Episode 557: Jim Reviews WWE Crown Jewel 2024

Transcript

Speaker 1 Tired of spills and stains on your sofa?

Speaker 5 WashableSofas.com has your back, featuring the Anibay collection, the only designer sofa that's machine-washable inside and out, where designer quality meets budget-friendly prices.

Speaker 12 That's right, sofas started just $699.

Speaker 19 Enjoy a no-risk experience with pet-friendly, stain-resistant, and changeable slip covers made with performance fabrics.

Speaker 22 Experience cloud-like comfort with high-resilience foam that's hypoallergenic and never needs fluffing.

Speaker 27 The sturdy steel frame ensures longevity and the modular pieces can be rearranged anytime.

Speaker 32 Check out washablesofas.com and get up to 60% off your Anabay sofa, backed by a 30-day satisfaction guarantee.

Speaker 35 If you're not absolutely in love, send it back for a full refund.

Speaker 38 No return shipping or restocking fees.

Speaker 39 Every penny back.

Speaker 40 Upgrade now at washablesofas.com.

Speaker 43 Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.

Speaker 45 There's nothing like sinking into luxury.

Speaker 49 At washable sofas.com, you'll find the Anibay sofa, which combines ultimate comfort and design at an affordable price.

Speaker 53 And get this, it's the only sofa that's fully machine washable from top to bottom, starting at only $699.

Speaker 53 The stain-resistant performance fabric slip covers and cloud-like frame duvet can go straight into your wash.

Speaker 12 Perfect for anyone with kids, pets, or anyone who loves an easy-to-clean, spotless sofa.

Speaker 60 With a modular design and changeable slip covers, you can customize your sofa to fit any space and style.

Speaker 62 Whether you need a single chair, love seat, or a luxuriously large sectional, Annabe has you covered.

Speaker 46 Visit washable sofas.com to upgrade your home.

Speaker 56 Right now, you can shop up to 60% off store-wide with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Speaker 40 Shop now at washablesofas.com.

Speaker 56 Add a little

Speaker 6 to your life.

Speaker 5 WashableSofas.com has your back, featuring the Anibay Collection, the only designer sofa that's machine washable inside and out, where designer quality meets budget-friendly prices.

Speaker 27 The sturdy steel frame ensures longevity, and the modular pieces can be rearranged anytime.

Speaker 38 No return shipping or restocking fees, every penny back.

Speaker 5 WashableSofas.com has your back, featuring the Anibay Collection, the only designer sofa that's machine-washable inside and out, where designer quality meets budget-friendly prices.

Speaker 43 Like the midnight and the rock and roll, he's in a fight for wrestling soul.

Speaker 63 Using a racket and some mind control. He's Jim Cornette.

Speaker 63 The keys to the future, held by the past.

Speaker 16 And with tag tee partner Barion Last, he sends this message out by podcast. He's Jim Cornet.

Speaker 16 Well, he's never afraid of lonely.

Speaker 16 He never backs down from a fight.

Speaker 16 He never wins the pony. Cause his mama raised him right.

Speaker 16 It's time

Speaker 16 to prepare

Speaker 16 your mind.

Speaker 16 Get the experience.

Speaker 16 Get the experience of Jim Cornette.

Speaker 65 Today, the world champion of Saudi Arabia has been crowned. The bloodlines are fighting over the family jewels, and the WWE made another $50 million

Speaker 65 last weekend. We're going to talk about all that and more.
And joining me, Hawaiian Brian, the podcasting lion, the king of the Arcadian Vanguard Podcast Network, Mr. Co-HostU.

Speaker 65 He's the crown jewel of podcasting, the great Brian Last, everybody. Aloha, Jim.

Speaker 63 A pleasure to be here once again. I think we're going to have a good time, or at least pretend to.

Speaker 63 But it's your show. I'm sure it'll be great.

Speaker 65 Oh, I'm thrilled that you're thrilled to be here. At least I didn't call you the family jewel of podcasting, but that may be more apropos now that I think about it.

Speaker 65 Who was it? Was it

Speaker 65 Scotty? Scotty the body before he became Raven.

Speaker 65 Remember Craig Johnson, the announcer they had for Global Wrestling in Dallas?

Speaker 63 Underrated announcer. It looked like Keith Oberman, so it gave him legitimacy.

Speaker 65 Well, he did,

Speaker 65 well, nobody knew who Keith Oberman was at 1990, though.

Speaker 63 Yeah, he was on Sports Center, 1991. He was on Sports Center.

Speaker 65 I'd never seen him, but nevertheless, Craig Johnson.

Speaker 65 was a man about six foot five, six foot six inches tall. And when he would do the promos with the even the bigger boys looked like the smaller boys right

Speaker 65 and then he's interviewing was he johnny no he would have been scotty flamingo at that point in gwf he was scott anthony scott anthony and the brother of mark anthony i don't know about that but he was scott anthony and he would say oh where oh where art thou but nevertheless Scott Anthony looked at him one day and said, you're the biggest Johnson I've ever seen.

Speaker 65 Maybe that's why the show wasn't a hit on ESPN.

Speaker 63 That's why the African investors pulled out actually, was that comment.

Speaker 65 Olu, Oli, Oliani?

Speaker 65 Oli, Olu Little, Oli.

Speaker 63 What'd you think when those guys from the Shinamanaki Post and Atlanta, the ones who were causing trouble at the center stage TV,

Speaker 63 all of a sudden, you know, because they knew Peticino, they were involved in the GWF. And, you know, Scott Hudson later went on to WCW.

Speaker 63 But what'd you think when what were essentially just smart fans got involved and got a chance to treat it seriously on TV?

Speaker 65 Well,

Speaker 65 in all honesty,

Speaker 65 my opinion in hindsight may be colored by the fact that I got to know Scott and

Speaker 65 he was a very respectful smart fan. And those guys appreciated the business.

Speaker 65 I'm sure there may be a VHS tape of them all, you know,

Speaker 65 fucking wearing clown outfits and dancing around in tutus or something on some independent show in front of 60 people in the 90s or whatever.

Speaker 65 But

Speaker 65 that era of smart fan that actually did get invited to be into business was not as

Speaker 65 over the top as some of today's are, or hadn't developed the bad habits because there was an internet that told them

Speaker 65 everything about the business they needed to know before they talked to anybody that knew anything about the business. Does that make any sense to you?

Speaker 63 Yes, it does.

Speaker 65 So, but and uh Scott did a very good job. I've done commentary with him for,

Speaker 65 oh, god damn it. For somebody,

Speaker 65 and he did a very good job. He was an excellent straight man.

Speaker 65 Not in the Bud Abbott style, but more in the Gordon Soley style.

Speaker 65 All right. Well, Well, so.
Oh, is this my show?

Speaker 63 This is more in the Alfred Hitchcock style today here.

Speaker 65 Hey, it's it may be in the goddamn tragedy of the Romeo and Juliet and Mark Anthony. Where art thou?

Speaker 65 Speaking of tragedies, we got to establish at the top of the program and then move on that this is being recorded,

Speaker 65 no matter when you might hear it, before the election, here in America, for those of you around the world and in Tunisia.

Speaker 65 So we have

Speaker 65 no idea like everybody else because it hasn't happened yet what's going to happen. But either

Speaker 65 either we will, by the time you hear this, live in a free and democratic society or the kingdom of Trumpistan.

Speaker 65 And if that's the case, we'll have a lot of apologizing to do to the folks I mentioned around the world

Speaker 65 for putting you guys in fucking trouble also.

Speaker 63 But nevertheless, before for all the people that wrote me in, I'm sorry it didn't work out this time, but if we all get together and mobilize, we have another shot in four years.

Speaker 65 I understand that that was outweighed by the number of people who wrote you off. Is that

Speaker 63 what I was hearing? Now, that's not

Speaker 65 the fake news they talk about

Speaker 65 that I heard that.

Speaker 65 Somebody made that up. I don't mean to spread disinformation.

Speaker 63 Who made that up?

Speaker 65 Or misinformation.

Speaker 65 Would that be, would it be disinformation or misinformation? What word should I be using here?

Speaker 63 If you're the one creating it and it's a diversion, well, it's not a diversion. I think it's just misinformation.

Speaker 65 But

Speaker 65 if I'm not doing it on purpose, is that just dumb information?

Speaker 63 You're doing it on purpose. If it's for not getting off the hook, you're not getting off the hook.

Speaker 65 If it's with malice, would that be malice information?

Speaker 65 Mama Cornette, at one point in her life, worked for the

Speaker 65 Chamber of Commerce down in Louisville, Kentucky, downtown,

Speaker 65 and she on the on the phones, on the on the she on the switchboard.

Speaker 65 And so many people would call in those days. That's something you did before there was an internet.

Speaker 65 You would call to find out certain things about the business rulings or practices or whatever the case, the Chamber of Commerce in Louisville.

Speaker 65 And so when they put her on the information desk, she liked to be referred to as misinformation.

Speaker 65 Brunsch. All right.

Speaker 65 All righty then.

Speaker 65 Did I mention?

Speaker 63 I think so.

Speaker 65 God damn you. I'll tell you.
Just give me. Just swing at one of them.

Speaker 63 Look at here. I'm wearing these goddamn.

Speaker 65 I'm wearing these goddamn new headphones.

Speaker 65 The experience last week was when I could only hear you out of one of my ears, which was one too many, apparently.

Speaker 65 Was that not the case? That was not the case.

Speaker 63 It was an enjoyable show. You liked it.

Speaker 65 No, but, oh, yeah. And we loved it.

Speaker 65 was

Speaker 65 last week that I couldn't hear out of one ear. And then I announced that I had the new headset on the drive-thru.
And now this is the first experience. And this thing is tighter.

Speaker 65 It's like wearing a vice on my head. It's smooshing my ears.

Speaker 65 The other day we

Speaker 65 recorded for so long. When I got off afterwards and I took the thing off, my ears kind of peeled off the side of my head.

Speaker 63 Well, A, it is new, but secondly, just loosen it a little bit. It doesn't have to be.

Speaker 65 It's not an asset well it won't it won't it'll loosen long ways but it won't loosen wide ways i do not have a preternaturally large wide head i don't know what kind of pinhead fucking normally buys this brand of

Speaker 65 whatever the fuck you sent these to me why

Speaker 65 headphones did you get me a child size or a pinhead size they don't offer those on the uh on the amazon you don't get to pick well you must have got. I'm taking them off.
Oh, God damn.

Speaker 65 I got sweat behind me ears now.

Speaker 65 It's like putting a vice clamp

Speaker 65 by the French angel Maurice Talay

Speaker 65 on the sides of my head. Do I have to pay for these?

Speaker 65 Is there a petty cash

Speaker 65 fund in the Arcadian Vanguard Network offices that handles things like this? Do I have to pay for these things that are squashing my fucking head?

Speaker 63 You know, petty cash was used up when Hotchkiss had to order that cake and send it to you under the name Jodi Arius or something. I forget what it is.

Speaker 65 Oh, goddamn, no, she's in jail, isn't she?

Speaker 65 She ought to still be. Goddamn first any look that up.
If there's any goddamn justice, that fucking bitch ought to still be in jail.

Speaker 63 I thought that was the name of your fan who sends you the cakes and stuff.

Speaker 65 No, but Jodi Arius is a goddamn famous murderess.

Speaker 63 Oh, what's the name of the woman?

Speaker 65 Joni Aries.

Speaker 63 That was close.

Speaker 65 Is the

Speaker 65 Close. If you were close to Jodi Aries, you might be evidence at a fucking murder trial on a slab.

Speaker 65 And speaking of other people that you may have misidentified.

Speaker 63 Please, no cakes from prison. I guess that's the point.

Speaker 65 No, unless they've got a file in it. Well, I guess the cake.

Speaker 65 The cake coming out of a prison to you wouldn't have to have a file in it. It would only be if you're sending a cake into the

Speaker 63 the rule of files it's a file with compromising information

Speaker 65 no a file I know what you mean but that's

Speaker 63 to play on words to get the file out good lord I'd like to get the F out so

Speaker 65 I didn't mention to you also you had me some Verklimpt on your show the other day mine and Stacey's anniversary was Halloween also which was last week

Speaker 65 But I didn't mention to you that one of the Halloween movies that we watched with a little Harley Quinn sitting there there curled up after our

Speaker 65 anniversary dinner of delicious G ⁇ M crab cakes from Maryland. Got to plug those again.
And my delectable fillets.

Speaker 65 We watched The Fog. How long has it been since you've watched The Fog?

Speaker 63 Oh, I don't know. Whenever it was last on TV.

Speaker 65 Well, it was on TV on Halloween.

Speaker 63 Oh, I didn't see it.

Speaker 65 You didn't see it. See, well, now you've lied to me already.

Speaker 63 The last time it was on TV on something I was watching.

Speaker 65 On something when it didn't happen to show up on something you were in front of. Do you know what the professional wrestling connection is?

Speaker 65 To the fog, the John Carpenter follow-up horror movie after Halloween.

Speaker 63 Yes, of course. Everyone knows there is a fog around the brain of Tony Kong.

Speaker 65 No, sir.

Speaker 65 You can reveal it if you indeed know it, or are you vamping around, as Bill Behrens would say, because you can't grasp.

Speaker 63 You know what? I don't even remember the last time I saw the. I don't remember.

Speaker 63 Was it a deep fog? Was it a London fog? No, God.

Speaker 65 Oh, for heaven's sake.

Speaker 63 Was it Cheech and

Speaker 65 it was the fog and the fog? Don't go. The fog is glowing.
Stay out of the fog.

Speaker 63 You're there in North Carolina. Is it Los Angeles?

Speaker 65 No, no. That's that's a methane gas.

Speaker 63 Yeah, that's smog. Smog.

Speaker 65 It's Northern California. It's a coastal town.

Speaker 65 It's

Speaker 65 the radio station, the local radio station there is on the air from like six o'clock in the evening until like one in the morning. More on the owner of the radio station in a minute.

Speaker 65 And they're having a big Founder's Day celebration

Speaker 65 in this small little inlet town. It's right on the coast there.

Speaker 65 And suddenly, the night before they're going to have this, a fog rolls in, a very mysterious-looking fog, and strange things begin happening.

Speaker 65 And the owner of the radio station, when all the power goes out and the fog infiltrates the power systems and blows the telephone lines and everything,

Speaker 65 the radio station is the one that's transmitting from the lighthouse that can tell the people in town to stay away from the fog

Speaker 65 and come to find out that the fog contains the leper colony inhabitants that were murdered 100 years previously by the founders of that town in order to establish a more perfect union in that town and by stealing all their gold.

Speaker 65 And they came back to get the fucking gold.

Speaker 65 But

Speaker 65 the owner of the radio station and the DJ

Speaker 65 was Adrienne Barbeau.

Speaker 63 Well, that was John Carpenter's wife.

Speaker 65 Yes.

Speaker 63 And that's the wrestling connection right there.

Speaker 65 Bingo.

Speaker 65 And even Stacey, who is a native of Northern California, was not aware that

Speaker 65 was that her first television? It had to be her first television

Speaker 63 job. Yeah.

Speaker 65 Adrienne Barbeau was the big-time wrestling girl for Roy Shire.

Speaker 65 on

Speaker 65 San Francisco TV and what would that have been? Like 67-ish, 8-ish, 9-ish?

Speaker 63 Yeah.

Speaker 65 Thereabouts. And she would stand next to the lineup of the Cow Palace as they were announcing it.
And as did all of the,

Speaker 65 what were they? Was it Miss Wrestling or Miss Big Time Wrestling?

Speaker 63 I thought it was just Miss Wrestling, but I'm not sure.

Speaker 65 Well, I think, and one time, boy, one of them. They tried to make her marry Tim Woods as a goddamn angle, but she wouldn't do it.

Speaker 65 But you could have met Mr. and Mrs.
Wrestling.

Speaker 65 could have even put it on their driver's license.

Speaker 63 But anyway, but she has she has said in interviews that working with Roy Shire made it easy to work with B. Arthur.

Speaker 65 And

Speaker 65 also,

Speaker 65 for that matter, to work with fucking leper colony inhabitants coming back from beyond the grave to

Speaker 65 take their gold back. Anyway, speaking of things coming back from beyond the grave,

Speaker 65 hopefully he won't want to take anything back with him.

Speaker 65 But everybody has been talking about this on Twitter, and we got a bunch of questions, comments. Hey, what do you think? Have you seen this type of deal?

Speaker 65 Footage has been found of all people,

Speaker 65 of all people from the,

Speaker 65 not in the golden age of wrestling, but the fucking Victorian age of wrestling. George Hackenschmidt

Speaker 65 is now a star on YouTube. Have you been following this story, Brian?

Speaker 63 I have a ton of people who immediately started sending it to us.

Speaker 63 And, you know, you and I just off air and maybe a little bit on there over the last year talked a little bit about George Hackenschmidt after I found one of his autographs in the files.

Speaker 63 And we started talking about it. And, you know, everyone knows about the Gotch matches.
The idea there's no footage is something that, you know, until you go looking, you may not realize.

Speaker 65 Well, and

Speaker 65 one of the Gotch and Hack and Schmidt matches, I can't remember, was 08 or 11, may have been 08,

Speaker 65 was

Speaker 65 the story goes, was filmed, but has been lost. Nobody knows if it still exists or where it might be or whatever.
But nobody really knew

Speaker 65 that this footage existed until

Speaker 65 they just come out with it.

Speaker 65 But apparently,

Speaker 65 and I'm

Speaker 65 hazy on the details of exactly how which came first the chicken or the egg but

Speaker 65 this film footage was displayed

Speaker 65 at a film festival in Estonia because George Hackenschmidt was from Estonia

Speaker 65 which again and

Speaker 65 if you don't even know google it while I'm rambling is is The Russian lion. It's somewhere in the Soviet Union or Russian area, right? Estonia.

Speaker 63 Yeah, no, I've known people from Estonia. It's right there.

Speaker 65 Okay, well, are they nice people?

Speaker 63 Very nice people, actually.

Speaker 65 Well, you know, you know,

Speaker 65 he was a hell of a guy.

Speaker 63 Yeah.

Speaker 65 But anyway, at a film festival, who was double-crossed? Who was double-crossed?

Speaker 65 It was found. It was shot or restored from New Zealand by a

Speaker 65 group there that had found this. Apparently, was this footage shot there or was it, did it end up there for display and somebody found it and restored it in New Zealand? Because it's like a

Speaker 65 the what are the natives in New Zealand? The Maoris,

Speaker 65 right? It's like a Maori name, I don't have it in front of me, company that did this restoration and brought this to light.

