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: 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 s during a Sunday
Speaker 1: three Pacific six Eastern streaming the Life Sports Byline YouTube Twitch.
Speaker 1: And it is Monday on the show, and you know
Speaker 1: what that means. We've got a lot to talk about
Speaker 1: here today, very very busy weekend and a lot of
Speaker 1: things coming up, particularly on today's show. Yesterday was n
Speaker 1: XT War Games. What did you think of this show?
Speaker 1: It had the good and the bad and the ugly.
Speaker 1: It was not a traditional takeover, but you know what,
Speaker 1: they didn't call it takeover. So if you're a fan
Speaker 1: of the n x T Talent and w w E
Speaker 1: main roster shows, if I got the show for you,
Speaker 1: I'll give you the results of that show here today.
Speaker 1: Also an update on Jeff Hardy. Very strange situation where
Speaker 1: Jeff Hardy was wrestling a match and then he just
Speaker 1: left in the middle of the match and he has
Speaker 1: since been sent home. We'll give you more details on that.
Speaker 1: We've got updates on Johnny Gargano who schedule or his contract.
Speaker 1: It's expired and it's a very interesting story we'll talk
Speaker 1: about here. Shabbada has got a big announcement. Jerry Lawler
Speaker 1: has resigned with w W e FTR is gonna be
Speaker 1: facing the Rock and Roll Express coming up. I hope
Speaker 1: they do better than myself and filthy Tom Lawler did.
Speaker 1: And in the final segment of this show, I'm very
Speaker 1: happy today to be joined by Jonah the former Bronson
Speaker 1: Reid and n x T is gonna be joining us
Speaker 1: on the show today. I just watched him thirty minutes ago,
Speaker 1: absolutely murder this poor bloke on New Japan Strong. So
Speaker 1: we'll talk to him about New Japan and and whatever
Speaker 1: we want to get into today, because there's a lot
Speaker 1: to talk about that's coming up in the final segment
Speaker 1: of the show, So a lot to get into if
Speaker 1: you would like to Texas here today. Four to five
Speaker 1: seven eight zero seven five six six is the phone
Speaker 1: number that is four to five seven eight zero seven
Speaker 1: five six six. Brian at Wrestling Observer dot com is
Speaker 1: the email and at Brian Alvarez on at Twitter. Back
Speaker 1: in just a moment, Mike sumber v stick around everybody
Speaker 1: Wrestling Observer Live in the show. Brian Albarez here Wrestling
Speaker 1: Observer Alive. Mike sumber Vivi also Wrestling Observer dot Com
Speaker 1: is noted in the opening segment. Jonah will be joining
Speaker 1: us on the program today. The former Bronson read, are
Speaker 1: we talking to him about a lot of different things?
Speaker 1: And yes, tomorrow is the big day, barring some whatever
Speaker 1: because you never know what's gonna happen on Observer Live.
Speaker 1: But Mike sumber viv will be co hosting with Oreo
Speaker 1: the Orca and we will be interviewing Dan Housing. That
Speaker 1: is a tomorrow You're un Wrestling Observer Alive, so get
Speaker 1: ready for that. That should be exciting. I don't know
Speaker 1: what I'm more excited for to see you in that
Speaker 1: outfit and to talk to Oreo face to face or
Speaker 1: Danny I where no outfit. The whale is showing up.
Speaker 1: Oh wait, wait wait a second on time time out?
Speaker 1: Does this mean we are going to get wrestling perspective
Speaker 1: and a raw report from the view of Oreo the Orca.
Speaker 1: And I'm not gonna be there, so I don't know
Speaker 1: what's gonna happen, but we'll find out tomorrow, won't we. Now,
Speaker 1: let's get some important news here, because this actually is
Speaker 1: some way concerning story here and we don't have a
Speaker 1: lot of details. Jeff Hardy was reportedly sent home following
Speaker 1: a match that took place over the weekend in a
Speaker 1: w w E health show. P WVE Inside reported tonight
Speaker 1: Jeff Hardy was sent home from the road did not
Speaker 1: appear tonight's health show in Corpus Christi, Texas. On Saturday,
Speaker 1: he was teaming with Xavier Woods and Drew McIntyre against
Speaker 1: the Bloodline Roman Rains in the us OS at an
Speaker 1: event in Edenburg, Texas. He spent most of the match
Speaker 1: in the ring and was said to be more sluggish
Speaker 1: as the match continued. He reportedly made a hot tag
Speaker 1: to McIntyre and then walked out through the crowd, followed
Speaker 1: by security and did not return to the ring after
Speaker 1: Woods and McIntyre. One Ray Mysterio replaced Hardy in the
Speaker 1: match on tonight's show. Already Last wrestled on television. Novembery,
Speaker 1: on SmackDown Last Person eliminated in a Battle Royal to
Speaker 1: determine the next number one contender for the w w
Speaker 1: E Universal title. He was dumped to the floor by
Speaker 1: Sammy Zane, who ended up losing his championship match on
Speaker 1: this week's SmackDown. So I don't really have a lot
Speaker 1: to add this. This happened, It was not a work
Speaker 1: and I know there are people that are concerned for
Speaker 1: Jeff Hardy, and obviously a lot of people don't have
Speaker 1: any ideas going on, and I don't know what's going on,
Speaker 1: but obviously Jeff Hardy has had many many issues in
Speaker 1: the past. Hopefully it is not that I don't know
Speaker 1: what's going on, but obviously we want to wish the
Speaker 1: best to Jeff Hardy and hopefully whatever the situation was,
