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
Speaker 1: Network from San Francisco. I'm a sports byline broadcasting network.
Speaker 1: You are listening to Wrestling Observer Vibe with your hosts
Speaker 1: Brian Alvarez and Mike Semper VVS. Are you ready? Are
Speaker 1: you ready? Let's get it off. How's it going, everybody?
Speaker 1: Brian Alvarez here on or Wrestling Observer Live. We are
Speaker 1: here every day Monday through Friday, now Pacific three Eastern,
Speaker 1: Sunday three Pacific, six eastern. Hello, everybody, that's sweet shirt.
Speaker 1: I'm celebrating WrestleMania Weekend with a floral pattern because it is,
Speaker 1: in fact WrestleMania Weekend. And you know, I've given the
Speaker 1: speech many times I ain't going down there and getting
Speaker 1: that building twice this weekend. Too much work, too much hassle,
Speaker 1: not doing it. However, boy, have I gotten all sorts
Speaker 1: of reports from everything else going on down there in Houston,
Speaker 1: and I got FOMO big time. Holy smokes. I wish
Speaker 1: I was there. So I am telling you here by
Speaker 1: stating that next year I will go to WrestleMania Weekend.
Speaker 1: But I'm not sure if I'm gonna go to the
Speaker 1: actual WrestleMania, but man, there have been so many great
Speaker 1: matches and so much great craziness, matches you never expected
Speaker 1: to see. And there's more coming up tonight, this this
Speaker 1: Ring of Honors, Supercard of Honor, there's gonna be a
Speaker 1: lot of big surprises on the show, and pretty much
Speaker 1: as I expected, a Ring of Honor, Tony Cown's Ring
Speaker 1: of Honor is going to be utilizing a lot of
Speaker 1: people that aren't on TV right now for for a
Speaker 1: w so it's actually believed another return of Chavo member.
Speaker 1: When Chavo complained that he was he was released and
Speaker 1: nobody bothered to tell him right am, I can't remember
Speaker 1: what it was. And then it turns out he was
Speaker 1: on a pur show deal and and left, and then
Speaker 1: I guess I don't know what he was mad about.
Speaker 1: But anyway, he's gonna be working for Supercard of Honor tonight.
Speaker 1: He's uh, he's cornering Bandido and uh Toty Blanchard is
Speaker 1: going to be working the Supercard of Honor show and
Speaker 1: presumably he's going to be managing a team and there's
Speaker 1: a big surprise plan for the end of the show. So,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of people have been very uh
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know what the word is, uh
Speaker 1: down on the idea of a Ring of Honor being
Speaker 1: operated as a separate promotion, and quite frankly, I mean
Speaker 1: all evidence points to this being an upward battle. Bro.
Speaker 1: It hasn't even happened yet, so I think we should
Speaker 1: give it some time, and if it's not working, we
Speaker 1: can talk about how it's not working. But there's a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff coming up tonight on the show. I
Speaker 1: think it's gonna be fun, so we'll talk about that, WrestleMania,
Speaker 1: n x T, everything else that's going on. Back in
Speaker 1: a moment Observer Live. Back in the show, Bright albur
Speaker 1: is here Wrestling Observer Alive except for Viv also Wrestling
Speaker 1: Observer dot Com. And just when we started, look over
Speaker 1: the chat and someone's talking about the old staying that
Speaker 1: the apron is the hardest part of the ring, which
Speaker 1: of course is is what they say. But I was
Speaker 1: thinking about it, and actually the apron is not the
Speaker 1: hardest part of the ring. First off, the hardest part
Speaker 1: of the ring would be the ring post. That's a
Speaker 1: much harder part of the ring A and number two. Uh.
Speaker 1: In terms of of hardness, the apron is exactly as
Speaker 1: hard as the middle of the ring. The difference is
Speaker 1: the aprons let's give. But I guess it's it's not
Speaker 1: as impressive to say that the apron is the part
Speaker 1: of the ring with the least amount of gives. Actually
Speaker 1: also isn't true because that's also the post. Why don't
Speaker 1: they just say it's the most dangerous part of the ring?
Speaker 1: It's not. The post is no whit hold on time out.
Speaker 1: Why don't they just say that though? Because you don't
Speaker 1: see move moves all the time getting moved, you know,
Speaker 1: used off the post, but you do see them getting
Speaker 1: done all the time off of the apron. And the
Speaker 1: chance that somebody slips and falls through the floor, the
Speaker 1: fact that you know there's an edge to the apron
Speaker 1: that you don't have in the middle of the ring
Speaker 1: that somebody in theory could fall against, hit their face against,
Speaker 1: bust them wide open. You could make a case and
Speaker 1: call it like the most dangerous part of the ring,
Speaker 1: and it would make a lot more sense. But it
Speaker 1: would be a bad case, Mike, because the the padded
Speaker 1: part of the ring actually goes down so so that
Speaker 1: edge that you're talking about, the edge is not exposed
Speaker 1: unless you're in some real horrible ring. But people, what
Speaker 1: if you are standing on the post? What if you
Speaker 1: were standing on the post because you're gonna do a
Speaker 1: dive from the post and I split your legs and
Speaker 1: you crotch the top of that skinny ring post. That's
Speaker 1: more dangerous than the apron. That's it's more more painful.
Speaker 1: And sure, yeah, that's why I started the show with today. Everybody, Yeah,
Speaker 1: what what only Anderson here? Just stop doing everything? Bill Watts.
Speaker 1: Put the move the pads off of the floors again.