Speaker 63 I could be wrong because I've actually been meaning to read up more on this because I'm fascinated by it.

Speaker 63 But I want to say that it's something that Hackenschmidt himself brought with him on a tour there.

Speaker 65 Ah.

Speaker 63 But again, let me, you know, I have to double check that, but I think it's something that was like touring with him.

Speaker 65 Because his opponent is American.

Speaker 65 And it was just.

Speaker 63 And he built like Mike Leno.

Speaker 65 Yes.

Speaker 63 Well, but

Speaker 65 next to Hackenschmidt in the day, right? This is in 1908. It's not fair because for the

Speaker 65 For the bodybuilders or the weightlifters or powerlifters in the audience,

Speaker 65 For his day, George Hackenschmidt was not only a strong man, but was into early physical culture, had

Speaker 65 a developed physique before the, I don't know, the weeders hadn't been born, the brothers. I don't think they had weights as such as we might know them today back in them days.
And the hack squat

Speaker 65 was named for him, which is a

Speaker 65 method of lifting.

Speaker 65 So he was a big fucking deal in those days, as far as one of the strongest men in the world, and then

Speaker 65 could lay legitimate claim to being the best wrestler in the world. And that's how he ended up with Gotch to settle it.

Speaker 63 You know, and there's footage at the end of what we're talking about here that just show him posing a little bit, and there's no body fat on him at all. And he's cut.

Speaker 63 I mean, he's cut the way you would think a little guy on steroids would be cut, but he's not a little guy on steroids. He's the real deal.

Speaker 65 Well, and that's the thing. I saw a

Speaker 65 graphic that somebody had put up with a Hackenschmidt versus the tail of the tape. And he's like five feet eight,

Speaker 65 but he's over 200 pounds. And like you said, with no body fat, and there were no steroids.
There were

Speaker 65 barely food, right? To paraphrase our friend Dutch.

Speaker 65 There were no.

Speaker 63 He had no protein shakes, nothing.

Speaker 65 Yeah, he invented a lot of training programs for himself that later on were integrated into what he was like ahead of his time. They were integrated into more modern things years and years later.

Speaker 65 So, you know,

Speaker 65 he was, he was what, and, and,

Speaker 65 you know, when you look at the footage, and by the way, there's no, there's not really a ring. There's no ropes.
They're on.

Speaker 65 I couldn't, was that a mat spread out or just a canvas spread out or whatever it was?

Speaker 63 Yeah, what do you think of the whole? I actually like that.

Speaker 63 I mean, obviously, it lends itself to what it actually is, but there's just a canvas, a mat on the floor, and a few rows of well-dressed men.

Speaker 65 Yeah.

Speaker 63 And the referee's well, the referee's well-dressed, too. What'd you think of the look of the whole thing?

Speaker 65 Well, this because

Speaker 65 his opponent's name was Joe

Speaker 65 somebody. Might as well have been Joe Blow, but

Speaker 65 Joe Rogers. Joe Rogers.
Okay.

Speaker 65 Let's face it, he hasn't gone down in the pantheon of the gotchas and Zabiscos and rollers and et cetera of that time period. This was probably,

Speaker 65 especially if Hackenschmidt carried the film

Speaker 65 on a tour with him for publicity's sake or maybe make some money exhibiting whatever.

Speaker 65 Probably the prehistoric equivalent of one of the stars in the 70s or 80s carried a tape around of him on Atlanta TV beating George South, right?

Speaker 65 Or

Speaker 65 the guy's competition, they can build him up. Oh, the American, you know, challenger or whatever, Joe Smith.

Speaker 65 And Hacken Schmidt, not only is he hand-picked the guy, he knows he can beat him regardless. He might be working with him, might not.
It's hard to tell.

Speaker 65 They're not even using the fucking ropes, right?

Speaker 65 Silent footage.

Speaker 65 But

Speaker 65 so there's certainly nothing particularly see-through, but you can tell that Gotch could eat your fucking lunch if he wanted to.

Speaker 65 And that's the thing is

Speaker 65 it's fascinating. It's dry if you're just a fan of modern wrestling and

Speaker 65 bumps and

Speaker 65 pageantry or whatever.

Speaker 65 But for the historians or just

Speaker 65 Hackenschmidt is the same place that a Kurt Engel was,

Speaker 65 what,

Speaker 65 100 years later? He was the

Speaker 65 best legitimate.

Speaker 63 He was thicker.

Speaker 65 Well, but I'm not talking physically. I'm saying in terms of he was the best legitimate pro wrestler that there was because he was the best

Speaker 65 or at least one of the best. It was that was, you know, again, why they have the matches with him and a few select others.
In those days, it was

Speaker 65 Lewis or Gotch or fucking whoever the top guy was. and a few people surrounding him that kind of had everybody's respect.

Speaker 63 And again, this isn't in the States. This is Hackenschmidt touring the world.

Speaker 65 Yes, so that's so he's taking his publicity material, such as it was at the time around with him.

Speaker 63 Well, and I have something here. Let me just firm it up.
John Langmead, who was previously on this show, did an article for Slam Wrestling. And it says here that the original...

Speaker 65 God damn it, be careful. I love everybody that writes for Slam Wrestling, but I can't read that site anymore because every time I go there, it freezes my computer computer up.

Speaker 63 The original nitrate.

Speaker 65 God bless y'all do something, please.

Speaker 63 The original nitrate film, again, according to Rice's research, was likely taken to New Zealand by Hackenschmidt himself when he toured there in 1910.

Speaker 65 And, oh, but getting back to the no-rope situation, I think this was probably like either an exhibition he did.

Speaker 65 Or it certainly wasn't a big major stadium thing where they sold tickets to it.

Speaker 65 It was probably something that they in those days they had to film under a controlled environment in a lot of cases anyway.

Speaker 63 According to this article, the match captured on the film is a two-out of three falls match between Hackenschmidt and the American wrestler Joe Rogers, and it took place January 30th, 1908, at London's Oxford Music Hall.

Speaker 63 At 30 years old, Hackenschmidt was four years Rogers' senior and was giving away four inches in height and over 30 pounds.

Speaker 63 There you go.

Speaker 65 And again, you know,

Speaker 65 he carried that around as publicity.

Speaker 65 And

Speaker 65 the atmosphere they've got is that was before,

Speaker 65 well, we've talked about this in the past when professional boxing became a thing.

Speaker 65 As the rules evolved and the presentation changed, wrestling and boxing in those days mirrored each each other in large part in terms of the presentation.

Speaker 65 The reason why that the wrestling ring is called the squared circle

Speaker 65 is because in a lot of places, both sports started out where they would draw a circle on the ground and you had to stay within

Speaker 65 those parameters. And then

Speaker 65 when the idea of a ring as we know it,

Speaker 65 you can't make ropes round. The ropes were to keep people, boxers and wrestlers, from accidentally falling out of the fucking thing.

Speaker 65 And especially to have a platform raised as more people began

Speaker 65 congregating for these things. They couldn't fucking see.

Speaker 65 So they squared the circle with the ropes and the ring as we know it today. But that's why it's a ring.

Speaker 65 But these guys were just in the music hall.

Speaker 65 on whatever was spread out on the ground because

Speaker 65 in those days they didn't hit the ropes ropes anyway. That hadn't been invented yet.
It was to legitimately keep everybody from falling out, right?

Speaker 65 And there's that footage of Toots Mont from what would it be 19

Speaker 65 late 20s, early 30s, that workout stuff that came up not long ago, where he's figured out how to take the bump over the ropes in an entertaining way and still look like he didn't mean to do it.

Speaker 65 and utilize that as part of the fucking thing. And then Buddy Rogers,

Speaker 65 by the time TV comes around in the 50s, he's the one doing the spots where he's fucking careening off the goddamn ropes from one side to the other, off balance, and trying to stay away from his fucking opponent.

Speaker 65 Can't control himself, allegedly.

Speaker 65 So it's, it's.

Speaker 63 And by the way, this footage is just a mirror. What, three months, four months before the first match with Gotch?

Speaker 65 Yes. So that at that point,

Speaker 65 Hackenschmidt was pretty much the challenger to the other guy who said he was the best in the world. And

Speaker 65 apparently he was good enough that Gotch felt like he needed to double-cross him in the end and rub it in.

Speaker 65 But anyway, but yeah, so

Speaker 65 what else could be out there? You never know what the fuck that somebody's going to find somewhere.

Speaker 63 You know, don't give up on the Gotch-Hackenschmidt match turning up. You know, never give up on these things.
You never know what was donated someplace, what is in an attic.

Speaker 63 You know, you always hear, oh, these things disintegrate over time, or these things just dissolve.

Speaker 63 We've seen it, things just turn up. This is from 100 years, over 100 years ago.

Speaker 65 Well, what is the climate like in New Zealand?

Speaker 63 Or Estonia?

Speaker 65 No, no, seriously, that's where it's been in New Zealand, right? Because he took it there on the tour.

Speaker 65 Do you know why they call one of the most famous

Speaker 65 high-grade

Speaker 65 golden age comic book collections the Mile High Collection?

Speaker 63 Why?

Speaker 65 Because the guy lived in or near Denver. I can't remember exactly.

Speaker 65 But it's a drier, less humid climate.

Speaker 65 No matter what,

Speaker 65 you know, and

Speaker 65 before air conditioning, if we're talking early 40s in a lot of homes, but no matter what

Speaker 65 manner they've been stored in, unless they're in a goddamn vault like they've got the WWF tapes in in a mountain somewhere, paper reacts to the climate and the amount of humidity and temperature and etc.

Speaker 65 And this guy's shit was

Speaker 65 like pristine because he had not only wrapped it and kept in the closet in the fucking house, but also he lived in a dry climate and the paper was still white.

Speaker 65 So if New Zealand lends itself to 100-year-old film preservation, because that shit used to spontaneously burst into flames back then.

Speaker 63 I mean,

Speaker 63 nitrate film? Yeah, nitrate film is highly flammable.

Speaker 65 So highly.

Speaker 65 So we need to go find more shit in New Zealand.

Speaker 63 You know, it's obvious from that footage, too.

Speaker 63 Anyone who went to go see Hackensman, you were seeing someone who was the real deal. Like no one was going to walk out of there and be like, ah, you know, this guy is a fake.

Speaker 63 He was the real, he looked like the real deal. No one had a physique like that anywhere.

Speaker 63 And then you see, you know, just what he's doing in this match for,

Speaker 63 you know, I don't know if it was for the film that they made it, but this match in front of a very small audience and he's a dominating guy.

Speaker 65 Yeah. And that's another reason why it was the

Speaker 65 equivalent of a personal appearance/slash squash match of the day where he was getting paid to do that. Somebody shot the film and he's like, yeah, I can.
And that's probably because

Speaker 65 the Gotch Hackenschmidt

Speaker 65 film was probably like most of the boxing films that were shot at that time, whether they exist or not. Somebody was going to exhibit at theater, some early film company,

Speaker 65 and/or just the Nickelodeons, whatever the manner was at that point. And that's the kind of shit that got lost because they dealt in quantities of things.

Speaker 65 And those films got cycled around and ended up in a theater somewhere, got closed, and the shit got dumped in a landfill. But because this guy carried it around himself to this

Speaker 65 tour and then it ended up there.

Speaker 65 You hear about sometimes

Speaker 65 the best silent films are found at the end of a goddamn line of distribution. When it cost the,

Speaker 65 whether it was China or fucking Poughkeepsie, wherever it was, when that film had gone through all the distributor or all the places it was going to be shown, all the theaters to the last in line, an Army base somewhere in Alaska,

Speaker 65 it cost more to send it back than it did to just, they'd start fresh. So they would, they would end up at the end of the line with a lot of these lost films.

Speaker 63 Yeah, you know, a lot of them, shouldn't say a lot, but there are various projects that pop up on Kickstarter that I usually support, where it's like they have found multiple reels in different parts of the world and they're trying to recreate a movie that's been lost.

Speaker 65 Yeah.

Speaker 63 And, you know, with the silent, with silent films, especially, I don't know what the numbers, but it's like a high percentage, maybe over 70% that's lost. Maybe it's higher than that.

Speaker 65 No, I think it's either 80 to 90. When

Speaker 65 you consider every

Speaker 65 film that was made by every motion picture company from the first one in the 1890s, first one public distribution until 1927, I think it's 80 to 90% has been lost. Either

Speaker 65 the master was just eroded, rotted, it wasn't preserved, fires in various places and studios and things.

Speaker 65 And because the film was so flammable that they used, that's what they used to call it Kodak safety film. I'm old enough to remember that.

Speaker 65 But the first shit was like goddamn nitroglycerin. It would just spontaneously combust.
and the whole room would go up.

Speaker 63 But in terms of what else would be available from wrestling,

Speaker 63 I guess there's a potential of this was made in the months leading up to the match, and maybe there's footage of Gotch on the farm or something that we haven't seen. And then.

Speaker 65 Yeah, but do we really need to see Frank Gotch having veterinary knowledge of a mule?

Speaker 63 And when you look at

Speaker 63 the early history of the film industry in America, it was all based out of New York.

Speaker 63 And there was a lot of wrestling in New York. So the idea that there wouldn't be more films of just stuff in the New York area, I would have to think there would have been at the time.

Speaker 63 Who knows if anything will ever be recovered? But it just seems too unlikely that it wouldn't.

Speaker 65 And, you know, also just as big as Lewis was, and I know there's things, but as big as a sports name as Strangler Lewis was just for

Speaker 65 newsreel footage or, you know, the short subject type of thing,

Speaker 65 I would think that there was a lot more shot than

Speaker 3 we have now.com has your back, featuring the Anibay collection, the only designer sofa that's machine-washable inside and out, where designer quality meets budget-friendly prices.

Speaker 32 Check out washable sofas.com and get up to 60% off your Anabay sofa, backed by a 30-day satisfaction guarantee.

Speaker 65 Anyway,

Speaker 65 you know why we're not going to have that problem in the future, Brian?

Speaker 63 Why?

Speaker 65 Because now everybody's got a fucking camera in their pocket

Speaker 65 and they can shoot the next stars of the WWE. I'm not talking about literally, I'm talking about in a videography fashion.

Speaker 65 that are now being spread around the world. What is this I hear?

Speaker 65 Do you have the press release on this? I think I got it here somewhere on the WWE ID program.

Speaker 63 I do have this here. Let me pull this up.

Speaker 65 And

Speaker 65 the ID stands for Independent Development.

Speaker 65 You know, remember when we made the joke that they ought to take all these streaming services and all the video services and put them all together under one umbrella and call it cable television?

Speaker 63 Well, it was Jim Gaffigan's joke that we took onto the air. Let's give him credit.

Speaker 65 Well, okay. Well, I couldn't remember whose name.
All I remember was you stole it, and then I stole it from you.

Speaker 63 That is,

Speaker 63 now you're telling the truth, yes.

Speaker 65 Well,

Speaker 65 I didn't feel the need to explain it. I thought that was common knowledge.
But nevertheless, that's the same thing.

Speaker 65 That's the same thing they're doing here, as I will tell you about in a minute, but it's not like it's a new idea,

Speaker 65 but it's probably going to cost them a lot more money, and they're going to spend more money on it.

Speaker 65 But we'll go into this, but did you,

Speaker 65 should we bring the people up on it?

Speaker 63 Yeah, let me go to the press release here and we'll discuss it because there's a lot to it and really what it could in the long term affect in terms of the talent pool.

Speaker 63 But October 29th, 2024,

Speaker 63 WWE today announced the launch of its first of its kind developmental program designed to provide up-and-coming independent wrestlers a pathway to a potential career in WWE.

Speaker 63 A pathway to a potential career.

Speaker 63 The program will be called.

Speaker 65 That's like a long road ahead.

Speaker 63 The program will be called WWE,

Speaker 63 short for WWE Independent Development.

Speaker 65 Trademark.

Speaker 63 Here's a quote from WWE's chief content officer, Paul Triple H. Levesque.

Speaker 63 WWE ID is the latest in our efforts to identify and support the journey of up-and-coming wrestlers, in turn raising the profile of and strengthening the independent wrestling ecosystem.

Speaker 63 Following the 2021 launch of WWE's NIL program, WWEID has been constructed to support independent wrestling prospects and wrestling schools with world-class training, development, and mentorship.

Speaker 65 Can I just butt in here just for a second, Brian? Not to interrupt you while you're on a flow, but

Speaker 65 how many

Speaker 65 the NIL program was like college athletes or pro athletes or whatever kind of added the football players, the baseball players, basketball players, the hockey player, lacrosse players, ping-pong players, whoever these people are

Speaker 65 that they were partnering with or giving some support to in some way for them to be

Speaker 65 somehow affiliated with the has anybody come to WWE out of that program

Speaker 63 uh you know I'm not exactly uh sure and I'm trying to see if there's anything that they haven't been trumpeting it from the rooftops if they have have have they Obafemi is apparently from the NIL program next in line uh NIL they don't call it nil do they they call it no I think I think it's name image and likeness well that's what it's supposed to be I think that's what it is in crypto they're calling it next in line.

Speaker 63 Yes. Right.

Speaker 63 They already stole your ID. Now they want to get everything out.

Speaker 65 But no, but

Speaker 65 then here's the thing.

Speaker 65 Now they've thought, well, my God, here's a revolutionary thought. Instead of going after the,

Speaker 65 and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it, go after everybody. Cast a wide net.
Go after the athletic prospects and freaks of the day.

Speaker 65 But they've had a brilliant idea three years after going after the football players and the college players, the pro players, whoever the fuck.

Speaker 65 Let's go after people that are already in the goddamn wrestling business. You see what I'm saying?

Speaker 63 Well, let me go.

Speaker 65 This is a revolutionary fucking thing. They just thought, shit,

Speaker 65 maybe we ought to goddamn go after some of the people that actually already kind of do this.

Speaker 63 I'll continue with this press release here.

Speaker 63 Under the program, WWE will provide prominent independent wrestling schools with the WWE ID official designation with the goal of providing new trainees and existing talent at these selected institutions.

Speaker 65 We're slathering it on with a fucking trowel now, aren't we?

Speaker 63 Existing talent at these.

Speaker 65 I've partially owned and run one of these type of institutions, and it may have qualified for a fucking state institution, but go ahead.

Speaker 63 These select institutions with enhanced developmental opportunities:

Speaker 63 Booker T's reality of wrestling in Houston, Cody Rhodes's Nightmare Factory in Atlanta, minus QT Marshall, I assume.

