WEBVTT - Antonio Inoki - Pro Wrestling legend RIP 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Hey, this is Brian Alvarez and this is today's edition 0:00:02.840 --> 0:00:08.440 of the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast on the eight Side Network. Ready, 0:00:10.080 --> 0:00:16.360 let's get it off. How's it going, everybody? Brian Alvarez 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:19.840 here on Wrestling Observer Live. We're here every day Monday 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:24.520 through Friday, New Pacific three Eastern Sunday three Pacific, sixth Eastern. Well, 0:00:24.720 --> 0:00:27.319 it's Monday here on the show, and you know what 0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:28.640 that means. We got a lot of news to talk 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:30.760 about it. We got the raw line up for tonight, 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:35.920 the Dynamite line up for this coming Wednesday. We've got 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:40.879 notes on Max Duprix, SmackDown Rampage, tons of news to 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:44.080 get into here today. But if you have not heard, 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:45.360 and I don't know how you would not if you're 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:47.520 wrestling fan. Antonio and Oki, the founder of New Japan 0:00:47.520 --> 0:00:50.240 Pro Wrestling became one of the biggest pro wrestling stars 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:53.720 in the history of Japan, has passed away. Yahoo News 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:57.360 Japan confirmed he passed away Saturday morning in Japan. And Oki, 0:00:57.520 --> 0:01:00.640 seventy nine, had been battling health problems in recent years, 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:03.760 have been confined to a wheel chair. Michael Cole Corey 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:07.440 Graves on SmackDown took time to speak on his death. 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:10.200 You know. He started wrestling in nineteen sixty training under 0:01:10.240 --> 0:01:13.399 Ricky Dozen, one of the first popular pro wrestling figures 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:16.040 in Japan. Later in the decade, he formed a tag 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:18.560 team with Giant Baba and the j w A, with 0:01:18.600 --> 0:01:20.640 the team winning the n w A International Tag Team 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:24.119 titles four times. Bab would later form All Japan Pro 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:27.720 Wrestling in nineteen seventy two, becoming a direct competitor against 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:31.480 Anoki's New Japan at Pro Wrestling. It's a founder of 0:01:31.520 --> 0:01:35.040 New Japan at Pro Wrestling. After being fired from j 0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:39.000 w A N one for planning a takeover, he formed 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:41.640 New Japan. One of his most famous bout during this year, 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:45.240 of course, mixed martial arts match in nineteen seventy six 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:48.720 against himself and Muhammad Ali, which ended in a draw. 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:52.680 Headline one of the highest attended shows in pro wresting history, Pyongyang, 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:55.760 North Korea, defeated Rick Flair on the second night of 0:01:55.760 --> 0:01:58.120 a two day event. The announced crowds for those shows 0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:01.800 hundred sixty five thousand and a dared in ninety thousand, respectively, 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:04.760 although essentially everybody was commanded to be at the show, 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:07.680 so it's not like they sold those tickets, but still 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:12.480 and Oki retired nineteen final match of victory over Don 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:15.720 Fry continue to run New Japan until two thousand and five, 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:19.040 when Yukes bought out an Oke's controlling stock with the company. 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:23.560 Later Faturday, New Promotion at ok Genome Federation inducted into 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:26.560 the Hall of Fame in We'll talk more about an 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:28.080 Oke and all the news after the breakups, we were 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:47.480 alive than working the show. Bran Overa is here Wrestling 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:50.560 Observer Live, Mikes and for viv also Wrestling Observer dot Com. 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:51.840 I know Mike's got a lot to say about an 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:54.400 Ok Can I can I say a few things first? Mike, 0:02:54.720 --> 0:02:58.160 you sure, Cam I'm gonna try and not just be 0:02:58.240 --> 0:03:00.800 totally scattered because a lot of a lot of this, 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:04.079 I mean, we can go back well over a hundred 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:08.480 years to look at like this whole Antonio and Oki story. 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:11.240 Because I am, in fact, as some of you may know, 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:14.040 because I've said it a thousand times, I'm a black 0:03:14.040 --> 0:03:16.560 belt in grazy jiu jitsu. Do you wear that? Mike? 