Speaker 1: Nobody doesn't do anything off the top rope or anything
Speaker 1: on the apron. Leave the wrestling inside the ring. That's
Speaker 1: what the Blackpool Combat Club with mont al Right, Well,
Speaker 1: here's uh, here's the news, everybody. Um, here's some stuff
Speaker 1: happening this weekend. Hello, It's WrestleMania weekend, everybody, And here's
Speaker 1: here's what's going on. We got WrestleMania Night one, Becky Bianca,
Speaker 1: Ray and Dominic versus MS and Logan, Paul Drew versus
Speaker 1: Happy Corbin, Whosos versus Shinsk Nakamura, and Rick Bigs The
Speaker 1: New Day versus Shamus and Ridge Holland with Butch seth
Speaker 1: Rawlins versus Cody Rhodes, Charlotte Flair, Charlotte Flair versus ron
Speaker 1: Da Rousey, and then of course for well, you know,
Speaker 1: keep in mind everybody, Yes, it's gonna be Cody Rhodes,
Speaker 1: but this you know, you guys remember that that WrestleMania
Speaker 1: where Randy Orton faced the Fiend and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: the did all of these angles and storylines with Randy
Speaker 1: Orton the Fiend, and you know, Randy Orton like burned
Speaker 1: his house down or whatever. I can't remember who was
Speaker 1: this story because Randy Orton's burned down like nine houses,
Speaker 1: but anyway, it was totally set up for the Fiend
Speaker 1: to beat Randy Orton in a WrestleMania and uh, the
Speaker 1: day of the show comes and uh like right before
Speaker 1: the show, ing up the year, Vinca decieted, Hey, Randy's
Speaker 1: going over ur Ko even though they've done an angle
Speaker 1: like a week earlier on TV. Or Randy Orton hits
Speaker 1: him with an ARKO and the Fiend didn't sell it,
Speaker 1: so that was part of the build. Randy Orton hit
Speaker 1: the RKO and the Fiend didn't sell it, so then
Speaker 1: they go to Wrestleman. He has one RKO and the
Speaker 1: Fiends of dead Body and he pins him. So anyway,
Speaker 1: he got hit in the face with a fireball and
Speaker 1: was healed two weeks later. Okay, I mean, well, the
Speaker 1: point is it's stupid to no sell it on Monday
Speaker 1: and then it's a finishing move on Saturday or the
Speaker 1: whole everything they did with that was stupid. But he
Speaker 1: one thing that has not been stupid, although maybe it
Speaker 1: has been stupid, but I found it to be entertaining
Speaker 1: has been Seth Rollins going through different pictures on his
Speaker 1: Twitter over who the opponent maybe right down to Marco
Speaker 1: Stunt being one of those people. Well you know Marco
Speaker 1: Stunt is you know he's out, so they could you
Speaker 1: could see him flossen after Seth comes out. So anyway,
Speaker 1: it's gonna happen, is is uh? You know, Vince has
Speaker 1: been building up this Mania card, building up this Mania card,
Speaker 1: building up this Mania card. He's got this tunnel vision
Speaker 1: and so Saturday is gonna come. He's gonna sit up,
Speaker 1: He's gonna go wait a second April end of this
Speaker 1: month is WrestleMania Backlash m hm, we can't have. We
Speaker 1: gotta save something for that show, and he'll go down
Speaker 1: the card and change like nine finishes and nothing will
Speaker 1: make any sense. But we'll have we'll have, you know,
Speaker 1: lineups for the for the next show anyway, Night Oh,
Speaker 1: Night one Charlotte Ronda, and then Night Too is Lena
Speaker 1: Carmelo versus Sasha, Naomi versus Rhein Live versus Natty and Shana,
Speaker 1: Johnny Knoxville, Sammy Zane, Pat mcafoss and Theory rk bro
Speaker 1: versus The Street Profits and montez Ford or Angelo and
Speaker 1: Monte and the Alpha Academy. Then we got Edge versus A. J.
Speaker 1: Lashly versus Omas. Maybe Lashly can be managed by Holly.
Speaker 1: And then we got brock Listener versus Roman Reigns to
Speaker 1: unify the titles in the Morning, which I'm told is
Speaker 1: actually ten am Pacific. Like that's gonna make a difference
Speaker 1: to me. We got Toxic Attraction versus Raquel and Dakota
Speaker 1: for the women's titles on the pre show, Carmelo versus
Speaker 1: Santos versus Solo Skoa, Grayson Waller Cameron Grimes multiperson Ladder
Speaker 1: match for the North American title, Tamasa Chompa, Tony D'Angelo
Speaker 1: and Tamasa Chomps Last match. We got Mandy Rose, Cora,
Speaker 1: jade EO Sharai and Kaylee Ray for the Women's title.
Speaker 1: Imperium versus The Creeds and ms K for the tag titles.
Speaker 1: L A Nights versus Gunter and Dolph Ziggler will be
Speaker 1: facing on Breaker and don't forget tonight. We have got
Speaker 1: to the Ring of Honor Supercard of Honor Show promoted
Speaker 1: booked by Tony Khan, Jonathan Gresham versus Ben Dido with
Speaker 1: Chavo Jr. That is going to be a winner takes
Speaker 1: all champion versus Champion unification match. The man who never
Speaker 1: lost a title to Covid versus Uh the current champion.
Speaker 1: We've got the Briscos versus FTR for the tag titles,
Speaker 1: Swerves Trickling versus Alex Zane, j Lethal versus Lee Moriarty,
Speaker 1: Josh Woods versus Wheeler Utah for the pier title. Mercedes
Speaker 1: Marte Tinez and Willow Nightingale for the interim Women's title.
Speaker 1: Ninja Mack and Tolly Blanchard's Whoever It's gonna be, It's
Speaker 1: a mystery, opponent for Ninja Mack Tolly's gonna manage this
Speaker 1: person and Rhet Titus versus Minoru Suzuki for the television title.
