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 2: Live from San Francisco. I'm a Sports Byline Broadcasting network.
Speaker 2: You are listening to Wrestling Observer Live with your hosts,
Speaker 2: Brian Alvarez and Mike Semperviv. Are you ready? Are you ready?
Speaker 2: Let's get it off.
Speaker 3: Let's get it. Mike semper Viv here with you for
Speaker 3: the next hour talking about professional wrestling, which is something
Speaker 3: we do every single day here on the Sports Byline
Speaker 3: Broadcasting Network. Tune in, iHeart American Forces Radio, Sports Byline
Speaker 3: dot Com, over the air affiliates like KMAV ninety nine,
Speaker 3: KMSR and The Mightier ten ninety podcast replays on Sirius XM,
Speaker 3: or maybe you're video streaming on Twitter or YouTube. However
Speaker 3: you're joining me today, I'd just like to say thank you,
Speaker 3: hopefully wherever you are at Sonny outside, and if not,
Speaker 3: hopefully it's Sonny inside. Your beautiful day here on Del Marva.
Speaker 3: As always, it is a busy weekend in the world
Speaker 3: of professional wrestling, and I'm here to take you through it. Sadly,
Speaker 3: neither the boss Man nor Filthy will be joining me today.
Speaker 3: Brian is volunteering at his kids' school, while Tom is
Speaker 3: still gathering his senses after his battle with Satoshi Kojima
Speaker 3: at last night's MLW show. He may need to take
Speaker 3: some time off, and you know who else needs to
Speaker 3: take some time off, Sammy Zain. In this week's Wrestling
Speaker 3: Observer newsletter, which was posted up to the website today,
Speaker 3: Dave Meltzer notes that Sammy Zain asked for and was
Speaker 3: granted some time off. No reason was given as to why,
Speaker 3: but he was written off raw on Monday night after
Speaker 3: he was attacked by Drew McIntyre. Zain is not scheduled
Speaker 3: for the December twenty eighth house show taking place in Laval, Quebec.
Speaker 3: With Zay not there, it's a pretty safe bet that
Speaker 3: Kevin Owens will be and it's also a pretty safe
Speaker 3: bet that Kevin Owens is going to be a part
Speaker 3: of tonight's SmackDown and when we get back from break
Speaker 3: preview that show for you, as well as everything else
Speaker 3: that takes place over the next couple of days. Aw
Speaker 3: Rampage is also tonight, with Collision taking place on Saturday.
Speaker 3: Both shows were already taped. No spoilers know, so don't worry.
Speaker 3: There will be predictions though, as I will go through
Speaker 3: Saturday's NXT Deadline show and give you who I think
Speaker 3: is going to win to Iron Survivor Challenge matches as
Speaker 3: well as Ilia Dragonoff defending the NXT Championship against Baron Corbin.
Speaker 3: Impact Wrestling also has a show on Saturday, as does GCW.
Speaker 3: New Japan's Tag League is wrapping up, which means we're
Speaker 3: getting ready for the Tokyo Dome. We'll try to get
Speaker 3: into all of that stuff and more when we get
Speaker 3: back from Break Wrestling Observer Live that the Casa Alvarez
Speaker 3: has caused some havoc here, so audio only today, I'll
Speaker 3: be tweeting that out here shortly to let everybody know
Speaker 3: about that who's trying to check out the show live.
Speaker 3: But hey, you know, if you're if you're not sick
Speaker 3: of us, or if you just want to curse at us,
Speaker 3: you can do that anytime you want on Twitter or
Speaker 3: X or whatever you want to call. And I am
Speaker 3: at Semperviv, Brian is at Brian Alvarez, Filthy is at Filthy,
Speaker 3: Tom Lawler, and of course at Sports Byline USA. Another
Speaker 3: one to remember at tune in, because what better way
Speaker 3: is there to listen to Wrestling Observer Live than through
Speaker 3: the Sports Byline USA broadcasting network, which airs twenty four
Speaker 3: to seven with a live stream on the tune in app.
Speaker 3: If you got one of those Alexa gimmicks, just tell Alexa,
Speaker 3: hey play Wrestling Observer live. Play Sports Byline USA on
Speaker 3: tune in. That's all you gotta do. And I want
Speaker 3: you to make the Wrestling News part of your day
Speaker 3: as well. You can tell your Alexa to do that too.
Speaker 3: Play the Wrestling News podcast. Yes, you can. Everything you
Speaker 3: need to know to get your day started, get you
Speaker 3: up to date, or get you to your favorite wrestling
Speaker 3: review pod daily free in between five and fifteen minutes long.
Speaker 3: No clickbait, no speculation, no rumors, no paywall, just the
Speaker 3: Wrestling News. For more information, head on over to the
Speaker 3: Wrestling News dot com and at Wrestling newsav on Facebook
Speaker 3: and Twitter. Since we're having a day like this anyway,
Speaker 3: I'll take Brian not being here and I'll take these
Speaker 3: technical snafoos to continue to pimp myself. I'm on this
Speaker 3: week's Sports Guys talking wrestling with my friend Stu Myrik.
Speaker 3: It's wrestling guys talking football as well as we get
Speaker 3: heavy into the college football playoff selections and considering Stu
Speaker 3: went to ut and I'm a disgusting sec apologist. Florida
Speaker 3: State fans may roll their eyes, but to be honest,
Speaker 3: I don't blame them. Never trust the process people. I
Speaker 3: don't know who started that. I think it was Joelle embiid.
Speaker 3: He lied to you. Never trust the process, and frankly,
Speaker 3: probably don't trust the people who are doing that process either.
