Jim Cornette’s Drive-Thru - Episode 443: Jim Reviews WWE Backlash

Episode Date: May 15, 2026

This week on the Drive Thru, Jim reviews WWE Backlash 2026! Plus Jim talks about Kevin Nash's comments about TKO, AEW's Fairway To Hell, Barry Blaustein, Roman Reigns & Jacob Fatu on Raw, and much more! Plus Jim plays Guess The Program and looks at his agent report from TNA's prime time debut! Thanks to our episode sponsors: HEXCLAD:  Find your forever cookware @hexclad and get 10% off at hexclad.com/JCE #hexcladpartner BRUNT:  Save 10% off + an extra $10 discount on your Starter Kit purchase today by going to https://bruntworkwear.com/JCE and using code JCE.  #Bruntpod RIDGE:  One thing to pack, five ways to power! Get 10% Off @Ridge with code JCE at https://www.Ridge.com/JCE #Ridgepod 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.

Made it all the way to layer. Felt that one in the sphincter. I had my headphones off so I didn't have to hear your comments. Hello again, friends. And I know there are comments, and I know you're our friends. And welcome back to another edition. I'm yelling. Welcome back to another edition of Jim Cornett's drive-through.

You're so excited. We're off to a great start, an exciting start. I'm your host, the great Brian last. But here's the man who will be carrying the show, the leader of the cult of Cornett. Mr. Jim Cornett. How far do I have to carry it? I'm not sure I can make it that far.

I'm sore I've been working in the garage, Brian. So I'm not sure if I can carry it. But boy, when you were doing that, you made it. I was taking the ride with you there. And you made it farther in deeper, as they say, than normal. And then, oh, and then all the cats had nervous breakdowns. But welcome to your show. It's a pleasure to be here.

Thank you for inviting me. So what do you have in store for us today? Well, this is Jim Cordett's drive-through, where I'm the one driving through and you're the one stuck in the window, see? See, you're kind of orchestrating this thing. Would you like to come down to help me paint my garage? No.

I guess that's a no. I thought it was an implied no, but I'll say. Oh, you need to come right out with it. Just bring it right out there, make a full-throated denial. Well, Brian, I've reached this point in my life where I'm happiest about a new paint job in the garage. You got the new garage doors. The other ones, I think I mentioned to you at one point, 20 years old. The openers were so loud.

They were malfunctioning. I got my brand new slickered and come on a gold tooth garage doors and openers that are just whispered quiet. And now I've had the head Monroe brother out there for the last, I don't know how long. We've organized the garage, giving it a complete cleaning. Unfortunately, had to move a couple of birds' nests out, but they've relocated to the backyard. The weather's fine and we got feeders, so I'm not worried about them. And we've given it a paint job, and this is the, I'm a successful elderly man and I get great comfort now from accomplishing things like having a nice, clean, fresh painted garage.

See, other of my contemporaries, they're still trying to relive past glories, but I'm just living in my garage. Are you there? Yeah, I mean, I didn't have much of a comeback to your garage. Well, what is the state of your garage right now? Do you have dog shit out there everywhere, or what the bar? Are you taking care of your garage?

If you don't take care of your garage, your garage will, won't take care of you. I don't know why you think I would have dog shit out there, but no, there's no dog shit. It's a very nice, uh, well-kept garage and it's, uh, it's nice. I don't know what you want me to tell you about my garage. The doors, I just didn't, they open and they close. I did two or three minutes on my garage and you've got nothing to say about yours. That means that yours cannot compare to mine. My guess not. I guess not. All right. You know, this is again, your program and I do a lot of the talking on it, but I wanted to, before we go into the backlash from backlash,

the WWE, K-Say pay-per-view now, premium live event, it was a live event. We're going to debate the premium quality of it, but I saw this just on the interwebs here. Kevin Nash had, you know, he's a laid-back kind of guy doesn't really, like me, doesn't want to tell people what he really thinks sometimes. but we've had our issues in the past and there's some things I agree with him on

but he had a nice dissertation on one of the hot topics about the WWE not anything they're doing in the ring but the the interference and or fingers in the creative pie Brian that people have been talking about from up top from the high muckety mucks up there. Kevin Nash has had an opinion. He's got the podcast, click this. This is a transcript of it, but would you like me to read you what he says about what the head muckety mucks at TKO or doing with WWE creative? Yeah, and again, this is someone who's one of the best friends, if not just really great friends with Sean Michaels and Triple H, so let's hear this. Yes, he is, this is, you know, I'm not saying he's got any kind of inside information or anything,

but it just, it's his comment. And he says, Levec takes over and everybody loves the direction that he's carrying the new WWE program into the Netflix era. Lo and behold, like every other business on earth, the fucking guys above him that don't have a fucking clue besides get paid more,

decide to start sticking their dicks where they don't need to. This sounds like me. We're going to throw this guy in. Let's put this guy in. How about him in the main event? We have a $500 million deal that this guy's locked into. While we're at it, let's make the arena look like NASCAR. It doesn't take anything away from Paul Leveck because Paul Levec still knows what the fuck he's doing.

If anybody out there thinks this might apply to them, how about leaving the fucking company alone? Get your fucking noses out of creative. go fuck yourselves let paul run the fucking company i'm you know i say i think he's still on the fence if you guys want to cut the talent don't throw it in paul's laugh and make him be the bad guy don't tell him give me six years of creative process and give it to me by Wednesday if i don't see a certain guy's name on there i'm going to cut it by 50 percent how about just go fuck yourself how about you grow a set of balls you walk in and you tell them because you UFC is bleeding through every

tourniquet that they have. We're going to cut people from WWE to stop the bleeding from the other company. UFC is hemorrhaging money and WWE isn't. How about we tell them the truth? If something happens and Triple H is no longer at the helm, because there's some type of power play,

I hope you follow my lead because the minute they fuck with him, I'll have nothing to do with that product the rest of my life. Well, it sounds like he may not have anything to do with that product for at least a little while. I don't know how welcome he's going to be right now. Yeah, I've been there meeting to Kevin, can you please come do TV Monday? But, well, you know, I agree with the general thing that we've talked about. TKO's interference, TKO looking at WWE as just a piggy bank that they can crack open and take take everything out of

and that wrestling fans are stupid, they could pay, they will pay anything and they can sell them anything. UFC, despite getting a ridiculous deal from Paramount that Paramount's going to lose money on, UFC isn't what it once was. We're still supposed to believe it's this big hype thing. If you're into it, you're into it. If you're not into it, name a star.

Name a fighter. You can't anymore. From current, not to pay. From the current generate? the last six years, seven years, since Connor McGregor fucked off and Ronda Rousey left and everyone else who was a star aged out

or got concussed or whatever to fuck. There's no one there. So, W.W.E., look, Ari Emanuel all of a sudden is getting $71 million in compensation, a 200 and something percent increase from that graph we read on the show. Where do you think that money's coming from?

And they see wrestling as just this thing they could suck money out of and clearly they don't have respect for the creative. On the other hand, I know that Triple H is Kevin Ash's buddy, but I'm not sold on Triple H all the way. He may be the best available option as a barricade against TKL running wild with the creative, but I'm not sold on Triple H being a booking genius

or being able to just have the best ideas. The idea that, you know, it's like the road dog thing. I mean, is he writing the show? for TKO? Is he writing the best show that him and Nick Con think should go out there? Here's the thing, though. And yes, I recognize there is some factor of Kevin Nash is painting Paul Levec as Eddie Graham here because he's his best friend, but it's still, it's an interesting perspective he has on the rest of the hierarchy. But Triple H is not a booking genius. Because Triple H ain't, Triple H is not the booker. Triple H is the

head of creative. If you are the head of creative, he can't sit down and physically write all that shit. And with all the other shit, I'm sure that they've got going on, plus the fact that he's had a heart condition, he's not doing the old-fashioned Booker thing where you're at 3 o'clock in a morning, you're like, oh, okay, the guy, and then he ducks and fucking, oh, he comes out with

your figure and finishes. He's got to stay. Obviously, we've seen he has a large writing staff. And I don't know that there's particularly booking geniuses on that either, but it wouldn't matter if there was, as we've talked about. A group effort is going to prevent anything from just really being the total dog shits all the way through instead of just a segment or two. But a group effort is also going to nullify any booking genius that happened to wander in there because he don't have total say and everything gets screwed up anyway.

So what you're, what you've got is kind of like of, WCW, Jim Hurd? Well, no, an assembly line version of creative, where people are putting different parts on the thing as it goes by. And it's not just a craftsman who has made this thing by hand from scratch, nor is it some complete fuck-up standing outside of Home Depot trying to pick up work for the day.

It's just, it's palatable, it's in the middle. It can never be one or the other with this big of an operation. So, you know, even if Eddie Graham walked in, are they all just good, well, if it was actually Eddie Graham, they would all drop to their knees and genuflect or have a heart attack because he'd been dead for 40 years. But if a guy with that much sense, came in, many of the other ones

wouldn't realize it, and his shit would be just in the mix. Again, the creative process, TKO or not, the creative process is not a process conducive for good wrestling television at all. No, no, and let me say something

else. There are pockets like anything that Heyman's involved with, he's going to have the authority to punch up a finish or change wording in a thing or whatever, they still, you know, Paul just can't say, I don't think Brock should lose that, or, you know, he's not calling all the fucking finishes from start.

But there are people, that's why some people shits better than others. Punk has a little bit of a mind and the ability to fucking say a couple things. The top guys, most of them, some of them are just, they are what they are. but that's the thing is it's better than the, as we've mentioned, the fucking $100 million men in corporate

starting to say, well, you know, stick goddamn jelly roll in the tag team champions because we can do a cross-promotion and sell the belts on his tour that he just canceled or whatever. Again, it's not a, it's not a very rosy picture

for wrestling's future. right now. I'm not saying anything's going out of business. I think AEWWE both may still exist in five years, ten years. No, they're going to go on. Yeah, but the state of American wrestling and American wrestling television is scary. We see what TKO's priorities are. I don't think they're ever going to get to a point where they go, you know what, we've made enough money, let's reverse course and make this fan friendly. Unless people stop going, then all of a sudden you'll see ticket prices drop. It'll be fan-friendly Tuesday or whatever to fuck. Well, but

if you drop tickets to something that people aren't fucking interested in, it's, you know, that's the problem is it's just going to be, they may make, like what you call it said, Shapiro or Ari or whichever one was talking.

They may make new fans who are into whatever this is turning into. But, you know, they're going to piss people off also because they're getting less wrestling and more falderal and not even the kind of

sports entertainment wrestling that you and I have been pissing on a lot for the last 15 years, but just theater wrestling. This is theater and around now. And by the way, what happens to TKO and WWE and UFC if the Saudis pull their money like they just did at

a live golf? What does that do to business model. If the Saudis say, you know what, we're not going to do any of this. We're not going to give you $50 million a show, whatever to fuck. And again, they've deal, it's not just a WWE deal. Talking about funding for TKO, talking about UFC, Zufa boxing, which is now a part of this whole thing. Thank God they got the pro bull riding to bail them out. They are trying to create a combat sports monopoly, TKO, and

I for one do not like the direction it's going to going. I got an idea. Why don't we kind of cross-promote between their companies and do a thing with power slap and the pro bull riding where you get to slap a bull and then the bull gets to kick you? I would pay to see that. I don't know if I'd pay.

I don't know if I'd pay. I'd watch that. That may be a better way to put it. No, it depends on who's slapping and then getting kicked. I'd pay. You know how you know there's no money in power slap? TKO hasn't gobbled it up. TKO is like, you know what, Dana, you could have this one for yourself.

We'll just let you have that. Well, when the lawsuits start coming in, I'm sure Dana's indemnified, but they don't want to, the $20 billion company, they don't want to fucking go through all that shit. Well, we'll see what happens with WWE Creative and, Jim on the topic of WWE creative. We're going to talk about backlash in a moment, but first, as a palate cleanser,

you may need some wrestling history to read about. You may need some Jim Cornett action figures and the Midnight Express to play with to... To play with... Well, whatever you need. Cornett's collectibles, here's Jim.

You need somebody to play with out there, you lonely souls. We'll get the action. action figures and the t-shirt that you can wear while you're alone and the picture that you can look at autographed while you're alone and all those other things you can do while you're alone to my image at jim cornet.com and some exciting things we're going to talk about to start the summer is almost here and so we're going to be talking about some exciting things over the summer because we have a big anniversary of mine coming up as well at jim cornet dot com At Jimcornet.com, big anniversary of the scaffold? No, no, I'll spill it here then since you're twisting my arm. Do you know what July 4th, 2026, what date, what that date marks famous in wrestling history? Great American Bash, 86.

No. Well, there was one, but that's not the famous thing I'm thinking about. I don't know. that is the day that I took the photograph that became the first photograph that I sold and the first money that I made from actual from the wrestling industry. Fifty years ago, July 4th, it was a picture of Bill Dundee at the Louisville Gardens and I had just gotten my first 35 millimeter camera. and it just turned out just swell. And when Tini saw it a week or two later, she said, that's when she said,

could you get a hundred of those? And I said, sure. I had no, fuck it. I'm going to the goddamn wishes drugstore over here to get my shit developed, right? So that's when we found the full tone photo, the place downtown that was the guy that was managing it or owned it or whatever.

I can't remember. it's been so long at the time, was a friend of the, the old man that used to do the timekeeping. And he said, well, you ought to go down there to so-and-so at full tone. And we did and they did and boom. And a dynasty was born.

They went out of business as soon as Jim became a manager. Yeah, that's, I looked back. I looked back and some months I was, my bill there was $6,000 and this was like 1981, 82. Wow. That's incredible. So that's 25. They lost a quarter of a million dollar of your account in today's money when I went to Georgia.

Oh, Christ. Well, that's the way the fucking full-tone photo company crumbles. Well, Jim Cornett, the full-tone years will be coming out soon from Cornett's collectibles. Yes, actually, you're going to be surprised how close you are, but we got some ideas. but we'll talk about it later. But that's my anniversary. Well, check out what's there now, anniversary or not. Jimcornet.com.

Jim, WWE had another premium live event, WWE backlash, seemingly a result of the fan backlash after WrestleMania. I don't know why they call it backlash. May not be the proper name for this. But Backlash 2026. That's an apology. Or make good. WWWE make good.

Well, we'll find that. how good they made it this week. WW backlash, including the first hour on ESPN 2. Well, and the thing is, you know, now, again, I was confused for a second when I went to my TV. I can't just turn on the channel or even use the cable box. I got to go to the apps that I got to figure out and the fucking ESPN thing is along with the, I never think to hit Disney,

but I finally took me a couple of minutes, I found it. I click on the show, the entire show was two hours and 30, like two minutes long. Did you notice this? As it was happening, I was like, unless they have a whole bunch of bonus matches, this is going to end pretty quickly. And it did.

And again, I know somebody out there is going to say, that fucking Cornett, he's never happy. God damn, as Mama Cornett would say, he'd complain if you hung him with a brand new rope. But, no, there's a difference between, five or five and a half hours of just repetitive mind-numbing car crashes and stunts and stupidity from the indie-minded folks over at AEW and the other extreme of now a premium live event

with four matches and a gimmick match i'm going to view the one match like they had DJs in the ring or something we'll talk about that in a minute but now they're holding show with commercials and everything is two and a half hours. And I was like, couldn't there be any? It was slightly like a minute or two longer than Raw this past week. Yes. And we got two really good matches and then the other stuff we'll talk about. But again, I just think back, hey, Vince, it's a pay-per-view, but you know what the

here we got we got two main events so let's just fill it out he'd have gone out of his mind but anyway and also now who's who's lying did they have 15,000 people and they Michael Cole kept saying over 15,000 but I heard that they were thinking they were going to be lucky if they got 13 or does that count did they go down to the beach and give away 2,000 tickets real quick. What happened here? Have you heard? According to WrestleMania Backlix

W.W.E backlash at the benchmark international arena in Tampa, tickets distributed 14,746 announced 15,21515. Well, they're not too far off.

But they, as you mentioned, they started on ESPN2, and they did the first hour. And when we get there, we'll mention it again. But I don't know. What is the purpose of that now? It's not like the paperview shows

where we used to have like the TBS show on Sunday night from 6 to 7, the pay-per-view would start at 7. So we would say, okay, everybody, at 7. clock it's on pay-per-view make sure you this is just telling them to change the fucking channel they don't have to pay for anything they have to go to the app

which many people get for free other people have already gotten because of the WWE but are you going to go to the trouble of oh shit the show's half over I need to buy an app and fucking get that underway to make sure I see

half of the last half of it Brian what's the strategy? you hear. It's just exposure and they don't care if it's confusing. ESPN wants the content and however they see the value in it for what they're paying for. That's what makes sense to them. It'd be one thing like AEW, not to justify their general booking philosophies or formatting, but their pre-show, Tony Khan usually gives people at least two, maybe three to four matches. And then the card that was buildup on TV, even though they announced some of the pre-show matches in advance.

But it's a teaser, allegedly, that's supposed to make you want to buy the pay-per-view. Now they've even had Battle Royals or casino matches start on the pre-show and go to the pay-per-view to try to drag the viewer. Just make sure they get them by the car or drag them. Kicking and screaming. And according to Dave Meltzer and Tony Kahn, the pay-per-view numbers have consistently been, give or take 140,000. So whatever their strategy is...

