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. Ready, ready,
Speaker 1: let's get it all. How's it going, everybody? Brian Alvarez
Speaker 1: here on Wrestling Observer Live. We are here every day
Speaker 1: Monday through Friday, a New Pacific three during Sunday three
Speaker 1: Pacific sixth Eastern. Well, it's Tuesday here on the show.
Speaker 1: And not only is it Tuesday here on the program,
Speaker 1: it is January four, and so we have more than
Speaker 1: ever to talk about here today, not the least of
Speaker 1: which is Night one of Wrestle Kingdom at the Tokyo Dome.
Speaker 1: I've seen two matches, Shabbata versus Rendarita and the Ocado
Speaker 1: verus Shingo match, so we can talk about that today.
Speaker 1: We'll see how much Mike has seen. That of course,
Speaker 1: leads to the second night of the Wrestle Kingdom Tokyo
Speaker 1: Dome show, that is tonight. We'll give you the lineup
Speaker 1: for the show coming off last night's show, including the
Speaker 1: main event Champion versus Champion match, and I'll talking about
Speaker 1: I was talking about Roman Reigns yesterday and brock Lessner
Speaker 1: and how they're both champions and how they might do
Speaker 1: a champion versus champion match at WrestleMania. This guy was
Speaker 1: so many he goes, they can't do a champion versus
Speaker 1: champion match wrestle Mare. There's two nights of WrestleMania. So anyway,
Speaker 1: the second night of the Tokyo at almost coming up
Speaker 1: here tonight with a champion versus champion match, and we'll
Speaker 1: tell you about that. We've also got the n x
Speaker 1: T New Year's Evil Show coming up here tonight. We've
Speaker 1: got a W rampage ratings. A W moves to TBS tomorrow.
Speaker 1: New Japan is moving back to access television, so if
Speaker 1: you're a fan of New Japan Pro Wrestling, you'll be
Speaker 1: able to watch it on television again, provided you get access,
Speaker 1: which I guess I h about two years ago. I
Speaker 1: bought uh. I watched everything on YouTube TV, but I
Speaker 1: bought Sling because I needed access, and then they dropped
Speaker 1: off Access and I still had Sling. But anyway, now
Speaker 1: I'll get my money's worth. We got Battle of the
Speaker 1: Belts coming up on Saturday. We have got the raw
Speaker 1: report for last night, which ended with a match to
Speaker 1: determine brock Lestener's Challenger coming up at the Royal Rumble
Speaker 1: will tell you all about that and so much more
Speaker 1: if you want Texas here today four to five seven
Speaker 1: zero seven five six six, Brian at Rustling Observer dot com.
Speaker 1: At Bran Elbert is on Twitter, back in a moment,
Speaker 1: simper viv and more Observer Live and back at the show.
Speaker 1: Brian Elber is here Wrestling Observer Live. Mike simper Viv,
Speaker 1: also of Wrestling Observer dot Com. For those blokes asking,
Speaker 1: I switched them back to six nine for you. Hey,
Speaker 1: look at that everybody, and I can't see the top
Speaker 1: of my head. Oh my gray hair. There's not much
Speaker 1: to see there anyway. Hey, yesterday was the first night
Speaker 1: of the Tokyo Dome. Don't tell me no spoilers here.
Speaker 1: The show's long since over. It's uh it's twelve hours later,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna give you some of the notes here.
Speaker 1: I have seen two of these matches. I saw Shabbata
Speaker 1: and Red Narita, which was awesome where it was supposed
Speaker 1: to be a submission grappling match, and then Shabata just
Speaker 1: announced we're going all out and they beat the crap
Speaker 1: out of each other, although they did not go anywhere
Speaker 1: near Shabbata's head. But Shabbata was actually the first guy
Speaker 1: that just stomped on Red Narita this supposed submission match,
Speaker 1: so he's just decided whatever. Um the announcers did say
Speaker 1: that he had gone into business for himself. I presume
Speaker 1: is not the case. But you know it's Shabbata, you've
Speaker 1: gotta challenge well you never know, I mean, the the
Speaker 1: the agreement was, you know, he could come back and
Speaker 1: and have no one go near his head, no strike,
Speaker 1: and just grapple because you all know he almost died
Speaker 1: as a result of that headbut that he gave Alcada
Speaker 1: the clunking head butt. But then he just showed up
Speaker 1: and announced that wasn't what it was going to be.
Speaker 1: And at that point, what are they gonna do? Come
Speaker 1: out and drag the guy out of the ring. Well,
Speaker 1: he did mention in the lead up to this too,
Speaker 1: that he can his head has been you know, his
Speaker 1: skull is fully healed, and he wanted to make sure
Speaker 1: that everybody knew that. So there was a tease that
Speaker 1: he could go full force if he wanted to, but
Speaker 1: they were taking it slow. But since he's facing off
Speaker 1: against his uh, his student Rennarrita, which filthy Tom if
Speaker 1: you had a chance to listen to those shows, which
Speaker 1: you didn't because you were swimming with Orio the Orca.
Speaker 1: But Tom basically said that he felt like it was
Speaker 1: going to be Nearrita. The whole thing made sense. He
Speaker 1: comes out there looking like a baby Shabbata, and then
Speaker 1: he had to learn from the master, including like Brian mentioned,
Speaker 1: getting smacked in the face right off the bat early
Speaker 1: and getting stomped on by Shabbata and bringing having to
Speaker 1: bring the fight to us in sight. You know, Mike,
Speaker 1: what I've learned in the last year or so here
Speaker 1: is in a lot of folks think they know more
Speaker 1: than doctors. I just thought i'd throw that out there,
Speaker 1: but anyway, you can match had a penalty kick and
Speaker 1: uh and pinned him. And then the main event was
Speaker 1: Ocada and Shingo and Uh. You'll be stunned to hear
Speaker 1: that they had an excellent match thirty five minutes, forty
Speaker 1: four seconds. It'll be that guy with the hot take.
