Sound Off 804 - CM PUNK'S AEW RETURN AND THE CIVIL WAR TONY KHAN HAS TO AVOID

It's business time, baby. You are listening to sounds. It's such good shit. Mama monster coud woman. You got grown ass wrestlers in the back going out Twitter. Oh my god, we're only an hour in. Eric Fish is the idiot. We have two more hours of this and maybe the single stupidest idiot that ever got into wrestling. I don't want out of my contract if I don't get what I want. I was watching this video earlier of John Morrison knocking out this YouTuber Epic meal Time, who I guess is

best known for eating a lot of bacon in a boxing match. Knocked him out in the third round at Creator Clash two, which is a charity boxing event made up of Twitch and YouTube content creators. I guess my invitation got lost in the mail. They don't want none of this. But he cocked out Bacon Boy, and then he called out KSI to a fight. I hope KSI accepts and he boxes Morrison while dressed as a Prime Energy bottle, just like he did at Wrestlemanium. But Morrison, really he bolted up for

this thing. I swear when I saw him walk out, it looked like Bart Gunn walking into the Brawl for All, and you have to see this entourage that walked him out to the ring. He had his wife with him, Tie a Valkyrie, which he would expect, but he had Josh Barnett carrying Cross and Scarlett, La Night Mojoe Rawley, Vic, Joseph and Hack Saw, Jim Duggan two by four and all the most random faction of all time. If I did a be the Booker segment on my streams for factions,

I feel like this is something it would spit out at me. But this is episode eight o four of The Salom Monster Sounds Off for Sunday, April sixteenth, two twenty three. I am the Salom Monster. John Morrison already has a better fight record then CM punk does unless you count Brawl Out, and then I guess they would be tied. Punk is back in the news again and I'm gonna be talking about that, plus the return of Jeff Hardy to AEW King of the Ring over it looks like before it even started.

The latest on the AW video game Dark Side of the Ring is coming back. So we got a lot to get into here. So if you are relaxing on a Sunday, sit back and enjoy. If you are at the gym working out, don't go soft on me. You can do five more reps. If you're out running and doing cardio, I want an extra three miles out of you. Let's go chop chop. I know you can do it. You see who needs peloton? You don't need peloton. When you have solom Monster, it's all you need. Thank you. Thank you

to our PayPal producers for this week. If you would like to make a donation, it is entirely voluntary. You may do so on the salom monster dot com. You'll see the PayPal button at the top of the link tree. Ten dollars or more, we'll get you a nickname to shout out.

I want to say thank you to the Portland pop Star, Paul Hamilton, Night Stalker, Nief Alsafar, John Loose, Cannon Lopez, Big b, Brian Pisarah, Beast Mode Brought, Joseph, the Chicago Slayer, Willie Eichard, Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray, The Diamond, Dallas Dance Machine, Harrison Soapp, New York Punk, Arnold Modesto, John Raging Mad Riffle kill Shot, Keith Hart, Kevin Renfield, McCarron, Oh, I hate you for that one Road Warrior Roderick Welch. I hope this week is better than last

week was for you, my friend and king keiks and Rique Hernandez who also wanted to know what I thought of Alex Wright in WCW. I do mention him from time to time, dos Wunderkin. I thought he was entertaining with the dancing, especially when he would interrupt the Nitro girls to do his own dance. I thought that was funny. I thought he was going to be a bigger star than he turned out to be. They kind of tried with the Berlin makeover when he shaved the sides of his head, he got the

mohawk, he had an entourage, but it just didn't work. But thank you, Enrique. I am going to be back to the Live SmackDown review this week. I had some house of Glory business to tend to. On Friday, we had Willie Mack challenging Jacob fat two for the World heavyweight title. They had a hell of a battle, but two reigns on for how

much longer? Though? Because Matt Cardona, the Indie god himself, is going to be making his house of Glory debut on May nineteenth at the NYC Arena and airing live on Fight TV, this time challenging Fat two for that very championship, and the Motor City Machine Guns are coming to Hog for the first time ever against main event Midas Black and Jay Lyon. Then we've got

the Kingo coming in for our June sixteenth show. And all of that is to say nothing of the great roster of all that we have that you may not know right now, but you will suit. It's a great mix of talent. I hope you can make it out and it'll be good to split my commissioner and commentary duties again when we're back live on Fight. You know, nobody told me this commissioner stuff was going to be easy, and I am quickly learning why that is. Let's start with cmpunk, our top story

of the week. All signs now more than ever, point to cmpunk being back on AW television very soon, with an announcement coming as early as next month, and it apparently ties into this new Saturday show that Warner Brothers Discovery has greenlit for them, which would give AW two more hours of television, which would give them this new show probably called Collision, Dynamite, Rampage, Dark Dark, Elevation, All Access, plus their quarterly Battle of the Belt

specials, their pay per views, and two hours of Ring of Honor every Thursday. That's a lot of wrestling, and it sounds like Warner Brothers Discovery is all in on AW. I would be surprised if they don't sign a new deal soon to extend them many more years into the future. If they're giving them more programming now. Punk is believed to be coming back, but the issues that existed before with him and the members of the AW locker room

have not been resolved at all. It's like you can see the plane taking off from the runway even though both engines are smoking, and there's nothing you can do but just watch and wait for the crash. Now, per Fightful Punk said, or Punk is said to have laid out numerous scenarios in which he would return. Among those is a willingness to work with Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks, but at least adds of a few months ago. The Elite we're not keen on doing that for obvious reasons. I mean, they

were publicly slandered by this guy. It was not a work. It was not done as a way to start an angle, and after being told, if you have a problem with me, come find me, they did so. But they brought along the company's head of legal. Now I don't know about you, but if you were going to supposedly kick down someone's door to harass them or to start a fight, would you bring the head legal counsel for the company that you work for with you. I feel like that's a

fact that sometimes gets overlooked in this whole mess. It did lead to a scuffle, with Punk allegedly throwing the first punch, Nick Jackson allegedly getting hit in the eye with a chair, and Kenny Omega being bit by Man's best friend, I mean Punk's best friend. Everyone got suspended, and so the fact that they might not be too keenot working with this person doesn't sound unreasonable. Maybe they just don't want to have anything to do with him. Maybe

they don't trust him, as Punk does not trust them. He called Hangman Page an empty headed, dumb fuck who never did anything in the business. He said this about a former aw world champion, someone who Brian Danielson put over in a pretty big way, right, someone who has had classic matches in this company, against the Bucks and against Omega and against Brian Danielson.

And yes, he was wrong to do what he did with that workers' rights promo, which had absolutely nothing to do with the build to their double or nothing match. One unprofessional act deserved another, I guess because Punk sat at home for three months and he stewed about it, and the first thing he did when he came back was go on live television to give him a receipt and that wasn't enough. He had to single him out again at the scrum.

It's no wonder that none of these people trust each other. It's not hard to see why. And if there's no trust, that makes for a terrible work environment. Now I said, I understand the elite not wanting to work with Cmpunk, I didn't say anything about them not wanting to meet with him. There needs to at least be a meeting between all the parties involved to see if their differences can be worked out first before Tony Kann starts booking

Creative Out for the next six to nine months. Punk has been trying to push for such a meeting, but it doesn't sound like there's been any progress made. Towards making that actually happen, and Tony kh has to be careful here because Omega and the Bucks right now as we speak, are both in the middle of contract negotiations. You know, push them too hard and they might want to go test the free agent waters somewhere else. But if they

go to WWE, they won't be EVPs. If they enjoy their status as EVPs and having a level of creative input and creative freedom, that is not something they're going to get working for WWE. So they need to weigh the pros and cons of whatever decision it is that they're going to make. There is a meeting planned with Punk and Chris Jericho, which is a must. After Jericho called Punk a cancer after brawl Out, Punk went on Instagram a few weeks ago called Erico a stooge, which was a very stupid thing to

do for someone who wants back into the company. Why would you go on social media and call Chris Jericho a stooge even if it was true, Even if it was true, why would you do that. I understand that Punk was refuting something that Dave Meltzer said in a message board post when he lashed out the way he did, but there was no need to air out your feelings about Jericho at the bottom of that post. Save it for the eventual

meeting, Save it for the face to face. But for someone who wants back in, it's like pad locking the door shut and throwing away the key and then banging on the door shouting for somebody to let you in. Doesn't make any sense. By doing that, all he is doing is fanning the flames. Punk is his own worst enemy. But they need to get together in a room and see if they can work together, or at least be

cordial to each other and coexist in the same locker room. Because even this idea of separate rosters, I mean, think about the absurdity of this. If these reports are to be believed, AEW might be starting a brand new show just to accommodate Cmpunk and give him a place to work, to keep him apart from Jericho and the elite in all of their friends. What a stupid idea that would be. I hate the concept of a brand split in general. They basically do want already with a ring of honor, but I

hate how restrictive it is. I like the idea of opening up as many match possibilities as you can with the people that you have. Otherwise, I just feel at places unnecessary handcuffs on you when you're trying to book your shows. If it's more of a soft split where a handful of talent and stories end up being mostly exclusive to that show, they already have a show like that, it's called Rampage. Or they could always do a WWE style split

and just ignore the fact that a brand split even exists. But then if they do that, it would defeat the purpose of keeping certain people on the roster away from each other. If you need to create an entirely new show and start a brand split just to avoid conflict between one man and the other members of your roster, that would seem to be a very big problem. What Tony Khan does not need is to divide the roster into factions. That is not healthy and that is only going to lead to more drama and more

conflict. And that might be good for the wrestling news websites, and that might be good for podcasts, but that would be terrible for aw The Fightful says that Punk has expressed his willingness to return to the company and keep completely separate from the elite, and there were some talent who were of the belief that this rumored Saturday show could be used to help facilitate that with some separation

to the roster. Andrews Arian of The Mattman Podcast has since reported that new show will be premiering, likely on TNT in June as a two hour program from eight to ten pm Eastern Time, with that first show being held in

