Episode 599: 100,000 Watts Of Power

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Like the midnight and the rock and roller, he's in a fight for wrestling solar using a racket and some mind controller.

He's Jim Cornet!

The keys to the future, held by the past.

And with tag team partner Barion Last, he sends this message out by podcast.

He's

well, he's never fake or slowly.

phony,

he never backs down from a fight,

he never wins the pony, cause his mama raised him right

inside

to prevent

your mind

the experience,

get the experience,

get the experience of Jim

Hello again, everybody, and welcome to another exciting episode of the Jim Cornette Experience.

Today, Nielsen families, hard-headed Samoans, the case against Buford Pusser, and AEW's headed into a war, but they forgot to bring the army.

And joining me for all this and more.

Hawaiian Brian, the podcasting lion, the king of the Arcadian Vanguard Podcast Network, Mr.

Co-host to you, like General MacArthur, he has returned.

The great Brian Last.

Everybody, aloha, Jim.

A pleasure to be here once again for what sounds like last week's show.

Are we doing it a second time?

Have we traveled through time to last week's agenda?

It sounds like everything we talked about.

Well, because we have got people,

the people out there, the cult of Cornette.

You know what the difference is, Brian Last,

between a know-it-all and an expert.

No, what's that?

A know-it-all

knows something

about everything,

but an expert knows everything about something.

And that's what we've got out there in the cult of Cornette.

And

I have got

an incredible document that I'm going to read you from a listener who I believe used an assumed name for obvious reasons on what's going to the whole story.

of what's going on and what it possibly is about to be announced.

We may have a scoop here from real news, not even the fake shit we usually talk about.

What might be about to be announced on Buford Pusser?

This was sent to me.

On Buford Pusser, that's what you're talking about here?

Yes, yes.

Breaking news?

Yes.

Well,

it ain't broke yet.

It's still all in one piece here.

We're going to talk about it here in a second.

But we got all kinds of, and I've got other news.

And this is sad news.

Brandon, this, you don't even know this.

Well, you might.

I just, because

it happened before, but I just heard it, but we've lost a broadcasting legend.

And I just found out about this right before we were

scheduled to go on the air here when I was zipping through the Twitter and accidentally came upon it.

Gary Burbank died like two weeks ago.

Really?

I didn't hear anything about it.

You know who Gary Burbank is.

Who's that?

Oh, God damn it.

You, again, a broadcasting legend yourself in your own right, Brian.

You don't know Radio Hall of Fame member Gary Burbank.

Gary Burbank, who was at one point, I believe, nationally syndicated from WLW in Cincinnati, or at least widely heard, but who became famous right here in Louisville, Kentucky at Wacky Radio, W-A-K-Y 790.

And

he went on to greater things after he was a Louisville radio legend here.

And he fucking died like two weeks ago.

And I didn't even see anything on the news about it here.

It was, it was, it was disheartening, another voice of my childhood.

I have a crack in my voice.

Well, rest in peace.

And we send our condolences to the burbank family

the well it's his real name was not

do you remember burbank gary owens no that's what i thought i'm talking about when you brought him that's exactly who i was thinking of when you brought up gary burbank i'm thinking of the intro to laugh in well that's that's where he got his radio name

I can't even remember what his real name was.

They said it in the article.

It didn't register with me because it's Gary Burbank.

But his voice sounded a lot like Gary Owens's radio voice on Laugh In.

And so, and they were from beautiful downtown Burbank.

So, he took Gary Burbank.

And he was big here on Wacky in the early 70s and then came back, I think, on WHAS

right before he went to

WLW, the big time up in Scentsy.

They're 100,000 watts, whatever the fuck.

But with Wacky radio

watts really

of i think wlw what's the max you can be these days legally or back in the 70s was it 50 or 100 000 i always think of 50 is just the most powerful because that's what the most powerful ones up here are but maybe

well then

well no i i'm trying to ask you to i'm a senior citizen now thank you i may be having a senior moment whenever they put the fcc regulations in place because of their kerfluffles with the fucking half a million watt Mexican stations or whatever the fuck was going on down there in Del Rio, Texas.

It was either 50,000 or 100,000, whatever the maximum was, WLW was it.

You could hear that in Canada on the fillings in people's teeth.

Yeah, that is the, according to AI, once I tried to Google this, 100,000 watts is significant power.

The actual maximum power for a radio station varies by type and location.

In the

the maximum power for an FM station is 100,000 watts, though grandfathered stations can have higher power.

Well, no, did you say FM?

Because these were AM.

And then for AM at the time.

50,000 is the maximum.

50,000.

Okay.

Yeah.

That's right, because WHAS here in Louisville is 50,

they called it a clear channel.

That's where clear channel radio came from.

And

other...

do we have time to get into this for the kids?

Because now I'm having fun.

X-E-W-A-M in Mexico is 100,000 watts, and there are other stations there that are 150,000 watts.

Wow.

No, but that was the deal that Wolfman Jack,

Wikipedia, him, and see what the fucking measurement was

back in the 60s or whenever that was.

I think they got up, they were literally broadcasting to Canada, and it was fucking up radio stations in the United States right and left, because that's what I, that's what I'm about to tell you, young Brian, is it back in the 60s and 70s?

And I assume before, I don't know, I wasn't around, but some radio stations that were broadcasting at a certain signal strength, like 20,000 watts or whatever the fuck we're dealing with here, had to actually at

either six o'clock or at sundown or whatever the fuck the measurement was, basically about time to get dark,

they had to reduce the power of their signals so that the 50,000-watt clear channel stations

that were strategically located around the country could have freer broadcast for some goddamn purpose.

I'm sure one of our listeners is going to send us the history on this.

But when you watched or watched, when you listened to wacky radio, you could hear when they had to cut their power on your home home radio or in the car or whatever, all of a sudden it gets lower.

But everybody listened to the radio in those days, and that's where Gary Burbank got over it.

He did comedy bits and all these different characters.

The Right Reverend Deuteronomy Skaggs, lay your hands on the radio.

And now, and he went on to become a member of the Radio Hall of Fame, and he was like 84 years old.

Well, back to Wolfman Jacks.

You asked me to look that up.

In 63, according to Wikipedia, he took his act to the border when Inter-American Radio Advertising's Ramon Vasquez hired him and sent him to the studio and transmitter site of XERFAM CUDA Acuna in Mexico,

a station across the U.S.-Mexico border from Del Rio, Texas.

Across the border from Del Rio, Texas.

Whose high-powered border blaster signal could be picked up across much of the United States.

In an interview with Tom Miller, Wolfman Jack described the reach:

quote:

We had the most powerful signal in North America.

Birds dropped dead when they flew too close to the tower.

A car driving from New York to LA would never lose the station.

And it says here also: many Mexican stations were at 150,000 watts, three times the U.S.

limit, meaning that their signals were picked up all over North America and at night as far away as Europe and the Soviet Union.

Jesus Christ.

And they made a lot of their money by renting their time to Pentecostal preachers and psychics.

And then eventually they stopped working with the preachers and the psychics, I believe.

But that's a powerful.

It seems like the psychics would have seen that coming.

In a day and age now where radio is dead, it's incredible to think about that kind of reach when radio was a viable thing.

Oh, and, you know, again,

well, there's another connection with radio and wrestling here in Louisville with Wacky Radio in that not only for a period of, God, I guess, six, seven years, all of the ring announcers at the Louisville Gardens were DJs at Wacky Radio, Johnny Randolph and Bob Moody.

Johnny Randolph was the program director at the time.

And

Johnny Dark from Memphis, we've talked about him, the Sputnik Monroe Fan Club when he was a kid, and he got over in radio as Johnny Dark in Memphis.

He worked here as Dude Walker.

And I remember listening to him as a kid before I'd even seen wrestling.

And, you know, but he,

they always had an end with Wacky, and that's why the

biggest crowd

pretty much in the modern era of Louisville Gardens wrestling was Jerry Lawler against Coyote Calhoun, who was the six to ten guy on Wacky Radio at the time.

And now is in the Country Music Hall of Fame

or Country Music Radio or whatever.

He was a country DJ after he was in rock and roll.

He changed his gimmick, but they drew a complete fucking sellout.

Lawler and Calhoun in that gimmick match, they built up for weeks on the radio.

You never know about these things.

If we'd only had the reach of Wolfman Jack's radio station, we could have gone national 30 years before Vince did.

Next week, we'll cover the big feud between Wolfman Jack and Cousin Brucey

here on Radio News.

Clap forward, Wolfman.

Well, we have to.

There's no more radio personalities.

I mean, there's so many different reasons, and I don't want to go too deep into this, but there's so many reasons why.

You're already in there now.

Try to climb back out.

But there's so many reasons why radio is dead.

And one of them is the lack of real personalities

just personalities there are none anymore but that's not even the biggest problem but yeah radio's dead there i'm sure there are as many corporate level problems with radio now as there are with any other

entertainment form but at the same time you're saying they need us right because they're just a boring bunch of simpletons and they need us to just be able to extrapolate Out of the pits of our colons, these wonderful entertaining programs that we do.

Am I saying radio needs people like us?

Yeah.

The problem is

they can't get people like us.

They can't pay people like us.

That's right.

We're not going to be fucking sellouts.

God damn it.

Well, no, I'm saying they can't pay us.

They can't afford to make us sellouts.

That's the problem.

Hey, no, they don't have those millions of dollars that it would billions and millions of dollars.

Because

$14.7 million.

That's just Brian can make his own deal, but don't say anything.

What?

I was just, it's backward masking.

Anyway,

on to the next.

We have to issue an update here because I asked for various comments from the listeners and they have sent me some.

And remember, we on the drive-thru, that's your program

that

people listen to, not obviously as many as listen to this program, but close.

and we discussed the email from

farquhar in germany i can't remember now but

about the the racist undertones or origins of black people and samoan people using headbutts in wrestling

and we had established that yes that it was of the origin of a racist or not the origin of, but originated from a racist stereotype about black people.

However, we didn't think that Bobo Brazil or anybody was mad about having to use that finish since it was easy.

But I said that it probably wasn't stereotypical in the Samoan community because it would seem to be that every member of the various Samoan

organizations that I've ever met had a hard head as fuck.

So now we have.

Did you get an email from Soft Head Sam?

No.

No, I got an email from,

well,

I can't pronounce his name, but he signed it I am the Pelican, which is kind of...

Yeah, I know him.

Well, you know, you know the Pelican.

He's to send in songs, send in more.

Yeah, he's a very talented guy.

Okay, well, that's why, okay, that's why he's got the...

He's got music at his email address.

I'm not going to just publicly reveal that, but

anyway,

see, I am the Pelican is kind of a takeoff of how his real name is written.

Nevertheless, he says, I grew up in Auckland, New Zealand, which is technically the world's largest Polynesian city.

Our population is somewhere around 16% Pacific peoples.

And that's

somewhat odd, wouldn't you think?

But I guess, I mean, Auckland, New Zealand,

a well-heard of place.

It's a big city.

But

anyway,

a few studies have been carried out in New Zealand to observe the bone mineral density, BMD,

and body mass of Polynesians.

Studies have found that when age and weight matched with Europeans in New Zealand, Polynesian adults do possess a higher BMD.

They got harder bones.

It isn't definite why this is, but hypotheses

range from possessing different bone-forming cells to ancestors often getting hit in the head by falling coconuts.

Oh, give me a break.

What the hell?

What kind of explanation?

Well, I mean, what kind of explanation is that?

Come on.

From a native, I'm sure of the

that's probably the local joke, right?

Dr.

Whoopee, what do you think is the cause?

Well, yes,

and it's the coconuts.

The coconuts.

In my younger years, he continues.

I actually conducted my own research on the topic by way of head-on collisions with my Polynesian friends on the rugby field.

My findings were inconclusive as I'd black out after the impact and wake up being picked up and hauled off the field by the very same guy with whom I just collided.

Those are the findings.

And he's so that's at least now we have some type of scientific reporting on this thing but see that's why i'm saying there's somebody in the cult

that is an egg we don't have know-it-alls out there we've got experts they chime in when it's their

their time to testify and then they keep their mouth shut well thank you for that email if there's any other concussed rugby players who want to send in their thoughts on

Would you quit evolution, I guess?

I don't know what this is.

No, it's scientist.

He's lived there.

He's observed the scientific research, research, people taking measurements and shit.

Now we need a rugby player from San Jose.

Get in touch.

Well, you said that you wanted a doctor, right?

You did.

What was the doctor's name that you just quoted?

Dr.

Lano?

No, no.

You said Dr.

Dr.

Whoopee.

Dr.

Whoopee.

See, no, we've got an actual doctor chiming in now.

We got this email from Dr.

Mark Whizpip.

Oh, yeah.

Dr.

Mark Whizpip from Los Angeles, California.

He has checked in before.

What are you?

Are you suggesting that that may be some kind of nom de view?

Whizpip?

Whizpip.

W-H-I-Z-P-I-P.

I've never heard of that name ever.

Have you ever heard of that name before?

Yeah, he's written.

He's written to you under that name?

I'm sure he's written.

I remember that name, but he's writing now.

That's what counts.

Because

if you've read what he's written, you'll know it's really well-written writing.

All right, let's hear what the doctor has to say.

Greetings, Jim Brian, and the people inside of Jim's walls.

In my past life, I was a programming executive in Southern California Radio and Television.

So I'm quite familiar with Nielsen and its personal meter.

Because you may remember, I was chosen recently, Brian,

to have the opportunity to become a meter-Nielson

household household.

Well, it's my house and my home.

I was chosen if I wanted to participate.

And now, as I just told you a minute ago, they won't stop fucking calling me because I couldn't figure out where this fucking number was coming from.

It kept popping up because they didn't leave a message.

And one time they left a message.

And so I got smart to the area code.

But we talked about how preposterous it was that you wear this

like an ankle monitor type of device, like you're on a home arrest, but you wear it on your person.

If you're six and over,

as you go about your day, and

what did they say?

Was it messages encoded in music or people inside your walls?

Will then be picked up on the monitor as far as what media you're consuming.

And so, you know, we had some fun with that.

Well,

as Dr.

Whiz Pip will continue,

the personal meter,

also known as the portable people meter, was developed by Nielsen's old competitor, Arbitron, to more accurately measure radio station listenership in response to advertisers' balking at the antiquated handwritten diary system.

And remember, we talked about that.

At one point, you wrote it down.

Well, that's easier

at home if you're watching TV rather than you're in the car, listening to to the radio,

blah, blah, blah.

In 2013, Nielsen bought Arbitron in order to gain the stronghold on audience measurement across many media formats, everything from radio, television, film, and even supermarket store music.

The personal meter is listening for inaudible tones.

inaudible to the human ear, kind of like a dog whistle on a frequency we can't pick up, Brian, You get right

that are unique to each media outlet.

Those tones are broadcasted by the various media outlets and are collected by the meter's proprietary electronics.

I knew I was hearing tones.

If you think about this, everything is sending a different signal that can be measured by a thing you've got on your wrist or around your fucking year hearing it along with goddamn stairway to heaven for the 7,000th time.

And this is going on.

What signal is this giving off?

Boy, apparently negative ones a lot of the times.

But hold on, get back to this

fucking deal here.

And you know, Nielsen used to own Billboard.

When I was at Sony, they owned Billboard, I believe.

Well,

we ought to start buying some billboards.

They're in the walls.

No, come.

Hold on.

I've lost my place now.

Oh, so based on how many times the meter receives the tones over a period of time, it allows Nielsen to know what audio you were exposed to in a given day part and for how long.

The downside to this measurement system is that it can't actually tell if you're actively listening to that audio or just have it in the background as you go about your daily life.

Can you think of the clerk at a porn shop?

What the fuck would that fucking do for you?

So, as you can imagine, Dr.

WhizPip goes on, audience measurement is really a metric important to advertisers.

Advertisers are always wanting more and more accurate methods of knowing which ads are being seen or heard by the audience.

As to why media companies aren't up in arms about the personal meter, they are and have been for over a dozen years.

When Nielsen bought Arbitron,

they bought the only real competitor they had in audience measurement, which gives them a monopoly.

