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 off. How's it going, everybody? Brian Alvarez
Speaker 1: here on Wrestling Observer Live. We're here every day Monday
Speaker 1: through Friday, New Pacific three Eastern Sunday three Pacific, sixth Eastern. Well,
Speaker 1: it's Monday here on the show, and you know what
Speaker 1: that means. We got a lot of news to talk
Speaker 1: about it. We got the raw line up for tonight,
Speaker 1: the Dynamite line up for this coming Wednesday. We've got
Speaker 1: notes on Max Duprix, SmackDown Rampage, tons of news to
Speaker 1: get into here today. But if you have not heard,
Speaker 1: and I don't know how you would not if you're
Speaker 1: wrestling fan. Antonio and Oki, the founder of New Japan
Speaker 1: Pro Wrestling became one of the biggest pro wrestling stars
Speaker 1: in the history of Japan, has passed away. Yahoo News
Speaker 1: Japan confirmed he passed away Saturday morning in Japan. And Oki,
Speaker 1: seventy nine, had been battling health problems in recent years,
Speaker 1: have been confined to a wheel chair. Michael Cole Corey
Speaker 1: Graves on SmackDown took time to speak on his death.
Speaker 1: You know. He started wrestling in nineteen sixty training under
Speaker 1: Ricky Dozen, one of the first popular pro wrestling figures
Speaker 1: in Japan. Later in the decade, he formed a tag
Speaker 1: team with Giant Baba and the j w A, with
Speaker 1: the team winning the n w A International Tag Team
Speaker 1: titles four times. Bab would later form All Japan Pro
Speaker 1: Wrestling in nineteen seventy two, becoming a direct competitor against
Speaker 1: Anoki's New Japan at Pro Wrestling. It's a founder of
Speaker 1: New Japan at Pro Wrestling. After being fired from j
Speaker 1: w A N one for planning a takeover, he formed
Speaker 1: New Japan. One of his most famous bout during this year,
Speaker 1: of course, mixed martial arts match in nineteen seventy six
Speaker 1: against himself and Muhammad Ali, which ended in a draw.
Speaker 1: Headline one of the highest attended shows in pro wresting history, Pyongyang,
Speaker 1: North Korea, defeated Rick Flair on the second night of
Speaker 1: a two day event. The announced crowds for those shows
Speaker 1: hundred sixty five thousand and a dared in ninety thousand, respectively,
Speaker 1: although essentially everybody was commanded to be at the show,
Speaker 1: so it's not like they sold those tickets, but still
Speaker 1: and Oki retired nineteen final match of victory over Don
Speaker 1: Fry continue to run New Japan until two thousand and five,
Speaker 1: when Yukes bought out an Oke's controlling stock with the company.
Speaker 1: Later Faturday, New Promotion at ok Genome Federation inducted into
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame in We'll talk more about an
Speaker 1: Oke and all the news after the breakups, we were
Speaker 1: alive than working the show. Bran Overa is here Wrestling
Speaker 1: Observer Live, Mikes and for viv also Wrestling Observer dot Com.
Speaker 1: I know Mike's got a lot to say about an
Speaker 1: Ok Can I can I say a few things first? Mike,
Speaker 1: you sure, Cam I'm gonna try and not just be
Speaker 1: totally scattered because a lot of a lot of this,
Speaker 1: I mean, we can go back well over a hundred
Speaker 1: years to look at like this whole Antonio and Oki story.
Speaker 1: Because I am, in fact, as some of you may know,
Speaker 1: because I've said it a thousand times, I'm a black
Speaker 1: belt in grazy jiu jitsu. Do you wear that? Mike?
Speaker 1: I am? I am, and I've always been interested in
Speaker 1: like the history of jiu jitsu and pro wrestling and
Speaker 1: mixed martial arts and how all of this ties together,
Speaker 1: and no one will really know everything, and people will
Speaker 1: argue about this or that. But if you go back
Speaker 1: a hundred years, hundred and twenty years and you look
Speaker 1: at the jiu jitsu scene in Brazil, I mean, most
Speaker 1: people will tell you, and it's probably true that Elio
Speaker 1: Gracie never was involved in any sort of worked matches
Speaker 1: because he hated it. But the scene, m I find
Speaker 1: it impossible to believe that they did not do pro
Speaker 1: wrestling and pro wrestling style programs because if you go
Speaker 1: back and you look at how often people had these
Speaker 1: big fights and and really the storylines. I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: not saying that, you know, I don't want to be
Speaker 1: conspiracy theorist, but let's let's be real. In both pro
Speaker 1: wrestling and I'm sure jiu jitsu in Brazil and around
Speaker 1: the world, there were a lot of worked fights to
Speaker 1: create programs, to draw money, to make people money, etcetera, etcetera.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is not something that was just exclusive
Speaker 1: to progressing. So the founder of Gracie Jujitsu, Elio Gracie,
Speaker 1: had a very famous match in the fifties against Kama,
Speaker 1: and this was in Japan and essentially what happened, there's
Speaker 1: of course the gracy side of the story and then
Speaker 1: actual would happen, and uh, you know, he got beaten.
