The Ariel Helwani Show - The Uncrowned Wrestling Show | AEW Double Or Nothing thoughts, Ludwig Kaiser arrest reaction, WWE Clash In Italy predictions, more

Episode Date: May 26, 2026

Solomonster is back with a full review of AEW Double or Nothing, by far the best wrestling show of 2026. Plus, FTR contract news with potential WWE interest, a Jim Ross health update, and thoughts on Darby Allin’s run as AEW World champion (1:56). Then, reaction to MJF singling out Malakai Black as one of the ex-AEW talents who thought the WWE grass was greener, and why Black may have been keen on leaving to go back after Vince McMahon fell out of power (40:10). Thoughts on Ludwig Kaiser a.k.a. El Grande Americano being arrested last week and what it means for his big push (47:05). More on Saturday Night’s Main Event, including Logan Paul sustaining a torn triceps, and what it means for the Raw tag team titles (52:19). WWE Clash in Italy preview and predictions, including which matches will open the show, and why Brock Lesnar doesn't need to win to get to a trilogy match with Oba Femi at Summerslam (57:40). An update from AEW star Kota Ibushi, who acknowledges he won’t be wrestling again anytime soon, and a fatal accident on Sunday claims the life of a wrestler at a lucha libre show in Mexico (1:10:56).

Welcome to the Uncrowned Wrestling Show. Solomaster here, it is Tuesday, May 26th, 2006. I hope everybody had a great Memorial Day weekend. What are the Knicks on? An 11-0 run since they were uncursed by Danhausen. They went on a 20-0 run against the Cavs last night, by the way, which is just ridiculous. But they have Knicks-inspired Danhausen merchandise up on WWE shop.

I mean, this guy's been everywhere. and he's only been on WWE television for 90 days. That's the crazy part. The success that this man has had and he barely even wrestles. AEW held its double or nothing pay-per-view on Sunday. We're going to talk about that. Easily, easily, the best wrestling show of the entire year so far, and it's not even close. You know, it's a crazy night when the Citizen app sends out an alert about a bus crashing into a golf cart

in Flushing Meadows. That's a real thing that happened. Report of a bus and golf cart collision. You could thank Jack Perry for that. WWE held its Saturday Night's main event show as well, and they have their clash in Italy, PLE, coming up this Sunday, so we'll get into all that. And all the other news of the week.

Keep supporting if you are not already subscribed to the official uncrowned wrestling show feed. Please do so. You can find the show as well on the Ariel Helwani show feed. Ariel sat down last week with N. MJF for a very interesting, very illuminating discussion. MJF still has his hair after Sunday. See, the brother isn't flying all the way to Turkey and spending money on that hair only to shave it all off. That was never going to happen.

But double or nothing was in Queens on Sunday at Louis Armstrong Stadium with what they claimed were 15,000 fans. Russell Ticks puts the number slightly below that at 14,000 plus. It may as well have been 25,000. because those people were loud all night long, just an incredible atmosphere for that show. It was one of those shows where I was feeling a little fomo as I was watching it because, you know, Louis Armstrong Stadium's one borough over from where I am.

It's not that far away. And I'm sure to be in the building for that show would have been special. I will go on record right now. I don't think this is much of a hot take in saying not only the greatest, in my opinion, double or nothing, in the seven years that AW has been around. But one of the greatest pay-per-views that that company has ever produced.

And think about the quality of the pay-per-views that AW typically churns out. They have a rep for putting on great pay-per-views. Whatever you think of the weekly television, they know how to put on great pay-per-views and very long pay-per-views. Too long. Or at least I wish they would start them an hour earlier

because it would make a huge difference. But they know how to do pay-per-view. It's kind of their break. bread and butter, just up and down the card with very little in the way of blood. Only some hard way incidental blood because apparently the state athletic commission did not allow them to have blood on the show or get overly violent. And you know what? It worked to their advantage.

Because so often they go nuts with the blood and the gore, right, from the opening match on down to the main event, and it's just overkill. Here it was very limited, and I actually think it enhanced the show. It certainly didn't hurt the show. And I think there's a lesson to take away from that. I think less is more. The only negative thing that I've heard, and I had a couple of buddies at the show

who mirrored a lot of what has been said on social media, is just how unprepared the stadium was for the event. You have 15,000 people and not even enough screeners at the front gate, right? 40-minute wait times at some of the concession stands. And then after the show, it was a nightmare getting out of there because they locked most of the exits.

So people are out there. Now, thankfully, it wasn't raining like it was for most of the weekend here. But they're stranded out there at 1 o'clock in the morning. Again, because the show ended so damn late. People were getting angry. If they go back there again, I don't know if it was more of a stadium staffing issue or just the fact that the show went so goddamn late where after a certain time, staff goes home, right?

Or certain things get locked. I think that's part of it. If the show didn't end as late as it did, I think a lot of these issues could have been avoided. but they need to get their shit together because some of the videos I saw of people huddled together like cattle. I mean, that could have been a real dangerous situation. You know, they had a stadium stampede inside. They could have had a real stadium stampede outside.

But I remember going to one of the AW Grand Slam shows right next door at Arthur Ashe Stadium a few years ago. And they probably would have run Arthur Ash for this show, but it's being renovated right now. But I went there for that show and I got to see the great mom. Muda, make a surprise cameo. He made the save for staying. Very cool stuff. What wasn't so cool was the rampage taping right after, still going at 12.30 in the morning. They had Ricky Starks and Powerhouse Hobbs out there in the main event, and I'm standing,

and I wasn't the only one. I'm standing there. I'm not even sitting in my seat anymore. I'm standing there just begging for it to end so that we can leave, you know, because my friends were not ready to leave. Me, I would have been like the roadrunner from the cartoon. long before that, you would have seen a plume of smoke behind me. I would have been gone.

And the show finally ends, and we had to walk around, like, the entire length of city field just to get back to the parking lot. Like, it was just insane. But on the pre-show, we had the debut, the AEW debut of a certain WW debut of a certain WW Hall of Famer. Mick Foley joined Renee Picatt, as he will be doing, apparently, going forward. And so he came out there. he got a rousing response from the fans in New York. He seemed genuinely happy and genuinely touched by the reaction and happy to be there.

And he commented on his Instagram. He said, I am so genuinely happy to be part of AEW and to have contributed in a small way to such an amazing night of wrestling. For him, I'm sure it was like a rush of adrenaline that he hadn't experienced at a long time. I think AEW is a good fit for him outside of the anxiety that I have thinking about him getting back in the ring which Tony Kahn did not shut down the other day when he was asked about Foley possibly wrestling for them

he said this I can't speak for Mick Foley as to whether he would want to wrestle or if he's going to wrestle anytime soon but if he ever does I would love for him to do it in AEW but I also don't want to put him in a situation in which he'll be uncomfortable I want him to feel good about this and I know he's taken so many big hits and had such an amazing career with so many spectacular moments. Physically, I would only ever ask him to wrestle if he felt up to it, and that he could live

up to the physical demand. The fact that he's even open to Foley getting in the ring, he's definitely wrestling at some point. I don't see how he can be around these people and feel that energy and watch Darby Allen do all of the dumb stunts that he does, and watching John Moxley bleeding all over the place whenever he does the death match stuff and not want to get the itch to get back in there with those guys. Like Darby had sting, 64-year-old sting doing fucking balcony dives.

You don't think Mick Foley isn't going to wrestle at some point. Yeah, my concern is that when he was training to wrestle a death match for his 60th birthday, that was his goal. He was going to celebrate his 60th birthday, whenever it was last year, two years ago. And so he lost a bunch of weight in preparation for it. I think he was doing DDP yoga. And he got concussed just doing some light training. He didn't even realize he had gotten concussed.

And he was wise enough to drop the idea and say, okay, this isn't a good idea. I don't think he needs to be taking any crazy bumps when there are so many other ways that he could be contributing to their product, not only on camera, but behind the scenes as well. hosting, interviewing, cutting the occasional promo like he did with MJF on the pre-show the other night. Ambassador work they said they're going to have him doing. That's all great. His first night in, MJF kicked him in the dick and he took a bump. I mean, like, he can't help himself. He can't help himself.

