Jim Cornette’s Drive-Thru - Episode 440: Jim Reviews WrestleMania 42

Episode Date: April 24, 2026

This week on the Drive Thru, Jim reviews WrestleMania 42! Plus Jim reviews WWE Raw, and TKO President Mark Shapiro's comments to students about WWE's celebrity involvement & creative! Thanks to our episode sponsors: SHOPIFY:  Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial and start selling today at shopify.com/jce WILLIE'S REMEDY:  Order now at drinkwillies.com and use code JCE for 20% off of your first order + free shipping on orders over $95, and enjoy life in the high country. PRIZEPICKS:  Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/JCE and use code JCE and get $50 inlineups when you play your first $5 lineup! Send in your question for the Drive-Thru to: [e-mail]  Follow Jim and Brian on Twitter: @TheJimCornette @GreatBrianLast Merch! https://arcadianvanguard.com/ Join Jim Cornette's College Of Wrestling Knowledge on Patreon to access the archives & more! https://www.patreon.com/Cornette Subscribe to the Official Jim Cornette channel on YouTube! http://www.youtube.com/c/OfficialJimCornette Visit Jim's official site at www.JimCornette.com for merch, live dates, commentaries and more! You can listen to Brian on the 6:05 Superpodcast at 605pod.com or wherever you find your favorite podcasts!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Oh. Almost as long as mania. Hello again, friends. And you are our friends. And welcome back to another edition of Jim Cornedge Drive-Thru. One of the most anticipated episodes of the year, the WrestleMania slog. I'm your host, the great Brian last.

We're going to talk about WrestleMania and more of some sort. With this man, the leader of the cult of Cornett, he's watching a lot of wrestling the last few days. Let's be nice, Mr. Jim Cornett. You noticed, Brian, that I did not try to just really jump in and cut you off from that thing that you were doing earlier for once because I just keep playing, just keep playing. Because everything these days takes a long, long, long.

time. Yeah, kid, there you go. They're only halfway to the ring. And, you know, I try to stay positive, Brian. I hate to be negative. I hate to point out the, possibly the flaws in any situation or things that may be substandard or a sloppy shop or anything like. I always try to keep on a positive side of life. Look on the bright side. But it occurs to me that the evolution, the evolution of this, you know the evolutionary chart, the chart of the ascent of man,

where you got the ape, and then you got the Neanderthal and the crow magnet and all the way up to whatever it is we are today, seems like things are always supposed to move in a more positive forward direction. But examine this. What was the whole,

when TV was first, became a thing and wrestling was right there what was the idea of TV to wrestling TV made the stars the TV that everybody could see for free that was broadcast all over the country

you could pluck it out of the air the TV made the stars and then they had to pay to see the big matches at the arenas right? That was kind of the status for quite some time that was a happy result because a lot of promoters thought

would go the other way. That's right. Well, they found out when they televised the big matches, that people would watch them on TV and nobody would come, but if they just used the TV to make the stars and to have them showcase their talents and abilities and shoot the angles for the matches at the house shows, then that was the key to success. And it worked that way for a long time.

And then they said, well, the TV show is just having the, you know, regular old bums against the stars. That's kind of boring, saying an angle every once in a while. So we'll jazz up the TV, but it's still free TV that everybody can see, but we'll give them kind of competitive matches, but we'll make it, make them shorter. And they still got commercials. And then when wrestling went to cable, was my first cable package when I moved to Nashville in 1982, was it 1499 a month for basic cable?

It was almost free television, right? And you saw all that stuff on free or almost free television with commercials, then shorter matches to build up to the house shows, the big events and had the big long main event matches. And then pay-per-view came along, Brian. Because now we can make them pay. to see the big matches all over the world instead of just the local arena there,

but it's still the same formula. The free or almost free television makes the stars, they get shorter matches, but with commercials and the big money matches are still now on pay-per-view that you've got to pay for. And that way you get longer matches, a main event matches, no commercials, and big title changes.

How has it become that the big event now you've got to pay however the fuck much whatever the streaming service is and then you've got to fucking find it and and either purchase it or already have the streaming service or whatever and you get to see the big event which has the same matches pretty much as you get on television the same length pretty much except for the main event events that you get on television with longer entrances and more commercials just not in the middle of the match. And they don't do house shows where they just give you goddamn matches and main events and fucking excitement without commercials and fucking blimps and whatever the fuck.

And for the people who are going to see these lives, as we've mentioned many times, they're paying multiples of hundreds of times what they used to pay to see the show with all the matches and all the excitement and no commercials and all the action of boom boom boom the same thing as we're looking at

how how what hello yeah I'm listening to you I'm agreeing with you this is where we are and it's a sad thing I'm not going to go in this direction right now but it's one of the reasons I get so upset about AEW

is that Tony Kahn, despite whatever success they've had, is determined to, not micro-book it, but book it to a micro-audience and not try to grow it. And W.W.E on the other side, it's not the same as when you rooted for competition because events.

Now you're rooting for competition to break up the trust. It's such a hard experience to enjoy that. I used to, when I was a kid, early 90s, I used to have pay-per-view parties. Yeah. With some of my friends and we'd sit there and you could watch an event. There weren't a lot of things to make you go, I got time to leave the room. And WrestleMania, I might have been to complain about the entrances, although it may be too excessive because it seems like they love fireworks a lot more than the fans do.

Yeah. At this point, the people are just like, Jesus Christ, those things stink. But the amount of commercial. I mean, I mean, actually, in an olfactory sense, all that shit blowing off, it smells like hell. Go with sulfur, go ahead. And again, when pyro is going off and no one's reacting, what's the point of the pyro? If the pyro stops and it's no sound from the fans, the pyro didn't do anything. You're not hyping up the people at home with fireworks in the building.

Well, here's the thing. I'm sure they're happy to know how many people were there, but I don't know that the people there that are sitting there think that the announcement of the attendance is worthy of blowing off half a fucking Henderson Nevada. We've seen people pop for that. The Silver Dome, obviously, they thought they broke a record. And then in other places when they would announce the attendance,

you've seen it get a pop. I think maybe more than ever the fans there, the fans who spent all that money are saying themselves, what am I cheering for? Why would I cheer for this? There's commercials all over the place in the building and at home. Everywhere. You can't escape it.

When Dominic couldn't get the table, I think it was Dominic, couldn't get the table to open, all I could focus on was Slim Jim. Slim Jim. That's all I could see. And again, AW is going a different direction and making their fans happy, but there is going to be a growing,

we've been talking about this for a while and it's all happening. there's going to be a growing resentment from W.W.E. fans in the middle of the C-minus era, in the middle of the fucking judge smales, you'll get nothing and like it era who are going to start having a problem with this. If I paid the money,

if I paid anything more than a couple hundred dollars to go to night one of WrestleMania, I would never go to another wrestling event ever again. Ever. And people, people, pay a lot more than that. Yeah. And they're getting away. Look, their attitude is, and I've been wrestlers with this attitude. I don't need everyone. I just need a few suckers. I don't need everyone to pay this. I just need a few angels to come along and pay this. I think I've met

some of the same wrestlers. Oh, I think you know a few of the people I'm talking about, and I think that's kind of WWE's attitude right now. And eventually that is going to run out unless the creative really picks up. And I don't think think there was much people saw at WrestleMania that made them think that the creative is suddenly going to get better. They have some future stars on the horizon more than they have in a long time in terms of Obafemi, Javon Evans, Tric Williams, Braun Breaker. Like the next generation is right in front of us and it looks like they've really developed these guys well. But the formatting of the show, let alone the pay-per-views, the amount of commercials, you brought

the things that work to get people to watch wrestling in the past, the lack of, even if it's not a local promo, personality promos to get the people, the person over more than just doing in-ring five-minute back-and-forth scripted segments. It helps better. And the other thing I'll say is this, they've, with the TV show, they've got this attitude, started under Vince. You know, we have to do the backstage stuff, or we can't just have matches. You know, those are the they used to do on those old wrestling shows. That's old wrestling. Yeah, it worked.

It fucking worked. Maybe not at these prices, but they didn't have this kind of economy back then. I'm sorry, I'm going off again. Well, well, here, that's what you brought up, and I'll respond with two things. First, easily, the thing is, with all the new talent that you mentioned in the future stars, they're going to be great, but the problem is, is, are those future stars going to be affordable for the fucking audience, or the future stars going to be the

Maserati that most people would love to drive and can't afford. And secondly, this is not good for the business. I mentioned a week or two ago on one of the shows here, that it wasn't Tony upping the price structure

because he's got no pressure to make money is not good for the wrestling business. it's good for the business of those guys that are either in the WWF or AEW. The WWE fans that get turned off or that say, ah, fuck, it's too expensive or it's boring or it's whatever,

they're not going to suddenly turn to AEW. Many of them do not still know that it exists and wouldn't give a shit about it. They're just going to go away, which is what happened with the WCW fans when WCW folded up, then the last, you know, old NWA Crockett, Southern contingent, a fan said,

well, fuck it. Well, the same thing here. If WW loses fans, that doesn't mean AEW is going to get them because AEW is still giving you 45-minute-long wrestling matches with the most ridiculous, redundant, fucking phony fucking action that you can possibly see.

and with no stars, when they get stars, they somehow make them unstory. And no logic and no fucking structure and direction and no marketing machine. These people don't want to see a goddamn bunch of nobodies that look like children performing video game wrestling. They like the WWE stars. They just either want to be able to afford them or to see more of, of them than somebody said, and we'll get to the actual shows. There's been various people out there doing math.

I think the entrances were 15 minutes shorter than the actual match time. Or somebody says the commercials exceeded or equaled the match time. It's just, and some of it is just visually as ridiculous in some cases when they try to get cute. as AEW is when the children get to do their shit. And these are grown fucking adults. And, you know, I'll give Tony Kahn credit. And, you know, you kind of hit the nail on the head. WWE fans, the average WVE fan either doesn't know AEW exists or doesn't care.

I was talking to my sister the other day because she works with some wrestling fans and she started watching it because they watch it. They all talk about it. And I said, what about AEW? it was like a dismissive not and it wasn't for any reason it wasn't like she saw it and rejected it it wasn't like she saw Orange Cassidy was offended it was just it's not WWE

and that's a scary attitude for to think that people have but that's the reality of it that's what WWE is built that's the monster there's still people that think it's WWE or there's nothing there's the NBA and then there's the guys playing at the park

that's what people think so AW does have that kind of thing to get over and the problem is if they ever got Hall of Nash which is the kind of thing they need for the attention they wouldn't know what to do with it that's well Tony has had seven years now practically and spent probably a billion dollars whatever he's taken

in against that at this point to do the and then there's still where they are but what I was going to give Tony Con credit for is you ever see him do interviews he lies the way a promoter lies, but he does it in a way that makes him endearing to his fans. He has mastered the point that sincerity is the key,

and once you learn to fake that, you've got it made. There's an earnest disingenuousness to him. You see Nick Conn and Paul Levick interviewed. If Paul Levick is talking about the business of WWE, I just saw something with him and Sean Michaels just talking about developmental and everything, and I was like, man, Considering who these two guys are, this is like the most down-to-earth thing I've ever seen them do.

And I've also seen Polovec do interviews where he's like, just be a fan! Just stop complaining, don't be a critic, be a fan. He wants everyone to be Pete Rosenberg, just a fucking fluff boy suckass who loves everything and toes the company line. He wants the fans to be that. And that ain't going to happen. Tony does have the endearing childlike and, you know, You know, you can get, you're not, if you're not in a wrestling business, or if you're just a fan and you don't care about the inside of the business, you can watch Tony and go, yeah, hey, boy, that's great.

He loves this shit. And again, you see Nick Kahn interviewed. And if you're rooting for WWE, you're like, yeah, this guy's serious. This guy's the real deal. And if you're just paying attention to what he's saying, the attitude, which is, they'll be there. We can do whatever we want. The fans are going to be there. We're going to do this.

We're going to make all this money. Everything's great. They don't care right now about anything. anything except getting TKO as much money as possible to pay down the debt and do whatever else they're planning. But this is the least fan-friendly period of time. They're hyping it up. They got club WWE. We'll talk about during the pay-per-view. If you've got disposable income, they've got seats all over the place they can put you in. You could do anything. We'll talk about that later. They got seats all over the place. I'm waiting to see the first one that buys their way onto the

card. Not any celebrity. Just Joe Schmoe with $10 billion in fucking Bitcoin that it gets on the card. That's, it could come up. Because the state of things right now is pretty not dire or sad. I mean, it's interesting. What's going on behind the scenes is more interesting than a lot of the things that are happening on camera. But the future doesn't look too bright right now for wrestling, to me. Not saying that's going to go away. Not saying WWE is going to stop. making money and go away, but the quality. They have shifted to a different kind of fan base they're appealing to, and it's one that just wants to spend, spend, spend.

What I was saying before, I'll close with this. They got Club WWE. They got their deal with their other company in the TKO umbrella on location. They've got fans buying seats at the commentating table. with all that said and done, it's the least fan-friendly time in the history of WWE. Think about that.

Well, and here's one thing, whether anybody likes it or not, give the devil his due, and I'm not talking about MJF. Vince was more fan-friendly. Ultimately, at the end of the day, Vince was more fan-friendly than this environment

because he still had his root in the old days when you had to not only appeal to the masses, but be able to fucking, the masses be able to come to you and afford to get in and et cetera. And these people were not around then. They've been taking people's money on a bigger scale than wrestling promoters for years, the fucking Hollywood bunch and the various,

agents. So they were not around when Vince still knew somewhere deep in his heart these people have to be able to afford to get in. You know, Vince McMahon was a concert promoter too. So he understands pleasing fans at all different levels. Not to say that his creative was always doing that, but I think that was his intent a lot of the times. What do you think Vince McMahon thought? I'm assuming he watched WrestleMania. It's WrestleMania. It's WrestleMania. It's WrestleMania. I'm assuming you watched it. What do you think he thought having the same experience we did? I'm thinking that he is conflicted because the businessman in him cannot deny the money, the revenue, et cetera, the scale, blah, blah, blah. So he's got to be in his

head recognizing that. And at the same time, there's the element in him of all the things I just mentioned, but goddamn, you know, goddamn, pal, oh, whatever, they should have done this, and they should have to where he would have micromanaged it and had his own spin. So he's completely, in his mind, rebooking

and or reorganizing the show, or goddamn the fucking inference is too long, need to get to the action, or the goddamn they should have a better entrance. Or he's tearing it apart in his head is what he would have done, but he's also putting it over because he

realizes this is the ultimate, maybe he realizes it's gone too far. This is the ultimate child of his vision. He sold the sizzle, not the steak. Now, all you get is the sizzle and the smell, and they never give you the steak. No, they start showing you aerial shots of the restaurant next month that they'll be here. Yes. The steak will be here next month. Will you be able to catch it? you'll see it as it's carried by. In the middle of the show, all of a sudden they have aerial shots. Here's where we are next time.

Well, you're here now. How do you have a drone everywhere? I mean, I don't know about worrying about the government surveilling us. I think we ought to worry about fucking WWW production department, keeping an eye on us from the sky. It's that leaf fitting. He's the problem. But we'll talk more.

We have a lot of WrestleMania and a lot of wrestling to talk about. But, Jim, before we go too much further here on the show, So Cornets collectibles at Jimcornaut.com, always great stuff there for the fans. Yes, there is. And if you are one of the fans who has ordered some of my ring-worn and ring-used items, the eyeglasses and ties and shoes have already been packed up and in the hands of the feather bottoms and should have been already shipped by now, as a matter of fact.

And just shortly after that, we'll be coming the jackets, the pants and the suits, and we're all caught up on that. and you can still get books and DVDs and T-shirts and autographed and various sundry items all at Jim Cornett.com. Just click on collectibles and big news coming up as soon as we finish with all of this news and May comes along where there's no news. And then we'll have news. Stay on top of the news at Jimcornet.com. Jim, let's head to Vegas for WrestleMania 42, aka. WrestleMania, commercial break, we will be right back.

Night one had some big matches. Let's get to it. Well, now, they were on, the first hour was also on ESPN2. Not ESPN also, but ESPN2, the secondary ESPN. And they were on the theory that they would get people to then immediately go over to the ESPN app, which I still have to, however I got it on my, well, Stacey got it on my TV,

I got a click on Disney. And somehow, then it's there. I don't know what the fuck. It's like a goddamn Easter egg hunt. But nevertheless, so this was being simulcast and Lynn Manuel Miranda

Miranda did the cold open for the show. He is one of the celebrities. There was a graphic that he has won numerous major awards, including a leg lamp. I have, have you, I don't, who, come on, you don't know who that is? No. Have you heard of Hamilton? The musical. He is the, I guess, playwright and musician. Well, he's not really well, he's a singer and a writer. It's his thing. He did Hamilton and he's been writing that. Well, how many, John, damn people? have been to Broadway to see Hamilton.

I think they're released it in theaters. I think Disney did a version. The soundtrack went to the top of the charts. The soundtrack to Hamilton went to the top of the charts. Again, not necessarily my thing, but here's my question. This is about Alexander Hamilton, right? That's right. That's exactly right. It's based on the Chernow book.

And that went to the top of the charts? Who the fuck? is the new Lennon and McCartney is Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr? Well again, this is not a new thing. This has been in the ethos for a while, but my question for you is this.

Yes. The hype video for WrestleMania, Night 1 and Night 2, done by Lynn Manuel Miranda. Noriega. I was about to say Noriega. God damn it. Manuel Miranda.

How much do you think they paid him for that? Because I don't think it did anything to hype a wrestling fan up. It certainly didn't sell a paper. It was a nice thing, I guess, to have on it. But again, how much money was he paid to do that unnecessary? Well, I would have thought if you'd have just held a gun to me that he's a wrestling fan that wanted to be involved some kind of way.

And they said, well, here, you could narrate our cold open. Why, if you were going to, is he a famous narrator? Did this have any of his Alexander Hamilton on the card? He apparently has done other thing. I think he also wrote In The Heights. Again, not that you would know it, a commercial. The Heights of what? Washington Heights, I believe it would be.

