Speaker 1: Hey, this is Brian Alvarez and this is today's edition
Speaker 1: of the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast on the eight Side Network. Ready, Ready,
Speaker 1: let's get it all. How's it going to everybody? Brian
Speaker 1: Alvarez here on Wrestling Observer Live. We're here every day
Speaker 1: Monday through Friday, New Psific three Eastern Sunday three Pacific,
Speaker 1: sixth Eastern. Well, it's Monday here on the show, and
Speaker 1: we got a lot to get into here today. I
Speaker 1: have not seen the g c W show, and quite frankly,
Speaker 1: the man to talked about this show is Mike semper
Speaker 1: viv was there live. I got the results for you.
Speaker 1: I got some notes talking about Nick Wayne. But Mike,
Speaker 1: we'll be talking about g c W, and I don't
Speaker 1: know when, honestly, because he's still in the car right now.
Speaker 1: Apparently the train that he was going to take was
Speaker 1: thirty minutes late, and so he may or may not
Speaker 1: be appearing on the show today. But either today or
Speaker 1: tomorrow we'll get Mike's thoughts on the g c W
Speaker 1: show live. So I'll talk a little bit about it,
Speaker 1: but not a lot of details other than who beat
Speaker 1: who in some notes, because in fact is noted I
Speaker 1: was not there, but there's a lot of news talk about,
Speaker 1: including COVID nineteen. New Japan's canceled all of their events
Speaker 1: for the rest of the month as a result of
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen protocols w W E operating as if there
Speaker 1: is no COVID nineteen. They no longer test anything of
Speaker 1: that note, and they are bringing back n x T Takeover.
Speaker 1: I don't know if they're gonna call it takeover. There's
Speaker 1: gonna be an n x T show over Russel Many weekend,
Speaker 1: and the Hall of Fame ceremony is back, so we'll
Speaker 1: tell you about that if you'reterest in going to the
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame. More notes from g c W Royal Rumble.
Speaker 1: You guys know the Royal Rumbles this weekend. Do you
Speaker 1: know it's Saturday? Apparently a lot of people don't know
Speaker 1: that it is Saturday. We got the full lineup for
Speaker 1: the Royal Rumble thus far, plus the participants for both
Speaker 1: matches at this point, and the irony is they don't
Speaker 1: got thirty women, but they have more women announced than
Speaker 1: men at this point, so we can talk about that.
Speaker 1: The raw lineup for tonight, the A E W lineup
Speaker 1: for this coming Wednesday, the Beach Break Show. We could
Speaker 1: talk about Rampage, we could talk about SmackDown. There's a
Speaker 1: ton of stuff to get into, so we will kick
Speaker 1: it off when get back from the break. Stick around
Speaker 1: everybody back in a moment. Observer Live back of the show.
Speaker 1: Brand elbur is here Wrestling Observer Live. Mikes umber Viv
Speaker 1: should be joining us later on today hopefully, If not,
Speaker 1: we'll talk about it tomorrow. The g c W Show,
Speaker 1: Matt Tremont and Nick Gauge beat the Briscos in the
Speaker 1: main event Tag Team Open Challenge for the g c
Speaker 1: W Tag Team titles. John Moxley defeated Homicide for the
Speaker 1: g c W title. Jeff Jard beat Effie Ruby, Soho
Speaker 1: beat Alie Catch. We had Manson Warner and Matthew Justice
Speaker 1: with Sabu and Bill Alfonso being Atticas, Koger Eddie Only,
Speaker 1: Gregory Iron and Bobby Beverly met Cardona beat Joey Janella.
Speaker 1: Blake Christian defeated Leo Rush. Team Gringo beat Team Bandido
Speaker 1: A j Gray by Pco, Alex Colone, g Raver, Tony Deppin,
Speaker 1: Jimmy Lloyd and Jordan's Oliver in a grab the brass
Speaker 1: ring ladder match. That was the pay per view opener.
Speaker 1: Andy Us, the show was on pay per view. You
Speaker 1: know what happens when he shows on pay per view,
Speaker 1: traditional pay per view, Well what happens is you've got
Speaker 1: a pay per view window, and that means everybody needs
Speaker 1: to hit their time cues. And I don't know what
Speaker 1: went wrong where, but to the main event with Tremont
Speaker 1: Engage versus the Briscos went five minutes and twenty eight seconds,
Speaker 1: just boom boo, boom, boom boom and then off the air.
