Sound Off 943 - The SI Awards "CONTROVERSY" And Why It's All So Very Embarrassing

twenty twenty five. Santa Solomonster is back. He comes bearing the gift of wrestling news and opinion. He does this every week, but it just so happens. He's a little more festive about it this week and a busy week. It was much love to the folks of Good Morning Football for having myself and some of the students from House of Glory on the show Tuesday Morning Live on

the NFL Network. Imagine the surprise when some of you were watching NFL Network and saw my face on there freezing outside on a rooftop in New York City in twenty degree weather. It's too bad that wasn't one of the day seth rollins. Was there hosting the show. I think I want to say he does Thursdays. Maybe that would have been interesting, but it was all worth it. Kyle Brandt, he does his Angry Run segment on there,

which I know is very popular. It was cool to be a part of that and get to promote our Winter Warfare show, which took place Friday night with a sold out crowd to close out twenty twenty five. That's how you always want to do it, and it was a very newsworthy show, with Andrade making a surprise appearance at the very end to confront our World Champion Charles

Mason after his win over Mustafa Ali. Yes, Andrade, who has been barred from appearing anywhere by WWE, shows up at the NYC Arena and stakes his claim to the Hog World championship. So that'll be a story for Andrade to tell as far as his status goes. But this, I will tell you, this was something that came together relatively recently, and beyond that, I don't really want to say too much more. We're very happy to have him.

He will be in action at our next New York City show, which is scheduled for Friday night, February twentieth. We had Matt and Jeff Hardy on Friday successful in their first defense of their hog tag team titles over the first time ever team of Zillafat two, who was already our Crown Jewel Champion and his cousin, his fellow Bloodline member Lance on Hawaii. With Lance turning on him right when it looked like they might bring home the gold, he kicks his cousin right in the face and then

spears him out of his boots. That came out of nowhere. I'm sure that will not go unpunished. Amazing Red and Darren Richardson, they stole the show in my opinion. I thought their match was fantastic, not so fantastic when Darren put his hands on me. You know, at some point, when someone pushes you around, you got to push back. It's just the way it is. I lost myself there for a second, turned it into a notice qualification match,

and it just got crazier from there. And shout out to Marcus Mathers, you know, for stepping up at the last minute. Matt Cardona was scheduled for a match with Ken Broadway. He could not make it due to travel issues, so we reached out to Mathers on God, what was it three or four hours notice? Maybe because he was in the opener that was going to be the opening match and he was able to step in. So thank

you to everyone I met on Friday. Our first show of twenty twenty six will be our Los Angeles debut. That's going to be from the Globe Theater, which is an iconic venue. That's on Friday night, January thirtieth, the night before the Royal Rumble. And we got a lot of other big plans coming up for next year. Meanwhile, Triple A had a show last night that aired on

WWE's YouTube channel. Laparca brought a child into the ring after the opening match who was wearing his mask, and when he put the kid back over the guardrail into the front row, I don't mean he clotheslined the kid over the railing. He picked him up, placed him back over. Just to clarify. The kid's father was also wearing a Laparka mask. He took the mask off to reveal Canelo Alvarez, which got a big pop as you would expect from the crowd. Yeah, first we had Bad Bunny under a

mask at the CMLL show. Watching in the front row. Now Canelo Alvarez is just really watching with his kid under a mask. We had Laredo kid beating Javon Evans and Jack Cartwheel. That was a Cruiserweight title match, and man javan Is is everywhere, isn't he? Ross SmackDown NXT Triple A the Wyatt Six they wrestled on the show and lost to the Psycho Circus. One might say the Wyatt six is a psycho circus, but this is the Mexican psycho circus. L e Hodel Vikingo pinned Dragon Lee

after five business days? Can we talk about Booker t at WrestleMania in nineteen being pinned by Triple H after one pedigree and it took you know how many freaking hours for the referee to come over and make the cover, and of course he didn't kick out, so here it felt like five business days. This was following a ref bump and an assist from Omas So almost sapiens rise. Omas is back in Triple A. He came down to

the ring in the middle of this match. He gave Dragon Lee a last ride power bomb, which coming from Omas probably felt like his last ride. I'm surprised he didn't get a fucking nosebleed from up there. Then Vi Kingo hit a six thirty cent on and he covered dragon Lee. But Omas had to then leave the ring. He was on the wrong side, so we had to then walk all the way around to the other side where the referee was laying, and he put the referee back in the ring, and then Vi king Goo got

the pin. In this entire time, he was just covering Dragonly. So Omas is now aligned with Viking Go. I mean, the size difference with them next to one another is comical. I'm really digging heel Vikingo. You know what glimpses of it I've seen on these Triple A shows. He's embraced it, you know. Wwe made a mistake in pushing him like they did when they acquired the company, but it's it has unintentionally turned him into a huge heel and it

just works. Penta was there. This was the show where originally we were going to get a Lucha Brothers reunion and it was going to be Penta and Ray Phoenix taking on Dominic Mysterio and El Grande Americano. Penta seemingly is moving along well in his shoulder rehab. I don't expect him to be out for too much longer, but he wasn't medically cleared, so we didn't get a Lucha Brothers reunion. In this match, raymis Stereo took Penti's place, tagging with Ray Phoenix, and they won with an assist

from Penta, who came out late in the match. But there may have been a casualty because I'm watching this match and Dominic absolutely looked like he got hurt. He absolutely looked like he got injured. It was on a DDT spot from his deadbeat dad. He landed hard on his right shoulder, and from that moment on he kept grabbing at that shoulder, his shoulder collar bone area for the rest of the match. Now, the match continued only for a few more minutes, so he did other stuff.

It's not like that instantly took him out of the match. He was okay enough to do all of his remaining spots. But you could see there was a lot of talking going on after that with him and the referee and Ray. He was making an effort to not use the right arm, and when he left, he left with the Triple A title over his left shoulder. But holding the Intercontinental title

in the right, you know, the right hand. So he had given Kaiser Kaiser Americano a shove before he left the ring to go collect his belt, so those two may be on the outs. And then El Grande actually shook hands with Ray Maisterio and Rape Phoenix. So I mean, the guy's already a babyface in Mexico, may as well tournament at least down there. He could be a heel in the States. He could be a baby face in Mexico. It's like Brett being a babyface everywhere else in the

world and a heel in the US. But yea, as far as Dom is concerned, man, I mean, they just got Live Morgan back from a shoulder injury. She was gone for months. The last thing they need is for Dom to dip out with a shoulder injury. And the guy's got two belts. We're heading into WrestleMania season and the guy's got two belts and he's part of all this storytelling that's involved with the judgment day. So anyway, that'll be something to watch for. Hopefully it's not anything

too serious. Everything is already taped as far as television this week, so it wouldn't affect any of those shows, but I don't know. I don't know when we're going to see him back in the ring after this. If you want to make a PayPal donation and support the show as we wind down this year, If you want to drop some holiday cheer on my ass, you may do so the Solomn Monster at gmail dot com. I

sure do appreciate it. You can also get yourself a wrestling nickname if you don't already have one, ten dollars

or more. I want to say thank you to the Portland pop star Paul Hamilton, wishing him and everybody a very merry Christmas, Big b Bryant, Visera, the Diamond, Dallas Dance Machine, Harrison's Soep, Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray, the Chicago Slayer, Willie Eichord, night Stalker and if Alsa Far The Georgia Nightmare, Timothy Tillis, Shooting Star Cynthia Taylor, and killshot Keith Hart. I want to wish all of you a very happy

holiday and into your new year. We still have another show left before we're done this year, but I appreciate you. Now there's a lot I'm going to be getting into on the show. Here. This are a lot of stuff I'm getting into this week and a little bit later

on because it is that time of year. I'm just going to be running through the top stories, the key stories that went down here in twenty twenty five, and then I will chime in with my awards for this year, and I'm going to tie it into the Sports Illustrated Awards that came out this past week and will compare and contrast because there was a lot of controversy it appears on social media around these awards that I think,

frankly is unfounded and is just fucking embarrassing. But we will talk about all of that later on, But first I have to say we had some of the best debate in all one hundred and twenty five episodes of Tuesday Night Titans this week with JD and I over the finish to the John Cena Gunther match at Saturday Night's main event. I got a ton of great feedback to that, so thank you. SENA spent two hours talking

to Cody Rhodes on his podcast this week. They actually recorded it the Monday after the match, and they talked about a lot of things, but one thing that Sina talked about was the finish and what he was trying to go for with it, as he said in the interview, as the artist, what it meant to him, and what he was trying to convey. You know, once he puts it out there, it's going to mean different things to

different people. And as he said, it's no longer my art when I share it with everybody, It's no longer my He's just he's so weird, but like, it's no longer my art when I share it with other people. Hence the negative reaction to it in the building that night. But this is that's how he summed it up for the last five minutes. Everything I preach about story and drama and having a conversation with the audience. The ones I love are in the front row. I know my

colleagues are watching on the monitor back there. We're just in a sleeper hole, man, But we're having that conversation with the audience as I essentially take my last breath. I have struggled. If you think of somebody, the natural causes, scenario, or however we picture loss in our life, all of us have been through it. They struggle, They hang on just long enough to make sure to say goodbye to everybody that's been meaningful in their lives. And the whole

