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 going to everybody? Brian Alvarez
Speaker 1: here on Wrestling over Live. We are here every day
Speaker 1: Monday through Friday, New Pacific three from Sunday three Pacific
Speaker 1: six Eastern. You hear a screaming child downstairs. For the
Speaker 1: next hour. It's my daughter, she hit her wall today.
Speaker 1: Mommy has been down on vacation for the last two
Speaker 1: days and she finally hit her wall. Trying to calm
Speaker 1: her down, but babysitters having a rough time, So I
Speaker 1: apologize in advance if you you're na for the next hour. Anyway,
Speaker 1: it's Wednesday here in this program. We got a lot
Speaker 1: to get into here today. Oh do we ever? Did
Speaker 1: you know that Rick Steiner was kidnapped last night? I
Speaker 1: don't even know where to be in. But yes, we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about n x T two point oh and
Speaker 1: a lot of other news as well, because there's actually
Speaker 1: some big news. We've got the Raw after WrestleMania, largest
Speaker 1: audience for the show since January of twenty twenty one
Speaker 1: and over a year, largest audience for the show on Monday.
Speaker 1: They had a huge first hour by Ross standards. We're
Speaker 1: gonna tell you about the ratings for the raw after
Speaker 1: WrestleMania was a big success. We'll see where it is
Speaker 1: obviously a month from now, but that was the UH.
Speaker 1: That was the Monday numbers. We got a w Dynamite tonight,
Speaker 1: and in fact, we have qualifying matches for the Owen
Speaker 1: Hart Foundation Men's and Women's tournament. And in the men's
Speaker 1: tournament it will be Samoa Joe in his Dynamite debut
Speaker 1: against Max. This poor Max castor Ah just one horrible
Speaker 1: beating after another. But that's tonight. We'll give you the
Speaker 1: full line for the rest of the show as well.
Speaker 1: We got updates on Cody Roads coming off Monday. A
Speaker 1: counter talks about his UH, his weight loss and his
Speaker 1: name change and his focus on nutrition. So we got
Speaker 1: that to talk about here today and New Japan it's
Speaker 1: coming up this weekend. And we got a big guest
Speaker 1: on today literally and figuratively. We'll tell you bad after
Speaker 1: the break, rusting Observer Live back in the show. Brain
Speaker 1: Albert is here Wrestling Observer Live. Mike's Andimburviti also Wrestling
Speaker 1: Observer dot com. We got a lot of news to
Speaker 1: get into here today, and don't even think I'm not
Speaker 1: reviewing an x T two point oh in the final
Speaker 1: center of the show, however, Big Damo is gonna be
Speaker 1: on the show here today, the former killing Dane. He
Speaker 1: will be wrestling for New Japan this coming Sunday night.
Speaker 1: And you want a mean guy match? Have I got
Speaker 1: a mean guy match for you, Big Demo versus Tomo
Speaker 1: hero Is She They'll be tearing up on Sunday in Hollywood.
Speaker 1: I wish I could be there, but I can't. I'm
Speaker 1: getting right in an x T. So we gotta get
Speaker 1: going because this is the shortest segment we've got today,
Speaker 1: because I got a lot to say and I may
Speaker 1: I may need more time. So uh. It opened up
Speaker 1: with Gunter coming out as braun Breaker is doing a
Speaker 1: promo and this crowd is just I don't know what's
Speaker 1: up with this crowd, this crowd. I'm over this crowd,
Speaker 1: you know. Cameron Grimes came out later in the show
Speaker 1: after he won the title for his father who had
Speaker 1: passed away, and half the crowd chance you deserve the
Speaker 1: other half? Chance, No, he doesn't. His death died and
Speaker 1: he won the title for his father, and we're doing
Speaker 1: the no he doesn't anyway whatever, and he's a baby face.
Speaker 1: So Brown Breakers out there and you're getting all these
Speaker 1: chances and everything and outcomes Uh comes Gunter and I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I cannot wait to see this feud.
Speaker 1: Holy Smokes is gonna be awesome. They announced a match
Speaker 1: for tonight in the main event, so I figured, well,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe we'll ever run in or whatever. So
Speaker 1: then we had the Creed Brothers versus Imperium and they're
Speaker 1: having this match, and all of a sudden, in the
Speaker 1: middle of the match, Fabian Aichner just walks out on
Speaker 1: Marcel Bartel like there was no spot, there was no nothing.
Speaker 1: It's like he broke up a pin. And then he
Speaker 1: walked out and Marcel Bartel is all by himself and
Speaker 1: he gets beaten. So I don't know what's going on there.
Speaker 1: Then we had the two masked assailants they that have
Speaker 1: been messing with the Creeds. They jump him after the match,
Speaker 1: and the unmasked and that's like, oh my god, look
Speaker 1: who it is, but they don't tell us who it is.
Speaker 1: And then uh, and then uh, the other one I
Speaker 1: don't remember who started an who ended, but the other
Speaker 1: guy goes, I know those guys there from n X
Speaker 1: t U K. I'm like, yeah, who are they? And
Speaker 1: finally they spit out. It's pretty deadly, but I think
Speaker 1: both guys forgot who they were and someone had to
Speaker 1: like tell him over the that side because it was
Speaker 1: forever before they told us who they were. So pretty
Speaker 1: deadly is debuted. It will be scaring off with the
Speaker 1: creeds here. So then we had Cameron Grimes coming out
Speaker 1: and as noted, he does his promo and he's all
Speaker 1: emotional about his father's passed away and the crowd's heckling
Speaker 1: him half of them and Solo Sko comes out and
Speaker 1: he wants a shot at the North American title and
Speaker 1: they're gonna have a match, so that should at least
Speaker 1: be good. We had a bunch of Joe Gayzy promos
Speaker 1: that sucks. I don't know what's going on, but they're
Speaker 1: Joe Gayzy promo, so you know the you know the deal.
