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 or Wrestling Observer Live. We are here every
Speaker 1: day Monday through Friday, noon Pacific, three Eastern Sunday three Pacific,
Speaker 1: sixth Eastern Friday. Here in this program. You know that
Speaker 1: means we have got a lot of news including SmackDown tonight,
Speaker 1: Rampage Tonight, Rampage already taped. We'll give me the the
Speaker 1: line up, another results, you can watch the show tonight
Speaker 1: to find out what happens. Smecton of course is live tonight,
Speaker 1: and believe it or not, we actually have some segments
Speaker 1: announced for the show, so we'll tell you about that
Speaker 1: here Today, w w E injuries, Hiroshitanahashi re signing with
Speaker 1: New Japan, Sunny arrested again, the ratings for DNA might
Speaker 1: and more. And of course, yesterday the new edition of
Speaker 1: the Wrestling Observer newsletter came out and we have four
Speaker 1: actually five, one of them six, I guess one of
Speaker 1: them is an act, but four new entrants into the
Speaker 1: Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame three of which three acts,
Speaker 1: of which Los Bravos is one of the Los Brasos
Speaker 1: one of the acts. That's three guys. But anyway, the
Speaker 1: top three all going into the All of Fame with
Speaker 1: more than eighty percent of the vote. Okada going in
Speaker 1: with nine two percent of the vote, So there were
Speaker 1: eight percent of voters that did not believe Okada is
Speaker 1: a Hall of Famer. I don't want to talk about it,
Speaker 1: but we will talk about Okada going in and uh
Speaker 1: and the guy who almost went in with fifty nine
Speaker 1: point seven percent of the vote last year, he only
Speaker 1: got thirty three. Some very interesting results in the Wrestling
Speaker 1: Observer Hall of Fame voting, so we'll talk about that
Speaker 1: here on the show today and so much more. If
Speaker 1: you want Texas, zero seven five six six is the
Speaker 1: phone number that is four to five seven eight zero
Speaker 1: seven five six six. Brian at Wrestling Observer dot com
Speaker 1: at Brian Albert is on Twitter back in a moment
Speaker 1: to kick it off Observer Live back in the show.
Speaker 1: Bright Albert is here Wrestling Observer Live mix umber Baby,
Speaker 1: also of Wrestling Observer of her dot com, the Wrestling
Speaker 1: Observer newsletter, Hall of Fame edition is out, thank God,
Speaker 1: on the front page of the Wrestling Observer newsletter website
Speaker 1: Wrestling Observer dot com atfortably online dot com. Subscribers canna
Speaker 1: read the whole thing. A bunch of great bios in there,
Speaker 1: a lot of great stories and all you can see
Speaker 1: how everybody who was on the ballot for the Observer
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame did. And uh spoiler here Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame balloting results. The four acts going into the Wrestling
Speaker 1: Observer Hall of Fame in two Catuchico Kata nine two
Speaker 1: per cent of the vote. Los Brazos went in with
Speaker 1: eighty six percent of the vote, having only gotten fifty
Speaker 1: three percent of the vote last year. Jim Crockett Jr.
Speaker 1: Went in eighty two percent of the vote after only
Speaker 1: getting thirty six percent of the vote last year. Don
Speaker 1: Owen going in of the vote after getting of the
Speaker 1: vote last year. But the jumps for Jim Crockett Jr.
Speaker 1: And Los Brasos, particularly Jim Crockett Jr. I mean, bro,
Speaker 1: what happened this year? What happened? And look it's eighty
Speaker 1: two That's what I'm saying. A forty six percent jump.
Speaker 1: And look at the jump that Los Brasos has and
Speaker 1: you hate to put it this way, but it is
Speaker 1: put this way mostly the death bump and Jim Crockett Jr.
Speaker 1: Passed away, uh Los Brasos to Plata, super Porky passed
Speaker 1: away last year. When that happens a lot of times,
Speaker 1: a lot of like it shed on somebody's career and
Speaker 1: especially the positives of one's career, and people tend to
Speaker 1: look at other people in a different way. I think
Speaker 1: a great example of this, to me, at least, my
Speaker 1: personal example of this is always Eddie Guerrero in that
Speaker 1: I always kind of pointed Chris ben Wait always surprised
Speaker 1: me not that ben Wah was in before Eddie Guerrero,
Speaker 1: but that Eddie Guerrero's point total and that his vote
Speaker 1: total was so low. That's what always surprised me. He
Speaker 1: ultimately did get in after he had passed away and
Speaker 1: people had their warm, fuzzy memories. Obviously that tends to
Speaker 1: take place. We see a great jump. But also I
Speaker 1: think pushed some of these numbers was the fact that
Speaker 1: there were going to be some people that were going
Speaker 1: to fall off the ballot. Ole Anderson Sergeant Slaughter, they
Speaker 1: were two of the people and we saw a big
Speaker 1: bump up in Sergeant Slaughter as well too. It's only
Speaker 1: five in, but when you look at some of his
Speaker 1: numbers over the last several years, you can see where
Speaker 1: he did get a significant bump. But when it comes
Speaker 1: to a lot of hall of fames, including the Wrestling
Speaker 1: Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame, especially when it comes to
Speaker 1: the Baseball Hall of Fame here in America, it always
Speaker 1: drives to me nuts when there is somebody that is
Speaker 1: such an obvious no brainer and you still have people
Speaker 1: as members of the voting community that just refused to
Speaker 1: put somebody in for whatever reason. And Kazuchka Okada was
Speaker 1: a no brainer. Kenta Kobashi the year he went in
Speaker 1: was a absolute no brainer. And no one will probably
Speaker 1: ever touch Kobashi's vote total at this point with the
Speaker 1: what was it, Brian ninety six percent? What what? What
Speaker 1: was he voted in? With a you're talking about Kobashi here.
