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
Speaker 1: Network from San Francisco. I'm a sports byline broadcasting network.
Speaker 1: You are listening to Wrestling Observer Vibe with your hosts
Speaker 1: Brian Alvarez and Mike semperviv Are you ready? Are you 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, now Pacific three Eastern, Sunday three Pacific,
Speaker 1: sixth Eastern. Well, it is Friday here on this show.
Speaker 1: It's been a long week, friends, but it is Friday
Speaker 1: here in the show, and we got a lot to
Speaker 1: talk about here today. Thankfully, you know, we don't got
Speaker 1: to talk a lot about the raw show elimination Chamber Montreal,
Speaker 1: because in fact, we got another thing everybody can get
Speaker 1: angry about today, and that is the Observer Awards are out.
Speaker 1: We got the full listing of the Observer Awards. What
Speaker 1: was the Promotion of the Year, the Wrestler of the Year,
Speaker 1: the promoter of the year, the worst show of the year.
Speaker 1: We can talk about the top categories here today. New
Speaker 1: issue of The Observer is out on the front page
Speaker 1: Wrestling Observer dot com. If you want to read the
Speaker 1: entire issue and not only see who won all of
Speaker 1: the awards, but you can go back in history and
Speaker 1: see the winners of every award in every category dating
Speaker 1: back to the inception of the awards. That is up
Speaker 1: on the front page right now, so head up there
Speaker 1: and check that out. We've also got, of course, the
Speaker 1: SmackDown Show tonight. This is the SmackDown follow up to
Speaker 1: the Elimination Chamber Show. We got the ratings for Dynamite
Speaker 1: on Wednesday, with no NBA competition, the show broke a
Speaker 1: million viewers, had magical million viewer mark. Then everybody always
Speaker 1: freaks out about, well, it went over a million this week.
Speaker 1: And we'll tell you about the show and the quarter hours.
Speaker 1: Got some quarter hour knows from Raw as well. We've
Speaker 1: got the NXT numbers Mercedes Monet and her future in
Speaker 1: New Japan stardom. We've also got announcing well, I guess
Speaker 1: they've ben't really announced it yet, but it looks like
Speaker 1: they're gonna be running two pay per views coming up
Speaker 1: in May. One of them is a King and Queen
Speaker 1: of the ring. We'll tell you about that at the
Speaker 1: update on Jeff Hardy and his DUI case. He has
Speaker 1: been prohibited his license suspended for the next decade. So
Speaker 1: a lot to get into here today. If you want
Speaker 1: Texas four two five seven eight zero seven five six six,
Speaker 1: that is four two five seven eight zero seven five
Speaker 1: six six back in a moment with more observer live.
Speaker 1: So this is gonna be the new gimmick. Every day,
Speaker 1: people demanding people demanding I take calls. God, everyone complains
Speaker 1: about calls for months and months, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: the gimmick is, oh, you must take calls here today.
Speaker 1: What's the emergency? What's the emergency? Post it right there.
Speaker 1: I want to see what the emergency is that you
Speaker 1: must call about here today. I can't take calls in Hawaii.
Speaker 1: How many times do I have to explain this to everybody?
Speaker 1: We've got important things to talk about anyway, including the
Speaker 1: follow up to Elimination Chamber, the SmackDown version. We have
Speaker 1: got Charlotte Flair going face to face with her WrestleMania
Speaker 1: thirty nine challenger Aria Ripley. We've got the return of
Speaker 1: Bray Wyatt's Firefly fun House. I guess Bobby Lashley is
Speaker 1: going into the fun house. Do you remember that John
Speaker 1: Cena thing at WrestleMania that I thought was so stupid
Speaker 1: and you liked And it was like one of those
Speaker 1: things where you either liked it or you hated it. Listen,
Speaker 1: I hated it. But I demand, I demand Brock Lesner
Speaker 1: enters this Firefly fundhouse. I need I need to see
Speaker 1: this as much as I need to see Bobby Lashley
Speaker 1: and Brock Lesner versus Bray White and Uncle Howdy. I
Speaker 1: don't think I'm getting either of them. Look, I don't
Speaker 1: know what I did to deserve this. What question the
Speaker 1: Montreal finished? I have to be punished now. I don't
Speaker 1: know what Bobby Lashley did to deserve this, but he's
Speaker 1: getting Bray wyat. But yeah, I'm much like you. I'd
Speaker 1: like to see Brock Lessner walk through that portal and
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden there's Shelton Benjamin in the
Speaker 1: corner and Brock looks down and he's got his Minnesota
Speaker 1: Stretching Crew outfit on, and all of a sudden, it's
Speaker 1: like OVW World and it takes him back to their
Speaker 1: and can you imagine the hilarity that could ensue, and
Speaker 1: that would be much better than what they're doing with
Speaker 1: both Brock and Omas and whatever they do with Bobby
Speaker 1: Lashly and Bray White, because it doesn't seem like it's
Speaker 1: a good fit. But who am I? Right? Yeah? Who
Speaker 1: are you? I heard that? I heard that last week. Actually,
Speaker 1: Ray Mysterio will be facing Carrie and Cross. I feel
Speaker 1: like I've seen that one before. And then we've got
Speaker 1: Imperium against Bronze Roman, Ricochet and Madcab Moss. So a
Speaker 1: couple of notes, Dominic is valid to be at SmackDown.
