Speaker 1: Hey, this is Brian Alvarez and this is today's edition
Speaker 1: of the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast on the eight Side Network. Ready, Ready,
Speaker 1: let's get it all. How's it going everybody? Brian Alvarez
Speaker 1: here on Wrestling Observer Live. We are here every day
Speaker 1: Monday through Friday, New Pacific three Eastern, Sunday three Pacific,
Speaker 1: sixth Eastern. It's Thursday on this show. No date is today,
Speaker 1: but we got a lot to talk about, lots of
Speaker 1: talk about here today. A W n x T. I
Speaker 1: finally watched all of n x T two point oh,
Speaker 1: but I think we'll talk about a W first. It
Speaker 1: was the better show by like Miles, and it's also
Speaker 1: the go home show for the Full Gear pay per
Speaker 1: view coming up this weekend. We've got a number of
Speaker 1: matches announced for that show and it's taken place Saturday night,
Speaker 1: and I'll be heading down to San Jose, California, where
Speaker 1: Dave and I are going to watch the first two
Speaker 1: hours of Full Year. Then we're going to jump in
Speaker 1: the car and go to New Japan Battle in the Valley.
Speaker 1: Then we're gonna jump in the car and go back
Speaker 1: to his house to watch the final hour and a
Speaker 1: half of the full Gear show. Then we are going
Speaker 1: to do a radio show about it, and then I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get an airplane and fly back home for a
Speaker 1: very very busy weekend. We'll be back Sunday night normal
Speaker 1: schedule as well, so it's gonna be quite the weekend.
Speaker 1: Well over all of the matches scheduled for the show,
Speaker 1: and also talk about the rest of the news the
Speaker 1: Dynamite Show, n x T two point oh, the ratings
Speaker 1: for n x T two point oh, which they are
Speaker 1: what they are. That's what they are for every show, obviously,
Speaker 1: the exception being the third hour of Raw, which is
Speaker 1: gonna die from this point forward. But we'll talk about
Speaker 1: all of that here today. We'll take your feedback at
Speaker 1: four to five seven eight zero seven five six six.
Speaker 1: That's a text message line, by the way, seven eight
Speaker 1: zero seven five six six Bryant Rustling observed dot com
Speaker 1: at bran Elbos on Twitter. And in the main event
Speaker 1: of today's show, we will be joined by Michael Kingston
Speaker 1: no relation to Eddie Kingston, although we can talk about
Speaker 1: it if you want to. He's going to be joining us.
Speaker 1: He has a new Headlocked Tails from the Road, a
Speaker 1: volume two Kickstarter a campaign which ends tonight. It's already
Speaker 1: exceeded its goal, so the it will be created, but
Speaker 1: you can always continue to donate right now. We'll talk
Speaker 1: about that here today and everything else he's up to.
Speaker 1: So that's coming up later on and we'll be back
Speaker 1: to kick off the show after the break. Wrestling Observer Live.
Speaker 1: Back in the show, bright Over is here. Wrestling Observer Alive.
Speaker 1: Mike simper Viv, also of Wrestling Observer dot com. You
Speaker 1: guys all know what the term ribbing on the square means.
Speaker 1: I do. Let's say that Mike has got a let's
Speaker 1: pretend he's got a cone head, all right, So we're
Speaker 1: doing this sing or whatever, and we're arguing back and forth,
Speaker 1: and I talked about how bro, your hat can barely
Speaker 1: balance on that cone head. O. I'm just joking, but
Speaker 1: I'm not. I don't like his cone head. That's what
Speaker 1: ribbing on the square means. Is that good? It was
Speaker 1: a horrible analogy, horrible. I didn't want to actually say
Speaker 1: what you're horrible at might so I try to be
Speaker 1: a nice guy, go ahead and do it. So anyway,
Speaker 1: then I bring this up because during an appearance on
Speaker 1: The Sports Illustrated media podcast, Becky Lynch addressed her real
Speaker 1: life issues with Charlotte Flair and built up their Matched
Speaker 1: Survivor series. Speaking on the podcast, Lynch was asked about
Speaker 1: the confrontation with Charlotte. She says, I don't know, man,
Speaker 1: We don't talk anymore. We don't talk. All I'll say
Speaker 1: is the locker room needs to hear sometimes, and sometimes
Speaker 1: somebody has got to be a hero. I'm all right
Speaker 1: being that hero. That's all I'll say on the matter
Speaker 1: of course. Then she said more. They asked if it
Speaker 1: was more difficult to face somebody who you are having
Speaker 1: issues with in real life, and she says, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: a hundred percent more difficult. Yeah. That's the thing. When
Speaker 1: you've got two people that are wanting to work together
Speaker 1: to make a magic, you make magic. Sometimes when there's
Speaker 1: hostility where you can't trust the person, then you never
Speaker 1: know what's going to happen. You always have to be
Speaker 1: on guard. It's like a game of chess. You have
Speaker 1: to be thinking two steps, three steps, four steps ahead.
Speaker 1: What are they gonna do? How am I going to
Speaker 1: handle it? If they do this, if they do that. Whatever.
Speaker 1: This business is built on trust, it's built on working together.
Speaker 1: That's the art of it. That's the beauty of it.
Speaker 1: If I make you look good, you make me look good.
Speaker 1: It's an art. It's a beautiful art. It's an art
Speaker 1: I love more than anything. If people don't know how
Speaker 1: to make that art, it becomes difficult, it becomes tricky,
Speaker 1: and you never really get the full potential. But there's
Speaker 1: intrigue there too, because we never know was this meant
Speaker 1: to happen, was that not meant to happened? What's going
Speaker 1: to go down? There's interest in both ways. One way
Speaker 1: it's a beautiful period of pro wrestling, and the other
Speaker 1: way it's a bit of a s show. So we'll
Speaker 1: see what happens. Remember when they had that deal with
Speaker 1: the belt where they were told to swap these belts.