But I did love the way that they utilized him on that pre-show. Just to add a little bit of final hype for the main event on the pay-per-view, I thought that was a very effective way to make use of McFerfee. Bowley. Adam Copeland and Christian Cage. They won the AEW tag team titles from FTR, Dax Harwood, and Cash Wheeler. This is their first time holding tag team gold together in 25 years, and it was an excellent opener. They had a white-hot crowd. I mean, you could not have asked for a better crowd than they had for that match. We had the return of Copeland's wife, Beth, the former Beth Phoenix. The last time we saw her, she was dropped on her head with a spike pile driver at all out.

So that's going back to September of last year. And so she came out. She looked like she could have killed everybody in the ring. And yeah, it was the predictable outcome with Copeland Christian going over because they had added the stipulation. It was already an I-quit street fight. But they had a one-up themselves. And they said, if Copeland and Christian don't win the tag team titles, then they can never

again be tag team partners. And you knew going in, okay, that's just bullshit. Of course, of course they're going to be tag. team partners in the future. And so that kind of gave away the store there with the finish, but didn't take away from the reaction there at the end. Again, this was great. And as far as what's, and again, they recreated the WrestleMania 22 spot with Edge and

Foley, funny enough, where they have the flaming table, Foley got speared off the apron. Both men went crashing through the flaming table. They did a very similar spot here on the outside. Poor Stokely Half the Way. inadvertently got tackled by his own man off the apron into the fire. His back was on fire. He was doing the stop, drop, and roll, trying to put himself out. The question now is, like, what's next for them?

I don't envision them having a terribly long run with these titles. I think Tony Khan has always wanted to just get them on the books, get them in the history books for his company as having held those tag team titles, just like he wanted to do with the Hardee's, but it just didn't work out. So now he's got Copeland and Christian. be forever etched in the books as AW tag team champions. I could see them dropping those belts as soon as Wembley at the end of August. But the question is, what do we build to now?

We're building to Copeland and Christian defending the titles two-on-two against the young bucks? I would imagine that's a match they probably want to do. Does FTR want to get the belts back? Are we building to a three-way? Are they going to try to recreate the old TLC match? and throw some ladders in there and do that maybe it all in. But then you got to keep in mind, there's going to be a couple of free agent tag teams coming up in the next couple of months. And maybe they work their way into the tag team title match at Wembley.

Because it just so happens that the Motor City machine guns, their deal, their 90-day non-competes, are going to be up by the end of July. And they have a dynamite that just so happens to be coming to the Motor City. I want to say July 29th, I believe it is. And then you have Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods who 100% are absolutely going to AEW. And if you get those guys in there in time for Allend, do you debut them there? Do you debut them before that and get them in a big match? I don't think you need to rush them into a title match.

But it's almost like this embarrassment of riches that they have all of a sudden when it comes to their tag team division, which stands in stark contrast to what we have when it comes to the tag team scene right now. in the other company. But on that note, there was a report from body slam.net that Dax and Cash FTR, who signed four-year deals with AEW in 2023, are now approaching their option year, says sources close to the situation describe FTR as believing their value and consistency over the last several years should place them among AEW's top-tier acts financially. There has also reportedly been at least preliminary interest from WWE communicated through mutual contacts as the situation continues to draw attention internally.

At the present time, there is no indication a departure is imminent, although FTR's future beyond the current option year remains unclear. Now, FTR had said a few years ago that they figured they would be done as full-time wrestlers at the end of this four-year deal. and this all feels very strategic. Very strategic that this report comes out a year in advance with talk of how these guys feel like they should be among the highest compensated talents in the entire company. Like there's a message being sent to Tony Kahn. And from a business standpoint, it's smart.

Like if I'm FTR, I'm doing the same thing. I'm talking to people. I'm leaking stuff. but there is not a world in which I can imagine those two going back to WWE and being happy with the state of their tag team division right now. Their tag team division right now in WWE is a rotting corpse. For guys who pride themselves on having great matches and having the freedom to go out there and do what they want in those matches,

as I'm sure they do, guys who bleed all the time if you're Dax, who want to test themselves against the best tag teams in the world, WWE right now is not the place for that. Tag team wrestling is not a priority there. And despite all of these reports lately about them wanting to rebuild their tag team division, that was another report from this past week. I call bullshit on that. If you care so much about tag team wrestling, you don't let the new day walk.

You don't release the Motor City machine guns if you're looking to rebuild your tag team division. You don't send main roster teams down to AAA. You don't put both sets of tag team belts on two. make-shift teams comprised of singles wrestlers. These are not moves that you make if you're serious about rebuilding your tag team division. Now, this talk of WWE possibly bringing back Enzo Amore and Big Cass, big cast, his contract is due to expire in days with AEW. Enzo Amore apparently, normally he would be taking indie bookings and promoters are being

told that in the near future, he's not going to be available. Gee, I wonder why. He's also been spotted recently at the WWE Performance Center. So you put two and two together. Looks like there's a very good chance we're going to be getting a Kaz and Enzo reunion very soon. Great. Then what? It's going to take a hell of a lot more than that.

FTR is not coming back to wrestle Enzo and Cass and the street profits. Not to mention when they signed their last contract, they said at the end of it, they would be done, right? Either done or they would work sporadically here and there. Now, I know wrestlers say this all the time. but this is what they said. So who's to say they're even going to want to work a full-time schedule? But if they do, the only place that makes sense for them is right where they are right now in AEW. And if they're worried about getting paid, I can't imagine that leaving AEW for the place that's cutting people's pay

and doesn't place a premium on tag team wrestling is something that they would want to do. So this reads more to me like a way of letting Tony Kahn know in a roundabout way, hey, we'd like a pay raise to stick around. And they'll probably get one because I don't think Tony Khan wants to lose those two guys. We had Kazuchka Okada against Konosuke Takashhta for the international championship. This match is why I love professional wrestling.

This right here was my match of the night. It is my match of the year so far. They have been building a story with these two men going back at least a year. It's been a very slow, burn for these two. And we got the first match between them in December as part of the Continental Classic, and it was good, but this right here is the match that I knew they had in them. This is the match right here that I have been waiting a very long time for. And we had Don Callis at ringside.

He was on commentary. These are his guys. And so every time Okada would try something where he was going to kill the other guy, Callis would beg him, don't do it, don't break his neck, and vice versa. So you had that added element to it as well. But again, I talked about the crowd before. for. This was just the stars aligned for this match. You have the perfect crowd, the perfect match, the perfect atmosphere, and it all blended together. This place was going nuts for these two guys. And down the stretch, it was like a classic Okada match. If you are familiar with Okada's work from New Japan, a lot of his matches, especially because he knew they would go 30, 40 minutes. And this didn't go quite that long. But when he knew he was going to go along, his matches,

they tend to start very slowly. It's a, it's a, slow crawl as it builds to that big climax at the end. And so as they were going down the stretch here and we had all the near falls, and yes, there was a lot of no selling and there was a lot of kicking out at one, but they knew that this is what the audience wanted to see. And so people were losing their minds for it. I mean, when the bell rang to start the match before they even touched, you had a holy shit chant, break out at Louis Armstrong Stadium.

I think that tells you everything you need to know. And when it was over, Takesha won the international championship, right? the big happy ending, the big payoff here, to what people had been waiting to see. But we weren't done yet because we then had a little confrontation in the ring where it looked like maybe Takesha was about to be kicked out of the Callis family. Had a little bit of a standoff. And then out comes Kyle Fletcher. We have not seen Kyle Fletcher in a very long time. The last time we saw Kyle Fletcher was the end of March and he was injured on collision.

He actually kind of fell backwards and came down on his leg and there was talk of a torn meniscus and other lower body injuries, and they made it sound like he was going to be gone for many months, and we weren't going to see him for a while. But there he was, and he walks out there in his suit, and he comes down to the ring, and we've seen him and Takeshita as, you know, proto-Shita, but then he and Okada is Proto-O-Kata, right? And they're all friends, and so who's he going to side with here? Another member of the Callas family. It looks like he's going to side with Takeshda, but it's a lot.

