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: By 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. Are you ready?
Speaker 3: Are you ready?
Speaker 2: Let's get it off.
Speaker 3: Let's get it. Mike semper Vv here with you for
Speaker 3: the next hour talking about professional wrestling, which is something
Speaker 3: we do every single day here on the Sports Byline
Speaker 3: Broadcasting Network. Tune in, iHeart American Forces Radio Sports Byline
Speaker 3: dot Com over the air affiliates like KMAV ninety nine,
Speaker 3: KMSR and The Mighty Er ten ninety. Maybe you're listening
Speaker 3: to me via podcast or replay on SiriusXM, or maybe
Speaker 3: you're video streaming on twitch or YouTube. However you're joining
Speaker 3: me today, I just like to say thank you. Hopefully
Speaker 3: wherever you are at sonny outside and if not, hopefully
Speaker 3: it's sunny inside. Your mind's sunny here today. I'm my
Speaker 3: portion of Del Marva pushing seventy degrees right now. I'm
Speaker 3: going outside immediately after this show is over. Actually that's
Speaker 3: not true. Immediately after the show is over, I'm going
Speaker 3: to wait for the file. I'm going to upload that
Speaker 3: to the site, and then I'm going outside. So you
Speaker 3: hear about all those people on their podcast talking about
Speaker 3: find me outside, catch me outside, I'll be outside. Don't
Speaker 3: show up my house, though I'll shoot you. I don't
Speaker 3: know jiu jitsu. I don't want to know jiu jitsu.
Speaker 3: Stay away from me, especially if you have a creepy
Speaker 3: Vince mcmahonstyle mustache. And I was going to begin the
Speaker 3: show by saying, I'm happy I won't have to speak
Speaker 3: too much about it today because the whole Vince story
Speaker 3: that is going to be the big shadow that hangs
Speaker 3: over pro wrestling for at least the immediate future. There
Speaker 3: was not a whole lot of news until right before
Speaker 3: I got on the air. And this is not confirmed,
Speaker 3: but it is very possible that Slim Jim has notified WWE.
Speaker 3: This is the word that is apparently going around the
Speaker 3: locker room. There's a lot of rumor about this now online.
Speaker 3: Slim Jim has notified WWE that they are pulling their
Speaker 3: sponsorships from tomorrow's Royal Rumble due to the allegations against
Speaker 3: Vince McMahon. I'll check on this during the break and
Speaker 3: find out if anything has been made official, and we'll
Speaker 3: get into the rest of the news on what is
Speaker 3: a very busy weekend in the world of professional wrestling.
Speaker 3: It's Wrestling Observerlive.
Speaker 2: You are listening to Wrestling Observer Live on the Sports
Speaker 2: Byline Broadcasting Network.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to the show. Mike Sepper VV here with you.
Speaker 3: You know, we do this show right here for an
Speaker 3: hour at a time, but if you want us twenty
Speaker 3: four to seven, you can find me at semper vv
Speaker 3: on Twitter slash x. The timeline for this show is
Speaker 3: at wof four w and the broadcasters at Sports Byline USA.
Speaker 3: I won't bring up Brian Alvarez or Filthy Tom lawlers
Speaker 3: twitters because they're not here. I don't know where they are,
Speaker 3: but I'm pretty sure that Jim Valley is going to
Speaker 3: be here with you tomorrow live every Saturday at one
Speaker 3: pm Eastern time, ten am Pacific, and Andrews Aarian will
Speaker 3: be here on Sunday starting at six pm Eastern three
Speaker 3: pm Pacific. I'd also like for you to make the
Speaker 3: Wrestling news part of your day. Everything you need to
Speaker 3: know to get your day started, get you up to date,
Speaker 3: or get you to your favorite wrestling review pod like
Speaker 3: Wrestling Observer Radio with Dave and Brian, which should have
Speaker 3: a new episode following Saturday's Royal Rumble. But each episode
Speaker 3: of the Wrestling News is between five and fifteen minutes long,
Speaker 3: three hundred and sixty five days a year, three hundred
Speaker 3: and sixty six if there is a leap year. No clickbait,
Speaker 3: no speculation or rumors, just the Wrestling News. You can
Speaker 3: find that wherever you find your favorite podcast, or head
Speaker 3: on over to the Wrestling News dot com and at
Speaker 3: Wrestling newsav on Facebook and Twitter. I also got a
Speaker 3: submission into the ending on Bacha Mania, which is I
Speaker 3: believe the third time that's happened, maybe second, I don't know.
Speaker 3: And that's not a botch. I'm just burnt at this
Speaker 3: point to a crisp I hope you like the wire
Speaker 3: and if you do, Ocota is coming, you should enjoy that.
Speaker 3: I hope you enjoy that. It's actually a little longer
Speaker 3: than what you're gonna see on on Bacha Mania. And
Speaker 3: that is because New Japan is so copy right strike happy,
Speaker 3: and how copyright to strike happy? Are they? About two
Speaker 3: weeks ago or so, they dmca'd their own YouTube page.
Speaker 3: That happened, So being concerned about that, the Batchamania one
Speaker 3: a little bit shorter, but I'll put it up on
Speaker 3: my Twitter page at semperbb until it gets taken down
Speaker 3: there as well. So there's that. I still have not
Speaker 3: found out anything else new on the slim Gym deal.