Speaker 1: Then we had Dexter Loomas versus Duke Hudson, so they
Speaker 1: had all these vignettes over the weekend. You know which
Speaker 1: couple is hotter and everything like that. So they show
Speaker 1: us a couple of the clips, and the clips are
Speaker 1: funny because, like I've said it a million times, I
Speaker 1: don't need to see Dexter Loomas do a lot of matches,
Speaker 1: but like his character in the vignettes, he's in fantastic. Well,
Speaker 1: now he's got to wrestle and so him and Hudson
Speaker 1: are wrestling and they both end up outside the ring
Speaker 1: and the referee is is counting, and then both women
Speaker 1: try to get their man into the ring. They both fail.
Speaker 1: Then all four of them fall down in an orgy
Speaker 1: horrific pile. But like they want you to think stuff
Speaker 1: like that, but they actually want to show it, so
Speaker 1: they cut it. They cut away so fast when they
Speaker 1: were all laying on top of each other, It's like,
Speaker 1: why are you even bothering if you're like afraid to
Speaker 1: actually show this. So anyway, they cut away and we
Speaker 1: never saw it again. They both got counted out. That
Speaker 1: was cool. Uh, then we add Toxic Attraction versus Raquel
Speaker 1: and Dakota Kai. So for those of you, I don't
Speaker 1: know if you're fall doing this story or not, but
Speaker 1: the WrestleMania was Saturday, guys, remember that show. Do you
Speaker 1: remember Night one of WrestleMania, the show that started at
Speaker 1: six o'clock pm pacificy Eastern for the pre show and
Speaker 1: ended after midnight, so six hours if you wanted to
Speaker 1: watch the pre show, and then they decided, well, earlier
Speaker 1: in the day, we're gonna do this n x T
Speaker 1: Standing Deliver show. So you know, if you're on the
Speaker 1: West coast like me, it started like nine or ten am,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I ain't getting up at nine or
Speaker 1: ten am and to watch the show. We know what
Speaker 1: some people did, and more power to them. If you're
Speaker 1: that big a fan, you're gonna watch, you know, a
Speaker 1: three hour n x T show and then a six
Speaker 1: hour wrestle Mania show. Like I'm not gonna say anything
Speaker 1: bad about you. I could use a lot of loyal
Speaker 1: a lot of loyalty like that on this program. But anyway,
Speaker 1: so if you did that, if you went out of
Speaker 1: your way to watch three hours of n x T
Speaker 1: before you watch six hours of WrestleMania, well, man, what
Speaker 1: you saw. You saw braun Breaker fail to win back
Speaker 1: the title against a Masso Champa. You saw an n
Speaker 1: x T Tag Team championship change where Riquel Gonzalez and
Speaker 1: Dakota Kai won the tag team titles. Well, if you
Speaker 1: put all that working and watching that show Monday night
Speaker 1: on Raw, brun Breaker won the title on Raw, and
Speaker 1: then the next night they did a rematch for Toxic
Speaker 1: Attraction and Raquel and Dakota and Toxic Attraction they won
Speaker 1: those belts back. So you were sure rewarded for watching
Speaker 1: that stand in the Liver show. So yeah, we got
Speaker 1: new take team champions. They have won the belts back
Speaker 1: then we had Tony D'Angelo doing a segment a j Galante.
Speaker 1: This poor bloke, all he had to do was a
Speaker 1: ceremony to crown Uh Tony D'Angelo a made man. This
Speaker 1: was too much. This segment was horrible. Forgot lines no,
Speaker 1: but he cared and then uh he was heckled, and
Speaker 1: then Tony D'Angelo was given a ring. He's now the
Speaker 1: dawn of n XT. He's a made man. MSK cut
Speaker 1: promos about how they won the titles, and then uh,
Speaker 1: Grays and Waller's out there with his arm and his
Speaker 1: sling and the baby face tag champs challenged the guy
Speaker 1: with the broken arm to fight for the titles tonight.
Speaker 1: He's like, dude, I'm hurt, so they didn't do their
Speaker 1: match tonight. And for those of you wondering, I hate
Speaker 1: to break KFE, but Grays and Waller is not hurt,
Speaker 1: but it looks so bad that they're gonna pretend he's hurt.
Speaker 1: So that's why he had the sling on, which is
Speaker 1: good because it looked like he killed himself. We had
Speaker 1: Nikita Lyons and lash Legend. I mean, it wasn't horrible.
Speaker 1: I mean the match with Vince McMahon at WrestleMania was
Speaker 1: like a thousand times worse. But I'll talk more about
Speaker 1: this in a moment. Santos Escobar and Legato del Fantasma
Speaker 1: running a Tony D'Angelo and a j Galante who apparently
Speaker 1: duo now, and you know they both essentially totally other
Speaker 1: to stay out of each other's business. And then the
Speaker 1: main event was braun Breaker and Gunther Okay, and I
Speaker 1: was so excited to see this like headline a takeover
Speaker 1: whatever whatever they call the takeovers now, and uh, I
Speaker 1: can't even believe I'm complaining about this one. They went
Speaker 1: in there and they had a very good match and
Speaker 1: they had a clean finish. Braun Breaker beat Gunther in
Speaker 1: the middle of the ring with his move pinned him one,
Speaker 1: two three. Now why am I complaining about this? Well,
Speaker 1: they gave this away on TV for free as a
Speaker 1: set up for braun Breaker's next challenger, Joe Gacy, the
Speaker 1: former vaulter, was a set up guy for Joe Casey.
