Spooky TNA and Triple Mania Plans

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Visit WeatherTech dot com today. Called open question of the week, guys. What's up, shoes? Backlash on Saturday. About which more later. The goat. As he is known, John Cena. A new tournament where Main roster stars compete against N X T stars. But they don't really compete for a win 'cause you get to choose who wins even though it's a wrestling I'm not gonna think too hard about it. Let me ask you this. And you get to have a Kaz classic. What would the tournament be? What shape would it be? What would be the goal? How would you determine the winner? Alright. The Caz Classic. Anybody knows me. It would be Two hundred and seventy five pound minimum. Wait, gate. Minimum to enter. Working weight or work weight or shoot weight. Shoot weight. Like you can't even get into the joint. If you're not two seventy five above, all right? We're going for the cartoonishly largest motherfuckers. On the planet. Putting them in a tournament. The crown. Biggest, medius. Bumpiest, manlyest, meest men. Match you can make. You know what I mean? Sixteen guys. And and because we're all about equality, eight women, you know I'm saying the the the women have a two seventy five minimum too? Nah, like we'll go like we'll go like 185, 200 with the women. It's all beef, all right? It's the it's the Caz Pause if necessary, audience. It's the Caz. Beef classic. It is just And it's just No dives. Ain't gonna be no chain wrestling. You know what I'm saying? Like it ain't gonna be. Nothing that involves any sort of wristlocks. It's just gonna be Just hammers on hammers. Only strong move. Think of Think of like the Goldberg Brock Lesnar main event from WrestleMania or like every like Like it was just a two minute car crash. You might have to work on your weight to listen to Goldberg. Goldberg was like two thirty during Well well, he wasn't you know what I mean, like it it was more the spirit of the match. It's like the X Division, you know what I mean? It's about no limits. You know what I'm saying? So Give me like Just What's the guy's name? Walter Coos? Is that his name? What the Coos get me like eight of those guys on one side. And like on the other side, he give me like eight just Roman Reigns like superhero looking dudes and just see who's the illest of them all and just have them. Okay, that's a until I don't wanna go over terror light. It's basically a super heavyweight championship. Yeah, my thing with two oh five Live was they should just called it two oh five and three uh uh and three oh five live, so it's like people under two hundred and five and over three hundred and five in every match is just Little flippy guy versus giant fat guy. Um Yo, he was definitely explaining it like he just found out what it is, right? Yeah. Like like he I I mm. It's a tournament. So basically It's a showcase, but not a championship. I don't know. I'm still figuring it out. Yeah. A fan voted showcase. Like Like the voice is like the voice for Russia. According to Meltzer, the John Cena classic is a work in progress. They don't know exactly how it's gonna work. Mm. It really feels like it's gonna be like the voice for wrestling. It's like we're gonna have some fans vote. We're gonna have some judges, you know what I mean? How would you do the voice for wrestling? I'm sorry, this cool living question has gone a long time. So like you go out and cut a promo and then the judges have to turn their chair based on the promo, but they have no idea what what you look like, but what you look like's kind of important. Yeah, they should just that's how it all should be. Like just have a Just hit the voice thing, the button. Turn around, be like, yo. That c that promo, I can work with that. You know what I mean? Like the fact that you don't know what it looks like, you know what I'm saying? Uh huh. That's what If they had a pro wrestling version of the voice Yeah. Who would win? Oh. You know the answers. Like like Turbo Floyd would win the voice of wrestling. Okay. Because he would win the promo. He would get a four chair turn or whatever, and then he would just go on and like keep you get laughing the whole time and you would say he was a winner. Nah, you know who would be good? What's the guy's name? B. J. Ray? What's his name from uh B J Ray, the indie dude? Like he talks bad shit. Um I'd be the one to hit the button and be like, we can work with that shit talk, sir. It's going to be It is going to be a Contest. on a lot of different levels. Obviously if Winning and losing in the ring is not the indicator. Mm-hmm. Then You know, obviously there'll be a contest of just appealing to the crowd and I mean, that's what pro wrestling is, right? Getting the crowd behind you. But there's also I feel like gonna be this like low key rush to like get The right kind of PR right before the tournament? Right, if you can book yourself as the sort of like underdog of the tournament in real life. You know, get out there and be like, if I'm like one of the competitors, I'm gonna be like you know got there doing press and like the funny thing is like Triple A like Nick Conn said he did not want me in the tournament You know, just start like dropping those little bread crumbs because then when it comes around and people have a vote, they're gonna be like, Fuck you, WWE, we're voting for David. Yeah, you know, it's gonna be Yeah, yeah. Giving the internet of voice is always a good idea. Oh my God. Absolutely crazy. Right when you think they're done with us weirdos on the internet. Shutting down streamers and whatever else. Now figure out a way to make us matter. Anyway, let's start the show. Show mask Welcome to the Mask Man Show with Kaz. How you doing, buddy? I'm doing good, shoes. I couldn't be better. How are ya? You sound like you're kinda tired. I'm a little tired. I've been uh Long weekend, you know. Definitely definitely busy. But um No, I was doing a lot of screaming this morning on High Ninety Seven, uh, just reminding New York City about their New York Knicks and The ass whoopings that were handed to the Philadelphia Natives, Philadelphia seventy sixers. Um Shout out to The right hand man, Jalen Brunson, you know what I mean? Fellow wrestling head. Uh Yeah. So Well, voice of that handsome ours. I mean I I don't mean this as a as a as an insult. I don't think it could be. But are the Knicks sort of feel like the Cody Rhodes of the in the Royal Rumble of the playoffs this year where it's like Man, we weren't really talking about the Knicks, but then as soon as it clears out to like, you know Eighth and four teams. It's just like Oh God, this is This is so obvious I'm bored by it. The Nick marching to the finals. Are you bored by it? Oh man. No, I mean the finals of the body. You might be in the minority with that one, but No, I think I'm just a little bit whatever. It would've been nice if the Celtics had made this round and at least put up a fight. You know, instead of like getting freaking sucker punched by the Sixers and then what is the pro wrestling equivalent of I guess there's that's ba it's basically like the the the Uh The You know, who has the most falls in an i like an Ironman match situation. Except like the the Celtics game was like someone taking a chair to the Sixers. The last you know, the Celtic series. It was just it was like they got so beat up they couldn't make they couldn't like get their shoulder off the mat. The Celtics get beat up. Are you kidding me? No no the Sixers. Oh, the Sixers. Oh. Well, when are they not beat up? Joel and B's always beat up. That's like uh Who's somebody that's always frickin' injured? You know what I mean? It's like well if that guy could get healthy, he'd be This is Buddy Matthews? I was gonna say Adam Cole, but that's just mean. Yeah, if that guy could stay healthy, he'll be a man of it. No, I think Adam Cole is L weed for wrestling. That's so foul. You can't say that today. You if you would have said that any other day, but today Like that's Probably a really good compliment for Adam Cole, but saying that today. Damn. There's gonna be some some some Some wrestling fans and some Sixers fans that's gonna want your head for that, Dave. Who's a better Who's a better Joel Embiid comp? I mean, is it someone like Big There is no better Joel and B comp. That's why it's so funny. Like he's he's definitely MVP talent who never made it past the second round. That is so Adam Cole. Yeah. That's Adam Cold on that. Does that mean V J and Maxie are like the other guys in the Undisputed Era? Or do that we do we get to draw a like a br cast a wider net for who those guys are? Nah, I definitely feel like Maxi gives cool Kyle vibes. Like he could definitely be a Kyle O'Reilly. Well I love them both a lot. Yes. Uh You do, yeah. I like Maxi. I love uh I I'm a Baylor grad, so of course I love V J uh But yeah, and and they're my local team. Now living out here in central in central uh New Jersey. Can I just point out how funny it is that like Y your guys, the Sixers, are so tied to like The AEW Undisputed error uh guys and my Jalen Brunson is such like A tribal chief, like is the is the gold guy. And it's like That's that's so us, Dave. That is so us. That is so the show. I don't think he's a tribal chief guy. Jale Brunson is one hundred percent a tribal chief guy. You didn't see when he answered the question about the tribal chief. I know he's a tribal chief guy. I'm just saying he's to me he's not the tribal chief. He had to he he he started to he's you know, didn't start at the bottom, but you know, he it was a big big come up for him. Dave, on May eleventh, two thousand twenty six. I guess he's Dylan Brunson is one hundred percent the tribal chief. Yeah, he definitely is the son of a wrestler as well. One that is heralded, you know what I mean? Like comes from uh the tribal chief, the Roman Reigns, Jelabrothing. Yeah, 'cause it's not just his dad, it's