Speaker 1: So uh yeah, a lot of these champions are happy
Speaker 1: because before Tony bought it, like pretty much all these
Speaker 1: titles are just gonna be discontinued. They weren't gonna be
Speaker 1: used anymore. But now Tony has taken over, so like
Speaker 1: Red's got his belt back and Josh Woods is a
Speaker 1: champion again, So I'm sure they're very happy about all that.
Speaker 1: So there you go. We'll see if they are after tonight.
Speaker 1: You know, Wheel are uns He's still the im BTV champion.
Speaker 1: I could see him defeating Josh Woods taking that pure
Speaker 1: title now, Brian Maltz, you know, taking that title, bringing
Speaker 1: that thing over to the Blackpool Combat Club or or
Speaker 1: wanting to bring it over to them. I think that
Speaker 1: would be a fantastic idea. And one thing is for sure.
Speaker 1: Over the last couple of years on indies, you know,
Speaker 1: a couple of guys have had monster years and they
Speaker 1: usually have great weekends WrestleMania Weekend and Utah and Lee
Speaker 1: Moriarty and Daniel Garcia. Over the last couple of years
Speaker 1: have been guys who have really broken out and they've
Speaker 1: gotten their flowers and they're just desserts at the end.
Speaker 1: As all three of those guys are on a w
Speaker 1: t v UM speedball. Mike Bailey, as soon as he
Speaker 1: was clear to come back to the United States, people
Speaker 1: were really looking forward to what his schedule could be like.
Speaker 1: And he has already had a monster here this year
Speaker 1: in the first quarter, and he had a match yesterday
Speaker 1: against Bandido that looks like it's the front rudner for
Speaker 1: depending on what you thought of some of the blood
Speaker 1: sports stuff. It's the front runner for a match of
Speaker 1: the weekend so far, and they want the five thousand
Speaker 1: dollar bonus that they had at the Mark Hitchcock Show
Speaker 1: last night. So he's probably going to continue to go
Speaker 1: on and have one hell of a weekend. And he's
Speaker 1: probably somebody that may not be a big name to
Speaker 1: some of the people listening, but he's somebody you want
Speaker 1: you might want to keep your eye on. All right,
Speaker 1: if you want Texas here today zero seven five six six,
Speaker 1: that is seven eight zero seven five six six days
Speaker 1: gonna join us after the break, Big ab Meltzer will
Speaker 1: talk about the new Observer and WrestleMania Weekend and all
Speaker 1: that kind of good stuff. And then, uh I got
Speaker 1: more news when we come back later, including an interview
Speaker 1: with with Randyworton, and I want to talk about back
Speaker 1: in the moments, over life, back in the show. Bran
Speaker 1: Elber is here Wrestling Observer Live. Mikeber Viv also Wrestling
Speaker 1: Observer dot com. Dame Melts are joining us, and uh,
Speaker 1: I want to get into a new edition of the
Speaker 1: Observer newsletter. And obviously it's WrestleMania Weekend, and the top
Speaker 1: story here is Triple H and his heart issue, which
Speaker 1: is noted here in the new Observer. Now that he's
Speaker 1: got the the defibrillator inside him, I mean, all goes well,
Speaker 1: fingers crossed. He should be able to live a normal
Speaker 1: life for quite a while decades. It says here in
Speaker 1: the Observers that right, yeah, ball goes well, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's the problem was his heart. It will stop his
Speaker 1: heart from beating irregular um. But he does have a
Speaker 1: heart condition, so it's not like he's out of the
Speaker 1: water completely. But yeah, if he avoids uh you know,
Speaker 1: avoids stress and eats, right, which I'm sure he will do,
Speaker 1: he should do well. Um, you know, but the idea
Speaker 1: of wrestling again is out of the question though, as
Speaker 1: as he said, so, there have been rumors that he's
Speaker 1: going to be around this weekend, that we may see
Speaker 1: he's around, he's there, but a public appearance. Um, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't be surprised. I wouldn't be surprised to see him
Speaker 1: show up at at you know, be introduced at Mania,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean he was running the he's one
Speaker 1: of the people running the tryouts this week, you know
Speaker 1: that we're going on. And so he's around, Yeah, he was.
Speaker 1: He that a lot of the talents on for the
Speaker 1: first time yesterday. So yeah, so is he is he?
Speaker 1: I know they've used the term he's back. Obviously he's
Speaker 1: not going to be wrestling, but even I would think
Speaker 1: that even the former triple aged schedule is not a
Speaker 1: schedule that would behove you know, his health. So so
Speaker 1: he's back, presumably in like a a a limited capacity. Um,
Speaker 1: I don't want to I don't really have to know
Speaker 1: the answer to that. I mean, he's been back. His
Speaker 1: his job is now involved more in the scouting side
Speaker 1: of things, you know, tryouts, things like that, as far
Speaker 1: as like running an xtigue in Um, you know, I
Speaker 1: would doubt it, but I can't say that percent. I
Speaker 1: mean as far as running you know this this secession
Speaker 1: plan in w W, as far as the wrestling side,
Speaker 1: if if something happens to Vince, you know, and he
Speaker 1: was going to be the guy, um, I can't imagine.
Speaker 1: I mean, he may try it, but it probably wouldn't
Speaker 1: be the best for him to do that. Uh, And
Speaker 1: he may not, you know, I don't say it wouldn't
Speaker 1: be interested in doing. And I'm sure he'd be interested
Speaker 1: in doing it, but I don't know if it would
Speaker 1: be smart for him to be doing something like that. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, his stamina is lower, which is what he said,
Speaker 1: and other people who have had the same condition, I've
Speaker 1: told me, you know the same thing, that your stammin
Speaker 1: is lower, But you can live a normal life and
Speaker 1: you can work an eight to five job, and and
Speaker 1: you know he'll do He's working a job there already,
Speaker 1: and um, I'm sure that that. I'm sure he'll keep
Speaker 1: a job there for as long as he wants to.