Speaker 1: But I sure missed the days when you didn't have
Speaker 1: to go like thirty five or forty minutes to have
Speaker 1: a grade match. You know what I'm saying. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: say this match was too long, but like I knew,
Speaker 1: I just knew the days of you know, we're gonna
Speaker 1: have a great match in twenty four minutes, I mean
Speaker 1: they're over. You gotta go thirty five, You gotta go forty,
Speaker 1: you gotta go forty five. I'll bet you, Mike one
Speaker 1: u S dollars. There's no chance that the OCADA match
Speaker 1: tonight for the Unified at title with will Osbury. There's
Speaker 1: zero chance that GOLs in in thirty minutes. I'll put
Speaker 1: a hundred dollars in your account tomorrow if it gils
Speaker 1: list in thirty minut because there ain't no chance. They
Speaker 1: don't do that anymore in wrestling. So anyway, wait a second, though,
Speaker 1: but you're you're you're acting as if that's not a
Speaker 1: tradition at the Tokyo Dome, if you're going to bag
Speaker 1: on anything. My point is any match they could run
Speaker 1: this in Oorican Hall. They could, they could start a
Speaker 1: main event of the pay per view I just watched.
Speaker 1: There ain't no such thing as a sub thirty minute
Speaker 1: main event anymore. It's gotta go forty Now. I got
Speaker 1: too much stuff to watch to tolerate all of this.
Speaker 1: You know what I could have watched if this end
Speaker 1: gone thirty five minutes, if this, if this matched Gun
Speaker 1: twenty four minutes, I would have been able to watch
Speaker 1: Evil and is She, which I have been told impossibly
Speaker 1: was a bad match. So I need to go and
Speaker 1: watch this one because I can't believe that you could
Speaker 1: do that. But it is with Evil, and you know,
Speaker 1: I know they booked those matches, so I guess I'll
Speaker 1: have to find out. But that's the word on the street,
Speaker 1: is is She had a bad match? Well, I gotta
Speaker 1: be honest. I had to skip two matches because I
Speaker 1: had to fit in raw unfortunately before the show, So
Speaker 1: I guess which once I skipped unfortunately Evil and the
Speaker 1: She and then the tag match, which I assume was
Speaker 1: very very good. With the blaming is She you geeks,
Speaker 1: I'm just saying that's the word. I didn't think that
Speaker 1: he could have a bad match. You have to default
Speaker 1: blame the House of Torture, and I haven't seen it yet,
Speaker 1: so I want to pass any judgment. But I have
Speaker 1: seen enough of Evil in this new incarnation, with the
Speaker 1: House of Torture and all of the Shenanigans and all
Speaker 1: of that stuff. To know that it Most of the time,
Speaker 1: I think it sucks. And if you like it, that's fantastic.
Speaker 1: But I unfortunately seemed to be in the minority or
Speaker 1: the majority on this, so that that's how that goes.
Speaker 1: But look, at least hopefully this is out of the
Speaker 1: way with the sheet and they can move him onto
Speaker 1: something else of more value. I one after another. Here
Speaker 1: it was bad, it was bad, bad, it was torture.
Speaker 1: This person writes, it's a house of torture. Dick Togo
Speaker 1: is bad for business. Well, it's not blame Dick Toga.
Speaker 1: If you're mad about he gotta blame ghetto match together.
Speaker 1: That's his buddy. Is it time for regime change in
Speaker 1: New Japan? Progress? It's time for the pandemic to be over.
Speaker 1: If listen, I know some people are are upset about
Speaker 1: the booking of of New Japan over the last year.
Speaker 1: So but let me tell you something. If if the
Speaker 1: pandemic ends, everything opens up and we have a full
Speaker 1: year of anybody can come, anybody can go whatever, blah
Speaker 1: blah blah, and you're still upset with the booking, then
Speaker 1: we can talk about a regime change has been that
Speaker 1: has been a fair and out of character year to Brian.
Speaker 1: But it's a fair time in theory than to make
Speaker 1: a change like this. And I'm not like, I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to send Ghetto out with you know, throwing his
Speaker 1: bags out and kick him in the ass on the
Speaker 1: way out the door. I mean, he's done a wonderful
Speaker 1: job and it's just unfortunately, even when the fans come back,
Speaker 1: I mean, the die was kind of cast on evil
Speaker 1: and house to torture and some of the shenanigans that
Speaker 1: they've been doing with the Bullet Club when there was
Speaker 1: no Look, the crowd saved a lot of that stuff
Speaker 1: and and they aid at work and they were all
Speaker 1: in on a lot of the product, so they you know,
Speaker 1: glossed over some of the things that they didn't like,
Speaker 1: you know, those live crowds. But it sticks out a
Speaker 1: lot more now some of the failings that they've had
Speaker 1: and some of the things that they've been doing over
Speaker 1: and over again since the early days of the Bullet Club.
Speaker 1: A lot of the referee things, a lot of the
Speaker 1: things that they've fallen back on unfortunately have not gone away.
Speaker 1: And with fans they also probably are not going to
Speaker 1: go away. So again, I well, I don't know who
Speaker 1: the right person would be, but I it's one of
Speaker 1: those things where I hope that they're looking forward on
Speaker 1: this because a lot of what he's doing, unfortunately is
Speaker 1: getting tired. But I will also say this, you're right
Speaker 1: because of the circumstances in the pandemic and because New
Speaker 1: Japan is strong, is so strong right now, you know,
Speaker 1: I find if you want to give him some extra time.
