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 2: Ready, when you're ready, let's.
Speaker 3: Get it off.
Speaker 2: How's it going, everybody?
Speaker 1: Brian Alvarez here on a Wrestling Observer Live. We are
Speaker 1: here every day Monday through Friday, New Pacific three Eastern,
Speaker 1: Sunday three Pacific six Eastern, Saturday mornings with Jim Bally
Speaker 1: at ten Pacific, one Eastern. And it is Tuesday here
Speaker 1: on this show.
Speaker 2: Hey, you know what that means.
Speaker 1: We have a lot to talk about here today, a
Speaker 1: very busy week because a lot's changing both in pro
Speaker 1: wrestling and on this site. As tonight, the final retro
Speaker 1: raw from the nineties on the Brian and Vinnie and
Speaker 1: Granny and Craig and Sean Show. Tonight we're gonna be
Speaker 1: reviewing part two of The King of the Ring nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety four, and after that it's done. Next week we
Speaker 1: move on to twenty one years ago in Nwatna. As
Speaker 1: a result, Tonight on the Brana Vinie Show, it is
Speaker 1: going to be a nineties party. We're celebrating the end
Speaker 1: of the nineties. We're gonna party like it's nineteen ninety nine,
Speaker 1: and then we are going to move on well two
Speaker 1: thousand and two, so that's tonight. Also, of course, that
Speaker 1: means this Sunday we will no longer be reviewing Rampage.
Speaker 1: We will be reviewing Collision, which kicks off on Saturday night.
Speaker 1: And we've got a lot of news on Collision on
Speaker 1: the show here today, so we're gonna tell you about that.
Speaker 1: Last night obviously was Monday Night Raw. We've got the
Speaker 1: Raw Report, the world famous Raw Report actually, and we've
Speaker 1: also got the lineup for everybody's favorite show tonight's NXT,
Speaker 1: so that and Kofi Kingston and incredibly, another wrestler from
Speaker 1: NXT is gonna be working for Booker T's Reality of Wrestling.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you remember this story, well I
Speaker 1: sure do. We'll tell you about that and plenty more
Speaker 1: if you'd like to text us here today. Four two
Speaker 1: five seven eight zero seven five sixty six is the
Speaker 1: phone number at is four two five seven eight zero
Speaker 1: seven five sixty six, Brian at Wrestling Observer dot com,
Speaker 1: at Brian Albarez on Twitter, and more.
Speaker 2: Back in a moment Observer Live.
Speaker 1: Back in the show, Bright Albert is here wrestling Observer Live,
Speaker 1: Mike SIMBERBBI, also Wrestling Observer dot Com. I got a
Speaker 1: lot of news to get into here today. My first
Speaker 1: I've a plug Observing Live. Wrestling Observer Live podcast with
Speaker 1: Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez August twenty seventh, ten am
Speaker 1: to noon British Standard time, because Dave and I are
Speaker 1: in fact going to the UK. We're going to this
Speaker 1: Wembley show and we are gonna be doing a Q
Speaker 1: and A and tickets are on sale kind of now.
Speaker 1: There is a mailing list pre sale which began at
Speaker 1: six pm UK time today and gets go on sale
Speaker 1: to the general public six pm UK time on Wednesday,
Speaker 1: July fourteenth. The podcast will take place at Clubhouse five
Speaker 1: WC two h seven b G and I'm a stupid American,
Speaker 1: so I don't know any of that means, but it
Speaker 1: will be just hours before all in. Dave and I
Speaker 1: will be there for a Q and A and a
Speaker 1: meet and greet and tickets on sale. General admission is
Speaker 1: fifty five pounds and the seven Star VIP admission is
Speaker 1: seventy five pounds That includes priority seating, professional digital photo
Speaker 1: autographs with Brian and Dave and I know some people
Speaker 1: have said, man, that's expensive. Well we have to go
Speaker 1: to the UK and that is also very expensive, and we're.
Speaker 3: Going to be paying for it. Folks, Well, I mean questions.
Speaker 1: Good, No, here's the reality, Like, yeah, that probably is
Speaker 1: a lot of money, but you know what, we're not
Speaker 1: going to lose money. Like, it's just not gonna work.
Speaker 1: If we're to lose money, I'm not going How.
Speaker 3: Much was the cheapest ticket?
Speaker 4: I don't know, dude, but it would you say, there's
Speaker 4: seventy how much seventy five for.
Speaker 1: The U fifty five pounds is the cheapest ticket?
Speaker 3: Okay, it's American right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm afraid that, you know, the fl to
Speaker 1: and from the UK and lodging and everything like that,
Speaker 1: we could not get that for fifty five pounds.
Speaker 2: It was a little more expensive than that.
Speaker 3: But I know, I know you're not paying for that,
Speaker 3: are you.
Speaker 1: Well no, because we're selling tickets. If we weren't, I
Speaker 1: would be paying for that.
Speaker 3: I thought you had a sponsor.
Speaker 4: I thought maybe you know, somebody was picking that up
Speaker 4: for you guys traveling first class over there.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't move out to the first class. Yeah, you're
Speaker 3: a star right.