day rather was so many unbelievable, vulnerable, meaningful conversations. Then you realize I've connected with everybody I love. Physically, I feel great. I think it's time to take that last breath. And that's that. I hate to keep going back morbidly to obituaries, but like this person died peacefully knowing that, like man, we are in a good place. We're going

to be great going forward. The bottom of the T shirts as I gave everything, thank you for everything, and in that one moment, that was that going peacefully again. My issue with it isn't that Gunther won and John Cena lost. It's how it was done. He got the tap out. But for me, I think Sena can convey that same type of story by going peacefully in the

hold without tapping out. You know when he threw up the okay hand signal after the arm dropped twice, you do that, You flash that smile and you drop that arm slowly, staying true to your never give up mantra right right up until the very end. But you still accept your fate. You know you are essentially you know, in effact you are sort of taking a step back and no longer fighting as hard as you were before. But you can again, you could still do it without

just completely throwing in the towel. To me, the way he did it, it felt like it wasn't earned. That's what it felt like. It felt like. You know, Gunther got the win, and he can go around and gloat that he's the guy who made John Cena give up, but it just didn't feel like it was fully earned. So yeah, he'll go around and talk about how he made Scena tap out like a little bitch. But if Sena chose to tap out with a smile on his face, you know what, it wasn't really earned the way that

it could have been. It's an empty brag. He'll still get plenty of heat for beating John Cena regardless as he did on Monday. You know, get that heat, Get

that heat and make some money off of it. But no matter how many movie analogies people come up with to try to justify it and to explain it away, I did not like the finish, and the people who didn't like it are plenty justified and feeling that way, you know, Sena could have gotten his closure while also giving the fans some closure, you know, and giving them something to feel good about through whatever sadness or disappointment

that they may have had given that he lost. I think that that tells a great story too, And it doesn't radically alter the level of heat that Gunther has coming out of this, and he did have a lot of it on Monday. You know, it wasn't Roman Rains levels of heat the way that he had after WrestleMania when he beat the Undertaker, but you know, he still got plenty of it, and they even did a tease

for a future match with Gunther and aj Styles. When he left the building, everybody was giving him the stink eye right he came out, did his his stick, his promo in the ring. He wasn't out there for very long. And he's leaving. He's going through the back and everybody's staring at him and giving him the side eye. And Adam Pierce comes up to him, I hope you're happy

with yourself. You can leave now. So he's leaving the building and AJ Styles is leaning up against Gunther's rental car, so he got a little stare down before Gunther got in the car and he drove off, but not before rolling down his window to do that. You can't see me gesture and he's laughing like a cartoon villain, and then he drove off. That was great. I don't know if AJ is planning to work the whole year next year.

He may need to extend his contract if he's going to do that, or if he's only working through WrestleMania and then hanging up the boots. But Gunther against AJ is the natural match, so they can give him another big name to brag about retiring. But I just want to see the match. You know. It's the match that they haven't done. Where I don't think he needs it is when you get into a name like Brock Lesnar. Cause Sina hinted recently that Lesner may be retiring in Minnesota,

and Minnesota is where Summerslim is next year. You know, if Brock even has a proper retirement match, I mean, Sena, I absolutely believe John Cena will never wrestle again. Brock Lesner, I am a lot less sure of. I think if the payday is big enough and they wanted him to work, let's say a Mania match or a Saudi Arabia match, he would do it. I don't get the impression that Brock is big on Oh I need my closure. I

got to have a retirement tour. I gotta have a retirement match, and they're going to have a whole like celebrate like you're not going to get that. I don't think with Brock Lesner, I don't think he gives a shit. He's all about the payday. He's all about business. If there's business to be done and physically he feels like he can do it, then what the fuck is he going to retire for? He already missed two years. He got paid the entire time, by the way, but he

already missed two years. They just brought him back. You think he's itching to leave, But let's say he does. Let's say he wrestles one last match at Summer Slim next year. Gunther does not need to be the man to retire him. Do the match next year if you want to, you know you want to do Gunther in Brock, fine, do it at media, but when it comes time for Brock to lose, it would be much more valuable to give that honor to someone like Bron breaker or Oba.

Femi Oba would have to already be on the main roster and at least semi established, and that hasn't happened yet, but it should be. One of those two doesn't need to be Gunther now. For Gunther, it's on them now to treat him the way they treat Brock. He needs to be leveled up so that you know he retired Sena. He's got to be used as more of a special

attraction when he's on the show. He shouldn't be on the show every week or anything, say make him a part timer, but they need to book him in a way where people see him similar to how they saw

Brock for the last decade. And when he finally loses again, and maybe he doesn't even lose next year, but when he finally loses again, it should really mean something because, I mean, this is a guy who lost to Sammy's Ain't at WrestleMania, he lost to Cody Rhodes, he tapped out to fucking Jay usso who's back in the tag team division. Now he got beat by Siam Punk at Summer Slim. It should be a long while yet before Gunther loses another match. Meanwhile, you got one fan and

I put that in quotation. Marks here fan who tried to cash in on seeing his retirement with a very unusual item. On eBay this week, there was a listing that popped up, and it wasn't up for very long it was. It was pulled very shortly thereafter, but there was a listing from a user named Robbie Thompson, who does have a one hundred percent positive cellar rating on even But it was featuring a photo of a plastic ziplock bag with the label crisp air from John Cena's

last match at WWE Saturday Night's main event. Yes, they were selling air from the show and the asking price a mere seventeen hundred dollars, and the person included two photos to verify its authenticity that it was in fact air collected from the Capitol One Arena in Washington, DC. I thought it was bad when someone bought a piece of chewed gum from Britney Spears for fourteen thousand dollars seventeen hundred dollars for the stench of defeat and the

stench of nineteen thousand wrestling fans. I think that tops that. I think it clears the Bar. I mean, look, I know there are a lot of fans out there that are oxygen deprived. I've seen them on social media. They could use the air, but it's gonna take a lot more than what's in that plastic bag to help those people. What else did Sena talk about in the interview with Cody. He confirm what I've been telling you all along. The heel turn at Elimination Chamber was just done for a

viral moment. There was never any real story attached to it. I mean, you could see it with your own two eyes if you just watch the product this year. But I know a lot of you have tuned out of the product. This is what he said in February. They just wanted to make a moment. I get it. The business is about making moments. There's nothing wrong with that. You don't always have to have a nine month trajectory. You can understand that, Like, Yo, we've got a ton

of eyes on us tonight. Let's do something impactful and then you as artists can run through the maize and figure it out. So basically, shoot first, ask questions later. That usually doesn't work out too well. He makes it almost sound like this is just any other storyline, any other star. Sure, there are times where you may want to pivot, you may have this great idea that pops into your head or something. Though was again, this was

a little bit different. This is something that they knew was coming for months, and they had one shot to make it right. And it's as if they treated it like any weekly storyline, Like you can't compare this to any typical wrestling story on a wrestling show, he said. He told the WWE creative team, I'll do whatever the fuck you guys want. Just stay on the face longer

than you think it's gonna feel weird. Just stay. That's in reference to them keeping the camera on his face so that he could sell the turn an elimination chamber without having to say a word. But there you have it. One of the biggest stars in the history of the business and certainly in the company, in the middle of his farewell tour, and they decide to blow the whole thing up because Ari Emanuel called Dwayne and said, hey, we need you. These tickets aren't selling as quickly as

we'd like. You know, if Ari doesn't make that phone call, it's crazy to think. We probably don't get that heel turn. I mean, we can't say for sure one hundred percent, but it's very likely. You know, the wheels are not set in motion for Rock and Triple Ah and all of them to embrace this whole idea to begin with. For a company that loves to talk about story, they talk about story a lot. They seem to be more

in love with the moments than the story itself. They seem to be more in favor of the moments, even sometimes at the expense of the story. Tell the right stories with the right people, and the moments will come naturally. But if there was one person I would have thought would be immune to this knee jerk shit, it would have been seen. But apparently not. So. He added this when it came to fans being critical of the retirement tour because of the Rock and Travis Scott not being

around for the follow up of the Turn. Now, mind you, I couldn't care less about Travis Scott being there for the follow up. He never should have been there to begin with. And I say that as someone who didn't even mind him being in the ring that night when it happened. You know, he's a big star. They wanted a celebrity to be in the ring with them for it in the background. Fine, I had little need to see Travis Scott actually wrestling. But it wasn't about him.