But. D.C. or State? New York. Listen, the point is he's known he's out there. He must have other songs in his head. He's been out of other shows. I've seen him out there. People seem to really like him.

I've never gotten through Hamilton. It ain't from me. Okay, but what connection? Because it's also like hip hop. It's not even just like a classic musical like it. Wait a bit, Alexander Hamilton, is he a pop? It's not guys and dolls. It's like, you know, Wootang.

It's like, you know, all of a sudden, tell him the story of Alexander Hamilton. I didn't think Alexander Hamilton was in the goddamn 30s at a fucking gangster. I'm just having this is supposed to be colonial fucking revolutionary war. Who was hip the hip and their hop in the revolutionary war? Well, again, I think the attitude was, how do we get this before a new audience? I know we'll give Hamilton some rhymes. and then he goes out there and, you know, him and Burr, they rap to each other.

What the fuck is happening? You're sure you haven't seen this? You're not interested in checking this out? No, I heard there was a musical about Alexander Hamilton and the Revolutionary War and the colonial times called Hamilton. That is my complete knowledge. All right, anyway. Stacey, please put it on for him. Please, please.

Don't have to tie me down. It's on Disney Plus, Stacy. Please. It's on Disney Plus. along with WrestleMania. There's the connection. Can I ask you a question?

Yeah, I wish you would. Do you think WWE fans hate ESPN yet? Just completely loathe. The way ESPN fans hate WWE right now for all of their shows having worked interviews the last week, do you think

WWE fans just despise ESPN right now? Well, but also there is an element of you can tell if somebody's a real wrestling, if you're a wrestling fan, I should say, preface with that, then you can tell if somebody else is a real wrestling fan, by the way, they talk about it, or you can tell if they just don't know anything or he's,

oh yeah, and I give you him a body slam type of terminology and, you know, just know Hulk Hogan or whatever the fuck. And them trying to sell a wrestling fan wrestling is going to make them, tired of if they're going to be talking about wrestling constantly and put it on every show as part of the cross promotional thing, you're going to get a lot of these sportscasters that are even just reading copy are going to have some disdain for the product and the wrestling fans are

not going to like that. And as I said the other day, the regular ESPN real sports fans are going to be going to, what is all this wrestling over all over my television? But nevertheless, what about John Sina's haircut? That's what I want to know, Brian. What did you think about it? Well, you know, he's admitted he, I don't know if it's a wig or if it's a transplant, but he's admitted that it's not real. Well, it looks, it looked perfect, though.

And they were in a stadium, but yet, you know, there was no breeze. It just stayed right there. No, it came out of the suit and the hair and he's retired. but he's the host, and he made a few brief comments about this year's WrestleMania being polarizing was one of the words that he used, and that's putting it mildly, a brief welcome and welcome to WrestleMania for, I'm assuming, half a million dollars or whatever. Fucking God.

You know, I really wish John Cena was poor and broke. because he'd be the greatest ring announcer ever. I could see why he gets so much work for voiceover stuff. He has a great voice. Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, that's the he can do everything. But it's just amazing the finances and the financial world that we live in today. So the entrances for the six-man tag team match took about 10 minutes.

I wasn't really, I noticed it was going. long, I didn't really start writing it down until later on when it became a pattern. But the six man was the Uso's and L.A. Knight against Logan Paul, Austin Theory, and I Show Speed. And it's obvious the young man is athletic. And actually, if they were to train him, which is the problem, he would probably take to wrestling very well based on the way. that he moved around in the ring, in my opinion, to begin with. But they, I don't know whether, this was like they couldn't decide whether they wanted him to work like a cowardly

manager type in over his head, or do the goddamn most impressive physical feat of the match. Do you see my, this is a dichotomy, a paradox, a fucking conundrum? He's in really good shape. He's obviously athletic, and he did a great job of, that he was frightened at everything he did in this match? Until he did the most death-defined fucking...

So that's... When they started the match, they let I show do a little flip and a body slam. But there's Logan Paul at Austin Theory in this match with the gimmick guy, and I'm thinking, I wrote, The Vision got screwed this year from these injuries and shit, from what they obviously all were going to be doing. They got it blah. They got some heat on an Uso, then they got some heat on Aisho,

and then Jay made to come back, and somewhere another, I Show shoved L.A. Knight away from him into Logan Paul, and in theory he got mad at I Show for knocking Logan Paul off the apron with L.A. night, and then LA Knight threw Austin Theory into I Show and then hit Theory with the BFT 123 in seven minutes. So it wasn't offensive and, you know, L.A. Knight's wonderful.

Poor Austin Theory goes from, you know, being in the top group to doing a job in the opener. But then... You wrestle John Cena at WrestleMania? a few years ago. Well, remember they will remind us later on this weekend, and so did the Miz and beat him. I would have thought they'd have scrub that from their history.

But anyway, then Logan Paul turns on eye show and beats him, puts him on the desk and goes to the top to come off on him, but to baby faces come back and stop Logan Paul and roll I show in and hold Logan Paul on the desk so I show can climb up on the top of the ring post and dive off with a goddamn splash through the table. And boom, and kudos to Logan Paul for earning his multimillion since he already has multimillions by laying there

and letting some guy that's never done his fort his life, except I'm sure on crash pads at the run through. But God, so that's the point. He was a personality, but at least like he was scared and people were going to beat him up because he's in the ring with these wrestlers and he was on the heel side and kind of working like a manager,

and then suddenly he uncorks the, the goddamn greatest move since Buddy Rogers popularized the figure four. Does this make sense? Or does this show that any athletic young kid can do shit that these supposed main event wrestlers that make millions can do? Well, that's kind of what WWE is doing right now with every celebrity they use, anyone they use. Basically, it shows that this person can do what the wrestlers do.

Whether it's in the ring or going through a table. We'll talk about the main event a little later. Because it's fun. And as far as... Because it's fun for them. What this was and why they did it. This was the beginning of a night of... That was an interesting way to do this.

I'm not exactly sure what the whole point of it was. You know, I know I Show Speed has a huge social media following. Does that translate into anyone checking out the pay-per-view for this? No, it's a free match on the ESP. So he'll get social media views from the clips of this. He'll probably get more value out of this that WWE does. Okay, I've got a goddamn large social media following. Brian, wouldn't you say, compared to most folks,

because of our, our Twitters and our YouTubes and our podcasts and things and such of that nature. what if I decided, you know, that new, that new soccer team, I love soccer. And that new soccer team they got here in Louisville, I want to go down there. I want to play in a game. No, but you're looking at the example wrong. Imagine you're doing everything you're doing right now. You have all the success you're having right now.

YouTube, social media, advertising, everything. Everything's exactly the same. Yada, yada, yada. yet. The only difference is you're not talking wrestling. You're talking e-sports or you're talking, I don't know, something youthful. You could have the exact same. If you have, I guarantee, if you have the numbers you have now, they would want you there in two seconds. But because you're from wrestling, they probably see you a little differently than the celebrities. Oh, I'm sure they see me a little differently. If it was you or anyone else, the problem is, I'm wondering if an email

that I sent several months ago might have been circulated around the office about an unrelated matter but nevertheless well back to go on back to wrestle media back to that that was the end of that uh that was yeah that's basically what i told him anyhow uh no the point is the point is it's it's to me yes you want to have people with an audience and with reach and with influence as the kids say you know talking about your product in a positive light and enjoying it and etc and they can be on the

periphery of it and again I've said we've done it before with radio DJs when they were important to our local promotions or with well you've worked all kinds of people into the fucking deal but nobody

ever just came in and goddamn showed that they could do the world champions moves as well as the world champion on their first night in. That's what I'm, so nevertheless, we had a non-sanction match, Brian up next. That means that the

WWE had absolutely no responsibility for anything in this match regarding the participants or anything they were going to do except if you wanted to put your name on the ass of their tights or the fucking sole of their boots, I'm sure they would have taken your money. But it was Jacob and Drew, and we like both of these guys.

I obviously have been a fan of Jacob. I was the one talking about Jacob Fatu should have been here two years before Jacob Fatu was here. And Drew McIntyre and the thing with punk and pretty much everything that he did to pass however long it's been since he got good. We love it. was this disappointing to you

don't let me sway your opinion tell me your opinion before that I tell you mine and then I'll try to change yours if it's not mine I don't think you're going to change my opinion but I'm pretty sure my opinion the match did nothing but reestablish

the thoughts I had instead of here on the air in the weeks leading up to this the feud was underwhelming I don't think it did any of these two guys any favors they somehow made Jacob Fattu less scary. Yeah. Drew McIntyre, I just don't care. The way this feud was handled, I don't care,

and I didn't care about the match. And based on the crowd reactions, I was hearing at home, maybe it was louder in the room. It didn't seem like the fans cared that much either. And I'm just happy it's over. And geez, you look at Jacob Faw, too.

Even if you're not a genius like Jim Cornett, anyone could look at that guy and be like, man, I would book that guy and do so many they have just blown it. But, you know, we'll see what happens next. But I didn't care about any of this, and you're not going to change my opinion. Well, I still care about these guys,

but they, I think the creative team in trying to make this more interesting, quote unquote, that it was going to be anyway, gimmicked it up with the non-sanctioned, trying to take advantage of Jacobs' alleged past and, you know, volatility and Drew will go to any lengths. And then they just, they can do anything within the first minute. They had two tables, five chairs, and a toolbox in a fucking ring. I think they would have gotten the same reaction from this crowd to just have a goddamn match.

probably about the same length, or maybe even a minute or two shorter in this case, without the ridiculous props and gimmicks and then slow pace to drag it out in between the shots with the wrench or whatever. In trying to make this, somehow the creative was willing, smoking the hopium,

willing this into being a violent classic by making it non-sanctioned street, no DQ, lazy booking. And the best reaction they were going to get out of the people was this regular match reaction. Because it wasn't a hot fucking deal. But they've not only cleaned Jacob up and made him less scary,

but at the same time they're putting Drew in all these garbage matches, and they're going to hurt him sooner or later. I don't know if it's possible to hurt a fight. fucking Samoan. But again, all the weapons are brand new. I'm surprised you can't see the fucking price tag

on the bright red toolbox. These are not raw, gritty street fight matches from the Amarillo sports arena with people hitting each other over there with dirty fucking ball peen hammers in the name of Dory Fung Sr. It's a goddamn

cleaned up clown show at this point with the slim gym logo on the tables and the bright shiny aluminum. Do they buy garbage cans and then fucking shine them? Or spray paint their goddamn chairs, another coat like they're a showroom car? You can't buy it with that.

And finally, after they'd done some stunts with the various things and Drew got the referee's belt and whipped him, but then Jacob got it and whipped him back and all that stuff. Jacob sets,

they do a Yebu, Jacob ends up, I think, winning and then sets up a table and goes to the top and is taken forever. But then Drew moves and fucking push it,

is Jacob off the top through the table to the floor. But then as soon as he gets him back in the ring, Jacob is fine and hits two super kicks. And then he hits Drew with the toolbox and moonsaults him through a table. Except for the fact these guys look a lot better, and are a lot bigger and meaner and more established. This could have been an AW. It's just indie.

in my opinion. Same as the other bullshit that we see every week. Well, that's right there the issue. This was no different that something you would see on Raw, Smackdown, or AW, but just talking about WW TV, these matches don't stand out much from the everyday occurrences at this point, which makes your question, why even do it? If the fans aren't going to pop the way they used to for the things they've already seen in the past,

in the past, they just had a guy go through the table. table in the first match right before this, right before the street fight. That had some guy, he ate carnage right out there. Well, that's another thing. How much sympathy can you have for this 280 pounds tattooed Samoan from the streets of fucking wherever his bad neighborhood is when I show speed, 100 pounds lighter came off the same top rope and crashed through a goddamn table? And if you're going to hype up the criminal past of Jake.

Fahoo and use it, why wouldn't you have done this when he was a heel first? Really hype it up that this guy's on hinge. He's a criminal. And then he turns baby face. He's a baby face. So now let's go deep into his past. Yes, that's why I said remember the original Fahoo when he was making a difference. Out there was this goddamn fucking colored jacket and his finger signs and everything. How's that I'm making a different stuff working for you, Fatu?

You know, the kids just aren't listening to me. I'm thinking about just showing them my ass. Yeah. That'll make them listen. All righty, well, that was hour one, right there, Brian. The free hour. The free, well, the free out. Well, it's free if you get the ESPN thing through Disney,

if you have it on your cable system that you pay for in some other way, but elsewise you have to pay separately for it, but you didn't have to pay for this because it was on ESPN2, except you have to pay for ESPN2, which is not on basic cable, so you have to have a cable package anyway. So they're sending you for one cable package

to the other cable package, but one way or another, you end up on top of their package. It's crazy. I saw some fan post earlier. I forget where I saw it. Someone said, I paid $20 a month for net,

which is obviously more than just wrestling, but you get Raw. And now I have to pay $30 a month for ESPN to watch this, because his cable company, I guess, didn't offer it. That's $50 a month to watch Raw and ESPN's WWE coverage. That doesn't even count SmackDown on USA. That's $50 a month to be a WWE fan in the States. If you get the $20 Netflix package, $50 a month to see. you're wrestling. Well, but now to be fair, it used to cost you $50 a month for the pay-per-view,

but the pay-per-view actually gave you more wrestling than you saw on all four weeks of the fucking TV preceding it. There were sponsorships, but your payment kind of covered the lack of commercials that you would see on these events. And now it's just, there's pretty much, I mean, you may have time, but actually you've done this kind of thing, what would you say, 10 minutes between every match, minimum, between commercials and, and I count, I count, the entrances, commercials and setups, 10 minutes? Oh, yeah, no, yeah, besides the entrances and the exits, 10 minutes or sometimes more if they have some type of video package or skit or whatever to do.

And that was one of the things about I was formatting the WCW pay-per-views in the very early days of us doing those pay-per-views, as you will recall. And I think it was in a paper-view format or no, it was a Clash of Champions format I reprinted in the Midnight Express scrapbook. But nevertheless, that was

part of the problem that we had when we tried to do it. And I mean, obviously, I wasn't doing them by myself without any input from, I don't know, like Rick Flair, the booker, but I was the one writing it down on paper and timing it. And that was a thing you had to figure out a way that you went somewhere from the match

so that the guys could get out of the arena and not cross paths in the entranceway. You had to go somewhere just long enough to get them out of there so you could start the next match. So there was, you know, a backstage interview for 45 seconds so they wouldn't cross into fucking aisle. And otherwise, you were bam out and bam right back into the next thing. thing, a minute and a half maybe. AEW. It screws me up when AEW has a pay-per-view, and I get the end of a match I've watched. I'm like, all right, I'm going to run out back or something.

And then the next match is like ready to start right away, because they're trying to get as much as they can into their eight-hour window. Whatever is that team is. But it's non-stop. Like, there's no breaks between the matches. It's match. Well, and then you see the complete, diverse approach of the thing is that when that's the case for, and remember our paper views were two hours and 50 minutes

and structured from preliminary up to main event kind of traditionally. So you knew what was coming up. But with these, the AEW approach is it's going to be four to five hours and all these matches are going to be endless, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes on top. and they're going to be repetitive and redundant and everybody's going to do everything. And by the time, you know, you get through it, most people would be numb if they can make it through it.

Whereas you're numb at the end of AEW, you're asleep at the end of the WW. Which is why that I wish if Tony was going to spend a billion dollars start a wrestling company, might have done a better job of it, so we didn't have to make these choices. Nevertheless, would you like to start into, well, we're all right, this wasn't a pre-show, this was just the free hour on the other thing you pay for.

Now we've switched over to the thing you pay more for, correct? That's right. It was an hour to make you not look forward to the rest of night one. Well, at least you could look, you could say, well, there's an hour down. All right, it was the girls' four-way tag team extraven. Gansett, and you can sense where we're not going to be here long, Brian. So get your comments ready. Charlotte and Alexa Bliss versus Bailey and Lyric versus Lash and Fridge versus the Bellas.

But when the Bellas came out, they've been talking about it for a few weeks now. Nikki apparently rolled her ankle, heard her ankle, did something to her ankle. She's been, she's in a walking boot and the crutch appeared to be somewhat of a work. for the sake of it because she wasn't dependent on it much. She's really been hurt, but it probably, it, she couldn't wrestle on it, but she, I don't think she's at a point where she needed the boot and the crutch, didn't seem.

But nevertheless, Brian, somebody's got to take the place of Nikki, right? Right. And obviously I show speed already works, so he wasn't available here for this match. But we got a big return from someone who, we saw the big return from in another company a few years ago. And you know what? Whatever you want to say, and you'll say it all, I felt really happy for her.

I don't know why I get the feeling. I'm like, man, I'm so happy for her. But I actually had that feeling here. You're stacking, I can hear it. Your voice, there's jubilation. There's glee. Sometimes you see someone return. You're like, yeah, this person really appreciates it.

And you know what? Good for them. I don't know if I want to see her wrestle. But I'm happy. Well, yeah, we've established that. but no, in all honesty. Because the thing is, she had two strikes going against her in that the, what, I don't know how many years ago it was.

With her neck injury, they had pretty much, I don't know, forcibly is the right term, they retired her. They said, well, you know, we're not going to let you wrestle anymore. So they retired her from their company. And that was after, again, they made a movie about her life with the rock involved. They made her a general manager. and they kept her around after she was injured. They had her do other things.

But at the same point, not only did they remove her from the ring from her injury in which, of course, sometimes you have to save people from themselves. I don't, not her doctor, I don't know whether it was the right call or not. Don't care at this point. It's not germane. But then she also got involved with that fucking lunatic,

Alberto El Felon and almost destroyed her life with whatever the fuck that he had gotten her involved with. And then, poor thing, came back to wrestling for Tony and I mean, I wasn't impressed. I'd never watched her to begin with. And I didn't see anything change my opinion of that,

but at the same point, the only time I've seen her in the ring is, for Tony and he has a habit of making people look less than they are. So it is a nice thing that Page has returned after the company took her out of the ring. Alberto almost finished her career off just from people not being able to trust either one of them. And then Tony botched her whole return. So she's had a sucky time in a wrestling business for close to 10 years now. But Nikki, go, I was just going to say Nikki Bella's promo,

Nikki Bella's tone and attitude is so unlikable. I was wondering whether the people would, you know, think Paige was a heel or not. But anyway, yeah, finally, Nikki beat up Charlotte with the crutch and Paige beat Alexis 1, 2, 3, or Alexa, or Alexa, whichever one. Alexa. Well, the biggest deal was it was only 10 minutes long. Was that for any championship or any kind of thing or whatever the fuck?

