Jim Cornette’s Drive-Thru - Episode 452

Episode Date: July 19, 2026

This week on the Drive Thru, Jim reviews WWE Raw & Smackdown highlights, and talks about The Rock's box office bombs, Jake Hager's Power Slap adventure, AEW suing Queen Of The Ring, Santo Gold's Blood Circus, and much more! Plus Jim answers YOUR questions, and plays Guess The Program! Thanks to our episode sponsors: SHOPIFY:  Start your free trial at shopify.com/jce Send in your question for the Drive-Thru to: [e-mail]  Follow Jim and Brian on Twitter: @TheJimCornette @GreatBrianLast Merch! https://arcadianvanguard.com/ Join Jim Cornette's College Of Wrestling Knowledge on Patreon to access the archives & more! https://www.patreon.com/Cornette Subscribe to the Official Jim Cornette channel on YouTube! http://www.youtube.com/c/OfficialJimCornette Visit Jim's official site at www.JimCornette.com for merch, live dates, commentaries and more! You can listen to Brian on the 6:05 Superpodcast at 605pod.com or wherever you find your favorite podcasts!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Oh, good. My Lord. I got a divita. You know, you're starting to distract me with all this jibber jabber. Sounded like you were distracted by a safe falling on your head at one point, or was that a cat being disemboweled, but go ahead and introduce the program. We have to introduce every hello again, friends, and you are our friends, not yelling yet, but it may start at any point.

Welcome back to another edition of Jim Coronet's Drive-Thru. Right here, another fine day. Summertime, we got hot wrestling talk with this man. I'm your host, the great Brian last, but this man, this is the focus, the star of the show, the man who gets in all the trouble, Mr. Jim Corner. Focus. Focus. Summer time and the living is easy.

Chim-pop, chichipop, summertime. Salvin's trying to give the people some music to make up for what they just endured there. it's I don't know what are you working too hard Brian is you're you're saying when you you mean you should pay Bert Baccarac about a million dollars for ruining his song there a second ago no now what are you talking about pay him he ought to be glad for the exposure at this point what is Bert Baccarat doing these days oh discomposing is what he's doing decomposing or discomposing he's not composing anymore, I'll tell you that.

He's no longer composing. That's right. He's gone the other way with it. But so fuck Bert, but more importantly to this program here, you're working too hard. You're just losing it all over the keyboard these days. You need to take a rest. Well, you didn't like that for real. You didn't think

that was a really good one? No, well, it depending on, you know, if you were trying to summon aliens from outer space. Oh, come on now. That's not. But I'm thinking you live right up there in the the most peaceful part of the country, if you go to the right place, you're up there in the northeast,

you could go to the Poconos, or you could go to the Adirondacks, or you could go to, where did they, where'd Rip Van Winkle fall asleep, whatever those mountains, you could go up there. He slept for 20 years or whatever,

so you could at least take a good day. You'd go to a day camp, just a summer day camp. They have archery and swimming and tennis and crafts, just like any other mental home.

You could relax. Tennis is out. It's, everything's pickleball now. All tennis courts are being converted the pickleball courts. But I tried that and it lasted like one shot.

Those pickles don't bounce unless they're just right off the vine. The fucking thing just smushed. And when it landed, it didn't bounce back up off the ground. Sometimes it would just go right through the strings on the racket. I don't see what the big

deal's about. Well, again, pickleball's played, I believe, with a, is it a wiffle ball? Or some sort of thing. I'm really not sure. It was an old person's thing, and now everyone's doing it. Well, you couldn't pickle anybody with a wiffle ball. Those things, they don't go that fast or hard. You'd really have to peg that thing

to get any damage done. How do you think pickleball is played? Now, a pickle if you hit somebody in a temple, it's basically like tennis, big fluffy tennis. It's not whatever it is you're playing and your head bashing it into the ground. What are you talking about? I thought you were batting pickles at each other until somebody quit. I didn't pickle ball.

Where does the pickle come in? The loser has to eat one or what's going on? If the undertaker's afraid of pickles, do you think he would play pickleball? Well, it depends again where the pickles are involved or cucumber. which are the root of all pickles, because the cucumbers don't work either, but they don't have cucumber ball, do they? They don't.

Well, then what are you asking me for? All right. Well, this has been cucumber talk and pickle talk. You ought to get some rest of relaxation is what I'm saying. You're working to a... See, I just had a spirited session of rubbing puppy belly. And it's just the most relaxing thing in the world. So I'm...

I'm calm. All right. Well, once again, the whispering Bob Harris version of Jim Cornett here on the show, and I'll keep the whispering. Who's Bob Harris? He was from the old gray whistle test, a radio presenter in the UK. Well, who knows? Because I've heard, obviously, of the old gray whistle test, but I could not go that deep. I've seen some footage from the old gray whistle test of the famous rock and rollers from the 60s and 70s. All those loud musicians were introduced by, hello, welcome to the show, I'm whispering. Just whispering to you about who was coming up. I wonder what they thought.

Leonard Skinner, were on the old gray whistle test in Britain. That's the best version of Freebird ever. That's the best video of Freebird there is, yeah. But what do you think that before worldwide webs and internets and communications like, what do you think the people in fucking England thought of Leonard's Skinnered in 1973. Well, they had it in. This is fucking different. They kind of had

an end because they were aligned with the Who, right? They were managed by the Who's management. Well, I don't mean musically, I mean, just look at these motherfuckers. Because at the same time, the people in America were looking at all the

Carnaby Street folks in their fancy suit suits or whatever the fuck they were wearing in the miniskirts and everything over in England. fucking Lulu, for God's sake. I think it had to be the other way around. The fucking Brits are looking at Ronnie Van Zant and his crew like, Jesus Christ, where'd they come from?

It's all about that we used to have different cultures. People could be odd and stand out. Now everybody looks like a fucking weirdo. Well, now if you're an odd weirdo, the first thing you do is like film yourself. Look at me, everyone. He used to be like, you kind of did your own thing. Well, see, that was the fun of making fun of people back then. When I was a child, is you didn't make fun of them in front of them.

You made fun of them behind their back where you could laugh, but it didn't hurt their feelings. So everybody prospered. Now we do it on podcast directly to them and about them. Think about it. If you don't know that some stranger on the street is doing the fucking when your walkers, you're so fat or whatever. and he's giggling with his friends, you're blissfully ignorant of all that

going about your fucking business. Now everybody in the world, including people on the aisle of man, can tell some fucking fat guy and Poughkeepsie, hey, when's the last time you've seen your dick, fatso? So if you filmed yourself doing that to some guy walking down the street, if you filmed that and put it on the internet,

you'd be the bad guy. Everyone would turn on you. Well, but that's what some of these people want. Exactly. Exactly. So there you go. That's why they're all filming each other. And there's nobody left to go.

But at least back in my day, we made fun of people. We didn't hurt their feelings. We just did it behind their back so we could have some fun. I like the idea of you, like, as a teenager, standing in front of a store watching fat people walk by doing. Bump butter. Hey, who's doing that? I don't know. I don't know.

Where did that come from? I don't know. Check your Raycons. You might be turned out too well. All right. Well, Raycons, of course, Jim, a wonderful product, a longtime sponsor of ours.

We love our Raycons. More great products actually made by us, in some cases, available at Cornett's collectibles at Jimcornett.com. What the hell? That was a long way around your elbow to get to your wrist. But I will agree and concur with you, fine sir, that there are a variety of fine products available at Jim Cornett.com at Cornett's collectibles, just nothing that you can

stick in your ears. Although, well, now I'm trying to think you could, I guess you could cut the t-shirts up and kind of wad the pieces of them up and put them in your ears, but why would you do that? So otherwise, if you're looking for something to stick in your ear, folks, don't go to Jim Cornett.com, but if you're looking for entertainment, apparel, memorabilia, collectibles, and fine reading, well, then those people should go to Jim Cornett.com and action figures. I get you could stick at least the head or one of the feet in your ear of the action figures, but it might go better. If you wanted to keep it intact, I'm thinking of another orifice.

But anyway, one way or another, whatever you want. want to have stuck anywhere, you can find it at Jimcornad.com right now. Right now, ladies and gentlemen. Right now. Dot com. All right, Jim, as we move on, we have a lot of wrestling talk today, but let me get your thoughts on a real world issue. Uh-oh.

I have an article here from the New York Post yesterday as we are recording by Ben Cost. The headline, Radical Plan to Dim the Sun among the Cross. craziest options to protect Earth from potentially historic El Nino season, scientists. So let's go to this. Okay. And the New York Post noted alongside like Scientific American, some of the more popular trade papers, noted for their scientific research. Known for their great headlines, like headless body and topless bar. That's the classic one people still remember.

They're literally proportion. proposing we steal its sunshine. Researchers at UC San Diego have floated a wildly controversial plan to combat the looming Super El Nino threat, injecting particles into clouds to turn down the sun. Oh, well, that can't miss.

There's nothing can go wrong there. The radical sunscreen proposal was detailed in a study in the journal Science Advances. Here's a quote from it. SG, solar, geoengineering could theoretically be leveraged to mitigate extreme events by instead targeting compounding, seasonal, to multi-year events such as El Nino, wrote the researchers who are led by UC San Diego Climate Scientist Kate Rickle.

Is it Rickle? Nope, it's not, there's no L, Kate Rick. Oh, okay, no relation to Don Rickle. On Thursday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center forecast an 81% chance that the natural climate pattern, defined by prenaturally warm temperatures on the Pacific Ocean's surface, would be very strong by December. If true, this so-called Super El Nino results in extreme weather events,

raging from droughts to downpours and heat waves. Oh boy. The resultant damages could reportedly cost the global economy trillions of dollars, the researchers declared. Some researchers have blamed climate change for exacerbating El Nino's effects. UN Chief Antonio Gutierrez warned that the world must treat it as the urgent climate warning it is. If I go down here, where's the part about how the...

they actually do this. Either way, we're not defenseless against this apocalyptic weather event. It sounds like we're pretty fucked. Or so the scientists say. According to the seemingly far-fetched study, we could mitigate the worst effects of El Nino through various weather alteration measures, including dimming the sun. The sci-fi-esque proposition would reportedly involve not a giant celestial dimmer switch, but rather injecting special aerosols into the Earth's stratosphere to make clouds over the sea brighter

in a method called marine cloud brightening. In theory... Oh, Jesus Christ, this sounds like clear choice dental would have this as one of the services. In theory, this would reflect the sun's rays back into space, cooling the surface below.

like intergalactic blackout curtains. Who gets to measure exactly how much sunlight we block out? And how precise would that measurement be by these fellow scientists over there? Are you comfortable with the idea that someone would be flying around spraying a special aerosol into the sky to create bright clouds? Would no, and I don't even care if it works. the idea is that how they go to tell when they've gone too far and they put us into a goddamn ice age

and all that we're sitting here freezing our fucking nipples off or are they going to spray this stuff into the clouds and then find out later on that it interacts with the goddamn space pollen to create a fucking global creep show

Stephen King fucking green fucking green fungus all over us until we're all goddamn lizard people or something. I think they should leave the goddamn... We've done enough damage, obviously, to the environment, Brian. Thankfully, I only need it for another 15 years or so. So, you know, I'm good. We do what you fucking want to.

Now it's too late anyway, but goddamn, don't go fucking it up for all of us now because some of us aren't ready to die soon. Did you ever think you'd hear that dimming the sun was an option? Well, I still don't. Have they conducted research on this? I still don't believe it is an option. Answer your question. Have they conducted, did they like make it bad weather over fucking Dubuque one season

to just try this out? Or are they just talking like, well, it ought to work? Let's see, one major concern surrounding the radical plan. To curb long-term climate risks, this interstellar sunscreen would have to be deployed continuously for an indefinite period of time. According to the co-author, University of Chicago post-doctoral researcher, Jessica Wan. To prove this solar dimmer could work in seasonal bursts, The team built on a 2023 study

that found that aerosols given off by brushfire smoke over the Pacific Ocean had caused clouds to brighten reflecting solar radiation back into space in turn this reduced the amount of heat

that escaped the atmosphere does that answer your question so they're going to replicate a giant fucking multi-million acre fucking forest fire and put it in the air on purpose. The researchers specifically simulated what would happen if the sunblocking method were deployed deliberately in the Southeast Pacific during the major El Nino's that

originated in 2015 and 1997. They found that this could increase cooling and drying effects by 40%. In the South Pacific, what are they going to do? Set a goddamn island on fire? to South Pacific? Oh, there's a follow-up article here. Let me, uh... It better start out.

April Fool! I don't know, this is a previous one. I guess this has been something for a while. This is probably over a year ago. $66 million experimented dim the sun to combat global warming gets okay. But critics have called it barking mad. Sounds like the British professors

are really upset about this one. Bawking mad! Well, I think it's a dog of an idea. I'll tell you that, although I don't want to insult puppies. So, but no, I think we, you know, we could have done something at this point now. We're just kind of all fucked. But like I said, I'm going to try to just smooth on out while we can still walk around without wearing a gas mask. Well, this has been science news.

And Jim, as we get going a couple quick notes here, I want to thank, let me get this. I want to thank an old friend Frank the collector. I haven't heard from him in a little while. Hope he's doing well, but he just said something more. Oh, yes, I just heard from Frank. I got a note from Frank. Well, he just sent me, and I can't believe this is a one piece considering how it was sent, but thank you, Frank.

From Variety. It's a page from Variety magazine, Wednesday, March 6, 1985. Bob Harris proudly presents Blood Circus, the incredible sci-fi wrestling motion picture. Bob Harris, the famous creator and producer of the largest run, most successful TV mail-order ad in the nation, Santo Gold, and other Santo Jewelry offers, has now turned his golden touch to motion pictures.