Speaker 63 His name isn't there all of a sudden, Seth Rollins's Black and Brave Academy in Davenport, Iowa,

Speaker 65 the elite pro wrestling, it's a media hub,

Speaker 63 the elite pro Wrestling Training Center in Concord, New Hampshire, and Knox Pro Academy in Los Angeles are the first WWE D independent wrestling schools to earn the official designation.

Speaker 65 Well, okay. And hop in.
I'm not going to take the piss out of these people,

Speaker 65 but let's hop in here for a second because.

Speaker 65 Obviously, we know Booker T's school at Houston, Cody's in Atlanta, Seth's in Davenport. The Knox Pro Academy, that's Rikishi's school, isn't it? Or the Samoan family has something?

Speaker 65 I believe it's Rikishi, I think.

Speaker 65 And who does the Elite Pro Wrestling in Concord, New Hampshire? But they're somewhere near Triple H's hometown.

Speaker 65 And I'm trying to think who that might be. Do you have any idea?

Speaker 63 I'm looking at the Knox Pro website, and it appears to be Rikishi with.

Speaker 63 Please forgive me. I'm not sure what other family member this is.

Speaker 65 Well, but

Speaker 65 for the point that I'm making, we're not, they can contact us for rates, and we'll give them the whole fucking advertising smear.

Speaker 63 What? There's some guy wrestling for them, Journey Fatu. He looks like he may be Jacob Fatu's brother or something based on the looks here.
God damn, there's another one. There's another one.

Speaker 65 Fucking hell.

Speaker 63 Oh, it's Rikishi and the Black Pearl. I don't know.
I'm not too familiar.

Speaker 65 Okay, okay. Yes, the Black.

Speaker 65 Yes. He's a member of the family.

Speaker 63 He's the pearl of the family, some sense.

Speaker 65 He's the pearl of the family. She wore a pearl necklace.
Anyway, what I'm trying to say to you

Speaker 65 is that,

Speaker 65 yes, because they know who these people are, they can go and see the school. They know that

Speaker 65 they're not going to do anything potentially to.

Speaker 65 you know, to hurt any of the WWE talent. I'm sure that every once in a while, some of the people, maybe from NXT or maybe

Speaker 65 that aren't heavily relied on these days, might show up at some of these places. Same thing, it's the same principle as OVW

Speaker 65 in the developmental days where we would have guys come down and help some of the people they had an investment in.

Speaker 65 But also, this is not a new idea. And the reason I say that is because

Speaker 65 in the 90s, we were kind of unofficially doing something because,

Speaker 65 you know, I had always kept up with

Speaker 65 either in Smokey Mount Wrestling or then

Speaker 65 when I was in Stanford working in the office,

Speaker 65 I was the guy for quite some time that was booking the local guys. They call them an enhancement talent or extras, but the job guys.
And at that time, it wasn't an insult to me.

Speaker 65 Guys would say, hey, can you get me to do some jobs on WWF-TV?

Speaker 65 But I would keep lists when we were in a specific area of the country. Like in Chicago, we would always call Chris Daniels at that point because he was just starting.
He wanted the work, right?

Speaker 65 And

Speaker 65 Rhino, bless him.

Speaker 65 Did you hear he plugged me on his TNA

Speaker 65 Hall of Fame acceptance speech?

Speaker 63 Oh,

Speaker 63 very nice.

Speaker 65 Because I was the first guy that, and he said this, I was the first guy where he waited to say that. That would have been egotistical of him saying I.

Speaker 63 Jim was my first guy. Well, no, he said, he said that on the pay-per-view?

Speaker 65 Would you quit?

Speaker 65 He said, Jim Cornette was the first guy that saw something in me.

Speaker 65 And I pulled it right out of him. No.

Speaker 65 Would you stop? Now you've got me doing it. But the point is,

Speaker 65 I'd say in night, I'm trying to think what it was. It may have been.
Well, in 1994,

Speaker 65 when the Rock and Roll Express, the Heavily Bodies from Smoky Mountain, we went up and did a couple of shows in Michigan for Gary Waronchek. That's where I found Bruiser Bedlam just on the show there.

Speaker 65 But also in Smoky Mountain, guys would send me tapes. That's, you know, Candido,

Speaker 65 or people would be recommended, you know, or whatever.

Speaker 65 But then later on,

Speaker 65 as I said at the WWF, not only calling guys for jobs on television, but also booking the guys at the time, the Billy Gunns of the world, the road dogs that were before they started doing anything with them, that weren't booked.

Speaker 65 They wanted to work on third-party shows where they could do independent shows and make 500 bucks or 750 or a grand, depending on who it was.

Speaker 65 And when I was doing the third-party promoters, I had to keep track of who

Speaker 65 I could book these guys to that had insurance and was doing somewhat of a legitimate show and not only wasn't going to ask these guys to do anything stupid, they might get hurt, but also

Speaker 65 on the same show, even if they weren't involved, we weren't going to have a goddamn chainsaw death match where somebody was going to get airlifted and it'd make the local news and/or something to besmirch the WWF's reputation.

Speaker 65 Little did we know at the time we could leave that to the the owners of the fucking company.

Speaker 65 But exactly.

Speaker 65 But he wasn't quite as raspy then.

Speaker 65 But so.

Speaker 63 And he wasn't big on supporting independent wrestling.

Speaker 65 Exactly, because he hadn't learned yet. But since I was doing that, I knew, you know, you could depend on Blaine DeSantis over in Pennsylvania or Jimmy Kittner in Delaware.

Speaker 65 or Dennis Coraluzzo in New Jersey if I kept an eye on him. And not only

Speaker 65 did I book a lot of the guys to these shows that,

Speaker 65 you know, otherwise would have been sitting home and being off,

Speaker 65 but they didn't get in trouble with the WWF office. And I got on the shows too and made some extra money for the FICA fund

Speaker 65 or actually the FCIA fund. Fuck Connecticut in the ass.
I can get out of there.

Speaker 63 Hey, I went to the website of the Elite Pro Wrestling Academy or Training center, I should say. They're an institution.
I know that.

Speaker 63 Unlike the Knox one, which just had pictures of the Samoan family all over the website, the first thing you have here is just a giant WWE

Speaker 63 logo.

Speaker 63 And then it has the press release, and then it has their mission.

Speaker 63 And

Speaker 63 I'm going to guess this may be a Triple H connection. Otherwise, I'm not sure why this school would be hooked up.
New Hampshire.

Speaker 65 Yeah. Yeah.
But anyway, but that's.

Speaker 63 Because the head trainer is a Kowalski guy.

Speaker 65 Well, there you go. But anyway, the point I was making is that that's what kind of morphed into a thing where we got

Speaker 65 because I was always trying to keep track of who the top guys were working for the promoters that ran decent shows, whether it be in the Northeast or down south or the Midwest or whatever.

Speaker 65 And we would get their top guys opportunities, even to do jobs, because that's how you got seen. And that's Devin Storm

Speaker 65 had a number of matches and a number of tryouts with WWF, but he ended up being Crowbar and WCW.

Speaker 65 Christopher Daniels, I was, you know, had booked on TV to do jobs, but also to, when he came to one of the early versions of the camps, it didn't work out there, but he went to TNA.

Speaker 63 Rick Ratchet. If you ever wanted to empty a room, you just put Rick Ratchet in the room.
Well, there you go.

Speaker 65 No, come on now.

Speaker 65 Don't make me.

Speaker 65 I'm trying to

Speaker 65 say that there were some legitimate folks here that,

Speaker 65 no, but, and, and I mentioned Rhino before because I've told a story when Bruce said, well, he just doesn't have any personality. I'm like, he's 19 years old.

Speaker 65 He's got fucking thighs as big as my waist. He'll fucking look at his head.
God damn, can't you see this? He's a fucking living gimmick.

Speaker 63 Isn't it weird that Bruce would say that to you about him or other people? Yet Bruce has like no personality.

Speaker 65 Well,

Speaker 65 and the thing is, I would say that's why Bruce wasn't on television, but goddamn, they put him on TV, didn't they?

Speaker 65 But anyway,

Speaker 65 that was the thing then with OVW. I still knew where some of these people were, and we could get them to come in and have an easier time to be seen.
And that's what they're trying to do now.

Speaker 65 And it's also the same thing with OVW,

Speaker 65 was remember there were other developmental connections for a short period of time. And the

Speaker 65 This was Jim Ross's thought process, and I was totally behind it,

Speaker 65 was that when they were affiliated with Les Thatcher and the Heartland Wrestling Association in Cincinnati

Speaker 65 and Les's drawback up there was he didn't have a great play and didn't really have any place to shoot television like we had established here

Speaker 65 but he was running regular events

Speaker 65 and then of course deep south

Speaker 65 That turned out to be a complete fiasco for all the reasons that have been discussed. But the idea was a developmental territory in Georgia, one in Ohio, one here in Kentucky and southern Indiana.

Speaker 65 We'd welcome something in Texas or wherever it may be where

Speaker 65 we would rotate guys that were in this system that were not being trained the same way, but all being trained the right way

Speaker 65 and not some off-kilter bullshit or they'd be doing...

Speaker 65 goddamn, you know, ladder matches in front of 12 people and breaking their legs. Because there were still a lot of good-looking prospects in the business at that time, as well as,

Speaker 65 you know, when they were absorbing the people from WCW or not absorbing them, but

Speaker 65 putting them in a program for very little cost to see if they get anything. Not the stars, they didn't get absorbed.

Speaker 65 And unfortunately, just for one reason or another, OVW is the only one that worked. But that was the thought.
And it's still valid because a lot of times I would have guys

Speaker 65 in my territory of everything 120 miles in a circle of Louisville for three fucking years.

Speaker 65 And

Speaker 65 the ones that are over with the people and they really like that wasn't too hard. But then, you know, with the other ones, yeah, it's hard.

Speaker 65 So there was no place for them to switch out and then also to work in front of

Speaker 65 different regions, a different company's different territories

Speaker 65 fans

Speaker 65 react to things differently. And that's another way you'd get experience.
So that was the idea that JR had, and we talked about it 20 years ago. This is just these schools don't.

Speaker 65 I know Booker does run live events. I don't know how many of the schools run how many live events, but

Speaker 65 they need

Speaker 65 the NXT guys.

Speaker 65 That should be a college, but they're taking in people that haven't been to high school before they go to college. You need repetition at the flea market in fucking

Speaker 65 Sewanee, Tennessee.

Speaker 63 Well, can we talk about this from another aspect, another perspective, another angle, I guess.

Speaker 63 We've talked in the past about problems AEW is having and will have

Speaker 63 with talent pool, with getting new talent, with finding new stars, stars, with signing people.

Speaker 63 And

Speaker 63 when you look traditionally at wrestling wars,

Speaker 63 Montreal, Georgia, various other examples,

Speaker 63 when you get shut off from talent, eventually that gets you

Speaker 63 because people get tired of the same talent over and over.

Speaker 65 AEW.

Speaker 65 And or the ones that have no other choice and so come to you.

Speaker 63 Right. And AEW, as we've talked about, Kevin Owens, whoever comes up as a free agent from AEW, Swerve Shrickland, Daniel Garcia,

Speaker 63 he has to overpay everyone to either get them, he has to overpay them to keep them. He has to really overpay them to get them to come in.

Speaker 65 Yeah.

Speaker 63 And he'll overpay even people that he probably shouldn't overpay.

Speaker 63 But he's always had access to just pulling people off the indies.

Speaker 63 It's one of the reasons independent wrestling and Japanese wrestling fell off a cliff was because Tony took all the talent from all the shows. You could argue who's talent, who isn't.

Speaker 63 Everyone who was filling out these shows ended up signed to AEW.

Speaker 63 So now if all of a sudden you have a problem getting top talent, because most top talent aren't going to leave WWE unless Tony's going to offer him $20 million.

Speaker 63 So if you're going to have problems getting top talent, And now all of a sudden you're going to start getting shut out at the grassroots level, too.

Speaker 63 These are just the first programs, the first schools involved. Makes it sound like they want more.

Speaker 63 They probably want everyone. It's WWE.

Speaker 65 Well, hold on now. They don't want everybody because there's not only is there a lot of wrestling schools, but these people.

Speaker 63 Everyone credible.

Speaker 65 Okay. Well, see, that's a big qualifier.
You've just lopped everyone who could train.

Speaker 65 Yeah.

Speaker 65 You're continuing to lop off, you know, 80 to 90 percent, but they want

Speaker 65 the best that they can trust, that they know what kind of business they're doing, that they know what kind of program they may have.

Speaker 65 And I'm sure they're going to, or already have, investigated all of that, or there's going to be a closer.

Speaker 65 Believe me, folks, at the Nightmare Factory Reality of Wrestling Elite, Knox, black and blue, and red all over whatever places,

Speaker 65 if you're any kind of official, you're going to have some fucking scrutiny if they haven't changed that aspect of their business over the last 20 years or so.

Speaker 65 But they want these training programs that also go ahead and read the final paragraph because

Speaker 65 it doesn't really talk about independent promotions per se. These are schools that may or may not

Speaker 65 run their own local events.

Speaker 65 And the last paragraph talks about independent wrestlers, but there's not that much about working with specific promotions.

Speaker 63 Right. And I do find it funny that someone would go to that Elite Pro Academy and they'd go, oh, you aligned with AEW? No, we're aligned with WWE.
Why

Speaker 63 don't you give that away? Additionally, WWE ID will identify top independent wrestling prospects with an official WWE ID prospect designation.

Speaker 63 and support their developmental journey by providing them with bread and butter, by providing financial opportunity and assisting.

Speaker 65 All the gruel you can eat, kids. Come on.

Speaker 63 By providing financial opportunity and assisting with training, mentorship, and development, including access to world-class facilities, best-in-class ring training, athletic trainers, and more.

Speaker 63 WWE ID will give fans the opportunity to follow the paths of these standout prospects on the independent wrestling scene through curated behind-the-scenes content as well as highlights and matches showcased across WWE's social platforms.

Speaker 65 Well, what it sounds like to me there,

Speaker 65 this is the only thing that I think they may have issues with or not even just, it may get more complex or complicated than they're thinking it's going to be when they've come up with this plan.

Speaker 65 But if have top indie guys that they don't want to bring to NXT just yet, but they're going to give them this prospect designation and support their journey by providing financial opportunity, that means put them on some kind of retainer.

Speaker 65 Hey, do whatever the fuck else you want, but we got right of first refusal to sign you to a legitimate contract or something of that nature.

Speaker 65 Assisting with training, et cetera, including access to facilities, blah, blah, blah, means they probably will bring them

Speaker 65 periodically to the performance center to

Speaker 65 go to

Speaker 65 camps or to see what they're doing or, you know, whatever. That makes sense.

Speaker 65 The giving fans the opportunity to follow the paths of these standout prospects through curated behind-the-scenes content and highlights and matches.

Speaker 65 That may get complicated because if they're letting them, and that's another thing from a booking standpoint

Speaker 65 i know they won't have it any much financial investment to them

Speaker 65 considering they're worth billions of dollars in these guys but if they're letting them do their own thing they're going to be on some fucking shaggy dog outlaw shows

Speaker 65 and

Speaker 65 you know hopefully they'll put some parameters on them as far as no death match stuff or whatever because they're going to have to pass a blood test sooner or later if they want to get anywhere

Speaker 65 But

Speaker 65 I'm wondering if they may have to carefully curate

Speaker 65 that content. Or here he is behind the scenes at the Wartburg Tennessee County Fair.

Speaker 65 And here he is at a ring. It's about to fall down in a mud match with a fucking hippopotamus.

Speaker 63 And at the same time, WWE is about to cut down on house shows.

Speaker 63 Year after year, they have announced already that they plan to almost get rid of house shows altogether. Makes you wonder if something like this gives you the opportunity to have small-branded shows

Speaker 63 with talent that need that kind of experience.

Speaker 65 Well, yeah, that's the thing: is that

Speaker 65 at their level,

Speaker 65 if they run Des Moines on a

Speaker 65 Thursday night, they sell 5,000 tickets and wouldn't make enough money or make any money.

Speaker 65 Well, this ain't worth it. I mean, it's insane now, but

Speaker 65 you can't

Speaker 65 just study up or go to, you can't go to football practice and your first game is a Super Bowl, right?

Speaker 65 Got to be in between. We've said this all along: between wrestling school and training and going on national television.

Speaker 65 And the reason why there's not enough things anymore in between that is why we see some things we see

Speaker 65 on national television.

Speaker 65 So, but this

Speaker 65 I'm happy for all these people, but it ain't a fucking new idea.

Speaker 65 And it's kind of like a what the amazingly enough, we ought to concentrate more on the people that have actually shown a willingness and some level of dedication toward doing this for dick all of nothing.

Speaker 65 So, let's see if any of them actually we think can be any good at it. That's what

Speaker 65 we were doing 20 years ago with our tryout camps for OVW.

Speaker 65 We were doing the WWE's job for them

Speaker 65 by having people submit their information.

Speaker 65 We would,

Speaker 65 you know, politely decline the people.

Speaker 65 We wouldn't take their money if they were 40 years old or 5'6 and 225 pounds or didn't have any athletic background or in any way feel like they could be successful.

Speaker 65 And then we'd have them come and try out and train.

Speaker 65 And eventually, you know, how many of those 20 30 of those guys got developmental deals

Speaker 65 but you know

Speaker 65 yes you have to go after people that want to do this that's kind of the place you start it's that plus it's wwe trying to go after the they said it there the wrestling ecosystem they don't want other play it's still like it was under vince in that respect they don't want other players it's people who play with them or nobody well they they don't they don't mind other players as long as those other players are like you said either play with them or just teeny, tiny little, yeah, teeny, tiny little fishies in the sea.

Speaker 65 They don't want any other fucking whales or

Speaker 65 especially any sperm whales. That's just totally, totally against principle.

Speaker 63 Well, this is your show.

Speaker 65 Well, and since it's my show, I'm going to take it to places it's never been before. Brian, do you know what the happiest thing in the world is?

Speaker 63 Blowjobs.

Speaker 65 no

Speaker 65 now see your mind is still in the gutter still happy you're still in the gutter it's it's remained there for some time now the happiest feeling in the world is when you can walk down the street

Speaker 65 and you can just be in it on any street in any state in the united states of america or or any street anywhere in the world actually

Speaker 65 And it doesn't matter what's going on around you, but you can hear sweet, sweet music.

Speaker 65 You can hear frantic heavy metal rock and roll, or you can hear sweet, sweet love making music like Isaac Hayes, or you can hear pop

Speaker 65 like Bananorama.

