Speaker 1: Hey, this is Brian Alvarez and this is today's edition
Speaker 1: of the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast on the eight Side Network,
Speaker 1: live from San Francisco. I'm a sports byline broadcasting network.
Speaker 1: You are listening to Wrestling Observer Vibe with your hosts
Speaker 1: Brian Alvarez and Mike Semper vv Ready Are you 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, now Pacific three Eastern Sunday, three Pacific,
Speaker 1: sixth Eastern Friday. Here in this program. We got a
Speaker 1: lot to talk about here today, not the least of
Speaker 1: which is, for the first time in history a wrestling promotion,
Speaker 1: that being w w E record one point zero nine
Speaker 1: five a billion in revenues for a full year. This
Speaker 1: is the power of the Fox deal, the USA Network deal,
Speaker 1: and running about the shows in Saudi Arabia, which may
Speaker 1: in fact be increasing as we move forward here. So
Speaker 1: whatever you want to say about the ratings the quality
Speaker 1: of the show, they are making money hand over fist.
Speaker 1: I'm sure the hundreds of wrestlers and employees that have
Speaker 1: been fired over the last year thrilled to hear this news,
Speaker 1: but anyway, we'll tell you about all of that here
Speaker 1: and also the rest of the news SmackDown is tonight
Speaker 1: a w Dynamite on Wednesday, surprisingly low number thousand viewers
Speaker 1: down thirteen point three per cent and UH point three
Speaker 1: five and eighteen and forty nine down fifteen percent, So
Speaker 1: most likely a combination of the NBA game in South Park.
Speaker 1: Will tell about the quarter hours and what happened during
Speaker 1: the show. Also WrestleMania thirty eight, what's going on with
Speaker 1: brock Lesner and Roman Reigns. Well, we'll see, because the
Speaker 1: thing is, if you watch w W A television, you're
Speaker 1: always led. I shouldn't say you're always led. Sometimes you're
Speaker 1: letting a direction, but it's actually not the direction they're
Speaker 1: going in. But I think they're going in the direction
Speaker 1: that they appear to be going in, if that makes
Speaker 1: any sense. We've also got a w partnering with the
Speaker 1: American Heart Association and Keith Lee and the daughter of
Speaker 1: Santino signing with w W. E lots to get into today,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna kick it off after the break. Wrestling
Speaker 1: Observer Alive. I'm going to find them all hold back.
Speaker 1: They're going to rip it off. Taking that time up
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Speaker 1: straight talk dot com. You're listening to Wrestling Observer Live
Speaker 1: with Brian Albarez and Mike semperviv on the Sports Byline
Speaker 1: Broadcasting Network. Tagging the show right, Elber is here Wrestling
Speaker 1: Observer Alive. Mike simber vivl from Wrestling Observer dot com. Yes,
Speaker 1: let's talk about vs. Budgetary issues that result did in
Speaker 1: the firing of dozens and dozens and dozens, well over
Speaker 1: a hundred people over the last over the last year
Speaker 1: or so. Remember all those people got fired were budgetary reasons.
Speaker 1: Remember that I remember that you know who else remembers
Speaker 1: that all those people got fired. W W announced Thursday
Speaker 1: that twenty maybe this caught them off guard and thought
Speaker 1: of that. W W announced Thursday company revenue increased by
Speaker 1: twelve percent to a company record one point o nine
Speaker 1: five billion, the highest in their history. The news came
Speaker 1: on the same day as our quarter four earnings call,
Speaker 1: the notes of which can be found below. Among other
Speaker 1: highlights mentioned in their release, increase in operating income to
Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty nine million dollars year over year,
Speaker 1: fourth quarter revenue increased by thirty percent to three hundred
Speaker 1: and ten million. Well operating income increased a hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty one to eighty three point six million. Part of
Speaker 1: that driver was live with in attendance, including they returned
Speaker 1: to Saudi Arabia, which was not the case in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter of Consumer products increased by twenty one to
Speaker 1: thirty two point six million, live attendance fifty two hundred,
Speaker 1: which was down from the third quarter but in line
Speaker 1: with the fourth quarter of as usual. The call was
Speaker 1: positive about the current day and future, especially as it
Speaker 1: relates to the next round of a TV rights. By
Speaker 1: the way, anyone thinks they're not going to get a
Speaker 1: good TV rights deal. Think again, they're gonna. During the
Speaker 1: Q and A portion President, w w E president Nick
Speaker 1: Cohn indicated there are going to be more players bidding
Speaker 1: on rights, and there were for the last round of
Speaker 1: deals as players like Netflix, Apple and others joined the
Speaker 1: fight for sports streaming rights. He later said they feel
Speaker 1: as good about a new deal for w W ROSS
Speaker 1: Second Day Streaming Rice as they did for their last
Speaker 1: Ron SmackDown at deals and their Peacock Hulu deal. The
Speaker 1: rights are currently with Hulu and are up this year.
Speaker 1: So Con provided numbers from Peacock that showed sharp increases
Speaker 1: in viewership from when they were on the w w
Speaker 1: E network. Money the Bank higher, Summer Slam over thirty percent, higher,
Speaker 1: Extreme rulescent higher Ground Jewel and Saudi Arabia seventy five
Speaker 1: percent higher, and Survivor Series almost twenty five percent higher.
