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, live.
Speaker 2: From San Francisco. I'm a Sports Byline Broadcasting network. You
Speaker 2: are listening to Wrestling Observer Live with your hosts, Brian
Speaker 2: Alvarez and Mike sempervb Are you ready?
Speaker 3: Are you ready?
Speaker 2: Let's get it all off.
Speaker 3: Let's get it.
Speaker 4: Mike semper VV here with you for the next hour
Speaker 4: talking about professional wrestling, which is something we do every
Speaker 4: single day here on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network. Tune in,
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Speaker 4: replay on Sirius XM, or video streaming on Twitch or YouTube.
Speaker 4: However you're joining me today, I just like to say
Speaker 4: thank you. Hopefully wherever you are at sonny outside, and
Speaker 4: if it's not hopefully, it's sonny inside your if you're
Speaker 4: on the Del Marvel Peninsula, I really hope it's sunny
Speaker 4: inside your mind, because it's miserable outside, it's cold, it's wet,
Speaker 4: it's just sorry, empathetic. I don't know if that's what
Speaker 4: the weather is like where Brian Alvarez is right now.
Speaker 4: I kind of hope that he's suffering with it unless
Speaker 4: he's with the family. But we don't know where Brian is.
Speaker 4: If you heard yesterday's show, all he said was I'm
Speaker 4: not going to be here. You have a solo show.
Speaker 4: Deal with that. So I assume he's not at the dentist.
Speaker 4: He went like three times in the past week or so.
Speaker 4: Who knows, you know, maybe he's out fighting Oreo right
Speaker 4: now or something. But we have to get through a
Speaker 4: show without him, and we have to talk about the
Speaker 4: WWE Draft, which begins tonight on SmackDown, And there's a
Speaker 4: lot of news to get into, but that's one of
Speaker 4: the more overarching things that we're going to be getting
Speaker 4: into today. Chad Gable was on Monday Night Raw talking
Speaker 4: to Boogs, telling him, you know what, you better get
Speaker 4: draft with your partner because you never know what could happen.
Speaker 4: Teams could split up, managers could be you know, disappear
Speaker 4: from the people that they're apparently none of that's happening.
Speaker 4: Units are going to be drafted together. Tag teams are
Speaker 4: going to be drafted together. That's how it works. Except
Speaker 4: for one group, the bloodline is being split up. So
Speaker 4: when it comes down to this draft, I wonder if
Speaker 4: it's just going to be a backdrop at the end
Speaker 4: of the day for more bloodline stuff. But we'll see,
Speaker 4: we'll see what happens and we'll get into all the
Speaker 4: splits going on. There a bunch of injuries that have
Speaker 4: taken place, Rampage which is starting up in oh about
Speaker 4: two hours and twenty minutes or so here on the
Speaker 4: East Coast, So we're getting into all that stuff when
Speaker 4: we get back from break.
Speaker 3: Wrestling Observe Alive.
Speaker 2: You were listening to Wrestling Observer Live on the Sports
Speaker 2: Byline Broadcasting Network.
Speaker 4: Back from Breaking, Mike Simper vv here with you Wrestling
Speaker 4: Observer Live. Hey, make the wrestling news part of your day,
Speaker 4: all the news that you need to know to get
Speaker 4: your day started, or to get you caught up, or
Speaker 4: to just get you to your favorite pod which goes
Speaker 4: into heavy detail on what's taking place on Monday Night
Speaker 4: Raw and all those sorts of things. But if you
Speaker 4: just want the results of what happened, you just want
Speaker 4: the main stuff. Find out who got hurt, find out
Speaker 4: who got buried, and then get on to work. The
Speaker 4: Wrestling News is what you need to go to. Just
Speaker 4: go to the wrestling News dot Com or at Wrestling
Speaker 4: newsav on Twitter and Facebook. Every day news of the
Speaker 4: wrestling world, deliver to your ears via podcast wherever you
Speaker 4: get your favorite podcasts, and between seven and fifteen minutes long,
Speaker 4: and as I mentioned, perfect way to get you caught
Speaker 4: up and get you on your way. So do you
Speaker 4: want to be on your way to Minnesota? In April?
Speaker 4: Patrick Kessler, who retired in twenty twenty after thirty six
Speaker 4: years as a political reporter in Minnesota and now serves
Speaker 4: as a special contributor for WCCOTV and KFAN Allsports Radio
Speaker 4: in Minneapolis, tweeted on Thursday that quote, sources tell me
Speaker 4: that Minneapolis is a finalist city for WrestleMania twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4: This would be a huge get end quote. Seems like
Speaker 4: twenty twenty five and twenty twenty six are up for grabs.
Speaker 4: The new Titans Stadium that is being built in Nashville
Speaker 4: will be done in twenty twenty seven, and it has
Speaker 4: long been rumored that WrestleMania will run in that venue
Speaker 4: once it opens. It is also very likely that the
Speaker 4: Super Bowl after that first Titans season will also be
Speaker 4: held there. US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis seats about sixty
Speaker 4: five thousand people or so for football. It's the home
Speaker 4: of the Minnesota Vikings. It hosted Super Bowl fifty two
Speaker 4: in two thousand and seventeen. And there's a reason for that,
Speaker 4: and I'll get back to that in a second, but
Speaker 4: there has not one thing Minneapolis has got going for
Speaker 4: it is they have been trying to get a WrestleMania
Speaker 4: for I don't want to say a long time, but
Speaker 4: at the very least since there was an idea that
Speaker 4: they the Vikings were going to get out of the
Speaker 4: Metrodome and end up in US Bank Stadium, like they
Speaker 4: have wanted to be a hub of events, and they
Speaker 4: did hold the super Bowl there, could they hold WrestleMania.
