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 sempervv.
Speaker 3: Are you ready? Are you ready?
Speaker 2: Let's get it off now.
Speaker 1: How's it going everybody? Brian Alvarez here on Wrestling Observer Live.
Speaker 1: We are here every day Monday through Friday, New Pacific Threeastern,
Speaker 1: Sundays three Pacific sixth Eastern, and I'm currently in the dark,
Speaker 1: so stand by. Will I turn these lights on? Hey?
Speaker 1: There we go? Perfect timing. It is uh, it's Monday
Speaker 1: on the show, and you know what that means. We
Speaker 1: have a lot to talk about here today because not
Speaker 1: only is it Monday, but it is also the beginning
Speaker 1: of WrestleMania week and boy is there a lot going on.
Speaker 1: In an hour two hours actually to Pacific five Eastern.
Speaker 1: I will be joined by Filthy Tom Lawler for our
Speaker 1: weekly show. And what we are going to do is
Speaker 1: try to preview everything major that is going on this weekend.
Speaker 1: And there are a lot of different shows other than WrestleMania,
Speaker 1: and probably on Tuesday, I will talk about the plan
Speaker 1: that we have for this coming weekend because I am
Speaker 1: not going to WrestleMania. I will be here and my
Speaker 1: family will be gone. They are heading out for spring
Speaker 1: break on Friday. I will head out to meet them
Speaker 1: after WrestleMania on Monday. But that means I'm home all
Speaker 1: weekend and I have nothing to do but watch five
Speaker 1: million wrestling shows. And so we have a lot that
Speaker 1: we will be watching and covering this WrestleMania weekend. So
Speaker 1: we will tell you all about that and all of
Speaker 1: the rest of the news, including the latest in the
Speaker 1: Vince McMahon. Janelle Grant story. New York Post Today wrote
Speaker 1: about an alleged love letter that she sent to Vince McMahon,
Speaker 1: and we'll tell you what Grant's lawyer says about this,
Speaker 1: and uh and a lot more so, a lot to
Speaker 1: get into here today. Mike simper Bb joins us after
Speaker 1: the break back. In a moment Observer lived give.
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Speaker 2: You are listening to Wrestling Observer Live with Brian Alvarez
Speaker 2: and Mike SIMBERVV on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network.
Speaker 1: Mick in the show, Brian Albarez here, Wrestling Observer Live,
Speaker 1: Mike simper VV, also of Wrestling Observer dot com. Well,
Speaker 1: it looks like I'll be listening to that cmpunk interview
Speaker 1: on Aeriel Helwani's show later today.
Speaker 6: May.
Speaker 3: They're already about it in the chat, aren't they.
Speaker 1: I was just reading. I didn't look at the chat.
Speaker 1: I was reading what people were saying on the board,
Speaker 1: and I'll listen to it later.
Speaker 3: He's good on podcasts.
Speaker 1: Won't make any comments about anything right now. I don't
Speaker 1: even know what to make a comment about, all right,
Speaker 1: Obviously the big story here today, This from the front
Speaker 1: page of Wrestling Observer dot com. The lawyer representing Janelle
Speaker 1: Grant says Grant was co worced into writing quote a
Speaker 1: love letter to McMahon in late twenty twenty one. Your
Speaker 1: Post published an article on Monday containing a lengthy email
Speaker 1: Grant wrote to McMahon on December twenty four, twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: in which he professes her love for WWE's former executive chairman.
Speaker 1: Grant's lawyer and Callous said McMahon instructed Grant to write
Speaker 1: the letter, which was obtained from Grant's laptop as part
Speaker 1: of WWE's investigation into allegations against McMahon. It is expected
Speaker 1: to appear in future court filings as Grant's lawsuit against
Speaker 1: McMahon and w WE proceeds. Frankly and Callous said, this
Speaker 1: is the lawyer of Grant. Frankly, it's pretty disgusting that
Speaker 1: Vince's week's late attempt to defend his horrendous behavior, behavior
Speaker 1: he claims to this day never happened, is to try
Speaker 1: to showcase letters that Vince himself coerced her to write.
Speaker 1: His psychological torture of her continues, as is typical with
Speaker 1: abusive predators. Who respond to women speaking out with increased threats.
Speaker 1: While Janelle isn't a stranger to his intimidation tactics, this
Speaker 1: is a new low, even for him. Callous noted much
Speaker 1: of Grant's letter to McMahon was plagiarized. For instance, Grants
Speaker 1: Grant wrote to McMahon, I feel understood, accepted, loved and
Speaker 1: appreciated for who I am. At my core, you see
Speaker 1: my heart, you see my soul. There are few people
Speaker 1: who know the secret of making a heaven here on earth.
Speaker 1: You were one of those rare people. Lines taken verbatim
Speaker 1: from the nineteen forty seven film The Bishop's Wife. Another
Speaker 1: part of the letter was taken from a twenty twenty
Speaker 1: one GQ interview with Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly.
Speaker 1: What McMahon's lawyer Jessica? And this is another thing here,
Speaker 1: This is what we learned today. Are you ready for this? Yes,
Speaker 1: Vince McMahon's lawyer is Jessica Todd Rosenberg of Castlewich Benson Torres.
