The Ariel Helwani Show - John Pollock

Episode Date: March 31, 2022

Before heading off to Dallas to cover WrestleMania for BT Sport, Ariel catches up with professional wrestling journalist John Pollock. The two old friends preview pro wrestling's biggest event by discussing topics like Ronda Rousey's relationship with the fan base, if Cody Rhodes will square off against Seth Rollins like everyone expects, and Pat McAfee's highly-anticipated return to the ring. Plus, the guys also talk about their favorite WrestleMania matches of all time, as well as MJF's upcoming free agency in 2024.You can follow Pollock on Twitter and Instagram @iamjohnpollock.John Pollock is Canadian professional wrestling and MMA journalist. He's the co-founder of PostWrestling.com, a news site that covers all the biggest stories in the crazy world that is professional wrestling. For more episodes of The Ariel Helwani Show, please follow the show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or on Ariel's YouTube channel.Theme music: "Frantic" by The Lovely Feathers

Hello friends, hope you're doing well. Welcome back to a brand new edition of The Helwani Show. It is Thursday, March 31st, 2022. I, of course, am Mario Helwani. Appreciate you joining us once again. And I very much appreciate my good friends, the Lovely Feathers, for giving us this theme song. It is entitled Frantic. I can't wait for the reunion. Now, once again, we are going to stick with the wrestling theme around these parts. Last week, we had MJF on, Maxwell Jacob Friedman of AEW fame, at least for now. And that created all kinds of buzz. And since it is WrestleMania season, I wanted to have one of my favorite wrestling journalists on the program to preview Wrestlemania 38, which

goes down this weekend in Arlington, Texas, but also to talk about his career as well. John Pollock is a super interesting guy. I first met him in 2007. He sent me an email, cold email, out of the blue, asking me to come on Mauro Ranallo's Flight Network radio show in November of 2007. I just launched my own website, jerrypark.com, and I thought that email signaled that I had made it. It was the mountaintop for me. I was so excited that they knew who I was because I was a big fan of their show. And I've known him since. He's been covering wrestling since he was 16, 22 years ago. He does a fantastic job. He worked on live audio wrestling. He worked for the Fight Network. And then in 2017, he and Wei Ting, who I also admire

greatly, launched their own website entitled postwrestling.com. And they've become one of the best sources for pro wrestling news and sometimes MMA as well. I'm a big fan of theirs, of the site, of their work. They do things the right way, the ethical way, the old school way. I appreciate them greatly. And so since it is WrestleMania week and since it's the granddaddy of them all, I thought it would be fun to talk to John about his career, about being a wrestling journalist. Has some great thoughts on that. But also about the two cards this week. And remember, it's a two-night affair,

2nd and 3rd of April, about what he likes. He doesn't like the build, all that stuff and more. If you're a wrestling fan, you'll enjoy it. Even if you're not a wrestling fan, I think you'll enjoy this conversation about going out on your own and doing your own thing. And everyone loves WrestleMania, right? It's the Super Bowl of wrestling.

So I thought we would shine a little light on it. And so without further ado, here is my conversation with my good friend, my fellow Canadian, John Pollock. Enjoy. The tables have turned. Now you don't have to feel bad about asking me to come on your show five times in a calendar year. I now have asked you to come on my program. So this is big. The scales of friendship were certainly slanted towards my end over the last year or so. You have come on many times, has never turned me down. And then I always, I feel you and I are kindred spirits in that sense, where I will feel that guilt when I hear you just, you know, mutter on your show the fact that I've got to say no to more interviews. I say yes to too many. So I am always,

I try to be respectful of your time. That is what I- I've been on a nose spree as of late, a lot of nos. I mean, I just felt like I was sort of oversaturating myself, you know, but with you, it's always an yes. I mean, it's an automatic- I've done the same and I've gotten away from feeling bad about it too, because when I am saying yes to doing an interview, usually it's in the evening or it's taking away time from my work and it's just, or it's time away from like my family. It's like, I do this all day. I don't want to sit down at like eight o'clock at night on a rare night off to do an interview. So I still, I do feel bad because I asked so many people to come on that I feel I should reciprocate when I'm asked to do an interview. But at the same time,

I think you have to have that balance. So I'm getting better at being, I can't do this. Well, it's a busy week for you, right? I would argue, most would argue the busiest week for a wrestling journalist. You are one of the most credible journalists covering this sport. You do it in an honest and ethical way. So I wanted to have you on to talk about the events this weekend and the buildup and all that stuff. But I did want to talk a little bit because here on this show, Ariel Hawani's show,

I like to talk about how one builds themselves up and their careers and all that stuff. And you bet on yourself. Back in 2017, you and your good friend Wei Ting, the legend, once back in the day, many moons ago, in-studio guest on the MMA Hour, big claim to fame for him. You guys went out on your own and you started post-wrestling. And you were working for the Fight Network for many years

and you started this venture completely independent of any organization, just you and him betting on yourself, doing your own thing. Here we are some four-plus years later. How is it going? Are you happy with the evolution of the business, the progression, how it's evolved since you guys decided to do this? How is it going? I've got to say it's pretty great um that we're four years in i don't think we had like this solid plan when we launched of what the site would become essentially it was just it was an idea that way and i way and i had had for quite a long time

of you know we had struck up this chemistry we had found this following over the years uh with with the Fight Network and doing our shows there. And it was always the idea that we know that there's a ceiling here. What is the potential of him and I branching out and doing something on our own? And it took getting pushed out of the Fight Network that we finally had to make that decision. It's now or never. We have to at least try this. And we went into this venture with trepidation that I think anyone would have. Like we, if you listen to live audio wrestling or any of our fight network related shows, you never had to pay for any of our shows.

It was the lifeblood of this was launching a Patreon that would keep this thing rolling. And we just said, let's give ourselves till the following summer. Let's put everything we have into this, treat it as our full-time job and come next summer, if we have two people subscribing, then the public is telling us something that this is not viable. Thankfully, we got a tremendous response

right out of the gate. And this many years later, I'm so happy at what the site has grown and what it's become. It's a lot larger now than just Wei and I of all the different contributors and people we have on the site. I think we brought up like a very high quality, which I'm very proud of.

And the fact that we can do this as our full time job this many years later in a very competitive landscape. Like it's, you know, when we started, I think it was like right at the sweet spot where Patreon was sort of being, people were getting familiar with it. And now I think it'd be really hard to start at this point when it's everywhere and there's only so many dollars that can go around for fans that can support sites like this. Has it exceeded your expectations in terms of where you're at right now, the revenue that you guys are generating, the traffic, all that stuff? It's not like we sat down and really had those goals in mind because it was just such a new territory for us that we didn't even know. The idea was, let's try and replicate our incomes that we're losing out on. And we were able to do that. So in terms of the traffic and such, yeah, we have seen a real consistency month to month. I thought when the pandemic started that, man,, AEW continued, UFC continued. It's not like we had any shortage of programming to review and news to cover.