Speaker 1: That's gonna be the feud and the long term feud.
Speaker 1: Here Joe Casey has kidnapped because we joke about it,
Speaker 1: but it's actually not a joke. There is a kidnapping
Speaker 1: on this show every other week, and this week Rick
Speaker 1: Steiner has been kidnapped by Joe Gacy. That is this
Speaker 1: set up for this braun Breaker Joe Gacy feud. There
Speaker 1: was set up by braun Breaker just pinning gun Through
Speaker 1: in the middle of the ring in a random main
Speaker 1: event unadvertised on n x T two point Oh. The
Speaker 1: only thing I gotta say about this is, uh, what
Speaker 1: the good thing about this match, besides the fact that
Speaker 1: it was good was you know, braun Breaker is going
Speaker 1: to be somebody, and what I like is he's being
Speaker 1: thrown into the deep end because you know, this was
Speaker 1: not something that braun Breaker and Gunther practiced for a
Speaker 1: week like Gunther's in there he's calling spots left and right.
Speaker 1: So I think that this was kind of like a
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't I shouldn't say last minute,
Speaker 1: but I mean it was sort of last minute, because
Speaker 1: you know, this whole thing on Monday was last minute.
Speaker 1: So anyway, you know, he had to go in there
Speaker 1: and he had to do a you know, call the match.
Speaker 1: I'm sure they went over some stuff, but this was
Speaker 1: called the match in the ring. Listen to Gunther do
Speaker 1: what he says, get in there and actually work, which
Speaker 1: of course is the opposite of what we saw with
Speaker 1: the Nikita Lions match. Nikia Lions and Lash Legend like
Speaker 1: they practiced their match probably for weeks. They got in there.
Speaker 1: You know, they managed to pull it off, but you
Speaker 1: ain't gonna learn to work like that. You're just gonna
Speaker 1: be able to pull off a match on television, which
Speaker 1: you know, if that's all you want these two to do,
Speaker 1: that's fine. But Brown Breaker needs learned how to work.
Speaker 1: And this match with Gunther, I mean, he was in
Speaker 1: there and he's a better worker now after the match
Speaker 1: than he was before. So I like that aspect of it.
Speaker 1: We'll get Mike Saus after the break talk more Observer
Speaker 1: Live anything else? Alright, Mike, your thoughts on nine x
Speaker 1: T two point Oh uh. There's a lot of talent
Speaker 1: on that show booth, a little bit seasoned and a
Speaker 1: lot of raw talent, obviously, with people like braun Breaker
Speaker 1: and such. But when they pulled back after he seated
Speaker 1: Walter Clean, I just assumed Fabia Eichner would be standing there,
Speaker 1: you know, explaining where he went. You know that would
Speaker 1: that would make some sense? Okay, he just beat Walter Clean.
Speaker 1: We just had Imperium lose the tag titles. You know,
Speaker 1: things are falling apart. But you know what, he lost
Speaker 1: his mind, went to the back and said, you know what,
Speaker 1: Selverik Steiner there and decided to take him. I don't
Speaker 1: know would it made more sense, I think than Joe Gayzy,
Speaker 1: But I am not a seasoned cz W viewer. I'm
Speaker 1: not I don't know if Joe Gayzy did a lot
Speaker 1: of training at the cz W Jojo. I know a
Speaker 1: lot of people have come out of that gone through it.
Speaker 1: The MJ have a lot of people wrestled for cz W.
Speaker 1: I know he was a big part of that. I'm
Speaker 1: guessing and I'm just I'm throwing this out there because
Speaker 1: I don't know. Maybe this is obviously they want Harland
Speaker 1: with Joe Gacy to try to learn something. Maybe this
Speaker 1: is a good thing for ron Breaker. Again I am
Speaker 1: not but Walter I know, And that's to me, braun
Speaker 1: Breaker working with Eichner and being involved in it with
Speaker 1: having some friends go after that whole group, to me
Speaker 1: would be better for braun Breaker. But maybe again this
Speaker 1: won't be the end of the world. But they the
Speaker 1: problem is it's just the gay Cy character and I
Speaker 1: don't know, to the n x T crowd, is it over.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's some of the metrics on some of
Speaker 1: the stuff that WW is doing and doubling down on.
