The Ariel Helwani Show - The Uncrowned Wrestling Show | Ronda Rousey CRASHES AEW Revolution, Oba Femi is MADE in one night, more!

Episode Date: March 17, 2026

Jason Solomon is back and he opens with his thoughts on the terrible OVW incident, where a referee suffered a mid-match seizure (2:24). Then he reviews AEW Revolution (13:13), with MJF retaining his championship in a Texas Death Match over Hangman Adam Page, major returns on the show including Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay, and a surprise appearance by Ronda Rousey (19:28). On the WWE side, news on internal discussions regarding the status of their upcoming Saudi Arabia shows, as war remains ongoing in the Middle East (43:06). Then it's onto Monday Night Raw, with Oba Femi accepting Brock Lesnar's open challenge for WrestleMania in a tremendous segment (47:31) and the weakest confrontation yet between Roman Reigns and CM Punk, which already feels like it's running out of gas (55:48). Randy Orton's BRUTAL heel turn on Cody Rhodes on Smackdown, what made it work so well, why it might have worked better at Mania, and who Orton might have been seen on the phone with on Raw (59:19). News on Pat McAfee's future with WWE from the man himself, plus some listener Q&A, and a great story about Jake "The Snake" Roberts approaching 14 years of sobriety (1:13:42).

Happy St. Patty's Day. Jason Solomon here for episode six of the uncrowned wrestling show for March 17th. Former ECW world champion, the Sandman. I saw him in the news. He's going to be wrestling his final match next month at Joey Janella's spring break against the Invisible Man. Yes, this is a real match. But while speaking with Monopoly events, he was asked which current wrestlers would fit in with the ECW product. and he named John Moxley, Kenny Omega, Swerve Strickland, and Kyle Fletcher. Moxley is an easy one. I mean, Moxley probably, I mean, he gets about a bed every morning with blood all over the sheets, like a crime scene. Swerve has done some sadistic shit in his career. Kenny Omega, yeah, I could see it.

I mean, if guys like Chris Jericho and Jerry Lynn could have success in ECW, I don't see why Omega wouldn't. And Kyle Fletcher, I mean, he has a licking fetish, right? he's always licking blood off his fingers, screwdrivers. It don't matter. I mean, he's sick. He's sick in the head. He would fit right in.

You know who else would fit in? Hangman Page and MJF. Especially after their Texas death match on Sunday. If you like blood and barbed wire, broken light tubes, staple guns, syringes through the mouth, boy have I got the match for you.

I felt like I was watching a snuff film. A.W is basically what ECW would be if Paul Heyman had money. I've got thoughts on that revolution pay-per-view on Sunday, which was a very newsworthy show, including an appearance by Rhonda Rousey that came out of nowhere. Last night's Monday Night Raw, which had appearances by Roman Raines and Brock Lesner. Lesnar was the best part of the entire show. We had a major heel turn on Smackdown that's going to play directly into one of the WrestleMania main events.

Got news on Pat McAfee status with WWE and more. Don't forget, you can email me at the Solomonster at gmail.com, or you can tweet me on X at Solomonster with any questions you may have for the show. Just be sure to include the hashtag uncrowned. First, though, this has nothing to do with WWE or AEW, but it turned into one of the biggest stories all week. Ohio Valley Wrestling. That was the main developmental territory for WWE for many.

many years, I believe from 2000 to 2008. And it produced a lot of big names for WWE. John Sina, Randy Orton, Brock Lesner, Batista, Bobby Lashley, Shelton Benjamin. They're all names that came out of OVW, among others. This here, though, is something that they would rather not be known for, but it will now be something that they are forever associated with. And there are times in wrestling where there'll be an incident or there'll be an injury, accident of some kind, or just something horrendous that you watch, and it just, it shocks you. And it takes a lot to shock me at this point, because I feel like I've seen, I've seen so much. I think we all have seen so much. It takes a lot to be genuinely shocking, but last week was one of those times. And there was a

video that spread like wildfire all over social media. I'm sure many of you, maybe not all of you, many of you have already seen it by now, or you heard about the story. OVW was live streaming their weekly rise TV series. And during the main event, there was a wrestler who came off the top rope with a flying forearm to one of the other wrestlers, a heel by the name of Tony Evans. And Evans on the spot, he pulled referee Dallas Edwards into the line of fire, and Dallas Edwards took the forearm instead. but in doing so when the referee hit the mat,

he smacked the back of his head against the canvas, very hard. And he immediately began seizing up and going into convulsions. And it was very, very scary. The wrestler who nailed him, he was literally like kind of huddled right over him as he was getting back up to his feet. And he was looking down at Edwards, I mean, he was looking right at him. Didn't say anything. They just continue to wrestle around his body.

and he was laying there and he's twitching around violently. You could see his body's all stiffened up. And that was all bad enough and scary enough. But then Tony Evans, he grabs Edwards by his pants. While his body is doing all of this and as stiff as a board, and he rolls him out of the way. And he even used his foot. And this is the part that really pissed a lot of people off and was just disgusting,

where he used his foot to sort of just brush him aside so that he can go ahead and continue on with the next spot. Right? I mean, really, the most disgusting thing that I have seen in a wrestling ring since the Raja Jackson incident last summer. And you watch this and you really can't plead ignorance. Oh, well, I didn't know. I mean, you had fans in the crowd who were, you know,

shouting out that he was hurt, something was wrong. I'm just sitting here watching the video like all of you, and there's no way. You can't tell me, you cannot convince me, that there was nobody in that ring that suspected or knew that something was wrong. And they continued to wrestle around this man for probably a good minute. And yeah, I'd mentioned this the other day. It kind of reminded me of an incident that happened in WCW.

In the late dying days of WCW at Fall Brawl, one of their pay-per-views in 2000, where you had Paul Orndorv, Mr. Wonderful, right? W.W.E. Hall of Famer, who was in the, I think, the twilight of his career to say the least. They had to be one of the last matches he ever had. But he gave somebody a pilot driver. But when he did, the way he fell down, he smacked the back of his head on the mat. And he was just laying there motionless for minutes. And all of the other wrestlers in the ring, Ray Mysterio and everybody else, they just keep wrestling around his body. And, you know, you look at it. And it just, it's a terrible look. This was worse because Evans just physically rolled him out of the way

and then, you know, booted him aside so that they can continue on. And there's really just no excuse for it. And then finally, somebody intervened, the match was stopped, and they went off the air. Now, OVW released a statement the next day saying, last night during RISE, referee Dallas Edwards, a member of our family, experienced a medical emergency during the broadcast. OVW takes the health and well-being of all of our performers extremely seriously. And as a company, we are all distraught to see an injury to one of our own.

as alert and doing much better. We ask everyone to keep him in your thoughts and prayers and respect his and his family's privacy at this time. We will provide an update as soon as possible, but in the meantime, we wish him a speedy recovery and cannot wait until he is back with our OVW family very soon. You know, it's one thing to say that you take the health and well-being of your performers extremely seriously. It's another to demonstrate that, which unfortunately they did not do here. Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful shared a statement. from Edwards' girlfriend saying, please keep Dallas in your thoughts as your day begins.

I am not going to provide much more information at this time, except to the parties who already know, but last night resulted in a brain injury that is being monitored and will continue to be monitored by doctors. Seeing all the support you guys have already given is amazing, and I did not want to leave everyone without some kind of update. Dallas himself later posted an update from the hospital to his Facebook page, saying, hey guys, I know everyone seems to,

to know about the scary incident last night at OVW. I've been evaluated by a hospital and I have a concussion, as well as a subdural hematoma, brain bleed. With that being said, I have made the decision to take some needed time away to get my life and help back in good spirits. I appreciate all of the support everyone has been offering, but as far as money goes, I am grateful to be in a position that I can manage an accident like this.