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:20.840 I am? I am, and I've always been interested in 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:24.160 like the history of jiu jitsu and pro wrestling and 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:27.240 mixed martial arts and how all of this ties together, 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:30.680 and no one will really know everything, and people will 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:33.359 argue about this or that. But if you go back 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:36.840 a hundred years, hundred and twenty years and you look 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:42.280 at the jiu jitsu scene in Brazil, I mean, most 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:46.080 people will tell you, and it's probably true that Elio 0:03:46.200 --> 0:03:49.560 Gracie never was involved in any sort of worked matches 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:55.960 because he hated it. But the scene, m I find 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:58.280 it impossible to believe that they did not do pro 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:01.960 wrestling and pro wrestling style programs because if you go 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:04.880 back and you look at how often people had these 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:10.320 big fights and and really the storylines. I mean, I'm 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:12.760 not saying that, you know, I don't want to be 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:15.640 conspiracy theorist, but let's let's be real. In both pro 0:04:15.680 --> 0:04:19.400 wrestling and I'm sure jiu jitsu in Brazil and around 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:23.359 the world, there were a lot of worked fights to 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:27.679 create programs, to draw money, to make people money, etcetera, etcetera. 0:04:27.720 --> 0:04:29.840 I mean, this is not something that was just exclusive 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:35.960 to progressing. So the founder of Gracie Jujitsu, Elio Gracie, 0:04:36.360 --> 0:04:40.880 had a very famous match in the fifties against Kama, 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:46.600 and this was in Japan and essentially what happened, there's 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:48.719 of course the gracy side of the story and then 0:04:49.160 --> 0:04:53.799 actual would happen, and uh, you know, he got beaten. 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:56.200 Elio Gracie got beaten. He was beaten with the camera 0:04:56.960 --> 0:05:00.560 and the Camura is named the Kamura because of Kamara 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:02.599 and the fact that he beat a Leo Gracie with 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:08.680 this camara, So Camura Masako Kamura. He also did some 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:13.360 pro wrestling in Japan and one of his pro wrestling 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:16.760 matches there was a I believe there's a tag team 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:19.400 match and on the other side was Ricky Doz and 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:25.320 it was a Japanese professional wrestler. And Ricky Dozen is 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:30.400 an all time, all time legend, not just of Japanese 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:34.200 pro wrestling, but of pro wrestling. And one of the 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:37.560 reasons that happened was because in a match with the 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:42.680 famous Kimura, he essentially beat the hell out of him. 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:47.360 He shot on him and beat him up. And that 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:50.560 combined with the fact that you know, Japan had lost 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:54.560 World War two and they were looking for a hero 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:58.360 and Ricky Dozan was that hero, and they would bring 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:02.159 in large Americans and Ricky Dozen coming off, you know, 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:06.120 destroying Kamura and then beating all of these Americans. He 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:09.920 became an all time legend and he was eventually murdered. 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:18.320 But Inoki was trained by Ricky Dozan and this link, 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:23.599 you know, I believe that in Inoki's mind and this 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:26.400 this was why, like throughout Inoki's life, he was all 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:29.880 about showing that pro wrestling was the strongest, and he was. 