Chicago. Now, if Tony Khan doesn't already have other people helping him on the booking end, and I think he's talked about having people that do give input, and I don't know what the exact creative structure is in that company, the impression I have is that it is still largely on his shoulders. He has people who contribute ideas, probably some of the agents. I don't know if Chavanni might have a role in that as well. He already wears

a lot of hats in the company. But Tony Kann is still pretty much the end all be all when it comes to creative among all of the other jobs and responsibilities that this guy has. So if he doesn't already have other people who can step in and help him on the booking end, he adds another two hour live show on top of what he already has. I don't see how he can handle this all on his own. He's going to burn

himself completely out and the product is going to suffer because of it. Now, AW has a Dynamite in Chicago at the Wintrust Arena on June twenty first, that Fightful says could be a date for a Punk return. So even if Punk was to come back and end up on Collision, you would probably bring him back and maybe debut him on Dynamite right to get the biggest audience possible, and then you could transition him over to the new show. So

the twenty first on Dynamite could be a return date for Cmpunk. That is possible. Tickets for that show go on sale this week, and the WarnerMedia Upfronts are being held May seventeenth at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, which could be where they announced this new show. In fact that it would seem to me that, I mean, unless they make some kind of announcement this week, that would be the place for them to announce this new Collision show.

Saturday from eight to ten pm is a terrible time for a weekly show that would instantly become their most dvard show, even more than Dynamite, especially on TNT, given how often it would be preempted for sport. And we're heading into the summer months now less, where people spend more time outside. You know, this is another reason why a brand split does not work.

If you have a show on Wednesdays that is doing let's just say, you know, on average, Dynamite now doing between eight hundred and fifty and nine hundred and fifty thousand live viewers on average, right, sometimes they touch a million, but that's rare. I can't see that Saturday show doing those numbers outside of maybe the first one, which people would watch out of curiosity more

than anything else. Even if their calculation is that by making Collision the cmpunk show, that would get them Dynamite level numbers on a Saturday night, I just don't see how that show would sustain those types of numbers every week. You know, if it did, then it would be considered a huge success. But if we assume that it won't, you don't end up with a roster split. You end up with two shows, one of which is a two hour rampage on Saturdays. Basically because it is not as good of its

time slot, especially if they're going to get bounced around a lot. That's exactly what happens with Rampage now on Fridays. On TNT Saturdays, it would probably be even worse. So how long then before this concept of a brand

split gets dropped in favor of mixing the rosters again. It would be up against WWE pay per views, UFC pay per views, and you could forget about any Saturday aw pay per views, even though most of their shows now were on Sundays, but Full Gear in November that was on a Saturday. You can forget about that. But if they're going to do it, the star power on the show would have to be equal to Dynamite, and then it would completely indegate the need for Rampage. Now. They're not going to

go to Warner and say, hey, give us less television. You know, let's get rid of the Friday's show, but they should the same thing with WWE. WWE is not going to go to USA and say, look, the show would be better at two hours, so we want to just chop off the third hour, right, That's not even their call to make, that's a USA call. And maybe they're getting paid more money for it.

I would certainly hope. So I would certainly hope they're making it worth their while because it has made RAW an inferior show in the last decade compared to how it used to be. But it's the same thing. WWE is not going to go to USA and say, hey, give us less TV, right. I understand that's not how it works. I wish it would be two hours, but it is what it is. But that doesn't mean that that is not what they should do. That way, they would have

two hours on Wednesday, and they would have two hours on Saturday. Plus you have the YouTube shows. You throw two hours of Ring of Honor in there on Thursdays and that's more than enough now. On his podcast last week, Dax Harwood or FTR Bald, which was trending again the other day, who counts cm punk among his very best friends, talks to him every day. He spoke about Punk and a possible return to AW He said, the reason I am fantasy booking, and he was talking about the Elite against Cmpunk

and FTR as a potential main event for all In at Wembley Stadium. So the reason I'm fantasy booking is because outside of Roman Reigns and maybe Cody Rhodes, the biggest name in professional wrestling right now is Cmpunk definitely the biggest name

in AW. So if we want to take AW to the next level, if we are here to work for AW, if we are here to make professional wrestling better because of AW, the way you do that is to take the biggest star that you have and one of the biggest stars in the world, and you put them on the car to you make money with them.

On top of that, I will say that I talked to Punk almost every day, and Punk Missus Wrestling. That's your headline, Punk Missus Wrestling, and Punk wants to come back and he wants to give back to the fans. He wants to give back to wrestling. So I will leave it at that. Then we also got a rare statement from FTR hair, who usually

stays out of this stuff. Cash Wheeler took to Twitter yesterday to defend his partner from criticism that he has gotten for being too outspoken about this whole situation, and he said Dax is one of the best people you could ever meet, passionate about wrestling and family, protective, over his friends, especially when people don't know everything. He is not afraid to speak up and not to do it anonymously, honest to a fault. We all need to do better

to fix this situation. Everyone involved, no fingers pointed. No one is completely innocent. I respect everyone involved, and I want the best for AW. I am tired of reading negativity from both sides, fans and wrestlers. Real life is more important enough. Dax brought up the Wembley Stadium show. All end tickets don't go on sale to the public until May fifth, but if the presale registrations or any kind of hint, my prediction of them selling

at least fifty thousand tickets was conservative. PW Insiders says they have so far exceeded fifty thousand presale registrations. And look, that's just to get the code. Those are just people who signed up to get the pre sale code. The presale is on May second. Not all of those people will end up buying tickets, right, Maybe half those people will actually buy Let's say half

of those people buy it, that would be around twenty five thousand. Then you assume maybe half or more of those purchases would be for two or more seats. Well, you got fifty thousand right there. You know one thing that it has going for it are the ticket prices. They don't sound unreasonably high. Live Nation has tickets being priced as low as thirty pounds or thirty seven dollars to as much as five hundred pounds or one yoko zoom. That

would be a top price of six hundred and twenty bucks. That's for ringside. That's for ringside seating, which sounds really low to me, But that was the choice Tony Khan was going to half to make. Is it more important to make as much money as possible or to fill as many seats as possible to update tendency make it look great on TV. It looks like he wants to make the show as affordable as possible to fill that stadium up. And yet I hear people saying aew needs cmpunk if they want to sell tickets

to Wembley Stadium. This company is on its way to selling fifty thousand tickets four months in advance without a single match being announced. With or without cmpunk, all In is going to do just fine. Can he help them sell more tickets? Sure? Can he help business in other aspects. Absolutely, cmpunk helped get them their first million dollar gate last year. But to listen to some of these people, you would think that without Punk they would sell

twenty thousand at best, and with Punk they would sell another fifty. Wheelers said, he wants what's best for AW. That's what cash Wheelers say. Well, i'll tell you what. All this social media sniping is not what is best for a Brandon Cutler quote tweeting a dead Spin editorial about cmpunk gaslighting the company and saying someone gets it before deleting the tweet and taking his account

private. That is not helping AW. Cutler was suspended for just being in the room when shit went sideways last year, and he's buddies with the Bucks, so he feels the need to comment, But he is not helping when he does stuff like that. Were he not friends with the Bucks, he wouldn't even have a job there. And if he pulls a stunt like that again, then he should be x AW star Brandon Cutler, and I use that term star very loosely. This is exactly the kind of thing that Tony

Kann does not need right now. It feels like a civil war is about to erupt in this company. The Punk stuff happened to die down. We all knew this was going to happen because eventually he was going to recover from the injury, and Tony Kahn was going to have to make a decision do I keep this guy or do I not keep this guy? So things got quiet there for a while until the Instagram shoot a few weeks ago blew it all up again. And now here we are. So we knew this was

coming. We knew he had a decision to make. But it feels like there's a civil war that's about to blow up behind the scenes in this company. So I say this, it's like Tony bringing Jeff Hardy back. He knows what he is getting into by doing this. It is a risk that he feels is worth taking because Punk can help his business. Punk can help his bottom line. At what cost? That is the question. Take the elite stuff out of it for a second. Punk is coming off back to

back major injuries. Both times they put their world title on him. He ended up having surgery within days. Can his body even hold up to another run? I would keep him away from that championship. You could do the rematch with MJF. At some point he could challenge for it, but do not put the belt back on him, because all you're doing is inviting trouble. Bron Breaker on NXT this week said that I don't want the NXT Championship

again because it was a curse. It was a curse on me. That aw title in the hands of cmpunk is a curse now as far as the elite and Hangman Page and Chris Jericho and John Moxley, Jesus Christ, how many people is this guy pissed off? As far as they go, as far as all those people go. If Tony is bringing back cmpunk, he needs to get them all in a room. And I'm sure he's either about to do this or is trying to make this happen. He's got to get

them all in a room to at least have an adult conversation. If the elite does not want to meet with him, they're EVPs. They are not just talent on the roster. Who can tell Tony I don't want to work with this guy. They wanted executive positions in the company and they got it. Tony did not strip them of those titles. When brawl Out happened, and as EVPs, they have an added responsibility in situations like this to put their own personal feelings aside for the good of the company and make sure that

