Sound Off 919 - PREDICTIONS For SNME, AEW All In And WWE Evolution, Britt Baker UNHAPPY?

your hands. We are heading into what is going to be one of the busiest weekends next weekend of the entire year, and not a ton of news to get into, but we are going to get into preview and predictions for most of the big shows coming up next weekend. I've got a ton of questions from you guys in the mail bag a little bit later on. I want to thank you for all of your support throughout the month of June and hopefully at July things will pick up.

Gets a little slow here the beginning of July here in the summer, but next weekend it is looking like the weekend from hell. So we are going to get into all that. But first I want to say thank you to some of our supporters here this week. If you would like to support via PayPal, you know the drill, you can go to Thesolomonster dot com thus Solomonster dot com.

All the links will be there to anything related to the show, including the PayPal link, and if you would like to donate, you can do so ten dollars or more. We'll get you a nickname in a shout out like these fine folks. The Portland pop Star Paul Hamilton, hope you had a happy fourth. If you didn't, let me know who I have to go beat up. Shout out to PB thank you very much. I hope you had a very happy the fourth of July weekend. Your support

is always very much appreciated. Pedro, thank you. I will drop you an email. Big B Bryant Bessera, The Diamond, Dallas Dance Machine, Harrison's so At Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray, the Chicago Slayer, Willie Eickert, night Stalker, n f Alsafar Kilshot Keith Hart, who has his ticket to House of Glory in Philadelphia coming up in September. I will see you there, brother, big Homie Jonathan Burton, Happy fourth to you as well. I hope it was a good one.

Rebel j Leonard, thank you, my friend. I'm only in town for the night, but hopefully I will get to see you on Friday. We've got Raj must see Makwana who is in the UK and does not get to take part in the weekly streams. So here is his terrible joke contribution. Oh boy, if Miles Bourne had a match in a ring surrounded by barbed wire, would that make it a barbed wire deathmatch? You know, I usually I usually don't use that. Here are the actual podcast

I usually save that one for the for the live streams. Raj, I'm glad you're able to contribute, but leave it to the pros. My friend, show your role. Chris lu Deck, I want to give him a shout out and his What could have Happened in Wrestling series on YouTube. It's now up to episode thirty five on What Could Have been in Wrestling if Stone Cold Steve Austin did not need to leave to have next surgery in nineteen ninety nine, well, I mean he would have ended up with a few

more championships, is what would have happened. And they might have tried that heel turned a little bit earlier than they did if Austin felt like he was getting stale. But give that a watch and all of the other content on his channel, and be sure to subscribe. Just search for it. Chris lu Deck by name on U YouTube that's lud e c k E. Chris Ludek. House of Glory is making its Texas debut this Friday, and I will be there. It's going to be a fun show.

Charles Mason ZILLAFA two Champion against Champion title for title. We've got Indy Hartwell's first defense of her HOG Women's Championship against Hi On the Queen of the Indies making her debut for Hog. Amazing Red will be an action. Laredo Kid will be in action as well, coming off that great four way match that he was a part of at World's Collide last month for the NXT North

American Championship. Should be a great show at the Haltem Theater in Haltam City, Texas, just a twenty minute drive from Globe Life Field where All In is taking place the next day. Tickets are still available, but they are going fast. Front row is sold out, I know third row is sold out. Go to hog Wrestling dot Net. Can also stream the event live on Triller TV Plus.

And because I will be in Texas, just be aware there will be no SmackDown review this Friday because I will be down South, so hopefully I'll get to see some of you there coming out of Night of Champions. This might be the most bored that I have been with WWE television, and we are a month out from SummerSlam. We are definitely not on the highway to hell like we were in ninety eight. I can tell you that.

Let's talk about the two women's titles on Raw. We had Eosky coming out on TV to give Rio Ripley a championship match at Evolution next Sunday. Adam Pierce gave her the power to choose her opponent. EO said that she wanted the best. The best, of course would be EO because she is the champion, but I guess she wanted the best competition, So she chose Rheo Ripley, and that is the biggest match they could do on Raw Right now, I expect that to close the show at Evolution.

I'm gonna run through that card in a little bit. Eo Sky has had a horrendous run as the Women's Champion since WrestleMania. She has barely even been on the show. Just as bad as the run that Mariah May had as the aw Women's Champion, but Mariah's was better because at least she actually defended her title against different people Nyla Rose, Willow Nightingale and a J. Eo hasn't even been a factor on these shows. When we get her,

we get her in little bits in the back. Other than WrestleMania, you would have to go all the way back to Bad Blood in October to find a women's world title defense on a pl e. Now, we're not talking about the women's Intercontinental title. We're not talking about the women's United States Championship. We're talking about the world title.

Triple H has done a very poor job. Then on SmackDown, we had Tiffany Stratton come out to name her opponent for Evolution, which we Trish Stratus, so we got the same angle on both shows, with the champions handpicking their opponent. At least on Raw, Rhea made the most sense. Trish, on the other hand, came out of left field because

they wanted to have a legend on the show. And Trish made sense because it's the twenty five year anniversary and she already tagged with Tiffany an elimination Chamber earlier this year. And yet it still feels completely random like that. This is how we got to this point. I can't sit here and criticize Bill Goldberg getting a title shot on Saturday the way that he did and not call out Trish Stratus getting one on Sunday and basically the same way, like the way they announced Goldberg and Gunther

as a title match, very lazy. I mean, there was a way to do it that would have been better, but they took the easy way out. Very lazy, very low effort booking. And that's exactly what this is. They just show up and boom title match, and they announced this nine days before the show. Has there been another pl in recent memory with as little effort put into

it as that Evolution show next Sunday? I mean seriously, they have been rushing to put a card together like it's an afterthought, and they have a bunch of matches. They have half a dozen matches, so it's a full card, and yet it just feels so rushed and slapped together because it is. That's exactly what that show is. And the only reason we're even getting another Evolution in the first place after seven years is because aw is running its biggest show of the year next weekend. That is

the only reason we are getting this show. So what they have done is they have flooded the zone with content Saturday and Sunday, Great American Bash, Saturday Night's main event, Evolution, and it shows in the ticket sales for the show. Saturday Night's main event and Evolution are both being held

at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, same building. Great American Bash is at center stage, so they're gonna have like seven hundred people there and it's still not sold out, by the way, but it'll be full one way or the other. Come next weekend, it'll be full. Saturday Night's

main event has almost eleven thousand tickets out. Evolution, the next night, in the same building, doesn't even have five thousand Russell Ticks says it's very likely people in the upper bowl will end up being moved down to the lower bowl to make it look more full. That first Evolution show they ever did at the Nassau Coliseum, they had around eleven thousand people. Now, it also had Ronda Rousey in the main event, which was the entire reason

they even did that show. But they also had a hot feud with Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch that was going on at the time. I mean, this is when Becky was really taking off and was super popular. This show has none of that, Like, what's the real hook for this show? But the fact that it's being slapped together in the way that it is with no real sense of importance that has a lot to do with it.

Saturday Night's main event. I mean, they have the hook of Goldberg's final match, you know, whatever that's worth at this point. But this is what happens when you put in the bare minimum effort, and I guarantee you if and when the event flops, the women will get the blame for it. They can't draw, That's why they can't have their own ple, So it's not even worth it to book another one of these, it'll be another seven years before you see an Evolution show. But let's go

in order with the two shows. Well, talk about Saturday Night's Main Event first. I will be reviewing the show on the SoundOff next Sunday because I am not watching this live. I will be on YouTube at the time talking about all in Texas. It is the fortieth installment of Saturday Night's Main Event, forty also being the age that Bill Goldberg was in two thousand and six. We should get at least one more match announced tomorrow. Every one of these shows that they've done so far has

had no less than four matches. Some of them have had five. Right now we have three. So it could be an Intercontinental title match between aj Styles and Dominique Mysterio because that match was bumped from the night of champions Card, so we still have to get that one. If it happens, I'm picking dom to retain. But there's also the women's Intercontinental title after Bailey and Lyra Valkyria went to a draw on Monday to decide a number one contender, So it looks like we're getting a triple

threat match very soon with all three women. I was thinking at evolution, but it could happen here because right now we have no women's matches on the Saturday show. I figured they're all saving them for Sunday, but if they wanted to have one, that would be the one. And if the match does happen, Becky retains. Drew McIntyre returned on SmackDown Friday night, which is back to two hours. By the way, can I get a hallelujah? We've got

two hour Smackdowns back. I thought SmackDown was a fucking bore on Friday, but think of how much worse it would have been at three hours instead of two. McIntyre showing up, though, was one of the few highlights of that show. He interrupted a Cody Rhodes Randy Orton segment where Orton acknowledged that he hesitated in their match at Night of Champions and the King of the Ring Final. He's gonna go deliver the punt kick, and he had a moment where he just couldn't bring himself to do it.

He hesitated. Cody took advantage, so now he wants Cody to make sure he goes to SummerSlam and he kicks John Cena his ass and maybe if Cody fails to do, so that could be the catalyst for Randy to drop him with an RKO. Right, you beat me just to go to SummerSlam and lose, you wasted it. He's like Abby in the Last of Us, I let you live and you wasted it. That could be Randy Orton, but McIntyre mocked Orton for basically going soft, said the legend Killer is dead, and then he ate an RKA for

his troubles and he got nick. All this McIntyre did to make the match for Saturday night's main event. It'll be McIntyre against Randy Orton. Not really a match that either man can afford to lose, but it's Drew McIntyre and Randy Orton, so I mean they're pretty much bulletproof, especially Orton. But I think it works better if McIntyre wins. He just came back. It works better if he wins anyway, because it only drives Orton that much closer to the edge of the cliff. So Drew McIntyre is my pick

to win. Speaking of returns, we had one on Raw Monday night, La night he returned. He brawled with Seth Rollins up on the concourse even threw popcorn on him. Rolin threw a drink at night and then made his escape. So now La Knight will wrestle Seth Rawlins and La Knight will lose. Because I cannot see Seth Rollins losing this match. I think Rollins may be the one to

break the money in the bank curse. How many money in the bank winners traditionally have won the briefcase only to go on to be booked into oblivion and lose every match. Ah, well, it's fine, they have the briefcase and we could just beat him. I don't think that's gonna happen with Seth, not when he's leading the new top heel faction in the company. I don't know what that means for the future of La Knight, who should be moved over to Raw permanently. But Bronson Reid and

bron Breaker will get involved. Knight will eat a stomp at the end of this Seth Rollins is the predicted winner here. Will it be this match? Will this match be the match that jesse vent Ra does commentary for? Is this the match where jesse vent Or will get upset with the referees and competence that seems to be a running theme here on these Saturday Night's main event shows. Which match will they have him doing commentary for? Maybe

the main event? The main event will be the shortest of all the matches, so maybe they'll save Jesse for that one. But in that main event, we have Gunther defending the World Heavyweight Championship against Goldberg in what will be Goldberg's retirement match. He has said that his son Gauge, will walk him to the ring here in his adopted hometown of Atlanta. He should get a mostly positive reaction.