Speaker 1: I Mean the thing with him is is you know,
Speaker 1: he's got no economic issues. He can quit tomorrow. He's
Speaker 1: set um, but he does you know he loves wrestling
Speaker 1: and I don't think he wants walk away from it either. Dave,
Speaker 1: how does this change if at all the plan post events? Um?
Speaker 1: You know, could he serve more as a liaison while
Speaker 1: you know, Stephanie may back off of some of her
Speaker 1: duties that she does in the business realm and and
Speaker 1: be more of the day to day or is it
Speaker 1: just really going to be Stephanie is not going to
Speaker 1: be the person you know, running Creative or anything like that.
Speaker 1: Stephanie's role is going to be a chief end officer.
Speaker 1: If it wasn't, then triple ah too. I guess all
Speaker 1: of us kind of assuming, right, Yeah, honestly, like who,
Speaker 1: who in the world really is it? Nick con Well, stop,
Speaker 1: it definitely won't be Ni con Um, Shawn Michaels, Adam Pierce.
Speaker 1: I mean, we start asking questions like that on who
Speaker 1: it's it's it's it's a tough one. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: right now, right now Paul Hayman, which would be bizarre
Speaker 1: right now, right now would be Prichard. Paul Hayman would
Speaker 1: be difficult, but not impossible. But yeah, as far as
Speaker 1: grooming people, you know, the whole thing is they groomed
Speaker 1: paul Vec and you know that wouldn't be a good
Speaker 1: fit right now. And Paula lost a lot of points
Speaker 1: with the n X with the n X c a
Speaker 1: w fight anyway. Um so um, but they it's not
Speaker 1: like that there's this replacement right there waiting. Um. I
Speaker 1: can't see Bruce Pritchard. I mean, this guy's in the sixties, Bruce,
Speaker 1: and and he said and Bruces had multiple heart attacks.
Speaker 1: Um and UM, I don't see Sean as being the
Speaker 1: person for that role. Uh you know, plus the plus
Speaker 1: I don't I don't know that Sean wants to to
Speaker 1: vote because that is there right now inside the company?
Speaker 1: Is there a person there? Would they dare look outside
Speaker 1: a company that's always been so closed like that? Would
Speaker 1: they dare look outside? Um? You know then the problem
Speaker 1: is is that wrestling hasn't created guys like that that
Speaker 1: have that and um, they haven't trained guys like that.
Speaker 1: But I would think that it would be someone. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, we could look at the agent staff or whatever,
Speaker 1: but I think would be someone. I don't think they
Speaker 1: would look outside because because you know, as you know,
Speaker 1: they don't consider experience outside to be meaningful. Because if
Speaker 1: it's not in w W, it doesn't count. So I
Speaker 1: don't think that they would. I mean, you know, would
Speaker 1: you know, like if Eric Bischof hadn't so spectacularly flopped
Speaker 1: the last time, it could have been him easily, because
Speaker 1: that's what they would look for, someone who has experience
Speaker 1: in that. And you've got Eric Bischoff or Jerry Jarrett
Speaker 1: and Jerry will be you know, Jerry's older than Vince,
Speaker 1: so um, you know, and and I can't see in
Speaker 1: a second him taken on a twenty hour day job. Um, Bruce,
Speaker 1: it wouldn't be good for but it could be. It
Speaker 1: could end up with him. I mean, there's not a
Speaker 1: lot of guys, there's not a long list of guys,
Speaker 1: but that way I was, you know, I was wondering
Speaker 1: to myself. You know, Hunter was such a avid bodybuilder.
Speaker 1: You know, this whole change obviously, you know, you have
Speaker 1: your life threatened, you know, you're gonna probably think differently.
Speaker 1: But he's such a competitive guy. The thought of him
Speaker 1: working an eight to five job is just something that
Speaker 1: always it's tough for me to actually believe, like hidden
Speaker 1: sitting at a desk and doing that. Is there a way?
Speaker 1: I guess always depending on where he's at physically, that
Speaker 1: you could have And I know this is gonna harken
Speaker 1: back to a dreaded time with booking committees, which could
Speaker 1: you have the writers and have Bruce and bring back
Speaker 1: a Gabe and have people where he could be at
Speaker 1: the end of the person to either rubber stamp something
Speaker 1: or make tweaks and changes. Or is he too competitive
Speaker 1: to be able to sit by and let them do
Speaker 1: something and then him not give it his all Vince
Speaker 1: like to say no, this is what I would do
Speaker 1: and to change things, you know what I mean? Could
Speaker 1: he actually back off and be that person just to go, okay,
Speaker 1: let's do a check mark on what what the booker
Speaker 1: is doing. That's a really good question and I don't
Speaker 1: have a good answer to it, because the one thing
Speaker 1: is is as he gets more and more comfortable and
Speaker 1: further away, he is going to slowly revert back to
Speaker 1: being the person he was before unless he catches himself
Speaker 1: and goes, no, I will not do this. So I
Speaker 1: could see if he has no let's say he has
Speaker 1: no um, you know, bad escapades in the next year,
Speaker 1: slowly would he revert back to that, especially if something
Speaker 1: happens to vince. Um, but it would it's probably not advisable.
Speaker 1: I guess it's the best way to put it, um.
