Post WWE Career Predictions

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Services not available in all areas. Old open question of the week, Kaz. What's up, shoes? Congratulations to you. And to uh Mr. Danhausen, he uncursed the New York Knicks and they went on to Win their NBA playoff series. Um they're in the Eastern Conference Finals now, right? No, Eastern Conference semi finals now? Eastern Conference semis, yes. Here's my question. If all of sports misery were secretly the result of a Danhausen curse, Who would you like to see Mr. Danhausen uncurs next? Mm. The New York Jets. Seem like the most Very magnanimous answer. Yeah, like I didn't really believe in curses until I watched like I become an adult Jets fan. Like it is A comedy of just Horrible decision, not the horrible decision. They had a really good draft, apparently. But we're still waiting for our quarterback to come in. You got genus in his back. What are you complaining about? It's the Jets version of the Cena retirement tour. I like Gino, all right. Gino was kinda like the perfect sort of bridge quarterback. For the next but it it it will just be it feels like sometimes the New York Jets play a different sport than the rest of the league. You know what I mean? It feels like They're so bad. What do you think they did to Danhausen? You know, I feel like maybe one time Uh is that housing from Jer is he from Jersey? Where's he from? Is he is he local? In Chicago now. I don't know. Oh, in Chicago, right, right, right, right, right. Well, you know, Chicago. Chicago and New York have always had a As he says. That little thing will be shown as a majority. Oh wow. Yeah, that's a real Midwest boy right there. Um Nah, I think the Jets definitely need A little bit of uh Danhousen love. And it's not just you gotta remember, it's not just the curse. Curse and then cursing. opponent and all their enemies. So That's what really turned it around. Sorry, Atlanta. Money talks. That was I mean, it looked like they were cursed, the Atlanta Hawks. They were playing like they had been like actually like pro wrestling cursed. It was a game that was so bad, it didn't seem real to me. Like it was never it was a squash match. Yeah, like I yeah, that's what that's what it was. Like I've never thought why does the NBA hate the hate the Hawks so much, man? Yeah. Like that was unbelievable basketball. It was so good. I was almost like So we have not blown them out by sixty, so we can stay sharp and like all these other teams are playing game sevens. Don't still game. It's like maybe we should have one by like twenty or thirty, so they can still say stop. They've been sitting for like the past You know, they play they didn't play the whole last like quarter and a half. a lot of time to sit. And how isn't she do a gambling segment for WWE? Wouldn't that be who do they remember? DraftKings or fancy? That'll go so left so so quickly. That'll go left so quickly, bro. Oh yeah. If every game he had to pick, like on like the NFL season, he was just like him either. Today the Jets are the Jets the the Patriots will win, the Jets are cursed and that that's it. It'll yeah. Yeah. Um yeah, probably don't mix pro wrestling and serious gambling too much. We don't need to mess around. Anyway. We know it's a new air of WWE because the curse especially didn't work on the on on the uh the home court. You know, we're not just making our favorites lose 'cause they're playing at home. Finn should have booked W uh the N W N BA. That would have been that would have been something. Anyway, we got a lot to talk about. There are a lot of cuts this week. Let's start the show. Making sure that. Welcome to the Mask Man Joe with Caz. How you doing, buddy? Doing good, shoes. How about yourself, man? Doing good. Brian H. Waters is here with us as well. Um I had uh actually a lot of notes from collision and Smackdown that I wanna discuss, but of course the biggest news since the last time we spoke. was that there are more Well, I don't know, release is I guess very loosely defined, but more wrestlers leaving WWE. Mm-hmm. Um Most notably was of course the new day, or that being Woods and and Kofi. Who it was, I guess, reported that they had mutually decided to part ways. With the company. Um Sort of the uh sort of the R Truth release of twenty twenty six. Like they're not really released, but then they ava uh you know agreed to part terms and Everybody's just sort of in their feelings about it. Um I don't know, man. Pretty crazy. Pretty crazy. What was your first reaction when you heard the new day were leaving WWE? Um I was definitely shocked. Uh Even though Even though you could kind of Uh, see the writing on the wall? I mean it feels like Everybody who have been doing nothing but um Off air. to the live crowd uh promos. uh for the past like several months have either been released or uh left the company or something like that. So it it's it's happened. But you would think that And I text it this I texted this exact text to Big E, like what right when it happened. I'm like Over a decade plus, and it ends with a Sean Ross sap notification. Seems kind of fucked up to me. You know what I mean? Seems kind of fucked up. Um At the same time. Aside from the way it ended, you could never take away the run that they had. You can't take away everything that they met to Not just wrestling fans, but specifically black wrestling fans and um And to me personally, I mean, like I said this on the post, uh, you know. the new day like changed my life in so many ways that they'll never know. And it it goes back to even like my first My days working at the Source magazine, I was at the Source, the first person I ever got to interview. about uh pro wrestling and sneakers was Kofi Kingston. And um for years, you know what I'm saying, like because of the power of social media and Twitter, Biggy and myself became really good friends. And we had the same sort of uh uh musical taste and Well got along great over like Little Brother and and Fontaine Records and Obviously Wale records and all this type of stuff and Woods. You know Woods has been One of those guys who The minute I I started, you know, working at WWE. immediately became like one of the best people to to have in your corner to sort of like be your homeboy. You know, throughout the road. So You know, on top of just watching as a fan, just seeing like Three black talents that aren't thugs or menacing or a militant or you know, not that there's anything wrong with that, but like it was something different. It was something that we had never seen before. And it was wildly And I mean wildly successful. Like I don't know how long people have been listening to this show. But um To really encapsulate how big a deal Big E Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston were. Uh WWE I'm Willing to bet, outside of like the John Cena's of the world, they were the highest selling merch. For a number of years. Water's got his New Day shirt on. I used to wear New Day shirts when I used to do M T V. A lot as a as a show of respect, you know I'm saying. I got my bootyos, I got all that type of stuff. And then you know. And I had the lucky opportunity to you know, work with them for over a year almost exclusively. Um It was like really a life changing experience because like I went in there and I already had like an established relationship with all of them. And The new day was already the new day. Like they were already cooking with gas. Like they were already like on fire. And it almost felt like I got to you know, come on this crazy ride with them on this like Nuts. sort of uh uh uh uh life that they were already living. You know what I mean? Um Being said, man, like You know, I'll I always remember like, you know, my first Like my first live uh you know production that I did with WWE. Um, you know, after weeks of sort of like trailing people and, you know, learning on the job. Sure. The week after they beat uh Luke Harper and Eric Rowan for the tag team titles, and I think it was the fifth they won the tag team titles. And I finally got uh my name on the production sheet, like solo. It was like this is your segment. And I was like, oh, you know what I mean? Like the first time I saw that. I was so hyped 'cause it was them. And it was Booker T. And me. You know I mean? And I'm just like and and I'm just like this is this this couldn't be any better. Um They made working with them so easy. Because And to to what they said, you know, about me, like it got me getting to work with them made life easier for them too because I would remember before I got there or even moments before I I like officially like started to work with them on a on a on a long term basis. There's so much mental uh equity used to put to matches together. And then there's even more mental equity use. To do some funny entertaining shit, right? Like they they take just as much time. planning the match out as they