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.
Speaker 1: By from San Francisco. I'm a sports byline broadcasting network.
Speaker 1: You are listening to Wrestling Observer of VIBE with your
Speaker 1: hosts Brian Alvarez and Mike Semper vv Ready are you ready?
Speaker 1: Let's get it all? How's it going everybody? Brian Alvarez
Speaker 1: here on or Wrestling Observer Live. We are here every
Speaker 1: day Monday through Friday, New Pacific, three Eastern Sunday, three Pacific,
Speaker 1: sixth Eastern Friday. Here in the program. You know that
Speaker 1: means we have got a lot to talk about here today,
Speaker 1: the least of which is the ratings for Dynamite. We
Speaker 1: got some minute by minute notes on the m j
Speaker 1: F deal to w w E pay per views coming
Speaker 1: up this weekend. If you're a fan of n x
Speaker 1: T two point oh or at this point Raw, because
Speaker 1: we have no SmackDown matches so far for Hell in
Speaker 1: the Cell, I'll tell you about all of those here today.
Speaker 1: The latest on Lacey Evans, which I laughed uproariously about,
Speaker 1: but stuff happened in New Japan. Best of the Super
Speaker 1: Junior Finals. We've got some returns. We can talk to
Speaker 1: you about that today, update on Jeff Hardy and UH
Speaker 1: and much much more. In the final segment of the show,
Speaker 1: Nick Elvis is going to join us here today and uh.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about the n w A a lot of
Speaker 1: other stuff as well, and it's going to be fun.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do my best. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: can hear or not, but I'm pretty congested. I actually
Speaker 1: feel way better than I felt yesterday. But my uh,
Speaker 1: my head is full of gunk. Been coughing a little bit,
Speaker 1: so I'm not at my best, but damn and I'm
Speaker 1: here and ready to go. So if you want to
Speaker 1: contact us four to five seven eight zero seven five
Speaker 1: six six, help carry this show. Four to five seven
Speaker 1: eight zero seven five six six. Brian and Wrestling Observed
Speaker 1: dot Com at Brian Alvarez on a Twitter and also
Speaker 1: at w Online on cameo. I got nothing to do,
Speaker 1: so if you want a cameo, and that would be
Speaker 1: a great time to do it. But Mike Semper viv
Speaker 1: M He's gonna join us after the break and we'll
Speaker 1: talk all of the news and UH and get into
Speaker 1: all of this so stick around everybody. We're back here
Speaker 1: in a couple of moments. I'm gonna take a quick
Speaker 1: commercial break because I'm gonna hear that music at any
Speaker 1: moment here on Wrestling Observer Live. Mkay, you were listening
Speaker 1: to Wrestling Observe We Live with Brian Albarez and Mike
Speaker 1: Semperviv on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network making the show.
Speaker 1: Bran Albert is here Wrestling Observer Alive. Mike samper Viv
Speaker 1: also Wrestling Observer dot Com. Yes, for those of you asking,
Speaker 1: I feel much better than I sound. Actually sound the
Speaker 1: worst so far, but I feel the best so far.
Speaker 1: So I don't know what to make of that. But
Speaker 1: you're almost over the hump, that's what that means. I
Speaker 1: sure hope. So yesterday was actually uh, I was, I was.
Speaker 1: I had a low fever, thank god, I was so
Speaker 1: hot all day and I'm stuck here in this room
Speaker 1: and for once in my life, like it's been nothing
Speaker 1: but cold since the beginning of the year, and then
Speaker 1: of course on the one day that I want to
Speaker 1: open the window for some air, it's like in the seventies.
Speaker 1: So I'm just baking, which is why you heard frogs
Speaker 1: last night. I left the window open during the The
Speaker 1: Brinon VNI Show. But I'm gonna come back trail, everybody.
Speaker 1: I Am on the comeback trail. Rally back. It's the weekend. Brother.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'm rolling back to two w w E
Speaker 1: pay per views. Well, uh well, um, your wife will
Speaker 1: be happy, you feel better. So if you can take
Speaker 1: some of the pressure off the kids you know dealing
Speaker 1: with that. Wednesday is Double or Nothing Fallout episode of Dynamite,
Speaker 1: nine and sixty nine thousand viewers on TBS, up four
Speaker 1: point three percent from last week, best audience for the
Speaker 1: show since April eighteen forty nine. Dynamite finished second with
Speaker 1: a point four oh, which was up fourteen point three
Speaker 1: percent from last week, Dynamite's best number in the demo
Speaker 1: since March three. Bunch of other notes right here, But
Speaker 1: I know what everyone's asking about. You're all asking about
Speaker 1: m JF. And uh First, we had the quarter hours
Speaker 1: yesterday and if you guys saw the quarters we talked
Speaker 1: about it. I think on the Brighton Viny show, I
Speaker 1: do tell these shows. But what happened was the MJF
Speaker 1: promo was split over two seconds and the first two
Speaker 1: thirds was in one segment and the final one third
Speaker 1: and my math is correct, was in the next segment. Okay,
Speaker 1: So the segment that contained it two thirds of his
Speaker 1: interview was by far the highest rated thing on the show.
Speaker 1: This segment that continue that contained the second half or
Speaker 1: the second third of his promo plunged down, ended up
Speaker 1: being the lowest rated thing on the show, the least viewed.
