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,
Speaker 1: let's get it all. How's it going, everybody? Brian Alvarez
Speaker 1: here on or Wrestling Observer Live. We are here every
Speaker 1: day Monday through Friday, now Pacific three Eastern, Sunday three Pacific,
Speaker 1: sixth Eastern. Well, it is Wednesday here on this program,
Speaker 1: and you know what that means. I'm back. I'm here today.
Speaker 1: It's gone yesterday. I don't know what Mike Dinner didn't
Speaker 1: tell you, but that's long story. But the story continues today.
Speaker 1: As my children have given me their illness stricken. I
Speaker 1: am here today, damn, and I'm here for you all.
Speaker 1: And I got a lot to talk about here today.
Speaker 1: And we've got a special co host will be joining
Speaker 1: us in the next segment. Jim Valley is returning here
Speaker 1: to the program him today. Let see how Jim Valley
Speaker 1: is doing. We'll talk all of the news, and boy,
Speaker 1: we got plenty of news talk about here today. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't hear yesterday. I think Mike got all of the news.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna let him. He handled the raw report. I
Speaker 1: don't think I need to do it again. But I
Speaker 1: can do the n x T two point oh report
Speaker 1: today because a lot of stuff happening on that show,
Speaker 1: and it was he go home show for the WrestleMania weekend,
Speaker 1: and so yeah, we'll get into that here today. I
Speaker 1: a WS tonight as well for Dynamite, and I have
Speaker 1: a lot to say when it as it pertains to
Speaker 1: n x T and an article that came out ESPN
Speaker 1: w W talking about their N I L deals and everything.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not like I haven't talked about this before,
Speaker 1: but I watched n x T last night, I read
Speaker 1: this article and I was like, holy smokes, whatever, not
Speaker 1: my company. But we'll tell you about that here today.
Speaker 1: Shane McMahon, it's going to be around for WrestleMania. I
Speaker 1: know now everybody's expecting that he is going to be
Speaker 1: the the opponent of seth Rawlins, and hey, listen, until
Speaker 1: it happens, nothing is official, but I do expect it's
Speaker 1: still seth Rawlins versus Cody at WrestleMania. But it is
Speaker 1: interesting to the the original seth Rawlings opponent for WrestleMania
Speaker 1: was Shane McMahon. I've got raw ratings showed it a
Speaker 1: huge number for the go home show on Monday night,
Speaker 1: and a bunch of other stuff as well. There's so
Speaker 1: much to get into. We won't get into all of it,
Speaker 1: but you know what we're gonna try. So I'm back
Speaker 1: in a moment with more Observer Live back in the show.
Speaker 1: Brian Albert is here wrestling Observer Live. Mike Simper Baby
Speaker 1: not joining us here today. Instead we have Jim Valley
Speaker 1: and Jim, I gotta ask you a couple of questions,
Speaker 1: but then I had the epiphany to end all. Epiphany
Speaker 1: is the greatest idea I've ever had in my lifetime. Yeah,
Speaker 1: how are you, Jim? What's going on? Great? I'm fantastic.
Speaker 1: It's great to be back. I missed everybody. What's going on? Well,
Speaker 1: let me just start. It's been so long as I've
Speaker 1: been on the show. I have literally been waiting years
Speaker 1: to show you this. As people might remember, I would
Speaker 1: show up at your house in the studio there with you,
Speaker 1: yes pret COVID, and for some reason you started noticing
Speaker 1: that I was wearing different T shirts all the time
Speaker 1: and you didn't wear the same shirt every day. It
Speaker 1: was weird, and you gave me the name Shorty V
Speaker 1: based on member Chad Gable Shorty V. That's so long
Speaker 1: it's been And I've had this shirt literally waiting for
Speaker 1: years for you, Brian, and here it is. You ready,
Speaker 1: I'm ready for you. It's the Roddy Piper all out
Speaker 1: of Bubblegum John not a they lived t shirt. Wow.
Speaker 1: You know I remember meeting Roddy once and he was
Speaker 1: all out of bubblegum. That was a rough time out
Speaker 1: of a lot of things. So so, Jim, I mean,
Speaker 1: can we tell people what today is all about? Or
Speaker 1: or are we just gonna uh, we can talk about
Speaker 1: whatever you want. Well, are you thinking of making a
Speaker 1: big comeback here Saturdays? So here's what I'm thinking. I
Speaker 1: think that as far as my voice goes, honestly, it
Speaker 1: was never great and and I appreciate the YouTube comments
Speaker 1: for telling me that. But you know, this is probably
Speaker 1: about as good as it's going to get. And I
Speaker 1: think my lung capacity is enough that I'm not taking
Speaker 1: breaths constantly. Course I did that before anyway, But I'm
Speaker 1: gonna try this, see how this feels, and if this works,
Speaker 1: then let's let's come back. And if there's a better
Speaker 1: time than Wrestlemany. It just feels like if this is
Speaker 1: as good it's gonna get, then this is the time
Speaker 1: to make the move when everything's happening. So you're thinking
Speaker 1: about this coming Saturday, WrestleManias Saturday, making a big return
Speaker 1: to the Byline airwaves. If Byline has the people and
Speaker 1: we have the technology, I have been rebuilt, let's let's
Speaker 1: make it happen again. Well, we'll see what I can
Speaker 1: figure out during the break. Right here, I probably should
Speaker 1: ask again if if this sounds terrible to people, I
Speaker 1: don't want to do it. I'll just you know, who
Speaker 1: cares about the people, Jim, don't listen to these nerds,
Speaker 1: especially the ones on the YouTube chat. Ignore him. They
Speaker 1: bought my T shirts, they donated to my go fund,
Speaker 1: But now I love the the empire. Well, listen, I
Speaker 1: gotta get into my idea here, Jim, we can ship
Speaker 1: chat more later. I was just thinking about this during
Speaker 1: the break. Is it only fans? So listen, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: start by reading this article. Shane McMahon will be in
Speaker 1: Dallas for Wrestle Meny weekend. According to a report People
Speaker 1: Are You Inside reports ww is bringing mcamahon in for
Speaker 1: the entire Mania weekend, his first time back with the companies,
Speaker 1: is being phased out following this year's Royal Rumble event.
