Episode 377

Football season is here, and now you can legally bet on football in all 50 states with Cal Shi, the nation's largest legal prediction market.

Every game, every prop, every parlay, Cal Shi has it.

And it doesn't stop at sports.

You can trade on elections, the Oscars, and more.

You can finally bet on football in all 50 states.

Download Cal Shi today at kalshi.com.

Use code RADIO for $20 when you trade 100.

Calci, get in on the action.

This is an investment that carries risk.

Calci.com.

A happy place comes in many colors.

Whatever your color, bring happiness home with CertaPro Painters.

Get started today at Certapro.com.

Each Certapro Painters business is independently owned and operated.

Contractor license and registration information is available at certapro.com.

Hello again, friends!

And you are our friends, and welcome back to another edition of Jim Cornett's Drive-Thru right here on another sunny, happy day with happy wrestling talk for you from us.

I'm your host, the great Brian Last.

We have so much to get to, so much to go through with this man, the leader of the cult of Cornet,

Mr.

Jim Cornett.

Hello, it's me.

You know that I'd be with you if I could.

See, you told me a while back

that's my register.

Do it with a falsetto like Barry Gibb, or in that case, Todd Rundgren.

And

so I decided to serenade you a little bit with that.

You're more of a Barry Gibb than a Todd Rundgren.

Well, Barry Gibb made more money.

Todd Rundgren had B.B.

Buell?

Well, Barry Gibb had everybody else.

See that lion's man.

Man, woman, and child.

Yeah, I've heard.

Yeah, in the chest hair and everything in the 70s, Barry Gibb was the guy.

I mean, he was like a he was the werewolf of London, baby.

So, how insecure do you think you would be if you were Robin Gibb?

And you know, you're walking, you're walking into every room behind Barry Gibb.

Poor fella, poor fella.

As A.

Lola would say, he looked like he fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down.

He looks like Frampton came Frampton came alive, came dead.

Frampton came all over his face.

all right anyway I've got like Robert Reed

oh come on now with the Robert Reed persecution

I'll have you know I've made several changes here on the desk and you you got mad and it enraged

other people here at the network when I had my clicky pin where I would absentmindedly click click the pen so now I have a pin with a cap that pulls off and sticks on the other end

so my pen won't make any noise here today, and I can still at least hold it in my hand.

Well, you can't play with it, though.

Well, I can play with it.

I can.

You can't.

I can fiddle it about.

I'm fiddling it about right now in my hand.

It's pretty good.

It's producing too much wind.

You have to stop that.

Oh, God damn it.

And here's another.

I want to register a complaint about a gift I receive.

You know, my friend Chad over in West Virginia,

I've talked about him on the show before.

He has a company where he services all the vending machines along the interstates in West Virginia there at certain, I don't know if it's the whole state or just one big area or whatever.

It keeps him busy.

But he's one of the top nation's top blind vendors.

And it's a tribute to him that he's been able to build this empire like this.

And he monitors and stocks and.

whatever there is to do with the running and the operation of the

of the vending machines there at the rest areas.

What are you saying?

Wait, he's blind, or they're blind machines.

Like you put your money in, you don't know what you're doing.

No, no, he's a blind, he's blind.

He's a blind vendor.

But he sent me

a while back, he sent me this desk clock because he heard me say my last desk clock petered out finally.

And he said, This is a heavy-duty piece of machinery, and it's got a back light.

Where you

yeah, and it even does that when you press the light button and everything.

But the problem is, and I set it

at New Year's because it was a couple minutes ahead from when I'd set it before.

And now, so now I realize when I last said it.

And in less than four weeks, it's gained five minutes.

He told me this was a quality clock.

What?

See, I pressed a button again, but it's not.

It's five minutes earlier than it's saying.

And every time I look at my desk now, because the time on the computer is too small, that's why I got this desk clock here.

But now I think I'm five minutes in the future, and it's throwing me the fuck off.

He sent me what he said was a quality clock, and it's gaining five minutes a month.

What is he?

Blind?

Can't tell quality merchant.

I'm complaining.

I'm going to send him a letter of complaint.

You know what may have happened, don't you?

What may have happened?

Kind of like the Hulk-Hogan theory.

From all the time travel that you and I have done you've lost time on the actual uh clock of humanity

well no it's just this one clock all my other clocks here say the same thing so what it is is unfortunately in your office

he is in my orifice here he has tried to make up for the the standard line about the state of West Virginia

Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the state of West Virginia please set your clocks back 30 years

so now he's trying to make up for it five minutes a month.

Anyhow,

and tomorrow.

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow it's going to be at 9 to 50 degrees here in our frozen Arctic tundra.

And over the next seven days, the lows are going to be lower than freezing, but the highs are all going to be above freezing.

Maybe even getting up to the high 40s and near 50s on several occasions.

And in a few days, we'll finally be rid

of the piles of

there's still you go through the subdivision down here, shortcuts, so you don't have to go through any red lights, which are my the bane of my existence now.

And there's still piles of ice and snow to where you can't, when you're trying to make a right turn, you got to swing wide and everything, and it's just

horrible.

So, we're finally going to get rid of all that shit around here.

And you?

It's going to be cold, I think, for at least a few more days.

If it got that hot this quickly, everything would melt.

It would be a mess.

Well, now you're going to complain about the melting.

Didn't you just get eight inches of snow or whatever?

I'm not complaining about the melting.

I'm saying.

Oh, now it's going to be a mess.

I'm saying the truth.

Oh, you're just looking at the glass being half empty and cracked instead of half full and full of...

icy beverage.

I'm saying that is a glass.

Look at that glass.

It is indeed a glass.

Let's fill it up.

Spin speaking of filled up, they got nine a half inches of snow in New Orleans on Bourbon Street.

Did you see that footage?

I did.

You saw someone skiing down the street.

Yes, I mean, I couldn't believe it's the only time I've ever seen Bourbon Street where all the women had their shirts on.

They've never seen anything like that down there.

I'm talking about snow, not women with their shirts on.

Although

there probably are some younger members of the community that live close to the French Quarter that

at least it's 50-50 of whether a woman would have her shirt on.

It was the most snow they've seen since JYD tripped coming out of that hotel.

Hey!

And all this shit fell all over the place.

Or in the words of

Butch Reed, Buddy, you're bleeding all over my shit.

Fucking get back.

Get back.

Who's that little man with a mustache trying to pick everything up?

Who is that man?

No, Pee-Wee wasn't there.

He wasn't even there.

It wouldn't have happened if Pee-Wee'd have been there.

Anyway, this is your program.

This is happy.

I'm happy to be a part of it.

Oh, good.

Just thrilled to death.

Just tickled Pink.

Well, speaking of Pink,

Pink was one of the many variants of Jim Coronet action figures that was on sale.

We have touched so many colors.

No,

we're going to go right into the commercialism of the thing.

I thought we were going to banter for a little while, but you're going to go right into the commercial.

No, it's okay.

I need to get that out of you.

I need to finish your mind being on commercialization, and then we can get to the fun and jocularity.

Well, we're going to have some fun with our jocks right here coming up because I'll tell you what, speaking of jocks, you know what February is?

It's the month of love.

You need a sexy hunk.

And you can either take a ride on the Midnight Express or get your hands on the heavenly bodies all month long in the month of February.

Jocktober.

Jocktober.

Well, now, don't confuse people, though.

They might wait till October and then the whole thing's fucking thrown into chaos.

That's true.

But nevertheless, for those of you who know when February is, and it's coming up soon, from the 1st through the 28th, all of the Heavenly Bodies and Midnight Express tag team sets, even the Collector's 4-pack,

are $20 off.

The Feather Bottoms are blowing the doors off on this thing.

And not only that,

in addition to saving $20 on on the tag team set and autographed photo of your choice,

if you buy a tag team set, even at that seduced rate, Brian Last,

you will get any of the Jim Cornette action figures that we still have in stock for half price, $24.95.

And those bad boys are autographed too.

And I'm going to.

I'm going to tip you off right now.

If you want a commentator play set, I just saw the latest inventory and there's like 29

left on the site.

And that's all because I bought everything from Figures Toys.

We got all of them now.

Actually, we don't have all of them.

They're all sold.

That's the point of the thing.

So hurry.

And otherwise, the final variant, Santa Corney, and the pink and black breast cancer that you may have been

the breast cancer variant that you may have been referring to earlier.

$10 off of each of those goes to the City of Hope.

There's still some some of those, but I would hop on the pink train as quickly as possible.

And finally,

if you spend $50 or more on merchandise, you get a free two-hour DVD of classic 70s and 80s wrestling from the Wrestling Gold series in its own little container.

So buy cracky.

Don't miss out.

It says Saturday, February 1st at noon Eastern is when this officially starts.

Saturday, February 1st, noon Eastern at jimcornet.com.

And please respond because I need room in the storage.

Cornettes Collectibles is ever expanding.

I need some room to put some more things on sale.

Thank you very much.

Well, there it is from Latka's Mouth to Your Ears, Cornettes Collectibles at JimCornet.com.

Well, this is your show.

What else do you want to talk about?

No, it's not.

It's your program.

On that.

I mean,

I'm fixing to be, I'm already the king of all media here on the podcasting and the YouTubing.

I'm fixing to branch out.

You want to talk about that?

Yeah, and we can't call you that.

That's someone else's trademark, but well, no,

he's foregone that because he's not the king of any media anymore.

Well, again, I think he still has the trademark of the name, but let's talk about it because for a while now,

questions have trickled in,

and now they're coming like a full stream the why are you making these ejaculation fucking similes can't you say we've had a a veritable plethora of questions go ahead there has been a deluge of questions that have emerged

about an upcoming movie queen of the ring based on the book The Life of Mildred Burke.

And some people noticed it a while back, but now the cat's out of the bag, the trailer's out of the studio.

Jim, you have a role in this movie.

You're going to be in a motion picture.

Yes, and it's actually going to move.

I went from one side of the stage to the other and back again during the course of this.

Yes, the Queen of the Ring shot here in Louisville, Kentucky.

in the summer, July, and August period of 2023.

And at that time,

I said, well, what do you want me to do about promoting this?

Because I've always, yo, boom, boom, boom.

It's been a year and a half.

It takes a while to put a movie together.

See,

this is not the wrestling world where you do a show and it's out either live or shortly after on tape.

But anyway,

then over the holidays, all of their promotion started ramping up.

And we finally caught up with them because you and I have had things to do.

So we are going to be talking to some of the people involved in the movie and showing some things,

some of the clips and bits and whatever.

What's the, Josh is the fellow over at Sumerian, which is the

company.

I guess they do records, they do films.

He told me he's got a comic book company.

Ash Avoldson is the director of this movie, and he is the son of John Avoldson.

who directed Rocky.

The Karate Kid.

And the Karate Kid.

You always bring it back to the Karate Kid.

You know, me and my friend Martin Cove are going to have an issue with you.

Because you don't understand for kids my age, the karate kid is as big as Rocky.

Well,

for the next generation, it was 10 years later almost.

I think Stallone's at least six inches taller, but nevertheless.

Then who?

He's a short guy.

Yeah, but the kid was only like 12 years old.

Who?

The karate kid.

No, he wasn't.

He was like

Ralph Macho.

He's probably like 25 playing 18 or something.

Oh, well, he looked like 12.

He should be at AEW.

But anyway, nevertheless, we're digressing here.

Why don't you put down Pat Merida while we're at it?

Let's just get it all out of the way.

Oh, he had an excellent drive-in.

I loved the burgers.

Point being, this movie, Queen of the Ring, they shot it here in Louisville.

Ash Abelson, not only the director, but also wrote the screenplay.

It's based on

the movie or the book that many of our audience has probably read, Queen of the Ring by Jeff Lean, about Mildred Burke's life and times.

And so, anyways, I said we're going to have some of the people

connected with the movie as guests on the program over the next several weeks and news on the

premieres,

where it starts and where it ends up and things like that.

But yet,

this was kind of interesting.

And I know a lot of people are going to say, okay, Cornette hates all the wrestling movies.

So, what's he going to pick apart about this one?

My standing complaint registers about this movie like it does everything else.

Nobody in the world looks like the people that they're talking about.

You know, and that's pretty much standard with everything.

But also, to outweigh any historical inaccuracies in my book, I got to be in a movie and only had to go 12 miles from the house.

So there's something to be said for that.

No,

I was sitting here minding my own business as I usually do.

You know, people try to get in movies, actually go out and ask people if they can be in movies.

Have you heard about this, Brian?

What do you mean?

They ask to be in a movie.

They audition?

You're talking about an audition?

Yeah,

yeah.

They go around and try to be in movies, and sometimes people won't let them be in movies.

I understand.

But I was just sitting here minding my own business, and the director called me said hey you want to be in my movie

and i thought well that sounds like that's probably the only movie i'm ever going to be in unless some other wrestling movie shoots in louisville uh and uh no it was it was fun

and now i understand why i probably didn't miss my calling because

Being an actor and doing movies and I guess television programs of an entertainment nature would have driven me bat shit even quicker than wrestling because

they it took them this is a two-hour movie they were shooting shit for six weeks here right and that's

I mean how long did it take to shoot gone with the wind the fucking children were born

but you got to shoot the same thing a variety of times and then you're sitting around waiting to shoot something or watching somebody else shoot something a variety of times

and boy howdy

at you know at least in wrestling

think about this when you showed up at the building

good bad or indifferent however fucking the show was and whatever venue it was whether house show television taping pay-per-view, whatever,

even if you were part of the production crew, you were in that building about 12 hours and it was over one way or the other.

And you were

on to the next thing.

Holy shit.

We had on one day,

they were shooting the,

I don't want to give anything away, but the climactic.

I don't, it's not giving anything away that probably the climactic part of this piece is Mildred Burke versus June Byers.

That's not giving anything away if anybody knows the subject matter.

So

they were in a wonderful, they were able to make this thing a period piece because so many of the

locations in Louisville kind of look like the 30s, 40s, the

Sealback Hotel.

the Pendennis Club downtown, you know, some of the streets, they were able to do a great job with that.

And they had a place that Actors Theater was like a theater in the round, they were able to make an arena.

But we sat there because I was in the background of this.

It's going to be hard to cut me out unless they shoot around me specifically in the climactic scene of the thing.

But we were there for like 12 hours.

They shot it with one camera from one angle, then the other angle from the other camera, and then the other angle, and then we broke for a meal and then came back and shot it from another angle.

And they were actually rotating the crowd around like a one-eighth turn each time.

So it was mind-boggling.

You know, there's an image.

Your image has been in a couple of the trailers or a couple of the things that have been released beyond the video of you talking about the movie they released.

And there's one that has you next to Dean Hill.

Yes.

You and Dean Hill sat next to each other on OVW-TV 20 years ago.

Yes.

And now here you are here.

It's like if you went to AI and said, show me future OVW in the past.

Well, not only

when we sat next to each other at OVW, we had more room.

Because

as I said, the match between Mildred Burke and June Byers,

it's being shot where it looks like an old-time wrestling arena.

And sitting at the announcer/slash commissioner's table, and this is a shot you see in the

trailer in the movie, one of these clips,

is Martin Cove, who plays Al Haft, by the way.

And

then I'm next to him,

and then Dean Hill, who is the ring announcer.

Imagine that, which he's been doing for 30 years or whatever.

He's the ring announcer, but we're at this

commissioner's table that they've manufactured in what is really a theater in the round and they forgot that Dean Hill is a Sasquatch.

He's six feet six

and his legs are ginormous and I'm a grown adult man and Martin Cove is a grown adult man and our legs were numb by the end of, we were there for two or three days.

shooting that and we were wedged in there for hours at a time and we were supposed to be in the same place to be in the background of the scene

and we were going out of we were like paralyzed because it was so.

So we got to engage in a little banter in between shots.

And otherwise, we're sitting there like the three chimpanzees wedged together.

And there were people on either side of us where we couldn't just even spread out our legs.

So it was, that was a

tender moment.

Another clip that's

a clip, another scene that's briefly shown in one of the trailers.

It appears to be you in a chair surrounded by what I'm assuming are the other promoters, and you're leaning in and talking.

Well,

I am

okay.

The story of Mildred Burke.

Was that when you guys had to straighten out Nick Louis?

What was that?

Well, no, unfortunately, we had to take Nick out in the back alley behind Koons's and straighten his ass out.

But anyway,

the story just of from the time Mildred Burke got interested in wrestling until the climax of her big league run is almost 20 years.

and it's a two-hour movie again.

So ancillary characters tend to be made composites of, right?

I'm kind of an all-purpose

NWA representative, state athletic commissioner, the person of some authority from the establishment who spoke in a couple or three, you know, key places and was in the meeting with, you know, those various promoters around the room and and

Mrs.

Burke.

It's Miss Burke.

It's a mix between Sam Mushnik and J.J.

Benns.

Well, exactly.

And that's why, you know, when Martin and I were sitting there for so long and occasionally there did a pan shot or whatever, we would just be speaking and he started calling me Sam.

Oh, well, Sam, you know, and none of this may be even in the film.

We were amusing ourselves.

But I am the, and I told him when, that's the story I was about to tell and didn't.

When Ash Abelson, the director, called me

and said, we're shooting this in Louisville.

We need a representative of the wrestling establishment that, you know, can pop in at various points and help move this thing along in terms of how that women's wrestling was being viewed at that time.

And

I said, well, so this is typecasting.

I, you know, I've been turning people down to be booked for 30 years, so that's no problem.

And so we worked it.

And I know there's a lot of people in the movie that I didn't even see because I think out of the six weeks they were shooting, I did, I think, six days or whatever.

But, you know, when we would pop in and I would try to give it mall.

I don't know that I'm going to be doing Shakespeare or Theater and the Round anytime soon.

But since it was something that was kind of close to

my wheelhouse or my flywheel, or what was it they had up there?

The flywheel.

It was close to my flywheel.

We do have those things that we are still talking about for theater in the park for the summer.

So why don't we not commit to not doing it?

I'm not doing the nude scenes, though.

Just let's commit to not doing it.

It is summertime.

I'm just saying, don't commit to not doing it publicly.

That's all I'm saying.

But anyway, but yes,

Martin was very helpful with explaining to me some of the things they were doing while we were sitting there watching them move a camera fucking six inches from one side to the other.

Was anyone honest with you?

Like, who the fuck let you in here, amateur?

Yeah, well, actually, no, they were very welcoming because that's, you know, here's the thing.

Think how many

appearances, or however you want to measure it, minutes I've been or hours I've been on television or pay-per-view or home video of some description over the last 40 years i have never played a person

other than myself or

actually been handed engaged in a scripted

play of some description

that's got to be some kind of record

have you ever been in a play

no i've never played not even when you were a kid No, I've never played anybody but myself in anything.

Because I knew at least I could probably do a better job at that than anybody else.

But being a novice, hopefully, you know, it won't stink the joint out to do I get a rotten tomato or whatever for this?

Well, that's not the way it works.

They don't give you a rotten tomato.

Well, why?

They throw them at you.

Well,

in that case, that's giving in a forceful way.

So as we go along over the next few weeks and have news on the premiere and the various guests and everything, people can start setting their tomatoes out on the windowsill.

So, because I don't want them things to be too hard, if you peg that thing sidearmed, it can fucking hurt some tech, put somebody's eye out.

I just like where this can go.

This can go in so many great directions.

Like, someone sees this movie and says, you know, we needed a villain for the new RoboCop.

Here he is, this guy.

Everyone's going to want to kill this guy.

They're going to want to see RoboCop kill him.

Let's hire him.

Kill him.

Let's hire him.

Well, yeah, we'll come back to that.

Maybe we'll work on that.

Somebody needs to do a treatment on it first before I'll agree to it.

