Episode 364

Speaker 1 This isn't just a game, it's a once-in-a-generation event.

Speaker 5 The Harlem Globetrotters 100-year tour.

Speaker 12 Celebrate 100 years of high-flying dunks, 100 years of show-stopping moves, and 100 years of changing the game.

Speaker 18 Bring the whole family and be part of the legacy.

Speaker 21 This game is once in a century.

Speaker 24 Be there at Chase Center on January 18th.

Speaker 31 Go to HarlemGlobetrotters.com for your tickets to the 100-year tour.

Speaker 32 Hello again, friends.

Speaker 32 And you are our friends. Some of you are sick.
Some of you are sick-os.

Speaker 32 Some of you are just fine today for another episode of Corney's Drive-Thru right here.

Speaker 32 It is the fall, the fall of many things.

Speaker 32 I'm your host, the great Brian Last, and here he is, the star, the leader of the cult of Cornet,

Speaker 32 Mr. Jim Cornett.

Speaker 33 You've heard of the fall of the House of Usher. Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce you to the fall of the house of last.
You are falling apart.

Speaker 33 You are pressing on despite your condition. Look, here's the thing, Brian, to clear your sinuses, to clear your, just do this along with me.

Speaker 33 Take your thumb and your forefinger and pinch the bridge of your nose. And

Speaker 33 do that, and you're going to be fine because you said, hello again, friends, and you are our friend.

Speaker 33 Get that stuff back up.

Speaker 33 Can you do that for me?

Speaker 32 I've been on mute the whole time laughing. You know, that makes me laugh, but

Speaker 33 and also, if you laugh,

Speaker 33 you will again start wheezing.

Speaker 33 And we don't want that. So don't laugh.

Speaker 32 All right. Well, if I'm going to be talking to you, I think we can assure myself I won't be laughing.

Speaker 32 Oh, oh, we are back with another episode of the show here. You see that? You set me up.
Ding-dong, right out of of the ballpark. Ding-dong.

Speaker 33 Hello.

Speaker 33 Well, see, I'm still trying to warm up here. I may build a small fire on the desk because it's freezing in Louisville, Kentucky here this week.
I'll have you literally, it got down

Speaker 33 not at the official temperature of Louisville because they measure it at the airport in the middle of a goddamn concrete heat island and nobody lives at the airport.

Speaker 33 So we're about five degrees, seven degrees cooler than the airport usually, but it got down to freezing here yesterday, and it was nigh on close to it today.

Speaker 33 And I am wearing a, I am wearing a, I squeak there.

Speaker 33 I'm freezing when I go outside to take little Harley. And

Speaker 33 inside, I refuse to turn the heat on in the office this early in the year. So I'm sitting here wearing a coat.

Speaker 33 But just

Speaker 33 keep doing this.

Speaker 33 It'll be fine.

Speaker 32 Well, some things may be fine. I don't know about this show here today.
And of course, there's a lot of wrestling to talk about, a lot of wrestling to review.

Speaker 32 We're going to get some questions in, by God.

Speaker 33 Yes, and apparently no other conversation to be had between you and I.

Speaker 32 Well, what do you want to talk about?

Speaker 33 Hello, Cody.

Speaker 33 What do you want to talk about?

Speaker 32 It's story time with Courtney.

Speaker 33 Remember when we didn't think that he was ever going to be able to get that over?

Speaker 32 I still don't think. You and me disagree on how over it is.

Speaker 33 Well, now he could come out and say, you know, blow me, blow me, fuck you. And hey, and then they'd start chanting, blow me, fuck you.

Speaker 32 I don't know.

Speaker 33 You can't really tell whether anything's over or not because everything's over. But

Speaker 33 you know what?

Speaker 33 It used to get dropped like a turd in a punch bowl. And now, yay!

Speaker 32 Who's more over right now as a babyface, Cody Rhodes or Roman Reigns?

Speaker 33 You know,

Speaker 33 they're two different

Speaker 33 slots of babyface.

Speaker 33 And honestly,

Speaker 33 I still think in terms of overall popularity and

Speaker 33 driving the business on a regular basis, it's Cody. But Roman, as we know, works a limited schedule anyway.
And

Speaker 33 that's perfect for him because they got the champion that's

Speaker 33 into the grind and doing all these things. And then they got the

Speaker 33 Bruno San Martino figure, living legend that can come in once, twice a year for the big mega main event, whatever the fuck, or however many times a year.

Speaker 33 You see, you see what I'm, do you smell what I'm cooking, Brian?

Speaker 32 I do.

Speaker 33 What do you, who, who do you think is, is on top there right now?

Speaker 32 I think there may be some Cody fatigue setting in soon if they're not careful. And if he keeps, you know, he's like a well-behaved Moxley on the microphone.

Speaker 32 Some of the big words he's he's trying to use and trying to unnaturally speak.

Speaker 32 You know, you have to be direct sometimes. And eventually, you know, Dusty can get away with it, but Dusty was flamboyant beyond the language.
Cody, you know, it's more, you know,

Speaker 33 Dusty's was more jive and Cody's is more thesaurus.

Speaker 32 Yes, that's a wonderful way to put it.

Speaker 33 So

Speaker 33 thank you very much, baby.

Speaker 33 I appreciate the way you appreciate me.

Speaker 32 And I think him and Roman Reigns and having their recent interactions kind of exposed a little bit of the fact that

Speaker 32 Cody may not be... Well, Cody wasn't as over as Roman in those settings.

Speaker 32 Roman, the fans saw Roman as the baby face and Cody having to acquiesce to him. Almost like they still thought he was the tribal chief.

Speaker 33 Well, it just depends on what tribe Cody's from.

Speaker 33 I think he's is he he's actually he's a he's a member of the Georgia tribe, even though the family comes from

Speaker 33 the Texas tribes of Texas natives. But

Speaker 33 if he ever wanted to go to Hawaii, he'd have to bow down to Roman, wouldn't he? Either that or buy a surfboard from King Curtis.

Speaker 32 You see, you wanted small talk. This is what we got.

Speaker 33 Very small.

Speaker 32 This is tiny, minuscule.

Speaker 33 Let me be minuscule, diminutive.

Speaker 33 Microscopic, amoeba-like in its minutia.

Speaker 33 Let me then mention and get it out of the way since apparently something needs to be got out of the way that the merchandise sale at jimcornet.com for the holidays is going on now and thank you very much folks it's been

Speaker 33 as we speak what not even two weeks 10 12 days or whatever from our initial on sale and already due to the feather bottom speedy service system the first

Speaker 33 I've lost count 100 or so packages are going to be going out this week and more to follow quickly. We're dividing everything up so that everything gets individual attention.
And

Speaker 33 as I mentioned on the last program,

Speaker 33 you can sign up now if you go to the jimcornet.com homepage, go down to the bottom, says sign up for the newsletter. You put your email address in there.

Speaker 33 It is free, and we will not sell your information to any foreign countries.

Speaker 32 You're starting a newsletter, I see.

Speaker 33 Well, it says newsletter. I don't, that's a Hotchkiss thing.

Speaker 32 Oh, really? He invented the newsletter now.

Speaker 33 Well, yeah, it's something that we're going to come up with here

Speaker 33 in very short order.

Speaker 33 But he's invented a thing called a newsletter where I can send out letters with news.

Speaker 33 It's like, and it's going to go in conjunction with the email blast that he invented. So you will get email blast from Hotchkiss Featherbottom because

Speaker 33 one item

Speaker 33 from our immense merchandise catalog is going on sale each week in November at deep discounts up to half off.

Speaker 33 I'll have you know, well, actually, you get the whole piece of merchandise. We're not going to cut it in half.
We're just going to charge you half price.

Speaker 33 And each week, he will be informing the people that want to know which item is on sale and how much fur.

Speaker 33 So you just go and put your email address in there and you're fixed.

Speaker 33 Or you can just go and order now and take your chances. There's so many items.

Speaker 33 What the fuck is the odds that you're going to order the one thing that's going to be on sale that week in November or whatever?

Speaker 33 Jim Cornette.com.

Speaker 32 What a great selling point. JimCornet.com.

Speaker 33 Well, yes, that's where you're supposed to go to buy the stuff. They know that all the stuff is there.
They just need to know where to go. So I'm telling these people where to go.

Speaker 32 All right. Well, it's my show.
So where are we going to go from here? I will decide where we will go. And actually, Jim, before we get to some of the reviews, and there's a little bit about Raw.

Speaker 32 Luckily, it's only two hours. And Dynamite was filled with all sorts of,

Speaker 32 I guess, wrestle crap is a copyrighted term, but all sorts of nonsense we'll talk about.

Speaker 32 But let's start with a serious topic.

Speaker 32 And obviously, it's one that when the news broke, a lot of the listeners started reaching out, wanting to hear what you had to say, because it's a name a lot of people first heard from you in a lot of ways.

Speaker 32 Joe Koff,

Speaker 32 former head of Ring of Honor. He had been a vice president and then I believe a senior vice president for Sinclair Broadcasting, just passed away.
And obviously you worked with him and you knew him.

Speaker 33 Well, and

Speaker 33 he had cancer. That's, you know, been mentioned.
And

Speaker 33 it had been known

Speaker 33 by myself and certain people for a little while now, but he hadn't made a public issue out of it. And I guess it was probably about

Speaker 33 six weeks ago that he decided to stop treatments because he wanted to,

Speaker 33 you know,

Speaker 33 they were not going to be successful and it was diminishing his quality of life to where he couldn't spend time with his family and his grandchildren.

Speaker 33 You know, I think I was thinking about it in my mind. I think besides delirious Hunter Johnston,

Speaker 33 Joe Koff is the only person I didn't yell at the whole time that I was there with that

Speaker 33 Ring of Honor period from 2009 to 12.

Speaker 33 He was a,

Speaker 33 every one of the wrestling fans, if you're an AEW fan, especially,

Speaker 33 but every wrestling fan should be grateful to him if for nothing else than he kept Ring of Honor alive.

Speaker 33 a couple of different times. First, in,

Speaker 33 you know, when they bought it originally from Carrie Silken. And then

Speaker 33 secondly, when

Speaker 33 he made the decision to sell it to Tony Khan rather than just sell the tape library to the WWE, they wouldn't have picked up anybody's contracts or hired probably, you know, a good portion of the talent or whatever.

Speaker 33 But

Speaker 33 he

Speaker 33 was a tremendous,

Speaker 33 and I don't want to say this the wrong way, he was a tremendous fan of wrestling, not that he was a mark or that he was trying to throw money around or whatever, but he was a tremendous supporter of wrestling.

Speaker 33 And he appreciated the wrestling business, and he always had. And

Speaker 33 he didn't go crazy. He wanted to be involved in it just to be a mark.
He was involved in,

Speaker 33 as we mentioned long ago, the Florida office, the Battle of the Belt specials. They did syndicating those.
And

Speaker 33 it was to the point where Eddie Graham wanted,

Speaker 33 or Eddie may have been dead, but whoever was running the office. Eddie was dead already.

Speaker 33 Yeah, they wanted him to continue working for the company and trying to get him TV deals. And he just, well, I'm, you know,

Speaker 33 he was more established in the, in the career trajectory he was already taking. But

Speaker 33 so he, he provided a service for a lot of the guys in the business in that they had a place to

Speaker 33 grow and

Speaker 33 progress and flourish or whatever. And at the same time,

Speaker 33 he did everything he could.

Speaker 33 And when I've talked about all the chaos and the misery that whole period cost me,

Speaker 33 it was never Joe's fault. He's the one that got him to buy it, but even he

Speaker 33 couldn't get him to spend any amount of money.

Speaker 33 And, you know, part of that, they had the overall Sinclair broadcasting, the bigger vision

Speaker 33 of buying up all these television stations. And,

Speaker 33 well, Brian, you know, you know more about the business world, but Sinclair Broadcasting had, like, at one point a number of years ago, last time I checked, hundreds of millions of dollars, if not a billion dollar in dollars in debt, right?

Speaker 33 They had taken on an incredible amount of debt trying to put together these regional sports networks and buying up all these television stations. And it fell apart.

Speaker 32 It's not something that's very easy in this market, in this day and age, to do. If they had tried it 20 years earlier, it would have been a different story.

Speaker 32 But Sinclair, you know, in an era where less people than ever before watch network TV or local TV, they still own TV stations all over the place.

Speaker 33 Well, and when we started, and again, let me go back and start at the beginning.

Speaker 33 It basically started with

Speaker 33 when Carrie Silken

Speaker 33 called me after TNA had decided to let me go.

Speaker 33 Yeah, with after the whole Jeff thing thing and Dutch was gone and they found and then,

Speaker 33 you know, Russo had his way for a month till Hogan came in, whatever, that whole bunch of chaos.

Speaker 33 Carrie had talked to me about coming in and what can you do for it? You know, he was losing money and

Speaker 33 he

Speaker 33 loved the thing also. He loved Ring of Honor and Wrestling and wanted to keep it going.

Speaker 33 And I was pissed off, you know, at these other yahoos who were wasting all these opportunities. And I said, Carrie, I'll find you something.

Speaker 33 I'll figure out a way to get you on television or a sponsor or

Speaker 33 help some way, talent, whatever.

Speaker 33 And you know that because we had some conversations in New York. But one of the people that I talked to was Gary Juster, who I'd known from the 80s and Crockett and et cetera.

Speaker 33 And he came to one of the shows and he said, this is an amazing live atmosphere.

Speaker 33 And I said, how do we get it on television?

Speaker 33 He said, I know a guy that works for Sinclair Broadcasting in Baltimore because Gary had lived in Baltimore for years before he moved down to Atlanta and had run the Baltimore Civic Center and bought time from Joe Koff that many years ago.

Speaker 33 So we went and that's where the talk started with Joe Koff. The idea

Speaker 33 originally was just to get on those television stations. And the reason why I talked earlier about how many stations they ended up buying at this time,

Speaker 33 I think they owned like,

Speaker 33 was it 55 or 50 something television stations? And they would get to where it was, what, what did they get up to? Like 130 or 40 something? Am I exaggerating that?

Speaker 32 I don't think you're exaggerating. I don't remember the exact number, but I remember it being over 100.

Speaker 33 So the idea was that, you know, as they got on more stations, we didn't know they were going to get on that many.

Speaker 33 It would increase the coverage of Ring of Honor. And Joe got so interested and started talking.
And they ended up buying the company outright from Carrie.

Speaker 33 But the problem was,

Speaker 33 as we mentioned, they didn't want to spend a lot of money past that. It took a number of years.

Speaker 33 for them to start spending any money on the thing. And,

Speaker 33 you know, that was my issue. You don't get a second chance to make a first impression sometimes.
But also,

Speaker 33 you know, that was the thing is that

Speaker 33 the corporate world always has a problem mixing with wrestling. We've seen that.

Speaker 33 And Joe was probably the greatest guy

Speaker 33 that has ever been the conduit between

Speaker 33 the corporate world and the wrestling people.

Speaker 33 He was gentlemanly and nice and articulate and smart,

Speaker 33 and he tried to do the best he could. But,

Speaker 33 you know, that's, that's sometimes those worlds just don't mix. So, Joe, I never had an issue with.

Speaker 33 And,

Speaker 33 you know, he did the best he could in those early years while I was around. And he always did the best he could.

Speaker 33 But that's, you know,

Speaker 33 his

Speaker 33 primary

Speaker 33 position in Sinclair had been that he was the guy who trained, and I don't know whether he oversaw him on an ongoing basis, but the different local sales departments at all the stations, he trained them.

Speaker 33 He had regular two-week seminars where they would bring all these people together and he'd teach them how to sell television and sponsorships and value-added packages and et cetera.

Speaker 33 And that was another

Speaker 33 part of the

Speaker 33 idea for Ring of Honor Honor originally

Speaker 33 was not to just suddenly make tens of millions of dollars with live events, but be a value-added thing for the local television stations.

Speaker 33 And that's what he was so good at because he had trained a lot of people in the sales departments. He regularly talked to all the

Speaker 33 local sales managers and everything in all these stations. So that was,

Speaker 33 again,

Speaker 33 that was part of the original plan. I knew we found out later on St.

Speaker 33 Clair wasn't going to give us the credit, Ring of Honor credit for the sponsorship money that the local television station took in in conjunction with our live events.

Speaker 33 We've gone over that many times in Ring of Honor talks.

Speaker 33 This is not spot for it here, but that,

Speaker 33 you know, Joe sent me off in.

Speaker 33 to a number of stations to talk to the sales departments about how specifically to sell wrestling. And I enjoyed doing that because you could get them excited and go out and motivated.

Speaker 33 And boom, boom, boom, it made the program more

Speaker 33 profitable and more important for the local station if they were getting revenue off of it.

Speaker 33 But anyway, you know, just

Speaker 33 a nice guy. And,

Speaker 33 you know, I think, like I said, Not only were he and Hunter the only two guys I don't think I ever yelled at, but when I cracked up and I had all I can stands, I can't stands no more moment with the whole thing,

Speaker 33 the only two people I felt like I were letting down, or I was letting down, poor grammar, were Hunter and Joe.

Speaker 33 You know, I felt bad because Joe had done all he could and got him to buy the thing and was trying his best he could, and Hunter was there left with,

Speaker 33 you know, a lot of stress on his hands. But so I hated to hear this news.

Speaker 32 You know, another thing about Joe Kof Jim is that he is one of the people responsible for all in.

Speaker 32 And

Speaker 32 I don't think he ever felt that he and Ring of Honor got the credit they deserved because everyone pretended like it was just the Bucs and Cody doing a show, not that it was a Ring of Honor production produced by Cody and the Bucks.

Speaker 33 Well, besides that,

Speaker 33 they were all under contract to him, so he had to let them do the thing to begin with.

Speaker 33 And then, yes, they used their office infrastructure and,

Speaker 33 you know, the ticket master things, all the details of running a show and

Speaker 33 their production

Speaker 33 equipment and/or department and et cetera. It was just, it was produced by the talent, but the whole thing basically was pulled off by the Ring of Honor infrastructure.

Speaker 32 Who got no credit for it, really? When you think about it. I mean, right, there's a lot of people

Speaker 33 who who then had a billionaire come along and sign up all of the guys after they you know hey thanks thanks it's a nice audition tape you made for me i think a lot of people that were involved with ring of honor behind the scenes for those couple years there have a good deal of resentment and for good reason with some of the people involved with all in who went to aew because it was basically they gutted ring of honor well yeah they they basically held the company hostage because they

Speaker 33 ring of honor was still small enough to where when they brought their at the time

Speaker 33 what you know audience of a few hundred thousand indie fanatics to a company that size it made an instant difference and then they held the company hostage to do all of their cartoonishness

Speaker 33 and build it around them and then they bailed as soon as they helped them make an audition tape for the billionaire that was going to spend a fucking fortune.

Speaker 33 but otherwise than that, it was great.

Speaker 33 Yeah, there are a few people who that who stayed behind who were like, What the fuck?

Speaker 32 But yeah, Joe Koch deserves a lot of credit for all in, and of course, Ring of Honor does, but he was the person in charge.

Speaker 33 But anyway, uh, you know,

Speaker 32 that's why they owned it, that's why they owned the actual footage until Tony Khan bought Ring of Honor and Cody said, What the fuck?

Speaker 33 but anyway,

Speaker 33 you know, I hate to hear this news. It's bad news.
And Joe Koff has a couple of different places in wrestling history, which

Speaker 33 I think overall, I think he'd be proud to be included in.

Speaker 32 Well, there it is, Joe Koff. And

Speaker 1 this isn't just a game.

Speaker 4 It's a once-in-a-generation event.

Speaker 5 The Harlem Globetrotters 100-year tour.

Speaker 12 Celebrate 100 years of high-flying dunks, 100 years of show-stopping moves, and 100 years of changing the game.

Speaker 18 Bring the whole family and be part of the legacy.

Speaker 21 This game is once in a century.

Speaker 24 Be there at Chase Center on January 18th.

Speaker 30 Go to HarlemGlobetrotters.com for your tickets to the 100-year tour.

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Speaker 32 Of course, you worked with Joe Koff for a long time. You talked about how he...

Speaker 32 You know, again, he was a vice president, then a senior vice president on training. And it wasn't like, you know, him going there teaching people how to build computers.

Speaker 32 He was was training the sales departments

Speaker 32 how tough is that to teach people how to sell wrestling forget about sales for a television network in you know 20 in 2010 or whenever he was doing that

Speaker 32 but to actually sell wrestling especially if it's not wwe

Speaker 33 well see here was the

Speaker 33 the the the plan or the idea or the concept or whatever you want to call it for Ring of Honor to have a somewhat profitable place in Sinclair, as I've talked about before, was to get ratings for the local television stations, which at that point in time,

Speaker 33 what is this, 15 years ago now, or almost or whatever,

Speaker 33 a good local professional wrestling program on a local station could do a one rating. And again, some people are so stupid about TV ratings.
They go, wow, a one,

Speaker 33 that would be 5 million people or whatever. No, a local rating,

Speaker 33 a one.