Speaker 3: As the show goes on, I'll keep my eyes posted
Speaker 3: and check and see if any news has been reported
Speaker 3: on that. I would figure by the end of the
Speaker 3: quote unquote business day five pm Eastern time, we should
Speaker 3: have an answer on this. Again, keep your eyes posted
Speaker 3: to at wonf fow that is the website's Twitter page,
Speaker 3: or just go to the website Wrestlingobserver dot com. There
Speaker 3: is a new edition of the Wrestling Observer newsletter up
Speaker 3: there for subscribers, as well as a ton of shows
Speaker 3: and other stuff as well. So just hang out, refresh
Speaker 3: that page and we'll see what happens as we get
Speaker 3: closer to the Royal rumble. TKO Group Holdings, the parent
Speaker 3: company of WWE. And look, I know there are most
Speaker 3: of you know what's going on, but there are a
Speaker 3: few of you out there, and I mean a few
Speaker 3: that Wrestling Observer Live is your entire lifeblood to the
Speaker 3: wrestling business. A lot of you are overseas listening to
Speaker 3: us on American Forces Radio, or you're part of our
Speaker 3: syndication package and listening to us over the air. But
Speaker 3: since we last talked to you, other than what I
Speaker 3: mentioned about the possibility of slim Gin pulling out, which
Speaker 3: is a recent happening today, there's only really been two
Speaker 3: notable things about the Vince McMahon story since we last spoke,
Speaker 3: and that is TKO Group Holdings eight yesterday issuing a
Speaker 3: statement about the whole deal with Janelle Grant, the former
Speaker 3: WWE employee that is alleging that she was the victim
Speaker 3: of physical and emotional abuse sexual assault in trafficking at
Speaker 3: WWE in a lawsuit that names McMahon, WWE, and John
Speaker 3: Laurinidis as defendants. Since we last spoke, a TKO spokesperson
Speaker 3: issued the following statement to Variety, which responds to Grant's allegations. Quote,
Speaker 3: Mister McMahon does not control TKO, nor does he oversee
Speaker 3: the day to day operations of WWE. While this matter
Speaker 3: predates our TKO executive team's tenure at the company. We
Speaker 3: take miss Grant's horrific allegations very seriously and are addressing
Speaker 3: this matter internally end quote. McMahon was among the TKO
Speaker 3: representatives present at the New York Stock Exchange this Tuesday
Speaker 3: when Dwayne the Rock Johnson rang the opening bell. Nik
Speaker 3: Cohn was also there, Paul Laveck was there. Several people
Speaker 3: from the board were there also. Since we last spoke
Speaker 3: to you, a statement also released late last night from
Speaker 3: a Vince McMahon spokesperson indicates that the TKO executive chairman
Speaker 3: is going to fight these allegations. The following was released
Speaker 3: to several media outlets by McMahon's legal team. Quote this
Speaker 3: lawsuit is replete with lies, obscene, made up instances that
Speaker 3: never occurred, and a vindictive distortion of the truth. He
Speaker 3: will vigorously defend himself end quote. So that is the
Speaker 3: extent of anything new thus far. TKO Group Holding stock
Speaker 3: closed Thursday afternoon at eighty seven point fifty one a share.
Speaker 3: It is currently trading at eighty six seventy four right now,
Speaker 3: as we rapidly pull towards the close of the trading
Speaker 3: day and the trade week on the New York Stock exchange,
Speaker 3: so by the time the show is over, we'll have
Speaker 3: an idea on where that stock is closing. I doubt
Speaker 3: it's going to drop a whole lot more unless the
Speaker 3: slim Gym news causes speculation and maybe causes pardon me,
Speaker 3: a little bit of a further drop. There is actual
Speaker 3: wrestling that WWE is trying to put on this weekend,
Speaker 3: including live tonight from the Casilla Center in Miami, Florida,
Speaker 3: the go home show for Saturday's Royal Rumble added earlier today,
Speaker 3: Solo Socoa and La Knight, which is a rematch from
Speaker 3: the October thirteenth SmackDown where Knight defeated Socoa, and the
Speaker 3: build up to Challenging Rains for the Universal Roman Reigns
Speaker 3: for the Universal Title and November's Crown Jewel Show. Roman
Speaker 3: Reigns is going to be defending the Universal Title in
Speaker 3: a four way on Saturday against Night, aj Styles and
Speaker 3: Andy Orton. I would figure that this match ends in
Speaker 3: some sort of schmas ending here, but I also would
Speaker 3: have figured that it's going to be the main event
Speaker 3: of the show. If it's not, the main event of
Speaker 3: the show will likely be Katana Chance and Caden Carter
Speaker 3: defending the WWE Women's Tag Team title against the Kabuki
Speaker 3: Warriors of Oska and Kyrie Saine. With Bailey, Dakota Kai,
Speaker 3: and EO Sky in their corner, I'm not going to
Speaker 3: get what I want, which is the Kabuki Warriors winning
Speaker 3: those titles. No way. You saw the vignette that was
Speaker 3: done with Caden and Katana partying it up. Now, No,
Speaker 3: We're gonna have them hold on to the titles for
Speaker 3: a little while, and it will probably be something that
Speaker 3: Bailey does which causes the Kabuki Warriors to lose the
Speaker 3: pride of Bobby Lashley in the Street Profits. Hey, a
Speaker 3: bunch of lions, I guess Bobby Lashley in the Street Profits.