Speaker 1: So two thirds was in the most viewed, one third
Speaker 1: was in the least viewed. Okay. So of course, you know,
Speaker 1: it's the Internet, and everybody has their everybody has their
Speaker 1: side whether this was good or bad or whatever, so everybody,
Speaker 1: you know, people were using that to prove it didn't
Speaker 1: work and everything like that. So what we were waiting for,
Speaker 1: obviously was the minute by minute numbers, which Brandon Thurston
Speaker 1: released yesterday. We have them, and what happened, which is
Speaker 1: actually what I figured would happen. The entire MGF promo
Speaker 1: was the most watched thing on the show by far,
Speaker 1: from beginning to end. Okay, as soon as he called it,
Speaker 1: Tony Khan, whatever he called him, because for most people
Speaker 1: it was bleeped as soon as they went to the
Speaker 1: commercial break. That's when everybody tuned out and if you've
Speaker 1: if you've ever paid any attention to the quarters, if
Speaker 1: you do a segment that has two commercials in that segment,
Speaker 1: which that segment did. They went to commercial, and they
Speaker 1: came back and they did some stuff, and then they
Speaker 1: started to match in the match went to commercial for
Speaker 1: picture and picture. There were two commercial breaks during that segment.
Speaker 1: You are not going to have a quarter with two
Speaker 1: commercial segments that is not going to absolutely fall off
Speaker 1: a cliff, which is what happened. So if you want
Speaker 1: a place to blame on MGF, I'm sorry to tell
Speaker 1: you that his promo was the most watched thing on
Speaker 1: the entire show. Now, of course people are gonna argue, well,
Speaker 1: you know everyone turned it to now it afterwards. Well,
Speaker 1: you can make whatever argument you want. The reality is,
Speaker 1: we have no idea if this is gonna work or not.
Speaker 1: It just happened. I mean, it doesn't matter what the
Speaker 1: promo is, doesn't matter what the angle is. Nobody knows
Speaker 1: how something is going to work until they do the
Speaker 1: follow up and they do whatever they're going to do.
Speaker 1: So you're welcome to make all of your predictions and
Speaker 1: whether it's going to be like the greatest thing ever.
Speaker 1: Everyone's gonna tune in next week to find out what happened,
Speaker 1: or oh they're gonna run off all these fans. People
Speaker 1: don't want to watch. Whatever your theory is, we don't know.
Speaker 1: We're going to find out based on the follow up starting.
Speaker 1: I mean maybe a little bit with a rampage, but
Speaker 1: my guess is next week on Dynamite. So those are
Speaker 1: the numbers, and you can do with those what you
Speaker 1: will if you want to, but I would recommend against it.
Speaker 1: Have you survived the slings and arrows over the last
Speaker 1: couple of days of being called out of touch or
Speaker 1: old or a contrarian that every anybody else like that
Speaker 1: promo except for you, Brian Alvarez, You're just doing this
Speaker 1: on purpose? Bro? I what has every even time if
Speaker 1: anyone said that they're an idiot? But I've dealt with
Speaker 1: that a lot of late dude, I said, like, his
Speaker 1: delivery of that promo was phenomenal, It's absolutely fantastic. But
Speaker 1: if you're gonna sit here and pretend like there is
Speaker 1: no risk here, if you're gonna sit here and pretend
Speaker 1: that him trying to cut a full heel promo and
Speaker 1: getting cheered is not the promo. You can do that
Speaker 1: if you want, Like, that's fine, you can do that,
Speaker 1: but it's what happened, so we'll see what happens. But yeah,
Speaker 1: his delivery was phenomenal. I never said eathing negative at
Speaker 1: all about his delivery. He has probably the best delivery
Speaker 1: of anybody in all of wrestling when it comes to
Speaker 1: cutting promos. But don't act like there's no possibility that
Speaker 1: something could go wrong here, like well, virtually every other
Speaker 1: time that's ever happened, it hasn't worked. But this time, man, Brian,
Speaker 1: if you think it's it's not gonna be a home run,
Speaker 1: you're old and out of touch. Well that's foolishness. It's
Speaker 1: almost these people are foolish. So who cares? You hate fun?
Speaker 1: I don't. Oh man, it's almost the weekend, though, We're
Speaker 1: almost done with this for now. Get social media at
Speaker 1: all until you start doing your your full review in
Speaker 1: time of the n x T pay per view or
Speaker 1: pay per view special live premium event coming up on Peacock,
Speaker 1: which I know you're excited for. Bro. I never said
Speaker 1: it wasn't entertaining. What is wrong with people? Honestly? What
Speaker 1: is wrong with people? To grow on Observer Live yesterday,
Speaker 1: the first segment of the show. I don't think I
Speaker 1: could have possibly been more fair and given like both
Speaker 1: sides of this, I don't think I could have possibly
Speaker 1: been more fair. But what happens is because everyone has
Speaker 1: to choose sides, you only hear the details what you
Speaker 1: want to irritating m and Bro. You guys are gonna
Speaker 1: argue that Wardlow wasn't like overshadowed by this. It's even
Speaker 1: really gonna argue that that's the only one to me,
Speaker 1: that's the hilarious one to me is that the Wardlow
Speaker 1: did not come out of this looking, you know, the
Speaker 1: way he should be that next night, and coming out
Speaker 1: of this and having somebody who, look, if you're gonna
Speaker 1: power Obama guy ten times, you're gonna kill him dead,
Speaker 1: You're gonna put him out on a stretcher, like you know,
Speaker 1: he may want to sell something the next day. If
Speaker 1: this was w W E, those same people would be,
Speaker 1: you know, bitching and moaning and complaining that this person
Speaker 1: didn't do this, and it's like it's just crazy and
Speaker 1: and to make the excuse while you would would w
Speaker 1: W does this is that what you want to do
Speaker 1: is that what you want to be? Was it the
Speaker 1: whole point of a W starting up to not do
Speaker 1: what WW does and drives people nuts and actually have uh,
Speaker 1: forget it. Lacey Evans is uh probably gonna debut on
Speaker 1: I shouldn't say debut. Plans change, Brian plans change, No, no, no, yes,
Speaker 1: Lacy Evans is actually at SmackDown right now. I don't
Speaker 1: know if she'll be on the show, but she's there.
