Speaker 1: Hey, this is Brian Alvarez and this is today's edition
Speaker 1: of the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast on the eight Side Network.
Speaker 1: Let's get it all. How's it going, everybody? Brian Alvarez
Speaker 1: here on Wrestling Ober Live. We're here every day Monday
Speaker 1: to Friday, New Pacific, three sturn Sunday three Pacific, six Eastern.
Speaker 1: It is Wednesday on this program. You know that means
Speaker 1: tonight a w Winter is coming. We have the lineup
Speaker 1: for the show thus far, and at this point in
Speaker 1: a two hour show, there's four matches. Are we gonna
Speaker 1: be seeing some angles, some debuts? What will we see
Speaker 1: tonight on Winter is Coming? We'll talk about that here
Speaker 1: today on the program. And also i'll talk more about
Speaker 1: this after the break. Kevin Owens has re signed with
Speaker 1: w w E a multi year deal. We'll getting that
Speaker 1: more in a moment, because I got a lot to
Speaker 1: say about that. We got the raw ratings from Monday night.
Speaker 1: It increased from record lows, but it was it almost
Speaker 1: record lows. We've got the hourly numbers, which actually the
Speaker 1: first two hours not bad. Third hour plunge as usual,
Speaker 1: one point four seven million viewers in that third hour.
Speaker 1: We've got updates on Jeff Hardy, lots of news out
Speaker 1: of New Japan. Tokyo Dome. Russell Kingdom is upcoming, and
Speaker 1: so we've got some matches for that show. We have
Speaker 1: got the winners of the Tag League tournament, we have
Speaker 1: the winner of the UM, the other one hand Best
Speaker 1: Super Juniors UM and of course we have got to
Speaker 1: the return of Catsiori Shibada. So we're getting all of
Speaker 1: that here today. Update for next week's at x T.
Speaker 1: I've only seen the opener on an x T two
Speaker 1: point oh, so I can only talk about the Duke
Speaker 1: Hudson match, the no holds barred match, which largely ones
Speaker 1: I expected, but not quite. We'll talk to you about
Speaker 1: that and plenty more if you'd like to contact us
Speaker 1: here today. Four to five seven eight zero seven five
Speaker 1: six six is the phone number. That is four to
Speaker 1: five seven eight zero seven five six six. Brian at
Speaker 1: Wrestling Observer dot com, at Brian Elberts on Twitter. Back
Speaker 1: in up on with more Observer Live, back in the show.
Speaker 1: Brian Albert is here Wrestling Observer Live. Mike sember Vid
Speaker 1: also Wrestling Observer dot Com. Not to get into here
Speaker 1: today if you want to Texas four to five seven
Speaker 1: eight zero seven five six six. First story here. Kevin
Speaker 1: Owen well not to be going anywhere anytime soon, as
Speaker 1: the impending free agent has re signed with w w E.
Speaker 1: This from Wrestling Observer dot com Fightful first report of
Speaker 1: the news. Pat Laprade confirmed details are light, but Laprade
Speaker 1: reported the deal is for multiple years. According to Laprade,
Speaker 1: Owens will explain the rationale for his decision in a
Speaker 1: podcast with Laprade that will drop Thursday. It was learned
Speaker 1: in September that Owens was set to become a free
Speaker 1: agent at the end of January thanks to a pre
Speaker 1: pandemic restructuring of contracts. Thirty seven year old said in
Speaker 1: a May interview with Laprade that he had inked a
Speaker 1: five year deal that ran into twenty twenty three. At
Speaker 1: one point in September, Owens had posted and then deleted
Speaker 1: a tweet of coordinates to Mount Rushmore, which fans took
Speaker 1: as a nod to a future in a e W
Speaker 1: as the landmark shares the name of his former pwdch
Speaker 1: faction with The Young Bucks and Adam Cole. He also
Speaker 1: changed his Twitter location to almost there. Owens been in
Speaker 1: w w since starting an n X t etcetera, etcetera.
Speaker 1: So anyway, listen, I don't know what Johnny Gargano is
Speaker 1: going to do, and I don't know what Kyle O'Reilly
Speaker 1: is going to do. But when we were talking about
Speaker 1: Johnny Gargano and Kylo Riley and I was talking about,
Speaker 1: you know, potential ways that you could get Johnny Gargana
Speaker 1: to stay in w w E, not the least of
Speaker 1: which would be, you know, sticking around, not going on
Speaker 1: the road, hanging around his newborn child, maybe having a
Speaker 1: talent contract and a trainer's contract. And no matter what
Speaker 1: I said, all I heard was, No, he's absolutely for
Speaker 1: sure leaving. He's absolutely gonna leave. He's leaving for sure.
Speaker 1: And listen, he might leave. But when the Kevin Owens
Speaker 1: story shows you here is I heard the same thing
Speaker 1: about Kevin owns he's leaving for sure, he's going. There's
Speaker 1: no chance he's staying. Well, he's staying because I know
Speaker 1: that there's this idea on the internet and oh it's
Speaker 1: horrible in w w E. Everyone hates the place. Everyone's
Speaker 1: gonna be going a w if they've got any talent whatsoever.
Speaker 1: There's gonna be people that are going to resign with
Speaker 1: w w E. There are people who like it. There
Speaker 1: there are people who are gonna be made good offers,
Speaker 1: and they're gonna weigh it against everything else and they're
Speaker 1: gonna decide that they want to stay with w w E.
Speaker 1: And Kevin Owens is staying, and perhaps Johnny Gargan who
Speaker 1: is staying, and perhaps Kyle O'Riley is staying. And I
Speaker 1: don't know this for sure, but wasn't Pete Dunn's deal
Speaker 1: up and he's he's still there, so it's possible he's resigned.
