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: Let's get it all. How's going everybody? Brian Alvarez here
Speaker 1: on Wrestling Observer Live. We are here every day Monday
Speaker 1: through Friday, now Pacific three during Sunday three Pacific six Eastern.
Speaker 1: Said to be back everybody. I've never been so depressed
Speaker 1: to return. Call le back home here in uh absolutely
Speaker 1: horrific Seattle. So it's raining like crazy. We're breaking the
Speaker 1: rain record today. Yeah, no, I'm not putting the microphone
Speaker 1: stand back up now. The this vacation is going to
Speaker 1: go on forever. It's just reminds me of being sitting
Speaker 1: there on that rocking chair with old Vinny um Man. Anyway, Hey,
Speaker 1: we got a lot of news to get into today.
Speaker 1: It's Monday here on the program, and you know what
Speaker 1: that means. We got Monday Night Raw coming up tonight,
Speaker 1: and we actually have a match announced, believe it or not,
Speaker 1: which is Damien Priest defending his uh his title against
Speaker 1: Finn Balor. And also Edge is going to be on
Speaker 1: the show. That's literally all we know about it. So
Speaker 1: that's my Raw preview for tonight, and we've got all
Speaker 1: of the news. We've got more matches for WrestleMania, as in,
Speaker 1: they're gonna tell you what day the matches are, because
Speaker 1: you know they're trying to sell tickets desperately here to
Speaker 1: the point that they're bringing back, of all people, Vince McMahon.
Speaker 1: Vince McMahon scheduled for a match at WrestleMania, although all
Speaker 1: of the news today is how full of it w
Speaker 1: w E is. We've got updates on the utification match,
Speaker 1: which apparently isn't really gonna be much of a unification match.
Speaker 1: And we've got updates on Vince McMahon wrestling although he's
Speaker 1: apparently not gonna be wrestling, and a bunch of other
Speaker 1: stuff as well. So if you're looking to, uh, if
Speaker 1: you're looking to buy a ticket to not get what's advertised,
Speaker 1: if I got the big show for you everybody, we'll
Speaker 1: tell you about that here on the program today. Also
Speaker 1: what day you should buy a ticket for if you
Speaker 1: want to see Becky Lynch and Bianca bel Air. We
Speaker 1: have a e w's announcement. Uh they're heading to the
Speaker 1: West coast. So we'll give you some upcoming dates for
Speaker 1: for a w and uh, of course we got smacked
Speaker 1: down rampage and plenty more. So stick around, everybody. We're
Speaker 1: back Wrestling Observer Live, begging the show. Bring Albert is here,
Speaker 1: Wrestling Observer Live Mixemburg Baby also Wrestling Observer at dot
Speaker 1: com and we're gonna talk about this, uh, this West
Speaker 1: Coast swing here for me w here a little while
Speaker 1: by No, for the guy that asked on the chat,
Speaker 1: that is not the big announcement that Tony's gonna have
Speaker 1: on Wednesday, And that's something else And I don't know
Speaker 1: what it is. Do you know what it is? Mike?
Speaker 1: I don't. Do you think Dave knows what it is? No,
Speaker 1: Dave was really weird last night. It's like there's a
Speaker 1: lot of rumors. I don't know what he said, but
Speaker 1: it was like he did. I don't think he knows
Speaker 1: what it is. He's heard rumors, but I haven't even
Speaker 1: heard rumors. I don't know what it is, am I
Speaker 1: Matt to lunch mm hmmm, I don't know. I needed
Speaker 1: to not look at the chat. There's so much stuff
Speaker 1: going on and everyone all even can talk about is
Speaker 1: my hair and I didn't do anything. That's a point
Speaker 1: Brian's hair was blonde in Hawaii, but it's gray in Seattle.
Speaker 1: What's going on? Maybe it didn't change color, blokes, Maybe
Speaker 1: you're imagining things like I've been telling you for weeks. Now,
Speaker 1: now let's get into the news here, because we've got
Speaker 1: two top stories that are just they're incredible w w
Speaker 1: E stories. I was gonna read this word for word
Speaker 1: from Wrestling Observer dot com. On the latest episode of
Speaker 1: Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer give an update on w
Speaker 1: w e's title unification plans for WrestleMania thirty eight and
Speaker 1: it's aftermath. W w E Champion Brock Lesner and Universal
Speaker 1: Champion Roman Reigns are set to face off in a
Speaker 1: winner take all championship unification match at Mania thirty eight,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't appear that w w E will only
Speaker 1: have one men's world championship for long. Meltzer noted on
Speaker 1: Sunday's Wrestling Observer Radio that he has been told w
Speaker 1: w E does not believe it is quote feasible in
Speaker 1: the modern environment to have one world champion for both
Speaker 1: raw and SmackDown quote. The deal here is it. It
Speaker 1: is a unification match. From what I am told it's
Speaker 1: the same idea as the last time he unified the titles.