Speaker 4: There one thing they have going for them. There has
Speaker 4: not been a non metro New York City Mania that
Speaker 4: far north since WrestleMania twenty two and twenty three were
Speaker 4: in Chicago in Detroit in two thousand and six, in
Speaker 4: two thousand and seven, so they do have that going
Speaker 4: for them.
Speaker 3: But the old.
Speaker 4: Metrodome hosted the Super Bowl in nineteen ninety two, super
Speaker 4: Bowl twenty six when the then Washington Redskins just pounded
Speaker 4: the Buffalo Bills, and that ninety two Washington team was incredible.
Speaker 4: Ninety one, they finished fourteen and two. They were amazing.
Speaker 3: Chiple O.
Speaker 4: Miller was in the before the game, kicking like seventy
Speaker 4: yard field goals before that was like really a thing.
Speaker 4: But I remember it because all of the media, because
Speaker 4: I lived in the area at the time, all of
Speaker 4: the media hated it and just beat to death the
Speaker 4: fact that it was freezing there. The low on Saturday
Speaker 4: before the Super Bowl was without the wind chill. I
Speaker 4: believe it was negative fourteen and they hated it, and
Speaker 4: that was one of the last times you had a
Speaker 4: Super Bowl, you know, up that far.
Speaker 3: They didn't even want to hold.
Speaker 4: The Super Bowl in New York when they opened up
Speaker 4: that stadium, but they ended up doing it there. Now,
Speaker 4: in April, it's obviously a little bit warmer. You know,
Speaker 4: it tends to be in the upper fifties, or at
Speaker 4: least in the mid fifties. The lows are still in
Speaker 4: the thirties usually at that time of year. But there's
Speaker 4: always the possibility that you could get a huge snowfall
Speaker 4: that could happen and Granted, that could happen in Philadelphia
Speaker 4: next year because of its location, but usually there's a
Speaker 4: reason that they don't like holding events in northern cities
Speaker 4: during that time of year, and that's one of the
Speaker 4: reasons why it's a big getaway for people. Obviously, the
Speaker 4: media people are going to complain and whine and bitch
Speaker 4: and moan about it. No surprise there, but again I
Speaker 4: get it that you would rather have it in a
Speaker 4: Phoenix or an Atlanta, or a Miami or a Los Angeles.
Speaker 4: And that's what Minnesota has really working against it now
Speaker 4: they and another thing unfortunately from Minnesota too, what they
Speaker 4: have working against it in granted twenty five, twenty twenty six,
Speaker 4: you know, they seem to be up for grabs. But
Speaker 4: New Orleans hasn't had a WrestleMania since twenty and eighteen,
Speaker 4: the Bay Area hasn't had one since twenty and fifteen,
Speaker 4: and the Super Bowl is apparently looking to go back
Speaker 4: to SOFI in a couple of years. Atlanta was two
Speaker 4: thousand and eleven, and goy, you go to twenty twenty six,
Speaker 4: it's like, okay, fifteen years since Atlanta, which was a
Speaker 4: great you know, a great hub for a lot of
Speaker 4: different reasons. You know, holding the WrestleMania Phoenix twenty ten,
Speaker 4: Houston twenty oh nine, Miami was twenty and twelve, so
Speaker 4: that was going back a little bit. But you did
Speaker 4: have Orlando and Tampa holding during the pandemic in twenty
Speaker 4: twenty and twenty twenty one there, So Allegiant Stadium from
Speaker 4: Las Vegas is obviously probably going to be in the
Speaker 4: mixes well too, They're holding the super Bowl this year,
Speaker 4: so you know, Minnesota really wants to get this and
Speaker 4: they may have to pony up possibly the biggest money
Speaker 4: offer to do so, because again it's just Minneapolis, great airport, again,
Speaker 4: great city. It's just again in April. Is that where
Speaker 4: you want to hold your biggest event. I'lla the super
Speaker 4: Bowl or something like that. So best to look to them,
Speaker 4: and best to look for all the fans that are
Speaker 4: up there that are pining for this and have wanted
Speaker 4: this for quite some time. Got a couple of injuries
Speaker 4: we'll get into before we get into the draft and
Speaker 4: every thing that's taking place this weekend. Raining MLW champion
Speaker 4: Alexander Hammerstone revealed on Twitter Friday that he's recovering from
Speaker 4: a torn aductor, and if you go to Wikipedia like
Speaker 4: we all do for our medical advice and a doctor,
Speaker 4: tear is caused by a groin strain resulting from a
Speaker 4: sudden muscle contraction such that which might accompany a quick
Speaker 4: change in direction like pivoting or a rapid acceleration like sprinting.
Speaker 4: This overstretch. This can overstretch or tear the muscles. Look
Speaker 4: Lane Johnson of the Philadelphia Eagles had a torn aductor
Speaker 4: that he played the Super Bowl with this year and
Speaker 4: then had surgery for it afterwards. You know, not tears,
Speaker 4: but strains or something that will often pop up. When
Speaker 4: he comes to Major League Baseball pitchers, you hear a
Speaker 4: lot about it with them. It's assumed Hammerson stuff for
Speaker 4: the injury during April six's Word Chamber match, in which
Speaker 4: he had to leave early. Hammerstone was able to work
Speaker 4: a match against Mister Thomas aka Thomas Sharp aka Blaster
Speaker 4: mcmassive for an MLW on Reels taping two days later,
Speaker 4: but he has not wrestled since. A thirty two year old.