Speaker 3: They will have a face to face with the final
Speaker 3: Testament of Carrie and Cross, the authors of Payne Scarlett
Speaker 3: and Paul Elring, Carmelo Hayes and Austin Theory. They're going
Speaker 3: to try it again. A couple weeks ago the terrible
Speaker 3: landing off the seated Spanish Fly by Austin Theory where
Speaker 3: the two guys clonked heads, theory was out with in
Speaker 3: the concussion protocol for a little bit. Hayes's face was
Speaker 3: busted up a little bit, but everybody ended up. Okay,
Speaker 3: They're going to try this thing again tonight. On the
Speaker 3: show also announced Carlito with Cruiz del Toro, Joaquin Wilde
Speaker 3: and Zelina Vega in his corner. We'll face off against
Speaker 3: Santos Escobar, who will have on hell Garza in Uberto
Speaker 3: Correo in his corner. So all of this is leading
Speaker 3: into tomorrow's royal rumble from Saint Petersburg, Florida, at Tropacana Field,
Speaker 3: the home of Major League Baseball's Tampa Bay Rays. Finished
Speaker 3: the season so disappointing last year, but that doesn't matter
Speaker 3: right now. What matters is there's only four matches, and
Speaker 3: in two of those matches, of the sixty participants, we
Speaker 3: know eleven of them. And I know a lot of
Speaker 3: people are annoyed by that. But let's be honest here.
Speaker 3: If they gave you a bunch of names, right, if
Speaker 3: they said, hey, the miss is in there, and this
Speaker 3: person and that person in Tozawa and Otis and Ivar
Speaker 3: and okay, they put like twenty four people in, and
Speaker 3: they do the same on the women's side, I mean, honestly,
Speaker 3: would you really be any more interested in the Royal Rumble.
Speaker 3: I mean, honestly, would you probably not. If you're bitching
Speaker 3: about this now, you just ain't gonna watch that show
Speaker 3: in all likelihood. But I'm going to watch that show,
Speaker 3: and I'm a little bit excited about it. I've got
Speaker 3: predictions and I'll give them to you when we come
Speaker 3: back from break. Wrestling Observer Live anyway, having sex and
Speaker 3: up for God, and nobody can see us because the
Speaker 3: windows A quality claims are around me.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be aha me.
Speaker 3: I hope the president apart.
Speaker 2: You are listening to Wrestling Observer Live with Brian Alvarez
Speaker 2: and Mike semper Vv on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network.
Speaker 3: Back on the show, Mike semper Vv here with you're
Speaker 3: Wrestling Observer Live. Just went to the slimgym dot dot
Speaker 3: com slash w we the splash page that's still up
Speaker 3: right now, Yeah, I don't. We'll find out if Slimjim
Speaker 3: is a sponsor come tomorrow, but as of now still
Speaker 3: sponsoring the Royal Rumble. We'll see what happens going forward.
Speaker 3: We'll see what the fallout is going to be. It
Speaker 3: will be interesting to see who says what and what
Speaker 3: is what when it comes to advertisers and you know,
Speaker 3: will they lose because I see in the twitch chat,
Speaker 3: you know a little talk about you know, cricket five
Speaker 3: G is one of their their big sponsors, and you
Speaker 3: know we've seen commercials with Seamus and Bianca bell Air
Speaker 3: and Charlotte Flair and all that stuff. We'll see if
Speaker 3: anybody starts a crusade online or if if just on
Speaker 3: their own, some of these sponsors kind of look at
Speaker 3: the situation and go, okay, you know what, we'll see
Speaker 3: in a bit here. To be real about it, if
Speaker 3: those sponsors are like the sponsors for UFC, it won't
Speaker 3: really matter whatsoever. Because with what happened with Dana White
Speaker 3: and his wife, with Sean Strickland being Sean Strickland with
Speaker 3: you know, a lot for a lot of different reasons
Speaker 3: that that one may want to point out, it's not
Speaker 3: like their sponsors have departed from them. So we'll see
Speaker 3: what happens here. The stock price is where it is
Speaker 3: right now, eighty six dollars and seventy four cents, probably
Speaker 3: not going to vary too much from that. It got
Speaker 3: its bump about what it was garn near fifteen dollars,
Speaker 3: I believe it was a couple of days ago from
Speaker 3: where it had stagnated at because of that deal being
Speaker 3: announced with Netflix, and WWE seems now to have dropped
Speaker 3: a little bit settled in where it's at. It's going
Speaker 3: to be interesting to see where that stock is going
Speaker 3: forward as well too, again because the only other chips
Speaker 3: that are available in play right now would be where
Speaker 3: UFC resigns, and that may be bigger for the stock.
Speaker 3: It probably is going to be bigger for the stock
Speaker 3: than anything that has happened with WWE. I think Wall
Speaker 3: Street and in general, everybody kind of feels the way
Speaker 3: they feel about WWE programming, and it didn't matter what
Speaker 3: their increase was going to be. We got that last
Speaker 3: bump because it was a lot bigger than expected and
Speaker 3: very flashy. But we'll see when people start to pick
Speaker 3: it apart, because we've already had Dave Meltzer pick it
Speaker 3: apart a little bit, We've already had Brandon Thurston pick
Speaker 3: it apart a little bit. We've already had other people
Speaker 3: in the financial sphere pick it apart and go, you know,
Speaker 3: this may not be as fruitful for a deal for WWE,
Speaker 3: as you know, investors may want it may be good
Speaker 3: because you're in front of three hundred million eyeballs worldwide
Speaker 3: and you can play up all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 3: But for the average investor that may not mean so much.
Speaker 3: But we'll have to see where the stock ends up going.
