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,
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, New Pacific three Eastern, Sunday three Pacific
Speaker 1: sixth Eastern. Yes, I am back after an exciting someone
Speaker 1: here says, uh, vacation. I guess I was sort of
Speaker 1: on vacation, but it was a working vacation. Man, Look
Speaker 1: at me. I'm tired. Hey, we got a lot to
Speaker 1: get into here today because I desperately try to wake up.
Speaker 1: But watching New Japan, I watched Filthy Tom and Uh
Speaker 1: and Eugene Nagata Holy Smokes, and I was in the
Speaker 1: middle of the Suzukiyashiti match when I had to I
Speaker 1: had to do this show. So we'll review as much
Speaker 1: as we can on the Filthy Town Lawler show coming
Speaker 1: up at two Pacific five Eastern. But today we'll get
Speaker 1: into all of the news. Tonight, of course, is Monday
Speaker 1: Night Raw, and you know how it goes with this
Speaker 1: Raw show. They've announced a bunch of stuff we'll find
Speaker 1: out what actually airs. We've got allegedly two championship matches,
Speaker 1: unless of course, somebody ends up in protocol at the
Speaker 1: last second. We've got a light detector test, and we
Speaker 1: have got a double wedding, two weddings going on at
Speaker 1: the same time, so I'll give me the lineup for
Speaker 1: that show tonight. We've got the update on Ring of
Speaker 1: Honor on Sinclair. Ring of Honor on Sinclair is no more.
Speaker 1: They they're done, and so we'll see if this coming
Speaker 1: Wednesday on the A W Show, we'll see if the
Speaker 1: big announcement by Tony Kahn has to do with streaming,
Speaker 1: because one would think that maybe it should have something
Speaker 1: to do with streaming, because a Ring of Honor needs
Speaker 1: a deal of some sort. They're actually signing a bunch
Speaker 1: of wrestlers. They get a lot of wrestlers on the contract.
Speaker 1: They just they just signed their champion in fact, and
Speaker 1: they have no television, so we'll have to figure out
Speaker 1: what they're gonna do there. We have new names, new
Speaker 1: w w E names. That's always fun. You know, A
Speaker 1: couple of people have Nancy to change her name is
Speaker 1: probably more to come. I'll tell you why. What the
Speaker 1: new names are neither of which is an improvement, and
Speaker 1: much much more so. Stick around, everybody back in a
Speaker 1: moment Wrestling Observer Live. R uh huh back here on
Speaker 1: the show. Right now? Is here Wrestling Observer alive? And
Speaker 1: I don't see Mike semperviv anywhere? Where is this guy?
Speaker 1: How goes everybody Live radio? Well, we'll send him his
Speaker 1: friendly you know how it goes every every couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: We've got to send Mica, you know, wake up? Text
Speaker 1: says right here, simple microphone turned off. Mhm, probably love
Speaker 1: turn that on. Money Alright, Well, let's let's get going
Speaker 1: here while we figure this out. He just sent me,
Speaker 1: uh some profanity, so he's awake. I still know where
Speaker 1: he's at. So anyway, okay, going with Adam. All right,
Speaker 1: here we go. We got a lot to uh. Mike
Speaker 1: says he can see and hear me. Mike, can you
Speaker 1: hear me? Okay, now we can hear you. But where's
Speaker 1: your video? Buddy? I have no idea, dude. Thanks for
Speaker 1: amuting me though or whatever. It was, all right, try reconnecting.
Speaker 1: Jared said, I shall, man, what an exciting show we
Speaker 1: have every day for you people. It's Monday minutes and
Speaker 1: minutes of absolutely nothing happening. Alright, well, let's get into
Speaker 1: the news and then we'll figure out Mike's video here,
Speaker 1: or we'll just make him a giraffe again. So tonight's Raw.
Speaker 1: We've got four things announced for the show, and only
Speaker 1: two of them are wrestling matches, although they're both championship matches.
Speaker 1: We have Sasha Banks and Naomi versus Rea Ripley and
Speaker 1: Live Morgan for the women's tag team titles. And obviously
Speaker 1: they were going to do this match a week ago,
Speaker 1: but Ria Ripley was and I quote, in protocol and
Speaker 1: so she was unable to do the match. She is
Speaker 1: now out of protocol because she appeared and wrestled in
Speaker 1: fact on SmackDown, So unless somebody else ends up in
Speaker 1: protocol tonight, the match will actually be taken place. So
Speaker 1: that's for the women's tag team titles. We have Finn
Speaker 1: Balor defending the United States Championship match. Tell your friends
Speaker 1: about this one. Finn Valor will be facing Theory because
Speaker 1: it can't be Austin theory anymore. He must be Theory.
Speaker 1: So Finnbeller will be facing Theory for the United States Championship.
Speaker 1: And then we have Kevin Owens administering a lie detector
Speaker 1: test on Ezekiel, and then we will have the double
Speaker 1: wedding of Dana Brooke and Reggie and Tamina, and a
Speaker 1: cure to Zawa. So we've got a double wedding, a
Speaker 1: light detector test, and to championship matches. And I believe Mike,
Speaker 1: we have once again lost. Like cemper vv, I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna mute everything for now. I'm gonna continue on and
Speaker 1: we'll figure this out in the next segment. So as
Speaker 1: as noted here, uh, Austin theory is no longer Austin
Speaker 1: theory because what happened was Vince McMahon, seventy six year
Speaker 1: old Vince McMahon. He woke up one day and he decided,
Speaker 1: how do I want's names? No real names? And so
Speaker 1: this course does not apply to everybody. It's I forget
Speaker 1: the name that Dave used in the Observer, but Randy
Speaker 1: Oran's not gonna wake up tomorrow and get a new name.