Speaker 1: Who are they you ask? This is the same firm
Speaker 1: that represented MLW in its twenty twenty three antitrust lawsuit
Speaker 1: against WWE, which of course was settled and MLW ended
Speaker 1: up with whatever they ended up with, twenty million dollars
Speaker 1: or whatever it ended up being. Vince's lawyer is from
Speaker 1: the firm that represented MLW against WWE, and then Vince's
Speaker 1: lawyer says no one coerced Miss Grant to write that letter.
Speaker 1: She wrote it of her own accord. The fact the
Speaker 1: letter shows it was the twenty fourth draft speaks volumes,
Speaker 1: which I'm actually not sure.
Speaker 3: I'm not baffling.
Speaker 1: Well, she began the letter. If you want to read
Speaker 1: the whole letter, it's on the front page of Rustlingobserver
Speaker 1: dot com. I'm not gonna read it here. But she
Speaker 1: begins the letter saying, this is draft twenty four. So
Speaker 1: I don't know if they're just saying it's draft twenty
Speaker 1: four because that's what she wrote, or if they have
Speaker 1: some way of determining it was actually the twenty fourth
Speaker 1: draft that she wrote. But it says no one in
Speaker 1: her nowhere, in her voluminous that is replete with fabrications.
Speaker 1: This is Vince's lawyer. Does she mention being coerced into
Speaker 1: such behavior. The language of the letter is consistent with
Speaker 1: other communications she made to mister McMahon over the course
Speaker 1: of their consensual relationship. And again, if you want to
Speaker 1: read this letter, which is so long, you're welcome to
Speaker 1: do so.
Speaker 3: It's even described as a rambling twenty two hundred word letter.
Speaker 3: I you know, sixty eight days after the initial story
Speaker 3: comes out. It's interesting timing with what the WWEPR machine
Speaker 3: put out today about ratings as they kick off their
Speaker 3: WrestleMania week. I don't know if Vince's lawyer is flexing
Speaker 3: in the way that she thinks is I guess she's
Speaker 3: flexing in a way that she thinks is beneficial. By
Speaker 3: saying that it's the twenty fourth draft that speaks volumes,
Speaker 3: I don't know what that speaks volumes.
Speaker 1: Of that have to do with anything.
Speaker 3: Yeah, if she's writing these letters at you know, his request,
Speaker 3: to the point where she's actually just lifting things completely
Speaker 3: out of other articles because he just wants to have
Speaker 3: his letter, you know, it's just it's something, it's something else,
Speaker 3: that's for sure. I uh. Again, this is now the
Speaker 3: second time too that should be pointed out that Nick
Speaker 3: Cohn has been said to know about this relationship. Now,
Speaker 3: granted they both come from Janelle Grant, but this is
Speaker 3: now Janelle Grant. You know, I don't care who knows
Speaker 3: about well.
Speaker 1: Hold on, hold on, hold on, So the I read
Speaker 1: the entire letter. Okay, and these are the names that
Speaker 1: she wrote in the letter, and I guess one of
Speaker 1: them could have been a misspelling. But she says, even
Speaker 1: though so few people know about us, the most freeing
Speaker 1: feeling this year came when we got to act like
Speaker 1: a couple, openly, freely, when Mickey, Paul and the chef
Speaker 1: we're around us. So nowhere is Nick con mentioning here,
Speaker 1: but Paul would likely be well, I shouldn't even say
Speaker 1: that because we don't know, but people have been presuming
Speaker 1: that must be. I mean, it could be. Actually, there
Speaker 1: are multiple Paul's in the company. Could be Triple H.
Speaker 1: Could be Paul Hayman. I don't know who Mickey is,
Speaker 1: and I certainly don't know who this chef is.
Speaker 3: But that's not true because it goes on to say
Speaker 3: whether it's your assistance, a chef, Brad, Nick, Johnny, or
Speaker 3: whoever sees us together. I think it's undeniable to them
Speaker 3: or anyone who sees us that we.
Speaker 1: Are actually you may be right, I may have.
Speaker 3: We are in love with the capital L, which is
Speaker 3: one of the things that she's accuser has said that
Speaker 3: she has lifted directly from that GQ thing with Megan
Speaker 3: Kelly and machine Gun Kelly. I think whatever named Megan
Speaker 3: Fox and machine Gun Kelly, I think that in Megan
Speaker 3: Kelly and machine Gun Kelly together, that's the story.
Speaker 1: Actually, this it maybe an issue with the front page
Speaker 1: of Wrestling Observer dot com because the letter on the
Speaker 1: front page ends with it must be intoxicating with no
Speaker 1: other and not even a period there. So presumably there's
Speaker 1: more of the letter I have not read. So if
Speaker 1: you're listening to this and you're an editor at the
Speaker 1: front page of the website, you might want to put
Speaker 1: the rest of the letter in. So what does it say?
Speaker 1: What names does it say? After that?
Speaker 3: Again, at one point in this long thing it says
Speaker 3: whether it's your assistance, a chef, brad Nick, Johnny, or
Speaker 3: whoever sees us together. I think it's undeniable to them
Speaker 3: or anyone who sees us that we are in love
Speaker 3: with a capital L. Others who think they know you
Speaker 3: so well must be surprised when they see us act
Speaker 3: so sweetly together, practically like kids.