Speaker 1: But you know, it depends on you know, a couple
Speaker 1: of things. Number one, you know, um, I think the
Speaker 1: ages of his kids, Like if it's in ten years,
Speaker 1: it's a lot different and if it was now, um,
Speaker 1: And I think, Uh. The other thing is is what
Speaker 1: what his outlook on life itself is. As you get older,
Speaker 1: you get very very very different outlooks on life and
Speaker 1: and um, you know, some people, as they get older,
Speaker 1: the wrestling becomes less important, even for the ones who
Speaker 1: were immersed in it. I mean, I know people who
Speaker 1: were immersed immersed immersing and wrestling and now when they're
Speaker 1: you know, in their sixties. Put it this way, they
Speaker 1: don't even care about it. So you know, in ten years,
Speaker 1: will he be that person or will he be or
Speaker 1: do does wrestling completely define him as a person? And
Speaker 1: if it does, you know, which is like let's say
Speaker 1: Rick Flair, which is a bad example, but a good
Speaker 1: example in what I'm saying, in the sense that there's
Speaker 1: no other way and he's gonna want to keep doing
Speaker 1: it no matter what, even at the expense of risking
Speaker 1: his health. And I don't, I don't know, I don't.
Speaker 1: I think I know he's a smart guy. I know
Speaker 1: that personally he's a smart guy. But where his mind
Speaker 1: will be in in and and body will be in
Speaker 1: ten years, it's it's we don't have those answers. Anything
Speaker 1: new with the WrestleMania coming up tomorrow, I mean nothing, really,
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's here, and uh, I'm really intrigued
Speaker 1: on how they're gonna. You know what I'm intrigued by
Speaker 1: this year, more than more than almost any other year,
Speaker 1: is news out Let's afterwards like acting like that there's
Speaker 1: an eighty thousand people at the two shows, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? Because it's like I I presume that
Speaker 1: they're going to exaggerate the number of the most in history,
Speaker 1: and and it will be an obvious exaggeration. But I
Speaker 1: think that, you know, I've I've already seen like, you know,
Speaker 1: people talking about a hundred thousand people at both nights,
Speaker 1: and it's just like, dude, they're they're barely at half
Speaker 1: that sold. Right now, you're telling me that they're below sold,
Speaker 1: they are below fifty sold. They probably they will probably,
Speaker 1: they will probably end up a little bit above that,
Speaker 1: but that's that's that's gonna be where they're gonna end up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know this for them, this though, is going to
Speaker 1: end up trying to come across in the mainstream. This
Speaker 1: is probably gonna be their most successful WrestleMania of all
Speaker 1: time because of all these celebrities in the way that
Speaker 1: they are going to pitch this. All of us wrestling
Speaker 1: fans are looking at this going this is the worst
Speaker 1: built WrestleMania of all time. I don't think that. I
Speaker 1: think I think that they've done a great job with
Speaker 1: built WrestleMania. I think it's been one of the softest.
Speaker 1: I mean, for sure, I think it's been one of
Speaker 1: the more lacklustree, even though we've had some really cool things.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think it's potentially strong. I actually think
Speaker 1: it's been stronger than the last couple of years. Um,
Speaker 1: certainly the last two or three. I think the last
Speaker 1: two or three weren't good at didn't have good builds
Speaker 1: at all. Going back six seven years, yeah, there's they've
Speaker 1: been stronger ones then, But I mean, this is one
Speaker 1: of the strongest built main events they've had. But as
Speaker 1: far as the rest of the show. It feels Um yeah,
Speaker 1: I I don't made for the main street, It's made
Speaker 1: for Sports Center. That's what it feels like. Um, well
Speaker 1: that's there. That's what there, that's nikon. That's what their
Speaker 1: businesses is now. Their business is made for the aura
Speaker 1: of w W E and selling that to people. Just
Speaker 1: like the freaking peacock deal. It's not about what numbers
Speaker 1: you're doing. It's about the the idea of you have
Speaker 1: w W and where a major brand like NASCAR and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, we can make deals. And that's what w
Speaker 1: W is about, is keeping that name and that keeping
Speaker 1: that name in the forefront and in that sense. Um,
Speaker 1: they're gonna get a lot of publicity coming out of this,
Speaker 1: you know, um uh and some of its celebrities. Um,
Speaker 1: but you know yeah, I mean that's that's what they're
Speaker 1: there for. So I think last year or when when
Speaker 1: did they do uh an extra twenty thousand above the
Speaker 1: actual number? Are they above the actual number in the
Speaker 1: last time they were in Dallas? And I've presumed that
Speaker 1: this year they will exaggerate that number of far more
Speaker 1: than twenty. When you have one night, you exaggerate twenty
Speaker 1: so you don't add the two nights together and add twenty.
Speaker 1: You had twenty the first night and twenty the second night,
Speaker 1: so you're gonna add forty. They're gonna say that there's
Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty thousand people both nights. That's what
Speaker 1: they're gonna say. It'll be interesting. Yeah about that? Well, Dave,
Speaker 1: I want to thank you too much for doing the
Speaker 1: show here today the new observers had. Everybody can grab
Speaker 1: it at Wrestling Observer dot com. Your subscription gets you
Speaker 1: not only the weekly Observer, but our whole Observer archive,
Speaker 1: and of course a paper copies peel Box one two
Speaker 1: to eight, Campbell, California, zero zero nine. Back in the
Speaker 1: up with more Observer Live back at the show. Bran
Speaker 1: Elber is here Wrestling Observer Alive. Mike SIMPERBB also Wrestling
Speaker 1: Observer dot com. What's something, Mike? What? Well? Should I
Speaker 1: read these exact tenants numbers here? Because now now you
Speaker 1: can no longer even play the semantic game? Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: what is that? Because why? Because Dave Meltzer is reporting something?
Speaker 1: Oh now, Dave was unreliable source because he's paid by
Speaker 1: Tony Cohn. And let me guess when these numbers aren't right?