the whole it's the whole infrastructure. Right. Worldwide West. The whole CA and the and the bloodline is villa is the villain over Wildcat. Yeah, there you go. Jay Uso's Josh Hart. And that means. You got uh O G and Cat as uh, you know. Jimmy Uso and Sammy Zayn. You got the wise man, the Sammy Zane's I'm sorry, Sami Zayn's gotta be Dante Di Vincenzo. He's like over on the side. Wishes he was still in the storyline with the red hair. It's everybody Everybody laughs and then he goes too far about you and you're like oh come on. Um. Well that was fun. Backlash this weekend. I slash it. Mm-hmm. I was sick all weekend and uh and like I basically just lost Saturday. Like, you know, it was just like sleeping at such weird hours that I woke up on Sunday and I was like, Oh shit, I got a pay per view tonight. And no, that didn't happen. Uh, but it was a great show. Mm-hmm. Can I float? Totally baseless theory for you here. Sure. You know how we used to say that's what the show's all about. You know how we used to say that SummerSlam was like WrestleMania for the nerds? Okay. This is a this is a tough comparison. Obviously it's not true anymore because now Summerslam is just WrestleMania. Um Did it feel like a little bit like Backlash was the WrestleMania for the writing team? Like Bat Backlash was the show they wish they had been able to put on at WrestleMania. What was wrong with the show they put on at WrestleMania? I'm just saying I thought Wrestlemania was better than Backlash. This well, night two you can make the case. The whole thing together I think backlash I mean Am I If you take away like the main event from WrestleMania. Night two. I think Backlash is a better show. I mean if you just take away one thing, it just had so much more than just take away the greatest main event in our I'm just saying they had they just had a lot more volume, you know, like for whatever. Minute for pound for pound? Backlash is better. M Mini housing did it for you that much? Like that puts it over the top? You'd like the mini housing over What they did with the uh A million Uh well I mean come on, Dan Housen's sort of even Steven. I mean I it's not like I think him wrestling is necessarily better, although it's good to keep him in the genre of professional wrestler. Nah, let me tell you something, man. Like little person wrestling is one of my favorite genres of wrestling. There is. And like Wheel C is legitimately one of my favorite matches of all time. This this match was as close to Wheel C as I've seen in a long time. You know what I mean? I'm just like, man. I forgot how much I love that fun the match. And we couldn't have those fun dumb matches as much as we used to because there wasn't fun dumb characters. I did have so uh Yeah, but I'll still I'll still take WrestleMania night two over Backlash. Like I thought Backlash was alright. Oh no Backlash was so he but here's the thing. Th this is why I say this. Mm-hmm. Roman Reigns versus Jacob Fatto. Well There weren't any rumors to that effect, but there were certainly rumors of Jacob Fatou being in the i i in the the the un the undisputed title match. Right? Right. So it was a make good on that front. Eos Sky versus Oscar was supposed to be a WrestleMania match. It appears that Oscar retired. So I don't know if the decision was made to Yeah, what was that about? We'll talk more about that in a minute. But that was supposed to be a WrestleMania match. Dan Housen and Minniehausen versus the Miz and Kit Kit Wilson. Um I don't know if it if anything like that ever made it onto the schedule, but I s know for a fact that like Jelly Roll was pitching Danhausen and Jelly Roll versus the Miz and Kit Kit Wilson instead of doing what he did at WrestleMania. So that so that's a make good on that one. Trick versus Sami Zayn, it was a straight up rematch from Wrestlemania. Um And Braun versus Seth was a Wrestlemania match. These are all matches that they should have had at WrestleMania. Well we put it that way, okay. Now now I see where you're at. Now I see so so this is so the so the speeches the the speculative part is what if every year WrestleMania is just this story that only exists if you understand the that only makes sense if you know the rumors. Um And You know, the b if you if you're like read in on all the stuff that's gonna be in the inevitable documentary about it. And there's a lot of outside interference from the front office or from the TKO brass or whatever the phrase you want to use is. But it's okay. We fans tell ourselves because we have backlash. At backlash they get to do it right. At backlash they're gonna give us the matches that they should have given us at WrestleMania. But unfortunately You know, Ari Manual Called in Tom Cruise to wrestle in the main event. Yeah. Alright, Dave. We can't have it both ways. Alright. We can't say That We got John Cena out here. To explain this scene of classic that nobody kinda knows what it is, really. And Then say at the same time, Well, backlash was a make good for all the stuff that they will do, but like Calling Cena up to announce this thing that we kinda don't know what it is yet. Seems more like a Ari Emmanuel needs to get some people over here moved than anything that would have happened at WrestleMania. You know what I mean? Like I don't Well, yeah. I mean it is kind of weird that he retired and then hosted the next two pay per views, you know. I think injuries maybe injuries is is more of Of why a lot of this stuff didn't happen, right? Like I don't know. Yeah, I'm not saying they got it all they were screwed in everyone, but like Brun Breaker was an injury decision. Uh, Minihausen I know wasn't good to go wrestle mean. I'm just kidding. Uh Well it's now that I think about it now that I think about it, like that was the only injury that really mattered though, 'cause if you Like Braun and Seth both being injured. Mm-hmm. When they got injured is like really the domino that like changed what WrestleMania was supposed to be, if you really think about it. Every year it's a Seth Rollins related injury. It's always a Seth Rollins injury that just like sets off The domino effect of WrestleMania, right? So like Uh, Seth relinquishes the title after being injured, right? Like Punking J Uso wrestle for it. Then Bron gets injured right after that. And it's like Now the world heavyweight titles on punk, and then, you know, eventually go into Roman. Mm-hmm. None of that happens. In my opinion. If broaden itself don't even get hurt. So like maybe it's not a creative team TKO sticking their nose shit in it. Maybe it's more just like These two really important guys that we've been telling a story about since the day after WrestleMania last year both got hurt at the same time and they both and one of them had the World Heavyweight Championship. And one of them was a hill. And then the other one just turned on. You know what I mean? Like these were Like the vision was the the the A story on WWE for a long time. Does the vision Okay, can I ask a sidebar question? Does the vision still exist? Uh uh Maybe they're just gonna quietly dissolve it. 'cause I feel like prior prior to Backlash I think it was an open question. They never appeared on screen together. That's more. That's true. Heyman did come out with the Heyman came out with the tag team at WrestleMania, right? But he he was still involved with them then. But then ever since Bron's been back, he hasn't really been around them. They haven't really been around each other. Very strange. Um They did make their interference. They they they might be. They they made their presence known briefly in the backlash match. By the way, I gotta say it. When Logan Paul and Austin Theory made their appearance at Backlash, where in the flying F Were the pr street profits. They've come out there and like b and even the odds on 'em every opportunity and then now what they just forget about it at the pay per view? They the WE could they didn't fly 'em out like the fucking Trailblazers like the owners just like, Yeah, we don't need 'em that bad. Let's just leave it home. I mean that's so strange, but anyway. Bron Breaker versus Seth Rollins. Was it Wonderful match. That was easily better than it would have been at WrestleMania. Right? I think it's safe to say they would've gotten five minutes less. Well probably this year's WrestleMania, they might have gotten ten minutes less. 'Cause everything was so freaking short. Uh I gotta be honest, I wasn't crazy about that match, Dave. I wasn't crazy about that match. I wasn't crazy about that match. Whose fault was it? Bronze or Seth's? That was I could I could forgive a couple botches, man. I can forgive a couple joints. Like it's I can forgive a botch of of effort. But I can't forgive a botch of storytelling. You know what I mean? Like There was a couple bosses in there. that like I mean I I even hate using the word bosses, but there were a couple of mess in there that's like, you know what, I like I like I like my wrestling a little sloppy sometimes. Like I could take that because it it it represents struggle. Like The break it started flip. That he was supposed to land on his feet. Like You have to stick that landing. Like that like it's just it just Well far be it for me to to to compare rounds to to Osprey, 'cause I know a million people are gonna do it already. But like You have to stick that landing when you go for that part. You know what I'm saying? Like any any other any other mess up is like whatever, like I'm fine with that. That's a big part in like shifting the story that's happening in the match. You know what I mean? Like that's supposed to shift the momentum there. And it just I wasn't crazy about it. Like it was an alright match, but it's like I I think it should be written into the script for every big match like that. If you're gonna do a crazy flip. That no matter how many times you sit you you hit it in practice, you know there's