Speaker 1: Remember like twenty years ago, eighteen years ago, and they
Speaker 1: did that, and then like a week later, they just
Speaker 1: handed a belt to Triple H. I was told that
Speaker 1: it is not feasible in the modern environment to not
Speaker 1: have each brand given the two networks have a champion,
Speaker 1: so this would be a unification match, and then they
Speaker 1: will not forget about it, but there will be two champions.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna have a unification match at WrestleMania, but
Speaker 1: we will not have a unified champion for any length
Speaker 1: of time, which brings us to a match between Vince
Speaker 1: McMahon and SmackDown announcer Pat McAfee looks to be on
Speaker 1: the cards for WrestleMania thirty eight. Dave Melton reported this
Speaker 1: afternoon the match between McAfee and m command is listed
Speaker 1: in the internal schedule for WrestleMania, as follows a post
Speaker 1: wrestling report from Friday, where it was reported that a
Speaker 1: program between the two is expected to start and lead
Speaker 1: to WrestleMania. Dave then noted that very unlikely Vince is
Speaker 1: actually gonna have a wrestling match. There's gonna be a
Speaker 1: lot of smoke and mirrors. So you're telling me that
Speaker 1: we got two matches now that we're advertising for WrestleMania
Speaker 1: where they're not gonna give you what they're advertising. I've
Speaker 1: mentioned this before. I've mentioned this before, but I have
Speaker 1: never in my life seen arresting I should say a
Speaker 1: wrestling company, because I'm sure that they're actual, real companies
Speaker 1: out there that are like this. But I have never
Speaker 1: seen a wrestling company that made life so willingly difficult
Speaker 1: for themselves. Never, not one time ever. Like you know,
Speaker 1: Impact Wrestling, life was difficult for them, but they were
Speaker 1: like completely incompetent. Okay, and uh, you know WCW life
Speaker 1: got difficult for them also due to incompetence. But the
Speaker 1: funny thing about WW is the guy the very top,
Speaker 1: you know, God bless the guy. He's completely incompetent. But
Speaker 1: there's like a lot of smart people working there. But man,
Speaker 1: I hear so much stuff from this company me and
Speaker 1: it's like, you're smart, but you you come up with
Speaker 1: all of these ideas, these circuitous ideas that they going
Speaker 1: this big circle and just make life way more difficult
Speaker 1: than it needs to be. This thing here about how
Speaker 1: I want to read the exact quote, it is not
Speaker 1: quote feasible in the modern environment. Do not have each
Speaker 1: brand given the two networks have a champion bro How
Speaker 1: many times have we heard, oh, man, you know Fox
Speaker 1: doesn't know that Brock is now going to be on Raw.
Speaker 1: Oh SmackDown wants to make sure that they've got Ronda. Dude,
Speaker 1: I listen, I'm out in the meetings. Are you actually
Speaker 1: telling me that, like these people are insistent, like these
Speaker 1: network executives are insistent that we have a very specific
Speaker 1: and very limited roster, and were for that over being
Speaker 1: able to have everybody. You honestly are telling me that
Speaker 1: if you went to Fox and you were like, listen,
Speaker 1: all right, we'll give you Ronda and Roman, but like
Speaker 1: Brock's largely gonna be we gotta give u say something.
Speaker 1: And then you go to us and you're like, you're
Speaker 1: gonna get Brock, but like we gotta give you know, Fox,
Speaker 1: you're telling me that they would prefer that to you
Speaker 1: going to them and saying, you know what, we're gonna
Speaker 1: We're gonna unify these two rosters and Fox bro you're
Speaker 1: gonna get Lessner and and Bianca bell Air and Becky
Speaker 1: Lynch and Sasha Banks and Brock Lesner and Roman and
Speaker 1: guess what USA, You're gonna get Roman and Brock. You're
Speaker 1: telling me that each network is gonna go no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: Hold on a second, Hold on a second. I prefer
Speaker 1: not to have all of the biggest stars. I'd rather
Speaker 1: have half of the biggest stars exclusively. You're telling me
Speaker 1: that that's what they prefer. So anyway, we have this problem,
Speaker 1: you know, the modern era, you just can't have one
Speaker 1: champion in the modern era, you have to have what whatever,
Speaker 1: who cares. But anyway, we're advertising a match that we're
Speaker 1: gonna deliver in the moment, but then it's gonna be
Speaker 1: just like whatever. The belts are gonna go back to
Speaker 1: each brand afterwards. So you know, pay your money for
Speaker 1: the one night to see which guy is gonna win,
Speaker 1: and then we'll go back to the way things used
Speaker 1: to be and that Vince McMahon match. Make sure you
Speaker 1: buy your ticket. We don't want to get stuck in
Speaker 1: fifty five thousand and have Brian be right here, So
Speaker 1: make sure you buy your ticket to see Vince McMahon wrestle.
Speaker 1: But then he's not gonna We're just gonna do a
Speaker 1: bunch of gimmicks, but you'll still bow to him and
Speaker 1: uh and thank him for everything that he's done for
Speaker 1: this business. I got nothing more to say. Aren't they
Speaker 1: passed fifty five thousand a night? I think they're barely
Speaker 1: past fifty five thousand. Look at least they're being transparent
Speaker 1: about everything this year. They're not even hiding the fact
Speaker 1: that you know they're just they said it, it's impossible
Speaker 1: in this environment to have only one champion. So you
Speaker 1: know that match is going to lead to nothing. It's
Speaker 1: gonna lead to a backlash match maybe or whatever. But
Speaker 1: at some point, Belt goes off and he'll say, whoever
Speaker 1: wins this match, I only want to be on this brand.