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:34.440 He was obsessed with, you know, showing how strong UH 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:38.480 pro wrestlers were, and studying what eventually became mixed martial 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:44.360 arts and shoot style and the whole shebang. I think 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:46.240 it dates all the way back. And the famous fight 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:52.400 with with Muhammad Ali was it was an early mm 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:56.919 A fight and because of the rules, it ended up 0:06:56.960 --> 0:06:59.480 being what it was, which was a fifteen minute boring 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:02.120 match or you know, Anoki went down on his back 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:04.200 and he led kicked Anoki, but they weren't going to 0:07:04.279 --> 0:07:05.760 go to the ground and they weren't going to do 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:08.760 grappling on the ground or anything like that. And you know, 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:11.720 it's a horrible match, but it is an absolutely famous 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:13.920 match for a lot of reasons, and for those that 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:17.520 follow mixed martial arts. I mean, essentially it was not 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:19.600 the birth of mixed martial arts. But a lot of 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:22.400 people will say it was the birth of mixed martial arts, 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:29.000 and you know, he if it were he won, he 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:32.440 beat Muhammad Ali, but because of the rules, it was 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:37.320 a draw and most people didn't understand what happened in 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:40.600 the fight, and therefore it did not hurt the sport 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:44.040 of boxing or Muhammad Ali, although it may have hurt 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:46.520 you know, Muhammad Ali physically in the sense of that 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:50.200 you know, this could have been one of the things 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:54.320 that led to his decline was the abuse that he 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:55.920 took to his legs in this match. But one way 0:07:55.960 --> 0:07:59.520 or the other, they had this match, and you know, 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:01.400 of all people, I was reading the New York Times 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:05.440 article and Connor McGregor noted that, man, there was a 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:08.680 moment where they were on the ground and you know, 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:10.640 Anochi moved to the mount and of course it was 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:13.320 stopped and stood back up again. But if he had 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:18.640 armbard or choked out Muhammad Ali, everything would have been different. 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:21.040 You know, if you're if you're older, if you're my 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:23.200 age or older, I mean, you grew up in that 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:27.320 era where what is fighting, Well, it's boxing, and then 0:08:27.440 --> 0:08:32.400 you know there's there's karate and nobody knew. I shouldn't 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:34.200 say nobody knew, but that was like the idea. It's 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:36.520 like nobody knew about concussion. Nobody knew what a real 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:40.400 fight really looked like, because to everybody in this country, 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:42.360 at least, a real fight was two dudes standing there 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:44.800 with giant gloves on and hitting each other. And the 0:08:44.880 --> 0:08:48.120 reality that that some people knew in in martial arts 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:50.480 was that, man, you know, a great wrestler takes down 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:52.400 a boxer. And they even talked about this a little 0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:55.880 bit on w w E television, like Guerrilla Monsoon had 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:59.000 made this comment, you know, decades ago that you know, 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:01.400 a good wrestler takes on Muhammad Ali and it's over. 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:04.760 But you know, to most of of America, nobody believed 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:07.280 that the heavyweight boxers the toughest man in the world. 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:11.599 And then of course this all led ultimately to the 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:15.040 debut of UFC and people found out what an actual 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:17.800 fight really was, and they had, you know, the boxer 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:20.040 that winning with one glove and got killed on the 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:24.400 ground by this skinny guy, Hoist Cracy, who actually was 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:27.160 not small at all. He was like six ft tall. 