Speaker 3: Went off on too much of a tangent there. The
Speaker 3: Royal Rumble is going to be on the WWE Network
Speaker 3: on Peacock Saturday, as I mentioned, and the US title
Speaker 3: match between Logan Paul and Kevin Owens. Logan Paul talking
Speaker 3: as if he's going to be more of a full
Speaker 3: time WWE wrestler. Could Logan Paul hold on to that
Speaker 3: title leading into WrestleMania. I think that would make sense.
Speaker 3: I think Logan Paul being on WrestleMania would make a
Speaker 3: whole lot of sense. It's just a matter of what
Speaker 3: you do. You can have Logan Paul and Jake Paul
Speaker 3: against Kevin Owens and Sammy Zin if you so chose,
Speaker 3: if you wanted to go in that direction, take the
Speaker 3: belt off of Logan and put it on I don't know,
Speaker 3: Ray Mysterio put it on Santo's Escobar put it on
Speaker 3: Dragon Lee, which would then lead to a match between
Speaker 3: maybe Dragon Lee and Santos Escobar at WrestleMania. I still
Speaker 3: like that idea. I still like the idea of Mask
Speaker 3: versus Hair, Santos against Ray Mysterio and having the US
Speaker 3: title be on the line, and if Ray can't be
Speaker 3: there because he's banged up, obviously, Dragon Lee would slide
Speaker 3: right into that place, with Carlito being the stepping stone
Speaker 3: for Santos to get to either Ray or to get
Speaker 3: to Dragon Lee in that, you know again, And you
Speaker 3: don't need the US title for that either. But you know,
Speaker 3: a situation where it's maybe Logan, you know again, Logan
Speaker 3: defending the title on his own against somebody would probably
Speaker 3: be good. But considering that he's hooked up with Kevin
Speaker 3: Owens right now and he's he's talked about sticking around,
Speaker 3: and we usually like spectacles matches or you know again, yes,
Speaker 3: we all like they like spectacle matches. We as fans
Speaker 3: like spectacle matches sometimes during WrestleMania weekend, and that would
Speaker 3: certainly be one of them, and it would certainly get
Speaker 3: both sides a lot of attention. And we've seen the Pauls.
Speaker 3: You know, it may not be ideal if you're the
Speaker 3: biggest Kevin owns or Sammy's ain fan in the world
Speaker 3: that they're facing off against, you know, Logan and Jake Paul,
Speaker 3: especially if you're a little bit of an older wrestling fan.
Speaker 3: But in the era we're in right now, I'd actually
Speaker 3: be all for that. That's got nothing to do with
Speaker 3: the match tonight other than or tomorrow night, other than
Speaker 3: I believe Logan Paul holds onto that title Universal title.
Speaker 3: Roman Rains defends against AJ Styles, La Knight and Randy
Speaker 3: Orton in a four way Roman Rains holds onto that title.
Speaker 3: There's no other ending out of this. It's just a
Speaker 3: matter of what happens now. What's the feud going to be?
Speaker 3: Is it a three way feud between Styles, Knight, and Wharton.
Speaker 3: It seems as though AJ Styles really wants to beat
Speaker 3: up La Knight. That seems like it would make for
Speaker 3: a decent enough feud. You know La Knight doing the
Speaker 3: talking and AJ Styles, you know, kind of carrying the
Speaker 3: weight in the ring. Randy Orton was about a different
Speaker 3: million different directions that he could go in, about a
Speaker 3: million different people that he could work with. It's just
Speaker 3: a matter of placing him in there with somebody. Men's rumble.
Speaker 3: We've got seven people announced, Shinsky, Nakamura, CM Punk, Bobby Lashley,
Speaker 3: Drew McIntyre, Cody Rhoads, Damien Priest, and Gunther. My prediction
Speaker 3: is either The Rock or Cody Rhoads wins, because I
Speaker 3: believe we're either going to get The Rock or Cody
Speaker 3: Roads against Roman Reins at Night two of WrestleMania. The
Speaker 3: way things are going, it feels as though it's going
Speaker 3: to be The Rock, the whole deal, the teas of
Speaker 3: the head of the Table. It feels as though, I mean,
Speaker 3: even though this has been said before, if it's not
Speaker 3: going to be this year, when's it going to be.
Speaker 3: Of course, obviously that throws a big wedge into Cody
Speaker 3: Rhoads finishing his story, But we have a whole new
Speaker 3: chapter that could be penned with cmpunk as part of
Speaker 3: that story. And I thought they did a great job
Speaker 3: on Monday. I thought they did a wonderful job with
Speaker 3: the most simplistic stuff in the whole wide world too.
Speaker 3: It was just, you know, I went away, you went away.
Speaker 3: You know, hey, you're you know, I'm kind of more
Speaker 3: of the American dream than you. Well, I'm kind of
Speaker 3: more cmpunk than you. Oh, really, your cm Punk, Well,
Speaker 3: let me tell you how your WrestleMania story's going to go.
Speaker 3: If you're me and they just did a good job,
Speaker 3: slowly just digging in a little more to each other
Speaker 3: and building it up. I would like to see that match.
Speaker 3: I would like to see Cody Rhoads finish his story.
