Sound Off 870 - Stephanie Vaquer DEBUTS FOR WWE And Why Anyone ATTACKING Her Needs To STFU

It's business time, baby. You are listening to Solo Monsters sounds off. It's such good shit. A monster, concudell, a woman. You got grown ass wrestlers in the back going on Twitter. Come over here. Oh my god, we're only an hour in. You have legs. They've made Solo a monster. I was ninety nine percent positive. It was just chessed up. Now I want out of my contract if I don't care what I want. Busy weekend in Japan, we had two all time greats colliding for

the first time ever for pro wrestling. Noah aj Styles back in Japan for the first time in about five years, beating Naomichi Marfuji. It ate great match. I saw the highlights. Can't wait to see the entire thing.

On that same show, they announced the A Block and B Block competitors in their N one Victory Tournament, which is similar to the G one and each block this year includes one star from NXT, Josh Briggs in the A Block and Tabion Heights and the B Bloc, who recently joined the No Quarter Catch Crew. At the same time that show was taking place, Marigold held its Summer Destiny event at Sumo Hall and Eo Sky made her return to Japan with

a win over Utami Hayashishida. Again, I only saw the highlights, but what I saw look great. You know, when Eo wrestles in Japan, she just adds a little bit more than what we see from her in WWE. It's like she's holding back on us. You think Rossio Galo was holding his breath during that Money in the Bank match last weekend. I thought somebody was going to die watching that. He's probably sitting there thinking, please, please let Eo make it out of the match of one Piece so I don't

lose my co main event. That's what I'm going to be thinking when Swerve Strickland works that blood and Guts match on Dynamite next week. He's in our main event at the House of Glory show. Forty eight hours later, I said EOS match was the co main event. That's because Julia returned to action from her broken wrist in the main event, losing to former NXT star Sirey to crown the first ever Marigold World Champion. I think that might have been

Julia's final match before coming to NXT. They've got their Great American Bash show coming up in a few weeks and then No Mercy on September first. She's either showing up at No Mercy or having her first match at No Mercy against Rock San Perez, and we will be seated when she finally arrives. And she's not the only arrival to talk about this week. This is episode eight seventy of The Sola Monster Sounds Off for Sunday, July fourteenth, twenty twenty

four. We passed eighty one thousand subscribers on YouTube this week, so thank you for that, and thank you to those who have supported, including my paper producers. You could always make a donation if you so choose on the

Solomonster dot com. I want to say thank you to Big B Bryant, Vissera, The Diamond, Dallas Nance Machine, Harrison Soapp, Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray, Iowan Corn Farmer, Jesse Lambfeir Daredevil, Doug Lippert, The Portland Pop Star, Paul Hamilton, Ms Madness, Michelle Mills Knight Stalker and if Alsaphar The Chicago Slayer, Willie Iichord Road Warrior, Roderick Welch Fight Them All, David Fields Best in the Game, Trey Porter and Killshot Keith Hart.

And again if you would like to support the show and make a donation, we are always welcoming rookies to the roster here so you hear these legends. Their names are mentioned every single week, but we are certainly always willing to bring some people up from that XT So you can go to the Solomonster dot com and find the link there at the top of the page. I mentioned the House of Glory show before High Intensity. It's our biggest show of

the summer. It's coming up on Friday, July twenty sixth at the NYC Arena in Jamaica, Queens with the return of Swerve, Strickland and Print Nana, and this time they are bringing the aw World Championship with them. Swerve is going to be taking on Amazing Red. Mike Santana defends his hog World Heavyweight title against the debuting Zilla ba Tu. The bloodline will never end, it just gets bigger. So you can get your tickets now at hog Wrestling

dot Net or stream the show live on Triller TV. And you can listen to my dulcet tones which will sound a lot better than I do now when I'm not sick and just announced we are making our Chicago debut Thursday, September fifth at Logan Square Auditorium. That's two nights before aw comes to Chicago for all Out. Tickets are on sale for that one as well. I hope I get to s see some of you there in Shytown. Last week,

I talked about John Cena retiring from WWE next year. He came out last weekend of Money in the Bank and made the announcement that twenty twenty five is going to be his final year in the ring, and I threw out some ideas and some names of potential opponents for him before he wraps up. One name that I mentioned was cmpunk, and I said that I would book one last John Cena cm Punk match to headline the first Raw on Netflix in January.

I didn't get into all of these specifics of what I would do for Sena that year, which I did on Tuesday Night Titan, so I wanted to mention it here too and just expand on it a little bit more because it is a topic of conversation. People are trying to fantasy book the final year of John Cena. There's been some debate about whether Sena really is the greatest of all time. That's the tagline the WWE has given him. They've been marketing him that way for now a number of years. That was a

Vince McMahon thing, and that's really all it is. It's a way for them to market him. Everybody who's going to have a different answer as to the question, you know, is he the goat? Sena himself has said that he thinks Roman Reigns is the greatest of all time. I do not believe Roman Reigns is the greatest of all time. Well, Roman Reigns be the greatest of all time. I don't know. He's not done yet.

I can't say I love Brett Hart, but you know, Brett's my goat in terms of matches, but he didn't do the kind of business that the all time greats did, so by those metrics, he wouldn't be the goat. Neither would Sean Michaels. Unless you're just looking at pure talent, you know, if that's your primary metric, that opens the conversation up. I

mean to a lot of people like Brett and Sean and Kurt Angle. You could expand that out beyond just WWE and You've got Rick Flair and Terry Funk and a bunch of others, But the two most important figures talent wise in WWE in the last forty years are Hulk Hogan and Stone Cold Steve. Austin Rock would be up there right behind them. Sena had the longevity over all of them, so did the Undertaker. But I can't put them ahead of Hogan in Austin. I just can't. I can't put Undertaker ahead of them.

I can't put Sena ahead of them. Were it not for those two exploding in popularity when they did and getting pushed when they did, there may not be a WWE right now, and if there was, it would not be nearly as big as it is making billions of dollars every single year. That does not take away from the success that John Cena has had. You could say that Vince McMahon relied too heavily on him for too long, he at the expense of creating new stars on his level. That's absolutely true.

That is absolutely a valid argument to make. But where would they have been without John Cena. Probably not in a good place. That's exactly why he being. Vince relied on Sena as his top guy for so long. You know that that and Sina went along with whatever they wanted him to do. You know, he wasn't known to be a pest. He wasn't known to be a pain in the ass and always arguing decisions and saying no. He wasn't known to be a politician like you hear stories about certain guys. Now

I'm not saying he never did politic. I mean the JTG story is a classic about him using the words loyalty and respect in an interview once with the WWE magazine and instantly realizing, oh shit, that probably wasn't a good idea. Yeah, and JTG is begging the editor please leave that part out. So I think he may have been talking about his partner. He may have been talking about Shad, you know, loyalty and respect part of what Sina

was calling himself at the time. So he's begging the editor please leave that part out, and they said, oh, yeah, sure, sure we'll leave that out, and of course they published it anyway. And so this was around the time JTG was about to finally get his own shades on WWE shot and it was his first real piece of merch. He was a big Brett Hart fan growing up, so he wanted to have glasses like Brett did.

And he claims in his book that one day Scena corners him in the men's room and says, hey, you know those new shades that you had coming out, Yeah, not anymore now we're even. Now, we're even. Stephen and JTG never did get those shades made. But I remember hearing that for the first time, and I'm like, what kind of maniac reacts that way? Yeah, But for every story like that, you've got a

story like Tyros. You know, talk about how when he was at WrestleMania twenty eight and it looked like his match was about to be cut for time. This was in Miami. That was the night Scena Wrestle Rock for the first time, right, once in a lifetime, which turned out to be twice in a lifetime. So huge main event coming up. Scene is at Gorilla and Funkasaurus is at Gorilla and Sina is hearing this and he leans over and he tells him. He goes, you know, I've got to go

to the bathroom. What do you think? Six minutes? Eight minutes and Tyrus picked up on what he was doing. He said uh yeah, six minutes ought to be good and Sina disappeared. They couldn't find him. You can't find him, you can't go to the next match, right, I mean, he's about to go out there for this big main event and nobody could find him. So what they did was they sent the Funkosaurus out there to do a dancing bit on stage, so at least he was able to

get his WrestleMania moment. So there's a lot lot of like stories like that, mostly good stories, but there's some weird ones too. Sina is just a he's a weird guy. But Sina was a draw for them last year when he came back for a couple of months during the Hollywood Writers' strike,

and this retirement tour is going to do big business for them. It's actually genius on ww Eastpark because every single show that John Cena is going to be on, and he's claimed that, you know, he's going to be doing anywhere from thirty to forty dates, you know, TV and pls and live events, not every live event, but you know enough of them where you can get forty dates out of this guy. You know, he hasn't been

full time or even part time in many, many years. You know, he's got a full fledged career for himself in TV and movies right now. So it's a big thing for WWE to get Seena back for an entire year like that, Every single show that he is on is going to be a sellout or a near sellout. You wonder how much longer could this hot streak that w he is on continue for because they're they're packing in the buildings and they're selling out, maybe not every week, but a lot of weeks.