You can't rule out the possibility of some boo birds or cheers for Gunther, but I do think that he'll get a good reaction here in Atlanta. What we will get out of him in the ring, that is the question. He is fifty eight years old. He is in much better shape than probably most fifty eight year olds. Still keeps himself in good shape. But being in good shape and being in ring shape, especially at that age, are

two different things. And he has been very open on his podcast about the number of injuries and setbacks that he has suffered during training for this one match. Hasn't had a match in three years, you know, the older you get, the more time you go without being in the ring and taking bumps, that's not a good thing, you know. Kurt Angle talked about that. It's one of

the reasons why. And Kurt Angle wasn't quite as old as Goldberg was when he came back to WWE, but it's why he went to Vince and said, look, I want to wrestle, and Vince was like, no, I want you to be the general manager and do that for a year and then we could talk about you getting back in the ring. Because Kurt knew like, if I'm not in the ring and I'm not active on a regular basis, you know, my body is just going to

stiffen up. And that's exactly what happened. He said, when I finally came back to the ring and Vince had me doing stuff in the ring, sometimes it looked like he could barely move, because that's what happens when you're just not active in that way. Goldberg is somebody who obviously trains very hard and probably is harder on himself than he needs to be, and so on his body physically,

that's not necessarily a good thing. So I think that there's a reason to be concerned when he goes on these different shows and says, yeah, you know, I have a knee that I can't even run on because I'm in pain and I hurt this and I did that in training. I went overboard on this. I don't know what we're gonna get here in this match. This does not need to go longer than five minutes at the most,

and it may not even last that long. There doesn't need to be a single commercial break during this match. They should be able to fit the entire thing into one segment. After the entrances are done, all Goldberg has to do is a few quick power moves, sell for a little bit. I know that's not his forte, but sell for a little bit and hit a spear. That's it. Maybe try for a jackhammer gun through those slips behind him into the choke and you go to the finish

from there. I don't know if they're gonna have Goldberg lose his retirement match in a sleeper hole, because that's too close to how he lost to Roman Reigns in his last match in the guillotine when Roman put him out. But that is all this match needs to be. Bill Goldberg should not under any circumstances, beat Gunther. Bill Golden should not, under any circumstances hold a World championship ever. Again, that ship has sailed. It should have been over after

that last match with brock Lesner. That would have been the perfect match for him to go out on defending the title at WrestleMania. They had a six minute sprint with each other. It was great. They avenged their horrible WrestleMania twenty match. What a way to go out. But here we are, and so we have to just get

past this to get to Summer Slim. They did a segment on Raw Monday Night where Seth Rollins came out to confront Gunther and then see M Punk came out and he fought with Rollins, who bailed into the crowd, and when Punk went to go leave, Gunther grabbed him by the arm and Punk shoved him down on his ass and he warned him stay out of my business. Felt to me like the perfect setup to a triple

threat match at SummerSlam. You know, if Rollins loses, he still has the briefcase that he can cash in Gunther against Punk or Gunther against Punk against Rolins. That should be the night one main event for SummerSlam. I don't want to see Goldberg win the title here just to drop the belt to Seth Rollins immediately after on the cash in. Goldberg should not be Gunther. That's it, and I say that he won't. I don't believe he will.

Gunther will retain the championship and Goldberg will have a nice send off at the very end, and his son could come into the ring to celebrate with him. He could wave goodbye to all the fans and he rides off into the sunset. Now, I will say this, if Seth Rollins loses to La Knight on this show, then I think for sure he's cashing it at the end of this match, whether Goldberg wins first or he turns it into a triple threat like WrestleMania at thirty one.

If Rollins loses to La Night, He's totally cashing in at the end of the show. And if Rollins loses tonight, Knight would have to get the title match at Summerslim because he would have a win over Seth Rollins. I just don't see that happening though. No Cody Roads on the show, but he was in the news this week. There was a Deadline Dot report confirming his role in the upcoming Street Fighter movie. He's going to be playing Gile. Gile is an Air Force pilot, hence the sonic boom.

That's where that comes from. The cast for this movie is just it's something else. I mean, I already went through some of the names. It was the last week of the week before when I mentioned Roman. Fifty cent is in this thing, and so as Roman reigns, he has already been cast as a Kuma. This is not the place I was expecting to get Cody Roman Part three, but here we are. Cody is expected to take some time off after SummerSlam to film production begins next month

in Australia. What does that mean for his chances of beating John Cena at SummerSlam or beating him and then maybe getting cashed in on I don't know. I don't think that this for sure means he's not winning the title. Maybe they'll only need him for a couple of weeks. Like liv Morgan with that Bad Lieutenant movie she filmed, she was gone for a few weeks. She wasn't gone for very long. But I have no opinion one way or the other on Cody being cast because I've never

seen him act before in a movie. I think he's done some TV work on that Stephen Emmel Show, but i've never seen him in a movie. I know he's got a cameo in the new Naked Gun movie that's coming out with Liam Neeson, which I don't think is out yet. I haven't seen it, but I have no opinion one way or the other or how much dialogue Guile might have in the movie. But that's what he'll

be doing now. Speaking of Saturday Nights main event, John Cena this week confirmed that his retirement match will take place sometime in mid December, but he claims that they're still trying to find a place for it. About a month ago, there was a TV station in Boston that

did a story unseen his retirement. I think they even interviewed his father for it, and at the very end of the segment when they came back to the anchor in studio, they just kind of casually mentioned that the match would happen in December at the TD Garden Arena

in Boston. Mid day December is when they did Saturday Night's main event last year, so it looks like a mid December retirement match in Boston, very likely on Saturday Night's main event, which would be very disappointing because that just means his final match is going to be littered with commercials and that just feels wrong. See Goldberg is having his retirement match on Saturday Nights main event. But like I said, Goldberg's matches are three minutes long, so

you could fit the entire thing into one segment. This is different, but it's looking like that's probably what it's gonna end up being. Now. Evolution two is next Sunday. Big gap between Evolution one and Evolution two about seven years, but it is next Sunday with a seven o'clock Eastern start time. We've got six matches announced, including a Battle Royal with the winner receiving a championship match at Clash in Paris, which is coming up at the end of August.

This is how they get some more legends in there. Nicky Bella will probably be in there. She was going to do something with Live Morgan. Live Morgan got hurt, and again I want to mention that real quick because Live Morgan supposedly was factored into this show in a major way. So whatever she was going to do with Nicky Bello, whether it was going to be one on one or if they were going to do a tag team title match with both Bella's challenging Live and Raquel.

Liv was going to have a role on this show that does not have anything to do I have. I'm not going to give WWE a pass if they had plans for the show that had to slightly be adjusted because one person got hurt. So I don't want to hear people using that as an excuse. If it's like, well, you know the show kind of feels slapped together at

the last minute, it's because Live Morgan got hurt. No, it slapped together at the last minute without a whole lot of thought being put into it, because that's the way it was conceived. Has nothing to do with Live Morgan getting hurt, although it did force some plans for the show to be changed. So we don't know what Nicky Bella is going to be doing. This would be the most likely scenario, just having her at least her, if not her sister in this Battle Royal. Sure, she's

going to be on the show. Still, Stephanie Viquier is in there. I know that, and without knowing who the other names are going to be. Stephanie is my pick to win this. At least there's something of importance at stake. It's not just the Battle Royal for the sake of having a Battle Royal and getting as many people on the show as possible. There is something of value that is on the line here, so these women should be fighting for it like it's the most important thing in

the world. I think Stephanie takes it. Jade Cargill gets Naomi in a no holds barred match. This is a rematch from WrestleMania, which Jade won. Naomi has the money in the bank briefcase, which in their eyes means that she can lose. Jade just one queen of the Ring. She's the one challenging for the women's title at SummerSlam. I can't see her losing here, especially because I think when Naomi does cash in, it's gonna end up screwing Jade over in some way anyway. So I'm picking Jade

to win. Question is do we see Bianca bel Air getting involved here in some way? She may not be physically cleared to wrestle yet, but is she going to be there and is she going to factor into this

match in some form or fashion. Roxanne Perez is officially one half of the Women's Tag Team Champions after Finn Balor lobbied for her to replace liv Morgan, which Adam Pierce and Nick Aldis agree to, but they also said that they would have to defend those titles in a fatal four way match against one team from Raw, one team from SmackDown, and one team from NXT. As I am recording this, we only know of Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss. They will be repping SmackDown on the Raw

side of things. I'm thinking it'll end up being Oscar and Kyrie Sane most likely, and from NXT we're looking at either Soul, Ruka and Zaria or the other two members of Fatal Influence. Either way, I think the Judgment day retains save the Charlotte and Alexa win for another day, maybe Summer Slim, because I do see them winning the women's tag team titles, just not on this show. J C. Jane is the other member of Fatal Influence. She is the NXT Women's Champion. She will be defending that title

against the winner of the Evolution Eliminator tournament. Jordan Grace. I love how Sean Michaels sets up this entire tournament to crown a number one contender while on the main roster, the GMS are just letting the champions come out the week before and just pick the person they want to defend the title against. Yeah, they said I could pick my opponent. I choose, Like they're fucking pokemonors, so I

choose you. Grace is teaming with Blake Monroe the night before at the Great American Bash to take on Fatal Influence. Here's my prediction. I think the baby Faces are going to win on Saturday, and because of that, Ja C. Jane is going to retain her title on Sunday. I don't think they're gonna put the championship on Jordan Grace. I just feel like she's she's probably main roster bound

sooner rather than later. And I also feel like when Blake Monroe wins the championship, it's going to be off of j C. Jane, It's not going to be off of Jordan Grace. So I'm actually gonna go with jac which is I would imagine that's probably not the popular opinion, but I think she's going to find a way to retain that title. On Sunday, Tiffany Stratton defends the WWE Women's Championship against the Hall of Famer Trish Stratus. It's a way to get Trisha on the show in a

marquee match. It will be her first singles match since Payback in twenty twenty three inside of Steel Cage against Becky Lynch, which, by the way, was the best match of her career if you take off the rose colored glasses for Days gone by, Trish has never had a better match than the match she had at Payback against Becky Lynch. But she was in there with Ben and that was paying off a month's long feud between the

two of them. This is being thrown together a week before the show with no real story to speak of, and Tiffany Stratton is not Becky Lynch, so it's a crap shoot here as far as match quality. But Tris's showed that she still got it in her to have a great one, and I hope they go out there and do. She has absolutely no chance of winning the title, so Tiffany is retaining and in what should be the main event, Eo Sky defends her Women's World Championship against

Rhea Ripley. We are not getting a title change on the SmackDown side, but I think we get one on the raw side. EO already holds two wins over Ria this year, the match on Raw where she won the title, and again in the triple Threat match at WrestleMania. Ria has been out of the title picture ever since. She's one of the biggest stars in the entire company, and we are heading into their second biggest show of the year. I think they're gonna want that title back around her waist.