a chance it's not gonna work. In the you know, in bell time. You gotta just have your fallback plan. You gotta have it, you gotta have plan B. And for Seth Rollins, one hundred times out of a hundred, it should be, oh, I jammed my trick me again. Yeah, if you like if you miss the landing, just grab the knee and fall over. And then and then that and and work it for a second, you know? Anyway, I I agree with you on that one, but I uh Bron's Obviously that that wasn't specifically on Braun, although his little run up Frankensteiner always looks a little bit Rough because I think he's just work he's just moving faster than his opponent. So by the time he's like done his back done the back flip, the opponent's still sitting on the top rope every time. Right, right. Hy drives himself like down. Yeah. Like headfirst. And just pops back up like it's nothing. No, it is. It's like it's like you're playing it's like when you i i if you it's like a dog, but like more specifically, it's like a pit bull or something where they'll just like be so nuts chasing something that they'll just like flip themselves over and land on their head. You know? And then keep going. No like no. Um I really enjoyed that match, but whatever. Let's we can move on. By the way, Bron Breaker won. Sort of defiant. I mean, sort s you know, in in a in pretty convincing fashion. Mm-hmm. Is this feud over? Might be. It might be. It's been going on for over a year. Almost a year. Well, the storyline has been going on for a little year. Yeah. But um who knows, man. Uh the the whole night kinda felt like we're g we're putting a lot of emphasis on our new guys. You know what I'm saying? The whole the whole show. I mean, yeah, I mean and like and and everything that's been going on. on Ron SmackDown. Like every feud is like old guy, new guy. Old guy, young guy. Um I don't think that's crazy. Everything on this show was and and then even when you look up to you know, they're they'd set up Cody versus Gunther for Clash where is it? Clash and No, Italy. Clash in Italy. Mm-hmm. Um Yeah, so I mean that's again, I mean uh y Gunter's not old, but you take the point, right? It's old guy, new guy. Um, and some of the other fuse they're doing with the other belts there too. Same stuff. I think this is obviously a very concerted effort. But anyway, Trick versus Sammy. Yeah It didn't have the the the build and the hype and the first time seeing that well not the first time, but seeing them you know, on the big stage. Saying what trick you do. But dude, everything with freaking gingerbread man on SmackDown was just the best. The gingerbread man funeral and and Danhausen's multiple scenes on SmackDown were Pure cinema. I mean, I just loved it so much. And having and having the candy cane kendo sticks in this one, and like again, you said it before, Lil Yacht Th that we've ever seen. I'm trying to think. I mean, obviously Andy Kaufman was a w wrestler, but like if you wanna do strict celebrity crossovers, he'd be up there Who else is even up there? Who Cindy Lauper? Uh Yeah, Cindy Lauper for sure. Travis Scott for a couple hours. He does not he's not on the list. You know? Like it's He's killing it, man. Like I I I gotta hat off to him, Sammy and Shrek. Mr. T for sure, but like Yaddy's done He already has a WrestleMania moment and he has an all-time Smackdown moment. Already. You know what I mean? Like That whole Fans. Like Wrestling is inherently stupid. Like when you like break it all down, like it's inherently a stupid thing that we're all watching most of the time. Well When you could make it Very stupid. Oh, okay. W not stupid in the sense that like It insults your intelligence, but stupid in the sense that like is Like sometimes I just like stupid comedy. Like. It's like, yo, sometimes like as much as I love a training day or whatever, like sometimes I need to watch a dude where's my car also to balance that out. You know? Okay. Yes. Yeah. I wouldn't I wouldn't categorize this as a dude wears my car, but I take what you're saying. Yeah. But you get what I'm saying, right? Like not everything has to be so deathly serious. Not every fun not every funny thing has to be highbrow, whatever. Lean when you got something ridiculous and you lean into it. The way that Trick Sammy and Yaddy have. this gingerbread man thing and the entire Smackdown locker room for that matter. Yeah. With our truth and and Aldus and everybody. Like as an art director, I know how excited that WWE graphics department was when they're like, hey, can you just like somehow just photoshop uh Gingerbread man into every great moment in in WWF history. I don't think this is Photoshop. I think this is WWE's very public stating like thing with them like, yo, we're gonna be using AI for a lot of our creative. And I don't know if they've been using it to come up with ideas, but I know for damn sure they were using it for that montage when they were oh yeah, you know, putting gingerbread men and all that type of stuff. And I'm still not all the way knowing If I rock with it or not, you know what I mean? As far as like the AI and the creatives and all that type of stuff. What I'm not gonna sit here and act like I wasn't laughing my ass off watching it and enjoying it. Like I'm just like This is so fucking stupid. I just have one note for one note for what you're saying. First of all, you're right, wrestling is silly. The real talent that we're seeing. And Sammy Zayn is immensely talented in this direction, whatever. But s watching Trick do it is what's really impressive. Because he's so new. It's when you're able to engage in the dumbness of wrestling. But not lose any of your gravity. Yes. Right? Yes. Like There's a case to be made that like It wouldn't be a great look to have trick, you know, pinned by Minihausen, right? Danhausen stuff. As great as w wonderful as that stuff is, too, that's closer. So the lowbrow humor that you're talking about to me. It's the most brilliant kind because Dan House is just so well conceived. But I actually think that there's it's a there's a little bit of highbrow going with the gingerbread man, if only because They had a funeral. And they had the balls to be to have Sami Zayn be like, This is stupid against Sami Zayn's taking over for Kevin Owens is the only wrestler who watches wrestling. Mm-hmm. But just like with the best pro wrestling, you know it's not real. We all know it's not real. There's always a Sami Zayn out there saying, Why are we why are you watching this dumb stuff? But all you gotta do is just buy in a little bit. All it takes is Adam appears to be just like Uh, I understand what you're going, you know, what your your point, but a lot of people are going through a really hard time over here and they're just like really selling the funeral. And if if everybody's buying into the funeral, then it becomes as weird like Mental game. Right? It's like, Wait, is Sammy's thing wrong? Is Same saying Did Gingerbread Man exist and we just forgot about him? Is this like a Mandela effect thing? I don't know. I thought it was fantastic. I thought that both everybody involved came out looking great. This episode is brought to you by Borishead. What if we told you the taste of deep fried turkey is now available at your local deli? Well, Boarshead just did that. Bursting with flavor, perfectly seasoned, with that indulgent taste that usually means planting your whole day around it. Presenting. The Friar's Turkey Breast only from Boarshead. Backyard tradition now available behind the counter. Visit your local deli today. Discover the craftsmanship behind every bite. Boar's head. Committed to craft since Nineteen O five. This episode is brought to you by Nas Energy. Every ounce of dirt, sweat and gears, every checkered flag and trophy raised, every lap, every race, every hard fought place. They're all jammed inside every can of NASA energy. Performance energy for burning the midnight oil in the garage and pedal to the metal human horsepower. For the streets. Go ahead, crack open a can of Nas Energy and get after it. This episode is brought to you by Viore. When it comes to clothes that score high in both comfort and style, Viore is my MVP. Sunday performance joggers, oh yeah. They have the perfect, I could watch a game and then go out to dinner vibe. And the meta pant, that's my number one, I need to look like I tried option. Get twenty percent off your first purchase at Viore dot com slash Simmons. And discover the versatility. of Viore clothing exclusion supply, visit the website for full terms and conditions. And I'm interested to see where they go with Sammy from here. A lot of rumors A lot of rumors. But Sammy Zayn. Use this as an opportunity was one of the Perhaps very small, perhaps very long list of entrenched WW superstars who are a asked to take a pay cut. Do you want to get into the pay cut stuff here while we're at it? Oof. I have no proof that it was Amy Zayn. But Sami Zayn's name is floating around a lot. So after the new day got released, or or agreed on their release. Basically I guess W A B went to I don't know if you go through the whole roster how many people you'd really put in this position, but it but but the imp what they're insinuating, and who knows if it's true, is that it's just sort of this chunk of High profile veterans who've been around for ten years. Who because of Just sort of You know, salary creep. And probably the existence of AEW during one of those contract negotiation cycles. A lot of people were like suddenly making way more money than they realize, you know, than they were worth. Which is by the way dumb. That's exactly what a contract is, right? It's like if you can nego whate whatever you can negotiate on day one is the val is your value. Mm-hmm. Um But there was a bunch of you know, I I don't think it's hard to imagine there are a bunch of people and who knows who Sammy You know, whoever else, but like people in that mold who've