Now you add the added attraction of John Cena. This is his final match in Chicago, this is his final match in New York, this is his final match everywhere is going to be his final match, last time to come see John Cena live in the ring. You don't think they're going to sell those shows out, of course they are. WrestleMania in Las Vegas was going to be huge anyway, but now they can promote the fact that John Cena

is going to be working his last ever WrestleMania match. Every pl match that he does is going to be his last ever, last Royal Rumble, last elimination Chamber. So the question is what story or stories do you tell with him. John Cena has not won a televised singles match since Super Showdown in twenty eighteen against Triple H. That means coming into twenty two, twenty five, when he comes back in January and we see him, he will be

on a losing streak of seven years in singles matches. You can break a mirror and have bad luck for that long and it ends. And that's how long John Cena has gone winless by the time he comes back in singles matches seven years. I would not have him come back and just win in his first match back. You instantly kill the story Obscena trying to shake off the bad luck and get back in the win column. Why would you do that?

You know, John Cena versus CM Punk. If you do that on the first raw on Netflix, like I've suggested, Punk should win, keep the losing streak going. You know, he enters the Royal Rumble with the idea that he's going to try to win the Royal Rumble one more time. It's already won it twice, and he's going to try to kickstart his path to title number seventeen, which is the other story they need to tell with him. It's the chase for seventeen try to set the all time WWE record.

Nobody has ever won more world titles in this company than John Cena already won sixteen of them. But because of the whole Rick Flair thing, you know, seventeen would trump Flair and would set the record. So I would have him in the Royal Rumble Match and he should fail, so then he has to qualify for the Elimination Chamber, and guess what, he loses there

too, And then we get to WrestleMania. Now we already know it's going to be his last WrestleMania, but he says, let's say, you know, going into it, if I can't win a WrestleMania, I know I've been on this horrible bad luck streak. I don't know if I've got it anymore. If I can't win a WrestleMania, I don't deserve to be here anymore. I don't deserve to have this retirement tour for the rest of the year. So if I lose a WrestleMania, then WrestleMania w be my final

match. The retirement tour ends early, and then at WrestleMania he finally wins, and that is when the real chase for seventeen begins and he starts stringing together some big wins against people like aj Styles who I would love to see him back in the ring with Sena and Seamus one more time, Sena and Logan Paul for the first time. I'd love to see him work with guys like Chad Gable and Dominic Mysterio and bron Breaker until eventually he runs into the

World heavyweight champion Gunther. Yeah, before the Rock started calling himself the Final Boss, Gunther was the real final Boss. That's his chance to win number seventeen and he falls short. I don't think he needs to win the championship, and I know some people are gonna hard disagree with me on that. I don't think he needs to win the title. Then the question after that, because who's his final opponent going to be? If he's going all the

way to December, who is his final opponent? I think Sena against Randy Orton could be the WrestleMania match. You know, for all the matches they've had, they've never had that singles match of WrestleMania. But I would not be opposed to saving Orton for the end of the year. It's his final opponent. You know, as part of this new media rights deal with NBCU for SmackDown, because SmackDown's coming back to USA in a few months, thank god the fuck away from Fox. But as part of that deal, don't

forget, they're obligated to four annual primetime specials on NBC. They can build an entire network special around John Cena's last stand, the end of an era. They usually run Madison Square Garden for a house show the day after Christmas pretty much every year as far back as I can remember, many many years. The day after Christmas is a Friday next year, so maybe they bump

it to Saturday and they run the Garden that weekend. Would be a big state for him to close out his career one last match Madison Square Garden. But that's kind of the general sense of how I would book John ced his final year. I think you have to tell those two stories, first ending the losing streak and then once he does stringing together a bunch of wins to put him in position to challenge for one last world title. And you don't

have to blow off the title chase story for WrestleMania. That's the other question. A lot of people are going to say, well, how do you not have him challenge for number seventeen and maybe win it at WrestleMania. It's WrestleMania, right, that's the biggest WrestleMania match you could do with them. Well, I don't like it because he still has another was the nine months left to go after that? Are you really going to put the title on

him one of the titles and have him hold it for several months? You could, I suppose, but that's not what I would do. So if you blow the story off of WrestleMania and he doesn't win the title, now you've blown off, really now the last big story that you can do, and now you know you've got his last match in every city and everything. It's not like, yeah, it's going to do bad business. But why blow that story up so quickly? Why blow two really good stories for him

off in the first three or four months of the year. You got another nine months to go. Save that for later in the year. Why not SummerSlam? Now they have not announced the location yet, Interestingly, for SummerSlam in twenty twenty five, we already know where SummerSlam is coming in twenty twenty six, it's coming to Minneapolis, probably going to come to Indianapolis in twenty twenty seven, two nights. We don't know yet where it's going to be

next year. Here's a suggestion for you. How about Jillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots. Right scene as a Massachusetts guy, West Newbery, do it just before the NFL preseason begins. It could be a homecoming for John Sena versus Gunther in Foxborough for the World Heavyweight Championship. So as I say that, when you really think about it, it's like, man, they do that. If they do that, if they build throughout the entire year into the summer for Sena, right back to his winning ways,

trying to get number seventeen. He goes to the main event of Summer Slam at Gillette Stadium against the real final boss, right against Goonther World heavyweight title. Man, it's hard not to see him win number seventeen there. It would almost be too good to pass up. Even I would have to seriously consider giving him the win there, because you know, it's all about those moments. It's like the Brian Danielson thing and aaw, he won the Owen.

He's getting the championship match at Wembley Stadium. I don't think he needs to beat Swerve, but if he does, I wouldn't hate it. How could I ever hate on Brian Daniel. He's one of the greatest of all time. He gets one last big moment, I'm sure the fans would love it, but it doesn't have to happen. You know, Brian Danielson's legacy and his Hall of Fame status is already cemented whether or not he wins the world title in aaw John cen Is legacy in Hall of Fame status has already

cemented whether he retires with sixteen world titles or seventeen world titles. You know, all you're doing is patting their resume. The number of titles doesn't matter. It's about those moments that you create for people. You know, a lot of times we look at these stats and we analyze them like it's a real sport, but it's not. It's entertainment. How many championships you win doesn't matter because you're not actually winning anything. And I think we lose sight

of that sometimes, myself included. It's about the story that you're trying to tell, and if they tell the story just right, and it makes sense for John Steena to win number seventeen, then he'll win number seventeen. Sometimes the real story is in the chase, and it can be better when you fall just short. Where scene his story ends up depends on how WWE chooses to tell it. Hey, it's Chris van Vleet. Thank you for letting me pop in here for just a second. After this episode is done,

go check out my podcast, Insight with Chris Fanvleet. All of the interviews that you may have seen on YouTube are also available in audio form. We have two new guests every week, and some recent episodes include a two hour interview with the Undertaker, also Booker, t Adam Copeland, Raymisterio, Christian Cage, Joe Hendry, I said his name, Mark Henry, and many more. Cody Road is also going to be a guest in just a few days. Listen to Insight with Chris Faanvleet on Spotify, Apple or wherever you

get your podcasts. One of the top stories this week after a great showing against Mercedes Monet at Forbidden Door in a match where her PW insider Mercedes came into it with the idea with the goal of making her opponent Stephanie Viquier should send a bottle of rose to Miss Monette because she has left CMLL and New

Japan Pro Wrestling and signed with WWE. Yeah, I swear I've heard at least three different pronunciations of this woman's name the one time, I'm rooting for WWE to actually change someone's name, and Meltzer says that she's keeping it, but we'll stick with Vicaire. If I'm wrong, I apologize. But she

walked out there against Mercedes with three belts and now she has none. CMLL said that Vicaire had left both the promotion and New Japan as well, effective immediately, and would not be participating in her scheduled match at Fantasticamania in San Jose last night. Is said to have received offers from both WWE and AW

coming off the Forbidden Door match with Monette. She wrestled Tessa Blanchard on Tuesday and won the match, and it was pretty clear from her body language and her embrace of Tessa when the match was over, just the way that she was acting, that she knew this was going to be it for her and Tessa seemed to know it also, but that means, you know, with her winning that she left the promotion without dropping her CMLL Women's World title or

women's tag team title that she held with Zaoxis. So they stripped her and they held a triple threat match last night with Luvia representing CMLL, Viva Van representing New Japan, and Willow Nightingale sent in to represent AW. And Willow Nightingale became the first US born champion in the history of the CMLL tipe last night. Yeah. Over the past year, she's held the New Japan Strong Women's title, she won the Owen Hart Cup, last year she won the

TVs title, and now she has won the CMLL Women's title. Not bad, not bad for Willow. Vicare was said to have had offers from WWE and AW, but never seriously considered the AW offer. She grew up in Chile. She's not Mexican. I mean, I've seen people calling her Mexican. She's not Mexican. She's Chilean. She grew up watching WWE and her goal was always apparently to work there. That was her dream. She even had a tryout match with them in twenty eighteen, but they weren't interested in

her at the time. Had she taken the AW deal, she would have still been allowed to work dates for a CMLL in New Japan, who of course are partners now with AW, and also whatever other international bookings that she may have had, like the Rev Pro Anniversary show in London next month that she was advertised for. She was advertised for the Fantastic Comania pay per view last night, three months ahead of time, so they were not happy about

her pulling out five days before the show. Now, WWE of course doesn't care. They want what they want, they don't much care about how it affects other promotions, although they did allow Carl Anderson to drop his never open weight title of the Tokyo Dome after he and Luke Gallows came back to the company, but that was something that Anderson insisted on before he signed. He

wanted to do business the right way. He didn't want to disrespect ghetto in New Japan, and so he was able to work that out and go back and drop the belt. In this case, there was a good reason for WWE not wanting her on the Fantasticamania show yesterday because they wanted her on their show while Willow was winning the CMLL women's title in San Jose. Stephanie Vicaier and made her WWE debut last night in Mexico City with a win over Eila