Speaker 1: Why am I working so much? I'm done with this. However,
Speaker 1: they decide to go do things. They're bringing back Vince McMahon,
Speaker 1: Vince McMahon, They're bringing back Stone Cold, Steve Austin, They've
Speaker 1: already brought back ron Da Rousey. There's no bones about
Speaker 1: what this year is. It is We're gonna put on
Speaker 1: the wackiest Johnny Knoxville for the Intercontinental title. We're putting
Speaker 1: on the wackiest show we possibly can. We are running
Speaker 1: a Rustlemania show during WrestleMania. That's what we're doing. All
Speaker 1: these other promotions that run these wacky shows, we're doing
Speaker 1: the same thing, except it's going to be WrestleMania. And
Speaker 1: what will it mean the next day? I guess we'll
Speaker 1: find out on Raw. That's just to me. That's what
Speaker 1: a lot of this is. It's a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: and in a on Wrustlemania Night one in night two
Speaker 1: is gonna be something, I guess. But it's like, I mean,
Speaker 1: for the future again, how many times are you gonna
Speaker 1: continue to try to do this? How many times you're
Speaker 1: gonna be able to pull something like this off? How
Speaker 1: many more names can you pull back from the past?
Speaker 1: Is Santino Morrella. We're bringing back seventies six year olds
Speaker 1: and we can go on for a long damn time
Speaker 1: pulling people are we bringing back? I mean, as Santela,
Speaker 1: Santino Morella a big enough name. You've exhausted everyone. Now
Speaker 1: you've exhausted everyone except for Rock who who knows if
Speaker 1: he comes back. But if Austin comes back, who that's it? So,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just the law of diminishing returns. With
Speaker 1: bringing all these people back, I mean, Steve Austin's name
Speaker 1: was said, wwes product is so cold right now, I
Speaker 1: guess maybe it hasn't it the mainstream. Nobody is saying
Speaker 1: a word about it now. They're hoping Vin and Pat McAfee,
Speaker 1: because it can be promoted on Fox, is going to
Speaker 1: be the thing. You know, at some point you're gonna
Speaker 1: need to create stars and said over and over if
Speaker 1: you had a bunch of stars, you wouldn't have this
Speaker 1: problem out of here, back in the moment of Server Live,
Speaker 1: Jimminy Christmas, I'm trying to create new stars here like
Speaker 1: handheld mix. You geeks can't handle any change. Fine, back
Speaker 1: on the stand, you all happy now? If not mat
Speaker 1: of focus anything else? Watch this? Everybody see that that anyway?
Speaker 1: Lift up your sleeve again. Lift up your sleeve again.
Speaker 1: What is going on there with that? With that cuff?
Speaker 1: You put your thumb in it? Bro? What are you
Speaker 1: a sixteen year old girl? Would there be a problem?
Speaker 1: You know? What's funny about this whole feasibility thing is okay, fine,
Speaker 1: you you go to you go to Fox, and you
Speaker 1: talk to all these geeks in USA and they're like, no,
Speaker 1: damn it, we only want half a roster. How there's
Speaker 1: no way we want all the stars. We're being one
Speaker 1: point three billion between the two of us. We only
Speaker 1: want half the stars. Okay, don't even argue, we only
Speaker 1: want fine. All right, fine, you get half and you
Speaker 1: get half, but the biggest star is gonna be the champion.
Speaker 1: They're gonna wear both shows, right feasibility. You know, somebody
Speaker 1: inside w W right now is going Brian Varez, what
Speaker 1: do you know about anything? What do you know about
Speaker 1: bus this? We've been able to sell these fools on
Speaker 1: the fact we are only giving them half a roster,
Speaker 1: and then whenever they perk up, then we go, oh, well,
Speaker 1: Brock will work both or Roman is gonna show up
Speaker 1: or whatever it's gonna be. So maybe maybe they're just geniuses.
Speaker 1: And the fact that they've been able to get a
Speaker 1: billion dollars for a half pass roster with really no
Speaker 1: stars whatsoever except for what to Brock Lesner and Roman
Speaker 1: reigns and that's about it. It's amazing. They've had Ria
Speaker 1: Ripley and they've had Bianca, and Bianca obviously had to
Speaker 1: deal with the fact that, you know, when they brought
Speaker 1: Becky back, they just completely mashed her over and of course.
Speaker 1: Well that's supposed to gonna rectify itself at WrestleMania. Sure,
Speaker 1: maybe it will, but let's see what actually happens after that.
Speaker 1: They've had Rhea and and Bianca for this long. You
Speaker 1: think with a roster they would have those two. Charlotte Sasha.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just it's amazing. Becky in theory should
Speaker 1: be a huge star right now. It's amazed they have
Speaker 1: these women and they still need Ronda Rousey. You think
Speaker 1: if they were firing on all cylinders, they would even
Speaker 1: need Rohonda Rousey. The answer is actually no, no, they wouldn't.
Speaker 1: But they have done nothing to develop so many of
Speaker 1: those women I just mentioned. And it's funny, by the way,
Speaker 1: as I know this person being sarcastic, but what he says, Hey, Brian,
Speaker 1: how's your territory doing? Well, you know what, you're right on,
Speaker 1: have a territory, But you know what I have is
Speaker 1: uh business, brain business, okay, and you know you know
Speaker 1: I don't have a territory. You know who did have
Speaker 1: a successful territory back in the day, Well, his name
Speaker 1: was Vince McMahon in a very successful territory. It was
Speaker 1: it was, and his business was absolutely on fire. It
Speaker 1: was called the Monday Night Wars. It was in terms
Speaker 1: of like popularity of professional wrestling, it was the the
Speaker 1: absolute peak of this business, much much, much more popular.