Speaker 1: Where is this entire letter? I may have to go
Speaker 1: to the Post. Well, we'll follow that up after the break.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, and there is.
Speaker 1: But yes, I presume that's in there if you've read.
Speaker 3: That, Yeah, that's in the New York Post. And even there,
Speaker 3: if you go to the New York Post site, it's
Speaker 3: got a kind of a slide show for it, which
Speaker 3: goes seven pictures. So that shows you how long this
Speaker 3: letter is.
Speaker 1: Why is this so difficult because it's Monday, Well, it's
Speaker 1: just I mean, so.
Speaker 3: You didn't have lights set your certain Russell Meania week brother.
Speaker 1: Well, regardless, this is this is the latest in the story.
Speaker 1: We'll have more on this after the break, but if
Speaker 1: you have comments, you can text this forty five seven
Speaker 1: eight zero seven five sixty six and that is forty
Speaker 1: five seven eight zero seven, five sixty six. The only
Speaker 1: other thing I could add is the story is apparently
Speaker 1: there was another communication where she, I think it was
Speaker 1: on the twenty first, somewhere around there, she got surgery
Speaker 1: on her finger, and so she sent Vince a text
Speaker 1: basically saying, you know, how am I going to do
Speaker 1: this with the finger? How am I going to write
Speaker 1: your letter? And so you know her site is saying,
Speaker 1: well that right, there is proof that Vince told her
Speaker 1: to write this letter to him, and yes, whether it's
Speaker 1: your assistance a chef, so we still know who this
Speaker 1: chef is, Brad Nick, Johnny or whoever sees this together.
Speaker 1: I think it's undeniable to them or anyone who sees us.
Speaker 1: We are in love with a capital.
Speaker 3: L, Vincey making pancakes, so it's probably safe to assume,
Speaker 3: even though we do not know, that it's his personal chef.
Speaker 3: And in this text message that she sent him, which
Speaker 3: the Janelle Grandside did not put out but has said,
Speaker 3: yes it did come from Vince, she does say how
Speaker 3: will I write your letter? I can type it and
Speaker 3: read it or try to write it in a couple
Speaker 3: of days. I'm so sorry if I messed this up.
Speaker 3: I want you to have a nice letter.
Speaker 1: Back in a moment. The more Everybody Observer Live.
Speaker 2: You are listening to Wrestling Observer Live with Brian Albarez
Speaker 2: and Mike simper vv on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network.
Speaker 1: Back in the show, Bryan Albert is here Wrestling Observer Live.
Speaker 1: Mike simper Vv also Wrestling Observe dot Com. This punk
Speaker 1: interview MM. Apparently we'll be talking about that tomorrow but.
Speaker 3: You know, it's funny talking about it tonight, That's sure.
Speaker 1: You know what's funny is uh you know, I I've
Speaker 1: read I haven't heard it from him, so I'll say
Speaker 1: limited things, but I've read the recaps of what he said,
Speaker 1: and it's it's pretty funny how nothing he's said contradicts
Speaker 1: anything that we reported at anytime about any of this.
Speaker 1: So about that.
Speaker 3: About maybe that's that part of it is stuck in
Speaker 3: an NBA somewhere in Jacksonville.
Speaker 1: So tonight is raw and they have tough competition and
Speaker 1: as a result, my absolute most hated thing on earth
Speaker 1: first hour of raw commercial free. So uh yeah, that'll
Speaker 1: be fun. But it is completely sold out and they've
Speaker 1: got a big lineup for tonight, including the Rock and
Speaker 1: Roman Reigns are going to be appearing on the show.
Speaker 1: So whatever the show does, it is going to do
Speaker 1: as good as it could possibly do. We can we can.
Speaker 3: Say that, well.
Speaker 1: It's going to be as good as it can possibly.
Speaker 3: If those damn basketball.
Speaker 1: Game, if they didn't have these these ball players had
Speaker 1: to head. We've also got Di I Wy versus New
Speaker 1: Day versus Judgment Day in an eight man tag. Let
Speaker 1: me start over again. These eight man tags missed me
Speaker 1: up every time. D I Y and the New Day
Speaker 1: against all of the Judgment Day eight man tag. We
Speaker 1: got Candice and Indie versus Ivy and Maxine, and Sammy's
Speaker 1: Ain will be facing Bronson Reid, which is a rematch.
Speaker 1: I so Bronson Reid beat Sammy last week, and I thought, well,
Speaker 1: you know, the obvious is, you know, Sammy's gonna beat
Speaker 1: Gunther and then Bronson will be one of his first challengers. Yes,
Speaker 1: maybe not. Sammy may should beating him tonight.
Speaker 3: WHOA, look, I'd like to see that. But remember Chad
Speaker 3: Gable was there giving advice to Sammy's Ain. I don't
Speaker 3: think they'll do this. I hope they don't do this.
Speaker 3: They're not going to turn this into a four way,
Speaker 3: are they.
Speaker 1: I think that that would be a bad.