Speaker 1: Report does not state whether or not they're recruiting of
Speaker 1: plans for McMahon, or even if he will appear on
Speaker 1: either night of WrestleMania. Justin he will be in town
Speaker 1: and is being brought in by Deputy w W E.
Speaker 1: McMahon was originally penciled in for a WrestleMania about against
Speaker 1: seth Rawlins and a spot in the elimination Chamber match
Speaker 1: in Saudi Arabian February, but was sent away after unprofessional
Speaker 1: conduct at the Royal Rumble, including talking down to producer
Speaker 1: Jamie Noble. According to our reporting in the February seventh
Speaker 1: edition of The Observer, Dave wrote every single story we've heard,
Speaker 1: multiple multiple lined many times over, he was unprofessional, the
Speaker 1: likes of which left v k M no options but
Speaker 1: to fire him. And there's a whole bunch more here
Speaker 1: you can read on the front page of Rustling Observer
Speaker 1: dot com. But boy, did this ever get me thinking?
Speaker 1: And this is not a finished idea because I literally
Speaker 1: just came up with it during the break, but I
Speaker 1: started thinking about this a little bit. So what do
Speaker 1: we know. Well, we know that seth Rawlins does not
Speaker 1: have an opponent for WrestleMania. We know that the original
Speaker 1: opponent for seth Rawlins was going to be Shane McMahon.
Speaker 1: We know that Shane McMahon was I don't know if
Speaker 1: fired is the right word, but he was sent home.
Speaker 1: All plans for Shane McMahon were out the window. They
Speaker 1: were not gonna do anything with him. He was gone.
Speaker 1: And then we also know that Cody left a w
Speaker 1: and I just believed the Cody is signed, sealed and
Speaker 1: delivered with w W E And at least as of
Speaker 1: several days ago, the plans were still that it was
Speaker 1: going to be Cody versus seth Rawlins at WrestleMania. So
Speaker 1: this is all we got all this, that's where we
Speaker 1: are when this story came out. So of course, when
Speaker 1: this story broke that Shane is uh. Essentially what's happened
Speaker 1: is they bought plane tickets for Shane McMahon. We don't
Speaker 1: know anything other than that. We just know that he's
Speaker 1: got tickets to go to to Dallas. So this of
Speaker 1: course got everyone thinking, oh my god, can you imagine
Speaker 1: maybe the thing with Cody fell through and it's actually
Speaker 1: gonna be Shane McMahon versus Seth Rawlins. And then you
Speaker 1: know they're thinking about can you imagine if like Seth
Speaker 1: is in the ring and everyone's chanting Cody's name, and
Speaker 1: then they hit Shane McMahon's music and it's actually Shane
Speaker 1: McMahon versus Cody, And I'm trying to imagine what the
Speaker 1: the Dallas crowd would do if that was the actual
Speaker 1: match of If that's you know, they're all expecting one
Speaker 1: matching to get the other, one would be like an
Speaker 1: incredible heat and everything like that. Then I was saying,
Speaker 1: you know what they can do for heat is they
Speaker 1: just play Shane's music, but that's like Cody's new theme song.
Speaker 1: And you know Cody, he's got signed from a W
Speaker 1: so he's got all this money, money, money, And then
Speaker 1: I thought, you know what the storyline can be that
Speaker 1: Shane they bring they bring Seth down to the ring,
Speaker 1: they do, in fact, hit Shane McMahon's music. Shane McMahon
Speaker 1: starts coming down to the ring, the place is furious
Speaker 1: because it's Shane McMahon, and then of course Shane grabs
Speaker 1: the mike and announces that he is in fact brought
Speaker 1: in the A E W E V P. It would
Speaker 1: be just like in two thousand one when Vince was
Speaker 1: going to announced that he bought World champions pressing, but
Speaker 1: the storyline Shane showed up and he had purchased World
Speaker 1: Championship bressling. It would be playing off that Tony con
Speaker 1: prom with it did a few weeks ago, where Tony said, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I purchased a Ring of Honor. It wasn't Shane,
Speaker 1: because I was playing off two thousand one. Well, it
Speaker 1: turns out on storyline, Shane McMahon is so angry that
Speaker 1: he was sent home from the Royal Rumble and fired
Speaker 1: that he went out and he has started his own group.