Speaker 1: But he can't be surprised that people would say something
Speaker 1: like that because they've been saying it for a long
Speaker 1: I'm sticking at stuff too. But but remember yesterday I
Speaker 1: was talking about the rainbow. Remember the rainbow? Yes, okay, well,
Speaker 1: uh you know guess who wasn't in the rainbow? Necro Butcher.
Speaker 1: Let's look at this rainbow, Mike. This is my whole point.
Speaker 1: Kosa Fujita, ut Nakashima, Rio, hey Oiwa, Taka, Michinoku, Master
Speaker 1: tends On Kojima, Dukie, Cannamaru, Nagata, hone maa bad Luck
Speaker 1: fall a Hanare Fujinami and Togi Makabe. And then of
Speaker 1: course the final guys were Chaso and Shima, Minor Suzuki
Speaker 1: and Toro Yano, who are advancing to the King of
Speaker 1: But the point of this is you have you have
Speaker 1: a very at this point. I know people are gonna
Speaker 1: maybe argue, but because of the pandemic, your roster is
Speaker 1: very limited. And so it was the same thing with
Speaker 1: the g One this year. What what big outsiders that
Speaker 1: we have coming into the gain That's got nothing to
Speaker 1: do with the pandemic. Yeah, it's got to do with
Speaker 1: New Japan's philosophy, Brian bro They can't bring anybody in.
Speaker 1: They have no foreigners, They have nobody from a w
Speaker 1: coming in for any man. They never bring anybody in
Speaker 1: from other promotions. That's one of the things that's pointed
Speaker 1: out about New Japan because they are relatively an isolationist company.
Speaker 1: That's why people pop so hard when Sema came in,
Speaker 1: even though he's you know, been with you know, Strong
Speaker 1: Hearts or whatever and been on his own anyway, It's
Speaker 1: guys like that where people have been saying for a
Speaker 1: long time, why is Chase Owen's in this match? Call
Speaker 1: on Sima to come in with the guys call on
Speaker 1: this person or that person. So that's that's a lot
Speaker 1: of the issue as well too. Whereas yeah, they're doing
Speaker 1: the thing with no one. They're gonna do a card
Speaker 1: with All Japan, but bringing some of those guys in
Speaker 1: every once in a while, which New Japan doesn't do.
Speaker 1: They could do that from the native side and spice
Speaker 1: things up. They just choose not to do that. This
Speaker 1: person here says, are you telling me New Japan needs
Speaker 1: outsiders to be good? No, I'm telling you they need outsiders,
Speaker 1: So they have outsiders. There's a whole lot of different
Speaker 1: things you could do instead of the exact same top
Speaker 1: guys in the same matches. It's like watching Ron SmackDown
Speaker 1: right now. That's much worse, by the way, but you
Speaker 1: have a limited roster. How many times have we seen
Speaker 1: Roman Reins versus brock Leser five thousand times? How many
Speaker 1: times have we seen the Street Profits and the New Day?
Speaker 1: The match was great or not? The New Day in
Speaker 1: the Use match was great, But I've seen the match
Speaker 1: five thousand times. But what has a w done that
Speaker 1: New Japan doesn't open the doors for everybody to come in.
Speaker 1: Even though they have a loaded up roster, they have
Speaker 1: still opened the doors for a lot of different promotions
Speaker 1: from nick Ga. They have Minora Suzuki to come in,
Speaker 1: which is something because those people were in America and
Speaker 1: they could travel. There a lot of people in Japan
Speaker 1: that could travel as well too. That again, that's the
Speaker 1: whole point of why people were happy to see Shima
Speaker 1: last night. You could have been using him the whole
Speaker 1: time instead of you have been the same stuff over
Speaker 1: and over, which comes down to the philosophy and what
Speaker 1: you do. There's dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens
Speaker 1: of people that they will be able to use when
Speaker 1: there's no longer a two week quarantine to get into
Speaker 1: the country, like all of a sudden. Dude, by the way,
Speaker 1: where's dumb? We gotta go to a break dom. We're
Speaker 1: right back Wrestling Observer live. Between you and these chat
Speaker 1: here comes the excuses. Here we go with the exception
Speaker 1: of when n XT was on fire. You realize that
Speaker 1: Ghetto was voted best booker for eight straight years. You bet,
Speaker 1: then we have a pandemic and now he needs to
Speaker 1: be replaced because there's too much bullet club crap. Time out.
Speaker 1: Hold on, you said he should be replaced. I I
Speaker 1: just brought up the idea of regime change, and now
Speaker 1: maybe as good of a time as any to do
Speaker 1: something like that. While things are not awful, you haven't
Speaker 1: sunk down into the mud or anything like that, relying
Speaker 1: on stardom for all your bushy road income. Now, I'm not,
Speaker 1: you know, come on, but like you know, people were
Speaker 1: calling for this a long time ago. People have been
Speaker 1: calling for this, and I'm, like I said, I was
Speaker 1: not in a rush to get him out the door.
