Episode 619: The More Things Change, The More They Remain The Same

Like the Midnight and the Rock and Roll, he's in a fight for wrestling soul, using the racket and the mind control, he's Jim Cronin. The key to the future, held by the past, and with Danky's partner for Ryan Last, he sends this message out by podcast, he's Jim Cronin. Well, he's never faced a pony He never backs down from a fight He never wins a pony Because his mama raised him right It's time to have your mind Get the experience Get the experience The Jim Cornette Experience host to you. You never change the channel when he's on the air. Be great, Brian Last, everybody. Aloha, Jim. A pleasure to be here once again. You surprised me with the news of what one of the topics we're going to discuss here on the show will be today, and I'm pretty excited about that. And we have dynamite. And I got some news that'll blow your mind. Brian, I'm on some drugs. I'm doing this show on drugs, on pharmaceuticals. I've got a variety of conditions here that we're going to discuss just briefly, and don't give me any fault or all, you cretins, you and Jay Sharknado about the, well, he's got the dry mouth or he's a little raspy or whatever. Not only am I on a heavy-duty antihistamine, but I'm also on the steroids. I could break out into a rage at any moment. So tread lightly around me today, Mr. Last, because it could be your last day. Well, what happened to you? I mean, you were fine the other day. Well, I'm all right now, but last week I was in rough shape. No, I went for my annual physical and checkup at the doctor and the renewal of my, you know, few prescriptions I take. I'm 64 years old now. I got to stay on top of this shit. and I think I said this last year, I have bad news for everybody. I'm mostly okay, but I'll have you know that before I get into what I'm on, Brian, think about this. I'm a 64-year-old man that's been involved in professional wrestling in some way or another for 50 years and had driven 2 million miles and flown wherever the fuck I've flown to, and they've been flung off scaffolds. and my weight is 192 pounds, and my blood pressure was 120 over 84, and my cholesterol is 196. How is this possible? What do you think about them? How is this possible? I think you have a funny doctor who's playing games. No. And lying to you about the results. I'm looking at the documentation. They took my blood. They took my blood. Where'd they take it? They took it in another room. And then when they brought it back, it looked so much better. Now, to be quite honest, I do have to get off of the Reese's cups and eating cake. because the only high thing was my glucose is mildly elevated, which can be corrected. As the phrase goes, corrected with diet means quit eating the fuck of Reese's Cups, you fat fuck, right? Well, formerly fat fuck. But I got the weakness for things like that. And then the antihistamine I'm on is for my squishy ear that has been squishy. I've referred to it on the program numerous times, and I've been echoing in my right ear. He said, oh, yeah, he looked in with the little pointed thing, and he said, yeah, it's about 40 or 50 percent obstructed or colluded or occluded or whatever the fucking phrase was. And he suggests that we start, because when I sniff, I can feel it in this. Let's start with the antihistamines. Take one of these every day for 30 days and see if that, you know, and then we'll go from there. Well, it's been three fucking days and it's dried up everything except my fucking ear. Right now I'm sitting, my mouth is so fucking dry. I'm wanting to walk over to the cold window and lick it. Just get some goddamn moisture. so I'm trying to drink so many sprites I'm having to piss in a jug at the desk like fucking Jim Ross on a four hour pay-per-view I'm drinking now and my throat's dry my mouth is dry my eyes are a little dry but the ear is still echoing and I'm on the steroids Brian for the goddamn elbow tendon or muscle or whatever that I've told you about that from when I was using that cutting cord on the pole saw this past summer, and it still bothers me on and off in various activities throughout the day when I just make some odd movement, and he's trying to boost me up a little bit. And he can give me a referral to a podiatrist. He said, well, what they need to do on that callus on your big toe that you keep having a scrape or it feels like somebody's giving you a fucking hot foot, is they go in there and they cut the core out of that callus. And then it'll heal from the inside out. And I'm not sure I've decided to avail myself of that opportunity or just keep scraping off the top of it. Oh, just do it. You won't feel anything. They'll use some lidocaine, numb the area, you won't feel anything, and then they take it out. One, two, three. You put some Vaseline on it for a few weeks. One, two, three. One, two, three. It's easy as do-re-mi to cut your core out of your toe. Len Barry. One, two, three. There you go. Now I know who you're talking about. That was another show, so none of our listeners know what we're talking about. One of the random references from a previous show. It's a callback to that. Folks, you've got to keep up and listen to them in order also. So and but anyway, so I'm somewhat hampered with trying to stay in a proper fucking vocal tone here today. So bear with me if I every once in a while. And I just watched the local news just to prove that it's not just chaos in the nation, but it's it's it's locally is always sucks. Also, there had been a trial going on, Brian. See whose side you would have been on. Now, this guy had a strong defense, strong defense for what he did, what he was accused of. So apparently, this guy was married, had three kids, all of them under five. And the guy was said to have received a picture of his wife holding hands with one of her co-workers, which caused trouble in their marriage. and then he went to the trouble, I'll have you know, of cooking her a, because this happened on Valentine's Day, cooking her a special Valentine's Day dinner, which the quote on the news was, apparently the defense said, his dinner was not well received. That was the quote. What action do you think is appropriate for this man to take? Against his wife, his mother of his children. I don't understand how he got to court. What's the issue that got it to court? Well, what got it to court is after he got this picture of her holding hands with one of her coworkers, and then she didn't like the fucking Valentine's dinner that he fixed for her. He choked her. He beat her. He stabbed her 40 times. Jesus. while the three kids were all in the house and then sent a picture of the body to a family group chat. Wow. Yeah, I would give him the death penalty. Well, I'm just saying, the defense would say, well, he had a fit of rage. In a fit of rage. Everybody can understand there's rage about in a fit of rage he did these things. Because he was obviously coerced and provoked by this. Leave the house. Fuck all of her friends. That's fix the rage. What the fuck? Yeah, death penalty. Kill him. Guilty. Well, I don't know what's, I don't think it's got to that phase yet where they've decided what's going to go on there. But he's guilty. We know that much. But whatever they're going to do with him remains. But he seemed to be remorseful when he was sitting there. There was an article in the New York Post today. Let me see if I can pull it up. It was about, like, a divorce that is because of an indecent proposal. You know, from the movie, an indecent proposal that his now soon-to-be ex-wife received from her boss. Let me see if I can find this. But it was like she was offered millions of dollars and all this, and she was like, yeah. I guess apparently she took it. Here's the headline. Married real estate mogul offered subordinate multi-million dollar indecent proposal to leave her husband for him, according to lawsuit. He offered her $3 million plucked from his company's socks as part of a decent proposal to steer her away, according to the bombshell lawsuit. Tamir Poleg, the chief executive of the Utah-based real estate firm Real Brokerage, allegedly tried to bribe Paige Steckling, a married mother of two who worked for him. Paige Steckling! with heaps of cash, real estate deals, and lavish trips, according to a lawsuit filed by her husband, Michael Seckling. Michael accused Pollig of destroying his marriage through the incessant attempts to poach Paige, according to the lawsuit obtained by the Daily Mail. Paige confirmed her divorce in a statement to the outlet. My marriage ended for personal reasons and the claims made in this lawsuit do not reflect the reality of those circumstances. I'm confident the legal process will address any inaccuracies, she said. He claimed that he and Page never even considered divorcing until Poleg started to chase his wife. It divulges a specific deal Poleg offered her in January 2022. a glamorous $1.5 million home in Park City, Utah, and a promise to, quote, take care of her needs if she left Michael in the dust. Polleg left his wife around the same time. Page filed for divorce in February, the lawsuit says. So he makes her the proposal in January, and then he leaves his wife, and then she leaves her husband the next month. So any thoughts on this? Well, but I'm just wondering if, so they're stuck with each other, though. Rather than just a business transaction, they actually have to be married and or living together on an ongoing basis now. Is that, that's the way that I'm seeing it. It wasn't just like, hey, I'll give you, the movie was like, I'll give you a million dollars, just fuck me. One night. Yeah, and to get it over with. But this whole thing, you got to, you're stuck with each other afterwards. I, yeah, I don't know. Pollock admitted. Like Vince McMahon, who the story reminds me of. But Vince McMahon said to me one time, when he stooged to me that Brian Lee had told him he'd leave the rest of my Smoky Mountain dates if Vince needed him early. And Vince came to me and said, if he'd do it to you, he'll do it to me, so I wouldn't let you know. So you already know what you're fucking dealing with. Well, Poleg admitted to the Daily Mail that he did send the email referenced in the lawsuit, but claimed he was merely offering financial support that she had requested. He flatly denied the laundry list of accusations. Quote, no offers, no romance, no interference, he told. Great stipulations. No disqualification. Anything goes. Lazy marriage. Lazy marriage. The mogul doubled down and asserted that Paige often complained about her lackluster relationship, and he gleaned that the couple didn't share any genuine love or affection. Her soon-to-be ex-husband is seeking $5 million in damages tied to the collapse of his marriage. That's interesting, the idea you could sue. It's not even the person she had an affair with technically. I mean, maybe they did, but it's before. It's just the idea she took an offer to have an affair or leave her husband. And then the husband gets to sue. That's interesting. Well, and then also, but the thing is, I was going to say, the problem is the most fair arrangement that would be that if he sued, he got his fucking wife back, but then at this point he don't want her. So he'd rather have the money. Possibly he'd rather have the money anyway. Maybe he's trying to get his own fucking deal. If you were looking for a home in Utah, would this make you seek her out as an agent, or would this make you stay away? Or would you think, you know, maybe you'll have a good time looking at houses. If I was looking for a home in Utah, I'd be looking for a fucking psychiatrist. Well, that's the local news, at least from my end. In Utah? You got a second home in Utah now? Well, I feel like any small town now will be incorporated into local news, and Utah as a state is a small town. Well, there you go. All right, before we get to the wrestling part, I promised today, and I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it, for the people like, oh, God, we take it away from this shit. But we have to talk about it. And as I mentioned, a week or two ago when I read the email from one of the listeners thanking me for talking about it from Minneapolis. And I think, I know a lot of people don't want to hear me talk about this because they just, you don't want to think about it going on. And some of the people are like, well, I don't want to listen to politics because they ain't yours. I don't give a fuck about you. But a lot of people are just, can't I get away from it? but that's the problem is the only reason why that some progress is being made, and that's not why I'm not just so pissed off. Some progress is being made in the court of public opinion, if nothing else, over this last deal, and we're going to mention it because I've checked in with another member of our legal team who I will get back to. Everybody knows Stephen P. knew, but we've got an enforcer on the team. He's a fucking guerrilla warfare fighter, and I got some information from him. But everybody by now has seen, for the listeners around the world who are not inundated with this, who don't have to look at it, I shot somebody else in Minneapolis five or ten times in the back. His name was Alex Preddy, and of course, as soon as it happened, there was all of the top regime officials, including that little wannabe troll living under a bridge, Bovino Nazi. Bovino and Kristi Noem slandering the guy. Hey, their story was, oh my God, this gun-wielding, you know, a protester brandished a weapon and came loaded, ready to do maximum damage and inflict casualties to our law enforcement. He's a domestic terrorist. but the problem was this time not only were there multiple videos from every angle from people doing the same thing this guy was doing taking video with his phone that showed that they were lied there wasn't a car this time where they oh he hit the gas no the ice guys shoved this woman on her ass on the sidewalk And when he went to pick her up, they grabbed him and jerked him off of her and threw him down. And about six of them started kicking the shit out of him. Immediately started spraying him in the face, too. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, they had already tear gassed him. When he turned to help the woman up, he'd already been tear gassed. I forgot. Thank you, Brian. Shoved her down on her ass, tear gassed him. He turns to try to help the woman up. They jerk him off. they continue to kick the shit out of him, they realize he's got a gun in his pants that he never went for and can't get to because he's blind with six people on top of him. And they pull the gun away from him. And then two different agents shoot him five to ten times in the back. And the video, everybody sees it. they can't lie their way out of it this time. They still are. They're still trying to, but now nobody except the people in this sick world of theirs actually believe them. Everybody else has seen that they would say this if a guy fucking was standing there naked with his hands in the air. He went for an automatic rifle. Well, that's what they've been doing. This is why when people talk about it, it means a difference. Anyway, the point is, go ahead, ask me, I'm sorry. Did you see the statement from the NRA? Because that was one of the interesting little things here. Yes. He was being attacked verbally after the fact, after he was murdered for being a domestic terrorist. He came to inflict mass damage because he was carrying a gun on him. I wouldn't have done that. I don't think that was the greatest thing to do. However, it was his right. And the people attacking him for doing that are usually the people defending everyone's right to have a gun. In America, the NRA came out and said, this guy didn't do anything wrong. This guy was a legal gun carrier. He had a permit. He carried his gun. He didn't do anything. He didn't brandish it. He didn't pull it out. That's what I'm saying. They have, Schittler and the rest of his henchmen have gotten used to be able to just blame the other guy, blame the victim, blame the whatever the fuck, to the point where they blame themselves into coming back and blaming themselves, their own fucking side. And the Second Amendment people's heads are on fire, having double knockouts, which, wait a minute, we're mad at ourselves. What the fuck is going on? They championed that weasel-faced little Kyle Rittenhouse, who was a teenager, brought a fucking automatic rifle that his parents had bought for him to a Black Lives Matter protest. On the wrong side of it, he was against the Black Lives Mattering. And he needed to bring the biggest gun he could find for some reason. And he had, yes, and he had an automatic assault rifle and he shot three people. and he got to the White House and fucking Shentler shook hands with him because he was defending his Second Amendment rights. This guy was helping a woman up off the sidewalk while he'd already been tear gassed and they jerked him down, took his gun away from him, and shot him. And then they came out. Well, he brought a firearm and brandished a firearm and came ready to do mass casualties to our law enforcement officers. And they've got the video. No, he didn't. No, he didn't. He was videoing with his cell phone. So now, again, the group who had said that their existence, the NRA, was to make sure that the fucking people carried their guns and their Second Amendment rights, they could rise up against a tyrannical government. The goddamn tyrannical government that said they shouldn't carry guns to a protest has finally arrived, and the call came from within the house. So anyway, this guy turned out to be a nurse in the intensive care unit at a veterans hospital, and his job was treating veterans who have served the country. They played a video of him giving honor to one of the patients that passed away and reading about the freedom and patriotism and everything. And the government that he was serving the service members of has just finished shooting him in the back. So, obviously, mass protests, news coverage, outrage, there are some cosmetic changes going on. See, don't think that this regime wants to change anything. They're doing this shit on purpose, and they're changing because they got caught. And they're going to do the same shit elsewhere if they can get away with it. That's why we talk about it. But they pulled, again, that little troll Bovino and sent him somewhere in an office somewhere to fucking fester and rot. They took his social media accounts away from him. Did you see that? No, because I wasn't on his social fucking media. But, you know, they've sent him somewhere. Not to prison, unfortunately. And more people are calling for Kirstie Noem's fucking, oh, somebody called her a twatsy. I thought that was a really creative. I've never heard that before. They're calling for her to resign or be impeached or whatever the case. And she's already said, well, I'm just following orders as a familiar, you know, Nuremberg. The governor, or I'm sorry, not the governor, but a candidate for governor in Minnesota the next election, Walls is not running. There was a Republican that was going to run for governor. And he came out and made a statement that he was pulling out of the race because why bother? because the National Republican Party, the administration, has made it impossible for a Republican ever to win an election in the state of Minnesota again. So he's like, ah, fuck it. Idiots. And they're trying to rein in the ICE agents. Was it Newsom that said, no ICE agent will ever get a job in the state of California if we get these records and this will follow them the rest of their lives? The Democrats are threatening a shutdown if they don't take funding for ICE out of this bill that they again have to sign. But people are starting to recognize that's the most important thing. Is they've started to turn people off of this fucking ridiculousness that aren't just hook, line and sinker. Normal, reasonable people that may have just not been tuned in. and if we don't keep calling them out on it, every time that we have to and that they do these things, they're going to try to do it elsewhere. And