Speaker 1: And uh, obviously nobody was happy about that, not the
Speaker 1: least of which would be the Briscos, who in fact
Speaker 1: went public with it. But that's what happens when you
Speaker 1: have a pay per view window. The other big story
Speaker 1: coming out of the show, there were many big stories,
Speaker 1: but a couple of days ago, we're talking about this show,
Speaker 1: and uh, we're talking about Nick Gauge. We're not Nick Gauge,
Speaker 1: Nick Wayne, the other Nick, the other bane of my existence,
Speaker 1: Nick Wayne, but Nick Wayne was scheduled to be in
Speaker 1: the pre show match, which was scheduled to be Nick Wayne,
Speaker 1: grim Reefer, Alexane Dante Leone, Shane Mercer, Jack Cartwheel and
Speaker 1: Ninja Mac in a kickoff scramble match, and Nick Wayne
Speaker 1: was not on the show. And somebody had asked me
Speaker 1: the other day, how is how is Nick Wayne going
Speaker 1: to uh wrestle in New York? He's sixteen? And I said,
Speaker 1: I don't know, but I mean he's gonna like they
Speaker 1: booked him. They they're gonna fly him in. He got
Speaker 1: new gear. I mean they must have a they must
Speaker 1: have cleared it. Well, the commission became aware that Nick
Speaker 1: Wayne was sixteen, and Nick Wayne was not allowed to
Speaker 1: work the show. So anyway, he was off the show,
Speaker 1: and uh, his mom was there. I can only imagine
Speaker 1: her reaction to all of this, but he took it
Speaker 1: like a pro. Clearly was not happy. And in the meantime,
Speaker 1: Joey Janella has now basically stated, you know what do
Speaker 1: you want? Nick? Name your match? I will do anything
Speaker 1: to get this match put together. And uh, Nick's favorite
Speaker 1: wrestler for I don't even know how long, given that
Speaker 1: he's sixteen, maybe most of his life has been will Osprey.
Speaker 1: And if you watch Nick Wayne, you can't not see
Speaker 1: that his idol is will Osprey. And so Joey Janella
Speaker 1: is going to do everything in his power to put
Speaker 1: together Nick Wayne versus Will Osprey. And if he puts
Speaker 1: together Nick Wayne and Will Osprey, and uh, he does
Speaker 1: everything has power to make this happen because of what
Speaker 1: happened here on this show in the Hammerstein, that being
Speaker 1: Nick Wayne going all the way, they're not being allowed
Speaker 1: allowed to work. I would think that at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, Nick Wayne, we'll look back very fondly
Speaker 1: on this day if this day ended up being the
Speaker 1: day that resulted in that particular match being put together
Speaker 1: for some point here down the road. So that's the
Speaker 1: story on that, and is noted Mike's simper vv is
Speaker 1: on the road right now and if he gets back
Speaker 1: in time, he will be logging in to talk about
Speaker 1: the rest of this show. Show to not get Rave reviews.
Speaker 1: Some of the stuff got Rave reviews. I know that
Speaker 1: the John Moxley homicide match Living Minister fourteen secents with
Speaker 1: the g cble the world title, people were raving about that,
Speaker 1: raving about other things of the show. Show completely sold out.
Speaker 1: It was an insane atmosphere. But as far as match
Speaker 1: quality and timing, and I was told audio issues and
Speaker 1: that sort of thing did not get to Rave reviews,
Speaker 1: so we'll get Mike's Mike's review when we can. About
Speaker 1: the live show, he probably would be able to comment
Speaker 1: on any of the production snaffoos, but I'm sure we'll
Speaker 1: get a bunch of text messages about that as well. Alright,
Speaker 1: two years of WrestleMania being affected by COVID at nineteen,
Speaker 1: this year's event is gonna look a little bit closer
Speaker 1: to normal. W W announce to be the Dallas Morning
Speaker 1: News that it is returning to putting on a full
Speaker 1: slate of in person events during WrestleMania thirty eight week
Speaker 1: That will include this year's Hall of Fame ceremony, n
Speaker 1: x T stand and Deliver, episodes of SmackDown and Raw,
Speaker 1: and a superstore access interactive fan experience, all of this
Speaker 1: taking place in the Dallas area surrounding WrestleMania thirty eight Dates, locations,
Speaker 1: ticket information for the events have yet to be announced,
Speaker 1: so w W e returning to normal for this year's WrestleMania. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: New Japan Pro Wrestling has canceled the remainder of their
Speaker 1: events for January due to COVID nineteen medical protocols. Company
Speaker 1: announced on their website this morning that due to wrestlers
Speaker 1: quote presenting elevated temperatures or being in close contact with
Speaker 1: same end quote, have we not done testing by now
Speaker 1: the story has been going on for a week. The
Speaker 1: company will cancel the remainder of their tour this month
Speaker 1: and will resume with live touring on February six in Chiba.
Speaker 1: All ticket holders for these events will be refunded. Dates
Speaker 1: affected by these cancelations include January twenty five, Fukushima, January
Speaker 1: con January iber Rocky January twenty show the scheduled place
Speaker 1: and I has been postponed to April eighteen. Tickets for
Speaker 1: the January twenty show will be valid for April eighteen.
Speaker 1: Cancelations take place after six and JPW wrestlers missed three
Speaker 1: consecutive dates during the Golden Series. Toru Yano, Tomi, Tomlwaukee,
Speaker 1: hone Ma, Suzuki, tai Chi Talk I Met You, Noku,
Speaker 1: Toshi Kojima were among those pulled from the show. Dow
Speaker 1: Japan last held an event on January in Gunma. You know,
Speaker 1: we're like three years in basically to this pandemic. Two years,
Speaker 1: three years. It's COVID nineteen. It's twenty two right now.