Speaker 4: Hammerstone said he'll be cleared and should be able to
Speaker 4: start taking bookings beginning the weekend of May twelfth, so
Speaker 4: putting one more on the disabled list. You can also
Speaker 4: put now Commander apparently on the injured reserve as well,
Speaker 4: as he may have suffered an injury on a Demand
Speaker 4: Luca show. And this is was posted up a little
Speaker 4: bit before the show by Ian Carey on the front
Speaker 4: page of the Wrestling Observer dot com website. Post Wrestling's
Speaker 4: John Pollock was in attendance for the show and said
Speaker 4: that Commander, who was facing Gringo Loco and Ares in
Speaker 4: a three way main event in Toronto's Parkdale Hall on
Speaker 4: Thursday evening. He said that Commander appeared to be favoring
Speaker 4: his knee after a moon salt, he was taken to
Speaker 4: the back and did not return. It's also posted on
Speaker 4: here that a Reddit user who says they were also
Speaker 4: at the show posted that Commander attempted to return to
Speaker 4: the match but was limping badly and was not able
Speaker 4: to continue. Demand Luca had actually announced on April tenth
Speaker 4: that in quote unforeseen travel complication end quote would prevent
Speaker 4: Commander from traveling to Canada for the show. Does that
Speaker 4: sound like a visa issue? I don't know, however, as
Speaker 4: the main event between Gringo Loco and Ares was about
Speaker 4: to start, or made a surprise appearance and the match
Speaker 4: was made a three way. As everybody probably knows by
Speaker 4: this point, Tony Kahan announced on April nineteenth that Commander
Speaker 4: had signed with AW. Took place after his match with
Speaker 4: Jay White on Dynamite. I wasn't sure if it was
Speaker 4: that night or early the next morning. Commander was announced
Speaker 4: as official in a part of a e W and
Speaker 4: unfortunately right now, hopefully he is not banged up too bad.
Speaker 4: Hopefully the knee has got some structural integrity left there,
Speaker 4: and hopefully he's not going to be out for too long.
Speaker 4: But you know, you chalk those names up to the
Speaker 4: battery of names out of NXT Soul, Ruka in, Indy
Speaker 4: Hartwell and Grayson Waller and again a bunch of names
Speaker 4: that are part of the PC and you know who
Speaker 4: haven't been on TV for a while, who were recovering
Speaker 4: from injuries.
Speaker 3: So tough time going on right now.
Speaker 4: But we'll get into the draft rampage and so much
Speaker 4: more when we get back from break.
Speaker 3: Wrestling Observer Alive.
Speaker 1: To seven eight seventeen thirty eight.
Speaker 2: Law, You are listening to Wrestling Observer Live with Brian
Speaker 2: Alvarez and Mike Semperviv on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network.
Speaker 4: Back on the show, Mike semper vv here with you.
Speaker 4: Wrestling Observer Live. The Big boss Man, Brian Alvarez will
Speaker 4: be back with me on Monday least. I assume he's
Speaker 4: going to be back with me on Monday. If you
Speaker 4: can't wait that long, I'm sure he and Dave are
Speaker 4: going to have a show coming up at some point
Speaker 4: over this weekend, probably on Sunday night into Monday morning.
Speaker 4: Why because Dave is going to be doing Wrestling Observer
Speaker 4: Radio with Garret Gonzalez sometime late tonight Friday Night. Should
Speaker 4: be up for all listeners early early Saturday morning. If
Speaker 4: you're a listener to this show and this show only,
Speaker 4: well thank you for that. Jim Valley is going to
Speaker 4: reward you with a show tomorrow as always on Saturdays
Speaker 4: ten am Pacific one am Eastern Time, and then on Sunday,
Speaker 4: Wrestling Observer Live. We'll be back with andrews Arian at
Speaker 4: six pm Eastern Time.
Speaker 3: I just saw this right before I came back up.
Speaker 4: Zach Saber Junior, as many of you know, or at
Speaker 4: least some of you know, has been booked for a
Speaker 4: game Changer Wrestling show in Los Angeles on June seventeenth
Speaker 4: at the Ukrainian Cultural Center. They have found an opponent
Speaker 4: for Zach Saber Junior. An obvious meshing of styles here
Speaker 4: as zsj will be facing off against Nick Gage. So
Speaker 4: Zach Saber Junior and Nick Gage. And and for all
Speaker 4: of you out there, this thought, Oh my god, you
Speaker 4: saw Zach Saber in there with Filthy and you were
Speaker 4: worried about you know, Zach's face. Then you know Filthy.
Speaker 4: I know he had a toothbrush in his knee pad there.
Speaker 4: I believe it was in Philadelphia before their six man
Speaker 4: tag team match at the New Japan Strong Show. But
Speaker 4: Pizza Cutter, that's probably gonna be pretty new for Zach
Speaker 4: Saber Junior. So that's coming up on June seventeenth, certainly
Speaker 4: is going to be a match that is going to
Speaker 4: get people talking just because they're gonna want to see
Speaker 4: the clashing of styles. So that's certainly something. Also, certainly something,
Speaker 4: of course, is WWE SmackDown tonight from the American Banks
Speaker 4: Center in Corpus Christy, Texas. We have a couple of
Speaker 4: things besides the draft announced for the show. Not much
Speaker 4: Zelina Vega will be taking on Sonya Deville, which of
Speaker 4: course is leading into Vegas match with SmackDown for now
Speaker 4: women's champion Rio Ripley coming up at Backlash. Also tonight,
Speaker 4: Kevin Owens and Sammy's Ain against the USO's and a
Speaker 4: wrestle Mania rematch for the as of now undisputed world
Speaker 4: tag team titles. Could we see a splitting of those
Speaker 4: It's very very possible, and the draft in which something
Speaker 4: has changed in the last couple of days. Teams are
Speaker 4: drafted together, managers are going to be drafted with their clients.