Speaker 1: Elio Gracie got beaten. He was beaten with the camera
Speaker 1: and the Camura is named the Kamura because of Kamara
Speaker 1: and the fact that he beat a Leo Gracie with
Speaker 1: this camara, So Camura Masako Kamura. He also did some
Speaker 1: pro wrestling in Japan and one of his pro wrestling
Speaker 1: matches there was a I believe there's a tag team
Speaker 1: match and on the other side was Ricky Doz and
Speaker 1: it was a Japanese professional wrestler. And Ricky Dozen is
Speaker 1: an all time, all time legend, not just of Japanese
Speaker 1: pro wrestling, but of pro wrestling. And one of the
Speaker 1: reasons that happened was because in a match with the
Speaker 1: famous Kimura, he essentially beat the hell out of him.
Speaker 1: He shot on him and beat him up. And that
Speaker 1: combined with the fact that you know, Japan had lost
Speaker 1: World War two and they were looking for a hero
Speaker 1: and Ricky Dozan was that hero, and they would bring
Speaker 1: in large Americans and Ricky Dozen coming off, you know,
Speaker 1: destroying Kamura and then beating all of these Americans. He
Speaker 1: became an all time legend and he was eventually murdered.
Speaker 1: But Inoki was trained by Ricky Dozan and this link,
Speaker 1: you know, I believe that in Inoki's mind and this
Speaker 1: this was why, like throughout Inoki's life, he was all
Speaker 1: about showing that pro wrestling was the strongest, and he was.
Speaker 1: He was obsessed with, you know, showing how strong UH
Speaker 1: pro wrestlers were, and studying what eventually became mixed martial
Speaker 1: arts and shoot style and the whole shebang. I think
Speaker 1: it dates all the way back. And the famous fight
Speaker 1: with with Muhammad Ali was it was an early mm
Speaker 1: A fight and because of the rules, it ended up
Speaker 1: being what it was, which was a fifteen minute boring
Speaker 1: match or you know, Anoki went down on his back
Speaker 1: and he led kicked Anoki, but they weren't going to
Speaker 1: go to the ground and they weren't going to do
Speaker 1: grappling on the ground or anything like that. And you know,
Speaker 1: it's a horrible match, but it is an absolutely famous
Speaker 1: match for a lot of reasons, and for those that
Speaker 1: follow mixed martial arts. I mean, essentially it was not
Speaker 1: the birth of mixed martial arts. But a lot of
Speaker 1: people will say it was the birth of mixed martial arts,
Speaker 1: and you know, he if it were he won, he
Speaker 1: beat Muhammad Ali, but because of the rules, it was
Speaker 1: a draw and most people didn't understand what happened in
Speaker 1: the fight, and therefore it did not hurt the sport
Speaker 1: of boxing or Muhammad Ali, although it may have hurt
Speaker 1: you know, Muhammad Ali physically in the sense of that
Speaker 1: you know, this could have been one of the things
Speaker 1: that led to his decline was the abuse that he
Speaker 1: took to his legs in this match. But one way
Speaker 1: or the other, they had this match, and you know,
Speaker 1: of all people, I was reading the New York Times
Speaker 1: article and Connor McGregor noted that, man, there was a
Speaker 1: moment where they were on the ground and you know,
Speaker 1: Anochi moved to the mount and of course it was
Speaker 1: stopped and stood back up again. But if he had
Speaker 1: armbard or choked out Muhammad Ali, everything would have been different.
Speaker 1: You know, if you're if you're older, if you're my
Speaker 1: age or older, I mean, you grew up in that
Speaker 1: era where what is fighting, Well, it's boxing, and then
Speaker 1: you know there's there's karate and nobody knew. I shouldn't
Speaker 1: say nobody knew, but that was like the idea. It's
Speaker 1: like nobody knew about concussion. Nobody knew what a real
Speaker 1: fight really looked like, because to everybody in this country,
Speaker 1: at least, a real fight was two dudes standing there
Speaker 1: with giant gloves on and hitting each other. And the
Speaker 1: reality that that some people knew in in martial arts
Speaker 1: was that, man, you know, a great wrestler takes down
Speaker 1: a boxer. And they even talked about this a little
Speaker 1: bit on w w E television, like Guerrilla Monsoon had
Speaker 1: made this comment, you know, decades ago that you know,
Speaker 1: a good wrestler takes on Muhammad Ali and it's over.
Speaker 1: But you know, to most of of America, nobody believed
Speaker 1: that the heavyweight boxers the toughest man in the world.
Speaker 1: And then of course this all led ultimately to the
Speaker 1: debut of UFC and people found out what an actual
Speaker 1: fight really was, and they had, you know, the boxer
Speaker 1: that winning with one glove and got killed on the
Speaker 1: ground by this skinny guy, Hoist Cracy, who actually was
Speaker 1: not small at all. He was like six ft tall.
Speaker 1: But they like to tell stories anyway, and so on
Speaker 1: so on. So with an Okie he was always about,
Speaker 1: you know, he would bring in he would bring in
Speaker 1: fighters from other disciplines for pro wrestling matches and beat
Speaker 1: them because he wanted to prove that pro wrestling was
Speaker 1: the strongest, the greatest martial art and ultimately, to cut
Speaker 1: to the chase at the end of the day, he
Speaker 1: went too far, as we all learned in the early
Speaker 1: two thousands, where in fact he began bringing in fighters
Speaker 1: to actually fight his professional wrestlers, and uh, it was
Speaker 1: a disaster, and this ultimately led to his ousting from
Speaker 1: New Japan. And we could talk about that and everything,
Speaker 1: But the one thing that I don't think Aoki realized
Speaker 1: at the end was fans didn't necessarily need to know
Speaker 1: that the pro wrestlers could win, legitimately win all these fights.