Speaker 1: it is resolved quickly. But that is one that's a
Speaker 1: weird one, like walking out in the middle of the match,
Speaker 1: not before after the show, not no showing, doing the
Speaker 1: whole match, making a hot tag, and leaving. So I
Speaker 1: hope everything is all right there. I don't know if
Speaker 1: it's leaving as much as leaving through the crowd. You know,
Speaker 1: if something just clicked and you got slagg issues the match,
Speaker 1: whatever happened as the match went on, you know, to
Speaker 1: to bail out of the ring and to go to
Speaker 1: the back or you know, okay, that makes some sense
Speaker 1: for him to go through the crowd. That's where it's
Speaker 1: obviously leading my thing more to what is really going
Speaker 1: on here, But the best to him, It's bottom line
Speaker 1: is hopefully he is healthy and whatever happened, hopefully it's
Speaker 1: a again fixes itself quickly. Well I don't want to
Speaker 1: say hopefully it's a concussion, because I never want to
Speaker 1: see anybody get a concussion, but if he were doing
Speaker 1: a match and suffered a concussion, it made a hot
Speaker 1: tag and just left and didn't even know which way
Speaker 1: he was going. I mean, at least a concussion, you know,
Speaker 1: ultimately that's gonna heal. Everything's gonna be all right. So
Speaker 1: I don't want to talk anymore about it because we
Speaker 1: don't know anything more about it, but that very thing, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the hydration. There's so many things that could that it
Speaker 1: could be, but everybody, because of what's happened in the past,
Speaker 1: always looks to the worst. So hopefully there is no
Speaker 1: worse to this and everything is fixed quickly. So we'll
Speaker 1: talk about war games in a moment, but Johnny Gargano
Speaker 1: will address his future on this Tuesday's edition. Of an
Speaker 1: x T. So if you didn't watch War Games last night,
Speaker 1: I don't know what's going on with Johnny Gargano. Okay,
Speaker 1: let me repeat that, I don't know what's going on
Speaker 1: with Johnny Gargano, but I'm getting this feeling that he's
Speaker 1: staying with w w E. I could be a thousand
Speaker 1: percent wrong, Okay, but Johnny Gargano's contract expired and he
Speaker 1: signed a short term deal, which and I could be
Speaker 1: wrong about this, but to my understanding, it was through
Speaker 1: the pay per view, which means his contract should be
Speaker 1: expired right now. Perhaps he actually signed through television, all right,
Speaker 1: that could be what happened. But I don't know if
Speaker 1: you guys are aware of this or not. But there's
Speaker 1: been a lot of people that have been fired released
Speaker 1: from w w E over the past a couple of
Speaker 1: years now, and uh, you know, a lot of them
Speaker 1: don't get a send off. And they were they did
Speaker 1: the show, and it was literally part of the storyline
Speaker 1: that this might be the end for Johnny Gardano, and
Speaker 1: him and Champa were talking about it, this could be
Speaker 1: the end. Let's do this one more time. They were
Speaker 1: doing d I Y spots during the match. The fans
Speaker 1: were channing, thank you, Johnny. Now it turns out he's
Speaker 1: coming back on Tuesday to address his future. And if
Speaker 1: w w E we're thinking this guy's out of here,
Speaker 1: he's going to a w This is not in their wheelhouse.
Speaker 1: So is possible that he is not leaving immediately? It
Speaker 1: is possibly he's resigned another deal. It's possibly he's coming
Speaker 1: back to w w E. I mean they certainly one
Speaker 1: way or the other, they're not letting him on TV Tuesday.
Speaker 1: He's done our contract. It's just not happening. So I
Speaker 1: guess we'll find out. But all of this here is uh.
Speaker 1: I guess his extension expires on Friday, so he is
Speaker 1: under contract for Tuesday's show. But it is him coming
Speaker 1: on television to address his future. That to me is
Speaker 1: a is a makes me think he might be staying.
Speaker 1: But we'll see. I'll see what he says on Tuesday. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think so too. And I'd be interested to know
Speaker 1: what Candice Lorey's contract status is because if he wants
Speaker 1: to take this down to basically being a coach, and
Speaker 1: I think, you know, look, there's value in having Johnny
Speaker 1: Gargano there. He's been wrestling since he was what's sixteen
Speaker 1: years old or whatever it is. The guy has been
Speaker 1: around forever, you know, he and Chompa. If they are
Speaker 1: looking at them and going or Triple H again. Look,
Speaker 1: it's not like Triple H is dead here. I know
Speaker 1: people want him to leave and start his own company
Speaker 1: or whatever nonsense people think Triple H is gonna do.
Speaker 1: But he's still there, and he is too. Those are
Speaker 1: two guys that he really Those two in Samoa Joe
Speaker 1: he's obviously got an affinity for. And there's plenty of
Speaker 1: other guys there. You're Steve Corinos. You're plenty of guys
Speaker 1: where they could assimilate in nicely into the system out.
Speaker 1: Could they be fired at any time like everybody else. Yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: But maybe they look at the landscape right now, they
Speaker 1: see what's going on with a W and they go, hey,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be there. Look a W is going nowhere.
