Speaker 1: Hey, this is Brian Alvarez and this is today's edition
Speaker 1: of the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast on the eight Side Network.
Speaker 1: Let's get it all. How's it going, everybody? Brian Alvarez
Speaker 1: here on or Wrestling Observer Live. We are here every
Speaker 1: day Monday through Friday, New Pacific Threeastern, Sunday three Pacific,
Speaker 1: sixth Eastern. It is Tuesday in this program. And you
Speaker 1: know that means we've got last night's Raw. They're Raw
Speaker 1: after WrestleMania, the legendary Raw after WrestleMania. It was an
Speaker 1: al right show. We had a wait three hours for
Speaker 1: Roman Reigns to tell us that he would tell us
Speaker 1: what was going on on the next show. That was interesting,
Speaker 1: and I always see what's going on? What's chat talking about?
Speaker 1: A I asked myself as the show begins, what what
Speaker 1: about Raw or any of the news. What's really what's
Speaker 1: really getting their conversation going? And of all things, it's Elias,
Speaker 1: of all things, So I guess we got to talk
Speaker 1: about Elias today. You guys know the story of this
Speaker 1: Elias bloke. Remember Elias, Remember he played that guitar and
Speaker 1: then uh and then he did those vignettes and he
Speaker 1: said that Elias was dead. Long live Elias, and this
Speaker 1: was like nine months ago or something crazy, and then
Speaker 1: he just vanished off television forever. We never saw him again.
Speaker 1: And then they cut a whole bunch of people, but
Speaker 1: they didn't cut Alias, and I was like, where's this
Speaker 1: Elias guy at there's nowhere to be seen. And then
Speaker 1: last night on Raw, Kevin Owens is doing a promo
Speaker 1: top hell Kevin Owens, I might add, and he's interrupted
Speaker 1: by Elias, who has shaved his face and does not
Speaker 1: have a guitar. And this this new Elias, he looks
Speaker 1: like somebody like straight out of you know, w WF
Speaker 1: like a job guy from Superstars of Wrestling about just
Speaker 1: got you know, long hair, you know, big dude, totally
Speaker 1: generic looking, generic trunks, everything it comes out and coming
Speaker 1: out and says, uh, what are you doing here? Elias Lisase,
Speaker 1: I'm not Alias. I mean Lias's brother Ezekiel. He's playing
Speaker 1: his own brother. So anyway we can talk about this
Speaker 1: compelling storyline and everything else that went down on rob
Speaker 1: We got Wrestle media Weekend business notes. We got a
Speaker 1: lot of news. We'll get into it after the break.
Speaker 1: Wrestling Observer Live back in the show. Brain Eva is
Speaker 1: here Wrestling Observer Live Mike and for v B also
Speaker 1: Wrestling Observer dot Com. I can't. I can't believe this
Speaker 1: is the top story today. That's all everyone was talking about. Ezekiel.
Speaker 1: So listen. I got a text during the break from
Speaker 1: producer Rob. If you guys are aware of Rob, Producer Rob,
Speaker 1: but he's he's regularly wrong, and he goes here, you
Speaker 1: don't like the Ezekiel storyline. I'm shocked. Shocked, I say,
Speaker 1: I never said I didn't like the storyline. In fact,
Speaker 1: I can't even say whether I like the storyline or
Speaker 1: not because there is no storyline right now. We have
Speaker 1: a guy who's claiming he's his own brother. Now, listen,
Speaker 1: I once saw this storyline and of all places, t
Speaker 1: n A where you had the monster Abyss, and then
Speaker 1: one day his brother Joe Park showed up. Okay, dude,
Speaker 1: this storyline was awesome. But there's a big difference. Okay,
Speaker 1: there's a big difference. Yeah, Park Park and Park he
Speaker 1: was he was an attorney, Joe Park. So the problem,
Speaker 1: the problem here the guys don't seem to realize is
Speaker 1: Abyss was a masked monster and he had a mask
Speaker 1: with a long haired wig sewn into it. Okay, So
Speaker 1: when he was gonna be Joe Park he took the
Speaker 1: mask off and he combed his hair and he you know,
Speaker 1: put his glasses spectacles on, and he was all goofy
Speaker 1: and uh. He could play two characters. And it was
Speaker 1: fun because you know, you were sitting there thinking, Okay,
Speaker 1: am I supposed to believe that there actually are two
Speaker 1: people here? Or am I supposed to believe that Joe
Speaker 1: park is pretending to be his brother? But he's actually
Speaker 1: Abyss without his mask on? And then you do a
Speaker 1: bunch of storylines from there. Elias doesn't wear a mask.
Speaker 1: His mask was he had a beard, So like, where
Speaker 1: are we going here? Like, you know, Ezekiel is gonna
Speaker 1: come out here and do some stuff and then he's
Speaker 1: gonna put on a fake beard, like a Santa beard
Speaker 1: with the thing, and then you know, play some guitar
Speaker 1: or whatever, and you know he's gonna be Elias that
Speaker 1: day and then he'll take it off. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe they can make it so campy at work, but
Speaker 1: you're already it's already not gonna work the same way
Speaker 1: it did with Joe Park. An Abyss, but I mean
Speaker 1: Abiss does work for w w E, So I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe he made this suggestion and uh and
Speaker 1: way we go. But I mean maybe they have some
Speaker 1: other grand plan. I mean, if you had had Caine member,
Speaker 1: when Caine had the mask and then they unmasked him,
Speaker 1: like if they would have done it then before they
Speaker 1: had masked him, like he had his mask on and
Speaker 1: his long hair, and then one day Mayor Glenn showed
Speaker 1: up and he wore a suit and he had a
Speaker 1: shaved head or whatever, and he, you know, talk politics,
Speaker 1: and you really wanted to get rid of this big
Speaker 1: red monster because it was like, you know, hurting his
Speaker 1: political career that you know, his brother was like a
Speaker 1: crazed arsonist or something like that. That'd be one thing.