Speaker 1: It was enough for wrestling fans to believe that, hey,
Speaker 1: this may not be on the level, but these are
Speaker 1: some bad dudes, and they would suspend their disbelief as
Speaker 1: as they would beat these real fighters. But I don't
Speaker 1: think they ever needed to actually see them beat real fighters.
Speaker 1: And then when they went in and lost to real fighters,
Speaker 1: well that hurt the aura of a Eugena god In, etcetera.
Speaker 1: And so really that's kind of the the story of
Speaker 1: of Anogi. I mean, he came up wanting to prove
Speaker 1: that these athletes were the toughest athletes in the sport,
Speaker 1: and for decades he was actually he It's what helped
Speaker 1: make him a legend. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: he went too far and had been him in the ass.
Speaker 1: And that's the story of Antonio anok the short story.
Speaker 1: I mean, we could talk for decades, but that's kind
Speaker 1: of what I was thinking when I heard about the
Speaker 1: death of an Oki. An incredibly complex and complicated legacy.
Speaker 1: It really is, and you've set a mouthful there. An
Speaker 1: incredible butterfly effect with a lot of things when it
Speaker 1: comes to Anochi. What if Anochi? We always hear about
Speaker 1: Jim Crockett Promotions and the selling of the WTPS time
Speaker 1: slot by WWF because Vince McMahon needed the money before
Speaker 1: Russell Many he had exhausted a lot of his his credit. Well,
Speaker 1: he makes a million dollar booking deal with Antonio Winoki.
Speaker 1: He ends up screwing over an Oki by taking Hogan
Speaker 1: and Andre away. Over the next two years, but that
Speaker 1: million dollars Vince needed that money. What if Antonio Anoki
Speaker 1: doesn't go all in on wanting pro wrestling to really
Speaker 1: truly still be strongest and for these pro wrestlers the
Speaker 1: facade to still be raised up. What if he doesn't
Speaker 1: do that when he comes to Eugene Nigata and then
Speaker 1: later on with Shinsky Nakamura. What if Hiroshi Tanahashi that
Speaker 1: had been approached for the leaving with Kgi Muto, with
Speaker 1: Kendall Kasen when they had enough of anocchism towards the end,
Speaker 1: what if he leaves? There is so much to talk
Speaker 1: about with Antonio and Oki, and I'm not sure how
Speaker 1: much we're going to do today, but it is a
Speaker 1: fascinating story. Much like Rick a Dozen, much like Santo,
Speaker 1: He's on a par when it comes to culture in
Speaker 1: their countries at a little bit of a different level
Speaker 1: than almost anybody in this country could ever be. Well
Speaker 1: and to break back in a moment with more Wrestling
Speaker 1: Observer Live back in the show. Brian Elba is here
Speaker 1: Wrestling Observer Live. Mike simper Viv also of Wrestling Observer
Speaker 1: dot Com. We can talk more about Anoki later in
Speaker 1: the show. It's gonna go over a little bit of
Speaker 1: the news here and then we can do questions or whatever.
Speaker 1: And of course Wrestling Observer Radio Friday with Garrett and
Speaker 1: last night with Dave and I a lot of talk
Speaker 1: hours on an Oki, and I'm sure there's more to
Speaker 1: come alright row to night, we have a contract signing
Speaker 1: for Biancan Bailey's Raw Women's Title Ladder Matching Extreme Rules.
Speaker 1: Matt Riddle and seth Rawlins go face to face and
Speaker 1: they've announced that Daniel Cormier is going to be the
Speaker 1: referee of their Fight Pit match coming up Saturday at
Speaker 1: the pay per view. We have a Ray in a
Speaker 1: j versus The Judgment, Dave bron Stroman versus Chad Gable,
Speaker 1: Johnny Gargano versus Otis and Candice Lay and Dakota Kai.
Speaker 1: That's your lineup for ROT tonight and then Dynamite on
Speaker 1: Wednesday as Daniel Brian or Brian Danielson and Daniel Garcia
Speaker 1: against Chris Jericho and Sammy Gavara, MGF versus Wheeler. You
Speaker 1: to Hangman Page versus rush Tony Stormathena and Willow Night
Speaker 1: and Gale versus Jamie Hayter, Serena Deep and Penelope Ford,
Speaker 1: Darby Ellen versus j Lethal Luca Source will be in
Speaker 1: action and who knows, maybe he'll be part of National
Speaker 1: Scissoring Day with the Acclaimed and Billy Gunn. I think
Speaker 1: we should celebrate National Scissoring Day here on this show
Speaker 1: as well, But I don't really know how. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying your way over there, don't give me
Speaker 1: that face. And what's with the wind, dude? Well, holy smokes,
Speaker 1: these are the after effects of Hurricane Ian blowing up
Speaker 1: the the East coast and uh you, we really barely
Speaker 1: got anything at all. If that tells you what it
Speaker 1: was like if you're down in that hurricane in Florida.
Speaker 1: And I don't know how many people are swing right
Speaker 1: now because they're concerned their power is stole off. But
Speaker 1: best wishes to everybody down there. Obviously affected wrestling all
Speaker 1: around the world. Last week, Jonah couldn't make his way
Speaker 1: to New Japan in London. Obviously there were a bunch
Speaker 1: of people that were off the a W and w
Speaker 1: W E shows that needed to be rewritten a little bit.