Speaker 1: But since the pandemic began, and I've seen some of
Speaker 1: those things that have been done in a very stark
Speaker 1: you know, in stark buildings where you don't get the
Speaker 1: applause and things stand out a lot more. Now might
Speaker 1: be as good of a time as any to do
Speaker 1: something like that. And I understand what you're was saying
Speaker 1: as far as letting him have j White back and
Speaker 1: letting him have a lot of those things. But there
Speaker 1: is a fear, like I mentioned during the break of
Speaker 1: that House of Torture Bullet Club split, where it's just
Speaker 1: gonna be again. Well, everybody has a bad idea here
Speaker 1: and there. They absolutely there's plenty of bad ideas. They're sure,
Speaker 1: I'm not replacing this, But your guy, you's suffering in
Speaker 1: the middle of this pandemic, doing the best he can
Speaker 1: with nothing, nothing to you, listen to you, it's not nothing. Wow,
Speaker 1: as if nobody else out there has got any ideas. Remember,
Speaker 1: let me say, remember when Gheto went in because you don't,
Speaker 1: but do you remember when Ghetto took over as the
Speaker 1: foreman of New Japan and how people thought that it
Speaker 1: was not going to be a great idea, But you
Speaker 1: know there was a great idea and it was a
Speaker 1: great idea. So you know what, sometimes you can make
Speaker 1: moves and make things better and it's gonna happen everybody.
Speaker 1: What's gonna happen is they're gonna replace Ghetto with Evil
Speaker 1: and then you're all gonna cry about it, and I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna sit. I tried it to all. Evil is
Speaker 1: going to be the booker. I tried to tell you guys,
Speaker 1: what about gonna be the booker? What about filthy Tom Wallers?
Speaker 1: Do you realize what Ghetto was before he became the booker?
Speaker 1: He was not an all time top star legend. He
Speaker 1: was like the only guy that wanted to do it.
Speaker 1: Like it's like like you can't make an improve like
Speaker 1: Bill Watts was a great booker for a long time.
Speaker 1: And then realize that I got a great idea Best
Speaker 1: Booker eight years in a row and replace him. That's
Speaker 1: a great idea going You're taking You're so You're so lame,
Speaker 1: and your arguments are so weak and full of holes.
Speaker 1: They're not Let's move on. I'll move on. I'll move
Speaker 1: on to the main event tonight. What it is not weak?
Speaker 1: He wanted him replace in the middle of a pandemic
Speaker 1: after he won Best Booker eight years in a row.
Speaker 1: I'm not making any of that up. Okay, we'll find
Speaker 1: out who wins Best Booker this year, but I already
Speaker 1: knowe who it is. It's Tony cohnk Maybe we can
Speaker 1: replace him next year, Lenny, you know what it's signed
Speaker 1: for New York regime change. Why am I were? Is filthy?
Speaker 1: Why am I wasting my time? Filthy? Is busy watching
Speaker 1: the Shabbata match? Jesus wondering why, wondering why this Renderita
Speaker 1: tried to kill him, but then it was totally subservient
Speaker 1: to this other guy, Like does Mike and Brian both
Speaker 1: a gun out there and try to take him? Look
Speaker 1: at this Seattle the home move of two. Here is
Speaker 1: the lineup for tonight. We have got Okada versus will
Speaker 1: Osprey in a champion versus champion match Kenta versus Hiroshi,
Speaker 1: ton Ashi, Nito and Jeff Cob Sonada in the Great
Speaker 1: Ocon About Great Ocon, now, you geek, I didn't see
Speaker 1: as a match. I'm sure it was awesome, do you wrestle?
Speaker 1: I wasn't even paying attention to the first Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: It was a will Osprey, Great o'con and Jeff well,
Speaker 1: we had a lot of good workers in that match
Speaker 1: to carry it this one. I'm not so sure about
Speaker 1: Sonata in Great o'con. You We'll see about that. Sorry.
Speaker 1: I hope Sonada can keep up with the best technical
Speaker 1: wrestler in all of New Japan. What are you laughing about?
Speaker 1: He got voted best technical wrestler. I'm not making that
Speaker 1: up into the in the Tokyo Sports Awards in all
Speaker 1: of Japan, not just New Japan. And all the time,
Speaker 1: you you great Okon DENI are you? You? You're just bro.
Speaker 1: Even even I've been on our chat and elsewhere, even
Speaker 1: the most hardcore Great Okon fan isn't going to say
Speaker 1: that he's the best technical wrestler in all of jan
Speaker 1: Not all of those awards, the most end of year
Speaker 1: awards are jokes. Jaseo and Sima Minora, Suzuki and Toriana
Speaker 1: for the King of Pro Wrestling. What's the what's the
Speaker 1: They have a stip for this one, they're gonna tell
Speaker 1: us tonight, but there's no other stip, like you don't
Speaker 1: have to drink alcohol till they pass out. I hope
Speaker 1: that maybe he should be removed. Yeah, maybe you know
Speaker 1: they'll do. They'll put Torriano in, then the booker, and
Speaker 1: then every single match you'll have some dumb stip. Well,
Speaker 1: isn't the reason we have all this stupidity with Torriano
Speaker 1: because of Ghetto. I'm sure that's actually actually you know,
Speaker 1: you know whose idea it was for the King Wrestling title? No,
Speaker 1: you know whose idea it was? Okada, Maybe he could
Speaker 1: take over the book That was o'cata's idea for that tournament,
Speaker 1: in that belt in a trophy with I'm not saying
Speaker 1: it's his fault. I'm just wanting out our Truth had
Speaker 1: the pretty ricky teeth in his mouth, and then all
Speaker 1: of a sudden they wanted him to have the stupid
Speaker 1: teeth in his mouth. That's Our Truth's fault. You guys
Speaker 1: think I'm joking. You guys think I'm joking that this
Speaker 1: King of Pro Wrestling thing was Ocada's idea. All right, well,
Speaker 1: dudever you want, bros, believe whatever you want that makes
Speaker 1: you feel better. My Watani Star Like Kid versus Tom
Speaker 1: Knockano and Saya Kamatani. That'll be good. And Robbi Eagles
Speaker 1: and Tiger Mask versus Bullet Club's Cutest tag Team Taiji
Speaker 1: Shimri l Phantasmo against to Gucci and Rocky Romero. You
Speaker 1: sure about that? Did you name them that's the name
Speaker 1: of the team. Did you give him that idea? Did
Speaker 1: you book that name for them? No? I didn't it.