Speaker 33 and I've mentioned that OVW and Louisville did anything from 0.6s to fucking 2.8s or whatever we were

Speaker 33 you know

Speaker 33 over the years in different ballparks

Speaker 33 but if you could do a one rating and you could sell time on that it wasn't like

Speaker 33 doing a one rating for you know a a ball game or doing one a one rating for a

Speaker 33 rerun of a sitcom because the stars of that program could actively come to town, could be involved with the car lot

Speaker 33 or the furniture store or the check cashing place or the

Speaker 33 wacky car dealer or whoever in town is sponsoring. They could be in their commercials.

Speaker 33 And that would air on the show where the fucking wrestler is a star on.

Speaker 33 And when we run a show, not only are we selling tickets, but also we can sell banners for the sponsors of the commercials on the walls and on the ring.

Speaker 33 You get the whole drift, right?

Speaker 33 It's all integrated. And Joe loved that

Speaker 33 because of his, you know,

Speaker 33 position training and working with the local sales departments. And especially now, but even then in local television,

Speaker 33 really what the local sales departments had to sell were if they were, especially network,

Speaker 33 sports on the weekend, your local news every day,

Speaker 33 and your prime time programming.

Speaker 33 And they weren't even really trying to sell other shit. It was a wasteland.
So

Speaker 33 if you could get them motivated, they could really produce revenue off the wrestling program. And I went to Charleston, Huntington, West Virginia.
I went to Richmond, Virginia.

Speaker 33 The station there, I believe, we talked to, I know we saw the manager of WLOS 13 in Asheville.

Speaker 33 And a lot of people are going to say, oh, he was going to the old Crockett towns. Well, it wasn't just because I was a Crockett celebrity of the era, but because

Speaker 33 those stations had been Crockett stations and that area of the country was still strong enough.

Speaker 33 In Charleston, Huntington, they had an incredible, they were winning the time slot

Speaker 33 on Saturday night at like 11 o'clock. I think it was 20-something, 30-something thousand viewers in that market.

Speaker 33 And they were doing a two-point something or a three-rating in Richmond.

Speaker 33 And so you could do something with that on a local basis to generate revenue for the television station.

Speaker 33 I told when we went to Charleston, we did

Speaker 33 advertised a wing eating contest at Hooters with the guys and had the car dealer have the brand new car in the lobby of the civic center when the people came in and banners everywhere.

Speaker 33 And it was $28,000 of revenue for the station in advertising on top of

Speaker 33 the gate that we did for Ring of Honor, right?

Speaker 33 But then we found out, like I said, corporate, oh, we don't count that. Wait a minute, what? If we had to come and run this show, they they wouldn't have got that $28,000

Speaker 33 but we didn't get credit for it some way or another but that was the idea on once again trying to generate more revenue so I was going out and talking to some of the sales departments on the specifics I mentioned you always want the wacky car dealer you always want a furniture rental or check caching or pawn or jewelry.

Speaker 33 You always want,

Speaker 33 you know, the basic shit that everybody needs. And now, these days with sports cards.
And at one point, it was video stores and video game stores.

Speaker 33 And, you know, but

Speaker 33 whatever the general populace that watches

Speaker 33 either wrestling or television in general at that particular time of the day,

Speaker 33 and you get these people involved

Speaker 33 where they can be not only in their own commercial, because you see that all the time, right? Even up there in New York,

Speaker 33 big fucking TV market, but there's a lot of local yokels doing their own commercials, right?

Speaker 32 Non-stop local attorneys.

Speaker 33 Well, they, what? Well, and I didn't mean to call any of the attorneys up there yokels. Don't sue me.

Speaker 32 You know what's just the stupidest one? 1-800. I'm going to give them a free plug because it's so stupid.
1-800 pain law. And their tagline is: because if you're in pain, you need law.

Speaker 32 What the fuck is that? Lazy assholes. Pain law.

Speaker 33 But, well, then, like in Smokey Mad Wrestling, I've told the stories about classy motors and,

Speaker 33 you know, of Mrs. Winter's chicken, whatever the fuck, and fast food places.
We had, oh, who was the fast food place? We had to do something. God damn, I can't remember.
Anyway,

Speaker 33 you get those people,

Speaker 33 those businesses, I should say.

Speaker 33 And then they can buy into the program, but instead of just getting a commercial, they can have the wrestler come down and we can advertise an autograph session.

Speaker 33 And as I've mentioned, they can have banners and a presence at the live event and they can even do the commercials and blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 33 So that is something that he wanted to try to spread.

Speaker 33 You know, and that's why we wanted,

Speaker 33 once again, with some of the indie guys that were just darlings.

Speaker 33 Either they looked like Ned, as Christine Jarrett would say, they look like Ned,

Speaker 33 or

Speaker 33 they'd be a half an hour late if you had them show up.

Speaker 33 Okay, 7 o'clock, you're going to be on the live local news.

Speaker 33 Because some of these guys weren't as big as the goddamn newscasters, or they'd show up at 7.30 to be on 7 o'clock live local news, or nobody'd ever heard of them.

Speaker 33 That's why we wanted guys like Jay Lethal or Charlie Haas and Sheldon Benjamin.

Speaker 33 guys that could still go in the ring, but had some level of presence on national television and were also responsible and would show up and

Speaker 33 had

Speaker 33 an aura of professionalism about them.

Speaker 33 And, you know, or in the case of the Briscoes, who were

Speaker 33 obviously guys that would show up on time and, you know, do whatever the fuck, but they had an aura of unprofessionalism, but they were real, right? They loved them on TV in Baltimore.

Speaker 33 They'd have Mark Briscoe do the fucking weather.

Speaker 33 But that's how, you know, you're not creating a star nationwide, but you're creating a local name and celebrity that people know that they might want to buy tickets to see.

Speaker 33 And you're integrating it with the local television station and the local businesses.

Speaker 33 And it gives the wrestling business in that particular market a little more aura of respectability. Does that make sense?

Speaker 32 I I think it makes sense.

Speaker 33 Because if you're running a show at a rec center somewhere that you're just renting and setting up the chairs, that's all fine.

Speaker 33 But if you can go to other businesses and say, yes, we're on such and such television station and we're working with Hooters and

Speaker 33 this other company you've heard of. And

Speaker 33 you know, we're going to be on the newscast in the morning if you want to check it out. Well, then they're like, I might be able to work with these people.
They might not be goddamn complete shysters.

Speaker 33 So, and that

Speaker 33 still today,

Speaker 33 if anybody could figure out a way to just put together a regional network in a manageable, populated area

Speaker 33 of local television stations, especially where in some of these markets they've got a TV station and a radio station,

Speaker 33 and look at 2,000-seat buildings where they may exist

Speaker 33 and do promotions. You know, this shit's sellable, but nobody tries to sell it to the,

Speaker 33 well, the WWE does. They try to sell it to everybody.

Speaker 33 As Christine Jarrett used to say, they'd sell you the glasses on your own face.

Speaker 33 But AEW

Speaker 33 and a lot of these other companies don't promote the local markets because they're too busy thinking about their television and, you know, the TV rights deal or whatever.

Speaker 33 That's why they've got 3,000 people in a 20,000-seat building.

Speaker 33 In some of the size of these cities, you could draw 3,000 people to watch dogs fuck, couldn't you?

Speaker 32 I don't know.

Speaker 33 I mean, the other thing is that you're if they were good-looking dogs.

Speaker 32 The other thing, if it was advertised on television and radio now, I don't know if it would.

Speaker 32 Because you're not going to get anyone young. You're not going to get anyone under the age of 25 if you're relying on television and radio.
So you limit your audience completely.

Speaker 33 Well, how many people under the age of 25 can afford the goddamn tickets?

Speaker 32 The tickets to see the dogs fuck? How expensive are these? The tickets, Jim.

Speaker 32 How expensive do you envision these tickets?

Speaker 33 Are you talking thoroughbreds or are you talking, you know, just mutts?

Speaker 32 Do the dogs fucking get the big building like dynamite or are they a small building like NXT?

Speaker 33 That's why, you know what? If you go to a dog fuck and you see them doing covered pitches,

Speaker 33 yeah, if you go to a dog fuck

Speaker 33 and you see them doing cover pitches of the ceiling, you'll know that they didn't draw a house.

Speaker 32 Or one of the dogs took a shit. One of the,

Speaker 33 you know,

Speaker 33 you're, you're making more noise than some guy trying to promote on the fucking internet. I, you know, if they can see me in Ireland, I don't care if I'm promoting Pocatello, Idaho.

Speaker 32 I think they need to do, I mean, specifically AEW,

Speaker 32 they need to do worlds better promoting locally just based on what I see here in the tri-state area. And this is one of the big, this is the biggest media market in the world.

Speaker 32 And they need help here, let alone everywhere else they go.

Speaker 32 Local TV,

Speaker 32 you know, well, I mean, you're talking about just putting people on local TV, not actually trying to get local TV like a regular weekly local TV show.

Speaker 33 Well, here's the thing. Here's the thing.
In theory, again,

Speaker 33 the thin,

Speaker 33 the thin, here's the thin, Lucy.

Speaker 33 The thing with Ring of Honor and Sinclair could still work,

Speaker 33 except it would need to have more commitment from the broadcaster.

Speaker 33 Yeah.

Speaker 33 And it would also need to be in a concentrated area

Speaker 33 because,

Speaker 33 you know, that's one of the problem. We had TV in fucking Las Vegas and Tampa and fucking somewhere in Minnesota, but God damn,

Speaker 33 it's not like you're going to to run the whole country. We see how that turns out, unless you have national television.
But if you had

Speaker 33 a regional sports network

Speaker 33 in the Carolinas and Virginia,

Speaker 33 or potentially just the state of Texas, or what about the old Barnett, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan?

Speaker 33 And you had

Speaker 33 15 stations, 15 markets in a geographic area like that,

Speaker 33 and they shot their own wrestling show,

Speaker 33 and they put it on their stations, and they put the wrestlers on their local news because the one thing that people still watch on local TV is their local news, whether it's the fucking weather, the sports, or the fucking U of L game or whatever the fuck.

Speaker 33 And then you have,

Speaker 33 again,

Speaker 33 you're competing for a smaller pie than it used to be, but it's more doable than before. Because

Speaker 33 when would a television network ever have paid what WBD just paid AEW

Speaker 33 for the viewership they're getting 20 years ago?

Speaker 32 Well, again, it's hard to compare the television world today to then. No one is.

Speaker 33 No, that's the point I'm making.

Speaker 33 No, no.

Speaker 33 20 years ago, 600-something thousand people would have been like, fuck you. that's an in-fomercial at three in the morning.

Speaker 33 But since it's all down,

Speaker 33 the value of having a television program that does, that you own, that you're establishing a library, that there's ancillary revenue like DVDs or streaming video now,

Speaker 33 you can watch the catalog.

Speaker 33 and that can go on your stations instead of you having to pay for programming,

Speaker 33 that also you can go and sell to the local fucking fast food and car dealer what that's already doing business with your station because they still run commercials on local tv

Speaker 33 and it then the the added value thing is still

Speaker 33 you're going to generate more money for your affiliate there with that program than you would with fucking seinfeld because Seinfeld ain't coming to goddamn Akron.

Speaker 32 Yeah, but you could could run the tape of Seinfeld and not have to hire anyone. All these stations, it seems like every time I see anything, they're laying people off.

Speaker 32 It's never like anyone's expanding, anyone's doing anything creative to try to grow things, which technically is what this would do.

Speaker 32 That's where

Speaker 32 it's more about slicing everything as much as you can.

Speaker 33 But that's where

Speaker 33 if you owned a wrestling company and you own TV stations, the wrestling company, people in a manageable area, in contiguous states that are in a region.

Speaker 33 The wrestling company can have a guy that goes around to the local sales departments, even if there's three people selling time.

Speaker 33 There's always going to be a couple of salesmen at a TV station, trust me, and say, hey, let's go over and talk to this fucking guy that has this pizza place and he will give us a fucking fortune.

Speaker 33 Boom. And you just get your local sponsors, just like that.

Speaker 33 Every other goddamn

Speaker 33 the University of Louisville basketball team is not playing in Portland, Oregon.

Speaker 33 So they don't care if anybody's watching them in Portland on the team, but by God, we can sell some fucking chicken by showing them on TV right here.

Speaker 32 It'd be amazing if someone can get talked into a studio wrestling show. I mean, studio wrestling was shot in the, you know, where they shot the news.

Speaker 33 Well, and that's Joe had just,

Speaker 33 as the pandemic had just come on or was about to come on, Joe Koff had talked him into a live,

Speaker 33 I don't know if it had been studio, it wouldn't have been a giant building, so it had been some type of center stage apparatus, if nothing else, a live weekly program that would go across all the stations.

Speaker 33 And that ended up getting blown up by the, along with, that's what doomed Ring of Honor.

Speaker 33 was that they paid every, Joe made sure everybody got paid the contracts that they had signed, and they did the strictest COVID protocol.

Speaker 33 And, you know, so they spent a bunch of money in this, and then they were like, well, shit, since we already owe billions of dollars, you know, this was not our first love.

Speaker 32 But, you know, it's like, it's like I always say about Tony Khan. That's the sad thing.

Speaker 32 With Sinclair, it would have really been just a drop in a bucket. to improve the production.
Yeah. Or improve anything or have a real person managing it other than Greg,

Speaker 32 whatever his name is.

Speaker 33 Yes, the office boy. That's, yeah.
I mean, they could have done it.

Speaker 32 It's not like, oh, yeah.

Speaker 33 That was the thing. I agreed to work for Joe Koff.
I never knew that I was going to have this 27-year-old kid trying to tell everybody what was going on.

Speaker 33 That was the beginning of the end, but that was corporate.

Speaker 33 But anyway, that's that I still maintain because I loved

Speaker 33 the act and the

Speaker 33 process of going out and selling the show to everybody. You don't just want to run

Speaker 33 the show. You want to have the fucking banners.
You want to have the companies trying to, you know, buy commercials on your TV show. You want to have the meet and greet catered with free Mrs.

Speaker 33 Winner's chicken.

Speaker 33 or whatever the fucking case is. I love that shit.
And you can still do that.

Speaker 33 Local events do it all the time.

Speaker 32 I agree with that.

Speaker 33 Just not wrestling anymore because they don't look at

Speaker 33 the only wrestling that they look at like local events, the promoters do are the ones that are really too fucking local to generate any major income.

Speaker 32 The other problem is,

Speaker 32 you know, if you look at the independence 30 years ago versus now,

Speaker 32 in terms of the presentability of the promoters and the ability to correspond and deal with regular everyday society,

Speaker 32 You know, even the territories. I mean, these were gruff, dirty men in some cases, but they knew how to deal with the establishment to get things done.

Speaker 32 You know, of the current crop of indie promoters, who's going to be able to dress nice, talk the right way, and get shit done in the community?

Speaker 32 Probably not too many people, but they could run a show in a barn. and light each other on fire or whatever the fuck's happening.
You know what I mean? Like that's the easy road out.

Speaker 32 And then people come and they find your barn.

Speaker 32 But the real play, and it's a long-term play, would be what you're trying to say. And it's not just TV and radio, it's the community.
It's

Speaker 32 making it so that people who have credibility know who you are, so they would tell people about your show.

Speaker 33 Well, yes, because that was the whole reason to get television.

Speaker 33 Because then once you got television, then you could go anywhere else and say, yes, I'm on channel so-and-so Saturday afternoons at two o'clock. And that immediately,

Speaker 33 especially in the 80s or 90s, that immediately, you know, told somebody that you weren't just some fucking jack off that was walking in talking about some kind of wrestling.

Speaker 33 Maybe they've seen some outlaw shit.

Speaker 33 And

Speaker 33 then it's even better that most of the time in those days, television stations, they would work with radio stations in the market. So you could say, oh, I know so-and-so over at blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 33 And then you get guys on the radio.

Speaker 33 And then you can go to,

Speaker 33 as I said before, any of those number of businesses, and you can say, yes, we're on such and such TV and we're doing the radio. And then you put all these things on your poster.

Speaker 33 You mention them on television.

Speaker 33 And all is, and

Speaker 33 short of Eddie Graham doing the old deal where every time he got an award from a civic group, it was on TV,

Speaker 33 that made you look as legitimate as possible in that market so people would spend money sponsoring your fucking show.

Speaker 33 And I,

Speaker 33 again, with Tony, since he's obviously got the room

Speaker 33 in these buildings, why don't they go to

Speaker 33 in Houston? Remember the gallery furniture guy?

Speaker 32 Oh, yeah, he's Mattress Mack.

Speaker 33 Mattress Mack that now

Speaker 33 he used to sponsor Paul Bosch's, and I think he just passed away not long ago, but this is an example. In the 70s, he sponsored Paul Bosch's TV show when it was,

Speaker 33 he had a store in Houston, right?

Speaker 33 And 40 years later, he's a goddamn multi-tens of millions of air

Speaker 33 that he bets a million dollars on his favorite sports team to win and does all these things for charity and has umpteen major stores.

Speaker 33 Why not go to that guy and say, hey,

Speaker 33 we will promote you

Speaker 33 as the sponsor of AEW All Tuckered Out in Houston

Speaker 33 on TBS on such and such a day. We'll be talking about you for a month on national TV

Speaker 33 and how great you are.

Speaker 33 And well, and say, give us goddamn

Speaker 33 $50,000 and we'll give you 5,000 tickets

Speaker 33 and just put them in all your stores.

Speaker 32 Well, again, using this specific example, but using this as something that could speak to the bigger question, the difference is Mattress Mack was dealing with Paul Bosch.

Speaker 32 One person,

Speaker 32 maybe he dealt with Peter, maybe Bruce answered the phone in between coffee runs,

Speaker 32 but he dealt with Paul Bosch. There was a relationship.
It wasn't just, hey, we're coming to town. Will you deal with our local sales guy?

Speaker 32 And,

Speaker 32 you know, Paul Bosch was a unique character. And he ended up on Houston.
You know, that wasn't the only one. What was it, I.W.
Marks?

Speaker 32 Oh, yeah. There were long-term sponsors of Houston Wrestling that were there.
Yeah, because wrestling had an audience, but it was really based around the relationship with the promoter.

Speaker 32 And that's what would be missing nowadays.

Speaker 33 Well,

Speaker 33 again, are there no prisons, no workhouse? Is nobody in the company willing to fucking get a decent haircut and put a halfway decent looking suit on and go

Speaker 33 in these markets that they book six months ahead of time. Well, they can.

Speaker 32 I mean, that's that's the problem. Paul Bosch could go there and sell his product, or someone could want to be involved in it.

Speaker 33 But you know, you know what I do once we got this person

Speaker 33 because they AEW wasn't Jeff Jarrett?

Speaker 32 Wasn't Jeff Jarrett supposed to be doing this?

Speaker 33 Jeff Jarrett. Well, no, Jeff Jarrett was going to do something with the live events, maybe the buildings or whatever.
But

Speaker 32 that's right. That's right.

Speaker 33 That Jeff Jarrett is sitting there with RJ City and Renee Moxley Good

Speaker 33 instead of going out and selling.

Speaker 33 Think of who else has sold any more shit related to wrestling over the last 20 years. And Jeff Jarrett,

Speaker 33 he's sold these networks on putting on TNA and Global Force Wrestling and all this other stuff.

Speaker 33 But that's the point is you know you're going to be in

Speaker 33 Pickettown, Chicago

Speaker 33 at a building six months from now because they booked that far out. They have to book these buildings out because they need dates for their television.

Speaker 33 So right then, if I'm Tony Kahn, I send Jeff Jarrett or whoever

Speaker 33 to Chicago. And who is the

Speaker 33 cable company that

Speaker 33 handles the majority of Chicago? I don't know, but I'll find that out and I will go to them and I will say, I am a representative of one of the highest-rated programs on TBS and TNT.

Speaker 33 You carry us on your goddamn service here.

Speaker 33 Tell me who the major advertisers are in town, who wants to get their name out, who spends a lot of money with you, who's a big fucking player around here.

Speaker 33 And then you go to those people and you say, We will give you,

Speaker 33 and it'll help if they're of a major local concern, because then you don't have to go through corporate, but since you're offering national advertising,

Speaker 33 you know, maybe something can be done through corporate, but you don't just say we're going to sell you a minute of commercial time.

Speaker 33 We're coming to town with this show and we want you to be our corporate sponsor. They fucking corporate sponsor the arenas.
Why can't they corporate sponsor the event?

Speaker 33 So instead of the Dunkin' Donuts arena,

Speaker 33 it would be Dunkin' Donuts presents AEW stick a syringe in your face.

Speaker 32 Yeah, that's what WWE does, and AEW doesn't. And, you know, especially with AEW,

Speaker 32 who have these issues with drawing fans, but return to the same markets over and over again,

Speaker 32 you would have to think they should have local reps in every single one of these markets who are working all year round on relationships.

Speaker 33 And see, the WWE gets Snickers to present a pay-per-view. They don't have to do any work on the ground.