Speaker 3: Also joining us do on the show both the MLW
Speaker 3: champion Alex Kine and our very own filthy Tom Lawler.
Speaker 3: I'll also be filling in for Dave Meltzer on this
Speaker 3: weekend's McGuire on Wrestling with Mike McGuire of one oh
Speaker 3: six point one the Goat up there in lloyd Minster, Alberta,
Speaker 3: right there on the border of Saskatchewan. Shout out to
Speaker 3: all the truckers riding on the Trans Canada Highway. Shout
Speaker 3: out to all the truckers everywhere. Actually, because everyone that
Speaker 3: runs the roads for us, you're the ones who really
Speaker 3: keep terrestrial radio, in satellite radio, in podcasts, in business.
Speaker 3: I salute you. If you're on the road, you probably
Speaker 3: are not worried about checking out WWE SmackDown Tonight Live
Speaker 3: on Fox from the Amicam Mutual Pavilion in Providence, Rhode Island.
Speaker 3: It is the twenty first annual Tribute to the Troops
Speaker 3: edition of the show. Plenty of pre produced video packages
Speaker 3: to be had, surely, and we'll get a musical performance
Speaker 3: to start things off. WWE sent out a press release
Speaker 3: this morning announcing that The War and the Treaty I'm sorry,
Speaker 3: The War and Treaty will perform God Bless America. Quote.
Speaker 3: Grammy nominated duo The War and Treaty our husband and
Speaker 3: wife Para Michael and Tanya Trotter. Michael served in the
Speaker 3: US Army from two thousand and three to two thousand
Speaker 3: and seven, where he was stationed in Iraq from two
Speaker 3: thousand and four to two thousand and seven and one
Speaker 3: military idol during his term there. Surely we will have
Speaker 3: a robust USA chant at the conclusion of the song.
Speaker 3: When it comes to what's actually taking place in the ring.
Speaker 3: There's going to be two first round matches in the
Speaker 3: United States title tournament. Santos Escobar faces Dragon Lee and
Speaker 3: Bobby Lashley will face Carrie and Cross. Also announced for
Speaker 3: the show as Osca against Charlotte Flair. Last week's show
Speaker 3: went off the air with Randy Yorton in La Night
Speaker 3: Cleaning House on Jimmy Uso and Solo Soukoa as Paul
Speaker 3: Hayman told his phone to call Roman Reign, so I'm
Speaker 3: sure we're going to be getting some more of that.
Speaker 3: Earlier this afternoon, WWE also announced that Cody Rhodes will
Speaker 3: be making an appearance on tonight's show. Also, CM Punk
Speaker 3: will address the universe as well, speaking of the man
Speaker 3: who will speak on SmackDown, is it possible to be
Speaker 3: over a feud that has not even started yet? At
Speaker 3: least the in ring portion of the feud has not
Speaker 3: started yet. This comes from the front page of the
Speaker 3: website and was posted up by Ian Carry this afternoon.
Speaker 3: Seth Rollins recently went into detail regarding his animosity towards
Speaker 3: CM Punk. Rollins shold Jimmy Treina on the SI Media
Speaker 3: podcast that he believes Punk's perspective on the industry has
Speaker 3: quote been extremely self serving and that Punk has quote
Speaker 3: played the martyr role to a t Rollin said of
Speaker 3: his issues with Punk, quote A lot of it's personal,
Speaker 3: a lot of it is stuff that I don't want
Speaker 3: to get into. But for the most part, I think
Speaker 3: he's just been really selfish when he comes to his
Speaker 3: perspective on the industry, I think he's been extremely self serving,
Speaker 3: has played the martyr role to a t. Look. I
Speaker 3: don't get a lot of good things to say about
Speaker 3: parts of my relationship with him. He helped me in
Speaker 3: places where he didn't have to. Whether that was for
Speaker 3: his own good or not, I'm not entirely sure, but regardless,
Speaker 3: it helped me get to where I needed to go
Speaker 3: and do the things I needed to do. For a
Speaker 3: guy who, when I met him, made it seem like
Speaker 3: he was all about giving back to the business, he
Speaker 3: really turned into a pretty selfish guy and really wanted
Speaker 3: to take more from the industry.
Speaker 2: End quote.
Speaker 3: Rollins would then continue on to address Punk talking down
Speaker 3: to him and to WWE over the years, he said
Speaker 3: some really bad things about me. Talk down to me
Speaker 3: for years and the company for years. I'm talking some
Speaker 3: really bad stuff, called me a boot liquor and crap
Speaker 3: like that. You don't know me and you don't really
Speaker 3: know what I stand for. I'm a loyal person. I
Speaker 3: just felt pretty insulted by a lot of the ways
Speaker 3: he treated me, treated the place that I worked for,
Speaker 3: treated friends that I worked with.
Speaker 2: End quote.
Speaker 3: During the interview, Rollins even invoked the situation between Punk
Speaker 3: and former friend Cole Cabana and continued to be upset
Speaker 3: over how Punk talked about people. Quote. We actually love it.
Speaker 3: We want to give back to it, and we want
Speaker 3: to make it the best it can possibly be. And
Speaker 3: I always just felt he was a fraud in that sense,
Speaker 3: or at least he turned into one at some point
Speaker 3: in the last decade. That's the long of it. It's
Speaker 3: a deep, deep rooted I wouldn't call it a hatred,
Speaker 3: but certainly animosity. There's no animosity there, or there is
Speaker 3: animosity there, no doubt about it. End quote. As an
Speaker 3: objective observer, just sitting here on the outside, I believe
Speaker 3: all of that. I can understand why Rollins feels that way.