Speaker 1: Day One attracted sixty percent higher viewership than India December
Speaker 1: premium live event in company history and was a big
Speaker 1: success as it sold out. Later claimed this talked about
Speaker 1: the success of the Rumble more than forty four thousand
Speaker 1: in attendance. He said that's part of the entertainment portion
Speaker 1: of the call percent higher viewership on at Peacock. He
Speaker 1: said three point five million fully paid Peacock subscribers have
Speaker 1: watched b A W programming since moving to the streaming service.
Speaker 1: We had brief comments from Vince no questions related to
Speaker 1: a W, Shane McMahon or talent cuts. That was awfully
Speaker 1: nice of those investors there. They're planning too large scale
Speaker 1: international events next year, with con throwing in why just
Speaker 1: limited to two So we may be having more Saudi
Speaker 1: Arabia international events, which are good for about sixty million
Speaker 1: dollars per show. I'll tell you a bunch of people
Speaker 1: got calls here anyway. Uh. They talked about the n
Speaker 1: I L programs several times. Stephanie said there's no reason
Speaker 1: w W we shouldn't be in the hundreds of millions
Speaker 1: in the years ahead for both advertising and sponsorship revenue
Speaker 1: generated nearly seventy two million one and she said they're
Speaker 1: looking at how to be a part of the metaverse
Speaker 1: as they see a huge opportunity to be involved it.
Speaker 1: So there you go, hand over fist everybody. What can
Speaker 1: you say with that kind of money that you make?
Speaker 1: I mean, everything is just happy and swell for them, now,
Speaker 1: isn't it. I who knows what it actually means when
Speaker 1: they say there's going to be other events outside of
Speaker 1: the country. That could mean England, you know, for a
Speaker 1: big show there or something like that, since they're not
Speaker 1: tied into Sundays or a certain time anymore with Peacocks,
Speaker 1: So you know that's what that can mean. Possibly when
Speaker 1: it comes to that, Who knows what the accident calm
Speaker 1: here on this show. Yeah, Exfinity by the way, Exfinity
Speaker 1: the parent company of Peacocks, see Universal is having all
Speaker 1: sorts of problems in my area, So thank you Exfinity.
Speaker 1: So I won't believe you when you say that all
Speaker 1: of these people on Peacock are watching the w w
Speaker 1: E network. What does that mean? Does that mean they
Speaker 1: watched one second of programming in an hour a minute?
Speaker 1: What does that actually mean? So who knows what actual
Speaker 1: some of these numbers actually stand for when you pull
Speaker 1: back the onion on them a little bit. But the
Speaker 1: bottom line is, as you mentioned, their next TV rights
Speaker 1: are going to make some money. Their Hulu deals about
Speaker 1: over with as far as their next day rights, So
Speaker 1: do they sell them off to a different you know
Speaker 1: how is that going to work? So you know, to
Speaker 1: be obviously that's part of the whole mL W lawsuit.
Speaker 1: I mean, could we see to be try to make
Speaker 1: a play for those rights. Does NBC Universal hold onto them,
Speaker 1: which makes perfect sense? Do you just keep them on
Speaker 1: HULO since well you serve two masters. Both NBC and
Speaker 1: Fox have a stake in that company, so you know
Speaker 1: who who knows exactly what it's going to be. But
Speaker 1: the bottom line is WW makes lots of money and
Speaker 1: apparently their stock is up about ten percent today. How
Speaker 1: about you get off whatever you're on and get on
Speaker 1: zip Lee Fiber. What. I don't have any actual options
Speaker 1: down here. The only option is actually to get basically
Speaker 1: direct TV styled internet. That's it. I had Exfinity, Comcast
Speaker 1: Business Internet, and this is what it is right now.
Speaker 1: Hey listen, I don't I don't put much over here
Speaker 1: in the show because I deal with just horrible companies
Speaker 1: right and left. But this zip Lee Fiber that we
Speaker 1: have around here. But I got no problems. I got
Speaker 1: blazing fast internet. I've never even had to call. But
Speaker 1: if you have to call, apparently there's like no wait times.
Speaker 1: So I can't say good enough good things and money.
Speaker 1: I should mention that though you know what sucks. What
Speaker 1: are you on Exfinity? Hey, you know it sucks. Comcast
Speaker 1: And my wife got a call the other day. They
Speaker 1: were trying to uh sell her something like I'm gonna
Speaker 1: switch from Zipley, but she didn't answer, of course, and
Speaker 1: they left a voicemail and uh, I've sent this to
Speaker 1: you because you know how your phone does voice to
Speaker 1: they send. They transcribe it a train description as God
Speaker 1: is my Witness is what it says. Hi, this is
Speaker 1: terrible Comcast Business. Some exciting news I'd like to share
Speaker 1: with you. Please call me back. And then there's a
Speaker 1: phone number. This is terrible Comcast business. That's how it
Speaker 1: was transcribed. It sucks. I moved to Comcast Business Internet
Speaker 1: because I thought it made sense for the show, and
Speaker 1: I got all these guarantees, got a static I G
Speaker 1: five five G back up all this other horsecrap, And
Speaker 1: the reality of it is the Internet actually worked better
Speaker 1: and was faster with just the regular family Internet that
Speaker 1: I had here at the house. So I am dying
Speaker 1: for this contract to run out so I can actually
Speaker 1: move back to the standard Internet, which worked actually better
Speaker 1: than this pile of horse crap. Now I understand, Like
Speaker 1: I could always say nice things about Exfinity for years.