Speaker 1: But I think this is a The moral of this
Speaker 1: story is there are some people who, when they weigh
Speaker 1: their options, are going to want to stay with w
Speaker 1: w E. So that's it. That's all I got out
Speaker 1: of this. I mean maybe there's more, but congratulations Kevin
Speaker 1: Owens and now he'll be main eventing the show on
Speaker 1: the first of January Day one. Good for him this year,
Speaker 1: happy for him, happy first Emily, happy that he's able
Speaker 1: to sign this deal, that he's happy where he's at
Speaker 1: and good And I don't think Kevin Owens is the
Speaker 1: type of guy that is going to come out at
Speaker 1: any point during however, the long this duration of this
Speaker 1: contract is and complains about it. Maybe he does, but
Speaker 1: he seems to be content with his choice and goods.
Speaker 1: You know, I like you mentioned, you know, everybody's got
Speaker 1: different goals, everybody's got different ideas, everybody's got different lives
Speaker 1: to to worry about. And w w E he has
Speaker 1: been very open about the fact that, much like Eddie Kingston,
Speaker 1: you know, was he going to be able to carve
Speaker 1: out a niche for his family in this business? Was
Speaker 1: he going to be able to have enough money saved up?
Speaker 1: Was this going to be what was going to provide
Speaker 1: his family security? Could wrestling do that? And in w
Speaker 1: w E he has been able to do that. And
Speaker 1: you hear stories about Daniel Brian when people look at
Speaker 1: his creative and go, oh my god, get that guy
Speaker 1: out of there, and must have been miserable. It's terrible.
Speaker 1: They've misused him, They've done this, they've them that, And
Speaker 1: you hear about how much he's got, how much respect
Speaker 1: he has for Vince McMahon, how much he liked certain
Speaker 1: aspects about being there. So you know, Kevin Owens the
Speaker 1: same way, And much like I mentioned about Johnny Gargano
Speaker 1: and Tomaso Chompa. Kevin Owens has been a Triple H guy,
Speaker 1: you know, much like Samoa Joe was. You know, Kevin
Speaker 1: Owens always had the support of Triple H. And for
Speaker 1: those guys, you know, you don't know what their goals are.
Speaker 1: Do they want to be again? You know? What are
Speaker 1: his post wrestling goals? Is there something about w W
Speaker 1: that he wants to stay there being agent, be a trainer,
Speaker 1: being a a representative of the company. You just you
Speaker 1: just don't know what it is. And I'd be fascinated
Speaker 1: to find out later on down the road after this
Speaker 1: contract is over, or maybe even before it's over, although
Speaker 1: I don't think we'll get that what his mentality was
Speaker 1: going into it and why he decided to make the
Speaker 1: decision that he did when he has options available to him.
Speaker 1: That of course, obviously a lot of fans are probably
Speaker 1: disappointed today that he didn't go and take Hey, listen
Speaker 1: to everybody. I know that there have been a lot
Speaker 1: of cuts. I know a lot of people have been fired.
Speaker 1: I know everyone's heard about the talent budget that they have.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, yeah they cut
Speaker 1: a lot of people, Yeah they signed a lot of
Speaker 1: people in twenty nineteen and then they cut them, but
Speaker 1: I can I don't want to name anyone in particular,
Speaker 1: but if you look at the list of people that
Speaker 1: were cut, I mean of them were hired not because
Speaker 1: w w E wanted to do anything with them, but
Speaker 1: because they didn't want anybody going anywhere else. And while
Speaker 1: there is a budget, I mean, there's a very good
Speaker 1: chance and they could have offered and I don't even
Speaker 1: want to throw a number here because then somebody's gonna
Speaker 1: report some stupid number on the internet as a fact.
Speaker 1: But let's just put it this way. They could have
Speaker 1: offered Kevin Owens a huge sum of money to stay
Speaker 1: with w w E, and a W is not going
Speaker 1: to match that, and so he stayed with w w E.
Speaker 1: There are there are people, and actually most of them
Speaker 1: have been fired, but I mean there are people that
Speaker 1: were offered contracts with the w w E. The w
Speaker 1: W he had no intention of ever doing anything with.
Speaker 1: Clearly they like Kevin Owens. Kevin Owens is one of
Speaker 1: their best promos. Kevin Owens never gives and listen, I
Speaker 1: mean I've seen some Kevin Owens matches where, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: if I were Kevin Owens I would have given and not.
Speaker 1: But the fact of the matter is he always gives on.
Speaker 1: So even though there is a talent budget, there will
Speaker 1: be guys like Kevin Owens where their deal comes up
Speaker 1: and they're gonna be offered a lot of money to stay.