Speaker 1: So I think we can all figure out what's gonna
Speaker 1: be happening in this Ray Mysterio versus Carrie and Cross match.
Speaker 1: And also, you know if you guys, and normally I
Speaker 1: ignore this stuff, but I actually saw it for once.
Speaker 1: I don't even know how, but they did a gimmick
Speaker 1: on social media which you're gonna find hard to believe. Everybody,
Speaker 1: but Madcab Moss and Emma are teasing a heel turn.
Speaker 1: Why well, because Madcap was unable to beat Gunther because
Speaker 1: of the fans. The fans were too noisy during that
Speaker 1: match or something, and so because of the fans, it
Speaker 1: appears that Madcap Moss and Emma are turning. Heel you,
Speaker 1: this is stupid. Wow, this is stupid in every way.
Speaker 1: You just look. All you have to do is give
Speaker 1: Moss his first name back and stop being madcap. And
Speaker 1: all of a sudden you have a guy who's legitimate.
Speaker 1: You know, he can talk, he's got a good body,
Speaker 1: he's been there forever, Like, can we give this guy
Speaker 1: a chance to actually break out and do something without
Speaker 1: saddling him with more nonsense unless this is going to
Speaker 1: dovetail with braun Breaker, since apparently they don't want the
Speaker 1: fans to like him either, So we have Wednesdays at
Speaker 1: dynamite number, which I will admit caught me off guard.
Speaker 1: The show did one point zero three million viewers, which
Speaker 1: was up twenty five percent from a week ago. It
Speaker 1: is the largest total audience for the show since October five.
Speaker 1: The eighteen to forty nine demo was a point three five,
Speaker 1: which was up thirty percent from last week, and it
Speaker 1: was the best rating in that demos in September fourteen
Speaker 1: of last year. Ratings were up in every single demo
Speaker 1: except women eighteen to forty nine, where they were even.
Speaker 1: Males twelve to thirty four, up fifty two point four percent,
Speaker 1: and as compared to last week, they were up one
Speaker 1: percent in overall viewers down twelve percent and eighteen to
Speaker 1: forty and they've lost a lot of eighteen to forty
Speaker 1: nine viewers a year over year. But if you're wondering why,
Speaker 1: and when this number first came out, I was wondering why. Well,
Speaker 1: it was not Evil Uno, I'm sorry to say. And
Speaker 1: it was not Tony Kahn's big announcement, I am sorry
Speaker 1: to say, And it was not the Battle Royal, I'm
Speaker 1: sorry to say. What it was was the lack of
Speaker 1: NBA competition for the first time in a long time.
Speaker 1: And if you look at the quarters, the show just opened, well,
Speaker 1: it opened over a million, and it largely stayed over
Speaker 1: a million until coincidentally that Battle Royal, and they started
Speaker 1: losing viewers. During the Battle Royal, they bottomed out in
Speaker 1: the typical death spot. They went up a little bit
Speaker 1: for the Mosley Evil Uno match, and that's the story.
Speaker 1: I mean, people just tuned in in larger numbers at
Speaker 1: the beginning, and they watched seventy five minutes of the
Speaker 1: show and then they had largely I guess had enough
Speaker 1: and they started losing viewers at that point. And it's
Speaker 1: actually kind of when you look at the raw number
Speaker 1: for Monday raw average two million. And what happened was
Speaker 1: they had a very strong first hour and the viewers
Speaker 1: stayed strong through the second hour, and then they fell
Speaker 1: off a cliff in that third hour. And you know,
Speaker 1: we've mentioned a million times shows too long. I mean,
Speaker 1: people tuned in, they wanted to see what happened after
Speaker 1: the elimination chamber, and they liked what they saw. But
Speaker 1: after about two hours, it's like we've seen two hours.
Speaker 1: Main event was Edge versus Austin Theory. I know, if
Speaker 1: you don't like Edge, you're gonna place to blame all
Speaker 1: on Edge. And I don't think that you can blame
Speaker 1: Edge for this, and I really don't even think you
Speaker 1: can blame Austin Theory. What you can say is people
Speaker 1: saw that the main event was Austin Theory versus Edge
Speaker 1: for the US title. They did not believe that Edge
Speaker 1: was going to win the title, and he didn't, and
Speaker 1: they decided, I've seen my two hours. I'm going to
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go do something else. But for those of
Speaker 1: you tracking, and it's way too early, the opening half
Speaker 1: hour where they had Sammy Zane all over the show.
Speaker 1: That was the highest rated thing on the show. The
Speaker 1: show went down a little bit afterwards, and then it
Speaker 1: did go up for Cody, and then it dipped again.
Speaker 1: So you know, Sammy and Cody are the two biggest movers.
Speaker 1: And if you have to, you know, break it down.