And that was a bit of an eye-opener. And as we have evolved, learning through a lot of our patrons and hearing feedback from them, it seems it's a lot less of going through an inventory of, okay, how many bonus shows did I get this week and my value here? And more so it's, I want this site to be functioning. I want this thing to be around. I want it in my everyday life. And $6 a month, it helps keep this site running. And that seems to be the general sentiment of a lot of the patrons that we do hear from. It feels like as of last summer, a lot changed, like really with the CM Punk news that he went and signed with AW and that big build. And it happened the same weekend

as SummerSlam. And it felt like, wow, then Daniel Bryan or Bryan Danielson. It feels like that was a real turning point in the business. And I'm wondering if you saw a direct correlation from those events, those news items to the interest in your site. Like the past year, we're not even a year into that. Has business gone up for you? Like we saw it that night that that punk returned at the United Center. Like we did a show right afterwards. It was like our capacity was full. We saw our patron numbers jump that weekend. It was just content that we put out that was related to CM Punk. Like you just saw it was it was a huge impact that we saw. And it's interesting that over the years, how many people have told us that they found Way and I back when the first pipe bomb promo happened in 2011 in Las Vegas.

So it's interesting just to look at that, that here 10 years later, Punk provided like another big spike, you know, as small or as little as you want to correlate it to like a site like ours. But we certainly felt it last August. And yeah, it was it was one of those like unexpected bumps. Like we can forecast a site like ours, but we certainly felt it last August. And yeah, it was, it was one of those like unexpected bumps. Like we can forecast a few like WrestleMania week, we're going to do well when new Japan does their G one, we do a lot of coverage for that, that that's usually big and their Tokyo dome show in January. But then this came out of the summer with the punk thing. And it was certainly a big, and I'm sure many other sites, it was a similar reaction. Just want to ask you a couple more things about this, and I'm sure many other sites, it was a similar reaction.

Just want to ask you a couple more things about this, and then we'll get into WrestleMania because I'm fascinated by it. Do you feel like you are respected as a site, as a journalist by the entities that you cover? Because as you know, it drives me nuts when I hear like wrestlers or people in wrestling still refer to wrestling media as dirt sheets. Hate it. I mean, and they do it in such a sort of like, I don't know. wrestlers or people in wrestling still refer to wrestling media as dirt sheets hate it i mean and and they do it in such a sort of like i don't know it's a condescending term yes it's like people will defend that it's like oh it's just uh it's just a slogan or it's a jargon it's i i put too much work into this and to have people like dismiss my, my livelihood. So, and I put so much into this. It's like, I'm

not telling you anything new. It's like, your name is out there. Your work is being put out there and to have it just to be dismissed as like, you're one of the dirt sheets. It's like, you know, it just, it gives me like this visual of like the, yeah, we're, we're like hiding in a bathroom stall, trying to overhear conversations and then run to type gossip. It's so far from what the wrestling media ecosystem is. I just hate even the blanket term of media. There's going to be great reporters. There's going to be bad reporters. There's going to be responsible ones, irresponsible ones. You can't just lump everybody together. But I do feel those when I hear people talk about our site, I think they do have a high level of respect for it. The entities in and of themselves, I can't really tell you. It's not like I'm constantly going to like with WWE. It's like we don't really get a whole lot of access through them. I'm also not hounding them for interviews and stuff like that.

Uh, if I was going down to Texas this week, which, uh, I'm not for WrestleMania week, but like, I'm pretty sure I would be credentialed media there. Um,

and probably the, the same for AEW, but, um, I can't speak to what, like the actual entities say, but in terms of just the overall opinion of wrestling media, um,

yeah, sometimes it bothers me when you hear people just dismiss it and just blanket everyone together under, like they just assume the worst and put everyone under that category. And by the way, I do want to thank Post PR for setting up this interview. They were very kind when I reached out and everything was above board So thank you to them So alright You watch a hell of a lot of wrestling I know you watch Raw, you watch Smackdown

You watch Dynamite, you watch Rampage I know this because you're always doing these post shows And all this stuff, in addition to everything else Come on, is there never a point Where you're like, this is just too much I mean, just those shows alone Raw 3 hours, Smack smackdown two hours that's five two hours dynamite seven rampage eight then you like there's impact and all this other stuff

do you ever feel like it's overload like are you ever feeling like golly i just need a break from this yes you've been doing this for so long i remember the first time i think i ever heard of you was through lance storm's website and maybe like 0102, right? You were doing stuff for his website, right? I wrote his newsletter. I wrote it. This was when Live Audio Wrestling, they also operated several websites for wrestlers. And then they had a mailing list and sending out these newsletters. And I got tasked with writing Lance storms, which is just kind of like what he did that week. I would get to insert my own little commentary into it. And as well, I did Chris Ben was so those, those were the two.

How old were you at the time? 16. That's crazy. That's your introduction to this business. Yeah. That was just a thing that I was just like, I listened to the law. Like I was a religious listener of the show and got to know Jeff Merrick, who was kind of running like the site stuff and then just tasked me with doing certain things like that. That would have been like my entry point was just doing that stuff, just free for just the experience of it. Wow. Okay.

So all these years later, now you're in your mid thirties, right? I just turned 38. 30. Okay. So what is that? 22 years later, do you ever feel like it's too much? Yeah. I mean, it's, it's a lot. Um, you know, we, we sometimes like go back and review these like older shows and you'll, and we'll look back at like what the schedule was in a pre AEW world when SmackDown was on Tuesday nights instead of Fridays. it's like, this is, this is not a schedule. I don't think I could have maintained in my twenties and had any semblance of, of a social life. At this point, it's like a lot of it, like it comes down to like, I have carved out this schedule every week,

but it's, it's daunting at the same time. I also sometimes weigh the fact of, I know that Wei and I, people really enjoy our shows and I don't want to overexpose that at the same time. I don't want to overwhelm people like, my God, they've got a show out every 10 minutes and it becomes too much. So that's always something we're balancing of trying to cover as much of the relevant content. And that's where we have to decipher. You cannot review everything. It's like, what is the most newsworthy? What is the most value to our listeners of what we're going to talk about? And there's going to be stuff that we're not going to be able to cover Impact every week or New Japan Strong. There there's just, there's never been more wrestling. Uh,

there's wrestling every single night of the week and you got to pick and choose and the schedule. Like, I don't imagine how I could fit any more into what the schedule is now. By the way, sorry for the tangent, but you mentioned it just curious. Like when you were doing the land storm and Ben was up, did you have interactions with them? And if so, what was Ben one? Like, uh,oit like? It was very minimal. Lance, I would like if something came up, I could email him and he would get back to me. Sometimes I would just get a volleyball teacher of his contacted me from his university or something like that. And I put him in interview with the law. And they invited me to come to the studio.