Speaker 3: Idea, insane, but you know what would be good.
Speaker 1: I can tell you that from what I understand, that
Speaker 1: is not the plan. You know, and plans can change.
Speaker 1: But right now, it's a singles.
Speaker 3: Match, Sammy's Ain defending that title in Montreal against Chad
Speaker 3: Gable and Bronson reed.
Speaker 1: Well, they've also I mean the other thing is they've
Speaker 1: announced the participants in there, The Giant Memorial Battle Royal
Speaker 1: and Bronson is in there, as is Chad Gable. So
Speaker 1: I don't think they're turning this into a four way.
Speaker 1: It's it's and it is scheduled at this point to
Speaker 1: be a singles match at WrestleMania. And then we've got
Speaker 1: Standing to Liver Go Home Show tomorrow, which is Carl Anderson,
Speaker 1: Luke Gallows versus Zaxim and Nathan Frasier versus Joaquin Wilde
Speaker 1: and Cruise Del Toro, Carmelo and Trick have their final
Speaker 1: face off Lyra and Rox sand in Supernova Sessions, Soul
Speaker 1: Ruca versus Blair Davenport and Fallon Hanley versus j C.
Speaker 1: Jane Wednesday, we have got Dynamite in Wooshter, is that correct? Worcester, Worcester, Worchester,
Speaker 1: Massachusetts with Samo, Joe and Swerve Strickland in a contract signing.
Speaker 1: And you know, as much as people talk about how
Speaker 1: there's too many contract signings, the fact of the matter
Speaker 1: is AW doesn't do a lot of contract signings. There
Speaker 1: are a million contract signings, and so when you hear
Speaker 1: that there's going to be a contract signing on this
Speaker 1: AW show's like oh my god, another one, but they
Speaker 1: actually don't do it very often.
Speaker 3: As long as somebody goes through a table, that's all we.
Speaker 1: Need that shows it. Twenty seven seventy three at this point,
Speaker 1: this Dynamite. On Wednesday, we have the Young Bucks versus
Speaker 1: Best Friends semifinal match, aw Tag Team Title Tournament, Mariah
Speaker 1: May versus thunder Rosa, and a number one Contenders match,
Speaker 1: Will Ospray versus Powerhouse Hobbs in the Battle of Will's
Speaker 1: Billy Gunn versus Jay White, and I Assure did? I
Speaker 1: Assure did? And Chris Jericho will call out hook. You know,
Speaker 1: watching watching Rampage. I mean, I don't want to go
Speaker 1: on a big thing, but there's a reason that aw
Speaker 1: was on fire in twenty nineteen and twenty twenty and
Speaker 1: WWE was having double digit declines, and that was because
Speaker 1: WWE sucked and AADUBD was a far superior alternative. And
Speaker 1: the fact of the matter is you if you are
Speaker 1: number two and you're trying to beat number one, number one,
Speaker 1: it's hard no matter what. But number two you got
Speaker 1: to be better than them in virtually every single way.
Speaker 1: And you know, two weeks ago on SmackDown, we saw
Speaker 1: home invasion storyline with aj Styles and La Night, and
Speaker 1: then we saw this one with the ass boys, Like
Speaker 1: literally they got into the house by using the garage
Speaker 1: door opener because they're his sons.
Speaker 3: It's not a crime if it's family.
Speaker 1: And then they walked into the house and you could
Speaker 1: see that like Billy Gunn or maybe his wife or
Speaker 1: maybe both of them were like, do not destroy anything,
Speaker 1: and so they got to knock an empty milk jug
Speaker 1: off the counter, and then they acted like they were
Speaker 1: going to destroy the TV, which, by the way, you
Speaker 1: can go to Costco and get a TV that big
Speaker 1: for like one hundred and forty dollars. No, they did
Speaker 1: not allow them to even bring in a fake TV
Speaker 1: to destroy. And then Billy showed up and they left,
Speaker 1: and it was like the WWE version was a billion
Speaker 1: times better?
Speaker 3: Wasn't there?
Speaker 1: Billion times better?
Speaker 3: Wasn't there? Also? Whether is it the dynamite from the
Speaker 3: week before or from a couple of days before playing
Speaker 3: on the TV even though nobody was in the house
Speaker 3: at first?
Speaker 1: Oh hey, I mean, if Billy was on it, maybe
Speaker 1: you wanted to watch it in a loop.
Speaker 3: I can unders maybe they were sitting outside and or
Speaker 3: completely deaf and didn't hear any of this going on
Speaker 3: before they stepped back through the front door. But look,
Speaker 3: most of the time, and there's an exception to every rule.
Speaker 3: Funny doesn't make money, levity does in serious situations. The
Speaker 3: less of some Hey the Rock and Stone Cold Steve
Speaker 3: Austin and singing back and forth to each other before
Speaker 3: Rustlemania eighteen or whatever it was. That was funny, but
Speaker 3: it was also involved in something that was really heated.
Speaker 3: This was just a throwaway, and at least when it
Speaker 3: came to La Night and aj Styles, we got a
Speaker 3: little bit of a different spin. Even if you thought
Speaker 3: it was stupid. We got bodycam footage from cops supposedly,
Speaker 3: and we got more of a story.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was extremely well done.