It was about the Rock. It was about Rock attaching himself to the story with the soul stuff and doing something with Cina, you know. So he decided here in this interview to take a walk down what he called hypothetical street. He told Cody, let's say everyone who showed up at the Chamber is active until August. That robs us of John Cena, Randy Orton, That robs us of John Cena, cm Punk, John Cena, Ron Cena, John Cena, AJ Styles, John Cena, Logan, Paul Me and you for

the last one, Mono Amano. So yes, the story that might have been might have had star power and gravity and who knows what. But what we got by just being like these are the pieces left. What we got for me personally was beautiful. I'm not trying to change anybody, but he's mind. I've released art into the world. They can think what they want about it. I'm just also saying that, like, is it a wise investment in time? And what I've learned about like credible wrestling critiques. Of

course it is because you want chatter and clickbait. But let's analyze what happened. I was in the ring with you, I was in the ring with Randy and Punk and Ron Sena Logan, Paul aj Styles. It was really loud. So judging by the wise man Sean Michaels, does that mean we did okay? Sometimes all these hypothetical things, let's just figure out what it is, why we're doing it, and climb that hill in front of you, because it's going to change. I have no idea what he's talking

about when he's saying that. You know, if these guys are around, we're not getting all of these different matches. If Rock and Travis Scott are active in this story through SummerSlam, why does that have to rob us of getting John Cena against Randy Orton, or John Cena against CM Punk or AJ Styles or the rematch with Cody, which, of course that was always going to happen. You know, is it possible if one of those guys sticks around, one of maybe one of those matches ends up not

happening and they go a different way. It's sure. I suppose it's possible. But do you honestly believe that even if those guys were around, we were not going to get one last John Seena Randy Orton match, that we were not going to get one last John Cena CM punk match. If Rock was actually around for some TV appearances, it would have enhanced it because think about what Rock said or Punk rather coming out of WrestleMania looking into

the camera calling Dwayne a bald fraud like. If anything, it would have enhanced the build up to the fucking match. I don't know why he thinks that, Well, you know, if these guys were around, we would have been robbed of all of these matches. No, we wouldn't have. I mean, he's doing a lot of heavy lifting with that quote. But you know, again, this is Scena being seen, that this is seen of being as diplomatic about the whole thing as he can possibly be. I don't believe that

he believed that. I don't. I think there's a lot of good stuff from this interview with Cody, a lot of knowledge being dropped in cool little anecdotes that they shared. But I also don't believe that he believes some of the stuff that comes out of his mouth when he answers these questions. I think he's trying to put lipstick on a pig, and you can do that. But at the end of the day, no matter how much lipstick you lather on and what color it may be, it's

still a pig. You know. Sina may have retired from wrestling, but he's got a new career waiting for him as a contortionist with some of these answers. Of course they were going to do one more match with some of these people. They were musts. From the minute he announced his retirement and money in the bank, people are like, oh, we got to get Seena and Punk, we got to get Sena and Norton. He was going to have to

defend his title against someone in those six months. Does he say that he wouldn't have wrestled in those six months. I'm just I'm not following the logic there. Cody also put him on the spot and asked him about his favorite match, because Sina used to always say, when he would be asked that question, what's your favorite match, my next one, which again that's just such a John scene a way of answering that question. So now he's retired

and sa he can hear him asking the question. He knows where he's going, and he's like, you son of a bitch. Good on Cody for thinking to ask it now, right, he says, all right, so you're retired now, there is no more next match. So let's see what his answer is. So first he runs through the highlights that fans would expect. Oh, I could say winning my first championship. I could say

capturing my sixteenth and my seventeenth world titles. I can mention stepping into the ring with the Rock or the Firefly, funhouse match, all of these things. But no, you would be wrong, he said, I can't get past Phil Brooks, c I'm Punk, Saudi Arabia. That might be my favorite moment in wrestling. I thought that was going to a

totally different place when he mentioned Punk. Then he mentioned Saudi, and I'm thinking, really, I'm like, all right, Well, maybe for him it was, you know, the experience of being back in the ring with him at all, which a couple of years ago would have seemed impossible. Maybe that is his favorite match, right, Maybe that is one of

his favorite moments in wrestling. Standing across the ring one last time from CM Punk and Saudi and they didn't have a bad match, couldn't hold a candle to their earlier matches, but you know, they still had what I thought was a good match. And Cody is like, oh, okay, you mean the match itself, and Seenas says no, and Cody goes no the promo because they had an n ring promo on Smackdom that was the one where Punk dressed up as the Doctor of the Doctor of Punkinomics.

But you can see like Cody is like, oh, so you mean the promo and Seena says no. The pre show and Cody's reaction was like the pre show. I think Cody's reaction was everyone's reaction because the pre show, he said, it wasn't the match in Saudi that stayed with him. It was the pre show segment where Punk publicly apologized to a Saudi fan in the front row.

That was for his tweet to the Miz back in twenty nineteen where he told him to go suck a blood covered dick in Saudi Arabia, you fucking dork his words. He was also now Punk was also on the show Pardon My Take that year and when they asked him about working a Saudi show, one day he said, I'm not going to do a single one of those, right, so we know what his position was six years ago. But then WWE went and they pulled the ultimate rib

on Cmpunk. They booked the championship match with him and John Cena for Saudi Arabia at Night of champions and so on the pre show, he was being booed by a lot of people, including this one guy, Mohammad, who was up in front. He was very upset with Punk and he apologized and he said that when I said that, I was just crabby. He goes, I have no issue with the people of Saudi Arabia, and they all cheered him.

It's like a switch got flipped. It was that easy. Apparently, this moment moved Seena so much that he now considers it his favorite moment in wrestling of all time. He said, it wasn't the match, it was the pre show promo. I was lucky enough to have a promo with him that night and a match, So I'm attaching myself to that moment because I think it's one of the best

moments in wrestling. There is no shortage of divide. You had someone who in a moment of frustration and reaction, said some pretty hateful things about a culture, and then you have that culture being like, fuck you, not in our house. Then you have a man who's brave enough to walk into the lions. Then, and in the right moment, Phil was accountable for what he said. He gave a good explanation for the why and what can we do after that? I'm sorry, and then you leave it. That's

all you can do. Forgiveness takes time, but that gentleman forgave him and broke the ice. The forgiveness was infectious. So what I saw was holy shit. Wrestling just brought cultures together. Wrestling just brought people with different ideologies together in an embrace and excitement. Phil went out there and they forgave him. I don't know if there's a better moment than that. I love growth, I love accountability. I'm an advocate for love and forgiveness. And that hit me

in every right place. And that wasn't even a match. That was a segment on a pre show boy that Taiwan flat with China really had an impact on him, didn't it. I mean, look, it is certainly his opinion and he is entitled to it, but wow, I don't even know what else to say to that. I just I think it speaks for itself. That's his answer. Now. One article on Bleacher Report gave seen as retirement toor

and F grade. I think that's a little extreme. If we didn't get some of the matches that we did late in his run, after they flipped him back babyface, then I would agree. But yeah, the match with Cody at SummerSlam, the Crown Jewel match with aj Styles, you know, even the match with Guntherro up until the finish, I would bump it up to a D. I can't go higher than that. I wouldn't give it an F, but

to me, a D sounds about right. The heel run really ruined what could have been a great story, you know, had they cared enough to tell a real story throughout the year instead of just piecing things together as they went along. Like it's not The Invasion or anything from two thousand and one, but the scene of retirement run

is one of the company's all time creative blunders. Like they won't see it that way because they made a ton of money on t shirts and they sold a lot of tickets, which of course they were going to anyway because it's seen as farewell. It's the easiest money this company will ever make, so business wise it was a huge success for them. By every other measure, it was a massive disappointment. Now looking at TV this week, everything from Friday SmackDown on through this week shows is

tape for the holidays. I'm not going to get into any spoilers here for those shows, I'll wait to watch them myself. The one thing I do know, I know the stipulation and the date for the Cody Roach Drew MacIntyre match for the WWE Championship. I will not get into what it is. I will just say that it is not January twod so we will find out what that is on the show this upcoming Friday. That's the

day after Christmas. I watched SmackDown on Saturday morning because I was at the House of Glory show on Friday night. So just real quick here, Cody cut an impassion promo in the ring on Friday on General manager Nick All this reminding all this of who the hell he is, and he's going through his resume and all of his accomplishments, and he tells all this, don't forget you work for me. Yeah, he keeps talking to his boss like that. All this

is liable to screw him out of that championship. In that match with Drew Alistair Black, he put Damian Prieste through a table with a meteora, not in a match, but Priest was interrupted by Zelena Vega during the opening segment and then Black attack from behind. So it all ended with Priest being put through a table and then he attacked Priest again backstage after a Black mass kick or with a Black mass kick. So this feud must continue. Why I don't know, but it must. I mean, where

do you go after you do Last man Standing? That's the question I've had this entire time. We got a Last man Standing match months ago between these two. Where do you go from there? Helen a cell? This feud is not worthy of a Hell in a Cell match. If they do a cage match, I mean I guess they could do is they could just have Priests casually walk through the door again when he leaves, but only if they get Jesse Ventura back on commentary. That would

make it all worth it. You want to do a cage match with Damian Priest, make sure you get Jesse Venturer back on commentary and let him walk through the door again and watch the magic unfold. Speaking of Damian Priest, he appeared as a guest on actor Nick Taturo show, Delivering Happiness. That's what I do on this show every week. I deliver happiness to all of you. That was actually the original name of the sound off before I change it.

I bet you didn't know that. So he shed some light on why he hasn't made as many appearances in the ring this year, citing injuries and the company's desire to protect him from himself. Said, this past year, I've taken a step back, been banged up a little bit, kind of giving the bones and the joints and the ligaments and everything in between a little bit of a break. Same the company now this year decided let's take it easy on him because I've been going hard for a while.