Speaker 4: Full units will be drafted together, with the one glowing
Speaker 4: exception of the Bloodline, and apparently Teddy Long has been
Speaker 4: booked for both tonight and Monday. Fightful a little bit
Speaker 4: earlier on noted that WWE has reached out to legends
Speaker 4: and former I guess you know, former wrestlers and whatever,
Speaker 4: so they could give cameos and give their thoughts on
Speaker 4: some of the draft picks as well, and they have
Speaker 4: split the groups as they usually do this sort of thing,
Speaker 4: into people that could be drafted tonight and people that
Speaker 4: will have to be drafted on raw on Monday and
Speaker 4: the Bloodline is listed as being eligible for draft tonight,
Speaker 4: but it only lists Roman Reigns and Solo Sokoa, not
Speaker 4: the USOS. The USOS will be available for draft come Monday. Now,
Speaker 4: does that mean that they are being broken up and
Speaker 4: they will not remain on the same brand. No, they
Speaker 4: can absolutely still remain on the same brand, but it
Speaker 4: is notable that that is the only faction that seems
Speaker 4: to be split. And I will go through the names
Speaker 4: of who is going to be eligible tonight. Also on
Speaker 4: the men's side, Bobby Lashley, Cody Rhodes, Dexter Loomis, Golf Ziggler,
Speaker 4: Drew McIntyre, Edge, Matt Riddle, Mustafa Ali Omas with MVP,
Speaker 4: Shinsky Nakamura, The Miz, The Street Profits and the Viking
Speaker 4: writers Eric and Ivar with Valhalla women Raw for Now
Speaker 4: Women's Champion, Bianca Belaire, Becky Lynch, Candice Lay, Chelsea Green
Speaker 4: and Sonia Deville as a group, Damage Control, Bailey Eosky
Speaker 4: and Dakota Kai as a unit, Lacy Evans and Natalia
Speaker 4: Stables available to be drafted tonight, hit Row which is
Speaker 4: top Dollar, Ashante Viadonnas and b Fab Imperium, Gunther Ludvig
Speaker 4: Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci, maximum male models Mace Mansur and
Speaker 4: Maxine Duprie, and the OC still listed in this form
Speaker 4: as a group, aj Styles, Luke Gallows, Carl Anderson and Meechen,
Speaker 4: as well as select NXD superstars with of course no
Speaker 4: names given there. So that is who's eligible to be
Speaker 4: drafted on Night one. How this has worked in the past,
Speaker 4: if you just climbed from under a rock and heard
Speaker 4: about the WWE having drafts every once in a while,
Speaker 4: they will go through a bunch of names tonight. They
Speaker 4: may go to Peacock afterwards and have a post match
Speaker 4: deal or a post show deal where people are continued,
Speaker 4: you know, the draft continues that way on social media.
Speaker 4: They have announced picks well into the night, and they've
Speaker 4: actually changed picks and flop them back and forth after
Speaker 4: a couple of days.
Speaker 3: But we'll see what happens tonight.
Speaker 4: But that's what they have set up for the draft,
Speaker 4: and that is going to of course dominate the show,
Speaker 4: with the exception of the tag team title match. And
Speaker 4: I'm interested to see how much time that actually gets
Speaker 4: tonight as well too, because do they do the draft
Speaker 4: and then have the match, because I think you'd be
Speaker 4: ripping people off if this didn't go for about a
Speaker 4: half hour, you know, go for a couple segments to
Speaker 4: close the show. Are they going to get the draft
Speaker 4: out of the way early? Are they going to be
Speaker 4: cute with it? And have you know a match take
Speaker 4: place and then oh yeah, hey, player Teddy Long comes
Speaker 4: out and then announces somebody gets drafted somewhere. Don't know
Speaker 4: how it's going to go down. We may hear some
Speaker 4: more as things get closed. Just keep your eye on
Speaker 4: wrestlingobserver dot com or at at wonfour w on Twitter
Speaker 4: and at Dave Meltzer and if if there's any tips
Speaker 4: or anything like that to come out, I'm sure they're
Speaker 4: going to have them there. Also tonight, or should I
Speaker 4: say this Afternoon Rampage once again shifted out of its
Speaker 4: time slot today. It's going to be aired at six
Speaker 4: thirty pm Eastern Time three thirty pm Pacific. No stagger feed.
Speaker 4: So if you're listening to the West Coast replay of
Speaker 4: this show, I hope you sit your DVR. This is
Speaker 4: all leading into TNTs coverage tonight of the NHL Stanley
Speaker 4: Cup playoffs. Here is your no spoilers lineup for the show.
Speaker 4: After Dynamite, Kenny Omega cut of promo in the ring
Speaker 4: to Tony Kahan as everybody was tending to a bloody
Speaker 4: Kenoskate Takeshta asking for a cage match against John Moxley.