So I got to meet him there and chat with him for a bit. And he was just pretty much introduced. This is the guy that's running your newsletter and doing the news updates. And I just remember he gave me this really firm handshake and he just like, thank you. Thank you so much for what you do. It was very minor interaction. And then over the years, I did a few interviews with him after the fact. And I hardly knew the guy, but certainly didn't have any kind of negative interactions with him. He seemed legitimately grateful of like, here's, you know,

this kid in high school that volunteers his time to run my website. And that was about the extent of it. So, you know, like, like everybody, like completely shocked when, when it occurred and then you, you hear all the details after. And it's just, it was heartbreaking at the time. And today as a father, it's like, it's just it was heartbreaking at the time and today as a father it's like it's even worse yeah um a crazy story you have covered so much over the years and uh you continue to do a fantastic job and so one of the reasons why i wanted to talk to you on this particular week

was because of wrestlemania so they're going back to the the the two night gimmick if you will um night one april 2nd night 2 april 3rd both at at&t stadium home of the dallas cowboys by the way can i just say i hate the two night thing how do you feel about it i feel like wrestlemania is like you see the the the stage you see the setup it feels special to me the saturday sunday thing feels like saturday will always feel special because it's the first one and it reminds me i think back, back to UFC 189 when it was Conor Mendez. And then we had to stick around for Wonder Boy Ellenberger on the Sunday. And I was like, you know what?

I feel like I've stuck around at the party a little too long. I don't like the two night thing. I liked it when it was NXT Saturday, WrestleMania Sunday. How do you feel about it? Yeah, I think that the good and the bad was that when WrestleMania had become so bloated that like the one night event like we were talking like six and a half seven hours of of shows which is funny because that's you know that's what a ufc event walks in at and i don't know why but maybe it's just like you have the

downtime between fights or something like you can at least take a breath um with like a wwe show it's like man you feel it by by the end of one of those shows. I remember six years ago, the first time they were at AT&T Stadium. And this was like the longest show in the world. And then The Rock comes out to do like a 30-minute rock fest. And then you have your 25-minute main event at the end. And then we have to go live on the air right after. I was like, I never want to experience a wrestling show like this again. So now you've split them into two nights. And I do understand, I think in a perfect world, you have your one big show and it's a solid four and a half, maybe five hours. That's what it clocks in at. But they are doing an incredible live gate both nights. So it's as much a financial

incentive as it is anything else. And I think now that they've introduced this, I think it's probably here to stay now that they're at the third year of this incarnation of WrestleMania. Any idea what the gate is? Not numbers wise. The last time they ran AT&T Stadium, it was one night and it was 17.3 million. Wow, and they announced a crazy figure. It was, it was, uh, Brandon Thurston's a reporter who actually contacted the Arlington police to get like the turnstile count. And it was like 80, 80,000 was like the legit numbers that went through the turnstile. So whatever they announced, that's like what it can cap at. And they are far from 80,000 of the tickets that are out as of, as of, uh, when we're speaking. So like, what are you expecting for Saturday and Sunday?

There's like tickets that are out, which is mainly like paid, but also like your comps, they did a two for one sale. It's like 60,000 are out for night two. It's like 59 for night one. It's like pretty much they're, they're neck and neck.

So you'll probably see some like higher number than, than that. They can, they can always distribute more tickets. There might be some late walk up the week of WrestleMania, but probably in the 65,000 range is probably the legit figures. So on night one, we have Becky Lynch versus Bianca Belair for the Raw Women's Championship. Rey Mysterio versus Dominic, excuse me, Rey and Dominic Mysterio versus The Miz and Logan

Paul. Drew McIntyre versus Happy Corbin. The Usos versus Shinsuke Nakamura and Rick Boogs. The New Day versus Sheamus and Ridge Holland. Seth Rollins versus TBA. We'll get to that. And Charlotte Flair versus Ronda Rousey. That's night one, right?

Night two on April 3rd is Queen Zelina. Is it Zelina or Zelina? Zelina. Zelina. Zelina, yes. I should have doubted myself. Carmella. Oh, and Carmella versus Sasha Banks and Naomi

versus Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan versus Natalya and Shayna Baszler. Johnny Knoxville versus Sami Zayn. Pat McAfee versus Austin Theory. RK-Bro versus The Street Profits versus Alpha Academy. Edge versus AJ Styles. Bobby Lashley versus Omos,

and of course, Brock Lesnar versus Roman Reigns. I'm a little offended by the biggest match in WrestleMania history tagline. I mean, there's no way that this is the biggest match in WrestleMania, but it's champion versus champion. Oh yeah, WrestleMania VI, we had champion versus champion, but alas, I digress. Which night do you like better, one or two?

I think that night one is probably going to have like the biggest sorry to interrupt ko and steve austin is on night one right yeah that's night one and i i do feel like like the rains lesnar build has been pretty strong this year um austin feels like the biggest thing going into this weekend. I think like there's a huge nostalgia for it. I think there's also the expectation. This is going to be a lot more than just run in stunner and beer. Like, I think there's got to be a lot more physicality than just that. And it's,

it's probably going to be the hottest thing on that first night. I think it's going to be, and it probably should go on last. It's going to be incredibly hard to follow that with, with Steve Austin in a major segment on the show. So you think they end with that? You think they end with the quote unquote KO show? Not a match. Yeah. I mean, whenever it comes to what's closing the show, it can always come down to the day of. It's not like they hammer this out weeks in advance and it can't be

maneuvered. They can move anything they want. At one point, it had been reported that Ronda Rousey and Charlotte would close the show. And I think those are your two options. It's either going to be the women's match or it's going to be Owens and Austin. And I would say for the women, I think it'd be really tough to follow. Like if you're getting like a 15, 20 minute Austin and Owens segment to have to follow that. Like you were at WrestleMania with, with Hogan and rock and man, that crowd was depleted after, after that match,

that is what they came for. And you know, you had Hunter and Jericho was a very good match that year at the sky. I don't, but it was like, the crowd was spent after that match earlier, which was the real main event that night. I remember nothing of that match other than that. I just wanted to go home at that point because I got what I came for and it was incredible.

My feelings towards Ronda Rousey, well-documented, come on, this is not working, right? I mean, is there anyone that's into Ronda Rousey at this point, professional wrestler? I tune in and I watch her do her thing and none of it makes me feel anything. None of it interests me. I don't think she's good as a face. I think she's probably way better as a heel because she's probably more of a heel type of person in real life. Is there any

interest in this? This to me is like, if this, if this ends night one, I mean, what a weird way to end it. I mean, it just feels so anticlimactic to end in this way. What do you think? This one is, it's very contingent on the match delivering. And it's, and it's a big question mark. Like Rhonda's done a handful of house shows, but largely like it's three years removed. And this is someone that was, that did not have a professional wrestling background. Like she did this for a year.