Speaker 1: So maybe we go ahead and continue to ride this
Speaker 1: thing out because we are happy here and my wife
Speaker 1: is under contract and whatever. I just I can see
Speaker 1: him not being a regular character in the n x
Speaker 1: D if he does stick around, because I don't know
Speaker 1: how much that body has And I think that's the
Speaker 1: same way with Chompa too. At some point we're going
Speaker 1: to see that torch past the bron Breaker and I
Speaker 1: don't think he's gonna have a foot out of the company.
Speaker 1: I think he's going to be there too. Dude. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you guys remember this or not. There's
Speaker 1: a fella. His name was Daniel Brian and his deal
Speaker 1: was come and do, and he loved w w E.
Speaker 1: And he was very torn about whether to stay or go,
Speaker 1: and they very much wanted him to stay, and they
Speaker 1: even attempted to make a deal with You Japan so
Speaker 1: that Brian Danielson could go work New Japan while working
Speaker 1: for w w E. I mean, they really wanted this
Speaker 1: guy to stay, and he really loved working there. And
Speaker 1: remember his last appearance, it was not there to address
Speaker 1: his future. It was not there to say goodbye and
Speaker 1: thank you. It was being choked out in the middle
Speaker 1: of the ring by Roman Reigns and left for dead.
Speaker 1: So let's see what happens with Gargana. But yes, his
Speaker 1: deal expires Friday, so let's see what he says on it. Tuesday.
Speaker 1: We've got a couple of other quick notes here. Jerry
Speaker 1: Lawler has resigned a new deal with w w E.
Speaker 1: So for what, I don't know. He's not really doing
Speaker 1: commentary but shows. I guess he's doing pre shows all right,
Speaker 1: Well he's resigned for more pre shows, so you can
Speaker 1: look forward to that. You see, I don't watch the
Speaker 1: pre shows. Maybe I should as part of my job.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a lot of things I gotta do
Speaker 1: as part of my job, and watching the pre shows
Speaker 1: does not fall into those categories. Back in the moment
Speaker 1: with war Games Deserver Live time, I got to show
Speaker 1: my Elba is here wrestling Observer Live MICEMBERV. They also
Speaker 1: Wrestling Observer dot Com. Jonah joining us after the break.
Speaker 1: But the first off, you guys watched this war Game
Speaker 1: show last night? I sure did, and it's ed x
Speaker 1: T two point oh. So if you were watching this
Speaker 1: expecting a takeover, he didn't get it. If you're expecting
Speaker 1: this watching a main roster expecting to see like a
Speaker 1: main roster show with n x T talent, which is
Speaker 1: a mix of great wrestlers and green wrestlers, like nobody
Speaker 1: in between. Maybe Joe Gacy would be actually right in between.
Speaker 1: But that's what we got here. And there was good
Speaker 1: and there was bad. And uh, there was ugly horrible
Speaker 1: booking on this show. So the opener was the women's
Speaker 1: War Games match, and as we have noted, they gave
Speaker 1: the baby Faces the woman advantage. It never works. They
Speaker 1: always try, it always fails, and once again it's failed.
Speaker 1: So the baby Faces were Cora Jade, Eosharai, Kayleie Ray
Speaker 1: and Raquel Gonzalez. The Heels were Dakota Kai, Mandy Rose,
Speaker 1: Gi Dolan and j C. Jane. And of course every
Speaker 1: time it was a two on one three on two
Speaker 1: with the baby Faces. The fans are cheering the Heels
Speaker 1: and they're chanting their names, and they're popping when they
Speaker 1: come in to make the safe because they're outnumbered. Poor
Speaker 1: Cora J tried to skate to her entrance and she
Speaker 1: fell off her skateboard and everyone chanted, you can't skate.
Speaker 1: You could not have booked a worst match for baby Faces.
Speaker 1: Cora J did a dive off the cage, sold it
Speaker 1: like she had injured her shoulder, and then she sold
Speaker 1: it for the rest of the match. She did a
Speaker 1: good job selling I. I probably would have fallen for
Speaker 1: it had they not done the spot where Eo Shari
Speaker 1: tried to pop it back into the socket, but she's
Speaker 1: sold and sold, and then finally at the end, they
Speaker 1: did the big spot where everybody does all of these
Speaker 1: moves and everyone is dead and uh, Cora Jade looks
Speaker 1: around and there's there's a body there, and according to announcer,
Speaker 1: she's wise beyond her years to think, oh, make a cover,
Speaker 1: and she makes a cover and she wins, at which
Speaker 1: point she's shocked. I can't believe I won a wrestling match.
Speaker 1: This was not good. This is not going to match
Speaker 1: at all. I was. I was. I was pleased that
Speaker 1: they actually let Cora Jade get the pin because they
Speaker 1: have been talking about pushing younger people, but they screwed
Speaker 1: up every time. So amazingly, I thought, man, they're gonna
Speaker 1: give her everything and make her herd and have her
Speaker 1: do the big comeback and then pin her. They didn't.
Speaker 1: She won, so that was good. Yeah, but she gets
Speaker 1: the pin in the way that they try to get
Speaker 1: baby Faces over and miserably fail. Right from Jump Street
Speaker 1: where you gave the baby Faces an advantage in the
Speaker 1: crowd because of how they feel towards toxic attraction. Anyway,
Speaker 1: decides to heckle her as she falls off the skateboard
Speaker 1: and the one thing that I wish would go out
Speaker 1: of wrestling altogether because it happens in a w and
Speaker 1: everywhere else too, but it is most obnoxious in w W.