Speaker 1: Sammy did do better than Cody on this show. Barely
Speaker 1: it was. It was largely even, but Sammy did do
Speaker 1: better in the but of course it was the opening
Speaker 1: of the show. People too, it in after the pay
Speaker 1: per view. They want to find out what happened. So
Speaker 1: that's the Raw story. And the only other number quickly
Speaker 1: is NXT five nine thousand, second highest audience since January
Speaker 1: twenty four. I guess that's the last four weeks, sixteenth
Speaker 1: on the cable charts, point one four at eighteen to
Speaker 1: forty nine. And it was just it was a fine show.
Speaker 1: But Raw was number one, two and three on cable
Speaker 1: and Dynamite was number one on cable. So wrestling is
Speaker 1: doing very well right now if you are one of
Speaker 1: the two big shows on cable, Raw and Dynamite, and
Speaker 1: I'm sure SmackDown tonight is probably gonna do another two
Speaker 1: point three million viewers, So those are your numbers. You're
Speaker 1: not impressed by the twenty three thousand people who came
Speaker 1: back for the overrun of NXT to see Gender obviously
Speaker 1: the big boost to that show at the end, I
Speaker 1: was not that impressed. I mean, there's probably twenty three
Speaker 1: thousand people that were waiting for the next show. Listen
Speaker 1: to everybody, don't pull this gender god hindered thing. Okay,
Speaker 1: like God, bless the guy. I have nothing against him.
Speaker 1: But like I said last night on the Brian of
Speaker 1: Any show, if you took somebody who has never watched
Speaker 1: pro wrestling and you showed them braun Breaker versus Gender,
Speaker 1: and you said, one of these men has been wrestling
Speaker 1: for a long time and he is a former world champion,
Speaker 1: and the other guy has been wrestling for a year
Speaker 1: and a half and he's in developmental. Okay, ninety nine
Speaker 1: percent of the people are going to guess that braun
Speaker 1: Breaker is the guy guy who has been wrestling long time,
Speaker 1: it is a former champion, and the other guy is
Speaker 1: the guy who's been in developmental for a year and
Speaker 1: a half. It was not an impressive showing. It was
Speaker 1: the worst Broun Breaker title match we've seen. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's one thing here and it ain't Broun Breaker. Friends,
Speaker 1: but you know what, bron Breaker's got to get used
Speaker 1: to that when he does become a star on the
Speaker 1: main roster, and then he's got a face off against
Speaker 1: a lot more guys like gender than guys like Kevin Owens. God,
Speaker 1: I hope not if he's in the title picture. I'd
Speaker 1: like to hope not either, But you know what, big
Speaker 1: guys they like him back in a moment it is
Speaker 1: ever live. Yeah, well, I haven't heard what was so
Speaker 1: important in terms of calls. I tried. Sorry everybody, all right.
Speaker 1: Mercedes Money only committed to two more dates with New
Speaker 1: Japan and Stardom, this coming off her just winning the
Speaker 1: IWGP Women's title. She's only committed to two more dates.
Speaker 1: April eighth at Sumo Hall for New Japan on the
Speaker 1: Sakura Genesis Show, where she'll defend against Zumi, who was
Speaker 1: an excellent worker. Dave ads at a rematch with Kyrie
Speaker 1: at one point was planned, but they changed that. And
Speaker 1: then the other one is April twenty third, Yokohama Arena
Speaker 1: Mayu Iwatani, probably a title match that says here, I
Speaker 1: guess unless she loses to a Zumi part of a
Speaker 1: double main event, which will likely be a World of
Speaker 1: Stardom Championship match with Julie against tam Nakano. So I
Speaker 1: guess we'll see what happens after that. I mean, she
Speaker 1: either signs or she's got to drop that title. Right,
Speaker 1: we're not gonna do this again, are we? Are you
Speaker 1: do this again? I would hope we won't do this again.
Speaker 1: Would make too much sense to lose it to my
Speaker 1: Yui Watai too. You know, you can build easily build
Speaker 1: a storyline around that. So you know, we know the
Speaker 1: matches are going to be good. We just had one
Speaker 1: with Kyrie. When you look at a Zoomi and when
Speaker 1: you look at Mau, you figure, okay, unless the bottom
Speaker 1: falls out, she's going to have two really good matches
Speaker 1: with them too. And then if she drops the belt
Speaker 1: and goes away and just goes on a barn storming tour. Cool. Now.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if that has helped New Japan and
Speaker 1: Startom overall, but we're gonna have to see. But when
Speaker 1: it comes to the match quality, you know, I'm hey,
Speaker 1: I'm getting my money's worth because you know, I only
Speaker 1: paid a pay per view costs to watch her. So
Speaker 1: whether New Japan and Startom do or not, that's to
Speaker 1: be determined. We've got WWE running two pay per views
Speaker 1: in May. According to Brandon Thurston, they have Backlash scheduled
Speaker 1: for May sixth, and King of the Ring and Queen
Speaker 1: the Ring on May twenty seventh, which sounds to me
Speaker 1: like we would do the tournaments on television and then
Speaker 1: the finals or maybe the semifinals and finals for both
Speaker 1: of those would be on the pay per view, because
Speaker 1: I don't think you can run two tournaments on one
Speaker 1: pay per view unless you want to have a bunch
Speaker 1: of short nothing to happen in matches. So the schedule
Speaker 1: at this point looks to me. WrestleMania Night one April first,
Speaker 1: Rustlemania Night two April second, Backlash May sixth, King and
Speaker 1: Queen of the Ring May twenty seven, Money the Bank
Speaker 1: July first, and SummerSlam is August fifth. That is the
Speaker 1: lineup we have. Yeah, well, you know I'm going to
Speaker 1: two of those at least WrestleMania Night one and two,
Speaker 1: But that's it at the moment. Oh, at the moment,
Speaker 1: we have the Florida d Y case in involving Jeff Hardy,
Speaker 1: dating back to June at twenty twenty two, closed on
Speaker 1: at a Thursday. He submitted a written plea of nolo
Speaker 1: contend there to all charges. It is where a defendant
Speaker 1: agrees that's my latin. So where a defendant agrees to
Speaker 1: accept punishment but does not accept or deny responsibility, does
Speaker 1: not accept or to nigh responsibility. Yes, for that in
Speaker 1: which they were charged. Seems like there's only two options there. No, No,
Speaker 1: that's not how this works in the legal system. You
Speaker 1: have a couple of ways, a couple of times where
Speaker 1: it's it's not an admission of guilt, it's not anything,
Speaker 1: it's no low content rae. Well, according to the Valusia
Speaker 1: County Court records, here is the full sentence in abeyance.