Speaker 1: And the first sign he is Cody, and him and
Speaker 1: Cody are showing up to invade, and of course they
Speaker 1: beat seth Rons and they beat him down, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, we'd have to get some other folks to uh,
Speaker 1: some former a W folks to show up in this,
Speaker 1: uh this deal. But I think there's a way that
Speaker 1: you can make this work. I don't think at all
Speaker 1: that they're gonna do it, but I just started thinking
Speaker 1: about it during the break when everyone was thinking about Oh,
Speaker 1: I'd be so mad if they he played Shane's music. Ah,
Speaker 1: they'd be furious if it was Shane versus Seth instead.
Speaker 1: So I think that there's a way that this could
Speaker 1: be done. You're missing a key part. What is that, Jim,
Speaker 1: That's why my face just turned white? How often has
Speaker 1: w w E in the past used a surrogate character
Speaker 1: to make fun of somebody else? Well, I mean they
Speaker 1: actually they actually did it with Robert Stone and x
Speaker 1: T when for a while he was supposed to be
Speaker 1: Tony Cohn. So Shane McMahon becomes Tony Kahn, and they're
Speaker 1: going to position him like a money mark and doing
Speaker 1: you know, hiring and just whatever stereotypes you want to
Speaker 1: say about the perception of Tony Cohn is the owner
Speaker 1: of a w that they may have. And suddenly Shane
Speaker 1: McMahon epitomizes what they want people to think of Tony
Speaker 1: Cohn and becomes that character. So Shane McMahon is playing
Speaker 1: the role of Tony Khan, bringing in an executive vice
Speaker 1: president from the outside to take out all these and
Speaker 1: he's he's an idiot with his money and he hires
Speaker 1: the wrong people and the people that hires are are
Speaker 1: like comedy people. I'm just these are just things are
Speaker 1: coming off top of my head. Probably people in the
Speaker 1: twitch chat could think of ideas like that, but they
Speaker 1: would use Shane McMahon to mock Tony Cohn and he
Speaker 1: would be de facto Tony khn Man. We'll see what
Speaker 1: happens on I hope not. I think here's what I think.
Speaker 1: I think Shane is just gonna be the referee. He'll
Speaker 1: either be the referee for um Pat McAfee his match
Speaker 1: or he'll be the referee for Seth's match. And that
Speaker 1: way Seth can beat Cody because you've got a cheating
Speaker 1: ref or McAfee can lose because the McMahon screwed him
Speaker 1: out of his match with Austin theory. Well, they have
Speaker 1: announced that. By the way, it's official. The main event
Speaker 1: of Night one is going to be the Cho Show.
Speaker 1: We talked about this a couple of days ago, and yeah,
Speaker 1: have I missed something. I thought it was very weird.
Speaker 1: We hold that thought. Hold that thought, Jim, we're actually
Speaker 1: up against the break. I think there's more to the
Speaker 1: main event that meets the eye. Stand by. We'll talk more.
Speaker 1: Observer Live. All right, what's your question, Jim Valley here
Speaker 1: on Observer Live. What Oh? Sorry, I was just watching
Speaker 1: Roman Talcohol. She's sleeping at Cork and Hall. Sorry. Um.
Speaker 1: So here's my thought on the Go Home Romo by
Speaker 1: Roman Reigns on RAW. I thought it was very odd
Speaker 1: that he mentioned Steve Austin. Why what he mentioned Steve Austin.
Speaker 1: There's no reason to mention Roman did, and it just
Speaker 1: seemed very odd to me that he would do that.
Speaker 1: And I'm wondering much like this show, the test for
Speaker 1: me is WrestleMania and the Chao show a test for
Speaker 1: Steve Austin. And maybe if Rock isn't available for l A,
Speaker 1: what other big match does Roman half or if this
Speaker 1: is the test, maybe we do Summer Slim. If you
Speaker 1: heard anything like that with Steve Alston, it just seemed
Speaker 1: really odd that he would mention Steve Austin for no reason.
Speaker 1: I I I would be I mean, listen Steve Austin
Speaker 1: at this point, and I suppose maybe they could do
Speaker 1: the angle listit up a match, But I mean if
Speaker 1: I if if a if a weapon were put to
Speaker 1: a tender part of my body and I was asked,
Speaker 1: do you or do you not think your life is
Speaker 1: on the line that Steve Auston is going to do
Speaker 1: a match on Sunday. My life were on the line,
Speaker 1: I'd say, now there's gonna be the KO Show. Do
Speaker 1: I think it's possible that they shoot an angle to
Speaker 1: do a match on Sunday? Yes, but I do think
Speaker 1: that you know, we had We've been talking about this
Speaker 1: for a while. They wanted Steve Boston to do a
Speaker 1: wrestling match with Kevin Owens, and it was all up
Speaker 1: to Steve Auston what he was going to do. And my, my, big,
Speaker 1: my big clue here is when Steve Aouston did the
Speaker 1: promo accepting that he was going to be on the
Speaker 1: KO Show, he actually said in his promo, you can
Speaker 1: call this a confrontation, a brawl, a match, whatever you
Speaker 1: want to call it. That to me was him acknowledging
Speaker 1: that you know this is gonna be your physical thing,
Speaker 1: but you guys ain't getting a match. And I just
Speaker 1: have this like it's it's them relying on on Rock
Speaker 1: showing up next year to to do WrestleMania. That to
Speaker 1: me is a big enough gamble and if you can't
Speaker 1: get the Rock, I mean, this is an even bigger
Speaker 1: and gamble with Stone Cold Like he doesn't even seem
Speaker 1: he doesn't appear committed now to even doing a short
Speaker 1: match with Kevin Owens. So I I would be very
Speaker 1: very surprised if he had said to them, you know, well,
Speaker 1: let's uh, let's let's let's pencil it in for next year,
Speaker 1: because to me, if he's even willing for them to
Speaker 1: pencil it in for next year, then he would do
Speaker 1: like a three minute match with Kevin Owens, or even
Speaker 1: you know, you brawl or whatever, you do some punches,
Speaker 1: you go into the concourse, you do some punches there,
Speaker 1: you punch your way back to the ring. You know,
Speaker 1: Kevin Owens goes for the stun or whatever, you reversing
Speaker 1: your own stunner pin him. I mean, I'm sure Steve
Speaker 1: Buston could do that, but it looks like he's not
Speaker 1: even willing to do that. So I think it was
Speaker 1: just coincidence. I think they probably told everybody. You know,
Speaker 1: I'll make sure you mentioned that Steve Aoston's gonna be
Speaker 1: at WrestleMania because we're only at sixty thousand tickets for
Speaker 1: one of these nights. That's my guess, may be right,
Speaker 1: I just thought it was odd that mentioned him. Well,
Speaker 1: the one thing I will say about Raw is that
Speaker 1: people are very interested in this go home show for WrestleMania.