In lieu of donations, I instead implore all of my fellow workers to get some sort of training and assisting another's life. Being in that position before, it's very important to be educated in all scenarios relating to injury or illness in the ring, especially when we are performing. I am not mad at anyone or anything other than the situation as a whole. As far as updates go, I am getting a CT scan in the morning,

and if that goes well, I will be home. Thank you to everyone who has reached out or stopped by. It means more than any of you know. his mother was not as understanding as her son because this made the news locally on their Fox affiliate and I think in some other places as well. They interviewed Tammy Edwards, Dallas's mom, who said, I'm not upset about the bump. Dallas knows how to fall and he has trained as a wrestler. What I am concerned about is the lack of preparation OVW had when a medical emergency like this happened. Nobody stopped the match. They were wrestling over the top of my child.

as he seizes. How do you treat another human being like that? And she said watching the video, it felt like no one cared about her son and no one from OVW contacted her to let her know that he was being taken to the hospital. She found out about that from a family friend who was sitting in the crowd. And Louisville, Kentucky Mayor Craig Greenberg, evidently has an ownership stake in OVW. His press secretary, when contacted, issued a statement saying, Mayor Greenberg is no longer involved in the operations of OBW. We are, of course, sorry to hear about this injury. Or basically translated,

leave us alone, we have nothing to do with this. We have no connection to this whatsoever. Brian Alvarez is reporting that Edwards is now home recovering, writing Dallas Edwards went home on Sunday and is on the road to recovery. So let us hope so. I saw one wrestler say that every person in that ring who did not help him in just,

stood there watching, should burn their boots or go back to day one training. I don't think you need proper training to understand that when you see something like that happening, you can stop playfighting to make sure the person is not just selling a wrestling move. You know, I don't think he would be sprawled out in the middle of the ring like that while they're trying to get their next spot in. He would know enough if he's selling to roll out of the way. And when that didn't happen, you would look down and clearly see the man was in distress. then you either help him or you throw up some sort of hand signal and let somebody with actual medical training know that something's wrong.

You know, I promise you, when you have fans in the crowd shouting out, oh, he's hurt, or recognizing there's a problem, no one cares about your wrestling match at that point. You know, it's not about the training that you received. It's about using the brain that you were given that's rolling around inside your skull. It's called common sense. Al Snow, who co-owns OVW. posted a statement on Saturday

reads as follows. Pro wrestling has always carried an inherent risk of injury for everyone who steps into the ring. And he goes ahead and describes what happened, he said, in this unprecedented situation, the person who would normally make the assessment of injury, you know, something's wrong, was the one who needed assistance.

That unforeseen breakdown in communication contributed to a delay in stopping the match and concluding the show. We are relieved to hear that Dallas is recovering and receiving the medical care that he needs. Our thoughts are with him and we're hoping for his continued improvement. At OVW, the health and safety of our performers and officials has always been our top priority. We are proud of the standards that we've maintained over the years, but also recognize that there is always room to strengthen and improve. So with that in mind, we are reviewing our existing procedures and updating several of our in-ring and ringside protocols to ensure that we continue to meet the highest expectations.

expectations for performer safety. These updates include enhanced communication systems, additional referee training, and expanded ringside response measures to help ensure that a situation like this is identified and addressed as quickly as possible. So the part about additional referee training was kind of wild, given that it was the referee who was hurt in this instance and really was not in a position to do anything, which is not to say that they shouldn't be training their referees as well to recognize certain warning signs when it comes to other talent, but it came off like he was blaming the guy for getting hurt,

and I know, I'm sure that wasn't his intent, but it was just a bizarre thing to have in there. All I know is I watched that video and I thought Dallas is not the only one that should be getting a brain scan in that company. Hopefully nothing like that will happen again. AEW Revolution took place on Sunday at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. A busy day in L.A. at the Academy Awards, not too far from there. Revolution has traditionally been an event that has given us some of the best wrestling matches in AEW history. All the way back to the very first one, 2020. Kenny Omega and Hangman Page against the Young Bucks.

C.M. Punk against MJF and a dog collar match in 2020. We got a call back to that on Sunday night. MJF and Brian Danielson had what I believe to be the greatest Iron Man match of all time in 2023. Sting! I can't say it the way Tony Chavani does, but Sting had the greatest sendoff a wrestler has ever gotten at Revolution in 2024

in his retirement match. And then last year it was Tony Storm and Mariah May in their Hollywood ending. So when it comes to this particular show, if you come in hungry, you're usually eating good. Okay, they leave you so stuffed, you have to undo your belt

like you just finish Thanksgiving dinner. What we had was a five and a half hour marathon. As long of a show, if you include the pre-show, which had several matches, five and a half hours, as long of a show as I can remember them ever doing. You know, WWE feels like they don't give you enough

on their PLEs. AEW gives you too much. They overload you with matches. am begging a wrestling promotion to find that happy medium because the big two have not been able to figure it out yet. But it was a newsworthy show, for sure, with MJF beating Hangman in the most violent match in the seven-year history of the promotion. And with that, one of their biggest stars can never again challenge for the AEW World Championship. We also had the returns, a lot of returns, of some big names like Kenny Omega, Will Ospre, and

Adam Copeland, Christian Cage. We have the debut of Ronda Rousey. We had new trios champions crowned, and the announcement that Mystico, one of the biggest box office wrestlers in the world right now, for CMLL, their biggest star, has signed a dual contract and he is now all elite. And we even got a title change on the pre-show

with Jack Perry winning the national title from Rikoshae in a 21-man battle royal. So like I said, a lot to unpack coming out of this show. I thought it was a great show. It was well worth the money I spent on it, but I do feel like they just throw way too much at us. And there's an issue with too much of the same thing spread out across multiple matches, whether it be blood or like the strong style kickouts at one. We had them multiple times on the show. It's as if there's no communication going on at all behind the scenes when it comes to laying stuff like this out. Everyone is just often

their own little world coming up with what they want to do. And they just go. And they just go out and do it, you know, with no mind paid to the 12 other matches on the card. But they had the Costco guys doing comedy with Wayne Brady in the opening match on the pre-show. And they basically use Big Boom A.J. and his son and the Rizzler, right, touching his face. That's his gimmick. That's what he does. He's an eight-year-old who strokes his chin. They use them to pop the live crowds. It's usually a fun, you know, throwaway match. No harm, no foul. Willow Nightingale retained her TBS title over Lena Cross in a match that fed into the tag team title match later on in the night

as both women were pulling double duty. And Jack Perry, as I mentioned, he has been feuding with Rikishay, won the national title from him when they were the final two men left in a 21-man Blackjack Battle Royal. They also did the gimmick again where the match bled over into the start of the pay-per-view. So technically it wasn't just a pre-show match and made it onto the main card. So these guys are out there wrestling and they're shooting off pyro on stage in the middle of the match. It was like when they used to transition from hour one to hour two of WCW Monday Nitro back in the day.

See, all my Monday Night War guys out there, you know what I'm talking about. The first time they did this, I thought, well, that's an interesting tool to use sometimes as a hook to get people to, you know, buy the main card if they're on the fence. I still think it can be very effective. I just don't think it's something that has to be done all the time. But, you know, from time to time, that's fine. FTR and the Young Bucks, two of the best tag teams of this generation. They've had some classic battles before. To their credit, I thought this was their best one yet.

We already had double juice five minutes into the match. Nick Jackson got busted. Dax Harwood was bleeding on a show with a Texas death match in the main event. I don't know that we needed blood in the opening match, but there it was in the first five minutes. And look, they had a great one. You know, the Bucks family, their kids, parents. they were all cheering them on in the front row, the hometown heroes, and then they lost, which surprised me because I thought they were taking those titles, but when the match was over,

we got the returns of Adam Copeland and Christian Cage. And it really should not have been a surprise to me. They want Copeland and Christian challenging for those belts. And it makes sense to have them take them, if they're going to take them, from FTR. It was months ago that FTR gave Copeland's wife a Spike Pile Driver in the middle of the ring. So the revenge story is right there. And in fact, I'll tell you what, I could see them headlining their dynasty pay-per-view with it.

Next month, if they slot MJF in there, let's say, in a title defense against anyone but like a top-flight name, that would make it easier to envision them potentially headlining the show with a tag team title match. And you get Cope and Christian winning the belt in Canada because they're in Vancouver next month. I could totally see that. Now, they also tease something with Cope, Christian,

and the bucks. They had a little stare down. That's a match I'm sure Tony Kahn is dying to do. So between now and their big Wembley show at the end of August, we should see some combination of this, maybe leading to a three-way with all teams involved. I could see that. But this was great. Timeless Tony Storm, she beat Marina Shafir. But the real story here came after the match was over. When Rhonda Rousey showed up in the ring and she motioned for Tony to get back in the ring, which she did. The two of them had to be separated until Marina gave Tony a sucker punch that knocked her out, and Marina left with Rhonda. Now, the two of them have been friends for years, right? I mean, that's where the four horsewomen thing comes from, right? It was Rhonda Rousey,