Speaker 1: And I remember in the early days when everybody was
Speaker 1: locking down and and everything like that. And I don't
Speaker 1: go on Facebook much anymore, but you guys remember going
Speaker 1: on Facebook and everybody would be posting those notes. Does
Speaker 1: anybody know anybody that actually got COVID? Remember those days? Well,
Speaker 1: here we are, and does anybody know anybody that hasn't
Speaker 1: got COVID At this point, it seems like everybody has
Speaker 1: gotten over the last several weeks. But now do Japan
Speaker 1: shut down as a result. Also coming out of g
Speaker 1: c W, this is good news, Chris Dickens in We'll
Speaker 1: be returning to action by g CUBLEWS next spring Break event.
Speaker 1: Dickenson appeared at tonight's The World on g c W
Speaker 1: pre show put over g c W and New York
Speaker 1: City edit Is Promo, saying that he would be back
Speaker 1: for Spring Break Weekend. This is an event usually held
Speaker 1: by Joey Janelle and g cuble during Menia Weekend, which
Speaker 1: this year will take place the weekend of April second
Speaker 1: and third. He injured himself November November fourteen at the
Speaker 1: New Japan Battle in the Valley card in San Jose.
Speaker 1: I was there and uh, I went for a frog splash,
Speaker 1: dislocated and fractured his hip. G c W owner Brett
Speaker 1: Lauderdale kind of promo prior to the start of tonight's show,
Speaker 1: describing his background, talking about how tonight was special, and
Speaker 1: he said there were many as many said that there
Speaker 1: were many g c ws before him, and did the
Speaker 1: promo saying there's nothing like a g c W ever
Speaker 1: before and they were all pay per view tonight because
Speaker 1: of the fans. So happy to hear that Chris Dickinson
Speaker 1: will be back in action soon. I mean that dude
Speaker 1: loves pro wrestling. I mean, if you've heard him on
Speaker 1: the show. Not a lot of guys love pro wrestling
Speaker 1: like Chris Dickinson. Back in the moment, talk of the
Speaker 1: lineup for the Royal Rumble and more. Wrestling Observer Live,
Speaker 1: Happy talk the show. Brain elbur is here Wrestling Observer Alive.
Speaker 1: No Mike simper viv at this point, but we'll see
Speaker 1: what happens. I told him to drive the speed limit,
Speaker 1: don't speed home to do the show. According to Fightful Select,
Speaker 1: I love these stories. Impact Wrestling knockouts Take Team champions
Speaker 1: Cassie Lee and Jesse McKay We're offered spots in the
Speaker 1: Women's Royal Rumble, but turned the offer down, reports sites
Speaker 1: an Impact Wrestling. Sources of the company would have approved
Speaker 1: the deal, but Lee and McKay did not want to
Speaker 1: go back to w w E at this time. Let's
Speaker 1: fire everybody and then beg for them to come back
Speaker 1: for our Women's Royal Rumble. Good for them, Good for them.
Speaker 1: So we got a men's and women's Royal Rumble, and like,
Speaker 1: they ain't got thirty women, but somehow they've got twenty
Speaker 1: one announced, whereas they got more than enough men. But
Speaker 1: at this point they only have announced. So the Royal
Speaker 1: Rumble is Saturday, which caught vinneyoff guard. My buddy Mark
Speaker 1: thought it was Sunday. A it's Saturday, everybody. They're gonna
Speaker 1: do eight Saturday pay per views just here. I have
Speaker 1: no idea why. You know, it's a personal opinion. Whatever.
Speaker 1: If you like Sunday better, Saturday better, I mean whatever.
Speaker 1: Everyone's got a different life and a different schedule. But dude,
Speaker 1: these Saturday pay per views are so inconvenient. Anyway, we
Speaker 1: got the Royal Rumble match, which is yeah, but broy
Speaker 1: they run UFC's on on Saturday. Yeah, you're right, they do.
Speaker 1: You know what U have cs a pay per view
Speaker 1: or like a bunch of buddies come over to watch it.
Speaker 1: How many of you have a bunch of buddies coming
Speaker 1: over for the Royal Rumble? Maybe you actually do for
Speaker 1: the rumble because like the Rumble is the show rumble
Speaker 1: and mania. I can see like buddies actually coming over
Speaker 1: to watch. But are you buddies coming over for Survivor
Speaker 1: series on a Saturday anybody? So? Anyway, thirty man Royal Rumble,
Speaker 1: thirty man actually be thirty women Royal Rumble. At least
Speaker 1: they don't called the men's Women's Royal Rumble like they
Speaker 1: called it the anyway. Brockle Ner versus Bobby Lashing for
Speaker 1: the w w E title, Becky Lynch versus Do Drop
Speaker 1: for the women's title, Edge and Beth Phoenix versus MS
Speaker 1: and Maurice and Roman Rains versus seth Rawlins. So well,
Speaker 1: by the way, if you've been watching the build for
Speaker 1: Roman Rains versus seth Rollins, if you watched SmackDown on
Speaker 1: on Friday night, Uh seth Rawlins is uh the baby
Speaker 1: face in this feud. He's doing his cackling character with
Speaker 1: the goofy jackets and Roman Rains gets cheered everywhere he goes. Now,
Speaker 1: but Romans gonna be the heal and Seth is gonna
Speaker 1: be the baby face, which you know, it's kind of
Speaker 1: ridiculous in some ways, but I mean, if you watched
Speaker 1: the SmackDown Show on Friday, Seth is a great baby face.