would like you know, cutting the promo or having like the pop culture reference or having something that is like of the moment right now that they could work into the promo that could be fun or entertaining or any of that type of stuff. So Being able to sort of like take that. that load off of them for a while pause. And make them, you know, I'm saying just focus on the match and be like, Oh, I'll be the guy that like You know. Gets you that stuff. So it just hits every time you're out there. Um it was it was a fun relationship. It was a great relationship. They made life on the road. So much easier. And funder. uh than it had any right to be, especially given the time we was over there. Like I mean, you got to think about it. It's always funny, like I always look at these um Man. If you think twenty twenty six is bad, you need to go and look back at twenty nineteen. I was like, that's right around the time I left. So it's like it's always It always that time always could look at a little bit negatively online, but like I got to work with the new day during most of that time, right? Like whatever was bad. New Day was awesome. You know what I'm saying? Like you know it was right in the beginning of Kofi Mania and I just I'll I'm never I'll never forget. One of my first times just being on the road with them was just us always talking about like gonna get Kofi that match. Gonna get Kofi that title. We're gonna get Kofi that title. And we would say things and promos I don't even think people still picked up on until this day. We would say things even like before Kofi Mania. That would be like Kofi's the guy. Like it would be nice if this is Kofi's moment once in the walk for once. You know what I'm saying? Like, you know, he would always say these things that would like sort of go off track of the promo. And we'd be like believe you Kofi talking like just just go back and watch those twenty eighteen promos leading up to Uh, the New Year's Day promo on twenty nineteen that led up to be made it. Like all that stuff. was specifically Even though this isn't in the promo in the in the sheet or whatever, like The goal is to get Kofi main event ready. That was Woods' goal. That was E's goal. Everybody's gone. So wait, are you taking credit for Kofi Mania right now? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Oh but you were like the writer Up until up until literally up until two weeks after Elimination Chamber. Uh, I was uh that's that's when my time at WWE ended. So You know. Founding is going great for Kofi until you left. Words in my mouth. Uh follow that up to like, you know. I'm out of there two weeks after elimination chamber. Uh, when Kofi puts on his master performance, uh, you know, in that joint. And uh gets that real momentum. But you know, while A Mania's starting to happen now, right? Like and it was like, man, like I had just been on the road with all these guys, you know, it would it you know, it would mean a lot if we could sort of do this thing. Court Barrow was kinda handling it at one point. This is the first time I was like, listen. I know I've been helping out, but like let me take the reins on this. Like this the this is an opportunity for a moment here. And I'll never forget, man, like all the people that we invited, all the people that we uh, you know You gotta think, man. Like that was probably even though we've had bigger Wally Mania since then, like that was always gonna be my favorite one because it's the last time I got to see Shad. from Crime Time was the last time I got to see um, you know, Luke Harper, Brody Lee. Um Uh. And Was Such an authentic night because Guest of Other was Booker T. Like we were there to honor him. You know I'm saying. And we all knew the weekend was really about Kofi. And nobody knew Kofi was showing up. Nobody knew the new day was gonna show up. And when they did went from a party to a pep rally. So whereas I was like, there's no way they're not belting this dude at Russell Bay. Cause for a while, we still didn't really know. I didn't know. You know I mean, like Kofi didn't really know unless he was he could have been faving me the whole time. But you know, w it still felt like we needed to wouldn't lose and and mind you, Booker T being in the room was so like It w it was such a prophetic moment because the last time we had a black man wrestling for the world title They had Triple A. They didn't go out. They didn't go the way it did. So there was that. There was that hinge of doubt. floating in the air throughout the entire week. It's like man, if they do copa like they did Booker T, so I'll know if I could Support this anymore. Legitimate conversations like that. So Man, God bless those guys. They made sure I had a front row seat. At at Mania, you know I mean, I put that picture that I took. them on uh with Kofi on uh Woods and E's shoulders right after he beat Danny Bryan for the title. And um it's it's it's a moment in a period of time. I'll never forget because outside of them being just like Icons and legends and, you know, first ballot hall of famers, like they're Hall of Fame people. And We know a lot of people in the wrestling industry, like most people are pretty solid folks. And I'm saying there' there's your assholes here and there. By and large, most wrestling people when you get to know them outside of their, you know Uh working facilities. Uh, they're pretty solid people. Woods E and Cove are like Great guys in the midst of great guys. You know what I'm saying? Like, it is unbelievable that Uh they were let go. Yeah. And um Yeah, it's it's still it's still sort of unbelievable. that it happened that way without a proper sort of uh send off, especially given everything that they've they've given. D you think when you texted Biggy About Sean Ross Sapp's tweet, Big E got a for a second was like, Oh shit, did I get fired? Ha ha ha. Nah, um.. You know, they they had known this was coming down the pipe. For a minute. N no, not that much of a minute. I would say maybe a week or two, I would say. Um what do you think the plan is? I mean, everybody's already fantasy booking them and the machine guns. By the way, the a a couple of the M F T's got let go too. I don't wanna sweep that under the rug, but uh as we're branching out, I wanna mention that. Uh Go Tangaloa, man. Man. Uh and J C Mateo, a K H Cobb. Who Well you seem to be going through the motions in W W, which is a tough spot for J for Jeff Cobb, man. Tough spot for Um But you know, he's had his minute in AW two, probably back in Japan. Anyway, the point I was trying to make is People are already fantasy booking the New Day and the Machine Guns and AEW for just the most insane tag division in the history of mankind. Um, what do you think? W uh based on your Feelings in your Secret text messages. What do you what do you what can you imagine that Woods and Kofi are gonna do next? I have a good idea what they're gonna do next. Um Not gonna say it here. Out of respect for them. This is why you have your sunglasses on so no one can read your eyes? Nah, I'm not going to you just w wave your hand if I get it right, okay? Will there be I mean they have to go to they have to have AEW in the plans. Right. I mean if you have a plan that's longer than that's bigger than like You know, a sticky note. They there's gonna be a world tour. Of some sort. Although I really don't know where you go, but Japan. He got to soft ground or something, really just make it make do the big scene. Mm-hmm. Social media hits. I mean I mean, I've told this story a million times on this podcast, but I remember that one time early in our interviewing in person days, we interviewed Woods. And I was chatting with him before or after the thing and I was like he had just had Like literally like a four star match on Raw against Matt Riddle. And I was just like, Where did that come from? It's not like I don't think you're a good wrestler, but you just you just like pulled out Totally different ring style. Like, why don't you do that every week? And he was like, Because I care about my body. I was like, Oh okay, I understand that. Um But we know it Woods has got it in him. You know, uh, and Kofi obviously does too. So like here's the thing with woods. Woods is like And we've said this and and he has said this many times. Xavier Woods Is In the twentieth century of WWE. And I'm not trying to be hyperbolic by saying this. One of the most consequentially important wrestlers that that company has ever hired. Go for it. Strictly off the fact of up up down that. Up up, down, down, like Spiraled. WWE into the digital age and the streaming and the gaming and all that type of stuff. And to Woods's brilliance, he held on to that IP for as long as he could. Um I'm I'm not sure how I'm not sure if he still owns it. I'm pretty sure he still owns it. What He has gen the the amount of money that Woods himself has generated for WWE through up, up, down, down. And