If you've been watching wrestling for longer than six hours, you can pretty much figure where this was headed. And sure enough, he ended up downing Takesha with a lariat. And then they held him up, and he hit him in the head with the international title. And so there was a lot going on here in the post match, right? They paid off a year-long feud between these two men. They gave us the big title change that we were waiting for. We got the return of Kyle Fletcher, which is a big shot in the arm here for not just the Callis family, but really for, Tony Khan because Kyle Fletcher is one of those guys, kind of like Kevin Knight is now, where

he's truly a homegrown AEW guy. You know, he really got the big push as a single star for the first time working for Tony Khan. And when you say, well, who is AEW created? He's going to be one of those names on that list. And he could be a world champion for them one day and all of that. So to get him back right now heading into their big show of the summer in a few months is a big deal for for Tony Kahn. But again, everything I just mentioned, right, we accomplished all of that. We got Fletcher back. We got the turn with Takesha being booted officially out of the Callas family. And now it sets up Fletcher to challenge Tcha for the international title. And the timing could not be any better because you've got the big Wembley show coming up at the end of August.

So everything about this click, this was easily the best thing, in my opinion on the entire show. I love this. Can't say enough good things about it. And I don't know where Okada fits in. of the equation here if he's still going to be a part of this or not, but clearly now we are on a path to Fletcher and Takeshita, whether they hold off on it until August or they do it at a forbidden door at the end of June, that is coming soon. We had Athena against Mina Sherikawa. This was part of the Owenhart Foundation tournament. This was not supposed to happen here on this show. And the reason is, originally, we were going to get Willow Nightingale against Alex Windsor. Willow Nightingale, unfortunately,

she suffered a shoulder injury in her collision match last week, I believe, against Red Velvet. And it's serious enough that she was not only forced to pull out of the Owen, but she also had to vacate her TBS championship, which she was the one who beat Mercedes Monet and ended that forever run of Mercedes with that belt back on New Year's Eve. So it kind of sucks that this is how that run comes to an end. That was the match that was supposed to take place on the pay-per-view. That got pulled. Alex Windsor is going to wrestle a wild card mystery entrant now. We don't know when.

So instead, this match got bumped up to the pay-per-view. And they were in a very unenviable position on this show. They were coming after those first two matches. If you talk about a one-two punch, I would not have wanted to go on after those two matches. But they still delivered a good match. And Athena was selling a knee injury coming out of it. She won, of course.

But now, I guess the question is, does that knee injury linger? does that carry over into the later rounds? Because they could use that as an out for her if she eventually loses, which I think she will. We had John Moxley against Kyle O'Reilly for the Continental title. This was a rematch from Dynamite last Wednesday.

This time went no time limit. You know, a lot of limb work here. Technically, it was very sound, not as exciting as the earlier matches. Still good. Moxley wins, as he should. I believe that John Moxley should not lose a single match until he wrestles Will Osprey.

You've got to do that match. At some point before they get to Wembley, you've got to do John Moxley against Will Osprey. That has to be his last test in this story that they're telling where he wanted to murder this man. They attributed his neck injury that kept him on the shelf for five months to John Moxley and the Death Riders trying to break his neck and end his career last year.

So of course he came back. He was all full of piss and vinegar. He wants to murder this man. He got him in the ring and he lost. and he's been like a lost soul ever since. And the death riders have taken him under their wing. They are trying to bring the best out of Will Osprey. That's the story they're trying to tell with these two.

I was surprised not to see Moxley in the tournament. I thought maybe that might be the final. They decided to go in a different direction with it, but I still believe that that is a match that's going to happen. He should not be losing to anybody until he loses to Osprey. When he does, then he can turn around and say, you've passed your final test. You're now ready.

You're ready to challenge. for the World Championship. Now, Jim Ross joined on commentary for that one match. That was the only match he worked on the pay-per-view. We have not seen JR for a while. And I thought he did well. He seemed to forget Kyle O'Reilly's name there a few times. He kept calling him kid.

And he's hardly a kid. He's hardly a rookie. And JR says that he's doing great physically, but he revealed on his grilling JR podcast that his doctors are concerned about possible dementia or Alzheimer's disease. which is fucking terrible. And he is undergoing tests for both.

He said, I had a very positive doctor's appointment with my neurologist. Everyone's getting in on the act. So the neurologist and I had an appointment, they took a bunch of blood, they ran some tests. You know, I think they're worried about dementia or Alzheimer's. And I said, what the hell are you going to do about it? He said, there's no cure. He says, if there's meds I should be taking preventatively, then tell me what they are and I'll do it. So we'll see how it works out.

I'm going through a lot of tests now. I don't feel bad at all. I feel great, actually. But, you know, getting old is a bitch. Getting old is a bitch. This guy, man, let me tell you something. JR is the goat. Okay, I don't care what anybody says.

When it comes to commentary in pro wrestling, Jim Ross, and we're not talking about like announced teams, announce combos, because that's a whole other conversation. But in terms of just wrestling announcers, wrestling play-by-play voices, there is none better than Jim Ross. And this man has been through the ringer health-wise over the years. We know about all the bouts of Bell's palsy.

That's why Vince McMahon fired him back in 94. He didn't want somebody with Bell's palsy to be on his television show. And really, I mean, as a broadcaster, as somebody who's on camera, as somebody who uses their voice for a living, that's like the kiss of death. and normally it resolves for most people, but it never did for him. And he had like four different attacks of it. But then later on he had surgery for a perforated colon that was back in 2005.

That almost killed him. And Vince McMahon did a whole skit on Monday Night Raw mocking him for it, the infamous Dr. Heine skit, which he thought was hilarious. But he's also been diagnosed with skin cancer and colon cancer and now this. he's been through a lot. And that does not sound very good. Hopefully they do not find what they suspect he may have. But look, at least he's feeling good.

And if they want to bring him in for a match here and there, you know, it was like a special attraction. I think that's the right way to use him. And it was nice to see him there on Sunday. But obviously that news is very, very concerning. You know, that's a downer to hear that. And we had two more Owen Hart tournament matches on this show. We had one for the women.

We had two men's matches, and the two men's matches were the best. And it really is up to your own personal preference here. It's like the flavors of ice cream. Some people like vanilla. Some people like chocolate. Some people can't have ice cream anymore because they're lactose intolerant. Don't get me started. But we had Will Osprey, one-on-one against Samoa Joe.

Believe it or not, this is the first time these two men have ever had a one-on-one match. And Osprey talked about this coming into the pay-per-view, where Joe was really one of the men who inspired him to even be. become a pro wrestler in the first place. And it goes back to that classic three-way match in T&A at the Unbreakable Show in 2005 between Samoa Joe, AJ Stiles, and Christopher Daniels. And Joe was a part of that. They had an excellent match. Love this match here. Osprey, of course, gets the win. I mean, it had to be the most predictable outcome. That in Cope and Christian winning had to be the most predictable outcomes on the entire show. It did not take away from the match.

Some great near falls here. Osprey now goes. goes on to wrestle either Mark Davis or Jack Perry in the next round. In the other Owen Hart match, we had swerve Strickland, his first match in a while, against Bandito. And this one, you know, I think as a match, I would put the Osprey match above this one, but boy, like the closing stretch here, like the last three or four big moves and sequences that these men did, it was so weird because, like, I'm watching this match, and there was definitely a stretch where they slowed it down.

And the crowd was very quiet. And I was getting kind of bored. I'm like, man, I was expecting more out of this. And then in the last few minutes, the it just exploded. And it's like they smacked you in the face. They're like, psych. And then they just blew you away. Like there was a spot here where Swerve ended up standing on Bandito's shoulders.