Speaker 1: E the shocked face, because not only did Cora not
Speaker 1: believe that she was going to be able to get
Speaker 1: the pin, she couldn't believe that everybody was dead and
Speaker 1: laid out around her before she slowly crawled over to
Speaker 1: look around dramatically and then get the pin and then
Speaker 1: have the shocked face that she got the pin. It's
Speaker 1: just this is how they try to get people over.
Speaker 1: This is why they don't get over, and then they go, well,
Speaker 1: Cora j didn't get over. Why are people behind her
Speaker 1: cut her? She's no good? Doesn't make any sense, but
Speaker 1: this is what they do. Let we had the This
Speaker 1: actually was a great match. If you go into the
Speaker 1: match and you presume that Imperium are the baby faces
Speaker 1: and Kylo Riley and von Wagner are the heels as
Speaker 1: Imperium versus Riley and Wagner for the tag team titles,
Speaker 1: and this match was great. And Marcel Bartel in particular
Speaker 1: Fabie Nichner, I'm sorry, they both were great, but Fabie
Speaker 1: and Eichner was absolutely fantastic in this match, and they're
Speaker 1: doing all these baby face spots, these dives, these power moves.
Speaker 1: The crowd's going crazy for them, and uh, finally they
Speaker 1: they pinned Kyler Riley and uh afterwards, I mean, it
Speaker 1: was bizarre. Kyle is dating the ring and they start
Speaker 1: changing thank you Kyle, because you see these n x
Speaker 1: T fans, they just presume everyone's leaving. It's like they no, ho,
Speaker 1: they don't go, Kyle, please stay or whatever the chance is.
Speaker 1: They're like, thank you, we know you're leaving. So this
Speaker 1: guy standing there and Von Wagner tries to turn on him,
Speaker 1: so Kyle beats him up, and then they announced it's
Speaker 1: gonna be a cage match on it Tuesday. So I
Speaker 1: don't know if Kyle is leaving or not. Okay, but
Speaker 1: let's presume that he is. Okay, if he's leaving, he's
Speaker 1: going to like New Japan or a DOUBLET or whatever.
Speaker 1: So if that's the presumption, if we're presuming that he's leaving,
Speaker 1: shouldn't he turn on Von Wagner And Kyle is the
Speaker 1: heel and baby face Von Wagner runs him out of
Speaker 1: the territory instead, Kyle is the baby face, and so
Speaker 1: we're gonna we're gonna give him sympathy on the way
Speaker 1: out to go to another company. Yeah, but but but
Speaker 1: now he's already turned on somebody who's beloved, So why not.
Speaker 1: To me, Von Wagner looks like a heel, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, And I would present him as such.
Speaker 1: So to do that and then leave him in a
Speaker 1: obviously not a pile of his own blood, but lee
Speaker 1: of him laid out in the middle of the ring
Speaker 1: in the cage, I I do get that. But then
Speaker 1: it's okay, Now who you're gonna work with with von Wagner?
Speaker 1: Is it going to be Cameron Grimes. You're gonna have
Speaker 1: to put them with somebody who can really help this
Speaker 1: guy out a lot. And yeah, there's one thing you
Speaker 1: can say about him is he didn't get in the
Speaker 1: way in this match. And Eichner and Bartel were awesome.
Speaker 1: Then we had Cameron Grimes and Duke Hudson and Tim
Speaker 1: and a match. First five minutes, nobody cared, just a
Speaker 1: dead crowd. And then second five minutes, Cameron Grimes is
Speaker 1: so good that he got the people into the match
Speaker 1: and to their credit, Cameron Grimes is the baby face
Speaker 1: and he was cheered as the baby face, and Duke
Speaker 1: Cutson was the heel, and he was cheered as a heel.
Speaker 1: And I want to make it abundantly clear, this was
Speaker 1: not the crowd going into business for themselves. This was
Speaker 1: the crowd reacting the way that they should have reacted
Speaker 1: to every single one of these matches. Thankfully, Cameron Grimes
Speaker 1: knows how to work as a baby face, and he
Speaker 1: put over Duke Cutson as a heel, and so everything
Speaker 1: worked out. He won. Duke Cutson try to cheat the
Speaker 1: entire match. Cameron Grimes rolled him up, pulled trunks and
Speaker 1: beat him. And then they teased that Duke Hudson was
Speaker 1: going to knock him out and shave his head even
Speaker 1: though he won. But Cameron Grimes did the big kick,
Speaker 1: got the clippers and shaved Duke Hudson. So this was good.
Speaker 1: Roderick's Strong Joe Gazzy. I hate this Joe Gazy character.
Speaker 1: It's the worst. If it were my job. It's turned
Speaker 1: the show off heat with me, not good heat. But
Speaker 1: he's a good worker and Roderick Strong is great, and
Speaker 1: so they had a very good match. It went about
Speaker 1: eight minutes, and this stupid Joe Gazy character is just horrific.
Speaker 1: But I thought for sure that he's gonna win, and
Speaker 1: then this was gonna be like the n XT Inclusive Championship.