Speaker 3: But if we're not going to go in that direction,
Speaker 3: Cody Rhoads and Cmpunk, that's a big match, and that's
Speaker 3: a big feud, and that's a big build and those
Speaker 3: are two pros, and you know, I that is something
Speaker 3: that I would look forward to a lot there. So again,
Speaker 3: it's either going to be Cody or The Rock. I
Speaker 3: think the Rock ends up coming in at number twenty
Speaker 3: nine or number thirty more likely. I know Cody did
Speaker 3: it last year from number thirty. Maybe Rock can come
Speaker 3: in at number twenty nine or whatever, and then you
Speaker 3: could have a comedy figure B thirty or something like that.
Speaker 3: But you know, you can't have Rock out there for
Speaker 3: too long because he will blow up pretty quick. You know,
Speaker 3: in fact, that they go have the Rock and then
Speaker 3: Gender Mahal come out at number thirty. When it comes
Speaker 3: to the women's Rumble, four people announced Becky Lynch, Bailey, Niajacks,
Speaker 3: Bianca bell Air. This is where it's interesting when it
Speaker 3: comes to possible, you know, fun people coming in surprises
Speaker 3: and where it to debuts. Do you debut Jade Cargill here,
Speaker 3: even if you're not going to use her in something?
Speaker 3: Do you have her in this match where she can
Speaker 3: be seen have a big entrance. You don't expose her
Speaker 3: as far as her wrestling in the ring, and then
Speaker 3: she just gets tossed out late after she tosses out
Speaker 3: a couple people. You could do that same thing goes
Speaker 3: for like a Tiffany Stratton in that position. You know,
Speaker 3: we're probably going to have some people from the NXT
Speaker 3: roster up and involved in this thing. You know who
Speaker 3: are we going to see possibly in the match? Saying, man,
Speaker 3: that's the same thing on the men's side too. You know,
Speaker 3: are we going to see Carmelo Hayes in the match?
Speaker 3: Are we going to see Trick Williams be in the match,
Speaker 3: or or you know somebody that they like right now,
Speaker 3: obviously they like Josh Briggs, a big guy. Do you
Speaker 3: put him in the Royal Rumble in a position where
Speaker 3: you have like four or five other big guys in
Speaker 3: the ring, just to give him a little bit of experience.
Speaker 3: That way be very interesting to see what they do.
Speaker 3: I think at the end of the day, Becky Lynch
Speaker 3: is going to be the one who wins the thing
Speaker 3: and then goes on to challenge Rha Ripley in the
Speaker 3: match for WrestleMania, and that match is probably going to
Speaker 3: be the main event of Night one. I would do
Speaker 3: that at least. I think that is enough in a
Speaker 3: big enough match on its own that you can go
Speaker 3: ahead and do that. I'm also thinking next year, and
Speaker 3: I could be again, you're gonna have Cody Rhoades maybe
Speaker 3: possibly in Roman Reigns go at it again next year.
Speaker 3: But Ria Ripley against Bianca bel Air, if built up correctly,
Speaker 3: that feels to me at like the only match if
Speaker 3: you were going to try the main event the second
Speaker 3: night of WrestleMania, and I think you would have to
Speaker 3: keep them away from each other, you know, for a
Speaker 3: while on different brands, but you would have to have
Speaker 3: them kind of somehow sniping back and forth with each other.
Speaker 3: But of all of the matches that I could think of,
Speaker 3: you know, when it comes to the women main eventing
Speaker 3: the second night of WrestleMania. I think one day and
Speaker 3: possibly next year, although again if it's Cody and Roman,
Speaker 3: it ain't gonna be. But I could see one day
Speaker 3: where Rhea Ripley and Bianca bell Air main event WrestleMania.
Speaker 3: But this year, I think Becky wins the rumble, moves
Speaker 3: on and challenges Rhea Ripley at WrestleMania. Got a bunch
Speaker 3: more to get into that's going on this weekend. We
Speaker 3: got SmackDown, we got Rampage, Collision, GCWCMLL and so much
Speaker 3: more Wrestling Observer Live.
Speaker 4: Hey, I'm Chelsea, and a little thing I like about
Speaker 4: the Chick fil A Spicy Deluxe Sandwich is I think
Speaker 4: it's just a perfect combination of ingredients. The pepper jack
Speaker 4: cheese and that spiciness of the sandwich. It's the right
Speaker 4: type of spice and the right amount of spice. It's
Speaker 4: crunchy on the outside but then really tender on the inside,
Speaker 4: and then obviously the pickles on the bottom are iconic.
Speaker 4: There are too many things I like about it. I
Speaker 4: don't know if I could finish the thought.
Speaker 1: Bring on the spice and order the Chick fil A
Speaker 1: Spicy Delex Sandwich on the Chick fil app Today, Real
Speaker 1: Guest paid for their testimonial.
Speaker 2: You were listening to Wrestling Observer Live with Brian Alvarez
Speaker 2: and Mike SEMPERVIV on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network.
Speaker 3: Back on the show, Mike sepper vv here with you
Speaker 3: Wrestling Observer Live because nobody else is here right now.
