Episode 566: Programs I Nearly Slept Through

Speaker 1 Like a midnight and the rock and roller. He's in a fight for wrestling solar.
Using a racket and some mind controller, he's Jim Cornette!

Speaker 1 The keys to the future, held by the past. And with Tag T partner Barion Last, he sends this message out by podcast.
He's Jim Cornet!

Speaker 1 Well, he's never fake a phony.

Speaker 1 He never backs down from a fight.

Speaker 1 He never wins the pony because his mama raised him right.

Speaker 1 It's time

Speaker 1 to prepare

Speaker 1 your mind.

Speaker 1 Get the experience.

Speaker 1 Get the experience.

Speaker 1 Get the experience of Jim Cornette.

Speaker 1 Hello again, everybody, and welcome to the Jim Cornette Experience.

Speaker 2 Today, we're going to talk about the WWE programs I nearly slept through, Tony Khan's nightmare of talent relations problems, and hell hadn't frozen over, but Houston has.

Speaker 2 And joining me for all this frivolity and more, Hawaii and Brian, the podcasting lion, the king of the Arcadian Vanguard Podcast Network, Mr. Co-host to you.

Speaker 2 He's as cold as ice, and he's willing to sacrifice all my free time. The great Brian Last, everybody.

Speaker 1 Aloha, Jim.

Speaker 2 I am here.

Speaker 1 I have arrived.

Speaker 2 He has arrived.

Speaker 1 It's a pleasure to be here.

Speaker 2 That little diddy there is going to go down in history alongside the dana

Speaker 2 of Batman as the theme from last.

Speaker 2 It'll be the last theme that you think about.

Speaker 1 That was one of the funniest little asides ever. Like, there's sometimes you're telling a story and it's a great story, and then out of nowhere, you take a turn and it gets better.
Oh,

Speaker 1 I was playing, you know, go-karts and mini-golf with Macho Man, and then I threatened to kill Terry Lando. Whoa, where did that come from?

Speaker 1 This one, you're telling the story about this local guy who got involved in something, and then out of nowhere, you're like, yeah, and then the police officer brought his own entrance music and it had a voiceover.

Speaker 1 And I laughed about that for days after that.

Speaker 2 He has arrived, and he is here, ladies and gentlemen. We are both here in the cold, snowy wilderness.
You got snow. I'm still packed in a cocoon of ice and snow on

Speaker 2 most of the ground around here. And it's single-digit temperatures.
We'll below zero wind chills again until Wednesday morning, I think. More cold warnings.
But did you hear about Houston?

Speaker 2 Houston, Houston, Houston.

Speaker 2 Forecast up to six inches of snow in Houston.

Speaker 2 Did you see the footage? Did you see any of this video?

Speaker 1 Sounds like Gino Hernandez is back in town.

Speaker 1 No, I did not see anything about this, though.

Speaker 2 You being a New Jersey.

Speaker 1 I'm dealing with my own weather issues.

Speaker 2 A New Jersey,

Speaker 2 a New Jersey.

Speaker 2 What are you up there? And we're Kentuckians. What are you? A New Jersey, Jerseyite.

Speaker 1 Jerseyan?

Speaker 2 A Jersey.

Speaker 2 A New Jerseyite sounds better than Jerseyan.

Speaker 2 You as a minion of New Jersey,

Speaker 2 that doesn't sound impressive to you.

Speaker 2 Do you know how often they get six inches of snow in Houston, Texas?

Speaker 1 No. When was the last time they got any snow?

Speaker 2 Ever? I don't think ever.

Speaker 2 I was there for a year. I didn't see six inches of snow.
And I saw six inches of snow one time in Dallas, like the first week of January, 85, that.

Speaker 2 crippled the city and everybody fucking stayed in except for people riding Alaskan Malamutes over to the fucking 7-Eleven for some hot chicken nuggets. It was paralyzing.

Speaker 2 And Houston is 250 miles south of that. And

Speaker 2 they've got the forecast for South Louisiana, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Nolins.

Speaker 2 They're going to get snow.

Speaker 2 I was in New Orleans one time when they closed the schools because it was too cold. It got to below freezing.

Speaker 2 Below freezing was school closing weather 40 years ago in New Orleans, and they're going to get fucking snow.

Speaker 2 This was just below freezing. No rain, no snow, just it got like 30 degrees.
Oh, fuck. Water pipes are bursting all over town.

Speaker 2 They had

Speaker 2 in world class, and I don't have the book. near me and it doesn't matter about the date and the place exactly, but the first couple weeks of January in South Texas, they had booked an outdoor show.

Speaker 2 And they had to cancel it that the same year that I talked about snow in Dallas. It was like the same week, as a matter of fact, I think,

Speaker 2 because

Speaker 2 they assumed that, yeah, we can run the high school football field in January in,

Speaker 2 I guess, somewhere down next to Harlegen.

Speaker 2 It's normally 65, 70 degrees. It didn't snow down there, but it was like 40 degrees in the daytime.
It was too fucking

Speaker 2 cold to be out in your tights at night.

Speaker 2 But everything would be just fine.

Speaker 1 If there was six inches of snow, buddy would have made every date that week.

Speaker 2 You know what his motto was, don't you?

Speaker 1 Was it no snow, no butt row?

Speaker 2 If it don't snow, we can't go.

Speaker 2 But anyways, that was right up there next to no hair, no flare. But times have changed since those Halcyon days.
Did you hear now?

Speaker 2 We talked about the shitty weather.

Speaker 2 I'm trying to lighten the mood a little bit before we get to the bad stuff.

Speaker 2 Did you hear about the National Archives are looking to hire people?

Speaker 2 They're looking to hire people with a special skill that apparently is

Speaker 2 falling by the wayside with people that can't do this anymore. So they're advertising.
They're wanting to hire people with this particular learned knowledge that they have.

Speaker 2 Do you know what they're looking for?

Speaker 1 I have no idea what you're talking about. No.

Speaker 2 People who can read cursive.

Speaker 2 This was on the news.

Speaker 2 People who, because they still have all the old Civil War documents, handwritten things in files of the last 250 years of democracy before it ended yesterday.

Speaker 2 You know, but

Speaker 2 isn't people

Speaker 2 cursive? Don't teach it anymore. Isn't people who can read read cursive? People who can fucking read, at least English?

Speaker 2 What do you mean that? How do you teach somebody to write without teaching them how to fucking write?

Speaker 1 Do they strictly mean cursive or do they mean like the old-time like language like, old ye may, I travel ye far?

Speaker 2 This is the National Archives, not goddamn chapel at Notre Dame. We don't have shit from the 15th fucking century.

Speaker 2 This isn't medieval hear yees and hear yees. This is goddamn ulysses grant saying yeah we kicked their ass over there in fucking appomattox or whatever the fuck

Speaker 2 right it may be old faded cursive but it fucking but they're just saying cursive cursive writing well here's the other issue how much how much does it pay

Speaker 2 well apparently the price is going to go up the fewer people can fucking do it

Speaker 1 i didn't invest i'm gainfully employed here i didn't investigate that aspect that's the issue if they're really having a problem there'd be plenty of people that can read it, but they have to drop everything to go to move to Washington to work in the National Archives to do that.

Speaker 2 Well, I assume that if you want to engage in

Speaker 2 the field of archaeology of manuscripts and things of that nature and get involved in curation of classic documents, that you might want to get your foot in the door. It's an entry-level position.

Speaker 2 You got to be able to read

Speaker 2 and you got to be breathing.

Speaker 1 This is why Notre Dame's lucky. Jack Pfeffer Pfeffer wrote in block letters.

Speaker 1 No problems there.

Speaker 2 Disdenite Christine Jarrett threatened to kill me.

Speaker 2 But seriously, is this why that

Speaker 2 young people, at least here in this country, are apparently fucking stupid?

Speaker 1 Well, I don't know if cursive itself is that. I mean.

Speaker 1 Again, I don't know how this, I mean, you're making it sound like no one's applying themselves to read cursive. It just sounds like no one's applying for this job.

Speaker 2 No, they were saying that it is a dwindling skill in the overall population, which is why that they're putting out this plea, not just that nobody wants to work for us because we're a bunch of low-paying assholes.

Speaker 1 Again, I think part of the issue is this is one of those things that a lot of schools, I don't know if every school, I don't know what the situation is, but what?

Speaker 1 At some point, I was taught it in second grade. And then like by the time I graduated elementary school, I don't think they were teaching it anymore

Speaker 1 into any of the younger kids. I think it went away.

Speaker 2 Wait, what? Okay, hold on here a second there, cowboy, because I went to school long before you did, and I've been writing down

Speaker 2 all of my life.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 if you're teaching a kid to write,

Speaker 2 it's either got to be capital block printing, the Jack Pfeffer method, I believe they call it

Speaker 2 in the scientific world,

Speaker 2 or cursive. How else are you going to write? Type.

Speaker 2 You're teaching you a fucking second-grade kid to fucking type?

Speaker 2 The teacher.

Speaker 2 You have spawned. What do they do with your smaller spring-offs?

Speaker 1 No, she writes, but she doesn't do any cursive. They haven't taught her cursive.
I mean, she's in first grade.

Speaker 2 Well, no, they're not going to teach her any cursing.

Speaker 2 They shouldn't teach her.

Speaker 1 She learns that by listening to the show. Yeah.
Out of the.

Speaker 2 But seriously. What does your daddy do?

Speaker 1 Oh, here. Here's a tape.
Play this.

Speaker 2 No wonder you can't come within 250 feet of that school that's not true you uh haven't confirmed that uh nobody knows that as far as we know

Speaker 2 but anyway i'm just i'm amazed at what the fuck people don't read now they don't write and this is the shape we're in here but if you if you need a part-time job and you're in the washington area and you can fucking read

Speaker 2 Go to the National Archive. Well, on second thought, what do they pay? Washington area.
Get the fuck out of there.

Speaker 1 And by the way, if you are working at the National Archive, I have to think there are a lot of people working there, a lot of different people with expertise in different things.

Speaker 1 Where are they putting the cursive people? In the basement?

Speaker 1 You're not going to get priority seating or anything. We're not going to get an office.

Speaker 2 As long as they've got an overhead light so they can read the mounds of material that they are there to peruse, then I would think that the basement would be fine. It's less distractions down there.

Speaker 2 You feel cozy and tucked in.

Speaker 1 It sounds like the person who drops their life and drops their job to move to D.C. and and take this job is going to hate their life.
They're going to be stuck in an endless tunnel going nowhere.

Speaker 2 Well, but where else are you going to go where you don't feel like that for the next four years?

Speaker 1 Not to the National Archives, I'll tell you that.

Speaker 1 But that's interesting. I didn't see that story.
It's just

Speaker 1 there's a lot of things that when you went to school, they taught you that they didn't teach me when I went to school. And then there were things that I learned when I went to school.

Speaker 1 They're not teaching my kids. It's crazy.

Speaker 1 I'm sure Linda McMahon will fix it.

Speaker 2 I was about to say, I think somebody needs to fix these things, but then I realized that, yeah, the head, the head of rewriting history department, Linda McMahon, she's got so much experience.

Speaker 2 I can't wait to see what we used to do next.

Speaker 2 And speaking of which, and I'm not going to browbeat it,

Speaker 2 but just so we are aware now, the pig that is currently officially squatting in the White House now,

Speaker 2 Did you hear

Speaker 2 how he wanted to piss on Jay? He did piss on Jimmy Carter.

Speaker 2 Did you hear about this?

Speaker 1 No, I know he was at the funeral. I didn't know he pissed on Jimmy Carter.
Did he steal your gimmick from what you're going to do to Russo?

Speaker 2 No, no,

Speaker 2 he wouldn't even get up and walk his lazy ass over to the cemetery. No.

Speaker 2 The flag was flying at half staff over the Capitol, the White House, whatever the case, because of

Speaker 2 the 30-day period of mourning that is standard for ex-president, and they're following the protocol. And he thought, well, that's disrespectful to him.
This is what kind of self-absorbed pig,

Speaker 2 just as an excuse for a human being, you can see what he is. It's disrespectful to me to have the flag down.
So they raised it back up for the inauguration.

Speaker 2 And then they drop it back down, which has never been done before. Nobody's ever even asked for it to be done before.
But just to kind of fucking glory hog

Speaker 2 as a,

Speaker 2 I can't say person, as an individual, that's what kind he is. But also,

Speaker 2 everybody, all the maggots were flipping out and their heads were on fire when Joe Biden pardoned his son

Speaker 2 because he's a fuck up with a drug problem. Imagine, thankfully, there aren't any more of those in the United States.

Speaker 2 And the Republicans were trying to put him in jail for fucking millions of years for all these conspiracy theories.

Speaker 2 But even then, they flipped out when Biden pardoned innocent people, Liz Cheney, Dr.

Speaker 2 Fauci, people on the January 6th committee who might be and probably would be the subject of retribution for trying to tell people the truth about this fucking criminal succubus that they've fucking fallen under the spell of.

Speaker 2 And he didn't want them to be penalized, so he pardoned them

Speaker 2 When dipshit,

Speaker 2 when this

Speaker 2 criminal overlord takes over, the first thing he does is pardon the January 6th insurrectionist,

Speaker 2 legitimate, dangerous criminals that are already in prison. Sure, some of them were hillbillies that got carried away because they're suckers.

Speaker 2 But there's oath keepers and proud boys

Speaker 2 and people who assaulted law enforcement and treason,

Speaker 2 the insurrectionist, whatever the fuck, they were in prison. One guy for over 20 years, having been found guilty, dangerous criminals were taken off the streets and out of the populace.

Speaker 2 But he pardons them because they were on his side.

Speaker 2 This is, here you go.

Speaker 2 I could list everything else, but we don't have time on the podcast. But this is what you wanted.
This is what you're getting.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 more lunatics are going to be running more things so that more stupid decisions can be made in the future. But yeah, thankfully, the Law and Order Party has restored

Speaker 2 about 2,000 criminals with weaponry, most of them, back out onto the streets.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 in the meantime, did we mention it was cold outside?

Speaker 1 It's freezing, below freezing.

Speaker 1 Yeah, below freezing. That's what you would say.
Yes.

Speaker 2 Yes, yes, below freezing. That's such a

Speaker 1 if you say it's freezing, does that just mean it's within that zone, or do you have to say below freezing?

Speaker 2 Well, actually, you wouldn't definitely, you, if you said it's freezing, then that does pinpoint it into right at about 32 degrees.

Speaker 2 But if you, if you say it's fucking just fucking cold, well, then that can encompass a variety of frigid.

Speaker 1 Frigid.

Speaker 2 Bone-chilling.

Speaker 2 All All right. Here's another fucking day where I've got stuff written down everywhere, and I watched the shows in odd order.
But

Speaker 2 I wanted to mention something to you

Speaker 2 about something that I was doing because we talked about the negatives,

Speaker 2 my photographic files that now put the poor overworked feather bottoms. He's helping me on another project scan these negatives.
And I said, boy, we don't really know how many

Speaker 2 there are there are going to be. We found a place that can do it high speed, but they can't do it the resolution that we need.

Speaker 2 But our in-house scanner can scan these things like goddamn NASA photographs where you can see the hair follicles and their beard.

Speaker 2 So we got to get this in order somehow. I'll have you.
I didn't mention this to you. This may be news to you, but over the COVID-ridden holidays that I had, I put together

Speaker 2 one of the books of negatives in sleeves.

Speaker 2 It is a big plastic binder that snaps open in a very authoritative way, and it opens up and it's a three-ring thing, and you've got 100

Speaker 2 mylar or whatever plastic pages that the negative strips slide right in, and then you can turn the page, as Bob Seeger might say.

Speaker 2 Can you visualize

Speaker 1 cooking here? I think so, even with the Bob Seeger in the background.

Speaker 2 Well, yeah, but

Speaker 2 it's my night moves. I did a lot of this at night.

Speaker 2 But so now, do this math with me. Each page or each negative strip is there's four frames on it, right? You got a strip of negatives.
You can imagine a film strip.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 2 four negative four or four frames on the strip of negative

Speaker 2 and it holds each page seven of those strips that's 28 per page right right

Speaker 2 and i did a hundred pages

Speaker 2 so that's 2800 frames

Speaker 2 and if you look real carefully at what i started with you can notice maybe that something is missing oh boy

Speaker 2 so we're thinking now this may be more in the area of 60 70 000 frames wow

Speaker 2 I mean, there's just no way to, and it's obviously, we've talked about my trials and tribulations as a busy teenager and also trying to fucking keep this shit in order and it sat in boxes for years.

Speaker 2 So it's, it's going to be a process. But something else you don't know that I've turned over to Mr.
Featherbottom. He's already started working on these things.

Speaker 2 I mentioned a while back, I mentioned the audio cassettes that I had that a fan from Memphis had given me that she had recorded in her

Speaker 1 bedroom late at night watching wrestling. Oh, Fogo!

Speaker 2 It was Saturday morning at 11 o'clock. So, and unfortunately, Aunt Fanny apparently was in the room also.

Speaker 2 Because I'd never had time to listen to those. I got them right before I got started in the business and kept them all these years.
I thought, well, 1974 and 1975,

Speaker 2 Memphis TV, you know, this is, she's

Speaker 2 in suburban Arkansas, but they got the live show 90 Minutes. I said, what treasures may be on here? So

Speaker 2 Hotchkiss transferred to me. He said,

Speaker 2 The TV is on in the room,

Speaker 2 and apparently they've got the tape recorder sitting next to him on the couch, and they are like cackling. Like,

Speaker 2 they were big.

