Jim Cornette’s Drive-Thru - Episode 458

Episode Date: August 29, 2026

This week on the Drive Thru, Jim reviews WWE Raw, 1947 riot audio, Dave Meltzer's comments about AEW ratings, Will Ospreay's thoughts on WWE, and more! Plus Jim talks about rumors of ESPN being unhappy with WWE, noted liar David Shoemaker's Hulk Hogan book, Sabu in 1994, the passing of Dolly Parton, Ric Flair's tweets, and much more! Thanks to our episode sponsors: HELIX SLEEP MATTRESS:  Get 27% off during Helix's Labor Day Sale exclusive to our listeners at helixsleep.com/JCE. SHOPIFY:  Start your free trial at shopify.com/jce FACTOR MEALS:  Head to factormeals.com/jce50off and use code jce50off to get 50 percent off and 1 free breakfast item per box for 1 year, while supplies last. 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.

Let me sit down. Hello again, friends. Sit down. And you are our friends. Let's all get up and let's all now sit down. Welcome back to another edition of Jim Cornett's Drive Through a Pact Edition here today. I'm your host, The Great Brian Last, and here he is the music lover himself, Mr. Jim Cornet. Everybody get up.

Everybody get down. That was, you sounded like, that sounded like a movie song. soundtrack from a movie in the 70s where Richard Pryor was a preacher of a church. Thank you. That's what that sounded like. That's kind of what I'm going for with my sound. I really appreciate that. It's 50 years old and the background to a deceased person.

You've got, you've nailed it. I think we could all agree movies were better then, so I'll take it. Well, you got me there. But that at least it wasn't as sharp. It was like normally you just take a sharpened spike and just run it right. up my sphincter, but in this case, there was no sharp edges. It was just like I was being pummeled lightly in the ribs by a toddler. Well, that's not the sound I'm going for, so maybe you just are not ready yet for this

new kind of music, but... Well, you can call it pommel rock. Hey, they got a rock of everything now. They got the yacht rock. You've seen that, right? The Doobie brothers and the Christopher crosses and the sailing, sailing aways, and the things like that, you could have pommel rock where listening to this music is equivalent

to being pummeled about the body with short blows by a toddler. It's not going to do a lot of damage, but over a period of time, it could get quite wearisome. Again, I think you're misinterpreting the music here. You may be, as I said before, not ready. Your ears may not be ready to appreciate

what's happening over here and what's happening. You got me there also again. I may never be ready. I'm certainly not ready for that now. I may never be ready. I had a big morning today, Brian. I'll have you know. Had the septic tank pumped out,

which I realize, you know, in the hustle and bustle and the hurry, scurry lives that we lead, I just, I don't often think of my septic tank. The poor, poor forgotten septic tank, it stays fairly quiet, right where it is under the ground, It does its own thing, and you don't often think of it.

But then I realized here a little while ago, possibly aided by the faintest whiff of poop out to front yard when I had the dogs out. It's been a while. So the guy came and took care of that service for it. It's a big deal. I'm almost on the Medicare. I got like, well, oh, shit, hold on.

I'm looking at the date. I have got officially, I start. September 1st, even though my birthday, hint, hint, wink, wink, gifts accepted is not until September 17th, where I will officially be 65. I get to start 17 days early on paying just a little bit less than I was for my private insurance, for my Medicare. So I'm almost, it's a big deal now that you turn 65, you get Medicare, you get septic tank pumped, this point I'm trying to make. Doesn't it give you a good feeling? Brian, would you have your septic tank pumped? It's like a cleanliness has washed over the house.

I literally just wrote down septic on a post-it and put it on my desk to remind me from this conversation to check with Suzanne about when we're going to have our people come over here and do the exact same thing. Well, there you go. See, we got to create awareness. It's what we got. We got to create more septic awareness. SA. We've got to push for more SA across the country. and around the world.

People have got to think of the initials essay, septic awareness. With all the funny named wrestling promotions that have popped up, how does septic championship wrestling work for you? For an indie group, for, you know, an indie group. Well, you know, at some points, people could have said that southeastern championship

wrestling might have passed. No, I'm just kidding. It was a fine territory. just kidding. I don't, or, you know, just says,

they actually, that's what Al Green and Phil Hickerson should have fucking adopted. Because we, Hickerson died here a few weeks ago, right? Well,

it's been a little bit longer than that now. It's been a while. But it seems like only yesterday. But that's what Tojo said about him and Al Green when they were a tag team. It's the, the tank brother, Sherman and Septic.

I think somebody they or somebody else should have gone with that. There comes the Tank Brother, Sherman and Septic. Get some big fact. Those fucking Shane twins. It could have been a fucking like a double

entendre gimmick. In the business, we knew they were the shits, but the fans could have called them Sherman and Septic Tank. I'm just spitballing here. Are you there? Are you there? is this thing on it really is amazing that no one has gone for the gimmick of a you know at least a port-a-potty uh emptier or whatever they would be called i don't know if they're septic people too i guess maybe but uh

well and no i didn't mean the gimmick of the emptier for fucks sake like oh he has to wrestle him oh no t l hopper almost had that covered if vincent had six more months with it he would have had the he would have had the sewage truck like angle had the fucking milk truck and Austin had the beer truck. T.L. Hopper would have been spraying sludge on everybody if Vincent had his way with his fascination with the poopie. Do you think you have to dress like a dirty plumber

to have our dirty plumber gimmick? Like, did T.L. Hopper have to have that outfit in the ring for his matches. So you would think, oh, he came off work, his day job, to come here to Raw. everyone would think that the boys then would be complaining. Like, you know, whoa, hold on there, cowboy. Before you get in the ring, grab me in a headlock with them fucking pits.

No, it was just ridiculous from the start. And that's, at that point, Vince had the smallest talent roster that he's ever had. And that's why we were trying to hire those guys because we wanted guys I've told a story but just for the kids we wanted guys that we could use on television that knew how to work and could put our main event guys over because we had such a small roster that we couldn't be beaten 12 of our guys couldn't beat the other 12 on TV every fucking week right at any meaningful way it was just it was the shit

so we thought if we get all these guys that from the territory that are at loose ends, as they say, that were working main events or working featured spots and territories and get them to have matches with the top guys. They can put them over. But Vince had to remake every single goddamn one of them into these ludicrous gimmicks that took attention

away from the point of why I said we needed them, which was to feature our guys with quality opponents, and you had to bring the new guys in and give them a few wins on television to make them competent in any way to do that, but all the people looked at was these stupid fucking gimmicks. So it was meaningless. It was caca. And creative services, by the way,

when creative services would send vets shit for people, didn't really give two shits about, that's when you'd see some, like the Bastion Booger outfit. It was a creative services sketch, and he did give shits about Bastion Booger because it was a rib, but he didn't make a lot of changes. Well, going back to septic wrestlers,

beyond job guys, like the infamous 1988 stinky guy on TBS against the Midnight Express. Oh, beyond that, beyond job guys, known wrestlers, Who was the smelliest? Who did wrestlers hate working with in the ring? Why do you want me to slander deceased people and talk about Leon again? Well, we know that, what, his mask stunk was outfit stunk. Well, I guess he stunk now that I think about it.

It was the surroundings of him. And I mean, there's outside of Camp Cornette, who else? Well, hey, no, not everybody in my organization. had an aversion to washing their gear or the inability to get to all the places on their body because of its massive size. You know, thinking down through, I don't want to slander anyone unnecessarily without knowing for sure, because there's been times where I remember in the car 40 years ago. You know, if we'd work with somebody, we didn't work with regularly.

Bobby might say, oh, geez, he fucking, he needs to wash his shit or whatever, but it doesn't stand out. It nothing got to the legendary status of Vader. What about breath? Any wrestlers have notorious bad breath. Oh, geez. Well, and also the coffee, wrestlers are notorious for drinking coffee. And anytime you got a close talker with the coffee, that was. That was pretty fucking rough, but, I mean, again, I wasn't up in most people's face to

fucking get a good whiff of it. There's someone I won't mention on this, I'll tell you off there. There it is. There it is. I'll tell you off air. Well. What about feet? Who had smelly feet?

Oh, for God's sake. Smelly feet, smelly feet. Like, despite all the washing, despite all the washing, did anyone think that Mike Sharp stunk? No, he was, you could smell him coming down the hallway, but it was, it was a pleasant smell because of the combination of the soap and the aftershave and the nutrients and emolions that he was using all the time. He was a breath of fresh air. All right, this has been a stinky.

Why are you asking, I don't know, do you have some type of goddamn odor? No, I would thought maybe something would come out that we didn't know, like, oh, you know, that manny Fernandez smelled like shit I just I didn't know what you would say why do you mention his name I was trying to think about a wrestler from the 80s that you were around nothing against him personally I'm actually a fan of the region

he's the what he's the what you came up he just looked like he might not fucking that all over a hump a ding hump a dink really stunk hump a stink hump a stink hump was a very meticulous gentleman as a matter of fact in the way he was put together that Paul Jones

I'm naming anyone, just slandering anyone. Paul Jones looks like he would smell like cigarettes. No, Paul Jones did not smoke. You see? But he did he dipped. He did dip. He had the dip in his lip. All right. Well, this has been a lip full of dip.

This has been a lip full of dip. A septic conversation, an awful beginning to this show. I just mentioned that I, you know, I'm trying to keep up with the household shores around here. And I've just, it was a bright spot of my. morning, a landmark moment. I may not have to do that again for, you know, say five years or so. This could be my one of my last few septic pumpings. I just want to commemorate it.

Well, of course, there's lots of things to commemorate at jimcoronet.com Cornett's collectibles. Commemorate wrestling history with fine Jim Cornett items. And items of other noted ilk as. well, I tell you what what is today? Okay, next week, I believe on the,

either on this show or the Jim Corvette experience one way or the other, I'm finally going to reveal what we have coming up for our big holiday sale at Jimcornet.com and also tell you the story behind why I haven't been giving you more details up till now because it's the degam stupidest thing

with the, I can't, I can't, I can't spoil it now. You can call the hotline or tune in next week. But 1,900, 909, 9900. But of all the things that would be holding up our holiday sale announcement, this is the trivialist and most stupid, but yet it was an integral part of this thing. But we have rectified, we've rectified that situation.

And there's going to be the classic wrestling fans out there, it's going to be Shangri-La this Christmas at Jimcornette.com both for a few one-of-a-kind items and as well an amazing opportunity at just reliving the past. The memories, memories on my website this holiday season.

You know, I just looked this up. I hadn't thought about it before. We just talked about him on the Missy Highest. Darkside review, 900 numbers. You never hear them plug. You never see commercials anymore. I didn't realize they're just not a thing. Like, it's not, it says here.

No, it doesn't exist anymore, right? Effectively obsolete and unavailable through standard U.S. telecommunication providers. I didn't even realize that. Wow. Well, when is the last time that you saw of one advertised? Uh-huh. Mm-hmm.

So were there no more certain? services for beyond wrestling fans, like perverts were the ones who really popularized phone lines, I would think more than anyone. There are no more like things that you can call Mistress Alexandra. I think you would have to do it on the internet like you do everything else on the internet, wouldn't you? I guess because I don't, you're the only person I really know how to call on the internet because you send me the little link to click on. But I guess you could be calling Elvira Mistress of the Dark or whatever.

That's what, you know, and this is 2006, right? So it was 2005. One of those lines is the reason why that I ended up, we bought the entire hour from the TV station for Ohio Valley

Wrestling here in Louisville because of one of those lines. What do you mean? Because our deal with the station was that oh god hold on it wasn't it was we got nine and they got no we got eight and they got four minutes of the commercial time that's what it was and we paid a couple of hundred bucks remuneration per week also that was covered in excess by our sponsors so what basically they got four minutes out of the hour to try to generate some income by selling the spot time to sponsors as

we were doing with our eight minutes and plugging our fucking events. And I turned on the TV one night and the entire, because I should preface this by saying that they didn't want to put any time and effort into individual projects at that point in time at the station with their sales force. They wanted to sell their evening, you know, prime time block, any local news that they were carrying with the citizens. station or whatever and the the network shit they didn't want to you know bother with that's why we

ended up just doing it all ourselves but i turn on the show and the almost the entire four minutes of station time is not just phone sex but not that there's anything wrong with this gay phone sex gay phone sex lines commercials in the wrestling show in the wrestling show oh my god With scantile or clad than my fucking wrestlers were was these models and these, and I said, I called the fucking our sales rep up that Monday morning or whatever. I said, this is not particularly the image Saturday night at 11 o'clock or not that we want to be projecting in the body of our program. no pun intended the body of our program so how much you want for the extra four fucking minutes

because I knew that they were bullshit spots that they probably weren't getting $25 a piece for anyway so what 30 seconds that was a 50 bucks a minute either we paid him an extra 200 bucks a week or whatever the fuck it was and just bought the whole goddamn hour just so that we couldn't they couldn't put in portographic fucking

material in the middle of my fucking borderline portographic material. Once again, this has been a separate. But it's your show. That's right. Jim, we have a lot of it. And at Jimcorded.com, we'll talk about next week what's going on for the holidays. You're going to be able to save some money too.

How about that? All right. That sounds like a good deal. promo code JCE. Jim, before we get to the wrestling talk, a few outside of wrestling topics people have wanted to hear your thoughts on, of course, the passing of Dolly Parton, a legend in country music and beyond,

but let's talk about Dolly Parton. Well, I know, it's so sad because I guess I'd heard either, was she one of the artists recently that canceled something due to health, or there had been concerned since her husband died last year, that her health had been an issue,

but nobody knew apparently how bad this was or whatever. But 15 years older than me, but it seems like she's been around forever. Because even when I was a kid, she was a star already. I was watching her on TV. She was on Porter Wagner's show, right? He's the one that put her on national television at the first time.

Mr. Music Expert. Yeah, that's right. They were partners. But she was, I guess, a teenage prodigy at that point. So, like, 18, 19, whatever. I mean, but so it seemed like she was just kind of timeless because also she's one of those people that didn't change in appearance drastically from, you know, decade to decade.

but anyhow I was fucking with you we talked right before we went on the air because I was dolly dolly dolly dolly and you're like oh get it out of my head you can't get that

I know that everybody likes I will always love you or the you know nine to five nine to five or the traditional country stuff she did or whatever but that's an earworm

You cannot get that fucking tune. And if you find somebody that's really good on guitar, they can make a whole goddamn deal out of it. But her voice was perfect for that. That's the thing is, I'm not a country music fan. I never met Dolly Parton, and it's not like I'm going to be holding a candlelight vigil. But in certain circumstances,

she had the perfect voice. How can I say this? same thing in wrestling we always said the undertaker only mark calloway could have been the undertaker anybody else tried to have been fucking ridiculous right anybody else with that voice it would have been fucking cartoon but it worked for her and it was beautiful right and it was unique you could only only that person could do that thing and some of that material was perfect for so that's why it had just you can't get that one tune out of your mind but did you see she had the most I can't remember what the name of the poll was but the most favorable rating of any

public figure that they measured in the poll that they took which encompassed like major national figures Barack Obama came in second because 70% of people said they had a favorable impression of her, and only 5% said they had an unfavorable impression of her. So that meant her net was 65%, right? Do you know what second place Barack Obama's was? No. 15%.

That was the second, because like 55% of people, percent of people were in favor of him, but 40% of people were not in favor of you, and that means 15, right? So you went from 15% from the second popular most person on the planet to goddamn Dolly Parton was 65. How is it? Anyway, she has done a ton for, you know, she's from the same area, severeville, pigeon, Forge, Gatlinburg, that area right next to the Smoky Mountains, where Kevin Sullivan spiked Kanamura that night. Her childhood cabin might literally be like 10 miles from that fucking spot.

And in the 40s and 50s, besides when they had just formed the state park, the Smoggy Mountain National Park, that's why Gatlinburg first became kind of a place people knew. oh, you could go to Gallenberg and visit the park and you could do this and that. Because otherwise, it was just complete. It was the holler. It was the hills. It was the woods, right? People were poor and living in cabins literally.