Speaker 3: I get a chance to plug stuff that I enjoy
Speaker 3: reading and listening to, and the my friends be working
Speaker 3: at and whatnot. For Wrestling Illustrated right over here, you know, like, hey,
Speaker 3: it's pretty good. You got Tony Storm there, you know,
Speaker 3: but that's last month's issue. Where's the new one? It's
Speaker 3: right here, that's right, the Judgment Day on the cover,
Speaker 3: the Excel Collector's Edition Illustrated. How was this thing dated
Speaker 3: right now? April twenty twenty four edition of You know,
Speaker 3: it's it's always been that way. It's always like two
Speaker 3: months ahead of time here. But yes, the the WWE
Speaker 3: did a number and again these are coming from fans,
Speaker 3: and it's always an interesting perspective when it comes to
Speaker 3: these types of awards because it is the you know,
Speaker 3: the mainstream fan which is picking up Pro Wrestling Illustrating.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of hardcores a lot of people like
Speaker 3: me that are you know, hey, it's it's you know,
Speaker 3: like they used to lie about Playboy. You know, you're
Speaker 3: reading it for the articles. I am reading it for
Speaker 3: the articles because you know, it's people like Brian Solomon
Speaker 3: who I work with, and it's you know, lots of
Speaker 3: other people, Harry Burkett and plenty of others putting in,
Speaker 3: you know, great work over there. But you know, when
Speaker 3: it comes to these awards, they're voted on by the fans,
Speaker 3: shoot voted on by the fans, and you know, when
Speaker 3: that happens, it gives you a good idea and kind
Speaker 3: of where the pulse of the the general fan is.
Speaker 3: I also noticed this on the backside. This is got
Speaker 3: to be This has got to be a Major's slash
Speaker 3: Zach Ryder special here big rubber guys. I guess made
Speaker 3: in the same vein of the LJN toys from the past.
Speaker 3: They do have a magnum ta one there. Did we
Speaker 3: get that for Hangman Adam page to learn about their
Speaker 3: Proresting Illustrated support pro Wresting Illustrated. It's still a fantastic magazine.
Speaker 3: There's always a lot of cool stuff in there. I'm
Speaker 3: pissed off still about Hangman out in Paige. I will
Speaker 3: glance down at the Twitch chat as I ask this question.
Speaker 3: When he came to the face to face that happened
Speaker 3: on Wednesday on Dynamite after Swerve's match was over and
Speaker 3: he ran up on Hangman out In Page, who was
Speaker 3: talking to Renee Paquette. What did you think about Hangman
Speaker 3: Adam Page's responses? How did you feel about him in
Speaker 3: that scenario? What did you think about how he responded
Speaker 3: to Swerve, the guy that again violated the sanctity of
Speaker 3: the man's household and ran up in his child's room
Speaker 3: and cut a promo on his baby as he slept
Speaker 3: in a crib. How did you respond? What did you
Speaker 3: think about that? Because I thought it was incredibly, incredibly weak,
Speaker 3: And I like Hayman out of Page, and I like
Speaker 3: how the look is beginning to evolve here a little bit.
Speaker 3: But honestly, honestly, he's got They got to work with
Speaker 3: him on that. He's got to work on this. You
Speaker 3: need to have some sort of really evil streak, and
Speaker 3: we see it with the moves. We've seen it, you know,
Speaker 3: in the types of matches they've had the barroom brawls
Speaker 3: and all that sort of stuff where it's like he
Speaker 3: can play you know again, there are you know, moments
Speaker 3: of being a tough guy, but he's got to be
Speaker 3: able to bring that out when it comes to promos.
Speaker 3: He's got to be able to bring that out in
Speaker 3: the believable way where he's not just going, well, you know,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go up and beat you in the ratings, Like,
Speaker 3: are we just supposed to like retroactively forget about everything
Speaker 3: that has led to this point between those two guys.
Speaker 3: Like to me that, no, you should want that backstory.
Speaker 3: It should be something you're building off of year. It
Speaker 3: should be a tension point between these two guys forever,
Speaker 3: whether they're on the same page one day or not.
Speaker 3: There needs to still always be, you know, that sort
Speaker 3: of tension there until Hangman Page and even if Hangman
Speaker 3: Page gets his ultimate revenge on Swerve that way, I
Speaker 3: mean still I think there should be some tension there.
Speaker 3: So I don't know what got me off on that
Speaker 3: tangent there, Sorry, because magnum Ta was always one of
Speaker 3: my favorites growing up, another Virginia guy. He wasn't down there.
Speaker 3: The page is more from the central southern part of
Speaker 3: the state. Magnum Ta was from the Tidewater region from
Speaker 3: Norfolk there. So you know, again that's what they're kind
Speaker 3: of trying to build to and I think that's a
Speaker 3: really good idea. But I was thinking about it before
Speaker 3: the show again, just you know how much that really
Speaker 3: annoyed me there. But you know, that's got really nothing
Speaker 3: to do with anything when it comes to tonight's Rampage,
Speaker 3: which was taped on Wednesday night, also from the n
Speaker 3: Market Arena in Savannah, Georgia, and they did not have
Speaker 3: a big crowd there. And the reason I'm gonna mention
Speaker 3: this is because I'll take a sidebar here. This was
Speaker 3: posted up to the front page earlier on today by
Speaker 3: Joseph Currier. WWE is bringing a NXT premium live event
Speaker 3: to that same building in Savannah, Georgia in May. Battleground
Speaker 3: twenty twenty four will take place at the end Market
Speaker 3: Arena on Sunday, May twenty six and air alive on
Speaker 3: Peacock Slash the WWE Network. Battleground is the first of
Speaker 3: back to back nights at Ennmark Arena for ww The Monday,
Speaker 3: May twenty seventh episode of Raw is also being held
Speaker 3: at the venue. Combo tickets for the show are going
Speaker 3: on sale at ten am next Friday, so the individual
Speaker 3: tickets will go on sale at a later date. It
Speaker 3: is going to be NXT's third pl of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3: Vengeance Day is going to be held on February fourth,
Speaker 3: while Stand In Deliver will take place on Russellmania weekend
Speaker 3: on Saturday April sixth, So back to that end Mark
Speaker 3: Arena from Wednesday night with matches that were taped for tonight.