I would like for EO to get some more time with it, but I think her time is up. And the only real question I have is do they want Ria Ripley to go into Perth as the champion or do they want her to go in as the challenger to win the title there because Crown Jewel is coming to Perth, Australia in October. Now. The last time they brought a PLA to Perth it was Elimination Chamber last year and Rha main evented the show as the defending

champion against Naya Jacks. It's hard for me to imagine her losing here and then losing again at SummerSlam just to get us to October so they could do a title change on that show. I think there's a better chance she goes into that show as the champion, but that's the only thing I'm unsure of is just the timing of it. Maybe they want her big crowning moment to be there, but I just am trying to see the vision of how we hold off and get there

and then what she in the meantime. So I I'm predicting a rear Ripley title win here in the main event of this show. And again, it looks like we're gonna get a triple threat match very soon with Becky Lynch defending her Intercontinental title against Bailey and Lyra Valkyria. Whether it happens on Saturday Night's main event or it

happens on the Evolution card. Either way, I think we do get it next weekend, and if we do, I've got Becky Lynch retaining, so if anything changes with the card, I will run through it all over again next week, because we do have one more sound off before the show, and then I will be live on YouTube for the post show next Sunday. You get a daytime podcast and a Nightcap Lucky You. This week's episode is sponsored by

Express VPN. Imagine you're on a zoom call with a client and you make a snide comment about Karen, but she hears it because you forgot to mute yourself. Or maybe you're on a zoom call with your camera turned off, but you forget that you're audio is still on when you flush the toilet because you just had to go. You couldn't wait, and now everybody else knows it too. That'd be pretty embarrassing, wouldn't it. Forgetting to mute yourself

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to sign up if you're thinking about it. Protect your online privacy today by visiting Express vpn dot com slash solo Monster that's e xp R eess vpn dot com slash solo Monster to find out how you can get up to four months free Express vpn dot com slash Solo Monster. There was a report this week regarding former AW Women's World Champion Britt Baker, who has not been seen on AW television since her win over Penelope Ford

on Dynamite. That was in November. That was the match where when it was over, Serena Deeb walked out on stage while Britt stood in the ring saying nobody cares about Deeb over and over again. Way to bury your opponent or would be opponent, because we never got a

match between those two. Britt just disappeared. She only worked a total of five matches all of last year, including that terrible match with Mercedes at All in the one Black Mark on Mercedes Run so Far in the ring, and that's after she was suspended the month before and taking off TV for a week or two for the backstage incident with MJF. Controversy always seems to follow this woman around. This week was no different. She shared a quote on her Instagram from Kobe Simmons. Kobe Simmons is

a basketball player. It said, a bottle of water can be one dollar at a supermarket. You know what supermarket are you shopping at? One dollar at a supermarket, three dollars at the gym, five dollars at the movies, six dollars on a plane. Same water. The only thing that changed its value was the place. So next time you feel your worth is nothing, maybe you're at the wrong place.

So naturally, this got a lot of people talking and making assumptions that she was referring to being unhappy with her position in aw and teasing that maybe she needs to go somewhere else that would appreciate the value that she brings, which, you know, give the fact that she's been off television and hasn't even been mentioned for eight months, I think is a fair assumption to make. When you assume things, you know many times you can be wrong.

We all do it. But this is one of those cases where you have a wrestler posting something that they know they know is going to come off as cryptic, and they know it's going to get people talking naturally, because no one's been talking about them, so this will get people talking about them. They're doing it on purpose, they know what they're doing. But then sometimes they'll also call the fans out for making assumptions and being wrong

that Britt hasn't said anything. She hasn't commented on anything that was reported about her this week, but it's a story that I have seen play out multiple times over the years and it just drives me nuts. So I certainly hope that she doesn't pull something like that where she'll start lashing out at people for making assumptions. But on the heels of that, there was a report from bodyslam dot net that reads as follows, Britt Baker is

actively seeking to part ways with AW. This would align with what fans have speculated based on her recent social media activity. As things currently stand, AW isn't looking to release Baker from her contract. The internal belief is that they don't want any upcoming WWE Pittsburgh shows to be announced, as well as Evolution to pass before letting anything move forward. We're told that Britt Fields there's nothing left keeping her in AAW, pointing to burn Bridges in a sense that

the environment has changed around her. Whether this ends with a quiet release or something louder, the door appears closer to shut than ever before. But wait, here comes Mike Johnson of PW Insider with the following, somehow Baker sharing an Internet meme has spark speculation and reports that she is looking to leave the company. We are told by

multiple sources that that is incorrect. While there is currently no word on when Baker will return to AW programming, Pwncie can confirm that there have been no discussions about Baker exiting the company, asking for a release, or even being close to contractually free. There is nothing to see here. Brian Alvarez also noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that from what he has heard, there has been absolutely no change

in anything. He said. I heard, she's still got time left on her deal, and there's been nothing new in terms of coming back, nothing new in terms of imminently leaving, so it appears nothing is going on right now. Dave Meltzer added that when he asked, no one has confirmed or denied her wanting to go to WWE, but those in aw don't think that there is anything to it. I don't know why Britt Baker was taken off TV in November. They were clearly building to a match between

her and Serena deeb. Was it a case of again her mouthing the comments that she did on camera and it just soured Tony Kahan on doing anything with her. I don't know, all I have on my own two eyes and ears, and her saying no one cares came off as really disrespectful and not very helpful if you're trying to build a feud between two people. I'm not saying it was going to light the world on fire, and it certainly wasn't for the Women's Championship or anything.

It wasn't going to be a main event program, but it was. It was something for her to do. It was a veteran talent for her to work with, and it didn't seem like she was terribly interested in doing so. Is that why she was taken off TV? I don't know, but it's as good of an explanation as I can come up with. Brit was out for a very long time with a bad back, but there was no indication at the time that she was hurt again and needed

time off or any kind of injury. But there have been issues with her in the past that have caused some drama, and it's drama that AW does not need. It is drama that WWE does not need either. And as far as the idea of Britt Baker going to WWE, WWE does not need Britt Baker. Brit Baker might want to go there, you know, she may need them more than they need her. I'm sure they would. Look. I'm sure WWE would be more than happy to take her if she became available, because she's a former AEW Women's

World Champion. Any chance that they can stick it to AW, they will take it so that fifty people in the performance center can chant Tony Fumbold, So I don't doubt that they would have interest in signing her. You know, Britt would be the third former world champion from AAW that they would sign, after Cody Rhodes and Mariah May. But when you see how stacked they are in that women's division, not only on Ron's SmackDown, but with NXT and LFG and Evolve, they do not need Britt Baker.

Brit Baker is not going to be a difference maker for them, and even in aw you know, what essentially happened is that the women's division moved beyond Britain Baker. You know, their division looked very different now than it did when Britt Baker was the queen bee there. It's much it's a much stronger division now than it was then. In ring, she's very hit or miss. I've seen her have some really good matches and I've seen her have

her share of not so good matches. She can talk, she's got charisma, she's got a name, and I think there's definitely value in that, but not so much so that I think if she were to become available wwe should be rolling out the red carpet to sign her.

So we don't know how Britt really feels outside of a cryptic meme that she posted, but one can safely assume that sitting at home for eight months with no one talking about her, that's not the way that she envisioned her career path going when she came back off the injured list, because again, she missed a long time with an injury, so you would think that she would be just chopping at the bit to get back into the mix, and that just didn't happen, and now here

we are eight months later of nothing again. She would like to be back in the mix, absolutely, she would like to be back on television. She would like to be part of their big stadium show in Texas next weekend. And you know what, maybe she will be. They've got that Casino Gauntlet match. Maybe she returns in the Gauntlet

as a surprise entrant. But this is potentially a Ricky Stark situation all over again, or Ray Phoenix or any number of people that have been unhappy and have wanted out again, if this report is to be believed that had been unhappy and wanted out of aw before because

they weren't being used. If this woman does want out, and I know what p W Insider said, and Alvarez says, has been no change in this and that the fact that she may have a ton of time left under contract and Tony Khan may not be willing to let go of her doesn't necessarily mean that she isn't unhappy. If this woman wants out, and if Tony Khan has no plans to use her, then they should work out some sort of really that is fair to both sides.

I have been consistent on this. If the promoter has no plans to use the talent contract or not, the talent should not be forced to sit home twiddling their thumbs getting paid to do nothing. Now, I would imagine that if Britt wanted to work indie shows, she would have the ability to do so, as most AW talents do. She would just have to clear it with talent relations and with their legal team first. Britt has not worked any indie shows in the last eight months. She hasn't

worked an independence show in three years. If she wants to work, she can work. If she just wanted to wrestle, I don't see any reason that she wouldn't be able to do so, since it clearly would not conflict with her AAW schedule. Let me check my little black book here and see if Tony's got me booked. No, she's got a wide open schedule. But I'll never understand, you know, paying someone that much money, because I'm sure she's making

good money. I'll just never understand paying somebody that much money just to bench them and not get a return on your investment. What is Tony Khan getting out of her at this point. If he's not using her, if she really wants out, I think that she should sit down with Tony and try to work something out on that front. And if she doesn't want out, then this is all much ado about nothing and she can continue to sit home and rob Tony Khan blind. He seems to be okay with it, so I mean, what the hell.

But that's the update on Britt Baker. She's not leaving AW anytime soon. Dynamite celebrated three hundred episodes on Wednesday night and had a really strong show, definitely better than that borfest on Friday night, carried primarily by the matches, including an excellent main event between Kazushka Okata and Koda Ibushi,

their first match in nearly four years. A return to form for Abushie is what it was, and we had the return of Kenny Omega when it was over coming out with a chair to make the save for his old partner. I saw where Konan on his podcast criticized AW for not bringing Ibushie back last week to save Kenny Omega, that he should have been brought back directly in something with Omega and they should have done a

Golden Lovers reunion. You know, for someone with as much experience in creative in a creative role as this guy has had, you would think he would be smarter than that. How did he not see where they were going with this? If you would have just waited one week, like, it was pretty clear to me what they were doing when they brought Ibushi back. Look, they brought Abushie back on Collision. It was out of nowhere, It was completely out of left field, but it was pretty apparent what we were

going to be getting on this three hundred episode. Bringing Abushie back for Omega to make the save. Omega making the save is what made the most sense because Omega is the one that needs to be strong going into All In because it's Kenny Omega's match at All In, It's not Abushie's match, so having Gabushi come to make

the safe for Omega doesn't really make any sense. You wanted Kenny Omega to come back because he's been off TV for a few weeks to make the safe for Abushi, which is exactly what they did, and that's what they should have done, despite whatever Konan may have to say about it. But let's do a preview for the All In Texas card next weekend, and I will incorporate some of the key things that happened on Dynamite this week

as we go along here. All In Texas takes place this Saturday, July twelfth, from Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. A very hot and humid Arlington, Texas. Ninety three degrees is projected to be the high temperature on Saturday. I cannot imagine they open the roof for this show with weather like that. Globe Life has a retractable roof. It should be closed unless you want to be bunched up with twenty thousand sweaty wrestling fans, which sounds like an

absolute nightmare. It will be their biggest North American show to date. Tony Kahn told TMZ Sports that they have sold over two point five million dollars worth of tickets and the gate will likely end up being over three million dollars when all is said and done. They've never even done two million before in the US, let alone three, so it's already a big success for them, even though it will by no means be full. They will have

well north of twenty thousand fans in attendance. It starts at three pm Eastern Time, at the same time that NXT is running The Great American Bash. I've looked at that card for the Great American Bash. I'm not gonna lie. That card looks like ass. I mean, they're not even trying, literally just doing the show as a fuck you to

aw and putting in the bare minimum effort. I will be on my way home from the House of Glory show in Texas that morning, so I should be home before the pay per view starts, and we'll be live on YouTube for the full review when it's over. More matches may be added this week, so this may not be the complete card, but the key matches are all accounted for, and Jim Ross is hoping to be on the call for at least a couple of matches on

the show. He is cancer free now and was very much hoping to be there, so it'll be nice to hear his voice again for a match or two. On Collision last night, Claudio Castignoli issued a challenge to the ops to try to get back their trios titles at all in and it has not yet been made official, nor did he say who he and Wheeler Yuda would be tagging with because Pack has been out heard. I

don't know if he's healed up or not. I mean, that's a pretty gnarly ankle injury and that only was a few months ago, so I'm not sure if he's cleared to come back yet or not. It could just be Pack returns. They could always trot out Gabe Kid from New Japan as their partner because he kind of had an alliance going there with John Moxley and the Death Riders for a bit. But they're going to be takes he On Samoa Joe, Powerhouse Hobbs, and Katsiori Shibata.