Speaker 1: Listen, it's it's a business, everybody, and you know, if
Speaker 1: it's if it's not, if it doesn't make financial sense,
Speaker 1: it's not going to happen.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 1: I would love to go to Wembley and go to
Speaker 1: the aw Show, which we're going to do, but I
Speaker 1: can't lose my ass doing it. It's just the fact
Speaker 1: I got kids, as Heath Slater used to say, I
Speaker 1: got kids. So anyway, the pre sales today, the actual
Speaker 1: sale is tomorrow, and tickets are limited because there's only
Speaker 1: so many seats in this particular building. So anyway, get it,
Speaker 1: well you can. We have never gone over there for
Speaker 1: a and who knows when we will be back if ever. Hey,
Speaker 1: I haven't gotten to the UK since it was my
Speaker 1: senior year in high school. I think I went there
Speaker 1: for a school trip. And actually, you know, I've told
Speaker 1: this story before. I don't remember this, but Vinie does.
Speaker 1: Vinie and I climbed the Eiffel Tower together because we
Speaker 1: weren't actually friends in high school because I was a
Speaker 1: senior and he was a junior, and who hangs out
Speaker 1: with the juniors, So anyway, I didn't really know him.
Speaker 1: But apparently we went up the Eiffel Tower together, and
Speaker 1: then a few years later he met me at the
Speaker 1: local YMCA after I'd been wrestling and he wanted to
Speaker 1: get into wrestling, and then I agreed to help him
Speaker 1: with that. So that's actually how we really met. But
Speaker 1: we did go to the UK together when I was
Speaker 1: a senior in high school. And I don't know if
Speaker 1: you guys are where this or not. My birthday was yesterday.
Speaker 1: I'm forty eight. That means that I have not I
Speaker 1: have not been to the UK in thirty years, and
Speaker 1: so there's a decent chance I may not return to
Speaker 1: the UK for thirty years. So you know, if you
Speaker 1: don't want to pay the fifty five pounds, that's fine.
Speaker 1: I'm not mad at you. But if you want to,
Speaker 1: this will be your chance, and then who knows if
Speaker 1: you'll ever get a chance.
Speaker 2: Due again, how's that for a plug?
Speaker 4: Well, ay, not going to pay for it because you
Speaker 4: know they're not showing it in this country.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be fun, you know what, It's gonna be fun.
Speaker 1: So no, I will not bring the tech sar Candad
Speaker 1: television title because that would involve me bringing more carrying man.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I've been doing a fair amount of traveling lately.
Speaker 1: You know, the secret of traveling is bring nothing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're just gonna like do it old school style too,
Speaker 4: like you did back in ninety four, ninety three whenever
Speaker 4: it was that you graduate in. Just take a bunch
Speaker 4: of T shirts and roll them all up in the ball,
Speaker 4: sticking them at the bottom of the backpack, and there
Speaker 4: you go.
Speaker 1: That's basically what I do. I try not to ever
Speaker 1: have to check any luggage nothing. Never. Never do things
Speaker 1: go right when you check luggage. It only goes wrong.
Speaker 1: And so anyway, grab your tickets now. The website get
Speaker 1: ready for this who Live London dot com at being
Speaker 1: WO Live London as in Wrestling Observer wo Live London
Speaker 1: dot com and all of the information is up there.
Speaker 1: It is in association with wrestled Tours and Progress Wrestling
Speaker 1: and we are going to be going to a lot
Speaker 1: of shows that weekend. It's gonna just basically fly to
Speaker 1: the UK, go to a bunch of shows, do a
Speaker 1: Q and A go to another show and go home.
Speaker 1: Boom boom boom boom boom.
Speaker 2: So that's gonna be a lot of fun and.
Speaker 4: If it goes well, maybe we can have a wol
Speaker 4: live in London.
Speaker 1: Hey, you never know, dude, You never know, You never know.
Speaker 3: Might need to get my paperwork in order.
Speaker 1: All right, we got new It's not all good. AW
Speaker 1: has fired BJ Whitmer after his early June arrest on
Speaker 1: domestic violence charges. Fightful reported Monday. The forty five year
Speaker 1: old was arrested Sunday, June fourth by the Boone County
Speaker 1: Sheriff's Department charges of first degree strangulation, second degree burglary.
Speaker 1: Shortly after the report, AW released the following statement to
Speaker 1: the media. BJ Whitmer has been terminated following his arrest
Speaker 1: on domestic violence charges. While talent and staff are ultimately
Speaker 1: responsible for their own personal actions, this behavior is intolerable
Speaker 1: within AW. AW has reached out to for support to
Speaker 1: those impacted by his behavior. He was released from custody Monday.
Speaker 1: Bond of twenty five thousand dollars was set. Whitmer bound
Speaker 1: to a grand jury. For a further definition in Kentucky quote,
Speaker 1: the prosecutor must prove to the judge that there is
Speaker 1: enough evidence to show that a crime has been committed.
Speaker 1: This involves presenting a minimal amount of evidence which will
Speaker 1: justify further proceedings. If the prosecutor establishes sufficient evidence, the
Speaker 1: case will be bound to the grand jury. And this
Speaker 1: is wouldn't say a former ring of Bonner or Take
Speaker 1: Team Champion been with AW in a producing role since
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, So I don't have any other details. Talk
Speaker 1: to people yesterday, actually asked some people yesterday and they
Speaker 1: hadn't even heard about it yet. So yeah, not a
Speaker 1: good story at all. To kick off the show today.
