The Ariel Helwani Show - The Uncrowned Wrestling Show | Roman Reigns spiked, high praise for Chelsea Green, G1 Climax finale

Episode Date: August 18, 2026

Solomonster reacts to the final faceoff between CM Punk and Kevin Owens ahead of their championship match, then discusses the date of the next Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton match and why it’s going to cost you more to watch it (2:56). The plight of Chelsea Green leads to a fantastic opening segment on Friday, including the status of her title reign, and the high praise she received from a former champion, calling it one of the greatest promos she’s ever seen (13:25).   Gunther is directionless right now and the latest update on Ilja Dragunov is not a good one (19:15). Thoughts on a strong episode of Raw, with Solo Sikoa spiking Roman Reigns, the latest on the tournament to find a challenger for Roman in Mexico City next month, and Rey Mysterio turning back the hands of time against Chad Gable (32:38). An update on the AEW Continental Cup, an injury to Nigel McGuinness, the return of Swerve Strickland, and the latest card for All In London at Wembley (48:20). Thoughts on the end of the G1 Climax tournament and the future ace of New Japan (55:02), a member of the Samoan dynasty and Power Slap star retiring from the ring at 34 years old (57:38), Zilla Fatu’s debut on NXT (1:00:36) and WOW Women of Wrestling gets a BIG upgrade for its new season (1:04:25). Ending with your questions in our “Unread on Uncrowned” segment, talking Tatum Paxley’s Smackdown debut, what if Jake Roberts had stayed with WWE in 1992, the racial discrimination lawsuit against WCW in 1999, the 25th anniversary of the WHAT chant, and more (1:07:42).

Welcome to the Uncrowned wrestling show. Solomaster here for Tuesday, August 18, 2006. We at Uncrowned are sending our best wishes to Kenneth Johnson, better known as the Doctor of Style Slick. We'd love saying that. One of the more colorful characters from the 1980s. He suffered a heart attack. It is said, though, that he is recovering in the ICU.

On Sunday, Steve Stasiak of Book Pro Wrestler shared this update on social media. said the doctor of style Slick is reportedly recovering in the ICU after suffering a heart attack and undergoing open heart surgery. Only hours ago, we were celebrating the anniversary of Slick's WWF debut and reflecting on everything that he has brought to pro wrestling. We could not have imagined that before the day was over, we would be asking everyone to pray for the man behind the character, Kenneth Johnson. The encouraging news is that Slick reached the hospital in time, made it through surgery, and is said to be on the mend. His recovery is moving slowly, but right now recovery is all that matters. The update was shared by Andrew Anderson, who said the information came from Mary Alice Gray, the wife of one-man gang, after she spoke directly with Slick.

Please keep Slick, his family and the medical team caring for him in your prayers. Get Well Slick. The wrestling world is pulling for you. Absolutely. Slick is the son of Rufus Jones, who was inducted posthumously into the WWE Hall of Fame in their legacy wing, he actually died from a heart attack when he was 60. So it may be something that runs in the family. Thankfully, with Slick, they were able to get him to the hospital on time.

Bobby Heenan is the greatest wrestling manager of all time. But Slick was part of that whole crew of managers in the 80s when there were just tons of wrestling managers. But like in WWF specifically, you had Heenan and Jimmy Hart and Mr. Fuji and a whole bunch of others. And he was part of that crew. with one of the absolute greatest entrance songs of all time, Jive Soulbro.

And then he became an ordained minister later on, which is when they brought him back as the Reverend Slick, which was pretty well the opposite of the character they had him playing before that. I mean, you talk about a 180. So anyway, best wishes to Slick, hopefully he continues to recover.

So what do we got here? You know, these summer months, things tend to slow down a little bit. But we do have news coming out of Ron Smackdown over past week. And I'm going to get into some AEW stuff as well. We got some updates on the Continental Cup. We have the latest lineup, as it is current, for all in London, which is coming up in a couple of weeks from Wembley Stadium. Got a bunch of other miscellaneous wrestling news and notes. And then we're going to break into your questions, and we got a whole bunch of them. That'll come

up at the end here. Let's start with Smackdown. Let's take it back to Friday. Because there was a big face-to-face between CM Punk and Kevin Owens, because they're having a WWE champion championship match on Smackdown this Friday in Toronto. So Owens is going to be just over like Rover. I mean, he's going to be the returning hero here because the last time we saw Kevin Owens in a match in Toronto was actually against Sammy Zane at the elimination chamber last year. And that was his last, up until SummerSlam just recently.

That was his last match, certainly last singles match in WWA. That's going to be like a homecoming for him. They went face to face. And what we got out of it was something that I was at. actually hoping we would get between Cody and Punk heading into SummerSlam, something that was a little more heated, and that came off as very flat and very forced, you know, when they tried to force this, you know, rift or whatever you want to say between the two of them, just some of the stuff that they were doing. It just didn't feel terribly interesting. With Punk and Owens, they have never

wrestled before, but there is history going back to their days in the Ring of Honor locker room back in 2005. I think I talked about this a few weeks ago, and so sure enough, it came up in the promo on Friday. They told an abbreviated version of the T-shirt story, the infamous t-shirt story. And the gist of it is that Kevin Owens was still very new to Ring of Honor. He was hoping to get full-time work there, didn't want to rock the boat or anything like that, typically wrestled in a shirt. That's just how he felt the most comfortable. And I guess Gabe Sapolsky, the Booker at the time, had asked him previously, you know, don't wear the shirt. We don't want to anybody wearing t-shirts when they go out to the ring to wrestle. And on this particular night,

he was hoping to wear a shirt. And he got it cleared with Gabe. Gabe's like, fine, you can wear a shirt. And when he got there, he ended up not wearing a shirt. He chose, he just decided, you know what, I'm not going to wear the shirt. But I guess word of this got back to punk, right? Gabe and punk were very tight. Punk was one of the top names, if not the top name in ROH at the time. And Owens comes back from his match that night. He sees punk. I guess the two of them maybe had, you know, traded some friendly barbs earlier. Anyway, he comes through the backstage area. That first person he sees is punk.

And he says to punk, are you happy now? But he says, you know, he didn't mean it as like anything confrontational. He was just saying it as a joke. To be honest with you, if you were someone like punk and this guy who, you don't know who the hell is this guy, makes a comment like that, you're probably not going to take that. as a joke. And punk did not take that as a joke. And in front of the entire locker room, he got up, and he just lit into Owens and was trashing him and insulting him and yelling and screaming at him in front of everybody. And so people, you know, shared the story of like the time

that CM Punk chewed out Kevin Owens. And he's told that story over the years. And he doesn't seem, you know, he's not still bitter about it or anything like that. But I was wondering if they were going to incorporate that into the storyline here because that's really where their first interaction or their first confrontation came from. And that was 20 plus years ago. So they did kind of get into that a little bit. And then they expanded on that. And Owens is talking about how, you know, I don't like you. I don't believe that you're a change man like everybody else. I'm not buying into your bullshit. I think you're an arrogant sociopath and all of this other stuff. And Punk came back at him.

with some shots of his own and talked about, because, you know, Owens was bragging about while you were gone for all those years. You know, I won these championships and I actually made event in WrestleMania against Stone Cold Steve Austin, something that you never did, which had punk stayed around,

I don't have a doubt in my mind. We would have gotten that match. There was a period of time around 2013 or so, 2013, 2014, where that was like the big dream match. And I'll never forget the sit-down interview they did for the 2K video game, and you go back and watch this sit down with Jim Ross in between Austin and Punk, and you're like, man, where do I, where do I watch the match? How much do I have to pay to see the match? It just felt like, surely they're teasing us because they're building

to an eventual match. And unfortunately, that match never came, and then the following year, Punk up and left. So he was bragging about that, and punk said, yeah, you know what, congrats, I'm happy for you. All of those accomplishments, all of those accolades, but do you all of honestly believed that had I not left, that they would have chosen you over me? And basically he was getting into it where, you know, he was insulting his physique. He called him fat. You know, I'm going to kick your fat ass next week. You don't put the work in. You don't adapt. Every day I wake up, I try to be at least one percent better than I was the day before. And so they went back and forth. Now, if anybody can go back and forth with punk on the mic,

it's Kevin Owens. I thought Owens won the exchange. But, But it was like, okay, this is what I was hoping for here. You know, I want to at least try to believe that these two men really don't like each other. Even if that's not the case in real life, convince me, convince me that you do. Convince me that, you know what? I'm not so sure. Maybe Kevin Owens really doesn't like this guy. And maybe he doesn't.

But I like, it came off a lot more genuine than the Cody and punk stuff did. So I enjoyed it when it was over. I was hyped to see the match. It's coming up on Friday. question is, what kind of finish are we looking at here? Would they actually change the title? I would love to see Kevin Owens walk out of Toronto was the WWE champion. I believe that going into this match, Owens is 0 for 11 in WWE championship matches. That is a horrendous record. And I have a feeling he's going O for 12. Not that he's even necessarily going to get pinned and beaten by Punk,

even if there's a non-finish, just that he's going to walk into this match and not leave with the championship. I would love to see it. My gut tells me Sammy Zane is going to get involved. And one of the reasons that Sammy Zane is going to show up and get involved is because he was supposed to wrestle Cody Rhodes at the end of Smackdown last Friday. And he was told by Nick Aldus, look, you got your little injury, he's got a little brace on his wrist. Sammy said, I'm not, I'm not ready to wrestle. Alda said, well, I'll tell you what. If you do, and if you win against Cody, you get the first crack at whoever the champion is coming out of that match in Toronto next week. So, of course, Sammy accepted.