Speaker 1: Kobashi was ninety eight, lire was Okada was ninety two.
Speaker 1: I'm still trying to figure out who would not vote
Speaker 1: for Kazucho Okada. What is the excuse because he's still active,
Speaker 1: because he's too young? I think that's absolute craziness by
Speaker 1: the letter of what you're supposed to be voting on
Speaker 1: Kazuhiko Okata like all of those other men, no no brainer,
Speaker 1: Hall of famers, I mean, even the Rock. In some ways,
Speaker 1: because of two thousand and seven, you could even almost
Speaker 1: argue against him, possibly in some way a lot easier
Speaker 1: to me than you could could go against kazooch Ocata.
Speaker 1: And I think that's insanity in itself. But listen, we
Speaker 1: don't know, we don't know who all the voters are.
Speaker 1: But I do know that when Dave kind of sort
Speaker 1: of revealed that Okada was going in on accident observer radio,
Speaker 1: I mean he did say that he did not get
Speaker 1: of the vote, and he had heard from a few
Speaker 1: people that didn't vote for Ocata, and I believe his
Speaker 1: exact words were, there wasn't one good reason. I couldn't
Speaker 1: see it myself. I can't see it myself. Can you
Speaker 1: can you come up with I've been watching wrestling for
Speaker 1: a long time. I've watched wrestling from all over the world.
Speaker 1: I haven't obvious Slee seen everything, but I've watched a lot.
Speaker 1: And Okada is either he is either the greatest professional
Speaker 1: wrestler I have ever seen, or he's He's easily top
Speaker 1: five when he had that run a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1: I watched those Okada matches, and I grew up with
Speaker 1: Shawn Michael's and Rick Flair, and I've seen Kobashi and
Speaker 1: Missawa and Omega. Name anyone you want in this huge
Speaker 1: name Tanahashi, like I've seen all of them. Okay. I
Speaker 1: never saw somebody who was as good as Okada. Okay, fine,
Speaker 1: So maybe you say, well, he's not the best, you know,
Speaker 1: I think Rick Flair's the best or whatever. Okay, fine,
Speaker 1: he's not a Hall of Famer, bro it's crazy. Of
Speaker 1: course he's a Hall of Famer. So he's in and
Speaker 1: Los Braslos Jim Crockett Jr. Don owen all in. Uh,
Speaker 1: Poor Mystico, poor a charistico. Listen, here's the thing with Mystico. Everybody.
Speaker 1: If you're looking at the Hall of Fame and you
Speaker 1: know Mystico, yes, he went to w W E and
Speaker 1: it was an abject, horrific failure. Okay, but you guys,
Speaker 1: some of you don't understand how big Mystico was before
Speaker 1: he went to w W E. Find the Last Lucador
Speaker 1: that one wrestler of the year. Oh you never will,
Speaker 1: because he's the only one ever who did. He was
Speaker 1: a massive draw, a mainstream name in Mexico. Now, obviously
Speaker 1: a lot of people only remember he went to w
Speaker 1: w E and he didn't do well and he wasn't
Speaker 1: very good, and he sucked and he just was gone.
Speaker 1: But he went to w w E. They don't know
Speaker 1: what to do with anybody. So anyway, the point is
Speaker 1: he got fifty nine point seven percent of the vote
Speaker 1: this year after getting thirty three percent last year, and
Speaker 1: so essentially one person didn't vote for Mystico and he
Speaker 1: did not make it into the Hall of Fame. Hey, look,
Speaker 1: everyone everyville counts, bros. It's while we're going into what
Speaker 1: seventeen eighteen years now since Mystico was at his peak.
Speaker 1: But I mean, and I know, look, there are some
Speaker 1: people listening to us right now. They weren't even born
Speaker 1: yet when Mystica was at his peak. But it was
Speaker 1: appointment television, any of the CMLL shows, especially what was
Speaker 1: the next of a couple of days later out Channel
Speaker 1: fifty two where where it would come on, And I
Speaker 1: mean it was appointment television, Friday night appointment television because
Speaker 1: of Mystico. That's he was that big, He was that good,
Speaker 1: he was that big of a star. I mean, it
Speaker 1: was amazing how big Mystico wasn't how much he crossed over.
Speaker 1: So I don't know if he ever makes it in
Speaker 1: I think he ultimately he will. But that damage of
Speaker 1: going to w w E, I mean that absolutely hurt him.
Speaker 1: It hurt him big time. Now also to back to
Speaker 1: Jim Crockett Jr. The you know, the big boost that
Speaker 1: he got. Granted I am a little bit biased, you
Speaker 1: know with the mid Atlantic stuff, but to me, he
Speaker 1: was always unnaturally low. To be frank with you. I mean,
Speaker 1: Jim Crockett Jr. And his father, you could argue you
Speaker 1: could have went in in the initial class. Obviously they didn't,
Speaker 1: but I think both of them, being in the cadillac
Speaker 1: of wrestling territories, what he was able to oversee. At
Speaker 1: the end of the day, everybody died, every promoter died
Speaker 1: at the hands of Vince mcmahn, every single last one
Speaker 1: of them, every booker as we see now with Vince McMahon,
Speaker 1: who at the end of the day, no matter what
Speaker 1: he wants to call himself, that's how everybody who was
Speaker 1: ever involved in wrestling. Look at him, he's the final say,
Speaker 1: he's the booker. You see what he's turning into right now.