Suspiciously so, no matter what the attraction, date, time of year, competition. It's about that. Allegedly. And it depends who you are if you believe that or not. But that's their strategy. WWE is just like, nope, they're already here. Like you said, it's just switch the channel from here to the other thing. It's not like you get a better experience on the app.

You're getting the same commercials, same commercial breaks. and they gave you two of the match. That you can't fast forward. Yeah. I just, the idea that it's a five-match show and two matches are on TV is just crazy to me.

Especially, I mean, unless it's a big match that, like, you have to see, you know, Hogan, Austin, plus other matches. You know, something you have to see. Then it really doesn't matter. You're building, it's like an old boxing main event.

You're building up the big main event, but that's not the way they do it. And also, if you're already on the, app you're seeing it anyway without ESPN's involvement in the thing. Except you get that annoying graphic for the first hour of the show. Switch over to the ESPN app.

It's not a pleasurable watching experience. And if you don't have the app and you don't want to pay $30 a month to access a three-match pay-per-view and you have cable already, I think it would drive you more to Twitter or something just to see the clips as they go up. What about drink? You know, like, there were people... Would it drive you more to drink?

Remember the old days, and I had to do this every now and then. Every now and then, I couldn't convince my dad to get a pay-per-view. Usually it would be like a WCW one. Like, I got the WWE one. I'm not getting this other one. But you could still watch it. It would be scrambled. You could hear what was going on. Yeah, yeah. I remember that. It's just... I couldn't see shit.

You do what you got to do sometimes. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depend on how you look at it, I was already of the age of maturity by the time that pay-per-view became an actual thing, so I was able to make these decisions for myself. And because I was on it, I the only paperview that I ever ordered that I wasn't actually on was that Rolling Stones concert they did in what?

88, 89. There you go. And I still have. I've recorded it on beta at the beta one speed, my super beta machine fucking looks. Clean as a whistle. Why is a whistle clean, Brian? It should, like you're blowing in it, should have fucking phlegm and germs and then some mildew grows mold because of the moisture.

Maybe it's a clean as a whistle in terms of the sound. Clean as a... That sounded a little muddy. Hey, come on now. Anyway, they opened the show. You want to talk about the show? They opened the show with Seth Franklin Rollins and Braun Breaker in this long-awaited grudge match that we thought we were going to get at WrestleMania,

and instead it opens the show at Backlash. And, you know, again, they give us two upgraded matches. This one and Jacob and Roman, and I'm not, there's nothing to not. about this match, you know, just because we didn't like the, the rapper it came in, that we had two really good fucking matches. And I guess we should be thankful these days, because how long is it between times we see really good fucking matches? But I'm telling you, brawn breaker is the more I seem within two years, maybe three, is going to be the fucking guy. He's unnaturally, he gets this. He's, when they started hot and Seth was kicking him

ass, kicking his ass, Bron was feeding him. He was in the right places. He had to write reactions. There's some times he seems like he's out of control or reckless when he's not really, which is kind of like what Rick Steiner worked like early in his career. And he's aggressive and he has the fucking tools. And Seth, he led this thing to where that Braun looked aggressive all the time, stayed on him, didn't get lost, didn't, it wasn't hesitant, had heel attitude. And the people got with this. This was a great crowd.

You know, I even with some of the stuff and I was like, yeah. But that's the thing. Seth was keeping him coming. making him fight to shut him down. And that one, the Brekensteiner, you know, here's my thing. I think that Braun is leaning back so far before he hits that thing, that his body is turning faster than anybody can take the bump.

So it creates a delay. Yeah. So it creates a delay. Do you see what I'm saying? I saw it in this match specifically, and Rollins is usually pretty good at this kind of stuff. And Braun would hit and he would land, and then you'd watch Rollins tumble afterwards, and it throws off the look of the thing. Yeah, and also sometimes it throws off the guy taking it because he's like,

oh, shit, where'd he go? And I know it's athletic for Braun to be that, when he jumps up and that fast, but I think he needs to go into the leap to the head. head scissors before he's leaned quite so far back to slow down his spin so that the guys can keep up with him. But that's just me. And then there was a time later on when they did it twice more, I think Seth was going to land on his feet on the first one, and he saw that it wasn't going to happen, and he just took one and said, fuck it, do it again here in a second, and that one he landed on his feet. But again, they had a great fucking match to me. And I think Braun needs to watch his punches

to the head when he's, you know, on top of a guy. But having said that, I'm thinking that he may be one of those guys that they've said, please don't hit me anymore when he gets, you know, going and maybe he's erring on a side of safety. He did the clothesline off the apron on to the desk. and then the only thing with Seth a lot of times he's got the modern style where he will give somebody a move and then immediately the other guy will give him something or he likes to do the superplex into the falcon arrow

whatever that may be which I always thought was goofy because that kills the fucking superplex but then this time he's superplexed and Braun picked him up and hit the falcon arrow. Anyway, modern style, modern style.

Finally, it looked like Seth was cooking. And he hit the super kicks and the pedigree and the stomp. And then Paul Lee jumped up on the apron. And I thought Seth was rolling out where he was going to go get Paul E, but he grabbed a chair and he knew he smelled it coming that Logan Paul and Austin Theory were coming to attack him so he beat the shit out of both of them with the chair and then got back in the ring but brawn speared him and got a two count and that was a big pot they've been getting big pops but that was a big one and then brawn went for the spear but he fucking dove into a pedigree

then seth went for the stomp off the second rope but as he was coming through the air brawn to hit him in midair with a spear. And then another spear, boom, one, two, three. So he did, there was interference, but it was early on, and the way that they framed it didn't affect the finish, and Braun got a fucking big win. And in this case, while Seth had an out,

I'm always won the heels to cheat, which technically they did here, but Braun didn't have to like pull out of fucking brass knucks or the dynamite diamond ring or whatever, knock him out. He beat him with his deal, but because Seth had been momentutely distracted. So again, serious match, two guys that know what they're doing. They didn't have to bury the referee.

They did some fucking stuff on the floor, but it wasn't like a garbage match where they're out there for three minutes and they didn't have to fucking have notice, qualification. So this is, if they could put together a pay-per-view about six or seven of these kind of matches,

that would be a wrestling pay-per-view, wouldn't it? Yeah, I mean, it was good. I'm glad Braun went over. It was on ESPN, not on the actual regular card. Not that that matters anymore. But this is a good match. Now, the question is, after you've seen that,

we're already halfway through the hour on ESPN2 and they're about to give us Sammy and Trick, which is, again, was good, you know, professionals, a love trick. But after that,

you get on the one channel, what is the use of changing channels? Or if you don't already have it to me, if you already have the app, you're already on it to begin with, aren't you? Or whatever the fuck. Yeah, I was, yeah.

but nevertheless, would you like to move on to Sammy Land? No, let's move on to Trickland. Okay. The United States title, Sammy Zane and Trick Williams, with our man little Yachty, and they've completed a double turn here without anybody, and this is difficult to do, without anybody really just changing their whole goddamn philosophy of life. Trick just got more lovable with all of his pageantry, and Sammy got more whiny with his already well-meaning whininess.

Now, does that kind of, that kind of what they did, right? Triple turn, if you count, Lil Yadi, too. Who's popular? He's over, they were chanting for him at one point to get involved. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I don't think they had an opinion, either way on him at first, but then, you know, they were, oh, okay, this guy's, he fits.

But, I mean, they did this again, had this match where neither guy completely went out of their personality, but it just the way that, like when Sammy threatened to use the stairs, or when he menaced little yachty, and when he got aggressive and started really punching trick, and they would have cheered all these things had the manager and the other guy been heels, but because it's the people they like, it's still not Sammy going out there and pulling out goddamn chains and setting people on fire or whatever. But they got again all over Sammy for doing anything in a positive fashion for himself, and they cheered anything the trick did well. and they were chanting Sammy sucks, Sammy sucks.

But Trick again, he really, I think he's come a long way since we've even first saw him. He's getting, it seems like he's more confident. And of course, Sam, it's easy to work with Sammy. They got the people in the fucking false finishes. and then finally when Sammy had done a leapfrog and sold his knee oh golly

I'm hurt and Trick went over to see what happened Sammy small packaged him well that's then that's all the people needed now so now fuck this guy really and then as soon as Yaddy drew the referee Sammy grabbed the cane and whacked trick

and now oh but he got a two count. And then Sammy got more heat on him and the fans were getting more pissed. And that's when they were chanting, Yadi, Yadi. And as Sammy's in the corner trying to go for the kick and the referee's checking on trick, Yadi came up and hit Sammy with the fucking game. And again, it's just, it's a bizarre world reaction where the alleged, the guy, well, not alleged heel, they know, but he was originally was the heel and the manager.

Now they're like, yeah, it's like. like me hit him with the racket and then when he hit sammy with the cane and trick hit him with the spin kick or whatever it was a two count i'm like oh now they need to go they really need to go now but then sammy went to the floor did you see he he got a little pissed off at yaddy did you catch that i did not know it's not a good if anybody wants to go back and watch it. It's not a good camera angle for you to see it. And the announcers didn't call it or anything, but when after the Yadi had hit him with the cane also, because did you see Sammy's back? And I know he's translucent because he's a redhead, but his fucking back had a big stripe on it

from the cane. Sammy went to punch Yadi, and I think it looked like Yadi just fell, went he's not a worker right he ducked he flinched he fell too early sammy missed him and so sammy got back on him but whacked him a couple of times and kicked him and threw the fucking cane like he was like motherfucker you moved anyway then sammy dd t tick trick on the stairs and gave yaddi the kick on the floor but then he went to give trick the kick but then he went to give trick the kick but Trick moved and hit his knee one, two, three. I think after

Yadi did the fucking cane shot and trick to hit the spin kick, that should have been the finish because then they just took an unnecessary bump and Sammy got mad at the manager and then they went home anyway.

But otherwise, Bravo. Bravo. Nothing wrong with it. Yeah, I thought it was all right. We haven't really discussed it, so this is the time. I thought the match was all right. I think Sammy's been great as a heel, or however he's conducting himself right now, heelish. I think Trick and Yachty are fantastic together.

The Ginger Man shit has gotten out of control. Ginger Bread, I guess. Ginger Bread, man shit has gotten completely out of control. They had a funeral on Smackdown. Did you see any of that? No, no. I didn't because I heard. heard about it.

When I say a few, he was in the back and they were just extras, just people you've never seen on this show before standing around in black crying. Ridiculous. Well, yes, and they said even some of the reaction internally was mixed. But it's one thing that the heels brought out the gingerbread man to fucking make fun of Sammy. And actually, the heels were the baby faces. and it ended up working into the story. But no, that's the same thing as when the idiots at AEW got too full of themselves

and started going along with Tony Storm being a legitimate movie star or just going along with Tony Storm instead of thinking she was crazy. And it's the same thing now. People are actually reacting to this goofy thing, allegedly. That's where they go too far because they can't help themselves. Because they think they're in a fucking movie business instead of the wrestling business. The Tony Storm stuff played out in front of the fans. It's more of an indictment on the AEW fan than it is anything else.

The Gingerbread Man thing is nowhere near is over. It was just a few appearances for, what, two, three weeks in a row. And then this funeral thing, I think it's more over to whoever's idea it is than to any other WWE fans. Yeah, that's the thing. instead of, again, when you have allegedly legitimate people unaffiliated with this goddamn, you know, gingerbread man angle that are just crying because, oh, the poor gingerbread, fuck you. Well, that was the second match on the show, also the end of the free hour on ESPN2. And we are ready for the main card or the continuation of the main card, whatever it is that's next.

well thankfully they didn't put this next match on the you know hey look at what we're going to show you on the other channel switch now because people would have switched channels all right i'm sorry and they again they just can't help themselves from going too ridiculously far with silliness and it's still allegedly supposed to be until they rebrand the fucking thing a wrestling entertainment program Ms.

and Kit Wilson against Dan Housen and the mystery part and there had been speculation and I said it would be a great thing if they did if it was punk because people know that Dan Housin and punk are friends, right? And I said that would be, at least it would be a cool pop for the people in the building,

and it could be done easily and with no wear and tear on CM Punk. If they were scared, oh, we don't want him to get a hurt in a fucking meaningless match, it wouldn't have been. But instead, they just have to, they have to do Gilligan's Island. It's just ridiculous. And everybody's heard by now, Danhausen comes out a, well they did the comedy video to recap the gimmick where everybody's literally chewing the fucking scenery up overacting and playing it like a goddamn vaudeville sketch how about you

mean and then the door is lit up and it's danhausen music and he comes out in the Danhausen mobile and he goes over to the cloning machine which is a box and he opens it and a fucking mini Danhausen comes out hops in the car with him and they drive to the ring his partner was a mini from Mexico dressed and made up as Danhausen but then they this went so long and it wouldn't stop and it was so fucking not i mean the the many from mexico can do some wrestling shit but here's these two grown allegedly adults having a stooge for it and at the same time it again you know when when when when i wrote the words chinlock on midget.

I'm like, what are we fucking doing here? They're having a serious match. They had a, not a serious match, but they had an alleged wrestling match with the, and then there was the, besides the fact that the many beat up both of the grown heels

by himself for a while so that then they could get the heat on the midget to give Danhausen a tag. and he made a comeback and he blew up but then he hulked up and he tried to curse Mizz but Kit got in the way and then the mini came back in and did a big dive and the midget chased Kit to the entrance but Kit locked him in the cloning box but then the lights and the smoke came up and when the door burst open there was another six or eight

of them, the minis. And they beat up Kit. And they took him back to the ring and one of them airplane spinned Kit. But then the mini Danhausen tried to curse Kit, but Kit held up a mirror

in front of him and the announcers had to say that that was smart on his part because the curse bounced back on the midget. Smart. But it was only a two count.

Not so smart. Because Dan Housen made the save. And then the Mizz, for whatever reason, they're going to use the fire extinguisher spot. But he can't make the fire extinguisher work until he looks directly in it and sprays himself in the face.

And then Dan Housen hit a kick on him, one, two, three. And that was just the low points. There was a lot of other stuff that was the most preposterous, phony shit that I've ever seen in my life. Yeah, I can't add too much more to it. A lot of people love the Danhaus and stuff, and there are elements of it that I have enjoyed and laughed at. Length isn't one of them. And this went a while.

And like you said, the fire extinguisher spot, I've seen it done a lot cleaner a lot of time. so it didn't look that great. Well, besides that, I mean, at this point, I hate to kill everything and everyone thinks I need everything. You skipped over the cloning box. Well, everything that comes out of a box is over, especially if it clones multiple times.

We never put any clones in it. Again, in the context of having an actual wrestling program where everybody would have gotten over just the same without the silliness and the tomfoolery and the phoniness of everything let punk come out here's my partner Dan Howl said like a mousalini

here he comes and there's Ms. and Kit both standing there with her jaws open and Ms. Why would you lower yourself to associate with this fucking guy and Paul of a punk assed just because I want a chance to punch you in a face and punch him, boom. Bell rings. Dan Housen does his shit where he beats up both of fucking Kit and Miz instead of the midget.

And then he gets in trouble. And then punk goes and plays cheerleader until he can get the tag. And then he comes in and throws two punches each, a knee in the corner, a bulldog, and fucking, then they do a little curse spot where fucking punk ends up, throwing the guy to Danhausen to give a goddamn go-to-sleep to one, two, three. And the place would have blown. And then you have told the people that on any premium live event, anything can happen and any major star may show up.

And you've made those people there ecstatic in the building. And you haven't done a bunch of phony bullshit out of a goddamn weird science movie. Instead of Kelly LeBrock, we got fidgets. All different sizes, too. It wasn't like it was one uniform size because it was a cloning machine. They just, anyone we can get who... Well, it's a goddamn wooden cloning machine, Brian, so you can't expect. It has to be, what, aluminum to work?

What do you say? Yes. I'm saying to code. Oh, I didn't think of it that way. I guess you're right. Well, that was the Dan Housin comedy segment, and only two more big matches on this show. And an announcement, and the big announcement. I'll tell you what, I'll trade you one match for the two matches,

because if after that cluster fuck, you thought that I was going to watch Eoski and Oscar in a single match, you were out of your mind, pal, fella. Well, I watched it. It was all right, and I'll admit you've ruined E.O. Sky for me, and it's mostly because of what she does that you pointed out, the pointing at her fucking head annoys the shit out of me now. How about the grunting in this, in this constipation face? The worst thing is the grin while she points at her head and turns to each side of the rig so they can see her.

Look at my head, it's here, here! I just, I hate it. Apparently, this was Aska's last match, because a bunch of wrestlers tweeted out after the fact, thank you, Oscar. Hashtag, thank you, Oscar. And it was very emotional after she lost. After she lost, she started crying, she hugged Eoskai.

It appears that Asca may be done with WWE and returning to Japan. Well, now, and I've seen things that say, well, maybe she's semi-retired. Well, whatever that may. But she's 44 years old, so she needs to go back home and enjoy her home and her accolades in her native country while she's young. young enough to enjoy it. Good for her. Stay, stay. They deserve you over there.