Speaker 1: Not financially successful because television deals weren't what they are today,
Speaker 1: but in terms of pop already pro wrestling. Would you
Speaker 1: argue that Vince McMahon's nine was more popular than today,
Speaker 1: So it's a pretty popular territory in nine, Tell me
Speaker 1: it was. You know what happened in Well, they had
Speaker 1: a show called Raw and they had a show called SmackDown,
Speaker 1: and they were on different networks. I was on USA
Speaker 1: and SmackDown was on UPN and somehow, and I don't
Speaker 1: know how, it was feasible then but not now. Why
Speaker 1: they had everybody working both shows on both networks and
Speaker 1: they had one champion that's worked both shows in that
Speaker 1: very successful territory. But that was twenty three years ago.
Speaker 1: Twenty three years ago. They lived twenty three years ago.
Speaker 1: Nothing has changed in this company. They still wish it
Speaker 1: was twenty three years ago, except in this case it's
Speaker 1: it's completely, absolutely positively unfeasible to do what they did.
Speaker 1: By the way, my wife got me this this top
Speaker 1: here Severn shut up about it. So once again she
Speaker 1: got it for herself and you've decided to like take
Speaker 1: it out of the closet. She bought it for me.
Speaker 1: There's a gift. M Two women's championship matches are set
Speaker 1: for Night one of WrestleMania thirty eight. So if you're
Speaker 1: a fan of women and then I've got the WrestleMania
Speaker 1: night for you. W W has announced Becky Lynch and
Speaker 1: Bianca bell Air's Raw Women's Championship match will take place
Speaker 1: Rustlemania thirty eight Night one this April. A T n T.
Speaker 1: Stephen Arlington, Texas is hosting the two nights, Saturday April
Speaker 1: two and Sunday April three. That means that Lynch versus
Speaker 1: Bellair will be happening on the same night as he SmackDown.
Speaker 1: Women's Championship match between Charlotte Flair and Ron Drousy brock
Speaker 1: Lesner and Universal Champion Roman Reigns winner take all title
Speaker 1: unification match has been announced for Night to of WrestleMania.
Speaker 1: So now you know what to buy your ticket for.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know. Just the way to
Speaker 1: see what happens with Johnny knox Hill that's really gonna
Speaker 1: be the thing that pushes me over the edge on
Speaker 1: which night I'm going to buy and go down for Bro.
Speaker 1: Sammy Zane kicked this guy in the head so hard
Speaker 1: on SmackDown, like they they did. Uh. Johnny Knoxville comes
Speaker 1: out and he challenges Sammy Zane and Sammy says no,
Speaker 1: and they get into this. Uh, they get into this
Speaker 1: brawl and I can't help. But you know, think about
Speaker 1: all the concussions Johnny Knoxville has had and uh and
Speaker 1: in his words, almost dying of a brain hemorrhage like
Speaker 1: a year ago when he was filming this movie. And
Speaker 1: maybe he was exaggerating a little bit, but any of
Speaker 1: you blokes out there watch Johnny knoxvilln't think that guy's
Speaker 1: never had a concussion. Raise your hand. If so, there's
Speaker 1: that hole in my shirt again, raise your hand, everybody?
Speaker 1: No one? Okay, Well, anyway, he's been cleared by w
Speaker 1: W E And so I'm watched in this angle and
Speaker 1: Sammy Zane throws him in the corner and he goes
Speaker 1: for this running mafia kick because I like to call
Speaker 1: it Kuza kick, and and Bro, he misses by a mile.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's nowhere near Johnny Knoxville's head. And at first,
Speaker 1: I'm like, god, Lee, they don't usually uh, you know,
Speaker 1: they don't usually get shots like that. For like, for
Speaker 1: once in an eternity, they didn't cut the camera ninety
Speaker 1: two times during the kick. They just left it one
Speaker 1: continuous shot and you could see that it missed, and
Speaker 1: I was like, man, well that's good. I don't want
Speaker 1: to see the guy kicked in the face, so, you know,
Speaker 1: then Sammy Zane puts him in the corner again and
Speaker 1: he goes running and he kicks his dude right in
Speaker 1: the face and it's the It's like a baseball bat
Speaker 1: hitting a tree. I was like, oh my god, that
Speaker 1: sounded brutal, and I thought this, you know this, Sammysane,
Speaker 1: what do you want to say about the guy? Man,
Speaker 1: he can slap a leg. Then they go check this
Speaker 1: out from before the break. And what likes to do
Speaker 1: I've mentioned this a million times is their replays are
Speaker 1: always weird. Like you know, any other sport. If there's
Speaker 1: like a big you know, some guy gets punched in
Speaker 1: the head. In UFC, they turn on the four K
Speaker 1: cam and super super duper slow motion and so you
Speaker 1: see the thing go and the whole guy's face does
Speaker 1: whatever and spit goes flying. It's gross, but not w
Speaker 1: w e w w EI. There's like a big move
Speaker 1: and they're like, watch this move in slow motion and
Speaker 1: you see the guy's foot coming into the guy's face
Speaker 1: in super slow motion and all of a sudden goes
Speaker 1: bamn in super fast meats so you can't see anything
Speaker 1: at this time. They got out that four K cam
Speaker 1: and you just see Sammy's aid's foot just go right
Speaker 1: into the face of Johnny Knoxville. John Knoxell goes, he
Speaker 1: falls down, the refere he goes to make sure he's alive.