Speaker 1: So best wishes to everybody down there, because it had
Speaker 1: to be nasty already. A W no longer airing through
Speaker 1: broadcaster Space. A W is no longer on Space and
Speaker 1: several countries including Mexico, South America, and Central America. So,
Speaker 1: as noted last night on the Observer radio show, what
Speaker 1: happened was their deal was coming do and they were
Speaker 1: not offered what they felt was a fair deal to continue,
Speaker 1: and so they pulled it. And now if you are
Speaker 1: in any of those places except Brazil, in in uh
Speaker 1: in uh Brazil, you can still sche it on Space,
Speaker 1: but everywhere else you have to subscribe to a W plus.
Speaker 1: I guess they figured that they could make more money
Speaker 1: getting people to subscribe to a W plus and what
Speaker 1: they were offered for the Space deal, and the belief
Speaker 1: is that there may be some other options and that's
Speaker 1: why they didn't want to commit to a multi year
Speaker 1: deal with Space, because once you are committed to the deal,
Speaker 1: you're committed to the deal in theory of course. So
Speaker 1: that's the story there. And you know, we're not gonna
Speaker 1: play gloom and doom here, but it's not always. You know,
Speaker 1: it's been this case for quite a while that every
Speaker 1: time a deal is up, people are offered significantly more
Speaker 1: money for it, and quite frankly, w W e will
Speaker 1: be offered significantly more money for their next deal. But
Speaker 1: it's not like a guarantee. I mean, and you got
Speaker 1: to look at also with a w I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: not saying that if they if they got the same,
Speaker 1: if they were offered the same amount of money at
Speaker 1: their next television deal, that they like, pull it and
Speaker 1: go to fight. But you know, they have to take
Speaker 1: into account a lot of different things. They may not
Speaker 1: be offered less money, but they may not be offered
Speaker 1: much more money. And then their decisions that have to
Speaker 1: be made. Do we accept this offer, do we let
Speaker 1: this expire? Do we start, you know, negotiating with other
Speaker 1: people so we shall see what happens when their deal
Speaker 1: comes to And deals like this are not wholly unusual
Speaker 1: to where Brazil is not part of that package. Why
Speaker 1: are you so quiet? What happened? I don't know? Why?
Speaker 1: Am I you're Can you hear me? No? You sound
Speaker 1: like you're on the telephone. What your tielines? Your cables
Speaker 1: all messed up? How about there we go? You gotta
Speaker 1: jam it into that thing. Don't you know anything about anything?
Speaker 1: All right, go ahead, television deals. Maybe we'll find that
Speaker 1: you've only been scissoring, we wouldn't have this problem. That's
Speaker 1: we'll have to find that out during scissoring day. We
Speaker 1: gotta make sure we jam it in there to give
Speaker 1: the people what they need. But deals like this are
Speaker 1: not wholly unusual in South America. When Brazil is not
Speaker 1: part of the deal for obvious reasons, it's because well,
Speaker 1: they speak Portuguese there, so they end up having a
Speaker 1: separate deal for Spanish language. So a lot of people
Speaker 1: were wondering about that. But it's not really all that unusual,
Speaker 1: and they need to get you a new cable will
Speaker 1: probably out sounding something's weird. He just jiggled it and
Speaker 1: it worked. Sometimes it's how that work. Just jostled it
Speaker 1: a little and all of a sudden you just slapping
Speaker 1: about a little bit. Alright, Well, next Dupre. You know
Speaker 1: I predicted this yesterday the Observer radio show. I can't
Speaker 1: help but note that Dave was skeptical. Max Dupre will
Speaker 1: reportedly returning to the l A Night character as portrayed
Speaker 1: in n x T. He is back to being listed
Speaker 1: as l A Night on the internal roster. Meanwhile, muss,
Speaker 1: hey men, SWA and Maxine Dupri. We'll continue under the
Speaker 1: maximum so I like that. So he had he got
Speaker 1: a what is now apparently a fake name, but then
Speaker 1: he ended up with his sister with the same fake
Speaker 1: last name. But now he's going back to his other name,
Speaker 1: but she's keeping the fake last name. That's going on.
Speaker 1: I just is Man Sar keeping? Is he keeping Man
Speaker 1: Swa when they go over to Saudi Arabia or do
Speaker 1: you even bring him over to Saudi Arabia? Why can't
Speaker 1: you bring him to the Saudi Arabia's men Swa that's
Speaker 1: his name. I don't know, do you do you really
Speaker 1: want to see Man Swa getting his ass kicked all
Speaker 1: over if he doesn't have to lose men walk and
Speaker 1: go over there and get a big win, he can really,
Speaker 1: of course he can. It's fake. Who do you have
Speaker 1: him beat? Bro? Anybody? Otis? It doesn't matter. Come on,
Speaker 1: he can beat anybody. Chad Gable though maybe for the
Speaker 1: first match back in twelve years, Ricky Steamboat, we'll be
Speaker 1: teaming with Multipromotional Take Team Champions FTR had November's returned
Speaker 1: to the Dragon Show in Raleigh. This story is so
Speaker 1: weird to me because when they were they were talking
Speaker 1: about Rick Flair's last match. Everybody was talking about how
Speaker 1: Ricky Steamboat maybe on the other side of a multiperson match,
Speaker 1: and you know, Ricky Steamboat did this big speech about how,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't want to come back. You know
Speaker 1: I my last matches. Everybody's gonna remember those, this whole
Speaker 1: thing about how he's just done. So they do the match,
Speaker 1: and then a month later, Hey, I'm on my way back.