Well, you have never given her a fair chance, but she was very, very good as a wrestler, especially early on in NXT. It was a lot of fun and excitement watching Aska. And we wish her the best on her journey, travels, and whatever else she'll be doing. You know, it's kind of amazing when you think about it. She's 44 because of the makeup, and even without the makeup, she looks good for her age. you wouldn't guess 44 I meana shirokow in AEW

you know she just started showing up a couple of years ago she's in her late 30s like there are so many women you wouldn't think of as being I'd say older but for wrestling you know well now with Mina are we sure that every part of her is in her late 30s or just some of them some parts may only be a few years old

I don't think so there's a natural jiggle that's there that wouldn't be there if there was anything replaced but why don't we get away from this before we start a value and too much more. There was still Jim, one big match. Yes. And a big announcement. The big announcement.

The big announcement that John Cena had been teasing that would shock the foundation and rattle the cage and turn upside down the entire wrestling world, I wish I had more details. Possibly it would have. But nevertheless, he was over. and I'm afraid because when he comes out he gets the big ovation and they chant Sina Sina and before he'd gone too far in speaking they were like one more match one more match that's what they were hoping it was so but I'm afraid they're going to you know play the John Sina card too often if every time that they he's been retired since December he was at both nights of

WrestleMania and he's been at what what is that 60% of the premium live events that they've had since he retired yep maybe 70 I'm not good with math and then when he does this explanation it started kind of convoluted it's like they really had to think hard of a reason to to give him to explain what they're doing here. But the night of his last match was filled with opportunity. We got to see Saul Ruka and Javan Evans and Oba Femi and they'd love to Chad Oba. And he says, so we want more of that.

The John Sina Classic, the best of today versus the best of tomorrow. NXT versus WWE. These are bullet points that I was able to gather. This is what he's pitching us. But they're going to crown a champion and they're going to have a new championship. And it's good. What is it, the John Cena fucking classic champion or whatever?

Yeah. But then he goes for the first time ever, you know, you fans are important. or whatever the fuck, for the first time ever, the fans will get to vote for the new champion. So even if a guy loses his match, he might win the title. And I swear to God, the longer that he explained it,

the less sense it made, and at less it seemed like that the fans were reacting to it. Because they went from, we love anything you say to, hmm? Yeah, because all of a sudden it becomes, a pitch and John Cena is the best pitch man out there. His voice is perfect for it. He knows how to feign, I don't know, like Dick Clark energy, just I'm positive and I'm here and this is great.

Everything is great and I'm here. Sincerity is the key and when you can fake that, you've got it made. And he does. However, if you have something you're pitching that no one's been requesting or wanting and you can't even explain it. It's not so good. Again, this screams of TKO after everything we've seen. The idea of a John Cena championship belt

that could be won by the fans saying who they choose. This doesn't seem wise in any way. Even if they lose the match. This doesn't seem wise. This guy won the match, but he lost the tournament because the fans voted for Randy Malky. Like, what the fuck? Like, what is this? What is this?

Why is this? Doesn't John, John Sina must honestly see this as the ultimate ability to cash out. I retired, and now these suckers are going to give me so many millions of dollars to appear and announce nonsense. What is this? Well, like I said, the longer that he went, the less the people were really behind it and more confused out, except he got him to start. chanting oba again. Because it was, it was kind of dragging

and however he brought Oba up again, they started chanting that again. And then... He should have been on the show. They should have just given them a squash match just to make people happy. Five matches. And then he thanked Tampa. John Cena did.

And it's time for the main event, which started like goddamn 20 minutes fucking later. Thank you, Tampa. None of the things I announced will be happening here. But thank you very much. That's another thing. At least you won't be burdened

with trying to figure it out when we do it. I don't think fans are excited by more championship belts the way wrestling promoters, bookers, or owners are. We've seen Tony Kahn at his worst. Again, we're going, Tony's going one way in a rocket, and these guys are going in another way in a rocket, but a lot of the ideas are the same. Well, here is what.

that they're colliding. The worlds are colliding. They're meeting in the middle. You know as well as I do that even if Ari and Mark and all of the big boys that they say,

well, we don't listen to social media feedback. They're still, they're again falling into, as we said on a show a couple weeks ago, the trap that a lot of people do, corporate people. where they think that, well, this stuff isn't really hard,

so we could have a good idea. Hey, this would be a great idea. Or this guy, the guy I'm pushing, we could put him in here. And the point is, it's not that they, Tony Kahn is a mark for belts. Obviously, there's no denying it. The TKO Brain Trust are not marks for belts, but they think the fans are because they see, not only do they see from these really dedicated fans

that will buy every overpriced replica that they produce, but they see all the feedback on the interwebs about, oh, they won the belt or he lost the belt or he has the belt or whatever. And they say, okay, more of this. They don't understand the wrestling philosophies of the championships and et cetera. almost nobody does anymore. So while they are not technically belt marks,

they are entirely conducive to believing that all of their marks are belt marks. Does that make any sense? Yes, they see this as another thing they could sell. That's really what this is. Go create another item that we could market. And also because they know that there's a bunch of fans online like Tony Kahn just without a billion dollars. and they want to pick stars to be the Booker

because they know better. So this way, well, we'll put a bunch of guys a bunch of matches. You just vote for the one you like best. It's like you booked him to be the champion. That's what they're, they're appealing to the people who are into this the most

to see if they can squeeze any more money and or time out of them. But if wins and losses don't matter, why even have a match? Why not just have a 20-minute exhibition? Where there's no end. There's no way to win. It just goes on.

Wins and losses don't matter. It's about feelings. Feelings, whoa, feelings. Whoa. Yeah, this is on top of Sina being the pitchman for Club WWE. And, you know, they're killing a little bit of his credibility a little more each time he comes out there right now. This announcement was nonsense. Well, at least we didn't have many Cinas.

Well, Jim, sometimes you hear stuff like this. You just want to trudge right through the bullshit and get to the real deal. Maybe it's the main event. Maybe it's good ideas, but there's a lot of bullshit all around and a lot of people have to roll up their jeans, but you also need the right pair of boots. That's very true because bullshit is also slick. And cow shit, too, for that matter. Most excrement, unless it's sun-dried and been there for a while, cured, the old country people used to say, it's slick.

And you need a work boot like the folks that Brunt Workwear make that you're not going to slip and fall in it. You know, I did that one time. Go back behind the house here when I was a child. Walking through the cow pasture on the way to the lake, we were going to go fishing. My mom and Aunt Lola and everybody. and I went both feet on the way on the bank down to the lake, boom, both feet in a cow pie, feet flew out from under me,

landed ass first right in that cow pie. Had to go all the way home, walk all the way back through the field to change my pants, and that would not have happened if my mother had had the forethought to put her seven or eight-year-old son in a pair of brunt work boots. Because folks, you're not going to end up rolling and shit wearing these.

And they're also waterproof. So even if you're not going to slip because of the souls, so that way they're safe on the job, they're built well, they're comfortable from day one. You're not going to get blisters on your toes or that worn out feeling on your heel there where it's just not broken in yet and you lose all the skin.

They're comfy from day one. And you can walk down the creek right in the middle of it because they're waterproof. Now if the water is three feet deep, then unfortunately your feet are still going to get wet because you're under fucking water, you moron. It's going to come through the top unless you hermetically seal the top of your boots with some kind of goddamn melting type of polyurethane material which will sear your flesh. You're not going to make the fucking boot at the top of the boot where your leg goes in. Waterproof. Have I made that perfectly clear?

Perfectly. Okay, but they're waterproof because the water will not go through the boot. Just don't go swimming in these boots. And they got pants. We've talked about this, Brian. A lot of people go out, they're wearing their boots,

but they're not wearing pants, and that's frowned on. Usually most municipalities would rather you wear the pants with no boots rather than the boots with no pants. Well, Brunt, they've got you fixed all the way, around because they got boots and pants. Now, if you're a female, I don't know if they have shirts, you might have to go topless.

But everybody has to make some sacrifices in this economy. They have something for everybody, but let's talk about what they have for the listeners, Jim. Well, I'm not trying to discourage the people going topless. It's something that, you know, bring a little joy into the world. But if you want to cover up your feet so that they don't get mangled or tangled on the job, They don't get cold. They don't get wet. They don't get covered with poop. And they're comfy and no blisters or otherwise. Oh, my aching feet. The brunt boots are there and the pants. Zero stiffness. They're lightweight and flexible. They move with you. They even have articulated knees and

reinforced tool clip patches. So you can clip shit on and not rip your pants, Brian. I know that you have a problem when you're putting on your tool belt when you're going to do some high tension wire work and these will not give you a problem course now they're not electric proof you can still be electrocuted in these pants if you do something stupid because the pants don't make you smarter but the boots will protect you from bullshit go to right now to brunt workwear dot com. That's where they can be found. And you're going to get 10% off if you bundle they're a pair of their top boots with a pair of their, well,

their bottom pants. 10% off on the duo right now by going to bruntworkware.com slash JCE. Use the code JCE at checkout for another $10 off on top of that. So here's what you're doing, Brian. You are bundling the boots and the pants for 10% off at bruntworkware.com, and you're using the code JCE to get $10 off the total that you already got 10% off on. How do they do this? How can they afford to stay a business? Well, they can, and they do, and they will, and they love the listeners, and they have a great deal.

Get that starter kit today. Bruntworkware.com slash JCE, 10% off plus 10% discount. No, $10 discount. Yes. It's just an amazing deal all around. It's percentages and hard currency all bundled up into, they're practically giving these things to you. And then, of course, they're going to come to your door and they're going to take one of those little slide rule things

and they're going to measure your feet. We're here at the end, no reason to start making me walk back everything. They will be no one coming to your door with a measurer thing. I thought, well, when I was a kid, you could never get shoes without going, and letting that kind of questionable looking guy fucking stick the thing on your foot. And then I thought it was some kind of code number for, okay, Jim's shoes are code number

because there's all the numbers and all the directions. It looked very, you know, the first time I got my colonoscopy was the only time I've seen something any more complicated than that foot thing. But apparently you can just go to bruntworkware.com and just put your shoe size in and they'll just send you one at fits. they don't have to send the guy out with the foot there won't be a guy once again let's get away from your buster browns

and let's get to brunt jim one more time that promo code the great deal j c e is the promo code at bruntworkware dot com for 10% off the bundle of the boots and pants and $10 off with that code on top of that and it's a risk-free trial depending on whether you i don't know shit yourself or not you can return this stuff if you don't, if you're not happy, but I think if you shit these pants, you pretty much, you bought them. Once again, bruntworkware.com slash JCE, and Jim, we have one more match on Backlash. Yes, we do. And that is our main event of the evening for one of those world ties.

This is the World Heavyweight title now, right? Yeah, because Roman won that, because that's the belt that they made up for like four years. years ago when he would only work three times a year. So now he's got that one. And this is what I mentioned when Sina said, now it's time for your main event. And the commercial breaks and the Gaga. And then Jacob's entrance started. And then Roman's entrance took about twice as long as his entrance did. And then they did the introductions. So we were still not bad. They must have been double parked because it was only like eight and a half minutes from the start of entrances to they rang the actual bell and I love this match I really did Roman

rains this may have been my favorite Roman Raines match because you know normally he does all the shit that he normally does but in this case he was he was doing much of it yes but it it it just it was better to me because he had somebody that was actually kicking a shit out of him and maybe it's because he felt like he had to he's always working with punk or he's always working with Seth or guys that are already made and maybe he needed to make Jacob a little bit more here and that was more exciting to me but it was a fucking a slobber knocker as jr would say a slugger a dog fest.

And yeah, I'm sure there was some Paul Heyman influence as far as the, what do the kids say, spamming a few of the Superman punches or whatever. But to people were up for this and they, even if they did a big move or got a big false finish, they would sell enough to where it was plausible. They would get up. They had a lot of false finishes, but they had a good pace to the thing as, well. But I think the biggest thing is there are still people they they like fatu. When they did a yay boo at one point, I was hearing a yay yay yay. There wasn't these were two mean guys

doing mean shit to each other, but it wasn't like anybody wanted to necessarily boo either one of them until at the end, and that's what I liked about this thing the most, By the end of this thing, and after the match, we'll talk about to finish the second, but they've just, it seems like they've recognized that they cleaned Jacob Fatu up too much, and they're trying to now make him more dangerous.

The Tongan death grip, just the shit that he's doing, whether during or after the match, where he don't particularly want to talk nice or give a shit. does it seem to you like that they're trying to bring back what made people like him to begin with? Well, especially at the end with the finish and the post-match.

Yes. And that's what he should be. He's got to be a crazy maniac again, not a calm. Here's the way I feel, Roman. I'm going to tell you right now. He needs to be a maniac. That's what, that's the way he should have come in. That's the way he should always be booked.

That's the way he got over. Yeah. And that's the thing. If he went, they were played around with the thing. Well, I want what you got because remember when he mentioned, I want the jet and I want the jewelry and I want the,

oh, and I want to send my kids to good schools. After I get the play in the jewelry, I don't necessarily know that harping on that, you know, he has seven kids. Maybe it's not, maybe he's not a,

he's an absentee father or something. I don't want to see this guy or picture him in my mind as having some type of happy domestic life, right? Maybe he's got seven kids. He's paying child support on all these sum bitches. And he, God damn, he was one parole violation away from going back before the WWE thing happened. And he has a moral code to him.

That's the thing. Because eventually he needs to be a baby face. But Jimmy Snooka was a, a violation. violent, savage, you know, jungle animal in almost every territory he was big in before he switched and became superfly. Jacob just needs more time as the werewolf. I don't think they need to concentrate on whether he's happy domestically. And I don't even know if he would want jewelry or not. He just wants to prove he's the best.

He wants to go out there and take the shit and gnaw. the bone and then you can develop that he has a moral code that he just wants to fucking show that he's the dominant man in the in the world and if somebody like hayman or some other sheister individuals were trying to do so he can then blow that off but don't make him a nice guy and don't make him domesticated for this environment So anyway, that's what they basically did. They had a slobber knocker. At one point, Jacob powerbombed Roman through the announced desk.

But there were plenty of spears, and there was plenty of Superman punches, and the occasional moonsault. And finally, and that's another thing is that both these guys can sell in their own distinct way, rather than both of them trying to sell like they're Ricky Morton. That wouldn't work. but they're really milking the Tongan death grip. And finally, going home, Jacob got the grip and Roman was slumping,

but he fired up and went to the eyes and they squashed the referee. And that gave Roman a chance to fucking do a two Superman punches and then a Superman off a pop-up and a spear, but the referee rolls over two counts. holy shit and then Jacob got the grip again and Roman really fight I like the panic

when Roman Raines gets panic on his face it stands out that's the one thing about him because he's always so calm and reserved the panic stands out so Roman is fighting to do something and rips the turnbuckle pad off and it is the referee is taking it away from him

he turns around and runs Jacob the bend of the turnbuckle, hits the spear, boom, one, two, three. But all is not well in the family because Jacob got back on Roman and got the grip and Samoan dropped the referee and here came the agents and Pierce and all the officials.

And he super kicked poor Shane Helms and threw Pierce out of the fucking ring. Nice pump at him, by the way, after all this time. And he had the grip on. on Roman and nobody could pull him off and this is the fucking werewolf, right? This is what we need to see. And then finally

he got off and he started to leave and then he ran back in and got another fucking grip. Oh, God damn. And then he got the belt and stood over Romans. So he may have done the job but he, the

picture we're left with was him holding the belt and standing over Roman's carcass. So obviously this can't be over. Because you just know Roman's going to have to do something about that. Yeah, and Jacob lost, but he went over strong because of the post-match, and he doesn't lose anything by not beating Roman Reigns because of that. I just, I honestly wish they hadn't rushed into the story up to this point

to get this match in the ring so quickly. But now if they'll step back and, well, let's, do a few more flashbacks and just bring us up to date on a few more things in the family history or whatever and give us a little bit more build up to the next one. That's, that's fine. We'll work with them since it's better than everything else that we're looking at. You got to think the next thing will be his confrontation with the Uso's post-Roman Tongan death gripped or whatever. I don't know how you say that in that term, beyond after Roman got the Tongan death grip. Yes, yes. They're going to have to have a conversation.

So at least something's going on there is what I'm saying. But again, in summary, two really good wrestling matches. Since we don't hardly see really good wrestling matches on any of the programs anymore. Why not three? You're saying two. But you didn't have a problem with Rollins and Breaker. You didn't have a problem with Sammy and Trick. Well, no, that's why I'm said two.

Seth and Breaker and Jacob and Roman. When Trick and Sammy was a good match and, you know, those guys are pros. I mean, it's a middle of a card on a pay-per-view or it's a main event on a really good television show, but it wasn't, I don't know that they had reached the point yet where you'd pay to see that or, well, you don't pay to see anything anymore. Well, somebody's paying, but you know what I'm saying. So three good matches, two main event matches. It's come to this that this is, this is.

is better than almost anything else we get lately, so I guess that's something to be happy about. I love it when Dave Meltzer said, well, you know, there's so many great matches in wrestling these days that you can't even count them. I can't count them because I can't find them.