everybody can code this peacefully. Even if they do not want to work with Punk, if they don't want to work a program with him, if they don't trust him, that is their right. Cmpunk against Kenny Omega would do big business. They could even have Larry the Dog hanging above the ring in a cage. Cmpunk and FTR against the Elite would sell a lot of tickets. They can even let the fans pick sides, let them choose who the

baby faces and who the heels are. But if the president of the company says I'm bringing back cmpunk, or if Warner Media wants cmpunk back and he says, look, we're making the announcement next month, this is happening whether you like it or not, they need to come to the table now and hear what he has to say. All cards on the table, no lawyers, no legal threats, no dogs that includes a steel If Punk wants to bring him to watch his back, put a fucking muzzle on his face and

get this shit sorted out. For the sake of the company and for the sake of the fans. There was some confusion this week about Kenny Omega's contract status after an interview that Conan gave to Nick Housman explaining why Omega was not booked for tonight's Triplemania show. He wanted Omega originally to wrestle with the Kingo,

but Conan said Omega's contract negotiations with AW prevented it from happening. He said, originally we were going to bring in Omega, but he was still negotiating with AW and he wasn't sure if he was going to stay or not, so we couldn't commit, and he didn't want to come here until he signed, so that was out the window. And he went on to say that he's assuming that Omega has resigned with AW, and you know what happens when you assume things. Dave Meltzer later noted that Omega has not signed a

new AW deal. His current contract was set to expire three months ago, but it was extended due to the nine months he missed from all of his injuries, so he's still working off of the existing deal. How long it was extended for, we don't know. Exactly. The belief is that he is under contract through either November or December, and Tony conn is going to try to lock him down to a new deal. I'm sure you know well

before that he would be crazy not to. VI Kingo instead is defending his Triple A Mega title tonight against Swerve, Strickland, Rich Swan and Commander in a four way match. Commanders getting around man. Let me tell you Commander's gonna be back on Dynamite Is Wednesday. He's gonna be wrestling Switchblade J White. And on the subject of contracts, I've got even more contract news.

Cash Wheeler announced the live crowd in Milwaukee during the Rampage taping that ftr's new deal with AW is for four years, after which they both planned to retire unless Cmpunk asked them to stay, and then they'll stay for another four years. And Brian Cage, after much speculation about his future, heading into the Supercard of Honor pay per view last month at midnight that night, he would

have become a free agent. Then he and the Embassy went out that night and retained their Ring of Honor six man tag team titles, with Cage being the one to score the winning fall, which seemed like an odd thing if Tony Khan thought the guy was leaving the company. Per Fightful, Cage put pen to paper this week on a new long term contract that will keep him with AW and Ring of Honor for years to come. Meltzer says it is a five year deal, but Fightful says Tony Kahn has the option on him

for a sixth year. They really didn't want to lose Brian Kaye. It sounds like one of those like Mets type contracts where they give like they give a player or a pitcher, like they don't want to give him that many years. They'll only sign for like five years. They end up signing him for five or six years. They break down after two. Cage is almost forty. Hopefully he can hold up. Six years is a long time for Brian Cage, but they got him locked down. He would be forty five

years old by the end of that deal. Fightful was told that several top talents in AW push for Cage to resign. They were also top talents in

WWE who were angling for him to end up there. WWE was said to have some interest in him, but he liked the offer that AW made to him and he took the deal, and it is quite the turnaround from where he was before, when it felt like he had gone into the witness protection program and when his contract was coming to the first time, Tony Khan had the option of rolling over his deal for another year, and he did so, which was a surprise even to Cage himself, because Tony was not doing

anything with him. Now at least he's been more visible on TV, and I guess the money was to his liking, so he decided to resign. Tony Khan did take care of him when he first signed him. Cage was injured, you know, when he signed with AW He signed in January whatever it might have been twenty twenty, but he signed in January. He didn't debut until May because he was recovering from a torn bicep that he suffered working for someone else's company. But Tony signed him anyway, and he paid him

that entire time. He took care of Cage, which is why it was bizarre the way he just sort of dropped off the face of the earth there for a while, and he just wouldn't do anything with him for almost a year. It was like nine or ten months that went by, he did nothing. I don't think he worked a single match on any I don't want to say any of the shows. Maybe he popped up on Dark, but you know, his body of work in aw was next to nothing for that

entire period. Yeah, there aren't too many guys on that roster that look like Brian Cage. He's not a big man, He's really not. And even he himself has talked about this before, how he's not like a tall guy. You know, he's not big in that way, but he's got the jack physique and he can move around like a lightweight. And I've always said the man's achilles heel are his promos, which is why he's always had somebody with him to do the talking. Even when he first came into he

was part of Team Taz. Right from the moment he came into the company, he was part of a faction. Now he's with the Embassy and he has Prince Nana doing most of the talking for him. The last time Jeff Hardy set foot in a ring was a year ago. Next month against the Young Bucks at Double or Nothing. Two weeks later, he was busted for duy, his third in the last ten years and he was suspended without pay by aw Tony Khan knew he was taking a chance when he signed him.

Even the way Jeff left WWE the last time was not without controversy and concern over his state of mind in refusing to go to rehab and it was a whole ordeal, but Tony Khan signed him anyway, and it only took three months for him to get burned. He learned the same lesson that Dixie Carter learned and Vince McMahon before her, the same Vince McMahon who approved the storyline based around Jeff Hardy being an alcoholic, and that lesson is buyer beware when

it comes to Jeff Hardy. He's been given a very long leash over the past twenty years by promoters because of how big of a star he is, and when you are a big star, you're going to get more chances and most that's just the way it is. And that's not just in wrestling, that's in pretty much any form of entertainment that you could think of, but that includes pro wrestling. He is a big star with a huge fan following, and he seems like a nice enough guy. He's had a lot of

people rooting for him to kick out of all these problems. You know, addiction is a bitch, and she doesn't care how big of a star you are, or what you look like, or what the color of your skin is, or what nationality you are, how much money you have in your bank account. But it's when that addiction begins to create hazards for other people as well that someone needs to step in and say enough is enough. Maybe

this isn't something Jeff Hardy should be doing anymore. Maybe there are safer ways for him to contribute to the wrestling business other than taking bumps and diving off ladders. On Wednesday, Jeff Hardy returned on aw Dynamite. He got a big reaction coming out to the aid of his brother and Isaiah Acidy, who were being attacked by the firm. His brother Matt, on his podcast said the whole thing came together only in the last few days. Jeff had surgery

on his eye recently. He is still not completely recovered from that. He can see his vision is okay, but it's going to take another six to eight weeks before he's back to one hundred percent or whatever one hundred percent means. For Jeff Hardy these days, considering how I'm sure how beat up his body must feel. His DUI case in Florida that was officially closed a few months ago, he could have faced jail time. It was his third DUI

felony in Florida, third DUI. He was driving with a suspended or revoked license, and so he was facing potential time behind bars. Instead, he was credited with time served and he accepted a plea deal. His driver's license is suspended for the next decade, but that clearly didn't stop him from getting behind the wheel last time. Considering the charges against him, he got a slap on the wrist. The embat harrassment and the shame of it all was

worse for him than any punishment that the court dealt to him. But Tony Khan said his return would be contingent on him completing treatment, which he has done. I don't think Jeff Hardy should be in the ring anymore, and what I think doesn't matter. If Jeff wants to wrestle, Tony Khan is more than happy to let him wrestle. And if it wasn't Tony Kahn wwe would take him back in a heartbeat because he is a star who can draw them money. But that's how I feel. Even before the last dui,

it was painful watching Jeff in the ring. His best days are clearly behind him. Every move he made look like he was in agony. I think being in the ring is the second worst place for him to be, the first being behind the wheel of a car. Tammy Sitch is a great example of that. She was back in court on Thursday for a pre trial hearing. She's facing a dui manslaughter, charged for killing someone that could have easily been Jeff Hardy in that courtroom. I hope for his sake this was the

wake up call that he needed. But said the same thing many times before. A lot of people have I sound like a broken record. You know. The destination is to get the aw tag team titles on the Hardies, right. It's the last set of tag team belts they've never held. This is probably their last big run in a national company. Matt Hardy has been treading water with the Androde family office stuff, which led to the firm storyline. And believe me, nobody is happier to see Jeff back than Matt Hardy.