And from his shoulders, he delivered a house call kick. And then Bandito got to do some stuff with the 21plex stuff, the deadlift into the 21 complex, just some really cool stuff here at the end. Swerve picks up the win, and so we are one step closer now to what I think is the inevitable final at Forbidden Door between Will Osprey and Swerve Strickland. Swerve will have to beat Claudio or Brody King in the next round. If he can do that, then he will punch his ticket to the finals. We had Tecla, retaining her AW women's world championship over Jamie Hader, Chris Stathlander, and Hikaru Shida in a four-way. You know, this may have been the weakest thing on the show,

and that doesn't even mean it was bad. It was a good match. But just there was so much other great stuff on this show that this probably ranks at the bottom or near the bottom. Tecla winning was not a surprise. I would not be taking that title off Tecla. Tecla, I think, is doing a great job. Hopefully, long may she rain, at least until they get to Wembley.

So she is still the champion. And then we had Stadium Stampede. We have 30 minutes. of stadium stampede. And it was basically a stadium version of Anarchy in the Arena. The only thing is they didn't play the music. That's become a staple of Anarchy in the Arena on this show the last few years. All the chaos begins, and then there's just music playing in the background on a loop.

There was no music this time. And I don't think that this needed to go 30 minutes. I could see why they would have wanted it to. There were 14 guys in this match, including some big names. You had Chris Jericho. and Kenny Omega and Bobby Lashley, and there were a ton of different people. The Young Bucks were in there.

I just think you could have shaved off, I don't know, five to eight minutes because there was a stretch there in the middle where it was just kind of dragging a little bit. But yeah, Team Jericho against Team Rickochet, and this was just fun. I didn't think it was as good as Anarchy in the arena last year, which I loved.

But again, the only critique I have is that I just didn't think it needed to go as long as it did, especially as late in the show as it was. But Bobby Lashley was out there. He was looking like he was having the time of his life. You normally don't see him in a match like this, but he looked like he was having a blast. I mean, they all did.

They came up with some very clever, very creative things. It's just mass chaos. And you have multiple cameras in different parts of the arena, trying to keep track of all the madness, you know, as it's going on. They did the spot with Jack Perry. I mentioned this earlier, ramming a bus, is Jurassic Express bus into the golf cart outside the building.

He tried to mow down Mark Davis who got out of the way at the very last second. I thought that might have been pre-taped. But there were people who were live there at the arena who, I guess their seats were more, I don't know, the upper deck or whatever. And there was like fan footage of one guy who turned around and was filming.

He could film the entire thing as it was happening outside the building. So that shit was live. That was not pre-taped. And again, people reported it on the Citizen app as if it was real. Yeah, it reminded me of, when I hear that, when I hear that people might have called the cops on this, it reminds me of that one episode of WCW Monday Nitro at Disney MGM, where the NWO attacked a bunch of wrestlers in the back.

And Kevin Nash, you know, he famously laundered Ray Mysterio head first into the side of the trailer outside. And people who lived in the area called the cops. They thought it was some kind of gang assault that was going on at fucking Disney. And they called the cops. That's how real it was to them. So you got to keep KFabe alive. So anyway, team Jericho wins this. And then they went to the ring after 1130 at night for the main event with Darby Allen

defending the AW World Championship title versus hair against MJF. And in the first, I don't know, 60 seconds, 90s. seconds, not even 90 seconds of the match. We had Darby Allen doing a topay. Out of the ring to the floor, right in front of the announcers, he caught his feet on the top rope as he went sailing through the ropes, and he crashed and burned horribly. Initially, it looked like he landed right on his head. He was able to tuck his head, but he still landed very high on his neck, and he just came straight down. And I'm just like, fuck, what are you doing? The match just started. And he's all, already trying to kill himself. And MJF, I mean, he was killing this guy in the opening minutes of

this match. Later on, the cameraman got caught in the crossfire. They did a big spot later on stage where there was a table set up. MJF was laid across it. Darby looks up. Of course, you know, thinking, okay, what can I do here to get into some trouble? And he scales the scaffolding, you know, it's by the big screen and everything. Had to be at least 20 feet up, maybe more. and he did a picture-perfect coffin drop. I mean, he could not have positioned this or executed this any better. Coffin-drop down through the table and threw MJF on the way down. And he came up bleeding from the back of his head,

which again is some of the only blood that we had on the entire show. But MJF puts it away with an avalanche tombstone back in the ring to win the championship for a third time. And he keeps his hair in the process. And then we had Kevin Knight, the TNT champion, who runs out to the ring to chase MJF away. And I'm like, what is Kevin Knight doing here? He wasn't on the show or anything. Only he goes up top, he delivers a UFO splash from the ring to Darby Allen who was strapped to a gurney on the floor down below. And I suppose that's one way to try to hook people into watching Dynamite tomorrow night for answers to find out why.

Why did he do what he did? So Kevin Knight has officially gone heel. And now the question also is, you know, his tag team partner is Speedball, Mike Bailey, how is he going to react to this? I'm figuring, here's what I'm looking at this and I'm going, okay, Darby has been going balls to the wall. Now, this was like his eighth title defense in the span of a month. And so you knew it was going to be a short run because that was the story. The story is that this guy is crazy and he's burning the candle at both ends and this can't go on for much longer. So now he lost the title, and I figure he's going to go away for a little bit.

That'll give them time to build to a match between speedball and Kevin Knight. You know, maybe that's the forbidden door match. And then Darby would come back just in time to build to a match at Wembley. Because I kind of look ahead and I'm like, all in is their big show. What would Darby be doing on that show? Well, I think we just found out what Darby is probably doing on that show, probably wrestling Kevin Knight. But now that this title run is over, I know it was very polarizing when he won the championship.

A lot of people liked it. A lot of people did not like it. I didn't see it as any big deal just because it kind of changes things up, shakes things up for a little bit for a very short period of time. I never expected him to have this belt for very long. And I don't think I honestly believe that MJF was going to lose this match. It would have been a big mistake for him to lose this match. Now, in a lot of ways, you know, he's Teflon. Like if he lost, it's not like, oh my God, MJF is buried. Like, MJF is one of the few guys who is basically, like, he's impervious to any of that shit.

You know, he's going to be just fine. He could lose a bunch of matches and not lose any heat and come right back and it's not a big deal. But still, he lost to Darby Allen in two and a half minutes. And then he lost to Kevin Knight after that. So now Darby's been on this incredible run where he's just running himself into the ground. He's not 100%. As it is, he's 100%. 60 pounds soaking wet.

You're going to have MJF go in there and lose to this guy again? Like that would have been ridiculous. So it was the right outcome. Darby had a month as the champion. Actually, maybe like six weeks. Five or six weeks. And it was the best short run that we've had yet in AEW because he was out there defending that title every single week.

And I'll give the guy credit. He does a lot of stupid shit in his matches. He's a stuntman in many ways. But I don't think we saw a single bad match during this run. You know, he wrestled Brody King, he wrestled Sammy Guevara, he wrestled pack, he wrestled all of these different people. Kevin Knight, MJF. Every single one of those matches was at least good, if not great. So I would call that run a success for what it was intended to be.

Now it's over, as I think a lot of people expected it to be. and MJF is in a position now to go to London to defend that championship in the main event unless they're crazy enough to take it right back off of him and put it on Kenny Omega or something if they don't want to do Osprey and MJF again because we've seen Osprey against MJF already at Wembley Stadium.

We saw it a few years ago for the international title. But I think that's the right match to do and I think that's the match we'll end up getting ultimately. Now during the post-show scrum, on Sunday. Tony Kahn was asked if AW could fill the gap this coming April next year where there is no big domestic

wrestling show taking place because WrestleMania next year, at least as of now, and it would take an act of God for them not to go to Saudi Arabia to do WrestleMania because they're going to get paid just a metric fuck ton of money for it. But WrestleMania is going to be in Saudi next year. And I've been saying this from the day that they announced that WrestleMania

was going to Saudi. I said, Tony Kahn's out of his mind. If he doesn't take a leadership role here in kind of leading one big, like, wrestling festival type of week, wherever they do it, somewhere domestically, obviously, but let all of these wrestling conventions and all these independent shows piggyback on him and piggyback on AW in the way that they typically do WrestleMania. And it's like, okay, well, if you're going to take this big wrestling week, this big wrestling weekend away from people here in the U.S. We'll take on the mantle. And we'll make it all about pro res.