Speaker 1: And uh, I recall she was on SmackDown and then
Speaker 1: she was moved to Raw, and then she was announced
Speaker 1: his debuting on Raw, and then she didn't debut on Raw,
Speaker 1: and now she has been moved to SmackDown. I am
Speaker 1: always the bad guy when it's so patently obvious they
Speaker 1: have no idea what they're doing ever. So anyway, now
Speaker 1: she's back on SmackDown, and uh, you know, I guess
Speaker 1: we'll see what they do. I'm not even but even
Speaker 1: bother speculating. I mean, maybe she'll be a heel, maybe
Speaker 1: she'll be a baby face. At this point, who cares.
Speaker 1: I mean, I got really mad one day, but like
Speaker 1: that's a great thing about having a show like this
Speaker 1: is I can get really mad about something and then
Speaker 1: I just don't care anymore. It's actually great. Get it
Speaker 1: all out of your system and then that's that. So
Speaker 1: she'll be on SmackDown. Probably is the heel because you know,
Speaker 1: why not, why not listen lit waste five weeks of
Speaker 1: absolutely incredible videos to just have her be a heel. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was. I was reading more about the MGF and
Speaker 1: the cee him Punk thing, and uh as amazing. You
Speaker 1: know how many people said, Briant, There's just no way
Speaker 1: that pipe bomb was supposed to be a heel promo.
Speaker 1: I mean, the next show was in Chicago. It's like, guys, hello,
Speaker 1: wake up. You think, oh my god, have we not
Speaker 1: had decades of history that oh my god? But there's hey,
Speaker 1: look big recent c bias here. You know, it's like, listen,
Speaker 1: w c W did this, but they never had any
Speaker 1: good times, they never had anything successful happen, and it's like,
Speaker 1: well they kind of did. C Am Punk. Ce Am
Speaker 1: Punk said it was designed to be a hell promo.
Speaker 1: Listen to the announcers after it happened. Is there trying
Speaker 1: to bury see him Punk and ask why the fans
Speaker 1: are booing him? I mean are cheering him. It's Golee
Speaker 1: helped me back him was something other than that Observer
Speaker 1: Live in the pump time. You were listening to Wrestling
Speaker 1: Observer Live with Brian Albarez and Mike semperviv on the
Speaker 1: Sports Byline Broadcasting Network. I cannot believe sometimes all these
Speaker 1: years and people haven't learned. Don't harass me about what
Speaker 1: to talk about, or I'm not gonna do it. Leave
Speaker 1: me alone, especially when I'm sick. Now, with that said,
Speaker 1: I want to mention something about the best of the
Speaker 1: super Juniors, Okay, and I mean listen. To be fair,
Speaker 1: I didn't watch any of it. I pulled an m JF.
Speaker 1: I'm watching No New Japan, which, by the way, my
Speaker 1: the impression I've been given is that wasn't a heel line.
Speaker 1: Guy hates New Japan. But anyway, he really has taking
Speaker 1: all cornuts material, so that may as well get more
Speaker 1: heat while I'm at it. Go ahead, do it, bro
Speaker 1: Haromo won again. Even even Jingo here, who's like a
Speaker 1: huge Japanese pro wrestling mark, even he got it wrong.
Speaker 1: This is not Romo's third time winning the Best of
Speaker 1: the super Juniors, It's his fourth time since the best
Speaker 1: super junior in the world. I love Harom Okay, I
Speaker 1: love Haro, MO, I love Okada, I love Nighto, I
Speaker 1: love rattle off the list of guys. And granted, yes,
Speaker 1: we're in the middle of a pandemic. Yes, it's hard
Speaker 1: to get people in and out of Japan until just
Speaker 1: very recently. But Bro is the same thing when they
Speaker 1: had that big stadium show and it's like, what are
Speaker 1: we gonna do for the i W g P title? Okada, Nighto? Bro?
Speaker 1: How many times can I see that match? How many
Speaker 1: times can Haroma win the Best of the super Juniors? Like, dude,
Speaker 1: there were some talented dudes in that Best of the
Speaker 1: Super Juniors, and I just feel like it's the same
Speaker 1: stuff over and over and over and over and over
Speaker 1: and over again. Now hopefully, hopefully this is all about
Speaker 1: to swing wildly because now no more quarantine, like we
Speaker 1: can get people from a w We can get people
Speaker 1: like j White is no longer do an impact. He's
Speaker 1: just gonna be back full time doing New Japan. Like,
Speaker 1: you know, we're gonna get a lot of new names
Speaker 1: and faces and etcetera in there, But Bro, I need
Speaker 1: something different, Dude. I mean, you know, I have brought
Speaker 1: up Gheto's booking for quite some time, and we've been
Speaker 1: into it over that and I thought there was a
Speaker 1: way and by the way, one thing real quick. It's
Speaker 1: not only it's not only the fourth time that Haromo
Speaker 1: has won the Best of the super Juniors, but it
Speaker 1: was the same damn final that we had two years ago.