Speaker 1: I could say nice things about Exfinity until I moved
Speaker 1: to the business Internet and it just blows. Long time,
Speaker 1: Big Time SmackDown taking place at the pay Comes Center
Speaker 1: in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The updated line up for the show.
Speaker 1: Rhonda Rousey is gonna show with a smile on her
Speaker 1: face to reveal which championship she's gonna challenge for WrestleMania
Speaker 1: thirty eight. Paul Hayman will rejoin Roman Reigns and address
Speaker 1: why he betrayed Brock Lesner at the Royal Rumbole. So like,
Speaker 1: did they call Paul and go, hey, are you on
Speaker 1: the show today? Yeah? Okay, what do you do? Oh?
Speaker 1: You gonna talking about how you been, why you've been? Okay,
Speaker 1: we'll write that in the preview. And Drew Mcatyre appears.
Speaker 1: So no, there's no matter. There's no wrestling matches announced
Speaker 1: for the show tonight. But what do we need do
Speaker 1: that for? We had a billion dollars a w Dynamite
Speaker 1: on Wednesday, nine thousand viewers, down thirteen point three percent,
Speaker 1: lowest audience for the show December fifteen, Dynamite's biggest week
Speaker 1: to week drop since last April eighteen, and forty nine
Speaker 1: point three five down fourteen point six percent, lowest since
Speaker 1: December fift did finish third on the cable charts, trailing
Speaker 1: the season premier of South Park on Comedy Central and
Speaker 1: an NBA game on ESPN. We'll take by the quarters
Speaker 1: everything else after the breaks. You were alive. You're listening
Speaker 1: to Wrestling Observer Live with Brian Alvarez and Mike Semperviev
Speaker 1: on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network. Back in the show,
Speaker 1: Brian Albarez here Wrestling Observer Live. Mike simper Viv also
Speaker 1: Wrestling Observer dot Com. Listen. I know a lot of
Speaker 1: you on the chat wanted to be brandy that drove
Speaker 1: off viewers from Dynamite, but it wasn't okay. Listen. Ever,
Speaker 1: since they moved to TBS, there's been a pretty consistent
Speaker 1: pattern with the a W ratings. A W ratings are
Speaker 1: largely very consistent throughout the show. The quarter hours. They
Speaker 1: they got little little dip but were I at here
Speaker 1: a little dip, but they're largely stable. However, when the
Speaker 1: show first starts, the first quarter is gigantic because their
Speaker 1: lead in is Big Bang Theory, and they pick up
Speaker 1: immediately when the show starts, a ton of those viewers. Okay,
Speaker 1: so those viewers don't watch the show. They turn it
Speaker 1: off at some point in the next few minutes. All right,
Speaker 1: So the the first segment of Dynamite is always huge,
Speaker 1: and then after that it settles in into whatever the
Speaker 1: stability is going to be for the rest of the show. Now,
Speaker 1: last week, last week, when they did that Cody Sammy
Speaker 1: Guevara ladder match, they kept some of those viewers longer
Speaker 1: than usual. They kept some of those for over fifteen minutes,
Speaker 1: but then the show plunged and then it stated its
Speaker 1: normal pattern. All right, same thing happened this week, except
Speaker 1: the first quarter with Moxley and Wheeler Utah did not
Speaker 1: keep a ton of the Big Bang Theory viewers. They
Speaker 1: turned off during that segment. So the first segment plunged,
Speaker 1: and then the rest of the show was largely stable.
Speaker 1: I know, if you if you look at like the picture,
Speaker 1: it's like, oh my god, Brandy showed up and they
Speaker 1: all that's not what happened. They turned off in the
Speaker 1: first quarter, and then from that point forward the quarters
Speaker 1: were largely stable. In fact, uh, I guess it was
Speaker 1: pretty much basically even the Brandy segment, the next segment
Speaker 1: nine three, segment after that nine oh five, then up
Speaker 1: to down to nine oh one, and then the last
Speaker 1: five minutes with with Punk and MJF nine oh one
Speaker 1: to ninety eight. So what happened here I believe and
Speaker 1: trust me, this is not a good number, but the
Speaker 1: young males decided that they were gonna watch either the
Speaker 1: NBA or the premier of South Park and they just
Speaker 1: didn't watch Dynamite at all. So you can, you can
Speaker 1: look at the aberration of the first quarter and you know,
Speaker 1: come up with something if you want to. But what
Speaker 1: actually happened is instead of doing around one point one
Speaker 1: million viewers for the whole show, they did about nine
Speaker 1: fifty So six d thousand viewers decided they were gonna
Speaker 1: watch Dynamite this week and hopefully they d V arted
Speaker 1: and the DVR numbers are all right. But what happened
Speaker 1: was it was just largely a stable nine viewers throughout
Speaker 1: the entire show. I mean, it did road during MGF
Speaker 1: and c M Punk, but peaking of especially for a
Speaker 1: forty five minute match, because we've seen that long matches
Speaker 1: grow the numbers. I would have expected the show to
Speaker 1: do much better, but that's what happened there. So if
Speaker 1: you're looking to try to throw if you're not going
Speaker 1: to try to throw anybody under the bus. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's nobody to throw under the bus on this show.