Speaker 65 You can hear any kind of music, no matter what's going on around you. When the world is burning, there's fights.

Speaker 65 on the street, people are being beaten up daily, or there's traffic accidents, car crashes right next to you. You won't even hear them because you'll be listening to sweet, sweet tunes.

Speaker 65 That's the happiest feeling in the world.

Speaker 65 Can't you see that now?

Speaker 63 You know, I think the most important thing is that this is available on any street.

Speaker 65 Any street.

Speaker 63 Any street, no matter where you are. No matter what it is.

Speaker 65 If it's the act of walking down the street, the Raycon everyday earbuds will work for you. And you know what's bad? They're wireless.

Speaker 65 That means you can't snag yourself or hang yourself or restrict yourself in any way by having encumbrances like wires hanging off of you. You can't live like savages, people.

Speaker 65 No, you'll be free as a bird. You can walk down the street, listen to these things, and take your clothes off before and walk and be really free.

Speaker 65 Just hang out there for all the world to see your trials and tribulations or dribulations.

Speaker 63 Don't just

Speaker 65 listen to happy music, walking the way that God intended you to be made when your mother got spermed by your father and just walked down the street.

Speaker 63 Bad idea.

Speaker 65 And nobody's going to bother you if you're listening to the Raycon everyday earbuds because they will know. They'll say there, that naked guy or that naked woman.

Speaker 63 is getting arrested

Speaker 63 is getting arrested and they're going to remove the raycons when they book you so don't do that ladies and gentlemen don't don't play in traffic naked listening to raycon listening with raycon you're not listening to raycon he himself is not a song well you're listening to raycons

Speaker 65 the plural raycon they make a bunch of these they made several dozen pair of these just last week but no they when they do the body cavity search there's more they're more interested in bend over they don't look up your nostrils or in your ears you can get away with the everyday earbuds

Speaker 65 especially if you get the ones in vibrant colors that match most people's skin tones. Again, we're still working on leprosy and neuropathy, but other skin tones, they pretty much nailed.

Speaker 65 And the Raycon's got a 32-hour battery life, so you can have time to get arrested, be put in jail, sit there, and then be sprung.

Speaker 65 And the multi-point connectivity helps you pair with two devices at once.

Speaker 65 which it's easier again if you're naked to pair with two devices at once through the multi-point connectivity feature it has nothing to do with how easy it will be your uh clothing status well that's the way the demonstrator explained it to me what the demonstrator you had a demonstrator yeah this guy came over to the house and said yeah he was he said let me show you how these work and i said well thankfully somebody was going to come by i knew i'd called you know days before

Speaker 65 But he,

Speaker 63 nevertheless, I don't think that's Raycon.

Speaker 65 He said his name was Ray.

Speaker 63 That's not Raycon. I don't know.
You got a con name Ray, maybe, but you didn't get Raycon because Raycon has

Speaker 63 something I can say comfortably, a policy where no one will show up in your house nude to demonstrate anything. That's the Raycon way.

Speaker 65 That's the Raycon way.

Speaker 65 Well, folks, do it the Raycon way. And right now, I'll tell you what.

Speaker 65 Take Black Friday, ball it up, turn that some bitch sideways and shove it up your candy ass.

Speaker 65 And Cyber Monday can follow it if there's room still in that orifice because buyraycon.com,

Speaker 65 that's B-U-I-R-A-Y-C-O-N.com, right now has prices, has discounts that will just blow those things to Kingdom Come

Speaker 65 up to 30% off sidewide. Sidewise, sidewide, sideways, sidewinder, sidewise,

Speaker 63 sidewise.

Speaker 65 You can go to buyraycon.com slash JCE today

Speaker 65 to get up to 30% off sidewide. Sidewide.

Speaker 65 Site-wide. That means everything on the site from one end of the site to the other, from one side to the other, from the top to the bottom.
It's so wide you can't get around it.

Speaker 65 So low you can't get under it. So high you can't get over it.

Speaker 65 Byraycon.com slash JCE

Speaker 65 right now. Do it at this moment.
Hurry.

Speaker 65 Hurry and scurry to get up to 30% off everything that you want to buy on that particular website.

Speaker 65 Did I make myself clear?

Speaker 65 Are you speaking to me on mute?

Speaker 63 I'm having a great time talking to you on mute. And

Speaker 63 what was I just saying? I don't know. Jim.

Speaker 65 Well, I couldn't hear it.

Speaker 63 Whether it's on any street or however it may be, Raycon is for you. One more time.
What's that promo code? Not on mute.

Speaker 65 Yes. Buyraycon.com/slash JCE.
And it's good on every street, lane, avenue, boulevard, parkway,

Speaker 65 another

Speaker 65 highway, another third.

Speaker 65 Well, no, it's not good on. You can't stop on the freeway.

Speaker 65 What's the matter with you?

Speaker 63 Why do you have to stop? I don't understand what you're pointing.

Speaker 65 Well, stop to get out, take your clothes off, and walk down the street.

Speaker 65 How many people you see naked walking down the interstate? No, that's not permissible.

Speaker 63 It's a southern thing.

Speaker 65 You just, well, you're getting it all fucked up now.

Speaker 63 Once again, buyraycon.com slash JCE.

Speaker 65 Yes, and before that we go to the world of SmackDown to set up the big crown jewel business, I want to make mention of my sale going on at jimcornet.com.

Speaker 65 If you have a dog in this fight, if you have purchased an item in the month of October from our on sale until the end of October, which I believe was the 31st,

Speaker 65 then you either have your item, your item has been shipped, your item is in the hands of the Feather Bottoms. I dumped another 100 on them today.

Speaker 65 or your item will be signed and packed in this coming calendar week and in the hands of the feather Featherbottoms to send out by, what would that be, Monday, November the

Speaker 65 11th.

Speaker 65 And we are all caught up and moving forward with the big weekly sales all through the month of November. As a matter of fact,

Speaker 65 if you got the email, if you signed up for the email blast on jimcornet.com, the homepage where it says sign up for newsletter down at the bottom, then you would know that the Santa Corney

Speaker 65 action figures were on sale this week at half price from the 1st through the 8th of November. But if you missed that news, then as Mama Cornette would say, you shit and fell back in it.

Speaker 65 And you should sign up to avoid that in the future. Something's going to go on sale every week in the month of November.
It's a feather-bottom

Speaker 65 epiphany that he's had. This in another one of these tremendous ideas that he has come up with and invented and is now going to trademark copyright.

Speaker 65 But anyway, or you just go to, oh, come on.

Speaker 65 You continue to mock and to scoff at Hotchkiss, and he is not a person to be mocked, scoffed at, or scuffmarked either.

Speaker 65 Except when it's a mutually,

Speaker 65 you know, agreeable thing with the person that is scuff marking him with their shoes, which that's kind of a thing that you wouldn't, we won't go into that.

Speaker 65 But nevertheless, go to jimcornet.com because everything's on sale every day for at some price. Might not be a discount, but you can buy it if you want to.

Speaker 63 What a great sales pitch that is.

Speaker 63 Honesty is the best policy. There's always something you can pay for it.
It just may not be a deal.

Speaker 65 Yes, there's

Speaker 65 everything on sale at jimcornet.com is on sale every day for some list price that you can send me and we will send you the, but it's always, it's every day low prices.

Speaker 65 They're so low, I can't cut them anymore, hardly. I'd be losing money.
What is this, make-a-wish?

Speaker 10 Time for a sofa upgrade?

Speaker 49 Visit washable sofas.com and discover Anibay, where designer style meets budget-friendly prices.

Speaker 12 With sofas starting at $699.

Speaker 50 Anibay brings you the ultimate in furniture innovation with a modular design that allows you to rearrange your space effortlessly.

Speaker 12 Perfect for both small and large spaces, Anibay is the only machine-washable sofa inside and out. Say goodbye to stains and messes with liquid and stain-resistant fabrics that make cleaning easy.

Speaker 66 Liquid simply slides right off.

Speaker 5 Designed for custom comfort, our high-resilience foam lets you choose between a sink-in feel or a supportive memory foam blend.

Speaker 10 Plus, our pet-friendly stain-resistant fabrics ensure your sofa stays beautiful for years.

Speaker 5 Don't compromise quality for price.

Speaker 52 Visit washablefas.com to upgrade your living space today with no risk returns and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Speaker 31 Get up to 60% off plus free shipping and free returns.

Speaker 39 Let's be real.

Speaker 66 Life happens.

Speaker 42 Kids spill.

Speaker 39 Pets shed.

Speaker 56 And accidents are inevitable.

Speaker 41 Find a sofa that can keep up at washablesofas.com. Starting at just $699, our sofas are fully machine washable inside and out.

Speaker 12 So you can say goodbye to stains and hello to worry-free living.

Speaker 26 Made with liquid and stain-resistant fabrics.

Speaker 16 They're kid-proof, pet-friendly, and built for everyday life.

Speaker 33 Plus, changeable fabric covers let you refresh your sofa whenever you want.

Speaker 48 Neat flexibility?

Speaker 18 Our modular design lets you rearrange your sofa anytime to fit your space, whether it's a growing family room or a cozy apartment.

Speaker 53 Plus, they're earth-friendly and trusted by over 200,000 happy customers.

Speaker 10 It's time to upgrade to a stress-free, mess-proof sofa.

Speaker 12 Visit Visit washablesofas.com today and save.

Speaker 41 That's washable sofas.com.

Speaker 43 Anyway,

Speaker 65 you want to talk about SmackDown for a minute? I've got my notes here.

Speaker 65 I guess, Brian, this was the SmackDown episode. November 1st was the date is what I'm trying to say.
The night before the crown jewel.

Speaker 63 That's what you're trying to say?

Speaker 65 They obviously, they weren't in.

Speaker 65 Where were they here? Were they in fucking Butte, Montana?

Speaker 65 They weren't live on this episode, were they? Because they had to be in Saudi Arabia a mere hours later. You can't do that, can you?

Speaker 63 Well, you probably could, but they didn't, and it would have been ill-advised for them to try.

Speaker 65 I think it takes two. I don't think it's physically possible.

Speaker 65 Where were they on Friday night, November 1st at SmackDown?

Speaker 63 Well, again, they weren't there.

Speaker 65 See, I keep asking you these questions. You ought to know these things.
I watched the show, but I didn't.

Speaker 63 take note of it.

Speaker 65 Did they say, is this one of those things where they were hiding their location?

Speaker 63 I am looking it up right now.

Speaker 65 I got nothing. See,

Speaker 65 it's a cover-up.

Speaker 63 It was from Brooklyn, New York.

Speaker 65 Well, no wonder.

Speaker 65 No wonder. Nobody would want to know.
Oh, come on. No, they were just there.
They taped an extra episode, right?

Speaker 63 Yes.

Speaker 65 Which is why this thing was so lackluster.

Speaker 63 It was a nothing show. Every time they go to Saudi Arabia, the show before it, unless they're live, it's terrible.

Speaker 63 Well, they're at least not worth going out of your way to watch.

Speaker 65 It was, let's not, again, the hyperbole now doesn't do anyone any good.

Speaker 65 It doesn't do our reputation any good if we say it was terrible. It wasn't terrible because there wasn't anything wrong with it, because there was very little to it to begin with.

Speaker 65 So it's just kind of there.

Speaker 65 It was

Speaker 65 a bowl of oatmeal with no sugar.

Speaker 63 A wafer minus vanilla.

Speaker 65 A cracker without the peanut butter.

Speaker 65 The cracker's okay, but that's just a fucking cracker.

Speaker 63 Crack without the pipe.

Speaker 65 Well, no, because the crack can still be potent.

Speaker 63 Oh, well, you're the crack expert. What about?

Speaker 65 Hey, goddammit. Now, how did I get that kind of reputation? I'm just saying it's not a proper analogy.
I'm an analogy expert,

Speaker 65 and you did not form a cogent simile. I apologize.
All right, anything to keep from talking about SmackDown? So, here came

Speaker 65 the refrigerator,

Speaker 65 the women's champion, refrigerator Jax, one of the women's champions,

Speaker 65 and she's doing a live promo. So,

Speaker 65 this is, if you close your eyes, you can hear Sable

Speaker 65 talking. Can you not?

Speaker 65 The monotonic, is that a word?

Speaker 65 Monotonic?

Speaker 63 You're not a simile expert. I don't know.
No, that's not a simile. I know.
You don't know anything else about except similes. That's the problem.
I'm talking English.

Speaker 65 I don't know nothing about English. I just know similes, which is a word of French derivative.

Speaker 65 See, now you prove my point.

Speaker 65 So it's a monotone. It's expressionless.
It reminds me of Big Mama in 1985 when she was hunting for the Boogie Woogie Man. I've looked in bars.
I've looked in cars.

Speaker 65 And here you are.

Speaker 63 Boogie Man feel low.

Speaker 65 Not as low as she did when they fucking wouldn't air that interview.

Speaker 65 They edited off the TBS show. I think it made syndication.

Speaker 65 But anyway, so she spoke, recited,

Speaker 65 and then here came Liv and

Speaker 65 Raquel and Dominic to respond, but they were interrupted by Tiffy Time,

Speaker 65 and she did a recitation.

Speaker 65 And basically, this whole thing is revolving around it. She could cash in on Fridge, too, as well as she could cash in on Liv.

Speaker 65 And

Speaker 65 there's this, these women are just not getting along.

Speaker 65 They smile in your face but all the time they want to take your place brian they're backstabbers

Speaker 65 and finally tiffy punched liv and liv said get a referee and they went to break in dramatic fashion at which point when they came back brian you will never guess what was going on a match between tiffy and livvy

Speaker 65 And finally,

Speaker 65 Tiffy tried to hit Livvy with the briefcase, but Liv rolled her up. And the referee counted while he was on top of the briefcase, it was not only in the ring, it was right where he had to count.

Speaker 65 He had to count around

Speaker 65 the briefcase under his nose in order to finish the match. One, two, three.

Speaker 65 And then Liv hit Tiffy with the case and tried to hit the refrigerator, but the fridge blocked it and hit

Speaker 65 Rachel

Speaker 65 Raquel

Speaker 63 Rodriguez. Rachel, Raquel Rodriguez.

Speaker 65 Raquel Rodriguez.

Speaker 63 Rochelle Rochelle.

Speaker 65 Rochelle Rochelle. That's right.

Speaker 65 It's a young woman's journey through Minsk.

Speaker 63 From Milan to Minsk.

Speaker 65 Well, she hit everybody, including Dominic with the briefcase, then Bonsai dropped Liv.

Speaker 65 And you could just see Liv's various internal organs just all saying, fuck it at the same time.

Speaker 65 And that was a big old section of the program, wasn't it?

Speaker 63 A big old section of the program. I couldn't say it any better than that.

Speaker 63 And you're the expert.

Speaker 65 So why add anything?

Speaker 65 So then they had a package on Triple H and Orton last week where Orton wants Owens, but Triple H don't want him to have Owens because Triple H

Speaker 65 is worried about Orton,

Speaker 65 is what he told Orton.

Speaker 65 And

Speaker 65 then they had a video with Owens in his car again. Is he just driving around in some type of manic frustration?

Speaker 65 But he was very low-key this time.

Speaker 63 It's the big thing in wrestling now. If you're a star, you need a car.

Speaker 63 You know, Moxley, Jungle Boy, Kevin Owens. Get a different perspective of the car.

Speaker 63 Eventually, they're all going to just race and run into each other, and we'll see what happens.

Speaker 65 He sent the video in because he wanted Randy Orton to hear it.

Speaker 65 But he had to be in his car. I don't know why.
He could have done it in the comfort of his own.

Speaker 65 Does he have a study at home, a den where he can go and put on his smoking jacket and his slippers and enjoy his peep?

Speaker 65 But he doesn't want to fight Orton.

Speaker 65 He didn't know why Orton is making him fight him because he never wanted to hurt Orton, but now he's going to, and it's all Randy Orton's fault.

Speaker 65 So he's taking the opposite approach of Jimmy Garvin, where Jimmy Garvin would say, it's not my fault. Owens is saying, it's all your fault.

Speaker 65 I have a feeling we're going to hear more about this upcoming.

Speaker 63 Well, it leads into the big match of the pay-per-view. I'm trying not to say anything about that.
It's hard because I've seen that to not say anything about that.

Speaker 65 Well, no, it's not hard not to say anything about it.

Speaker 65 Anyway,

Speaker 65 then we had to suffer through the Street Prophets taking on purely dreary

Speaker 65 where the girl with Street Prophets, what's her name, Kayfabe?

Speaker 63 BFab.

Speaker 65 BFab. Well, she body slammed one of these heels.

Speaker 63 No shit.

Speaker 65 On the floor. Yeah.

Speaker 65 And she's bigger than them, too.

Speaker 65 And then we were half an hour in, so they gave us Naomi and Bailey against Indy and Candy.

Speaker 65 And then we were 52 minutes in.

Speaker 65 And finally, they played Roman Reigns' music. And I should mention they did a package of the Usos reuniting.
The brotherly love is back in full bloom.

Speaker 65 But now we get the

Speaker 65 Romans on the way to the ring, and he's bringing Jimmy with him.

Speaker 65 And Jimmy cuts a promo. He loves Roman, but you got to listen to me.

Speaker 65 I need you to drop the beef with Jay or squash. He said, drop it.
And they said, squash it. They were chanting squash the beef.

Speaker 65 He said, I made up with my brother, and now it's time for you to make up with your cousin. And the fans are squash that beef, squash that beef.

Speaker 65 You got to get a Smash Burger sponsorship in here somewhere. They're leaving money on the table.

Speaker 65 But anyway, Jimmy's whole fucking point was: if we're not together at Crown Jewel, we will fall.

Speaker 65 And Roman asked for the microphone. He didn't ask for it.
He holds his hand out.

Speaker 65 And suddenly,

Speaker 65 here comes Yeet.

Speaker 65 And it's Jay's music. And he makes the entrance through the arena.

Speaker 65 And the fans are waving, and the fans are yeeting, and the lights are flashing.

Speaker 65 And I got to be honest with you, the most perfect thing about this was they timed this where he was getting in the ring with all this going on right at nine o'clock.

Speaker 65 I mean, they got it down to a science

Speaker 65 because they'd started this segment at

Speaker 65 52 in, so eight minutes till the hour, but they knew this was the part that was going to snag people.

Speaker 65 And then Jay cut the promo and

Speaker 65 we've laughed about him being blown up by the time he does that entrance and then has to go in there and cut a promo.