Speaker 1: They we're gonna do that chimmick, but I said, they're
Speaker 1: just going back and forth. Roderick does a flying knee,
Speaker 1: hits his move, wins totally out of nowhere. So Roderick's
Speaker 1: wrong retains the title. Well, I wasn't eactly out of nowhere.
Speaker 1: In that what's uh whatever Powder's name is, there is
Speaker 1: his bodyguard or whatever. Land her Land threatened uh Ivy
Speaker 1: Nile and picked her up, and he of course put
Speaker 1: her down, so that may lead towards would assume something,
Speaker 1: probably turning them against the people that he's been trying
Speaker 1: to support this whole time. So stupid. Then we had
Speaker 1: the main event, which was fascinating. We had you know,
Speaker 1: you always they always talked about we want to get
Speaker 1: young guys over, we know we need more young people. Well,
Speaker 1: we had the team two point oh guys against the uh,
Speaker 1: the veterans and won't call him the old guys, but
Speaker 1: the veterans and the veterans are the baby Faces and
Speaker 1: the new guys. We want to get over our the
Speaker 1: heels and uh, but it's weird because they put l
Speaker 1: A Night on the baby Face team because he's an
Speaker 1: old guy, and they put bron Breaker on the heel team,
Speaker 1: so they did the man advantage thing right, But nobody
Speaker 1: it to Boo braun Breaker and he's in there running
Speaker 1: wild and their cheering this guy. And the match was good.
Speaker 1: I would not call it great because it went forty minutes,
Speaker 1: which was a good ten minutes too long. It's like,
Speaker 1: you do you know, twenty minutes of the you know,
Speaker 1: the War Games or whatever, and then it goes to
Speaker 1: the match beyond. It's like everyone should be half dead
Speaker 1: and then you just boom, boom boom, go to the finish.
Speaker 1: Now the match Beyond begins and everyone just now it's
Speaker 1: all of a sudden. Fine, they square off and then
Speaker 1: start a new match and they go twenty minutes. So
Speaker 1: it's way too long for me. But the finish was good,
Speaker 1: and that was Tamasa Champa was going for his finish
Speaker 1: and he gets speared and mid moved by braun Breaker.
Speaker 1: Broun Breaker hits him with the Goldberg pressing of the
Speaker 1: power slam and pins him, So the young guys won.
Speaker 1: Braun Breaker, who's obviously the biggest star of the n
Speaker 1: x T two point oh crew, he pinned Tomasa Chompa,
Speaker 1: so he's probably on his way to another championship match,
Speaker 1: which presumably he'll win. But the match was good. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna take anything away. Everyone worked hard. It just
Speaker 1: did not need to be forty minutes. I don't fault
Speaker 1: any of the workers here on this show. I fault
Speaker 1: whoever put these matches together in terms of trying to
Speaker 1: structure a competent match. Three of them, four of them actually,
Speaker 1: and one of them was my favorite match on the show,
Speaker 1: the Imperium Kylo Relevon Wagner match, And that one I
Speaker 1: can at least sort of understand, because yes, Imperium were
Speaker 1: pushing the baby faces, but if Kyle's leaving, I don't
Speaker 1: think they want him massively cheered and von Wagner was
Speaker 1: gonna turn so whatever. But the other three no excuse.
Speaker 1: With the World Games matches, there's just so much superfluous
Speaker 1: garbage that's in them because of visuals that we need
Speaker 1: for production, and it takes away from it. Look, you've
Speaker 1: got to have more spots because you can't have blood
Speaker 1: and you don't want to accident the violence, even though
Speaker 1: you're you're supposed to be in word games in the
Speaker 1: match beyond. So I I accept that, but when there's
Speaker 1: so much, there's too many face offs, there's too many
Speaker 1: variations of face offs, there's just too much nonsense, and
Speaker 1: it drags it out way, way too much. So I
Speaker 1: don't know. There was a a whole lot I didn't
Speaker 1: like about this. One thing I can say to Peacock,
Speaker 1: I pay four because I already get it for free
Speaker 1: anyway with Exfinity, good Lord. The vignettes they played during
Speaker 1: them made me want to just put the thing altogether
Speaker 1: back in a moment with Jonah here on Wrestling Observer Live.
Speaker 1: Back in the show, Brian elberre Is here Wrestling Observer Live,
Speaker 1: Mike Sumbur, bv Elso Wrestling Observer dot Com. Very happy
Speaker 1: today to be joined by Jonah the former Bronzon read
Speaker 1: Jonah Rock, Jonah, how are you doing here today? Do
Speaker 1: very well? Thanks for having me man. Am I excited
Speaker 1: to talk to you today? Do you know what I
Speaker 1: just watched, Jonah? What did you watch? I watched you
Speaker 1: kill poor Lucas Riley I did. I watched this match
Speaker 1: and I thought to myself, who is a more horrible person?
Speaker 1: Is it Jonah or is it Ghetto or Rocky or
Speaker 1: whoever put this match together? This poor guy, Holy smokes,
Speaker 1: it's promoter. They I don't want to put me in
Speaker 1: the ring with whoever. It's up to them who they
Speaker 1: want to see died. Well, dude, this guy died. If
Speaker 1: you guys have not seen it, it's on the UH,
Speaker 1: it's on the New Japan Strong show that's on right
Speaker 1: now in g p W world dot com and uh.