Shana Beasler, Marina Shafir, Jessamine Duke, the four horse women of MMA coming out of that ultimate fighter season, and, you know, Duke hasn't wrestled or fought in years. I know she does gaming streams these days with Shana Basler and Mia Yim. But Rhonda has done three wrestling matches in the last three years since leaving WWE, one of which was for Ring of Honor, but all three of them

have been tag team matches with Marina Shafir. So the two of them are very tight. If Rhonda was going to do anything in AEW, it would very likely be with Marina. I could see a tag team match with the two of them against Tony Storm and Mina Shirakawa. Mina had come out to

check on Tony after she got sucker punched. But that's if Ronda wrestles at all. You know, Tony Kahn was playing kind of coy about it after the show. He said, Ronda Rousey is a huge star. So we have a great relationship with her. She's wrestled for me before in R.O.H. And she's always welcome here anytime in AEW. So could we be looking at this being a one-off appearance? And people are making more of this than they should. It's possible. You know, my first thought when I saw her, other than, you what the fuck is Rhonda Rousey doing here, was she has a fight to promote. All you uncrowned fans out there, you know, I'm sure you saw the press conference that

Ariel hosted, right, with Rhonda Rousey and Gina Carano to promote their big fight on Netflix on May 16th. It's being hosted by most valuable promotions, which is Jake Paul's company. They just announced I saw Nate Diaz is going to be fighting on that card too. It's going to do big numbers. Regardless of the quality of the fight, it's going to do big numbers. They're going to make a lot of money. money with this. For Tony

Khan to be able to feature Ronda on his show at a time when all of a sudden her name is relevant again is a nice little coup for Tony Khan. But for Ronda, she gets to potentially leverage AW's platform to promote her fight to even more people.

You know, she did not leave WWE on the best of terms. She's not a huge fan of WWE or TKO right now. She's been talking a lot about TKO and Dana White, not in the most flatter terms. So this is her saying, I'm not going to play in your sandbox. I'm going to go over here instead. Brian Alvarez reported that most people within WWE were shocked to see Rousey show up at Revolution.

I don't know if they were shocked that she was doing anything with wrestling or just shocked that if she did, she would choose AW over WW. That really shouldn't be a shock to anybody. First of all, Ronda Rousey's last run in WWE was terrible. Okay? It was awful. It was awful. and you can't put all the blame on WWE creative for that. Some of it, absolutely. But when Rhonda came back in 2022, she wasn't protected the same way that she was in her first run, where they tried to make her feel like more of an attraction.

That wasn't the case in her second run. It was god-awful. And her promos were no better. When Rhonda Rousey was on TV, she felt like just another person on the roster, which was not the right way to be using Ronda Rousey. She got exposed. and by the time she was done,

I had no desire to see her on my television screen ever again. Now, I do like how she had no problems calling out WWE for their terrible creative and calling out people who worked there, even while she was still working there. She clearly had no fucks to give in her second stint. Her working with AEW and not going back there should not be a surprise to anyone, especially when she referred to Bruce Pritchard as being Vince McMahon's avatar. as long as Bruce Pritchard is there,

Vince McMahon will always have a pipeline to WWE. Bruce still works there. I don't think she had any desire to be around him or the other old heads on that creative team. But I did like how outspoken she was about that. I wish more people were. But if Tony Khan is planning on using her for anything more than just what we saw on Sunday night,

I could see a one-off tag team match. You know, sometime after her fight. But that's really it. You know, she's not wrestling before then. She's got a fight coming up in less than eight weeks. It's her first fight in a decade. She's not wrestling anybody before then. If she fights and she wins, and the show ends up being this massive box office success,

I could see Tony wanting to work with her just based off her name alone, but I don't think she's someone the fan base in AEW was going to be clamoring and all that enthusiastic to see. Although I'll tell you what, it would be hilarious if they were, because you know that if she had gone back to WWE, the comments would be all negative towards her. If that changes all of a sudden, I'm not saying I'm seeing that so far,

but if that were to suddenly change, oh, the laughing fit that I would have. Now that would be funny. Tony and Marina, by the way, they are having a no-hold barred rematch on Dynamite tomorrow night, so we'll see if Rhonda makes another appearance. John Moxley and Konoske Takeshda.

they had an excellent match that saw Moxley retain his Continental Championship. They threw everything but the kitchen sink at each other. That may have been the only thing now that I think about it that we did not see them use in the main event of this show. Every near fall, the crowd grew louder and louder. And they topped their match in Australia last month, which was very good. I disagree with the finish. I think DeKesda should have taken this one. But when it was over, it was very clear why they did it this way,

because they are saving that title for someone else. To Keshe, though, he shook Moxley's hand when it was over. I would imagine that likely won't go over too well with the other members of the Don Callis family. Shouldn't be too much longer before he either leaves or gets booted out of the group, which I think then paves the way for the rematch with Okada, this time for Okada's international title.

I think he ends up being kicked out of the group before we get that match, not after, but I still think it would have been better for him to win the belt here. But after the match, we had the return of Will Osprey, who has been out of action since August. September 17th, he underwent a double fusion on his neck. February 25th is the day that he says he got cleared by doctors to return to action. Five months. That's a lot quicker than I think anybody expected. But he looked great.

Physically, he looked to be in great shape. And his first night back, he's out there hitting springboard pelee kicks and a sky-twister pressed to the floor like a madman. It's like when you hold down a cat's tail for a while, eventually when you let go, right, that thing is flopping around all over the place. That's Will Osprey. Like he was held back for five months. Once he got the green light, he just can't help himself. He just goes nuts. And he targeted John Moxley. It was the death riders, if you remember, who injured him when they wrote him off TV. So they're crediting them with injuring his neck. It makes sense. Does that mean that Osprey is going to be the one to take the title from John Moxley?

Or do they have bigger plans for him for All In? The Owen Hart Foundation tournament is not that far off. Probably kicks off in June. June or July. The winner goes to Wembley Stadium at All In to challenge for the World Championship. That's how it works. Sounds like a good spot for Will Osprey to be in, right? In the UK this year, of all places. When he wins that world title, that's where it should be. whether it's this year, next year. But getting Osprey back is only going to strengthen

what's already a very strong top of the card in AW right now. Really, the whole roster is strong, but especially at the top. I mean, they have a lot of great potential challengers lined up for MJF. Moxley, he's been cheered, though, for months now. All of a sudden, after the match on Sunday, he wasn't being cheered anymore, right? Ex-Calibur said he still has to pay for his past sins.

How they tell that story should be interesting. The Babes of Wrath, they are tag team champions no more. Willow Nightingale and Harley Cameron, they lost their belts to Megan Bain and Lena Cross. Poor Penelope Ford. She got hurt and she lost her spot. I can't lie, though. I mean, that visual of Bain and Cross as a team, I said this the other night, they're like a female version of the skyscrapers. I think they work better together than Bain and Ford do.

Just a lot more imposing. This was the obvious outcome with what they did on the pre-show. I mean, you can't well have Willow beat Lena and then come right back out with one good arm and do it again two hours later. So this was what it needed to be. Swerve Strickland, he beat Brody King. A good brawl I thought that found a way to be violent without being overly violent. No way Swerve should have been losing this match. Kenny Omega returned to make the save when it was over when Swerve was going to stomp Brody's head onto a cinder block.

So Kenny made it back in time from Japan to make a cameo here. This was a lot of returns for one show, though. It would have been okay to save some for tomorrow night. Unless Tony's got something else big planned. It was like one after the other after the other. It's like, you do have two hours of television on Wednesday. You know, save some for that. You know, Andrade wrestled Bandito on this show also.

And they had a great match. I was really looking forward to that one. They did not disappoint. I've been saying, you know, if they do another Grand Slam show this summer at a arena, Mexico. And evidently, Tony Con is in discussions for doing just that. That would be the perfect place for an MJF Andrade World Title Match. I still feel that way, but I could see Andrade getting a title shot at Dynasty next month. Just because I can't think of another good name right now, let's say Swerve ends up wrestling Kenny on that show. And that seems to be the likely direction

right now. There's no other obvious challenger next up in line for MJF. Now, Samoa Joe should be back any week now. He's been in concussion protocol. Maybe Tony goes with MJF and Samoa Joe again. I suppose that's possible. But he doesn't really have that one obvious challenger next month. I could see Andrade fitting in that spot. Tecla beat Chris Stathlander, best two out of three falls, two falls to one, to hang on to the AEW women's world title.

Solid stuff, not their best work against each other. They did their best to protect Stathlander with that visual pin and then sending in Tecla's Goon Squad for Statlander to fight off. But one spear and two curb stomps later, and that was it. And Tecla is really good. She's just, she's very unique, you know, in the way she carries herself and cuts promos. She's been a breath of fresh air. And I hope she hangs on to that belt for a while.