Speaker 65 But I think he conserved a little bit. This was the best promo

Speaker 65 he's done since he got the whole Yeet thing going on.

Speaker 65 Because he laid it out for Roman. Hey,

Speaker 65 we got to get back at Solo, but

Speaker 65 we ain't fixed it yet

Speaker 65 between us. Because because I remember what you did to me physically and mentally,

Speaker 65 and the way you disrespected me. And I still showed up

Speaker 65 because that's what family do,

Speaker 65 is what he said. And a lot of people don't think it'd be like it is, but it does.

Speaker 65 And it's family above all.

Speaker 65 And this go-around, you're not going to tell me what to do because I'm your equal now.

Speaker 65 And that got a big pop from the people.

Speaker 65 And then

Speaker 65 Jay's like, side by side,

Speaker 65 let's run this thing like we used to, but if you disrespect me, I'm gone.

Speaker 65 Or you can act like my cousin, and I'll see you at Crown Jewel and we can all do it together. I mean, what a babyface promo, right?

Speaker 65 And he laid the whole thing out, and Roman holds his hand out for the microphone. Then he gets it and he's milking it.

Speaker 65 And now the people are chanting, OTC, OTC.

Speaker 65 And Roman looks at him and he says,

Speaker 65 yeet.

Speaker 65 And the place blows. And they start chanting, yeet, yeet, yeet.
And then hug it out, hug it out.

Speaker 65 Is it now? This is like the goddamn Jerry Springer show.

Speaker 65 Instead of a studio audience, they got five or ten thousand fucking people doing this shit.

Speaker 65 It's amazing.

Speaker 65 And then the Usos stood there and put the one finger up.

Speaker 65 And then Roman stood in between them and he put his one finger up and they popped again.

Speaker 65 15-minute segment. It was the best thing on the fucking show.

Speaker 65 And that's probably what the people came for that they were most happy with.

Speaker 65 But now, so we set up

Speaker 65 like we didn't think it was going to happen, but we set up that they're united against the other

Speaker 65 bloodline. But just these are the stars, and this is what people give a shit about.

Speaker 63 And we'll talk about it more with the pay-per-view review. But

Speaker 63 in general, these are the segments that hit, for me, a lot more than the actual bloodline matches. I'm more into the drama and the acting in these segments than the actual matches when they transpire.

Speaker 65 Or in the case of this one, expire.

Speaker 65 But we'll get there.

Speaker 65 But anyway, then they had a girls four-way with the four girls in the corners.

Speaker 65 And it looked like middle school cheaters,

Speaker 65 cheaters.

Speaker 63 Middle school cheaters.

Speaker 65 Middle school cheaters. Middle school cheerleaders

Speaker 65 having to fight in one of those bouncy house things.

Speaker 63 What about cheer cheaters? Cheer cheaters.

Speaker 65 Well, you know what?

Speaker 65 I've said before, they ought to inspect those cheerleaders at these games carefully. They may be passing these ball players, goddamn foreign objects.

Speaker 65 And then they teased Orton and Cody again.

Speaker 65 Cody asked Roman said, or Roman, Cody asked Orton.

Speaker 65 I can't get anybody's name right.

Speaker 65 Cody asked Orton to save a piece of Owens for him. And Orton said, there ain't going to be any left.
Apparently, he's just going to eat him like a bowl of nanner pudding.

Speaker 65 But then Cody said, well, I don't know what I'm going to do then.

Speaker 65 And Orton looks at the belt hanging there and then looks back at Cody and says, you'll think of something.

Speaker 65 So they're still dramatically

Speaker 65 foreshadowing this.

Speaker 65 Do you think it's all a plot between Orton and Owens?

Speaker 65 They're going to beat each other up and fucking try to kill each other to lure Cody into a false sense of security.

Speaker 63 Well, I think it would be more valuable if it was two separate things. But the other thing you have to think about is

Speaker 63 coming out of the pay-per-view, which we'll review later,

Speaker 63 with all the bloodline stuff happening and the bloodline featuring the most over baby faces like Roman and Jey Uso,

Speaker 63 what is Cody going to do to be able to keep pace?

Speaker 63 What are the good programs for him right now? Is it just Owens?

Speaker 63 And then what? If you go right to Orton, is that too soon because of all of this? But

Speaker 63 I guess that's fun to try to see how they work that out. But

Speaker 63 you know, Cody needs something, though.

Speaker 65 The next big guy

Speaker 65 coming back for next year

Speaker 65 might want to win the world title one more time.

Speaker 65 Do you smell what I'm cooking?

Speaker 65 I do.

Speaker 65 John Cena.

Speaker 63 Hey, listen, John Cena. The big program I think they could do that would be great, but it would absolutely turn Cody heel, whether he liked it or not, would be Cody and Punk.

Speaker 63 That would be really intriguing, but I think it would backfire completely on Cody's reactions.

Speaker 65 I think Cena could cut, well, but they don't want Cena to be a heel either, but they can figure out a way to make that interesting for the Royal Rumble, couldn't they?

Speaker 63 And The Rock, too. Remember, The Rock and Cody have unfinished business, so you have these things, but

Speaker 63 I'm starting to walk. It sounds like Cody's starting to cool off, though.

Speaker 65 Well, I'm starting to wonder whether The Rock is ever going to finish his business or not.

Speaker 65 Because then he shows up at Bad Blood and stands there, and we don't see him again. He just happened to be passing through.

Speaker 65 But nevertheless, speaking of the people who are cooling off or heating up or whatever, that was the main event. Gunther and Kaiser,

Speaker 65 you know what? That should have been his name, Gunther Kaiser.

Speaker 65 But Gunther and Kaiser took on Cody and Orton

Speaker 65 in the main event. And this has been

Speaker 65 just long anticipated this match would take place. And they

Speaker 65 started it and went one minute or less to the break, and they came back with like seven minutes on the air.

Speaker 65 So, you know, boom, Cody gave Orton kind of a blah tag, and Orton made it come back

Speaker 65 and hit Gunther with the DDT and tried to hit the RKO, but Gunther slipped it. So Orton tagged Cody back in, and Cody made it come back on Kaiser

Speaker 65 and hit him with the cutter.

Speaker 65 And then Orton RKO'd Gunther, and then Cody crossroads Kaiser

Speaker 65 and beat him boom one, two, three.

Speaker 65 So that was kind of quick.

Speaker 65 But then as they were celebrating, here came Owens, no longer in his car. Maybe that's why he's somebody send security to check the parking lot.

Speaker 65 That's apparently where he is whenever he's sending videos from his car.

Speaker 65 And he nailed Orton with a chair. And

Speaker 65 at the same time, Gunther popped up and got the sleeper on Cody.

Speaker 65 And Owen stood there and did nothing to prevent

Speaker 65 Gunther from choking out Cody. And security came in, tried to get Gunther off.
And that was all she wrote, as Mama Cornette used to say, except,

Speaker 65 have you seen what they're starting to add at the end of the program?

Speaker 63 Oh, since they went to the USA Network, the executive producers?

Speaker 65 Yes.

Speaker 63 Virgil Riley Runnels Jr., I believe it said.

Speaker 65 No, no, you got to update it. Paul Levesque or Levesque, as we in the industry term it, and Lee Fitting.

Speaker 65 So, I mean, this is not

Speaker 65 anything that we don't know, but have they ever had any kind of credits before?

Speaker 63 They have for events they've done, because I remember they even had some goofy ones like executive producer Kay Fabe.

Speaker 65 Oh, yeah, back in like those HBO specials and things in the early 80s, stuff like that.

Speaker 63 Well, Well, stuff like the Slammy.

Speaker 65 And some of the Coliseum video slammies. Oh, the Slammies,

Speaker 65 the production people at the studio got special permission to do some rib credits on the Slammies, too.

Speaker 63 Do you think it's a smart thing, especially just in terms of

Speaker 63 separating yourselves from the previous administration,

Speaker 63 letting people know this is a different... You know, people who are just tuning in now, what's this at the end? That's not Vince McMahon's name there.

Speaker 65 Well, then, I wonder if they're going to do that.

Speaker 63 Because, what goes behind that choice of all of a sudden adding that? Not that he doesn't deserve credit, Triple H, but

Speaker 63 you know, that's a Paul. That's a Paul Heyman move, actually.

Speaker 63 Executive producer Paul Heyman.

Speaker 65 Lee Fitting deserves a lot of credit for the way this thing looks now, too. I'm not saying they don't deserve credit.

Speaker 65 I'm saying it's a departure from what they've normally done, which is not have credits. And

Speaker 65 if they're going to have credits, why don't they go all the way? Because not only

Speaker 65 like your regional sports broadcast or your network sports broadcast or an entertainment show, they have

Speaker 65 directed by, you know, audio, camera, whatever. Why don't they do the whole thing then?

Speaker 65 Because

Speaker 65 in the old days, wrestling didn't have credits per se because you didn't want to be Booker.

Speaker 65 Olo Dusty did with the TBS show, Virgil Runnels. Like that was a well-known secret.
But

Speaker 65 there's no reason they really couldn't. Now, don't put down agents for matches that tell the guys what finish to do.
But for the technical crew, I wonder why they couldn't have some credits.

Speaker 65 Are you trying to keep these people from being credited?

Speaker 63 I'm saying the only people getting credits are the two people of the three people in charge.

Speaker 65 Funny how that works out, isn't it?

Speaker 63 Nick Honsey, keep my name off this. Yeah.

Speaker 63 I have a very robust name. Please keep it off this.
What about Ari?

Speaker 65 Ari should get some credit.

Speaker 65 I knew he'd grow up to do good things one day.

Speaker 63 He does. It's called a dividend, but yes.

Speaker 10 Time for a sofa upgrade?

Speaker 5 Visit washable sofas.com and discover Anibay, where designer style meets budget-friendly prices, with sofas starting at $699.

Speaker 60 AniBay brings you the ultimate in furniture innovation with a modular design that allows you to rearrange your space effortlessly.

Speaker 12 Perfect for both small and large spaces, Anibay is the only machine washable sofa inside and out. Say goodbye to stains and messes with liquid and stain-resistant fabrics that make cleaning easy.

Speaker 66 Liquid Simply slides right off.

Speaker 5 Designed for custom comfort, our high-resilience foam lets you choose between a sink-in feel or a supportive memory foam blend.

Speaker 62 Plus, our pet-friendly stain-resistant fabrics ensure your sofa stays beautiful for years.

Speaker 5 Don't compromise quality for price.

Speaker 56 Visit washable sofas.com to upgrade your living space today with no risk returns and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Speaker 31 Get up to 60% off plus free shipping and free returns.

Speaker 49 At washablesofas.com, you'll find the Anibay sofa, which combines ultimate comfort and design at an affordable price.

Speaker 54 And get this, it's the only sofa that's fully machine washable from top to bottom, starting at only only $699.

Speaker 12 Perfect for anyone with kids, pets, or anyone who loves an easy-to-clean, spotless sofa.

Speaker 62 Whether you need a single chair, love seat, or a luxuriously large sectional, Anibay has you covered.

Speaker 41 Visit washable sofas.com to upgrade your home.

Speaker 40 Shop now at washable sofas.com.

Speaker 65 But anyway, but that pretty much was SmackDown. And

Speaker 65 I mentioned a name there, Brian, on the SmackDown show, and I understood maybe this could have been the straw that broke the camel's back, but did they fire a few people this week?

Speaker 63 I don't know if I would term it as firing.

Speaker 63 Apparently, they released.

Speaker 65 They asked them, please go away from here and don't ever come back. Is that more.

Speaker 63 Well, here are the names. Tegan Knox.
Tegan Knox was released this past week.

Speaker 65 Well, we haven't seen her in quite a while anyway, as far as I recall.

Speaker 63 And if I recall right, I think in the times that we've seen her, she's had at least two, if not three, different knee injuries that took her out for almost a year.

Speaker 65 Yep, I remember that may be the case as well.

Speaker 63 Another name that was released, somewhat surprising, she was on the show you just talked about, Indy Hartwell.

Speaker 65 Well, that's what I was going to say. She was just here with her

Speaker 65 sorority sister, Candy.

Speaker 65 And apparently, this was, you know, she goes from being on fucking national TV one week to, ah, we don't need you anymore.

Speaker 63 Hmm.

Speaker 63 Should AEW AEW sign her?

Speaker 63 She has size. She's not one of the small girls.
I believe she's a fan, so maybe, you know, she got the heart in the right place for this.

Speaker 65 Well, a lot of people have their heart in the right place in AEW. It's just their brain that's dislocated about three feet south.

Speaker 63 Some have even had their brain removed, according to reports in The Observer, and then placed back in their head.

Speaker 65 But that's, you know, that was an experimental case, and we cannot blame, you know, because we've we've had a lot of readers, a lot of readers.

Speaker 63 Yeah.

Speaker 63 Yes, reading this newsletter of ours. Yes.

Speaker 65 We've had a lot of listeners that have said to us, they've said,

Speaker 65 where can I go to have this brain procedure done? Because,

Speaker 65 you know, I got some problems with my brain.

Speaker 65 And we can't, we have to tell them, no, it was an experimental procedure done only at the Narita airport in Japan.

Speaker 63 It's in Japan. If you you need to get the surgery done, apparently it's in Japan.
Or at least that's what we've

Speaker 65 you got to go to gate five at Narita Airport and knock three times

Speaker 65 and they'll take you back to the place where they do that operation.

Speaker 63 All right. Some of us would like to get back to that place, but let's, Jim.
All righty, who else did they?

Speaker 65 Who else did they exile? Who else did they send out never to be heard from again? Out into the cold, cruel world.

Speaker 63 The final name on this list,

Speaker 63 Baron Corbin. Ah,

Speaker 65 Baron, we hardly knew ye.

Speaker 63 12 years with WWE.

Speaker 65 Jesus Christ.

Speaker 65 You know, he must be a heck of a nice guy

Speaker 65 that they went to that much trouble and effort to keep him around for 12 fucking years

Speaker 63 it's always weird for me because i grew up in the era of wwf where

Speaker 63 it felt like everyone was there for a long time but when you really look back on it some of their runs are like three years

Speaker 63 two years and they were in and out

Speaker 63 12 years and it's not like an abnormality there are other people that are just there forever you know no disrespect to i'm not saying fire seamus But Seamus has been there for fucking ever.

Speaker 63 You know what I mean? Like there are guys that are just, they're they're on this show forever.

Speaker 63 Kofi Kingston, forever. You've been seeing them on this show.
And

Speaker 63 you never used to have that.

Speaker 65 Baron Corbin, 12 years. That would be the equivalent of in 1996 at the

Speaker 65 start of the boom period, the Attitude Era, whatever, right beforehand. Who was on a roster in 1996 that had been

Speaker 65 there continuously since 1984?

Speaker 65 Besides a Brooklyn brawler.

Speaker 63 Howard Finkel.

Speaker 63 Tito was gone by that point.

Speaker 63 I don't know of anyone in 95. Brett started, I guess, technically, maybe in 84.

Speaker 65 Yeah.

Speaker 65 And he, well, and but again,

Speaker 65 was Brett continuous or didn't he take a break in the mid-80s at some point?

Speaker 65 Nevertheless, it's ridiculous. And that's the byproduct of there only being one place to go.

Speaker 65 And, you know,

Speaker 65 and let's face it,

Speaker 65 I don't think anybody's pushing that Baron Corbin was the in-ring equivalent of Bret Hart or any stars of that particular level.

Speaker 65 But it's, yeah, it's guys. And that's, that's we talked earlier in the program that we did about a developmental program where there was

Speaker 65 the idea was there was going to be different territory so you could rotate talent back and forth and they could get different experiences and you could keep things fresh on your cards. And how

Speaker 65 does this guy in any way get better when you know they sent him back to NXT after he'd been there for 10 years, right?

Speaker 65 The fuck.

Speaker 63 You think he's a prime candidate to get signed by Vince for his new company?

Speaker 65 Well, only if he's,

Speaker 65 you know, wanting to get into the entertainment industry. Because, of course, Vince said he's not going to be in wrestling.
They're going to be producing major motion pictures and fitcoms, baby.

Speaker 63 See, that's the catch when they asked this PR person, is this going to be a wrestling company? Of course, they said no. Vince would never say yes to that.

Speaker 63 It won't be a wrestling company.

Speaker 63 Sounds like a southern thing.

Speaker 65 It's going to be bodybuilding.

Speaker 63 And then

Speaker 65 as soon as we get Luger back under contract.

Speaker 63 Well, there it is. Those are the releases.
Baron Corbin, again, many, many years on the roster. A lot of different different character

Speaker 63 changes.

Speaker 63 Some funny segments.

Speaker 63 Some really scary segments.

Speaker 65 Some really not funny segments.

Speaker 63 But all things considered, a nice run there. We'll see what happens to him.
Obviously, they own the name Baron Corbin. And we'll see what happens to.

Speaker 65 Obviously, would he want it?

Speaker 63 Well, you got to reinvent yourself now. It's a little hard, I would think.
12 months.

Speaker 65 Well, I think he needs to reinvent himself into a whole new profession instead of wrestling. But, you know, again, would you...

Speaker 65 if you were an independent promoter, oh, God, I could have Baron Corbin on my show for only, what, $1,500 if he'd go that low, $2,000?

Speaker 65 What are the kids making these days when they come out of the WWE?

Speaker 65 How is that going to fucking work?

Speaker 65 He needs to be

Speaker 65 somebody. Maybe he could call himself George Hackenschmidt Jr.

Speaker 63 I guess. No, he looked more like Joe Rogers.

Speaker 65 That wouldn't be nice, would it?

Speaker 63 No, no, I don't think that that would be the right thing for him, but we'll see what that is.

Speaker 65 That's not nice at all. But anyway, you know, some of these people.

Speaker 63 Hey, yeah.

Speaker 65 Well, what were you going to say?

Speaker 63 No, I had a separate thing, but finished.

Speaker 65 A separate thing. Well, I'll just say some of these people,

Speaker 65 they need to get out of the wrestling business and they need to come up with a new line of work and a new way to make money and a new...

Speaker 65 A new way to separate the suckers from their cash.

Speaker 63 I don't think we should look at it like that. No.

Speaker 65 Well, you got to sometimes you got to take a little crowbar and you got to pry people's hands out of their pockets with their money in it.

Speaker 65 And then they're happy with the product that you give them.

Speaker 65 See, just like our relationship with the listeners, Brian, the people may think, oh, fuck, I don't want to listen to any more of that cornet, but when they sit down and they're forced to listen to us, then they get a kick out of it.