Wouldn't you know who won the pony, Brian?

Nielsen sells their audience data via subscription models that media outlets and advertising agencies buy into.

With the advent of streaming,

that monopoly has been broken as streaming services can now monitor their audiences via their computer servers.

That's what Dr.

WhizPip has to say about this.

And who are we to question his word?

Another example of an expert out there in the cult.

And I think he kind of hit on a big thing here, which is Nielsen is right now fighting for their relevancy in a changing media landscape where content is consumed over different ways.

And like he just said, and not everyone's honest, but streaming platforms have their own numbers.

They don't need outside companies telling them what they think their numbers are based on a calculation on how many people they think are watching it, which is completely inexact.

Like there's no way to really, that's the one thing that's always bothered me about TV ratings is just, there's no way to really wrap your head around how accurate it could be.

And it seems like it could be more accurate.

Now we can get accuracy unless it's on Macs, of course, but we can find out from the streaming platforms how things are doing.

Nielsen is trying to find ways to stay alive.

Like we said before, radio is dead.

And a large part of what they're trying to to do is monitor what you're listening to on a dead format, a dead platform.

TV,

young people don't watch TV.

So Nielsen, Nielsen has a lot to.

No wonder they're so dang stupid.

But Nielsen's trying to find ways to keep up with the Joneses, but the Joneses are over here now.

Well.

I'll be right here then.

And one of the things.

Because I don't want to be anywhere near the Joneses.

We heard from a bunch of listeners who said one of their big things is secrecy.

They don't want people revealing that they are Nielsen Holmes or a Nielsen family or whatever it may be.

Oh, yes, yes.

I saw that also on a couple of comments that we got.

Yeah.

And it's like, do not.

They say, oh, boy, you may have blown it.

Well, I wasn't going to wear this goddamn monitoring device.

For all I know, it could be programmed to fucking blow at any point if you say the wrong thing about the fucking various entities that have a piece of this goddamn racket.

You should open up the negotiation next time they call.

Not that you're going to do it, but actually see how much they can negotiate.

Well, they did mention cash awards and prizes, but no firm amount.

So let's say the guy says, we'll give you $50 a day.

You go, well, you know, a thousand a day seems more what I would say.

Well, no, no, I do have their range because we got so many comments on, you know, the

talk that we had before that people said, oh, yeah, I made $350 in one year.

Those crisp $10 bills don't ever become crisp $100 bills.

It's like

finding fucking change in the couch if you add it up over the course of the.

Well, I don't mean to make mockery.

If people in Pakistan, $300 a year to

wear this thing around your neck, may be one of the fucking sweet deals of all time now.

It depends on

this location.

Well, it's your show.

Well, it's now time for the musical intermission.

We'll be giving you 20 minutes straight of the happy organ.

Hold on.

Hey, wait a minute.

What happened?

You said it's my show.

I'm taking it over.

Not for 20 minutes, you're not.

You know who's taking over?

Well, go play it now.

Don't make me, don't make me puncture the.

I was happy.

I was getting happy.

Don't make me puncture the bag on your fucking windpipes there.

Or your

windpipes or goddamn pipe organ, bagpipes, whatever.

What are they?

I'll take the wind out of you.

Unfortunately, this is not a pipe organ.

I would love to have one if Tony Khan's looking to spend some money.

Well, either they or just possibly the pipe, not the organ.

He may have a pipe already.

I would

guess.

Anyway, what I was talking about earlier is the fans out there.

They're experts in their chosen field.

And we have had a couple people now since we mentioned the scarcity of pictures of the green shadow.

And of course, folks, this revolves around the stunning release.

of my brand new upcoming book, Heroes and Friends, Pro Wrestling Remembrances.

It's Saturday, October 11th at noon Eastern at jimcornet.com.

We talked about it last week on a program, Brian and I.

I'm proud of it.

It's my little baby I'm seeing grow up and go off to college or to your home for my child is growing up to go to people's homes for money, Brian.

But that's part of it.

is we talked about, I did a chapter on Pat Malone, the green shadow, who only listeners of this program have heard anybody talk about in

ever on wrestling podcasts, but who, in effect, and I make the case in writing here, built the Tennessee Territory.

It was its first great star when it was originated.

As the green shadow, he had this incredible sellout streak and this incredible main event run, and it lasted for years and years, multiple cities.

And in trying to put this thing together between Scott Teal in Nashville and bless him, Chris Swisher, who has one of the biggest vintage wrestling photo collections known to humanity,

we can find only on posed photos, and I'll get back to that in a second, but posed photos of the Green Shadow during his main event run

from 1940 until 1948,

three different posed pictures taken at the same photo shoot.

And two of those have been, two of those at least, have been preserved only because they were in newspaper advertising at the time.

It's like he went out of his way

because so much of the

draw that he had for such an incredible stretch of time and all the riots he caused and et cetera, was because people wanted to see who he was.

They had apparently fooled the people enough that nobody knew who this fucking guy was.

There was no internet in those days.

And for years they milked it.

And there was one dead giveaway about Pat.

When you looked at him, even if he had a mask, he had the thickest eyebrows known to man.

And you could just tell if the trained eye, if you knew what you were looking for.

But a couple of our listeners have sent in pictures of, I found another picture of the green shadow.

Well, in one case, I believe it was Pat as the green shadow, but it was a newspaper picture in ring action of him with his head behind

the opponent that he's wrestling.

And another one is of Pat Malone,

but in his later years when he was wrestling one of his bears, one of Ginger the Bears, because you can tell it wasn't the original run, He had identifying tattoos on his arms.

So during his

big main event run for those years, he wore long sleeves on his outfit.

But when he got to be 50 and he's like, fuck, I'm just, yeah, I'm doing this now every once in a while, you know, under the hood.

He just didn't wear the sleeves.

You could see the tattoos.

And sometimes,

Brian, there are pictures where they didn't have a picture of the green shadow and they had to advertise him.

So they just took some generic masked guy picture.

Or even, as you pointed out the other day, one,

somebody had just taken a black marker and drone a drone, drawn a mask on this, whoever this fucking guy was.

Yeah, I've seen that in like Pfeffer programs for Tony Santos, where

they're listing like wrestlers who either will be coming in or wrestlers that you're supposed to know from the past or wrestlers that Jack Pfeffer can bring in.

And it'll be like, you know, various takes on wrestlers' names and people sometimes who later became famous wrestlers.

And then it'll be just like a drawing of someone.

It'll be just like a drawing, like a drawing of a mask.

You're like, that's not even a real mask.

What is that?

Or he would cut a picture of a belt out of another picture of a guy and paste the belt around the, loosely around the waist of the guy he was pushing.

But anyway, we don't do any of that in this book, by the way.

Again, heroes and friends.

And it's not just all obscure folks, but it's

people

that have unique and fascinating stories that I had personal interactions with at various points in my life from the time I was a teenager.

It's part biography, part historical perspective, and part personal interactions.

But Bobby Heenan, the chic, Bruno Sammartino, Ray Stevens, the Dream Machine, Paul Bear, Vader,

Boo Bradley, aka Balls Mahoney.

I'll always think of him as Boo, Spudnick Monroe, Lance Russell, Ron Wright, and Pat Malone, and

some of my photography, some of stuff in my collection.

Brian, some of the stuff in your collection.

Much of it never before seen.

Some of it hadn't been seen in years, and lots of it's in full color.

And they can be autographed for $24.95.

Buy 10 of them, ladies and gentlemen.

And you've got your entire Christmas shopping done for your entire social circle that likes classic wrestling.

JimCornet.com, Saturday, October the 11th at noon Eastern.

And

thank Hotchkiss Featherbottom also for his wonderful assistance in the scanning of my negatives as we have been praising so many.

Now I got to go back and

just have him do that to everything.

You know, he's given me a pain in the ass.

He likes to sleep every once in a while, Brian.

I'm not sure about these

employees.

That's the good thing about George Laurinitis, our new artist.

That ain't his name.

Oh, no.

No, no, no.

He doesn't sleep.

He never sleeps.

He's always up drawing the picture.

That's why our clip turnaround on the YouTube channel.

For those of you who consume us on YouTube, hopefully, you're wearing your monitors.

It's boom.

It's boom because he doesn't sleep.

He's up all night because night is day.

And

I am, we, and we are all together.

You're saying, Laura, thank you, George Laurenitis.

Well, there you go.

Again, not Laurinitis, though.

George Levinitis, who's been our friend.

That's what I said.

Artist in residency for the official Jim Cornet YouTube channel.

Go and subscribe.

Full videos, full videos, full episodes, clips, omnibuses.

And George has been doing a bang-up job.

And so, have other guest artists.

We'll have more guest artists.

I know a lot of people have submitted their art.

There'll be more people, more art styles you'll be seeing in the future.

More people, more art.

But George has been doing a great job, and we really do appreciate it.

You know what you do?

You call a guy with no arms and no legs hanging on the wall?

Art.

Art.

You know what you got?

Call a guy with no arms and no legs.

You You keep going.

Keep going.

You know what you call a guy with no arms and no legs sitting on the porch?

What's that?

Matt.

That's a see.

That's awful.

That's awful.

All right.

What do you say to a woman with no arms and no legs?

Oh, well, nothing.

She won't come anyway.

Nice tits.

Oh,

I think I mixed up the other punchline from the other thing.

I don't know.

Maybe you mixed up the punch bowl.

I don't know what's happening here this week.

When you fly SJC, you can zip from curb to gate in minutes, faster than fast, so much faster, you'll wonder where the time didn't go.

Fly simple, fly SJC.

Visit flysjc.com.

All right.

Anyway, are you ready for our big investigative report here?

What's this about?

Sure.

This, I've told you earlier we're going to break news here.

Well, we're not even going to break news.

The news hasn't broken yet.

We're going to prelude and predict the breaking news.

Because we mentioned Sheriff Buford Pusser the other day

on one of the programs, and they have released the information that they suspectify

that he indeed murdered his wife.

And now we got the details here from someone,

Jake from Starkville,

is what he called himself.

So I'm assuming that's a...

a cover name.

Ardina, does Charlie have family?

Is it Charlie changing his name?

Well, no, because it's not his email address either.

But I can't make

any goddamn sense out of the email address.

So this person doesn't want to be fucking quoted except anonymously.

Anyway,

this person says, I recently assisted in the years-long investigation into the murder of Pauline Pusser.

I assure you, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is correct in their findings.

For 30 years, I was a huge fan of Sheriff Pusser.

It was hard for me to accept the truth when I first became aware of this investigation three years ago, but I can't deny solid evidence, common sense, and simple logic.

I present this to you because I know many of your listeners will find the accusation hard to believe.

but they will not be able to provide any evidence to the contrary.

Also,

Bruce Pritchard is a huge Buford Pusser fan, and I guarantee you he will dispute these findings up and down.

What?

In the conversations I've had in my life with Bruce, never once did the topic

of Buford Pusser come up, but nevertheless.

I never think of Bruce Pritchard with the words walking tall.

Well, sometimes you would think of not walking at all,

but

no, nevertheless, back to this.

I guarantee you he'll dispute these findings up and down.

Well, we'll present this evidence.

Arm yourself with facts.

My summation of the murder of Pauline Pusser.

Everything I'm about to say is backed up by documented evidence.

Much is available at Buford Pusser The Other Story.

I don't know what that is exactly.

The rest is in the hands of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, who are currently preparing the case file well over a thousand pages for wide public release.

This is what the files will conclude regarding the events of August 12, 1967.

I'm not making a prediction.

I know.

So now that's pretty much a declaration right there that this unnamed person who sent this email

is obviously legitimate, right?

Obviously, you're not going to reveal their name and they have an alias.

Did they indicate or say anything in the email that would make you think that this certainly is the legitimate

investigator into this?

Well, listen to this story and then you tell me,

young Brian, because

all things are as they were then, except you are there.

Buford and Pauline Pusser were separated.

Pauline was fed up with his infidelity and abuse.

She was having affairs of her her own, living out of a mobile home in a motel room in Savannah.

And for those of you not familiar with West Tennessee geography, it's not Savannah, Georgia, Savannah, Tennessee.

Where is Savannah, Tennessee?

Say again.

Where is Savannah, Tennessee?

In West Tennessee.

Down near

McNary County, where he was sheriff.

What is it?

Is it?

Is it 75 miles from Memphis, up above the Mississippi state line?

I can't remember exactly.

I I can't reach Moran McNally,

but somewhere in that area, right?

Anyway, Pauline didn't have a car and relied on her friend LaVon Plunk, wife of Buford's chief deputy Pete Plunk, to give her transportation.

Now, this may sound

like a goddamn episode of Green Acres, but I swear to God, knowing West Tennessee in the fucking 60s,

these are the names of these people.

So her friend LaVon Plunk

was the wife of Buford Pusser's chief deputy, Pete Plunk, and was driving Pauline around.

She confided into LaVon that she was leaving Buford and planned to get out for good the day of the 12th.

Buford was afraid that Pauline could turn him into the feds due to his numerous corrupt dealings as sheriff of McNary County, Tennessee.

Just a few days prior to the alleged ambush, Buford was overheard by Barbara Bivens and Shirley Smith telling Pauline that if she ever said anything to the feds about him, it'd be the last thing she'd ever do, and she'd be dead by morning.

Hours prior to the alleged ambush, Buford was observed by Dennis Hathcock and Johnny Harrison receiving two

Dennis Hathcock, he didn't go off halfcocked.

Dennis Hathcock and Johnny Harrison observed him, Buford, that is, receiving two high-powered rifles from an unidentified male at a state highway maintenance lot in the town of Eastview.

This is so fucking old Tennessee bullshit.

In the early morning hours of August 12, and by the way I mean bullshit, I don't mean it's bullshit.

I mean, this is so fucking real old East Tennessee type of shit or West Tennessee.

In the early morning hours of August 12, LaVon drove Pauline to the home she once shared with Buford to collect some things before departing.

She knew Buford's regular hours and didn't expect him home.

Pauline instructed LaVon to park down the street and wait.

Pauline indicated she would flash the porch light twice to signal all is well.

Pauline walked down the street and entered the home.

Diane, Pauline's 17-year-old daughter, was home at the time.

Diane would say Pauline was very anxious and was trying to tell her something when they heard a car pull into the driveway.

LaVon Plunk, still outside, down the street in her car, saw Buford Pusser's Plymouth Fury pull into the driveway almost as soon as Pauline entered.

LaVon would say she felt pure terror in that moment.

Pauline told Diane to hide.

Diane went into her room and closed the door.

She hid under the bed, but could hear Buford and Pauline violently arguing, followed by a loud noise.

Outside, LaVonne heard what she described as a gunshot.

Fearing for her life, LaVonne drove off.

So she left Pauline.

But she can't call the cops.

The cops are committing the crime.

She was so afraid of Buford and all the things she had heard through her deputy husband that she never revealed this information as long as Buford was still alive.

Inside, Diane would hear Buford go in and out the front door several times.

She crawled from under the bed and looked out the window.

Diane observed Buford carrying Pauline out to the car

and placing her inside before driving off.

During the initial investigation,

a law enforcement officer gave a cursory glance at the pusser home and noticed blood, but didn't think anything of it at the time.

So you got the scene, right, Brian?

Yeah, I mean, the question still comes to

shooting himself in the jaw, however that worked, but keep going.

Well, hold on here because

Buford's version of the events, which then was dramatized and extrapolated in the movie Walking Tall.

He and Pauline were asleep, and he got a call about a disturbance at the Mississippi state line.

And awakened, Pauline spontaneously decides to accompany him for a ride along.

He claims she finally wants to see her husband at work.

So the first time in the middle of the night, he gets a call and she wants to go with him.

Didn't end well for her.

But nevertheless, I'm making editorial comments.

But

instead of taking either Highway 64 or Highway 45, which would have gotten Buford to the state line in about 15 minutes, he drives a very out-of-the-way remote path.

consisting of unincorporated back roads past the small New Hope Methodist Church on New Hope Road at 4:30 a.m.

Buford claims that approximately one mile past the church, a dark Cadillac pulled up beside him and fired two shots, one striking Pauline in the head.