I don't know what you do with Chris Statlander. Unless they run this back one more time. I mean, I guess they could. But it just feels like they've gotten what they're going to get out of this. and it may be time to move on. If they do, I don't know what's next for Statlander. Mystico, Kevin Knight and Speedball Mike Bailey, they are your new. AEW trios champions taking the titles away from the Don Callas family,

Okada, Fletcher, and Mark Davis. Of course, Mark Davis was the one to eat the pin here. They didn't have those belts for very long, did they? I was mildly surprised to see them drop them so fast, but, I mean, I can't say I hate it. I'm not really a fan of having all these people holding multiple belts at once. I mean, what the hell did Okada and Fletcher need the trios belts for?

But it was after the match that we found out via graphic that Mystico is all elite. And he has a dual contract with AEW and CMLL. This is what Tony Kahn said after the show. I think we will be splitting time. Obviously, CMLL is an amazing partnership for AEW. And what a sign of trust between the two promotions to have one of the greatest wrestlers of all time now as a dual signee, joining us in AEW as a champion. Someone that I have admired for decades,

somebody who is a personal hero of mine in the wrestling business, somebody who's accomplished so much. And it's an honor to be able to sit on the stage with him and say that he is a part of AEW and now a world champion here. It's so cool. We'll be working with Salvador, referring to the head of CMLL. Now that he's a champion in AEW,

I'll work with Salvador very closely to make sure that we see Mystico in both CMLL and AEW as much as possible. And the Mystico story is, it's pretty crazy. You know, the guy's 42, 43, 43 years old. And he's been really the main character, the main star in CMLL for years now. He had a cup of coffee many years ago in WWE, and not a lot of success.

Yeah, he kind of crashed and burned there when he was seeing Kara. It feels like a lifetime ago. But he was able to build himself back up into a true box office attraction, all these sellouts that CMLL has had. I mean, really going back to last year, but this year so far, I mean, I've lost track of how many sellouts they've had. And, I mean, look, they have more than just Mystico on the roster. But clearly, you know, he is their QB.

You know, he's their A number one. He's also currently their light heavyweight champion. He's a CMLL Trio's champion. which makes two trios titles now that he is holding concurrently. So he's a big deal. And to AEW, is he going to mean as much in AEW as he does in CMLL? And to that audience, maybe not, but he's still a big name. And so if he gets more money by having two contracts, good for him.

I mean, his story is a very unique one. Darby Allen, Orange, Cassidy, and Roderick Strong. They beat David Finley, Gabe Kidd, and Clark Conners. Gabe Kidd was not. happy about this loss, and he stormed into the media scrum when the show was over, sat down right next to Tony Khan, and he demanded, amidst the 500 F-bombs that he dropped here, he demanded an unsanctioned coffin match with Darby Allen to settle things on dynamite once and for all. Darby might actually die tomorrow night.

The thing with Gabe Kidd, like, he's always dialed up to a tan. There's no in between with him. You know, the only time he'll be at a zero is when he's sleeping at night. As soon as he wakes up, it goes right back up to a 10. And Tony Kahn is sitting there. He hasn't looked that afraid for his life since CM Punk tried to choke him in London. But then we had the main event. MJF, Hangman Adam Page, Texas Death Match for the AEW World Championship.

And if Hangman is unable to win the championship back, he could never again. He has vowed to never again. as long as he lives, challenge for the AEW World Championship. First of all, let me talk about MJF here. He was fantastic in this match. I mean, both men were very good. But MJF, you know, his performance on the big stage

in these big main events is fantastic. The guys like the mailman. He always delivers. I mentioned earlier. I think he and Brian Danielson own the greatest Ironman match, 60-minute Iron Man match that I have ever seen

in any promotion. And so whether it's an Iron Man match, whether it's a dog collar match, whether it's a Texas death match, other matches that have no stipulations. He's been an MVP in this company really from the very beginning, and he always delivers in a big spot like this.

And this was not his kind of match. This is hangman's match, right? This is his specialty. But he went in there and he took all the abuse and all the punishment that you would expect someone to take in a match like this and was matching the guy tit for tat. And as far as the stipulation is concerned, you can't say they didn't take advantage of it. I also loved how he paid homage to Terry Funk. Came out right down to the tights and everything. He looked just like Funk out there. But there have been some violent

matches in AW history. There have been some violent matches in wrestling history. Hangman and swerve Strickland stands out as my number one, as far as AW is concerned. As far as AW is concerned in their Texas death match, we have a new number one. So if you grade these types of matches by the level of violence and blood involved, this one takes the cake. They did everything but shoot each other in the head. And if Tony Khan had given them another 10 minutes, they probably would have. As it was, it was 45 minutes that they were given. We had hangmen stapling a happy birthday note to MJF's chest. It was MJF's 30th birthday on Sunday. Think about all the things that this guy has already done in his career. He's only now just turned 30. Hangman slammed him down

onto a pile of broken glass. He dragged him around in the broken glass. Both men were bleeding buckets. MJF pulled out a syringe in a callback to Hangman's cage match a few years ago where he jabbed one into swerve Strickland's cheek. MJ. have did the same thing to hangman here, only this time we have to one up what we did last time. He made sure the needle went all the way through hangman's skin, right out the other side of his cheek, and he's squirting out whatever liquid was inside just to show us. I'm not sure who this is supposed to appeal to, but it ain't this guy here. Okay?

And I've watched most of the saw movies, but this was just stupid. We had barbed wire, we had light tubes. Hangman pulled out skewers. He jabbed them into MJF's skull. Then Hangman busted out a pair of dog collars, and this is where MJF had post-traumatic stress. Seeing them. He's screaming, not again, not again. Because he remembers that dog collar match four years ago with CM Punk. That was a fun little callback. Then they had made their way up to the stage.

Hangman grabbed him, held him in tight, and they both went tumbling down off through a table that exploded upon impact. Flames and spark shooting out everywhere. They exploded these men, and they still made it back to their feet before the 10 count. They no-souled an explosion. And then hangman quite literally dog-walked him, collar and all, back to the ring, and it all led to MJF hanging him by the chain around his neck, over the top rope, and choking him out. Same way that hangman did to John Moxley last year in Texas when he won the AEW World Title. Very poetic that this time it was Hangman's.

undoing. You know, you live by the sword, you die by the sword. And when MJF let go of the chain, hangman's dead body fell to the ground, not before smacking the camera lens on the way down with his head. And the camera ended up with this giant blood stain, like right in the middle of the lens. I have to believe that was planned, but if it wasn't, then that was just one of those happy accidents. Now, I learned that from Bob Ross when I was a kid. There are no mistakes. Only happy accidents. I still tell my brother that. So you weren't a mistake. You were a happy accident. He doesn't find that as amusing as I do. But there was no interference in this match. I thought maybe swerve would make an appearance and screw over hangman. The newly heeled swerve,

Strickland. No swerve, no interference. MJF beat this man by the very stipulation that hangman himself chose. This was hangman's match. You know, he came into this with a and one record in Texas death matches. No more. I like the story. I like some of the callbacks. I didn't care for some of the violence. Not that it offends me.

I just didn't think some of it was necessary. I didn't think we needed 45 minutes of it stretching until 1230 in the morning either. But Brian Danielson was on commentary for this match. And he said this during the match. And I'm just shaking my head in agreement with him. He's watching this all unfold. and he said he would like to see this company put a moratorium on Texas death matches for a while. Tony Khan needs to take Brian Danielson's advice.

I hope he heeds it. We shouldn't see something like this again for a while. But it also means that by his own word, hangman can never again challenge for the AW World Championship. It's the same thing Cody Rhodes said. In 2019, when he lost and he stuck to his gun, something he now admits was a mistake. you know, boxing himself into a stipulation like that. I question why they would do this again when it was such a mistake the first time. You know, but this is pro wrestling.

Rules were made to be broken. Promises are not always kept. There are also ways around it if they wanted to get around it. You know, Tony Kahn was asked at the scrum about this, and this is what he said when he was asked how strict the stipulation is. It's the same thing with Cody, he said. It was a gentleman's handshake with both of them. They both came to me and said, I want to put this at stake.

In both of them, I told them, that sounds fucking nuts, dude. Both of them really wanted to do it. And in both cases, I said, are you sure? And they both said, yeah. So it's an agreement that we made, second time it's happened. He's somebody that is known for being a man of his word, and we made an agreement. So it is a verbal contract. I don't know if that may be a loophole at some point.

It was something that wasn't put in writing, but there you have it. A verbal contract. Hangman's a man of his word now. Who's to say a year from now, he's a heel again, and he has a change of heart, right? I mean, it's not like they're hurting for challengers right now for the world title, or that they don't have a gazillion other fucking titles that he could be fighting for. But for someone that people call the main character of AEW, somebody who is one of their biggest stars, he's been there since day one,

as young as he still is, I don't know why you would want to handcuff yourself creatively like that. I really don't. Overall, though, it was an excellent show. Was it long? Yes. Was there a lot of violence up and down the card? Yes. I had my quibbles with things on the show.