if we can keep this momentum going, I don't care if you vote for Democrats or independents or none of the above in the midterms. if there is a way that we can hamstring, handcuff, hold up this entire administration until the next election as much as possible to just throw stumbling blocks in his path at everything, then hopefully the end of his term can be followed soon by the start of his sentence. But until then, we so I mentioned real quick and I will this last thing I will say. A lot of people know our legal team. Stephen P. New, of course, is one of the most famous attorneys since Atticus Finch. But another member of the team is a fellow out in California named Andre Verdun. And because this is more, whereas Stephen has definitely sued governments, as we know, the state of West Virginia and various municipalities on behalf of people, Andre, being from California, has had more background in immigration. And I'd ask him, is there a way I can publicize? Is there a fund? Because here's the thing. Look at all these videos, Brian, that we've seen of them bashing in people's windows and throwing their grandmothers down and tear gas the baby. They're trying to deport a five-year-old child that is now in a detention center somewhere in Texas because they're going to deport him and his father at the same time. This kid's probably mentally scarred for life. That's a goddamn supervillain origin story. I said, is there a fund or a nonprofit organization or whatever to provide legal aid for citizens and immigrants alike to sue the United States government for damages, civil rights violations, assault, personal injury, property damage, death of a family member, instead of our taxes going to this fucking pig in his criminal family's pockets? And to further this kind of activity, at least we'd be, as the federal government, we, the people, would be paying out to these people that have been fucked with by these fucking assholes. And unfortunately, he said there is no organized, centralized movement per se where there's a boy you could boom because of not only, and he, believe me, He filled me in on the statutes of the bullshit qualified immunity, sometimes unqualified immunity, that various law enforcement entities have and the courts that have ruled and don't want to rule. In fact, this fucking stooge has stacked many of the courts by this point. The ACLU, again, for the folks around the world, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU is a cause that he has worked with and he's done a lot of immigration work and he believes in theirs and he says you win small battles in the war but the war is ongoing but the more that they show who they are the more that it chips away at their support and we need to make sure that everybody knows who the fuck they are. For the people they shoot or the kids they lock up or the women and the elderly that they assault and gas, that all reflects on you-know-who because he and his band of fanatics and whack jobs that he surrounded himself with are the architects of it. By the way, Brian Measles is back. You know, measles is making a comeback. It's like Frankie Valli in the early 70s. It's everywhere now. You see this? Mid-70s. I wouldn't say early 70s. Well, you know what I'm saying. But anyway, I guess we got to talk about some wrestling on the program today, Brian. And there's somebody, he's changing his name. A guy who's so ashamed of his past, he's changing his name. No, we love him. Powerhouse Hobbs, our friend Willie Hobbs. Dusty would have loved him. Willie Hobbs, I can see it right now. Here come Willie Hobbs. Willie Hobbs is big and bad. He just fucks up everybody. Powerhouse Hobbs' new name in the WWE is going to be, well, I'm not sure, Brian. Is it Royce Keys or is it Hoist Keys? I believe it's Royce. He's not Portuguese or Brazilian. Well, but, I mean, the most famous Royce I know is a hoist. Royce Gracie. That's right. Royce Gracie. So, and it's spelled the same way. So, don't you, immediately, he's going to be over with the Brazilian jiu-jitsu community. But they're all going to be at the matches. They're going, hoist, hoist, hoist, hoist. I don't know if that's going to be the problem. But before you go any further, the basic question right here at the beginning, does Royce Keys pass the name test? First of all, in all seriousness, I guess they gave him some input or some option or whatever because Royce is his son's name. Is Wilhoff's real son's name, right? So I'm not shitting all over Royce as just a name. But for him, the way he looks, the beast that he is, the physical mountain of a man, and the combined with keys, and I don't know where that came from. and you have Royce Keys, that sounds like some kind of evil stockbroker rather than powerhouse Hobbs, which kind of sounds like what you see when you're looking at Will Hobbs. So, and I mean, the name test may be irrelevant these days because of all of the manufactured names they've got coming through developmental. They'll just put anybody on there anyway. But I need more information. You know, Powerhouse Hobbs was a refreshing name, actually. It's one of those things AEW got right. Just giving him the name Powerhouse, simple, said everything you need to say, and it worked. it's a throwback to Crusher Lasowski as opposed to just Reggie Lasowski but to just give him a completely new NXT porn name seems stupid to me I know they did it to Ricky Starks they clearly have like a pecking order of guys that they think are famous enough coming off AEW TV that they won't change their name and then other guys they will but this is one of those times AEW had a good name for him Ricky Starks becoming Ricky Saints, I still think is stupid. But, you know, it's still Ricky. It's still Ricky, at least. It's close. All of a sudden, Powerhouse Hobbs, the people who saw him in AEW, and, again, all the talk we do about the ratings, a lot of people saw him in AEW. He's now going to be Royce Keys. Even Powerhouse Keys would be better than Royce. It can't just be another name, just a generic, give us a name. We need a name that we can own. And I'm agreeing with you, except I understand both sides of it. They want to own even the Ricky Starks to Ricky Saints. I'm sure somebody in the legal department says, well, Ricky is a common enough name, but Powerhouse indicates the intellectual property is Zabodav and Foonam soon. But the point being, I know that the WWE wants to own as much as they can of the intellectual property and for the merchandising and blah, blah, blah. But as ACDC said, it's a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll. It's a long way from Powerhouse Hobbs to Royce Keys. As I said, you conjure up an image of this giant brute or this evil stockbroker. Could they not have played off of Powerhouse and the Dynamo Strength? I don't fucking know. I'll get the dictionary out here in a minute if you make me. and in some way pay an homage to what he looks like and what he has done before. And just, I can't think of a more opposite name from what he's had than what this is. But for the money, apparently, but here's the thing. Brian, I've got documentation here for the accounting department sent this over. and the problem is it's accounting from Uncle Dave and between the run-on sentences that are interrupted by parenthetical asides and the lack of punctuation for literally days at a time he fucking loses me but there are things that we could point out and comment on here and also I would question how he knows these things except I guess we know how he knows these things. Tony! Tony Khan! Come out and play! Anyway, apparently he got the information from somewhere that Hobbs got an AEW offer to stay that was basically a number that it would have been higher than anybody in the company but Jericho was making in 2019. And I'm thinking that means at least a level of a million dollars, does it not? I would think it would absolutely be a million dollars. I mean, if you think about the original crew of people, Omega, Cody, Young Bucks, those are like the big guys with Jericho, Moxley. yeah, it'd be over a million dollars. Was Moxley there at the start or did he slink in when we weren't looking? Well, he was there at the start of Dynamite. He debuted at a pay-per-view earlier that year, I think. That's right. Remember, they had pay-per-views before they had TV. That well true. And they had the horse before they had the cart. But also, he says, it would be in line with what Bryan Danielson got to jump from WWE to AEW, maybe slightly less, but in line. That would seem to indicate a little more than just a million dollars, wouldn't it? Wouldn't you think? I would think. More than the guys the level of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, I wonder why he mentions them specifically. We're making four years ago less than they are making now. in the range of what a guy the level of Seth Rollins was making around the same time in 2019. So, AEW offered him that much money, but he obviously turned it down because he's gone to the WWE, which Uncle Dave admits he doesn't know. I wonder why. but I wonder how many wrestlers who negotiated with Tony even though they re-signed with WWE are unhappy about their salary details getting out there but also when you look at I mean there's many different ways and from different vantage points you can look at this great for Hobbs that he's had good money deals no matter which side he took that he's got and the opportunity and blah blah blah but Dave is pursing this in terms of how it shows how salaries have increased now with a promotional war going on. I'll agree it's a bidding war. I don't know so much about the promotional war. But it's a bidding war. So when this bidding war, and that's what the WWE was afraid was going to happen, not because they're afraid of losing the war but god damn if they see a guy that they think they can make some money with or that can be a star in a wrestling business or that they can elevate but Tony wants him too then if they take the big money offer from Tony because he wants him WWE doesn't get him and at the same time they may never be developed as as big a star as they could have been if WWE had got them because they will be in AEW until whatever happens with AEW happens and that's, I can see people in WWE getting mad not only from the standpoint of the here and now but a standpoint of Jesus Christ, is this guy going to take the prime years away from a lot of just people in the wrestling talent pool for the sake of the industry that will be hamstrung or handicapped or possibly prevented from getting on their path to stardom because they're taking the rich kids' money. And they're hidden over there. So I think that, to me, is something we need to start looking at. Well, again, too, it says something. The powerhouse Hobbs had been there for years, and after all that time he was offered, if we are to believe what Dave said here, and we have no reason not to. We know who his sources are. He was offered this amazing deal. He knows what the schedule will be. He knows there's a good chance I'll get this money, and at some point during the three- or five-year deal, I will just be at home for months at a time. Yeah. That's a reality you have to kind of expect. Even if he'll fall out with Tony, he'll just take you off TV for a while because he doesn't know what to do. He turned that down to go to WWE. WWE, see, you kind of hit on it there. They're unhappy about AEW because the more they have to pay wrestlers, the less they can gift themselves back. The top executives in that company. Because you just have to look every quarter to see how much Nick Khan or Triple H or The Rock, how much any of these guys are getting in stock compensation and then how much they turn around and sell in stock. That's why they don't want to pay the wrestlers a lot. We heard Triple H in Unreal say that his strategy with R-Truth, and again, we're talking about a wrestler in his mid-50s, but still, his strategy was make him think that it's over so that he'll come back to the table and give us a more reasonable deal. and he went the other way and WWE did what they do now. They paid him. They paid guys specifically not to go to AEW. They paid guys specifically to be a part of what they're doing in Mexico against CMLL. Like now they're paying guys. Just sometimes you have to – let me say it this way. There's probably never been a better time to call WWE's bluff on a contract and trying to get the most out of it. never a better time than right now to do that. And again, they're putting all this money if we ought to believe it behind Hobbs. Again, they can cut him at any time. It's a WWE deal. Makes you question why give him a shitty name. No one there could recognize that anything anything else, Stronghouse Jones, just anything fucking else would be better than Royce Keyes, the winner of the match the new WWE champion, Royce Keys. I don't see it. I don't see it, but again, Tony offered him a lot of money. He said no. Anna Jay apparently is floating around out there right now. Tony couldn't re-sign her. Anna Jay's floating around? Boy, you know what I mean. He must have lost a little weight. Well, Tony couldn't sign her, and we'll see what happens in the future. But Tony is now at the point where in the early days he could throw all this money guys and get a lot of them. And now he can throw all the money at the guys and if they've been in AEW a while, they probably want to get out. Unless you're a top, top guy and you're used well. That's why MJF will probably stay there for a very, very long time. He doesn't have to worry about being at the top. He's at the top. And it's a pretty cemented place in AEW once you're there. But they're not going to know. Where's Tony going to get the talent now? Because if he can't win a bidding war against WWE, what is he going to offer them? Well, now, hold it. He can still win bidding wars against the WWE when the WWE wants him to win them. WWE's not just going to, shit, we'll take everybody. You know, but the problem is, is that most of the people who have a future want to go to the WWE. Most of the people who've had a past might want to go to AEW just for, you know, a quick one. But there's no, as we've talked about, no game changers, no names, no stars that are going to appear that we haven't thought of and signed with AEW in the near future or that are going to leave while they are still of major box office value. And we'll talk about the one that left here this past week and joined Tony is going to up their in-ring. And because it's AEW, it's going to matter zilch in terms of business. And it's a good move for them. And he'll be a good fit there. We'll get there. But that's kind of an example of the kind of guy they can get off WWE TV right now. The Ricochet. The Tommaso. There you go. The guys who are kind of middle of the road, mid-card, and never going to get past that in WWE. But that's kind of the problem is that Tony, and see here, he was offering Hobbs that much money. If he could take it, okay. Just anybody out there listening to my voice right now, whatever you think about what I think about wrestling or what wrestling you like or whatever, make a mental list of the people that you think in AEW should be rated above in terms of, well, they're in the main events and they're champions and all this stuff. It should have been not just work rate, but they're important people. How many were above Powerhouse Hobbs on that list? Brian, what would you say? 10, 15, 20? The way that Hobbs has been presented and used. I don't have a number, but I would think it's a lot of guys. Hobbs has never been used past being the tough best friend or the muscle or just the guy in the group who's not the top guy. He was the guy in the team with the guys that, okay, if he was going to make over a million dollars, then those guys have to be pretty much making over a million dollars or some of them are about to, now that they've heard this, right? But I would think all of them already are. that's 20 guys making over a million dollars a year and when we went through the roster he's got like 150 on some form of arrangement whether he's stringing them along or has them locked down to contracts and the productions that they're doing where they do two national broadcasts with the travel and the crew and the fucking And for a while they were in the big buildings. Now they're in the small building. But still, that's, again, the points to what I've talked about with the fact that when making a huge profit, being responsible to stockholders or partners in the company at a privately held, anybody wants to make any money. Tony is free of those constraints. He don't have to make any money. I know Uncle Dave keeps saying the second most profitable wrestling company in history because of the TV deal. Because Tony tells him that. But if you sit and do the math and profitable from the time they signed the deal going forward like we just started there. Or how much did Tony spend to get there? But how many millions is going out to talent that we never see? and the fucking giant travel bill that comes with bringing a bunch of guys that you'd never see on the TV to the TV to maintain a secondary vanity promotion and all the blah, blah, blah. The only way that Tony is able to do this is if he says, okay, I'll just, now that I'm breaking even, I'll just break even. He doesn't care about making a profit. it's millions and millions of dollars well it pays to have a rich dad I think that's the point you can do whatever you want if your dad's a billionaire and he gives you a monthly allowance of plus or minus a billion dollars whatever the hell it is but this is AEW this is the way it's going to go but we'll see how it goes in the future when Tony wants to re-sign someone and WWE's in the same range salary-wise as what Tony's offering. It's going to create a lot of interesting decisions. Well, like I said, if you're on the way up, I'd go north. And if you're on the way down, I'd go south. When AEW started and they signed a whole bunch of guys to multi-year deals for like $750,000 a year and more, at a time when that still was a lot of money. I mean, it still is, but you know what I mean, with the way salaries have gone up in six years. And then when WWE realized we got nothing to worry about, they released all those people. They put them back into the general population and just hope some other group would grab them. So it'll be interesting because the money game has changed. And that's the thing is once they saw what was going on, they're like, okay, and they didn't think that anybody would go this far. They thought, look at this shit. And now it's malingering on, but yeah, but it's changed. The boys can make a ton of money now. It's just nobody can ever work enough to get any good. Because when you've got, I mean, well, in the WWE, they have a program in place where you can wrestle in front of people often enough to improve and also be instructed and have some support from booking. In AEW, if you're not on their A or B show and you're doing a Ring of Honor match, is anybody wrestling three times a week there ever? Would they maybe three times over two days because that's where they tape? I don't know. But the point is, you're not really going to progress. So if you on the way up in the business go north young man If you on the way down in the business go south young man old man But you know you could cash in another way Brian Yes, you certainly can, Jim. I was hoping you'd agree with me. Folks, you don't need to have billionaires bidding over you to cash in. All you've got to do is go to our friends at PrizePix because the big game is almost here. You know what I'm talking about. Is what, in February, the 8th-ish, whatever, then there's no better way to cash in during America's biggest sporting event than PrizePix where it always feels good to be right. And, Brian, there's a big deal going on right now. This week, PrizePix has a max discount for the big game, which is live in the app right now. Or is it living in the app right now? I'm not sure. Is it live or live? It is live, but it doesn't necessarily connotate. But it's still