through the new day? Mm-hmm. Quantify it. Uh uh accurate. You know what I'm saying? Like it's it's almost like an incalculable number how much. how much revenue he's probably brought to that company. You know, and this isn't even talking about what he does in the ring. You know? Like He's so smart. And he's He's almost like the Black Miz in a way, right? Like where it's like He don't gotta wrestle his value is being a face of Of so many things, and so many opportunities. outside of the ring and so much recognizability outside of the ring. that maybe WWE didn't value initially. Until they were like Wait a minute, you're making how much doing this? You're doing what doing this? You know? Mm-hmm. And So I think that's the more interesting thing with with with wood. Creed. Whatever we're gonna call 'em going forward. Yeah. Low key. I mean, maybe not low key. The fact that he's even branded I know Austin Creed. The fact that he's gotten WWE to promote Austin Creed, the fact that he's, you know, skated by with that as his like, you know, social media handle for so long is great work by him. Um if your name was if your ring name was Xavier Woods, but let's say his real name was like Shawn Michael Hickinbott bottom, or something you didn't want to use, what do you think his AEW name would be? Same for same goes for Kofi. Consequences create, though. I'd go back to consequences creative file, so not for nothing. Um It's gonna be interesting, man. Like I think Kofi could still go by Kofi. He may not be Kofi Kingston anymore. He might be Yeah, it could just be Kofi and Woods, uh could be just Kofi and Woods, a Kofi and Creed or or something like that, you know? Can they just do the exact same Copin bad Copin' Cage T shirt where they have Were they have something one of them crossed out and it's just like Kofi and Crete is on there. That would be great. Maybe, maybe. Uh, but um nah man, like, you know. The new day is is to me again. And I'm I'm I might be a little bit biased. But I think they're the greatest stable in WWE history. Like As far as When you're talking about it. Have we had this debate before? I don't know what it I would I would I would I mean you say stable, obviously like Whatever however you define it. Name 'em. Name the stables that are. No, I'm I'm gonna agree with you. However you define this in the context of the new day, it kind of eliminates Like you could say the Heenan family or you know, something like that, but it was never like a steady lineup. It was just whoever Bobby Heenan was managing, basically. Mm-hmm So it whatever their w I mean I It's hard to compare the two, but like it's unnecessary. Like whatever the new day is, they're one of one, it seems like. That's a fact. Um unless you wanted to go With the sh with the shield and just have like the runoff of it, you know, like the singles careers or something like that. But You could. You could. But yeah, no, the New Day seems to I mean, certainly they stay stay together for so long. Playoffs are here, and you can predict the action all the way to the finals with FanDuel Predict. Follow all the playoff dishes, swishes, wishes, and misses. Predict the spread, the total points, and even the game winner. Sign up for FanDuel Predict and predict from the couch. Offered by FanDuel Prediction Markets LLC, a registered futures commission merchant. 18 Plus, trading derivatives involve significant risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Manage your activity with our consumer protection tools. This episode is brought to you by Nas Energy. Every ounce of dirt, sweating 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. Let's talk about Peironi's disease, or PD. It's not widely talked about. And some men may feel reluctant to bring it up. But it's more common than you'd think. PD can happen when scar tissue builds up under the skin of the penis, causing a curve with a bump during an erection that for some men may lead to pain during intimacy and impact mental health. A trusted urology specialist can help diagnose PD and walk you through your options, including non-surgical treatment. Visit talkaboutpd.com. But here's the real question about the new As much as we complain and we always complain on this show, that's our job. Was the New Day heel turn the biggest dropped ball in the history of WWE? Y as far as momentum is concerned, this gotta be up there. It's gotta be up there. But at the same time. Consequences around it. Leaves a lot to be desired, man. Like at the end of the day he's he's not wrestling. He's not getting back in the ring, man. But doesn't even matter. Like it like that was people said that a lot and I get it. I mean that's a traditional wrestling setup for him to come back and do something, but The more profound thing was that just like they had they had more heat than Anybody that I can remember in that moment. And we were saying, Well is it who are they gonna is they gonna is it time for the Woods singles run? Like how are we gonna capitalize off of this? And it they didn't even capitalize I mean, they could have at a bare minimum just like run Russ Shot over the tag division for six months or something, you know, but like they didn't even do that. They just got you know Like Woods got to wear funny hats. Like that was the biggest difference. Yeah, like Yeah Uh just a it was just a huge missed opportunity. I will say this though, like It does kinda speak to where WWE probably views tag team wrestling right now, because if you just look at these these roster cuts, I mean the the tag team division that they had uh a several months ago when they were main eventing every single smackdown and yeah probably had the match of the year with TLC. You know I'm saying like I think Correct me if I'm wrong. They got side of the street profits. All of them are gone. Like machine guns are gone. Champa's gone. Uh the Wide Six are gone. Mm uh I think Woods and Kofi was in that match, but Um Yeah, like it's it's It's a little bit damning. And um I don't know, man. I I don't wanna I don't wanna be too too Here's my thing. Oh, and I wanna make this clear before before we even continue, 'cause usually when we do these releases, you know I'm saying, or we do these episodes where we break down cuts or break down people who Aren't the company anymore. Uh, they sound very doom and gloom and they sound like, man, it sucks, oh yeah, they gotta run an A W da da da. Kofi or Woods. Seem like I you know, there's always those old here's a here's another game changer coming to AW. I'm not gonna go that far. I'm not gonna say that. Kofi and Woods seem like the two guys Yeah. Well equipped. To succeed outside of WWE. More than A lot of people. Mike. Austin Creed, Xavier Woods. is a star outside of this world. You know what I mean? Like outside of this world. He is an absolute star. In the gaming world, the Twitch streaming, all that type of stuff. And let me tell you something, you don't need me to tell you. how lucrative that world is, especially when you don't gotta share it with the big bad corporations. And Kofi Kingston. Is arguably The greatest black wrestling superstar in WWE history. Like he is like he's he's done everything. He's had mania moments. He's won world titles. He's had Hole highlights. dedicated to him because of the Royal Rumble, money in the bank. Ladder matches helped redefine ladder match like he is Do that. If you go back from What is it? The ruthless aggression era on? Yeah. Hard pressed to find anybody who's more accomplished than Kofi. Has any been has anybody been continuously employed as long as Kofi has? There must be somebody. I know the Miz is up there. I know Cena's up there. I know Randy's up there. The scene is gone. Yeah. Randy took some breaks, but I guess nothing official. Um Michael Cole. Yeah. Yeah, he is um even he is a wrestler, so he fits any criteria. Um Well, yeah, I mean listen, maybe you can't argue with Covey's greatness. Um We talked about the releases a little bit last week too. Another one of the most uh notable black wrestlers of all time, Alistair Black. Uh was released last week. And Um He had a lot of people scratching their heads. And for no other reason, and we talked about this, you know, with Kyrie Saints' release too, is it like these were almost the WrestleMania players, right? Like it's It's but those aren't exactly those are missed opportunities. But there does seem to be this bigger tr I mean, I'm thinking about the New Days uh heel turn and there does seem to be this bigger trend of I mean, cause Kyrie and and Alistair and and Zelina I mean that could've just been cost savings, right? Certainly letting You know, two of the MFT go. Is it it's M F T, right? It's not you don't put an S on the end, Brian? Mm. Okay, good. Two of the MFT go. I mean, that's just like straight up cost savings. You know, if you don't need them to have a specific war games match in November, then You know? Like, do you really