Speaker 1: It's like you see in some cases it's worked, you know,
Speaker 1: Tony D'Angelo people took to you know, and he's been
Speaker 1: able to kind of hold up to his end of
Speaker 1: the own in the Chomp if you'd we've had braun Breaker,
Speaker 1: we've had some successes there, but we've had some things
Speaker 1: that they have obviously done they keep they keep doubling
Speaker 1: and tripling down on that I don't think are very
Speaker 1: good at all. And again I don't know. I'm I'm
Speaker 1: kind of up in the air. On this because I
Speaker 1: know at the end, braun Breaker should be standing Vic Toorious,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure he'll do it, and I'm sure he'll
Speaker 1: do something impressive to Harland to throw him. But you know,
Speaker 1: I'm just kind of hoping against hope here because I
Speaker 1: really don't know about Gaycy and the character and whether
Speaker 1: this people are gonna care when the match is actually
Speaker 1: taking place. No, but maybe they have to maybe have
Speaker 1: to train him to do sports entertainment storylines, and so
Speaker 1: he's got to have this feud before he can go
Speaker 1: up to the main roster. It's so silly because that's
Speaker 1: where he should be. I just don't understand why you
Speaker 1: don't make that move. He's lost it off already and
Speaker 1: you just bring him up there as a surprise and
Speaker 1: he starts throwing people, whether it be on Raw or
Speaker 1: whether it be on SmackDown, especially with some of the
Speaker 1: moves that they've made. It still again, it's a continuation
Speaker 1: from yesterday. I just don't understand why he's there to
Speaker 1: do that when he could work with so many people
Speaker 1: on the main roster go over them and and and
Speaker 1: they could build that. But who am I after WrestleMania
Speaker 1: largest audience for the show since January of one, which
Speaker 1: by the way, was a special Legends Night episode, So
Speaker 1: if you go back, I guess uh nine have to
Speaker 1: rustle me is special. Best eighteen and forty nine numbers
Speaker 1: since the start of one football season two point one
Speaker 1: zero million viewers. Point six three at eighteen and forty
Speaker 1: nine numbers far more impressive when you consider the show
Speaker 1: winning against It could be one of its toughest nights
Speaker 1: of the year for competition with the n C Double
Speaker 1: A Men's championship game going head to head with the
Speaker 1: second half of RAW sled Our one being the highest
Speaker 1: rated when of late it has been Our to nineteen
Speaker 1: point three percent drop our one to three, which is
Speaker 1: usually the sign of a bad show, but in this case,
Speaker 1: it's a sign of a basketball game. The North Carolina
Speaker 1: Kansas game, which aired on TBS, TNT and True TV
Speaker 1: seventeen point oh five million viewers and are you ready
Speaker 1: for this Row did a point six three in eighteen
Speaker 1: and forty nine, which is stupendous for Raw. So to speak,
Speaker 1: point six three. This North Carolina Kansas game did a
Speaker 1: four point seven two in eighteen to forty nine, A
Speaker 1: four point seven two in eighteen to forty nine, all
Speaker 1: le two traditional powerhouse teams realized the listen, listen, I
Speaker 1: don't think you guys get it. Raw okay is normally
Speaker 1: in the top ten, and sometimes it's in the top five,
Speaker 1: and sometimes it's like one, two three okay. It rarely
Speaker 1: comes near a point six three. This game did a four,
Speaker 1: not a point four, did a four point seven two
Speaker 1: and eighteen and forty nine. So the raw number is
Speaker 1: even Morris down. It's more stupendous when you think about it.
Speaker 1: To point three two million viewers first hour, to point
Speaker 1: one one million second hour, and one point eight seven
Speaker 1: million in the third hour, so very very good numbers.
Speaker 1: So TBS and CBS, CBS and Turner Sports have this deal.
Speaker 1: They extended it out I believe here through twenty thirty two.
Speaker 1: The eight additional years of the contract when they signed
Speaker 1: this thing a couple of years ago, are worth eight
Speaker 1: point eight billion dollars, nearly matching the value of the
Speaker 1: original fourteen year deal, which was ten point eight million
Speaker 1: billion signed in two thousand and ten. It is amazing
Speaker 1: what live sports will do, and hey, wrestling has the
Speaker 1: ability to continue to piggyback off of that. So it's uh,
Speaker 1: it's absolutely amazing, absolutely amazing those numbers that are thrown there.
Speaker 1: This person says, normal folks don't watch this trash wrestling product.
Speaker 1: You realize it. Raw and Dynamite do very, very well
Speaker 1: in the top fifty. So all those numbers I gave
Speaker 1: you about four point seven to compared to most every
Speaker 1: other show on television comes nowhere near a point six
Speaker 1: three either, So nobody's watching nothing compared to this basketball game.
Speaker 1: So we got Dynamite tonight, Samo Joe Max Castor Men's
Speaker 1: Tournament qualifier, Karasheeda Julia Hart Women's Tournament qualifier. Given this
Speaker 1: is a multi week tournament leading to the end of May,
Speaker 1: so multi month, why do we have qualifiers for the tournament?
Speaker 1: Why don't just have one more round of brackets? But
Speaker 1: anyway we can, we can push storylines. We're debuting Samoa
Speaker 1: Joe and we gotta figure out how brooding Julia Hart
Speaker 1: is in this match. And I'm col Christian Cage Tables
Speaker 1: match Hardy's versus Butcher and Blade FTR versus the Young
Speaker 1: Bucks for the r O H Tag Team Titch Ampionships
Speaker 1: and the Triple A Tag Team Championships. So don't miss
Speaker 1: that one. Eddie Kingston, Santana and Ortiz will all be appearing.
Speaker 1: And Tony Kahn, whoa Tony Khan, on his Busted Open
Speaker 1: radio appearance on Wednesday, made a point to say that
Speaker 1: he is quote going back to his ruthless roots when
Speaker 1: it comes to the line up for Friday, and it
Speaker 1: will be a stacked up show. So obviously a Rampage
Speaker 1: has not been doing great on Friday Night to say
Speaker 1: the least. And uh, you know, he's gonna have to
Speaker 1: do that more, and I think they probably should. Look,
Speaker 1: Friday is the day that they're on. It's hard to
Speaker 1: move to a new day. It's hard to move to
Speaker 1: a new time and really be able to scratch something out.