Problem is, Sammy never made it to the ring. Cody got to the ring first. Sammy was on his way out, and who shows up but Randy Orton. He slides into the ring, he attacks Cody, and the two of them brawl off into the crowd. I don't know what happened is Sammy Zane. He vanished. We never saw him again. Eventually, the two of them fought back to ringside.

So Sammy never got his shot. So here he is again, left out in the cold, after being fucked over at SummerSlam, what he thought was going to be a singles match against Finn Baller turned into a fatal four way, that he lost. And so he had another opportunity here, and it was taken from him. So I think we're going to see him show his face at the end of this match. I don't know that we're getting any winner. I don't know that we're getting a clean winner. I doubt very seriously that we're getting a clean winner. But it should be a good match.

I've been waiting for these two to go one-on-one ever since Punk came back to the company. Hopefully this is the first of maybe a series of matches between them. But man, if Owens gets more than one and still can't walk out with the championship, I mean, what does that say? You know what I mean? Like to have that many opportunities at the championship and every single time they just won't put this guy over. He's had title matches with Roman Raines and Cody Rhodes and now punk. And he just keeps coming up on the losing end of things.

You just get to a point where it's like he just came back, right? the people are into him. He's had all these other chances. What does it say about him if he just goes in there again and fucking loses? You know, I just think that would be very lame unless Sammy costs him. But it's like, then what? Does Sammy go off and feud with Kevin Owens? Like we haven't seen that 15,000 times?

I don't know. But I would be stunned if he doesn't pop up during this match. Now, the other announcement that we got coming out of all of this is that Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton, their match is set. and it is set for Sunday night's main event, which is going to be taking place on September 6th in Atlanta. I believe that's Labor Day weekend. In Atlanta, which is Cody's backyard. So that match is official.

By the way, for those of you, because this airs on Peacock. It's the last vestige of WWE on Peacock. Peacock just announced they're raising their subscription prices again. Peacock Premium, which is with ads, will be $12.99 a month going forward, which is up from $10.99. And Peacock Premium Plus, which is ad-free, is going to be $19.99 a month, which is a $3 increase from $16.99. So, oh boy. Another price increase for one of these streaming services.

Just be aware of that. I'll have more news on Sunday night's main event here in a little bit when I talk about Raw. Some other stuff from Smackdown, though. Baron Corbyn, the United States champion, he got a win over Carmelo Hayes, clean, in Carmelo Hayes' hometown. And Corbett is still coming out with the furry belt. As soon as I saw him ride out to the ring on his motorcycle and I looked at that belt and it had the white fur trim on it. I said, well, okay, not only is Mello not winning.

Clearly the belt is going back imminently to Trick Williams. Because if it wasn't going back to Trick Williams, they would have shaved that shit off long ago, right? Well, they would have swapped that belt out for another one. The fact that he's still coming out with the furry belt tells you that Trick Williams will regain the championship imminently. He came out after the match and basically chased Corbyn off. I don't know if they're going to do this on Sunday night's main event or if they'll just save it for a Smackdown.

There's no PLE until money in the bank, which is not until October 10th, I believe. And I can't imagine they're going to wait that long to do the match. Trick's already lost twice to Corbyn. Ain't no way he's going in there and losing a third time. So whenever they announce that match, that's going to be a title change. There's not a doubt in my mind about that. But speaking of titles, this is the other big thing that happened on Smackdown.

Chelsea Green. Let's talk about Chelsea Green. If you are living under a rock, or you've just been maybe in a coma, you just woke up, Chelsea Green won a ladder match at SummerSlam to become the interim WWE women's champion because Ria Ripley had to undergo surgery. She was trying to rehab her knee, her torn meniscus. She had to go under the knife. So we're probably not going to see her back until the end of the year.

Early next year, maybe Royal Rumble Time. They did this interim nonsense because they figured Ria was going to be back soon. Well, now she's not going to be back soon. So even though Chelsea became the interim champion at SummerSlam, ever since Smackdown last week, no mention of the word interim. So she is basically the WWE women's champion now. Unfortunately for her, she got injured last week. Her first match coming out of SummerSlim, they put her in a tag team match,

and she got her face broken by fatal influence. She suffered a broken orbital bone, and there was question as to whether or not she might actually have to relinquish the championship, which would have been fucking awful. She showed up in the opening segment on Friday. Nick Aldus, the GM was in the ring. He requested her presence. She came out and I'm sure they used some makeup to make it look worse, but she had the black eye, which has got to be a little weird, I would imagine, for poor Matt Cardona because they went to Disneyland.

They posted pictures in their social media. They went to Disneyland and Chelsea actually had the belt with her. They were celebrating, but she had the black eye. So like, if you're not a wrestling fan and you don't know any better and you see this guy and his girlfriend walking around and she's got a black eye. Like if you're Cardona, you know you're getting some looks. You know you're getting some looks and some stares. from people. You're probably just dying to go, no, no, no, you don't understand. And all this said, look, I hate doing this. This is the worst part of my job.

And before he could even get out what he wanted to say, Chelsea interrupted him and she cut this great baby face promo talking about everything that she's had to endure over the years, all of the embarrassing moments, all of the struggles, all of the doubt, people not believing that she could even ever be in this position as a world champion to get that. that moment at Summer Slam, you can't take that away from me. Don't do what I think you're about to do. And he said, look, I've conferred with medical. I have no choice. Chelsea, I have to ask you to surrender the WWE Women's Championship. And the key takeaway from this segment was throughout all of this, as Chelsea comes out, and then she cuts this impassioned promo, was the crowd reaction to her. These

people were going nuts for her. From the moment she came out and then she started talking, they're cheering for her, they're chanting her name, they're treating her. You would think this woman was the biggest baby face on Smackdown, certainly in the women's division, which she is right now, especially with Ria Ripley being gone. But that's great, right? That's the kind of reaction. Like, if you're Chelsea Green, that's the kind of reaction that you want these crowds to be giving you every week.

That sends a message to the people in the back. That sends a message to the people who maybe had doubts about whether or not she would be accepted as a top baby face in the division. So they were all in on Chelsea here, and she was great. but she gave the belt over to Alders, and she was walking away, and Aldous said, hold up. And he said, you know,

Nick Alder's the GM knows he's making the right decision. But Nick Alde's the man basically thinks that this is bullshit. And so what I'm going to do is I'm going to give you 30 days to get medically cleared. Do what you need to do. You can wear a face mask, whatever it is. You get cleared in 30 days. You can keep your championship. If not, then I'm going to have no choice but to strip you.

And everybody was very happy about it. this. The way they built this up was great. I thought this opening segment was actually the best thing on the entire show. And they sent Gunther out there, of all people, to interrupt the celebration. He was mocking Chelsea. Chelsea got to clap back at him and said, you know, from best as I could tell, the only person standing in this ring right now with the championship is me. Matt Cardona came out because he was coming out to defend his wife's honor. And Gunther laughed in his face. He, from catering all the way out to the ring. And I'm like, yeah, It cuts a little deep.

And it led to an impromptu match. And, of course, Cardona got his ass kick. But I thought that everything up to that point in this segment was tremendous. Now, they sent Nia Jackson and Lashel Legend out there at the very end. They were threatening Chelsea. Tiffany Stratton came out to try to save her friend. She ended up taking a beat down, which is important because it led into something else that happened here on this show. But before I get to that, just to illustrate how great this segment was,

Nick Aldous's wife, Mickey James, who had a pretty good career herself. She had high praise for this segment. And she posted on social media, congratulations to Chelsea Green for delivering not just one of her greatest promos, but legitimately one of the greatest promos I've ever watched. I felt every moment, she felt every word.

That is how it should be done. You are a star. Everyone should take notes. It's pretty high praise, I would say. I mean, one of the greatest promos that she's ever watched. It was very good. One thing that I did laugh at, though, why is it that she has 30 days to get cleared so she can get back in the ring when we were coming off two women's championship reigns on Raw and Smackdown with Liv Morgan and Jade Cargill,

where they went in excess of 100 days without defending their titles? I didn't see any of these general managers batting an eyelash at that, but apparently Chelsea Green, we got to, it's like the doomsday clock for the Avengers Doom's day movie. We have a 30-day countdown that must strictly be adhered to. We must have a defending champion within 30 days, which, hey, I think I agree with that. But, I mean, if you're going to enforce the rules, you've got to enforce them evenly here. Gunther was a great shithole heel in that segment. I got to give him his flowers to. He's completely directionless right now.

But in this segment, I thought he was great. And when I think about, like, where to go from here with Gunther, you know, like, what do you do with him? he's not going to be in the title picture right now, right? There's other people who are occupying that scene. So then what do you do with him? He has spent the majority of his career in this company, something like in the 70% range, ever since he got called up to the main roster,

as a champion, whether it was intercontinental champion, world heavyweight champion. And so him not having a belt is a little weird, but that doesn't mean that you can't come up with something for him to do. Now, the match that I would love to see, the program that I would love to see, given that they're both on SmackDown, and they have a lot of history together.