Speaker 1: And my guess is he was offered a lot of
Speaker 1: money to stay despite this being an environment where a
Speaker 1: lot of people are getting cut. Did you know that
Speaker 1: Winner is coming is tonight? You know it's not gonna
Speaker 1: be there, Kevin Owens. But Tony Con did an interview
Speaker 1: the other day more new faces maybe on their way
Speaker 1: to a w TV sooner than later, as company had,
Speaker 1: Tony Con hinted, and an interview released Tuesday, which happens
Speaker 1: to be the day before Winter Is Coming. He was
Speaker 1: promoting Winter is Coming. He says, I'm more than aware
Speaker 1: that there's a number of free agents out there, wrestlers
Speaker 1: I admire to. But I gotta say that you just
Speaker 1: have to keep watching over these next few weeks and
Speaker 1: not just Winter is Coming. And of course he lists
Speaker 1: off all of these other events that they've got coming up,
Speaker 1: and I think, and this is speculation, but I mean
Speaker 1: it's really not speculation to a degree. I mean they
Speaker 1: shot an angle at the r O H pay per
Speaker 1: view this weekend where FTR attacked the Briscos. I don't
Speaker 1: know if the Briscos are showing up tonight, but you
Speaker 1: know where Briscos and FCR is not going to be
Speaker 1: taken place in a Ring of Honor, And I would
Speaker 1: be surprised if they shot an angle of the Ring
Speaker 1: of Honor pay per view to send f TR too,
Speaker 1: for example, impact to wrestle the Briscos. So I would
Speaker 1: think that there's a very good chance that very very
Speaker 1: soon you will see the Briscos in a w I
Speaker 1: don't know if they're going to sign. I don't know
Speaker 1: if this would be a a short term deal. I
Speaker 1: don't know the situation would be. But I think that
Speaker 1: you will be seeing them and uh and surely probably
Speaker 1: others as well coming out of this this Final Battle
Speaker 1: pay per view. So you don't think the first time
Speaker 1: they touch will be for the Triple A Tag Team
Speaker 1: titles in Monterey or something like that. I don't think
Speaker 1: that's going to happen. I mean it could, but I
Speaker 1: don't think it's as possible. I guess. Yeah, So Winner's
Speaker 1: coming is tonight. We've got four matches, and this is
Speaker 1: the key to me. The show is two hours long.
Speaker 1: Hangman Page and Brian Daniels is probably gonna be twenty minutes,
Speaker 1: m j F and Dante. I don't think it'll be
Speaker 1: twenty minutes. Karasheet is Serena Deep and Wardlow and Matt
Speaker 1: Side Out, which will not be twenty minutes, so they
Speaker 1: have room for more matches to be added, more surprises
Speaker 1: to be had. It is it is. I mean, clearly
Speaker 1: this is supposed to be a giant show because you've
Speaker 1: got a World Championship match with Danielson and Adam Page.
Speaker 1: So I would be stunned if we didn't get a
Speaker 1: surprise debut of some sort tonight on the show. But
Speaker 1: how's it going to do? I still don't think it's
Speaker 1: gonna break a million. I don't think there's gonna be
Speaker 1: any shows breaking a million until the New year when
Speaker 1: they moved to TBS and they're no longer live on
Speaker 1: the West coast. We're talking probably about a quarter of
Speaker 1: the country that if they want to watch this show,
Speaker 1: they have to watch it at five PM, so until
Speaker 1: it's live or not live until it airs in prime
Speaker 1: time on all coasts both of them in the middle
Speaker 1: of the country everywhere. It's not gonna breaking, but I
Speaker 1: could be wrong. I'll find out tomorrow. Back in the
Speaker 1: moment you were live, God, alright, what's going on here?
Speaker 1: You have been placed in time out by the owner
Speaker 1: of this video or a monitor moderator. Who are you
Speaker 1: talking about? I got banned from my own YouTube chat?
Speaker 1: What's happening here? How did I get banned from my
Speaker 1: own chat? Riveting radio here? Well, I don't know who
Speaker 1: this is? A moderator here? You're about to be out
Speaker 1: of a job. Year that it was went a full
Speaker 1: bobcat Albarez there. I can't even post anything. Who's the
Speaker 1: moderator of the YouTube chat? Give me his name? John Madden?
Speaker 1: Alperez Platter? Who did this? Good night? This is ridiculous.
Speaker 1: I literally can't post anything here? Is that you? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Who's the moderator here? Somebody somebody getting me this information now?
Speaker 1: Brian Rose on the twitch chat? Who this is? Producer
Speaker 1: Rob Levell? By the way, happy belated birthday on the air.
Speaker 1: All right, listen, bro, you got you got till the
Speaker 1: next commercial to unbanned me from my own YouTube or
Speaker 1: you're out of here. Brother, that you got it Google overlords. Yeah,
Speaker 1: boss man, who do you think I am? No, not
Speaker 1: the Monica band myself. Wait a second, did you get
Speaker 1: in a word from YouTube? For all those videos that
Speaker 1: people be watching and whatnot? You should have special status here?
Speaker 1: Isn't there a direct line for you and the president
Speaker 1: of YouTube? Dude, someone's in trouble. All right, you got
Speaker 1: you got ten minutes left and then it's all done.
Speaker 1: I'll shut that whole YouTube thing down right now. Raw
Speaker 1: Monday down in total viewers, show increase from the record lows,
Speaker 1: it had said in eighteen eighteen to thirty four and
Speaker 1: with teenagers the previous week was still the second lowest
Speaker 1: rating in eighteen forty nine and with teenagers in the
Speaker 1: history of the show. Raw finished sixth on cable eighteen
Speaker 1: forty nine, seventeenth and total viewers. So once again for
Speaker 1: all of you nerds to get angry that we talked
Speaker 1: about when a W does well at the top ten,
Speaker 1: if you want to rank only by viewers, that's all right,
Speaker 1: but ras down to seventeenth place if you do it
Speaker 1: that way, tenth in women eighteen to forty nine six
Speaker 1: and eighteen and forty nine, it said, or etcetera show
Speaker 1: down two percent in viewers. So they did the out.
Speaker 1: He did the storyline that lastly had to wrestled three
Speaker 1: times and he had to beat all three men in
Speaker 1: order to get into the championship match at Day one,
Speaker 1: and it did in the first two hours, and it
Speaker 1: was funny because I think when when Dave was talking
Speaker 1: about this, he noted that it held up fine because
Speaker 1: of that storyline, but I actually don't think that happened,
Speaker 1: because the first hour did one point six too, and
Speaker 1: the second hour did one point six three. Okay, so
Speaker 1: you know that's good and all, but the whole point
Speaker 1: of the story was he had to beat all three,
Speaker 1: so he beat two, and then in the third hour
Speaker 1: when he had to beat the third guy, it fell
Speaker 1: to one point four seven million viewers. That's a big drop.