The match is obviously going to happen, even though it's not official yet, and when it does, I do believe that Hook will cost the Ops those trios titles. I was wondering if Hook may end up being the surprise partner for Claudio and Yuda. I don't really think that makes sense because if he's their partner and they win the time, I mean, I don't think Hook is joining the Death Riders, so I don't think he'll be the mystery partner. But I do think that he is going

to cost them those titles. I think we're gonna have new champions We have men's and women's Casino Gonlin matches, with the winners earning a future world championship match. That's how they have phrased it. But last year you were able to cash in at any time, and I am so sick to death of the cash in anytime. Shit. I just wish we could toss it into a volcano for a year and just take a breather from it for a little bit. But it is what it is. I assume the rules will be the same this year.

This is the first time they're doing a women's one on this show, and only the second one ever for the ladies. Typically there's up to twenty one participants, but the match can end at any time, so first pinfaller submission wins the match. We're not getting twenty one people out there for these. On the men's side, we know Mark Briscoe will enter at number one, and MJF with his win on Wednesday over Brody King, Anthony Bowens and

ar Fox will enter at number two. We also know now that Mystico is in, and I think that Mystico is going to play a role in making sure MJF does not win the Casino Gauntlet, especially after the angle they shot at MLW a couple weeks ago where MJF came out and attacked Mystico again. That's the second time after he stole his mask at Grand Slam Mexico a few weeks ago. So I think Mystica will get a measure of revenge on him here that will prevent him

from winning the Gauntlet. There's also usually a few surprises in there. I could see Switchblade Jay White being one of them. I would love to see an Eddie Kingston return here. I've been watching his training videos on cesar Bonani's YouTube channel. He's been helping him with his training in rehab, and he looks like he can be back at any time. He was out. God, the injury happened in April I think of last year, and it was multiple surgeries because it was his ACL and he broke it.

I mean, it was a horrendous injury when he got hurt, but he was expected to be out for a year and now it's been over a year, so I feel like he could be back at any time, and I think it's going to happen here. That's who I'm going with to win the contract. I'm making a bold prediction here. He hasn't even been announced for the match, but Eddie Kingston returns and he wins the men's casino Gauntlet. Now on the women's side, we have Chris Statlander entering at

number one and on Dynamite. This Wednesday, there will be a four to decide who enters at number two between Tecla ty Mellow, Queen am Nada, and Megan Bain. Tecla and Bain have been on the same team twice now. They've run these All Star Women's eight person tag team matches so lazy. They ran the same match on Collision twice in the last two weeks. Only they replaced Penelope Ford with Julia Hart in the one that aired last night. Here, Tecla and Bain, they will be adversaries. I think Tekla

wins this she enters at number two. There are a few ex WWE names recently released. I don't know that their ninety days would allow them to appear here. I just I don't know the timeline here on like a Shana Basler or Dakota Kai. Offhand, I don't remember how long ago they were released. If their ninety days are up yet or not. It's possible their ninety days are not up. If they are, then I would expect to

see probably one of them pop up here. I know there's been reports that A has an interest in Isla Dawn. Isla Down could be in there because she was released a lot earlier than that. I think she may have been released late last year, so I could see, you know, at least one of those names popping up in here. I hope Athena gets into this because it may be her only chance of getting on the card. I'm going

with Meghan Bain to win the Gauntlet. I would say that if Tony Storm retains her title, Meghan Bain wins. If Mercedes wins the title, I would pick Willow Nightingale to win. But I'm gonna go with Meghan Bain as the winner of the women's Gauntlet. We have Adam Cole, the Collision Kid. He'll be defending his TNT championship against Kyle Fletcher, who beat danil Garcia last night on Collision

to earn the shot. This is a rematch from the Dynamite after Double or Nothing, which is the match where Fletcher gave Cole that sickening power bomb on the Apron which supposedly got him heat backstage with some people. It was very, very stupid, but this should be time. Kyle Fletcher will leave Texas as the new TNT Champion. The title has never felt less important than it does right now, and it's been I don't want to just lay that all on, you know, Adam Cole or any one person.

It's been that way for a while. Honestly. It goes back to when Jack Perry had the belt, and it got worse when Daniel Garcia won it, and it has not gotten much better with Adam Cole. They have done a good job of making something out of Kyle Fletcher. I think it is time to bring the gold home to the Kallus family and just try to restore that TNT title to some semblance of what it was before. It just does not feel as important as it used to.

The Hurt Syndicate Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin. They will defend the aw Tag team titles against Speedball, Mike Bailey and Kevin Knight. The team of Jet Speed, as well as the Patriarchy Christian Cage and Nick Wayne have been added to this match. It's been a very odd build to this match. The challengers in the form of Jet Speed, have been destroyed by the Hurt Syndicate at every turn, at least on Collision. Last night, in that triple threat match,

it was Shelton, Benjamin, Kevin Knight, and Nick Wayne. They actually gave the win to Kevin Knight and he pinned Shelton to do it. But it's almost like too little, too late. I mean, they have just been destroyed at every turn. The story is that they're scrappy. They're the scrappy underdogs that just will never die. They don't know how to say I quit. They keep coming back. Thank you, sir, May I have another? But it has done very little to make me see them as credible challengers for the titles.

Every week it seems like MVP is on the microphone begging, literally begging other teams to step up, come out challenge us, and outside of these two guys, nobody ever does.

FTR beat the Outrunners on Collision last night. They have no match for Saturday, so I thought, if anything, if you're going to add more teams to this, you make it a four way and you add FTR because there's a story that you could work into this if you would have added FTR to the match. Now, I'm still picking Lashly and Benjamin to retain no matter what. I think that the Hurt Syndicate will walk out with those tag team titles. But you know, you have one team

that causes the other to lose. We could have gotten an FTR beat down on Christian and Nick Wayne after the match, and that could be where you have the return of Adam Copeland, you know, and he comes out more so to go after FTR for injuring him than to make the save for Christian. But we get that moment between Cope and Christian where they exchange looks, and you now have two months to tell that story of them reuniting and agreeing to work together to wrestle FTR

in Toronto. It all out. That's how you could have started to connect those dots. So look, it's always possible they could throw FTR in there. This week. We have another week of television left and FTR, like I said, they have no match, even though they got to win on collision last night. But that's how I would do it. You already added one more team, what the fuck add one more and then you could start to connect the dots for that story down the road. But I'm going

with the Hurt Syndicate to retain their titles. I just don't. I just don't see Christian and Nick Wayne, you know, being together long enough where that would even make sense Jet Speed they could put the titles on them in a triple threat here without having Benjamin and Lashly lose. Maybe that's why they're adding Christian Nick Wayne. You know, maybe Nick Wayne is in there to take the fucking loss so that the Hurt Syndicate doesn't have to eat the pin and you could get the titles off of them.

That's the thing about doing a multi team match, because I just don't see anybody really being credible in this situation, credible enough to beat the Hurt Syndicate. But that's how you could do it. It's kind of a cheap way out of it. But you put them in a multiperson match and they can lose without losing, right, I just don't see them losing. I just don't Swerve Strickland and will Osprey against the Young Bucks. If the Bucks lose, they

are stripped of their EVP titles. But if they win, Swerve nor Ospray can challenge for the aw World Championship for an entire year. I'm glad they added that last bit on Wednesday, because the Bucks had no reason otherwise to put their EVP powers on the line unless they were getting something in return, And if you think about it, they're not even really getting anything in return. But I guess to them it's worth it just to fuck with the other two that they won't be able to challenge

for the world title. I don't know why they would even care. I thought the play here was going to be Swerve and Hangman. I think a lot of people thought that. You know, in the weeks leading up to where we are now, Swerve and Hangman. Osprey wins the Owen, He's the one that tries to beat John Moxlay to

win the world title. But you have the story of Swerve and Hangman here for the sake of the company, forced to put their differences aside and come together to face a common enemy, and really playing up the drama as well with Hangman and the elite. Whose side is he going to be on? Right? Going into all in the story was there if they wanted to tell it, And maybe it was, and Tony decided very late on who he wanted to win the owen. We heard that story going around about Osprey. It might have been a

fightful report about Osprey and Hangman. They were both lobbying for the other to win. It sounded like it might not have been decided upon as late as the weekend of the show who was going to go over in that tournament. But whatever the case, I actually think the Bucks are winning here, especially if Hangman is winning the title. I don't think it's going to be all good news for the babyfaces on this show. I wish it wasn't so.

I think the EVP stuff is way overdone in everything the Bucks do on TV, and it's a risk to keep two of your top babyfaces out of the world title picture for a year, but it can be done with the right story. I don't think adding that stipulation makes the outcome as predictable as some people may think it is. It's not like they're putting their careers on the line or something dumb like that. If the Babyfaces lose here, will Osprey cannot challenge for the title for

an entire year. If we assume that they are going to bring all In. Tony Kanna said they're going back to Wembley next year. But if we assume that all In is going back to Wembley in August of next year, not July, and frankly, even if it was July, right, that would be a year he could still be in the owen Hart Tournament and win, because if he wins, the actual tie would not take place until after the

one year is up. So the story there is will Osprey finally gets the chance after a year of having to wait to challenge for the championship and win the championship in his home country of England. Right, that would be the story there, But then we have an entire year of Osbury doing what exactly right, That's my concern. It's even worse for Swerve, who as a babyface, if he isn't fighting for the world title of if he doesn't have that singular goal in mind. I don't know

what he's fighting for. It was Osprey who suggested the stipulation. Swerve clearly was not happy about this, but he reluctantly agreed. I think Osprey is losing this match for his team, and that's the catalyst for a Swerve heel turn. Swerve needs that edgeback, especially if they're losing this match and he can't fight for the top title. He'll blame Osprey for the loss and make him pay, and then we we get a third match between them, and maybe even a fourth. You can milk a feud between them for

a few months. I doubt that Hangman, if he wins the title, even holds it for a year. But if he does, there's always the inevitable Hangman Swerve title match that they could do. But again, that would be much later on. So it's a risk. It's a risk taking your two or I should say two of your top babyfaces because Hangman's right there with them. It's a risk taking two of your top baby faces and kind of boxing yourself in in this way. But I think that's

what's gonna happen. I got the young Bucks winning this timeless Tony Storm defends the AW Women's World Championship against the undefeated CEO, the TBS champion, Mercedes Monette. They had a chance to take the TBS title off of Mercedes on Dynamite this week against Mina Shirikawa, they didn't take it. Now she rolls into this paper as TBS champion, and if she wins the world title, then what does she defend both titles? Does she suffer her first loss defending

the TBS title. That wouldn't make much sense, neither would her vacating the TVs title. She's made it this far. They probably want her to set the record as the longest reigning TBS champion of all time and erase Jade Cargill's name from that spot. The way things have played out on TV, Mercedes has gotten one over on Tony a few times now. They're gonna have a face to face, one final face to face on Dynamite this week, and

so maybe Tony will stand tall there. But Mercedes has gotten one over on her a couple of times, left her laying again on Wednesday. Another Mercedes win here may be good for the Mercedes brand. What it wouldn't be so good for is the AW Women's division. I picked Megan Being to win the Gauntlet because I think Tony Storm is retaining the title. I think she hands Mercedes her first taste of defeat, and before she ever lays a hand on that world title, she needs to first

drop that TBS title. If she wins the world title and lets the other one go, she's not losing for a long time yet. So what is accomplished by keeping this woman undefeated for two years? You know, she's been plowing through everybody. You really think if she wins the world title next weekend that she's going to turn around and lose it in two months. It's like we're resetting the clock all over again. Mercedes has had a great run in terms of the actual matches that she's had.