Speaker 1: There you go. There's another one there. He has a
Speaker 1: thirty day county jail sentence with thirty days credit for
Speaker 1: time served, two years probation, four thousand, five hundred eighty
Speaker 1: six dollars in fines and court fees, ten year suspension
Speaker 1: of his license, a ten year suspension of his license.
Speaker 1: You know this point, you may as well just suspended
Speaker 1: that license for the rest of his life. I mean it,
Speaker 1: let's be honest here, two years with an interlock device
Speaker 1: and ninety day vehicle impoundment. I mean if year with
Speaker 1: an interlock device never should be no vehicle. Yes, is
Speaker 1: that for the lawnmower, because that counts. If you've ever
Speaker 1: seen any of those cops shows, you'd know if you
Speaker 1: saw a guy with a John Deer driving down the road,
Speaker 1: you can be picked up for a dui if he's drunk,
Speaker 1: got a bike anything. So, I mean, I don't know,
Speaker 1: that's just completely ridiculous. I don't even know if it does.
Speaker 1: It does make no sense here that he would have
Speaker 1: to have an interlock for two years but can't drive
Speaker 1: for ten years, and his vehicle is only impounded for
Speaker 1: ninety days. So so he just has the vehicle that
Speaker 1: he can just look at every day. Oh man, there's
Speaker 1: my vehicle. I can look at. I can't get in it.
Speaker 1: I can't go anywhere. Well. To be fair, though, to
Speaker 1: be fair, that's his property and it actually has a
Speaker 1: value where y if you think about it, he can't
Speaker 1: drive for ten years, he should be able to go
Speaker 1: ahead and sell it. So maybe you can go ahead. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, if that's the case, just give him the
Speaker 1: damn car back and let him sell it. I mean,
Speaker 1: what his punishment is, you can't sell the car for
Speaker 1: ninety days. I know, I don't know. The whole thing's weird,
Speaker 1: core mandated DUI school or drug rehab program, community service.
Speaker 1: So uh, he blew eighth Florida the legal limited Florida's
Speaker 1: point zero eight. He blew a point two nine four.
Speaker 1: And this wasn't the first time. So I just think,
Speaker 1: you know, not only that you get rid of the
Speaker 1: whole car thing, what time of morning? Remember, because like
Speaker 1: I know, and it doesn't matter what time of day
Speaker 1: it was, because at any point it's completely ridiculous, stupid, dangerous,
Speaker 1: all of that stuff. But it was also rush hour
Speaker 1: in the morning with school buses on the road. That
Speaker 1: he was like that he had no idea where he
Speaker 1: was none, you know, on a on a look at
Speaker 1: camp counselor position like you're gonna like I'm on vacation.
Speaker 1: I went to the QFC by my house a few
Speaker 1: days ago, and I'm really lounging for this story, and
Speaker 1: they have a they have a Starbucks in there, so
Speaker 1: I was gonna get a cake pop for my child,
Speaker 1: and listen, Bothel is a small town, but it ain't
Speaker 1: that small, okay. So I go to this QFC and
Speaker 1: I'm trying to order my food and you know, I
Speaker 1: don't know what it is about Starbucks, but it's like
Speaker 1: they got one person working there, and that person also
Speaker 1: has to make everyone's coffee, which is always like a
Speaker 1: really complicated order, and so you're just sitting there waiting
Speaker 1: and waiting, and I'm like God, And then they have
Speaker 1: two people working there. These two girls are working there,
Speaker 1: and like they're both making a coffee together. I'm like,
Speaker 1: why can't want do you take an order and the
Speaker 1: other one make the coffee? Like what's going on here?
Speaker 1: So I'm just waiting forever and finally they get done
Speaker 1: with a coffee and I'm ready to order this cake
Speaker 1: pop for my child. But now they're talking. They're ignoring me.