Speaker 1: I for my whole life, Jonah have been a sucker
Speaker 1: for the giant dude versus the little skinny geek in
Speaker 1: a squash match. And when I saw you two in
Speaker 1: the ring, I was like, oh man, this is gonna
Speaker 1: be one for the ages and uh and it was
Speaker 1: a fabulous squash match. Yeah, I'm glad. I'm glad. You know.
Speaker 1: I am a big fan of When the Half as well.
Speaker 1: And I've had my hands on quite the few Guinea
Speaker 1: geeks and if they get in my leg and you'll
Speaker 1: see some more stuff like that. Well, you are certainly
Speaker 1: making your presence felt in New Japan Strong. You had
Speaker 1: a it feels like a different lifetime ago now in
Speaker 1: two thousand and eighteen, when New Japan went to Australia,
Speaker 1: you had your chance to mix it up a little
Speaker 1: bit there against the Bullet Club. But now you enter
Speaker 1: into New Japan Strong, laid waste to Juice, Robinson killed
Speaker 1: this man. How does it feel to be involved in
Speaker 1: New Japan right now? And how does it feel to
Speaker 1: have your new freedom on the wrestling landscape. It feels great,
Speaker 1: you know. Um. As soon as I was able to
Speaker 1: wrestle somewhere else after my release, there was only really
Speaker 1: New Japan par wrestling that I really had in the
Speaker 1: forefront of where I wanted to go um, And I
Speaker 1: was very happy that it all came together. And I'm
Speaker 1: doing stuff with New Japan Strong, and when the world permits,
Speaker 1: I'll be over in Japan ready to kill some people
Speaker 1: over there as well. You know. I I Am not
Speaker 1: just saying this because you're on the air, but I
Speaker 1: talked about this a while ago when we when it happened.
Speaker 1: But when they when that list of names came out
Speaker 1: that had been released from n X Team, I was like,
Speaker 1: I was shocked, Like of all names. Your your release
Speaker 1: was like the biggest shock to me. And you know,
Speaker 1: I was there in San Jose when you when you
Speaker 1: made your debut a couple of weeks ago, and then
Speaker 1: I watched the match on Strong here and like in
Speaker 1: every single case, I was just like I was a gas,
Speaker 1: like who are you thinking getting rid of this guy?
Speaker 1: And you know, I I don't know what they think.
Speaker 1: I've been trying to figure it out for likes, but
Speaker 1: I was I was very happy to see you to
Speaker 1: make that debut. And as as someone who's working for
Speaker 1: New Japan, I mean it seems like you would have
Speaker 1: the opportunity to do Impact and and some other places
Speaker 1: as well. Yes, yeah, yes, um, I have an agreement
Speaker 1: with New Japan. But also it is non exclusive, so
Speaker 1: that's what's able me to open up the door to
Speaker 1: Impact Wrestling as well, and I'm gonna hopefully be doing
Speaker 1: more stuff with them. I made quite you know, PUN
Speaker 1: intended the impact when I attacked Josh Alexander, and I
Speaker 1: want to continue to do that wherever I go. You know,
Speaker 1: I think what you were saying it was a very
Speaker 1: big head scratcher when I was let go. I too,
Speaker 1: the way I feel I had not even peaked in
Speaker 1: my w w E career, nowhere near it. So now
Speaker 1: I'm going to peek and put on these performances that
Speaker 1: people are going to remember elsewhere. It's not even not
Speaker 1: just you know, not peaking yet, but like you had
Speaker 1: been there for a while and they kind of sort
Speaker 1: of did whatever for a while, but it was it
Speaker 1: was like very underutilized, and then all of a sudden
Speaker 1: they decided that they were going to do something with you,
Speaker 1: and they did. And then it was like immediately after
Speaker 1: they had start did this, they released you. And that
Speaker 1: that I think was the most shocking part to me,
Speaker 1: because it wasn't like you would hit a peek and
Speaker 1: then gone down. It's like it was like you had
Speaker 1: just gotten to to arise towards where you could have been. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I was such a big shock to so
Speaker 1: many people because and this is this is not any
Speaker 1: ill will towards anyone else that has been released. But
Speaker 1: sometimes people do sit on the shelf for a year
Speaker 1: or even longer and you don't see much of them,
Speaker 1: and you can almost justify not that I want anyone
Speaker 1: to lose money or lose their job, and you can
Speaker 1: justify it to a degree. Whereas with me, I was
Speaker 1: always not held back, but creative was always the thing
Speaker 1: that stop me from getting on a wrong and Hunter
Speaker 1: was always actually in my corner and wanted me to
Speaker 1: be utilized, and it was always creative. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: a week after week, we're trying to write you into
Speaker 1: this or write you into that. And finally I went
Speaker 1: Hunt to put his done. I started getting rolling. I
Speaker 1: became North American Champion. And yeah, it seems like in
Speaker 1: an instant everything changed, and the direction that I got
Speaker 1: from Hunter and Sean, that direction was completely out of
Speaker 1: the window. And things have changed there now, and I
Speaker 1: guess they thought I didn't fit in. Well. Obviously, we
Speaker 1: don't want to stay too much on the topic of
Speaker 1: of w w E and n XT, but he talked
Speaker 1: about Hunter being in your corner. A lot of people
Speaker 1: just think he's got a little you know, wand and
Speaker 1: he just waves it everywhere. And things have gone every
Speaker 1: you know, his way up until you know this n
Speaker 1: x T two point oh thing has happened here. But
Speaker 1: what are some of the headaches that he would try
Speaker 1: to run into. Is he was trying to get creative
Speaker 1: for you and and what were some of the headaches
Speaker 1: down there that you had to deal with it maybe
Speaker 1: we don't know about I think it comes down to, um,
Speaker 1: there's a lot going on, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: You have riders trying to write different people into different spots, um.