Speaker 1: The go home show one point nine eight million viewers,
Speaker 1: A point five five and eighteen to forty nine. The
Speaker 1: first two hours topped two million viewers, although they did
Speaker 1: have a fairly significant third hour drop. Male eighteen to
Speaker 1: forty and we're almost identical to the week before. But
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, female numbers up thirty four percent from
Speaker 1: last week and extra seventy thousand women tuned in this week.
Speaker 1: I don't know why were they anticipating proposals in the
Speaker 1: seven segment right did a point four one in eighteen
Speaker 1: forty nine two point three one for a women's basketball game.
Speaker 1: There was an n C double a women's basketball tournament
Speaker 1: game on ESPN. Then, for whatever reason, the women chose
Speaker 1: to watch Raw in larger numbers. In this women's basketball game,
Speaker 1: Raw was second in women eighty nine below behind below
Speaker 1: Deck three hours, two point oh five million viewers in
Speaker 1: the first hour, two point one oh million viewers in
Speaker 1: the second hour, and then the Giant plunged one point
Speaker 1: seven nine million viewers in the third hour. So these
Speaker 1: were the best raw numbers. I think it was since
Speaker 1: last August. So you know, people interested in seeing what's
Speaker 1: on the wrestle Menia card. What are the big angles.
Speaker 1: I mean, hopefully the raw after wrestle Menia does very well,
Speaker 1: and I guess we'll see. I don't think it's the
Speaker 1: beginning of a boom period here, but those are some
Speaker 1: good numbers. I hope we have some thing big plan
Speaker 1: for after WrestleMania. And it's not just hey, look, used
Speaker 1: the same card, but now we're hitting people with sticks
Speaker 1: at extreme rules. It's always that it used to be
Speaker 1: WrestleMania was the end of the year, and then it
Speaker 1: became the middle and it was like, let's rehash the
Speaker 1: matches we already rehashed. And if they want to keep
Speaker 1: these numbers up, they've got to have something exciting and
Speaker 1: new and compelling. And hopefully Cody and whatever they have
Speaker 1: next and Drew mcintyg for SummerSlam, whatever happens, they have
Speaker 1: something big. We've got Dynamite coming up tonight with h
Speaker 1: we got John Moxley versus j Lethal, which I presume
Speaker 1: is going to continue the j Lethal losing streak as
Speaker 1: he gets more and more frustrated with being unable to
Speaker 1: win the big ones Darby Allen Versus Andrawda, which they've
Speaker 1: actually been setting up for quite a while. FTR faces
Speaker 1: the Gun Club, which is furthering the FTR baby face turn.
Speaker 1: We've got a Women's Own Heart Foundation tournament qualifying match.
Speaker 1: You have to win a qualifying match to be in
Speaker 1: a tournament, as opposed to just having a larger tournament.
Speaker 1: Bunny will be facing a new A E W signy.
Speaker 1: Is it the former Tony Storm, Is it's Athena the
Speaker 1: former Ember Moon or is it somebody else? And just
Speaker 1: added And I'm sure you can probably all figure out
Speaker 1: why I'm based on the Academy Awards this past weekend.
Speaker 1: See him Punk will be facing Max Castor, who will
Speaker 1: have a pre match rap. Can't wait to hear that one.
Speaker 1: I wonder where he's gonna rap about. I'm sure he's
Speaker 1: gonna rhyme rap with something would be my guess. We'll
Speaker 1: see what rhymes with Smith and rock. We can easily
Speaker 1: rhyme slap. Yeah. So anyway, that's the A W Show tonight.
Speaker 1: Of course, last night we had an A T two
Speaker 1: point Oh. I can talk about that after the break.
Speaker 1: Did you see the show, Jim Man, Well, we'll get
Speaker 1: to the review, but first off, we do have the
Speaker 1: full lineup for the show that they've got coming up
Speaker 1: over WrestleMania weekend. And this is the show that for
Speaker 1: me and Jim airs at nine am Saturday on WrestleMania Saturday.