Speaker 2 She was a big fan, I believe, of Tommy Gilbert and Eddie Marlin.

Speaker 2 And so,

Speaker 2 oh, go get him, Tommy. Do you hear the crosstalk? And it's a Saturday morning living room out in suburban Arkansas.
So the sound quality may not be all to write home about.

Speaker 2 But then I got him started on the ones that I started recording

Speaker 2 back in 1976.

Speaker 2 And he is so far reported that he doesn't know what the fuck's going on because he wasn't even alive then. And, you know, it's not like there's a run sheet with these things.

Speaker 2 It's a cassette tape labeled wrestling

Speaker 2 June 14, 1977. So

Speaker 2 he's just transferring it. But he said he can

Speaker 2 he can adjust the things with all of the equalizers and equilibriums they've got on the computer these days where they don't sound too bad.

Speaker 2 And the thing with these are not the, again, a lot of them.

Speaker 2 are not the complete shows. Some of them are, got to be that way.

Speaker 2 We hope everything still plays. I was using some of those Cirtron

Speaker 2 audio cassettes, if anybody's old enough to remember those because of the price factor.

Speaker 2 But there may be stuff here that doesn't exist anywhere else. Well, there has to be stuff that doesn't exist anywhere else in the world.
The question is,

Speaker 2 as we go through it, will there be a clamor for its existence?

Speaker 1 So you started recording right after the split?

Speaker 2 Right before the split.

Speaker 1 So do you have like the week it went down?

Speaker 2 I'm hoping that there's still,

Speaker 2 possibly unless we were at Ain't Lola's.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 but also I think I still have Nick Gulis conducting some of the local Louisville interviews because he did that till the split.

Speaker 2 You couldn't pry Nick Gulis out of that Nashville TV studio on Wednesday mornings hosting all of the local promos for his towns except for Memphis.

Speaker 2 They did those live in the studio, but else he did everything else. It was insane.
I remember Louisville Wrestling Fast, Who's It Not?

Speaker 2 You a a store for one of the biggest cards I've signed in many years. Headline by that return grudge NWA Southern Junior Heavyweight Championship.
I mean, just on and on.

Speaker 1 I never realized that he was doing the local promos for Louisville up to Spain. Oh, yes.

Speaker 2 Oh, yes.

Speaker 2 Because

Speaker 2 that was his thing with the NWA placard on the desk and the nice chairs

Speaker 2 and the curtain they gave. Because he'd been doing them at the, I forget what station in Nashville, but for decades.
And that's what they did on Wednesday, was the promos for the whole territory.

Speaker 1 Was there an angle or anything specific that caused you to finally say, that's it, I have to record this in some way?

Speaker 2 Well, I think part of it may have been the build to Jerry Lawler and Coyote Calhoun toward Thanksgiving-ish of 1976 when it was on TV and on the radio. And

Speaker 2 I've got some

Speaker 2 tapes of the radio call-ins that Lawler did and et cetera. But

Speaker 2 I know that people today are used to all of this, but I don't think

Speaker 2 they understand what it was to home record something when you're 14, 15 years old in 1976.

Speaker 2 And because this was there was no home video of any kind. Well,

Speaker 2 in 1976, they had home VCRs and nobody knew it. You still had to be like, you know, you still had to be a member of the fucking development team at Sony.

Speaker 2 And wasn't there a, oh my God, what was the cartridge vision that they had for a year that flopped right before the Betamax came out, 77 or whatever?

Speaker 2 But nobody had home video. And most people didn't know that it was a thing that could be had.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 were you an audio file as a teenager? Did you get into

Speaker 2 steroids?

Speaker 1 I got into steroids because I loved audio. I really wanted my ear muscles to grow.
Did you get into stereos? That's why I hear so well.

Speaker 2 Did you get into stereos and speakers and

Speaker 2 turntables and a microphone, things like that when you were young? Or was that

Speaker 2 again because everybody takes audio for granted now that you could have it on the little box that you sit on the thing?

Speaker 2 What I had in 1976, I was 15 years old, was a tape recorder from,

Speaker 2 oh, goddamn, I forget what brand that was. It wasn't even a realistic yet.
I changed up to the Radio Shack brand, it was realistic.

Speaker 2 And I traded the one that I had in. My mom had gotten it for me when I was like 11 or 12.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 I recorded the first thing I recorded off radio or television was the local

Speaker 2 WFPL radio station, Free Public Library, took to broadcasting old episodes of the inner sanctum and the shadow and shit like that.

Speaker 2 And I would listen to them and record a few of those with the tape recorder that was in front of me, which basically you pressed a button and turned a fucking thing and it recorded through this Miggy Mouse microphone until you turned stop.

Speaker 2 And that was basically it.

Speaker 2 And that thing probably cost $12. And this is what I started because

Speaker 2 in 1976, 77,

Speaker 2 to have home recording capability where you could either tape audio cassettes off of records and make your own custom mixtapes or have a nice stereo that people would come over and say, wow,

Speaker 2 it was a fucking $3,000 or $4,000 investment at that point. And

Speaker 2 that would be closer to what, $12,000 to $15,000 in today's money.

Speaker 2 So it's not like you could just do this shit at your house. Have I made that point clear?

Speaker 1 I think so.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 I

Speaker 2 started with the old tape recorder. And then when I realized the microphone wasn't even a microphone-shaped thing, it was kind of square.
It was unwieldy.

Speaker 2 It looked like a fucking microphone you'd key down on a CB radio. I got the realistic tape recorder for like $12 or $15.

Speaker 2 And because I wasn't even making money on pictures yet, I just started.

Speaker 2 and you know, used the

Speaker 2 microphone with the little plastic stand, and I just kind of put it in front of the TV and I would turn the fucking tape recorder on. And to save money,

Speaker 2 at first, I just started recording like the interviews. And if I knew that somebody was really a notoriously shitty promo, I probably wouldn't even turn it on.

Speaker 2 But because the blank tapes over at Radio Shack here in lovely suburban Louisville were like $2 or whatever. Well, that's almost $10 and I make no money.

Speaker 2 And in today's money is what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 So I would save tape and just record some promos. But then later on,

Speaker 2 as I started making money, I might record more of the show. But again, this is something you never thought anybody would want to go back and listen.

Speaker 2 to Lance Russell call a match that you can't watch. Now,

Speaker 2 goddammit, if there had been home video at that time, I would have been turning to crime to find a way to get in on that, but more on that in a second. But from that period from 76 through 79,

Speaker 2 as I said, as I started being able to afford a few more tapes and also just getting more interested, I recorded more of the show until at the end, there's probably a lot of them that are somewhat complete.

Speaker 2 Except for the goddamn

Speaker 2 commercials, I'd try to edit those out, but I had to be right there in front of the TV to record anything anyway. There was no timer apparatus.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 then sometimes it was hard to find 60-minute-aside tapes.

Speaker 2 They were all 45-minutes, so you'd have to, right in the middle of something, the fucking machine would kick off, and you had to flummox and turn the tape over and hit record again.

Speaker 2 So we don't know what we've got,

Speaker 2 but we will have something that nobody's heard ever since it happened, probably, because everybody knows all those tapes didn't get saved.

Speaker 1 All right. I'm looking forward to that.
That should be interesting.

Speaker 2 You never got to go into

Speaker 2 like hi-fi buys or one of the big major, I don't know, what was it, crazy fucking Eddie?

Speaker 1 Crazy Eddie.

Speaker 2 Well,

Speaker 2 down here in the 70s at the big malls.

Speaker 2 And some of the standalone stores, the big stereo retailers,

Speaker 2 they were so cool to go into as I got, started making a little bit of money and started being more interested in music.

Speaker 2 And there was no way to home video record wrestling, but boy, I started getting into stereos and cassette decks and turntables and nice speakers.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 at the time, as I said, it was a goddamn

Speaker 2 investment because you couldn't just go in and be, you know.

Speaker 2 They came out with boom boxes, what, in the early 80s. But even then, for people who were into sound quality

Speaker 2 you know you if you got a really nice setup of

Speaker 2 a nice cassette deck with the fucking led peak meters and all the flashy was 300 in the late 70s so that's like over a thousand today and then you need a nice receiver which is probably a little more and a turntable which maybe a little less, but then you wanted

Speaker 2 the stylus with the cartridge on it that picks up the optimum signal. And they had a whole industry around that and the graphic equalizer and then the big ass fucking stereo speakers.

Speaker 2 And all these stores had a room that you could go in, that you could only go into with a salesman with you, where all the high-end shit was.

Speaker 2 And this was like the equivalent of today's,

Speaker 2 I don't know, plasma fucking 10-foot screens or whatever. But this was the best quality cassette deck available and the best quality turntable with this optimum speaker system.

Speaker 2 And people were spending tens of thousands of dollars to have today what

Speaker 2 they sell out of a box at goddamn best buy.

Speaker 2 I mean, of course, all the equipment was high quality and it would last forever. And it was

Speaker 2 incredible if you wanted to put everything together and have your own home theater and do all this shit yourself. But it was goddamn.

Speaker 2 That's one thing the price has come down on.

Speaker 2 You don't have to do that anymore.

Speaker 1 The amount of things you need, also.

Speaker 2 Well, and the V, my first VCR, the Magnavox,

Speaker 2 weighed 50 pounds with piano key operation on top.

Speaker 2 And it was built like a tank, and it cost $1,000

Speaker 2 in 1979 for a VHS recorder,

Speaker 2 which would be what $3,500, maybe $4,000 today.

Speaker 2 And the blank tapes at three places in Louisville that you could get them were the T120, 120 minutes, two-hour tape, was $25. That'd be like fucking 80-something bucks today

Speaker 2 in the only few places you could get them. So you had to be sparing at first there.
And then

Speaker 2 things started coming down as the war was on. But it was a fucking investment that you couldn't make to just record shit, even if you had a

Speaker 2 fucking

Speaker 2 desire to at home back then, unless you were already an adult and gainfully employed.

Speaker 1 My father had a lot of home audio recording equipment. So he used to be able to record if there was going to be a concert on the radio or if there was going to be something weird on WFMU or WFUV.

Speaker 1 He'd be able to get it. He had a good antenna and he could record it.
And then, of course, he had a top-of-the-line stereo system and everything. But.

Speaker 2 Was he of the reel to reel era?

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah, that's that's how he recorded it. He recorded his audio on reel to reel.
I still have all these reel-to-reel things from the 70s and early 80s.

Speaker 1 The first audio recording of me is on one of them somewhere.

Speaker 2 Well,

Speaker 2 we need to keep that hidden away. But the

Speaker 2 cool thing in like the early, mid-70s, when I was starting to get just, I always loved movie books, entertainment, television, history of radio, et cetera, all of that type of thing. But also,

Speaker 2 they had a variety of services. We've talked about Blackhawk films that had 16 and 8 millimeter films of movies that were obviously truncated.

Speaker 2 They were cut down like eight minutes, gone with the wind. Here it is.
But that was the only way you get home video.

Speaker 2 They had companies that sold audio of the old, again, the Abbott and Costello radio shows or the Inner Sanctum or the Whistler or whatever. And they had the option because many people at that point,

Speaker 2 the real

Speaker 2 dedicated audio files and the people that collected audio preferred reel to reel because it was higher quality than cassettes, but they had you could buy it on reel to reel or on cassette for like

Speaker 2 more money than I had.

Speaker 2 But people, that's, that was home entertainment. in in the 1970s.
And all of a sudden we got VCRs and fucking, then we got cable and then we we got pay-per-view.

Speaker 2 And the next five or six years, it's like, what the fuck? And now people have forgotten,

Speaker 2 you know, you couldn't just, hey,

Speaker 2 record that.

Speaker 2 Well, fuck, it wasn't that easy. That's why none of this shit's around.

Speaker 1 I recently found some home video of a family get-together in November of 1985.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 one of my uncle's friends, and my uncle was probably in his late 20s at this point in time.

Speaker 1 One of his friends had a video camera and he's filming the party.

Speaker 1 And one of the other friends walks up to him slowly, and you see the sudden goes, Does that have sound? Like he had no idea what it was. He had never seen a video recorder like that.

Speaker 1 People didn't have them in their homes until all of a sudden they did.

Speaker 2 Hey, one of the most frightening memories of my childhood, and it will move on to something more commercial.

Speaker 2 My dad took home movies, and we still have all of them and I had them transferred to video some time back. I have the actual original film also.

Speaker 2 But I still have the camera and I still have the lights and that's the thing.

Speaker 2 When I was in 1963, 64, when I'm two or three years old sitting in the floor under the Christmas tree on Christmas morning,

Speaker 2 invariably

Speaker 2 My peace and tranquility would be shattered and I would be mortified and scared because suddenly down the stairs would come six giant bright hot fucking lights

Speaker 2 encompassing the room like just like the sun was exploding on me and my father's feet underneath that coming down the stairs and somebody saying, Merry Christmas, Jimmy.

Speaker 2 And I'm like, why the fuck are these lights? Oh my God, it's so hot.

Speaker 2 Because you couldn't even take video with a movie camera inside the house unless you had these giant fucking lights. I've got this.
This apparatus was literally two feet across. I've still got it.

Speaker 2 And it bolted onto the goddamn video camera that took eight millimeter,

Speaker 2 you know, film.

Speaker 2 And it was big. It was twice as big as the fucking camera.
And you had to hold it on the side to hold that up and the whole nine yards. It was.

Speaker 2 That was just to take home movies in your house.

Speaker 2 And now everybody's a TV studio in their fucking ass pocket.

Speaker 1 That's a good,

Speaker 1 I guess that wraps up our look at society, right? Yes, yes.

Speaker 2 We're very antisocial about certain societal trends. I'll tell you what's going to go on that's very social.

Speaker 2 Folks, February, we got to try to get some love back in the world, right? If February is Valentine's Day, February is the month of love.

Speaker 2 And in February, you can either take a ride on the Midnight Express or get your hands on the Heavenly Bodies at Cornett's Collectibles at jimcornet.com.

Speaker 2 Because starting Saturday, February the 1st, and it's noon Eastern, by the way, is the exact point when these price changes will go into effect. Saturday, February 1st at noon Eastern.

Speaker 2 All of the Midnight Express and Heavenly Bodies tag team action figure sets $20

Speaker 2 off their normal retail price, even the four-pack.

Speaker 2 We're just, we're throwing caution to the winds here. And

Speaker 2 the other feature of this fine

Speaker 2 happening is that if you buy any of those tag team sets,

Speaker 2 which include, by the way, the personally autographed photos alongside them and potentially the books, if you choose that option.

Speaker 2 then you will buy any tag team set and get any of the remaining Jim Cornette action figures for $24.95.

Speaker 2 And I say any kind of optimistically because we now have been made aware that there's like 29 of the commentator play sets left and they're gone.

Speaker 2 And the

Speaker 2 pink and black breast cancer, by the way, we still send $10 every month for every or $10 for every figure sold every month to the City of Hope.

Speaker 2 Those are trickling out.

Speaker 2 So basically, we're down to the

Speaker 2 final variant and Santa Corny. But nevertheless, you buy any tag team set and you get any of the Jim Cornette action figures also for half price.

Speaker 2 I don't know what else we can do.

Speaker 2 This is as far as we can go. I think he's crazy already.

Speaker 2 And anybody who spends $50 and over in merchandise gets a two-hour DVD of classic wrestling from the 70s and 80s from the Wrestling Gold Series, absolutely free of charge, stuck right into your package, wedged up there sideways.

Speaker 2 That's some bitch.

Speaker 1 It'll be the unreleased best of Tex McKenzie.

Speaker 2 Well, as a matter of fact, I've got Tex McKenzie against

Speaker 2 Bulldog Bob Brown, and that was the long and the short of it. But

Speaker 2 anyway, JimCornet.com, all the month of February, starting the 1st at noon Eastern and continuing through the 28th. You lied to me the other day.
It's not leap year, so there will be no 29th.

Speaker 2 Brian was trying to cost you people money.

Speaker 1 I corrected myself quickly. I was wrong initially.

Speaker 2 Well, you knew I'd find out about it. I told you about it.
The first one. That's because you wanted to be the first one to give me the bad news.
See, you just proved my point.

Speaker 2 All righty. Anyway, before we see, I'm again, I'm unprepared today.
I've got things written down. I've got notepads.
We've got stuff. We talked about that type of thing.

Speaker 2 Before we go into the WWE's land of milk and honey,

Speaker 2 there is some other professional wrestling news going around the

Speaker 2 world of wrestling, including with personnel. And

Speaker 2 I guess we should start with the one I'll just bury myself with, and then we'll go from there. But did you hear about the controversy with Tessa Blanchard

Speaker 2 on the TNA live event, big event, medium-sized event, whatever event they held over the weekend?

Speaker 1 Well, their events are getting bigger and bigger, actually, it seems like. But I heard that she wrestled Jordan Grace.
I heard people raving about it because several people said we should watch it.

Speaker 1 Apparently, it was Jordan Grace's last night in the company.

Speaker 1 And then

Speaker 1 after the fact.

Speaker 2 I've been waiting to see her last night in the company forever. I wish somebody had told me.
No, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 I just kid.

Speaker 1 You may be about to see her start in another company you watch pretty often. So we'll see what happens there.
But after the fact, I heard about the crowd taking over.

Speaker 1 I still haven't seen the clip or the match or anything.

Speaker 2 Well, Well, I'll just

Speaker 2 chime in here

Speaker 2 and then we can discuss some of the other things that maybe you can inform me about. But I did see this clip.
I didn't see the match because, as I said, nobody told me about it.