Speaker 1: They're talking and they're looking out because it's it's in
Speaker 1: the KFC, so you can like look out the window
Speaker 1: and you can see the parking lot and everything, and
Speaker 1: they're they're whispering about this guy. They're like, oh man,
Speaker 1: he's leaving. And I'm like, what's going on here? Is
Speaker 1: this like some in mind in the middle of some
Speaker 1: you know, romance show. There's a camera behind me here,
Speaker 1: Who are these swooning over in the parking lot? So
Speaker 1: I look out and see who they're talking about, and
Speaker 1: they're actually not swooning what they're what they're what they're
Speaker 1: in awe of. And at this point I forgave them
Speaker 1: for not paying attention to me and taking my order.
Speaker 1: There's a guy who decided that he was going to
Speaker 1: go get his groceries in a John Dear tractor. He
Speaker 1: has taken his tractor to the grocery store. Now, maybe
Speaker 1: some of you that live in a rural area, this
Speaker 1: is not like anything that we would find out of
Speaker 1: the ordinary. But let me tell you something. In Bothel,
Speaker 1: I don't even know where he would have had a
Speaker 1: John Dear tractor. He has taken his John Deer tractor
Speaker 1: to the store. He is he has literally found a
Speaker 1: way to park in a stall. He has gone in
Speaker 1: to get his groceries, and then he's gone out and
Speaker 1: he's driving his John Deer tractor away. I was like,
Speaker 1: what is going on here? What is happening? Dude thinks
Speaker 1: he's trying to skirt. Do you need a license? For that.
Speaker 1: He was even, well, that's what he's probably trying to
Speaker 1: get around, going, well, I just got it taken away,
Speaker 1: but I still need to get up here, So that's
Speaker 1: what he's doing. But yeah, yeah, I bet you it's
Speaker 1: either that or listen on mushrooms or dust or something
Speaker 1: like that and just figure, all right, I'm ding to
Speaker 1: the store. You know, some of you some of you
Speaker 1: don't get it. I understand that in some places it
Speaker 1: is not unusual to drive your John Deer tractor to
Speaker 1: the grocery store. The difference is this doesn't happen in Bothel.
Speaker 1: There isn't even any you were for him to use
Speaker 1: his John Deer tractor. There is no farmland, there is
Speaker 1: no like, what was he even doing with this thing?
Speaker 1: What was he doing with a John Deer tractor in Bothel?
Speaker 1: God late. I think the craziest part of the whole story, though,
Speaker 1: was when like everybody just finally stopped looking slack drawn
Speaker 1: out the window with that guy and turned around and
Speaker 1: there was the boss of the entire place, Keana James,
Speaker 1: telling everyone to get back to work and stopped gawking. Dude.
Speaker 1: I wish Keana James would be there telling people to
Speaker 1: get back to work. Give me my cake pop. Dude,
Speaker 1: don't what no goofy drink anyway. You do a couple
Speaker 1: of text text messages here, I don't get anything. I
Speaker 1: don't get anything. I got a cake pop for my child.
Speaker 1: I don't drink anything. Now listen, are you only going
Speaker 1: to rant about Starbucks and how every time they have
Speaker 1: something that's good to eat, it's only there for like
Speaker 1: six months and they discontinue it. I don't even want
Speaker 1: to get into that the Michigan cherry coffeecake. I know
Speaker 1: what you're talking about. I know, Bryan, since here in Hawaii,
Speaker 1: maybe you could meet up with that guy with the
Speaker 1: grades who had banned. Yeah, well, I don't think he's
Speaker 1: on this island, and if he is, change islands. One
Speaker 1: important part of the King of the Ring Queen of
Speaker 1: the Ring is that it's taking place on double or
Speaker 1: Nothing weekend. I take it Tony Khan isn't too happy
Speaker 1: about that one. Well, I'm sure you know he'll be
Speaker 1: upset about that, but not the first time that we've
Speaker 1: had a doubling up on pay per views and that
Speaker 1: sort of thing. Yeah, this person here says, if wwe
Speaker 1: had been so steadfast. With not changing storylines in nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety six, Hunter would have won the King of the Ring.
Speaker 1: And we may not have ever gotten the Austin three
Speaker 1: sixteen Pro Bowl. That's true, but I rewatched all of
Speaker 1: Monday Night Raw through ninety six and ninety seven, and
Speaker 1: that Austin three sixteen promo, like you know it was.
Speaker 1: It was a member Bowl thing and everything like that.
Speaker 1: But he was not stone cold Steve Auston the next day.
Speaker 1: It was months before he started getting over. It was
Speaker 1: the feud with Bret Hart that started getting him over.
Speaker 1: He would have been in the same place with or
Speaker 1: without Austin three sixteen. Said, I just whipped your ass
Speaker 1: back in a moment. I was there alive. I got
Speaker 1: the show. Brian Elberez here Wrestling Observer Live. Mike zimberbeb
Speaker 1: also Wrestling Observative Round. This technology got I can't get
Speaker 1: anything working here. You know what, you realize I'm doing
Speaker 1: everything by myself here, you though, I'm in Hawaii. I
Speaker 1: gotta start this recording and then I gotta get back
Speaker 1: to this screen. Then I gottah. You guys, you know
Speaker 1: it was hilarious during the break. Everybody back. He sat
Speaker 1: back and he said right on him, and he jumped up.