Speaker 1: Gos's Collision coming up on Saturday, and I'm gonna talk
Speaker 1: about this after the break because there's been a lot
Speaker 1: of talk, including finally by Tony Kahan, about the idea
Speaker 1: of who is going to be on what show and
Speaker 1: what is going on, and we're gonna know more once
Speaker 1: Collision kicks off, and maybe there will be some mentions
Speaker 1: of things on Dynamite, but I've talked to people and
Speaker 1: I got a lot to say about that, so that'll
Speaker 1: be after the break. Very quickly to is NXT everybody's
Speaker 1: favorite program, We've got braun Breaker. He is going to
Speaker 1: do a promo talking more about wanting seth Rawlins to
Speaker 1: come to NXT to defend the world title. Thea Hale
Speaker 1: will face Kora Jade. We have got Mustavali Wesley and
Speaker 1: Tyler Bate against Joe Gasey and the Diad. I guess
Speaker 1: remember Joe Gasey was gonna take some time off to
Speaker 1: think about things. I guess he's thought about it. Baron
Speaker 1: Corbin versus Elia Dragonov Noam Dar or, as Granny refers
Speaker 1: to him, Normdor. He is gonna be facing Nathan Fraser,
Speaker 1: Edris and Ope versus Mulik Blade and Roxane Perez versus
Speaker 1: Tatum Pasley speaking of Granny. Tonight on the Bran and
Speaker 1: Vinnie and Granny and Craig and Sean and everybody else show,
Speaker 1: there is a Brian's Birthday song contest MP three sixty
Speaker 1: seconds or less. But song contest in the subject line.
Speaker 1: And I know you're laughing, Mike, but I did not
Speaker 1: come up with this idea.
Speaker 2: This was Tim Page's idea.
Speaker 1: And not only is it Tim Page's idea, but he
Speaker 1: is going to pay one hundred dollars to the winner
Speaker 1: of this contest.
Speaker 3: I'm shocked.
Speaker 2: So I'm giving you.
Speaker 1: Guys some time to come up with some songs. Not
Speaker 1: a lot of time, but you still have time. Brian
Speaker 1: at Wrestling Observer dot com MP three sixty seconds or
Speaker 1: less song contests in the subject line er Now everybody
Speaker 1: and have fun on our nineties party tonight.
Speaker 2: Back in a Moment, Observer Live. Back in the show.
Speaker 1: Bryan Elberz here Wrestling Observer Live. Mike SIMBERDDI, also Wrestling
Speaker 1: Observer dot com. You know, I'm in a preface what
Speaker 1: I'm about to say by pointing out how often I'm right. Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't like to do that. No, I'm not that
Speaker 1: kind of guy.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 1: But you know, it wasn't that long ago that there
Speaker 1: were all of these stories about Aw's new television deal,
Speaker 1: and you know, all sort of rumors about a billion
Speaker 1: dollars or this that and the other and everything like that.
Speaker 1: And uh, and what what did I say? I said,
Speaker 1: you know, you know what I think this is. I
Speaker 1: think this is a deal for collision and not anything
Speaker 1: involving streaming HBO Max. Did I not say this? And
Speaker 1: I know I said this. I know I said this
Speaker 1: because I had all these people that were messaging me
Speaker 1: one weekend when I was camping and they were all
Speaker 1: angry about what I said. And then uh, and then
Speaker 1: what happened, Well, it was just a deal for collision. Right,
Speaker 1: that's what happened. So I was right, do you want
Speaker 1: a gold star for not that? Well, no, I just
Speaker 1: want to I want to bring that up, you know,
Speaker 1: I want another one to bring up. You remember like
Speaker 1: a couple of months ago where I said, you know,
Speaker 1: NXT wrestlers, you might remember this, Mike, NXT wrestlers are
Speaker 1: going to be doing select indie dates. Do you remember
Speaker 1: I said this? And then Ivy Niall was booked for
Speaker 1: Booker T's Reality of Wrestling. And what did they say
Speaker 1: after I said, you know, they're gonna be doing selects
Speaker 1: indies and hey, here's Ivy working Booker T's Well, they said, no,
Speaker 1: that's not gonna happen. Now, this is a one time
Speaker 1: only thing. It's one time only.
Speaker 2: We just happened, remember that.
Speaker 1: And even Booker T did some interview and he was like, ah,
Speaker 1: all this other stuff, well, you know.
Speaker 3: That's about what it sounded like.
Speaker 1: Do you know who's wrestling for Reality of Wrestling on
Speaker 1: July fifteenth, Booker T's Reality of Wrestling. Incidentally, well, Trick Williams,
Speaker 1: another NXT wrestler, is booked for Reality of Wrestling. I'm
Speaker 1: sure that this is also a one time only thing
Speaker 1: that will never happen again until the next time it happens.
Speaker 2: But I just want to point.
Speaker 1: Out that that I was right about that as well.
Speaker 1: Now I could go on, but let's get the point here. Okay,
Speaker 1: everybody is talking about Collision and Dynamite rosters. Everybody wants
Speaker 1: to believe this, and they want to believe that. Now
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you what I think is gonna happen.