Speaker 3: But here's where the pro wrestling comes in. During the conversation,
Speaker 3: Rollins also claimed that he was not giving a heads
Speaker 3: up about Punk returning to WWE before Cult of Personality
Speaker 3: hit at Survivor series. He set his reactions that night
Speaker 3: at ringside and later in the back We're all genuine. However,
Speaker 3: our own Dave Meltzer reported that Rollins did know that
Speaker 3: punk was going to come out at the end of
Speaker 3: the show and his reaction to it was all part
Speaker 3: of building an angle. I mean, the one who did
Speaker 3: that right that night was Drew McIntyre, who for whatever
Speaker 3: reason left the ring, stormed out, was upset, got his
Speaker 3: stuff and left, and that has caused a far more question,
Speaker 3: or seemed to cause far more question over Seth Rollins
Speaker 3: and how upset he was or truly wasn't Because he
Speaker 3: was getting waste locked by Michael Cole and Corey Graves
Speaker 3: and flicking middle fingers and just screaming. It seemed like
Speaker 3: an angle to me. And much like I said about
Speaker 3: Daniel Bryan, Oh God, w w else will hate you
Speaker 3: for that. Brian Danielson and his eye injury and whether
Speaker 3: he bladed or whether there was a hard way or
Speaker 3: whatever it was that caused the blood to come out
Speaker 3: of his eye. You don't want to shy away from
Speaker 3: using reality. We kind of have to do that right now.
Speaker 3: With the way the business is, with the way that
Speaker 3: social media is, with the way that everything is, you
Speaker 3: do want to take those real things and build them
Speaker 3: into this story. And I'm not saying that CM Punk
Speaker 3: and Seth Rollins shouldn't do that, but I gotta be
Speaker 3: honest with everything that seth Rollins has said about Punk,
Speaker 3: and obviously Punk is going to have to respond to that.
Speaker 3: With seth rollins current character and the fact that he
Speaker 3: has talked so much and he was such a defender
Speaker 3: of WWE, I don't know. I want to see these
Speaker 3: guys Russell and I know, once they're in there together
Speaker 3: it should be pretty awesome. But everything else, the promos
Speaker 3: week after week after week, all these little things in
Speaker 3: the media, in this place, in that place. Man, I'm
Speaker 3: already tired of it, and we haven't even gotten to
Speaker 3: the feud yet. But there's a lot more to get into,
Speaker 3: including the aw shows coming up this weekend, Athenas, Got
Speaker 3: a Broken Nose, New Japan, and so much more. We'll
Speaker 3: be back Wrestling Observer Live.
Speaker 2: You are listening to Wrestling Observer Live on the Sports
Speaker 2: Byline Broadcasting Network.
Speaker 3: I apologize again to everybody out there who is listening
Speaker 3: to this on podcasts right now, because you're usually sitting
Speaker 3: there watching it live and oops, blame Brian on this one. Folks. Hey,
Speaker 3: ww's also running house shows this weekend too, if you
Speaker 3: happen to be around New York or Pennsylvania have nothing
Speaker 3: else better to do. Saturday night at the at the
Speaker 3: Adirondack I should say Bank Center in Utica, New York.
Speaker 3: And on Sunday they'll be on the campus of penn
Speaker 3: State University and the Bryce Jordan Center in State College, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 3: But that's enough WWE for now. We'll move it over
Speaker 3: into the Tony Conoverse. ROH World Women's Champion Athena suffered
Speaker 3: a broken nose recently. She was bloodied up during the
Speaker 3: ROH tapings held in Montreal on December fifth, after a
Speaker 3: match against local wrestler Roxanne. Athena was attacked by Billy
Speaker 3: Starks and her nose was busted open in the process.
Speaker 3: In a later deleted post, Athena wrote on social media
Speaker 3: that X rays revealed her nose as broken, but she
Speaker 3: still plans on wrestling at ROH Final Battle on December fifteenth,
Speaker 3: where her match with Starks is scheduled to be the headliner.
Speaker 3: In addition to that main event, the current lineup, which
Speaker 3: takes place in Garland, Texas, looks like this Survival of
Speaker 3: the fittest six way elimination match to crown a new
Speaker 3: ROH World TV champion. Dalton Castle against Commander against Lee
Speaker 3: Moriarty against Lee Johnson against Kyle Fletcher against an opponent
Speaker 3: to be named. Keith Lee will face Shane Taylor in
Speaker 3: a singles match. In an I quit match, Ethan Page
Speaker 3: faces Tony Nice. And this is no offense to anyone
Speaker 3: else on the show. But now what makes Final Battle,
Speaker 3: at least to me is the special challenge match that
Speaker 3: was offered up by the Blackpool Combat Club. Brian Danielson
Speaker 3: and Wheeler Yudah will team with either Claudio cashing Noley
Speaker 3: or John Moxley to face FTR and Mark Brisco. So
Speaker 3: the addition of that match, I think really puts it
Speaker 3: over the top. And I was wondering what they were
Speaker 3: going to add to this, and I was wondering if
Speaker 3: what they were going to add happens to be the
Speaker 3: main event. But no, Athena is going to be in
Speaker 3: the main event against Billy Starks. That's probably the best
Speaker 3: feud that they've had, hands down in ROH since it's
Speaker 3: come back, at least it's been. It seems like it
Speaker 3: feels like it at least. I don't know if that's
Speaker 3: necessarily the case, but it certainly feels like it's so.
Speaker 3: Athena and Billy Starks will get their flowers by being
Speaker 3: able to main event that show. Aw Dynamite writing from
Speaker 3: Wednesday night, the show drew eight hundred and twenty three
Speaker 3: thousand viewers overall on TBS, which is down about four
Speaker 3: percent from last week's eight hundred and fifty eight thousand.