Speaker 1: You know, hopefully that's in the outtake somewhere. It was hilarious.
Speaker 1: Too bad you couldn't see it though. No, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: a professional. Observer Awards. Let's look at the top award
Speaker 1: winners point getters. Wrestler of the Year John Moxley. He
Speaker 1: won with three thousand, one hundred and one of votes
Speaker 1: four hundred and ninety eight first place VOTs, beating out
Speaker 1: Roman Reigns a two hundred and thirty two and twenty
Speaker 1: two sixteen. I did not vote in the Observer Awards
Speaker 1: this year, but I would have voted for John Moxley.
Speaker 1: I agree with this pick. I realized that Roman Reigns
Speaker 1: was the champion of the biggest wrestling organization in the world.
Speaker 1: And I realized that this Roman Reigns deal with Sammy's
Speaker 1: Ain and Cody is hot right now, but for the
Speaker 1: vast majority of the year it wasn't. And you know,
Speaker 1: Roman Reigns, the Roman Reigns Sammy thing and the blood
Speaker 1: line and everything that really starts to pick up in
Speaker 1: the latter half of the year, the last few months,
Speaker 1: and then it really picked up in the first few
Speaker 1: months of twenty twenty three. These are not the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three awards. He did the twenty twenty two awards.
Speaker 1: And for most of the year, I mean, Roman was
Speaker 1: there and he was beating this guy, and he was
Speaker 1: beating that guy, and we were wondering, who's gonna beat
Speaker 1: Roman reigns it's time. So John Moxley on the other
Speaker 1: and he had a great reign for the first half
Speaker 1: of the year. Then he dropped the title of Punk
Speaker 1: and then everything went to hell. Punk got injured, we
Speaker 1: had the brawl, everything like that, and so they needed
Speaker 1: they needed somebody, and they chose him, And instead of
Speaker 1: getting the Summer of Punk, we got the Summer of Moxley,
Speaker 1: which was awesome. And you know, this guy was the
Speaker 1: heart of a EW for the majority of twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: Dude never got his vacation that he was promised. He
Speaker 1: had to come back and and saved the show, and
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know, I think most people would
Speaker 1: argue that the show has never quite returned to the
Speaker 1: level that it was when he was the champion. So
Speaker 1: Moxley gets my vote as the Wrestler of the Year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he does to me. As well too, And it's not
Speaker 1: Roman Reigns as fault. I mean Roman Reigns. The thing
Speaker 1: he's got working for him is the fact that he
Speaker 1: works for the largest professional wrestling company out there. For Moxley,
Speaker 1: to me, it's because he went out for GCW and
Speaker 1: had good matches with Homicide. He had him with Effie
Speaker 1: and aj Gray defended that title the ultimately ended up
Speaker 1: losing it to Nick Gage. He was out there, he
Speaker 1: had the matches with New Japan when they were tied up.
Speaker 1: So you take that into also to me, into play
Speaker 1: with what he did with his aw stuff, and yeah,
Speaker 1: I actually think that it fits. He's far more valuable
Speaker 1: in some ways to a w right now than in
Speaker 1: Roman Reigns in some ways again, or is the WWE.
Speaker 1: You can change those metrics to move them however you want.
Speaker 1: But I have no problem at all but John Moxley
Speaker 1: winning this award your Mike Mike sounds horrible according to
Speaker 1: the chat, So disconnect and reconnect and I'll move on
Speaker 1: here to the most outstanding wrestler who ran away with it.
Speaker 1: Will Osprey nine hundred and fifty one first place votes,
Speaker 1: four thousand, eight hundred and seven total votes and Brian
Speaker 1: Danielson was number two with ninety two votes, So Osprey
Speaker 1: one with ten times the number of first place votes
Speaker 1: and and basically five times the number of total votes.
Speaker 1: So I don't think anyone's really gonna argue Will Osprey
Speaker 1: is most outstanding. Perhaps you will, but you will certainly
Speaker 1: be in the minority here. Mike is not back yet.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't argue at Brian and the mics. Okay, that
Speaker 1: sounds a lot better. Well in another one. I don't
Speaker 1: think it was gonna argue Tag Team of the Year
Speaker 1: FTR seven hundred and eighty two first place votes, which
Speaker 1: was not quite twenty times. He has second place first
Speaker 1: place votes which were the Briscos, but three eight hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty nine first place vote or I'm sorry, total
Speaker 1: votes seven eighty two first place, beating out the Briscos,
Speaker 1: Young Bucks, Usos, the acclaimed Ossie Open and others. I
Speaker 1: couldnot argue FTR as the obvious choice for Tag Team
Speaker 1: of the Year, no argument. Let's see best on interviews.