Dawn. She already made her debut and she'll be appearing tonight at their event in Monterey. They wanted that deal done so they could debut her on their Mexican tour. That's why she didn't drop her titles and do business on her way out. Sounds like this all came together very quickly. I see this woman taking shit from a lot of people online who have no idea what they're talking about, and they were popping off before she was even announced for those

WWE shows this weekend. How could she? How unprofessional? Even after that, Even after that, they may still think that it was unprofessional of her not to first drop her titles before leaving and do business. I can understand CMLL being upset, but if they or anyone else when I say they, I mean these people online, if they or anybody else wants to be upset. First of all, unless you are a CML who really liked watching her in CMLL, it's just fucking weird for any fan to be bothered by where

this woman chooses to work. And I know that part of it is the tribalism thing, because she was on an AW pay per view and there were a lot of AW fans who commented at the time they thought she looked better in that match than Mercedes. They were very impressed by Stephanie. Maybe they hadn't even seen her work before and they were hoping that they would get to see more of her, or maybe she would sign with AW. And so now I'm sure many of them are very upset. The normal ones, of

course, are not going to have an issue with it. They're going to be like, oh, okay, I'm happy for her. But the psychotic ones, the psychotically obsessed ones, of course, are going to be freaking out because they think it's some kind of betrayal of some kind that she was on the AW show and now she's working for the enemy. You know, she's working for WWE. It's just fucking weird. She can't be in two places once. She could only work one show last night. This was the

deal that was presented to her. She moved to Mexico when she was sixteen years old to become a professional wrestler. She tried out with WWE once before. She didn't get it, so she improved and she got better and she made a name for herself. She got over big on that pay per view two weeks ago. They probably saw that and they hit her with a great offer, or or if Tony Kahan made her an offer, maybe she got word to WWE that, hey, I got this great offer over here.

Just wanted to see if there might be any interest from you guys before I commit to this deal. And they said, wait, hold up, don't sign anything, let's work something out. We don't know who hit up who first, probably the former, but it doesn't matter. She took the offer that was presented to her. How can anybody falter for that. I don't understand why she is a catch shit frankly from anybody. Apparently she had a

longer term deal with CMLL. They have let people out of their deals early in the past when they get a big offer to go to WWE or AW. So having a long term CMLL contract doesn't necessarily mean you're locked in for the duration. Probably anywhere but Triple A they would let you go, but they do so with the understanding that they will they being the wrestler who wants to leave, will do business on the way out. So if they're a champion, they'll drop their title, or they'll you know, let them book

them in some kind of send off match. They can get a big, you know house out of it. That didn't happen here. She just up and left, yes, because WWE felt they needed her now for this weekend. It's not like WWE gives a shit. They could not care less. They have no relationship with CML, they have no relationship with NU Japan. Could she have asked to be allowed to drop her titles first before joining. Who's to say she didn't. Maybe she did, and they said no,

we would ordinarily we'd let you, but we can't do that. We need you for this weekend. Like we don't know that. And even if she didn't, who cares. So what, she's an independent contractor. She can do what she wants now. She took the CMLL Women's title to NXT and dropped it in the garbage can, that would be a different story. But otherwise I just think this is all silliness. But aw is proven would be a nice recruitment tool for WWE, haven't they? They suddenly took a great

interest in Dragon Lee after his appearances on Dynamite too. Now, I'm not saying he wasn't already on their radar or somebody didn't already recommend him. I think it might have been Androte who recommended him, but you know, or that she wasn't on their radar either. But boy, you know, it took all of two weeks after she showed up on that pay per view to lock her down. Yeah, it's not like she hasn't been killing it for at least a year now down in Mexico. Right, Why did it take

this long? She's been the top female star down there for a while now. But now she's going to have the biggest possible platform to showcase her talents, and I think she's going to do very well. That's a big pickup for WWE. Shawn Michael's already posted a tweet welcoming her to Orlando, so it looks like when she starts full time it's going to be with NXT. NXT is also where Julia is going to be starting soon. Poor Roxanne, Poor Roxty. If Julia doesn't make mince meat out of her, than Stephanie

will. But boy, you know, you look at the talent that WWE has right now and that they have been recruiting. You had Julia on her way in, Stephanie Viquierre on her way in Jordan. Grace is undoubtedly going to end up there early next year when her TNA contry expires, not a doubt in my mind. There's been a lot of chatter about Delta, which is not just some shitty airline. She's an independent wrestler. I didn't know too much about her myself, but she's an indie wrestler out of Australia.

She's been wrestling for Riot City Wrestling, which is the same promotion where Rio Ripley made her name before signing with WWE. WWE held tryouts in Australia when they were down there for Elimination Chamber earlier this year, and the belief this is not confirmed, but the belief is that she signed already with NXT and that they're just holding off on the announcement until they unveiled their next class of PC recruits. Now I've seen some of her work. She's really good.

So you've got those names, plus you've got Rhea, You've got Bianca EO Sky Bailey. Charlotte Flair is going to be back soon. Becky Lynch is eventually going to be back. Tiffany Stratton is going to be a huge star. Osca is out hurt, but she'll be back. Jade Car Gill is still a work in progress, but she's going to be a megastar regardless. Then in NXT, you've got Roxanne, and you've got Lola Wece, and

you've got soul Ruka. I mean, they are stacked when it comes to their women's division, so is aw By the way, They've got Tony Storm and Mariah May and Mercedes Monet. They just got Britt Baker back. Jamie Hater will be back eventually. They've got Athena toiling Away and Ring of Honor, but they've got her under Ki Trac, Chris Statlander, Willow Nightingale, Hit Kyushida, thunder Rosa. You know that's not even all of them.

This is the best that the women scene has looked ever ever in the history of women's wrestling in the US. I'm talking domestically, okay, I'm not talking Japan and all japan women in the early nineties and stardom and all that, because that's you factor them in there and you've got a competition there. But I'm talking domestic. In this country, the women's scene has never been

better and more stocked with talent than it is right now. And to that end, there is a story going around that WWE is considering creating two women's mid card titles, a women's Intercontinental title in a women's US title. Chelsea Green even commented on The mass Man Show and admitted that she doesn't know anything past what's being rumored online. That's all it is right now, is a

rumor, but she is hoping and praying that it's true. She said that they have so much talent, not everybody is able to be showcased all the time. So for that mid level girl who maybe the fans don't see as someone who can lead a division, adding another title could be a way to help elevate them. I'll tell you what you know. As they continue to add more talent, it becomes harder to argue against having at least one secondary

title. And I'm usually against adding more championships because I just think they have enough as it is, and the women's tag team titles haven't elevated anybody. You know they're just used as a story device when it's convenient, and not a very good one. But with all the talent they have right now and that they have in the pipeline coming in, I'd be fine with them adding a women's intercontinental title as a test on the raw brand. I don't think

we need two at the same time. I think you start with one and you see how things go before adding another one. You know, the minute they announced that they were adding a women's North American title in NXT, I knew it was only a matter of when and not if they did something similar on the main roster. Once she wins the title back from liv Morgan, Rhea Ripley is going to have that women's world title on Lockdown on Monday nights. I look at that raw roster, for example, and someone like Keana

James, who got called up in the draft. She's had exactly two matches and a grand total of ten minutes of ringtime since debuting since being called up. Someone like her could benefit from something like a women's Intercontinental title. Someone like Zoe Stark. Zoe is not winning any world titles anytime soon, but Zoe getting an IC title run instead of just doing tags because they have nothing better for her to do. Could benefit her and don't laugh. Even someone

like Maxine Dupree. Maxine's gotten a little bit better than she was when they first put her on TV, just a little. She's learning, but she's also not getting a ton of ringtime. They made her into such a sympathetic character in this Alpha Academy story. If she continues to improve, you could

build a story around Maxine trying to win her first championship. I don't want to see her sniffing the Women's World title, but her chasing for the IC title that's more realistic to me. And I'm just using her as an example for down the road. If she continues to improve, and again she's a sympathetic character, she's like a I could see a story like that working. The reason a women's mid card title wasn't feasible before is because they didn't have

a lot of depth in their division. When they split the rosters between Raw and Smackdann, you had women on Raw, women on Smackdan. Maybe you had four or five women on both shows. Maybe there was not a lot of depth there. There was not a lot of talent there. Quite frankly, the way they have now, they had women, that doesn't mean they

could all wrestle. Back then, a lot of them were on the show, not for the purposes of wrestling, let's be honest, and the women were not a focal point of the show and the way that they are now, So why the hell do you need more than one title? Right back then it wouldn't have made sense. But I'm telling you, they keep adding women at the pace that they are adding them, and they've got some really good women that they have signed. It's not such a crazy idea anymore.