Yeah, it was for the women's tag championship, wasn't it? I don't know. I think so, yeah. Well, good, good. Now, well, there you go. Page is a champion now. Welcome back, Paige. Welcome back.

Your dreams were your ticket out. That is such a good song, and unfortunately, like, if you listen to it, all you can think about is that show's opening. Not that that's a problem, but independent of Cotter, it's a good song. Independent of Cotter. Independent of Mr. Cater, it's a good song.

Welcome back. Well, the next match, Brian, was for another women's championship, and was this the intercontinent? What the fuck was it? It was Becky Lynch and A.J. Lee. What belt was on the line for them? The women's

intercontinental championship. Yes. There you go. And a band called the Wonder Years played Becky Lynch to the ring. They should have had Jason Harvey come out. What is the perfect time to bring out Jason Hervey? Well, that's why I was looking for him. I thought he might be on the

oboe or the fucking skin flute or something. But no, he was not a member of the But then AJ came out with about 15 little girls dressed like her all with their gimmick, World Title Belt, and blah, blah, blah. And I kind of skipped ahead. Brian, I thought I was going to skip ahead just, you know, about 10 minutes to see what was going on. And I found out that that was pretty much. shit, I backed up a little bit.

And AJ got her finish, the octopus hold, and Becky got the ropes, and pulled one of the turnbuckle pads off and ran her head into the turnbuckle and one, two, three. And did I miss any nuances before we get to the meat of the matter of the next thing or what was happening? Well, in general, I've said it before with this feud.

This isn't for me. I don't know if this is necessarily for men, some of the feuds in the women's division, but this wasn't really for me. However, the most interesting thing, I think, is they've teased it before, is the idea of Becky and the referee Jessica Carr going at it. And it seems like we're on the slow build of this girl either wrestling or doing something, but this isn't the first time, and it was, you know, it's a lot. You notice when all of a sudden the referee,

is pushing around the wrestlers. Doesn't happen to. Tommy Young every now and then would push you. Or Rick Flair, actually loved that spot. Rick Flair. Oh, Flair loved it, yeah. He'd take a bump for a stiff breeze. But I wonder if they're going to do something with her.

Well, here's the thing. Becky Lynch and A.J. Lee were the two women that were involved in the match with women involved, my favorite of all of the last. I don't know how many years of a match with women involved Well no Ria Ripple you've had some match I was gonna say since Ronda

WrestleMania but that was a mixed match I was about Ria Ria's been with Eo and on the outs or whatever the fuck for the past couple years so but point being the mixed tag with their husbands at a personal issue and fucking great promos and grudge

and the whole night that love I don't care of the women's intercontinental champion is that hate. So it's presentation. But we were over an hour and a half into the show, and we'd had four matches that were kind of TV-ish. And I'm thinking, boy, they must be really gearing up for some big extraviburgansers. And by the way, it was the only celebrity.

I was going to ask you, but I'll tell you for me, I knew two celebrities at ringside all weekend. Rick Rubin and Chuck Zito. Who the fuck were all these people they were introducing in between matches? Well, there were some rappers. I believe there were some athletes. There were some maybe content creators.

I think there was someone they said he was on, like, Netflix in Mexico or something. So you had all sort of a fighter or two. And George Kittle. Yeah, well, he's the fuck. Who the fuck is, am I thinking of, I'm thinking of George Gip, possibly in the Newt Rockney story? George Kittle is a professional athlete of some description.

Is he not? He is. Indeed. Do you think they're going to fucking like alcohol test him when he gets back to the team next week? Because all weekend, every time they went to a shot of him at ringside, he had to down the rest of his beer or somebody else's beer. And besides the fact that it was dripping all in his fucking ZZ top-looking beard,

so probably when he was on his way home, they pulled him over. He smelled like a Schlitz brewery, and they threw him in a fucking drunk tank. But besides that, what kind of goddamn corporate office does his professional sports team have? That he's out there promoting alcoholism to the fucking young boys and girls then look up to him, especially all the young girls that want to be just like him, playing with whatever ball he plays with.

I don't know how to answer any of that. Any of that? To be fair, wouldn't you be drinking like that if you realize how much money you were spending to sit ringside at WrestleMania? No, I'd already be sick to my stomach. Good Lord, I've had projectile vomiting by this point. When did Chuck Zito start going to wrestling all the time?

I'd never, I'd ever, ever remember seeing Chuck Zito at wrestling until the last few years. I don't know, but he, oh, no, I met Chuck Zito at a wrestling match 30 years ago. Oh, really? Probably one of those Frank Goodman extravaganzas in New York. But, no, but I did, you know,

at the same time, Chuck Zito is at front row both nights of WrestleMania. I think Chuck Zito knows somebody or he threatened to knock somebody out. All right, anyway, it, picked up a little bit, because here we go, ladies gentlemen, boys and girls, Seth Franklin Rollins, for the flimsiest of reasons, trying to get even with Gunther, but at least we got a match between two top guys and both of them can go in their various

ways, and I just, I love me some Gunther. And by the way, have you seen pictures of him when he was like in his early 20s in the in Germany and what he looks like physically now? You know, you don't even have to go back that far, although that is pretty drastic. If you just go back to when he signed with NXT, it's night and day. He's done an incredible job of transforming himself. I mean, he doesn't look unnatural or anything. It looks like he really put in the work and did it.

No, that's the thing is we're not talking about that he's jacked himself up on steroids. He is, he had the height and that's all he had. He looked like, I mean, the next stop would have been a fucking German Haystacks Calhoun gimmick with a chubby face and he has not only lost the weight, but he looks like a goddamn young athletic. I've said Gene Kinnisky before. I might kill her Kowalski. Kowalski was taller and had more of a bodybuilder physique when he was young, but as after he got the vegetarian diet.

Think about if he had, if Kowalski had nice hair and not so much of a brillo pad upper body, but his athleticism and the way he just his cardio. Anyway, he looks like he can get all over. He's got long arms and legs.

It almost sounded in some kind of, in some way perverse, didn't it? Yeah. So they have this match. and Gunther jumped started him and beat him up. And Seth came back on the floor and they fought over the desk. And finally they got in the ring and then they rang the bell and immediately slowed down. This is a new thing they've come up with in the business, I guess everywhere,

where if there's a jump start but the referee don't want to ring the bell, they don't have to ring the bell until they decide to settle it down and then ring the bell. So you pretty much just jacked off real quick and came. And then now that you're settled down, well, now, honey, let's kiss. But anyway, Gunther got the heat. And at one point, there was a deal they did. Again, I wish they'd, I guess they don't care or the referees are engrossed

and what's going on. But Seth was on the apron forever. the refs not even counting, reminding them that there is a count or whatever. I thought that the crowd had been pretty mild so far and maybe about halfway through. They woke them up where Seth got the stomp and they started getting into a little bit better. But then they went through some false finishes where again, you know, it's not like a heat. I needed rivalry here. They're just having a good match.

Seth got Superflex two count. Seth got a big pop with getting Gunther's sleeper, but Gunther got the ropes, and Seth did the dives, and then finally they did the deal where Seth hit a pedigree on Gunther through the desk, and then a stomp on the desk. But by now they've been out there while I'm thinking,

countouts. Again, the same thing we, we blister AEW about. And usually these guys are at least somewhat more cognizant of that. But by the same token, it's a Faustian bargain, Brian, because at least this is some kind of action

and not a goddamn candy bar commercial. But then he's been stomped on the desk, but as Seth is trying to recover while Gunther's just all laud out. Braun Breaker runs down the hundred yard long aisleway

and speared Seth on a floor and threw him back in the ring and Gunther got the sleeper and Seth was passed out. And then Gunther obviously was the winner. But then not to be outdone, Braun came back down the aisle and as Seth had rolled out and was trying to limp his way back

and spirit him again that mostly, to be honest, kind of missed. It seemed like it went right by him. And then Polly came out and hugged Bronbreaker, who was apparently back. And that was kind of, that was a raw match. It was a good raw main event, wasn't it? You can say that about a lot of WrestleMania, I think. You could say that, especially about a lot of night one. the highlight was obviously

Bronbreaker's return, I think. I saw some fan footage of a fan standing by the rail, maybe midway, maybe even further back by the entrance runway, and they obviously didn't know anything was happening, and you just see Bronbreaker fly by. And they all turn, you know, oh, there he goes.

That was cool. This match had no reason behind it, no cause. There wasn't a point to having it. They tried to explain it in a promo, and they didn't really explain anything. Gunther's owed a favor from Paul Heyman. We could discuss what that may be at a later time. I mean, the whole point was... You made that sound suggestive.

Well, no, I mean, because, I don't know. Will it involve Brock Leicester? I mean, who knows what it will be? But... Just get down on your knees, Paul. The whole point of everything was to get to Rollins and Braun. And the good news is, Bronner. is healthy enough to at least do that.

I didn't like the second spear because I thought, you know, I know what they were trying to do, but when Braun Breaker hits the spear and immediately flips himself over, it didn't look like he hit Rollins that hard. Yeah. It looked like he hit himself that hard and, you know, was doing something.

But, uh, underwhelming, not necessarily Gunther or Rollins's fault, just the build and the energy and the booking behind this, the logic behind it. Like you said, it was a raw main event. well Brian I've got I've got two news news updates for you news updates for you number one my my gardeners are here now my long mowing fellers are here so you talk about this and no one hears them well that's it seems to be going around you're the one that's going to be complaining about it so I wanted to let you know and secondly I've got an update from a legion stadium I was just sent this by one of the cult cornet members on the Twitter machine do you know what a couple of the things of the items of food that were on the menu at at least one because there's video of the concession stands at Allegiance Stadium.

Would you like to take a guess? Would I like to take a guess what the items on sale were? Yeah, were they selling hamburgers, hot dogs, popcorn, good old Frito pie? What do you think they might have been selling? It's a venue. I would think hot dogs are easier than hamburgers, hot dogs, pretzels, popcorn, soda. They had a tomahawk steak.

You know, a tomahawk steak is one of these giant cuts of steak. A member of the Colt of Cornette used to work out at the Golden Ox in Kansas City, and they have butchers cut these things. And they call them a tomahawk steak, because on the end of the steak is this big bone, right? It looks like a tomahawk. They had a tomahawk steak, which you could only get in the finest steakhouses, and they had printed, it was a WrestleMania branded steak.

On this bone, somehow they'd either burnt or scorched or printed WrestleMania 42 on it, and you got it with garlic fries and a chimmy churry sauce for $142.99. Holy shit. This is for anyone? Anyone there could go to a concession. Apparently anybody had $143 could walk up there and get tomahawked. And then they also had, well,

this thing, it's a big steak. And, you know, you might want to share it for two. And then I'm seeing a, a video of a very large breasted woman eating what, $50.

Oh. No, no, no, much more than that. and all the old days of Vegas are done young man uh but nevertheless you got me thinking of other things but the the the wag you burger i don't know whether you're the ones getting wagged the wagg you burger is forty three dollars at the uh concession stand there and then they also

had something that looked like a fucking hamburger with a hot dog in it with a skewer stuck through it with a chicken finger on top. I don't know what's going on. I'd like to investigate that, but not for between 40 and 140 fucking dollars. I just thought I'd bring that up. The best deal in wrestling still remains. Stay home and feed yourself and have the bathroom nearby. I ordered cats. I had it sent here so that it would be delivered, so I had cats' hot dogs and some pastrami. And it was nice. Back in the early in the early 70s with my cousin Larry, used to take me to drive in to see the kung fu movies. My mom would get like three or four things,

a jiffy pop popcorn. Remember you did it on a stove top and it got the big aluminum balloon to come up. She'd pop about three or four of those and dump them in a garbage bag. And give you soft drinks and that way we didn't even have to go to the concession stand. Anyhow, Brian, back to WrestleMania. Oh, this is your show. Would you like to take us back to WrestleMania? Jim, it's my show.

I think we should go back to WrestleMania, and there are more matches for night one. Well, and also they introduced the new Hall of Fame class, which, boy, could you match the people in that stadium? It couldn't be easy to just walk to your seat. Yeah, okay, three football fields later, I'm here. And they've been sitting there, and then here's tiny little people coming out to the stage and waving at them.

AJ got a bit of a pop, and then they saved Stephanie for last for a grand entrance, and she got to grand entrance, but I don't know if she got to grand pop. No, she didn't. And it would be foolish for anyone to expect her to get that pop. I was looking to see if Sid's family was going to be there, and they were, because the word came out after the Hall of Fame the night before, that they weren't very happy, and they certainly had every right not to be. Sid should have been inducted,

like everyone else. He was a big star. But they weren't very happy, but there they were with all the other legends like Demolition and Who else was there? Dennis Rodman. So many names going through my mind now, Dennis Rodman and

Frank. No, but they had a point which we had talked about. For the level of Star Sid was for that they could have had some certainly some contemporary of his with a name would have had something good to say uh somewhere somehow and it just had the family come up and accept quickly but his son

blistered him on the fucking twitter or whether the statement was then repeated on twitter or whether that's whether it originated i don't know but he was like this was disrespectful what it was if you're going to do this type of thing, then that would be the kind of thing those people shouldn't do. Speaking of people not doing things that they shouldn't do or something, Liv Morgan versus Stephanie Vacker for another one of the women's world titles. And Liv's entrance was a dance routine with five girls at a guy, or five persons in a woman or however you would phrase it.

Brian, I don't know what a good Las Vegas-type dance routine of this modern flavor is supposed to look like, was whatever it was that they did here in her entrance with the dancing and the costumes and the chairs and the choreography, was this good? Depends on how you define the word good. this was obviously a playoff wait a minute let me look it up here this was a playoff her music video for trouble which had aired on raw i asked you about you hadn't seen it and it was the same dancers i believe and the same you know i've seen it since then i watched it on on the twitter it popped up and i clicked on it and i think if she wants to make music a career she might be in

trouble but was this performance in your opinion good i thought it was horrible but Again, who am I? I'm not in the pop. It just seemed like they were whirling their hair around and then... There's a lot of hair whirling. They went to the ring kind of like... Remembering girls just want to have fun, Cindy Lopper and her friends just walking through construction workers, like pointing at them?

It was kind of that, like, they all awkwardly went to the ring together, uh, continuing their performance. I like with Morgan a lot. You know, it's cool for the heel to have this crazy entrance. So I'm not... You know, I'm upset about it. But, you know, I mean, the music is not necessarily my, the music is not necessarily anything I would ever listen to ever.

Ever. Ever. Well, anyway. She's no and Margaret. You know what? And I'll tell you what. There never will be another one. Boy, she, she had. Excitement.

She had oomph. Yes. Ooh. And you just knew that she was a temptress and a tigress. and let's get egress back into another topic. And I'm thinking of her, what am I thinking of? Viva Las Vegas, back to Vegas, WrestleMania. Well, there you go.

And I'm over Stephanie Vacker, to be honest with you, because I just, I don't fucking, she's just, blah. But also she gave everybody brain damage the other day, and that kind of, I got to give her three weeks a doghouse for that one. Why? You're not the promoter. Why does the brain damage have to reflect? Well, no, no matter who it is, if one of the boys gives the other one or girls

brain damage, then they're in my doghouse for at least three weeks. So they had their match and Rochelle and Roxanne interfered and Live ran Stephanie into the stairs and hit her finish and pinned her and became the new champion and got celebrated with with her best boyfriend Dominic. Did I miss any subtleties in this segment here as I was trying to move along in the evening? I was looking forward to this match. It did not live up to my expectations.

You could say that it was a good raw match, but I actually think if they wrestled on raw, it would be better. I think also there was an issue with the energy in that room, at least how it was coming across on TV. If they were lively, I didn't pick up on that. but I'm sure I would have enjoyed it more in a small arena on Raw where they can get some energy from the crowd because otherwise,

it was fine, it was, it was fine. This WrestleMania sucks. This WrestleMania sucks. The crowd had to be getting a little tired because of the, they're sitting there in this place where, again, a lot of expense and considerable effort to get to from wherever in the world they have come. And they've been there now, however far we are in this show.

We're about at the main event. So a couple hours in, plus, you know, the time it took them to get settled. And they've seen, what, five raw matches. And a lot of time in between, in between, in between. A lot of $50 hamburgers. and $143 tomahawk steaks. But anyway, and we're fixed to have something else come up in between two, because this is where the John Cena came back out for another $500,000

to announce the crowd. And the crowd was announced, Brian Drumroll, please, and no, don't play anything. I can't take it. 50,816. Now, again, we know that they have creative arithmetic sometimes, and we don't know if that's paid or, but we don't know if this is in any way even comparable to realism,

but we don't know what they're considering it, but I haven't seen any wrestle ticks reports or whatever, but people were saying they're probably going to end up with 50,000 people in here. So if there was empty seats in a stadium, which there were because it seats more than that, they just didn't shoot them. And they had enough there that you would buy it if that's all you were going by was watched on television. So I don't know if this was a ridiculous exaggeration or just kind of a regular exaggeration. And then it was the least, it was the least impressive large crowd.

you know, I can't even explain it. Maybe it's because the wide shot didn't go far up. Like, I know it was a big crowd and 50,000's amazing. But it didn't, like, I don't know, it didn't have the, there was an energy missing. I don't know what it was, but something was, there was, there was plenty of people on camera, but there was almost no points where they were going bat shit over stuff

like you would think the WrestleMania crowd would go. So therefore, they were not, they were stationary people, even on the swooping drone shots and everything, it's just a lot of people just kind of sitting there. But the point being is, Brian, you know, you'll be, hopefully, somehow the voice of reason on this topic. But Sena's out there, he's announced the crowd, and Bianca Bel Air's music plays.