Speaker 65 So sometimes

Speaker 65 you got to force yourself to do something for your own fucking good, right?

Speaker 65 You proved my point.

Speaker 63 Right.

Speaker 65 Well, in that case, some of these guys, like Baron Corbin, he ought to go to Shopify.

Speaker 65 That's what I'm trying to say.

Speaker 63 And do what? What's he going to do?

Speaker 65 And sell something.

Speaker 63 What's he going to sell?

Speaker 65 Anything besides turnbuckles and monkey flips? Because,

Speaker 65 folks,

Speaker 65 Shopify.

Speaker 65 What are you laughing about? Shopify, nobody does selling better for one thing than Shopify. Ricky Morton doesn't sell like Shopify does.
They're the home of the number one checkout on the planet.

Speaker 65 Shop pay boosts conversions up to 50%.

Speaker 65 You can convert things from one thing to the other thing, and it'll cost you half price. Actually, you know,

Speaker 65 if it boosts it, it means you'll get half again as much.

Speaker 65 And less carts will go abandoned. And then the grocery store parking lots won't be such a hazard to everybody's vehicle.

Speaker 65 But it's all about getting your business out to the consumer and getting your product to the consumer and then checking them out.

Speaker 65 And once you check them out and you've got their money, then you give them the thing and kick them out and send them on their way because you're on to the next customer.

Speaker 65 And you've got to keep this moving. And Shopify is not afraid to be rude.
Once they've got somebody's money and they've got their merchandise, then they're going to kick them right out of the store

Speaker 63 or your website. Well, first of all, that's not how it works.
There is no store. We're talking about websites, and they're not going to kick it.
Well, they'll hang anywhere.

Speaker 63 They're going to work on your behalf to have a pleasurable experience with the customer, not a rude experience where they get kicked out of the store.

Speaker 65 Well, they'll hang up on you if you take too long on the phone, too, because they're about making money. Can't have any of this fucking idle shit shit going on.

Speaker 63 They're about making you money. They're about making money for you, with you, which that's right.

Speaker 65 So So these fucking customers, they're going to have to fork over and get the fuck out.

Speaker 65 But I'll tell you, folks, right now, you can upgrade your business. You can get the same checkout as all the big major players use.
And

Speaker 65 you can find out how that Shopify can integrate and Intify all of your business opportunities together so that you're getting the most out of the least. And they are the host with the most.

Speaker 65 So on the web, in your store, in their feed, in your feelings, and everywhere in between, they're going to get your customers wherever they're scrolling or strolling.

Speaker 65 And if they're trying to scroll while they stroll, even better, they're not paying attention and are more susceptible to being chloroformed and taken behind a building.

Speaker 63 First of all, what? No, that's not.

Speaker 65 Well, we've got to find out if they've got enough money that they can afford what we're trying to sell them. We? We're just going to rifle their pockets a little bit.

Speaker 63 Who's we?

Speaker 65 We and Shopify. I think it's you by yourself.

Speaker 63 Shopify has nothing to do with this nefarious activity. It's all you.

Speaker 65 Shopify will be your partner in taking your business to the next level.

Speaker 65 And I tell you how you can make a deal. You can get a deal.
You can save money. Brian, you want to know how?

Speaker 65 It's this easy. You can get a $1 a month trial period of Shopify.
And all that Shopify provides and all that they

Speaker 65 all they observe, and all that they take in,

Speaker 65 you can have a dollar a month trial period where you can get into the big money and the big bucks and the big business like that, too.

Speaker 65 All you got to do is go to shopify.com slash JCE,

Speaker 65 all lowercase, by the way, for whatever reason, that is very important because they've got all lowercase in capital letters. Shopify.com slash JCE,

Speaker 65 all lowercase, $1 a month trial period, and you

Speaker 65 will be instantly admitted to the wonderland that is Shopify, and you'll retire rich, happy, successful, landowners, and farting through silk.

Speaker 63 No guarantees. No guarantees, but you will have the opportunity with Shopify.

Speaker 65 Well, that's what Vince used to give out was just opportunity. But no, we're going to guarantee, this is a sure thing.

Speaker 65 You're going to become a robber baron, and you'll own probably a dozen railroads and several oil wells with Shopify.

Speaker 63 All right.

Speaker 65 Every time that that happens,

Speaker 65 not only does a dollar bill come out the side, but also an angel gets its wings.

Speaker 65 All righty then. What in the world is going on over at the Arcadian Vanguard Network this week?

Speaker 63 Before we go any further with the crown jewels, another fine week of programming on the Arcadian Vanguard Podcast Network.

Speaker 63 Oh, that was very nice there at the end. Get information about all the shows on Twitter at Super Podcasts or on Facebook at facebook.com slash Arcadian Vanguard.
Why am I smiling from here to here?

Speaker 63 I can't stop laughing already.

Speaker 63 Of course, if you want to get away from the hilarity and have serious wrestling talk with just the news.

Speaker 65 If you want to be depressed and if you want to be morose.

Speaker 63 If you are wrestling news with no opinion, no star ratings, just the actual news, just the facts.

Speaker 65 No guff.

Speaker 65 No guff. No nonsense.
No who shot John.

Speaker 63 No guff, but get your stuff from the wrestling news.

Speaker 63 Directly from the wrestlingnews.com or wherever you find your favorite podcast. I'm cracking myself up today.

Speaker 63 Wherever you find your favorite podcast, look for the wrestling news.

Speaker 63 Of course, stick to wrestling with John McAdam and Shut Up and Wrestle with Brian Solomon, wherever you find your favorite podcast. And the 605 Super Podcast, the

Speaker 63 Mothership.

Speaker 63 Go through the archive605pod.com. Available wherever we find, wherever you find your favorite podcast.

Speaker 65 Wherever. it'll be found sooner or later, probably floating in the river.

Speaker 63 The mothership.

Speaker 65 All righty, speaking of mothership. So the

Speaker 65 WWE took the big airship,

Speaker 65 the big Zeppelin, they flew across the oceans and into the Saudi Arabia land.

Speaker 65 And they did another episode of Crown Jewel.

Speaker 65 And,

Speaker 65 Brian, my first question is:

Speaker 65 do every arena, do every arena, does every arena, or do all the arenas in Saudi Arabia look like airplane hangars? Is it,

Speaker 65 I mean, I know it's not a budget concern. They've got more money than has ever been printed over there,

Speaker 65 but they just look like the, like the big, you see the big ceiling. It's like a big airplane hanger.

Speaker 65 Is it just a difference in architecture and the culture, culture, or what's going on over there? Are you an expert in this field?

Speaker 63 I'm not an expert in the arena situation in Saudi Arabia.

Speaker 63 No, and when you say they have all the money, you mean the ruling family, I assume, because I don't think it's the people, it's the family that rules the country.

Speaker 63 Yes, but they can have all the oil money, they can build all the shit.

Speaker 65 They got big buildings over there, they do. They can build all the shit, people just can't afford to live in them.

Speaker 65 Well, that's amazing.

Speaker 63 So,

Speaker 65 and the announcers, it was this,

Speaker 65 because I say this every time we watch one of these shows, but I feel like they're changing these fucking guys' names. But every time

Speaker 65 that I say that wasn't Fubar, Makafakalube, and Slapco Fud.

Speaker 65 Then somebody will write and say, no, it's the same announcers we always had.

Speaker 65 But this did not look like Fubar and Slapco. Slapco.

Speaker 63 I believe it was Fubar and Slapco once again.

Speaker 65 Are they just calling them different names every time?

Speaker 63 Well, their names are not Fubar and Slapco for the record. You gave them those names.
Those are not their actual names.

Speaker 65 Well, but they seem like they have different names every time we see them.

Speaker 65 So regardless of whether they're the names that I gave them or the names that their parents gave them.

Speaker 65 They got different fucking names. What are they trying to stay ahead of the law?

Speaker 63 Thanks for being here tonight. Now let's show you our Saudi Arabia announced team, who you will only see on these shows and nowhere else ever.

Speaker 65 Ever.

Speaker 65 Well, now, to be honest, there's not a lot of call to have

Speaker 65 Raw from

Speaker 65 fucking Tyler, Texas, translated into

Speaker 65 Arabic, is there?

Speaker 63 Well, there probably is, but probably not live. I guess you could do that in the studio the way they used to do it with you and Vince hanging out and having fun on Monday nights.

Speaker 65 That's a live. Vince never did learn Arabic.

Speaker 65 Anyway, the crown jewel event opened.

Speaker 65 And should we make this mention generally before we begin the blow-by-blow description that I said to you earlier today, this was probably

Speaker 65 the best two-hour pro wrestling program that I've seen in I don't know how long. Problem was it took four hours.

Speaker 65 Do you think that was because

Speaker 65 there was some of the matches were very good. Nothing was

Speaker 65 except one thing was really stankifying,

Speaker 65 but it took so long to get to anything. And

Speaker 65 is that, did they feel like I get maybe they're paying them by the hour. Maybe it was 12.5 million an hour.

Speaker 65 So they had to

Speaker 65 help me. What's going on here, Brian, with the just the

Speaker 65 pace, the glacial pace?

Speaker 63 This has been the pacing of their big events for a while where they go for several hours, but you only get a few matches and there's long commercial breaks, either in-house commercial breaks or actual commercials.

Speaker 63 In this case, for tourism, for Saudi Arabia, because that's where I want to go on my next vacation to a nice, relaxing vacation in Saudi Arabia. Where they just throw people off roofs.
That's all.

Speaker 65 Fuck Pigeon Forge. I'm going over to.

Speaker 65 Well, anyway,

Speaker 65 they couldn't put the Bloodline on last because the World Champion versus World Champion had to go on last. So

Speaker 65 they bookended things with the other big feature match, the Bloodline versus the Bloodline,

Speaker 65 with Solo and Jacob and Tama versus Roman and the Usos. And do you think poor Loa has figured it out by now? That they just have no confidence in him whatsoever?

Speaker 63 He's just got to be happy to be there.

Speaker 63 That's what I think.

Speaker 65 If it makes you happy.

Speaker 63 Well, that doesn't.

Speaker 65 Then go ahead and keep getting paid.

Speaker 65 So

Speaker 65 Roman and Jimmy got an entrance, and then Jay

Speaker 65 got his own entrance with the waving and the yeeting. And you got to say, the crowd that was there, do you remember the other Saudi Arabia crowds being this fucking over the top?

Speaker 65 When they started, it was a little reserved, reserved, right? And then they've kind of got with it. But boy, these people wanted to see everything.

Speaker 63 Well, they were chanting and stuff. I remember them going crazy for different people in the past.
Sami Zayn got a big reaction, but again, Jey Uso came through the crowd.

Speaker 65 Well, yes, but I mean, they were hot for almost everything that was in any way remotely entertaining on this program. They were, they knew all the words.
How many people in Saudi Arabia speak English?

Speaker 65 Or do you think that they're doing the Saudi Arabian equivalent of the the fucking Filipino guy that Journey got to take Steve Perry's place, where he could make the vocal sounds, but he couldn't speak English, so he was

Speaker 65 just phonetically doing the fucking songs?

Speaker 63 I think a lot of people know English. I think it's one of the languages that a lot of people throughout the world are taught.
And in a lot of cases throughout the world, those...

Speaker 63 You know, the kids who grew up in different countries are taught multiple languages.

Speaker 63 As opposed to us who learn English and then, you know, drop Spanish in 10th grade.

Speaker 65 But nevertheless, they're singing. They love to sing over there because they only get a couple of these a year.
So it's still kind of fresh in their

Speaker 65 minds. So they love this.
But

Speaker 65 the crowd was great.

Speaker 65 And then they rang the bell, as the old saying got, no, they rang the bell 20 minutes into the program for the first match.

Speaker 65 And

Speaker 65 I mean, you can tell me what you thought of the match in a minute.

Speaker 65 And And to be honest,

Speaker 65 there wasn't much match there, but the crowd was so easy.

Speaker 65 I jotted down. I said they're working a spot show match, which

Speaker 65 in the territory days, if you'd go to a spot show that didn't get a show very often and they were popping on headlocks and arm drags,

Speaker 65 that's great. You shine the baby faces, let them do

Speaker 65 stuff that makes them look good and

Speaker 65 body slams and drop kicks, and hip tosses, and stuff. And then you get some heat,

Speaker 65 and nobody takes too many risks, but people are loving it anyway. And then you do your finish, or whatever, because

Speaker 65 I try to tell the Ring of Honor guys this

Speaker 65 at some point,

Speaker 65 a number of points. How much louder can they scream?

Speaker 65 Right? So that's where you gauge your performance based on the crowd.

Speaker 65 And

Speaker 65 if you're in Milwaukee and there's 500 people,

Speaker 65 you know, don't risk life, limb, and property, but you do shit that they'll be happy with. They're already screaming.
How much louder can they scream?

Speaker 65 Now, having said that,

Speaker 65 while as a former booker, promoter, and performer, I understand that principle.

Speaker 65 Then a big-ass fucking crowd,

Speaker 65 and the company got paid $50 million.

Speaker 65 So

Speaker 65 they kind of worked through this kind of flat-footed, but until the finish,

Speaker 65 there wasn't really anything going on that

Speaker 65 you were hanging on the edge of your seat about, was there?

Speaker 63 I said it when we talked about SmackDown. I like the segments with them where they're talking to each other and things are progressing.

Speaker 63 And the finishes of the matches usually have some kind of story.

Speaker 63 The matches themselves go on forever. They're not always paced right,

Speaker 63 at least for me.

Speaker 63 And

Speaker 63 once you brought up all the sloppiness with the Usos, that's all I see now.

Speaker 65 You can't look away from it now, can you?

Speaker 63 It's your fault. You brought it up and now I can't unsee it.

Speaker 65 Well, that's because it slapped me in the face when I first saw it. Just like their punches that are open-handed slaps to the face.

Speaker 65 I can't not see it because

Speaker 65 I operated a training program.

Speaker 63 But yeah, the match I thought was a little lacking,

Speaker 63 but it's not really about the matches when it comes to the bloodline.

Speaker 65 And that's basically

Speaker 65 they got basic, you know, long heat on Jay, and then finally they had kept Roman out for the whole match. It was either Jay or Jimmy.
And then finally, Jay tagged Roman and got a big pop.

Speaker 65 I mean, it's working.

Speaker 65 And then it was Roman against Solo. and Roman made, they did a big one-two exchange, and then Roman made his comeback, but the other four guys had all just disappeared.
It's like somebody out

Speaker 65 in the crowd has a tranquilizer dart at some point in the guy.

Speaker 65 But Roman hits Superman punch and went for the spear, but Solo hit the spike

Speaker 65 and covered him. And then poor old Jimmy, he'd waited all that time for his spot, and he was late for the save, and the referee had to hold up to count.

Speaker 63 At least the camera wasn't completely on it, so they were able to almost make you think, oh, maybe he got him and I just couldn't see it.

Speaker 65 But I'll tell you, if this had been Brooklyn, the crowd would have booed the shit out of it. But these people are just like, ooh, should that have happened?

Speaker 63 If they boo, they better watch out. They better watch for back on the way home.

Speaker 65 Well, yeah, because you can't boo an official government project.

Speaker 65 But he'd been gone for five minutes and he came in late on the fucking anyway. So then the other four guys jumped in at 100 miles per hour.
They went back and forth. And

Speaker 65 finally, Roman grabbed Tama and threw him onto the referee.

Speaker 65 But then Jacob leveled Roman and hit that sweet, sweet moonsault.

Speaker 65 And then it did a dive on both Usos out

Speaker 65 on the floor. And Solo spiked Roman twice and covered him in one, two, three.

Speaker 65 And I'm like, ooh.

Speaker 65 And again, I agree with Solo beating Roman.

Speaker 65 If either of the Usos had lost, it wouldn't have the impact. And if anybody but Solo got the pin,

Speaker 65 it wouldn't be what they're trying to do.

Speaker 65 But I thought this was somewhat,

Speaker 65 again, nobody really gets a fucking out anymore.

Speaker 65 And then the heels got some more heat and they cleared off the desk and they were going to power bomb Roman through the desk, but Jay stopped them.

Speaker 65 But then they got on Jay and they put him in the corner with the chair around his neck, and they're going to do the ass in the face at the

Speaker 65 chair and a thing. But Sammy's music plays.

Speaker 65 And Sammy comes to the ring, and Sammy and Solo

Speaker 65 are standing there talking to each other.

Speaker 65 But now, meanwhile, Jay is in the corner sitting motionless, upright with a chair around his neck.

Speaker 65 Brian,

Speaker 65 I've recovered from goddamn knee surgery. When I was coming out of the anesthetic, I was able to fucking take a chair off my head.

Speaker 65 But anyway, sitting right there, and then Sammy looks at Jay,

Speaker 65 but then he goes to hug Solo.

Speaker 65 And as he goes, giving the hug, he gives him the suplex. And then the heels get on Sammy.

Speaker 65 But now all the baby faces get up, including Jay taking the chair off his head. And they dump the heels,

Speaker 65 and Solo is trapped in the middle with all four of the the baby faces, Jimmy and Jay and Roman and Sammy.

Speaker 65 And at the same time, Roman and Sammy charge for Solo.

Speaker 65 Solo moves and Sammy just knocks the shit out of Roman with the big kick.

Speaker 65 And then Jimmy's pissed and Jay's trying to get in between them and the heels are lying. They leave.

Speaker 65 So it, again, a bump in the road to true domestic bliss here.

Speaker 65 But like you say, the match,

Speaker 65 it was the finish and a reason to do the angle. And they'll

Speaker 65 have a package of the angle on

Speaker 65 Raw and

Speaker 65 move from there.

Speaker 63 You know, it's interesting to think that here, two years after the fact, I think that's how long it's been. They're going to pull

Speaker 63 Zami Zane. They're going to pull Sami Zayn back into this.

Speaker 63 But I guess if you're going to...

Speaker 63 Really a Bloodline versus Bloodline, he is one of the... Now that Romans, all of a sudden we're forgetting what a prick he was to everyone.

Speaker 65 Yeah.

Speaker 63 You know, now Sammy has to try to prove himself to Roman because he accidentally just hit him. And

Speaker 63 we'll see where it goes. Interesting.

Speaker 65 And Sammy was one of the most popular members of the Bloodline when they were heels.

Speaker 63 Maybe he'll get his win back over Roman. Remember, everyone flipped him.
Everyone.

Speaker 63 Remember, there were certain fans, certain smart fans flipping out when he didn't beat Roman Reigns in Montreal for the title? Yes.