Speaker 1: What a mess with an embarrassment that is with his
Speaker 1: vision right now. Frankly, so, I think sometimes we hold
Speaker 1: that against some of these older promoters, like like Jim
Speaker 1: Crockett Jr. Who had the Cadillac of wrestling territories. Literally
Speaker 1: he was the best wrestling territory and his biggest cities
Speaker 1: were Charlotte, Greensboro, Norfolk, and Roanoke, for heaven's sake. So
Speaker 1: you know, I always thought he was way low. But
Speaker 1: you know what, bottom line, at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: he's in. And I think there are some people that
Speaker 1: may never get in that deserve to be in, but
Speaker 1: everybody that is in absolutely deserves her place. So congratulations
Speaker 1: with everybody back in the moment, Observer Live, Back in
Speaker 1: the show. Bran elbur is here Wrestling Observer Alive and
Speaker 1: Mike's umber Viv also Wrestling Observer dot Com. Hey, listen,
Speaker 1: we have a guy here who's all up in. Uh.
Speaker 1: He's all up in old Uh. Mr COO's grill about
Speaker 1: botching spots. Yeah, and listen he did batch a lot
Speaker 1: of spots, you know what, before he lost his mind
Speaker 1: and murdered his family. I was friends with Crispin Wa
Speaker 1: for many years in the early two thousands, and he
Speaker 1: had gone to Mexico, and he had gone to Japan,
Speaker 1: and he had gone to He had wrestled all over
Speaker 1: America and North America, and one day I said, how, like,
Speaker 1: how are you able to like work all of these
Speaker 1: different styles like lucca and and everything. And you know
Speaker 1: what he told me, He goes, I didn't do any Lucca.
Speaker 1: I just went to Mexico and I just wrestled basically
Speaker 1: all the lucadors did Luca around him, and he just
Speaker 1: wrestled like Chris Ben while he wasn't in there trying
Speaker 1: to do like whatever. So the point of this story
Speaker 1: is Mystico is his massive, massive, massive superstar in Mexico.
Speaker 1: W w E wants a new Ray Mysterio. So instead
Speaker 1: of taking the guy Mystico and bringing him to w
Speaker 1: W E is Mystico and having him work Mystico matches
Speaker 1: with like other people that can do Lucca, they took
Speaker 1: the guy. They changed his name. They wanted him to
Speaker 1: work American style versus Americans with a little bit of
Speaker 1: high flying in there. Well, of course it didn't work.
Speaker 1: That's the point. Now, granted, Mystico had some issues of
Speaker 1: his own. He uh, he didn't want to learn any English,
Speaker 1: he had some behavioral issues. But the point of this
Speaker 1: is if you would have taken Ric Flair in his
Speaker 1: absolute prime, when he was the best wrestler in the world,
Speaker 1: arguably mid eighties and uh, and he got signed by
Speaker 1: CMLL and they brought in Rick Flair and they said, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're gonna first off, we're gonna change your name. You're
Speaker 1: gonna be uh Blanco whatever, and uh, you're you can't
Speaker 1: work the Ric Flair style. We want you to uh
Speaker 1: you know, do headlocks on the other side and uh
Speaker 1: flips and rolls, and let me tell you about Rick Flair.
Speaker 1: Guy don't roll very well. So and then they go
Speaker 1: in there, they want me to work Luca style with
Speaker 1: a different name, and it toldly doesn't work. He doesn't
Speaker 1: get over. I mean, are you gonna go, oh that
Speaker 1: Rick Flair? He actually sucked. No. And you know what,
Speaker 1: no one in the right mind would have done that
Speaker 1: with Rick Flair. There's exactly one company who would want
Speaker 1: to take the biggest superstar in Mexico, bring him in,
Speaker 1: change everything about him, and then not figure out why
Speaker 1: the guy didn't get over. So anyway, I don't want
Speaker 1: to hear it. Obviously the guy had a lot of problems.
Speaker 1: He wasn't perfect, but man, that guy got screwed in
Speaker 1: w w E. You know, I remember there being a
Speaker 1: time where wrestling was so down in Japan, and wrestling
Speaker 1: was especially so down in New Japan that people were wondering,
Speaker 1: would we ever see somebody get elected to the Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame, what would the fates of the Eugene Agadas
Speaker 1: and the Minorah Suzuki's be. And then we have obviously
Speaker 1: seen the ascension of New Japan and the entrances of
Speaker 1: Hiroshi Tonahashin Ski Nakamura's well as people like Minora's Suzuki
Speaker 1: and Eugene Nagata. And now when you look at the landscape,
Speaker 1: Roman Reigns is going to be added next year on
Speaker 1: the ballot. Thanky Lynch is going to be on the
Speaker 1: ballot for the first time next year. It is going
Speaker 1: to be very interesting now to see where w W
Speaker 1: E and where today's stars end up. You know, see
Speaker 1: him Punk did not get a large bump. Even though
Speaker 1: he doubled his total, he had such a low total
Speaker 1: last year that you know, it's not really up that high.