But overall, it was very, very strong. Now, Tony Khan also said this during the scrum. I'm going to make sure Wednesday night is a very, very crazy, crazy show. And we will head out of California in style. I can assure you of that. very, very excited for Fresno on Wednesday night. He's very, very excited. It's going to be very, very crazy after what we saw on the main event on Sunday.

He says Wednesday is going to be very, very crazy. I'm a little scared what that might mean. Switching over to WWE, you know, there's a lot of craziness going on right now in the world, especially over in the Middle East. and this is having an impact on WWE's planning for some of their upcoming Saudi Arabia events. There was a piece on the Sports Illustrated website talking about this. Obviously, it was back in September that WWE announced that WrestleMania for the first time ever would be taking place in Riyadh in 2027.

That'll be WrestleMania 43. But before we get there, there are multiple Saudi events that were scheduled for, although I don't think they were officially. announced, but there were two more, I think, that were or are planned for later this year. And those events right now sound like they're very much in a state of flux. They are in jeopardy. Brian Alvarez of the wrestling observer mentioned that WWE has discussed the upcoming premium live events and noted that while discussions are taking place, no decision about them has

yet been made. But there are conversations going on about whether or not changes need to be made, whether it is pulling the shows, moving them to a different place. I would imagine the Saudi shows. I mean, Dave Meltzer mentioned that there was a show planned for July, I believe, in Saudi. That might have been that Night of Champions show that I saw mentioned. And it may be unlikely to happen at all. But nothing has officially been decided yet.

So we'll see what happens. I mean, look, with everything that's going on, the longer that this conflict drags out. and there have been areas in parts of Saudi that have been targeted, you know, by drones and missile strikes. You can't be sending your talent over there. I would imagine they're smart enough to understand that having, you know, an entertainment event with a large gathering of people, both talent and fans, is probably not a good idea right now. So if I had a venture a guess, because it doesn't seem like things are going to be ending anytime soon, we're probably not going to be getting a Saudi show this summer. What that means for WrestleMania next year is impossible to know because it's still so far off. You know, we're still over a year away from WrestleMania next year.

I don't think any decision is going to be made imminently on that, but anything planned for June or July, yeah, that's not looking too good right now. And for WWE, I mean, that's a huge loss of income if they don't have the show there. I mean, there have been reports over the years that each one of the Saudi shows. I'm not talking about WrestleMania or the Royal Rumble they just did. But these Saudi shows, they get up to $50 million per show that they host there. And they've been doing at least two of them most years since 2018. That's a lot of money. You wonder why they keep going over to Saudi Arabia.

That's why. So if they don't do a show, if it gets canceled, then they're going to lose a lot of money. But you know what? So what? Sometimes there's more important things to worry about. Now, last night, it was 316 day on Monday Night Raw. I was hoping that we would get a cameo from Stone Cold Steve Austin here, the glass shatter, but he was not in attendance in Texas, of all places, on 316 Day.

There was no stone cold. He told the takedown on Sports Illustrated that he would be hunkered down, preparing for an upcoming race. He said, man, they should tune in because they love WWE and Monday Night Raw. Is what he said when he was asked if he would, if there was a special reason that people should tune into the show last night. He said, I'll be a few days out from that race. the race I'm talking about with my racing career, and we're trying to get that car ready, and we're working our asses off.

So yeah, I'll be hunkered down in a garage out here in BFE, Nevada, trying to get this buggy ready, side-by-side utility vehicle, to race this grueling 250-mile race with everybody else that I race with. So I want to get out there and put my own show on in the desert. So for those of you who don't know, Austin has taken to off-road racing in recent years. and he's got his own team out of Nevada, which is where he lives.

So he's been doing this now for a few years, and he's gotten very passionate about it. It's his new love. And so he takes it very seriously, and he was indeed hunkered down in Nevada because he was not there on Raw last night. But I'll tell you who was there on Raw last night. Seth Rollins was there. He came out with his putty patrol, again, all the mass men. and Rollins comes out and he was talking about Paul Heyman. And Paul Heyman emerged.

And he looked like he had been beaten in a back alley somewhere. He looked like he was on a bender and then he took a beating on the street. His eyes were bloodshot. He had a cut on his nose. He looked just awful. He looked terrible. I would not at all be shocked if he intentionally stayed up all night. He did this once before.

When they did an angle a couple of years ago where he ended up being beaten up by Solo Sacoa and his crew and they passed. Power bombed him through the announced desk on Smackdown. He's like a method actor. He was like, I stayed up all night. I didn't get any sleep. I wanted to look as just run down and exhausted as I possibly could. And he had that look again on Raw last night.

But he comes out and he said, I had to be here to see what was going to happen because, you know, FAFO, F5. And out comes Brock Lesnar. And I was wondering if they were going to go down this road. You know, because Brock's guy got beat up. You know, why wouldn't he want to go after Seth Rollins? And I'm thinking, well, I guess there's the WrestleMania match, right? So much for Obafemi. And Brock Lesnar comes down to the ring.

And he just absolutely destroys all of the putty patrol guys. He's throwing these guys around with reckless abandon. I would not be shocked if somebody's going to get their neck broken one of these days by being tossed around by this man. Like little babies. And he gets in the ring. and this is where we get the drum beat. And the lights go out, and out comes Oba Femi. And he struts on down to the ring, and Brock is in the ring, and he is selling this perfectly.

He's looking around. He looks just terrified. He's like a deer in headlights. And the fans in San Antonio last night, they knew the assignment. They did not disappoint. They're chanting this man's name. They're barking. Now Oba and Seth are in the ring, and they're not.

They're closing in on Brock. Seth leaves the ring. Lesner then turns around. He gets propelled by Oba up into the air. This is not a position that we're used to seeing Brock Lesner in. He's up on this man's shoulders in a power bomb position. And he gets dropped with the fall from grace. I don't think I've seen Brock honestly in that position or take a move like that,

probably since he feuded with the Undertaker back in his big evil days, you know, and he was taking the last ride power bomb. but he just got slammed down to the mat and it's funny because you could see Oba he's standing there and you could see Brock say something to him and Oba then puts his boot on Brock's chest so Brock was telling him, put your foot on my chest

and then he's pointing up at the WrestleMania sign and we got our answer. It became official later in the show but Oba Femi has answered the open challenge for Brock Lesner at WrestleMania. And I just thought that that That opening segment last night was fucking tremendous. It was a tremendous piece of business.

I love the swerve, making you think it's going to be Brock and Seth, only for Oba to come out. I thought that was just very well done. And it looked like Oba actually had tears streaming down his face. When they had a close-up of his face at the very end of the segment, it looked like he was crying. I wouldn't be shocked if he was. He was probably crying tears of joy because he recognized how big of a moment this was for him. And I'm just happy they made the right choice. You know, a lot of fans wanted to see that match coming out of the Royal Rumble.

They gave us the tease with Oba and Brock in the ring together in Saudi. And then, you know, we were a little unsure about whether or not they were going to follow up and do the match of WrestleMania. And they made the right choice. And I think that the way they put Oba over in that opening segment last night, he looked like a destroyer. You know, he calls himself the ruler. He looked like one. And credit to Brock Lesner, because when Brock wants to put some people. somebody over and really sell the impact of something, he could do it better than anybody.

You know, the way he was looking around, there was no smirk on his face. He wasn't laughing this off. He was looking around like, holy shit, what am I going to do here? He was like a cornered animal. And he took that big bump and he laid there and this is now one of the big attractions for WrestleMania 42 this year. And there's going to be a lot made about, you know, whether or not Brock wins, Oba wins. You know, I would like to see Oba go in there and pick up a big win. If they want to get multiple matches out of this and extend this out maybe to SummerSlam in Brock's home state and do a rematch there, then I don't see Obafemi winning at WrestleMania, but I don't know what their long-term plans are. I don't know how many matches Brock Lesnar still has left and is going to be wrestling.

There's a lot that we don't know. Right now, I'm just happy that we are getting the match. That is a big time WrestleMania match. And that last night is how you make a star. Now, A.J. Lee had her first defense of the women's intercontinental title, a successful one over Bailey. Becky Lynch, not a surprise, made a return when the match was over and attacked A.J. left her laying. So that sets up a very likely rematch for WrestleMania between them. We had a great match between Penta and Dragon Lee for the Intercontinental Tide.