She did very well in that first run. I would say in like the lead up to this, it was fine because that first post Royal Rumble appearance, she comes out on Raw and looked just miserable. Like just the visual, like she seemed so unhappy to be there. And I remember hearing from someone, the words on the SmackDown side was just telling me after, it was just like, she is going to need to smile. She needs to learn how to smile. And Friday, she comes out on SmackDown and she has all smiles. She's shaking hands with the fans coming down. It was night and day from Raw.

So at least, I mean, it was, and she's talked about this. It's very rare you hear of wrestlers at this level talk about this, but there was the Survivor Series a few years ago where the angle was Charlotte just beating the hell out of Ronda. And the fans started cheering Charlotte and booing Ronda. And it really affected her of getting booed by this audience. And we know the history of her disdain at times for the MMA fan base. And I think seeing that in the pro wrestling side, I mean, there's no bad reaction in professional wrestling other than a muted one. And I think seeing that in the pro wrestling side, I mean, there's no bad reaction in professional wrestling other than a muted one. So I think Ronda like that has definitely been a barrier that she has to get around is like the fan base. So I don't think that this build has been

tremendously great or tremendously bad. But I think it's a really tough position to have to close the show. And I think they have to go out and have an excellent match. Like I think it's a really tough position to have to close the show. And I think they have to go out and have an excellent match. That is what's expected of Charlotte Flair in a major WrestleMania match. And with Ronda, it's the idea of doing a 15 or 20 minute match. That's pretty ambitious for someone that has not had a singles match of that length in years. I don't feel like the audience, the crowd wants to cheer for Ronda. I also don't feel like they want to boo Becky Lynch. The outfits are great. She's great. I think the world of her, but I miss the man. Are we going to get back to the man? And how do you feel

about big time backs and all this stuff? Because to me, like of the two singles women's matches, that one, Bianca versus Becky is a lot more interesting. The build has been better. They did the old Brutus beefcake gimmick, cutting her hair on Monday. It was tremendous. But I missed the man, like the man to me was the closest thing to a female version of Stone Cold that we've had in recent years. It was such a great build. It was organic. I miss that. How do you feel about her now? I don't disagree. I think it's in some ways it's kind of similar with Kurt Angle. And the reasoning for that is Kurt Angle was like a tremendous comedic figure. Like it was a strength that they could play to. And he was just so good at that. But there became a time when the comedy needed to be dropped with Kurt Angle because he

could be a top heel, he could be a top baby face, but you always kind of went to the comedy. And I think that was always one thing that held him back from being that successor to an Austin or a Rock to get to that absolute tippy top level. And with Becky, this is a company that so desperately needs top babyfaces. And in this heel role, it seems like Becky has very much embraced it. She's a very strong performer. It's not like this is a bad performance that Becky is putting out, but is it what the audience wants? And is it the best way to build your show around? Because top babyfaces that your audience is behind, they are very few and far between.

It's been very hard for this company to develop babyfaces. So when one fell in your lap in terms of Becky, they ran with it. It was a huge success. And then they come back and they go in this direction. So I'm with you. I don't see them changing it anytime soon. In fact, with the way that this has been positioned with her losing part of her hair, if she drops the belt, I see her going into almost like this crazed state of this character she's been teasing.

But if we fast forward a year from now, we may very well be at the place where a baby face Becky and a heel Rhonda is maybe more in tune with what the audience wants and whether they fight that or whether they go to that. It's with Becky. It's certainly been the case that you've had two things of they're very adamant of keeping her in that role. You've also, since the Thunderdome ended, had an audience that has not been as negative towards the way heels or baby faces have been portrayed. We haven't seen that pushback that we had seen with other characters in the past that they didn't agree with.

Yeah, I get why they went with this storyline dating back to SummerSlam. What I was hoping for was Ronda returns Royal Rumble. Then we get, you know, the reversal of roles, Becky face Ronda heel, they meet at WrestleMania. It's not happening. Now, Becky's husband, Seth freaking Rollins has been tremendous. He's doing some of his best work. He's so entertaining and his outfits are great as well. Shout out to King Troy, who, uh, you know, works with both of them. Great guy who fought for his honor back in Brooklyn in November. Uh, is there any doubt in your mind that his surprise opponent is Cody Rhodes? Is there any shot that it's not him? Uh, I mean,

I don't think you can ever say like uh one thousand percent because this is a company that can snap its fingers and and change something but um all all roads lead to cody as as most have i mean i i could say like as of you know i would say two weeks ago like that that's the plan as it was conveyed to me that others have reported on like this. This was the idea of Seth going into WrestleMania without an opponent and then it's Cody to show up. And I would say by this point, if it's not Cody, you'd be doing a terrible service for your fans to not. That is where everyone has been directed towards. Like that is where you are.

You have built up your fans' expectation level. Anyone walking out that is not Cody Rhodes, I don't think is going to be met very positively. So that's what everyone expects. And that's what I expect too. Okay. So two questions on Cody. So if it is him, it seems like from the moment it was announced that he was leaving AEW, every Monday, every Friday, people were like, is he going to show up? Is he going to show up? And then it felt like almost like a week or so ago, people were like, all right, it's too late. He'll just show up at WrestleMania.

This actually kind of reminds me a little bit of the Punk debut where everyone knew he was going to show up and they wink, wink, nudge, nudged it. And everyone was okay with it and it ended up being a great moment and a great rating and all this stuff.

How do you feel about the way they've sort of settled on this where it's like all right it's very sort of obvious that it's ending up with Rollins versus Rhodes but he isn't going to debut on Smackdown or Raw of course we're taping this before the last show which would be Smackdown I would be shocked if he shows up on Smackdown that would be very bizarre why waste it there would you have gone this route or would you have had him debut two months ago on Raw and build it up like a normal match? Yeah, I can't say this has been like the bad way

to go about things. I think largely the public knows what to expect with Cody Rhodes. And I think that's, for so long, I think a lot of companies got obsessed with surprising their fans to their own detriment. Like to me, the money is in the anticipation. It's like they did not flat out tell you CM Punk is coming to the United Center, but it was enough that this audience knew what was happening that you sold out the United Center for it.

You did a huge number on TV because people knew what they were getting and went into that show and they got what they were, were promised. So I think you want to have, you don't want to have it, you know, under lock and key and no one expects this on you. You want to have that, that idea out there. And you know, there's always going to be the, uh, the air of doubt. So I think the way that they have done this, it's a, it's a solid way for Cody to come in he should win on on Saturday and needs to be like a top guy whether it's uh as a heel or a baby face I think he comes in he's going to get an enormous response he probably should be a baby face right out of the gate because again they badly need uh top baby faces so you know you could have brought him in earlier and it would have been, you know, several big weeks of television and promos. There's also the concern that with six weeks of television, would it have watered down Cody Rhodes? And those are the waters he'll have to navigate. Being a weekly performer, it can be tough.