Speaker 3: And so again, Jay White, I don't know, seems like
Speaker 3: you could be doing something better than this. But Philly
Speaker 3: Gunn against Jay White in twenty twenty four, here we go.
Speaker 1: Point is, Tony needs to sit down probably with some
Speaker 1: other smart people, because they got plenty of smart people
Speaker 1: working there, let me tell you, and figure out what
Speaker 1: can we do better than WWE and focus on Trump
Speaker 1: to do that. And you know, storylines are subjective, but
Speaker 1: you know Paul won Best Booker, Tony didn't, and WWE's
Speaker 1: storylines are clicking in a big time way. Like everyone's like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, it's not gonna matter because it's WrestleMania season.
Speaker 1: They can't. Yeah, it is hard during Mania season, but
Speaker 1: part of the reason it's hard is because they're peaking.
Speaker 1: Like fans are into all of these storylines leading into WrestleMania.
Speaker 1: They're into all of these characters, they're into all of
Speaker 1: these matches. So it's not just Mania season. It's like
Speaker 1: everything is peaking right now because of the work they've
Speaker 1: done for the last year.
Speaker 3: And guess what, not only are they peaking with that
Speaker 3: lawn they have once they step off that lawn after WrestleMania,
Speaker 3: they have so much that has been fertilized, and that
Speaker 3: grass is looking real lush and green right now, unlike
Speaker 3: mine outside it's looking really good because you have bron
Speaker 3: Breaker coming up, Carmelo Hayes coming up, Andy Stratton who
Speaker 3: has already gotten over to in a certain extent, and
Speaker 3: you've done nothing with Jade, you just debuted what about
Speaker 3: Damian Priest in the briefcase Drew McIntyre. You start going
Speaker 3: down the line of things. And you may not like everybody,
Speaker 3: you may not like all the storylines now, but look
Speaker 3: what they're set up for. What if gunthro loses that
Speaker 3: intercontinental title just by doing that, he's in the world
Speaker 3: title picture and he's somebody else that people believe in
Speaker 3: because of how you've treated him and how he's been
Speaker 3: portrayed this whole time. So a lot of it has
Speaker 3: to do with long distance, and I don't want to
Speaker 3: hear this stuff that Tony Book's long distance. He's got
Speaker 3: his ideas whatever, Okay, he doesn't have it for the
Speaker 3: balance of the proceedings. And that shows itself constantly in
Speaker 3: that company as opposed to what WWE is doing right now,
Speaker 3: for good or for bad, whether you like it or not.
Speaker 1: Well WWE said at a press release touting their success,
Speaker 1: and if you think that this is gonna be the
Speaker 1: only thing coming out over the next week, think again, brother,
Speaker 1: They're gonna be They're gonna be letting you know everything.
Speaker 1: The quarter one twenty twenty four SmackDown, averaging eight hundred
Speaker 1: and ninety two thousand viewers in eighteen to forty nine,
Speaker 1: up fifteen percent year over year. The rank number one
Speaker 1: person's eighteen to forty nine across all total day Friday
Speaker 1: broadcasts eleven of the first twelve weeks of the quarter.
Speaker 1: February sixteenth episode nine hundred and eighty five thousand viewers
Speaker 1: in eighteen to forty nine, making it the most viewed
Speaker 1: program on all of television for the entire week. February twelve,
Speaker 1: Quarter one twenty twenty four ross seven hundred and thirty
Speaker 1: three thousand in eighteen to forty nine, up six percent
Speaker 1: year over year. Number one in eighteen to forty nine.
Speaker 1: Nine of the thirteen weeks of the quarter. NXT up
Speaker 1: thirty one percent in eighteen to forty nine year over year,
Speaker 1: SmackDown in total viewers up three percent and RAW down
Speaker 1: seven percent total viewers. NXT up seven percent in total viewers. Obviously,
Speaker 1: a lot of this has to do with the return
Speaker 1: of The Rock, And you know it's funny, you know,
Speaker 1: I can't remember what number we were at at YouTube,
Speaker 1: but like we were stuck there for seemingly months, and
Speaker 1: then the Rock showed up and it went. And the
Speaker 1: same thing happened with WWE. They had a date when
Speaker 1: they expected to break one hundred million subscribers and they
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Speaker 2: That you are listening to Wrestling Observer Live with Brian
Speaker 2: Alvarez and Mike semperviv on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network.
Speaker 1: And the show Bryan elbaz here Wrestling Observer Live. You
Speaker 1: know what I was not expecting today that I was
Speaker 1: not expecting to uh to read the chat and come
Speaker 1: to the defense of cm punk.
Speaker 3: Oh, I think you're going to talk about Jingo.
Speaker 1: I haven't even read the board so or the chat.
Speaker 1: I will say this, I haven't heard what he said,
Speaker 1: but I'm responding to people who are talking about cmpunk,
Speaker 1: and that is you know, someone on the board, was like, why,
Speaker 1: why in the hell is this guy acting like such
Speaker 1: a tough guy? Did no one see his UFC career?
Speaker 1: And well, listen, I'm a I'm a black belt, guys.
Speaker 8: Okay.