Buford would insist they were waiting behind the church and he didn't see them because they were driving without their headlights and didn't hear him until a shot was fired.

Although they would have had to greatly accelerate a 1960s Cadillac engine to catch them in a mile.

Modern reenactments have shown it would be almost impossible for a car to overtake another in that distance, especially without headlights in such conditions.

And in 1967, the road was poorly maintained and unincorporated.

And again, folks, if you're not familiar with Tennessee, in the 60s and 70s, an unincorporated road meant it might not be paved.

It might be goddamn gravel.

Any ambush party lying in wait would have had to have known that Buford would take this exact route to get to where he was called

to go.

Buford claims he floored his Plymouth Fury and outran the Cadillac.

He stopped approximately two miles further up the same road to check on Pauline.

At this point, the Cadillac reappeared, pulling alongside Buford's car, and 12 more shots were fired at essentially point-blank range.

Buford claimed he reached out and grabbed one of the barrels of the gun from the other car.

Of the 12 shots, one hit Pauline in the head again.

And Buford suffered a wound to the chin and mouth.

The Cadillac sped off.

Buford pulled himself up and continued driving towards Selmer, Tennessee.

I've worked there.

He stopped at a store and radioed for help.

This is where the Selmer chief of police found him.

And that is

one of the main parts of his story, as you mentioned earlier, Brian.

or one of the main reasons why maybe he didn't have as much suspicion is because they shot him into they shot Marvin in the face.

They shot him in the face, right?

But

as we go on, there is more to the story.

Modern analysis of the crime scene shows no evidence of any third party.

The shots to the car don't match a rolling ambush at close range from multiple shooters.

but do match shots from one individual from a distance of 15 feet.

Bullet holes to the interior of the car do not align with Buford's version of the events.

Significant blood splatter on the hood indicates Pauline was killed outside the vehicle and placed back inside.

Interior bloodstains do not indicate anyone was shot while inside the vehicle.

The wound to Buford's chin and mouth was self-inflicted.

It is indicative of a close contact wound from a revolver and not a high-powered rifle slug.

After this supposed attempt on his life, Buford would get rid of his regular revolver and began carrying a smaller caliber.

All evidence suggests the crime scene was staged.

He shot himself in the face, Marvin.

That's crazy.

And any of the clothes, at the time, it was determined an autopsy on Pauline was unnecessary.

Everyone accepted Buford's version of the events.

Initially, Buford claimed he would recognize the shooters if he saw them again, a claim he'd quickly take back by then saying he didn't get that good a look.

No one was ever prosecuted for the murder, and the case has officially remained unsolved for 58 years.

Well, thank you, Jake, from Starkville.

But also, if anybody wants to sue you, it's his fault.

But now we got to jump on him.

Makes you wonder when the next movie is going to come out, right?

Someone has to do a movie of all this.

The fact that they made a movie of this guy's life made him into a hero.

And it turns out there were people who knew this then, didn't say anything.

When did he die?

Well, he died in 1974.

I want to say in a car wreck.

Geez, can you type?

You know, I don't have room with all this expensive audio equipment you may can be used.

I have my keyboard up here.

Type in Buford Pusser and see.

He died in 1974 in a car wreck.

I'm pretty goddamn sure.

And I think he was possibly drinking when it happened and driving.

Actually, he wasn't drinking and driving.

He drank and then he drove.

August 21st, 1974.

One car automobile accident four miles west of Adamsville.

Yeah, so Carver came back and bit him right in the balls, didn't it?

Because he didn't make it seven more years.

Hey, listen, earlier that day,

he had contracted with Bing Crosby Productions in Memphis to portray himself in the sequel to Walking Tall.

The day he signed that deal is the day he died.

There you go.

No, but

he hit an embankment in his Corvette and was ejected from the vehicle.

And then the car caught fire and burned.

So pretty spectacular way to go.

In the words of Bobby Eaton, fuck around, fuck around.

Pretty soon you won't be around.

Well, I'll tell you one thing, Brian.

It ain't going to take almost 60 years of detective work to figure out who's going to murder who on September the 20th, is it?

You couldn't get a more diverse

philosophy and approach of whatever between the two companies.

And the winner is, I said at the top of the show that AEW is forgetting to bring the army.

Actually, they are bringing an army and WWE is bringing like, well, here, get

a good basketball team together.

And that'll do.

That'll be fine.

WWE has like fucking 10 people on the card that's going to kick the complete shit out of this AEW show with everybody that's ever bought a pair of boots.

Am I lying, Brian?

Am I lying?

Are my feet flying?

Have they left the ground?

Well, you know, AEW already addressed this somewhat by moving their show up, hopefully alerting all those ticket buyers they have in Toronto.

But they are now not competing necessarily head-to-head, although you have to think they may turn their event into like a nine-hour pay-per-view.

Just the fuck with WWE.

Do you think it does that?

Do you think if they run along, it hurts WWE?

No,

I think it's like a bunch of outlaw guys flyer in the parking lot

is what it amounts to.

That used to be a thing when outlaw promotions became a thing where you'd leave the reputable event.

And there'd be flyers for the

fucking outlaw group.

They even tried to flyer the OVW parking lot one night for the garbage wrestling down the road.

And that's that's it's it's going to be a minor annoyance.

ESPN and their publicity machine is behind this.

The WWE and they're talking about it on all their programs and platforms.

They've got Brock Lesnar versus John Cena.

They've got the fucking mixtape.

They've got all the matches that we're going to announce with these or announce or talk about with these stars

and this giant promotion of the start of a new era, the dawn of a new age.

I'm surprised they didn't pay for a goddamn moon rocket to plant a flag on a fucking moon.

And then over here

on the other side of the street, on

welcome back, baby, to the poorest side of town.

Do, do, do, do, do, do.

You got the same bunch of mangled shit that they've been doing because Tony's hit the fucking wall

on this TV show.

What's the main event?

An eight-man tag or a 10-man tag?

How many thumbtacks, screwdrivers, corkscrews, goddamn hypodermic needles can we jam into the program this week?

They might as well do it from the studios of MTV.

What is what network is jackass reruns on these days, Brian?

Oh, I don't know.

I didn't know they were in reruns.

I didn't know anyone.

Was it?

It used to be MTV 2 that you would put the fringe

young people doing stupid things to their own selves, as Mama Cornette would say.

There, the phone is ringing.

Are these the Nielsen people again?

It's God, it's the goddamn Nielsen people again.

Shut up.

But nevertheless,

go ahead and, if you would, Brian, illuminate the fans.

Illuminate the fans?

What is going on over there the Niels illuminate illuminate the fans on what the lineups are

that are competing with the wrestling fans attention for September 20th and and let's examine who's done what to who here who's about to get their fucking toes stomped why don't we start with WWE

who, after AEW announced their event, announced that they were going to do an event, which will be WrestlePalooza.

Also promoted as WrestlePalooza Indianapolis.

And it takes place at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, Indiana.

Here are the matches announced, and we have a potential extra match, but we'll get there momentarily.

And unfortunately, Dick the Ruser was not available to be a special referee.

For the vacant Women's World Championship,

EO Sky

versus Stephanie Stephanie Vacare.

That was vacated due to the insemination of the previous champion.

Correct?

That's right.

Well, then we wish these young ladies all the best.

And is this like catching a bouquet as soon as whichever one wins?

Are they going to be impregnated next?

That's not how it works.

But do me a favor, can you watch this match?

Stephanie Vacare is really good.

I think you should watch.

You You know, I'm having a tooth pulled like two days after this.

This will get you ready.

This is like pre-op.

Put me to sleep.

All right.

Okay.

All right.

All right.

It'll be worth it.

What else we got to look forward to?

A tag team match.

The Usos,

Jay and Jimmy, versus the Vision, Bronson Reed and Braun Breaker.

I could honestly do without the name,

the Vision, but

we love the folks on the heel team, especially Braun Breaker.

The Usos getting back together is a big deal.

I don't expect to smooth, I don't expect Bobby Fulton and Tommy Rogers level fucking work out of them, but because

their reunion is going to be over because it's kind of like a Hardee's thing.

where now they're back together after going on their separate paths.

And that's going to obviously be the interest of the match, but this is a chance for these young heels again to shine with guys that are over with the people.

Now, Jim, as we said before, there's only four matches currently announced publicly as we are recording.

But as Dave Meltzer reports in this week's Observer, Cody Rhodes defends the WWE title against Drew McIntyre.

Not announced, but was confirmed early in the week.

And they have this week, and I would expect that that would be

imminently being announced, right?

We're speaking here, what, five hours before SmackDown.

So it could happen at any time.

It could happen at any time.

The time has come.

Cody and Drew, that's a big name deal and a big title match.

I would have loved to have seen a little more build for it.

But again,

it's not like they're throwing out Pete Sanchez against a Brooklyn brawler here.

And then, Jim, we have two big matches here at the end.

John Cena versus Brock Lesnar.

You know, that's the indication.

that they consider this more important

than anything else they're doing for a while, that Brock's first official match back is here.

And they wanted something blockbuster and they want to turn it into a goddamn

annual thing as I believe one of the

many suit-wearing multi-millionaires that now work for the billionaire corporation that now owns all these people.

They want to make this a big annual thing.

So Brock Lester and John Cena,

one would assume the last time.

John Cena will win if it's the last time.

Brock Lester will win if it's not the last time.

That would be big enough for anything else under any normal circumstances.

But Brian, holy mackerel,

it just keeps coming.

There's a double main event.

Well, Jim, before we move on, you just gave your prediction for that match.

We didn't give your predictions for the other matches so far before we get to the final main event.

EO versus Stephanie Vacare, vacant women's title.

I have no earthly idea, but let's go with EO because all the people on Twitter just seem to love her.

I'm going to go with Stephanie Vacare because the same people seem to love her, and EO has already had the belt a few times.

Stephanie Vacare may be ready.

Well, then let's love on her for a while if she's ready for love.

Usos versus.

Do you think she is ready for love?

I mean, ready for love?

The Usos versus the vision.

Well,

I can see things both ways, Brian.

I think it's kind of an opportunity, and especially if they have some kind of

drama that's the subtext of the story with L.A.

Knight going on with Jay,

it would be a nice step up for the heels to take this one, especially because I believe it's going to be babyfaces at the top of the card.

And Cody versus Drew.

I think the belt is safe in the Rhodes household right now.

It doesn't have to leave the bus.

And then we get the final match, Jim, the mixed tag team match.

CM Punk and A.J.

Lee versus Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch.

And now we're doing this one last, but we have no, we don't have a run sheet.

We don't know what will go on last.

It might very well be Cena and Lesnar, but

I got to be honest with you.

I think this one has as much, if not more interest, and especially amongst the people that are going to

really

want to watch this show.

The idea of

the Rollins family and the punk family.

It's a personal issue.

And yes, I know with Brock and Cena, he came out, he F5'd him.

He came out and F5'd him.

And then he came out of, was it a month or was it six weeks later and F5'd him twice.

And then said, I'll see you at Wrestle Palooza, bitch.

This is not exactly a memorable build to a match that will be remembered down through the ages.

So I think it's the idea that it's two big names and it's, you know, we're going to see Brock another handful of times probably wrestle.

We're going to see Cena another handful of times.

But with the personal issue between these guys and girls that are happening now, they're the happening kids.

They're with it.

There's more emotional investment from the fans just on one to especially wanting to see the babyface girl get her hands on the heel girl, as it should be.

Because they've seen the

that's what the experienced veterans one of the things that they taught me when I first got into business

if you're the manager or the valet at that point or the the female half of this mixed tag

they get to see the fans get to see the top guys get beat up and take bumps and even bleed and whatever

But the fans didn't used to get to see the manager get beat up all the time or the valet, anybody get hands on her or the girl or whatever.

see you keep that as special and it means more

and now they've incorporated that into a modern bit of business here so i guess what i'm saying is

yes they're going to love seeing cena against lesnar and it's a battle of stars and blah blah blah

but they're really going to be jumping up and down

and just cheering for the sake of it for the mixed tags.

Does that make sense, Brian?

Yeah, it definitely feels like the hotter match.

It definitely feels like the one that has actually had some angles building up to it, other than just he shows up, he does something, and then they'll do some other stuff in between.

He'll show up again.

He's a man, a few words.

Who do you think is going to win this match?

Again, I could, if I was sitting in the room,

I could entertain a pitch either way, depending on where they're going

with it.

And I would think that there was a creative, or I would hope that there would be a creative way

that everybody could agree on that the babyfaces could win somehow,

but possibly get that

rug pulled out from under them,

which may be possibly a reason why Cena and Brock may go on last if it wasn't going to already.

where

the heels got some kind of,

you know, cheap shot or whatever, you know what I'm saying.

So, and especially amongst the girls to keep it alive

because they've got legs with what they could do with it based on this interest.

It's just AJ's just got back, obviously.

So, but I would

entertain something either way, depending on where they were going after this.

And we don't know which is the great part about it.

Well, that is the lineup as of now, as we are recording for Wrestle Palooza, of course, they may add some stuff in the next week or so, but we'll stay on top of that.

What a show.

CM Punk, the return of AJ Lee after 10 years.

Seth Rollins is a star.

Becky Lynch is a star.

John Cena, Brock Lester, the return after a couple of years.

John Cena is about to retire.

Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre in a WWE title match.

The Usos

reunite.

That's pretty fucking loaded.

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Authors are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.

How loaded was Tony when he put together what they're trying to steal some attention away with?

Well, again, they announced their card first.

AEW all out.

Well, no, they announced the show.

They announced the show first.

Right.

They've announced

the number match They announced the date exactly.

But,

you know, they've had a lot of time to get here.

So what are they putting on their big show here

that would be in opposition or combat or try to steal thunder from that loaded lineup over there?

All right.

And I actually have a few different things

open here because there are matches that are official.

And then there are matches that are rumored to be or alluded to be.

It seems like they.

Are you talking about the AEW mouth organ, Uncle Dave?

Well, in the Observer, he has matches that obviously wouldn't be on a Wikipedia, let alone an AEW website.

No, they wouldn't lower themselves to being on things like that.

But this is a big lineup here.

Let me start with what's official.

In a tag team match, Adam Copeland and Christian Cage

versus FTR with Stokely.

Okay, and they are in Toronto, by the way.

We should mention that.

And Edge and Christian reuniting after all these years in Toronto

for the live house, that would probably be the thing that's going to bring the house down.

And I would assume that are they going to sell out and wherever they're at in

Toronto up there for this?

Certainly to God.

I would have to check the ticket sales, but I would think that they would do it.

It's the hottest wrestling market traditionally, Toronto.

One would think.

We'll find out if they do.

But nevertheless, the point is,

and again, every time I say they could have a good match with FTR, people

again

freak out and go, oh, he'll never give up on FTR.

He glazes them, like the kids say.

I do like a good doughnut every now and then, but

it's not.

No, they can functionally

have a better match with most people in the ring than anybody at AEW.

But I've also made it clear that they're completely meaningless at this point

and that they've done nothing to help

their image that they once had, which was better than it is today

with the creative and et cetera.

the build to this that they've already given away Edge and Christian's reunion, and that's just our first time back back at home.

And against the nitwits, they had to work with.

It's just the

so the promotion has been fumbled, but I will say that's going to be their in the building, their biggest thing.

I said it the other day, they'll probably be the best match on the card.

How long do you think they'll give them?

Knowing how

as long as they want, what do you think?

30 minutes or more?

Yes or no?

Well, no, because I don't think Edge and Christian are going to want 30 minutes because I think they're not going to

want to fucking take a chance on stinking their hometown reunion out.

I think they will realize that they've got wonderful opponents and Dax and Cash.

And if they do 16, 18 minutes with a whiz-bang finish, it'll just be just lovely.

I don't think they want to go 30 minutes

or they shouldn't.

Jim in a big trios match the hurt syndicate of bobby lashley shelton benjamin and mvp

versus ricochet

and the gates of agony comprised of bishop khan and towo leona

I've now discovered why they named them the gates of agony because that's what you feel like you're passing through every time you watch their fucking matches.

Jesus Christ on a cracker.