Well, that means you need to study. You need to study more and read. But there it is, WWE backlash. Their backlash against the fans. continues, and Jim, we shall return right after this short commercial timeout. All right, we are here, and we're having more fun. It sounds like you ought to be passing a collection plate. I don't know what the hell that's supposed to mean.

There's a lot of people that really get a lot of joy out of what I do here. Do they do that in your branch? Because all of the old Southern Christian religions, they're just passing you a goddamn plate to give you, give them some money every time you turn around. I'm Jewish. The rabbi's sometimes nice enough to come to the house and ask for money. But Jim, let's get to a pallet cleanser before we get to more contemporary wrestling and whatever else we have in store for everyone. A special edition against the program. Oh! This is a... Out of nowhere.

Out of nowhere, but a challenge for you. We're going for precision. There is a no excuse for the lack of precision from you. Oh, good Lord. We're going to go through these programs, and you're going to give us to the best of your ability, the location, and the date. And there's no reason you shouldn't be able to do it. And this is going to be some kind of, and see, I have no foreknowledge.

These, this has been sprung upon me, so I don't have the Midnight Express scrapbook or anything in front of me. So you're probably going to pitch me some shit that I did. and hopefully I will remember when the fuck it was. I bet you. Well, let's start with this one. Because I'll look like a fool if I can't tell you off top of my head what I was doing when I was doing it.

Jim, the opening contest, the Exterminators versus Jim Garvin and Tommy Gilbert. Oh, okay. The second event, Rocky Johnson versus Ken Dillinger. A special revenge match, Bill Dundee, versus bad, bad, Leroy Brown. A return NWA Southern Heavyweight Tag

Tag Title Championship match, no disqualification, the champions, Phil Hickerson and Dennis Condry, versus Tommy Rich and King Sylvester Ritter. Ha ha, ha, ha. An intermission, and finally the main event,

a return NWA Southern Heavyweight title match, the challenger, Jerry Lawler, versus the champion, Paul Orndorf. And obviously, that is the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, Tennessee, I would think. But hold on here. Because it, well, no, see, here, here's a little, there's a little factoid for you. that Lawler was hand-drawing the card because it wasn't like just a typeset card, but it's like the comic book lettering, was hand-drawn the card during that era.

And I would say because intermission, that would have, they usually only put the intermission in a Memphis card, but during this period of time, he had started doing the Evansville, and Louisville inserts also. So having said that, I'm wondered if we might be at the gardens. Well, I can tell you this. Jimmy Garvin was really Jimmy Garvin before he became gorgeous Jimmy Garvin,

but after he was the skinny, blonde manager, Jimmy Garvin of his alleged brothers, Ron and Terry Garvin, who were also alleged brothers. And this was the, maybe close to the first singles run that he had had since not having blonde hair and becoming a wrestler rather than a manager. And obviously Tommy Gilbert was Eddie's dad

and a Tennessee legend. The exterminators were and they had tied-died outfits and God damn it I can see one of them as plain as day and I can't remember what their fucking names were. One of them might have been Jim Dalton. But nevertheless, Rocky Johnson,

everybody knows. Ken Dillinger around that time was a, Ken Dillinger was a guy that would come into territory and he would work the cowboy gimmick or elsewise he could just do any like lawler made him Dr. Frank and then I think he came back a while later on he was Igor the mass Igor right some other horror movie mask

and he didn't give a shit he did whatever Dundee was working with bad bad Leroy Brown and this was leading into of Luller ended up with some type of allegiance with bad, bad Lerreau because he had a program with Dundee. And they used Leroy Brown as the first guy. And Lawler said, he could beat you twice in 10 minutes, right? And then Leroy Brown couldn't.

And then Dundee beat Leroy, Leroy Brown. And I'll beat you twice in 10 minutes myself. That type of thing. into the goddamn big summer program. The Southern tag team title with Phil Hickerson and Dennis Condry, they obviously were multiple-time champions because Phil and Dennis would go from, this was right after the split. So Jarrett's end of the territory, the Memphis end, Louisville, Evansville, et cetera.

And then they might go to work for six months for Nick. in Nashville and Birmingham and Chattanooga or then go to work for the Fullers in Knoxville and the Tri-Cities in East Tennessee and they would just rotate around having the territory tag belts of whatever territory they were in. Tommy Rich had just come off of his first,

well, I was going to say first full rookie year, but 75 was a full year for him. So this is early 1970. and he had already had a run with the Southern title after being tag champions with Tojo and et cetera, and then working the program with Lawler. And it would not be too long until Barnett would find out about this cherub-faced, fiery baby face in Tennessee and making the biggest baby face in the fucking wrestling business on Atlanta TV. I'm thinking

this was this may have been the program that Tommy was working when to explain him going to Georgia, well, not to explain him going to Georgia, but explained him leaving the territory. The Hickerson and Condry piled drove him on the concrete floor, at least in Louisville, and I think probably in the other towns as well, and they carried him out to explain why

we never saw Tommy Rich again until people started getting fucking cable. This might have been that program. Sylvester Ritter, King Sylvester Ritter, who they brought in with a crown like Lawler, I think they were going to try to do something with him and Lawler, Crown versus Crown, but he didn't stay long,

and the fans were not particularly sorry to see him go, but he would later become the junkyard dog. And what was it? Probably a year, year and a half from this point, Brian, that Watts would get a hold of him? Oh, I don't know if I could get it that way. I think that would kind of be helping you out. Well, I know it's,

I'm just trying to remember whether this would be May or, it's between late April and late May that one month, period of time in 1977. And I just don't know whether it would be Louisville or Memphis. Well, you have to pick one. Well, oh, and I forgot. Southern title, obviously. Paul Orndorf was sent to the territory after training in Florida with Eddie Graham.

Eddie called Jerry Jared up because Jarrett's just started his own company. A, I got this kid that needs Expeer, whatever the conversation was, but here, take this fucking guy, look at him physically, he's incredible, he's going to be a big prospect, give him some experience. So they brought him in

and gave him three or four weeks of wins on TV and at the house shows, and then Lawler put him over for the Southern title. It was the first belt that Orndorf ever had won. He hadn't been wrestling in front of people, but like what, maybe six or eight weeks or whatever. And he did a one-punch knockout. Because they were getting Orndorf over as a great wrestler and a great athlete.

But Lawler, you know, he was trying to be a baby face and wrestle because he was still, he had no experience. So they were keeping it basic, right? and Lawler made him lose his temper so bad that he just uncorked a left hand because Orndorf was left handed out of nowhere and knocked Lawler out, boom, and pinned him one, two, three. Which was such a fucking shock that everybody was, oh, Jesus. And people bought him as they didn't know that he had never, they thought he, they saw footage of him training in Florida.

They didn't know that he'd actually just graduated wrestling school. This was the old he. Matsuda training shit where they're doing back bridges with their legs interlocked and then doing sit-ups and shit. Him and Backland. So this, they took him as a heavy duty fucking guy that looked like he kicked the shit out of the entire roster, which he could. So anyway, it's Louisville.

How about that? Tuesday night, Louisville wrestling at the Louisville Gardens. There you go. June 14th, 1970. Okay. All right. I was off by a month because it was pretty good.

This was their, then Lawler won it back because he was about to do the thing with Dundee, who was about to be done with Lee Roy Brown. The baddest man in the whole damn town. Here's a note inside the program. Inside Ringside by Jim Black. Editorial.

as you may have noticed the price on the cover is now 50 cents we're not apologizing for what rising paper and printing costs have forced us to do if we want to continue to give you the program that we know you want

some of you may remember the old 25 cent programs that grace the arena for 17 years granted you got the card for the evening but the pictures were of wrestlers in one pose and that pose was the same every time

there was a program every week, every fucking week for years. It would be pictures of Al Green with fucking hair from the 50s. Or anyway, go ahead. But the pictures were of the wrestlers in one pose and that pose was the same every time

there was a program with no commentary. This is going to be a quote verbatim. This is not the product we offer. A action ringside is expanding to include even more pictures. New every week. News and interviews, letters, columns, and polls with your favorite or hated wrestlers. We encourage your support and comments.

Write us at Action Rings Side 4272 Westover in Memphis, Tennessee. Is there a photographer's name? on, and I'll explain why I'm asking in a minute, but you can look around at photos by somebody, was it a Larry somebody or other? Here's what happened was in Memphis, they always had a program, as they said they're going back to the 50s.

And it was a 25 cent and sometimes even cheaper back then, you know, a program with all those old pictures and bullshit. Louisville only briefly from 1970 till 1977 had a program this this lady did it like four or five issues in 1973 or whatever and it blah but Louisville didn't have a program and Evansville didn't have a program but when Jared is split off from Goulis and Jarrett and Lawler based in Memphis new newspaper photographer there, knew the record producers, Jim Blake,

and I don't know about, I don't know if this Jim Black, because I never met him, was a nom de plume or whatever. I should say, Scott Teal has always said that he was secretly helping Lawler at the beginning with the programs until Jerry Jarrett found out

and him and Jerry Jarrett didn't get along. Well, okay, then that makes sense, Because, see, people are going to say, well, why do you know, Cornett? And this was when I had just started in Louisville at the end of 76. And they didn't immediately say, oh, my God, this guy's going to go on to be a Hall of Fame photographer and shoot all this shit and whatever the fuck. So we'll just drop everybody else, right? I'm like, I was a doofy kid in fucking Louisville. But Loller had the people and he had somebody.

It wasn't Scott that was going there personally. and shooting the pictures. There was a photographer that he had there. And the point is there were nicer programs as a result that then were sold in Louisville and Evansville, all of Jarrett's towns. And they did have newer pictures, mostly all taken in Memphis. By, I believe this, because it didn't look anything like Scott's work either. It was completely, it didn't use a flash, different method of photography, whatever.

but then, and I was buying them up here. I didn't, you know, they hadn't asked me to do anything like that yet. But then they started, they got real simple and the polls and the voting and all this other stuff went away. And the guy that was taking these kind of unique style of pictures in the locker room in Memphis. You didn't see that anymore. And then that's when Lawler started asking me, hey, give me some. some pictures in black and white for the fucking program. And then they had one from then on, but it didn't look like that, and they didn't go to that

much trouble. Well, there's some interesting things in this program. We'll get to some other programs momentarily. Photos by Larry Coyne. That's with that, Larry Coyne. Action Ringside, Volume 1, number 13, published weekly by Barbary Pubs with cooperation from the Jarrett Welch Wrestling Company. Nothing reprinted without permission, copyright 1977, Barbury Pubs.

This program was printed on Friday due to the matches being on Sunday. Any changes in the card resulting from TV will be announced at ringside. Well, and remember I've said that before, that if they were going to shoot an angle on Saturday morning TV to change the card that was going to be in the Coliseum, either Sunday or Monday, to add a grudge match or, you know, they'd done a, an angle or whatever, because the, not only the printing deadline, but also the newspaper deadline to get their ad for the matches that week in the Saturday paper was Friday

afternoon, so they would actually sometimes book a false booked card and then change it on TV on the spot, and that's what people would expect to see. You know, you brought up the inserts in here. The insert is obviously the card for Louisville, and then is another insert. really put a lot into this program. On one side, it's Rathamaius is coming. And on the other side, get ready, cowboy Bob Ellis coming soon. Yeah. And inside the insert, it has one of the great Lawler drawings of Jerry Calhoun. I am blind sitting there selling pencils on the street. And then, is this one of your photos? It's Andre Hip Tossing Lawler. It says matches we'd like to see.

Lawler versus Andre the Giant and then it has a little form at the bottom this is our match we'd like to see now tell us yours and you fill it in and you say that's not my picture though that's Mike Shields that's Mike Shields oh wow Mike Shields from Memphis he came up to Louisville

specifically to shoot that because again that was I got it again this that was before the program we just talked about so I'd been doing that for a couple months so yeah when Lawler's working with Andre he had the guy that had been doing it come up. And that's actually in my book, Heroes and Friends is the picture

of Mike Shields took of Lawler with a headlock on Andre while I'm on the other side of the ring taking a picture up, which turned out cool. There's a picture of Lawler's ring attendant and advisor, Mickey Pool. Mickey Pool. Standing there eating popcorn. What a picture to use here. He was the fucking guy.

him and his father or family were the ones that knew Vernon Presley, Elvis's father. And the reason why that Lawler got Mickey Pool into wrestling business is because they legitimately had floated the, Elvis had heard the idea. There was no record of what his response was, good, bad, or indifferent, but he had been presented with the idea to have a karate versus wrestling match in the Mid-South Coliseum with Jerry Lawler. That's why Mickey Poole's showed up for that period of time because he was the guy,

from what I understand, that his, they knew Elvis's dad. And this is right before Elvis died, right? Summer 77. Yes, he's still alive. And then after, after, oh, God, damn it. I just realized that after Elvis died, Lawler turned baby face. After Elvis died, they shaved Mickey Poole's head, then Lawler turned baby face and dropped him. And Mickey Poole was managing the fucking Samoans, not even Afa and Sika, Tio, and Tapu.

And then I think they made him wrestle the bear. And I don't know. know of Mickey, I don't think he made it in a 1978. Oh, God damn it. I just thought, I'd never put all that together when I was a kid. Oh, on the back on the program, Jim, the American Dream Dusty Road, Blue-Eyed Soul.

In the front, it also mentions, published weekly in the interest of pro wrestling and as a service for the fans wishing a souvenir of the live matches. All right, you did good with that one. The fans had been serviced. This is a fascinating one. sweet brown sugar versus Rick Morton Bobby Eaton

versus Roy Rogers Stan Lane versus McCord That's all it says It's Rick McCord The Midnight Express Conjory Rose Austin versus Bill Dundee

and Steve Kern a grudge match losers will get 10 lashes each Rick and Robert Gibson versus Cuban and Iranian assassins with heart and finally

a special challenge title match the Southern title and ring placed in a bag suspended above ring on a wire a ladder placed outside the ring first man to get ladder in the ring

climb it and get bag wins both Dutch Mantell versus dream machine with heart yeath yeath okay starting at the top

sweet brown sugar was at that time was Cocoa Ware and the sweet brown sugar gimmick had been done before in Florida and I'd say Southwest and wherever by Skip Young. But in this case, Coco had been a big. Coco started in this territory. It was from Union City, Tennessee, and he broke in with a Herb Welch for fuck's sake. And but nevertheless, when they switched him heel and made him part of Jimmy Hart's first family, that was, and he worked a program with Lawler. That was his first big break. And instead of

going with Jerry Lawler versus Cocoa, where everybody had seen him for the previous three years ago, they sweet brown sugar. But now the reason he's in the opening match is because this was a period of time where pretty much all the heels, except for the Midnight Express, were part of Jimmy Hart's first family. So they would move up and down. They were interchangeable. Coco had been in main events with Lawler. Now he's opening the show.

Ricky Morton was yet to obviously team with Robert Gibson, reason being the Gibson brothers are still together and on the card here. And we know where he would go on, but at that point, Ricky had been used in the territory, but he wasn't like a main event guy at that particular time, especially. Bobby Eaton, that kid, we know who he is. He was still a member of the first family. He wouldn't switch until 1983, and this is the year before.

Roy Rogers would later become Johnny Rich. Brian, the folks remember, am I still too far back? Johnny and Davy Rich in Continental and Southeastern? they were cousins of Tommy Wildfire Rich. They were the party patrol or whatever their gimmick was at that point in time. The rat patrol. No, no.

There was a rat patrol. Oh, no, that was Tonga kid and maybe Steve Armstrong and Scott Armstrong and maybe Johnny Rich. Yeah. But he was still Roy Rogers. And he was, but shoot, he was related to Tommy Rich cousins, whatever.

And he broke. in this territory and this was his rookie year. Stan Lane had, you know, it's amazing. Stan had already been feet, was on top in Hart's first family, but had also been the junior heavyweight champion in the continental territory and had worked in Georgia at a variety of places. He had still only been a full-time guy three and a half years. at this point.

And Rick McCord was Rick McCord from Salem, Virginia. Fine, fiery young, blonde baby face. Okay. Dundee and Kern, it wasn't a handicap match, but they were wrestling Condry, Randy Rose, and Norville Austin,

who were doing the Freebird Rule three-man Midnight Express tag team here. And so they would pick, and usually it would be Dennis and Randy. but sometimes they'd switch it up. And obviously was Stan as a heel and Steve Kern teaming with Dundee, and they're the baby faces. This was pre-fabrication of the fabulous ones.

But Steve and Stan had both been in the territory in various roles before they put them together. And Stan is just about ready probably to turn baby face. They're not even, Jared hadn't even had the idea for the fabs yet. Nevertheless, Ricky and Robert Gibson, the original Ricky and Robert, this was a program with the Cuban and Iranian assassins, and it was legitimately the Cuban assassin, Angel Acevedo, from, well, in fact, West Virginia transplant.

I don't know if he was born there, but he's a legend over there. but the Iranian assassin was Jack Kruger he worked he was bruiser's ring guy for years and he hauled the ring and then they broke him in as Jack

Cougar and he was in Indiana in like the late 70s working underneath Jack Cougar but his real name was Jack Kruger but then because he was so hairy and he was a

He was a good worker at his own way, but he was a good heel. He had the big beard and he was a good bumper. And because the fuel crisis was taking place, you know, they made him the Iranian assassin. And on the ass of his tights, he had printed in big black letters, oil. Some things are evergreen, right? And he had the pointy-toed boots, too. He was my favorite, like, the sheveled 1980s referee.