Speaker 1: So that tells me that they actually didn't care that much,
Speaker 1: or they just presumed, well, obviously he's gonna do it,
Speaker 1: or they were sick of seeing him because, you know,
Speaker 1: dating all the way back to World Championship Wrestling, whenever
Speaker 1: he had a guy on the show wrestling more than once,
Speaker 1: I mean, no one tuned in the second time. The
Speaker 1: first time did well, but then everyone was like, well
Speaker 1: we saw the guy and wrestling twice on one show.
Speaker 1: It's we have with Steve Auston. Of all people, you
Speaker 1: put Steve Auston in early in the show, and then
Speaker 1: you put him on later in the show, and you
Speaker 1: know people have seen it. So one point four seven million,
Speaker 1: third hour and that's the story of Monday Night Rob
Speaker 1: this week. Nothing all that special to talk about, really,
Speaker 1: well those theories, you know, the one that makes the
Speaker 1: most sense to me is people knew what was going
Speaker 1: to happen. You know, it got to be close. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure what time halftime was that Cardinals Rams game,
Speaker 1: but it was a really tight, close game between two rivals,
Speaker 1: and one of which in the second biggest city in
Speaker 1: the country, so you know they're gonna be doing great
Speaker 1: ratings there. Whether it be in prime time or out
Speaker 1: of prime time doesn't matter when it comes to the NFL. So,
Speaker 1: you know, I think that's what it was, because I
Speaker 1: don't think there was anybody that watched the beginning of that,
Speaker 1: certainly after seeing the first match with Kevin Owens, that thought, Okay,
Speaker 1: Bobby Lashly ain't getting into this thing. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: I think everybody knew better. By the way, I'm still
Speaker 1: not reinstated on my own YouTube channel. So we're we're
Speaker 1: the countdowns on seven minutes left. It's gonna be it's
Speaker 1: gonna be bad times for somebody here. See what else,
Speaker 1: We got a lot of Japanese news. So we had
Speaker 1: Romu Takashi winning Best of the Super Juniors for the
Speaker 1: third time. He defeated Yo in thirty eight minutes and
Speaker 1: thirty seconds in the tournament finals at Sumo Hall, second
Speaker 1: consecutive Best of the Sunior super Juniors and the third
Speaker 1: in four years. And so it'll likely be Haromu and
Speaker 1: Desperado for the title Russell Kingdom sixteen. You know, I've
Speaker 1: I've noticed that sometimes with the New Japan and actually,
Speaker 1: you know, Haromo winning for the third time in four years.
Speaker 1: But then we go the other way and the finals
Speaker 1: of the World Tag League, of all of the teams
Speaker 1: to be in the finals, Got and Yoshi Hashi versus
Speaker 1: Evil and Udro was the finals and uh got and
Speaker 1: Yoshi Hashi won, And so I'm sure they're getting a
Speaker 1: take team championship match at Wressell Kingdom Saber Junior and
Speaker 1: tight Year the champions Saber junior, by the way, not
Speaker 1: best technical wrestler in the Tokyo Sports Awards anyway. Well
Speaker 1: as I love Haromo and all, and I know that
Speaker 1: you're trying to sell three straight Wrestle Kingdom shows, and
Speaker 1: I know that you need the bigger marquee matches, But
Speaker 1: when I saw that Horomo one for the third time
Speaker 1: in four years, it's kind of like, is it isn't
Speaker 1: it time to maybe make some new championship caliber bigs?
Speaker 1: Why Why couldn't show have won? This show is awesome? Like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, whatever doesn't matter. Not this year. They
Speaker 1: need Horomo. They need as much star power as they
Speaker 1: can get. And I if it wasn't Herrome who I
Speaker 1: could understand it. But he's been injured. There's been enough
Speaker 1: strife with him where him coming back and winning this
Speaker 1: thing actually makes sense. And it may be this the
Speaker 1: easiest thing to do, mayven the simplest thing to do,
Speaker 1: but I think in this case it was absolutely the
Speaker 1: right thing to do. I look forward to Robbie Eagles
Speaker 1: and l Phantasmo and other people winning this award show
Speaker 1: Yo down the line. You know they've got a generational
Speaker 1: feud that's going to be rolling on here for quite
Speaker 1: some time, I would assume. So there's a lot of guys,
Speaker 1: especially as the pandemic ends and things start to open up.
Speaker 1: God knows if that ever happens in Japan, but you know,
Speaker 1: when that does happen, there's gonna be a lot of
Speaker 1: names there. And who knows what Herome Moos status is
Speaker 1: going to be, because again, if this pandemic doesn't go anywhere,
Speaker 1: his spot, and really even if it does go somewhere,
Speaker 1: his spots in the heavyweight ranks. I don't know when
Speaker 1: that's going to be, but he's going to be a
Speaker 1: heavy wait at some point there, and I think it's
Speaker 1: sooner rather than later. So this doesn't really bother me
Speaker 1: at all. So I've been reinstated so life can continue on.
Speaker 1: I still haven't found out who's responsible yet, but I'm
Speaker 1: doing some investigations here as you talked about whatever you
Speaker 1: were talking about, but there was other big news. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I love it how you all the things you lead
Speaker 1: with you don't leave with catsi Uri Shabata coming back.
Speaker 1: It's this deal about, you know, an extra grind with
Speaker 1: Romo and the Juniors. Actually began the show thirty three
Speaker 1: minutes ago, talking about Kevin Owens resigning with DEVI w E.