What they have,

I don't know what they've done here, but let's examine what they've done here.

The Hurt Syndicate

were over as heels in a popular fashion because they came out, they looked professional, they threw people around

and they dominated physically and they look good doing it and they just come off as a big deal.

And so people get into it.

But then they completely have no babyface team whatsoever

ready to face these guys and give them any kind of goddamn legitimate, believable challenge.

Instead of just, they focus elsewhere on a bunch of children.

So when it comes time to have somebody to fight these fucking guys, nobody can stand up to them.

So then

instead of do it again.

You do something with FTR just because at least they can pick Shelton and Bobby up believably.

They go through this round at Robin fucking business to get the belts off of them and now have turned them baby face, apparently,

against whiny Ricochet

and these two fat fucking guys that they've goddamn found off the fucking indies somewhere.

They're not fat.

Bishop Khan's in pretty great shape, it seems like.

And the other guy.

Then the one fat guy and the other fucking jacked up guy.

I don't care.

They're black holes of charisma.

Not only do they have no charisma, but they suck in the charisma of those around them.

As we'll talk about on television, the fight with where they're trying to fight even with it was just, it was an even fight.

And then it exposes that Sheldon Benjamin's the only one who can really fucking move around out of the four of them.

But the point is, now they're being put in, I guess, a babyface position against Whiney Ricochet and his two stooges that were jerking the curtains until three weeks ago.

And Ricochet ain't set the world on fire unless he's a goddamn arsonist in his double life.

So

an MVP's already in the ring.

The man is that while they were heels, nobody got the goddamn manager in the ring.

for any babyface to try to get even with him.

And now they're baby faces, and he's already in the ring after their babyfaces for two weeks.

To fuck,

help me.

Please don't beat up your microphone there.

I think MVP did wrestle a few times in AEW.

I remember seeing him in a match.

I don't remember what the setup was or who it was against.

I don't think there was a setup.

I think they just had him wrestle somebody.

And I commented on it then.

There was no setup, but it wasn't like anybody was even trying to get even with him.

Any prediction on this big match

yeah it ain't gonna be real good

uh it hopefully the

somebody in the hurt syndicate will beat somebody else but i it won't happen that way i bet if ricochet will do something because he's the tiniest person in the thing Well, Jim, in a match for the TBS championship, a match I'm looking forward to seeing maybe more than anything else on this show, Mercedes Monet, the champion, versus Riho.

I can't get that.

That's

this is the perfect example of, as I said the other day, the snake bit promotion.

Even when they try to do things, and they're just it's it's bad luck.

They've been cursed by an old gypsy, Maria Ospenskaya.

They get Riho, and the WWE gets AJ Lee.

So, no, I mean, we have no reason to believe that anything but a carefully orchestrated SEAL team mission can beat Mercedes-Moon.

So, I don't think Riho

is gonna.

Rio's indestructible.

Are you kidding me?

Except when she gets hurt and goes home for a couple of years.

You know what?

Then this is going to be the irresistible force, the immovable object, matter and antimatter, and

something may blow up.

And between the two of them, they're almost 200 pounds.

So reinforce the ring.

Riho has just returned, of course, former champion.

I believe the first women's champion in a storied career in AEW.

Do you see her losing in her first big match back?

And if she wins,

is she the person to take any of those belts off Mercedes-Monet?

You, again, Riho,

she's not a serious professional wrestler.

It is a

weird

fondness for

fringe gimmickry

by Kenny Olivier that caused Riho to be inflicted upon an American television audience.

And I don't care how

batshit fucking crazy that Tony Khan or any of the rest of these people are about anything else.

There's no way that they could possibly,

after all they've done for with Mercedes Moon, who has been a giant flop for the money she's been paid

and turned in embarrassing

acting, fucking rehearsal performances and a ridiculous amount of

self-love in her various activities.

But there's no way they would in any way put Riho

over her with the investment they've made so far in her beating everybody else.

And at some point,

somebody would say, but you realize that Riho is not, this is not,

nobody's going to take this seriously anymore, not even our fucking people.

One would imagine.

We will see what happens.

Jim in a coffin match.

Oh, Christ.

Jon Moxley versus the AEW ratings.

No, Jon Moxley versus Darby Allen.

Well, why wouldn't they?

The Undertaker invented the coffin matches, and now the coffin matches are being carried on by a guy that's pretty soon going to need an Undertaker.

Haven't they been building up it being a body bag match?

If you think of the angles they've been doing on TV.

Well, but

how can you fucking take a bump off the top rope to the floor into a body bag?

Right?

You can take some cool bumps into a coffin, but you pretty much just goddamn dive into a fucking hefty bag.

That's true.

Wouldn't end well for anybody.

Wouldn't make good television.

The fuck?

Of course, these fucking nitwits.

Jesus Christ.

So I know they like the weird little thing.

I guess I should be more specific.

The weird, smaller, littlest thing, Darby.

They like that weird little thing.

And he does the coffin drop.

And they've been body bagging each other.

So now the next thing is they can take some wonderfully fun bumps into a coffin.

And

I just have to think

that if Darby doesn't win this, that

there might be some goddamn retribution

on Moxley from some of the fans.

Just no, go away we can't take it anymore he's got to put this kid over in the coffin match doesn't he

I mean who knows we have non-stop interference for horseman style in every Moxley match so you really can't but just they they brought him

do you see he spent $160,000 Darby Ellen did to climb that fucking mountain

Jesus H Christian pay for any of it because it was promoting aew technically well no Tony paid for all of it.

And the fact he had him on contract sending him a goddamn check,

but Darby could have collected the same goddamn check and sitting at home eating fucking Fritos.

And instead, he went and climbed a goddamn mountain for $160,000.

But the point is, how about this?

Couldn't he have gone to his local skate park and climbed the biggest fucking thing and then donated $159,995 to feed hungry children or something for fuck's sake.

But nevertheless.

What is that?

Is that airfare plus

mountain fare?

Sherpa.

Sherpa fare?

I don't know.

Like, what else?

What are these things?

Have you fed a llama lately?

You know what the fuck.

I'm telling you, they'll eat you out of house and home.

After a few days, that llama becomes your food.

And only if properly cooked.

But anyway.

Do you think they're just going to destroy each other?

It'll be a really brutal match.

And then, like, after like 20 minutes of that, they'll get in the ring and start trading blows back and forth, like every Moxley match.

Well, of course, but I don't say destroy each other.

Moxley will beat the shit out of him and he'll let him.

And then Moxley will just,

in some way, incite his own blood, but he'll do it in the usual style of shitty work.

And some way or another, some other baby faces will help foil his heels, and there will be a big schmaz, and Moxley will end up in the coffin.

That's what I'm saying.

Well, Jim, the next match here, and

I guess they're still doing this, it hasn't ended yet.

Thumbtacks and tables match for MJF versus Mark Briscoe.

Oh, boy.

What's Jesus Christ?

Thumbtacks.

MJF is not going going to lose, and

Mark never wins the big one.

The Gipper would have been ashamed of him.

I can't.

Maybe is MJF going to take time off to go

impregnate his new wife or something?

If that's the case, and Mark might be going over, but if MJF is good, why is MJF time off from what?

Time off from one day away.

Well, I mean, he's going to a movie right now, too, isn't he?

Well, okay.

Well, then there you go.

He's going to a movie set.

Mark might win.

He might knock him into the

fables and the thumbtacks.

MJF has been so diminished.

And it's just now it's the repetitive mad promos.

And he

has no direction

and no opponents.

And they try to do this with Mark, but it was

unfortunately

quite late

and muddled in the middle.

And

I, I, you know, and thumbtacks.

So, whatever the fuck, I would think MJF would be winning, but you never know.

GM and a four-way for the AEW Women's World Championship.

Why wouldn't it be?

Timeless Tony Storm versus Jamie Hayter

versus Chris Statlander versus Tecla.

Remind me who's got it now.

Timeless Tony Storm.

She's got the which women's title is this?

The AEW.

Several of the women have belts.

The AEW Women's World Championship.

What's Mercedes got?

The TBS Championship.

Well, she's got nine of them, though.

She also has nine, eight other belts that we don't know.

Yeah.

Well, you say,

I mean,

out of those names, I would think that they would take care of Tony Storm because she's like the closest thing they have to a star on the women's roster.

Even if she is preposterous, they love her.

They love her little, bless her little heart.

Unless they're going to try to get old Thecla over

in some fashion.

I'm hoping that Tony Storm would retain out of that clustered crew.

For the AEW World Championship,

Don Callis family banned from Ringside,

Hangman Adam Page versus Kyle Fletcher.

I will save my comments on Kyle Felcher's appearance.

on the TV show the other night for when we talk about the TV show the other night.

But I understand they were originally going to have Paige defend against Wardlow until Wardlow hurt himself

his first night back by clotheslining the manager.

Apparently that's when it happened.

And that would have been a real blockbuster of an event.

But

They're going to do move after move after move, and they're going to go 30 or 35 minutes to prove that

Kyle is ready to be a main event player.

And

Paige ain't ready to be a main event player.

So, how is he going to make Kyle ready to be a main event player?

They're going to do more things than you've ever seen anybody do to each other, to each other.

And then Paige is going to win.

But somehow they think that

putting Kyle in this position long before he's ready, and he looks like he's a 12-year-old fucking bookworm

will get him over if they do a lot of moves.

So, yeah, Paige is going to beat him eventually.

And there's one more official match.

Jeez, how many is this now?

Well, this is official matches.

There's eight of these

for the AEW Unified Championship.

The champion Kazushika Okada

versus Konosuke Takesha

versus either Mascara Dorada or the beast Mortos.

Oh, God.

Well,

old Tagashit

will

not do anything to Okada that Okada doesn't want him to do because of his respect for his elder, which means that

Tagushit will do almost nothing to Okada.

And they got the other guy there, whichever one of it is, to drop the fall.

And

I don't know why

that they would put poor Take in that position of having to be the guy in the middle of the laziest, boringest,

carefulest

lack of working hardest, laziest, as I mentioned, wrestler in

the business.

But Okada will still win

because he, it's like they

dug up Mickey Mantle's fucking corpse and put him back on the goddamn Yankees.

Is he still going to be allowed to hit home runs?

Well, according to Dave Meltzer here, this will be the first ever meeting between Okada and Tikestra,

along with, of course, either Dorada or Mortos.

I bet you Kiefer Sutherland never met goddamn John Wilkes Booth either, even though they were both actors.

Well,

there's some more.

See, yeah, you can't argue with that, Ken.

I don't know how you pulled that one out of your took us.

But let's go now, Jim.

Took us.

Took us.

To the observer.

Where are you going to take us?

Well, Dave Meltzer says, from television, it appears they will add Bandito and Brody King, the team of Brodito, versus the Young Bucks for the tag titles.

Okay, that will be longer than it.

It's not even necessary, and it will be longer than necessary because of the Hardley Boys being involved in it, and they got to do all of their trampoline stuff.

But

again,

the Bro Ditos are their tag team champions, and they're not going to drop them to these two at this point because Tony's in love with the team name.

Well, we'll see what the result is.

Here's another match.

Not sure I want to watch this one.

Samoa Joe and Katsuri Shibata

and Powerhouse Hobbs versus Daniel Garcia, Claudio Castignoli, and Wheeler Yuta for the trio's titles.

Now, this is just maybe a possibility.

That's what Dave Meltzer thinks they're teasing on TV.

Is there still time for a write-in campaign?

Please don't do that.

Please.

And this may be the most interesting one here.

Dave Meltzer wrote that he thinks that, well, Dave Meltzer wrote, perhaps,

perhaps, Big Bill versus Eddie Kingston and Kingston's return.

It's happening soon, but not confirmed for this show.

So it could happen, but also,

if not now, soon.

But also,

since Eddie Kingston hasn't been anywhere around,

has he made appearances on the program we don't watch along with everybody else that doesn't watch it on Saturday nights?

I don't think so.

And done something with Big Bill.

Why would you book him to come back against Big Bill?

Is he going to reenact the

Hogan-Andre body slam and body slam and pin the seven-foot giant?

Why is Big Bill Eddie Kingston's sacrificial lamb when he comes back?

That seems odd.

One would think that Eddie Kingston could do

more things to a guy he could pick up and move around a little bit.

Just

all right.

And we haven't seen Big Bill in a while either.

Well,

I mean,

again,

I'm not saying that he's, you know, shouldn't be beaten or, you know, is in

dire need of a push or whatever, but it just out of nowhere, why would you match him with Kingston on Kingston's return?

He's the guy to make Kingston look good when he's.

He's a foot taller.

He's got a great body.

Kingston's a foot shorter.

He looks like shit.

the fuck i don't

well of course we'll see what becomes official they always have a zero hour pre-show filled with other multi-person matches

aew all-out toronto

the day of wrestle palooza

say something help me yes i'm i'm well put a period on it period

period all right well then i'll tell you what after watching the aew AEW in the afternoon for about five or six or seven or eight hours, and then the WWE at night for a palatable three hours, don't you think we're going to need a good night's sleep, Brian?

Yes.

Yes.

Now you say something.

Well, I'll tell you how you can get one.

You can rest in peace.

Rest in peace on a helix sleep mattress.

Because

Brian, is that not what you always want to do?

You always want to rest in peace.

You don't want to go to sleep and

toss and turn and wake up screaming and shit the bed.

You want to rest in peace, in quiet, in comfort, in luxury.

I wouldn't phrase it that way necessarily, but everyone deserves a good night's sleep.

And if you have the wrong mattress, you're going to have the wrong night's sleep.

You need the right night's sleep.

And of course, Helix sleep, a mattress for everyone.

You find the mattress that's right for you.

They send it to you.

Magic process of opening it and whoosh, or just

the unfurling, the magical unfurling of your mattress.

You watch it come to life and then you get to create new life on it or whatever it is you do on it, helix sleep.

Do I have to bring you back to the ground now on this one?

For heaven's sake.

No, you.

Here's what, and you are still resting in peace.

It's what I say to Stacey every night.

Rest in peace, dear.

Because I know she's on a helix sleep mattress and

she's going to be floating.

But I, and she's got one of those watches, you know, where it tells you the things that you're doing with your heart and your lungs and your liver and your kidneys and when you sleep and everything, one of those high-tech space age type of deals.

And she got that.

And of course, every night when she used to go to sleep, she'd wake up and it would just say 666.

But now when she wakes up off the helix mattress, it just says ZZZ.

Of course, Jim, that ZZ top always liked a good night's sleep.

All three members and the audience out there want to get the Z's when they go to sleep.

All three members of the audience out there?

All three members of ZZ Top and the millions and millions of sleepers.

One thing I could tell you about everyone listening to the show, they all go to sleep every night.

They all need a good mattress.

Let's tell them about that, Jim.

Yeah, we did a survey one time, and it was over 94% of the listeners often go to sleep.

Folks, right now, there's a big sale going on because what is today?

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You could actually sometimes rent space in these mattresses.

I know this one couple rented the bottom of their mattress to this college girl.

And they, it was just when she had to stay up late studying, it was a problem.

But otherwise, there was plenty of room for everybody.

Jim, you hear that?

You know what that means?

That's the official, it's about to to happen.

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Well, what do you think, Brian, about the big events that are going on

in the TKO world of the big corporate entity now that controls the strings of all of our favorite wrestlers, our beloved sport, the Sport of Kings.

And now

the insignia piece

of

the whole company, WrestleMania, the rage that started it all, we've lost it.

We lost it to the dagum Saudi Arabians.

What the heck?

Are they just going to,

why don't they get a stadium show?

I'm talking about the WWE office.

It could be in Pittsburgh if they want to, wherever, and just hold all the fans that come hostage and make them pay like their families pay five or 10 grand a piece to get them out.

They'd probably end up with too many leftovers and nobody wanted.

But I mean,

how can they make any more money?

All of these are criminals.

By doing more business with the Saudis.

By doing more business with the Saudis is the only guaranteed way to make more money.

And they are trying to pump this thing

with

as much much revenue-producing opportunities as any business ever.

I mean, it's astounding.

We'll talk a little bit later about what Mark Shapiro of TKO had to say about ticket sales and past ticket sales.