It's a week to celebrate pro wrestling, right? Something like that. I said he'd be crazy if he doesn't do that. So he was asked about it. He says, I think it's potentially viable. And it's a very interesting thought. We'll have to see what happens. We'll have to see what happens in the world landscape between now and then.

But it's a very interesting possibility. So I can see where he might be a little hesitant in the event that he schedules something and then all of a sudden plans change, right? And WWE is not going to run Saudi for some reason. And that could be potentially a disaster. But I think he's already got the idea. I think he's going to do it. He's just waiting for the right time to announce it or just get all of his ducks in a row. I would certainly not have it overlap WrestleMania in any way. I think that would be nutty. But even if you do it the week before, you know, or something like that, I just think it makes too much sense. And if there's anybody who's in a position,

to be able to do that and has the financial resources to make something like that happen, it's him. And I think it would be a fun idea for the fans who are going to feel left out next year, who are not going to be flying over to Saudi Arabia, they're going to be hungry for some wrestling. And, I mean, who better than, you know, the guy who promotes his entire product around that, you know, we're the best wrestle, right? It's all about wrestling.

Well, then why not have a week or a weekend celebrating pro wrestling? It just makes sense. I mentioned earlier that MJF, he had appeared on Ariel Helwani show last week, and I'm not going to get into everything they talked about, but there was one thing I just wanted to touch on here. Among the many things they discussed, he singled out Malachi Black as the biggest defender of those who used AEW in his eyes as a stepping stone to go back to WWE. Now, Black was recently released by WWE, so he will be a free agent, I guess, in sub-90 days, however much time is left. He and his wife, and so we'll see where they end up. Some people think they'll go back to AEW. It could be a little awkward, though, especially based on what MJF was talking about here. He said, I think it's pretty obvious.

It's Malachi Black. I don't know the guy on a personal level. Do I think he's a bad guy? No. Do I think he was a mark for wanting to have his. mania moment. Yeah. And there were a couple of guys like that and they got weeded out. Then they went over there and some found out the grass isn't greener. And some of them did. For them, the grass was greener. But I would say a majority that were like, I'm going to use

AEW to go back to WW. I think you're going to see a lot of those guys ask for a 50% pay cut from the office or just get released. It's unfortunate because if you show up to our company and work hard, there's really no need to burn bridges. I'm not shitting on him. I just sent him. I just simply am telling you what I was told by a majority of the locker room about this specific individual. So as a team captain and a leader and someone that has been part of this company since day one, I don't want to deal with guys that don't want to be team players. Fuck off, go elsewhere. Or prove me wrong. I would love to be proven wrong. You know, listening to him talk about that, I think it's very telling that he, you know, claims that the majority of the locker room feels

the way that he does. I don't know. if it's a majority or just some people, he would know better than I would. But my take on it is this, and this is just me spitballing here and kind of getting the big picture view from the outside. I look at Alistair Black,

as he was when he came to NXT, and he was a big deal in NXT, and the presentation was great, and he had great matches, and he was a champion and a top guy there. And that was under Paul Vec. And when he got called up to the main roster in 2019, there were a lot of people, myself included,

who had very high hopes for this guy and thought that he would end up being one of the main event players and an eventual champion on the show. And it never worked out that way. Now, he was working at that point under Vince McMahon, because Vince was still the one in charge. And there was a period of time there where Paul Heyman was installed on Raw as the executive director

and supposedly, you know, had some legitimate power, and creative freedom. Remember, like Vince put Eric Bischoff in charge of Smackdown, and that lasted all of four months. That was as they were preparing to go to Fox. So that didn't work out too well. Heyman, at least, you know, he was there for a little bit longer before he got replaced.

And supposedly Black was a favorite of his. So you hear that, you're like, okay, he's got the right people on his side, he's going to get a big push, he's going to do well. And it didn't really work out that way. It was still Vince McMahon show. At the end of the day, it didn't matter who the GM was or who the executive director was. It's still Vince McMahon's product.

And if Vince McMahon doesn't get you or like you for any reason, you're done. That's it. You're finished. And it's very much the same thing with Tony Kahn in AEW because he's the head voice. And if he likes you, great. If he doesn't like you or he gets bored of you, you end up on a shelf. You get benched. And we don't see you anymore.

So that's true of multiple companies. But then he goes to AEW. And right out of the gate, man, he's beaten Cody Rhodes. And it's like, oh, boy, this is going to be one of those fumbles we talk about. And we're going to look back at it and go, boy, WW, we really fumble this one, right? As they did other people. Swerve Strickland and, I mean, you could point to other people that, yes, they did indeed fumble them. And he goes to AEW and, again, all this momentum out of the gate.

and then it just kind of petered out. And he ended up doing the House of Black stuff. He was working mostly tags and trios. And I know he had a back injury there, very serious back injury for a while that he was able to recover from. Still couldn't understand why Tony was so hesitant to push him as a single star, though, for so long.

Even he didn't have an answer for it. He had to address it on social media once because he got tired of people asking him. And he's like, stop asking me. I'm not the person you need to be asking. I'm healthy. It's not that, you know, they're trying to protect me because my back hurts. Like, I'm healthy. I'm fine. Don't ask me. I don't have the answers for you. It was basically his answer. And so his run ended up being very underwhelming. But I think what happened is, and again, this is just me.

He saw the changing of the guard in WWE. He saw someone ascend to power in that company who understood him and took care of him and did right by him when he was in NXT. And I think he got stars in his eyes and he was like, I want to work for that guy. And his wife also worked there. And so you can't, you know, you can't necessarily discount the possibility that maybe that was also a big factor and why he wanted to leave. Maybe he wanted to be with her and travel with her. But I think he got stars in his eyes and realized that if he went back there, it's a totally different ball game now. And now he'll have the chance to really, you know, kind of ascend to the position that he always figured, you know, he would. end up in. And as we saw, it didn't work out that way. He was there. He went back. He was there for a year.

They didn't do a whole hell of a lot with him. And then they let him go. And so I don't know what the lesson is there. I mean, like he said, the grass isn't always greener. I can't begrudge the guy. You know, he made the decision that he felt was in his best interest and was best for his career. And God bless him. But it didn't work out. I think we can all say it did not work out. If he wants to go back to AEW, I certainly think that Tony could use him. Does Tony Khan need Malachi Black? No, he does not. He's got more than enough talent on his roster. There is no one person that he needs. But if I'm Alistair Black and I'm hearing this guy, you know, go out and talk about how most of the locker room doesn't want me there, that might give me pause, right? It can make for an awkward situation. I don't know what's going to end up happening. I hope he lands on his feet somewhere because he's a talented guy. He's too talented and not to land somewhere and make money somewhere. I just don't know if that place is going to end up being AW.

On the WW end, there was a kind of a crazy story this past week. It looks like there's not going to be too much fallout from it in terms of a punishment for him, although this could have been a freaking disaster for everybody involved. but with the biggest match of his career coming of this Saturday in Mexico, AAA is having its big Noce de los Grande show in Monterey. Marcel Bartel or Ludwig Kaiser, as he's been known on WWE television. He's more famous these days as El Grande Americano. I can't prove it, but I believe it to be him.

He was arrested on Wednesday in Florida on a battery charge, a misdemeanor battery charge. This is from the TMZ story. Talks about Kaiser being arrested after his neighbor, I guess filed a complaint against him. This was after an incident in a luxury building in Orlando where the two men live. The report says the incident happened on the night of April 23rd, so it wasn't anything terribly recent. When the neighbor stepped inside an elevator, the neighbor's name is Richard Reap. He stepped inside an elevator on the 12th floor along with Kaiser and the woman that he was with.

And as the elevator ascended, Kaiser and the woman began, began to make out right in front of him. And their pat, I love this part, the passion grew to an uncontrollably intimate level with their aggressive kissing. And when they reached the 12th floor, with both parties allegedly getting off the elevator, the neighbor told the couple, please have some manners. That comment triggered an angry response from Kaiser, who allegedly pummeled Reap and shoved him to the floor.