Like, he just looked like a referee. Just he was sweaty. That's right. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. Well, because he, well, because that's right after his run in the ring, he got a job doing their ring. And all their referees were guys who were on their ring crew back then.

Oil. Oil. Yeah. And then Dutch Mantell and a dream machine. it was the I got I can't remember now how a ring a diamond ring had come into play

but it was a southern title and they had taken this there had been no ladder matches per se on a mainstream basis yet but they still they had taken this idea of the ladder match from remember of

in Stampede Wrestling in Calgary who was the Booker then? Dan Crockett had done the thing with Brett tells the story where they had a ladder match to some extent. Well, several of these guys, I don't know who might have pitched it, but several of these guys had been to fucking Calgary. But they just had that, and they had to explain it out in the program like that

because nobody had any concept of what a ladder match was or how this whole thing would work. So they had to literally write the rules out for people to be able to get the concept. Anyway, and now, you know, but hold on it. The thing is now I thought it was going to be early 82, but I think I've talked myself into late 81. And I think we've got to be back in Louisville again.

You've just got a bunch of goddamn Louisville programs, what you've done here, fella, because I think I saw this card, too. I was thinking you probably saw this card. But I'm gonna, Jesus Christ, I'm bad on the month there. Would I be completely out of my mind

if I said that it was November of 1981? You'd be completely out of your mind. When, when is it? The date Wednesday, December 9th, 1981, Evansville, Indiana. Ah, all right, I was a month off and 100 miles too far west. Now, you would have been there, right? At least.

Yeah, I would have been there, yes. But I'm pretty sure they had the same goddamn car tonight before in Louisville, as what I'm saying. Let me hit you with this one real quick. Again, we're going for precision, and you were at a lot of these shows, and I'm dying. I know if you were at this one. Buddy Wayne versus Chief Thundercloud. The Heartbreakers with Chick Donovan. versus Cocoa Ware and Roy Rogers.

Wait a minute you're going, I'm trying to scribble this down versus Roy and who? Coco. Coco, okay. Eight-man tag team match, Jerry Lawler, Steve Kern, Rick and Robert Gibson, versus Dream Machine, Bugsy McGraw, and the Nightmares. Southern Tag title match, Mr. Oneida, Asafuchi with Tojo Yamamoto versus Bill Dundee and Steve Kern. A bullwhip and fighting stick match.

Whip on pole, fighting stick on ladder, no time limit, no disqualification. Tojo and Dutch. Lumberjacks around the ring. Dutch Mantel versus Tojo Yamamoto. And finally, the main event. Southern heavyweight title match No time limit No disqualification

Loser to be tarred and feathered in the ring Jerry Lawler versus Dream Machine With Jimmy Hart Oh good Lord Oh I'm just scribbling up But hold on here You jumped all over that Dutch and Tojo match

As soon as I mentioned it Yeah because I remember Because the fucking funny thing was putting Tojo I told you it was five foot three. And with that physique of like a potato with arms and legs. And the idea of him climbing a ladder just, and that's the thing is the place roared when he got to the second fucking step because it was just such a sight.

I got here, hold on. First of all, Buddy Wayne was not the modern Buddy Wayne from the Pacific Northwest, but his real name was Dwayne. Peel, but he worked as Buddy Wayne or Buddy Wayne Peel in the Southern territories, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, et cetera, from the 50s. As a matter of fact, he was at the Sputnik Monroe and Billy Wicks match at the ballpark and had just made his pro debut over at the Ellis Auditorium like three weeks before that in 1959.

And Buddy also promoted towns and took the ring places. And that may be a clue. Well, except this was a time when they were just doing big cards. I think we're in Memphis. I think this one. But nevertheless, again, it might be a Louisville also because there were so many similar cards. However, if you saw Buddy Wayne on an opening match a lot of times

because he'd brought the ring anyway and he got an extra payoff to work. Chief Thundercloud was Chief Thundercloud, best known in this territory as a partner of Danny Little Bear, they were a fucking impressive looking tag team visually and they could do their shit. The heartbreakers were God damn it, Joe Kagle and Rocky Sorter, who were

two guys that had been working outlaw I think somewhere over, like it, maybe in Georgetown, Kentucky or whatever, and they got a chance as a bleach blonde, you know, underneath, undercard, questionably gendered of those days type of tag team. You know what I'm saying, Brian? I don't know how to say it anymore. People tended to think they had something going on with each other. And they put Chick Donovan in their corner as their manager,

because poor chick, he was a fucking top guy in Hart's family and horribly injured his knee and was in a big cast and everything and they were trying to find some way to keep him on the card against Roy Rogers and Coco where this was before Coco became sweet brown sugar. So this is the previous summer to that Evansville card that we just talked about in whatever month I got wrong, December, November, whatever. The Dream Machine, Bugsie McGraw and the nightmares were also all

in the first family at that time, and the nightmares, God, I'd have to, I don't even know if I'd have that written down, but the nightmare started out as Danny Davis and Ted Allen.

But it won't even down the rabbit hole of, they made a switch. Ted went back to Georgia and Kenny Wayne became the other nightmare. And actually, no, God damn it, I tell a lie. The very first nightmares were Danny Davis and David Oswald, who was a job guy from Memphis, and he didn't work out. And then it was Danny Davis and Ted Allen. And it ended up that. they brought Ken in when Alan went away, but that's when Ken became speed, nightmare and speed, because he had blonde hair and they could tell the difference. Am I going into too much detail?

No, this is fantastic. Okay, so, and Bugsy McGraw was, he worked because he was different and he wasn't here long and bless him, he was a wonderful guy, but he didn't have the, it was later on in his career, and he didn't have the snap that a lot of the guys in Memphis had, but he still had the athleticism from when he was a young fellow. But his promos were great. So anyway, Lawler and Kern

and the Gibsons are the baby faces. We already know who they are. And they're having this eight man simply to jazz up the card and make it a super spectacular because the guys in the eight man are going to come back and work these fucking angle matches. Dundee and Kern against O'Neill.

Nita and Fucci, because Oneida and Fucci had been sent over to the United States from Baba, and Tojo was their manager legitimately, since Tojo, who could speak to them and to whoever, like, I've told you that, fucking Masafuchi walked up to Christine Jarrett one night, to back of the Louisville Gardens, and just, and said, Thursday. Thursday. And she said, no, today, Tuesday, Tuesday. No, Thursday, Thursday. And then he starts taking a drink out of an imaginary glass.

He was saying he's thirsty. Where can he get a drink? He's thirsty, right? These guys couldn't communicate at that point. So they had Tojo take him around, so he's their manager on camera too. And the fighting stick is a Kendo stick, because no. Nobody knew what the fuck that was either. Right?

If you said Kendo Stick in 1981, which this was, people were, what the fuck are you talking about? So it's the Oriental fighting stick that the Japanese people used to beat the baby faces up with. But nevertheless, so Oneida and Fucci were the team going against Dundee and Kern

and then Dutch, and I can't remember the angle chapter and verse. there was 52 hours of TV a year and 52 of these live shows a year in every single one of these cities. But the idea was that all the stipulations that you mentioned, the whip, which was Dutch Mantell's gimmick, the bull whip and the fighting stick that's tojo's and one's on the pole and one's on the thing and anything goes. And goddamn, somebody's going to get whipped and stuck. and then Lawler and Dream Machine, which the Dream Machine had Troy Graham, had been Lawler's opponent when Lawler came back from the broken leg.

And I do remember that date, December 29, 1980, because he had been out almost all year of 1980 with the broken leg that he got in the football game and the business had gone in the toilet. and they needed just an opponent for his return. They already had for the rematches later lined up, Joe LaDuke to come back, Austin Idol to come back, Terry Funk to come back, Dory Fogg, blah, blah, blah. But the return was going to sell out if Jimmy Hart had a strong opponent for him.

And the idea was that Lawler would beat that guy and get a hold of Jimmy Hart for five minutes. and, you know, they'd get to see Lawler get even until next week when Hart got more heat. And so they sold out. Troy had never been, I don't know if he'd been on a show that had drawn three or four thousand people at that point in his career. And he was in the main event in front of 11,069. and he did such a good job they kept him on as the dream machine and whenever the big stars weren't coming in to make Memphis or whatever they still had an angle with him and Lawler in all the other towns and so in this case the Tarring and Feathering

and again I've got pictures of Dream Tard and Feathered I assure you it wasn't Lawler and it was molasses and feathers be honest but that had stemmed from an angle they did on television and Jimmy got some on him at some point also during that Jimmy got some on him. I love that stuff. No one can yell the name Lawler better than Dream Machine. Yeah, Lala!

You try to treat me like a fool! He's a masked guy with a funny way of talking and you believe everything he's saying. It's incredible. and he tackles Lance Russell he runs out there tackles Lance Russell the alley-oop video they

they were making the first round of music videos right on with this new thing called MTV on on cable uh fucking Jared picked up with the fabulous ones but all the music videos even before that so they made a video of the dream machine

because Troy especially before he lost weight he was a chubby fellow and also there was some times where he either tripped or he was off or whatever and they put together like a blooper take and set it to alley-oop they're the man in the funny papes we all know ali-oop oop and the hollywood argals kid look it up and written by kim fowley there you go and so and it made he look like an idiot when all these other guys that got all the rock and roll music and he came out and he was supposed to grab. Nobody ever touched Lance, right?

He was supposed to grab Lance by the lapels and scream at him. Yes. But what, Troy was coming with excitement and, you know, whatever. And Lance was standing right in front of the platform that the desk of the TV set was set on that went up about eight or ten inches off the ground. So it was like a fucking little schoolboy thing waiting to happen. When he grabbed Lance, Lance's legs were tripped from behind him, and he pulled Troy down with him.

My good, the people thought that Dream had taken Lance down and it looked like an assassination attempt. Oh, God, Almighty. And they'd got the thing over, but it was, you know. I think, and I could be wrong because there were so many great Dream Machine angles like that, but I think that's the one where, while Eddie Marlin and Jimmy Harder, like, helping Lance back up and Jimmy Hart as the heel manager is like apologizing the Lance yes dream machine gets on the bike he's like oh I'm gonna kill you

oh it's so good it's so good Jimmy was Jimmy was apologizing the Lance for a shoot he was like you know what I'm talking dream told me later he's like well she I might get fine. I might get fired, but you know, but anyway, I mean, this again, they didn't do this one in Evansville, I don't believe. But this might be either Memphis or Louisville or perhaps, dare I say, even a Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky at this point, because this looks, they would want to beef that card up. I don't think it was Memphis. I think it's Rupp Arena.

And good Lord, would this be July 1981? Either way, very impressive. Thursday, September 3rd, 1981, Rupp Arena, Lexington, Kentucky. Yeah, I see, I was trying to back it up into the summertime because he would, Coco was still Coco, but then again, they were about ready to shoot that,

and that means that he would have had eight weeks to establish himself a sweet brown sugar before the Evansville card that you just quoted earlier. Watch Championship Wrestling Channel 18, W-L-E-X-TV, Saturday noon. The NBC affiliate in Lexington, Kentucky, at a time when there were still Do you know how many television stations there were in Lexington at that point in time in 1981? That's a pretty big town in Kentucky, three or four at least. Three.

An ABC station, an NBC station, a CBS station. Louisville had had one independent station, WDRB since 1971. Lexington didn't have one yet. So that was a station that if you lived in the Lexington, you know, broadcast market, the ADI, as the television industry folks used to say, there was a 33 and a third percent chance you were going to be watched that station if you were watching television at all.

And the fuck, it was a, it was an incredible, get to get the station, but then it was an incredible time slot once you had it. That's why Lexington blew up like that, especially with the kids from the UK, the girls, especially. But all of the people from Danville are surrounding areas that got that broadcast, and Rupp Arena was a cool place to go, and it wasn't even 10 years old at that point. So it was a big fucking deal. They were doing it.

I can't imagine. the population of Lexington in 181 was 150,000 people and they were doing 6 to 8,000 first Thursday of every month. When did they first start running there? Because when was the time that Randy Savage, like,

was it that he went after Lance Russell or he was screaming at Lance Russell as he was going to his car? You know what I'm talking about? Well, and he never went after nobody went after Lance. I mean, you don't know,

but no, but no, it wasn't, but no, the screaming, that was a 70 they started running Rup Arena in May 78 I think and this was they had already been there a year more than a year before the Pafos became a promotion

but these the confrontations happened mostly around the 80 81ish time period of them well it's 79 80ish and by the time that Savage and Dundee had their business. They had already, Rupp Arena didn't appreciate them doing that, gave the Jarrett guys extra security.

It had been discouraged, you know, for them to come, but they came for a number of shows and would either yell at the guys from the parking lot when they were coming in or they got at least once they got the ringside seats where they could stand up and make grandstand challenges and all that shit.

but there were they never actually got there for that that must have been so great but they never actually got any violence you know going on in or around the building it all they all happen in other locations like i always picture like randy savage climbing a fence to like yell at lance russell like just you know shaking the fence and screaming at him well see that's a thing lance came because lance had gotten the tv in lexington for jaret because the show in Memphis was such a tremendous success, but because Lance also had the programming job background with the station, WHBQ, he knew the executive at WLEX,

and he could say, look, our programs on Wave in Louisville, 75 miles away, same thing, Saturday morning NBC Station, and I, we have tremendous success down here in Memphis, you ought to clear this thing. And they had it for probably six or seven years in the mid-80s, whatever the fuck happened happened. But yeah, it was incredible. It was the best,

it was the best per capita turnout in the Tennessee territory in Lexington, Kentucky, when you consider the size of the crowds and the population. And which channel was ICW on in Lexington? they were on the what are the call letters god damn they're still the sad they used to be a different call letter it was a channel 62 this was a UHF channel that some people might not have been able to get it outside the parking lot of the station it originally was channel 62 when they debuted on it and then somehow they got an upgrade later on to it's now channel and has been channel 36 I believe.

Coincidentally enough, my favorite UHF channel is U62 as well. Well, my favorite channel is 69. Or as Nikola Vockoff would say 68, give me one and I'll owe you a bond. But it was so they were, yeah, that's the thing is they were the, I think they were the ABC affiliate, and it was channel 62, and it didn't have the signal,

and then they upgraded, during the ICW, you know, period of time, but they started out with a really weak TV. Well, that was the opposite of a week guest to program, the Memphis Territory Edition. We'll do that again, a themed one like that again in the future because that was a lot of fun. And some great wrestling history,

you powered up the audience with great wrestling history. They are not going to get anywhere else. And you know, you may also have to power up your devices. And I'm banging the table. But Jim, I'm going to set up. You might have to power up your segways. Yeah. Take a gym.

Power up the segue. A speed, a speed ball coming right, a sidearm right down the line. Boom, I'll catch it barehanded. Folks, I'll tell you what, if you need to plug some shit in and charge some shit up, and we're not talking charge stuff where you got to pay for it later. We're talking zapping it. We're talking giving it to power. We're talking letting the electricity

course through its veins, maybe until the power and the lightning bolts come out of the fingertips and we're going to ride the edge of that lightning boat all the way to Ridge, because that's where they got the power bank and that's if you're going to have power, you need to put it in the bank,

where it can grow interest and then shock you with the system. Folks, the Ridge Power Bank, all jocularity aside, is something that you've got to pretty much have these days. Because every time you leave the house, you know, you've got to have a phone. And then these people with two good ears, unlike me,

they got to have headphones. And you've got to have a watch that you've got to plug in and charge sometimes because it tells you what your blood pressure is and how many steps you've taken and how much longer you have to live in just in days, weeks, and months. They ain't got down to the minutes yet.

and you got to charge up your book that you're reading because Lord knows nobody can have anything on paper anymore but you got to charge all these things you got to plug them in and they all got different cords and they all got different plugs and it's the USB cord and the IBC cord and the HVAC cord and then the fucking FU cord and you've got to do all this stuff

somehow while you're on the go and you're hurry scurry life. Brian, you have a hurry, scurry life. Do you have time to be sticking something in the wall to plug it in just willy-nilly all day long? You know, when you're running around and you have things to do, that is the one thing you always forget. I forgot to charge this. I forgot to charge that. But with the wonderful... That's right. Wonderful, wonderful Ridge, uh, power bank. That's what it is. You don't have to worry about any of these things anymore. You don't even have to remember think about it at all. Do you remember what the name of the fucking thing is?

That's the Ridge way. That's the Ridge way. They don't want you to think about them at all because they're no problem to you in your life. And I know what you mean. You're always thinking you forgot. I went out the other day. I forgot that I wasn't wearing any underpants. But like everything, Ridge makes folks, it's built to last with free shipping and 99-day risk-free trial at a lifetime warranty.

So this power bank basically plugs all your stuff. stuff in. They've got the MagSafe wireless charging, the Apple Watch charger, the lightning, the USBC. They got 20 watts of power. It can charge your phone as fast as the phone can possibly be charged. It can be charged no faster.

