cornet. Of course, the official Jim Cornett, YouTube channel, just go to YouTube and search for Jim Cornett. It'll come right up. Full episodes, Clip City episodes,

omnibus collections, and so much more. that George Livinitis artwork, the official Jim Cornett YouTube channel. Cornets collectibles at Jimcornaut.com. What's going on, Jim? Boy, howdy, I just talked to Hotchka's Feather Bottom about a day or so ago, and you ain't going to believe what we are going to have for sale at Jimcornet.com in about a month or so.

Details to come. At Jimcoronet.com. The drive-thru is brought to you by the law of Stephen P. New 877-50, Steve, get even with Stephen at new law office.com. But until the experience in a few days and next week back here on the drive-thru, for Jim Cornett, I'm the great Brian last.

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