Speaker 1: But if you're you know, some random person or whatever,
Speaker 1: this could apply to you. So because Austin theories real
Speaker 1: his his real name is not Austin theory, okay, but
Speaker 1: his real first name is Austin, so therefore he can't
Speaker 1: use his real first name as part of his fake
Speaker 1: full name, so he can no longer be Austin Theory.
Speaker 1: He just has to be Theory. Or you know, they
Speaker 1: could have given him a new first name. They could
Speaker 1: have just decided, you know, we'll call him Frank Theory.
Speaker 1: But they decided we'll just call him Theory. So that's
Speaker 1: why Marcel Bartel has a new name, because apparently that's
Speaker 1: actually his name, is Marcel Bartel. Vaulter's real name was Vaulter,
Speaker 1: so now he must be Guntherer because that's not his
Speaker 1: real name. And then we now have the name changes
Speaker 1: for two n XT wrestlers. Kaylee Ray is now going
Speaker 1: to be Alba Fire f y r E Alba Fire.
Speaker 1: And this one's my favorite. They are changing the name
Speaker 1: of Casey catan Zaro. Okay, Casey caton Zaro is no
Speaker 1: longer Casey caton Zaro. She is now Katana Chance. I
Speaker 1: guess because she takes a lot of chances or something.
Speaker 1: Katana Chance is the new name of of Casey caton Zaro.
Speaker 1: And I was thinking about this the other day, and
Speaker 1: I don't know if you guys know this about Casey
Speaker 1: caton Zaro. But she was an American Ninja Warrior and
Speaker 1: she was, like, you know, really popular on that show,
Speaker 1: and they saw her and they signed her and they
Speaker 1: gave her spots out of American Ninja Warrior, like she
Speaker 1: climbs the ring post to get into the ring. But
Speaker 1: now they're going to change her name. She's no longer
Speaker 1: Casey canton Zaro because I mean, when you think about it,
Speaker 1: it's not like calling her Casey canton Zaro you're gonna
Speaker 1: do like huge business or anything like that. It honestly
Speaker 1: doesn't matter, Like you're not gonna get new fans because
Speaker 1: American Ninja Warriors Casey caton Zaro is in w w E.
Speaker 1: But it is funny that you go out of your
Speaker 1: way to hire somebody out of American Ninja Warrior and
Speaker 1: then we must change her name. It's like, you know,
Speaker 1: the Creed Brothers, as we mentioned, you know, they all
Speaker 1: they do is talk about the accolades of the Creed Brothers,
Speaker 1: but that's not actually their their names. They have they
Speaker 1: have names, so they actually got all of those accolades
Speaker 1: under and so so there you go so many way.
Speaker 1: She could no longer be case of Catain's arum. So
Speaker 1: all of that, you know, what's the point. She's Katana Chance,
Speaker 1: and there's gonna be probably others that have to change
Speaker 1: their names as well as a result of this decree,
Speaker 1: which I'm sure will you know not last forever, Raquel
Speaker 1: Gonzalez had to change her name to Raquel Rodriguez because
Speaker 1: Gonzalez is her actual last name. So all I can
Speaker 1: think of is that, you know, Vince's Vince's concerned. Presumably, Oh,
Speaker 1: Raoul Mendoz also now Cruise del Toro, He's no longer
Speaker 1: Raoul Mendoza, So presumably Vince's concern is that, well, you know,
Speaker 1: if Austin Theory leaves w W E to go to
Speaker 1: a W, he can't be Austin Theory, but he could
Speaker 1: be Austin. Well, we can't have that, so we have
Speaker 1: to take away everything from them that is real that
Speaker 1: they could therefore then use elsewhere. Obviously, if you're a
Speaker 1: Matt Riddle, you know you're not gonna have to change
Speaker 1: your last name. I don't think I guess we could,
Speaker 1: you know, turn on the show tonight. He's got a
Speaker 1: new name. But that's his new decree for the n
Speaker 1: x T folks, the folks being called up to the
Speaker 1: main roster, no real names, not even a real first name,
Speaker 1: and a fake lass name or a whatever. So it's Vince.
Speaker 1: It doesn't it honestly doesn't matter. But it is one
Speaker 1: of those Vince things that I must ridicule on air
Speaker 1: because it's ridiculous. Are you back now, Mike? All right?
Speaker 1: We got audio and video from Mike here that is
Speaker 1: very Vince. By the way, And why did Riddle have
Speaker 1: to change his first name? Why did they drop that one? Well? Uh,
Speaker 1: the reason that they originally dropped his first name was
Speaker 1: because they were and this is another funny one, they
Speaker 1: didn't want people to google Matthew Riddle's name and find
Speaker 1: out that he had had all of the issues with
Speaker 1: weed in UFC. And so I guess in Vince's brain
Speaker 1: because he's seventy six, well, if remove his first name,
Speaker 1: they won't be able to find any information about him.