Speaker 1: But dude, we knew Shabata was coming back anyway, Like,
Speaker 1: who didn't know that he came back and he said
Speaker 1: I'm coming back, and we got three nights of the
Speaker 1: Tokyo Dome. Didn't wanna think he's gonna go. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna come back, but I'm gonna wait till the Tokyo
Speaker 1: domes over. I'm gonna come back on a small show somewhere. Yes,
Speaker 1: Shabata is coming back January four in the Tokyo Dome.
Speaker 1: No opponent has been announced. Maybe it'll be oh. His
Speaker 1: announcement was one of the selling points of today's event.
Speaker 1: He kept it short and sweet, fighting back too years.
Speaker 1: He simply stated he will have a match on January four.
Speaker 1: Where's Filthy? I think he should be wrestling Filthy Tom
Speaker 1: lawlerd the Tokyo Do be interesting to see what the
Speaker 1: rule set is. You know, he's talked about he has
Speaker 1: talked about on New Japan's website. There's been an interview
Speaker 1: with him that has gone into some detail about some
Speaker 1: of his thoughts about New Japan, and we talked about
Speaker 1: on the last Advo and Mike Show. Where yes, some
Speaker 1: of it is shrouded in Cafevee when he speaks, but
Speaker 1: you can see, you know, much like the Tomahashi interviews
Speaker 1: and other things they've done there, you know, some some
Speaker 1: reality into what he says. He kind of have to
Speaker 1: read but three between the lines a little bit. But
Speaker 1: he's talked about his head being fully completely healed. He
Speaker 1: can take some punishment to the head in theory, at least,
Speaker 1: you know his head is is strong enough for that.
Speaker 1: In theory. What happens when he goes out there in
Speaker 1: the ring, we'll have to see. The match with zax
Speaker 1: aberd Jr. Was a grappling match. Do they have modified rules?
Speaker 1: I would assume that they do for whatever this match
Speaker 1: is going to be, but you never know. I'm not sure,
Speaker 1: And I know kentis tied up right now, and I
Speaker 1: have one match against Tanahashi right at least. So he's
Speaker 1: the name that makes the most sense because he's had
Speaker 1: the most battles. But there are so many people, whether
Speaker 1: it be a student of his, whether it be a
Speaker 1: a generational rival of his, no matter, there are many
Speaker 1: many options for people to work with him. I think
Speaker 1: it's just a matter of how much can he really
Speaker 1: handle on what if there are going to be any
Speaker 1: modified rules? What they are? We're gonna get into, uh
Speaker 1: some of n x T two point oh after the
Speaker 1: break a couple of text messages and emails. Here we
Speaker 1: main man Hamish says, well, Kevin Owens resigning is a surprise.
Speaker 1: Hope his new contract hasn't turned him into a future
Speaker 1: Bronstrom and bray White release since barely a w W
Speaker 1: WE offered him a ten of money to stay. Well, Hamish,
Speaker 1: let me explain something you because I think Hamish wants
Speaker 1: to be a wrestler, So I then explain something to
Speaker 1: young Hamish. Here. Let's say I'm Kevin Owens, okay, and
Speaker 1: I'm very talented, great talker, and I know that a
Speaker 1: W would sign me, but w W E is offering me.
Speaker 1: Let's say w W is offered me two and a
Speaker 1: half million dollars, are so determined for me not to leave.
Speaker 1: So here's here's two things you could do. You could say, well,
Speaker 1: if I signed it for two and a half million dollars,
Speaker 1: they're probably gonna cut me next year, and uh, and
Speaker 1: I'll go to a W. Or do I say? And
Speaker 1: I don't want to risk being fired in a year
Speaker 1: and go to a W. Then I'll just go to
Speaker 1: a W now for much less money. Hey much The
Speaker 1: answer is a make your two point five million dollars
Speaker 1: and then if they fire you in a year, go
Speaker 1: to a W. Don't walk away from the two and
Speaker 1: a half million because you might be fired now. If
Speaker 1: you're somebody there, tell me I think you made a
Speaker 1: good decision back in a moment, Observer Life, I got
Speaker 1: the show. Brian Elbert is here Wrestling Observer Live. Mike
Speaker 1: sumber b b also Wrestling Observer dot Com. Well, I
Speaker 1: had things come up this morning. I watch all of
Speaker 1: NFC two point oh yet, but I watched Cameron Grimes
Speaker 1: and Duke Hudson, which was a fun match with no
Speaker 1: holds barred. Duke Cutson did the gimmick we had the
Speaker 1: head gear holding a wig on. Of course, the head
Speaker 1: gear kept getting all messed up and so like. They
Speaker 1: went to a break so he could fix his headgear
Speaker 1: to make sure his wig didn't fall off. And uh,
Speaker 1: I thought, I actually thought, because sometimes I try and
Speaker 1: think about w W and how they normally book. Since
Speaker 1: Cameron Grime has won the hair match, I thought that
Speaker 1: Duke Hudson would win this match, but then Cameron Grimes
Speaker 1: would you get his heat back or whatever by ripping
Speaker 1: off the wig to expose his bald head, so you know,
Speaker 1: their usual blah blah, But actually they didn't do that.
Speaker 1: Cameron Grimes beat him in the middle of the ring,
Speaker 1: and then not only did he beat him, but he
Speaker 1: ripped off the wig and exposed his bald head. So
Speaker 1: as a very very fun match gave a baby face
Speaker 1: a win, which, by the way, broke the streak because
Speaker 1: Raw Monday, every single solitary segment involving a baby face,
Speaker 1: the baby face was humiliated, beating up, or pinned. And then,
Speaker 1: as happenstance would have it, we watched Raw episode five
Speaker 1: from twenty five years ago, and in fact, every single
Speaker 1: baby face on that show was either beaten or humiliated.