been around for a decade who are probably making Well over a million dollars a year. And The vibe I got is that W W E is just trying to sort of institutionalize like seven hundred and fifty K as like the new normal salary for established superstars. Now I don't know if they're gonna throw 'em a bone and if they ha if they were going to, they probably wouldn't have done it yet, 'cause it is a negotiation. But like I don't know if they're gonna throw him a bone and be like But you can But make basically return to the bit the upside contracts, right? We're gonna cut your salary in half, but we're gonna give you X percentage more on merch so you could conceivably make it back if you're really open. Um or something. But but I I don't but who knows? Overall just a bad look. I mean 'cause it's all just it's all just a vanishingly small amount of money. For a company that's given out sixty million dollar salary, bonuses, whatever to the executives, you know, and like Making money hand over fist. Um I mean W W E should just go into these WrestleMania negotiations with all these cities and be like You know, we need one more cherry on top. We want you to cover the salaries of all the people we were about to cut. But they would still cut 'em and pocket the money. Anyway. What do you think? I mean, it's whack. It's it's whack as fuck, bro. Like I don't I can't sit here and pretend to know uh Why, you know, uh you asked uh some uh agreed upon talent with an agreed upon contract to uh take less money I don't know which company or which industry that would be okay anywhere. Uh but I could read context clues, right? And and my context clues tell me that like I look over at the UFC and they're not doing as well. And I look over at Uh you know. Bull riding and I'm like Can't be that popular. You know what I mean? Like uh the boxing thing is Doing all right, Zoofa. They just signed uh what's his name? They just added they had a big sign. Uh Shay Moseley's kid. Yeah Moseley Junior. But But uh uh but I s I I say all that to say like Maybe I'm too much in the weeds to sort of tell the difference, but I think I have a pretty good you know, uh a scope Uh other sports and other things going on. None of these things are doing as good as wrestling. Like none of these other things that TKO has is doing as good. as what WWE's doing, despite all like the shit it gets taken, right? Like despite all like the bad press and you know, the fan revolt and social media, like they always seem to prevail somehow. Especially around this time of the year where like they Pop out the chest about like the WrestleMania profits and the all time gates and all that type of stuff. And it's just like It's just a bad look. Overall. To talk about anybody taking less money to do anything. Like what you asked them to do. I've had a w I've been I've been I I've thought about that a lot. It's got it's either one of two things. One is that we're contextualizing this completely incorrectly. And while yes, it is a bad look. The people that are making this decision. actually think it's a good look because they can one show that they have record profits and two show that that doesn't mean they can't run a business well. They're still gonna trim the fat. That's the the best way to signal to the shareholders that, you know, everything's good and healthy is not just is is bo is th is doing those things back to back. Um the other thing I mean the only the only other option is that there's just they're just oblivious to it, which would be wild if Um 'Cause they're clearly doing it on purpose at this point. You know? They're not just they're not just releasing people the week after WrestleMania because like that's the way we've always done it. Yeah. You know what I mean? Um it's it's a deliberate move. It's crazy. It's absolute it's it's just bonkers. Now I guess in WWE's I don't know if it's is in their defense, it's still absolute horseshit. But I guess WWE's You know. They're not just they're not strictly strong arming people and saying, Cut your salary in half or I'll be upset. They're basically saying we're but we're we're firing a bunch of people today. Which they do have the contractual ability to do. They can say, We're tearing up your contract, you know? You have ninety days. So I guess that's something, but it's still just such bad form. Ba I mean, I just don't know how you could ever sign a contract. With W W E again and not And not factor in that you could get fired in a month. Like that's gotta be your number one consideration at this point, right? Santos Escobar lasted how many months? Since he signed his seven figure deal. I mean it it just The closest thing I could I could and this is probably like such an off comparison, but My comparison box is very small right now, but like I could only think of like the flippantness of how quickly a NFL career lasts. You know what I mean? Where like you could sign a multi million dollar contract. Uh If you didn't hit certain marks or it didn't feel like or or the team just doesn't feel like it, like they can still cut you. You know what I mean? Like it's it's Yeah, but it's always been terrible for him. It's been terrible for him for for the NFL. It's been terrible for Yeah, but at least when you're negotiating with an N F L team, you know you there's like two buckets. There's like the contract and the signing bonus. And you know the signing bonus unless you And then negotiating with one team. It's not the in you're not negotiating with the entire company. You know what I'm saying? Like it's it's one NFL franchise. Well the NFL does set the rookie pay scale, basically. I mean, just like every other sport. So there is a little bit of that. But you're but but you're absolutely right. Um Yeah, and I think wrestlers I mean I think that they're probably we probably will go to a signing bonus type structure. If I was one of these agents. And I know a couple of them. If I was an agent or a manager and the contract came up Next week for a big star, you better believe it'd be just like Okay, we can all agree on one million dollars a year, but I wanted in writing that half of that is guaranteed. Right. Like for for the length of the contract. So if we sign a five year deal and you fire me after six weeks, I still get two and a half. Right? I still get I still get half the money. Mm-hmm. You're not only losing money that was promised to you, but you're losing I mean a lot of these people are just losing huge chunks of their career. You know? Anyway. It's just really messed up. And I'm sh and maybe those and maybe some of those other releases that we were so shocked about. Aleister Black or whatever was one of those situations too. How do we not know how do we not know that's what they asked Oscar to do? They're like, Yeah, we're gonna do that. Okay, so the and then the Oscar thing is the Oscar thing we can roll right into that. It does seem like she was part of this round of Departures. And then they just put it off till put I mean they they were I I don't know if the decision was made that We didn't want two retirement matches at WrestleMania once it became clear that Brock Lesnar was gonna do it. Or if you know, they uh they just didn't I mean if they didn't want her rock to steal her thunder or they didn't want to do it in as like a five minute match. Nah, it can't be. It can't be because I know I know For a fact that like the New Day Maybe knew about nine days before It became public, like, it wasn't that long. It wasn't like Russell made it like planned out stuff. Like Oh, okay, you're right. You're right, you're right. I'm taking it for granted that Asuka like is actually moving. A a semi retirement, whatever. Yeah, yeah. I I uh to me it's like it maybe it's a little bit separate. Right? That Oscar but but maybe not. Maybe Oscar maybe you're right. Maybe I they asked Oscar to take a fifty percent cut and she's like, You know what? It's probably time for me to go do some other stuff in. Maybe. Let's have that big blow off match. And by the way, that match was beautiful. It was. I mean a thing of beauty. That match was better than anything at WrestleMania. No. I mean. Aside from the main event? You know, it's not like the match was Shakur Stevens. Shakur Stevenson, by the way is the match. Shakur Shakur Stevenson was the boxer I was just talking about. They just signed up the other day. Do you think there's ever a time where they're trying to sign Shakur Stevenson and that's a real contract negotiation 'cause they got all these other boxing companies that are bidding? And they need to go up another like ten million dollars or whatever? Or do you think that like our Emanuel ever just calls Nick Con? He's just like, Nick, we need to take this ten million dollars from WWE. Cut that many salaries. Like you think that it's They he I don't I don't want to think about. Um That match was absolutely amazing. Eosky versus Oscars. Everything eighteen minutes, everything you could have hoped it would be. If you would say it oh it should have been longer, okay, it could have been twenty four, but it would have been exactly the same. Yeah, like it would have been it would not it could not have been it would have been hard to imagine it being any better. So yeah, maybe Asuka's part of that too. Maybe Asuka's part of that. I mean, it would be awesome if they actually treated Asuka like a Like a part time man. Mm-hmm. Wouldn't that be great if Asuka's sole purpose was to come in like old NXT Asuka like twice a year and just scare the shit out of everybody and demolish? Yeah, for sure. I think she could definitely be like You know, uh who's the lady that was in NXT U K mig Mickey so so that uh Oh, Sadamura. I mean uh Miko uh Miko Sadamura, right? Yeah, yeah. Like I could definitely see you being one of these people that like She's she was one of the best wrestlers. She still is one of the best wrestlers in the world. Uh and was so good in