Speaker 3: In the eighteen to forty nine year old demo, the
Speaker 3: show drew a point twenty five, which equates to about
Speaker 3: three hundred and twenty eight thousand viewers and is down
Speaker 3: nearly fifteen percent from last week. The show was actually
Speaker 3: up in people under eighteen and over fifty, and I'll
Speaker 3: wager that most of that bump came from the olds.
Speaker 3: They had a slight increase in women thirty five to
Speaker 3: forty nine as well, So there you go. During the
Speaker 3: NBA season, AAEW just needs to stay over eight hundred thousand.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 3: I mean, for the most part, I think they've done that.
Speaker 3: Eight hundred and four thousand, maybe the lowest. They may
Speaker 3: have had a couple of it may have an upper
Speaker 3: seven nineties there too. But as long as they stay
Speaker 3: over eight hundred thousan, I mean, I think that's probably
Speaker 3: a good number. You obviously want to aim for a million.
Speaker 3: You should be very happy over nine hundred thousand. But
Speaker 3: with the NBA going on right now, getting eight hundred
Speaker 3: thousand and having a let's just say a respectable number
Speaker 3: in the eighteen to forty nine demo, I mean, that's
Speaker 3: all you can really ask for. I mean, it's not like,
Speaker 3: obviously ESPN's got part of this too, But it's not
Speaker 3: like Warner Brothers Discovery is too upset over the fact that,
Speaker 3: you know, those some of those NBA games, you know
Speaker 3: they're paying for and they want those ratings. So there,
Speaker 3: I'm sure fine with it. AW Rampage Tonight on TNT.
Speaker 3: Match is taped on Wednesday from the Bell Center in Montreal.
Speaker 3: AW International Title Orange Castidey defends against a Helico. Avadon
Speaker 3: faces Trisha Dora, Keno, Skate Takeshta and Powerhouse Hobbs take
Speaker 3: on Christopher Daniels and Matt Sidell and in a There's
Speaker 3: one Continental Classic match Tonight. In the Blue League, Brian
Speaker 3: Danielson faces Daniel Garcia. Daniel sins has four points two wins,
Speaker 3: while Garcia is still looking for his first victory. AW
Speaker 3: Collision is Saturday night on TNT. Those matches were taped
Speaker 3: on Tuesday. Yes, you heard that correctly. The show on
Speaker 3: Saturday had matches taped on Tuesday, while the show on
Speaker 3: Friday had their matches taped on Wednesday. But they were
Speaker 3: both from the Bell Center in Montreal. No more regular
Speaker 3: season college football, so this would be a good week
Speaker 3: to steal a rating. Come next week, not only does
Speaker 3: the college football bowl season begin, but the NFL starts
Speaker 3: up at Saturday schedule. That's going to be bad for
Speaker 3: everybody else who is not broadcasting in an NFL game.
Speaker 3: The week after that is December twenty third, when you
Speaker 3: have both football and holiday travel, and then on December thirtieth,
Speaker 3: it's AW World's end at the Mausoleum that's otherwise known
Speaker 3: as the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Long Island. You
Speaker 3: can tell him not an Islanders fan, but who has
Speaker 3: been since nineteen eighty three. So that episode of Collision
Speaker 3: is likely being moved to Friday again. So this weekend
Speaker 3: feels like the one if you're going to bring up
Speaker 3: the December average to Tomorrow Night will probably be the
Speaker 3: one Cottineat Classic Blue League matches Eddie Kingston against Claudio
Speaker 3: and Brian Danielson against Andrade l Edelo, Kenny Omega faces
Speaker 3: Ethan Page to decide who gets bragging rights across Canada,
Speaker 3: plus Wardlow against Willie mack Willow, Nightingale against Mercedes Martinez,
Speaker 3: and in a tag match, Penta and Commander will take
Speaker 3: on Angelo Parker and Matt Menard. New Japan Pro Wrestling
Speaker 3: the World Tag League tournament finally wrapping up this weekend.
Speaker 3: The semifinals were held today in Kagashima at the Kiroshima
Speaker 3: City Makazono Arena. ISWGP World Tag Team Champions Bishamon who
Speaker 3: are a Roki Goto and Yoshi Hashid the Bullet Club
Speaker 3: war Dogs team of Alex Coglan and Gabe Kidd. In
Speaker 3: the other semi final, the Strong Tag Team Champions Guerrillas
Speaker 3: of Destiny, El Fantasmo and Hickoleo defeated tmdk's Mikey Nichols
Speaker 3: and Shane Haste. Those results led to the war Dogs
Speaker 3: in TMDK finishing the A block with ten points apiece,
Speaker 3: but Cogland and Kid advanced due to their head to
Speaker 3: head win over Nichols. In haste, God beat out Godo
Speaker 3: and Yoshahashi by one point in the B block, so
Speaker 3: it is going to be champions against champions for the
Speaker 3: right to face some champions. The finals take place on
Speaker 3: Sunday at the Grand Messe Kumamoto in the city of Mishiki.
Speaker 3: I think it's pretty obvious that Gorillas of Destiny go
Speaker 3: over and set up a title match at the Tokyo
Speaker 3: Dome against Godo and Yoshahashi. I was kind of hoping
Speaker 3: for Godo and Yoshahashi to win the tournament and then
Speaker 3: go into the Dome both as the tournament winners and
Speaker 3: the champions, because I just believe it opens up some
Speaker 3: fresher matches for that show. You could do Kaito Kiemia
Speaker 3: and Rio hey Oewa coming over from Noah. You could
Speaker 3: have done Impact Tag Champs, Ace Austin and Chris Bay.