Speaker 1: And I don't care if you believe me or not.
Speaker 1: If I'm wrong, you can get back to me in
Speaker 1: a couple of months. But I'm gonna tell you what
Speaker 1: I believe is happening.
Speaker 3: Here about something else that's okay.
Speaker 1: Tony Kann did an interview on Barstool Wrestling, and he
Speaker 1: says he has not quote drawn any hard lines between
Speaker 1: the shows or locked AEW into a roster split. Certain
Speaker 1: talent will be featured on certain shows. There's also the
Speaker 1: opportunity for certain stories to cross between Dynamite and Collision.
Speaker 1: A w champions will be the champions of every show. So,
Speaker 1: you know, we've heard a lot of words hard split,
Speaker 1: soft split, you know this and that.
Speaker 3: Who's talked about a lot of that stuff.
Speaker 1: And I have said from day one, and I will
Speaker 1: reiterate here that this I believe is what's going to
Speaker 1: happen with AW and Collision in Dynamite. This is going
Speaker 1: to be how it was after Vince left and before
Speaker 1: he came back in WWE, which means you have a
Speaker 1: raw show and you have a SmackDown show. There are
Speaker 1: talents that are generally featured on one show, and there
Speaker 1: are talents that are generally featured on another show. But
Speaker 1: if there is a talent that is hot, if there
Speaker 1: is a storyline that is hot, if there is a
Speaker 1: necessity for someone to switch to another show, then they
Speaker 1: will do that. That is the way it was when
Speaker 1: Vince was gone, and I am telling you that that
Speaker 1: is the way it is going to be here. Now,
Speaker 1: there are exceptions. The young Bucks and Cmpunk are not
Speaker 1: going to be on the same show. Now, does that
Speaker 1: mean one hundred percent that you will never see the
Speaker 1: Bucks on Collision or Cempunk on Dynamite. No, but you
Speaker 1: will not see them on the same show together. The
Speaker 1: Collision show is largely going to be considered CM Punk's show.
Speaker 1: He will be on that show ninety percent of the time.
Speaker 1: If he is needed on Dynamite. He will be on Dynamite,
Speaker 1: but the Young Bucks will not be there that day. Okay,
Speaker 1: MJF And may show up on the Wednesday show, he
Speaker 1: may show up on the Saturday show depending on when
Speaker 1: he is needed or whatever. But for those people that
Speaker 1: think there is not going to be a split or whatever,
Speaker 1: I hate to tell you this, but yesterday not all talent,
Speaker 1: but some talent were sent the e that this is
Speaker 1: the show that you are going to be on. Now,
Speaker 1: if there's no such thing as a brand split, they're
Speaker 1: not sending out an email telling you that this is
Speaker 1: the show that you are going to be on. So
Speaker 1: to a degree, there is going to be a split.
Speaker 1: Is it a split that is set in stone?
Speaker 2: No, of course not.
Speaker 1: But this is the key to all of this. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is not WWE where you know, in the old days,
Speaker 1: before there was a brand split, you could if you
Speaker 1: let's say your curt Angle, you leave your house on
Speaker 1: Thursday to fly to the city. You work SmackDown on Friday,
Speaker 1: you work House Show on Saturday, you work House Show
Speaker 1: on Sunday, you work Raw Monday, and you fly home
Speaker 1: your home Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Thursday, you fly out and
Speaker 1: then you do that loop again. Okay, they do not
Speaker 1: have a loop. They do not have a loop. And
Speaker 1: so therefore, if everybody is going to work every show,
Speaker 1: which is not gonna happen, that would require you to
Speaker 1: fly out Tuesday, do Dynamite Wednesday, and then either fly
Speaker 1: home Thursday and fly back out Friday.
Speaker 3: So you can do the Saturday show.
Speaker 1: Fly out Sunday, and you get like a day or
Speaker 1: two at home, and then this will be a nightmare.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So that is why what is likely to happen is
Speaker 1: certain people Wednesday is going to be their show. Other
Speaker 1: people Saturday is going to be their show. Doesn't mean
Speaker 1: you can't do both, but for ease of travel, having
Speaker 1: a schedule, knowing what you're going to do, you're gonna
Speaker 1: know whether you're likely going to be Saturday or you're
Speaker 1: likely going to be Wednesday.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just not feasible to require people to
Speaker 1: either be on the road from Tuesday night Sunday morning,
Speaker 1: or to fly home for a day and fly right
Speaker 1: back out again. It's just not feasible to do that.
Speaker 1: No one's gonna want to do that. Some people are
Speaker 1: gonna have to sometimes if you're a champion. But MGF
Speaker 1: doesn't need to work both shows every week. MJF can
Speaker 1: work four straight weeks of Wednesday and then after the
Speaker 1: pay per view cycle or whatever, he can do six
Speaker 1: eight straight weeks of Collision or whatever, and then you know,
Speaker 1: go back and forth. But there is going to be
Speaker 1: a split. There's gonna be talent that are largely always
Speaker 1: on Collision, There's gonna be talent that's largely always on Dynamite,
Speaker 1: and here and there without a draft, you will move
Speaker 1: to a different show or whatever. But that's the way
Speaker 1: it's going to be. And if you want to call
Speaker 1: it a soft brand split, whatever you want to call it.