Speaker 1: And in fact, it's like we haven't talked for a
Speaker 1: year about how much memory. Here's the Messiah and absolutely
Speaker 1: totally sucked. And then you know, he became a father,
Speaker 1: and he was gone for a while and he made
Speaker 1: a big return and everybody was cheering him. It was
Speaker 1: like a perfect time to turn him baby face, and
Speaker 1: he just went right back to being the sigh again.
Speaker 1: And then later in an interview and said, you know,
Speaker 1: that would have been a great time to turn baby face. Well,
Speaker 1: turns out seth Rawlins as a worker is much better
Speaker 1: served being a baby face and a heel. So at
Speaker 1: least from now until the Royal Rumble, we'll get to
Speaker 1: watch seth Rawlins is a baby face. And then who knows,
Speaker 1: I'm sure they'll turn him back at that point because
Speaker 1: you know, God forbid we take an over baby face
Speaker 1: and just let him be an over baby face. But anyway,
Speaker 1: getting ahead of myself here, Men's Royal Rumble has the
Speaker 1: following announced. One of these men, any of these men
Speaker 1: could headline one of the two Knights of WrestleMania. Angelo Dawkins,
Speaker 1: montez Ford, Ray Mysterio, Dominic Mysterio, Austin Theory, Johnny Knoxville, Shamus,
Speaker 1: Damien Priest, aj Styles big E who at this point,
Speaker 1: who else is gonna win? Happy Corbin, mad Cap Moss,
Speaker 1: Sammy Zane, Kofi Kingston and Kevin Owens. Fifteen men still
Speaker 1: to be announced for the Royal Rumble the Women's Rumble
Speaker 1: as twenty one entrance announced. Those include Rhea Ripley, Nicky,
Speaker 1: ash Dana Brook, Carmela Queens, Lena to Mina, Shotsi, Natty Aliyah, Naomi, Shana,
Speaker 1: Charlotte Nicki and Briebella. Nikki did an interview about a
Speaker 1: month ago saying her doctor laid down the hammer and said,
Speaker 1: you'll absolutely never wrestle again. She's in the Real Rumble, Leda,
Speaker 1: Michelle McCool, Kelly Kelly, Summer, Ray, Impact Champion, Mickey James,
Speaker 1: Bianca bell Air and Live More Again. So we still
Speaker 1: need nine women. They're asking fired women to please come
Speaker 1: back to be in this royal Rumble. I would expect
Speaker 1: Raquel Gonzalez to be in the rumble. Maybe they'll bring
Speaker 1: up all of Mandy's crew. And as far as the
Speaker 1: men's and women's rumble, there will be a big return
Speaker 1: at the Royal Rumble. Who could that be? Who could
Speaker 1: that be? Tonight? Raw brock Lessner, Bobby Lashly will be
Speaker 1: doing a way in for this fight with no weight limits.
Speaker 1: Maurice will ever birthday celebration, and the Alpha Academy will
Speaker 1: do the Alpha Academy Academic Challenge with Matt Riddle and
Speaker 1: Randy Orton. I honestly, as God is my witness, cannot
Speaker 1: wait for that. It may be an awful, horrible train wreck,
Speaker 1: but it's an academic challenge with with Matt Riddle, Like
Speaker 1: how could it not be entertaining? Even if, like even
Speaker 1: if you have the worst writer in the world, If
Speaker 1: Matt Riddle is involved with an academic challenge, I think
Speaker 1: it's gonna be good. Mark my words. I've been wrong
Speaker 1: countless times, but mark my words on this one. So yes,
Speaker 1: three things announced for Row tonight. Not one of them
Speaker 1: is a professional wrestling match also backstage l A Night
Speaker 1: and Roderick Strong. According to p W Insider, uh So
Speaker 1: we'll see what happens with these guys, because I don't
Speaker 1: know if you're aware of this or not, but they've
Speaker 1: they've called up folks to uh, do you know, matches
Speaker 1: for Ron SmackDown, dark matches, et cetera, backstaged events, and
Speaker 1: sometimes they go from there to the main roster. Sometimes
Speaker 1: they do those matches and then they are sent back
Speaker 1: to n x T and they're just in a see again.
Speaker 1: The Kodakai would be a fine example of that. And
Speaker 1: sometimes they go up and they do these dark matches
Speaker 1: and it looks like you can get called up and
Speaker 1: instead they get fired. So we'll see what happens with
Speaker 1: these guys and others as well, but they are backstage
Speaker 1: at RAW. We have got Beach Break from Cleveland, Ohio
Speaker 1: on TBS on Wednesday. This is the a W Show
Speaker 1: and many many things announced. We've got Cody versus Sammy
Speaker 1: Gavara in a ladder match to determine the undisputed t
Speaker 1: NT champion. Santana and Ortiz. We we're facing Chris Jericho.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, Santana Ortiz and Chris Jericho. They're having uh,
Speaker 1: they're having problems, but they will be teaming together to
Speaker 1: face Daniel Garcia and two point oh. Adam Cole will
Speaker 1: be facing Orange Cassidy, Red Velvet versus Layla Hirsch and
Speaker 1: also appearing on the show and interview segments. We've got
Speaker 1: Britt Baker and CM Punk. They will also be taping
Speaker 1: a Rampage on Wednesday, so a big edition of a
Speaker 1: W on TBS. What you gonna think of a Rampage
Speaker 1: and SmackDown this week? I thought that Rampage was a
Speaker 1: pretty good show. John Moxley Ethan Page ten minutes, good match.