Speaker 4: So on Twitter earlier on aw tweeted out a video
Speaker 4: that was posted of the Blackpool Combat Club talking smack
Speaker 4: on Takeshta talking smack on Kenny Omega and it's got
Speaker 4: the caption will Tony Kahan sanction an Omega versus Moxley
Speaker 4: cage match? And if so, where and when will it
Speaker 4: take place? Find out soon tonight on Rampage. And I'm
Speaker 4: sure we're going to get some segments announced for this
Speaker 4: Wednesday's Dynamite as well. Sean Spears and Ricky Starks will
Speaker 4: face Bully Club, Goal Jay White and Juice Robinson, Jay
Speaker 4: Lethal against Cash Wheeler with Mark Briscoe as the special
Speaker 4: ringside enforcer. No spoilers here, but Dustin Rhodes and Keith
Speaker 4: Lee against Freddie Pierce and Cha Cha Charlie. I know
Speaker 4: who my money's on, Anna Jay against Ashley des Mois
Speaker 4: and the Acclaimed and Billy Gun Wrestle three dudes. It
Speaker 4: was a guy and with two other guys, and again
Speaker 4: no spoilers here, but I'm assuming the Acclaimed and Billy
Speaker 4: Gunn come out on top of that one. So next
Speaker 4: week Rampage runs into the same thing, and this may
Speaker 4: be it for a while. When he comes to preempting Rampage,
Speaker 4: it's going to air at five thirty PM next week,
Speaker 4: again without a staggered feed, So those on the West Coast,
Speaker 4: you're going to be getting in at two thirty. And
Speaker 4: once again that is because of hockey. Now, Rampage is
Speaker 4: going to continue to exist no matter what AW does
Speaker 4: on Saturday. At least that's a according to Dave Meltzer
Speaker 4: and this week's Wrestling Observer newsletter, who said the TNT
Speaker 4: will continue to air Rampage on Friday nights for one hour.
Speaker 4: He wrote that as a part of a story he
Speaker 4: did on cmpunk and another major name expected to be
Speaker 4: a part of the new show, rumor to be called
Speaker 4: AW Collision. The first episode of the planned Saturday night show,
Speaker 4: while not officially announced, is believed to be taking place
Speaker 4: June seventeenth at Chicago's United Center, and in today's Wrestling
Speaker 4: Observer newsletter, Dave Meltzer wrote quote The show, believed to
Speaker 4: be called aw Collision is noted last week, is expected
Speaker 4: to debut on June seventeenth with a show from eight
Speaker 4: to ten pm Eastern from the United Center in Chicago,
Speaker 4: which would also be the return of cmpunk, along with
Speaker 4: what is expected to be another major name debut or return. Hmm, well,
Speaker 4: I doubt it's going to be Kenny Omega, the Youumbucks
Speaker 4: or Hangman Page. And I'm not sure who's out there
Speaker 4: they could return. Could it be Miro, haven't seen him
Speaker 4: for a while. Could it be Eddie Kingston who's kind
Speaker 4: of disappeared. I know he's been doing his thing and
Speaker 4: Ring of Honor, but could he be one of those guys?
Speaker 4: Seems like cmpunk is going to be on that show.
Speaker 4: FTR is going to be on that show. Rumors about
Speaker 4: Chris Jericho being on that show. Dave wrote about that,
Speaker 4: saying that Chris Jericho is probably a good choice because
Speaker 4: Punk is going to need a strong opponent and maybe
Speaker 4: that's was talked about during the meeting that they had
Speaker 4: on April twenty first, where they were mending fences with
Speaker 4: each other. So we'll have to see what happens there.
Speaker 4: But again, I'm not sure who could come in from
Speaker 4: the outside. You had Jay White already come in. I'm
Speaker 4: not sure who else is kind of lingering out there.
Speaker 4: But as far as names we haven't seen in aw
Speaker 4: for a while, you know, there's plenty, including the two
Speaker 4: i'd mentioned with Miro and Eddie Kingston, who frankly would
Speaker 4: probably be a nice addition if you're gonna have CM
Speaker 4: Punk and FDR and Chris Jericho on there. It's a
Speaker 4: nice little nucleus to start off with, but we'll have
Speaker 4: to see how it goes. Got a commercial obviously coming
Speaker 4: up right now when we get back. Even more news
Speaker 4: from the Canvas, Matt, Mike sempervv Wrestling Observer Alive.
Speaker 2: You were listening to Wrestling Observer Live with Brian Alvarez
Speaker 2: and Mike semperviv on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network.
Speaker 4: Back on the show, Mike semper Vv here with you.
Speaker 4: Wrestling Observer Live. Was pointed out to me during the
Speaker 4: break that Eddie Kingston hernia surgery announced that a couple
Speaker 4: of weeks ago. I completely forgot about that. Now I
Speaker 4: don't know if he's gotten the surgery or not. Maybe again,
Speaker 4: I don't know if he it's something that he could
Speaker 4: put off, you know, for a little while or.
Speaker 3: Something like that.
Speaker 4: But if he's going in for surgery, you know he's
Speaker 4: going to be out for at least a couple of months,
Speaker 4: so takes his name out of that mix. I wouldn't
Speaker 4: think we'd be seeing Androde back. I would hope. I
Speaker 4: think for everybody's sake that Androdde probably shouldn't come back.
Speaker 3: You know, Miro is there.
Speaker 4: You know, Miro's a name that has not been there
Speaker 4: for a while, who could come back and again, you know,
Speaker 4: this is taking away all the things that they could
Speaker 4: do with, say like somebody.
Speaker 3: Like the Firm.
Speaker 4: If you want to redo the firm and get serious
Speaker 4: about it and try to repackage it and make it
Speaker 4: more than what it is, you know, show like this,
Speaker 4: a situation like this could be a good way to
Speaker 4: do it. Samoa Joe, obviously he is tied up with
Speaker 4: Ring of Honor. Would he be a smart person to
Speaker 4: have on that Saturday show. We haven't seen Pack in
Speaker 4: a long time. You know, I would love to see
Speaker 4: Pack back in the mix. You know, could could that
Speaker 4: be it? I don't know, I don't know what it
Speaker 4: could be and who could come back. But we'll have
Speaker 4: to see how all that goes. Like I said, this
Speaker 4: is going to be a story that is going to
Speaker 4: be unavoidable for a long time.
Speaker 3: It's just gonna continue. Oh, it's gonna be brutal.