Speaker 1: It was stupid and everyone knew was stupid. And then
Speaker 1: they go out on television and they had a Kurf
Speaker 1: fluffle and ended up really upset. And then they went
Speaker 1: to the back and they they had a screaming match
Speaker 1: at Guerrilla and etcetera, etcetera. You guys remember that story,
Speaker 1: and what did I What did I tell you afterwards?
Speaker 1: I said, what they're gonna do is they're going to
Speaker 1: try to turn this into a storyline, and they're going
Speaker 1: to try to convince you that all of this was
Speaker 1: planned from the beginning. Now we've got this interview where
Speaker 1: she's not ribbing on the square, but there's a there
Speaker 1: is a there is a stark reality to some of this. Okay,
Speaker 1: there is a reality to the fact that there's a
Speaker 1: lot of issues between these two people, and we saw
Speaker 1: them play out on television. But it is abundantly clear
Speaker 1: that they are using this now to build up Survivor Series.
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying that this is what's going to happen, Okay,
Speaker 1: But I read this interview and I hearkened back to
Speaker 1: Raw on Monday and they had that video package for
Speaker 1: Survivor Series and what was it? What was the Survivor
Speaker 1: Series video package on Sunday focused on on Monday? Why
Speaker 1: it was focused on Sean Michael's and Brett Hart from
Speaker 1: and what did they say? You never know? I forget
Speaker 1: the exact line, but it was like, you never know
Speaker 1: what's gonna happen at Survivor Series. Something's always gonna happen.
Speaker 1: I thought, my god, it's and I don't know what
Speaker 1: it's gonna be. But like this is Brett Harden Shawn Michaels,
Speaker 1: where Breton Seawan also got into a much more lint
Speaker 1: backstage fight. I might add, they got a brawl and
Speaker 1: Brett yanked out his hair and Sean said he was
Speaker 1: quitting and going to World Championship Wrestling, and he walked
Speaker 1: out and he claimed an unsafe working environment, and lo
Speaker 1: and behold, they ended up back together. And even though
Speaker 1: they they hated each other, they were professionals and they
Speaker 1: were all planning to go in there and having a
Speaker 1: matches Survivor Series, which they did, by the way, and
Speaker 1: it was a good match. And then we had the
Speaker 1: famous Montreal screw job. And I don't need to go
Speaker 1: into all of that, but something's happening, I believe at
Speaker 1: the Survivor Series in this Becky Lynch Charlotte Flair match,
Speaker 1: where I think that they're going to try to convince
Speaker 1: you that they're shooting or something or some screw job
Speaker 1: or some this or some that I mean, it's coming
Speaker 1: and this to me, this to me, was was building
Speaker 1: it up. Have you ever been in a position, Brian,
Speaker 1: to try to make magic with somebody that you're working
Speaker 1: with and you have trouble with that. You know what
Speaker 1: that's like anyway, cars, I know that's like, Mike, look,
Speaker 1: what do you expect? What do you want out of them?
Speaker 1: They might as well do them. They're doing exactly what
Speaker 1: I expected they would do exactly they probably should up
Speaker 1: until we get to the Survivor series teases. That's where
Speaker 1: I can draw the line. Of course they're going to
Speaker 1: market this based on these two and what happened, you
Speaker 1: might as well. It was a real life thing that happened.
Speaker 1: People know. It's actually something that you know, it is
Speaker 1: based in reality that people can wrap their brains around
Speaker 1: and sink their teeth into. So I don't blame it
Speaker 1: all for for doing this um to make teases to
Speaker 1: I wouldn't because it's you know, look, this is twenty
Speaker 1: five years ago, you know. And on top of that,
Speaker 1: it wasn't It wasn't a memorable It's not a good
Speaker 1: thing to remember the Survivor series. And I'm sure it
Speaker 1: is for them, and I know it's taken on a
Speaker 1: life of its own in multiple ways, but no, thanks,
Speaker 1: I don't want to watch to see maybe somebody gets
Speaker 1: screwed over, or wait for the rug to be pulled
Speaker 1: out at the end of a match or something like that.
Speaker 1: I just want to see those two have a great
Speaker 1: match with each other. And I hope that's not the
Speaker 1: direction that they go. Maybe that's what they do, maybe
Speaker 1: they can't help themselves, but I I don't see how
Speaker 1: almost any scenario doesn't end with fans eye rolling or
Speaker 1: you know whatever. We'll see. But I don't think that's
Speaker 1: what fans want out of that. It's not what fans
Speaker 1: want out of Bianca being involved in the match, not
Speaker 1: what fans want out of a lot of people being
Speaker 1: involved in matches. Just give me the really good match
Speaker 1: and you know, I guess you can tease some of
Speaker 1: this stuff, but if it happens, you know, if that's
Speaker 1: the execution, I don't know, maybe it ought to be executed.
Speaker 1: We have got an x T ratings six D three
Speaker 1: thousand a view is down four point four percent, lowest
Speaker 1: audience for the show since being rebranded eighteen and forty
Speaker 1: nine point one five. It's basically the same numbers of
Speaker 1: you every week. Do I need to talk about it more? Now?
Speaker 1: We got full gear coming up this weekend. We'll talk
Speaker 1: about a w after the break and an x T
Speaker 1: two point oh as well. We have Kenny Omega Hangman
Speaker 1: Page for the A E W title as your main event,
Speaker 1: Ritt Baker versus Tight Countie for the women's title, Luca
Speaker 1: Brothers versus f t R for the tag titles, Mirror
Speaker 1: versus Brian Danielson in the Eliminator tournament, m J versus
Speaker 1: Darby Ell and CM Punk versus Eddie Kingston, Adam Cole
Speaker 1: and the Young Bucks versus Jurassic Express and Christian Cage,
Speaker 1: Inner Circle versus the American Top Team, Cody and Pok
Speaker 1: versus Andrade and Malachi Black, and the pre show has
Speaker 1: Nilo Rose and Jamie Hayda versus Carter Sheen and Thunder Rosa.