Speaker 1: Let me guess plans change? Is that what's gonna happen
Speaker 1: at press time? The first the first night of WrestleMania,
Speaker 1: just under fifty three thousand paid, it says here. And
Speaker 1: the second night the number just under fifty two. So
Speaker 1: they've done fifty three and fifty two for the two
Speaker 1: nights after I said they were gonna do fifty five,
Speaker 1: and I was ridiculed and mocked, chastised month after month,
Speaker 1: and now here we are. These the final numbers were well,
Speaker 1: I mean, they'll sell some tickets in the next couple
Speaker 1: of days, but you think, up, what do you think?
Speaker 1: This is a Santo match? Hey, once again they run
Speaker 1: you know, Houston or Dallas or San Antonio, and they
Speaker 1: have to a on Ramo Stereo Jr. And they don't
Speaker 1: have any ideas for a mask match, and they have
Speaker 1: no ideas for a Latin American superstar. And just once again,
Speaker 1: here we go with that one next year in l
Speaker 1: A probably will be the same way. Humberto I guess
Speaker 1: remember him, you know him, and you remember that huh
Speaker 1: that should have been in That should have been prediction.
Speaker 1: I could have got two rings. I'm still going to
Speaker 1: reward myself for this one. I don't need to wait.
Speaker 1: I like I hate by the way, I like how
Speaker 1: the worm has turned. You're dealing with a bunch of
Speaker 1: sick kids and now all of a sudden, boy, you know,
Speaker 1: that trip out to a sunny, warm place to enjoy
Speaker 1: the weekend with a bunch of people that will idolize
Speaker 1: me and throw money at me doesn't sound too bad, now,
Speaker 1: does it all? And throw money at me? By the way,
Speaker 1: that reminds me. I'm doing wrestle Mania weekend cameos. I know.
Speaker 1: I know a lot of you listening right now. We're
Speaker 1: gonna get together with all your buddies to watch WrestleMania.
Speaker 1: It would be better than during one of the video
Speaker 1: packages that go an insufferable amount of time. I will
Speaker 1: do a cameo for you guys, and you can you know,
Speaker 1: you can actually do multiple cameos, Like every time there's
Speaker 1: a video package, I could do a cameo talking about
Speaker 1: some match or whatever. But yes, F four w online
Speaker 1: on cameo. Get your WrestleMania weekend cameo requests in now
Speaker 1: so I can make sure to get him done in
Speaker 1: time for the big show. Yeah, I would not suggest
Speaker 1: ordering a cameo every time they have one of those,
Speaker 1: you know, insufferably long segments, because you'll be broke. It's
Speaker 1: like a drinking game, you know. Every time Brian brags
Speaker 1: about himself during one of those cameos, you take a
Speaker 1: shot and you'll be drunk, Like second break about myself
Speaker 1: unless I need to bury somebody else. Really, Hey, what
Speaker 1: are you hosting regularly? Do you write any books? Actually?
Speaker 1: I think those people know what titles? Do you think
Speaker 1: there's anybody out there who got a Brian Alvarez uh
Speaker 1: call for somebody that didn't know what they were getting,
Speaker 1: like somebody's mother is now getting and you have to
Speaker 1: run down your list of accolades, all the books you've written,
Speaker 1: all the shows that you host, that's needed well. To
Speaker 1: be honest, my presumption with many of these cameos is
Speaker 1: that the recipient has no idea who I am, So
Speaker 1: I make sure that I explain it. Now. Listen, I
Speaker 1: gotta read this because this ties into yesterday and Randy
Speaker 1: Orton was a guest on Thursday's Pat McAfee show and
Speaker 1: talked about difficulties working with wrestlers from n x T
Speaker 1: his program with Bray White and Edges return Or noted
Speaker 1: that edges return has been refreshing for him because many
Speaker 1: of today's performers are not as focused on protecting their opponent.
Speaker 1: There's an art to what we do, and a lot
Speaker 1: of guys have lost that art. Randy Orton's said when
Speaker 1: Vince wzz On, he talked about your number one prior
Speaker 1: above all being protecting your opponent. That's not taught necessarily
Speaker 1: in an x T. I know that because I've been
Speaker 1: in the ring with guys that came from n x
Speaker 1: T and they don't know what the f they are doing.
Speaker 1: It's unfortunate, but that is just how things are changing.
Speaker 1: He spoke about working with Edge allowing him to tell
Speaker 1: a story in the ring. I can trust this guy.
Speaker 1: I can give this guy my body in this ring
Speaker 1: and tell this story, and I don't have to in
Speaker 1: the back of my head worry about him only being
Speaker 1: concerned with looking cool in that ring and hitting the
Speaker 1: f out of me and taking my head off. Edge
Speaker 1: made me realize that I can go forty five minutes
Speaker 1: with a guy who knows what the f they're doing.
Speaker 1: What are these other guys? Where are these other guys
Speaker 1: that know what the f they're doing? He spoke about
Speaker 1: his program with Bray White member. We talked about that earlier.
Speaker 1: He described it, quote as a little odd. There were
Speaker 1: some issues where he was able to do a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff in the ring for a while, so he
Speaker 1: he there were some sort of health issues. I don't
Speaker 1: know what the details, but that that was one of
Speaker 1: things here. So that got weird. But Bray is a
Speaker 1: hell of an effing talent. A lot of f words
Speaker 1: in this. Granny better not listening to this interview. For
Speaker 1: the last year I've been out there with Riddle. He's
Speaker 1: only been wrestling for six years, but he just gets it.