Speaker 3: You could have done FTR. You could have done just
Speaker 3: about anything that you wanted if they had gone that route,
Speaker 3: but they did not. Very likely by the time Brian
Speaker 3: and I are back with you on Monday, we'll have
Speaker 3: the official card for Russell Kingdom eighteen on January fourth.
Speaker 3: If the announcement does not come on Monday, it shouldn't
Speaker 3: be any longer than Tuesday, as we're only about three
Speaker 3: full weeks away from that show. We kind of know
Speaker 3: the card already though, just because you know, this is
Speaker 3: how most wrestling promotions do their things outside of North America,
Speaker 3: certainly complete opposite of the way WWE often does things,
Speaker 3: which is, you know, add a bunch of matches late.
Speaker 3: I mean we see it with both Rampage and Collision,
Speaker 3: which announced match is today for shows that are already taped.
Speaker 3: We had a bunch of additions today, Cody Rhodes and
Speaker 3: other things added to SmackDown. But we've kind of know
Speaker 3: what the plan has been and is going to be
Speaker 3: when it comes to the Tokyo Dome. Obviously the main event,
Speaker 3: IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Sonata faces Tatsuya Naito. The semi
Speaker 3: main event, even though Kazushko Okada really wants this to
Speaker 3: be the main event. Okada faces Brian Danielson. There's going
Speaker 3: to be a three way for the IWGP United States
Speaker 3: title as Will Osprey defends against John Moxley and David Finley.
Speaker 3: New Japan World Television title. Zach Saber Junior will defend
Speaker 3: against Hiroshi Tanahashi IWGP World Tag titles. As I mentioned earlier,
Speaker 3: Bishamon will now face the World Tag League winners again,
Speaker 3: probably gonna be Guerroll's Destiny Junior Heavyweight tag titles Clark
Speaker 3: Connors and Drilla Maloney against TJP and Francesco Akira. Horomo
Speaker 3: Takahashi defends the World Junior Heavyweight Title against Desperado. Shingo
Speaker 3: Takagi defends the never Open Weight title against Tamatanga, And
Speaker 3: surely we are going to have a new Japan Rambo
Speaker 3: aka their Royal Rumble on the pre show. So we'll
Speaker 3: see how many of those matches. I would believe all
Speaker 3: of those matches are going to be announced. We'll see
Speaker 3: if any other foreigners work their way in. If we
Speaker 3: get Chris Jericho, do we get Claudio. I'm sure we're
Speaker 3: going to have some others on the show, but we'll
Speaker 3: have to wait and see what happens coming up. Like
Speaker 3: I said, it should be on Monday, but if not,
Speaker 3: I don't think it's going to be any later than Tuesday.
Speaker 3: Impact Wrestling is also running on Saturday. Final Resolution from
Speaker 3: the Don kolov Arena in Mississauga, Ontario. Pre show, Frankie
Speaker 3: Kazarian faces Sheldon Gan Impact World Tag Team titles, and
Speaker 3: this is on the main show, Ace Austin and Chris
Speaker 3: Bay will defend against Brian Myers and Eddie Edwards. Jordan
Speaker 3: Grace teams with Trinity to face Diana Parrazzo and Giselle Shaw.
Speaker 3: Re Rhino almost said ReHO Riho against Moose. That would
Speaker 3: be a match Rhino against Moose. That's gonna be. It's
Speaker 3: gonna be a slavery knocker, that's for sure. On the
Speaker 3: complete opposite of that, Speedball Mike Bailey will face Tray Miguel.
Speaker 3: Jake Something wrestles Jason Hotch for the Impact Digital Media title.
Speaker 3: Tommy Dreamer faces Diener and in the main event, Josh
Speaker 3: Alexander and Zach Saber Junior will face off against the
Speaker 3: MotorCity Machine Guns team of Alex Shelley and Chris Saban.
Speaker 3: There was some other Impact news today as well too.
Speaker 3: They've got a new streaming car carrier and we'll get
Speaker 3: into that when we come back, as well as my
Speaker 3: predictions coming up for Anick Steed deadline on Saturday night,
Speaker 3: we'll be back Wrestling Observer Alive.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you were listening to Wrestling Observer Live with Brian
Speaker 2: Alvarez and Mike Semperviv on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network.
Speaker 3: Mike semper Viv back here with you a Wrestling Observer Live.
Speaker 3: No filthy, no Brian, no video. How it goes sometimes
Speaker 3: that's all right though, will persevere through like Impact Wrestling
Speaker 3: has persevered through all of these years like a roach.
Speaker 3: You can't kill him. They can't be killed. T NA
Speaker 3: Wrestling's coming back, and now they have a new streaming carrier.
Speaker 3: And that streaming carrier is Endeavor Streaming. And before you go, wait, yes,
Speaker 3: the same Endeavor that owns WWE and UFC. It was
Speaker 3: announced today the TNA and Endeavor have reached a multi
Speaker 3: year deal for Endeavor Streaming to power the new TNA
Speaker 3: Plus app will launch on Friday, January fifth. TNA touted
Speaker 3: the app. Touted that the app is relaunching with a
Speaker 3: dynamic new look, with new expanded options and increased functionality.
Speaker 3: And most importantly, it's got two different price points too.