The result is the incredible Blood Circus. See, 20 of the most bloodthirsty, cannibalistic alien wrestlers battle to their death in the center ring. See the world's largest wrestler 8 foot 500 pounds Little John Ah ha ha Boy when you lead with him brother

You know that oh my God Where could it go from here See Santo Gold himself In his motion picture debut 30 pounds of gold chains And a highly polished gold bullion Leading a 40-piece Rock and Roll Orchestra in song

Blood Circus The incredible sci-fi wrestling motion picture All rights available And it says here At the very top, I don't know why When you're hot, you're hot It's in a box next to the top But uh

And we're not you're not Thank you very much Frank the collector I collect any Santo Gold wrestling stuff or wrestling Well now you know we have to We have to back up a little bit for the kids now because we're laughing up oriously but some people might be

a tad bit confused but this weasel was at as you as the press release said as you read there he had the commercial where for whatever period of time it was on it was on everything

one of the infomercials and he's selling the gold and he's got the gimmick right and I don't know if you You probably know more about it than I do because I think you've done a 605 super podcast on it at least a number of times. At least a number of times. That's right.

How did this Weasel get involved in wrestling to hire all these guys who they then tried to make this movie out of and it became a fiasco? But how did he meet wrestling? There are still a lot of mysteries around it and it's an incredible story. I encourage anyone interested. Go 605Pod.com. Every episode is available for free download. just search Santo Gold or Blood Circus in the search bar. He was doing these infomercials out of Baltimore.

And the quality of what he called gold may be in question. But he was making a ton of money. Yeah. And if you ever see, I have it off Master, because we interviewed on 605 someone who was anonymous because he didn't want to be found by Santo Gold. Legit, he did not want any dealings with Bob Harris or any of his people. So he was anonymous.

But he worked on stuff and had Master. tape footage. We had Jeff Krulik on the show, the filmmaker who made heavy metal parking lot and a whole bunch of other really cool stuff. So he gets this idea. He has all this money. He appears to be on drugs. I mean, if him and his crew aren't on drugs, I don't know who is. I mean, it was just a wild scene. And he got in touch with somehow Joe Blanchard. Like, it was the wrestlers from Southwest. That's right. It was all the San Antonio territory, at Texas Territory guys. It's bizarre who's in it.

I believe Joe Blanchard... Hoss, but he had been on USA Network around that same quarter earlier. Maybe that's where the guy... Maybe that was where he was bringing in the gimmick gold from across the border. But go ahead. Maybe, but if you watch it,

and I have the behind-the-scenes footage, too. Eric Embry is all involved in it. Joe Blanchard, I believe, plays the mummy in the film. But woman, Nancy, Fallen Angel, actually at the time she's in it, even though Kevin isn't. Big Red when he was Voodoo Mulumba. Yes.

It's the Southwest crew with a few added people against Russians and space aliens. And then in the middle of all this, Santo Gold does a concert where he sings the song Santo Gold. And I say sings, he screams about himself with the largest fucking band you've ever seen.

There are two different sets of dancers. It's like dancers here and dancers there. And there's just more people that ever need. be on the stage. Little John, your good friend, makes an appearance. Silo Sam, for those of that time period, the giant blob of protoplasm, but I was handcuffed to at Texas Stadium in 85. Yeah, well, he makes an appearance. He walks Santo Gold onto the stage. Watch this is on YouTube. Go Google Santa Gold and you'll see the song. It starts with, we want Santo Gold, we want

Santo Gold. And then it goes into the song Santo Gold and it's outrageously ridiculous and way too catchy for a fucking idiotic thing like this. Well, and didn't they rented the Baltimore Civic Center. That's right. It's the same place that the WWE did the Slamies, the same year they made this. You know what I mean? It's crazy. This whole thing is crazy. And they made the movie. and I believe it's been a while since I research us and was really involved. I believe they did a premiere in Baltimore and then nothing. Nothing. Like these, you know, it was a variety.

Again, I just read you a variety ad. He took that out. Santo Gold took out that ad for who? For what? No one got the rights to this movie. No one wanted this movie. So it went away and it's still, again, I have the behind. behind-the-scenes stuff. So it wasn't released and it barely escaped. Yeah, and he's dead now,

I believe. He finally died a few years ago. Probably, probably the depression killed him. It's a bizarre story. I mean, people in Baltimore right now are probably screaming at their fucking radios listening to us talk about this, but it's a bizarre, bizarre story. 605Pod.com, go through the archives about, do you remember the ad, seeing the ad in the 80s? Yes, I mean, you know, just on various hotel televisions, you know, it would pop up. And it was, we had a guy

here for a while. I haven't seen him do a commercial for a while, but little John has some kind of pawn shop, gold shop, but he's a little fellow and he's got to chains and he's kind of got a little gimmick, but this guy was a whole

another beast. The Morton Downey Jr. of infomercials that period of time. It's bizarre too, because he's selling gold. And, you know, typically, I think everyone out there probably has local ads on wrestling for jewelers or something they watch where there's a local ad for local ad for local. Or there's the national gold clearinghouse where they're trying to scare a bunch of old senior citizen white people that think that the world is going to collapse because of all

the liberals to buy gold. Like if society collapsed to the point where you needed to trade gold for supplies, some fucking people are coming to your house and beating your 75 year old ass up. I'm not even talking about that because he was selling like actually bracelets and shit too. It wasn't just like, you know, gold bars. Yeah, no, this was the full on gimmick out like Mr. T and, you know, here we go. Yeah, but you see the commercials on TV. Now it's usually maybe they want to be entertaining because this is their chance to be on TV

and, you know, be a star. But typically it's like, we have class and we have jewelry. Look at the fine jewelry. Look at this wrist moving around. It's never a guy in a fucking leisure suit with a bunch of other people that look coaked up, just waving horns and screaming and yelling. Like, who would buy jewelry from them?

Everybody that was watching Miami Vice. I'm telling you, your problem was you were fucking seven, so you didn't get it. There's no way. No, again, there's a difference between Don Johnson on Miami Vice and fucking Santa Gold. All those people, in 1986, everybody wanted to look like Razor Ramon.

Fuck. I'm just telling you, they loved that shit. Well, again, this is Santo Gold Blood Circus. And they thought maybe we'll get some Coke into gold. I still want to see the entire thing.

Again, it's about wrestlers. I believe it's wrestlers fighting Russians, but then those space alien wrestlers come to fight everybody. Because the space aliens they're going to pick a side just for, you know, country to country political differences. They want to wipe out the whole species.

And I think that's the important point, folks. We're all in this together. We can all have our little petty differences, but eventually we're all going to have to band together to fight the space creatures who come to annihilate us and kill us and wipe us off the species. Yeah, and I think we're probably all going to get our ass kick, too. Oh, come on.

You've got to be optimistic. You got to be optimistic. Maybe we could throw them off somehow. Hey, anybody that is smart enough and together enough to get from there to here before we can get from here to there, they're going to beat that shit out of us. Have you been following or all the releases of UFO files

by the government? No, I don't want to know. Especially with the government, I'm just staying away from it, especially with the government that we have in charge right now. They'll probably try to sell them goddamn Australia is a fucking penal colony. Well, they're not showing people landing and negotiating.

It's just weird objects flying in the sky. Warms coming out of the ocean and stuff. Who knows what part of the world Trump would be making a goddamn deal with some fucking Venusian mining company to fucking exploit next. And then the people will be living underground

as the fucking slaves of the end of the mines. And then we'll all grow claws like the mole people to better be able to dig through the earth. And our snouts will get, long so that we can fucking be aerodynamic a dirto dynamic where we're going through the tunnel and then the next thing you know

we're shitting mud for breakfast. Maybe they need to put more aerosol in the clouds, I'm not sure. But Jim, another topic. I tell you, it hadn't done me any good when I just take a bunch of aerosol and just huff it. It didn't do me

any good. You don't huff, and ladies and gentlemen, please don't do that. But that was the Blood Circus News One more quick thing before we get going here, Jim. Actually, two things. Mike Mills, booking the territory, a good friend of mine. Yes, a person who has in the past done some wonderful research on his podcast on Smoggy Mount Wrestling and the NWA and et cetera, et cetera.

And I want to encourage people to check out his podcast for a specific clip that references something we talked about. If you go to YouTube, booking the territory, search for the video is, let me get the name here. The name is One Man Gang Gets Rew. Rod Price to discuss Chris Adams ripping Rod's hairpiece off. So we talked about that recently. Well, that is an accurate title.

It may be a mouthful, but that pretty much encapsulates the subject. But go check that out. A good guy, Mike Mills, and again, this is a rather old clip, maybe 10 years old or so, but the one man gang getting Rod Price to talk about what happened with Chris Adams. That's a follow-up on that. One more thing. Next week on this show, we're going to do

retro figures again. And in an effort to try and get a better understanding of this before we talk about it further, we've referenced the fact that the Matt Cardona figures have had a lot of complaints about quality issues, things I've seen firsthand, from yellowing of the figures to mold spots developing, to smears, smudges. Now, to be fair, those were included purposefully on the Bastion Booger figures. Again, there's no Bastion Booger figure and there is no associated figure with these intentionally.

But since we brought this up, we heard from a bunch of people and no two people have the exact same complaint. And there's a lot of different things from them scalping their figures, which people ask what that means. Apparently, they get their figures in advance of the figures people paid for. And then they put them online and hope they go for a inflated price. But I want to get a better idea of this. So if you're anyone out there who's

been writing in, send some details. And let me try to compile something and do this right instead of just throwing one thing out there after another. But we are curious about what people are saying. And how would you react to that, Jim, if you had done figures with them for, let's say, Jim Cornett and a Midnight Express? And then before you had them in your store, or before people who prepaid for them had them they were selling them for inflated prices on their private online store

well that that doesn't seem cricket it doesn't seem entirely fair as they say but more importantly why would you if they've already ad I said the gall of them to quote Jackie Fargo one time he said it better of those four words

the gall of them, but you've already advertised a figure is going to sell for such, such dollars, and you have accepted orders for such and such dollars for each figure. And before those people get theirs, you've already raised the goddamn price and you're sending those out first.

That's... I'm not sure, again, this is where I need more detail. I'm not sure... Or are they sending those out? Are they just jacking the prices up? And again, you say, people bought them, I believe it was a case where if you didn't buy them in pre-order, they were not going to be available. So it was one of those things where if you missed it,

you're going to jump on any chance you can. And before any of the people who bought them, and you've got to think some of those people may be buying it as an investment to flip it. Before they get their hands on it, the company is flipping it themselves. I don't know if they set a high price or if they merely put it in an auction and know that there are crazy fucking fans that can take advantage of and get a jacked up rate for this, we want more info. Let's get more info, email in. Please don't just send links to a message board.

We can look at as much as we can, but... We'll first-hand accounts is what we want, of what the issue is or may be. And doesn't anybody just put shit on sale anymore like I do? Some people... Just tell them, hey, it's going to be on sale, such-such-such date. Hey, such-such-dates here. Get your stuff now. I think you have...

the ability to be confident in what you're going to sell so you could have inventory and not everyone necessarily wants inventory. Well, it's like the wrestling business. Not necessarily everybody should be involved. If you go to run a business, run a fucking business there, Jr. For heaven's sake, don't let us old folks have to show you how to do these things. But I'll tell you one thing, and I'm trying to remember what, you know, I've had so many deviant figures, Brian, or variants, I guess is what they say.

Variants. Yeah, well, they say, they say both. No one, I don't think anyone says both. Well, sometimes about me they have. But I can't remember which one it was, but it was like four variants ago. And when I opened them up, the heads had, they had put the heads on backwards, like on, I mean, out of 2000, let's say I'd found enough to piss me off, 50, whatever, right? But it was like, what the fuck?

And I called a toy company and they went through another, the next variant, 2,000 fucking boxes, not 2,000 boxes, but 2,000 figures to check and make sure that all the heads were on straight before that we foisted them off on the American public, public. And then there was a couple of the heads that fell off and we replaced those two. And it had no more further problem with the heads. But the point is, we put a little effort into it instead of just, here you go. And then it turns green and develops scales in six months. That's just me. Once again, corny drive-thru at gmail.com for anyone who has anything to say and we'll do a follow-up on this. Jim, you brought up before.

Junior doing business. Why don't we speak about the place Junior used to do business? WWE and typically we would talk about Raw and we will get there, but a couple of things worth noting and talking about from SmackDown. Well, yes, and obviously we're late on that because it happened hours after we finished recording the last show and we weren't going to come back for like a segment, a half of halfway entertaining television and update everybody because it was really more of story progression rather than shocking occurrence or landmark milestone. You see what I'm saying. It's just, well, here's chapter four.

But on Smackdown, the last one, July the 10th was the date. They, again, Aldous is in the ring. He's the general manager over there at that joint. They bring punk out to a big response. And I was going to note this, even if what happened at the end doesn't happen, just because he did a master class in cutting a promo as the new champion, he says everything that's logical and believable in a more natural way than most other people to make him sound like that he means it.

and it's coming from him rather than so many times we talk about the script writers, the dramatic readings, that, well, this is a difference between talking to people and speaking at people. And then he weaved in because the first thing a con man opens up with, if he's going to work somebody is not, I'd like to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge. Right? Even if this is a performance, don't just come out and start emoting nonsense

before you let people know who you are and shit they know is true. Brian, does this make sense what I'm saying? I mean, emoting nonsense is kind of the modern trend in a lot of guys' promos. Either emoting nonsense or speaking in a fake shoot way to throw people off and people into it and Seth Rollins can't really pull that off.

Well, and that's it that with punk, you know, he has the way of talking to people where he's not bullshitting them, but at the same time he's not talking inside baseball as the term goes. Nevertheless, and he does the thing, then he starts calling out anybody in the locker room who think that I have what's yours.

And he starts mentioning people like Sammy deserves a rematch, he can have it. Who else, Gunther? Come on, try to, who else, Finn Baller? And now there's going to start a little rumble from the people. Who else, hoistkeys, Damian Priest, Trick Williams.

I almost think they were trying to get a massive Cody chant going, by the way, he was being elusive and ignoring the elephant with the neck tattoo in the room. And they were more or less kind of rumbling and giggling, but they knew that what he was doing, but they didn't, there wasn't the groundswell for Cody. We hear OTC, OTC, we hear CM Punk, we're CM Punk. We don't hear Cody Cody a lot, do we? Is it just over they woe?