Speaker 1: Your boy, al P, I know you like him, and
Speaker 1: I do like him. He's awesome. Mhm, he's a great
Speaker 1: He's a better troll than than somebody I know, Robbie
Speaker 1: Eagles fan myself. And then also tonight we have got
Speaker 1: Chompa and Braun Breaker for the n x T title,
Speaker 1: Mandy Rose, Cora Jade and Raquel Gonzal And he's just
Speaker 1: trying to ease us right into that that was the
Speaker 1: best women's title. Carmelo versus Roderick Strong and uh, you
Speaker 1: know they could do. Remember at the beginning of the
Speaker 1: show tell me that guy that was so mad at
Speaker 1: me for even suggesting they would do champion versus champion
Speaker 1: to wrestle men because it was a two night event. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: wait wait, there's another two night event called the Tokyo
Speaker 1: where they're doing the exact same damn thing. And what
Speaker 1: they could do is braun Breaker wins the n x
Speaker 1: T title, he goes up to UH to the may Roster,
Speaker 1: and we could do the same damn thing with three
Speaker 1: champions where the n x T champion and the Raw
Speaker 1: champion have their unification match on Night one, the winner
Speaker 1: goes tonight too, and then they rutify all these damn titles.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna happen, but I mean, you know they
Speaker 1: could do that with two nights. They could you have
Speaker 1: two unification matches. In theory, you can do anything. Why
Speaker 1: don't you just unify the women's championship. Then in the
Speaker 1: nx Teacher bro, they should unify all of these championships
Speaker 1: so they can send people from brand to brand so
Speaker 1: we don't have these absolutely dead brands like SmackDown, where
Speaker 1: you got a Roman reigns and literally literally nobody that
Speaker 1: can look at in the entire roster that could be
Speaker 1: as challenger. I wonder if they could do it, like
Speaker 1: you know, was it the best of the super junior style,
Speaker 1: like Lance was there for the lead up into that
Speaker 1: where they had they lead up to the J Crown
Speaker 1: where everybody threw their belts into the ring. You have
Speaker 1: everybody in the ring. You could have braun breakers there
Speaker 1: and brock Lessner and Dana Brooke and they can all
Speaker 1: throw their belts in the ring and all face off
Speaker 1: with each other. Well, that's the two big shows coming
Speaker 1: up tonight, and then tomorrow we've got a w on
Speaker 1: TBS UH. They've added a new match for Saturday, which
Speaker 1: is Cody Rose versus Sammy Gavara in a rematch for
Speaker 1: the TNT title. And that's a show that also has
Speaker 1: Britt Baker versus Riho. So one hour show that maybe
Speaker 1: the only two matches. They may add another one coming
Speaker 1: up tomorrow New Jmand Strong Nemesis on Saturday, January eight,
Speaker 1: Eddie kingson Gabriel Kid is the main event. T j
Speaker 1: P versus d K C and Hicolo and Chris Bay
Speaker 1: versus Kata Murray and Jordan Clearwater. Also the Tokyo Doom
Speaker 1: Show last night, they announced that on Thursday, March three,
Speaker 1: New Japan is returning to Access t V. The show
Speaker 1: will air weekly following Impact Wrestling on Access, so you
Speaker 1: can watch both of those, and it's gonna start Impact
Speaker 1: Wrestling on X this beginning on Thursday, January second Classic episodes.
Speaker 1: We'll kick this whole thing off. Opening there that you
Speaker 1: weren't getting your money's worth. So you're saying you have
Speaker 1: not been watching Impact on Access except when wet to
Speaker 1: do that. No, I I have YouTube and I subscribe
Speaker 1: to impacts YouTube channel. It is much much easier to
Speaker 1: watch the show in ninety minutes with no commercials and
Speaker 1: uh the ability to skip stuff. So that's how I
Speaker 1: watch it, if you must know, Mike and UH Access.
Speaker 1: The January twenty show is going to feature Kenny Omega
Speaker 1: versus Chris Jericho from Russell Kingdom twelve. So that's the
Speaker 1: big announcement. It's pretty good match. It's pretty good match.
Speaker 1: You know, there's gonna be a lot of pretty good
Speaker 1: matches booked by Ghetto that you will be seeing on
Speaker 1: New Japan on Access Television kicking off against you. Oh,
Speaker 1: I hear the music back in a moment. Wrestling Observer Live. Well,
Speaker 1: if that didn't go exactly like I said it would,
Speaker 1: they air Jake Atlas's match, and then they announced that
Speaker 1: he had signed with a W He'll be on Tie
Speaker 1: to Bite tomorrow. Thanks for the clarity on that one. Boss,
Speaker 1: You're welcome, everybody. Hey, do you know what we gotta
Speaker 1: talk about? Monday Night Raw? Everyone's favorite favorite part of
Speaker 1: Tuesday's Raw. Had two great segments last night. And the
Speaker 1: good news is one of them involved a brock Lesner
Speaker 1: and one of them involved Bobby Lashly. And these are
Speaker 1: the two men who will be squaring off at the
Speaker 1: Royal Rumble. So as all of you are well aware,
Speaker 1: it was supposed to be Lessner and Uh and Roman Reigns.