We had back-to-back icy title matches on the show last night. Brian Alvarez is reporting that the original match made for Raw was to be Dominic Mysterio facing Dragon Lee. It got changed to a title match between Penta and Dragon Lee instead because Mysterio may have suffered a concussion. He wrestled at the AAA show, Ray De Reyes on Saturday night, and retained his AAA mega title. And so I guess there's concern he may have suffered a concussion. He says that he is in concussion protocol, which doesn't mean he has a concussion. if they fear he might, they put you in concussion protocols. So he was not there last night, and the one silver lining in that is that we got a great match

between Penta and Dragon Lee. That's the second great match that we've seen Dragon Lee have on this television show. He had a great one with Gunther a few weeks ago. Speaking of which, again, second week in a row, nowhere to be found on Monday Night Raw, which would probably lend credence to the idea that he may be wrestling. Ray Mysterio, or at least the idea was that he would wrestle Ray Mysterio or WrestleMania. Ray Mysterio came out in the last few days, and he mentioned that he suffered some broken ribs in a match on Raw against Austin Theory back on January 26th. That was the final raw before the

Royal Rumble. And so he's on the mend. He said that he's, you know, he's healing up. It just takes time for broken ribs, you know, fractured ribs to heal. I don't know where he's at in terms of his recovery. If he's going to be out of WrestleMania, if they think he's going to be okay, but he needs a few more weeks. If they're waiting on Ray to heal up and get medically cleared and they think that might happen in the next, let's say, a couple of weeks, you can understand, I guess, why they would kind of have Gunther on ice.

But man, I mean, this guy, this is the guy that they put in a position to be John seen his final opponent and tap the man out. out back in December. And then back to back, he goes and he retires AJ Styles at the Royal Rumble. And now here we are heading into their biggest show of the year. And he is a total non-factor right now heading into WrestleMania. It's insanity. But if they're waiting for Ray Mysterio to heal up, does that mean that he may not be medically cleared in time for WrestleMania? What the hell do you do with Gunther in that situation? I guess L.A. Knight has no opponent for WrestleMania. I don't know if that's a match anybody wants to see, because we've already

seen it, but what do you do? It's just insane to me, though, to see the position that they put this man in. And now here we are less than five weeks out. We're basically a month away now from WrestleMania. Five weeks, or basically four weeks out. And he's not even on the show. He's got nothing going on. As I said, Brock Lesnar was back last night. He wasn't the only one. Roman Raines was back. We had another face-to-face in the ring with Roman Reins and CM Punk. And I've greatly enjoyed their first one. I enjoyed their second one, not quite as much as the first. It was a little bit weaker, but I still enjoyed them both.

And I have said, you know, boy, this WrestleMania build, they're carrying this WrestleMania show on their shoulders, these two. And so they had their third meeting last night. And we had Punk out there talking about how he's already won because he's inside Roman's head, right? He's under his skin. Roman kept calling him Phil. And remember, the last time we saw these two in the ring together a couple of weeks ago

was when punk threw that line at him at the very end about how you know, you feel like you're all alone, right? Your cousins aren't around anymore. The shield's not around anymore. You don't have your wise man. But don't worry because I'm going to bury you. And you won't be alone anymore because I'm going to bury you next to your father. So that was the last time these two shared a ring together. And I remember when that show is over, I said, well, the next time we see Roman Reigns.

Honestly, what I envisioned in my mind was the next time we see Roman Raines, he should be the one putting a beat down on punk the way that Randy Orton did to Cody Rhodes on Friday, which I'm going to get to here in a minute. But instead, Roman's on this show, and he's just totally no-selling it like it doesn't bother him. From the moment he showed up on the television show last night, he's all smiles. He's laughing the whole thing off. And so here in this segment, Roman comes back at him and says, you know, you're not faster than me. you're not stronger than me.

You're not better looking than me. It's like, oh, I don't know where that came from, but okay. He goes, you're nothing to me. That title around your waist is an embarrassment. He called him a try hard. And he said, at the end of the day, Phil, you're old. And I guess that was like calling Marty McFly chicken in Back to the Future. That's what got punk to punch him in the face.

That's what got punk to snap. And that I guess was a red line that you don't cross. you don't call CM Punk old and he had to be escorted out of the ring by officials. And Roman looked into the camera and he said, you say one thing and he snaps. Who's in whose head now? Well, I don't know. I mean, the old guy just puts you down on your ass. So I'm not sure that's the flex that Roman is supposed to think that it is.

This was easily the weakest of all the segments they've had together. I wouldn't say it was a bad segment. but it definitely wasn't great. Easily the weakest of all their exchanges so far. Honestly, you know what? When it was over, it was the first time where I really felt like they may be starting to run out of gas already with this. Yeah, they clearly are holding off on like the big pull-apart brawl or if they do the obligatory contract signing at some point. Because they still have several weeks.

They have a month left to go. You know, that's the issue when you start the road to WrestleMania at the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania is later and later. This is the latest WrestleMania they've ever done. You know, third week in April. So you have more TV time to fill. You've got to come up with stuff for these guys to do on TV. And I don't know. I mean, the material is starting to get a little thin. I was looking for some more anger from Roman. You know, you mentioned his family. You mention his father. You should be laying in a bloody heap. And that's not what we got last night.

But I did mention Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton. Let's talk about. about this. This was the big angle from Smackdown this past Friday night, the contract signing. We already got the contract signing for one of our WrestleMania main events. And they're in the ring together. And look, Cody and Randy have been boys for a while, right? They have a lot of history that goes back to Cody's very first match in WWE in 2007. It's a long time ago. It's when I started my podcast. And his very first match in WWE was against Randy Orton. And since he came back to the company in 2022, they've been close friends and allies. And he even said, you know, when I left the company, you know, talked about how I'm a future world champion and everything

was a little too chummy here. Made you think that, okay, something's going to go down here. But Cody signed the contract. Randy, it was his turn. And he did not sign the contract. And he seems conflicted about something. He's telling Cody, you don't understand. Like, I need this. This match, the title, like, I need this. And he said, it was supposed to be easy. It was supposed to be me against Drew. And Cody cuts him off.

He doesn't even let him finish what he was trying to say. And Cody is just reassuring him, not realizing, of course, looking back at it in hindsight, why he was so conflicted and what he was really talking about, which is going back to a very dangerous place. right, that Randy Orton hasn't been in quite some time. And Cody hit him with the, no matter what happens, I will always love you. Pulling out the Whitney Houston here. And Randy signs the contract. And when he put pen to paper, it's like, again, a switch got flipped.

And he attacked Cody. Kicked him in the dick. Throws him out of the ring. He's just kicking his ass. Nick Alder, the general manager, he comes over. He gets shoved down by Orton. He hits Cody in the head with the ring steps. Cody comes up all bloody.

Hell of a blade job here. He's bleeding all over the place. You know it's WrestleMania season when Cody Rhodes is bleeding. We had the rock bloodied him up a couple of years ago. We had John Cena bloodied him up last year. Now it's Randy Orton's turn to draw blood from Cody Rhodes. Jellyroll was there. He came out.

He tagged with Randy Orton in a match last year at SummerSlam. He's trying to talk to Orton. What are you doing? Calm down. He gets shoved. It's like the voices took over in Randy Orton. And he leaves and he comes back. And this all ended with him hitting Cody.

He was supposed to hit Cody in the head with a chair. Cody's head was basically placed in the crevice of the ring steps. And Orton smacks the steps and it made this loud noise. It's like he caved this poor guy's skull in. And we have the parting shot of him with the WWE championship as the show goes off the air. It was a very strong angle. It was a great cliffhanger ending to the show.

It's like, you know, why Randy, why? And it was amusing listening to all the fans in the show. crowd chanting Randy's name as they went off the air. My first impression when I watched it was, again, A, very strong angle, B, I do wonder if it would not have been better to hold off on this until the WrestleMania match. You know, last year they did the John Sina heel turn at the elimination chamber instead of waiting until WrestleMania, and as great as that segment of that angle was at the elimination chamber. You know, looking back at it, how much better would that WrestleMania match?

have been? How much better off would the match have been if they would have saved the scene of heel turn for that night? The same night he wins number 17, like the shock factor would have been off the charts. And I feel like, are we in a situation here where we're going to look back and think, man, that turn would have, you know, worked better had they saved it for WrestleMania. I don't know. I can understand people's point of view where it's like, well, if they didn't do the turn now, would have been boring. These next four or five weeks would have been boring. you would have had two baby faces praising each other. And I feel like if you have creative people on your creative team,

you can find other ways to build tension between two baby faces heading into the show. But they chose to go this way and we'll see how, you know, it plays out now. The idea, I guess, behind it is Orton has been lying in wait this entire time. How many times over the last, I don't know, three years, four years? since Cody came back. I guess Cody only won the belt two years ago, but how many times have we seen Randy Orton eyeballing the WWE championship?