WWE announced on Tuesday that one of the voices of ESPN, Joe Testitour, will be joining the WWE broadcast team later this summer. This was from their statement, one of the most versatile and veteran voices in sports television, Testator will join the company as a play by play broadcaster beginning this summer. In his role, Testator will work alongside analysts Wade Barrett and Corey Graves. Michael

Cole and Pat McAfee. Will remain teamed up. With nearly three decades of broadcasting experience, Testa Taur is widely considered one of the industry's foremost play callers. He will remain in his role at ESPN and ABC, where since two thousand and two he has been a key fixture on the network's coverage of college football. He's called ESPN and ABC Saturday Night primetime games, the college Football

Playoff and more. Testator is well known as ESPN's blow by blow commentator, having called memorable World Championship fights of Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder, Terence Crawford, among others. Additionally, he has led ESPN's Monday Night Football and has called the NFL Pro Bowl and Wildcard Playoff games on ABC. He has found success in entertainment as well, teaming with Rob Riggle and Stephen Curry on the

comedy competition Holy Molly. Note the fact that they said he would be working with Corey Graves and Wade Barrett. They did not say that he was going to be the play by play voice on SmackDown or that they would be calling SmackDown together. It is possible they flip the announced teams heading into the Netflix era, and maybe they want the three man booth on the three hour show.

They said Michael Cole and Pat McAfee are going to stick together. They used to call SmackDown, and so would not at all surprise me to see them back on SmackDown. And you take these three and put them on RAW, three man booth on the three hour show. I mean, that's what I expect RAW to be. I don't think Netflix is spending five billion dollars for a three hour block of programming just to share it down to two. While I would love that, I find that a little hard to believe.

I liked the job that Corey Graves did on play by Play. I thought he adapted to the role very well. Uh the fact that he would, you know, still be switched back like he wasn't money in the bank to the color analyst role whenever he and Michael Cole would do those pls together probably should have been a sign that it was never meant to be a permanent arrangement. I'm not a big college football guy, but what I have heard of

Tessaitor, he is very good. He's got that great announcer voice. He's a lifelong WWE fan, which helps that he's got the product knowledge right that the play by play announcer needs the have for this job. He's led ESPN's WrestleMania coverage each of the past three years. He was Nick Cohn's first media

client during CON's days as an agent. So this is yet another example of Nick con reaching out, you know, reaching into his rolodex and reaching out to one of his friends in the sports world to bring them in as an announcer. Just because he's great at what he does in the sports world does not necessarily mean it's going to translate well to wweight. I mean, let's be honest here, Okay, let's take a look at what we have had

so far. Their batting average with sports announcers has not exactly been great. Mara Ronalo, he's doing boxing an MMA, also a big wrestling fan. He was excellent in NXT. Then he got called up to SmackDown and for various reasons, he did not last very long. Ad Non Verk was brought in by Nick Kahn to be the lead announcer on Raw because, wouldn't you know it, Nick Khn was his agent before he came to WW eight.

Sound familiar. He was terrible in the role. He was gone six weeks later, so they brought in Jimmy Smith, who was an MMA announcer to replace him, and he was better, but he also did not last very long. They replaced him as the lead voice on Raw with Kevin Patrick, who had called Major league soccer games previously, and that's what he's doing again now. He was never a good fit for the role. He lasted less than a year before being moved to smack Down and then he was let go.

I hope things work out this time, but as you can see, it's been a revolving door. Until we hear him in the role, it's impossible to know if this is going to last or not because usually, like with ad Non WK and Kevin Patrick, and I really I even said at the time, We've got to give this guy time, right. I remember that first night with Kevin Patrick, and I'm like, all right, it's one night, right, Like, let's see where things are, like,

you know, four weeks from now, six weeks from now. But I think after the first one or two appearances, you hear them in that role and how they interact with their partners, and you have a pretty good sense of whether or not this is going to work or not. So let's wait and see how he sounds in the role, because otherwise it's just pos possible to know if this is going to last. We're going to have a pretty good sense after his first couple of shows whether or not this is going to

be a long term thing. This week's episode is sponsored by Express VPN. You remember the days before autosave, when you'd be typing up a word document and then you would get hit with the dreaded blue screen of death and you would lose all of your work, Probably not if you were using a Mac, but I remember that, and let me tell you it was no fun. Hours of podcasts were gone just because I forgot to hit save. Well,

that's what it's like to go online with that Express VPN. Every time you connect to a network that's not encrypted, it doesn't matter where it is. It could be your grandmother's house. What does she know about Wi Fi security? If she's got a computer, she barely knows how to turn the damn thing on. Your online data isn't safe with granny or anyone else. Any hacker on that network can easily gain access to your most sensitive data.

You'd be surprised just how easy it is. Even a twelve year old could do it, and that data could be worth a lot of money. On the dark web. ExpressVPN stops hackers from stealing your data by creating a secure, encrypted tunnel between your device and the Internet. What I love about ExpressVPN is how easy it is to use. You just fire up the app, tap one button in Boom, you're connected, and it works on all my

devices. So I can carry that protection around with me wherever I go, and it's rated number one by top tech reviewers like c neet and The Verge. When I was on the road in Tampa at the Royal Rumble this year back in January, I had my laptop with me and I was glad I had ExpressVPN installed at the Airbnb. My livelihood is on there. I spend a hell of a lot more to fix something on my car than I do for my ExpressVPN subscription. I need my car, so why wouldn't I look

at my VPN as something just as important. Secure your online data today by visiting ExpressVPN slash solo Monster that's e x p R E s s vpn dot com slash Solomonster, and you can get an extra three months free Express vpn dot com slash solom Monster. Ria Ripley returned at the end of Raw Monday night, just when it looked like Dominic mysterio was about to fold like a cheap suit to Live Morgan after they won their mixed tag team match against Raymas

Stereo and Zelina Vega. So Dom finally got a win over his deadbeat dad. He wound up on top of liv It looked like they were about to kiss and Ria's music kid and the reaction was so great, not only from the fans, but from Live too. I thought her reaction was just perfect. She ran for her life after that, Rhea confronted Dom and then refused

to listen to him when he tried to explain himself. She's scheduled to open the show tomorrow night, and we'll find out if she's cleared or not based on whether or not we get the challenge to Live Morgan for a match at SummerSlam. Her star power and just the way that the fans react when she comes out, Rhea Ripley is just on another level right now. And according to PW Insider, internally she's now listed as a babyface, which of course

she was always going to be when she came back. That's not a surprise, it's just it's wild. How that works. Isn't it like liv Morgan had her arm broken in storyline by Rhea Ripley. That was a way to write her off the show. When Live had shoulder problems, they had Rha injure her in the middle of the ring. She pilmonized her arm if I remember, so, Liv Morgan comes back after months on the show. She comes back and she's talking about her revenge tour, and she ends up being

the bad guy in all this. But that's just a testament to how over Ria Ripley is and also how horny their male fan base is and female fan base, you know, judging the post I see online, I think Ria has just as many women lusting over her as she has men. I mean, her popularity crosses many demographics. When her and Live have that first match, though I don't think Rio Ripley should win that match. This story is just too good to blow it off after one match. Dominic is going to

be involved in some way, officially or unofficially. Maybe it'll be a case of whose corner is he going to be in? Like Elizabeth at WrestleMania five, is she going to be in Hogan's corner? Is she going to be in Savage's corner. She ended up in a neutral corner. Maybe that'll be Dominic in this match. I don't think he turns on Ria, but I do think that they need to find a way for Live to win or at least not lose her title yet and keep it going for a little while longer.

Everybody assumes this woman is about to die, but they should make him wait for it. Also on Raw, we had a head to head promo in the middle of the ring with Seth Rollins and CM Punk. No Drew mcinton because he was suspended after flipping out on Adam Pierce's money in the bank after his failed cash in last weekend. Punk actually asked Pierce on Monday to unsuspend McIntyre so that he could get him in the ring. So Pierce told Punk, look, you stay home tomorrow night. So Punk is not going

to be well, he's not supposed to be on the show. That doesn't mean he won't be there, but he has invited Drew McIntyre to come to the show so they could have a discussion. And what you got out of this segment on Monday is that Seth Rollins does not like CM Punk Right newsflash

I know what a surprise. He made that very clear, and that also he told him not to get involved in his business, which is what Punk did last weekend, and Punk feigned an apology to him, but he still couldn't bring himself to actually do it without being sarcastic because he's a dick. Actions have consequences, is what CM Punk said to Drew McIntyre before Rollins came out. By the end of that promo, Rollins threw it right back at

Punk and warn him actions have consequences. Sure looks like there may have been something to that little nugget that I shared with all you guys during my SmackDown recap last week before Money in the Bank, when I told you that I had heard that Seth Rollins was penciled in to be the special referee for the Cmpunk Drew McIntyre match at SummerSlam. Assuming Punk is cleared in time, which

I expect him to be. I'd be very surprised if he wasn't. I suppose it's still possible, and it sounded crazy at the time, but doesn't sound so crazy now does It doesn't sound like the plan is for this to be a triple threat match. And if it's not going to be a triple threat match, but Rollins is going to be involved in some way, then being the guest referee or the guest enforcer is the only other thing that would

make any sense. So I'd say it sounds pretty like that's what we're headed for at SummerSlam, Ron Breaker, he did not win the Intercontinental title of Money in the Bank, but they made it very clear on Monday Night that he is still in the hunt when he left Sammy Zane and Iliya Dragonov laying now. Sammy is defending the title on Raw Tomorrow Night against Dragonov. Gee. I wonder if a certain someone is going to get involved in that match.