need four dudes where like You w i w where two will do. I mean you have your giant and you have, you know Tomatonga there to take a pin if you keep them together. And obviously they have some interest in him spinning off into a single, which is A great move for it. Uh, but it is pretty shocking. Um I mean it was yeah, I mean I you kind of that in some ways felt it kind of felt like shocking to the core of W W E because it's like there's some people you Just kind of expect to be employed in just sort of a you know, we're medium level forever. Um You know, who knows if the freaking girl is destiny came over had enough sway in that moment to get a no cut deal or whatever. I'm surprised we can talk about that more broadly. I know that somebody reported there are b you know a few no cut deals in WWE and obviously the agents ask for 'em every time and WWE says no. Um But it just seems like a wild way to do business. Wait, let me t before we get to the wild way to do business. Is this am I crazy to say like You know, sometimes they'll say the best creative comes from booking yourself into a corner. But it does seem like there's like time after time in the past couple years where I don't know if WWE deliberately booked themselves in a corner, but it does seem to be part of their rhythm that they get themselves in these situations where They're booking for a moment and don't really know what's coming after. And you can you can draw a lot of those lines to these releases, right? I mean The Cena Heel Turn was one of them. Didn't involve a release, but that was a huge moment, right? There's m there's gotta be more that I'm forgetting, but the New Day Heel Turn. Probably for number one there. The debut of the why at six. You know, they had their debut moment beautifully scre you know, scoped out and then Could the plan have possibly been a little bit more? Based on how they use them. We've voiced some various plans and concepts on here. Um I mean think back last year to like truth when the truth got cut, then he made his comeback and got on the table and shaved his head and They they did nothing with it. Yeah. Which is a little bit more understandable because that was clear seat of the pants booking, right? It was like shit, we had to rehire it. What are we gonna do? Um It's just very strange. I mean, Fantas even with Fantasma. I don't know why I'm calling him that, because he's probably gonna be Fantasma soon, but you Santos Escobar. Alvarez is I don't know if it was this conspiracy theory or just like what it feels like to him. It's almost like They offered him, you know, a seven figure check to come back when there was that But he was suddenly a free agent and you know, whatever. And then they just they don't ever put him on do they put him on T V one time on in America or do they put 'em on zero times? Anyway, they had him working in Mexico, which He did it on Triple A once, I want to say. Yeah. I mean he worked in Triple A, but it's like That could have been the spot for him. And there's certainly a case you can make that like it's worth a million dollar investment to get this superstar El Hijo del Del Fantasma back down in Mexico and And uh You know, we'll still use 'em on on American TV occasionally and blah blah blah. But not even that. So the anyway, the Alvarez conspiracy theory is basically like If he had left and showed up in C M L L and AE W or wherever It would have felt like WWE lost Santos Escobar. But if you resign him and then cut him two months later. You're be out barely any money but now he's gonna seem like a retread when he shows up elsewhere. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And it's a really weird way to do business. Not for WWE, I guess, in so much as it's working for them to some extent. But like I don't know, I guess it hit me in a different way this year. I mean in some of these releases, 'cause it's like it's one thing to be like Okay, you were eight years into a ten year contract. And you get, you know, three months basically of severance, so you know, of warning before you get cut off. And you've made a bunch of money and like whatever, it's like, you know. I don't I'm not one of those you should have saved your money guys, but it's like you know, you you You lived high on the hog for a while. You know? And now you get a chance to reinvent yourself. But when you look at some of these that are so kind of so abrupt and so out of nowhere, it's sort of like Is there anything prohibiting WWE from signing? I mean, let's say Kenny Omega was a free agent. He's not. But if they just say, Kenny, come on over, we'll give you fifty million dollars. And we'll put you in the main event at WrestleMania. And then he comes over and they're just like, uh hold on, we don't have creative setup yet. We're gonna put you you're gonna debut in a month. We're gonna debut in two months. You're debut in three months. Okay, we got it all set out. And then like he comes out and They like never use him, or they just like completely squash him. They bury him whatever way that they can in his debut. And they're like, LOL, you're cut. Go back to AEW, you nerd. And he and he and instead of fifty million. Did they pay me the fifty million? No, because it's a g be g uh no, because if it's not a guarante if it's not a no cut deal, it's not a guaranteed thing. This is what I'm saying. Why isn't WWE why don't they just offer every I mean, it theoretically they could uh offer everybody astronomical sums. And then cut them all five minutes later and be like, Just kidding. We didn't like the look of his medicals or like whatever a pro team would say, you know? Like it's it's kinda w like I get Why W A V doesn't want to offer no cut contracts when they don't have to. Although you better believe Roman Reigns and Cm Punk and That's what that's all about. Wait, so you're not There's a famous documentary. There's a famous documentary uh made by Uh our boss called It's All About the You. All right. If we had unions. None of this shit would happen. The new day just signed a multi year deal last year. Mm-hmm. Just signed a five year deal last year. According to reports, TKO is like, ah we're doing these TKO style contracts. We wanna restructure. Well here's the we haven't even talked about this. This is the sort of bigger question. There are reports that are asking multiple people to restructure deals? Wha wha what is the news here? Like is there anything is the report. The report is well to answer your first question. Do do you think WW is doing this on purpose? I'm over giving WWE the benefit of the doubt of of being too smart for us us. Us you know. Average Joe fans over here. Like I've been around these mofos long enough to know sometimes shit just happens and they just gotta roll with the punches and make it work. Right. So Um I've I've heard stories where People have had storylines for the next several months. And they get the call from up top, like, yeah. We're letting that guy go. You know, letting that girl go. Like it happens. So to to answer your question, no, I don't think this is Them doing this on purpose. But um when it comes to Having contracts. that are being asked to be restructured. Doesn't anybody who's who's ever covered the NFL. Uh I think this this this comes up a little bit more than it does in the other big sports. MBA got carr guarantee contracts. Baseball, you got guarantee contracts. Um, you know, uh but the NFL is the only major league where like We can restructure your shit if you play good or don't play. Like If you play terribly. We can restructure you so we don't have to pay you as much or probably just cut you. And if you play great. Well hope you stay with the contract, but it's a reason why I see so many people sit out or w hold out or You know, when their market is is re you know re um reestablished because of how they play. And some other guy gets paid, you know. more than market value, like and you are the market value. That's when you see those contracts not necessarily be You know, uh guarantee. That's where you see a lot of changes there. But with in the case of the WWE and TKO and specifically how it affects like UFC and Zoof Boxing and like all this type of stuff. It makes you wonder, it's like, yo, are they trying to get wrestlers on these types? It's like the UFC and they don't have other options. Yes. Wrestlers got options, my guy. Well they no no no, they s they they certainly do, but but I guess the WWE case would probably be they don't have any option like WWE. Same with UFC. You can go make a living as an MA fighter outside of UFC. Mm-hmm. Um As a matter of fact, if you're one of the one or two or three best uh in the world and you're outside of the UFC, you can probably make a pretty l good great living for yourself just, you know, running around and You know? cutting anti UFC promos and working everywhere else. You know what I mean? Um But you can never be You know, Brock Lesnar, Randy