And out she comes in a ridiculous gown that looked like she was sticking up out of the top of like a fucking bouquet of blue roses or something of that nature. Just a giant flower assembly coming down the ramp. A flower assembly, sure. A flower assembly. They do them over at the medical facilities. And speaking of medical facilities,

she does, she, oh, I've missed you all and everything, a big baby face type of deal. And then she insinuated. that there's the attendance figure needs to be amended, and she opens up her gown, and it's showing her, frankly, bulging, deformed stomach. No, distended is a better, a bulging distended stomach, better than deformed, although you could,

we'll look up deformed if we want to split hairs, and announce she's pregnant. So apparently it's been more than a, finger that's kept her out for a year. But she can't be pregnant for a year. She'd have had a hippopotamus. She broke the finger and then... This is the greatest cave-faving of a finger I've ever seen. Well, that's...

It's probably a little of both, depending on where the finger went. But nevertheless... Where's Naomi? Oh, Naomi's... Where is Naomi? She announced last year right after WrestleMania. She was pregnant, right? That's right. What do they do everything together? But anyway, here's the thing.

And I know people are, Oh, Cornyette hates babies. Remember what he said about Becky Lynch? I'm not even talking about, Becky Lynch got pregnant when she was one of the bigger stars of the business in this era of people making millions of dollars. And I said, boy, Jesus, might, you know, at least call that bad timing.

And people just hopped all the fuck over me. people. Seth Rollins. Well, no, the people followed a lot of the fans. The people out there. Some of them are, well, oh, he shouldn't say that about he's pregnant. It's such a blessed event.

Well, here's the thing. Bianca is not written into any stories, as the kids say, because she's been out for a year injured already. And on top of that, even though they're not my cup of tea, everybody has the right to have all the little babies they want to have. As long as they can pay for them and take care of them

and don't misrepresent them and leave them, you know, to their own devices. What? That's a hell of a carrot to throw out there just in case any of this stuff. No, I mean, I'm sure. First of all, I'm very happy. We should all be very happy for her. Well, I'm not particularly happy either. I don't care.

I'll never meet these people. I'll never see these children. I don't have any dog in this fight whatsoever. She's a happy person. She's always out there skipping. good that she doesn't need me to be happy for her. I got my own fucking problems. She doesn't need you to be miserable for her.

I'm not miserable either. I'm not advocating that she not have children or that people think ill of her because she's having children. I'm totally neutral on the situation. I could give a shit or not. Except except

she has been out for a year injured and that's obviously not her fault. But I guess what I'm saying to you is that the problem I have with women in the industry or in any industry, if you think about it, is from a business standpoint, what if Bianca is still on payroll, does she get paid now that she's not injured, but she's kind of injured?

Much as I was asking with the other girl that got pregnant, was Tony going to pay her? what if you contract with someone to do something and conditions arise that they cannot do that thing then I don't believe that you should be held to paying them that money i.e. if you hire somebody to build you a house and then the guy comes back and says no I'm pregnant I'll do it in a year well I need the house now right so give me my money.

money back. But this is one of those cases where it's important to note that wrestlers are only independent contractors because WWE is lying about it. They are employees and she's on maternity leave and she should take it. But then you, Jesus Christ, you get maternity leave in normal life is however long it is. More than you realize now. At this point there's paternity leave where dads can lead to. But no, I'm saying you don't immediately, finding out that you're pregnant, if you're at a high-level executive and you're paid a lot of money in a corporate environment and departments depend upon you and you find out that you're 10 weeks pregnant, you don't immediately have to stop doing your job on the spot. That's the problem.

This is the plot of the movie Baby Boom. What if you hire someone to be a big-time actress to be in a $50 million movie where they got to be an Olympic high diver? And all of the other public, you can't shoot this thing in three months and they're not going to be diving off the high board. What movie is this? That they're going to be an Olympic high dive. I'm just saying anything where you can't be pregnant. Anything where you can't be pregnant. And now you're going to put a $50 million production on hold and all these other people.

We're going to pay you for six to nine months to sit around so we don't fuck this whole thing up to wait on Matilda. Matilda? Where is any of this coming from? I don't understand. I'm saying there ought to be a pregnancy clause and he's contracts. It's illegal. You can't do that. How could you just be by Jesus Christ?

And if some guys I know would make a living for 30 years out of being pregnant, never stopped being pregnant, so they'd never have to actually go to work. How do you, how do you have to pay people to do a job that they can't, well, oh he had a pregnant pause there how can you pay people have to pay people to do a job that they through self-induced means cannot they cannot fulfill their end of the bargain so freeze the thing yes but don't just keep sitting in a check right along for a fucking year Jesus Christ does anybody have any fiscal responsibility these days oh yeah TKO yeah well it was but no now that that's the giving of the money

not the taking of the money. They would have a scandal if all of a sudden Bianca Pierre, Bierre, Bianca Bel Air. Bianca Bieler! Bianca Biaire! Bianca Belyer came out in a few months and said, yo, W.W.E. Stop paying me. My baby's here. What am I going to do? It would be the biggest scandal ever. And then Tony would sign her.

I think it's a, it's a shitty way to do business. I'll tell you what. Congratulations, Bianca, and I presume Montez Ford. Well, the tests haven't come in yet, so we're not sure. But we'll keep them updated on that. She's from Knoxville. She's from Knoxville. You should be nice. Well, she went to school at Knoxville.

I don't know if she was born there. I thought she was born there. I thought she was born there. I thought she was from Knoxville. Was she? Well, if it's important to you, look at, again, I don't care where she lives or how many children she has. I'll never meet them or they'll never affect me nor meet them in any way.

so they're free to do whatever they want. But as a matter of principle, people sign on and do a goddamn job. You know, they got to goddamn fulfill their obligations. Ms. Bel-Air, you ignored the no fucking clause in the contract. That's exactly right. And see, there should be a vow of celibacy in all the contracts. Oh, come on.

I'd like to show you the new TKO Chastity Belt that we are insisting all the talent where. well just hey if they can test it out on the tomahawk steakbone branded so anyway are you ready for the main event because that's what we're next to that's right Cody and Orton and the history package with Cody and Orton had just a teasingly enough comment that Cody had made 15 years ago that they had him do when he talked about the wrestling mania, I hope of Randy and I don't end up one day like Randy and Triple H. And they could have showed. I should have been the whole feud. They could have showed the whole goddamn thing and everything they've done since then

to drop to little teases. And instead, they concentrated on highlights from the angle that they just did Jelly Roll and Pat McAfee. And so that was that. and then McAfee made his entrance. And is it possible that there can be both booing and indifference at the same time, Brian? If you're wondering what it looks like with a mark, and I'm sorry, I like Pat McAfee's exuberance and excitement level when he's the baby face

rah-rah color guy and in that case coming off as a mark because you're a salesman you're one of them it kind of works it's the don west principal although don was as energetic as fuggard pat just not as annoying but the point is if you're wondering what it looks like when a mark is playing heel this is what it is when he's walking to the ring he's got the sunglasses on and the extra little strut And he's given the fans fingers, double fingers everywhere, and you heard he picked it up on the floor cam, Mike, fuck you to the people. Christine Jarrett would have taken him in the back and whipped him with a belt.

But you don't need that, especially on WrestleMania, and there's the kids and these are people with money. So apparently the kids might not hear this type of assorted language all the time, whatever. If you can't just get heat by who you are coming down and your attitude, et cetera, without, you know, it nevertheless. He also got a longer entrance than Roman Raines takes. And then Orton came out.

And again, this is so bizarre because they had the viper snake effects on the screens and everything. And Orton comes out, the fans are singing his song and cheering him. and either ignoring or booing the guy that's in his corner. And in Cody's entrance, and they had on the screens the logos and the displays of his looks through his career. And he was a nice-looking young man when he started,

but did we need to be reminded that Stardust actually existed? But then Cody comes out. He's in the new mask and the robe. Good God, the Lord. wardrobe budget. You know, he may have spent as much on fucking costuming as what's drew in a Superdome over a year.

And the fans sing the song, the big, whoa! And he's taking time and he's hugging kids. He's, so at this point, they're cheering everybody except Magapy.

And he hugged brandy and liberty and then immediately they're ready to cheer Orton. So McAfee takes the microphone and does the big intro of Randy Orton, which still gets cheers and booze. Cheers for Orton and booze because McAfee said it.

And then old weird hair introduced Cody and there was cheers, but more booze. Because as we've talked about, they wanted to see Randy win, the title change at WrestleMania. It's not hard to figure out, especially where everything's been done. put the entrances and introductions alone.

17 minutes. At that point, you're like, get on with it already, rather than really hyped, aren't you? Have they passed that level? Again, they've booked Cody into the dirt. They have not made him likable, other than the fact that he is in the role of top babyface world champion. It's not as bad as Bob Backlin than 83.

but it's that kind of thing. They haven't given you reason to really get into him. They're not into any of this. I'll give Pat McAfee a world of credit. He is committed to something he knows isn't working. He is committed to continuing doing something that the wrestling fans and the wrestlers don't want. And he sucks.

And this match had no, this match had weird energy, and that's before whatever booking reasons or whatever happened here, whatever this was or was supposed to be. What it was then was supposed to be. I'm still not sure exactly where they were going by the end of this, but back to you. Well, we ain't even got there yet because now the match is ready to start except it's not going to start yet.

Because now Pat McAfee rushes up and hits Cody over the head with the micro- phone and Orton starts getting on Cody and the fans are pissed now they're oh boo you know what the fuck but then Cody fought back and gave Pat the crossroads which got a huge fucking pop and he ran orton into the post and then he cleared off the fucking desk and he beat up McAfee some more and he stretches him out on the desk and suddenly there magically. It's like we didn't even say his name three times that he appeared. His jelly donut.

And he is suddenly telepathically understands that he is to give Pat McAfee the elbow drop on the announced desk, which he ran from one desk and jumped off that to the other desk and elbow dropped him through the fucking announced desk. And then they get a stretcher, and they actually put McAfee on the stretcher and stretcher him. And that's the most universally cheered thing of the night. And, you know, they like that, but that took, it was after the elbow, it was almost four minutes to do the carryout. So everybody standing around again, so the bell rang 25 minutes after.

after the entrances started. Again, Brian, do you see we're not keeping momentum, energy, the circuits are being interrupted? Yeah, also, jelly roll, why wouldn't he do a big splash? If he's going to jump from one table to the other, why elbow drop? Big splash works perfectly for him. Well, to be honest with you, especially if they didn't want to hurt Magafee,

and if jelly roll didn't want to destroy his knees, if I was going to be made to do it, I would rather drop the elbow on somebody than splash. And they probably would rather me do that also. This is WrestleMania. That's the time for the splash. I don't know. I know he's lost a lot of weight,

and that's another thing, Jesus Christ, I don't know whether he could have gotten all the way from the one death to the other, if he was going to do a splash and hit him right or with it, because he could lean some on the elbow. So they may have scratched that in rehearsal. Who the fuck knows? The point is you've got a goddamn,

country music singing, pretend rapper that's been deflated, putting a goddamn ESPN announcer and former football player through a fucking desk while the world title match in main event at WrestleMania's, waiting to start and waiting and waiting and waiting. So as I said, 25 minutes from entrances to the carryout service for Pat McAfee. And then Cody and Randy got to start wrestling.

And it was the best work of the night. If you're looking at just technically from two experienced professionals and know how to fucking grab a headlock on up. and Orton sells incredibly. He can make you believe that he's hurt from a variety of angles. But the point of the crowd, there was no, they might have wanted to see the belt change hands, but they still don't hate Cody.

They liked both of them. There was no real heel or baby face because they don't even, they don't even recognize Randy's heel, turn of a few weeks ago where he bloodied Cody up and everything. That's just they're thinking of just the history. And these are two big stars and we want to see it. But there wasn't a long-term grudge.

This was sprung on them and then McAfee was stuck in. So there were people that wanted to see the belt change hands. But at the first of it, a lot of it, they were neutral. But then as the more, the more Randy sold his back at a potential back injury, and the more that Cody, Edo basically took over and started getting in control, then the fans started booing Cody. Hey, if I could jump in and ask you real quick, I don't know if you noticed on commentary. What did you think about them saying early on that Randy Orden had a back injury,

people are talking about online. However they phrased it, I didn't know anything about it. They put the idea he had a back injury in my mind right before the match. It's kind of weird. Well, but that's the thing also is that he's had back surgery

and he sells his back incredibly and he sold his back here in this match. So I'm thinking, hopefully it's all part of the plan smithers or elsewise they wouldn't have you know, had him work the fucking match if he was legitimately injured.

I don't think he'd have been able to do it in this fashion. But nevertheless, it put Cody in the heel position and the, from the announcing, they reinforced it because at one point, Cole said, Randy Orton, begging for mercy. Well, that might have been just, oh, he didn't realize what he said, but then later on, they reinforced it and restated it in a little different way but meant the same thing and Orden is bleeding now at this point so Cody got slow-paced heat

and Orton started selling like death and finally when Cody hit Orton's draping DDT he got booed big time and and then they started Cody with milk doing the RKO but Orton slipped it. and hit a crossroads. It got a big pop, two count. And then Cody hit the RKO, got a big pop and a two count.

But now they're chanting Randy, Randy. And they do the desk deal on the floor where Cody drops Orton on the desk like he does to guys. And then Randy did the RKO out of nowhere and got a big pop and a two count. And then the yay boo, Randy was the yay. and Cody won it with an eye poke. And then as soon as Cody poked him in the eye, Orton's blind, and he RKO's the referee. So now at this point, Cody was bleeding,

which I think was one of, the only thing it could have been was one of Orton's punches because nothing else happened, but it caught him just right. But he checks the referee. Why did he archedo the referee? Because when he got blinded, he didn't, like, turn around and lose his place. The referee was where he was, and Cody was where he was.

And it was like Randy knew it was the referee, it seemed like. No, I think the, and I'd have to go back and look at the replay, but I think the idea they were going for was when he got poked in the eye, he backed up and felt someone was there. But was he, did he ever get to him to touch him, or did he just jump up an RKO, a guy who he had to know was there? Yeah. well nevertheless we ain't done yet with what the fuck he's RKO the referee they're both bleeding

Cody goes to check the referee Orden gets up and goes to kick Cody into balls but Cody blocks it and kicks Randy into balls and gets booed and then Cody went to jump up on the top rope and went for the super Cody cutter, but Orton hit the RKO on him and covered him and a referee still down. Here comes McAfee in a neck brace and a referee shirt. So at least jelly roll wasn't on his tail. But McAfee slides in and the people think they're going to get screwed. One, two, kick out.

And then after the kickout, Orton stands up and McAfee says, get him, get him. And Orden just jumps up in RKO's McAfee. And of course, that gets a huge pop. But then as soon as Orton's up, Cody immediately grabs him from behind and grabs him into crossroads and hits him with that, boom, and covers him from the original referees up one, two, three. So why did any of these people do

several of the things they did? I don't know. Unless WWE somehow cared about their self-awareness or whatever it is and decided we're going to kill this thing and not go forward with the planned Randy and Pat McAfee versus Cody

and jelly match. I don't know what this was. It was a really awkward ending. Cody was being as heelish as ever, while still being a sympathetic baby face. We'll talk about his eye, I'm sure. But the McAfee thing

with Randy Orton makes no sense. Well, that's the thing is that if they decided, because remember McAfee, we thought gave away the finish saying, well, if he doesn't win this, I'll never have anything to do with the WWE ever

again. And we were like, oh, if only. Thank God. but now are they is he done or are they going to lie there's one of those two things either he's completely done ever or they he lied and then they'll sell he'll lie whatever but if they were cutting it off as far as his involvement with orton why do it in this fashion instead of having him actively fuck up something or try to do something that Randy told him not to to do or whatever instead of the goofy referee thing. And then it's not McAfee's fault that Cody kicked out.

McAfee was trying to help him. He was one second away from helping Orton win the fucking title, if that would count in this crazy universe, who give, whatever. And then Orton just stands up and just lays him out. I don't fucking know what's going on. but we ain't going to get the tag team match but play a hopefully apparently but orton grabbed the belt and hit cody over the head with it and got a big pop except now when the music played when cody was the winner when it got to woe the fans

woed for cody's music and then orton grabbed the belt and it hit him in the fucking head with it that was a big pop and then he stood over it for Cody and backed up and gave him the punt to the head, which got a big pop, and a small one more time chant. And then that was it. Jim, did you see a picture of what happened to Cody? Did you see anything with his eye after the fact? Well, I have just been sent over across the news desk once again.

Holy shit, this thing is purple and closed up and looks like some type of boot print on on his eyebrow that's swollen up. I gotta be honest with you. He might have got a little color himself on the blood part. And then I think Randy kicked his fucking eye into the middle of the back of his head on that finish there.

But the eye is definitely legitimate. So he had to cancel. I'm not laughing about it. He had to cancel. his $10,000 bus meet and greet thing, where everybody got to go on his bus because his fucking faces caved in. Well, Jim, that was night one of WrestleMania.

We'll get to night two momentarily, but of course, after that, and Cody doesn't have all these people coming on his bus for a lot of money. What's Cody going to do? Except maybe lay back and enjoy the high country. You know what I'm talking about, folks. He needs something to put his mind and body at ease to let him forget about that boot coming right for his head.

Jim, when Cody's dad needed help, he called his friend Willie Nelson, and now Willie's still alive, but Cody can leave him alone and get Willie's special, special item. Let's talk about it, Jim. Let's just throw it to me over here. I'll take it from here. like Brian just tried to say, if Dusty needed to call Willie Nelson to feel better, play me some music, Willie, sing me some country songs, Willie. Well, now Willie can be around for Cody,

where Cody, you know, he's got an interest in, I believe, and he's always sipping on the spirits, but alcohol can give you that hangover, and it can impede your decision-making processes and, etc. it can be bad for you. And it's got sugar in it, which is not good for people. And it can it can just do all kinds of bad things mentally and physically to you. But if you want to be social, if you want to get that uplifting buzz,

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That is not one of the things in the copy, and that's not one of the things you should be telling people. And I'm starting to think maybe I should get my bottle of willies out of the fridge and keep it here next to me for the rest of this recording. Whoa, chilly Willie. I'll tell you folks, Willie sold it out three times. You don't keep it in the fridge? Well, no, you pour it over ice like a sociable cocktail.