Speaker 1: Day one, Roman Reigns got COVID. I presume that he's
Speaker 1: pretty much recovered already. I don't know that for sure,
Speaker 1: but if he got this O macron, and he was,
Speaker 1: he was triple vaxed. I mean most of the most
Speaker 1: of the folks that are triple vacs and get a Macron,
Speaker 1: I mean it's like three or four or five days
Speaker 1: they're they're good to go. And Uh. They were talking
Speaker 1: about Roman Reigns on the show last night like he's
Speaker 1: already good to go. I mean they were, they were
Speaker 1: making and I was not a big fan of this,
Speaker 1: but they were making COVID jokes about Roman Reigns and uh.
Speaker 1: And then at the end of the show, brock Lessner said,
Speaker 1: tell Roman Reigns, all see him on Friday. So it
Speaker 1: appears there under the the assumption here that Roman Reigns
Speaker 1: will be on SmackDown on Friday. But anyway, because that
Speaker 1: match got switched, presumably Paul Hayman, whatever they were going
Speaker 1: to do, was going to be involved in the finish,
Speaker 1: because the show hopens with Paul Haman in the ring
Speaker 1: and he's just the advocate for brock Lessner. Again. He
Speaker 1: calls him out their buddies. Uh. The fans aren't quite
Speaker 1: sure what's going on yet because they're still booing Paul Hayman,
Speaker 1: even though he's undoubtedly a baby face with baby face
Speaker 1: brock Lessner. He puts over Biggie, says he was a
Speaker 1: great champion, says it would be honored face him at
Speaker 1: the rumble. Blah blah blah. That's not happening, by the way,
Speaker 1: And then the show went straight downhill for a while.
Speaker 1: We had Alpha Academy beating Randy Ordan Riddle in like
Speaker 1: I don't even know how long. It was like two minutes.
Speaker 1: Riddle just goes for the r k oh and gets
Speaker 1: killed with the World's Strongest Slam and he's pinned. So
Speaker 1: they'll be doing a tag team at Championship match. We
Speaker 1: had an Omas interview which was not very good. We'll
Speaker 1: talk about Almas in a minute. Seven title Dana Brook
Speaker 1: and Reggie beat Tamina and cured Tazawa in one it
Speaker 1: Reggie ended up pinning Tozawa. It was one minute. It
Speaker 1: was a complete and total waste of time. And that
Speaker 1: was a wait to Becky Lynch promo and uh as noted.
Speaker 1: Becky Lynch had a match with Live Morgan at Day
Speaker 1: one and she was supposed to pin her using the ropes,
Speaker 1: but she was too far away, so she just pinned
Speaker 1: her clean and I said this, it doesn't matter. In
Speaker 1: w w E Live just came out she wants another
Speaker 1: Championship match and she demands her match. Bianca Baylor comes out,
Speaker 1: she wants another match, even though by the way, Becky
Speaker 1: Lynch has beaten both of them multiple times. They're both
Speaker 1: number one contenders and so U they both attack Becky
Speaker 1: two on one. Then they started fighting each other and
Speaker 1: then Becky beats both their asses one on two. So anyway,
Speaker 1: we're supposed to be excited about this match coming up.
Speaker 1: Then we had queens Elena and Carmela beating Rear Ripley
Speaker 1: and Nicky Ash in two minutes when Nicky Ash just
Speaker 1: got rolled up and pinned and Riah Ripley is disgusted.
Speaker 1: So they gotta see. They're telling you that Nikki Ash
Speaker 1: is the weak link and that she sucks, but they
Speaker 1: also presume you're stupid, and so they gotta beat her
Speaker 1: like five weeks in a row. So there you go.
Speaker 1: Oh that's right, she's a weak link and she sucks. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's where we're going. Street Profits beat Apollo Cruise and
Speaker 1: a Zis. Bro, these giants on Raw are so horrible
Speaker 1: and God bless them. I'm sure they're nice giants, but bro,
Speaker 1: this azs number one. I shouldn't say day one of
Speaker 1: wrestling school. But do you guys know you know what
Speaker 1: the ropes are? You know you run the ropes back
Speaker 1: and forth. I'm talking about Mike. Okay, so I'm gonna
Speaker 1: give you all a uh what does Lance call a
Speaker 1: teachable moment. Okay, let's say I'm doing a spot with Mike.
Speaker 1: All right, I'm in the middle of the ring, and
Speaker 1: Mike is going to run at me and I'm going
Speaker 1: to throw a lariat, but he is going to duck
Speaker 1: to hit the ropes on the other side. Do we
Speaker 1: all have that in our imagination? Okay, yes, all right,
Speaker 1: So the secret to this spot is I have to
Speaker 1: allow Mike to run into straight line. So when I
Speaker 1: throw the lariat, I gotta get out of the way
Speaker 1: so that he runs in the straight line. If I
Speaker 1: stand in the middle of the ring, he has to
Speaker 1: run around me. Okay, not like first second, third day
Speaker 1: of wrestling school. Well, Commander zs he ain't even got that.
Speaker 1: I don't think it was. I think it was Ford.
Speaker 1: Ford is running around this guy. It's like a zz
Speaker 1: He's standing right in the middle of the ring, and
Speaker 1: it's like he's a planet. He's got an orbit, and
Speaker 1: so or runs at him. He gets caught in his orbit.
Speaker 1: He has to he has to orbit around him too,
Speaker 1: then runs try. I was like, oh my god, it's
Speaker 1: a two minute match. These are not mobile giants, folks.