Matt said something else on his podcast, I want to bring up here. He said, this is the most work I have ever seen him do to himself, and he had ten months. He seems different, and once again I don't want to sit here and vouch for him. I don't want you to take my word for it. I don't want you to take anyone else's word for it. I want you to watch him and follow his actions,

and then he'll make you a believer if that's what you need. I am confident in his actions and his conduct and his behavior will make people a believer. He's made me a believer. I got to see a lot of him. I got to follow his journey. I know the work he's put in, and I know how dedicated he's been to legitimately changing and trying to get his ship together once and for all. All I can say is I

am just so extraordinarily proud of him, and he has done great. He doesn't say what Jeff has done to change and make him think this time will be different. It's always these sort of vague generalities. This time feels different. This time he's going to make people believe. I hope, so I would love to believe that. I really would. Matt has had his own issues with addiction in the past. He knows better than anyone how difficult it

is. It has to be incredibly frustrating for him to see his brother fall down over and over and over again. He wants this to be the turning point for him. History would say otherwise, but it's his brother, and I look, I wouldn't expect him to say anything different. Jeff is very fortunate to have that hearty name, because if it was almost anyone else, they would not have gotten as many chances as he's had. And if he's going to be in the ring, I hope he is at least smarter about

the risks that he takes on Rampage. Friday night, Matt Hardy challenged the firm to what he's calling a firm deletion match at the Hardy Compound, with Matt and Jeff and Hook and Isaiah Cassidy against Ethan Page, Big Bill le Moriarty and Stokely Hathaway. He didn't say when this would take place, but a cinematic match is the safest kind of match for Jeff Hardy to be it Now, we still have about seven or eight weeks before double or nothing but

the early card for the pay per view. So far it looks to be MJF defending the aw World title in a four way against the other pillars of the Company in Darby Allen, Jungle Boy and Sammy Gavara, the Elite against the Blackpool Combat Club. My guests would be they do Anarchy in the arena since that ended up, you know, doing so well last year. It's actually one of my favorite matches of the year. I had a lot of

fun watching that match. I could see that becoming an annual thing. Chris Jerry clearly being primed for a singles match with Adam Cole Keith Lee against Swerves Strickland. That would seem to be an appropriate place to blow off their feud. Possibly j White against Ricky Starks. If they could hold out that long, they could do the match there. Jamie Hayter, she'll either be defending

her championship or in a six woman tag against the Outcasts. It seems to me, I see there's no number one contender that seems clear cut to me right now. Unless they do her in Soria or something like that. It's more likely, I think, to be probably a multi woman match and Jay Cargill defending the TBS Championship against Tie of Valkyrie. The Owen Heart Tournament, the Owenhart Foundation tournaments. Are they doing them this year? I am of

the impression that this is going to be an annual thing. They are going to do them, But they have a huge Canadian tour coming up at the end of June into July, so I'm thinking we haven't heard anything about Double or Nothing in the Owen even though they did the finals at the Double or Nothing Show last year. I could see them holding off on it in doing the Owen in Canada on one or a combination of those Canadian shows. So I don't know if it'll be a Double or Nothing, but I do expect

them to resurrect it again this year. Now, I've got an update on the release date for the aw Fight Forever Game or Forever delayed, whichever name you want to use, and if you were hoping to be playing the game in the next couple of months, the update is not good. This game was first announced in November of two thou twenty as the as they called it, the spiritual successor to WWF No Mercy. It is now April of two twenty three, and we are no closer to knowing the release date than we

were back then. There was an item in last week's Observer that said the game is basically ready, it's just up to the business people to announce the date. Add to that what Kenny Omega said back in Fbruary on the Swerve City podcast when he said the game has been done but was trying to get its ESRB rating finalized at the time, which it has since gotten. It

will be rated T for team, So that's taken care of. Tony Kann at the media scrum after the Revolution pay per view said the release date was coming soon and that the game is finished THHQ Nordics Global Senior Community Manager per Hollandbro, which is that's a hell of a name too. Per Hollandbro has now pushed back on this and had this to say on Twitter. I mean,

if you want an unfinished game, sure we could release now. The game is doing really well and is getting there, but not one hundred percent yet. So yes, just another rumor on Twitter, I fear. I mean the president of the company said this just to some rumor on Twitter. This is what Tony Kahn said. Anyway, he said there are tons of things to take into consideration when developing a game, submission, quality, assurance,

ratings, optimization, polish, coding, and much more so. Even if a game looks finished to some people, if it misses one of those steps, it is not finished or ready to release. And later on on his twitch stream he elaborated some more said for a publisher, the game is not finished until it is released. Basically, a lot of people are having a massive problem understanding that, which is kind of sad because it creates this thing that everybody now suddenly believes, Oh my god, these guys lied.

No they didn't. So hopefully it'll get sorted out soon. The game is in a good state. As soon as we do launch it, I think people will be happy. Then everybody will just forget about all the other stuff and everybody will be happy and enjoy it. Again. I am part of the industry, so for me, that's normal that I don't expect everything to be instantly done. All three houses YUKES, THHQ, Nordic, and AW we are taking our time. We want to do this the best we can.

We want to make sure it goes through a long QA process and a long submission process. All these things, and people are instantly like, oh, but we want the game now. Yeah, but you can't have both. You can't have a game that's outright away and then have a good game. I do not believe anybody lied. I do not believe there is any kind of miscommunication in any shape or form. I believe that simply some people look at it differently because they don't look at it through the lens of a

publisher. A lot goes into it, and for me, as somebody who is part of the publishing house, it is very different from me what completes a game and what doesn't. I don't think Tony kindled, but it sounds exactly like a miscommunication. I don't know what he's talking about. That's exactly what this was. It was a miscommunication to the point where this guy felt

the need to clarify it. Hollandborough spoke with the gaming website Kotaku and added even more information, saying the game has to pass quality assurance test, get localized in seven languages, which the article says would be English, German, French, Spanish, Brazilian, Portuguese, Simplified, Chinese and Japanese. It has to get polished. They need retailer and shipping deals. Has to get submitted to first party platforms like PlayStation four and five, Xbox PC and Nintendo

Switch and all have unique requirements for said devices. It has to get optimized on every platform. They need marketing and public relations plans, which I will tell you as a public relations person, as long as they have been promoting this game for really, from the moment they announced in twenty twenty that the game was coming, they should have been working on marketing and PR plans. That is not something that you say for the last minute. So I have

to think whatever marketing and PR plans they have are already done. I would hope so. And he says if just one of these things is not finished, the game, in a publisher's eye, is not yet ready to be shipped. When Kotaku reached out to t HQ Nordic for comment about how far along Fight Forever is in its development process, their PR team responded by saying, a ew, Fight Forever will be released when it's done. There you have it. There it is. The game will be released when it's done.

If it rains outside, you're going to get wet. There you go. If you didn't know now you know, don't forget. There is still a pending trademark dispute with GCW over the Fight Forever, a name that could also be holding things up even longer. But one positive I guess is that by the time this game comes out, cmpunk will be back and they'll be

able to use the original cover again. Hey Solomonster listeners, It's Chris fan Fleet and this week on my podcast Insight with Chris fan Fleet, I sit down with the very awesome and always positive Renee Paquet to talk about what made her sign with aw and also what's her favorite John Moxley Batch. I mean, it's her husband, so she has to have it a opinion, right. I'm also joined by the boat Natalia, who gives me her Canadian Mount Rushmore and I'll give you a hint. Yes, of course, Brett Hart

is on there. Also check out some of my recent interviews with The Undertaker, l A Night, Yeah, Dolph Ziegler, and The Rock. You can find Insight with Chris Van Vleet wherever you're listening to this podcast right now. Always good to listen to Chris, so check out his podcast again, Insight with Chris Van Vleet available on all major podcast platforms and on YouTube as well if you want the video interviews that he does, which are great.

WWE has not held a King of the Ring pay per view in over twenty years, and now it looks like it maybe another twenty before we get one. Their next Saudi Arabia show on May twenty seventh, was originally announced as WWE King and Queen of the Ring in Jetta, but on Thursday, WWE suddenly changed They changed course to WWE Knight of Champions and WWE has not done a Knight of Champions show since twenty fifteen, when Sting wrestled Seth Rollins for

the championship. After that they changed it to Clash of Champions. We don't yet know why the change was made or if they're completely abandoning the idea of a King and Queen of the Ring tournament this year. Maybe they still do the finals for both tournaments on that show instead of building most of the show

around it. But when you realize Vince McMahon is the one who killed off King of the Ring in the first place as a pay per view years ago, it does make you wonder this probably doesn't bode well for Sammy's Hay and Kevin Owens run as undisputed tag team champions if they're having Knight of Champions with all champions defending their titles since neither of them have ever worked any of the Saudi Arabia shows, I'm thinking the reason for the change, more than anything,

has to do with me. Twenty seventh being the same day that Roman Reigns hits a thousand days as champion, hence them wanting to use the United Champions name. They decided that they want the show built around him for reaching that milestone. So we don't know that King of the Ring is completely dead. I hope not, because I still have a soft spot for it.