Speaker 1: Somebody asked yesterday it was gonna be the best match
Speaker 1: on the show, and uh, I think that, Like as
Speaker 1: far as like what's gonna get the most stars, I
Speaker 1: think it's gonna be Kenny Omega verus Hangman Page, or
Speaker 1: Adam Cole and the Young Bucks versus Jurassic Express in
Speaker 1: Christian Cage. I'm sure that Miro and Brian Danielson is
Speaker 1: gonna be awesome. I'm sure that Inner Circle and American
Speaker 1: Top Team. Everyone's gonna be talking about that the next
Speaker 1: day because he's m M A fighters. Holy smokes, It's
Speaker 1: like there's so much heat and it's such an easy storyline,
Speaker 1: but there's a lot of people that can't work in
Speaker 1: this match, and so we're gonna find out how well
Speaker 1: everybody else can work. And thankfully it's a street fight
Speaker 1: so you can like brawl all over the place and
Speaker 1: everything like that. But man Jericho was getting hammered on
Speaker 1: by somebody last night. I forget the guy's name as always,
Speaker 1: but as Austin vander Ford is at the other bloke anyway,
Speaker 1: he's throwing these these forearms and it's like, you don't
Speaker 1: want him to kill Chris Jericho, but like he's trained
Speaker 1: to kill Chris Jericho, not Chris Jericho personally, but you're
Speaker 1: asking a guy who's who's like his his goal in
Speaker 1: training is to like break the dummy when you're laying
Speaker 1: in those four arms. Now he's got to go lay
Speaker 1: in the forums with Jericho, not killed a guy. So
Speaker 1: he goes the extreme other way and there's just air everywhere,
Speaker 1: and it wasn't bad. Like at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter if you're missing this here. They're the fans.
Speaker 1: They want to see the match in the story. They
Speaker 1: know they're not getting like a five star match. They
Speaker 1: just want to see, you know, these blokes get their's
Speaker 1: and I'm sure they're gonna get it. One bloke in particular,
Speaker 1: Dan Lambert back in a moment as it were live, well,
Speaker 1: we had to go home show for a w and
Speaker 1: if you're a fan of Rassling boy, if I got
Speaker 1: the show for you. There was so much good wrestling
Speaker 1: on the show. Brian Danielson beat Rocky Romero excellent pro
Speaker 1: wrestling match, used the Tequila Sunrise finish, great back in
Speaker 1: force with submission attempts, armbars, etcetera excellent match. We add
Speaker 1: a brawl with the Inner Circle and American Top Team
Speaker 1: where the Heels laid him out and uh. The Heels
Speaker 1: avowed that Chris Jericho will be pinned in the pay
Speaker 1: per view by Dan Lambert and tonight they said he's
Speaker 1: gonna submit him and so Lambert puts him in what
Speaker 1: he describes as a Boston crab from pro wrestling from
Speaker 1: Florida in nineteen and the Heels took Jericho's arm and
Speaker 1: made him tap. Jericho did not tap to this Boston Crab.
Speaker 1: I might add they made him tap, but it was
Speaker 1: a great, great heat angle for the show. Tai Conti,
Speaker 1: Thunder Roseanna j B, Britt Baker, Jimmie Hayter and Rebel.
Speaker 1: Too much Rebel in this match, especially when you had
Speaker 1: Jamie Hayter on the team. It was. It was not
Speaker 1: as bad get ready for people to get mad. It
Speaker 1: was not as bad as the opener on n x T.
Speaker 1: But it was not good, but they kept it quick.
Speaker 1: Jungle Boy beat Anthony Bowen's very very good match. Anthony
Speaker 1: Bones is great, Jungle Boy is great, Snare trap finish,
Speaker 1: and then Bobby Fish ran out. Bobby Fish has now
Speaker 1: been sent out by Adam Cole of all people to
Speaker 1: take out Jungle Boy. They will be wrestling on Rampage
Speaker 1: on Friday. We had Wardlow squashing Wheeler Utah. Hey, listen,
Speaker 1: if you love squashes, it's hard to screw them up
Speaker 1: unless you're on n x T two point Oh they
Speaker 1: screwed up a squash match on that show, but anyway,
Speaker 1: it was a squash match. And then the Hardy Family
Speaker 1: office beat up Orange Cassidy. So it is uh, it
Speaker 1: is Matt Hardy versus Orange Cassidy. Friday in a lumberjack
Speaker 1: match and met originally scheduled for the pay per view.
Speaker 1: Now it's going to be on Rampage. Leo Russian, Dante
Speaker 1: Martin beat Matt side All and Lee mori Ardi. This
Speaker 1: was a very very good match. You had Dante and
Speaker 1: Lee Moriarty is the young guys just doing all this
Speaker 1: crazy high flying which looked awesome but not exactly polished.
Speaker 1: And then Leo Rush and Matt Sideal are polished. They
Speaker 1: got in there. Man, this was some good stuff here
Speaker 1: and Dante hit the double springboard moonsalt pin Moriarty very
Speaker 1: good match, Poking Decks Harwood probably had the best match
Speaker 1: on the show. They had everything in this match. They had.
Speaker 1: They had violence, physical violence. Dax's chest is bleeding everywhere.
Speaker 1: Pack him with a top rope high angle brainbuster, which
Speaker 1: I don't know if I want to see that mat
Speaker 1: that movement in every POC match because someone's gonna get killed.
Speaker 1: And finally at the end, POC put him in the
Speaker 1: brutalizer and the moment he puts him in this hold,
Speaker 1: Dax furiously submiss because you don't want to get hurt.