NXT. She's like forty You're probably forty five. Uh-huh. But wrestling age and wrestling age don't really m line up in those things. Um that would be fantastic. But just have make her be an absolute monster. That would be great. Actually breaks out a Mura pack. That's just Oh my God. You know? Fantastic. Could be that. Could be that, but but I don't know. I know man, I really like the match. I thought the match was I thought the match was um was excellent, man. And it's like it's the first time we really got to see like Uh uh Like both versions of these women. completely unleashed, right? Like it was a period of time where like I would have sworn to you that Oscar was the best wrestler on the entire roster. Like that N X T run up until You know, uh her WrestleMania match with Charlotte. I was like, Yeah, like this she's the baddest bitch out there. And then Yo Sky sort of like took that same mantle as being like until now of being like yo. Power for pal, bell for bell, like Eoska's probably the baddest they got on the entire roster. And to see both versions of that. Get that blow off match that you know. Shows why they're both so good. Uh and with the added sort of like uns. I think there was some some some like Stuff floating around the timeline about her. Uh, I think Bailey tweeted some things, like they were starting to like see we start to see like tweets from other wrestlers about like Sort of already saying bye to Oscar like right before that, so It kind of felt like it had a elevated like gravity already and then the match went out and went crazy off on top of that. Yep. I thought they were amazing. They had the best match of the night and um Man, it'd be craft really semi-retired, like just like that. No. Yeah. I mien it's weird. In a world of John Cena retirement tours that they would have let A J and Asuka both retire like surprisingly. Um Maybe it wasn't that surprisingly though. Maybe they Yeah. They could have been part of these c we have no idea, basically. I don't I don't have any idea. But Yeah. I'm sure someone will text me about it later. By the way, the funniest the funniest and I'm a such a huge fan of his work. But in all of the um All of the various online stuff about the pay cuts. Mm-hmm. The best comment I saw was on a uh Squared Circle Reddit post by Oysters Casino. That's the username. Can I just read this to you real quick? Please. This is the first the first comment or the top voted comment and the headline it's the it's the uh observer piece. New details on W W wrestlers asked to take pay cuts. And here we go. You can get upset all you want that we aren't being given names in these reports, but I'd feel absolutely terrible if I took a million dollar pay cut to stay in WWE and my name was publicly released as a Fed shill just because I was trying to support my wife Maurice. That's not nice. That's not nice. He's one of the first people I thought of. Although he's probably got a whole I guess we could figure this out. I mean it's and be able to talk to, but he's probably he might already be on a new deal. This can't be overpaid though. Like He's the one guy that they sent to do literally everything. Like he can't be overpaid. He might be underpaid. Somebody said yeah, somebody said if there were another like crazy tragedy in wrestling, he's the guy you'd send to the Today Show tomorrow. You know? Like so yeah there's He's on Ryan Secret. Like I'm like they might he might be making enough money if we really get to to breaking it down, like Um It's true. It's true. You can make that case. Um, yeah, if that was the end for Asuka, it was a beautiful. Melzer was saying some stuff about she's just sort of unofficially retired, like it felt a lot like nobody really knows exactly what's going on, similar to Brock, although you can definitely see a world where If this You know, was a mutual decision where she goes back and wrestles some matches in Japan and maybe You know. has a rumble appearance or two in her future, but like for the most part is kinda winding it down. So good. Anyway, we skipped over Danhausen and Minniehausen versus the Miz and Kit Wilson. I thought it was comedy just Perfectly just perfectly staged. Um I thought it was just I mean, I didn't know who Danhausen was gonna b bring out. I really thought it was gonna be Jelly Roll, but like maybe Jelly Roll in Danhausen makeup or something. Uh Minihausen was just such a win. The only note I have is I hope we don't see Minihausen again. Right. The old WWE thinking would be like, Oh, Minihausen's over. Now Danhausen never exists without Minihausen. Right? And you gotta keep it just just like the dancing women at the debut or like the other mini housens that came out before. It's a fine line with Danhausen. I don't think I I just think I I think they are It's been a long time since you've had somebody where you d where you said most important thing. For this guy's development is to not overexpose him. You know, wrestling is just a business of overexposure. A dayhouse and it's like uh there might be a tipping point, you know, and there might there might be too much. Uh, there's always gonna be at some point. Right, yeah. There's always gonna be a tipping point. Like there's Everybody Everybody will have their moment where they're not as cool as they once was. So Let's just enjoy this and squeeze the life out of it until people start turning on it like they do everything in wrestling. If you were if you were starting a new wrestling company right now. And your number w your two choices for the number one pick. Or Danhausen and Roman Reigns. Who do you take? Take a Roman Reigns, Dave. Come on. What if Roman what if Roman Reigns is only working eight dates a year? And I have a very different show. I'm still probably taking Roman Reigns. Can I get some promos? Can he like send videos that like yo I'll be here. I wanna redo we gotta do I said we were gonna do a WrestleMania Main event draft uh last week, and i we've had a l a weird schedule, as as listeners can probably tell. We'll get back on that stuff, but I would love to redo just a draft. Straight up draft. Only to see how high Danhausen would go. How how high do you think Dan Housen would go in like a four person mock WWE talent draft? Is he a first round second rounder? Third rounder? How high who would go? Danhausen, if we did a four if we did a four person How high would Dan Housing be? Go pretty high. I mean, I don't know if I'd take him first overall, but I mean He's an integral part of the show now. I mean, what do you want to do? Like he sells the shit to the merch? Like He's mad mainstream, like he he uncursed the Knicks and they fucking turn into a juggernaut. So like now he's c getting this lore within like the Nick's fandom now? Like I I don't know if I take him first overall, but He's dead more into a wrestling show, but he taking it. It shocks me too. I'm just as confused as the rest of the cast. If you were lucky enough to get Roman Reigns in the first round. You think you would take Dan House in the second round? I might I might need to take a woman first. I might I might need to take like a Bianca Belair or somebody. Uh uh or or or Rhea Ripley at my second and then I'd probably go Denhouse and third. Yeah. No, too bad. He's off the board. Ben Cruz took him with the first round pick. Um Ben is rec b is our producer today and has asked not to bring him into the show. So he's very busy. So I'm just gonna talk about him and you know, try to force him to respond. So so far, to give you the quick rundown of everything that happened at Backlash. First match. I told you these are all old guy, new guy matches. First guy, new guy, Bron Breaker wins. Second match, new guy Trick Williams wins. Third third third match New guy Danhausen wins. Fourth match, new guy new ish, newer. person, you know, Sky wins. But the new guy streak would come to an end in the main event. Jake of Fatto. failing to dethrone Roman Reigns as a world heavyweight championship. It's a seventeen minute match, but felt longer, I think, than everything else, I think 'cause of just the literal weight. That every swing that every moment had. Um My type of main event, man. Like Roman Reigns is about to come out negative on it. I don't know I No. I mean Roman Reigns and Jacob 2 wrestle my favorite style of wrestling. Like a hybrid heavyweight cho style. Like that is my shit. Like Big dudes that could throw down and fly across that ring like some real athletes like That shit's incredible to watch today. Um And I tweeted it. Before But Even though the ro the World Heavyweight Championship was made in spite of Roman Reigns. It looks like that title was made for him. Yeah. When he walks out with that title on, like, Oh yeah, that's the world heavyweight champion. Like that's that's the dude That is the number one guy in this on this show. And um You know, the dudes just like he's just operates at a level that like we've never really seen before. You know what I mean? Like we've seen We've seen like glimpses of it with like top guys like your Hulk Hogan's and your rocks and stone calls to B Austin, but like I really do think As far as like WWE appointed John Cena, Randy, or in your guy type of guys. Roman has Just found a way to make everything he does matter. Like even as John Cena were top guys or whatever or Stone Cold or Roman like or or or Rock. Yeah like They've done a few things here and there that didn't. really matter in the whole grand scheme of things. Like it was entertaining, right? Like Stone Cold doing the the you know, the ukulele with the guitar and stuff and Cina had a little things like where The tiny cowboy hat. Yeah, just wasn't that interesting. Like Everything this dude, Roman Reigns, does is interesting. And Jacob Hattoo was already somebody who had like a ton of like Everything you hear about him is like, yeah, like when you see him have like the city certified, like Uh uh wrestling