Speaker 1: And apparently you know, TBS and T and T are
Speaker 1: happy where it's at. But it has become the show
Speaker 1: for rustling fans that if you're gonna miss something from
Speaker 1: a w yeah you're gonna miss that over Dynamite. That's
Speaker 1: just the way it goes. But when you have the
Speaker 1: NHL Playoffs, when you have the n c A tournament,
Speaker 1: where you have all of these things that are playing
Speaker 1: with you, it may just be you really have to
Speaker 1: EBB and flow that show kind of around these big events,
Speaker 1: and then you have that stacked show after three weeks
Speaker 1: of not getting any attention at all, and you're looking
Speaker 1: forward at baseball coming up and all the other things
Speaker 1: that are on those properties. It's like, man, you really
Speaker 1: are going to have to dance around this because I
Speaker 1: again we've talked about the day, it's I'm moving off
Speaker 1: of that day. The best thing I think they can
Speaker 1: do is probably replay in other places like True TV,
Speaker 1: L places like that. If you can spread a w
Speaker 1: programming out all across the Turner networks, I think that
Speaker 1: would be great. But this is the only thing I
Speaker 1: think you can do is try to promote strategically around
Speaker 1: this stuff, and you better hope it hits. Gunter was
Speaker 1: asked by Wrestling Inc. What he's been doing to get
Speaker 1: in shape. I guess eat less, Gunter s D. I
Speaker 1: always worked out a lot, but I would say for
Speaker 1: the first time I have really focused on nutrition. These
Speaker 1: two guys, Marcel Bartel and Phoebe and I Canner really
Speaker 1: pushed me. They're shredded. I've got to say, when I
Speaker 1: was a wrestling fan, I always liked the look of
Speaker 1: these solid heavyweights in Japan who had a little bit
Speaker 1: of a gut carrying around just brawlers and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, you've got to
Speaker 1: do go with the times and evolve a little bit,
Speaker 1: and that's what he did. So for those of you
Speaker 1: that are too heavy trying to lose some weight, Gunther
Speaker 1: has advice for you eat less, which actually is part
Speaker 1: of it. Yes, you know, I was. I hate to
Speaker 1: digress and everything like that, but I always eat well,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know I was. I was doing the
Speaker 1: old I can't say it was keto, but it was
Speaker 1: pretty low carb and uh and one day I thought,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm almost I'm almost. Actually was because
Speaker 1: I was going to Hawaii, and so I decided, you
Speaker 1: know what, I'm not only gonna eat like this, but
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna calorie count. I'm gonna cut my
Speaker 1: calories a little bit. And uh, I just disappeared. I
Speaker 1: got that A one thirty three. I got so skinny
Speaker 1: that I thought I could have a disease of some sort.
Speaker 1: So I started eating again last couple of days and
Speaker 1: I'm back up to win forty. So I don't think
Speaker 1: I have a disease. But anyway, the point is, if
Speaker 1: you eat less, you'll weigh less. It's my advice today,
Speaker 1: me an old vaulter, we're eating less together, exercise, eat
Speaker 1: the right things, you know, and Walter Stole a young
Speaker 1: guy doing it's, you know, it's a good time to
Speaker 1: make a lifestyle change. He's you know, I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: with like thirty five, but you know, he's a lot
Speaker 1: of wrestling time. Things like that. And I know there's
Speaker 1: people that will wait, look at Vince, Look at Vince.
Speaker 1: It's seventy six. But it's hard to carry around that
Speaker 1: kind of way as you get older. Sure is back
Speaker 1: at them over with Big Demobserver Live. I think it's
Speaker 1: me that's something that I won't try, but imagine back
Speaker 1: of the show. Bright Over is here Wrestling Observer Live
Speaker 1: mixmber BV also a wrestling observer at dot com. Very
Speaker 1: happy today to be joined by Big Demo here. It's
Speaker 1: got a big weekend coming up. How you doing great?
Speaker 1: Oh boy, we just gotta we just gotta problem with
Speaker 1: the connection. Try that again. How you doing? I'm doing
Speaker 1: very well? Thank you, promise not to square. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: how you feeling after this weekend? You know you had
Speaker 1: a couple of matches down there in Dallas. How did
Speaker 1: Russell mean you week treat you? And h how did
Speaker 1: Calvin Tankman treat you? A muster of a man to
Speaker 1: go head up with? It was? It was an incredible,
Speaker 1: incredible experience on the other side of the rest of me.
Speaker 1: New weekend and we're wrestling at eleven am and then
Speaker 1: two am at the same day, was sir, something new
Speaker 1: my random speaking like multiple times per day. But Calvin
Speaker 1: Tangmin was a lot of fun to to wrastle that
Speaker 1: incredible talent and hopefully we can wrestle again. Maybe like
Speaker 1: seven ran o'clock at night might be a bit uh, well,
Speaker 1: how do you do how this is a heck of
Speaker 1: a of a thing here because you had Calvin Tankman,
Speaker 1: but then on the other side you had war Horse,
Speaker 1: so certainly a diverse certainly diverse body types to work against.
Speaker 1: What is that like on these weekends where and I
Speaker 1: know you've been in ww for a while, but you know,
Speaker 1: on these weekends where you're facing multiple people all of
Speaker 1: different sizes and styles, does it does it wear on
Speaker 1: you a little bit? Does it make it tough on
Speaker 1: you at all? Honestly, that's what it's all about for me,
Speaker 1: because you're getting to tell different stories with different people.
Speaker 1: And like I thought was just to wrastle Calvin Calvin
Speaker 1: tankmin like twelve times over two weeks. For like, it
Speaker 1: was like too the police schedule. Then it would get
Speaker 1: very old, very fun, and then it's a lot more
Speaker 1: fun when you're against somebody completely new twelve hours later.