Speaker 1: Never mind the fact that if you google W. W. E. Riddle,
Speaker 1: his whole name comes up in his Wikipedia and everything
Speaker 1: about his own entire life. But that was Vince's that
Speaker 1: was his solution to h And then, of course, nowadays
Speaker 1: you know now you may as well give him his
Speaker 1: name back, because now they're they're embracing the whole weed
Speaker 1: thing on SmackDown, Uh, grasshoppers. Remember he used to jump
Speaker 1: in the air and kick his shoes off and and
Speaker 1: birds would fly out or whatever. Well, on SmackDown it
Speaker 1: was it was grasshoppers. And so they were making all
Speaker 1: these these comments about grass because now it's like a
Speaker 1: gimmick that they they're weed smokers. Him and Randy Orton
Speaker 1: are friends in weed. But before they decided that that
Speaker 1: was okay, they didn't want people finding about all of
Speaker 1: this weed, and so they thought the solution was to
Speaker 1: get rid of his first name. Then we will know
Speaker 1: it'll be able to find out anything about this Matt
Speaker 1: Riddle if we just call him Riddle, they'll google and
Speaker 1: find something about Batman. Back after the break Observer Live,
Speaker 1: you know somebody that Chad during the break noted that
Speaker 1: I might have my timeline Rock. There was concern that
Speaker 1: people would find out about who met Riddle in his
Speaker 1: weed issues. But I think it actually might have been
Speaker 1: when he was having his legal issues that they dropped
Speaker 1: the Matt Matt part, because you know, you dropped that
Speaker 1: Matt and you just can't find information about the guy.
Speaker 1: He's he's a ghost once he dropped his his first name.
Speaker 1: And this may be a story for another day in
Speaker 1: the future. But Gable Stevenson keeps his name. Yeah, he's
Speaker 1: He's get to keep his name for the time being,
Speaker 1: but not his brother. His brother has to change his name.
Speaker 1: The brother of Gable Stevenson has to have a new name.
Speaker 1: I hope they acknowledges his brother, but that he's got
Speaker 1: a totally different name. And by the way, somebody brought
Speaker 1: up to me it is a great it's a great point.
Speaker 1: By the way, shouldn't Kevin Owens be going all over
Speaker 1: this company both you know, Ross SmackDown and n x
Speaker 1: T and given light detectors to all these people that
Speaker 1: are having these new names. Now where is he on SmackDown?
Speaker 1: When uh, you know, Raquel Gonzalez shows up, she got
Speaker 1: a new name, and that his whole issue with with
Speaker 1: with Ezekiel. No, no, no, it's not about the name.
Speaker 1: It's about the fact that that he believes that Ezekiel
Speaker 1: is a lie is and that Elias is not just
Speaker 1: faking his own name. But you know, these other people
Speaker 1: like Butch, you know, Pat McAfee brings up you know,
Speaker 1: he sneaks in their line about calling him Pete and
Speaker 1: how he knows these mistake. Well, but you know, whereas like,
Speaker 1: you know, it's kind of noted that these people that
Speaker 1: they are who they are, they just have new names.
Speaker 1: Whereas you know, Elias is just saying, no, I never
Speaker 1: existed at all, I am Ezekiel. Well that's only because
Speaker 1: Ezekiel has stated that he is his own brother. I mean,
Speaker 1: for all I know this, uh whatever, Marcel Bartel's real
Speaker 1: name is Ludvig Kaiser. For all I know, he's saying
Speaker 1: he's he's the brother of Marcel Bartel. We don't know.
Speaker 1: He's been busy doing promos. Raquel has never explained she
Speaker 1: was a former n x T champion. She's just showed
Speaker 1: up with a new name. Maybe she's pretending to be
Speaker 1: her own sister. Maybe that's gonna be like Ezekiel is
Speaker 1: just the first, and like there's gonna be a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of wrestlers that show up and they're actually their
Speaker 1: own sib links. There's gonna be an army of siblings.
Speaker 1: This is the This is the worst Luca Underground remake
Speaker 1: I've ever dumb or anything else. We're gonna have a
Speaker 1: Katana chance show up and say I'm actually the sister
Speaker 1: of the famous Casey Kennon Zara from American Ninja Warrior.
Speaker 1: She quit, but I'm her twin and I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: all of her spots and everything like that. But I
Speaker 1: got a different name, and oddly enough a different last
Speaker 1: name as well. Alba Fire, Alba Fire, Alba fare. Guys,
Speaker 1: remember Kaylee ray Quit, I'm her sister, Alba Fire. Bunch
Speaker 1: of sisters and brothers gonna form a faction really is
Speaker 1: like shaken up in the name generator and just okay,
Speaker 1: what do we got here? Alba Fire? Is that a name? Fire?
Speaker 1: Alba Alba Fire? Sure? Why not? Alba Fire? Maybe it
Speaker 1: means something to her, because I know apparently people have
Speaker 1: input into some of the names that they are going
Speaker 1: to be called sometimes times. Um so if this means
Speaker 1: something to her, I apologize for poking fun at it.