Speaker 1: Prior to the match on Saturday night and then the
Speaker 1: lights went out, Cash Wheeler, Malachi Black and Rode All
Speaker 1: beat down Poc Cody and the Luca Brothers made the save,
Speaker 1: so we have a match for the pay per view.
Speaker 1: And then the main event was the Kenny Omega Hangman
Speaker 1: Page contract signing. People a couple of blokes on Twitter
Speaker 1: or your croy boat this contract signing, Well, no, you moron.
Speaker 1: You don't complain about something that they rarely do. You
Speaker 1: complain when they do it every other week. This was
Speaker 1: a good contract signing and it ended with the cameraman
Speaker 1: speaking of This was not actually Survivor series n seven,
Speaker 1: but it was the bill to Survivor series when they
Speaker 1: did the gimmick camera operator to open the door for
Speaker 1: Helen his cell to lead to undertaking Shawn Michael's getting out,
Speaker 1: which actually made sense. And uh they cameraman here ends
Speaker 1: up being Don Callis and he waffles Hangman Page with
Speaker 1: the camera Hangman's bleeding all over the place. Omega gets
Speaker 1: his blood and signs the contract. Total old school simple
Speaker 1: contracts signing. Heat angle. I thought this show was great,
Speaker 1: great go home show. Yes, weird out of too One
Speaker 1: last thing, Mike, what's they had a go home show
Speaker 1: long time ago? I think it might have been one
Speaker 1: of the early go home shows for one of their
Speaker 1: early pay per views. It was like no wrestling to
Speaker 1: speak of. It was any good. It was all video packages,
Speaker 1: all angles, and you want to build up your pay
Speaker 1: per view with video packages and that sort of thing,
Speaker 1: But it didn't feel like a Dynamite show because there
Speaker 1: was no good wrestling. Well, they learned their lesson. This
Speaker 1: was like a great go home show. There were angles,
Speaker 1: video packages, and also this was one of the best
Speaker 1: wrestling Dynamites in a long long time. Just a great
Speaker 1: go home show. I thought so too. And they did
Speaker 1: all that without giving away a big match, you know,
Speaker 1: if you think about it. Yeah, you started off with
Speaker 1: Brian Danielson against Rocky Romero, which for a lot of us,
Speaker 1: you know, that's a big deal for a variety of reasons.
Speaker 1: But bottom line is, there was no super shiny thing
Speaker 1: on here. It was just solid segment after solid segment.
Speaker 1: Was everything perfect? Absolutely not no, But I mean, look
Speaker 1: how they kicked the thing off with Dason and Romero.
Speaker 1: You got Ramero and the best friends, you know, officially
Speaker 1: all being sucked into chaos by the decree of Kazuchka Okada.
Speaker 1: And obviously the best friends were Trent and Chuck were
Speaker 1: over there before as members of Chaos, but you know,
Speaker 1: they melded those things together and then you get this
Speaker 1: great Bryan Changelson Rocky Romero atch which set the tone
Speaker 1: of the show, and I think it sets the tone
Speaker 1: of where we're at and wrestling right now. The Sixth Woman,
Speaker 1: I thought was it was way too much Rebel. And
Speaker 1: I love Rebel for a lot of what she can
Speaker 1: do as far as being, you know, the comic relief
Speaker 1: for Britt Baker, and obviously she serves a lot of
Speaker 1: purposes for that company behind the scenes, but I would
Speaker 1: love to see somebody added to that package because Jamie
Speaker 1: Hayter is killing herself. Jamie Hayter takes more big bumps
Speaker 1: that I don't think people realize until you see her
Speaker 1: out there actually working. I mean, she is working super hard,
Speaker 1: and I think they need another person there that gets
Speaker 1: Rebel out of the room and allows somebody else to
Speaker 1: take some heat for Britt Baker and maybe can even
Speaker 1: team up with Jamie Hayter, you know, on a regular basis,
Speaker 1: and be somebody else there to be a heater and
Speaker 1: to to take away some of the heat from that group.
Speaker 1: Jungle Boy Anthony Bones against second week in a row.
Speaker 1: Anthony Bones has had a really good match. I don't
Speaker 1: know what's going on next Caster when he comes off
Speaker 1: the bench, but you know, Bones on his own, It's
Speaker 1: kind of like Dante Martin, where you know, obviously the
Speaker 1: other partner, and in Martin's case, his brother is gonna
Speaker 1: come back and you're gonna see him back together. You know,
Speaker 1: you're starting to see you know where down the line.
Speaker 1: You know, Bones on his own, you know, could He's
Speaker 1: got a great look. He could be something. He obviously's
Speaker 1: got the talk. It's about getting the experience in the ring,
Speaker 1: and he's going to continue to do that there. Wheeler
Speaker 1: Unit takes a great ass kicking. I'm I hope he's
Speaker 1: full time in a w hope to continue to use him.
Speaker 1: He's great as a young guy. You saw his potential.
Speaker 1: You also saw him take some mass kickings in the
Speaker 1: last two weeks that have been very good, especially with
Speaker 1: a guy like Ward Low who's green, Leo Rush and
Speaker 1: Dante Martin and Matt Side. Lee Moriarty I thought was fantastic.
Speaker 1: Lee Moriarty is one of the best underrated guys in
Speaker 1: the world. He was a great pickup for them, and
Speaker 1: now you can see why him working with Dante Martin
Speaker 1: was fabulous and Mariott He's got a lot more experience
Speaker 1: than a lot of those guys do on the ground,
Speaker 1: you know, he the Daniel Garcia is a guys like
Speaker 1: that in a w It's great. And Leo Rush. I
Speaker 1: hope he's done retiring because we need Leo Rush every
Speaker 1: week doing something. He's a great promo, he's a great presence.
Speaker 1: You want to cheer for him, you want you can
Speaker 1: put you in a position where you want to kill him.