Speaker 33 But what I'm talking about, because Tony needs help filling a building and making it look palatable for television, I'm talking about going to that, going to

Speaker 33 gallery furniture in Houston, or going to a big company in Chicago, or going to a big company or whatever, and say,

Speaker 33 you sponsor this event that we're having at the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago or the fucking

Speaker 33 whatever they call the big building in Houston these days or wherever.

Speaker 33 You're going to be the title sponsor, but we're going to talk about you on national TV for the next month when we as we promote this show.

Speaker 33 And then that night,

Speaker 33 you're going to have banners everywhere, whatever your product is. If it's fucking fried chicken, we'll pass out your fried chicken.

Speaker 33 If it's goddamn cars, we'll have cars everywhere in the fucking arena.

Speaker 33 We'll shoot them on TV. We'll have the fucking guys play bumper cars.
We don't give a shit, right?

Speaker 33 And also,

Speaker 33 we will fucking give you 5,000 tickets to give to your customers that come into your businesses around town as a thank you.

Speaker 33 And all we want's like is a 50 grand, 100 grand, whatever the fuck it is, right? Because then

Speaker 33 they not only get some more money,

Speaker 33 but they also have another several thousand people that come in the goddamn building just to see what the fuck might be going on. And it might look better better for television.

Speaker 32 But to wrap this up, to finish it with AEW, as we are, I think they've been trying to do that.

Speaker 32 We've seen things that people send us on Twitter and various other ways, various other ways, via email too.

Speaker 33 Yes, man.

Speaker 33 Many, many were wrapped around a rock and thrown through my window.

Speaker 32 You know, photos of, you know, come in, buy one, get one free. Come in, free tickets if you buy, you know, a burger or whatever the fuck.
Free tickets here.

Speaker 32 So obviously they're trying to do something on a,

Speaker 32 something on a grassroots level it's just not working at all

Speaker 32 it's not you know what i shouldn't even say that because whenever we see these tickets distributed things we don't know how many tickets are sold maybe it's working great maybe they're getting 1500 people of the 1800 people in a building from the free tickets we really don't know

Speaker 33 and you know it right

Speaker 32 we know

Speaker 33 also we depending on how they're giving the free tickets away we might not be hearing from that segment of society because they may not be regular fans.

Speaker 33 Maybe that's why the reactions have quieted down. Maybe these are regular people wandering in because Hardys gave it with their burger, gave them two wrestling tickets.

Speaker 32 It could be that. Another thought I had, and then we'll really wrap this up.

Speaker 32 You know, the people that were going to Ring of Honor shows in 2014, 15, whatever it was when the Young Bucks were on top.

Speaker 32 These are those fans, and they've aged out of the enthusiasm.

Speaker 32 So they're sitting there watching the same people they were watching all those years ago who are doing everything they did then, just slower and with no reaction, and you've seen them do it.

Speaker 32 I think that's the problem.

Speaker 32 They need to get past that audience, and whatever they're doing to try to drag people that aren't already predisposed to liking AEW in, it doesn't seem to be working at all.

Speaker 32 And based on who they're pushing and what they're doing on their show,

Speaker 32 I mean, there's nothing creating a buzz outside of their audience, and half of the buzz that their audience has is how bad it is.

Speaker 32 So

Speaker 32 we shall see how good they'll do with their drawing of local shows.

Speaker 33 Yeah,

Speaker 33 a lot of the indie fans now have got to the age where they're more worried about their cholesterol.

Speaker 32 Jim, speaking of selling things, do you think you could do a good job selling a wonderful chocolatey protein drink to our fine audience?

Speaker 33 A tasty beverage you're talking about? A delight, there I say a delightful beverage our friends over at organ

Speaker 33 have come up with the most delicious protein shake in all of protein shake history and we've been talking about it for weeks now it's tastes amazing even i like it and i don't like anything that's healthy but i chugged this right down and as i mentioned brian it is great over vanilla ice cream too but

Speaker 32 Defeats the purpose.

Speaker 33 Well, nevertheless, well, it's, you know, you got your dairy there as well as your protein.

Speaker 33 But, you know, in all honesty, I am going to, for the next couple of months, I'm going to be trying to eat better. And that's why I'm glad I've got the organe

Speaker 33 because

Speaker 33 I got to cut down on,

Speaker 33 I've gotten bad on candy and or cake

Speaker 33 every night after dinner.

Speaker 33 And this way, if I, if I drink an organe, it's kind of like I've had a chocolate milkshake, which is some type of sweets, and at the same time, haven't had the sweets because organe has 30 grams of protein, but it's only got one gram of sugar per serving.

Speaker 33 And a serving is not a tablespoon. A serving is the goddamn container.
So you drink the whole container, you only get one gram of sugar. I have,

Speaker 33 I'm pretty sure I haven't added up, but I've had some 30 or 40 fucking grams of sugar.

Speaker 33 evening desserts here lately. And it can't, and I got to go to the doctor in a couple of months, have my annual checkup.

Speaker 33 So I'm not just, I've already got my weight under control. I'm 188 pounds.
As old as I am, all my contemporaries get fat and I remain

Speaker 33 thin and

Speaker 33 spunky, but I got to get, my cholesterol was creeping a little bit and my blood sugar.

Speaker 33 What do they call it? The your glucose, it was creeping a little bit.

Speaker 33 It was just across the border. So on this next one, I'm starting to eat clean.
That way I can drink one of these organes, the chocolate fudge shake,

Speaker 33 30 grams of protein, one gram of sugar, no artificial flavors or sweeteners,

Speaker 33 and I'll feel good about myself. And then when the doctor tells me I'm okay, then I can go back to a bag of Reese cups.

Speaker 33 You don't want to do the Reese Cups right before the doctor.

Speaker 32 No. And again, screw that other brand.
Let's talk about Organe. We love them here in the house.

Speaker 32 I have to order another case and Suzanne, I probably shouldn't say this, but she started to like one of their other flavors, the vanilla. But Organe, very popular here.

Speaker 33 Do they have strawberry?

Speaker 32 I don't know. You could check your local Organe authorities.

Speaker 33 Well, we're going to check that at OrganeO-R-G-A-I-N dot com because I thought of that. If they have strawberry that tastes as good as the chocolates, it I might even switch up.

Speaker 33 But the vanilla, you say, is tasty and good for you.

Speaker 32 Oh, well, Suzanne says it. I've only stuck with the chocolate.

Speaker 32 Chocolate. I've only stuck with the chocolate.
I'm very loyal to my chocolate.

Speaker 32 Do you like the chocolate?

Speaker 33 I'll tell you what,

Speaker 33 I'm not going to chuck it because the chocolate is chock full.

Speaker 33 of wonderful things that you can eat. As I mentioned, it's made without soy ingredients.
So there's no soy sauce in this. That would just, that would ruin the whole thing.

Speaker 33 You don't want to put this stuff over sushi you know dr andrew abraham the man with two first names it was a a genius in this field he's the one that developed this stuff he left his medical practice he's alive he's still alive i'm sorry you said he was he's still alive he's not dead well but he but he slowed down he slowed down in in in in his old age he's not old is he I don't know.

Speaker 32 There was a picture they sent at some point of him. He looked relatively young.

Speaker 33 Oh, I thought thought that was actually just a logo. I didn't even pay attention.

Speaker 33 But anyway, he left his medical practice.

Speaker 33 He wasn't run out, ladies and gentlemen. He was not disbarred.
He did it on purpose. And he founded Organe to create foods and beverages that offer better nutrition for people everywhere.

Speaker 33 And the nutritiousness and wonderfulness of this drink cannot be overstated, especially from a junk food junkie. Oh, Lord, I'm a junk food junkie.

Speaker 33 Like me, if I like it, well, you're just a prick if you don't like it.

Speaker 33 Are you, are you, uh, are you a prick, Brian Lance? Remember a funk? Are you a sissy lance?

Speaker 32 Well, I know you remember that. You went for the run of your life, but no, I love Organe.
I uh love Organe. I tell all my friends about it.
I'm telling all my friends right now about it.

Speaker 32 Organe, organe.com/slash JCE.

Speaker 32 What's that promo code?

Speaker 33 That's a giant group of people, your friends. You could tell everybody, all of your friends, about it if you were standing in a phone booth.

Speaker 33 But you know, I've found that if you just walk down the street and when people walk coming the other way, walk up to you, you just start telling them about how great organe is,

Speaker 33 they look at you strange. But if you do it on a commercial, they believe you.

Speaker 33 So

Speaker 33 these organe,

Speaker 32 30-gram

Speaker 33 protein shakes.

Speaker 33 Stop it.

Speaker 33 They're available at organe.com.

Speaker 33 Organe.com is O-R-G-A-I-N, in case you can't spell it. Organe.com, they're available there.

Speaker 33 And if you want to get in on the delicious protein-packed nutrition today,

Speaker 33 go to organe.com/slash JCE. Use the code JCE for 20% off your order.
20% off with promo code JCE for organe.

Speaker 33 It's delicious and filled with healthiocity, and it's also got all nine of the essential amino acids, including lysergic.

Speaker 32 No.

Speaker 32 So

Speaker 33 get them today, folks, because it's, again, deliciousness. and healthiocity.
How can you go wrong with a combination like that?

Speaker 1 This isn't just a game.

Speaker 4 It's a once-in-a-generation event.

Speaker 5 The Harlem Globetrotters 100-year tour.

Speaker 12 Celebrate 100 years of high-flying dunks, 100 years of show-stopping moves, and 100 years of changing the game.

Speaker 19 Bring the whole family and be part of the legacy.

Speaker 21 This game is once in a century.

Speaker 24 Be there at Chase Center on January 18th.

Speaker 31 Go to HarlemGlobetrotters.com for your tickets to the 100-year tour.

Speaker 32 Well, Jim, let's move on here with the show. And before we get to Raw and Dynamite, it's become a popular thing whenever these come out, so let's do it for the listeners.

Speaker 32 The latest Observer star ratings for the AEW Spectacular Wrestle Dream just outside of Seattle in Tacoma.

Speaker 33 Just outside of Seattle and down the road and across the bridge.

Speaker 33 And I know it's popular with the listeners, but it gets redundant with me because he just does the same thing every time. But

Speaker 33 maybe it could be different this time because

Speaker 33 a chink has appeared in the armor, the mirror has cracked, and

Speaker 33 Dave is even starting to

Speaker 33 slyly and subtly give Tony some nudges on, well, you ought to be doing this, you ought to be doing that, because this shit's not working.

Speaker 33 So did he

Speaker 33 finally break down and give an honest appraisal of any of the matches?

Speaker 32 Well, see, there's a difference, though.

Speaker 32 There's a difference between trying to give Tony Khan tough love and giving a fair appraisal of this generation of wrestlers and what you've convinced yourself is the modern style.

Speaker 33 And also, their feelings are so easily hurt. So, yeah, he wouldn't want to do that.

Speaker 32 Brian Cage defeated Atlantis Jr., the Ring of Honor TV title on the line, three and a half stars.

Speaker 32 That was the opening match. Anna Jay defeated Harley Cameron, 818.

Speaker 33 Just barely, remember?

Speaker 32 That's right. Two stars.

Speaker 33 Remember, he had to put her shoulder down. Two stars, you're saying?

Speaker 32 Two stars. It says nothing here about the pin.
I don't know how you leave out that detail. Again, if you're writing details of the match, how do you leave out that detail?

Speaker 32 The acclaimed beat the Eminem collection. 11 minutes, 23 seconds, two and a quarter stars.

Speaker 33 Boy, he's not being real kind on his current scale to

Speaker 33 the dark matches or the pre-show or whatever they call it.

Speaker 32 I don't know if he's ever given an acclaim match a good star rating.

Speaker 33 On the original scale, two was about right in the middle.

Speaker 32 Here's an interesting description. Tell me if you think this is an accurate description of what we saw.

Speaker 33 Okay.

Speaker 32 Tony Khan came out with Hirota Inoki and Naoto and Antonio Inoki, excuse me. and did an Antonio Inoki celebration.
He wanted everyone to do the Itchi Ni sanda chant.

Speaker 32 If these people know New Japan, and obviously at a pay-per-view show many do, it's going to be from the AJ Styles era at the earliest. So most did not get this.

Speaker 32 That's it. That's the entire description.

Speaker 33 That's it.

Speaker 33 Not Tony was out there out of his freaking mind.

Speaker 33 screaming

Speaker 33 and and nobody knew why and I don't think he realized he was doing it.

Speaker 33 Nothing about the behavior, nothing about the awkwardness, nothing about

Speaker 33 potentially needing someone to come and take Tony in for testing.

Speaker 32 That's where, when we say that he deals with Tony with kid gloves, there's the perfect example because he could put whatever gentle criticism months after everyone else came to that conclusion in The Observer.

Speaker 33 Tony is not a camera-friendly personality.

Speaker 32 But when he doesn't say Tony looked unhinged, Tony looked like he needed a bath. Tony looked like a mess.
He was screaming.

Speaker 33 Tony looked like he needed a canvas jacket with long arms.

Speaker 32 We've heard from multiple people in the room, and I got to assume that means Dave did as well, that he did not come across well in the room, and that segment died.

Speaker 32 If you're reading the Observer for details of the pay-per-view, how do you leave out all of that?

Speaker 32 Jay White defeated Adam Page, 1629, four-star match.

Speaker 33 Oh, come on.

Speaker 32 An exciting, hard-hitting opener.

Speaker 33 A flare and steamboat presentation.

Speaker 32 Mariah Mae defeated Willow Nightingale, 10 minutes, 51 seconds.

Speaker 32 What is that? Three and three-quarter stars.

Speaker 33 It was almost as good as the previous match that was better than anything that the WWE has done in 15 years.

Speaker 32 Jack Perry pinned Shibata to retain the team to TNE to retain the TNT title in nine minutes and 16 seconds.

Speaker 32 Three and a quarter stars.

Speaker 33 Oh, come on now.

Speaker 33 Seriously?

Speaker 32 That was not good that match.

Speaker 32 Takesha won the international title over Will Ospreay and Ricochet 20 minutes, 41 seconds.

Speaker 33 Every single bit of it.

Speaker 32 Hold on. I got to see one, two.

Speaker 32 I think it's five and a half stars.

Speaker 33 Five and a half.

Speaker 32 The stars are very little, so I'm trying to determine if it's five or six. I think it's five and a half stars.

Speaker 32 Oh, good lord. The greatest three-way match in history, I believe he called it here.

Speaker 33 Oh, Christ on a cracker. And

Speaker 33 again, whatever era that you prefer, he's saying that that

Speaker 33 exhibition of aggressive parkour was better than anything that Sean Michaels or Kurt Angle or Ric Flair or Buddy Rogers or anything that anybody's ever fucking done until about five years ago.

Speaker 32 Yeah, I mean, look, that's just the way things.

Speaker 32 If Buddy Rogers had done a good shooting star press, maybe you could talk about this, but you, you know, you can't bring up Buddy Rogers, unfortunately, in a conversation by the greatest workers of all time.

Speaker 32 Let me continue on here with the star ratings. Hologram defeated the beast Mortos, two out of three falls, 16 minutes, 44 seconds,

Speaker 32 Four and a quarter stars.

Speaker 33 Oh, come on now.

Speaker 33 What?

Speaker 33 At some points, weren't they just running past each other and waving as they went by?

Speaker 32 The crowd was dead early because it's like there were no moves possible that could compare to the prior match.

Speaker 32 They had to work really hard to get the crowd, but they did. And this was a great match.

Speaker 32 The next match, Darby Allen defeated Brodie King, 12 minutes, 26 seconds,

Speaker 32 4.5 stars.

Speaker 32 Another excellent match.

Speaker 33 Jim,

Speaker 33 so far, the last three matches have been better than Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker.

Speaker 32 The Young Bucks defeated Private Party 15 minutes, 50 seconds,

Speaker 32 4.5 stars.

Speaker 33 Oh, what in the world?

Speaker 32 Mark Briscoe defeated Chris Jericho. This was your favorite match, I believe.
15 minutes, 20 seconds,

Speaker 32 4 and a quarter stars.

Speaker 32 And finally...

Speaker 33 Oh, wait a minute. Now, for the people who haven't heard the clip, I said of all the matches, it was the only one-on-one match where they actually did the right fucking finish

Speaker 33 and

Speaker 33 got somebody over, in this case, Mark Briscoe.

Speaker 33 But it, no,

Speaker 33 it wasn't better

Speaker 33 than anything that was ever done between the goddamn, you know, giants of the industry.

Speaker 33 Oh, Christ.

Speaker 32 All right. And finally, Jon Moxley defeated Brian Danielson to win the AEW world title.
and end Brian Danielson's full-time career.

Speaker 33 And try to commit attempted homicide three different times in the course of an overly long 45-minute plus fucking presentation with my pals.

Speaker 32 26 minutes, 55 seconds, four and three-quarter stars. Oh, for

Speaker 32 see again, he doesn't rip on the things that are rip-onable,

Speaker 32 like that Tony Khan segment. It's impossible, even if you're friends with Tony.
I've talked to friends of Tony since then.

Speaker 32 They thought it was cringy and laughed about it. Dave didn't even mention that everyone reacted that way.

Speaker 32 And then everyone got four stars.

Speaker 32 And listen, anyone who wrestles from nine o'clock on, you get four stars. Everyone else, look, I can't help everyone.

Speaker 33 What is he?

Speaker 33 It kills any credibility that he might try to establish at this point.

Speaker 33 When just everything on that, the one, two, three, four, five, the last six matches were better. What do the kids generally consider the greatest match of the last 20 years?

Speaker 32 I don't know how to answer that. A lot of people thought Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker.
I mean, that was a big one you heard for a very long time.

Speaker 32 I think Brett and Steve Austin stands the test of time. Well,

Speaker 33 that's been 26 or 7 now, or whatever. But to point it, no.
Yeah, I guess so.

Speaker 32 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 33 But still, all of these that are demonstrably, observably

Speaker 33 incredible matches pale in comparison to these fucking guys doing this shit with furniture over and over again. Because

Speaker 33 he don't want to hurt their feelings. That's got to be, that's the only

Speaker 33 explanation. Or elsewise,

Speaker 33 is there some medication

Speaker 33 that they give to senior citizens or some chemical in hair dye that would just make you love everything, some kind of skin absorbable ecstasy?

Speaker 32 Again, I think

Speaker 32 AEW

Speaker 32 gets away with a lot of stuff that if it was on WWE TV, they would get killed for, or made fun of at least.

Speaker 32 But AEW is still the little underdog, and some people are personally invested with the people involved at AEW.

Speaker 32 And when we say that Dave handles Tony with kid gloves, and then Dave says, I call him out every week in the Observer.

Speaker 32 I say all the, he says everything we've been saying, and others, it's not just us, for a very long time.

Speaker 32 A lot of people are late to the dance, pointing out the problems with the booking, with everything.

Speaker 32 Now you can't avoid it because the crowds are so low and the ratings never came back.

Speaker 32 But these are all things that were said and a lot of people avoided.

Speaker 33 But hey,

Speaker 33 we got one email from one of the listeners that was there live that said with that finish to Danielson and Moxley and the whole thing afterwards that the people were

Speaker 33 just disgruntled enough. The quote was that he may have killed Washington State as a live event market.

Speaker 32 Yeah.

Speaker 33 And that match got four and three-quarter stars.

Speaker 32 See, that's the thing, too. There's a difference between heat, and it's like,

Speaker 32 there's a difference between acting like a heel. And I was, I'm not a wrestler.
I'm just someone who saw good shit.

Speaker 32 There's a difference between acting like a heel and having heat and any of those things actually happening.

Speaker 32 There are fans who insist that the ending of that pay-per-view, it's good when the heels win. You can't always have the fans go home happy.
They were getting heat.

Speaker 32 There's heat, and then there's reasons people don't want to come back to your show again.

Speaker 32 People know wrestling's a work.

Speaker 32 A lot of people thought Moxley's going to probably win the belt.

Speaker 32 To go out like that,

Speaker 32 that goes past heat, that goes to a slap in the face to yourself.

Speaker 33 It was the, we left the house and spent this money and sat here all this time, and that's what they did, heat.

Speaker 33 and and the they used to call it disgusting heat, where the people got disgusted, not mad.

Speaker 32 Someone, it may have been the email that you have too, because uh, I've gotten a few emails in the last day or so about it.

Speaker 32 Someone said one of them that as all this shit was happening and the cameras went off, and you know, everyone's still around, ringside all beat up from the vicious neo-Nazi gang or whatever the hell's going on.

Speaker 32 Justin Roberts, like, thank you, Tacoma, get home safe. Yeah,

Speaker 32 thank you,

Speaker 33 Pay no attention to the corpses before you. Just drive home safe now.
Don't get a ticket.

Speaker 32 Hey, is that Jeff Jarrett covered in blood? Come on, buddy. Get out of here.
Come on, go home. Have a safe ride home.

Speaker 32 Well, that was AEW Wrestle Dream.