Speaker 1: I mean, each show has its separate ross, whatever you.
Speaker 2: Want to call it.
Speaker 1: That is what's going to happen here. So we'll see
Speaker 1: who ends up where when. But obviously things can change.
Speaker 4: And when they have pay per views is gonna get
Speaker 4: in the way of that. Roh House shows are going
Speaker 4: to get in the way of that when it comes
Speaker 4: to Claudio and Joe and some other people just regular
Speaker 4: house shows. You know, if you're usually working on Wednesdays
Speaker 4: on Dynamite, but your scheduled for this Saturday House show,
Speaker 4: maybe you don't work that previous week's Wednesdays Dynamite. Instead
Speaker 4: you work Friday on Collision, then you go Saturday to
Speaker 4: wherever the house show is and Sunday whatever it's going
Speaker 4: to be, We'll just have to see how it goes.
Speaker 4: It just seems like the only real brand split is
Speaker 4: keeping cmpunk and the Young Bucks apart. You know, it's
Speaker 4: really at the end of the day, that seems to
Speaker 4: be what it is, because I can't picture a scenario
Speaker 4: where champions don't show up on both shows. Then you're
Speaker 4: putting yourself into a position that WWE is in. Just
Speaker 4: doesn't make any sense when it comes to your mjfs
Speaker 4: and people like that. If something happened serious on Dynamite,
Speaker 4: you haven't cut a promo where you have a really
Speaker 4: good video package that you could show on Collision and
Speaker 4: vice versa. So you know, it's obviously we're gonna have
Speaker 4: to see how everything shakes out. But I wouldn't look
Speaker 4: for too much on that first or second show either.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's going to be a process to kind
Speaker 4: of see how everything plays itself and how you construct
Speaker 4: the travel and all that sort of stuff. So it's
Speaker 4: probably going to be a work in progress, at least
Speaker 4: through the first month.
Speaker 1: SmackDown on Friday two point two seven eight million viewers
Speaker 1: on Fox, down eleven percent from the thousand day celebration.
Speaker 1: It was third on all of television points six zero
Speaker 1: in eighteen to forty nine trail to Game four of
Speaker 1: the NBA Finals, SmackDown more than doubled everything else on
Speaker 1: TV in eighteen to forty nine. They more than doubled
Speaker 1: everything else on television in eighteen forty nine, finished third
Speaker 1: behind the NBA with a point four four eighteen to
Speaker 1: thirty four, also more than doubling the next closest competition. So, uh, SmackDown.
Speaker 3: Remains it would be sawn hot.
Speaker 2: At this moment.
Speaker 1: And Rampage oops, I accidentally pasted SmackDown twice. Rampage did terrible.
Speaker 1: I don't remember the number, but it was. It was
Speaker 1: literally the lowest audience ever for the show.
Speaker 2: In its normal time slot.
Speaker 1: There has never been an episode of Rampage at ten
Speaker 1: o'clock PM on a Friday that did fewer viewers.
Speaker 2: Than the show.
Speaker 1: This passed Friday, so if you look at the lineup,
Speaker 1: probably not a surprise, but that was the Rampage number
Speaker 1: there and also got Kofe Kingston recovering from ankle surgery.
Speaker 1: He hopefully will be back soon. Underwent surgery in March
Speaker 1: to remove a bone chip fix a ligament. He's ahead
Speaker 1: of schedule, hopefully he'll be in the ring sooner.
Speaker 2: Rather than later.
Speaker 1: Raw report coming up after the break. Observer Live. I
Speaker 1: love it, check out.
Speaker 2: Again the show.
Speaker 1: Bray Elbert is here Wrestling Observer Alive, Mix member BB
Speaker 1: also Wrestling Observer dot Com. Apparently the Twitch homies want
Speaker 1: the Bryana Viny show tonight to be available for those
Speaker 1: Twitch homies. They know what happens if I do it
Speaker 1: there and ask for next week too. We want the
Speaker 1: first TNA show to be also.
Speaker 2: For Twitch subscribers. So I'll think about it. I'll think
Speaker 2: about it.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 1: Show opened up with a Rhea Ripley coming down to
Speaker 1: the ring. So they have they have done what I
Speaker 1: can't help but notice I said they should do, which
Speaker 1: is take away the branding of Raw and SmackDown on
Speaker 1: the women's titles because it's stupid and every time you
Speaker 1: do a draft, it's stupid. And so that's what they
Speaker 1: have done. They're no longer Raw SmackDown Women's champions. On SmackDown,
Speaker 1: we have the Women's WWE Champion with a new belt,
Speaker 1: and on Raw we now have the Women's World Champion,
Speaker 1: which has a new belt. Therefore, every year when they
Speaker 1: do the draft, it doesn't matter where people go, you're
Speaker 1: just going to have either the world title or the
Speaker 1: WWE title, much like we now have the WWE Undisputed title,
Speaker 1: which is funny because it's not and the WWE World title.