Speaker 2 And I don't know that I would have watched it truthfully because of our time issues. But I'm interested in what's going on with Tessa Blanchard because

Speaker 2 I remember

Speaker 2 how long has it been? Five or six years ago, maybe before she dropped out of sight and was exiled to a, I don't know, a goddamn

Speaker 2 plantain plantation in Guatemala, wherever the fuck she's been.

Speaker 1 I think it was just Mexico.

Speaker 2 Well, somewhere or another, the border has been impenetrable for her.

Speaker 2 But I remember saying, well,

Speaker 2 come on now. It's a serious topic.

Speaker 1 Out of nowhere. Out of nowhere.

Speaker 2 A serious serious topic deserves some kind of somber activity here.

Speaker 2 I said when I saw her, and like I said, it's been so long, I can't even remember who it was against, but I said, she's one of the best women's wrestlers I've seen in I don't know how long inside the ring.

Speaker 2 And she looked great and she was in shape and her work was.

Speaker 2 As I was impressed by her work enough to leave a lasting impression on me. And then, of course,

Speaker 2 whatever the fuck was going on, she got married to some guy and moved to Mexico because he was a wrestler down there. And then she got unpopular with the fucking crew in the locker room.

Speaker 2 Was it there or was it in the United States or on some indie level?

Speaker 1 All of the above, maybe.

Speaker 2 Okay, you know,

Speaker 2 people don't like her.

Speaker 2 Oh, dad, she's a racist for

Speaker 2 some

Speaker 2 off of off-air, unrecorded,

Speaker 2 not for public consumption, interaction, or argument, or conflict that she's had in the locker room with some of the girls in the locker room. They don't like her.

Speaker 2 And so she has been basically in Mexico for however fucking long. And I'm saying, what the fuck?

Speaker 2 Again, some now people are going to say, well, Cordette's going to take up with this racist guy to that guy. Oh, blow me, blow me, blow me.

Speaker 2 When there's real shit going on in the fucking world, blow me about this phony stuff you imagine and delude yourself to believing.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 it, I would think, to

Speaker 2 the WWE

Speaker 2 or to

Speaker 2 I would say AEW, but they don't count, they defy logic over business. But for the WWE or for TNA

Speaker 2 or for some major company

Speaker 2 to ignore this girl who is obviously highly talented

Speaker 2 and capable of performing at a high level just because the other girls in the locker room don't like her.

Speaker 2 It would be somewhat unusual.

Speaker 2 So many

Speaker 2 unlikable and unsavory people have been signed by companies in the past. So

Speaker 2 I was always thinking, did

Speaker 2 she piss them off somehow? But she hasn't even worked there in the WWE

Speaker 2 and the TNA thing.

Speaker 1 She used her toilets.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 I don't know how she left TNA before, but it's been years. That was an entire previous bunch of people running the thing.
So

Speaker 2 it doesn't seem like she should have heat with the promotions.

Speaker 2 Have I missed something? that has been publicly reported, Brian, that you can remember?

Speaker 1 I don't think she helped me with that.

Speaker 2 She should have heat with any promotion. Then why wouldn't you fucking

Speaker 2 at least bring this girl in and talk to her and say, you know, get some

Speaker 2 preliminary idea of are you completely nuts or are you a normal person as maybe.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's why she's in TNA now. That's exactly why she's in TNA right now.
Let's see how this goes. And, you know, again, night one is the problem.

Speaker 1 And again, I don't want to just dismiss, because we'll talk about AEW's most recent issue shortly, the idea that if someone is so problematic in the back that them not being there makes everyone's day better and it won't affect the business one way or another,

Speaker 1 that's something to think about. But

Speaker 1 if you get past that, her in-ring has always been great, and it was great apparently on this return match. People were raving about it, but yeah, but the entire audience started chanting.

Speaker 1 I mean, it was a loud chant from what I understand.

Speaker 1 She's a racist.

Speaker 2 That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 that's where wwe if they're watching to see how this goes

Speaker 1 you got to figure out a way and i don't know what it is or how you do it

Speaker 1 to get that fan base not to do that and other fans not to do that but it's a it's a difficult position why would these weasels do that Why would you do that?

Speaker 2 Because you don't know this girl. You've never met this girl.
And she's having a good match on a show that probably needs some of them.

Speaker 2 And she's a racist because that's an audience participation thing you can join in on, even though you have no factual knowledge of that.

Speaker 2 Otherwise, what a bunch of other fucking people have said in the fucking locker room.

Speaker 2 And I've talked about it a while back on a program, I think, when potentially the last time anybody heard anything from her.

Speaker 2 In what context was this going on? Was it, was she coming in just screaming racial epithets at people and telling them to fucking lick her shoes?

Speaker 2 Or had it maybe been somebody just dropped her on her head or fucking kicked her in the fucking face? What kind of heated exchange was going on here? What was said, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 I'm sorry, we have Hogan on tape.

Speaker 1 No, let's not pretend she didn't say. I don't even think she's denying that she didn't say these things.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 I don't know what exact things

Speaker 1 but she threw the n-word around in a fight with another wrestler okay and in what in what context did she just drop her on her head or kick her in the face were they about to be pulled apart or this happens walking in that day going well you stupid but the problem is if that happens on top of other incidents and again when it came out it was like one girl after another after another yep this happened to me she spit at me we had an incident here she bullied bullied us.

Speaker 1 And,

Speaker 1 you know, again, if it comes to the point where removing the doctor from the locker room makes the locker room

Speaker 1 happier and makes everything run a little smoother and it's not going to hurt the business. You have to think about it.
Sometimes someone's too big of a pain in the ass. Or

Speaker 1 you think they could be.

Speaker 2 She got removed from those locker rooms. Now, the bullying thing, I'm like,

Speaker 2 unless she was actually physically pushing people around,

Speaker 2 then the bullying,

Speaker 2 The racial epithets thing is something different.

Speaker 2 And again, we need context. But what I'm saying is that this was shit that was in, it wasn't in front of fans.
It wasn't at appearances. It wasn't on tape.
It wasn't on audio.

Speaker 2 It was their personal interaction. And so is she probably, most probably guilty of saying shit or having an attitude that she might not have had and thought better of it when she was younger? Yes.

Speaker 2 But why

Speaker 2 does that determine that these people who don't know anything about the first-hand situation can chant she's a racist on her debut in the fucking company when apparently they want her there and she has not

Speaker 2 at that point pissed anybody off yet?

Speaker 2 Why the fuck would you do that to somebody?

Speaker 2 It's like she's been noted for being busted on the front page of the newspaper at a Klan rally or making major contributions to the American Nazi Party.

Speaker 1 But again, you're talking about, you're not talking about a WWE crowd. You're talking about TNA, which is like AEW or Ring of Honor in the past.
A dedicated fan base.

Speaker 2 Smartasses.

Speaker 1 Dedicated fan base that follows everything to the T on the internet. So they're aware of it.

Speaker 2 AKA smartasses.

Speaker 1 That's the problem. This isn't something that's as simple as her working it out in the back with the girls that she offended or anyone who has a problem with it.

Speaker 1 That's happened in the past for people.

Speaker 1 The problem is the fans are aware of it, and at least the fans there, and I don't know where they ran, the fans there really wanted to be vocal with it. And if that becomes a thing,

Speaker 1 that's a problem.

Speaker 1 That's not a thing you want. You want fans to chant.

Speaker 1 That's like the worst chant. I can't think of a worse thing to have chanted at someone in the ring.
I mean,

Speaker 1 that's a go-home heat kind of chant.

Speaker 2 But again, that's why that, unfortunately,

Speaker 2 the fan fan base for the little small niche promotions, and I went through the same thing with the Ring of Honor group in 2000, what, 9, 10, 11-ish,

Speaker 2 is that they're so

Speaker 2 obnoxious with their indie-minded shit that

Speaker 2 it sometimes hurts your talent or it damages your perception to people who might be seeing it or you or the company or whatever for the first time and go, oh, what is it?

Speaker 2 What the fuck's the matter with these people?

Speaker 2 And, you know, and that's, but it's, it's a shame. So, point is, if any of the girls that she pissed off had wanted to hit the rig and start kicking the shit out of her, that might be one thing.

Speaker 2 But for the fucking fans who don't know her, have never met her and weren't around and believe what they read on the internet, good, bad, or indifferent, whether it's right or wrong, it wasn't any of their business.

Speaker 2 And if they wanted to

Speaker 2 not

Speaker 2 react or not cheer or not boo or not do whatever they're supposed to do that's one thing but she's a racist come on what the fuck they're gonna do that for home actually in public and yeah they just blew hogan out of the building they watched it on video

Speaker 1 uh

Speaker 2 but now maybe they've given them the idea let's see what happens on saturday night's main event but you know

Speaker 2 Point is, do you get my point that it wasn't necessary for them to do that to this girl as trying to

Speaker 2 be very very talented and trying to continue her career. And if they're, if, if she causes a problem in TNA,

Speaker 2 then that might be one thing, but she hadn't got there or just had just got there.

Speaker 1 I don't want to blame the fans for reacting that way because if they don't know anything, and all of a sudden she just shows up. And again, if

Speaker 1 she has to address that. And remember, she did release some kind of statement.
Remember, she released a statement where she like apologized, but didn't say what she apologized for?

Speaker 1 Do you remember all of that?

Speaker 2 In that case, then just apply it to wherever the fuck you want to apply to.

Speaker 1 But this is recent.

Speaker 1 But this is recent, I'm saying. I'm just thinking out loud now.
She released that statement a little while back. Now she's in TNA.
TNA has to deal with WWE.

Speaker 1 Again, it all comes back to what WWE is seeing. And

Speaker 1 I don't know if it's as simple as you book her to save an African-American babyface in the ring and all of a sudden they're friends. I don't know if it's that simple.
It's because of the fan base.

Speaker 1 And they're not going to just all of a sudden shut out what they've heard. These fans run with what they've heard, and

Speaker 1 we'll see what happens there. But that's TNA's problem right now.

Speaker 2 Well, speaking of other talent relations issues, apparently, now

Speaker 2 one of the people that will not be getting phone calls from Tony Khan and that we will not be seeing on television in the very near future and potentially even the far, far future,

Speaker 2 is Dr. Britt Baker DMD.

Speaker 2 She has been been basically,

Speaker 2 she has been X'd from their world

Speaker 2 like a member of the Manson family because she's hard to get along with. Another talent relations

Speaker 2 solution to the problem. Just don't talk to her.

Speaker 2 Is this what's happening?

Speaker 1 What are you saying? It's a solution to not talk to her.

Speaker 2 I'm saying it's another talent relations solution of theirs. They're just not going to talk to her.
She's just gone home.

Speaker 1 From AEW, apparently. Again, this is in line with things we've been hearing for a while.
One thing came out very publicly, if you remember a few months back, with MJF.

Speaker 1 I think it was MJF versus Will Ospreay. They had a great match on TV,

Speaker 1 and the word was that Britt Baker was in the women's locker room or in the back, tearing it down. And how come they don't get enough time? She deserves more time, not this.

Speaker 1 And it led to an incident, a screaming match of sorts.

Speaker 1 But that wasn't the only thing. There have been rumors about her and Jamie Hayter.
Everyone wondered, why isn't Jamie Hayter doing something with Britt Baker now that she's back?

Speaker 1 Apparently, there may have been some issues there.

Speaker 2 Because Jamie Hayter hates her.

Speaker 1 And those are kind of the Thunderosa stuff. I mean, that's been out there for quite a while.
I think even some people who visited the locker room or worked one date or something, Lu Fisto.

Speaker 1 You know, there were these issues about the AEW women's locker room. And for a lot of the issues around the locker room, Dr.

Speaker 1 Britt Baker kind of put herself front and center because of her relationship with Tony.

Speaker 1 And I think.

Speaker 2 Now we've been as close friends.

Speaker 1 I don't mean anything. I don't mean anything.
No, no, no, no. I don't mean anything.

Speaker 1 I'd be surprised.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 you may want to call Manscaped. I don't know.

Speaker 1 You may need some help, Doctor. I don't know.

Speaker 2 I didn't want to ruin our credibility at a variety of levels by insinuating that that was.

Speaker 1 But she was an early AEW person who, when they were a very close-knit group,

Speaker 1 she had a good friendship with Tony Connie, hired her boyfriend at the time, Adam Cole.

Speaker 1 And there are certainly people that thought she got very cozy in her relationship and her position in AEW.

Speaker 1 And part of the other issue is she kept getting hurt.

Speaker 1 This isn't one of the issues with her behavior, but if you're looking at the bigger picture about her versus other stars, and hey, you don't just, you know, freeze out stars.

Speaker 2 You know, they paid her while she was hurt, and we're sure that they, you know, took care of their medical. But the point is, life goes on.
You can't grieve forever.

Speaker 1 And she's not Leah Ripley. Yeah, she's not even Sasha Banks.
Like, she's not.

Speaker 2 Well, yeah, but other people rose up to take those places while they were still, they were not ignoring young Dr. Baker.

Speaker 1 However, Dr. Baker may have still thought she was the queen of the castle,

Speaker 1 no matter what town that castle was in, even if it was half-filled or a quarter-filled or if it was a bouncy castle. Whatever it may be.
And AEW is a changing company right now, and

Speaker 1 the women get along a lot better when she's not around. There was an incident, I guess,

Speaker 1 where Serena Deeb. Remember her and Serena Deeb were briefly doing something?

Speaker 2 I've tried to put it out of mind.

Speaker 1 Well, Serena Deeb apparently was like on the platform, I think. And Dr.
Britt Baker was in the ring. And this is the last thing of Dr.
Britt Baker on AEW TV, I think. She said, who cares?

Speaker 1 Or nobody cares. Nobody cares.

Speaker 2 Nobody. Oh, that's when Serena came out with she waving her flag of

Speaker 2 she's from the Isle of Malta or wherever the fuck. And

Speaker 2 yeah, nobody cares. Nobody, apparently, nobody cares for me.

Speaker 1 So again, reports started emerging that kind of were completely in line with everything we had heard. And I guess the new wrinkle is that she's being,

Speaker 1 I don't know what you call it, mirrored?

Speaker 1 What do you, I don't know what you call it. You're home and you're paid and your contract's going to keep running.

Speaker 2 They just don't call you anymore.

Speaker 1 They don't call you anymore. And,

Speaker 1 you know, I don't think they're going to fire her. I don't think they want her doing interviews.

Speaker 1 I'll tell you that right now. The last thing Tony Khan wants is Britt Baker doing interviews with her thoughts about AEW.
Whether they're true or not, that's the last thing they want.

Speaker 2 You know, I'm sure right before she rebooks Rogers and O'Connor from Chicago in 61, she can give an excellent fucking dissertation on what's wrong with AEW.

Speaker 1 She was suspended over the summer, right? That was the MJF thing. She got suspended right before Wembley, and then she had to wrestle.

Speaker 1 Mercedes-Monet Wembley, and then she disappeared again.

Speaker 2 Well, you know what?

Speaker 2 They discovered when she got suspended that things were so much brighter.

Speaker 2 That everything tasted better and everything smelled better. And it was just a new way of looking at life when she wasn't around to

Speaker 2 yank their teeth.

Speaker 1 According to Sports Illustrated, I have an article here. She's wrestled just two matches since her TBS title shot in London.

Speaker 1 Most recently, she defeated Penelope Ford on the November 13th episode of Dynamite. That's when she was confronted by Serena Deeb.

Speaker 1 On DDP's YouTube show,

Speaker 1 she announced that she's been off TV due to outside commitments.

Speaker 1 Here's a quote. I'm filming some fun stuff.
Can't wait to tell everybody what it is.

Speaker 1 It's on the down low for now, but it's really exciting and it's cool. It's really cool.
I think people will be really excited about it. And of course, she

Speaker 1 is apparently has a role of some sort in season six of Cobra Kai

Speaker 1 with

Speaker 1 Martin Cove. I know someone who's friends with Martin Cove.
Maybe they could ask.

Speaker 2 He's a nice fellow. I'll see if I can get the scoop on this.

Speaker 2 But, well,

Speaker 2 you know, it's another outside commitments. That actually,

Speaker 2 if you had technically been picked up by the

Speaker 2 by the fucking county and committed,

Speaker 2 that would be an an outside commitment. So we don't know what she's talking about there.
But

Speaker 1 has anyone has anyone's stock fallen as far? Well, that's in Tony Khan's eyes, let alone ours. In the women's division, they're like Britt Baker.

Speaker 2 That's what I'm saying. Is how, again, this was what they were building around.
Remember, she was the original top babyface because, and, and I thought,

Speaker 2 and they could have gone further, you know, with it in a more professional tone, but she's a professional person. She's a

Speaker 2 medical professional. She's educated.
She's purdy.

Speaker 2 You know, you could you could run with worse than that as the face of your women's division. But then they switched her heel and she twisted in the wind for a week or two.

Speaker 2 And then potentially her natural personality came through. Maybe they were ahead of us on this, Brian, and they knew.

Speaker 2 When we thought they were crazy for switching her heel, they said, no, you ought to know her.

Speaker 2 If you just met her, you know why we're doing this.

Speaker 2 But,

Speaker 2 you know, did she think that it was all going to last forever? Or why is she so hard, I wonder, to deal with? Because,

Speaker 2 you know, it's not like she's replaced Wendy Richter in the pantheon of, you know, pivotal female figures in the wrestling business, is it?

Speaker 1 No, and that's the thing right there. She's difficult.
At least some people see her as being difficult to work with.