Speaker 32 We'll see what comes next. But, Jim, let's get after Wrestle Dream in this past week was WWE Raw a fine two-hour raw.

Speaker 33 Well,

Speaker 33 it's a two-hour raw.

Speaker 33 I'm not sure about the fineness.

Speaker 33 And again, you know, I was thinking, honestly, I'm looking over my notes here on what happened. We had a nice conversation,

Speaker 33 the next big star in wrestling,

Speaker 33 Rhea Ripley, and then,

Speaker 33 yeah.

Speaker 33 And I'm kind of likening this now to one of the old daytime soap operas. Ada, Brian, did you ever watch a soap opera in your life when you were younger and they still had those type of things?

Speaker 32 I mean, I've seen bits and pieces of them. I think I've seen a couple episodes.
I mean, I've seen episodes of Dark Shadows. I don't know if you count that.

Speaker 33 There you go.

Speaker 33 Well, as a matter of fact, Dark Shadows was just a regular soap opera for I don't know how many years until suddenly in what the 1968 season or whatever it was, a distant relative shows up and he turns out to be a vampire.

Speaker 33 And for two years or whatever, that was the hottest thing. And the kids wanted to get home by 3.30, I think it was Eastern to see Dark Shadows.

Speaker 32 Well, you see, too, it was part of a block on ABC. You had Dark Shadows, and then you also had Where the Action Is.

Speaker 32 The Dick Clark produced show that had Everyday Paul Revere and the Raiders and all the top musical acts miming their songs.

Speaker 33 Because that's where the action was.

Speaker 32 So if you were a kid and you watched that, and then you ended up watching this show about this fucking vampire.

Speaker 33 Yeah.

Speaker 33 And then they made the movie Night of Dark Shadow House of Dark Shadows. And then was Night of Dark Shadows.

Speaker 33 But for two or three years, it was hot. But the point is, if you go back and try to watch it now and it's not the phenomenon and you're not used to that, I've used to watch The Edge of Night

Speaker 33 ever so, especially, you know, you're home all day in the summertime or whatever, eight years old. There wasn't anything else on television.

Speaker 33 The Secret Storm,

Speaker 33 but they were five days a week.

Speaker 33 And

Speaker 33 they filled their 30 minutes, but almost nothing happened of any major storyline progression. It was like Bert didn't drink his coffee.
Not nah, nah, nah.

Speaker 33 And you had to watch every day for a couple of weeks for anything to fucking happen, right?

Speaker 33 Has Raw really become a male soap opera now? Is this because

Speaker 33 all their

Speaker 33 talent is so over,

Speaker 33 the fans chant the shit that they want them to chant without them even telling them to, or half the time even leading them that way.

Speaker 33 And the buildings are selling out or close to,

Speaker 33 and the sponsorships are through the roof, and nothing fucking happens. It's like watching a soap opera.

Speaker 33 Rhea Ripley tells Liv that Dominic didn't drink his coffee.

Speaker 33 Do you see where I'm going with this, Brian?

Speaker 32 Yeah, but I think with WWE, in a lot of cases, based on who's going to these shows,

Speaker 32 the ticket prices for these shows, again, it's not, hey, I'm going to see

Speaker 32 Dominic Mysterio versus Damian Priest.

Speaker 32 It's, I'm going to wrestling, and they're going to remember who they saw. It really, in a lot of ways, doesn't even matter at this point what they do.
or who they do it with.

Speaker 32 It's like going to a restaurant and seeing Elizabeth Taylor. You have that story for the rest of your life.
I went to the Barclays and I saw Cody.

Speaker 32 That's what it is because nothing happens.

Speaker 33 I'll tell you what, for the ticket prices they're charging now for some of these guys to go and look at some of these girl wrestlers.

Speaker 33 About 40 years ago, they could have had the girl wrestler till next Tuesday for that same amount of money.

Speaker 32 Does that include Moolah's cut or is that the girl pay the cut?

Speaker 33 Well, hey, she could have been going into business for herself and cutting Moolah out. But even with Moolah.

Speaker 32 She's an outlaw. I understand.
Yeah.

Speaker 33 But anyway, Raw on October 14th.

Speaker 32 Raw Rolls On, yes.

Speaker 33 Raw Rolls On began with Rhea Ripley

Speaker 33 coming to the ring to talk about Liv and Raquel, and she wants the belt back and she's great.

Speaker 33 But all she had to, all any of them have to do, they come out, big entrance,

Speaker 33 they briefly mention the name of the people they're talking about, and they call them out there, and then music plays, and people are happy with it. But this time,

Speaker 33 she called out Liv and Raquel, and Tiffy,

Speaker 33 Tiffy's music, played, and she came out

Speaker 33 and she opened her mouth, and it sounded like somebody stepping on a cat's tail.

Speaker 33 And Rhea didn't have time for Tiffy

Speaker 33 because she wanted Liv and Raquel, and they argued until Liv and Raquel attacked both of them.

Speaker 33 And

Speaker 33 I think that there's plenty of potential in Raquel.

Speaker 33 God damn it, they changed her name a while back, and then she's been gone. Did they change it from Rodriguez to Gonzalez or from Gonzalez to Rodriguez?

Speaker 32 I think they made it Rodriguez.

Speaker 33 Okay.

Speaker 33 Well, anyway, she's got potential. She's got size.
She's got an intimidating look. I'm not sure her current ring attire is flattering,

Speaker 33 especially because to me it accentuates.

Speaker 32 You don't have to say it. I think we all understand.
We all agree.

Speaker 32 You know, she used to focus on her back. She used to show you her back?

Speaker 33 Yes,

Speaker 33 if she ever gets thrown into the bay, she needs a life preserver because she's got no buoyancy.

Speaker 33 It's what you're...

Speaker 33 Trying to beat around the bush and save.

Speaker 32 I'm not beating any bush. You're beating the bush.
Now we don't even know. You're burning the bush.

Speaker 33 We don't know about the status of the bush.

Speaker 32 It's

Speaker 32 a photographic program. Wait till Netflix.

Speaker 33 Oh, you think with Netflix, are we going to get Bush?

Speaker 32 We'll get Bush on that. If that happened, that would be an industry-changing moment, don't you think?

Speaker 33 I'd even settle for Cheney, much less Bush.

Speaker 32 And then you could sell it to Manscaped.

Speaker 33 There you go. Or woman.

Speaker 33 But anyway, Raquel somehow tried to choke slam Tiffany, and it it didn't work or Tiffany couldn't take it or whatever, but they kind of fell in a heap there. And

Speaker 33 the heels left both Rhea Ripley and Tiffy

Speaker 33 laying.

Speaker 33 And then they go to the back after the break where Raquel is highly pissed and tells Adam Pierce that she wants Liv and Raquel.

Speaker 33 in the ring tonight, but Pierce said, well, you got to have a partner.

Speaker 33 And then Tiffy came in and started prattling on, and Adam Pierce had an idea.

Speaker 33 The old Grinch had a stupefying, astonishing idea. What about her?

Speaker 33 And Raquel, or not Raquel, but Rhea rolled her eyes and said, oh, fine. So now we've got Rhea Ripley and the babyface annoying Tiffy teaming up in the main event against Liv and Raquel.

Speaker 33 And they set that up and then they got out of it.

Speaker 33 That wasn't bad.

Speaker 33 Well, did you think it was bad?

Speaker 32 You're laughing at me? I thought it was good.

Speaker 32 I laugh at you because you are spitting out the name Tiffy. You're like, Tiffy?

Speaker 32 Tiffy. Her name's Tiffany Stratton.

Speaker 33 Fucking annoys the shit out of me.

Speaker 33 But anyway,

Speaker 33 it wasn't a bad way to set up the thing that they set up for the later time that they set it up for.

Speaker 33 But now we know, okay, we've just seen went to the four girls. We got four girls in the main event.
What's the next match? Four girls,

Speaker 33 Bianca and Jade

Speaker 33 versus damage control.

Speaker 33 And by the time that it was over, we were half an hour into this program.

Speaker 33 And it again

Speaker 33 is there, it's more than 50% women now, isn't it?

Speaker 32 It's a lot.

Speaker 33 It's a lot of women.

Speaker 32 You know, I've been saying here for a while. I don't want to just keep saying the same thing over and over.
I'll take a week off, but it's a lot. And I like Jade and Bianca.

Speaker 32 Let me ask you this because

Speaker 32 every week it's all I think about when I see them together.

Speaker 32 When the turn finally happens,

Speaker 32 and I'm assuming Jade will be the heel, maybe that's not a fair assumption, but I think so.

Speaker 32 Does she need a manager?

Speaker 33 I don't know who I wouldn't say yes and I wouldn't say no, but I don't know who it would be that would fit.

Speaker 32 But I'm

Speaker 33 I think she needs somebody with her

Speaker 33 to do a little speaking or to be a flunky or to

Speaker 33 her just there on her own at this stage right now.

Speaker 33 Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 33 I don't know.

Speaker 32 Raw rolls on.

Speaker 33 Raw rolls on.

Speaker 33 And they had a brawn breaker package that, again,

Speaker 33 he can fucking talk.

Speaker 33 He's talking about Jey Uso. He wants his belt back.

Speaker 33 They were showing highlights as B-roll with this. The point is, this guy is the future of wrestling.
He's a star. That's what we, unfortunately, he is unique,

Speaker 33 you know, these days.

Speaker 33 But, you know, anyway, he's going to wrestle later on,

Speaker 33 and we look forward to that.

Speaker 33 And then Adam Pierce had a sit-down with Bronson Reed to try to get him to come to Jesus on all of the chaos and the destruction and the

Speaker 33 heartache that he's been causing.

Speaker 33 And

Speaker 33 Adam Pierce does a great job.

Speaker 33 What did you think of Adam in this, first of all?

Speaker 32 I like Adam Pierce in his role as general manager. I think in general, he does, in general, I think the general manager does a good job.

Speaker 33 Well, generally speaking, but here he really, he pitches.

Speaker 32 I mean, he's no Ross Abrams.

Speaker 33 Well, no, but nobody can be.

Speaker 33 Who could live up to the

Speaker 33 bar that was set by that genetic jackhammer?

Speaker 33 But anyway, but Adam Pierce does a great job here, but Bronson Reed says that everything I've been doing,

Speaker 33 the splashing of the people on the cars and the mayhem and the destruction, was to get in the main event. I want to be the guy around here, and he wants Seth Rollins.

Speaker 33 And, you know, he's the one that put Seth out with the injury a while back.

Speaker 33 And

Speaker 33 he promised Adam Pierce that there'll be no trouble. He won't be doing these things anymore if he gets the match he wants.
So they're building that now. And that,

Speaker 33 again, I look forward to seeing that because Bronson Reed with a smaller guy that's more agile and provides a contrast.

Speaker 33 You know, the littler they are or the bigger they are, the harder they fall, but the littler they are, the further they fly.

Speaker 33 That's an old saying.

Speaker 33 What did you think of this particular thing there?

Speaker 32 I thought it was good, and they've done such a better job lately with getting Bronson Reed as a character interesting and over than everything they did before.

Speaker 32 He's been around for a few years on the main roster, and he was, you know, mama's boy or whatever his gimmick was, mama's favorite boy. What was it?

Speaker 32 Yeah, yeah, what uh, mom says I'm a good boy, whatever.

Speaker 33 Mama said there'd be days like this, there'd be days like this, my mama said, mama said, mama said,

Speaker 33 and then he was um,

Speaker 33 he was also very well dressed at one point, yes, looked like a fashion plate.

Speaker 32 Or a gangster.

Speaker 33 Mr. Nice Guy.

Speaker 32 Mr. Nice Guy.
Mama said he was a nice guy.

Speaker 33 Yeah, whatever the... Jesus Christ.
So they finally, they've got it. I get Triple H probably always had it, but we needed

Speaker 33 the stench of the rotted adult brain of Vince to fully leave the building.

Speaker 32 Really makes you wonder about the years of frustration for Triple H. Like you and OVW, I'm sure you are the one person who could relate.

Speaker 32 You develop people, you believe in them, you think they're ready. In your case, a lot of times they weren't ready.

Speaker 32 You think they're ready and they get called up and misused from the jump and it never recovers. And that happened so many times with guys from NXT, so many times from OVW.

Speaker 32 You can understand them, sure. I'm sure you can relate.

Speaker 33 Well, and

Speaker 33 then later on, I'll skip over this because it happened later, but Seth came out or didn't come out, but Seth just told Pierce that he wants Bronson Reed, too.

Speaker 33 And it's going to be no trouble to set that up. So I assume

Speaker 33 we've got Survivor Series coming up, but we got to get by a crown jewel.

Speaker 33 But are they going to.

Speaker 32 Is that a place for feuds or is that a place for let's do big matches?

Speaker 33 Well, that's what I was saying. They're going to do the champion versus champion gimmick.
And so are they going to give Saudi Arabia all these big matches with Survivor Series so close?

Speaker 33 Maybe that's why they're doing champion versus champion. So they could tell

Speaker 33 Mahala Hala Akbar bin Salamander

Speaker 33 that, oh, we've got the biggest match possible, champion versus champion, when

Speaker 33 we know the people want to see other matches more than that.

Speaker 33 So who knows? But it's coming up soon.

Speaker 32 I'm interested. That's the, you know what? I haven't thought.

Speaker 32 I can't think of a Rollins match recently I was more interested in seeing than this one. They've actually done a good job of building it up.

Speaker 32 And then building him up, Bronson Reed specifically.

Speaker 33 Yeah, and hopefully, in the next couple of weeks, they won't tear it down.

Speaker 33 And then we got the Vikings against Otis and Tazawa.

Speaker 33 And the Vikings are not the Vikings anymore. They have moved from Norway

Speaker 33 and now they are the War Raiders.

Speaker 33 And

Speaker 33 remember what I said

Speaker 33 that I actually managed these guys on an independent show back in like probably 2016-ish or whatever, and they were war machine. And boy, they were impressive.

Speaker 33 And they could move around and they did all this great shit.

Speaker 33 And then I saw them up there. I'm like, what the fuck?

Speaker 33 And then this Viking thing has been.

Speaker 33 Well, now instead of the Viking Raiders or War Machine, they are the War Raiders.

Speaker 33 And they don't, they're not,

Speaker 33 they're not dressing up like stereotypical Vikings and painted faces and all that shit anymore. I bet you that they got complaints from the anti-Viking Defamation Society.

Speaker 33 Because, I mean, those people are poorly represented as it is.

Speaker 32 Well, this, again, this goes to our prior conversation. In NXT,

Speaker 32 they were the War Raiders.

Speaker 32 So when Triple H had them, and when Triple H was using them well,

Speaker 32 they were the War Raiders, and then Vince brought them up. Remember, at first, they were the Viking experience.

Speaker 33 Yes, that's right.

Speaker 32 And then someone must have pointed out, what the fuck?

Speaker 33 What the fuck is a Viking experience? We're going to put you on a fucking old boat and run you through with a sword?

Speaker 32 So they got changed from the Viking experience to the Viking Raiders. I guess.

Speaker 33 Maybe he thought he could have a fucking amusement park ride.

Speaker 32 Again, some of the ideas of old man Vince in the last several years years were astounding, but it is a Triple H NXT name for the tag team.

Speaker 32 So they're reverting back to, you know, they're doing the Bobby Ewing thing. The last several years of not happening.

Speaker 33 It was all a dream. Well, they look a lot better and they won quick.
So they got that going for them.

Speaker 1 This isn't just a game.

Speaker 4 It's a once-in-a-generation event.

Speaker 5 The Harlem Globetrotters 100-year tour.

Speaker 12 Celebrate 100 years of high-flying dunks, 100 years of show-stopping moves, and 100 years of changing the game.

Speaker 18 Bring the whole family and be part of the legacy.

Speaker 21 This game is once in a century.

Speaker 24 Be there at Chase Center on January 18th.

Speaker 30 Go to HarlemGlobetrotters.com for your tickets to the 100-year tour.

Speaker 33 And then at 9 o'clock, the 9 o'clock hour, we got

Speaker 33 The American Nightmare Cody Rhodes in the ring.

Speaker 33 And since they were in St. Louis,

Speaker 33 he got to name-drop Sam Muchnick in the Keel Auditorium and the wrestling at the Chase, etc. He said, I'm a traditionalist, but recent history, St.

Speaker 33 Louis, was where the fans first started chanting, We Want Cody.

Speaker 33 And of course, that got, you know, the people

Speaker 33 to chant, We Want Cody, or Cody Cody, or whatever.

Speaker 33 So then he says,

Speaker 33 So, what do you guys want to talk about? And Gunther's music plays.

Speaker 33 And here he comes. And again,

Speaker 33 yeah, love Gunther, love Cody, love, love, love is in the air.

Speaker 33 But they've just, they've got to do this because they're not building Survivor Series. They're, they're having to build, they're having to build.
They're under the

Speaker 33 burdensome chore of having to promote this show. They're getting paid $50 million for before they ever do a goddamn other thing.

Speaker 33 But they got to do the champion versus champion thing. And they've just had Owens beat the shit out of Cody.

Speaker 33 They can't have Gunther coming out and beat the shit out of Cody. And who knows what Cody at Survivor Series could

Speaker 33 is it going to be a team of four trying to settle a score or a team of five striving to survive? They may be setting some shit up here.

Speaker 33 So the point is, they can't be doing angle, angle, angle.

Speaker 33 So

Speaker 33 Gunther comes out and he does a promo. I respect you, but you love to be everybody's darling.
And I want you to sort out your issues with Owens and be at your best.

Speaker 33 And Cody tells Gunther that he gets uncomfortable and he breaks when an opponent keeps coming. And you've never been in a ring one-on-one with me before.

Speaker 33 Because I've already slain a beast. And then they shook hands.
And then that was it.

Speaker 33 And it was well done.

Speaker 33 They're both great stars.

Speaker 33 It looked wonderful, but this was a long time to talk to get to a handshake, wasn't it?

Speaker 32 Yeah, and it had a kind of a stale ending. You needed some.
I know you can get away with that, but it needed something else. And I've become a really big fan of Smug Gunther in a suit on a mic.

Speaker 32 He's been great lately. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 32 I mean, like you said, they're building to this, and then they're building to,

Speaker 32 I mean, I guess this is all just for survivor series. There's nothing with Gunther or Cody continuing after that.

Speaker 32 So I guess maybe.

Speaker 33 Or not Survivor of Saudi Arabia, rather than Survivor Series.

Speaker 32 You know, to your earlier point,

Speaker 32 they're giving Saudi Arabia that match, and they're going to do the absolute minimal amount they have to do to have these guys. do anything that would hurt the other

Speaker 32 in terms of like an angle or just any you don't even need to why do any angles This is it. That was the angle.

Speaker 33 Yeah, there's the angle. The handshake.
What if one guy wouldn't have let go of the other guy? My God, that would have been killing heat. People would hit the ring.

Speaker 33 But, but and honestly, as you said, they don't have to do anymore. They shouldn't do anymore in this situation.

Speaker 33 But, you know, it's on a show where they're already not doing a lot more.

Speaker 33 Did you watch Braun Breaker and Kofi Kingston?

Speaker 32 Yes, I did.

Speaker 33 Again, I just think this guy is a fucking prodigy.

Speaker 33 And he's already, we talk about working to a guy's level, and we'll talk about that. We get the

Speaker 33 AEW show.

Speaker 33 But with this, you know, and I'm sorry for fans of Kofi Kingston who say, well, he was a champion 10 years ago or whatever. I'm talking about right now.

Speaker 33 Braun's on the way up, and Kofi's hanging around waiting on his partner to turn on him.

Speaker 33 So Braun

Speaker 33 controlled a lot of this, had a nice deliberate heel pace and attitude.

Speaker 33 Everything he does is pretty crisp, a nice charge into the post to give Kofi an opening for a comeback, which was

Speaker 33 sloppy at best, kind of all over the place.

Speaker 33 And then they go back and forth, and Braun hits him with a big belly-to-belly and a super spear one, two, three.

Speaker 33 It was a good win. He didn't give Kofi too much, but he didn't squash him.

Speaker 33 But he shouldn't have given him any more because of the plans that they've got for him.

Speaker 33 And that's what with some of these guys in the other company,

Speaker 33 it's just impossible for them to understand.

Speaker 33 Your friend may be able to do all these moves. I bet y'all could go all night,

Speaker 33 but your friend is the guy parking the cars, and you're my main event attraction. So beat him in three minutes.

Speaker 33 The fuck, how hard is that?

Speaker 32 I'll save my thoughts for what we saw in Dynamite on what we saw in Dynamite because it applies to this issue right here. But yeah, Braun Breaker looks good, and Kofi,

Speaker 32 you know, like you said, he's been there a long time. How long has he been there? Like 15 years or something?

Speaker 33 I don't know. They're about to give him a gold watch.

Speaker 33 But anyway, and then Braun went back to Kofi like he was going to do something else, and Woods hit the ring and Braun bails so that Woods can take care of his partner.

Speaker 33 And then he comes back and gloms him

Speaker 33 and goes to spear him. And they play the Jay Uso music.