Speaker 1: But when you look at the w w E side,
Speaker 1: you ask yourself, Man Edge, Randy Orton, Uh, these types
Speaker 1: of people, will they ever have really a shot to
Speaker 1: get in Well what they do in w w E, Well,
Speaker 1: how they are are handled, you know, and they're booking,
Speaker 1: and how they're presented on television. How much will be
Speaker 1: held against them not being able to to evade what
Speaker 1: happens to them at the control of w w will
Speaker 1: be interesting to see, you know, how people react to
Speaker 1: them as the years go on. So next year, a
Speaker 1: lot of tag teams are going to be added to
Speaker 1: the ballot, and that's going to be interesting for me,
Speaker 1: somebody who's a big fan of tag team, somebody who
Speaker 1: was very influenced by tag teams, by the Tolly Blanchards
Speaker 1: and arn Anderson's, by the Steiner's. You know, we're going
Speaker 1: to have Ricky Steve Bowton, j Young Blood to cure
Speaker 1: Tauwai and Toshiaki Kawada Taae. The one pillar that has
Speaker 1: not been voted into the Wresting Observer Newsletter Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame as a singles. As a tag team, I mean,
Speaker 1: to me is almost undeniable. Antonio Rocca and Argentina Rocca
Speaker 1: and Miguel Perez, same way, they're the biggest drawing tag
Speaker 1: team in the history of pro wrestling other than the
Speaker 1: Road Warriors. I mean, you know, to me, they're a
Speaker 1: no brainers. So it will be very interesting to see
Speaker 1: tag teams and how they're looked at as we continue on,
Speaker 1: because here's the one thing that seems to be pretty consistent.
Speaker 1: Even though we have a lot of great tag teams
Speaker 1: now we'd like to talk about, they are still never
Speaker 1: going to be in there and not at the forefront
Speaker 1: in the way that I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: would like them to be, and I think is as
Speaker 1: much as they could be. So tag teams always getting
Speaker 1: the short end of the stick. Tonight on SmackDown, former
Speaker 1: Shields stablemates Roman Reigns and Seth Walls will take part
Speaker 1: in a face to face segment tonight. That's exciting. They're
Speaker 1: wrestling at the Royal Rumble. Leta will make her return
Speaker 1: to SmackDown tonight. Aliyah and Natty are two of the
Speaker 1: other restaurant who have been confirmed for the Women's Rumble.
Speaker 1: They will face off in a singles match tonight. It
Speaker 1: will be Eliah's first singles match on SmackDown since being
Speaker 1: called up from n x T, and the first time
Speaker 1: that she has wrestled since she vomited all over herself
Speaker 1: after a match in November. She was excited. Sammy Zane
Speaker 1: has promised to out jackass Johnny Knoxville. Yeah, I'm sure
Speaker 1: it's a fun segment to film for Sammy So and
Speaker 1: that's tonight. Sammy is a new stunt show called Insane.
Speaker 1: It's wacky, It's insane, insane. Sure, why not? Announced for
Speaker 1: this Rampage Tonight, Jungle Boy in Lucas Source versus Alex
Speaker 1: Reynolds and John Silver Trent will face Adam Cole, Layla
Speaker 1: hirsh Red Velvet and Chris stat Lander faced Nyla Rose,
Speaker 1: Penelope Ford and the Bunny. Sean Spears faces Andrew Everett
Speaker 1: and a look at Thunder Rosa and Mercedes Martinez. That's
Speaker 1: tonight on on Rampage much Pan. Zavier Woods currently into
Speaker 1: action due to injury. He was on G four's Attack
Speaker 1: of the Show on Thursday. He says he's out of
Speaker 1: action dure just suffering a torn plan taurus, which doesn't
Speaker 1: sound good. He is out of action four to six weeks.
Speaker 1: The plant tauris is a muscle located underneath the calf.
Speaker 1: If he is unable to return to the ring before
Speaker 1: the four to six week timetable, he would miss the
Speaker 1: Royal Rumble. The injury happened when he was jumping into
Speaker 1: the ring to hit a d d T. Because eight
Speaker 1: times out of ten, when you get hurt, it's something dumb,
Speaker 1: you never should have got hurt doing it just happens.
Speaker 1: Then the other two times where you're doing something crazy
Speaker 1: and you actually get hurt. He says. It was jimming
Speaker 1: to the ring to do a d d T. I
Speaker 1: spring off the bottom rope and grab the guy and
Speaker 1: then run his head into the ground, hopefully shattering all
Speaker 1: the bones in his body so I can pin him
Speaker 1: and win the match and make more money. I didn't
Speaker 1: know that a d d T is about shattering every
Speaker 1: bone in a man's body, he said. I did that
Speaker 1: part still, but in the process just jumping off the ropes,
Speaker 1: So nothing like a shark attack. A steel chair hit,
Speaker 1: not a machine gun, not a machete. I just jumped
Speaker 1: That's what I said. So what happened was he tried
Speaker 1: to do the move where he was gonna break every
Speaker 1: bone in the other guy's body, and he hit the move,
Speaker 1: but the only one hurt was his own leg. This
Speaker 1: man seems to be uh hyperbole here, but I mean
Speaker 1: that should be the move or the goal of any
Speaker 1: wrestling move was to shatter and destroy your opponent, right,
Speaker 1: I mean it should be what are we doing? Erope Otherwise,
Speaker 1: But of New Japan's top stars has renewed their contract
Speaker 1: with the promotion, Tanahashi announced he has signed a new
Speaker 1: deal with New Japan. He's a current i w g
Speaker 1: P United States Heavyweight champion, won the title from Kenta
Speaker 1: after almost killing the Poor Guy and a nod Q
Speaker 1: match at Russell Kingdom sixteen Night Too earlier this month,
Speaker 1: Kenta came out with a dislocated left hip, a broken
Speaker 1: nose tendant, damage to his finger, severe lacerations to his back,
Speaker 1: and had to miss the n j P W versus
Speaker 1: Noah show. Teach him to mess with Ace now, teaches
Speaker 1: both of them not do those stupid matches at their age. Whatever.