Speaker 4: What it's also gonna be brutal to who is gonna
Speaker 4: be the ratings comparisons that take place. And I'll use
Speaker 4: that as a way to get into this Wednesday's rating
Speaker 4: on Dynamite because it's a small thing, but it's it's
Speaker 4: you see her way that people are about ratings anyways,
Speaker 4: Why we have to report ratings. If you don't report them,
Speaker 4: people then bitch and moan and say, well why didn't
Speaker 4: you report them?
Speaker 3: You know. It's so here we go.
Speaker 4: Aw Dynamite on Wednesday night average nine hundred and sixty
Speaker 4: three thousand viewers on TBS, up four percent from last week.
Speaker 4: I mean, this show on Saturday is gonna have a
Speaker 4: ton of competition in the fall. And I am and yes,
Speaker 4: I am a football fan, so I am a very
Speaker 4: tonal vision on especially Southeastern Conference football, you know, and
Speaker 4: that's what dominates Saturday, and it is it is gonna
Speaker 4: be interesting. This This also much like Rampage. This feels
Speaker 4: to me like it's a DVR show unless it happens
Speaker 4: to be live and leading into something important that weekend,
Speaker 4: either that night or Sunday. I don't care who's on it.
Speaker 4: I don't care if it's punkin FDR, I don't care
Speaker 4: if it starts at a million people. I could see
Speaker 4: that number getting down at least at least to wear
Speaker 4: Rampages every week, or at least to where Dynamite is
Speaker 4: every week, and probably a lot lower because of the competition.
Speaker 4: They are going to really need to hammer this thing
Speaker 4: home as a must see show week after week after
Speaker 4: week this summer, and we'll see if they're going to
Speaker 4: be able to do it. But again, you know, the
Speaker 4: the what will come from having the split rosters is
Speaker 4: going to be a lot of people comparing ratings. And again,
Speaker 4: if I'm on the Saturday show, I don't think I
Speaker 4: want anybody to hyper focus on anything that has to
Speaker 4: do with ratings because I think it's just going to
Speaker 4: be it's going to be really difficult. But back to
Speaker 4: Dynamite on Wednesday. In the eighteen to forty nine year
Speaker 4: old demo Dynamite finish ninth on cable with a point
Speaker 4: two eight ratings, some same number as the last two weeks,
Speaker 4: tied for the show's lowest rating in the eighteen to
Speaker 4: forty nine demos. Since March fifteenth. Four NBA playoff games
Speaker 4: took place on Wednesday, Dynamite went head to head with
Speaker 4: NBA coverage and both the East and West Coast time zones.
Speaker 4: There were also two NHL playoff games. Programming related to
Speaker 4: the NBA and NHL took seven of the top nine
Speaker 4: spots on the cable charts, with vander Pump Rules being
Speaker 4: the only nonsports show to finish ahead of Dynamite. Golden
Speaker 4: State against Sacramento, which started on TNT at ten, was
Speaker 4: the top rated show on all of cable TV. The
Speaker 4: second highest rated show the Lakers against Memphis, which came
Speaker 4: on TNT at seven point thirty. So they died by
Speaker 4: the hands of their brother network there with TNT. But
Speaker 4: a lot of people will jump on that the ratings
Speaker 4: and go, oh, Dynamite didn't do this or didn't do that.
Speaker 4: TNT and TOURNA doesn't care about that. WWBD doesn't care
Speaker 4: about that. What they like to do when you're in
Speaker 4: a suit and in a corporate offices, go look what
Speaker 4: we did for tonight with these channels that we own,
Speaker 4: Look how we dominated, And they throw dynamite into that
Speaker 4: mix when it comes to basketball. So you know, I'm
Speaker 4: sure everybody's gonna have say what they're going to say
Speaker 4: about ratings, So you can go ahead and have at it.
Speaker 4: I'm going to move on to New Japan Strong. Eh
Speaker 4: New Japan Strong, get used to it. It's a brand.
Speaker 4: The women's Championship is being created for. I guess New
Speaker 4: Japan shows outside of Japan kind of thought that that's
Speaker 4: what the IWGP Championship would be for. But New Japan
Speaker 4: Strong they added tag titles. They're now going to have
Speaker 4: a women's championship as well. New Japan announced this on Thursday,
Speaker 4: said they'll be holding a one night four person tournament
Speaker 4: to crown the first champion, and Mercedes Monet Monday will
Speaker 4: face off against cml's Stephanie Vacuer, with the winner of
Speaker 4: that match facing the winner of Willow Nightingale and Stardom's
Speaker 4: Momo Cogo. That's going to be taking place in Long
Speaker 4: Beach at the Resurgence event. And if you watch the
Speaker 4: post match presser with Sades after the Stardom Show after
Speaker 4: she lost the IWGP World Women's title to Mayuiwatani. You'll know,
Speaker 4: she already stated that she was going to be on
Speaker 4: her way to Long Beach and Nuja Band made that
Speaker 4: official on Monday and then went ahead and announced this
Speaker 4: deal for the Strong Championship, and Dave Meltzer noted this
Speaker 4: today in the newsletter. Ewatani this is quote quote. Ewatani
Speaker 4: was supposed to be the first champion, meaning the first
Speaker 4: IWGP World Women's Champion, but she lost to Kyrie because
Speaker 4: she wanted a raise to go to the US as
Speaker 4: often as the champion was originally scheduled to. That's why
Speaker 4: she wasn't the first champion. But she ended up coming
Speaker 4: to a resolution of money when Kyrie was champion, and
Speaker 4: Iwatani did agree to do the US travel and got
Speaker 4: the title. But now they are creating a second title
Speaker 4: for the US market, presumably.
Speaker 3: For monet end. Quote hmm. Okay.