Speaker 1: It's just what it is. There was no segment where,
Speaker 1: oh I hate that Brandy and Dan Lambert, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: shut off the show and not that didn't happen. What
Speaker 1: happened was people turned off the show in the opening
Speaker 1: segment before Brandy and and Lambert and everybody even bothered
Speaker 1: to show up. If anything, you could say that that
Speaker 1: segment lost uh four thousand viewers. That's the best you
Speaker 1: can say. And then the segment after that, Pawkin Penta
Speaker 1: versus Malachi Black Brody King, I mean the show fell
Speaker 1: even further after that match. So I suspect no one's
Speaker 1: gonna blame them for anything, because you shouldn't blame anybody
Speaker 1: for anything on this show. It's just what it is. There.
Speaker 1: You go, you apologist, you you know you'll get yelled
Speaker 1: at for that statement. Apologize. I tell you what the
Speaker 1: numbers were, And that's the thing that the show actually
Speaker 1: was really consistent after they did have that drop, and
Speaker 1: of course it's always disappointing when you're not at a million,
Speaker 1: because they proved they could be at a million consistently
Speaker 1: for a little bit, so that's gotta their benchmark number.
Speaker 1: You know, nobody should be complaining about this show because
Speaker 1: it's not like it was down that drastically. And when
Speaker 1: you look at the good things on the show, where
Speaker 1: the people that tuned in, were they happy with what
Speaker 1: they saw? I believe that they were. So you just
Speaker 1: gotta do what you can to try to bring anybody
Speaker 1: and hold on to those people again from the first segment.
Speaker 1: I don't know what they do next week. I don't
Speaker 1: know how they react to this, but it's not like
Speaker 1: it's the end of the world type of number. Here. God,
Speaker 1: this frozen simper vid. You may as well put g
Speaker 1: raf up. I'm piste off right now. I hate these people.
Speaker 1: I can't even get into my email right now. They
Speaker 1: haven't all sorts of problems with Axfinity. Alright, let's see
Speaker 1: what we At least you can connect to the internet
Speaker 1: as leaves of that you have that hardwired into this thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we had, we had brock Lessner as the champion of
Speaker 1: a brand, and we had Roman raised the champion of
Speaker 1: another brand. Remember when that happened before the Royal Rumble. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and uh, it looked patently obvious to me, which is
Speaker 1: foolish because nothing is obvious in w WV, but look
Speaker 1: patently obvious that WrestleMania was gonna be Roman Reigns versus
Speaker 1: brock Lessner title versus title. I was then told in
Speaker 1: early January it's not title for title. I thought, Okay,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not doubting it, but it's just one
Speaker 1: of those things where so you're not planning a title
Speaker 1: versus title match, but you're planning the match, and they're
Speaker 1: both champions, and literally both of them have stated that
Speaker 1: they want to do title versus title on television. Why
Speaker 1: are you And this is funny because Vince hates this.
Speaker 1: Why are you building something up that you're not going
Speaker 1: to deliver? Well, but the idea of their inevitable WrestleMania
Speaker 1: thirty eight clash now needing something new, w w E
Speaker 1: is considering making Lessner versus Roman Reigns a title versus
Speaker 1: title match. Dave Melson reported the news and the Latest
Speaker 1: Observer newsletter. He said the original plan did not have
Speaker 1: a title versus title stipulation, but quote plans changed so frequently.
Speaker 1: He said, the feeling isn't because of the two have
Speaker 1: had done the match before. This encounter would need something
Speaker 1: extra added to it that would increase the importance of
Speaker 1: this month's elimination Chamber as Lesnar would need to win
Speaker 1: the w w E title currently held by Bobby Lashley
Speaker 1: at the Chamber match that both men are party. I
Speaker 1: talked about this Monday after Raw. I was like, why
Speaker 1: is Lessner in the chamber. He's either got to win
Speaker 1: the title and then fans are gonna expect title versus titles,
Speaker 1: So you either have to do title versus title or
Speaker 1: what's the point of even doing the match. It's even
Speaker 1: worse if you do Roman versus Lessner tie champion versus
Speaker 1: champion and no titles on the line. How could you
Speaker 1: possibly care about that? So Lesslie either needs to lose
Speaker 1: or he needs to win the title and go title
Speaker 1: versus title. So maybe on Monday they had already made
Speaker 1: this accusion, but Vince is going to make the final call, obviously,
Speaker 1: But yeah, he says the original plan was not to
Speaker 1: split Hayman and Lessner, whether with the Raymond or Hayman
Speaker 1: Rains dynamic being so strong and Lessner not back full time.