Speaker 2 Like pulling teeth, as they used to say in the locker room back in my day, like pulling teeth to work with.

Speaker 1 And again, when people talk about WWE or NXT, I just don't know if the work is there with her. And I think she's been,

Speaker 1 to the best of Tony Khan's abilities, which aren't great, she's been kind of covered up. And they've hid the weaknesses with her more than anyone else.

Speaker 1 Notice how many promos were in the back pre-tape because...

Speaker 1 It may not have worked as well in front of the crowd, and her matches would fall apart often.

Speaker 1 Remember one time she ran to the wrong corner?

Speaker 2 Well, yeah, but that was covered up by so many of the other matches falling apart so often.

Speaker 1 Yeah, the tooth and nail match. Remember that? Oh,

Speaker 2 we instituted a rule forever and somewhat to this day of not watching Britt Baker matches because, and big swole, but fortunately, that's become easy, easy as pie to not watch her.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and now every participant of that match is gone. Or, well, I guess Britt Baker's not officially gone, but uh, that's the other thing.
I bring up NXT.

Speaker 1 I don't know if they would, you know, what are you bringing in? And if she wants to go to NXT or WWE, you likely got to give up your dentistry completely.

Speaker 1 It's not like AEW where you, yeah, go play around with that on the side.

Speaker 2 Oh, well, I thought that that would have to be a deal breaker then, because,

Speaker 2 you know, I can't imagine Dr. Britt Baker giving up servicing other people's and

Speaker 2 their dental emergencies.

Speaker 2 She's a lifesaver.

Speaker 1 I'll leave it at that. Dr.
Britt Baker, that's the Dr. Britt Baker news, though, Jim.

Speaker 2 Is there any other news before we move on to new news?

Speaker 1 Oh, well, there's a couple.

Speaker 2 Oh, are they doing something over in

Speaker 2 Uncle Dave's homeland over in Japan?

Speaker 2 I understand that the companies are getting together.

Speaker 1 I have a story here from Fightful

Speaker 1 by Skylar Russell,

Speaker 1 NJPW,

Speaker 1 Pro Wrestling Noah,

Speaker 1 TJPW.

Speaker 2 Wait a minute, hold on. TJPW, what is TJPW?

Speaker 1 Well, we'll figure that out momentarily because it's an anonymous. And more.

Speaker 1 Hold press conference for official recognition of United Japan Pro Wrestling. And there's a photo here of all the executives and hairdos

Speaker 1 from

Speaker 1 the current crop of Japanese wrestling.

Speaker 2 Do the front office people have the hairdos like the boys over there do now? What is going on with people's friends? Well, maybe some of them.

Speaker 1 They have blue bitch over there. Some of them are front office, I would assume.

Speaker 1 United, they stand.

Speaker 1 On Monday, January 20th, New Japan Pro Wrestling led a press conference and announced the official creation of a new incorporated association.

Speaker 1 United Japan Pro Wrestling. Hold on.

Speaker 1 The official creation of a new incorporated association.

Speaker 2 So, what it's this translator thing again, isn't it?

Speaker 1 I don't know. It has a it says here that the guy wrote this.
I don't know.

Speaker 1 Well, along with New Japan Pro Wrestling, promotions such as All Japan Pro Wrestling, Big Japan Pro Wrestling, DDT Pro Wrestling,

Speaker 1 Dragon Gate,

Speaker 1 Ganbar Pro Wrestling,

Speaker 1 I don't G-A-N-B-A-R-E, Ganbar Pro Wrestling, Kayushi Pro Wrestling, Noah,

Speaker 1 Stardom,

Speaker 1 and Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling were all announced as participants in the partnership.

Speaker 1 Gleet and Marigold were nowhere to be seen. Gleet?

Speaker 1 Led by Chairman Sanshiro Takagi,

Speaker 1 the goal of United Japan Pro Wrestling is to, quote, support the people of Japan through pro wrestling.

Speaker 2 What?

Speaker 2 How are they going to support the people of Japan by buying tickets to see our wrestling shows?

Speaker 1 And show the strengths of pro wrestling to the world.

Speaker 1 Takagi also noted that the creation of UJPW was inspired by the challenges that the pro wrestling industry faced during COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaker 1 Not the COVID-19 pandemic, just like we get a translation maybe. Here's the press release.

Speaker 1 A special press conference on January 20th.

Speaker 1 No one begins a press release like that.

Speaker 1 A special press conference on January 20th saw the official recognition of the United Japan Pro Wrestling as a general incorporated association.

Speaker 1 The legal designation of the industry group strengthens governance and enhances public transparency,

Speaker 1 as well as allowing for more freedom in the scope of UJPW,

Speaker 1 while maintaining the commercial activity is not a core goal of the association, which is a non-profit organization.

Speaker 2 What the

Speaker 1 that's the problem. Too many of the Japanese pro wrestling companies are non-profit organizations.

Speaker 2 Non-profit organizations.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Chaired by Sanshiro Takagi.

Speaker 1 The press conference explained the move to incorporation and its function in UJPW's mission statement, once again, to support the people of Japan through professional wrestling and show the strengths of pro-wrestling to the world.

Speaker 1 Takagi recalled the thought process behind UJPW's establishment. This is everything I just read here.

Speaker 1 Currently, and these are the same people I just read or members, there are seven requirements to join UJPW.

Speaker 2 And what would they might be, for example?

Speaker 1 An organization to be regularly running an active promotion in Japan. That's rule one.

Speaker 1 Two, to be.

Speaker 2 Wait a minute. Isn't that like you're breathing?

Speaker 1 Well, that's the groundwork. That's it.

Speaker 2 To be in our organization, you have to be in business.

Speaker 1 Rule two: you have to be a legally recognized company.

Speaker 1 Rule three:

Speaker 1 you have to have at least one contracted wrestler working for you.

Speaker 2 Oh, good lord.

Speaker 1 Rule four,

Speaker 1 you must have annual revenue of at least 50 million yen.

Speaker 2 Wait a minute. Hold on here now.
That sounds good, but

Speaker 2 there's a lot of them yen. Can you type that into something?

Speaker 1 All right, hold on, because I was counting with my fingers here.

Speaker 1 50 million.

Speaker 1 There's no K in million. Yen.

Speaker 2 Sounds like, again, a lot of yen, but as we know, that

Speaker 2 there's a lot of the yen around.

Speaker 1 Approximately $322,000.

Speaker 2 Well, now

Speaker 2 if you can make $322,000 in a year with only one wrestler under contract, maybe you should be in this group.

Speaker 1 Rule five, to have been established for at least two years.

Speaker 1 Hence, no marigold or gleat.

Speaker 2 Ah, they're not old enough yet.

Speaker 1 Rule six to have corporate compliance system in place for wrestlers and staff.

Speaker 2 And Rule 7.

Speaker 2 What the fuck does that mean?

Speaker 1 What? You have to have a corporate compliance system in place for the wrestlers and staff.

Speaker 2 That means that there's a group of thugs making the fucking employees be compliant? What?

Speaker 1 I don't know, but Rule 7, to share in a vision of betterment for the pro-wrestling space at large, even in competition with other members.

Speaker 1 Takagi also explained a roadmap for supporting members of the association to join would be announced in the near future with the key, this is totally not making sense, with the key difference in barrier to entry being the annual revenue and contracted wrestler distinctions are waived.

Speaker 2 Wait a minute, so they took out the fucking biggest barrier? Is that what you're saying?

Speaker 2 They waived the you got to make couple hundred grand and now just you're breathing again. Let me read that again.

Speaker 1 Takagi also explained a roadmap for supporting members of the association to join would be announced in the near future, with the key difference in barrier to entry being that the annual revenue and contracted wrestler distinctions are waived.

Speaker 1 So you don't even need a wrestler at that point.

Speaker 1 Takagi went on to discuss the broader vision of UJPW.

Speaker 1 The four central goals of the group, Takagi said, started with introducing more people to professional wrestling and elevating its status in society.

Speaker 1 In elevating social status, a core tenet will be charitable activities such as the support for Noto earthquake survivors expressed in the last year.

Speaker 1 Takagi also talked about more international efforts, explaining the need to introduce the world to the unique culture of Japanese professional wrestling.

Speaker 2 World, meet Japanese wrestling, Japanese wrestling meet world.

Speaker 1 And using this as the basis to drive tourism to Japan.

Speaker 1 Takagi's fourth goal was to expand the marketplace of professional wrestling in Japan with a vision to grow the entire industry to double its current size within the next decade.

Speaker 1 Citing 1954

Speaker 1 as the beginning of the current era of professional wrestling in Japan in the form of JWA under Ricky Dozan, Takagi discussed a vision of, quote, supporting the people of Japan as we approach pro-wrestling centennial.

Speaker 2 Takagi. Wait a minute,

Speaker 2 30 years.

Speaker 2 We got 30 years to do this.

Speaker 1 Well, they got a lot of time to help society. That's right.

Speaker 1 Takagi closed by discussing the immediate goals for the group, which will see further strengthening in regular meetings with the Japanese government, as well as collaboration between member organizations on policies for health and safety of wrestlers.

Speaker 1 We end with a quote from Takagi: We look forward to your support and understanding in our ongoing mission.

Speaker 1 And there it is. A new day, a new face of Japanese wrestling.

Speaker 2 Obviously, an exclusive organization to get into. You have to meet strict, high parameters.
to

Speaker 2 be a part of this.

Speaker 1 You can't join unless you have 50 million yen. Oh, fuck.
I only have 10. Listen, we'll make an exception.
You could join.

Speaker 1 Do you have any wrestlers? I'm looking for someone. Just join.
Just join. We'll get you in.

Speaker 1 We'll give you a territory. You can work Yokohama.

Speaker 1 It's like the NWA, isn't it? Oh, my God. Except there are no territories.
Everyone's just running the same building over and over and over again.

Speaker 2 Who's running the show today? I don't know, but we got to go see it to support the world.

Speaker 1 But the changing face of Japanese wrestling and the idea that this current form of Japanese wrestling is what Japan should be using to show the rest of the world to boost tourism

Speaker 1 and cause the world to be better through the love of Japanese. I don't know what the hell is that.

Speaker 2 I don't actually know.

Speaker 2 There was a lot of discussion there about what they want to do, but not a lot of details about

Speaker 2 how they're actually going to achieve those ends. Or does that mean that all the talent from

Speaker 2 these various companies can

Speaker 2 work on each other's shows or they can trade or whatever. Why would New Japan particularly want to work with

Speaker 2 people all the way down to Ganberry and Kayushi?

Speaker 2 What are they actually going to do? Or is this

Speaker 2 a board to do they have some governmental heat? They said meeting with government officials.

Speaker 2 Generally, wrestling promoters don't want to meet with government officials and it's not under pleasant circumstances when they do, and they don't want to attract attention.

Speaker 2 Is there some issue that they think they can all unite and address? Mr.

Speaker 1 Prime Minister, please take this briefcase. Please get Nippon TV to give us back a primetime show.
We need primetime back. No, what the hell are they going to do? I don't know what the hell this is.

Speaker 1 I think, unfortunately,

Speaker 1 Japanese pro wrestling is in a very sorry state, and there's a variety of reasons for it.

Speaker 1 And certainly

Speaker 1 they don't have the foreign talent that they used to over there because everyone's locked up to a contract here in the States. And a lot of the guys they get now

Speaker 1 would have been in the junior heavyweight division back in the day. Now they're the heavyweights.

Speaker 1 And there's very few people to take seriously. It seems like people creating American-style personas, or at least what they...

Speaker 1 perceive them to be.

Speaker 1 And nothing really seems to be connected. And they're not making new stars.
If anything, new japan needs talent

Speaker 1 that tokyodome show we read the results for is everyone that was on the show 10 years ago just older and less able to move

Speaker 2 so you're saying that basically the japanese wrestling scene is almost exactly like the american wrestling scene except that the wwe is kind of bubbling up above the the fray and and minting money i think wwe is to facial hair what japanese pro wrestling is to the buffant

Speaker 2 I'm going to have to draw some kind of diagram on that. Now, the facial hair and the buff.

Speaker 2 Well, you know, I'll tell you, folks, if you think that they ought to get in another kind of business, we got a business for them.

Speaker 2 Brian, would you like to know what kind of business I think the people ought to get into?

Speaker 1 I certainly would. I don't even know.
Yes.

Speaker 2 The Shopify business.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 2 Because if you get in business with Shopify, you know what's going to happen.

Speaker 2 Right off the bat,

Speaker 2 you're going to hear that cash register. Do the children know what a cash register is, Brian?

Speaker 2 Do they understand that when you heard that sound back when you were in a brick and mortar store and you had a Buffon hairdo and facial hair and you were servicing the customers yourself, that every time you heard something like that, it meant that somebody had given you money.

Speaker 2 And for that, you were eternally grateful because otherwise you'd be out on the street. or suffering under an alcoholic husband who mistreats you and gambles and steals things.

Speaker 2 I mean, you know, you could be Mrs. Wheeler at Wheeler's Ready to Wear and be a kindly old lady with a fucking carbuncle on your neck.

Speaker 2 But when you heard that sound, you knew that you were making money and you were going to live another day. And that's what you need to think about now, folks.

Speaker 2 We need to start figuring out how to make some money. Not only around the country, but around the world.
And that's what Shopify is and does for you. They're around the world.

Speaker 2 They're all over the place. They cover the globe thanks to the interwebs that they're all connected to.

Speaker 2 And here's all you got to do is you've got to take an idea or a product or a service or something that you want to sell.

Speaker 2 Maybe it's sand on the beach in Hawaii or ice blocks for igloos in Alaska, whatever it may be.

Speaker 2 And you go to Shopify. And they will take your idea and they will sell your stuff and you will hear that sound.
Boom.

Speaker 2 And then you will be living on a Pacific Island with your feet up sipping a Mai Tai or a margarita. Or possibly while you've got Margaret tied up, you'll have time for yourself.

Speaker 2 And the best time to start your new business is right now before everybody else in the world loses all their money. They've got money now.
You want to take it from them.

Speaker 2 And Shopify makes it simple to create your brand open for business, get your first sale.

Speaker 2 They can get your store up and running thousands of customizable templates with no coding or design skills required. Absolutely no codes.
Fuck that type of thing. We trust people here.

Speaker 2 We don't have to put our communications in secret code and lock it up like it's a government secret.

Speaker 2 They're going to take your information and just put it everywhere out where people can see it so they can come and buy things from you.

Speaker 1 Again, the information that you want public. You choose what information is public with Shopify.

Speaker 2 Well,

Speaker 2 they're gonna take all the public information they check the walls in restrooms and truck stops they get everything that's out in public

Speaker 2 and then they just put it out there for the world to see and all you need to do is drag and drop well it'll be a drag if you get dropped by shopify because they're going to make you a fortune you're going to be i don't know you're going to be beholden to them Because their powerful social media tools let you connect all your channels to create shoppable posts and help you sell everywhere people scroll.

Speaker 2 Somebody's going to be looking at their computer or their phone and they're going to be reading something on a website and all of a sudden, boom, up pops your face saying, hey, buy my shit or I'll get off this screen.

Speaker 1 That's not the way it works. It's a passive, so it doesn't bother anyone experience.

Speaker 2 No,

Speaker 2 everybody's going to have you saying, spend your money with me and I'll get off of your screen.

Speaker 2 They're going to put you up everywhere because they got all the tools to connect with everybody's channel and they'll hold those channels hostage.

Speaker 2 Shopify makes it easy to manage your growing business. They'll take care of it.
Stay out of their way. And what happens if you don't act now? Will you regret it to your dying day?

Speaker 2 What if somebody beats you to the idea that you had that could make a million dollars?

Speaker 2 Such as, you know, Brian, I had an idea once for a universal solvent, but I just couldn't figure out what to put it in.

Speaker 2 Well, Shopify can help you fix all of these things, and you'll be selling stuff boom regularly.

Speaker 2 So, for your business to be established in 2025 or become profitable, if you've just been a spendthrift and a wastrel up until now, sign up for your $1 a month trial period at shopify.com slash JCE.

Speaker 2 That's all lowercase now, JCE in lowercase to get the wink wink, the deal, $1 a month trial period. It's a dollar for how bad can they be if they were rotten.
Shopify.com slash JCE

Speaker 2 to start selling with Shopify today.

Speaker 2 You know, Brian, that's a word. Once you hear it, you can never forget it.
Shopify.

Speaker 2 It's right on the tip of everybody's tongue. Speaking of tongue tips.

Speaker 2 Should we talk about the...

Speaker 1 Where are you going here?

Speaker 2 Well, the SmackDown San Diego sellout. that's a tongue twister if not a tongue tip

Speaker 2 they were in san diego they were sold out for smackdown

Speaker 2 did it suck

Speaker 2 that's what we're here to find out right

Speaker 2 i guess uh that's what we already would know and we're here to reinforce it well no no we're here to find out if it sucks we're gonna give this thing a day in court

Speaker 2 We're going to present the pros and the cons. Okay.

Speaker 2 And let the chips fall where they may behind the buffalo.

Speaker 1 In this case, it'll be the Nikons, but yes.

Speaker 2 Yes, we're going to go over the pros, the people on the roster, the cons, the people in the office. And

Speaker 2 I guess that means the fans are the chips that are falling where they may.

Speaker 2 So on this program, again,

Speaker 2 this the production, the announcers this time walked into the arena.