Speaker 1: My voice box is falling out. Look fourth. Some of
Speaker 1: these folks that are some of the guys that are
Speaker 1: coming my voice suck before they're they're just maybe a
Speaker 1: band aid though on some of the things that we
Speaker 1: have been driven nuts about. We'll get some new faces in,
Speaker 1: We'll get some familiar faces we haven't seen in some time.
Speaker 1: But some of the booking, a lot of the booking
Speaker 1: that has gone on with Gaetto has not been good.
Speaker 1: Too much reliance on the Bullet Club, which now we
Speaker 1: see another member added to the Bullet Club. Ace Austin
Speaker 1: has now got to be a Bullet Club member because
Speaker 1: you need to have a zillion of them. So I
Speaker 1: do have concern again, much like the m JF CM
Speaker 1: punk deal within that promote by m JF I'm willing
Speaker 1: to give it some room to breathe, but when it
Speaker 1: comes to New Japan, I'm only going to give it
Speaker 1: so much room to breathe here before they try to
Speaker 1: turn around and make something something happened here because the
Speaker 1: house of torture bullet club stuff is way, way, way
Speaker 1: too much. And I know they have wanted for quite
Speaker 1: some time. Horoma, who has talked about for a long time,
Speaker 1: I want to be the new Japan I w g
Speaker 1: P Junior heavyweight champion and main event one of the
Speaker 1: Dome shows. I hope this is the year because he
Speaker 1: has got to get out of that division, become a heavyweight,
Speaker 1: just get out of there altogether. There's nothing else to accomplish.
Speaker 1: And when you watch that tournament, and I know you didn't,
Speaker 1: when you see the names that are there, the new
Speaker 1: names that have come in, like your Wheeler Utos and
Speaker 1: like guys like that, guys who have been there like
Speaker 1: l Phantasmo who has been fantastic, and the fact that
Speaker 1: I would argue the best junior heavyweight in the world
Speaker 1: is El Desperado. I mean you have enough guys there
Speaker 1: tight Taiji, Issuemory and El Desperado can on their backs
Speaker 1: completely run that side of the junior heavyweights. With the
Speaker 1: new names coming in and other people getting built up
Speaker 1: Horomo doesn't need it. So I hope this is gonna
Speaker 1: be it. I'm willing to go to January fourth or
Speaker 1: whatever it is, the six, whatever, the third day is
Speaker 1: going to be and and be all right with it.
Speaker 1: But like he has got to get out of that division,
Speaker 1: do something in the heavyweight division because somebody's gonna have
Speaker 1: to replace Nato at some point too, because he's being
Speaker 1: held together by tape right now. And I always, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm constantly waiting for Haromu to not take his spot
Speaker 1: but to kind of slide into it more and we
Speaker 1: see a little less Nato and I. We'll have to
Speaker 1: see how it goes. But you know, New Japan's booking
Speaker 1: just because new guys are coming in. We've talked about it,
Speaker 1: you know, and guys coming back does not automatically make
Speaker 1: things better. The booking has been atrocious for a while.
Speaker 1: A couple of returns of the show, Kenta is back.
Speaker 1: J White kind of promo for the semifinal announced Kent's return. Uh,
Speaker 1: he says, I know we're a little shorthanded today. The
Speaker 1: machine Gun Carl Anderson couldn't make it. He's out with
Speaker 1: COVID Juice. Robinson couldn't make it either. He's out with
Speaker 1: um Hell, what did he have? I forget Juice Robinson, Yes, right,
Speaker 1: but I do have one surprise, and it was Kent.
Speaker 1: He has not been around since January five, when he
Speaker 1: suffered a dislocated left hip, a broken nose, tending to
Speaker 1: damage to his finger, and severe lacerations to his back
Speaker 1: in that ladder match with Tana Hashi, which I mean,
Speaker 1: so that's why he's not gonna be a tournament for
Speaker 1: survival this week. Anybody do not know that was coming,
Speaker 1: not that he was gonna get that hurt, but well,
Speaker 1: I mean, come on now, you can't look there have
Speaker 1: been guys who have done a lot bigger stunts and
Speaker 1: gone through a lot more stuff and actually not been hurt.
Speaker 1: But yeah, but the whole point going in was why
Speaker 1: are these two great wrestlers being put in this garbage match?
Speaker 1: Damn near killed poor Kenta. And then also we had
Speaker 1: the return of Sonata, who is recovering from a fractured
Speaker 1: orbital bone suffered in the New Japan Cup in a
Speaker 1: match with will Osprey, So he is back as well.
Speaker 1: It looks fantastic in a suit, doesn't he. We need
Speaker 1: some we need some names. Brother, what do you think
Speaker 1: about some folks coming back the times you've seen him?
Speaker 1: Because I always disagree with Adam Summers on this on
Speaker 1: the Big Audio Nightmare, which you can find it FW
Speaker 1: online dot com. I think Sonata has always been missing something.
Speaker 1: You look at me, you think this is the guy.
Speaker 1: Adam Adama argues this, Well, he's a he is a
Speaker 1: Sonata supporter, so too. But I mean it's patently obvious
Speaker 1: he's missing something. He's missing something, and it's there the
Speaker 1: connection and the crowd loves him, but there's a connection
Speaker 1: issue somewhere there. And you look at him and it's
Speaker 1: like he you know, im w g P heavyweight champion,
Speaker 1: a contender for sure, he can work his ass off.