Speaker 1: I'm like, did someone smart enough Sammy's that this guy
Speaker 1: had sixteen concussions and a brain hemorrhage because him and
Speaker 1: he Christmas, he kicked him as hard as he couldn't
Speaker 1: a head. No, I have a match of wrestle media.
Speaker 1: This is like the WrestleMania where it's like, well, we
Speaker 1: made it through this pandemic, so let's roll every dice
Speaker 1: that we've got. That's what Vince in the ring. That's
Speaker 1: when the guy with the brain hemorrhage in the ring.
Speaker 1: Let's get stone cold Steve Boston, who was told in
Speaker 1: two thousand two he should never wrestle again because you
Speaker 1: cant con paralyzes. Let's put him in the ring twenty
Speaker 1: years later. Well, I mean edge edges held up all right,
Speaker 1: But they are rolling the dice on this show. Thank god,
Speaker 1: this is not my show. Mm hmm. They don't have
Speaker 1: a territory. Thank god. They're not rolling the dice. They're
Speaker 1: just literally no, they are rolling the dice. Mike, No, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: like rolling the dice would mean they're put they're making
Speaker 1: it a risk. There's no risk here. Really, what they're
Speaker 1: they're emptying out the toy box is what they're doing. Look, Brian,
Speaker 1: how many tickets have already been sold? How much money
Speaker 1: has already been? Talking physical risk for a seventy six
Speaker 1: year old guy who was told a decade ago, no
Speaker 1: more bumps. A guy who had a brain hemorrhagy a
Speaker 1: year ago is in the ring doing a match. A
Speaker 1: guy who was told not to wrestle because he could
Speaker 1: get paralyzed twenty years ago is back wrestling again. Are
Speaker 1: they gonna put Hunter in next? Yes they might. I'm
Speaker 1: not even joking. What's next? Now? They're gonna bring out
Speaker 1: next hunter to be out there when Cody faces whoever
Speaker 1: he's gonna face, this guy says they're rolling one die. No, bro,
Speaker 1: you don't get it, okay, especially in the case of
Speaker 1: Vince McMahon. Physically, Yes, this guy, this guy is the boss. Okay.
Speaker 1: He's gonna get in the ring, and once he's in
Speaker 1: the ring, he's gonna do whatever he wants. All Right,
Speaker 1: that's it. It doesn't matter if he was clear, that
Speaker 1: doesn't matter if he was given restrictions. The moment that
Speaker 1: guy gets in the ring, maybe he'll be smart and
Speaker 1: he's not gonna anything stupid. But once that guy gets
Speaker 1: in the ring, there's nothing you can do about it.
Speaker 1: He got headbutted by Kevin Owens his last physical appearance
Speaker 1: in the head but open bled everywhere. Yeah, shoot, headbutted
Speaker 1: by Kevin Owens. I can't believe the night, night night.
Speaker 1: What's the word naive night, naivety, not my whole naivety
Speaker 1: of these people here they're taking no whatever whatever naive Okay,
Speaker 1: so naivety. On the Wednesday after this year's Double or
Speaker 1: Nothing pay per view, a double is gonna make its
Speaker 1: Los Angeles debut. It was announced today the Wednesday June
Speaker 1: one episode of Dynamite will be at the Forum in Inglewood, California.
Speaker 1: Double or Nothing taking place in Las Vegas Sunday, May
Speaker 1: n I'll be there and in my episode will be
Speaker 1: the first ever eight Double You show to take place
Speaker 1: in California. Also inst today the Toyota Arena on Ontario, California,
Speaker 1: hosting the Double or Nothing Fallout edition of a Rampage.
Speaker 1: I got a big list of upcoming shows. We'll do
Speaker 1: that after the break. Observer Live back at the show.
Speaker 1: Bright Albert is here Wrestling Observer Alive, Mikes and burviv
Speaker 1: also Wrestling Observer dot Com. A w you know this,
Speaker 1: Tony Con guy finally took a finally took some of
Speaker 1: the advice a old Nick Con of w w E.
Speaker 1: Nick Con, I don't know if you guys are aware
Speaker 1: of this or not, came up with the brilliant idea
Speaker 1: to announce your dates in advance. Never before in the
Speaker 1: history of wrestling were dates announced in advance. But Nick
Speaker 1: Con thought, you know what I think we should do
Speaker 1: might help draw fans, just to announce dates in advance,
Speaker 1: and so we have. Actually we don't even have all
Speaker 1: of the dates for even though Its funny I remember
Speaker 1: to have all the pay per view dates for the
Speaker 1: upcoming year. Anyway, So a W has got some shows
Speaker 1: coming up. We got March second in Daily's Place, Jacksonville,
Speaker 1: March three, Orlando, Florida, March fourth, Orlando as well, Revolution
Speaker 1: pay per views in Orlando. Then we've got March nine
Speaker 1: in Florida, Estoria, Estero, Florida, and many many more we've
Speaker 1: got I'm not gonna read all these, but we got Garland, Texas,
Speaker 1: New Orleans, Philadelphia, New York, Nevada, a couple of shows
Speaker 1: in Nevada, and then yes, Inglewood, California, Ontario, California. And
Speaker 1: then they head on June three to the Little Caesar's
Speaker 1: Arena in Detroit, Michigan. So I can't really call it
Speaker 1: a West Coast swing, but we are gonna get some
Speaker 1: shows in in California, and I am I am surprised
Speaker 1: we haven't had dates in you know, the Portland area. Dude,
Speaker 1: Seattle would do huge for a W, but not yet.