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:29.280 But they like to tell stories anyway, and so on 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:31.880 so on. So with an Okie he was always about, 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:35.160 you know, he would bring in he would bring in 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:38.360 fighters from other disciplines for pro wrestling matches and beat 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:42.160 them because he wanted to prove that pro wrestling was 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:45.840 the strongest, the greatest martial art and ultimately, to cut 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:48.840 to the chase at the end of the day, he 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:52.319 went too far, as we all learned in the early 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:56.240 two thousands, where in fact he began bringing in fighters 0:09:56.559 --> 0:10:01.440 to actually fight his professional wrestlers, and uh, it was 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:05.520 a disaster, and this ultimately led to his ousting from 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:07.480 New Japan. And we could talk about that and everything, 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:10.640 But the one thing that I don't think Aoki realized 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:15.439 at the end was fans didn't necessarily need to know 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:21.679 that the pro wrestlers could win, legitimately win all these fights. 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:26.600 It was enough for wrestling fans to believe that, hey, 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:29.520 this may not be on the level, but these are 0:10:29.559 --> 0:10:33.640 some bad dudes, and they would suspend their disbelief as 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:36.120 as they would beat these real fighters. But I don't 0:10:36.160 --> 0:10:39.880 think they ever needed to actually see them beat real fighters. 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:42.560 And then when they went in and lost to real fighters, 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:46.520 well that hurt the aura of a Eugena god In, etcetera. 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:49.920 And so really that's kind of the the story of 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:53.280 of Anogi. I mean, he came up wanting to prove 0:10:53.440 --> 0:10:56.760 that these athletes were the toughest athletes in the sport, 0:10:57.240 --> 0:11:01.200 and for decades he was actually he It's what helped 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:04.040 make him a legend. But at the end of the day, 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:06.199 he went too far and had been him in the ass. 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:09.520 And that's the story of Antonio anok the short story. 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:13.400 I mean, we could talk for decades, but that's kind 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:15.400 of what I was thinking when I heard about the 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:21.480 death of an Oki. An incredibly complex and complicated legacy. 0:11:22.000 --> 0:11:25.760 It really is, and you've set a mouthful there. An 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:28.920 incredible butterfly effect with a lot of things when it 0:11:28.960 --> 0:11:32.840 comes to Anochi. What if Anochi? We always hear about 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:36.600 Jim Crockett Promotions and the selling of the WTPS time 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:40.120 slot by WWF because Vince McMahon needed the money before 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:44.800 Russell Many he had exhausted a lot of his his credit. Well, 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:48.319 he makes a million dollar booking deal with Antonio Winoki. 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:51.000 He ends up screwing over an Oki by taking Hogan 0:11:51.040 --> 0:11:53.800 and Andre away. Over the next two years, but that 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:58.800 million dollars Vince needed that money. What if Antonio Anoki 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:03.880 doesn't go all in on wanting pro wrestling to really 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:07.360 truly still be strongest and for these pro wrestlers the 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:10.280 facade to still be raised up. What if he doesn't 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:12.880 do that when he comes to Eugene Nigata and then 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:17.720 later on with Shinsky Nakamura. What if Hiroshi Tanahashi that 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:20.760 had been approached for the leaving with Kgi Muto, with 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:24.439 Kendall Kasen when they had enough of anocchism towards the end, 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:27.640 what if he leaves? There is so much to talk 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:29.720 about with Antonio and Oki, and I'm not sure how 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:32.480 much we're going to do today, but it is a 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:37.120 fascinating story. Much like Rick a Dozen, much like Santo, 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:40.320 He's on a par when it comes to culture in 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:43.000 their countries at a little bit of a different level 0:12:43.000 --> 0:12:46.480 than almost anybody in this country could ever be. Well 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:49.960 and to break back in a moment with more Wrestling 0:12:50.000 --> 0:13:08.280 Observer Live back in the show. Brian Elba is here 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:11.559 Wrestling Observer Live. Mike simper Viv also of Wrestling Observer 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:13.959 dot Com. We can talk more about Anoki later in 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:15.760 the show. It's gonna go over a little bit of 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:18.319 the news here and then we can do questions or whatever. 