But WrestleMania,

that's the biggest one.

That's the name.

Even people who don't know wrestling, Mr.

T's daughter the other day, my dad and Hulk Hogan would go do a WrestleMania.

You know, for a lot of people who don't know wrestling, they think every event is a WrestleMania.

It was like a Kleenex.

it became just a catch-all term it's one thing when there's the royal rumble and then there's the saudi arabian royal rumble but when you actually just take the event and you're putting it over there that also means if it's two days of wrestlemania it's days of wrestlemania that's wrestlemania airing here in the united states in the middle of the day

and you have to wonder about

I mean, I can't imagine.

It would probably be the smallest amount of fans to travel to a WrestleMania ever,

including the first one.

Yeah.

Including the first one.

Including the first one.

But no, I think you're right there because there's going to be a lot of people's streaks come to an end at WrestleMania

as far as all these fans that have fanatically gone.

If you go to Saudi African Arabia for a wrestling event, there's something wrong with you.

For God's sake,

that's the, is this taking?

And you brought up a variety of things and we're going to get into the details, including that apparently they didn't mean to announce it, but they sent out a press release in Arabic and people caught on to it.

It was a couple of days early.

Actually, as we are recording right now, I believe their press conference, which everyone thinks is to announce this, will be taking place in 15 minutes or so.

Yeah, but it has already been pretty much confirmed.

But

again, 2027, it'd be WrestleMania.

One would also think that that will be the SmackDown and the Raw and the,

you know, whatever they have to do over the course of that weekend.

And they're just about to announce it.

And apparently, that's after they pulled out of New Orleans

for next year to give it back to Las Vegas because they could get more money out of Las Vegas.

Now, 2027 is going to Saudi Arabia for what is apparently over $100 million,

depending on whether the rock wrestles.

And these people can just buy anything.

And by the way, that's the 300th anniversary of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Oh, well, we can't let that go by unmarked.

So in terms of them spending money and them trying to get, they're trying to get everything over there, but they're going to

spare no expense when it comes to making WWE happy for this.

But that's, I mean, even over here to an extent, they are now having cities bid on whether they get pay-per-views or big events.

Hey, Boston, you don't want to pay $5 million?

Well, goddamn it, Cleveland will pay $5 million.

I mean, we used to have to come into town under cover of darkness, and now the goddamn mayor has to authorize the funds to bring us.

Good lord.

But that's so that's the thing.

Is this an example?

Is this going to be a taking Starcade out of Greensboro type of moment

for the WWE fans or at least the significantly hardest core portion of them?

You know, and you may want to answer that phone, and maybe Nielsen.

I don't know.

I don't know if there's anything that could really be a taking Starcade out of Greensboro moment for the modern day WWE, the way it's concocted, the way it's run by TKO.

Do they not care enough these days?

You know, Greensboro, the reaction from the Greensboro wrestling fans, correct me if I'm wrong, to losing Starcade

was the reaction of,

in a lot of cases, regular fans, working-class fans,

fans who felt like the wrestling was more than something they every now and then went to.

It was something that was part of the community, in a sense.

Yeah.

And you're right, there is not that anymore.

Yeah, well, WWE's chasing that away, it would seem.

That's why I always said that.

That was one of the big plays.

Tony Connover figured I had a book or had the right talent.

That's the one big thing to play into because they're pricing people out and people are noticing it.

But,

you know,

I said before that I think at the end of the day, the Saudis are going to end up owning WWE.

And maybe I should rephrase that.

I think they'll probably end up owning TKO

because there's no one else who's willing to just splurge like that.

And they're really trying hard to make Saudi Arabia a serious destination for sporting events,

events featuring Hollywood, film festivals.

They want everything.

Well, now, when they have bought these other companies, they still keep

the people in charge of them that are in charge, that are familiar with the

particular business and market that they are in rather than.

In other words, they wouldn't just send, you know, six, six guys from the

Sheikh's fucking sports council to just start running TKO.

They would still keep management in place.

We don't know that, and we're not even close to that happening.

Well, I'm not saying we know it, but

would that be their track record?

Is that what they normally do?

Hey, listen, how many of these guys are used to hearing the word no?

When they have a booking idea that they want to come with if they own the thing, there's going to be a lot of problems, but we'll get there.

So

you're saying the the next

sheik Sali bin Tony Khan is going to be even more dangerous than the other one we got?

You know, I just think that we're on an interesting road with WWE where, you know, it's just so weird.

And we'll talk about Vince McMahon in a short while.

But

for all the problems with Vince McMahon's creative

and

certainly his behavior from what we've learned,

there always was an element of, you you know, he's the modern-day P.T.

Barnum.

And P.T.

Barnum was built on touring.

You know, it wasn't just having something and, you know, every now and then doing it.

And WWE is losing any

domestic local feel they still had, even though they didn't run places regularly.

You know, but little things.

You know, Madison Square Gardens is not going to have their annual Christmas show this year because they're doing a show in November instead.

Or they don't come back to towns as much.

They've cut house shows because they don't make enough money.

It's a dangerous point when the people in charge are chasing every buck because eventually it's going to interfere with things that people can't ignore.

When business decisions are starting to be made about

whatever area of their business they're trying to prop up.

You know, I think it's a scary road.

And again, it comes back to the Saudis.

This is a Vince McMahon thing that started under him.

They paid a lot of money.

And by the way, his agent at that time, I think, was Nick Khan.

If that was before Nick Khan was working there, he was their agent.

So they've been doing deals with Saudi Arabia for a while, $50 million a show, whatever, $100 million for two nights of WrestleMania.

They'll go to wherever

someone will pay them.

I'm sure if any country right now said, you know, I'd love to have WrestleMania here, I'm going to outbid the Saudis, they will get WrestleMania.

It's that simple.

And

yeah, I hate to say sad state of affairs.

It's capitalism, it's commerce, it's business.

But, you know, when you're going after every single dollar the way they are, you're going to burn something out soon, I think.

But that's just the way I feel.

Well,

that's what they're doing.

And

it not just getting $100 million plus for WrestleMania in 2027.

That's if The Rock agrees to wrestle.

These negotiations seem to be going well, though.

And whatever else they're going to do for the other shows around that, it's going to be a multi-gazillion dollar deal.

But who in another one of these suits that run this operation that are running this flitty market?

Was it Shapiro or I can't remember which one?

Mark Shapiro.

Came out.

Mark Shapiro.

COO of TKO.

Well, there you go.

Oh, oh, oh.

He came out and said, well, Vince McMahon

wasn't maximizing the ticket prices

like we are because Vince McMahon was still pricing for families.

So basically just say, no, we're going to make it so expensive, you can't even bring the rest of your fucking family if you want to.

This is just for a bunch of self-absorbed dicks to go see.

I have the quote here.

This was from the Goldman Sachs Communicopia and Technology Conference on Wednesday.

WWE is not where the UFC yet is on ticket yield.

We have our work to do there.

We know we have a lot of room there because Vince McMahon was primarily pricing tickets for families and wasn't totally focused on maximizing the opportunity there.

Now that we've seen what we could do at UFC,

we're replicating that in terms of ticket yield and holding back and advanced sales when it comes to on location on the WWE side.

And it's working out really well.

There's

Mark Shapiro.

And again,

it took this guy to make Vince McMahon a good guy for the first time in forever.

The idea that Vince McMahon,

again, however bad the creative was and however bad he personally was,

you know, WWE's national expansion was built on the idea we're getting families in here.

And that's still what he priced for.

Well, and at the same point, and I guess it's an indictment of the way they sell tickets to everything these days, but

there was never a time in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s.

I mean, I was running shows in the 2000s.

You advertised the goddamn ticket prices, and that's what the ticket prices were.

You remember them days, don't you, Brian?

$12 ringside, $10 general admission, $8 kids under 12, whatever the fuck it was.

That was what the price of the tickets was.

And now, not only are they jacking them through the roof, but they've got all these strategies with all the

online sales where they can, it's like a goddamn airline now.

You can be sitting in

row 14 section or seat C and pay $500 more than the fucking person sitting in seat B.

They're just trying to get as much as they can get out of whoever the fuck is poking around.

And that's what you know what the problem is.

And what bullshit?

It's a shakedown from both sides because they're trying to get as much as they can out of whoever will come and pay for these tickets.

At the same time, they're doing the same thing to the local municipalities.

Yeah.

They're doing the same thing.

Listen to these quotes here from the same thing.

There are no shortage of countries that want to see us bring our show to town.

If we have St.

Louis going up against the Des Moines, Iowa, and you want us back there, and you've broken records and sold out both your arenas, you have to pay for us to come back, or else we'll take it to another town.

And that goes for NXT, Raw, and SmackDown on the WWE side.

Good God.

He's saying it out loud.

I mean, that's the incredible.

Yeah, again, it's gone from what goodwill does that set up with any

city to, hey, you want us to come in?

You got to pay through the nose or we'll take it somewhere else.

Wouldn't a lot of people just on attitude alone go, well, fuck you then.

But besides that, again,

it's gone from a business where you wanted to establish a good relationship with a local building and try to get a discount on the rent if you

rent it on a regular basis.

To now, they're extorting the local cities to

pay them to come to appear for free in their municipally owned arenas.

The Christ.

You know, we're talking ticket prices.

I have here something someone just posted.

John Fichera in the Cultural Coordinate Facebook group about WrestleMania 42 ticket prices, or at least ticket packages, some of them.

The silver ticket package in Las Vegas, a two-night ticket and a priority pass.

Two nights of premium seating.

You also get to go to the Friday kickoff party at Area 15 with a live QA from Cody Rhodes and Superstar Appearances.

A four-day priority pass to the WWE World and Superstore.

That's a great bonus.

We're going to give you a pass to go to the store and spend money.

I was about to say,

the priority pass to give us your money before we let anybody else give us their money.

Also,

dedicated priority pass entrance to Allegiant Stadium, the WWE World, and the WWE Superstore.

Sounds like a great deal.

That is only $1,600 a ticket.

Jesus Christ.

Ticket is it?

Well,

it says buy ticket and pass, I guess, the package.

The next package is the gold package.

You get all of that.

Plus, you get an all-inclusive pre-show hospitality with on-stage appearances by The Undertaker, Paul Heyman, and the Steiner Brothers.

Also, a limited edition collector's item

and a ring mat plaque.

$27.50,

a ticket.

And again, when you go through that, they've got practically nothing in it in terms of an investment of money that they have to spend to give you these things.

They're already renting the building and putting on the show.

They're just doing auxiliary things around it for you for no

extra expense to them.

And the mat plaque is where they take a three-square-inch piece of canvas and put it in a frame with a nice

label on it.

Well, Jim, you get all of that

and these other items in the champion package.

You also get a ringside photo op at WrestleMania 42

and a five-day VIP priority pass to the WWE World and Superstore Access.

Where am I going to go?

I spent all my money on WrestleMania.

That's what I was about to say.

Besides that, how many days could you go to that fucking store?

$5,150 a ticket.

Boy, howdy.

And then finally, Jim,

there's more?

The Elite experiences package.

Now, wait a minute.

Can they legally do that?

I don't know.

I don't know what exactly what

ways of using the term elite AEW would have any claim on it.

You know, that's what, you know, as a matter of fact, they can legally use it because remember we heard about that.

The Young Bucks' lawyer made a mistake and

trademarked the term effect.

So go ahead.

Well, this package, Jim, the Elite Experiences package, is

everything you got in all the other packages, plus an on-stage, an in-ring photo op at WrestleMania 42,

the superstar walkout experience on the WrestleMania stage,

where people in the crowd go, who the fuck is that?

Yeah,

hurry up, hurry up, get out of this.

It's like a Christmas story, getting the Santa Claus line through.

I think I mentioned the other packages.

You get to go to the Friday kickoff party.

This one, you get to be in the reserved section.

The reserved section for the party.

I thought you were going to say you get to work at the kickoff party.

You can serve the fucking pigs in a blanket.

And finally, Jim, five-day VIP for the world and fast lane access.

So you have to go faster than the others.

$37,500 a ticket.

Jesus H.

Christ.

If you go with anyone,

do you want to go?

Do you want to go?

Do you want to go?

Do you want to go to something like that by yourself?

Or do you want to have at least one person that you can speak to that you know is not some goddamn strange weirdo you're going to be sitting next to at random?

That would be 75,000.

How is that even possible?

Who is spending $30 something thousand dollars to go to any goddamn show?

I've run fucking shows.

I didn't spend that much money.

I've run many shows.

I didn't spend that much money.

But who are these people?

Who has $35,000 to spend on a goddamn wrestling ticket?

And that's the other sad thing.

You think about it and you're like, oh, it just has to be a bunch of rich people who don't give a shit.

They have endless amounts of money, unlimited capital.

They can go and do these things they love wrestling what about like the fan who mortgages his house so they can get a picture in the ring at wrestlemania before wrestlemania leaves the states forever but where did these people come from all of a sudden

people weren't that anxious to part with it anywhere near that amount of money in the old days for anything wrestling or otherwise I'm talking about the old days like 20 years ago.

Who the fuck?

Yeah, see, this wouldn't have worked out.

Who paid that much money to see anything?

Who paid half of that 20 years ago for anything?

Looking at some of the comments here.

One of the listeners, Tony Chavez, I went last year and sat in section 201, row one.

It was $1,725 per seat for the silver package.

Same seats this year,

$2,900 per.

Fuck TKO.

There you go.

You're going to start hearing more and more of that because it's not just that they're pricing out the longtime fan or the families.

They're pricing out the fan of last year.

They're pricing out the fans who already overpaid last year.

They're pricing them out.

I remember when, who was it?

I'm trying to think.

God damn it.

Was it?

It may have been Bob Collins, who was a long time, he Bob Collins in the WWF office in the 80s and 90s,

was the guy that was the local promoter for all the WrestleManias or the big events.

He was the guy.

Ed Cohen booked the buildings, but

Bob Collins was the guy who went out there and did the local promotion on everything.

And it may have been him that came up with the idea: hey,

for WrestleMania,

we're going to check for front row row or the first two rows or whatever,

we're going to charge like $250 and we're going to let them take home their chair.

And Vince heard about it.

He's like, huh?

Huh?

What do you think, pal?

Anybody going to pay that?

I've got a couple of the chairs.

They're nice padded folding chairs.

Right?

You got that and front row at WrestleMania for $250.

Now you get the opportunity to give them more of your money for $2,500.

And you can't even carry the chair home.

I'd actually love to hear what Vince thinks of that.

You know, it's been very minimal criticism in the very minimal times he's grumbled something out publicly over the last few years, but

You know, more than the direction of the TV or the production or anything, I would love to know what he thinks of the monetization of things he didn't monetize, like the advertising on the mat,

not running house shows, pricing families out.

I think on the on the mat.

See, that was a thing that, again, it was a different time because Vince didn't like, for those of you who don't know what I'm babbling about.

Vince McMahon didn't like, didn't ever want to put the sponsor logos on the mat.

He wanted to keep the mat clean.

It just, it's one of his things, like shaving constantly.

He wanted to see the ring like he saw the ring.

He thought it was cluttered up, whatever.

But

at the same point, even though they did some pretty major for the time sponsorship deals through the 80s and 90s and 2000s,

there was never as much money as there is right now

resting on that.

So he may have been persuaded, but that's a small part of the overall thing.

I think that he still, if he was running the company, still might not have the shit on the mat.

But if, but also, if they were, if he was running the company now and they were making $100 million for WrestleMania and these billions of dollars for streaming,

he could again afford to have that little piccadillo leave out the 40 million for mat advertising.

I think it looks cluttered.

But if somebody had

offered him $40 million to advertise on the map 25 years ago, he'd have probably put a porn site on it if he had to.

So it's all relative.

The main thing is, I think Vince, as

business-minded and avaricious, and megalomaniacal and wanting to be the conqueror of all as he was.

He probably has a grudging admiration for what they have done.

And he's justifying it that he could never have done it because he was only one man and they were the

tentacles of multi-global corporations.

But he can reconcile that.

But I made the decision to put it in those hands so it still wouldn't be doing this without me.