They sing and woe. But they'll do that for anybody. That's not special. Well, that's what I'm asking you there. They book Cody into the dirt. The booking of Cody since everything with the rock and Travis Scott. Well, I didn't say he's ready to be embalmed. He's not ready to be embalmed, but the fans are ready to invest in someone else.

And there's not. I thought you were going to say the fans are ready to embalm him. There's nothing they have given you as a reason to get behind Cody in a long time. When was the last time he seemed really, likable. When was the last time he was involved in something where you wanted to see him get his hands on someone? We are not getting that Cody

anymore. And please finish in a moment, but I'll tell you here the setup to this match, I thought suck too. I mean, just this alone, this promo, we'll see where they go the next month, next three weeks, two weeks. No, what? I'm not saying, where are you at? We're two weeks.

Two weeks, excuse me. But I thought this was... Two weekly. Yeah, well, that's... weak way of setting this up. That's it. He mentioned all those guys and started going down the list before he got to like Tazawa. Cody music hit

and they sing and they cheer or they woe for the entrance in the places that they're supposed to. Again, that's kind of a gimmie these days. But punk had a black eye coming into the ring. So when Cody got in the ring, he looked at

your eye. And then punk said, well, what do you want to talk about? And they just assumed that everybody was already clamoring to see this. And they had some, they talked about the title match that had been building for years, right? And Punk did a pretty good job. Cody said the last time we were in the ring,

I was champion and said, just say, win and punks and win. That was nice timing. Within Cody's SummerSlam and the crowd booed they were hoping like tonight, right? They don't fucking know. And they shook hands and all this made it official

and to really ratchet up the heat, they did a stiff handshake. I mean, they just stunk. This was basically as much of just announcing that something is going to happen as I've ever seen for a main event on a big show. Oh, by the way, we're going to go ahead and do this now.

A week after they did that exact thing for Roman and Rollins. Yes. That was a little more exciting, at least. This was just, you know, it was like that Bruno Buddy Rogers handshake. I guess there's heat somewhere. I just don't know exactly. If George Ian is a special referee We'll know something's up here

That picture of Bruno looks bewildered So, but I mean, Punk's promo at the beginning was fine There's nothing wrong with it But yes, that that was If they'd have stopped there, I'd have thought Well, that's a great way to announce he's a new champion But then it was like Once that I saw what they were doing with him there

And it there It became, well, that was kind of fucking flat And I don't think those fans at Minneapolis are going to, I don't think the fans anywhere right now are going to choose Cody over Punk. So it's going to create an interesting dynamic, especially if he doesn't want to turn. Well, and which is kind of what, again, with the drawback which Vince Sr. was always fearful of and recognized and, you know, abided by, is that when you have your top baby faces mad at each other and making pointed comments at each other, you're splitting the audience and you're taken away from one or both

inevitably attractions as to how fanatical some segment of the fan base is about each one of them, if they hadn't a fucked with each other. That's why we got Bruno and Pedro and it rained, but it didn't draw more than 20,000 people. so he said Vince Senior said never again and he turned down Bruno and Andre wanted to work with each other just no but now all the top baby faces are mad

at each end sooner or later there's a cumulative effect where it culls down to just the couple most popular and punk's kind of bulletproof because he's got he's got that audience that likes him better than anybody else

and then he's got people that don't like him anyway, but they still fucking yell. So, but go ahead. No, this sucked. I'm starting to think more and more based on stuff here and stuff on Raw. They really are letting AI, like, write this show. There's just stuff that just seems like, are they really doing this? Are they doing this again?

This seems pretty banal or banal, excuse me, for those who like it that way. And then this, I mean, they said- You reminded me, well, one time Stan and Steve, the fact. were doing a fucking promo for the moon dogs. And they said, this is it going to go down. Stan said this is go down in history is one of the greatest, wildest matches in the anals of professional risks. Well, he would be the expert.

He had a great night of games. Yes, he'd been there and back many times, but nevertheless. Yeah, yeah. Hey, Vern. I'm not excited for this, Matt. I mean, here we are days later. Are you excited? I mean, I'm sure it'll be a great match.

but are you excited for it? I wish that with the way that both these guys can talk, I wish there had been, and Cody stands a better chance of coming off as heelish in a conversation with punk right now as it stands. I think there, I wish there had been something that had transpired while they've been switching the belt around

and I understand how they did that. It's great that they got the belt from Cody now to Punk without beating Cody so they could have this match. Sammy was great, blah, blah, blah. But along the way, there should have been some way that punk said something that Cody took an inordinate amount of offense to as an insult to his even, and you know, punk could have been,

of maybe a wise-ass comment, but then he redeemed it with, but I loved his father or something like that, but Cody can't let it go and have Cody be a little heelish on this one and fucking do an angle where he fucking, I don't want him to just disembowl punk or goddamn run his nuts into the ring post or whatever, but, yeah, in there, when do you go home? you can't have kids or fucking dissatisfying your wife or that type of thing but just something to prove that he still should be the guy that punk could then take personal offense to and then you've got

a little animosity going into this somehow where they got two weeks what else did you watch anything else yeah because well because now we know what how where goonter's going to somerslaher going at SummerSlam. Because at the end of the show, Gunther had told Aldus before, hey, fuck it, I should be getting this fucking, the whole nine yards, right? We know it's supposed to be me.

What the fuck are you doing? And tonight you're going to have to make a decision to give me what I want the title shot. And, of course, when they come out at the end, Gunther says, I want Cody. Or, Aldus said, that Gunther wants Cody and Punk,

well, we're going to give them both to you at Saturday night's main event in Madison Square Garden with you and Sammy Zane against Cody Rhodes and Punk. So at least they, it'll take 20 minutes to watch Saturday night's main event because they've announced them pretty much all the matches at this point and why the fuck would you watch anything else? But this will be good.

But SummerSlam is still going to be Cody and Punk. And then Gunter went berserk and glommed Aldous and roughed him up. And here comes the agents and the referees. He's got the sleeper and they make him let go. And then he gets a big kick and a sleeper again. And then a third time and a fourth time. He just kept going back to him. This was how many four minutes of exceptional.

good wrestling television because not only did Aldus not have any offense, but he didn't they didn't do wrestling shit like he, Guinther didn't power bomb him, right?

Gunther didn't got, Aldus didn't make a comeback and try to climb to the top rope. It looked like to the naked eye that Gunther was beaten up this jacked up ex-r wrestler, general manager

in a real-life way. And the way Aldous, he didn't oversell it, but he sold it. It was more legitimate than most of the shit you see. So, obviously, they're going to have a match at SummerSlam. They better, because now that's the only thing I want to see out of Gunther.

What do you do at Aldous? If he's all of a sudden going to be working a match, is it like a one-time exception? Or does he have to give up being GM? Oh, well, when we did the thing with Bob Armstrong, he voluntarily handed over the commission ship to get back of the ring or whatever, but that we were actually trying to fucking make sense a lot more than they are these days. In the WWE, it would suffice to say that whoever the goddamn, whoever they refer to as the

higher power, if they have any name, if it's Triple H, if it's, whoever has agreed that Nick Aldous as a man has to get some, you know, measure of revenge or recompense or whatever. With Gunther, Nick Aldus is a former wrestler. Hasn't competed, they can show footage, I would hope, I would think. Hasn't competed in X number of years in the ring. but he and Goethe and Goethe knew each other when they were in Kiev during the tournaments, during the blizzard of whatever fucking year,

blah, blah, blah. And we've granted him the opportunity. They have 10 minutes or put a limitation on it. Or it's not sanctioned, but it doesn't mean it's a goddamn furniture match. It's just that we're not responsible. These two men are going to settle it. hand and fucking even have

Goethe say, I'm not going to pick up a chair. I can tear this man apart with my bare hands. And for 10 minutes or whatever, Nick Aldous and Goethe have the best wrestling match on the fucking show. But obviously, Goethe's going to beat him pretty fucking handily. But again, this, you don't have to present All this is goddamn ready to challenge for the WWE title,

but he's obviously in good shape, and I don't think he's, is he 40 years old yet? And if you're, if you see him in tights, he's probably going to be looking even more impressive. So, you know, for eight, 39 years old, turns 40. There you go. And it looks better than Jack Benny physically. So for eight minutes of 47 seconds,

I bet they can fucking have a heck of a goddamn piece of hand-to-hand combat. And then Gunther beats him but then tries to do something, and here comes wherever they're going next. But it certainly shouldn't be viewed as a goddamn tuxedo match with Harvey Whippleman or whatever. And what do you do about that? I mean, Gunther just attack Cody backstage to cost him the match with Sammy. And now the Cody Gunther thing is just gone?

Well, no, because again, that might be what Cody comes at as his motherfucker, saves Aldous, or somehow interjects himself. It can still make sense. It's going to continue and go on, I would think. Or maybe Gunther is the one who costs Cody because of, that doesn't have to end. but I'm just saying how they execute Aldous and Gunther and I think that's the

thing that probably right now after this you'd most want to see out of Gunther and he can get some more heat and it'll just be lovely and I think they did a wonderful job with it. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Well, that was SmackDown. I presume you didn't watch anything else on Smackdown.

Yes, I watched everything fly by on on screen fast forward because at least SmackDown is on real television and it's only two hours now. Well, Jim, that was Smackdown. As we move on here with the show, we're going to get to Raw in a bit. I want to ask you about something

as I bang a bunch of things on my desk. I want to ask you about something that a lot of listeners have started sending over this morning. Jim, your thoughts on this story. I have a headline here from Brandon Thurston. Uh-uh. A.E.W. Sews,

queen of the ring production company over unpaid sponsorship fees. AEW alleges more than $105,000 in sponsorship fees for promoting the film are long overdue. Have you heard about this? $105,000? No, I've not, this is news to me.

Luckily, I'm not on either side. I don't either owe it or it's not owed to me. I wasn't even there, except that when I was there. an article here. I have an article here from Post Wrestling by Brandon Thurston. AEW sues queen of the ring production company over unpaid sponsorship fees. Ring Productions LLC

The Business Entity that produced the movie signed a sponsorship deal in January 2020-25 agreeing to pay AEW approximately $350,000. Good God! In exchange... They could have fucking made the movie again for that.

In exchange... Queen of the Ring got sponsored matches on AEW programs, members of the film's cast shown in the front row on AEW broadcasts, in Arena plays of the movie trailer, AEW talent hyping the film on their social media accounts, among other benefits. Oh, boy, I'll tell you what. I wish they'd have run the idea by me of saying,

let's spend $300,000 with AEW to advertise the AEW, the modern fucking revolutionary, fucking with it wrestling company to market our film about Mildred Burke, the classic wrestling girl champion of fucking 75 years ago, I would have at least steered them to spend the same amount of money with the WWE if they could because, God damn it.

Well, they had that problem. Didn't they have that problem? Remember Ash said that when he was on the show? Oh, fuck, that's right. Jesus Christ He had when he was on he said they fucked him too So

maybe he just shouldn't have spent that 300 grand but go ahead Although ring productions paid a total of $250,000 by May 23rd 2025 It allegedly failed to meet a February 28th deadline

to make the latter half of that payment According to the lawsuit the company still owes a remaining $100,000 in sponsorship fees, plus over $5,000 in contractual talent travel expenses. A.W. is also seeking interest

on the late payments at a 1.5% monthly interest rate that's defined in the contract. A.W. attached a contract and a related amendment has exhibits to the lawsuit filed in Duval County, Florida. So we could stop there.

Good God. Hold on. Just let me ask you one question right off the tip of the bat there. How many tickets? Do you, and by the way, the AEW actually had someone under contract was one of the stars of the film, not just a bit player, Camille, and they had fucking exiled her to goddamn, they'd wished her out in the cornfield. And during the release of the thing, Brian, to my recollection, she was not even talked about. That was one of the questions we asked Camille about when she was on the show.

How come all this is happening and promoting the movie? Nothing with you in AEW. Now, I believe they had Ash sitting ringside. I remember seeing that. But to point is, how many tickets do you believe in your heart of hearts that, knowing that there were not a lot of tickets sold by any means necessary? how many tickets did AEW sell them to that movie across country for $350,000? Probably not too many. I would have taken that money and invested it on the Drew Barrymore show or something.

Holy Christ, I'd have invested it in Vegas before I'd have put, oh, but, well, now we've got to look on the internet and see if they're selling discount DVDs and Blu-rays. except these blue rays are off of bootlegs so they're called boo-rays let's not make light of old boo-ray well we're about to go to Dallas and raw so I had it on to my mind and once again post wrestling you can go to their article they have the actual lawsuit posted so I mean you could actually download and go through the whole thing I mean I do you think this is just a case of you know what these motherfuckers got us for a quarter of a million dollars and fuck it

or, you know, or do you think maybe the whole thing's just going, gone fish belly up? I think I just got an email recently. I'm trying to see if it'll come up if I do a quick search here on my computer. See, they told me they were going to call me back for a recurring role in return of King,

queen of the ring, son of queen of the ring, and house of queen of the ring. I just got an email 22 hours ago from Amazon that my Blu-ray shipment of Queen of the Ring was delayed. But it's now going to be here Saturday, according to this. So it's on the way. It might be being confiscated.

It may be the property of Tony Khan right now. Well, that's the Queen of the Ring news. And with that, Jim, we shall return right after this short commercial timeout. All right, we're back. We're back. And Jim, before we get to WWRWA, I have to ask you about a, comeback in combat sports. Recently, we saw Jake Hager's Power Slap debut.

He defeated his opponent, ran to the camera, and yelled, fuck you, Tony Kahn. Yeah. Well, he had his second Power Slap, uh, Slapdown. Yeah, I don't know what you call it. What do you call? Is it a slapdown?

That's it. Power Slap, Slap, Slap. Well, Hager was there again against someone who apparently was also a wrestler at some point here. I may pronounce this wrong. A man preet Singh. And have you seen this footage because I was sent it by about a thousand people? Yes, it didn't last long, so I was able to view it a couple of times. What did it last?