If done correctly and not just as a TV gimmick with a bunch of three minute matches and the winners walking around for the next year with the silly crown in the robe. I think it could be used to set somebody up for a championship match on a major show. It's not what King of the Ring was originally meant for. It was created as a house show gimmick in the eighties to push tickets. That's how King of the Ring started, you know, even in ninety three, when they turned it into a pay per view

for the first time. It was basically a consolation prize for Brett Hart after that WrestleMania nine finish, he didn't go to Summer Slam and challenge for the title. Owen did in ninety four, Mabel did in ninety five, But then you had Austin In, Triple h and Ken Shamrock and Billy Gunn, none of whom went to SummerSlam or any other show that year to challenge for the world title. Kurt Angle did, Edge did not, and then brock Lesner did before they did away with the entire show. But I think that's

what it should be used for. I'm a believer that a lot of what we see on television should be built around your top championship to make that the most important, precious thing in the entire world, right or I guess I should say titles, not just title. The Royal Rumble winner challenges for the title of WrestleMania. The money in the Bank winner can cash in for a

shot at the top title. King of the Ring should be used in the same way, although ideally I think that there should be some more separation between the dates for King of the ring and money in the bank, you know, but money in the bank is more open ended. You have up to a year to cash in. Just because you win the briefcase does not mean you're going to cash in right away. But I do think that there should

be more separation. So maybe maybe they push it back and we have a King and Queen of the Ring in the fall, and maybe that's the better time for it. I just I hope they don't completely abandon the idea just to have, you know, a giant circle jerk in Saudi Arabia, if for Roman Reigns hitting a thousand days as the champion. Travel issues led to a lot of Raw stars either making it to the show late on Monday when it was already live on the air, or not making it at all,

which led to a lot of rewrites. Second week in a row of rewrites before the show, only this time it was not due to the mustache Madman. He was said to be back at the Tower in Stamford, but he did make changes to both shows this week, some of which had to do with the verbiage and wording of certain promos, so his influence is most definitely there. Nick Cohn did an interview with Lightshed Partners, which is a research

firm based out of New York City. He did this last week, but the transcript was posted this past week, and he noted that Vince McMahon sent out a company wide email stating that Paul Lavec was the sole head of creative and that he himself would not be seeking input on creative decisions. Of course, he doesn't have to seek it. He doesn't have to ask for anything. He just does. It's like a tornado moving in that causes destruction and

then disappears. Con said on Monday. He's talking about the Monday after WrestleMania, when this deal was officially announced, Vince sent out a company wide email to our thousand or so employees, including myself, and specifically he articulated that Paul Avec remains the sole chief creative officer soul. So that means the very day that he sent that email out was the night that he was said to have been rewriting the show and making changes even as the show was on the

air. I swear, you cannot make this shit up. In a business where people make shit up all the time, the timing of this you just could not do it, but he was not physically there This week, Sammy'sae, Matt Riddle, Damian Priest who was supposed to be on the show to address his attack on Bad Bunny, Ria Ripley, the street prophets Legato del Phantasma. They were all booked on the same flights from Orlando to Seattle.

They did not get there until hour three of the show. Zane and Riddle did do a running at the very end to save Kevin Owens from the bloodline, but it sucked for everybody else because instead of being on the road that weekend like they usually would be, you know, was Easter Sunday, they

had no shows. Instead, they booked their flights wwe did for the first thing Monday morning instead of having them, you know, fly in let's say the night before, and all it takes is one flight delay or one mechanical failure to make for a very bad, very long day. They flew cross country. They got there late, only to then turn around and be booked on a red eye back to Orlando when the show is over. Such is the life of a professional wrestler. Bronson Reid was there, but he did

not make it make out much better. He said on Twitter that he was sick all week with the flu, which would explain why he looked so ghast at the end of his match with Bobby Lashley. I commented on it during my review. I said, look, he looked tired in a way that we don't normally see him, So that would why I had no issue with them doing a double count half finish in their match, because I want to see these two go out of it again this time when Reid is not sick.

Finn Balor worked his match with Ray Mysterio with fourteen staples in his head from the Helen a Cell match at WrestleMania, plus he still cannot be one hundred percent from the calf tear that he went into WrestleMania with and nobody knew about until this week. The doctors told him it would be six to eight weeks to recover. He made it back in three because he did not want to miss the show. He had to put that young Buck Edge over at

WrestleMania. Edge wins at WrestleMania, then disappears from TV. Baaler, though who lost, is still full time and he's right back on TV working. Why did Edge have to win that match again? I guess when you look at the card for Night Too, he was one of the only baby Faces to actually go over, So maybe they just felt like, well, he has to win because Ronda and Shana they won the showcase match, and Gunther

retained his title, and Roman reigns going to retain his title. So let's give people some joy on a mostly joyless Night Too, and we'll have edge Wynn because otherwise the wrong man won that. I still feel the wrong man won that mat. I don't give a shit. The wrong man won that match period. At end of story Now. Ray Mysterio was a guest on Logan Paul's podcast, Logan Paul has resigned as expected with WWE. They called it a multi year deal. The last one was a multi event deal.

This one is a multi year deal. But Ray was on his podcast he teased the idea of challenging his son to a mask versus hair match. Where have I heard this idea before? He said, maybe I put my mask on the line against his hair, which is some Luca culture, and if I lose, I take my mask off, and if he loses, he shaves his hair off. That might be interesting. He talks a lot of craps, so why not back it up. I think that would be a

great attraction for Summer Slam. We almost had a hair match at Summer Slam few years ago. They announced one between Mandy Rose and Sonya de Ville and then it got changed to loser Leaves WWE. But we did get a hair match once upon the time at Summer s Lam back in nineteen ninety eight between x POC and Jeff Jared. Jeff Jared got a haircut. Waltman was always

laugh when I mentioned that match, or I think about that match. Waltman was pissed about his payoff for that match, so he complained to management about it, and I think he actually said, if I remember the story correctly, he called Vince maybe, and just the way he opened the conversation, Vince was like, well, I can see, I can see where this conversation is headed. Just you know, you should talk to JR. So I think he talked to Jim Ross. They ended up giving him an extra

five thousand dollars just to shut him up. But I said, a while back, you know, Dominic has been growing his hair out because they must be setting up for a hair match. So again, just because Ray mentioned it here in the interview. Doesn't mean that it's set in stone, but it just seems I mean, it seems like such an obvious attraction to me. Cody Rhodes issued a challenge to Brock Lesner for a match at Backlash.

Brock will be on Raw tomorrow night to respond, and hopefully he will have a better explanation for why he did what he did than what they've been offering up on commentary that he was upset with his spot opening up the WrestleMania card this year. You know, it would be more believable if Brock found out that Cody made more money than him, since we know Brock cares about the

money above all else. All right, a little birdie told him that Cody was making more than him at wrestle Madie, his WrestleMania payoff was going to be bigger because he's in the main event, And it just pisces him off to no end that this fucking guy, after leaving could come back and take money out of his own pay day. See, that would be more believable than him being upset with going on first. But with no Roman Reigns on that pay per view, this looks to be the main event for Backlash,

with Owen's Zane and Riddle likely challenging the Soos and Solo Sakoa. We do have new tag team champions though, new women's Tag team Champions and Live Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez. They beat Becky Lynch and Trish Stratus, who was a late sub for Leda, who was taken out earlier in the night by a mystery attacker backstage. Trish took her place and ended up taking the losing fall for her team. They had a lousy match. I mean, there's no

other way to describe this to this was a lousy match. Everybody seemed off. The crowd didn't give a shit. I was struggling to give a shit. This just wasn't good. And after the match came the heel turn with Trish attacking Becky. This also looked bad, a very weak attack. Then came the chick kick, and now we wait for the U People promo from Trish, which I'm sure we'll be hearing from Trish tomorrow night. I'm waiting for the U People line. Somewhere in this promo we'll see why she did

what she did. I think the stories that she got tired of being the third wheel in their act. I think she wrestles Lida first. Then comes the match with Becky. M Slam is a long time off, though they're gonna wait until Summer Slam to do the first match. I just think it's gonna be tough keeping things interesting until then. And to follow up on the

women's tag team titles, I wanted to mention this. Corey Graves on WWE's After the Bell podcast had the following critique of the women's tag team division and hat tip too fightful for the transcription here. He said, as far as the women's Tag Team Championships go, I'm probably going to catch hell for this. It's never been a strong division. It's sort of been an amalgam of thrown together tag teams. I'm going to team with this person tonight. We

have a tag title match. We didn't win. Okay, time to get a new partner. It always has been a very transient and constantly influx division. I am talking the entire existence of the title since the very beginning. And he's not wrong about the whole idea of oh well, we lost, I'll just find a new partner. I think Natalia, I think has won the tag team titles once. I want to say it was with Temina, but I think Naddy has had like five different partners in the Life and This

division. I mean, the tag titles were resurrected. It was four years ago, which is not that long, and I think she's had five different tag team partners. And that's just Natty. I mean, you could probably find the similar examples with other people as well, So he's not wrong when he says that. He did go on to praise the new champions, Rickell and Live. He said that they have what it takes to solidify the division,

whether or not. I mean, it doesn't matter what. It doesn't matter how good or bad of a team Rickell and Live are, It does not matter. What matters is the overall booking situation. If that is not going to change, they're not going to solidify anything. He also said the closest to a serious tag team to hold the titles was the Iconics back in twenty nineteen. Serious is not a word I would associate with the Iconics and

their act, but I get what he's saying. The Iconics were actually the only real full time team to ever hold those titles in the history of the titles since they were resurrected in twenty nineteen. The only real full time team were the Iconics. Every other team has been thrown together. All Graves is doing here is articulating what I and a lot of other people have been saying for years. There is no women's tag team division and there has been no

real purpose in even having those titles. We have had nineteen Women's Tag Team Championship reigns in the last four years. Of those, how many can you name? How many of those have really stuck in your head and have been memorable and stand out to you, or how many of those have benefited the people who held them in some meaningful way. Sasha Banks and Naomi they walked out of the company because of frustrations with their booking as the tag team champions.

Ronda Rousey went off on the old men who booked the women's division and have no idea what they're doing. Only a few weeks ago, that's when she was t about her Few but Live Morgan. But this has been an overall frustration with the state of the women's division. Even people within the company now are publicly levying critiques and we're not just talking about the women's tag team titles. Now we're talking about the women's division as a whole. In totality.