Tore my shoulder a couple of times within the last year and a half, my knees are banged up. My back is if I need a lot of work done, but I choose to not because if I don't have to, I won't. I'll just figure it out. Let's do rehab and just keep me in the game coach type of thing. This year. I think the company was like, we're happy with you, but we need to make sure that you're going to last year. So they've been forcing me to

take it easy. Let's put it that way. Not the easiest thing to do when you want to just go out there and perform because you love what you do. He has definitely taken more of a back seat this year. He wrestled one hundred matches in twenty twenty three. Last year, he works seventy six matches. This year he only wrestled

twenty four times. That is a steep drop off, and good on WWE for looking out for the guy and forcing him to take a back seat if they feel like it's better for his health in the long run, better for his hell them, better for WWI to get a more productive output from him. If he's not as banged up. That is still the issue, of course, of him not being over on SmackDown or as over as he was on raw. That's something that has to be addressed next year. Whether he works twenty four dates or

two hundred and twenty four dates. You got to get the creative to back him up that will give him the best chance of getting over at the level that he was at on Monday Nights. He just hasn't been able to replicate that on SmackDown. Also on the show with him and Nick Tto, the two of them talked about not knowing they were related to each other until they attended a New York Yankees game together. Toturo said, this is actually my nephew. We didn't know. We had

to do some research. That was a good night. The Yankees won that night, we didn't get swept, and then you had to get on a plane to Saudi Arabia, you know. Nick Tatero was one of the celebrity guests at WrestleMania eleven. He did the guest ring announcing for the title match between Shawn Michaels and Diesel. He played Officer Martinez on ENDPD Blue. NYPD Blue was big back in the nineties. Funny enough, I only started watching the

show this year. It was one of those shows, like The West Wing was another one of those shows I just never watched it. It got tons of praise and awards and stuff. I never watched it. So like last year, I finally got around to watching all the ten seasons whatever it was, and It's one of the greatest shows I've ever seen. So I'm like, you know what I need to watch. I need to start watching NYPD Blue.

I don't know why I never watched it in the first place, Like I watched Law and Order in the past, and like The Shield is one of my favorite shows, and I'm like, how did I miss this one? So I actually started watching it for the first time. So, you know, back then, I had no idea who this guy was. When he came out of WrestleMania, I knew who Jonathan Taylor Thomas was. He was also at that wrestle media. I knew him because I used to watch Home Improvement, but I had no idea who Nick was.

And now I look at him, I go, oh, it's Officer Martinez. Julia beat Alba Fire in a match between two heels where the crowd mostly sat on their hands. It's just, it's said, if I had to sum up what watching Julia is like on those rare occasions when we see her on SmackDown, said, that's the word I think of. She's drowning out there. Like the pairing with Keana James has been an abject failure. It has not gotten either of them over any more than they already

were before, which wasn't much to begin with. They just need a hard reset for her, and I've suggested a move to RAW. I mean, as much as SmackDown needs more women in that division, not less, I think she would do better working with some of the women they have on Mondays, and then to sort of replace her, they should be calling up some women anyway from NXT.

So that's what I would do. I would get Julia the fuck off this show, move her to Monday, maybe even pair her up with some of the women there, you know, as a heel, because eventually she'll end up as a baby face. But I have no issue with her being a heal. But she just needs a change of scenery. She needs a change of something. Joe Henry is going to be wrestling the Miz on SmackDown this Friday. If you're upset about this, stop just stop. It's a

fine first feud for Henri. Miss is the gatekeeper for that show. And if this is a full time call up for Joe, I don't know if it is. If it is, though, then good for him. You know he's worked hard to get there. As long as they keep the feud brief. I don't have an issue with it. Now. If three months from now Joe Hendry is still working with the Miz, you know, I may have a different opinion, but otherwise I have no issue with this and the Wyatt Six. They wrestled j C. Matteo and Tongaala of

the MFTs on Friday. That was the main event of the show. I watched the match on fast forward and I was still bored. That was SmackDown not much of a show. Now, going back to Raw last Monday, outside of the gunther Heat segment that opened things up, and there was also a great CM Punk promo in there. Outside of that, there wasn't much else to get excited about. You know how disposable cameras used to be a big thing. These are disposable shows. That's how I would describe them. Now.

We did get the Mystery Man reveal at the end of the show, which surprised me. I figured they were going to wait on that until January fifth, when Punk and bron Breaker have their championship match. But on Monday, the Mystery Man in Black struck again. He helped Logan Paul beat Ray Mysterio. Then CM Punk ran out with a chair, and so the mass Man high tailed it into the crowd before pulling off his mask to reveal Austin. Theory kind of gives it's me Austin. It was me

all along a different kind of meaning, doesn't it. That's two angles that sucked the greater Power and the mystery man Angle. Theory has a shaved head. I mean, otherwise he looks the same, but the hair is the biggest difference. He never actually joined with the Vision, so the question is still, you know, is he with them or is

he just auditioning for a spot with them. There's even some fan theories out there that maybe he's secretly aligned with Seth Rollins and he's gonna Screwbreaker out of the championship when he wrestles Punk on January fifth, which would ignore the fact that he helped the Vision win War Games, by the way, So I don't think it's that, But I also I'm not convinced that he is necessarily the

only mystery Man that gets revealed here. Who's to say that there can't be somebody else on January fifth who shows up under a mask, right who says Theory has to be the only guy so far as far as theory goes. Look, I hope it all works out. I said this on Monday. I see this as a last chance for him. I mean, the man won money in the bank years ago and cashed in for a lesser title and lost. He beat John Cena at WrestleMania and it was rendered meaningless, and then he ended up in

a mid card comedy team. That's three years of his career that he can never get back. But he's still only twenty eight years old. That's what's crazy. He's still a young guy. He can still be redeemed. He just needs the right creative to back him up. We got an accidental title change on NXT this week when THEA Hale pinned Blake Monroe to win the NXT Women's North American Championship, ending Monroe's run at just fifty one days.

Permike Johnson, a PW insider, THEA Hale winning the NXT North American Women's title was not the originally planned finish. PW Insider can confirm based on those we have spoken with. Monroe had the wind knocked out of her when Hale came off the ropes and tried to recover to get her shoulder up, but wasn't able to do so in time. Since Hale is so young, we are told she likely did not realize that she needed to give Blake a moment to catch her wind and went right for the pin.

Since referees are instructed to call pinfalls as if they are legitimate, the referee had no choice but to count the three. Monroe did try to get her shoulder up, which WWE later used as a storyline point. The plan going in was for Monroe to win. WWE played her music at the finish since she was planned to win, and then stopped it and played Hale's music. Fightful Select

added this. The title change caused a backstage scramble. It also caused issues because there were creative plans in place with hal not winning the championship, which is now being immediately changed. The championship win has also affected several people's creative plans that were set for the next couple of weeks. One NXT staff member said the botch happened at the worst possible time, as NXT was finishing up filming so

talent could go home for a Christmas break. Weeks of creative had already been finalized and filmed, and there was a frantic rush to correct things that had already been filmed in order to make sense of them. One NXT higher up said this was going to cause some heavy shit in policy among talent, with wrestler's book being required to stay until the end of the tapings moving forward, I believe Hale left the taping early and jumped right

on her Twitch channel to celebrate with the belt. I saw part of her Twitch streams she had the belt around her neck. I don't know who the guy was that was their boyfriend. I don't know who was, but she's got a Twitch channel and I guess she jumped right on there. Sean ross Sapp says that policy was not added because she left, but I mean it's hard

not to put two and two together. I mean, not that she's got heat or anything for it, but there was no policy in place already for such a thing beforehand, right and then in light of what happened, now there is, so you know, that way, if something like this should ever happen again, they want to make sure everybody sticks around in case they need to rectify it. To me, that makes sense. I don't know why they're not required to stay regardless until the show is over. I mean,

I think that should be required anyway. But it's clear if you watch it that Blake got the wind knocked out of her on the landing. I mean, if theya basically gave her a springboard sentin and came down on top of her with all of her weight. I mean, I know that Hail is not the biggest person, but it's still all of her weight coming down on someone's chest and she got the wind knocked out of her for a few seconds. Now, if you look really close, it looks like Blake got her shoulder up off the

mat a little bit before the three count. But I mean, it wasn't overly noticeable. I don't blame the referee for counting three. That's that's what he should do, right. If someone is supposed to kick out and they don't, that's on them. This one, you know, it was it was debatable. You know, he could have stopped the count and slid his hand under her shoulder to kind of give her the out, like, oh, her shoulder came up off the mat, But he called it the way he saw it. I

can't fault the guy for that. And look it happens. This is not the first time that there has been an accidental title change. Hardcore Holly, he was not supposed to win the Hard Corps title from Crash at WrestleMania two thousand. They had that Hardcore Battle Royal and he dropped it right back to him. On Raw the next night, Mickey James, she won the Women's Championship against Molina and Victoria. It was a triple threat match on a house show

when Victoria was late in kicking out. That was actually the night after that Raw match in London where Shawn Michaels beat John Cena. They were on an international tour somewhere, so what did they do. They booked an impromptu match later that same night and Molina won the belt back all right. Kevin Owens, he was not supposed to win the US title from AJ Styles at that Battleground pay per view in twenty seventeen, but he did, and they switched the belt back to AJ a few days later.