Speaker 1: It was inevitable the original plan for their reunion change
Speaker 1: due to Rains getting COVID nineteen and you need to
Speaker 1: pull off the day one so as I expected what
Speaker 1: they were going to do on day one, but they
Speaker 1: couldn't do because the Roman had COVID. They did at
Speaker 1: the Royal Rumble, So there you go. It's got to
Speaker 1: be title versus title. It has to be right, might
Speaker 1: be only one, there's something that makes sense once, for
Speaker 1: God's sake, please, Plus you know, maybe we can like
Speaker 1: fantasy book that into being one step closer to them
Speaker 1: getting rid of the brand split. If there was only
Speaker 1: one world champion at the very least you would have
Speaker 1: either Roman reigns or brock lest Er on both shows.
Speaker 1: That would be the fantasy. Although it really doesn't matter anyway,
Speaker 1: because what does the brand split mean? It means nothing, nothing,
Speaker 1: not a damn thing. But you know what, they made
Speaker 1: a billion dollars when they had a brand split, so
Speaker 1: damn it, it must be the brand split. Bro Listen
Speaker 1: if you want to your stupid, useless pointless brand split
Speaker 1: that has zero poss I don't care, but you unify
Speaker 1: the titles and at least have a champion go back
Speaker 1: and forth? I he needs to like, I don't get it, bro.
Speaker 1: How many times have we just seen people going back
Speaker 1: and they have every excuse in the book they have
Speaker 1: people go back and forth. Oh, it's Rumble season, next
Speaker 1: is gonna be Mania season, Then it's Survivor Series season,
Speaker 1: then it's sewing season. We sew our oats before they're whatever.
Speaker 1: But anyway, God, just unify these brands and make it
Speaker 1: easy on yourselves. If you want to keep everybody on
Speaker 1: a specific brand, like you can. You could do anything
Speaker 1: because third day in to Row it's fake. You can
Speaker 1: do whatever you want if you want to have Drew only,
Speaker 1: if you want to run to only on whatever, have
Speaker 1: them only on that show, but don't have a brand split.
Speaker 1: So if you need him on Raw, you can put
Speaker 1: them on Raw. So to come up with some stupid
Speaker 1: excuse every month for why so and so showed up
Speaker 1: on the other show, but they made a billion dollars
Speaker 1: so it must be working. It wasn't the whole part
Speaker 1: of the brand split too, you know, originally to create
Speaker 1: new stars that you know could flourish, because you know
Speaker 1: there wouldn't be all that log A lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of good that's done, not a damn bit of good.
Speaker 1: My heart rates low. That's why I can get away
Speaker 1: with screaming every day. Mm hmm. What are you checking
Speaker 1: in for? You have an apple watching them to tell
Speaker 1: you sixty a minute wears a watch anymore? It's either
Speaker 1: for fashion or for exercise purposes. Nobody uses it tell
Speaker 1: time they was just pall at their phone. Someone us
Speaker 1: don't carry our phones. Seven mite. Bill Goldberg's final match
Speaker 1: and there's current deal will be against Universal Champion Roman
Speaker 1: Reigns at the elimination Chamber. Maybe he'll win the title
Speaker 1: in his contract will inspire and he'll take a da
Speaker 1: w God, that's not gonna happen. Saturday, February twelve, Elimination
Speaker 1: Chamber in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Bobby Lashley versus
Speaker 1: lesnar rawlins Austin theory riddle in a j elimination chamber,
Speaker 1: Becky Lynch against leda USO's against Viking Raiders and apparently
Speaker 1: this Roman reigns gold Bird match back in a moment
Speaker 1: observe alive, you get in, Get in. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: you are listening to Wrestling Observer Live with Brian Alvarez
Speaker 1: and Mike Semperviv on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network. Back
Speaker 1: in the show right, Albare is here. Wrestling Observer Live
Speaker 1: mixumber viv also Wrestling Observer dot Com. A W partnering
Speaker 1: with American Heart Association help raise awareness and funds during
Speaker 1: American Heart Month. They should press release today announcing us
Speaker 1: ay they're collaborating with the American Heart Institute Association. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: it's not an institute, it's an association. On their quote,
Speaker 1: life is why campaign and their mission of ending heart disease,
Speaker 1: Life is why you should take care of your heart.
Speaker 1: A W talent and staff will wear red in support
Speaker 1: of National Wear Red Day. It would be a good
Speaker 1: day to wear red, wouldn't It looks like I'm already
Speaker 1: there is today National Red Day. It is bro I
Speaker 1: didn't even know that and I'm wearing red. Look at that?
Speaker 1: How about that? You learned something new every day? You
Speaker 1: know that? There you go. They'll be wearing red on
Speaker 1: rampage tonight, just like me. Uh huh, I don't know
Speaker 1: why you guys don't want me to be yelling. I
Speaker 1: don't yell at much. I think you just notice it lately.
Speaker 1: In the latest edition of The Wrestling Observer news that
Speaker 1: er Dave Meltz reported that there's interest in bringing Keith
Speaker 1: Lee into a w He was released by w w
Speaker 1: A during a round of roster cuts for budgetary reasons
Speaker 1: in November. The wrestlers who were released on that day
Speaker 1: November four, a day that will limit in for me
Speaker 1: the same day Granny turn ninety two years old. They
Speaker 1: became free agents earlier this week when they're ninety day
Speaker 1: non compete clauses ended. Imagine if it was day clause yeah,
Speaker 1: would be today. Meltzer wrote that Lee has been talked
Speaker 1: about is potentially signing with a W and may have
Speaker 1: already agreed to a deal with the promotion. He struggled
Speaker 1: with stop and started booking on the main roster of
Speaker 1: w w E until COVID and heart issues stemming from
Speaker 1: COVID put him on the shelf most of last year.