Speaker 1: They went a long time. I I thought it was
Speaker 1: gonna be quicker. But if you look at the way
Speaker 1: that that a W books, which is you know, what's
Speaker 1: what's logical? Well, what's logical? As John mox has been
Speaker 1: gone for three months and he's come back and this
Speaker 1: is first match, and so I would not say that
Speaker 1: he struggled in storyline, but it did take him ten
Speaker 1: minutes to beat Ethan Page, so I didn't have a
Speaker 1: problem with it. They do this in Japan all the
Speaker 1: time and often actually the guy has been out of
Speaker 1: action for a long time and comes back. He actually
Speaker 1: loses that first match because he's rusty in storyline, but
Speaker 1: they did not go that far with John Moxley, nor
Speaker 1: would I have beaten John Moxley, Trent barretta Nick Jackson.
Speaker 1: They went fourteen minute. It's very very good match. Obviously,
Speaker 1: this is supposed to be a tag team match, but
Speaker 1: Rocky Romero out with COVID, so switched to a singles
Speaker 1: match and Trent beat him. So beat him clean in
Speaker 1: the middle of the ring with his move, which I'm
Speaker 1: sure when Rocky returns, will build to the tag team match,
Speaker 1: which also should be great. Best wishes to Rocky, hopefully
Speaker 1: he's back in action soon. Everybody's main man. Hook defeated Serpentaco,
Speaker 1: threw him around for a minute eleven, and then had
Speaker 1: a at a deal on the ramp with QT again
Speaker 1: and super Lex QT for the second time. So there's
Speaker 1: either two things are gonna happen right here. Number one,
Speaker 1: QT and Hook are just gonna wrestle at any time
Speaker 1: on Dynamite Rampage, or you could do the deal where
Speaker 1: QT sends all of his crew to take out a Hook.
Speaker 1: Hook runs through pretty much all of them, maybe not
Speaker 1: all of them, but most of them, and then you
Speaker 1: do hook and QT at the pay per view, But
Speaker 1: the pay per views about six weeks away, Uh, maybe
Speaker 1: even longer actually, so we'll see which way they end
Speaker 1: up going there. We had Jade Cargill versus Anna j
Speaker 1: and I would not say that this was a a
Speaker 1: great match. But if you would have told me Jade
Speaker 1: Cargill nag On and a j nine minutes on Rampage Live,
Speaker 1: I would have had bad idea. But they pulled it off.
Speaker 1: Five minutes was during a commercial break, so I didn't
Speaker 1: see the entire match from bell to bell, but what
Speaker 1: I saw was good. They had some good near falls.
Speaker 1: At the end, Jade Cargill beat her with her move
Speaker 1: and I got a big pop. So whatever you want
Speaker 1: to say about Jake Cargill, I mean she is over
Speaker 1: with this crowd and this was a good showing and
Speaker 1: we'll see who ends up next in line for Jade
Speaker 1: Cargill and Man Smart, Mark Sterling, God Brainbuster right on
Speaker 1: his head on the floor and uh showed up this
Speaker 1: weekend h G c W in a neck brace, so
Speaker 1: selling it everywhere. I got come up with more your
Speaker 1: phone calls. Deserver Live free leave check back in the show.
Speaker 1: Bryan albur is here Wrestling Observer Live. No Mike Supper Bby,
Speaker 1: haven't heard a thing yet see what happens. But hey,
Speaker 1: you want to talk about g C double Did you
Speaker 1: watch the show? Give us a call here today. We
Speaker 1: know what you thought about. Eight four four nine one
Speaker 1: three twenty seven. That is eight four four nine one
Speaker 1: seven toll free for those of you still on a landline.
Speaker 1: I don't know what the point of having a toll
Speaker 1: free matches in one, but that is the phone number
Speaker 1: if you don't want to you don't want to call,
Speaker 1: I know it's intimidating. Text message zero seven five six six.
Speaker 1: That is four to five seven eight zero seven five
Speaker 1: six six. Brian at Wrestling Observer dot com is the
Speaker 1: email at Brian Alvarez on Twitter. I'll just some feedback
Speaker 1: here in a second, but I want to make one
Speaker 1: mention of something on SmackDown. I'll do a full recap
Speaker 1: of SmackDown with Filthy Tom in about an hour for
Speaker 1: our top tier YouTube subscribers, were live to Pacific five Eastern,
Speaker 1: that is to Pacific five Eastern on our YouTube channel.
Speaker 1: If you'd like to watch live, we'll be talking about
Speaker 1: huge fans strong and SmackDown. And it's funny because I
Speaker 1: watched SmackDown and it was when it was over, actually
Speaker 1: one minute before it ended, I was like, I really
Speaker 1: like this show. And then the finish of the main
Speaker 1: event was just absolutely appalling and insulting. And then when
Speaker 1: I started reviewing with Dave, I don't like the show,
Speaker 1: but I felt like I did like the show, so
Speaker 1: it's kind of weird. So anyway, I will review it
Speaker 1: in full on on the tom Show, but I want
Speaker 1: to talk about the main event very quickly. So what
Speaker 1: they did was they set up seven seth Rawlins and
Speaker 1: Kevin Owens against the USOS in a tag team match.