Speaker 1: So no, i will not be watching this show live
Speaker 1: because I'm spending the morning with my family, because I'm
Speaker 1: spending zero afternoon or evening with my family. So we
Speaker 1: got Dolves Ziggler versus Braun Breaker for the n x
Speaker 1: T title. We got Imperium versus The Creed Brothers versus
Speaker 1: MSK for the n x T Tag team titles. Mandy
Speaker 1: Rose versus Cora Jade Um, It's Mandy Rose. Cora Jade
Speaker 1: is an old card. It's a four way now. Leo
Speaker 1: Sharai and Kaylee Ray also in that match. Whoever wrote
Speaker 1: the front page article fix that one? Tomasso Chop and
Speaker 1: Tony di'angelo l a Night versus Gunter Carmelos Santos Escobar,
Speaker 1: Grayson Waller Solo Sakoa Cameron Grimes in a letter match
Speaker 1: for the next Team North American title. And remember when
Speaker 1: Eo Sharai and Kaylee Ray won that Women's Dusty, and
Speaker 1: they won the Women's Dusty, and traditionally they should be
Speaker 1: getting a take team championship match and instead and it's
Speaker 1: actually it makes sense in storyline because in storyline, nobody
Speaker 1: wanted to be in this tournament, Like everybody was desperate
Speaker 1: to find partners, and nobody wanted to be in the tournament.
Speaker 1: So in storyline, they finally got enough women to do
Speaker 1: a small tournament. And then the two women that win,
Speaker 1: Eo and Kaylee, who didn't want to be in the tournament,
Speaker 1: now they don't want the tag team titles, so they
Speaker 1: totally blow off the Tag Team champions and they say
Speaker 1: we want to be added to the women's match and
Speaker 1: making a four way and stand and deliver. And so
Speaker 1: you know, on the show, I pointed out Lee talk
Speaker 1: about burying the tag Team champions and not wanting the
Speaker 1: belts at all, and you know, Cora Jade should be angry,
Speaker 1: but she's not. That doesn't make any sense. And then
Speaker 1: all I heard was, well, Brian, obviously j C. Jane
Speaker 1: is injured. She's hurt, so they can't do a tag
Speaker 1: team match. That's why they did this. I remember I
Speaker 1: heard that, I remember hearing how wrong I was. Well,
Speaker 1: last night they announced that, in fact, J C. Jane
Speaker 1: and G. G. Dolan are working this weekend. They're on
Speaker 1: the kickoff show. They're wrestling. They'll be facing of all people,
Speaker 1: hated rivals who are now just suddenly friends again, Dakota
Speaker 1: Kai and Raquel Gonzalez with the n x T women
Speaker 1: Tag Team championships on the line. Why do you think
Speaker 1: of this line up? Jim or A, Nicki, Lions and
Speaker 1: Last Legend are They made it clear that's after after Okay,
Speaker 1: next week's Brother for the Best. Um. I think it'll
Speaker 1: be a good show. I think there'll be lots of
Speaker 1: good matches. I mean there's a ton of talent on
Speaker 1: n x T. I mean obviously they're setting up this
Speaker 1: WrestleMania for Braun Breaker, and you know, for as far
Speaker 1: as the other titles go, honestly, it's pretty much a
Speaker 1: toss up. I would imagine that Talks and Contraction, it's
Speaker 1: gotta probably continue their reign of terror a little while longer,
Speaker 1: at least that's what it feels like. But the men's
Speaker 1: titles really could go anywhere. So that's the line up
Speaker 1: for Saturday. And yeah, if you're talking about this for
Speaker 1: a while, this pro wrestling is like it's it's uh,
Speaker 1: it's very much. Uh. I would say it's a popular
Speaker 1: niche with each promotion having their own niche group of
Speaker 1: fans and uh, those fans being super served. So if
Speaker 1: you're a w w E fan, man, what is Saturday?
Speaker 1: You're gonna have nine am, the Nude n x T
Speaker 1: get a couple of hours to do, I don't know whatever,
Speaker 1: and then uh, four and a half hours of WrestleMania
Speaker 1: Live and haf of the free show back in the
Speaker 1: moment x T report was over live back in the show.
Speaker 1: Bright now bur is here, Wrestling Observer Live, Jim Valley
Speaker 1: joining is here today and yes, everyone, it is official Saturday.
Speaker 1: You know at the beginning of the show, I say
Speaker 1: we're here every day. Well we are now here every
Speaker 1: day again, Jim Monday through Friday, myself like semper v
Speaker 1: V Saturday, ten o'clock am Pacific one Eastern. Jim Valley
Speaker 1: returns this weekend, going head to head with n x
Speaker 1: T and of course andrews Arian on Sunday's Excited me
Speaker 1: back Jim, Yes, so I didn't realize n x teas
Speaker 1: at the same time. Can I cancel? Nope, damn No,
Speaker 1: that'll be great. I'm looking I can do live play
Speaker 1: by play. Brother, Look, give me something to do. Put
Speaker 1: it on the background. Tell us what's happening on this show.
Speaker 1: Tell us how long the video packages are? Just that
Speaker 1: kind of time. I look at an hour. Hey, listen,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I gotta go through this. Uh. I don't
Speaker 1: want to take away of your time, Jim, but I
Speaker 1: gotta get into this. I'm gonna go over this n
Speaker 1: x T report. Feel free to jump in if you
Speaker 1: want to, but I need to get over this report
Speaker 1: because I got something I gotta read from ESPN and
Speaker 1: I got to talk about it, So let's keep going.