0:13:19.120 --> 0:13:23.240 And of course Wrestling Observer Radio Friday with Garrett and 0:13:23.720 --> 0:13:26.720 last night with Dave and I a lot of talk 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:30.240 hours on an Oki, and I'm sure there's more to 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:33.480 come alright row to night, we have a contract signing 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:36.960 for Biancan Bailey's Raw Women's Title Ladder Matching Extreme Rules. 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:40.960 Matt Riddle and seth Rawlins go face to face and 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:43.839 they've announced that Daniel Cormier is going to be the 0:13:43.880 --> 0:13:46.760 referee of their Fight Pit match coming up Saturday at 0:13:46.760 --> 0:13:48.760 the pay per view. We have a Ray in a 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:52.200 j versus The Judgment, Dave bron Stroman versus Chad Gable, 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:59.000 Johnny Gargano versus Otis and Candice Lay and Dakota Kai. 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:02.760 That's your lineup for ROT tonight and then Dynamite on 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:06.400 Wednesday as Daniel Brian or Brian Danielson and Daniel Garcia 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:09.880 against Chris Jericho and Sammy Gavara, MGF versus Wheeler. You 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:14.720 to Hangman Page versus rush Tony Stormathena and Willow Night 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:17.319 and Gale versus Jamie Hayter, Serena Deep and Penelope Ford, 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:20.760 Darby Ellen versus j Lethal Luca Source will be in 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:23.960 action and who knows, maybe he'll be part of National 0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:29.320 Scissoring Day with the Acclaimed and Billy Gunn. I think 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:31.720 we should celebrate National Scissoring Day here on this show 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:36.680 as well, But I don't really know how. You know 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:39.840 what I'm saying your way over there, don't give me 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:45.800 that face. And what's with the wind, dude? Well, holy smokes, 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:49.120 these are the after effects of Hurricane Ian blowing up 0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:53.120 the the East coast and uh you, we really barely 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:55.440 got anything at all. If that tells you what it 0:14:55.520 --> 0:14:57.880 was like if you're down in that hurricane in Florida. 0:14:57.960 --> 0:15:00.520 And I don't know how many people are swing right 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:03.240 now because they're concerned their power is stole off. But 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:07.600 best wishes to everybody down there. Obviously affected wrestling all 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:09.840 around the world. Last week, Jonah couldn't make his way 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:12.840 to New Japan in London. Obviously there were a bunch 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:14.800 of people that were off the a W and w 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:18.640 W E shows that needed to be rewritten a little bit. 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:22.080 So best wishes to everybody down there, because it had 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:27.440 to be nasty already. A W no longer airing through 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:33.080 broadcaster Space. A W is no longer on Space and 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:38.160 several countries including Mexico, South America, and Central America. So, 0:15:38.240 --> 0:15:41.160 as noted last night on the Observer radio show, what 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:44.720 happened was their deal was coming do and they were 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:48.520 not offered what they felt was a fair deal to continue, 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:51.920 and so they pulled it. And now if you are 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:55.440 in any of those places except Brazil, in in uh 0:15:55.560 --> 0:16:01.000 in uh Brazil, you can still sche it on Space, 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:04.440 but everywhere else you have to subscribe to a W plus. 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:06.960 I guess they figured that they could make more money 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:10.120 getting people to subscribe to a W plus and what 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:13.800 they were offered for the Space deal, and the belief 0:16:13.880 --> 0:16:16.920 is that there may be some other options and that's 0:16:16.920 --> 0:16:19.320 why they didn't want to commit to a multi year 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:22.880 deal with Space, because once you are committed to the deal, 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:26.520 you're committed to the deal in theory of course. So 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:30.800 that's the story there. And you know, we're not gonna 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:34.720 play gloom and doom here, but it's not always. You know, 0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:37.120 it's been this case for quite a while that every 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:39.640 time a deal is up, people are