Speaker 1: In defense of cmpunk, guy got waxed in the UFC
Speaker 1: against trained MMA fighters. Okay, So that doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: if you put CM Punk out there with an untrained person,
Speaker 1: he couldn't wipe the floor with him. Guy got legit training.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he still trains today, but like
Speaker 1: he paid money. He paid a lot of money to
Speaker 1: get legit training with legit guys. Okay, did the level
Speaker 1: I mean he had no wrestling background, he no stand
Speaker 1: up background. Hand Did that legit background allow him to
Speaker 1: walk into UFC and beat guys? No, of course not.
Speaker 1: You think I walk You think I could walk into
Speaker 1: UFC tomorrow and start winning a bunch of fights. No,
Speaker 1: But you see him punk. Put him on the mat
Speaker 1: with someone with no training, and he'll probably wipe the
Speaker 1: floor with them, not all of them. You know, put
Speaker 1: him in with a great wrestler, he probably have some
Speaker 1: problems or you know whatever. But to bury to say
Speaker 1: that Sampunk cannot possibly have any fighting ability whatsoever or
Speaker 1: any ability to handle somebody because he got killed in
Speaker 1: a UFC fight against UFC fighters. I don't know what
Speaker 1: to tell you. So, no, how in the world did
Speaker 1: that happen on this show?
Speaker 3: What do you mean? You know how what happened?
Speaker 1: Do I still train? Be? Oh my god, I'm appalled.
Speaker 3: Now I have a question for you. Yes, who would
Speaker 3: you take and fight Duke Rufus or Pedro Sour.
Speaker 1: Well, Pedro is in his sixties and he's had about
Speaker 1: ninety five shoulder surgeries.
Speaker 3: Is getting up there too.
Speaker 1: Now I'm not man, I wouldn't. Well, of course it
Speaker 1: would be since kidding me. I remember I uh, I
Speaker 1: went to a seminar. This would have been in two
Speaker 1: thousand and ten or so, and he was doing a
Speaker 1: black belt test. This guy was a brown belt. He
Speaker 1: was gonna get his black belt. And I think Pedro
Speaker 1: would have been like fifty four. And this guy is
Speaker 1: probably I mean, actually I can tell exactly how old
Speaker 1: he was because he was born. He was one year
Speaker 1: younger than me born on the day before I was,
Speaker 1: so he would have been thirty seven, no younger, because
Speaker 1: it was twenty ten. He would have been like thirty three, okay.
Speaker 1: Pedro was like fifty two or fifty three or something
Speaker 1: like that. And so after he did his his uh
Speaker 1: his deal, he got a chance to roll with Pedro.
Speaker 1: Pedro ruined this dude. He tapped this guy like right
Speaker 1: and left. And the funny thing was he wasn't even
Speaker 1: like he may have been sleeping.
Speaker 3: Was he even warmed up?
Speaker 1: I mean, Mike, no, he was. He was sitting there
Speaker 1: watching this guy go through the Ilio Gracie self defense
Speaker 1: in the text. And then he walked over to the
Speaker 1: mat and just arm bar arm bar, choke like half speed,
Speaker 1: half asleep. I was like, my god, look at that guy.
Speaker 1: And speaking of my god, look at that guy, the
Speaker 1: great o'conn. How's that for a segue?
Speaker 3: Did you see that picture?
Speaker 6: Oh?
Speaker 3: My goodness.
Speaker 1: Listen, even though they they they lied false advertising, Brian,
Speaker 1: you couldn't eat the el?
Speaker 3: What hey, dumplings?
Speaker 1: It must have been eel dumplings?
Speaker 3: Are you sure those things are usually made with pork
Speaker 3: over there? Oh?
Speaker 1: I guess yeah, they did the replace the eel. That sucks.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, anyway, you know, I don't like to uh I
Speaker 1: I am a man who will admit when I'm wrong. Okay,
Speaker 1: I did earlier in this show when I didn't have
Speaker 1: the whole letter, and then you had the whole letter.
Speaker 1: I was wrong, but I will not admit I'm wrong here.
Speaker 1: I had a way better finish. Okay. My finish was
Speaker 1: they do the first match and Tangaloa gets the most covers,
Speaker 1: and then they do the second fall and great o'conn
Speaker 1: eats the most eel, and then they go to the
Speaker 1: hit the corners gimmicks, strap match, strap match, and the
Speaker 1: finish should have been Tangalo hits one corner, Great o'conn
Speaker 1: falls by and hits the same corner. Tangalo hits a
Speaker 1: second corner, Great o'conn h's the second corner. Tangalo hits
Speaker 1: a third corner. Great o'conn hits that third corner, but
Speaker 1: his Tangaloa goes for the fourth corner, he slips on
Speaker 1: the eel. Great o'conn hits the fourth corner. I told
Speaker 1: this to Dave, you know. Dave says, he goes, that's
Speaker 1: just too wacky. I was like, brother, it's a rural
Speaker 1: revitalization match involving all you can eat eel, and you're
Speaker 1: worried that my finish is too wacky, and then hey,
Speaker 1: what did they do well? The third father're doing a
Speaker 1: strap match. They're acting like they could both barf at
Speaker 1: any moment. Yeah, but my idea is too wacky. Get
Speaker 1: out of here.