They've had great matches together. Gunther and Ilya Draganov, who was having a good run for himself when he was the United States champion. He was doing all the open challenges. But Dragonov has just dropped off the face of the earth. Ilya Dragonov has not wrestled since the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal

on Smackdown, which was the night before WrestleMania Night 1. We're going back to April. his only win on TV this year came back in January. That was against the Mizz. So he has done nothing. Now, I've seen pictures of him training at the dungeon with Natty and everybody else. So he's active.

He's just not on the road. He's not backstage. And he's not wrestling. Why is this? A lot of speculation about whether there was an injury, which it doesn't appear to be, visa issues, which is certainly possible. You know, there are other wrestlers in WWE and AEW that have had visa issues that have kept them off TV for a period of time, but for Dagenov, this has just been dragging on and on and on.

That seems very unlikely to me. During a Q&A session, we had Joey votes and T.C. of wrestle votes. They addressed the situation. And Joey admitted that there hasn't really been a whole lot of noise around an Ilya Dragonov comeback. He says, I haven't heard his name in weeks. And T.C. then pointed something out, which is far beyond anything. creative, which is analytics. He said that they rely on analytics so much, and if these numbers look bad against you and not in

your favor, they won't use you as much. Some of these guys are feeling the effects of WWE's new Moneyball approach, where they take numbers, analytics, and reporting. People turn off the TV when this guy's on. They don't click on his name. W.W.E utilizes these more than anyone will ever know. These guys are really hurting because of that. His merch is nothing. He's had one or two shirts. So there's no, man, I really like this guy. I'll buy his t-shirt. He's not a priority. Now, that's the only real update that we've had on Ilya Dragonov. So I can't say whether it's 100% the reason why he hasn't been on TV. I would like to think that there's something more to it that we just don't know about. Because if that's what it is,

if it's the money ball approach and their attitude is, well, this guy's not a draw, so we're not going to use him. Again, it doesn't even make any sense to me because you would think they would still use him even if he's not being seriously pushed. They're just not using him. It's almost like he's being punished, but did nothing to be punished for, right? So I'm not sure exactly what the primary reason is, and I'm hoping that that's not it. Because to me, it's like a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you're not going to use the guy and you're not going to put some effort behind the guy, then of course he's not going to get over. And the fans are not going to see him as any sort of priority that they should give a shit about. When you think back to his U.S.

title stuff that he was doing. I don't know if people were clicking on his name when they posted a clip on the YouTube channel. I'm sure they have access to internal analytics that you and I don't. So maybe the numbers do back that up and maybe the numbers do bear out that his stuff did worse, you know, noticeably worse than everybody else on the show. I don't know if that's true or not. What I do know is that if you go back and you watch his matches.

And he's very unique as compared to anybody else on Smack That in terms of just how he wrestles his matches. it's very intense. That's his bread and butter, right? He can cut a promo, he can talk. You know, it's not like there's a language barrier with him, but that's not his strength. His strength is ding, ding, ding, the bell rings,

and he goes out there and has a great match. Week after week, after week, after week. And every match he has feels like a battle. It feels like a struggle. And he was getting over. The crowds were responding to him. It's not like they were just sitting on their hands. You know, and they were doing a little story with him

where he kind of lost his way, he lost his confidence, he lost his mojo a little bit, but then he got it back and then he lost, I think, to Carmelo Hayes. And I can't remember a single thing he did after that. It's like they gave up on him. Well, if you give up on somebody, then of course they're not going to have any chance to get over. You know, the creative has to also support these people.

You called him up to the main roster for a reason. You belted him and put the United States championship on him for however long it was a few months. You did that for a reason. and you could talk about analytics until you turn blue in the face, but maybe the biggest analytic of all, I would think, is when you're out there in front of a live crowd, 10,000 people, 14,000 people, are they sitting on their hands, or are they reacting?

Are they getting behind this person? Are they, you know, feeling something, anything? And they were during Dragon Hubs matches. And Dragon Huff, I mean, you could put him in the ring with anybody, and he'll give them their best match. Now imagine putting him in the ring with Gunther. you don't think the fans wouldn't respond to that. You think there's no value in having Ilya Draganov on your television show.

He's on the same roster with this guy. Gunther is listless. He's directionless right now. And seemingly they're going to be doing something with him and Finn Baller. So that that's his direction now. Okay, great. Coming out of that, I would like to see something with him and Dragonov. If that is the issue and there's no visa problems that are, you know,

preventing them from using him, it is just absolutely unconscionable. that he is wasting away. That's what he's doing. He's wasting away until what? Until they release him? Is he going to be part of the next batch, the next wave of releases? Because, well, we don't have anything for him,

so we'll just get rid of him. Because this is not a position that you want to be in in in WWE. This is not a position you want to be in in any wrestling company where you're just not being used. Especially if he's not even showing up to the buildings. He's not even there physically in person.

If they're not using, you and they're not getting any value out of you. Look at the stories that have come out about TKO and the reason why they were asking Seamus and New Day to take fucking pay cuts. We don't think we're getting a return on our investment. What you're making right now, we're not able to make that back. So we want to keep you, but we want you to make a hell of a lot less than what you were making before. Or they'll just get rid of you because they feel like, again, they're not getting any return on the investment they've made. That's a terrible position to be in. So I hope that's not the only reason.

if it is that is absolutely just beyond ridiculous if that's the reason we haven't seen this man on television. Get him back and let's do something in the next few months with him and Gunther. But I mentioned the women's United States championship. Tiffany Stratton, even though she took a beating earlier in the show to try to help her friend, she defended her title later in the night against J.C. Jane, and she ended up losing her championship. Fatal influence, they have all the gold now.

They have the women's tag team titles, and they have the women's U.S. title. During the match, Chelsea actually came out to check on Tiffany. She was in her corner. There was a moment late in the match where the other two members of fatal influence, they were crowding Chelsea, like they were threatening her. And Tiffany had a choice to make. She went up to the top rope she was going to hit her finish

and probably win the match, or she could do a dive out onto the other two members of fatal influence. What do you think she did? She took out Fallon Henley and Lainey Reed, and then as soon as she got back in the ring, she got clobbered with the rolling encore, the forearm shot, or the, I guess more of an elbow.

And J.C. Jane Pinder. And so she lost her championship, but now the story is there if they want to take it. The story is there for when Chelsea gets medically cleared and she's able to take bumps again, Tiffany Stratton, maybe the turn is coming. I just think Tiffany's been miscast this entire time as a baby face.

She's not a great baby face. I'm sorry. And she has admitted before that she, prefers to play heel. It's been long enough. I think it's time to switch her back over to the heel column. The story that I see as I'm looking at all of this, I'm taking a step back and I'm going, okay, she no longer has the U.S. title, but the story is now there for her to take the bigger championship from Chelsea and hold her responsible for what happened to her. So it's there if they want to take it. Chelsea can't take any bumps or really do anything for at least the next

20-some odd days. So it's not anything that I expect to happen this week. but I think that could very well be the first direction for her once she gets cleared. It sets things up very, very well for that. We have new tag team champions, the MFTs, Tomatanga and Tallatanga, ever since they brought in Hakku. It's like, well, why else did they bring in Hakku? It's just a matter of time before they win the belts. So Damian Priest and our truth are no longer the tag team champions.

They lost them in a three-way match against the War Raiders and the MFTs. So we had back-to-back title changes on that show. And then it came out after. There were five segments, not one, not two, not three, not even four. Five segments that did not make the show. And instead they posted them as online exclusives, which may be part of a new strategy going forward, given that they no longer have the third hour to play with,

at least not until January. I much prefer this to three hours of SmackDown every week. So believe me, I'm not complaining. but Paige was not happy about her segment being cut. I'm not sure that all five of them were scheduled to be a part of the show. The page segment, though, it looks like was. There was an early spoiler lineup floating around that had a page promo listed on there. And when the show was over and they posted, and her segment was just a pre-tate promo,

like a two-minute promo in the back. And she was cutting a promo on Nikki Bella after the Bella twins turned on her at Subberslam. But after Smackdown ended, Paige just tweeted, L.O. L. L. which led to Nikki Bella responding, what was that? I think I missed what you said. And Paige said, you would think that you would want women to have segments instead of being cut. You've always been full of shit. It's all right. I'll just see you in person next week. So a little passive aggressive there. She was not happy about that. In one of the other segments, it was a Shinske Nakamura promo.

And we now know the person that he has been teasing, bringing in as his new partner to take on the MFT. We now know who it is it is going to be, and they didn't announce his name, but it was very clear from the silhouette in the background. And some of the words that he was using in this promo, who he was referring to, is the former junior heavyweight champion from New Japan Pro Wrestling, Hiramu Takahashi. So it looks like the MFTs already have their first challenger. Then in another segment, Nick Aldous was talking to Blake Monroe, who they have been teasing this woman's debut for months. And you know what her debut was? her debut was randomly attacking Julia in the ring, what feels like months ago now,

after Julia's win over Keanu James. That was a long time ago. And then a bunch of other segments where she ambushes various women in the back. She has yet to wrestle a single match on this show. So Nick Alda said, look, I've been getting a lot of complaints from the other women on the roster about you.