offered significantly more 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:42.160 money for it, and quite frankly, w W e will 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:44.640 be offered significantly more money for their next deal. But 0:16:44.680 --> 0:16:47.400 it's not like a guarantee. I mean, and you got 0:16:47.480 --> 0:16:50.440 to look at also with a w I mean, I'm 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:52.360 not saying that if they if they got the same, 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:54.720 if they were offered the same amount of money at 0:16:54.760 --> 0:16:56.920 their next television deal, that they like, pull it and 0:16:56.960 --> 0:17:00.720 go to fight. But you know, they have to take 0:17:00.760 --> 0:17:04.159 into account a lot of different things. They may not 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:07.160 be offered less money, but they may not be offered 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:10.000 much more money. And then their decisions that have to 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:11.720 be made. Do we accept this offer, do we let 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:14.520 this expire? Do we start, you know, negotiating with other 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:16.920 people so we shall see what happens when their deal 0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:20.760 comes to And deals like this are not wholly unusual 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:24.200 to where Brazil is not part of that package. Why 0:17:24.200 --> 0:17:26.440 are you so quiet? What happened? I don't know? Why? 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:32.760 Am I you're Can you hear me? No? You sound 0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:36.200 like you're on the telephone. What your tielines? Your cables 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:41.400 all messed up? How about there we go? You gotta 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:43.480 jam it into that thing. Don't you know anything about anything? 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:46.480 All right, go ahead, television deals. Maybe we'll find that 0:17:46.680 --> 0:17:49.000 you've only been scissoring, we wouldn't have this problem. That's 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:50.840 we'll have to find that out during scissoring day. We 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:52.560 gotta make sure we jam it in there to give 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:56.400 the people what they need. But deals like this are 0:17:56.440 --> 0:17:59.840 not wholly unusual in South America. When Brazil is not 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:03.040 part of the deal for obvious reasons, it's because well, 0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:05.359 they speak Portuguese there, so they end up having a 0:18:05.720 --> 0:18:08.320 separate deal for Spanish language. So a lot of people 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:11.080 were wondering about that. But it's not really all that unusual, 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:13.280 and they need to get you a new cable will 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:17.919 probably out sounding something's weird. He just jiggled it and 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:22.080 it worked. Sometimes it's how that work. Just jostled it 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:23.919 a little and all of a sudden you just slapping 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:28.119 about a little bit. Alright, Well, next Dupre. You know 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:30.560 I predicted this yesterday the Observer radio show. I can't 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:34.240 help but note that Dave was skeptical. Max Dupre will 0:18:34.280 --> 0:18:38.080 reportedly returning to the l A Night character as portrayed 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:40.359 in n x T. He is back to being listed 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:45.720 as l A Night on the internal roster. Meanwhile, muss, 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:51.520 hey men, SWA and Maxine Dupri. We'll continue under the 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:54.240 maximum so I like that. So he had he got 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:56.840 a what is now apparently a fake name, but then 0:18:56.840 --> 0:18:58.680 he ended up with his sister with the same fake 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:00.720 last name. But now he's going back to his other name, 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:03.119 but she's keeping the fake last name. That's going on. 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:09.360 I just is Man Sar keeping? Is he keeping Man 0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:11.720 Swa when they go over to Saudi Arabia or do 0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:15.720 you even bring him over to Saudi Arabia? Why can't 0:19:15.720 --> 0:19:18.160 you bring him to the Saudi Arabia's men Swa that's 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:19.960 his name. I don't know, do you do you really 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:22.280 want to see Man Swa getting his ass kicked all 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:24.760 over if he doesn't have to lose men walk and 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:27.720 go over there and get a big win, he can really, 0:19:28.400 --> 0:19:30.720 of course he can. It's fake. Who do you have 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:34.200 him beat? Bro? Anybody? Otis? It doesn't matter. Come on, 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:39.639 