Speaker 1: But we got an unmasked guy who's now praining as
Speaker 1: his own unmasked How do you make this work? What
Speaker 1: do you mean? I don't know what they're gonna do.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'll love it, but so far, I'm like, what
Speaker 1: is this? You really could have pushed it with the
Speaker 1: Kane storyline, because you could have had his brother him
Speaker 1: join up his past as the unibomb and in O
Speaker 1: v W could have been brought up. But this is
Speaker 1: this is right out of a daytime folding the Beautiful,
Speaker 1: Young and the Restless General hospital sort of thing. Character
Speaker 1: Lee comes back. No that's not me. Well yeah, but
Speaker 1: there's no one cares that he left. No one even
Speaker 1: remembered he was gone. I mean, it'd be one thing
Speaker 1: if you know, a sudden Randy Orton disappears and then
Speaker 1: some long haired guy shows up and he says he's
Speaker 1: his own brother or something like that, or Barry or
Speaker 1: maybe he let it grow out and it got all
Speaker 1: puffy and he claimed he with his own father. I'm
Speaker 1: about Randy, I'm cowboy Bob. He could have showed them
Speaker 1: with a cast on. I got ideas, but I'm not
Speaker 1: sure about this one. Anyway. I gotta let it play
Speaker 1: out right. We got a lot of other stuff that
Speaker 1: we gotta get into it. Trust me. Is more important
Speaker 1: than that name though, because it was Ezekiel Jackson was
Speaker 1: the less Ezekiel. And ww's about that name. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: know in the Bible, this Ezekiel fella. He saw this,
Speaker 1: this this vision that all the the UFO folks think
Speaker 1: was a UFO. So maybe the story could be that
Speaker 1: Elias was abducted and they brought down his Eikiel. That's
Speaker 1: where he's at. Anyway, I got a story to tell y'all.
Speaker 1: It's not really a story, but so, uh, here's a
Speaker 1: n x T tonight. This is the line of for
Speaker 1: n x T. We got Raquel and Dakota against Toxic Attraction.
Speaker 1: Toxic Attraction lost the belts, and they're getting an immediate
Speaker 1: rematch because we got a lot of immediate rematches I've
Speaker 1: noticed lately, even though anyway, we're gonna hear from the
Speaker 1: North American Champion, Cameron Grimes, Nikita Lions versus Lash Legend
Speaker 1: is tonight and the fallout from Standing Deliver. So on Saturday,
Speaker 1: we had the standard deliver and it was Ziggler versus
Speaker 1: braun Breaker, and braun Breaker was defeated by Dolph Ziggler.
Speaker 1: And that afternoon I I heard from someone who's close
Speaker 1: to folks and n x T and I know a
Speaker 1: lot about what's going on there, and they said, you know,
Speaker 1: it looks like Ziggler is gonna be champion for a while.
Speaker 1: This was Saturday, Okay, So then Sunday or Monday, uh,
Speaker 1: at about eleven thirty or so, I I heard actually
Speaker 1: from several people that we're gonna have uh n x
Speaker 1: T title change on the show tonight. One person said
Speaker 1: n XT title changed tonight, and the other person specified
Speaker 1: that it was gonna be uh braun Breaker beating Dolve
Speaker 1: Ziggler to win the title back on Raw, which is
Speaker 1: why I said everything that I the said yesterday. So,
Speaker 1: uh so I watched the show and they do braun
Speaker 1: Breaker and Dolve Ziggler, and braun Breaker defeats Dolph Ziggler
Speaker 1: and he wins the NXT Championship. He's a new champion,
Speaker 1: He's won the belt. So I continue watching the show
Speaker 1: and everything like that, and then about forty five minutes later,
Speaker 1: they have a commercial for an x T, and the
Speaker 1: commercial for n x T, the whole commercial it's about
Speaker 1: how dolves Bagler beat braun Breaker and we're gonna get
Speaker 1: the fallout on n x T, which, oddly enough, they
Speaker 1: said n x T tonight at nine o'clock, so not
Speaker 1: only it was tomorrow's commercial that they aired on the
Speaker 1: wrong day, and the commercial that they had had been
Speaker 1: created with the idea that Ziggler was still the champion.