Speaker 1: What you say, Kevin Owens on s yes, Because even
Speaker 1: though they advertise every year falsely, I might add that
Speaker 1: Survivor Series is the one time per year Iran SmackDown
Speaker 1: wrestlers square off against each other. Well, uh, now it's
Speaker 1: Royal Rumble season and so everyone can be on every show.
Speaker 1: So seth Rawlins and Kevin Owens show up and they
Speaker 1: set up the match for the main event with a
Speaker 1: stipulation if seth Rawlins and Kevin Owens win, the USOS
Speaker 1: our ban from ringside for the Roman Reigns seth Rawlins match.
Speaker 1: If the USOS win, seth Rawlins doesn't get a shot
Speaker 1: at Roman Reigns at all the Royal Rumble, there's no
Speaker 1: Roman Reigns atch, and he doesn't do anything until Rustle
Speaker 1: maybea that's the that's the stipulation this match when fifteen minutes,
Speaker 1: and dude, it was great. This match was great. And
Speaker 1: like I said earlier in the show, seth Rawlins is
Speaker 1: such a great baby face and he's flying around and
Speaker 1: doing this awesome hot tag and these fans are going
Speaker 1: nuts for his hot tag. There at the end, it's
Speaker 1: going along so great, and finally seth Rawlins hits the
Speaker 1: curb stomp on one of the u S sos and
Speaker 1: he goes to make the cover and Roman Reigns runs
Speaker 1: in for the disqualification, and I was so mad. Maybe
Speaker 1: I'm the only one, but dude, you guys realized that
Speaker 1: all seth Rawlins had to do was win and he
Speaker 1: would have theoretically the advantage at Royal Rumble against the
Speaker 1: champion that nobody has been able to defeat for however
Speaker 1: many years it's been or whatever. So instead of just
Speaker 1: letting seth Rawlins Pin the USO Roman Reigns ran in
Speaker 1: for the disqualification, so seth one anyway, they literally did
Speaker 1: a d Q. I don't even know why they did
Speaker 1: a d Q because they didn't want to beat the USO's.
Speaker 1: It doesn't make any difference. And seth Rawlins is the
Speaker 1: man who's going to challenge Roman Reigns for the title.
Speaker 1: You can't even give that guy a win over one
Speaker 1: of the USO's. You had to do a d Q
Speaker 1: after a great fifteen minute match when the d Q
Speaker 1: just got seth Rawlins. Having the USOS banned from ringside anyway,
Speaker 1: I was so mad. I was just whatever. So let's
Speaker 1: go to the phones. Fayetteville. You're on the air. What's
Speaker 1: going on, Hey, Brian, it's John from Arkansas. How's it going? Hey? John?
Speaker 1: We haven't heard you in a while, And I'm back.
Speaker 1: I listened daily. I just haven't been able to make
Speaker 1: it in on calls. But I have to say I'm
Speaker 1: with you on your frustration in w w E. And
Speaker 1: I've got to say good on Cassie Lee and Jesse
Speaker 1: McKay for not going back. And if they went back,
Speaker 1: I would make it worth my while. Big time. I
Speaker 1: tell w W, how bad do you need me? And
Speaker 1: this is gonna cost you because I'm doing you a
Speaker 1: favor by coming in here. Ww's booking. It throws you
Speaker 1: out of a lot of things in your enjoyment as
Speaker 1: a fan. And I honestly don't know why anybody has
Speaker 1: the patience to stick with them, because they just chuck
Speaker 1: all logic out the door. I mean, they're would have
Speaker 1: been nothing wrong with given Seth a win and on
Speaker 1: the g c W show, I've purchased it last night. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there were some bumps here and there and never some
Speaker 1: things that I wasn't pleased with, but overall I would
Speaker 1: give g c W another chance based on what I
Speaker 1: saw last night. Well, I want to thank you very
Speaker 1: much for the college John, thanks for listening every day.
Speaker 1: And do you want to say one thing about he goes,
Speaker 1: how do people watch this this uh this SmackDown show. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you what I think here
Speaker 1: because I just experienced this and quite frankly, like the
Speaker 1: d Q, I was just furious at the moment. I
Speaker 1: was furious, Okay, but there's there have been, uh, there
Speaker 1: have been many times where I have sat there and
Speaker 1: I've watched SmackDown, and when the show is over, I
Speaker 1: was like, that's a good show. And then I go
Speaker 1: and I review it with Tom, and then you start
Speaker 1: analyzing every segment and by the time you're done analyzing
Speaker 1: your show, you're like, this was the dumbest show. None
Speaker 1: of this made sense and why? So what my here's
Speaker 1: my point. I believe that there are two million fans
Speaker 1: and I know this, at least two million. There's two
Speaker 1: million fans that watched SmackDown, and actually many, many more
Speaker 1: because that's the average over two hours, so it's probably
Speaker 1: four million. Four million people watch SmackDown every Friday night,
Speaker 1: and their job is not to talk about it on
Speaker 1: the radio or they don't have a podcast or a
Speaker 1: blog or anything like that, so they just watch it.