Speaker 3: The Special Attraction Tier is priced at nine to ninety
Speaker 3: nine a month over ninety five ninety nine per year
Speaker 3: and includes access to the full TNA Impact Wrestling Library
Speaker 3: in every TNA Plus special event. Then there is the
Speaker 3: World Championship Tier, which is priced at two hundred and
Speaker 3: nineteen ninety nine per year and includes those benefits as
Speaker 3: well as TNA's four major annual pay per views. Impact Plus,
Speaker 3: which was previously priced at seven ninety nine or seventy
Speaker 3: one to ninety nine per year, is going away. There
Speaker 3: was only one tier available, and that one did not
Speaker 3: include pay per views. He had to pick those up
Speaker 3: separately through Fight. Impact Wrestling is rebranding back to TNA,
Speaker 3: starting with the Hard to Kill pay per view on Saturday,
Speaker 3: January thirteenth. Quote. This is truly an incredible opportunity for
Speaker 3: us as we forge into an exciting new chapter of
Speaker 3: the TNA legacy. End quote That from TNA President Scott
Speaker 3: de Moore. Also in the same press release, and Devor
Speaker 3: Streaming Chief Commercial Officer Pete Bellamy said, quote, Wrestling fans
Speaker 3: are some of the most passionate in the world of
Speaker 3: sports and entertainment, and TNA Plus is the perfect, always on,
Speaker 3: personalized ott service to help TNA build a deeper relationship
Speaker 3: with its global audience.
Speaker 2: End quote.
Speaker 3: As I mentioned, in Deavor Streaming, a subsidiary of Endeavor
Speaker 3: which owns TKOS Holdings, the parent company of WWE and
Speaker 3: the UFC. So there you go. That's what's going on
Speaker 3: in the world of Impact here. Get into this NXT
Speaker 3: deadline show. Don't want to run out of time on
Speaker 3: this Saturday night. Peacock and the WWE Network from the
Speaker 3: Total Mortgage Arena in Bridgeport, Connecticut kind of downplayed my
Speaker 3: excitement for this week because I'm not excited about it.
Speaker 2: I'm not.
Speaker 3: It's not that I think it's going to be a
Speaker 3: poor show or anything like that. It's just just a show.
Speaker 3: Even with the Iron Survivor Challenge gimmick, which yes, as
Speaker 3: Brian said multiple times, as I will admit to it
Speaker 3: turned out a lot better than we thought it would
Speaker 3: last year. Both the men's and the women's matches, two
Speaker 3: people start out. Every five minutes, someone will enter until
Speaker 3: all five people are in the match. Whoever score was
Speaker 3: the most falls in twenty five minutes, regardless of having
Speaker 3: many people are in the match, will win the match.
Speaker 3: The men's die Jack Trick Williams, Josh Briggs, Brown Breaker,
Speaker 3: Tyler Bate. The winner will eventually get an NXT title
Speaker 3: match against Ilia Dragonoff. Everything screams that Trick Williams should
Speaker 3: win this, But there was another person that was on
Speaker 3: his phone and has been weird on his phone recently
Speaker 3: in the world of NXT. That is Josh Briggs. And
Speaker 3: nothing against Brooks Jensen, but Josh Briggs, at least when
Speaker 3: he comes to the eye test, looks like somebody that
Speaker 3: they would love to have on the main roster. I
Speaker 3: know saying, well, Mike, you know Vince's gone. You know
Speaker 3: that's not as important anymore. You're right, it's not as
Speaker 3: important anymore. But Josh Briggs has been in NXT now
Speaker 3: for a while. I don't know if you take that
Speaker 3: team and put him on the main roster that it's
Speaker 3: gonna be all that great. I think Josh Briggs seems
Speaker 3: to be far more advanced. But then again, maybe some
Speaker 3: of it's in the presentation. Maybe I'm getting worked here,
Speaker 3: maybe I'm getting fooled a little bit. But Josh Briggs
Speaker 3: seems like he's kind of ready to break out and
Speaker 3: do something else. At least that's my feeling on it.
Speaker 3: And again, he was weird on his phone at several times.
Speaker 3: I have a feeling that Carmelo Hayes is going to
Speaker 3: come out, and also to depending on where this match
Speaker 3: is placed, I mean that probably plays itself in to
Speaker 3: where Carmelo Hayes and what happens during the Carmelo Hayes
Speaker 3: and Trick Williams match. I would assume that the women's
Speaker 3: match is going to open the show and that this
Speaker 3: will be the main event, but we'll see. You know,
Speaker 3: we could also have the NFT title match be the
Speaker 3: main event. But long story short, I'm going to go
Speaker 3: out on a limb and say that Josh Briggs gets
Speaker 3: the victory somehow, whether that be through Carmelo and Trick
Speaker 3: having an issue and that causes a distraction, whether it
Speaker 3: be Lexus King, I don't know exactly what the how
Speaker 3: the whole thing is going to play out. I just
Speaker 3: have a feeling that Josh Briggs is gonna get the shot.
Speaker 3: Because here's the thing too, Josh Briggs can get this win.
Speaker 3: He doesn't have to beat Eliot dragon Off. In fact,
Speaker 3: I don't think either on the men's or the women's side,
Speaker 3: I don't think anybody, you know, no matter who wins,
Speaker 3: they don't have to get the title. They can have
Speaker 3: the title match but they can lose, and I think
Speaker 3: in the case of Briggs against Dragonoff, I don't think
Speaker 3: that's the worst thing in the world. So I'm gonna
Speaker 3: go with Josh Briggs getting the victory there, even though
Speaker 3: something's telling me maybe Trick Williams should should you know,
Speaker 3: if you're gonna put money on, somebody would probably be him,
Speaker 3: But I'm going with a long shot with Briggs. In
Speaker 3: the women's match, it's Tiffany Stratton, the Lash Legend, Blair Davenport,
Speaker 3: Klanie Jordan, and Fallon Henley again. The winner's gonna get
Speaker 3: an NXT World Women's title match against Lyra Valkyria. The
Speaker 3: two most obvious candidates to me are Tiffany Stratton and
Speaker 3: Fallon Henley. They have not done a whole lot with
Speaker 3: Tiffany Stratton here recently, and yes, she was out for
Speaker 3: a while with an injury all that, you know again,
Speaker 3: but even before that, and I believe that was at
Speaker 3: the Halloween Show that that happened, she has not been
Speaker 3: positioned in the same place that she was kind of
Speaker 3: as we entered exited last year at this time Stratton
Speaker 3: and Henley. I'm gonna go with Fallon Henley getting the
Speaker 3: victory because she's had a situation with Tatum Pasley in
Speaker 3: the past. You can kind of elevate Henley up a
Speaker 3: little bit. She can get the title shot. Stratton can
Speaker 3: get screwed out of it, and you can lead to
Speaker 3: whatever they're going to do with her. But maybe, and
Speaker 3: I could be wrong about this, but it also feels
Speaker 3: like Tiffany Stratton even though she should remain in NXT.