Speaker 1: Oh thankfully they won quickly, but it was bad. Then
Speaker 1: we had a do drop. She wants to be in
Speaker 1: this whole thing, even though she's been defeated multiple times
Speaker 1: by Bianca, and they're like, all right, So next week
Speaker 1: it is the battle of the losers Bianca do drop
Speaker 1: in Morgan and whoever is the least loser, we'll get
Speaker 1: to go and lose to Becky Lynch again at the
Speaker 1: Royal Rumbles. So here you go, Damian Priests be Dolve Ziggler.
Speaker 1: They went ten minutes, and this was good because it
Speaker 1: had a very very simple story, and that is that
Speaker 1: the last time Damian Priest was in the ring, he
Speaker 1: got himself disqualified because he got mad because you see,
Speaker 1: his name is Damien, like you know, devilish and priest godly.
Speaker 1: So he's got his priest side, but if you push
Speaker 1: his buttons, he goes to the Damian side. So the
Speaker 1: story hears if he goes to the Damian side gets
Speaker 1: de cute or counted out, he loses his title to
Speaker 1: Dolph Zigler. And these fans, I don't want to call
Speaker 1: him simpletons. I don't like to make fun of the fans,
Speaker 1: but they totally bought the Dolph Ziggler was winning the
Speaker 1: title from Damien Priest. So you knows Damian Priests is outside,
Speaker 1: you know, and he's gonna beat up the other guy,
Speaker 1: Bobby Rude, and the fans like, oh my god, he's
Speaker 1: gonna lose his belt to the guy. Then they get
Speaker 1: in the ring and Damian Priest has got the chair, like, oh,
Speaker 1: he's gonna get d QTE, We're gonna see a title change.
Speaker 1: But he throws the chair at Rude and then Ziggler
Speaker 1: hits him with his zig Zagger, like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: Dolph Sigler is gonna win this title. He doesn't, and
Speaker 1: then Damian Priests won, but they got the crowd super
Speaker 1: into the match as a result of these stipulations, So
Speaker 1: that was like one of the rare good things on
Speaker 1: the show. MS and Maurice Edge and Beth Phoenix program here,
Speaker 1: so they're gonna have a match of the Royal Realm
Speaker 1: will make tag. Edge and Beth Phoenix made the challenge
Speaker 1: mis accepted on behalf of Maurice. Maurice hated it. She
Speaker 1: got really mad and she walked out on her husband,
Speaker 1: which would have been really cool if we hadn't done
Speaker 1: this angle three weeks ago. And it was all a swerve,
Speaker 1: but they're gonna do that match. At the Rumble, Omas
Speaker 1: beat AJ Styles. The match went three minutes and forty
Speaker 1: six seconds. I swear to God, and this is not
Speaker 1: a J. Style's fault, much like it was not is
Speaker 1: she East fault in his match with Evil. This was
Speaker 1: the worst match I've ever seen a J. Styles have
Speaker 1: in his entire career. It was so horrible. And the
Speaker 1: story here everybody, And this is why I talked about
Speaker 1: n x T all the time. If Omas cannot have
Speaker 1: a good match with AJ Styles, bro Bro like Dave
Speaker 1: was like, well, you know, maybe he'll get better. I
Speaker 1: was like, how how is he going to get better?
Speaker 1: Can you explain this to me? Al? Is Omas gonna
Speaker 1: get better if he's in here? And he can't have
Speaker 1: a good match with a Jay Styles in a three
Speaker 1: minute match by the way, not even like they went
Speaker 1: twelve minutes. But you know, if it's um, you know
Speaker 1: Jake Cardial, you know she shouldn't be going twelve minutes,
Speaker 1: but she can go three O Mass can't go three
Speaker 1: minutes with a J. Styles hopeless and God bless him.
Speaker 1: I think he's I'm sure he's a great, nice fella
Speaker 1: and everything like that. But how is this guy get
Speaker 1: all of a sudden become like great, how well you're
Speaker 1: right about that, But with all due respect, what does
Speaker 1: that have to do with n x T. They didn't
Speaker 1: use them there either. We never saw That's my point.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get a whole bunch of O masses. This
Speaker 1: is the future of your World Wrestling Entertainment is OH
Speaker 1: masses and Commander Diseases and whoever else. That's a future
Speaker 1: of this company, everybody. That's a big story that we've
Speaker 1: got New Japan and of Honor and a w and
Speaker 1: all of these there there there their their their potential
Speaker 1: is going this way. And meanwhile, the future of w
Speaker 1: w E is OH mosses and uh in Commander diseases,
Speaker 1: dozens of them. The sixty eight year old demographic loves
Speaker 1: Commander disease. Bro Veer's good. Where's Veer? He's coming? I
Speaker 1: don't think so anymore. I didn't see one. Did you
Speaker 1: see a video package and Veers on his way? I
Speaker 1: didn't see it. Huh. I think he got sidetracked in
Speaker 1: main event. They're like, I can be here for a while.
Speaker 1: You mean he already came in in main event. He's
Speaker 1: on main event, they moved him to main event. Did
Speaker 1: you even know there was a show called main event?
Speaker 1: I haven't heard of it, but I have no It's
Speaker 1: like a big foot like people say it exists, but
Speaker 1: I never saw it. Now there's two or five lives
Speaker 1: still going or whatever. I guess it is because they
Speaker 1: had that lash legend was not gonna be after they
Speaker 1: unified the Cruiserweight title with the north A entitle tonight,
Speaker 1: what are they gonna call it in like w W
Speaker 1: n X T three six, I don't know. And anyway,
Speaker 1: two point five, the main event was Lashly, Kevin Owens,
Speaker 1: Biggie and Seth Rawlins eighteen minutes. This was an excellent
Speaker 1: main event. This was the main event they were supposed
Speaker 1: to have at the pay per view, but because they
Speaker 1: added Brock, they did the the original match here for
Speaker 1: free on television. When eighteen minutes, they basically worked at
Speaker 1: the same as they did the night before, which was
Speaker 1: Biggie and Seth worked together. There was no lessener, so
Speaker 1: they got rid of Lashly and then they double teamed
Speaker 1: Uh Biggie for a long time. Then Big Biggie may
Speaker 1: to come back, and then Lashly showed up and Uh
Speaker 1: it was like that one start of match I watch
Speaker 1: the other night. Uh, he just shows up, he just
Speaker 1: kills everybody deader than a doornail and he pins him,
Speaker 1: and uh, now he's the number one contender, And they
Speaker 1: played it up big that Lashly was the number one contender.