Speaker 33 And Jay came out and super kicked and speared Braun, who went to the floor, and then

Speaker 33 jumped back up and Jay super kicked him again.

Speaker 33 I'm not looking forward to any matches with Braun and Jay, just because of the

Speaker 33 shortcomings of Mr. Uso in terms of his sloppiness, sloppiosity.

Speaker 33 But that's what they're built.

Speaker 32 Well, you have to figure he's going to get the belt back from Jey Uso, and then Jey Uso can

Speaker 32 spend his time dealing with the bloodline stuff.

Speaker 33 Can yeet on off?

Speaker 33 No, that's the thing. It looks like they're.

Speaker 33 I believe the forces are starting to assemble. Is this the origin story of the Avengers, where now Cody and Roman have at least had one tentative alliance, and Jimmy's trying to talk to Jay, and,

Speaker 33 you know,

Speaker 33 the teams are starting to come together.

Speaker 33 Rhea Ripley and Damian Priest had some more dramatic dialogue in a scripted exchange. And

Speaker 33 R-Truth had a match with Miz. They were partners, but Kerry and Cross got involved.
That's why we didn't pay any attention to it.

Speaker 33 And before they even

Speaker 33 locked up in the match, Cross and

Speaker 33 why are they doing this to Paul? Poor precious Paul Ellering?

Speaker 32 He could say no. He could say, I don't want to do this.

Speaker 32 He wants to do this.

Speaker 32 Well, Cross and I don't know what he's doing, but he wants to do this.

Speaker 33 He wants to not do this, apparently, because this is not doing something. But

Speaker 33 Cross and the

Speaker 33 two fat guys and Precious Paul come down to the ring, and Miz turned his back. Hard truth just schoolboyed him one, two, three,

Speaker 33 and then hugged the Miz and hugged the referee and jumped out on the floor and fist-bumped the heels.

Speaker 33 And then Cross told the fucking fat guys to get him, and they grabbed him and threw him in the ring. And Miz gave him the facebuster.

Speaker 33 So now Miz has gone from

Speaker 33 being a superstar to joining this sideshow group.

Speaker 32 Anyway, he's been there a long time, too.

Speaker 33 And it seems even longer, doesn't it?

Speaker 33 How long do frogs live? What is the lifespan of a frog?

Speaker 32 You and this thing about him being a frog, I guess, is he going to become like a demonic version of himself? Well, they're not really demonic. They're kind of like biker, but they don't have bikes.

Speaker 32 They're not really bikers. They're

Speaker 32 not. He needs to gain weight.

Speaker 33 do they have mystical powers cross his group or are they just they wear black they're just they're they're they're wearing black and being spooky and and scarlet wasn't with them was she when they came out oh she may have been i don't know i don't know see that's the bad thing they're so boring we don't notice her they used to have smoke right didn't they used to have smoke everywhere i think they started testing for that again oh

Speaker 33 but anyway and then uh and jimmy was in the back looking for jay and he found him and he said, just listen to me. And Jay said, get out of my face

Speaker 33 and get off of my cloud. And off he went.

Speaker 33 And then we got the main event.

Speaker 33 Rhea and Tiffy

Speaker 33 versus Liv and Raquel. And

Speaker 33 they rang the bell. They had 11 minutes on the air and there was a commercial break in that.
So they didn't. drag this out or anything.

Speaker 33 But basically, I think they're setting up

Speaker 33 some kind of Survivor Series business with the females, also, because

Speaker 33 there's multiple

Speaker 33 baby faces and heels mad at each other in this thing

Speaker 33 where

Speaker 33 finally the finish of the match, Rhea and

Speaker 33 Rachel.

Speaker 33 Rhea and Raquel finally got in a fight, but Tiffy missed a moonsault,

Speaker 33 And the refrigerator, Nia Jax, came down and nailed Ripley and got the disqualification in.

Speaker 33 But then

Speaker 33 as the fridge went to Tiffany to help her,

Speaker 33 Rhea came back in and went for a slam on the fridge, but Liv clipped Rhea's leg so that the fridge fell on Rhea.

Speaker 33 And then Fridge grabbed Liv and head-butted her and leg-dropped her and bonsied her.

Speaker 33 and then told Tiffany to cash in her briefcase on Liv, who's another heel.

Speaker 33 And she, oh, she grabbed the case, but there was Dominic to pull Liv out of the fucking ring before she could be cashed in on.

Speaker 33 These women can never get along.

Speaker 33 So are we setting up some kind of multiple-person

Speaker 33 fucking round-robin fiasco to go on here also?

Speaker 32 I don't know about that. They're setting up Naya versus Liv for Saudi Arabia.

Speaker 32 In the middle of all the Liv and Rhea stuff, they have to somehow get Naya mixed in just because of Saudi Arabia.

Speaker 33 But we've also got Tiffany.

Speaker 32 She's Naya's pet on Smack.

Speaker 33 And we also got Raquel.

Speaker 32 She's Liv's muscle.

Speaker 33 Yeah, and well, and the love muscle.

Speaker 32 And I don't know what the hell that means.

Speaker 33 But anyway, I think we ought to just put them all in the ring and give them all

Speaker 33 a big bat with spikes like Ox Baker had in Escape from New York and let him sort it out. And that was raw.

Speaker 32 It certainly was. That was raw.
Jim, did you place any bets on Raw? Did you make any wagers about

Speaker 32 how many segments there would be with women's wrestling on Raw this week?

Speaker 33 Well, I did not. I did not because I was afraid to find out the answer.
But you know what I found out?

Speaker 33 I'll tell you, I was watching the news, the NBA. Have you heard of them?

Speaker 32 Of course.

Speaker 33 The National Basketball Association?

Speaker 32 Yes, of course.

Speaker 33 Well, you might have confused it with a boxing organization. But the NBA is finally back.

Speaker 33 And apparently, from what I understand,

Speaker 33 the NFL, you know, they... They came back and did another season.
They did well last year. They came back and did it again.
And now the NBA is copying them.

Speaker 33 And they're going to come back and do it again this year, too. Can you believe that?

Speaker 32 Yeah.

Speaker 33 Well, you don't seem to be astonished by how they're just doing this every year now.

Speaker 33 They're playing National Basketball Association games all over the world. You've got the

Speaker 33 Harlem Globetrotters and the Kentucky Colonels and all those other teams.

Speaker 32 Well, they're not in the NBA. They're not professional organized basketball teams.
They're more of a show team. They're more of the WWE to

Speaker 32 the NBA's NBA.

Speaker 33 When I saw the Kentucky Colonels in the ABA down at the Louisville Gardens in 1968, they were playing some serious b-ball, I'll tell you what.

Speaker 32 In 1968, how old were you?

Speaker 33 I was seven years old.

Speaker 32 You were not at the age to evaluate a basketball player.

Speaker 33 Well, I certainly evaluated the ball because the ABA was using that red, white, and blue ball, not that boring old orange thing that the NBA uses.

Speaker 33 But anyway, folks, the NBA is back, and that means that you can get the action at DraftKings Sportsbook because they're an official sports betting partner of the NBA.

Speaker 33 And, you know, for example, you can bet on who's draining threes from beyond the ark.

Speaker 33 Who would you pick for that?

Speaker 32 What the hell does that mean? Beyond the Ark.

Speaker 33 Who's draining threes from Beyond the the ark? That's what the copy says. I want to know who's draining the main vein behind the goalpost,

Speaker 33 but who is crashing the boards and grabbing rebounds? Folks, you can get behind your favorite players, get behind them, and give them the old heave-ho.

Speaker 33 And the prop bets you can make on DraftKings, well, they're limitless.

Speaker 33 You can bet on who's going to score most points, or who's going to score least points, or who's going to win the game, or just any old thing your heart desires because the DraftKings Sportsbook app is the home of betting on the NBA.

Speaker 33 And right now,

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Speaker 33 and use the code JCE,

Speaker 33 then if you bet $5, if you're a new customer, you're going to get $200

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Speaker 33 You know he's such a polite fella.

Speaker 32 He's always here, says all that, leaves.

Speaker 33 He's always in a hurry.

Speaker 32 Well, he's got a lot to say, a lot to do. He's a busy man.
The crown is his, and yours, and whoever's with DraftKings.

Speaker 32 Ain't that right, Jim?

Speaker 33 That's right.

Speaker 32 That's right.

Speaker 32 Well,

Speaker 32 why don't we move?

Speaker 33 That's a deep subject, as Mama Cornette used to say.

Speaker 32 Why don't we move across the country to California, where this week AEW

Speaker 32 returned to the golden state

Speaker 32 for another action-packed episode of Dynamite, a highly anticipated episode coming off the big pay-per-view, the ending where there was almost murder, and

Speaker 32 various other people turned or won. Lots of things happened.
We figured there'd be lots of answers on dynamite.

Speaker 33 And only there were more questions. That's what the problem was.
Questions, questions. And California, here we come.

Speaker 33 I heard there were 30 million people or more in the state of California, and they couldn't get

Speaker 33 what is 3,000

Speaker 33 going into 30 million. Is that

Speaker 33 a tenth of a percent?

Speaker 33 Or is that how many fractions of a percent is that?

Speaker 32 I don't know.

Speaker 33 Well, why don't you know?

Speaker 32 Because ask your question again with English.

Speaker 33 Well, see, if you do the ciphering, use your words.

Speaker 33 Use my own words, Very.

Speaker 33 Well, those are my own words. I just made them up on the spot.

Speaker 33 So, what I'm saying to you is: if you're doing your ciphering, how many times does 3,000 Gazenta, 30 million,

Speaker 33 It's like a tenth of a percent of the population of the state showed up. Or is it even a 10th? Would it be a hundredth?

Speaker 33 You should know these things, Brian.

Speaker 33 Are you finding your calculator?

Speaker 32 3,000 goes into 30 million, 10,000 times.

Speaker 33 So, what percentage then would that be of?

Speaker 32 You know, I can guarantee it is a percentage.

Speaker 32 Oh, no, my calculator broke. Oh, God.

Speaker 32 What will I do?

Speaker 33 We'll just have to guess.

Speaker 33 That's a small percentage of the, okay, then answer me this while I'm talking about this show open. How many people

Speaker 33 does that building in San Jose, California that they had this event in, how many people does it hold if you're running a regular event where where you just don't block all of it off?

Speaker 33 How big is that building?

Speaker 32 Let me get you that answer right now. This was their debut in the market in San Jose for the record.

Speaker 33 In San Jose, right on top of

Speaker 33 the Lollipop Guild's headquarters and right where

Speaker 33 the home of their mouth organ, I mean, house organ,

Speaker 33 the wrestling observer editor Dave Meltzer lives in San Jose. They couldn't figure out a way to strong arm, bully, intimidate,

Speaker 33 or otherwise ship more than 3,000 people into this building.

Speaker 32 I believe this capacity number is for

Speaker 32 the NHL games, the San Jose Sharks, but the SAP Center capacity, 17,562.

Speaker 33 Jesus Christ. All right, so three Gazenda.

Speaker 33 They had about a sixth of a house.

Speaker 33 But they started out not going directly into the arena, Brian. They started out with a cold open,

Speaker 33 a package, an interview with the plumber Jon Moxley and his crew in the back of a pickup truck riding around.

Speaker 33 Apparently, they were just going around in circles in the parking lot of whatever arena they shot it in because every once in a while, when they drove by what apparently was a group of fans, they would cheer a little bit, standing out in the

Speaker 33 chilly California night.

Speaker 33 But Moxley recites, again,

Speaker 33 lines from whatever movie or movies that he's been watching and studying

Speaker 33 that are like indie underground cinema. And it sounds like something.

Speaker 33 The words as they come at it sounds like something until it ends up never making any sense overall or really explaining anything.

Speaker 33 But it's

Speaker 33 some of the most wonderful verbiage that anybody's ever used to not say anything.

Speaker 32 He's like a barfly Bray Wyatt.

Speaker 32 Nonsense. Just talks nonsense.
Clearly, it's based on him wanting to be an actor. I don't know what the hell this is supposed to be.

Speaker 32 Whose idea was the pickup truck? By the way, what does Jack Perry think about that?

Speaker 32 Hey, Jack, can you sit down? Moxley's decided he wants to have a vehicle they drive to every show in now, and it's going to be a pickup truck. Is that okay with you?

Speaker 33 Well, but the thing is, you never see the front of the pickup truck. You only see these bunch of stooges in the back of it, whereas you never see the back of Jack Perry's bread truck.

Speaker 33 You only see the front.

Speaker 33 So they probably got a, you know, I'll just stick to your ass and you stick to my front type of thing.

Speaker 32 I don't know, but this Moxley thing, when I was waiting for something to make it better, the pickup truck, their new mode of transportation.

Speaker 32 Because that's the other thing that's funny about the whole thing. Moxley's this philosophical white national.
I'm not exactly sure what the gimmick is, but it's also

Speaker 32 he can afford a bus. You know what I mean? He's making millions.
The whole idea that, like, even with Darby, like, the whole, everyone's like still down and out. No one's like, yeah, I'm rich.

Speaker 32 I'm rich as fuck. I can do whatever I want.
That should be, I mean, that's part of the Moxley thing. He's acting like he's some street guy.
He's making millions.

Speaker 33 Yeah, well, and they're showing the B-roll of the Danielson murder plot

Speaker 33 from the pay-per-view while he's doing this promo and he puts over,

Speaker 33 you know, AEW was the place where everybody could come to be the best. This was the dream.

Speaker 33 And wrestling gave me everything and I want that for other people. So now he's,

Speaker 33 is he a fucking sympathetic, empathetic heel or a babyface or what the fuck? And he said, and he starts saying,

Speaker 33 there's 150 wrestlers on the roster with big fat paychecks where are they supposed to go

Speaker 33 what

Speaker 33 i hate what aew has become egos are out of control all the dancing and the partying well i'll burn down the forest to plant anew when i'm not sentimental is this angle

Speaker 33 the is the story of this that moxley is mad at tony kahn's shitty booking

Speaker 32 or it no i think it's going to be like fight Club. Moxie's actually fighting himself.
He's manning all the spoiled, rich millionaires who are lazy and selfish with big egos and bad ideas.

Speaker 32 Turns out he's been punching himself in the mirror.

Speaker 32 Claudio, make sure you rent a truck.

Speaker 33 I'm thinking that maybe Renee is trying to do the thing. Have you heard where these...
The wife slowly poisons the husband over a period of time to try to avoid detection.

Speaker 32 How come there isn't a babyface who, when they're interviewed, goes, hey, Renee, before I answer that question, what the fuck? Like, what's up with you and your fucking husband?

Speaker 32 Well, yeah, well, that would, you know, beating up everyone in the company, and you're just standing here like nothing's going on? Like, you're not going to go back to his room tonight?

Speaker 33 That would be too obvious to ask a guy's wife why he was doing all the things he's doing and beating up me and everybody else that she's talking to.

Speaker 32 They should announce that they're separated.

Speaker 32 Well, there you go.

Speaker 32 A character, right? That would make sense.

Speaker 33 They ought to pull the old John Laurinitis and Kathy

Speaker 33 Bella thing. The Bella.
Well, I guess, although that's not a work.

Speaker 32 Right, that would get people talking. You know, it doesn't have to be real.
Renee, I want to talk about your husband.

Speaker 32 Well, actually, I don't approve of any of this, and we're in the midst of a divorce.

Speaker 33 Yes.

Speaker 33 You know, I can't explain what's going through his mind.

Speaker 32 Every time I want to be intimate, he runs around with this stone-faced Moldovian girl.

Speaker 33 And yeah,

Speaker 33 what about when Renee has to interview Marina Schaefer? What's going to happen?

Speaker 32 Yeah. Well, let's hope Marina Schaefer's not doing any Shafir, not Schaefer.
Let's hope she's not doing any interviews anytime soon. Will found a role that requires her not to talk.

Speaker 33 Will Renee have to climb up in the pickup truck? to interview this group or do you think they're going to be smart enough to keep them apart at least?

Speaker 32 Man, she's on every one of these shows in like a flowery dress and and dressing like it's her Oscar night. Like every week's a fancy outfit.

Speaker 32 Meanwhile, her husband's showing up in his green pants and doing this whole thing. And we're supposed to have ignored the fact that they're together.

Speaker 32 The interview, it could be like a segment after he jumps the entire locker room. And then it's like, let's go to the remote.

Speaker 32 And then she's in the back doing some hammy interview.

Speaker 33 She looks like she's gone to the prom. He looks like he's just climbed out of pump in a septic tank.

Speaker 32 That's my thing.

Speaker 33 Anyway,

Speaker 33 he closes the thing up.

Speaker 33 We'll do what has to be done. If you're not with us, run while you can.
Get out of the way. What is the new paradigm? You work for me now.
That was his closing line. You work for me now.

Speaker 33 What did I say to you, Brian, last

Speaker 33 on the very last program that we did?

Speaker 33 There ain't going to be no Shane McMahon in this because

Speaker 33 Moxley is not going to

Speaker 33 come up with or approve or participate in a goddamn deal where he's not the boss. And

Speaker 33 I think I even said that where he's not running things where he's not the boss. And his exact words were here, you work for me now.

Speaker 33 He is a delusional reason.

Speaker 32 For no good reason.

Speaker 32 I've given no reason at all. Just accept these stupid ideas I have.

Speaker 33 He is a delusional fuck. He thinks he's a badass.
He thinks he's a great wrestler. He thinks he's some kind of goddamn Orson Welles as an actor.

Speaker 33 And he thinks he's a superstar. And he's not going to.

Speaker 33 Have you noticed that now he used to just not sell because his work was bad? But now he's shrugging shit off when grown men do it to him and just not even register in it.

Speaker 33 And

Speaker 33 because he thinks this is going to be the thing that turns the company around. You can tell this is the big angle.

Speaker 33 He's finally said, fuck it.

Speaker 33 It's falling on my shoulders. I'm going to have to save this thing and my star power.

Speaker 32 Well, the bigger issue, and we'll see how this plays out from what we've seen,

Speaker 32 there is a good percentage of the AEW fan base that is diminishing. It's a smaller fan base now than it was.

Speaker 32 They're into it. They think this is great.
The problem is there's an equally big, if not bigger, audience at this point who think this is some wannabe bootleg NWO with bad acting and bad dialogue.

Speaker 32 It's not connecting. Again, it didn't connect with those people in Tacoma.

Speaker 32 They didn't leave saying, let's get tickets for the next show. That was the last thing on anyone's mind.
When can we come back and see more of this?

Speaker 32 So I don't know. This has a chance to be the thing, especially because it's going to be the thing to drive the Bucs to be babyface again.

Speaker 32 So then they're thinking, you know, it's going to end up being the Bucs and Kenny and whoever have to save AEW,

Speaker 32 have to step up from Moxley and the Green Card Express or whatever the fuck his team is.

Speaker 33 Now with useless.

Speaker 1 This isn't just a game, it's a once-in-a-generation event.

Speaker 5 The Harlem Globetrotters 100-year tour.

Speaker 12 Celebrate 100 years of high-flying dunks, 100 years of show-stopping show-stopping moves, and 100 years of changing the game.

Speaker 19 Bring the whole family and be part of the legacy.

Speaker 21 This game is once in a century.

Speaker 24 Be there at Chase Center on January 18th.

Speaker 31 Go to HarlemGlobetrotters.com for your tickets to the 100-year tour.

Speaker 33 But anyway, then they went to the building.

Speaker 33 The SAP Center.

Speaker 33 That's what the name of the building is, right? The SAP Center. That's right.

Speaker 32 I believe it's owned by fightful Sean Rossap.

Speaker 33 In San Jose, California, as we mentioned, the capacity for hockey, nearly 18,000. They had about 3,000 tickets distributed.
We do not know the

Speaker 33 sold numbers on these things.

Speaker 33 And here came Adam Cole

Speaker 33 to do a live in-ring promo.

Speaker 33 And we have always said,

Speaker 33 Adam Cole can talk. That's probably the strongest part of his game.

Speaker 33 And he could do it. When he was 19 years old, I remember he was doing interviews, Ring of Honor, in one take,

Speaker 33 and sounded convincing and sounded like he meant what he said.

Speaker 33 This was like Pavarati

Speaker 33 singing happy birthday to me.

Speaker 33 The material

Speaker 33 is

Speaker 33 they have tried to now

Speaker 33 tell this story like Adam Cole Cole

Speaker 33 was the babyface all along and did the whole devil thing

Speaker 33 with his cohorts, Taven and Bennett and Roddy or whatever, because MJF was such a rotten human being all along

Speaker 33 that we did it to get him.

Speaker 33 This thing has been cursed. It's been snake bit, the whole thing between Adam Cole and MJF.

Speaker 33 They started it, and remember when it was over? What, about a year and a half ago? It was the most over thing on the program. They couldn't wed the kangaroo kick and the tag team matches and

Speaker 33 the comedy videos. And we hated a lot of it, but this group of fans that likes silly, phony wrestling were goddamn over the moon about it.