And that's, I mean, the same principle is where my mom grew up. They didn't have, when she moved out to come to Louisville after she graduated high school in 1951, the house they were living in didn't have indoor plumbing. So then the park caused Gatlinburg to get to be, you know, kind of a thing where they had a couple of nice restaurants. But when I went there in the early 70s, they had the Ripley's, believe it or not, museum and some cool rides and things to look at. And the Holiday Inn had a swimming pool out in a parking lot. that was a big fucking deal right that was 1970 she was born in the fucking 40s and that now with not only all of the development but you know all these years later

that's where pigeon forge well by the 90s that's where we did this uh landstorm chris jericho thrill seekers videos for smoky mountain was in pigeon forge at all those tourist attractions and shit. And the point is, she, when she got wealthy and became famous and et cetera, she opened an amusement

park, Dollywood, there in between Pige and Forge and Gallenburg that I think they said brought like 10,000 jobs to the area, if not the park itself, and

put money in that place because as it's grown up to be a tourist attraction, it'll take you 45 minutes to drive five miles through the middle of that place now. It's just, it's like Las Vegas for hillbillies. But, you know, a lot of that was due to her getting in there early and spurring development. Am I rambling here because I know too much about Gatlinburg

and Pigeon Forged Tennessee? No, this is good. This is good. This is almost the length of the Robert Moses book. Oh, for heaven's sake. Now, talk about her songwriting. Well, I'm more interested in getting people who would have visited the Catalan Bergen Pige and Forge. I may go back to your tourism bureau stuff.

Do that. Well, no, she was a very good songwriter also. And she grew up in a tiny log cabin as a poor black child in great smoky mountains. And later on became world famous. I don't know what else. She had to be a wrestling fan even when she was a little kid, even if, you know, she never followed it once she attained

the age of, you know, being able to avoid it because everybody in those hollers knew what the fuck was going on with the wrestling. She had Hulk Hogan in a music video with her as her husband. That's right. I remember that. I don't remember the video, but actually I remember the picture that went around with them together.

and it was like his tits were bigger than hers was. I hate to say it, but that was how I first found out who she was as a kid. On the camp bus, the kids used to sing, Dolly Parton is the best. She's got mountains on her chest. And any time you went past like a big hump in the ground, someone would yell, Dolly Parton! That was how I first found out who she was.

Good Lord. Hey, that's where you got that tune for the intro, though. Dolly, Barnet. That is not the same tune that is not part of my son. just the same. It sounds just, it's reminiscent. It's an homage. But yeah, but you know, great movie star, philanthropist, financier, fiancé, it's a shame, but, you know, I guess we're all old now. We're all, you know, once it like, I'm gone,

I think everybody else should just, in sympathy, just go ahead and say, fuck it. It's not worth living anymore. We've lost all the great stars. right about the day or two after I go. That sounds like something you would want. That's awful. Dolly's gone, Cornett's gone. Fucking, it's downhill from here. Let's just end it now.

Save a lot of the goddamn grief. Well, like you said before, she seems like someone who was just a truly decent person, despite the wealth, the fame, and everything else. I think people could maybe not relate to her, but feel like she was a good person. A lot of these celebrities feel like they're full of shit. She never did.

Yeah. That's the thing is you almost couldn't relate to this, you know, this person who does all these things and is covered in rhinestones, but you believed that she took the piss out of herself, as they say across the pond, enough with the thing she said and what she did and obviously demonstrated that she was a well, I start well-rounded and I'm punny, but a decent person. a grounded person. And she took the piss out of herself and didn't take herself seriously enough and helped other people enough that he said, okay, she's an eccentric artist

that is unique on the earth, but she's trying to use that to help people. Imagine that. I saw Jane Fonda do an interview where she said that when they did nine to five, Dolly didn't learn her lines. She learned the entire script. She was the one person there her first day on the set.

She knew the entire script. Everyone couldn't believe it. And, yeah, very sorry to see. Obviously, it was somewhat clear that she was having some health issues over the past year or so, and very sorry to see the passing in Dolly Parton.

Jim, another passing I want to make quick mention of here on the show. Tim Curry has passed away this morning at the age of 80. Of course, best known for a Rocky Horror Picture Show, a lot of other roles. Let's talk a little bit about Tim Curry. Were you a fan? Well, 80 must be the magic number this week.

Is that what's up in the Cosmic Lottery? I'm a fan of certain things that Tim Curry has done, including the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I have not been a person who sought out everything Tim Curry did because I'm a fan of his specifically. But he was a fucking weird, quirky type character. and the Rocky Horror Picture Show thing, I didn't even register until the 90s,

but that's when I first saw it, and this is, it fucking tickled me. But what is the, what am I trying to think the evil? What evil character did he play in a goddamn movie that I really liked? And I'm blank now. because I would have prepared had I known he died. He was in Clue.

He was The Clown in It. He was Rooster and Annie, the brother of Carol Burnett's character. My favorite role... I remember Clue. I was thinking of something else, but yeah, Clue was very good. Your favorite. My favorite role that almost no one ever mentions him in, because no one ever saw the movie.

Times Square, which was supposed to be the great punk rock movie, and it ended up kind of being a good punk. rock movie with a kind of a lesbian storyline that they edited it out of the movie. It's a weird movie, but it's really good, and it shows Times Square at that point in the late 70s, and he plays Johnny LaGuardia, the DJ on the radio,

and he's fantastic in that role. It's a small role all things considered, but he's so good in that role. Well, if they cut the lesbians out, they should have given him more of their time. It's a fascinating movie. I don't know if you ever saw it. It is a Robert Stigwood movie. I've never heard of it. Wait a minute. I've never heard of it.

But Robert, what year was this? 79, maybe? Oh, so he was spending some of the money that he made from the BGs by then. Well, remember, before the BGs, Robert Stigwood was a longtime manager in England. He actually, he managed Cream. There's a famous story of Bill Graham throwing him out of the film war, and Cream thought it was the greatest thing because they were sick of them already. But he tried to manage the Beatles.

After Brian Epstein died, he tried the mum. muscle his way in and become their manager, and they fucking threw him out right away. But we're now talking about the 70s. Yeah, he wasn't into movies until the late 70s, was he, when everything took off? He tried to have a trifecta. He had Saturday Night Fever, which blew up, was huge. That soundtrack was massive, and that's the Bee Gees. He had Greece, which ended up being a big hit, and to this day is still kind of a cult classic.

and then the third film was Times Square, which was the story of two young, runaway teenage girls in Times Square. Like it's CD clubs, and they start a punk band, and it's an amazing soundtrack, it's a double soundtrack, a double album, double LP, I guess I should say, really good soundtrack, and it just didn't work.

It's a great film, it looks beautiful. To see it now, it looks incredible, but you could also understand why people in 1979 didn't necessarily get behind this like in a sea of Kramer versus Kramer and shit like that. And it probably was quite remarkably different in tone from stay in life, stay in life, ah, ha.

In this film, there's a scene with the girls walking down the street in Times Square to life during wartime by talking heads and just dancing down the street with people. It's fucking awesome. It's a great movie. It's a really cool movie. especially if you want to see New York in the late 70s,

but Tim Curry was doing that. So Saturday night fever, Greece, and then, unfortunately, swinging a miss, but two out of three ain't bad for Stigwood, but Curry's still dead. That's right. And it doesn't sound like your... It's terrible.

I wish him all the success in the world. People will still, he'll live on forever. they still do Rocky Horror Picture Show, don't they? Do the kids still go out and throw the things and dress up? Well, no, I guess now they're all doing it for wrestling. Yeah, I guess so. I guess so. Why don't, there could be a license for somebody.

It might fit Tony's product a little better, but hey, the WWE, any kind of celebrity tie-in, have a Rocky Horror Picture Show themed gimmick on the card and all the people can dress up and actually bring the shit to throw and dress up as the various, maybe it's a tag team with a manager, so you've got three different people to dress up as. Because all the fans want to do is sing the songs and woo the whos,

so now they could, and they already dress up in a fashion. See, I'm spitballing this, Brian. the more I'm thinking about this, it would not be as outlandish as one might think. And they could all dress up and they could have the lines. They could repeat people's lines. Oh, they do that already. What don't they do in wrestling now

that they did in the Rocky Horror Picture Show? I don't know. That's a great question for the listeners. We could let them chime in. But once again, Tim Curry passing at 80. And Jim, from there, we move on with the show. A lot of big wrestling topics. We're going to start with some wrestling history,

because we have raw and other things to talk about, but why don't we start with something to put you in a good mood? Hey, I'm still happy over my septic tank. Nothing can bring me down from this high. Jim, something really cool. Could be the methane. I'm not sure. All right, could be the meth. I don't know. Jim, something really cool that has just turned up

that we have to talk about and review here on the show is some audio from Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 17th, 1947. I have the program here, a copy of it that was online. Let me read to you what's in the program just to set up what we're going to listen to. You've seen the old sports facts programs from Minneapolis.

I'm sure you have many in your collection. Yes. So you know what it looks like. Volume 5, number 40. agree on 90 minutes Champ Gustafson meets ex-champ Zobo in season's final match

For the first time in 14 years A wrestling match may go over the 60-minute mark At the auditorium Tuesday night At the insistence of Sandar Zabo His bout with NWA champion Cliff Gustafson will have a 90-minute time limit instead of the usual one hour. So let me stop there for- Can I stop you there?

And for the kids, that is the National Wrestling Association title, correct? Because the National Wrestling Alliance, the modern-day NWA, had not been formed yet just so there's no people don't wonder. What's really interesting about it, and this is something I actually need to research further, is you are correct to the National Wrestling Association, which when the NWA, the Alliance took off, eventually the Association recognized the Alliance as champion.

So there is kind of no dispute after a certain point. This is actually an offshoot of the NWA National Wrestling Association title because Cliff Gustafson is not listed in any title lineage that I briefly looked at before we went on the air because I didn't know too much about this in advance. Well, and as a matter of fact, that period of time would have been dominated by Orville Brown because that was, hence, the merger that was going to take place,

and then he had the car wreck, and it went to Thess. So where did Cliff figure in all of this? And I have a message here on the program, a message from Tony Stecker, who was the promoter and the brother of wrestling legend Joe Stecker, not only is Minneapolis the best town in the country, it's the best wrestling town too. Wrestling has just enjoyed its finest season here,

thanks to the thousands of Upper Midwest fans who love good wrestling and appreciate it as no other group in the country does. I consider it the luckiest thing that has ever happened to me, that I decided to become a promoter here in 1933 among people who just can't be beat for sportsmanship. That I am deeply grateful goes without saying. I hope, in return, that I have succeeded in giving the fans good, clean, and thrilling sports entertainment, and I pledge myself to maintain...

Well, ho! That phrase very early. Yeah, very interesting, 1947 again. And I pledge myself to maintain those high standards in the future. So, Jim, the other day, a group on Facebook, and I assume in other places, is called Radiotapes, not a wrestling group, just a group that tries to recover and discover old radio recordings that are still out there that haven't been brought to the forefront. This is an air check, it says, from the National Wrestling Championship in 1947 as heard on WM-I-N-A-M. Oh, drew 9,000 fans to the Minneapolis Auditorium and turned into a brawl with fans entering the ring.

Oh, my God. The match is described by Don Riley and includes brief comments at the end by referee Wally Carbo. Oh, good Lord. So this is extraordinary in a number of ways, and obviously Wally Carbo would later go on to be Verngana's partner and the longtime face of the promotion. Yeah, no, and not only would he be Vern's partner, Wally Carbo, put up a considerable amount of the money that helped Vern by the Minneapolis Boxing and Wrestling Club to begin with and start the AWA in proper.

And like you said, lasted as the commissioner and et cetera all through those, you know, or the local promoter or he served many purposes. all through those years until until the very end, right? That is right, yeah. But, yeah, but this, so he would be a figure in the Minneapolis and the AWA wrestling scene for the next 40 years after this, and he's already the referee for the world title fucking match. That's incredible. It also says here, ladies free when accompanied by a paid reserved admission.

Let's go to this coverage. again, this was uncovered by radio tapes. Let's review it. We'll stop it along the way. June 17, 1947 live radio coverage from WMIN. Cliff Gustafson recognized as the National Wrestling Association champion here against former champion Sandar Zabo. Let's go to this audio now. And they're asking for the doctor.

They're getting asking for the doctor here. Sable is trying to move in on Gustafon, and now one of the fans are tangling, over here with Gustafen. Two fans have come to blows on the far side of the ring. Daibo wants to move in on Cliff now. Cliff is still lying unconscious over there. Daibo is trying to get out his man.

Daibo's moving. Now a fan has got in the ring. A fan is in after Jabbo. A fan is coming in the ring. Another fan's got in the ring and the other side. It's on a right hand of the jaw, Sabo. And there's a ball on. Sabo now the referee is hit with a right hand to the jaw.

One fan's shirt is torn off his back. Four more fans are in. Gustafson's unconscious. And now Zabo is moving after a fan. Another fan has come in. Half a dozen fans in the ring throwing punches. They may have to get the riot squad here tonight. Still another fan. Now Harry Hirsch has moved into the ring. They're trying to get the fans down.

Gustafin is unconscious. We don't think he can continue. Zabo now is falling one fan over and he's really moving in. This fan throws the left hook to the jar. And now Zaybo throws the right hand of the jaw. Six police are in the ring now. Zabon now is started by half a dozen police. Well, fans, we've never seen anything like it in all our lives. Zabo now there's half a dozen police in the ring.

They're trying to stop the riot. to still have a dozen fans in here. What I'm asked this is. Justice is unconscious. Let me stop it there for a moment. I'm loving this. That's incredible. That is fucking incredible.

I've never heard. I've seen a few instances, obviously, we've told stories where fans are jumping to ring and getting fights. I've never heard an actual play-by-play from a goddamn announcer like that of the whole thing. And that sounds like a nice little Donnie Brooke. But did you hear Gustavson's unconscious? He's figured, fuck this. I'm going to fucking be down here and cover up

and I'm a dead body. They're going to leave me the fuck alone. That had to be like Ernie Ladd in Cleveland. The natives are restless ox. I'm going to be down here. He said he had one eye open, watching them fucking try to catch the chairs. Someone punched a referee in the face.

Yes, poor Wally Carbo. He looked like a goddamn Kebler elf when he was 70. I don't know what the fuck. He wasn't exactly an Olympic athlete in those days. You know, it's like one of those reasons why I love radio broadcast of baseball because they have to describe everything. This guy's doing an amazing job. I mean, just incredible.

Let's go back to this. Doctors are working over cliff there. They will now try to be fled out of the ring by the police. They will finally knock down half a dozen fans. over here when he went for the minute. Promoter Tony Stecker has now come in and fans, this is the wildest thing we've ever seen. What a match. Now

the police ran, promoter Tony Stecker's in the rain. The doctor's over working on Cliff and brother, Cliff Gustafson, has really hurt. We don't know how bad he's hurt. They're calling up the hospital now. They're trying to get an ambulance here. We've never seen anything like a 9,000 fans on their feet. Zabel now is threatening to move in after

Gustison. He hears what happened. He caught Cliff with that flying stuff like Sol of his. It's a danger sold. He got his man around the He's spawning completely over in Cliff, I believe, landed on his neck. Gus doesn't landed on his neck, but he's laying out halfway under the road. And each time the cock got up to about seven, Cliff, managed to get that right shoulder just in and time. However, he's still out. Several of the fans now are working over Guses-in.

They're asking now for the police to come. A portable radio has been brought into the center of the ring. They're asking for the police riot squad to break it up. They were cornered over here by half a dozen police. Let me stop it for a second. You never hear about the riot squad anymore. This is amazing. well and this is obviously what they've done is

they did some kind of angle where Gustavson was fucking unconscious knocked out he's hurt he's fucked up and that's what started the melee Zabo obviously being the heel and that's where the people started coming whether they were mad at Wally Carbo because he didn't see whatever they did or you know whatever the case that's the And in a lot of time, you talk about the riot squad.

That was a term that they used back in those days for, I don't know, maybe it would be the SWAT team today. There's not that many, if I could just riots at sporting events anymore, like wrestling and boxing it used to be. But it wasn't until probably 1980, 80, 81, 82, that the police, the uniform, Louisville city police officers

that did security at the Louisville Gardens stopped wearing their fucking they called their riot helmets, the round helmet with the fucking visor they could pull down because they had so many fucking deals in the 70s during that

hot run where they needed them that finally it calmed down a bit to where that they stopped wearing them but if you look back at some of the 70s pictures of the tops in the gardens, they're still wearing the fucking helmets. The fans had his shirt completely torn off his back.