Speaker 1: And his team with Donte Martin, I think is fantastic,
Speaker 1: and I think that's great. I think sidell with a
Speaker 1: group of Mariarty and somebody else, I think that's gonna
Speaker 1: be really cool too. Maybe it's just it's Matt's brother.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but I like that idea a lot too,
Speaker 1: because the idea of the side els and Lee Moriarty
Speaker 1: against two point oh and Daniel Garcia. That makes me happy.
Speaker 1: Dax Harbor was one of the best. I don't know
Speaker 1: if he's one of the best wrestlers in the world.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say he is He's part of the I
Speaker 1: would argue, one of the best, if not the best
Speaker 1: tag team in the world. I'm really looking forward to,
Speaker 1: you know, Luca Brothers, which and FDR. Hopefully they can
Speaker 1: get things jelled together. But Dax Hardwood was amazing in
Speaker 1: this Pack was amazing. These guys are Pack was amazing.
Speaker 1: These guys the brain busters were amazing. The Avalanche brainbuster,
Speaker 1: the Dax Hardwood or that poc used and then vice
Speaker 1: versa with Dax Harwood. I that match was so good.
Speaker 1: Dax Hardwood is so damn good. And that's not to
Speaker 1: take away anything from Pack, but damn we see Dax
Speaker 1: Harwood just time after time after time do the small
Speaker 1: things that are just excellent, and he can make anybody
Speaker 1: look good, let alone when he got a guy with
Speaker 1: that type of level impact Omega and Page. I thought
Speaker 1: the contract sign he was perfect. I thought it's what
Speaker 1: it needed to be. I thought Don Kallis is a
Speaker 1: horrible human being. He is a scum of the earth.
Speaker 1: He's a pimple on the ass of professional wrestling. He
Speaker 1: is a huckster m Manitoba. That's just what he is.
Speaker 1: But he's incredibly great at what he does. I thought him.
Speaker 1: And like you mentioned, as soon as you saw the
Speaker 1: cameraman walk in front of the other cameraman in the ring,
Speaker 1: you knew something was up. But you're thinking, hey, that
Speaker 1: cameraman right there, he's got a goatee. What's going on there?
Speaker 1: And then you saw what happened. He lays out Hangman page.
Speaker 1: They split him open, bust him open with the camera.
Speaker 1: Ha ha, the big reveal. He pulls off the mustache,
Speaker 1: he pulls off the goatee, and there you go. They're
Speaker 1: signing Hangman pages name in literal blood. And that was
Speaker 1: certainly a visual at the end. I'm sure some people
Speaker 1: jump on that and they'll say they hated that, but
Speaker 1: I thought it was great. We got digs on a
Speaker 1: bushy or about Coda Bushy too, Kenny Omega. So I mean,
Speaker 1: there was a lot of stuff I thought accomplished last night,
Speaker 1: and some of the stuff that was not perfect was
Speaker 1: still really good. And we're not even we haven't even
Speaker 1: brought up some of the video packages like Eddie Kingston
Speaker 1: and and Cempo and they had to pull apart in
Speaker 1: the parking lot, which led to a great visual of
Speaker 1: Eddie Kingston breaking away and trying to make his way
Speaker 1: across the parking lot and punk. We had the m
Speaker 1: j F Darby Allen promo that I thought was very good.
Speaker 1: So there was a lot of great stuff in the
Speaker 1: clothes to this show leading into this pay per view.
Speaker 1: I clearly did not want me to talk about n
Speaker 1: x T. No. I don't know too bad. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do as much as I can here. We had an
Speaker 1: opening match with Toxic Attraction out there versus Caton Carter
Speaker 1: EO tryn Casey Cannazaro. They missed every spot they tried.
Speaker 1: I shouldn't say that the botched one spot after another.
Speaker 1: We had Kayleie Rave beating Surai. For those of you
Speaker 1: that had high hopes for said hopes dashed. They ain't
Speaker 1: do anything. Are Joe Gacy beat Boa via d Q
Speaker 1: and they've given him the Fiends red light gimmick. That
Speaker 1: was horrible. Creed Brothers beat Jack at Time because of
Speaker 1: course they did. We had Cameron Grimes beat rue f
Speaker 1: ng who because he was a short Solos Acoa beat
Speaker 1: Grays and Waller in l A Night and uh Electra
Speaker 1: Lopez beat Erica John bro This is the worst squash
Speaker 1: match I've ever seen. I wish I could talk more.
Speaker 1: You can blame Mike for this. Everybody back with Michael
Speaker 1: Kingston back in the show. Brian Albarez here, Wrestling Observer Live,
Speaker 1: Mike Simper BB also have Wrestling Observer dot Com. Very
Speaker 1: happy today to be joined by Michael Kingston. We got
Speaker 1: a lot to talk about, including Headlocks Tales from the
Speaker 1: Road of Volume two, which is finishing up its final
Speaker 1: day on Kickstarter here today and if you hit my
Speaker 1: my Twitter at Brian Alvarez, I've got a link up
Speaker 1: there for the Kickstarter and I believe you've made a
Speaker 1: three fifty dollars during the show alone so far, so
Speaker 1: it's rocketing past its goal of fourteen thousand, five hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: You've you've bay we doubled the goal, Michael, are you
Speaker 1: doing today? Uh? Do it really well? I mean it's
Speaker 1: Kickstarters are an emotionally grueling exercise. So thirty days, thirty
Speaker 1: days of it, I'm ready for it to be over now.