Speaker 1: You see the matches with him and Zach Saber Jr.
Speaker 1: He's very very good. He just needs something and that's
Speaker 1: another thing. Hopefully the booking can whatever that thing is,
Speaker 1: he needs it now because now that he's been out,
Speaker 1: he's coming back going after the US title. This is
Speaker 1: kind of do or die for him as far as
Speaker 1: him ever being a serious, really being a serious threat
Speaker 1: to actually win and hold onto the I B g
Speaker 1: P title. My issue with Sonatas and storyline, He's an idiot.
Speaker 1: How many times this guy almost had to win with
Speaker 1: his Dragon Sleeper and he lets go Ofvid to go
Speaker 1: miss a moon salt? How many times I've seen that.
Speaker 1: It's like, brother, stop trying to move salt. I don't care.
Speaker 1: If you were a big fan of Mudo, you all
Speaker 1: lost one and you let go of it and then
Speaker 1: you missed the moon salt, you dummy. Like fifty times
Speaker 1: I've seen that spot. He needs a manager like me.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, he can do the work and I can,
Speaker 1: you know, hack my way through a promo. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: thought it would be really clever to offer cameos while
Speaker 1: I was quarantined. Oh that's right. How's that worked out
Speaker 1: for you? You should see these cameos I'm doing. Golly,
Speaker 1: is there a mania for cameos? There should be, It's
Speaker 1: pretty bad. Matt Hardy explained his brother Jeff was pulled
Speaker 1: from Dynamite this week. Matt hard He said in the
Speaker 1: podcast Jeff was almost knocked out very early on in
Speaker 1: the Hearty's match against the Young Bucks. This resulted in
Speaker 1: Jeff being pulled from Dynamite. Matt said, Yeah, I was
Speaker 1: happy with the match, especially considering very early on in
Speaker 1: the match, Jeff was almost knocked out, so he got
Speaker 1: hurt pretty bad. That's why he was being pulled from
Speaker 1: the match. In l A. He was kind of running
Speaker 1: on fumes going through the match, so he still held
Speaker 1: up his end of the bargain pretty good in the
Speaker 1: grand scheme of things. So listen, and a lot of
Speaker 1: people are upset about the idea that this guy got
Speaker 1: a concussion early on and they kept doing the match.
Speaker 1: And I don't like that at all. I I do, however,
Speaker 1: often give talent the benefit of the doubt in the
Speaker 1: sense that they didn't necessarily know that that that that happened. Like,
Speaker 1: I haven't talked to anybody in the match, so I
Speaker 1: don't know if they knew or not. But like, let
Speaker 1: me tell you something about Young Bucks matches. And actually
Speaker 1: it was it was Aj Styles on our on our
Speaker 1: show many years ago. I'll never forget this. I was
Speaker 1: at King of the Indies in two thousand and one
Speaker 1: and Aj Styles was going to have a match in
Speaker 1: the tournament and Bro, this guy got in the ring
Speaker 1: and he was in there for like four hours. Going
Speaker 1: were spots with whoever he was resting that night. I
Speaker 1: was like, dude, just hour after hour after hour after
Speaker 1: hour of practicing and going over these moves, and then
Speaker 1: you know later he you know, decade later, fifteen years later,
Speaker 1: he goes to New Japan and he's doing mess with
Speaker 1: the Bucks and uh, and he explained, he goes, Dude,
Speaker 1: they want to do so many things. I can't remember
Speaker 1: any of that, so I just sit there and tell
Speaker 1: me what to do in the match. So, you know,
Speaker 1: Jeff Hardy is not used to doing those sorts of matches.
Speaker 1: So it's possible because I heard that Jeff was banged
Speaker 1: up going in Okay, which I'm sure he was if
Speaker 1: you saw some of his matches he's at and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, it's possible that they didn't realize at the
Speaker 1: time that that was the issue. They just figured, like,
Speaker 1: this guy can't remember anything, we got to tell him
Speaker 1: what to do. There's eight million spots in this match.
Speaker 1: So you know, I don't know, but I like to
Speaker 1: think that they didn't realize he was concussed immediately and
Speaker 1: then decided to go fourteen minutes. I don't know, but
Speaker 1: I do like to think that that didn't happen. Well,
Speaker 1: who's supposed to be making that call. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: in the NFL, now, well it should be the referee. Well,
Speaker 1: and then there should be whoever notices. Well, that's it's
Speaker 1: you know, is there a spotter there? It's it's it's
Speaker 1: tough because you get a situation like Hikuleo a couple
Speaker 1: of nights ago, where he dives out of the ring
Speaker 1: and he you know, d d t s himself on
Speaker 1: the floor and then he's jumping right back up and
Speaker 1: it's like, you know, did did he suffer concussion? And
Speaker 1: then you know, again there's different grades of concussions. You know,
Speaker 1: guys athletes get their bell wrong all the time, and
Speaker 1: now we know they're like little mini concussions. But you know,
Speaker 1: when you're still when you're in athletics, now you get
Speaker 1: your bell wrong, you can still go, you still go,
Speaker 1: but you never know. Sad back in a moment of
Speaker 1: Deserver Live that you are listening to Wrestling Observer Live
Speaker 1: with Brian Alvarez and Mike Semperviv on the Sports Byline
Speaker 1: Broadcasting Network. Back in the show, Brian Elber is here
Speaker 1: Wrestling Observer Live, Mike simper Viv also Wrestling Observer dot Com.