Speaker 1: And for me, obviously having to get ready and get
Speaker 1: get pumped for one o'clock two o'clock in the morning
Speaker 1: was new, and it was absolutely incredible experience for me
Speaker 1: because everybody, Uh, if you've Matt Moore Horse, so you've
Speaker 1: wrastled four Horse, you've seen him wrastling, you know that
Speaker 1: either a little crazy and it's hard not to get
Speaker 1: excited when he's running around like a first you know.
Speaker 1: I I gotta ask this question because I've been a
Speaker 1: fan forever and you have as well, and all of us.
Speaker 1: And I'm a small guy myself, and sometimes I I
Speaker 1: watch there's two different kinds of matches involved big guys. Okay,
Speaker 1: there's either the two giants that face off against each
Speaker 1: other and it's just two giant dudes pounding on each other.
Speaker 1: Or there's the opposite, which is the giant guy and
Speaker 1: the really small guy, and the giant guy just kills
Speaker 1: the really small guy. And every time I see either
Speaker 1: one of these matches, I can't decide which one I
Speaker 1: actually like a better, because you know there's you know,
Speaker 1: I don't I'm a small guy at all. But it
Speaker 1: will never get old seeing some big dude kill some
Speaker 1: small guy. But at the same time, it will never
Speaker 1: get old to see two big dudes get in there
Speaker 1: and just pound on each other. So, as a big
Speaker 1: dude who has done both of these styles of matches,
Speaker 1: which do you prefer another big dude or killing that
Speaker 1: little dude? It's hard not to always enjoy the David
Speaker 1: versus Goliath story because it's still obvious that it's in
Speaker 1: your face. But like for me, it's always going to
Speaker 1: like if the other person has any sort of skill,
Speaker 1: if they're a technician or a flyer, or if they're
Speaker 1: a fellow bag monic can go, then that's all you want,
Speaker 1: Like you want to see if somebody who's who's got
Speaker 1: something about them, and if you're against the fellow move
Speaker 1: and they have a little bit about them, because if
Speaker 1: they're slower than me. That it's not going to be
Speaker 1: I want to be the slow one. Yes. Now, now
Speaker 1: what are your what are your your stats? Uh? You
Speaker 1: can do either legitimate or pro wrestling stats, but in
Speaker 1: general your height and weight. So you mean when you
Speaker 1: say legitimate, you mean that's that's always because I mean
Speaker 1: obviously the sure I'm six two on, I'm twenty two
Speaker 1: stones and two stones something like that. I think I
Speaker 1: think I got my stones wrong because I don't think
Speaker 1: you're four hundred pounds. Okay, thank you. Three people believe
Speaker 1: that's true. So the reason I ask is because there
Speaker 1: is a there is a big match coming up this
Speaker 1: weekend Vermont in Hollywood. It is you and Tomohiro? Is
Speaker 1: she okay? Now? A lot of people that have seen
Speaker 1: on television but have not seen him live. He looks like,
Speaker 1: you know, god Zilly looks like a giant, but in
Speaker 1: reality he's not. He's he's like five five. So when
Speaker 1: you see the poster of you and Ishi together, it
Speaker 1: looks like it's going to be the battle of the
Speaker 1: two giants, but really he only carries himself like a giant.
Speaker 1: He's not really a giant, but he certainly works like
Speaker 1: a giant, and I know that this is a very
Speaker 1: important match for you, and it was a very important
Speaker 1: match for you a few years ago. Tell us about
Speaker 1: his she Honestly, I think like I was the same
Speaker 1: as yourself when I first, like I was watching him
Speaker 1: on you know, YouTube or whatever else, when I was
Speaker 1: trying to get as many as much as I could,
Speaker 1: and I remember thinking, oh, this this guy, this guy
Speaker 1: must be must be massive whatever. But it turns out
Speaker 1: he's just got massive heart and he can actually throw
Speaker 1: anybody around. Because when I caught up next to him
Speaker 1: and that, yes, I'm much bigger than him. But the
Speaker 1: problem is, you know, his job to put me down,
Speaker 1: and he's certain to give it his best. But you know,
Speaker 1: a few years ago when we wrestled, it was awesome
Speaker 1: because he doesn't have great English and I've got literally
Speaker 1: no Japanese. So for us to go in there and
Speaker 1: just just get out each other, it was honestly one
Speaker 1: of the best experiences of my career up to that point,
Speaker 1: because I was literally getting there working with somebody was
Speaker 1: so much experience. You know, he's been in there with
Speaker 1: literally the best there's ever been um and you know,
Speaker 1: I'm learning how he moved. How does this thing? And
Speaker 1: I'm doing my very best to cooperative or or the
Speaker 1: uncoperative depending on what it is. And honestly it was
Speaker 1: it was so much fun, not much you know how
Speaker 1: launched me and change my my past at the time
Speaker 1: in funny fifteen. So it's great to meet him against
Speaker 1: seven years later, with what I've learned, and I'm looking
Speaker 1: forward to skinning him alife all over again. How much
Speaker 1: of a influence was Japanese wrestling on you? Because I
Speaker 1: know over and in the UK and in in Ireland
Speaker 1: and Scotland and everything, w E has been such a
Speaker 1: massive presence. But you started breaking into the business in
Speaker 1: mid two thousands, correct, when dragon Gate and Noah and
Speaker 1: London started to draw a lot more. What was Japan
Speaker 1: always a goal for you? Were you a heavily I
Speaker 1: think like as the world gets smaller, with you know,
Speaker 1: with the Internet helping a lot, like we used to
Speaker 1: you know, trade tips back in the day, like is
Speaker 1: that a copyright issue if you ever use lime wire?