He climbed in, went after Zabo, and Zabo kicked Gustason while Gustafin was lying unconscious over here. And we're waiting for the result of this. It's the wildest match we've ever seen. And now the fans are moving over here. Zabo is walking around the ring. He's lifting up his hand. The fans are booing tremendously here.

We're going to wait to see what happens. Perhaps we can get referee Wally Carbo over here. We're waiting to see what the official outcome will be. Sandor Zabo is definitely watching walking around the ring now and snowed under by men in blue right now we count about seven police in here and of course they've called to the riot riot squad referee was over there looking at cliff gusterson we'd like to know if that shared hold if we go up into the ring try to get a few words just a minute here we're waiting now to see what it is whether the action will go on gusterson is unconscious over there and just a minute we'll try to get somebody over here to the microphone and tell us what the official decision will be nine thousand fans are standing up now half a dozen fans are still in the ring

now trying to get out Zambol the police now has formed a cord run around Zabel they're keeping off the rest of the fans at one time six fans There are still fans in the ring trying to get to him as well this is calmed out

and they're still in the ring trying to get time I know this is fascinating and you can see the guy with his long cord on his microphone trying to wind it to get into the ring

or close to the ring or wind his way through people you can see it your mind's high. It's wrong on the ring. I'm throwing punches at the table. The lights come on. Just a minute. Tony, Tony! Just a minute, Basil. Try to get promoter Tony stick. Could you ask Tony to step over here? Tony? Could you step over here to the microphone? Tony? Could you come over the microphone? Just a minute? We're trying to get promoter Tony Stecker over there, but he can't come over.

We're waiting now. He's working on Cliff Gusseson. We're waiting to see now what the final result will be. Gugges isn't still laying down. He may be seriously injured pants, and we're going to stay on the air just as long as we possibly can. can. Mustison, we see his wife has now come up to ringside. Custison, definitely has done here. He's definitely hurt the doctor now. This is great.

It's like the Hindenberg. Some 9,000 fans are still standing up, and we've never seen anything like this match. The fact that his wife came to the ring side, there's no way back then. If anything was going on, they would have smartened up their wives, right? Oh, it depends on where they met their wives and how smart their wives were to begin with. So, but at the same time, it works either way. Because it was a planned deal, and she's probably thinking, my God, he's just been laying there while there's fucking riots going on. I better go down there and see if anybody accidentally stuck him.

Still walking around the ring proclaiming itself the New World's champion. And we don't know just what the final result will be. We'll have to wait. We'll see if we can get a referee Wally Carmel over here to tell us what this final action will be. Just a minute. We're waiting now. We're waiting to see what the action is going to be. And there it is.

The raising Sable's hand. He's a new world champion. The raising Zahebo's hand. He's a new world champion. We don't know how badly. Gustafin is injured over here. He's still unconscious. The doctors are working over him.

They raised a Zanors Zabel's hand. He's a boy who hails from Santa Monica, California tonight. Free Crown, the National Wrestling Association champion in the Minneapolis ring today. Gustafin is still lying down over there on the far side of the ring, halfway out of the rain. The official club doctors are working on just a minute. Referee Wally Wally. Wally. Would you come over here? We have referee Wally Carb. Wally? Wally. Just told us how bad? Cliff seems to be hurting. Just how did that happen? I can't tell you how bad he's hurt because I don't know. He's still out there and the doctor's

talking to him. He was caught in that vicious supplic toll. That's right he landed the back of his head. Well, I certainly hope he's all right. And that means now that Zabo is officially the new Northwest Wrestling Association champion. He has regained his crown. Is that right, right? Well, thank you very much, Wally. I think. I think that was a will of a match, don't you, Wally? All I can say is I hope the clip comes out of it,

don't you? He's still a great grappling. I hope so, too. It looks right now. He looks awful bad shape. He looks awfully pale. They're going to get an ambulance for him. That's what they say.

They're not going to move them until they get an ambulance. Well, they're waiting for the ambulance. Is that right? That's right. Well, thank you very much for Holly Carball. And there you heard it right from the arbitrator. I'll be stopping again for another moment now that we've heard Wollie Carlin. Two things.

One, and let's follow up on this. The Northwest Wrestling Association is what, Maybe the announcer is not a wrestling guy, but maybe they're trying to get by with something there, and that's why Cliff's the world champion. And secondly, I've met Wally Carbo. That was classic Wally Carbo. He's out right now.

The doctor's talking to him. Wally Carbo was the fucking, who was the Casey? the coach, the, did the malapri, Yogi Berra. Not Casey, Yogi Berra. Wally Carbo was the Yogi Berra of wrestling. I'm sorry, go ahead. And by the way, let me just add, the official National Wrestling Association title lineage

has, at this point when this match is taking place in 47, the champion would have been Luthez, and Bill Longson beats him in St. Louis, November 21st of the same year. So while that was going on, this was going on, Zobo had won the title in 41 from Bronco Nogerski and then lost it to Bill Longson. So he was a former champion to the official lineage.

We had to see what we could find about Northwest wrestling or whatever he said, but let's go back to the. Northwest Wrestling Association, or maybe they just needed some reason for Zobo to win it back, which is what it sounds like. And they came up with this angle, which apparently worked quite well. As a new world's wrestling champion, we're waiting now. We'll get the official time on you.

The time for that, fans, was 42 minutes and 12 seconds. And a new champion was crowned tonight. We're waiting now. We're looking for the wife. The officials are looking for the wife of Gustafen. Gustafin is laying out there. He's still too badly hurt to be moved. We're waiting for the ambulance.

And of course, we won't be able to tell you tonight just how badly Cliff Gustafin was hurt. Cameramen have flooded in the ring. The gendarmes are still here. the police officers are still here now. They've still wrapped their arms around Zabel. Zabel's walking around the ring. He's walked over now to look at Gustafin.

Gustafin is still being worked over there by several officials, as well as promoters. Tone Stacker, referee Wally Carbo. Referee Wally Carbo walks back. However, it looks as though we've crowned a New World's wrestling champion tonight in Minneapolis auditorium. Custison still severely hurt over there unconscious lying halfway out of the ring. And, of course, are waiting for the ambulance to take him to the hospital

to find out just how serious his injuries may be. Custison tonight caught that flying Subplexed pole Zabo Zabo flying his man all the way across the ring Flip was up in the air Some four feet landed right on the back of his neck And he may be seriously heard As you heard referee Wally Carbo say

It's interesting because what he just described Was a suplex which I guess an overhead suplex Was a high spot back then, right? Well, it sounded like it was a hospitalization angle Back then And that's, you know, it could be that's what I'm saying is that

it sounds like they came up with this, they shot this angle, they wanted to put the belt on Zabo and get some heat on Gustavson and et cetera, and in the middle of it they did it so well that these people attacked everybody and again, the reason why

that the guy is saying and Zabo was surrounded by the police, you know, walking around the ring, they may not have felt like it was safe to take him back yet until they got because you can keep the guy at the ring where you've got the space

and you can protect him better than trying to take him down a narrow aisle way or seats in the way people and still they get out of the way they may have been still trying to disperse the people but you can you could hear this fucking guy who should have been an auctioneer when it was really going

and another one in the ring and another one in the ring that's as quick as it would happen sometimes when one sees one do it then ah shit that's it's a reflex and they do and alcohol is usually involved and if you hadn't jumped in the ring you're probably thinking

I'll get him when he comes down here well yeah the ones that aren't as brave as all that or as drunk is all that fair once he gets out from under the ring lights in the dark and an aisle way that's about three or four feet wide and I can get on the side yeah there you go and of course the radio commentator announced when they put the lights on in the building which they did because of the

riot that was breaking out, but also a really cool moment earlier, and we'll go back to the remainder of this shortly, when the referee raised Zabo's hand and you heard the booze and you also heard the commentator's voice like, oh, there it is! There it is! New World Champion! I guarantee you that this is a staff radio announcer that they have hired and possibly a local sports PA announcer, but I don't, I wouldn't think. they wouldn't have an announcer affiliated with the wrestling promotion at that point that was smart to the business because there was no need for one.

Really, they didn't do regular radio and television wasn't a thing yet. So this was probably a real radio announcer. It did other sports coming over and covering what he's seen. Makes you wonder, and hopefully people will be searching now. What else is out there? But let's go back to this. Fans, while we had just a few minutes, we'd like to tell you, but transpired before we came out of air tonight. In that opening match, it was Frank Taylor, the boy who held from Toledo, Ohio, weighing 240 pounds,

and Frank through Johnny Mars of San Francisco, the 22nd, in 21 minutes and 22nd. Then, of course, that second match, the special event was built to Cistro, the former University of Minnesota football star who tossed Carlos Rodriguez of Mexico City, and Francisco, and Hing from Minneapolis, and the time on that nine minutes and 42nd. Then in the semifinal, one of the wildest matches we've had in the Minneapolis Auditorium in some time. It was popular Tug Carlson, wearing 225 pounds from Los Angeles, California, and Dirty Dick Rains of Texas Batman from Dallas, wearing 240 pounds, and they tangled in a 30-minute draw, with a 30-minute time limit being reached

with the match called a draw by referee Walty Carlin. No fans, and 9,000 people are still in the auditorium. Nobody has left their seats. They've crowded around ringside. We've had everything here tonight. A new champion crown. We had a riot in the center of the ring. We had a riot squad at hand.

The police are still in the ring trying to keep order. They're still watching, keeping a watchful eye out in Santa Rezabel. However, Zabel has no more idea of conflict on his mind now. And, of course, the new champion has been crowned. We'd like to hang on just for a few minutes to see just how badly he took justice in his hurt. However, he's still in the center of the rank. Zabel is leaving the ring. He's greeted with a thunderous boo, as you can hear.

But he's leaving the ring, the new champion. And for you fans, we may have tune in later with Sandoor Zabel, the former title holder, regaining his championship tonight, the National Wrestling Association Bobo, Sandoors Abo, the Bronze, Californian from Santa Monica, winning in 42 minutes and 12 seconds with his flying subplex hole over Cliff Gusterson, the former champion now,

who just won that title from Sandor Zabo some two months ago. Cliff Gustafin, the Convig, Minnesota boy, put on a great show tonight, and we certainly hope he's not seriously injured. And now, once again, a reminder fan that of Snyder's family liquor store located at 36 South 6th Street and downtown Minneapolis, which brought you tonight's match

in all Minneapolis, wrestling and boxing matches directly from ringside in the Minneapolis out of Torrance. This is Don Riley tuning off now, saying we hope to enjoy the match and telling you to read your morning papers to find out just how bad clip guts is and was hurt tonight as he lost the title to Sanor Zabel. Thank you once again, Twin City fans. This is Don Riley signing off saying good evening and thanks again for listening. You are tuned to number you. Thank you for blowing yourself up. Minneapolis, St. Paul, 1400 on your dial.

Well, there it is, Jim. some uncovered wrestling history. Well, first of all, tonight's riot was brought to you by Al's Liquor Store. That was fucking great. Good publicity. We had it all tonight. A world title change.

A riot? Riot squad. And again, you heard it was kind of people were murmuring and everything. And then when they came up, oh, they're finally, the cops had finally decided, okay, we got to get Zobbo out of here. So let's hand this. they're like,

ah, we're going to get another chance at him. But when he said something right before that, like Zabo seems quiet or whatever.

Yeah, because at that point, he's like, oh, motherfucker, can they, oh, I need to get out of here.

Can we take it out of here? That's incredible. That's just incredible. I said it a little earlier. It really makes you wonder what else is out there, what else could be out there, not just Minneapolis,

but all around the country, before TV, what radio broadcast still exist of big events or big, or just any wrestling event at all? Now, was there any story behind this where this was found? Was this suddenly uncovered, or has this been something that existed in the radio world and nobody just thought to apply it to the wrestling world? What's the provenance of this clip? I do not know. Again, this came from the website is Radiotapes.

preserving the soundtrack of our past, celebrating the Twin Cities Radio Legacy. So obviously they find and they have found classic Minneapolis audio. And this is an extraordinary fine for professional wrestling because raises a lot of questions about this world title change. Again, a world title change. It was referred to twice at least as National Wrestling Association

and one time as Northwest Wrestling Association. And so we need to find out more about this. But that may have again have been the announcer just he, he doesn't know what's happening. He's talking real fast. Did you hear him at the end where he was at the end of his sentence? He was almost like fading. I could see him wilting.

Oh, that's great stuff. And that boy, howdy. And that's. And again, I know a lot of people are going to say, well, what the fuck? What could they have done? to get all those people in the ring very little. They did some kind of simple fucking deal where he got hurt

and then fucking Zabo got the heat on him but the guy was describing. But everything had not been done, redone, overdone, and prostituted to the point where now you have to use a chainsaw and people still go, ah, you know, that's why up until even in the 70s and into the 80s it was quite common to get fucking people in the ring.

Hey Jim, one more thing about this because it was in the program that we referenced earlier. This was the season finale. So this angle, this match, this big title change, was the last time Minneapolis fans were going to see wrestling until back to school, right? Yes. We've talked about that Vern, even in the 70s and 80s or whatever,

he didn't run a heavy schedule in the summertime because the thought process was the people up there that far north, they go out to the lakes and the streams and the outdoor activities in the summer because it's so cold in the winter. And they carried it to the extreme in Minnesota in those days of having a season where they would take off the summer and just not run show. because they didn't think people were way to come inside. And even though there they are drawing 9,000 people for the,

but it's the final show of the year. And they could use that to, that's the big thing that they come back with in the fall as people have had all summer to think about it. Oh, is he going to be okay? Well, he's hurt, but he might be coming back in the fall, battling back from his injury that he's recovered from all summer. And this is what the newspaper coverage would be so important.

Exactly. Newspaper and radio because ain't no television. Jim, finally, I don't know if this is from the newspaper, I will assume it. Otherwise, I don't know where it would be from, but they posted something here. It says, Gustafson to recover, fans blamed for brawl. Cliff Gustafson of Gonvick, Minnesota, didn't suffer any permanent injuries when knocked out and beaten by Sandar Zabo of Santa Monica, California, Tuesday night at the auditorium, but he must spend the next three days in the Asbury Hospital.

One vertebrae in Gustafson's neck was knocked out a place when he was thrown to the canvas with a slam hole by his foe. Cliff was unconscious for some time and had to be removed to the general hospital in an ambulance. X-rays today failed to reveal any breaks, and Dr. J.P. Corp. said that the grappler would be able to leave the hospital shortly. The injury to Gustafson started one of the worst brawls, wrestling as known in Minneapolis, since Strangler Lewis knocked out policemen and fans some years back. Promoter Tony Stecker blamed the difficulties on the spectators

who are led by Cliff Gustafson's aroused brother, Hiram. Oh my God. A Gonvick schoolteacher. A pretty fair athlete himself and his brother's sparring partner at home, Hiram jumped into the ring, others followed him, and in a few seconds, the place was filled with swinging humans. Okay, you know what? That was the...

The guy's from Minnesota, he's the hometown hero, he's got his brother there that's known in the community. and they do the angle and he's laying there unconscious and Zabu's going to get heat and his brother hops in try to protect him and the people said,

oh shit's on and they followed the brother. That's exactly what happened. A local school teacher. The teacher jumped in the ring. Yeah. So they're like, they were sold at that point.

Well, again, I'm fascinated by this. We will see what more we can find out about what happened after this or any other information, maybe George Shire or someone knows, but once again, June 17, 1947, W-M-I-N-M-I-N-M-A-N-A-Lapolis. And, Jim, I would have to think after a big riot like that, you may want a good night's sleep. Well, that's exactly right, Brad, and I'll tell you what, maybe some of those fans might have gotten a good night's sleep, because I think the announcer said Zobo was

clocking a few of them. you know, in some of those brew ha-haz, those dust-ups, those whirligigs type of things that go on, you don't know where it's coming from. I got knocked out one time in the middle of the rig in one of those type of situations, as you'll recall. You always want a helix mattress to fall on. Whether you're falling on it after the end of a hard day where you've worked and you've slaved and you've just worked your fingers to the bone, or whether you want to fall on it

because you're falling off a high place, a precipice, an escarpment, a cliff, a chasm of some sort. You want to fall, whether metaphorically or literally, on a Helix mattress, one of the 20-plus unique mattresses that they have at helixleep.com for you to choose from. And for you to poop on,

if you so desire because it'll be your mattress. It would be. But it's just the way that the phrasing came out. For you to choose from. Well, you chose to. Or for you to poop on. Once again, to sleep on. A good night's sleep, one that me and my family.