Speaker 1: So anyway, it's the usual, you know, Oh, Brian and
Speaker 1: navy chain plans change what a compount bro They changed
Speaker 1: this plan, and we have all evidence. All evidence points
Speaker 1: to on Saturday Dolphin was gonna be the champion for
Speaker 1: a while, and by Monday he had already lost the
Speaker 1: belt to braun Breaker on Rock. I think it is
Speaker 1: my theory. I think that on Saturday the idea was
Speaker 1: we are going to beat braun Breaker and then he's
Speaker 1: gonna be called up to the main roster on the
Speaker 1: Raw after WrestleMania, and then I don't know, you know
Speaker 1: what happened over the next day or so. Maybe someone
Speaker 1: was like, dude, can we have him for like six
Speaker 1: more months? You know, maybe you know what it might
Speaker 1: have been. Maybe they watched that Omas match and they
Speaker 1: were like, we don't want to call anybody up to early,
Speaker 1: even braun Breaker, so let's leave him down there for
Speaker 1: a while, and instead of calling him up, we'll give
Speaker 1: him a big win on Raw. You know, hey, everyone,
Speaker 1: here's his braun Breaker. Fella. Oh, he gets a big win,
Speaker 1: wins a championship on Raw, y'all cheer and everything like that,
Speaker 1: and then he he stays on n x T for
Speaker 1: a while. So I don't know what the whole mindset
Speaker 1: was of everything that happened, but clearly there was a
Speaker 1: change of plans this weekend and Brun Breakers back as
Speaker 1: the champion, and uh, he's gonna be I guess on
Speaker 1: the show, which I think is actually tonight. Unlike what
Speaker 1: they told me on Raw last night. It doesn't kill
Speaker 1: my feelings that he's back in n x T at all.
Speaker 1: It doesn't, but I just don't. I don't know. In
Speaker 1: another world in common sense, he's only been wrestling for
Speaker 1: what officially six months, he's been in their program for
Speaker 1: and so yeah, I mean, him staying down there for
Speaker 1: another year in theory is going to make him a
Speaker 1: better wrestler, a better worker, but that also depends on
Speaker 1: what they're teaching him, what they want him to do,
Speaker 1: who he's working with. And it's like bron Breaker on
Speaker 1: the main roster. I mean, there's all these things that
Speaker 1: in theory could go bad, but it's like him on
Speaker 1: the main roster makes a lot more sense than let's say, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't know Gable Stevenson debuting on the main roster,
Speaker 1: as opposed to really now taking bron Breaker's place in
Speaker 1: n x T and having Braun up on the main
Speaker 1: roster there they finally debuted Vier. You have Cody showing up,
Speaker 1: You've now re debuted alias as Ezekiel. There's obviously these
Speaker 1: Postmania changes that get made. Bron Breaker now to me
Speaker 1: would be a great time for him to be up there,
Speaker 1: but they again, for whatever reason, he's back down in
Speaker 1: n x D. I guess he's going to continue on
Speaker 1: with Dolphin Bobby Rude, which you know that's helped them
Speaker 1: as far as refreshing them. But again, it surprises me
Speaker 1: that they would want on down there for really any
Speaker 1: extended period of time. But yet they're still, as far
Speaker 1: as I know, wanting to debut Gable Stevenson on the
Speaker 1: main roster. Back in a moment, Bros. Observer Live back
Speaker 1: in the show Bright now Vera is here, Wrestling Observer
Speaker 1: Live Mix, sumbur Vid also Wrestling Observer dot Com. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do this raw report here real quick, then we'll
Speaker 1: talk about it. There's a lot to talk about. So
Speaker 1: it opened up with a Cody Rhodes promo and uh,
Speaker 1: he did a great promo, a w style promo, and
Speaker 1: he acknowledged that he had been swear He said it
Speaker 1: was an easy decision to come here send a multi
Speaker 1: year deal vance chanted you deserve it. And then he
Speaker 1: told a story about a photo that they had in
Speaker 1: their house, Dusty had in his house of a match
Speaker 1: at Madison Square Garden September ninete. Dusty's holding the belt
Speaker 1: over his head, and Cody notes he held the belt,
Speaker 1: but he never actually won it because he won the
Speaker 1: match via count out, and the title cannot change hands
Speaker 1: via count out, and so he said it was the
Speaker 1: belt at Hogan Undertaker Michael's Triple h and many other
Speaker 1: had had held. And he said his father was a
Speaker 1: hero and he had vowed that someday he was going
Speaker 1: to get that belt and he was going to hand
Speaker 1: it to his father, but his father died, so he
Speaker 1: can no longer hand of the belt to his father.
Speaker 1: But he can win that belt and strap it around
Speaker 1: his own waist for himself, for the fans, and for
Speaker 1: his family. So that's the storyline. Cody's goal is to
Speaker 1: win the w w E championship that his father never won,
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of ways that you can do this, right,
Speaker 1: There's also a lot of ways you can I mean,
Speaker 1: he's gonna win the title eventually, but I feel like
Speaker 1: there's a way they could do and it would be awesome,
Speaker 1: and there's a way the way they could just do it.
Speaker 1: So we'll see which one they choose, but I know
Speaker 1: which one I'm leading towards. I hope for the other.