Speaker 1: I'm not missing with the Ace at all. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to protect the Ace by having him do wrestling matches
Speaker 1: and not stunt shows. Bro, you know what, Mike is
Speaker 1: funny if if they would have announced it as a
Speaker 1: result of that hardcore match, Hiroshi Tanahashi had a dislocated
Speaker 1: left hip, a broken nose tendant, damage to his finger,
Speaker 1: severe trace to his back and we have to miss
Speaker 1: night three of Wrestle Kingdom sixteen. You would be railing
Speaker 1: on that man because it's Kenta, who's not as big
Speaker 1: a deal as the Ace. Everything's all right, Oh, it's
Speaker 1: only Kenta. Don't mess with the aces hardcore match. What
Speaker 1: if he was doing a high fly flow and just
Speaker 1: on a basic move and you know, blow out his
Speaker 1: knee or something like that, like well, you know what,
Speaker 1: like Jake Atlas is somebody like that, right, I guess
Speaker 1: he didn't have to match. I get it that you
Speaker 1: didn't like the match, and I was not a huge
Speaker 1: fan of the match. I wouldn't have went in that
Speaker 1: direction either. But like this whole arguing about, well, this
Speaker 1: whole hand was I need to be proven correct, you
Speaker 1: need to be yelled at, and you need some sort
Speaker 1: of verification and some sort of like you know, uh,
Speaker 1: you know whatever. No, I mean, because all you're doing
Speaker 1: is you're making a mountain out of mole hill and
Speaker 1: handwringing over the fact that this was so horrible and
Speaker 1: I'm so sad for these people and all this stuff.
Speaker 1: It's like, Okay, cool, you didn't like the match, but
Speaker 1: like you've you've beaten this to death on how tragic
Speaker 1: and how ridiculous and all this other stuff, like they've
Speaker 1: killed their careers and it's just it's really way over
Speaker 1: the Okay, hold on a second, Hold on second. I
Speaker 1: just want to read this one more time. Okay, A
Speaker 1: guy got a dislocated hip, a broken nose, tending damage
Speaker 1: to his finger, and severe laceration to his back, and
Speaker 1: you're telling me I'm making a mountain out of a
Speaker 1: mole hill. No, I think you're beating something to death
Speaker 1: and you're taking this and you've really I mean, you've
Speaker 1: obviously you want I know, it's one of those things
Speaker 1: you want to you know, a hill you want to
Speaker 1: die on and what you want to plant your flag on.
Speaker 1: And that's fine. It's just I don't know. I think
Speaker 1: it's silly to me. So I'm gonna get Kenta on
Speaker 1: this show. I'm gonna rattle off a list of his injuries,
Speaker 1: and I want you to say it's silly. Can know?
Speaker 1: I think you're so silly these man, I think you're Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think your crusade here has been silly. So I'm
Speaker 1: gonna punish you for this. You know how. I'm opening
Speaker 1: up the phone lines back in a moment Observer Live.
Speaker 1: You heard me, Kent of vez phone lines are open. Everybody.
Speaker 1: Eight four four nine, one three seven is the phone
Speaker 1: number that is eight four four nine one three to
Speaker 1: seven to seven. You can text me four to five
Speaker 1: seven zero seven five six six. Should on the Prediction
Speaker 1: Show today, but I didn't. Will springboards be outlawed in
Speaker 1: two due to so many injuries seemingly happening off of them?
Speaker 1: We shall see what dude brother said. Nothing to do
Speaker 1: with springboards, dude has to do with a dangerous match.
Speaker 1: They had consequences, which is apparently a mole hill. Oh
Speaker 1: mole hill. Geez, look at you, Austin, Texas. Show us
Speaker 1: how this is done. You're on the air, Hey Brian
Speaker 1: a Mike shout out of the twitch honies. I was
Speaker 1: just calling to ask you if you knew about the
Speaker 1: uh if Josh Alexander had extended his contract Impact Wrestling
Speaker 1: because he has been looking pretty strong these past few months,
Speaker 1: and I was just making sure that you know he
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna leave R anything, because that would really be silly.