Are you surprised he left? He left AEW. He meant so much. He was one of the founding fathers of that company. He was so important. I know it's been a couple of months now, but are you surprised he left? A little bit. When it was coming out about his contract being up, I don't think anyone put too much stock into the idea just because so much was tied into him, not just on the AEW front, but with Go Big Show on TBS. They had had the roads to the top series that they had already been working on for a second season it just seemed like he had so much tied and to go to wwe just would seem like yes there is you know financially there's there's a great option over there but you know he was financially he's doing really well in aw as well so I would say it was surprising but not it was inevitable that we were going to see back and forth like we've seen kind of one-way traffic

going to AEW it it's only natural that we're going to see you know that's the point of having a competitor is that when your contract's up is that you can play both sides and there's going to be enticing options at WWE and Cody will not be the last, I'm sure. It's a fascinating thing to follow for many reasons. Number one, to see him back, to see what kind of character he has, to see the way he's received. But also, I don't know if you know this,

but I spoke to a young man last week named Maxwell Jacob Friedman and he had a lot to say about his contract. And I feel like a young man like him will watch this very closely and look at how they treat the former AEW guy, right? I mean, we could do an hour on just him alone and how I think so highly of him.

But if they bring Cody back just to bury him because they want to bury AEW, MJF is going to look at that and be like, oh, this is not the right place for me. Do you feel like this initial storyline, this initial venture with Cody, once again, can have ramifications not only for Cody's career, but for the other guys in that locker room in AEW who are maybe looking over and saying, hmm, when my contract is up, maybe I can go through that forbidden door the other way? Yes. I think many people will be watching that very closely.

You're going to have some performers that are just going like it's inherent. When you're a top level guy, you have an incredible amount of confidence in your abilities and could even watch a Cody get destroyed booking wise and say, well, I can overcome any of that. But many will look at that and say, listen, Cody checks off a lot of boxes that I don't. Here is a second generation performer. Here is somebody that has a lineage in WWE. Like this is someone that came up in the WWE system and still they did not get behind him. And they're not, they're certainly WWE is in a position where they are not going to be slaves to any one performer for their success. This is not the business where we lived and die off our pay-per-views every month or our house shows drawing. Like we have guaranteed income that we can squander.

It's a foolish mistake when it's going to be costly to bring in these performers and not maximize them. But certainly if you're an MJF and, you know, two years from now, you look at Cody and if he's just another guy in WWE, that is going to give you cause for concern because the idea is always going to be that the grass is greener. But when you are seeing this on television, it's going to give you a reality check of what my current situation is. And okay, maybe I'm making like 20% less here, but I'm going to be a lot happier in AEW. I'm going to have a lot more freedom in AEW, but there's probably other aspirations he has as well. And like MJF is so young that, I mean,

who knows where this guy will be in five years? He's 26. It's incredible at where he is already. And the fact that he could have many runs going um, going, he could go to WWE for five years. He could come back to AEW. It's, um, it's quite the trajectory when you look at someone at this advanced level at such a young age, who do you think he's wrestling for February of 2024? It's, it's so hard to report. This is just you're yeah no i i think that what's going for him is that you have um these television deals that that are coming up aws is coming up at the

end of 2024 and that's right around the time that wwe's deals are coming up but those those negotiations are going to happen well before that so you're going to be talking about these two companies having more money than any wrestling companies have seen in history. Um, WWE, I feel is going to get a giant increase. And I think the AEW is probably going to get a very healthy increase. So Tony Khan theoretically should have a lot more money, um, in the pool to play around with. And I, I think that it's, it's, it's going to be one of those things where I don't know if money is just going to be the only option. And what kind of an environment is AEW in two years from now? Like you talk about a streaming service.

Is this going to be something that radically changes? Is this going to be something where wrestlers are figured into any of these new revenue streams as a way to entice performers to stay with them where you know what the game is in WWE? So, I mean, it would be a pure of of where he goes and what he wants in two years like today his wants may be very very different than what his wants are two years from now okay so that's kind of the story for night one mjf is not included of course i was just curious your thoughts the most interesting match in your opinion most interesting build most interesting storyline is it a night one match or a night one a night two match um in terms of the most interesting build like i think that kevin owens has been fantastic in this lead-up like

he's pretty much built this match up on his own on television save for that one video from from austin um i feel like that is probably the most anticipated thing even including Reigns and Lesnar like they Reigns and Lesnar has just been like there has been no no gimmick that has been cast aside they have thrown everything biggest match in history title unification blood in the build-up cars getting destroyed like they have just thrown everything at the wall to make this feel like the biggest match in the worldup, cars getting destroyed. They have just thrown everything at the wall to make this feel like the biggest match in the world. And we'll see if that ultimately lands with people. And it's not so much whether it is or it isn't the biggest match, it's whether the audience

perceives it as such. They have just tunnel vision on selling people on Sunday. So I would say those are your one and two in terms of the best built programs for Mania this year. So my favorite match, my most interesting storyline, my pick for the one that I'm most looking forward to isn't any of those. I'll tell you what I like very much, but one of the fun things about being a wrestling fan, a media guy is to nitpick. So I'll tell you why I like it, but I'll also nitpick if I can. It's the Austin Theory versus Pat McAfee match. Obviously, I like Pat a lot. We're buds. We were buds, not buds. I'm not really sure where we stand these days. He kind of hasn't had me on his show in many months, probably because I ripped his

picture on my podcast, MMA Hour, but it's all good. A little heat never hurt anyone. I love this, but I think they messed it up in one particular way. I think Pat is incredible at his job. I think he's one of the best color analysts, analyst personalities that WWE has had in some time. But what I would have preferred was he's doing his thing on Friday Night Smackdown, Austin Theory, who at first I didn't love, but has become a great heel and he's very annoying. Like he's got that great, you know, annoying face that you just kind of want to see him get beat up. If he was sort of picking on him, picking on him, picking on him, doing little things, then you have Vince show up on Pat's show. Pat's like, yo, this guy's been bothering me. I want a piece of him. Vince is

like, I don't know. He's the young stud. He's my guy. No, I want him. And then you go back to SmackDown. He finally snaps. He slaps him, all that stuff. And he's like, yo, I want you. As opposed to what they did, and then they make the match where it's like, Vince is like, I want to give you a match. And then they build the angle. You know what I'm saying? I think it would have made way more sense had they built up to it. Then you get the Vince appearance and then you have the payoff and then the official, you know, matches made. I didn't love the way they kind of backdoored into this. It's been fun. I think they've both done a great job and I think Pat is going to be incredible. He was amazing in NXT. I just didn't love the way we got to this point. You

know what I'm saying? This is one of those programs where I think after the fact, we'll probably be able to maybe piece together what went on in the lead up to this. Cause I think like a lot of stuff changed here. Okay. So yeah. So you, and you,

you were the first one to report that Pat was going to compete, but the report was him versus Vince, right? So that, that was the plan that was on the books and Dave Meltzer reported that as well. Like when, when that came out that, that weekend, like that was on the books and Dave Meltzer reported that as well. Like when, when that came out that, that weekend,

like that was on the books for WrestleMania. And, and I had heard about that match for several weeks and was very skeptical about whether they were going to pull the trigger on this. And then when they announced that Pat McAfee was going to go on Vince's show, that was on the Friday. Vince on Pat's show. Vince going on Pat's show.