Like six seconds. A guy went, one and a two and a thank you, boys. and I got to be honest with you I expected to see some big old fucking Hercules Hernandez type of slap from down south in fucking Wisconsin to up and fucking Alberta Canada

Bam! And instead he just kind of went Pow and fucking old Jake Hager Is he one of the Hager twins? Do we ever establish that. The Hager twins. He's not... The Hager twins. They were one of the

highlights of He-Haul when I was a kid every week. He just crumbled like a fucking wet rag and poop and they tried to catch him. He still kind of and that was it. Does he have a glass cheek?

Do you think, old Jake? Apparently his first words in the hospital were fuck you Tony Cohn But that can't be confirmed But you know what if the other guy was a wrestler What was his name? Tiger Jeet Singh Amman Preet Singh

If he was a wrestler maybe Tony Khan Tony Khan He paid him off somehow And a little under the table Deal there and said hey take care of this guy for me For saying fuck you And boom goes a dynamite and also the orbital socket.

How do you see power slap? Do you see it as a one and done kind of thing? Once you lose, you never return, or is there redemption? Is there power slap redemption? Well, that'll be the syndicated series. Right now, they got to go with shlap down for fucking cable distribution. And then they can, you know, have the tournament of champions. I mean, we've talked about it.

The whole thing is the most ignorant, stupid, fucking moronic, goddamn deal. that I've ever seen in my life. Not for, not for Dana White, not for him to make millions of dollars off these brain dead meathead morons slapping the fucking piss and vinegar out of each other. But he's just fine.

Nobody's slapping him. I guess his wife won't slap him again. He slapped her back. A lot of slapping going on. But for the people who, for what is the guy, goddamn reason that you want to get brain damage. It's not life-changing amounts of money, nor it's life-changing amounts of brain damage,

nor is it something that you need talent at or could be proud of accomplishing. You're just a goddamn idiot out there allowing somebody as sloppy as hard as they can if you get to do the same thing. and then if you lose the what do they do? Coin flip or Eity Meaty Mo or how do they determine who goes first?

I'd be like, motherfucker, let me go first or I'm going home. Well, Jake Hager went home. Yes. They didn't have to give him the signal either. He didn't even fill his time. I saw footage of Ria Ripley and Buddy Matthews in the crowd reacting to Jake Hager getting knocked out.

but at least he had some support there from his former AEW compatriot. How many times do they, how many chances do they get? It's not like one apiece. They like get two or three shots at it. If you don't go down the first time, they get more opportunity.

No, I think they take turns. Like I slap you and then if I don't do it, you slap me, but I don't think there's any end to that, is there? Well, I said, no, I think at some, what did you? I always see somebody slap each other for about 40, five minutes. That would be an AEW, Matt.

I've seen that in AEW, that's right. Yeah, but they don't look nearly as good, each individual slap. But no, I think there's some kind of goddamn numerical limit on the amount of times you just haul off and wax somebody upside to head before the insurance company makes them call it off

or something. I don't know. It write in fans and friends and listeners and those of you out there who'd like a soothing tonic. Dr. Proctor's red rectum rock. But if anybody knows, how many chances do they get at this thing to knock the other guy insensible? Is this the guy?

Hold on. I'm trying to see if this is the same guy. Oh, is this the guy or are you talking about the other guy? The guy that knocked him out, is this the same, this can't be the same person, is it? It comes up, was he the guy who wrestled as Mahabilly Shira? Oh, Jesus. crazy that he was at OVW for forever and he's a giant

jacked up sort of fellow which apparently because he was at OVW forever tells you something else is going on but yeah I probably wouldn't let him slap me if I'd have been old middle western white boy Jake Hager

who just got knocked out of his goddamn shoes well Jim all we're talking about combat sports any thoughts on the comeback of Connor McGregor. God damn it, you hit me with that. I almost did the spit take on my Sprite Zero. What the fun.

Hey, Rhonda, hold my beer. Jesus Christ. All this time, all this controversy, all the Willie or won't he come back. Who's he going to fight? When's he going to fight? How much money is he going to make to fight? What's he on?

what's he on when he's fighting can we bottle some of his sweat and sell it along the way whatever and he comes out he throws a fucking kick and he goddamn halfway collapses and boom spends more time on his back than anoki did when he fought Muhammad Ali and it's over how many seconds of the first round did it go or did it go a minute by the time they finished with the hoop line of his opponent old nois name wannabe, whoever the fuck he is, I don't care. All the attention was on McGregor. He's, he's looking at the referee. Like, is this all we're getting here? Because I don't really know what's going on. Yeah, it was rather quick. I didn't watch it live, but obviously the footage went around because it was rather quick. It was just... Didn't take long to watch that either. It went to do a jump as knee went out and that's it. Captain Lucky won the fight by doing nothing. I get, but you know what? I have not only seen,

I've experienced knees going out, which is a cartilage or more likely a ligament tear that'll drop you and you fucking, whatever the fuck. And I've seen, I've had that happen to me and I've seen footage of it happen to other people in slow motion. And boy, that,

there was Jedd, I mean, Seth Rollins' fake injury He looked more legit to me than this one. And somebody was saying there was, I looked at this also, there was footage of it when he took his shoes off. Before the fight, he was allegedly favoring his right leg, which made people think that it was an injury beforehand and he showed up to get the money. And I honestly can't rule that out

and beyond the bounds of possibility with this whole, with all of these people and this whole organization, but again it was a fucking popcorn fart it was a turd in the punch bowl that did not as much as rousy and carano uh did not do their company any good as far as return business for a 17 second main event between two middle aged housewives uh i don't think this did the ufc any good for is this what's going to happen the next time we wait for the big you know dream return or superstar to fucking fight

that's that's why wrestling became a work well I think it's clear power slap was the better bang for your buck the two show package that it was I guess well speed a better bang for your buck actually

when you think about it they they you can spend less money to see power slap than you can that you probably would have had to pay to see Connor McGregor and you'll see more people get hit over the course

of the fucking fight than you did even if they're only standing there hitting each other three times. All right, well that was the Combat Sports Update and Jim let's go now to the talk show review WWE Raw on

Netflix, another big episode, a big crowd in Dallas. We've heard a lot that tickets not selling look great in the building on TV. 12,215 is what they told me at the top of the program when I listened real close. And honestly, for the glory days, 12,000 in Dallas isn't a lot of people, but at the ticket prices again now that prevail, that's a lot of fucking money. They said Dallas was the third largest city in the state of Texas now. behind Houston, who else would they be behind?

Has certainly not El Paso? Has Austin really picked up that much in terms of population? Oh, no, no, would they? I was in both of them 40 years ago, and if they'd had a goddamn crew of Egyptian slaves building a pyramid down there, they could have made Austin as big as Dallas. It's got to be El Paso, but when would this have happened?

I got it. Here is the list. According to the U.S. census, the 10 largest cities in Texas by population. Houston, San Antonio. San Antonio. Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, El Paso, Arlington, Corpus Christi, Plano, and Lubbock.

Well, okay, here's one thing is that Dallas, Fort Worth kind of blends together because it's the metroplex. It's right next to each other. So that is somewhat misleading because you're counting the same glob of people in two different globs. Houston was massive even then. I'm surprised that San Antonio has grown to that level, that they are that high up on the list. Houston population. And also, but here's the thing, hold on, Dallas and Fort Worth,

and what was Plano on the list? what else was down at the bottom? Plano was number nine, Lubbock was 10. Okay, Plano is a goddamn suburb that really connects to Dallas Fort Worth. So they're getting a lot of, a lot of fucking split votes up there. But go ahead. Houston population, 2,397,000. San Antonio, 1,548,000. Dallas, 1,329,000. Fort Worth. million 28,000. Finally, Austin. 1,000.

Yeah, but if you put Dallas and Fort Worth together, you end up with two and a half. Houston, yeah, beats Houston. Just about if you had a point of no. If I was the goddamn chamber of commerce down there, I'd be demanding that they start accounting these things differently for tax purposes. Well, maybe we can get Kevin Von Erick on this issue,

but let's talk about Raw in Dallas. Well, let's do that. It opened up, Jim. Yes, yes. As most shows do, it started. Shows do it started. And it continued on from there. I was paying you breath.

Well, they're getting my notes here. I thought we could just seamlessly go past that maybe just a pickup in editing. But nevertheless, So Paul E and Brock were the first ones out. And of course there's the big Oba-U, Oba-oo, Oba-oo chant when they're in the ring and Paul introduces himself and his charge, Brockless, I don't want to do it, I'll hurt my vocal cords.

Maybe that's why Paul has all that extra flesh around his neck is cushioning for his vocal cords when he does that. intro. But at the same point that he's, and a better heel cannot be had on wrestling television than Paul Heyman. But they, Brock does heilish things, but he's a star. They just think he's a badass. And when Paul introduces himself, they, the equivalent of singing his name is Paul Heyman when he introduced. They love everybody. They're just there to, they're watching the movie. at this point. And much like a movie, they had fake cops.

Paul introduced five of the fakes-looking cops in generic police uniforms with indie wrestler haircuts that you've ever seen in your life. And he introduced him as members of the Dallas-Fort Worth Police Department standing by to keep Oba Femmy out. And then, of course, that made him chant Oba even more. But Paul cut to promo on Oba. And the point was he chose, because he was so obsessed with Brock Lester that he chose a match with Brock Lester over a title, he chose a match with Brock Lester over a title

he chose a match with Brock Lester over a title shot, over a championship match, because he's so obsessed with Brahe. That means he's stupid. He's an idiot. He's a dummy. And I feel he should have come out as a you big dummy. But Oba, while Oba is obsessed with Brock, even worse, Brock is obsessed with Oba too. And that's what Paul's scared of.

Because when the beast is obsessed with somebody, holy shit, well, things can happen. So Paul wanted to protect his money for the big match. So he not only went to the WWE and got a no-touch rule, boy, there's a line there somewhere about the WWE offices issuing no-touch rules, isn't there, Brian? It would be unprofessional the touch. Well, you can grab all you want, but just don't touch. Excuse me, I'll be in the side room over here with Mr. McMahon. And he used to keep protein drinks and a fridge in that little anti-room.

From Vince! So not only did Paul get the no-touch rule, but he went to court, found a judge that knew his father when he was a lawyer and blah, blah, blah. Paul does go the extra mile verbally to try to make this shit legitimate, but they give him no visual backup when these fucking guys are so obvious. and as later on they'll take better bumps than anybody on the roster. Oh my God, that one guy, the first guy

that got thrown from the ring. Oh, yeah, well, oh my God. But you had to know something was up when the first guy, I don't want to, you know, spoiler alert, the first guy stepped up to him was five foot forward weight 140 pounds. He looked like my old OVW manager, Mo Green, like the tiniest human

that would still be allowed to ride the ride. That's the first one that steps up and puts his finger of fucking Brock's paper. But nevertheless, that's the thing. We got to, no contact. We got the restraining order on both Oba and Brock, my own client. And Brock's like, woo. And I want Brock to honor that because we're not going to fuck this up and suddenly blackout Oba music, oba entrance, oba chance.

He gets right in the rig. He's supposed to be 100 feet away. He's 10 feet away. Hey, how does that work? I got a restraining order against Oba. I can understand some sort of logic of how Heyman would be able to get that. Who got what against Lesnar? He got one against Brock.

He got one against Brock? Well, that's why. That's why because when they fed him this line of horseshit, he said my dad had to know the judge. He's trying to see. That's the thing. And it's nonsensical. Paul could not apply for a restraining order. On behalf of over family.

me saying I'm going to go, I'm going to go to court and keep you away from fucking, who don't you lie? Everybody in the world. I'm going to keep you away from the guy down the street. You can't do that. But anyway, there's Oba standing there. And so Paul, and Paul just says, officers do your job. And he had Brock get out of the rig.

And when Oba had been coming down the aisleway, first, the cops all choreographed, you could tell that they'd walked through this and they were told, slide in and assume your position in front of Paul Ian Brock, and they all slid in not only timing-wise, but in the same fashion, it looked like Taylor Swift's backup dancers. And it was like, my God, is he controlling them by mental telepathy? And then do your jobs,

and the little one steps up in front of Oba first with his figure in his face, and he picks him up and just throws him over the top rope like a sack of wheat. And a kid took a nice bump, nice bump, kid. And then he chokeslam two of them and a big kick, and he closed line somebody, and he picked the last one up and threw him over the top on top of the other four. And then the cops just disappeared. They were never seen again. They were on camera again.

never referred to again. Magically, they did, five members of the Dallas police department have been laid waste to by a giant black man in Texas. You think that ain't going to cause a goddamn stir? They must have radioed his, well, we ain't got

to more reinforcements so far. Just take your ass weapon and get out of there, boys. You see that all the time on cops. Why wouldn't it be security guards? Forget about the restraining order thing. You could say security lines for the rest rate anymore. They're trying to justify the basic gist of the story

without any. I can tell Hayman may have had a hand in a promo. I don't know if he came up with this concept from beginning to end because there's a lot of holes in it for Hayman's logic. But it's just a

goddamn motion picture now. Except even in the movies, they kind of make it look legitimate. there are no like fat old wrestlers in Dallas they can get I mean seriously for this kind of thing I don't think tug Taylor is still alive but like there's no tug tailors out there or just someone who knows how to take a bump who could do something who may look with a mustache like they're a cop yeah

I mean these guys were so clearly not cops that's why I said why didn't you just say I have a special security or I've been assigned a security to whatever, not these cops who are going to get the shit kicked out of them and then Obafemi could just walk right out of the Dallas city limits doesn't matter. See, that's why in the territory days a lot of the promoters knew actual cops but still, what baby face beat up all the cops on TV ever?

Well, no, no, I, obviously. I mean, but you could actually have legitimate cops do an angle where they separated guys or did things like that if you knew some of them. And that, you know, but this is just so anyway, point being, cops disappeared. Oba cut a promo on Brock and the hell in a cell match and lots of fire. He did a good job. You can see where, you know, people are interested in this fucking guy. And I thought, without the phony cops, just the two big, bad asses,

is fucking cut into promos at each other, this could actually have drawn money in the pro wrestling business back in the day, as well as whatever it is they're doing these days. And again, if they needed someone to take a bond, even if it was the agents, fucking throw Kenny Dykstra around or something, you know what I mean?