Speaker 1: We will have to wait. Maybe they were there were
Speaker 1: logistical reasons why. He knows why when it comes to
Speaker 1: some of these buildings and all that sort of stuff
Speaker 1: with with Covid all that, and maybe that was part
Speaker 1: of the reason as to why maybe they did think
Speaker 1: about having a swift. Who knows what it is, but
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. Right now, they're coming to Detroit, They're
Speaker 1: coming to southern California, and that's how That's all you
Speaker 1: had to say. They're they're they having their debuts and
Speaker 1: at some point, I'm sure they are going to run
Speaker 1: Portland and Seattle and all the places that they haven't been.
Speaker 1: But for right now, you know that that Southern California
Speaker 1: swing is gonna be a big deal. You know, Las
Speaker 1: Vegas is what whatever. That Sunday is, the twenty nine,
Speaker 1: So they still have a show to announce as far
Speaker 1: as Dynamite goes and wherever that taping is going to be.
Speaker 1: You have rampage at the Toyota Center, so it'll be
Speaker 1: interest thing to see where they pick. You know, as
Speaker 1: far as they're run in Vegas, do they run Glendale,
Speaker 1: do they run Alburquerque? You know, do they run somewhere
Speaker 1: else in California? Before they decided to run in in
Speaker 1: at the Toyota Center for that live rampage, This person here,
Speaker 1: says Brian Covid is still a thing. What has that
Speaker 1: to do with running the West Coast. I'm missing something here.
Speaker 1: Heavier restrictions maybe, I don't know. I don't know. So
Speaker 1: we've got I want to wish the best to Alex Zane.
Speaker 1: He suffered a significant eye injury during Saturday's g c
Speaker 1: W Cold This Winter Show. Tweeted today he's suffered a
Speaker 1: ruptured globe. There's one thing that would ever suffer it
Speaker 1: is a ruptured globe. He was doing a death match.
Speaker 1: Four panes of glass broken. One piece of glass went
Speaker 1: through his eyeball, and so he had to have it
Speaker 1: removed and then his eye put back together. I don't
Speaker 1: get it, dude, I don't get it. Lass doesn't listen
Speaker 1: too good, that is for absolutely sure. And you know,
Speaker 1: it looked as if the cut that he got on
Speaker 1: his arm was bad enough. But then you know, and
Speaker 1: again I don't know if if piece of glass went
Speaker 1: up and got caught up there or whatever it is,
Speaker 1: but something, you know, violated the actual globe of the
Speaker 1: eye itself. How long he's gonna be out for I
Speaker 1: don't know. I'm sure he's going to be wearing an
Speaker 1: eye patch for a while as well, too. That's gonna
Speaker 1: be something he's gonna have to get used to. So
Speaker 1: it was a certainly a ultimately an expensive deathmatch, that
Speaker 1: is for sure, for him to have his very first one.
Speaker 1: Col Raderick had his first a week before when much
Speaker 1: more swimmingly than it did, although some of the spots
Speaker 1: weren't exactly the same thing either. Alexane, you know, doing
Speaker 1: a huge twisting splash, you know, over Jimmy Lloyd on
Speaker 1: a painted glass. It's uh, you know, you just can't
Speaker 1: predict where shards are gonna go. Sometimes there's nothing that happens.
Speaker 1: A lot of times nothing happens. Sometimes really bad things
Speaker 1: can happen. Here's a good example. Alright, Uh, we're gonna
Speaker 1: go to the feedback here we can talk about rampage
Speaker 1: and smacked in if you'd like to as well. Eight
Speaker 1: zero seven five six six is the text message line
Speaker 1: zero seven five six six Brian at Wrestling Observer dot
Speaker 1: com And uh, Tony here as a point, and I'll
Speaker 1: just read it then I'll talk about it. He says.
Speaker 1: When they started the brand split in two thousand two,
Speaker 1: the business started going down. Now, I would not I
Speaker 1: would not say that the reason that things collapsed after
Speaker 1: the Attitude area after the Attitude era was because of
Speaker 1: the brand split. There were many many things that happened,
Speaker 1: the death of World Championship Wrestling UH, the death of UH,
Speaker 1: the Invasion when w w F bought w CWU, Stone
Speaker 1: Cold Steve Boston, turning Heel, the Rock, going to Hollywood.