Then we could get into a script conference.

Would you look at more movie work if the movie industry was centered around Louisville?

So what the fuck?

No.

I'm too.

I don't even really want to continue with the career I've already got.

Much less fucking trying.

I'm 60 fucking three.

Much less trying to start a fucking brand new one from scratch i'm not colonel sanders going on the road to franchise my chicken at 65 with a fucking pressure cooker in the fucking back seat

i've that man had work ethic i mean you know i i don't want to take the place of people

who are actively trying to do this i've shot one

scene or not i i did one shooting where he this

no come on now you shot one scene with this this.

What were you saying, sir?

You're going back to the Peter North fucking similes again.

I shot, I was shooting one day

for the film.

In the valley, yeah.

No, no, it was, it was,

it was out in South Louisville, as a matter of fact,

uh, at a barbecue joint.

No, uh, it really was, but in the parking lot.

And it's a long story, but nevertheless, there was another guy that had auditioned for the particular part that he had that he was also going to be shooting in that same location, not with me.

It was solo stuff.

And he had not only auditioned, but had driven overnight from somewhere in Illinois or something like that, just to come down there and do that.

So I want to leave it for the people that are driven to do this rather than take all their opportunities away because I'm so much better than they are.

Are you a member of the union now, the Screen Actors Guild?

Not that I'm aware of you should talk to jesse ventura

well i'm on the screen the acting may be subject to debate and i'm not sure whether i'm gilded or not

but i said don't you have to and once again if if you're in one movie then you're in the screen actors guild and and that works for life don't you have to intend to be if you have a lion

Well, yeah, but don't you have to intend to do that ever again in your life?

Yeah, next year.

You have to do another thing.

Well, who the fuck's going to call me and just ask me to do another fucking thing?

I think this is the opportunity for us to start making our own films, kind of like Dolomite.

Now, now, now I know why you've been talking about

pornography.

I'm not talking about the pornography.

I'm talking about you driving around in that old Cadillac you have,

dressed up to the nines, all around Louisville, causing trouble, yet stopping trouble.

It could be a whole new thing.

We'll let you come up with your own dialogue.

We being me and all the Saudi Arabian investors.

And a weird guy who says he's not Russian, but we think he's Russian.

We think he's Russian, but he's got papers that say different.

But

I don't know whether that's going to fly.

You know, the LaSalle hasn't been restored yet.

So we'll be waiting on that.

We're waiting for the 100th anniversary.

It's four more years.

But then we'll have a big party in four more years and restore the LaSalle.

But anyway, but yes, I'm in a major motion picture, baby.

And the other people are Megan's Thitcoms.

But yeah, from what I have seen from the trailer and what we are hearing from the film festivals where it has been sneaked, as they say in the industry,

this is a good fucking movie.

So maybe we got that going for it.

Of course, I got the magic touch.

What can I say?

Well, you've got the touch.

You've got the power.

We'll have more about queen of the ring in the weeks ahead on the drive-through and the experience stay tuned to the youtube channel as well but jim

let's yes let's get dynamite out of the way let's talk about aew dynamite this way we're having fun

we're now i'm gonna make noise with my pen will you stop i'm gonna throw it down in a vehement fashion well aew dynamite was in your old stomping grounds knoxville tennessee and of course the big story i think on this night was:

am I going to be able to stay awake to see Joe Schmo?

Because this looks interesting.

And I didn't make it.

I made it like five minutes into Joe Schmo and I fell asleep.

And for the people who might not know what you're talking about, normally after

AEW's Wednesday night offering, it's a modern family rerun, or it was Impractical Jokers here for a little while or whatever, some other program.

And they just wipe out the first six or seven minutes, or 10 minutes, or whatever the overrun is, and join it in progress.

But as I was doing my work,

being a diligent show personality and recording the show that comes on after the show that I'm supposed to watch,

so that I'll get all of the show I'm supposed to watch, the Joe Schmoe show,

apparently it was episode one, season one

of a reality show

where, tell me if I'm encapsulating this like the description said,

they

hire some guy to be on what he thinks is a reality show with other people, but everybody else on the show is scripted and in on something to

flummox Joe Schmo.

Right, which seems really cruel.

It almost seems like a billionaire's plot to like ruin one person's life.

Like, I'll show them, I'll make it all a game.

Well, see, so it's a branch of AEW's programming.

They got the flow.

The flow now is finally, you know, in the same genre.

But anyway, but yeah, they still overran,

I think, five or six minutes, but then they started Joe Schmo

from start in its entirety, thinking that, you know,

certainly

people just sit still for this bullshit they just watched.

They want to see some more bullshit.

Can I say something here at the start of the review?

Please do.

Please do.

I know some people are trying to dunk on AEW or whatever because they didn't fill the Knoxville Coliseum.

I thought they made it look great on TV.

I thought if you didn't know what it looks like, full, you thought.

Well,

there you go.

Because I was like, holy shit.

But why don't you see if you can look up and Google how many people or how many tickets that were distributed for this show, because I swear to God,

I don't know how they

trimmed what they trimmed down, but that was 25% of the building.

And every seat that you could see was full, but could that be 2,000 people?

According to WrestleTicks,

as of Wednesday, a few hours before the show, 2,467 tickets distributed.

Okay, well, and,

you know, and bless them, there were

many shows that I ran there over the years that didn't have that many people, but there was a number of them that had more.

But we were there once a month.

But again, if you don't know what that building looks like, I thought they made it look pretty good on TV, actually.

Yeah, because the thing is, they have

the balcony that is low enough that you can shoot up and you still see.

Because in a lot of the other small buildings or in a lot of the bigger buildings that they have to trim down,

they can't make a steady wall of people.

But with the

they only had like

six or so rows of ringside on the sides, but they had a bunch of risers in the back so they could bring it up to the balcony.

And it kind of, anyway,

it was a sea of a few people.

But I got to say this at at the beginning

because everybody tweeted out the the the fan cam clip of tony khan coming out

after the show was over with i assume and and

thanking knoxville and and making it specifically personal to the market and he's he said

folks In the 90s, when I was a kid, my favorite wrestling to watch was Smoky Mountain Wrestling.

And if it was, yeah,

if it was his favorite, why doesn't his show look like anything like what mine did?

I think most people also assumed, not that they didn't like Smoky Mountain, but that ECW would have been the one that Tony would cite as his childhood favorite.

So it's nice that he said Smoky Mountain.

It was a surprise.

And

it was a surprise.

It was a surprise, but it's very nice to hear that.

I'm not a surprise, but it is nice.

It touches my heart heart that he liked to watch it and didn't learn anything from it.

Was there anything on this show

either smoky mountain-esque or even just East Tennessee wrestling-esque?

There was a couple of things buried in here, but not like a complete, not everybody in the same thing.

I mean,

well, what'd you think of the opening segment?

Because that was maybe the wildest thing on the show.

Well, that's the thing is that

if,

yes, southern wrestling, Tennessee wrestling or whatever used to be wild and crazy and multiple people involved, but

the key was that when they did something like that,

everybody that came into it, the fans knew what the fuck was going on and why and who they were supposed to root for and who they were supposed to be against.

And all those individuals were already over over as individuals before they came together in that fashion.

Do you understand what they do?

Have you what I'm telling you?

I do.

And at the same time,

occasionally, in the old days, when they made some kind of fucking point, they would stop

instead of then here comes somebody else, and then here comes somebody else, and by the, then there's two more people fighting, and the people that were just involved in a goddamn angle, they're where are they?

Somebody

here we go with more fucking fighting.

And we're at it.

They did a 20-minute Tupelo concession stand brawl around a

what was originally framed as a heartfelt talk face-to-face between two former

enemies that might have been thrown together, Omega and Osprey.

But

from the top, here's my problem.

Osprey came out.

I think it might have been a new haircut.

He didn't look as bouncy.

Maybe he got a few locks trimmed off, but he's wearing tennis shoes and sweatpants and a puffy vest and a t-shirt.

And he looked like some fucking nerd.

Even when Steve Austin wore a t-shirt and fucking blue jeans, he still looked like somebody.

All of these guys look alike because then here comes Kenny and he gets the pyro and the lights and the grandiose music.

And he's wearing tennis shoes and blue jeans and a long-sleeve t-shirt, but at least it was his, an Omega shirt.

But he looks like some fucking nerd.

And then

Tony Schiavone is supposed to be with these two

to, you know,

facilitate this conversation because Osprey asked to talk to Kenny.

And Osprey's first words are

to this other big top baby face:

Thank you for coming to join me today.

I'm glad you're not dead.

And that was a bigger pop that you just got or did than he got in the building.

They just said, there was no reactions.

What the fuck?

How are you supposed to react to that?

I don't know.

I don't know.

And listen, Kenny, a lot's changed since you've been away.

I've got nothing to do with the Callus family anymore.

I was trying to stop them.

But just now, John Moxley's got the belt.

He's holding the company hostage.

I just, I can't do it on my own anymore.

Yeah, this accent's kind of taking a little bit of a twist here.

I don't know where it's going, but I don't know where this was going.

He said, I can't do it on my own anymore.

Like, what has he been doing?

He hasn't fucking done anything to goddamn Moxley, has he?

Sounds like it's going to the Emerald Isle, if I had to guess.

But it's like he's single-handedly saved everybody from destruction when the heels are running rampant in this fucking company.

And so he is,

he's starting to do the pitch to Kenny.

You don't like me and I don't, you know, but he gets interrupted.

Because Kenny grabs the microphone.

And just then I was thinking, you know, that except for the preposterousness preposterousness of i've been carrying this whole thing on my back

it wasn't a bad job from old willy boy

he sounded like he meant it he got the the words out in some reasonable facsimile of english

and but then when kenny gets started he i mean he oh stop stop stop

And he's so, he's just, again, this fucking guy's, he ought to be doing the phone sex line.

You're

fascinated with Peter North earlier.

I wasn't,

let's not put that out there in the ether.

I was not fascinated with Peter North.

Well, you were making a loser

kinds of you named him.

You were alluding to allusions

that were losed.

I was thinking of the opening of Misty Beethoven, so there.

Well,

boy, I've thought about several of them.

And Kenny is saying, at Forbidden Door, you almost broke my neck.

And I can't do it.

But with that fucking breathy voice, he actually said, this is a quote.

At Forbidden Door, you almost broke my neck and stabbed me in the head with a screwdriver.

The same one that Don Callas had used months before.

And so I'm thinking, now it's all bullshit from here.

Anybody sitting back and thinking, okay,

I'm not going to be too fucking critical of old Will's statement.

He's trying to make amends here, these two top baby faces, and he sounded heartfelt.

And then

when this next moron speaks,

I'm either forced to rethink that because, wait a minute, so this guy stabbed the other guy in the head with a fucking screwdriver, or

I'm just actually going to say, well, fucking horseshit, because none of these guys stabbed each other in the head with a fucking screwdriver.

Now they've just lost me.

You can't believe anything.

But Kenny goes on.

And why did you do it?

All because you were trying to prove you were better than me.

You weren't then and you're not now.

And it took diverticulitis for people to know you existed.

So now congratulations on being number two because number one is here.

And there was a small pop there.

And I'm thinking, okay, is Kenny switching heel here now on Will?

And here comes Don with a screwdriver screwdriver, and he's going to shove it up somebody's fucking taint.

I don't know.

But basically, Kitty, if you're here to apologize, no chance in hell, I'll never team with someone like you, bruv.

And in Osprey's, well, listen here, you little prick.

And then here comes Don's music.

And out he comes.

And

again, loud music covers up a lot of

these people tried in certain points to be loud but they didn't give them a lot of options but I wrote it's like a WWE show with no wardrobe budget and no crowd reactions

I mean Don dressed up in his own

particular way but the rest everybody they just

and then Don started to speak and Kenny fucking

ran him back through the entranceway, but here came Tega shit

who got in a sloppy fight with Kenny in the entranceway.

But then Kyle came out and joined it.

And Osprey is in the ring, like, should I, YA?

Okay.

And he whips off his puffy vest and goes to help.

And

did you see this time what I said on last week's show or

one of the shows we did in the last week when Osprey and Kyle have the hockey fight where they're doing the big punches, boom, boom, boom, boom,

it looks so fake, not only because of the fact that they look like shitty punches, but also because they're leading in and not changing their facial expression.

They're so intent on throwing the alleged punches as fast as they can that they show no effect on their facial expression or their body language when they allegedly land.

Does this make any sense?

Yes.

That's why it's as phony as a get-well card from an Undertaker.

Hey, where's Mark Davis?

Wasn't he involved in all this?

Oh, I thought you meant the former editor for Ring of Honor.

Fuck, I was gonna, I haven't talked to him in ages.

No, you mean the wrestler.

I forgot there was one named Mark Davis.

Yeah, he came back.

He was involved with everything because he was the former partner of Fletcher.

Yeah.

And then he went back.

It's another guy who disappeared off the TV.

He Georged Barnesdim.

So anyway,

Osprey and Felcher are having the hockey fight with fake punches, and then they roll into the ring after they've had this big fucking fight on the floor and start doing

running and ducking spots and handstands in the ring.

What the fuck?

Oh, Jesus Christ.

So then

Osprey is on Kyle in the ring, and apparently he's left

Kenny to fend for himself because

then Take a shit comes in, but Kenny's right right behind him and hits the begonia suplex.

And then

Kenny pounds the mat and makes the faces and

runs and hits the ropes and hits the other side of the ropes and runs right into a super kick by Kyle.

And then Will beats up Kyle in the crowd

as they go out through the...

And folks, it actually wasn't as exciting as it's reading now, but it was as confusing.

Osprey and Kyle are in the crowd, but Lance Archer jumps Osprey, and he beats up Osprey in the stands while the fans are holding their phones up and laughing at him.

And out in the breezeway of the arena,

Brian Cage is beating up Kenny.

And then Archer and Osprey join them and they wreck the merchandise stand and give

Archer a double vertical suplex through the merch stand.

Thankfully, there were no fans in front of it.

So apparently, it was the real stand.

And then they fight in the arena

when the security comes out and they're trying to get them separated.

And they've sent the security out because then,

apropos of nothing, I don't know how the fuck they suddenly allegedly in Kayfabe, as the kids say, would have decided to just do this on the sperm of the moment in a place where they ended up.

But Kenny

climbed up on the

Kenny was on the lighting truss, the big lighting tower.

The one that I saw Pam Dawson knock over in the Declaration.

Yes,

the one that almost landed on all of the Ringsiders.

And there wasn't even a wrestler hanging off of it.

But the lighting tower, Kenny is on the lighting tower, and Osprey is on the balcony railing.

And

they, I think they try to do it both at the same time, but

they've climbed these things till they're at the equal level.

And then Kenny looks over his shoulder at Will.

And then Will looks back and gives Kenny the thumbs up.

And there's 14 of these goofy fuckers standing down there to catch these guys.

So when Kenny gets the thumbs up, he does the backward swan dive off his lighting tower.

Which they miss.

The camera completely missed it because then, once that Osprey had given the thumbs up, then he's got to step up on top of the railing and do his.

And he did a backward swan dive off onto another eight people or whatever.

And then

I'm thinking, yeah, at least it's got to be over by now.

And no,

then they both climbed the fucking lighting truss

and the heels, Don was in the back.

The heels are scampering off.

And Kenny cuts a promo again.

We're going to put you down under.

And

that's the place that we need to do it.

They're trying.

Now they're plugging, they're selling a match for Brisbane, Australia, Knoxville, Tennessee.

In front of the people thought we're going to get this match, right?

No.

In Brisbane, Australia, that's further down the road than Cleveland.

Cleveland, Tennessee, that is.

Nobody from Knoxville is going to Brisbane, so they were like deflated at that.

But he,

Kenny, apologized to Will.

I guess I should have taken you seriously.

Minutes earlier, I will never team with someone like you.

I will never team with you.

You fucking.

I fart in your general direction, and your mother smells like elderberries.

And now it's, we'll go together to Brisbane down under against Kyle and Take.

And then

he makes the challenge, this fumble mouth buffoon.

He makes the challenge and they start playing his music, but he wasn't done yet.

And apparently they probably were playing like the Oscars music.

Jesus Christ, this needs to end in the truck, right?

But Kenny keeps talking and says, no, no, no, I'm not finished yet.

Fuck, at least you had something going there.

And they dropped the music just for him to say, goodbye, moi, and good night, bang.

Now you can hit my music because I'm scared of heights.

Oh, God.

What a puts.

I wrote what a puts.

But this, that's to answer your question that you asked Lowe these many moons ago.

About whether any of this was Tennessee wrestling-ish or Smoky Mountain-ish, it was some of the fakest fighting that I've ever seen in the middle of the brawl.

Because they're going through the, that's all they've learned from the Japanese tapes that they have watched is they go through the motions

and they and they go from one place to another and they don't have any passion or emotion or vehemence or fucking or credibility or reality at some point.

You know, you got to come back getting a fucking ring

or just end this shit.

It just goes on and on.

People,

the idea for the concession stand brawl was to have a three or four minute wild ass fucking fight that would make people want to see the match.

Now they have a 20-minute wild-ass fight.

And what are they going to do in a fucking match?

Anyway,

your thoughts.

Two baby faces beat up four heels.

What do you think?

Including a giant one and a big steroid one.

I mean, but a couple of those heels don't really mean anything.

So what, you know, what the, so is it?

That's the problem.

They don't mean anything because the stable doesn't mean anything because the manager doesn't mean anything.

And Don Callis' facial reactions in this whole segment told you what a clown he is.

Omega and Osprey both

have something with those fans.

Do something better.

I thought this was fine for an opening angle and it got the fans worked up.

It's going to be hard to follow it.

But anyways, in terms of using Omega while you have the Moxley shit at the top of the card killing the show,

again, these are the guys who AEW should be pushing right now that's on their roster, not

Cope and Mox and everything else happening.

That's what I think.

And I will agree that Don now is starting to skip around the stage like he's Paul Lind on the Bewitched set.

Just with

ow.

but anyway now with here was one fucking thing now that that we've we've turned the page on that first angle segment whatever

I can't say I would have had this on Smoky Mountain Wrestling television or any other television I've ever produced because I wouldn't have had private party in this predicament, but had all things being equal

the World Tag Team title match with Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin with MVP, the Hurts Syndicate versus Private Party.

I think we can make a case that the two best wrestlers in AEW right now are Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin.

Because they're the only ones that go out and get over.

get more over

at the end than they are at the start, that they are more over now

than they were when they started the company.

That people, to the point where

people are chanting their names when they're not doing anything, they're chanting Bobby when he's standing on the apron of the ring.

They fucking,

every time Shelton throws one of the baby faces across the arena, they fucking go wild.

Lashley Spears, everything they do, they're cheering now because they're the stars.

They are actually

wrestlers that can be taken as stars

in the business instead of the want to be pretend playing

indie-level fucking guys.

But now they've got another situation where the most popular babyfaces, probably right now in the company, are heels.

And the two most popular babyfaces otherwise are

nattering at each other and then teaming up five minutes later.

I'm sorry, am I dominating this conversation?

No, I mean, there's not much to say.

I'm glad they put the tag belts on the Hurt Syndicate.

I thought this is the way to go.

I've been saying it for a few weeks.

I thought this should have been more one-sided.

It kind of was, but it went a while.

It wasn't like Private Party was doing stuff to keep anyone down, but they stayed alive by just constantly doing stuff.

But

you got a mix between the Legion of Doom and the Steiners

in terms of the reactions they're going to get for throwing people around.

And again, they're the most over thing that's been introduced to AEW show

in a year, right?

Easily.

At least.

And

here's the thing.

They can call their match, but they can't call their time.