They announced that on SmackDown on the Friday before. And then I checked in with multiple people. I was like, that's, that's the direction. That's where it's going. And so on Monday's raw, like they, they shot an angle on raw where it very much suggested like Austin theory showing up where he's telling Vince, what if Pat attacks you? And then saying that's, it's not that type of show. And the cliffhanger line is, well, maybe it is. And then nothing happens of it. And the interview

happens on a Thursday. The SmackDown, they do the angle with Austin Theory inserted. And just hearing from people on Friday, it was the idea that they weren't even sure if this is just going to be a red herring for now. Like it just seemed like this pretty much came down to if Vince wanted to go ahead with this or not. And they've obviously shifted it. They're still kind of teasing Vince having some involvement, like maybe he gets involved during the match. But yeah,

I think this is one that has taken many different turns throughout and it ultimately got to Pat McAfee and Austin Theory. Are you into it? I think both have been very strong in this. When you just hear this match on paper, it's one that needed a lot of build because just cold, you say Pat McAfee versus Austin Theory six weeks ago, you need a lot of buildup on television, I think, to grab people's interest. And I think from what people have seen with Pat McAfee, when he did the Adam Cole match, I think they're expecting like this one, if you have not seen him wrestle, this will over deliver for you. Like Pat McAfee has been excellent. A lot of his promos, like he is, he has been a great

get for them, not just in terms of the performance, but the platform this guy has created for himself, like this is somebody that brings a lot of value to WWE. Yeah. And that wasn't the case like, you know, two, three years ago, he was kind of building up his, his persona, his platform. Now he's one of the biggest stars in sports media here in the United States. Um, it feels like an attraction sort of, you know, like you have to have these things, bad bunny last year, Logan Paul on night one. This is what makes WrestleMania fun. I love it. And I mean, how old is Vince? 76.

76. Who wants to see that? Also, it would kind of be a waste of Pat because he's so athletic. He could do some fun things. No one wants to see a younger guy like Pat in his mid to late 30s beat up on a 76-year-old. Makes no sense. Well, the idea was, as it was described to mes beat up on a 76-year-old. It makes no sense. Well, the idea was, as it was described to me, it would be a lot of smoke and mirrors, and Austin Theory was going to be heavily involved. But the idea is like Vince McMahon

versus Pat McAfee, obviously marquee-wise, that's the value in it. But Austin Theory was always going to be involved in some form or fashion because of that reason. Like a 76-year-old, there's not a whole lot you can do. How do you feel about the build to the main event, the main event of all main events? It's Reigns versus Lesnar. We've seen this before, but there's a new twist. This time, Heyman's with Reigns. Lesnar's a fun baby face. We're going to see more of his personality. He's the guy with the crazy hair and the flannel, and he's the country boy, but he's joking around, and he's a true baby face. And it's been fun. I think he's been great on the microphone. This iteration of this feud, the build, not to mention the fact that we just saw it,

I think, what was it, in November in Saudi Arabia, October, November, right? How do you feel? And they were going to do it. They were going to do it again in January. And then Reigns got COVID and they had to change everything around. And that's where you had Lesnar come out as champion. And then you get this situation where they just went with the title versus title idea.

By the way, if they would have done it in January, would they have also done it in April? Yeah, that was the idea. This was going to go all the way if they would have done it in january would they have also done it in april yeah that was that was the idea like this was gonna go all the way till wrestlemania and i think most look at this as being like uh the the conclusion of it okay how do you feel about it like i i think brock has been great in this role it's not the idea that i think most would have assumed that brock would have taken but you know the character probably needed a bit of a refresh. And if you had just said, hey, we're going to make Brock a baby face and we're going to take Heyman away from him, I think you'd be very skeptical about how that would work.

But Brock, you can see, has really embraced this role and it's worked. Reigns, at this point, it's like they have not put so much stock into one person in decades. Like, it's just they have not put so much stock into one person in decades. Like, it's just like this reign that he has had. The only thing is that you have built him up to such a degree that you've had to throw a lot of baby faces at him to continue to build him up. And I think what you want is that one big baby face that is going to conquer Roman Reigns. And it probably shouldn't be Brock because Brock ultimately doesn't need it. But who is that baby face? Like you, they've either left or they've been squandered. So post-mania, I think that's the big question. And again,

it comes to like a Cody Rhodes that you have a gift here in what you can, of what the audience will take as a major baby face face as a threat to roman down the road if they get to there um because that to me is the ultimate money in this is that someone has to take down and end this roman reigns uh title reign so if you were booking the main event who wins um i i think like coming out of this you have to keep the title unified at least for a little bit um before they inevitably split. They're not getting rid of it, right? It's not unified to get rid of one.

I mean, they're probably going to just have the winner carry two belts until they feel the need to split them up again. And they will split them up again. Because of the two shows. Exactly. I mean, they've done this trick in the past. I would suggest that Roman probably wins and you keep going with this. Unless you do the big angle where it's like Heyman ends up turning on Roman Reigns. You can certainly do that. Probably one of them is, and probably Lesnar, you would imagine take some time off, uh, after this,

like it's one of those matches where you can make the, uh, the booking argument to go either way. It's like, do you want to close WrestleMania with like the heel, uh, victorious? Um,

but I mean, last year, God, they took edge and Daniel Bryan stacked them on top of one another and Roman pinned them. So the idea of ending on a happy moment is, uh, hardly the WrestleMania precedent.

Is there any chance? I like if WrestleMania ends clean. So let's say Roman wins. I think it makes a hell of a lot more sense. I mean, Brock has been given these opportunities time and again. It doesn't make any sense for him to be the guy to finally beat this new version of Roman Reigns. Any chance Roman wins Sunday night? He's celebrating with Heyman.

And then we hear, if you smell, and then The Rock comes out to essentially do what he did with Cena. And it's the one year build to that match next year. Like, would that be the perfect way to end WrestleMania? What do you think? I think if you could absolutely guarantee that Dwayne Johnson can do WrestleMania next year,

yeah, that would be an awesome idea. I think just when you're talking about The Rock, it's like, who knows what could happen in this next year? Like this guy could get the role of a lifetime and WrestleMania is not your priority. So that's, that's what you're risking. Obviously that is the biggest match you can do. And that's the match they would want to have next year, uh, at SoFi stadium. And I think it's ultimately going to come down to The Rock. Like the WWE, it's just going to be, hey, can you be available? And they'll work around his schedule. I just don't know if logistically they can shoot that angle and guarantee that he'll be free. Remember, like the XFL is launching that year at the same time.