Speaker 1: He was thirty three when he signed with w w E,
Speaker 1: and his thirties seven now for a guy of his size,
Speaker 1: speed and injuries became more of a factor getting older. Well,
Speaker 1: that's definitely true. We shall see. Meanwhile, w W has
Speaker 1: signed the daughter of Santino Morella, Yes, appearing on stories
Speaker 1: with Briscoe and Bradshaw. Santino Morelesisu her Bianca Correlli has
Speaker 1: signed with the company and reports of the Performance Center
Speaker 1: in two weeks, so, he says, my daughter is twenty six,
Speaker 1: might utter is starting at the PC in two weeks.
Speaker 1: She's got hired. She's a beast man. I'll bet she is.
Speaker 1: By the way, she's going to be an absolute top
Speaker 1: tier player. That's to be determined, because you know how
Speaker 1: it is in w W. Why are you so confident
Speaker 1: in her beasting? You've seen Santino? Well, it's true, and
Speaker 1: have you ever seen his daughter. He's a shooter and
Speaker 1: I'm sure that he had her doing that. I got
Speaker 1: Paisley and basically amitted jujitsu she was three. I snuck
Speaker 1: her into my own class a year early. By the
Speaker 1: time she's twenty six, she's gonna be reckoned reckoned shop,
Speaker 1: as they say in the But she won't be in WW. No. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: Oh that's another story. I may not be able to
Speaker 1: control that one. More of a more of a personality.
Speaker 1: There and uh Santino Obviously, his personality is what's gotten
Speaker 1: over in w W E. His daughter is very, very beautiful,
Speaker 1: and and she's been wrestling for a while now. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure to what extent she's been doing it. Obviously,
Speaker 1: it hasn't been on uh Shimmer shows and things like that,
Speaker 1: Coastal Championship Wrestling. I know she wrestled for I'm not
Speaker 1: sure where all she's been, but you know, she's got
Speaker 1: the pedigree and they like that. And again she's got
Speaker 1: the look. Uh. If she's got any b J J
Speaker 1: skills like her father, she's got any you know of
Speaker 1: that even better fantastic. So we'll have to see how
Speaker 1: it goes. But not a stunning you know signing. In fact,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of surprised, you know, hadn't happened earlier. Alrighty, well,
Speaker 1: it's time for some feedback everybody. I'm not gonna take
Speaker 1: any phone calls here today, but if you would like to, uh,
Speaker 1: if you would like to text us here, I will
Speaker 1: take text messages. Zero seven five six six is the
Speaker 1: phone number Benevolent Man Brian at Wrestling Observer dot com
Speaker 1: at Brian Alvarez on it Twitter. Those are the numbers
Speaker 1: for everybody. Those are the letters. No, those are numbers,
Speaker 1: uh os and ones. It's on the internet. It's your name. Yeah,
Speaker 1: people are people are telling you to to hot spot
Speaker 1: it off your phone, your internet. I think everything seems
Speaker 1: to be stable now, at least. Yeah, on a day
Speaker 1: where I actually got in some more of these you know,
Speaker 1: expensive lights in here. Doesn't seem to be helping you.
Speaker 1: Did they saw you coming? Get bastard? I mean you
Speaker 1: look like you're in a cave. Am I wrong? Everybody
Speaker 1: kind of like cave? Alright and cave. Let's see to
Speaker 1: soothe the mood. How about an episode of Observer Live
Speaker 1: like NPR jazz music, whispering and snaps. That's impossible on
Speaker 1: this show. I would love to do a NPR style
Speaker 1: show with any happening. Can we work on our NPR voices?
Speaker 1: Do you have pure boys? More old people were watching
Speaker 1: Dynamite this week than the eighteen to forty nine demo
Speaker 1: You never listen to like Terry Gross or anything like that.
Speaker 1: See the thing with this with when you look at like, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, more old people than eighteen to forty nine,
Speaker 1: That's there's two ways to look at it. You could say, oh,
Speaker 1: more people were watching this week, But what you actually
Speaker 1: should say is less eighteen to forty nine we're watching
Speaker 1: this week. That's the actual issue here, Like, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: if w w E, if they lose a bunch of
Speaker 1: eighteen to forty nine and so that the percentage of
Speaker 1: kids watching goes up, that doesn't mean more kids are
Speaker 1: watching w w E. It means less of the eighteen
Speaker 1: forty nine are watching w w E. Plus. With wrestling,
Speaker 1: that's always been a troubling stat And I know the
Speaker 1: demographics have changed as far as like annual income and
Speaker 1: older wrestling fans, but you know, it's one of those
Speaker 1: things where kids to be older wrestling fans and add
Speaker 1: revenue wise and all those sorts of things. You know,
Speaker 1: you don't benefit from that in the same way that
Speaker 1: other people do in other places is do And you know,
Speaker 1: one of the things we were talking about ten years
Speaker 1: ago were some of the things ww was doing, the
Speaker 1: decay their base and are they going to be you know,
Speaker 1: are they making mistakes now that hurt them later? And
Speaker 1: we've seen that they absolutely have now. Has that hurt
Speaker 1: them from a financial point of view? No, because they
Speaker 1: were able to navigate the Waters and and bringing Nick
Speaker 1: kan On and and a lot of the moves they've
Speaker 1: made have been good. Ever since they you know, choked
Speaker 1: themselves out leaving Spike and left themselves no options to
Speaker 1: go back to USA at a deal that wasn't beneficial
Speaker 1: to them, they've been able to turn those negatives into
Speaker 1: huge positives for themselves. But creatively, you know, they're not bankrupt,
Speaker 1: and frankly, it's easily fixable because of the amount of
Speaker 1: talent they have and how big they are. But some
Speaker 1: of the decisions that they've made, you know again, and
Speaker 1: a lot of this goes right to Vince because he
Speaker 1: is the He's the buck and that's where it stops.