Speaker 4: IWGPUS Championship Number one's contenders match is also on the show,
Speaker 4: will Osprey against Siroshi Tanahashi. If Tanahashi can make it
Speaker 4: with the rib injury he had, I assume he's going
Speaker 4: to the winner moves on to face Alance Archer. Those
Speaker 4: two will wrestle on June fourth in Osaka. Whoever wins
Speaker 4: that match faces a Archer. Whoever wins that moves on
Speaker 4: to face the IWGP United States Champion Kenny Omega at
Speaker 4: Forbidden Door two on June twenty fifth in Toronto. So
Speaker 4: there are still a ton of tickets apparently left for
Speaker 4: this long Beach show, which you know you're gonna have
Speaker 4: to get on the stick here soon. As far as
Speaker 4: announcing something or getting something going, yes, you're still a
Speaker 4: month away, and it's not like it's a massive building
Speaker 4: to fill or anything like that. But I went to
Speaker 4: New Japan's you know website and Ringside A still available,
Speaker 4: two hundred and ninety nine dollars tickets still there, Ringside
Speaker 4: B one ninety nine, Arena A ninety nine, and then
Speaker 4: every thing from twenty five dollars at seventy nine dollars
Speaker 4: is still up for grabs there. So you have Mercedes
Speaker 4: money announced on this show, you have you have Kenny Omega,
Speaker 4: or I'm sorry, you have Will Osprey announced on this
Speaker 4: show with Hiroshi Tanashi. So I don't know what's going
Speaker 4: to get things moving here as far as advanced tickets go,
Speaker 4: maybe it's all going to be a walk up sort
Speaker 4: of thing, but they seems like to me, they may
Speaker 4: need to kind of like, you know, jog people's attentions here.
Speaker 4: I thought kind of the same way about Washington where
Speaker 4: they ended up with. I think they announced twenty one
Speaker 4: to seventy nine, which was still like five hundred down
Speaker 4: from what they had there and what they had announced
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty two. And you know, this year it
Speaker 4: was taking place, you know, the Cherry Blossom Festival was
Speaker 4: going on and everything, and you know, they still was
Speaker 4: sluggish getting you know, a crowd for that show. So Philadelphia,
Speaker 4: you didn't have that concern. They were at the twenty
Speaker 4: three hundred arena, so it was less than a thousand people,
Speaker 4: and they packed them all in there. And so we
Speaker 4: again Long Beach. I'm not sure what's gonna get things
Speaker 4: shaken there, but something's going to have to A card
Speaker 4: may actually help with that as well too, at least
Speaker 4: announcing some other names that are going to be there.
Speaker 4: They have not done really any of that. So I
Speaker 4: know they have big shows coming up on May fourth,
Speaker 4: They have a lot of stuff going on, but they
Speaker 4: may need to start throwing some names up against the
Speaker 4: wall here pretty soon if tickets don't start moving. New
Speaker 4: Japan also announced that this year's Best of the Super
Speaker 4: Junior Tournament, it's the thirtieth annual, is going to run
Speaker 4: from May twelfth to May twenty eighth, twenty men split
Speaker 4: into two blocks. They've announced everybody that's going to be
Speaker 4: in Block A. Kashita, Rice, Kate Tagucci, Leo Rush, Doki,
Speaker 4: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, Horomu Takashi, Titan TJP, Taiji Shimori,
Speaker 4: show in Speedball, Mike Bailey representing Impact as that's going
Speaker 4: to be Block A, Block B L Desperado, Yo Master Watts,
Speaker 4: so Kevin Knight, Yoshinovu, Kanamaro Bushi, Robbie Eagles, Francesco Akira,
Speaker 4: Dan Maloney from Rev Pro is now a member of
Speaker 4: the United Empire, and of course New Bullet Club member
Speaker 4: Clark Connors. So good lineup. You have those names going
Speaker 4: at each other, you know it's going to be good.
Speaker 3: Who will win?
Speaker 4: Hopefully not Mutakahashi. He's won the last three and four
Speaker 4: of the last five and this is amazing, but there
Speaker 4: has not been a winner, not named Horomu or Osprey
Speaker 4: or Kashita. In over a decade, It's been a decade
Speaker 4: since we had one name that was not theirs, and
Speaker 4: it was Rikoshet in twenty fourteen, and he was probably
Speaker 4: the biggest surprise to win the tournament since you know,
Speaker 4: I don't know when and I can't I can't remember
Speaker 4: if the injury to Alex Shelley during that tournament had
Speaker 4: something to do with that, if it was going to
Speaker 4: be Ellie and Kashita teammates facing off in the finals,
Speaker 4: or maybe Ricochet was going to be the one to
Speaker 4: win it, I don't know, but you know, that was
Speaker 4: the last time really something different happened. You know, Kochi
Speaker 4: Kanamoto won it in two thousand and nine when he
Speaker 4: beat Prince Devitt Finn Valor. But even Kanamoto at that
Speaker 4: time was kind of they were doing a resurgence thing
Speaker 4: with him in that moment. So again, they're just there
Speaker 4: are very as great as the wrestling is, there are
Speaker 4: just not big surprises, and I hope we get that.
Speaker 4: We've gotten that from New Japan this year. You know,
Speaker 4: they they have not gone with a pat hand for
Speaker 4: the most part. They've made some moves whether you like
Speaker 4: all of them or not, but you know, putting guys
Speaker 4: like Clark Connors with groups, they've you know, ascended David
Speaker 4: Finley to a certain point. They again, there's a lot
Speaker 4: going on right now, which is, you know, defied the
Speaker 4: norms a little bit. But can they do anything with
Speaker 4: this junior heavyweight tournament. I hope they can. You know,
Speaker 4: I would love to see Leo Rush whin the thing.