Speaker 2 While old,

Speaker 2 what's his name? The Italian fella, Tessatori,

Speaker 2 was talking about

Speaker 2 the Italian fella, was talking about the history of the arena and things that had gone on there, the, you know, the history of the place.

Speaker 2 And then they billboarded the show in the midst of the sea of people. I mean, this, it looks like a happening.
They're the groovy hep cats that are really with it, Brian, on this program from a

Speaker 2 television standpoint, don't you think?

Speaker 1 And as far as being in the arena, that's what fans love, the idea that you're near anything happening. So all of a sudden, they're doing interviews in the crowd.

Speaker 1 You have Jey Uso and other people coming through the crowd. Now the announcers are coming through.

Speaker 2 Yeah, everybody's in the crowd. Boy, you got to see some of the things they did in the crowd back when I was a fan.

Speaker 2 I'll tell you what, especially that's back when you wanted a small house, so there wouldn't be as many people up in the back row of general admission. But I digress.
So

Speaker 2 then, again, the entrance of Rey Mysterio. They're in San Diego.
He's a hometown hero, the 619.

Speaker 2 And he declared for the Royal Rumble. And of course,

Speaker 2 you know, got cheers for it and reminded everybody in 2006. He came in at number two and he won the thing.

Speaker 2 Not reminding people that was 19 years ago, but, you know. And then at WrestleMania, he became the world heavyweight champion.

Speaker 1 And Vince was cursing under his breath the whole time.

Speaker 2 Yeah, he probably didn't like that.

Speaker 2 But he put over the competition.

Speaker 2 But, you know, when he won in 06, he did it for a friend. And the people started chanting, Eddie, Eddie, because they're with it.
They understand what's going on here.

Speaker 1 That really is incredible, though, when you really think about how long ago it was that Eddie passed.

Speaker 1 It's 20 years. Like, it wasn't like in the 80s, people were chanting for, you know.

Speaker 1 Yukon Eric or anything. You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Not to compare the two guys, but just there weren't that many that you could think of guys that just died.

Speaker 2 But, you know, know, well, what did we talk about earlier in the program? The difference is home video and the ability to record things and see things when you want to.

Speaker 2 And, you know, the mass availability of them in the documentaries.

Speaker 2 And besides the fact that they're, you know, in San Diego, which is Rey Mysterio's hometown, if they're fans of Mysterio, they'd be more than apt to. know about his connection with Eddie.

Speaker 2 But all these fans can keep up with the history of

Speaker 2 everything from the Attitude Era and then the 80s.

Speaker 2 They've seen enough that they think they know, and then everything's a mystery from that point further back.

Speaker 2 But anyway, the point is, Rey Mysterio's over this crowd. And then here comes Owens, Kevin Owens with the winged eagle belt.
And did you see what his shirt said, or did you jot it down?

Speaker 1 I saw what it said. I didn't put the exact order.
The Canadian son of a

Speaker 1 securities salesman or or something.

Speaker 2 The Canadian dream, the son of a security systems technician.

Speaker 2 He's just,

Speaker 2 but they've, they've, he's got that, he's got to have that tongue-in-cheek business in anything he does, but they've hit on his personality where it, it doesn't make it phony and silly.

Speaker 2 It just makes it, you know, he's odd. So I, kudos to them.

Speaker 2 And his promo was that he respected Ray more than anybody. But since Kevin is the true, rightful WWE champion and he's never faced Ray one-on-one,

Speaker 2 he wants Ray to win the Royal Rumble so that he can pick Kevin Owens as the champion that he faces at WrestleMania. And they'll be in the main event.

Speaker 2 And Ray says, I love competition, but you're not the champ. It's Cody.

Speaker 2 But if I go on to win the Rumble,

Speaker 2 this was Ray's line. If I go on to win the Rumble and you win, I'd be glad to face you for the title.
There was something in there that he left out a word or something, but what the fuck?

Speaker 2 They're still getting it.

Speaker 2 And Kevin's mad because he is the champion and he starts yelling at Ray.

Speaker 2 And Ray said, you're delusional. You remind me of Dominic.
Well, that was too much for him. He's crossed the line now.

Speaker 2 When you compare somebody to Dominic Mysterio, naturally, Owen swings the belt, Ray ducks, they get in a fight, and Owens bailed.

Speaker 2 And, of course, they come back, you know, later on in the back, and Aldous gives Ray a match with Owens tonight, since they've never wrestled.

Speaker 2 And then they start

Speaker 2 the story that they're teasing through the thing where Cody comes in and says, I'm not. I'm sorry I wasn't out there for you.
I was back with medical trying to get cleared.

Speaker 2 I couldn't get the doctor's finger out of my ass in time to,

Speaker 2 but he got fully cleared. And

Speaker 2 Aldous now announces that he needs Cody and Owens to sign an addendum to the contract for their title match. And Cody says, I'll sign it when Owens signs it.

Speaker 2 So now they're starting that for later on in the program. But Rey Mysterio, good babyface promo,

Speaker 2 receptive and large crowd. And,

Speaker 2 you know, Owens is entertainingly bat shit at this point. Without being too over the top, like, remember when he was losing his temper every five seconds as a baby face? Let's just fight.

Speaker 2 Let's just fight.

Speaker 2 This is a little better.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's been interesting, especially when you think about where it goes on Monday.

Speaker 1 And beyond that,

Speaker 1 what do you think of the idea? They've really made it something now that it's promo worthy to come out there and announce that you've declared yourself eligible.

Speaker 1 How do they put it?

Speaker 1 Yeah, they declare.

Speaker 1 They declare for the Royal Rumble.

Speaker 2 I'm declaring for the Royal Rumble.

Speaker 2 Of course, now, you know, when it gets up to a week out, they're like, well, fuck, you were indecisive before now, or I'm surprised they didn't book you in another match since you waited to make that decision.

Speaker 2 But it makes it mean something. It's a big match.
It's a big deal. It's in a stadium in front of 50,000 people, and everybody wants to get the shot at the title.

Speaker 2 That's that's the whole logic of the thing. That's why they started doing this to begin with.
They're just doing it better now with building

Speaker 2 the Rumble and etc.

Speaker 2 Let's come back to the Owens and Mysterio match because that keeps a chronological order and then we will digress.

Speaker 2 But they had at the top of the 10 o'clock hour. That's where they had Owens and Mysterio.

Speaker 2 And they, again, they got the 6-1-9 chance and owens was working like a heel he's taking his time he's working spots he gets the heat ray fights back it's a standard formula with mysterio

Speaker 2 and then finally

Speaker 2 ray hits the 619 which everybody wants to see goes to the top and owens gets up and pushes the referee into the ropes, which makes Ray crotch himself on the rope.

Speaker 2 And then Owens hit him with the power bomb, boom, one, two, three.

Speaker 2 And,

Speaker 2 but of course, then, as we know, the afterbirth is the story

Speaker 2 where

Speaker 2 Owens then shakes Rey Mysterio's hand. He's like, he's going to be all gracious.
And then he gives him the boot and goes for the package pile driver.

Speaker 2 But here comes Cody because he's out of the doctor's office.

Speaker 2 And they get in a fight and the referees and the agents and the frantic pull apart over the announce desk and boom, boom, boom, and it's chaos at ringside.

Speaker 2 And they go to the break. And when they come back, there's Aldous and Cody in the back.
And Aldous said, Enough is enough.

Speaker 2 At Saturday night's main event, because now Owens, by the way, has previously said he ain't going to sign a thing till Cody does. Cody, same thing.

Speaker 2 So at Saturday night's main event, you're going to hand over these belts and you're going to sign the amended contract.

Speaker 2 And Sean Michaels is going to be the one moderating the contract signing. This shit writes itself.

Speaker 2 Sean Michaels will be the person to make sure that the title match gets in the ring and comes off without a hitch.

Speaker 2 Is that the first time that those English words have ever been uttered in that order before, Brian?

Speaker 1 That would be funny when they do the segment if he just turns to Owens and says, take the belt, go home.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Lose your smile.

Speaker 1 So, but that happened there but your your thoughts on this whole issue before we back go backwards in time i like it you know what they've made me interested in kevin owens again the last few weeks after i got really tired of him it kind of coincided with him stealing the version of the wing belt they're using because obviously mr perfect destroyed the original one in 1990 uh no this is good stuff and I like the idea that people are declaring for the Rumble.

Speaker 1 Top stars, legends, because I don't think you could say Ray's one of the top stars anymore just because of age and everything. Right.
But one of the legends, one of the living legends of WWE.

Speaker 1 Good opening to the show.

Speaker 2 Well, but then a lot of the rest of the program

Speaker 2 was

Speaker 2 after the original Ray and Owens promo, we got Bianca and Naomi talking in the back. We got Naomi and Bianca wrestling the refrigerator and candy.

Speaker 2 We got a Bailey promo. We got Mia Yim and Bfab talking to Piper and Chelsea.

Speaker 2 And then later on,

Speaker 2 we got

Speaker 2 Piper versus B Fab or Kayfabe or whatever. Some people are not natural workers

Speaker 2 and they may be somewhat athletic in a volleyball or cheerleading way. So their matches look like awkward dance routines.

Speaker 2 And old

Speaker 2 Fabe here gives that a whole new meaning. She makes the AEW women's roster look like Rhea Ripley.

Speaker 2 It's just.

Speaker 2 And then

Speaker 2 we got Bailey and Tiffy

Speaker 2 for the last 20 minutes of the program. So it was kind of like an episode of Wow.

Speaker 2 We got Jimmy Uso

Speaker 2 against Carmelo,

Speaker 2 which Fatu and Tama continued to harass Jimmy at. And then

Speaker 2 we got the Bloodline

Speaker 2 in the Ring interview because after

Speaker 2 Jimmy basically fucking

Speaker 2 got disqualified

Speaker 2 Carmelo got disqualified against Jimmy when Fatu and Tama interfered and then they laid out both of them and Solo came out in a red jacket that looked like he was a maitre D at a fucking 60s supper club.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 he was getting booed out of the arena.

Speaker 2 And as he was trying to talk and trying to talk, they wouldn't stop booing, they wouldn't stop doing. And finally, Solo quit trying to speak and just walked out of the ring and left through the crowd.

Speaker 2 And the announcers were

Speaker 2 trying to reinforce the idea, well, he's lost his confidence and he's not in control anymore. And then Fatu picked up the microphone

Speaker 2 and cut the promo. Said he's tired of the hate and the disrespect.
I don't give a damn if you cheer us or boo us, but you will respect us. And I'm just getting started.

Speaker 2 Of course, then Thomas standing back there. Can you say we? Just bring me into it.

Speaker 2 And then L.A. Nights music hits.
And he hit the ring and jumped both of them. and started wailing on them.
And then they stopped him and they started beating on him. And then they played more music.

Speaker 2 And here came Brown Strongman.

Speaker 2 And we haven't seen him since the last time he came back from when we hadn't seen him.

Speaker 1 Braun Strowman, for those of you that weren't here, the last time we saw him, which was the last time he came back from the previous time we saw him.

Speaker 2 That's right.

Speaker 2 And he took out Tama.

Speaker 2 and had a face-off with Fatu and the people were into it. They want to see the two bulls and Tama pulled Fatu out and

Speaker 2 it'll have to take place another day.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they announced it already. Saturday night's main event.
I'm looking forward to that one.

Speaker 2 Well, that's right. They did announce it, didn't they?

Speaker 2 That's another day. It'll be Saturday.
Saturday, Saturday, Saturday night's all right.

Speaker 2 You know what they should have done? They should have got the music.

Speaker 1 Wouldn't that be funny?

Speaker 2 They should have done. They should just say fuck it.
Because what Eldon John's going to say, okay, I'd rather this.

Speaker 2 Fugging off

Speaker 2 show in front of 300,000 people has my.

Speaker 1 Actually, that may raise his antenna. It's probably just right now with AEW, it's just one of many licensing deals.

Speaker 1 If all of a sudden WWE tried to swoop in, then it's like, wait a minute, what's going on here? Why are all the wrestling companies trying to get my music?

Speaker 1 Will they take crocodile rock?

Speaker 2 Well, as a matter of fact, maybe that's what Tony could switch to. He could get crocodile rock.

Speaker 1 I was thinking more goodbye Yellow Brick Road for

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 2 Anyway, and yeah, and that was pretty much SmackDown, wasn't it? Bob Euchre. They had a package on Bob Euchre.
Were you a Bob Euchre fan, Brian? Absolutely.

Speaker 1 100%.

Speaker 1 Not really from baseball because I didn't watch Milwaukee Brewer games or listen to them here in New York. And when I saw them, it was back in the day on WGN.
It was the Cubs feed.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 as a personality. When I was a kid, he was on Mr.
Belvedere on ABC, which I used to watch.

Speaker 1 And he was in Major League, which is the best baseball movie ever made.

Speaker 1 And he had just memorable line after memorable line.

Speaker 1 And his talk show appearances going back years later, because I never saw the original airings. Well, he's incredible.
He's funny. And yeah, I was a fan of his.

Speaker 2 That's the thing is, I knew him, but not from baseball because in the 70s, he was always on the tonight show.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 he was always on Johnny Carson. So, and Johnny would introduce him here at Mr.
Baseball, Bob Euchre.

Speaker 2 And because I didn't know anything about baseball and didn't give a shit, it was a while before I realized that they were making fun of him with the Mr.

Speaker 2 Baseball because that was his gimmick that he was one of the worst players in the league, but that he became a broadcaster and an announcer, an actor, an icon, and all that stuff.

Speaker 1 He leaned into it. That was the smart thing.
He leaned into it and developed lines. He developed bits about how bad a player he was.
It was brilliant. And as a kid,

Speaker 1 my dad taped WrestleMania 3. So for whatever reason, two years later, when I became a wrestling fan, I had that video.

Speaker 1 And that event always has a special place in my heart. It's WrestleMania 3, Hogan Andre.

Speaker 1 They didn't have the celebrity power of a WrestleMania 1 or just the...

Speaker 1 Balls to the wall, anyone who's even close to a celebrity, get them of WrestleMania 2. They had Herb

Speaker 1 and the old-fashioned burger lady and G. Gordon Reddy.

Speaker 2 That's right.

Speaker 2 The Burger King, Herb from Burger King, and the fucking, where's the beef woman?

Speaker 1 I mean, it was just a shit show of celebrities.

Speaker 1 They only had a couple for WrestleMania 3. Samantha Fox dropped out.
Mary Hart from Entertainment Tonight and Bob Eucher. And Bob Euchre was perfect.
They had him on commentary.

Speaker 1 He was sitting there at Monsoon Aventura. It was like he was a natural.

Speaker 2 Was the build to that? The famous clip where Andre is choking him and his hand is so

Speaker 1 that's WrestleMania 4.

Speaker 2 They brought him back.

Speaker 1 They brought him back the next year, and that was for the tournament. And they did that bit with Andre where, and you could tell just by his face as Andre's choking him back and forth.

Speaker 1 His face kind of blows up like Harpo Marks or Soupy Sales.

Speaker 1 He's leaning into it. I mean, that's what made it cool.
He was someone who didn't look down on wrestling. He said, if I'm here, I'll make it memorable.

Speaker 2 Well, we send our sympathies out to the friends and fans.

Speaker 2 I don't know. He was 90 years old.
Does he have any family left? Maybe he's got some offspring, but he's almost 100 years old.

Speaker 2 So he's lived a long, full life, even though he was a rotten baseball player.

Speaker 1 And he worked until the last season. He was still commentating when the Mets played the Brewers in the playoffs.

Speaker 2 Well,

Speaker 2 I wish he'd have done better to where he could have retired earlier. I don't think that's...
Maybe enjoy his golden years.

Speaker 1 I think he loved it. I think he loved what he did.
That's baseball.

Speaker 2 You'd have to love doing something when you're 89 years old to go in fucking inclement weather and

Speaker 2 be around people and fucking suffer their stupidity.

Speaker 1 Plus, it's the groupies.

Speaker 2 Well, that's true. I understand he was quite a ladies' man.

Speaker 2 If it could happen for Hugh Hefner, it could could happen for Bob Euchre, couldn't it?

Speaker 1 Well, I mean, money, you know, celebrity.

Speaker 2 Well, what do you think the idea, were the odds on Bob Euchre

Speaker 2 betting on the baseball games, is he a secret Pete Rose, or was he clean of this type of thing?

Speaker 1 I think he's 100% clean. There's never even been an allegation.
I don't know why you decided now is the time to accuse the late kindly old legendarian. That's right.

Speaker 2 Well, I'm wondering if he ever bet on, because you know, that would, he knew a lot about it, so that would be a temptation because it's so easy now

Speaker 2 to place your wagers on the baseball or the football or the basketball or whatever sport is being played at that particular time.

Speaker 2 Now that we've got the ease and convenience of our friends at the DraftKings Sportsbook,

Speaker 2 you know, they're an official sports betting partner of the NFL.

Speaker 2 That means that the NFL, much like the,

Speaker 2 you know, the Treasury Department, insures your deposits at federally funded loaning institutions up to a certain amount of money.

Speaker 1 That's not what that means. They don't insure anything.

Speaker 2 Well, being an official partner, I would think that would mean, hey, if our friends over here at DraftKings, if they take your money, we'll go get it back for you.

Speaker 2 I thought that was how they worked hand in hand.

Speaker 1 WWE is not paying TNA's debts.

Speaker 2 Well, but TNA has so many. But, you know, scoring touchdowns is key to winning in the playoffs, and it's also key to winning at DraftKings if you score big by betting on them.

Speaker 2 And they're the number one place to bet touchdowns.