Oh, come on, man. You got to keep it in the fridge. You got to chill. Oh, you're drinking. You're straight right out of the bottle. I'd turn it up and float away. Chili, Willie. Willie sold out three times in the first six months they introduced this product,

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and blue skies will be smiling on you. Boy, let's not do that. Nothing but blue skies will you do. Whatever the fucky side of the... It turns out you can't do that either, but ladies and gentlemen, like Jim said,

though great Willie's remedy, very popular here in this household, I don't mind telling you. I'm telling, we established it Willie is 93 years old. If he's drinking this, this fine sauce, then I'm sure that he's got something going for him. He's, he's found the fountain of youth.

It's just relaxing, slowing down, floating on a cloud, sitting on a rainbow, talking to a frog on a toadstool, minding your own business, till that goddamn fucking Osolot came along. Oh, I'm sorry, yes, Willys, drinkwillies.com. The code is J-C-E, Brian. That's right. Join Castle Cornett and Last Manor and Willie Nelson, and get yourself a bottle of his social tonic, Willie's Remedy. Drinkwillies.com, code J-C-E. But Jim, there's still more, there's still much more, more excitement for Knight 2, I would say. That's pretty much a universal thought right now.

Well, again, nicest guy in prison principle. Faint praise, as they say, yes. I think a... Catholic funeral would be more exciting than night one. Well, let's get to Night 2, WrestleMania, Vegas. Well, John Cena was the host, so he had to come out first again. This time we were live on ESPN. So instead of the sub-channel of a channel you've got to pay something to get, you just got the regular channel that you got to pay something to get to remind you that in an hour you could turn over to another thing

that you've got to pay extra to get to watch the rest of the show. And again, John Cena, you said it earlier, won't spend time on his same thing. He's so full of personality. He's got the voice. He's just peppy. He picks up. He's quick.

First time ever live on ESPN got light booze. Oh, no. The fans hate ESPN. This ESPN-W relationship is going to make both sides a lot of money and cause both sides fans to hate the product. Yes. It whichever product that they are particularly predisposed to hate, whichever side.

And then welcome. So there's, John's got another payoff. And then the paro and the lighting and a boom, boom, went off and then oba music. And I think, remember we said probably before they announced it,

that they'd start off with this on ESPN because it makes sense. Brock's a big name in all sports, et cetera. And the people are with Oba. This was one of the matches that they wanted to see. And I'm pretty sure that the chance are in his music to give the people the rhythm, but they're happy to do it.

And they're bouncing in the crowd, right, with Oba also. And it took him a while to get to the ring with the goddamn bounce. It's a hundred yard entrance way. And then Brock's music played. And he got a big pop because he's a star. And he came out and Paulie did the big intro, you know,

so to set the stage, you get the heat on the beast. And Brian, they did exactly what they needed to do, but they didn't do anymore. and as I said a month ago or whenever they booked it I say it will be short and explosive and you know the big irresistible force versus immobile

object the two big freight trains colliding whatever analogy simile you want to make well they kind of did it but this was literally five minutes And it wasn't that explosive. It was the stalemate lockups, traded bumps a couple of times where Brock took a bump as big pop. And then Oba wouldn't bump and gave Brock another bump and got a roar.

But then Brock stalled a little bit and then stopped Oba and posted him a couple of times. Three German suplexes. Oba came back two uppercuts. Brock with a scoop up an F5 and the place blew. And then Oba got right up and grabbed him and hit a choke slam and the place blew again. And Oba popped him up into a sit-out power bomb one, two, three. For what in a vacuum and for what they needed to do and what it was, it was, it was pretty much perfect. But with a standard that they had set before,

with a Heyman organized big man spam move a move spamming match as the kids say did you was that kind of a simplistic version of this to you yeah when it happened I was just like oh there it is

I expected a quick match but it was so quick and pretty one-sided the whole feud was one-side it's crazy the entire time Brock Lesner never came out of it looking great on purpose. I'm not saying like his performance. Well, yeah, and I didn't,

I didn't mind that leading into this because that's what they needed to do. But this, I think there could have been, not saying they needed to power bomb anybody through the fucking furniture or whatever, but should it have been at least just a couple more moves

to put the dragon away, it seems by the precedent they've said that this was, a little elementary. Yeah, that's exactly how I thought. I thought it needed a little more. And I was surprised when they went to the finish the way they did.

I will say, Brock Lesnar, in my estimation, is one of the greatest sellers I've ever seen. Yeah. Ever. You believe him. He knows how to make it look believable and he commits to it. And Oba got to win, which everyone kind of expected.

I'll be very honest with you before we even get to the main event. would put him over Roman rains tonight on Raw and just really ride the wave. But Oba gets the big win over Brock Lesnar, but that wasn't the end of this. Well, you have Brock laid there until Oba was up the aisle and out of the arena.

And then he turns over. He's sitting there and he took off his gloves. Obviously, it takes a while to do this. So as people started picking up on what he was doing, they started kind of paying more attention and going, but he took off his gloves and then he took off his boots when he went for the laces

that's when you heard the big oh because now it's a picture yeah yeah the gloves was got oh well what's he doing with the boots yeah then they they got it and he set them he set him side by side and put the gloves on top and padded the mat and waved at the crowd

and they had by this time had started chat thank you Brock, thank you, Brock. And then he hugged Paul E for a long time, and who knows what? Paul was whispering to him. But Brock looked like he was emotional. And or I don't want to attribute crying to Brock Lesnar, but. Heyman was.

Heyman was crying. You know, Paul was and in the moment or whatever. And the crowd gave him an ovation. I'm sure there will probably be more information on this and maybe more. speculation, but I'm wondering, did they know he was going to do this? Or did he just say, well, you know what? When he showed up that day, it was like, yeah, I've decided. Because there was no tease of any kind that anything like that would happen beforehand

and then boom. So we'll see when people give the straight story. But this may have with Brock, this may have been a decision that he made that he didn't share with a lot of people until he decided he wanted to do it. And I mean, they didn't, they didn't say he was retired, but they couldn't ignore what was going on. They were describing it,

but they used the verbiage that, well, we will find out what this means, or they never would go ahead and say, well, you know, he's retired. They say, well, traditionally, you know, something like that would indicate, So they didn't close the door on him, and I don't know whether that means that they didn't actually know what they were going to see that until they saw it or not. Again, maybe a minor, minor thing and maybe nothing at all. But at one point after the match, when he started doing the, you know, setting up the retirement, which is what it looked like, he did put his arms in like the X symbol. Guys wouldn't do that if they hurt themselves, would they?

no okay well especially after the match it wouldn't the fuck unless he needed someone to pick him up and carry him out what good would that do he was probably just stretching anyway and then the the so that was a five-minute match with a lot of oombs behind it but then the other match on ESPN they wanted to do the stunt show so they put in the intercontinental title ladder match with jd mcgge Donna and Dragon Lee and Rusev and Ray Mysterio and Penta and Javon Evans. And I love Javon Evans, but no way, no how was I going to sit through taking notes

trying to describe or to critique a six-way ladder cluster fuck. It was on and I kind of halfway watched it, but I'm surprised any of these guys don't kill themselves. I don't know why they let this shit go on. Somebody's going to get seriously hurt. It's way past stale and stupid. And pent a one, so I don't care. Because if Javon had won, at least something good would have come of it.

But since he didn't, I don't care. What am I missing? You're not missing anything. We've seen way too many of these matches for them to matter. Unless something special happens, it's just at this point, like a battle royal. Well, then, we had to get off ESPN and go to the ESPN app on the Disney thing, etc. But what we saw to start that part of the program out with

was the U.S. title match between Sammy Zane and Tric Williams. And obviously, and this just continues to reinforce it, they saw that people were liking Tric, and so they've decided to turn both these guys with each other, you know, at the same time. And Trick had a little Yadi back for the, I like Yadi. He's the best celebrity they've introduced on this show in a long time because he actually doesn't do too much to get in the way. He fits with, with Tric and he accents him rather than, as you said, gets in the way.

And did he, Trick had a hundred foot long trail on his robe. Did you see that? Oh, yeah, I saw that. It was ridiculous. Oh, God. Again, I remember when the boys would have said, just pay me the extra $500

that it would take to buy the material to fuck. But nevertheless, so they got a fat start, a fast start. A fast start. And the fans were booing Sammy and cheering trick, pretty much, from the start of the thing. And they played into it.

Sammy was rough and trick up and kind of heelish. And then jumped on Yadi and ran him into the railing and posted trick like about three times. And it hit a brainbuster on him on the apron. And that's something about Sammy Zane that I used to say, said the same thing about El Generico back at a previous life. For that buggy whip armed skinny body, he is a strong son of a bitch.

I don't know how. I used to see him get guys up for that brain buster on the top turnbuckle. And if I'd have had my way, I would have outlawed that because it's just ridiculous, no way to protect yourself. But he could pick guys up and turn them and put him down within reason. So anyway, and trick is a lot bigger than he is. Nevertheless, Sammy's getting his ass boot off. Trick is selling.

And Sammy milked the kick. He's going to give him the kick, but Yadi jumped up and snapped Sammy's neck over the rope and he flew into Trick's kick. And that was a two count, but then they went back and forth and Sammy's going for the kick again. And Trick jumped up and hit Sammy with his knee lift, the trick shot, one, two, three. new champion, whoever could have

possibly thought of it. The right move? Do something with Sammy right now as a heel. Things are happening for trick. Help that momentum, get behind it a little bit. Him and Yadda, you're great together. One of the better matches of WrestleMania, also not really much of a special match.

Well, could I say it again? Raw match. No, Smackdown match. Smackdown match. Okay, big, big moment on a big TV match. The U.S. title changes hands. But in 10 minutes or whatever. All righty.

Why don't Brian, you explain the next one to me? The demon. The demon versus Dominic Mysterio in a street. fight match with no disqualification that was a stipulation it was added late the hat was placed firmly on top of the hat you've already had the demon and now we're going to make it a street fight and i mean wonderful body painting how in the world do they do that and it doesn't come off but what the fuck is this help me explain this I can't really, not for me. I think Finn Bauer is just fine as a wrestler, although smaller, but he's in great shape. Going back years, he would do this thing where he would become the demon, and he would crawl to the ring. I mean, it's very theatrical.

Everything about him is like, if wrestling didn't work out, you could see him in a production of cats. He's in a play. He's committed to the gimmick, and he's in a play, and he's performing this character that he's come. up with for himself in his mind. Yeah. Again, not for me. I know there are fans that are like, oh my God, the demon.

He's going to put paint on and crawl. It's not a big deal. Is that like all of a sudden he becomes six foot two? It's not like the Hulk. You know what I mean? It's just, it's him. And, yeah, another match that would have been a big, raw main event.

For whatever reason, it didn't connect with me here. Maybe it was the demon, but I don't know. Well, that's a thing. again, they've already got Finn versus Dominic, that they've been longtime friends or stablemates, and they've been in the group together. Finn was the leader, but Dominic is the young upstart, blah, blah, blah. Here's the thing.

Finn Baller is a great technician. He's a great athlete. He has not particularly much personality, but his in-ring is perfect for the kind of 2010-ish ring of honor style with all of those guys that were just in great shape, on the smaller side, but combining the MMA stuff and hitting hard and all that stuff, I don't get him in the WWE because he can't talk with the rest. He's not size.

He can work with anybody, but he's not the size of the rest. he's not the personality of the rest. And when you've got 5,000 red streamers descending on you and you're crawling and you're making the faces and the growly demon, it's a guy with not a lot of personality playing someone that has nothing to do with his real personality. It's not like we've turned Richard Fleer up into Rick Flair

or whatever it's no we've taken a guy that's just playing like you said he's he's in cats yeah he's doing the music he's like moving with the music yes he's coming out there and if the fucking demon suddenly turns his 180 pound ass into road warrior animal and it makes him a better wrestler than why the fuck isn't he the demon all the time yeah good point good point well shit i could beat that that guy if I'd bother put the paint on, but fuck, that's a pain in the ass. I'll just let him kick the shit out of me. So anyway, Finn pulled out a table.

Dominic hit him with a kendo stick over and over, threw four chairs in the ring. I was rapidly losing interest. They did chairs and table in the corner and Finn went through it. And then he put a chair on Finn's head and gave him a super 619 and a super 619 and a splash and got a two count. And then Dom hit him five times with a chair, pulled out another table, took forever to get it set up.

Finn popped up and gave Dominic six chair shots and drop kick the fucking Dominic with his chair on his head and double stomped him through a table. One, two, three. Yay. Well, there's more, WrestleMania. Yes, there is. The women's title, the other one of the ones that they have,

was on the line now, Brian. And this has been a long-awaited Jade Cargill and Ria Ripley. And I got to admit, for all of Jade's shortcomings, she did a good job here. Again, it wasn't long. They kept it simple. There was a couple places that I think Ria helped her out a bit, but it didn't stink.

Maybe that's the best thing I can say about any genders match on most of this show. I think Jade was dominant, Ria sold a bit much. She sells so well. but Jade took most of the match and then finally Mia Yim drew the referee and Kay Fabe came in to break up Ria's razor's edge and then Jade hit her own one-winged fairy stealing from Kenny and got a two-count and then it was so odd because Jade threw Rhea out to the floor and told the heels to get her and they were starting to get her, but the referee just caught them straight away, but then they played music and Eo came down.

You can't get away from her. And in the most preposterous fake choreography I've ever seen, she beat the Stooges up. And then Jade and Ria went into a spot, which Jade almost bubbled out of, but it ended up with Ria hitting the rip Riptide 1, 2, 3. In what again,

10 minutes? It's a great TV match. Yeah, it was just fine. Can't really say anything else. I was hoping that we get a Ria. I was hoping we get a Ria heel turn, but she and, Ria and, I can't talk.

Ria and Eo are hugging again. And, uh, well, the people don't want to boo Ria Ripley. They just want to see her win and fight more interesting people. Yeah, I guess. so then it was time for john sina to announce the crowd ladies gentlemen and i'll have you know

that somehow magically 5,000 people more showed up on sunday night than they did on saturday night at least i think that's my math around about they said 55,255,000 the total of both nights 106,072. and again, as I said on the earlier description, we will take that with our usual grain assault until we get any verified numbers, but that's their story as they're telling it. And then I thought, well, at least John's going to have a short night, and here comes Ms. and Kit Wilson. And I didn't particularly pay any attention to what they had to say, and I was in the process about fast forward it and here came

Danhausen's music and we got to see 10 little midgets dressed up as Danhausen and by the way did you hear what the announcer said was it Michael Cole or? I was going to ask if you heard that. It was Michael Cole. He said it before anybody bombards me on social media they told me to call them midgets.

I'm just explaining to you that in goddamn wrestling they're midgets. It's not it's the other people having a problem with the terminology anyway here came danhausen out in the danhausen mobile which is just a gimmick stuck together a little golf cart type of car thing and the midgets are following and they're playing the song and i i say at this point they're just proven that they can take a turd out of tony con's toilet and make money with it at this point. They're rubbing it in his face.

Look at Hobbs. Look at Jade. Look at Danhausen. Look at punk. Look at Cody. Well, and then again, look at Rousseff. Danhausen's doing segments with fucking John Cena. At WrestleMania. Yeah, WrestleMania. Yeah.

So Danhausen, he says to, he says he's a fan housing of John Senas that he's putting Sena over. but Kit shoved one of the midgets and Danhausen told the midgets to get him. And the one midget punched Kit in the balls and then all the midgets swarmed him. But then Danhausen punched the Miz in the balls and did the five-knuckle cursehausen after the you can't see me, which see does it go ahead. You can't you, I guess maybe you can't curse me.

and the five knuckle curse housing and the midgets carried the miss out on their shoulders stretched out like that i did what the fuck and dan howson did the poof of smoke and then ran and hid under the ring which got seen it a laugh which got seen it a laugh got me to laugh but he whatever he said he's like magic whatever he said to smoke and then you still see it there and he starts running I mean, I mean, we got to be fair. That's AEW level bad visual television, just corny, you know, whatever,

but it's on WrestleMania, ladies and gentlemen. Well, if they only had Brian somebody that could tell the straight story at the commentary table, besides the paid shills of the WWE, if only maybe, I don't know if it was open where you could just buy your way into the commentary table. Did you, you know what I'm talking about? I know what you're talking about,

because apparently it's open. No one knew, but I guess we should not be surprised. Now, we are in a time where anything is for sale with WWE. They legitimately let some guy who we find out is a corporate, crypto billionaire just sit at the table during one of the matches and was announced with a graphic at the start of the match. But he was wearing a headset, but there was no microphone attached to the headset. So he couldn't talk anyway.

But they actually introduced him by his name and had a on camera and that he got to sit there during the match. And this smells to me, this was not publicly advertised as something that could be. purchased. How much money did this fucking rich goon offer some goddamn crooked, thieving pickpocket in the TKO hierarchy? Did you, did it 50 grand just let me sit at the desk?

What's the... I don't know. What's the going rate? The rumor is that it was 25 grand, but I don't know where that came from or how that started. I don't think you have to do anything underhanded. You just go to on location or talk to TKO themselves and you could buy anything. And you could buy anything. If you want to sit ringside, if you want to have your name on the ring, if you want to have an entrance at WrestleMania, if you want to fuck a diva,

just call them up and offer them money at this point. They're looking to get every cent they can from anyone. They introduce this guy. They go, and joining us on commentary now, a real commentator, Lelakko, Adam Weitzman. And I'm like, I have no idea who this is. And I'm thinking, maybe it's like an ESPN guy, I don't know, that, like, who is it?

He doesn't say a word. He looks almost embarrassed. And he's got no microphone. And then he never says a word. And then later on in the night, you see him sitting ringside. I understand going after every dollar you can, but this also looks cheap. You know what I mean? Because you looked him up on Twitter or whatever.