If

whatever savant

formats this program says, well, they got to go 15 minutes with these guys.

So

then the professionalism comes in where they were able to give

private party enough hope spots, enough of the double team or enough of the kick to the head or the surprise duck and dodge or whatever, that it wasn't just

chopping meat, as they used to say in the business, just beating the shit out of guys for 15 minutes where it just was boring.

They kept it lively, but still all of

Bobby and Shelton's shit got over because it's impressive.

And the people turned on,

I can't, I don't know if we can say turned on them because they weren't really behind him to begin with, but it was just like

they didn't want private party to do anything.

When the break spot was

Lashley chokeslamming one of them through the announce desk, and the fans went fucking crazy.

And they come back from the break, and for a while, that guy's still laying in the desk.

And the one with the green hair, which one is Mark Mark Quinn is green?

More ways than one.

Anyway, I think so, yes.

One way or another, they were getting heat on him.

And when Sheldon was bouncing him off the rail and in the apron and the rail and the apron, he was about to chuck him back in.

And the fans were like, one more time, one more time.

So he bashed him into the railing again.

They came apart.

And then that's why I say they were chanting for Bobby when he was standing on the apron and cheered for him when he tagged in the ring and posed.

And then

the private party had

they got a tag, and the people popped for it initially and then were just dead quiet for the comeback.

And the baby faces, if I can use that term, their comeback was kind of awkward, but the 450 Splash got a pop, and bobby lashley saving got a pop

and then you know at that point they they did some more big fucking things and anytime like

quinn made the save on the other guy after a spear and the crowd booed the save by the baby face

so then shelton hit the big germans and bobby hit a choke slam and shelton hit a knee lift and Bobby hit a spear one, two, three.

The crowd counted with it like it was Austin after a stunner.

And it got a big pop.

So that, again, that's a match that gets you over.

And that's why I say they're the two best wrestlers in AEW now because they're actually having matches that get them over.

I also think it's smart for AEW to have them as tag team champions.

Because also,

WWE has gone in a direction with their tag teams where by and large,

they're smaller high flyers.

They're war raiders and stuff, but by and large, it's like a Young Bucks-style division.

Yeah.

You've got these two guys, and I think to see them against a Young Bucks-style team, you want to see them get thrown around, but there are other big teams for them.

Them against FTR

could be something.

Them against Buddy and Brody,

again, now we're looking at two big guys against big guys.

It's always those two against two little guys like the Young Bucks or something to compare every small wrestler to the smallest wrestlers I could think of at the moment.

It changes the look of your tag team division, not just as far as how you presented it, but it differentiates your tag team division from the other companies.

Yeah, because, you know, it used to be when you would get a big

Road Warrior-type team over that they would draw the most money with

a smaller bumping heel team like Tully and R and Midnight Express, whatever.

But now the problem has become that you either have,

you know, the Road Warrior dominant size guys, but you don't have any guys in the middle.

Everybody else, 100 72 pounds.

That's why you should just have them go out there and destroy people.

And just have them go out there week by week and make people look forward to the squash matches until they get big matches.

And then make them look forward to the big matches until they get bigger matches.

That would be like promotion.

You know, LOD were presented like monsters.

Steiners were too, but Steiners, you know, that may be the best comparison just in terms of how they worked and how they could throw people around.

And

everyone knew they were the...

That's the other thing.

Do you still think in 2025

there's still value in the idea that, yeah, they're the number one promotion, but our tag team champions are the baddest tag team champions in all of wrestling?

Like, is there still something

to be said for having that?

Like, if you had a world champion, if you knew, you know, if your world champion wasn't a fucking clown, you could say, well, yeah, they got, you know, whoever their world champion is, but our world champion.

Our world champion can beat your world champion.

As long as he doesn't work at Home Depot.

No, no, not directly, not a direct correlation, but

it's not that in and of itself is not going to make any difference in anything.

But the idea that

these guys can get over like that, that they're not only good workers, but also that people know that they're legitimate and that they can do these.

There's no special effects involved, that gets them over as attractions.

And if you're smart enough to find a couple people they can draw some money with that wouldn't engage in falderall and bullshit to

poke holes in that aura that they've created and instead have a legitimate wrestling match,

then

that as an attraction will help you get over or help your company, help the business, whatever.

Is that if he could actually

find somebody else that people would say, oh, I can't wait to see the Hurts Syndicate versus so-and-so.

Now you've got something.

But it's got to be somebody that,

you know, would complement the Hurts Syndicate rather than, you know, at some points here, Shelton's the one that has to stooge for private parties' fucking

convoluted double teams and acrobatics and everything.

And

you can't do too much stooging for other people's bullshit, bullshit

and maintain that aura.

So it needs to be somebody that can fucking work and that is believable to physically compare with these guys.

So who the fuck is that?

Well, I don't know who else there really is, Jim.

And the other problem is, like I said, I mentioned FTR, and FTR are respectable-sized wrestlers.

Brody King is a giant guy, and Buddy Matthews looks like he took every vitamin in the shed.

But there aren't a lot of big wrestlers.

Well, but okay, but here also,

here's your problem:

FTR, the people nominally like that, they don't like them as much as they used to because they've been booked so badly and

not really fucking done great public relations.

But they're nominally, but the people would boo them against the Hurt Syndicate because they love these guys now.

Good.

You know, honestly, instead of being tepid babyfaces, maybe that's what FTR needs.

Well, but then shouldn't they turn on somebody first?

Then they need to turn on edge.

Everyone else does.

Everybody else does.

They turn on edge and then boom, boom, boom.

Or old Brody and Buddy,

at least they're already heels,

you know, so that would, but they've been used as the flunkies and they're just starting to be rehabilitated.

So they don't need to go into a fucking program with the Hurt Syndicate.

It's going to beat the shit out of them.

Well, what I was trying to say is maybe some of the other wrestlers on the roster see the Hurt Syndicate and say,

I'm at a great disadvantage.

I need protein.

Well, that's true because protein will give you the advantage in most

situations.

And that's why you need to go to our friends, folks, at Oregon, because they've got the protein market pretty much covered because they have a 30-gram protein shake, chocolate-flavored.

It's like a delicious soda fountain, chocolate milkshake.

Do they have soda fountains anymore, Brian?

I'm thinking of someone.

Someone does.

Do I have a soda fountain?

No, I don't know.

Well, do you have one in your own home or in your neighborhood there?

Do you have the soda fountain where the kids congregate?

Yeah, the soda jerk.

It was our milkshakes.

I thought the soda jerk wasn't allowed to congregate around the kids.

But folks, if you don't have your own

soda jerk or any kind of jerk around,

you can jerk some organe,

the 30-gram protein shakes into your home, and it's fun for the whole family.

Because now your kids need protein because you're sending them out there to school where they're going to encounter who knows what what kind of illnesses and viruses and and or bad habits they might take to eating out of vending machines and then they're just consuming a lot of crap they need some protein they need some things that they'll think it's ice cream just tell them it's melted chocolate ice cream but the organe 30 gram chocolate protein shakes again

Deliciously good.

And Brian, you know, I like to start my day with a big shot of protein.

And I know you like to guzzle some protein down your gullet first thing in the morning, but these are good for all day long.

Anytime you satisfy your cravings without any added sugar, because it's got the 30 grams of protein, but it has almost no sugar in it.

They even say where the sugar, how much sugar is in it, somewhere in this copy.

But I can't find it.

So I will just say they ain't got a lot of sugar in these drinks, but a lot of protein.

There is lots of protein and no sugar.

Is there sugar?

Well, there's very little, if any.

They used to measure this, but you can read it on the side of the container, folks.

And from protein powders to bars to shakes to tons of other nutritional products, organe.

has products that the whole family will love and use if you are an athlete or you care about what you put in your body.

Or, you know, even what you put in your body can impact what comes out of your body.

And boy, I'll tell you what, you can grease the wheels with organe.

So remember, there's no quick fixes when it comes to your health.

That means you need to drink as many of these every day as possible for a long period of time.

Because if you want more protein, well, you can give organe's 30 gram protein shakes a try.

And but you know, Brian, again, the amount of protein that, let's say you drink 20, 25, let's make it even, 25 shakes in the course of a day.

Now, right there, that means that you have already got 750 grams of protein.

I would think that that would hold you for a day or so, wouldn't it?

That is too much, and I certainly do not recommend anyone drink that much, but for your

protein intake, organe is there for you, and it's delicious.

There can't be too much of a good thing, can there?

There can be, and of course, we recommend, once again, we recommend the normal dosage, the normal usage, however much you would normally drink.

Don't overdo it, but it's the best

and it's delicious.

And I drink them and I love them.

Well, I was just thinking that everybody loves them as much as I do and would want to drink several six packs.

But you can use however many you want in the course of a day to get all your protein and keep your body rock hard

and and supple and lithe and tanned and whimsical and all those other things.

Go right now to organe.

That's O-R-G-A-I-N

organe.com slash Jim

and use the code Jim for 30%.

30% off your order.

And they didn't tell me it's going to be 30% off.

Holy mackerel, it's practically free.

That's the most you're ever going to get off of of this stuff.

I'll tell you what,

there must have been some mistake.

I guess a percent for each gram of protein.

30%

off your order

at organe.com slash Jim when you use the code Jim.

That's a big discount, Brian.

That's a big discount.

And it's a big, delicious taste, and it's a big amount of protein.

As I said before, I personally drink it.

You'll like it too.

Organe.

One more time.

What's that promo code?

Yes.

orgain.com/slash jim.

Use the promo code Jim.

Whether you're on the go,

traveling, or just going,

it'll make you go.

I'll tell you what,

organe.

That's the deal.

All right, back to the grappling.

Are you grappling with that organ still?

You know, I'm telling you.

Organe.

Well, you're your organ, my organe tastes better than your organ.

I'll tell you that right now.

It's time to head back to school and forward to your future with Carrington College.

For over 55 years, we've helped train the next generation of healthcare professionals.

Apply now to get hands-on training from teachers with real-world experience.

And as few as nine months, you could start making a difference in healthcare.

Classes start soon in Pleasant Hill, San Leandro, and San Jose.

Visit Carrington.edu to see what's next for you.

Visit carrington.edu slash SCI for information on program outcomes.

There's nothing like sinking into luxury.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Visit washablesofas.com to upgrade your home.

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

Shop now at washablesofas.com.

Add a little

to your life.

Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.

Would you like me to tell you what happened next on AEW, Brian?

Yes, let's continue.

All right.

Well, Tony Storm and your favorite Harley Cameron

did a promo in the back and they've got the, they did a promo in Australian slang.

to be, you know, novel and inventive, but because they've also both got Australian accents and they were rushing through this because they knew the shit.

But

would you, as an average person in the United States of America, did you understand

much, if anything, of this?

You know, to be honest with you, I had it on mute in the background.

As much as I'm entertained by Harley Cameron, you know, I had-throwing her voice.

She's a very talented, I'm telling you, she's really talented.

She just needs a good act.

But the big issue to me was they put up a graphic for Tony Storm versus Mariah Mae in Australia.

They said it's going to be on TNT.

They said it's going to be on Max.

Obviously, live in Australia.

No time.

They never listed a time.

I have no idea what time this airs.

Is it live anywhere in America?

Is it a live stream?

Is it being taped?

We have no answers to anything.

They're going to send out VHSs.

I don't know.

I can't believe you had this on mute because Harley was doing all that great ventriloquism.

She was making her voice come out of her own mouth.

I didn't see her puppet.

So then they did a novel thing

where they had Officer Barbrady, our friend Alex Marvez, in the back with Jeff Jarrett.

And before he even spoke,

Karen came in

and told Marvez, said,

I need a minute to talk to Jeff.

And so he bowed out.

And then the camera

shooting them for live national television zoomed in on their private chat.

Did that seem odd to you?

Yeah.

I mean, the whole idea, you leave, but the cameraman could stay.

I don't know what that's about.

And then...

That's treating the audience dumb.

You have to do it the whole way through or you don't do it at

Well, then at least Marvez, as he usually is, is in the dark about what's going on, but everybody else knows.

But she's telling him, Jeff, don't do it.

It's not who you are anymore.

Don't do this.

What the fuck is he?

Gonna go out and commit Harry Kerry or even Harry Kerry Jr.

And by the way, what's not what he is anymore?

It's it's you're the insult comic that he was last week?

When he was a heel, he used to double as the unknown comic with a bag over his head on the gong show.

I don't understand.

What does she mean by

don't beat Monty Brown?

Don't drop the title?

What is she saying exactly?

But Jeff cuts her off.

He's like, I got this.

I got this.

And then he walks straight out to the ring

to do an interview.

So basically, when you think about it,

Marvez was doing an interview with him to get his comments on the interview he was about to do.

So then.

Yeah, I didn't even, you know, I didn't even think about that.

You're right.

What was he interviewing him for?

So he could get the comments on the interview that he was about to do.

And then he goes out and Knoxville likes Jeff Jarrett.

He's been.

He's a Tennessee native, and that means a lot in East Tennessee.

And he's been there with multiple companies over years and years.

And he tries to start out with kind of a folksy anecdote that one of his mentors, the great Jerry the King Lawler,

a thing that he told him once,

he learned him a lesson.

But the amusing antidote, as they say, didn't get over

because he wound it up with, and Lawler said, don't ever get in the gutter with your opponent.

And people are like, hmm?

It wasn't the most profound statement, or at least the way Jeff built it up, it wasn't the most profound statement.

But then

he said, but sometimes it's great to come back home to remember who you are.

And that got to pop.

Because go back again to Tennessee.

If you just go out there and scream.

Tennessee over and over, they will cheer in Knoxville.

He's from nowhere near Knoxville.

That'd be like me going to Albany and saying it's great to be home.

Well, no, because you New Yorkers, you have no sense of togetherness and family, familia.

Is that what it is?

See, the people in Albany, they're like fucking green-headed Martians to you.

Well, you're not wrong about that.

You're not wrong about the people in Albany.

And

what you've said about the people of Poughkeepsie.

I've never said anything private.

That's not me.

That's you.

Well, how dare you?

It may have been or may not have been.

But then,

so Jeff has

at least he's got people kind of interested in what he's saying.

So, I'm rooting for a strong close.

Well, let me ask you at this point, did you have any idea where this was going?

No, no, but I was rooting for a strong close,

and I was rooting for it to come fairly quickly.

And he then made the statement, MJF,

you're going to find out exactly who the last Lauta outlaw is.

He fumbled last outlaw.

And I was like, God damn it.

So then he said,

what's he going with?

He fumbled his own fucking name.

Fumbled his own fucking.

But then I thought that would be the go-home line, right?

But no.

MGF, you're going to find out exactly who the last Lautaw outlaw is.

We're going to settle this somewhere.

Like I say, in Tennessee, I'm going to take you out behind the woodshed, but no lights, no cameras.

I'm going to take you to the woodshed and beat your ass.

Well, I can understand no lights, but apparently it's not going to be a cinematic match.

Has Jeff ever had a woodshed at any of the properties he's lived at his entire life?

You know, honestly, yes, I believe he has, because I think there was a shed that was full of wood at

Jerry Jarrett's house up in Hendersonville.

Lance Russell saw that woodshed and said, that's much bigger than my woodshed.

I took pictures of the goddamn fabulous ones naked to the waist in front of it

with fucking hats on with snakeskin headbands, baby.

God damn it, they sold like crazy, too.

But Howard's point is, how are they going to have this match if there's no camera?

That's going to be hard to fucking.

But then after that, after he said that, he transitioned, Jeff being he,

to his quest to become the AEW World Champion at age 57.

And he said he wanted to call out

the world champion Jon Moxley to talk.

Okay, that's what, yeah, Moxley comes out every week and talks to people after he puts a plastic bag over their head or pours bleach down their throat or fucking

Joan Rivers.

Can we talk?

Cody says, so what do you want to talk about?

I just say, can we talk?

And, but in that, here,

suddenly they play music,

but Claudio, while Jeff is looking where

the Boer Horseman and Dick the Boozer normally come from, the back of the arena through the people.

Claudio just comes in behind him in the ring and turns him around and hits him with one uppercut.

And Jeff goes down and is there immobile.

And Claudio says, nobody gets to Moxley without going through me first.

Stay out of our business and starts walking out.

And Jeff, I get from the one forearm.

After we see people run over with goddamn motor vehicles on this program,

Jeff's got the microphone.

He's still down, but he's in the ring.

Claudio, turn your ass around.

You'll have to kill me to stop me.

Apparently, that'll be three forearms.

But if I beat your ass next week, then I get my title shot.

And Claudius, okay, I'll see you next week.

And apparently, we're going to see that next week.

We'll see who sees it.

That may be the lowest-rated segment in the history of Dynamite.

We'll see.

That's going to be a problem, that segment.

It didn't look like Claudio wanted to watch it.

But I

so I don't and again, I don't know what's happening here with this.

And then there's more from MJF here in a minute or two, but let's finish this.

I guess it ties together, though.

It appears

they are being separated,

although they will have a match at some point, whether it's at a shed or in a ring, shall be determined at a later time.

They've made some closing remarks without closing the issue and left it dangling.

I was always critical of Jeff coming to AEW and his usage in AEW, everything.

But I said I thought that the idea he has one more year left, there could be some interesting things done there.

Sadly,

it appears to have exposed.

I mean, I don't know, if you were going to do something big with Jeff Charrette, you would never say, you know, now's the time to give him more promo time than he's ever had ever.

And it really hasn't exposed his strengths.

I mean, none of his strengths have been shown for the last month or so.

And

now we're going to get him and the Boer Horseman.

Him and Claudio has a chance to be.

Well, we'll see what the ratings are.

It could surprise me.

But, oh, boy.

But yeah, I just, I think, and he couldn't even get his fucking nickname out.

He screwed up his own name.

In his home state of Africa.

Well, now, wait a minute.

That's not the one he's had all the practice spelling.

The last la la la outlaw whatever

the last la la la outlaw

that used to be what bobby eaten would do la value

is somebody the baby face would have even a headlock i'd be close enough leaning in i'd hear him go la value

what do you what do you think of the idea i mean again last week's mjf Jeff Jarrett segment, it wasn't just us.

That was

not universally.

Well, there weren't too many people that seemed to come out and say they really loved it.

And everyone went the other way.

And it appears that is AEW shifting gears?

Is that what this is?

Well,

it's certainly leaving it open to not happen.

You know, they both talked about each other, but at the same time, they both apparently have other things going on.

Maybe they're going to come back to this match when the people demand it.

You think Jeff has enough time left in his career?

It'll be interesting.

That's the teams for next week.

Jeff and Claudio.

Oh, boy.

We were almost to the 9 o'clock hour, but we got Swerve Strickland versus A.R.

Fox.

And I'm thinking, okay, I'll fast forward through this and see what they're going to do at the 9 o'clock hour.

At the 9 o'clock hour, Swerve was still beating up Mr.

Fox, but Ricochet came out

and jumped up on the apron of the ring and went to stab Swerve in the head with the golden scissors.

Golden scissors.

Out of that Beatles tune that really didn't get enough attention.

That was golden slumbers.

They were different scissors than last time, much smaller than the.

I was about to say somebody forgot to bring the big golden gardening shears because these were like

golden fucking cuticle scissors.

They were half the size.

Did he buy a set?

Apparently, you know, he's investing in gold.

Next week, it'll be a golden spoon and then a golden fork.

I want to see the golden nail file.

I think that's going to be the one.

But he goes to stab Swerve and Swerve ducks and then Nana comes around with a lead pipe and backs Ricochet.

off of the ring and they go through the entranceway and they're they're they're gone and then swerve beat A.R.

Fox with his thing and then helped the guy up after they've been kicking a shit out of each other for 15 minutes.