Speaker 1: But Alba Fire, you know, I I've told the story before,
Speaker 1: but when I used to write the Breaking Cafe here,
Speaker 1: the Frank A Gotch Flying Mayor Wrestling newsletter for Figure
Speaker 1: four Weekly, some of those around here there would always
Speaker 1: be there, always be, you know, a quote from some rando,
Speaker 1: and so I had to get these. I had to
Speaker 1: get a name for the rando. And so, you know,
Speaker 1: back then we had phone books. A few youngsters know
Speaker 1: what a phone book is, which, by the way, remind
Speaker 1: me I got another story time. But anyway, they had
Speaker 1: a phone book, and you would open the phone book
Speaker 1: and would it would have everyone's you know, they talk
Speaker 1: about doxing. Nowadays you could just open the phone book
Speaker 1: and get everyone's phone number and address. I got to
Speaker 1: school with you know what I actually did, Chris Walla.
Speaker 1: Oh just look in the phone book. Oh, there's Chris
Speaker 1: Wallace's name and address and phone numbers right there in
Speaker 1: the phone book. Should have called it the docks book.
Speaker 1: But anyway, so I didn't want to use anyone's actual name, Like,
Speaker 1: I didn't open the thing and go, oh, you know,
Speaker 1: here's a you know, Frank mayor or whatever, because you
Speaker 1: know he might be a reader. So I would I
Speaker 1: would get a first name from some person and a
Speaker 1: random last name from another person, and I would combine
Speaker 1: those together and it would come up with the name
Speaker 1: of the person doing the quote. And uh, it was
Speaker 1: exactly like these NX team names. It was just I
Speaker 1: don't know what it is. But like when you hear
Speaker 1: someone's real name, like Mike simper Viv, it just seems
Speaker 1: like that's like a real name, because it is. But
Speaker 1: for some reason, if I took your first name and
Speaker 1: Jim Valley's last name and I said debuting tonight, Mike Valley,
Speaker 1: that just sounds weird. Or hey, you know what's gonna
Speaker 1: show up tonight, Jim simper Viv. You're like, who is
Speaker 1: what a stupid name? But anyway, that's all these names
Speaker 1: are just they don't roll off the tongue. They just
Speaker 1: sound weird. Alba fire Cut on a chance and even
Speaker 1: briant look even in in the Flying Mirror and in
Speaker 1: the Onion, which would be another great use of doing
Speaker 1: something like that with the fake quotes with somebody's name
Speaker 1: attached to him, they sound like real names. And I
Speaker 1: know there's a lot of wacky names out there. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of unique and different names and names rooted
Speaker 1: in culture that you know, I'm not familiar with. So
Speaker 1: there's a lot of names out there that are you know,
Speaker 1: like but like with w W E, they either they
Speaker 1: come across so generic, like isis Nile? I thought that's
Speaker 1: kind of a cool name. Maybe you look at Ivy Nile.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, Like I thought that was kind of a
Speaker 1: cool name. But then it's like Alba Fire, I don't
Speaker 1: know how great that sounds. Katana Chance sounds like somebody
Speaker 1: out of a video game, and it's like it doesn't
Speaker 1: I don't know, it just doesn't ever really serve the
Speaker 1: kind of fit with w E. I mean, the Butch thing,
Speaker 1: because of the character he's playing makes sense. It's just
Speaker 1: why did you have to rename him Butch? Why couldn't
Speaker 1: he be I don't know. But then again, we've been
Speaker 1: this has been a w w E slash F thing
Speaker 1: since three since you know, forever. You know, actually even
Speaker 1: before that. Look, people would go to work for Vince
Speaker 1: McMahon's father and he would change their names. Hulk Hogan
Speaker 1: used not Terry Boulder. We wanted the Irish guy, so
Speaker 1: it ended up being you know, whole Hogan. So this
Speaker 1: is again, this is what they do. It's in their
Speaker 1: DNA to do. It's just come a cup with some
Speaker 1: better names that kind of fit, and yeah, roll off
Speaker 1: the tongue and seem a little more marketable. I guess
Speaker 1: I'll get back to the news in a second. I
Speaker 1: just gotta tell the story real quick. So the other day,
Speaker 1: we're in California and uh we we went to uh
Speaker 1: the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and then we went to eat
Speaker 1: and there was just this little hole in the wall
Speaker 1: place called American Burger, that's what it was called. And
Speaker 1: everybody that worked there was Mexican, and uh they played
Speaker 1: Mexican music. It was like the weirdest thing, but they
Speaker 1: only and then they wanted chicken nuggets and they were
Speaker 1: the exact same ones that we get from Costco, the
Speaker 1: Dino nuggets, exactly the same. So I like the place,
Speaker 1: but it's called American Burger, and so on all of
Speaker 1: the walls there's like, you know, here's the Beatles, and uh,
Speaker 1: here's some you know, records and whatever like that. And
Speaker 1: they got some antique stuff in there, and I said, uh, Paisley,
Speaker 1: when you're done eating, I'm gonna go show you what
Speaker 1: some of this stuff is. I'm gonna explain. I was
Speaker 1: gonna explain to her what like a record was and
Speaker 1: everything like that, because she just all she knows is, oh,
Speaker 1: I want to listen to Coca melon just played on
Speaker 1: your phone. To know know what life was like, you know,
Speaker 1: back in the day. So we're looking around and and uh,
Speaker 1: and there's a there's an old TV, a cathode ray TV,
Speaker 1: the big square TV. And uh, I said, you know
Speaker 1: that is right, and she looks at it. She goes
Speaker 1: an oven, said, she goes, it's an oven. It's like
Speaker 1: a microwave oven. A television. She had no idea what
Speaker 1: a television was, an old school of television. I video
Speaker 1: I took a video of because it was just so preposterous.