Speaker 1: And granted he's teaming with FTR, but you know what
Speaker 1: what worries me, well, the opponents. There's a mystery opponent,
Speaker 1: j Lethal, brock Anderson and a mystery opponent. Let me
Speaker 1: make this abundantly clear. I don't think it's Rick Flair.
Speaker 1: Oh no, I don't think it's Rick Flair. But if
Speaker 1: you want me to come on the air here and
Speaker 1: with a straight face tell you there's no chance it's
Speaker 1: Rick Flair, I ain't gonna do that. So I guess
Speaker 1: we'll see. Well, the billing is arn Anderson's four Horsemen,
Speaker 1: including Jay Lethal as Black Machismo, who was her part
Speaker 1: of I don't you can't even tie that into the
Speaker 1: four Horsemen at all. But j Lethal is in the
Speaker 1: match along with Brocky Anderson. Alright, doubt we're going to
Speaker 1: get tests the Blanchard, So, you know, I guess there's
Speaker 1: a possibility could be Rick Flair. But maybe there's a
Speaker 1: possibility that Ricky Steamboat maybe in the moment really didn't
Speaker 1: want to come back and do that match, and or
Speaker 1: maybe he saw what was going to take place and
Speaker 1: saw the scenario laid out and went no, I don't
Speaker 1: know if I want to do this. I don't know
Speaker 1: if I want to come back from my last match
Speaker 1: and have it be alongside ric Flair's last match, especially
Speaker 1: if you had some doubt about how Rick Flair would
Speaker 1: fare in that match. So with FTR, it's a six
Speaker 1: man tag. He's got to stand on you know, the
Speaker 1: corner of the ring. He'll hit somebody with a chop.
Speaker 1: I don't know if we're going to see a full
Speaker 1: flying body press or not, but I guess if he
Speaker 1: can do it cool. I'm fine with him never doing
Speaker 1: a match. I'm fine with a lot of people never
Speaker 1: wrestling again. I was fine with Brian Danielson if that's
Speaker 1: all it was going to be. I'm fine with a
Speaker 1: lot of people not coming back. But if Ricky's seen
Speaker 1: both fields as though he can and he's cleared by
Speaker 1: a doctor. Hey, I'm all for it. I guess listen
Speaker 1: to everybody. I'm not Rick Flair for sure, but I
Speaker 1: was a wrestler much like Flair. Here we go, Yeah,
Speaker 1: here's the deal everyone. I was satisfied with my performance
Speaker 1: in that match with Filthy, Okay, I was satisfied. So
Speaker 1: I was not impressed. I have no I have no
Speaker 1: desire in me to do it again. Okay, although after
Speaker 1: watching Stardom, you know if something eppisodes Zack Saber Jr. Anyway, Bro,
Speaker 1: you ain't pulling no stumps there either. So but the
Speaker 1: thing with Flair is Flair, and listen, he shouldn't have
Speaker 1: done the match, and he's old and he's got whatever
Speaker 1: he's got inside him. But but he made a lot
Speaker 1: of mistakes that weekend. He didn't eat it all that day,
Speaker 1: he drank too much, he was dehydrated. It was a disaster, okay,
Speaker 1: And in his mind, if in his mind, he was like,
Speaker 1: you know what, man, I felt great training and man
Speaker 1: I just screwed everything up that day. And if I
Speaker 1: did it again, I'd eat, I wouldn't drink too much,
Speaker 1: I'd be hydrated, and man, I could have a way
Speaker 1: better last match, and I bet you, Belsion, I'll bet
Speaker 1: you anything that's going through his mind, right, I'm sure
Speaker 1: it is. I'm sure it is, and he'd be delusional
Speaker 1: for thinking that, the same way he was probably delusional
Speaker 1: the last time around. I know, I'll probably want to
Speaker 1: prove something to myself until the day I die. I'm
Speaker 1: sure there's something out there that that I did not
Speaker 1: accomplish or I was close to and didn't finish that.
Speaker 1: I am going to drive myself nuts about that. I
Speaker 1: am going to want to make better or make good
Speaker 1: honor something like that. But at some point, at some point,
Speaker 1: you just gotta let it go. I think he see
Speaker 1: I am hoping he's just on those ropes for that match.
Speaker 1: I think Flair watched my last match and said, I
Speaker 1: can't let this alver Is kid have a better last
Speaker 1: metch than sinks back in a moment Observer Live. Hey,
Speaker 1: well back here on the show. Bran Elber is here
Speaker 1: Wrestling Observer Live. My sumber BV also of Wrestling Observer
Speaker 1: dot Com. We had SmackDown and a rampage on Friday.
Speaker 1: Bro this rampage show. This was a good show. Like
Speaker 1: I liked watching it, but I think I was the
Speaker 1: only one who watched it. There might have been some others,
Speaker 1: but this is not what you would call a Marquis show. Now,
Speaker 1: I did a big review of this yesterday with Vinnian Craig,
Speaker 1: and I should have opened with this, and that is
Speaker 1: that I answered this in the Q and A. People like,
Speaker 1: can we stop reviewing the Rampage and review SmackDown down?