Speaker 3: This is according to the official preview, so no spoilers.
Speaker 3: They are saying it is a quartette of top shelf battles.
Speaker 3: I'll let you decide on that. The Butcher, Eho, Del
Speaker 3: Vikingo and Commander along with Kipsavian in a four way
Speaker 3: to determine Saturday's challenger for the aw International Champion held
Speaker 3: by Orange Cassidy. John Moxley faces off against Lee Moriarty.
Speaker 3: Lee Moriarty could use this match because you remember when
Speaker 3: him and Daniel Garcia and Wheeler Dah It was like, Okay,
Speaker 3: these guys are kind of our young guys that we
Speaker 3: are anointing right now, you know we Darby Allen's over
Speaker 3: Jungle Boy is youngle Boy and Sammy Govara. We have
Speaker 3: ups and downs with him like those were, like you know,
Speaker 3: of the four pillars, there were three there. Well you
Speaker 3: move ahead a little bit and there's Daniel Garcia, Wheeler
Speaker 3: Da and Lee Moriarty, and Daniel Garcia goes over to
Speaker 3: the Jericho Appreciation Society, Wheeler Da becomes a member of
Speaker 3: the Blackpool Combat Club and Lee Moriarty became a member
Speaker 3: of the firm and then just kind of faded away
Speaker 3: and then got picked up again here by Shane Taylor Promotions.
Speaker 3: And he was mean mugging John Moxley a lot on
Speaker 3: Wednesday when when he defeated Shane Taylor. Was it Wednesday, Saturday?
Speaker 3: I can't remember when it was, but John Moxley defeated
Speaker 3: Shane Taylor. Lee Moriarty was giving him the eyeball, and
Speaker 3: they'll be wrestling tonight Anna Jay against Ruby Soho. If
Speaker 3: you've been following this story, I'm sure you're going to
Speaker 3: be entertained. Ruby Soho being manipulated right now bye by
Speaker 3: Sorea and her relationship and with with with I can't
Speaker 3: even remember the girl's name. What's the girl's name from?
Speaker 3: From Q TV Mariah May's old partner, What's what's what's
Speaker 3: her name? Somebody in the chat helped me out here.
Speaker 3: I'm having an old man moment. Harley, Thank you, Harley Quinn, DJ,
Speaker 3: thank you for saving me there. Harley Quinn is being
Speaker 3: used by Soirea to be a thorn in the side
Speaker 3: of Ruby Soho and her relationship with Angelo Parker. It's
Speaker 3: just been a big old soap opera. Well that continues
Speaker 3: on tonight, long story short, and then the main event
Speaker 3: of the show, at least why I assume is going
Speaker 3: to be the main event of the show. Christopher Daniels
Speaker 3: against Kenoskate Takeshta And I know Christopher Daniels a little
Speaker 3: bit older, but I have a feeling that knowing these two,
Speaker 3: from what I've seen of these two, it should be
Speaker 3: pretty good. Aw Collision Saturday Night on TNT from Bowser City,
Speaker 3: Dax Harrowood, Bowser City, Louisiana, not Boise, Idaho, Okay, Boys
Speaker 3: of City whatever at the Brookshire Grocery Arena. Serena deeb
Speaker 3: will face off against somebody. We saw a video package
Speaker 3: from her this past Wednesday night saying that she is
Speaker 3: on the comeback trail and she is ready for action.
Speaker 3: She will have a match. Lady Frost will face Mariah
Speaker 3: May Brian Danielson against Eugen Nakata in a match that
Speaker 3: was I guess made for me, to be honest with you.
Speaker 3: Orange Cassidy will defend the AW International title against whoever
Speaker 3: wins the four way on Rampage. Robert Strong has got
Speaker 3: a title match coming up on March third in Greensboro
Speaker 3: at AW Revolution. It will be interesting to see if
Speaker 3: that ends up being a one on one match or
Speaker 3: they end up inserting a third person into that mix.
Speaker 3: You know, I saw in the chat a little bit
Speaker 3: earlier on too that you know there's the possibility of
Speaker 3: doing a three way between Cody the Rock and Roman
Speaker 3: Reigns at WrestleMania. I hate that idea. Either give me
Speaker 3: a singles match or don't give me anything when it
Speaker 3: comes to that, because I don't know what you're pulling
Speaker 3: off there. If you defeat two Samoens and it's sort
Speaker 3: of like Dusty defeating Offenseka at the Garden back in
Speaker 3: the day, I don't know why would you do this?
Speaker 3: I just it doesn't make any sense to me. Anyway.
Speaker 3: There's another match taking place on Saturday as well, six
Speaker 3: man tag Team escaped the cage elimination match Daniel Garcia
Speaker 3: an FTR against the House of Black. So that is
Speaker 3: that Wednesday's night and Wednesday Night's episode of aw Dynamite
Speaker 3: average eight hundred and thirty seven thousand viewers on TBS,
Speaker 3: down six percent from last week, drew a point twenty
Speaker 3: seven in the eighteen to forty nine demo, down a
Speaker 3: lot more than than six percent, three times more in fact,
Speaker 3: eighteen percent from the week previous, and is the second
Speaker 3: lowest rating the show has done since December twentyeth So
Speaker 3: it's just seemingly always going to be between eight hundred
Speaker 3: and twenty five thousand and eight hundred and seventy five
Speaker 3: thousand until otherwise noted. I don't think it really matters whatsoever. Hey,
Speaker 3: did you miss Thursday's TNA Impact Show. Well, don't worry.