That's the way I think he's thinking of.

Well, we'll see what happens as we are recording.

I'm glad you were all fired up by that fucking analysis I just gave.

You know, again, it's just a change.

a changing face of the business, a changing face of the industry.

In a lot of ways, it should open up opportunities here in the States

for more serious-minded wrestling promoters.

The problem is there aren't any.

That's the deflating, depressing thing.

Well, we'll stay on top of this and see

who they price out next.

WWE.

Well, you know,

that's the thing, Brian.

It's all about more or less.

It's always all about more or less.

Do you have more about something or less of something?

That's what it's always about.

And the whole world operates on more or less.

You know, you can make money depending on whether things are more of something or less of something.

You know what I'm talking about, don't you?

Our friends over at Prize Picks.

Oh, they're great friends.

It's a big prize picks app.

The day, you know, so as soon as I heard it was Daily Fantasy, I was sold.

Of course, I didn't realize that they had the more or less projection on measurements like that, but you got to get in on the inside circle.

They're going to start you out with stuff like football because they're doing that all over the place these days.

But it's all the big sports, the footballs, the baseballs, the basketballs, the disc golf, anything that you like.

All you got to do is download the prize picks app.

And then it's simple to play.

If you pick more or less on the player stat projections

and you get your picks right, then you can cash in.

It's like being a Nielsen family.

You can get cash rewards.

Boom.

Right there.

And they offer Venmo,

Apple Pay, and MasterCard.

Brad, when I was a kid, we used to send money to MasterCard.

Now they send it back to you.

Is that how that works?

It is,

you know, again, let's not talk talk about things we're not certain about let's talk about okay the certain let's stick with the facts that is the love of fantasy daily fantasy has become a love of our nation so many people love to fantasize daily Yes.

And thank you for that.

And I'll tell you what, you used to have to have a bowl of a bottle of Juergen's lotion right next to you.

Or a bowl.

And that was the most important thing.

But now it's the phone in your hand on the Prize Picks app.

That's what you need for your daily fantasy.

Don't make a mistake and try to grab anything else while the phone is in your hand.

It will hurt.

But you download the app, you pick more or less on the stat projections,

and you know the rest of the way that everybody plays these games because it's amazing.

And it's the best way to win cash this football season.

Which players are going off?

You never know when one of these motherfuckers is going to flip or which ones aren't.

Make your picks in less than 60 seconds and turn your takes into cash all season long on pri picks, prize picks, or pry picks.

It's prize

out of these people and get prizes.

That's right.

And of course, Jim, want to make sure we let everyone know the max discount this weekend is Patrick Mahomes

0.5 passing yards.

The max discount this weekend is Patrick Mahomes 0.5 passing yards.

Well, right there,

as you can see, folks, an updated string of English words from our correspondent Brian last

for the prize picks app and use the code JCE.

You got to do that and you're going to get, guess what you're going to get?

Besides that thing we just talked about.

You're going to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.

So if you've ever wanted to be in a lineup, and

most people I know, their parents said they would be,

you're going right now, the prize picks app, use the code JCE, $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.

You got to just put up a little good faith, and then we'll do the rest.

You're going to get 50.

That's 10 times what you need to.

Boy,

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I know a lot of girls that have been happy.

Prize picks.

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Okay, well, now that we've talked about all the big business, let's talk about the teen

tiny little business

that is

Tony Kahn has hit the skids hit the bricks hit the wall he's hit something

if

we don't know when he comes out and he makes these long-winded statements about how he's taken back over the creative we don't know what's going on with how this program is put together but if this is him and it looks like it might be

Because it's just the same thing for two hours every week.

I think I said something earlier in the show: you know, is the main event an eight-man or a 10-man?

And is it for $250,000 or $500,000 play dollars?

How many segments can we have

multiple people run in and do shit after a 20-minute long match and then disfigure each other in some different fashion?

It's the same show.

He's just doing it over and over with names, and people, and matches, and

clutter.

And it's, I

don't know how it's going to pull out of this.

Do you?

As a product, I'm not talking about their

rights fees or

they were, they were in Philly.

I think they finished up there now, but they're in a closet again in front of 900 people.

It looks like, you know, Let's Make a Deal was the last show that shot in that fucking studio.

It's it's a claw, Tony!

Tony, come out of the closet.

And this, the show is the same every week.

The guys do their dramatic soliloquies at each other,

and then it's a mess of fighting and brawling and mayhem.

I think it's two different walls.

I think it's the creative wall, and you could argue when Tony has hit that wall.

But again, even if you're a big fan of AEW, the guy's been booking for six years now.

And every time over the past six years, he was asked about it, it's the greatest it's ever been.

Everything is great.

Here is some reasoning to justify why I think I deserve to be doing this, other than I own it.

So I think there's that wall, but the other wall is the talent wall between injuries

and lack of free agents that matter.

You know, technically, speedball was a free agent and they got him.

But there aren't any like big free agents that you're like, man.

He should have been free.

Like, there's no one out there that you're like, man, I hope they get them before WWE does or hope, you know, whatever it is.

There's no one.

They've got who they've got.

This is Ann Gunkel at the end.

They've got who they got.

And a lot of them are injured.

And the show,

you know,

I see how much some people really love it.

And I don't get it.

I don't get who's pushed.

I don't get, I don't want to just go off on another rant, but yeah, they've hit the wall.

They've hit the wall.

Well,

but Brian Danielson on commentary may say,

what do you think?

Will this be the turnaround?

Bless him.

He's been named as the new announce team member, replacing Tony Schiavone, which I don't have any argument with that considering Tony's contributions to play-by-play over the last several years.

But

once he was introduced as set down, I'm so used to not

listening to the announcing because either Sockface is screaming at me or I'm so busy trying to write down

who all these people are that are running into the ring and doing shit that I don't listen to the announcing.

Did you catch any pearls of wisdom?

I thought he was okay.

Not great, but not terrible and certainly something that could be improved.

I think the issue is more who he's teamed with.

I think if you put him out there with, you know, Prime Jim Ross, it probably would have been one of those things where everyone was talking about his commentary the next day.

You have to team him with the right people.

And unfortunately,

as long as Excalibur is the lead commentator on this show,

the show's lacking.

Yeah.

Not to mention Taz just giggling at everything as it happens or whatever.

Well, but even

Taz and Danielson, you've got two color guys.

So there's no...

There's no Vince to tie their team.

There's two co-pilots.

There's no pilot.

Yeah.

And

the thing everybody says, oh, Sockface will really get the, you know, it's six years now.

He still sounds like he's screaming on VHS from the basement where they do their mail order tapes.

Even if you're a fan of his,

I think the honest appraisal is that he's not a good voice for big moments.

Whether it's what he says or how he stumbles over what he says.

or the inflection, whatever it is, he's not the right guy for that role.

He's still pretending to be the announcer, like when they pretended to be the announcers on their, in their

PWG or whatever it was, 25 years ago.

He's imitating the announcers that he saw then and trying to get all the words right, and then plus trying to throw in all the Japanese names for everything.

But nevertheless, Brian Danielson, good luck in that environment.

Hey, did you see this?

One of the listeners posted this in the Cult of Cornet, I think.

Brian Danielson had a quote about the AEW pay scale.

Did you see this?

I did not.

He was doing an interview.

Where was he doing it?

With John Bernard, whoever that may be.

AEW existing and being this challenger brand and being as successful as we've been has changed the landscape for wrestling for the wrestlers themselves.

Wrestlers are being paid more now than ever from a sports rights perspective.

So,

for example, in most major sports in the United States, the players get anywhere between 40 to 50% of the revenue.

WWE was paying their wrestlers nowhere close to that.

Now, keep in mind, they're still not paying anywhere close to that.

But they do have to pay more because if they don't, the talent is going to leave and go to AEW.

AEW does pay that 40 to 50 percent of the revenue

to the wrestlers.

Whoa,

you know, despite making much less money.

Oh boy, howdy.

So

I think he just told us that Tony Khan lost a lot more money than we thought he did for the first few years.

Jesus, age Christ.

50% of the revenue, up to 50% of the revenue is paid to the wrestlers.

I mean, for the wrestlers, that's incredible, especially if you had the roster to really get your bang for your buck out of it.

That's incredible.

Has anyone in wrestling ever paid that percentage of, if that is indeed true?

And again, he's...

become somewhat of a mouthpiece publicly for AEW because well yeah and the thing is these are the same things that Uncle Dave has written.

So, we wonder: did one tell the other which was the chicken, which was the egg?

But it's the same

story.

But, no, in the days of Strangler Lewis, when

getting those two specific wrestlers was

the chore, and it was like an old-time world championship boxing match, where,

yeah, you know, then those two guys might get,

you know, 50 or 60% of the house or whatever, but it hasn't

happened from a company per se

over an entire talent roster in wrestling because

again, now with the TV rights being paid by networks, et cetera, et cetera, things are different, but

no

territory, even

No matter how successful in the territory days could have paid 50% of the revenue to talent and still stayed in business because that doesn't take into account the building rents, the advertising, the transportation, the commission costs.

And most importantly,

if you're shooting your own television and most of the promoters paid for the production in those days.

So that would have meant that you were spending

125% of your fucking revenue, which would not obviously have lasted very long.

But now, with these,

again, with the WWE,

50% of their revenue would still be hundreds of millions of dollars, and it would be ridiculous to pay the fucking guys that much money, but they could still make money even if they did it.

And it's only ridiculous because it hasn't been done because technically it's the guys generating that money.

You know,

What's the current royalty rate for t-shirts?

At some point,

if they make a billion dollars a year and they paid out $500 million to the talent,

you'd have a hard time making a case to me that

many of the talent were worth 30 or 40 million bucks a piece per year, even in that.

in that environment.

There's a lot of guys on the card.

There's only a a few that

would be in that stratosphere.

Anyway, back to the fucking surface of the ground, because boy, that's where this program was.

And it's headed even further south.

Did you notice that the crowd pans could show literally each individual person's face in the building?

I did not notice that.

No.

When they did the crowd pans while the announcers were billboarding the show, they showed every son of a bitch individually that was in that building

and the first match was adam page against josh alexander

and

brian did you see the open of this contest

i did

this was without doubt my favorite adam page

segment because this thing's going to be the first 30 minutes of the show my favorite one he's ever done

because I couldn't stop fucking laughing.

Everything this was snake bit.

Everything that he could have done stupid or that went wrong or that could have been funny.

It all happened here.

The bell rang for the match and they locked up and Paige punched Josh Alexander 20 times.

And Alexander not only didn't take a fucking bump, he sold all 20 of those punches by sinking to his ass on the bottom turnbuckle.

And then he immediately stood up, kicked Paige in the gut, and took over on him.

The new world champion punched the fucking heel 20 times and he sank to his ass on the turnbuckle.

So

it was more what you'd expect.

I zoned out.

Their thing again, where they feel like, oh, it'll get this guy over if he has a long match and does everything in the world and then gets beat.

So after about 15 minutes, they did a long contrived struggle on the apron of the ring.

And then, Brian, this is how smart the new world champion is.

Paige gives him the dead eye on the apron.

So drops him on his head on the apron, right?

And Alexander rolls off to the floor.

Paige climbs up to the top rope.

And

10 seconds after he gave the guy the dead eye on the apron, Alexander has to be back on his feet and standing there so that Paige can backflip off the top rope on him onto the floor for no reason.

That's his thing.

He has to do that.

Then don't give him a goddamn finish that should paralyze the fucking guy before he has to stand up and catch you.

You fucking idiot.

This is the guy that everybody says, oh, Paige is great.

Oh, he's the next

Oh, my God.

He's exceeded all the people that are saying that are the people in the locker room with him that are his friends.

He's an idiot.

So he gives the guy the dead out on the apron.

Guy rolls off.

He's up 10 seconds later, get moonsalted off the top onto the floor.

Then Paige rolls him in the ring.

But then here comes Lance Archer, jumps up on the apron.

And Paige turns around and misses him with a punch, just whiffed him completely as big as Archer's head is, couldn't hit it with his hand.

And Archer bumped anyway.

And now Paige turns around and there's Romero on the other end of the apron.

And he runs at Paige.

And Paige is supposed

to backdrop Romero onto Archer.

When he backdropped Rocky, Rocky just missed Archer.

It just landed right on his ribs on the floor at Archer's feet.

Like, oh, shit.

He went down next to him.

That looked bad.

I'm sure it felt even worse.

Now,

within 30 seconds of being dead-eyed on the apron and moonsaulted off the top by the world champion, after he's dispatched these other two, Josh Alexander's standing up in the ring, waiting on Paige.

And so they did some dosy-dough shit with his foot, the kick and the block and the whatever.

And then Paige hit the buckshot one, two, three.

That was one of the worst finishes I've ever seen in my life.

If they'd have done it right, it was stupid.

If they still had executed all the moves properly without hurting anybody or exposing the business,

Paige looks like an idiot.

And that was his shit, I'm sure.

Anyway, thoughts on the match before I go on.

You know, Josh Alexander was a name I had heard a lot, but I didn't watch TNA, so I didn't really ever see him until he came into AEW, and I've never seen him win a match.

He's in there with the world champion.

Other guys can't get title shots.

He's in there with the world champion.

I've never seen him win a singles match.

I've never seen him win a tag match.

One of the issues with the Callus group is there are just guys in it that never win.

Just all of a sudden, hey, you're part of this giant heel stable going nowhere.

And then Adam Page, it's like the biggest divide,

like the classic AEW divide, the way it used to be with like the people who worship Omega and the Bucks and the people who didn't.

I think now it's like that with Adam Page.

There are fans who really believe in him and think he does great promos and that he's a great fired-up babyface.

And you kind of said it, and I had not thought of it in just saying it like this.

You said it in a way that I think it kind of is.

To his friends, he is being now who they wanted him to be.

From the moment AEW opened up, their plan was, we're going to build eventually to hangman being our guy.

And what a build it was.

And now that's where we are.

And we get giant long opening matches with guys who never win anything.

That Rocky Romero spot.

Oh, boy.

I hope he's all right.

and by the way, you said you'd never seen Josh Alexander win, and that's true.

What does his voice sound like?

I don't know.

There you go.

But we know what Paige sounds like.

And he started talking as soon as this match was over.

We're already 20 minutes deep in the fucking program, and now he's going to cut a promo.

And I swear to God, I wrote this down.

He said, because you know, he makes up these grand-sounding, dramatic promos in his head, and he delivers them in the same scowling,

mean fashion.

But he said, I did not spill a gallon of my blood to win the title just to have MJF change the stipulations of my matches by threatening immolation.

And then he mispronounced immolation.

And nobody got it because I don't think they knew what immolation was anyway.

Crickets.

They didn't even know it was the end of the fucking sentence.

What did he say?

Instead of saying he threatened to set Mark Briscoe on fire, he had to fucking deliver the goddamn

Patty Shaevsky would have been proud of this dialogue.

No, he would have.

In his head, no, he wouldn't have.

He was a good writer.

He knew how to write.

Or

in Adam Page's head, he would have

immolation, by the the way, the threatened immolation of Mark Briscoe.

So then

he saved it by stealing some of my material.

He called Don Callis a phallus-headed dumbass.

But what he did, he put so much.

venom into phallus-headed dumbass with all the words that he accidentally spit his gum out and bounced off his fucking chest, and a drool fucking

oyster came out and stuck in his beard.

And then, and then he keeps talking, but all I can see is the drool bubble.

I swear to God.

And then they play the music.

And here comes Kyle Felcher.

And my, have they shaved his head again?

Why did his head,

his head looks three sizes smaller than it used to?

Is it because he didn't have his big video game warrior

bonnet and sundress on with the thing?

Is his head always that small?

Maybe because you're seeing less neck because he's wearing suits now and he has his collars up.

But no, still his hair was shorter than ever.

He's wearing librarian glasses.

He's coming out wearing librarian glasses like he's a goddamn 14-year-old bookworm staying after school.

And his head is shaved.

He's got a peanut head.

He was wearing a suit that at least he's trying to dress up instead of these nitwits that come out in their jogging pants or whatever.