Then this son of a bitch right here is going to do it. And if anybody, just plug it into the local goddamn light pole or something. Just get one of those high tension cables and stick your phone in there. It's not the way. It'll just, it ain't going to charge it any quicker. It'll just zap it. That won't do, no, don't do any of this. And these power banks come in a variety of

odd colors as well as black. I don't know about orange. Well, base camp orange. Is that like a rotted orange where they've made the camp there and it's rotted somehow? It's a base of the mountain. What would base camp orange be?

I have no idea. Yeah, I'd stick with Matt Black if I were you folks, because that'll go with everything. Little black dress, little black charger. Wonder if these things also, you can connect those Wi-Fi vibrators to them where you can turn them on from a distance.

That's not exactly. I don't... That would be charging of a different kind. Because I don't think that's how this would work in any way. Yeah, see, that's completely different electrical transmission. Once again, you can power your phones and force your tablets.

And they'll vibrate. If you put them on, vibrate. And folks, this comes with an LED charge status indicator that tells you the battery and charge levels, and it's got an integrated kickstand. So you can just lean up on this thing, I guess, also. But it's a very small thing. You'd have to be a small person. Oh, it's for effortless hands-free viewing while your phone powers up. You can just lean it up there and set the phone, and it'll charge the phone while you look at the phone.

because nobody can get away from their goddamn phone. Slim, modern RFID blocking technology that's built to last. I'm telling you the Ridge wallet as well as the Ridge Power Bank. You get all these things from Ridge and you can be safe.

That's right. Don't you agree? Be safe and power up with the fine products from Ridge. Ridge.com slash JCE, 10% sent off with the Oh, I forgot to mention that, didn't I? Yeah, you can save money too.

Well, we always save the people money. Why would they think we're asking them to pay retail? What the fuck? You're trying to live like animals? You go to ridge.com, R-I-D-G-E, just like over the ridge, down through the valley to Grandma's house. Ridge.com and use the code J-C-E, and you will be all set for the 10% off, and then let them know that we sent you.

You can go and pay the full price over at Best Buy if you want to. It's available there. You can go stare at it there. And then don't give them the money. Go to ridge.com and save 10%. Once again, Ridge. Ridge.com slash J-C-E. Good God.

Good God, we are here. Dallas Page's original catchphrase, and then somehow he dropped that. I haven't been so startled since my last colonoscopy. Well, Jim, speaking of colonoscopies, A.E.W. had A.W. Collision last week. Hi, kid, but a very interesting AEW collision, a lot of listeners wanted to get your thoughts on it, even if you didn't watch the event, which no one expected you to do. Well, but it was AEW Fair Way to Hell, collision, taking place in a. venue that is a golfing

arena, but let's get your thoughts on whatever you know. A golfing arena. What else would you call it? Wouldn't you call it that? What is the, what do they call it? What's the name of the place again? It is a... We just looked for it. It is the Sofi Center. But I mean, they have the, what kind of golf do they have there? The TMRL Golf League,

aka TGL. It is an indoor golf. It's an indoor golf facility. What it looks like is a giant airplane hanger with a golf semi-golf course in it with bleachers around this giant area, but it's not like a stadium.

There's like five rows of bleachers, but it just goes around this whole thing and they watch people play golf while they put different backgrounds up on a screen so you can be golfing in like a fucking S&M club in Soho or something, where it's all virtually interactive. And the point is it looked like they went into an abandoned bus station with good lighting. They put a golf course and a wrestling ring in it. That's why I was fascinated.

There was like two rows of people kind of standing there on the floor, and then there were people up in the thing. And what the fuck? What's next, Chuckie Cheese? That's why when you told me about the location, I had to, I looked at their, obviously we don't watch collision, but I looked at their YouTube clips of this thing. and besides the five,

who ricochet helped Davis beat Hootie beat Jack Perry Jack Perry. Joel Jungle Jack is over on collision serving his penins still with a golf club dressed as a golfer

but at least they were in the ring then the clips of Darby Allen and Pack they spent to first however long taking bumps in the sand trap and suplexing each other in the sand trap and then according to their own highlights

on their own YouTube channel pack through Darby off the goddamn bleachers of this giant place through three or four tables or however many it was on the floor in the middle of the match

and then gave him a tombstone pile driver on the steel stairs and then Darby came back and beat the shit out of him but won the match and then, are they going to be doing collision at birthday parties next?

What is this place? Why would they do this thing? See, this is where you and I may disagree. Taking the content of AEW's matches out of it, and a Darby Allen matches a little wilder than other matches, so naturally he gets to go in the sand trap or the bunker, as they call it the Masters. But I actually like the way it looked,

and I'm kind of sick of the way everything looks. Despite Lee fitting his early success with WWE changing everything from Kevin Dunn, he's still only shooting what they're giving him. Raw looks the same every week. dynamite. It's a little different now because they run smaller buildings and sometimes like, you know, there's just a wall somewhere.

Like you can't get around. So it has a different look and a cool look. But there have been dynamites that in the past when they ran arenas, they all kind of looked the same at a certain point. So I like the idea and I think it stands out. I don't know what else you could do a themed wrestling show like this, but the idea of doing wrestling in a unique venue it was well lit for what it was.

You said it was like a giant airplane hanger, but it looked good? I personally thought it looked cool, and I would think that could be the kind of imagery that could capture someone, but then you need, you know, good booking and storytelling stars. So the venue to you didn't look bad, but you're not in favor of them actually taking bumps on the golf course.

I'm not against it if it happens. You know, I'm not against the idea of someone taking a backdrop on the field that Shea Stadium. You know, if there's a wrestling card there. You know what, but okay, but is the, here, compare these two visuals. If you're trying to tell someone this is a major league spectacle of a product, whether it's entertainment or sport or whatever. A guy takes a big backdrop on the field at Shea Stadium

or a guy gets suplexed into the sand trap at a goddamn video golf fucking place. See, I think the actual embarrassing thing would be if someone who wasn't a wrestling friend or an AEW fan saw this, that Darby was the world champion. That would be the what? You got me there. You got me there.

That was a world title match. That was a world title matcher. The world title. matches now, they're stuck in the sand trap. But taking the Derby match out of the equation and anything done on the floor, and again, Mark Davis couldn't beat anybody. We never saw him beat anybody tag match, six-man match, tag match, singles match. Now he beat Jack Perry, of course, he got some help from ricochet in a golf club,

but Jack Perry was fucking Frankenstinering this guy all over the play. So, you know, I don't know what to think of it, but I like the look. like the idea of in not looking the same every week and looking different and big venues, small venues. I personally like the look of it. Well, what is, what other kind of venue is there that they could run that they wouldn't have like a golf course

or a fucking shark pit? Remember that game show? No, you don't. You weren't born. But when I was a kid, there was a fucking game show where the people got in these boats and they had in their

studio they had built a lagoon and the people would ride these boats around this little fucking windy thing to get their prizes and everything is that what doesn't what other type of indoor facility

doesn't look stupid and fake and silly when you're trying to present a fucking wrestling program that already has the problem of looking stupid and fake and silly. That's why, if this was the height of WCW's in-ring brilliance when they were actually doing business too,

and suddenly you'd seen a guy, two guys fighting in a golf course, wow. But when this is just a complete side show on such a regular basis, and now these morons are taking bumps off the balcony in a fucking golf course. It's just how much more of a parody can these guys become?

I see Tony's just announced the high-lie brawl coming soon from Miami. You know what? They used to, that's okay. In Miami, they and some places in Florida, the Florida office back in the 70s and 80s used to run a high-lie building, which is some type of game

that is popular in South Florida, and I'm still not clear on it, but you could get two or three thousand people in those things for whatever that's worth. So now that maybe that'd be a different type of atmosphere. I see AW announced pickleball, pickleball pandemonium.

I can't even say it. Pickle ball pandemonium coming up soon from the pickleball arena. But I'm, I'm, That's, it's just, it's not even a departure for them to be silly now. We got the other people giving it to us up the ying yang for as much money as they could possibly squeeze out of everybody for the absolute least they can provide. And over here, these fucking morons, it's like goddamn Benny Hill.

So that's why I'm starting to half-ass be, uh, apprehensive about the future of the wrestling business. It's not a good hands on either side. But it says great things about the future of golf. To Saudis pulling their funding from LiveGolf and now, of course, AEW invading the Golf, the Golf League, the Tomorrow or the TMRW Golf League. Why do they have so many initials?

TGL Golf, TMR Golf. I don't know. The construction of the facility was overseen by CAA Icon. There you go. Well, this is your show. No, it's not. Not a bit of it is. Oh, that's right.

Not one solitary second of this is my responsibility. You know, you've been so good today that I lost myself in the moment, and I thought it was your... Well, I lose myself. Let's move on from the fair way to hell. Let's go to... I don't know what the hell you'd call it. I have no transaction. Yeah, well, there you go.

Let's go from the fairway to hell to what the hell was this? In my old hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee, they did a raw program. And now it's the Food City Center now. Can you, is that a brand new building? It's certainly not the old Coliseum. Is it, did they rename the Thompson Bowling? Center where the University of Tennessee plays, or have they got a giant new arena in Knoxville?

It is the- Nobody consulted me. It's the Thompson Bowling Arena at Food City Center. Okay. Because the Thompson Bowling Arena has been the big building in town and has been there for the purpose of the University of Tennessee, but major concerts and whatever for years and years. but they've just, they've hoard themselves out to the evil corporate overlords,

just like every other building, I guess. Anyway, a lot of people are going to say, what did you think about this raw? And I'm going to say to them, not much because I didn't watch it, except the main event confrontation once we got all the pesky matches out of the way. Oh, you didn't see the open challenge, the Obafemite Open Challenge? Oh, I forgot about that, that the Obafemi Open Challenge was temporarily halted

because Pierce came out and said nobody's got the guts to face you. And then Obafemi proceeded to go backstage and find two guys and fucking throw them out there and beat the shit out of them anyway. But I think you mentioned four we went on the air that he seemed like, this whole thing is awkward

and I hope that this is them admitting that okay nobody else wants to fucking fight you so we're going to start making them or whatever because Oba doing it himself as you mentioned maybe have come off a tad heelish just a little obnoxious with that

but they like it anyway right yeah but this is the most heelish he came across only because of the way they booked it He made the two heels that he beat up in the back, the sympathetic baby faces were minding their own business. When the big, bad baby face came and beat the shit out of them. We're just standing around. Fucking about where we're going to eat tonight and bam!

Oh, shit. It was weird. It was a weird way to either get out of this or extended another week or change the direction. I don't think it did Obefemi any favors. But then we come to the main event segment. I meant to comment on that before and I forgot about it. So again, I did the same thing I usually do. I timed the Roman reign's entrance.

Because the raw this year, this week was like two hours, 20 something minutes. And so Roman's entrance starts and he comes out with Jimmy Uso. And of course they've been doing a thing through the show that Fitu's going to be coming. And boy, he's, he better not make a mistake with Roman. And Roman's there to have Fattu acknowledge him.

And the Uso's have split off and Jimmy's with Roman. And Jay is waiting for Fattu to show up so that he can try to talk some sense into him. But Roman starts coming out with Jimmy and they come out to pose. and they go to the break and that took a minute and a half, Brian. And then the break is two and a half minutes.

And then when they come back, they still have a door dash plug to do. And then Roman is in the ring by that time and they do the pyro and they pose and they stare. And the people tried to get OTC going, but this is East Tennessee. They didn't have a lot of rhythm.

They were off on that. so they they started singing Roman, Roman Rains. I could never get that tune. So at basically six minutes after Roman started walking out for the people in the building, he finally fucking spoke. Knoxville acknowledged me. And then they chant again. and then before he says even another word

on screen they've got a camera in the parking garage and there's Jay and a car pulls up and it's Jacob Brian what are the chances that such a such a coincidence would take place that at the exact moment is he like sitting in the parking lot watching the show on his phone and then it's oh now it's time

but anyway because it's all fucking bullshit, right? But anyway, he comes out and Jacob and he's stalking straight from the parking lot and Jay's beside him going, hey, you be smart, don't do this, the family, think of blah, blah, blah, blah, just all the way through to Gorilla. And finally, Jay gets in front of him, listen to me. You can't do this or whatever the fucking Jacob head butts him four times. I wish Jacob would just do the headbutt once.

When you do it four times, they got more time to see through it, and it's just relying on a crutch, and it's not plausible. But nevertheless, then he cut the promo to the camera. Roman reigns blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But we've established that he knows that Roman is in the rank. And all this time he was stalking to go to the ring and Jay was trying to stop him, now he turns to the camera and says what the writers wanted him to say about Romans so that they can further extrapolate their story and then go out.

And that's where it looked fake. You were following this fucking guy that had blood in his eyes and murdering his heart and evil intent and he's having this argument with this other guy and he finally pickles a fucking other guy he should have gone straight through the curtain and the camera should have followed him he could have said that stuff to jay before he knocked him out he could have said i'm going to tell him blah blah blah and you can't stop me boom see what i'm saying to where instead of having to awkwardly turn to the camera and cut a wrestling promo

when this is supposed to be some big family fucking shoot it just they should have thought of that in production but nevertheless out he comes and he beats up Jimmy Uso in the aisleway and then they get in the ring or he gets in the ring and he

Roman and they have a fight. And again, remember what I was saying about, Roman realizes he really has to sell and put himself in more jeopardy than normal, not only because he's in a baby-faced position now, but also because Jacob still needs the elevation. And he did the same thing. Here, he got his comeback where he Superman punched him

and poverized him with a chair like ten times. But then Jacob lived through it, where he came back and got the grip and fucking cleared the desk off, and they jockeed back and forth, but Jacob got the grip on him again and then powerbombed him through the table and got the grip again

where the officials are trying to pull him off, and people are screaming, and then he grabbed the bell, Jacob did. And while the officials are tending to Roman and the Usoes are all fucked up together, Jacob held the belt up

and there was the mix of the booze and the cheers. I still don't think they know exactly how to react but it's establishing him as a fucking a mean motherfuckerger, right?

So they're still reacting. They just don't know whether they really want to cheer him, but goddamn he's so bad, but it's going to lead to that. But then as he was about to leave, he said all gas and no brakes, why did I say that like dusty? I don't know.

And he ran back and ass bumped them all through, both the Uso's and Roman, all through the barricade, which even though now the poor barricade thing has been overdone, that looked really awesome. Yeah, that looked pretty good. Yeah. So that was, if you saw that, you saw everything that your life can go on living

without seeing off a raw. Yeah, pretty much. I mean, unless you want to see Joe Hendry sing his way into a match or whatever's going on with the women's division. Well, they've got, they've got the vision doing jobs to Joe Hendry in the street profits and Holy Jesus Christ. They had a scene with Aska in the back coming up to Eoskai

and crying and hugging her and telling her how proud she is. And then she walks out of the building rolling her bag out. Why would she be there with her bag? If she ain't working and she had her last match. She didn't want to leave it in the car as a bad neighborhood. She's afraid somebody might break in. Let me ask you, is this. is the tearfulness and the hugs and the

oh, crying and woe about leaving each other not only the Japanese girls, but Rio was hugging Eo or whatever that they all, is this to appeal to a feminine audience? Or is this to the guys that like this kind of thing? That's the kind of thing they like also. Or are they going for the girls with, Oh, you're so, my friend, I'm going to miss you.

On a wrestling program. I don't know. You know, every women, every woman who gets involved. And some people. Every woman who gets involved in wrestling, not everyone, but a lot of them, they say they were fans when they were younger. And then you see like a video or a photo of them when they were younger meeting like a diva or women's wrestler of the time. But other than them. Well, no, but...

Have we seen tangible evidence that the women's audience has grown and specifically that it has anything to do with the women's usage on the show? Because I feel like the fans we hear from the most about the women, like pro women, it's always guys. That's what, yeah. Chigas and the guy when Dump Matsumoto had like the Von Erick audience. They had screaming girls going crazy, invested in those women.

We don't have that here. Because again, but again, look at what they're presenting and who they're presenting it to. And if they think they're presenting it to girls, I don't think they're winning. And if this is their idea of what guys want, I don't think they're doing it well either. There's a reason I know what boys

want. I know what guys like. Boys like. Okay, okay, okay. Boys like me. Who is that, the waitresses? The waitresses. I hate that song.

It was a great video, though. Which one? The real one or the one Ron Head did for... It is great. That's what I'm thinking about in my head, that fucking unfortunate video. No, the real video they played on MTV. That was a wonderful thing. You know, again, just to end this, I feel like the Reactions are weird from the fans to Jacob and Roman. You don't know how to react.

In one second... They're not still sure who's the heel and who's not, right? Jacob's acting like a crazy out-of-control heel, not like a baby face who... does something and has a good reason. He's just going crazy. And Roman... I don't know.

I mean, he's a baby face now. He's a big prick, though. Yeah, he's a baby face who acts like a prick, but he still can't fight his own battle. Like, I don't know what... It feels like something's missing with Roman right now to me. But... Well, anyway.