Our Truth. He wasn't supposed to win the US title from Shinske Nakamora on SmackDown in twenty nineteen, but he did. Mike Keyota actually tells a great story. About that, so truth ended up getting a little run out of it for a few weeks so again, and there's probably been other examples too. But now they're going to run it back at New Year's Evil on January sixth, and my guess is they will probably put the belt right back on Blake. Honestly though, you know what, she's been there

for six months. May as well just leave the belt on THEA and call Blake up to the main roster, especially if they're not going to call up Jordan Grace, then get her up there. In the never ending saga of who wants Warner Brothers Discovery, on Wednesday, the company's board of directors unanimously recommended that shareholders reject the hostile bid proposed by Paramount Skydance, who are being a bunch

of whiny little cry babies about the whole thing. As we know, they already announced the deal with Netflix worth more than seventy billion dollars for Netflix to acquire its movie and TV studios and all of the IP that comes with it. Netflix would not be acquiring the television networks like CNN, TBSTNT. Those will be off into a separate company which has been the plan all along, whereas

Paramount would buy the entire thing. So they are urging shareholders to reject Paramount's one hundred and eight billion dollar bid, arguing that it creates significant risk and costs for the company and that Netflix's offer, while lower, provides better value. Paramount's CEO, David Ellison, has said that combining the assets of Warner Brothers Discovery with Paramount Skuiddance would face an

easier path through the government regulatory process. Warner Brothers Discovery said its board concluded that the two offers pose an equal regulatory risk. It also said that its analysis found that Netflix's offer, which includes cash and Netflix stock, is superior. It raised concerns about Paramount Skuyddance's forty billion dollar equity commitment, for which Warner Brothers Discovery said there is no Ellison

family commitment of any kind. Wbd's recommendation comes shortly after one of Paramount's Guiddance's financial partners in the deal, Affinity Partners, said that it had dropped out of the hostile bid. Affinity is the private equity firm founded by President Trump's

son in lawge Aared Kushner. An Affinity spokesperson told CBS News that while it continued to believe in the strong strategic rationale for Paramount Skuydance's offer, it had decided to pull back because the dynamics of the investment have changed significantly since we initially became involved in October. In a letter sent to shareholders, Warner Brothers Discoveries Board said it believed Netflix's finances are also in better shape with a

stronger credit rating and a larger market capitalization. The Netflix merger is fully backed by a public company with a market cap in excess of four hundred billion dollars with an investment grade balance sheet. The letter stated, Paramount Skuiddance's credit rating is at or only a notch above junk status from the two leading ratings agencies, while its market valuation stands at fifteen billion dollars. And then there's this

from Collider dot com. Kkoplovitz, the founder of USA Network, recently sat down with Yahoo Finance to discuss who had the upper hand in the Netflix paramount battle. During the discussion, Koplovits revealed that she believes more bidders will come to challenge Netflix and Paramount for ownership of Warner Brothers Discovery. I don't think it's just Netflix and Paramount, she said. I believe other companies are going to be in the mix.

The reason why other companies would enter the game lies in an asset that Netflix and Paramount are overlooking the cable companies. So look where this ends. Nobody knows. I mean by the way that that's a quote from somebody who founded, you know, USA Network, which is a cable channel. So she certainly has her own perspective on this. But where this ends nobody knows. What we do know is that this is not going to be resolved anytime soon.

So as far as AW is concerned, in twenty twenty six, for the foreseeable future, they have nothing to worry about MVP. He announced last week that Bobby Lashley was injured. Although he did not reveal the nature of the injury, he did not reveal how long Lashley is expected to be out for fight Ful Select later posted an update stating that while they were told they were not told the specifics of the injury, they had heard that Lashley is

expected to miss quite a bit of time. So that effectively ends the Hurt syndicate unless they add a new member without lashly, there is no hurt syndicate, and the last time he wrestled was the Casino Gauntlet match at full gear, so that would have to be when he got I mean, I guess he could have been hurt in training or something, but my guess is that's where he was hurt. What it is, I mean, look, if he's going to miss significant time, that sounds like surgery

to me. You know, he may have torn something. I mean, who knows, but he's gone. And so now Shelton is on his own. He's got MVP with him and that's about it again unless they add new members that hurt syndicates on ice. Now, MVP also cannot get Triple H's name out of his mouth. He really hates this guy. He really hates this guy. I'm starting to wonder, does Jim Cornett hate Vince Russo more than MVP hes Triple eight. I think the answer is yes, But like it's it's

kind of creeping up into that territory. So in an interview with Q one oh one, MVP discussed the differences between working for Tony Kahan and working for Paul Levec. This is what he said, Tony, he has his vision of what he wants, and he works with the talent and he allows a lot more input from the talent and to what creative path is going to happen. Whereas the nose that being a triple H, he is a

little bit more dictatorial. Emphasis on Dick, it's this is what we're doing, this is how it's going to be, and this is what I want. Whereas Tony could say, well, this is what I want, and you can say, okay, Tony, but what about if we put this on it and Tony invites the input. With that guy, there's only a handful of people that I would say are allowed to have that kind of input. I think Tony, I'm just going to be blunt, is a better human being, a

better person all around than this guy. So it's definitely a better person to work for in a much better working environment. When I was in WWE, you did have a lot of people who were really concerned about their future because at any given time you were gone on a whim and we saw it happen all the time. Tony doesn't operate that way. In addressing the rumor that he doesn't like speedball, Mike Bailey, he called that whole thing preposterous. He says, I don't have a problem with Mike.

He's one of the nicest guys around. I don't know where that came from. And he also addressed rumors that the Hurt Synda Kid has refused to lose to certain teams in the aw Tag Team Division. He disputed that claim, but said matches involving Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin should not be fifty to fifty. He said Bobby and Shelton could destroy everybody in terms of how we approach him when you have smaller guys. I just try to explain

to certain people that there's psychology. You should be chopping down the tree. It's not a fifty to fifty match. Somehow, somebody got this idea that the Hurt Syndicate don't want to lose to anybody, which is bullshit because we've lost to people. But there's psychology, there's a way to do it, and we had great matches with Jet Speed and Speedball. I got a lot of respect for the guy. He's

a tremendous athlete and loves what he does. That's what he said of Mike Bailey boy, he's really going out of his way to try to extinguish the speedball stuff. For the record, when he says somehow people got the idea that the Hurt Syndicate refuses to lose, he says, oh, we've lost the people the Hurt Syndicate as a team, and really, Bobby Lashley in general had never lost a

match in aaw never, not one. Shelton lost as a singles Shelton Benjamin got beat a few times in the Continental Classic last year, but Lashly and Benjamin had not lost a match until they dropped the belts to Bandido or Brodido in that three way at Forbidden Door, which took place a few weeks after that report initially surfaced. So, yes, they've lost, and since then they've lost to the demand. Right, They've had a few losses, but all of their losses

came only after that report leaked. I'm not saying it's true, but he makes it sound like, oh, it's bullshit. Of course we've lost matches. Yes, after you were accused of not losing matches, then they suddenly started losing some matches. Does that mean that they refused I don't know, but he's not wrong when he talks about there being a certain psychology to smaller guys wrestling bigger guys. He says

it shouldn't be fifty to fifty. I agree with that, you know, generally, but I think it depends on who they're in the ring with, right, how much credibility does that team have, How protected are those guys regardless of their size. I think there are exceptions to the rule, but as a general rule, I understand what he's saying and I don't disagree with it. Now, the Continental Classic is going to be coming to a close next weekend.

Before I get into a discussion about that, I do have to mention the one big thing that happened on Dynamite this week, and then I'll get into some World's End predictions. And this actually ties in directly to the World's End main event. We have the return of MJF. And boy did that story go nowhere this year with MJF and Bobby Lashley talk about a dropped story there. But MJF was back. We haven't seen him in a few months, and he cashed in his world title contract

that he won in the Casino Gauntlet match. Right that was back in Texas, and he's been carrying this thing around now for months, and he decided to cash it in. Now, now you can't. You got to give at least a week's notice. There's not money in the bank rules anymore. But he's like, I'm cashing it in and I'm going to be added to the triple threat match. I'm inserting myself into the main event at World's End on December

twenty seventh. Now it is a fatal four way. Now, somebody would have said that to me, and I didn't watch the show on Wednesday, of course my reaction would have been like, well the fuck would he do that? Right? MJF. He's a heel. Last time we saw him, he comes back. You know what I think I'll do. I've got this guaranteed contract I've been walking around with and it's still valid into next year. But you know what I think I'm gonna do. Instead of wrestling one man for the championship,

why don't I wrestle three? Right? Why would he do this?