And so you're going to have your first match on the show next week, and it's going to be against Julia. Now, Julia is already cooked. She's done. Like Julia's future is bleak in this company. Blake, though, there's no reason Blake can't be a superstar in this company. It's one thing to fumble Julia, which is bad enough. If they fumble Blake Monroe,

then every single person responsible for booking the women's division on this show should be relieved of their duty. So she's finally going to wrestle on this show. And then there was another backstage segment with Ricky Saints interacting with Nathan Fraser in Axiom. And then there was another backstage. segment that they put on YouTube with the Ms. and Kit Wilson who are no longer under the spell, I guess, or cursed by Danhausen apparently. They're back to acting normal, which included mocking

Matt Cardona after he got his ass handed to him by Gunther. And I've seen a couple of people saying, well, this is so lazy. They didn't bother explaining why Ms. and Kit Wilson are suddenly back to normal after being zomified by Danhausen. They should explain it. Like, no, you know what? this is one of those situations where I'm okay with them pretending it never happened because the whole thing sucked to begin with. I don't need some long drawn-out explanation. Let's just pretend that it never happened and move on. Let's use one of those little devices that they have in men in black, the neuralizer, whatever they call it. Yeah, let's just forget about all that. Anyway, that was Smackdown on Friday. Now, we had Raw last night. And the big story coming into

Raw last night was Jay Uso, on the heels of his win in the main event last week over Solo Sukoa, as per the agreed upon stipulation, would be able to deliver Solo Sacoa to Roman Reigns, and they would bring Solo back into the bloodline. And that is what they built to at the very end of the show. Solo Sacoa was not his normal, happy, smiling, jovial self. The Uso's were just, they were hamming it up, especially Jay. They were happy as a pig and shit. They come out at the end of the show, they bring Solo with them, Roman is just tearing into him and

insulting him, he pulls his glasses off, he stomps on them. Let me show you, let me take you down memory lane and just show you some footage. And they had footage all cued up from their tribal combat match on that very first raw on Netflix, which Roman said was three years ago. His timeline is off

a little bit. It was January of last year. It's not quite three years ago. But he beat Solo in that match. That was for the battle for the Ulafala. And they had footage of Solo saying, If I can't beat Roman, then I will acknowledge him, which he did later on. But then he never went back to the bloodline. He didn't want to have anything to do with the family.

He wanted to just keep his distance from them. He was insulting them. A couple of weeks ago, he told Jay, hey, go tell Roman he can kiss my ass, right? So he had all the receipts. He had all the footage all queued up. And then came the black Ula Follahs. Somebody handed them to Rome and he had two of them. He said that Jimmy,

and Jay, these are my captains. They're made men. And he bestowed one of the Ula follows on Jay. He placed the other one around Jimmy's neck. They showed a shot of Jacob Fatu standing in the corner and he was fuming. He was just beside himself, but he couldn't do anything about it, right? Which, again, he was forced into this situation against his will. So I'm not even sure why he would give a shit. But he was very upset about this because the Uso's got them and he didn't. They're his captains and he's not. Of course he's not. He's Roman's Aaron boy.

He's his lap dog. The other thing I would point out, and this is an example of just laziness in the storytelling here, there was a period of time. Many months ago, I don't know if it was last year or the year before. It was well after Roman had lost a championship at WrestleMania 40 to Cody, and Jay Usa really broke out on his own,

and he didn't want to have anything to do with Roman. And ultimately, they were able to break up. or a piece, and I vividly remember there being a backstage segment on an episode of Raw, where Jay said, look, if this is going to work, if we're going to be back together, right, back in the fold, none of this, like, I acknowledge you and I do for you and I serve you, like, we have to be equals. We have to be equals, or else this doesn't work, and Roman agreed to that. Fast forward to now, and Roman is just back to being Roman reigns.

It's like these last two or three years haven't even happened. Oh, you're my captains now, right? That doesn't sound like they're equals. Apparently, Jay Uso is okay with this now. So that's an inconsistency in the storytelling. But this all built up to, L.A. Knight comes out, and he knows he's outnumbered. He comes out anyway. He's trying to fight off the beloved line.

He can't do it by himself. And they bring him to his feet, and Roman looks at Solo, and he goes, you know what you have to do. We're your family, not him. I shouldn't have to dirty my hands up by doing it myself. Put this man down. Now, Solo, he was partners with L.A. Night at SummerSlam. He's tried to befriend the guy. And now he's in a position where he has to put him down with the Samoan Spike.

And he's saying, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. And he goes to Spike Knight, and instead he turns to his left. And he spikes Roman instead. And we got the big crowd reaction from everybody. This is basically, like, if you've seen these bloodline segments over the last four or five years, we've seen so many examples of this before. This was hardly among the most elite of the people. bloodline segments that we've gotten, but it's the one that has worked and resonated the most

in a very long time. And the crowd reacted with a roaring cheer for Solo Sacoa when he took out Roman Rains. And then him and L.A. and I both kind of worked together to, you know, take everybody else down and Knight laid him out with a BFT. He laid out Roman with the BFT. And they actually left together. They fist bumped. L.A. Knight and Solo, they left together. And everything is building to L.A. I getting that eventual championship match with Roman Raines, which I'm certain is going to happen at Money in the Bank, which is not until October. But remember what Adam Pierce told L.A. Night last week. We got to get through this tournament first, which I'll talk about in a second. Once Roman defends his championship at the end of this tournament in Mexico City, then I promise you we'll talk more about you getting your opportunity. So we'll find out next month that Money in the Bank is going to be the time for night to get his match. And everybody is all excited about the podcast. possibility of L.A. Night winning the world heavyweight championship. The stage is set. It's now or never. This guy has been so popular and over now for the last three years that if they don't put the belt on him now, they ain't never putting the belt on him, which I agree with, by the way.

This does feel like a now or never situation. I fall in the never camp. I just can't believe that all of a sudden they've had their coming to Jesus moment and they're like, hey, maybe we should put the belt on this guy. Yeah, no shit. I'd love to believe it, but I just, I'm finding it very hard to believe that anything is going to be any different here. One person who is hoping that it is different is A.J. Stiles. And on the latest episode of the AJ Style show, he gave L.A. Knight a major endorsement to become World Heavyweight Champion. He said, I've never seen anybody more ready to be a champion right now than L.A. Knight. I know I keep harping on this, but I can't be the only one that thinks this way. He's got all the tools. Give him the opportunity. He knows what comes with being a

champion, he's got it, and I'm not just talking about holding the heavyweight championship around your waist. When it comes to interviews and what you have to do to represent WWE, he has those tools to be able to get it done, and I think he would do it flawlessly. Are they listening? Are they listening? I've been asking that question for three years. Do they not hear these crowds? Are they listening? Because it's now or never. If they don't put the World Heavyweight Championship on him now, at Money in the Bank. If not now, then when? You know what I mean? Like, when is the right time to do it? L.A. Knight is not going into the WrestleMania main event in Saudi Arabia next year, challenging for or defending the World Heavyweight

championship. If they were going to put the belt on him, I am certain it would be for a very short period of time. And then people would be just as upset because, oh, he lost it, right? The same people that will say, well, there's no harm in putting the belt on him for a short run. We'll be the same people bitching and moaning when they take it off him two months later. I guarantee it. But yes, if there was ever a time to do it, it's in this period between SummerSlam and Mania. And there's no harm in doing it for two or three months or four months or whatever it is. We all know the belt ultimately, even if they switch it, is going to end up back on Roman anyway.

We know this. But I'm still not convinced it's coming off him at all before WrestleMania. Now the one thing to keep an eye on here is Jacob Fah Tew because they were really leaning very heavily into this idea that Fah Tu was about to explode. He does not want to be a part of any of this, which again is why it's like why would he be so angry than about not being, you know, made a captain by Roman. Why would he care? But he looked like he was one step away from dropping this dude. And there was a moment in here where he was going to give L.A. night a tong and death grip. And Roman stopped him.

and he backed him into the corner and he was browbeating him in front of everybody. I think he was basically saying, hey, last week I gave you guys a directive that nobody puts their hands on this guy except me. What did I tell you, right? And he's backing him into the corner. He's talking to him like he's a child. So when Knight made a comeback and solo spiked Roman and Roman was getting his ass kick, Jacob is standing in the corner with his arms crossed and he's not doing a damn thing

because he was told, you stay in the corner. And that's what he did. And it just feels like we're getting close. and closer to him, you know, kind of breaking free, I don't know if it's something they would do in these next couple of months or if they want to hold off until next year and really drag this thing out because my whole thing this entire time has been, when Roman does go away again, and let's say loses the championship, right, whether it's Obafemi or whoever it is, Roman's probably going to disappear for another six months. Whenever that is, that is the time

that I think they shoot the angle where Jacob Fawtu effectively takes over, you know, because they're not going to get rid of the bloodline. The bloodline is their cash cow. And they just keep adding new members. So Jacob can take over in the Roman spot. That's where I think ultimately this lands. And so when do they do that? Do they do that this year? Do they wait until WrestleMania? You know, when do they shoot that angle? You watched that television show last night. It feels like it's imminent. I'm not sure how imminent it is. But I think ultimately that's the position that he ends up in. And they made a major match also last night for Sunday night's main event.

We already know Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton are wrestling on that show. Pat Macca Free. The other match that was just added, equally as big. Also, no championships at stake. Oba Femi, for the first time, one-on-one against Bronbreaker, battle for who is the future of WWE? Of course, that's a trick question because they're both the future of WW. they have too much invested in these two for them not to be the future of WWE.