Cody would be standing there or sitting there. They could be in the ring. They could be in the locker room. And Orton is sneaking a peek at the belt, right? He's been eyeing that thing now for two years. And he tried to explain to Cody. Like, dude, it was supposed to be me and Drew. You know, I could do all these terrible things

to Drew McIntyre and not feel guilty about it. And now you had to go and win the belt. But as soon as Cody said, like, no matter what, I will always love you. It's like it gave him permission. It's like a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders to do what needed to be done. And the story here is very simple. The story is that Randy Orton will do whatever it takes to win number 15. I don't think they did a very good job last year of telling that story with John Cena.

They went a totally different way with it. It wasn't about him breaking the record. You know, it wasn't about him winning number 17, which is, entirely what it should have been built around. Instead, they turned him heel, and we had John Sina come out on television every week and do the you people thing, you people, you did this to me, you did that to me. It didn't make any sense. You know, John Sina had been this beloved figure already for at least five or six years.

The days of people, you know, let's go Sina Sina sucks. Those were way back in the past. And it just felt very forced. It didn't feel genuine. I don't want to see them fall into the same trap here. The last thing I want to see is Randy Orton come out on. TV this week and be like you people. Right? You can't do that. It's been six years since this man won his 14th world championship.

It should be about number 15. So I like the story element to it. This is one of the reasons I wanted Cody and Randy to have a proper feud for so long. I mean, there's so much history there that you can play off of. And now we have Heel Orton. We had a segment on Rawl last. night where Michael Cole was to have interviewed Orton. And they filmed something, or it looked like Orton was in his garage, and he was on the phone with someone. It looked like it was being filmed on a flip phone from 2010, either that or a potato. Good old Randy Orton in 360P. And he told the mystery man on the phone, he was happy to see them a couple of weeks ago, and he agreed with them that it was about time for him to do what he did. And he ended the phone call and he told Michael, look, I know I promised you an interview, but I'm not going to give you one,

but I will leave you with this. I had a conversation with someone that had a brain, and they said something profound to me that made me think about my life and made me understand who I am, what I am. Why it is that I did what I did to Cody on Smackdown. You see, I'm a killer. He goes, hey, Cole, wrestling has more than one royal family. My first thought, was maybe he was talking to Kevin Owens. The last line about wrestling has more than one royal family, it doesn't necessarily tie into who this person is that he's talking to. It could just mean him.

You know, he comes from a wrestling family too. But I would love to see Kevin Owens, you know, worked into this in some way. I don't know that he's physically able to come back and do anything because he had the neck surgery last year. I'm not expecting him to wrestle again soon, but he absolutely could be worked into this story. You know, Kevin Owens was also friends with Cody and friends with Randy. The two of them, you know, Randy and K.O., they were backing Cody up 100% against the bloodline, and they took a beating from the bloodline many, many times until Kevin Owens turned on Cody Rhodes.

So you could definitely work Kevin Owens into this. I would love to see him show up on Smackdown this week. Otherwise, I don't know. I don't know, you know, who else it would be referring to. One person that we know it won't be is Ted DiBiase Jr. who was part of the old legacy faction with Orton and Cody many years ago. His criminal trial continued yesterday. He's facing charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, theft, and money laundering in Mississippi. They allege that he received nearly $3 million from nonprofits that was supposed to be used for welfare for needy families. Who knew the needy family was the DiBiase family?

As far as them turning Randy heel and not Cody, I saw some people upset about that. I get it. I understand there are a lot of people that are clamoring for a heel. Cody Rhodes right now, but you can't do that. You can't do that until you have somebody who could step into his shoes. Until you have that one big baby face that can step in and be the new Cody, turning Cody heel business-wise just doesn't make any sense. And I know some people aren't going to want to hear this either, but I think they turned Orton Heel now. because Cody wins at WrestleMania.

I do. I think the chances of Cody retaining that championship at WrestleMania got a lot better on Friday night. Drew McIntyre, the former champion, he will not be in the main event of WrestleMania. And because of that, he came out on SmackDown and he quit. But then before the show was over, he unquit and attacked Jacob Fawt too. So that is going to be a WrestleMania match. First, they're having a match on Smackdown this Friday,

but I'm certain we're not going to get a clear-cut winner and we'll end up with some sort of stipulation match between them in Las Vegas. We also had the three-time Grammy Award winner. I mentioned Jelly Roll. He's back. He was on Ms. TV. This was after the Miz got cursed again,

backstage by Danhausen. And Kit Wilson got involved in this segment and called Jelly Roll toxic. And this all led to Jelly Roll throwing a punch that was intended for Kit. He ducked. He punched Ms. instead. And now we have a segment coming up on Friday where Kit Wilson is going to call out jelly roll.

And according to a report from bodyslam.net, WW officials have discussed the idea of Royce Keys, former Powerhouse Hobbs from AEW teaming up with Jelly Roll for a tag team match at WrestleMania. Sources noted the storyline would revolve around the hardships both men have faced in their lives, using that shared background as the foundation for the partnership. It says that while the pairing has been talked about internally, it is still just a discussion. It is not yet confirmed.

You know what? It would not be the worst spot for Keyes to be in on the WrestleMania card. I didn't think he was going to make the card at all. Yeah, we saw him at the Royal Rumble, and he has not made his TV debut yet. He's been used in dark matches and main event tapings. And I just figure, well, okay, there's no spot for him on the WrestleMania card. Maybe we'll see him make a press.

proper debut coming out of mania. So if he's even on the mania card, that's a score for him. I didn't think he would be. If he's teaming up with Jelly Roll, I mean, say what you want. It would be the highest profile spot that he's ever been in in his career. And a new fightful select report stated that WWE was adamant on Royce Keys being positioned on the main roster directly without an NXT run. The decision was one that WWE made very early in its talks with keys before he signed with the company. Good. Good. He's not getting any younger. I think he's someone that could be, I actually think Smackdown honestly could use a heel like him. But they're clearly positioning him as a baby face. They keep playing these clips from that

podcast interview he did with Stephanie McMahon where he's crying and he's talking about his brother who died and his upbringing. I mean, they don't do that unless they're trying to build you up as a baby face. One more WrestleMania update here. I had mentioned previously on the show that WWE had imposed a ban on all watch parties in Las Vegas within a 50-mile radius of Allegiance Stadium for WrestleMania. This was an effort to drive ticket sales to the actual show, which has been lagging behind last year's WrestleMania. I still think they're under 40,000 for both nights. I would expect them to break that shortly, but I think, I don't know, last update I saw, I believe.

it was 37 or 38,000 per night. Now, as they continue to add more matches, like Obafemi and and Brock Lesner and a jelly roll if he gets a match on the show, we'll see how many more tickets they add. But a lot of fans and a lot of local officials were not very happy about this. They paid a lot of money the city did to bring the show back and here they are cutting off one of their revenue streams. Well, they no longer have to worry about this because WrestleMania will no longer be blacked out at any of the watch parties, the party is back on. Stadium Swim at the Circa in downtown Las Vegas confirmed the news on Friday. After posting about their watch parties, another user commented saying that WWE has this blackout.

To which someone who works for Stadium Swim replied, not anymore. It has been lifted. It was a dumb policy from the beginning. I mean, the backlash was swift, and it never should have happened in the first place. So I'm happy to hear that they came to their senses on that. Fightful said that we were told over the last number of weeks there were several casinos, hotels, and general tourist areas that had expressed frustration over the ban. One that spoke to us on the condition of anonymity said that when the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority Board of Directors committed to a site fee for WrestleMania, it was

to generate economic impact for the entire city, not just WWE and Allegiance Stadium. their greed consumed them. And now the policy has been reversed. And it sounds like Pat McAfee may be done with WWE for the foreseeable future. McAfee gave an update on his status during a recent Instagram Q&A, saying that he doesn't feel like a return is in the cards right now. He said, will I be returning to the WWE in the future? I don't think you ever say never, especially with the WWE.

But right now it does not feel like it is something that is supposed to happen. It said it feels like that business. has kind of passed me by a little bit. I grew up loving it, dreamed to work in it, feel honored that I had the opportunity to work alongside the goat, Michael Cole. But I feel like WWE is in a good spot without me, and I will continue to watch.