living. Yes. Is it a living entity? It's in the app. It's spreading everywhere. It's taking over like a virus. Drake May, you've heard of him. He just needs one passing yard. More than a passing fancy. That's the next measurement up, a passing yard. One passing yard for the max discount to win. Yay! You just add another player to your lineup, and if your picks hit, you can cash in. And then you just drive down the street and find your local prize picks panel van, and you go up and you present your ticket. You say, give me that cash, and the guy just peels it out to you right there, right out the window. Not the way it works? Yes. Well, it's instantaneous. They've got you on file now. It's instantaneous? Yes, too. You had to... On the app. You don't need to see a panel van or go outside or see anyone. No windows are open. You had to walk down the street for a while until they checked your fucking background. But now it's instantaneous because it's computerized. Sometimes if you walk down the street, you'd have to buy a crack to come back. What? But I'll tell you what, folks. Right now, if you want to hop in your panel van and go to winning land, PrizePix is available everywhere that you want to go, and you can find your community with the new social feeds feature. You can share PrizePix with your friends, copy lineups, use them as an inspiration for your own picks, plagiarism, candid photography. You can even follow PrizePix partners and tailor-fade their picks with just one click. So whether you're a tailor or a fader, one way or another, one click can get you rich. And they've got early payouts. We've talked about this. Just make sure that nothing happens at the end of the game to screw things up or you'll have people looking for you. And with prize picks, you don't have to wait until next year's draft to keep playing fantasy. You can have a fantasy every night if you want, even in the playoffs with the fantasy football. Brian, what football players do you fantasize about? I don't necessarily fantasize about football players, but we can all think about the players and the big moves and the big plays during the big game on February 18th. Big February 8th. Are you ready, Jim? I'm thinking big prizes, big picks. It's all happening. It's all happening. The big snaps, the big plays, the big hangovers afterwards. Folks, right now, join millions of users and sign up for America's number one sports pick app. That's by downloading the prize pick app today. And use the code JCE to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That is the code JCE at the PrizePix app to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Imagine having a fantasy like that for only $5. Well, fuck, these are prices like from Vegas in the 70s. PrizePix, it's good to be right. That's right, PrizePix, it's good to be right. They will leave you alone in person. But the big game on the 8th, make sure you got your picks with PrizePix. Do you know you could get quality hookers in the 70s in Vegas for $50? You said $5 before. I was going to call you out for that. That seemed like a ridiculous thing for the 70s. Well, no, I was counting in the $50. You said $5. You can't count. What do you mean you were counting in the $50? You said $5. You're going to get, that's $5 of your money, but you're going to get $50 in lineups. That's like only contributing $5 to the around the world trip. Again, we're talking metaphorical hookers, and you can hook your picks with prize picks. One more time, Jim. A deal for the listener. Well, if you had a $5 hooker, you'd have to hook your pick or pick your hook or pick your pick or whatever you just said. But for $55, well, you know, you've got a reasonable expectation. Nevertheless, that's the code JCE to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup at prize picks. It's good to be right. That's where I'd said that already. Well, Brian, at this point, it's my show. And I want to, again, remember, I'm on some drugs here. I could snap at any moment to cause mayhem. It's my show. But I need your help because there's something going on between people. And I don't know who the fuck any of them are. but apparently there is an account on Twitter that has been accused of being Tony Khan under a presumed name and there is another guy that's been jousting with him named Nick Piccolo that apparently is a super agent to the stars but he's been the target of assassination attempts, I don't know, that they try to kidnap him and drop him into Guatemala from a helicopter. What is the, everybody is talking about this, but I've seen people screenshotting the various back and forth shenanigans between them, and I don't know how the kids read these DMs and texts and things like that. So it's pretty much gibberish to me. What the hell is going on here? It's hard to explain. I've been watching it because a lot of people have been sending it over, and it's one of these things where whenever anyone sends an email with a link, you have to do research to understand what is happening and try to figure out who is who and what is what. Apparently, spring or summertime, this guy, Nick, I think his last name is Lopiccolo, not Nick Piccolo. I thought Lopiccolo was his middle name. No, it's Nick Lopiccolo. and he started jousting with Dave Meltzer, I believe. That was when it first came to my attention. That was the first, like, sign that, okay, this is interesting, and, you know, your first thought wasn't clearly this man is the agent for a lot of big stars, and then when you see that, you're like, okay, this is an interesting tactic. Let's see what happens here. He does come off as a bit odd for a guy that, you know, some highfalutin, high-tootin finance going on, an international yacht broker from Toulon, France. Yeah, and this is coming from people who fight with other people on Twitter. But whatever it is, and I have here the tweet that I guess a lot of people have been sending over. I looked at his current Twitter, and again, you hate to make any kind of judgment, and you don't know what is really going on. Does it run through your mind he's been hacked when you look at his Twitter? It seems like it's either that, or if it's not that, the best thing would probably be to get away from social media and not have a social media account for a while and just enjoy life. That would be my suggestion. I was wondering if this guy was a work or not, but apparently he's really representing people? Well, he apparently represents, I don't know if anyone has changed anything, because I also have an article here that he just got, well, people are saying he got fired, but the official article is that he exits Paradigm after 17 years. This is last week. And it says here his roster included, or includes, because they're still going to, Apparently he's taking his clients and he's going to still work with the company. So I don't know what the hell this means. Aaron Donald, Reggie Bush, Ray Lewis, Sean Avery, Amanda Serrano, Zang Welly, Jorge Masvidal. Masvidal. Not him. Yeah, I can't even say his last name. Masvidal. CM Punk. Drew McIntyre. Jade Cargill. Liv Morgan. She doesn't get one of your moans. Liv Morgan. I can't just ooh, ooh, ooh. Tiffany Stratton and more than a dozen WWE superstars and emerging talent who are expected to benefit from his agency plus relationship in this transition, according to Deadline here. Again, it's a very friendly article. Then why is he going back and forth with an account that he accuses of being Tony Khan under a presumed name and saying that Tony Khan has threatened his children or whatever the fuck's going on? Here's a post from the 27th. It's been edited, and it has four images here of previous posts, so we'll talk about them after the fact. Here's what Niccolo Piccolo, this is what he tweeted out. This pro-Tony Khan account that posts things that only Tony Khan would know followed BJ Bethel and other Tony co-conspirators, followed TK bot armies, is Muslim, anti-trans, anti-Jade Cargill. We just went downhill from there. Anti-all of the same people as TK, immediately mass-deleted his posts and locked his account down after I tagged the NFL commissioner on Sunday night. This must have hit too close to home because, and this has been quotes, obvious burner at Ron11479281, which is the account he's accusing of being Tony Khan, reported my ex-account to get it suspended less than 15 minutes later after I tagged the NFL. And I connected the dots here. But this guy has inside knowledge if I got fired from Paradigm 12 days ago. An anti-Zionist burner obsessed with pro wrestling and AEW with close connections to Hollywood? Sorry, Tony. The VPN won't save you. Again, there's attachments, but any thoughts on that screen? You know, I recognize a lot of those words. I just don't know all of the way that they're applied in the modern world. But this guy doesn't sound balanced as far as if. What the fuck? What about if he just picked up the phone call? We know Tony Khan spends a lot of time on a phone. Just pick him up and call him and tell him this instead of telling him on fucking Twitter. And what is the goddamn. What in the world? I told on you to the commissioner of the NFL. But here's another thing. Quick, quick, take it down the commissioner nose. Quick, quick. Well, yeah, I would love to see the conversation if the commissioner of the NFL called Tony Khan to say, why is some fucking ridiculous lunatic calling me about you tweeting under a burner account about wrestling? Now, Tony, you know we've talked about this before. anti-trans isn't cool, but we certainly won't accept anti-Jade Cargill. What the fuck? And again, he represents Jay Cargill, the agent of Jay Cargill. Oh, okay. Actually, the way I took it, the way he wrote it, he was trying to imply that Jay Cargill was a trans person there. He just looped it in all of a sudden. And again, there are some attachments here. Here's him responding to someone. Yep, I've been dealing with this from Tony Khan and his minions online for seven plus months. At NFL football ops, at NFL commish, it crossed over into real life harassment. And then it says, breaking news, the talent agent Nick Lopiccolo exposes Tony Khan's secret ex-Burner account. Story developing. And the account that's being accused of being Tony wrote, Obviously, this is a burner, but it's pretty flattering to think I'm someone that high up, or even in AEW or wrestling at all. But I am close enough to people Nick knows to be confident enough to say what I've said. I noticed how your replies to me are very carefully worded. You've never outright denied anything I've said. You've said things like, okay, bet, and post it, and you know exactly why. Why don't you tell the class what Paradigm told you ten days ago about your erratic behavior, Nick? Oh! So, I mean, that's, again, he actually said ten days ago, so he knows, whoever this is knows about some sort of conference or some sort of whatever. Some sort of discussion. Again, I'm just going back to, you know, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, if Vince was dealing with Barry Bloom, the agent for all of the first round of guys that got all these big contracts, they'd be on the phone, they'd be faxing, professional communication, not fucking the airing of the grievances on Twitter in an inexplicable fucking mishmash and threats and harassment and what the fuck? Oh, no, I have a tweet here from Barry Bloom. I have found Paul Levesque's burner account. We'll see what this leads to. You know, let me just say this again. And not knowing the participants here, it seems like Nick LaPiccolo may be going through something. And again, I'm from afar. I'm not trying to pass judgment, but that's the way it comes across to me. And a break from social media at a minimum might be a healthy thing, especially if you're being harassed. That's my thought. On the other hand, Tony Khan definitely has burner accounts. And Tony Khan, you know, when people say, oh, he was just a fan, he wasn't just a fan. He was on message board shitposting. He's a shitposter. You know what I mean? Like, he's like someone whose entire life has been online acting like his opinion matters. So don't think he was early online, wasn't he? So I don't think it's wrong to say Tony Khan is incredibly active on social media, especially Twitter. However, you know, it does seem – I don't know what to think about this. What do you think about this? I'm talking too much. Well, here's what I think about this is, my God, this guy is going – his head's going to fucking just fall off his shoulders one of these days, Tony Khan. I can understand when you're a bored rich kid, you know, on the fantasy message board or whatever when you're 16. But seriously now, he's, for however you think the job that he's doing, he's running this giant wrestling company while he allegedly has responsibilities with the football team and these other companies, and he's the booker by himself, and he's at every show as we know, and blah, blah, blah. And he's got time to have multiple Twitter accounts that he sits there and fucking Jesus Christ. I don't have time for multiple Twitter accounts and I don't have to impersonate anybody. I can say whatever I want. But it's just he's got all this shit to do and he's got time to. Oh, my God. he needs to sleep and maybe the booking would be better what do you think you know again i'm looking through his twitter and there's a lot of missives that he's put out i don't even know if he's writing about himself or if it's a third person because he's reposting fyi that guy came to our house again last night i said this is nick posting this is nick yeah I said, what do you want? He said he wanted to talk to you. I said, then why are you at my house? And he said, please tell him to talk to me. I said, I have no idea. Too many pronouns, pal. I said, I have nothing to do with any of this. That makes two of us, Nick. I said, I have nothing to do with any of this. I gave Nick your number already. He said, okay, thank you. He said, there's all kind of shit about Nick online. I said, that's terrible. I told him we're done. Please don't knock on my door again. If he comes back, I'm not going to speak to him. I didn't want to open the door when he knocked. In fact, I yelled through the door, go away. But there's a name or something redacted here. But blank opened the door. So we talked to him through the lock screen door. That's the update. What a crazy thing. Sheesh. when this is all over, maybe you can tell us what is going on. Who is he talking to? I don't even know if it's him talking to someone or someone talking to him or about him. It also says here he's one of the top 35 sports agents of 2025. That's what I'm saying. Top 35 under 35. Supposedly, he was with this big company for 17 years, and he's supposedly got all his publicity in Forbes or whatever, and he's just unhinged on Twitter? Again, that's the way it comes across. You know, maybe he doesn't think it comes across that way. Maybe he thinks that he's, I don't know what he thinks he's doing. If you're being harassed, and if someone's knocking on someone's door for whatever the hell, whatever this is, go to the police and get off Twitter. That's my advice. Go to the cops, get off Twitter. If you're being harassed and your locked screen door is being knocked upon, put down your phone and pick up your phone and call the fucking police. By the way, what's the NFL commissioner going to do? Now, Shad, your son can't come to meetings if he's going to shitpost, if he's going to use a burner and get caught. What are we all going to do with all of our burners? This is a South Park episode. This is a fucking South Park episode. You see, the PC principal is in the fucking school assembly. All right, if you're going to shitpost. Chad, I'll take that draft pick. Yeah, let's have a billionaire come up. I'll take that draft pick. You won't have it if Tony keeps this up. We put up with the neck brace. That's one thing. But posting the details of whatever this is, that's a whole other thing. And now that it's been brought to our attention here in the middle of the night by this person. Yeah, I got the tweet at 4 o'clock in the morning. The NFL commissioner couldn't sleep the rest of the night because he was so upset at this horrible thing that was being done that we can't even understand and we are in the wrestling business. Now, Tony, I just happen to be going through my notifications, and I saw that you've been naughty. Anything you want to confess? Hmm. Well, good luck. Nick and everyone else we're not involved I guess that's the key again and I want to put out a plea because like I did earlier in the show we have a far reaching audience anybody that can help you know give us information on things if you if someone can concisely encapsulate in writing in the form of an email who Nick Piccolo is, what his beef is with this fucking account that he thinks is Tony Khan and why, and who's been threatening who and knocking on who? Somebody's knocking on your door. Somebody's giving you hell. Do me a favor. Open the door and kick that motherfucker in the balls. Oh, yeah. Can somebody explain this to us? Email it to what's the goddamn email that, Brian, that you'll actually see? corny drive through at gmail.com corny drive through at gmail.com and let us know and I'm looking through some of this apparently he got in the middle of all this he got into a fight with jelly Nutella online a rite of passage if there ever was one and he released DMs that they had which is never a good thing to do and jelly Nutella is basically telling him to get help oh my god the fucking meth head from underneath the boardwalk is telling this guy to get help. What the fuck? No, he comes across like a good guy here. He's going to basically get off the computer and get some help. Well, good luck to everyone involved. Yes. Good luck. You know, maybe if everybody just had a business to fall back on and possibly a partner to put their big arm around them, Brian, and just give them a helping hand. You know, he ain't heavy. He's my business partner kind of thing. If somebody was on your side, so you wouldn't make a flipping fool of yourself is what I'm saying to you. That's what people need more of in the world. Can you think of, I don't know, anybody we know that would be like that that could help take these poor little downtrodden minion folks and bring them up into the big business world where they wouldn't have to just go out there and make fools of themselves? No. I don't know anyone who would help these people. Well, I do. Oh. Our friends at Shopify. That's right. Yes. And now you wake up. So many names running through your head. Folks, if you ever had doubt in yourself, if you thought maybe I want to do this thing or that thing or make this thing or sell that other thing, but you thought what if nobody nobody buys it what if nobody comes to the store what if i make a fool of myself what if nobody wants me nobody knows the trouble that you've gone through in your mind but now with the help of shopify you will be able to know that you are right in believing in yourself and launching your business despite all the fears and the hesitations and the trepidations that people put in front of you because Shopify, experienced as they are in this industry, was able to take your meager little concept or your cheap little fucking toy and turn it into a megalophilus making money hand over fist. A megalophilus. Like that. That's the sound of megalophiluses making money. Ryan, have you ever operated a big megalopolis making all kinds of money? No, no, it sounds like he's on the move. Well, he's here and there. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world. That's the dark, sinister force behind so many things that you've come in contact with. But Shopify is the one. If you bought Granny's donuts, well, Shopify was right there when all Granny had was a minor yeast infection. And Shuff, if I will help you build a business just like they've done 10% of all the e-commerce in the United States. Let's say granny's okay. That's such a weird example that you pulled out there. But, of course, Jim, you want your business to grow like a yeast infection, and you want it to be able to survive like a yeast infection with no antibiotics. Spread like a virus all across the world. You need the right partner. We know the right partner for your business, Shopify. Yeah, there you go. Ding, cha-ching. There you go, folks. That's the cash register sound because Shopify is going to help you every step of the way from conception to reality and all of the nine months in between where you're craving the fucking sardines and the Parsifany ice cream. So once again, ladies and gentlemen, accelerate your efficiency and efficacy By joining the team over at Shopify and let them show you why they've got the best converting checkout on the planet And that iconic purple shop pay button used by millions of businesses around the world Why, as a matter of fact, it's known better around the world than Zsa Zsa Gabor So it's time to turn those what-ifs into reality. With Shopify, you can sign up for your $1 a month trial period today at shopify.com slash JCE. That's how you get that $1 a month trial period. The fix is in. You know us. You don't have to qualify. Beforehand, you used to have to give your driver's license number and credit rating, etc. Now you just give the code JCE at Shopify.com. Got something in my eye there. All righty. Anyway, I guess, Brian, should we talk about now the target of Nick Piccolo's ire? Our friends over at AEW, Tony Khan's Romper Room session, Then they had another television broadcast again. It reached right around 500,000 viewers, which is what they've been down to lately. Would you like to talk about some of it? Well, I mean, there were some interesting moments. Got to see an injury in real time this week. Oh, Jesus Christ. It's been a little while since we saw that. We got to see some promo showcase, I guess we'll call it. A showcase of everyone being able to stand around and wait their turn and do their promo. Got to see someone's teeth fly out of their mouth almost. You know, just a typical week of Dynamite. Well, you know, actually, I thought they opened up. This is, I think I said January 28th for the AEW Dynamite. But they started out with the best Kenny Olivier match that has ever been held, in my opinion. and I still may be faint praise but they come up on the air they hit his music immediately he's coming out he's over with that crowd in Austin, Texas I don't know what's the matter with people in Austin but nevertheless gets a nice response and comes out and beats Rocky Romero in four minutes with his finish boom one, two, three now I'll get to the things I didn't like in a second but overall if you've got this guy who has been off for longer than he's been on over the last couple years and now he's supposed to be in the world title mix and the last three people that have hospitalized him have gotten away with it as we've talked about so he should go out and beat somebody in four fucking minutes with his finish they finally did what I've been asking them to do for fucking five years. So I can't bitch about that. And because that's the only canning match that I've ever seen that actually made a point and adhered to some kind of logic, I'm phrasing it the best. But it taught me out of why I should feel this way, Brian, if you can. Every move he makes in the ring gets heat with me. The finger pointing, the cheek puffing, the prancing, the skipping, the waving, the bug eyes, the blowing kisses, the unnatural movements. I don't know how to explain. He's the most obvious performer in wrestling. You can't take any of it seriously because he's always making these goddamn oddball fucking moves. Am I just seeing this on my own, or is this there? Well, I think there's a certain high-impact herky-jerkiness to the Kenny Omega moveset, I guess we could say. He, you know, but it's always the way he's worked. When he runs to hit the ropes to run back and do something else, if you put the fucking sound effect from the cartoons when Fred was trying to take off and skedaddle, the skedaddle sound, it would work. Anyhow, that was that. That was really pulling for Rocky Romero. I thought he had a chance here. This would have really put him on the map. This showed about Rocky Romero, it takes a good man to beat him, but it don't take him long. so then Tony Schiavone gets in the ring we established Tony's older than me right even with his his hair coloring is new but he's older than me he's wearing a fluorescent yellow tie and fluorescent yellow tennis shoes to match and again I know somebody out there Cornette was a real fashion plate as a manager I was loud but as an announcer sir, what the fuck is this? And he's literally eligible for Medicare. And did you pay attention to what Tony said when he pitched to Kenny with this interview, the opening statement to Tony? I paid attention to all of them. He was like a fucking neon sign. I couldn't look away. Okay, then I was going to try to jot down what he said, and it was as convoluted of a preamble of who's fighting who to see who the winner is to fight who and when that I've ever heard if you went back and, they'd copyright us and slam us down if we went back and replayed it, but it's 45 seconds of just gibberish by the time he got to the end of it. Because Kenny's fighting the guy that's fighting the guy that they're going to fight the guy over there in Australia and the winner of that guy is going to, a court stenographer could not have kept track of this so they can't pitch to him with anything coherent. But then he just, at least he's brief. He was emoting breathlessly that he wants the world title and he'll fight anybody, friend or foe. And then here came Paige. And Shabani slinks to the corner like he's a kid in a timeout. He's not even looking at him like he's paying attention. He's just like looking off into the crowd or just like, is he on acid? What is happening? That's what it is. He takes so long to say stuff, and then everything he says doesn't make sense, and then he just stands around when he doesn't just have the mic and leave. He's like a drunk Reeser Bowden. It takes forever, but Reister, there was a calm charm to him. With Shemani, it's just, there's like a fuck-off attitude. Yeah, it's like, where am I and what is happening here? So, Paige does the same promo as all. He's growly and wordy, and he's going to be the next champion. And then Swerve comes out. And Swerve says, well, you didn't beat me in the four-way. Nobody's beat me, so I'm going to be the world champion against anybody. and I've jotted down at least they're being brief and it makes sense if you're wanting to split the crowd amongst your top baby faces, if you're willing to overlook that, then at least this makes sense that all these people want to fight for the chance to be the champion. But then Kenny says, what did he say? I think there's a little heat. It's not scalding, but it's there. No, I detect a little tension or whatever he said. He and Swerve got pissy with each other. And Kenny's like, I detect you might want to fight. Oh, yeah. And then here came Don, Don Fallis out to the stage. I have something to say. And they boo him. And he says that old Andre is going to beat Swerve tonight and is going to come for Kenny. and I've got something special for Hangman Adam Page because my family runs the show. And then Brian helped me some music started playing, but it wasn't Don's like music. It was like somebody's music like it was going to come out because he said I got something for Page. But did we find out what he had for Page? because the music that I didn't recognize started playing, and all the babyfaces were standing in the ring staring at him, and then Kenny said, well, cut the music. Whose music was it? I think it may have been Omega's music again. Like, they're playing him off. They're going back to the guy who won the match, I think. Okay. Well, he said, cut the music. And he said, Don, you said what's going to happen to all of us, but you should have worried about yourself. And then he, my Aunt Lola could have got out of the ring and run down the aisle a little bit quicker than Kenny did, but he jumped down and, like, Callis was 50 feet away, and he just turned and ran in the entrance, and Kenny ran after him, and that was it. I don't know. Was it this promo where Don Callis' dentures fell out? Did you see that? No, I didn't even see that part. What happened here? Oh, let me find the video. Dodge House's teeth fell out. Go on. I'll be right back. All right. Well, we'll try not to miss you. But anyway, at that point, I'm just thinking, again, MJF is a heel champion. And you want all your top babyfaces chasing him. But for some reason, every other booker in the history of wrestling, from Dusty Rhodes on down, had a lot of his babyfaces chasing his heel champion without having the babyfaces get ahead at the expense of each other and fight each other. and for the longest time Tony and AEW was in a situation where all their guys that meant anything really were heels and the babyfaces were just weak and ineffective and blah and now it seems like he's neutered all of his heels and he doesn't have anybody but babyfaces to get his other top babyfaces over so I it'd be wonderful if it was a variety of babyfaces beating other secondary and semifinal and almost top heels in order to jockey for position and maybe you have the one babyface match where these two guys just have to settle something and then it would stand out because it was different but now these guys are just trying to cut each other's nuts off every fucking day. Having said that, did you find Don's teeth? Yeah, I sent that. Check your email. See if you can play this video that I just sent. And you'll see. Yeah, Omega ended it with one of his classic awful promos. And, of course, Swerve gave him credit. After I made fun of his gibberish promos last week, he actually was short, concise, and to the point this time. That was the best part about all of this is everybody was short. But, okay, I'm going to click on this thing here now. and I'm clicking on another thing, and... Oh, wait, what? Oh, my God. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Okay. It looks like you're watching the replay, I guess. when he came out it's actually it's not a denture i must i must be because i have a little pre-dentistry background as well as my pre-law and pre-med brian i don't know if you know this or not but it's a partial plate the dentures is all the teeth he when he came out to the stage and he said i don't know if you know this but the don callus family runs the show that's what he opened his mouth and died or callous or whatever, and the partial plate with, like, teeth on both sides came out, and he stuck his hand back up there in his tongue, too, and I think he stuck it back up in there, but it almost fell out of his fucking mouth. Oh, Christ, this show was snakebit. How, what more could fucking happen? That's why I was surprised when you didn't reference it, because that was the funniest thing. Here comes the heel to confront the three babyfaces having their talk and his teeth fall out. Well, if you weren't looking and I wasn't studying his dental procedures, you know, you might have missed it for just a second. Oh, crap. Well, but that was the opening segment. And then through the show, basically everybody wants to get a position for a title match with MJF and Bubba. And they're saying Samoa Joe is not medically cleared with a non-contact injury. Does that mean someone wished him ill? It's all mental. I don't know. What is a non-contact injury? Yes. I don't know. That's his new gimmick, psychosomatic Samoa Joe. Psycho. Psycho. No, they've already got the psycho killer. That's right. They could bring Joe back as psycho killer and psycho somatic. All right, moving on. We can't spend too much time on this. We've got anything else to do. Dick the Boozer versus Ace Austin was the next match. And that took about 10 minutes, and Boozer hit him with a double-arm DDT, one, two, three. So now, five years into this run, they're kind of sort of having top guys go out and win matches to get over. But then here, Caden, go ahead. The philosophy of Tony Khan is get guys on TV, have them lose to top guys. It makes them bigger. And last week we saw those two guys against FTR have a nice long competitive match before they lost. Ace Austin. Dennis had like a stooge named Ace Austin, didn't he? I don't know. I don't know. It was Ace something, but I thought that was his name. No. Dennis is, no. I can't remember, but that wasn't... There was some guy. I forget his name now. But anyway, is Austin at a long competitive match with the best book guy in AEW over the last few years, you could say, in terms of who wins the most and is taking care of the most? In Tony's eyes, that's making people. Speedball, you have a night debut by getting your ass kicked and losing to someone, right? But at the same point, Moxley just laughed off a lot of his offense, which was somewhat cringy at some points. But, I mean, again, Moxley is going to do what Moxley does. And you can also tell when he's worried about hurting somebody, he does that double-arm DDT a whole different way, doesn't he? And then when he's going to get over and doesn't give a shit. It has many, many purposes. But the point, here's what I was going to say, whether Ace Austin, whatever, he's got to ace up his sleeve. That's his entrance. We now know that he is a job guy because he debuted and got beat. So it doesn't matter what they do with him. But the point is Moxley now is a babyface against, and the Death Riders are with him. They're helping him out. They're, you know, they're all together. They're a group against the Callis family, correct? That's what they're trying to build here. Yes, yes. That's established again later in the show. Yeah. Okay. But at the same point, the Death Riders were the heel team. We never got any explanation for all of that and what Moxley was trying to do. They were trying to pour bleach down everybody and blah, blah, blah. but now he has started cutting rah-rah promos so suddenly they're babyfaces so the heels are members of the Calus family but there's 18 of those so the point is when Moxley wins this match then here comes Take a Shit walking out to the ring with fucking purpose and he gets in the ring and they go face to face him and Moxley and there's a lot of finger pointing, and I don't know why, but I noticed that Okada does this also, and a lot of the Japanese guys do it. When they'll be finger pointing, they won't be moving their lips. They become mute. They're not saying anything. Have you noticed this? Oh, yeah. I mean, that was the big thing that stood out by the Okada, Takeshita program leading up to the match. Yeah, because they were both doing it. They both do it. They'd walk up to each other, and it was almost like Harpo Marx in the mirror. Yes, and Lucy. There you go. But so the point is, Take and Moxley, face-to-face, lots of finger-pointing, you know, gesticulating going on, and then Take just backs out and gets out of the ring and leaves, and Mark Davis and, I started to say, Johnny Doyle, Jake Doyle jump in from behind and just hit Moxley with a couple big moves and lay him out, and then they leave. so then Mosley again was the guy who didn't sell anything and didn't get beat for ages and suddenly these two guys just drop him and he doesn't get up he doesn't go on a rampage the other guys don't come out they just leave and who exactly in the family which of the 13 members of the family are they going to be fighting and what This is all over the place is what I'm trying to say to you. Yes, I do. Do you disagree with that? I do not disagree in any way. Would you like to move on to the TNT Championship Contest, Brian? I think that would be the thing to do. Mark Briscoe versus El Clown. So now they've got, did you, and maybe I might be wrong, But is it hologram or holograph? Hologram, not holograph. All right. Well, then tell Sockface Excalibur, because at the start of this, old L-Clone has apparently injured holograph. Did you hear him say that? I did not even notice that, no. I was thinking, holograph, I don't want you, holograph. but so that's how they set this L clown is in injured holograph who's a member of the conglomeration so they're Mark Briscoe the TNT champion blah blah blah Mark always gets over with the live crap and this other guy is I guess he's Tony's backup gimmick luchador No basics, a gymnast, at least it's not spitball, but this match he got a lot of heat for what actually looked like, and I don't blame him, he no-sold and popped up from a J-driller. but in actuality they were trying to tell the story that as Briscoe gave it to him that he posted up and flipped out and didn't take it but the announcers didn't know what to fuck and they didn't get that across and to most people because it did look like that he just popped up and no sold a jade driller but that is not only was not only Jay's finish but Mark's finish and he wins the big matches with it and the people react to it whether this guy can nip up from a fucking attempted Jay Driller or not don't prostitute to move for this underneath clown that won't never sell a goddamn ticket is the fucking point that should have been made by any producer of this match so then El Clown botched some fake flippy shit that Mark had to sell and then hit a couple of big moves and then Brisco beat him with a schoolboy 12 minutes they keep trying to get these little fucking pipsqueak cheerleaders over because they can do all this shit that Tony's hyperactive mind finds entertaining and it just gets in the way of trying to get the talent over. I'm sorry, Brian, your thoughts. I actually thought this was the best match on the program. I kind of liked it. El Clon does some interesting things that it looks like he's about to fall or botch, and he doesn't, and that's his whole thing because I guess he goes in reverse. I don't know what his thing is, but I enjoyed this action. I actually liked this match. What match was better on this show? What match was better than what? Than this match on this episode of Dynamite What match was better? Let's see here I'm looking at my god damn notes here Well Well That came to a bad end Alright Alright They were the nicest guys in prison On this night How's that? So anyway. On this night, there was a new member of the prison gang. But nevertheless, Briscoe did the promo. Actually, he started to do a promo. And the lights went out. And the lights came back on and music. And it was Tommaso Ciampa, who had been making the news on the news sites lately because his contract was expiring and they were wondering what he was going to do or if he was going to do anything or blah, blah, blah. He got a nice pop and reaction from these people. Because again if it an AEW crowd they going to know more about who other people are than just your average wrestling crowd So Ciampa got in the ring and they circled each other and they faced off and he made motions that he's coming for the TNT title and then he kissed Mark Briscoe on the cheek and left the ring. And it's not as erotic as it sounds. It's like the Tommaso Chep, the kiss of death. I mean, this goes back to stuff he wanted to do and did do in Ring of Honor 15 years ago. Because Tommaso, and I've said this every time that we've talked about him for the past three or four or five years or whatever on the WWE programs. I love his work. I think he's a real, realistic personality. You can believe his shit. He's a beast of an athlete. He trains like a demon. His work is solid and gets over and he can be serious if you let him. And they were never going to, with his age, with his injury background, with just the competition over there in general, they were never going to let him be a top guy or what he could be. as is illustrated by the fact that he and Gargano were partners, and they've used Gargano better than him after they split. So he's perfect for AEW, because he's only going to have to work once or twice a week, if that. He's still going to stay in great shape because he's motivated to do that, and all of the stuff I've seen him do or want to do has been fairly fucking serious. Except for, again, you don't