But it looked like he was ready for his high school yearbook picture.

And then they let him talk because they're trying to elevate him into a pay-per-view main event attraction.

But when he talks, he sounds like a fucking Australian Alvin the Chipmunk.

I swear to God, if it wasn't,

you would think he has some, he's a 12-year-old with some kind of pituitary issue that's made him six foot three and 200 whatever pounds.

But facially and vocally,

he's got a manager that did none of the the talking for him.

Because the whole thing about this is that

Paige did the whole rehearsed promo about how Kyle's got all this potential.

You know what I see when I look at you?

I see myself six years ago dreaming and hoping.

And I'm like, oh, holy shit.

And he's.

But I wasn't ready then and you're not ready now.

And then Kyle comes back at him again, looking like a 12-year-old with chemotherapy.

And

he's screaming at Paige that he, I'm ready to be the world champion right now.

But he'd be carded at the bar.

So Paige agrees to give Kyle a title match.

at the big pay-per-view if Kyle will do it all himself and promise not to have the manager out there and the Stooges out there and fight him back.

So basically,

this was the equivalent of Dusty Rhodes being the world champion and telling Flair, okay, I tell you what, if you promise to leave JJ and Tully and Arn in the back, I'll believe you and I'll give you a title match.

You remind me so much of myself.

You remind me so much of myself.

And,

of course,

old Kyle gave him his word man on man.

But they both, at the end of this thing, that weird thing that Paige does, now Kyle did it too,

where they say the AEW Men's World Championship.

Like somebody's going to confuse and think that Kyle's going to fight Mercedes Moon.

But they also, I think it's some weird thing that Paige has, because he's weird like that,

that he wants to somehow verbally put the women's title on the level of the men's title which is preposterous even if you're a fan of women's wrestling

the world title is the men's title sorry and you're just being an idiot when you're the men's world champion

and you're in the main event and you're trying to put anybody else's belt on a level of yours much less to be sexually equal which i have a feeling that may be the only way Paige ever will be sexually equal.

Anybody,

this was 30 minutes into the fucking program, Brian.

30 minutes.

We had to watch Paige botch through a match with a guy that never wins anything and then have a fucking promo with a guy that sounds like he's fucking 12 on helium.

And

I said last week,

Kyle has all the tools and he's got a lot of potential and he can do moves.

But

I said then that he should, you know, get in the NXT training program to learn how to think about the business.

And I've rethought that because

to be honest with you,

there's 100 guys in NXT.

Kyle needs an OVW.

Kyle needs a wrestling school where they have

people who know how to fucking think about the wrestling business at the top and like 30 guys.

And where there's a structure and where everybody gets a chance in one market without being seen by all the prying eyes around the world

to fucking be on the bottom of the car and in the middle of the car and then the top of the car and be a baby face and a heel.

personalized instruction because he's a special student.

He's a lot better physically and athletically than almost anybody who wants to get in the wrestling business.

He's learning nothing mentally, and he will never be a main event guy to match his physical potential unless somebody that knows what the fuck they're doing with wrestling

books him, instructs him, takes him under their wing.

So it's a

the longer he is here, the more he's going to think that any of this shit is the right way to do it.

And that's what's going to hamper him from ever reaching his potential.

I yield the floor back to my colleague.

You know, he's still one of the younger guys there.

And when you think of the younger guys there, at least the guys that look young,

he look-wise, physically, is the most ready for a WWE system.

He noticeably got into much better shape since he signed full-time with AEW.

They got him with Callas.

The Callus group, in my eyes, is just a complete joke you can't take seriously.

He shaved his head in the ring.

He had the feud with Osprey, his former friend.

And then they had those crazy matches.

You know, he stands out in AEW because he's tall and he's in shape and he could do stuff.

But he's doing his own stuff, obviously, because producers don't matter over there.

But also, there's no one else that kind of looks like that.

You know, Daniel Garcia, Wheeler Utah, Jack Perry.

Think of the younger guys or the guys who look young, who they've signed and put a lot of time into, who still just don't look like TV wrestlers.

It's a very cosmetic injury.

It's a very cosmetic industry, is what I meant to say.

Kyle has the look, but

right now he's working the indies.

That's what you got to look.

AEW is like you're working the indies for the next three years.

And then I'm sure he'll do all the the things he has to do.

And the thing is, he's got more than the look.

He's able to pick people up and put them down and move himself around safely and all these things.

He just can't put the things together because nobody's taught him how to think about it.

And he just, it's the video game style of wrestling that,

you know, people get bored with.

And that's why we're seeing what we're seeing.

It's hard to keep booking it because how do you ever do anything different?

And it's hard to keep watching it because how do they do it ever do anything different?

Anyway, moving on to do something different.

What?

You know, Jim, what are you going to say?

I paused the TV in the background, the news I had on CNN.

And there's some breaking news here.

I thought I should break in with.

Oh, boy.

Nurse does CPR to revive drunk raccoon in Kentucky.

This is national news.

Now, again, it's towards the end of the hour when they get the wacky news stories.

And have you seen this story?

No, no, I have not.

But what?

Do you know the town in Kentucky?

This woman is going to see where you are on this raccoon.

It had to be

the eastern part of the state.

The raccoon got into a still.

Let's go county.

There you go.

Where's that?

It's in the eastern part of the state.

It's down south and a a little bit to the east.

I can't give you exact mileage from here, but

she's doing chest compressions and she just tried to breathe air into its mouth.

Does it come back to life?

I guess it didn't make it.

Good.

Otherwise, this would be a really depressing.

Because, you know, that, well, that's been a thing going on.

The raccoons don't want to drink.

It's forced on them when the stills are out in their neck of the woods.

Is this something like you know?

Like, not that you know, but like this has happened regularly, like animals get drunk pass out in Kentucky.

Well, if they find us still in the woods, it's not just limited to Kentucky, but that sort of thing does happen here on a more regular basis.

Then,

but yeah, boy, think about a drunk bear.

Think what might happen there.

He might be writing the next episode of AEW Dynamite.

Can you explain to me, Brian, no,

why

that

they did the whole thing to relieve the Hardley boys of their executive vice presidency ship

in what was supposed to be this big violence-filled match.

And then now they're just, why are they showing up to get this ridiculous guaranteed money, whether they draw or not, or work or not, that they get?

to just be made fun of in unfunny comedy that it's poorly delivered and not witty in any fashion.

And nobody in catering wants to eat with them.

It's like a fucking teen comedy in the 80s from John Hughes.

And

they're giving them funny Chirons with their real names, making fun of them.

What will this lead to?

How could this possibly in any way enhance this program?

It's just these two witless nitwits jacking off.

And they put up with it and then they're sitting and catering by themselves and dick the boozer comes in and gives them a pep talk

if you come to win tonight he's going to give them the 500 grand because moxley's not in it for the money that's not his motivation

he's gonna he's supposedly got this

club of trained assassins that he's running, but he needs to appeal to these two 40-year-old fucking fucking high school dropouts to come to win, and he'll give them all the half a million dollars.

Who is writing this shit?

Who's supposed to believe this?

Why would this be good if you know it's a work?

If this was a pilot for a TV show, it wouldn't make the air.

Yeah,

it's like when Vern Gagne did those like $100,000 battle royals in the AWA at the end.

No, they're in Philadelphia and they're doing this thing where they have $500,000 on the line for this match that just popped up out of nowhere.

And Moxley, you know, it's interesting, babyface or heel, it doesn't matter.

You will give a pep talk to your opponent or your friend, whoever it is.

I've seen the heels and the babyfaces give pep talks to people.

And Moxley did it here.

The Bucs, I remind you,

beat up Tony Kahn.

With Jack Perry.

AEW fans said, oh, it all works out.

You guys are wrong.

It all makes sense.

How did that work out?

And look at where we are today.

They mean nothing.

And they're doing bad comedy.

Tony Khan did that because he wanted to have fun taking that bump and wearing that neck brace.

And they knew it.

And that's how they got that in there.

Imagine if they had done a Tony Khan gets beat up angle, knowing that he's crazy enough to just wear that neck brace everywhere and play into it.

If some real heel had done it and then built upon it, but instead, we're back here and the Bucks doing their bad comedy, which has been rejected categorically by a national television audience.

Well, speaking of being rejected categorically, they had a girls' tag team match with

Alex Windsor and Riho against Mercedes Moon, and Emmy Sakura is back.

Is she the house mother, the mama-san

for Riho?

That's what I was thinking.

That's Riho's escort.

Yeah, you can't.

Well, you can't let her out on the street alone.

A strong wind would blow her away.

Maybe I should say chaperone, not escort.

Well, it just depends now on your way of looking at things.

How can they do this with a straight face?

They're in a barn.

in a bad neighborhood in Philadelphia in front of 900 people at the same point in time where their opposition is in these major goddamn

stadiums and internationally.

And then they bring in Alex Windsor ain't bad.

She's not tiny.

She looks like she can execute some moves and put her in with two fucking outlaw

niche fetish objects from Japan and the biggest egomaniac on the block.

But again, I said the same thing about Riho earlier.

She's not a legitimate professional wrestler.

It's a parody.

And Emmy Sakura is the same thing, Margaret Cho in a goddamn wrestling outfit.

And they put this on national TV and expect people to take this company seriously.

Moving on.

What is the deal with FTR and trying to make the fans back down?

Did you see this thing where they came out and it's all I focus on now?

As soon as they came out, I'm like, are they going to dare do it again after it has not gone right one time?

Leading the fans blowing kisses at them, taking drinks right in front of them or sips of their drink.

They would certainly not do it again.

And they can't do it.

They turned it into an angle.

They turned it into an angle that nobody is afraid of them.

It's just like the fucking

angle is we can't scare anybody.

We intimidate no one.

We move no one.

We strike fear in the hearts of no one.

They come out with Stokely and Stokely does a little bit of a promo as they come down the aisle there on the match in Toronto.

And he knocked Philly a little bit.

And then Dak started doing the promo, and the fans were not listening to him in the way that we've talked about, where they've just decided we're just going to boo over all the show we don't care about, and it's fun to boo over the heel and shat up.

But now he's challenging the people to fight.

Any of you, I'll fight any of you.

And he goes out and starts getting up into people's faces on the front row by the rail, and they're laughing at him and not backing up.

And he's cutting promos promos at him, trying to get nose to nose.

It instigates whatever.

And at one point,

well, first he went, he tried to make one fucking guy flinch and got bleeped by the camera.

The handheld was right up on him so you could hear on the microphone on the camera what they were saying.

And there was something that was bleeped.

But he tried to make the guy flinch and the guy didn't even spill his drink.

And the people next to it are laughing.

It's sad and embarrassing that somebody had the idea that they should be doing this.

So then

they go further back and they got another guy's face.

And I'm thinking,

not only is the camera shot so good on this, but this guy isn't backing down.

He's got to be a plant.

They're going to pull him over the rail.

Something's going to happen because they got a great shot of it and this guy is right up in Dax's face.

Well, it turns around, I guess the guy wasn't a plant.

He just didn't give a shit for Dax the pussy because the fan didn't back up an inch and Dax turns around and shoves the cameraman down.

Don't you dare.

Don't you dare get a good shot of this guy and not scared of me, motherfucker.

What else reason was that he turns around, bumps into the cameraman that's there, shoves him down.

And then the camera shot, they keep taking taking it from the truck the camera's laying sideways on the ground and cash

cash gets on the guy and starts beating him up

and here comes referees and security and i'm like what is this

but with was the story that

Dax got mad because when he turned around, he bumped into the camera and then beat the guy up, or he just got mad because the fan wouldn't back up from him.

So he beat up the cameraman.

What is the story here?

I don't know what the story is.

Why are they leaning into this?

Why are they leaning into the fans?

They should have just stopped with the interaction with the fans and gone to their promo or gone to their matches.

But they keep getting in fans' faces.

And fans.

It's like if he came and whipped his dick out and said, I'll measure my dick against every fan in the building.

And every fan in the building's dick was bigger than his.

Would that get you over?

It's an interesting example, but no.

I mean, you said it best at the beginning you've never seen a hill team get over where the gimmick is that no one's afraid of them yeah

and folks we're gonna have the masked infernos on later on and find out who else doesn't give a whether they try to intimidate them or not so on the road to fr versus cope and christian last week we got fr

having some kind of side feud with some guy from Ring of Honor.

Kelling Jing Job guy.

I don't know what that was or where it went.

And then this week we got them in a feud with the fan.

It wasn't exactly Hillbilly Jim sitting in the crowd, but just some

comparison and the cameraman, I guess, if you want to make it a tag team situation, you got the cameraman and the fan.

Takes away, again, takes away the focus from the match that matters.

I, I,

and okay, if Edge and Christian weren't there,

I, you know, maybe do something else.

I don't know.

Ricochet faced Shelton Benjamin.

And they also agreed earlier.

I forgot about this.

They agreed to leave the

others in the back

so that Shelton doesn't have MVP and Lashley and Ricochet doesn't have who's he, what's he, and what's his name.

And they legitimately had Shelton Benjamin go 12 minutes with Ricochet.

And

he did a, tried to figure out ways not

to beat this little dwarf and make it somehow plausible that he could last 12 minutes.

But finally, again, Brian,

how stupid can a babyface be when he believes the guy the heel says, Oh, yeah, I won't cheat.

This is fucking wrestling.

So,

so

finally,

I know you're going to find this hard to believe, Brian, but Ricochet

went to stab Shelton Benjamin in the face with scissors.

But Shelton blocked it.

And the referee,

I think it was the Bryce Rimsburg, but I don't, in case I'm not sure, I don't want to call his name, but he's because I don't want to embarrass him if it wasn't, but he stood there with his slap-jawed mouth open like a raging dumb fuck

while this guy is holding this other guy's fucking arms above his face as he's trying to stab him in the face with a screw

scissors

and doesn't call for the bell.

And Shelton clotheslines Ricochet, gets the scissors away, and then the referee is standing there waving his arm saying, no, throw those scissors out.

It's been a disqualification in wrestling since the dawn of fucking time.

If the referee sees you with a foreign object, intent is good as a goddamn accomplishment, you're disqualified.

Has it not?

Always.

Besides the insanity of all the rest of this, of course.

Okay, Casey, get rid of the scissors now.

Tony Khan, come out of the closet.

And I wrote, what the fuck is the matter with these people?

So Shelton, being a now a babyface for the last week and a half, is too honorable and breaks the scissors, and the fans boo him

and then ricochet stooges come out and one of them draws the referee and the other one turns around and headbutts shelton and ricochet rolls him up one two three

and then here comes mvp and lashley

and they get in a fight with the stooges and it not only was an even fight

but it was a bad thing

the the big new guys can't give any ground because they ain't over.

They don't have a lick of heat.

But the Hurts can't give any ground after their guy just got beat.

So just blah.

This doesn't do the Hurts Syndicate any good at all, as I said at the top of this statement or earlier in the program.

And

Jesus, H.

Christ on a cracker.

What in the world?

It's come to this.

I can't explain anything that has happened with the Hurt Syndicate since.

I mean, we were waiting for all the stuff with MJF to come together and it kind of didn't, and they just ended it, but nothing has made sense with

anything around them.

And there's nothing going on, and now they're feuding with Ricochet who doesn't matter in AEW.

They had a chance, and he's cooled off completely.

And is stable of guys that we've seen every now and then on this show lose, but now they're with Ricochet.

I don't know.

Weren't they managing Nana?

They were Nana's stable, weren't they?

When he first done a managing swerve,

and they were.

Well, they ain't no more.

Is Nana hurt now, too?

Because Swerve is hurt.

Shouldn't Nana come back and try to find somebody to take Swerve's place?

Nana's probably just sitting home thinking, Jesus Christ, he's just going to send me a check for the next six months or whatever.

I'm not saying a goddamn word.

There's a guy dancing up a storm in Queens right now, and he's on Tony Kahn's dime.

Actually, I think he's on Tony Kahn's dollar at this point.

All right,

it's time that we referenced

just for a couple of minutes because seriously.