Speaker 1: And he's tearing up scripts, you know, hours before the show.
Speaker 1: We have all of this. This is ridiculous. This is
Speaker 1: the Royal Rumble and you have no planning and you're
Speaker 1: going into it hours before it where you fall out
Speaker 1: with your son and he's beefn with Jamie Noble and
Speaker 1: all this other stuff that's been reported. Now, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just like all of this stuff is going to
Speaker 1: hurt them at some point, and it's going to come
Speaker 1: back and bite him in the ass. And just because
Speaker 1: you're making a boatload of money. You know again that
Speaker 1: that is not the cannot be the you know, catch
Speaker 1: all for everything. It can't be this person here says,
Speaker 1: can we please take this time to re emphasize the point,
Speaker 1: Though perhaps shocking to some, but every single poor booking
Speaker 1: choice and change of plan can be traced back to
Speaker 1: one old man named Vince. Yes, that is true. That
Speaker 1: is true. And you know there's no guarantee that, you know,
Speaker 1: Vince Deciety is gonna go to Mars with Elon Musk
Speaker 1: or something that his replacement is going to do is
Speaker 1: gonna do better. But it seems hard to believe that
Speaker 1: somebody could do worse right now, with the exception of
Speaker 1: like a Vince Russo or somebody like that. I mean, listen,
Speaker 1: I've said it before. I don't want to downplay Tony Khan, okay,
Speaker 1: because he's done a fantastic job, But you guys realize
Speaker 1: that Tony Khan was a fan, and he started this
Speaker 1: company and he's booking circles circles around Vince McMahon. He
Speaker 1: did not come up in a territory, He did not
Speaker 1: come up under the He read the Observer and he
Speaker 1: listened to Jim Cornett, and he studied the territories. That's
Speaker 1: what's important. But the point is, the point is like
Speaker 1: without detegrating Tony Khan in any way, it's not like
Speaker 1: there aren't Tony Kn's everywhere who very carefully studied this
Speaker 1: business and could do a much better booking job than
Speaker 1: Vince McMahon. I would almost say most, But I've been
Speaker 1: unlike Twitter, so I can't say that. Well, you can
Speaker 1: say Gato has over the last god knows how many years,
Speaker 1: even though he's in his you know, he's had his
Speaker 1: drawbacks and negatives with House of Torture and Bullet Club
Speaker 1: and all that sort of stuff. You know, Tony Khan
Speaker 1: obviously has, and there are plenty of other people I
Speaker 1: think left up to I mean, imagine Scott Damore with
Speaker 1: you know, a lot more tools at his disposal. I
Speaker 1: think of a lot of people if they had some
Speaker 1: tools at their disposal, or we're in the position that
Speaker 1: Vince is in what they could possibly do. But that's
Speaker 1: the way it goes. And they have trained a fan
Speaker 1: base that only pops for big moves, and there there's
Speaker 1: a lot of Look, he has cultivated a special type
Speaker 1: of fan and and environment with w w LEE where
Speaker 1: a lot of the stuff we talked about that doesn't
Speaker 1: matter to them. They don't care. They can't understand what
Speaker 1: we're looking at or why it bothers us, or why
Speaker 1: we think it's going to ultimately hurt w w E,
Speaker 1: and how it is hurting w w E right now.
Speaker 1: They don't care about that. And Tony Khan and most
Speaker 1: other people when he comes to pro wrestling, including people
Speaker 1: that work for ww E because they came up in
Speaker 1: pro wrestling, you know, sports entertainment, that realm is only
Speaker 1: applicable to w w E, and working there doesn't work
Speaker 1: the same way everywhere else. Anywhere else you go and
Speaker 1: wrestling it's different. And those people that take old pro
Speaker 1: wrestling tenants and booking things and how you layer things
Speaker 1: and just take craftsmanship and care and actually plan again,
Speaker 1: two completely different philosophies from what Vince is doing and
Speaker 1: then what everybody else is doing. And unfortunately for Vince,
Speaker 1: you know, it's getting worse and worse. In his successes,
Speaker 1: he was always able to pull one out every once
Speaker 1: in a while, and he is right now with Brock
Speaker 1: and Roman. But what's next, I mean, there is it
Speaker 1: is very thin right now. It's just then now as
Speaker 1: it has ever been as far as people that are
Speaker 1: considered stars. Spurs Here says, do you think a w
Speaker 1: will ever buy the p w G library, Bro, That's
Speaker 1: a long way down the road. They need a streaming
Speaker 1: service before they even think about buying other Otherwise, what
Speaker 1: are you buying the library for just to have a
Speaker 1: clip here and there on television. I mean, if they
Speaker 1: ever get a streaming service, they can discuss buying other promotions. Well,
Speaker 1: p w G would have to sell. I mean that's
Speaker 1: the big and Jack Evans before he was famous. I
Speaker 1: got some stuff. Actually that wasn't the y w F.