Looks like we may be heading for a triple threat for the title at SummerSlam. On SmackDown, we had two championship matches all but confirmed for SummerSlam, La Night and Logan Paul for the United States title. Logan Paul was not there to sign the contract, but he will be on the show this Friday. The man has been champion. I pointed this out on Friday Night.

Logan Paul has been the United States Champion since November. He has defended the title twice since then hell of a champion, a hell of a champion who has now been pinned two streat times in his last two matches. So if you are one of these people assuming that La Night he's got to win the title at SummerSlam, right, ask yourself this question, do you honestly

believe that they are going to beat Logan Paul three straight times? Because I don't now, it's still early yet, I'm not going to make all my Summer Slam predictions right now, but call me crazy. I think he's retaining at SummerSlam. I have a feeling they're going to want to get at least

one more match out of these two before he drops it. And Cody Rhodes told Solo Sikoa that he would talk to Nick all this and would see him at SummerSlam for the WWE Championship. It's not the Summer Slam main event that I wanted, but it's the Summer Slam main event that we're getting. That's why Solo pin Coody of money in the bank to set this all up.

It's why they've been booking Solo as strong as they have lately and doing these big heat segments with the bloodline, right, destroying Paul Hayman, destroying Randy Orton. They demolished him on Friday Night, right in front of Cody, who was tied up in the ropes and helpless to do anything about it. Roman Reigns is coming back. I don't see the point in him coming back before SummerSlam with three weeks to go. You saved that shit for SummerSlam.

Once that happens, Cody can move on, hopefully to Randy, who I would imagine is not going to be very happy that he stuck his neck out for Cody, only to get killed for it. And then Roman and Solo they can start their story. We're gonna end up with two warring bloodline groups. We're gonna get a war Games match out of it. I could see it all coming. That'll take them through the end of the year. Jacob

fought too. He looked like a wrecking machine on Friday out there. I'm thinking the direction maybe FA two against Kevin Owens, maybe to avenge what happened to Randy Orton, because the Orton angle felt to me like a way to write him off for SummerSlam. I don't think he's gonna have a match on that show because I don't expect them to be back before then, but you know, depending on how the personal family situation goes with Kevin Owens. You

know, his mom was rushed to the hospital last week. She might still be there. I don't know how serious that still is. I don't know how long he may be out for. But let's say they get Kevin Owens back in the next couple of weeks. I just feel like that would be the direction I assume for SummerSlam. I don't know. Again, he likes to keep these cards very tight five or six matches. Maybe they don't have room for a Jacob Faught two match on that show, but FO two against

Kevin Owens really should be. If they do it, it really should be a Summer Slam match, and real quick. On NXT this week, we got a Rascals reunion. Wes Lee looked like he was about to call it quits when Trey Miguel and Zach Wentz, the former Nash Carter, showed up straight out of TNA. It's part of this whole partnership between NXT and TNA. It seemed pretty clear to me after the Battleground show last month that this

was coming. I thought it was going to happen a lot sooner, but it looked even then like, okay, they're teasing Erascals, Arrival, Rascals Reunion in the good a feud with Gallas and sure enough in the back later on on Tuesday they were confronted by Gallas And now we have a six man tag on the show this week, and they brought back Joe Hendry. Say

his name and he appears as Trick Williams mystery partner. Out came Joe Hendry against Ethan Page and Sean Spears. He came off like a bigger star than any of the actual NXT talent in the match, even got to pin Shawn Spears to win the match for his team. And Joe Hendry is one of the six men challenging for the TNA World Title at their slam Aversary pay per view next weekend with Moose, Nick Nemeth, Frankie Kazari and Josh Alexander and

Steve Macklin. What do you think the chances are of the countdown buzzer going off at the Royal Rumble and hearing Joe Hendry's theme, I'd say they're pretty damn high. If he still is over in January as he is right now, let's talk about aew. I thought Dynamite was a kick ass show on Wednesday with a lot going on. The owen Hart tournaments are now done. They are finished. Brian Danielson finally won a belt, the owen Hart Belt, the Pink Belt. But now he gets to challenge for the aw World

Championship again. Swerve Strickland did all in. Tony Kahn really wants Brian to get that moment at Wembley. I was hoping it would be Hangman. He and Brian had a hell of a match, pay per view caliber, restaurant quality, as Jim Ross would say. By the way, I just saw Jr. Underwent surgery on his wrist the other day. Apparently that went well. He didn't say how it happened or why, but I know he's fallen

in the past. I hope he didn't fall again. You know last time he tripped over the cord to his seatpat machine getting out of bed in the middle of the night and hit his head I think on the end table. There are a lot of older people who die from that. So he got a black eye and that was about as bad as it was. He's just

had a really bad streak of bad luck with his health recently. But anyway, Hangman went to the Young Bucks later on in the show after Swerve Strickland announced that he would be leading Team AW in the Blood and Guts match next week, and Hangman told the elite, I want in. So he is going to be the fifth man because that's how he gets his hands on Swerve. Two weeks after All In, they're coming back with All Out in Chicago. I think that would be a great place for him to challenge Swerve for

the title. But then again, I mean, at the rate Tony Kahan is throwing pay per view quality matches out there on TV, they're liable to turn around and do it on Dynamite. In two weeks. On the women's side, Mariah May beat Willow Nightingale to win the Owen Hart Tournament, and what followed was truly one of the best segments in Dynamite history. It was one of the best closing angles in Dynamite history, and that is no exaggeration.

From day one, when Mariah May came to AW from stardom. They took the story from the plot of the movie All About Eve Ties in directly with Tony Storm's timeless gimmick when she started acting like the aging Hollywood starlet and she gets to befriended by the younger protege who she takes under her wing like her understudy. I even said they should have Mariah's substitute for Tony in some of her matches as her understudy. They could have the ring announcer, say,

tonight playing the role of Tony Storm. Mariah may right, like really lean into the gimmick. But that was the plan, you know, with the twist being that in the end, it was all part of Mariah's master plan to usurp Tony as the star or in this case, the champion. So when I say it was a shocking heel turn, I don't mean it

like, oh my god, I can't believe Mariah turned on Tony. It was the way in which she did it and when they did it that was so shocking, Like I should have seen it coming, but I wasn't expecting it so soon as in the same night that she won the tournament, it became the number one contender. But there they were skipping merrily up the aisle, you know, to the Owen Cup Trophy. And I thought Tony was laying it on a little thick. I'm like, you know what, this

woman just became number one contender for your title. I thought maybe Tony was going to turn on her. But as soon as Mariah grabbed that owen belt off the stand the podium on stage, she blasted Tony in the head with it, and the crowd was stunned. I was stunned just by how violent the attack was. Tony did a blade job for it, and Mariah, I mean, we see blood all the time on this show, but not usually with the women, and I can't remember a blade job with the women

like this. And Mariah looked like an absolute fucking psycho out there. She's whipping her with the belt. She's striking her in the head repeatedly with Tony's own high heel shoe. The irony being that for over a year now, Tony has been telling people to watch for the shoe. The one person who should have known better than anyone to watch for the shoe got her brains beat in with the shoe. And Mariah didn't look like she was holding back either.

Those were some vicious shots that she was laying in. I'm sure Tony told her beforehand, hey, don't hold back, and she didn't. She also knogged Luther off the stage and he took this hilarious bump down through a table, and we had this great visual of Mariah May holding up Tony's storm by her. She's on her knees and she's just drenched in blood with Mariah standing there behind her. And then they pan out and they have the graphic

up for the Wembley match on screen. It all in. He got Mariah rubbing her face in the blood, fans chanting you sick fuck at her. This was fantastic, This was This was just an unbelievable angle here. I only wish they would have saved the blood for the end of the show only and not had Brian Danielson out there in the opening match of bleeding like a fucking pig. I mean, it wasn't even needed there, right, I

mean, think about it, like Hangman and Brian. I know, it's the finals of the Owen and Brian probably wanted to go balls out and he loves the bleed. That's one of the reasons he came to aw No joke. Had this conversation with Vince McMahon I want to bleed, you can't bleed. But if you think about it, in that match, the story was Brian's neck. He didn't have to fucking bleed, yo. But it's aw

Tony's gonna let them do whatever the hell they want to do. If Brian Danielson wants to bleed in the finals of the O and you really think Tony is gonna say no, He's gonna put his foot down. Of course not. Maybe he didn't even tell Tony. He probably just went out there and did it. But this is up there among the greatest betrayals in wrestling that I have ever seen. That closing visual was just done to perfection. They

could not have pulled this off any better than they did. That's how you set the stage for your women's world title match on your biggest show of the year. I only hope they didn't peak too early because they're still six weeks to go before Wembley. MJF versus Will Osprey look to be the direction for all In, but they threw us a curveball by having MJF brow out the challenge to Osprey to a match for this Wednesday on Dynamite in Little Rock,

Arkansas. I think North Little Rock, Arkansas, and Osprey said yes. So for the first time ever, we are getting MJF against will Ospray for the international title on TV in front of twenty one hundred people instead of fifty thousand in London. Are we sure John Cena is the only one having a retirement tour because it feels like Tony Kahn is trying to blow through all the

big will Osprey matches as quickly as he can. They already knocked out Danielson, they knocked out Swerve, Now they're going to knock out the MJF one. He's only been signed since well he's been signed since last year, but he only showed up in February. But it is happening. It's not going to be an angle or a bait and switch. They're advertising it. They're going to open the show with it. I believe they're giving the match away

this week. Reason being, Tony is trying to load up these Dynamites as much as he can because they are in the home stretch when it comes to negotiations with Warner Brothers Discovery for their next media rights deal. We know the numbers have not been great. They have fallen off from where they used to be. Anybody telling you that ratings don't matter anymore is lying to you.