And he's like just, he's a random businessman billionaire fellow. He's a crypto billionaire, apparently. He has a crypto farm. He owns several companies. I wonder if he works the fields himself. He owns upstate shredding. Oh, Christ. He also owns a recycling company, Empire Recycling.

And he has his crypto interests and obviously time for WrestleMania. It opens a dangerous door. You joke about it, but how much for a fan to run the ropes in the middle of a match? How much to be in a battle royal? Like, that's, that's not healthy for the wrestling business. And again, we're talking about the commentating table sitting there not saying anything. But still, think about what that is. If you have money, you could sit here in the sucker chair.

Like, what the fuck? What are they doing? And just the, the idea of it, especially from, from the people that I learned from and from my era. The idea. Remember I told you one of those nights we were doing syndicated WWF television in like 1997 or whatever and Russo was doing the color for WWF New York because that's the only city in the country they could understand his accent and I was doing an international shotgun or whatever and we're walking back from ringside he said that was cool I said what So that's the first time I've been inside the railing while the matches were going on.

He's helping right to fucking show. Now anybody with enough money or tits big enough or with enough goddamn followers on Twitter can be in the goddamn match. Well, there's still more. Are you ready for our main event? And I got to be honest with you, Do you think, if they hadn't had this match, the people that went to the shows both nights

would have probably entered into a class action suit. This is the only thing that you can say really saved the whole thing. But Roman Raines and CM Punk for the World Heavyweight title, and they wanted to see this, and the reception from the crowd was completely different than most of the other matches. They were ready for this from the start.

But of course, the entrances again, Romans started with a gown of piano and a gown of drums, and the fat lady was singing, but it wasn't over. It was just beginning. And pictures of all the great Samoans flashed on the screens, and Romans' entrance took eight minutes. And then they go to aerial shots of Las Vegas and the drones, and Brian was that CGI or AI or whatever it was

or did they really put punks sitting up there for a fucking video shot on the roof of that stadium. Could you tell? I thought it was real. I didn't think it was a... It seemed halfway legitimate looking but I'm like, motherfucker.

How do you get up there? They did a really cool punk video showing like a lot of the road to get here and they used the AFI song that used to be his theme song in Ring of Honor and pretty cool. I actually just recently. introduced one of my daughters to that album. It's a great album. But that was a nice touch,

and it was a really good job they did on that video. Well, that's the thing is they, you know, they had the, again, shots of him throughout his career and they were mixing it in with his walk backstage to the ring. And then it was totally different the way they did it, where when he walked out onto the stage in front of the sea of people, it was all quiet. There was no music or anything playing. So you could hear the people rumbling. And then when he did, it's clobbering time, like a moose lady, and let's all singy.

And then there's the music, and boom, and now he comes, and they're singing the song. And Punk's jacket, he had a patch of Larry on his chest in memory of Larry, and he had Kerwin Silfis and one of the camera guys, another one of the WVW.E. tour guy's names on his sleeve and a friend of his on the other side of his chest and Harley race his crown on his on the back of his jacket.

And he did us a favor because his entrance only lasted six minutes. But then we had the in ring introduction. So we were, I mean, past 15 minutes just from the start to get to the, to the bell. But again, I'm not going to complain about this one because at least it was good. I will have one thought that I will say, fuck it, I let them, let them get by with this because at least we got to see some kind of something. And I mean, I could, we could be here 20 minutes where I could do a play by play of the way that they changed the momentum or that the, the worm turned where one guy's in control and then the other guy. and it worked. They made it make sense.

One thing led to another. They had to take all kinds of liberties with the countout rule, again, which is not like it's not prevalent everywhere. But at least again, this was shit that you weren't just sitting there going, why don't they get back in the ring? It was people were into what was going on. And it seemed like it was a goddamn personal issue, between the two of them and that there was some reason for all of this.

But they were back and forth out on the floor and back out, you know, numerous times. The momentum would change numerous times. A couple of GTSs got hit and Superman punches got punched, but nobody could capitalize fully. And then punk started. bleeding and it added an extra the longer they wet you could see especially in

punk's body language the more toll it was taken on him and he was selling with the rubber legs and I think Roman kind of did all of the stuff that Roman usually does here the spears and the oahs and the Superman punches and the the pace but punk really worked his ass off on this. And finally,

punk had hit another GTS. It got a two count and then Roman hit a spear, got a two count. And the crowd was going bat shit. And then with punk trying to fight and bleeding and Roman kind of getting the heat, the people started chanting, see them punk, see him punk. And then they started doing it to the punk got a second

wind and got the Superman punch and got the two count and got an Ulifala from one of the fans and put it on and went for a spear but Roman caught him in a front face lock. The punk turned it into an anaconda vice and they were with everything.

The fans, I mean. And finally it was to the fight on the knees and they were just flailing away. And the thing about this that was different I think that Orton and Cody is that besides the fact that they didn't have mokrophy and jelly roll in the middle of it,

whereas I said they didn't really not, they didn't hate Cody. They didn't, they just wanted to see the title change and they were kind of with Orton. With this, there were people, Brian, don't you think that fans that wanted to see Roman win real bad and fans that wanted to see punk win real bad,

And that's more of why the atmosphere was up, as well as the promos they'd done and everything. No, absolutely. Again, there was a good dynamic here. Both guys had their fans. And I think it was a case also where some of the other guys' fans made cheer the other guy if the right thing happened or if there was the right moment. Yeah. And I agree with what you said earlier. This was the match of WrestleMania, by far.

And if this match wasn't on WrestleMania, we'd be talking about an epic two-night disaster. This match saved WrestleMania. An epic two-night presentation, drizzling and shits. But anyway, so punk finally, he's his last

ounce of energy. He kicked Roman out to the floor, he put him on the desk, he went to the top rope, he did the elbow drop off the top rope through the desk onto Roman. And I've got to be thinking that at some point he's thinking he's too

for this shit. And then he put Roman back in the ring and went for the GTS and hit it. And Roman bounced into the ropes and then punk collapsed and Roman fell on punk's shoulders. We've seen that finish done before where he'd stand up and give the guy another one. This time he stood up, but he couldn't do it. He collapsed. And then Roman got up and was able to run and duck the thing and hit the spear. And both of them, you could tell, are almost dead.

They've sold just down to the nub where they're just done. And Roman gets up and hits one more spear, one, two, three. Roman is the new world heavyweight champion. It was the only big show match on either big show. And it was, again, I have no complaints besides they took obvious liberties with the rules because they had to go out there and save both days. But I think I would have rather seen Orton beat Cody and Punk retain. Are we ready to see Roman Raines' World Heavyweight Champion again?

Well, you don't have to worry about that. I don't know how much you're going to be seeing him. No, I'm hearing the rumor now is he's supposed to be around all summer. I hate to say, do what the AEW did in Russia title change? Put it on Obafemi tonight. That's what I would do. That would get more positive buzz for WWE right now than anything else they could do.

Just have Roman immediately drop it to one of the emerging top stars that fans have taken to. Otherwise, we're going to have a Roman Raines title run. We'll see if he's going to be there all the time. I don't know if he'll be as effective. And if he's not there, we'll see

what they do with him. He doesn't have a bloodline. He doesn't have a Heyman. It's just him. I really want to see what Punk's going to do next. Punk has really lately, his work's been good since he returned to wrestling, but we've seen a little extra fire lately. And I've really liked it. So let's see where they go from there.

Maybe he can work with a jelly roll or, uh. That's what I was thinking. They've got punk, and I said this the other day, and then I'll get off my soapbox. But they, they created a title. And remember we said, Seth, said, oh, I'm going to establish this title as the working man. Well, the first guy to have one never really establishes it, no matter how good he is. You can kick it off to start.

But now it's been around for a while. And punk really, especially in this build, the world heavyweight title was more important to WrestleMania than the WWE title. He's made it valid. I think if anything, he should have been the one to put it on a younger guy, whether I don't know if it's Obafemi this quick or whatever, it's the right dynamic anyway to have that match. But if it was the same match and it was Bronn Breaker getting the win,

it's different than one. It could have been a Bronbreaker. Yeah. Yeah. And I will see what, who is, even if Roman does a job for somebody, and I'm not saying he wouldn't try to get. I think punk would be more motivated and more knowledgeable about how to have a match

to get a young guy over than Roman Raines would be right at this very moment. But we'll see. We shall see. That was WrestleMania 42. And of course, Jim, CM Punk versus Roman Raines, while you may think that another finish

may have been appropriate, I believe you called this in advance. You said that you expected two title changes, though we all expected Randy Orton probably, but who knows what the hell's happening over there. You made your picks. Yes. And it's just too bad you didn't really take advantage of it and win some prizes, but we know some listeners have their own picks for their favorite games, and they can win some prizes

with our friends at prize picks. Well, you know, a lot of people are out there picking things, but they don't know the right place to pick their picks and put their picks in once they've picked them. and if you want to be picking and grinning, ladies and gentlemen, then you're going to go to prize picks because by the name of the thing, if you pick right, you get prizes. And prize picks is now an official daily fantasy partner of the NBA. And therefore, that means that well, these big playoffs are coming up.

And there's no better way to cash in on the high flying hoops action than with prize picks because every bucket, every dime, every see that basketball tournament, there. Every win means more when you're playing on prize picks. You can get $50 instantly in lineups when you play your first $5 by using the code verbiage that I'm about to explain to you. And the NBA final sweepstakes is rapidly approaching the do it live, 2026 NBA final sweepstakes. We're fuck it. We're going to do it live. You just pick live squares during the NBA playoffs and you could win a trip for two to the NBA finals. And to enter, you just make a $5

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and use the code JCE to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineups. That's 10 to 1. You just put in a little. They're going to give you a lot. As a matter of fact, that should be the way we live our lives. Just do as little as possible. and get as much as possible back. Prize picks is going to help you learn to be a

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Have fun. You're ready for more fun? The mood to have fun, that sounded like an off-key version of the funeral march of the marionette. Listen, it's a sound that's picking up steam. Every week we see more and more fans, more and more listeners say that...

It's like a boulder rolling down a sharp, steep hill. It's picking up steam. You know... It's headed straight for it. It's coming in hot. What I meant to say is, I think of it the way Dolph Ram Soar describes the Avid brothers, one fan at a time, one set of ears at a time. And in a sea of a million people, if there's three hardcore Ryan Last fans,

then I think that helps the sound grow in the next generation. It's the children of those people. It's the children of the corn. No, but the children of the listeners of the wonderful music. That actually, that should be, what are we doing here? Why haven't I thought of that before? That should be my young fans group. Instead, the cult of cornettists for the over-18s,

for all the toddler fans I've got out there, the children of the corn. You know, our content is not necessarily for children, and calling them the children of the corn may not be the best idea. Well, there's found to be a shirt. You can have these kids walk around in shirts and say, I am a child of the corn. Yes, yes.

And, A, there's bound to be somebody out there. If there's three of them in a sea of one million. See? Well, you were around the lot on the road, so I could see. But Jim, we have a lot more to get to. We have WWRWA, as we said before, but a few things that have come out. Come out.

After WrestleMania and before World. Been revealed. That's some audio to play you here. Jake Hager. We talked about his excursion into the power slap world. If we're going to call it that. No, pronounce it properly, we get chastised when we don't say power shlapp. Power shlap?

He defeated his opponent, knocked him out. Well, I mean, the guy went down. It was one of the really great kind of knockouts, my favorite, where a guy goes down and he gets up before 10, but then his legs just turned to spaghetti and they're like, oh, no, there he goes again. Here's what Jake Hager had to say after winning, right after winning that big match. That post-fine interview was brought to you by 10x field of power of precision with 10x I'll play that again I'll play Jake Hager right after he wins and the first thing he wants to say is fuck you Tony Kahn that's what I heard

that post-line interview was brought to you by 10X field of power of precision with 10x I told you he was going to see Tony Kahn in his victim for this thing and that's exactly it must be exactly what fucking happened this again this fucking guy the first thing on his mind is tony con when he's he's he's lowered himself to the point where he is participating in what amounts to the combat sports version of the guy biting the head off the live chicken at the side show and he's doing it all to get even with Tony Kahn who's a fucking multi-billionaire, living his childhood dream of booking the world.

And this is, this is Mr. Hager's motivation. He was never smart, but I think he might be the perfect competitor for power slap, because there are no brain cells to be damaged. Do you think that helps you if you have no brain and someone slaps you, the hardest guy hits you as hard as they can? if there's no brain there, that may help you stay upright? Well, now, are you saying stay up correct or just stay upright as in?

Stay up correct or right. Either or. Either one. Either one. Either one. Stay, but I like stay upright. Well, we will stay on top of this story. I don't know if he's already set for a title match after one, but he's the biggest star they have after one fight. It's not like that numerous nationally known names are flocking to the Power Shlapp roster.

So I would assume if he is a name, therefore he would be the one they have. Well, we will see what happens next. Jim, we have some more audio to play. This has come out. Let me give credit where it's from. Hold on here. This is from a Twitter account at Bobby underscore S. underscore axlerod, says his name is Blake.

Why does that have to be so goddamn difficult? But the name here is Blake Avignon. Well, now, wait, now what? How many names does this guy have, and how many of them are in English? What the fuck is going on here? Well, whoever this is, according to his Twitter profile, he appears to be a former CAA agent, and he works in sports business, so someone with some sort of interest, somewhere. He posted audio about five and a half minutes long. It is TKO President Mark Shapiro

speaking to a group of University of Alabama students, apparently around 15 of them, talking about TKO's role in WWE Creative, which we've been talking about, also talking about the increase in the amount of celebrities and their involvement. So why don't we play some of this? And this is legitimately, it's been verified that this is Mark Shapiro, who apparently just goes to random colleges and universities around a country and speaks to 15 people. It must be a big program. And the question as it's asked here, it will remind you, remember that time during one of Tony's press conferences, one of the guys from the observer that took him like three minutes to ask like a simple question because he had to compliment Tony. I just throw up. He had to finish the blowjob first and then wipe the.

lips and then ask the question. This isn't as bad as that, but it takes the guy like a little bit of a road to get to the question, but the answer is really the big story here. We'll break it up. We'll try to not to break up the question so that somebody might be able to follow it. Let's go to this. But it led to a host of opportunities, which kind of hoping on that way. I have a question about TKO.

So I know TKO bought WWV. I think it was like a year or two ago. And since then, like, there was, like, they went to ESPN. They went to, like, Netflix. And I'll be honest, like, I've seen a lot online of, like, WWU fans, like, almost complaining about TKO and how, like, you know, there's, like, a lot of celebrity involvement. There's, like, jelly roll and, like, I Show Speed and, like, Pat McAfee.

And, like, Logan Paul. Yeah, Logan Paul's been there for a while. But, like, they're, like, I'm actually just genuinely curious because, People are saying like, oh, like, TKO is ever since, like, they got, ever since they bought WWB, like, the product has, like, almost become more focused on, you know, moments and, like, we don't know, speak. But, like, there is more focused on, like, getting it, like, making as much money as possible. Like, I guess I'm curious, like, how much involvement does TKO, like, really have on, like, creative control? and decisions like that because like yeah i've just seen that a lot online recently so i'll i'll kind of walk you through that first of all let's stop it there for a moment because you see what i was saying

let's stop it there is this is this young man actually an attendee at a major united states university purportedly the university of alabama do they teach god damn english at alabama these days i don't want to fall into the pit of a of a southern hillbilly joke, but Jesus, H. Christ, if I had the like Dinger on, like I used to have for Tony Kahn's great, how to ding myself into the fucking insanity. Well, clearly he had a lot of things he wanted. He can't formulate a coherent fucking sentence. If you're going to stand up and speak in front of people,

my young minions out there, get some fucking balls or stay sat. But otherwise than that, he finally asked a question. And he had a lot of things he put out there. So let's hear Mark Shapiro's answer to that minute and 22nd question. That's complete control. So we're responsible. Good. Not bad. Fact or fiction. You didn't hear about the stuff in the old days with WW investment man owned it because it was a private company for so many years. So they didn't put out like their financial results, if you will. Nobody knew they knew it was successful and the brand was strong and had a legion of fans, but didn't really know how the business worked

and what it was making, et cetera. Then Vince went public with WWE, and then TKO was formed with UFC and WWE coming together. So those two companies came together and launched TKO, which is a public company traded on New York Stock Exchange under the ticker cycle TKO. And now everything's kind of out there. But what I would tell you is WWE has grown in every way. It's grown in financial results. More importantly, it's grown in audience. It's grown in social.

It's grown in stars. It's grown in clicks, views, short form video. I mean, it's really exploded. And the reason for that is it was really just on Peacock in USA. And now, since TKO, we did a new deal, which put Raw, our big Monday night show, on Netflix,

tripled our audience. And then we put Smackdown, which is our Friday night show, we put that on USA. And we put our developmentally, which is called NXT on CW. And CW is linear, but CW has 100 million homes. Let me stop it there for a moment. Because he's throwing a lot of things out there like they've, he's saying it like TKO has increased the popularity from what it was, which would only be true if you're opening new areas worldwide. I don't think it's true in the States. I don't think Netflix tripled the audience.

They've increased the revenue. And they have, besides ringing the fans, as we know for every last drop, they've sold everything. We've been talking about it on the program. They've sold the seats at the announced desk. They've sold every,

they've increased the revenue tremendously. But as far as the popularity, and then, to be honest, it is a little history, lesson there. He didn't mention that, yeah, but we still had about eight times more viewers 25 years ago that we do right now, but we're fucking ringing the ones we've got left for every drop. Go ahead. I don't know. It really grew NXT. And then what we call the premium live

events, which is our big event. Every month, we have one big event. Those are the weekly shows that I just mentioned. And then we have one big event every month. Royal Rumble, Crown Jewel, name your SummerSlam and those used to air on Peacock and now ESPN bought that deal. So we're now on the ESPN app and this weekend of course is WrestleMania 42

which is taking place in Las Vegas. So as far as the star is part of it I don't think that's true but if it was good. I mean the rock is the biggest star on the planet right? We, I mean he actually is and we represent him at WME

he was a wrestler for WWE for years before he ever became a Jamanji star, right? I mean, that's just, that's who he is. So having Hollywood tie-ins and celebs and stars and Logan Paul and Pat McAfee and Mark Wahlberg shows up and does his thing, or Tyrese Halliburton last year got a fight in the ring with Jalen Brunson and the Knicks, like that's not new. It's just on a larger stage. And we're spending a lot more money to market the brand and market the content.