But in the promo, if you listen to what he said on Wednesday, they at least took the time to have him explain why he would do this, and he pointed out that Hangman has called him a coward, and people have called him names and they think, basically, in so many words, he's a giant pussy And so this is his way of throwing it back in their face by saying, Okay, I'm going to put myself in this match, and I'm willing to put my shot on the line here and when I beat you, when I beat all

of you, then I'm going to be able to throw it back in your face and you're not going to have a word to say back to me. He almost came off more like a babyface, honestly in that promo than anything else. But this is him showing that he's got a set of nuts on him and that you know what you say that I need shortcuts and I need to cheat, and I need to take this and that way out, Like no, I'm gonna be in this match too, and I'm gonna beat all the your asses. So at least they took the time to try to

explain it. You could still say that man, he's stupid for doing it, and I don't disagree, but they at least explained it. Now. The Dynamite Diamond Battle Royal that they did on Wednesday came down to ricochet and Bandido MJF was not in the Battle Royal. He's had that ring every year for the last six years, So it came down to the two of them and the fans there in Manchester. They had ten thousand people on the building of Manchester. By the way, I don't think they

focused enough on that. You don't see dynamite crowds of ten thousand people anymore, Okay, it's very rare. That's very very rare, and I just think that they should have done a better job, especially when they came on the air really showing the venue and talking about how many people were there. I mean the way that they opened the show on Wednesday, it was literally like they're already

in the ring, ding ding ding, right into action. It's like, man, you got three hours tonight, and it's almost like they were rushing from the start, and I'm like, why don't you take the time to show people where you are? You know what I mean? Like, it's so rare. They're always in these smaller intimate venues, so I just think, man,

that was a drop ball there. But the fans in the building, they were upset because they just didn't realize that the way this works is that the last two men will then go on the following week to have a singles match. Now they are in the middle of taping television at the Hammerstein Ballroom this weekend here in

New York City. They taped television yesterday. I think they might be in the middle of taping as I speak, or they will be in a few hours, because again, all these shows this week coming up, I think for everybody, it's all taped. I did not read the spoilers, but I had figured, just you know, watching who the last two men were, that Ricochet would win the ring because

the gimmick would just fit him so well. But then I think, Okay, if MJF is winning the belt back, and I think that he probably is the winner of the Diamond Ring gets a guaranteed shot at the AW World Championship on the Maximum Carnage episode of Dynamite that's on January fourteenth. I could envision a scenario where MJF forces Bandido if he was to win, because it would make more sense than for a babyface to win the ring.

I could see a scenario where MJF forces Bandido to put his ring up and make it title versus ring and that's how MJF backdoors his way to another diamond

ring for the empteenth time. Because it was kind of weird, like he came back on television this week on the very night where they were having a battle royal for this fucking ring that I think he was wearing on his finger even I think he might have actually been wearing it during the promo, but there was no mention made of him having anything to do with the ring stuff. And I'm like, okay, which is fine. I mean, he's kind of moved beyond that, but now I'm like, okay,

So wait a minute here. If he wins the belt, he's gonna be defending it against the winner of the ring. They're gonna turn this into a fucking ring for belt, aren't they. And they're gonna have him with the diamond ring anyway. So if band if Bandido should win that match, and we'll see on Wednesday, but if you should win that match, I don't think he's going to have that ring for very long. So anyway, as far as the

Continental Classic goes, here is where things stand. After collision last night, Okata, Speedball, Kevin Knight, Kyle Fletcher, and Pack. They are all tied up at six points each in the Gold League, so we got a five way tie. I don't think that's ever happened before. In the Blue League, Claudio and Taqusta they lead the charge with seven point each. John Moxley has six, so he's only one behind Claudio. On Collision last night, Kevin Knight or I guess yesterday

afternoon is when it aired. But on Collision yesterday, Kevin Knight pinned Kazuchka Okada. I was not expecting that. And look at Kevin Knight. All of a sudden, this man has not even been on the roster for a full year yet, and he has clean wins over Okata and Darby Allen, and he got to wrestle Will Osprey on pay per view earlier this year. But Okata has not lost very many singles matches since signing with AW. He

lost to Brian Danielson on Dynamite. He lost twice in the Continental Classic to Kyle Fletcher, once last year and once this year, and now to Kevin Knight. And that's it now. Kevin Knight is not winning this tournament. But Tony better have something real good in mind for him coming out of this thing, because this is this is not the sort of thing that you should squander like you could use this tournament as a way as like a launching pad for one or two people. So Kevin

Knight is in prime position for that. A lot of it just depends on what happens coming out of this. You know, is he going to be the next Action Andretti or is he going to be the next Kyle Fletcher. Right choice is up to Tony Fletcher beat Okada in the tournament last year. He went on to have a breakout year for himself in twenty twenty five. That should be Kevin Knight in twenty twenty six. So here is what we got left. The matches that are coming up

on Wednesday. We got two Blue League in one Gold League. In the Blue League we have Kenoski Takeshta against Orange Cassidy, so I'm guessing Takeshta wins. That. We have Roderick Strong against Mascariderrada. This, I mean, who gives a shit? I mean they've both been mathematically eliminated anyway. I know Roddy has at least and Jack Perry, who's been biting people. He bit Okata on the dick the other Nights when he was upside down at a tombstone position fucking sixty

nine over here. So he bit him on the dick, and I saw he bit Speedball on the foot. He had his fricking toes in his mouth on televisions. I mean, I don't know what's going on with this guy. But anyway, Jack Perry is wrestling Pack, and I have Jack Perry beating Pack. So those matches are coming up on Wednesday. So then on Thursday, these are all the remaining matches. There's a whole bunch of them. John Moxley against Orange Cassidy.

I got Moxley winning that one. We have Masceror Dorada wrestling Kenoski Takeshda and I got Ta Keshda winning that. There's a match between Claudio who is the CMLL Heavyweight Champion. He is wrestling Roderick Strong who has zero points. I'm gonna say that these two go to a draw. That's my prediction there. They go to a time limit draw. That way, nobody wins, nobody loses. We have Olkata taking on Mike Bailey, that should be a win for Okada.

Pack takes on Kevin Knight. I'm gonna say Kevin Knight wins that match, and then Jack Perry wrestles Kyle Fletcher, and I'm undecided on how that's going to go. I was thinking maybe another draw. I don't know that they want to do two draws like that so close together. There's only been one other one, I think so far in this tournament, so I don't know. I don't know how that goes. But I will say this though, it is nice having a tournament with some unpredictability for a change.

We've definitely had some unpredictable finishes in some of these matches. So this now leads into the World's End card. This is what we know so far. World's End is next Saturday. That is the final pay per view of the year. We have the aw Women's Tag team champions, Willow Nightingale and Harley Cameron defending their titles against Mercedes Monet and Athena, and this I predict will be and should be a win for Willow and Harley who just won the belts.

And certainly the last thing Mercedes needs right now, as she is in the process of losing belts is to win another one. So I got Willow and Harley getting the win here now, speaking of Mercedes and her titles, she lost her rev Pro British was undisputed British Women's Championship. She defended it on the Holiday Bash edition of Collision yesterday she lost it to Alex Windsor, so that ends her reign with that title at just under a year. She actually won it from Mina Shirakawa at the Tokyo

Dome at Wresselled Dynasty earlier this year. So now this is the second championship that she has lost. Technically I think it's two belts, but this is coming off of her losing the Ring of Honor Women's television title to Red Velvet at Final Battle a few weeks ago. So then Mercedes, she went on X and she asked Groc.

She goes, what the hell happened? And Grok responded to Mercedes and Grox said, on Holiday Bash, Alex Windsor defeated you in a title match with a pinfall after a series of suplexes encounters, claiming the rev Pro Undisputed British Women's Championship. Congrats to the new champ. Tough loss, but epic bout some Mercedes responded and says, can you take back her congratulations because, as I said last week, I wanted to face a local from Manchester and she tagged

Grock and she said where is Alex Windsor from? And Grok responded and said, Alex Windsor is from Happisburg, Norfolk, England, not Manchester. Fairpoint, CEO, consider those congrats retracted epic clash Either way, what's your next move? This is where we are in the world right now. We are having conversations with artificial intelligence. It's only gonna get worse. It's only gonna get worse from here. The two league finals and the finals of the Continental Classic will take place on

this show next Saturday. Now. Last year, if you remember, there was a format change where the Gold League winner would face the runner up from the Blue League. That would be one semifinal, and the Blue League winner would wrestle the Gold League runner up in the other semifinal. I don't know if they're following that same change that same format again this year. I'm going to assume that

they are. If so, we could potentially get Okada against Takesha in the semi finals and not the finals, but only if the idea, I would say is for Takeshta to lose to then build up to a bigger match between them, maybe at Revolution in March. But I don't think they want to beat the IWGP champion, not in the semi finals of this thing. Everything has been building to Okada against Takeshta, and if it happens, I mean

it has to be in the finals. There's no bigger match they could do in this tournament that Okada against Takeshta. So by those rules, I feel like Okada wins the Gold League and he wrestles Orange cast who comes into the runner up in the Blue League after beating John Moxley. So none of the Death Riders make it to the semi finals. That's where I think this is going. I said before, I think John Moxley beats Orange Cassidy. But I'm just I'm looking at these rules here I actually think, Man,