They're making a lot of money and they love that money. Love the money. And that was WWRWA. And, of course, Jim, after a depressing plate of shit like Raw, you may want to cook yourself a nice meal or maybe a burger, just something you'll enjoy a steak. Well, you know, maybe something like, you know,

that they eat in the South Pacific out there in the islands of seafood or some guava or some coconut or whatever the case may be you could put it anything in your hex clad you can you can eat shit out of your hex clad pans

and it'll taste it'll taste like the best shit you've ever eaten well again we don't recommend that and that may not be the best example can you test can you say I'm telling a lie though if you cook if you cook shit in your hex-clad pans, ladies gentlemen, and you eat that shit

that will be the best tasting shit that you have ever eaten. Why don't we stand by that statement? Why don't we go with the word widget? Whatever widget it is that you cook in your hex-clad pan, it will taste better than it will in other pans. At least that's my experience.

No, widget. She was that girl midgett that did porn. Widget, you're thinking, get your mind out of the gutter. Widget the midget. She did the porn. Folks. I don't know.

Okay, back to you and back to, let's get away from all this, not back to. Let's get far, far away to a nice kitchen in another country. No matter where you are, you need to cook food, and we're here, and I'm hungry, and Jim, we have great pans. And, of course, pans from hexclad. Yes, the hexclad pans, again, we've talked about it, that I've been going crazy with the way that these things work, that you can heat or you can sear your burgers at half the heat of the cheap old pans that you probably got with the handles falling off and the non-stick stuff is probably scraping off and everything.

You're probably ingesting that. It's going to give you some kind of cancer. If you eat like Teflon and non-stick coating on a regular basis, it'll make your balls droop. And at the very least, some kind of growth will appear on your taint, which I understand the technical name for that is the perineum. So don't let your fucking taint swell up. Get the hex clad pans. They're non-stick, but they don't scratch or peel.

They'll last forever. The heat distribution is wonderful. They're dishwasher safe, but super easy to just take a sponge to, even if you've really scalded something. It just plops right out, as I've mentioned. Stace loves it for the stir fry. You said, Suzanne loves it. loves it, the sauce pan, you can make the Bernays sauce, or you can make the, the eggs Benedict

sauce. She's been making eggs in there. She just cracks it in there and boom. Comes out quicker than it does out of the chicken's ass, doesn't get stuck. It doesn't get stuck. What? Sometimes you'll see those chickens strain. And another of the cheap, the cheap non-good

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Let's get a... I don't know why you keep going to cannibalism. You're exposing yourself, my phone. Well, it's a family-sized stockpot. It's going to take a flatbed truck to get that down your drive anyway. But once you get it inside and fill it up with water and it takes forever to boil, but you put those people in there. Let's get it.

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Once again, hexclad.com slash j-CE, get 10% off. And even if you don't like to cook, but you have to cook because you have no one to cook for you, it's easier to cook with these things. So if you're just some guy with his dick in his hand because he has no girlfriend and no one to come in and perform. services for him and you're just trying to fucking make yourself something quick so you can live to have another miserable day, it's easier

in these. All right. Now, thank you for that addition to the spot. That was certainly something that reaches an audience that we weren't normally reaching, but once again hexclad.com as everybody's got to have something to look forward

to. Whether you're having a wonderful life or a lonely shut-in, these are the pans for you. But Jim... Oh, well, you know, most people aren't shut-ins anymore. They're just shitheads that are lonely. Jim, speaking of a... Well, I won't use that word for YouTube's sake, but...

Jim, let's transition away, and as we begin our final section of the show here, it's been a little while, and we're going to get back to Mid-South pretty soon for those who have been asking. But why don't we talk a little bit about TNA, specifically your history with TNA. Dark Side of the Rings coming up, a lot of people are thinking about TNA history, you of course have been talking about it with documentation for quite some time here on the show. Yes, I have, Bride. We mentioned this is a few months ago.

We took a break from it because so many breaking news things kept happening. But I had found the first, they really weren't agent reports because I was not an agent or producer at this particular time. This is just when I'd started with T&A in 2006. Jeff Jarrett had himself asked me, hey, just do some notes and send me what you think. And so that's what I'd been doing. The reason why I'd found him was because they were actually typed. This is before I had the email like all the kids do.

So I would type these up and either fax them to him or take them down in an envelope and give them to him or whatever. So therefore, we were in July of 2006. And, you know, some of these are just, just, you know, not particularly all that pithy commentary because I was still, I just started, and I wasn't going into major detail or whatever, so I'm not going to read everything per se, but there's just a few things that I always seem to notice whenever I saw certain people around. Rino.

And this was 20 years ago. people forget how can you Google how old rhino is right now uh because he was still such a young guy people had seen him in the wwe he's 50 now born 75 so this was 20 years ago he'd just turned 30 and he was just in great shape and he had great emotion and that's why i wrote Rhino great emotion, believable. He was over alive in the building. It made him seem like a star. As it after he made the challenge, and it was to,

again, this was when they were doing the VKM thing, initials, whatever the fire. No, this was when he had challenged Vince, I think, or something or another. After his challenge to VKM, I have it here, but this was before that Road Dogg and Billy became the voodoo kin mafia. So I think they were doing something where he made a challenge to Vince McMahon. But I said, he should have quit and let him chant for him.

Going further and leaving the arena felt too much for me because they had followed him when he walked backstage because we were in a soundstage in Orlando at an amusement park. And I said, I don't like the look of backstage. being so tiny and crummy when the arena is set up to look so nice. And they would never get away from shooting because they thought it was so, well, you know who thought it was so.

He wasn't even back here yet, but he over amplified the problem. They thought it was so inside to see backstage. Backstage, it looks like you're in a fucking barn. Right? When you see backstage at the WWE, it's a goddamn place the Lakers are playing. Do you see what I'm saying, Brian?

Yeah. Anyhow. So where was I going here? Ah, at one point they had Abyss versus Norman Smiley and then the James gang, Road Dog and Billy Gunn were the James gang. They made their entrance and did a promo at Abyss

and the people chanted DX rejects. and I was like I said Abyss was better off before these two came in because Billy is as tall as Abyss he's supposed to be the giant I died to hear people chant DX Rejects and why was Mitchell James Mitchell the manager a mute at the handshake

Brian did comedy with the monster and died this should have ended at the handshake with Abyss and with Rhino I especially felt because Abyss had never even been in the WW at that point. They had something, but they never gave Rhino the full push and they never could contain Abyss from himself, doing the hardcore, the garbage stuff, the indie stuff going too far. But I always thought that they had something there with those two.

That was the July 13th show. July 20th. Uh, here is a, the match is the naturals who were, uh, God damn Chase Stevens and who did we decide the Andy Douglas. That was an early underneath baby face tag team in TNA.

And then they worked with Frankie Cazarian and Maverick Matt. and since I was new to all these guys, right? Shane Douglas introduced the naturals, and I said, good intro of naturals, B-roll of their pay-per-view finish was good, they don't seem to stand out as individuals to me. And then Maverick Matt and Kazarian came out, and I said, these guys seem to be more popular than the naturals.

And Matt's name is ridiculous. but they started the four-way at 100 miles an hour, no time to establish who they were. The Naturals' teamwork movies were good. Nice heat spot going to break. The announcers need to portray the baby faces in more jeopardy. And finally, the match part two, decent match, but hard to tell which team was supposed to get over.

The natural should not have had their first try at their... Ah, this was when Shane Douglas introduced him. this was their debut. Natural should not have had their first try at their finish on national TV be foiled. When they did it, it was off. Naturals were not very dominant in their free TV debut.

It's the same shit. It's been 20 years ago. Everybody wants to have a great match and nobody wants to get the fucking point across. And when you left these guys to their own devices even then it was a newer generation that were more concerned with

being nice to their friends than getting over on television. And then later on, Rhino had a match against Robert Adams. So it's a squash match, right? Rhino entrance, charging, perfect entrance for him. And as he hits the ring

in all capital letters, Brian, his job guy isn't even looking at him what a dumb fuck you're a goddamn tomato can right in the ring but you're about to fight allegedly this man beast rhino who's charging to the ring dripping wet looking like he's going to kill you and you're looking out at the crowd like oh i'm a wrestler in the ring you motherfucker he gored him and beat him and that was it.

But if I had been, if Rhino had been one of the old timers, he would have fucking knocked that guy into his kids would have been born dizzy. But anyway, here we go. Segment four, Stiles and Daniels. They're doing a thing with L-A-X, apparently. Stiles and Daniels entrance, AJ Styles, CRISPR Daniels, obviously. In street clothes, Daniels looks great, styles looks horrible. It's always been that way.

AJ needs to dress like a world champion. Good promo, but could have been stronger on the points. The confrontation with Conan was good. The baby faces were a little dumb to get suckered so easy. But the heat by L.A.X was great, and signing the contract in blood was nice. we got serious at some point. But these are the kind of, you know, these are the kind of comments that I was making,

and I'm looking around for the rest of the July shows, just a little innocuous things, blah, blah, blah. And then I found this, and I'm not sure what order these come in, because this is not dated, but Brian, do you remember when T&A impact moved to 9 o'clock? Because originally wasn't it 11 o'clock at night and we moved to prime time and got the two-hour deal?

I don't recall when it was, no. Well, whenever. It was sometime, give or take, the September-ish 2006 period of time when they also made the move to re-hire our friend Mr. Rousseau. And obviously, I've told that story over and over, so that's not the point of this, but this is about the same time. And now, and go ahead.

And apparently it went to two hours October 4th, 2007. But no, so this was, but then it was still an hour in 2006. when Russo came back and we went to 9 o'clock. That's what it was. So originally it was on at 11 o'clock, which was out of prime time. Then they gave us 9 o'clock, which was in prime time,

and then a year later, we expanded to 2 hours. But point being, when we moved to the prime time slot is when at the same time as we've figured out in hindsight, Dixie either fell victim to her worst instincts or was worn down by constant begging on bended knee and brought him back, right? That was around September of 2006. So Jeff wasn't talking to him at that time? Well, I don't think, I'm not saying that they weren't speaking to each other.

I don't know what the fucking, you know, issue was. It's not like that they weren't dealing with each other because he worked with him when he came back. but who was making the decision? Who said, boy, we got to have him back here. I don't believe it was Jeff. I believe it was Dixie.

Because that's when, from what Dutch told me at the time, because he was the only one I was really talking to regularly, DeMore had tried to go to Dixie and fucking undermine Jeff and say he ought to be the Booker. And Jeff was a fucking idiot

or whatever the fuck. And D'Amore had, maybe somebody else on his side or whatever that was on the creative team and Jeff her caught wind of it as they say and suddenly D'Moor and whoever was off the creative team and it was just Jeff and Dutch and I said well that's an improvement anyway because you can get more done without everybody sticking their finger in it and he said well

that's when he said that they'd also hired Russo back so thanks to more is so yeah so maybe you know because goddam she said well if you want to get rid of them we got to get somebody i don't fucking know fucking Canadian bob rupe how many times did he try to steal the company

yeah and Mike to nay almost had me talked into fucking doing creative at one point he'd on the phone in 45 minutes he'd fired me he'd like well you're only three hours from Nashville and they only meet a couple of days a week and you could just probably have to spend one night and then you could stop this and that even we're

talking about how to stop Russo's fucking insanity right and you could possibly stop whatever the thing he had to be worked up and then I realized wait a minute I'm still in a goddamn meetings with him I would still be subjected to him and it would just end quicker than it's gonna end but a but Mike Teney was a silver-tonged devil. Anyhow, this thing I'm going to read right now, but I'm just telling you the time period that we're getting into, but the thing that I'm going to read to you right now is what was in anticipation of T&A moving to 9 o'clock.

And you know what? Here it is. I found something else. Well, never thought. I'll get into that later. Point is, this was a... A letter that I sent, or not a letter, but a report I sent to Jeff and Dutch on ideas I had because now they're moving to prime time.

I believe this was before I knew about the new hire, but at least I knew about the time slot switch. And this was also about the same time that Jeff asked me if I wanted to be an agent and make all the tapings because I was still on the, I'll just be the commissioner and I'll come down every two or three tapings deal. So I wrote, the move of TNA impact to 9 o'clock Eastern will theoretically add new viewers

and or expose the product to a new audience. If a new viewer does not get a sense of who the talent are, as individuals, they'll not understand the angles as well. But if you go back to basics and start telling everyone's story in angles from scratch, you risk alienating or at least boring your longtime viewers.

I suggest a series of short vignettes, 30 seconds to a minute, to start in the first 9 o'clock time slot that can be used as self-contained bumpers either into or out of a segment. They could be entertaining to the regular viewer, but at the same time give a sense of each talent's personality, gimmick, or uniqueness. Then when the talent appears on the show, the fans know a little more about who the guy is

without taking a bunch of time to get there. obviously a few guys would be above this as they are in all the great recap packages anyway and or known quantities sting jeff jerry christian angle but for the next level of talent that we want to break through rhino a j styles christopher daniels abyss and mitchell bobby rude uh harrison storm lax they need to be featured as already being stars in the new time slot in our world basically that I didn't add in our world but they need to be already viewed point I was trying to make as these are not like the homegrown thing implies that they've never done anything else or fucked anybody anywhere else but there right in some instances when you've got all these guys that are homegrown. Does that make any sense?

Makes a lot of sense. So if you just present them as these guys are major stars on the level of the people that you know Christian Cage and Sting, you don't need to tell, oh, and this is the future, they're already here. So anyway, the, and I said, the new fan tunes in and doesn't get hit over the head with faces that didn't make it in WWE. And here was a couple ideas I had for the gist of the thing. If you've got Abyss and Mitchell together,

and they were a very good combination. You put Abyss on the box like we did Yokozuna. So they say he's 6.8, I think he's 6'5. Mitchell's goddamn 5-11 or 6 inches difference. Stand him up a little bit. Do the darkened room. Abyss is a hair wet and played with his chain. and Mitchell does the promo

and he's please allow me to introduce myself I'm a man of wealth and taste it's the same thing he's supposed to be the devil and I exert soul power and control over the most heartless monster walking the face of the earth I'm Father James Mitchell and reminding you that there's no escape when you fall into the abyss

just personality shit right or do the thing with rhino that they've ended up kind of doing with Braun Breaker. But I wanted to, and they, I pitched them do the same thing, and they had a fucking budget with Matt Morgan when he was the blueprint. And I don't know if they ever did that or not.

But take Rhino to the goddamn football field with the coaches and the radar guns and the tackling dummies and have him gore a bunch of fucking, dummies at 23 miles an hour with the impact of the fucking deal and the stopwatch and the whole shoot right and you put the voiceover together his whatever inch calves and whatever inch thighs propel his six foot two inch two hundred eighty pound frame across 40 yards in two point six seconds attaining a maximum velocity of 46 miles an hour or whatever the fuck, right? But no mathematical formula can prepare you for the devastating impact of Rhino.

Make somebody out of him. Does this sound like anything for a 45 second spot? Oh, this is good. And, you know, then you've got bumpers on all your talent and you lead into the first six weeks of your primetime program, you're boom, you're hitting it. And then they go out and they have matches and they win. It ain't, but nevertheless, the problem was, at the same time as I was pitching shit like this, they were entertaining the thought of bringing in the person who was going to have them build fish bowls for Shark Boy to live in. So it was kind of a different style of presentation.

Yes, it was. Yes, it was. It was a different style of presentation. What else do you have about the debut? All righty, hold on here because I'm thinking, now did we do, hold on, is this? No, see, this, wait a minute. This says November 16.

Did we do a two-hour primetime debut? That's what I was there, because I think this is 1116, two-hour primetime debut. would our prime time debut have been two hours because I'm looking at this now after 20 years and I ain't seen it since then. And then the next thing I got is for December of 06. So I think, yeah, this fucking, and there's 10, yeah, there's 10 segments. So our 1116.06 show was a two-hour show.

That must have been the prime time debut. Does that make sense? yeah shouldn't i know my own stuff i mean you know this is t and a anyway ah well let's see what i wrote and because now the one thing we know is that uh our friend is firmly in the uh in the creative meetings segment one open eric young pod piper's fans would have been great on any other show but this is the prime time debut, and we see Eric Young first, strategic mistake not to show Kurt Angle Sting

or Samoa Joe first out of the box, so people know this is not a funny or outlaw program. Announcers were almost coming. The T&A is now prime time till the viewers must have wondered why we deserve it. It's like they were so insane, like, oh my God, we're in prime time. like who could have ever made this drastic mistake right anyway once they got to the billboards

it looked great then eric young his first wrestler to speak should have gone straight to lax entrance lax enter great good recap by announcers conan's promo explained lax's deal got heat with the flag threat america's most wanted enter hit hot good action this was whatever they did. Samoa Joe video, great stuff, built Joe to a top level. Joe entrance. Jay Lethal entrance. No mystery who's going to win here, but Joe got over.

Lethal put him over well. Dutt ran in and got killed at Sanjay. Sabin blowing off helping him was out of place as this should have been all Joe because they're working to deal with the X division guys. have to do multiple stories. Okay, L-A-X, outside with Hemmy. As good as this was inside, it fell in a toilet outside. A girl is chasing these thugs?