Speaker 1: So Rhea came out, she's super over people channing her name,
Speaker 1: channing mommy. She gets her new belt, and then Dom
Speaker 1: comes out an immediate hatred for Dom and out comes Cody,
Speaker 1: and they show footage of what happened with Cody and
Speaker 1: Dom last week, and Cody says, you know, I'd love
Speaker 1: to face Brock and money in the bank, but he's
Speaker 1: a coward. He's not going to show up. So you
Speaker 1: know what, Dom, how about we wrestle add money in
Speaker 1: the bank. And Dom says, I'm not afraid of anybody.
Speaker 1: I'd embarrass you like I did last week. But he
Speaker 1: does not answer the challenge, and so Cody said, listen,
Speaker 1: it's a yes or no question. We're gonna wrestle or not,
Speaker 1: And so Rhea jumps in and says he accepts. So
Speaker 1: it is Cody Rhodes versus domb not producer dom mind you,
Speaker 1: but Dominic Mysterio.
Speaker 2: I had money in the bank and I am excited
Speaker 2: for that match. I am no.
Speaker 4: I don't think that having new belts changes anything when
Speaker 4: it comes to the branding because the belts look different,
Speaker 4: so we're still going to have to have that silly
Speaker 4: if they wanted to do it exchange of belts in.
Speaker 3: The middle of the ring.
Speaker 2: They don't have to change the belts.
Speaker 1: Why would they have to exchange the belts. It doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter what brand the world title is on.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter what brand a w WE title is on.
Speaker 1: But in theory, it's stupid to have the raw Women's
Speaker 1: champions spend a year exclusive to backdown. That's stupid. So
Speaker 1: having it a w WE title in a world title,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter at all what brand they're on.
Speaker 4: So did they not want to align the belts so
Speaker 4: they look like the men's and women's.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter. It's just like no, it's just the
Speaker 1: world title looks like the old big Gold belt, and
Speaker 1: the w WE title looks like the logo.
Speaker 3: Does it matter to you what?
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter at all, now doesn't matter. I don't
Speaker 1: care what brand the winged Eagle is on, should be
Speaker 1: on both, but I don't care. Cody versus the Miss Cody, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, he did a good match with the guy bled.
Speaker 1: I don't even know how. He just started bleeding all
Speaker 1: over and Miss tried the skull crushing finale. Cody versed it,
Speaker 1: Crossroads pinned him, and now we look forward to Cody
Speaker 1: and Dom. Becky came out for a preposterous promo. So
Speaker 1: we got money in the bank coming up? So how
Speaker 1: do we make money in the bank seem important? Well,
Speaker 1: Becky explains that you fans, she said, I still can't
Speaker 1: believe I'm reciting this. You've fans have been conditioned to
Speaker 1: think that the number one person in the company is
Speaker 1: the champion. But she says, in my opinion, this is
Speaker 1: straight out of TNA. The number one person in the
Speaker 1: company is the person with the power, and who has
Speaker 1: more power than the person with the money in the
Speaker 1: bank briefcase. And I thought, well, the person with more
Speaker 1: power than the person with the money in the bank
Speaker 1: briefcase is in fact the champion.
Speaker 2: Actually so she.
Speaker 1: Said the briefcase holder had the power to make the
Speaker 1: champion scared. Tricia is scared, but she will.
Speaker 2: Be beating Zoe Stark. However, at Night of Champion, Zoe
Speaker 2: Stark came out.
Speaker 1: God bless her, you know, National Television Live, she was nervous.
Speaker 2: Was not a very good promo.
Speaker 1: Then she did an interview claiming, you know, Becky, you
Speaker 1: got no personality. The only reason you're over is because
Speaker 1: somebody broke your face. Everyone's giving her the what treatment,
Speaker 1: and she says, at money in the bank, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: break your face again and make you famous. And this
Speaker 1: led to Becky versus Chelsea, which I don't know what
Speaker 1: this means. But the match itself was seven minutes long,
Speaker 1: but we only saw three minutes of it on television
Speaker 1: because they immediately went to commercial and they came back
Speaker 1: solely for the comeback in the finish, which of course
Speaker 1: was Becky submitting her with the disarmer. We've got a
Speaker 1: beginning of a long term storyline here with the judgment day,
Speaker 1: and the story is that Damian Priest is going to
Speaker 1: be splitting and going babyface at some point, and they're
Speaker 1: planting seeds every single day, Priest is all excited about
Speaker 1: money in the bank, but Finn is morose and he
Speaker 1: glares at Priest as he leaves. We had Priest versus
Speaker 1: Riddle Ina Money in the Bank qualifier fifteen minutes. Really
Speaker 1: good match. These guys were great and back and forth.
Speaker 1: Riddle missed the floating bro past grabs him, Razor's edge
Speaker 1: pins him clean in the middle to qualify for Money
Speaker 1: in the Bank. And then Imperium came out afterwards and
Speaker 1: pre says, go pick the bones, and so they attack
Speaker 1: and destroy Riddle to get revenge on Riddle taking out
Speaker 1: Baldy as they call him last week with the ankle lock,
Speaker 1: and he was not on the show this week. But
Speaker 1: I believe that it is a worked injury. I don't
Speaker 1: think he's actually hurt. That's the impression I've been given
Speaker 1: Cody today. Promo asked about the Dom match, and you know,
Speaker 1: he's still on the finish of the story story, and
Speaker 1: so no matter what happens, he will not be held back,
Speaker 1: he will not be kept down. He will finish his story.