Speaker 2 Do you know that surveys have shown, Brian, that more average Americans bet on touchdowns with DraftKings Sportsbook than they do at any other Appleby's restroom in the United States of America?

Speaker 1 I don't know if that's true. I don't even know why that would be a statistic that anyone would look for.

Speaker 2 Well, there used to be a thing going on here at my neighborhood, Appleby's, but

Speaker 2 the DEA cracked down. If you're ready to place your first bet, try bet on something simple, like whether or not I will ever do a straight commercial or a player to score six.

Speaker 2 You can go to the DraftKings Sportsbook app and make your pick. If you want to score with a football player, the people at DraftKings can set you up, especially if you're a female, but we're not.

Speaker 2 Ruling out anything here.

Speaker 1 We are ruling out that they are going to be setting up anyone with anyone.

Speaker 2 It's a tight economy. You got to do what you can.

Speaker 1 It's an honest economy. Don't tell people they're going to be getting free dates that may cause problems.

Speaker 2 Well, I didn't say free.

Speaker 2 And new DraftKings customers can bet $5 to get $200 in bonus bets instantly. So right there, boom, they're hooking you.
You spend $5. They're going to give you $200.

Speaker 2 You'll be eternally grateful to them. You'll win a fortune.
You'll live a life of religious fulfillment. One of these days, they'll ask you for a favor.

Speaker 2 But folks, right now, download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use the code JCE. That's how you get the $200 in bonus bets instantly when you bet just five bucks.
That's if you're a new customer.

Speaker 2 DraftKing Sportsbook, use the code JCE

Speaker 2 only on DraftKing Sportsbook. Can't use it other places because it might not be good.
Now, some of our other sponsors have that code, but you won't be able to place wagers with them.

Speaker 2 DraftKing Sportsbook, the crown is yours.

Speaker 1 That's right. It's yours.

Speaker 2 Do we have that tape in yet?

Speaker 1 You know, it'll be probably at least one more, one more time around the horn, as they say in sports.

Speaker 2 Well, I'm getting a little horny for it.

Speaker 2 Are you ready?

Speaker 2 You're not ready?

Speaker 1 I was trying to hold back from making any gambling jokes. I'm ready.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 2 Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER in New York. Call 877-8 HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY-467-369 in Connecticut.
Help is available. For problem gambling, call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org.

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Speaker 1 That's right. The crown is yours.

Speaker 1 Audio.

Speaker 1 Audio.

Speaker 2 Audio.

Speaker 2 Well, while I take a hit off my oxygen tank, Brian, why don't you tell the fine feathered fiends out there

Speaker 2 what's going on at the Arcadian Vanguard Network this week?

Speaker 1 You were doing, I was about to take a hit off something else over here.

Speaker 1 The Arcadian Vanguard Vanguard Podcast Network, wherever you find your favorite podcast, of course, facebook.com/slash Arcadian Vanguard. And of course, on Twitter at SuperPodcasts.

Speaker 1 Don't forget the wrestling news. Each and every day, get your wrestling news for free.
Everything that's happening, find out every morning. Get it for free.

Speaker 1 The wrestling news directly from thewrestlingnews.com or wherever you find.

Speaker 1 your favorite podcast please stop laughing behind me will there be any wrestling news involved if there is news there is one place to find it.

Speaker 1 No matter where it comes from, you can hear it on the wrestling news. And of course, listen to Stick to Wrestling with John McAdam, a look back at 1985, 40 years ago, McAdamPod.com.

Speaker 1 Or look for Stick to Wrestling with John McAdam, wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

Speaker 2 What about Shut Up and Wrestle?

Speaker 1 With Brian Solomon, wherever you find your favorite podcast, S-U-A-W-Pod.com. If you like smart wrestling history, talk.

Speaker 1 Shut up and wrestle with Brian Solomon, wherever you find your favorite podcast. And of course, the 605 Super Podcast.
The

Speaker 1 Mothership!

Speaker 1 I'm coming in loud. Sorry, Jace.
I'll try to see what I could do. Go through the archive, 605pod.com.

Speaker 1 The mothership.

Speaker 2 Sounds like the funeral march of a marionette.

Speaker 2 Could you play Alfred Hitchcock?

Speaker 2 I said Alfred Hitchcock, not Sparky Anderson. Oh.

Speaker 1 All right. We'll get there.
We'll get there. We'll get there.

Speaker 2 Hopefully, I won't be on that trip with you. All right.

Speaker 2 For Raw on the Netflix, January the 20th,

Speaker 2 They were in Dallas, Texas at the American Airlines Arena, not Reunion Arena. That's gone by the wayside with the big new building, 15,572, another sellout.
They were sold out in

Speaker 2 San Jose the other night for SmackDown, sold out for Raw in Dallas on Monday.

Speaker 2 And again, you know,

Speaker 2 the show comes on the air now with the Netflix presentation. They've got great graphics, the crowd shots, the arena lighting is scaled up, everything looks big, and you see all those fucking people.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 past a quick thing where during the walk-in of the talent,

Speaker 2 the refrigerator, she attacked. Rhea Ripley and beat her up on the walk-in, but then they basically just go into the arena and Jey Uso,

Speaker 2 who comes in and the waving and the yeeting and the whole place is going nuts or neats.

Speaker 2 Neats over the yeets.

Speaker 1 It'll be nuts. You don't change the other words.
It's not like speaking.

Speaker 2 Well, I'll change any goddamn word about my nuts I want to.

Speaker 2 They're my nuts.

Speaker 1 It's not Carney here.

Speaker 2 Fucking Ricky Morton, every once in a while, a new guy would be sitting in the locker room and And Riggy'd be sitting there next to him, and Robert Gibson would walk up and Ricky'd look up and say, Hey, Robert, show so-and-so, you're nuts.

Speaker 2 And Robert would lean down and put his thumbs in his ears and go, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 2 But anyway, so.

Speaker 1 The innocent old days of pro wrestling.

Speaker 2 I watched this program in a few pieces because now they're not on real television anymore. They've taken a bribe to go over to the streaming.

Speaker 2 And on Monday night, I was going to try to watch it live because, as I believe I've mentioned my trials and tribulations, with not only is there no on-screen fast-forward ability that I've been able to determine on this Netflix business.

Speaker 2 So I don't know how people find where they're fucking going to,

Speaker 2 but also on the TV room television, I can't figure out how to do most of it at all on that remote.

Speaker 2 So I didn't want to spend all morning on Tuesday morning in the bedroom using that TV to try to skip through a lot of this shit.

Speaker 2 So instead, I was trying to watch it live again. And I figure, well, if I start it later on, I can skip the commercials.

Speaker 2 But when I started it like at 8.30, it was already goddamn, it didn't start from the beginning. It started right there where it was.

Speaker 2 So I saw the last hour and a half, and then I went back the following morning and I found the first half hour.

Speaker 1 Well, you have that option. You have the option to go to it live or start from the beginning.

Speaker 2 Well, it's all so complicated.

Speaker 1 Push the button. You just look at the...

Speaker 2 On TV, it's just, you got your cable remote. You hit your DVR and you hit the thing and it starts right from scratch.
There's so many just

Speaker 2 hoops you have to jump through here on this streaming stuff, Brian. It's very unwieldy.

Speaker 1 Well, it's getting easier by the day, so that's a good thing. And

Speaker 2 easier for you to say.

Speaker 1 Because I ended up watching it last night and going back and watching a couple things today. And today, when I went back and watched it,

Speaker 1 no commercials. Fast-forwarded through it and rewound it, no commercials.

Speaker 2 Well, that's what I was trying for. But then later on, when I paused it to go get something else to eat and attend little Harley Quinn's needs, then I started missing commercials later on.

Speaker 2 But that was when I watched the last part of the show first.

Speaker 2 But we're talking about the first part of the show now, right?

Speaker 1 Yes, because we're going in the order of the show, not in the order you watched it.

Speaker 2 Yes. Well, that's what I was trying to do till you interrupted me.

Speaker 1 But this is your show.

Speaker 2 Well, that's remember that. So anyway, Jay

Speaker 2 Uso was out there and all he has to do is do the entrance and they're going crazy. And as soon as he started to talk, boom, here came Gunther.

Speaker 2 And, you know, and now they're booing again. Nobody has to even do anything.

Speaker 2 And the building's full and they're fucking screaming. And Gunther comes out with the suit and no socks.
What a heel.

Speaker 2 And they're promoing their match at Saturday night's main event, which was set up basically because Jay wants the world title. And Gunther

Speaker 2 has disrespected him. So people laughed at him.
Are you serious?

Speaker 2 And he doesn't consider Jay any competition. And again, Gunther, what a heel.

Speaker 2 He says, you know, you really are a funny little man.

Speaker 2 Acting like the company mascot for all these fans here.

Speaker 2 He's got an amazing way with phrases, doesn't he, Brian?

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 go ahead.

Speaker 1 He's used it more than once now.

Speaker 2 Well, that's because it fits.

Speaker 2 And then he said, when your cousin Roman whistles or Jimmy needs you or Sammy or Cody, you're a useful idiot. But I'm going to expose you as a flash in the pan.
This is the way you knock a baby face.

Speaker 2 You don't come out there and you talk about all the shit that's really the matter with him,

Speaker 2 how that he looks like a fugging

Speaker 2 concentration camp survivor if he really does, or how he,

Speaker 2 you know, is old if he really is, or how the people don't give a shit about him if they really don't.

Speaker 2 Gunther looks down at Jay because he's one of the common people. He's helpful to his friends.
He's, you know, he's all these fans. You like to yeet and wave.
You're just a flash in the past.

Speaker 2 That's the way you knock the baby. You don't say your mother is a Canadian call girl and

Speaker 2 your father sold secrets to the Nazis or whatever.

Speaker 2 And the fans are yeeting like crazy at this. And then

Speaker 2 Jay says, hey, again, you're telling the truth, dog.

Speaker 2 I am the mascot, but this is my team. And he points to the fans and they start coming up.
And he turns all that stuff around to get the fans behind him. So I'm going to do this for them.

Speaker 2 You're going to respect me because I represent them. Boom.
It's perfect.

Speaker 2 And Jay said, you're going to respect me too because only one of us

Speaker 2 ever made event at WrestleMania and it wasn't you.

Speaker 2 And that's when Gunther's had all he could have done. Now, that's just, again, a bridge too far.

Speaker 2 And boom, Gunther jumps in, but Jay turns it around, hits him with a super kick. Gunther rolls out.

Speaker 2 Jay grabs the belt, lays it down, dares Gunther to get it. Gunther is like he wants to get up there, and then he reaches in and grabs it and takes off real quick.

Speaker 2 Again,

Speaker 2 Jay didn't have to talk, which is very much, which is always a plus. Gunther's a great heel.
The people are into this issue like everything else.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 they did enough to tease

Speaker 2 the people to watch the match on Saturday.

Speaker 2 So, you know,

Speaker 2 it's not rocket surgery or brain science, but they keep doing it better than they have in a long time. And

Speaker 2 I would say better than the other guys are, but the other guys aren't doing it at all. Your thoughts, young Brian?

Speaker 1 Jey Uso excels in

Speaker 1 scenes. That's really what it is.
He excels in the scenes he has. Not really looking forward to the match necessarily.

Speaker 2 I think Gunther can corral him if anybody can.

Speaker 1 While the Yeet stuff is just, it's non-stop.

Speaker 1 If you listen to what he's saying and how intense he gets, Jey Uso is still great in these segments. And we'll see how Saturday, Saturday night's main event is an interesting lineup this time.

Speaker 2 Ah, you sound like Mr. Burns there, rubbing your hands together.
Saturday night's main event is an interesting lineup this time.

Speaker 2 Why don't we, let's talk about that? Well, we'll talk about something else in a minute.

Speaker 2 But anyway, then we moved along and raw New Day was in the back harassing JBL.

Speaker 2 And New Day are heels now, and more on that here shortly, because we had to see Bailey and the refrigerator argue again and be introduced to some professional bull riders

Speaker 2 at Ringside. Brian, we were on top of that son of a bitch.

Speaker 2 How did we know?

Speaker 1 We didn't want to come out and just overtly say it, but there was a reason why all of a sudden we were covering bull riding here on the show.

Speaker 1 WWE, WWE, you got a problem. We know everything you're doing.
We've got a mole all the way at the top, and you'll never figure out who he is.

Speaker 2 Not only is he a mole, but he's a bull mole.

Speaker 1 That's right, the worst kind of mole. Can't stop him.

Speaker 2 You know, I swear to God, if I'm lying, I'm flying and my feet ain't left the ground.

Speaker 2 Now that some of the snow and ice have melted in the backyard right outside the back door that gets all the sun, even though it's still been cold, we've got a bare area and a goddamn mole

Speaker 2 got stuck under the ice and could not get through it and has gone everywhere in a panic all around our sitting area right up next to the back door around the little fire pit thing

Speaker 2 it's just every fucking where

Speaker 2 he couldn't get out

Speaker 1 when i was a kid there was a cheap Sesame Street rip-off show on Nickelodeon called Pinwheel.

Speaker 1 Like instead of Burton Ernie, they had plus and minus. Like it was just the cheapest rip-off wannabe Sesame Street, but it was endearing in some bizarre way because I don't have to watch it anymore.

Speaker 1 And they had a character, Molly the Mole. And at the same time, kind of had this, you know, unfortunate-looking,

Speaker 1 you know, not that she was like deformed, but she was just a non-attractive woman across the street.

Speaker 2 She had an unfortunate face.

Speaker 1 My father started calling her Molly the Mole.

Speaker 1 The mole?

Speaker 2 Well,

Speaker 2 anyway,

Speaker 2 where were we going with that?

Speaker 1 With Molly the mole.

Speaker 2 Molly the mole. Well, the mole couldn't get out, and Molly couldn't get back in.
But now we're back to the match. So, Rey Mysterio,

Speaker 2 he's on everything now, suddenly. He's on.

Speaker 2 Is he part of the transfer portal? Or are they just excited to have Ray on the show? But he

Speaker 2 had a single match with Kofi Kingston with JBL on color.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 I never thought I would say this. I like the new day.

Speaker 2 This is this. It's a new day for the new day.

Speaker 2 They came out and they said, cut that music and turn those lights off. We didn't have to see the bootyos and the pancakes.
They're dressed in street clothes.

Speaker 2 The whole arena is booing the shit out of them and chanting new day sucks.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 Woods gave Kofi the big introduction and the fans were into it. And Kofi,

Speaker 2 he's wrestling in jeans and tennis shoes, and they're full heels.

Speaker 2 And we can,

Speaker 2 no trombones.

Speaker 2 So,

Speaker 2 again, a typical Rey Mysterio match in that he shines a bit at the beginning, and then

Speaker 2 he likes to have the heel cut him off where he can fight from underneath and get sympathy.

Speaker 2 On this one, did you see Kofi go for the power bomb and they were going to do a Rana spot and he lost him on the floor?

Speaker 1 You know, I ended up not watching this match.

Speaker 2 Oh,

Speaker 2 and this was one of the highlights. Not this move, but this match.
But

Speaker 2 he went to powerbomb or pick up Ray for a powerbomb. They're on the floor and they're going to do the spot where Ray does the Rana out of it, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 2 But when Kofi went to pull him up, he lost his grip and lost him. And Ray did kind of like a front somersault, landed back first on the goddamn floor.

Speaker 2 And it wasn't a big enough bump that, you know, it would kill you, although I'm glad it wasn't head first.

Speaker 2 But nobody panicked. They didn't immediately go right back to the same thing.
Kofi stalled and did a couple of basic things.

Speaker 2 And then they got in a different place and kind of went back to it. And Ray hurricane-rounded him into the stairs.
And that was their break spot, but nobody got hurt and nobody panicked. And then

Speaker 2 they came back from the break, had a good match.

Speaker 2 And Ray went for the 619 and Woods tripped him. And the referee kicked Woods out of ringside.
And then Ray did the 619

Speaker 2 and went for the splash. But Kofi brought his knees up and got a two count.

Speaker 2 And Kofi went for something, but Ray got a quick roll-up 1-2-3.

Speaker 2 And then Woods came back out and they got some heat on Ray until here came the

Speaker 2 Lucha faces, whoever the fuck they are, Joaquin. And Joaquin was walking, and Randy was running.

Speaker 2 But then

Speaker 2 the New Day

Speaker 2 bailed out and then came back and jumped one face real quick and then ran out. So I'm liking the new day as heels.

Speaker 2 It's different. And boy, howdy, was it time for it, right? I mean, and you didn't watch them.
You're prejudiced, Brian, against the new day.

Speaker 2 because they used to like pancakes and you're a dirty pancakeite.

Speaker 1 Well, I don't know about that, but no, I saw the promo they did in the back with JBL, and I was like, man, this sucks. They're still talking in such a fake way.
And

Speaker 1 I don't know. I didn't like that.
So I said, I'm not watching this match.

Speaker 2 Well, baby steps, baby steps. They got old habits die hard.
And

Speaker 2 most nuns can't afford their first habit.

Speaker 2 Alrighty then. Moving on.
Sammy Zayn.

Speaker 2 happy to find out he's officially in the Royal Rumble.

Speaker 2 Did the big in-ring promo.

Speaker 2 And then, and by the way, now we're into the part where I was watching live as it happened. Actually, it wasn't live.

Speaker 2 I'd started late. So it was live.
It just, it was about 8.40 or so in the night. And now I'm in the bedroom.
And I'm laying there with my pad, Brian.