She rarely misses. Tony Storm has been consistently one of the best performers in the entire business. Her commitment to that character and the work that she has done has been fantastic. These two are going to have an all timer on Saturday. It could be the greatest women's match this company has ever seen, And when it is over, I predict that Tony Storm will still be theaw Women's World champ. Kenny Omega. He returned on Dynamite to rescue Coda Ibushi from a beatdown at the hands and feet

of the Don Kallis family. On Saturday, Omega defends his aw International title against the Continental champion, Kazuchka Okada. Winner take all. No more International title, no more Continental title, just one unified champion. People make the Rick Flair Ricky Steamboat comparison for a reason with these two, because you will not find a better series of matches between two people of this quality, of this caliber, in this generation.

Their Wrestle Kingdom eleven match was an absolute classic. Their sixty minute Broadway at Dominion a few months later absolute classic. Their G One match two months after that, another classic, and they did it in half the time. And then Dominion in twenty eighteen, best two out of three falls. Maybe the greatest match that I've ever seen, sixty five minutes long and I was never bored. That's a high bar to set. How do you top that? How do

you top that series of matches? I don't think you go into this with that mentality, especially if you're Kenny and you just had a near death experience with diperticulitis. He just sounds grateful for every day that he can wake up and just wrestle, because he thought he might never have that chance again. And after more than a year off, he came back and had the match that he had with Gabe Kid at the Tokyo Dome, his first match back, and it was like he never left.

Now he finally gets the big match with Okada on American soil, on one of the biggest aw shows of all time. You don't think these two aren't going to go out there and tear down the house. You don't think that we're gonna see new Japan Okada out there. In most of his matches, it looks like he's coasting because he doesn't have to put his body through the kind of abuse that he used to Right, not when he got not when he has eleven minutes on TV

with commercials. Right, it's different now, it's a different style, it's a different company, it's a little bit older. He made his money, but here he's on pay per view no less than thirty minutes. I'm sure probably much more. To have a classic Okada match, they usually start very slow and then they build, they tell a story, and by the end of it, especially that closing sequence. They've got that crowd in the palm of their hand. You're gonna get the holy shit chance before they even touch,

before the bell even rings. It's like when Okada and Brian Danielson finally wrestled, right, this is gonna be special. You know that going in. This is the match that Tony Kahan had in mind the minute he signed Okada to a contract. He couldn't do the match sooner because Kenny was hurt. But now we get to see it, possibly for the last time, you never know, And it's the match that I am most looking forward to on

this show, a main event on any show. The only reason it doesn't get the closing spot on this show is if Hangman Page is winning the world title. But it is a main event anywhere in the world, and I predict that Kenny Omega will walk out the new AW unified champion. Now, Okana is not undefeated in AW. He lost once to Brian Danielson. He lost to Kyle Fletcher in a Continental Classic match. I think those are

his only two singles losses. On the whole, he has been very well protected and he has won most of his matches, and he's had that Continental title now for a long time. This is where it all comes to an end, though, And speaking of coming to an end, we can all hope clasp your hands together, everybody, because it's finally here, the main event. John Moxley, after nine painful months, not even childbirth is as painful as this death Rider's stuff has been. But here we are, at last,

in Texas. He defends the AW World Championship against the winner of the Owen Heart Tournament, the former AW World Champion, the man that we are accounting on to be the savior, Hangman Adam Page. And it will be a Texas Death Match. This will not be their first match together. It will not even be their first Texas Death match together Hangman won their first one at Revolution in twenty twenty three. Hangman all but said on Wednesday he knows the death

Riders are going to get involved. He knows the young Bucks will be sneaking around, so let's just make it Texas Death I like that they're openly acknowledging what we already know. There's going to be a metric fuck ton of interference in this match. It will be overbooked to all hell, and that could be a lot of fun. If we get the right out come, this will be their Avengers endgame. The Death Riders have screwed over so

many people. They have injured so many people, going all the way back to Brian Danielson when Moxley won the world title. Brian Danielson took a bump a few weeks ago at Arena Mexico when he delivered a busaku knee at the Ring of Honor taping that was after the show. I fully expect to see him here, if only for one quick cameo to wipe out Wheeler Da. That little shit with the same knee that you'da has been using

ever since Moxley beat Orange Cassidy at full gear. He beat Hangman and two other men in a four way a World's End, Adam Copeland, Swab Stricklands, Samoa Joe, and don't forget throwing Darby Allen down a flight of stairs. He hasn't been seen since he actually made it to the summit of Mount Everest. He flew the flag literally of aw on top of the mountain, something they never even acknowledged on television. Why because they wanted to keep him out of sight, out of mind for this moment.

When Darby returns to help put the nail in the coffin of John Moxley's reign, is world champion and we might even get a sting cameo too. I'm sure he'll be there. He lives in Texas. I don't know why he wouldn't draw By. There's been a lot of talk about Tony Kahan maybe wanting to wait to put the title on Darby. Maybe Moxley even wins this match to save the title. Win for Darby in Toronto at All Out or Wrestle Dream in October. If they go back to Seattle, another three or four months of this death

rider's shit is unacceptable. If Tony Khan wanted Darby to be the one to dethrone John Moxley, you don't push those plans back just because Darby wanted to go play mountaineer. He probably would have been champion by now had he not left. That was his choice. If that's what he wants to do, go ahead. Life goes on, though, stories they go on, aw goes on. You don't put shit on hold to wait for Darby to come back from his expedition. This stage right here is set for a

grand finale. Here and now in Texas. Tony Khan has given us a lot of grown endings to these pay per views, these usually great pay per views, otherwise multiple times now, I would hope to build to the happy ending here on this show. I don't think he wants to send people home disappointed this time from his big stadium show. I really don't. You're going to see Darby, You're probably gonna see Danielson, the Death Riders, the Bucks,

the Ops, maybe swerve an Osprey. It's going to be overbooked chaos, and I love it so long as we get Hangman Adam Page at the end of all of it as the new aw world champion. I am predicting a win for the Cowboy in Texas. This is Hangman's redemption arc, after all the twists and turns with his character from babyface to psychotic heel and back to whatever he's supposed to be. Now the feud would swerve. It had to happen to lead to this moment. Anything else

would be an epic failure. So we got Hangman's big moment. Hopefully we got Omega versus Okada or Bill Goldberg fighting for the world title. I know what I'll be doing on Saturday night. That's watching this one and going live immediately after Saturday night's main event. We'll have to wait for the sound off next Sunday, so join me on YouTube after the pay per view for the full review.

It should be a great show. Now I told you we had a monster mailbag, I'm gonna turn it over to you guys because we have a ton of questions here to go through. I wish we had more news, but as crazy as next weekend is going to be, it's actually been kind of dead. So I'm looking forward to the news cycle picking up. But let's turn it over to you guys. If you have questions for me the Sola Monster at gmail dot com. That is the place to send your correspondence. Please include your name and

where you are from when you write in. Let us begin with Jim from Pennsylvania with the announcement of Survivor series at Petco Park. I am sick and tired of the annual Wargames match. I've never been a fan of the matches use in WWE in general. The lack of blood and open cage for high spot purposes has turned a match that used to be one of the most intense in all of wrestling into yet another safe and predictable match that is more focused on creating highlights and

hype moments. The number of injuries that we have seen in the big match in the last few years is also not ideal. I believe Wargames is dangerously approaching hell and a cell pay per view territory where the company is forced booking the match instead of saving it for a storyline that truly deserves it. I believe that WWE should be at the very least bringing back some traditional Survivor Series tag matches and potentially give Wargames a one or two year break to make it feel more special

in the future. What say you, I think you said that perfectly. Yeah. I was very happy when they brought war Games to the main roster and at Survivor Series because that, I mean literally, that was something I was arguing for as far back as twenty ten on this show. So when they did it, I was very happy. You know, Triple H obviously brought it back an NXT he always

wanted to do it. Vince wanted nothing to do with it, but just the idea that you got these two rings set up side by side, you got these ten men or women. Now they do the women's ones and they're just you know, beating the hell out of each other

and it's mass chaos. It's it's a fun match, But I agree with you in that it should only be saved for when you really have a feud worthy of a Wargames match, and I think that maintaining even just once a year it's Survivor Series, a traditional four on four or five on five elimination match is something that they should be doing. Even on a card with Wargames, you could still have one traditional Survivor Series match. I don't know why they just completely junked the entire format.

So I'm with you. If there is a story to support a war Games match, then by all means do Wargames. I think part of the problem is that they put the promotional materials out so far in advance, and they don't always have their plans creatively booked out that far in advance. So they already have advertisements out for the show promoting Wargames because they think, you know, the idea of Wargames is in and of itself a draw, and

I think that's part of the problem. They want to settle on a theme for the show months and months in advance, when they may not have their creative plans fully fleshed out for the show. But I do think giving it a break every now and then is a good thing. I'm not saying revert back to the Survivor Series format where it's just nothing but elimination matches, but even on these shows with wargames, I would like to see them at least keep one traditional Survivor series match.

Lamb from Brooklyn, You've helped me through many times of stress, angst, and depression with your hard work. Thank you, lam I hope this is not one of those periods. How would you feel about John Cena turning baby face at SummerSlam with Cody turning heel leading to a CM Punk WrestleMania match for the title as a result of Punk winning

the Royal Rumble. After seeing his loss, he goes on a brief period of exile as his dates are limited, seeing his last match at Saturday Night's main event ends up being Gunther, so he has claims to retiring both Goldberg and Sina. I don't have anything against a Sena Gunther match. I don't know that he's going to be seen his final opponent, CM Punk winning the Royal Rumble. I think there's a better chance of Sammy Zain winning the Rumble in Saudi next year and getting that shot

at the World Heavyweight Championship. I just don't see it. The idea of Asena and Cody double turn at Summer Slim is something I addressed on the show last week. I talked about an idea that was floated. I thought the way it was laid out was very well done. I myself am not sold on turning Cody heel, but if you were going to do it, I think the way I talked about it last week is the way to do it. This I'm not completely on board with

this idea. Jack from San Diego, I don't really like talking about wrestling ratings or any kind of business metrics when it comes to things I enjoy. As far as I'm concerned, the only viewer that matters is me. That said, since there's been talk about aw ratings in twenty twenty five, I was wondering if you had seen Tony Kahn's tweet posting evidence of their growth this year. Does this tweet

make you rethink your own stance? On the ratings, I for one, am happy to hear the show is doing so well because it benefits everyone for any wrestling company to do well. Hey, I'm always happy to hear about a show doing well. The shows do well, I do well. Everybody wins. The shows do badly, or the show's go belly up. I have one less show to review, which is bad for business, So I'm with you on that.