I'm thinking the Death Riders just don't make it. They just don't even make it into the semis, is what I'm thinking. Takeshta wins the Blue League and then beats Kevin Knight, who comes in as runner up in the Gold League. Right, he's the one who's been racking up upsets in this tournament. He just beat Okada, right, Canny beat Takeshta as well, and then he loses, and that's how we end up with Okada against Takeshta in the finals,

and man, that could go either way. You know, Takeshta should triumph ultimately over Okada, but that doesn't mean that it has to happen in their first match, Like they could definitely stretch this out to another match of Revolution if Takeshta wins. Think about it, right, there's not much of a reason to do that. So I am actually going to pick Kazuchka Okada to win the entire thing

for the second straight year. I think Okada wins the Continental Classic, and I think that they hold off on the ultimate match between them, where Takeshta wins the championship from him. They hold off on that until Revolution. That's my prediction. We have Chris Statlander defending the aw Women's World Championship against Jamie Hayter. It should be a really good match here. It doesn't feel to me like it's

time yet for Statlander to drop that belt. I still don't think Jamie Hater has been properly sort of built up to win the Championship. That could be something that happens next year. So I think Statlander gets the win and then the AW World Championship is on the line in a four way match, Samoa Joe defends against Swerve, Strickland, Hangman, Adam Page and MJF. And I'm going with MJF. I think he is going to close out the year as

the AW World Champion. I think he's going to get his own measure of redemption and revenge for what happened at World's End two years ago when Joe beat him to win the title and we got the Devil reveal with Adam Cole. I think MJF wins the championship and then goes on to defend against the winner of the

Diamond Ring on January fourteenth. So that's six matches so far, which is like half an AW pay per view, So you know there's going to be a lot more added, including with some of the people that end up being eliminated from the C two. But those are my predictions

so far for the matches that we know. Speaking of big events, you know, if AW is closing the year with a big show, New Japan is opening the new year with one that is Wrestle Kingdom twenty on January fourth at the Tokyo Dome with fifty thousand people expected, making it the largest craft for a wrestling show anywhere in Japan since Antonio Poki's retirement in nineteen ninety eight.

It is a show that is built around the retirement of one person, Hiroshi Tanahashi, one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, and this is all coming just weeks after John Cena wrestled his retirement match where WWE positioned him as the greatest of all time. Tanahashi is truly one of the goats, and in Japan you could argue, you know, the greatest. But then you get into a discussion about Kobashi and Masawa, Liiger Mudha, some people may say Anoki. I mean, he's up there in that mix.

Though for sure. I don't want to say that he alone saved New Japan Pro Wrestling, but he more or less did. After the fiasco of you know, the the Anoki tenure in the mid two thousands, that company was close to bankruptcy, and Tanahashi's work on top brought back a lot of fans. He brought in a lot of new ones, too, which led to the business boom that

New Japan experience in the twenty tens. Then Okata came back from Excursion in TNA as the rain maker and he got over as a main event player, and so you had Tanahashi and Okada as the two top draws right the Austin and Rock in many ways of that New Japan era. Now he's also the president of the company, so it is hard to overstate how important to figure Tanahashi is to the history of New Japan. That is

why they have sold fifty thousand tickets for this show. Now, Aaron Wolfe, who was a gold medalist in judo in the Olympics a few years ago, he is making his in ring debut. That is the reason why the show is airing on network television over there for the first time in twenty years. But it is also likely the reason why the show feels so truncated when you look at the card as compared to previous Wrestle Kingdoms. Even though the show is not airing live on TV right

it's airing on TV Asahi. I believe it's airing on a delay, and I don't even think they're airing the whole show. They're airing less than two hours of it, just the top matches, but I guess they need to make sure they get those matches over and done with in time for them to then air the ones they want to air during the allotted time. So it is affecting. It is very likely affecting how many matches they have on this show, because usually these wrestle kingdoms have so

many matches. They're five and a half hours and it's a long show. But you know, it's not like it's not like aw where they do that literally every other month. It feels like, yeah, you get your one big dome show every year that goes five hours, and you know, sometimes it could feel epic depending on what the matches are, it doesn't really feel that way this time. New Japan announced the full card and match order this week, and honestly, outside of the top two matches, the card looks like

shit for a show this big. I'm sorry. I mean the women's match will be good, probably not great, because I doubt they get a lot of time. They usually get the short end of the stick on these shows. You know, Mayui Watani and they got like eight minutes last year. I think back a few years ago twenty twenty three, Kyrie saying she wrestled tam Nakano and they got like five minutes. So I don't think these women are going to get a whole lot of time for

their match. Otherwise, sure it could be great, but I'm not expecting it to be. Tanahashi and Okada. They're going on last, as they should. There won't be any Rock Hogan here in the middle of the show. But the card looks very weak. You know, for fifty thousand fans at the Dome, they've got seven matches with the new Japan Rambo on the main card, where it usually takes place on the pre show. This time there will be

no pre show. The Rambo usually goes thirty minutes or more, so that's gonna take time away from some of the other matches. But Tanahashi and Okada they're gonna get all the time they need. And I'm sure there will be some sort of ceremony or speech from Tanahashi after. You know, we got no speech from John Cena after his final match. I mean, even Bill Goldberg got to say a few words before NBC cut him off. Sina just chose to say nothing. Took his clothes off and he just marched

to the back. That will not be the case with Tanahashi. He'll be air guitaring his way all the way to the back. But I don't understand how this card was put together with that an eye towards the future. There's there's so many names missing from this who should be showcase with that many eyeballs on the show? And I say missing, I mean some of them are in multiman matches,

some of them may be in the rambo. But outside of Yotasuji, who's challenging Kenoski Takeshta for the IWGP title, there's no one else outside of Tanahashi and Aaron Wolf really getting the spotlight here. And we don't even know how good Aaron Wolf is gonna be. It's his first fucking match. Shota Umino was literally in the main event of last year's show. He headlined the Tokyo Dome. He won forty five minutes with Zach Saber Junior. He isn't even on the card, at least not yet. Meanwhile, Saber

is not listed for the show either. He just won the World Tag League. He's going to be headlining their New Year Dash show that's the night after the Tokyo Dome, whereas normally the winners of the Tag League would be challenging for the tag team titles at the Dome. It's just it's all very strange to me. It has to do with the time limitations. It just there's nothing else

that makes sense. I just don't know why you would not want to take full advantage to put some of these other guys front and center who you want to build this promotion around going forward, and feature them in something meaningful on this card. On the undercard. You know, the Golden Age of New Japan is dead. It's over. Tanahashi is the last remnant of it, right, they got

to go full bore with the New Guard. They have a four way match to decide the number one contender for the Junior Heavyweight title, but no actual junior heavyweight title match on this show. They have a number one contenders match at the Tokyo Dome after Dokie. He got injured at the Dome last year in his match with El Desperado. He doesn't even have a spot on the card, and he's the champion unless he's injured again. But I mean, I haven't seen anything about that. But here's the full

card with some of my predictions. I'm not doing them for every match, but my predictions tossed in for the key matches here. So this is the match order. They're opening with the first ever Tornado Rambo match with the never openweight six man tag team titles on the line. Toryano Yo and Master Wato are defending their titles. Teams will enter one minute intervals, and if one member is pinned, submitted, or thrown over the top rope, that team is eliminated.

And Tomohiro e Shi will have a spot on the card in here. They just announced him for the match. He's been out with a dislocated shoulder that he suffered working for AEW in October. Second from the bottom is a double title match with the IWGP Women's champion, Shuri defending against Saya Kamatani defending her new Japan Strong women's title. I will go with Kamatani here. I see a lot of praise for her work. I have not seen much

of it. I know that she won the voting for most Valuable Player in the Tokyo Sports Awards for twenty twenty five. That's basically their Wrestler of the Year Award. It's the first time a woman has ever won the award. Even Kenta Kobashi said that he voted for and Tanahashi came in second. So I'm going with Kamatani for the win. I just hope they get some some real time here. Then we have a Tony Khan special on this New

Japan show. It's basically an all star ten man tag team match with Hiromu Takahashi, Shingo Takagi, David Finley, Gabe Kid, and Drilla Maloney taking on Great o' Kan, Kalum Newman, Henare, who has been out for a year with a knee injury, and two mist partners representing United Empire. Callum Newman is a star on the rise. He's the youngest man to ever win an IWGP title, It's only twenty three years old. He's also the youngest to ever challenge for the IWGP

World title. We have a four way number one contenders match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title with l Desperado, Kose, Fujita, Taiji Ishimuri, and Show Dokie is the champion and actually has two titles right now, including one half of the junior heavyweight tag team titles, and he is not even on the Damn Show, the first time since twenty twelve that the junior title is not being defended on a Tokyo Domb show. Desperado. He's had that title how many

times now? And an Ishimuri too. I would go Fujita or show for the win. Here, I'll say Fujita wins. Now we have Aaron Wolf in his very first professional wrestling match seen by the entire world on their biggest show of the year, challenging Evil for the never open Weight Championship. Get ready for tons of interference from the House of Torture. Maybe he needs it, though I don't know how ready he is. He's only had a few

months of training. I know he's an Olympic gold medalist in judo, but I mean that doesn't make you a great pro wrestler, you know. Does he have the instincts for this? Does he have the charisma to help carry him right? I haven't seen him, so I don't know. But there's an awful lot of hype around this guy, maybe an unfair amount of hype. But if he shows something here, they make an instant star on day one, and if he doesn't, he may end up as one

of the biggest flops of all time. I wouldn't be beating him in his first match in front of a mainstream audience that's there to see him. So I'm gonna say that Aaron Wolf wins the Never title. In the second double tie match on this show, the IWGP Global Champion Yotasuji takes on the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion and the winner of this year's G One Climax. Can you imagine if he wins the G One and the Continental Classic in the same year, And if he does, it

would be just eight days before this match. Kenoski Takeshta I mentioned those Tokyo Sports Year end awards before. In the voting for Wrestler of the Year Most Valuable Player, Takeshta came in dead last with zero votes. Zero in a year where he won the G One and the IWGP World title and had some incredible matches. Zero votes, and you ask yourself, why, you know, how does he get not one single vote here? You gotta remember, also, he's not full time in New Japan, right, He's splitting.