Speaker 1: Nick aldis joining us here today. N w A Always
Speaker 1: Ready is coming to uh to the Knoxville Convention Center. Nick,
Speaker 1: how you doing today? I'm good, Brian. It's been a
Speaker 1: long time. How are you it? Has you brought some
Speaker 1: class to this show? Well? You know allegedly now obviously
Speaker 1: the very first question is obviously the the situation with UM,
Speaker 1: I guess your main event really, Uh, Matt Cardona suffered
Speaker 1: a torn biceps over the weekend, and uh, what's the
Speaker 1: status of the match? What do you know? UM? I
Speaker 1: don't know a whole lot. I've got a cool actually, um,
Speaker 1: And about an hour or so, so right after I
Speaker 1: get off this call with you guys, UM, I'll be
Speaker 1: getting ready for that, and I guess that's where I'll
Speaker 1: get I'll get kind of the four one one UM.
Speaker 1: So unfortunately, your timing is not great. If I had
Speaker 1: we scheduled this for a couple of hours later, I
Speaker 1: might have been able to lend you a bit more insight.
Speaker 1: But UM, you know, it is what it is. I
Speaker 1: when I heard that he'd torn his bicep, um my
Speaker 1: initial right away, I said, I bet it was catching
Speaker 1: a dive, And sure enough, that's exactly what was because
Speaker 1: that's how I tore my bicep in Mexico in in
Speaker 1: um same thing. So it's you know, that's it's one
Speaker 1: of the sort of it's one of the new risks,
Speaker 1: you know, I guess in sort of modern wrestling is
Speaker 1: like that's that's quite a common injury, is is the
Speaker 1: torn by sep from catching a dive or torn pack
Speaker 1: from catching a dive, because you know, they're commonplace. And yeah,
Speaker 1: unfortunately that was the case. So I will, I guess
Speaker 1: we'll see. I guess we'll see what we're gonna do.
Speaker 1: But the good thing is is at least it you know,
Speaker 1: even though it's unfortunate, um for for Matt in one respect,
Speaker 1: it does at least create some intrigue because as we've
Speaker 1: as we've seen very much this last weekend from you know,
Speaker 1: with the MJF stuff and stuff like that. Sometimes h
Speaker 1: people being unsure of you know, what's real and what's
Speaker 1: not is can sometimes be quite good for creating intrigue.
Speaker 1: You know. I've talked to a lot of people about
Speaker 1: dives because dives are big and wrestling nowadays, and uh,
Speaker 1: I wanted to get your thoughts because you know, it's
Speaker 1: not just catching the dive that we've seen issues with.
Speaker 1: But you know, there there are a lot of dives
Speaker 1: nowadays that are very hard to catch. You know, you
Speaker 1: you hear the term catch and uh, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't want to call out Sammy Gavar or anything like that,
Speaker 1: but man, he did like a twisting phoenix splash six
Speaker 1: thirty off the top of a ladder and he crashed
Speaker 1: and burned, and like, you know, everyone that was supposed
Speaker 1: to catch him, like it was like a seven ten split.
Speaker 1: And I just watched and I thought, well, what was
Speaker 1: supposed to happen? Like, how in the world could you
Speaker 1: possibly catch that without getting killed? And you know, I
Speaker 1: don't want to sound like the old man yelling at cloud,
Speaker 1: but I mean there is something to the idea that
Speaker 1: you know, I feel like a dive has to be
Speaker 1: capable of being caught otherwise it's just dangerous, oh for sure.
Speaker 1: And um, you know, for me, it was always It's
Speaker 1: always been something that I've prided myself on, Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: it is always making sure I was there. And I think,
Speaker 1: you know, for me, I sort of cut my teeth
Speaker 1: doing that in ten A, you know, because it was
Speaker 1: uh ten A was in many ways was you know,
Speaker 1: was where a lot of that stuff was was becoming
Speaker 1: more commonplace, right, Like, you know, we had all the
Speaker 1: exhibion guys and stuff like that, and I was especially
Speaker 1: when Doug and I were in the tag team a
Speaker 1: lot of the time, you know, we would find ourselves
Speaker 1: in matches where a dive was coming. Um. So for me,
Speaker 1: I've my my technique has always been to to sort
Speaker 1: of get under the you know, look for the hips,
Speaker 1: like get under the hips and kind of if because
Speaker 1: it's the sort of senter point of the body and
Speaker 1: it's kind of a it's a pivot point of movement.
Speaker 1: So if you can kind of make yourself big and
Speaker 1: get under the hips and then sort of be ready
Speaker 1: to u you know, almost be like a shock absorber like, um,
Speaker 1: you know that that's that's it's not just about being there,
Speaker 1: it's also about kind of, ah using the right technique
Speaker 1: to be able to sort of take it. And look,
Speaker 1: you know, I still feel weird even today, um, you know,
Speaker 1: sort of dissecting the fourth walls stuff like this. But
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know that it's people are interested
Speaker 1: in this kind of stuff. So for me, it's always
Speaker 1: been a case of, um, take the take the majority
Speaker 1: of the force try to sort of push some of
Speaker 1: it back the other way because because then it helps
Speaker 1: it helps you go down, it helps them stay up,
Speaker 1: and you know, helps sort of share the share the impact.