merch. You know what I mean? You immediately be like, Oh yeah, they have huge plans for this guy And like this is One of those huge plans. So huge, it's like you go up against Roman Reigns and you leave First, like you leave on your feet. Like you leave the champion laying even though you lost. And um Roman didn't win, he escaped, which is like as good a thing you can do for somebody who you can't necessarily put the championship on the right this second. Because Y you know, y y you only got Roman Reigns for only a couple of months in the summertime, you know what I mean? So Uh Yeah, it was a great thing. Did he use the Yet I mean on purpose there? Was that a Yeah, I didn't even notice if I did that or no. Uh Yeah. the the localized shirts is a good point. I'm trying to be concerned that that Jacob is getting Too streamlined? When he runs off his three catchphrasing in a row at the end of his promos, it sounds a little bit like Oh, I like that though. I like that. It's not bad, but it reminds me of old NWO promos where everybody would just line up and say their say their their their you know catchphrases. The the the wall works. He knows the business works. Oh, I do have one I do have one note about Jacob Fatto, not specifically, but it's actually from SmackDown, not the thing. He came out in SmackDown Uh, with a WrestleMania beanie on. Like a WrestleMania Las Vegas beanie, which looked great. Like he's the only guy that can wear Goonie, like, you know. Just like generic wrestling gear and still make it look cool. But with all the promo the pre promo shit they're doing for SummerSlam already and like WrestleMania next year, like they're clearly clearly motivated to get those tickets sold for SummerSlam in Minneapolis, right? Why don't they make gear? Why don't they make Promo gear. For those events. Wouldn't it make more sense if Jacob Fatu was wearing a beanie that said I'll see you in Minneapolis? You know, just like Like seriously, wouldn't you wouldn't it be like a better look, just like a SummerSlam twenty twenty six and you're like, Shit, how can I get that? And then you're thinking about SummerSlam as opposed to Jacob Fatto, yeah, he's a pro athlete. He should be getting free clothes, but they shouldn't be leftover clothes. They should be like the next big thing clothes. Anyway, may maybe I'm overthinking. Yeah, you're giving them good uh merch ideas, which Yeah what happens. I it's okay. Those those arrates are so farmed out, who knows? Anyway. Reigns versus Fatu. Again, that was not mentioned specifically as a WrestleMania match, but maybe it should have been, 'cause Jesus that match was good. Um Jacob Fatto is the only new guy to lose at Backlash. But rank the new guys in terms of what they got out of Backlash, not in terms of how over they are. How much better they look than when they start than when they walked in on Saturday. Ron Breaker. T. Danhausen, Eosky, who's about as high as you can get. And Jacob Fatto. Who do you think U gained the most? On Saturday night. They trick Williams, man. Like I think Jacob Fatto We all know he could be a world heavyweight champion. We all know they're probably gonna run it back again. So I I wanna reserve how I feel about Jake Fatu after this feud until after Uh, you know, he's done with Roman. Um Eoska's the best wrestler on the on the roster and she showed it again. Like I don't think there's much to gain from there. Uh But trick? I think uh Maybe I'm overthinking it. But I kinda feel like there's this overarching sort of like thought but within like wrestling fans that we're like waiting to to see like a bad Trick Williams match. Like we're all sitting there waiting for him to have that match where we're like, Ah, see, he's not necessarily right there. Because the everything else is so He's knocked out the park so crazy. Like, I said it when he was like, I don't think he's a bad wrestler when he was called up. I was like, I just don't know that he's a good wrestler. I don't think we've seen it. We've seen that. You're not bad, what are you? No, no, I'm just saying I don't know. Like I don't know the I didn't I don't know the answer yet. Like I feel like he may I feel like it's feasible that you could jump into a ring and have a four star match with your dragon off. Like what have we actually seen from Trick to let us know that? Well now we know. I mean now he's he's he's he's doing the job every single time. W we can't just sit there and be like Well, anybody could have a great match with Sami Zayn. It's like, No, we've seen some People have bad some bad matches with Sammy Zayn. You know what I'm saying? Talking to you, Kevin Owens. I'm just kidding. We've seen 'em. And um I think people keep waiting for the other shoe to drop w with Trick Williams and it hasn't. And every time he goes out there Like he looks more and more like a guy that's Biding us time. In a good way. Like he looks more and more like a guy like where it's like this is the mandatory mid card feud you're supposed to have before like you're really the main event of the show. Like It'll be interesting to see who like how long it takes him to get to the actual main event. I think they'll put the I don't think it's gonna take that long. I don't think it's gonna take that long. Go look at the banners on on Twitter. Who will have the fur who will have the You know those are the banners on on the Ron Smackdown Twitters for Netflix and uh You say? Roman Reigns for Raw? Trick Williams for SmackDown. Not Cody Rhodes. Not Ripley. Drake Williams. So I think he's probably the guy I was most impressed with this this uh this this weekend. Because you know, he keeps leveling his game up. Lil Yadi thing has elevated him as well. They've both sort of elevated each other. in a way like Trick is sort of gave Trick is sort of giving the audience like wrestling street credit. And Yachty has given Trick like This element to him that is just like supremely entertaining. And I I who knows if Lillian just stayed if he's just here from now on, but like If he's staying here for quite some time, like Yo, you gotta run Trick versus Cody for the WWE championship like this year. Like you have to at least Give him a shot at the world title, you know what I mean? Or at the WWE championship. Um, because You also don't want to cool off his momentum. You know what I mean? You also don't wanna cool off like The whoop that trick chance and and the and the and the importance of the entrances. But He don't gotta win it. But like he needs to who do you think is gonna have a tight. He made a vent at the go home to this show. No, you're right. And it's an all time segment. So it's like You know, that's why I'm impressed with him the most. I think people keep expecting Him to sort of like everything that you said, but I still think I still think that Jacob earned more on Saturday night. I just think that traditional bloodline Roman Reigns match kind of w follows the same pattern. So it's not surprising to say he looks strong in defeat. Most of Roman Reigns big time opponents Have come close to winning. Save for interference, you know. Um But he looked but Jacob looked really strong. M C. Um Yeah, it was just a very good look for him. Uh and and I thought You never knew how they were gonna put him over in that match. You never knew what Roman's gonna have time for. You don't know if Jacob Fattu is gonna wilt under the pressure. Man, that guy has got. More ability to shine in a high pressure situations, high leverage situations than just about anybody I can Um It's all gas no brakes, as they say. I I think he just came out. Looking fantastic. Uh but I don't disagree with you about tricks. He'd be a finalist in the Caz Beef Classic. For sure. Who's gonna win who's gonna who who will have a world title match first? Frick Williams or Oba Femi. Oh Uh. Feel like it's gonna be over, right? Like I I don't I don't think they're gonna organically make organic pivot Oba Femi to like an intercontinental championship match or something like that. But that's the thing. But here's the thing though is that you've gotta kinda protect Oba. You're not gonna put 'em one on one with it with champ again. Um Because you gotta figure out the finish. Mm-hmm. I mean it or or or Cody Rhodes or whoever and it would be fine. Right. Oba's kinda g got a win or g disqualified or Or lose, I mean that's part of the story. But anyway. It's it's interesting to think about 'cause you're right. Both those Folks are closer than we think. Yeah. Um especially with guys just leaving left and right. Like these are your main inventors. These are the guys that They've already kinda had a r a WrestleMania under the belt to prove that they are Folks worth investing into. So like they're only gonna get more and more important as the days go on. Is that all for the backlash stuff? Is there any other backlash news? What do you think what do you think Jacob Fattou does from here? Who do you think Roman Reigns' next opponent is? Assuming they don't run it back. I don't they're gonna run it back, but like what is next? What like what do you where do you even go from here? Because Jacobatu's not gonna win the title. I agree with you. Mm-hmm. Who do you want to see Roman Reigns wrestle next? Or think of it this way, who's Roman Reigns Summer Slam opponent? Is it is it Oba Femi? I still think it's over for me. I I you know. I still think it's all Buffamy. Um But I there's always like We're almost at the summer of trying shit, Dave. And you know, what do you got to say? How much are you gonna try when you have to set up SummerSlam? I mean that's like SummerSlam is as big as big a deal as WrestleMania now. Maybe it maybe it's even a bigger push, 'cause you know they saw those things. Are they gonna have like a tournament? They gotta have like a tournament soon, right? For For like these title matches, these crown jewel tournaments or King of the Ring or something like that Oh I thought