know when he was in that thing with Gargano and his wife and the girl and the whole, that was all nonsense. But just work-wise, psycho killer, Champa, I'm interested in seeing what he might do. However, then the realism sets in. He's still in a land of silly booking and children. But because he's different, he'll stand out here. And at least we won't have to watch somebody else that just sucks at every way. But I think he'll get a lot better chance to show what he can do, have some fun and make some money. Tony got a little victory here, so he's probably paying him well. You know, so he'll mean more here, and he'll get a chance to do more of his shit here than he would have over there, and it doesn't affect anybody's business either way. It's not going to negatively affect the WWE, and as we've seen before, no matter who comes in to AEW, even people much higher in the pecking order than Tommaso, it's not going to be any kind of a change in a positive direction. But except for programming, match quality, maybe, whatever, a true professional, but it's not going to be any difference in business. You know, with that said, I think it's the right move for him. I think he's a good pickup for AEW. Him and Mark Briscoe, you know, signed me up to see that. Yeah. before they beat him. I'm looking forward to that. If at least they'd start out with a regular fucking match and work their way up from there instead of doing everything in the first 15 minutes, you know, but yes, I would like to see that. And another thing, because of the difference in roster size, actual physical size between WWE and AEW, as soon as he came out there and when he got in the ring, he looks bigger because he's not in the land of giants anymore. I actually thought he looked better on AEW TV than he has on WWE TV, even though he's in great shape. Yeah, Tommaso's in great shape, and he looks like he'd fucking beat your ass, but he's really looked small in the WWE environment because of the size of everybody else, and this way he gets to pick on some people and be a big bully. And he's the kind of guy that... So I'm in favor of that. Unless Tony just starts beating him, he gives you a lot of fresh, I mean, either way, Tony will do it, but gives you fresh matchups. Him and Kenny Omega, him and MJF, him and Adam Page, him and Moxley. Man, I like all those people, but at least it's something fresh. So, don't blow it. With Tommaso, I guess is my point. But then, we come to the 9 o'clock hour, Brian. It is time for the MJF in-ring promo. And did you detect the difference between the roar? Not only when Tommaso came out, but when Kenny came out. And they knew he was there. Tommaso was surprised, but they got big roars. And MJF came down. They didn't react like they used to. I'm thinking they know what they're about to see. MJF is going to come out and do a wonderful soliloquy, tearing everybody down. But it's the saying somebody's probably going to interrupt him. But did you detect the people? Was it just Austin? Or was it just because they were right after Ciampa's big entrance? Or was it like, eh? I mean, they react when he says shit. But I'm afraid. That they have just taken all the fucking bloom off his rose. Well, also, he's not right now interacting with the top star. And that's not to take anything away from Brody King, but that's just not who he is right now, the way he's been presented. But they used to roar just when he came out. Whether they were chanting for him or against him, there was a lot more engagement. I don't know. Whether he's our scumbag or fuck you or whatever. at it anyway immediately he started to knock the town he started speaking for about 10 seconds and here came brody king and he got in the ring mjf has to back off and you know like are we going to be professional here in other words are you going to stand there just smirk at me while i fucking tear you down verbally for the next five minutes because that's what happened that's exactly what happened, yeah. He cuts a scathing, just obnoxious promo on Brody King, and Brody King stood in the corner laughing while MJF was offered to hire him as a stooge. And if I talk about how good MJF is, then I get all these people who will fire back on Twitter or whatever, oh my god, Cornette will take up for MJF no matter what he does. He just, he won't say anything bad about his boy when I talk about how great MJF is and how rotten he's being used and how bad this position is. They don't get that point. MJF is a one-of-a-kind verbal talent and also is good enough at in-ring wrestling, athletically to have the best match on the card because mentally and psychologically putting a match together, he's in the upper percentile also. But that means almost nothing unless there is an environment and a roster and a producer or group of producers that you could put him in the middle of to take advantage of all that. elsewise you get what you've got here is he's doing the same shit he's been doing for five or six years to diminishing returns against less interesting people what'd you think of brody king on the mic here mjf was channeling rickles what'd you think of brody king well i think he he sounds more like howard brody than bruiser brody he sounds like he got a little bass in his voice at the end but for it to have to just stand there and smirk and then just say well I got with Tony Khan and next week I'm going to face you in an eliminator match and if I beat you then I'll get a title shot in Australia so we're going to see the match before before we are asked to pay to see the rematch. How does that work? How does MJF was telling him, I don't want to wrestle you? Last week he said, until you beat someone, you haven't beaten anyone yet. So now his solution is, I'm going to beat you so I get a chance to beat you. Yeah, that's what Tony agreed with, too, and that makes perfect sense. I'm going to beat you to get a chance to beat you. But then he's not. Unless they're completely insane, he's not going to beat MJF on television because if they have a pay-per-view match, nobody's going to goddamn buy that he's going to win the belt from him anyway. MJF needs some wins in much the same way as Kenny needs wins. So I would imagine that MJF will somehow cheat and lie and steal to prevail in this thing and then get backed into a corner with someone, whether it be Brody King or anybody else, at the pay-per-view. And the pay-per-view is Australia, right? That's what they're talking about, the Grand Slam in Australia. I don't think it's a pay-per-view. I just think it's a dynamite. Oh, good heavens. Well, in that case, there would be even less reason to fucking have Brody King go over. But I still say what I said. They mentioned Buddy in this program. Maybe Buddy will come back in Australia. That's where he got hurt last year. Well, but one way or another, it'll be the best Brody King match that we've seen because it'll be MJF calling it, and MJF will have an actual guy whose English is his first language that he can call shit with. So it'll be better than MJF and fucking Bandito. They can make it a tag match. Brodito versus MJF and that giant guy who got in the ring at CMLL in Arena Mexico and just stood there during the Bandito match. Yeah, but put the Abraham Lincoln outfit on him and see how that works. He's got the height. That's right. You know, Brian, I think I've got the answer to how this segment could have come off a little bit better, how Brody King wouldn't have been just standing in the corner and just having to listen to being eviscerated and browbeaten by MJF and just have to smirk at the whole thing. What if Brody King in the corner was listening to his Raycon earbuds? Then he'd have reason to smile and he could be bopping in the corner, listening to all his favorite tunes or maybe checking up on the news, and he wouldn't have to just stand there and be emasculated by MJF's verbal wizardry. Maybe a little KC and the Sunshine band in his ears. What do you think? Perhaps that's what he was doing, and that's why he wasn't bothered by MJF. He was sitting there listening to something from Sacred Bones Records or something from one of his favorite labels and not worrying about the man cutting him down roast style in front of him. Well, maybe he didn't have the right kind of Raycon earbuds in his ears, Brian, because he didn't have the essential open earbuds, and that way he could have heard his music and he could have kept an ear on MJF because with the essential open earbuds, they don't block everything. Like the cars honking and the people screaming, Get out of the way! The safe is falling! See, you need to hear things like that. The safe. And so these, the safe. Has that happened any time since like a 1940s cartoon? I haven't heard any of these things falling on anyone's head. It happened six times in the 1960s, I'll have you know. They called it the Great Safe Epidemic. You didn't remember that? In the 60s? No, I didn't learn about that. They traced it to bad cable manufacturers in the safe lifting trade. But anyway, if you want to hear whether that safe is plummeting toward your head or not, you get the essential open earbuds, folks. And that way, the open ear design lets you hear the music and the world around you, both at the same time. the multi-angular hook goes around the ear. And for the people, the segment of the community that have the lobes on the other side of their ear, you can turn it right around. It just kind of, it's a flexible ear hook that adapts to any ear in any direction. And if you've got regular ears, but you put them both on backwards, you can hear the Beatles' White Album backwards so you know who buried Paul. And there's 36 hours of battery life. So you've got that going for you. Folks, I'm telling you, whether you want to listen to whether Paul is dead or just run errands and go to the gym and not have to hear about the everyday life, you can just listen to what you want to listen to while still being able to hear the train crossing the tracks you're sitting on. The essential open earbuds are here to help you go for the gold all the way. Go to BuyRaycon, that's B-U-Y-R-A-Y-C-O-N, BuyRaycon.com, slash J-C-E Open, J-C-E Open. You're going to get 15% off everything on the whole daggum site there. Essential open earbuds, BuyRaycon.com, slash J-C-E Open, 15% off. Don't be flattened by a falling safe. Again, we love them over here. I got my pair. The kids have stolen my other pairs of Raycon earbuds. Great deal for you. And the thing is, Mick Foley, in effect, is getting 30% off. Because when he uses our code, he only has one ear. He gets a pair. It lasts him double time. Well, he still has an ear hole. He just doesn't have a ear hole. Well, but he ain't got an ear to hook the rotating angular hook around. Why don't we not talk about the people who can't use the fine product? Why don't we talk about the audience? Well, duct tape, I guess, would work. You know, just a duct tape. That's why he used to bandage himself up so much. He was holding his earbuds in after he lost his ear. Once again, buyraycon.com slash JCE. We recommend that. Well, back to dynamite. Talking about blowing your ears off. Okay. Again, I'm cursed, apparently, also. FTR was going to have a match with Mark Davis and Jake Doyle. And even though, again, they're all heel teams here, so the people weren't really going to be just on the edge of their seats on this, because they're all heels, so why do they care? But I thought, okay, Davis, I give him shit because he's got a big ass, but I think he's actually trying to lose some, and he can move and he's got that great pile driver and at least he's a full-grown man. And Doyle looks enough like him that they're a pretty good tag team. Doyle's ass is smaller, but he's still a big guy and he does some good-looking shit. They looked like a team when they came out. They looked good. I was like, you know what, I see it. Yeah. I see it. And I'm thinking, okay, they're going to have a good match with FTR. The question is, is FTR going to go too far and lose everybody, or are they going to have a really good tag match? But let's see what Davis and Doyle got going. And they started this thing out, and I liked it. The chops were solid. The shoulder tackles were solid. Cash did a dive on both the heels on the floor, and they caught him and threw him like a lawn dart onto Cash, and that was the break spot. and Davis and Dax spent time wailing on each other I mean the chops Dax's chest was bleeding and it looked like somebody dinged him in the eye and so this was a smash mouth offense as JR used to say right and I'm like okay these guys as a tag team now that the Hurt syndicate I guess is Goddamn single. You've got something. They worked well. They hard weighed Doyle somehow when he had some minor blood from his head. And then Doyle was trying to superplex Dax and Cash pulled Doyle down onto the apron and gave him a DDT on the apron. and I'm trying to describe this so people can visualize it if they haven't seen it but imagine that Doyle was standing on the apron of the ring with his right hand on the top rope facing Cash and Cash overhooked his head and dropped Doyle straight down to the apron with a DDT and Doyle never let go of the top rope with his right hand And when Cash came down, it jerked him at an angle that it hyperextended his arm and tore his bicep. And this is not just an amateur diagnosis, because he immediately afterwards said, I've just torn my fucking bicep. And he rolled off on the floor, and that was the last we saw of him. and they continued the match even though it kind of they hit the next move they were going to do and then it came to a halt because nobody knew what to do because the guys out on the floor so Dax called some kind of audible Cash took a bump to the floor and Dax and Davis kept the match going so that they could send Moxley and his group down to ringside and again these finishes Davis ends up on the floor the referee gets distracted and Moxley hits Davis over the head with the title belt and rolls him back in or whatever and FTR hits a shatter machine on him one, two, three so it took six guys to beat one and Moxley's group is supposed to be the babyfaces and they're the ones that was six on one against the fucking one heel Help me. Jake Doyle just showed up. He looked really good. Looked like a full-grown wrestler. He's out. Just right away, he's out. And he's gone. That's unfortunate. Stokely was a comedy figure in this whole situation. Did you see they forgot to go wheel Stokely? Stokely was trying as best he could in that wheelchair. On those pads, you can't move that fucking thing. He'd have to have arms like Lesnar. And he's trying to get over there and then K sees him and goes over and starts wheeling. But yeah, again, Doyle, if he doesn't have surgery on a torn bicep, it's three or four months. If he does have surgery, it's probably six months or maybe a little more. And no one knew how to react. I mean, they got a little reaction when Moxley showed up. but you know there were points in the match where the fans didn't know because they aren't like going to cheer for anyone for any reason and they're not giving them any reason to cheer for anyone so they're just sitting there watching the match and then it fell apart and then and the Callis family has been in like every segment on this show well I was about to say the two heels Doyle and Davis attacked Moxley earlier in the night two on one so now Moxley the babyface group waits until one of the heels is injured and there's two more babyfaces on the other heel and then he comes out and makes it six on one and fucks the fucking heel so that the other heel team the babyface has fucked a heel so the other heel team could win the match what is their problem the Death Riders and the Callis family? What is the root of the problem? I don't really know. Not sure. It's gone from zero to 100 pretty quick. I'm not sure what the problem is. The Bleach hasn't come out yet. The Bleach has not come out yet. Other than the MJF segment, the Callis family has been involved in every single segment on this show. Yes. Well, because it's hard because everybody in the company is in the Callis family. And then we were ready for the main event, and I wasn't, because Swerve versus Andre. So we'll basically, Callis had told Swerve that Andre was going to beat him so that he would go on in this march to the title and just fuck y'all, right? So they have the match. It's an eight-minute match in the show, and then they go five minutes in the overtime. Did you see the one spot? I'm like, Jesus, oh, Christ. They get out on the floor. They get up on the barricade that's, what, like six inches wide, and they're standing gingerly on the barricade, balancing each other, so that Andre can backdrop swerve on the barricade. So it's both fake in that they're setting it up, obviously cooperating to set it up on purpose with each other. And then when the guy takes the bump, there's no way to control everybody. He could have just as well. Remember what Alexander and Ibushi did? If there'd have been people underneath them, they would have fallen on them, right? He took that backdrop. There's a kid in the front row that this guy has put his hand in front of, his arm in front of, like, oh, wait a minute. a foot, an ass, a knee, something lands on the people in the front row, and there's a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, all to do a screwy move that there's a high potential you might get hurt, and it looks fake to set it up. Why are they doing these things, Brian? I don't know. You know, again, it comes on the heels of, we just saw, what was it, Cody Rhodes, right, to a bump on the barricade with Drew McIntyre the other day. And also there was footage of Fatou got flung over on a crew person and apologized in mid-bump. Oh, I'm so sorry I hit you. Oh, no, I did not see that. Really? Yeah. He pulled a Lyra? Yes. Yes. I'm sorry. He's still laying there, but you can see him mouth. I'm so sorry. But anyway, the finish of this thing. And Andrade hit Swerve with two big moves that looked like it killed him and got a two count. And then hit another big DET move that looked like it killed him and got a two count. And after Swerve has had these three things done to him in a row, he immediately got a jackknife for a two count. And then Andrade got a roll-up for a two count. and then Swerve jumped up and did his kick to the head finish, but didn't cover him, pulled him right up. But as he was pulling him up, Andre grabbed Aubrey, and she pulled away in a stagey fashion to turn her back so that Andre could kick Swerve in the balls and then hit his finish one, two, three. And what the fuck? So, Andre hit this guy with three things that should have left him stunned, if nothing else, and couldn't beat him. Then they did a couple of roll-ups, and Swerve did his kick-to-the-head finish on the guy. And five seconds later, the guy just spins around and kicks him into balls. And hits his finish like there's nothing wrong. so Swerve's head kick didn't stun him enough that he couldn't do that 10 seconds later the end and now Andrade gets a shot next week at is it he gets Kenny Omega and then the winner of that gets something else and then the loser which is all of us gets to watch it well another exciting AEW Dynamite just remember better than TNA whenever you get too down on yourself for watching this show. Better than TNA, but that was Dynamite. Well, funny you might mention them, because we're going to take a little visit to TNA land here in a second from 20 years ago. We're going to hop in the Wayback Machine. I've found some things. But before we do that, Brian, I've got a big stack of paperwork here, but what is on the big stack of events for this week in the Arcadian Vanguard Network? Another action-packed week on the Arcadian Vanguard Podcast Network. I'm so excited I can barely talk. On Twitter at Super Podcast or on Facebook at Facebook.com slash Arcadian Vanguard. Listen to the wrestling news each and every morning, wherever you find your favorite podcasts, or directly from TheWrestlingNews.com. Look for The Wrestling News. No clickbait, no paywall. Just The Wrestling News. Shut up and wrestle with Ryan Solomon, SUAWpod.com. Stick to Wrestling with John McAdam, McAdamPod.com, and of course, the 605 Super Podcast, The Mothership! Go through the archive, that sounded hard. Go through the archive, 605Pod.com, wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Well, I told you I was on medication, and part of the side effects is also a little flatulence. Well, before we get into, as I said, the history lesson, we've got a breaking news story that is happening. It's coming out now as we're sitting here talking. We're going to try to bring this to you in a timely fashion as best we can. But Roman Reigns has been making some comments here today in the media. And it don't look like he's in favor of the current booking. is the first blush that I'm getting from this. But do you have some details, Brian, over there in the newsroom? Yeah, it's coming in. Like you said, a lot of people started emailing us. It's trending on Twitter right now. Apparently Roman Reigns is on the Pat McAfee show, which traditionally is a safe landing spot for WWE executives or talent because McAfee's not going to ask you anything you don't want to be asked. and he's not going to make you show your tax returns. Right. It's a friendly spot to go do an interview, and Roman Reigns is there because he's promoting, I presume, the Royal Rumble. And let's go to this audio now because it's everywhere. But let's go to this. We'll stop it along the way. You know, I mean, there's always a mindset of that, you know, but to be completely honest and transparent here, you know, two years ago it all changed around. And, you know, what I've been doing out there hasn't exactly been the same of what I've done before. And the way I look at it is I'm a generous tribal chief. I give the people plenty of time. These young talent, they say we hog all the TV time. You know what I mean? They'll complain about one thing. And then I leave an opening. I give them plenty of space to create, you know, whatever type of superstardom they want. Get over, kids. Get over. You know what I mean? and we're two years here now and we haven't advanced we haven't evolved we had great leadership God bless him, what a businessman he's a genius but we have to be able to keep up with that creatively and that's why people like me people who are striving to be the very best the greatest, the ghosts, the MJ's I just can't sit around and see mediocrity not when I set it up for everybody to just slam it home I mean, we're on the phone. Stop it for a second. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Mediocracy. Mediocracy. But I like it not when I just set it up for everybody to slam at home. There's an element of, well, I'm the greatest thing that's ever been to this, but there's also an underlying current of the one thing you can't say is that Roman Reigns hogs the TV time and won't let anybody else get on because you, what does he work six times a fucking year I mean it's not like he's an ever present maybe there's a reason yeah well exactly but you know so you can't say that he's one of the guys that won't get out of the way but when he says new guys go get over well they can only get over in a lot of cases if it depends on if they're put in a position and a light to get over which comes into creatives but that's the thing that you know when he says, well, creatively, we're just not keeping up. And it was better two years ago when I was on top. There's an element of all the top guys are always going to say that, but there's also, you know, he's striking close to the nerve. That's the thing. It's not just the guy being braggadocious about his time on top. What he's saying is reflecting what a lot of fans, what I've said, what you've said. about trying to watch these shows and the creative pace, the pacing. Nothing happens at times. Yes. Man, if he's saying it, you know, if he's saying it, who else is saying it? Well, and that's the thing is I think he thinks he can get away with saying it. And he might not be particularly – he might be at a point where he's prickly with Triple H over – Because I'm assuming that the plans that they had for him have been changed around. I heard with the recent injuries and the title changes and that they decided to put the thing on Drew. What's Roman doing right now? Who do you see him wrestling at WrestleMania right now? That's why I said the Rock better show up and he better have that match if they're ever going to because elsewise Roman Reigns doesn't really have anything major going on at WrestleMania. Well, there's some more audio. Let's go back to this. Pat McAfee Show speaking with Roman Reigns. Netflix for crying out loud. Come on! We got to capitalize. We got people here playing around trying to figure it out. And I got the formula. I know how to cook it up. You know what I mean? So it's been a tough couple of years for me. But at the same time, when you come off such a hell of a run, you got to kind of just pump the brakes for a second. You know, I got five children at home. I wear, you know, we all wear those two important hats, being a husband and a father. You got to be able to, you know, click. And I've been on the road for a long time, so I needed to be able to pull back a little bit. But, you know, I'm fully capable. I'm only 40 years old. With all the tech and all the information we have now, I feel like I'm 25 years old. So I'm still good to go. You know what I mean? Well, there it is. I'm glad modern medical science is in his corner. You know, it's nice to say, I've done all this, I've been on the road for a long time, so now I could stay home and just be a dad because that comes first. Because, yeah, it does, but most people don't have that luxury. But it sounds like he's saying, you haven't seen me as much because I don't like the creative. I've been home with my family because there's no reason for me to come back. so there's an element obviously it's a friendly show there's an element of him not breaking kayfabe but then again why if you're not breaking kayfabe and you're just you know i'm the best i've done this or that we have creative problems like why would you say that and then but but i've got the recipe so if you want to cook it back up just just come to me Wow We shall see But in the meantime Do you think Dwayne Johnson and Brian Goward Sent them a bottle of champagne After they saw this clip They sent them roses Could this be the start Of Roman and or the Rock Politicking to get something going The Rock doesn't really have to politic but a little groundswell of interest perhaps, and who knows. But they're paying to rock all those tens of millions of dollars a year. What have you done for us in the last year besides come in for the second year, screw up our booking, and then we haven't seen you since? And beyond that, and again, it is a disruption. But the question, and Roman Reigns is saying it's not just fans. We just had Triple H on the show, the clip of him saying, you know, be a fan, don't be a critic. Yeah. Because that's what you do when you go see a movie and you feel like this movie sucks. You don't come out and go, I feel like I should get my money back. You go, well, I didn't like it, but it was a movie. That's just such a stupid way to look at it. And here's Roman Reigns. He's not just some fan. Here's Roman Reigns in the middle of a friendly interview with a friendly WWE friend in Pat McAfee. saying that, again, the exact quote, we haven't advanced, we haven't evolved, we have great leadership, Nick Khan, God bless him, but we have to keep up creatively. Keep up creatively. And again, I think that's how he really feels. That may be how some other people feel that can't say that, and that's also probably designed to, I don't like my WrestleMania creative, and I think we could do better. I think he's serving all those masters. I think it's that and also two years. So what he's really talking about is it's not as good for me as it was under Vince McMahon. Yeah, from the height of the bloodline when I was the star until now, it's truthfully from the height of the bloodline, it's not as good now as it was then. And from the time he was a star until now, it's not as good for him as it was then. And if you look at everything since he lost the belt, you know, they set him up for a little thing with Solo when he eventually came back. They did that. And, you know, he's been around the other main event guys. He's been there for the war games or whatever. And then he disappears again. So who knows what the hell is going on? Well, the thing also is, I mean, he's got to the point where he can get the part-time contract and all that stuff. And I think we talked about this one time before. When he was the big dog of the group and had the wise man and all the top babyfaces were jockeying, try to get in and take him out, and they had the group thing going on, but he was the focus and center of attention, and the whole heel tribal chief thing just worked and clicked for him. But when he comes out as a babyface, the music is too slow. the walking to the same thing, it doesn't create the same babyface fire and emotion and passion. And again, just as he's a babyface that still has issues with the other babyface, because, or the other babyface is, because he was a heel for so long, he made enemies of these people. Well, you can't just erase that overnight. That would be phony, but by the same token, then you've got, he's not a heel because the people cheer him, and he's a babyface because he's over as a star, but he can't do most of the things or be in the position that got him over, and he's kind of an island unto himself, no pun intended. and he's needed to do something new and different as a baby face and as a single and as a lone wolf than try to still be Roman Reigns without all of that trapping around him. Does that make any sense? It makes sense. I don't know if it's possible. I don't know how likely it is. I mean, I hate to say it because Heyman is fine with the vision. It works. But Roman Reigns lost something not having Heyman there. I know it's kind of a minor thing. It's a manager who just walks out there with you and doesn't really do anything during the match, but it was the package. And like you said, I don't know how you recapture that feeling. It was a feeling. Remember when they would come out, they would take 10 minutes to get to the ring, but it was working. and then finally it was like, yeah, this has taken a while. Yeah. But I don't know what you do with him, and he's best as a heel. That's the other thing. He is best as a heel. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know whether, you know, his future is for the big game or the toilet bowl. I don't know where his future is. He doesn't have the Ula Fala, which, as you know, was kind of like the crown of the whole bloodline, Brian. And when the crown is yours, you're farting through silk. But when they take the crown away, well, you're just a local yokel at the local Kmart just parking carts. The crown means everything, Brian. This is a hell of a setup. Yes, it does, Jim. We all want that crown. We want that crown. Well, at DraftKings, they'll give you a goddamn crown. How about that? That crown will be yours. And you can do whatever you want with it. Folks, Super Bowl 60 deserves a sportsbook built for the moment. And the DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of Super Bowl 60, puts you right in the middle of the biggest game of the year. So watch your ass because those fucking guys are big and they're running fast. If you're in the middle of it, you're going to get trampled. The metaphorical middle. The metaphorical middle. It's five yards off because they're on the metric system. Brian, anything can happen during the Super Bowl, but DraftKings has your back with early exit. If a player goes down in the first half, you still get paid out in cash immediately once your bet settles. No bonus bets, no waiting. So if that son of a bitch goes down, well, you're, again, you're just, you're getting cash. If he don't go down, well, I think you ought to walk down there and have a talk with him or maybe slip something in the Gatorade. Let's not just, let's not. He gets busy and starts walking in circles. No Mickeys. Folks, the Mickey Finn, the Mickey Finn in the Gatorade. If you're new to DraftKings, folks, new customers can bet just $5 and get 300 in bonus bets if your bet wins. So you plop down $5, and if you win that, you get 300 in bonus bets. Holy shit. Boy, you could do that 10 or 15, 20 times and still not be out any appreciable amount of money. And, fuck, even if a gypsy has cursed you, you're bound to win something in that. We can't speak about anyone's odds of doing anything, but, of course, for responsible adults and gypsies everywhere. And people who know math. Folks, right now you can download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use the code CORNET. That is my name. Don't wear it out. But use it as a code CORNET to turn $5 into $300 in bonus bets if your bet wins in partnership with DraftKings Sportsbook app. The crown is yours to do with as you will. Stomp on it. Give it away. Wear it proudly. It's your crown. Lord only knows if you take care of it, it'd be worth something someday. But, folks, that's the deal. Put up a little bit of money, five bucks. Get potentially a lot of money in bonus bets, 300, if your bet wins. and you use the code CORNET to make that financial windfall a reality. Have I covered everything, Brian? I believe you've covered everything, Brian. Remember, the crown is yours with DraftKings. Yes, and the rest of the copy is mine. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. New York, call 877-78-HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY. Connecticut, call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org on behalf of Boothill Casino in Kansas. Wager tax pass-through may apply in Illinois. 21 plus in most states, void in Ontario. Restrictions apply. Bet must win to receive bonus bets which expire in seven days. Minimum odds required for additional terms. Good Lord. and responsible gaming resources, cdkng.co slash audio. Limited time offer. The crowd is yours. Void where prohibited by sundown. All right, well, Jim, it's not sundown yet here on this show. No, it's not. Well, don't just back on. What else do we got? What else do you got for us today here, Jim? Well, entertain us. let me entertain you let me make you smile let me do a few tricks some old and then some new tricks i'm very versatile you know brian one of the things i mentioned i was doing last week around the castle was cleaning out drawers and going through sorting things trying to get a fresh start on the year examine my projects things i have going on etc and in going through another stack of old paperwork. I have come across an even bigger stack of TNA paperwork, agent reports, and various communiques that I had with the TNA folks back in the 2000s. And when I read some of them here on a program a few months ago, they were very popular with the audience. And I thought that people might get a tickle out of these also. These are a little different, and I will explain how, but there's more of them. Hear that stack? Wow, how many are there? Well, here's the thing. This wasn't really agent reports per se, although they kind of were the same form. But the ones that I had before, remember those were the ones that I was sent into Terry Taylor, that I was typing up and emailing to the office that was after Jeff had been exiled and Terry Taylor's wanting all these agent reports, you know, be truthful and give your real feelings. And I brought those up, as I told you, because I had the email and I searched them up and reprinted them, right? Well, these come from when I first joined the company, the first year, when I did not have email. Because you know this, I didn't get email until we put my website up in 2009. We put the website up because I'd done the Midnight Express book, and that was the marketplace to sell it. And when I got my first website set up, they came to email too. So I got email in March of 2009, if anybody's wondering. Before then, I typed everything on my electric typewriter here, and I either faxed it, or because I was going down there at one point so often, I would just maybe carry the fucking thing with me. But I have copies of my original typed, and as I said, these are not reports per se. This started when I made the deal. I debuted on TNA in what was June of 06 because that was the slammiversary pay-per-view or whatever. But Jeff had asked me when we made the deal in May, he said, well, watch the shows and let me know what you think. So this starts in May of 2006 with the first TNA TV shows that I watched. And they were not meant to be circulated in the office. This was Jeff asking me personally, write this down and give it to me and tell me what you think about my television show. So that's where we're at. Is that fairly well laid out, Brian, the premise here? I think so. So this is three years before the previous reports you talked about, which were at the end of your TNA run. This is the beginning. The other side of it. The other side. Oh, and I got one thing that's out of order here. But this is, I found a one sheet from November of 2006. Remember, I've said that when they did the pay-per-view, I think it was in St. Louis with the electrified cage, and Bubba Dudley was pissed off and screamed fuck into the camera, and guys had been going into business language-wise for themselves, right? So this was from November 19, 2006 at the tapings. They had a sheet for all the talent. And we had to sign this and date it, and Terry Taylor had to sign it. And then he'd give us the copy back or whatever. But it says, in consideration for my continued association with TNA Entertainment, I agree that the TNA Talent Policies and Procedures Booklet, dated May 23, 2006, shall be amended as follows, effective immediately. Number one, TNA will assess a $50 fine for each unauthorized use of the following words during the shows or events listed in item four below. These words, Brian, are ass and damn. Ass and damn cost you $50 apiece. because to be honest besides the fact that most of the time they're in an amusement park they're at Universal Studios right in the audience there's kids in the audience the network didn't like the language and the office wanted to keep it rare to where when you did let somebody cuss it landed it meant something because everybody just didn't have Tourette's right so all these things were going on. But ass and damn unauthorized was $50 apiece. Notice unauthorized. TNA will assess a fine equal to 50% of the talent's pay-per-view pay. Whoa. Half of your pay-per-view pay for each use of the following words during the shows or events listed in item four below. Those words, fuck, shit, and bitch. Now, bear in mind, this is a company that just a month beforehand hired Vince Russo. But it's going to cost you half your pay-per-view payoff if you say bitch. Well, each time. What if you say, like, two bitches and a fuck? Is that like... Well, two bitches and a fuck, that means you owe them half. and then number three talent remains subject to fines that amounts to be determined by tna for using obscene gestures or obscene language in addition to the words described above during the shows and item four it applies to all impact shows pay-per-views live events tv tapings they had and i don't know whatever became of this because i don't know that anybody ever got find and I remember Russo would write the word bitch in the fucking script So it like the call is coming from in the house Who do you believe When you say he would write the word bitch you mean like you tell her she's a bitch or you're a bitch? Yes, yes. And hoes and bitches and skanks. He loved that shit. Anyway. But now we start chronologically. And the thing is, I don't expect, is there a way to watch the TNA television shows from 2006 anymore? Do they have any service? Is that out there anywhere? I don't know for sure, actually, because I never heard anyone talk about it. I think they did have a service for a while that gave you access