Speaker 1: But you know what I'm talking about, right, Okay, I
Speaker 1: can see the I can actually see the opening video.
Speaker 1: Is that the one with Brian Danielson in it too? No,
Speaker 1: that wasn't that one. What was that one with Jack Evans?
Speaker 1: I can't remember. I was talking about. Dude. Tony Connor
Speaker 1: just announced on Twitter, this is your stupid career. When
Speaker 1: did you wrestle with Danielson on that TV show up there?
Speaker 1: Never wrestled Danielson on the TV show it was Portland
Speaker 1: Wrestling TV. I never had one match with Danielson. I
Speaker 1: didn't say you had a match with him, but you
Speaker 1: were Portland Wrestling Television. Roddy Pipe was gonna do a
Speaker 1: stable who wasn't me and Danielson and who else? God
Speaker 1: changed his mind and decided to try to Tony Conn
Speaker 1: announce on Twitter you will be dropping news worthy info
Speaker 1: during the rampage broadcast tonight. Could this be the Owen Cup?
Speaker 1: I could be, but I thought the own Cup was
Speaker 1: coming in May? Was it not? And that they were
Speaker 1: gonna do it. But they could announced information. They could
Speaker 1: announced like, you know, this is the way we're gonna
Speaker 1: do it. Uh, this could be the number of ETCeteras.
Speaker 1: So we will see what. I don't know what? Oh, hey,
Speaker 1: can you wrap up the show? Yes? God, what happened? Well,
Speaker 1: apparently my daughter had a early release today that we
Speaker 1: were completely unaware of. Oh so I'll let you wrap
Speaker 1: this thing up. That's a commercial break anyway, Michael, wrap
Speaker 1: it up, everybody, and I'll talk to you guys again
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Speaker 1: are listening to Wrestling Observer Live with Brian Alvarez and
Speaker 1: Mike semperviv on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network. Mike ump
Speaker 1: for vv back here with your Wrestling Observer Alive. Brian
Speaker 1: Alvarez out there doing some good dadding. Well, apparently you
Speaker 1: didn't do any good datting earlier on and planning to
Speaker 1: try to pick up your daughter knowing when she was
Speaker 1: going to be released early. That's all right, These things
Speaker 1: happen when your parents to struggle out there. Everybody, but
Speaker 1: one thing we didn't talk about a whole lot today,
Speaker 1: independent wrestling. And I'm not gonna talk a whole about
Speaker 1: a lot of it, whole a lot about it, even
Speaker 1: because we've only got less than about two minutes left.
Speaker 1: But there is a ton of good wrestling coming up
Speaker 1: this weekend, Beginning tonight a w live on Fight TV,
Speaker 1: Leo Rush out Mike Bennett in because of his injury
Speaker 1: facing off against Josh Alexander, one of the best man.
Speaker 1: He's great, he would be a perfect fitny W got
Speaker 1: his name dropped in the Brandy Rhodes Dan Lambert deal,
Speaker 1: so that's gonna be coming up tonight. Also, Matt Fitchett
Speaker 1: Laredo Kid for the heavyweight Championship, so that's gonna be awesome.
Speaker 1: Beyond is coming up tonight as well to on iw
Speaker 1: TV Matt Cardona and Ricky Shane Page. That's a match
Speaker 1: that would have been good in g c W, and
Speaker 1: in fact, those guys intersected into g c W, getting
Speaker 1: Cardona in there to continue his his feud with the
Speaker 1: entire company at one point Nack Matt nick Gage now
Speaker 1: moved on to Joey Janella. God knows where it goes
Speaker 1: from there and then g c W this week well
Speaker 1: too in Houston and in Dallas Scara Dorada, Gringo, Loco Blake,
Speaker 1: Christian A c A s F in a four way. Uh,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be taking place in Houston. So a ton
Speaker 1: of good stuff going on, So support your local indies,
Speaker 1: support your favorite India no matter who it is. I
Speaker 1: know the h Duo has got something coming up tonight too,
Speaker 1: so lots of good stuff going on. New Japan tickets
Speaker 1: went on sale for Chicago as well as announcing a
Speaker 1: show coming up here in Texas that we're gonna be
Speaker 1: talking about. So a ton of good stuff coming up.
Speaker 1: So if w W has got you down, don't worry.
Speaker 1: There's still great professional wrestling out there to fill your hearts,
Speaker 1: your minds, and your spirits, just the same way that
Speaker 1: Lance Storm is going to do for Brian Alvarez later
Speaker 1: on today for four w subscribers. But that's it. We'll
Speaker 1: see you on Monday. Talk to you again after a while.
Speaker 1: You have been listening to the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast
Speaker 1: on the eight Side Network m