That being said, the I did see the graphic. The collision numbers that he posted in the graphic that I saw are a bit misleading since that would include, however, many NBA games that served as a lead in to the because the show has been bounced around the lot this year, and several times they have used like an NBA game or some kind of event like that as a big lead in to the show to get a lot of eyeballs on that first quarter, and it gives them a huge first quarter, but you know, then usually

there's a big drop off immediately after that. But fair play to him because he is technically correct, so he can be happy about that. The dynamite stuff is funny to me because we're always told how important the eighteen to forty nine demo number is when it comes to these shows. But in the graphic they cited twenty five to fifty four. That was the demo they listed, so we seem to have moved down from eighteen to forty nine,

even though that's still the key demo for advertisers. But if they've seen growth in twenty five to fifty four, hey, you know, growth is growth, so that's good to see. And we still don't know how many more people are watching on Max because they don't share those numbers. But those numbers don't include Max just for the record, the numbers that he posted, so whatever those numbers are, they are higher. We just don't know how much higher they are.

I'm sure it's a shit show in the comments underneath what he posted, so I didn't even bother looking. The viewership is still down though, from what they were doing a couple of years ago, and I don't think that point should be lost. Absolutely. If there's growth, then trumpet that growth. But the viewership is still down from what they had been doing previously. And there is also a reason that they are running much smaller buildings for weekly television.

They may still be running big buildings for pay per views, but they're not doing that week to week like they used to. If they can build on this growth, maybe one day they can get back to the place that they were in before. They're not running smaller venues because Tony Kahn loves running smaller venues. They're running smaller venues because they weren't able to fill the bigger venues and

they really had no choice. It's much better running the smaller venues in this case because that way you don't have a half empty building. And plus the acoustics are so much better if you have a lively crowd. I love some of these venues that they've run. That music Hall was in in Boston, I think it was some of these smaller venues, and I think there was one

maybe in Ohio where the crowd is really hot. And so even though it's a smaller building, it just aesthetically it looks kind of cool and it sounds great on TV. That's all well and good, but don't ever lose sight of the fact that the only reason they are running these buildings in the first place is because they could not sell enough tickets in the NBA buildings that they were running. So again, if there is growth to be seen in this demo or that demo or on Max

or whatever, then that needs to be built on. Now. You can talk about the quality of the shows, and there are some people who think the shows right now are better than they have ever been. But if that's the case, then it would be reflected in attendance, and that's not happened yet. So if you think that AW Dynamite is better than ever, then that should be reflected very soon in the attendance numbers for these shows, especially at a time when you would have to sell your

own kidney to buy tickets to a WWE show. WWE is pricing people out of going to shows. AW has an advantage over WWE, and that their shows are priced more affordably. That's something I would lean into more. But if the shows are more affordable and the shows are so great, then you would think six months from now they would be running bigger buildings. Again. I don't know that I see that happening, but if all of that's true, then it should. It's just something to watch for in

the second half of twenty twenty five. Ryan from Hollywood, California been listening since twenty seventeen. I've been listening to seth Rollins a lot, and this oh my condolences and his whole thing is not ever allowing CM Punk to win a championship. I predict Punk either eliminates Sammy at the Royal Rumble or eliminates bron Breaker in the elimination Chamber to go on to beat Rollins in the Night one main event of WrestleMania. This has to end with

Punk overthrowing Rollins. What do you think, Well, you know, if Sammy's ain wins the Royal Rumble, and he would again, we don't know. It's still very far off. But between the location of the show and them repeatedly on television pointing out the fact that Sammy has never won a world title and Sammy saying I know I can do it, but I know I could do it right now, they're both on Monday Night Raw. If Punk wins the Rumble, then Sammy's not going to be in the elimination chamber.

If Sammy wins the Rumble, Punk is not going to be in the elimination chamber because the chamber would be to decide on who challenges for the other title, unless Sammy chooses to go after the WWE championship, which I you know, I don't see that, but the rumble winner does have the right to choose the champion they want to go after, So I mean, it's impossible to know this early where we're going to be come January or February of next year. Does Punk have to be the

one to overthrow Rollins? It doesn't have to be, but it would make a lot of sense if CM Punk is eventually going to win the world title, that it should be from Seth Rollins. If Seth Rollins is going around saying I've made it my mission to make sure that you are never a world champion, then for him to be the one that Punk has to be to win the title actually does make a lot of sense. So it doesn't have to be Punk. If they want somebody else to be champion, then it could be somebody else.

But for Punk's story, yes, it would make sense if he was the person to overthrow Seth Rollins. Daniel from Ohio, fan of the podcast for over twelve years. As much as I know you don't like Goldberg beating Gunther, part of me believes there is a good chance that Seth cashes in and wins the title. I feel like another punkin Seth match really could use the title as they have had other matches, and I don't see a clear

match for Gunther defending its SummerSlam. This leads me to a scenario that I think would be very cool and wanted your opinion. Goldberg beats Gunther. Well, you've already lost me, Daniel, You've already lost me. Goldberg beats Gunther, and while celebrating Seth's music hits. Seth walks down slowly with Hayman and a referee while Goldberg stares them down. Right before Seth hands the briefcase to bron Breaker comes out of nowhere and spears Goldberg. Seth then hands the briefcase to the

ref and covers Goldberg. This accomplishes two things. It gets Seth the belt and allows the very last move Goldberg ever takes in wrestling to be a spear and can also be treated as a past the torch moment to bron Breaker again. I am also not a huge fan of Goldberg winning the title, but if they are going to have Seth kash In, I really like this scenario. How about you? As I said, you lost me at Goldberg beating gun There I just cannot get behind that.

I just can't. If they are going to do the cash in, it has to happen while the match is still in progress to at least spare Gunther from taking a loss to this man. And then I'm fine with bron Breaker being the one to put Goldberg down with a spear. But I would not, under any circumstance, approve of a scenario that involves Goldberg first beating Gunther and then moving on to a cash in and treating Gunther like he's just another guy. He already lost to the

yeat Man this year. To lose to Goldberg at this point would just be horrible. Sean from Byron Illinois. Buyers sell on the Better Feud with Seth Rollins, where shockingly he has never or yet to have a proper one on one pl E match or at the very least a PL match to end the feud Roman Reigns or cmpunk. So what is he what is he asking here? Buyers sell on the Better Feud with Rollins where they have never had a proper, okay, proper one on one PL match.

I mean it would have to be Roman Reigns. I mean that there's just so much more history between the two of them. It is kind of shocking. Wait a minute, that there's no way they never had a pl E match. They did have a pl match though, all right, didn't they have a pl E. Wasn't it Rollins against Rains at Money in the Bank that year when Rollins came back and he beat Roman. That was before Roman got suspended tested positive for something. You got suspended for one actually,

and maybe he didn't test positive. Maybe he God, what was the story with Roman's test failure? He failed to report something. I don't remember what it was. So, unless I'm understanding your question incorrectly, I know Rollins and Rains they've definitely had some singles matches on PL's before they wrestled at the Royal Rumble one year. But as far as ending their feud, I mean again, I don't know. I guess I'm just confused by the question. I guess

Rollins and Rains is still unresolved. I suppose even though Seth, you know, kind of beat him at WrestleMania. I don't know. I mean, I'll still go with Rollins and Rains. I'm just a little confused here. Rollins in Punk will have a definitive ending at some point. It hasn't happened yet, but I still have to go at Rollins and Rains. There's just so much more history there between them. Ed from Mombasa coast of Kenya. Who do you think are

the best bell to bell performers in WWE? For me, it's probably Eosky and maybe Axiom or someone hidden away in the mid card as a close second. Eosky is for sure one of them, Gunther is another. Those are the top two, and I would throw Chad Gable in there as well. Bell to bell, those are your three best. John from Baltimore. I've been watching old footage from the early nineties WWF and it looked like Bulldog was going to be a contender for the WWE title in the future.

I don't think Vince ever really had Breton mind until he had nowhere else to turn to. He was never being groomed. It looks like Vince had plans for Bulldog as early as nineteen ninety one before he snatched up sid and Flair. Later that year, Bulldog was one of the final four in the ninety one Royal Rumble. He also won another Battle Royal a year later. I know he had substance abuse problems, and maybe Vince realized Brett

was more reliable. I just can't help but think Vince had Bulldog in mind way before Brett as a future world title holder. I still think Vince had plans for Sid and Flair, but Flair proved to be difficult to work with later on, and so was Sid. What are your thoughts, No, I don't have the impression that Vince ever looked at Bulldog and was grooming him for anything. I mean, could Bulldog without the issues that he had that got him fired ultimately, could the Bulldog eventually have

become a world champion. It's possible, But I don't think Vince looked at Bulldog and said, Okay, this guy's gonna be my world champion. I never heard about that, and I never got that vibe. As far as Sid, you know, Sid, had he stuck around in ninety two, I think it's very likely Sid eventually would have won the world title during that first run. You know, obviously he won it when he came back. It was technically his third run.

But yeah, Sid, I mean, said Jess, I said it when he passed away, and I did the whole retrospective on him, Sid was just that he was the guy that you would create in a lab if you were looking to create a pro wrestler. Was psycho Sid like. He was that guy and he had the charisma. He may not have been the most technically sound, but you know, people shit on him and shit on his matches. Oh, he always had terrible match He did not always have

terrible matches. He had a lot of terrible matches. But the guy could work, and he had charisma, he had size, he had the look. He was that guy. He would have done very well had he stuck around that first time Flair, you have Vince having problems with proving difficult to work with. I don't. I don't know where you heard that. I don't. I've never heard of Flair being difficult to work with in WWE during that first run

or any run really. Jonathan from Chicago, Illinois. I was looking at the lineage for some WWE titles on Wikipedia and came across something interesting. The current WWE World Tag Team Championships lineage only dates back to two thousand and two, when the second set of tag team titles were created for SmackDown. When the first brand split went into effect.

The other titles tag titles currently on SmackDown's lineage only date back to twenty sixteen, when the second brand split happened, And this confused me because I was certain twenty sixteen, because I was certain, sorry, because I was certain there were other tag title reigns that pre dated two thousand

and two. I found out that in two thousand and nine, when both sets of tag team titles were unified, WWE decided to keep both championships independently active until the original World Tag Team Championship was decommissioned in twenty ten, in favor of continuing the lineage of the WWE Tag Team Championships that were created in two thousand and two. Why did WWE? I am so confused right now. Why did WWE decide to discard an almost forty year lineage in

favor of keeping one with almost no history? Did Vince just not care about old titles? It seems like an odd decision to me. Well, he's a very odd man, so that tracks I was confused just reading your email. I don't know what lineage they're using for any of these tag titles anymore. Vince did not give a shit about that kind of stuff, So I'm not surprised that

it is as convoluted as it is. To me, the lineage of those old tag belts with the old design that the Heart Foundation and Demolition and Edge and Christian and the Dudley Boys held that ended when they created two new sets of titles, one for Raw and one for SmackDown. To me, that is where that lineage died. From that point on. We had a raw title lineage and we had a SmackDown title lineage, and through whatever unifications there may have been over the years, now we

have two sets of tag titles. As far as I'm concerned, that is continuing the lineage of those first split titles that they created in two thousand and two. That to me makes it a lot easier to understand. Now, maybe that's not the way WWE is acknowledging it, but I don't give a shit. As far as I'm concerned, that is how I am tracking the lineage of these titles.