Speaker 1: And I said no. And this is why. Let's not
Speaker 1: forget that this was taped on Wednesday, and there were
Speaker 1: a number of talents that were affected by the hurricane
Speaker 1: and could not make it to the show. So I'm
Speaker 1: not saying that the whole reason this was a non
Speaker 1: Marquee edition of Rampage, but I would I would consider
Speaker 1: this an aberration. And we've got several weeks, I think,
Speaker 1: a full month of live Rampage shows, and the Battle
Speaker 1: of the Belts is also this coming Friday night, so
Speaker 1: I think that we should give this a month see
Speaker 1: how it goes. But this certainly was not a show
Speaker 1: or when you looked at the lineup, it's a must
Speaker 1: see acclaimed Butcher and Blade and private Party for the
Speaker 1: tag titles. I mean, it was just fine, but claimed
Speaker 1: one of course, Lee Moriarty and Fuego del Soul. Lee
Speaker 1: Moriarty just meet him. Then Morrisey chokes slammed him. We
Speaker 1: set up on draw day and ten on this show. Oh,
Speaker 1: in the middle of nowhere, they announced and draw a
Speaker 1: versus ten Mask versus career. It seems a little dramatic.
Speaker 1: We had Jamie Hayter being Willow Nightingale like the match
Speaker 1: was good match, but she won Jamie Hayter, And then
Speaker 1: we had a bunch of video packages and then the
Speaker 1: main event, I love him and I like to match
Speaker 1: a lot, but it was Ruche versus John Silver and
Speaker 1: they had a good match. Ruche killed him dead with
Speaker 1: the bulls horns in the corner and then that was
Speaker 1: the end. And then they set up a match with
Speaker 1: excuse me Ruche and Hangman page for this week, and
Speaker 1: then on the front page our our reviewer here wrote
Speaker 1: an I quote, a perfectly fine but unremarkable show, and
Speaker 1: what more can you say about this? It was a
Speaker 1: perfectly fine but unremarkable show. And that was a rampage
Speaker 1: that sounds fair to me. Sounds fair. Now SmackDown, SmackDown,
Speaker 1: Sammy's Ane and solo Skoa beat Ricoche and Madcap twelve
Speaker 1: minutes and man, you know you're in Canada. And even
Speaker 1: if you were in Canada, the Sammy's ane so over
Speaker 1: him and Solo beat Ricochet and Madcap and they bowed
Speaker 1: Ricochet and Madcap out of the building. And it wasn't
Speaker 1: even like Sammy's an and and and solosco worked baby Face.
Speaker 1: They were at heal and then the baby Face and
Speaker 1: made a come back and got booed out of the building,
Speaker 1: and of course, uh Solisco got the big win. And
Speaker 1: then they're they're going backstage two that in the locker
Speaker 1: room and Juso stops Sammy. He says, I can see
Speaker 1: what you're I see right through you if you try
Speaker 1: to screw this family, And Sammy just points of the
Speaker 1: shirt and says maybe stuck to old Roman walks into
Speaker 1: the room. So he did not deny that he was
Speaker 1: going to screw the family. It's a very strange story line.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure where they're going here, but they're there.
Speaker 1: Where they are now, they're making you the viewer think
Speaker 1: that Sammy's actually not a nice guy and he's got
Speaker 1: a plan to screw the bloodline and the bloodline is
Speaker 1: very popular, and in fact Juso is is in traditional storytelling.
Speaker 1: He's the baby face here. He sees this guy trying
Speaker 1: to screw his family. He doesn't like it. So we'll
Speaker 1: see where this goes. But it's, uh, this was an
Speaker 1: interesting little twist that they did right here. This is
Speaker 1: where fantastic shades of gray work. There's nobody in that
Speaker 1: bloodline that's a good person. Again, this goes to the
Speaker 1: Reservoir Dogs concept of foocking. Nobody here is a good guy,
Speaker 1: but everybody here is really great at what they do.
Speaker 1: And this feels like it's got a lot of Paul
Speaker 1: Hayman all over it. It's got a lot of all
Speaker 1: him and all over it when smackdowns on and he's
Speaker 1: standing right there with everybody. But this whole thing is great.
Speaker 1: It's got a lot of little release valves in there
Speaker 1: and depending on what directions that you wanted to go.
Speaker 1: But Solo Sakoa is the thing that's forgotten about in
Speaker 1: this because he's come up and immediately he is a
Speaker 1: believable presence as a guy who kicks ass as a
Speaker 1: member of that roster. So as far as a guy
Speaker 1: making a debut up from n x D. Sure he's
Speaker 1: in a great position, but he's lived up to his
Speaker 1: end of the deal so far. We had the Drew
Speaker 1: MCTI Austin Theory match which went whopping two minutes to
Speaker 1: a horrible run in d Q, but it led to
Speaker 1: a six man later, so that was that. We had
Speaker 1: a bunch of segments with Max dupri and Maximum Male
Speaker 1: Models that led to him quitting, throwing all of his
Speaker 1: stuff down. He's no longer part of this group. Going
Speaker 1: back to old l A Night, which was also a
Speaker 1: horrible name. L A Night hit Row the Los Lotharios,
Speaker 1: it was fine, another two minute match. Then we had
Speaker 1: Rhonda Rousey versus in Italia and I mean it was
Speaker 1: It was fun enough. Walt lasted. It wasn't perfect, but
Speaker 1: Rhonda gets the ankle lock and then call Lee. They
Speaker 1: just love this angle. So outcomes Live Morrigan. Rhonda's head
Speaker 1: to the back and her path is blocked by Live Morrigan.