Speaker 1: I should put it on the internet. And Oven, oh
Speaker 1: my god, I don't even bother explaining the record after that.
Speaker 1: You don't even know what a television is. Kid, I
Speaker 1: can't explain a record. And she's she's young. Avery. We
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago went to the Mayflower Hotel
Speaker 1: in d C. And they have a lot of nice,
Speaker 1: really nice sitting areas in there. And in one part
Speaker 1: of it, I took a picture because it's Avery on
Speaker 1: his phone on his iPhone looking over at a rotary phone,
Speaker 1: just completely baffled, just baffled, new was a phone, just like, okay,
Speaker 1: what do you do here? Why are these letters? What
Speaker 1: is going on here? And just had no clue on
Speaker 1: how to work it showed him. It was like, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: well that makes sense now. But it's like, so let
Speaker 1: me get this straight. You would click it and it
Speaker 1: would make that yes, yes. And then his grandmother told
Speaker 1: him about the you know back in the day of
Speaker 1: k L M. Dash that was a phone number four
Speaker 1: or five seven, and yeah, that really blew his mind.
Speaker 1: Yeah we're old, Brian, this is what's going on here,
Speaker 1: Suttenham singed in an interview, and he said that he
Speaker 1: chose to sign with a W over w w E
Speaker 1: in order to make history for Indian wrestlers. In the promotion,
Speaker 1: he said, I had given trials for w w E
Speaker 1: as well and I liked it very much as well.
Speaker 1: And I liked a W as well. A W is
Speaker 1: brand new. It's only been a couple of years right,
Speaker 1: and it's really fire. I thought that if I go
Speaker 1: to a W I would be the first again first
Speaker 1: wrestler from India. I will make another history for India
Speaker 1: in a e W. He said, it would be amazing
Speaker 1: to go to w w E, but they already have
Speaker 1: Indian people over there, they have Indian wrestlers. Why don't
Speaker 1: I go start where? There are no Indian guys and
Speaker 1: create history again after reaching there. So anyway, that's why
Speaker 1: he chose to go there. And I talked about this
Speaker 1: on the Brinon Van Show and Observer Radio last night.
Speaker 1: I know, everyone hated his debut and the lights out
Speaker 1: and the fans are baffled, and you know, we had
Speaker 1: the people which wasn't It wasn't good, don't get me wrong,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't the worst thing. Now, with that said,
Speaker 1: on the Battle of the Belt show, after the Jonathan
Speaker 1: Gresham match, Suttenham Sing showed up and he went down
Speaker 1: to the ring and he beat up Gresham and he
Speaker 1: beat up the boys. And I thought the guy, I
Speaker 1: was impressed, not like he was he was you know,
Speaker 1: the bars low. I just saw Omas have a horrible
Speaker 1: match at WrestleMania and everything like that. But I mean
Speaker 1: everything he did it looked good. Nothing looked bad. He
Speaker 1: didn't have to sell, which is like the big thing
Speaker 1: that these giants have a problem with. But like he looked,
Speaker 1: you know, dominating, and he had charisma and he had
Speaker 1: a personality, and I thought it was like a great
Speaker 1: little segment there. So I don't know what everyone else thought,
Speaker 1: but I was very impressed with Sutton. I'm sinking back
Speaker 1: in a moment. It was over life back in the show.
Speaker 1: Brian Elber is here Wrestling Observer Live, Mike smber Vid
Speaker 1: also Wrestling and debserver dot Com. This person here makes
Speaker 1: a good point. He says in w w E the
Speaker 1: names feel like two first names or two last names.
Speaker 1: So it'd be like Mike Bryan Semper viv Alvarez that's
Speaker 1: actually a good one, or Proper ver High. It's a
Speaker 1: lot of Latin in there for that supper vv Alvarez.
Speaker 1: But you know, yeah that yes, way too often is
Speaker 1: that the case? When there's guys down there? What are there?
Speaker 1: What is it? I mean? But it's like there's some genera.
Speaker 1: It's like Josh Briggs and what's the other guy's name? Jensen? Whatever?
Speaker 1: Where is Brigg? Josh Briggs and Brooks Jensen? Yeah, impossible
Speaker 1: except for one guy can't get a So I remember
Speaker 1: Brooks Jensen. That's how I remember Von Wagner. Like, oh,
Speaker 1: I like von Wagner. Don't know that one. That's a
Speaker 1: good one. Okay, that was see there like that one.
Speaker 1: There's one I don't understand at all. Von Wagner yeah,
Speaker 1: come on, is he Dutch? I mean, is it like
Speaker 1: I don't know, I just Fallon Henley. Yep, that's a
Speaker 1: good one too, Fallon Henley. Look, that sounds more like
Speaker 1: a different line of business to me. I don't know
Speaker 1: what this comes and I know you hate this. I
Speaker 1: know we've done this before. Is that a WrestleMania main
Speaker 1: event named Tatum Paxley? Can you see Tatum Paxley against
Speaker 1: Fallon Henley in the main event a Rustlemania? Actually possible?
Speaker 1: I guess this person here notes they renamed Casey to
Speaker 1: Katon a chance because of the American Ninja Warrior gimmick.