But no, because then they can't, oh, no, they got to have cops because that fits the restraining order story that they want to tell. and the blah they're as mama cornet you say champagne taste and a beer pocket book if you're going to

talk about people on your show like they're real cops or real doctors or real anything spend some fucking money and dress them up and trick them out like the real shit and make them learn how to act like it

but that's just me well that was the big angle, the Obafemi, Brock Lesnar, Keystone Cops angle on WWE Raw. And of course, WWE needs all the help they can get to sell tickets to SummerSlam. We've discussed this previously. Looking forward to this match, I don't know how many tickets it's selling. I don't know what is. WWE right now can use some help with their sales.

And, of course, there are lots of other small businesses that you'd like to support that also need some help, and maybe you run one of them. Jim, we trust Shopify with our business. The listeners can trust Shopify with theirs. Let's talk about Shopify. It doesn't even have to be a current customer. Brian, because they'll take new people, they'll break you in, they'll take your virginity in the business world.

Well, that's not the way to... Well, you know, okay, they'll introduce you to the mysteries of life. But the point is, there's no mysteries to Shopify because they're professionals and they know everything. And yes, you are correct, sir. SummerSlam, they've only sold about 20,000 tickets a night. They had 12,000 people in Dallas for a raw taping. So SummerSlam is shaping up to stink like a man eating from Monday cheese and a septic tank of a slaughterhouse. But I think that's because they don't have big time help like Shopify, because you know that if you've been

sitting on a business idea, Shopify can help you make it happen. Everything from conception and inception to the reading of the will. You're with them every step of the way from beginning to end at that point. You're going to make nothing but money. Even if you have to print it yourself at home,

they'll send you the green ink. You don't have to. First of all, you don't have to. You won't. You will not because it's illegal and Shopify is nothing to do with such a thing. Well, I know it's not illegal to print your money. Again, Jim. It is not illegal to print your own money at home. It's only illegal to try to use it.

Is that true? Hold on. It's not illegal to print your own money? Is that true? Well, as long as you don't try to use it, who's going to know? I've got a fine collection of tens and twenties here in the house. One of these days it might be worth something. But folks, the big thing is the checkout.

The checkout. That's what's the big thing is there when they hit that sale button. because that's what the WWE's not doing. They're not putting the tickets on sale. They're just not selling them. And potentially you have a business or service where people just drop things at the moment of checkout and don't fulfill that crucial step.

Can you imagine if that happened in the prostitution business? Everybody all got naked and all got settled down in bed and everything and the hotel room door was locked. and then the guy said, you know what, never mind, put his clothes on and just left. That's not what's going to happen to you, you horrors out there because that's not, from the moment that your first customer is ready to pay, Shopify checkout is going to help more of them finish their purchase. Shopify checkout is going to make more of them in effect come.

No, not in effect come. Come to your company. Come to your company. come to your company and spend money. Okay. See, what are you to, you interrupted me. You're in the gutter. And when those customers want to come back,

well then their details are already saved and you get one tap and they're done so it doesn't have to be a prolonged five-knuckle shuffle again. You just boom, right on the, on the glacial. there and boop they're done. So think about how Shopify handles the setup and the checkout.

All you've got to do is clean up the money afterwards. And you've got more time to focus on growing your business, making it large and throbbing. And they give you tools to do it with. Whether it be a series of implants or trusses and

pulleys and cable. It's none of those things. They are there again to help you grow your business online. You need a partner who can help you get your products into so many places and I've... So many tight places. Why are you doing this?

Well, folks, Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide and they can power yours. They can power you from the top or they can be a power bottom. But one way or another, folks, you can right now get a free trial. They will charge you no

money whatsoever because you know us. and I'm about to tell you how to do this. No money whatsoever will they charge you to take a free trial. All you got to do is go to Shopify.com slash JCE. That's the code. That's the slash. That's the goddamn secret message like the Little Orphan Annie Decoder Ring. Start your free trial at Shopify.com slash JCE.

Because with Shopify, folks, nothing stands between your, idea and a real business, except the fact that it's not a real business yet. So go make it one. Yeah. That's what you need to do. That's what you need to do. Once again,

Shopify.com slash JCE. All right, Jim, back to raw. Boy, I tell you, that's certainly you'd be raw after you finished being deflowered by Shopify. But folks, please, folks. Yes.

Then E.O. Sky wrestled Roxanne. Roxanne. You don't have to watch her match with E.O. Because they're going to do the same thing over and over, and you don't like EO anyway. And then one of the Uso's wrestled Hoyce Keys. Royce Keys. Huh? Royce Keys.

Well, tell that to Royce Gracie. See, they trained us all these years. how to say it and then this he's going to come along and it's and everybody knows that the car is rolls hoists so they did that l a night still mad at the usos they had a gauntlet match that apparently went forever because this was a longer than normal episode of raw with these three matches plus the opening and closing main event monologues so finally hey the gauntlet was really good at times giovann evans looked really good in there chagabille looked really good in there. It was pretty good.

Who won it? Who won it? Chad Gable, I think. Are you sure? I think. Do you know something I don't know? No, I'm wondering. I believe it's Chad Gable. I believe it's Chad Gable. It looked really good in there, and I believe he won.

Well, good for him. Nice to see him getting some respect. Over Miro. Me? But finally, the moment we had all awaited for since the start of the program, the contract signing for the match that we already know is happening. Seth Franklin Rollins and

Roman Raines are going to hook it up at SummerSlam. And of course, this is for the because help me try to delineate the cat to chase the rat that lived in the house. Since Oba didn't want the title match, he wanted Brock. Well, that

left Seth free to challenge Roman, because they used to be partners, oh, these long many years ago. Long ago and oh, so far away, I tagged up with you until I became a star. And so now while Cody and Punk are going for the undisputed WWE championship, Seth and Roman are going to dispute that and go for the world championship. Isn't it funny how they have the undisputed title, Brian, in the same company,

where these other two guys are disputing it constantly? Yep. So Adam Pierce was in the ring to introduce Roman Raines, and he did in between the entrance and the milking and the singing. There's more milking going on here than the fucking Swiss milkmaid in the Alps. Oh, la-l-l-l-l-l-da-de-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-oh. Five minutes later, After this thing started, we finally got Roman to say, acknowledge me.

And then they chanted again. And then they played Seth's music, where they chanted and sang and milked. And Seth got in a ring and sat down and without saying a word, signed the contract. And they had more singing and milking. And we were like almost nine minutes into this segment before Seth actually started of fucking speaking. And at that point he said it must be

disheartening for Roman to hear the singing of his song drowning out the OTC chance so that the crowd started they would do it again. I guess as much of these people are paying to get in there, they should have a part on a show.

If Jimmy Valiant was around today, would he just be standing around, would he say something and then just stand there? there's so much just standing I've seen so much of these guys just staring at each other well because they teach oh yes here's the subtle ways

the body language and the movements and the expressions that you can exacerbate the pie that you can milk the pop or the singing or the chanting and you can leave it room where it'll start organically if you do this inorganically blah blah

blah but it's led to 20 minute fucking segments that to say as much as a three-minute promo used to, and he, in the days when television time was valuable. So, Seth's story was, well, there's three things, certain death taxes, and I'm going to beat Roman Reigns every time. And I've got to be honest with you, besides the fact that, first of all, Roman was saying that Seth bored everybody to death last week, and Seth is Roman Rains' number one hater, and they started chanting, he's a hater. who's the baby face? This was a really good in a vacuum heel promo by Roman Raines where he just eviscerated verbally Seth Rollins

and has that condescending, smarmy tone and just, you know, the fucking healishness of it, whereas Seth is standing there trying to tell this dramatic story with a straight face and solemn expression of why that we should think that this is going to be a battle to the death and they're so mad at each other. But in, I mean, Roman is just blistering him.

You know, he signed the contract right after they started wotting Roman, first of all. And it must be a Texas thing because, you know, he don't normally get wooded. but when Seth had signed a Roman signed and Seth tries to leave, Roman says, well, go, hold on, what if you do win? What are you going to do? Carried a couple of months and get hurt again? It's just self-sabotage with you. You can't handle the burden.

And, you know, you needed a money-in-a-bank briefcase to get a title shot and you needed to fake an injury to use it. they gave you all my stuff and you still couldn't walk in my shoes number two it's weird when the deals tell the truth I mean it's it's basically finished with

I'm number one so just acknowledge it bitch is the thing these are the top baby faces and one is a fucking asshole and the other's a goddamn he's got his panties in a wide and then when Robin had just

eviscerated him verbally Seth looked at him as stewed and said, is that all you got? I'm like, what the fuck? Wasn't that enough? He used to be the old deal I used to do when I get beat up in a fucking manager match or something and my opponent pins me and I'm on the flat on the ground

and the guy's halfway back to the locker room and I get the microphone and I breathe heavy. Have you had enough or do you want some more? And the people go, oh, fuck you. is like is that all you've got and then he belittled himself he said i say all that stuff to myself i'm like what the fuck you must be a hoot to hang around the house with i mean seriously i say all that shit to myself i'm a peon and i'm nothing and i'll never god damn it so then he said he's revolutionary and

you know all those things and I'm glad I'm not you and then he pickled fucking Roman rains and got some sloppy heat and started to leave but went for the stomp but Roman Superman punched him and went for the power bomb but Seth hit him with the microphone and pedigreeed him

and stomped him. I'm about a ticket to the top we're going to stop. Name that artist Brian. The brothers Johnson. Very good. And they didn't stomp all night. There was just the one stomp, and then they quit stomping. Do you like stomp?

I mean, everyone focuses on strawberry letter. They don't focus on stomp so much. It's kind of after he got his hair cut and everything. What are your thoughts on it? The Strawberry Letter 23 was the first major chart hit, and still, I think, is a masterpiece of musical dexterity and just wonderful, especially to listen to in the headphones with the cascading Zabada.

But I think Stomp did it not, it went higher to me on the charts because it was more ever present, possibly because that was the disco era. And I have the disco single. But remember, ain't we funkin now? I do not know that one. That was the brothers Johnson also, was it not?

I don't know that one. Well, you've got to get the album. All right. Please. You know, the title was Strawberry Letter 23, but in the song, the lyrics is Strawberry Letter 22. Right. The song is Strawberry Letter 23. Yes.

It was written by Shuggy Yotas. Well, poor old Shuggy. How's he doing these days? All right. Where are we? What are we? How are we? Oh, well, we're done with Raw there, I think.

Yeah, that was all. of Raw. Ticket sales aside, if you did not know anything about the ticket sales, what would you think about the build the SummerSlam?

I'm perplexed that there's no level of urgency to any of this. It's big names in matches that they have really just walked out and challenged each other too. I'm sure that the powers

that be up there think that they've done enough with the booking up till now. that all of these people are over and they have their reasons for having these matches. And it's just there's no urgency to it. Like I said, I would love to have seen Cody take offense at something that punk said in in innocence, if you will, and he twisted the woods, whatever. And we got a goddamn dogfight between two big stars that ought to be friends,

but they've had a falling out, and that takes more than a week and a half to set up because they should have done the thing with Sammy a month or two ago. Then they'd have had time to do some things. And the way those two guys can talk, that'd have been great. With Oba and Brock, I understand it, obviously.

But that, because a lot of people on Twitter were like, well, you didn't understand you of all people, that he's more mad at Brock than he is wanting the world title. It didn't need to be mutually exclusive, especially when these guys just come out and challenge each other and make matches when nobody actually approves them to laugh at the fact. He could have said, okay, I'm going to take my title match at SummerSlam, and at Saturday night's made event,

I want to beat the shit out of Brock. It's just the broad logic that they don't fill all the holes in. They've been promoting the guy that won the King of the Ring was going to fight for the title. And then they just, it's great. Brock and Oba is probably a bigger money match than anything else. But then where does that leave the title match? They have to go to this other thing that you didn't think you were going to see and make you want to see that within a few weeks time.

Brian, do you see that where I'm saying is that maybe they just started weaving this tapestry a little bit too late. In a lot of ways for a company that's making so much money, they seem lost right now, especially creatively. They have big stars. I'm not taken away from that, but the way they're being used,

it's kind of like they're just trying to stay above water. You know, they're almost booking like they just want to float by, not that they want to make people really interested or anything. Well, you know what else floats? A fucking corpse. but that's that's that they have big name stars in main event matches marquee value matches where they've just come out and said okay it's time we have this match all right well

win literally say win win okay the biggest match of the fucking summer that's taken years into making roads and punk and yes it's for the title that one lost to someone else and feels as rightfully his and the other guy's like, we'll come and take it. That's basic wrestling. And that's the basic idea. That's about as basic as you can get for the big main event of the big show of the fucking summer.

Well, the heat is on, and we'll see what happens in Minneapolis. Right now, it looks like a ticket sale disaster, but that is the build-to-summer-slam. Jim, let's play a game. Well, all right. Is it going to be a doctor or... No, we've all learned our lesson about playing that with you.

Jim, I'm going to give you a real name. I want you to guess who on the AEW roster's name it is. Oh, boy. Okay. All right. I mean, it's been a while since you've been in an executive in wrestling, and that period of time, you probably knew everyone's real name. You may not know. Many, but not all, but yeah. Let me start with an easy one.

Lucas James Uggles Eat Well. Oh, for fuck's sake. What are you saying? Lucas James Uggles eat well. This James Ugles eat well. Brody King, I have no idea. Oh, that was an easy one for you.

Zach Sabre Jr. Oh, come on. The skinny of This guy on the roster's last name for real is Eatwell. We've discussed this before, yes. Well, I guess I just didn't commit it to memory. I was thinking I was pictured a big fat guy. Jim, Emil Charles Belargeron LeBarge.

That's Hong Kong Fouy. I remember that one. Well, there you go. Ding, ding, ding. How did you do that? Yes. Yes. That was either we referred to a story on the show

one time or I just saw something on the internet that had that. And it was so long and preposterous for a short and preposterous talent that I remembered it. Well, I did not know that one. That one popped me bringing back the name Balajaran to wrestling. Jim, whose real name is Paul Gruber? Wouldn't he the terrorist and diehard? No, that was Hans Gruber.