And when we give the ratings, I got, I don't know what the quarters look like, but this either

people couldn't turn away with it much in the, you know, often referred to and famous two dogs fucking on a side of the road analogy,

or they turned away from it in droves because it was the most ridiculous, low-class, low-rent, outlaw, mud show, amateur hour,

horseshit.

I would expect it from Saturday Night Live in the 70s when Saturday Night Live was somewhat funny.

But for an actual

program that's allegedly a pro-wrestling promotion, putting on a pro-wrestling program, this was fucking embarrassing.

Nobody has any goddamn integrity over there that just, we will stoop to any lengths.

We'll go to any fucking sideshow lengths.

We will get down in the mud and grovel with the worst-tasting,

low-class trailer park bullshit in the world.

What did they call the, it was a garbage weapons match of some kind because it's Philly

in a toilet

with Tony Storm and old blue sky.

What did they call it?

It may have just been a Philadelphia street fight or something.

I'm not sure.

But Sky Blue is looking good, isn't she?

Oh, Christ.

On a cracker.

Well, I mean.

Here, the only problem is it would be a step up for either one of these girls to do goddamn, you know, German torture porn at this point.

That would be somewhat that they could, something they could point to with pride on their resume after being involved in this thing.

I don't know whether it's more an indictment of the stupid, indie-minded people behind this program or of the small group of stupid, indie-minded fans that like this kind of shit

that they even do it.

But

it's not even

violent in a simulated violence way where these people are actively mad at each other and wanting to tear each other limb from limb, and it can't be contained in the rules of sport.

And it must be a fight to the finish and bring what you want and do what you want.

It's a goddamn clown show of unfunny comedy spots where they jackass each other and staple each other's fucking tongues.

Or in this case, they're tits, their ass, and they're pussy.

And

here's nothing.

In 1989,

TBS sent us a fucking memo, which I still have a copy of, mattering a goddamn pig stuck under a gate because

Terry Funk put a plastic bag over Ric Flair's head.

And the same network allows one girl to take a staple gun

and staple another girl's nipples, buttocks,

and labia.

You know,

I think the buttocks was acceptable, but they really crossed the line once they got to the titties.

But where do you lie on the labia?

That was after that.

They already crossed the line.

The line had been crossed.

This was the first time in the building.

Did they come back or did they further exceed the line?

I don't know if anyone came with this, but let's get back to the match here.

All right.

Well, the point is: there's

tables and chairs and kendo sticks and the staple gun.

And that made Twitter, of course, with a lot of people go, What the fuck is this?

It just looks so

it looks like jackass,

like just a bunch of friends get together to clown each other.

There's no professionalism to this whatsoever.

It makes the Harlem Globetrotters look like NC double-A ball.

And

then they had a table

with mousetraps on it with Swiss cheese in it.

The Swiss cheese were in the mousetraps that were covering the table.

And they also used an allegedly electric bug zapper paddle.

Actually, I've seen some catalogs with electric paddles before, and they didn't look that cheap.

But it's just, it's ridiculous.

And this

wrestling promotion is collapsing in front of our eyes

right when they need to be stepping up and they're doing this kind of shit.

And then eight different blonde girls and Jamie Hayter jumped in at the end of it and beat each other up.

What purpose did this serve?

Why would this make anybody want to watch your TV show?

Why would it endear any sponsors to you?

How does it get anybody over

when,

again, Tony Storm is the closest thing they've got to a star on her female roster, and she's in garbage matches in a fucking toilet with underneath talent?

And

it makes the business not only look silly, but

if it's possible, even more low-class than it already is.

I'm sorry.

I'm repeating myself.

I'm just astonished.

So you liked it?

Oh, loved it.

Why did they have a street fight?

What led up to this?

Did I miss that?

Well, nothing because they're in Philadelphia.

So they got to have the hardcore match in the fucking Cathedral of Hardcore.

You know, Madison Square Garden is noted for the Ollie Frazier confrontation.

Or, you know, the fucking forum is noted for a great Lakers game.

And the ECW Arena in Philadelphia is noted where a fucking drunk used to bust himself open with a beer can.

Good God.

Jamie Hayter's still rocking the I'm a waitress at the Pancake Cottage, just struggling to pay my bills.

Look,

I'm well, as a matter of fact, you know, Mel, when Flo left, they should have brought Jamie Hayter in instead of that other one they replaced her with in the final season.

You see, she just died?

Polly Holiday?

Polly Holiday died?

I didn't know she was sick.

Well, she's gone.

She was a hot little piece of, you know, what, back at one time, boy, back in the early 60s.

Oh, good.

Back in the early 60s, boy, with those poodle skirts.

Those goddamn cashmere sweaters.

All right.

This is taking it to to the sock hop.

The sock.

All right.

Well, let's get away from the Bobby sockers.

And

my sock got crusty.

So then

the main event was here.

A 10-man tag team match for half a million dollars.

But Dick the Boozer, as generous as he is, he's not motivated by money because he drives around in a pickup truck with a bunch of other hairy, unwashed men.

He's going to give it to the Buckaroos if they win.

It's the Buckaroos and Claudio and Useless and Boozer against poor old Samoa Joe, Powerhouse Hobbs, Shapupi, Bandito, and Burger King.

And Brian, do you know the first thing that I wrote down?

No, I was trying to write down the people in the match, and you threw me off with your nicknames.

What did you write down?

I wrote down I wouldn't watch this if they were going to give me the 500 grand.

And I wouldn't watch it if they were going to finish the match with a human sacrifice, which I was not ruling out at the time.

But this, I don't know how long the overrun was, but this was another, they're just going to send 10 guys out there to do some shit for no purpose for 15 or 20 minutes.

And then

they're going to have a fight afterwards, regardless of what the goddamn finish is.

Now, how close did I get to what actually happened with that prediction there?

Well, there was a big turn at the end.

You didn't see that?

That's really the big story.

No, I didn't watch this whole goddamn thing because why?

Because it's the same thing every week.

Did they turn somebody?

They turned someone to the dark side or the Moxley side.

Who turned?

Daniel Garcia.

So he will now be finally united with Wheeler Yuda, the two young'uns that were brought in at around the same point in time.

And

one went with Jericho, one went with Moxley.

Now they'll be together finally under one umbrella.

Together wherever

we go.

Danny Garcia is a heel now.

Well, now I'm ashamed I missed that.

My goodness, this is going to transform the whole company.

They don't know when to quit with these fucking guys, do they?

Can he possibly be any more of a boring heel than he was, a boring, bland, vanilla fucking babyface?

And again, it's another one of the things where the babyface is down on his luck.

And here comes the great motivator, Moxley the heel,

to pick him up and get him fixed up.

You know, you said it earlier.

Kyle

has put on size.

He's made some very strange wardrobe choices, but at least he's gotten new gear.

He, again, the hairstyle, what the fuck, but he's trying to do something.

The glasses, I don't know, he's trying to do something.

But he has put work in to transform his body.

Yuda and Garcia are the same blah-looking fucking parking attendants that they were when they came in here three or four years ago.

They do the same shit in the matches, and they look exactly the same.

Yuda's grown some hair, so he looks even more unkempt.

He looks like a goddamn bloated string of spaghetti that got stuck in the bottom of the fucking pot after everybody had their fill.

And fucking Garcia,

is there a

could you x-ray him and find a muscle or a tendon?

Is there any delineation like he's ever done a fucking sit-up?

Has he ever tried to get any kind of goddamn outfit to make himself look like something?

And he's got that,

We debated one time.

Is he from Virginia, like that coastal Virginia kind of weird accent?

But he just sounds like a goddamn schmo.

And they won't back off.

And meanwhile, when's the last time you heard Hobbs speak?

Was he in that Twilight Zone episode where he won the bet for 100 grand that he wouldn't speak for a year, but he had his vocal cords cut?

Yeah,

he hasn't really spoken.

I mean, the ops haven't had a lot of promo time in general, but usually Samoa Joe does the talk.

Well, why is it an op?

What does Shapupi have to do with Powerhouse Hobbs?

And why is Samoa Joe saddled with either one of them?

Jesus H.

Christ.

You can't make groups that are completely disjointed.

You can't get them over, and you can't.

If there's a group, whether it be DX or the Four Horsemen or the goddamn Bloodline or whatever, they have common threads running through them, even if they're disparate personalities.

This is a goddamn collection of people that Tony Khan wanted to make six-man tag team champions.

And that's where their connection ends.

Nobody knows what they sound like.

Joe, well, Joe, from when he used to talk.

Hobbs, I bet people can't remember ever hearing him talk.

And Shapupi was talking through his fucking phone.

If you don't know what a guy's voice sounds like, unless he's got a manager and he's eating the fucking announcer's tie while the manager's doing all the talking,

if you don't know what a guy's voice sounds like, he ain't a main event fucking guy.

Sorry.

Anyway, welcome to the club, Danny Garcia, you dastardly heel you.

Well, there it is, AEW Dynamite.

What were we going to say?

I apologize for cutting you off.

I was just going to say, and I was wondering, before we talk about the ratings, see, I was going to give you a chance to just jump in here.

If you've got some more exciting programming on the Arcadian Vanguard Network this week than they did on AEW.

Oh, you hear that noise.

That means something's about to happen.

Another fine week on the Arcadian Vanguard Podcast Network.

Get information about all the shows on Twitter at Super Podcast or on Facebook, facebook.com slash Arcadian Vanguard.

Of course, this week, like every week, the wrestling news, each and every day, there for you, the morning wrestling newscast.

No paywall, no clickbait, just the wrestling news, no opinion, just the wrestling news.

I said it, the wrestlingnews.com or wherever you find it.

It's just that.

No more, no less.

Want to mention, shut up and wrestle with Brian Solomon this week's guest, Sean Delaney, talking about Evansville, Indiana, and so much more.

There he is.

My man, Sean Delaney, going to tell some stories about evil.

Here at SUAWPod.com or look for Shut Up and Wrestle with Brian Solomon, wherever you find your favorite podcast.

By the way, his book just arrived here.

I know Jim just got it.

Of course, we're talking about Irresistible Force, the Guerrilla Monsoon Biography.

What a fun book.

And it looks even better.

Oh my gosh, it's a beautiful book.

I read it, but I read a manuscript.

This is an actual book, and it's even better.

Well, once again, get that at Amazon or wherever you get your favorite books.

Of course, Stick to Wrestling with John McAdam, a look at 1985, 40 years ago in the WWF, a packed month, September 1985, macadampod.com or stick to wrestling with John McAdam, wherever you find your favorite podcast.

And of course, the 605 Super Podcast, the Mothership!

Go through the archive, 605pod.com, available wherever you find your favorite podcasts, The Mothership.

Shaga sneaked that one in there.

All right, well, the question is: how many people watched this fiasco this week?

And they were having to rebound from I believe last week was the record low ever in the normal time slot.

So,

how's the bounce?

It was it like a rubber biscuit?

Did it bounce back?

Well, we shall find out AEW Dynamite on TBS Wednesday, September 10th, 2025

from 8 to 10.06 p.m.

On average,

watched by 584,000 viewers.

Ooh, well, they bounced back up from four something back into the record lows that they have been achieving before they hit the real record low.

So they're still down below 600 and down below their average.

A 24% jump from last week's all-time low of 472.

And for the for the failing, for the trailing four-week average, it's up one percent over 578.

So that's the overall number.

Let's get these quarter hours here.

Jim, these were compiled by WrestleNomics.

Quarter one, eight to eight: 15 p.m.

Brian Danielson entrance.

Josh Alexander versus Adam Page with picture and picture.

665,000 viewers.

Ooh, again,

they're not getting big lead-ins.

They're not getting big first quarters like they used to.

And this is, remember when we used to do the math where we would take out the first quarter to get a more accurate audience measurement?

Because that was the first quarter was always an aberration.

It was abnormally large from the Big Bang theory or whatever.

This is kind of more in line with what we were getting a couple of years ago.

But apparently, they've killed the Big Bang's business too.

Well, it actually makes me wonder if there's a difference in the way things are being measured because for a long time, the Big Bang theory was going to 801.

I feel like it ends a little closer to 8 here now than it used to.

I don't know if that means that.

I don't know, but when you think about it, they ain't making no more Big Bang theories.

So people have seen it 17 times now.

At some point, it's not I Love Lucy.

It ain't going to last forever.

Well, Jim Quarter 2, 8.15, 8.30 p.m.

The continuation of Josh Alexander versus Adam Page and the post-match with the Paige Carl Fletcher live promo, 636,000 viewers.

And they, you know, again, they dropped 29,000.

They used to drop 100 and something thousand, but they start with fewer.

But

they still lost in the start of the program.

They lose almost 30,000 people when the world champion is in the ring.

Jim Corner 3, 8.30 to 8.45 p.m.

The MJF Backstage Promo, an ad break, the Young Bucks confrontation with Brandon Cutler and Jon Moxley at Catering,

and the start of Emmy Sakura and Mercedes Monet versus Alex Windsor.

For those complaining about the way I've been pronouncing it, I apologize.

And Riho.

I just thought she was chapped from the wind, wind soar.

601,000 viewers.

Well, and

is anybody surprised they put the outlaw girls in that early in the show, and they lose another 35,000 people.

And

I mean, at this point, they're going to have to level off because they won't be able to make their average, but it

may very well get worse.

We go to quarter four, 8:45 to 9 p.m.

The continuation of Sakura and Monet versus Windsor and Riho,

the Ricochet and Gates of Agony backstage promo, an ad break, the Adam Copeland Christian Cage video, and the start, or no, all of, I guess, the FTR Stokely live angle.

573,000 viewers.

Jesus Christ.

So

there went another 28,000, and now they're 65,

92,000 down from the start of the.

Again, they've got to go up here somewhere, but they won't make their average.

So, what is are they going to gain at the top of the hour?

Well, we go to the big nine o'clock hour, quarter five, nine to nine: 15 p.m.

The Hurts Syndicate backstage angle,

and Shelton Benjamin versus Ricochet with picture-in-picture,

618,000 viewers.

Well, there you go.

The top of the hour, the Hurt Syndicate.

You've got

45,000 people to say, okay, here's Shelton.

Something's going to happen.

Question is, did they keep him?

We go to quarter 6, 9.15, and 9.30 p.m.

The continuation of Benjamin versus Ricochet.

The post-match with the Hurt Syndicate and the Gates of Agony, an ad break, the dog-callous Kyle Fletcher backstage promo, and the start of Tony Storm versus Sky Blue, a picture-in-picture,

558,000 viewers.

Ouch!

Okay,

well, now we don't want to say that they just immediately all switched off, even though Shelton and Ricochet's match wasn't going on.

But by the time they got to that outlaw girl shit,

they just dropped them 60,000 people in 15 minutes.

Jesus.

All right.

Did it pick up any for the titty stapling and the labia

licking and all the things that went on?

I don't think that went on.

Quarter 7, 9:30 to 9:45 p.m.

The continuation of Storm versus Blue.

The post-match with the Triangle of Madness.

Jamie Hayter.

Oh, and Jamie Hayter.

Separate segment now.

Willow Nightingale, Harley Cameron, backstage angle.

and an ab break, 535,000 viewers.

Ooh, so the women's garbage match lost them more viewers in

basically the time that they were out there than they'd lost in the entire show up until that point.

And now they're 130,000 down from the top, and they started kind of low.

Well, we're going at a quarter eight.

I remind you, a six-minute overrun, 9:45 to 10 p.m.

Bandito and the ops

versus the Death Riders and the Young Bucks,

513,000 viewers.

Six-minute overrun post-match with Darby Allen and Daniel Garcia, 514,000.

So a thousand people were standing by in case impractical jokers came on.

Jeez, they still managed to lose 150,000 viewers from the top and only started with 665 to begin with.

They're lucky it's not lower.

It's a bad show.

It's just not a good show.

Right now it isn't.

Well, hopefully next week's 12-man tag team match will bring the numbers back up.

But

I mean, you know, we'll see, but I don't.

I don't see them cracking 600 again

consistently

unless they make changes in this programming.

what else are they going to do?

What else are we going to do?

We're going to say we'll see you on the drive-through.

We'll see you on the drive-thru.

Thank you.

Fuck you.

And bye-bye, everybody.

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