Speaker 1: He knows how to sell. He captivates these people, He
Speaker 1: captivates me. Randy Jordan's said, you know, I don't want
Speaker 1: to be that old guy yelling at at the clouds
Speaker 1: and everything like that. But Bro, it's funny, is that
Speaker 1: is Randy word is absolutely percent correct. That is what
Speaker 1: this used to be. It used to be that this
Speaker 1: was a show and you pretended to hurt each other,
Speaker 1: and there was an art to pretending that you hurt
Speaker 1: each other but not actually hurting each other. And Bro,
Speaker 1: I don't know when that changed, but I have heard
Speaker 1: and I'm sure that many other people listening to this
Speaker 1: who might be in the business have heard of the
Speaker 1: same thing that uh in in developmental these these wrestlers
Speaker 1: are encouraged to lay it in. They are encouraged to
Speaker 1: lay it And I remember the first time I heard that,
Speaker 1: and I just thought, Man, I'm too old for this.
Speaker 1: I'm out. And luckily, you know, I came back for
Speaker 1: matches with like the Rock and Roll Express, who don't
Speaker 1: lay it in. But holy smokes, even you know who
Speaker 1: actually was light as a feather hate to kill his gimmick,
Speaker 1: Nick Gauge like I was awesome, and obviously the Rock
Speaker 1: and Roll Express rawsom and and uh, you know, luckily
Speaker 1: Marco was small. Can't hear me that hard? But I
Speaker 1: boind of this is That's what these used to be about.
Speaker 1: It was an art to pretend that you were hurting
Speaker 1: the other guy, but actually you didn't hurt the other guy.
Speaker 1: How many times do you think you hear that phrase
Speaker 1: from w W E guys today? Oh, so and so
Speaker 1: is a night off. Probably most of them don't even
Speaker 1: know what that phrase is. A night off. It used
Speaker 1: to be you would work all the time. Him and
Speaker 1: certain guys were a night off. They never touched you.
Speaker 1: You never knew they were there. You guys worked together.
Speaker 1: What I think it's called working because you're in there
Speaker 1: hammering stuff, hammering nails. No, you were working together. That
Speaker 1: was the point. He didn't touch each other on a
Speaker 1: lock up. He didn't touch each other on a headlock.
Speaker 1: I know. Back in the old days they grinded the
Speaker 1: ears like that's you have cauliflower ears. But that's because
Speaker 1: they wanted to convince you that it was real. When
Speaker 1: you actually worked, you didn't touch the guy. So anyway,
Speaker 1: I feel for poor Randy Jorgon because he's in there,
Speaker 1: he's out there, and he's a great worker, and he
Speaker 1: would just love to do it the old way. He
Speaker 1: can't do it the old way anymore. Now you gotta
Speaker 1: do it the new way. And that sucks for a
Speaker 1: guy that liked it the old way. Whatever. And I
Speaker 1: don't want, I don't want anyone to tell me that, oh,
Speaker 1: it looks better when you lay it in. It looks
Speaker 1: better when you lay it in. If the guys suck.
Speaker 1: If they suck and they don't lay it in, and
Speaker 1: it looks horrible, so they have to lay it in
Speaker 1: to make it look good. That's because they suck. If
Speaker 1: they're good, they don't have to lay it in and
Speaker 1: it looks good. It should be like a badge of
Speaker 1: honor to be light. That's why they had the light
Speaker 1: handshakememberen Kevin Nash is like, no more light handshakes. We
Speaker 1: shake hands like a man. Remember that. Well, there was
Speaker 1: a reason that you did the light handshake. That was
Speaker 1: part of the badge of honor. You were light workers.
Speaker 1: Then all of a sudden, it's grabbed his hand as
Speaker 1: hard as we can. I remember, I'd work with Buddy.
Speaker 1: We do tag matches. Bro never tag him too hard.
Speaker 1: He'd just leave. He would jump off the apron and
Speaker 1: leap if you just tagged him too hard, because even
Speaker 1: the tag is supposed to be at work. Whatever, Who cares,
Speaker 1: I'm out, I'm not kidding. I used to have long hair,
Speaker 1: so we do the spot where like he pulled me
Speaker 1: down by the hair. This brother wouldn't even touch your hair.
Speaker 1: He'd make a fist and he put his hand on
Speaker 1: the back of your head, pretending he was pulling hair,
Speaker 1: but he wasn't actually even touching your hair. And he
Speaker 1: put his hand there and you'd bump and never and
Speaker 1: go oh, what a horrible man. He pulled the hair.
Speaker 1: He never even touched my hair the way he used
Speaker 1: to be done. Going to the turn buckle. Why does
Speaker 1: somebody have to grab the back of your head by
Speaker 1: your scalp and bang your head into the turn buckle.
Speaker 1: Supposed to just put your hand there. And no, I
Speaker 1: don't know, star like kidding, apology, that's the exact opposite
Speaker 1: of what I've been talking about. What are you talking about?
Speaker 1: You think some of these kids only come up though,
Speaker 1: get so many mixed messages from so many people, because
Speaker 1: there's so many people just talk and talk and talking
Speaker 1: and think about it. Brian, you came up in the
Speaker 1: old school. But the thing is your old school. There's
Speaker 1: old school guys who were there teaching you were old
Speaker 1: and crusty, who are bitching about you and your generation.
Speaker 1: Nobody ever complained about me. Well there's other one time.
Speaker 1: I don't look. We may be having two different conversations here,
Speaker 1: But I think that there may also be a lot
Speaker 1: of people get mixed messages because kids they're coming up
Speaker 1: to peu double dollar sign. Why you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: And you get people they gotta lay it and you
Speaker 1: need to learn and pay their dues. You need to
Speaker 1: do this, you need to do that. Then you get
Speaker 1: other people screen them and at him, and it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of it is probably where you
Speaker 1: come up, the area you come up, the first couple
Speaker 1: of training schools you go to, you know, and how
Speaker 1: people do things. Some people get Hindu squatted to death.