Speaker 1: We had a non title match. This was absolutely positively
Speaker 1: classic w w E. It is champions Sasha Banks and
Speaker 1: Naomi versus Ria Ripley and Live Morrigan, but it is
Speaker 1: a non title match. Sasha Banks and Naomi versus Rhea
Speaker 1: and Live in a non title match ends when Live
Speaker 1: Morrigan is pinned clean in the middle of the ring
Speaker 1: by the champions. Ria has been with one geek partner
Speaker 1: after another. She can take no more. She is upset
Speaker 1: and she just storms to the back. Later, Live goes
Speaker 1: up there. She says, what was that all about? It
Speaker 1: seems pretty self explainatory to me. Marie says, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I was frustrated, but I have spoken Adam
Speaker 1: Pierce and Sony Deville and they have granted us a
Speaker 1: championship match next week. So they lost a non title
Speaker 1: match clean in the middle of the ring to lead
Speaker 1: to a championship match a next week's show. When a
Speaker 1: Kevin Owens segment this was the return or the debut
Speaker 1: of Elias Slash Ezekiel, however you want to determine. It
Speaker 1: appears they will be having a match or something from
Speaker 1: Stone Cold Steve Austin in the main event of WrestleMania
Speaker 1: to Ezekiel, the Man Is defeated Dominic Mysterie You in
Speaker 1: thirty one seconds clean with the skull crushing finale thirty
Speaker 1: one seconds clean in the middle, and then Veer debuted
Speaker 1: and he beat up Dominic and he beat up Ray
Speaker 1: and next week he will kill the legendary Ray Mysterio Jr.
Speaker 1: On Monday Night Raw you hatt a Bianca bell Air promo.
Speaker 1: I thought Bianca was awesome, but you know what, Nobody
Speaker 1: wants Becky Lynch to be a heel. They've never wanted
Speaker 1: Becky Lynch to be a heel. They've always wanted her
Speaker 1: to be a baby face. And so Bianca's here talking
Speaker 1: about Becky and there are people booing her, there are
Speaker 1: people chanting for Becky Lynch, and bro get these two
Speaker 1: away from each other. Immediately, get them away from each other.
Speaker 1: Move Becky on to somebody else, and move be or yeah,
Speaker 1: move Becky to somebody else and move Bianca onto some
Speaker 1: heel that people aren't gonna so that you can actually
Speaker 1: get over as the baby face, because the irony is
Speaker 1: that everything that Becky complains about is a hell is
Speaker 1: what's actually happening for real with Bianca Miller. So get
Speaker 1: them away from each other the sooner the better. For
Speaker 1: the love of God, braun Breaker beat delve Ziggler to
Speaker 1: win the NXT title ten minutes, no heat, but they
Speaker 1: did pop big for the finish because they got to
Speaker 1: see a championship change. You know, we've got an audience that, uh,
Speaker 1: you know that they're not watching n x T two
Speaker 1: point oh so, and who is except for me. We
Speaker 1: had a Bobby lash Lee m v P segment. This
Speaker 1: was also classic Deva viewee. You had a group called
Speaker 1: the Hurt Business. They were the coolest group in all
Speaker 1: of raw or SmackDown. You had m v P, you
Speaker 1: had Bobby Lashly, you had Shelton, Benjamin, Cedric, Alexander. So
Speaker 1: what do they do. They break off Sheldon Cedric, then
Speaker 1: they reunite them and no one cares, and they break
Speaker 1: them up again, and no one because no one even
Speaker 1: knows what's going on. But you at least had Lashly
Speaker 1: who's not a great pro momo and m v P,
Speaker 1: who's an awesome promo. Well, they have a match in
Speaker 1: Mania with Bobby lash Len Omas. It absolutely sucks. Omas
Speaker 1: is incapable of having a good match. All people can
Speaker 1: talk about is at the very least, I don't want
Speaker 1: to see when get fired, But you gotta send the
Speaker 1: guy back to developmental or something not w w E. No,
Speaker 1: Bobby Lashly comes out, he does a promo which is
Speaker 1: not very good, and then Omas comes out and m
Speaker 1: v P turns on Bobby Lashly and now m v
Speaker 1: P is managing O Moss against Bobby Lashly. You know,
Speaker 1: there's an old saying accentuate the strengths and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: don't expose everyone's weaknesses. This is this is like, this
Speaker 1: is idiot proof. W w either making so much money
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter, but you have literally done everything wrong
Speaker 1: with everybody involved in this whole scenario. Great, now we've
Speaker 1: got m v P and Omas. I'm also have bad matches,
Speaker 1: Lashly do bad promos. Then we had Zelene and Carmela.
Speaker 1: They're supposed to face Natty and Shana, but Carmela dances
Speaker 1: all the way down to the ring. The good commercials.
Speaker 1: She dances during the whole commercial break. Apparently they come
Speaker 1: back and Selene is just sick of this dancing turns
Speaker 1: on her. I hate you. It's all it's all about you.
Speaker 1: Your husband's an idiot for marrying you. But boy, he's
Speaker 1: a handon and I'm like, oh my god. Now Corey
Speaker 1: Graves is a sex symbol all the women want. Carmela
Speaker 1: gets mad. I'm so like, I cannot wait for them
Speaker 1: to get married. I cannot wait. He's leaving. Thank god,
Speaker 1: she's leaving. Get off my television. This is the ultimate
Speaker 1: go away. He did it. I tolerated it for long enough.
Speaker 1: I can't take it anymore. Thankfully they're leaving, and Jerry
Speaker 1: Lawler is replacing Corey Graves for a while. I yea
Speaker 1: it is. I hope, like Carl Listen, Corey Grays, when
Speaker 1: he's just a commentator, is better than Jerry Lawler. But
Speaker 1: now he's not a commentator. He's a part of the storyline.
Speaker 1: The women are fighting over him. He's got a pander
Speaker 1: to his I'm over it. Get out of here for
Speaker 1: a while. Like, honest to god, I wish them nothing
Speaker 1: but the best, and I hope that they can pay
Speaker 1: for like a six month honeymoon and then they can
Speaker 1: come back and start over again, and like it's over,
Speaker 1: this is over. I got it, you're married. I don't
Speaker 1: care anymore. CALLI. I think you're handsome. Corey Jimminey Christmas.