Speaker 1: And then at the same time, with a place like that,
Speaker 1: you always have new talent coming in. Some people swap
Speaker 1: out things, exchange, some people go to raw, some people
Speaker 1: go to SmackDown. So there's always something happening. And it
Speaker 1: seemed like week to week, not that I was forgotten about,
Speaker 1: but it was always like next week, next week, almost
Speaker 1: where like they wanted to keep me strong, so they
Speaker 1: didn't want me to to look like I was just
Speaker 1: a you know, one of the other run of the
Speaker 1: mill guys there. Um. But they could have obviously got
Speaker 1: on the ball quicker. And I know that from speaking
Speaker 1: with Hunter, he was frustrated that the writers didn't do that.
Speaker 1: But you have riders, you didn't have Hunter and shown
Speaker 1: to go through, you didn't have your match producers. It's
Speaker 1: it's a lot of chefs in the kitchen. I guess.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you, is it like a Saturday Night
Speaker 1: Live type of comedian sort of thing where you would
Speaker 1: it be in your favor to curry a favor with
Speaker 1: a writer or two. Is that something that happens there
Speaker 1: or something that maybe you didn't do that maybe could
Speaker 1: have helped you along, maybe to get more creative flowing
Speaker 1: and get ideas for you. Yeah. I feel like when
Speaker 1: I first was there, it was a different head writer.
Speaker 1: He then then ended up leaving, and when the new
Speaker 1: team sort of came forward, that's when I was more utilized.
Speaker 1: I feel like some people body up to riders or
Speaker 1: stuff like that, and of course you want to be
Speaker 1: close to these people because you're working with them creatively,
Speaker 1: and the type of performer that I am, I always
Speaker 1: want to put in my import I can't just copy
Speaker 1: and cut and paste what I do. I like to
Speaker 1: be creative. Um, So it does pay people's best interesting
Speaker 1: to get on with these people. But I found things
Speaker 1: started working best for me once myself and Hunter, and
Speaker 1: I had a great relationship with Sean as well. Once
Speaker 1: I was on board with those guys like that was
Speaker 1: where things took off. So prior to going to w
Speaker 1: w E, I mean, you worked all over the place
Speaker 1: for over a decade and never in New Japan, and
Speaker 1: then after being released like the first thing you do
Speaker 1: as you work for New Japan. So what what prevented
Speaker 1: you from going to New Japan prior what changed after
Speaker 1: your your release? Was there? Was there anything? And how
Speaker 1: long have you been a fan, like regularly watching their shows? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've been a fan of New Japan Pro Wrestling h
Speaker 1: since I was a teenager, probably around thirteen years old.
Speaker 1: Was the first time I saw New Japan Pro Wrestling
Speaker 1: and it was Utian Liger and and that made me
Speaker 1: a fan instantly. Um. But I was also a huge
Speaker 1: fan of a company called Pro Wresting Noah and that's
Speaker 1: sort of where I got my first taste of Japanese
Speaker 1: wrestling as an actual pro wrestler. So I wrestled in
Speaker 1: Australia for maybe five or six years before I actually
Speaker 1: got a contract with Pro Wresting Noah. UM, and I
Speaker 1: worked with them in two thousand, thirteen, fourteen and fifteen,
Speaker 1: so I had my I'm a very loyal pro wrestler,
Speaker 1: so where I am, I'm very loyal to that company,
Speaker 1: same as I just was with n x T. I
Speaker 1: was no as well. I didn't want to I obviously
Speaker 1: would love to work with New Japan, but I wanted
Speaker 1: to keep my interest there. Then obviously time goes on.
Speaker 1: I get signed to w W, E, I now get
Speaker 1: released from w W and I feel like it's the
Speaker 1: right time for me as the top dog to go
Speaker 1: into New Japan Pro wrestling. Now, you worked, I don't
Speaker 1: want to say exclusively in Australia, although maybe it was,
Speaker 1: but you were you were mostly in Australia for the
Speaker 1: first five or six years of your career, and you know,
Speaker 1: it's very hard to be a regular in any of
Speaker 1: the major promotions if you're living in Australia so very much.
Speaker 1: When you first started, I mean, was it always your
Speaker 1: goal to be a full time pro wrestler, or for
Speaker 1: the first few years, was it kind of well, you know,
Speaker 1: this is fun, but I like my job or whatever.
Speaker 1: How would you classify your first few years. My goal
Speaker 1: was always to be a full time pro wrestler. There
Speaker 1: was nothing else I ever wanted to do in life.
Speaker 1: You know, since since I was a little kid, my
Speaker 1: earliest memories of life are actually watching WrestleMania. So I've
Speaker 1: always wanted to be a professional wrestler. And when I
Speaker 1: first started in Australia two thousand and seven, the scene
Speaker 1: wasn't something that you could make a living off of.