Speaker 1: They look back and go with the hell, I didn't
Speaker 1: need that, and then other people go, no, I absolutely
Speaker 1: needed that. Every kid needs to go through that, and
Speaker 1: every kid needs to get stretched and all this other stuff.
Speaker 1: It's like a lot of people just get a lot
Speaker 1: of mixed messages and then they just talk goes the
Speaker 1: night and my kid used to lay it in. Yeah,
Speaker 1: people hated him. Yeah it's fun when you watch him
Speaker 1: on a videotape, but when you were in the ring
Speaker 1: with him, it wasn't fun. That's mcfoley's front teeth, he smokes.
Speaker 1: I remember I went up to train with Lance before
Speaker 1: I had a match with a long long time ago,
Speaker 1: this is probably a decade ago, and we got his
Speaker 1: ring and everything like that, and uh, I did the
Speaker 1: arm drag and then I put him in the armbar
Speaker 1: on the mat and there's an actual armbar on the
Speaker 1: mat where you like hyper extend the guy's arm that way.
Speaker 1: And I put him in this thing and I didn't
Speaker 1: touch him, okay, but he still yelled at me. He goes,
Speaker 1: don't do it the shoot way, and he showed me
Speaker 1: the worked way. And his point was, yeah, you didn't
Speaker 1: put it on tight, but if something went wrong, you'd
Speaker 1: hurt my arm if you do the fake if you
Speaker 1: if you do uh, the real version, even if you're light.
Speaker 1: So he showed me the fake version, or even if
Speaker 1: you mess it up, you can't hurt his arm. I
Speaker 1: was like, wow, my mind was blown on that one.
Speaker 1: And as you know, it takes a lot from my
Speaker 1: mind to be blown. How many times to rip rogers
Speaker 1: blow your mind? He just swore a lot. Pat McAfee
Speaker 1: on display there. Do you think he's gonna win that
Speaker 1: Pat McAfee and Austin theory, Yeah, I would think you'd
Speaker 1: be Austin theory with Vince making an appearance, but you
Speaker 1: never know when this company, I don't know. I mean
Speaker 1: I would presume listen elements. One thing that's abundantly clear, okay,
Speaker 1: whether you all see it or not, And I would
Speaker 1: bet most of you don't Vince sees this guy is
Speaker 1: like a John Cena, this Austin theory, and there's reason
Speaker 1: he's grooming him and he's always there in his segments
Speaker 1: and like that's that's when he sees in this guy.
Speaker 1: And so you know, maybe he wants to teach this
Speaker 1: guy that you also have to be able to lose.
Speaker 1: So you know, Pat mcafeel get the win and it's
Speaker 1: wrestle made you make people happy or whatever. But I
Speaker 1: I would presume Ustin theory as witty. I think I
Speaker 1: think Alpha Academy wins. You stick Gable Stevenson Willam, and
Speaker 1: on Monday night you have Ready Willing and Gable and
Speaker 1: then they can argue over who's Gable and who's ready
Speaker 1: and willing back in a moment. Observer Live like the show.
Speaker 1: Bran Elbert is here wrestling Observer Live like simb bb
Speaker 1: els rust link Observer dot com. So here's a plan
Speaker 1: for the weekend for Observer Live tomorrow Jim Valley that
Speaker 1: day in Pacific one Eastern Gym, Valley returns live to
Speaker 1: the air waves. I don't think there's gonna be the
Speaker 1: video tomorrow, but there will be sports byline audio, saying
Speaker 1: and check it out at tune in Radio. Sports Byline
Speaker 1: you can go to Sports Byline dot com. There's there's
Speaker 1: a million ways to listen, So that is uh, that
Speaker 1: is tomorrow, or you can just use the link that
Speaker 1: I put up on my Twitter day at Brian Alberts.
Speaker 1: If you go up there right now, there's a link
Speaker 1: to the Sports Byline audio. So that's tomorrow, and then
Speaker 1: Sunday is Andrew's arian and as far as like subscription stuff,
Speaker 1: if you're a subscriber to Wrestling observer dot com, it
Speaker 1: will be me and Vinny Saturday, wrestling observer dot com
Speaker 1: and video dot w Oneline dot com and Twitch dot tv,
Speaker 1: slashfort doub video, all video platforms Tomorrow night, Dave and
Speaker 1: I later audio podcast only Wrestling observer dot Com. That's
Speaker 1: late Saturday night. Sunday it'll be my self, Vidian Craig,
Speaker 1: Twitch YouTube and wrestling observer dot com and Dave and
Speaker 1: I Wrestling observer dot com. And then Monday back here
Speaker 1: with Observer Live and everything else. So there's gonna be
Speaker 1: a million other things as well. But that's the Observer
Speaker 1: Live schedule and my schedule off the top of my
Speaker 1: head here, So you can check that out this weekend,
Speaker 1: and yes, Wrestling Observer dot com sign up, get the observers,
Speaker 1: all the audio podcasts, the libraries for both audio and
Speaker 1: newsletters and video dot f W online dot com, and
Speaker 1: Twitch dot tv, slash f W Video. You can find
Speaker 1: all of this stuff on my Twitter at Brian Alvarez
Speaker 1: or Wrestling Observer dot com. Mike has at Center viv
Speaker 1: And that's the plan. So enjoy your WrestleMania weekend everybody,
Speaker 1: and we're out of here. Thanks Mikee's always callers and
Speaker 1: listeners into the studio. I'll talk to you next time
Speaker 1: Wrestling Observer Live. You have been listening to the Wrestling
Speaker 1: Observer Daily podcast on the eight Side Network.