Police say Kaiser also threatened the neighbor who later reported the alleged assault to law enforcement, and they observed a scratch on him and some redness. It said that the responding officers reviewed surveillance footage from the 12th floor, and that video allegedly showed a white male punching and pushing Reep outside the elevator at the time of the incident, states that Reep subsequently identified Bartel in a six-person photographic lineup conducted later that evening. I wonder if they slipped in a photo of him with his El Grande-A Americano mask on. Bartel turned himself in after a warrant had been issued, and attorneys for Bartel filed a motion on Thursday morning in court requesting that he received permission to travel freely internationally despite his arrest.

It notes that he learned of the arrest warrant against him on May 19th while he was in Mexico and he immediately flew back to Orlando to turn himself in the very next day. It also pointed out that he has no prior criminal record. And the motion states that his job requires him to travel around the United States and international. nationally in order to maintain his employment. Now, there was an event that was scheduled on Thursday in Mexico City. It's basically like a siesta for him, like a parade, a party to celebrate El Grande Americano. And it got canceled, but then it got rescheduled for Friday.

And they ended up having the events, and they were celebrating this man. And, I mean, again, he was just the toast of the town. And it sounds like the state attorney is in agreement. They have no objections to the man. the motion that his lawyers files so he'll be able to travel and the match this weekend is is on. The match is taking place. The latest reports are that he is not going to be punished by WWE over the incident. This would have been a generational fumble if this would have wound up killing his push or if that match had been canceled for next weekend.

But it looks like it's full speed ahead. Gable is going to get unmasked on Saturday. and then Kaiser is going to win, I believe, the AAA mega title from Dominic Mysterio at Triplemania in September. Because Dom's dad, Ray Mysterio, was just installed as the new general manager of AAA. So it all ties together just perfectly. I just think this is the way forward here as long as Kaiser keeps his hands to himself and doesn't assault anybody else between now and then. If he's on his best behavior, then his push should be okay. I mean, again, I don't know what was said to him.

In the report, it says that the guy was like, please, mind your manners. Do I believe that that's what the man said? I find that very hard to believe. I'm not condoning what Kaiser did. I'm just saying, I have a sneaking suspicion that maybe other things were said that triggered this man. Because it seems like such an innocuous comment to make, to warrant a reaction like that doesn't really make a lot of sense. But at the same time, look, sticks and stones may break my bones, right? I mean, you're in a position where you're a celebrity, you're a public figure, and you're in the middle of the biggest push of your entire life.

Like, this guy is just on cloud nine right now. You got to be smart about this. You can't be stupid. I don't know what the guy said. I don't know what I would have done in a situation like that if somebody would have mouthed off to me and my girlfriend was there. I don't know. Or assuming it's his girlfriend. I don't know.

But you got to be smarter than that. You can't be putting your hands on people unless they put their hands on you first. That's how I look at it. Saturday night's main event this past weekend. We got some good wrestling on the show. None better than Penta and Ethan Page for the Intercontinental title. They stole the show. We had one terrible finish on the show as well.

I like that they brought back to backstage interviews before the matches. I feel like that's something that was missing before they had gotten rid of it. And those were a staple of those classic Saturday Night's main event shows. It just adds something instead of just going from match to commercial, Match to commercial, commercial, commercial, match. So they formatted it better this time. I'm sure it helps not being on NBC anymore. Now it's just

on Peacock. Jade Cargill, Meachin, and B-Fab. They got a win over Ria Ripley, Charlotte Flare, and Alexa Bliss. Jade pin Ria. I think I talked about this last week that Jade was going to win, but it was important, I think, for her to win by pinning Ria. Yeah, if she pins anybody else in the match, it's like, who cares? We already know

she's not going to win the title back from Ria in Italy this weekend. I felt like it was more important for her to get that pinfall over her, and that's what they did. And the crowd was more up for this than I thought. This was a good match. Becky Lynch against Sol Ruka, it really wasn't a match. It ended up being more of an angle than a match. This was not for Becky's Intercontinental title.

It was more of an angle because they wanted to set up a championship match for this weekend coming up in Italy. This did not even go two and a half minutes. And the spot here was Becky Lynch pulling the referee, Jessica Carr, into harm's way as Sol Rue. Ruka was going for what I have to assume was going to be a soul snatcher attempt. And it just got completely fucked up. She didn't really get the proper rotation on it. I don't know what happened here, but this just was awful. This was awful.

The referee called for the bell. She disqualified Becky for pulling her into harm's way. The fans groaned. I groaned. This was just terrible all around. And later on, Nick Alde said, hey, you're going to have to defend her. Defender Championship in Italy against Sol Ruka next weekend. So that set things up for that show.

I'll talk about Clash in Italy here in a minute. Penta, as I mentioned, he retained the IC title over Ethan Page. And then he followed that with a banger on Raw last night against Javan. And that was the highlight of Raw as well. So Penta's got a nice role going on for himself here. And he's got a title defense coming up soon. We don't know when, but he's got a title defense coming up soon against Ray Mysterio. So Pent has been killing it.

Page and Bree Bella, they retain their women's tag team titles over Nia Jackson Lash legend. These women have had three title defenses so far since they won those titles of WrestleMania, two of which have come against Nia and Lash, none of which have been any good. It is time to put an end to this. And this really, honestly, should not have been anything more than like a very quick one-off, and those belts should have come off them like the week after WrestleMania. I don't know why we're still doing this. and the street profits failed in their attempt to win the world tag team titles from Logan Paul and Austin Theory.

We had Braun Breaker running out there. My God, he got pounced. As he ran down to the ring, he got pounced. He cleared the announce desk. And he took a hell of a bump into the announcer chairs. But in the end, the vision got the win. And that is how the show went off the air. So again, I mean, it was fine. It was a good show. I'm not going to compare it to anything. else because I think that would be unfair if I tried to compare it to the other show that we had this weekend. I mean, it's not a fair fight. It was missing that one really marquee match. That's what was weird about the show. We had some good wrestling, but it was missing that one marquee main event that they didn't have. Now, keeping on the topic of the vision and that main event we saw on Saturday, fast forward to Raw last night, we got the announcement that Logan Paul is injured. He tore his

triceps in that Saturday night's main event match. And they showed where it happened to. Angelo Dawkins did a flip dive out of the ring. He landed on Logan outside. He immediately grabbed his left arm. And so he is going to be gone now for months. Brom Breaker is going to assume his spot as one half of the world tag team champions now with Austin theory. So that's what we learned last night. But I mean, the vision, we talk about the cavaliers, man, being cursed by Danhausen in that series against the Knicks. I don't know who's more curse. I don't know who's more curse, the Cavs or the Vision. It's unbelievable with this group.

Seth Rollins was the leader of the vision, right? He got injured. He was gone for months. He had to vacate the World Heavyweight title. They booted him out of the group. Bronbreaker. Emergency hernia surgery. He didn't even have a match at WrestleMania this year.

Bronson Reed, injured, on the shelf for months. Logan Paul now, injured, on the shelf for months. Austin Theory is the last man standing. I'd be awfully worried if I were him. I'd be wrapping myself up in bubble wrap. We also learned the king and queen of the ring tournaments are going to commence on Raw next Monday. I presume with the finals to be held in Riyadh

at night of champions at the end of next month. L.A. Knight has already tossed his name in the hat to become king, and then he says, I'll wrestle Roman reigns. That's assuming Roman is still the champion by then, because first, we have clash in Italy this Sunday in Turin. 2 p.m. Eastern start time.

The first hour will be airing on ESPN. I got to tell you, this is shaping up to be a much stronger card than backlash was. On paper, this is a solid show, more than solid show. They're opening the show we have learned on ESPN with the WWE Championship on the line. Cody Rhodes will be defending that title against Gunther. And I look at this and I say there's so many reasons to have Gunther go over and win the championship here. And so many reasons to not have him take the L

because they have done everything in their power to try to preserve this man and protect this man and really build him up as that unbeatable attraction. He has not lost a match since he lost the World Heavyweight title to CM Punk at SummerSlam in August. And obviously he beat John Sina in John Sina's final match. He beat AJ Stiles and AJ's final match.