Speaker 1: For those of you that don't know this, uh this
Speaker 1: kickstarter gimmick here. If you have like a go fund me,
Speaker 1: it's like you just get the money, right, but Kickstarter,
Speaker 1: if you don't reach your goal, you get no money. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's more kickstarters, more for creatives to fund creative projects
Speaker 1: for somebody like me. And it's like a double independent
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Obviously we're not sponsored by
Speaker 1: Marvel or d C. I mean, I I published these
Speaker 1: out of my house. You know, this is like a
Speaker 1: pre order for us. This This enables us to sell
Speaker 1: enough books to be able to fund the production of it,
Speaker 1: because comics are expensive. To me. Now, when you say
Speaker 1: you you published this out of your house, I mean
Speaker 1: if you have you invest in a giant printing machine
Speaker 1: or or is it more you know, you send the
Speaker 1: files with somebody else and they they printed up here
Speaker 1: for you. Yeah. Yeah, And I work with the printer,
Speaker 1: UM work with a in Nashville. That's Uh, It's been
Speaker 1: very good to me the whole time. I've been really
Speaker 1: lucky in a lot of instances just with people that
Speaker 1: sort of believe in what we do and that have
Speaker 1: helped us, you know, grow along the way. And uh,
Speaker 1: I mean I think it's been really good. This is
Speaker 1: our sixth our sixth trade that we've put out. We've
Speaker 1: got like forty collaborations with different wrestlers. Um, we're you know,
Speaker 1: we keep growing, so you know, a little by a little.
Speaker 1: It seems like a silly question, but I mean when
Speaker 1: I did Figure four weekly, you know, I I for
Speaker 1: a while there was was like doing the math, like
Speaker 1: should I buy like a really big copying machine here,
Speaker 1: because it's very expensive to to print things up and
Speaker 1: I was doing black and white and maybe I wanted
Speaker 1: a front page was in color. But these things are
Speaker 1: not cheap. So when you do a kickstarter here, I mean,
Speaker 1: are you how does it work in terms of do
Speaker 1: you presume Okay, I want to print at least this
Speaker 1: mini books because if I print this so many books,
Speaker 1: I only have to pay this amount per book, whereas
Speaker 1: if it's a smaller number your print your your costs
Speaker 1: are significantly higher. How do you do the math to
Speaker 1: figure out what the goal is and how many you're
Speaker 1: going to print? I mean you really, really, there's really
Speaker 1: no way of knowing because you don't know what people
Speaker 1: are gonna back for. I mean, you want to keep it.
Speaker 1: I try to keep it tight. Just spatial concerns in
Speaker 1: my house and you know, overhead. Um, so I'm lucky now,
Speaker 1: Like you know, back in the day, you just have
Speaker 1: to print thousands and thousands of copies of stuff. But
Speaker 1: now with like short run printers, there's affordable ways to
Speaker 1: print things in lower print runs so you don't necessarily
Speaker 1: have to print ten thousand of something. Um. And I've
Speaker 1: done I've I've done big runs where you know, we've
Speaker 1: printed um, you know, and the have to use an
Speaker 1: offset printer, which is a different animal. But you know
Speaker 1: a lot of times we just use a digital printer
Speaker 1: which is able to you know, turn things around a
Speaker 1: little bit quicker. Um. I mean, I couldn't imagine ever
Speaker 1: wanting to to be more involved in the per auction
Speaker 1: of it, just because I mean, I've got two more.
Speaker 1: I have two titles right now. We have Headlocked and
Speaker 1: then we have Tails from the Road, and then I'm
Speaker 1: trying to get two more off the ground. I wrote
Speaker 1: a movie, um that we're trying to get made. So
Speaker 1: it's actually not about wrestling. It's a horror movie. But
Speaker 1: I'm just you know what I mean, Like I have
Speaker 1: no time as it is, like I don't have another minute.
Speaker 1: Like I'm literally writing a script for for next month's
Speaker 1: Tails from the Road, and I'm literally doing it at
Speaker 1: a page a day, Like I'm getting a page to
Speaker 1: the artist so he can stay moving. Like. That's how
Speaker 1: exhausting sort of it is to do all of this
Speaker 1: and work full time. Beat the kick started. I do
Speaker 1: have to jump in very quickly your your horror movie.
Speaker 1: I mean, if this gets funded and ready to go,
Speaker 1: I mean, will you be hiring wrestlers because it seems
Speaker 1: to be a lot of their forte Um, yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean you never know. I think we're gonna try to
Speaker 1: make it a comic book first. Um, there's definitely scenes
Speaker 1: set for wrestlers. Um. So it's set at a it's
Speaker 1: set at a convention. Um So there's definitely there's parts
Speaker 1: written for wrestlers. Um. But it's it's actually a little
Speaker 1: more cosplay oriented, so you know, having a foot both
Speaker 1: in sort of wrestling and comics. The you know, this
Speaker 1: is sort of indulging the comic side more. Everything's got
Speaker 1: a little of both influences. But this is a little
Speaker 1: more comics heavy than uh than wrestling heavy. So, you know,
Speaker 1: it's so much to talk about, especially when it comes
Speaker 1: to the books themselves. But I guess my first question
Speaker 1: is if somebody were to go to the kickstarter, they're
Speaker 1: going to see what your goal was and they're going
Speaker 1: to see what was pledged and go, well, this, this
Speaker 1: guy doesn't need my help. They've already reached their goal.
Speaker 1: So can you kind of explain why people are, you know,
Speaker 1: what what they can get out of this when they
Speaker 1: do contribute, and why should people continue to contribute right
Speaker 1: now even though you have reached your goal? And where
Speaker 1: does that go? Does it go to other projects? Um?
Speaker 1: So yes, So there's a couple of different things. Obviously,
Speaker 1: when you exceed your goal, then you have to produce
Speaker 1: more things. So, like you know, my goal is sort
Speaker 1: of set with the overhead of fourteen dollars worth of books,
Speaker 1: So now you know, I have to produce more books.
Speaker 1: So like you're you're printing costs go up. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: thankfully my art costs don't go up. But one of
Speaker 1: the things that we've done for this campaign actually is
Speaker 1: so we uh, we have three covers and one of
Speaker 1: the covers that we did for the for the campaign
Speaker 1: was a a Dan Housing cover that was sort of
Speaker 1: inspired by the first Creep Show movie poster and that
Speaker 1: was supposed to be an an exclusive for the campaign.