And then suddenly Ricochet is on the screen and there's a close-up of him cutting a promo

and calm and staring straight into the camera.

And he makes the point he's got a lot to say next week

about the way he doesn't go into why he doesn't just say it now if if he's got a lot, but

he's got a lot to say next week.

And

the camera widens out, and Ricochet is holding the point of these scissors to Nana's throat.

And Nana is comically on his tiptoes with his head cocked back up against the wall, scared,

looking like Step and Fetch It in a fucking 30s Charlie Chan movie.

And the thing is, when they opened the shot on the close-up on Ricochet, and he was staring into the camera,

you've got a knife to a man's throat and you turn your goddamn head.

What is the guy with the knife to his throat going to do?

Grab the goddamn knife.

But no.

Ricochet is known for his strength.

He wasn't touching him.

I'm saying he wouldn't be able to wrestle the knife away from him.

He could knock the knife away from his neck and run, couldn't he?

Nana's from Queens.

I'm sure he's dealt with this plenty of times.

One would think.

Just going to the local fucking McDonald's.

Guess what the fans did?

What's that?

Nothing.

They didn't care.

I'll say it here.

I know he has a promo later.

I don't know if you're going to talk about it or not.

I'm completely sick of Swerve Strickland and everyone.

We're over the swerve.

Oh my God.

And Nana, I hate to say it because he's a very nice guy.

I know I like Nana personally, but they've done that.

I'm sick of the reason.

They've given me no reason to root for anything Nana's involved in because he's a scared,

feckless, incompetent manager that gets in the way more than he tries to help.

And that's by their instruction.

Yeah, I'm completely sick of both of them.

So I'm rooting for Ricochet to stab them.

Stay on the ass of me.

side of it.

Please.

Yeah, you're root for the baby face and you're root for the stabbing.

That's

I hope he gets him with the smaller scissors though, because I feel like there'll be less jail time.

Because the large ones, it's like clearly you're trying to kill him.

The small ones, oh, I saw a loose flip.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It was just, it was a flesh wound.

Just a flesh wound.

It would wouldn't go all the way to the artery.

Hey, one last thing on this whole thing.

Where the fuck has A.R.

Fox been?

Remember, he was a part of the whole thing.

He helped break into Nick Wayne's house with Swerve back in the day.

That's right.

Yeah, he was a part of the whole thing.

And then somehow he turned back babyface and he apologized.

And then I don't know what happened, but here he is after all this time.

And he's wrestling Swerve for 15 minutes and then the Swerve helps him up.

Okay.

Whose house?

Apparently, not Swerve's anymore.

I believe

he was asked to leave.

See, I thought I was going to say, whose house?

I thought you'd go, well, half a house.

Well, then, why didn't you feed me that somehow?

A third of a house.

I thought I knew what I was talking about.

A third of a house.

They say, yeah, it was

maybe, maybe 32%.

All right.

Knoxville Civic Coliseum, by the way, depending on the wrestling setup, can be from 5,000 to if you had no curtain anywhere and opened every seat in the house southeast and put in the risers, Southeastern got 6,500 in there.

I don't think that's ever been done again for a wrestling setup.

Nevertheless, then guess who came out?

There was a job guy in the ring,

but we came back from a break and boom, MJF music.

And now

explain this to me, Brian.

We're down to with some of these guys and poor MJF is amongst them where the music gets a pop from the people, but when they see the actual person,

they don't cheer.

Did they think there's a guy in the ring they were going to see MJF wrestle and he came out in street clothes and obviously not going to wrestle and they felt deflated or what?

But it's like they'll pop on music, but they won't pop onto people.

Why are they not popping onto people, Jerry?

I think because of some of the people MJF has worked with and some of the segments they've done together,

people need to see something from MJF maybe right now.

They need to see something different with someone different.

And they certainly weren't positively reacting to the Jeff Jarrett stuff.

So I think in a lot of ways, maybe this was a hold your breath and see what is this because we just saw Jeff and Claudio do their angle.

Well, and what is this?

Was MJF told the job guy to leave the ring?

And to Jeff Jarrett, you ought to give every fan here an apology, but I deserve an apology more than anybody because

what you did last week, I made you the offer.

And then he reiterated the offer was, hey, Jeff, I'll help you win the deal, the title shot, and then you win the title and then blah, blah, blah.

And then you give me a title shot.

He made Jeff the offer because he thought that Jeff would be the easiest one to beat.

And that went a while, and I don't think the people really cared about hearing it.

But finally, he said, Pro Wrestling doesn't love you anymore.

These fans don't love you, which sparked a few medium double J chants.

And sometimes you're better off making a deal with the devil than defying him.

MJF has gotten in the category of trying too hard at this point to make up for everything that's been done to him.

But he's,

he's obviously now, remember

early on,

MJF was the smooth, the, the, the roaster, the unflappable, I'm smarter than you, I'm better than you, than you know it.

And remember, I said every once in a while when he would get too mad, that somebody get too far under his skin, that that wasn't good for him.

He needed to be able to still keep his goddamn.

Well, now now he's having temper tantrums and losing his shit and blurting out things that he allegedly doesn't want to blurt out.

He's into these things more than anybody in the crowd is.

He's going, he's either madder or he's more invested in this.

It just looks awkward.

Do you see what I'm trying to say?

You think he should be riling everyone up, not the one to get riled up?

Somewhat.

And I think that trying so hard to get people into this rotten

material or situations that he's been forced to work with,

I'm not saying the, you know, it just,

it's too much.

He's

the people, he's cried wolf.

He ain't been the devil in a long time.

And with most of the people he's talking to or about or wanting to fuck with,

the people don't particularly care whether the devil fucking

goes down to Georgia on them or not.

Is he the devil again, or was Adam Cole the devil?

Well, he's doing the devil horns, and he said sometimes you're better off making a deal with the devil than defying him to Jeff.

So now he's the devil.

He's the devil.

He's the devil again.

The devil made him do it, but it's not done.

Because when he said that, then music played.

And here came hangnail Adam Page.

It was his match.

The announcer, well, it was his match that we thought we were going to see when MJF came out.

Then why the fuck did he wait 10 minutes to come out till MJF had said all that shit?

And

Paige got up in MJF's face and is telling him, Gette, get out of here, leave, get out of my area here or whatever.

And the fans at least were chanting, but they were chanting cowboy shit.

Isn't that what they wanted him to do four years ago?

The people in Knoxville may have not been paying close attention.

Does he still do the cowboy shit?

I thought he was a heel.

What is he?

Who is he?

Let me clarify this.

What the fuck is going on?

There will be no clarity.

If he's feuding with MJF,

or I mean, I don't know if that's what this is.

If they're having issues, he's a babyface.

Maybe it's like Sergeant Slaughter is a heel bumping in the heel iron chic in the aisleway.

And then all of a sudden, Sergeant Slaughter is a babyface.

Maybe it's something like that.

And I will say,

I hadn't even thought of it as an option until this show.

Adam Page versus MJF,

it's something they haven't done that could be interesting.

Well, does Page start sandbagging and sabotaging MJF like he did punk when he got a chance to do something on top?

Maybe.

We can't rule that out, obviously.

It's on his track record, but.

Jesus Christ, then.

But in terms of all MJF needs.

But in terms of, you're talking about what MJF needs.

What he doesn't need is Adam Cole.

What he doesn't need, as it turns out, is Jeff Jarrett.

What he doesn't need is anyone else he has already been married to at some point in the last five years.

Now, he's done little things things with Adam Page,

going back to the very beginning, but those two guys have been there since the beginning.

They're steadies on that show.

I'm not saying it's ideal.

I'm not the biggest Hangman Page fan.

Whenever you want to invest in him, he delivers a soft promo.

But

I'll take this over.

There aren't too many other things right now with anyone who's not already just doing something.

Although if AEW dropped the Jarrett thing, maybe they'll drop the Moxley thing or something else.

But I'm okay with seeing where this is for at least a little while.

Well, at least now we have another clue here, though, because Paige is still out there.

So he beat the job guy in 30 seconds.

And then,

as any true upcoming babyface kept beating on him after the match and gave him a big face plant fucking move, Chris Daniels' move.

And then music played, and Chris Daniels came out in a neck brace.

Right now, he's a heel again.

Because apparently,

whatever whatever they've been doing on collision or rampage or whatever, they had a Texas death match and Paige fucked Daniels up and Daniels will, but

Daniels comes out and says, all I ever wanted to do was be your friend, but I messed that up.

So wait, this guy has dropped you on your head and retired you, so you're going to come out and apologize to him.

You attacked me and said what you said, and I let my ego and insecurities escalate it

after you attacked me

to a point where I accepted the most violent match against the most violent man, and I regret that.

And I wrote, what the fuck?

And now another babyface is apologizing to some guy that's fucking.

And I regret that.

So, yeah, I said, I regret it.

So after the Texas death match, the doctor told Daniels to never wrestle again.

So,

Adam, you win.

This is goodbye.

I'm sorry, and I hope you can be happy.

And he walks off and leaves Paige standing there.

And Paige is just mute, just silent.

So are the fans, by the way.

But so, is this the first time in history that somebody will be shamed into becoming a babyface again?

He was shaming him into becoming a babyface.

What babyface has received more shame, even of itself shame, than Adam Page in the history of AEW in Kayfabe?

That's his whole gimmick.

He's drinking because of shame.

Everything's because of something.

Alrighty.

Well,

we know one thing that Mercedes Monet can do now properly.

She can walk when you cue her.

Did you see when they cut to her backstage and she's standing there and then suddenly they cued her to walk and she started walking?

And not many people can just nail that the first time.

So she's got four belts now.

You can't see her for the belt.

She's got some English indie girls' belt.

She's got the Japanese belt.

She's got the fucking AEW belt, whatever.

And then here came Harley Cameron in again.

They're going to shoehorn her into anything

just to get you to talk about them.

And she sang a challenge to

Mercedes while playing a guitar.

And I thought, have you ever watched, like, remember

America's Got Talent?

You know, where they did the audition show where

they showed you the people that sucked, that couldn't get on?

Help me.

Of course, I know what this is.

Everyone knows what that is.

Well,

the whole, I'm not even talking about just the song.

I mean the whole segment.

Mercedes' stilted delivery and the

fact that she didn't even have a microphone, a boom mic properly on her when she started talking until

Renee Boxley Good walked in with a real microphone.

And then here comes this girl out of nowhere singing a challenge while accompanying herself on the guitar.

Renee's kind of grooving to it.

So I told you, Harley Cameron's really talented get her away from wrestling

she needs a good manager come on one of you guys in hollywood she needs a subway and a hat to turn upside down to catch the loose change if she picked the right station she can get discovered so you're saying that harley cameron could make a lot of cash in the subway if she worked it right

With her act, yes.

I don't know where you're going.

I don't know where your dirty mind, your dirty mind is going.

What do you call that an act?

I'd say it's pretty natural.

But anyway, then Jamie Hayter wrestled Jimmy Hart.

Oh, I'm sorry, I had my shorthand.

That's Julia Hart.

What did you think of that match, Brian?

Jamie Hayter used to look like such a badass and look cool.

Now she looks like, if you said to AI, make me a wrestler named Velvet McIntyre.

That's what would pop up, bitches.

She was like Ronald McDonald's assistant.

Only if Velvet had carnal knowledge of Ronald McDonald.

What is, I don't know.

It just, it's not an appealing gimmick change.

Is it a gimmick change if you just change your look?

I don't even know.

I don't know.

That's all I kept thinking.

All right.

Well, in the back, Swerve was screaming about being the most dangerous man in AEW.

Now, I get Paige was the most violent man.

But you can be violent without being dangerous, I guess.

But how dangerous is goddamn Swerve?

His manager has been

kidnapped, abducted, abused, anal probed.

Swerve himself has been beaten, left laying, lost his belt.

Bobby Lashley punked him out.

Nana is standing back there, verklimped, while Swerve is screaming about what he's going to do, but he never does anything.

Is this why we're over Swerve?

Again, he is the most violent, dastardly man in AEW.

And you think about, yeah, well, you know, he kidnapped, well, he didn't kidnap the kid.

He just went and terrorized the kid on camera.

Yeah, yeah.

And besides that, the kid was under 12 months old, so you can't really terrorize.

He doesn't know what's going on.

Well, you also could be Uncle Swerve making faces.

He also broke into Nick Wayne's

wrestling complex and beat the shit out of him.

But on the other hand, he's also had his house burned down.

And someone else drank his blood.

And there's been all sorts of things.

He had one of his dreadlocks ripped out.

He had his grill taken.

That's right.

But you don't want to mess with him.

Well, I tell you what, when you pull somebody's teeth out and they don't do anything about it.

So then there was a message from the remaining members of the house of Blech.

Brody and Buddy and Julia, they have apparently replaced Malachi Black with a dog.

Did you see that?

I mean, I guess you can consider it a replacement.

I hadn't thought of it that way.

There was a dog in the video.

Yes, they're in the tunnel, in the darkened area where they live, in the darkness, in the black.

And there's Buddy, and there's Brody, and there's Julia, and there's a dog.

So there's no Malachi.

One could assume Malachi out, dog in.

Is the dog a better worker, a better talker than Malachi?

Let me ask you this.

Would everyone assuming he's going back to WWE?

And that's probably a fair assumption.

Why would you want him?

Have you seen anything from him that makes you think you want more?

You just haven't seen enough.

You need more of him every week.

You need to see him.

And if any of these were his ideas, we don't want to let him loose where he can speak.

Pitch things.

That would be bad.

But there's going to be no rules, no leaders, no gods, and no masters, just violence

from the whatever this group is now.

And if they're going to be in the violence business, I believe they need to talk to fucking Hangnail Adam Page, because isn't he the most violent guy?

Well, there's a lot of ways to look at it.

You could talk to Hangman Adam Page.

You could talk to the Hurt Syndicate, who were in the Hurt business for a long time.

Because

you can't hurt people without being violent.

Or you could talk to our friends at shopify about a way to set up your store house of black or whoever you may be now uh what's house of two people a woman and a dog

two people and a woman and a dog

well folks i'll tell you the best time for me might be to start a new business right now possibly diversify

have something to fall back on in case this goes to shit

folks whatever your idea or your product or

your brand or whatever you want to do, Shopify can help you do it because the best time to start your new business is right now.

You might have been thinking about this.

It might have been a New Year's resolution.

Or maybe even thinking about it when you went to sleep or when you woke up.

Or you're thinking about it when you're at the grocery store, when you're watching your favorite TV show.

when you're on the treadmill at the gym, when you're making sweet love to your better half.

You're thinking about I could be in business right now.

And you know what?

Shopify can take you right out of the saddle of your spouse and into the saddle of being the CEO of your own operation where you will hear

sounds like that all the time because you're going to make some money.

Shopify makes it simple to create your brand open for business and get your first sale.

You can get your store up and running.

They're on the worldwide interwebs with thousands of customizable templates.

No coding or design skills required.

You do not need to design anything.

They will design everything.

They control the horizontal and the vertical.

They control all you see and hear and they control

the ability to make people send you money.

And their powerful social media tools let you connect all your channels.

together to create chaos and shoppable posts to help you sell everywhere that people scroll by.

Let's say they're scrolling on what time to pick up their kid from school.

Boom!

A thing pops up and it says buy from Sam or else.

And to get control of their telephone screen again, they have to buy something from what the hell are you talking about?

None of this is the way it is.

Stop ringing that thing.

None of this is the way this happens.

Well, they make it easy to make your growing business.

They help with details like shipping, taxes, payments, all from one single dashboard.

They're parked three doors down to make sure nobody knows they're at your house.

And they've got all the documents and all the money and everything on the dashboard.

And you go in, everything's right out in front of you.

It's all above board, above the dashboard.

And you get money.

Every week they'll meet you three doors down from your house and hand you an envelope.

No one's going to meet you and hand you anything.

Well, that allows you to to focus on the important stuff like growing your business.

But what happens if you don't act now?

Well, that guy three doors down from you is not going to have money for you.

He's going to have a message from the, well, you know who.

You're going to regret it if somebody beats you to the idea that you had.

And you're going to kick yourself if you didn't go to Shopify to help make that a reality and make your money.

Because you can establish a new business in 2025 that will prosper for many years from now, especially after they get you out of the equation.

So, right now,

you can sign up for a $1 a month trial period at shopify.com/slash JCE.

That's all lowercase on that now.

Woe become the person who makes those capitals.

And it's a dollar a month trial period.

So, how, again,

how little do you want to pay for a chance at greatness?

They will show you what they can do for a dollar a month.

All you got to do is do the do that they do.

Go to shopify.com slash JCE to start selling with Shopify today.

That's right.

And

I want to compliment you on a pretty good job there, although there were several inaccuracies, and we'll have our fact checkers go through this shortly.

Well, I can only work off the copy that they give me, and

you know, and maybe it's four doors down.

It depends on your neighborhood.

Don't go any doors down, and it's not what they give you, it's what you're going to give to your customers with their help.

And that's our friends at Shopify.

Well, you're not giving nothing to these people, they're the suckers, the rubes.

No, there are no marks.

There are no rubes.

There are plenty of marks.

There are no rubes in this situation.

Jim, what are you doing?

You're not giving them nothing.

You're selling them stuff.

Jim, one more time.

What's that promo code for the listeners to make money with their goods?

Shopify.com slash JCE to start your new business today and market your grand idea to the entire world who are waiting to give you.

All right, well, get some of that and let's get the rest of dynamite.

Come get some.

I wish you could come get some of the rest of dynamite because I've had enough.

Edge and PAC was the main event.

There was a nice hand for for Edge when he came out because they know who he is.

He's been somewhere.

Pack came through the crowd, and I don't know if anybody noticed, except that they probably thought, why is that guy coming back from the concession stand with no shirt on?

But then he got in the ring, and I noticed that it was

9.44 p.m.

Eastern Time.

That means even without an overrun, they had 16 minutes to go.

So

I fucking zipped ahead till after their break,

and they were getting, they were.

PAC was getting some heat on edge,

and I started watching it and I zoned out on it.

And he was, they were being very careful not to rush.

Let's put it that way.

You know, it's always one of these things.

It's always too hot or too cold.

It's never just right.

But

I mean, I don't know.

I didn't watch the whole thing.

I think Edge is a pro.

He's got plenty of experience, but he made a comeback.

He milked the spear.

Pack wouldn't get up and Edge wouldn't go to him because he could spear him in the fucking back.

Finally, Pack got up and Edge went to him.

And Pack leapfrogged the spear and they went right into another spot.

Pack, to me, has timing issues, especially when he spends 15 minutes on the top rope.

But it just, I don't know what's going on.

At one point, Pac got a submission hold on Edge while he was on Edge's back.

Edge was fully supporting his weight.

I'm thinking, fall straight back.

Just fall straight back.

The fans, I thought, were zoned out.

And Pacific.

What gave that away?

Was it the dead silence?

Well, that was the first clue I had.

And then when I saw saw the ushers holding mirrors in front of the front row people's mouths to check and see if they were breathing.

So the ghost of Beulah in the front row.

This was bad enough for Beulah to come back to life to hoot at him.

Pat kept kicking Edge in the back of the head because Edge wouldn't move.

He got kicked in the back of the head and he just slumped and he just stayed there and did not move to be kicked in the back of the head again.

Then the Joe Schmo show started, or the Joe Schmoe start showed.

I wonder if the ratings will be better for Joe Schmo than they were for AEW.

So, what do you think of the fact that Moxley choked out?

I mean, we always say that every

you feel like he's always beat down.

Did you even bring up the FTR Rock and Roll Express thing here?

Well, hold on.

I ain't there yet.

I say the Joe Schmo, the Joe Schmo show, show.