to the old television shows, but I have no idea. Well, this was the show from May 18, 2006. As I said, we made the deal, and I've told it before, but I've been talking on and off to Dutch Mantel. He'd wanted me to come since the previous summer. And when I'd left WWE, I still had the piece of OVW, and I started doing stuff for Gabe Spolsky and Ring of Honor. And I told Dutch, you know, I just was burnt out on wrestling, and I wouldn't want to do that much. And also, I think at one point, Russo was still there. We started talking. But then finally, a year later, you know, Dutch, We want you to be the wrestling czar, the commissioner, the authority figure, whatever. Russo was gone. Okay, I'll do it. And my original deal with Jeff was that I was going to be the commissioner, and I would probably make eight tapings a year, eight trips to Florida, and they would pre-tape stuff if they needed to, if I wasn't there, whatever. And that's what it was going to be. and with that Jeff said well have you ever seen the show and I said no he said well watch it prep up on who the guys are and what's going on and write down your thoughts and tell me what you think of my television show okay now it's Jeff asking me to hand him something personally again there's no reason for me to be politically correct or business like in a corporate environment or whatever because I've known him since he was 12 years old and I've managed him I've worked with him I'm going to tell him what my opinion is of his TV show that doesn't mean I think he's going to be mad at me right because we're in the wrestling business and I'd never seen it and again Let's remember, Russo was not there at this point. And I'm not going to read this whole goddamn thing because Samoa Joe Bumper, well, these pieces are selling him great, you know, things like that. But just read it all. Read it all. Well, oh, goddamn, okay. In that case, this is going to be an ongoing multi-part segment. Good. But at the start of the May 18, 2006, Impact Program, and this was when they were still a one-hour show on Spike, They did a sacrifice video, and that's all I identified it by, but it was one of Dave Sahadi's cool, cold opens with the voiceover. And I said, this is great. It makes TNA look cool. It's great video work, et cetera. Show open, beauty shot, TNA voiceover, or TNA, TNA voiceover, good setup. As to me, too much pyro blew off. Remember when they would just blow every bit of pyro they had off on the empty stage at the start of the show and then have crowd shots and go to the announcers? Give the guy the pyro. That's why I've got the tinnitus, by the way, in my squishy ear. Christian entrance. Christian Cage. Walk into people. Bit is great. They didn't overdo that back then. and he was trying, the crowd liked it, but he's dressed so fucking bland I'm not seeing a star. These are not even flashy or pricey street clothes. Promos seem to lack some passion, but people liked it. Monty Brown appears, remember him? Yeah, you know what, if you went back 20 years, which actually is what we're doing right now, Yes. people thought he was going to be a star for like the next 10 years or so, And WWE thought so, and it didn't happen, but he was one of the big stars of TNA when I first started checking out TNA. Yes, and it may have happened. I don't know about in TNA, but... The Serengeti, right? Well, no, but as I recall, something happened to a member of his family, and he ended up quitting the wrestling business to... And I'm willing to be corrected if I'm remembering this wrong. But he quit the business to get a job or to do something where he didn't have to travel because he had to take care of some children in the family or some somebody in the family. Or elsewise, he may have, you know, he may have made it eventually. But I said, Monty Brown appears, looks great. Delivery a little stagey. and then I just wrote other talent appear because it's one of those deals where people started coming out and then Larry Zbysko was the authority figure at that point and Jeff Jarrett comes out and Steiner comes out and then Sting drops out of the ceiling right so there was all these people converging at once and so I said other talent appear told me who they were a little rushed, but you're trying to hit the audience with stars. Announcers could have been more credibly surprised. By the time Jeff and Steiner cut the promo and Sting dropped in out of the ceiling, you had all the star power in the ring, but Zabisco gets the best line of the night for now that I have your undivided attention, after all the helicopters have flown these people in, it's just chaos, and then Zabisco, well, now that I've got your attention. and Larry had to do the complicated promo where as the authority figure at that point he was laying out all this stuff and I said Larry's announcement was pretty complicated and some of the guys in the promo needed more bass in their voice and then the Samoa Joe bumper these pieces sell him to me great I knew Joe because I was working at the same time at Ring of Honor which we'll get into that at some time in this series A.J. Stiles, Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels, I think Bobby Roode, possibly. A lot of those guys were working for Ring of Honor at the same time they were working for TNA. And they were coexisting, and I was doing the same. So I knew some of these guys to begin with, but then that'll hit a bump in the road later on. Anyway, segment two, Team Canada entrance. This team needs one ass kicker for credibility. Team USA entrance. USA is doomed. These guys are puny. And remember, it was because the creative team at this time was not just Jeff, Jared, and Dutch Mantell, but it was Scott DeMore and, Lord, I think Jeremy Borash was on it. and DeMoor was the manager of Team Canada. It was Petey Williams and other people, and it was kind of like some of the X Division guys. It was a little confusing. But they had a match, Petey Williams against Chris Saban, and this was when nobody but Petey Williams was doing the Canadian Destroyers, so that was kind of his thing. But I wrote about the match. This is souped-up Billy Robinson versus Tony Charles, but with no stiff old British bastards. Great athletically, but no emotion. I don't know anything about either one of them except their home country because they're too busy tumbling to show me their personality. These kids can be good if they slow down and act a little pissed off. Does that sound familiar, Brian? Well, you're consistent, if anything. So, then the segment three was part two of the match. Part two picked up, nice finish. Kevin Nash hits the ring and gets over better than anybody on the show. All the other guys became inconsequential midgets. As long as it's okay to bury these little X guys, Nash will get over with this, but nobody else will. Remember when that for months, all that Nash was doing was interacting with the X Division guys, Shelly and Saban and Petey and all those guys and Jay Lethal, that whole group. and he was making top money but he was just advising them and cutting promos with them and doing segments with them and wrestling rarely if at all and I'm like well he wants to get the X Division guys over what? he's getting himself over which I mean at least somebody knew how to get their self over but I I Anyway, let's see, a question. Why does Borash dress like he just got fired from a Vegas lounge act? And I like Jeremy Borash. We got along great once I got to know him, and he's a very intelligent guy. But the problem was that Borash always, he wanted to be in the television business instead of the wrestling business, or the television business was more important to him than the wrestling business. and that's he worked his ass off behind the scenes and producing stuff but as later on in the year when Shitstain would show his ugly face again Borash was up for any preposterous comedy sketch or any just any preposterosity because it was all about TV and entertainment that's where he was looking. So, great guy, and we never argued or anything, but I think he just had more TV Gaga than wrestling Gaga to it. Nevertheless. And he's now currently a part of WWE's creative committee, enterprise, whatever it is. He's a part of it now. Well, how come he's not on Unreal? Maybe they said, that suit is a step too far. Michael Hayes is going to wait for it. That suit's way too unreal for us. Let's see, segment four. Steiner entrance. Great intensity from Scott snatches Don West and cuts promo. Samoa Joe out for confrontation. Great. I buy both of these guys as badasses and want to see more. And then Samoa Joe versus Chase Stevens. Announcers, even after being roughed up, ignored this match too much. Joe went into his hold, and they missed it until after the tap, because they were still registering getting jerked around. And then Andy Douglas run in. Why did Joe even take one step back from this guy? Oh, he was one of the naturals. Yeah, he was the partner. I was going to say, I don't remember who that is, Andy Douglas. Chase Stevens and Andy Douglas were a team. I remember the naturals. I forgot that name, yeah. Apparently, I guess Andy's gone. anyway segment five team 3D promo the bickering brother bit is good Bubba seemed to be reciting from memory some last piece of bickering maybe too much Borash Borash made too much ha ha face at close 3D maybe should try 3D maybe try too much comedy in these spots because they were even then trying to be Ha ha, there's, you know, 10,000 stand-up comics out of work and they're telling jokes. Well, you know, if you really think about it from the beginning of the Dudley Boys, that's the way Paul Heyman used them. They were serious and eventually when Bubba Ray Dudley and Devon turned heel, you know, they would really get the crowd going and everything. But the little interstitial clips that they would put into the show were little comedy bits where Bubba was, you know, at first he was stuttering and then he would dance and there were other members of the family. they've been doing comedy since the beginning of the team. Well, they never got good at it. Anyway, then we had a King of the Mountain match between Abyss and Rhino. And I guess the King of the Mountain match, I guess, is a no-DQ match. I was just writing this and seeing it for the first time. But I said, I'm a fan of both of these guys, but to me this match did nothing for either one of them. Abyss sells punches in the corner while holding the ropes. You know what I'm saying. He's backed in the corner. He's got his hand on either one of the top ropes. The guy's just wailing on him in his face. He doesn't let go of the ropes. That was a Vince McMahon pet peeve on the chokes or the punches in the corner. And then Rhino throws way too many punches. Think about this. These guys are both big and supposed to be physically dominant and not just, you know, sell like junior heavyweights. But if Rhino backs him in a corner and punches him ten times, even if he's selling it with his head, if he doesn't let go of the ropes and he doesn't go down to a knee, how hard can Rhino punch? It's not flattering. So anyway, Rhino throws away too many punches. The fans died too quick after the jumpstart and stayed there. To break after a foot to the face was flat as well. Segment six, match part two. this match badly needed a manager or something yes we ended up with two guys two big guys who shouldn't sell trying to register too much should have slowed down thrown fewer blows and sold smarter rhino made a half-hearted comeback out of nowhere run in out of nowhere by rude and where was the dq when demore ended up in the ring this buried the referee was this a no dq match if So why? Rhino took Abyss's finish for the 1-2-3 okay, but over a minute later he's still out and DeMore is spitting on him. These heels needed to give him more to sell to get this much heat, and whether these heels should get that much heat on Rhino is debatable. The end of the show. What was the end of the show? May 18, 2006. And then, I'm sorry. So you typed this up after the fact? Yes, when I watched it. And then how did you deliver this to Jeff? Well, I think this was probably one of the faxes, because I wasn't there. I didn't start until June, so I didn't wait a month to give it to him. Although this is, well, this is all weekly stuff, so I probably faxed it, I would say. Remember those? I do. Remember the paper? Yeah, that was a... Actually, the new fax, the last fax I had faxed on regular paper. The fax I had in Smoky Mountain faxed on that roll of paper shit, and then all the ink fades off. You can barely read the shit anymore. Anyway, May 25th is the next show. If you want me to keep going here, I just want to give you a little more idea of this because I got into a little more detail. Keep going. Segment one, May 25th, 2006. Sin Shi, who was low-key, versus Sharkboy versus Jay Lethal versus Alex Shelley in a four-way match. They were doing it even then, folks, but they weren't as worn out as they are now by any means. But anyway, here's what I said. Good use of these guys is you can't tell how small they are. Sharkboy's a good kid, but that gimmick is still silly for me. announcers never explain the rules of the match they tag but then they don't they jump in right in front of the ref etc these guys work didn't tell me who the baby faces or the heels are senshi works heelish but people cheer him he fights with shelly who is clearly a heel the stacked up double superplex powerbomb thing was so staged it was ludicrous and Senshi's finish looks good but dangerous. Choreograph tumbling, then Nash comes out, gives a half-ass effort, and gets over. Shelly looks like he's in eighth grade next to Nash. And then we go backstage with the King of the Mountain update and Borash is very distracting with all of that clothing he's wearing. That was seg one. Any thoughts? No. I'm consistent because if it doesn't make sense 20 years ago it doesn't make sense today things that don't make sense don't start making sense SIG 2 is like a king of the mountain video and rules stipulations match a little confusing but this helped diamonds entrance these guys have a good diamonds in the rough is what it was they had a team named Diamonds in the Rough. Whoever they may have been. Who were they? I don't remember. But I just read, I said Diamonds ITR, and I'm like, Diamonds inside the ropes? But no. Diamonds in the Rough, they wrestled Styles and Daniels. And I said this was just a rushed two-minute match to set up the finish. There was no time to set up much. And America's Most Wanted run-in with a billy club was an awkward shot by Harris. That's when Storm and Harris were teamed up as America's Most Wanted. All right, well, Diamonds in the Rough were led by Simon Diamond, which was Lance Diamond, and it also consists of Triton, Elix Skipper, and David Young. Yeah, boy, those three had all kinds of things in common with each other. anyhow segment three they did an on camera with Mike Tenet and Don West this was before I'd met Don West and hadn't seen Mike Tenet in probably ages and eons but these guys need to sync up their wardrobes Mike is in a tux Don looks like a used car dealer Borash certainly there's a men's clothing dealer in Orlando that will do a trade to dress these guys like network TV sportscasters, parenthetically Borash especially, I thought and still maintain that at this point in the modern television era that the announcers on the wrestling program should be dressed not only in a look that fit them but also like the other major sports announcers in football, basketball, baseball, whether network or regional syndicated sports networks. What do they look like? That's what you need to look like. When you've got a guy in a tuxedo like the old days, another guy that's just there but dressed more casually, and then again, Borash looks like he's fucking the piano man in the lounge. make everybody look like they're on the same fucking team, and this is a professional broadcast. So nothing ever changes. But that's why I was wearing matching suits and navy blues and grays because I wasn't a personality that needed to be exposed in a flamboyant, flashy fashion at that point. I was an authority figure, same as OVW television announcer or whatever. I think one year at Derby time, I wore the yellow sport coat with some black slacks and thought I looked very Bockwinklish, and Russo buried me behind my back. Anyhow, the next segment, or the next thing in segment three, remember the James Gang? It was Road Dogg Jesse James and Billy Gunn. They were calling them the James Gang then. And they came out because they were working a program with Team 3D, Bub and Devon. So they came out as the babyfaces dressed as Team 3D to do the parody on them. And my description was, this has been done to death. The announcers were laughing along with it too much. It seemed forced. Brian is a great promo but this was only entertaining to smart fans the live audience and the boys because the live audience was smart fans at this point in Orlando at the free admission at the sound stage all they did was material on fucking ECW and Philadelphia and the smart fans had to be smart fans to know what the fuck they were talking about and that's why I said And the boys and the smart fans, the casual fan, didn't give a shit that they were slandering Philadelphia because they didn't know why. And it got a lot better when Brian got serious because then he dropped the facade and he got a serious promo on it. But again, they were trying to micro-narrow cast to the limited amount of people that would understand what they were referring to from, at that point, almost 10 years earlier. Was this before or after Russo made them the Voodoo Ken Mafia, VKM? This is before. This is before. No, he ain't got... I'm already picking it apart, and he ain't got there yet. So, Raven did a VTR promo quick and okay, but Jesus, he looks 100 years old. What happened? I think that was when he had white hair, or he was in a white outfit, or he had gray hair. Something happened and he went with the white. I don't know. Seg four, Andy Douglas versus Bobby Roode. What the fuck is with the referee's pants? That was Slick Johnson was wearing shorts. Remember when Slick Johnson was wearing shorts? Yeah. Both these guys looked good and had a nice athletic match. With the finish, heat after. Chase Stevens hitting the ring, Team Canada. By Rhino's save, both babyfaces look pretty impotent. Rhino's promo and announced handicap match was timed great and got over great. Shane Douglas out to look at the Naturals was a bit anticlimactic here. I think they were going to have Shane take the Naturals under his wing. In the back, Jeremy Borash with Ron Killings for a promo. I wrote, Rufus R. Jones lives. Oh, that's not fair. Well, Ron Killings 20 years ago, he was a little green. Anyway, segment five, Christian Cage, enter to announce desk. A star does not dress this way. He's got a $10,000 belt and he's wearing a $20 t-shirt. This one, I believe he was the NWA champion, I think. Then Monty Brown entrance. God, I hope this guy can work. Ron Killings entrance. King of the Mountain match. This is the qualifiers for the big King of the Mountain multi-man match they were going to have. Monty Brown versus Ron Killings. Obviously, these guys have spent more time in the gym than the ring, but they worked hard. Went to break abruptly. Match part two, Christian's forte does not seem to be color commentary. Okay match, schoolboy finish got out of it. So I'm just giving some... They're going to get detailed as they go along. Actually, this third show is a little more detailed yet, but I was getting in my groove. I'm surprised to hear what you're saying about Christian, because I always kind of felt that way, and I always felt like he was one of those guys that people like you never felt any of that negative. I was always like, oh, he's a star, he's Christian, he's great in the ring. But I agree with everything you're saying back then. Well, I saw him also at his very first fucking tryout match. He wasn't a star then, So it's not like I just assumed he's always been a star. But at the same point, he can