Speaker 1: All right, thank you all, hang up and listen, would
Speaker 1: be silly if he left for more money. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: haven't earned update on Josh Alexander, but I thought he
Speaker 1: was recent. I couldn't be. Maybe I'm crazy because of
Speaker 1: what was going on. Why, right, all Ego Ethan Page,
Speaker 1: I mean they when they were teaming as the North,
Speaker 1: I thought Alexander resigned. I could be crazy about that,
Speaker 1: but I thought he resigned. Obviously Ethan Page didn't. He
Speaker 1: went on to a w But look, he is a
Speaker 1: He's a real feather in their cap, and he is
Speaker 1: somebody that I think, you know, the mainstream wrestling fan,
Speaker 1: they're gonna have to really be pulled kicking and screaming
Speaker 1: over to him, I think. But I if you see
Speaker 1: what he's able to do with what Lee Moriarty and
Speaker 1: Daniel Garcia and Filthy, Tom Lawler and Alex Shelley and
Speaker 1: Davy Richards, and you go down the list of people
Speaker 1: who are in that vein Josh Alexander is as great
Speaker 1: of a wrestler as any of them, and I'd love
Speaker 1: to see him in New Japan. Strong and I think
Speaker 1: Impact being that door, I think is is good. I
Speaker 1: think he's the type of guy that when Ring of
Speaker 1: Honor comes back, he's the guy I tapped to be
Speaker 1: on my shows if I can get him for that weekend.
Speaker 1: I think he's outstanding. He had a match with Ruby
Speaker 1: Soho in a a W that I think they may
Speaker 1: have released for free on YouTube. They kicked ass. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's just a fantastic, fabulous worker and Garcia. There are
Speaker 1: a lot of guys who had big years on the
Speaker 1: indies last year and in the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: But man, if you're not watching Impact, you really ought
Speaker 1: to check out Alexander at the very least on some
Speaker 1: of the indies that he's done and some of the
Speaker 1: things that are out there for free on streaming services,
Speaker 1: because he's fantastic. The w W rename the Elimination Chamber?
Speaker 1: Is that true? Germany? They did it, says I'm still
Speaker 1: laughing at w W willing to rename Elimination Chamber WrestleMania
Speaker 1: Chamber to save themselves from the backlash. No, that's an email,
Speaker 1: so I'll follow up on that here. A w has
Speaker 1: being Raw at eighteen and thirty four two weeks in
Speaker 1: a row. Dynamite has now beaten Raw eighteen thirty four
Speaker 1: back to back for two weeks point sixty two point
Speaker 1: two four this week. That is the second most important demo.
Speaker 1: They know, well, the most important one is eighteen and
Speaker 1: forty nine, not the only one, but the most important
Speaker 1: one eighteen forty nine, And in fact they tied Raw
Speaker 1: this week. Nine hundred and sixty nine thousand viewers on
Speaker 1: TBS Low's viewership for Dynamites in December fift eighteen and
Speaker 1: forty nine eight point three nine, which matches the number
Speaker 1: drawn by this week's episode of Raw. Dynamite was third
Speaker 1: on cable for the night. Shell was down nine point
Speaker 1: three percent from last week. Still Dynamite second highest rating
Speaker 1: in the demos since October. Raw had very slightly more
Speaker 1: viewers five oh seven to five oh five, but it
Speaker 1: is essentially a statistical tie. Raw had very stiff competition
Speaker 1: in the form of a college football national championship game.
Speaker 1: Brandon Thurston had the quarters for the Dynamite show, and uh,
Speaker 1: this was not pretty for those of you that watched
Speaker 1: the show, the show, but at one point one six
Speaker 1: nine million viewers. Uh, then we had c him punkin
Speaker 1: Wardlow come to the ring. Uh the show lost viewers
Speaker 1: during that match. For those of you angry at me
Speaker 1: for not thinking it was a success, the show then
Speaker 1: fell even further tod It did go up above a
Speaker 1: million when MGF came back out, So now we're gonna
Speaker 1: have to listen to this bloke brag about that till
Speaker 1: the end of time, and then it largely kind of
Speaker 1: stayed even in the hundred range high eights from that
Speaker 1: point forward until the end of the show. So from
Speaker 1: the beginning of the show to the end. Uh, they
Speaker 1: lost over two hundred thousand viewers as the Dynamite Show
Speaker 1: went on. So not a great ratings pattern, but it's
Speaker 1: one show, So there you go. Yeah, you know, w
Speaker 1: W this week on Monday fascinating. You know, not only
Speaker 1: do they have Monday night football again, it's playoff football
Speaker 1: and a lot more eyes on that game than some
Speaker 1: of these average Monday night games. So it's gonna be
Speaker 1: an interesting number. Whatever they do, it's gonna be low
Speaker 1: and all likelihood, And if they could just hold on
Speaker 1: and hold tight to their older viewers. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: what they're gonna need to do. And those people don't change.
Speaker 1: They're very setting their ways. And we talked about them
Speaker 1: a lot and w W E just naturally has gotten
Speaker 1: more fans to to pick from. But when you look
Speaker 1: at those eighteen to thirty four numbers, and I know
Speaker 1: a lot of WW fans will always point at the
Speaker 1: overall number and point and make fun of the A
Speaker 1: W a person that you know as they go back
Speaker 1: and forth. But aw's got a higher percentage of their
Speaker 1: fans that are between the ages eighteen and thirty four,
Speaker 1: And it's you've got to convert those people, you know,
Speaker 1: once they hit thirty five, odds are if you've gotten
Speaker 1: by then they're gonna stick with you forever. And you
Speaker 1: look at the disparity between eighteen to thirty four and
Speaker 1: the overall viewership of RAW and it just it makes
Speaker 1: you shake your head because it's a bunch of people
Speaker 1: like Brian and I that I've talked about this before,
Speaker 1: that have been through a lot of peaks in this business.
Speaker 1: We've gone through the last one with Sina, we went
Speaker 1: through one with Whole Comania. We went through the attitude era.