The booking going into the two women's championship matches at WrestleMania was horrendous. The matches were great, no thanks to the six weeks of television that preceded them, but the matches were great at least. I'm still not sure why they resurrected the belt after Sasha and Naomi walked out. They were on ice for three months. They should have kept them there if they didn't have like fucking Encino man. They should have kept them there if they had no plans

for them, but they brought them back. I've tried to think of a solution, and there is no good solution other than building up actual tag teams. And the best women's team they have in the entire company is still sitting in NXT. That's Cayden Carter and Katana Chance. They are a great tag team. I just saw them debut another new move the other day. I'll level up some pretty innovative stuff. I saw the clip popped up in my

timeline. I said, what's this and I watched it. I said, I don't think I've ever seen that before tandem offense, they actually work together as a legitimate tag team. I have no idea why they're still down in Orlando, and they should already be on Raur SmackDown. Maybe they will be after the draft. They should be, but it's going to take more than just one team to fix things. And they already broke up Toxic Attractions,

so they're not even an option. I thought Carmela and Chelsea greenhead potential as a team, but Carmela's out again, so they've substituted Sonya Deville in her place. Is that pairing gonna last? Probably not. Part of the problem is the lack of focus on the women's mid card. None of these women individually are over to begin with, so then you jam them together into these

makeshift teams and still nobody cares. And I thought about that, if junking the tag team titles in favor of a women's mid card title, not adding a mid card title and keeping the tag titles, but junking the tag belts and having a women's mid card title, if that would make sense. You know. Dana Brooks said last month that she pitched the idea of transitioning the twenty four seven title when she had it into a women's intercontinental title to keep

it relevant, but the idea never went anywhere. But with two rosters unless the champion floats, that just doesn't work because there's no need to have two women's mid card titles when they don't pay attention. They don't pay enough attention to the women's mid card to begin with, How are you going to have

two mid card women's titles. If there was one mid card champion who could float between shows, I would be in favor of that over what they have now, but then you would need to do the same thing for the top titles. You have one champion who goes between shows, either Bianca bel Air or rear Ripley, but not both. But they're not going to do that. You know, they have a pretty good pipeline of female talent right now in n X State. I've talked about this before. They're not already right

now, but the future looks good. The talent is there, but it all comes down to the booking, as it always does with these things. You could have the greatest roster in the world, but if you don't know what to do with it, it does not matter now. On SmackDown Friday Night, we learned the dates of the upcoming draft. It begins on the April twenty eighth episode of SmackDown in Corpus Christi, Texas. Oh no,

the draft is coming to Corpses Christie. They always get yeah. I have a few people who listen to the show who live there, and actually a couple of the people agree with me, and they think it's the funniest thing whenever I mentioned their city. But some of them get offended. But look, it's just the fact, I'm sorry. They go to Corpus Christie and it sounds like a bunch of Corpses in the crowd. So that's where the

draft is coming. On Night one, it's going to be Corpses Christy, and then it continues on Raw the following Monday, May first in Fort Worth. Although I will to be fair, to be fair to the people in Corpus Christi, there have been other crowds recently. I just talked about that women's tag team title match on Monday where it was deathly silent, So you

could say the same thing for some of these other places too. But they are notorious for the lack of reactions, but there was nothing of any real note that happened on the show on Friday story wise, but we did end up with a lot more wrestling and the draft. Maybe why it's pointless to build anything long term beyond backlash if they're doing a draft in two weeks, right, I mean, even though again the draft is largely pointless unless they

take it seriously. The rematch for the undisputed tag team titles between the USO Sammy Zane and Kevin Owens is also taking place on that April twenty eighth SmackDown. La Night lost again to Xavier Woods, who is challenging Gunther this Friday for the Intercontinental title. I mean, it's bad enough we have two members of the New Day on the injury list. We're about to add a third. All these losses only make me feel even stronger that La Night is winning

money in the bank this year. Although usually they save all the losing for after someone wins the briefcase, in this case, he's losing before. But they could have Look, there's multiple options here, you know, La Night is not the only option. They could have Cody Rhodes win and announce that

he's cashing in its SummerSlam. They could have Jusso win and get week's worth of television out of Roman Reigns having to look over his shoulder wondering if his cousin is going to cash in on him, right, I mean, there's a few ways money in the bank could go this year. Shinsky, Nakamura, he made his return. He's going to be feuding with Carrying Cross. I know the two of them trained together in the same dojo class. Cross posted a photo of them together on Twitter. I don't know that they'll bring

that up on TV. They probably won't. Both guys need a good program to get them going on this show, especially Cross. He really needs to get something going here because this run has been very uneventful, and people joke about hit Row and you know, even someone like Teagan Knox or Candice and some of these returns, you know, Triple Ad brought talent back that had left the company or been cut, and you know a lot of them have

been a bust so far. Cross, you know, he's kind of in the middle, but leaning on the down downward part of that list because he came back, He's got the superstar entrance, he's got Scarlet with him, you know, they do these vignettes. They're very well shot, but he just doesn't have anything going on. Nakamura has tenure on that roster that Cross doesn't have, so he'll be fine either way. But Cross, you know, Cross has to get something going. Maybe this will be it for him

and another win in the main event for Solo Sucoa over Matt Riddle. They continue to book Socoa super Strong. He's been the one constant that Roman Reigns can trust. He's been the one constant that Roman can depend upon. He's the one who helped Roman keep his title against Drew and Cardiff. He's the

one who helped Roman keep his title against Cody at WrestleMania. So when Roman does drop the championship, they could be setting up for Solo Soko to be the one who finally says no and turns his back on Roman Reigns when he needs him the most in his time of need, which leaves Roman all alone without anyone to help him. And that's when it all comes crumbling. Now, once he loses Solo, I think it's all over. But I love the Hayman promo in the ring when they were doing the introductions, the entire

bloodline Roman Reigns. Who wasn't there. They were all in the ring and Hayman was cutting a promo and he announced the USOS would be challenging Owens and Zane in two weeks for the tag team titles, and he guaranteed they would lose those titles. Owens and Zane would because the tribal chief is losing patience with the two of you. And when he said it, he turned to

stare at Jimmy and Jay and they were completely oblivious to this. They know sold because they didn't see it. They just assumed Hayman was still talking Owens and Zanes. So it was sort of this ominous warning that went right over their heads because they weren't even paying attention. Drew McIntyre missed the show for the second straight week. I don't believe he was scheduled to be on the show this week, but it's the second week in a row he was not

there. We have not seen or heard from him since the triple thread at WrestleMania. He went on Twitter immediately after. He posted a bunch of waving emojis and that's the last thing he posted. He is said to be dealing with some sort of injury issue. Although he was doing promotional work locally for the SmackDown Show this past week. He then was not on the show and he blacked out his profile on Twitter, which got a lot of people talking.

Even though his Instagram hasn't changed, his Twitter has, his profile picture has gone black, his bio whatever was there before, and he WWE mentions is completely gone. With all the talk of him and WWE being far apart on money and his deal being up later this year, naturally people are going to talk, Oh, what does this mean? You know, did they hit an impass and their negotiates. I think this is just Drew leaning into

all the gossip and just playing with people's heads. His contract has many more months left on it, apparently, you know. I asked the question last week. We don't know. I could Drew show up at Wembley if things go south with the negotiations, if his contract is up, could we see Drew McIntyre making an appearance for AW at Wembley Stadium? Apparently contractually that will

not be possible. So that tells me his contract is probably going through to the end of the year, which gives them plenty of time to work out whatever differences that they may have. If it's an issue of money, I am sure that the way this ends is with Drew McIntyre getting, you know, something that makes him happy and staying right where he is in WWE. I don't see him leaving other news and notes. Last week I said there was a mysterious video that was posted on the social media accounts for a New

Japan, All Japan and Pro Wrestling Noah teasing something. I figured it was some sort of interpromotional event, and that's exactly what it is. On Wednesday morning, all three promotions announced All Together Again, the sequel of sorts to the first Altogether, taking place June ninth at Ria Goo Kusumo Hall, English and Japanese commentary will be available. It'll be airing live on New Japan World as a pay per view. A portion of the proceeds will be going to

charities or a charity with details to follow soon. Tickets go on sale April twenty third. At the press conference to announce the crossover, New Japan was represented by Hiroshi Tanahashi, Noah was represented by former GHC champion Kaito Kiamia,

and All Japan by Kento Miahara All Together was a pair of shows. The first one was held in August of twenty eleven and the second one in February of two twelve, that were held in response to a magnitude nine point zero earthquake that devastated Japan early in twenty eleven and the tsunami that then followed. It was the worst earthquake to ever hit Japan, killed over twenty thousand people. All proceeds from the two shows went to the Japanese Red Cross. They

were made up of mostly six and eight man tag team matches. It wasn't like it was some kind of big dream card with big singles matches. It really wasn't about that. It wasn't about championships being on the line or anything. It was a bunch of multimn matches. So now they're doing another one, and you look at the calendar in June here for New Japan, June

is shaping up to be a crazy one for them. They've got Dominion, which is a big annual show for them on June fourth, All Together five days later, and Forbidden Door on June twenty fifth, and that all leads into the start of the g One. The following month, and Dark Side of the Ring. Season four now has a premier date on Vice TV Tuesday, May thirtieth at ten pm Eastern. The fourth season is going to consist

of ten episodes. We do not yet know what all ten episodes will be covering, but seven of them are Chris Candido and Tammy Sitch, the car accident that ended magnum Ta's career, Marty Janetti, Bam Bam Bigelow, The Sandman, Mike Awesome and Abdullah the Butcher, per pw Insider, Nick Foley, Terry Funk, Jim Cornett, Tazz and Hack Saw Jim Doug Boy Hack Saws. Everywhere, isn't He's in He's cornering John Morrison for a boxing match, and now he's going to be on Dark Side of the Ring. And