Hans Grub. That was his brother. What happened? went straight. Paul Gruber would be the German menace. Do they have a German? I don't know who the fuck he is. Wheeler Yuda is the

answer. That's Wheeler Uda. Okay, but I can understand maybe thinking Paul Gruber might not hit like Rudolph Valentino or Tom Cruise or whatever, but why would you then go to Wheeler Yuda? I'm not sure everyone has their reason

for arriving at their wrestler name. Here's another one for you. William Arturo Munoz Gonzalez. Oh, Christ. I don't even know why. Well, probably not one of the gun club. Andre. Roosh.

Roosh. Rosh. Ah, is the name that I just said that was very long. Let's get another one here. That one is too easy. the same last name. Oh, wow, look at what he used to look like. Let me get another one here, Jim. What about Connor Deutsch?

Connor Deutsch. Deutsch is German. D-E-U-T-S-C-H. Wait a bit, D-E-U. I guess it could be pronounced douche, but I believe... I wouldn't know. I'm going to say, well, where all these people are coming from Germany? Um, it's Tecla.

Clark Connors. Connor. The name's Connor. Why would you think a woman's name Connor? Because I just fucking around. But actually, I wish old Connor had kept his last, his real name instead of Clark Connors. That sounds like a goddamn wannabe fucking reporter for the daily planet. Samuel Rash.

And that's spelled R-A-T-S-C-H. Who is this rats? Sadby, I, I, Tony Shavani. Darby Allen. Good Lord. Where are you getting this information? Do you have some kind of FBI file here? It's on the Internet. This is all readily available information.

Anyone can get. I'll test one here. See, I'll give you an easy one. William Jason Riso. Christian K. There you go. You see, this is. it appears to be honest

all these names that are just listed here well many of these names don't appear to be honest but I'm talking about their personality not what they were named Daniel Christopher Covel Chris Daniels Christopher Daniels that's right used to be a I guess a popular thing you just like take your middle name you make that your first name

and then you find something else and that's your last name and then they switch to where they would take their first name from porn and put it together with the last name of the street where that they were last seen panhandling. Here's another easy one. Stephen

Blake Woltz. What now? Stephen Woltz? Blake Woltz. Woltz. Like the film producer and the Godfather had the horse's head. Wootz. I have no fucking idea. Hangman Adam Page. Good Lord, no wonder he changed it.

Mr. Woltz, as he was known to his students. All right, let's get another one here. Jim, what about Jamie White? Well, that's too easy. Well, that would have to be old light switch Jay White, wouldn't it? I didn't realize when I quit that.

Yeah, exactly his name. Geez, give me an easier one, Brian. Lionel Gerard Green. Lionel Gerard Green. That would be a... Cash Wheeler. That's Leo Rush.

Leo Rush. Jim, in general, we're all proud of our middle names, but do you find using it in this manner? Everyone sounds like a serial killer? Yeah, well, it's more, my cousin Larry's actual middle name is Wayne, and that really just right there, John Wayne Gacy fucked it for everybody. If your fucking middle name is Wayne, you pretty much have people buried your crawl space. but a three except for like Dick Van Dyke

or someone like that who's established three names does make it sound like it's being read on the news because you've been arrested. Jim, what about Davis Passfield? Davis Passfield. I can't, uh, porn. I'm gonna say that's a porn name. That is the name of Mark Davis.

Oh, okay. That's a different game we're playing also. Either that or that's, He achieved fame because he's got that big ass. Did he decide to name himself Mark? Or did his trainer say, you're Mark? We don't know. We don't know. Jim, what about?

Is this guy still on the roster? Peter Hernandez. Peter Hernandez, would that be Sammy Guevara? Peter Avalon. Peter, oh, good Lord. Avalon. Jim, whose real name is Tomohiro Ishii? I'm going to say

that's Tegas Shet's real name. You've got that one right. All right, I think we'll wrap this one up for this edition of AEW real name. Whose Real Name is? That's her real name. I can't really say that one there. All right. Well, this has gone swimmingly.

Swimmingly. This is AEW Real Name. Whose real name is Cody Vance? Is this guy still on the roster? Preston Vance? I don't even know. He married well. Well, Cody Vance, well, except for I guess he didn't want to be another Cody.

Is that the Vince McMahon rule? There can't be another Sean or Shane. It could be it. Who's Michael Collier. I guess that would be how you pronounce it. Colliery. That is QT. Marshall. That is indeed correct.

Q.T. Marshall. Because he worked for us in Ring of Honor. I had to receive his government name in order to make sure he. get paid. That was one of those interesting moments in the early days of the AEW reviews when he just randomly showed up in like a six man on Dynamite and we were reading the results and I said QT Marshall and you're like QT Marshall.

I know him. You knew who he was. And then they never did anything with him except make people not want to see him. Good job. AEW. As always. All right. One more name here, Jim. Whose real name is Matthew Adams? Matthew Adams.

He's been mentioned on this episode of this podcast today. Good Lord. It's a standard all-American name, Matthew Adams. It sounds like one of the founding fathers, but I would say that's Prince Nonna. Buddy Matthews. Buddy, ma'am. Wait if it is, and it's Matt, what?

Matthew Adams. Matthew Adams. Boy, he just can't get away from some fucking white boy names, can he? What about John Smith? Dick Jones, Buddy Matthews, Matt David. Whatever. This has been whatever, aka A.EW, real name trivia. And with that, we shall return right after this short commercial timeout.

Ah, ah! Of course, that's one of Jim's favorites, and that signifies we are here in the home stretch. But we still have a lot of action for you, fans. Jim, let's talk about the movies. I'm glad you didn't play the organ at Roller Derby games. Oh, man, that'd be so much fun. We should do that. but we'll get to that later. Jim, have you been following the box office news,

the motion picture box office news? Another big rock film has come out. Moana, a live action version of a cartoon that came out just a few years ago, a puzzling choice by Disney. Have you been following how it's been doing? Well, I understand that when they asked the people said, do you want to see Moana?

They said, we don't want to. and it's approaching Queen of the Ring gate returns at this point. Box office returns, as it were, the bonanza that is, no, it's like everything else today. It grossed a lot of money until you hear how much it cost, and then you realize it lost a lot of money. And again, who is the most expensive person on the shoot? That may be part of the issue. But do you have these figures? Are they expecting Disney expecting to lose $100 million on this movie?

I have an article here from a website called Comic Book Click. And this is one of the many different things that were sent to us by listeners, including variety and Hollywood Reporter, all sorts of articles about the box office. But this one seemed to incorporate the bigger picture. Let's go to this. Moana confirms Dwayne Johnson is no longer a viable, movie star. Oh, boy, they led with a fucking knockout blow, didn't they?

Even if the wind on the sail on the sea stays behind the live-action Moana, it still be easy to predict how far it'll go. Into a loss of at least $100 million. As Dwayne Johnson's last grasp, that being the biggest movie star on the planet, which he hasn't been in at least 10 years, will fall. failed to turn a profit with one of the biggest properties that Disney has to offer. Not only is he no longer the biggest movie star on the planet, but he's no longer even in the conversation.

The Rock isn't the only reason Moana failed. We'll get into that, of course. But it is at best alarming, at worst, a damning indictment on how far his star power has fallen. Since the Black Adam disaster that was so embarrassing it became a staple of movie memes, The Rock has had the following live-action movies. Red One, a family Christmas movie which couldn't even make its budget back despite co-starring with Chris Evans.

The Smashing Machine, a low-budget independent prestige play where supposedly the biggest movie star on the planet couldn't even make an A-24 film even half of its budget back and bombed so poorly that the rock went on a press tour to explain how the box office apparently doesn't matter. Now it's Moana, property that just had a billion-dollar film less than two years ago.

and whose original movie is the most streamed movie in the history of Disney Plus and it opened globally to less than 100 million. The Rock's movie before Black Adam was Red Notice, which was a streaming film designed to remind people he's still a star after Jungle Cruise. An adventure film co-starring Emily Blunt failed to turn a profit.

The last movie's story, starring The Rock to make a profit that wasn't an established franchise. Was 2018 Skyscraper? I don't even remember that one. The Rock hasn't drawn an audience to the theater in quite literally eight years. Even with a family Christmas film, a live-action remake of the most popular Disney film of this generation, a low-budget indie,

among other slam-dunk projects. Essentially, expect to see the final boss come out on Raw soon so he could still feel like he's a big star while Michael Cole calls him the biggest star on the planet. Despite opening at number one, Moana's subdued $43 million estimate is a massive step down from its animated sequel in 2024,

which opened domestically to $139 million over a three-day weekend. Jesus Christ. So it's nearly a $100 million drop-off. So I can stop there. It goes into more business of the movie. Is this guy, the Rock's personal agent, that wrote this article? He certainly sounds like he's trying to further his career.

But it goes into what I've been saying about him for a while when people say he's the biggest movie star in a world. And I would say, isn't he? We're told that he is. That's the thing. We're told that he is. but I don't know anyone. I said this a while back

and people jumped on me. I don't know anyone excited to see anything with the Rock. Other than wrestling right now, actually. Well, when you think about it, I mean, they're always going to pop and cheer for the Rock and oh, the Rock's here, especially if he shows up and they don't know,

but have they really wanted to see any of the things that he's done over the last couple years once he came out and did him? No, it was the appearance. And if you think about all those years, he would randomly show up on Raw when he was a movie star,

and Vince would get him to show up. He never did anything. It was like a one-off promo. Maybe he would embarrass and put down some of the roster. But then he was gone. Even when he worked with Sina, he was there a very short period of time. And then he was gone for like a year. I think with wrestling, he'll always show up as a surprise.

It'll probably be in L.A. or someplace like that. He'll always point to his arm and show you the goosebumps. that he always gets because he's different than everyone else. When he comes back to consort with the little people that made him what he is today. But again, this says something because he's on the TKO board. And obviously his input

and influence over the wrestling product, you could disagree with me if you want, has either been bad or non-existent or somewhere in between. But it really can't be said to have been a benefit to the company and anything that's been visible in the television form

over the last few years. And since these, the bigwigs are also his friends and agents and everything, they have to know that the rock territory is gone into a slump. They would know better than most people. See, he gets paid. A lot of these movies, they're not making

any money back because he gets paid. He shows up really late. He pisses in bottles, hands him out, like go words. Everyone's waiting around. The budgets go up and up. He gets paid. He's fine. And then he does these interviews where he sits there, you know, like he's fucking Peter Bogdanovich talking to you about film, just the seriousness. Just talking to you like he's a serious actor. Like he's not the fucking rock. And now you find that his movies aren't doing any business. So when do you think we'll see him back on Raw? Oh, good Lord.

Maybe he'll show up at SummerSlam to fucking challenge the winner of something. It'd be a good move right now to announce the Rock may be there to sell some tickets. Boy, only if he was going to be there, though. If they just said, well, he might be there. People bought tickets and he wasn't there. Then it's not like they're scampering and clamoring to buy these tickets to begin with. If they got him under false pretenses, I think they'd set the seats on fire. He hasn't showed up since Travis Scott.

Right? That was the last time we saw him on this show. Yeah. You just know that he's thinking at some point he has to have a redemption for that being the last time, you know, this could be the last time. And he told him to go out there and shoot slap Cody. So really lay it in. Whatever you do, really make it look good. Mr. Never been trained.

Never done anything in a ring. Doesn't know how to work. Go beat up the champion. out there, and then never come back again. So again, you could argue that the Rock's influence over film and wrestling at an all-time load despite being one of the most powerful people in the wrestling business right now. And that's box office news. Jim, let's get some questions here.

This one was sent to corny drive-thru at gmail.com by Kyle in Colorado Springs. Kyle's mom is a bitch, a big pet, fish, a big, big, That bitch, oh yes, she is. She's the biggest bitch and the whole one more. She's a bitch to all the boys and girls. We have YouTube. There's a lot of bleeping. I apologize for all the bleeping.

Let's try this again so we can use it. The gym. A different Kyle in Colorado. Here's his question. I was watching some old Ring of Honor matches and stumbled upon a tag match between Brian Danielson and Tyler Black versus the American Wolves,

Davy Richards and Eddie Edwards. Watching the match, I realized I had forgotten what a great tag team the wolves were. They had great chemistry, and I feel they would have been big with an AEW-level exposure. I was curious what Jim thought

about them as persons and his talent, and if Jim felt they could have been, big stars if a Tony con had come along sooner and showcase their talents. Well, I wish he had to phrase the question like that. I believe they could have been bigger stars. And let's

leave Tony Khan out of it for the moment. Eddie Edwards was a great kid, great worker in shape. He was still very young. He needed to develop his promos at that point in time. But he had a great work ethic and his shit

was good. And Davy Richards was goddamn both a revelation and a disappointment at the same time because in the ring he had talent that he reminded me

of a dynamite kid Chris Benoit type of just hard-nosed fucking go after it his shit looked good he was again athletic and he had the MMA and the grappling mixed in

but mentally he just could never get a grip on whatever he wasn't getting a grip on. He was, at one point he'd want to be a champion that the locker room could, you know, could be a leader that they set an example. And then something would happen where he'd just blurt something out or do or say something that's set him back five steps. and I think it just impulsive shit. At one point he wanted to propose to his goddamn girlfriend after he won the title at the Hammerstein Ballroom or whatever.

And then we stopped him, me and delirious from doing that, didn't come to find out within a few months. He broke up with her and was dating somebody else. So what would he? But as a tag team, they were good and they complimented each other. And as far as a hard-hitting modern style of wrestling,

I thought they were very good. I thought that they should have gotten better opportunities. They had won at one point that I either, I can't remember the particulars, but they brought them to NXT. It just gave them one tryout match and beat them. And, you know, they didn't get it. But that wasn't the WWE style,

especially at that point, what they were doing. In AEW, they could have, they could have run away with the whole company because they did all the modern shit, the dives and stuff, but it actually looked like they were trying rather than this fucking pissy-ass bullshit, sloppy, phony stuff that you see today. But ultimately, Eddie went on to,

I guess, being TNA for like 30 years, and Davy quit a business, came back, quit it again, and people have apparently not been clamoring for his return. How did what some would call Davy's, I don't know, flakiness? I'm trying to be nice about the whole thing. Yeah, but yeah, that'd be a word. How did that affect Eddie, the way Eddie was used, or did it have a negative effect on him when you were around him?