Speaker 4: I would love to see Leo Rush when the thing.
Speaker 4: I would love to see him face off up against
Speaker 4: you know, Desperado in the final.
Speaker 3: I think that would be awesome.
Speaker 4: But somebody's got to get over on Horomu Takashi here,
Speaker 4: not only to do something different with the tournament, but
Speaker 4: also to give him an opponent, because I would assume
Speaker 4: whoever wins this thing, unless it's him, you know, it's
Speaker 4: he's going to actually have to defend against that person. So,
Speaker 4: you know, I wish they would do something here. I
Speaker 4: love Haromo. I think he's great, but when you look
Speaker 4: at the amount of talent that they have, I mean
Speaker 4: that Robbie Eagles match Robbie Eagles had. He had a
Speaker 4: good run with the IWGP Junior Heavyweight championship when he
Speaker 4: had it. It was just again Timing, you know, was
Speaker 4: not his friend when he came to that.
Speaker 3: But you know, Leo.
Speaker 4: Rush with that title would be great now. And again
Speaker 4: I'm not you know, saying the TJP. You know, there's
Speaker 4: other people I like more than TJP. But now that
Speaker 4: the belt's off of him, you could put the belt
Speaker 4: on TJP. At least he'd be a smarmy prick, you know,
Speaker 4: to have a baby face, you know, bump up against
Speaker 4: it and go after You could go with Show or Yo.
Speaker 4: You know, I kind of hope they don't go in
Speaker 4: that direction, but you know, again, do something different throughout
Speaker 4: this tournament, do something to spice things up. I would
Speaker 4: love that for the junior heavyweight division over there. And
Speaker 4: I do want to mention before we get out of
Speaker 4: here too, that Don Luis, who's been often referred to
Speaker 4: as the godfather of pro wrestling results, passed away on Monday,
Speaker 4: reportedly from a heart ailment in his hometown of Buffalo,
Speaker 4: at the age eighty four years old. Luis was known
Speaker 4: among historians for compiling extensive, and more importantly than that, accurate,
Speaker 4: carefully researched match the results for decades and a lot
Speaker 4: of people go but what does it matter that the
Speaker 4: accuracy matters? And is you go back and you do
Speaker 4: your own research on things, you find out how many
Speaker 4: results that people have taken are wrong. And he was
Speaker 4: one of the guys that really did his work to
Speaker 4: bring history to the forefront. Be accurate with the results,
Speaker 4: and be accurate with stories of the generations.
Speaker 3: That come behind them.
Speaker 4: We'll be able to get what really happened and not
Speaker 4: what just a promoter or a wrestler. Remember, we'll be
Speaker 4: back Wrestling Server Live.
Speaker 2: You were listening to Wrestling Observer Live with Brian Alvarez
Speaker 2: and Mike Simpervv on the Sports Bylines Broadcasting Network.
Speaker 4: Back on the show, Mike simper Vv Wrestling Observer Live,
Speaker 4: you know I mentioned donal Luce there at the uh
Speaker 4: Don Luis at the end of the last segment there
Speaker 4: and said, you can you solve one mystery, There's always
Speaker 4: something else that takes its place. Loose explained to the
Speaker 4: CAC crowd in twenty eighteen when you received the James C.
Speaker 4: Melb Historian Award from the Califlower Rally Club. What gets
Speaker 4: me is there is so much bs from these promoters
Speaker 4: and solving what was the truth and what the truth
Speaker 4: is was really interesting. And in addition to parceling, Don
Speaker 4: was in a published baseball historian and served in the
Speaker 4: National Guard and in the last you know a couple
Speaker 4: of years, Don Luis, Jimmelby, j Michael Kenyon, Claw Maaster,
Speaker 4: Jim Zardani and I know these are names that a
Speaker 4: lot of you don't know uh or are unfamiliar with,
Speaker 4: and you don't have to know them, but know that
Speaker 4: a lot of the research when you do read things online,
Speaker 4: when you read books, when you receive it's not it's
Speaker 4: because of the work that these guys have done. And
Speaker 4: Greg Oliver, Tom Burke, George Shire, Brian Solomon, Mike Mooneyham,
Speaker 4: Mark Hewitt, Steve Yohey, co g Miamoto, al Getz, Tim Hornbaker,
Speaker 4: Dick Bourne, Matt Farmer, a Cubs fan, Scott Diel and
Speaker 4: I could go.
Speaker 3: On and on and on and on and on.
Speaker 4: Those people deserve recognition for what they do and they're
Speaker 4: preserving of history, their research of history, cleaning up so
Speaker 4: many mistakes from history. I mean, what al Getz does
Speaker 4: on a daily basis bringing new analytics into results collection
Speaker 4: and how to look at how territories were run and
Speaker 4: how guys. It's just it's great and it's a very
Speaker 4: nerdy thing, but you know what, it's a very important thing.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: You don't see too many rich historians out there. You
Speaker 4: don't see a whole lot of rich archaeologists. You know,
Speaker 4: for the most part, they're out there grinding and doing
Speaker 4: the work so that somebody else can benefit from it,
Speaker 4: and so we can all benefit from it as we
Speaker 4: go down the line.
Speaker 3: But hey, I want to thank everybody out there.
Speaker 4: Not sure who's on the video today by Bank producer
Speaker 4: Daniel very much. I thank all of you for watching
Speaker 4: and listening in today. My name is Mike SIMPERVIV Wrestling
Speaker 4: Observer Alive. I shall talk to you again after a while.
Speaker 1: You have been listening to the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast
Speaker 1: on the eight Side Network.