Speaker 1: I guess not the Steiners, so I guess maybe they
Speaker 1: broke the streak. They beat two Geeks, but anyway, so
Speaker 1: then Duke cuts in here got beaten, so Cameron Grimes
Speaker 1: got a big win and everything was fine. So I
Speaker 1: have not seen the rest of the show, but I
Speaker 1: got a lot of emails last night about our main
Speaker 1: man braun Breaker and how he looked awesome in there
Speaker 1: with Roderick Strong. What a shocker. Broun Breaker and Roderick Strong.
Speaker 1: Good match. So I'll watch that tonight and and see
Speaker 1: if it was in fact all that in a bag
Speaker 1: of chips. Now, you're gonna watch that before or after
Speaker 1: a W. I usually watch a W first, but I
Speaker 1: think I'll probably finish off this n x T since
Speaker 1: I already started. It might be for the best. I
Speaker 1: would like to watch n x T. I would have
Speaker 1: liked to have got it done this morning. But yeah,
Speaker 1: this person here, says Broun Breaker versus Roderick Strong on
Speaker 1: two point oh, was in all caps awesome? By the way,
Speaker 1: I was told that if you type too many messages
Speaker 1: in all caps on YouTube, it's a it's an automatic band.
Speaker 1: So in fact, it was not somebody banning me, it
Speaker 1: was it was my own. Why were you tapping up
Speaker 1: typing all caps? Because because the caps lock had been on,
Speaker 1: and because you were talking and I didn't want to
Speaker 1: miss around, I just typed it. God, you're having a
Speaker 1: stupid excuse for everything. Oh my god, Hey, let's ashamed
Speaker 1: of yourself. What was the excuse this morning? Why didn't
Speaker 1: see you didn't see your precious two point oh show.
Speaker 1: What was the big deal about that? Come on, you
Speaker 1: were so fired up you couldn't believe I wasn't gonna
Speaker 1: watch Braun Breaker and Roderick Strong because it's gonna be
Speaker 1: an awesome match. Come on, what happened? What was so
Speaker 1: important in the life of Brian Alvarez that you didn't
Speaker 1: watch n x T even though you demanded everybody else watching. Well,
Speaker 1: if you must know, Mike, many of our listeners donated
Speaker 1: to the annual Whale Scout fundraiser, and we had dozens
Speaker 1: and dozens of packages that needed to be mailed out,
Speaker 1: and so I left to help my wife mail all
Speaker 1: the packages at the post office. So thank you very
Speaker 1: much for getting on my case about it. What a
Speaker 1: chivalrous man you are. Surprise you didn't make her to
Speaker 1: go do everything like you usually do. Poor woman, like
Speaker 1: she doesn't have enough trying to carry you on her back.
Speaker 1: And the two kids, Oh my god, it's like having
Speaker 1: three kids in that house and a poor woman, sat.
Speaker 1: I cannot believe what a horrible person you are. W
Speaker 1: w E as their guy and braun Breaker and Roderick Strong.
Speaker 1: I don't have to mention is simply excellent, good on
Speaker 1: ex t to put the Golden Boy in the ring
Speaker 1: with the likes of Gargano, Chump and Roddy. Impossible not
Speaker 1: to improve in those circumstances. This was absolutely amazing, added
Speaker 1: with great facials from Malcolm Bivens. So it sounds like
Speaker 1: a winner of a sounds like a winner of a
Speaker 1: segment right there, everybody, It sounds like this. Bron Breakers
Speaker 1: is probably made event wrestle Mania within the next three years.
Speaker 1: Who's the baby facing those matches? Actually? Is the Diamond
Speaker 1: Mind still after their incredible feud with Joe Gacy and Harland?
Speaker 1: Wonder if they're still baby default baby faces or how
Speaker 1: this works because brown Breaker is a heel correct or well,
Speaker 1: you know ron Breaker was on the heel team, on
Speaker 1: the heell team, but but has he been a heel
Speaker 1: against Chomper? Has been a battle baby faces? Bro. I
Speaker 1: haven't seen the show yet. I gotta watch what happened
Speaker 1: tonight because I know every I think he's been a
Speaker 1: baby face from day one, is what I think, because
Speaker 1: I mean the fans responded him like a baby face
Speaker 1: and literally to Tony D'Angelo like a baby face still
Speaker 1: and literally, he only was a heel and one one
Speaker 1: show because they wanted to do young blokes versus old blokes,
Speaker 1: so they could they could do a storyline where if
Speaker 1: you're young, you suck and if you're old and you're cool.
Speaker 1: That's that literally was a storyline of that War Games.
Speaker 1: And apparently the old bloke got him at the end
Speaker 1: because after that match was over. I don't think this
Speaker 1: is a spoiler for anybody. I just said this would
Speaker 1: go ahead, Tomaso dumping him on his head, and I
Speaker 1: guess that was one of the high points that I
Speaker 1: saw coming out of that show, was just their interaction
Speaker 1: and everything that took place after that match. But you
Speaker 1: had already mentioned that, So I'll let you go ahead
Speaker 1: and continue on with what other another weever nonsense that
Speaker 1: you got for today. Because the person says, so why
Speaker 1: did they have Braun and the heel team for War Games? Well,
Speaker 1: because they wanted to do Team two point oh versus
Speaker 1: Team Yellow and Black or when Blood Millionaires whatever it was, Okay,
Speaker 1: so they had they had three baby faces on the
Speaker 1: older person's team, and so they decided we're gonna turn
Speaker 1: to l A. Knight, and I think he is now
Speaker 1: a baby face, So l A. Knight ended up being
Speaker 1: on the baby face team. But then for Team two
Speaker 1: point oh, there's three heels on that team, and so
Speaker 1: they threw braun Breaker on that team because he's supposed
Speaker 1: to be one of the Black and Gold new guys.