And when you do that, you're going to win some folks over, but you're also going to chase the folks away. You know, they don't like this or they don't like that. This is too expensive. I don't want to have to, oh, my God, I got to watch the WW. I got to buy Netflix which costs this much. I've got to watch Smackdown on USA. I've got to do that. I got to have CW.

So I have to have cable with a linear television. And now I have to pay for ESPN. And you can make some enemies really quickly. I was just reading something today at the Fed was showing that if you want to watch the Yankees games this year, New York Yankees games. The full season, through the playoffs, you'll have to watch them across 10 platforms at the cost of $1,000 when you add up everything you have to buy to see them. That's just the way of the world today. And you will chase away some fans. So that's not good.

But hopefully you're getting some quality storytelling and also programming around just the Yankees. If you go to Paramount Plus right now to see UFC, you may buy Paramount Plus just to get to UFC. but you also might already have it because you're a fan of landman or something. It's, you know, Tyler, Taylor Sheridan shows. So we really want to surround ourselves with a good neighborhood of content. And ESPN's a perfect example because they have a sports. And one plus one equals five when you get adjacent to that, those kinds of properties. So he's just saying what we've been saying.

They don't give a shit, whether the wrestling fans like it or not, because they'll try to get a fucking Halliburton fan and or new ones will come along because they're shoving themselves down everyone's throat as part of a multi-billion dollar conglomerate that shoves their things down everybody's throat. It's really interesting that they're doing now what Vince used to do.

Vince inherited, he was given the Northeast territory. he had to buy out the other partners and he was given the most favorable terms ever to do so. But he took it over and he immediately, as he was expanding, would talk about how they took wrestling out of the dirty smoke-filled arenas and have made everything fan-friendly now

and family-friendly, ignoring that it was the exact same arenas and it was the exact same fans. But he also increased this. some of the exact same guys. Yeah. But Vince presented it to the non-wrestling, caring public one way, and that's the way people accepted it.

That's how he was talking about Vince's WWE. We can do all these things, but now these celebrities are on a much bigger stage. This isn't new. He said, this isn't new, and he's right. Lawrence Taylor, WrestleMania. I mean, all these things with celebrities. Joe Lewis, for fuck's sake. Yeah, I mean, going way.

The Babe Ruth, going way back. But the idea that the stage right now is significantly bigger than what it was five years ago. Again, you're getting big deals, but that doesn't mean the audience is growing with each big deal you get. Well, that's the thing is the potential audience has grown and just exploded. But the actual people watching the thing is less and less over time, as we mentioned. It's factual. It's mathematical. Zippity do, does. No, it's factual and mathematical.

There were 10 to 11 million people watching during the attitude era versus the WCW fucking whatever the fuck. Every Monday night. And the arenas with a more regular basis were jam-packed. It was a hot streak, yes, but down through the history of wrestling. if you added up the people watching wrestling in the territory TV it was actually kind of bigger overall than the attitude era

but it wasn't just watching one fucking show so nobody knew they are making more money out of the audience than ever before but the audience is for actual mainstream pro wrestling in the United States is

not as is smaller than it's probably ever been and so C-SPAN by the way I'll end with this C-SPAN is available in like a hundred million homes it's on basic cable and has been since the dawn of time that's the congressional channel where they have a fucking camera in the room while they do congressional things and nobody fucking watches it but it's available

you see where I'm saying Yeah, and obviously his attitude is it's okay to chase away fans who don't want to pay our prices, which eventually is going to cost you when you have less fans and you need another television deal or another streaming deal, whatever it may be. They love the celebrities. You also have to imagine Mark Shapiro, other than being the president of TKO, how deep is his wrestling knowledge of anything? Probably very, very shallow. and he's saying, yeah, of course we interfere

and his celebrities are great. The Rock is the biggest star in the world. Is he still? I mean, that seems like an argument from a few years ago. I was about, even I know that isn't Taylor Swift, wouldn't she be bigger than the Rock right now on the celebrity parade? And if you're going to use the Rock as your example of a big star and why it's great to use celebrities, where's the Rock?

Just put them on TV then. Where is he? You don't do that. but they're going to price out fans and this is a non-wrestling person. Well, but more than pricing out if they, and see, that's something that we said or I know I said it. I know I said it.

I remember me saying it when the sale process was talked about. Not even going through yet, but I'd said something along the lines of for good or bad Vince did grow up in and around wrestling and has some fondness for the core of it somewhere deep in his black heart, and what's going to happen if it's, will it become a theme park? That's what I remember we were talking about. Is it going to be a theme park with Undertaker rides,

or is it going to be what it is here? Everybody can play celebrity wrestling. And it's kind of being, you know, celebrity. It's a touring theme park. It's a touring theme park is what it is. But boy, the ride stops and starts more than any of them I've ever seen. I worry. I worry so much right now about the future of wrestling. It's not going to go away. I'm not saying that, but, you know, every generation complains about the changes. They're so drastic and it's so wrestling unfriendly in so many ways right now.

No one doesn't serious. Well, and that's another thing that with the celebrities that he did, it's always been that way, not constantly and multiple ones together at the same time. It, you know, that's a point we got to raise. Well, there it is. That's the president of TKO, Mark Shapiro. And it appears that all the things that wrestling fans have a problem with will not be going away.

And the attitude is tough. If you don't like it, spend your money somewhere else. It's crazy. You know, he said that fans will get upset. some people will be really angry. But social media, it's a little different than it used to be. If you have a cavalier attitude about the idea that large groups of your fans may start actively complaining about everything,

you're going to have a problem, and it's going to get out of hand. But we'll see what happens there. We've predicted everything else right. He hasn't been around to experience the full wrath of the dedicated wrestling fan yet. or how it could be punishing on WWE and at least the mentality of their creative team and the people running it. If only there was an opposition that could somehow take advantage of anything. Well, that's the thing that gets me upset. There's nothing in between Tony and WWE and there has to be something and it has to be well-funded and, God damn it, it ain't going to happen.

But, Jim, yes, perhaps right now there's a secret billionaire listening to this show. and perhaps he's saying they're right I don't like AEW WWE's driving me off I'm gonna start and fund my own wrestling company he's gonna have to start

an online business too to sell tickets and that's correct merchandise hats shirts programs whatever it may be this mystery secret billionaire may want to contact

our good friends who we trust at Shopify to help him with his business How much is Rick Rubin's net worth these days? What do you think? I wonder if he'd be understood in one more swing at it. Can you imagine the purple shop pay button with a Rick Rubin beard on it?

That would be incredible. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls and children of all ages, all we need is one billionaire. Go comb the neighborhoods, comb the forests, comb the lakes and the rivers, find us one billionaire. and hook him up with me and Brian and Shopify, and you will have the wrestling promotion that you've always dreamed of. But until then, if you'd just like to make enough money to afford to be able to go to a WWE program,

then start your own business because you're going to need one. And Shopify is the way you do it because Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all e-commerce in the United States. Began starts you out with building a beautiful online store, and then they can help you load the products and write the descriptions and headline the pages and slam this shit down everybody's throat,

just like the TKO is slamming the WWE down yours, and get the word out with a marketing team. There you, and there's that kid on the bicycle. He's going to be flinging flyers for your business into people's front yards, and the marketing team will get behind just like they do in the WWE, and they'll put it out on the social mediations, and you'll be tweeted and exed, everybody will know about you, and once that those people go to your website,

then they'll see that purple button, that purple shop pay button, that you know if you just punched that thing time after time after time, that's why it's purple ladies gentlemen then it's going to bring you money your cash register will ka-ching and if you have a problem with your cajing then they've always got their award-winning 24-7 customer support

so right now go to shop by Brian can you disagree with anything that I have just said no you're actually doing a great job good then so whatever your product or service is even if it's yourself you're selling for some kind of weird psychosexual relationship there it is illegal illegal we can't tell people to do things that are illegal in i think all 50 states what no but not certain parts of nevada whatever you want to do it may be illegal in that part of nevada i don't know we have experts out there but whatever you want to do folks and be what you want to be what you want to

be and do what you want to do with Shopify.com slash JCE. That's the thing. You go to Shopify.com and you can sign up for a $1 a month trial period with that code JCE and that way they can show you how they can sell you or your product anywhere you want to go. And then if it's you you're selling, they'll put you in a box. Once again, be sure to poke a couple of air holes. and they're going to send you wherever you need to go.

You will not go anywhere. They don't need to go anywhere. And ladies and gentlemen, you won't go anywhere with Shopify, ladies and gentlemen. And of course, Jim's having fun here because we know that the audience like, we know that the audience likes to have fun. And fun in business making money through legal means is what Shopify is all about. We trust them with our online store, arcadian vanguard.com.

You could trust them with your online store. and of course a secret billionaire looking to do legal things with his billions, perhaps in the wrestling business, uh, somehow you will need Shopify too. Yes, or you can buy Shopify and we'll all just fart through silk. Shopify. Dot com slash JCE.

All right, that's synergy. That kid, he's bothering me. Jim, before we, uh, completely ride off on our tricycles here today, WWE Raw, traditionally one of the big ones, the Raw after WrestleMania. Usually there are debuts, surprises, big moments, a clue, a hint at what's to come.

Let's talk about Raw. Well, usually, it was a qualifier there that you used. It started that sentence. A qualifier is when you cast doubt on the, at least the certainty of your statement. and at least they got 13,691 people in the building, Brian.

That's what they said. And it was looking rough for Smackdown and Raw about a week out of WrestleMania. But their last minute surge, I wonder if they had somebody out in a fucking parking lot at the grocery store, handing out tickets if you had a cute baby or showed them your will. or something. You're Willie's remedy for the record. Willie Willie's remedy, yes.

See, you got to have that in your back pocket. And then some of this stuff probably looked better to you. There was a few interesting speeches, I thought. I think that the speech you're fine was at a high level. And then that's basically that I don't know what the fuck. it's the same thing. Everybody's going to talk to each other and there's nothing else going on.

Oba! Oba! Oba starts the show after they do the recap of WrestleMania. Oba comes out in a nice suit and the big Oba chants and, you know, even when he started to speak, Oba, Femi, and I had just written,

can anybody shut the fuck up and let him speak? and he says the ruler has arrived and then he threw the microphone down and the music came back up and he fucking left I understand that less is more and they're going for the

minimalist approach but is this a rib at this point are we just we're watching people walk to the ring to music speak now that's kind of optional and

leave. Am I being again too critical here, Brian? Not at all. I was surprised when they started off with Oba, but I was like, all right, cool, let's see where they're going to go. Earlier this show, I was saying I would just do a complete, not restart, but try something big and have him go over for the title tonight. They didn't do anything. He came out of a suit, not even a suit, just a shirt with a tie. And the fans reacted, and he said nothing. and he left. It was nothing.

Usually the worst case scenario is someone else's music plays and then they immediately come out. We didn't even get that. We didn't get that. And the fans were up for this. The rest of the night, they were like fucking pod people.

They were up for this. And then he was out. He was gone. It was it. That was the end of Oba. What was that? It was nothing. Well, and that's,

again, I was not going to go as far as you did with, okay, let's put the title on him tonight. But when they played the music, as, okay, I understand this. He's the new next big thing. And he's going to come out and he's going to fucking talk about what he did and get over. And that's what I would have done if I was booking this thing. Okay, Oba, if I had confidence in his speaking, the time would increase or decrease. But let's say we're in the middle of it's going.

you got five minutes, just go out and get yourself over. Talk about this, that, the other thing, and you beat Brock Lester, and now you want to do the thing after that. Just go out and get yourself over and we'll play the music and you stand there. That's what we want to see. But not fucking four words.

After four minutes of fucking entrance. So anyway, that started the night. Brian, do you know what was next? You remember what was next, don't you? I actually don't remember off the top of my head. Was it a women's match? Yeah, but it wasn't just any women. It was Carrie and Oscar against Ria and Eho.

Still, still, still, still. And then later on, they had a, what amounted to a tearful goodbye. when they were hugging each other in the back while Ria says I'm going to go be the best champion and I can be on SmackDown and you, I don't know, go back to the home. I don't know what she's, I don't know, but the worst thing they have done

is made Ria a sympathetic, concerned friend of a little chum. The people reacted to Ria Bloody Ripley. she is ria bloody rippley let her be ria bloody rippley instead of fucking dear abbey well it appears they are listening and she'll be going to smack down getting away from eo this was kind of like she gonna is she gonna find some other

best friend to whine and cry over now what does here go out custom people and rip some internal organs apart and asunder well if she's gonna do anything with jade and her group she'll definitely need friends but we'll see what she's going to do over there. It was kind of like when the Muppets broke up and the Muppets take Manhattan

and they all had to tearfully say goodbye to each other while they had that really beautiful song playing. That was her leaving here, say goodbye to Eo, and even a last moment with her and live. I think they need to keep Rhea and Jade apart too because I don't impress my luck with Jade. They got one good match at it. Anyway,

then finally, after whatever we have, I skipped that and whatever else happened until here comes punk. And they're doing the thing now where he comes in. He just walks out in the arena with no music and he stands there. And then he does its clobber in time. And then we hear Lackaboozellini, which I think it may be better because the one thing that was always obscured when they did television was whether he said it or whether people said it,

was its clobber in time, because the music is playing also. Do you think that this, Brian, and your learned opinion, is a professor of pro wrestling psychology from Feffer University, is this better to come out and then announce its clobber in time and then get the music where you can hear the people say it? I don't think so. I thought it was good for a one-off thing at WrestleMania. I'm not sure if I like it for every time, unless he's turning heel.

Because he'll see him punk walking out there, getting booed, and then getting in the clobbering time position, whatever you want to say, and then the music, that's a little different. I liked it the way it was. I didn't mind it the way it was, and I thought it was fine for a one-off. But again, the other one-off thing, he had his original theme music playing until that other music played so well then but then they stopped that and he still walked out and it was quiet

there was a break in the middle if we should take a poll but here's that CM Punk ain't turning heel I can guarantee now he might do questionable things which sometimes CM Punk might do to other baby faces because he just fucking fought one but I mean I'm not saying that punk is like I won't turn heel

no matter what you're something like that I'm saying there's no reason at this stage of his career with the amount of people that like him and buy his merchandise and with the connection he has to them and can verbalize and et cetera

he's a special guy he can just do his own thing but I don't think I think they'd be insane if he ever just turned to heal again and just was like fuck all you people because you'd

you would ruin that and he's so good at it he could piss him off but there's no need to he's a a fucking money machine then with all that said I don't like it he should go back to being in the regular way

well in that case all right quit walking out there in a fucking quiet room then, son of a bitch. You know, they just put Bad News Brown in the Hall of Fame. I think he may be one of the very last guys. There were a few, I guess, after. They didn't have music.

No music. Just walked out there and you'd hear the fans start reacting. I missed that. Well, that's because they quit reacting to. But anyway, again, his head's kind of beat up and he's moving a little slow, but a great promo, real promo. He talked again, woe of what he's been dealing with in terms of losing people,

his trainer, a friend of his, Larry, the WWE guys, got the fans to cheer him, and it was all legitimate and truthful, and he meant everything. And then he tied it into an I lost last night. Obviously, the other losses stung more, but you guys have helped me get through all of this. And you'll help me get through this. Does this sound like a guy's turn an eel? Oh, they're really going to hate him now. Oh, my God. But he told

the world title story, you know, that he's had, he said, he stayed, he stayed ready because you never know when a title opportunity is going to fall out of the sky. And I've already, I've, I've proven my childhood dream and I'm staying ready still because you never know when that title chance is going to fall out of the sky. Cody music. Wouldn't you know? Wouldn't that opportunity? No, not yet, though, but here comes Cody.

What about his eye? Jesus, age Christ. Wait, I was looking when I saw him start bleeding where, what could have caught him, and it really wasn't obvious. And that's another thing. Remember, like the other day, when Joe knocked out Bill on the T&A show,

whatever their fucking names were. I've slept since then, as Riggie Morton would say. And it didn't look like anything other than it was, a super kick, but boom. The same thing. I didn't see anything that was overly egregious, but God damn, he looked like somebody hit him and he eye with a baseball bat.

The kick? I, what, and that, but he was bleeding beforehand, did okay, but that may he got caller. Then I suspectified that the blood might be a gimmick,

but then he got, you're saying he, you think he got kicked in a face for real. It was either that or the punches, I would think, right? I mean, those. Well, that wasn't no punch. He would have gone down and stayed there for a minute. There are limited options of what it could have been.

I haven't gone back and watched it a second time. And I don't think I'm going to for WrestleMania this year, but... Not to suffer through all of that. Maybe I want to do it again just to see where exactly it happened. I think he got a little of his own color, and then maybe... And then Randy punted him in a face, because there's no... Anyway, so here comes Cody. And again, punk reacts normally, like a normal person, but still a person.

with personality. He sees Cody's hurting and his eye looks like shit. When he get to the whoa, punk does the whoa. You know, he's laughing along with it. And there was a mixture of cheers and booze for Cody. And then punk was like, hey, you know, I didn't mean to run over. I was getting ready to leave. Is this your time?

And no, Cody said, it's your time. And again, punk is natural at this. Cody, you know, you beat a friend and a mentor, and I just fought a guy that I hated, and blah, blah, blah. And I'll tell you what I hope this is the start of here at a second. But punk pepped Cody up. He was like, hey, keep doing what you're doing, keep winning. And I'll just keep doing what I'm doing.