My family love our... Yes, me and my baby tonight. How will we save this, ladies and gentlemen. A good night's sleep. Some of us right now feel like Cliff Gustafson and just want to lay down and wait till this ends. And maybe we go lay down on a healing sleep. mattress.

Because I can't wait to go to sleep with my baby tonight. On a Helix sleep mattress, ladies and gentlemen, you won't have to be a road doggedy dog. You can be any old kind of dog, and you can be a horn dog or a hound dog. You can, but you can sleep. Boy, I'll tell you what, you'll just sleep your ass off.

As a matter of fact, many people wake up and find they've lost weight. They've slept so long. That's not how it works. and didn't eat. That isn't how it works, ladies and gentlemen. No, no, no. You're always burning calories when your body is running so the longer you sleep without eating, the more weight you'd lose, Brian, that's a scientific fact. You can't argue with that. So if you sleep longer on a helix, it helps you lose weight more than the other average mattress. That is not a fact that is

proven or provable or even sense to us in any way. It's just common sense. What? Tell me, If you went to sleep on a Helix mattress and you laid there without eating a bite for about two weeks, would you have lost weight when you get up and weigh yourself again? Boy, why don't we focus on the good eight hours? I'm just, eight hours, and you're up and Adam ready for the day? You had no choice but to answer me in a way that would make me right, because if you laid on a mattress. This is ridiculous. Of course you're right.

If you lay it on something and don't eat anything for two weeks, you're going to lose weight, but that's not part of the features. It's provable. It's just common logic. It's not. There's also shipping. Oh. seamless delivery.

A limited lifetime warranty. I mean, it's a lifetime warranty, but they limit how long you can live. If you get past 82, they're going to send somebody over to fucking fix you up. No matter the age, they leave you alone once you get your mouth. mattress. That's the Helix promise. They won't leave you alone because they've got the happy. I'm telling you, they got the happy with Helix guarantee. Yes, they do. When they leave you alone. If you need them after they deliver the mattress, they'll be there. They're not going to ignore you. So they'll stay in constant contact. They'll be on top of everything you do in your life from this point on because of the

tracking device. They've been a recording system. Oh, my God. It's put inside the helix map. Of this, ladies and gentlemen, your civil liberties will be protected by healing sleep. They can, they can tell whether the mattress is defective, whether the springs are popping. They can tell, you know, whether you need help or not, because they know if you're sleeping and they know if you're awake and they know if you've been bad or good.

So you better be good for goodness sake. Once again, all kidding and funny games aside, the helix sleep. mattress will arrive at your doorstep in a box. You open the box, the mattress is there. It's a mattress that you don't have to worry about tracking devices or anything else. A good night, sleep, eight hours, you wake up, you have breakfast. And of course, that's the way it works. And that's the way it works over here.

And that's the way it works. I know at Castle Cornett. I know you have some fans over there of Helix sleep mattresses. And, of course, we have a great deal for the listeners that we love. Poor, you got to get off the caffeine, son. Oh, my God, it's one fan of the race. Another fan. Oh, Sato just hit another fan.

A cop just got punched. A referee. Back to you, Jim. Watch out for poor Wally Carbo. But right now, go to helix sleep.com slash JCE. My ears are ringing from Brian's announcing helixleep.com slash JCE. Write this just second because you're going to get 27% off sitewide.

Any of the mattresses, the luxes, the elites, the, common mattresses, the little common folks, the little, the little, the little teensy little marshmallows. It's all 27% off right now with the code JCE at helixleep.com. And once again, just, you know, don't be naughty. Be nice. Get a Helix sleep mattress for you or your loved one or your children or grandchildren or friends or neighbors or, boy, especially if you, got a neighbor you'd like to put a little tracking device on. You know, send it her way. Again, we're at the end of this.

There's no reason to add more features that don't exist. Well, I was just thinking there's another selling point. A selling point. A selling point like a great deal and a great mattress. A mattress for you. Firm or soft, whatever you need, Helix is there for you. Jim, we have a great deal in a promo code and we love our mattresses. Why don't you tell them all about it?

That promo code is JCE, and that's all I'll say about that. if you open your front door one of these days, you find a mattress with no note leaning up next to your front door. Don't use it unless it's a helix. Helix sleep. Ah, we're back to that, eh? We're back to that, what is that supposed to mean? We're back here on the show.

Nothing at all. We're back here, and of course, WWE Raw rolled on this week. Well, hold on. Before we roll on to Raw, I got sad news, Brian. I got to tell you in case you need to send any flowers. It's just come across the news desk. Guess who has died at the age of 94?

A famous person? No. Joe McPitch Tits in fucking Des Moines. No, yes, a famous person. Someone that you would have heard of in your life. That's why I'm asking you. I have no idea. I didn't know we were going to cover so many deaths

here this week on the show. Who is it? J.P. Morgan. Oh, get out of here. Wow. J.P. Morgan, not the financier, the banker, but the singer and the gong show panelist who enjoyed showing her upper frontal protuberances, J.J.A.Y.J.P. Morgan. You know, she was born in a Colorado log cabin in 1931. Had a number three hit on Billboard in the 1950s. was on the gong show in the 70s, was on Johnny Carson all the time, it was on Broadway, was in Home Alone, too,

and apparently fired from a Muppet gig for flashing the audience during a routine. That's not true, is it? I never heard that. It says this on the interwebs. It must be true. I didn't realize she did the flashing past that one famous gong show clip that got her in so much trouble. I didn't realize. I didn't realize he became a full-time gimmick that she took on the radio. Well, I don't, here it says her career span, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and a Muppet duet, though she was fired after flashing the audience during a routine. And a Muppet.

I mean, why is that woman with Kermit the Frog taking her tits out? And people are talking about it, and I think I saw this, because I used to love the gong show, because it was just bizarre. and I had more free time back in the 70s to watch TV, but they had the act where the girls ate the popsicles. Oh, the popsicle twins. Oh, yeah, that was it. Right? And then she gave them a perfect tin

because she saw a girls, that's the way I started. The only woman in show business to have shown her tits that Gene Gene, the Dancing Machine, and Rolf the dog. And Chuck Barris. And Chuck Barris. He was fucking out of it. And I'm sure Chuck Barris saw it. a lot of tits. Boy, he looked like he was probably

fun to be around, except if he was really working for the CIA. That is a show that when you see clips of it now, you're like, how did this ever air? It's just chaos. Like, even him as a host, he has a visor over his face half the time. Oh, it's out of control.

The entire country of Columbia was snorted on the set. But not only was it on, it wasn't a network program. It was syndicated. So it was network adjacent. It was on at 7.30 at night here in Louisville, and that's Eastern Time.

So it was on 6.30. And fucking in like fucking Atomwa or somewhere in a central time zone. And the kids could sit down and have dinner and then, you know, listen to J.P. Morgan make blowjob jokes on fucking on the gong show. Well, I didn't, you know, I hate to say it. I didn't realize she was alive because I can't remember the last thing. I can't remember her in anything after the gong show, to be honest. Well, that's, well, no, it says she was in home alone, too.

I don't remember that. So was Tim Curry, who just died earlier today. He was in home alone too. Well, that's probably, she was blowing him. That's not, Jesus. They both died today, and that's what you think you should say that they- No, it was a hell of a blowjob. All right, well, I'm sure she would find the humor in this somewhere.

Rest in peace, J.P. Morgan. I guess everyone from the Gong show is gone now. Well, what about Gene Gene, the Dancing Machine? Where would he be? And the unknown comic. Where's the unknown comic? Oh, that I don't know. That's unknown. I don't know.

I asked for that. Well, Jim, we will move on here with this big show. Hey, before we go to Raw, we brought up the passing of Dolly Parton earlier. I hate to have to bring us up to you, but enough people have asked about it, and it trended, so people were talking about it. Rick Flair took to Twitter

after the passing of Dolly Parton, because obviously so many people think of Rick Flair as a big Dolly Parton fan, his first tweet, I'm so sad to it. about the passing of the Queen of Country Music, Dolly Parton. I was a huge fan of her music. As a boy, I could only dream.

Rest in peace, Dolly. My condolences to the friends and family of the legendary Dolly Parton. Holy shit, he got all the way to the other side of that. He walked that tightrope from one side to the other without falling off and or going into the pit. That's, why did that trend? Is that, as Rick Flair tweets go, there wasn't particularly anything in there you could hang your hat on, was there?

I mean, the only line I could see being a problem, not even a problem, but just questionable, is as a boy, I could only dream. Dream of what? Dream of, what? Wait a minute. What does he drill? I don't know. Hey, hey, we.

Hold on as a boy. Well, this is what I was going to bring. I'm going to bring up a question of mathematics rather than morals here in a second because we all, Dolly was one of the only people you could look at and, you know, and openly acknowledge because it was part of the gimmick, the fact that she would never drown. But Flares, how old is Flair? Dolly was 80. Flares 77.

Yeah. as a boy of what was it was he living in fucking severeville at the time summering in pigeon forge at the goddamn sapyards you know what i didn't finish i should have finished a sentence as a boy i can only dream of joan blondeel now there you go now now we're back in the proper era and kids google joan blondeel not in her later years but in the year was right If you would like to like a kick on Route 66. No, so if Flair, wait a minute. If Dolly was 80, that means she was born in 1946.

She was on the Porter Wagner program in 1966, 65, 67, that era of time. She wasn't revealing her assets as much back in those days. It was uncovered under all the ruffles like the traditional. country music because Porter Wagner was weird how old was Flair in he would have been he would have been

fucking 16 if he was to see when she was wearing Aunt Lola's couch cover on network television so I don't know about a big boy well that was followed up with a second tweet oh okay here we go I'm sorry I shouldn't have doubted you

Dolly I'm 70 37, three years behind you. And I only hope that people remember me in the same light as you and your greatness. Oh. And you're a much bigger star than I ever dreamed of being. Thank you for, thank you for acknowledging that. Some people may have been confused. To which Dolly replied, I'm dead.

Please leave me alone. He wrote it to her. Dolly, I'm 77. Three years behind you. He wrote a tweet to a dead woman that he's probably never met, hoping that she rests along and happy eternity, but, you know, acknowledging that he wasn't as big a star as she was, but he's brought himself into the...

I could have done without the second tweet, is, I guess, is what I'm saying. It still hasn't as bad as some have been, but I could probably think he should have stopped at the first. Oh, apparently, excuse me, Let me actually correct the record here. Apparently that first one, where the worst line that we thought we saw was, as a boy, I can only dream.

The worst part may be capitalizing the first letter of every word, but he attached a short 14-second video to it with some audio. Uh-oh. This is Rick Flair being interviewed by Mean Gene. Rick Flair is Elizabeth and Woman with him. Let's go to this. Nashville, Tennessee, but then you haven't been doing a whole lot of that lately. They've not thought much of an age of all eyes.

since I made Ride Space Mountain one night I think we have a winner Wait a minute Hold on I don't have a ding ding ding but I do have a That probably isn't

Her death The occasion of her Timely or untimely Death due to cancer May not have been the time to remind everybody that he once fictitiously fornicated with her in the Smoggy Mountains. And the comments immediately after he posted this,

someone tagged Charlotte, please take your dad's phone away. Jesus Christ, take his phone computer, please. Flair posting about giving Dolly Parton one. The woman's not even cold. Maybe out of condolences you don't post this video. That's an unwieldy way to word that also, to be honest with you. Just considering the whole fucking

frame of the flavor of this thing. Gross. Even in a time like this, you had to make it about your own dick. Here's another one. Somebody dies. Let's find a way to make it about me. Really, the guy said Jim Ross was looking for attention.

All of a sudden, his person got Dolly Parton. Can you argue? Is there any argument... Is there any argument that he's doing any good with his social media? activity. Is there anything we're missing or anything I'm missing? Maybe you see it. No, I don't. That's what I said the other day. I don't see. Maybe did he think because he was making those comments when she was just a spry young lass of 50 and this is from 30 years ago or whatever that, no, I'm sorry. It would be 35 years ago. She just died.

Let me post a video where I made up a story about fucking her. That's what he just did. Well, it's Dolly that died, not Katie Vic. Well, I don't think that he knows how people see this day. And they're looking, like I said, to the day, they're looking for a chance. Now anything is going to be magnified because there's been so much of it, and they're looking for it. Well, again, I think the easy solution is get off social media. But Jim, from there, we will move on. I can think of a few things he could get off,

but apparently that's not going to take place either. Don't give him ideas. Jim, as we move on here with the show, let's talk about this week's episode of WW Raw. They've got some big things happening, some things going on, and people want to know what you think of it. Well, son of a gun, it's been...

I've slept since then. I've got to go back to my notes. Why, they were in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Is that Ottawa? they were in Ottawa I'd love to see WC Fields play Ottawa why were they on

at 6 p.m. Eastern time on a Monday is everybody in Ottawa entitled to just oh I'm gonna leave workday about 3 o'clock I gotta go to the show how the fuck what is that an odd thing to do for any major event that draws a big crowd

but was it a Canadian holiday they have some of those I'm not sure I wasn't sure why it aired. I didn't know it aired until I tuned in. I joined in the middle of a chat gable promo at 8 o'clock. And then I went back and they replayed it right away afterwards, but I have no idea. Did they have to get out of town quick?

Is there a curfew? They wanted to get out of town before Canada got any madder at Americans? Somebody up there tell me, do you have a lot of big events that draw thousands of people at any of your arenas in Ottawa at 6 p.m. on a weekday. So they play the L.A. night music and he's over. They know the signals for his chant, even when he doesn't have the microphone.

They, a big pop on, let me talk to you. And I think part of it at this point is they're just like, well, fuck you, we like him and we're going to do this, no matter whether you fucking do anything with him or not. but he cut to promo on Roman and I find it so ironic that he's one of the only guys that doesn't sound scripted when he's on, occasionally if they give him something unwieldy to say he can trip over his tongue, but when he's on, he doesn't sound scripted because he's doing what Vince used to call

rasslin promos and Vince didn't want those but now the guy that does the rassland promos with the Austin homage vibe is moreover than almost anybody that they've just pushed to the fucking moon do you think it could be

because it's just refreshing a refreshing difference from the speech of fires and the monologue artists you know even with everything being so scripted he comes across, again, kind of doing a promo style from another era. I hate to assign it to a specific wrestler, but it's a way of speaking. No one else really does that there. We get everything from Roman Raines, you know, channeling Brando or whatever the fuck he's

trying to do to bad high school drama club segments with the women. He stands out because of that. And also there's something about him. Like, he looks like... He's on edge. I don't know. He looks like, if you read a story like, oh, he drank too many energy drinks

and got into a fight with a vending machine. You'd believe it. Yeah, he's got some oomph to him that the boys used to have when the fans were kind of halfway convinced they might do something if they shouldn't do. But speaking of things he shouldn't do, he cut the promo on Roman said the whole family's against him

except for one. And then he mentions solo and solo appears in the crowd with a microphone, yeah. He said, let me talk to you. And they do some catchphrases back and forth in a scripted little moment.

And then the Uso's music plays. And both of them come out. And they're still yeating and cheering, but now it's both of them to the and we knew that Jay's run at the top was kind of

it was a product of the moment and the momentum, and it wasn't going to sustain for years, years, years, but they've repositioned them well in terms of now they're back together. And it's done Jimmy some good because at least he's on par with Jay now. But again, the yeating and they're making people happy with the yeating, but they're just legitimate heels now. they come out and they're mad at Solo because he's doing all this funny stuff and you still got consequences coming. And it was an awkward kind of challenge where it kind of was there but not plainly, you know, made.