Speaker 1: I mean, there were there were a thousand reasons and
Speaker 1: things started going down, but it did go down after
Speaker 1: the brand split, So it's not like the brand split
Speaker 1: remedied anything slowed anything down. I mean i I I've
Speaker 1: been an advocate of getting rid of this brand split
Speaker 1: for a long time now, especially because one of the
Speaker 1: main reasons that they claimed that they needed a brand
Speaker 1: split was because you couldn't run to house show tours
Speaker 1: unless you had two rosters, even though the eighties they
Speaker 1: ran four house show tours with only one roster. What
Speaker 1: was required was to think and plan a little bit,
Speaker 1: which there is an inability to think and plan today apparently,
Speaker 1: because unless you have a brand split, you just can't
Speaker 1: possibly run two different tours. But anyway, they were on
Speaker 1: house shows. Now they're all super shows, they're all combined
Speaker 1: brand shows. So the only the literally the only reason
Speaker 1: to have a brand split today is this claim that
Speaker 1: Fox in USA want to pay uh six million dollars
Speaker 1: each for half the roster, which I mean, if that's
Speaker 1: what they want, and my money, but I find that
Speaker 1: hard to believe. I'll just if you're gonna do a
Speaker 1: brand split, actually do a proper one. You know, you
Speaker 1: could if you actually treated your championships and actually held
Speaker 1: them in some regard and actually had some thought, you know,
Speaker 1: put into some of these things. You could have a
Speaker 1: world champion on both brands. You could have a U
Speaker 1: S Champion that goes to or sorry, Intercontinental champion that
Speaker 1: goes to both brands. You could have tag team, and
Speaker 1: you could actually have stars wearing these belts because you've
Speaker 1: actually built up stars, and you could actually have two
Speaker 1: rosters that are fighting so they could go back and
Speaker 1: forth and make more money and have more prestige and
Speaker 1: be seen on both shows and do more things like that.
Speaker 1: If you're gonna have a brand split, do something with it.
Speaker 1: They've never been able to do anything with it, and
Speaker 1: they have never been able to stick to their guns
Speaker 1: when it comes to having any sort of long term
Speaker 1: planning for anything. And it's worse now than it's ever been.
Speaker 1: But nothing means anything. Literally, nothing means anything. Only brock
Speaker 1: And and Roman and where they are deciding to show
Speaker 1: up and obviously Brock being on both shows especially. You
Speaker 1: know what does that tell you? First? Here, says Nick
Speaker 1: Wayne versus Blake Christian, this match was awesome. You love
Speaker 1: everything about it except for commentary making fun of you
Speaker 1: at the beatning of the match. What did they say?
Speaker 1: And who was it? I am sure that Dave praise
Speaker 1: Ach only says nice things about you, well normally he does.
Speaker 1: Was it praise Act. Actually it wasn't Praiseach. It was
Speaker 1: Lenny Leonard. It was Leonard. Yeah, it was Lenny Leonard
Speaker 1: and Kevin Gil. Kevin may not have said I want
Speaker 1: to I need a recap. Now tell you what, Nick Wayne,
Speaker 1: awesome match. I didn't. I didn't see to five fifty.
Speaker 1: I don't know where I can see that. It is
Speaker 1: that down the streaming service. I don't know, but I
Speaker 1: gotta see this match with Shane Strickland. He just had
Speaker 1: had a match with Ethan HD last weekend and Jordan
Speaker 1: Oliver last weekend as well to both sides of the
Speaker 1: Country Prestige Wrestling and g c W last weekend. Nick
Speaker 1: say it It's been said a zillion times, keeps putting
Speaker 1: on incredible performances for his age. It's amazing that people
Speaker 1: want to work with this kid. I get veterans that
Speaker 1: have been around more than double his age, triple his age,
Speaker 1: you know, and they actually want to work with him.
Speaker 1: It's an amazing thing. I'll never forget. After that Joey
Speaker 1: Janella match, Joy Janellis said that Nick Wayne was the
Speaker 1: best wrestler he'd ever been in the ring with. That's
Speaker 1: what Joey Janellis said during the Let's see what do
Speaker 1: we have here? Bryan, can you give me one and
Speaker 1: reason to watch WrestleMania this year? This from Dagan, I
Speaker 1: can tell I have zero interest in anything w W
Speaker 1: is putting out right now, knowing full well none of
Speaker 1: it matters. Well, listen, if you're gonna watch any w
Speaker 1: W show, then you should watch Wreustlemania. But you're not
Speaker 1: gonna have a whole lot that matters on any of
Speaker 1: the shows because it's at this point about creating content.
Speaker 1: It's not about doing long term storytelling. It's just you
Speaker 1: know what, the funny thing is, every now and then
Speaker 1: they actually do some long term storytelling and people get
Speaker 1: mad about it, like Bianca bell Air getting beaten in
Speaker 1: twenty six seconds of Summer Slam and then having to
Speaker 1: climb from the bottom Soul Survivor Survivor series win the
Speaker 1: Royal rumble. Why anybody believe in anything that they try
Speaker 1: to do. Yes, well it's happened so far. You gotta
Speaker 1: live in the mall. You could give me a break, Brian.
Speaker 1: We're looking at a look, excuse me, look at the
Speaker 1: stuff that they have done with Becky. Look at the
Speaker 1: sorry interludes and Becky, I mean this whole thing was
Speaker 1: coming off of I guess she's got her mojo back
Speaker 1: after looking like a puts against Leeda. She's slepping out
Speaker 1: there like a loser, after looking like a loser with
Speaker 1: Charlotte talking down to her and Ronda talking down to her,
Speaker 1: saying that they're not even she's not even worth her time. Boy,
Speaker 1: this has been fantastic. What a great build. Look, the
Speaker 1: bottom line is they haven't done a great build. What
Speaker 1: they found about was whether it was accidental or not.