Well, no, because we knew that they were two different people and we didn't take it. At one point, they did a program against each other, which was based on the fact that they had been partners, but Eddie had kind of been in the shadow. And Eddie, this was delirious as I did.

It worked like a charm. Eddie beat Davey in New York at the Hammerstein for the Ring of Honor title when nobody thought that was going to happen. All the smart fans thought, oh, well, he's going to go on to this and that. and it shocked him, but it helped Eddie. But no, we always intended to use Eddie,

whether it be a single or in the tag, just, you know, we didn't penalize him because Davey was flaky. All right, thank you for your question. Jim, this one was sent via Facebook, the Coulter Cornette Group, by Russell Goose. What is Jim's opinion on the wrestling with shadows. You sure it wasn't from his cousin,

tickled duck? What is Jim's opinion on the wrestling with shadows documentary? Oh, that was the one with Brett and the Montreal and the whole nine yards. I mean, it just, it, it was a well-made piece of business, but it got overshadowed by

everything else that went on. And the most memorable footage in the documentary has been used to tell that. story independently of everything else i i remember thinking they did a pretty good job but i haven't seen it in 20 years probably so i can't quote it chapter and verse or give you a breakdown a critique on its accuracy or whatever but it was just another example of Vince allowed the shooting and it came back to bite him in the ass. And I was surprised. Every time

he let somebody pierce the veil, it ended up working against him. And he was, you know, all for oh, mainstream and publicity. And let's, you know, we don't want to insult people's intelligence. Well, let people come on in and you always look like a fucking idiot. All right, Jim, our next question sent via the Colt of Cornett Facebook group was sent by Chris Mason Does Jim have the Smoky Mountain ring apron?

Yes, I do. It's in my closet. Does he want to buy it? It's 18 feet long, so it's hard to move as a display piece. Is it just one? Yeah, fuck, you think we're going to buy four? The camera was only on one side of the ring. I didn't know if there was more than one you used over the years.

No, that was the one. It still got all the blueprints. blood and the dirt and everything. I think it's the original rope. It was 18 feet long and what about three feet high and we would tie it as an apron skirt we'd tie it on the hard camera side of the ring for TV and stuff we were shooting for TV. And the other sides would just be naked because what the fuck? We'd had to bought four of. All right, Jim. Our next question was sent via the cult Cornette Facebook group by Joe Musser.

Could Jim dive into... Wasn't he one of the last members of the Three Stooges? That's Joe Bessor, but this is Joe Musser. Could Jim dive into the Louisiana promoter Jimmy Killshaw? Okay. What was that thing on his neck? And did he rip off the wrestlers with his 10-6 figure? I thought I said fingers.

with his 10-6 figures. Well, see, he's been, what's this fellow's name, Joe Besser? Joe Musser. Yes, he's, yeah, well, whichever way, he's been listening to me. That was the, when I was in Mid-South, some of the towns still had the old-time promoter, because even before Watts opened Mid-South wrestling, the Louisiana and Mississippi end of the territory

had been part of Leroy-McGerck's tri-state wrestling, wrestling promotion, but McGirk was based in Oklahoma, did a lot of business in like Springfield, Missouri, et cetera, and the Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas end was the money end for them, and Louisiana and Mississippi was, you know, kind of where you got exiled if you were sent to the Louisiana towns in the territory. It was 500 fucking miles, and they didn't particularly draw at that point in time. but years through the years going back to when Louisiana was part of the Gulf Coast territory and the Welch family and etc.

Each town had its own local promoter the person who dealt with the newspaper, dealt with the TV station, dealt with the arenas, and did the advertising, whatever the case. And they were kind of grandfathered along until Watts was able to systematically get rid either through age, attrition,

or just breaking loose from the deal, because a lot of them just, they had originally got those spots because in the old days, they had an end with the building, or they had an end with the station, and their usefulness may have come to it in. Jimmy Killshaw was the guy in Bat Rouge that had probably, and Charlie D'Amico was the promoter in Alps. Alexandria, Louisiana. And there were a few more, but Watts was trying to replace all of them with guys like

Jack Curtis that were, you know, his like traveling rep and road agent. And of course, the Cokin's in Mississippi. But Jimmy Killshaw was, it was a rib when I got there that every time he'd come in, the boys would ask what the house was. And he'd say, oh, 106, meant $10,600. But the guys said, regardless of how many people it looked like they were out there, he'd always say 10-6. And I swear to God, for the period of time that I was,

until we just started drawing money he couldn't get away with, we got like three 10-6s. And so he had this big thing on his neck. It was like a giant blood blister carbuncle. I don't know what you fucking call it. and he wandered, he was like a Cajun Henry Marcus. He just wandered around the building kind of looking slightly disheveled and never really came in a locker room.

But he was the promoter of record there. And he's one of the people they sued when I, you know, called the fucking crowd, sorry looking, sorry looking bunch of people. And the guy felt personally offended and took a swing at me over it. And I quacked him with a racket a few times. Jimmy Kilshaw was one of the people that got sued also and he just made it disappear All right, good old Louisiana

Jim, our next question sent via the culticorne of Facebook group was sent by Jason Amos Does Jim have any knowledge about rumors that the WWF had to avoid Oregon for several years because the commission caught Hulk Hogan trying to cheat on his urine test. Supposedly, they just quit going there so that they did not get any sanctions against them

and or have stricter testing from other state commissions over this. So any knowledge of that... There's an element of truth there and then possibly Hogan told the story. Who knows? Because he... You don't need to insert Hulk Hogan in that.

Now, there was an attempt at pissfacery. One time of the WWF, it was Sid tried to get poor old downtown Bruno's pissed by the inspectors. But no, the reason why they didn't go to Oregon was because of the commission. But, Brian, you probably remember this. You were of reading age at that point. And that's what caused problems with Billy Jack Haynes and the commission. and then the successors of Don Owens and the Sandy Bar and the commission, they had a lot of problems with the Oregon Commission,

any wrestling group, because they instituted a bunch of mandatory drug testing, AIDS testing, blood testing, high-priced, you know, rigamarole that everybody had to go through and licensing and the promoters licensing and, et cetera, and to be out of the, the WWF, honestly, I don't think they were worried about AIDS testing, but it was a level of drug testing that they didn't, for the sake of going to the state of Oregon,

they didn't want to open up that can of peas. And the guy on the commission was very adversarial to wrestling to begin with, so it's not like they were trying to bolster the profile of wrestling in a state of Oregon. And so for quite a while, WCW didn't go either, did they? Not that there was great demand, but just nobody went to Oregon. I used to read about the commission and Mike Rogers ring around the Northwest, which after a while, the most interesting stuff wasn't what's happening at the wrestling arena. It was what was happening with everyone dealing with the commission.

It was the commission trying to put everybody in a wrestling business out of business. That's what the commission got money from was boxing and wrestling. Jim, our next question sent via email the corny drive-thru at gmail.com is from Sam in London, England. Does Jim think Ken Shamrock was underutilized by WWE? Was he used the right amount? Or was his career a case of right person wrong time in terms of looking at how someone like Brock Lesnar, who used his legit fighting experience to enhance his WWE skills and gimmick. I always felt that Shamrock should have been more than an IC title contender.

Oh, definitely. Shamrock not only excelled in the UFC at the early days and the matches with Dan Severn and the pay-per-views that they sold with no television, all that stuff, but Dan has... or Dan, Ken had trained to pro-wrestle before he got into the UFC and organized MMA.

I worked at a Battle Royal with him on a spot show in North Carolina in like 1991. Vince Torelli, the Italian stallion. Shamrock could work and he had personality and he could cut it to promo you believed and he had the body. I mean, it was, I wish he had stayed longer

in WWF during that run because he would have continued to be a big star. But I think I can't even remember the exact particulars as to why that he didn't resign after what he had a two-year contract. What was it, 97 to 99? And after that he went back to fighting. And then, you know, WWE did not offer him the same amount of money. could make however he could make it fighting well that's that's true and then by the time he'd been

gone a number of years the horse had kind of left the barn and it didn't it didn't happen then and i got to i tried to book him what time for ring of honor with dan severin was going to be in the corner of davy richards and or what no i'm sorry dan severed was with uh eddie edwards i was going to have shamrock with davy richards it was an internet pay-per-view And it was the guys were going to train and have a really fucking grappling heavy contest and the whole nine yards. And I got to hold of Ken on the phone. He said, yeah, I'd like to do it.

Call us, he had two different agents. And they never got back to me. And when they finally did, there was some who shot John's story they gave me about this and the other stuff. Well, the fucking time has passed. Thanks a lot. But I always like Ken. got along with Ken, I thought he was a good talent and he should have had a longer

main event, mainstream pro wrestling career. But he made some good money in MMA too. He was one of the guys also in the early mixed top guys in TNA when it first started, right? NWA champion. Yes, because they wanted to, you know, kick off with a champion that would be a wrestling guy that people would know. And, and it's, Ken's always had somewhat flaky representation around.

him, I think. Jim, our next question sent via email to corny drive-thru at gmail.com was sent by John Devers, St. Louis, Missouri. I just read Bugsie McGraw's autobiography, brute power. By the way, I think that was written with Ian Douglas,

who's done other fine wrestling books, and he claimed that the Rock and Roll Express, for all their popularity in the mid-80s with Crockett, could have been even more popular. Bugsy claims that Dusty Roads held the express down by putting them on lesser shows and did not book them in the large markets, so that Dusty could be the number one star in the company.

Since the rock and roll and midnights were in a perpetual feud at the time, what does Jim think about Buggie? What does Jim think about Bugsie's assessment of the situation? Well, I like Bugsy. He's always been a very nice guy whenever I've been around him, haven't seen him in 25 years or whatever. And again, there's a grain of something there

that's kind of been not necessarily even blown out of proportion, but just twisted around, transferred over. The Rocket Roll Express did get over as baby faces to such a degree that the boys would joke when Dusty would book himself and six men's with him and he'd wear the bandanas and et cetera

and a t-shirt, you know, he's trying to sap some of their fucking popularity. Obviously, with the Midnight Express scrapbook and I've done our schedule and gone deep dives into various things, the Rock and Roll Express were on plenty of Philadelphia's and Baltimore's and Charlottes, Greensboro's, and Atlanta Omnis and Chicago and the big buildings that we set records in.

But sometimes, because they were so over in the Carolinas, Dusty would put him on a fucking spot show run and in one case after the Great American Bash 86 was the first year he did it he did the Rock and Roll Express Super Summer Sizzler series tour

where he took the rock and roll rented him a fucking tour bus and had him going around to like Lumberton, North Carolina and Fayetteville or Gaffney or these small town high schools where they could go to the baseball field or the football stadium at the high school

and draw 2,000,000 people. And it was like a small card of like five or six matches while everybody else got a week off, right? It was the rib on those guys. They had to work after the bash. But it wasn't like that was a punishment of a buttermilk run. It was designed around them. because of their popularity in those high schools, those small towns,

they could sell out the goddamn football field. So, you know, Dusty wanted to make sure that everybody saw him as the star. But when he had attractions like the Rocker Roll Express, it made his gates better, it made his booking look better, and it gave him a better track record. So he wasn't going to cut them off from making them. money and they were not a threat to him. He was still the Booker

and neither one of them bless Ricky Morton when he says to the contrary were going to be in the NWA singles title picture except when Ricky's popularity got so hot that they made money on giving him

an angle with flare and shots at flare. But it wasn't, you know, it wasn't, neither one of them were going to take over Dusty's spot. So there wasn't any jealousy there that he couldn't turn into something productive. Does that make sense, Brian? How much of the way Dusty was used was because it was dusty?

And how much of it was it was because Dusty was booking who he truly believed was the most popular and top star in the company? How much of it was ego versus how much of it was maybe a blind belief at times as the 80s went on, but I believe that he really was that guy. He believed he really was that guy. And, I mean, he had an ego, obviously. But he had an ego in part because he had been that guy for so long at that point. He got to be that guy before he was in charge of who picked the guy. So, and he didn't always have to be in the main event,

but he was always figured into something. See, that's the thing people don't remember when Flay. was working with somebody else like Nikita or Barry Windham or whatever. Dusty might be working with Tully or he might be in a six-man with the road warriors of the rock and roll. And then he'd wear road warrior outfits or rock and roll costumes or whatever to kind of fit in. But he was always figured in because he was a major name, but he wasn't the main event of every show, every week, every month, every year.

although it seemed like everyone doing a promo on TBS had to mention him and their promo even if they had nothing to do with anything Dusty Rhodes was doing. Was that because of self-preservation or was Dusty ever directing people? After you're done talking about your feud, mention me. He never did that to me except if he was actually involved in something. Like if, okay, we're really talking about the Rock and Roll Express, but don't forget Dusty and Magnum and Baby Doll were coming after as an aside or whatever.

But he never just said, you know, mention me to me. But a lot of the guys would talk about him because they knew that he would like that. And then sometimes you were going down, like some people have retweeted my promos where I've got the Great American Bash T-shirt on or I'm talking about the upcoming series of events and I say how my God, the matches you're going to see,

it's going to be flared roads, it's going to be the Road Warriors and this guy, and it's going to be us, and you would try to make the event bigger, but there wasn't like a goddamn written memo. Everybody's got to talk about Dusty. Like, baby faces just randomly, like, and then me and Dusty Roads,

and we're going to clean up the NWA and like, what? But a good question there. Jim, our final question, and then we're going to play some guest to program before we get out of here. songs return next week on the show. Send yours to corny drive-thru at gmail.com. But Jim, this question was sent via email to cornyidivthru at gmail.com from April

Harmon in Detroit by way of Springfield, Ohio. I have absolutely been loving the TNA reports. You say what you didn't like about the shows, but is there any storyline that was your favorite during your time in TNA? Oh, God, well, I've mentioned the initial build was Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle. I thought it was very well done.