Couture. You know. Yeah, there's so but the John Jones, there's so like you can't just reach that level of sort of institutional fame. without UFC. Or it's very, very difficult. And I think WWE, I mean, I I don't know, I don't know that I agree. But it does seem like with these cuts, pretty ballsy cuts. That they are Defiantly not worried. about the competition. Yeah. I guess there's a little bit to that there, but you know, in in conversations that I've had with folks uh before Um And I don't even know how accurate it is anymore. I'm sure things have changed since then. Well, conversations I've had with people in WWE higher ups before is that like They don't mind that AEW exists because in the perfect world they would love to keep all the talent. But they can't afford to. And they're kinda happy that like For example, a guy like Ricochet who WWE Love. is very happy to let them go to AEW. And get the money that they want. And then hopefully when that contract runs out, they can be like, Hey. Got your money. Wanna come back or hell. Oh, sure. We talked about that last time. There there's definitely a piece of that in it for for I mean, you got to imagine if you're triple H or whoever on the creative side. You definitely gotta see that. It's like Man, we just can't crack this nut and we don't have the time to go at it again. You know, like let's like the best case scenario. Is that everybody leaves on good terms? Hug on the way out the door and then we'll see you again in three years or whatever. You know, like let's see what it see what happens. Um And especially with the way that these uh the w the the workload. I mean, I know if you're not in WWE you're probably working a bunch of indie shows, depending on what your sort of You know? road map is working a lot of indie shows, doing a lot of traveling, doing all that stuff. Um, in addition to working in AEW, if that's what you do. But maybe not. If all you're doing is working in AEW, we saw it with Alistair Black slash Malachi Black, the first time in Rusev. When they were over there, you actually don't put a lot of wear and tear on your body being gone for a few years. You know? I mean if you're just working A E W and By that I mean not even working AW that much. Um Yeah, I mean I I think I think this will be a very telling set of releases and Kind of potential hires by AEW and how they kinda get received into the outside WWE world, it's really gonna be something to watch. But the restructuring I don't get like what it like going back to what you were saying. I mean I understand they have the power to be like, Cut your contract in half or we're cutting you. Uh yeah, when you when you hear restructuring, it's never to give you more money. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it is. Stone Gold restructure his deal at one point, but yeah, it's more of like the Brett Bret Hart. Well, usually it's it's that when you are Have outperformed your contract. And you're basically like, Yo, I ain't showing up unless y'all give me my worth. Like y'all sign me for the mid level exception. Clearly a max player. Pay me like one. I'll take my ass home. And usually that happens. Yeah, and in the Vince McMahon, I'm sure we wouldn't see this anymore. I'm trying to remember the specific story, but the Vince McMahon era, you know, it was As much as he's credited for bringing contracts into pro wrestling, and that's true. Um He also, you know, it was like we was given up pay per view bonuses based on what? Like whatever formula he had in his head. I don't think anybody's successfully established w how he made those decisions. But guys put a lot of change in their pocket. It was I think it was Stone Cold or whatever that went to him at some point right during the rise and he was like, dude I'm not seeing the reflection of this popularity in my pocketbook. And I think they renegotiated, like it they tore up the merch percentage and he gave him the and he g and Vince just gave him the best, you know, the The super duper star percentage or whatever on the spot. Um And that's an interesting one for me. It's like if you're gonna offer, and again, we don't have any details about what these renegotiations look like. But if they're restructuring deals seems to me that WWE should just I mean maybe should just go to more of an upside based formula. I know they've gone away from that in recent years because of the competition with AEW. You got to give a straight dollar amount. But if you're talking about renegotiating, like at a bare minimum be like Listen, we can't pay you the million dollars a year that we promised you, or we don't want to pay you that. but we want to give you the ability to make $2 million a year. You know, like we're lower lower the base, lower the downside, the five hundred, but give him the you know, give 'em the uh a higher upside because Philosophically, that's what WWE wants, right? They want people selling shirts. They want people who can like, you know, who are cashing in every left and right. They want people to make themselves into stars. Yeah, the word I got from the releases and uh just TKOs. Uh M O Uh-huh. If it don't make dollars, it don't make sense. They really are all about the bottom line right now. And if that's why WWE feels like cold steel, feels like corporate straight up. Just This is a businessy business business. That's the reason. Can I ask you Can I ask you a really Just elementary question. Yes. So The Wyatt Six were part of the releases that we discussed last week. Is it safe to say Having spent some good time in the superstore. W W world Wrestling is here. Do should we just is it safe to say that nobody's buying those white six masks anymore? think so. I don't think people are buying those wives. Like if it was like the if it was like the what's her name doll? The Abigail doll. Sister Abigail or Abbey, right? That's the one that that uh that uh What's her name Carries around or used to Alexa Bliss. Like they were selling that in the store, it seemed like in great numbers for years. Like when I when Alexa was off the road and Bray was no was not on TV, or that he subsequently passed away. Um But that's a that's a that was a toy, or that was a you know, a merch item that had a larger life than the actual on screen use. I'm guessing that nobody's buying Mercy the Buzzards just to bring home to their kids this year. But now we have more options. We have do we have more wrestle buddies. We have more we have Danhousen shit. You know, there's more stuff to buy for kids. You don't need to go scrounging for the uh Uh, you know, the scary chicken mask or whatever. I mean. Yeah, I mean uh WWE's always gonna have Shit to buy from them. Right. Like they're always gonna have they're always gonna have some shit to sell you. Sure, but if the Uncle Hattie Mask was like the number one thing in on the WWE shop, uh he he'd probably still be employed. Maybe. Probably. Um Well that's that's to say this, like if if Danhausen goes cold in like a year, like are they gonna let him go? Are they gonna be like, yeah, no need for you here? Like it could it be like I don't know. It's When you hear that, like Who's his partner gonna be, by the way? Cos. Is there somebody obvious, Brian? Is there an obvious Mystery partner that I'm just not Watching? No not that I know of, I could think of. Unless it's like Jelly roll. I mean there's not like any there's not an obvious thing going on there. Okay, just making sure. Is it gonna be Cena? 'Cause he's gonna be at the P L E. He's already been announced. No, he's not doing it for sure. Um But it is Yeah, I can't wait. Maybe they could just bring back like Great Kali and and Danhous and face paint or something. Wha what would be the right I don't know. Well I'm not gonna make I'm not gonna try to tell Dan Housen what the correct thing for the character and the funniest thing are going to be. He's he's too good at his job. Who has Tampa ties. I guess in Tampa Well every wrestler every wrestler in the history of the world has lived in Tampa at some point. That's the thing. Um Oh, speaking of all these contract negotiations, no one knows that this has anything to do with the restructuring, but as they're discussing all these renegotiated deals, they announced that Roman Reigns is not gonna be on June TV previously announced. You think there's a connection there, or is it as Meltzer, I believe, reported that it's just uh he's got some You know, he I think he's decided he's not working the Saudi show. And so he's just now working the TVs leading up to it. Uh I know the details behind that. All I'm at liberty to say is um the rumors of Roman leaving and like this all being tied into this couldn't be further from the truth. That isn't that is not true. Okay. Uh, but yeah, I think that's I think that's all I'm l at liberty to say. But this didn't come as a reaction to a contract renegotiation request or a reaction to other people getting