Speaker 1: We've we've seen changes. We're the ones who are the
Speaker 1: most hardcore. We're the ones who are left. A W
Speaker 1: is doing a better job right now, I think convincing
Speaker 1: their fans and building their young fan bases and making
Speaker 1: them longer term, more passionate fans. We'll see how that
Speaker 1: all turns out. You know, because of WW size and influence,
Speaker 1: that could change at the drop of a hat. But
Speaker 1: as we move forward, especially if there's changes in w W,
Speaker 1: if they're sold to a Fox, if they're sold to
Speaker 1: an NBC Universal, if something like that happens, be interesting
Speaker 1: to see what the changes are and if those people,
Speaker 1: you know, that's an excuse for some people to maybe
Speaker 1: walk away from it for good at that point. Just
Speaker 1: it's very interesting to see where these demos are going
Speaker 1: to go and how we're creating new wrestling fans. Look
Speaker 1: in rebranding, the Elimination Chamber the WrestleMania Chamber, according to Dave,
Speaker 1: not official until it is announced. There you go, well,
Speaker 1: that'll be your gimmickman after Wrustlemania every year. I just
Speaker 1: you know, I think like the backlash thing or the
Speaker 1: rebound whatever the hell they called it where they had
Speaker 1: all the rematches last year, to do anything right before WrestleMania,
Speaker 1: or or to waste your time in some ways after
Speaker 1: it with a bunch of rematches and not use it
Speaker 1: as a new fresh start. It just it boggles my mind.
Speaker 1: It's not something I would do. All right, let's go
Speaker 1: to New York. You're on the air. What's going on?
Speaker 1: Brian's Mike from Buffalo. I have two questions about one
Speaker 1: about the men's and the women's rumble. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you heard the men's is they're gonna be like
Speaker 1: a potentials forbid door surprise or whatever from impact on
Speaker 1: the men's side or even just like an r O
Speaker 1: H displaced talent. And then with the women's like all
Speaker 1: the firings and stuff, if they're already announcing you know,
Speaker 1: people like Brian and Nikki and Mickey James and Leda,
Speaker 1: Like what what surprises could they have left? Because they've
Speaker 1: completely I mean like like you guys say that they're
Speaker 1: at the bottom of the barrel with the women's division
Speaker 1: in that company, and it's like, like you said, there's
Speaker 1: eleven slats to fill. Who could be these eleven other
Speaker 1: people that are bigger than like a Bella twin. It's
Speaker 1: like ridiculous. They have to be bigger. All three Toxic
Speaker 1: Attraction members will probably be in that match, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Maybe they can get a Trish that
Speaker 1: to me, that's the only name that's out there that
Speaker 1: I think would liven up people from the past, somebody
Speaker 1: who would get over get a huge response. I mean,
Speaker 1: Trish is unsinkable. You know, she steps out there, everybody's
Speaker 1: gonna fallow over themselves. But other than that, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Does box C count as somebody that was cast off
Speaker 1: from Morrow h who possibly maybe maybe we could see
Speaker 1: in the rumble. I don't know. We got more than
Speaker 1: enough dudes. I don't think we need anybody from Impacts possible,
Speaker 1: and no, I have absolutely no idea where they're need
Speaker 1: to love more women. Nick All does he still signed
Speaker 1: to that end of the A deal? We got another
Speaker 1: fellow here has a legitimate question if anybody knows, I mean,
Speaker 1: do you know is nick ald still n w A.
Speaker 1: I mean, with Mickey James going in, I believe nick
Speaker 1: Alds just resigned with him like a week ago. There's
Speaker 1: there's that. Then, alright, New York, what's up. All right, Brian.
Speaker 1: So the other day I noticed you called Grayson Waller.
Speaker 1: What's his face? I'd like an apology? Please? Thank you?
Speaker 1: Is this Grayson? It's Grayson's people's well cool. You know
Speaker 1: what if you're not gonna get buddy an apology? All right, Anthony,
Speaker 1: you're on the air. What's going on? Hey Brian, Hey Mike.
Speaker 1: For those who didn't listen to the Brian and Vinny
Speaker 1: Show on Thursday, I totally recommend listening to Vinny talk
Speaker 1: about the Joe Gay c match. It's a classic land
Speaker 1: Store and I know you're listening. They cover this on
Speaker 1: your Ship next week as well. Um, But the one
Speaker 1: guy from New York kind of stole my thunder. My
Speaker 1: question was, do you think a no, not that one,
Speaker 1: the one, the guy who was talking about them showing
Speaker 1: their hand by showing all their surprises ahead of the rumble.
Speaker 1: I think that's part of the joy of the Rumbles,
Speaker 1: is the element of surprise. And it can't be to
Speaker 1: sell tickets because the rumble is the draw. People always
Speaker 1: love the Royal Rumble, and I just think by you know,
Speaker 1: showing all of the surprise interest beforehand, it only needs
Speaker 1: a lot of the joy and the fun of watching
Speaker 1: the rumble and the element of who is it going
Speaker 1: to be? And I just think it's foolish on their part,
Speaker 1: and I think they should save some surprises. And I
Speaker 1: wanted to get your thoughts on, well, I mean, I agree,
Speaker 1: but at this point, like, we have eleven surprises left
Speaker 1: for the women. Eleven. Usually you get like one or
Speaker 1: two surprises. We have eleven. And as far as like
Speaker 1: the dudes, let's see how many guys as we've gotten.