But they've injected Paul Heyman into this. And where does his allegiance lie? He's the one who made the announcement last night. He went to Adam Pierce and made the match. And why does he care? Why does he give a shit? Are they building to some sort of big swerve with Haman where he ends up with Oba? Look, Oba doesn't need Paul Haman.

Bron Brayker makes more sense to be aligned with Paul Haman. The one thing I hope that we're not looking at here is an entire story between these two where it's all revolving around Paul Heyman. How many times are we going to see that? It's all about Heyman. Heyman's pulling the strings or, you know, who is Heyman going to end up with? It's like the battle for Heyman's hand. Like who cares, dude? This is the easiest thing in the world to book. You got these two young guys who want to just grab the world by the balls and they want to be the face of this place. So who's it going to be? Is it going to be Oba or is it going to be Bron. It's very simple. And then you let them go out there and just destroy each other.

Paul can watch from the sidelines. I don't want him to be the focal point or the centerpiece of this. But when that segment was over and Bronbreaker was very happy about the match being made, he turned around and he spotted Heyman shaking hands with Oba Femi before he got out of the ring. And he had this look on his face like he was betrayed, right? That feeling of paranoia now is setting in. Is he with Oba? Is he going to betray me? Like he's betrayed so many others. other people. I don't know why anybody would even trust Haman to begin with. You know how many people he's fucked over over the years? And I'm not talking about the ECW guys back in the 90s. He has screwed over so many people. I don't know why anybody would trust this guy. But that's a big

match. And we're not going to have to wait very long to see it. We also had Chad Gable defending his intercontinental championship last night. Great fucking match with Ray Mysterio. I don't, dude, I got to tell you. I'm at a loss for words sometimes when I watch Ray Mysterio. There are just certain matches where you watch him and you would never know. You would never know that this guy is 50 years old. You would never know that in just a few years, if you can believe this, we are going to hit the 40th anniversary. 40 years since he wrestled his debut match.

He was 14 years old in 1989 when he wrestled his first match. This guy is out there last night at his age through all of the knee injuries. the surgeries flying around like a cruiserweight like no time has gone by he's the ageless wonder he's out there doing an assa i moonsault to the floor he's flying over here he's flying over there and he had chad gable down at one point during this match after a six one nine he was about to go climb to the top rope to finish him off with the frog splash and the people in the building in buffalo last night who were not reacting to a whole lot on this show outside of the big solo twist at the end. But they were reacting to Ray. These people wanted him to win that championship in the

worst way. They were going fucking nuts for this guy. And in the end, thankfully, Chad Gable was able to pull it out. And they paid respect to each other when it was over and Ray strapped the belt around his waist. It was a great match. A little surprise, they didn't hold off on it for Mexico City next month. But look, I'm glad we got it. And hopefully they'll have somebody else for Gable to defend against when they get to Mexico City next month. Easily the highlight, in ring, at least, the highlight of the show last night. We also had two more matches in the Luchador's tournament to decide on a challenger for Roman Rains, September 14th in Mexico City on Raw.

And this is how things stand. We already saw Penta last week defeat Laredo Kid. And then on Saturday on the AAA television show, Leparka got a win over Psycho clown. So in the next round, it'll be Penta against Leparka. Now, lower in the bracket, we had our final first round matches last night on Raw. We had Ray Phoenix defeating El Fiscal, who was out there looking like a fucking Power Ranger. And then we had Dragon Lee getting a win over El Eho de Dr. Wagner Jr., which was the better of the two matches. I thought that was solid.

We got a lot of good wrestling on the show last night, definitely more than we got on Smackdown last week. So now this sets the stage for Raw next Monday. Penta against Leparka and Dragon Lee against Ray Phoenix. And the only real potential drama in this entire tournament is in the Dragon Lee Ray Phoenix match, because that match could go either way. I could easily see Penta and Dragon Lee in the finals, and if we get that, that's going to be a great match. But that's not the match most people want to see. This should be a layup.

This should be, first time ever in WWE, Penta against Ray Phoenix. Brother versus Brother, only one man could advance to get the match with Roman Reigns. next month. The final match, whatever it is, by the way, that'll be on the August 31st episode of Raw. So that is where things stand as far as the tournament goes. Everything is just building to Roman Raines and Penta on that show. The idea that I started pitching a few weeks ago was you have that World's Collide show with WW and AAA talent coming up in Chicago on September 26th. It's running opposite the AW All-Out pay-per-view. And I said they're going to load that show up. As soon as I heard they were in Chicago, I said, you watch. They're going to add CM Punk. And sure enough,

FGM Punk now is being advertised for Worlds Collide. But also on that show, you talk about a big attraction. Why not for the first time ever, the Uso's, taking on the Lucha Bros? We have yet to see Penta and Ray Phoenix team up in a WWE ring, or even AAA. I don't think they've done the match together in AAA yet. Why not save it for that World's Collide show? You can easily shoot an angle coming out of the end of that Roman and Penta match that sets things up with Penta, Phoenix, and the Uso's.

and that would be a huge attraction. I'm sure that would move some tickets for that show. I think that's where we're headed. And let's switch over to the AEW side here, because speaking of tournaments, we got tournament fever right now in wrestling. We just had the end of the G1 climax. WW has this Roman Raines tournament going on.

And in A.W. We're in the middle of the Continental Cup, the first ever Continental Cup. John Moxley beat Jack Perry in the main event of Dynamite last Wednesday, while J.Y. got a win over David Finley. So moving on to the next round, we have John Moxley, Jay White,

Claudio Castignoli, Orange Cassidy, Eddie Kingston, Kyle O'Reilly, Hedcacerro, and Nigel McGuinness, who we were told on Collision Saturday by Tony Chivani was injured in his win over Katsiori Shabbata. And Chivani promised an update on Nigel's condition on their semi-final selection show that aired on YouTube last night, which he co-hosted with Tony Kahn. And here's the update. update is that Nigel is staying in the tournament, even though he was sporting a walking boot in the interview they showed. He cut this great baby face promo from his couch. I don't know if this injury is legit or if this injury is being worked for sympathy in a storyline,

but it's making me think that Tony is going with the feel-good story of Nigel making it to the finals in London. That's kind of the sense that I get from this, especially now that we know we're not getting John Moxley against Jay White in the finals, which, which that's the final that I figure we were getting. And that went out the window because that match is actually happening tomorrow night. So the next round of this tournament, this whole thing is a blind draw. And the semifinals are going to take place on the final dynamite before London, which is in Glasgow, Scotland.

Finals then take place at Wembley Stadium. Moxley is wrestling Jay White tomorrow. Only one can advance. Now I know John Moxley is the favorite. Every match, by the way, that he is in is basically a continental title match. he's the champion. So as soon as he loses, if he loses, we are guaranteed to have a new

continental champion at the end of all this. So of course, Moxley is the favorite. I'm going with Jay White, though, for the upset. I really hope that they go with the upset here. We could use one. We haven't had a real upset in this tournament so far. I would like to see Switchblade pick up the win. Nigel is going to be wrestling Hetch Ocero tomorrow.

If Nigel can move on, we may be looking at a Jay White Nigel McGinnis final in London. I mean, that could even be a retirement match for Nigel. If he wanted to retire and go out at Wembley Stadium, whether he wins or loses, I mean, that would be a great place to do it, obviously, would be this year at all in. On collision, it's going to be Claudio against Eddie Kingston,

Orange Cassidy against Kyle O'Reilly. So I'm telling you, Nigel, at least until the finals, Nigel could end up being the feel-good story of this tournament. So then the question is, if they played out exactly the way I laid it out here, what does John Moxley do? They're sure is fuck not leaving John Moxley off the All In card. He was in the main event of All In last year,

defending the World Championship. What does he do if he gets bounced tomorrow? It's very easy. Moxley enters the Casino Gauntlet match and he wins the contract for a future championship match. And that's how we get to Osprey defending against Moxley after Osprey wins the belt at All In. Now, it wouldn't be an immediate thing.

this is not some of that money in the bank cashing crap, because the way the rules are now you've got to give at least a week's notice if you want to cash in. But if Osprey wins the title, we're definitely getting Osprey against Moxley, regardless of whether there's a contract involved. But the contract from the Gauntlet would give Moxley that shot. So we'll note tomorrow if he loses that match, because if he loses to Jay White,

there is nothing else for Moxley to do on the pay-per-view except enter that Gauntlet match. Swarves Strickland is back. He interrupted his segment with the new trios champions, Hangman Adam Page, Brody King, and Bandito. They were then interrupted by Rikoshae and the Gates of Agony. Rikishishay wanted to know what the hell are you doing here. You're not part of a trio.

And just the way they were kind of laying all this out, it's like he's kind of right, right? Swarve's not part of a trio, so what are they going for here? And then you remember that there's a certain tag team that is very likely coming into AW very soon. And it sure looks to me like Swerve may be tagging with the new day or whatever name they're going to be going by, Kofi and Creed, if they are coming in. That could very well be their first match in AW. Could be tagging with swerve as part of a trio's title, like a multi-team match in London at Wembley Stadium.