Speaker 33 And then

Speaker 33 the devil program, which got who got hurt first? MJF was gone, then Adam was gone, that I, or was it Adam gone, then MJF gone, then Adam gone again?

Speaker 32 Adam got hurt jumping off the stage and he broke his foot, which required like two years worth of snow, which he was out for for a while. And then I think MJF

Speaker 32 got hurt because MJF was there through the end of the year, wasn't he?

Speaker 32 And then

Speaker 32 Adam Cole made an appearance as a heel

Speaker 32 doing a promo, and that's when MJF made his surprise babyface return.

Speaker 32 And then Adam Cole returns again now as a baby face

Speaker 32 because MJF's now a heel.

Speaker 33 Because MJF's a heel.

Speaker 33 And again, the promo that Adam Cole did so wonderfully and performed so well here made huge liars out of both of these guys multiple times over in this story.

Speaker 33 And if you actually watched the whole thing from the start

Speaker 33 on video culminating in this

Speaker 33 and through their last interactions and then this promo, it would make not one fucking lick of sense, would it?

Speaker 33 And the only reason that they think they can even get by with this is because,

Speaker 33 like you and I, a lot of people have forgotten,

Speaker 33 it's been so long, what the order of events was and who did what to who.

Speaker 33 But this is

Speaker 33 doesn't make any sense at all, does it?

Speaker 32 I don't think there's any way they can make sense of it. That's the dilemma.
They want to address it, they want to have something to do with it.

Speaker 32 I guess you kind of need to if both guys are there at the same time for even a second.

Speaker 32 There's no way to, there's no way to talk through. Bill Watts couldn't make sense of this if he was in the commentary.

Speaker 33 And but then, not only that, that's not the only problem.

Speaker 33 Because also, this promo and did you get this

Speaker 33 vibe off of it?

Speaker 33 It reminded me of a Sean Michaels Bret Hart exchange where they were nominally keeping in the angle so they couldn't technically be screamed at, but they were still saying shit that they knew would piss the other guy off for real.

Speaker 33 Why is

Speaker 33 why would Adam Cole be saying these things?

Speaker 33 Personal issues draw money, but when you call MJF fake,

Speaker 33 phony,

Speaker 33 an insecure little boy who will cry in the corner of his room if you fuck with him on Twitter

Speaker 33 and talk about his hair transplant,

Speaker 33 does that help this issue draw money and

Speaker 33 be a personal issue? Or does that diminish the guy?

Speaker 33 And why was he constantly

Speaker 33 hammering home and putting an exclamation point on,

Speaker 33 trust me, Max, I'm telling you the truth. Everybody in the locker room hates you.

Speaker 32 Well, there may be something to that. I don't know.
Well, that's the thing.

Speaker 33 But he was going overboard than if he was trying to convince the fans of it.

Speaker 33 He was like, he was trying to make that point clear to his opponent as a shoot.

Speaker 33 I lost sunny days or whatever the case.

Speaker 32 I don't know if Adam Cole and MJF have a problem. I haven't heard that, but

Speaker 32 there are certainly guys there that are resentful of MJF because he's either at the same age or around the same age as them, but he's accomplished a whole lot more.

Speaker 32 I mean, it's not just that he's gotten a push. Lots of people in AEW got a push.
MJF produced ratings, merch, ticket sales. Look at New York.
Look at New York without MJF on that show.

Speaker 32 But I've and I think there are a lot of guys there, similar age, without naming names,

Speaker 32 who may have a bit of resentment towards MJF for being successful at his age,

Speaker 32 you know, and not being at their level. I've never been able to

Speaker 33 work up being mad at somebody else for being more successful than I am when they were better at something.

Speaker 33 It's only when some jack off gets propped up that you get indignant or should.

Speaker 33 And

Speaker 33 I'm sorry, but if all these guys can't see, well, you know, I'm good, but I can't talk like MJF or I can't have the fucking match MJF can have, but I'll keep trying and I'm still better than most or whatever, then fuck them.

Speaker 33 Can't handle the fucking truth.

Speaker 32 But that's the point.

Speaker 33 Was I going around telling people, well, fucking Heenan,

Speaker 33 boy, he couldn't talk as quick as I or whatever. What the fuck?

Speaker 32 No. But that's the point, though.
Whether MJF is liked or not liked by the locker room or whatever factions in the locker room, who is that for? How does that make the fans interested in this?

Speaker 33 Yeah.

Speaker 33 And so anyway, that was the thing. The story nonsense.
And this went on a long time.

Speaker 32 This went on a long time.

Speaker 33 Very long. Story nonsense, been fucked up for a while, tore MJF down in a weird way to diminish him instead of making him a bigger heel or getting

Speaker 33 interest focused on this issue and

Speaker 33 then he called mjf out

Speaker 33 and mjf's music plays and then mjf pops up on the screen and obviously

Speaker 33 wherever he was he was not in the building

Speaker 33 i i don't know of any major hockey arenas that have a room set up that looked like the goddamn,

Speaker 33 you know,

Speaker 33 the club club room back in the fucking 50s in New York on Broadway somewhere, some opulent gentleman's mansion or whatever.

Speaker 33 But he obviously had not heard any

Speaker 33 of what Adam Cole just said

Speaker 33 because he had the wrong tone and attitude if he had and didn't refer to anything in specificity. So it was a pre-tape,

Speaker 33 right? That was obvious to anybody.

Speaker 33 Ed, his story was: Adam Cole, it was all your fault, which it was because Adam Cole was the goddamn devil.

Speaker 33 It was all your fault. And

Speaker 33 I'm going to get even with you. You will never get me in the ring.
So they're obviously going to milk this until what's the date of their next pay-per-view?

Speaker 33 Are they

Speaker 32 at the end of the day? I want to say it was November 23rd, maybe?

Speaker 33 Sometime at the end of the month. so they're going to milk this for a few weeks.

Speaker 33 But again, MJF, great material, fantastic delivery. Nobody talks like that.
It's just, it's not even a fair contest anymore. But the story behind it was incoherent to begin with.

Speaker 33 And then MJF is obviously, that's a tape. He didn't refer to anything.
But then when that was over, Adam Cole in the ring responded,

Speaker 33 well, let me tell you something, Max. Like, he's talking to the fucking guy on the pre-tape.

Speaker 33 I'm going to give you the ass beating of a lifetime.

Speaker 33 I don't know, but if you stood Adam Cole up next to MJF these days, I know which one's been doing push-ups and sit-ups, and I know which one has been fucking up and throwing up.

Speaker 33 So,

Speaker 32 I don't know if he

Speaker 33 don't know if he ought to be bandying those threats around when right now, MJF, one of his arms makes a good goddamn thigh for fucking Adam Cole.

Speaker 32 Since there are no rules to this feud and kind of you could just erase the past, MJF should make up with Wardlow.

Speaker 32 Come back to his side. That was the best usage of Wardlow.

Speaker 33 Can anybody find Wardlow?

Speaker 32 No.

Speaker 32 I don't know where he is.

Speaker 33 And the fans didn't go crazy for the story that Adam Cole told either. They were happy to see him, but when they heard what came out of his mouth, it was more like just

Speaker 33 what?

Speaker 32 The Brochacho thing getting over

Speaker 32 the way it did for the short period of time that it did

Speaker 32 disguises the fact that Adam Cole's entire AEW run was a complete disappointment. And I think he turned off a lot of, I mean, I know he did because he did it even with me.

Speaker 32 He turned off a lot of Adam Cole fans.

Speaker 32 So the reaction wasn't what you would expect from a big returning,

Speaker 32 so I have to say baby face, big returning wrestling star who could fit into any genre of babyface review.

Speaker 32 It wasn't that. And the other thing is, in terms of them doing something together, in a time where it seems like everyone in AEW is getting a

Speaker 32 very, very fast is getting a better physique.

Speaker 32 If Adam Cole looks like he used to and doesn't have a tan,

Speaker 32 for that reason and a variety of others there's no way he could do something with mjf and mjf doesn't go over right

Speaker 33 well one would hope but you know look who we're dealing with here in this environment

Speaker 33 but i think

Speaker 32 vince was right i hate to say it vince was right adam cole would be so effective as a manager who never took off his clothes who ran his mouth And every now and then you get past this big beast and you get to punch him in the face.

Speaker 32 Yeah. That would have been the best use for him.
it really would

Speaker 33 but if he hadn't changed the way that he looks physically and he gets in the ring with mjf it's

Speaker 33 it it's it look it's it's sad

Speaker 33 all right real briefly until we get to the next major event chris jericho says mark briscoe cheated and he wants a rematch and mark briscoe is mad that jericho keeps talking about jay and is going to give him a rematch

Speaker 33 and next week they're going to have it on tv in a ladder match Oh, Christ.

Speaker 32 You know what? Give Jericho credit other than the stupid thanks guys at the end. And again, it wasn't the usual one, but the whole thing is just a bomb, doesn't work.

Speaker 32 This is one of the best promos I've heard from him in a long time.

Speaker 33 Well, but now I'm afraid he's going to win the goddamn belt from Mark Briscoe.

Speaker 32 Oh, yeah, I think so.

Speaker 33 Well, that's the problem.

Speaker 32 He can be the face of Ring of Honor. He realizes how bad things are getting in JEW.
Hey, Tony, I'll just work for Ring of Honor.

Speaker 33 What was the one thing that I praised about that over long, overdone, overbooked fiasco of a pay-per-view?

Speaker 33 They had a single match between Jericho and Mark Briscoe, and Mark Briscoe won with the J Driller, and that was the right result. The one thing they did right, they're going to bring it back.

Speaker 33 And I guarantee you now, Jericho is going to beat Mark and win this fucking belt.

Speaker 33 Anyhow, how long has it been since we saw FTR

Speaker 33 on dynamite? Have they not, they've been exiled to Rampage or something, haven't they?

Speaker 32 They very proudly, I think, were a part of Collision and maybe some of the creative muscle behind Collision at times. And they've been stuck on Collision and we've rarely seen them on Dynamite.

Speaker 32 Maybe I think the buildup to Wembley or something, they were there for a little while. And I know I've heard that they've been...

Speaker 32 And AEW had some stuff on the show, very active by raising money for all the victims in Asheville and all over North Carolina and beyond, I guess, people that were affected by the round of hurricanes that just hit.

Speaker 32 But other than that, no, we never see Montana.

Speaker 33 Well, at least we saw him again

Speaker 33 because

Speaker 33 they had a match with Big Bill and Brian Keith, and

Speaker 33 I was scared because they're in the Jericho periphery.

Speaker 33 But it was a tag team match.

Speaker 33 That was good. That's the thing.
Brian Keith ain't bad. He's just painfully small.
But all of a sudden, shit was getting laid in.

Speaker 33 Wrestling spots were being done. Tag teams were doing double teams.
There was crisp work. There was no gymnastic bullshit.
The big seven-foot giant was being kept strong.

Speaker 33 It was...

Speaker 33 What the fuck is this in this environment? It was... professionalism being exhibited.

Speaker 33 They kept Big Bill strong,

Speaker 33 and they had to work to get anything on him. And then they got some heat on cash.

Speaker 33 Big Bill missed a charge into the turnbuckle. Cash scampered past Brian Keith and dove and made a hot tag.

Speaker 33 And Dax came in and did a comeback.

Speaker 33 But again, Big Bill is the one. If they need stopping, he stops them.

Speaker 33 And

Speaker 33 they did some back and forth.

Speaker 33 Bill dumped cash cash over the top. He took a tremendous bump.

Speaker 33 And then Brian Keith hit some kind of fucked up move. And

Speaker 33 Big Bill hit a boot and a cover and cash saved. And then they went to the floor.
And they did a beautiful blind tag spot.

Speaker 33 And where one member of FTR, I can't even remember now which is which, but one member of FTR

Speaker 33 had the guy that was in the headlock. And he backed up and they blind tagged and shot Brian Keith off, a double drop down, a leapfrog, and into the shatter machine.
One, two, three.

Speaker 33 That's the first tag team match I've seen in wrestling in weeks. They've had some they've called tag team matches, but they don't do tag team shit.

Speaker 33 So I liked the match, and then

Speaker 33 as they're celebrating, music plays, and here come

Speaker 33 the outrunners.

Speaker 33 And they got in the ring and danced and posed and danced and posed. And

Speaker 33 I don't get it. What are they saying? The Outrunners are allegedly a throwback to an 80s tag team.

Speaker 33 Is that the gimmick that I've read on the internet that that's what they're doing?

Speaker 32 I think that's the gimmick. The only problem is, as someone who's not.

Speaker 33 What team in the 80s ever did any of that shit?

Speaker 32 Yeah, no one ever behaved like that ever. No.
No. They're like an 80s video game tag team

Speaker 33 well whatever it is the matter i don't get it

Speaker 33 i i i don't get it

Speaker 33 but this is uh well and i'll i'll say what i do get though is that because the fans have decided that they don't like what they're being given in large part

Speaker 33 they decide they're going to get they're going to get somebody over just because they want to work with themselves to get them over to cheer them or to to chant for him. They did it with Hook.

Speaker 33 We had a guy in OVW

Speaker 33 years ago named Rod Steele.

Speaker 33 Rip Rogers trained him.

Speaker 33 Don't hold that against Rip, but he was a big guy, like six feet five, and he had a good body. He was like 250 pounds, but he was already, I think, like 40 years old.
This was 20 years ago.

Speaker 33 And

Speaker 33 he wasn't going to be a big star, and the WWF wasn't going to sign him.

Speaker 33 But he was local and the crowd liked him. I'd put him in a dark match.
And his big thing was he would pick a guy up and slam him like five times in a row.

Speaker 33 And the people would go, scoop, slam, scoop, slam.

Speaker 33 To listen to the reaction, you would think Rod Steele.

Speaker 33 was the goddamn biggest star in wrestling and would sell you out any building you went to

Speaker 33 but no

Speaker 33 ben sometimes the people just decide:

Speaker 33 if we're already here, we're going to like somebody for some weird reason.

Speaker 33 But if you try to put them in a spot where you actually put them in main events, and maybe that was the thing with pockets, maybe even the

Speaker 33 indie fans knew, okay, this guy's a fucking joke, but let's, as a rib, let's cheer for him. And then

Speaker 33 the bubble-brained fucking promoters and other boys thought the guy was really over.

Speaker 33 You can't put some of these people in the main event, or it wears off because the whole idea of the fans liking doing that is they're cheering for some underneath guy that doesn't look like you ought to be cheering for him.

Speaker 33 Does that make any sense?

Speaker 32 It does. And again, it's the team, it's the act, to use a Dave Melcher term that the AEW fans have decided right now that they're going to get behind.
I mean, it's another team that

Speaker 32 maybe once, twice, have they ever been on Dynamite? They're never on Dynamite.

Speaker 32 So the reaction is from the AEW hardcore fans from seeing them as a cult act on the show that you have to be a die-hard fan to watch.

Speaker 32 And obviously, they were on collision. That must mean they're FTR guys and they probably all want to work together.

Speaker 33 Well, anyway,

Speaker 33 Renee Moxley Good had the acclaimed and Billy Gunn in the back.

Speaker 33 And the question was posed to them, what's next for the acclaimed? And Billy Gunn said, well, we're going to the gym right now. And as a matter of fact, I'm going to go get the car ready.

Speaker 33 And he left the interview so that he's not standing there.

Speaker 33 But think about this, Brian. They can't work hard and talk about lazy booking.

Speaker 33 By the way, folks, some shirts still available at gymcornet.com, but that's been discontinued now that we brought thank you, fuck you, buy back. So get your lazy booking shirt.

Speaker 33 Why?

Speaker 33 He's there at the show.

Speaker 33 It's like the other night somebody pulled up and then decided they were going to get in the car and leave again.

Speaker 33 Or they went to somebody else on an interview and they said, well, we got to catch a plane. At fucking 8.30, the TV show comes on the air at 8 o'clock.

Speaker 33 So

Speaker 33 they couldn't even come up with a better excuse for Billy Gunn to walk out than I got to go get the car ready because we're going to the gym.

Speaker 33 Do you see why I'm insulted here?

Speaker 32 No, they've established this on the show. Remember, Osprey was going to drive to the arena once the show started, even though he didn't have a license and never drove in America.

Speaker 32 And then I think Don Kowis and Takesha left at the start of the episode a couple weeks ago.

Speaker 33 Because they had to catch a plane. Their travel agent fucked up and booked them to leave in the middle of the show.

Speaker 32 It was Bryce Remsberg. No, whoever's booking AEW's travel is obviously screwing with all the heels and babyfaces.

Speaker 33 Yeah, so anyway, so Billy leaves, and the acclaimed, and especially Castor,

Speaker 33 did a promo and they're acting very heelish.

Speaker 33 I don't know whether they're trying to get more balls and bass in their voices, babyfaces, or what, but

Speaker 33 MVP and Shelton come in and offer the card, the business card, to talk, and the acclaim say, We don't need anything from you.

Speaker 33 But apparently, that was enough reason to run Billy Gunn out of a fucking backstage one-minute pre-tape.

Speaker 33 And then

Speaker 33 Mercedes Moon

Speaker 33 and Queen YIATA had another chapter in their vicious blood feud.

Speaker 33 Remember when I mentioned

Speaker 33 last week, who was it? It was the ah, Margaret Cho

Speaker 33 that,

Speaker 33 or was it

Speaker 33 Emmy Sakura?

Speaker 33 Same difference.

Speaker 33 They've established Camille as this giant that towers over Mercedes. She's very

Speaker 33 volumptuous, the opposite of Raquel Rodriguez.

Speaker 33 She's the bodyguard or whatever she is. She's got a striking look

Speaker 33 and the first thing they do three weeks into this thing is have emi sakura

Speaker 33 pushing her around and bumping her and she gets no retribution now this girl got to bump camille around and woman handle her in some fashion with no retribution and then mercedes is the one that turns around and stops the girl for the heat It ought to be the opposite way around.

Speaker 33 That's the opposite of correct.

Speaker 33 Get your babyface over

Speaker 33 by establishing that Mercedes can't handle her straight up, one-on-one, eye-to-eye,

Speaker 33 and have Camille do something from behind to allow Mercedes to be able to take over. Camille earns her money as the bodyguard.
Mercedes gets more heat as the heel.

Speaker 33 The babyface gets more sympathy as a babyface.

Speaker 33 And you're building Camille

Speaker 33 for the eventual showdown with somebody that may be her size and as physically intimidating as she is.

Speaker 33 Or just have every one of these goddamn middle-card miscellaneous girls pushing her around.

Speaker 33 Which would you pick, Brian?

Speaker 32 Obviously, this doesn't do anything to help Mercedes-Monet and nothing to help Camille.

Speaker 33 So Mercedes won with a fucked up move of some description and a chin lock.

Speaker 33 She's a member of the Gracie family now, Mercedes Moan Gracie.

Speaker 33 Moan is her maiden name.

Speaker 32 She gets the same reaction Hoyce Gracie got when he won the first UFC when people didn't know what the hell was happening.

Speaker 32 All that money, no one gives a shit. She's on this show.
She doesn't matter. She doesn't help the business.
And the fans sit there silently.

Speaker 33 Otherwise, Nat, she's doing great.

Speaker 33 Well, we can get through the next part fairly quickly because Private Party and the Hardley boys were in the back in some

Speaker 33 storage room where there was such an echo, it was hard to make out all the scripted verbiage.

Speaker 33 But Private Party wants a rematch, and the Buckaroos take a long time to cheesily tell them never again will they face Private Party.

Speaker 33 And then Stokely Carmichael came in and told him that they were just,

Speaker 33 he basically tore them down some more. Private, yeah, you should have listened to me.
You guys, you're just done.

Speaker 33 You're just

Speaker 33 I don't even, I don't know what that was.

Speaker 33 Did you get any

Speaker 33 insight

Speaker 33 into why they just decided to just tell private party what pieces of shit they were?

Speaker 32 The Bucs can't book a tag team division. The Bucs don't know how to

Speaker 32 be be wrestling performers on a national stage. I mean, there's a variety of problems here.
None of them are private parties.

Speaker 33 Well, and then they went to a break and then came back, and there were the Hardley Boys again with Jungle Jack off and their bonus baby O Cody.

Speaker 33 And they were doing a promo. It's Kenny Omega's birthday.

Speaker 33 And since he had 20 feet of his putrid intestines out, we got him a little gift. So happy birthday, Kenny.
And they dumped a bunch of like

Speaker 33 pig intestines or whatever they got from a butcher shop out on a desk. And

Speaker 33 O Cody

Speaker 33 earned his

Speaker 33 $200,000 or whatever this month by saying, get well, bitch,

Speaker 33 so everybody can laugh at it. What a waste of fucking money for this broken down,

Speaker 33 colorless, tasteless, odorless,

Speaker 33 charisma-less fucking cake.

Speaker 32 No,

Speaker 33 I'm talking about Ocody. Oh.

Speaker 33 What the?