Speaker 2 You can envision me laying in bed with my notepad and my pen,

Speaker 2 intently watching this program in a supine position.

Speaker 2 I'm going to start getting sleepy because it's almost 9 o'clock.

Speaker 2 So some of my

Speaker 2 recollections may be hazy. And as I'm looking at some of these notes,

Speaker 2 it kind of looks like when Jerry Seinfeld wrote down a joke that he woke up in the middle of the night

Speaker 2 and wrote it down so he wouldn't forget it. And now he can't read it but we'll we'll soldier on okay

Speaker 2 well you didn't watch the segment no i watched them i'm just saying sometimes my notes are a little

Speaker 2 you know i was nodding sometimes and my notes are a little incoherent so all right you know

Speaker 2 there was sometimes i would what happened that type of thing but anyway so sammy's in the ring

Speaker 2 and he declares for the royal rumble and he does a great babyface promo about a winning the World Heavyweight Championship and blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 2 And again, he can talk.

Speaker 2 And he's over as that

Speaker 2 nice guy, the Mick Foley that tries to get everybody together and, you know, sees the best in everybody and always tries to be the voice of reason.

Speaker 2 And they love him.

Speaker 2 And then Owens music plays. And the place comes up because now here comes this dickhead, but most of them know because they've had such a checkered history that they're friends and a blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 2 It's not like they've tried to hide the fact that they've been longtime lifelong friends.

Speaker 2 So Owen says, I'm not going to get mad at you, Sammy, because it's not the same as when Cody teamed up with Roman Reigns

Speaker 2 because

Speaker 2 you've forgiven me. You forgive other.
You forgive everybody. You're a good person.

Speaker 2 And I believe that, Sammy, that you're going to win the Royal Rumble. And he gets all fired up because then he says, and remember what he did on SmackDown.
You know, it's the same fucking thing.

Speaker 2 Win the Royal Rumble and choose me.

Speaker 2 Well, we could accomplish all we ever dreamed of to main event WrestleMania for the WWE title. You win the Rumble.

Speaker 2 And then you pick me. And I walk out there with the WWE heavyweight title.

Speaker 2 Blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 2 You know, all you got to do, you win the Rumble, and

Speaker 2 I've got your back, and I know that when I go for the WWE title,

Speaker 2 that I know you'll have my back. If I need you, I know you'll be there.
And Sammy's looking at him like, ah. So basically, Kevin says, oh, yes, we can main event WrestleMania for the title.

Speaker 2 All you got to do is win the Rumble and then help me win the belt Saturday night at the main event.

Speaker 2 And then he walks out and leaves Sammy standing there without having answered him because Sammy's like, I'm gonna human and human.

Speaker 2 But again, this is

Speaker 2 now

Speaker 2 he's putting his friends in awkward positions and everybody wants to win the Rumble. And

Speaker 2 Owens has an issue with Cody, but now because Sammy's probably not going to help him, that means that he's going to have an issue with Sammy, but later on, Sammy's going to have an issue with Seth.

Speaker 2 This is great shit. This is some Leo Garibaldi level shit here, isn't it?

Speaker 1 Oh, maybe beyond that.

Speaker 1 It's interesting because if they're going to settle everything with Cody and Owens for the belts, the belt that wasn't there until all of a sudden he stole it,

Speaker 1 I always said the one thing I expect these two to get is their match at WrestleMania at some point. Is this the year that we get Owens versus Sammy at WrestleMania?

Speaker 2 Well, they ain't getting any younger.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you have to wonder. I mean, they're teasing something here.
And unless Owens is going to win the title from Cody, and I do not see that happening.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I don't know. They're teasing something.

Speaker 2 Could maybe somehow something is. I'm sure that Owens is going to get offended at Sammy.
And that maybe costs Sammy

Speaker 2 the Royal Rumble.

Speaker 1 Sammy's not going to help him beat Cody. He said, I'll.
Exactly. You know, you watch my back because I'm going to watch yours.

Speaker 2 So that means

Speaker 2 if Owens is not watching Sammy's back correctly in the Rumble, maybe Owens gets even with Sammy in the Rumble. And then, well, there you go.
And now we got to go to WrestleMania.

Speaker 2 But then we actually had some more wrestling. The refrigerator against Bayley

Speaker 2 for fucking ever. It was like Bailey was trying to work with a small two-bedroom condo.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 I congratulate Bailey for going this long and getting this much out of her and not getting hurt, but this awkward parade float. I just, that long, I can't.

Speaker 2 I zoned out. I nodded off.
Refridge, one with the bonsai one, two, three.

Speaker 2 And then it picked up because Rhea Ripley came out, was all over the refrigerator, and they had a big pull apart with agents and security. Boy.

Speaker 2 At least when I was an agent, I never had to run out and break anything up. People have thought, well, fuck, what the fuck's Cornette doing out there? He's going to fuck somebody.

Speaker 2 And they went all over Ringside and the people are chanting, mommy, mommy. What do you mean, what do you mean? What's about? I'm a heel.

Speaker 2 I'm a heel.

Speaker 2 That's why they would think that, not in a

Speaker 2 biblical sense.

Speaker 1 So they say what Pat Patterson was running out there. Oh, he was trying to fuck somebody.

Speaker 2 Yeah, that was in a more biblical sense.

Speaker 2 But, you know,

Speaker 2 when you get fucked in a biblical sense, that's when you know you've been fucked. But finally, Rhea challenged the refrigerator for Saturday night's main event.
So

Speaker 2 five days, four days ahead of time. Well, let's add another one.

Speaker 2 But are we moving on, Brian, from this

Speaker 2 segment?

Speaker 1 Yes, we are. Yes.

Speaker 2 We had Judgment Day doing their dialogue, and then we had a package on Lyric Valedictorian. And then

Speaker 2 we got Pete Dunn, aka Butch against Pinta.

Speaker 2 And again, now that they're going all the way with this, with the lighting and the pyro,

Speaker 2 and the people like Penta,

Speaker 2 and they gave him all kinds of entrance and pomp and circumstance, and the announcers are pushing him. They're doing it right.
Small opponents, Pete Dunn is,

Speaker 2 you know, street urchin-sized.

Speaker 2 And the opponents are athletic, so they can do the stuff, and he's not going to look bad in that respect.

Speaker 2 And I like this match better

Speaker 2 than I liked the debut match because he didn't start off with the nerves and flummoxing some things.

Speaker 2 They still, they started out at 100 miles an hour, like we got to get everything in.

Speaker 2 And it settled down a little bit when Butch started getting his heat.

Speaker 2 But again, I think, you know, he's settled down a little bit. He's a little anxious to wow everybody.
But this was much better.

Speaker 2 Then

Speaker 2 Butch got the heat and then Penta suddenly made a comeback and it's got it's 18 things from 18 directions and I don't know how

Speaker 2 Dunn was supposed to sell some of them, but he hit the, he being Penta,

Speaker 2 hit the Canadian destroyer or the Mexican destroyer at a big dive.

Speaker 2 But then Dunn foiled the destroyer and got a two count. And then they went more back and forth.
And finally, Penta hit his finish one, two, three.

Speaker 2 And as I said, I think it was smoother. I think Gable did a better job because Gable's better than done.

Speaker 2 But Pinta was smoother here. And again, as you've brought up, the people are predisposed to like him.
Again, Dallas is a major metropolitan area.

Speaker 2 There's more liable to be people that know

Speaker 2 who he is and of his previous reputation. But these

Speaker 2 they're pushing him on TV to the point where people should get the picture anywhere fairly soon.

Speaker 2 But I still think,

Speaker 2 to be honest, I'll say this and then I'll unleash you. It would have been better with his brother as a tag team.

Speaker 2 They would kind of look like a super team in this

Speaker 2 environment. They'd be like Jade and Bianca.
They'd be on top.

Speaker 2 He'll be an attraction here as a single, but you can't tell me I don't think he's not going to be on the main event level of the punks, the Rollins, the Drews, etc.

Speaker 2 Not only size-wise, but

Speaker 2 you know, language barrier and experience at this style, it's going to take him a while.

Speaker 2 He wasn't, he's not a natural American worker like Eddie Guerrero was trained to be by his older brothers who had already been established here, or

Speaker 2 truthfully, the phenomenon of Rey Mysterio, where he could just do any goddamn thing in the world flawlessly. I think it would have been better as a team, but they're still doing the right thing.

Speaker 2 You tell me what you think.

Speaker 1 I think he's doing great so far, and I think he's been super over so far, two different markets. And, you know, sure, there are some fans that know him.

Speaker 1 I mean, that's how they know Cerro Miedo right away. But

Speaker 1 this is two times in a row he got the ooh reaction. He got it the first time he did the Canadian or Mexican Destroyer with Chad Gable.

Speaker 1 You heard ooze.

Speaker 1 He got that again here. And then when he did something relatively simple for Penta, the handstand in the corner, or the headstand, I guess I should say.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Same thing. Ooh, you never really hear that.

Speaker 1 So yeah, they're doing it right with him.

Speaker 1 So far, the fans are really into him. He's had the right opponents.
And luckily, WWE does have.

Speaker 1 A good amount of guys that size. As far as Ray Phoenix goes,

Speaker 1 you know, that's what they wanted. Yeah.
And Tony started.

Speaker 1 Again, there's two different ways to look at it. Tony started fucking around with the contract.
Tony said, I'm not doing you any favors. I've paid you for a lot of time you're at.

Speaker 1 I'm extending your contract.

Speaker 1 Apparently, Tony also just pulled down his merch, so he won't be getting any merch royalties while he's sitting at home on the couch.

Speaker 1 I guess now the question is, how do they introduce Ray Phoenix one day? Because that day will come eventually.

Speaker 1 But right now, they're doing everything right with Penta, and he's getting a great reaction. And he looks, look, he has a cooler look than the average Luchador.
He just does. And

Speaker 1 if they don't fuck it up, he'll have a nice run, you know? Maybe Intercontinental Champion at some point. Who knows?

Speaker 1 I don't see him main eventing, like you said, punk Rollins. No.
I mean, that's ridiculous. He's never going to be there.
Could they, if they were a tag team,

Speaker 1 would they be on top of the tag team division? Probably.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I think so.

Speaker 1 Would people pay as much attention to them against the tag team division as they will him as a single right now?

Speaker 2 Well, but

Speaker 2 the important thing is he shouldn't be losing for some time, and

Speaker 2 it's easier to go up the tag team ranks without racks, without losing than it is the singles here with the amount of talent they've got at the top.

Speaker 2 Well, we will find out.

Speaker 1 It's interesting to think about that, though. The Lucha Brothers and the Moto City machine guns.

Speaker 1 Lucha Brothers and even Lucha Brothers and DIY, that would tear the house down for them.

Speaker 2 Yeah, and maybe they could put a mask on Gargano, too, so we wouldn't have to look at that face.

Speaker 1 That could be the gimmick. He becomes like the opposite of Penta.

Speaker 2 Well, how about this? Just loser of the match has to put a mask on.

Speaker 1 Mask off versus mask on. You can make it a gimmick where it's

Speaker 1 each seed, each team puts something on the line.

Speaker 2 a strip poker match? Now it sounds like fucking shit stain is booking this thing. All right.

Speaker 2 They had a package on Logan Paul. He's coming back to Netflix because

Speaker 2 that is the

Speaker 2 streaming TV is where all the cool hep kids are. And I guess they want Logan Paul, the social media celebrity, on Raw now.

Speaker 2 But they did a nice package on him. Nice package, Logan.

Speaker 2 But then

Speaker 2 another

Speaker 2 example

Speaker 2 of doing different-looking interviews and getting out in the crowd in the middle of the people, all of a sudden,

Speaker 2 like Mussolini

Speaker 2 walking through the breezeway.

Speaker 2 Then Punk come in

Speaker 2 through the...

Speaker 2 I mean, you know, Moxley's probably thinking, goddammit, gimmick infringement. I was the one who walked through the arena.

Speaker 2 The problem is that Moxley should be walking through the front door of the arena and being checked for a ticket.

Speaker 2 The camera shot follows Punk as he does the walk through the boom into the arena, and in the

Speaker 2 not in the stands themselves, but up in a platform area in the stands with old Jackie Redmond, who is the only one

Speaker 2 of these female interviewers that sounds like a real

Speaker 2 news personality, a real courtside interviewer,

Speaker 2 that she is speaking extemporaneously off the top of her head than somebody reading a recited

Speaker 2 prepared question.

Speaker 2 I don't know why that she has that quality in her voice, but it's just it's night and day different than anybody else.

Speaker 2 And that works with Punk because Punk sounds more real than most of the guys himself.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 he does a great promo, not only on the Royal Rumble,

Speaker 2 but his feelings on the guys in it.

Speaker 2 And he mentioned,

Speaker 2 and again, my notes that I did in the dark, in the bed, he mentioned Seth, and he mentioned fucking Roman, and he mentioned a lot of the top names you would think. But then how

Speaker 2 Cena.

Speaker 2 And all of these people were getting the reactions.

Speaker 2 And you, again, you want that you want this is another mega single star and he's dropping names of all these heavy hitters and goddamn who will win this rumble you can make a case for a lot of these guys

Speaker 2 but i forgot how did he bring up

Speaker 2 our friend from from florida the one the only terry the hulk boulder how did he tie him in i'm trying to think he was saying how no matter who it is he'll throw them over the top and win win the Rumble.

Speaker 1 Even if, I think the line was something like, even if Hulk Hogan wants to come in there, I'll throw his dusty old ass out.

Speaker 2 Yeah, his dusty ass over there.

Speaker 2 And the people booed Hogan there.

Speaker 2 The mention of the name.

Speaker 2 They were popping on the other names, and then he gets to Hulk Hogan. Now,

Speaker 2 okay,

Speaker 2 some people said.

Speaker 2 Well, in Los Angeles at the Raw debut,

Speaker 2 you know, it's a big city. Los Angeles, It's a democratic state.
Hogan was a Trump supporter. Maybe that's why they, well,

Speaker 2 Texas is as shit kicky as it gets. That's the farthest place from being a liberal bastion of democracy.

Speaker 2 Redneck, white socks, and blue ribbon beer in Texas, and they booed Hogan there.

Speaker 2 Has maybe people started to come to realize it's

Speaker 2 not me, Hulk. It's you.

Speaker 2 They just want to boo Hulk Hogan. They are fed up with him.
And that's the point I was trying to make

Speaker 2 when we talked about the

Speaker 2 booing debacle, you know, when he and Jimmy Hart, poor Jimmy, got

Speaker 2 scooted out of the building.

Speaker 2 He's appeared recently

Speaker 2 in years after the videotape came out. That's been baked into the cake, as they say, for a while.
The sudden, not only resurgence of venomous response, but the over-the-top venomousnesses

Speaker 2 when he's been around a few years ago, and now it's even worse, is just because of his general

Speaker 2 bullshittery, right? The lying and the bullshit stories and the ridiculous

Speaker 2 rely that the trumpiness has to be part of it because that's been he's been out in public with that, but just the ridiculous behavior overall as a person

Speaker 2 in these public situations and when he's full of shit right

Speaker 1 that has to be the difference see the political stuff certainly turned off a lot of people or at least caused a lot of people just to go oh that's it but it's not like this wasn't already happening before then he's had a lot of issues where You don't know how the crowd's going to react depending on what city you're in.

Speaker 1 This is now,

Speaker 1 where was it? Was it San Jose last time? No.

Speaker 2 No, it was Los Angeles.

Speaker 1 Los Angeles. That's right.
It was Los Angeles, which is a city he was a big star in. They booed him.
Okay.

Speaker 1 You said liberal Bastion.

Speaker 1 Dallas,

Speaker 1 you know, as you put it, as shit kicky as it gets.

Speaker 1 They booed him. They're going to be in Texas still for Saturday night's main event.

Speaker 2 In San Antonio, which is southern and shit kickier than Dallas.

Speaker 1 Is Jesse Ventura going to be be there?

Speaker 2 Well, one would think that it's Saturday night's main event. Jesse would be showing up also.
That could be awkward.

Speaker 1 Oh.

Speaker 1 See, that's the kind of thing Jesse would do in the classic days. He would point out how bad Hogan was.
So the fan start buoying Jesse Loba Field. Like, I told you, I told you.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I don't know what they're going to do, but the reaction there. And the other thing I think that's important to say is Punk must have known

Speaker 1 that they were going to react like that. So it's him making a statement as well.
A statement of fuck Hulk Hogan. Yeah.
That's a statement.

Speaker 2 Punk said in his clearest farcy, fuck the Hulk Hogan.

Speaker 1 All right. Good promo, though, but the look of it, the different energy you get from the crowd when you shoot amongst them.
Yeah. And no one's acting like a fool.

Speaker 1 And you get the wide shot, you just see people everywhere. Jackie Redmond's as excited as they get.
I don't know. She's really excited.

Speaker 2 You could see her chest swelling up with pride.

Speaker 1 That's Jim Cornette, ladies and gentlemen, Louisville, Kentucky. A good segment, good promo.
You had nothing for Punk to do on the show except do this promo. It was good.

Speaker 2 Well, but that's the thing is, you know, again, it promotes the rumble. It gets another star on television.
They get the benefit of punk for a quarter hour.

Speaker 2 And he's selling stuff and the people are happy to be sold to. That's the thing.
It's not like these people are groaning when they, oh, another interview. Oh, they're like, yes.

Speaker 2 Oh, God damn, we love him. Let us chant while he speaks.

Speaker 2 They're not forcing any of this stuff down people's throats. They want it.