Speaker 1: It opened up with Imperium Gunter, Marcel Bartel and Phoebe
Speaker 1: Nightner beating l A. Knight and MSK in a six
Speaker 1: man tag and of course Imperium or the tag team champions,
Speaker 1: and I could not help but notice that they won it.
Speaker 1: They pined Nash Carter. So there's a number of potential
Speaker 1: reasons for that, and we can talk about that this weekend.
Speaker 1: But Imperium got the win there. I thought it was
Speaker 1: a very good match. Hard to not have a good match.
Speaker 1: The only downside was the fans who hate MSK and
Speaker 1: they hate the name gun Thur and so they're just
Speaker 1: gonna it whatever they want and it takes away from
Speaker 1: the matches and uh, you know, local chance on the
Speaker 1: national show whatever. Not my favorite, but there you go.
Speaker 1: We had Kaylee and EO bickering backstage, which was ridiculous
Speaker 1: because you know, Kayley goes, you know, the best woman
Speaker 1: is gonna win, and so EO goes, Yeah, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be me, and Kayley has completely taken Aback. I can't
Speaker 1: believe that you would say that you're better than me.
Speaker 1: As some of these backstage interviews, Brother Holy smokes. Dakota
Speaker 1: Kai found Wendy Choose a pillow all torn up backstage.
Speaker 1: She's now missing because on n x T people go
Speaker 1: missing regularly. We had Ivy Nile. It's been what like
Speaker 1: two weeks since a kidnapping story. Yeah, they they were
Speaker 1: due a kidnapping wrestling kidnapping. Ivy Nile b Tiffany Stratton.
Speaker 1: They practiced this match NonStop for a week and it's fine.
Speaker 1: I mean it only went like maybe two and a
Speaker 1: half three minutes, but they didn't screw anything up. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's this not really how you learn how to work,
Speaker 1: but I mean, if you're gonna be doing one show
Speaker 1: a week and it's gonna be on national television, you
Speaker 1: do what you gotta do. And Ivy Nile beat her
Speaker 1: after a distraction from Sarai, So, uh, you know, it's fine.
Speaker 1: Everything you'd expect out of a w w E match. Short,
Speaker 1: choreographed distraction finish. That's next t two point Now we
Speaker 1: had a chop a promo, right goes you know, everyone
Speaker 1: thinks it might be the end this weekend for Tomaso
Speaker 1: chomping and next and then literally at the end of
Speaker 1: the thing, he folds up a chair and it says, uh,
Speaker 1: September April, So I guess he's done after this weekend.
Speaker 1: We had a we had we had video package with
Speaker 1: Ziggler and braun Breakers are very good building up the
Speaker 1: main event storyline is, you know, braun Breakers a hard working,
Speaker 1: tough guys first in, last out, works his ass off, lives,
Speaker 1: breathe in xt Ziggler is a guy from the main
Speaker 1: roster that flies in, does this stuff and gets out
Speaker 1: as quickly as possible, does care. You know, he's the
Speaker 1: big superstar. Everybody wants talk to him. Nobody wants talked
Speaker 1: about bron Breaker and the you know, as they do
Speaker 1: all of the media and everything like that. Maybe because
Speaker 1: the media knows are not allowed to ask Broun Breaker
Speaker 1: about his dad. I never thought about that, but that
Speaker 1: might be why. But they were good. Briggs and Jensen
Speaker 1: faced Legatodell Phantasma and they won and it was all right.
Speaker 1: And uh, all I can really add about this is,
Speaker 1: uh Brooks Jensen, who's gimmick as he's a virgin nerd.
Speaker 1: This character is not getting him over. Nobody cared when
Speaker 1: he was getting beaten on. But hey, I gotta keep
Speaker 1: giving these guys personalities, even if they're of dorks. Indian
Speaker 1: Persia did a absolutely comically horrific interview segment backstage. They're
Speaker 1: gonna do some sort of thing at the show. Fans
Speaker 1: are gonna vote about what couples hotter awful, holy small,
Speaker 1: terrible acting. I was waiting for someone to deliver a pizza.
Speaker 1: Acting was really bad. Yeah, people are confused here. You
Speaker 1: guys don't watch an x T two point oh his
Speaker 1: gimmick because he's a virgin nerd, that's his gimmick. I'm
Speaker 1: not even being like sarcastic. That's actually his gimmick. He's
Speaker 1: never been with a woman. He admits it, and he's
Speaker 1: a total nerd. That's his gimmick. What do you want
Speaker 1: me to do about it? Then we had Toxic Attraction
Speaker 1: doing a promo about the show on Sunday, and UH
Speaker 1: and j C and j C Jane and Gie Dolan
Speaker 1: are out there, and Dakota Kai comes to the ring
Speaker 1: because they beat up Wendy Chew. They all beat her up,
Speaker 1: and then Raquel Gonzalez, of all people, make the same
Speaker 1: and then Raquel and Dakota, who had a blood feud,
Speaker 1: a blood feud with two hated rivals, they square off
Speaker 1: and they hug and their friends and they're facing j
Speaker 1: C and Gig on set her day, Von Wagner beat
Speaker 1: Body Hayward. And they had this new woman out there
Speaker 1: watching and they actually said her name this time. Her
Speaker 1: name is um Help me out, Jim, what's her name? God?