Don't listen to those people. They do matter. If they didn't matter, we would not be getting MJF against Will Osprey and Swerve against Kazushka Okada on the same show this week out of nowhere, Swerve throughout the challenge to Okada Champion against champion, and it's happening this week since both met are in blood and Guts, which by the way, is for next week's Dynamite. So if you don't think that Tony Khan is not trying to impress mister David Zaslov

as he calls him, open your eyes and pay attention. He's got a few hundred million reasons why he wants these shows to do well. What doing well even means for Dynamite anymore, I don't even know. I mean, the show last week pulled in six hundred ninety one thousand viewers. Their demo number was the third lowest of the entire year. I don't know what they would consider a success, And really the only ones who matter here are Warner

Brothers, Discovery and what they think are a success. That's really all that matters here. If they draw seven hundred thousand viewers and they think that that's a success, then that's what matters. You know more than you know Joe Blow on Twitter. So I don't know what their metric is for success when

it comes to these numbers on these shows. But when you load the show up like they are this week, if you can't pull in at least eight hundred thousand viewers, and I don't see how that could be seen as anything but a disappointment. And they haven't touched eight hundred k since they put CM Punk back on TV to pop a number back in April, that doesn't seem very likely. Anybody thinking that, oh it's a given they're gonna do eight

or nine hundred thousand this week. I think you're in for a root awakening, is what I think. M Pack won a four way match later in the show to earn the right to challenge for the International title at Wembley Stadium

so he could get his Wembley moment. He says, well, if that's the case and he's getting that title shot at Wembley, MJF is not walking into Wembley then as the International champion, which could mean a Daniel Garcia return on Wednesday to cost MJF his match, which would then give us MJF against Daniel Garcia at all in with Will Osprey defending the international title against Pack.

That that would be a hell of a match MJF against Garcia. They've got a hell of a task in front of them to convince me that that is the best match for MJF on that show. It'd be a hell of a spot for Daniel Garcia. Would put MJF at best fourth from the top at all in, behind the world title match, behind Osbray and Pack, and behind Tony Storm and Mariah May maybe even Mercedes against britt Baker. But at least MJF and Garcia they have a big angle behind him. Mercedes and Brittain.

They really don't all right, Britches showed up and asked for a match. Let's take some mailbag questions. You can always email me the Solo Monster at gmail dot com. Please include your name of where you are from when you write in. Josh from Blaine, Minnesota, been listening since twenty seventeen.

A lot of your opinion about possible matches for brock lesnar if and when he returns mainly nxten names or newer guys that debuted on the main roster, and was wondering which of these five stars you would like to see him in the ring with the most, Ilia Dragonov, bron Breaker, Trick Williams, Oba Femei, or Jacob fought to Well. The names that jump out of me right away are Ilia, Dragonov, bron Breaker, and Jacob Fat two. So I think in brockwre to come back, I'd love to see him

wrestle summer all of those guys Oba Feme. I mean, I don't see that happening anytime in the near future. I think he's still got some time in NXT. That would be another one, honestly, all of them except Trick Trick, I don't see Trick against Brock. That one doesn't jump out at me is like, man, I can't wait to see Trick Williams against Brock Lesner. I want to see Brock in there with some of these guys

that you know they hit hard or they can match him size wise. Like the one of all of these five, if I had to settle on one, would be Jacob fat too. I think Jacob Fat two and Brock Lesner would be just the battle of the two freak athletes. But I mean they're all freaks in their own way, like bron Breaker is a fucking freak. But I just think Lesner and Jacob Fatwo would be a lot of fun.

Carlos from Bayshore, New York. I was listening to you and JD on Tuesday, Love the show, by the way, thank you very much, And when you guys were talking about John Cena's potential WrestleMania opponent, it got me thinking of the potential WrestleMania forty one card. I am personally in favor of having seen his chase for seventeen happen at Mania and agreed that he should face and lose to Gunther, with The Rock most likely having a match on

that show against either Roman or Cody. And he says, my dream card has Rock Roman and Drew Cody. He thinks Drew should get a title run. Can't see that happening with Gunther on Raw. Should see his final WrestleMania match be a Night one or Night two main event Night one, it would be Night one. The Rock gave Cody his moment on Night two this year. He was very generous. If he wrestles again next year, He's not wrestling Night one again. He's getting Night to So it almost doesn't even matter

who the Rock's opponent is. If it's Cody, if it's Roman, you could pencil that in right now, that's going to be your Night two made event. So if anything, Senior would have to settle for Night one Roderick from Baltimore, Maryland. While Finn Baalor has no doubt had a successful run in WWE, it still feels underwhelming. I feel like it traces all the way back to twenty sixteen when he became the first Universal Champion, only to

surrender it the very next night due to injury. It never felt like he fully regained the momentum he had during that summer when he was a top pick for Raw and beat Roman reigns and seth rollins on his way to the title. Had Balor not gotten hurt and was able to have that run as Universal Champion, do you see his WWE run going any differently? Do you think Balor would have been a bigger player in the company or would he have ended up where he is now as a solid role player and contender who is not

quite viewed as the guy. Finn Baalor was never going to be the guy, so we could just dismiss that right now. Not under Vince McMahon, he was never going to be the guy, and I think ultimately he would have settled into the role that he's basically in right now. You're asking me if I think that that injury that derailed that title run in twenty sixteen would have an impact on where he is right now in twenty twenty four, and I'm gonna say no, I think ultimately he would have ended up more or

less in the same place that he's in now. It definitely derailed his momentum. I definitely think he could have had more time on top. Would he still be a top top player in this company though beyond that period, No, I don't think so. It's like Kevin Owens having the Universal title, right he was the Universal Champion and he had a run with it, and then Goldberg beat him for it, and he hasn't held a world title since, or a title of the Universe. I guess you would say, man,

fuck that Universal title. I'm glad they don't acknowledge it anymore. But Owens has been in the mix right. Owens has been a reliable role player for them and whatever they need him for, whether it's an upper mid card feud. He was the Intercninental champion a bunch of times, I think the US champion as well. Of late, he's been involved in the Bloodline stuff.

He's been in a pretty prominent position. He was literally just in the main event of Money in the Bank last weekend, and that's kind of the role the Balor is it. You know, he would have had his run as Universal Champion, and I think he would have settled into the same type of role. But he was never going to be the guy. He just

wasn't going to be. Not when this company had other people like Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes, where John Cena was still kind of around at the time, it was never gonna be Balor Marlin from Dallas, Texas by way of Memphis, Tennessee. Although we are not getting Swerve against Hangman at Wembley, I feel like that match not going or he says that match is not going to be a clean finish, and what I mean by that is I got a feeling a jealous Hangman is going to show up and try and cost Swerve

the title out of pure rage and jealousy. And at the same time, I think Nigel McGinnis will make his move and attack Danielson and set up their match for the next Hay per view. What do you think of this idea? I know it sounds overbooked, but I don't know about a clean win

over either of the guys at Wembley. I think they need to tread very carefully because you don't want to have your main event at Wembley Stadium derailed by a bunch of overbooking and interference, and that's not the way Tony Kah usually books these shows. I think Brian Danielson going to the main event at all in it's either going to be Danielson with a hard fought win or Danielson with

a heart fought loss. I don't see Hangman getting involved in that. Now you say that you have Nigel McGinnis making his move and attacking Danielson to set up their match at the next event, which would be all out, I think that's a complete waste. You've had a year to build to Nigel McGinness if he was ever going to come out of retirement. This is the time

and place to do it. It's I mean, think about it, Nigel, Okay, you got Wembley Stadium coming up, and you're gonna shoot an angle on that show with him to set up his return match, his first match in like a decade two weeks later in Chicago. What sense does that make? You Either do the match at Wembley or you don't. And Nigel doesn't have to come out of retirement, and he could just be an announcer

and do his magic shows that he does every now and then. But if ever he was going to come out of retirement for a match, it would be at Wembley against Brian Danielson. They opted not to do that, whether that was a Tony Kahn call or Nigel McGinnis call. Maybe he doesn't want to come out of retirement. But to me, if you were going to do the match, but do it two weeks later in Chicago, I mean,

what the fuck would be the point? It's like what I said going into Forbidden Door, where it's like, you can't put the world title on will Osprey for a bunch of different reasons, But why the hell are you gonna put the world title on will Ospray In New York on Long Island two months before you have this huge stadium show in London. If anything, you would belt him there. You don't do it two months beforehand in New York. It would be just completely ridiculous. That's how I look at this.