And Solo said, well, we can make it a tag. And L.A. Knight said he agreed and Solo did peepue, peew, and they did catchphrases. And the Uso's are clearly heels now, and Roman's a dick, but they're still cheering them because they cheer everybody. And Solo is gone from a Samoan Jimmy Hoffa to a fucking stand-up comic. And here we go. Your thoughts. You know, a lot of people were mad at the review that the segment where Solo got handed over to Roman. and then spiked him

and a lot of people thought you and me were missing all the greatness of the solo baby face turn and I'll admit he's gotten himself over I think it's only grown and when he came out for the main event

I was like you know what I'm going to give this a shot he's kind of just walking out to the ring it was a little bit of a different attitude than we've seen in a long time now we'll talk about how they fucked that up later on but I think the solo and L.A. stuff is clearly working for those fans. The dynamic where it's not even just a bloodline anymore, where no one, I shouldn't say no one, there are people who are clearly not baby faces and not heels, yet they masquerade as either

one of them at different times on the same show. And I don't think that in the long term is very helpful. and, you know, we've pointed out over the years how many people just love singing songs and singing the songs they know and chanting stuff, singing to themselves, dancing. I think the Uso's kind of embody that, or J Uso specifically.

Roman Reigns, I mean, these guys are heels who the fans know are supposed to be bad, but they react to them like they're happy that stars are there and they want to participate. It throws everything off. I don't know if I answered your question here or not. I'm not sure there was a question there, but thank you for answering in case we ask one.

But now there is a tournament you are aware of, Brian, for the right, the privilege to face Roman reigns on the big AAA AAA AAA AAA AAA AAA AAA AAA triple mania extravaganza. And they showed the brackets. And I was calling at that point, it looks to me like they were going to do

Penta versus Phoenix. With Penta, I believe we'll go over to work with Roman. And I made a note unless they screw this up somehow with Dragon Lee because they have liked him in the past. But they had Phoenix

against Dragon Lee. And I didn't watch the whole thing to being honest, but just as an observation. Now the, I idea of having a lucha match is the whole gymnastic unique lucha style the rolling and flipping and flying about it's not unique anymore to the luches it's everybody it's the americans it's the british it's the irish so what used to be in an attraction match for the especially for the

heavily Hispanic areas California, Florida, Texas who they would like the influx of a new and different style and the really good ones like the Guerrero's could learn to work Lucha with the Americans so it goddamn didn't stand out

in the wrong way but now everybody's doing this shit so we would the luchadors do it you've got two usually small sometimes either slightly built or pudgy fellows with masks on. Most of them can't speak English in a way that connects with anybody.

And they're just doing the same shit that everybody's doing. A hundred miles an hour back and forth. Now, having said that, Phoenix and Dragon Lee did it a whole lot better than Pintosh. and LaParcah later on in the program, but there's still, it's the same thing that everybody's doing. And the best part of this match, Dragon Lee put Felix on the desk

and jumped, dove through the ropes and cannonballed him over the top of the fucking desk. And the people are like, holy shit, and then they both got back in the ring and they were doing spots in 30 seconds. but they did not screw up the finish because after about 100 false finishes, they put Phoenix over, and then they all shook hands. But do you see what I'm saying?

It's not even special anymore because everybody's doing their shit. I agree with you. I think the Lucha style more than the Japanese style is what has kind of inundated American wrestling, and it's just coin of the realm now. doesn't really stand out as much. Like you said, these two guys are two of the best ones doing it. And I think it says something that on this show in front of this afternoon crowd in Ottawa,

that sat on their hands for a main event angle, that they got into this. They eventually really got into this match, and I thought the last few minutes of this were great. And that's, it was a different response somewhat later on with Penta and LaParka, both because they put the good one on first, the good match on first, and secondly, it was later in the show. And they'd also kind of seen same thing earlier in the show.

But nevertheless, we'll cover that in a moment. But we got to get, Brian, the big contract signing. You got to have a contract signing out in public because nothing ever goes wrong. and we opened up with Adam Pierce in the ring with Paul Lee. And of course, Paulie, you know, on these segments, he, he doesn't get an entrance because he says he doesn't want, you know, don't waste music on me, open up with me in the ring. And that's also because that way we don't see him struggle to balance the weight

that is required to get up into the ring. There it is. There it is. I was wondering when it was. coming, but there it is. Just get it out of the way. But then they introduced Oba and he made his entrance and got the chance and that

was about three minutes. And then Paul Lee introduced Braun Breaker and he got his entrance. That's a couple minutes. So it were five minutes or plus into this thing before everybody even gets into the ring. And then Braun started to sign

and the Oba chance came back up again and then Braun says, who the hell do you think you are? To say you're the future without earning it. And, you know, sure you beat Brock Lester and squashed people, but you haven't won any titles. I think they could have given Braun a little bit better, fucking stiffer material here.

He still got some oomph to him in his delivery, but so you beat Brock Lester and you squash some people. But the story is basically that they're telling is Braun was the next big thing until I got hurt. I took myself out. You weaseled your way in and you're in this spot

because I got hurt, but I'm back. And then the obra just, Obra. Obra D. Obra da. It went on long. Oba just blistered him. Say,

you're an angry. orange man. And Oba is the baby face that gets his fucking promos because he can be a little braggadocious but with the accent and the presentation it's working. And he did a good baby face promo.

He's got good delivery and emotion. And you know what he said? Your chances have drastically gone down. The dogs are barking up the wrong tree. And he got the fans chance. for him again. And again, Braun,

he's got a lot of oomph, but he said, I'm going to blow you up and beat you. You're going to be in the deep water. He went a little long. But Braun signed, and then he stood up,

and he gave the contract to Heyman. He said, you want to sign this, or should your daddy do it for you? Ugh. And he starts bullying Paul, telling him to sign it. Yeah, Brock shows up,

you drop me and he's really menacing Paul. And Paul's like, don't do this. Don't do this here. And then as Braun was bully and Paul, he spun around and blistered Oba. But Oba fought back and theory came in and they two on one to Oba, but Oba foiled him and put theory through another table. That's the rib on theory every week. He helps somebody else in their fight and he gets put through a fucking

table. But then Oba signed and Braun left with theory laying in the fucking wreckage into rigs. He's a good friend. I'm telling I'm more sure that ever now young Brian that he was bullying

Paul but he spun around and nailed Oba before he did anything detrimental to Paul. This is a thing Paul is going to reveal that he whether they've been working together to this point or not, but at some point they will be, but he's doing this to Braun, to bring the dog, the wild animal out in Braun Breaker. Do you feel me? Do you feel

me, dog? I mean, you would think that's where they were going. I don't know if that's what they will do. Hamas in the middle of several things that are interesting. Remember, he still owes Gunther a favor. Cody, in his promo to Orton last week, said that's not a spoiler. that's a what did he I forget what the fucking phrases now oh that's well that's because that's so over it's not a prediction it's a spoiler that's what it is and that's a haman line and coi used it so who knows if any of that has anything to do at any of this i mean haman the one thing he said he said like 15 times don't do this don't do this he screamed it at him i mean a bunch of times brawn breaker is really good and short

bursts on the mic just yelling out something with that voice you shouldn't be giving speeches. He shouldn't be doing long promos. He shouldn't be using metaphors that most people wouldn't use if they were in a situation like this. Just the whole thing. It should be more natural because he feels like a natural guy. And the more you give him that shit, that's like giving Roman suffering succotash, you know, just it's not needed. Doesn't help. Yeah. No, succotash is never needed. I think that would take it completely out of the fucking vegetable Guard. Well, did you watch Big Cass and Javan Evans?

I had to. They've been building it up for several weeks, and I'm a big fan of Javan, so I wanted to see how this would work, and, you know, Cass is seven feet tall, and we haven't seen them work a match in a while. I wanted to see how that was going to go. I don't understand this. I truthfully don't understand this. I know that certainly...

The heel has to get heat on the baby face in any position in order to get a successful program going, but I don't know why that they feel that big cast should be a successful program with Javon Evans, or why do this to Javon Evans right now, or why big Cass? Again, the name just sucks. I can't explain to you how fucking bad the name sucks. yes he's gotten himself in great shape

but it's a big tall fucking guy that's just there there's no charisma there's no oomph there's he doesn't have he didn't come back with some kind of goddamn new look or new gimmick or new outlook on life that he can articulate past

boring scripted platitudes and I don't he's another one of the guys that makes other big guys look smaller and I don't see why that you want to beat Javon Evans up and Blando McBoring just throughout the entire match beats him up while the announcers talked about what a fuck up that previously that big cast was and he still won't admit it that he was a fuck up, well, the fuck up beats Javon up throughout most of the whole thing.

Javon gets a couple of flurries. And at one point, the last comeback, Cass's timing is rotten because he, he's just, he's not feed, he's a beat off feeding. It's just, finally, Javon went for a cutter and

Cass pushed him off the turnbuckle down to the floor, then went out and rolled him in and just kicked him. One, two, three. And I'm just, I will donate a thousand dollars to the charity of anybody's choice if they ever get big casse over in a money drawing position. I don't see what the fuck they're doing. And then Dominic and JD came in and further beat up Jvon. So at least, maybe when I have seen Javon, it gives big cast.

anymore, we can just see him against those guys. But Jesus Christ, I don't know. You tell me. You tell me, does it feel like Javon and I'll incorporate Trick Williams into this as well? Are more over or less over than they were before the returns of Baron Corbyn and Big Cass. Less. Two big guys, one of them seven feet tall. How does this help Javon Evans? How has, so far, he's gotten his ass kicked by multiple people. In the segments even before this match, and again, the Trick Williams-Baron Corbyn thing, it feels like at a time where they have new young guys

they can elevate, guys that are rising to the occasion, it feels like a mistake to go back to these specific guys. It feels like Vince. It feels like something Vince would do. Businesses down, we need giants. Like it doesn't make much sense to me. Because there are other heels. Because I guess the point is, it's not like we're in desperate need for heels.

There are other people there who can be elevated. But puzzling decision-making here, and Bigcast has been back for several weeks, and this has all been happening, it's all been transpiring, the fans don't seem to really care so far.

Busted his lip open, I guess, during a match. Well, I think that his mother should call him back home. You know Big Cass's mother, Mama Cass? All right. That's as raw is choking on a ham sandwich, we go on here.

That is an urban legend, a mere myth. It was a cardiac infarction. Nevertheless, then they did the Penta and LaParka thing, and here we go again, the same shit that the other guys were doing, but not as good as at doing it. And finally, they did a thing where they both went up to the top rope and threw a couple of fake blows at each other, unsteady while they got their footing.

And then both of them just suddenly flipped off together. It's a Spanish fly. And that was a two count. And then Penta hit the Mexican destroyer, and that was the three count. So it's going to be the Battle of the Lucha brothers. at Triple Mania to see who, or no, the Battle of the Lucha Brothers to see who fights Roman at Triplemania,

which honestly, you know, kind of like, for, especially for that market, the Hispanic market, these two guys against each other, for I guess would be the first time ever. That might be halfway appealing, right? No. I don't know about that.

It might not be appealing or it might not be the first time ever. It may not be the first time ever. It is appealing. I actually want to see that match. I think if there was ever a match with those two guys are going to go balls to the wall, that may be it. And, you know, I think there's something to be brought up about how much Lucha they've been overloading on the raw the last several weeks. This tournament specifically, you have multiple segments with long Lucha matches.

I don't, again, I think there's a lot of things that they're doing, much like AEW, that are not causing people to be as invested in the show. And, you know, it feels like there's a lot of stuff you can skip unless you plan on, you know, watching AAA and triple mania. Which you're probably never heard of before they launched this tournament. Well, that's the point. They're getting further and further away from the realm of the,

not even the casual audience, but just the regular audience that they had. for years that just watched the TV and didn't have to look everything up on the internet and hasn't never heard of AAA or AEW or any other fucking wrestling. And now all of a sudden it's a little AEW-ish. Who are all these people? And they just popped up and they're all doing the same shit. And they're having a tournament to see who gets to face Roman when none of the people that, as L.A. Knight mentioned in his promo.

none of the people that they have been taught and told were top contenders for the title on television for the last fucking year or two are in the goddamn thing. So not everybody knows the history or cares about all the international wrestling promotions, but now that they own it as well as everything else, that's what they're doing. anyhow then we get to the main event brian and and let's L.A. night and solo the stand-up comic against the Uso's and there wasn't much match on the show they rang the bell they had a little back and forth tag stuff and they healed solo to stop him and went to break in like three minutes and when they came back,

it just looked like that they were wasting time, a little bit of time until the finish because they got some kind of sloppy, lackadaisical heat, and the Uso's nailed L.A. Knight off the apron, and then nothing happened forever, like that they were waiting for somebody to remember something. And then solo level J and L.A. night got back up, and Solo tagged him.

LA Knights comeback they liked, and then they all went back and forth. LA Knight hit the elbow off the top. Jimmy saved. Jimmy and Solo went to the floor and then suddenly out of nowhere

old hoist keys speared both of them through the fucking railing into the timekeeper's pit and two guys jumped in the ring and the announcers were saying, my God, is that, is that? And when they rattled their names off, I didn't recognize them as names or words or

sounds. And it was just, well, and there's go. And they beat up LA Knight and the other Uso. And the fans were sitting, like, well, wait, what? And it went on and on. and nobody tried to really stop it, nobody tried to help, and nobody really tried to clap or cheer or boo or care.

And apparently they are Bronco-Nima and Lucian Price, which Lucian Price may be the illegitimate son of Lucien Gregor, but I'm not sure. And this is a new faction now that Royce Keys has gone back and got him. Did Michael Cole use the word posse? Are you using any words now? I actually don't recall.

I hate Michael Cole. I think he said he said he's got a posse. He's gotten so much worth. He's regressed over the last several months to the worst point he's ever been. I can't stand Michael Cole. But this was not. It was, I know they've told the story where L.A. Knight and Solo had teamed with hoists and blah, blah, blah.

But this was out of nowhere you could tell these people in Ottawa, at least. Do they have the CW network in Ottawa? Do they see it XT? Do they know who these fucking Cretans are, these vagrants? They know who these vagrants are we got in the territory these days? People just sat there, is like, what the fuck is going on here? And that was kind of that. It was awkward.

You know, we've talked about the miss it has felt so far with Royce Keys, powerhouse Hobbs. The fans were almost kind of getting into the match. And then this took everyone out of everything because no one's been excited about Keyes so far. And I don't think anyone knew who these two guys were. And those names are terrible. Those are NXT names. Those are horrible names. Let's see how they recover this or try to.

But now we have a faction that attacks baby faces and heels, which actually kind of captures just about everyone on the roster now. I don't know. It was awkward. I mean, that's the only word I could just, it was so quiet. Awkward. You know, these guys are making their big debut and people are just staring at them. It, it, yeah, it was a curveball for a lot of people.

Well, Jim, that was, I presume the exciting conclusion of the review to Raw. You know, maybe part of the issue is we haven't eaten yet. I don't know about you, but we started our little early today, and I haven't had breakfast, nor lunch. I'm starving. And soon you won't have dinner either if we keep going. Let's not say that. We're going to get to dinner, and dinner is going to be delicious. It's going to need to be quick. It's going to need to be something quick and easy, but yet delicious and healthy and good for you.

crafted by chefs. Crafted by chefs, designed by dietitians, already ready to eat with just a little heating, a change of temperature only. And otherwise, no cleanup, no mess, no preparation beforehand and no apologies afterwards. Just good quality food quick because you're busy. Where in the world are you going to find something like that?

I've got it. our friends over at factor meals.com. That's where you're going to find something like that because folks, that's where every week you're going to find over 100 nutrient dense menu items. They are thick. You could cut the tension and a nutrients with a fucking knife, maybe even a bandsaw.

That's how dense they are with the nutrients. New options like salmon burgers, shredded pork, collard greens. And you could fowl so some saddled horse meat to go along with the collared greens. Plus, they've got add-ons that you're going to crave like pumpkin-flavored cheesecakes and protein shakes. Where you go, hmm, pumpkin. And the best part of it, 97% of the users agree, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls and children of all ages, as long as you've got your parents' permission to use their credit card. factor meals help them live a healthier life.

So right now, you can confidently say that 97 out of 100 people say, well, hell, I'm just going to live longer if I eat factor meals. So in effect, they are extending the life expectancy of everyone on earth that samples their products.

And that's why, ladies and gentlemen, there's so many goddamn people in the world these days. Because they just don't, don't die anymore because they're eating factor. That is not why that is not a fact. There are several non-facts in whatever it is you just said, but Jim, why don't we focus on the positive?