Speaker 65 Everybody in Quebec and San Jose were offended.

Speaker 63 That's right.

Speaker 5 WashableSofas.com has your back, featuring the Annibay Collection, the only designer sofa that's machine-washable inside and out, where designer quality meets budget-friendly prices.

Speaker 11 That's right.

Speaker 12 Sofas started just $699.

Speaker 32 Check out washable sofas.com and get up to 60% off your Anibay sofa, backed by a 30-day satisfaction guarantee.

Speaker 49 At washablesofas.com, you'll find the Anibay sofa, which combines ultimate comfort and design at an affordable price.

Speaker 54 And get this, it's the only sofa that's fully machine washable from top to bottom, starting at only $699.

Speaker 12 Perfect for anyone with kids, kids, pets, or anyone who loves an easy-to-clean, spotless sofa.

Speaker 62 Whether you need a single chair, love seat, or a luxuriously large sectional, Anibay has you covered.

Speaker 46 Visit washablesofas.com to upgrade your home.

Speaker 40 Shop now at washable sofas.com.

Speaker 65 But anyway, so that was the opening contest. And where do you go from there? Well, you go straight to the Women's Tag Team Championship four-team four-way match

Speaker 65 with damage control against Lash LaRue and Jakarta Jackson against Piper and Chelsea, against Bianca and Jade.

Speaker 65 Brian, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you might have glossed over this contest.

Speaker 63 I saw the doomsday device.

Speaker 65 You could see the end of the world from this match. I don't know about doomsday,

Speaker 65 but

Speaker 65 why do they're making custom outfits for the girls now, the full bodysuits, instead of remember when they first started the first show or two, they were either wearing like

Speaker 65 a scuba outfit or sweatpants and a sweatshirt?

Speaker 65 But now they're actually making

Speaker 65 custom outfits for the girls.

Speaker 65 Can anybody just come out and say, what the fuck is wrong with those people over there?

Speaker 63 In WWE, no, they're not allowed to say that.

Speaker 65 No, I mean, just anybody come out and say, hey, Saudi Arabia, what the fuck?

Speaker 65 Here's goddamn

Speaker 65 all these guys out here with more nipples than at a dairy farm. You can see those.
They're in their normal attire, but the women have to wear beekeeper outfits.

Speaker 65 What the fuck is wrong with those people over there?

Speaker 65 I'm not going anywhere that it is illegal for me to wear my clothing.

Speaker 65 Are you?

Speaker 63 Oh, no, there's plenty of reasons I won't be going to Saudi Arabia anytime ever. No.

Speaker 65 Well, I don't mean this specific place. If they have a law that says that you are not allowed to wear what you've got in your closet at home, is that a place you want to fucking go?

Speaker 63 No.

Speaker 65 Well, there you go.

Speaker 63 See? Especially if it's Saudi Arabia. That's my point.

Speaker 65 Well, that's mine, too. So high-five.

Speaker 65 All righty, the next match was the long-awaited contest between

Speaker 65 formerly Mr. Nice Guy and now human-wrecking machine Bronson Reed against our old friend Seth Franklin Rollins.

Speaker 65 And we must have, we have, you especially, you've become a fan of the chaos and the

Speaker 65 antisocial behavior and destruction that the human Godzilla film that Bronson Reed is has been wreaking across the

Speaker 65 WWE universe, right?

Speaker 63 He's like an aggressive Jerry Blackwell with bad tattoos. I like it.

Speaker 65 He needs Jerry Blackwell's afro, the curly fucking whole thing. Well, it actually

Speaker 65 it encompassed both sides of Blackwell, because he had the beard, so both sides of his head are top and bottom or whatever.

Speaker 65 It was just like a giant array of hair around his

Speaker 65 circular around his face, wasn't it?

Speaker 63 I liked it too when he wore the bumblebee outfit. It's just yellow and black.
He looked like a giant bumblebee.

Speaker 65 Yes, and that, well, because that's what the boys fucking call, you know where that came from, right? That was an inside rib.

Speaker 63 It was a get, get, didn't he wear a mask and actually wrestle as the bumblebee once?

Speaker 65 Well, yes, because in Knoxville, Southeastern, he lost a loser leave town match and came back as the Canadian Bumblebee in a fucking black and yellow outfit. But the boys said

Speaker 65 in his outfit, he looked like a bumblebee. He was so short and so round, but he could fly.
So he looked like a bumblebee.

Speaker 63 Like Bronson Reed, he could fly.

Speaker 65 Like Bronson Reed.

Speaker 65 Anyway, they have because this was a grudge match and

Speaker 65 blood was bad and tempers were flaring, they did a jumpstart in the aisleway.

Speaker 65 But here, I started keeping track because this was the third match right on the show.

Speaker 65 It started an hour and 20 minutes into this pay-per-view, the third match.

Speaker 65 And that was not all match time.

Speaker 65 Not by any stretch of the imagination.

Speaker 65 So anyway,

Speaker 65 they jump start in the aisle. They fight to the stage.
They fight down the ramp.

Speaker 65 When they get to the ring, Seth rolls in the ring so he can dive back out.

Speaker 65 And I'm like, what the? This is starting like an AEW match. What the fuck?

Speaker 65 And then Bronson Reed lawn darted

Speaker 65 Seth over the barricade into the timekeeper's pit, into a chair, and then ran him into the stairs and enrolled him in the ring. And the the referee rang the bell to start the match.

Speaker 65 Were we just talking about that last week in AEW?

Speaker 65 That they've come up with this thing that they're just all now doing like it's part of the rules that

Speaker 65 the guys can come out and drop like Agent Orange and nuclear missiles on each other before the bell rings, but then once that

Speaker 65 They get both get in the ring, as long as they still have 50% of their appendages attached to their body, the referee rings rings the bell, starts the match like, okay, we're starting now.

Speaker 65 When did this start happening?

Speaker 63 I don't know, but I was at the WCW show at the Paramount in 1993. An infamous disaster of a show, but Ric Flair couldn't make it.

Speaker 63 It was a disaster of a show.

Speaker 65 But Ron Simmons. Was he trying, by the way?

Speaker 63 Apparently, he couldn't make it because of the weather. He couldn't fly in.
But Ron Simmons and Chris Benoit, for like 90 seconds, two minutes, had a wild match around the ringside.

Speaker 63 And then the New York State Athletic Commission stopped it.

Speaker 63 Can't go on anymore. It's too wild.

Speaker 65 Now instead, they start the match, and then they get in the ring.

Speaker 65 But they started hot here in the ring. Bronson Reed missed a splash off, or did a splash off the top, but missed the second one.

Speaker 65 And then Seth...

Speaker 65 hit his curb stomp and got a two count. So I was like, what the fuck?

Speaker 65 Where do they go from here? Because they've been fighting all outside the ring and around the ring, and now they get in and trade their finishes, and they've just started.

Speaker 65 And so then they did shit back and forth, and then Reed started getting some heat.

Speaker 65 And he got heat on Seth, and then Seth kind of made it come back, but it slowed way down

Speaker 65 because it had to. They started at 100 miles an hour.

Speaker 65 And then they went back and forth where Bronson Reed would take back over and

Speaker 65 Power Bomb or Death Valley Driver, get a two count or superplex off the top rope and get a two count.

Speaker 65 But I guess the problem I had was that they started.

Speaker 65 It's hard to start at 100 miles an hour with a guy that weighs 350 pounds and expect

Speaker 65 the rest of it not to be 25 miles an hour.

Speaker 65 But then finally,

Speaker 65 Reed picked up the stairs and he went to hit Seth with them, but Seth Seth tried to clip Bronson Reed's leg, but he came from the front and kind of slapped his thigh.

Speaker 65 And then

Speaker 65 Reed kind of went down to his knees and fell face first into the stairs that he was holding.

Speaker 65 And it didn't look good because it's hard to do. And also, I think he got either...

Speaker 65 tatered himself with that or when Seth gave him the stomp on the stairs, busted his eye open.

Speaker 65 And then he rolled him in the ring and gave him a curb stomp. And then he went to the top and gave him another curb stomp.
One, two, three.

Speaker 65 So again,

Speaker 65 it slowed down. And then the whole finish with the face into the stairs, I don't, did you?

Speaker 65 It didn't translate because

Speaker 65 he didn't want to fucking hurt Bronson Reed by clipping his leg out from under him, really, but he was coming from the front. And that's harder to do.
And Reed had that weight over his head.

Speaker 65 So the point is, is can it blah?

Speaker 65 And then three curb stomps. And the fans loved it.
The fans loved everything here.

Speaker 65 But I don't know whether this was just the greatest thing ever or not.

Speaker 65 Am I mellowing in my old age?

Speaker 63 I mean, it was a lot for their big match. It was a grudge match.
I guess it'll continue because they had the little bit of a face-off at the end. Good visual of Bronson Reed having the blood.

Speaker 63 I think it was from the stomp on the stairs. At least that's what I thought watching it.

Speaker 63 I don't know. I mean, I guess the surprising thing is Rollins going over

Speaker 63 cleanly.

Speaker 63 What do you think of that?

Speaker 65 Well, I mean,

Speaker 65 in modern-day wrestling and modern-day WWE,

Speaker 65 pretty much either the heel wins or the babyface wins. Almost everything is clean in some fashion or another.

Speaker 65 Maybe somebody distracts somebody and makes them look like an idiot, and then the other guy just hits his finish. But

Speaker 65 a lot of this thing, yeah, I'll just hit him with my finish three or four times in a row, and then the fans will cheer when I get the pin.

Speaker 65 It wasn't as bad as what would follow.

Speaker 65 Is that a fair assumption?

Speaker 63 I don't recall what followed.

Speaker 65 The women's title match between the refrigerator and Liv Morgan.

Speaker 63 Oh, you didn't like this?

Speaker 65 Oh, come on.

Speaker 65 Look, I know

Speaker 65 they figure we got to gimmick this thing up.

Speaker 65 Little smoke and mirrors. It's going to be a clash of styles.
It's going to be a clash of sizes. It's going to be

Speaker 65 a 12-year-old scuba diver fighting a pissed-off parade float

Speaker 65 is what it's going to look like.

Speaker 65 I'm with them that they had to try to, you know, disguise a little bit of this, but this was

Speaker 65 an opus

Speaker 65 to how many fucking things can we put into one match to disguise the fact that the match straight up would be the shits.

Speaker 65 And it was so much.

Speaker 65 You like this?

Speaker 63 Oh, no. I thought.

Speaker 63 Oh, no. You know, it wasn't really my.

Speaker 65 That's not nice.

Speaker 63 I'm not a big Nia Jax fan. And

Speaker 63 you're an asshole.

Speaker 63 You know that what Pop was saying, and then you said it. I'm not a big fan of the Nia Jax matches, no.

Speaker 63 And Liv Morgan, the nice thing was she seemed very touched for a heel.

Speaker 63 She seemed very overjoyed as a childhood wrestling fan that she was the first Saudi Arabian Crown Jewel Championship winner.

Speaker 65 I would have enjoyed this if I'd have been the one to touch her.

Speaker 63 You haven't even discussed yet the idea that after weeks of building it up,

Speaker 63 Cody, Gunther, and then this match, no one wins the actual belt.

Speaker 65 Oh, yes. Well, it's just come up.

Speaker 63 Okay, I guess it'll come up. Let's go back to you.

Speaker 65 David, back to you.

Speaker 63 Back to you, Jim.

Speaker 65 Well, thank you, Dave.

Speaker 65 The fucking belts now, we are come to be told. The belts will stay in Saudi Arabia and be on display there.
But the winner gets a nice ring he can wear around all year long.

Speaker 65 And then next year, they're going to have another match for another belt that they don't get to fucking keep and take home.

Speaker 65 I wonder if, do you think Saudi Arabia made those things and they're fucking real?

Speaker 65 And they're really worth like a couple of hundred grand or whatever it might be. And they don't.

Speaker 63 And they pay for real security to carry them to all these tapings. We've been seeing like security guards carry it.

Speaker 65 Yes, I wondered if that's not a gimmick.

Speaker 63 When they showed the close-up on this event, I was like, are those real jewels? They really fooled me, so I don't know.

Speaker 65 Well, I mean, because,

Speaker 65 again,

Speaker 65 I guess it's racist to say Indian givers, and they're Arabs anyway, don't have anything to do with India.

Speaker 63 Yeah, that whole sentence was wrong.

Speaker 65 Well, and that's why I didn't say it. But I'll tell you one thing,

Speaker 65 the people that win the belts ain't going to get to take the belts home. And that would piss off a lot of fucking people back in the old days.

Speaker 63 So the person who wins next year, do they get a new belt that they get to hold for one night?

Speaker 65 No, I think they've just made these belts and now they're on display in Saudi Arabia if you want to swing by and look at them. But the champions get a ring every year.

Speaker 63 So, every year that you get to celebrate with the original belt, you hold it up in the air, you get your photos, and then you give it back.

Speaker 65 Well, you get to hold it up in the air if Triple H is helping you because it's so fucking big, Liv couldn't pick it up by herself.

Speaker 63 They're going to do this every year where the weeks leading up to Crown Jewel, there's just, you know, these security guards carrying a large case of a championship which they held longer than the champion

Speaker 65 you are you are correct sir yes sir

Speaker 65 well congratulations live morgan it's good it's good business for the guys in the suits that have the white gloves that carry the things around

Speaker 65 But so this the whole thing and by the way match number four They're picking up time It started only an hour and 45 minutes into the show

Speaker 65 but

Speaker 65 they had somewhat of what could be described as an attempt at a match. And then

Speaker 65 Liv got a sunset flip power bomb type of thing off the turnbuckle, and both of them were down.

Speaker 65 And here came Tiffy

Speaker 65 with her briefcase, and she was going to cash in.

Speaker 65 But as she, you know, as she's trying to give it to the referee, she turns around and realizes, oh, the refrigerator is up and confronts her.

Speaker 65 And

Speaker 65 old Nia Jax backed Tiffy up all the way around the ring. And as they got to the complete other side,

Speaker 65 Nia was looking over her shoulder, like, am I standing in the right place I'm supposed to be? And so she was obviously positioning herself.

Speaker 65 And then

Speaker 65 Liv runs and jumps out and kicks her and then goes for a dive, but the fridge nails her and tells Tiffy to get the fuck out of there.

Speaker 65 And Tiffy starts leaving.

Speaker 65 And the fridge gives Liv a stiff Samoan drop.

Speaker 65 And I mean, a stiff one, and Liv rolled her up in a crucifix out of the stiff Samoan drop and got a two count.

Speaker 65 If it was real, Liv would have still been collecting her spleen.

Speaker 65 But now

Speaker 65 they were both selling, and

Speaker 65 Jax was selling the roll-up. Bigger than Liv was selling the Samoan drop, and Tiffy comes back down with the briefcase.

Speaker 65 And the refrigerator slams Liv, but Tiffy tries to cash in now.

Speaker 65 But there comes Rochelle Rochelle,

Speaker 65 aka Rachel Rodriguez, or Raquel Rodriguez.

Speaker 63 Raquel Rodriguez.

Speaker 63 You keep saying Rachel.

Speaker 65 Or Raquel Welch.

Speaker 65 Well, she grabbed the case, and she and Tiffy had a tug of war with it.

Speaker 65 And then, apparently, from what I can deduce and determine as

Speaker 65 a former industry professional with decades of experience,

Speaker 65 it seems to me that if I would have been calling the finish as I saw it happening,

Speaker 65 that

Speaker 65 Jax was supposed to reach over the top rope to grab a hold

Speaker 65 of Rodriguez to try to get her off of Tiffy.

Speaker 65 And then Rodriguez was going to snap Jax's head over the rope, right? And Jax would stagger back,

Speaker 65 and then Liv would come off the turnbuckle with her double knee move thingy.

Speaker 65 That's what I deduced that it was supposed to be, but instead

Speaker 65 The fridge leaned under the top rope and reached over the second rope to grab Raquel. So when Raquel tried to snap her head over the rope, it wasn't over the rope.

Speaker 65 And there was, and so

Speaker 65 Jax just stood up and staggered back anyway. Did you see that spot?

Speaker 63 Oh, of course I saw that spot.

Speaker 65 Do you think I'm on the right track as to what I'm deducing that it should have been?

Speaker 63 What are you deducing?

Speaker 65 That it should have been over the top rope.

Speaker 63 I think so.

Speaker 65 But she leaned under the top rope.

Speaker 65 at two count.

Speaker 65 And I'm like, Jesus, how much more of this?

Speaker 65 So then

Speaker 65 Rachel backed Tiffany up,

Speaker 65 but Liv jumped out on the floor. But Jax came and belly bumped Liv and Rachel into Tiffy

Speaker 65 and then got back in the ring. And the Fridge did a leg drop and went for the bonsai.

Speaker 65 But Dominic appeared and slid the briefcase in and drew the referee.

Speaker 65 And Rachel kicked

Speaker 65 the fridge off the ropes. And Liv hit her finish, the oblivion,

Speaker 65 where she jumps into the ropes and then drags the girl down face first. But

Speaker 65 old Nia Jax did a forward roll.

Speaker 65 Just like a forward roll, like a kid rolled on the mattress, boom, and she got covered one, two, three.

Speaker 65 And I wrote, oh good god

Speaker 63 was this kind of a mess or is it just me being picky oh I thought you turned into 1992 Dallas page good god oh good god

Speaker 63 um

Speaker 63 I mean it's Nia Jax and there was sloppiness all around and around and abound

Speaker 63 and live one and she was very happy to win The other heels seemed very happy for her.

Speaker 63 And that was that.

Speaker 63 And then Triple H came in.

Speaker 65 Yes, and that's where he had to help her hold her hand up with the belt because it was so big, she couldn't fucking get it up in the air by herself.

Speaker 63 What do you think of Triple H having this role, so public,

Speaker 63 I guess, such a public role where not only is he the executive producer on the screen, but he now does like the Dana White thing where he's presenting people with belts.

Speaker 63 He's doing all the things. Not only did Vince never do that stuff, no WWE president, like ever did that stuff.

Speaker 65 I like it because it's more real. It's more credible.
It is a Dana White thing that the UFC has established, and

Speaker 65 it's combat sports oriented. And there's nothing the matter.