It's just a difficult schedule to navigate. But yeah, if you could get all your ducks in a row and he can guarantee the date, that would be a great way to end WrestleMania. And you have the one-year build, which I guess would foreshadow Roman Reigns having that title for a year. I think people would be okay with it if we know that The Rock is going to meet him at the other side of the rainbow. Although, then you probably have Roman win again. And like the guy's now on like a four-year title reign because like what's the point of Rock beating him? I just feel like Roman winning and that's that. We've seen him win now for almost two years at the end of every pay-per-view feels a little ho-hum.

Overall, like on paper right now, what do you what do you give this card as far like both of them the whole thing wrestlemania what kind of a grade would you give it on paper without it actually playing out and dana white has told us many a times you cannot uh grade a card before it actually happens but i will ask you to grade it what do you think yeah yeah i wish we could get like the vince mcmahon post show press conference. Oh my God. Wouldn't that be great? Every, everybody was dogging this card. Yeah. Anyway. Um,

I think honestly, like you have seven matches thus far announced for each night. I think like, we're not going to get, they are doing like two hour kickoff shows, uh, each night, which I don't know how much,

um, they're like matches. They're actually going to throw on that. I think that's going to be a lot of like panel chats and stuff that they'll love for Finn Balor. I love Finn Balor. I feel like they just, yeah, he's in, he's actually going to throw on that. I think that's going to be a lot of like panel chats and stuff that no love for Finn Balor. I love Finn Balor. I feel like they just, yeah,

he's in, he's in the battle Royal on Friday. I mean, they could always throw together like some kickoff matches with, uh, the, the, the spare parts,

but yeah, not, not figured into anything prominently nor ricochet. So there you go. Your secondary champions are not getting any, uh, WrestleMania spotlight this year, but I would say my,

my point was that I think the shows are going to be much more digestible at like three, three and a half hours each night. That inevitably, that's just from seeing from history. The last few years, Romania has been shorter. There's been a positive response to it. Edge and AJ should probably have an excellent match. I expect that one to get 20 minutes or so and be the big match of night two, just in terms of a bell to bell. So I would look at the rest of the card. A lot of this are like

question marks, like Sammy Zane and Johnny Knoxville is going to have to be really creatively put together with some kind of, you know, stunt involved. I think Pat McAfee and Austin theory should do well. Um, Logan Paul probably like eats a six one 619. These are all things that I don't know if it's going to be the greatest on its own, but in terms of the overall package just coming up. And the celebrity level has been increased a lot after Bad Bunny last year. It's not just the idea, oh my God, this guy can do a headlock takeover. It's the idea that, man, we have a high expectation now of these celebrities coming in and doing something really noteworthy so what are we giving it a b plus a b minus b what do you let's let's go

let's go b all right that's fair uh two last things before i let you go i took a hell of a lot of heat because bt sport asked me to rank my favorite wrestlemania matches and my favorite wrestlemania's honestly i wasn't doing like a Helwani thing. The idea that people are hating on me for my personal opinion, like these are the matches that I like the most. I'm not asking you to

agree with me. I'm also not saying this is the list. I'm not saying that. I'm saying this is Ariel Helwani's list. That's what they asked me for. Anyway, no one liked either list. I'm putting you on the... I like how you double down, though.. That's what they asked me for. Anyway, no one liked either list. I prefer. I like how you double down, though. It's the greatest list of all time. Yeah.

Only taught by this next list. I mean, that's what you got to do. It's your opinion. I'm completely with you. Like people get so bent out of shape. Oh, my God. Like these losers. Like when Dave puts out like his stars, it's like that's his opinion.

Like you think he's like conducting a survey of every wrestling fan and coming down with the median average this is his opinion you don't have to like he could give it one star and you think it's the greatest match ever you're not wrong yes who cares and then you get these jabrons like i got like coachmen coming after me i'm like oh it's like this is my opinion well like what's your problem go make your own damn list the the difference is no one cares about your opinion. All right. Go do it.

Wait a minute. Wasn't wasn't his opinion that after the Amanda Nunez lost, Ronda Rousey could never go to WWE. They wouldn't want her. Did he say that? Not surprising. He did say that. I'm surprised anyone even knows anything that he says because no one listens to his stuff or watches him in any event. I'll put you on the spot.

And you look at my matches. Of course, like there's a lot of brett in there i love brett i'm very open about this i'm very biased towards the heart family because i love them can i put you on the spot your favorite wrestlemania match what's your number one i want to ask you to do a top 10 yeah what's yours you're not the definitive i'm saying your favorite um I, I really loved that. You know, the, the Undertaker series of matches with, with Sean and Hunter, and then it extended to punk.

Like that to me is like the real Undertaker streak was like when he started having like one of the best matches of the year each year. And also that coincided with, with us going and covering these. So being there live for, for some of those, like it was just an incredible atmosphere for some of those being there live for Hogan and Rock.

Like you can watch that match on mute and it's like the match is very basic. But man, with the volume on or if you were in that stadium, that to me is still the most heated match I have ever been inside of a venue for. It was just something else to have that level of heat inside an arena. If I'm just throwing out one, Brett Nguyen is very high on my list from WrestleMania 10 as I go through 39 or 37 WrestleManias of past. That was my number one. No.

Yes, that was my number one. Number two was Ricky ricky versus uh macho man wrestleman you know what brett and austin from from 97 that 13 that one it was just it was a it was an incredible match what they did but it also had such important ramifications for the next several years uh so that that one kind of had both like you can enjoy it in the moment but also historically it was a very very match. I got killed from my favorite matches. I got murdered from my favorite manias. And I really stand by this list. I loved WrestleMania four as a kid. I loved the tournament. Maybe it was a sign of things to come because of UFC, right? I love the one night tournament and it sealed my love

for Bret Hart when he was, you know, double crossed by bad news Brown in the battle Royal. Like I felt a certain way about that, right? And I just wanted this guy to get revenge and to win the championship and be a single star and all that stuff. So I love WrestleMania 4. Love it. I watched WrestleMania 4 a thousand times as a kid. Your favorite mania? Well, it's not WrestleMania 4.

I feel like WrestleMania 4 gets a bad rap. The one-night tournament was fun, man. It was really fun. I think they never did it again. If that same show happened today, would you have the same opinion? Thousand percent. Okay. Well, then that's your opinion.