Speaker 1: And then as the Internet like brought everything closer, you know,
Speaker 1: suddenly we were able to watch everything. And then in
Speaker 1: the UK we actually had the Rattling Channel which meant,
Speaker 1: you know, for the first time, I was getting exposed to,
Speaker 1: like to know and everything. So suddenly I'm getting like
Speaker 1: Massawa's almost entire career, I'm getting Kabashi. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. Kanta's right, and you know, it's just so
Speaker 1: like shak Yama is one of my favorites. I love Syama,
Speaker 1: like him over the bitting up on times, see a
Speaker 1: lot of his matches later on. You know, I got
Speaker 1: to go by and see what he knew with the
Speaker 1: life of Joan whatever else. So you know, I'm influenced
Speaker 1: personally by British Wrastler. Obviously American rest you shoot, you
Speaker 1: know correser All in Print of the Problems, So the
Speaker 1: likes of Roberts's there's a massive influences for me as
Speaker 1: a worker. But like Japanese rastural, I think that, you know,
Speaker 1: we kind of adopted Japanese restling a little bit into
Speaker 1: our own culture. And absolutely in American resting over the
Speaker 1: last ten, ten fifteen years, you can see it like
Speaker 1: Planners Day Night and any I need to show you
Speaker 1: watch now everybody has there's there's kind of this little
Speaker 1: element of of what we've picked up from there and
Speaker 1: honestly for me personally, like you know, the two thousands,
Speaker 1: but was you know, the late the late nineties, you know,
Speaker 1: because the find you know, you kind of started to
Speaker 1: learn what New Chapan was through through that way, I'm
Speaker 1: with their cooperation. And then later on, you know, with
Speaker 1: the Internet, I was able to de find out more
Speaker 1: about like New Japan, all Japan, Noah, even ziraj Wana.
Speaker 1: Like I really end the zero one. I actually worked
Speaker 1: and with Deer one with the company that I helped
Speaker 1: I held work in Britain, And so you know that
Speaker 1: there's just all these amazing talents over the years who
Speaker 1: have been very blessed to be able to spend time
Speaker 1: with the raster with and such such not and that
Speaker 1: it's hard not to be influenced by. Like end up
Speaker 1: on an airport roundably with Hoddie Kingston. We're sitting watching
Speaker 1: the Best of Kawana. You just kind of what happened?
Speaker 1: Oh man, what a what a time of the airport?
Speaker 1: That is I just everybody else see these two large
Speaker 1: fan hunkered over this small phone. Yeah, watching some dude
Speaker 1: drop another dude on his head. Now, what about what
Speaker 1: about the Ultimate Warrior? Well, I mean, you know I'm
Speaker 1: sure when I was a kid today, when I was,
Speaker 1: you know, five years old, but still was staying you know, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but badly as I got a little older, it became
Speaker 1: less by Warrior and borri by guys. I don't know
Speaker 1: if I would say sadly, I would say that you
Speaker 1: made the right choice to not model your career and
Speaker 1: your work after The Ultimate Warrior. I don't know, like,
Speaker 1: let's not think that there's a thing about this him.
Speaker 1: These days, everybody seems to be into it. You know,
Speaker 1: maybe I would maybe it's being better ship that was
Speaker 1: a bigger Warrior fan. Who knows, well, hey, there there
Speaker 1: is that as well. There is that as well. Now
Speaker 1: I like the bald head. What happened time time? Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: that does happen. In fact, we got a picture of
Speaker 1: you on the show here with hair, So it's a
Speaker 1: little jarring to see the that that lovely mane of
Speaker 1: hair that you once had. But I like the bald head. Look,
Speaker 1: thank you, I really pretty star. I think you know,
Speaker 1: it was for me personally. It's like I wanted to
Speaker 1: see in my head for the two years because I
Speaker 1: think I see I go all the way back to
Speaker 1: board games and That's when I first realized, okay, I'm
Speaker 1: maybe I could have been ten on top there and
Speaker 1: never realized it was not bad, but okay. And then
Speaker 1: as the you know that the lighting gets better, the
Speaker 1: comeras get better, it's suddenly a bit more obvious to me.
Speaker 1: And I remember I actually pitched before I went up
Speaker 1: the smack and I pitched, listening, can we maybe do
Speaker 1: something word you know, she have in my head or whatever?
Speaker 1: And they were like, oh, we could maybe have like
Speaker 1: Lars Sullivan, like, you know, shave your head balls whatever.
Speaker 1: It never really came to fruition, and you know, fast
Speaker 1: forward a couple of years and when finally, uh, when
Speaker 1: finally it was time. It was posted later and I
Speaker 1: was like, okay, I'm gonna gonna go for it now
Speaker 1: because it's the only thing I could focus on. I
Speaker 1: couldn't I don't really like watching myself wrestle anyway, I
Speaker 1: kind of forced myself out, but the only thing I
Speaker 1: could focus on was the dome. Now, now you're obviously working,
Speaker 1: are you what what is your new Japan enough? You've
Speaker 1: been watching a flotime Jepanes wrestling for a long time
Speaker 1: and you've you've worked with the she Evil, and you've
Speaker 1: got him this weekend. But I mean, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of great guys not only are in New Japan, but
Speaker 1: New Japan is working with so many places that like,
Speaker 1: there's a million potential opponents for you. Do you have
Speaker 1: certain dream opponents where's like, oh my god, now I
Speaker 1: might actually have a chance to work with Tadashi or
Speaker 1: Okada or whoever. It's going to be absolutely Listen, like
Speaker 1: I'd be a school of it and say Okada would
Speaker 1: be number one on any list that I'd ever have.