The Joe Schmo

show

started, but it was still the wrestling.

That was the overrun.

I thought you were saying just all of a sudden you version went right to the actual show.

No, because

the DVR stops.

You got to go to the Joe Schmo show on DVR to continue watching this thing.

And they go one minute past the hour, and then Edge hits the cutter

on pack one, two, three.

And they start playing Edge's music, and suddenly Moxley is on the screen again

and as Edge looks there's Claudio and Marina Schaefer and I think old Wheelie Wheelie useless he was in there too but

they have

these three people and one woman have

Cash Wheeler and Dax Hardwood

tied to chairs, duct taped to chairs with their mouths duct taped.

Dax is over on his side in the chair.

Cash is trying to wiggle.

And the Rock and Roll Express are on the floor.

Remember, they got kidnapped and duct taped to a cage

a couple weeks ago.

Now, they were on the floor, but you couldn't tell who it was because Ricky's face down with his face turned away from the camera.

on a chair so they can concerto him in a second.

And Robert, I think he was turning his face out of shame.

And the announcers, which, if you're listening to them,

you might have heard past all of the

Dick the Boozer and his screaming minions.

That's the Rock and Roll Express.

They're doing publicity.

Oh, no, now they're down on the goddamn ground.

And they hit Ricky Morton with the fake chair shot that resounds by hitting the floor because his brains would explode if they really did that.

And there's no way for him to sell it.

And

then they walk off and leave the two guys tied to the chair and the Rock and Roll Express face down on the floor and walk into the arena where Edge is alone.

And they surround the ring.

So

you mean to tell me

that Edge is one of the biggest stars in this company?

And

the only four people out of this giant roster and everybody that we've seen tonight that would even think about coming out to help him

was FTR and two guys in their mid to late 60s.

To begin with, what the fuck.

And then

they all jump edge, and there's mild booing, and they get weak heat.

And then here comes Jay White

with music.

And oh, but it's Jay White.

And people are like, eh?

And I think, didn't he beat up one or two in the aisleway?

And then he got in the ring, and they stopped him, and the fans were indifferent to that.

And then Moxley got the choke on edge,

and they were holding Jay White down immobile.

And so nobody in the ring was moving.

And this was the heat they were getting, where they're holding one guy and not moving themselves, and the other guy's choking the other guy, and neither one of them are moving.

And then the heels got up and left after they'd finished fucking choking these fucking goofballs out.

The fans weren't moving either.

I don't know what to tell you.

That was that.

I mean, there's so much to say.

First of all, if you're going to do this kind of stupid shit with the Rock and Roll Express, wouldn't you establish on this show

that they are there?

Could maybe they have done the backstage interview instead of Jeff Jarrett doing the backstage interview about the interview he was about to go out to the ring and do live.

Harley Cameron got two segments.

Well, she's got two of a lot of things, and it's not fair.

Well, she got two segments.

They got kidnapped.

Yeah, she.

You know, Edge and Dax and Cash are kind of the same in terms of baby faces that have been beat down or just made to look foolish so often that they're not effective babyfaces anymore.

Dax and Cash were tied to a chair.

Dax was turned over on the chair.

Cash at least had the dignity to be sitting up straight.

Well, no, that means that Dax was putting up more of a struggle.

After how did they get him in that position?

What did they propofol him?

That's what I...

Yeah, how'd they get all four?

Was it one by one or did they do it all at one time?

It's ridiculous.

They must have been hanging out.

You know, Ricky Morton knows exactly where that one room all the way at the end of the bowels of the Coliseum is where you could entertain the female company.

I bet they staked out that door and caught them all as they were coming out.

I remember that room.

That was the one that had the sign that said, no, Andrea.

Hey, come on.

Was that a different room?

I don't know.

That was a different room.

The point is,

this does nothing for the babyfaces.

The fans aren't reacting to anything that Hill Moxley does.

You began this show with what was a hot series of events for AEW.

May not have all made sense, but it doesn't matter.

The fans were into it.

People were jumping all over the place.

They were over.

The fans reacted to Kenny.

The fans reacted to Osprey.

Fans didn't react to PAC.

Fans didn't react to Edge.

Fans certainly aren't reacting to him.

They cheered him when he came out.

They just didn't react to him.

And then they went to sleep.

And then they went to sleep because no one wants to see him wrestle.

And they certainly didn't react to Moxley.

And you said Edge is a star.

You know,

he was part of the star machine.

I have not seen anything since he has returned, especially to AEW since he has entered AEW.

He doesn't feel like a star.

Whatever he may have been a long time ago.

He just seems like a babyface with bad instincts.

Well, now, to be fair, to be fair, every star that's come to AEW doesn't seem like a star anymore.

Just to be fair.

You know, and I think Lashley and Shelton, we said it before.

They're super over, and you don't hear any complaints about the fact that they're not young guys.

But with Jeff Jarrett and especially Edge, who's younger than Jeff Jarrett,

These guys look so old.

It's like a different energy.

It's not the right.

They're not getting, nothing's giving off off the right energy right now.

The opening of the show kind of did.

And the whole business did.

Hurts in the middle.

I'm trying to think because I can't remember exactly.

And I don't want to give wrong figures, but somebody ought to add up the combined age of Edge and

fuck Flummox.

What's his name?

You just said.

Jared.

Edge and Jeff.

Yes.

Thank you.

And Christian.

Throw Christian on it.

He's a number one contender.

No, hold there with the comparison I was going to make.

Put,

and Jeff looks pretty daggum good, especially his arms for 57.

But put

add up Edge and Jeff Jarrett's age, and then add up Shelton and Lashley's age.

And I bet it wouldn't be that fucking strikingly different.

And goddamn, those two guys look like they could kick the shit out of everybody in the company.

I mean, Shelton, yeah.

I mean, I'm not saying, not to your point, just in terms of how he looks in terms of age, but Bobby Lashley, it's kind of remarkable how much he has not aged facially or in any way like 25 years

hell there you go but that's the state of aew they got things right now that the fans are really into

or at least the fans are into and there's stuff that silences the fans and kills the crowd and the moxley stuff

I mean, the most difficult conversation is going to be if Tony gets to the point where he doesn't let it play out the way Moxley wants it to.

but at this point how could you how close to the end of this thing you think we are in moxley's head

i i think it's going for a while oh god

we probably have to wait at least until darby gets off mount everest well that ain't gonna happen we have to wait at least until orange cassidy returns maybe they can get a darby plaque to put up

in memory of darby who's still somewhere on mount everest see that's the thing.

You know, I hate the Moxley stuff, but Edge went along with it here.

Why is Edge letting it?

Edge doesn't realize right now the last thing he needs as an on-air character is to once again be laid out, especially just choked out to the point where you're dead, and they just leave while the fans sit there in silence.

What the fuck?

And it's already been established now that the only...

tenuous friend you might have that's not able to be kidnapped and tied to anything that's handy is fucking Jay White and he was no help whatsoever.

Everybody else just, ah, fuck him.

I got to beat beat the traffic.

And again, FTR,

they never

are presented as strong babyfaces.

They're always presented as secondary characters who get kidnapped or attacked.

And that doesn't help anyone.

But that was AEW Dynamite.

Jim, we have the ratings.

I was about to ask if anybody watched this thing.

AEW Dynamite.

On Wednesday, January 22nd, 2025, 8 to 10:06 p.m.,

On average, according to WrestleNomics,

655,000 viewers.

Oh, they're still over 600,000.

They made a big comeback from last month or whatever.

But

down 4% from last week, which was 679, up 7% from the trailing four weeks, which was 614.

But now here, I'm wondering, they're on Macs now.

So apparently,

not only did nobody migrate over to watching on Macs, but some people that

have come back to watching here instead of going to Macs

that weren't watching last month.

So

what are we hearing about Macs?

What about Macs?

Not Friedman, but the streaming, Macs streaming.

We're not hearing too much.

And I think if the numbers were extraordinary, they would

probably be talked about a little more.

But again, that's the thing.

It's a different situation than Netflix.

Netflix is the only option.

Max is just an option.

Yeah, maybe

the thing is that the threat of AEW on streaming has run people back to cable.

No, they figured out a good way to get people to Max.

They announced that Australia show and they had no times.

And I just have to go there all day and just wait and hope.

See what happens.

Wishing and hoping.

All right, quarter one.

Where do we start out here?

Let's go to the quarterly breakdown.

Quarter one.

These were compiled by WrestleNomix.

8 to 8.15 p.m.

The Will Ospreay, Kenny Omega, Don Callas Live Angle,

832,000 viewers.

Okay,

I'm seeing a Cliff Cumming with their average and that strong of a start.

That's a good name for a jobber, Cliff Cumming.

Cliff Cumming.

Quarter two, 8.15, 8.30 p.m.

You know, if only I'd have thought of that when I had Cliff Compton down here.

The Death Riders promo

and Private Party versus the Hurt Syndicate with picture-and-picture ads,

695,000 viewers.

Okay, so

the Big Bang theory is still the lead-in,

but 137,000 people said, oh, my God, we've made a drastic mistake in the first 15 minutes.

All right.

Well, again, I think just in general, the number, the second quarter, as always, is the true number that they're starting with.

But we go to quarter three, 8:30 to 8:45 p.m.

Continuation of Party versus Syndicate,

the Mariah Mae video,

the Tony Storm Harley Cameron backstage angle, an ad break,

the Jeff Jarrett, Karen Jarrett backstage angle,

and the Jeff Jarrett live promo.

What a quarter.

643,000 viewers.

Oh, good God.

Okay, there went another 52,000.

So we are now down 179,000 people from in the first 45 minutes.

Tell me more.

8.45 to 9 p.m., quarter four.

Claudio Castignoli confronting Jeff Jarrett.

An ad break.

The Megan Bain video.

And the start of A.R.

Fox versus Swerve Strickle into a picture-in-picture.

MR Ducks.

Every time I hear A.R., I think M.R.

Ducks.

601,000 viewers.

All right.

Well,

we've lost 231,000 people in one hour.

That's

25% of what they started, more than 25% of what they started with.

And we're at the top of the 9 o'clock hour.

And now I'm thinking they have to pick something up somewhere to be able to meet their average by the end of this thing, don't they?

Well, we'll find out what happens here in the second hour.

The big nine o'clock hour, nine to nine: fifteen p.m., quarter five.

Here comes the golden scissors.

The continuation of Fox versus Swerve, the post-match with Ricochet and Prince Nana, and small scissors,

the Learning Tree Backstage promo, the MJF Live promo,

Adam Page versus Tyler Shoup,

Tyler Shoup,

Shoop,

Shoop, And the Adam Page, Christopher Daniels, ramp angle.

646,000 shoops.

Well,

they brought in 45,000 extra shoots at the top of the hour.

Why didn't they put Tyler Shoup on TV before?

He's the only one that's been able to bring the numbers up.

Well, they may have to put more of him on the show next week.

We'll find out.

We go now at a quarter six, 9.15 to 9.30 p.m.

We start with an ad break, the Mercedes-Monet, Harley Cameron backstage angle

and the start of Jamie Hayter versus Julia Hart with picture in picture

637,000 viewers.

Well, that ain't bad.

That's seven.

Hold on.

Four.

Wait, six at 9,000.

9,000 difference.

All right, you found the number?

I found the number.

See, it was one of the ones that they hide every once in a while.

We go to quarter seven, 9.30 to 9.45 p.m.

The continuation of Hart vs.

Hater.

The post-match.

An icicle just fell down outside.

An ad break.

Swarve Strickland's backstage promo.

Brody King, Buddy Matthews, and Julia Hart's video.

And the start of Cope vs.

Pack.

618,000 viewers.

Good lord.

Edge lost people.

Lost 19,000 of them.

Holy crap.

If you were an Edge fan and you wanted to see him come back, you've seen anything you wanted to see by now.

Unfortunately, the way.

Do you think they could have a special match with Swerve against the insurance adjuster that denied the claim on his house being burned down?

Well, we'll see what Tony could book next time they go to Washington or something.

But, Jim, we're going at a quarter eight.

And I remind you, we have an overrun.

9:45 to 10 p.m.

Cope versus PAC continued.

Every bit of it.

With picture and picture,

590,000 viewers.

Six-minute overrun.

More Cope vs.

PAC, the Death Riders, FTR, The Rock and Roll, and Jay White,

592,000 viewers.

2,000 people showed up for Joe Schmo.

Well,

on the bright side, 590 and 592 is not as bad as I thought it was going to be.

And on the dim side, they started with 832.

They finished with 592.

That's 240,000 people.

Or

what percentage, Brian, is 240,000 of 832,000?

Oh, fuck you.

Hold on.

Well,

it's somewhere

a little less than a third.

They lost 30% of their audience.

All right.

Well,

I hear the clicking.

Well, no, apparently the window I had open with the calculator closed.

I don't know why.

Oh, well.

What the fuck?

No wonder you're hearing all these noises in the background if you've got your window open.

Well, that's not what I meant, but that was once again AEW Dynamite.

And Jim, perhaps when watching AEW Dynamite and watching some of the

amazing action, maybe you just want to get up and work out and listen to something else.

Maybe you just want to go to the other room and cook something and listen to something else.

Maybe you just want to listen to something else with the finest earbuds.

Our pals are Raycon.

How many things do you want to do?

As a matter of fact, when I have to watch AEW, I'm pretty much defeated at the end of it.

I don't want to do anything, but just go lay down and try to rest my weary mind.

Maybe that's what you need to do with your Raycon

After you have managed to absorb all of the oral and visual effluvia that you can possibly contain from the AEW television program, you want to lay down in your bed on your nice soft mattress.

We can fix you up with those type of things too.

And you want to stick the Raycon everyday earbuds in your ears and sit it on some peaceful music.

Or maybe just

have yourself recorded over and over saying, I will not watch AEW.

I will not watch AEW.

And just play that as

a way to lull yourself into sleep and give yourself a positive self-suggestion for how to improve your life.

That's what you're going for, right, Brian?

That is right.

Well, what is right?

Raycon is right.

And of course, it's right for you and right for your ears, no matter what the size.

You can put them in comfortably, listen to the finest sounds, get them out comfortably, and return to normal sounds.

Return to your normal viewing position.

You can stick these things in your ear, and if you hang upside down for about 10 minutes, then when you go right side up, you'll get a head rush that will make all this music actually psychedelic, and you'll be able to see colors.

But the Raycon everyday earbuds are more than just a way to make yourself disoriented and potentially high.

They've got a 32-hour battery life and multi-point connectivity.

You can pair with two devices at once and be the just the sexiest little slut at the consumer electronics show.

And with their quick charge function, boom, 10 minutes of charging yields 90 minutes of battery.

So you can charge this thing for 10 minutes and then

walk up behind some unsuspecting person.

Stick one of these earbuds up their various coat or skirt or whatever and boom and you'll shock them.

Again, no, no.

Yes.

No.

If you press the button, no, no, there's no built-in taser.

No, there's no built-in taser.

God damn it.

You mean I got a hold of a prototype pair?

I don't know where you would have gotten a hold of that, but Ray Con guarantees no tasing.

No.

I'm not a friend of the FBI.

And these earbuds also come with active noise cancellation.

If you're walking down the street listening to your favorite tunes and all of a sudden you walk next to some guy working on a street with a jackhammer, you hit that button and bam, instantly, an electric charge comes out and neutralizes that guy with a jackhammer until you pass by.

No, there are no electrical charges.

Friends, if you need security, there are security options.

You can cancel noise.

You cannot vaporize the people behind the noise.

That is not the Raycon way.

No, he's not vaporized.

He's just in a severe case of cardiac arrest but he'll come back around and you'll be long gone

and folks raycon starts at just half the price as other premium audio brands where when you figure in it includes this taser feature and a death ray

raycon oh my god there's no death ray there's no taser feature once again no taser feature and no death ray on this creature feature at all no that's right that was the swiss army knife on gilligans island well the everyday airbuds are also available in a variety of vibrant colors Vibrant color.

These are not colors that just sit there and look good.

They actually hop around and vibrate.

It'll tickle your ears something fierce with the purple.

The purple vibrates feels like the Ditillator Mach 3.

And if you don't fall in love with your Raycons, they offer a 30-day happiness guarantee return policy.

No questions asked.

That means...

You're not allowed to ask them, where's my money?

They'll get around to it, but there'll be no questions asked on this refund policy.

And right now, folks, you can go to buyraycon.com slash JCE

and get up to 20% off site-wide.

That means the entire site, you can buy

that particular website, buy Raycon, B-U-I-R-A-Y-C-O-N.

You can buy that website for 20% off now.

And that's something I don't think that they realized when they made this arrangement.

That's something I don't think they

realized because it ain't happening anyway.

Web said 20% off site-wide.

The site is included in everything involving the site.

They will be retaining their domain and their site, but you can, of course, I think you can get the domain for 20% off.

Let's worry about your own domain, specifically your head, specifically the sounds entering your head, and 20% off of that.

That's why I'm master of my domain.

And they got headphones, too.

Keep that shit in there.

Don't let it go out your ears where people may steal it from you.

20% off everything on the website, I guess except the website.

They're going to keep that.

Buyraycon.com/slash JCE,

the code to get the 20% off.

That's right, Raycon.

All right.

Well, we're back and the wrestling fun continues.

Of course, here on the show.

And Jim.

Yes.

We are still in January, so year-end polls are still coming in or starting to come in.

And we have the latest Pro Wrestling Illustrated here.

Every year we talk about their annual awards.

Oh boy.

The latest issue, Spring 2025,

$9.99 an issue.

Jesus.

Jesus, what in the world?

Is that the price of a magazine?

No wonder nobody reads anymore.

I used to be able to go in the fucking local airport newsstand wherever I happen to be flying out of and get eight magazines for $10.

The headline, Blondes Have More Fun and Wins on the cover and has Liv Morgan, Tony Storm, and Mariah May,

a purple cover.

Someone else should design their covers.

Let me just add that to the equation here.

But let's go to the awards, the 2024 Year in Pro Wrestling Awards.

From the status.

Now, is this all women, all women on the cover?

Is this an all-female list or what's going on here?

No, it's that there are female winners, but they're just appealing to the horny men that buy the magazine these days rather than

trying to go any

high road type of thing here.

They're just going straight for the smut.

I think in general, it seems like Pro Wrestling Illustrated as it currently is situated,

they go with either just women or unknowns that they're trying to champion.

And it always seems like a weird strategy to me.

I guess there are horny people that just want pictures of women that you'll see on TV that aren't going to be doing anything explicit.

It's just a wrestling magazine, but

they're positioned that way.

So they've got those women in those positions.

Yeah, again, that's the way they're positioning it.

But

they certainly like to advocate for certain people.

It seems like

which one is reverse cowgirl on that cover?

Okay, that's not here, but let's go to Rookie of the Year,

Jim, for 2024.

The Rookie of the Year, Kaylani Jordan.

Who, what?

From NXT, Kaylani Jordan,

48% of the vote.

48%.

Who did they consider rookies past this

young person?

Well, also from NXT, Jada Parker.

Jada Parker.

And also from, where is this person from?

TNA, GCW,

NXT.

Oh, Carmen Petrovich.

What?

8%.

And finally from Japan, Oleg Bolton.

Oleg Bolton from when Michael Bolton had that affair with that Russian whore.

Tak Tarav.

All right.

Well, Kaylani Jordan, a very attractive young lady.

Who are all these people's names?

What was the one that got 8% was who?

Carmen Petrovich.

Okay.

All right.

Well, let's go now.

The most improved wrestler of the year

with 23% of the vote.

It's Mariah May.

Mariah May, most improved wrestler coming in second.

Does that mean this is another way of saying this category is people who sucked last year?