I mean, that's what it felt like to me coming out of this. I mean, who else would it be? You have the Hurt Syndicate. They're not doing anything with the Hurt Syndicate right now. I suppose they could put their differences with swerve to the side and team up with him. But it feels like this is going to be the spot for Kofi and Creed when they come in. Now let's go through this current card for All in London, which is coming up pretty quickly. August 30th is not too far away.

Last update from Russell Tigs had the attendance or the tickets distributed over 39,000. So they should easily be able to do, if not 45, probably pretty close to 45. thousand tickets by the time all is said and done. We have Kevin Knight defending his TNT championship against Darby Allen Falls Count Anywhere in the stadium. Men's Casino Gauntlet match. We know Andrade is entering in number one. MJF is going to be entering in number two.

And as I said before, depending on how things play out with John Moxley and Jay White tomorrow night, don't be surprised to see Moxley end up in that gauntlet match. Kyle Fletcher defends his international championship at a three-way against Kazuchka Okada and Konosukee to Kek. Keshda, the former champions. Takeshda was eliminated from the G1 climax this past week. I'm going to have more on the G1 here in a minute.

Women's tag team champions, divine dominion defend their tag team titles against the brawling birds. We have the finals of the Continental Cup. We have Adam Copeland and Christian Cage putting their AW tag team titles on the line against the Young Bucks for the first time ever. Willow Nightingale defends her

AW women's world championship against the winner of the Owen Hart tournament, Mercedes Monet. And Kenny Ome, mega, defends the AW World Heavyweight Championship against Will Osprey. So that is eight matches so far with what I am sure will be a bunch on the pre-show that they'll add. And at least one, maybe two more I could see added to the main card. I'll have the full card for you, or at least something a little closer to a full card.

Next week, and we'll do our predictions then. Some other news and notes, I mentioned the G1 climax. It reached its climax. Riohei OIwa, one of New Japan's rising young stars, defeated another young star in Yuya Uimura to claim the crown for 2006. OIWA won this year's G1 with a headlock submission. He's like the master of the headlock this guy. I like this. I got to tell you.

At some point, wrestling has to evolve where we kind of start to go backwards. What I mean by backwards is we don't always need these wild and crazy finishing. moves, sometimes you just take it back to the basics. Think about that. This guy won the G1 with a fucking headlock. And then MJF, who's won a few matches of his own with a headlock takeover, although usually there's a kick to the dick that comes before it, he took to X and reacted to this and he said, I'm the superior headlock wrestler. And given the partnership between New Japan and AEW, that is a match that at some point we

could very well see. We could see OIWA and MJF in the ring. But for the third year running, the GEOP. Climax winner will get their shot at the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, not at the Tokyo Dome on January 4th, but at their King of Pro wrestling event on Monday, October 12th. That will come against the reigning champion, Yota Suji. First, though, Suji will defend his title against Hiroki Goto, September 27th at Destruction in Kobe. The same Hiroki Goto who plays E Honda in the new Street Fighter movie that's coming out in October. He got Roman Raines, Cody Rhodes, and Hiroki Goto, all in the same movie. Now, traditionally, the winner of the G1 got their title match at Russell Kingdom, right?

That's their big annual event. Then Zach Sabre Jr. had to go and fuck it all up. He wanted to cash in his title shot early, and he did. He and Takesha as well did the same thing last year after he won. They both won the championship. If Oywe wins the title, it would be the first singles title of his career. And it should be fun to see, you know, who establishes themselves as the new ace of New Japan in the months to come. There's so much of the old guard now is gone.

And, you know, Tanahashi was the ace and he retired at the beginning of the year. I figured it would be Suji and maybe it will be. He's the champion right now. But from what I've seen of Oywa and Uimura, take your pick. They're in good hands. They've got a lot of talent between those three alone. They're in good hands. It took long enough for them to kind of get these guys going because they were so reliant.

liant on those older names and other names that left and went to AEW or WW, that now, you know, you need these guys to step up. And it looks like they're doing that. Lance Anawai, a third generation member of wrestling's legendary Samoan dynasty. His father was Samu of the Hedge shrinkers. His grandfather was the Hall of Famer Afa of the Wild Samoans. He announced on Instagram Monday at just 34 years of age. that he will be retiring from the ring in March of 2007.

Now, why March? Because that will mark the 17th anniversary of his debut. This is what he said. After almost 17 years in pro wrestling, I will officially be calling time on my in ring career in March, 2027, once I reach that 17-year milestone. This journey has given me memories, friendships, battles, victories, losses, and experiences

that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. I'm incredibly grateful to everyone who has, supported me, believed in me, shared a locker room with me, and helped me along the way. But now it's time to start preparing for a new chapter. For so many years, wrestling has taken up my weekends, my time, countless moments away from the people I love the most. I've reached a point where I want to dedicate that time to my wife and my kids and be there for the moments that matter most. I also want to say how proud I am of my family and everything they continue to do in this business. I love what they're building. I love being part of it in any way that I can,

and I will always support them 100% in everything they do going forward. Walking away from something you've dedicated nearly 17 years of your life to is not easy. Wrestling will always be a part of who I am, and I will always love this business. This isn't goodbye just yet, though. We still have a few months to go. Now, this comes less than a year after he was let go by WWE. He was signed by the company in late 2024, and then, unfortunately, he suffered back-to-back injuries, which led to him never having a match.

The entire time he was under contract, he never had a single match. And he got released right after he was medically cleared to wrestle again. That was in October of last year, which, I mean, that had to be a real kick in the crotch. You know, we brought Lance in to work some House of Glory dates late last year into the beginning of this year. He was feuding with his cousin, Zillifatu,

who just signed with WWE and made his NXT debut last Tuesday. Lance was always great to work with, really talented guy, it sucks that those injuries just came at the worst possible time for him, because to them it made him expendable. He did make his Power Slap debut in April, though. He had a second round knockout win, and then he lost his second fight in July by a unanimous decision after three rounds. So he is one in one so far in Power Slap. He didn't mention anything about that.

I would imagine that maybe his Power Slap career will continue. But I mentioned Zilla. So you know what, this would be a good place to talk about him for a couple of minutes here since I didn't mention him earlier. Zillifah, too, who just lost his crown jewel championship in House of Glory to the Amazing Red earlier this month on August 7th. Only a few days after that, he showed up at the Performance Center as a surprise on NXT, and he interfered in the number one contender's main event between Mike Santana, who now is Cruz Montana. Vic Joseph on commentary still calls him Santana. He's still struggling with it.

But it was between Montana and Grace and Waller. And so we ended up with no winners. Zilla laid them both out. And then he was staring daggers at Tony DeAngelo, the reigning NXT champion who was standing outside the ring. And they identified him by his name. He's got new merch on WWE shop with the Zillifat two name on it. So unlike other people, he'll be able to keep his name.

I don't know why some people keep it. Others don't. if they brought in Joe Hendry and Danhausen and even other people over the year, Samoa Joe. Some people get to keep their names. Other people don't. My guess is it comes down to whether or not they're willing to sign their likeness over to WWE. And maybe some of them just don't feel comfortable doing that. And so they have to pick another name.

It is weird, though, how we kind of go back and forth between that. But I'm glad he's still going to remain Zilla. And so NXT has a heat wave show coming up on August 30. Yes, the same August 30th where AW is airing its All-in pay-per-view from London. And the Heat Wave show has a 3 p.m. Eastern start right in the middle of AW all-in. But WWE is actually doing two shows that day. They have a AAA show that starts at noon, and that leads directly into the NXT show at 3 p.m. And both of those shows are taking place in Edinburgh, Texas.

Zilla is a Texas boy. He's from Houston. and I don't know what the plan is yet. We'll probably find out later tonight when NXT airs. Would not at all surprise me, though, if they took all four of those men and they put them in a four-way match for the NXT championship, and if they actually put the belt on Zilla, they may not waste any time. They may think that Texas is just the right place to do it. Would not at all shock me before this month is out if Zillifat 2 has gold around his waist. and he's been wrestling for about three years now, maybe a little more. It's only 26 years old.

I like that they debuted him in NXT. I think that that is going to be a good place to start him out because in NXT he could be the guy. You know, they can make him the guy for a while. They could put the belt on him for a while. They could give him the opportunity in these next several months to make kind of make him the face of the brand and let him carry things for a little bit and see how he does.

You know, see how he reacts, see how the fans react to him. If his first night in was any indication, the fans are going to react to him just fine. Because they knew exactly who he was when he slid into that ring, even though they had never seen him on WWE television before. They reacted to him like he was a big deal. And so I think NXT makes a lot of sense. The bloodline is not going away. The bloodline may evolve. People may come and go.

Roman may go away. Jacob may take over. Zilla is very close with Jacob. The bloodline will always be there. So you can plug him into that group whenever you want to. You can plug him in there later this year. You can plug him in there a year from now. Believe me, the bloodline is still going to be around.

That is where he is destined to end up. I think we all kind of know that. So give him some time in NXT and let him do his thing and, you know, get over or run with the championship for a while. And when the time is right and there's a need to add a new member, there you go. You guys Zillifat too, waiting in the wing. things. And Variety had the exclusive on Thursday. The Wow Women of Wrestling show is getting a major expansion for season five, including

Jeannie Bus to appear on camera. This is from the story. Wow, Women of Wrestling is going through a major growth spurt for its fifth season, which includes the league's first live broadcast and expanded on-camera presence from former L.A. Lakers owner and Wow co-owner and promoter, Jeannie Bus. Season 5 will broadcast live from L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles, anchoring Wow's marquee events as part of a broader live strategy. Busts will take on an increased role on camera as part of this season.