Where was anybody else who could stop them from burning the flag, and why are they driving somewhere to do it? Continued tease with all threats and no logic made it seem like a publicity stunt instead of a real threatened protest. Segment two, paparazzi deal with Nash, Shelley, and Star. Austin Star was Austin Ares, but they made him change his name. You remember we told the paparazzi productions thing where Nash was allegedly trying to get the ex-division interchangeable spot guys over when it was a way for him to be on the show and get paid,

but not actually have to wrestle very often? The genius of Kevin Nash. Anyway, I said, are we to legitimately believe this shit? Guys promoing while pissing in urinals, Nash taking a shit, bad shit jokes, powdered wigs. This whole deal all show was embarrassing and way to WWE. It made TNA lookout law. By the way, I'm an official agent now, so this is my official agent fucking report. Tables match, naturals versus Team 3D.

The tables thing is so overdone and the people need to be, weaned off of it, ASAP. If guys can't have a match without tables, they need to be weaned off as well. This could get way out of hand. My God, I'm Nostra dumbass. Accidental bump through a table sparingly is fine, but this is ridiculous. T&A needs to do legitimate finishes because W.W.E. doesn't. why do they all have to fight in the crowd it was a minute and ten into the match before a bump

was taken in the ring by god now that's record time now at 140 it was get the tables at 220 Shane goes through the table the naturals looked lousy attacking team 3d give bubba ray one bump and put devon through a table at three and a half minutes a three and a half minute match with four bumps just lousy. At least I'm consistent, Brian. Now that I've seen this, I'm like, my God, nobody ever listened and nothing ever changed. Segment three, I'll keep going.

Eric Young enters. The announcers are screaming best wrestling program on TV while we're looking at Eric Young. He wasn't a bad talent and was a great guy personally. But when you're trying to fight a war and you're a new primetime program and you're not hitting with goddamn

your stings and your stars I would say interrupted by Divine remember oh God what's the first day not Candy Divine Johnny Divine Johnny Devine

Johnny Devine Matt Bentley and Kazarian that's who Maverick Matt was I think he was a cousin of Sean Michaels he was trained by Sean Michaels he was trained by Sean Michaels I remember because that was his gimmick was

he was his cousin. He was trained by him. Well, basically interrupted by Divine Bentley and Kazarian, these guys look completely ridiculous, are not over and will not get over in these clown suits. Ravens flock is so

1995 ECW and I never liked it there. Poor Kazarian was stuck in this group and once that he was extricated from that, I mean, Kazarian's fantastic, and I was always a fan. But he was just stuck in this deal.

And then abrupt VKM entrance, that's when suddenly Road Dog and Billy Gunn had become the voodoo kin mafia, for no other reason than Vincent Kennedy McMahon's initials are VKM, and that's what everybody calls Vince, VKM. and the fans, if they did get it, they didn't give a shit, right? Why? What the fuck? It just meant something to dip shit because he had a grudge against his previous employer.

So, abrupt VKM entrance. I like these guys, especially Brian, member of the Armstrong family. But they have gone from a gimmick that made people. chant dx to a gimmick that sells the w wwe is the top promotion 1997 wwee here and that's not good when w w f went to war with wcw in 1997 both companies had 20 years on cable equal budgets and talent rosters this is not the case here and people know it it looks like the pafos challenging memphis and they didn't fool anybody but themselves for

these guys to say that they were the start of DX is somewhat ludicrous. You're here. VKM. I'm sorry, go ahead. Fantastic. Well, VKM hit the ring and beat up the flock to prove that they're worthless. Their promo was too inside.

I quote, Creative Control. When they say Paul Levec and Michael Hickenbottom, the smart crowd only murmurs. Vince's name gets a big pop because everybody knows who he is. and then they degenerate into laughing at each other. This is another shoot deal that few will understand and no one else will care about.

The only comment I heard about it was from the double tree bellhop who said it made him want to watch Raw to see if they responded. This is the hotel we stayed at, right? I said, this is company killing shit. No, it's altogether reaction from Vince who didn't react at all.

He didn't give a shit. Yes. So anyway, now bear in mind, after turning this in, I still had a job as an agent for another three years, but nevertheless, six sides of steel, the cage match, Rhino versus Christian Cage, goofy WWF escape rules distracted, as did the silly gimmicks being handed in,

strape jacket, wire cutters, chairs, key, might have made this a clown show instead of TNA's answer to hell and sell if not for great performances by Christian and Rhino. Match part two, seg five. We missed Christian getting color using bolt cutters on rhino and cutting the wire, and it was briefly recapped. Yet we had time earlier to see Nash shitting. Because that's when they went to break.

This was an edited show. It wasn't live to tape. And they did all kinds of shit, but because again, knucklehead has had to have the he didn't care how short the matches were or what part of them we went to commercial break in or anything as long as the backstage interviews and or talking segments that he wrote everything out for

were a set amount of time. So we missed Christian bleeding, we missed him using the bolt cutters, we missed him cutting the wire, but we had time to see Nash on the toilet earlier in the program. I said, this detracted from the best thing on the show so far and pissed me off as a viewer. These guys had a super match and I wish we could have seen it all. Finish was only one possible for the escape rule

and was a striking visual. This is what T&A needs, guys having great matches, and the time to show them. And I think it's, I think didn't Rhino gore him through the door and Christian hit first or something, something like that. Three way, segment six, three way for the X Division title, Sabin versus Daniels versus styles. Good, crisp, fast-paced match, perfect to highlight X Division and what these guys can do.

Again, there's three ways, this was 20 years ago. It wasn't overdone and these guys were professionals. so it's not that they all had to inherently be shite. They just got that way when they were done way past point and no return. Christian distracting AJ while Daniels Penn Sabin devalues the title to have the champion lose without being penned. I think we should use elimination for multi-man title matches. This furthered AJ and Daniels is split, but could have been done without devaluing the title.

And then the paparazzi video, more shit comedy, a dick joke, inside stuff nobody gets, complete waste of valuable airtime, and anyone associated with Nash is buried as a sidekick. Segment seven, LAX is now outside ready to burn the flag. And I think it was the American flag, I believe, at this point. And I said, this pretty well killed the whole damn deal. They supposedly took a car, but here we were still in the same area with the same lighting. It got contrived here, and Petey Williams sounded more like Yankee doodle dandy than General Patton. Christy hemmy yelling was like nails on a chalkboard.

They got good heat on Petey, but then when they pour gas, in quotation marks on him and start to set him on fire, it stretched credibility too far and made it blatant that this was a staged publicity stuff. L-A-X was then run off by a taped siren and a cop car nobody ever saw because the fucking moron comes into the goddamn place with a TV format that needs police cars and nobody knew how to get police cars

because nobody knew any real fucking police that would cooperate with his bullshit so they taped a fucking siren and played it and flashed a goddamn flashing red light off camera. I swear to God to you. Was it Sergeant Clancy? And then it was Doberman.

And so anyway, I said, this killed all the real heat they got earlier. Tenae on camera selling this as if someone killed his puppy destroyed Tene's credibility as he was the only one to possibly believe it. Segment eight. This is fantastic. Sting VTR, great recap of Sting story and TNA, Abyss and Mitchell enter. This guy and this pairing is money, but Abyss definitely needs major wins and a few months of them to rehab all of his losses before he can be effective in any angle.

Because he'd already been, he just was beat all the time. And he took the ridiculous bumps and they set him on fire and he had thumb tech sticking in him. and there wasn't anything yet. They even left him off TV, even though they didn't fire him or let him go from the company because everybody liked him. Dutch, particularly on purpose,

took him off TV for like three or four months because there was nothing left to do to a guy, right? And then within two weeks when they brought him back, he had flung himself off the stage on through a table while a table was on fire. He couldn't get it that he could work. He could move for a big guy. And he could have been a Brody instead of a goddamn garbage match guy.

Anyway. Giant McFolly. Yes. But with, and he's, and I've told you he's a brilliant, he's in a producer up there now. He can remember shit like crazy. He's a savant when it comes to remembering a wrestling match, but you couldn't get him not to do the hardcore stuff and slice himself up 20 years ago.

And that's what held him back. He could have been easily a main event fucking guy if he worked, if he'd worked and thought WWF style instead of Ian Rotten style, he could have been easily a seven-figure guy in that period of time, seven figures a year in the WWF.

nevertheless seg 9 angle versus abyss crowd was hot announcer spent too much time selling angle versus Joe on pay per view it was again we're in prime time we're in Kurt Angle's debut match this is when he had just started and they're looking past it already

I know we need to sell it but let's kind of straight over what we got crowd was ballistic and chanting and announcers talked over it, sell the pay-per-view, instead of letting the atmosphere sell T&A and the finished sell pay-per-view. Too much shilling. Mitchell with the thumb tax was needless distraction as the whole thumbtack thing is freak show business.

Angle shouldn't be anywhere near it, and it does Abyss no good as a money player. Abyss should have been way more vicious on offense. Match part two. Abyss was unfocused and wandered around checking out the damn tax. It slowed the match down and once got back in the ring, people had to get with it again. Abyss may need cardio work. Angles, triple Germans got him back and a good finish. If Abyss had been more aggressive, this match would have elevated him.

Samoa Joe runs in, gave him good action but too much before the pay-per-view. Why did Joe strike a deal with Abyss? If I don't know the heels and faces, do the viewers. undefined roles create ambivalence, not mystery. Sting enters from the ceiling and cleans house. Then Angle and Joe get into it again, and Abyss ends up back with Sting. Hung from the ceiling, way too much.

Joe could have walked off after Cahoeing Angle with a chair. Mitchell could have told Abyss to attack Angle. Sting could have saved Angle from Abyss and go off the air. Joe putting Angle in an ankle lock while he was out cold, sting hanging from the ceiling in a roadrunner trap, angle getting juice and getting choked out, all were wasted as the crowd went from hot to super hot to sinking to just standing there as we left the air.

So who did you send it to? Who saw that? Jeff, Jeff. I tried to win little battles every so often, but they were doing their thing, but it's not like he got mad at me for saying it. did he ever say anything years later or after the fact about, I mean, any of this. You were only there because he asked you to be there.

Well, yes, well, and later on, obviously, as this happened, then that's when he started, okay, well, work on the finishes, make them more palatable of the matches, right? I don't want to mess with the goddamn interviews because then you start to rewrite the whole fucking show. But for the matches, then that was my task, especially on the main event stuff, the underneath stuff, they did what they did.

But for the money matches, if a finish was just goddamn, just way off or stupid, preposterous, counterproductive, whatever, all right, you know where we're trying to go, so how would you get there? And then I'd either go get a cheese steak at the fucking universal commissary or in a case of a real writer's block, I'd drive down to the Wendy's and get a triple or two. and come up with goddamn finish and then fucking come back and pitch it to Jeff and he's okay, do that.

And then Rousseau would get mad because I changed his fucking finish. Well, this has been our look at TNA, the glory days. I've got some more. We can get into December 2006. Next time, as well as the full page letter that I wrote to Jeff

when I tried to explained, I genuinely, it starts like this. I genuinely don't want to be as negative as the enclosed reports make it seem. And this is not personal with me and him, it's business, regardless of my personal feelings. And then I tell Jeff what I'm afraid is going to happen to T&A with him around. And son of a gun, a lot of those things happen. But we'll get to that later on. We will.

and of course next week, I know I said we would do it this week, but next week's songs return. We got some new submissions and maybe some more. What would you like me to sing? Don't sing. We have others sending in songs. Don't sing. I'll just start on humming.

And then I'll come in strumming if you just won't sing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. As we get ready to wrap things up. One last thing here, because this is breaking as we are recording. the Hollywood reporter reporting Barry Bloustine writer for Eddie Murphy on Saturday Night Live

and coming to America films dies at 72 according to this Barry was battling Parkinson's disease and just recently last month found out he had stage 4 pancreatic cancer

but how well did you know Barry Blastin? I mean not I spoke to him I think in person a couple times and on the phone once or twice, so not well, but he was a very nice guy, and he loved the wrestling business. Again, you know, the Beyond the Matt thing,

it's almost 30 years ago. I just, I didn't want the cameras to be beyond the fucking Matt. And he did try to get me to participate, but I wasn't the one shot, but I just, he really wanted it to be positive, for wrestling and wrestlers and special and all that stuff. I just didn't agree with revealing everything then, but he was a very nice guy and very influential in the movie business

and had worked on like coming to America with Eddie Murphy and all these other major projects. And so, yeah, I hate to hear that. He was a very nice guy and really loved wrestling and not in a markish way, but wanted to tell the boys' stories and all that stuff. It just, I wish he'd come along a few years later when the whole cause was lost to begin with. Well, it says here in talking about his different films,

in what he called the, quote, favorite thing he had ever done, Blaustein wrote, directed, produced, and narrated the 1999 documentary Beyond the Mat. A look inside the Vince McMahon-led World Wrestling Federation and another circuit, Extreme Championship Wrestling. It was one of 12 finalists for the Oscar for Best Documentary. So how about that?

It was his favorite project of anything he did. Yeah, it was a personal interest and something he could really, you know, dig into and etc. So, yeah, but again, I hate to hear that, but poor, Ted Turner, Barry Blatter. Everybody that ever got us on TV or movies is going away now. You know, he was working on that movie for so long. I actually would run into him a few times.

And as I'm thinking about it, it was over the span of like a year. Because I remember seeing those ECW shows, right? Well, the weekend of the ECW at pay-per-view, which was, I think April of 97, I remember seeing Barry. And the Terry Funk show in Amarillo, which was September, mid-September. of 97. Barry was there with his film crew running around. And those weren't the only two places. And I talked to him on the phone, too. So he, you know, a lot of people put down that movie beyond the idea they're breaking K-Fabe. You know, Jake Roberts' defenders think that Jake Roberts was done dirty by that movie.

I don't know how. I don't think Barry made Jake do anything Jake wasn't doing and Jake probably... You could never... You could never do Jake any dirtier in any fashion that he has done himself throughout his life. That's right. So I don't think it's fair when people put down Barry Blaustein for that reason, even though Jake may not be happy with it. That was Jake at that point in his life. And he said yes.

Yeah. But so many of the things that you think about, I mean, there's so many quotes from that movie, fucking Dennis Stamp jumping around on his trampoline. Like, there are things you think about that were Barry Blowstein creations or editing. that, you know, I still think about you in the back and who was it, was it? It was, oh, God, dang. Roland Alexander telling the guy about his diet. I mean, come on.

How ridiculous to be. Yeah, well, but that's the thing is that I was telling my part in the movie was telling two of the guys who were having a tryout match, a dark match, you know, where to dress and whatever. And they were from Roland Alexander's APW in an end. that's what I wrote Roland Alexander. He would put forth for tryouts, the guys at his school that, like, his trainer, or were doing things for him or that he picked.

And he got mad when I saw the tape of Vic Grimes and Erdo Grady, who became Crash Holly and booked him for a dark match. He didn't get to claim credit for that. Like, yeah, I got you guys, you kids. I got you booked because I got pulled. I just fucking booked them because we want to fucking maybe hire them.

But I figured this will be on the, with the movie, this will certainly be on the cutting room floor. They're going to shoot me showing these guys where to dress.

And then it ended up in the fucking movie. I'm like, Jesus Christ. Because I was trying to stay, I didn't want, I was an agent at that point and I was giving guys finishes. And I would have to take them in closets

or shit because I didn't want myself on tape giving guys a finish in a wrestling match or telling them what the fuck was going to go on and I think I made it until about 2010 or so when Ring of Honor had one of those FACTA networks

doing a documentary and I had to fucking participate in that but it was about till then that I was never filmed giving a finish well again Barry Blaustein writer from Saturday Night Live, helped develop a lot of the popular Eddie Murphy characters like Gumby. Barry Blasting was one of the writers.

Eddie Murphy was a kid. He had a few people he worked with, and Barry was one of them. Also the Nuddy Professor films. And a film I loved as a kid, I saw it before I saw the first one, Police Academy 2, their first assignment,

where Zed terrorizes Mr. Sweet Chuck and the recruits or the cadets from the Police Academy. get their first assignment dealing with Captain Mouser, or wannabe Captain Mouser. I'm talking way too much about police academy too. Yes, you are. Off the top of my head. But there it is, Barry Blaustein passing away, breaking today. And with that, Jim, the drive-thru is closed.

He's reaching for it. I'm reaching. I'm not playing anything good. All right, I'm happy with that. And then I drop. You got a low level of happiness, a low bar to clear. We'll be back in a few days on the Jim Cornett experience. And then, of course, next week back here on the drive-through, go through the archive. Patreon.com slash cornet.

Go through the archive. $5 a month gets you access going back to 2013. Patreon.com slash cornet. The official Jim Cornet YouTube channel, go and subscribe today. Full episodes without delay. Clip City episodes. omnibus collections, and so much more that George Livenitis heartwork that everyone loves, the official Jim Cornett YouTube channel.

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jump on the website today and make it pay for me to give you merch, lurch, Jimcordat.com. All right, nipsy Russell over here. Of course, if you heard that and you were offended, you may want to sue the drive-thru is brought to you by the Law Office of Stephen Pino, 877-50, Steve. Get Even with Stephen at newlawoffice.com. But until the experience in a few days,

and next week back here on the drive-thru. For Jim Cornett, I'm the great Brian last. Tally-ho!