Speaker 3: They had a fight for that title inside of a
Speaker 3: dog cage. For heaven's sakes, Come on, it's your boy,
Speaker 3: Gato here. Come on.
Speaker 1: So a couple of notes from SmackDown and Collision. We
Speaker 1: won't talk about that home invasion anymore. No, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: tell you. And this is one of those things everybody,
Speaker 1: you want to know why WWE is hot?
Speaker 3: Why?
Speaker 1: Because you watch these shows how many times? And you
Speaker 1: better be honest about this. For a decade, you and
Speaker 1: I did the show together and you had the same
Speaker 1: talking point nearly every year. Wrestle Mania is going to
Speaker 1: come and then we're gonna have a lull because they'll
Speaker 1: have just done everything and they got nothing left. Okay,
Speaker 1: that is absolutely positively not happening this year because you
Speaker 1: watch all of these shows and all they do is
Speaker 1: plant post Mania seeds. And this Legato Dell Fantasma segment
Speaker 1: with the LWO dude, this was flat out awesome. So
Speaker 1: last week they were doing ray and and Santo's and
Speaker 1: the gimmick was that nobody from either faction could be
Speaker 1: at ringside. Okay, so they do the match and who
Speaker 1: should appear ringside? But Dominic in a Ray mask. He
Speaker 1: is not part of either faction, and he costs Ray
Speaker 1: the win. And you know, at the time and I
Speaker 1: was like, well that's kind of weird, like what's going
Speaker 1: on here? So this week, Ray and Santo's come out,
Speaker 1: and first Santos calls out Dom and he thanks him.
Speaker 1: You know, Dom is still angry at his father. He
Speaker 1: thanks him, and they actually they actually harkened back to
Speaker 1: stories years ago where Santo says, you know, when I
Speaker 1: first came here, we did not see idea because they feuded,
Speaker 1: and Santo says, now I can say this to your face,
Speaker 1: you were right. And so you know, Dom says, I'll
Speaker 1: still do anything in my power to make my deadbeats
Speaker 1: Dad's life a living hell. So out comes Ray in
Speaker 1: the LWO and Ray's crew is in align here, Santo's
Speaker 1: crew in align here. They're squaring off back and forth.
Speaker 1: Fans are going nuts, LWO Chance and everything. So Ray
Speaker 1: cuts his promo and he says, you know, I can't
Speaker 1: believe you're back.
Speaker 3: Dom.
Speaker 1: I can't believe I'm I have to fight you again,
Speaker 1: but he goes, it's divine intervention. The two men I
Speaker 1: hate the most standing right in front of me right now,
Speaker 1: and he says, I challenge you two, me and a
Speaker 1: partner against you two for a match at WrestleMania. And
Speaker 1: as soon as he says this, the fans start chanting
Speaker 1: for Carlito, and the camera zooms into Carlito and he's
Speaker 1: got his big smile and his big hair and he's like,
Speaker 1: I can't wait to get my hands on these guys
Speaker 1: at WrestleMania, and so Dom says, well, how which of
Speaker 1: these dorks are you gonna choose to be your partner?
Speaker 1: And you get another quick shot at Carly done man,
Speaker 1: he's already and Ray Mysterio says, well, it will be
Speaker 1: the newest member of the LWO. Carlyle is like this,
Speaker 1: and Ray goes Dragon Lee and carly Doo goes and
Speaker 1: he still smiles, and he doesn't like pitch a fit.
Speaker 1: He doesn't do anything over the top, but you see
Speaker 1: a smile go from here to here, and now he's
Speaker 1: forcing a smile and Dragonly comes out and Carlito like
Speaker 1: he hugs him. Great to see a brother. But you
Speaker 1: guys are gonna do great and you can just tell
Speaker 1: this man is furious, but he's not selling it, which
Speaker 1: is what you would do in real life. I thought, Carlito,
Speaker 1: I listen, I'm not the biggest Carlio fan, never have been.
Speaker 1: This guy was awesome in this segment. And you know
Speaker 1: what's gonna happen, and it probably isn't gonna be at WrestleMania,
Speaker 1: but like they planted that seed, and man, this guy's
Speaker 1: gonna be next. He's turning on poor Ray and Dragon Lee.
Speaker 8: Hey man, and.
Speaker 1: I thought he was awesome.
Speaker 3: Awesome makes it even better if you want to do
Speaker 3: hair versus hair. Sure, Dominic losing would always be fun,
Speaker 3: but double masks with Ray and Dragon Lee against Carlito's
Speaker 3: hair in Santos's hair, which is getting long by the way.
Speaker 3: And here's the thing too, whenever they decide to do that,
Speaker 3: depending on where Andrat is at in that moment in time,
Speaker 3: you would have five guys in Legato, and you would
Speaker 3: have four guys plus Andrade in the LWO with the
Speaker 3: women Electra and Zelina there as well too. It won't
Speaker 3: make it to Survivor series. I wouldn't believe because I
Speaker 3: think if you're going to do mask versus Hair, SummerSlam
Speaker 3: would be the greatest opportunity to do that and get
Speaker 3: the most shine out of it. But at some point,
Speaker 3: if that happens, there is a possibility we could have
Speaker 3: a ten man tag match with that group, and I
Speaker 3: love that idea if they gave him some time.