I certainly hope we're not looking at Dixie Carter 2.0 here. Wow is the only all-women's wrestling league on TV with what they claim is a 93% audience returns season over season, and its social following has grown 96% since season one. The first four seasons aired in national syndication via Paramount. It is not clear exactly when the new season will air, and if it will continue to air on its syndicated stations, but the show also airs on YouTube, Pluto TV, and Facebook.

Current season premiered last September, which that might give us a sense of when the new one is going to debut. But them getting live TV is a big step up for them. Now, you don't hear a lot of people talking about Wow, even though it's got a pretty wide reach through syndication, but that also means it airs at odd times in different markets. It's kind of inconsistent that way. When Wow relaunched a few years ago,

originally it was going to serve as something of a rehab project for Tessa Blanchard, who was going to be the main star, the main trainer. Then she had a falling out with them and kind of burned a bridge there, and she got the boot. Tessa, by the way, who is now wrestling for CMLL after leaving TNA, is set to have interest from MLD. So we'll see if that goes anywhere. One thing you will not hear is that WW or AEW have an interest in Tessa Blancher

because if they did, they would have snatched her up by now. Now, never is a long time, you know, to say that she'll never end up in WWE. I don't know that I would say that. But I maintain, I've said this for a while. If they change their mind, if they ever had any desire to suddenly bring her in, I think they would use AAA as a backdoor way to do so, to kind of get. the reaction to using her to see how she handles it, see how she performs. But for the time being, she's pretty loyal to CMLL, so I don't see her making that move.

All right, I said I had a whole bunch of questions from you guys. I'm going to do a little segment here that I'm calling unread on uncrowned. So let's open these up so they're unread no more. We'll start with Michael from Long Island. Oh, by the way, you can email me, the Salomonster at gmail.com. That's the email address. we'll start with Michael from Long Island. What do you think about the return of Alexa Bliss and Tatum Paxley

debuting on Smackdown with Charlotte? It's clear that Tatum has replaced Rio Ripley in this trio with Sharlexa for the next couple of months. And hopefully they carry the Smackdown Women's Division and let them be dark. Yeah, Michael, Michael is very big on these dark characters. I know he's been waiting for a dark Alexa to return for a while. I don't really care either way. I could do without the dark stuff.

We've kind of been there, done that with her. I think for Tatum, it's a great spot to be in. The rumor going around is that this was a Charlotte idea, that she kind of advocated for Tatum to be called up to the main roster and to work with her. So that's great for Tatum Paxley. You know, what I've seen of her in NXT, she's very talented.

She does have a little bit of that kind of, not just Alexa. I mean, size-wise, they're very similar. But she's got that Daphne kind of got goth girl. thing going on there? Or, I mean, Nicky Cross, if you want to go with Nikki Cross when she was with the Wyatt 6. I mean,

look, if you've got Charlotte Flair advocating for you and wanting to work with you, I would say that's a good thing. It's probably a good sign for her. Darren from Newark, New Jersey. I know you think money in the bank as a concept is tired, and honestly, so do I. What about this? How come

no one has ever attempted to cash in on a vacant championship? Wouldn't that make them the champion by default? even better just cashing in after a tournament or during a tournament final. It's not like being handed a title as new. Triple H in 2002 because Brock was signed exclusive to Smackdown. And 2020, when Aska won money in the bank and the women's title because Becky was pregnant. I will say, it is very clever the idea that if you have a vacant championship,

which we seem to have, you know, quite a few of those pop up here and there, you would have to just time it right, though. The thing with the vacant titles is, typically, it comes about because of an injury. It's not usually planned, right, that somebody is going to vacate a title. You don't have somebody win a championship and plot your creative out for the next four months and say, okay, we're going to build to this moment where you vacate the title, right? That usually comes about because there was an injury or there's some, or pregnancy, or there's some kind of reason for it.

I mean, the timing would have to just be perfect. You'd have to have somebody who still has the briefcase. they haven't cashed it in yet. And then you could do it. It's hard. You know, we've seen so many different scenarios play out over the last 20 plus years that money in the bank's been a thing where it feels like they've almost done every kind of cash in that you can do.

But they really have it. You know, there's still some original ways to go about doing it. That one would be interesting. It would have to be a heel, obviously, like a chicken shit heel. But the timing on that, it would seem very hard. You know, to be able to pull that off. Gavin from Salt Lake City, Utah. I wanted to hear your take and ideas on what might have happened to Jake the Snake Roberts.

Had he not left the WWF in 1992, we've all heard the story of him wanting Paterson's job on the creative team. And Vince saying that they were retiring that spot out of respect to Pat, which led to Jake holding Vince up for his release before doing the job for The Undertaker. But let's say Jake doesn't leave. And to a greater extent, he gets his act together with his personal issues. What do you see Jake doing following his loss to The Undertaker in the ring? Would he have lasted long after that? Would he have made it to WrestleMania 10 before Vince started ushering in the new generation?

And are there any major feuds on the table that you would have liked to have seen? And does he go to WCDA? There's a lot of what-if questions here. Look, I think that if Jake hangs around, let's say he's sober and of sound body in mind, he sticks around. I think we get him feuding with a lot of the key players. I think that you can certainly extend the Savage thing out more. And I don't know what kind of impact that then has.

Because Savage was tapped to Russell Flair, right, for the title of WrestleMania. So would they not have done that? Would they have circled back around to Savage and Jake? See, I think if you had the foresight to like really map this out long term, you could have had Jake win the feud. And then had Savage win the championship. And then coming out of WrestleMania, Jake could lay claim to being the uncrowned champion. See what I did there?

Then you circle back around to it, coming out of mania, and then Savage prevails in the end. So that's one way you could have gone with it. We never got the Warrior Jake payoff. They were starting a feud and then Warrior got fired or suspended, whatever happened there. And so we never got that. Warrior did come back in 92, though. So you could have gotten back to Warrior and Jake in 92. Look, they were doing Warrior and Papashango for crying out loud.

Like, instead of doing Warrior and Papa Shango, you just, you do Warrior and Jake and you pick up with the feud that you started the previous summer. That would have been a layup. Had Jake stuck around, he's one of those guys where I think it would have been weird having him around into like 93 and 94. Because they were really pushing hard on that new generation. That's one of the reasons Savage left. Vince wanted him to be a commentator. He didn't want him to be in the ring anymore. And Savage was like, well, that's where the money is.

I mean, let's be honest here. I mean, that's why I'm sure he wanted to wrestle, but that's where the money was. You're not going to make the kind of money sitting at the fucking commentary desk that you would make being in the ring and being in main events. So he left. He took the Slim Jim sponsorship with him, which I think is why Vince was so down on him for so many years.

And he went to WCW, and I'm sure he made a fortune. And he got to work. with Hogan and Flair and all these different people and he won championships and he got to do what he wanted to do. I think Jake may have run into a similar situation where he would have been phased down and at that point it just becomes a question of

is he happy putting over the new generation guys like Brett and Sean, who he has trashed by the way in shoot interviews over the years. I think he even made a comment like Brett and Sean never should have been world champion they were too small for it, stuff like that. I don't know that Jake would have been willing

doing jobs for them. Maybe if the paycheck was big enough, you know, you'll do whatever they tell you to do. I don't think he would have lasted that much longer. I don't know that he would have been happy being phased down. There's no way Vince would have, you know, kept pushing him at a high level. You know, he was pushing into that whole new generation era. Jacob from McAllen, Texas. I was recently watching a Sunny Ono interview on YouTube where he discussed a class action

discrimination lawsuit against Vince Russo and WCW in 1990. claiming Rousseau allegedly had a backstage meeting where he said to Ono, I don't want any Japanese or Hispanic talent on my American TV show. After which, J.J. Dillon called Ono to inform him that WCW was exercising its right to release him. Do you have any insight into this? Yeah, I mean, it was a big deal at the time. Eventually, I know it got settled. Long after WCW closed its doors, like a few years later, it was settled out of court, so we never got a settlement number, but it was said that the plaintiffs were not unhappy with the outcome. Let's just put it that way.

I think Sonny Ono, he started out. He was a friend of Eric Bischoff's, and he played a role, I believe, in helping bring certain Japanese talents into the company. I remember him, you know, from when I was watching WCW at the time, I remember him as a heel manager with the camera around his neck playing, you know, the stereotypical, like Japanese tourist. That was his gimmick. He cited that in the lawsuit as being. disrespectful. But he was adamant that Rousseau didn't want Japanese or Mexican talent on TV. That's what he said. If you go back and look at how Rousseau booked some of the Mexican talent, I mean, he booked a pinata on a poll match on one of their pay-per-views. Okay? I mean,

that tells you everything you need to know. So you can thank that lawsuit, by the way, for the internal payroll documents that got leaked, well, not leaked, but they got released as part of discovery in that case. That's how we, learned each of the nasty boys were paid exactly $1 for the entire year of 1998, which sounds about right for what the nasty boys would have been contributing at that point in time. But neither of them worked a single match that year for WCW. So there was some legal stuff going on with them after they got fired the previous year. I'm sure it had to do with that as far as them being paid $1.