Speaker 1: Bianca bell Air and do Drop have great chemistry, and
Speaker 1: that's been the thing that has been at least going on,
Speaker 1: is the fact that Bianca is winning and she actually
Speaker 1: has had do drop out there to look good against
Speaker 1: and thank God for that because that's been the only
Speaker 1: thing she's had. That's it. That's all. Listen, everybody, listen
Speaker 1: to me. If you don't like what they've done, fine, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's your opinion. But the fact of the matter is, Brian,
Speaker 1: let's play out. They did a storyline where Becky Lynch
Speaker 1: returned and beat Bianca bell Air in twenties six seconds
Speaker 1: at SummerSlam, and the story was a Bianca would fight
Speaker 1: her way back to the top and win the title
Speaker 1: at wrestle Media. If you don't like the way that
Speaker 1: they did it, that's fine. Sole Survivor Survivor Series, she
Speaker 1: won the Women's Royal Rumble. Hey, listen, If she loses
Speaker 1: a WrestleMania whatever, okay, but I expect her to beat
Speaker 1: Becky Lynch at WrestleMania, and she probably hope she does
Speaker 1: in a place where plans change, though it's hard to
Speaker 1: really believe that. I don't know if this has been
Speaker 1: so pure from them the entire time. I I can't
Speaker 1: believe that. Look how many times they've changed their minds
Speaker 1: on other things and decisions that they've made I'd like
Speaker 1: to believe that that's the case. It's hard to give
Speaker 1: them any credit for it, though, it really is, especially
Speaker 1: with the way that they've done Becky, especially with the
Speaker 1: way this thing's gone along. It really hasn't gone to
Speaker 1: make Bianca really any better. It just gives her a
Speaker 1: victory again. She's I don't think, in any better position
Speaker 1: now than she wasn't. That's unfortunate. Sheep should be a
Speaker 1: lot bigger star than what she is. Person says who
Speaker 1: has left for Roman Reigns after Brock, mad Cap, Moss
Speaker 1: bro We all know who's left for Roman Reigins. Nobody, okay,
Speaker 1: and it's not new. It's not new. This has been
Speaker 1: the case for the last year. Oh we need someone
Speaker 1: for Roman Reigns. Well, you know, let's pluck to Sorrow
Speaker 1: out of the bottom of the card and we'll give
Speaker 1: him a three week push, and then he's gonna have
Speaker 1: a match and no one's gonna believe he can win,
Speaker 1: and then he'll be defeated, and then we'll move on
Speaker 1: to the next guy we pluck out of the mid card.
Speaker 1: That's all that's gonna happen until next year, when they
Speaker 1: think they're getting a Rock but I'm telling you right
Speaker 1: now my prediction for it's not gonna be a rock
Speaker 1: and Roman reigns in WrestleMania back in a moment of
Speaker 1: Server Live back in the show Bright nowbur is here
Speaker 1: Wrestling Observer Live Mixcember V also Wrestling Observer dot Com. Firstance, Brian,
Speaker 1: what is your prediction on the Tony con announcement on Wednesday?
Speaker 1: I I honest to god, I have no earthly idea.
Speaker 1: He says it's not about one specific guy. It's good
Speaker 1: for the whole industry, which would include w w E.
Speaker 1: By the way, I don't know streaming service. How's that
Speaker 1: good for w w E. I mean, he didn't specifically
Speaker 1: say w w even he say it would be good
Speaker 1: for the entire business. Well, the business a lot of
Speaker 1: times doesn't mean w w E when people talk about it.
Speaker 1: So I say the whole business. That's w w E.
Speaker 1: New Japan stardom a necessarily because it benefits the bit. Look,
Speaker 1: if he's to buy let's say Shimmers Video Library from
Speaker 1: from Dave Prazak, right, and he's to buy Ring of Honor,
Speaker 1: or he's to buy whoever's he's to buy whatever. Okay,
Speaker 1: Sinclair's sucking it on the whole deal that Fox got
Speaker 1: over on him with the with the with the sports
Speaker 1: from networks. They they're hemorrhaging money. We saw that they
Speaker 1: shuddered a lot, even though they did a lot for
Speaker 1: Ring of Honors. Say it's a right. Let's just say hypothetically,
Speaker 1: it's at that's better for the wrestling business realistically than
Speaker 1: ww having it bearing it. It's not good for ww E,
Speaker 1: but it's good for the wrestling business because this stuff
Speaker 1: survives instead of going to a vault and dying, because
Speaker 1: it would be a new service that he's providing and
Speaker 1: he's got content and brings value to it. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it would actually be that way. I don't think when
Speaker 1: a lot of people talk about like it's gonna be
Speaker 1: better for the business, they don't mean w w E.
Speaker 1: He's he said that this is this is an equivalent
Speaker 1: of the first dance CM Punk returning to this business
Speaker 1: after eight years selling out the Chicago or the whatever
Speaker 1: they call it. I mean if he came on TV
Speaker 1: and said I bought the Shimmer Tape Library or they
Speaker 1: r Wage Tape Library, I mean, that would be great
Speaker 1: to keep it alive, But would fans see that the
Speaker 1: same way they saw the return of CM punk to wrestling.
Speaker 1: I have no idea what it is, no clue. I
Speaker 1: gotta talk to Dave anyway, right time Banks, Mike is
Speaker 1: always Colors lest something you know, Tek new summer skims
Speaker 1: over live. You have been listening to the Wrestling Observer
Speaker 1: Daily podcast on the eight Side Network.