With 19%, Nia Jax.

Oh, geez.

Oh, God.

Well,

yeah, she's all right now, but you should have seen her last year.

With 14%, Oba Femi,

and at 9%, Maxine Dupree.

Oh, good.

Somebody thinks she's improved from what?

To what?

35% of the votes went to the following other people, including Megan Bain, Luke Jacobs, Mai Sakurai,

and Ash by Elegance.

Who's buying this fucking magazine?

That's an interesting question.

Let's go to Comeback of the Year with 20% of the the vote.

Liv Morgan, comeback of the year.

Coming in second place with 19%,

Mercedes-Monet.

Oh, boy.

Well, at least we've heard of these people, but

I don't know if I'd call it a comeback.

Maybe a go back rather than a comeback.

And filling out the rest of the people who got the big votes, 18% for Randy Orton and 14% for The Rock.

Okay, so The Rock nor Randy Orton's comeback was bigger than Mercedes Moon's.

29% for others, including Thunder Rosa, Mike Santana, Nigel McGinnis, and

did Santana come back?

Just not an AEW.

Oh, okay.

Well, Jim, we now go to another big category, the inspirational wrestler of the year.

The wrestler that inspires you to do what?

I actually don't know what they're inspiring you to do, but well, they're inspiring you to be a better person, to lead a better life,

overcome obstacles.

Most pretentious of the year is also what this is known as, but inspirational wrestler of the year with 28%.

Cody Rhodes.

Cody Rhodes, 28%.

Okay, well, he has a positive message,

you know, for the people.

He always wants to know what they want to talk about, so he's polite.

So I can see that.

22% voted for Brian Danielson.

He inspired people not to make the same mistakes he's made.

Sign an AEW.

Exactly.

8% went to Sami Zayn.

Okay, because he's the one that inspires people who are mad at each other to talk to each other.

He may be the most inspirational promo of the bunch so far, but at 7%.

He does get the people fired up.

Yeah, at 7%, Jeff Jarrett.

Okay.

Does he inspire you?

Are you inspired?

They didn't talk to the AEW fans on this one, apparently.

35% voted for others, including Otis.

Mark Briscoe.

Is Otis inspiring people?

Oh, I've got to lose weight.

I can't look like that.

I guess because he turned on Chad Gable, he wouldn't put up with the bullying anymore.

I'm not sure.

Mark Briscoe.

Jessica Troy.

Actually, Mark Briscoe probably should be the person to win the thing, but nevertheless.

Jessica Troy.

Who would dad be?

I don't know.

And Mike Santana.

He inspired people with the way that he almost came back.

The most popular wrestler of the year.

Okay.

With 28%.

Any guesses?

If you go legitimately most popular, you have to be in a Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes, CM Punk type of echelon, don't you?

With 28% of the vote, Cody Rhodes.

There you go.

The most popular wrestler of the year coming in second place with 17%, Jay Uso.

Okay, and Jay.

Forgot about that mass hypnosis.

Coming in third place with 8%, Joe Hendry.

That's, but Joe has a big family, 8%.

With 5%, Rhea Ripley.

Okay.

With all due respect to Joe Hendry.

How the fuck did he get more votes than a woman that's on television that is seen by multiple tens of times of all right.

Is there a chance that the actual readership of PWI would skew more towards the smaller TNA fan base?

You think?

Because they champion TNA wrestlers than the wide WWE audience, but 42% voted for others.

If they knew who Grover Farquhar was a few minutes ago, I have a feeling they're following the smaller promotions.

42% voted for others, including Roman Reigns, L.A.

Knight, Brian Danielson, and Mark Briscoe,

the most hated wrestler of the year.

Any guesses?

Again,

one would think it would be someone in the WWE, but is it?

You can't really call Drew McIntyre hated the bloodline.

Let's go with Solo.

44% voted for Dominic Mysterio.

Oh, forgot about Dominic.

Coming in second place, 10% for Solo Sokoa.

Okay.

7% for MJF.

6% for Logan Paul.

33%.

Those 6% actually have met him personally.

33% voted for others, including Jack Perry, Chris Jericho, Liv Morgan, and Drew McIntyre.

Boy, with Perry and Jericho, I think it's, yeah, we really hate these son of a bitches.

Feud of the year.

Any guesses?

Oh, boy.

Punk and Drew.

36% of the vote.

CM Punk versus Drew McIntyre.

Feud of the year.

There you go.

Second place, 17% for Adam Page versus Swerve Strickland.

16% for Liv Morgan versus Rhea Ripley.

And 9% for Mariah Mae versus Tony Storm.

Okay, they're breaking this up.

It'll like, okay, we give the WWE two and we give AEW two, aren't they?

Because how else is

suspicious?

22% voted for others, including Cody versus the Bloodline, NXT versus TNA, the Bloodline versus the Bloodline, and Effie versus Mance Warner.

The bastard of the Warner family.

Placey.

There was Jack.

There was Harry.

And there was that fucking...

But

again,

no.

The others, the Bloodline versus the Bloodline that carried a lot of business in the top company, but didn't quite place with Page and Swerve.

All right.

The Indy Wrestler of the Year,

39% voted for Mustafa Ali.

Well,

remember I said he should be on the indies when we had to watch him in WWE.

20% voted for Matt Cardona.

8% voted for Mance Warner.

5% voted for Ally Catch.

28% voted for others, including Darius Carter, Shazza Mackenzie, Hyon,

and Kruel.

Hyon?

H-Y-A-N.

Hyan?

And Kruel.

Hyan and Kruel.

Maybe that's a team.

Match of the year, Jim.

What do you think is match of the year for 2024?

Punk and Drew in the Hell and Cell.

35% voted for Roman Reigns versus Cody Rhodes Rhodes at WrestleMania.

Oh, okay.

I forget.

It's only been nine months.

I forgot.

Speaking of nine, nine percent voted for second place, CM Punk vs.

Drew McIntyre, hell in a cell.

Followed by 8% for Danielson vs.

Swerve.

7% for Danielson vs.

Osprey.

And then 41% voted for others.

We won't go through those.

Tag Team of the Year.

Who do you give it to?

Men and women?

None of the above.

25% voted for Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill.

Well, they've got a bright future.

Followed by 15% for the Young Bucks.

Oh, geez.

10% for Fraxium.

Now, hold on before we even get into that.

If they hadn't listed the Young Bucks, then Tony wouldn't talk to him anymore.

Because you know that would create heat.

So they had to be in there.

And Fraxium?

That's the team of Axiom and

Nathan Frazier.

Fraxium.

Where?

Where?

In their backyard?

NXT?

NXT.

Oh, Christ.

And 7% for the Judgment Day of Finn and

JD.

That's his name.

43% voted for other tag teams, including FTR, the system,

the Unholy Union.

Who?

What?

And DIY.

Who's the Unholy Union?

I'm not

Sounds like some kind of fucking blind date that Heyman would be set up with.

Faction of the year.

So FTR didn't even nudge Fraxium off the chart there.

Okay.

Faction of the year.

The bloodline, 29%.

Followed by the Wyatt 6 at 19%.

The Judgment Day at 50%.

Where have they gone?

They're on SmackDown now.

We've been watching SmackDown.

Well, thankfully, we haven't seen them.

That's what I'm saying.

Maybe we shouldn't watch.

Thought better of that.

Judgment Day at 15% and the Blackpool Combat Club/slash Deathriders at 13%.

We go now to

Woman of the Year.

Any guesses on Woman of the Year?

Rhea Ripley.

25%

have voted for Toni Storm.

Ah.

Woman of the Year, followed by 14%.

She's got magnesia.

She can't remember anything.

She's got complete magnesia.

How can she be the woman of the year?

Followed by 14% for Liv Morgan, 13% for Rhea Ripley, 11% for Jordan Grace, and 37% for others, including Roxanne Perez, Mercedes-Monet, Willow Nightingale, and Athena.

Athena,

you hit me in the face with your big old ass and potated me.

No, that's not how the song goes.

It's Athena.

I didn't know you were still wrestling.

I haven't seen you.

Wrestler of the Year.

Any guesses on Wrestler of the Year?

Well, that's got to be the code man, Cody Rhodes, carrying the company on his back like he has, being the biggest star in all the business.

Man, all these years, he's still out here.

He's got a suit on in this photo.

That tattoo is such a fucking mistake.

42%, Cody Rhodes, Wrestler of the Year, followed by Gunther at 11%,

Will Ospreay at 8%,

and Danielson at 7%.

2-2.

It's always 2-2.

Other votes: 32% went for Swerve, Jordan Grace, Damian Priest, Jon Moxley, and Roman Reigns.

Now, these are just awards: the Stanley Weston Awards,

Booker T,

Mickey James, Gail Kim,

and Dave Meltzer.

Oh, wait a minute.

The Stanley Awesta, Stanley Owesta.

Stanley Weston Award.

Stanley Oweston.

Yes.

Yes.

That's where they get around to Stanley Jones.

The Stanley Weston Award, is that for pissing people off?

That's what he did before Apter came in and smoothed things over.

All the fucking promoters hated Stanley Weston.

It's for a lifetime achievement.

It took a long time to piss all those people off.

So Booker T, Mickey James, Gail Kim, and dave meltzer are now official stanley weston award winners

and those are the pwi awards any thoughts

yes uh

boy the magazines have become outlaw to go along with the wrestling haven't they

it certainly seems but there used to be a a plethora of big stars that you could make lists of and it wouldn't sound goofy.

But now they have to include people that almost nobody has heard of just to field a team there.

Well, that was the 2024 PWI Awards, and we'll stay in touch and in touch.

We'll keep on top of the other awards as they roll in.

We've done the South Korean Awards and now the PWI Awards.

Yes,

the awards just keep on coming.

We're going to stay on top of all those positions they've got.

There on that magazine.

Jim, let's get some questions here.

This was sent to CorneyDrive-Thru drive-through at gmail.com from Joe Musolf.

Would things be different if Steve Austin never turned heel at WrestleMania 17?

Is there

a could way

to turn, I guess a good way, is there a good way to turn crowds against Stone Called Steve Austin?

Oh, boy.

Things would have been different in that

right at the same time WCW went out of business and ECW went bankrupt.

So there was going to be

an exodus of fans away from wrestling to begin with because

a lot of those people gave up when WCW is gone.

They're like, well, we don't want to watch WWF, so we're done.

That's been proven by the statistics.

However,

it did a lot of damage to me,

to the WWF's business when they were still so hot.

They were still hot at that point, even though they'd won the Monday Night War.

And,

you know, people didn't want to see that.

They lost faith in Austin.

It may be a fake business, but this guy's somehow real to us.

And

the last thing he's going to do is hug the boss.

And

it just, it destroyed the image.

They thought they were trying to freshen him up because how can you be that hot for any longer?

And I think Steve was worried about it.

But

in the end, what they did there was it was hard to come back from and it was never the same,

even though obviously,

you know, years later, now people love Austin, but

it didn't sit well at the time.

Of course, he didn't have much longer.

in the ring because of his neck anyway, but

no, I think he had such a special bond

that it hurt their business, even with all the other things going on.

That was a big one.

Is it as simple as it should have been known that it was a crazy idea to turn him heel?

I mean, can you understand Vince's desire to do that?

No.

I can't understand Steve wanting to do it.

I can't understand Vince saying okay or wanting to do it.

But I didn't understand ending the Undertaker's streak either with Brock, at least, definitely.

But when

Vince would get an idea, generally it would happen.

When Vince and one of the top guys would get an idea,

who was going to fucking say, no, don't do that?

People could say, no, don't do that, but their word didn't become law.

It was only a suggestion.

Well, Jim, another story that we talked about on the experience, and we'll, I guess, follow up with it here, because a lot of the listeners have sent this in.

I have an article from Wrestling Inc.

by Faden Cloat.

By what, who, where?

I don't know who.

Britt Baker responds to podcast report that she cheated on fellow AEW star Adam Cole.

Wait, did we report that?

We most certainly did not even allude to it.

At first, I've heard of it, but do tell me more.

Adam Cole and Britt Baker were considered by many to be AEW's power couple after Cody Rhodes and Brandy Rhodes left the promotion.

But unfortunately for fans of the two, they ended their seven-year-long career sometime in 2020.

Their career?

They made a career out of being the significant other of the other.

They ended their relationship, I think is what.

Who, Bastion Booger, who wrote this?

The name, I'm not going to scroll back up right now.

All right.

And it's not worth scrolling.

Rumors began to spread about the reason for their split, with wrestling veteran Conan claiming on his podcast that it was due to an affair.

Here's a quote: I was the first one that said her and Cole had broken up, and the AEW fans were on me again.

Now you see, it's true.

And I'm going to throw this little one in there.

Very credible source.

It happened because she was cheating on him, okay?

Well, okay.

I mean, Conan spilling the tea there.

He's such a little gossip girl, always.

What do you think?

What's before I read anything else here?

What do you think about the fact that someone who's not involved in anything directly with the person is just spilling all that kind of shit out there?

Well, it does seem to be bordering on bad taste when you're talking about people's personal relationships, but

there can be said that they were both on television and talking publicly about their relationships.

So

on that one, I go back to, I've told you this before.

Davey Richards told me and Delirious one night that he wanted to propose after his match at the Hammerstein ballroom.

He wanted to propose marriage to his girlfriend in the ring.

And he was our top babyface.

I told Delirious, I said, you think he's going to marry her?

And he said, Considering the way Davey blurts other things out, probably not.

And we talked him out of it because he didn't marry her.

I don't think he was with her another two months.

So

if you're going to

make something out of it on television and make it part of the deal, then you better make sure that it's a long-term thing because everybody kind of looks crummy when it ain't.

And and I

and and you know and and at least we haven't broken any news of any affairs here on on the show here we have we we're still above that bar we may have done it but without naming names or anything at the past

there's a tweet from dr.

Britt Baker January 22nd 8 27 p.m.

I understand we as performers are expected to have thick skin through opinions and lies we read about ourselves.

But spreading lies about my personal life is just low, weird, and something I won't tolerate.

I've never cheated on anyone in my life.

Hashtag tell your source.

And from what I understand, Conan's not welcome in the women's locker room anymore.

Well, and he was always with open arms.

They would fling the doors open before, but is hashtag tell your source a popular hashtag?

I've not seen that hashtag before, but she's saying if.

Wouldn't you just say then tell your fucking source instead of hashtagging it?

I guess you make it look cuter that way.

I can understand why a lot of people would do that.

Well, the layout does look more aesthetically pleasing, but

so what do you, I guess that's the end of it here.

What do you think of her responding to it?

And,

you know, again, with all the issues, all the conversation about issues between Britt Baker and AEW management right now.

We don't hear a peep from her.

All of a sudden she's going off on Twitter about this.

Well, I think, you know, she's denying the maligning that she took there, although I think she's going to have to tolerate it because unless she's going to go whip Conan, although he's had health problems.

So I bet you she can take Conan.

She's younger.

I mean, you know, but unless it's going to come to the fight, apparently she's going to have to tolerate it because he said it and she ain't kicked his ass yet.

But she don't like it.

She's not going to hear about it, but she's going to have to tolerate it.

it well we'll see what happens i'm sure uh we'll hear about it right away

as soon as something happens that nobody ought to talk about we're going to hear about it jim let's go to the files uh-oh let me grab all this

of course

set the files down on the desk yeah there's a few things here of course from the files is where I go through the archives of the Wrestling News Wrestling Review pro wrestling enterprises Enterprises, and we talk about some of the interesting historical tidbits that we're able to find looking through the correspondence files of Pro Wrestling Enterprises.

Yes.

Does that sound correct?

Yes.

For once, you're doing it, and I'm saying, yes, you have encapsulated that correctly.

Well, I think we have to start where we left off.

I have Norm Keitzer's letter to Dave Meltzer.

Well, because

you should mention that we have done from the files part one and part two on Dave Meltzer because it is such a thick file because when last we left our space travelers Dave had written Norm Keitzer about a four-page typewritten letter telling him what was wrong with his fucking magazine

and that was dated September 5th 1984

here's Norman Keitzer's response September 14th 1984

David Meltzer

Per your letter first of all here is the entry I plan to use in the the wrestling news number 114, which I am now working on.

David Meltzer, I will not give his address in San Jose,

sent us the September 10th issue of his Wrestling Observer fan club bulletin.

It consisted of 26 legal-sized pages with complete reports on virtually every major area, also some photos and clippings.

Included were a lot of opinions from Dave and from his members.

Dave charges $2 for a single issue or thirteen dollars for the next six issues.

God david, two dollars a piece or thirteen for six.

How the fuck?

He promises a new bulletin every three weeks.

Dave plus also

that's written weird.

Dave plus also to put out a yearbook in mid-January that will cost five dollars per copy.

Plans.

Dave plans also.

Oh, that's what it is.

He also asks that we again mention he is interested in trading videotapes, either VHS or beta, and is especially interested in obtaining mid-South tapes.

So after that whole letter, he starts over the, by the way, here's your plug.

Yeah.

In the next issue.

Norm Keitzer was the most unconfrontational,

not assertive or aggressive person.

Probably good for Dave in that instance, because I was the first of all motherfucker, but go ahead.

It is always best to write me a note.

Just attach it to the bulletin when you change your frequency or price.

I sometimes miss things like that, although I do attempt to read through every bulletin.

Now,

as to your other charge in your letter, that I make up facts to support my opinions.

Basically, the things you take issue with me are on my opinions.

Clearly labeled by me as my opinions.

On attendance, I have stated that WWF is outdrawing the AWA in San Francisco.

That is not the case here in the Twin Cities.

The first two WWF cards reported by Vince Jr.

as sellouts drew less than half a house each at the Mets Center.

And once again, this is September 84.

So they had just started going into Minnesota.

They had Hogan, they had Mean Gene, David Schultz, but Vern wasn't dead right away.

He had the Rogue Warriors.

84 was a strong year for them still.

Their last card with Hogan and Okerlin versus Fuji and Steel, which they reported at 17,000 on TV

and you reported at 15,800,

drew about half of that.

After three rounds, the AWA drew clearly larger crowds the first two times and about the same the last time.

On average ticket prices, from the information I have, which I admit is not a complete compilation of all all tickets sold, as I don't think anyone has all the figures from every card promoted,

I believe that the average WWF ticket price is higher than that of other promotions.

On Japan and Hogan, first of all, I don't hate Hogan.

While I do have some lack of respect for wrestlers who cut interviews for one promotion, saying that they will appear on a card and then jump to McMahon, I think that the primary reason they have done this is that McMahon feels getting someone to come over to him in that way is the way he can most damage the opposition.

Nothing wrong there.

Yeah.

If Hogan, Ventura, Junkyard Dog, and others do that, you can't blame them for making a decision that they think will make more money for themselves.

But I think the long run is that McMahon is doing more damage to the sport of wrestling as a whole than he is damaging his individual competitors,

and that a lot of people he has made promises to are going to end up not getting what they were promised.

Let me stop there for a moment.

What do you think of his insights into the state of wrestling in 84?

Well, the thing is, Norm Keitzer had dealt with promoters and been around a lot of these guys, especially in Minnesota, but all over the country for

a period of 15 years or more at that point.

And he dealt with Vince.

He'd printed and produced

the programs for Vince Sr.

for years, from the mid to late 70s to the early 80s, when Vince Jr.

banned everybody and took their stuff in-house.

So he already had an inkling of how these

people operated, and that was his opinion of what Vince was doing.

And he turned out to be right.

And again, the idea that he doesn't hate Hogan, but he has a lack of respect for people that walk out on the promoters they were doing promos for.

You were there when Junkie R.

Dog did exactly that.

Yeah.