Speaker 1: Hannah is a weapon used by ninja's that's true. Actually,
Speaker 1: Classic wasn't acknowledge. We're gonna acknowledge her American Ninja Warrior past,
Speaker 1: but not actually let her use the name she used
Speaker 1: un American Ninja Warrior. Why don't they just put her
Speaker 1: under a mask, in a full body suit and call
Speaker 1: her the Ninja Warrior or something. I guess you could,
Speaker 1: but they probably can't trademark Ninja Warrior. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you're gonna give somebody like, you know, the name,
Speaker 1: I don't know. That's one of those like I don't know,
Speaker 1: Katana Sword if she was in an outfit or something
Speaker 1: like that, it's like, you know, Ninja Mack, Like, you know,
Speaker 1: it's not the same when he takes the mask off
Speaker 1: and it's just him. But when he's in the mask,
Speaker 1: he's got the whole, all the gear on and everything.
Speaker 1: He looks like a Ninja Mac. You know what I'm saying. Like,
Speaker 1: that's another one of those names where it's like Katana Sword.
Speaker 1: At least make it video game esque or something like that.
Speaker 1: I don't know. All right. Here's an interview that Tripleates
Speaker 1: from the Athletic talking about n x T. He says
Speaker 1: that the after transitioning n x T from the w
Speaker 1: W network to the USA Network, the pandemic changed their
Speaker 1: focus in working in front of no fans and hurt
Speaker 1: both the recruitment and training of talent for nearly two years.
Speaker 1: Then we said, said Hunter, all right, let's reboot it
Speaker 1: and go back to what we originally were. Some of
Speaker 1: these people won't be ready for television, but we're gonna
Speaker 1: put them on television. We believe the audience is invested
Speaker 1: enough that the numbers might come down, but a core
Speaker 1: group of them will stay, and now we're creating fresh
Speaker 1: stars all the time. That's where we are now. The
Speaker 1: numbers have stabilized, he said. The shift towards two point
Speaker 1: oh and more churn on the roster was something they
Speaker 1: were already talking about, but then it happened to take
Speaker 1: place at a period of time where I had to
Speaker 1: leave it for a bit, he said. Build your own
Speaker 1: versus recruit from the Indies. Said over time, you realize
Speaker 1: the NFL parts ways with up to five players a year,
Speaker 1: which helps contribute to a larger pool of athletes from
Speaker 1: which they can recruit, versus a smaller pool of Indian
Speaker 1: talent where quote you've almost got to be someone with
Speaker 1: nothing else going on, or you can't take no for
Speaker 1: an answer and dig dig dig. If you take that
Speaker 1: athlete pool and ten or five percent have big personalities,
Speaker 1: that would be good for the business, you're talking about
Speaker 1: a talent pool that's a thousand times bigger than right now.
Speaker 1: He admitted they were going to be some cases where
Speaker 1: they will miss and realize they were wrong and not
Speaker 1: signing certain talent. But quote, at some point you'll want
Speaker 1: to be a part of the biggest promotion in the
Speaker 1: world and you'll come back here. Well, I said, there
Speaker 1: are numbers of trainees forced them to have more regimented
Speaker 1: uh into whether they have a future in w w E.
Speaker 1: In the past, you said they would give new talent
Speaker 1: more time to figure things out. But in the current
Speaker 1: day they will have a better gage after six months
Speaker 1: on whether recruits will have an aptitude for pro wrestling,
Speaker 1: where do you want to start picking this one apart? Okay,
Speaker 1: more they will have a better gauge after six months
Speaker 1: about other recruits will have an aptitude for pro six
Speaker 1: months farmer nix he starts making an elsewhere. Lex City
Speaker 1: likes it. Former Nixey talent have made it big elsewhere
Speaker 1: and are happy for them, equating it to when players
Speaker 1: leave football teams and move to other teams. I like
Speaker 1: to think they came into us here. We taught them
Speaker 1: a lot, got them to a higher level where they
Speaker 1: learned how to do television, how to be professionals, and
Speaker 1: all of that to be successful there. At some point
Speaker 1: they might come back with us, or they might never
Speaker 1: because they don't fit our brand as well, and that
Speaker 1: is okay. He said. He welcomes competition, saying it's great
Speaker 1: and makes everybody sharper. You get lazy. If you're all
Speaker 1: there and everybody goes about their business the end of
Speaker 1: the day, it will make us better. We'll all be
Speaker 1: better for it. All these things have forced us to
Speaker 1: be in a better place right now now, Not that
Speaker 1: we wouldn't have gotten there anyway, but we have done
Speaker 1: it quicker in some manner. There's room for everybody to
Speaker 1: do it. I just talking about competition. It's like saying
Speaker 1: the USFL or XFL is starting up in the NF
Speaker 1: fell is panicking about market share, just going to increase
Speaker 1: people's love for football. If you love football that much,
Speaker 1: you'll watch all of the football. It's great. But the
Speaker 1: NFL is not sweating that. So really the only thing
Speaker 1: I don't want to sit here and just like talk
Speaker 1: about all of this. But he did have one line
Speaker 1: which he just totally glossed over. He said, says, here
Speaker 1: the pandemic change their folks and working in front of
Speaker 1: no fans hurt both the recruitment and training of talent
Speaker 1: for nearly two years. Then we said, okay, let's reboot
Speaker 1: it and go back to what we originally were in
Speaker 1: any moves on mm hmm, Well, why did you make
Speaker 1: that decision. The answer to why they made that decision,
Speaker 1: by the way, is because I mean, it's there's a
Speaker 1: lot of reasons, but I mean, Vince just doesn't get it.