And that's, you know, before Vinny Rood had a chance to get his hooks in it. And the stuff with awesome Kong and Gail Kim. I love those matches, and I liked the way that they were presented as Kong was a monster, and Gail Kim was the Never Say Die Baby. face. I don't know if I necessarily remember specific programs or not, but just talent-wise,

I thought Rood and Storm as a tag team were fucking tremendous. Wanted to see more of that. I was also a fan of when Abyss could be held in some type of control and just didn't roll around in thumbtacks. I thought he was an incredible big man. There were pieces of talent there and bright spots and guys that to me still were young enough or new enough or fresh enough or worked hard enough

that they could get over. It just as a whole things fell in a whole. What's your favorite moment, even if it didn't involve something on camera? Like just anything about those trips to Florida? What's your favorite anything from your time with, The Outback Steakhouse, a couple of blocks away from the Double Tree Hotel, was fucking tremendous. Who's your favorite person to eat with?

Well, most of the time, it was me and Stacy. I didn't go on, like, fancy dates with Mike Teney or whatever. But no, Tene and Don West and Keith Mitchell and a couple of guys and I made a couple of what a burger runs. So that was fun. but I was basically at that point, I was going out of duty and because, you know, five days of work for that amount of money wasn't a bad gig, just the things I had to put up with. And that's why I didn't know much about everybody's goddamn personal affairs

because, as I mentioned, I'd drive down there the night before the taping or the pay-per-view, I'd have a get there early to have a nice room service dinner. and the next day after 10 or 12 hours at the park, I'm ready to go back getting my underwear, cranky air conditioning up, have some cheeseburgers, and watch my DVD player. And that was jealous. So there wasn't a lot of social butterflying done to have an exciting fun vacation to Orlando. All right, Jim, why don't we wrap things up today with some guests to program?

I'm going to call two out of three again like I'm. I did last time because I had luck with that and I'm going to stick to it. Now I want to give you really hard ones. But of course, ladies and gentlemen, guess the program is... Well, give me a hard one if you want to, big boy. I'll take it. Yeah, we'll see about that. But this is where we go through programs in my collection. We quiz Jim on all the details. And he guesses the date, the location, and anything else he can figure out. Jim, the opening bout. Oh, should I exercise? my rule here. I'm going to exercise my, I'm not telling you one of the matches rule.

Okay. It's an Australian tag team match. The second match, Buck Robly versus Booker T. The Streetman. Oh. Third match, Iceman King Parsons versus Doug Summers. The fourth match, Barry Windham. versus Roger Kirby. Oh. We have an Australian tag team match

coming up next. Blackjack Mulligan and Killer Carl Krupp Krupp versus Superfly Jimmy Snooka and Dick the Bruiser. Holy Christ! For a championship, I will not name Special Attraction. Two out of three falls,

one hour time limit, two minute rest, between falls, David von Erick versus Super D and the main event in a cage. Hulk Hogan versus Crusher Blackwell. Good Lord. All right. What we have here

is failure to stump me. Because the signs are here. Australian tag team match being used terminology. David Von Erick being on the card, Hulk Hogan and Crusher Blackwell in the main event inside a cage, Jimmy Snooka and Bruiser Brody as a tag team against Blackjack Mulligan and Killer Carl Krupp. No, no, no.

Super five. Or Jimmy Snooka and Dick the Bruiser, rather. It's what I was trying to say. Nick the Bruiser against Blackjack Mulligan and Kroop, Barry Windham on the card, but Roger Kirby, which to me was one tip-off that puts it in the Midwest part of the country. Buck Robly is another one. I don't know who Booker T. The Streetman was, but that ain't our Booker T that we know and love. But this was St. Louis, Missouri, probably it may have been the keel, but I bet you it was at the Checker Dome.

and this was one of the early Larry Matazick Vince McMahon co-promotions when Matazick was trying to take over St. Louis from the old Central State's office, but Vince invaded at the same time and strong-armed his way into a partnership which would have made this

well it it almost has to be late 1983, early 19, and with Hoke and Blackwell in a cage, but there's no mention of the WWF title, but it still could, but David Von Erick's still around, February 1984,

the Checker Dome St. Louis. All right and you're wrong about some stuff. Also, the opening match I did not give you, Australian tag match, two out of three falls, Bulldog Bob Brown, and Angelo Mosca Jr. What a tag team that must have been. Wow.

versus Jerry Brown and Tonga John. Tonga John, Jim. Was the barbarian. This is Friday, October 21st, 1983. Ah, shit. Keel Auditorium, St. Louis, Missouri. Not Larry Matasic. This is the NWA against Larry Madisick, and important to note here,

we did one of those programs a little while back. Talked about Blackjack Mulligan, no-showing. here he is for the opposition or for the establishment. And this would have been Hulk coming from the AWA rather than two months later when he would have been coming from Vince. You know, it's one of the interesting things. Hogan started getting used in St. Louis right before Vince took over St. Louis.

It was perfect. It was a perfect storm. The fans there knew who he was. He was the biggest star in America already. Hogan was booked on the Stark at November 83 Starcage. show. And the picture was in the program, but by then, things were afoot. All right. So I was three months off in the same city and a different promote. I think you did well. I think you did well there. This next one, Jim, we're going to leave one match

off. A complete giveaway. We have to leave off. The, which order should I go in here? Okay. The second event, I'm leaving off the first one, the first preliminary. Chief War Cloud versus Vincent Lopez Special event Tom Rice versus Pat Frailey An extra added attraction

George McKay versus Juan Hernandez We have the first televised Main Event tag team Best 2 out of three falls 45 minute time limit Rita Romero and Tito Carion versus John Tolus

and El Diablo Hefner What? Is that Dutch Hefner? We have two main events here, Jim. Sanar Zabo versus Lee Henning, two out of three falls one hour time limit. And finally, the main event,

non-televised, two out of three falls, one hour time limit, Argentina, Raca, Mbo, Brazil versus Lord Carlton and Leo Jonathan. Don Leo Jonathan. In the program, though, as Leo Jonathan. I'm trying to make it accurate for you. Okay, dokey.

Well, we're on the West Coast of America. Vincent Lopez was at one point of top baby face and a world champion in Los Angeles. That's right, world champion. Rice and Fraley and Hernandez, those guys are kind of West Coast journeyman names. Rito Romero and Tito Carion, again, Hispanic team for the Southern California audience

and John Tolos, who would be in and out of the Los Angeles, Angeles territory for years and El Diablo Hefner, which was probably the old heel Dutch Hefner, Sandor Zabo was a Canadian and West Coast superstar Bulldog Lee Hennig. Lord Carlton was an early, along with Lord James Blears, Athol Leighton, the Englishman, Donno Jonathan the Mormon giant from Salt Lake City, but again, West Coast, because he was based for so long out of the Pacific Northwest. But with Raca and Bobo teaming, this would have to have been when Raca was less in demand in New York, but still a national name. And with Bobo,

I've got to say that this is the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. From... 1962. Well, in some ways, again, you're right and your wrong. Very well done, though. It's the Olympic Auditorium, Jim. Wednesday, May 9th, 1956. Holy shit.

7.30 p.m. Cal Eaton. Promoter, Jimmy Lennon, announcer. Okay, I thought, honestly, this would be maybe when Rocca was on the downhill slide in the northeast, and they were booking him out and Bobo. But that's right. Bobo, one of the first major markets that he was a star in was in Los Angeles

and he would have been on top in the mid-50s. So, brat! I'm going to get one out of three, Brian. Oh, come on, we're having fun here. Don't rip anything. Here's the opening match, Jim. I'm going to give you what happened, not what was in the program

because a couple matches switch. Marco Polo. Versus Blackjack Dylan. Special event. Gypsy Joe, 238 pounds, Globetrotter, versus Country Plowboy.

357 feet tall Tennessee giant. We have a five-minute intermission followed by a tag team match. The Mighty Yankees versus Guy Mitchell and Johnny Reed. A 10-minute intermission, and then on

main event, a penalty belt match, cowboy Ellis versus the Sheik. Okay, I'm going to get none out of three, Brian. No, um, okay, Marco Polo, I got nothing to go on. Blackjack Dylan. One would think, possibly was that, a Jim Dylan, J.J. Dylan doing something early in his career, but I don't remember that. Gypsy Joe, is there a picture? Is that our Gypsy Joe that we're so fond of, or was that one of the imitators? This is the original Gypsy Joe from the 50s. The country plowboy from Tennessee

at seven feet in 350, that would be Frazier, except he's, I think they always build him at 400, and he was from Mississippi, unless this is just an outlaw guy completely. The mighty Yankees, again, knows not the Tennessee mighty Yankees. Guy Mitchell would later on become the stomper, Guy Mitchell, and then later on Jerry Valiant. But the names

here, the penalty belt Bob Ellis versus the sheik, Ellis was big in the old Nebraska territory. Would this been a thing where they had the she had the sheik come in to work with him because Ellis had drawn so much money in the Midwest with Sheik and Bruiser and those guys in late 50s, early 60s.

Is this the actual The Sheik? Would that be a question I'm allowed to ask? Is this The Sheik or is this an outlaw sheik? You can ask that. I believe it is the Sheik based on the promotion here using The Sheik. And it says Syrian Assassin, Sheik of Arabi, which he was still called. the times. Sheik Ben Ali

is a cartoon of Ben Ali. I don't know if this is just they took a chic cartoon or if this is the same one. I'm going to say this is fucking Lincoln, Nebraska in 1966. We are in Atlanta, Georgia, Jim. Oh, God damn it.

Friday, September 8th, 1961. That was the card in Atlanta in 1961. That amazes me. It amazes me they were still in fucking business. Plus one more All-Star bout, to be fair. But that, what a fucking card. Did I mean that in all the derogatory ways? Hey, one more.

Let's end one more. This will be a quick one more. Sam Houston versus the Barbarian. Tito Santana versus Ha Koo. Superfly Jimmy Snooka versus Greg the Hammer Valentine. In a handicap match,

the Legion of Doom Hawk and Animal versus the Orient Express Cato and Tanaka and Mr. Fuji. The Big Boss Man versus Earthquake. For the tag titles One Fall One Hour Time Limit, Heart Foundation

versus power and glory. Texas Tornado versus million-dollar man Ted DiBiase. Jesus. Jake the Snake Roberts versus the model, Rick Martell. And finally, in a match where the winner will have his flag raised to the top of the building, the champion Sergeant Slaughter versus Hacksaw Jim Duggan. God, oh my! Because, due to the nature of this, I don't expect you to necessarily get the town.

That would be amazing, but at least the time period. Well, that's the thing. And I mean, I'm not going to go over all these names because everybody knows most of them. But this one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine big matches there. That has to be a major market. And the time period, because there's Jake and Martell, Earthquake, Bossman would be, hold I think this almost has to be 1988

doesn't it? And before you answer that Before you go any further, I'll just remind you, Sergeant Slaughter is the champion here. Oh, wait. Shit. Well, then, where the fuck? What is happening here? That would be okay. Well, but then you've got, well, okay. it doesn't because it slaughters the champion so good Lord it's

it's 1990 and it's the Philadelphia spectrum I don't know this shows that you didn't watch a lot of WWF in the early 90s when you were setting up Smoky Mountain we are in Denver, Colorado, the Denver Coliseum Good God Sunday February 10th, 1991

Okay I I mean, that's a cookie cutter card that they would have taken to any, you know, any major market at that time. And I'm trying to imagine what his fucking payroll was at that point. You don't want to try to redeem yourself? You want to end on that one? One more.

All right. I'll go with this one. Eduardo Perez versus Pepe Gomez. Jack Welch versus Nick Adams. Johnny Rubberman Walker versus Oki Shakina Tag team match The Infernos versus Louis

Telet and Bob Roup non-title match for a championship I will not name the champion Renee Goulet versus Mr. Wrestling and is written in so I will say it to you, Dick Steinborn. Uh-huh. Mr. Wrestling will unmask

win, lose. Win or lose. lose at the end of the match. Dick Steinborn, he was in the Mr. Wrestling in Memphis in 77 also, so sometime he had the outfit. And they obviously did something to set this up, the fact that he'll unmask, even if he

wins. But then we have a double main event, brass knuckles match. The Great Melenko versus Jose Latario, as it is spelled here. And a bonus match, lights out match. one fall to a finish

Louis Toulay versus J.C. Dykes manager of the Infernos. Well, there you go. Pepe Gomez was probably Pepper Gomez. Eduardo Perez was an old-timer even as far back as this was. He was probably

ancient. Jack Welch was Jackie Welch, who was the brother of Roy Lee Welch, who was a member of the Belch family because at this point in time, we're in Florida, and the Florida territory. And this would have been a point where was Lester a partner or was it Buddy Fuller at this point in time, I'm trying to think. Nick Adams was the trainer of Gentleman Ben, the Wrestling Bear.

Johnny Walker would later become Mr. Wrestling number two, but that didn't happen until 1916. 73, I believe, so this is before that. Oki Shakina, famous Oriental assassin-type eel. The infernos, with J.C. Dykes, their manager, the infernos were, was it fucking, it was Curtis Smith and somebody?

God damn it, I should know that. Bob Rup, this was in his early years, and Louis Tillett was probably the Booker for Eddie Graham at this point. Renee Goulet and Mr. Wrestling Dick Steinborn, Boris Melenko, and Jose Lethario.

This was also before Malenko and Eddie Graham fell out. And then, of course, Telet, one of the top baby faces against the manager, J.C. Dykes and the Lights Outmatch, which was an Eddie Graham staple, non-sanction.

Promoters not responsible. So we're in Florida. and I would think that this would either be 1971 or 7071-72 question is where it would be I'm going to say

Miami Beach 1971 all right well this is part of a win there Jim we are in Jacksonville Florida son of a bitch Friday night January 1st First, 1971.

Well, there you go. You made it by the very first day of the year, 8.15 start time. A moral victory for once. On the cover of the program of the Florida tag team champions, Dick Murdoch and Dusty Rhodes, Reneguile, the Southern Heavyweight Champion. All right, guess the program is in the books. And with that, the drive-thru is closed. Okay, a soothing end

To a terrible The chair's squeaking To a terrific show You don't have to rip anything up I don't know why you have to dramatically do that These notes are Things that listeners would love Speaking of love

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