I think he was on the Jericho Cruise. He was your WrestleMania over WrestleMania Weekend. But Hacksaw, Jim Duggan all were among those interviewed for this season. I said this on Wednesday. Somebody asked me about it in the super Chats. Which one I'm looking forward to the most, I said, the magnum Ta one, because he's he is one of the great what if stories in wrestling, but the Marty Janetti one is the one that scares the hell

out of me. This is the same man who went on Facebook to ask the Internet if it was okay for him to sleep with a girl he thought was his daughter until two weeks before that when he got a DNA test that proved she wasn't his. So even though I thought she was my daughter, she ain't and she's hot, so it's okay, right, and he put this on Facebook. They could dedicate an entire episode to his Facebook posts alone. I don't know how they're going to condense his entire life into forty some

odd minutes, but that one is going to be insane. With their spring breaking show in a couple of weeks, Tuesday's NXT was about setting up the first challenger for Carmelo Hayes and the NXT Championship. We had a very good main event four Away with Grayson Waller, Dragon Lee, JD McDonough and Duke

Hudson. And how Hudson ended up in that match is during a Chase University segment of the Ring earlier where Andre Chase awarded Hudson with a trophy for most Valuable Player for how he helped them beat the schism at Stand and Deliver. During that segment, bron Breaker randomly walked out to the ring and interrupted, and he said, everybody must be wondering why I'm not in the fourway match. Later in the show, he said he doesn't need the title because it

was a curse on his career. He said that he also doesn't need the approval of the scumbag fans anymore. So if you were wondering whether that was an actual heel turn last week, there's your answer. You know, it's weird because he had every right to destroy Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams for cheating to beat him at Stand and Deliver and basically stealing his title, and yet they're cheered. Is the baby faces and Braun is the heel for retaliate?

Or Braun Braun? Think braun Stroman Braun is the heel for retaliating. It's it's kind of asked backwards. But he called the fan scumbags, and so that makes him a heel now. He then politely offered the open fourth spot in the Number one Contenders match to Duke Hudson and Hudson accepted, and Breaker went to go give him a spear. Andre Chase ended up eating the spear instead, and Hudson high tailed it out of the ring with his trophy,

So poor Andre took the bullet for him. As hokey as it is, you know, Hudson finally found something that works for him with this Chase use stuff, which is good for him because I don't think he had many chances left if this failed. It kind of reminds me of Tyler Breese and he used to talk about how he tried so many different things and went through different

kind of personalities and gimmicks and developmental and nothing was sticking. And I don't know if he was told this or if he just felt this way that he had one shot left. And it was the Tyler Breeze gimmick that basically saved his career and led to him working there for many more years and getting a

run on the main roster. And so for Duke Hudson, you know, you try these different things and they don't work, and you just get to a point where if this doesn't work, there's a lot of people nipping at your heels who could take your spot and this may be the end. You know, he had a cup of coffee on the raw roster in the early days of the pandemic. He was tagging with Shane Thorne as a couple of MVP's associates. That was back during when he was going by the name Brendan

Vink. That didn't last long. Then he got sent back down to n XT and he got branded his Duke Hudson and they gave him a poker gimmick. That didn't last very long. So then he got dragged into the relationship stuff with Persia Parada and Dexter Loomis and Indie Heartwell when NXT was going through

its horny phase, and then he ended up joining Chase University. But for Braun, you know, him calling the NXT title a curse and saying that he doesn't want to challenge for it is still it still has me thinking he is destined for a main roster call up very soon, possibly in the upcoming draft. And I think him getting called up as a heel is better than him getting called up as a baby face. I like it. I like

the heel turn. He'll have more fun as a heel. He'll get to cut promos, as a heel, which I feel he'll be really good at. He has that intensity about him, He's very loud. I just think that that will lend itself better to him cutting heel promos and over time, you know, if he gets over the eventual baby face turn will mean more, I will say. Cora Jade came out later on in the show.

He cut a long promo cutting or calling out the women's division. She talked about Zoey Stark and Roxam Perez and Gigi dol and Tiffany Stratton and de Hartwell and the weird Bird Lady or the Weird Bird Girl, Lyra Valkyria, who finally came out to shut her up. It established her as the top heel of the women's division. And with Braun going heel, I'm not saying it has to happen now. I don't even think he'll be down there long enough

for it to happen in NXT. But Braun and Cora, you know there and Idam in real life, the two of them is an on screen heel couple could get some great heat. Von Wagner lost to Ilya Dragonov like he's been losing most of his matches recently. Only this time Robert Stone added the stipulation that if Wagner lost, he would lose Stone as his manager. And that's exactly what happened. So not only has he lost most of his recent

matches, he lost his manager. Now it definitely feels like they have soured on this guy, and we have a triple h and Shawn Michaels in the past say that if guys don't show improvement in six months, they have these six month evaluations, they're gonna cut bait and move on. So I would be worried i fire were him. Frankly, I would be just as worried to fire was Robert Stone. But here's the thing with Old Vaughan. He's not bad. He's not bad. He can work, and he's got size,

which they like. But he's boring and he should not be within ten feet of a microphone. He needs to have a manager. If it's not going to be Robert Stone, then it needs to be somebody else. But the other thing he needs, and I'm being serious when I say this, he needs a mask. And I'm not saying the man is ugly. I think that if they go for the cane vibe with him, where he doesn't speak. He has someone else speaking for him, but he just stands there

all tall and intimidating, and you got to get the mannerisms down. But if he does that, he does power spots where he just destroys people. I think he would get over easier. I really do. Put a cool looking mask on this guy, have him start destroying people and only his manager can control him and stop him, and I think it would do him a world of good. See there's something I bet you were expecting to hear Solo Monster coming to the defense of von Wagner and trying to save this guy's job.

I'm just trying to look out for the guy. Tiffany Stratton against Soul Ruka, they had a match on Tuesday that is going to be one of those matches we look back on, I think in three to five years when they're wrestling each other on the main roster and thinking this is where it all started. These two are two of the brightest female standouts they have in developmental right now. Ruka, her athleticism is off the charts. I mean it

is ridiculous. She just hasn't put it all together yet because she hasn't been doing it for very long, and this match here was meant less to be a showcase for her and more for Tiffany Stratton, who I still think is going to be the NXT Women's champion soon. So she picks up the wind with the Christopher Daniel's best moonsault ever. We also had a couple of debuts on the show. Eddie Thorpe, the former Carl Fredericks out of the New

Japan La Dojoe. He was also the waiter who got a bottle smashed over his head by Roman Reins in the Bloodline Goodfellows parody. After four years with New Japan, he decided not to renew with them. He signed an NXT deal in January. He has incorporated his Native American heritage into his character. The Thorpe name comes from Jim Thorpe, the first Native American to win a gold medal for the US and the Olympics. He's got a ways to go, but he started out here with a win. And then later on in

the show, we had the debut of Tank Ledger. What a fucking name, Tank Ledger. This is Joe Spivak. He was signed as part of the company's first nil class Next in Line where they signed athletes right out of college. I believe he is the first from the NIL program to make it to TV. He's a six foot three hundred pound football player from Northwestern. He's got a little over a dozen matches under his belt so far. He has spent most of that time on Level up. This was his first match

on the main NXT show, and I'll tell you what. He showed some good explosiveness in the ring. He showed good charisma in his loss to Joe Coffee, and even in the back before the match, you know he was showing good charisma. He's got a long way to go to This was only his first appearance, but I think there's promise there. In the main event four a Way, it was another good night for Dragon Lee. He looked even better on the television show in the last couple of weeks than he did

in the five way at Stand and Deliver. He actually had the match one after a power bomb. When Grace and Waller snuck back into the ring hit him with a rolling stunner, Lee fell out of the ring and Waller stole the pin on Duke Hudson to earn the right to challenge Carmelo Hayes for the NXT Championship next Tuesday. We've already seen Waller challenge twice for the NX title this year, and both times he failed, and then he failed against Johnny

Gargano would stand and deliver. Hayes just won the title, so he's not dropping it this quickly. What I will draw your attention to is the date of this match, April twenty fifth, which is only what three days or so before the start of the WWE draft, where they have said every superstar is eligible to be drafted. There's no reason that shouldn't include NXT talent.

So this looks to me like them getting one last match out of Waller before he gets the inevitable call up. And if they have a list of NXT talents that they're calling up or considering calling up, there really is no reason that he shouldn't be at or near the top of that list. You have questions for the mailbag, you can email me the solom Monster at gmail dot com. We got some to go through here some of your emails. We'll

start here with Abanov from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Been a fan for almost a decade now and I'm in my third year of college, you got me feeling old? How do you think I feel? My question for you is how much do you think the perception of a wrestler plays in how people react to them online? For example, if CM punk said the words I'm doing this guy a favor and I could have gone to SummerSlam with the damn belt if I wanted to, he would be crucified. But when John Moxley

says it, nobody cares. And what is your take on hangman page seeming to escape any blame for the situation when you argue you could argue that he started it all. I think it's because of Hangman's reputation and perception that he is just the nicest guy. But if someone were more controversial, like Dax or MJF, if they said it, they would be called out more well. First of all, I was one of the ones who did call John

Moxley out for saying that. I thought it was disrespectful to Tony Kahn to say something like that when Tony bent over backwards to give Moxley what he wanted last year and allowed him to work without a contract against his better judgment because he didn't want to put pressure on him. You know, he just got out of rehab, and all the reasons that Moxley in the interview with Renee talked about not wanting to put pen to paper right away. Tony didn't have

to do that. He should not have done that. It is insane to put your world title on somebody knowing that they are not under contract. But he did it anyway. So why Moxley felt the need to go and articulate that in the podcast and say, oh, you know, I could have taken this and walked into SummerSlam that weekend. As I said then, that was a very stupid thing for him to say. So I was one of the people who know my eyebrows went up when I heard him say that.