So they've protected him. and I don't really see what the purpose would be. You've moved him from Raw to SmackDown. This is going to be his first match, PLE match anyway. As part of the Smackdown roster, he had the one match on TV against Royce Keys. Why would you send him in there just to lose again?

To Cody. He lost to Cody a couple of years ago at Crown Jewel when we had the champion of one brand against the champion of the other brand. And he lost to him then. So you're going to send him back in there here His first really truly big match on Smackdown And he's going to lose to Cody Rose

That doesn't make any sense to me I'm going with Gunther I think he's going to win the title I think also they may look at it and go Hey we're going to give ESPN their first WWE title change Right this will be like a big deal It'll get all kinds of coverage on SportsCenter It'll be like a big moment, a big deal

But Gunther needs to win this match Now you could do the finish in a way Where somebody gets involved Randy Orton could show up. And there could be a disqualification finish. Sammy Zane could get involved. We saw him on Friday. And that could result in some sort of non-finish.

Sure. I don't know that that's what they want to do, though, if they're kicking this thing off on ESPN by having some bullshit finish. So I'm going with Gunther. I think he's going to win the championship. I think Cody will have a little side quest for a while with Sammy Zane before ultimately returning to challenge to get the belt back again. Also on the ESPN hour.

we have Ria Ripley defending her women's championship against Jade Cargill. This is a rematch from WrestleMania. They actually had a good match at WrestleMania. I suspect it'll be another good match here, but I don't envision any scenario where Jade wins the belt back. This will be a retention for Ria.

And we now know it is official. Brock Lesnar is back and he will go one-on-one in a WrestleMania rematch with Oba Femi. Now, they had a segment on Raw last night. If you remember two weeks ago, Brock came back. or not two weeks ago, but last week, Brock came back. Big surprise, he left Oba laying after four F-5s.

So this week, Brock wasn't there, although they had like a pre-tape promo from him. Heyman was there. Oba confronted him in the ring. And he closed with the line of the night. He said, last time he was fighting to beat Brock. This time he's fighting to kill Brock. and that was the money line right there.

Now, I had figured, as most people probably do, that Brock is back to get his win back, and they're going to set up a third and final match between them at SummerSlam, and they're going to complete the trilogy. And I still feel like that's where this ultimately ends. I think this ends in Minneapolis at SummerSlam. But the more I think about this, I don't think Brock Lesnar needs to win this

to keep things headed in that direction. Especially if Brock really is planning on retiring in Minneapolis, and yes, I'm as skeptical as you probably are. But that was something John Sina hinted at, even going back to last year, that Brock was going to wrap up in Minneapolis. And some people assume that meant SummerSlam. Some people didn't know if he was speaking out of turn.

Did he mean to say that? Why not have Obafemi beat him a second time? Only just to drive Lesnar that much crazier to where he puts his career on the line, legit this time. Like, it would have to be in writing. He'd have to make a blood oath. so that way we could believe it this time.

But like he just, he cannot, he cannot deal with the fact that this man has beaten him for a second time. And he said it in his promo last night where he was prepared to walk away after losing to Oba. But then he realized, I can't go out like that. Well, then what happens if he goes in there

and loses again, right? He can't go out like that. Now he's desperate. He can't figure this guy up, but he knows he can beat him and he's willing to put it all on the line for real this time, in Minneapolis, in his former hometown, at SummerSlam. And he goes in there and he loses again.

Oba beats him all three times. To really solidify Oba is the next big thing. And we've seen this before. Triple H many years ago when he put over Dave Batista at WrestleMania and lost the World Heavyweight Championship when Batista was getting his first big push 20 years ago. Triple H put him over at WrestleMania. He put him over on the next pay-per-view, which may have been backlash, I think.

And then they had a hell-in-a-sell match, an excellent hell-in-a-sell match. And he lost to Batista there, too. He dropped three straight to this guy. So in case you were wondering, is Batista the real deal? Yeah. In fact, the Triple H of all people put this guy over in three straight pay-per-view matches, I think told you that Batista is the guy. That's what they should do here with Brock and Oba.

So I'm going with Obafemi to win this match on Sunday. Maybe I'm crazy. Maybe I'm a little nuts. But I'm going to go with Oba for the win. I don't think he needs to lose this. And I don't think it kills him if he loses. I'm not saying, oh my God, he must win. But I don't see the need for him to lose.

Becky Lynch is going to put her women's intercontinental title on the line against Sol Ruka. Sol has yet to capture a pinfall win on TV since getting called up from NXT. A fact that Becky has been sure to drive home on television to the point where she even said, maybe Soul ought to go back down to NXT. I think it's too soon to put the championship on Sol Ruka, but everything seems primed for her to take the belt here. I just think they're leaning too heavily into the fact that she has yet to win. I mean, she beat Becky technically by disqualification last weekend,

but give me a fucking break. I mean, that doesn't count. She basically hasn't won a real match yet. And I feel like they're just leaning too heavily into that to where if she just goes in there and loses again, man, I mean, that's rough. You know what I mean? Like that, that's going to be a tough pill to swallow. So I think she's going to win here.

I think they're going to put the title on her here. And I would absolutely end up putting the intercontinental belt on her. I just, I wouldn't do it this weekend, but I think they will. And then in the main event, now that we know Gunther and Cody are opening the show, there is only one main event, and that is going to be tribal combat for the World Heavyweight Championship, Roman Reins defending against Jacob fought two. They had their second contract signing this month alone last night. Tell me that gimmick isn't played out.

With a new stipulation added where if Roman wins, Fattu has to serve him. Serve him what? I don't know. Maybe some wing stop. Maybe they're going to play some tennis. I don't know, but he has to serve him. Fatu agreed to this with the idea that, well, if I lose, at least I still have a job. Actually, this is TKO we're talking about here.

Don't assume that you will have a job. But he says, when he wins, Roman will have a job. have to acknowledge him. I really don't have the appetite to see Fatu drop two in a row. I think that hurts him. But also, if Roman wins, think about it. Like, what changes if Roman reigns wins? Nothing. Nothing changes. It's the same old, same old. If Jacob wins, Roman said, he'll take a back seat, right? He'll become number two. And it takes the bloodline stuff in a new direction where Roman is forced to play backup QB, which is not a position that we're used to seeing him in. So at least that would make things a little more interesting.

So that's how I feel about that. But I don't think we're getting two world title changes on this show. I feel like it's one or the other. And I just think it's more likely that Gunther walks out with the title than Jacob Fawtu. So I think Roman Rains is going to win. And then I just hope they have a really good idea for what they plan on doing with Jacob Fawtu. Because I think it hurts him. You know, to drop two in a row.

Oh, after talking all this shit, he's been going around as this big uncontrollable monster now ever since backlash. He's killing guys every single week. You know, for him to go in there and just lose again, I think really hurts him. But I think Roman is walking out with the belt. So that's your clash in Italy card. Just some other news and notes here before we wrap up. Reporter BJ Bethel tweeted last Thursday. Vince McMahon, Linda McMahon, T.