Speaker 1: And then you know, I've known Dan Housing forever since,
Speaker 1: like you know pre makeup Dan Housing, um, and uh
Speaker 1: it means a good friend of mine and you know
Speaker 1: he got hurt in on Halloween and Tennessee. So now
Speaker 1: what I'm doing, we're over our goals. I'm donating like
Speaker 1: anything we get anybody who backs for the Dan Housing cover,
Speaker 1: you know, every copy of that, the proceeds, the entire
Speaker 1: amount of profit for those covers are going to go
Speaker 1: directly to him and his uh his medical and recovery fund,
Speaker 1: which is a little unusual for this particular campaign, but
Speaker 1: that's uh, that's something that we're doing. The covers awesome
Speaker 1: and it's only going to exist as part of this campaign,
Speaker 1: So it's gonna be collectible, you know. I mean there's
Speaker 1: only gonna be you know, some of them out there,
Speaker 1: you know, not a ton of them. And then uh,
Speaker 1: you know, we're we're you know, doing a good thing
Speaker 1: for a friend of the ship, for a friend of
Speaker 1: the book. He's actually got a story in the book
Speaker 1: as well. So it's at all kind of worked out
Speaker 1: that we were able to help out our friend, um,
Speaker 1: you know, when you needed it. But also, yeah, I've
Speaker 1: got other projects I'm working on. Like everything with Headlocked
Speaker 1: is just you know, Hey, it's this thing funds the
Speaker 1: next thing. Like I don't take any money out of
Speaker 1: any of this, because I mean, I still work a
Speaker 1: full time job. Like my you know, my lights stay on.
Speaker 1: I don't have to worry about that. I mean, at
Speaker 1: some point I'd like to make that transition, but right now,
Speaker 1: there's just too much, too many things I want to do,
Speaker 1: too many things I want to make, And then you know,
Speaker 1: conventions are so much more expensive, and I do try
Speaker 1: to make sure, like one of the other sort of
Speaker 1: aims that I have is making sure that convention, you know,
Speaker 1: we have a good convention space and that wrestling is
Speaker 1: well represented at comic cons because it's not. It isn't always.
Speaker 1: So you know, we we we get nice convention booths
Speaker 1: and bring wrestlers to the show so people, you know,
Speaker 1: so wrestling fans canna have a good experience. We've got
Speaker 1: a lot of our fingers and a lot of pies.
Speaker 1: I guess before we go, I just gotta get this
Speaker 1: in because we've been talking now for like fifteen minutes
Speaker 1: and we haven't even told people what this book is.
Speaker 1: So Tales from the Road, Volume two, what is it?
Speaker 1: Tell everybody about it? So you know, tell Us from
Speaker 1: the Road is a series of short stories that I
Speaker 1: co create with a bunch of different wrestlers. Um. And
Speaker 1: they can be in any type of genre, and they're
Speaker 1: all in theory fictional, although some are inspired by true
Speaker 1: life events. Um. Yeah, but we don't get into trademarks
Speaker 1: or anything like that. But this particular book has twelve stories. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, we did a story with Mac Cardona and
Speaker 1: Brian Myers, thunder Rosa, Crime Time, Dan Housing, Frankie Kazarian,
Speaker 1: Danny Limelight, John Morrison, Pentagon, AJ Styles, Jeff Cobb, Effie
Speaker 1: and Rob Van Dam. Um. So they're all they're all
Speaker 1: different types of stories, they're all different genres. Um, but
Speaker 1: they're all real fun. And uh, I think I think
Speaker 1: people that like wrestling and like comics will will really
Speaker 1: like what we do. Bro. This book is the legit
Speaker 1: forbidden door. I mean how for sure? I mean I've
Speaker 1: tried to and I think you know many people have
Speaker 1: tried to deal with the w w E before and uh,
Speaker 1: how did you how did you swing this? I've been
Speaker 1: really lucky. I mean some of these stories were produced
Speaker 1: before people were under contracts. Um, some of them are
Speaker 1: you know, I've been I don't know. Sometimes I think,
Speaker 1: because you know, Jerry Lawler does all the covers to
Speaker 1: my books, I feel like, to a certain extent, people
Speaker 1: leave me alone. But also like I think that I
Speaker 1: don't know if I'm small enough to stay off of
Speaker 1: people's radars. I'm not really competing with anything, you know
Speaker 1: what mean, I'm not selling T shirts, I'm not selling
Speaker 1: anything that w W is selling. We try not to
Speaker 1: get walking into people's trademarks and stuff or likenesses. So
Speaker 1: I think in a lot of ways it just sort
Speaker 1: of dodge everybody's noticed, like in terms of the copyright,
Speaker 1: trademark type people. But I mean there's there's a whole
Speaker 1: I could write a whole book on how all these
Speaker 1: things come together. So I mean, for instance, the Crime
Speaker 1: Time story was probably the last thing that you know
Speaker 1: that Chadd died creatively before he passed away. Um, he
Speaker 1: was an O G supporter of my books since the
Speaker 1: very beginning, and I got the edits for that story
Speaker 1: three days before he died. Um, And like, I love
Speaker 1: that dude. He was the one of the best dudes ever.
Speaker 1: Like I'm just in like wrestling, but just like in life,
Speaker 1: like just a great, great dude, and h I was
Speaker 1: really glad that we got to to put something together. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean so the sort of the behind
Speaker 1: the scenes stuff can be a little crazy. I presume
Speaker 1: you read J. T. Cheese book. Yes, that was a
Speaker 1: great book, Like nobody ever talks about it, but that
Speaker 1: was a really good book. Those guys were. I mean,
Speaker 1: I've done a ton of shows with them, and there's
Speaker 1: so much fun to be around. And I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't know they I don't I don't think they really
Speaker 1: got their their sort of full potentially reach their full
Speaker 1: potential in the in wrestling, and they were they they
Speaker 1: were starting to start of pick up on the Indians
Speaker 1: a little bit and do some fun stuff. I know
Speaker 1: they've done some fun things for you know, what was
Speaker 1: going to be like the Great Sweatpants Battle Royal and
Speaker 1: they just uh, they were They were real good dudes, man.