cut. It came uh as a result of, let's just say bad communication. That's it. Uh but um Roman is uh I will say he won't be a knight of champions. Is it weird that he won't be a knight at Night of Champions? No. Um from the not just because the name of the show is Knight of Champions and your champion won't be there. It's also the anniversary of that title. Yeah. Also the anniversary of that title. There's that too. Um. Brian Sweaters is not like wrestling autistic, but he has a very He has a very special corner of his brain for a very specific sort of fact that I don't know how to I don't I don't know Dave First off, You're not just gonna you're not just gonna breeze into that comment, like it was it? Like it was a wild to say. I said he's not. I mean I all wrestling fans have a have a talking. I'm about to say like Really? I got sunglasses all indoors. Like we all got a little bit of a but Waters is the only I mean listen, I'm terrible with dates, I'm terrible with names, like I'm terrible with everything. I'm like a thematic I have a thematic memory. I got I got five names, I'm not sure. But no, but there but there's some people who will just be like And Brian does this too to his credit, but there's some people who's just like You're like, where was WrestleMania fifteen again? And they'll give you the city, the date, the you know, the entire match rundown, who won, who lost. You know, they know it all. And Brian that does have a memory of that stuff, but the stuff that bursts out without any control is you'll just be like Like, uh dude, I was watching Survivor Series Two last night and you'll be like, That's the only time Vince McMahon wore a blue tie. You know? It's just like, Wait, what? Like How'd you even know that? Yeah. No one's ever said that before or thought that before. You know, like it's The th it's incredible. Um so thank you, Brian. Thank you for being you. Do you have any Brutus beefcake facts for us this week? Ah man, uh something so we can use the the B corner. Yeah I got you. I got you. Um Okay, so given of all the people who were released. By the way, we' let's talk smack down a little bit because there's a nice there's a neat segue here which is God, I thought it was weird that Uh Tala Tonga was the only MFT who was out there with with solo on Friday. Um, and then it turned out immediately afterward that there was a very good reason for that, which is Two of the other brethren have been let go. But there was another big moment on Smackdown. Ricky Saints made his Smackdown debut. And went one on one with the great one, that being Cody Rhodes. Um First of all, the this was a packed show. Them the the the structure of it I couldn't quite figure out. Why w if you were booking this show, Kaz, would you put Cody versus Ricky Saints in the middle of the show and then have the Gunther surprise Cody attack. Which you could which you could close on? Or would you Or would you put that at the end instead of the MFTs versus Jimmy and Jay Uso? There's no way to answer that without pissing off a highly specific segment of The internet wrestling community. Um I would never put my world champion in the middle of the show. Unless there was somebody at the top of the show or at the end of the show, that's more important. When I went to go see Hul Gogan wrestle At the Louisville Gardens in eighty whatever that was. eighty. Something? I guess they should have just started the show like that. No, they it was Hogan versus Killer Khan was the middle match. It was before intermission. Mm and as a kid, we were I was just like, Why did he not go last? My dad was like, Maybe you had to catch a plane. I think I asked him and Yeah, sometimes some folks got it got a dip, you know I mean, like so I get that. 'Cause he sometimes had to work two shows in a day, you know, like whatever, you know. I think I said it at the time, but one of our listeners found the actual like newspaper listing ad for this wrestling show. It was like a dollar a seed. When if you bought your way into the fa the the the Kentucky State Fair. You know, it's like such a great rest deal. Um W W E should Oh God. There's just so much going on. The house show thing, the injury thing, the It's just weird. And and I guess, you know, there's this big moralistic side to the whole cuts thing, which we I'm I know we were on SmackDown, which we didn't really get into. We got into more last year where it's like I mean, it's just so ruthless to announce your record profits every year the day before that you announce all these cuts. You know, it's just like every single year. It's like, Look at all the money we made off WrestleMania. Look how many people were there. It's like, and we're firing it. Um Especially firing people w who I mean, just based on a dollar figure, right? I mean, it's just like the office is just like Triple H, find twenty million dollars of savings, you know? Um And I think it would feel different too if it felt like this some any of these cuts were the direct result of a down WrestleMania, 'cause then we could sit here talking about how it's not fans' fault or whatever that it was a down WrestleMania. Uh, but that but it just seems like so self evident that like they're just cutting people ruthlessly every year based on some imaginary or you know, some made up dollar figure. Not imaginary. I'm sure there's a correlation. P and L. Um But you're right, I mean there's never been a better time to be outside of WWE? You know? There's never been a better time to kind of reimagine yourself. I was thinking about it yesterday. I was like, dude, if I was a wrestler and I got cut I mean unless AEW came beaten down my door. I'd probably take some time off and figure out what else I wanted to do with my life. Because you know what? I realized. I don't have that. I'm not gonna wake up I'm not gonna wake up tomorrow and be like, if I'm not a WWE wrestler, I'm gonna wrestle in this high school gym. You know, I'd just be like Um here's the thing, if you're the new day, you don't need to do that. If you're Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods, you do not need to do that. The next place to show up. They should be. The New Day should forget A W. The New Day should just go on a high school gym barn barnstorming tour across the country. How great would that be if they just did a Like WWE's not doing house shows anymore. We're just gonna run a like a touring show for four months. Wouldn't that be awesome? Isn't that what the world needs? More hell shows? Like they're good like like you replace house shows with like a touring wrestler show. What b what would the show consist of? Are they gonna wrestle or they're just gonna do like bits? Yes. It's a wrestling show. Oh, so it's a house show. Yeah. Well I'm just saying but the company but the company is only built on house shows, right? So it's like you're not it's not like a there's not a distinction to call it a house show. Then it's a handy. Oh no No I know but no they should take they should be in charge of it. Maybe how shop This is it. We'll start this company. We'll call it House Show Wrestling. And we'll just we'll just employ all the recently cut major like semi major stars and major stars and just do Just do a You know, just take a trip across the south east. Just book a bunch of and Seriously, book high school gymnasiums just to make it feel old fashioned. I guess if they have like Cool civic centers where you can still smoke inside that have a really you know, that are like lit really interestingly. Yes, we'll do that too. Okay, you in? Are we doing house show wrestling, Kaz? No. Because eventually We gotta be on TV. You gotta get more people to watch. This is I'm telling you we'll get a TV deal, we'll be secretive about it. I'm telling didn't we have this conversation before? This is like when Drake was not signed to a major label, but that he just kept coasting off being fake, like secretly signed for like two years. It's right, when he first got out. We call it house show wrestling. We'll ne we say we're never doing TV. And meanwhile, the hype for our future TV show grows and grows and grows. Alright, I still got some work to do on this pitch. Yeah, we gotta work the kinks out on that one, man. I'm like uh really you're describing house shows, they who look I know, it's a house show company, that's the whole point. But W I'm not doing it anymore. Yeah. Like you wanna go and do G C W? But he seems doing better so far in Smackdown. Ricky Saints after one week or J C Jane after two? I mean it's gotta be J C Jane. Like J C Jane won, Ricky Saints lost. And Love me some Ricky Saints. crowd reaction to them. Not definitely gonna definitely Mm, mmm. What were they in uh uh Tulsa, Oklahoma? Mm-hmm. Yeah, were they? I love I love the box on there. No, they were down in Texas. Weren't they in South Texas for Smackdown? Tulsa for Tulsa. I think they're in Tulsa, Oklahoma, yeah, 'cause I I love Tosa, Oklahoma 'cause that they're they're in the box center, the B. OK Center. Oh yeah. And it's one of my favorite venues. 