Either that or that was a dollar each for the one fucking shirt they probably sold that year. Rayhan from Hanover, Germany. We saw last year how Hangman Page got his redemption arc at All In 2025, overcome his demons over the years. Could you see a similar course for Eddie Guerrero throughout 2006 if he didn't pass away? I mean, it's impossible to know. I always figured that around the time he passed away, they were building to him winning the world championship as a heel, because he was, you know, all buddy-buddy with Batista. and I just figured that the plan was to, you know, ultimately that that relationship would fracture.

Eddie would get the belt back, but as a heel. And I don't know that that's ever been confirmed by anybody who was on the writing team at that time. Actually, I think the plan, as I recall, the day he died, they were taping Smackdown that day. It was a Sunday. And I believe there was a triple threat with him and Batista and Randy Orton. I want to say the plan was to have Randy Orton win the championship that night. There's this misconception that Eddie was going to. to win the belt. I don't believe that was the case. I don't know if he would have had a redemption arc.

Maybe they wouldn't have put the belt back on him at all. Maybe they would have just had him working matches against some of the other big names as like attraction matches, but not had him in the world title picture. I don't know. Physically, he was not in the best shape at that point. I mean, he was all jacked up and everything, but I just mean physically, obviously with his heart, but just physically, he was all beaten up. I don't. know how many more really good years he would have been able to put out in the state that he was in. I'm not sure. I do think that we would have gotten a match with Sean Michaels at some point. I know a lot of people think, oh, that was going to be the WrestleMania a 22 match.

I don't believe it was. Again, I think that's something that people just sort of came up with on their own. I've never heard anybody who was working for the company at that time and writing for them that's done interviews actually confirmed that that was the plan. It could have been, ultimately if they would have made that call, but we'll never know because it never got that far. But there's certain matches that we were deprived of, you know, like, and that's probably the main one, that we probably would have gotten. And unfortunately, he just, you know, he wasn't around long enough for us to get them. Devin from New Jersey, you once said that the three main factors that led to WCW's downfall were bad booking, mismanagement, and an inability to create new stars. After listening to your Dark Side of the Ring reviews on TNA,

I was reminded again of all the same issues. So why is TNA still here and not WCW, despite the fact that Nitro was still doing 2 million viewers weekly until its demise? What did TNA do right that WCW didn't? Oh, I would say them not being owned by a major media conglomerate, probably let them fall under the radar a little bit. That probably did them more good than anything else. There were people, there's a lot of reasons why WCW fail. I don't want to relitigate this. Everything that you just mentioned there that I said is correct.

All of those things played a role. But there were forces within AOL Time Warner that did not want wrestling. They did not want WCW. And it didn't matter if they were still doing 2 million viewers a week. They wanted to unload it. And it was losing money. It was in the red. That is the biggest factor that led to the nail in the coffin because of the people that run the company,

and I don't mean WCW itself, but the larger company or corporation under which WCW exists, and you don't have a lot of friends there, and they're looking to chop your head off at every opportunity, you're probably not going to be around for very long. And if you remember, they were going to be sold. And what killed the deal was losing those TV slots on TNT and TBS. Once they lost television, WCW was not worth nearly what they were prepared to pay for. for it, and so the deal ultimately fell apart. So I think in the end, what has really helped TNA more than anything else is not being as big

as WCW. I think that's actually worked at TNA's advantage in a lot of ways. Sean from Byron, Illinois, let's say Vince McMahon had retired, decided not to sell to TKO, and Triple H remained the head of creative. In your opinion, what would the main differences be in the product today? We would not have nearly as much commercialization as we have today. That's number one. Number two, I don't believe Vince McMahon ever would have retired. So he still would have been poking his head around. Triple H would be in charge, quote unquote, but he would never fully be in charge. I don't think Vince would be able to help himself. But I also don't think that we would have fucking ads all over the mats and being thrown in our face every five seconds. We

wouldn't have a mug root beer mascot celebrating with Chad Gable after he won the championship at SummerSlam. A lot of that stuff you wouldn't see right now. And also, ticket prices would not be as elevated as they are. Ticket prices they may go up, but they would not have gone up in the way that they've gone up under TKO. Jose from Oregon, this past Sunday, August 16th, marked the 25th anniversary of Stone Cold Steve Austin using the what for the first time. What is the legacy of the chant and what has Stone Cold ever said of the what chant taking on a life of its own? Well, he actually did an interview with Chris Van Vleet. I don't know if this was last year, a couple years ago. He was asked by Chris if he was like flattered that people all these years later still use the what

chant and he said you know it it you know he appreciated it it spoke to its lasting impact but like if you listen to what he said he said he's gotten cussed out by a lot of wrestlers over the years and if the chant finally suddenly disappeared he wouldn't be upset about it i think it sucks I think it's awful. It's one of the worst things to happen to wrestling. I just fucking hate that chant. And the fact that people are still using it all these years later, I think is incredibly lame. And there's a lot of wrestlers and I don't understand where some of them may lean into it intentionally so they could play off of it. But you could tell, like there are certain wrestlers, especially younger ones, you don't have a lot of experience maybe on the mic. If the crowd starts to what them, they get lost. They get knocked off their rhythm. Or they speak. in like sentence fragments. And they allow the fans after each little fragment of their promo to interject what. Now I'm not saying that they should talk like a bullet train and just speed through their promo.

But even Austin has talked about like there's a certain rhythm and cadence that you need to have on the mic. If people start doing that, you don't want to acknowledge it. You want to pretend like, okay, it's not there. It doesn't exist. You can't give them a reason or you can't give them. or you can't give them an opening to constantly interfere in your promo because you're pausing in between certain words or something, like you're giving them an opening. Why are you doing that?

You know, you have to learn to cut your promo in a way where you don't give them the opportunity to do it. And if they are trying to do it and they're failing, eventually they're just going to stop. Some people are like masters at working around it. Other people get completely lost and they get knocked off their perch and they don't know what to do. And it's very obvious when that happens. I think it fucking sucks. And I wish it would go away. I wish it would die in a fire.

That's what I think of the what chant. And Tay from D.C., he wanted to ask something about something he recently discovered. Scrambled paper views. Did you know about this? And what he shared here, it's like a little blurb. It looks like it's from the website

wrestling news.co. Before streaming and digital cable, many fans watched WWF, WCW, and ECWPWs, scrambled. On analog cable systems, pay-per-view channels were scrambled rather than blocked. If a household did not order the event, the channel still displayed a distorted picture of warped colors and rolling lines. On many systems, the audio was unaffected or only lightly distorted. Fans who did not order the show could hear the full broadcast while the picture remained unwatchable. Some followed entire pay-per-views this way. The scrambling would occasionally drift, making portions of the picture briefly visible before distorting again.

For those who missed the show entirely, results were covered on television programs like superstars and later Monday Night Raw, but only through still photos. Rather than airing footage, the show's recap pay-per-view matches with freeze-frame images and voiceovers. This protected the value of the pay-per-view and the eventual home video release, which typically arrived months later. Yeah, I remember that very well. Many of us, now look, I never watched an entire pay-per-view that way. I mean, that's, that's fucking diabolical. If you're going to sit there for three hours and watch a bunch of squiggly lines like that. But yes, yes, that was a real thing. I was at a couple of friends' houses occasionally where they were watching the shows like that and you could hear the audio. But again, it would like cut in and out constantly. And I'm

I'm like, dude, just like, order the pay-per-view, man. What are we doing here? I can't sit here for three hours and watch. It's like a test pattern, you know what I mean? With the rolling lines going up and down the screen or going down the screen more than up. It was awful, but that's what some people did. You know, these pay-per-views back then could be $50. And if you were young enough, your parents would pay for it.

If they didn't want to pay for it, sometimes that was the only way for you to actually keep up with what was going on. Right? There was no WWE radio back then, and there were no websites that were kind of keeping track of the live results in real time. You didn't have anything like that back then. So that was a real thing when people were desperate to just kind of keep up with what was going on, but they either couldn't order it or their parents wouldn't let them order it. That's what you had to do. You make me feel old, by the way.

You're sending this in. You're making me feel ancient here. But I know many people watching this. You remember that. I know you know the struggle, as well as recording stuff on VHS when you had raw nitro on at the same time. You have to pick and choose. You got to pick one. You know what I mean?

And you can't record on one VCR or television and watch something else on that television at the same time. It had to go into another room on a different TV and you can record in the other room. It's a pain in the ass is what that was. But I will say there is something to be said for physical media. Right. That big controversy recently with Sony and they're not going to produce games. any more like physical copies of the games and everyone's freaking out. Physical media, man. I haven't kept all of my VHS tapes, but I kept a good chunk of them.

And I still have them. And they're preserved in their original form with all the segments and music and commercials and everything else. So maybe one day I'll find a way to transcribe them. Anyway, thank you for the question. Some good stuff. Keep emailing me, the Solomonster at gmail.com. You could also tweet me on X at Solomonster. Use the hashtag Uncrowned if you do so, and maybe I'll be able to answer your question best I can here on the show. I will be back with you next Tuesday for a brand new installment of the Uncrowned Wrestling show. Salomonster here signing off. Until next time when it comes to the news, if you didn't know, now you know.

I'll see you back here next Tuesday for more Uncrowned. Take care, guys.