As far as you know, to answer your question, I think perception, of course it plays a role. Yes, if someone is well liked, they're going to get the benefit of the doubt more than somebody who people think as an asshole or someone who does not have as good of a reputation. As far as Hangman, what he did was stupid and it made no sense in the context of the storyline. But two wrongs don't make a right.

Nobody has blamedless in that whole fiasco Daniel from Poland. WWE has changed their next Saudi Pli name to Night of Champions, given it's probably connected to the celebration of Romans one thousand day title reign. Do you think this is the best moment to finally unify the WWE and Universal belts and present the new title design that we have heard rumored about. What I personally think they will do is introduce one new title and present Roman in the same manner as the previous

record holding champions and forget about the Universal Championship. Probably that's why he carries the WWE title around his waist and not the Universal title. They seem to care about that lineage since they started mentioning Bruno, Hogan and Backland more often. Well, the reason they mentioned Bruno and Hogan and Backland more often is because that title has a lineage that goes back longer than seven years. The

Universal title has only been around for seven years. Roman is the longest reigning Universal Champion of all time, which, when you say that is not impressive, you know, but the title that ounce towards this long reign, it started with the Universal title right The only long runs though to really compare him to all come from the WWE title side. If they eliminate the Universal title, Roman has no run because that's where the thousand days comes from. He's

only held the WWE Championship. It'll be over four hundred days next month. And if it was anybody else, I say, only four hundred days, that would be impressive, but that's not impressive as compared to a thousand. There's no point in even mentioning Bruno, Hogan and Backland if they just jump the Universal title because that's where the length comes from. So it would just be silly if they did that. You know, if they truly wanted to

unify the titles as one singular WWE title, that's fine. They could do the floating champion deal, but with somebody who works full time and can work both shows, not this part time business where Roman appears on RAW three times a year from Columbus, Georgia. With WrestleMania at forty being held in Philadelphia. Can you see ww inducting Paul Hayman into the Hall of Fame as the headliner next year? And if he is inducted, who would you like to

see induct him? Hayman has said he doesn't want to go into the Hall of Fame until at least until this run that he's on now is over. He thinks he could. You know, there's no rush to put him in the Hall of Fame. But yeah, I would headline. I would headline

Philly with Hayman unless they can get the Rock or somebody much bigger. If you can get the Rock, you know, or even if Batista Patissa were to come in and finally say, Okay, I'm here, I want to have my official Hall of Fame induction finally, then you would headline with somebody like that. But otherwise, I mean, I think Hayman would be worthy of headlining. It would probably be Roman Reigns doing the induction, but it

really should be Brock Lesner. You know, those two were like peanut butter and jelly together for so many years, really from the moment that Brock debuted, even if you take out the eight years that Brock left the company, if you add up all the years they spent working together on screen, either as friends or as enemies. Because Hayman turned on Brock once before. However, they were working together. They lasted longer together working together than the entire

length of ECW. Five years ago, I would have said there's no chance of Brock giving a speech for anyone at the Hall of Fame, maybe not even himself. But he's more chatty these days, and I think for Hayman he would do it. I don't know if Hayman would ask him, or if the company would ask him, but I think if somebody came to him and said, look, we want you to induct Paul into the Hall of Fame, I think Brock would do it. And I think he would be

a better choice than any of the ECW people would be. There's so much distance now. I mean, I get that it's Philly, so there's the ECW tie in. So some people may disagree and say, well, it's Philadelphia, you should have an ECW person do it. If they were going to have an ECW person do it, I think Joey Styles would be the best person you could go with an RVD. I wouldn't go with a Tommy

Dreamer. I mean, he's working for impact anyway. But yeah, ever since I heard that insane story where you know, Dreamer said he was he was such a just a headcase at the time that he had this plan to assassinate Paul Hayman. He was going to shoot him with a gun and then I think turned the gun on himself at WrestleMania seventeen, and I think it was a phone call from Jim Ross that talked him out of it, like, Yeah, we don't need to see Tommy Dreamer given a speech for Paul

Hayman at the Hall of Fame. Could it be RVD? Yeah, it could be. I guess, I mean you could. I guess there's any number of ECW people that you could go with. I think Styles would be the best one to do it. But who do I want to see do Paul Hayman's eventual induction into the Hall of Fame. It would be brock Lesner because I just feel like he's the most appropriate person. Luke from Maricopa,

Arizona. I read that Sonny and Sable had heat with each other in nineteen ninety eight, which is part of why Sonny was released from WWE that year. Why was their heat between these two and why was Sonny fired and not Sable? So depending on who you ask, you get a different answer about her heat with Sable. Jim Ross was the head of talent relations at the time, he says jealousy played a role, which, of course it did. Of course jealousy played a role. Tammy always denied that it did.

Her stock answer was always no, no, no, I wasn't jealous at all. I had no issue with her. We all had a role to play, you know. Her role was Yeah, then she would you know, demean her and say, you know, I was the person who was like the girl next door that you know your mom would want you to marry. And Sable was the one that you would take to the motel for two hours and then kick to the curb. You know. That was That was one of her stock answers in these interviews. But now, of course jealousy

played a role. If you if you were not the shiny new toy anymore and they replaced you with someone who was getting more tension and more screen time and someone who wasn't a wrestling person like Tammy was, then of course there's going to be some professional jealousy there. That Tammy has told the story and it's Tammy sitch, so just keep that in mind. But she has told the story before of the heat really originally stemming from something that Sable said to

her and Terry Rynolds. So I guess somebody could ask Terry if Terry can confirm the story something that Sable said to the two of them in the dressing room one day. Sabel used to bring her daughter on the road with her, and they knew that Mark Merrow was not the girl's father. So one day they're in the locker room and Sonny asked Sabel where the girl's real father was, and Sable told them that he died in a car accident when their

daughter was just the baby. And Sonny was like, oh my god, I'm so sorry, and she claims that Sable said, no, no, it was the best thing that ever happened to me, because if he never died, I never would have met Mark. And Tammy said that at that point she lost all respect for her. She actually called it the most selfish, cruel thing that a person could say. I can use those same words

to describe Tammy for getting behind the wheel, smashed and killing someone. But as far as why Sonny was fired and Sable wasn't, Sable didn't refuse to go to rehab and start no showing events, which is why Tammy was fired. I think there was even a time where she allegedly told Lynda McMahon that she suffered a miscarriage and that's why she missed a show, and she couldn't produce any sort of proof for medical documents or anything like that. It was

just excuse after excuse after excuse. So that's why that and Sable was a draw. If it came down to Sonny or Sable at that time and WWE was forced to choose, Sonny would have needed a nose job. That door would have smacked, shutting her face so fast. Sable looks. Say what you want to about Sable and her run was relatively short. I know she came back at h three, and even then she wasn't around for very long. Say what you want about Sable A lot of people have, but she

was over. I mean, you talked about top names in the Attitude era and people who were popping numbers and ratings and doing business and the Playboy deal and everything. Obviously Austin is going to be at the top of that list. Rock Rock ended up not doing too shabbily either. Sables right there with them. You gotta you think of Austin, you think of Rocks. Sable is right there with them. That's how popular and how over she was for a period of time, and the Playboy covers, you know, had a

lot to do with that. But she was just you know, I mean, she was she was the one that the people gravitated to and that the people paid to see. So yeah, if you if you gave WWE a choice gun to head, pick one over the other, Sonny would not have been there very long. And Adam from Newport News, Virginia, do you have any guilty pleasure matches? Matches that are generally looked down on or got a bad rating, but that you still enjoy watching. Definitely the Blindfold match

from WrestleMania seven with Jake Roberts and Rick Martel. I've always enjoyed that match we LC from Extreme Rules. I forget which year, I think it was twenty thirteen or twenty fourteen, but the WELC match with El Trito against Hornswoggle. I enjoyed that way more than I thought I would. So good stuff there. Keep sending in those questions the Salom Monster at gmail dot com.

You follow me on Twitter at salom Monster. Of course you can find all of the bonus content and all the live streams on the official YouTube channel. We just hit seventy three thousand subscribers on Wednesday, so I want to thank you guys for getting me to seventy three k and now we begin the road to seventy four and beyond. I'm going to be back with you next Sunday for episode eight oh five of The Solom Monster Sounds Off. Talk at all the news of the week. So until then, I hope you have a

great week, be well, stay safe. I will see you live for the Monday night row stream on YouTube and back here for eight oh five next Sunday. Until then, take care, guys. The Salom Monsters Sounds Off. Vince McMahon was not backstage for SmackDown. Suppose Vince McMahon was at an Eagles cuts. I am sure, no doubt rewriting the songlin Joe Walsh can take him on tour with him. They can have Vince go out there and

performs stand back to warm up the Crowns. I don't care where he is so long as he is away from these shows and he is not in the chair. That's all I care about. The Salom Monster Sounds Off each week, bursting with context, podcast predictions, reviews, YouTube live streams, and more. Become a channel member for perks and follow the Salom Monster on Twitter at Salom Monsters off