Speaker 1: Then we had Austin Theory USO's versus Finnbalor Ran Jordan Riddle.
Speaker 1: I don't know if they like think that Finnbaler is
Speaker 1: leaving or something, but I mean they're just beating him
Speaker 1: like a drum. Austin Theory pins him for about the
Speaker 1: eighth time, because you know Austin theory is and they
Speaker 1: even said it on TV. He is Vince's new chosen
Speaker 1: one because Vince always has to find a handsome guy
Speaker 1: with a good physique who can work. But then he's
Speaker 1: got to go beat everybody that works better than he does,
Speaker 1: and everybody turns on him and hates the guy and
Speaker 1: they think he's being shoved down there. This is classic,
Speaker 1: classic w w E. That's what we're seeing here. Edge
Speaker 1: and Damian Priest segment fans just mocking them throughout this segment.
Speaker 1: Edge is now uh the old seth rawlins Messiah Gimmick.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be brooding and do uh, you know, very
Speaker 1: generic monotone promos. Damian Priest is, uh, you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's literally it's a Jericho appreciation society, but it's
Speaker 1: Edge and Damian Priest is, I don't know, I want
Speaker 1: a two point oh. But anyway, fans are chanting, you know,
Speaker 1: we don't care, and then Edge goes, of course you
Speaker 1: don't care, you're you're idiots, and they chant we are idiots. Whatever,
Speaker 1: it'll be better next week they won't have this crowd.
Speaker 1: And then a Stiles comes out and they beat him
Speaker 1: up and they're gonna give him the concerto. But thank
Speaker 1: Lee for once in in anyone's life the guy has
Speaker 1: actually come out to save a j And then we
Speaker 1: get a chant for Jamie Noble, who was the only
Speaker 1: over guy in the segment on this raw. After WrestleMania,
Speaker 1: we had the Street Province versus Alpha Academy. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was all right, but it's one of those matches
Speaker 1: where they're all in the ring together as a Texas
Speaker 1: Tornado match, so they're like falling on each other and
Speaker 1: they're in everybody's way. This would have been a thousand
Speaker 1: times better it's just a tag match, but after WrestleMania,
Speaker 1: we gotta do something wacky. And then uh Ford pinned
Speaker 1: Gable splashed him through a table. It's a good finish,
Speaker 1: and I mean, they worked hard, but I think this
Speaker 1: could have been better. And then the main event of
Speaker 1: the show is a Roman Reigins segment. Roman Rains comes out,
Speaker 1: he goes, I know what you guys want to hear about,
Speaker 1: but let's mix it up a little. Paul tell everyone
Speaker 1: how great I am. Isn't that every Roman promo? So
Speaker 1: Paul tells us how great he is and all of
Speaker 1: the business records that have been set under Roman reigns,
Speaker 1: and then he gives them Mike to Roman Reigns, and
Speaker 1: Roman says, you know, after what I did at WrestleMania
Speaker 1: unified these idols be brock lesner some men. Some men
Speaker 1: would call it a career, but not me. I am
Speaker 1: a progressive tribal chief. He says. Perhaps he's running for office.
Speaker 1: And he says, I'm gonna tell you guys what's next
Speaker 1: on SmackDown. And then they all go like this, and
Speaker 1: then the fans, I'll go like this. Roman was over
Speaker 1: his total baby face. They weren't even mad that he
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna tell tonight. They were like cool SmackDown and
Speaker 1: that's how the show ended. So there you go. I
Speaker 1: was not blown away by this raw. I just wasn't.
Speaker 1: It didn't suck, but it was not the raw after
Speaker 1: WrestleMania we've seen in the past. That was more of
Speaker 1: a raw hangover type of deally because again he wasn't.
Speaker 1: It wasn't an awful show at all. Uh, some of
Speaker 1: the monotony of those seeing WrestleMania footage in there as
Speaker 1: opposed to some of the long, grown out stuff that
Speaker 1: they usually do. Again, it was okay, and I guess
Speaker 1: we can get into a little bit more of it.
Speaker 1: We'll get more do with Mike after the break. Everybody
Speaker 1: hold that funt Observer live back in the show. Brian
Speaker 1: Elba is here Wrestling Observer Alive. Mike Sumberviv also of
Speaker 1: Wrestling Observer dot Com. Hey, listen, we can talk about
Speaker 1: RAF to wrestle meeting and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about some actual, real important stuff very quickly.
Speaker 1: I am man enough to admit when I am wrong,
Speaker 1: and no, anyway, the great old Cohn is being honored
Speaker 1: for having saved a girl from an assault. This is
Speaker 1: the greatest story. On the evening of March twenty nine,
Speaker 1: Con reportedly subdued and in he breeded sixty one year
Speaker 1: old man who had grabbed a ten year old girl
Speaker 1: by both shoulders. Conde see the man harassing the girl
Speaker 1: before stepping into intervene. Incident took place out side JR.