Isaac from Branford, Ontario. Since we are just coming off of John sena versus CM punkin Knight of Champions and with July marking fourteen years since their Money in the Bank match, I was wondering if cmpunk chose to leave WWE in twenty eleven rather than re sign, how different do you think his legacy would be today? If he did not have his world title run of four hundred and thirty four days, his legacy would be different, for sure. I don't think that he would have been as big

of a star as he ended up becoming. You know, he would be a star, and I think a lot of the stuff he did on the independent scene and a ring of honor that really would have been kind

of the major part of his legacy. And if he was just sort of floating around the indies or if he'd gone to work for TNA when AW started in twenty nineteen, I think he would have been near the top on Tony Kahn's wish list and he would have ended up in AW a lot sooner than he did, and very likely things would have maybe ended up a little bit differently there for him than they did. But yeah, I mean it would have affected his legacy as a top performer in the way that people see him now

as like a top guy. He would not have attained that status if he didn't have that run. And it's not even just the four hundred and thirty four day title run. Just everything he did in the years that followed, those two or three years that followed before he left, was so instrumental in elevating him to main event status in that company and elevating his value then when he went to AW eventually, So it was very important for

him to resign. Tall from Israel. Where does the Mouth of the South Jimmy Hart belong on the list of who's who of wrestling managers? Good question, he ran, He's pretty damn high on that list. Jimmy is one of the ghats of wrestling managers, going back to his Memphis days and the stuff that he did with Jerry Lawler. He even got to work a program with Andy Kaufman

like Lawler did. He had his greatest success in WWE, managed a ton of big names, but he also worked for WCW for many years, and you know what, beyond his on camera stuff, he was a very important figure when it came to entrance music in both companies because of his background as a musician. He was part of a band called the Gentries, you know, back in the

sixties and they were very successful. So he's had a musical background going back to his younger days, and we talk a lot about the importance of entrance music, especially at a time now when entrance music, at least in WWE is pretty fucking bad. It just goes to illustrate how important it is when you listen back to, you know, days gone by in these different promotions, and how catchy you know a lot of the entrance themes and how identifiable many of the entrance themes were. Jimmy had a

lot to do with that. So for all the great songs jim Johnston is credited for, Jimmy probably doesn't get enough credit. Jimmy was responsible for Sean Michael's entrance music, both the version that had Sherry singing and then the version that had Sean himself singing. He was responsible for Demolition's theme, the Honky Tonk Man, the Million Dollar Man, the Fabulous Rougeau's. You know some of those early instrumental themes for Wrestlemanian SummerSlam, that was Jimmy Hart. So was

the nWo Wolfpack theme. He wrote that one too, or he co wrote it at least, and they got c Murder to record it. So he's every bit as influential, you know, in that way as he was as a manager. I ranked Jimmy very high. He's not top three for me. That would be Heen and Hayman and Cornett. They have those spots locked up. But he's definitely in my top five. Those last two spots are between him and sensational Sherry.

I have Paul behar Is like right below that. So put him at number four, put him at number five. Either way, he's top five in my book. Mister Rodd from Alexander City, Alabama. I was talking to a friend concerning Swerve, Strickland and Hangman page for example. I remember Meltzer once saying how Okata and Omega were the Rick Flair and Ricky Steamboat of this generation. My question to you is, can you see Hangman and Swerve being the Rock and Austin of this generation? Okay, so there is

no Rock in Austin of this generation. It's unfair to even make that comparison. There is nothing comparable in any promotion today to what we got with Rock and Austin. It was a moment in time. It was a fleeting moment in time. But I am grateful to have been a fan during that period. Swerve and Hangman are two guys that bring the best and the worst out of

each other. Because some of the stuff they've done in their matches was completely unnecessary and sick and just felt like they were especially Swerve was just engaging in some sort of weird fetish. But they didn't have to do it. They can have great matches without that stuff. They're two of the biggest stars in wrestling today, but I don't think people are going to look at them as the two names most associated with this era of wrestling or anything like that, or maybe one of them but not

the other. I just don't see it as the same thing as Rock and Austin. I'm sorry, Christian in York, Pennsylvania, I just saw a match that I never knew existed, Brent and Owen Hart against the Steiner brothers. It was an amazing match. Any reason why this wasn't continued or a feud made out of this? I also wanted to let you know that you had a celebrity in my country of the Dominican Republic that sent a question to

you a few weeks ago, Ariel Santana. I was shocked to hear that he listens to the Sola Monster as well. Are you sure about that? I definitely read an email from Ariel in Santo Domingo a few weeks ago, but I don't know that it was Ariel Santana. If it was, though, that's very cool. I just I can't remember. And yes, it was a great match. I was so happy to see them post that to the Vault channel. Now they just need to post the rest of that Colisem video

that they took it from Wreussell Fest ninety four. It had to be taped sometime between Survivor Series ninety three and Royal Rumble ninety four because bretton Owen they were a tag team for a very short period of time before Owen turned on Brett. That would have been a great match to do at the Royal Rumble instead of bretton Owen against the Quebecers, and they could have had the Steiners win and and they could have had Owen kick Brett's leg out of his leg after just like

they did. I wish they would have done that, but they really relegated the Steiners to the back burner around that time for whatever reason, and they were gone from the company after that. I want to say it was sometime in May. It was somewhat into nineteen ninety four. They didn't leave right away. It was probably sometime in like mid to late spring when they finally left, but they weren't even factored into the WrestleMania card that year. Men on a Mission got a tag team title match,

but the Steiners were left off the card. Christian is not the only one in York Pennsylvania, by the way, who listens to this show we got. Nathan sent this in. I've been watching wrestling since two thousand and three. I got to attend unforgiven that year when it was in Hershey. I've also watched TNA in its earlier days, but lost interest when Hogan got involved. Unfortunately, I felt indifferent about

the WWE product over time. Your podcast has been a blessing because it helped me still keep up with what's going on with the product. I haven't had a chance to really watch AW though I wanted to, and then the cmpunk drama kind of turned me off. But now I want to give AW a fair chance and see what I've been missing out on. So my question to you is, what are five matches and two pay per views that I should go out of my way to watch from AW. All right, so grab a pen. Here's

your homework assignment. Here some of the best matches in AW history. You've got to check out the Kenny Omega Brian Danielson match from the first Grand Slam show they did at Arthur ash Stadium. They went to a thirty minute draw. Spoiler sorry, but definitely check that match out. There were a couple of matches actually that Hangman Page and Brian Danielson had, I think all of them were on TV, but there was like a one hour match. It might have been their Winter Is Coming from a

few years ago, I want to say, maybe twenty twenty one. Possibly, definitely check that one out. The Luca Brothers against the Young Bucks all out twenty twenty one for the tag team title Steel Cage match is one of the best, not just tag team matches, but matches period and company history, as is Kenny Omega and Hangman Page against the Young

Bucks from Revolution in twenty twenty. You've got to check out Cody Roads and Dustin Rhodes from their first ever pay per view, which was Double or Nothing in twenty nineteen, So that is one to I think that might be five, right, four or five. That'll that'll keep you tied over for a while. I'll throw one more at you. MJF and Brian Danielson. They had what is the greatest Iron Men match that I have ever seen a few years ago.

I don't remember offhand which show it was. It might have been Revolution, I don't remember, but that's another one to check out. As far as the best pay per views to watch, I don't know if they're all up yet on Max, but most or all of them are probably now up in their library on Max. You could stream them from there. All Out twenty twenty one is probably still I mean, that's like top of the list right there. All Out twenty twenty one is something you

should definitely check out. And then even last year Revolution, which was Sting's retirement match. That was a great show, Revolution twenty twenty four and All in twenty twenty four. You go check out those matches and those shows, and that will give you a very good flavor for what AAW has done before. Jack from London, what is the worst world title win with a great rain and vice versa?

For me, the best win worst rain was Kurt Angle beating Austin in his hometown at Unforgiven two thousand and one, and the worst win best rain was Kenny Omega's aw title win over John Moxley at Winter Is Coming twenty twenty. What are yours? It's interesting question. There are a few that come to mind, you know what. Macho Man winning the WWF title from Rick flairt WrestleMania was a great win, followed by a rain that, if we're being honest, was

not very memorable at all. One match with The Warrior at Wembley that summer, That's about it. Another one is Kevin Owens winning the Universal title on Ron twenty sixteen and that great four way match followed by a terrible title run ended by Bill Goldberg, by the way in twenty seconds. Best title wins, worst rains. CM Punk had a couple of those in aw Brian Dangelson had one in WWE when he won the title of WrestleMania thirty. What a great win that was, and then he had

a very forgettable run before he got hurt. Worst wins' best reigns. I think Roman Reigns is probably one of the best examples of that, when he won the title in twenty twenty in the Thunderdome and the way he won it. I mean, that shit sucked. I'm sorry but it did. But then look at what came of that title win. Look at the run that he went on to have. Now, did it go on for too long? Probably, but he had a ton of great matches during that run.

And that run and the Bloodline story is what helped lead the way for WWE to do the best business that the company has ever done before. Ronnie from Belgium, what were your thoughts on WrestleMania in nineteen In two thousand and three, it was a success in the ring and box office, but it flopped on pay per view? Well, I mean that would be box office. You can't say that it was a rousing success in box office. I mean, I know they had fifty four thousand people there, But

did it flopped it? Did it flopped on pay per view? He says. I blame it on WWE giving away Angle Lesnar in a roadway match and Austin Rock three. I didn't feel a demand for another Austin versus Rock match. You know, I don't know how far in advance Austin knew that this was going to be his final match. Obviously they knew coming into it that it was going to be and it was held very very close to the vest. Only a handful of people even knew. I'm not even sure if Earl Hepner knew, you know, the

referee in the ring. I'm not sure. I'm not sure how many people knew going in, but if they mentioned that, I mean, it's hindsight. You know, this is not how Austin wanted to handle it. Have people known going in that this was going to be Austin's last match? I think box office wise, pay per view wise, that show would have done a lot better than it did. But you had a lot of big matches on that show.

You had Angle and Lesner for the first time, well I guess not the first time, but for the first time on a pay per view yet angle and Lesner. You had, you know, Hogan and Vince. You had Jericho and Shawn Michaels and Shawn's first WrestleMania back after years away. And then Rock and Austin and yes it was the third one at this point, but it's still Rock and Austin. So you look at that, you go, man, this is a top tier show here, right and we got a lot of great matches on that show. But I go

back to Hogan and Vince. You can't forget Hulk Hogan against Vince McMahon was booked as the real main event of this show. The way they promoted it, the way they advertised it, you would think that this was the main event of that show. So maybe people just didn't care for WrestleMania built around one old past his prime guy and one non wrestler. I think that had a

lot to do with it. I can't lay it all at their feet, but I definitely think promoting it in the way that they did, very heavily centered around that match, did not help because people just weren't interested. They just were not interested in that. But it's very strange if

you look at a chart. I've seen these charts and these graphs before, where you see WrestleMania eighteen, WrestleMania seventeen, WrestleMania eighteen, WrestleMania twenty, and then nineteen is in the middle there, and you see how far down it is, you know, compared to those other shows. It's like wow, It's like you can't ignore it. It's just so startling to see. But it all comes down to promotion. How you promote the show, what you promote, what you really

focus all of your efforts on. And I'm telling you, I remember I lived through it. A lot of it was around Hogan and Vince. Can't build an entire WrestleMania primarily around Hulk Hogan against Vince McMahon. Jose from New York City rank these last four Summer Slam main events. Roman Reigns against brock Lesner, Roman Reigns against John Cena, Roman Reigns against Jay Usso, Cody Roads Agains Solo Soco. Okay, so we're looking at the Summer Slim main events from

twenty twenty one to twenty twenty four. Basically, Roman Reigns against brock Lesnar in twenty twenty two, that was the best. Their best matches were actually their first and last ones. How about that? Because I assume we have seen the final Roman Reigns brock Lesner match. I don't think we're ever getting that again. So their first match and their last match were actually their best matches. So I put

that at the top. Number two. I will put Roman Reigns against John Cena in twenty twenty one, which I honestly didn't even think was that great. Number three I would put Cody Rhoads against Solo Socoa, which I hated. That was last year. And if I hated that, then I must really have not liked Number four, which was the worst of the bunch, which was Roman Reigns and jay Uso twenty twenty three in that tribal combat I

think was tribal combat. Yeah, we've had some really bad summer slim made events, haven't we in the last several years. Roman and Brock though man that last Man's Standing match. I gotta give it to him. They saved the best for last. David from Chicago. I was listening to Jim Cornett's podcast and a question was asked about Paul Haman getting the book once Eric Bischoff was sent home from WCW.