Speaker 1: We have got in first place two thousand, nine hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty four total votes, four hundred and eighty six
Speaker 1: first place m JF beating out second place, John Moxley
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty two first place in fifteen hundred
Speaker 1: second place total votes. So it was close, sir, than
Speaker 1: the other ones. I mean, MGF did not beat second
Speaker 1: place by fifteen times like we had in the tag
Speaker 1: team voting, but clear winner MJF over Moxley, CM Punk,
Speaker 1: Sammy Zane and Eddie Kingston. Yeah, tough to argue that
Speaker 1: even if I, you know, said didn't wasn't not a
Speaker 1: big fan of his promo on Wednesday night, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: I mean, he is consistently going out there and always
Speaker 1: he's fantastic. Now if he doesn't suit you and Eddie
Speaker 1: Kingston does or something like that, I guess you know,
Speaker 1: everything is subjective here. But MJF by far is the
Speaker 1: most consistent and gets the most out of his promos usually.
Speaker 1: And then we had the Promotion of the year. Now,
Speaker 1: Promotion of the Year was one by AEW with four
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty first plays votes three thousand, two hundred
Speaker 1: and seventy second plays votes. That does not surprise me. However,
Speaker 1: a very close number two. Stardom was number two with
Speaker 1: two hundred and seventy three total votes, so AW did
Speaker 1: not even double second place two thousand, two hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty two total votes, which was within one thousand and
Speaker 1: then WWE with eighteen hundred votes. New Japan was seventeen
Speaker 1: ninety nine, and UFC in fifth place, So an excellent,
Speaker 1: excellent showing for stardom, coming in second only to a
Speaker 1: e W and beating WWE. Although one of the things
Speaker 1: I got to say about these these uh this voting
Speaker 1: is that you know, in the old days, the cutoff
Speaker 1: was like December and the Observer Awards would come out
Speaker 1: in early January. Now the Observer Awards are coming out
Speaker 1: at the end of February, which is like sac dab
Speaker 1: in the middle of you know, WrestleMania season, and you
Speaker 1: know WWE. If you look through these and a lot
Speaker 1: of people are really upset about the placeman of w
Speaker 1: w E in these votes, Like you know, w w
Speaker 1: E was third for Promotion of the Year, and you know,
Speaker 1: they and a lot of the worst worst like show
Speaker 1: and stuff like that they got they got a lot
Speaker 1: of votes. Here's the thing, everybody, we're looking at WWE
Speaker 1: right now when it is really hot. That's twenty twenty three, Okay,
Speaker 1: WWE was not super hot for most of twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: For most of twenty twenty two through like August, it
Speaker 1: was still being booked by events. The shows were still horrible,
Speaker 1: much worse than they are now. There was no bloodline,
Speaker 1: Sammy's and the return of Cody. All of that is
Speaker 1: going to go into the voting for the year twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three Star. I'm listening. I didn't watch every Stardom show,
Speaker 1: but I watched, you know, a lot of the top matches.
Speaker 1: Me and Tom watched it fairly regularly for the Monday show,
Speaker 1: and it was miles better in twenty twenty two than
Speaker 1: WWE was. You know, a lot of people are really
Speaker 1: down on AW right now. That right now is twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three. For most of twenty twenty two, aw still
Speaker 1: felt like a really hot promotion with hot storylines and
Speaker 1: big matches, So keep that in mind when you get
Speaker 1: angry about some of these awards here. Plus, also remember
Speaker 1: that these are the hardest of the hardcore fans that
Speaker 1: are voting on this. They are the ones that are
Speaker 1: subscribing to the Wrestling Observer newsletter or at least know
Speaker 1: enough about it to send in stuff. And if you
Speaker 1: look at the first place, votes for like promotion of
Speaker 1: the year. It's like, if you total them up, it's
Speaker 1: eight hundred and eight, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 1: it's like these are the hardest of the hardcorees. You know,
Speaker 1: Stardom finishing that high is gonna piss people off because
Speaker 1: they finish that high. But it's also going to piss
Speaker 1: people off because people think it finished too low. Because
Speaker 1: it is easy to argue if you're a consistent watcher
Speaker 1: of the product, that Stardom was the promotion of the year.
Speaker 1: But people also have to remember this is also not
Speaker 1: reflective upon everybody. It's just about I don't know, eight
Speaker 1: hundred to one thousand people who have their opinions on
Speaker 1: what they like from last year. Well, I mean it's
Speaker 1: way more than that. I mean first first place, a
Speaker 1: vote for best weekly TV shows, four thousand. You're looking
Speaker 1: at it, probably about six thousand people who voted in there,
Speaker 1: you go, whatever it is. Again, however many people are here,
Speaker 1: it's still a small when you look at it, it's
Speaker 1: a small percentage. And for people to bend themselves into
Speaker 1: pretzels and being upset over this is just crazy to me.
Speaker 1: But that's sometimes what people do. Well, you know, what
Speaker 1: can you do? Boss? You know this? Uh? You know
Speaker 1: what upsets me if I got to complaint about an
Speaker 1: award is best weekly television show. N XT was was
Speaker 1: below Raw. I mean, come on, get out of here.
Speaker 1: NXT certainly should not have won. I mean it absolutely
Speaker 1: should not have won or even been close to. NXT
Speaker 1: was better than Raw. Raw Raw under Vince was an atrocious,
Speaker 1: atrocious show. I hated watching it. I dreaded watching it.