Speaker 1: And um, but I know you're right, some of these
Speaker 1: new ones, they're they're tricky because if there's a lot
Speaker 1: of rotations and a lot of twists and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's hard to time it. But for me,
Speaker 1: it's always been sort of looked for the hips and
Speaker 1: get underneath it. So you've been doing this now, uh
Speaker 1: what twenty years, nineteen years, eighteen? I guess seventeen or
Speaker 1: eighteen years. I started training with the nights. When no, seventeen,
Speaker 1: I sort of went full time eighteen now, So so
Speaker 1: what because you mentioned you know, still kind of feeling
Speaker 1: weird talking about the inner workings of wrestling. I mean obviously,
Speaker 1: you know a lot has changed in the last nineteen years,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, what, what do you you feel
Speaker 1: about that? Because fans are very interesting in it. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, I mean, you know, it is
Speaker 1: sort of fun to not you know, if you've got
Speaker 1: like some great storyline going on, it's sort of fun
Speaker 1: to not kind of explain what's actually going on. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't really know how to explain it, but I
Speaker 1: felt that way myself, Like, you know, fans want to
Speaker 1: know what's happening, and uh, but at the same time,
Speaker 1: it's like part of the fun is not knowing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's you said that fans want to know and that
Speaker 1: and that pretty much is the beginning and end of it.
Speaker 1: Like that. It's just you know, look, it's a business.
Speaker 1: It's supply and demand. Um, there is such a there
Speaker 1: is there is such a hunger for for the information,
Speaker 1: even if to your point, it may actually in some
Speaker 1: in some cases, in my opinion, sort of take away
Speaker 1: from the enjoyment of it, or take away from the
Speaker 1: take away from the magic of it, maybe take away
Speaker 1: from the excitement a little bit. Uh. I think that,
Speaker 1: And I can't speak for the industry obviously, but I
Speaker 1: think that overall, what I've noticed is that I think
Speaker 1: the industry overall sort of took this mentality of well,
Speaker 1: they're going to talk about it anyway, and someone's going
Speaker 1: to break it, someone's gonna stooge, someone's going to leak.
Speaker 1: So the businesses as a whole has been a bit
Speaker 1: more open because they've realized that one way or another,
Speaker 1: the information is going to find its way into people
Speaker 1: who want to consume it anyway. So like it's a
Speaker 1: it's a double edged sword. I think that again, referring
Speaker 1: back to you know, what we've seen this past week
Speaker 1: and a bit um, I think it's I think we're
Speaker 1: witnessing maybe a new and a new age, like a
Speaker 1: new and what I mean by that is, ah, this
Speaker 1: might become the new way to sort of to book angles,
Speaker 1: is to is to sort of lean into that and
Speaker 1: use it to your advantage. It's certainly something that I've
Speaker 1: tried to do. It's certainly something that Cody and I
Speaker 1: tried to do in our angle was we we were
Speaker 1: very open to the idea of letting people sort of
Speaker 1: interpret things however they wanted to, uh, and and and
Speaker 1: then just sort of going, oh, if that's that's what
Speaker 1: you think, okay, well I guess we'll see you know,
Speaker 1: because there were so many there were so many real
Speaker 1: elements that created a situation where people who are a
Speaker 1: little more in the know than the average fan, we're
Speaker 1: sort of going, well, wait a minute, but Cody is
Speaker 1: not Cody is not under contract. There he's under contract
Speaker 1: ring of honor, and you know, but do you really
Speaker 1: see them doing that? And like, but at the same time,
Speaker 1: you know, it's Cody kind of booked this event, so
Speaker 1: is he going to really you know, it's so we
Speaker 1: just we just it once we knew that we had
Speaker 1: the intrigue. That's the hardest part of booking an angle
Speaker 1: is can you get the people to a point where
Speaker 1: they want to see the outcome but they don't know
Speaker 1: what the outcome is going to be? Those are the
Speaker 1: two things. Because you know, I've worked for a few
Speaker 1: different bookers, right and I'm sure that you can guess
Speaker 1: who I'm probably referring to it, but you know, I
Speaker 1: worked I worked for one book for a while where
Speaker 1: a lot of the time stuff was changed just for
Speaker 1: the sake of because no one was expecting it, right Like,
Speaker 1: and I was told, well, that's too predictable, you know,
Speaker 1: and I'll be like, okay, but just because somebody just
Speaker 1: because the fans don't see this coming, doesn't necessarily mean
Speaker 1: that that's what they want to see, right Like, you know,
Speaker 1: You've got to sort of find that happy medium, because
Speaker 1: sometimes giving the people what they want is what a
Speaker 1: promoter is supposed to be a right like sometimes you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes throwing a curve ball. Sometimes sort of keeping the
Speaker 1: people on their toes and doing something surprising is the
Speaker 1: right thing to do. But we I think sometimes I
Speaker 1: think the business overall, I think the industry gets in
Speaker 1: its own way sometimes trying so hard two do something
Speaker 1: different that they forget the fact that, you know, some
Speaker 1: people just like burgers and fries. Man. You know, some
Speaker 1: people just want a really good burger and fries and
Speaker 1: they want to you know, want it heart and fresh,
Speaker 1: and they want it served the way they like it. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I think that finding the happy medium of creating
Speaker 1: a situation where people are intrigued about the outcome, um,
Speaker 1: but still maintaining an emotional investment in the parties involved.
Speaker 1: I think you get you know, you could have to
Speaker 1: use whatever you have at your disposal to get there.