he can beat anybody. Chad Gable though maybe for the 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:42.879 first match back in twelve years, Ricky Steamboat, we'll be 0:19:42.880 --> 0:19:47.040 teaming with Multipromotional Take Team Champions FTR had November's returned 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:49.280 to the Dragon Show in Raleigh. This story is so 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:53.920 weird to me because when they were they were talking 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:58.359 about Rick Flair's last match. Everybody was talking about how 0:19:58.600 --> 0:20:01.920 Ricky Steamboat maybe on the other side of a multiperson match, 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:05.520 and you know, Ricky Steamboat did this big speech about how, 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:07.919 you know, I don't want to come back. You know 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:12.200 I my last matches. Everybody's gonna remember those, this whole 0:20:12.200 --> 0:20:15.280 thing about how he's just done. So they do the match, 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:17.639 and then a month later, Hey, I'm on my way back. 0:20:18.240 --> 0:20:21.720 And granted he's teaming with FTR, but you know what 0:20:21.720 --> 0:20:28.160 what worries me, well, the opponents. There's a mystery opponent, 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:34.840 j Lethal, brock Anderson and a mystery opponent. Let me 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:38.399 make this abundantly clear. I don't think it's Rick Flair. 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:41.640 Oh no, I don't think it's Rick Flair. But if 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:43.600 you want me to come on the air here and 0:20:43.680 --> 0:20:46.320 with a straight face tell you there's no chance it's 0:20:46.400 --> 0:20:51.320 Rick Flair, I ain't gonna do that. So I guess 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:55.840 we'll see. Well, the billing is arn Anderson's four Horsemen, 0:20:56.119 --> 0:21:00.520 including Jay Lethal as Black Machismo, who was her part 0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:02.879 of I don't you can't even tie that into the 0:21:02.920 --> 0:21:05.399 four Horsemen at all. But j Lethal is in the 0:21:05.440 --> 0:21:08.439 match along with Brocky Anderson. Alright, doubt we're going to 0:21:08.440 --> 0:21:11.880 get tests the Blanchard, So, you know, I guess there's 0:21:11.920 --> 0:21:15.159 a possibility could be Rick Flair. But maybe there's a 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:20.080 possibility that Ricky Steamboat maybe in the moment really didn't 0:21:20.080 --> 0:21:23.360 want to come back and do that match, and or 0:21:24.080 --> 0:21:26.919 maybe he saw what was going to take place and 0:21:27.000 --> 0:21:29.760 saw the scenario laid out and went no, I don't 0:21:29.800 --> 0:21:31.240 know if I want to do this. I don't know 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:33.200 if I want to come back from my last match 0:21:33.560 --> 0:21:37.080 and have it be alongside ric Flair's last match, especially 0:21:37.119 --> 0:21:39.720 if you had some doubt about how Rick Flair would 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:42.920 fare in that match. So with FTR, it's a six 0:21:42.960 --> 0:21:45.119 man tag. He's got to stand on you know, the 0:21:45.160 --> 0:21:48.119 corner of the ring. He'll hit somebody with a chop. 0:21:48.680 --> 0:21:51.119 I don't know if we're going to see a full 0:21:51.240 --> 0:21:54.359 flying body press or not, but I guess if he 0:21:54.400 --> 0:21:57.520 can do it cool. I'm fine with him never doing 0:21:57.520 --> 0:21:59.320 a match. I'm fine with a lot of people never 0:21:59.320 --> 0:22:01.800 wrestling again. I was fine with Brian Danielson if that's 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:03.840 all it was going to be. I'm fine with a 0:22:03.840 --> 0:22:06.560 lot of people not coming back. But if Ricky's seen 0:22:06.560 --> 0:22:08.439 both fields as though he can and he's cleared by 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:11.160 a doctor. Hey, I'm all for it. I guess listen 0:22:11.160 --> 0:22:16.120 to everybody. I'm not Rick Flair for sure, but I 0:22:16.160 --> 0:22:20.960 was a wrestler much like Flair. Here we go, Yeah, 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:24.840 here's the deal everyone. I was satisfied with my performance 0:22:24.880 --> 0:22:27.919 in that match with Filthy, Okay, I was satisfied. So 0:22:27.960 --> 0:22:32.480 I was not impressed. I have no I have no 0:22:32.640 --> 0:22:35.639 desire in me to do it again. Okay, although after 0:22:35.640 --> 0:22:41.080 watching Stardom, you know if something eppisodes Zack Saber Jr. Anyway, Bro, 0:22:41.320 --> 0:22:45.480 you ain't pulling no stumps there either. So but the 0:22:45.520 --> 0:22:49.520 thing with Flair is Flair, and listen, he shouldn't have 0:22:49.560 --> 0:22:52.399 done the match, and he's old and he's got whatever 0:22:52.400 --> 0:22:56.520 he's got inside him. But but he made a lot 0:22:56.600 --> 0:22:59.840 of mistakes that weekend. He didn't eat it all that day, 0:23:00.200 --> 0:23:04.320 he drank too much, he was dehydrated. It was a disaster, okay, 0:23:04.359 --> 0:23:07.439 And in his mind, if in his mind, he was like, 0:23:07.480 --> 0:23:10.520 you know what, man, I felt great training and man 0:23:10.560 --> 0:23:12.959 I just screwed everything up that day. And if I 0:23:13.040 --> 0:23:16.320 did it again, I'd eat, I wouldn't drink too much, 0:23:16.480 --> 0:23:18.520 I'd be hydrated, and man, I could have a way 0:23:18.560 --> 0:23:21.800 better last match, and I bet you, Belsion, I'll bet 0:23:21.880 --> 0:23:24.480 you anything that's going through his mind, right, I'm sure 0:23:24.520 --> 0:23:27.800