Speaker 1: So then the main event segment, you know, I'd heard it, Oh, man,
Speaker 1: why are they doing nothing with Jade? Well, and I
Speaker 1: tried to explain everybody. It's one of those things where
Speaker 1: nobody wants to listen. They were going to do something
Speaker 1: with Jade. She was going to be in the elimination chamber,
Speaker 1: but due to visa issues, she couldn't be on the show.
Speaker 1: But she's ready to go. And what they did was
Speaker 1: the Bianca Dakota main event and Bianca ends up hitting
Speaker 1: the kod. Referee counts the pin, damage Control hits the ring,
Speaker 1: They start destroying Bianca. Naomi runs down, they start destroying
Speaker 1: her and then they hit Jay's Jade's music and boy.
Speaker 1: Early in the show, she'd done an entrance and announced
Speaker 1: her contract signing, and man, they gave her the big
Speaker 1: time superstar entrance and they hit her music. Here crowd
Speaker 1: goes nuts. You've never seen someone slowly saunter to the
Speaker 1: ring in a more slow sauntering manner. But man, she
Speaker 1: got in the ring, and I think it was I
Speaker 1: think I think Dakota ranted her first, or no, yeah,
Speaker 1: Dakota ranted her first. She got booted, and then Jade
Speaker 1: hit a pop up power bomb. I'm pretty sure on
Speaker 1: EO looked fricking awesome. And then she grabbed Kyrie and
Speaker 1: hit her with the Jaded and like everything she did
Speaker 1: look great, came off as a total superstar, and here
Speaker 1: she is inserted into the hottest women's program they have
Speaker 1: on either show, which is Damage Control his Bailey's Crew,
Speaker 1: and it's a big match at Mania, so away we go.
Speaker 1: I got that all wrong. Who she beat up? You
Speaker 1: know what, it doesn't matter. Those are the three moves.
Speaker 1: It was a big boot, a pop up power bomb,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure she hit Kyrie with the Jaden and.
Speaker 3: It doesn't and you know what should also be sent
Speaker 3: off of that too. I thought the Bailey EO thing
Speaker 3: was really good because I like the way that they
Speaker 3: did EO's promo and then have Bailey attack her at
Speaker 3: the end, kind of out of nowhere. I thought that
Speaker 3: actually came across really wells too.
Speaker 1: Back in the mom with more Observer Libe.
Speaker 2: You were listening to Wrestling Observer Live with Brian Alvarez
Speaker 2: and Mike simper VV on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network.
Speaker 1: In the show Bright Elverarez here Wrestling Observer Live Mike
Speaker 1: simpervv also Wrestling Observe dot Com. Want to mention three
Speaker 1: things you should watch this weekend we haven't talked about yet.
Speaker 1: Matt cardon Adam Copeland T and T titled great match,
Speaker 1: great match, and well apparently I liked it mor than
Speaker 1: Vinnie did. Shabbada Danielson and Claudie versus Lance Archer and
Speaker 1: the Righteous. I thought that was a great collision main event.
Speaker 1: So two real good matches on Collision. The rest of
Speaker 1: the show was there. I mean, there were things that
Speaker 1: were absolutely unneeded, but they had them on the show.
Speaker 1: But the main event and the the opener were quite great.
Speaker 1: And then if you have not seen the main event
Speaker 1: from Marina Mexico of CML versus AW a match absolutely
Speaker 1: and I've heard from people who were there kind of
Speaker 1: in the lower area near the ring, and I heard
Speaker 1: from people that have been everywhere they've been, like WrestleMania's
Speaker 1: and Big aw shows n Cash, New Japan, and they said,
Speaker 1: this is the loudest reaction I ever heard. It didn't
Speaker 1: even begin to come across on television. They said, the
Speaker 1: way that Arena Mexico is built is like this bowl
Speaker 1: and all of the sound just like cascades down from above.
Speaker 1: So if you're down in that lower bowl or I
Speaker 1: can't even imagine if like the wrestlers. Danielson, I'm sure
Speaker 1: you know, he was already having the time of his life,
Speaker 1: but probably the crowd on top of.
Speaker 3: That man looked like everybody did.
Speaker 1: I'm sure they did. I'm sure they did.
Speaker 3: The show that was really really fun. Those Parday night
Speaker 3: Arena Mexico shows are fun anyway, to get that thrown
Speaker 3: in there and that crowd, that size crowd. Wednesday, Blue
Speaker 3: Panther and Brian Danielson one on one.
Speaker 1: That's right, Tom and I up at two Pacific five
Speaker 1: Eastern previewing all over wrestle Media weekend, and there's a
Speaker 1: lot He's gonna talk about the Eel match. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: try and watch before the show and SmackDown and plenty more,
Speaker 1: and we'll be back tomorrow. Thanks. Mike has always colors
Speaker 1: and listeners over the studio Wrestling Observer Live. You have
Speaker 1: been listening to the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast on the
Speaker 1: eight Side Network