Speaker 3: I mean, frankly, you know, they pull people up too
Speaker 3: early and then they have people that are left down
Speaker 3: there for too long that then they decide to throw
Speaker 3: on the main roster and go, Okay, let's see if
Speaker 3: they can sink or swim. You know. Tiffany Stratton I
Speaker 3: think should be on the main roster. And I don't
Speaker 3: know if that's going to happen at Royal Rumble, you know,
Speaker 3: and seeing her there and then maybe debut after rustle Mania,
Speaker 3: I'm not quite sure what direction that's going to go.
Speaker 3: But I'm not sure how much more Stratton can really
Speaker 3: get accomplished in NXD, other than being able to put
Speaker 3: some more work in. But she can also do that
Speaker 3: on the road with WWE on the main roster. NXT
Speaker 3: Championship ilia Draggonoff against Baron Corbin. It's dragging Off's third defense.
Speaker 3: I'm sure boss Man's going to be all excited about
Speaker 3: this one. I think it's a really good matchup. I
Speaker 3: think they've told a groat a really good story. I
Speaker 3: think Corbin has been perfect in his role. I think
Speaker 3: dragging Off as great and as passionate as he is,
Speaker 3: and as much as I can believe that the man
Speaker 3: is and works himself into a frenzy, I do think
Speaker 3: his segments go on for too long. I do think
Speaker 3: it's a little bit Mello dramatic with the way he
Speaker 3: brings himself up and brack down again, and all the
Speaker 3: movements and the machinations and all that, and you know,
Speaker 3: all of the stuff during the promos. I wish they
Speaker 3: would kind of temper some of that back a little bit,
Speaker 3: because if there was not a lot of that rigamarole
Speaker 3: leading in to his psycho hug of Baron Corbin on Wednesday,
Speaker 3: I think they could have or on Tuesday, I think
Speaker 3: it would have come off better. But long story short,
Speaker 3: I think dragon Off keeps the title, and I don't
Speaker 3: know what's next for Baron KORbin, but I have enjoyed
Speaker 3: him a lot in NXT nxd's North American Title on
Speaker 3: the line Dominic Mysterio against Dragon Lee. Ray Masterio is
Speaker 3: going to be in Lee's corner on SmackDown. Tonight, Dragon
Speaker 3: Lee faces Santos Escobar in the US title Tournament. I
Speaker 3: believe that Lee will get the victory there, which can
Speaker 3: spill over very very nicely into Saturday. Escobar could beat
Speaker 3: Lee down after the match and weaken him, or show
Speaker 3: up during the match and maybe, you know, get into
Speaker 3: a mysterio do something they costly the match of both.
Speaker 3: You know, he could beat him down and appear tomorrow
Speaker 3: we'll see. One other piece of fantasy booking for me
Speaker 3: is that Saturday may be a good night for Escobar
Speaker 3: to pick up two partners, and not in the way
Speaker 3: that he did with Cruz del Toro and Joaquin Wilde,
Speaker 3: who were, if you recall, kidnapped in the parking lot.
Speaker 3: The NXT parking lot the most dangerous place on earth.
Speaker 3: But maybe Escobar could scoop up on hell Garza and
Speaker 3: Umberto Koreo and take them over to the main roster.
Speaker 3: It might be unnecessary, as Escobar is surely going to
Speaker 3: be teaming with Logan Paul against the LWO at some point,
Speaker 3: but it's not like Paul is going to be wrestling
Speaker 3: every week on SmackDown. As we get to the Royal Rumbles,
Speaker 3: so we'll see. I would love to see those guys
Speaker 3: come up though, So my prediction Dominic Mysteri overtains. Cage
Speaker 3: match Roxanne Perez against Keana James. We started this feud
Speaker 3: with a gimmick match, and we are going to end
Speaker 3: it with a gimmick match. At Halloween Havoc, they had
Speaker 3: a Devil's Playground match, which Roxanne won. Then they would
Speaker 3: go on to cost each other the chance of making
Speaker 3: the Iron Survivor Challenge, and here we are. People have
Speaker 3: rumbled about Kora Jade returning because the match is in
Speaker 3: the cage, and we know how cage matches work. They're
Speaker 3: not made to keep anybody out anymore. They're made for
Speaker 3: somebody to come running in somehow. Who knows what will
Speaker 3: happen here, but I don't think with what they're doing
Speaker 3: right now with Keana James, that you want to go
Speaker 3: ahead and beat her. You've had enough of her tripping
Speaker 3: up on TV leading into the Iron Survivor matches. So
Speaker 3: I'll go with Keana James getting the victory here. Carmelo
Speaker 3: Hayes against Lexus King. Again, it will be interesting to
Speaker 3: see where they put the matches on the show, because
Speaker 3: again I have a feeling whatever happens here is going
Speaker 3: to dribble its way over into the Iron Survivor Challenge match.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go with Lexus King getting the victory here
Speaker 3: because let's just say it is Carmelo Hayes that has
Speaker 3: been responsible or partially responsible for payn Blues and agony
Speaker 3: that it was laid upon Trick Williams. Well, Carmelo Hayes
Speaker 3: being pissed off at Trick Williams for winning the Iron
Speaker 3: Survivor Challenge and getting a title shot while he's now
Speaker 3: losing the Lexus King. You know, it's a way to
Speaker 3: further that storyline. If you don't want to do any
Speaker 3: physical between Carmelo and Trick and Lexus tonight, we'll see
Speaker 3: what happens. I've been King gets the victory. He's got
Speaker 3: to get one at some point here. And then on
Speaker 3: the kickoff show, Axiom, who has not won a singles
Speaker 3: match on NXT Proper, which means not level up. He
Speaker 3: hasn't won a singles match since May second, when he
Speaker 3: defeated Scripts. If anybody remembers that feud. My prediction here
Speaker 3: Axiom wins just because Axium hasn't won any matches in
Speaker 3: a while, and then now Nathan Fraser can have two
Speaker 3: losses in a row. He lost obviously Delia Dragon Off
Speaker 3: a couple of weeks ago. He loses to Axiom tonight.