Speaker 1: And I would say that if four million people are
Speaker 1: watching SmackDown, exactly four million of those four million also
Speaker 1: have their phone next to at the time, so they're
Speaker 1: on their phone, they're texting, they're googling this or that.
Speaker 1: We're gonna pourn I don't know. But anyway, the point
Speaker 1: is they're watching SmackDown kind of in the background, and
Speaker 1: they just watch it and they like this and they
Speaker 1: like that, and they think that's funny, and they like
Speaker 1: seeing this person the show, and the show's over and
Speaker 1: there just they move on to whatever's next, and they
Speaker 1: don't really think about it. I think there's a lot
Speaker 1: of people that watch w w E and they don't
Speaker 1: think about it. They just watch it. And if you
Speaker 1: just watch it, you know, aside from you know, blatant
Speaker 1: chicanery like the d Q in the main event of
Speaker 1: the show, I think you're just watching. It's over then,
Speaker 1: ass fun I'll watch it again next week. Raw. I
Speaker 1: think it's a little bit different because it's so damn long.
Speaker 1: I think that there's a lot of people to watch
Speaker 1: RAW and they don't pay attention to it, and they
Speaker 1: give it an hour or they give it an hour
Speaker 1: and a half or whatever, and then they get bored
Speaker 1: and they watch something else. And same thing with n
Speaker 1: x T two point. I think a lot of old
Speaker 1: people they don't think about it. They blindly watch it.
Speaker 1: They're doing something else at the time, probably going on
Speaker 1: Manu Ros's Instagram, and then you know, when it's over,
Speaker 1: there like, I'll watch it again next week. That's how
Speaker 1: I believe most people watch w w E. And I
Speaker 1: feel that if you watch it like that, you probably
Speaker 1: are just fine with every one of the shows. But
Speaker 1: if it's your job, which it's not for most people
Speaker 1: to watch it and like trying to figure out what's
Speaker 1: going on and what happened last week, and it's infuriating,
Speaker 1: absolutely infuriating. So that, my friend, is when you ask
Speaker 1: why do people watch this, I'm telling you why. It's
Speaker 1: because of how they watch it that I think is
Speaker 1: the that I think is the big difference there. All right,
Speaker 1: let's go to uh Canada. Vancouver is on the air.
Speaker 1: What's going on? Hey there, Bryan, my name is Steven,
Speaker 1: long time fan. UM. I wanted to thanks for taking
Speaker 1: my call first of all, and uh so I wanted
Speaker 1: first of all GW amazing show. Um, but I just
Speaker 1: want to take it back to Wednesday on a w
Speaker 1: or Cody Rhodes, you know, is amazing promo. He talked
Speaker 1: about you know, secondary titles and world titles and and
Speaker 1: all that I feel is a professional wrestling kind of
Speaker 1: has like a bit of a problem, which showcasing their
Speaker 1: champions in general, because I think, like you look at
Speaker 1: mm A, you look at sports, you see how um,
Speaker 1: you know, becoming a champion in M M A and
Speaker 1: sports and all that, like how it uplifts their lives,
Speaker 1: it changed their lives, and we don't really get to
Speaker 1: see much of that in professional wrestling, so I know,
Speaker 1: for the most part of scripted and you know, titles
Speaker 1: are kind of like props in a way. But I'd
Speaker 1: be kind of nice if we kind of got to
Speaker 1: see the side of the champion of you know, them
Speaker 1: winning the champion and how much it kind of changes
Speaker 1: their lives. Um, I just want to get your comments
Speaker 1: on that. Well. I want to thank you very much
Speaker 1: for the call. I mean, you know, the idea in
Speaker 1: a w at least. Oh look who's here. It's Mike
Speaker 1: Semper viv Hi. Oh my goodness. That guy had a
Speaker 1: good question. And then I had something I want to say.
Speaker 1: But we probably should get a four minute g c
Speaker 1: W reporting here very quickly, so color I apologize, I will,
Speaker 1: I will get to you. I'll get to that question
Speaker 1: down the road, but Mike, four minutes, yes, tell us
Speaker 1: what would well what would you like to know about
Speaker 1: this show? Because I've heard mixed reviews, I can say
Speaker 1: being there, the crowd sounded a lot better than what
Speaker 1: apparently it sounded like on the broadcast. Apparently they had
Speaker 1: audio mixing issues, which I don't know if that was
Speaker 1: a fight TV thing, I'm not sure exactly what it was.
Speaker 1: I was also told that it looked great, so as
Speaker 1: far as the pictures went, as far as the camera
Speaker 1: work went, that went fantastic. Um. Look, I'm obviously a
Speaker 1: g c W fan. People I have worked there that
Speaker 1: I'm very friendly with and like to see him succeed,
Speaker 1: and I thought it was a very good night. But
Speaker 1: there's a trade off with having the Hammerstein ballroom, and
Speaker 1: that is do you get the full g c W experience? Um.
Speaker 1: And I know they wanted to. I know they wanted
Speaker 1: to honor ECW, and I think if you're a g
Speaker 1: c W fan, you knew they were going to do that.
Speaker 1: I am hearing from a lot of people that it
Speaker 1: was too much of an e c W type of
Speaker 1: tribute show. Again, the problem with the Hammerstein is you
Speaker 1: don't get some of the blood, some of the things,
Speaker 1: the light tubes, the things that make GCW different. And
Speaker 1: that's the tradeoff with with Hammerstein. Obviously, Nick Wayne's issue,
Speaker 1: I heard you talk about it on the way in UH.