And Norm Kaiser was up there in Minnesota when Hogan did it for all those towns and then didn't come back from Japan, went to work for Vince.

And it does hurt.

And it hurts the wrestling business in the way that.

Norman is talking about from a business perspective,

especially back then.

Fans,

they didn't give a fuck what promotion.

They were going to see wrestling.

And if you go to see a wrestling show and you buy a ticket and one of the main people or more than one of the main people on the card that you went to see doesn't show up,

then the next time, instead of thinking, oh, I got to go back and see some more of that, ah, the last time they got to show up.

That's the way he's talking about damaging the business.

Because that sentiment

will spread, you know, the more often that it happens.

And it wasn't the wrestling business and the fans didn't look at it then like they do now, where

the fans now don't even know who's going to be on the fucking card.

They're going to go see Dynamite or Raw or whatever.

In that era, they read the entire card that you were going to see at the house show.

on television and god damn it down to the first match and those things better happen that way

and people got mad when they didn't

well back to norm kitzer's response to dave meltzer on japan

there has been a lot of 1984 style statements made there by new japan mcmahon shinma and everybody connected with wwf during the past two years telling the people basically one week that black is black and then the next that black is white.

Let's go back and look at things.

Two years ago, when Titan and New Japan left the NWA,

they announced the first Grand Prix tournament to name an undisputed World Heavyweight Champion.

They made these announcements in both the U.S.

and Japan.

The tournament was to culminate with the finals in Japan, with the winner of the competition Amit Backlund at MSG for the Undisputed World Heavyweight Championship.

McMahon Sr.

appeared at the opening of the finals in Japan and repeated that basic statement.

Then Hogan won, but no match was scheduled.

Hogan came to the U.S.

and wrestled on AWA and NWA cards, had had World Heavyweight Championship title matches in each organization in which he failed to win those claims.

Then he went to MSG earlier this year and won the WWF title, making him undisputed champion according to junior statements.

Both Titan and New Japan recognize him as the world heavyweight champion.

Then we had the fiasco when Junior tried with Shinma to start a separate WWF promotion in Japan.

That's the UWF, if you remember.

I heard so many conflicting statements on that and on the UWF that I don't know what the true story is.

In fact, the true story probably changed from day to day as as everyone seemed to be double-crossing everyone else involved constantly.

Anyway, the end came with McMahon Jr.

saying New Japan was back as a WWF member.

The New Japan promotion announced a second Grand Peak Grand Peak Grand Prix competition with the winner to meet Hogan for the World Heavyweight Championship.

Nothing was said at that point about there being two separate titles, a WWF World's Heavyweight title and a Grand Prix World Heavyweight title.

Now they and you

are saying there are two separate titles and that Hogan only lost the Grand Pri World Heavyweight Championship to Anoki.

The descriptions of that bout are also somewhat confused with interference and countouts, but in the end, Anoki was declared the winner.

and the champion in Japan.

From what I have heard, I could see several reasons why a title would not change hands in that bout

and why it would.

I thought I covered them, but I didn't ignore the bout in my magazine.

So let me stop there for a moment, Jim, and take a pause.

What are your thoughts on him defending himself here?

Well, and he's trying to be nice as he could, because remember when we read, and we encourage anybody who didn't hear the first segment,

go to the YouTube channel.

The clip is up.

But he's trying to be as reasonable as possible as he could could to Dave, who, as you will recall, we said, what is this fucking, why is he telling this shit to Norm Kitzer who don't give a shit.

He's just trying to sell some magazines.

He doesn't care about these minute fucking

complaints that Dave has brought up.

And now he has to go through and explain his rationale to a guy that he's given plugs to for a fucking newsletter.

I think he's bending over backwards to be understanding to the guy that said his magazine sucked, which by the time Dave had never

published anything

that didn't come out on copy paper.

And he's talking to a guy that at least had run a magazine.

You also fault me on the junior title, saying that Tiger Mask was undisputed world junior heavyweight champion when he retired.

And I agree.

So that New Japan had right to create a new WWF Junior Heavyweight Champion with a tournament, which they did with with Dynamite Kid winning, which I'll agree to.

But how could they run a separate elimination for an NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship with the Cobra winning when they were no longer members of the NWA and was sanctioned by the NWA?

The NWA itself gave the title back to Les Thornton.

Now I believe the NWA says the title is vacant and there'll be a tournament.

I agree that all acted badly here and that wrestling in general, especially here in the U.S., does not do a good job of promotion the junior division, I guess of promoting the junior division as a separate entity.

A lot more wrestlers did more back and forth between promotions before junior attempted to take over everything.

Even McMahon Sr.

showcased wrestlers from other areas off and on.

He even had NWA and AWA title matches on his cards.

I guess that's defending.

Remember,

Dave had a problem with Norm Keitser saying wrestlers could go from one territory to another?

Yeah.

And

also,

as Norm points out, Vince Sr.

not only had the pipeline to Florida with Eddie Graham, where he had Florida guys.

guest starring at the garden and making the shots every now and then in Dusty on a kind of a regular basis, but also he brought the Funks in.

Dory Funks Sr.,

shortly before he died, wrestled in Madison Square Garden.

Vince Sr.

would bring the top talent in from other territories,

when he was a member of the NWA, other promoters that he would work with and give their talent a showcase in a garden, but also it made the garden look different than every other town in his territory because that was the place where stars came from all over the world.

And as the topic of Japan is concerned, it was a big deal in Japan.

MSG.

They had MSG tournaments for years.

And apparently just the tournament winner didn't go on to get the title shot that he earned.

Well, the problem is if you're trying to logically follow what they're saying and they just change things, you know, what are you supposed to do if you're reporting on it?

Yeah.

My point on Hogan.

is that he did lose to others the first time in the WWF area, the ones I mentioned, and that logical matches would be against those challengers who faced him before.

Both Flair and Martell have faced a larger variety of challengers, both in numbers and styles, than has Hogan.

This is not the fault of Hogan, and I don't say it because I dislike him.

I say it as a comment on Junior, who has declared war on me, not the other way around.

Let me turn a page in.

Of course, Norm Keitzer was the producer of World Wrestling Federation, WWF, and WWWF programs from the early 70s until 1983.

Vince wanted him to only cover his company.

Norm Keitzer said, no way.

And that began Vince's journey to building his own magazine.

Yeah, and that's when he banished the people from the After magazines, London Publishing, the former Stanley Weston publications.

And

all photographers from any magazines except the ones in-house with Vince were banned for a while there.

So then all the shots in

PWI and the wrestler and all that was like with a telephoto lens from the stands.

I go to wrestling matches to be entertained.

And Junior's cards just are not as good as the other cards.

Part of this being because even though he doesn't lack talent, he doesn't use the talent he has well or in enough variety of ways.

Basically, the next Twin City card is a main event for the WWF of Hogan and Mad Dog Vashan versus Jesse Ventura and George Steele.

Ventura has had so many different confrontations with the other two here over the years, and Steele is a part-timer who doesn't do that much other than stick out his green tongue at this point in his career.

I think very strongly that the new talent in the AWA these days, the Fabulous Ones, the Road Warriors, Brody, Atlas, etc.,

is better than the talent the AWA lost to the WWF.

Certainly more entertaining as it is presented here in Minnesota.

Can you imagine Hulk Hogan and Mad Dog Vashon as a tag team?

Mad Dog's 5'7, Hulk's 6'7.

Hulk was not even 35 years old then.

Mad Dog was close to 60.

Mad Dog could have torn Hulk Hogan to shreds within seconds with his bare hands and eaten him.

What a fucking tag team.

The idea that they lost Hogan, they lost Mean Gene, David Schultz, by this point in time.

They had even lost Al DeRusha for a period of time.

Lots of people, and it wouldn't end here.

Norm Keitzer, a lifelong AWA fan, although he lived in New York for a time, saying that the Rogue Warriors, the fabulous ones, Brody, et cetera, coming in, the talent's better.

Again, 84.

The AWA did not die in 1984.

But what do you think of this?

Because you saw the fabulous ones before they got there.

Well, and I mean, he's right in that Mad Dog was an icon and was a huge star.

But at that point, age had caught up with him.

And George Steele,

Minnesota was not the venue for George Steele.

He had been primarily a WW and WWWF guy and a Detroit guy because he lived in Detroit.

He taught school for all those years.

He didn't start wrestling all year round and give up the school teaching until the early 80s when he could make enough money in the Northeast to make the difference.

But it wasn't a Minnesota.

thing.

And then when you've got the fabulous ones and the Road Warriors and those guys who were so much younger and so much fresher,

even though Mad Dog was an icon, Jesse was an icon

in the AWA at that point, Hogan had drawn big money.

It was just, it was an odd

slapped together thing based on personalities that were over rather than an issue per se.

So,

you know, and that's, you know, we talked about that.

That's why the crusher.

didn't work in Georgia in 1979 because he didn't have 20 years of history like he did in the AWA and they were just seeing this guy in his 50s with a Beetle haircut.

Let's go back to Norman Keitzer.

That is my opinion.

I go to cards for entertainment.

The same reason I attend events of other professional sports, football, baseball, etc.

In my opinion, Colored by many influences, I admit, the AWA is the better promotion here.

Time will tell if enough ticket buying fans agree with me.

And who knows what changes will be made by both organizations in the future.

You certainly have a right to your opinions.

And I plug all publications who ask for free ad space in my magazine, whether I agree with all the opinions held by the person putting out the bulletin or not.

Is that Norm's nice way of saying I think oh shit?

Yeah, I think you're full of shit, but I'm going to plug you anyway because I'm a nice guy.

I don't tell you to give up your opinions or claim claim that I am always right or you are always wrong when we disagree.

And I do always try to label my opinions as that, my opinion.

I don't even rate wrestlers, as I have stated for some 20 years, that ratings are simply opinions that are not valid.

Let me stop there for a second.

Considering all we talk about with Dave's ratings, I don't rate wrestlers.

As I've always said, ratings are opinions that are not valid.

Yes, and they never had, he never had ratings in the wrestling news or ring wrestling or whatever, only under ring wrestling did under a different editorship.

And that although I think I know as much about the sport as any who do publish so-called official ratings,

my opinions would be no more valid than theirs.

In short,

I don't try to foist off my opinions as being the ultimate truth, but at the same time, I don't try to hide my opinions and claim to be an unbiased reporter, a unique and probably extinct species, in that I have never encountered the same in any publication on any subject if such a thing existed.

I do tend to go on and on when I write, so I'll close.

And it's signed by Norman, but we have a PS.

P.S.

One last self-serving point.

Whether the other promotions always spent a great deal of time on their television programs talking about what is happening elsewhere or not,

in the case of the AWA, Mid-South, and some NWA promotions, they do allow the wrestling news, which covers wrestling everywhere, to be sold at their matches and don't attempt to make people believe that the other promotions don't exist.

That,

when compared to a promoter who says that he is going to run me out of business because I refuse to cover only his promotion in my national magazine,

that may have a tendency to make my feelings towards that individual less generous

than I am towards others.

My quarrel specifically is with Vince McMahon Jr.

because of actions which he has taken against me, which I have elaborated on in my magazine, not against everyone who works for him.

And there's Norm defending defending his coverage of Vince McMahon of the WWF from

Dave, who bizarrely started defending Vince McMahon of the WWF.

Any thoughts?

And again, at the age of 24, doing a newsletter on copy paper telling the guy who's been doing a magazine for 20 years what's wrong with his magazine.

Now, admittedly, it wasn't the goddamn heyday of time,

Norm's publication, but it was, at least it had some color on the cover.

I just, the gall of Dave even then,

to be writing letters and telling these people, well, you ought to do this and that and the other thing.

Well, shut the fuck up.

Well, we'll close from the files with this last letter.

This was post-dated July 11th, 1986 from Dave Meltzer in California to Norm Keitzer.

So after the previous one.

Norm,

I would be interested in writing a column for your mag in exchange for an advertisement in the magazine or being allowed with a regular column to plug the observer and book that's coming out soon.

I'd really like to do a regular column concerning Japanese wrestling.

Oh, good lord.

But if you have another idea of a column I could do for you, let me know.

Thanks.

I will have a special 150 to 160 page issue out on August 1st for $15.

It will have profiles of about 330 wrestlers with age, career background, and real names.

And it'll also have 14 pages telling you what you ought to do with your magazine.

So, even after all that, he still wanted to write a Japanese column in 1986.

Well, and again,

Norm Kaiser, in various magazines that he published, would have pictures from Japan or Japanese news.

It wouldn't be the majority of the magazine, and most of the pictures, he would try to have some American talent

picture because he was still selling to an American audience.

Can you imagine if Dave was writing a column on strictly Japanese wrestling, and we've seen the way that he does it with just the names and who beat who

and sell that on the fucking newsstand in Chicago or

Ottumwa, Iowa, and people are going, what the fuck?

It's not the same market.

Norm was going for wrestling fans in the United States of America where he sold his magazine.

It wasn't any slight against the Japanese folks that he didn't cover to cover embrace it.

And you got more coverage of Japanese wrestling there than any other magazine in America.

Well, yeah, because all the Bill Aptor magazines, the London publishing that were on the newsstands, except if

a big American star went to Japan, they might have pictures of that, or if a big Japanese star came to the garden or wherever.

But otherwise, there was no coverage of what was going on in Japan.

Well, Jim, that was from the files, part three of Dave Meltzer.

There'll be a part four someday, but we'll move on to another topic for the next edition of From the Files.

But, Jim, yes.

We have a very new friend to tell the listeners about here today.

Yes, we do.

And I'll tell you what, it's our friends over at DOS.

And that's not Spanish for two.

That's DOS as in D-O-S-E, because Brian, I've just been just started to learn about this, just like you, from our friends at DOS.

And I'll lead with the main point.

Did you know that the liver is the second largest organ in your body?

Or if you're Robert Fuller or Milton Burrell, the third largest organ in your body, but still it is responsible for over 500 functions.

But liver health does not get the attention it deserves.

When's the last time you turned on the TV or opened up a newspaper and the headline was, how's your liver?

I can't remember that headline, no.

That's right, because it's being overlooked.

Over 30% of Americans have a sluggish liver.

A problem that goes undetected until the very last minute.

And then

somehow, maybe through through excruciating pain or projectile bleeding from the rectum, then it's called attention to.

Well, DOS and our friends over there are on a mission to educate us on why it's important to maintain your liver health.

Because

you will quiver if there's something wrong with your liver.

Just like it will behoove you to care for your uvula, folks, if you...

If you let your liver go.

Well, fuck, that's your filter.

The liver cleanses unwanted elements from your body and it aids in digestion.

And dose was formulated to help the liver.

And so you need to flush down all of that stuff.

You need to break down what you consume into the essential nutrients and then have the other shit slammed into that colon and

right out of there.

The liver produces and regulates cholesterol.

It stores vitamins vitamins and minerals it impacts digestive and metabolic health i'm telling the liver has been completely overlooked do you know not anymore

well now we're calling attention to it but there are clinical results in a double-blind placebo controlled clinical trial now that means that they got people that were blind in both eyes and gave them fake drugs and then set them down in a clinic to put them on trial.

And they came out with the fact that dose for your liver lowered liver enzyme levels by 50% in over 86% of the participants.

The other 14%

will be polled as soon as they return from the medically induced coma that they were unfortunately having to be placed in so that their livers could be replaced for further study.

But you can stick with dose folks and feel the incredible benefits over time with more energy, better digestion, reduced bloating.

You will not believe the bloating that goes on in this country these days.

Well, they're going to cut that shit right off at the nub.

You'll get healthier liver enzyme function.

And, you know, the reduction in brain fog.

And that's another thing.

Many people

have their brains where their liver ought to be.

And that's why they drink themselves into stupors.

Well, you're going to process all that bad shit out of your body.

One dose for your liver shot, that's the way they come in shots, is equivalent to 17 shots of turmeric juice.

Now, I'll tell you what, you walk into any bar in America and you order 17 shots of turmeric juice, they're going to say you're a man that has a bad liver.

And dose is gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, and vegan-free.

Well, it's just vegan.

I guess if you're free of vegans, there will be no vegan people.

But

if you've been worried about your liver, ladies and gentlemen, and many sleepless nights,

I've been laying there in bed thinking, my fucking liver, what's going to happen to my fucking liver?

I can feel it almost falling out the end of my fucking dick.

Well, now you can put it back in the right place and save 30% at the same time.

You can save 30% on your first month of subscriptions by going to dosedaily.co/slash slash JCE

and entering JCE at checkout.

Now,

that's dose, D-O-S-E

daily, D-A-I-L-Y dot co.

See, already they've used the dose to filter the M out because the M is not necessary.

It's not dot com, it's just dot co.

They're shortening this up.

They're getting the M out

so that you can go to your favorite websites even more quickly.

That's an example of a good filter.

Dosedaily.co

slash JCE, 30% off your first month's subscription to this shot of dose that you, a dose of a shot or a shot of a dose that you take once daily, and boom, your liver will thank you.

That's right.

Your liver will thank you.

And of course, we thank Dose for coming on board.

You'll be hearing a lot more about them in the weeks ahead.

One more time, Jim, what's that promo code?

Let's keep the listeners healthy.

Dosedaily.co slash JCE.

Enter JCE at checkout.

30% off.

Filter all of the horrible things that you consume out of your liver and

let the city worry about them.

That's right.

With DOS.

DOS.

D-O-S-E.

All right.

You know what that means?

It's our last burst of energy, our last bunch of questions and topics, and then we get the hell out of here till the big experience in a few days.

Isn't that right?

The big experience.

Don't set up anticipation

and follow through with.

Didn't you say this week should be one of the best shows in history that everyone should listen.

They should call their family, call everyone they know.

This is going to be Prime Coronet.

Yes, Prime, possibly even USDA Choice.

All right.

Well, like I said, let's get a few things and we'll get out of here.

Guest the program next week on the show.

Jim, I have an article from the Wrestling Observer newsletter website by Dave Meltzer.

The headline: Hulk Hogan not appearing at WWE Saturday night's main event this week.

Oh,

wait a minute.

Wait a minute.

Hold on.

Holy mackerel.

Is that the truffle pig?

That's the truffle pig.

Apparently, they have heard the people speak.

And

when Hogan speaks, the people boo.

And when Punk throws in an offhand line about burying his dusty ass, the people cheer.

So

goddammit, the only thing is I wanted to see how bad he was going to get booed and how they were going to try to make

excuses for it.

Oh, what I wanted to see was him and Jesse Ventura in the same room.

That's what I wanted to see because they announced Jesse will be there again, as he should.

But here we go.

Here's the article from Dave.

Sources within WWE have confirmed that Hulk Hogan will not be appearing as scheduled for Saturday night's main event tomorrow night as we are recording in San Antonio.

This was first reported by Chris Featherstone.

Hulk Hogan had...

Can't be a real name.

And I clicked this link.

We'll go to it in a second.

Hulk Hogan had been the key person in in all the commercials for the show.

And if I click this link,

this is Chris Featherstone's Twitter.

It says Dr.

Chris Featherstone, Ph.D.,

a Christian husband, dad, psychotherapist, insider, reporter, journalist, podcaster.

Wait a minute, wait a minute.

College professional.

He's a psychotherapist and he's commenting on wrestling.

I need to go to him to straighten some of my problems out.

Well, Dave's using him as the source.

So and he said WWE confirmed it.

Here's the tweet from Dr.

Chris Featherstone, Ph.D.:

I have been informed that Hulk Hogan will not be appearing on Saturday night's main event due to family commitments.

So maybe it has nothing to do with the booing or CM Punk causing more booing or Jesse Ventura, who started the booing many years ago.

Maybe it has nothing to do with any of that.

Maybe it's just the family commitments for the event that he's been advertised for.