Speaker 1: And if that means leaning on some things that may
Speaker 1: or may not be really happening, um, you know, or
Speaker 1: things that involve the the commercial aspect of the business,
Speaker 1: the personal side of the business that you know, the
Speaker 1: contractual stuff and things like that, then I think if
Speaker 1: you if you know, you just got to do it
Speaker 1: and stay healthy but I will say this, I think that, yeah,
Speaker 1: when you do that stuff, it's in many ways from
Speaker 1: a booking point of view, it's very similar to like
Speaker 1: the first time someone dives off a balcony, right, well,
Speaker 1: the first time someone goes through a flaming table or something.
Speaker 1: It's like, what are the next time? You know? And
Speaker 1: now the angles that don't have all those elements in them?
Speaker 1: Are they going to be as interesting and intriguing? So
Speaker 1: you know, you gotta you're gotta be very careful and
Speaker 1: very you've got to use them very sparingly, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: you know, as far as to do a follow up
Speaker 1: their swerves. I mean that is like one of those
Speaker 1: big things where people just you know, they love to
Speaker 1: book swerves. And I've always felt that like you can
Speaker 1: you can do a swerve as long as the outcome
Speaker 1: is something where fans think, I didn't see that coming,
Speaker 1: but that makes sense as opposed to I didn't see
Speaker 1: that coming, but what why did they do that? So
Speaker 1: it can be done, but it takes like some some foresight,
Speaker 1: and it takes you know, leading everyone down one path,
Speaker 1: going another way and then bringing them back to that path.
Speaker 1: So like, why didn't I see that coming. That makes
Speaker 1: perfect sense. That to me is a good swerve. Not
Speaker 1: we're gonna lead everybody in one direction and in the
Speaker 1: very end we're gonna do something nonsensical. And then the fans,
Speaker 1: you know, they don't feel like they've been outsmarted. What
Speaker 1: they actually feel is like these people are incompetent well,
Speaker 1: or or when they feel like, okay, you guys used
Speaker 1: creative license and you just made you know, like that's
Speaker 1: it's and again, yeah, it's because you are you know, um,
Speaker 1: you're still a promoter, right even even if you even
Speaker 1: if you look at the business as a lot of
Speaker 1: people do now that oh it's a television based business,
Speaker 1: you know, like television is most important. If that if
Speaker 1: that's your bread and butter, then yeah, sure it is.
Speaker 1: But I think I still believe that you have to
Speaker 1: approach it overall from the mentality of a promoter, meaning
Speaker 1: like you have to promise something and deliver it and
Speaker 1: if it's when you it's when you don't deliver something. Um,
Speaker 1: I think I don't think I'm I'm going to be
Speaker 1: alone in this opinion, but you know, I think the
Speaker 1: main reason Tenna's pay per views did not do well
Speaker 1: most of the time is because most of the time
Speaker 1: they felt like a long episode of the show, you
Speaker 1: know that, because there were too many times where people went, Okay,
Speaker 1: here's my money, like now give me the payoff. People
Speaker 1: will throw these terms around right in wrestling, like they
Speaker 1: you know, like that, and but it's so it's so
Speaker 1: funny because a lot of time they've sort of forgotten
Speaker 1: what they mean, right, Like the payoff that's I mean,
Speaker 1: it does exactly what it says on the tin. That's
Speaker 1: what that's what it's supposed to be. You're supposed to
Speaker 1: tee it up, tee it up, tee it up with
Speaker 1: the with the free television, and then pay it off,
Speaker 1: you know. And if you don't pay it off, you're
Speaker 1: going to lose the trust of the audience. And once
Speaker 1: you lose trust of the audience, your toast. Well, the
Speaker 1: show is coming up on Juni leventh, Knoxville Convention Center, Knoxville, Tennessee.
Speaker 1: The scheduled main event uh Mett Cardona Nick Eldis, but
Speaker 1: has known in a few hours, we know what's going on,
Speaker 1: So stand by back in the all with more Observer Live.
Speaker 1: You were listening to Wrestling Observer Live with Brian Alvarez
Speaker 1: and Mike semper Viv on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network
Speaker 1: Bag In the show, Bright Albert is here Wrestling Observer,
Speaker 1: Mike simper Viv also Wrestling Observer dot com. Nick aldis
Speaker 1: joining us here today and we didn't talk about it,
Speaker 1: but Legacy SUPs dot com. I'm at the tail end
Speaker 1: of COVID right now, so I probably could have but
Speaker 1: super food green and red, Like I could use the
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Speaker 1: to see some profound changes in your health and well
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Speaker 1: we've had thousands of customers and We're now on Walmart
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Speaker 1: can check that out. And don't forget a Always Ready
Speaker 1: is coming up June eleventh the Knoxville Convention Center, Knoxville, Tennessee.
Speaker 1: We'll find out what's going on soon. Matt Carlo and
Speaker 1: Nick al all this, Camille Kyl and King Jack Stain,
Speaker 1: Chris Adonis for the National Heavyweight Tunnel. There's a ton
Speaker 1: of matches and uh, I want to wish you the
Speaker 1: best of luck with everything. I hope everything works out
Speaker 1: with you and Cardona obviously and hopefully we can have
Speaker 1: you on again soon. Absolutely happy to thanks Brian, thanks
Speaker 1: so much, and of course thanks everybody for listening. We're
Speaker 1: out of time. We'll talk to you next time Wrestling
Speaker 1: Observer Live. You have been listening to the Wrestling Observer
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