Speaker 1: Musashi Kosugi station in Kawasaki City. Nakara Police honored Great
Speaker 1: o Kan Monday, April four with a letter of appreciation
Speaker 1: for his efforts. He told Tokyo Sports the recognition was
Speaker 1: more valuable to him than a championship belt, if I
Speaker 1: recall correctly. When the police showed up and they asked
Speaker 1: him who he was, he responded, I am the Great
Speaker 1: Okon of New Japan Pro Wrestling right there, and then
Speaker 1: I think later they he was interviewed or something like that,
Speaker 1: and he got in a plug for the TV show
Speaker 1: This guy's this guy is a real deal. I ever
Speaker 1: said anything bad about the Great o'con, I apologize, but
Speaker 1: I mean he's still not the best worker in New Japan.
Speaker 1: Let's not. Nobody ever said, listen, this is what you
Speaker 1: will to understand. I am able to I am able
Speaker 1: to separate real life from this business, unlike some people. Okay,
Speaker 1: and listen, I wish nothing but health and happiness and
Speaker 1: prosperity to for example, to miss. I hope that when
Speaker 1: he goes home like his wife and his children and
Speaker 1: his family and his father, and I will be as
Speaker 1: a wonderful life with all sincerity. Absolutely the same with everybody. Okay. Now,
Speaker 1: he's a wrestler, horrible. He wrestles like he's underwater. He
Speaker 1: was outshined by Logan Paul. But these are different things.
Speaker 1: Some people don't understand that. Okay. So like the Great O'con,
Speaker 1: I can't say enough great things about about this person.
Speaker 1: Now is wrestler. You know, he still got a little
Speaker 1: ways to go, but he's you know, he's had some
Speaker 1: good man. Here's the thing with Great o'con. Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: talking about the Great o'con. The Great o'kan is everybody
Speaker 1: in wrestling. When the Great o'con doesn't match where he
Speaker 1: has to go in there and like wrestle like an
Speaker 1: amateur wrestler, it's great. But then when he has to
Speaker 1: go in there and you know, do all though whatever
Speaker 1: and ah, and not as great. You gotta work to
Speaker 1: a person's strengths and and you know, and avoid their weaknesses.
Speaker 1: How many times do we say this, Mike? So Anyway,
Speaker 1: in this case though, aren't you really wanting to blame
Speaker 1: Jotto though? Because the reality is a lot of guys
Speaker 1: they go on their excursions, they come back. Is something.
Speaker 1: What we've seen under Jatto and and their Ghato and Jotto,
Speaker 1: I guess really both of them, we've seen guys come
Speaker 1: back as characters. There was a heavy emphasis on characters.
Speaker 1: That's why we got great Ocon, That's why we got
Speaker 1: Master Watteau, That's why we got Evil in all caps.
Speaker 1: That's why we've gotten those things. So, I mean, it
Speaker 1: certainly gave him a personality, but I think people really,
Speaker 1: maybe even you, really judged him more on the character
Speaker 1: and him coming back, knowing if you watch New Japan
Speaker 1: that there was going to be a lot more development
Speaker 1: taking place, which is why he's with will As Spray
Speaker 1: and why he's with Jeff Cobb. That you know. Again,
Speaker 1: I think the character, and I don't know you have
Speaker 1: seen him. You have just not liked him from day one.
Speaker 1: You wanted to make fun of the I did not
Speaker 1: like him. I I thought that he badly overrating his
Speaker 1: his matches. But who are these people that badly overrated
Speaker 1: his matches? Because you have people on your own website
Speaker 1: that have shows like The Adam and like Big Audio
Speaker 1: Nightmare that talked about his progression and what they were
Speaker 1: doing with him and where they wanted him. And you
Speaker 1: looked at him and it's like, that guy is never
Speaker 1: gonna be world champion, and it's like, can we give
Speaker 1: it some time? Here? Can we give it a little
Speaker 1: bit of time? And here's the thing, it's not five
Speaker 1: years into his career. I've talked to countless people who
Speaker 1: work for New Japan and they'll tell you the same thing.
Speaker 1: We're giving it how much time we've got, and that's it.
Speaker 1: You know, one tells us how to work. No one
Speaker 1: tells us what to do in the match, like they
Speaker 1: go out there and they do that on their own.
Speaker 1: And Great o'con has certain strengths and I believe that
Speaker 1: he should play to those strengths more because that's the
Speaker 1: best stuff that I see out of the guy. The
Speaker 1: guy comes across when he wrestles is like a badass grappler, wrestler,
Speaker 1: tough guy. That's way better than doing like the goofy
Speaker 1: gimmicky stuff. That stuff is just like to do that.
Speaker 1: All that stuff with the Mongolian chops was something that
Speaker 1: they wanted to give him. And then they obviously wanted
Speaker 1: to pat into a few that he had with but
Speaker 1: the bottom but he didn't book that. Well no, but
Speaker 1: I didn't blame him for that. But whoever put that
Speaker 1: few together jimminy Christmas, I'm talking about ghetto by the way,
Speaker 1: Ghetto ghetto, you know. But they look, they've had, they've had,
Speaker 1: they've had some pros, and they've had some cons and
Speaker 1: and you know, I guys remember that storyline by the
Speaker 1: way with with the Great o'con and tends On, what
Speaker 1: about it? We don't have to relive it. That's tens
Speaker 1: On didn't mo going chops. So they literally built to
Speaker 1: a match where the where the loser could no longer
Speaker 1: do Mongolian chops. That was a stipulation. So they do
Speaker 1: the match, Ocon wins, and then the very next show,
Speaker 1: ten songs just Mongolian chopping people. They just totally I'm like, what, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was his hands up on that. From what I
Speaker 1: recall it, it didn't make anything. And I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe they were trying to push tens On with a
Speaker 1: foot out the door to officially just be a trainer
Speaker 1: and never active. I don't know what the plan was,
Speaker 1: but whatever was, it went right out the window, and
Speaker 1: the damn stipulation didn't mean a damn thing. But tomy
Speaker 1: Yuki Oka is a is a hero at the end
Speaker 1: of the day. Whether he wants the people to to
Speaker 1: give the heroicism to the great Ocon doesn't matter. No,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. When he was asked who are you,
Speaker 1: he said, I am the Great Okon from Japan Professional wrestling.