I just have to stay ready because any looked at the belt, you never know when a title opportunity will fall. out of the sky and the people pop. And when punk starts to leave and he's out on the floor and Cody says, hey, just say when. I'll tell you what I think would be the hottest thing they could do right from this very point is fucking have Punk and Cody work

a program where we eventually see Cody turn heel on punk and become the golden boy. I'm telling you. And then we could see some promos. I want some heel brandy. And we can see some brandy where there's no such thing as a baby face brandy.

Oh, stop it. She's a lovely. To no, no, no, her is to hate, hate, hate her. And we do, and we do, and we do. We do not hate brandy brooms. And we do, and we do. And we don't. And we don't hate it.

No, I mean, when she's on television, not as a real person now, come on. Hey, she caught one of the greatest promos of the century, so I'm not going to really put her down too much. Again, it's WWE. They don't give you much, but the little bit they gave you here was promising. We said it for a long time, the one feud that could be really, really good, and can really play into both guys' strengths will be Cody and Punk. But I think it eventually has to be a baby face heel program, not just two babyface with one guy getting booed every time.

And again, punk was obviously a student of the game and they could figure Dusty in and maybe there could be some jealousy on the part of Cody Rhodes because of the punk experience that he had with Dusty Rose, with Dusty Rose was in NXT or whatever story they choose to fucking weave together. I mean, the natural thing,

and again, I don't know if they'll do it. did not want to do any of this stuff in AEW and it was a long time ago, but the natural thing would be him just turning to the audience and letting them know how he feels about them cheering someone like punk and booing him for no reason and starting to show that because he still does the goody two-shoe stuff. Everything is still just the goody two-shoes, Cody. He can't do that forever.

Well, but it actually, with a proper tweak in presentation, goody two shoes coat he could be the most fucking smarmy fucking heel and recorded history think about it yeah no he worked with uh Matt Jackson from the buck so he obviously has seen that kind of character up close and personally

you just apply some of that to he could just do it as a grown adult would do it rather than yes that's right anyway moving along can we move on past the next couple of things with Javon Evans and Ethan Page I don't really get Ethan Page.

Love Javan, but time-wise, we're in a crunch here because this has been 10 hours of, no, with Smackdown 13 hours of WWE in four days. Hall of Fame. And all the Hall of Fame, make it 27 hours then. Well, they had Ethan Page go over. Ethan Page is obviously new to Raw. They announced that earlier.

and then after Miro beat the hell out of Javan. So, and then Penta came out to save Javan, and then Ethan Page helped Miro. So a promising future here of not elevating Javon just yet. Oh, well, he gets high on his own, off the top rope. Very good. And then it looked like when I was fast-forwarding that Liv, Morgan, and Saul Ruka had a long, issue with each other, beginning with speaking and ending with

wrestling. I enjoyed that. I enjoyed that match. They don't give you a lot of matches, so it's easy to say, best match on the show, but that was really good. I enjoyed that more than the women's title matches at WrestleMania. And the fans were really into it, and

Saw Rooka's really good. And then they did an angle to set up something on Wednesday on NXT instead of just a clean finish, but that's that. I'll I'll check that out as soon as I lose my fucking ability to use the remote. What problem?

Well, I might have been going to get you going. It's just, it's a lot. It's a lot. We're hitting high points here. Brock Lesner. The Brock, did you see the Brock package? Excellent. Again, something that they,

they do so well, they have all that footage. And they did his history from college to OVW to the WWE to the UFC back to WWE and you know they had the comments and the highlights and

etc. I did a wonderful package and again we're going to potentially find out that he just decided to say fuck it, this is it I'm done because I know Hayman is a tremendous

and Paul Heyman is not a tremendous actor. Paul Heyman is tremendous at acting like Paul Heyman. But even he seemed choked up and on this promo that they're about to do, it is a way kind of paying tribute to Brock without actually making a big deal out of it. Do you think Cowboy Brock just wanted to ride off in the sunset and just don't make a big deal out of it and lose the millions of dollars for his retirement match? Or this was the plan?

I don't know. It's also important to note. They haven't officially said he's retired, and he hasn't said anything. Obviously, the boots and the gloves connotate something, but nothing is official. Maybe that's going to be happening soon, but this was the raw after, and they had a video when Hammond talked about him. No one said, we will never see him again. So who knows?

That's a thing. I wondered if they're trying to talk him out of it. That's what I'm saying. saying. I think, Brock just, you know what, when he was in the ring, because he was, have you ever seen Brock Lester emotional? And he was emotional sitting there. And I think he doesn't say anything. I think he did that, which that was him saying something. And I think everybody else is panicked and like, God damn, we weren't ready for this. We'll talk about it. We'll show it. we got to, but nobody actually fucking say it.

Because Paul Lee said yesterday was unexpected, but then he cut a promo on the production crew for not taking Brock out of the now and putting him in the forever. And he almost stroked out because, you know, he seemed like he was trying to give the tribute to, or you know what I'm saying with Paul, just say something about something that he couldn't say something about. And they still chanted, thank you, Brock. So I'm thinking that the fucking guy just, you know what?

How do it do this anymore? Because if he had gone to him and said, I announced my retirement match for SummerSlam, and I'll put him over again, and they would have given him $5 million. I think he felt something. I'll put over anybody. announced my retirement match for

SummerSlam. Here, here's $5 million. Thank you. If he just did it on the spur of the moment, that means at some point in that short match he felt something and knew that he just can't, I mean, he's a high-impact wrestler. It's not like you. No, I'm not even saying he did it on the, I'm saying that he

may have planned it beforehand, but obviously nobody else knew about it. I'm not saying he decided right after that first fucking clothesline or whatever, but he, I'm thinking, and he came in to do that. That's why he's done this.

Everybody's been going to go, oh, look it. Brock's selling for this guy like never before because he had. He wanted to do it right. He was going the extra mile, even, I've either not arguing with what they wanted to do or maybe even offering to do more or making what they did look better than he needed to. And has not asked for anything back because he was. was like, I'll make this guy on the way out, but I think I'm done.

But he just didn't inform everybody it doesn't look like. We'll see how it breaks, but great promo from Heyman. And the thing is, is Paul looking surprised. He doesn't look spry anymore, but does he look surprised and choked up and flummoxed? Because he's such a good worker because he wants the office to think that he, didn't know, but he really knew because he's Brock's guy, or did he not even know? See, this is the kind of stuff that's interesting.

Not fucking people walk into the ring to fucking music. Anyway, so in this promo that Paul E was doing, then he's got Austin Theory and Logan Paul there, and he said, you know, the tag teams are experiencing a resurgence due to them being the tag team champions. And boy, here's a resurgence is about to come up minute. Logan Paul got booed out of the fucking building.

They Dominic Mysterioed his ass in the old days and wouldn't let him speak, but the point he was trying to get across was I'm sick of YouTubers and outsiders coming into our business. That was great. He is a hate getting prick.

He just knows. And then Paul thanked Gunther and said he owed him one, and then he introduced the return brawn braker who came out a leather jacket with a slightly different haircut brine he looks more like rick steiner than ever before and sounds more like him and again this he can talk he's got a personality he's got the facial expressions he's got the attitude he's different and you know, I mean, for people saying, oh, golly, this guy's the best young wrestler in the business

or that guy's the best young wrestler. The Obafemi is going to get to be the next big thing position, but Braun Breaker, healthy, with no injuries, is going to be on top of the cards in this company for the next 10 fucking years. He is the, the young guy. anyway or if he doesn't get brain damage anymore Brian because

Susie finished his promo Seth Rollins came in with a chair from behind he's supposed to hit him in the back and he hit him in the back of the head and busted Braun Breaker's head from asshole appetite just wide open and down he goes and out and then

Ethereum Logan Paul stops as Seth Rillan starting to get some heat on him and here came the street profits. I thought the goddamn tag team division was revitalized. If this is revitalized, I'd hate, who's next? Chuck and Vic the scuffling hillbillies are coming back. And they beat up and shit canned Austin Theory and Logan Paul and fought them all the way out of the arena. So thanks for coming, Vision. Logan Paul and Austin Theory are now on the level of the, interchangeable group tag teams that muddle through the midcar.

But then Brian was able to regain consciousness, apparently from this fucking goddamn getting his head caved in. And he gets back in the ring and goes for a spear on Seth. But Seth comes out of the corner with a super kick and meets him. But these guys got to remember it, Braun's coming with some velocity because when bronze spun take the bump, he was still moving and he

clipped Seth's leg right out from under him. Did you see that part? Actually, I did not see that part. Yeah, go back and watch it. When Braun is charging for the goddamn spear, right? And Seth's going to come out of the corner, meeting with a super kick, which he did.

And Braun, boom, turns his head and spins at his body spire. spun around and was still moving forward and took fucking sess what leg would i guess his left leg whatever was planted took him out like a fucking chop block and they went down and then seth got up and you can see for a second it's like am i okay holy fuck that you know was close whatever and then he started beating up on brawn again until brawn hit him with a spear and then beat him up and hit him with another spear, cut a promo on him.

How damn, these fucking baby faces, it takes three or four big heat spots to get them down anymore. I'm glad it was simpler and back in my day. But, again,

the guy just came back from injury and Seth, how bigger of a target do you need to give than Bron Breakers back? Yeah, really. And Seth caught him with the top of the fucking edge

of the chair, as always whenever it doesn't swing exactly sideways, you're risking that and the frame of the chair or whatever, the back of the seat, whatever you want to call it, whack. And so he looked perfectly wonderful. And sometimes when you're looking at him from the front,

he'd turn around, he'd look like somebody thrown a fucking hatchet at him. Your thoughts? You kind of covered it all. Good promo from Heyman. I thought Logan Paul was great here. the fans booing and he just kept getting louder and louder trying to yell over them and reacting to them

I thought that was great Ron Breaker looks younger than before he left I think and then they went right to the angle and Rollins immediately clubbed him with the fucking chair which came back in you the way the blood was dripping down his head's like ooh that does not look like

and the street profits was a surprise we'll see where they go with that and we're right back to where we were. It's never good. I learned that early on in the business. It's never good when you see anybody bleeding from underneath the hair. Anything involving the, around the inside the square area of the hair is a goddamn potato,

which is actually how Brett got away with that fucking blade job that time on pay-per-view. When he told Vince it was an accident, and he hit the corner of the steps. He did it up above his hairline and best, oh, well, of course. That was him and Piper, WrestleMania 8. No, it was him and Davey. Did he do it twice?

No, it was him and was it? Oh, he did it there, that's right. I was thinking because the story always was, and it's been a while since I thought about this, at WrestleMania 8, Piper and Brett went on early, maybe a second match, and Brett got a lot of blood.

And they said Vince was livid. And Brett convinced him that somehow it happened. I thought it was the corner of the steps. But somehow Vince believed Brett. And then Rick Flair went out there at Randy Savage and cut his head off. Yeah. And that's right. And Rick, Blanche.

And then Vince was going out of his mind again. Yeah, Vince got livid at Rick Flair for that. No, this was, this was 1995. Brett and Davey, Brett wanted because they had, there were, it was, family and they had a good match, great match, depending on your standpoint. But Brett wanted to do more for Davey. And so he, oh, God, I was up in the middle of his fucking head. But anyway, speaking of heads, J.D. McDonough was next.

And he had a match with Finn, and I didn't see it. And then it was time for our main event, Brian, of course. we've got these pesky wrestling matches out of the way the main event of the evening was Roman, Roman Rains. He pulled up out of the parking lot in an SUV, two hours and 20 minutes into the show. If somebody had had a fender bender at the Dunkin' Donuts on the corner, he'd have missed the whole goddamn broadcast, right?

What? And they had cleared him a path, I guess, and showed him how to go through, this maze of hallways because he walked through the entire back of the arena while the fans were watching on the screen and singing his name and then through guerrilla and saw the usos and shook hands with him and said hey he signals to him like come on with me and then he goes out and does his entrance and after three minutes of that we see that we see them coming to the ring and we go to a two and a half minute break.

And when we come back, besides there's 10 minutes left on the air, then we get a goddamn, what was it was an ad for candy, I think, wasn't it? Michael Cole reads the voiceover for make sure to fucking feed your kids these sugar-filled treats. Snickers really satisfies you. Yeah, well, I wasn't satisfied. And then Roman Raines milked for only 30 seconds this time, because it had already been six minutes since we saw this fucking guy pull up.

He's still fucking walking to the... Anyway, acknowledge me! They acknowledged me did not have the vehement response that I was expecting. Do you... Are they trying to figure out now whether he's a heel or not? have they confused the marketplace? Because he does have his fans, but it didn't seem like

it was his full-throated and as demonstrative because are they trying to figure out whether he's fucked somebody or not? I don't know. That could be a part of it. I also think they're going back to something that was really successful, but they're going back to something. And they don't have Heyman here.

It's just him and the Uso's. The fans still pop for Jay Uso, but we also hear from a growing audience that is sick of him. It's kind of quieted down in the last month or so because he hasn't been used on top. I think they have to see Roman do something, and they have to, even this angle here didn't really establish if he's a heel or baby face. Yeah, well, exactly. So I don't, and again, his track record is he wins the title and disappears and wrestles three times in a year. So we'll see what happens. The crowd was also...

Or to be honest, having a persona based on being the guy that runs the whole show, it is the glory hog and it runs the place and et cetera fits a heel persona better. Does it not? He's better as a heel. He should be presented as a heel, absolutely. But at the same time, you know, it's very confusing. And the U-Sos are beat of people. And the Uso's are baby-faced, but what they're about to do here, but hold on.

Roman, he said, you know, he's still being a baby-face in that he tells his cousins. He said, we ought to talk family business. I miss this. I miss having y'all's full trust and respect. I miss doing business with you. And we're better together, stronger together. There's some rapper from the 90s running his mouth. you, who is that? Who was he referring to?

Do I know? Do you? Yeah, the rapper Cameron has a podcast and Jay Uso appeared on it, the week of WrestleMania. And this got a little bit of coverage. It appeared to be a worked fight where Cameron was making fun of the fact that Jay Uso is a Saturday WrestleMania performer, not a Sunday performer, and he wants someone from Sunday, and then Jay Uso attacked him and started throwing what looked like working bunches to me. Oh, boy. Okay, say no more. Well, anyway, Roman gave him a big pitch about reuniting.

I'm not asking you to serve me, just stand with me. And then Jay kind of awkwardly, it looked like he was mad when he was saying it. You're always going to be our travel chief. Everybody always knows we the ones or always something like that. And threw the microphone down and people were like, was he hot? but then they put up the fingers. And then as Roman goes to put his finger up,

Jacob's music plays. And he makes his entrance, and they stare at each other. And this was abrupt here is my problem with this. Jacob didn't come to acknowledge Roman. I need that title. I need the shoe deal, the private jet, the Rolex, watch the bigger house, the better schools for my kids. I'm glad he threw that in after the fucking Rolex and the jet.

Oh, and by the way, I'll take care of my children also. But he said, I want to do it for myself and my family at backlash. And the fans kind of went fat too lightly. But then Roman just, hey, if you can beat me, can you handle the burden of the title. If you can't beat me, can you handle the burden of acknowledging me? I'll give you a week to think about it. I'll see you next week on Rawl Little Cousin. They've shot through three or six months of something they could have done here, or at least six weeks. What about if Jacob just said, hey, came out and said, are you not going to include

me? And I've never been part of this family. You didn't want to bring me here. So now are you going to, you know, or you recognize it and I'm blood too? And I should bring him in and let him stand next to the fucking guy for a while and create some tension. Or something instead of just shit, we got a pay for you next week or next month. So, hey, Fatu, come over here. they just rush this up. Am I complaining without merit, Brian?

I didn't like that he said, I don't want to be the tribal chief. That should have been the first thing he said. I want what you have. I want to be the tribal chief. I should be leading this family. You've had a chance. I don't want to be the travel chief. I just want everything that being the tribal chief got you.

Yeah. I like that they're using Jacob in a top position, other than the line about that you honed in on about sending his kids to a better school after the glamorous thing. As soon as he's got that fucking Gulfstream and that goddamn Rolex presidential, the next thing on his mind is getting his kids

a lunch at school. Again, you know, I'm not going to nitpick that. I think it was fine, but... I know it was just funny to me. And then... Like, everybody is rushing. Like, just about everything else, it went nowhere. It just ended with, we'll tease more next week.

That's it. And, uh... Backlash main event, I guess. Like you said, this could be a multi-month thing of Jacob Fatu dealing with the main eventors in his family, as opposed to the solo group, and they don't appear to want it that way. Well, but again, that's the thing,

is that if you go back and look at the story, and I'll get off the soapbox in a second, but I've always been a proponent of Jacobs, and already I'm worried they've cleaned him up a little bit and tame the werewolf. But remember he was brought in by Solo's bunch, or am I just, am I gone crazy? I think so, because he used to yell,

I love you solo. Exactly. That's what I'm saying. I'm not crazy also. I know that, but that was a figure of speech. But the point is he never was a part of the Roman Rains, Jimmy and Jay Uso family bloodline on camera. And when they brought him into the solo group,

there was some references at least to he was the one as too wild they never wanted him here and the solo has made the decision to bring the other wise man or whatever he didn't want him here the point is that's why Jacob was supposed to be so dangerous so why couldn't they have concocted a thing where hey if y'all go get to bloodline back together i'm part of your blood what about me What about all the times that I was sitting out on this fucking street on the corner, jobless, unemployed, whatever the fuck, where you guys were flying around in your private jet, you didn't invite me. Well, Jacob is, you know, you're a record man, and the way you can't be trusted because you got the temper and you're a liability. All my liability, huh? Well, you see where I'm going with this?

Yeah. And let them be, let him say, okay. Be part of our group. Be with us. That could last four weeks of television just going, what the fuck's going to go on while they're trying to coexist? I don't know.

Well, they went the lazy route. And it's right in front of us now, and here it is. And that was raw. And this is your show. Oh, shit. With that, hold on, I was just trying to fix this. Don't even ask what's going on at Cornett's collectibles. I need the extra time to go back and fill orders.

With that, the drive-through is closed. All right. More action next week here on this action-pack show. And of course, in a few days on the Jim Cornett experience, wherever you find your favorite podcast. Cornett's collectibles at Jimcornet.com.

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Tally-ho!