Speaker 1: He's gonna get his dream match with brock Lessner at
Speaker 1: the Royal Rumble. So the beginning of the end of
Speaker 1: the show was very good. The two and a half
Speaker 1: hours in between not so good. But that's raw. I agree. Now,
Speaker 1: bron Breaker tonight, when's the title right? Well, I don't
Speaker 1: know anymore because now that they've got nobody for Roman Reigns,
Speaker 1: I mean, listen, I'm not saying this is gonna happen,
Speaker 1: but I do not put it past them to bring
Speaker 1: braun Breaker up to the main roster to feud with
Speaker 1: Roman Reigns. Like they got nobody on SmackDown, that they
Speaker 1: haven't ruined nobody. So and then someone else the other
Speaker 1: day was like, you'll listen off the name of all
Speaker 1: the SmackDown guys. What about Finn Balor. Well, number one,
Speaker 1: Finn Balor got beaten by Roman Reigns multiple times. The
Speaker 1: number two he's on the other show he's feeding with
Speaker 1: Austin theory, which you know, I look, they won't do
Speaker 1: this and it doesn't really make any sense, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know what Chompa's deal is here. Like braun
Speaker 1: Breaker winning the title, going into the Royal Rumble and
Speaker 1: having a really impressive performance as the n XD champion,
Speaker 1: I think makes a lot of sense because I assume
Speaker 1: he's going to be on one of those Knights of WrestleMania,
Speaker 1: defending that title or doing something with that title. Chomp
Speaker 1: I would love to see come up to the main
Speaker 1: roster because of the issues they're in and actually have
Speaker 1: a little run and then be done at Rustlemania. Again.
Speaker 1: I don't know what his future is. I don't know
Speaker 1: how long he wants to continue his active in ring career,
Speaker 1: but I would love to see that just so he
Speaker 1: gets the rustle Mania pay day, gets to say, you
Speaker 1: know he was at I think he's been on one anyway,
Speaker 1: But I mean still, I think that's a cool idea,
Speaker 1: and it would give bron Breaker the title, it gets
Speaker 1: chomped out of there, gets him into something for a
Speaker 1: little while. But I know they won't do that, but
Speaker 1: I would love to see him actually do battle with
Speaker 1: Roman reigns. I think it could actually be a fun
Speaker 1: little thing. The person wants to know if Timothy Thatcher
Speaker 1: is injured, he is injured, We'll see what the future
Speaker 1: of Timothy Thatcher is. Back in the moment of her life,
Speaker 1: this person of her says, did anybody notice Tony con
Speaker 1: has announced Jake Atlas signed, Well, I don't know. I
Speaker 1: only talked about it fifteen minutes ago on this very show.
Speaker 1: I'm also glad that everyone's everyone's seeing how how funny sunny,
Speaker 1: Isn't that how shoulders to RELLI became big vinni V video.
Speaker 1: If you watched that last segment right there, that was
Speaker 1: the that was the famous uh. I don't know if
Speaker 1: it's a CRV or what it was, but that was
Speaker 1: the car where Vinnie got in and there was a
Speaker 1: door open and it was poor, unfortunate Vinny. We all
Speaker 1: knew it. We all knew it. Evil versus a Shei,
Speaker 1: the never titled match was the worst is She matching
Speaker 1: years in the years. That was an Evil match, guest
Speaker 1: starring is She with loads of interference from Togo You
Speaker 1: drow and show horrific Evil stunk the joint out yet again. Yeah,
Speaker 1: usually should replace him because he booked a bad match.
Speaker 1: You know where, you know where? You know who could
Speaker 1: use Ghetto next day? By the way, you know who
Speaker 1: made your main man? Is she E the never open
Speaker 1: weight champion? Oh? Same guy, geek, it's it's it's I
Speaker 1: can't wait Ghetto. When is Filthy replacing? You know where
Speaker 1: he's gonna be. He's gonna be in Japan because one
Speaker 1: of these days there won't be a two week quarantine
Speaker 1: and you're gonna see a bunch of Filthy Tom matches
Speaker 1: over there. It's gonna be awesome. You go, Oh, man,
Speaker 1: that Ghetto knows what he's doing. No, now, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: say Filthy Tom knows what he's doing. Well, he doesn't
Speaker 1: know what he's doing, but they made sure to mention
Speaker 1: him during that Shabbada match. He went out of the
Speaker 1: way to mention him. And he's won the best match
Speaker 1: on New j and Strong two years in a row
Speaker 1: with the same guy, King of Men, Filthy Tom Lawer.
Speaker 1: I'll always I'll always remember how he was nothing before
Speaker 1: I met him. Now look at him. Hey, we're right
Speaker 1: of time. When I think Mike has always callers and
Speaker 1: listeners into the studio. Even you, even you homies on
Speaker 1: Twitch and YouTube. I love you guys too. We'll talk
Speaker 1: to you next time Wrestling Observer Live. You have been
Speaker 1: listening to the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast on the eight
Speaker 1: Side Network