I think it would be ridiculous to do the Nigel McGuinness match anywhere but Wembley's Stadium. Dak from Saint Paul, Minnesota. It seems like outside of the Big Four shows, WWE pls look to be about five matches only. What do you think of WWE returning to the brand specific plees? It would allow more talent to be on the shows and be able to add some variety. Obviously the Big Four and Saudi shows would be co branded, but why not

have the others be brand specific? And I more so mean it like it was with the OG split, where it was every other month, not two brand specific pls in the same month like in twenty sixteen. What do you think? Yeah, that was just a terrible fucking idea and we don't ever have to go back to that. The uh you know, the two brand specific pls in the same month. My issue with a lot of those OG brand specific shows was that they weren't worthy of fifty bucks. They weren't worthy

of the price tag. You know now you can get them for twelve bucks with a Peacock subscription. I still don't see the point in doing them if you're gonna switch off because most of these shows, I just don't think it works because of their schedule. Most of these shows are gonna be co branded. You need talent from Ron SmackDown. So let's game this out. You

have the Royal Rumble right January February, you have the Royal Rumble. You're gonna have talent from Bull shows, The Elimination Chamber, You're gonna have talent from Bull shows, WrestleMania, You're gonna have talent from both shows. Money in the Bank, You're gonna have talent from both shows. Two Saudi shows throughout the year, you're gonna have talent from both shows. SummerSlam you're gonna have talent from both shows. Survivor Series, You're gonna have talent from both

shows. That's eight shows right there that need to be co branded. So are you gonna have one raw exclusive show in March and then not have another one? Not have a SmackDown exclusive one until what June September. It just doesn't work. I just don't see the point in doing that. You know,

you didn't have elimination chamber and money in the bank. I don't think when they started doing the uh like the OG days of doing the brand specific shows, right, because they didn't start with the gimmick pay per views really until what was like oh nine, I think right. I'm pretty sure they were doing the brand specific shows before that, so back then you didn't have elimination Chamber, you didn't have money in the bank, which have to be

co branded. It just doesn't work. I don't like that, Michael. I just watched the last pay per view CM Punk was part of before leaving WWE and forgot how the crowd really didn't like the Royal Rumble match. I don't remember did you like the event or did you feel like the John Cena Randy Orton match was boring? I thought the match was okay. Brian should have at least been in the rumble and Punk could have won the thing.

Also, I found it funny that the first two entrants in the Rumble match were Seth Rollins and CM Punk. The possible main event four Night one of WrestleMania. The sena Orton match. Boy, you're taking me back now of the dark days. The sena Orton match in twenty fourteen. It wasn't awful. It just wasn't really any good. I had just seen them work the same match, I think, more or less at the Madison Square Garden House show a few weeks before this. But the crowd shot all over it and

they chanted Daniel Bryan. They crapped all over that match. Punk should not have won the Rumble. Brian should have won the Rumble, but they were

too stubborn to realize it. You know. Them bringing back Batista to win the Royal Rumble and challenged Randy ort In to WrestleMania in the middle of the Rise of Daniel Brian was just as tone deaf as what The Rock did this year, every bit as tone deaf as The Rock coming back in the middle of Cody's story to challenge Roman Reigns a WrestleMania, and both times they at least changed plans and did the right thing. The twenty fifteen Royal Rumble was

even worse. Rumble match was even worse. Like it's one thing to fuck up the rumble one time to fuck it up two consecutive years. Takes a special kind of talent. Mark from Florida. I've always wanted to know your thoughts on Takeshi Moorshima, Any memories of him from Ring of Honor or matches of his that you would recommend. Do you think that we will ever get a Dark Side of the Ring featuring his story? Yeah? You know,

Marishima is one of the sadder what if stories in wrestling For me. He was a super athletic big man from Japan, made his bones in pro wrestling Noah. When he first showed up in the States, he was unstoppable, you know, he was this monster, and he had a memorable run as the Ring of Honor World champion. He came in not long after I first got into Ring of Honor. I started attending shows in two thousand and six.

He came in in two thousand and seven, so I got to see a lot of those matches in person, and the two that I would recommend most are his battles with Brian Danielson. The first one where Brian suffered a detached retina and somehow kept wrestling for another fifteen minutes. I don't know how the man almost lost his eye. Then we got eyepatch Brian. For a while, I wasn't the least bit surprised that he and brack Lesner had such

a great Survivor series. Anybody who saw those Danielson Morishima matches knew how well that dynamic would work. The whole you know, David and Goliath thing. But also their last match at Final Battle in two thousand and eight was their best one. I was at that one. I think that may have been the last match that Marishima ever wrestled in the US. I know it was

his last match in Ring of Honor. I'll never forget. You know, the first time I ever saw Marishima alive, it was at the Manhattan Center and right on the corner, they've got a place called the TikTok Diner. You know, you look over and there's Madison Square Garden basically across the street, like it's in the shadows. But we would always stop there to grab

food, either before the show or after the show is over. And that night, after the show, my brother and I we walk in and we sit down and I see this giant man sitting in a booth like halfway across the diner, got his back turned and he's sitting in this booth that had to be far too small for him. But I said, man, that's Morishima. And I had to walk by his table to go to the bathroom.

I wasn't going to bother him or anything, but I look over and I wish I could remember what he was eating, but he had like two full plates of food, and I just remember thinking to myself, Wow, like big boys eating well tonight. He was a special talent, you know. Wwe actually just released his two tryout matches from two thousand and eight on their new Vault chat al on YouTube. Funny enough, you know. He

wrestled Charlie Hassen one and then Jamie Noble in the other. I don't know if that's why you decided to send this question in this week or if that was just a coincidence, but if you haven't seen those two tryout matches, you can go watch them. Of course, they sent him to the ring to the fucking Orient Express theme song, because of course they did. But after that roh Front, he went back to Japan full time and his career just fell off. Not right away, but you know it was several years

later he retired. He was only thirty seven when he called it quit. I looked up his birthday. He was only thirty seven when he called it quit. He claimed at the time it was due to being diagnosed with diabetes. That's not why he retired, and I think he admitted that later on. That wasn't the actual reason. That was the cover reason. He just ended up in a really bad place, and he ended up I think, depressed and broke and homeless for a while. He got in trouble with the

law. I know he assaulted a cab driver once. He broke both his cheek bones. He had no money and he figured that he could just get somebody else to pay his fare, so he got in the cab. He wrote around for a while, and after a while the driver was like, hey, you know, he wants to be paid, and Marishima beat him up. He lost a ton of weight. Any photos I've seen of him from like the last I don't know, eight or nine years, maybe ten

years, he lost so much weight, like he almost looks unrecognizable. It's just really sad how it all turned out for him, And honestly sounds like he has some serious mental health issues that need to be addressed. I hope he is getting them addressed. There's been no news about him in the last several years. I tried to find something, and I mean, I assume he's alive or else we would have heard otherwise. But whatever he's doing,

it's been very quiet. I hope he's got his life together somewhat. I think he would make a good choice for a dark Side of the Ring episode, especially look, they've done episodes on you know, less well known people in wrestling. At least here he's worked against people who are well known on TV now like Kevin Owens and Brian Danielson and Nigel McGuinness. They couldn't get Owens for it, but maybe they could get some of the aw folks you

know that worked with him to go on camera and talk about him. Clark from Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada, I remember you saying that you disliked the WWF so much in nineteen ninety five, to the point that you nearly gave up on being a fan, which leads me to asking you this, what do you think was the worst year for WWE of the two nineteen ninety

five or two thousand and nine. For me, it was two thousand and nine, because that's when they started having those stupid celebrity guest hosts, when the pg era was in full effect, the beginning of those stupid gimmick pay per views, and dx's failed final run. It's reasons like that way I gave up on WWE the following year because of how terrible two thousand and nine was. In ninety five, at least Owen Hart and Yoko Zuna were the best tag team that year. Well, I mean that says it all,

doesn't it. When Owen and Yoko Zuna are the best tag team in the entire company, that's not exactly a great endorsement of the tag team division or a great argument to make in favor of that year. I'm just saying Rehet Hart continued to have great matches against guys like Hakushi, Jean Pierre Lafitte, Diesel, and the Bulldog, as well as his Nohls bard match with Owen on Raw, which I think is the most underrated Nohles barred match ever.