Well, I think we ought to focus on the alternative facts. Right now, no, you could go to factormeals.com and you could get 50% off and one free breakfast item per box for one year. If you just use our simple code

JCE 50 off. Now that's a fact, isn't it? That's a fact right there. While supplies last, you can get 50% off at factormeals.com and one free breakfast item per box for a whole year of that breakfast item. And I understand that breakfast item

could just be anything that anybody might eat for... What do they eat for breakfast in Guatemala? It's Guatemala Week at Factor Meals. But nevertheless, you can see the website. I have a Guatemala week for the record at Factor Meals, but they have great meals. Well, there's a large contingent of people in Guatemala that don't have electricity to cook their own meals, so they want Factor. You don't know anything about the conditions in Guatemala. You are no Guatemalan expert.

Okay, okay, Mr. Expert, what is the power company's name in Guatemala? I'm not at liberty. See, there you go. I may be invested in them. I'm not sure. You can see the website at FactorMeals.com for more details on all. all the nutrients and the calories and the proteins and the good stuff, the vitamins and minerals and meat and vegetable,

the vitamin of vegimen that you're going to get from every factor meals, you're going to rip off your shirt and your jacket and you're going to go, here I come to save the day. And they're ready in two minutes with no prep and no cleanup. So if you're just completely out of control and the SWAT team is outside, you don't have time to turn on the stove, the gas may be redirected to the flame thrower. Just pop one of these in, baby.

Let's get, as we wrap things up, Jim, why don't we let everyone know for the everyday average person with no extraordinary problems like you've just heard if you just want to enjoy fantastic meals that are chef-crafted, taste good, quick to make, and something that'll make you feel better about yourself. Factor meals, we love them here in this house. Jim, what's the great deal for the listeners?

Well, whether you're an everyday average person or a shiny, happy people, you can go to factormeels.com slash JCE 50 off and use that code, JCE 50 off, to get 50% off and one free breakfast item per box for one year while supplies last. Right now, don't delay, see website for more details. All right. Well, Jim... That sounds like the past tense of Factor. Uh, no, and, uh, once again, Factor. We're big fans of their food. Jim, as we move on, a bit of a follow-up here.

Let me get my notes. We last week put together our final list. Just making noise all over the place. What are you doing over there? You just had to control. We compile the final list of your choices, top wrestlers in their 20s. in 1994. Yes, we did that.

At the end, we included stunning Steve Austin, and I don't think that there's any dispute that the year he had in 1994, the matches of Ricky Steamboat, the run in WCW, he was certainly one of the top youngsters in wrestling, and Jushin Liger. They were both 29 years old, turning 30 at the end of the year, which caused some people to say there's another name that we should have considered and put on the list

done the same thing too because we since they were only that age in that age group for a few weeks we made an exception to back them up so to speak and I thought this was a conversation worth having because it's someone I would include on my list and I'm not certain you would on yours turning 30 December 12th so they were 29 the entirety of 1994 until December 10th Saboo.

And where is he on this? He was in the 30s list as we were. That is correct. That is correct. Okay. So we would have to do the same thing that we did to be consistent. We would have to put him on the 20s list to go along with, as you said, Austin and who else was it? it was Austin and God damn. Juschen Thunder Liger.

And Liger. That's right. Do, okay, here's our list that we made. Who would Sabaabu replace on this list? Owen Hart, Sean Michaels, Undertaker, Yokozuna, Dustin Rhodes,

Steve slash William Regal, Cactus Jack, Kenta Kabashi, the great Saske, Steve Austin, Jushin Liger, Sean Waltman, Jeff Jarrett, Chris Benoit,

Art Bar and Eddie Guerrero as a team, Two Cold Scorpio, Chris Candido, Brian Christopher, Shinya Hashimoto, and PG-13 as a team. I think he replaces, for me, he would replace PG-13, who were the last person or team to make the list, and we had to discuss it.

They were on the question-mark list. Again, if we were doing the original list and he was there, for me, he would be a, no-brainer to be on the list, but I, again, like I said at the start of this, I wasn't sure about you because you've never been a big fan of his style, but, you know, you also appreciate it. That's the thing. I would have to agree with you here simply because of the way he was used that year, impact, whether bad or good, it was impact, lasting legacy, once again,

whether bad or good. Why is he mad at the furniture, Paul? Everybody on this list for me, especially PG-13, was more fun to watch than Saboo because I didn't ever get it. I didn't understand it. Early on, when he just did the flashy maneuvers, I thought, okay, the Sheik's nephew, taking it to a new level and doing things Sheik could never do, and this could be as he's a flying genie, whatever. But when it got to the barbed wire and the scars and the fucking just, flinging yourself and it he wasn't working he was literally just taking those bumps willy-nilly

with with a little regard to where he fell i don't know about how much regard he had for his opponents i i thought it did more harm than good never fucking got it and it destroyed his body so there's that but having said that recognizing the impact that he had i'll go along with you. Here's my argument for 1994. 1994 was his breakout year. 93 people were buzzing about him, smart fans, newsletter readers. He had the match with Sean Waltman, the Lightning Kid for Dennis Caruso,

NWA Grand Slam in Minnesota. That was like the hottest match to find on tape for a little while there. And then by the end of the year, when Paul Heyman takes over ECW's booking from Eddie Gilbert, one of the first things he does is bring in Saboo, manages Sabu. After, I believe Hunter Q. Robbins III may have been actually the first manager. But then Paul Heyman, and 94 you begin with just hot matches. They do the night the line was crossed, which was their big three-way match, which they hyped up so well on TV.

People really believed it was like the greatest match of all time. It was a really good match, especially for the time. But Sabu was in the middle of that. Sabu and Terry Funk. 94 was the year of Sabu and Cactus Jack. Sabu and two called Scorpio. That was the year Chris Benoit threw him onto his head. He broke his neck.

Or that's what we were told. Towards the end of the year. I believe it. So there was a lot of things. This was like a year where I feel like they were mostly positives when it comes to Sabu. And in terms of fandom, any matches.

It was the point where people discovered Al Snow in 94 because this unknown Midwest indie guy worked with Saboo and people had to see every Sabu match because they were so different than everything else at that time. So to me, 1994 is maybe the greatest year of Sabu in terms of importance in wrestling. Well, then let's put him down. All right, I'm going to revise the list,

officially removing PG-13. and adding Saboo, 29 years old until December. And there it is, once again, the revised final list of 1994's top 20 wrestlers in their 20s. Who says we aren't consistent?

We try to be, with all the shit that we make up and pull out of our ass, we try to be consistent. Well, Jim, with that, we will be right back with more consistency after this short commercial time. All right, we're back. Of course, that's Jim's favorite of the songs, as everyone knows, and...

Jim, a lot of things happening in the world of professional wrestling right now, so we have to talk about several of these things. Jim, as we are recording, it is trending on Twitter that ESPN denies WWE contract non-renewal rumors. This started appearing on Twitter yesterday, specifically with ESPN having to issue a denial, that they are not going to renew WWE when the contract runs out. There's so many double negatives going on here and not renewing the not rumor of the... Basically, for those out there who are trying to follow along like me,

somebody started the rumor that ESPN wasn't going to renew the contract of the WWE, and ESPN themselves came out and said, horseshit, there's no such decision been made and we don't intend to not do that. Is that basically the deal? That appears to be it. I'm trying to see if this is the person who started the story, but we have a little bit of backstory too,

but ESPN's head of communications put out a tweet. There is no truth to the report that we have decided not to renew. They never checked with us before publishing, and had they, we would have told them this was completely false. And for the record, I believe if we're discussing ESPN not going to renew WWE, they just signed this deal. We're talking about like four years down the road, right? We're not even talking about right now.

They're maybe a little over a year, I guess, right? What was it like, it was January of 2025 they went on Netflix, and so we're a year into a five, your deal or whatever. The SE Scoops article that the ESPN person was referencing or the link is now gone. That's been deleted. It's not available. But a reporter named B.J. Bethel, who you may remember, because I think we discussed him

on the show, he is the reporter who put out there that A.W. Dynamite was getting 500,000 viewers on max, like a year ago. Remember? So he's a noted individual for making. Claims. He quote tweeted the ESPN communications guy, Ben Carfado,

Carfardo, whatever this man's name is. I try, I'll tell you what, if he's Carfart, boy, he's not welcome in a lot of places, I know. And here's what B.J. Bethel wrote.

I tried contacting ESPN through support.esPN.com through the support link. I tried contacting ESPN through the support link last night. I also left a voicemail on a support phone line. In fairness, I forgot about previous correspondence with Ben and April, or I would have contacted him. I'm also standing by my story. Wait a minute. So this guy hears this story and he just, like the support line, is that like for people having trouble loading their fucking app or whatever for an official comment on programming?

That's who he contacts when he had already been in touch in the past with the guy that is the director of communications and just forgot? It would be like if you had a conversation with the New York Times and then like six months later they emailed like info at Jimcornet.com with like some important pressing matter that they're going to go to press with. Well, then I'd have to get Stephen P. new on him again. But that's ridiculous. That's, this is something now being attributed to. Andrew Badella, who works in sports and entertainment, ticketing and marketing, he's on Twitter too. Everybody is. The numbers WWE PLEs are bringing to ESPN aren't exactly what the network was hoping for.

But reports of ESPN having extreme buyers remorse or not renewing WWE have not been discussed by those spoken to directly. See, that's kind of in line with what I've been hearing. was that there were people at ESPN unhappy with the numbers. Yeah. And whether you want to say that that leads to a direct link to them not renewing four years down the road or whatever, if it all of a sudden gets hot, that changes a lot of things.

But again, this story's out there. I will tell you I heard from someone in wrestling media not too long ago asking me if I had heard about Netflix being upset with WWE. because of the performance. When I say performance, the numbers. Yeah. And I said, no, actually, what I had heard was ESPN. I haven't talked to anyone on Netflix.

But that story's out there, too. Well, but the thing is, of course it's going to be because, and I don't believe it's exclusive to wrestling, because the rights fees that a lot of these services are paying to outbid the other services and get this and that and the other thing, it's all ridiculous amounts of money when you read about it,

whatever sport it is. UFC made a deal where ESPN gets their paper views, right? And that cost ESP in a goddamn shitload of money. And the question is, at some point, is anybody going to realize, hey, we actually might do better with reruns of goddamn Seinfeld.

All things considered than paying $124 gazillion to anybody to broadcast the fucking Nathan's hot dog eating contest. You know, again... Just a question. Again, I go back to the idea we have heard,

and I'm not going to say what our sources are, but I feel confident saying that there are people at ESPN not happy with the performance of WWW. numbers, which is very different than they're not going to renew. But if I was going to, I would think, if I was going to run with a story with that, you got to get us, you got to get someone on the record. You got to talk to someone. It can't be I emailed support.

Yeah. I left the voicemail on the support. What is the support number? Hi, thanks for calling ESPN. No one's in the office right now. But if you, what is it? So it seems like this may be a bit slow. And again, this is the same guy that said they got 500,000 people on max.

So you could argue about an agenda here. Yeah, I think we know where his head is at. But looking at WWE's TV, since they've signed these big deals, are you surprised that it's taken this long for these stories to come out public? Because it's been noticeable that they've been trying to coast. on giving the least amount of shit on these shows and packing them with commercials than they ever have before in the company's history. Whether it's raw, whether it's premium live event, whatever, they're giving less, charging

more, and as less people are buying tickets, you would have to think less people are feeling the demand to watch something live or maybe go back a few days later and see it. well that's again the part of the problem is they have so many contracts remember we said boy that one of that Saturday night's main event felt like they were just killing time fulfilling a deal with peacock or this year's season of unreal well they're just filling the commitment it's ridiculous the amount of money and also the amount of places it's coming from and what they're trying to do is wise in concept in that we can't give everybody everything every week or we got nothing to you know we got to save something for the next big blah blah blah but it's got now to the point where they're saving so much because they got so much coming up that we get four match big main events or four match big events we get like you said commercials are stuffed into the fabric of this thing.

You know, if they have a two and a half hour raw, 30 minutes of it is guys walking to the ring so the fans can sing. It's just being stretched and milked and watered down to the point where it's just, I can see why the YouTube clips are probably their biggest, one of their biggest priorities, because you could, In three minutes, you can see what that 26-minute segment basically was all about. So I'm not surprised that at some point, people are going to say, what are we fucking paying for here? Whether it's the fans or the TV networks or anybody.

Well, we will see what happens. Again, there's a good amount of time left on this deal. WWE has enough time to turn things around, make things feel fresh and hot again. what happens. Jim, let's play some audio because several listeners have sent this over. Will Osprey was on the Ariel Halwani show.

Have you heard about this interview at all? I have not. Unfortunately, I miss this the first time around. Ariel Halwani asked Will Osprey about WWE, I guess specifically not going there and his thoughts on WWE. And that was a big topic of conversation not too long ago.

Will Osprey go with AEW or will he go with WW? And it became a story that he chose AEW. He had a few awkward promos about it, I believe, if I remember correctly. And tried to respond in a witty fashion to Triple H who said some guys just aren't interested in the grind. And he was like, I'm grinding, I'm flying all away from England one day a week, mate. Well, let's hear what he said to Ariel Hawani about this and we'll stop it along the way. Let's go to this now. Consider what?

Meaning if they said you could stay, because I know it's a big deal for you to be back home to live in England. If they didn't want you to move to the States, would you have been more open to it? No, I don't know, hey, because it's just, I do respect it. I really do. It's just I don't like the way it's filmed. I don't like the wrestling behind it. I think it's very minimalistic. I'll never say never, like, because that's what we're kind of doing the industry now,

as we just want to make sure that we keep all of our options open for sure. But I just, right now in the format and how much fun I'm having in AW and just how much freedom I have to be me. Like, I don't have anyone putting a script in my hand. I just, like, I have bullet points and I go out there and I just waffle. When you say it's minimalistic, what do you mean? And I just waffle? Wait, what he said? I'll stop at me for a moment.

And he just, I believe that is true. I've seen his promos in front of the live crowd. He certainly has waffled out there. He does waffle. You know, here's the thing. He realizes now he can say this because Tony has signed him to a contract for so much money, he's set for the rest of his life at the end of this contract, unless he's a complete idiot no matter what happens.

And that's not saying that Tony might not re-sign him when this is over with because Tony does those type of things. If this was a situation where Brov, he had to depend, because I felt the same way. For years, I wasn't going to go to the WWF because I didn't like the style of wrestling. It wasn't what I felt I was good at and used to and enjoyed doing. But then two things happened.

Number one, it became that that was the club. thing to the goddamn style of wrestling that I was enjoying and used to because everything else went to shit. And two, there's this little matter of until you're fixed for the rest of your life, you need a job. So if Will Osprey was not fortunate enough, and I'm sure he admits he's fortunate, to have found a guy like Tony Kahn, who has never existed before in wrestling to this degree that would pay him a large amount of money, no matter what happens with the ratings or the pay-per-views or the gates or anything,

just guarantee this money. You are on my roster, and you can still live in England, and you can take extended amounts of time off, whether you're hurt or not, like so many of my other guys do, but it just happened you were hurt, but you'll get paid.

Then he's comfortable enough to say, I didn't like that, so I'm having more fun here. But if it was like it was the WVE where you're going to make a large amount of money or everything else where you can do this kind of fun wrestling that you like to do, but you're going to end up broke and probably crippled, he might be making a different choice. But he's having his cake and eating it too. just like a lot of these other guys.

They never had to prove that they could legitimately draw on their own, sell tickets, sell pay-per-views, do whatever the fuck. They just get Tony's guaranteed contracts, and they get used as part of his pieces on his chessboard. So, yeah, with that,

he would choose WWE or choose AEW over W. Osprey said he doesn't like the way it's filmed. He doesn't like the wrestling behind it. He thinks it's minimalistic. Yeah, I've never heard anybody say, I don't like the way it's filmed. What?

The one thing they've got is state-of-the-art fucking production. He doesn't like the wrestling behind it. He thinks it's minimalistic. Let's get more about that. Here's Will Osprey on the Ariel Holani show. What do you mean by that? I would just think, like,

the comparison in like our matches and our main event matches is very, very different. Like, their, like, one spear for them will be, like, super satisfying. And, like, I, obviously, I respect it. Like, man, I wish I could get a spare or not. Like, I wish I could. But, like, it's this not inmate.