Speaker 65 In the old days, when nobody was supposed to know it was a work,

Speaker 65 then if the active wrestler or even retired wrestler who was kind of the booker

Speaker 65 in a territory coming out and doing that, especially if he'd been a heel or whatever,

Speaker 65 it may have given away too much. But

Speaker 65 since everybody knows now, Triple H has been retired for a while. He's the son-in-law.
They know his public role. I think it kind of makes it more legitimate in that respect that it's more

Speaker 65 sports-like, and he's an ex-jock. He's moved into

Speaker 65 the commissionership or whatever the fuck. So I think this works and everybody knows who he is.

Speaker 65 But that's just my opinion.

Speaker 63 All right.

Speaker 65 Would you like my opinion on the next match?

Speaker 63 What was the next match?

Speaker 65 Kevin Owens versus Randy Orton.

Speaker 63 Oh, yeah, I'm really curious, actually, what you think of if this is indeed a match. What you think of this?

Speaker 65 Well,

Speaker 65 if this was a traditional pay-per-view where people paid money and it was going to be the blow-off of something highly anticipated, I'd say,

Speaker 65 ah, fuck, this was bullshit. But

Speaker 65 because they,

Speaker 65 did we mention they made $50 million?

Speaker 65 And the people in the building

Speaker 65 were ecstatic at everything they saw. And even the people at home couldn't complain because

Speaker 65 there wasn't much difference in this and a match. It was just a fight.
But most of the matches now are all fights anyway.

Speaker 65 So

Speaker 65 for the people who didn't see it, this is what they did.

Speaker 65 Orton comes out

Speaker 65 and the fans again were singing his song big and he milked every bit of it. I mean, I didn't put the clock on his entrance, but he took a while to get out there because why not?

Speaker 65 They can't scream any louder.

Speaker 65 And

Speaker 65 Orton had come, or Orton, Owens had come out in a Bob Orton Jr. shirt.
And he did that the other night on SmackDown that we talked about earlier when

Speaker 65 he was wearing a Dusty Rhodes shirt. Now he's wearing a Bob Orton Jr.
shirt. So he's wearing the shirts of the fathers of the people that

Speaker 65 have turned on him or whatever.

Speaker 65 But as Orton starts to, and by the way, for those of you who are keeping track, fifth match, two hours and eight minutes into the show.

Speaker 65 But Orton gets up onto ropes to do his pose and his deal.

Speaker 65 And Owens gets him with a chair from behind and nails him a couple times.

Speaker 65 And they go to the floor, and Orton starts fighting back, and he drops Owens on the desk, and then Owens fights back, and Orton is selling his bad leg.

Speaker 65 And Owens is nailing him with chairs, and then the referee grabs the chair, so Owens stunners the referee.

Speaker 65 And then Orton gets the chair, and he wears Owens out with it. And the agents start running out, and the announcers say, well, they've waived the match off.

Speaker 65 And at least they didn't fight for 10 10 minutes and then get in the ring and ring the bell.

Speaker 65 But Orton dropped Owens on the desk again and

Speaker 65 threw Sean Davari out and DDT'd Owens. But here came Pierce and Aldiss in, and Orton gave Pierce the RKO.

Speaker 65 And then they fought over the rail into the arena. And there's Owens is beating the shit out of Orton with an equipment case.
And

Speaker 65 then finally, to put a

Speaker 65 period or an exclamation point on it, Owens goes up into the crowd, the

Speaker 65 raised seating section and comes off a platform, off of a railing, onto Orton through a table.

Speaker 65 And then they both lay there and cell, and that's

Speaker 65 which again,

Speaker 65 I know they love doing it. It's just so much fun to do that.

Speaker 65 But how does it get heat on you as a heel

Speaker 65 to lay the baby face out when you're laying there too?

Speaker 65 You fucked yourself up.

Speaker 65 Nobody has to get even with you.

Speaker 65 You got even with yourself.

Speaker 65 If Orton could give him the

Speaker 65 elbow drop or whatever through the table, and there's Orton in a quivering heap of jelly, and Owens is standing over him going, ha ha ha ha,

Speaker 65 that's heat.

Speaker 65 But if they're both laying there fucking ready for the goddamn meat wagon to the hospital, is anybody mad at anybody at that point?

Speaker 65 Tell me your thoughts.

Speaker 63 My thoughts are that this was a non-match to save the match for

Speaker 63 Royal Rumble or something.

Speaker 65 I believe we mentioned at first it was awful quick to do this, didn't we?

Speaker 63 Yeah.

Speaker 63 But it was good. Maybe they agreed with us.
But, you know, Rollins and Bronson Reed, they gave a finish too. Rollins won.
Here, they didn't want anyone to lose yet. So they did this.

Speaker 63 And the way they just kind of fade out and go to a commercial

Speaker 63 on these pay-per-views now is crazy. I mean, you can kind of get away with any non-ending if that's what you're going to do.

Speaker 65 Can you imagine if there was a basketball game and two guys, one guy was going for a dunk, and the other guy was going to try to reject that attempt.

Speaker 65 And they collided heads and fell on the ground and their brains fucking splattered out and their blood was trailing everywhere.

Speaker 65 And the announcers said, Both men are

Speaker 65 look like they may be dead. And they just faded to black.
And when they came back, they were playing another game with other teams, and they never talked about it again.

Speaker 63 They wouldn't do that, no.

Speaker 65 I wonder why they wouldn't do that. It worked out well here.

Speaker 65 Anyway.

Speaker 65 We now have come, Brian, to the time

Speaker 65 where the United States Heavyweight Championship will be on the line with LA Knight defending against Andrade and Carmelo Hayes.

Speaker 65 It reminded me, Brian, of a song. Would you like to hear the song?

Speaker 63 No, oh no, no, no, no.

Speaker 65 Let's all go to the lobby. Let's all go to the lobby.
Let's all go to the lobby to have ourselves a snack.

Speaker 65 They got ice-cold drinks in the lobby. Ice-cold drinks in the lobby.

Speaker 63 I think I'm about to go to the lobby.

Speaker 65 Well, they lobbied to put this on earlier, but they didn't win because this is the death spot, right?

Speaker 65 Two hours and 25 minutes into the show, they start the next last match, which is the most uninteresting angle featuring a top guy ever in the wrestling profession.

Speaker 65 And L.A. Knight even missed the leap up to the top rope and crotched himself.
Did you see that?

Speaker 63 I did. We've seen him do that every now and then.
It happens.

Speaker 65 No, he did because there were two guys up on top this time.

Speaker 65 So instead of slipping off and just having to jump up and do it again, he actually did the crotch spot where the guy crotches himself on a top rope

Speaker 65 because he had less space for his feet to go.

Speaker 65 Eight minutes or so, LA Knight gave Hayes a nice BFT123.

Speaker 65 Do Ray Me.

Speaker 65 That was what, is this over? Is this thing over now?

Speaker 65 I don't mean over in a fan, exciting, money-drawing way. I mean, is it finished, done with, kaput, vapor, in the archives, history?

Speaker 65 Please tell me it is.

Speaker 63 I have no idea if it is or isn't.

Speaker 65 Well, is you is or is you not, my baby? Skibab, skib up, skib abs, skib up, skib up.

Speaker 65 So we were time and ready for the main event. We were time and ready.
It was time and we were ready.

Speaker 65 All the words didn't come out.

Speaker 65 Gunther versus Cody for the gaudy,

Speaker 65 oversized crown jewel championship that's the approximately the same size as a small Volkswagen Beetle.

Speaker 65 And

Speaker 65 I got,

Speaker 65 I was not

Speaker 65 really happy or wanting them to do the champion versus champion match because

Speaker 65 I thought it would it would hurt somebody one of the participants to have to lose and I was thinking well

Speaker 65 should they even put Gunther over because maybe that really wouldn't hurt Cody with some kind of

Speaker 65 you know fuck screw job thing, whatever.

Speaker 65 But I think they had a good match here and it didn't really hurt anybody. And

Speaker 65 apparently, they're not going to refer to the Crown Jewel Championship again until next October when they start promoting next year's. So

Speaker 65 it was a good match. And

Speaker 65 they got away with a big match on a big show that they made money for. And didn't really particularly hurt anybody's standing, I guess, overall.

Speaker 65 We can talk about the details in a minute, but they got out of it, I guess.

Speaker 65 Do you think they got out of it?

Speaker 63 I mean, it was a good finish, considering it was a tough match to have a finish in, I think.

Speaker 65 That's about all you can say.

Speaker 63 Did they get out of what? Did they get out of Gunther losing?

Speaker 65 Did they get out of having this match without hurting either guy when it was over with? And I think the answer is yes.

Speaker 63 Absolutely. And even the way it was handled after the pinfall, the way Gunther left, I thought was,

Speaker 63 you know, he left strong.

Speaker 65 But again, they sang Cody's song. I don't even know the goddamn words.
And English is my first language. You might not be able to tell every once in a while, but it is.

Speaker 65 But again, the main event, but they were two hours and 45 minutes into the show for the start of the seventh match. It was a little

Speaker 65 slow, but this match, they were.

Speaker 65 The crowd was already hot for it, and they knew this was the big one. So these guys could take their time.

Speaker 65 And of course, everybody else had taken their time, and also they took plenty of time in between every other match. But these guys deserved it, and it worked.

Speaker 65 And

Speaker 65 between the crowd just going batshit and singing, ole, ole, ole, ole, all the time,

Speaker 65 to start this thing, all they had to do was wrestle. Again, it was back to...

Speaker 65 Kind of an old-fashioned spot show match where we can give them arm drags and arm bars, headlocks, and takeovers, and the people are loving it.

Speaker 65 But then they picked it up,

Speaker 65 and when they started the heat, Gunther's an aggressive heel who lays his shit in, and Cody can sell and fight underneath or from underneath like a master. So

Speaker 65 again,

Speaker 65 these guys are professionals and they take pride in what they do, and everything makes sense and looks good.

Speaker 65 There's no stupid, dangerous bumps. There's no sloppy work.
There's no

Speaker 65 obvious alley oop

Speaker 65 cooperation and, you know, help me stand up here gingerly balancing on the top rope or doing this cheerleading move. I learned at

Speaker 65 Mayberry Union High.

Speaker 65 And they had a good match and they trade their big moves, but they put spots in where they can

Speaker 65 either explain having to sell and they can't capitalize immediately for a cover and then they get a two count or

Speaker 65 you know whatever there's it's not just an onslaught of

Speaker 65 boom boom boom huge bumps one after another like the kids do over on the other channel with no thought to

Speaker 65 the effects of same

Speaker 65 and

Speaker 65 to be honest they got the this is awesome chant

Speaker 65 after Gunther had caught a Boston crab and then switched it to a sleeper and almost put Cody out with a a sleeper. But Cody broke it with a chin buster and hit a crossroads but couldn't cover.

Speaker 65 And they were both selling and that's where the crowd was going, this is awesome.

Speaker 65 After like three holes in a row.

Speaker 65 And

Speaker 65 this that Gunther doesn't rush and he doesn't do

Speaker 65 weak shit.

Speaker 65 And he gets the most out of everything. He's not going to stand there in the corner and copy his favorite indie outlaw Japanese wrestler by chopping you

Speaker 65 17 times as quick as he can and it wouldn't break an egg. He's going to draw all the way back to the other ring post and throw something in with a follow-through and make it make noise.

Speaker 65 And that's what more is needed of in this business. He makes shit mean something,

Speaker 65 gets the most out of it. And

Speaker 65 instead of punching somebody five times, they all look like shit, he does it once and it looks great.

Speaker 65 And then, anyway,

Speaker 65 they went back and forth and they hit all their stuff, but there was a reason why it wouldn't work

Speaker 65 until finally Cody tried the super Cody cutter off the top rope. And boy, he's got balance for a guy that's running up the ropes and looking behind him.

Speaker 65 But Gunther caught him in a sleeper, and Cody

Speaker 65 rolled his weight and his momentum

Speaker 65 on over and stood on his head on

Speaker 65 Gunther's shoulders and got the one-two-three.

Speaker 65 And it was a good finish because it was a fluke.

Speaker 65 It was,

Speaker 65 again, that's kind of like an old NWA World Title match finish where.

Speaker 65 You know, you've got to,

Speaker 65 the champion has to retain against the top guy of the territory. Don't want to just beat him, but it was a fluke.
Ah, shit. Could have happened to anybody.

Speaker 65 And so they got by with having a good match.

Speaker 65 Nothing's really particularly settled. And you mentioned the aftermath when

Speaker 65 Gunther shook Cody's hand,

Speaker 65 but he also shook his finger at him.

Speaker 65 He's like, all right, give me your hand. Yeah, but next time, motherfucker, it's going to be different.

Speaker 65 And off he went. And

Speaker 65 two Arabian sheiks and two women in beekeepers outfits, or they might have been hazmat suits, got in the ring and presented the belt that stays in Saudi Arabia.

Speaker 65 One of those women could have put it under her outfit and smuggled it out of there. They'd never know.

Speaker 65 You could probably get a couch from a furniture store underneath one of those fucking things.

Speaker 65 I don't know, but again, it's kind of heavy, that belt, maybe heavier than the couch but uh that was if she had some system of a truss under the the outfit as well because it's the size of a circus tent yeah i don't know what the hell you're talking about but did you see you could possibly even have a small bobcat underneath the women's outfits where they could just have it there they could just run it and power it up the hill

Speaker 63 yeah suzanna actually saw some of the women's matches on the pay-per-view and she said you know why are they wearing those outfits. I said, because they're in Saudi Arabia.

Speaker 63 She goes, oh, they look kind of cool. She's a woman.
She doesn't watch wrestling. I said, yeah, they don't wear those here in the state.
She goes, why?

Speaker 63 I said, well, you know, if they want to get over, they got to show some ass.

Speaker 63 They're not going to get over in one of these fucking bodysuits. Are you kidding me?

Speaker 65 Well, but at the same point, you could phrase it from the standpoint of the other gender.

Speaker 65 And even if the full body outfits look cool, And it's a sexist and misogynist thing to make the girls show their

Speaker 65 skin,

Speaker 65 is it worse that the girls have to show their skin by wearing the provocative outfits to get over before an American and or English-speaking and or the rest of the goddamn world audience?

Speaker 65 But they have to do that? Or is it worse that to appear in public in this other place, they have to wear stuff that they don't particularly want to make the choice to wear? Is that worse?

Speaker 63 It's a question for the ages, if I say.

Speaker 65 Well, how old do you got to be to answer it?

Speaker 63 I'm not exactly sure. Did you see any of the post-match stuff where Liv and Cody

Speaker 63 rode on a golf cart over through the complex to the WWE experience so they could do a, you know, a little bit of a press op with the Saudi Arabian chief of bringing American businesses desperate for money over, whatever his job title was.

Speaker 65 Is that the exact job title? The chief of Saudi Arabian companies bringing American businesses over to make them look better?

Speaker 63 Maybe the unofficial title, but I believe that is his role. And they did that stuff.
Did you get to see any of that?

Speaker 65 I did not see any of that. What was that on?

Speaker 63 That was on the peacock. Well, see, I was watching.
What was the place everything else was on?

Speaker 65 I was watching this on real television the way that General David Sarnoff intended.

Speaker 63 Wait, you bought the pay-per-view? Yes. No, you did not.
For this? No, you did not. No.

Speaker 65 So that I could have the goddamn fast forwarding capabilities that I'm used to in a modern civilized society.

Speaker 63 If there was ever a peacock event, it's this one. You got to be kidding me.
You bought this on pay-per-view.

Speaker 65 I'm on the couch in front of my 72-inch, or is it 82-inch television with full on-screen fast-forward capability instead of stuck here in front of my computer with these goddamn vice-like headsets, headphones on that you've got me wearing.

Speaker 65 My fucking ears are killing me now.

Speaker 63 You can watch it on a TV.

Speaker 65 Well, but it can't fast forward the goddamn thing.

Speaker 63 Not if it's lifted.

Speaker 65 The fast forward. No, even on, even after the fact, the fast forward on the cock, on Pecock,

Speaker 65 is terrible and iffy at best.

Speaker 65 And so I get real TV so that I can get through the 20 minutes in between matches without going out of my fucking mind.

Speaker 63 Wow.

Speaker 65 I'll have you know.

Speaker 63 Well, you certainly haven't gone out of your mind. You sound perfectly sane.

Speaker 65 Well,

Speaker 65 that's exactly correct because I've always been the sane one. And it's just now that people are finding out that, you know, Cornette's always been sane all along, and it was us that was all nuts.

Speaker 63 All right. Well, that was Crown Jewel from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
And fingers crossed, everyone gets home safe in one piece.

Speaker 63 Allowed to leave the tarmac, allowed to hit the air and get the hell out of there.

Speaker 65 Hit the air? I don't know if I...

Speaker 65 Why did they... Here's another thing.
I've told several pilots about this.

Speaker 65 Freddie Floyd, the pilot that Crockett had, and several people I've come in contact with. Why do they make the terminology

Speaker 65 so

Speaker 65 foreboding for people who don't like to fly?

Speaker 65 In a short time, we'll have you at your final destination.

Speaker 65 We'll be on the ground soon.

Speaker 65 Heading for the terminal.

Speaker 63 That's not that bad. What the hell's wrong with that one?

Speaker 65 Terminal?

Speaker 63 Well, the terminal, not heading towards terminal.

Speaker 65 What about, what about, instead of saying, we're going to take you to your final destination, how about we're going to drop you off where you want to go?

Speaker 63 It doesn't sound too official.

Speaker 65 Well, it sounds a little bit easier to take, though.

Speaker 63 Thank you for flying. We're going to drop you off where you were ready to go.

Speaker 63 in just a few minutes, once we

Speaker 63 don't do any of the things we normally say here.

Speaker 65 Yeah, well, you don't scare people that way. It's very nerve-wracking.

Speaker 63 Well, where are you now?

Speaker 65 I'm about at the end of this thing. How about you?

Speaker 63 I'm over here now.

Speaker 65 I'm over there now. Well, that's not nice, but I'll tell you what, folks, we're going to be back unless if the election goes the wrong way, we are quite outspoken.
We may not be back.

Speaker 65 But if it goes the right way, we'll be back with the drive-through in a few days and/or the Jim Cornette experience next week. Is that correct, Brian?

Speaker 63 That is correct.

Speaker 65 And in parting, until then, in betwixt and between times, we'd like to wish you love, peace, and soul. Thank you.
Fuck you, and bye-bye, everybody.

Episode 557: Jim Reviews WWE Crown Jewel 2024

Press play and read along

Transcript

More episodes from Jim Cornette Experience

Episode 610: Special Edition

Episode 609: Turkeys Doing Their Thing

Episode 608: Blood & Guts

Episode 607: Main Event Roster Review

Episode 606: Fright Night