'Cause they got those those photo booths back there and they got uh Backstadi is to have a a full fledged like Ron Burgundy like tribute. Um Oh because he was supposed to be from there. Okay. Yeah, yeah so uh I love I love going to that every But I was a little bit more. Especially like kicking off the show. Like I was a little uh surprised by that. Um and He did the thing that they did with Carmelo Hayes, where they just kind of threw him right in front of Cody Rhodes and it's like yep. Somebody needs to go bump for Cody since he's back right now and No better person than star pupils, you know? Uh, but J C J, I mean, goddamn you beat Charlotte Flair no matter how you do it. Uh and you beat up like half the roster the the week before, like a pretty good start. Well her little her little spinning elbow thing. What do they call it? What does she call it? But it's such a great move because even though she sorta hit Charlotte with it because through, you know, distraction and whatever whatever other chicanery. Um It's still such a like it's it's such a real move. Like it's just a freaking elbow to the face that it doesn't feel like a cheap win. The rolling on core. The rolling encore. There you go. Um So yeah, I yeah, it should be she looks absolutely great. And I hope everybody bought their stock. When I put out the sell or the buy notice last week. Uh Royce Key's Jake Abuso backstage segment. Was that the was that the emotional highlight of the show? I thought that was a pretty cool moment. Um you know, I Wasn't aware how far back ha uh Royce Keyes and Jacob Fatu go back. Uh Things that they said to Jacob. kind of grounded the story a little bit. Like I'm glad that You know. The family dynamic of the bloodline story is always like You know, you can do that forever, but it's like we know a million things about the NY fatus. We don't know that much about Jacob, at least on WWE T. So it was nice to have like a nice connective tissue to his past and Soon as he said that, you know, because all of our phones are listening to us and surveilling us at every time. Soon as I said he said that I looked at my phone and boom. There goes Jacob Fatu and the the artist formerly known as Powerhouse Hobbs and the Indies tearing it up together, selling all these videos that I had never seen before. I was like, oh, okay, some realness to this. All right. Yeah. Bet. Both North Carolina North Carolina, North California guys, you know I'm saying, like there's there's some There's some things there. And Couldn't be happier for Royce Keyes to be put in that spot. I was kind of worrying for a little bit where it's kinda like, All right, he's just gonna come out and just wrestle folks, like what's What's his story? So like hearing him actually cut a promo. Backstage. Uh We kinda got to get a little bit of scenery into what uh makes Roy's keys tick in the WWE world. And Jacob Fattu sort of being that like What's the word? That cosine? pretty much that co sign of being like, Yeah, like I'm a real dude. He's a real dude. And we both kinda came from the same place, like that immediately gives If even if you didn't hear of Royce Key slash Powerhouse House before he got to WWE. Jacob Fatsu like sizing him up. And then dapping them. And then listening to what he has to say. gives him instant credibility of being like, All right, he's a big, strong Bad motherfucker, but One of the strongest, baddest motherfuckers on the roster just pretty much like gave him the co sign. Like yeah, like we came up together. So I think that was a great look for Royce Keyes and I think it Gave some proper sort of uh scenery to to to Jake of two and this Roman bloodline story. Do you think that uh 'Cause you know, obviously the Usos are there in SmackDown this week and Jacob Fattoo seems to float back and forth. Would you consider this to be Brian, you should answer this question. When you consider this to be like are we in a new bloodline era, or is this just like sort of a moment that will pass by? I think this is sort of maybe what'd I say, like bloodline cousins? You know, 'cause the that on the Y Fat Two tree. When you look at a lot of people who've come through that school, especially uh when, you know, a lot of people refer to office senior. That's pop. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, I think we're kind of seeing that play out more in WWE now. I guess what I'm asking is Is the bloodline that we're experiencing right now like the new status quo? Like are we back to there being a pervasive bloodline presence on every show? Seems like it. Seems like it Jacob Fatto's doing double duty. Uh Tag Mat. Well, I guess his match Bumped Cody to the middle of the card unless Cody had somewhere to be it. That night, um But yeah, like he's opened and closed every he has opened or closed every show he's been on since WrestleMania. Yeah. So um You know, you know what I'm gonna say. W W will tell you exactly where they're going as long as you listen to 'em. Once Michael Cole said it just feels right seeing this with Roman and the bloodline and the world title. Kinda made me feel like we're getting back to bloodline championship wrestling, you know, Friday night Usos and all and all that type of stuff. It's gonna be And um I'm not mad at it, you know, like I think there's definitely a couple more layers to work out there. Uh I love the Tongan death grip to to to not just Roman but to solo also. I like that they're sort of establishing that like Uh Jacob Fatu was ungovernable and doesn't necessarily Uh Adhere to the family hierarchy that everybody else in the Fatzu I know why he's uh abide by. You have to you have to you have to paint the picture that this dude is somehow a criminal without doing anything that could be seen as offensive. And attacking Roman and Solo in the same week is the perfect way to be like, Oh, okay, this guy's kind of his own guy. He's kinda the wild he's he's the he's the black sheep wild card of the family. Um So I wasn't mad at that at all. Two things. Place to go. I mean Not only is it Interesting. And Jacob Fattoo has done a great job of keeping the show interesting. Yeah without. It is the fact that The video numbers. IGs, the YouTube's. Crouncing everything else on SmackDown. Crouncing everything else on a Raw. You can be tired of the bloodline. I could be tired of the bloodline. The world is not tired of the bloodline. All right. Like. You could flub any ratings, any Nielsen ratings you want, and I still don't even know how those things are calculated anymore. However. I do know Instagram videos and TikTok videos are pretty solid metric. of immediate interest. I know when I miss SmackDown or I miss Dynamite or I miss Raw, I go right to I G and TikTok. An X just to see. What I missed. And yeah, you'll need me to go and look those numbers up for you. Compare bloodline storyline videos since WrestleMania. all the other videos that don't involve Yachty or Speed or Tri When was the when did the bloodline break up? Like a year ago? More than that now. I wanna say Gosh. So you talk so broke out. You talk about when Jay Uso says so it was a ye so yeah, Jay had his win last year. Mm. So yeah, he left when? Like two years ago? Eighteen ago? I wanna say in between two years and eighteen months ago. Oh, that's right. It hasn't been that long. And I really don't mean this to be an insult. But when I but seeing Roman and the Usos together now After only what, a couple years apart? It does feel like Sean and Triple H doing the DX reunion as older gentlemen. Doesn't it doesn't it feel like Somehow the Roman and the Usos are just like a decade older than they were during the bloodline peak. Um But they're you know, they're more serious now anyway. It's not it's it's not all it's not all silly. I don't know. But Jacob's like driving this story too, because like to Kaz's point with all the numbers going up, he's the one on both shows and Jacobs the new guy. Like if you were telling your friends to watch wrestling in twenty three when the bloodline was at peak, right? And you would say you gotta see this Roman Reigns, you gotta see this Usos. And if they fell off, you're telling them to come back, obviously because of those guys, but you're also telling them to watch because you want them to see. With Jacob Fo, 'cause you don't know what he's gonna say. So let's bring this back full circle. I do well actually, you know what? I said we were gonna talk about Sheeta. We're gonna talk about Sheeta after after dynamite. We'll talk about Sheeta and on Thursday and also on Thursday, time permitting. We're gonna do A Wrestlemania main event draft for next year. Oh wow. A little bit of hype. We're just gonna go, we're gonna get Ben in here and the four of us will draft. People who we think are going to be in the ma one of the two main events at WrestleMania. Not