John Cena classic. No, no, no, no, not that. I'm pretty sure they're gonna uh did they announce King of the Rings this year? I don't know. I don't know. Uh I I could Let me check. I don't think the person the next person that like I don't think the next person that like challenges Roman Reigns for the world title is gonna be somebody who just like calls him out. I think like it's gotta be like somebody who earns it. It's gotta be like a tournament winner. Or like a number one contender, battle royal winner or something like that. You know what I mean? Like Or see on Punk. They could they can run it back with Punk again if if he if he comes back. But um Yeah, Knight of Champions. Um on June twenty seventh. In Saudi Arabia. That will have the King of the Ring tournament. Oh, there you go. Is it possible? I mean, seriously. Is there any way Oba Fimi, the ruler Oba Fimi, does not win the King of the Ring tournament? Beats me though. It almost seems like a formality. What odds would I have to give you on on the on the field for you to take the field? The only way I take the field. And I and they'll never do it be because this is something I've always like, you know, uh I alwa I'm always I'm always pitching for one versus sixteen sixteen versus one upsets. Like that's what I'm always pitching. Unless Javon Evans is like your sixteenth seed and like barely like steals A first round win against Oba Femi. Like that's the only way I'd do it. And then like You know, you have a Oba Femi Javon Evan sort of feud going into SummerSlam instead of whatever. But he is called the ruler. And we all know he's gonna be main eventing SummerSlam. Like he's gonna win this freaking thing. I can hear him saying, You denied me a patrone and just like You know, instead of being the fun loving like, huh, I'm coming to kill you guy, it becomes like, huh. I'm going to kill you. Guy, you know? That's a great one. Um Yeah. You think about the is the streamers thing interesting? WW shutting down Reaction streamers. Um Oh. The fact that they use them constantly in their broadcasting to like show what a big moment feels like and now they're cutting it off. I don't know who who's some of the bigger streamers. I don't know all the details. But it does feel a little bit like WWE. Sometimes does these These uh Copyright checks, like broad copyright checks when they're trying to prove Um Or when they're trying to sell a right. Mm-hmm. We can prove we can just totally eliminate the streaming. So now we can just like I they're you know, obviously they're doing some streaming stuff. I don't even know the details with this Club WWE. They're also saying they're gonna be breaking news through Club WWE. Yeah. Which is kinda gross and I'm I the no just the name Club WWB just gives me weird a weird shot up my spine. Uh and I don't know why. But but uh but yeah, so m I think that there's I I can't quite get the whole picture here, but it feels like they're just trying to bring these streaming operators in house. Like they were when they're trying to take money you know, like like Twit money from their wrestlers. I feel like they're gonna try to find some way to put them on a WWE a club WWE platform. And if you do it here you can you can take all the Take all the clips that you want. If you do it elsewhere it will strike will you know. Yeah, I think that's my best guess too. Like it it kinda feels like I you know, oh I've had Meetings with like Lee Fitting. Like years years. prior, you know, uh when I was doing stuff for the for the shows and whatnot. And I just remember him being like very strong about like wanting to own every piece of W W media like in house, you know what I mean? And I can almost see a way where like they use Club WWE as like sort of like their own version of their social media where like they just do everything through there and then like eventually like sell it to some other, you know tech giant or something like that, where, you know, they they do all of their like reaction videos in there, they break the news in there. Like if they could like if they could own like all media rights to their stuff, like they would include social media in that as well. So um Uh uh. It definitely sucks because, you know, there's definitely people out there who Um who who know how to uh who who've made a living doing that and um you know, uh get to travel and then live great lives. I know a lot of those guys, so I know it sucks to Have that um Following built up and Seemingly you have the legs cut up on uh up out of you. Um And you know. Corporate greed will be the will be the uh the end of us all anyway, you know what I'm saying? So like it just sucks on all ends. But I understand what they're trying to do. Like I understand that they're trying to like, you know. really own every single piece of WWE media out there. Like they're just the they're it's it's It's like some world domination shit, just as far as like the media is concerned. And we've seen You know, certain leagues sort of try this. for a while. Like I think like major league baseball really tried it. at some point and I don't know how well that's done. Um, the NBA is a lot more loose with their You know, reaction, you know, video communities. Like we've seen lots of people become like a very special case and maybe W W is closer to the NBA in terms of how that stuff works. Um But it's not really a top dog position what the NBA does. I think it's a very it's a brilliant decision for the NBA to be like, We're getting we're growing and we're expanding because of this attention. But generally with every sport it's a give and take, which is me which i it's a timeline of give and a timeline, you know, and and take. Where they'll let you do it for a while and they'll take it all back. And they'll let you do it again when they need it, when they need you, and then they'll take it all back. It's something to keep an eye on for sure. Um, I don't know exactly what's going on. Uh not sure if you saw Collision, Fairway to Hell on Saturday, because there's a rescue event. Huh? That looked great. Yeah. Um Darby Allen wrestled again. This time against Park and a Falls Count Anywhere match that w had a absolutely sickeningly awesome fall. Darby quickly becoming my favorite AEW champion. Uh Jack Perry lost the um Uh National championship to Mark Davis. Perfect spot for Mark Davis. the totally blanchard belt or whatever, but um Interesting thing about the about Jungle Jack Perry. He's a Yeah, nobody's really talking about. I was wondering I will say this, talking to some people over WrestleMania weekend, I was wondering why he still had that title. Uh, because I believe he is a free agent window coming up shortly. Oh, maybe this is a sign of that. You breaking news over here, then breaking news? I think so. I think it's been reported, but it is true. It's not been reported. What do you think? Jungle Jack Perry? WWE? Is he an N X T star? Oh man. Oh. I don't know. Listen. I I I think if I think he goes right to the main roster, honestly. Like No I don't think he does the next day. Yeah, like Jack Farry's in the hand. How do you get he's is he a smackdown are they gonna start doing the They must have he must have apologized to Punk by now. Or like mended fences. I'm not saying apologies, like it's all his fault. I don't know. I don't wanna assume. I don't know anything about it. A free agency kinda loses its luster if you, you know, are basically banned from going to one of the two places because of Uh but I don't know, man. Like I I think I think that's been such a long time ago. Like If Jack Perry was a free agent and if Jack Perry did have interest in WWE Wouldn't you not want to run punk and Jackberry in WWE television? Like how would you not? Like how do you how do you how do you let him toil away on the NXT without the thing. I mean I hate I hate to be that old the old guy although you're the although you're you're the the chairman of the The meat classic. The beef no the beef classic, sorry. Beef the Caz beef classic. Also, yeah, available your local Wendy's or whatever, but the but yes. Um I hate to be like a beef classic guy. But yeah, if you sign Jack Perry you I hate to be this guy. You gotta send him to Florida and just see if he can a he can put on like twenty five pounds of muscle. Or a fat. I don't care. 'Cause he's like one John Cena recuperation tour recovery tour away from being like a You know, top guy. But he's just looks a little slight. No. Anyway. I mean Dan Helsin's pretty slight and as Dan Nelson's not trying to be a world wrestler though, he's a comedy. True. I don't know. I just know I feel like I feel like Jack Perry's size will will help him at this point. Like I think he could take some. Maybe maybe maybe you're right. I think it'd just be crazy to Not try. Not everybody, you know, uh I'm all I'm all for wrestling in all shapes and sizes, man. But Perry's not a high I mean Perry can do all the the high flying stuff, but that's not central to his character. The reason why Perry works in the AW is 'cause there's a lot of similarly built dudes in the AW like Jungle Jack Perry. You know what I'm saying? I think him being that size. With that famous last name and that story. And that's what I'm thinking he's gonna love it. Swear to God, all the all the people signing checks in WWE had to be like nine or two and oh fans back in the day. And Punk gets to work big. He gets to work big if he gets to work against Jack Perry. Like he gets to be like This hulking dude over someone. You know what I mean? Who doesn't I don't know. I don't I'm maybe I'm overthinking it, but if you're right, if he is. Uh uh impending free agent. He's one of those dudes he's You have to run that stuff in the W W Listen, a lot of this is conjecture, but he definitely fits the bill. of some of the other A d A W to W W E crossovers that we've seen in terms of like kinda think he'd just be a bigger star in WWE. I think