It suddenly came up.

It's my new wife's birthday.

I forgot.

We haven't been married very long.

Do you think there's any family commitments?

No,

they've tried to figure out as

least insulting to Hogan, the company, a way to not have him on their show and explain it.

So it doesn't, they don't come out and say, well, we're not going to have the guy on the show because the people are going to boo him out of fucking building.

Going forward, what

can you do anything with Hulk Hogan right now?

I mean, they just had a big sponsorship they announced for the beer and WWE actually owns a piece of it as part of the deal.

One of those kind of deals.

How about you advertise us and we'll give you our company?

How does that sound?

How are they going to advertise the beer when they can't advertise the guy that has the beer?

The point is, they knew what was going to happen, and they don't want that to happen again on national television.

And it looks bad for everybody, and they just can't have him.

And to answer your question, right now, they can't do anything, apparently.

I mean,

he's 70, whatever years old.

It's not like, you know, you can sit back and wait 10 years till the heat's off.

Well, let me just say here, let me continue.

Dave Melcher says, Featherstone's report of a family-related reason for Hogan's missing the show is also accurate.

What?

This had nothing to do with his being booed in Los Angeles.

Oh, come on.

Or at every arena.

Or at every arena.

It has nothing to do with him being booed in Los Angeles or at every arena when the Saturday night's main event commercial played or Jesse Ventura or any other reason in that direction

why would you say it has nothing to do with that list every single thing that people figure that's

it has nothing to do with all these things it's just again that birthday party he didn't realize it was the same day

i mean they're not saying family illness something

unexpected they're saying a family commitment well how many commitments did he make for the same fucking day

he didn't know that brooke booked them a table at the Cheesecake Factory that night, so they can't break the fucking reservation.

That's what it is.

Well, we'll see what happens going forward with Hulk Hogan.

But

do you think they said anything to CM Punk?

Do you think they're mad at CM Punk for saying that and piling on?

Or do you think they recognize that CM Punk saying that became its own little viral moment?

That he might have been the canary in the coal mine.

They might have said, well, you know what?

We're glad he said that because it wasn't just an anomaly.

Well, again, we'll stay on top of the reporting of Dr.

Chris Featherstone in the weeks and months ahead.

Jim, a few questions we get out of here.

This was sent to corney drive-through at gmail.com by Ryan Boyce.

When I was a kid, is he part of the team of Boyce and Hart?

When I was a kid, Paul Berer scared the shit out of me.

So creepy and scary.

Can Jim talk about how Percy Pringle was in real life?

And if his promos as Paul creeped him out when he saw them?

Was real life Percy anything like Paul Bearer?

Thanks.

Love the show.

Oh, my God.

No,

Percy Pringle was the most unscary, happy,

friendly person most of the time.

I mean, you could piss him off like anybody, but no,

that's the thing is about the only only similarity between Percy

and Paul Bear besides the the tone of the oh yes

because Percy could get up there too was that they were you know Percy was a real-life funeral director and that's how the Paul Bear gimmick kind of came to be but no Percy was he was a southern Bobby Heenan he was a fan from a young age that hung around the business till he got in it.

He was from the Pensacola and the Mobile area, so he knew the Gibson brothers and Michael Hayes and some of the guys that

a guy, I don't even know if you ever remember Mike Hendricks.

I remember that Percy was

over the moon that I not only remembered Mike Hendricks, but had actually seen him wrestle in 1977 because he was a guy that lasted in the business a year or two, but he was friends with Percy.

But

that was, you know, he was a fun guy and a fan.

And,

you know,

I can't imagine any real similarities between the real Percy and somebody that would scare children.

He loved children, but only when they were properly cooked.

What did you think of him as Percy Pringle as a manager?

Well, that's the first time we met was when.

Percy had

was working Florida and he was managing Rick Roode and came up and did late 85,

did did some Atlanta TV with Roode at that point.

I think, you know, Roode was on his way, but they were trying to be nice to the Florida office.

And we sat down and immediately hit it off because we knew we were both wrestling fans and both from the southern territories and knew a lot of the same people.

And the first time I talked to him, it was like we'd known each other for years.

And then

when we ran back into each other in the WWF, we picked right up there.

That was some of my most enjoyable backstage time was just sitting around with him and bullshitting.

And I've said this before, but there's that picture of me and Percy at the Bluegrass Brawl 95 in Pikeville.

It was the Undertaker teaming up with Bullet Bob and Tracy Smothers.

And Percy and I were both in the corner because the opposition was the gangsters and I'd switched babyface.

And

it was so hot in that building.

Percy had the entire Paul Bearer face makeup on.

And there's a picture of me and him at Ringside.

And I've sweated through my suit, jacket, and everything.

I'm just drenched.

And his makeup is literally running off of his face.

He's melting like Vincent Price in House of Wax.

And it was just, but he loved that show because it was like he hadn't gotten to do that in ages.

A fucking.

Hillbilly college gym in eastern Kentucky in the mountains, jam-packed with people in it, screaming and yelling.

It was like being in the wrestling business again.

So he loved that shit.

I always love the video from Florida when he went there when they revealed who he was and they go to an office and he turns around in the chair and says, you know, hello, I'm Percival Pringle.

Says it much more dramatically and charismatically than that.

But behind him are the PYTs.

And they're playing music on their boombox and dancing.

So the whole time he's doing this promo, introducing himself as this crazy heel manager, the PYTs are in there dancing behind him.

And he was Percival Pringle III because there had been,

I think, two, at least one previous Percy Pringles.

One of them worked in the Mississippi territory for the Culkins in like 77, 78,

around the same, maybe even a couple of years earlier, and

had worked for Phil Golden's All-Star Wrestling.

And when I first saw the name Percy Pringle as a manager, I'd seen those ads.

I'm like, this guy, after all, it was

he had, he had assumed the name, much like Dutch Mantel had an original Dutch Mantel and the various other names that have been perpetrated over time.

You can definitely see why a kid would be scared of him.

Well, yeah, even as a baby face.

I guess, you know, because

most kids don't want to think about going to their own funeral.

Well, I think just you don't see people with that kind of face

walking around in real life, let alone the voice, but just that face.

But, Jim, another question here.

This was sent to cornydrivethrugemail.com from Jim in Philadelphia.

I have been working my way through Smoky Mountain shows and am fascinated by the wooden announcer's table with the nature scene painted on the front of it.

Can you shed any light on where it came from, if it still exists somewhere, and if it was as heavy as it looks?

Yes, well,

we wanted a set that we could take

with us to the TV tapings in the different buildings.

And at the same time, you know, it'd be an announcer's desk.

And so

that was made, believe it or not, by my ex-father-in-law.

And it came apart.

The front panel came off the desk, the top came off, the sides came off, and you could put it so we could put it on the ring truck and fold it up.

And

the painting

on the front of it of the great Smoky Mountains was done by an artist at one of the places down in Gatlinburg.

I said, make me,

whatever size it was, a painting representative of the Smoky Mountains.

And it was the famous scene from Klingman's Dome where you can look out and see.

parts of five or six different states.

And that

became emblematic of Smoky Mountain Wrestling with the

I we don't have the the desk I think got broke before we even closed up Smoky Mountain somebody took one too many bumps into it um but I still have the round wooden carved Smoky Mountain Wrestling logo that's the coolest thing that that on the black uh curtain behind the desk that whole look with that whole look with Bob Connell and Dutch Mantel that's My favorite Smoky Mountain Wrestling.

And that round logo was carved out of out of wood, and it weighs about 70 pounds.

And it's hanging now in my office and has been for a while because I'm not strong enough to go up and get it.

It right up to the top of the vaulted ceiling, about 14 feet up.

I don't stand under it immobile very often.

But so the table doesn't exist.

That's where it came from.

But the wooden carved logo does.

Why'd you stop using the wooden carved logo?

Because, well, it's...

I don't think you used it at all, like for the Chip Kessler era, right?

That's the thing.

Toward the end there,

after the table got fucking blitzed, also this thing,

it weighed 70 pounds.

We had to either hang it off of a stand and shoot it.

70 pounds, really?

It's a big, it's fucking three feet across and it's carved out of wood.

So I said 50 at least.

I remember picking it up.

But the point is, we'd have to find a stand and stick it through the fucking curtain and a blah, blah, blah.

And after a while, we were

just all tired.

Do you think that's a fair way to look at the

last year of Smokey Man Wrestling, the Chip Kessler era?

Yes, the Chip Kessler

era.

That may have been the best way to describe it.

Unfortunately, let's get another question here, Jim.

This one was sent via the Cult of Cornet Facebook group by Ronnie Lee Justice.

Ronnie Lee Justice is an old friend of mine.

He's a customer at Cornettes Collectibles.

I was watching the TV show Moonshiners on the Discovery Channel last week.

Some of the main characters sold moonshine at an indie wrestling show.

My question for Jim is: did any guys sell moonshine at Smoky Mountain Wrestling shows?

The Smoky Mountain Wrestling Territory was known for Moonshiners.

Well,

none of the boys were selling the Moonshine.

Some of them were buying it.

And there was no selling of moonshine at the shows, but there was selling of moonshine in many of the locations that the shows were taking place.

And

yes, East Tennessee is noted for moonshine.

And even when

I went down for some of those K-Town Showdown or K-Town SmackDown until they sent him a letter, and then K-Town Showdown shows for Ron Fuller, there was a gentleman that produced quality moonshine that it was available if you.

His name was Ron Fuller.

Well, no, no, he was, he was just a friend of Ron's.

And if you needed any quality moonshine, he was available there for you at that time.

Any examples throughout your career of someone drinking moonshine in the locker room?

Well, yes, because

You ain't going to go buy it at a fucking store.

So somebody to bring it to you might have a sip or whatever.

It's not like it's unheard of, but

it wasn't a regular practice and nobody was over-imbibing before my shows.

I don't know about anybody else's.

Except every once in a while when Tommy Rich and Jimmy Del Rey would break down right in front of Bennigans.

You know, to circle back to something we briefly talked about at the start of the show and moved on from, Tony Kahn,

When AEW Dynamite was in Knoxville, made a comment before the crowd.

And I'd like to think it wasn't just something for a cheap pop, probably something he meant, that Smoky Mountain Wrestling was his favorite wrestling as a kid

in the suburbs of Chicago.

Well, yeah, the way he phrased it was he came out.

He's talking to the people in a Knoxville Civic Coliseum.

He said, does anybody here remember Smoky Mountain Wrestling?

And it got a pop.

And I'm sure

Knoxville wrestling fans, as we've talked about in Tennessee, have long memories.

And in the South, especially they have long memories.

And it was a generational thing where

kids would go with parents and grandparents and et cetera.

So,

but then he said,

you know, that it was his favorite wrestling to watch when he was a kid,

you know, growing up.

And that's why I said, Early, I said, why doesn't his wrestling show look anything like mine did then?

Well, that's kind of where I was going with this to seriously discuss it.

If Smoky Mountain's one of his favorites, and let's just say it's something he's watched more than once, and let's just use for this hypothesis he never watched what you consider your best work, which is OVW,

10 years later, give or take.

Give or take.

Does it bother you at all?

I mean, beyond, you know, screaming about it like we do every week, does it bother you at all the idea that he would have watched

the entirety of the Smoky Mound wrestling run?

And not learned anything?

And just the sh, you know, his product is not, his product is what it is, and it doesn't ever really.

If these are his influences, we don't see it.

Well, and that's another thing.

I don't take it personally because I would be in good company because I've heard in the past he was a big mid-south wrestling fan.

Well,

it doesn't look anything like Mid-South wrestling.

And he was, you know, he was a big fan of this and that, the other.

Regardless of

what you think of Tony Kahn or AEW, positive, negative, indifferent, whatever, you can't say

that AEW looks like any

wrestling that he claimed were his influences.

And instead,

you can say that it looks like

indie shows from the last 10 years.

Can anybody argue with what I just said?

It doesn't look like Mid-South, doesn't look like Smoky Mountain, doesn't look like

classic Crockett.

or world class or whatever.

It looks like indie shows from the last 10 years.

Yeah, you know, I think the opening on Dynamite this week, the Omega Osprey brawl with the Callas family, was kind of Tony slash AEW's attempt at doing the Mid-South slash Memphis slash Smoky Mountain type brawl.

But like you said earlier, in those things,

it's not about laying it in, but everything looked hard.

There weren't holes that you could see as a viewer who is not an expert.

Yeah, where punches are clearly missing or just they're not coming near the person with any impact, just all this kind of stuff.

If it was a mid-south angle, you would kind of get caught up in that these guys are fucking going after each other.

There's some

animus here.

There's some hatred here.

There's some violence going on.

And also, you would remember at the end of it

the basic point or two that you were supposed to remember rather than when it's over, go, wait a minute, who started this fucking thing?

Where did this start?

And then everybody came running out.

And,

you know, that's.

Like the one I keep going back to was the Fantastics and the Heavenly Bodies, the brawl throughout the building into the parking lot and the broken windshield.

Yeah, but you know how long it took?

It took like under four minutes.

Yeah.

When I say everything goes way too long, everything.

Well, and here's another fun fact.

I think we've talked about this before, but it's been years.

It was supposed to be shot in Morristown, Tennessee at a house show where the Fantastics and Heavenly Bodies match would get out of hand and they would fight through the back hallway

and knock over some chairs and some boxes and hit each other with some things and have a mini little concession stand brawl.

And then we would run out the back door and jump in my car and peel out of the parking lot as Bobby Fulton took a big lead pipe and caved in the back windshield, right?

Which is what happened.

That's what you saw on television.

What you didn't see

was that

Stan Lane called me that morning and said, Courtney, I'm in Charlotte.

I've got to stomach flu.

I'm shitting myself.

I'm throwing up.

He didn't make the show that night.

We had a substitution.

I think I may have worked with Tom against the Fantastics, or we did something.

And then Stan, when he was feeling better the next day, drove up on Sunday afternoon.

We had Phil Rainey come up to the East High School on Sunday afternoon and stand in front of the doors and goes, Folks, there's a horrible fight going on back here.

And opened the door, and there we had all got dressed in

our wrestling shit.

And we did that.

There was nobody in the goddamn school.

It was Sunday afternoon.

The whole building was empty.

The principal came down and opened the door and let us in.

We shot that four-minute fight and fucking put it on TV.

And we never said where the town was.

We said a recent match between

the heavenly bodies bodies and the fantastics got out of hand.

Here's what happened.

And since we never shot in the hallway in Morristown's East High School, unless you went to school there, you didn't know what it looked like.

So nobody knew that that goddamn fight actually happened in the middle of a Sunday afternoon with no match in front of it.

It was daylight when we ran out the back and jumped in the car, but you know, we did do afternoon shows every now and then.

Yeah, I always thought that looked cool because you got to figure a lot of people,

the show aired early in the day or midday.

So it was daylight outside, so it didn't look out of place.

People weren't thinking it that deeply.

Oh, a recent Smoky Mountain show got out of hand.

Look, they're fighting in the hallway.

That's all, that's as deep as they went into it.

As a kid, I always thought that when I would watch wrestling, what time is it there?

Is it afternoon or is it evening?

When are they doing this exactly?

Is there anything from Smokey Mountain, a lesson you think Tony could use or learn, whether it's an angle or anything you learned from the business while there?

Is there something specific that a dedicated fan of Smokey Mountain Wrestling should learn from Smokey Mountain they can apply to the current situation in AEW?

I mean, I don't know.

That's why the thing, and we've never said Tony Khan was an asshole.

He's a nice guy.

But I go back to the first time I talked to him.

I likened it to

the writers that the WWF had hired and they'd send down to OVW.

I either needed five minutes to say hello or five years to teach him something.

Anything in between was just going to drive all of us crazy.

And

I don't know if there's probably more than one thing.

that Tony could learn from Smokey Mountain Wrestling, but

about booking wrestling or presenting wrestling.

It's a different world now, but you could still, I don't know, make the stories make sense and kind of not accentuate the weaknesses of all your talent or put them in stupid, unwinnable positions.

That would be one.

But then I also go back and think

in 1993,

I was trying to get a $1,500 sponsorship and some free chicken from Mrs.

Winners for the Coliseum shows.

And here's a guy who said it was his favorite wrestling.

He's got $10 billion.

I had Richie Rich for a fan and didn't even know it.

Why couldn't he have asked for his father's inheritance when he was 12 years old?

You know, on that topic, if there are any secret millionaires or billionaires out there who love this show and want to contribute and give us some money.

Yes.

We won't say no.

But only billionaires, because a mere millionaire, you can't get anything for a million dollars these days.

Multi-millionaires, multi-multi-millionaires.

You mean somebody that just hasn't been able to be the success that it takes to crack a billion so far?

All right.

There's still time.

There's still time.

If you got over 500 million, we'll talk to you.

All right.

Well, that was the Tony Khan AEW Smokey Mountain Wrestling question or whatever the hell that was.

And, Jim, with that, the drive-thru is closed.

All right, a pleasant ending to this shit show.

We'll be back next week here on the drive-thru.

Guest the program returns next week, plus questions, dynamite, and so much more.

And of course.

And on the experience, we got a Saturday night's main event that's hookeless now.

We're going to talk about it.

Man, I was so looking forward to that more than any of the matches.

Well, we'll see what happens.

Maybe he.

Do you think we can just follow him around and watch him walk down the street as random people boo boo him as they drive by.

Well, here's the thing: if he has a family commitment, that doesn't mean he can't record something and say, Hey, hulksters, I wish I could be there.

But he could be on, he could be on a live remote.

As a matter of fact, that's how most of the WWE office wants him.

Remote.

Well, we will be remote until then.

Of course, the experience wherever you find your favorite podcast, another fun, packed episode in a few days, guaranteed.

And the drive-thru next week, go through the archives, patreon.com/slash/cornet.

$5 a month gets you access to the archive.

Going back to 2013, patreon.com/slash cornet, the official Jim Cornette YouTube channel.

Subscribe today as we approach 450,000 subscribers.

Go to YouTube and search for Jim Cornette.

It'll come right up.

Full episodes, clips of the episodes, omnibuses, and so much more.

Travis Eckle Artwork.

The official Jim Cornette YouTube channel.

Cornets Collectibles at JimCornet.com.

What's going on, Jim?

Money that people are sending for action figures at seduced rates and more all the month of February at JimCornet.com.

And of course, the drive-through is brought to you by the law office of Steven P.

New.

Call Stephen P.

News, Timews, Stephen P.

News, Stephen Penny.

If you need

to

sue

news to the news, to renew.

And I'll

much show for Tuesday

to the rest.

I'm telling you, if Stephen P.

New at newlawoffice.com, 87750 Steve, if he was a wrestler, his name would be Bulldog Tenacity.

Because once he grabs a hold of a bone, he chews and he chews and he don't give up.

And if one kind of suit don't work, he'll do another kind of suit and he'll suit you until we're suited and you ain't got no more money to buy a suit.

See, if there was a cent sign to go along with this dollar sign, I'd play that too.

Stephen P.

New, NewLawOffice.com, 877-50-STEVE, and he is a vindictive bastard.

That's right.

Get even with Stephen, newlawoffice.com.

Don't forget, Jim is on Twitter at the Jim Cornette.

I'm on Twitter at Great Brian Last.

And I'm also on Blue Sky Threads.

What am I forgetting?

Instagram.

Yo, my blue sky.

Yo, my sunny day.

Lord, you know it makes me high when you turn your love my way.

And on Facebook at facebook.com/slash Arcadian Vanguard.

And of course, the wrestling news each and every day.

But until the experience in a few days.

And next week, right back here on the drive-thru for Jim Cornette.

I'm the great Brian Last.

Tallyho!

Turn your love my way.