Like, I prefer what we do. I prefer, like, taking people on rides and showing people different ways that I can get into a styles clash. And, like, and, like, the full contact of it. Like, I've been seeing WWE recently. like, and, like, I saw this one clip, and the girl missed her by, like, flipping miles, like, country mile.

But it's not just the girls, it's the guys as well. And I do wonder if they're being kind of told, like, we're already making money. Like, you don't need to, like, kill one another. And I'm not saying that people kill, like, everyone kills each other in AW at all, but there's more contact.

Well, hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Okay. No, that not. Everybody kills each other at AEW. The ones that don't bust each other open or knock their teeth out or fracture themselves or whatever, they completely missed too. What did we just see Moxley last week? With Jay White. And we talk about every week, what the fuck?

Did they think this was going to fool anybody with these fake blows and these, nobody's saying that it's bad that you've been. can figure out different ways to go into your styles clash finish. It's just when you deliver 16 of them and still continue the match and it never beats anybody that we have the issue. But it's not, and then he has said, well, now we don't kill each other at AEW on purpose. Maybe you don't. But fuck, it's this indie-minded shit from these guys that got in the business after the

point in time where it became a do-it-yourself, hey kids, let's put on a show thing, and they've either heard shit from people that they think are knowledgeable veterans or they've read it on the internet and they don't know how to apply it. And remember, Osprey thinks to him and his age group and his way of thinking

and his social click, he thinks Kitty Omega is a fucking learned, knowledgeable veteran. So it's all nonsense coming from these people. They just want to have fun playing because a billionaire will pay them to do it. It's interesting, all the conversations we have about the matches where it's finish after finish and they kick out of everything.

He's here defending it. He's saying, I can't be satisfied as a wrestler having a match end with just a spear. And, you know, I recently saw Dave Meltzer on Twitter. I don't even remember exactly what he was referring to, but someone must have brought up the complaints from people like us and lots of fans about matches that have, I don't know, five minutes of back and forth do everything,

get right back up, do more, kick out of everything, everything looks devastating. They probably are hurting each other at this point. And he said, well, flare and steamboat, I forget what the number was, had 47 near falls in their match. And a lot of those were backslads and small packages. That's it. And nothing devastating. Yes.

Nothing devastating that, oh, my God, he's absolutely going to lose because he has to. It was constant efforts to win and surprise the opponent, not giant moves that look like you should be hospitalized for six weeks. and bounce up in 15 seconds. Let's go back to Will Osprey. Thankfully, pointed out that they don't purposely hurt each other, but of course he's one of the many who have been out of action for long periods of time in AEW. Will Osprey on the Ariel Hawani Show.

I like to feel alive when I do my pro wrestling. Like, I don't want people to wait for strike on me. Like, I'd much rather people hit me than it looked bad on TV. I know that's weird. It might be an alien forward, but like... No, no, I get it. I mean, it comes across as more real. Do you find yourself keeping tabs on them just to see, you know, you're competing against them, right?

No, no. Honestly, I haven't watched WWE properly in ages. Like, this is out of the loop I am with WWB. We were overdoing wrestlecom for like during the WrestleMania weekend. So bear in mind, like it's on all the TVs, it's at all the pool parties. It's everywhere. I didn't see one thing. I still haven't seen one thing from WrestleMania, which is wild to me because there was once upon a time where me and all my backyard,

wrestling mates would sit there and we'd be like in April where we just sit down and watch WrestleMania and like you admire it and you respect it and but like I just I have not seen anything from mania I just see clits out of the scroll through on 12. I remember when I was a kid me and my backyard Tarzan movie mates would watch the Tarzan movies we never made one ourselves we never actually swung from the but we like to watch the movies with my backyard wrestling mates god damn it what do you think of the mindset though i mean again some of this could be well and there's see he's taken something that was a legitimate thing that guys would say for years and decades in the territory days and the old days of wrestling

lay it in kid i don't want it to look shitty especially if it's an angle or whatever but it where he said, I'd rather somebody hit me than whiff. There's another way to do it than either one of those. It's called throw a fucking working punch or working kick. You lay shit in when it's the chair shot for the angle or it's the fucking board across the head or it's the stab in the back from the tag team part. Lay it in.

But it goes without saying with everything else with just normal wrestling match moves that you don't have to tell the son of a bitch that you're working with to lay it in because you expect that he's going to make the shit look good but be a work where it doesn't hurt you. The guys, the old timers were only saying lay it in when it was one important thing

that was not within the realm of the normal things that we go through in a course of a match. Nobody ever said, lay that drop kick in. because it was acknowledged that you were not going to with anything and that you were trying your best efforts to fucking make the shit look good

and be safe at the same time but if anybody's shit was just rotten on a regular basis and they weren't the money drawing star of the territory they wouldn't be there very fucking long well again maybe it's good that he didn't go to WWE, not a fan of anything they do, it appears,

but you never say never. You never say never, as he said earlier. I think we're starting to be able to. Well, there it is. Will Osprey and his thoughts on WWE. I swear to you got every time I said it last that every time he talks, five of his fans go away.

Shouldn't be talking so much. Jim, speaking of people who talk, as a follow-up to some of the previous clips we've reviewed, Dave Meltzer and Brian Alvarez discussed last week's dynamite. We reviewed it on The Experience, and it did a record low, I shouldn't say record, it did the low rating since the NBA playoffs. They've had some numbers that they can kind of feel good about for a little while,

based on whatever the current metric is. But this was the lowest it's been, and of course, this was the lowest it's been. and of course this was the one with all the big Kenny Omega Will Osprey stuff well it wasn't the one with all the big Kenny Omega and Will Osprey stuff that was the overrun so how how would people know that that was going to happen

when it was overrun from the overrun but yeah they they get something going for a couple of weeks and get back up into the 700,000s with their, you know, dream matchup of Willie and Kenny. And then the people start seeing how that's being played out and built up, along with all the other build of this thing.

And before they even get to the fucking stadium show, they're back in the 500,000s because the TVs are rotten. And that might not even have anything to do with how the pay-per-view does, because as you've said, the TV's always rotten. and people just want to see the matches. So Wembley may still be fine, but they've managed to start out in the 700,000s for their bill to their big stadium show.

And before they even get there, as I said, they've lost 200,000 viewers off their weekly numbers because the TVs are just rotten and are not accentuating the stadium card. They're just killing time till it comes up. Whenever they do angles or promos, they always go too long. It always needs to be produced. It always goes too long.

I say people like their matches. They like the big matches. The matches that Tony Khan is a matchmaker puts together. They don't like these matches. Listen to this card again for the recap here. Jay White versus Moxley. Nigel McGuinness versus Hecichiro from the Don Callis family. Maya World and Chris Statlander.

It's a small graphic versus Hikarishita and Persephone Osprey and his two friends versus three members of the Callas family Omega and the Bucks versus three members of the Callas family Omega and Osprey sit down with Renee Willow and Mercedes

promo with Renee Not a very inspiring card, it's not a wonder as to why the number is low it's a wonder as to why it's taken a little while to get here because this Omega Osprey build has been terrible. And of course, like you said before, it was in the overrun. So let's go to Dave Meltzer and Brian Alvarez.

Well, and that's one more thing is we don't know because we don't get quarter hours anymore how much the overrun is bragging down their average because it always did before. Well, let's now go to Dave Meltzer and Brian Alvarez discussing this. And of course, Alvarez has been all over this issue, the idea of how stupid it is to put stuff in the overrun, which we've been saying for years now. He's catching up to it. Dave Meltzer, up until at least this week, hasn't been

able to admit that this is a wrong philosophy. So here's Dave Meltzer explaining Tony Kahn's philosophy of this show, why this show, which went over two and a half hours, had to be the way it was. We will stop it along the way from Wrestling Observer Radio, Alvarez and Meltzer. Wednesday show was the lowest since the NBA playoffs. Going long, obviously hurt. We knew that going in. He, you know, Tony knew that going in too. It's not a secret. He wanted, he felt it was more important to get as much as hype as he could, you know, for the various matches, not just the main event, but the various matches. And so he felt it was worth going long and sacrificing the ratings to do, you know, more hype.

I mean, there's, you know, the numbers. Wait, wait, wait, wait, what? Hype. The definition of hype is telling people about what you're selling and the largest amount of people. So how was it better hype to do it in front? of fewer people. There were no people, Jerry. Where were the people?

They'd already tuned out because it was two and a half hours and counting. You can put all the hype you want in for not only the main event, but all the matches, but put it into the time period that people are going to be watching your program because that's what it's scheduled for. And then if you want to go over with a big main event match or whatever, will knock yourself out. But people have seen you can't advertise impromptu angles.

So put them on in the body of the program because it's not advertised anyway. Does this make sense to you, Brian? It makes sense to me and everyone else, I think, except for Tony Kahn and Dave Meltzer. Let's go back to this. You know, it would have been in the radio. He sacrificed the ratings

to do more hype. To do more hype for, because the most important thing is the pay-per-view number for Sunday and the, and of course, ticket sales as well. Actually, like on a show like this. But wouldn't you want to not sacrifice viewers for a hype show? Isn't that the idea?

Wouldn't you want to not sacrifice viewers for a hype show? Actually, you have to make that choice. Yeah, and my choice would be don't sacrifice viewers for that. So that means that that means no segments outside the ring. You know, I'm sure that it was. That's no, taken off that show. Well, perhaps there was.

No, wait a minute. No, that means no segments outside the ring. What is he talking about? Because he's going with the philosophy that Tony Khan must have, that the matches, these matches are the best thing to hype the pay-per-view. These random six-man matches. Holy crap. These are the best things behind the pay-per-view.

Yes. But no, if you want to, don't sacrifice viewers, you got to take away. You got to take away everything outside the, everything that happens outside the ring is what hurts the ratings on AEW. So, you know, the Omega segment with Will Osprey, which is probably the most important thing. It's too long. Okay. It's too long. That could have been boring.

Either way, it was going to cause viewers doing it. So those are the decisions you have to make. Wait a minute. Now he's admitting that every time one of these musings. mouth motherfuckers opens their yap. People fucking tune out because they can't stand to listen to it. Yeah, it's not because of wrestling angles. It's because of who's in them.

Yeah, the biggest rated segments in the WWE are the stars talking to each other. But these guys are neither stars nor can they talk. So that's what drives the viewers off. Whatever we try to get our top talent to make, cut promos and, hype the matches, they tune out. Specifically, Osprey and Omega the last several weeks. Every one of their confrontations has gone too long and been awkward. The material sucks and their delivery is the shits.

Otherwise, not it's fine. This is hype the show, not draw the biggest rating possible. You would want the biggest rating possible when hyping the show. Of course you would. But you have to make a show. choice sometimes. And this week, especially, the choice goes to hyping the show, not a let's hot shot and do some great matches and do their biggest ratings possible and not hype the pay-per-view. This week is about, of course, you want the numbers. You want the most number of viewers,

but you have to make choices. And this Wednesday show is, you know, more than last Wednesday. This Wednesday show is the one where you've got to go with your priority being. Yes, but Dave, you have said yourself that we know, and we do know this, that when they go 35 minutes long, they're going to hemorrhage viewers. Absolutely. So that is a poor time to hype your biggest stuff. Well, the biggest thing was hyped in was in the first hour, which was the sit down. Oh, good Lord.

Yeah, that's all anybody needed to see was that sit down. Well, there it is, Dave's thoughts on this. defending it again, Dave. He thought the sit-down was the most important thing. The sit-down probably drove away more viewers than anything, except maybe the women's match. The people in the building were starting to leave, and they paid to be there.

He can't just say that Tony's doing this wrong, that Tony should be able to fit the hype show for the pay-per-view, the biggest show they're running this year, into a good two-hour block on Wednesday night. It has to run long, and then that has to run long. And he can't just say, Tony's doing this wrong. Tony's not causing people to be more interested in this match. And these shows are not helping.

These dynamites have been rotten. Well, poor Uncle Dave just can't bring himself to criticize his number one protege. And as to sometimes the powers that be that rain over you. They have to rain you in a little bit. Brian, I have to point you to right direction. I have to give you the big cosmic helping hand. Well, Jim, with that, that sounded like a very prepared statement if I ever heard one. But we will move on from here, and of course, perhaps Tony Kahn could use some better advice. Something like that. I don't know what kind of business advice Shopify would give him about

overruns or just do a really good show for two hours, nothing goes too long, leave people wanting more. But I'm sure they can help with many other aspects of his business, our friends at Shopify. I think Shopify might say, just follow your dad's example and make car parts, Tony, because you're not suited to this, because that's what our friends at Shopify do.

If you've been sitting on a business idea, Shopify, makes it easy to make it happen, because everything you need to start selling to the public like an auctioneer is included and ready from day one. But sometimes they may say, you know what? You got a stupid idea. You shouldn't do that. You're going to lose your ass and drag us down with you. That's the kind of advice that Tony needs.

But folks, if your idea is better than Tony Kahn's and how would it not be, then that's what you need to do. You need to bring Shopify in because they can take you down. the runway of ideas into the stratosphere of reality, including when they've set everything up and you're selling your widgets and your folderall and your waterproof panties, what about when they want to check out? Shopify not only handles the setup, it handles the checkout. And Shopify checkout helps more of them finish their purchase. You know how, Brian, because if they haven't checked out in 30 seconds and giving you their money,

money, an alarm bell over at Shopify goes off and they send a guy out on a motorcycle, not a car, but a motorcycle. He might need to ride down the sidewalk. That is not what they did. And that guy shows up at your house. That's why he's got a bell, so he doesn't run over anybody. There is no man with a bell. And he shows up at your house and he stands over the back of you and he tells you how to

check out. And if you don't do it like he says, well, he'll give you a little friendly incentive to check out and give his client your money. And that way you leave and nobody gets hurt. No one will get hurt because none of this will happen. There's no man on a motorcycle. Well, as long as when the guy shows up, as long as you show your willingness to go ahead

and complete that transaction, there's going to be no need for force to be used. But that's why Shopify's got you covered, folks. There will not be need nor a force to enforce any breaking. Well, the force might. be with you. If you, see, if you sign up for Shopify,

they're going to back you up. So these people that are wasting your time and wasting your internet with going on your site not giving them money, well, some bitch, they're going to send somebody over there and make sure these people pay up. They power millions of businesses worldwide. How do you think that Mattel got to be

such a big business without somebody's strong arm in the customers into forking over the money? What? Why you're dragging Mattel into this? Why did you just drag Mattel into this? Well, because Mattel is one of the people at Shopify powers. But they don't, they haven't done anything. And that's why those people from Shopify went to everybody's house on that particular block

and said, look here, your kids need toys. And we can do this the easy way or the hard way. And suddenly, Mattel is a household name. That's not the way it happened, but we can do it to easy way. a choice we can all make the easy way, the easy way to let people know about a great deal from our great friends, our friends at Shopify. Well, that's right, because with Shopify, nothing stands between your idea and a real business. But if somebody tries to get in between your idea and take your business, well, Shopify's going to send their crew out to do some

romping and a stomping. And right now, you can get a free trial. Let's say you're, you're mad at somebody. He just come up with an idea to start a business and use the free trial at Shopify. And then once that you're all set up with them, say, hey, you know, this guy named Steve, he's been giving me a real pain in the ass for a while and they'll go down there and they'll take care. They will not take care of it. That's not what they do. But Jim, I think people somehow may have figured out what they do do from what you did say, but why don't we let the listeners know a great deal with our great friends at Shopify. Let's let them know that deal.

That's right. That's a thing you do do, or you should do, because nothing is like Shopify's do-do. Shopify.com slash J-C-E. That's where you can get a free trial right now, a free trial period, so they can show you all the different ways

that they can extort people to give you money. Shopify.com slash J-C-E. Turn your grand eye. into a great business, even if you have to piggyback on the broken bodies of those less fortunate than you, that you'll be stepping on along the way. Shopify. All right, Jim. Let's move on here as we begin to wind down on the show.

Let me grab this. I have a copy of something here that was sent to me. It's a new book, a new wrestling book out, called Why Hulk Hogan Matters, by David Schumman. Oh no! It says here he's been... The same one, the big expert talking head that we can't figure out how the fuck he's an expert because he doesn't know anything about what he's talking about. He wrote a book. It says here he's been writing about wrestling since 2009. Of course, he has a podcast and

it's important to note here at the top of this segment, this man's a bullshit artist and a complete fraud who doesn't know a fucking thing. He was in an Andre the Giant. documentary where he made up facts that did not happen. He can't defend it, and he now has a long history of saying shit or writing shit that isn't true, because he's figured it out. You can lie to the general public that you know wrestling. It's just that wrestling fans, let alone experts, let alone historians, all collectively think you're a complete ignoramus. So he's put out this book, David Shoemaker on why Hulk Hogan matters.