Speaker 1: The issue that he had there. That was unfortunate. But
Speaker 1: you know, there's going to be a silver lining everything,
Speaker 1: and his silver lining is actually a platinum one because
Speaker 1: at some point he's going to get well. Osprey probably
Speaker 1: going to be a spring break, and that's going to
Speaker 1: be fantastic. Uh you know again, I I was, I
Speaker 1: was satisfied with the show. A lot of people wanted FTR,
Speaker 1: but Matt Tremont and Nick Gauge I thought was a
Speaker 1: really cool thing. Unfortunately, again one of the tradeoffs you
Speaker 1: have of of appearing a traditional pay per view, they
Speaker 1: were pressed for time and then they had what looked
Speaker 1: like a screwy finish going off the air that the
Speaker 1: Briscoes had to sell and it was you know, that
Speaker 1: was just pointing. And one of the reasons I think
Speaker 1: that did go so long was obviously the six man
Speaker 1: Luca match was was fantastic. It was phenomenal, amazing car
Speaker 1: crash for what it was. That went long, and then
Speaker 1: Janelle and Cardona went way too long, and the whole
Speaker 1: Cardona verse was in there. He had Hornswoggly and Marco
Speaker 1: coming back, he had this, he had that, Brian Myers.
Speaker 1: It just went too long. It was twenty minutes. As
Speaker 1: far as match time goes, I'm not sure what everything else,
Speaker 1: but that unfortunately seemed to take away from the other matches.
Speaker 1: Homicide I thought, didn't get in as much offense as
Speaker 1: maybe he could have against Moxley and made it more
Speaker 1: of a competition and a fight, because even in homicides hometown, Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't think anybody believed that he could
Speaker 1: win that match. Um you know, the end five minutes
Speaker 1: for the main event again, how that thing got caught off?
Speaker 1: There were I think, you know, there were things to
Speaker 1: be learned about this show for them, and I think
Speaker 1: there are going to be some people that have heard
Speaker 1: have heard all this buzz about g c W checked
Speaker 1: it out for the first time and went no, no,
Speaker 1: I don't like this. But I think there's also some
Speaker 1: other people that maybe caught it, saw it so wild.
Speaker 1: You saw some great things. You saw the second Gear crew,
Speaker 1: you saw all these cool things happen. So again, there
Speaker 1: were pros and cons to it and being sure we
Speaker 1: can get into it a lot more tomorrow and anybody
Speaker 1: else's questions Back at a moment Observer live back in
Speaker 1: the show, bran Overa is here Wrestling Observer Alive, Mikes
Speaker 1: and p Viv also of Wrestling Observer dot Com. We'll
Speaker 1: talk more about g c W with Mike tomorrow since
Speaker 1: he showed up here at the very last second. Things
Speaker 1: to that damn train or whatever. Yeah. Yes, so since
Speaker 1: Sean Ross SAP has gone public with this and mentioned
Speaker 1: in I'm sure it'll be everywhere soon. Yes, I was
Speaker 1: told that Rhonda Rousey will be in the Royal Rumble,
Speaker 1: so I suppose anything can happen. But that was the
Speaker 1: word I heard that a while ago, So now they
Speaker 1: have any two I want to mention very quickly since
Speaker 1: that guy called in and I had to cut off
Speaker 1: his his question about championships. Listen, if you care about
Speaker 1: championships being important and wrestling, then whether whether they you
Speaker 1: know you think they do or not a W is trying. Okay.
Speaker 1: The idea is we've got a world championship that is
Speaker 1: very rarely going to change hands and only go to
Speaker 1: the very top guys. And we've got a T and
Speaker 1: T title that is going to change hands more frequently.
Speaker 1: But they do want that to be on the level
Speaker 1: of the a W title. It's gonna be hard to be,
Speaker 1: but that's the idea behind that title, and New Japan
Speaker 1: did the same thing with the i w g P
Speaker 1: Heavyweight in the Intercontinental title, and Dave was talking about
Speaker 1: it the other a couple of days ago and he
Speaker 1: mentioned that, you know, they even headlined with that title. Bro,
Speaker 1: they didn't just headline with the secondary title. They once
Speaker 1: had a Tokyo Dome where they had the fans vote
Speaker 1: which match should be the main event of the Tokyo Dome,
Speaker 1: the i w g P World Heavyweight titnel or the
Speaker 1: Intercontinental title, and the fans voted for the Intercontinental title.
Speaker 1: So it can be done having a secondary title on
Speaker 1: par with your world title, and that is what a
Speaker 1: w is trying to do, so hopefully they do it. Mike,
Speaker 1: thanks for the five minutes today. I appreciate it. I
Speaker 1: hope you had a fun time. We'll talk to him
Speaker 1: again tomorrow. All of my friends and family listening right now,
Speaker 1: a lot of family listening. We're back at two Pacific
Speaker 1: five Easter with Filthy Tom. Talk to you next time,
Speaker 1: Wrestling Observer Live. You have been listening to the Wrestling
Speaker 1: Observer Daily podcast on the eight Side Network