Speaker 1: Nothing is going.
Speaker 2: To knock him off his path.
Speaker 1: We had an Imperium segment with Sammy and Kevin where
Speaker 1: apparently I wasn't even aware of this. But all that
Speaker 1: work building up Imperium week after week after week after
Speaker 1: week after week, they finally announced the match. This was
Speaker 1: supposed to be non title and so Imperium's like, put
Speaker 1: the titles on the line. Bro. So Kevin's like, sure,
Speaker 1: we'll put him on the line. He says, let's go
Speaker 1: do this, and then he notes, I can't wrestle in
Speaker 1: this T shirt and shorts. I gotta go change into
Speaker 1: a different T shirt and shorts, much like Buddy Wayne
Speaker 1: once showed up in the building for a street fight
Speaker 1: and took off his jeans to put on a different
Speaker 1: pair of jeans. That's weird. Sorry, it's a street fight. Brother, Ricochet,
Speaker 1: faced Bronson, Red, and Shinskate came out to watch. Three
Speaker 1: guesses this was just weird. So Bronson catches Ricochet on
Speaker 1: a dive and he throws him into Shinsky Knakamura at ringside.
Speaker 1: Bronson then throws the dude into the ring and he
Speaker 1: goes up top for the tsunami and Nakimura attacks him
Speaker 1: for the DQ And this finish was so lame that
Speaker 1: the fans booed the baby Face for kicking the heel
Speaker 1: leading to it a DQ, so Rick Kshet Nakamura yelled
Speaker 1: at each other. Bronson jumped Knockimur from behind. Knakamura and
Speaker 1: rick Sha were like so close together, arguing that when
Speaker 1: when Knakamura got jumped they shoot head butted each other,
Speaker 1: they were dead, but they got up. They gave the
Speaker 1: double superplex to Bronson, and a crowd a shirted like
Speaker 1: that to the point they said something I can't say here.
Speaker 1: In the year, Samy met with Kevin. He said, dude,
Speaker 1: what's up lately? You're always blowing up? Why are you
Speaker 1: a ten every day, to which Kevin replied, I'm a six.
Speaker 1: This Kevin character is great. This is like the best
Speaker 1: Kevin Owens I think there's actually ever been. He's always agitated.
Speaker 4: Yes, this new amped up Kevin at all times where
Speaker 4: saying he's trying to be the calm voice of reason.
Speaker 3: It is fantastic.
Speaker 1: And Rick Achet wanted to match with Bronson next week,
Speaker 1: but Pierce said, actually, he's already got a match with Ricochet,
Speaker 1: and uh Ricochet is angry or no, Ricochet wants a
Speaker 1: match with Bronson, Pierce says he's already got a.
Speaker 2: Match with Knakamura.
Speaker 1: Ricochet's met at Nakamura Mura for interfering, and then Nakamura says, listen,
Speaker 1: I will succeed where you failed. And when I'm done,
Speaker 1: you can you can, you know, pick the bones? Which
Speaker 1: is there a new deal? Then we had this fricking
Speaker 1: segment with Seth Rawlins and Finn Balor. You know what.
Speaker 1: I had a guy tell me the other day. He goes,
Speaker 1: how come you hate the fans singing seth song? But
Speaker 1: you don't have a problem with this them singing Chris
Speaker 1: Jericho's song. And it's like, well, Chris Jericho's song is
Speaker 1: this ain't even a song, it's just whatever, And they
Speaker 1: just won't shut up about and you know what, you
Speaker 1: know what, everybody mark my words, mark my words. This
Speaker 1: sing in Seth's song is gonna be the new what.
Speaker 3: That's what.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be the new what. Where These people are
Speaker 1: gonna come out and they're gonna try and do promos
Speaker 1: with Seth and the people are just gonna sing and
Speaker 1: sing and sing and sing and sing, and you're never
Speaker 1: gonna get to the point and it's gonna drag on forever.
Speaker 4: The I want so much for putting that in everybody's
Speaker 4: heads as they can continue to do to be annoyed.
Speaker 1: That's what's gonna happen. You know what happened here? Here
Speaker 1: was the whole point of the promo. Okay, Finn is
Speaker 1: mad that seven years ago they were doing a match.
Speaker 1: He was supposed to start his run as a Universal champion,
Speaker 1: but Seth legitimately injured him with a buckle bomb into
Speaker 1: the thing. He tore every muscle in his upper body.
Speaker 1: Finn missed a year of his career and he was
Speaker 1: never the same again. And now he's ad and he
Speaker 1: wants to do the same thing as Seth. And Seth's response,
Speaker 1: oddly is well, I hope the tough guy shows up
Speaker 1: a not this wimp because I guess he wants a
Speaker 1: challenge or whatever. And how long did it take me
Speaker 1: to say that, like, you know, thirty seconds at most. Well,
Speaker 1: this thing went on and on and on and on
Speaker 1: and on and on and on and on and on
Speaker 1: to the point where the next two matches, Raquel and
Speaker 1: Shana and Chad Gable and Eric. Whether you wanted to
Speaker 1: see him or not, the fact of the better is
Speaker 1: they both got their time drastically cut because the interview
Speaker 1: segment went on forever. So I'm sure that Raquel and
Speaker 1: Shana and Chad and Eric and Ivar and Super Porky
Speaker 1: and Maxine, I'm sure they're all thrilled with the fans
Speaker 1: just singing this song NonStop as they prepare all after
Speaker 1: You're noon for a match and are told, sorry, you
Speaker 1: got to cut it down to two minutes.