Speaker 1: It was the worst thing that I watched every single week.
Speaker 1: And NXT was undoubtedly a better show than Raw in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two three hours, so it always has that
Speaker 1: golden for it. And by the way, a Next got
Speaker 1: fifteen first place votes for best show. Uh huh, but
Speaker 1: the best show was Dynamite four thousand total vote, seven
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty three first places vote SmackDown second place
Speaker 1: and four first place of votes in eighteen hundred total votes.
Speaker 1: So you know, Dynamite won by a very very sizable margin.
Speaker 1: And I do believe that in twenty twenty two overall,
Speaker 1: the best show of the year was a EW Dynamite.
Speaker 1: I think that a lot of people would not say
Speaker 1: that right now, but certainly throughout the majority of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two. I think that's a that's a fair winner.
Speaker 1: We had best match of the year Okada and Osprey
Speaker 1: in the G one two thousand votes FTR and the Briscos.
Speaker 1: This was the Arlington, Texas match eighteen hundred. They also
Speaker 1: got the fourth place for the Garland Texas match and
Speaker 1: that's it. They did not place for the other match,
Speaker 1: but yeah, those were the and the third match Okada
Speaker 1: and Osprey at the Tokyo Dome show. So a lot
Speaker 1: of great matches over the year. I tell you a
Speaker 1: couple more first place votes for one of those Bristos
Speaker 1: matches as opposed to the other, and then may have
Speaker 1: put him over the top when he came to total
Speaker 1: votes and everything, you know, total points and all that.
Speaker 1: They were twelve first place votes away from beating Ocada
Speaker 1: and Osprey. Yeah, they had two hundred and forty four
Speaker 1: for the match in Arlington. In December, the match Russellmania
Speaker 1: Weekend in Garland, Texas had ninety eight first place votes,
Speaker 1: so two of the four finished in the top four,
Speaker 1: and we had all of the local MVPs US and Canada.
Speaker 1: John Moxley ran away with it. Japan Okada, who beat
Speaker 1: Osprey by eighty votes round eighty votes, four ninety five
Speaker 1: to four twenty two. Mexico MVP Eliodel. The kingo Europe
Speaker 1: MVP was will Osprey, which I guess I would think people,
Speaker 1: and I guess, you know, I guess people when you're voting,
Speaker 1: and then well, a couple of more after the breakups
Speaker 1: were lived. Nothing gives me that I won't I give
Speaker 1: her the ventyl segment of the show. Brian Albarez here
Speaker 1: Wrestling Observer Live, Mike semperviv Els of Wrestling Observer dot Com.
Speaker 1: A couple of final categories here Best Box Office Draw,
Speaker 1: which to this day, I still don't know why this
Speaker 1: is a category you vote on Roman rains one, Well,
Speaker 1: was he or not? What are we voting for? I
Speaker 1: don't get it. A few to the year, FTR versus
Speaker 1: the Briscoes edged out seem Punk and MJF by less
Speaker 1: than twenty votes, so very very close there. Nothing else
Speaker 1: came close Most Improved, which honestly I had not thought about.
Speaker 1: But if you look at what people thought when they
Speaker 1: got the tag team title match at all out, and
Speaker 1: then like how people viewed them the rest of the year,
Speaker 1: the acclaimed, I mean, night and day from what people
Speaker 1: thought about them before and after they won those titles,
Speaker 1: so I don't have to look at those stardom people
Speaker 1: out there. Yeah, she got close, she was within five votes,
Speaker 1: and she improved dramatically. She did indeed, m JF Most Charismatic,
Speaker 1: beating out Sammy Zane by almost double maybe double? Do
Speaker 1: I look like a mathematician? Bryan Danielson, he somehow won
Speaker 1: his own award what even Stokely Hathaway called shenanigans on
Speaker 1: that one. Maybe Stokely thought he should have won that award,
Speaker 1: I don't know. And then the Best Brawler Award. John
Speaker 1: Moxley won that award ran away with it. Yeah, even
Speaker 1: though he'd probably be upset he didn't get any votes
Speaker 1: for Best Technical Wrestler, Best Flying Wrestler, Helio del Vi, Kingo,
Speaker 1: Most Overrated, Rhonda Rousey, Most Underrated, Takeshta, and your Rookie
Speaker 1: of the Year, Your Future Wrestle Media made a Ventor
Speaker 1: is braun breaker. Everybody and anyway, we're out of time
Speaker 1: here today. But tonight, tonight, Dave and Garrett, I believe
Speaker 1: we're gonna be talking a lot about the awards We'll
Speaker 1: be talking about them more over the next week or
Speaker 1: so on Wrestling Observer Radio. And subscribe to Wrestling Observer
Speaker 1: dot com. You can read the entire awards issue with
Speaker 1: tons of commentary on the winners and the history of
Speaker 1: the awards as well. It's a really fun read. Wrestling
Speaker 1: Observer dot com and we are out of here from
Speaker 1: Lovely Malli, Hawaii. We'll talk to you after a while.
Speaker 1: You have been listening to the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast
Speaker 1: on the eight Side Network