Speaker 1: But I'm going to look past that a little bit.
Speaker 1: What matters to me is is Oka as a human being,
Speaker 1: a hero for what he did, and a hero to
Speaker 1: the wrestling business. Because that's pretty damn old school, you know.
Speaker 1: It's uh, it's not exactly the same sort of situation.
Speaker 1: But like Tim Woods MR Wrestling, the original Mr. Wrestling
Speaker 1: was part of that plane crash where the pilot died,
Speaker 1: Ric Flair broke his back, Bob Bruggers ended his career,
Speaker 1: Johnny Valentine's career ended, David Crockett was badly injured in
Speaker 1: that deal, and when they came to him because here's
Speaker 1: a baby face flying with these other heels. I think
Speaker 1: he said, uh, George Wooden, I can't remember if he
Speaker 1: gave him his you know, some variation of his you know,
Speaker 1: Christian name is God given his government name, whatever it is,
Speaker 1: he gave some sort of variation on that, and you know,
Speaker 1: save the business in a in a way. So it
Speaker 1: is a very old school thing to do. It was
Speaker 1: a and just a very awesome thing to do in
Speaker 1: the lore that's gonna come out of this for his career.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's and and just it's something else. It
Speaker 1: really is. We have the Ring of Honor, Supercard of Honor,
Speaker 1: twenty thousand buys. That is not counting anybody that watched
Speaker 1: on Honor Club like I did, Vinnie did, Dave did.
Speaker 1: I don't like everyone I know watched it on Honor Club.
Speaker 1: But apparently there were twenty thousand other people that bought
Speaker 1: it either streaming or traditional pay per view. And that
Speaker 1: says a lot for FTR and in the Briscoes, well,
Speaker 1: of course it does. But you know it's funny. It's
Speaker 1: like I could not, for the life of me figuret
Speaker 1: where to straighten the show at I finally like I'm
Speaker 1: looking everywhere. I'm looking on Fight and I'm looking uh
Speaker 1: b R, and I go, maybe it was an Apple
Speaker 1: TV app or whatever just wasn't coming up. But I
Speaker 1: could not find it anywhere. And then finally I just thought,
Speaker 1: maybe I'll just try Honor clubs that even exist anymore
Speaker 1: now that Tony bought it, And I click on Honor
Speaker 1: Club and there was for free because I was a subscriber,
Speaker 1: so I watched it there. But anyway, twenty thousand buys
Speaker 1: and yes, obviously FTR and the Briscoe is a big
Speaker 1: part of that, But I think that what a lot
Speaker 1: of it was that, you know, it was Tony Khan's
Speaker 1: first Ring of Honor show, and he had promised a
Speaker 1: lot of surprises, and uh, you know, whatever, whatever you
Speaker 1: think of a w the fact is, you know, some
Speaker 1: people are down on certain surprises, like, oh, I didn't
Speaker 1: think the sale of Ring of Honor was a good surprise.
Speaker 1: Everything like that, which you're you're welcome to hear the thing.
Speaker 1: You're welcome to think that you didn't think that that
Speaker 1: was this that goes back to christian by the way,
Speaker 1: you are welcome to say I thought that the Ring
Speaker 1: of Honor announcement was a lame surprise. You are welcome
Speaker 1: to say I believe that the announcement that we've got
Speaker 1: a big star, a Hall of Fame caliber wrestler coming,
Speaker 1: and it ends up being Christian, You have every right
Speaker 1: to think I was let down by this, Okay, But
Speaker 1: here's the difference. Tony con in his mind, he believed
Speaker 1: what he said, and he believed that he delivered what
Speaker 1: was in his brain. You know, guys, you guys know
Speaker 1: what a fan Tony Khan was of Christian. You may
Speaker 1: think that Christian was just like some bloke that you know,
Speaker 1: he had some good matches, he was, you know, just
Speaker 1: part of everything. Tony thought Christian was the greatest. He
Speaker 1: was a enormous Christian fan. You ever hear on these
Speaker 1: shows where you know, you could argue he doesn't know
Speaker 1: his audience, then that's fine. He he believes that Christian
Speaker 1: is a Hall of Fame caliber performer and that he
Speaker 1: delivered on his promise. He believed that his purchase of
Speaker 1: Ring of Honor was a gigantic story that was going
Speaker 1: to change the landscape of the business. Now, I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's gonna end up being that way. We
Speaker 1: got some evidence he did pretty well for that first show.