Speaker 1: He does not get the modern style of professional wrestling.
Speaker 1: He doesn't get being small, he doesn't get doing high spots,
Speaker 1: he doesn't get indeed, modern, he doesn't get any of that.
Speaker 1: He knows what he knows, and what he knows is big,
Speaker 1: good looking guys, hot women, colors, no clothe, and so
Speaker 1: what he knows. And so, I mean, do you guys
Speaker 1: remember an x T from like nineteen dude, it was awesome.
Speaker 1: All people talked about was his best thing in wrestling
Speaker 1: was better anything on the main roster. But he didn't
Speaker 1: like all that. He didn't like these guys. He didn't
Speaker 1: get it. He would have the guys that were successful
Speaker 1: in the main roster were like, you know, tall, good looking.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was so, I mean, that's what happened.
Speaker 1: None of that's mentioned here, just the generic line. Then
Speaker 1: we said, okay, let's reboot it and go back to
Speaker 1: what we originally were. And here we are. Let's just
Speaker 1: we'll get a whole bunch of of good looking athletes
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, in six months will know whether
Speaker 1: they can be good wrestlers or not, We'll fire everybody
Speaker 1: else and we'll just hiring more because, damn it, we
Speaker 1: can teach anybody to do this. That's what that's where
Speaker 1: we are right now. And for those of you that
Speaker 1: don't understand why we watch n x T two point
Speaker 1: oh every week, I mean, this is the biggest story
Speaker 1: for the future of wrestling. We've got two companies. Okay,
Speaker 1: one company is all about we want good wrestlers. We
Speaker 1: want people who can do this job well, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna try to build a pro wresting promotion around it.
Speaker 1: And then we've got the other company that's like, it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter if you can wrestle or not, doesn't matter
Speaker 1: if you've ever done this. We can make anybody. We
Speaker 1: can take anybody and make them you know, not all
Speaker 1: of them, obviously, but we can take a hundred people
Speaker 1: and ten of them will have charisma and some athletic ability,
Speaker 1: and in six months, you know, we can have them
Speaker 1: far enough along that you know, they can go on
Speaker 1: on television and you know, eventually be WrestleMania main eventors.
Speaker 1: This is a gigantic story. This is not just oh
Speaker 1: I don't like n x T and the show's dumb,
Speaker 1: and no, this is the entire future of this business,
Speaker 1: two completely opposing viewpoints. I mean, maybe there's room in
Speaker 1: this world for you know, two major progressing promotions that
Speaker 1: do things entirely differently. Maybe one will win out. I
Speaker 1: guess we'll wait and see. I think sanity is gonna
Speaker 1: win out because you can only do this for so
Speaker 1: long before you realize that of the hundred sheep that
Speaker 1: you got to teach to jump the fence, when of
Speaker 1: them can't do it, and you do have that one
Speaker 1: that makes it over, and you're happy about them. But
Speaker 1: then you see out in that field all those people
Speaker 1: that for some reason, you don't like the color of
Speaker 1: that one, you don't like the height of that one,
Speaker 1: you don't like the age of that one. But but
Speaker 1: all those people are are are fence jumpers. They can
Speaker 1: all make it over. They're all good at what they do,
Speaker 1: but you don't want to put in the time to, like,
Speaker 1: you know, make them stars. What they were doing on
Speaker 1: n x T was just fine. The problem was once
Speaker 1: they got to the main roster, and maybe Vincent a
Speaker 1: lot of other people didn't like hearing that. You know,
Speaker 1: you're not using these guys right, Why are you mischieved?
Speaker 1: Why are you changing their names? Why are you trying
Speaker 1: to change what they are? You know, why is it
Speaker 1: the people who you released fault that you couldn't make
Speaker 1: any of them stars? You know, Finn Balor was the
Speaker 1: star for years, he was in I s. He was
Speaker 1: the star. He comes at the main roster and yeah,
Speaker 1: injuries there was that he was the first Universal Champion.
Speaker 1: There were some you know, things that happened that didn't
Speaker 1: work out perfectly. But then you know, Damian Priest was
Speaker 1: an untouched commodity. Damian Priests has been around the indies forever.
Speaker 1: Went to n next team, older guy. Nobody knows how
Speaker 1: old Damian Priests really is. You know, he's he's older
Speaker 1: than some of those dudes like in Austin theory. But
Speaker 1: he hit it really well. He didn't know this guy
Speaker 1: was pushing forty unless I told you he was pushing forty.
Speaker 1: And he was a star. And he goes down next team.
Speaker 1: He was a star there. He comes up to the
Speaker 1: main roster and what happens. He remains relative the untouched
Speaker 1: and when they really figure out something for him, to do.
Speaker 1: It's a complete mess. He looks like a goof and
Speaker 1: it hasn't worked. And we'll see what happens here with Edge.
Speaker 1: But I don't have a whole lot of faith right now.
Speaker 1: That's not the talent's fault. That's you, guys as fault.
Speaker 1: And taking a Tiffany Stratton or somebody ice cold off
Speaker 1: the street, teaching him how to work and bring him
Speaker 1: up to the main roster isn't gonna fix that. It's
Speaker 1: not going to fix that unless you actually realize that
Speaker 1: you need more than just one star in Roman Reigns
Speaker 1: and understand that you need to keep building some more.