Speaker 2: Because we're we're just running out of time.
Speaker 4: My god, though that they really need both of those segments.
Speaker 4: The most important person out of anybody in that mix
Speaker 4: is Raquel Rodriguez at this point in the game, and
Speaker 4: then you cut her match short. You could have done
Speaker 4: the wackiness with Chad and Maxine and all of them
Speaker 4: next week or at another time.
Speaker 1: Well, Shana rolled up Raquel a stupid finish, so incredibly stupid.
Speaker 1: Randa gets on the apron in front of the referee.
Speaker 1: Raquel begins fighting her on the apron in front of
Speaker 1: the referee. This allows Shana to roll her up, and
Speaker 1: then Rhonda pushes on the buttocks of Shana for leverage
Speaker 1: to pin her.
Speaker 2: I like, dude, God help me.
Speaker 4: I you know, referees never had to be Ivy League
Speaker 4: MENSA members, you know, and pro wrestling. But at this
Speaker 4: point the game, every single promotion, AWWWE New Japan, you know,
Speaker 4: the major promotions just treat them like trash. They're garbage
Speaker 4: and they get in the way. It's just ridiculous.
Speaker 1: And we had she had Gable and Eric Maxine is
Speaker 1: now in a wrestling singlet and she gave a power
Speaker 1: slam on the floor to Valhalla, which distracted Eric Chad
Speaker 1: rolled him up and pinned him again two minutes time
Speaker 1: cut because of all the fans singing. Finn was giving
Speaker 1: JD a pep talk, So they're moving in that direction.
Speaker 1: JD is going to join. Actually, what will probably happen
Speaker 1: long term is JD is going to replace Priest be
Speaker 1: my guest. And Priest showed up and essentially Finn's like,
Speaker 1: you know, if I win this title at money in
Speaker 1: the bank and you win the briefcase, like you're not
Speaker 1: getting cash on in on me, right, And Priest is like,
Speaker 1: I can't believe he even asked, of course not, but
Speaker 1: he says, you know, from now on, you need to
Speaker 1: keep your word to me, which I don't know what
Speaker 1: he's talking about, but I'm sure something happened somewhere, so uh,
Speaker 1: Fay in the bank, Seth did a promo thankfully backstage,
Speaker 1: no one's saying, and then the main event was great.
Speaker 1: Kevin and Sammy beat Imperium when Samy hit the blue
Speaker 1: thunder Bomb for the pin on uh what's his face?
Speaker 2: Gun?
Speaker 1: But yeah, this match was great. Everybody was great, hard chops,
Speaker 1: great wrestling, big near falls, excellent main event and that's
Speaker 1: raw back in a moment, it was her live.
Speaker 2: Ben the show.
Speaker 1: Brain never is here, Wrestling observer alive. I can't believe
Speaker 1: I'm arguing in the chat about whether or not WWE
Speaker 1: is hot. Like it's hot.
Speaker 3: It's as hot as.
Speaker 1: It has been in like two decades. They're selling more
Speaker 1: tickets than they've sold in forever. They're making more money
Speaker 1: in merchandise than they've made in forever. They're up year
Speaker 1: over year, which they haven't been in forever. I mean literally,
Speaker 1: you gotta go back to the nineties for them to
Speaker 1: be up year over year. To the nineties. And by
Speaker 1: the way, you know this is not just you know,
Speaker 1: they were stagnant, stagnant, stagnant.
Speaker 2: Now they're up a little bit.
Speaker 1: They were declining dramatically year over year. Don't you remember,
Speaker 1: like a couple of years ago, we were talking about,
Speaker 1: how do you realize in eighteen to forty nine they're
Speaker 1: down fifty five percent in three years. Do you know
Speaker 1: what kind of a collapse that is? They have gone
Speaker 1: from that to being up in everything. They're up in
Speaker 1: ticket sales, they're up in ratings, they're up in viewership
Speaker 1: of their shows, they're up in what else is they're
Speaker 1: they're up in merchandise. Like everything is up, and we're
Speaker 1: arguing that it's not hot right now. No.
Speaker 3: I think some people are maybe.
Speaker 4: You know, conflating hot and good product, good creative product,
Speaker 4: and it goes in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you don't like it, that's fine, you don't,
Speaker 1: you don't subjectively like it, that's fine, But objectively they
Speaker 1: are as hot as they have been in decades right now, Ryan, time,
Speaker 1: by the way, to renegotiate their television deal, which is
Speaker 1: impeccable timing. Impeccable timing anyway back later on tonight for
Speaker 1: the nineties party.
Speaker 2: And Fine.
Speaker 1: It'll be available on Twitch for the Twitch subscribers as well.
Speaker 1: Sign up today at Amazon Prime.
Speaker 3: He's wearing flannel.
Speaker 1: Talk to you next time, Wrestling Observer Live. You have
Speaker 1: been listening to the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast on the
Speaker 1: eight Side Network.