Do you think Hayman would have made a better impact on WCW creative or would things have ended the same way? You know, it's actually I feel like it's two completely different questions here, because would he have had a better impact on WCW creative? Absolutely? Did you watch WCW in the dying days? I think, honestly, I mean I saw possum in the street a few weeks ago here in Brooklyn. Yes we have Brooklyn possums. And I think the possum would have done a better job than whoever the hell

was doing. I mean, the creative was handled by so many different people at that point. I can't even just say it was Russo russou Bishaw, who the hell knows. The possum would have done a better job. So would Paul Haman have done a better job creatively? That was his strong suit. Creatively was his strong suit. The business end of things not so much. But you're talking about two different things. So creative would have improved under Hayman.

Would things have ended pretty much the same way for WCW. I think they would have, because I think they were just so far gone. They were too far gone at that point. They were too far gone. And also Turner was looking to just unload and just be done with it. At that point, the glory days were over. They weren't getting them back. WWF was so much stronger than they were when WCW was kicking their ass. There were just

too many things working against them. So I think creatively the actual television product might have improved, But I don't think it would have really changed the outcome. I think we would have ended up in the same place now. He also has a completely unrelay to buy or sell on movies. Which decade had the better movies, nineteen eighties or nineteen nineties. I mean, it's so subjective. I love eighties and nineties movies. I just think they're the best.

The eighties gave us so many things. The eighties gave us back to the future, Ghostbusters, die Hard, RoboCop, Terminator, top Gun, Lethal Weapon, et Beetlejuice, Batman, Scarface, Beverly Hills Cop, just a shit ton of John Candy movies. I miss

that guy. Oh God, there's so many I'm missing. And that's to say nothing of all the horror franchises that started in the eighties Right Friday the Thirteenth, which I have a question on that actually coming up here in a second Nightmare on Elm Street, The Thing, Creep Show, Child's Play, The Fly Fright, Night They Live. It was the era of practical effects. Rob Botten is still the best when it comes to that stuff. The eighties were great.

Eighties wrestling was the best too. The hair maybe not so much, But then you look at the movies we got in the nineties, and I mean it's not like there isn't a lot of great stuff there. I mean you got Terminator two, one of the all time great sequels. Right.

People talk about Godfather too, but you can't leave Terminator too out of that conversation either, Goodfellas, Casino Heat, The Shawshank Redemption, which is one of the greatest movies ever made, Saving Private Ryan Toy Story, Jurassic Park, the Original, not all of the inferior sequels that we've gotten, Shindler's List Forrest Gump, Pulp Fiction, Silence of the Lambs, Scream. I mean, the eighties was definitely the better horror decade. I give

it the edge on movies overall. But it's all a matter of your personal taste and what you look for in your movies. I mean, some people love horror, some people like action, some don't. Some like more artsy films and less big budget blockbusters, which we got a lot of in the eighties. I think you'll find what you like in either one. But to me, the eighties is still tops. But you know, then you have people that are a little bit older who would probably swear by

the seventies. Look at what we got in the seventies. You got The Godfather, The Godfather Part two, Jaws, which just celebrated fifty years, The Alien, Rocky, the Exorcist, Taxi Driver, Star Wars. If that's your thing, all goes back to the seventies, William from New Jersey. I recall that you're a big horror movie fan. I am too. I remember you did your top five favorite horror films for Episode six sixty six, and you the Halloween movies, including your

reviews on the three latest ones. I remember you bringing up Jason Vorhees a few times and think that it would be fun to see you rank the twelve movies from best to worst, which includes Freddy Versus Jason. Jason is my personal favorite slasher killer. Even my wife, who wasn't a horror fan before, has now become obsessed with

it and these movies are to thank for it. We're actually going to Camp No b Bosco nob Bosco Wow Camp Nobi Bosco's tour later this October with our one year old the location where the original Friday the Thirteenth was filmed. That's very cool. I forgot they filmed that first movie in New Jersey. Ranking all twelve is tough because it's been many years since I've seen these movies, but I will give it my best shot. I will

tell you right now. So I did put some thought into this and I was able to rank them, but I will tell you right now, Part three is my favorite. You can tell it was shot in three D because some of the weird camera shots, Like if you watch the movie now, especially not with like three D glasses, there's gonna be some scenes that just look fucking weird because they sold this movie when it came out as Jason in three D. But I love it. It's the one where he actually gets the hockey mask for the

first time. So Part three is my number one, then Part six, then Part four, then Part two. Part four was the one with Corey Feldman, then Part two, and rounding out my top five, I've got Freddy Versus Jason, even though it was probably more of a nightmare movie Nightmare on Elm Street than a Friday the Thirteenth film, And I really was never a big Freddy guy, but I just I just had so much fun watching that, like in a theater packed with people when it first

came out. They actually gave the closing shot of the movie a standing ovation. That might have been the first time I ever went to a movie they got a standing ovation. So that's my top five. Number six is the original movie from nineteen eighty. You know, it's not too often when you have a franchise like this that spawns so many sequels that you rank the original this low. But I have to. I just I don't like it as much as the movies with Jason as the actual killer.

The ending freaked me the fuck out though when I saw it for the first time. Number seven I have the two thousand and nine reboot of the original, the Platinum Dunes version, which really wasn't bad. It's not as good as Halloween twenty eighteen in terms of like reboots, but it was fine. Actually, Halloween twenty eighteen wasn't really a reboot, but it's not as good as that one. It was fine. Hard to believe that that was the last movie they did, since this one made something like

ninety million dollars on a twenty million dollar budget. Yeah, you ask yourself, how come they didn't make more after that? Well, got tied up in legal hell and the rights to the IP got passed around a few times. I honestly have no idea what the hold up is now. I don't even know who owns it. I don't know who owns the IP. I don't know what the hold up is now. I don't know if it has anything to do anymore with legal issues. I thought maybe those got

worked out. But sixteen years without another movie is just insane. When they keep crapping out these Halloween movies and these alien movies like they're nobody's business. We can't get another Friday the Thirteenth movie, It's just crazy to me. I've got Part seven at number eight. I've gotten now. This one might be a little controversial. I've got Jason X at number nine. Don't laugh. Jason goes to Space. As silly and as stupid as it was. That movie is

a guilty pleasure of mine and funny enough. Even though it might be one of the worst movies in the entire franchise, it has the best kill in the entire series, the liquid nitrogen kill, so like if you know, you Know, And also in that movie they pay homage to the sleeping bag kill from Part seven, which is the second best kill of the entire series. One thing about Jason Vorhees is he makes it very clear he is no

fan of teenagers having pre marital sex. If you are a teen to having pre marital sex and Jason is nearby, you are definitely going to die. Now for number ten, I am gonna go with Part eight, which is Jason Takes Manhattan, which is as stupid as it sounds. Number eleven is Part five, which I fucking hate. Jason isn't even in the damn movie. I mean, look Michael. To be fair, Michael is not in Halloween Part three either, and I always put that movie over. I love it.

It's become one of my all time favorite movies. I've just I've never liked Friday the Thirteenth Part five, I'm sorry, and I like Part nine even less Jason Goes to Hell, which is why I have it ranked dead last on my list. God, I fucking hate that movie. Fucking hate that movie. So there you go, all of them ranked. It'd be nice to get a new Friday movie. At

some point. I know they started filming they're doing a TV series, and I know they started filming on a prequel series that's gonna air on Peacock called Crystal Lake, and they just started filming two weeks ago under a fake title called Mama's Boy, which just kind of funny. But it's gonna be called Crystal Lake. If they just started, it's probably not dropping until next year, would be my guest, but I know it's supposed to be about eight episodes.

I would like another movie, though. How would you guys feel about I had this idea and it may never happen, but how would you guys feel about a found footage version of Friday the Thirteenth. I feel like the found footage craze is pretty much over this point, but I always felt like that could be an interesting take on adjacent movie. I think it could work. I will say there have been some really good fan made films over the years. You can find them on YouTube. There was

one that I saw a few years ago. I think it was I think it was called Never Never Hike Alone. I think I think Never Hike Alone, I think was the name of it. It's like a full length Friday the Thirteenth fan made film. It might be like an hour long, really really well done. So there have been like Friday the Thirteenth movies of sorts that have come out since that two thousand and nine movie. Just nothing official, nothing from like a movie studio or like a you know,

ninety minute two hour length type of movie. But never hike alone if you've never heard of it. I only saw it once, but I thought it was really well done, so that's something. Maybe if you've never seen it, you can go check that out on YouTube. But good stuff here. You guys are awesome, especially when there's a quiet week. Guys come through with the questions. Keep emailing me the Solemn Monster at gmail dot com. So here's the schedule of events for this week coming up, because we are

heading into a very busy weekend. I will be live on YouTube with the Raw Post Show on Monday night, same with Dynamite on Wednesday. In between there, I will be live on JD's channel for Tuesday Night Titans. That will be episode one oh two, so we get to the end of the week. Friday, there will be no SmackDown review because I will be in Texas doing commentary for House of Glory. I fly back early on Saturday morning.

I will be watching All in Texas on Saturday and then going live on YouTube when that show is over. I will watch Saturday Night's main event at some point before the podcast next Sunday, so I can review it on episode nine to twenty. So there will be a podcast next Sunday, and then Sunday Night will be Evolution, and I will be live on YouTube for the Evolution

post show next Sunday. So I guess I'm doing show if you count the Hog Show on Friday, I'm gonna be doing shows on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, another TNT next Tuesday, Dynamite that Wednesday, and then my day of rest. So that is the plan, and then we have a two night Summer Slam coming. That first weekend in August is going to be a killer too. I got a Hog Show that Friday and then a two night Summer Slam on August second and third, so things are definitely

going to pick up. As a good old JR Would say, business is about to pick up. I will see you next Sunday for episode nine to twenty. Until then, be well, stay safe, have yourselves a great week, and I hope to see you for all of the shows and all the content that's coming up, because there's a lot of it. Until then, take care, guys.

You're right, I deserved it. God, I fucking love pro wrestling, Like it's just so fucking absurd, but I love it. How can you not love this shit?