Speaker 33 And then the next match, and we're going to skip this one to the end real quick, but it was the Hardleys and Ocody against Kyle O'Reilly, Rocky Romero, and Pockets.

Speaker 33 And obviously, the mascots matches are unwatchable to anybody with any respect for the business.

Speaker 33 But again,

Speaker 33 i tried

Speaker 33 to see something

Speaker 33 worth any amount of money to sign

Speaker 33 this

Speaker 33 this broken down

Speaker 33 shell of a human being

Speaker 33 there have been people that have just come out of a medically induced coma that could move around a ring better than okada

Speaker 33 And I'm saying, focus on him in every match, the crumble bumps, the slow-mo, the concrete shoes. Nothing gets laid in.
He takes every shortcut imaginable.

Speaker 33 And they're paying him millions of dollars.

Speaker 32 Bitch.

Speaker 33 Anyway, bitch.

Speaker 33 I mean, it's embarrassing.

Speaker 33 Can you tell me?

Speaker 32 What's embarrassing is the lack of reaction all of this is getting at these shows. Because the one argument to shut you down would be, well, you don't like it, but everyone else does.

Speaker 32 Well, there's no one there, and they're barely reacting.

Speaker 32 So,

Speaker 32 all this stuff with the elite

Speaker 32 and Jack Perry, Jack Perry is

Speaker 32 the most cringeworthy promo in wrestling because you don't believe anything from him at all.

Speaker 32 I mean, Okada's a problem, and he's certainly not the Okada of old.

Speaker 33 He's the old Okada, all right. He's positively retirement-worthy.

Speaker 32 Yeah, I mean, I don't know.

Speaker 32 There's nothing I can really say to save any of this. It's not good.
Well, it's not good.

Speaker 33 They had a match, and then suddenly Wheeler Useless came in and leveled pockets and got the disqualification. Remember when they would never disqualify anybody for anything?

Speaker 32 Yeah, for like the first couple of years, AEW never had any disqualifications, right?

Speaker 33 And now they've just said, oh, fuck it. As soon as we're ready, just run in and we'll just ring the bell.
It's gone from one extreme to the other again.

Speaker 33 So then here came the Moxley.

Speaker 33 Moxley, Moxley, Moxley, Moxley, Moxley.

Speaker 33 The whole crew and the

Speaker 33 heels led by the Jackson kids

Speaker 33 go to the entrance and Mox and the minions beat up the babyfaces. All of them beat up pockets.

Speaker 33 And then here came Top Flight and Action Andretty.

Speaker 33 And they got the shit beat out of them. And by the way, those three now are a thing, apparently.
They're together.

Speaker 33 I know that the Martins are brothers, so they should have

Speaker 33 similar size, similar features. But Action Andretti, he's about the same size.
He's got hair when they're all three out there running around doing the old shell game. I can't tell which one's which.

Speaker 33 And then Moxley was not registering anything.

Speaker 33 A guy sprung off the ropes to give him some kind of flying ding bat, and he just reached up and just knocked the guy out of the sky.

Speaker 33 And other people will come up and he'll just grab him and hold them.

Speaker 33 And then the dork order came out, and they got beat up. And Moxley choked out fat Uno.

Speaker 33 And then Marina Schaefer hung one of the dork order jobbers from the ring post with a belt around his neck.

Speaker 33 And then Moxley said, If you're involved with AEW, you're under attack. And then they squished him

Speaker 33 in between the stairs and the ring post

Speaker 33 while Moxley was slobbering,

Speaker 33 this is the cost of doing business.

Speaker 33 So they beat up all these jobbers.

Speaker 32 And

Speaker 33 again,

Speaker 33 they go to the back, and Garcia and Private Party are yelling

Speaker 33 at the Hardleys and Jungle Jack off for letting that all happen.

Speaker 33 They're fucking heels. Why would they stop anything from happening? It doesn't

Speaker 32 so this is supposed to trigger them to all of a sudden become responsible businessmen.

Speaker 33 They're doing the same shit.

Speaker 33 They beat up the owner of the company and spiked him on his head.

Speaker 33 So, why would they stop these psychopaths from

Speaker 32 why doesn't someone make a deal with Don Callis to stop them? Tony's got money. Callis's stable seems a whole lot more badass.

Speaker 33 Yeah, and he's got a screwdriver.

Speaker 32 Yeah.

Speaker 33 What would you have brought me if I'd asked you for a bloody Mary?

Speaker 32 I am a plumber. I don't have a screwdriver.

Speaker 33 Don't

Speaker 33 even say that. He'll come out with a wrench next one of the fucking

Speaker 33 monkey wrench gimmicks.

Speaker 33 Anyway,

Speaker 32 what do you think of the AEW Civil War or whatever this is that's happening?

Speaker 32 Where all of a sudden the guys who have been on the roster forever have decided that everyone in AEW works for them for no definable reason or for any cause. And we were Yuda, who

Speaker 32 last week got the shit kicked out of him by the Blackpool Combat Club, is now in their little group. Did he dye his hair? Was it like grayer, or was it just the way I was?

Speaker 32 Was it just my monitor?

Speaker 33 It may have been your monitor. It may have been,

Speaker 33 I don't know what it might have been.

Speaker 32 But this is just not good. And again, it's Moxley just jerking off all over himself.
When you watch him no sell, guys jumping at him.

Speaker 32 That's not done for any other reason than self-pleasure. There's no booking reason that doesn't help anyone.
That helps no one. He sells nothing.

Speaker 33 Remember last week on the floor, he front face-locked two guys and just held them there while they were trying to fight.

Speaker 32 Private party, I think.

Speaker 33 Private party, yeah.

Speaker 32 I saw someone write, and this made me laugh, they should get that guy that made him lose, or one of the guys that made him lose in the grappling tournament.

Speaker 32 If this is what Moxley's doing to the roster, that other guy will kill everyone.

Speaker 32 This is a great way to make someone new. Tony Khan could say, I have found the guy that beat Moxley.
And it could be anyone. It could just be anyone that no one knows.

Speaker 32 And there's your new star.

Speaker 32 And this isn't even the end of it.

Speaker 33 Oh, no. I'm sure it has much more left to go.

Speaker 32 After all this, what do you think of what I said earlier? That this is all to set up the eventual babyface turn of the bucks to help save AEW.

Speaker 33 Well,

Speaker 33 it might be.

Speaker 33 It might be. And actually, now that you've said that, I hope it is because then we can hear the people not cheer the Bucs as much as they've not been booing them.

Speaker 32 Because Kenny's obviously on the way back.

Speaker 32 They wouldn't have bought that cake if Kenny was.

Speaker 32 They were setting up something. It may not be imminent, but he's coming back soon, I think.

Speaker 33 Have you priced pig intestines lately?

Speaker 33 I mean, that is not as cheap as it used to be, inflation and all. So if they spent that much money, he's got to be coming back.

Speaker 32 I think that's what they're going to do. It's going to be Moxley and his crew versus

Speaker 32 the reconfigured elite eventually.

Speaker 32 You could have, you know, Moxley and Omega, the Bucs and Pack and Claudio, Marina and Jack Perry.

Speaker 33 Oh, poor Perry.

Speaker 33 But then does that mean that Tony will have to make up with the people that Spike Powell drove him because they're fighting for the company against the evil people that want to take it over rather than the evil people that already run it?

Speaker 32 Maybe they can knock on Tony's door. Boss, can we talk to you?

Speaker 32 She's got something to say. We were really inspired by you.
So why don't we all come together and together do that famous catchphrase, all together now? Are you ready?

Speaker 32 And I think that's how you make it up. You do his favorite thing.
You start screaming at each other, yelling catchphrases of Antonio Inoki.

Speaker 33 All right, can we get to the one highlight of the program?

Speaker 32 Blame Shinma, I'm going to Iraq.

Speaker 32 Sorry, I'm just doing various Antonio Anoki catchphrases. Yes, the highlight of Dynamite.

Speaker 1 This isn't just a game, it's a once-in-a-generation event.

Speaker 5 The Harlem Globetrotters 100-year tour.

Speaker 12 Celebrate 100 years of high-flying dunks, 100 years of show-stopping moves, and 100 years of changing the game.

Speaker 18 Bring the whole family and be part of the legacy.

Speaker 21 This game is once in a century.

Speaker 24 Be there at Chase Center on January 18th.

Speaker 31 Go to HarlemGlobetrotters.com for your tickets to the 100-year tour.

Speaker 33 Leo Rush versus Shelton Benjamin.

Speaker 33 And now they can't say that none of them know how to do this. Because they got a tutorial on their own program.
If anybody was watching the monitor, this this is what it looks like.

Speaker 33 Leo Rush came out with a girl in his corner. I don't know who the fuck.

Speaker 32 Layla Gray.

Speaker 33 Okay, well, there you go.

Speaker 32 This match had everything I like. Layla Gray and Leo Rush has always entertained me.

Speaker 33 Wait a minute. I thought she was a porn actress.

Speaker 32 Layla Gray?

Speaker 33 Layla Gray.

Speaker 32 No, but every woman in wrestling is kind of named after like,

Speaker 32 they all have porn names.

Speaker 33 Sasha Gray is who I'm thinking about.

Speaker 32 Oh,

Speaker 32 that's who you're thinking about, really.

Speaker 33 A fine young woman. Where is she today? Many talents.

Speaker 32 Where is she today?

Speaker 33 I don't know, but if anybody's got any phone numbers or contact information, keep it to yourself. Or any drive-through at Gmail.com.

Speaker 32 No, no, no, no, no, no, no, at gmail.com.

Speaker 33 Anyway, so the point is

Speaker 33 Shelton's got MVP with him. They're reforming the hurt business under another name.
And Bobby Lashley is imminent. But Shelton looks great.
He's in shape. He's a grown man.
He's a veteran.

Speaker 33 And this was very close to perfect. I think he was a little nice to Leo at the finish, but nevertheless,

Speaker 33 the whole story of the match: Leo Rush is smaller than everybody, so he's also quicker than everybody.

Speaker 33 He's using the speed and agility to duck and dodge and stick and move.

Speaker 33 And the only chance he has to

Speaker 33 rock Shelton Benjamin is to catch him off guard.

Speaker 33 And Shelton Benjamin dominated him physically.

Speaker 33 He'd take him lightly once or twice and get rocked, but he never took big bumps

Speaker 33 or was what you could call in serious trouble. He worked to the level that Leo Rush is presented at on the card and his size.

Speaker 33 And he still gave the guy stuff and he made it work, but he didn't

Speaker 33 make it ridiculous.

Speaker 33 And

Speaker 33 even though Leo got some hope spots, really the outcome was never in doubt. And you didn't want it to be

Speaker 33 because this is Shelton's first appearance on television. And because he was trained by very smart people and he's got a smart guy in his corner,

Speaker 33 I'm sure they set this match up because it was different than every other debut of a big star that you have seen on this television show. Because the big star

Speaker 33 got over

Speaker 33 for the good of the business. He didn't go out there to fucking

Speaker 33 have the greatest match his opponent had ever had because he's such a nice guy.

Speaker 33 So, anyway, everything looked good. They were serious.
It made sense.

Speaker 33 Power slam type of suplex, one, two, three, Shelton wins.

Speaker 33 That's what I'm taught. That's the way you debut on television, for fuck's sake.
Is this hard to figure out?

Speaker 32 Well, Shelton looked good. He looked gigantic in AEW.

Speaker 32 My only complaint would be: I thought it went slightly too long.

Speaker 33 Well, that's what I say. I think he got a little nice to him at the finish and gave him a few couple more extra Zabada's, but overall,

Speaker 33 you know, that's the picture.

Speaker 32 And Leo Rush did great. Every time Shelton threw him around, just his facial expressions, the way his body folded up,

Speaker 32 you know, beyond just the natural folding for being thrown by Shelton Benjamin.

Speaker 33 Yes.

Speaker 32 Yeah, Leo did great here, too.

Speaker 33 Well, that's why we said that kid could be a million-dollar manager

Speaker 33 because he's got a slappable face and a loud mouth, and he's so minute.

Speaker 33 Nobody will ever take him seriously as a wrestler, and he'll never be in the main events. But as a manager that could be pressed into

Speaker 33 getting his ass kicked when it called for it, you could make a fortune with that guy. But apparently he's convinced he's going to be a wrestler because it's more fun.
I don't fucking know.

Speaker 33 And then MVP cut a promo

Speaker 33 that was, again, very good and heelish, and you believe him.

Speaker 33 And he called out Swerve to,

Speaker 33 well, he didn't call him out, but he

Speaker 33 told Swerve to reconsider his offer.

Speaker 33 Kind of an or-else type of thing.

Speaker 33 And then

Speaker 33 I can't remember whether it was after a break or just in the back, you had Renee Moxlugud with Swerve and Nana.

Speaker 33 And Swerve basically said, anywhere, anytime, any place, make it happen.

Speaker 33 Maybe happening very quickly, but I guess they need something for Swerve to get into.

Speaker 33 But

Speaker 33 I'll be interested to see Swerve and Shelton because I guarantee you

Speaker 33 there will be no hypodermic needles involved on Shelton Benjamin's part.

Speaker 33 And I bet you that he will get the best match out of Swerve Strickland

Speaker 33 that anybody has because they won't be doing

Speaker 33 bookous of gymnastics or tons of dangerous indie shit.

Speaker 33 They're both athletic and Shelton can channel him

Speaker 33 to where he uses it as a strength instead of as a weakness.

Speaker 32 The on-the-match, the promos, the look, everything. What have you thought so far of the presentation in AEW of MVP and Shelton Benjamin?

Speaker 33 They're making them look like a big deal.

Speaker 33 And they're making them look like a main. And MVP hasn't been like Mark Sterling or Stokely Carmichael or, you know, Don Fallus or any of these.

Speaker 32 Stokely Hathaway for those who listen to

Speaker 33 Stokely Hathaway. Sorry.

Speaker 33 Well,

Speaker 32 the more famous Stokely wins out.

Speaker 33 But he's not been a

Speaker 33 silly,

Speaker 33 flippant, frivolous comedy figure.

Speaker 33 He's been a fucking star from a big company that has a big track record of putting together stables that has come in and it's being serious. And you know that MVP or Shelton, either one,

Speaker 33 are not really going to do it any other way.

Speaker 33 So we'll

Speaker 33 see what happens and how many people that they can find that can actually work with serious professionals in this company.

Speaker 33 And then we speaking of serious professionals, we went the other way.

Speaker 33 Tony Schiavone was in the ring with Don,

Speaker 33 the leader of the Phallas family, with his new men, Brian Cage and Lance Archer.

Speaker 33 And, of course, Don said he thought they should have a press conference, but there's no real journalists in pro wrestling anyway. So we'll just do this.
And

Speaker 33 was Dave there, you think? They were in San Jose. How far is the building from his tiny one-bedroom apartment?

Speaker 32 He doesn't live in a tiny one-bedroom apartment, but we heard.

Speaker 33 I thought he moved in with Don LaPrey.

Speaker 32 He not only was there, but we heard that he stayed late after the show talking with Talon.

Speaker 33 Well, then Don was sending him out a message there. You know, no real journalists in pro wrestling.

Speaker 33 So those two are going to take the tag team title, apparently. Brian Cage and Lance Archer.
That's what Don says. And then he brings out Kyle Felcher and our friend Take.

Speaker 33 If they ever get Take out of this and start using him every week, I'll actually learn to pronounce his real name.

Speaker 33 But

Speaker 33 the surprise of this was, did you hear the promo that Take did?

Speaker 32 Well, it started in Japanese, and then it switched over to English, and although not perfect, it was perfect for what he needed to sound like.

Speaker 33 Plus, he's got good facial expressions, too. This guy, I swear to God, this guy's bigger than Okada.
He's younger than Okada. He's much better in the ring than Okada.

Speaker 33 He can talk better with less of a goddamn accent than Okada.

Speaker 33 Why aren't they paying him the money they're paying Okada?

Speaker 33 The fuck? fuck.

Speaker 33 If I was our friend Take, I'd get somebody like Barry Bloom on the phone, or maybe even Matt Bloom.

Speaker 33 And then,

Speaker 33 so Kyle Felcher then stepped up and spoke, and he needs a manager.

Speaker 33 He's done wonders with his physical

Speaker 33 appearance. He's building himself up.
He's got a little bit of a gimmick going on, the hair and everything, but

Speaker 33 I don't know about doing promos.

Speaker 32 He said he needs a manager. His manager's right there.

Speaker 33 Oh, fuck, I forgot.

Speaker 32 He has a manager.

Speaker 33 Well, the manager didn't do the promo for old Mr. Felcher.

Speaker 33 So,

Speaker 33 but anyway, so now it's Cage and Archer and Felcher and Take.

Speaker 33 That's the Phallis family.

Speaker 32 You know, this ended up being like my favorite thing on this episode. I think out of all the Heel Stables, this may be my favorite one right now.

Speaker 32 I like Takesha. I like Kyle Fletcher.
Even his promo, I like it because I like that weasly little voice.

Speaker 32 It lends itself perfect to him because he looks like a big kid.

Speaker 32 And then Brian Cage, all of a sudden, being there, I'm all for giving him a shot with something, I guess.

Speaker 32 Lancer, we haven't seen Jake since Jake make that deal. Was he killed?

Speaker 33 Shut up, Jake.

Speaker 33 He's in Mexico.

Speaker 33 He's doing background on his new team he's going to all the the various places in mexico that you go to do background i like this segment i mean the problem is you have this strong or they're trying to present them strong here heel stable

Speaker 32 feuding with will osprey maybe the best presented babyface of 2024 in aew

Speaker 32 And you have all this other shit happening in every other segment, independent of this. The Bucks and the Moxley crew, all that stuff's going on.

Speaker 32 And then you have this, and it's its own separate universe. I like this.
This is the best stuff on the show.

Speaker 33 It's a good heel crew if they only had a manager.

Speaker 32 The manager was there.

Speaker 33 I forgot. I forgot.
But anyway,

Speaker 33 so in the back, Maria Mae wanted some competition and Anna Jay came in and they just started arguing and finger-pointing.

Speaker 33 And Chris Daniels came in to try to separate him. And Anna Jay went to slap Maria Mae and clocked Chris Daniels.

Speaker 33 And she, oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. And he's like, oh, I'm okay.

Speaker 33 Renee Moxley Good was in the back with Ricochet. He looks and talks like a substitute high school science teacher.

Speaker 32 That's perfect. Oh, my God.

Speaker 33 It's not that he's not well-spoken. He's not an unintelligent individual.
It's just like, what the fuck?

Speaker 32 Did you guys have the new sub? Yeah, is he cool? He seems young. Well, he's young, but he's boring.

Speaker 33 Yeah,

Speaker 33 very boring. And he'll be on collision Saturday.
So watch out for that.

Speaker 33 But suddenly, in the back of the building, again,

Speaker 33 what is the name of the group that Moxley is Moxley's Midnight Runners now or whatever they are in the back of their pickup truck? They were in the back of the building again beating up

Speaker 33 the same job guys that they had beat up before and round two

Speaker 33 one of top flight

Speaker 33 again i can't tell which is which when they're moving around so quick but one of top flight did a dive off an equipment case onto the pile of people in a straight fight they're doing dives

Speaker 33 and

Speaker 33 There's Marina Schaefer beating everybody up. But have you noticed somehow nobody ever even takes a swing at her?

Speaker 33 How is that possible that nobody has had an opening to take a swing at her yet?

Speaker 32 I'll tell you, it'll be an interesting thing when one of the baby faces gives her a kick right in the pussy.

Speaker 32 What kind of people that get?

Speaker 33 See, this is another, it's like when they had Stephanie just telling off all the babyfaces and the heels and everybody on the WWE program and emasculating them and cutting their balls off, and nobody would ever do anything about it.

Speaker 33 And I said that one time years ago on a show, and people say,

Speaker 33 How dare you advocate for the punching of a woman or the beating of a woman or what? Well, then don't put the woman in that position because it is no win.

Speaker 33 If your TV network will not allow you

Speaker 33 to draw back and haul off and punch a woman in the face, then don't have the woman telling off, especially the baby faces.

Speaker 33 Because then

Speaker 33 the baby faces faces are diminished because all the guys in the audience are reminded that they can't do anything about it when their wife or their girlfriend tells them off either.

Speaker 33 And now my hero won't punch Stephanie McMahon in the left tit.

Speaker 33 So I'm doubly upset.

Speaker 32 Well, Maria Shafir is not cutting promos on them. She's actually kicking the shit out of them.

Speaker 33 She's beating the shit out of them. And if it was legit, I'm sorry, I don't advocate for male-on-female violence either.
but if the female in question

Speaker 33 is a trained jiu-jitsu expert and is currently beating the fuck out of me i'm going to haul off and do what needs to be done to get the fuck away from this

Speaker 33 and

Speaker 33 it's ridiculous yes jump from behind or put the choke on or as part of the but just over and over and everybody's ignoring her and staying away and that's not natural.