he fits what they do a little bit. But we'll see. Mm. We've got to be able to use the the Beverly Hillsana 210 music? Like then it. Oh they should. If they just lean all the way in something. Yeah. Oh yeah, they would a hundred percent get it. If they did it r if they did the real the Jim Johnston like metal metal version. Maybe. If to if Tapenga if Topga and McCullough Culkin get Road Warrior pops every time they're on WW television. The N210 music gets a Road Warrior pop if Jack Purry comes out to it. There's like Tiffany Amber Than Walk to the Ring. Like who's the Everybody's still alive from that show except for Luke Perry. Except for Screech. No. You're talking about oh yeah. She was on she was on nine two and oh too. She was on nine two and oh also? Coming up later on. Later on, yeah. Yeah, I must a I must I must have lost it by the Oh man, that was a huge moment when she turned up on that show. Anyway, that's like going to WCW and WWE. That's like Speaking of uh of of uh world champion Darby Allen, he's challenged M J F to a title match. MJF wanted the rematch and he said only in and and he said uh Darby said he would only do it if MJF put his hair on the line. Which is just the greatest thing I've ever. MJF's a hundred percent getting a shaven head, right? Well, okay, this is the t uh we gotta go into Tony Khan Annals of putting crazy stipulations on the line and then not having it matter, but MJF feels like the kind of guy who would love to shave his head. Maybe I'm crazy. Maybe he has a movie role coming up as a bald guy, but that's gonna be freaking great. Um It's a big big era for Lucha de Puestas matches or whatever category this falls into. Mm uh what else? Is that it? Did I forget anything? Um There has to be more stuff. Oh I got I got just a just a note based on absolutely nothing. Okay, what's the note? You watch T and A lately? Have it. No, me neither. I mean I watched yeah I have but I like I don't have much to say about it. There's not a lot to remark upon. There's a lot of good wrestlers that are doing their best stuff. Mm. But here's a pitch. Tell me if this is good. I don't know if it's a good pitch. I'm still working out the kinks. What if you just signed Alistair Black? And sign Carry and Cross. Maybe for the fuck of it you sign Bo Dallas, too. And just completely no, and just completely change the show. into A Lucha Underground style, like spooky wrestling show. Ha ha ha. It's all just like Kevin Sullivan presents and it the whole show it's doesn't it's not like It's not like freaking hosted by Dracula. I'm just saying the whole thing has that sort of sheen that Luncha Underground did where it's like this is An an extra degree or move from reality. We're all just buying into this thing together and it's more like spooky stipulations and And cinematic shit. Would you would you be more interested in T and A if they were doing something like that? Of course I would be more interested in T and A if they did stuff like that. I've I I actually think they're bringing back Lucha Underground, if I'm not mistaken. But to show yeah, T and A is not. They are Lucha Underground seems to be coming back. Not just the ML. Why was I don't think And this is no disrespect to Alistair Black. I don't know if I trust Him enough. To completely change around my show. Well, I'm not saying he's necessarily your time I'm not saying you fire the guys you have. I mean you say everybody oh you're big star your big stars, you know whatever. Your moose's your Leon Slaters are still there. It's just like a slightly different sh you know level of darkness surrounding them. You know what I mean? I feel like you could do it. Because there was never a point in Luge Underground where you're like, that's corny. Yeah, kill people in real life? Mm-hmm. Like a boot. That's what I'm saying, like in Lucha Underground look when like people died like on the show. Not for real, but he could be a little bit restricted from having people die and I mean Lucha Lucha's a little bit the Lucha world's a little bit different because you can always bring back the same dude in a red mask instead of a green mask and be like, It's his twin brother you know, like whatever. I love that. Cool. But uh it's a little bit tougher when it's like Yeah, we're writing this guy off the show, but he might want to come back in two years, so we can't kill him. Well maybe you can soap. Yeah, kill him. What the hell is a soap opera. Just kill him. Exactly. Kill him. Um need to do more killings in r in pro wrestling. I know they can't because you know. For reasons. But If we could just lean into the absurdity of like what the T V show is and like how people die as T V characters and they could come back as something different. Why not? True. Why not? Makes it fun for everyone. Uh one more no one more thought about the John Cena classic. What if the John Cena classic is already going on? It's like the NBA Cup where it just sort of sh happens on the fucking margins. And then all of a sudden at the end of it, they're like, By the way. Uh Braun Breaker is the winner of the John Cena Classic. It's been happening this whole time. What do you think? John Cena Classic is more like the friends we met along the way than the No, okay, never, never. Hell no. Oh, Triple Mania. Triple Mania, a two night event. September It's funny, they said it's a two night event and then they announced it being three night well, I guess it's No, it's the two nights. It's just not back to back nights. Friday Sunday. Okay. Yeah. Are you going to Mexico City? Hell yeah. Yeah. Can we cover can we go cover triple mania? I don't know if the Undertaker's cooking over there, but every time I see a clip on YouTube or huge Spanish language Audience it's by the way. Man, let's go. Can we just learn Spanish? If we if we can if we both learn Spanish by by when is it? September? September September eleventh, never forget. If we if we both if we both learn Spanish. Wow. If we both learn Spanish by September eleventh, can we go to Mexico? That should be Not that we need to know Spanish, just as like to show that we're that we're really serious about it. Yeah, it's it's Mexico City. I could do that. No, I'm down, bro. I like Every single uh uh uh Click that comes on my timeline from Triple A looks like the most fun wrestling TV there is. I'm like Whatever the Undertaker's doing down there. Except for what Dan Except for anything involving Danhausen or the gingerbread man. Well I loved it. Uh? I love that. You can be No, I'm saying those are the only things that th those are the parts that are better than Triple A. But like Triple you're saying Triple A is like the best wrestling. And I've really been enjoying the new spooky T and A wrestling. Oh wait, that's one in my head. Yeah, no, I that would be s it would be so much fun. We sh maybe we should maybe we should do it. I'm down, bro. So we road trip it? Like we were talking about road tripping to mania, just like rent a van and drive down to T J, keep going. Well that's not a far drive from California, though. Now we could start in LA. Like start like we'll fly to LA and then like rent pick up the ringer wrestling van. I'm down for that. Should it be an ambulance sense of an ambulance max thing? Anyway, we'll figure this. We'll figure out the details. No, that sounds like fun though. But it is I've been wanting to go watch wrestling in Mexico for a uh I did one time. Or like oh yeah, you have. I'm like the only person I know that hasn't done it. Right. wanna go again. But like not in no triple mania type of thing. Like that's Yeah. I gotta start I gotta start checking off these like wrestling like You know, bucket lists. Like places I gotta go watch some wrestling at. Triple Mania is definitely one of those. Oh yeah. Um Yeah. Yeah, I'll do like a wrestling road trip one year. I think it'd be fun. Anyway, let's do it. Uh we gotta get out of here. Do you wanna get your plugs in before we go? Yes, sir. You can catch me on hot ninety seven every Monday through Friday, six a.m. to ten a. Mornings with Merrill. Oh myself, me and Belle Shani Culture. DJ Cast one. Um new episode of seven PM in Brooklyn is out right now with Play Plaque Boy Max. I was I always call them Playboy Max, but it's Pla Boy Max. Plaque Boy Max? Plaque Boy Max. I'm not gonna act like I should understand all this stuff, but what is a plaque boy? Playboy Max is a very popular streamer and artist. Like he he has incredible, you know, Twitch streams, but like he'll Like create songs like with, you know. Who is the streamer we're we were sitting next to at at Raw? Was that somebody I should recognize? Uh Lou Young. Lou Young was there. Uh gosh, I'm trying to think who was Gina Views. Um Man. Yeah, I think about I think I think Lou Young was the Yeah, Lou is a good guy. No, we're ha I mean, I was just I you just gotta let me know If I'm ever like my kids might run across. Like if it's like that level of fame. Yeah, yeah, no for sure. We had we had little. By the way, we totally got short changed on that Javon Evans leap. He they did not show us for shit. Right. Well, I think it was during the the the commercial break. No, they showed him jump, but it was like kind of like off to the side. Like it was it was like the wide shot. Yeah, bro, they definitely they definitely clowned us, but I wasn't Javard's fault though. He tried to get us that love. That was fantastic. All right, well thanks to our producer, uh Ben Cruz, producer and executive producer, two producers and one. Bin Cruz, thank you Kaz. Thank you all for listening. I still don't have anything to say here. really gotta come up with a line. getting desperate. It's not gonna be a Danhausen line. It's gotta be something with some character. Anyway, we'll see you back here later this week, you help us with a closing line. Hey you. What you doing? Scrolling. Doom scrolling. Looking at other people's vacations. Miami, San Diego, Cancun.