Speaker 1: I don't remember. It doesn't matter. It'll matter when she's
Speaker 1: on the main roster in about three weeks, but it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter now. Then we had Joe Gazzy beating Draco Anthony.
Speaker 1: This was a horror. What's her name? It's not Bluxton
Speaker 1: pungs Ley stop and it's not fell in heavily either.
Speaker 1: Go Lee you people anyway, Uh, Joe Gazy, Draco Anthony
Speaker 1: was not good at all. God blessed Draco Anthony. I'm
Speaker 1: sure he's a great guy. But when you look at
Speaker 1: like the n x T two point oh rostro on
Speaker 1: national television as far as like the number one greenest
Speaker 1: person who absolutely is not ready for TV, God bless him.
Speaker 1: It's Draco Anthony. And they botched the first spot and
Speaker 1: it was off to the races from there and Joe
Speaker 1: Gacy one crowd was absolutely dead and it went a
Speaker 1: long long time. Nikita Lions beat Sloane Jacob's quickly. It's
Speaker 1: funny is when I saw the name Sloan Jacobs, I
Speaker 1: thought it's a pretty normal name, nothing weird about it.
Speaker 1: Then I say it and I'm like, Sloan Jacobs is
Speaker 1: her name. She lost to Nikita Lions and then lash
Speaker 1: Legend appeared on the Titan shron and they have unfinished
Speaker 1: business to settle after standing deliver. I hope they've been
Speaker 1: practicing this one for about a month, because that could
Speaker 1: be mean Nikita Lions has a lot of strikes, so
Speaker 1: I'm hopeful that that will be good for lash Legend,
Speaker 1: that she can just sell strikes as opposed to something
Speaker 1: else because she's it's amazing to be. It really speaks
Speaker 1: to how difficult wrestling is as a craft, as an
Speaker 1: art form. Seriously, a world class athlete like lash Legend
Speaker 1: can't grasp it yet, that she can't just pick it up.
Speaker 1: And I'm not ripping on lash Legend. I'm just saying,
Speaker 1: you know, we're I'm sure she respects the craft, but
Speaker 1: people watching should also respect the craft the fact that
Speaker 1: someone of her athletic ability and pedigree can't just pick
Speaker 1: it up. Sophia Cromwell, by the way, I'll talk about
Speaker 1: that in a second, gim because I got more to say.
Speaker 1: It sounds like they're a cop show in the seventhies basically.
Speaker 1: Then the main event was Cameron Grimes a Kid and
Speaker 1: Roderick's strong triple thread match. Cameron Grimes one match was great.
Speaker 1: I know you're surprised, and that brings us to what
Speaker 1: I want to talk about. Rushed through this because I
Speaker 1: gotta talk about this. So I thought this show was
Speaker 1: was It was pretty good. You know what you're getting
Speaker 1: when you watch n x T two point. Now we
Speaker 1: know what I couldn't help. But notice for like the
Speaker 1: eightieth time, Well, what was the headline match? Cameron Grimes,
Speaker 1: longtime worker, a kid, longtime worker. Well, given how long
Speaker 1: he's been doing it. Roderick's strong, really long time worker,
Speaker 1: and they had, you know, a fantastic match. What was
Speaker 1: the other really good match? Oh, we had Imperium, which
Speaker 1: consists of Volter, longtime great worker, Marcel and Fabian and
Speaker 1: l A. Night and Nash Car all workers. They went
Speaker 1: out there and they just had a tremendous opener, and
Speaker 1: then we had a great main event, and uh, then
Speaker 1: what else do we have? Ivy Iveland, Ivy Nile and
Speaker 1: Tiffany Stratton. It's all right when they practiced for an
Speaker 1: entire week and went two minutes. And then you know
Speaker 1: Brooks and Jensen. I mean that was all right because
Speaker 1: you had Legato del phantasm in there, but I mean,
Speaker 1: Briggs and Brooks, they're not bringing a whole lot to
Speaker 1: the table at this point. And then von Wagner and
Speaker 1: Body Hayward was just it existed. Joe Gacy and Draco
Speaker 1: Anthony was like aggressively not good. It was you know,
Speaker 1: that would have been a bad match on any shows
Speaker 1: I used to work on, and it was on national television.
Speaker 1: And the same thing the Nikita Lyons and Loan Jacob's
Speaker 1: longtime practice match squash a minute, and that's it. So
Speaker 1: I'm watching this this show, and it's like, it's so
Speaker 1: obvious what the best things on this show are and
Speaker 1: what the worst things on the show are. And the
Speaker 1: best things on the show are the things involving professional wrestlers,
Speaker 1: people experienced in professional wrestling here on this professional wrestling show.
Speaker 1: And the worst stuff is the volleyball players and the
Speaker 1: basketball players and the gymnasts and the football players and
Speaker 1: the people that lift weights who are now being asked
Speaker 1: way too early to be pro wrestlers on national television.
Speaker 1: So then I read this article. It's on the front
Speaker 1: page of Wrestling Observer dot com. An interview with ESPN
Speaker 1: and focusing on their n i L program and specifically
Speaker 1: college football players. Senior Vice President of Global Talents Edge Development,
Speaker 1: James Kimball talked about how they're focusing on young talent
Speaker 1: to sign, especially in athletics, and gave interesting insights to
Speaker 1: whether they're looking for. We would like the age number
Speaker 1: to come down, especially on the developmental standpoint, the second
Speaker 1: you enter our developmental program and then potentially end up
Speaker 1: on an x T and then on a our SmackDown.