Speaker 3: We'll see if there's a handshake or not. We'll see
Speaker 3: maybe if Nathan Fraser accepts what Axiom said on this
Speaker 3: past Tuesday show and maybe goes back to the mask.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't do that though. I wouldn't do that maybe
Speaker 3: for a short period. But these two getting together and
Speaker 3: going after the NXT Tag Team titles, or at least
Speaker 3: being involved in that mix, that's probably the best way
Speaker 3: to go for right now, especially because the other titles
Speaker 3: are tied up anyway. So that's what I think is
Speaker 3: going to happen. Do not put any money on any
Speaker 3: of that. If you want to put any money on
Speaker 3: some of my predictions, well, during ball season, I'll give
Speaker 3: you those. I can tell you right now. Though, whatever
Speaker 3: the line is on Oregon and Liberty take Oregon, I
Speaker 3: don't care if it goes up to twenty five and
Speaker 3: a half, you're gonna stomp Liberty. We'll be back Wrestling
Speaker 3: Observer Live.
Speaker 2: You are listening to Wrestling Observer Live on the Sports
Speaker 2: Byline Broadcasting Network.
Speaker 3: Whether you're Wrestling Observer Live, I'd like to put a
Speaker 3: bow on this thing again. Apologies for all you out
Speaker 3: there listening or cursing right now, cursing your device, cursing
Speaker 3: your radio, cursing your phone. That's all right. Look, we'll
Speaker 3: be back with the video on Monday. Once boss Man
Speaker 3: gets back in, everything will be taken care of and
Speaker 3: Brian and I will be back then. I believe you're
Speaker 3: going to get Brian and Dave this Saturday night after
Speaker 3: the NXT show. Realistically it's early early Sunday morning. They'll
Speaker 3: be back with a full review of that. I'm not
Speaker 3: sure because I haven't really been on social media today.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure if Dave is going to be doing
Speaker 3: his regular Friday night Saturday morning show with Garrett, but
Speaker 3: I believe that he will, at least I'll just guess
Speaker 3: that he will. But you know, today was a great
Speaker 3: example of have backup plans, folks. You know, have some
Speaker 3: other things in the Chamber. If you're always watching us
Speaker 3: on YouTube or on twitch, we thank you for that.
Speaker 3: But don't forget about the radio aspect of this. This
Speaker 3: is a radio show. That's how this thing started off.
Speaker 3: And you can always check us out by going to
Speaker 3: the Sports Byline USA website. There's a direct link there
Speaker 3: where you can listen to not only this show, but
Speaker 3: of course everything that takes place on Sports Byline USA,
Speaker 3: whether it be Rick Total, whether it be the best
Speaker 3: of Ron Bar, whether it be Farrell coming up here
Speaker 3: in a little bit, any of that stuff. You can
Speaker 3: do it directly through there, or you can listen through
Speaker 3: tune in. I put them over early on today. I
Speaker 3: should not have done that is they're having issues with
Speaker 3: their stream right now. But take a listen again five
Speaker 3: pm Pacific time APM Eastern time. Hopefully that feat will
Speaker 3: be up for that. That is when the show is
Speaker 3: replayed APM Eastern time every single day. If you happen
Speaker 3: to miss us when we're live, you can always check
Speaker 3: it out later. You can do that through tune in,
Speaker 3: you can do that through Ihearten. Of course, you can
Speaker 3: do that directly through Sports Byline USC, through Sports Byline USA,
Speaker 3: and of course, you can check out the show via
Speaker 3: podcast over at Wrestlingobserver dot com. Hey, it was an
Speaker 3: easy day for him. I want to thank producer John
Speaker 3: for pulling his hair out and dealing with the nonsense
Speaker 3: that Brian left him with earlier on today. I want
Speaker 3: to thank producer Daniel for putting up with my nonsense
Speaker 3: every single Friday. And I want to thank all of
Speaker 3: you out there for listening to me. As I mentioned,
Speaker 3: Brian and I will be back, and he will be
Speaker 3: back with Dave from members of Wrestling Observer dot com
Speaker 3: and uh yeah, you know what. I'm out of words,
Speaker 3: I'm out of gas, I'm tapping out. We'll talk to
Speaker 3: you again after a while.
Speaker 1: You have been listening to the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast
Speaker 1: on the eight Side Network