TKO and W.W.E. are asking the Ringboys case to be dropped, claiming the Maryland Child Victims Act is unconstitutional on the 14th Amendment and the ex post facto clause and filed a request for a hearing. The Maryland Supreme Court upheld the Maryland Child Victims Act last year as constitutional. Now, for those who don't know, the Ringboy scandal, it's a very famous or infamous scandal with WWE that goes back to the late 80s. and into the early 90s. This ex post facto clause, it's a constitutional protection that prevents the government from retroactively punishing actions that were legal

when they were committed. And what the Maryland Child Victims Act did was eliminate the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits involving child sex abuse, which is what this is. Now, I'm no lawyer, so I can't speak to how strong of a case

they have in trying to get this dropped. But I will say, say it has been fun watching them squirm over it because this has been a black mark on this company since the early 90s when all of this was exposed. And one of the most egregious things was the fact they fired Mel Phillips because he's really the center of all of this. He worked for them for many years as a ring announcer. You even see his face pop up. They post stuff on their vault channel on YouTube all the time. And you'll hear his voice occasionally. You'll see him. So he was a ring announcer who was responsible.

also for managing the ring crew and recruiting the ring boys who worked for the company in different cities. And the McMahon's fired him based on allegations at the time of inappropriate behavior with underage ring boys. Right. And he had a foot fetish. He would play with their feet and he would do all these just sick things. But then they brought him back a few weeks later with the caveat that he steer clear of kids. Just stay away from the kids. That's a, That's from an old Phil Mushnick column in the New York Post. This is what Vince himself had told Dave Meltzer and then Phil Mushnick. That he brought him back with the caveat, stay away from kids.

So basically admitting that he fired a pedophile, only to bring him back with a warning not to go near any children. Now, I want you to think about that. Okay, let that ruminate in your head for a while. And tell me that you have any sympathy for the defendants in this case. Whether it stands up in court is another matter entirely. But I certainly don't have any sympathy for Vince or Linda McMahon in any of this. I spoke recently about the new house shows that WWE added to its calendar this summer 10 dates as part of its summer tour. And they added two more yesterday, one in Calgary and one in Edmonton this August.

Well, on Thursday, Russell Votes Radio on Fightful Select reported that a more extensive winter loop could happen later this year based on the success of the 10 events added to their schedule for July and August. The financial success of the shows and their impact on talent health were listed as the main factors to be evaluated. And also regarding house shows, the report noted that select main event talent were approached about working the events and given the choice to decline. And the report also noted that between 25 and 30 talents are expected per live event. I think it's a good thing that they're doing more house shows, but I got to tell you, there is. is something massively fucked up about asking people to take a pay cut. In some cases, by as much as 50% at the same time that you decide to add more shows for them to work.

I don't know how that's supposed to work. Of all the times to bring back house shows, they bring it back at a time when they're asking people to take pay cuts. Just unbelievable. We have an update from AEW star Koda Ibushi. It looks like he's coming to terms with the possibility. that he may not be able to wrestle, if not ever again, certainly not for a very long time. Instead of him posting videos of him doing standing moonsaults on his broken femur

that still hasn't fully reattached yet, and yes, that is something that he did not that long ago. He posted this on Instagram the other day. This is translated here, but this is what he said. Thank you all so much for everything up until now. I'm Cota Ibusci, a professional wrestler who has been active for 22 years. I was able to fulfill many dreams in the world of pro wrestling, and I truly had a wonderful life as a wrestler. I am currently sidelined due to a right leg injury sustained last November.

To be honest, a comeback seems unlikely for now. I turned 44 today, so I decided, Coda Ibushi, I want to give back to the pro wrestling world. The pro wrestling world is currently facing a serious crisis. Shinjuku Face is closing down. This venue, where I've had many matches, is a place that pro wrestling organizations have been grateful to. In particular, it was the perfect venue for independent wrestling promotions to hold regular shows. I believe that the disappearance of such venues is equivalent to a crisis for the culture of wrestling. Therefore, I will put my body on the line. I am putting my body on the line to

earn money. I am going to build a pro wrestling venue. So please cooperate with me. Please give me work, no matter how small the project may be. My leg is not fully recovered, so I can't play the match but I'll manage to get through everything else with sheer willpower. And with the money they earn, I'll build a pro wrestling venue. I don't care how long it takes. I want to give back to the pro wrestling world in the end, and to achieve this, I need your cooperation. I look forward to your DMs. Thank you.

As he said, it's an event hall, apparently in Tokyo, that has been in operation for more than 20 years, and it's hosted a ton of wrestling and MMA events, fits around 600 people, but it is closing down at the end of September. They have a fixed term lease agreement, I guess that's expiring. So a weird venue, if you look it up,

it's on the seventh floor of what looks like an office building, and they have shops on the bottom. They may well have offices in the middle, and then the venue is up on top. But this is going to screw over a lot of smaller promotions. And so good on Ibushi

for trying to do something positive to replace it. I don't know how realistic this is or where he plans on building this new vows. venue, maybe on the planet that he is from. He's crazy enough that he might take a hammer and literally start building it himself from the ground up with no engineering or design experience. He'll just start hammering shit and laying down bricks all by himself with his one good leg.

I would hope that he has some sort of plan for this, but I mean, it's Ibushi. So you know he doesn't. He just really wants to do something to help, which is noble, but you can't just say I'm going to build a pro wrestling venue. You know, here's my Venmo address. Send funds. He's going to need more help. He can't do it all by himself. Unfortunately, there was a fatal accident on Sunday night at a Lucha Libre show in Mexico where a 56-year-old wrestler named Piloto Suicita, real name Jose Calzada, died after attempting a springboard moonsault to the floor. Now, I saw the video, He was on the top rope. He had his back turned.

And he took a few steps to the side because he was standing on the top rope. So it wasn't like holding on to the post or anything. He inched over, right? No support. And he just went for a moonsaw. But as he was going for the moonsaw, it looked like he was losing his balance and starting to fall backwards a little bit. And so it didn't look great.

He sort of fell off as he tried to turn his body for the moonsaw. And you can't see the moment of impact, thankfully. because the crowd is in the way, but you can definitely hear the sickening thud of his skull hitting the pavement. And it is just a terrible coincidence that a wrestler called suicide pilot would end up dying on a dive out to the floor like that, but that's what happened. He fractured his skull. He died at the scene.

Dave Meltzer says he wasn't even supposed to be wrestling on the show. His son was. So he was the replacement. And the show was stopped and the fans were asked to leave the building until law and forcemen arrived to conduct their investigation. This is not to be confused with the Piloto Suicita who wrestled on the independent scene in Southern California and the Michinoku Pro promotion back in the 90s. I even saw Christopher Daniels.

He thought that it was the same Piloto Suicita that he worked with early in his career out in L.A. And then, you know, fans told him it wasn't the same person. But that doesn't make it any less tragic. And lastly, here, want to send best wishes to. Vladimir the Superfan. If you have watched wrestling over the past, I don't know, four decades or so, I guarantee that you have seen Vlad in the crowd more than once.

He was a staple of those old Madison Square Garden shows for years. So many classic matches and moments that he was present for. He's unmistakable if you saw him. You would know right away who it is. WWE named him their first ever certified superfan back in 2021. They produced a documentary about him. Vlad is in the hospital. He took a bad fall and hit his head on the pavement, according to Mike Johnson, a PW Insider,

who's been best friends with Vlad now for many years. He's been battling Parkinson's disease for many years. He's had a lot of balance issues resulting from that. And he suffered a bad concussion. There was fear he might have bleeding on the brain. It sounds like he's out of imminent danger when it comes to that. But he's going to be laid up in the hospital for a while recovering. I've had the chance to meet Vlad a few times over the years.

He's just, he's the nicest guy. You know, always a smile on his face. He just really loves pro wrestling. And that documentary that WWE did was pulled from Peacock a few years ago. And so it was considered lost media until it popped back up on their vault channel on YouTube last week. And I encourage anybody listening to this who has never seen it, it's called Superfan. Go check it out. It's not very long.

It's not even 40 minutes, but it is well worth your time. And here's hoping for a full report. recovery for Vlad. That's all I got for you. I hope you enjoyed the show this week. And again, I hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend. I will be back with you next Tuesday for another episode of the Uncrowned Wrestling Show. That'll be coming off Clash in Italy. So I'm sure that'll be a part of the conversation next week. Be sure to go ahead and subscribe to the show on the official Uncrowned Wrestling Show feed. You can also stream it on the Ariel Helwani show feed. Lots of other great shows on there as well, as you all know. And if not, well, now you do. And

that goes for all the other news too. If you didn't know, now you know, I'm Jason Solomon. I will see you back here next Tuesday for more uncrowned. Until then, take care, guys.