Speaker 1: You could get paid here and there, but you were
Speaker 1: never going to make a living. So I wanted to
Speaker 1: try and do that, and I saw Japan as the
Speaker 1: best avenue because it's probably the closest um. No one
Speaker 1: was really going to fly Sharlan wrestlers from one side
Speaker 1: of the world all the way to America to to
Speaker 1: you know, have one shot or a couple of shots
Speaker 1: a weekend. It just wasn't viable for people, and I
Speaker 1: understood that. So that's how I got my contracts in
Speaker 1: Japan and I started working from there, and then years
Speaker 1: later actually did have promoters in p w G that
Speaker 1: would fly me all the way from Australia to l A.
Speaker 1: What was that first wrestle Mania You remember that a curiosity.
Speaker 1: You're a young man, so I need to hear this.
Speaker 1: I am a young man, but it was WrestleMania too
Speaker 1: whole Cooken in King Kong, Bundy in the Cage. For
Speaker 1: some reason, as a kid like I used to have
Speaker 1: all these tapes because my uncle was a huge wrestling fan,
Speaker 1: so he would borrow tapes from the bough Buster because
Speaker 1: you were when that match happened. That happened before you
Speaker 1: were on the earth. Oh yeah, it did. But that's
Speaker 1: my earlier memories of sticking that tape in. And I
Speaker 1: don't know if it was the Blue Cage or something
Speaker 1: about maybe Hogan's ribs being taped up, but I remember
Speaker 1: that vividly. Well, man, if you if you think about
Speaker 1: that match, I mean that that your whole career has
Speaker 1: been has been the whole cogn in King Kong Bundy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it has two is agree? Yeah, I like to think
Speaker 1: that I am in the same vein of the King
Speaker 1: Kong Bundy or Damn Bigelow. So, so when did you
Speaker 1: first start getting tapes of of non w w E programming?
Speaker 1: I mean, were you a w w E guy up
Speaker 1: until mid nineties or when did you discover there was
Speaker 1: other stuff out there? Yeah? I was a huge w
Speaker 1: W guy until I want to stay around. Is when
Speaker 1: I first discovered WCW as as a kid, I would
Speaker 1: have only been like eight years old, but then I
Speaker 1: was a big wh W and w w E fan
Speaker 1: up until I was thirteen. Was the first time my
Speaker 1: friend showed me a clip. I don't remember what website
Speaker 1: or where it came from, but it was a highlight
Speaker 1: video of one of the first Ring of Honor shows
Speaker 1: and I remember seeing that and being like, what is this?
Speaker 1: And from there we found clips of then Japanese wrestling
Speaker 1: stuff like Jush and lager Um, FM, w Hey Booster
Speaker 1: and one of my favorite wrestlers of all time, Kender Kabashi,
Speaker 1: and that completely changed the way that I you professional wrestling,
Speaker 1: and I became a huge wrestling note throughout my teenage years.
Speaker 1: Well stand by and we had to a break back
Speaker 1: in a moment more Wrestling Observer Live back in the show.
Speaker 1: Brian Elvare is here Wrestling Observer Live. Mike simper Viv
Speaker 1: also of Wrestling Observer dot com. Jonah is joining us here.
Speaker 1: If you want to see Jonah kills somebody well this
Speaker 1: coming Thursday at the Vermont Hollywood. Tickets still available New
Speaker 1: Japan Strong and presents Nemesis that's coming up on Thursday.
Speaker 1: All of the information I'm actually gonna retweet it right now.
Speaker 1: You can check out at Brian Alvarez or of course, uh,
Speaker 1: we'll get some plugs in here for for Jonah all
Speaker 1: of his social media as well. Yeah, you can follow
Speaker 1: me at Jonah is here on Twitter, and Instagram the
Speaker 1: best places to find everything that is Jona, and you
Speaker 1: will be able to find stuff like merchandise and stuff
Speaker 1: on there as well. Hopefully at some point down the
Speaker 1: road we'll be able to check you out here and
Speaker 1: uh hopefully someday actually in Japan once this place opens
Speaker 1: up again. Not sure when that's gonna be, but at
Speaker 1: some point that's what I want. I want to be
Speaker 1: the future champion in New Japan. I want to be
Speaker 1: in the same vein as the three hundred pound plus
Speaker 1: guys like Vada, Scott Norton and Bob Sap. I'm going
Speaker 1: down that line. I'm that modern day beast very quickly.
Speaker 1: What do you think about a g one? I'd love
Speaker 1: to do it. That's something that's on my bucket list
Speaker 1: and hopefully I get that ticked off in two Well, listen,
Speaker 1: I want to thank you so much for doing the
Speaker 1: show today and best of luck with everything is noted
Speaker 1: the shows coming up on Thursday. You can also check
Speaker 1: out nupan Strong on n j p W world dot com.
Speaker 1: All of the New Japan shows go up there. They've
Speaker 1: got tons of archives if you want to see the
Speaker 1: match we were talking about earlier. N j p W
Speaker 1: Strong or New jpan Strong and n jpu w World
Speaker 1: dot com so check it out and Jonah thanks so
Speaker 1: much and hopefully talk to again soon. Thanks for having
Speaker 1: me and we're out of time. Everybody, thanks for listening.
Speaker 1: We'll talk to you next time. Wrestling Observer Live. You
Speaker 1: have been listening to the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast on
Speaker 1: the eight Side Network