Speaker 1: That's why he was on the team. But he was
Speaker 1: a baby face from the moment he arrived in this
Speaker 1: In this promotion, it was more important to new team
Speaker 1: to point o versus Team Yellow and Gold than actually
Speaker 1: just have four baby faces versus four heels. That's what happened. Well,
Speaker 1: you saw one thing on that show, and that was
Speaker 1: Duke Hudson wearing the fake hair and the headgear gimmick,
Speaker 1: which has been a staple in wrestling for I don't know,
Speaker 1: at least I guess around forty years or so, Buddy
Speaker 1: Roberts with the free It's hair cream ending up on
Speaker 1: his head and then having that ripped off, and I
Speaker 1: guess of modern times, Kurt Angle, I think I guess
Speaker 1: would would be the one after losing the hair match
Speaker 1: with Edge. I believe it was that that he came
Speaker 1: out and had that same gimmick going. And how I
Speaker 1: know it was only one night and it was n XT.
Speaker 1: But how was Duke Hudson with the whole gimmick of
Speaker 1: having that thing on and then having it knocked off.
Speaker 1: Didn't I just review this whole thing like five minutes ago,
Speaker 1: from start to finish and everything about it. Where were you?
Speaker 1: Where were you, Mike? Yes, I don't know. I was
Speaker 1: trying to compare it to some things from the past
Speaker 1: and wrestling. I'll tell you a great one from the past.
Speaker 1: I try to give a crap about anything you say
Speaker 1: about that crapastic show, so trying not to curse here. Yes,
Speaker 1: Curt Angle did it very well. Buddy Rose did it
Speaker 1: very well. In Portland. I forget who the the opponent was,
Speaker 1: but they did the whole hair match gimmick, and they
Speaker 1: did the same thing with with the wig. But the
Speaker 1: way they made it work was the guy showed up
Speaker 1: with a wig because he didn't want you to see
Speaker 1: his bald head, and so the baby Faces had put
Speaker 1: a hidden camera in the locker room and they took
Speaker 1: photographs of him with his bald head, and then they
Speaker 1: sold him his merch and they made a killing. But
Speaker 1: no one sells merchant nowadays in n x T, so
Speaker 1: they knew it that way, but they should have. But yes,
Speaker 1: the bald head gimmick always worse. The funny thing is
Speaker 1: he actually looked better with his blonde, puffy hair. He
Speaker 1: looked like a young hook. But now he's bald. You
Speaker 1: know it's funny about being bald and wrestling. The hair
Speaker 1: never grows back. Why now this guy got shaved bald
Speaker 1: two weeks ago and he's still bald as a que ball.
Speaker 1: No hair has grown in two weeks. He should have
Speaker 1: a quarter inch of hair on top of his head
Speaker 1: right now, but instead he got shaved and the hair
Speaker 1: is not growing back. Kurn Angele's hair never grew back
Speaker 1: after he got his head shaved. Could be worse. I
Speaker 1: guess you could end up coming back with hair that
Speaker 1: looks like canes that he had for a while when
Speaker 1: he came back. Hey, I the most bizarre, funniest hair
Speaker 1: match of all time has still got to be Paul
Speaker 1: el Ring and Teddy Long Loser gets their head shaped
Speaker 1: with two guys ever are already follically challenged as it was.
Speaker 1: And you know you make a good point because Teddy
Speaker 1: Long said Aaron never came back either, now did it?
Speaker 1: It's right you don't want to lose your hair and
Speaker 1: wrestling everybody because it will never grow back. All right,
Speaker 1: let's look at some of these, uh these text messages
Speaker 1: here four to five seven eight zero seven five six
Speaker 1: six What is on your mind? Everybody? I'm gonna read
Speaker 1: that one. Oh, let's see. Not to mention, sixty something
Speaker 1: year old Sting is currently a top star in a
Speaker 1: w The A J Sammy's and Kevin Owens of the
Speaker 1: world literally have ten to twenty years ahead of them.
Speaker 1: Were to leave w W E and still wrestle if
Speaker 1: they stay healthy, well, not everyone's gonna get the Sting deal. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's not that. Not everybody's staying okay, period. And when
Speaker 1: he finally does hang it up after all of this time,
Speaker 1: as somebody that saw that guy's entire career from day one,
Speaker 1: as somebody that saw Rick Steiner's entire career from day one,
Speaker 1: because they in a lot of ways mirror each other,
Speaker 1: with their both basically beginning in Mid South, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be you know, it's gonna be kind of sad, you know.
Speaker 1: And I know he's only a part time guy. I
Speaker 1: know he's he's come back, and I just you know,
Speaker 1: he has been such a you know, important part of
Speaker 1: people's lives for so long and fans, you know, childhood memories,
Speaker 1: growing up. And he continues to hang on there and
Speaker 1: continues to give back doing the stuff that he's done
Speaker 1: with Darby and all that. I you know, it's an amazing,
Speaker 1: amazing thing that this guy's in and look spinal stenosis
Speaker 1: and all that stuff too. For him to be in
Speaker 1: the ring right now, it's just it's incredible. It's a
Speaker 1: It's been a hell of a run, it really has.