So what you're saying is that Brett was the only shining light that year. I'm glad you said it. If I said it, people would roll their eyes. I'm glad you said it, not me, he says. Raisor Ramone and Shawn Michaels had another classic ladder match in Your House started out that year, which eventually paved the way for them to create their future b pay per view names in the Attitude era. Nineteen ninety five to me was just

the bump in the road for the WWF. I'm not really sure why you would cite in your House starting and then using some of the Hay perview titles for Attitude era shows. I'm not sure how that makes that a better year. But okay, yes, look, ninety five was a bump in the road year, but it was still dreadful. Doesn't make it any less horrific than it was in a lot of different ways. You mentioned, for example, PG being in full effect in two thousand and nine. If that was

PG, then ninety five was tv Y seven. Okay. Ninety five was the year where Vince McMahon dropped acid for the first time, and we ended up with a garbage man, a plumber, an evil dentist, a hog farmer, Aldo Montoya with a jockstrap on his face. Xanta Clause man tar, half man half tar, and uh what was the other one? I was gonna make? Oh fa tou that's right, fa two. The man who could make a difference? What difference did he make? Do I go

take a piss right before or during his match? Because he was always at the bottom of the cart. The company was ice cold. We had Brett Hart feuding with a pirate over a leather jacket. We had a year of Diesel as champion. That alone is enough to send a shiver up my spine. The Wayland Mercy gimmick. That could have been something cool, but Spivey was washed by that point. We had one of the worst King of the

Ring tournaments ever. That year gave us King Mabel. It gave us King Mabel and Diesel in the main event at Summer slamt For all you people bitching and moaning about Solo Socoa against Cody Rhoades and how it doesn't feel like a Summer Slam Maine event, you haven't felt pain until you've watched Diesel and Mabel lumbering around the ring. I don't want to hear it. Then we got

one of the worst pay per views that I have ever seen. That October in Your House from Winnipeg with Diesel and Bulldog in the main event, a match so horrible that Vince McMahon literally threw down his headset in disgust when the show was over and stormed to the back. But we got some gems. I don't want to make it sound like it was a completely irredeemable year. We had some gems that year. We had, mainly from Brett Hart and Shawn Michaels. As awful as that year was, imagine how much worse it

would have been without Brett and Sean. Brett actually had one of the worst WrestleMania matches of his life that year with Bob Backlan, but he had great matches with the British Bulldog where Brett bleda Gusher. That was the in your House match in Hershey. At the end of the year, Hakushi and you mentioned Jean Pierre Lafitte that Bulldog match. By the way, I have to say it, that Bulldog match was even better than their Wembley Stadium match.

He gave Kevin Nash one of the best matches of his life at Survivor Series. That Diesel heel turn was great. It was about nine months too late, but it was great. Michaels against Jeff Jarrett and Nashville for the Intercontinental title. The Sean Razer ladder match at SummerSlam was the only saving grace on that entire show. Nineteen ninety five was worse. Nineteen ninety five was worse. There was a lot that I did not like about two thousand and nine.

Also, really, i'll be honest with you, a lot of those early years after I started doing the sound off, Like, I look back on those years now, like nine and twenty ten, and you know, they weren't great. They really weren't, and a lot of them blend together for me. They don't really stand out now. As I recall though, about two thousand and nine, SmackDown was not bad. It was mostly raw

that was crap, especially with all the guest host stuff. You know, For every Bob Barker or Jesse Ventur, there were half a dozen terrible ones. The DX reunions, they all sucked. Every single one of them sucked. I never liked them. I didn't like it in two thousand and six. I didn't like it in two thousand and nine. They were just watered down versions of what DX used to be like the first two iterations of DX, the original, and then when Triple H took over in ninety eight,

they brought an xpock in the Outlaws. Like that was DX at its best. Everything that followed, like again from six on, all those reunions and the glowsticks and everything, it was just to sell merch. That was it. They had the one segment where they distorted Vince McMahon's voice and everybody laughed at him. That was kind of funny. But you know, outside of that, I can't think of a single moment from those last two DX runs

that I remember fondly or really give a shit about. But two thousand and nine gave us one of the greatest WrestleMania matches of all time with Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker. The Cmpung Jeff Hardy stuff was really good. That was on SmackDown the Jericho. Mystereo stuff was really good. So it was a stronger year than ninety five. I can safely say that Neil from Chicago, if Brett Hart versus Goldberg never happened, when do you think Brett would have

retired from the rank. I think Brett was forty two or forty three when he retired. If he had stayed healthy, he could have kept wrestling into his late forties easily, maybe fiftiesh That would have taken him well into the ruthless aggression era in WWE, because I have no doubt he would have ended up back wrestling for Vince. If not right after WCW died, then within a few years, like like all those other guys, Goldberg and Hogan Steiner,

they sat home and collected their money. It may have taken a few years, but he would have ended up there, and we would have gotten one more Brett Hart Shawn Michaels match, probably at WrestleMania, Brett Hart against Randy Orton, Brett Hart against John Cena, Brett Hart against Kurt Angle. That's the big one for me. Probably would have gotten a Chris Benwil match in WWE with him Jericho like we would have gotten all of that. He

would have worked with all those key guys. That's what we missed out on Dallas from Minnesota. If for whatever reason, Rick Flair leaves Jim Crockett Promotion Slash NWA and forms the Four Horsemen in the WWF, who could you see in this hypothetical four horsemen, you know, the four Horsemen. It would not have worked as well in ww I can't say it wouldn't have worked at all. I don't think it would have worked, but I just I can't say it would not have worked at all. It really was not a faction

that would have fit well with WWF at that time. It really worked a lot better in the NWA. But Flair and Ted Dbiassi they were very good friends. I think dbose not doing the cartoony million dollar Man gimmick though, that's the thing, like like mister Perfect than the million Dollar Man like. I don't think that a horseman faction, if they're doing those cartoonish gimmicks works. It would have to be Dbass, it would have to be Kurt Hennig

like those guys would have made great horsemen back then. I think someone like Paul Arndorf could have been interesting as a choice. He could have been the power of the group. It depends on the timeline here, we're talking mid eighties, late eighties. I think Bobby Heenen could have been in the role of JJ Dillon. If you're talking eighties, aren't in Tully they were already

there working as the Brainbusters. So Flair could have reformed the Horsemen with most of the key players and then just add one more guy in like Hennig or maybe Rick Rude, you know, and again put Bobby with them, and there you go. You got a WWE version of the Four Horsemen. But I just don't think it would have worked for more than maybe a year.

I mean, Vince would have fed them to Hogan and I think that would have been the end of it. Plus he marketed the product of Kids, so so many of those Flair promos and those Horseman promos would have been neutered. It just wouldn't have been the same. And David from Newark, New Jersey, what are your five favorite Black and Gold NXT takeover specials and your five favorite Black and Gold NXT takeover matches? Oh? I don't know about

us. The specials, I have no idea, But I'll give you my five favorite black and white or black and white, black and gold black and Gold era takeover match. I'll give that to you. And this is not in any particular order. I'm just spitting them out here. Sasha Banks and Bailey first Brooklyn Takeover is on the list. Johnny Gargano against Andrade This is when he was still androde Cianalmus Takeover Philadelphia. Those are the two greatest NXT

matches that I have ever seen. Dy against the Revival at the Toronto Takeover. The first one one of the greatest tag team matches I've ever seen, Johnny Gargano against Adam Cole at the Takeover in New York that was right before WrestleMania. That was their two out of three falls match. And Shinsky Nakamura's debut against Sammy's Ain at Takeover Dallas. I was fortunate enough to be in the building for three of those five, and the atmosphere was just incredible.

Black and Gold NXT was just something else. It was something very special. So thank you guys for the questions. I appreciate it. There were a bunch of others that I was not able to get to, but I'm still trying to comb through it all and we'll save some for next week. So get any new questions you might have on into me Theosolomonster at gmail dot com.

I wanted to rely on them a little bit more this week. AU is again I'm under the weather here, so I figured let's try to get a mailbag in here, even though the show I know wasn't as long as it usually is, but I'm fucking dying here, so I'm glad we got through that, and thank you for tuning into the show this week. I will be back with you next Sunday, as I am every weekend for another SoundOff. That'll be episode eight seventy one and live on YouTube. This week.

Coming up after Raw Dynamite and SmackDown Dynamite in particular is a loaded show two hundred and fiftieth episode MJF and will Osprey for the first time ever. We'll talk about that during the week. Of course, I'll be live on Tuesday Night with JD on his channel for Tuesday Night Tight, which continues to kick ass. So thank you for the support there, and we'll do it all over again next Sunday. So until then, be well, stay safe, have yourselves a great week, and I will see you for more sound

off episode eight seventy one. Until then, take care, guys. The Solemn Monsters sounds off, So if you're not hacked, hop on X. All these wrestlers getting hacked, you know, I used to make fun of the wrestlers who would post something really fucking stupid, and then they would be like, who are good hocked? It's like, no, you didn't, but now they really are. Now they really are getting hacked. What is their password? Like Hulk Hogan, for example, what is his password?

Brother, Lex Luger, what's your password? Total package? Maybe it's a wrestler thing, heaven says, I would laugh my ass off if that isn't Hogan's password. I'm telling you, I guarantee Hogan's password was either brother, dude, or Jack and then he got fucking hacked. Change your passwords. The Solemn Monster sounds off each week, bursting with contact, podcast predictions,

reviews, YouTube live streams, and more. Become a channel member for per and follow the Solomonster on Twitter at Solomonster, Solomonster, Solo Monsters, Solo Monster, Sonzo