Speaker 1: But Brian, don't we have I mean even we even
Speaker 1: have Okay, listen for the guys for the thirty man
Speaker 1: Royal Rumble. Okay, we have Angelo Dawkins, montez Ford, Ray Mysterio,
Speaker 1: Dominic Masterio, Austin Theory, Johnny Knoxville, Shamus, Damian Priest, aj Styles,
Speaker 1: and Biggie. We have twenty one spots left. So I
Speaker 1: feel with twenty one remaining men's spots and eleven remaining
Speaker 1: women's spots, I think we've got room for a few
Speaker 1: more surprises. I would hope to be wrong, I would
Speaker 1: hope that would be the case. And honestly, of all
Speaker 1: of the women that they've mentioned, okay, the only ones
Speaker 1: that I could argue having not mentioned and making them
Speaker 1: big surprises would be the Bellas because the bell has
Speaker 1: kind of made it public that Nicky was never going
Speaker 1: to wrestle again and now she is, so that would
Speaker 1: have been like a big surprise. And Mickey because she's
Speaker 1: the impact UH knockouts champion. But other than that, like
Speaker 1: Kelly Kelly Summer, Ray, Michelle Coom, it doesn't matter. I
Speaker 1: mean they're there every year anyway. It's like everyone knows
Speaker 1: you want to see Kelly Kelly Well get the Rumble.
Speaker 1: It's so one show per a year you're gonna see
Speaker 1: Kelly Kelly get thrown at the Rumble in But yes,
Speaker 1: there's still plenty of spots left for a Cora Jade
Speaker 1: is going to be riding her escapeboard to the ring
Speaker 1: for the Royal Rumble. Zoe EO Toxic Attraction, I mean
Speaker 1: right there, there's six people to fill those guests, but
Speaker 1: they didn't want to use a lot of the n
Speaker 1: x T women. Yeah, they say a lot. I mean,
Speaker 1: what are they doing? What what is Toxic Attraction doing
Speaker 1: in n x D. I mean the whole point of
Speaker 1: them being in n x D is to make Mandy
Speaker 1: Rose a star. I mean they are so of all
Speaker 1: the people they've invested in Mandy Rose and they want
Speaker 1: her to be a star. I mean, now would be
Speaker 1: the time, right, all right, let's go to Miami, Lovely, Miami, Florida.
Speaker 1: You're in the air. What's up going once? Miami going twice? Hey?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you know that is everyone. That's an old
Speaker 1: school art bell, fat lamp. That's probably one more. Uh,
Speaker 1: let's not right, one more? Sorry brother, back in a moment,
Speaker 1: I was ever alive. Start cracks so far the most
Speaker 1: fallen through the floor. Just as well the game, the
Speaker 1: game score with me. We'll be again from the tweet
Speaker 1: in the Cool Cool Morning, Turn the days a swim
Speaker 1: say living ride is easy? Well, look at this plays
Speaker 1: off that previous color there. So Mickey James here did
Speaker 1: an interview with Erli Lwani and said that her her
Speaker 1: Royal Rumble deal was originally going to be a surprise,
Speaker 1: and they decided not to make it a surprise. They
Speaker 1: wanted her to be one of the names they announced
Speaker 1: on Fox because I got so much traction. I guess
Speaker 1: they had to get a fair amount of attraction just
Speaker 1: because she's the Impact Champion. But originally they were gonna
Speaker 1: have her come back as a surprise entrant in the Rumble,
Speaker 1: and they changed their minds and decided that they would
Speaker 1: just announce her on Fox, so she's back for at
Speaker 1: least of the night. It was very excited. She said,
Speaker 1: no hard feelings about that whole trash bag deal. She
Speaker 1: personally quote was not as offended as the rest of
Speaker 1: the world was, and that her posting the picture was
Speaker 1: initially meant to be sarcastic. But some good did come
Speaker 1: out of the situation, as released, talents, gears, and belongings
Speaker 1: will no longer be sent in that fashion. Yeah, somebody
Speaker 1: actually had a good one, so it could be worse
Speaker 1: for the bag, like at the grocery store. Well as
Speaker 1: if they put somebody said, put Mark Krano in the
Speaker 1: one's royal rumble and just let them have at him.
Speaker 1: And I thought that was a pretty funny idea. So
Speaker 1: there you go. Well that's the show for today. Everybody Semen,
Speaker 1: I guess was either one was a Korano or Canyon
Speaker 1: That Semen is not going to fit in any of
Speaker 1: those bags now, Canyan Semen, I wasn't sure if it
Speaker 1: was himper Karano though they put the stuff in the bags.
Speaker 1: I know they both had issues, people had talent, had
Speaker 1: issues with both of them, but I wasn't sure. And
Speaker 1: you know, when you got when siemens around you, you
Speaker 1: might need some some bags to to protect yourself in
Speaker 1: my God, you weren't even here yesterday. You weren't here
Speaker 1: a couple of days before that. Well. Yeah, anyway, we're
Speaker 1: at a time when if they call of the viewers listeners,
Speaker 1: sports byline, Twitch homies, top tier YouTube subscribers, head over
Speaker 1: the Rust observer dot com and sign up today for
Speaker 1: more of this. We'll talk to you next time Wrestling
Speaker 1: Observer Live. Yeah, you have been listening to the Wrestling
Speaker 1: Observer Daily podcast on the eight Side Network