Speaker 1: But this is not like some promoters. I'm going to
Speaker 1: screw these people. I'm gonna tell me I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: a great surprise. I'm gonna give him something that sucks. No,
Speaker 1: he thought, he thought what he said. If you don't
Speaker 1: think so, that's fine. I'm not saying you're not allowed
Speaker 1: to think that. I'm not allowed to You know, you
Speaker 1: can think whatever you want about any surprise that he promises,
Speaker 1: whether you felt it delivered or not. But in his mind,
Speaker 1: he was delivering that surprise. He's the owner. He's the
Speaker 1: owner that obviously believes what he's saying, and as a
Speaker 1: wrestler because he was a fan of Christian but he's
Speaker 1: also a promoter. And Vince McMahon, Don King, Bob Aram,
Speaker 1: Joe Goosen, the Douva's. You look at the biggest names
Speaker 1: and promotion and Dana White in fight history, whether it
Speaker 1: be boxing or mixed martial arts or K one doesn't
Speaker 1: matter what it is, Like you wanna I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: not saying you want to overdo everything. You want to
Speaker 1: have levels to your promotion, but like, what would you
Speaker 1: expect him to do? Well? We got a special announcement tonight.
Speaker 1: Tune in, don't tune in, because if you like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's the whole thing. And look there's a you
Speaker 1: can you can cry wolf. Don King is a great
Speaker 1: example of that throughout time when he lost Tyson, when
Speaker 1: he didn't have Chavez, when things kinda went downhill for him,
Speaker 1: there were a lot of these things that you throw
Speaker 1: out there. You pay fifty bucks and you didn't get
Speaker 1: your money's worth, and you know, but you still need
Speaker 1: to promote. You still need to make things that may
Speaker 1: not be that big a little big bigger, put some
Speaker 1: shine on it so those people that may not know
Speaker 1: about it, or maybe on the periphery you've got Look,
Speaker 1: it's just promotion. And I think people bend that little
Speaker 1: way too far out of the way when it comes
Speaker 1: to any promotion. Well, that wasn't that big of a deal. Well,
Speaker 1: how do you want him to sell it to you? Here?
Speaker 1: It's not a big deal. I mean it just you know,
Speaker 1: I think it's silly sometimes and I think people get
Speaker 1: too caught up in that and it's like, look, it's
Speaker 1: not gonna always fix your fancy and every time it's
Speaker 1: not gonna fulfill you every time. You may not think
Speaker 1: it's the biggest deal in the world, but you know what,
Speaker 1: there's somebody that might actually think that's the case for somebody.
Speaker 1: And Christian had a lot of fans. Are people that
Speaker 1: love that dude, and he did. It's not just him,
Speaker 1: There's a lot of people that fit into that. So
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think sometimes he gets his his
Speaker 1: cohnis busted too much for just being a promoter, which
Speaker 1: is what he's supposed to be doing. All right, Listen,
Speaker 1: we got the raw ratings from Brandon Thurston here the
Speaker 1: raw the night after to WrestleMania. They broke two million,
Speaker 1: two point one million viewers point six three at eighteen
Speaker 1: to forty nine bear to last week, up six percent
Speaker 1: in total viewership, up fourteen percent in eighteen to forty nine,
Speaker 1: Male eighteen to thirty four up sixty eight percent compared
Speaker 1: to the prior four weeks. People eighteen to thirty four
Speaker 1: up sixty one percent, Females eighteen to thirty four fifty
Speaker 1: eight percent, females eighteen forty eight percent. So we will
Speaker 1: get the quarter hours I'm sure here in a while.
Speaker 1: But that's the biggest ROW number I can believe. I
Speaker 1: can remember in I don't even remember how long it's
Speaker 1: been a long time back in a moment Observer Life
Speaker 1: back in the show. Right now is here wrestling Observer Live.
Speaker 1: Mike's umber viv also wrestling Observe dot Com. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm not a big fan of conspiracy theories, but I
Speaker 1: have a conspiracy theory for you all here. Do you
Speaker 1: know this Ezekiel bloke showed up in city was Lisa's brother,
Speaker 1: remember that we talked about in any of the show. Well,
Speaker 1: I believe he's lying. No, yeah, really yeah, how do
Speaker 1: you know? Well, I'm looking at a picture of him
Speaker 1: here that showed up on the internet, and uh, it's uncanny.
Speaker 1: I believe I believe that Ezekiel actually is someone's brother,
Speaker 1: but he's actually the brother of l A Night. L A. Knight.
Speaker 1: Once you see it, you ain't gonna be able unsee it.
Speaker 1: So there you go. Oh boy, Dave is really going
Speaker 1: to be upset. That mean we get Ezekiel going down
Speaker 1: in the next team, we get gun thor and and
Speaker 1: him next. I wonder where that fits on the Walter scale.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Maybe we'll have another Walter match tonight.
Speaker 1: I hope. Do you think Ezekiel is better than the rain,
Speaker 1: than allies. Oh man, everyone, everyone, everyone's noticing it now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you ain't get every year. You'll never unsee it now
Speaker 1: that you've seen in everybody. He's the brother of l
Speaker 1: A Night? Is that the eyes of the upper cheek
Speaker 1: when I'm thinking he should have he should have come
Speaker 1: out as l A Day, the brother of l A Night.
Speaker 1: He should have done They viewed both of them anyway,
Speaker 1: rut a time. Think Mike has always colors and listeners
Speaker 1: over the studio. Dr you next time, Wrestling Observer Live.
Speaker 1: You've been listening to the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast on
Speaker 1: the eight Side Network