anything they call a main event. It's one of the two the Saturda match and the Sunday last match. So uh we'll we'll see how we do on that one. Anyway. Bring it full circle. A W has the potential to have the craest tag team division of all time. Do you think? that the new day and the motor city machine guns will wind up there? Yes. Yes I do. Um You know, it kind of feels like There was a lot of people that When AEW first formed. You kind of assumed one day they would cross paths. Uh-huh. And I never thought the New Day would be one of those folks. But after this week, I was kind of like, Man. This is kind of what makes it even more exciting. You know, that for sure. The new day Oh yeah, if you had asked at WrestleMania Weekend Did To do a W lifer draft. I would've put Kofi way up there. Woods only because it seems like he has so many interests outside of the sport that he could be a non WWE he could live a non W existence. But I wouldn't have I wouldn't have foreseen either of them ever wrestling for another company. Uh, me either. And I'm old enough to remember the the elite New Day lore that existed through video games and Twitter and the young bucks wearing new day shirts to New Japan Pro and all that type of stuff. So it's like Man, it's really exciting that we'll we'll, you know, possibly see them share a ring together. There's not many First time ever is out there. And the new day in the Young Bucks is a huge First ever that you could run at Wembley. You know, that you could run at a lot of places. Um The machine guns. Them in there. I don't know how people feel about the Wyatt Six. I think you know, uh You know. I mean I think Joe Gacy Joe Gacy, like I said last week, is gonna be the an interesting a really interesting guy to watch because he's so gifted and You know. I got I got young yeah. I got I'm into Dexter Loomis too, like put out a viral video. Past weekend with Indy Hartwell in it. And the Hartwell cutting his hair. You know what I mean? Getting him back to his uh original creepy ass look that he's had for a long time. Um But yeah, man, uh AW has an opportunity to do something really, really fun. And you get F T R Rascals. Woods and Cove. Machine guns. Oh gosh. Who's even the champion? Coban Christian. Like You have Maybe. Maybe five. the greatest tag teams who have ever lived, all in your all under your umbrella, potentially. Mm-hmm. You know what I mean? I mean you could go out and sign the Dudley's. You could go you know, there's no reason. There's no reason I mean the hardy's must be. I feel like the Hardy's yeah, like I was about to say, like I feel like the Hardy's and the Usos are like the only like iconic taxi. Let's just bring them back. They'd be part of the whole thing. I mean It it could be crazy. It could be crazy. And that's to say nothing of some of the makeshift tag teams. You know? Omega Hangman. Yeah, I mean there's like so many there's so many makeshift teams that have had huge roles in W I mean in AEW. Um Yeah, man, it could just be incredible. It could be incredible. Is there anybody outside of the tag teams? I mean, so who are the some of the big names that have that we've discussed? I mean, obviously Alistair Black Um, I mean the New Day work is singles, but we'll s you know, we'll see what they do. Um Who outside of like the new day that that you know that we've discussed do you think is gonna have the biggest post WWE career. Who was gonna have the biggest post WWE? out of everyone who was just released in the past week or two? Yeah, r released or parted ways or anything else, yeah. Outside of the new day. I'm gonna be honest with you, man. Uh, this might be a little bit of a curveball, but like I really believe in Dexter Loomis. Okay. I think next to Lumas has like Such a unique sort of Package and face. And like He might not it might not even be wrestling that that he makes it in. Like I think he's a guy who could possibly do like some TV. Some movies. You know what I mean? Like she has a He has a real distinct look. He could he could be on some Braun Strowman shit where it's like Yeah, fuck wrestling, dude. I'm gonna be like the big strong Anthony Bor uh Anthony Bourdain now. Oh yeah. And just travel and just eat. And I'll be more successful than almost all of you guys in the roster. You know what I'm saying? So There's an opportunity. I'm not saying it's not it in wrestling. I'm not saying it is in wrestling, but he just has such a unique look. Now like it only takes like a few things to you know obviously. There's a ton of incredibly wrestlers. I think Jeff Cobb, I mean, you know. Jeff Cobb's in a weird place, I think. I think he was kind of miscast. Uh, I read a tweet where they said like yeah, they found out Jeff Cobb was Mexican and they kicked him out of the I was like that's not. Um, but you know, Kyrie Sane, obviously, she is someone who's Supremely talented and has a unique look and could could survive in any. She'll have a giant career if she chooses to have one. Right. Like she'll still be a giant star in Japan and can just go be You know, the queen there. Um, Alistair and Zelina will be a very interesting one to watch. 'Cause back to A W doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. Maybe they'll start a reign of terror and T and A or something like that, but I I'm I'm I'm I just don't I there's not an obvious obvious roadmap for them outside of the fact that they're incredibly gifted. Um, so Anyway. All right. Is there anything else you want to hit on? Um Brian, do we leave anything out? John Cena will be a backlas to announce history. Yeah. Oh, to announce history? Yeah, it says it'll be announcing some h WWE history. We just had the anniversary of him Announcing the the Death of Osama bin Laden, so it's gotta be something that tops that. It wasn't as making news, I'm sorry, but it was compromise to a permanent end. Yeah. Badass phrase. What if WWE has signed a new deal with the US government that John Cena gets to announce every major terrorist death? On top of the announce table. John Cina comes out and he's like the war in Iran has come been compromised to a permanent end. The Strait of war mood has been compromised to a permanent end. Um yeah, let's hope it's not that. Anyway. Alright, anything for Rod Knight? Yeah, thick CM Punk's back, right? Sam Punk gonna be on the show? Is he? Probably not. I don't know. Well Roman will be. We got the contract signing. Yep. That's gonna be interesting. Oh, the Oba Femi Challenge begins. Oh yeah, the Oba Femi Challenge. The um Hold on, looking right now. Yeah, who do you think is gonna be the first victim of the Oba Fimi challenge live uh open challenge? Oh gosh. I hope that's the th Will it be a real wrestler or will it be a Like a jobber. I think it's probably gonna be a jobber first. Not a jobber in a sense, but like definitely somebody lower on the card first. Uh Yeah. I mean you gotta build up to somebody like Give it if you're if this is gonna be something that goes on for some time, like you gotta build up to some real challenges. Like you gotta show off dominance. I think maybe you got like a Lucha guy in there. I think like a Ray Phoenix could be great. Yeah, where it's like you got Exactly, he ain't doing nothing and then like It'd be really awesome to show off his bravery. And like step into Obe Feminine getting some moments in before he eventually gets tossed to the bushes. Oh, didn't didn't he get squash or didn't he get r soundly beat by Tala Tanga not long ago. I mean, but whatever. Ray Phoenix deserves better, but I'm not gonna start that bandwagon all by myself. Um all right, well, let's get excited about Raw. That'll be fun. Um, we'll be back later this week to talk about that. Dynamite and everything else. Kaz? You wanna get your plugs in before we go? Brand new episode of Sun P and Brooklyn is out right now. Myself, Carmelo Anthony, the Kid Merrow, we're shooting the shit on there. And like I said, We are having a lively debate of the greatest hood snacks. Do you have a favorite hood snack of ever, Dave? Are you a honey bun guy? Sunflower seeds? Not litters. I'm a big honey bun guy. But not a big honey bun from the corner store guy. Like that's more like in the privacy privacy of my own home. Ah, gotcha. So you need your honey buns like actually baked. No, no, I like the prepackaged, like little Debbie or whatever honey buns. I used to I just don't usually just grab those as I'm walking around. Uh This is this is in the in your in your hood days, the day I'll have to think about it. I'll tell I'll tell you next time we get together, because I'm sure I got a long list. Anyway, thank you to Bruce of Brighton H Water. Monday through Friday, six AM to ten AM, right here on Hot Ninety Seven every day that's my work. Thanks to our producer, Brian H. Waters, thanks to our E P Ben Cruz, thank you all for listening. Um still looking for something to say here, but I did want to give a shout out on a