Speaker 1: Live Morgan has a bat, Rhonda Rousey is unarmed. Live
Speaker 1: Morrigan goes to swing the bat and Rhonda Rousy avoids
Speaker 1: it and beats her ass. Beat her ass so bad.
Speaker 1: Mike just was painfully dehydrated, so she beats her, and
Speaker 1: she beats her, and finally they give Live a little something,
Speaker 1: and then Rhonda beats her ass again, and then security
Speaker 1: comes out and Security is dragging away Rhonda Rousey and
Speaker 1: Live Morgan leaps in and attacks Rhonda Rousey from behind,
Speaker 1: and they're pulled off again. And I just watched this
Speaker 1: thing and I thought, I thought the other guy was
Speaker 1: horrible at making baby faces. You're not doing Live any
Speaker 1: favors here. She had a baseball bat, Rhonda Rousey was unarmed,
Speaker 1: and Rhonda Rousey still beat her ass. And I'm spos believe.
Speaker 1: I could not believe this segment. This sucked. At an
Speaker 1: Imperium promo, Shamus came out, they attacked Shamus, he fought back,
Speaker 1: they attacked him again, they laid him out. This sets
Speaker 1: up Shamus versus Gunter for the Intercontinental title coming up
Speaker 1: on Friday, a match. I believe that Shamus is likely
Speaker 1: going to win. But we'll see Bailey beat Shot. See
Speaker 1: match was all right, and then afterwards she's attacking Shots.
Speaker 1: So Bianca ran down to make the save Bailey. At first,
Speaker 1: bail that attacked her from behind, Bianca's still grabbed her,
Speaker 1: was gonna hit the ko d on the ladder, but
Speaker 1: Bailey grabbed the up rope and fled, and uh yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll see what happens in their ladder match. I'm a
Speaker 1: little worried about this ladder match as a result of
Speaker 1: the injury to Bailey in her recovery. Then they made
Speaker 1: a bed Drew McNair, Jenny Gargano, Kevin Owens, Verzasin, Theory
Speaker 1: and Alpha Academy and maybe faces one. McIntyre hit the
Speaker 1: claymore on Theory, a lot of good action, the fans
Speaker 1: were into it. Good match. Mctyre grabbed the strap and
Speaker 1: whip the hell out of Theory to end the show.
Speaker 1: You know, Vince had some things that he did and
Speaker 1: he's gone now so they don't do it anymore. But
Speaker 1: he had some other things that they did that man,
Speaker 1: they just they still do. One of them is making
Speaker 1: your baby faces look like geeks. You know, it doesn't
Speaker 1: happen a lot, but every now and then, like the
Speaker 1: Live Morgan segment, she's a geek. Now, the rest of
Speaker 1: the baby face on the show they did they did
Speaker 1: fine with, but man, she was a geek. And then
Speaker 1: the other one they love to do is this awesome theory.
Speaker 1: He's got that money in the bank briefcase, and so
Speaker 1: they are not afraid to just beat and humiliate this guy.
Speaker 1: And in theory, he should either be the next champion
Speaker 1: or he's gonna cash in and failure. Whatever. Man, they
Speaker 1: give this guy nothing. It's like when you used to
Speaker 1: win a title and all they do was just beat
Speaker 1: you like a drum right and left. So you know,
Speaker 1: they they've changed a lot of things for the better.
Speaker 1: But you know, Hunter isn't diametrically opposed Vincent every way.
Speaker 1: There were things that those two guys agreed on, and
Speaker 1: apparently this is one of those things. Well, thankfully both
Speaker 1: Austin theory and uh Live Morgan or geeks, they really are.
Speaker 1: Live Morgan has been a geek the entire time. She's
Speaker 1: been a dumb friend the entire time. She's been a
Speaker 1: weak person that is always going to but she's strong
Speaker 1: inside because she lost, but I'm gonna come back. They
Speaker 1: have done such damage to her and she seemed like
Speaker 1: somebody they got over organically with the crowds and they've
Speaker 1: messed it up. And if this is going to lead
Speaker 1: to her being a heel, because fans are naturally down
Speaker 1: the line of a Cheranda because she's kicking ass and
Speaker 1: that's how from Charlotte Returns or whatever you do. I'm
Speaker 1: actually all for that. I don't know if Live Morgan
Speaker 1: baby face underdog unless she's going to be somebody that's
Speaker 1: certainly slotted a lot lower on the card and never
Speaker 1: a threat. Okay, if that's what she's gonna be, fine,
Speaker 1: but otherwise turn her heel. When it comes to Austin theory,
Speaker 1: he was a geek anyway, he was introduced as a geek,
Speaker 1: a smiling moron standing next to Vince McMahon and frankly,
Speaker 1: I kind of like what they've done with him getting
Speaker 1: punched out, always getting tripped up, making to be made
Speaker 1: to look like a fool, because I think you needed
Speaker 1: to tear their character back down to build him back
Speaker 1: up again. Now at some point you're going to have
Speaker 1: to build him back up again. But I don't think
Speaker 1: he's a character that they're all of a sudden going
Speaker 1: to give up on either. So I think everything is
Speaker 1: fine for right now. But they are geeks. I mean
Speaker 1: they are being treated in storyline how they are because
Speaker 1: that's what they are. This uh, this fellow here said
Speaker 1: baby faces in pro wrestling have always been kind of stupid.