Yes. My favorite WrestleMania. You know, it's one that 17 is the easy answer. And that's probably going to be most people's answer for me. If I'm just watching like through like like my childhood, like when I I was not watching in 1987, I was like three years old. But when I first rented that WrestleMania three tape and just seeing that that crowd, I mean, that was just that was an incredible spectacle to watch. So I can understand like your love of like four. It's like similar to like probably how I view three. WrestleMania 19 is kind of like a really great show that happened. Like the Attitude Era is over, but you still got this loaded roster that it was just like you have Angle Lesnar on that show. You have Jericho and Shawn Michaels. It's like Shawn's return to Mania that year. And you had, you know, Hogan and Vince,

like they pulled off like a pretty good spectacle in terms of their street fight they had. Austin and Rock, like there's a lot of great stuff on that show, the second half of that show. Everything below is kind of rushed through. That's like a really great show. So this will be my third WrestleMania. i i went to uh 17 no i went to 18 at the skydome um was the rogers center at that point i don't know if they was still the

skydome it was still the skydome yeah that was amazing hogan rock we just talked about it did you go to the raw was ron montreal the next yes i was there and you went to that. Yeah, I was a 2000, 2002. That's 20 years ago. Yeah, 20 years ago, I was a student at Syracuse. A few of my friends who I went to No Mercy in Albany in 2000, where we saw Kurt Angle beat The Rock to become champion for the first time, we decided to go to Mania. None of them cared about the access and all that. So I went by myself for the first two nights to access,

got a picture with JR and the King. I think I met Edge and Christian. I met, I think, Trish, Tori Wilson. I took a bunch of pictures, right? I did the whole fan thing. And then I went home and went with, I think, one of them to that Raw, and then Hogan got the huge ovation. I was also at the other Bell center hogan ovation later on i think it was a smackdown anyway so i've been to that one i've been to 35 as a fan the one at met life and this will be my third covering it for bt so by the time this comes out i'll already be there unfortunately you won't be there which is a bummer would have loved to see you there how many have you been to oh i've been to a lot of ones that i just went um like i went

to 18 that's obviously before i was working in in that I just went, um, like I went to 18. That's obviously before I was working in, in the, in this, that would have been the first one I went to. I went to 20 at, at Madison square garden. And then once I started with the fight network, I went to 22, that was 2006. And then we started going pretty much yearly beginning in 2012, uh, from 2012 to 2019. I think I missed, I missed the one at AT&T stadium, but the right from 12 to 2012 to 19, um, those were the ones we, we went to, uh, cover. So I would have loved to have gone this year. Like there's, it's the good and the bad.

It's so much easier to cover, like with all the shows happening, it's a lot easier to do this from home than being there. But obviously being there around people, you're missing out a ton by not being there. I would very much like to go next year, but we kind of had to make this decision like six, eight months ago of where things were going to be. And, you know, not knowing like what,

what the state of the pandemic was going to be. I've also got like two young children and we kind of just had to make the call last summer that we're probably not going to do this one. Do you miss going to shows? Yeah, I do. Um, you know, we, we had, we had started like in the post years of combining like WrestleMania coverage, we'd go to the city and then we'd host like a Q and a with our listeners. And those were so much fun. I would love to do one of those. It's almost like going to WrestleMania was like secondary. It was a lot of like going to like the smaller shows and just getting to meet up with fans in person.

I missed that tremendous deal. Yeah. Well, the coverage is great. I'm a huge fan. Postwrestling.com. John Pollock, Wei Ting. Also, ramping up the YouTube coverage, which I think is very, very smart on your part. I believe every weekday at 1 o'clock,

you guys do a news show, which is great. Not happy about the Monday-Wednesday decision to go 1 o'clock head-to-head with me, but we could talk about that later. I mean, it feels like a real counter-programming move on your part. But I try to tune in as much as possible, listen to the podcast,

especially after the pay-per-views. I love the breakdowns, all that stuff. So go check out postwrestling.com on all the different platforms, especially the website. And you got the Patreon for the subscribers, all that stuff. You guys are doing great work. And can you just tell us before I let you go, what do you have planned for? I mean, it's a huge week. We're Thursday right now when we're speaking. What do we have planned for the weekend? Well, we're ramping up uh with a lot of shows as you mentioned we've launched the post daily news show weekdays at one eastern

youtube.com slash post wrestling and then we are going to be doing a lot of bonus shows this week for our members at postwrestlingcafe.com that's our patreon we're going to be doing shows on thursday night friday right after smackdown and the hall of fame way and i will be doing a show and then we're live saturday and sunday night minutes after SmackDown and the Hall of Fame. Wei and I will be doing a show. And then we're live Saturday and Sunday night, minutes after WrestleMania, on the YouTube channel. And then it'll be available in podcast right after that, recapping both nights. Love it.

John, thank you very much. Love doing this with you. Appreciate the time. We've gone well over an hour here. So I owe you next time. And of course, I look forward to our yearly chats when we, how am I doing so far? Have you kept up with my likely unlikely, or do you only do it at the end of the year? Probably only at the end, right? There has been some that I do jot down when I, when I hear

something and a bell rings off. I do, I do also want to congratulate you on becoming the open weight broadcasting champion. Oh, thank you. Yes. Oh, my goodness. Robert Pearson making his MMA hour debut. Huge. Yeah.

Unexpectedly. Surprise. It sounded unexpected. It sounded, there was genuine surprise. Oh, there was. Okay. Thank you. Your voice.

I appreciate that. Thank you. Our good friend, Robert Pearson. John, you're the man. Appreciate it. Talk to you soon. All right. That was great stuff. I could talk to you soon all right that was great stuff i could talk to john about journalism about the work that we do about combat sports about pro wrestling in

particular all day long appreciate his time go check out all his work postwrestling.com go check out all the stuff that he's doing over there he and wei ting and their very strong team and i hope you'll enjoy my coverage of WrestleMania. I'm going to WrestleMania to cover my first WrestleMania, this time for BT Sport this weekend. I've been to two others, as I said to John, but both of those were as a fan and I'm looking forward. I used to pitch ESPN all the time to send me to,

well, all the time, I was only there for three years, but to send me there to cover it, I'm glad I'm getting an opportunity to do so for BT. I'm looking forward to doing that very much. So that will be all over their YouTube and on their network in the UK. And I'll certainly share the stuff as well. So please do check that out. If you are interested, appreciate everyone who's been checking out this venture, this show.

Last week's show got a lot of great responses. I appreciate everyone who checked out the interview with MJF. We've had some great ones recently as well. So go check those out too. Please continue to follow, rate, download, subscribe, review, comment, all that stuff. If you're listening to this on a podcast, if you just give us the five star,

if you give us the download, if you're listening to this on any kind of platform, if you're watching this on youtube.com slash Ariel Helwani, or if you watch our interviews there, obviously if you're listening to this, now you're not watching, you get the point.

Please subscribe. Please comment. Please like all those things. They mean a lot. They go a long way. They help us out greatly. Thank you to John Pollock. Thanks to all of you.

Thanks to the production team. Thank you to the lovely feathers. Enjoy WrestleMania. I'll talk to you next week. Thanks for watching!