Speaker 1: They wait for somebody to trip over and fall into
Speaker 1: their lap, like a brock Lesner or Likes or Roman
Speaker 1: Reigns or somebody like that, that they can build up
Speaker 1: and call themselves. There's as the one example of look
Speaker 1: what we did, see this is how we made it work,
Speaker 1: when really it's the athletes. It's more special than anything,
Speaker 1: frankly that they're teaching them. By the way, there's other
Speaker 1: stuff that I'm not going to even get into here
Speaker 1: on the air, but there's so much in that thing
Speaker 1: if you wanted to, it's just I'll us read this,
Speaker 1: uh this text message and then uh, I'm sure some
Speaker 1: of you can put two to get two together. Brian,
Speaker 1: what is up with the Hulu version of n X
Speaker 1: Team not having the key to Lions? The last two
Speaker 1: episodes didn't have her on it at all. This person
Speaker 1: here says, and wait until they changed Tomasso Chump his
Speaker 1: name to Tommy Carl actually hasn't say. I mean, I
Speaker 1: guess he's still got his his last name. That's what
Speaker 1: they that's what they will do. They wouldn't get rid
Speaker 1: of They'll get rid of Tomasso first. We'll just be
Speaker 1: chomp all big letters. That's it. This person here's like
Speaker 1: Count von Wagner related to Count MARKI von Core. Remember
Speaker 1: that guy was Marquise, Yeah, I liked him and t
Speaker 1: n a u um the cat or the Pounds? Who
Speaker 1: was that Monty Brown? Yeah? I liked him. You c
Speaker 1: w reeve it didn't do a whole lot for really
Speaker 1: anybody talking about a bunch of name changes that didn't
Speaker 1: quite work out. According to Blam, the odds that our
Speaker 1: truth misses up the wedding like he misses up town
Speaker 1: names and the wrong people get married. That's actually an
Speaker 1: awesome idea that actually would be great. I don't know
Speaker 1: how the follow up would be. But if he accidentally
Speaker 1: married the wrong people to each other, I like, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be very disappointed now if they don't do that.
Speaker 1: I know this is an old story, but that whole
Speaker 1: thing where he screwed up the name but Green Bay
Speaker 1: or Milwaukee? Wasn't he just goofing on the Snickers commercial
Speaker 1: and then everybody actually, no, he actually made a mistake.
Speaker 1: He really did make a mistake, one mistake in his
Speaker 1: lifetime and now that's the rest of his life. They
Speaker 1: why didn't they build that into the Snickers commercial? Then?
Speaker 1: I guess maybe they didn't have that sponsorship back in
Speaker 1: the day. Make in a Moment with more Observer Live
Speaker 1: at the show. Brian Elber is here Wrestling Observer Live.
Speaker 1: Mike subervib also Wrestling Observer dot Com. Hey Dom plug
Speaker 1: that cookie place that we had this weekend? Oh Insomnia cookies?
Speaker 1: Was that was that awesome? Or what? Dude? They're amazing.
Speaker 1: Ever since I found out there's one like ten minutes
Speaker 1: away from here, my waistline has not treated me well. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I went to Byeline on Friday and dumb got cookies
Speaker 1: for me and the youngsters. That's great, Tom, You gonna
Speaker 1: send me a care package or what? Of course not
Speaker 1: not after that break? Hey, Dom, how about that picture
Speaker 1: we took together where I was a little bit behind
Speaker 1: you and to the side, and so your head looked
Speaker 1: like a buffalo head. I guess maybe flatter. It was
Speaker 1: a better photo than the one we took in Seattle, though,
Speaker 1: I will say that I don't remember that one that.
Speaker 1: I'm so happy that makes Brian to let to know
Speaker 1: that he somehow centered you up and blocked you in
Speaker 1: a photographed me. You look like you had a boot,
Speaker 1: You idiot. I was just there yell at me. Mike
Speaker 1: likes to blame everything on me, Tom, But as you're
Speaker 1: well aware, it's never my fault. No, not not at all, No,
Speaker 1: gorgeous Jimmy Garvin, it's never your fault. It's never my fault. Hey.
Speaker 1: Later today we're interview, not interview. He's a co host
Speaker 1: Filthy Tom Lawler. That'll be at uh. He's your champion
Speaker 1: to Pacific for now, to Pacific five Eastern Filthy Tom
Speaker 1: Lawlers Show, talk about SmackDown and some of the New
Speaker 1: Japan show from this weekend I'll watch as much as
Speaker 1: I can. And I think Tom watched a bunch of
Speaker 1: the Stardom Cinderella Tournament as well, so we'll get into that.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that's coming up this this afternoon. Everybody to
Speaker 1: Pacific five. I've Eastern Twitch actually no YouTube top to
Speaker 1: your YouTube subscribers can watch it live. Everybody else can
Speaker 1: listen to Wrestling Observer dot com. Check out my cameo
Speaker 1: at four w online. Boy, I was killing him cameos
Speaker 1: this weekend, and I got plenty of time for more.
Speaker 1: And that's it. Everybody thinks Mike has always colors and
Speaker 1: listeners down in the cookies. It's like the next time
Speaker 1: Wrestling Observer Live. You have been listening to the Wrestling
Speaker 1: Observer Daily podcast on the eight Side Network