Speaker 1: But yeah, obviously it's like a parent, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't know how you can choose between your children. But
Speaker 1: when you look back at some of these covers and
Speaker 1: people can see them when they go to the Kickstarter page,
Speaker 1: there are memory use for me, whether it be the
Speaker 1: Reservoir Dogs take Off, whether it be the the Battle
Speaker 1: for the p w I Cup from the u WF
Speaker 1: way back in the day. The New Yorker styles of
Speaker 1: the covers. Are there any that have been better received
Speaker 1: than others or that you've loved more than others? What
Speaker 1: has that been like? Because I you know, when you
Speaker 1: look at them, they're they're just so fantastic. So are
Speaker 1: there any that you like more than others or or
Speaker 1: how does that work? I mean I love them all, honestly,
Speaker 1: but like my faviously, my favorite, I think my all
Speaker 1: time favorite cover and thus far is the one that
Speaker 1: we did for part two of the Last Territory. It's
Speaker 1: it's Jerry's cover that he did. It's a it's a
Speaker 1: sort of an homage to the Saturday Evening Post cover.
Speaker 1: We're little kids at the chested drawers and he's got
Speaker 1: the Santa suit. He realizes that his dad is Santa Claus.
Speaker 1: He's got that shocked look on his face. We sort
Speaker 1: of adapted that to where the kids found like a
Speaker 1: lucha mask and some boots. Um and uh, it's just
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's funny because you know Jerry, Jerry
Speaker 1: loves Norman Rockwell and he loves art Um, it's always
Speaker 1: weird to have like a different relationship with people than
Speaker 1: I guess. You know, everybody just kind of knows Jerry
Speaker 1: for everything that he's done in wrestling with me, like
Speaker 1: he's just a big art nerd um and uh he
Speaker 1: you know, he loves Christmas too, so like, you know,
Speaker 1: he was super you know, you can tell he was
Speaker 1: super inspired to put this thing together and like, I mean,
Speaker 1: I fell in love with it like the minute I
Speaker 1: saw it, So I mean that's definitely you know, that's
Speaker 1: definitely one. And um, there's a ton of home that
Speaker 1: are probably you know one a you know, we got
Speaker 1: about a minute here, but you are one thousand, four
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty three dollars away from doubling your goal.
Speaker 1: And how does this compare to you previous kickstarters we've
Speaker 1: been in the twenties. I think the last Tales from
Speaker 1: the Word were a little bit above where we were
Speaker 1: from Tales from the Road Volume one, which is what
Speaker 1: we want. You just want to grow And honestly, look,
Speaker 1: the money isn't really what I'm really super concerned with.
Speaker 1: Like I don't need people to show up and drop
Speaker 1: like a you know, drop a bunch of money on it.
Speaker 1: I just want people to want to read it, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like this thing is a labor
Speaker 1: of love. It's taking me ten years to get here.
Speaker 1: I mean it's you know, kill myself to make these books.
Speaker 1: And all the wrestlers that are a part of it,
Speaker 1: like you know, they're excited about wrestling, comics and stuff.
Speaker 1: It's definitely a project made out of fashion. I want
Speaker 1: that thought real quick. We'll talk a little bit more
Speaker 1: after the break stick around everybody Observer Live. We'll be again.
Speaker 1: Are the tweets and the cool cool morning turn the
Speaker 1: days of swam s living ride is easy. I get
Speaker 1: the show. Bran Elber is here Wrestling Observer Live like
Speaker 1: simper v V. Also of Wrestling Observer dot Com Mike
Speaker 1: Kingston as well his Kickstarter Headlocked to Tails from the
Speaker 1: Road of Volume two. I presume if you go to
Speaker 1: Kickstarter and type in headlock you'll find you can also
Speaker 1: go to my twitter at Brian Alvarez. I've retweeted it
Speaker 1: link up their final day. The projects ends funding at
Speaker 1: five Pacific eight eastern today, So don't sit there and
Speaker 1: go out throwing some money tomorrow. Today it's the last
Speaker 1: day and Michael's get some some plugs in for the
Speaker 1: Kickstarter and anything else you've got out there. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: all of our social media is Headlocked Comic dot com. Um,
Speaker 1: it's all me, if you know, that's who you're dealing with,
Speaker 1: if you're if you're on there, and uh, it was
Speaker 1: got till eight o'clock with the Kickstarter, So I think
Speaker 1: it's I think it's a cool book to Dan Housing
Speaker 1: cover you can't get any other time other than through
Speaker 1: this campaign. It won't be available after that. So you know,
Speaker 1: if you want to help somebody out, get yourself a
Speaker 1: collectible and get a cool comic book all at once.
Speaker 1: You know, I think it's a good it's a good choice. Well,
Speaker 1: you can check it out on kickstarter dot com. Everybody
Speaker 1: Headlocked Tails from the Road featuring Cardona and Myers, thunder Rosa,
Speaker 1: Crime Time, Dan Housing, Kazarian, Limelight, Morrison, Pentis, Die Else,
Speaker 1: cob Fie and r v D. Check it out and Michael,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for doing the show today, and we
Speaker 1: need to do this again sometime. Absolutely, man, thanks for
Speaker 1: having me. I really appreciate and of course thanks everybody
Speaker 1: for listening. Mike has always callers to the studios are
Speaker 1: Twitch homies. We'll talk to again later tonight running video
Speaker 1: show a w n n x T Wrestling Observer dot
Speaker 1: com video dot f for w online dot com. 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