Speaker 3: If you have access TV, you'll be able to check
Speaker 3: it out again tonight. They are re airing the show
Speaker 3: at seven pm Eastern Time. The company announced the news
Speaker 3: earlier on today, but did not clarify what caused the
Speaker 3: transmission issues the show. And you know, to be honest
Speaker 3: with you, I don't know if there were issues with
Speaker 3: the show or not, because I don't have Access TV.
Speaker 3: But like, even if there weren't any issues with Access,
Speaker 3: I would say that there were because when are you
Speaker 3: going to have kazuchko O Kada back and when are
Speaker 3: you going to be able to say you got the
Speaker 3: in ring debut of the former Dolph Ziggler and a
Speaker 3: lot of people might you know, kind of blow both
Speaker 3: of those things off here a little bit. But if
Speaker 3: you're Impact, you spent some money here, You've done a
Speaker 3: lot of rebranding, and you want as many people in
Speaker 3: their eyeballs to be on your product as possible. So
Speaker 3: the show didn't. As I mentioned, featured the interring debut
Speaker 3: of Nick Neameath and Okada's return to the company for
Speaker 3: the first time since two thousand and eleven, plus a
Speaker 3: knockouts title match between Jordan Grace and Trinity. What it
Speaker 3: also featured as it went off the air was a
Speaker 3: video that teased Mustafa Ali coming to TNA, and then
Speaker 3: on social media today, Ali posted his upcoming schedule of appearances,
Speaker 3: which revealed that he will be at all six shows
Speaker 3: the TNA has coming up across three different weekends in
Speaker 3: February and March, including the No Surrender and Sacrifice TNA
Speaker 3: Plus specials. The rest are going to be television taping,
Speaker 3: so he is going to be on TV for TNA
Speaker 3: Impact at least through April. With how everything lays out there.
Speaker 3: There's also a bit of news today that Explosion is
Speaker 3: going to be coming back. The former TNA syndicated show
Speaker 3: will come back as a Friday TNA Plus exclusive on
Speaker 3: their TNA Plus channel. Actually, it's not going to be
Speaker 3: exclusive there. It's going to begin It's going to debut
Speaker 3: every Friday on TNA Plus for their subscribers and then
Speaker 3: is going to be posted up to YouTube on Tuesdays.
Speaker 3: So each week's show will feature two new matches and
Speaker 3: promotional segments with GM Miller. The debut that launched today
Speaker 3: features Rhino against mah Bali Shira and Joe Hendry against
Speaker 3: Rich Swan. So we'll go ahead and put a bow
Speaker 3: on this show when we get back from break. Wrestling
Speaker 3: Observer Live.
Speaker 2: You are listening to Wrestling Observer Live with Brian Alvarez
Speaker 2: and Mike Semperviv on the Sports Byline Broadcasting Network.
Speaker 3: Back on the show, Mike simper vv Wrestling Observer Live
Speaker 3: West Side Gun with Julia Lange right there. GCW has
Speaker 3: got two shows this weekend. They do indeed the Egypt
Speaker 3: Shrine Center in Tampa, Florida. For GCW Look at Me.
Speaker 3: I don't know where to put the inflection on that.
Speaker 3: I don't know if it's you know, look at me,
Speaker 3: or if it's you know, look at me. I don't
Speaker 3: I don't know exactly where, you know, what the vibe
Speaker 3: is exactly for this show. But Blake Christian, who you
Speaker 3: may see lose a lot of matches in roh. I
Speaker 3: still don't like this deal with him over there, just
Speaker 3: you know, puttson around there a little bit. He's the
Speaker 3: GCW World Champion. He'll be facing off against Sawyer Wreck.
Speaker 3: This is his thirty first title defense. I don't know
Speaker 3: if at any point Nick Gage had more, but this
Speaker 3: is a long long reign and he has beaten a
Speaker 3: lot of guys, especially of name value. Tony Deffin will
Speaker 3: face Man Sore. Joey Janella against AJ Francis. Oh yeah,
Speaker 3: you know. Janella is gonna do some sort of spot
Speaker 3: where he dives outside the ring and doesn't quite make it.
Speaker 3: It's just a matter of well AJ Francis do that
Speaker 3: Leo Rush against Jack Cartwheel and a match to which
Speaker 3: it's going to be incredible to be a matual geometry
Speaker 3: may be involved with those two going at each other,
Speaker 3: and then Fie against Mance Warner and a battle of
Speaker 3: second Gear crew members. Just you know, I'm sure Manders
Speaker 3: is going to be in the corner of Mance Warner.
Speaker 3: Obviously FIE's bussy partner, Ali Catch will be in his corner.
Speaker 3: He's got the big Gay Brunch going on. FI does
Speaker 3: on Saturday as well too. That's taking place at noon
Speaker 3: also at the Egypt Shrine Center in Tampa. The biggest
Speaker 3: thing there is his team with Ali Catch facing off
Speaker 3: against the return of the Maximum Male Models for one day,
Speaker 3: Man Sour and Mace Madden MXM. They can't do eminem
Speaker 3: because I believe WW would so have the trademark on that.
Speaker 3: I don't know. Done with this week, done with it.
Speaker 3: We shall talk to you all again after a while.
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