Speaker 1: I got very lucky. I got the wrestle Town of hash,
Speaker 1: I got the wrestle Markaba and she with Red Broke.
Speaker 1: But honestly, I'm looking at Okada, I'm looking at well Offspring,
Speaker 1: looking at Shingle. These are the guys I want to
Speaker 1: get in there. What if I want to I want
Speaker 1: to be in front of the stellations of people in Japan.
Speaker 1: I don't want to prove that on every but as
Speaker 1: good as them. And that's not the thing. It made
Speaker 1: it's hard not to watch these guys who think these
Speaker 1: are literally the best in the world right now, and
Speaker 1: I need to get to that level. Now, you know
Speaker 1: you you spend a lot of time in in w
Speaker 1: w E, and and I don't know why it is.
Speaker 1: I think because w E has always been so isolationist
Speaker 1: that you just sort of have this idea that, well,
Speaker 1: if you're working for w w you're not actually watching
Speaker 1: any of the wrestling, which of course is ridiculous. But
Speaker 1: you know, what did you were you keeping? You know,
Speaker 1: during the time that you were there, were you watching
Speaker 1: all of the major New Japan shows and and you know,
Speaker 1: obviously a w eventually got started as well, But I mean,
Speaker 1: what were you watching during that period? Well, the best
Speaker 1: part was on Worlds came up, one of the first
Speaker 1: to sign up. Yeah, so I M and man, obviously,
Speaker 1: like it's hard not to watch everything because I think
Speaker 1: one of the things for me, you know, the because
Speaker 1: you're around wrestling so much, it literally becomes your your everything.
Speaker 1: I think I was doing my best not to watch
Speaker 1: wrong Smack then, and I was trying to watch everything
Speaker 1: else because he wanted to try and be you know,
Speaker 1: inspired by what was going on in the world. And
Speaker 1: for me, persons so many friends like all across the world,
Speaker 1: so like I'm trying to keep up with the likes
Speaker 1: of Ice Double progress red of pro as well as
Speaker 1: trying to watch everything across the pond. You're trying to
Speaker 1: watch what's going on in the Independence? Are you trying
Speaker 1: to watch what's happening with a W I always tune
Speaker 1: in to see like which of my friends are on
Speaker 1: Impact or whatever else? And then boom you see that
Speaker 1: New Japan's creating New jpath Strong. So you're like, wow,
Speaker 1: I need to figure out what's happened in there. Um
Speaker 1: And it's like the beauty is in this situation where
Speaker 1: there's just so much available to this whereas years agoing
Speaker 1: I as a kid, like you had nothing available to you,
Speaker 1: so you literally had to do your best, try and
Speaker 1: wear your way to get stuff not there for you.
Speaker 1: So if you're not watching it, you're an idiot. Well
Speaker 1: all that thought back in them on with more Everybody
Speaker 1: Observer Live back in the show. Bran Albert is here
Speaker 1: wrestling Observer Live. Mike'sburviv also wrestling Observer dot Com. Big
Speaker 1: Demo joining us here. He's got a big show coming
Speaker 1: up on Sunday, New Japan in Hollywood. It's uh Demo
Speaker 1: and is she in a Battle for the Ages? And Uh,
Speaker 1: we gotta get some plugs in here, Demo, and hopefully
Speaker 1: we can get you back on the show again, because
Speaker 1: all we did the break was talking rassling. There's a
Speaker 1: lot to talk about. Absolutely, we didn't even get a
Speaker 1: chance to cover off Eric Young. We'll be here all day.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean we we talked during the break
Speaker 1: about Eric Young. For those of you that don't know,
Speaker 1: Eric Young is is pretty much the greatest, whether you
Speaker 1: know it or not, he actually is. So we'll talk
Speaker 1: about that, but let's get some let's get some plugs in.
Speaker 1: What you got for Twitter and everything like that Pro
Speaker 1: Wrestling tease so obsolutely everything is is Demo Markel. You
Speaker 1: can get me on Twitter, Instagram, Pro Wrestling teas. It's
Speaker 1: Demo Macho all one word add Demo Macael D m
Speaker 1: O m A c k l E and uh yeah,
Speaker 1: has noted there's uh everything you need to know is
Speaker 1: up there. There's uh links to upcoming shows, there's links
Speaker 1: to the Pro Wrestling tease. I see, we've got three
Speaker 1: new shirts out here, Celtic Chaos Beast and Big Demo's
Speaker 1: Irish Red. You can check all of those out at
Speaker 1: Pro Wrestling Tease. And has noted this Sunday New Japan
Speaker 1: Mutiny at the Vermont Hollywood coming up Sunday. You can
Speaker 1: get your tickets now. Big Damon's gonna be facing Tomo
Speaker 1: hero she E a bunch of other matches as well.
Speaker 1: I think her own Filthy Tom's gonna be there. Lots
Speaker 1: of great stuff, So Damon, I want to wish you
Speaker 1: the best of luck with New Japan. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for doing the show in the studio in sometime.
Speaker 1: Thanks very much, Thanks for helping me, and I'll see
Speaker 1: you guys very soon. That's a luck with show. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thanks so much, and of course thanks everybody for listening.
Speaker 1: We got news breaking everybody. Nash Carter has been fired.
Speaker 1: We'll have more Wrestling Observer dot com and some other
Speaker 1: stories breaking today as well. So that's it. We gotta
Speaker 1: go though, talk to you next time Wrestling Observer Live.
Speaker 1: You have been listening to the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast
Speaker 1: on the eight Side Network