I have several selections that were pointed out to me because there's a controversy about this book, Jim, in classic David Shoemaker fashion, people have found some facts that may not be true in this book. I shouldn't use the word facts. People have found some claims that may not be true. At the same time, I was sent a video that Voices of Wrestling put up, where they apparently took selections from this book

and ran it through some sort of AI checker, which came back and said that those selections, at least some of them were 100% AI. So he artificially intelligents his book. Again, it raises the question exactly, what did he write, if anything? And how does a book with egregious errors like this get published and not get fact-

And what is the point of his title Why Hulk Hogan matters To who and for what And why is anyone asking that question We know why he mattered to the wrestling fan And to the world at large The answer is probably no he didn't So I don't get this fucking guy

Real quick, tell me if this matches up to what you've heard about the debut of Hulk Hogan as a wrestler This is from page 10. The name of the chapter is The Wanna Be. He had his first match, a trial by fire, against Hector Don Serrano in late 1977. Hector Don Serrano? Do you think that was his government name? He was never billed that way.

Serrano entered the ring first. And when Balea walked out next, the Iraq. the arena went silent. Not a disrespectful silence, but awe. By the time he got into the ring, the crowd had erupted into a standing ovation just because of the look of the guy.

Holy Christ. So real quick, that's a minor one, but let me stop right there. That is complete and utter nonsense. Based on everything you know about championship wrestling from Florida shows in the late 70s, wouldn't you say? Well, besides that,

I've actually witnessed it not in Florida, but at a different place that it didn't happen. A different place, this thing that he claimed didn't happen. First of all, was, did he actually, he did have a match, Hoke, without the Super Destroyer mask. It was his first one, and then they put him under a mask because they didn't want to beat the big kid until they figured out if they had anything.

But no, he didn't get a standing ovation to go out, this unheard of giant guy, green as a pepper tree in an underneath preliminary match in Florida, because I watched the people when he came out months later as a pushed guy with the name Terry the Hulk Boulder to wrestle main events

in the Memphis territory, and the people are like, oh, okay, kind of lukewarm. If Lawler was with him, that was when they got the pop. But otherwise, there was were, as I've mentioned, people were in Memphis when they put the Ron Bass and Pete Austin against Terry and Eddie Boulder match on after the Fargoes, the people were leaving to beat the traffic. If I go to page 16 in the book, Jim, the name of the chapter, The Searcher, let me read some

of this to you and see if this is what you remember. It had been a winding road to this point. After his initial training, Hogan wrestled around the southeast before he quit. The Briscoes went and found him working on the docks, a good living in those days, and dragged him back into the business. A good living in those days. Terry Funk, maybe the best pro wrestler who ever lived, remembers working with a young Bolea. He called up Vincent K. McMahon, the elder Vince, father of the modern day imparsario, Vincent J, and told him he should give Boulder a look.

Hogan remembers that it was the briscoes that put him in touch with McMahon, but Funk's recollection is compelling. McMahon was the pro wrestling promoter in the Northeast, and New York City, divided into neighborhood enclaves of immigrant groups, liked an ethnic superstar. track the immigration numbers into Ellis Island and watch the representative pro wrestlers pop up in their wake. What did he do? The Irish had Dano O'Mahoney.

He was keeping track of the fucking statistics. The Irish had Dano O'Mahony. The Greeks had Jim Lundas. The Italians had Bruno San Martino. The Puerto Ricans had Pedro Morales. By the time Balea walked in, Vince Senior needed something new for the Irish crowd. There was Davy O'Hannon, but he never really caught on.

Oh, you think? Not like Dominic Danucci or Ivan Putsky or Chief Jay Strongbow had for their audiences, so Terry Bolea got the role. Good Lord. Hogan, a good solid Irish name. They took Hulk from the name he used in Memphis and around other parts. Terry the Hulk Boulder. Sterling Golden was the other name

depending on the promotion. The story goes that Terry Boulder was on a local talk show the same day Lou Farigno, the muscle-bound star of the Incredible Hulk, was on. Oh, Christ. And Balea towered over him. So promoter Jerry Jarrett

decided to borrow the nickname. Oh, good Lord. This story is widely accepted as fact, though no one has seen the tape of the show and for Rigno doesn't seem to remember it. Who widely accepts that as fact? Only the guy writing this AI book. Have you heard about that before?

No. Well, yeah, I've heard the story, but it's not true because they named, as everybody seen the video that Michael St. John narrated, The Hulk, he stands six foot, whatever, and they pan up. That was done when he was coming to Tennessee, and at that point,

he'd never been on a goddamn talk show in his life because nobody knew who the fuck he was because he was nobody. Again, they had used him as the super destroyer in Florida, and when he came to Memphis as first they said the Hulk, and then they just tarry the Hulk boulder, and then a couple months later he brought beefcake in as his brother Eddie. But he wasn't on talk shows when he was at that point, much less before they had already done the Hulk video proclaiming him,

Hulk. It's cockat, it's bullshit. Well, again, it made this book. This bullshit book. Jim going forward, page 23. Let's read some of this. Talking about the AWA here.

The event itself dubbed Super Sunday was no WrestleMania. And the St. Paul Civic Center, proud as it was, was no Madison Square Garden. And so the night fell a bit short in the pageantry.

Actually, didn't the St. Paul Civic Center hold more people in the modern seating configuration of the 80s than Madison Square Garden? I'm not certain, but that could be right. I think it did. But the night fell a bit short in the pageantry of destiny that the Iron Sheek match leader would have.

The arena, low-ceilinged, fluorescent, civic, in the most unromantic sense, held the crowd that new wrestling, the way factory men know machinery intimately and with due reverence. Let me stop,

have you ever heard the biggest bunch of bullshit like that written about wrestling before? No, I mean, I don't. This has to be a computer rightness because human beings don't speak this way or maybe is it Brian Griffin trying to write the Great American novel here? And it's a dog.

And also, we forgot to say we were talking about the other bullshit, but yes, it's the AI thing took Vince McMahon's senior's comment that's been repeated, let's give him an Irish name, Hogan, and extrapolated that he was trying to make him an Irish hero. He named him that when he was a heel. He just, McMahon just liked Irish names.

He wasn't trying to make him an Irish hero. He's a fucking heel. Well, according to the Shoemaker, he's, for the Irish neighborhood, the same way Dano O'Mahoney was in a previous era, but back to this, Bach Winkle was older, verbose,

and calculated. He wrestled like an accountant who discovered leverage. Precise. Minimizing risk. A villain whose menace was administrative rather than volcanic. What in the fuck is this?

I've never heard anyone say Nick Bachwinkle wrestled like an accountant. That's a very, that's a new take on this. I must say, I have to spend some time thinking about that. I think we've got, uh, he got him so frazzled. He can't form a cogent simile here, though, Mr. Schumacher. Uh, trying to see what is on this page, page 52. This is talking about when Andre the Giant turned on Hulk Hogan. This starts on page 51. It was a cataclysmic moment. Wait, wait a minute. It's a book. about Hulk Hogan and already on page 51 he's already fucking with Andre.

It only goes a hundred. It must not be a lot of detail here. It's, uh, how many pages is this shit? About the author. He's a schmuck. He's from Louisville. Oh, shit. What?

I'm looking at the special, the acknowledgments here, specifically to my father who took me to the Louisville Gardens to see Hulk Hogan face off against Killer Kahn. Bullshit. This guy's from Louisville. Oh, it gets better. All right. wait a bit, that's what's wrong with, that would have been like

1986, right? That's what's wrong with him. His father didn't take him to the Louisville Gardens to see the Memphis wrestling. He took him to see the fake bullshit. Well, again, back here to page 51, talking about Piper's Pit with Andre, Bobby Heenan, Jesse Ventura, who brought Andre and Heenan, and Hulk Hogan, of course. It was a cataclysmic moment. The sound of the very concept of friendship snapping into, Hogan,

entered the stage smiling, still playing the loyal champion, still assuming that whatever tension existed could be smoothed over with charisma and back-slapping. Andre stood beside him like a silent verdict, massive and immovable. His face unreadable. Like a silent verdict. His face unreadable in that way that made every pause feel intentional. Piper, acting as both instigator, and Greek chorus.

Kept needling Andre about his elite... This is not how any of this happened. Kept needling Andre about his allegiance. About Hogan's spotlight. About who was really using whom? Hogan laughed it off, talked louder, clapped Andre on the shoulder,

the familiar physical shorthand of dominance disguised as affection. And then Andre moved. No wind-up. No theatrical. flourish, he reached out and grabbed Hogan's crucifix necklace and T-shirt in one enormous fist and pulled. The fabric of the yellow Hulkomania tank top ripped open like paper. The fabric of space-time rending...

The fabric... Is this guy, he is legitimately fucking insane. He thinks he's Shakespeare. This is the biggest bunch of drek I've ever heard. The fabric of space-time rending right along with it. The cross accidentally dug into his skin and left a trail of blood. A normal sight for so much of pro wrestling, but so rare for family-friendly WWF product.

Hogan's chest was suddenly exposed as a symbol of vulnerability rather than strength. The crowd grasped in a way they wouldn't have for the most destructive power slam. This was more than a wrestling move. it was an act of sacrilegious contempt. Again, that needs to be an album. Sacrilegious contempt. Even with this kid being a schmuck and a liar and a complete poser and a fraud

who doesn't have credibility with anyone who knows wrestling, I dare someone to dispute any of that. Even if he thinks he's Shakespeare, this does not read like a human being was writing it. And that's not... I agree with you there. And that's not taking into account voices of wrestling, running this through a checker to see if this is human derivative or computer genera. I think they ought to run it by a psychiatrist.

Well, again, let's go forward here. That's a complete new telling of the way Andre the Giant of Hulk Hogan came together on Piper's Pit. This is page 55, the giant killer. WrestleMania 3 also marked a turning point in how wrestling understood itself. The event proved that wrestling could sell moments as effectively as matches, that a single image could anchor an entire industry. It validated the idea that wrestling's greatest currency was shared memory. People remember where they were when Hogan slammed Andre.

The way people remember where they were from Moonland. or title-clinching home runs. Wrestling, often derided as fake, had found a way to make itself feel permanent. What is that? What is that? I don't know. This fucking guy, he's determined to have people think that he's somebody. From Chapter 6, The Torchbearer, page 69, Guerrilla Monsoon repeatedly called the clash between WWF heavyweight champion

Hulk Hogan and Intercontinental Champ the Ultimate Warrior, the irresistible force versus the immovable object. When you think of that term, what match do you, what confrontation do you think of? Now, the irresistible force, the immovable object? Gorilla Monson's saying that. Yes, Hogan and Andre would be one of those. was the big one, not Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior, per se, and it was the irresistible force

meets the immovable object, not versus the immovable object. If we go forward here, it says... Because actually, an immovable object wouldn't really be able to fight anybody because it's an inanimate object. Again, these are just choice selections. The Ultimate Warrior, this is page 72, the Ultimate Warrior, originally known as Jim Helwig, had come to the WWF via the dwindling territorial system. He started off in Memphis as part of Power Team USA, a crew of bodybuilders turn wrestlers, until he splintered off with fellow Power Teamer Steve Borden,

later famously known as Sting, to form a tandem called the Freedom Fighters, later known as the Blade Runners. Power Team USA never came to Memphis. Two guys did. Sting in the war. Right. They didn't break off from Memphis.

They broke off to Memphis. That's what started their career. So that's completely wrong. Because they sent pictures to everybody in the business, and Jerry Jarrett was the only one that would give these green horns a chance, but he brought him in for 50 bucks a night. Opposite page here, page 73. The 1992 Royal Rumble is the first moment that brings Warrior and Hogan together.

He's off by two years. It was 1990. I was about to say, isn't that a little late? You can't you? You can look at shit up on the internet, can't you? Very, very simply. And of course, Ultimate Warrior wasn't even there. He wasn't even there. It wasn't even there. And it wasn't even Owen. But Jim, this is the one that the most amount of emails came over, this specific one. So let's go to this. This is page 83 from the chapter of The Squatter.

A year later, Hogan made another return to the title picture at WrestleMania 9. It was supposed to be a feel-good moment. Instead, it became a case study in creative dissonance. After Brett Hart, the latest in a string of Hogan replacements, lost the WWF championship to Yokosuna, Hogan emerged unexpectedly to defend Brett, and, ever the terrible friend, ended up accepting a match against Yokosuna.

The match was brief, one-sided, and designed to put the belt back on Hogan without explanation or justification. Let me go down a little bit here. Hogan's final WWF feud with Yokozuna was short, strange, and symbolic. He lost the WWF championship back to Yokozuna in Japan, away from the American spotlight,

in a match that should have been a climax, and instead felt like a giant concession. There was no grand farewell, no emotional speech, no acknowledgement that an error was ending. Hogan simply left. Maybe since he always came back, it felt unnecessary. So, Jim, what do you remember?

I know this is right before you got to the WWF to manage Yokazuna, but what do you remember about the Japanese title change in Japan away from the American press? How does that mistake get in a fucking book? is well and it was because they did the thing with the Japanese photographer with the fireball or whatever but it was in a parking lot at Caesars in Las Vegas no it wasn't even there that the angle the angle with Harvey Whippleman was where was it in Ohio where was King of the Ring that year it was a King of the Ring I thought it was in oh that's right it was King of the Ring with the

blow up and that that's when okay that's how they got it off of it yes it was a like dating at King of the Ring. And I'm sure AI probably confused Japanese photographer with the match taking place in Japan. Yeah. Not on pay-per-view in front of everyone, but away from everyone. That's embarrassing.

This guy should be embarrassed. I'm sure he's not. It's really an indictment on Bill Simmons and the ringer that they'll let this kid be their wrestling representative when he doesn't have a shredding credibility with anyone, like I said before, from the most basic fan to the most knowledgeable historian.

Well, and that's right. Who would think the WWF title ever changed hands in Japan, ever in history? Inoki would. Inoki would think that. That's the only person. Well, okay, but, you know, I'm talking about legitimately. And you're right, did the AI think that because the Japanese photographer gimmick was really, they were in Japan and had photographers there.

It's embarrassing. And again, you know, what we do in between the fun is try to get wrestling history out there. I'm pretty proud that we've been able to, you know, more than anyone else, just get wrestling history out there from small names to small territories to everything in between, old programs. When you have someone who's a disinformation agent

who just wants to, I guess, collect a fee to be a talking head and will just say anything and clearly just write anything if he wrote any of it again complete and utter fraud needs to be said and if he's got a problem with it

he can come do something about it what a fucking fraud yeah if you got a problem with it go see Brian well Jim with that uh oh where's the colima oh boy

the colimba with that I don't know Maurice White the drive-th is closed. We are a little off schedule this week, ladies and gentlemen. So next week we'll be back with a normal drive-thru. We'll have a big review of the AEW pay-per-view,

but also questions and much, much more. Yeah, it's my fault. Go ahead and tell them, it's my fault. I screwed up schedule. I'll never do it again. I apologize. I'll blame Mother Nature. I'll blame Mother Nature there.

But there'll be a lot more action on the experience this week and next week back on the drive-thru. Go through the archive. Patreon.com slash cornet. $5 a month gets you access to the archive. back to 2013, patreon.com slash cornet. The official Jim Cornett YouTube channel go and subscribe today. Full episodes, clips of episodes, omnibus collections,

the very popular George Lemonitis artwork, that great guest artwork from Freeman. Check it out today, the official Jim Cornett YouTube channel. Cornett's collectibles at Jim cornet.com, whatcha got to say, Jim? I got to say that next week, we're going to tell you all about what you're going to be able to purchase for Christmas, and boy, howdy, it's going to be fun. At Jimcornet.com. The drive-thru is brought to you by the Law Office of Stephen P. New 87750, Steve. Get even with Stephen at new lawoffice.com.

But until the experience in a few days, and next week back here on the drive-thru, for Jim Cornett, I'm the great Brian last. Tell you!