Speaker 1: He says. Owen's made it very clear many times his
Speaker 1: family had he comes underpresent for everything else if he
Speaker 1: received a massive not cut offer, you do that for
Speaker 1: his family? Well, I don't think here's the thing thank
Speaker 1: giving people no cut offers. You're just not getting that
Speaker 1: w W E. But yes, you're right, his family is
Speaker 1: important and it could be and I don't know anything.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, maybe his son likes w W and
Speaker 1: doesn't like a W. I don't know. I mean, it
Speaker 1: could be anything. If you have millions and millions of dollars,
Speaker 1: it could come down to you, which promotion is my
Speaker 1: son like and want me to wrestle in? I don't
Speaker 1: know what it is. But apparently he'll be doing a
Speaker 1: podcast with Pat Laprod in a couple of days and
Speaker 1: he'll go over whatever his mindset is and then you'll
Speaker 1: all know, everybody, well, hey, that's great, and you know,
Speaker 1: I hopefully he's able to say everything he wants to
Speaker 1: say and everything he needs to say. I'm sure he will.
Speaker 1: You know, how old is Kevin Owens? Seven? Brian? Has
Speaker 1: anyone made money in wrestling at the age of forty two?
Speaker 1: Most everyone in w w ey and and for years.
Speaker 1: You know, look, Kevin Owens could just walk out there
Speaker 1: at the age of forty five years old into an
Speaker 1: a w ring. You can walk into any ring and
Speaker 1: people will be throwing roses at him. So getting multiple
Speaker 1: years of more generational money under your belt to take
Speaker 1: care of your family, whether they fire you tomorrow, whether
Speaker 1: they fire you four years from now, whether they don't
Speaker 1: fire you. He's a smart enough man. I'm sure to
Speaker 1: put that money in the bank and take care of himself.
Speaker 1: And as we talked about, who knows what his options
Speaker 1: are there, who knows what his life plans are. But
Speaker 1: the bottom line is, even if this thing goes for
Speaker 1: or five years at forty to forty three years old. Look,
Speaker 1: you know, body god willing he can get in there
Speaker 1: and do something. And in fact, at that point, who
Speaker 1: knows what the landscape will be. But I don't think
Speaker 1: his his stardom and his fan base is gonna dissipate
Speaker 1: at all. My god, he shows up two walks into
Speaker 1: a show in Quebec, even if he doesn't do anything
Speaker 1: besides point in like you know, that's it, people will
Speaker 1: be going nuts over this guy. People have a special
Speaker 1: relationship and a connection with Kevin Owens that much like
Speaker 1: a Moxley and and some other people in wrestling. I
Speaker 1: you know, I think that gets underplayed sometimes that there
Speaker 1: are people who are fiercely loyal Kevin Owens fans and
Speaker 1: you know, fiercely loyal of the decisions that he makes. So,
Speaker 1: you know, forty three years old, he's done with that contract.
Speaker 1: All he's gonna do is look at somebody in some places,
Speaker 1: and people will still be losing their minds. The first
Speaker 1: of us to know where Harland ranks and all time
Speaker 1: debut matches. Bro I got one message yesterday about Harland's debut,
Speaker 1: and that was that he almost killed Brian Kendrick. I
Speaker 1: don't know what happened. I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 1: You not see the gift of this one. Oh my god.
Speaker 1: I think it's more of a comedic thing too. I
Speaker 1: don't I don't think he killed him because it was
Speaker 1: such a pratt fall from Kendrick. But I don't know.
Speaker 1: I didn't hear as much as I heard about a hook.
Speaker 1: But you know what, I'll watch it tonight. I'll let
Speaker 1: you know tomorrow. Maybe Harland is a new hook, like
Speaker 1: in a moment you were alive back in the show.
Speaker 1: Bryan Elba is here Wrestling Observer Live. Mike simper Viv
Speaker 1: also Wrestling observers dot com. This person says a fan
Speaker 1: had a sign last night that said that she was
Speaker 1: seventy three and it was her first n x T show.
Speaker 1: Well that's cool. I have no problem with that. But
Speaker 1: you know, it made me think about this because you know,
Speaker 1: they've got one viewer down for Wednesday night. Then I
Speaker 1: guess they've got all these they got these colors, and
Speaker 1: they got these you know, they're hiring all these good
Speaker 1: looking people, taking the clothes off, all the women, buffing
Speaker 1: all the dudes up, and and the idea is like
Speaker 1: we're trying to attract younger viewers, right, that's the idea.
Speaker 1: But if only the demos are not attracting any young viewers,
Speaker 1: they're writing old viewers. So it sounds like to me,
Speaker 1: is what they're doing with the show. It's not attracting
Speaker 1: young viewers, but it is making old viewers feel young again.
Speaker 1: It's the cocoon of wrestling programs. Well, I mean, did
Speaker 1: that sound about right? Because I mean everything they're doing
Speaker 1: is supposed to be about youth, youth, youth, youth, youth,
Speaker 1: but it's not attracting youth. It's attracting old people. So
Speaker 1: maybe the old people watch the show, they're like, man,
Speaker 1: I feel like I was in my my thirties watching
Speaker 1: this show, which is cool for the old people. But
Speaker 1: you know, maybe the chickens have just come home to
Speaker 1: roost on you know, this type of programming, because what
Speaker 1: did n XT previously feel like For a lot of people,
Speaker 1: it seemed to attract people that we're old r o
Speaker 1: H fans or had that type of you know vibe
Speaker 1: to them that seemed to be attracted to that show
Speaker 1: more than they were the eight w shows. And it
Speaker 1: felt like, boy, this is a ring of honor used
Speaker 1: to be And I don't know, I mean everything they
Speaker 1: do exkews so old. Maybe it's just there's that that's
Speaker 1: just just not that basic to tap from, and that's
Speaker 1: what they got to developed desperately. We're at the time.
Speaker 1: Everybody want to thank Mike has always colors and listeners
Speaker 1: every the studio, back Tonight Observer Radio a w n
Speaker 1: XTL the news. Talk to you next time, Wrestling Observer Live.
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