Speaker 1: Hold on a minute, Yeah, hold on, there's a big
Speaker 1: difference between being stupid and being for example, brave. Okay,
Speaker 1: Shamus came out. Shamus came out and he's like, you
Speaker 1: know what, my my friends they're stuck in Florida. They
Speaker 1: couldn't be here tonight, you know what, I'm here. And
Speaker 1: he goes to the ring and yeah, he got he
Speaker 1: got beaten up, but it's not like he his friends
Speaker 1: couldn't make it. That's different than I don't need no friends.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take you guys on by myself. That that's
Speaker 1: that's stupid. The other's brave. He's he's in a war
Speaker 1: and he's lost everybody. Well I'm gonna fight to the end. Okay,
Speaker 1: Well that's situation too. That's not always on the person
Speaker 1: that that's my but that's my point. Like, you know,
Speaker 1: there's there's a difference between being brave and when you
Speaker 1: talk about bravery. Yeah, there's always there's always, arguably a
Speaker 1: little bit of stupidity involved with a lot of bravery,
Speaker 1: not all of it, but sometimes. And but that's different
Speaker 1: than just being stupid. And you also, if you're a
Speaker 1: baby face, you know, you can be a goodhearted character
Speaker 1: that maybe sometimes is a little too trusting and you
Speaker 1: get screwed by bad people. That's different than being stupid,
Speaker 1: and oftentimes in w w E more so with vinc
Speaker 1: than anybody else. Your your stupid or the other. The
Speaker 1: other word that's often used is uh, you know, probably
Speaker 1: not the right word, especially with National scissoring Day coming up.
Speaker 1: But impotent. Okay, And of course a word like that
Speaker 1: usually doesn't work for a female. But Live Morgan was impotent.
Speaker 1: She had a base ball bat. Okay, she had a
Speaker 1: baseball bat. She was square ring up against an unarmed opponent.
Speaker 1: She goes to swing said bat and she gets booted
Speaker 1: in the stomach and her ass kicked. Okay, that is
Speaker 1: an impotent baby face. You can't do it all perfectly
Speaker 1: in pro wrestling, but you know you can try harder
Speaker 1: than that. That did Live zero favors. No, No, Sometimes
Speaker 1: it's a cold and dry in the valley, I guess
Speaker 1: you could say, and that can happen. But yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: baby faces, they make bad emotional decisions sometimes. Doesn't mean
Speaker 1: that they're weak, doesn't mean that they're pathetic, And unfortunately,
Speaker 1: with Austin theory and Live. We've had that way too often.
Speaker 1: I got a moment of Zerver Live alright in one
Speaker 1: hour here Filthy fort Daily myself and Filthy Tom Lawler
Speaker 1: and uh No Gimmickree. Today we got a lot to
Speaker 1: talk about. We got SmackDown, we got New Japan Strong,
Speaker 1: we have the semifinals and finals from the Stardom pay
Speaker 1: per views past weekend. Tom watched ten Antonio Anoki matches
Speaker 1: and uh yeah, we gotta get through all of that
Speaker 1: in an hour. So if you're interested in those topics,
Speaker 1: Filthy for Daily Video dot ft W online dot com
Speaker 1: you can watch live at two Pacific five Eastern. Oh,
Speaker 1: I gotta hope you watch the Island match with I
Speaker 1: should watch that before the show, take him two hours
Speaker 1: to talk about it. And then Wrestling Observer it's like
Speaker 1: a forty minute matcher hour and forty minutes or something.
Speaker 1: I don't have time to watch that one. And then
Speaker 1: if Wrestling Observer dot com you can listen all the
Speaker 1: shows as well. Because Wrestling Observer dot com has every
Speaker 1: show we've ever done archive dating back to two thousand five,
Speaker 1: we are now over thousand shows. I remember when I
Speaker 1: was a kid, one of the Smithsonian suite, and they said,
Speaker 1: you know, if you if you wanted to look at
Speaker 1: every exhibit in the Smithsonian, you couldn't do it in
Speaker 1: your lifetime. And I was like, that's bs, it's like
Speaker 1: five buildings. I mean, I could probably do it in
Speaker 1: a week. I couldn't spend a lot of time on everything,
Speaker 1: but you know, at worst a year. But you're telling me,
Speaker 1: you're telling me if I lived to eight, five, five
Speaker 1: years old or whatever, I couldn't look at everything in
Speaker 1: this Smiths. I find that impossible, topecially if we moved
Speaker 1: to Dyeah. Really, now, if you're counting like we got
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of books there and you'd have to
Speaker 1: we're counting you reading every book cover to cover. That's fine.
Speaker 1: But you know, when I look at fourteen thousand archive podcasts,
Speaker 1: you could do it in your lifetime, but you could
Speaker 1: probably be better served doing something else. But you know
Speaker 1: what they're there. If you want to go back and
Speaker 1: listen to this show or that, listen all the Brian
Speaker 1: of vide shows from start to finish, starting like twenty
Speaker 1: nineteen will be my recommendation. But there's a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff there, so check it out. Wrestling him over dotcom.
Speaker 1: And that is it, everybody. We're out of time. Next
Speaker 1: Mike has always callers and listeners ever to the studio.
Speaker 1: We'll talk to you next time. Wrestling Observe alive you
Speaker 1: have been listening to the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast on
Speaker 1: the eight Side Network