Now, he had stepped away from the raw commentary team last summer due to what he cited as burnout. This guy has a daily show on ESPN. He has his college game day duties during the football season. I know he and his wife were expecting their second shot. child this year. He also booked a role on the Sylvester Stallone series Tulsa King. He's going to

try to become an actor now. He's got acting aspirations. He's going to be part of a four-episode arc on the show. He doesn't need to do commentary. He makes enough money doing just his stuff. He did it because he's a fan and he had fun with it, but burnout

is a real thing. I could see him popping up at WrestleMania and maybe other big events here and there. They have other events they're committed to in Indianapolis. Obviously, he's an indie guy. I'm sure he's an indie guy. You know what I mean. So I'm sure he'll be popping up here and there. But with the schedule he keeps, there's no need for him to be doing more than that. And frankly, I don't think the shows are any better or any worse without him there, one way or the other. Let's get into some quick Q at A here. Evangelos from Leicestershire, England. I hope I didn't just butcher that.

With all the segments between Sammy Zane and Cody Rhodes, it has gotten me thinking, what if Sammy turns heel at WrestleMania and helped Randy win the title? In that segment last week, he kept saying how much he respects Randy, but he doesn't respect Cody. So it could make sense. What say you? Well, he didn't say he didn't respect Cody. I think he said that he didn't look up to Cody because he and Cody were friends.

And when you're friends, you're supposed to be on equal footing. I think that was the statement that he made. Look, Sammy Zane has been all over Smackdown in these backstage segments, mainly with Cody Rhodes, but also with Trick Williams and Randy Orton and Jacob Faw 2, and I guess Alistair Black. He's getting a lot of TV time for somebody who really hasn't had a whole lot to do since he lost at Drew McIntyre at the Royal Rumble. So something is going down very soon with Sammy Zane. It does feel to me like he probably will end up going heel. Does that mean he's going to be involved at WrestleMania? I don't know.

I don't know about him being involved in wrestling. the WrestleMania. I don't think that Randy Orton needs his help. You know what I mean? And I said before, to me, it feels more like Cody is retaining at WrestleMania. As I sit here right now, we're four weeks out. That's just the feeling I have. And I could see, you know, Sammy going heel and becoming one of his challengers coming out of WrestleMania once the Randy Orton stuff plays itself out. I could see that. Him being involved in the main event, though, I don't know that, you know, you need to have him helping Randy Orton win anything. I think if Randy Orton's going to win the championship,

it'll be something dastardly that he does on his own. I don't think he needs Sammy Zane. But the story stuff they're doing with him is interesting. It kind of keeps you guessing about where they're going with it. Jake from Bristol, England, was listening to your raw review from Monday, and you mentioned potential additions to the Judgment Day, with Finn Baller now out of the group, and Raquel Rodriguez likely not lasting much longer.

Do you think Zaria, who is in NXT? could fit in that group. I do. I do. Here's the thing about the judgment day. The judgment day has been around now for over four years, somewhere between four and five years, right? Long time. And there have been times where I felt like, man,

this thing is past its peak. You've got to put this out back and just, you know, be done with it. But I can understand why WWE doesn't want to be done with the judgment day because it's become a very effective group when it comes to plugging in new faces and trying to get them over at a level that they're, were not at before. I mean, look at people like Raquel.

Look at people like J.D. McDonough. Right? Roxanne Perez. Damian Priest before he left the judgment day. Ria Ripley before she left the judgment day. Finn Ballard didn't need it. I mean, you know, Baller's a vet. He's been around forever.

I do think it kind of provided him with more television real estate than he would have had if he wasn't part of the group. So for him and for Dominic. My God, of course, Dominic Mysterio is. is like the crown jewel example that I could give you about the benefits of the judgment day. So I think they'd be better off just finding new ways to plug new people in there. And Zaria could be one of those people. Yeah, I've mentioned other names before in my platform who I think could benefit from it.

So, yeah, the judgment day is a very effective tool that I think they could continue to keep around. You just cycle new members in and out as needed. And Dominic from Connecticut, a lot of fans have suggested that Cody Road should have turned heel rather than Randy Orden. I think Randy turning on Cody is going to add another layer into the eventual and inevitable Cody heel turn. Since Cody has won the championship at WrestleMania 40, he has seen his closest friends turn on him. AJ Stiles, Kevin Owens, John Sina, and now Randy Orton, and possibly Sammy Zane is next. It seems that almost everyone that's celebrated with him in the ring at WrestleMania 40

has turned on him in pursuit of the championship. I don't know how much faith I have in the creative team. with this, but I hope that this is the narrative they use for the slow descent into madness for Cody that turns him heel. Do you think this would be a good catalyst and story that leads into a Cody heel turn? Well, again, I don't expect Cody to be going heel anytime soon, but it's a great point. You know, when he was hoisted up on everyone's shoulders and they were parading him around the ring in Philadelphia two years ago, who was in the ring with him, right? John Sina, Randy Orton, Sammy Zane, Kevin Owens.

It's a great point. One by one, right? Like dominoes. They're all falling. So when the time comes, could you use that as a catalyst for a descent into madness? Sure. If that's the tack they want to take, I see a lot of people talking about corporate Cody, homelander Cody.

They all have their own vision of like what kind of heel. Cody Rhodes should be. So I don't know if he's going to descend into madness or not. not, but it's a great point that you bring up, you know, how so many of those people that were all smiles and celebrating with him at WrestleMania, not so much anymore. One last thing here, this is my happy story of the week. I would like to share with all of you. Diamond Dallas Page did an interview recently with Ben Veal on his show, wrestling

life with Ben Veal. And Diamond Dallas Page has done a lot of good things for a lot of people, including some of his brothers in the wrestling fraternity, perhaps no one more so than Jake the Snake Roberts. And he pointed out in this interview, and it's kind of crazy to think about, but we are coming up on 14 years of Jake the Snake Roberts being sober. Now, if you remember the Beyond the Matt documentary that came out in 1999, Jake was one of the subjects of that documentary, right?

Him and Terry Funk and Mick Foley. Jake was a mess. Jake had demons going back to the, really, the beginning of his wrestling career and various injuries that he suffered and he had family trauma. If you know the story of Jake the Snake, it's, I mean, you talk about dark side of the ring. It don't get no darker than that. But Jake has been battling his demons and alcohol, probably being the biggest vice of all for most of his life. And when DDP came around to try to help him, it was in 2012, I believe. And he invited Jake to come to his house, the accountability crib, as he calls it. He was going to

try to save this man's life because Jake was on a path to an early death. You know, he was going to be another statistic in the wrestling business. But like you watch him in that beyond the Matt documentary even all those years ago and he just, he seems like a lost cause. Like it's just an inevitability, right? And it's a terrible feeling that, you know, one would feel that way, but that's just how you feel watching that. And here we are now coming up on 14 years of Jake being sober.

DDP says, there's certain guys that you wonder, oh, God. I hope he doesn't go back again. And I felt like that about Jake for about five years. But now we're coming up on the 14th year of Jake being sober. And I don't even think about it anymore. Like I could have a drink around him or whatever. He don't care. The fact that him and Cheryl are back together and anybody who's an 80s fan who watch Jake,

you know his wife was involved. His gorgeous wife was involved with the storyline with him and Rick Rood. And now they're doing signings together, Jake and Cheryl Roberts. that's another really cool aspect to the story. They were married many years ago. As a young wrestling fan, you know, growing up on WWF in the 80s, I vividly remember Jake the Snake in ravishing Rick Rood feuding, and they did work Jake's wife into that storyline there for a bit.

They split many years ago. I mean, I can imagine why, you know, with all of his issues and all of his demons. And a number of years ago, they got back together. And they rekindle their relationship. And now when Jake is out on the convention circuit making appearances and they're posting on social media, you know, their next flight to this convention or this signing or whatever, it's always Jake and Cheryl. But 14 years of sobriety is a huge achievement. And for all the credit that, you know, DDP probably deserves, most of the credit has to go to one man. And it's not DDP.

You know, which Jake. You have to want to make changes in your life to get to where you want to go. and Jake clearly, you know, he wanted to succeed. You know, he wanted to see this thing all the way to the end, and he did. And he's in a much better place. 70 years old now. I think there were a lot of wrestling fans when they would read about Jake the snake who never imagined that he would make it to the age of 70. But here we are, and I just think it's a very cool story.

But keep those questions coming to Salomonster at gmail.com. And again, you can tweet me on X at Solomonster. Make sure to include the hashtag uncrowned. I'm going to be back with you next Tuesday. that's going to be episode seven. I am Jason Solomon, and when it comes to the news of the week, if you didn't know, now you know. I'll see you guys next week.