work. And as he's proven in modern times, he can talk. He got it down if he wants to. But the point is here, it was a combination of, I don't think they had given him a look or a direction. And it just, it wasn't, he needed to blossom a little better. because it's 20 years ago. He got a little flashier as we went along. Anyway, one more show here on this one. The TNA Impact for June 1, 2006. Jeff Jarrett promo was a good hot show opener. Scott Steiner entrance attacked Don West and went to ring. To me, this was hot and exciting, but going too far to attack West without discipline by TNA. You're muscling around the announcers. Sting and Raven hit. Good four-way action. Good impact segment. Why does Raven look like the old man of the sea? What the fuck had he done to himself then? I'm trying to remember. So there we have the open and the beauty shots. Nice look. America's Most Wanted with Gail Kim entrance. These three look great together. That was Storm, James Storm, Chris Harris, and Gail Kim. Naturals entrance. Nice-looking babyface team. Naturals versus AMW. Fast start. Good team moves. I know announcers have to tell stories, but they were off this match too much because I wanted to know more about the guys in the ring as individuals. Babyfaces have good fire but rush to come back. Daniels and Styles steal the billy club. The babyface refuses it. And the heels go over. Why did this dumbass turn down a shot at a weapon that was about to be used against him? This makes a putz instead of a face. They're still doing this shit 20 years later, aren't they? Yeah, totally. Douglas walks off disgusted or watches disgusted as heels murder faces. If I was Shane, I'd walk off too. that's why they were telling these guys obviously need guidance because they're fucking idiots so Shane was going to help them and possibly get them booked on the night shift at Target or whatever so then Horash with Alex Shelley this is before I'd ever met Jeremy just his wardrobe alone was getting under my skin Shelley is a good promo but the nerd announcer being bigger than him kills me Can we get some of these guys' phone books to stand on? It would make a big difference. Nash came in to make Shelly his little buddy. So then in segment three, we got Nash with Shelly at his core, or Nash with Shelly entrance. Shelly's in the match, but I put Nash with Shelly entrance. Because that's the way it looked. Nash is stealing all the fucking oxygen, right? Shelly versus Jay Lethal. and again, I've always been a big Jay Lethal fan. I said Nash is dressed like a seven-foot pro golfer, because he'd just get in a car and drive over from his house like fucking 45 minutes, and he'd just be dressed in leisure wear. Don West gives a good explanation of the X Division philosophy. Lethal is great for his age. After the Heat and the Saban save, Saban's promo was too cute. He needed more bass in his voice. And Nash acted more scared of a bad cold. Samoa Joe VTR personality pieces like this really sell him, treat him like a star. He was on a wonderful trajectory until Shitstain got there. All right, now our weekly check-in on the Team 3D and James Gang fucking angle. Seg4, Borash with Team 3D seemed a little scripted. Bubba using the word parody seems incongruous. Too funny for ass-kickers and they're pissed about a bingo hall but can't say the letters ECW so it's just confusing. the mother slash horror line was way too awkward. I don't even remember what that was. The mother horror line was way too awkward. This whole program strikes me as two teams who are pissed at each other for reasons I don't get or buy, trying to be funnier than the other, with one trying to put a bankrupt promotion over, and the other's mad because they used to be in the WWF. These two teams are good, but I would re-rack their whole issue and start over. Wow. You think I was being too critical? No, I think you were laying it out the way it was. This is before I started the job. This got you the job. No, he gave me the job, then I did this, and then I started. But nevertheless, we were in the office with Zabisco, Styles, and Daniels. good match set up and Slick Johnson in with the Stooge report was good. Now I buy Slick's shorts because now I understood they were selling Slick as the goddamn office suck up and Stooge and a slimy character that needed to stand out as a referee. So then once that I was in on it, I fucking got it. Anyway, Seg 5 Samoa Joe DVD spot. This is great because even though it's commercial, it sells me on the talent. Christian comments and King of the Mountain highlights effective. Jarrett with Gail Kim enters into crowd to find Raven. Raven jumps into brawl. Good action. Jarrett versus Raven. Is Raven now an albino? This was great action, but announcers are not telling me why there is no DQ for chairs, etc. Raven elbow through the table. Holy shit, great break spot. This is before you've had a table break in every fucking segment also. Seg 2, match part 2, concession stand brawl. That's where they went outside and fought in the concession area. Holy Tupelo. Crowd hot, great stuff. There needed to be a stipulation to explain how this match could still be going on. Good finish. What a guitar shot Larry took, Zabisco. And so they had a nice little fucking fight there. A nice one-hour show. Boom. You want me to go for the last one here real quick? the June 8th program. This is the last time until I get there live. All right. So this is the last, I guess, was this one taping or two tapings you covered? Do you know? Well, this, it was four shows, whatever the fuck they did in the four shows, however they did it, because as I said, I wasn't there yet, right? I didn't start until... Right, but were they taping every two weeks or every month? Well, sometimes one and sometimes the other, because I'm trying to think back, and I may have to go get more of my books, but when I first started, they were only doing the one-hour show, so therefore they could do three hours of television in the same night. And then they would do a pay-per-view and a taping, and then they'd be off and they'd come back three weeks later, maybe do two TVs, come back two weeks later with a pay-per-view, and you see where I'm going. or sometimes they do two days of taping, do two shows each night and have four done. But my original deal with Goddamn Jeff was I'll do eight trips to Orlando a year and it morphed into like, I think, 23. So on average, they were doing something twice a month. Once the show became two hours, they couldn't tape more than one in a single taping. so they had to do a separate day of TV for each TV show. You see where I'm going with this? Yeah. Anyhow, so this was the show on June 8th, and the next report I have is the impact from June 22nd that they were recapping Slammiversary, and that's where I debuted. So I'm missing one in here, but nevertheless, June 8th, VTR interviews with Sting, Jeff Jarrett, and Steiner. Emotional. Great setup for match for the King of the Mountain. Steiner entrance. Would have loved to see him burst right into the arena as the main pyro was fading. We lost some energy going backstage after the pyro and then before his entrance. Scott's a great-looking heel. The Sting entrance. Backstage shot didn't look as bad. but I just don't know that I like the unfinished backstage look. Remember when they had the big arena, the impact zone, and they would go in the back and it looked like they were under the bleachers at the high school gym? And I'm like, well, because it's a soundstage. Everything else is unfinished outside the arena or outside the main shot of the arena. The backstage area is bare fucking walls and goddamn studs. so anyway Sting vs. Steiner good brawl around and about this had the star feel to it went to break right on the nut shot and lost the impact of that but in part 2 of the match these guys have obviously slown down from their athletic peaks but they know how to work and have a good match that you can follow I'd have loved to have seen Sting hot dog more on his comeback he can get away with it gail kim and jeff run-ins the false finish the second referee in the kick out before the three count was off somehow and people didn't get it or it would have been a bigger pop the rest of the finish came off great and sting advanced to a big pop jeff and steiner got heat killings made the save abyss in for more heat christian with the big save i love it the staggered run-ins predictable, but it all makes sense to get the pay-per-view plugged. Steiner stole the show. Steiner co-ops the show. He steals the show and will not leave because Samoa Joe is next and he's mad at Samoa Joe. So they go to the break with that. Ah, I want to see what happens when Joe comes out. And in the next segment, Samoa Joe made his entrance and had a confrontation with Steiner. People were hot. They had a big schmoz. They had a pull apart. You got two big ass, bad ass guys. This deal was over. And then Shelly had one of his little films that he'd make with his camera that would plug Nash's wrestling debut on TV the following week. So all those guys were just basically his minions to get over and look even taller. segment four was the back in the office Zabisco with Slick Johnson Stooge Report and then Sanjay Dutt versus Jarrell Clark and that match was a backdrop for Conan and the announcers to tell the story of LAX and their angle and that's it LAX of course was Latin American exchange it was Homicide and Hernandez remember and I said did that Conan too at that time yes Conan was the manager slash you know handler slash coach whatever and he was having health issues at that time so sometimes he was doing the wheelchair gimmick but I said I said why do they keep saying it's just like immigration reform I know that that's the point But when they keep saying it, it reminds people that they're trying to hop onto a hot issue rather than just letting it speak for itself. See what I'm saying here? And, you know, it seemed a little wordy for them to be the street thuggishness, but nevertheless. And then Seg 5, just some promos that I didn't say much about. and then a six-man tag was closing the show with Team Canada versus Chris Saban and the James Gang. And I said the match started at a good pace. It seemed the people were deflated after such a hot show because this was a long night of taping apparently. Billy Gunn did some nice shit here. Then part two, the match seemed to drag even though everybody was moving. Saban and Rude picked it up. Good comeback ball. The baby faces. The rhino run in got the people up. And good finish. And I said, oh, Christy Hemme, she was still there then. I said, she sure has energy. She delivered the message to Don West to announce that Samoa Joe versus Scott Steiner would be happening. And that got a big pop. And that was a great way to finish the show. And I wrote, this is my favorite show so far. But those are the first four I'd ever seen. I didn't really know who was doing what or what was going on. And Jeff asked me to give some feedback. So there was obviously some positive things in there, and there was a few negative things, but it wasn't like anything that I was going to tear my hair out of my head about, right? Or anything that couldn't, one would think, be addressed or tweaked or whatever, and everybody seemed to be on the same page about things. And this is why I was initially hopeful at this new little venture that I had gotten into. And that would last June, July, and August. And then we got the bad news about the new arrival. And then my agent reports, I didn't do anything for September and October, because I think that may have been, now that I look back on it, when I was convinced I had tried to quit and was convinced I was still going to quit. And then I started doing them again here by these dates with the two-hour primetime debut on Spike, which, as I've mentioned before, is after Jeff had me come down and took me to Sushi in Florida and said, we need more producers and agents, and you could help the show in that way also if you would come down every time, and I got more money for that, but also it was to, in hindsight, as I can see, try to have me there to counteract the influence of our friend Mr. Russo, who would soon darken our doorstep. So that's kind of where we are right now, but I've still got June, July, and August to go, And then we get into November and December, and the reports start getting much more detailed and much more assertive until finally I found the letter that I wrote to Jeff about our friend Vince. at the end of the year when I believe I had been telling Dutch, now that I think about it in reflection, that I really didn't want to make any more of these fucking trips anyway again. And he said, why don't you put everything you want to say about this guy down in writing and give it to Jeff and let him mull it over. And I did. And we'll get to that in chronological order. I don't remember. Who brought Russo back? Was it Jeff or was it Dixie? Well, see, that's why I was mad, because when Dutch first called me up and told me about it, he said, well, we made changes in the creative team, and we fired, we dropped, didn't fire them from the whole company, but we dropped Damore and Borash, and they had a few other young guys, indie-minded guys, guys that I didn't see how would mesh well with Jeff and Dutch, and I said, well, that's a good move to just concentrate on you two. And he said, but we hired Russo. And that's when my brain exploded and I started trying to quit. But with what we know now, it was obviously Dixie. But I was still under the assumption, because I was just assuming I'm working for Jeff Jarrett. Jeff Jarrett's a boss in my eyes. This thing wouldn't be here if it hadn't been for Jeff Jarrett. I will let Jeff Jarrett tell me what to do. I'm not in any way working for Dixie fucking Carter. She's the investor. But so I didn't at that point think that Dixie, as the investor, would do something stupid like tell the goddamn head of the company, Jeff Jarrett, you got to hire this fucking idiot back, even though we fired him already. so I was convinced that Jeff was on board with it and spent the next several months trying to get Dutch to tell me why why what is he seeing this fucking guy but anyway the letter was at the end of the year and then I've got these things through and then they get a little shorter and then I've got them through March and I think that this may have been when I just said well fuck it I'm tired of typing because nothing is changing well more in the future something to look forward to your TNA reports from 2006 Jim before we wrap things up some breaking news and they still had bigger ratings than they do now on AMC with their big production even though it was just a little mom and pop shop then Jim some breaking news delinquent daughter yes breaking news breaking news before we wrap things up yes a message has gone out I don't know if this is from Twitter or Instagram, from Ava, WWE, the general manager of NXT, the daughter of The Rock. Uh-oh. This past Tuesday was my last appearance on NXT and subsequently WWE. Ho-ho! Thank you to all who have cheered, watched, and supported me throughout my journey. While my decision to not renew my contract was very difficult, It's also a new turning point in my life. It has been an honor and a privilege to be Ava. My decision not to renew my contract. Uh, yeah. Who did that at the beginning of AEW? What was your name? Big Swole. Remember, it was like, Big Swole, we both decided it would be best for me to leave. What is this? We have both sat down and decided that it's like when Tony Atlas sent me a letter when he stood me up on coming to start in Smoky Mountain. My wife and I both sat down and looked at our expanses. And we decided I would not be able to come to Tennessee at this time when he was jobless and sleeping on a park bench. I didn't offer him enough money, but it had nothing to do with the sexy blonde teenager that was going to be his manager on the road away from his wife. But go ahead. Brian, what were you going to say? You know, what I was going to say is we always talked about when will the day come where we see the Dwayne Johnson Triple H feud play out. Roman Reigns just called out creative in an interview on a WWE-friendly show. While the daughter of The Rock has decided not to renew by mutual agreement. Suddenly. It wasn't like they wrote her off the show. I don't think on Tuesday or anything. We didn't hear anything about that. It's just she's not going to return. Someone new is going to come up and be like, You remember that person last week? She'll never use that name again, quite literally. What do you think Dwayne Johnson thinks? I think in the words of the poet Ronnie Van Sant, there's something going on that we don't know. And this may be only the tip of the iceberg, the tip of the rock, a little piece of the rock, a tiny, tiny pebbles in the bowl. What am I doing? What am I saying? I don't know, but it makes you wonder either they said you're not going to come back. You can put out a friendly tweet about it or The Rock said, you know what, honey? Shad Con style. It's time for you to have your inheritance now. Do whatever you want. And unlike Tony, he said, I want to get out of the wrestling business. In that case, I'm getting a fuck away from all you motherfuckers. Well, I mean, it's probably best because I'm sure that many people were nice to her, you know, to her face and didn't want to be rude or whatever, either because they liked her personally or they didn't want to make her father mad. But no, she had no business on a fucking wrestling show doing any goddamn thing. She didn't need to be on television since she'd been on the air. People decided to quit breathing it. When she walks into a bank, they turn off the cameras. Can I stress more how she doesn't need to be on television? She was not a very good on-air performer. She didn't have the voice, the charisma, the delivery. She was towering over male and female talent. And there was nothing – it wasn't like she was a former star. And they said, all right, well, you're not wrestling anymore. You're a GM. Not that that's justified, but at least that's happened. It makes sense. It was, all right, you were kind of on the TV a few times, and you're the daughter of The Rock, so you're the GM. Yeah. And the fans were never going to give her a break because she was obviously a Nippo hire. Again, you know, they were trying to be nice in every way to The Rock, but that's not fair to the girl. That's not fair to when sometimes these people get put in these positions, they can't win. They're not going to be any good. They look awkward. And fans are just going to laugh at them. It's not a favor to them to give them a job they're not qualified for. Well, an all-out war may break out if Nia Jax gets released next. We'll see. Anyhow, speaking of which, we're going to do this again coming up shortly. in a few days as your program, and then this again next week as my program. And we keep doing this all through the year, just all the time. You can't get away from us. But a big week of shows coming up, the Royal Rumble Review and so much more. That's right. We'll be rumbling on the next program. And then next week, I'm going to keep this stack of papers here because, as I said, as I get down there and we go to a two-hour show in primetime on Spike, and then my friend comes in. These things get a lot more goddamn detail. And as I was just, I haven't even read all of them yet, but as I was looking, I'm like, my God, some things never change. They're doing the same stupid shit 20 years later in the wrestling business that I was seeing for the first time 20 years ago going, where the fuck did this shit come from and why are these guys doing it? patient zero of bad indie style wrestling coming up in the future on the jim cornet experience until then brian any any closing thoughts we'll see you on the drive-thru everyone stay safe everyone stay warm everyone stay warm and stay warm warm safe i'll say them all and until then folks thank you fuck you and bye-bye everybody Get the experience of Jim Cornette. I'm Jim Cornette. I'm Jim Cornette.