Speaker 33 If this was real somebody would come from the side and clock that bitch

Speaker 32 and if this is real when they're fighting like the 20 people they were fighting one of them would have broken away and cut the tire

Speaker 33 something the jeep was right there running

Speaker 33 yeah you know flatten their fucking tire so they can't get away

Speaker 32 anyway and again every time any of this is happening in the middle of it moxley finds time to like turn to the camera

Speaker 32 and you know like he's confucius or something he has some kind of fucking expression he needs to make.

Speaker 32 We warned you. We're coming.
And you can't do anything. Also, you should have known.

Speaker 32 What? What are you fucking talking about?

Speaker 33 And but now, and here's the other thing about this, even in their own world of insanity,

Speaker 33 this is a top heel group, Moxley and his gang.

Speaker 33 And they're beating up jobbers. It's dork order.
It's top flight. It's whoever, miscellaneous people.

Speaker 33 And they get in the back of the pickup truck and they drive off. And then,

Speaker 33 of all people, Fat Uno

Speaker 33 is on his feet and starts cutting a promo on the fucking heel group, Moxley's group, to the camera.

Speaker 33 And I wrote, my God, it's a shitty heel group, yes, but totally.

Speaker 33 Totally out of place to let jobbers

Speaker 33 still be standing on their feet cutting promos on them when they've just kicked the shit out of them. And then Top Flight and Andretti did the same thing.

Speaker 33 Well, if you're so tough, start running, catch that pickup truck. Don't be telling the camera, what the fuck?

Speaker 33 They get beat up and they're down long enough for the guys to get in the truck and drive off, and then they're up cutting promos.

Speaker 32 All righty. And again, this wasn't like the top baby faces going down.

Speaker 32 Private party and the dark order.

Speaker 32 No, private party warning.

Speaker 32 Excuse me. Top fight, action and ready, the dark order.

Speaker 32 John Silver went running after the Jeep.

Speaker 33 And then. Oh, yeah, I forgot.
One of them did go running after it. No, that was Little Brutus.

Speaker 32 Yeah, that's John Silver.

Speaker 33 I thought John Silver was the one with hair.

Speaker 33 No, see, that's the thing. That's Alex Reynolds.

Speaker 33 Oh, okay.

Speaker 33 Well, see there, it's been years since these motherfuckers have even been on goddamn television regularly. Thank God.

Speaker 32 They're down to the core. They're down to the core people.

Speaker 32 It always comes back to it. Moxley and what he wants, the Bucks and Dark Order stuff going back to the very beginning.
They're down to their people. Jack Berry getting a push.

Speaker 32 There are certain things outside of that window.

Speaker 32 But we're going to get to see these guys destruct this company altogether.

Speaker 33 I want to see Shelton Benjamin in a shoot

Speaker 33 four on one with moxley

Speaker 33 yuda

Speaker 33 what's the other one pack

Speaker 33 pack not claudio now he's guilty too i wouldn't but i wouldn't want to see claudio get stretched and it it i would might at least have to save him for last he might give shelton a

Speaker 33 a brief uh skirmish, but the other, what the fuck?

Speaker 32 That's the move. You want to get the hurt business over? Dynamite opens in a couple of weeks after Lashley shows up with Tony Khan walking down the hall and he knocks on the door.

Speaker 32 And insides MVP welcoming, of course, Tony Khan in. And Tony says, I'll give you guys whatever it takes.
Clean up my locker room. Done.

Speaker 32 And then MVP and Lashley and Shelton kick the shit for two hours. They kick the shit out of everyone on the show.

Speaker 32 Last man standing gets the stay. Everyone else goes the ring of honor.

Speaker 33 Well, there you go. And I'm trying to think who would be just on this show.
Would anybody be the last man standing? Let me find them.

Speaker 32 There's no star power.

Speaker 32 They wonder why their numbers are going down. They're trying.

Speaker 32 This is not an indictment of like MVP and Shelton who just got there. MJF wasn't on the show, but that's star power.
He wasn't on the show despite the.

Speaker 33 No, I'm not even talking about star power. I'm trying to find somebody on this show that could actually

Speaker 33 compete with Shelton Benjamin, much less Bobby Lashley.

Speaker 33 Because Lashley, the size difference is incredible. Shelton's more human-sized, but he'd still put a ham sandwich on their back and starve them to death.

Speaker 32 You know, that I'm sorry, it got me thinking about the Moxley thing. That could be long-term booking.
And we were so stupid we didn't know it.

Speaker 32 Tony Khan can't stop these guys from taking over his show. What's he going to do? He starts calling in all the guys that he sent home.

Speaker 32 Miro,

Speaker 32 Wardlow, Ricky Starks, like this whole crew of people that have been gone re-emerge to rid the company of Moxley.

Speaker 33 And I know somebody's out there going, well, Cornette just loves Shelton Benjamin. He ain't that big.
He ain't that tough.

Speaker 33 Do you think, has it been long enough that people don't know that Shelton was a goddamn amateur and was Brock's coach? At the University of Minnesota, Shelton was an assistant coach at that point.

Speaker 33 He'll fucking stretch your ass from asshole to appetite.

Speaker 33 Anyway, are you ready for the main event?

Speaker 32 As ready as I was when I watched it.

Speaker 33 Jay White, the light switch himself with Juice Robinson and one gun.

Speaker 33 He wasn't the two-gun kid. Where was the other gun? Did they ever say, I can't listen to the announcing?

Speaker 32 Well, I don't know, actually.

Speaker 33 Why would you send one gun out there?

Speaker 33 Seems like it'd be like having one midget. You can't really do anything.

Speaker 33 Anyway, Jay White with juice and one gun against Christian Cage with Nick Plain and Nick Plain's mom.

Speaker 33 And the match started at eight minutes till 10.

Speaker 33 And

Speaker 33 I swear to God, Christian, at least he knows. He's like, fuck it.
We're just going to... walk and talk, as we used to say.
And nothing really happened before the break.

Speaker 33 The referee kicked Juice and Gunn out of ringside, and they grabbed Nick with them and drug him by his feet. And Nick's mom went after him protesting, so they got all the clutter out of ringside.

Speaker 33 And they went to break and came back right at 10 o'clock. They're back from the break for the overrun.

Speaker 33 And finally,

Speaker 33 Christian was ready to spear Jay White.

Speaker 33 Pip Sabian jumped up on the apron and drew the referee, and Adam Page came in and hit the buck shot on Jay White, and Christian covered him one, two, three.

Speaker 33 And that was it.

Speaker 33 Now,

Speaker 33 we've just got used to

Speaker 33 Light Switch being a babyface, but

Speaker 33 is he the kind of person that gets any sympathy at this point from people?

Speaker 32 No, absolutely not.

Speaker 33 With the guns who are...

Speaker 33 full-fledged heels,

Speaker 33 you know, still involved with them.

Speaker 32 Are they full-fledged heels? Were you getting well?

Speaker 33 I thought they were, weren't they? Last time we saw them, weren't they the heels?

Speaker 33 When is the last time we saw them?

Speaker 32 It depends on who you feud with.

Speaker 32 I don't know. When was the last time we saw them? I don't know.

Speaker 33 But anyway, you gotta.

Speaker 1 This isn't just a game, it's a once-in-a-generation event.

Speaker 5 The Harlem Globetrotters 100-year tour.

Speaker 12 Celebrate 100 years of high-flying dunks, 100 years of show-stopping moves, and 100 years of changing the game.

Speaker 18 Bring the whole family and be part of the legacy.

Speaker 21 This game is once in a century.

Speaker 27 Be there at Chase Center on January 18th.

Speaker 31 Go to HarlemGlobetrotters.com for your tickets to the 100-year tour.

Speaker 33 I don't know what the ratings are. I'm blissfully ignorant.
You're about to tell me here shortly, but

Speaker 33 I don't know how anybody made it through to this point, this program.

Speaker 32 Well, I have the ratings here, and actually, just so we could do an honest comparison because we've been doing it lately. Let me pull up what NXT

Speaker 32 this past week on CW did. We won't do the quarter hours, but just in terms of, because I didn't watch it, and I don't know if you watched it.

Speaker 33 Well, no, but they impressed me the first two weeks, said,

Speaker 33 We have been corrected apparently all along.

Speaker 33 The mafia hitman was the babyface, and the giant, muscular,

Speaker 33 good-looking fellow fellow with the weird name was the heel.

Speaker 33 So it wasn't a double turn. Tony DiAngelo was the babyface.

Speaker 33 That's why he puts a mint on your pillow when he makes you sleep with the fishes.

Speaker 33 And Oba Femi

Speaker 33 is apparently the heel.

Speaker 32 So, well, NXT, October 15th on CW, Tuesday night, 8 to 10 p.m., on average, 639,000 viewers.

Speaker 33 Okay,

Speaker 33 after the first two weeks, that is a drop,

Speaker 33 as everybody figured it would be, even the first couple weeks being loaded up.

Speaker 32 27% drop.

Speaker 33 But

Speaker 33 639,000 is still in the ballpark for the developmental program with no names

Speaker 33 as to what Tony's been doing on his flagship show with all of the... the captains on the ship.

Speaker 32 Well, Jim, AEW Dynamite, October 16th on TBS,

Speaker 32 as reported by WrestleNomics,

Speaker 32 from 8 to 10.09 p.m.,

Speaker 32 on average, 633,000 viewers.

Speaker 33 Oh, Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

Speaker 33 What is that down from last week?

Speaker 32 From last week, that is up 92%. Last week was 329,000.

Speaker 33 Oh, okay. But no, that was Tuesday.

Speaker 33 Last week was a Tuesday.

Speaker 32 8% off the trailing four-week average of $690.

Speaker 33 Yeah, they

Speaker 33 so they've lost another.

Speaker 33 Was there

Speaker 33 an all-night gas station open up across the street? What, what are, what, what's the excuse that Dave Meltzer is giving?

Speaker 32 Well, according to WrestleNomics, Dynamite was ranked sixth amongst cable originals in primetime in the key demo, outranked by Dodgers versus Mets,

Speaker 32 Fox News, and the WNBA Finals on ESPN.

Speaker 33 So it's come to this that the WNBA is drawing a better rating their wrestling program.

Speaker 32 Well, again, these quarter hours were compiled by WrestleNomics, Jim, 8 to 8:15 p.m. quarter one.

Speaker 32 The Jon Moxley promo, the Adam Cole confrontation with MJF's video,

Speaker 32 and Chris Jericho's promo,

Speaker 32 766,000 viewers.

Speaker 33 Okay, and apparently, since they're starting much lower than usual,

Speaker 33 the Big Bang episode before them was not as appealing as normal, or what's going on there?

Speaker 32 I don't know. That show's awful.
I can't believe anyone watches it. But let's go to quarter two,

Speaker 32 8:15 to 8:30 p.m.

Speaker 32 The Mark Briscoe FTR backstage angle. FTR versus Big Bill and Brian Keith with picture and picture.
The post-match with the Outrunners. The Billy Gunn acclaimed MVP Shelton Benjamin backstage angle,

Speaker 32 679,000 viewers.

Speaker 33 Ouch. Okay, so 2187,000 people in 15 minutes.
We're the same pattern as normal.

Speaker 32 The pattern continues into quarter three, 8:30 to 8:45 p.m. Mercedes-Monet versus Queen Amanata

Speaker 32 with picture and picture. And the post-match with Camille, a recap, the Young Bucks in private party and Stokely Hathaway backstage,

Speaker 32 665,000 viewers.

Speaker 33 Well, that's only

Speaker 33 14,000 more.

Speaker 33 Nothing to really get too upset about yet.

Speaker 32 Well, quarter four, 8:45 to 9 p.m.,

Speaker 32 an ad break, the Elites backstage promo, and the start of the Elite versus the Conglomeration with Picture and Picture,

Speaker 32 603,000 viewers.

Speaker 33 Okay, remember when I said nothing to get too upset about?

Speaker 33 Yeah, start getting upset.

Speaker 33 So

Speaker 33 these fucking children that have conned this guy into not only paying them more money than they've ever seen before in their life, but making them officers in his company

Speaker 33 with their

Speaker 33 intestine gift and their whole thing,

Speaker 33 come on a screen and they've already lost 101,000 people.

Speaker 33 And in 15 minutes, they help them lose another 62,000.

Speaker 33 Now, certainly,

Speaker 33 oh, but I forgot. I was going to say it might be better at the top of the hour, but that thing with the lollipop guild and their ilk ran over the top of the nine o'clock hour.

Speaker 33 It is going to continue into quarter five.

Speaker 32 Well, the big nine o'clock hour, usually there's a bounce, nine to nine: 15 p.m., quarter five. The elite versus conglomeration continued.

Speaker 32 The post-match with Jon Moxley, Pack, Wheeler Utah, Claudio Castignoli. Saw a plane going over my head.
What the fuck is that?

Speaker 32 Marina Shafir.

Speaker 33 And a pickup truck.

Speaker 32 Top flight. Action Andretti and the Dark Order.

Speaker 32 That's a long list. Plus, the elite, private party, Daniel Garcia, backstage angle, a recap, and Shelton Benjamin vs.
Leo Rush, or at least the start of it.

Speaker 32 628,000 viewers.

Speaker 33 They got 25,000 back.

Speaker 33 That was 1,000 viewers per person in that segment.

Speaker 32 Well, we go now to segment six, quarter six, 9:15 and 9.30 p.m.

Speaker 32 Shelton Benjamin vs. Leo Leo Rush continued with picture-in-picture and full-screen ads.

Speaker 32 The post-match with MVP,

Speaker 32 the Darby Allen promo, and an ad break,

Speaker 32 603,000 viewers.

Speaker 33 Damn, they turned around and lost them again.

Speaker 32 Well, Jim, we go now to quarter seven, 9.30 to 9.45 p.m.

Speaker 32 The Swerve Strickland Backstage promo, the Don Callis Family Live promo in the ring, or or celebration, whatever it was. In the ring.

Speaker 32 The Mariah Mae, Anna Jay, Christopher Daniels angle, and an ad break.

Speaker 32 627,000 viewers.

Speaker 33 My God.

Speaker 33 So

Speaker 33 they're stuck in this pattern. When the people see

Speaker 33 the Buckaroos and that gang, 25,000 of them leave. Then they come back to leave again

Speaker 33 before the last Weasels, and then they've come back. Are they going to leave again or are they going to stick around?

Speaker 32 Well, let's go to quarter eight. I remind you, we have an overrun, but quarter eight, 9:45 to 10 p.m.

Speaker 32 Ricochet's promo, Moxley Pack, and Yuda, and Castignoli and Shafir beating up Top Flight and Reddy and the Dark Order backstage before leaving in a Jeep or a pickup truck, I guess.

Speaker 33 And they left in a huff, too.

Speaker 32 In a minute and a huff.

Speaker 32 Christian Cage versus Jay White with picture and picture, 563,000 viewers. Oh, 10-minute overrun.
Cage versus White continued post-match with Adam Page,

Speaker 32 521,000.

Speaker 33 Oh, my God.

Speaker 33 So not only did they lose for that last 15 minutes when

Speaker 33 here was the plumber's crew beating up some more people, and in that dry main event, they lost 37,

Speaker 33 64,000 people there, and then the the overrun lost another 42,000.

Speaker 33 So

Speaker 33 from where they started to where they finished, they lost 245,000 viewers, if my math is correct. To 76,000, yeah.
So

Speaker 33 what percentage, Brian? You're a mathematical genius. What percentage of 766,000

Speaker 33 is

Speaker 33 521,000.

Speaker 33 They lost 40%, didn't they, of their viewership?

Speaker 32 Give me those numbers again.

Speaker 33 Well, if 761,

Speaker 32 how do we do that? Did you say 761?

Speaker 33 They started at 766

Speaker 33 and they ended up at 521.

Speaker 33 That means they lost 245,000. What percentage of 766,000 is 245,000?

Speaker 32 It's 245. Okay, hold on.
245?

Speaker 32 That would be 31.98%.

Speaker 33 You're not as bad as I thought. Only a third of the audience decided, fuck this, we can't take it anymore.

Speaker 32 But like I said, with all the stuff with Danielson leading up to the pay-per-view a few pay-per-views ago, maybe it was Wembley. I'm not even sure.

Speaker 32 It's the main event stuff that people are tuning out for.

Speaker 32 You know, whatever we want to say about some of these guys out there, like the Commanders and the Heliums and the whoever the fucking everyone,

Speaker 32 they don't just actively drive people away while being the main focus of the show and the main angle on the show.

Speaker 33 And being paid all the money.

Speaker 32 The Bucks do it.

Speaker 32 We've seen Jericho do it. Jericho took himself off the shower.
He's not there right now.

Speaker 32 But the Moxley stuff

Speaker 32 drives people off. And Danielson, they did everything to Danielson and people were losing their investment in Danielson.

Speaker 32 So not good. This is not looking good for the future.

Speaker 33 Yeah, you know, that is true. That's something a lot of the show is rotten, but the only thing they really tune out big is

Speaker 33 the Kookamunga contingent that are the main event and the most highly paid fucking guys.

Speaker 32 That was AEW Dynamite.

Speaker 32 And ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to blame this one on me.

Speaker 32 I said questions and we have questions and we're going to do questions. Even if we have to drag them over to the experience.
We're going to do them.

Speaker 32 But we've been recording a long time.

Speaker 33 You're sick.

Speaker 11 You're puny.

Speaker 32 I'm still feeling, I'm sweating right now, and I'm afraid to turn on the fan because I'll hear the sonic noises that are coming out of it.

Speaker 32 And I'll just want to help all the people because that's the kind of person that I am and not let these be in the production.

Speaker 32 So, I guess the point is, we're going to close up shop early. Hold on.
Where is

Speaker 32 I'm available to make custom songs for people.

Speaker 32 And

Speaker 33 weddings, bar mitzvahs, and birthday parties.

Speaker 32 That's well, certain birthday parties. Some of you are freaks out there.
Of course, you can hear more of this freakdom on the Chim Cornet Experts.

Speaker 33 Are you accusing some of our listeners of having diddy freak offs for their birthdays?

Speaker 33 I resemble that remark.

Speaker 32 Well,

Speaker 32 get your freak off or on or whatever it is on the experience in a few days, wherever you find your favorite podcast. No pay-per-view this week.
It's nice. Yeah.

Speaker 32 Of course, wherever you find your favorite podcast, we'll be back next week with the drive-through

Speaker 32 patreon.com slash Cornette. Go through the archive $5 a month.
We sound much better than I feel right now.

Speaker 33 We were younger then.

Speaker 32 Patreon.com slash Cornette.

Speaker 32 Of course, the official Jim Cornette YouTube channel, the Travis Eckle artwork, George's artwork, and of course, full episodes, clips of the episodes, omnibus collections, and so much more.

Speaker 32 The official Jim Cornette YouTube channel.

Speaker 33 Why do you say George like he's Madonna or Elvis, and everybody knows it's George living on the edge?

Speaker 32 Yeah, I just, I feel like I get his name wrong. Livinitis, I believe.

Speaker 32 It could be Livinitis, but I believe it's Livinitis.

Speaker 33 Now it's Living on George Living on the Edge.

Speaker 32 Basically, a wrestler, Con Cavitas, remember? He was from Australia. Anyway,

Speaker 32 all right. I don't know where we're going.
And of course, that's the best way to get to a place you've never been before, like Cornettes Collectibles. What's going on, Jim?

Speaker 33 I'm selling stuff. Please go there and buy a few things.

Speaker 32 And if you have a problem with those things, you could sue the law office of Stephen P. New 8750.

Speaker 33 No, you can't sue the law office of Stephen P. New.

Speaker 32 No, well, you can't sue him. You'd have no reason to.

Speaker 33 Well, that's what you said. If you have a problem, you can sue the law office of Stephen.
No,

Speaker 32 you could sue, and then there's an implied, you must call or you should call you can call 877

Speaker 32 50 steve get on your telephone and call somebody get even with stevennewlawoffice.com until the experience in a few weeks few weeks a few days and next week

Speaker 32 and next week right back here on the drive-thru for jim cornet of the great brian last it's late in the day folks tally ho

Speaker 1 this isn't just a game it's a once-in-a-generation event.

Speaker 5 The Harlem Globetrotters 100-year tour.

Speaker 12 Celebrate 100 years of high-flying dunks, 100 years of show-stopping moves, and 100 years of changing the game.

Speaker 18 Bring the whole family and be part of the legacy.

Speaker 21 This game is once in a century.

Speaker 24 Be there at Chase Center on January 18th.

Speaker 31 Go to HarlemGlobetrotters.com for your tickets to the 100-year tour.

Speaker 1 This isn't just a game, it's a once-in-a-generation event.

Speaker 5 The Harlem Globetrotters 100-year tour.

Speaker 12 Celebrate 100 years of high-flying dunks, 100 years of show-stopping moves, and 100 years of changing the game.

Speaker 18 Bring the whole family and be part of the legacy.

Speaker 21 This game is once in a century.

Speaker 24 Be there at Chase Center on January 18th.

Speaker 29 Go to HarlemGlobetrotters.com for your tickets to the 100-year tour.