Speaker 1: We want that number to be twenty five, not thirty
Speaker 1: or thirty five. Never mind whether you're a good athlete,
Speaker 1: which we gotta you gotta be young, otherwise you're just
Speaker 1: we're not gonna look at you. He says. Uh, they're
Speaker 1: sporting athletes who are looking to achieve their college goals
Speaker 1: before coming to w W. E even if you come
Speaker 1: to w W and that's a significant improvement or over
Speaker 1: what has historically been the case with some of our
Speaker 1: developmental talent. Like all these you know wrestlers have showed
Speaker 1: up they were too old even though they could wrestle.
Speaker 1: We're able to develop them in an accelerated manner. Get them.
Speaker 1: We're able to develop them in an accelerated manner. Get
Speaker 1: them to WrestleMania or raw, do media training, community events,
Speaker 1: all these initial exposures to the business. Those are done
Speaker 1: when you're still in school. Then you go to Orlando
Speaker 1: and off you go. What is their wish list for
Speaker 1: for signees? They want you to be physical, look, size, athleticism,
Speaker 1: strength and personality, public speaking, charismic character, range, willingness to
Speaker 1: be coached. Like, you know, I don't know who this
Speaker 1: guy is, Kimball. Who is this guy? What's his name?
Speaker 1: James Kimball. I'm sure he's a nice guy, but you
Speaker 1: know what he isn't he's not a pro wrestler and
Speaker 1: uh and so he's he's like I'm sure been indoctrinated
Speaker 1: in the w w E and this idea that, hey, Kimball,
Speaker 1: you know, we need young athletes that are good athletes,
Speaker 1: and we don't want him older, and we don't want
Speaker 1: him to have any wrestling experience. We want to be
Speaker 1: good looking and athletic, and then we will rush them
Speaker 1: to n x T and the main roster and they're
Speaker 1: to be ready to go. Do we have any evidence
Speaker 1: that this has ever worked yet? I mean, I know
Speaker 1: you could probably say, well, brun Breaker pro brun Breakers,
Speaker 1: a second generation pro wrestler. He grew up with the Steiners.
Speaker 1: Do we have any evidence and this has worked one time?
Speaker 1: And now this is like the whole recruitment process. We
Speaker 1: don't want any pro wrestlers never mind. On our developmental show,
Speaker 1: the only good stuff involves pro wrestlers. But we've got
Speaker 1: to get all these athletes, because man, we can teach
Speaker 1: anybody to wrestle fast, just get him in there and
Speaker 1: rush them through. They're already that's what they're saying here.
Speaker 1: We knew this, but now they're saying it anyway. Sorry,
Speaker 1: you have hold on hold that thought live, Yes, Jim, Brian, Yeah, Saturday, Yes,
Speaker 1: ten o'clock. Yes, Sports Byline dead head to head with
Speaker 1: n XT. We'll see if we can. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Am I gonna be on Twitch? I don't know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: of course you are. Why wouldn't you go? So then
Speaker 1: we'll have all the Twitch homies, all the chat and
Speaker 1: all the fun. And I just want people to know.
Speaker 1: Do you want to know why I'm coming back, Brian?
Speaker 1: Because no one ever retires, Jim that, And it's because
Speaker 1: of the fans. It's because of each and every one
Speaker 1: of you. Well, I'm sure to the crowd turns in
Speaker 1: a circle. I'm sure the f four W universe right now,
Speaker 1: Jim is chanting. You deserve it, Yes, hashtag because of
Speaker 1: the fans, Brian, because of the fans. Wait a second,
Speaker 1: you're supposed to be a baby face. It's the heels
Speaker 1: that say it's because of the fans. But that was
Speaker 1: my chemmick. I've I've trademarked that for years. Every month
Speaker 1: when somebody turns because of the fans, people always hashtag
Speaker 1: because of the fans. Well, that's that's the one heel
Speaker 1: promo that they've got. It's because of you fans. It's right,
Speaker 1: because of the fans. So ten o'clock Saturday Morning Wrestling
Speaker 1: Observer Live. By the way, that's ten Pacific, yes, one eastern,
Speaker 1: thank you, Yes for most of you. Most of you
Speaker 1: is gonna be one o'clock. Most of you is just
Speaker 1: gonna download it. But yes, no, no, did you not
Speaker 1: read the chatting and watching an x T two point now? Right?
Speaker 1: So I want people in the chat and we'll have
Speaker 1: some fun. That's the plant everybody. We're now back every day,
Speaker 1: and I guess I gotta probably you know, talk to
Speaker 1: the other folks. We got a lot of people we
Speaker 1: gotta talk to when things change, and I forget most
Speaker 1: of them half the time, so I apologize. But anyway,
Speaker 1: operation it is a big operation, much much larger than myself.
Speaker 1: And I also do this because of you fans. And
Speaker 1: we're at a time. Him Wan do I think, Jim,
Speaker 1: Mike Dom, Callers and listeners, everybody the studio. It's talk
Speaker 1: to you next time, Wrestling Observer Live. You have been
Speaker 1: listening to the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast on the eight
Speaker 1: Side Network