Speaker 1 What do you think is going to happen in San Antonio? Do you think he gets booed?

Speaker 2 Oh, Hogan? Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 2 I think he will. I think now it's become a thing.

Speaker 2 And now, again, if

Speaker 2 they, the one thing, whether it's Yeet or whoa

Speaker 2 or whoa or

Speaker 2 the other singing or the chanting or the it's

Speaker 2 crowd audience participation, they're involved. And,

Speaker 2 you know, much like

Speaker 2 they wanted to hoot at Tessa Blanchard on the TNA show.

Speaker 2 Now this is going to be a thing where, oh, they booed him in Los Angeles and they booed him in

Speaker 2 Dallas. and now we're going to boo him in San Antonio also because they don't like him.
But now it's becoming a thing, so it'll feed on itself.

Speaker 1 They should have him manage Tessa. Two birds, one star.

Speaker 1 Let him take all the heat.

Speaker 2 No, you can't do that to Tessa. I don't care what she's guilty of.

Speaker 1 Tessa comes out there with Jimmy Hart and Hulk.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 they can't switch Hulk heel because he's supposed to be a goodwill. he's a goodwill ambassador with no goodwill.

Speaker 1 And they can't turn him heel because people think he hates black people. That's not like a good reason.
All right, let's just turn you heel and run with that. No, that's not how that works.

Speaker 2 And they can't, they can, can they blame his beer? We found out, little Hulkamaniacs, there was something in this beer that caused me to be a.

Speaker 2 So I'm a real American. I'm drunk on my ass and at the bottom of a can.

Speaker 1 I think if they want him to get cheered, they better stay in like Clearwater Beach or maybe Tampa.

Speaker 2 I don't know if that'll do it.

Speaker 2 It's just because now you're dealing with a narrow audience also, just of the people that are wanting to go to a live wrestling event. Maybe he might still get cheered over at a...

Speaker 2 a neutral event like a bull riding thing or a fucking rodeo or whatever.

Speaker 1 And here's the other problem. What are they going to do with him? We saw

Speaker 1 the last time we saw him, he can't walk. He couldn't even get to the ring.
They just had him come out by the entranceway. And, you know, he's an older guy now

Speaker 1 with lots of, you know, you never think of him as a bump guy, but when you really think of him taking that, taking, doing that leg drop, yeah, for a big guy that was loaded to the tits on steroids, that'll do it.

Speaker 2 And now they're singing, he is a real American

Speaker 2 riding around Walmart in a hoverand.

Speaker 2 He is a real.

Speaker 2 All right. Then we had a match that I didn't watch with Shana and Joey or Shana and Zoe.

Speaker 2 Joey. With their manager, Joey.
Shana and Zoe

Speaker 2 with their manager, Sonya,

Speaker 2 against EO and Dakota. And that was at the point where I went to get something else to eat, I think, or potentially Harley needed a belly rub.

Speaker 2 But then

Speaker 2 we got the WrestleMania rematch.

Speaker 2 Because remember,

Speaker 2 thankfully on Netflix, the show's only two and a half hours long now.

Speaker 2 They think that's the sweet spot. My sweet spot would be, I think, 37 minutes, top to bottom.
But at least it's better than three hours.

Speaker 2 They got more time to develop things than two hours, but they don't have to stretch things out for three hours. Go ahead.

Speaker 1 Are you saying 37 minutes for any wrestling show or just for their wrestling show?

Speaker 2 I'm maybe 24 minutes for the other wrestling shows and 37 minutes for theirs because they need longer to enter the ring because they're in bigger buildings.

Speaker 1 No, because you're a great person to ask because you got to see both.

Speaker 1 Like the 90-minute Memphis show, did you feel like 90 minutes was a better time for wrestling than 60 minutes?

Speaker 2 Yeah, actually, in that instance, it was. And the same thing with Houston.

Speaker 2 And here,

Speaker 2 being serious for a second, in the middle of this falder-all,

Speaker 2 the average wrestling show was always an hour because the television stations, especially for local programming,

Speaker 2 back in those days, they wanted to program in hour blocks. And of course, there'd be half-hour programs that were originally networked that were placed in a syndication, and they'd strip those

Speaker 2 like between five and six in the afternoon before the local news at six o'clock or seven to eight, network adjacency, whatever, that's where the half-hour programs would get in. And yes, you had

Speaker 2 regionally syndicated 30-minute phishing shows or whatever.

Speaker 2 But most of the time, if you're programming a sports show on the weekend, a wrestling show, from the dawn of syndication of television in the 50s until the end of the 80s, when everything started going to shit, you needed an hour program.

Speaker 2 They weren't going to take...

Speaker 2 a half hour and they weren't going to take an hour and a half.

Speaker 2 But when you had specific markets, whether it be Atlanta had two hours on TBS, that was a whole different animal, or Houston was 90 minutes, or Channel 5 in Memphis was 90 minutes, the television station wanted that because the program was so popular and did such big numbers.

Speaker 2 And that's why

Speaker 2 in Houston, they were fine because Channel 39, they shot in the Coliseum.

Speaker 2 Later years, they used

Speaker 2 an hour of the Mid-South wrestling program and then shot 30 minutes of content in the Coliseum, but they did their own thing.

Speaker 2 But in Memphis,

Speaker 2 the 90-minute program in Memphis is also the program that aired in a shortened version in the other markets, Louisville, and Nashville and Evansville, Indiana, Lexington, Kentucky, etc. So

Speaker 2 the reason why it worked in Memphis was because you not only had the basic part of the program that, you know, everybody could see the matches and the live studio interviews setting up the big angles, but then you got local tape from Memphis, the Coliseum last Monday night that the other markets wouldn't see and promos just for that.

Speaker 2 And that was different. It was

Speaker 2 the people that watched Memphis Wrestling on television got to see

Speaker 2 three or four minutes probably of the top three or four matches from the previous Monday at the Coliseum. So that was better than watching some dry studio match.

Speaker 2 So they had programming that was part of the promotion for this coming week that could still keep you occupied for an hour and a half, and they didn't need any extra wrestlers or whatever.

Speaker 2 But then that stuff would be edited down and the main tape that went everywhere else would just have the main body of the message. So it it was tailored to fit a variety of purposes.

Speaker 1 What would have made your life easier? Like at Smoky Mountain or OVW, wherever. But Smokey Mountain, if you had had the option to fill up 90 minutes, would that have made your life easier?

Speaker 2 No, it would have made my life harder.

Speaker 2 Because

Speaker 2 then we were, this was another era still yet, we were doing three and sometimes four television shows per night at our TV tapings.

Speaker 2 Because we didn't have the luxury of doing a TV studio show live every Saturday morning.

Speaker 2 So if we'd needed to fill up 90 minutes, that taping would have lasted from seven o'clock until quarter to one in the morning.

Speaker 2 So it would have, it would have made it harder.

Speaker 2 Would it have been better promotion? The fan, every fan that watched our one-hour program would have watched our 90-minute program if we'd have had one.

Speaker 2 That wouldn't have been a fucking problem at all.

Speaker 2 And we could have put more videotape

Speaker 2 potentially from the arenas to promote shit, you know, instead of having to shoot so much at the live tapings, maybe.

Speaker 2 But we couldn't have got any of the TV stations to run it because that would have then not only taken up one of their one-hour blocks, but it would have fucked up another one of their hours where they had to find a 30-minute program to go behind blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 2 And we were having a hard enough time getting an hour

Speaker 2 without having to try to get an hour and a half and think about this.

Speaker 2 What 90-minute network programs can you ever think of?

Speaker 2 The Virginian went to 90 hours in the 90 hours.

Speaker 2 They went to 90 minutes, the Virginian, in the 60s because it was such a

Speaker 2 not only a popular program, but it was one of the network's prestige programs. And it was like a 90-minute television movie every week.
And

Speaker 2 they did that with a very few drama programs, and they usually didn't last long. And otherwise, and they realized that it was impossible to syndicate those.

Speaker 2 So that's why you never saw an hour and a half program on the networks unless it was the movie of the week, and then that was specifically timed

Speaker 2 to go into a

Speaker 2 time slot, whether it be 90 minutes, in which case the movie would be 72 or 74 minutes, or a two-hour slot where they'd make a movie that was 108 minutes.

Speaker 2 And that's why the made-for-TV movies never needed to really be edited.

Speaker 2 I digressed, didn't I?

Speaker 1 Yeah, Johnny Carson went from 90 to 60.

Speaker 2 Well, you know, he originally went from 105 to 90.

Speaker 2 In the first, when Johnny Carson first took over the tonight show,

Speaker 2 a lot of the local markets, the 11 o'clock news was only a 15-minute program, a 15-minute newscast. And the tonight show would start the network feed at 11.15 p.m.

Speaker 2 Eastern and go to 1 o'clock in the morning. But when Carson got some clout

Speaker 2 after he'd been doing it for about a year, year and a half,

Speaker 2 as the local news started expanding in major markets like New York, LA, Chicago,

Speaker 2 he said, he went to the network, he said, half of the country, including all the big cities, is not seeing my monologue. They're not seeing the first 15 minutes of the show.

Speaker 2 And so he refused to come out.

Speaker 2 There's an old example of this on YouTube. Ed McMahon would introduce the tonight show.

Speaker 2 And then they would do a bit with the band. And the band leader was Skitch Henderson then.

Speaker 2 And they would kill 15 minutes. And then they would introduce Johnny Carson at 1130 and he'd come out and do his monologue.

Speaker 2 And finally they just said, fuck it, we're just going to make the whole thing an hour and a half. And that forced the local stations to expand their news.

Speaker 2 Aha, see there.

Speaker 1 Very good.

Speaker 2 Anyway,

Speaker 2 and how it pertains to the main event of this wrestling show is that the goddamn show is only two and a half hours long, so we were already at the main event, which was the big rematch from WrestleMania between, I started to say Seth McFarlane, Drew McIntyre, and Seth Rollins, Seth Franklin Rollins, our friend and confidant.

Speaker 2 And I don't know what all they showed before this, but when they started the package, I started trying to fast-forward.

Speaker 2 And I went 10 minutes until I got to the fucking bell at least. So they had long entrances and et cetera.

Speaker 2 But did you watch this match, Brian?

Speaker 1 I did.

Speaker 2 Two guys that look like stars and look like professional athletes.

Speaker 2 It had a big time feel

Speaker 2 because they're pushed guys and the people were a big building. It's a big crowd.
They both can work.

Speaker 2 And that's the whole thing is that this was a basic match and nobody was going to get fucking hurt, nor should they.

Speaker 2 And the people were liking it. And it's in a big building with a big feel with two guys that look like stars.

Speaker 2 And that's the problem right now: people look at this and then they look at AEW, and it's not just,

Speaker 2 in some cases, the real dedicated wrestling fans, especially, they don't worry about the production value. They want to see the wrestling.
But AEW looks like a flea market next to this. Talent, too.

Speaker 2 That's the biggest problem with AEW's perception

Speaker 2 is not necessarily that

Speaker 2 they're not able to match the television production, because a lot of people understand that.

Speaker 2 It's that their

Speaker 2 talent looks like goddamn idiots compared to these guys.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 that's a problem

Speaker 2 because except for their basic audience, the average person that they may ever try to get to watch the Max or the Kawak or the Flix or whatever. Doesn't matter who it is,

Speaker 2 they don't want to see some local indie-looking jackoffs that aren't as impressive as their brother-in-law.

Speaker 2 And therein lies one of the big problems. But anyway, you know what the family is?

Speaker 1 The other big problem is?

Speaker 2 Go ahead. Go ahead.

Speaker 1 You want to know what the other big problem is? I think it's very similar to the WWE under Vince McMahon.

Speaker 1 AEW started disappointing their fans more and more.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 And now there's a feeling that they're going to disappoint you. You're not going to get what you want.
It's going to be a letdown.

Speaker 1 And that's what you need to turn around. It was easy for WWE.
It was as simple as, hey, everyone, Triple H is in charge. And everyone kind of took a breath.
But AEW doesn't have that. And

Speaker 1 when you burn out your fans, it's hard to bring them back sometimes.

Speaker 2 Well, and, you know, that's, it's not like that people,

Speaker 2 including us, but other people, we weren't the only brilliant prognosticators.

Speaker 2 hadn't been saying from the start, you can't just,

Speaker 2 people won't just love you for no reason forever.

Speaker 2 Yes, at the start, it's a crowdfunding thing. They want so badly for this to succeed.

Speaker 2 They want there to be an alternative. They hate Vince, the evil empire.
He takes advantage of their favorite wrestlers.

Speaker 2 Now they've found out that their favorite wrestlers, when they get a big-time job on national TV and are working for a billionaire, They're just a bunch of fucking assholes, too.

Speaker 2 You know, they've got all the the goddamn issues with each other that everybody else had, but it's not all, hey, kumbaya, kids, let's put on a show in the barn.

Speaker 2 It's no, fuck this fucking guy. He's not my friend.

Speaker 1 And again, you have to leave the fans

Speaker 1 somewhat happy. WWE does that.
Those fans are like having the time of their fucking life, and we know how much they're paying for that.

Speaker 2 They're paying for that.

Speaker 1 A fortune with AEW,

Speaker 1 you know, their fans look like they're walking out with their

Speaker 1 shoulders slumped.

Speaker 1 You're not giving them like anything they want, like in terms of angles, in terms of who's pushed, in terms of the matches, in terms of the results, the booking.

Speaker 2 The WWE fans look like they're at a rave, and the AEW fans look like they're at a funeral.

Speaker 2 Jeez. It's just like they're resigned to their fate.
Yeah, this fucking thing's going to happen again, too, isn't it? Hey, somebody almost got killed.

Speaker 2 More of this.

Speaker 2 But anyway, so they had a nice match, did Seth and Drew.

Speaker 2 They did the superplex into the falcon arrow spot,

Speaker 2 which is always stupid, no matter who does it.

Speaker 2 And lots of back and forth, some two counts. And finally, Seth got him with a surprise jackknife.
Didn't solve anything because it's a TV match and why should they?

Speaker 2 Drew got some heat on him afterwards.

Speaker 2 And then Sammy came out, trying to save the day, gets on Drew.

Speaker 2 Drew gets back on Sammy, sidelines him, turns back to Seth, and he's pickling him. Sammy runs.
He's going to give Drew the big kick. Drew moved and Sammy kicks Seth right in the mush.

Speaker 2 And boom. And then Drew backs.
And now we're all

Speaker 2 because now Seth is going to be mad at Sammy. And there's another fucking natural thing we've got set up for the Royal Rumble.
How is he going to react to this?

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 they really are coming close to

Speaker 2 everybody is still a babyface and a heel.

Speaker 2 But at the same time,

Speaker 2 they're coming close to giving even the babyfaces and/or the heels legitimate reasons to be mad at everybody else. And even the heels think they're babyfaces.

Speaker 2 This is deeper shit and more connected than one has seen in a while.

Speaker 1 This is what they were kind of trying to tell us that AEW was early on, that everything's situational, no heels or baby faces, but it didn't work out that way.

Speaker 1 Here, it's starting to be a little bit more.

Speaker 2 Well, that's because it was a situation comedy, not a situation.

Speaker 1 But here, I mean, there are clear, clearly Drew's a heel. Yeah.
But Seth, it kind of depends on what he's doing and who he's working with.

Speaker 1 Sammy's a clear-cut babyface, but

Speaker 1 Rollins, you don't know. And again, the long-term tease earlier was was Owens and Zane.
So we'll see what happens there.

Speaker 2 But they got a lot of places to go and a long time to get there. They don't need to rush anything.

Speaker 2 This is one of the more amazing business turnarounds I've seen in wrestling in a while, isn't it, you?

Speaker 2 I mean, you know, they've turned around business before, but the product kind of still

Speaker 2 wasn't that great. But now

Speaker 2 it's alive.

Speaker 1 The show feels alive. That's the thing.
Like from the beginning of the show till the end. And now you don't even know when it's going to end.

Speaker 1 It just so happens it was around two and a half hours the last two weeks. It can go three and a half hours.
It's whatever they want.

Speaker 1 It just feels like it's the happening thing. And they're paying a fortune, those fans, to go sit there.
So it's not like it's just a working man going to these shows or anything.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I think they've priced themselves out of the septic tank pumping fan base.

Speaker 1 It's hard times for anyone wanting to buy wrestling tickets at a reasonable rate.

Speaker 2 Well, there you have that. That was the Monday Night Raw.
I'm sure there were some things that I've nodded off on, but we got the main parts out of the way.

Speaker 2 Did we get your parts out of the way?

Speaker 1 My parts are never in the way. They are, I don't know what I'm going to say here.

Speaker 1 But yeah, we are done with everything but the drive-through, action-packed, classic wrestling talk, Dynamite, From the Files, Part 3, Dave Meltzer. Some guests of the program coming soon.

Speaker 1 Maybe this week we will see

Speaker 1 and more.

Speaker 2 Maybe this week we will see.

Speaker 2 We will sell, can't you see?

Speaker 2 What this segment has done to me.

Speaker 2 And we'll be back next week here with more on the Jim Cornette experience, including...

Speaker 2 Saturday night's main event, the report on the big network extravaganza leading up to the Royal Rumble.

Speaker 2 And plus, if anybody else says or does anything particularly stupid, egregious, or embarrassing, we will be there

Speaker 2 to chop it up, as the kids say. And until then,

Speaker 2 for Brian, I'm Jim, and you're whoever the fuck you are.

Speaker 1 Thank you. Fuck you.

Speaker 2 Bye-bye, everybody.