He's got three different contracts and he is splitting his time between AAW and New Japan and DDT as well, but between AW mainly in New Japan and AW always has first priority. I would think that has something to do with it. I can't speak to the mindset of the Japanese wrestling fan. I can't speak to what it is about this guy where they just have not fully made that connection with him. Yet He's never going to

be He's an AW guy. He's never going to be full time with New Japan because you know, the yen is very weak right now and there's no way he would make anywhere close to what Tony kannam sure is paying him. Right if you were to go work for New Japan full time, why do you think Okada left? So maybe it's just the AW affiliation and they see

him as an outsider and that works against him. But you know, I will also say, for as great as Takeshta is and I sing his praises all the time, he doesn't have the charisma that some of these other big names have. There's not a lot of depth there beneath him going out and having a good look and having great wrestling matches. One thing I know is that they are closing this show with back to back matches with an AAW star in it, and under no circumstances

should both AW stars be winning their matches. I mean, at least one of them has to lose, and it is more important that Takeshta put Yotasuji over here and crown him his world champion and level him up because Suji is one of the younger guys. They should be building this company around in twenty twenty six. Now is it going to work? They tried with Sonata, it didn't work. Is it going to work with Suji? Is he going to be the draw the way that guys like Tanahashi

and Okada and Naito were before. I don't know, but the old guard has been phased out. They have no choice but to try. They have already waited too long. I think Takeshta winning this match would be very damaging. But Yotasuji has said that if if he wins, he wants to bring back the old V four version of the IWGP belt, which is still the best version. It

never should have been retired to begin with. I don't know what they were thinking, and also he wants the lineage of the current championship merged with the lineage of the previous title, because they started a whole new lineage when they merged it. I think was he Boushi who was the first one to kind of merge together what was the intercontinental title with the IWGP title, and then that's how we got the IWGP World Heavyweight title. So

everything's kind of all muddied up now. So he wants to merge the lineage or lineages I guess of the championships. But the fact that he is claiming that he is going to do all of these things when he wins makes me think he's not winning because I don't see them bringing the old belt back. So they're gonna fucking beat them, aren't they. They are gonna beat this man. I'm picking to Kesha to win, right if I have to predict, I'm predicting a to Kesha win here, which

I would not do. See if he would have just kept his mouth shut, I would have gone Yotasuji, But I have to kesht your retaining and in the main event, the real reason for the fifty thousand fans that they are going to have in that building, it is the final match in the career of the ace, Hiroshi Tanahashi against his greatest rival, the former IWGP champion in reigning AEW unified champion. I mean, is he still technically the unified champion or is he just the international champ? I

don't even know anymore. Kazushka Okada, who has not wrestled in a New Japan ring in nearly two years. It is the end of an era. Tanahashi has been on rubber legs or knees for a while now. It's painful to watch him when he's walking out there, But when the man wants to, he can still put on a great professional wrestling match, and I think he's going to go all out here as much as his body will allow.

And John Cena both they went on retirement tours this year, and you know, it's hard to judge which one was better, because I've had a couple of people ask me right now that we're at the end of the year, who had the better retirement tour. It's an impossible question to answer because they were so different. You know, Tanahashi will have wrestled over one hundred and forty matches this year by the time this show rolls around. Sina wrestled eighteen.

That's a big difference. Tanahashi did it with a lot less fanfare than Sina. Sina had more moments, Tanahashi had more matches and output as far as that goes. And Tanahashi, again, he did it with a lot less fanfare and most of his matches, by the way, we're not even the main event on those shows. There were a lot of shows where his match was like in the mid card, but their importance to their respective companies puts them in

the same category. But Tanahashi was far more important to the health of New Japan than Sena was to WWA. If Tanahashi does not get hot when he did and carry the company into a new era, who knows where New Japan is right now? Who knows if they're around right now. That's how bleak things were without Sena. It's not as if WWE was in jeopardy of going under. There's no championships on the line here in this match, just two old rivals going at it one last time.

They've had this legendary rivalry for so many years. This will be their fourth Tokyo Domain event together. Tanahashi has him beat two to one. Right now, although Okada has more wins over him overall, I think it's like nine to five. Who wins here doesn't really matter as much as Tanahashi being able to go out with a great match. That's why he chose Okada to be his opponent. He wanted Shinsky Nakamora, but politically that was never going to happen.

Okada is the better opponent for him anyway. Really, how could it have been anybody else? Right? I mean, the difference between this and John Sena's last match is that Sena lost with the idea of putting over Gunther for Busy and making him the biggest heel in the entire company. Here, he's wrestling someone who does not even work for New Japan anymore. He's an aw guy. So to me, the old school mentality of you always go out on your

back and your retirement match doesn't really apply here. Okada winning does nothing for New Japan, not a fucking thing. He may want to lose to Okada, but I think Takesha is retaining, and if Takesha is retaining, then that paves the way I think for Okada to lose here, because if i'm New Japan, I'm not putting both AW guys over in the two biggest matches on my show. One of them, sure, but not both of them, let alone back to back like that. That would just be ridiculous.

That's the only reason I say that. Otherwise, yes, I would say Tanahashi loses, But if I'm right on the other match, then Tanahashi should win this one. And if Takeshta does lose the championship, then I think it's okay

for Okata to win. And actually, if anything, it allows him to then go out on AW television in the weeks that follow the Dome show and gloat and rub it in tanahat or rub it in to cash his face rather that you know, he lost and I won and you lost your championship, right, and then just build and build and build even more to the match of Revolutions. So I actually think that works better. As we get ready to close out twenty twenty five, let us look back at the key stories from the year. The year

that was in the world of wrestling. You know, I came across this tweet from Elite Rockers, which has a lot of followers. This was from September nineteenth, twenty twenty four. WWE in twenty twenty five is going to be in god mode. Raw on Netflix is going to be uncensored, and Edgier SmackDown is going to be three hours, a megastar loaded Men's Royal Rumble match, John Cena possibly winning his seventeenth world title, the Rock and Roman Range Dream Feud.

I'm so excited god mode, he said. If this year was god mode, then that term has lost all meaning. This year was supposed to be the retirement tour for John Cena, Hiroshi Tanahashi, which of course is culminating at the Tokyo Dome on January fourth, And if you remember at the beginning of the year, Jeff Jarrett, now you know, it's rare that we see someone get an entire year to say goodbye in wrestling. If anything, it's a match, right, And even that's rare. A lot of wrestlers never get

to have a proper retirement match. A lot of wrestlers they never actually retire. This year we had two of them, two major stars who announced their retirement in advance, and they got a year long tour. And regardless of what you thought of those tours, good for them that they got the chance to at least go out on their own terms or somewhat on their own terms. The Sena and a Tanahashi retire Ironman Tours again, they could not have been any more different for all the reasons that

I mentioned earlier in the podcast. Tanahashi he wrestled over one hundred and forty matches this year. Seena wrestled in eighteen matches. Most of those Tanahashi matches were not even main events on those shows, but still two of the biggest stars in the history of the business seen his tour very disappointing. Double j though. If you remember the beginning of the year, he started by announcing that he had signed a new one year deal with AW, which was going to be his final contract as an active

professional wrestler. This was to have been his final year in the ring, and he made his intentions very clear that he wanted to win the AEW World Championship, and he started a feud with MJF that was quickly dropped I'm sure because Tony Khan saw the online backlash and Hee panicked, I mean, those are his people, and so the story was dropped and it was never mentioned again,

which was for the better. Now Jared is talking about his upcoming fortieth anniversary in the business, which is coming up in April, and he says he still has certain in ring goals that he has left to fulfill, so evidently this will not be Jeff Jared's final year in the ring. A pro wrestler lying about his retirement, I've never heard of such a thing. But let us not forget the one retirement tour that never was but was supposed to be this year in double j Jeff Jarrett.

We had Kenny Omega returning at the Tokyo Dome at wrestled Dynasty and stealing the show back on January fifth. That was against Gabe Kid. Now I want you to think about this. Omega almost died. I mean, that's how serious of a health situation he was in with the you know, with a diverticulitis and the surgery that he had, and it was a slow recovery. He was out of

the ring for over a year. He opened the year against Gabe Kid with the kind of match that they had, which if you were to tell me that that was your match of the year, and this was on January fifth, If you were to tell me that was your match of the year. I wouldn't argue with you, that's how great that match was. He opened the year with that, and then the matches with Takeshta Revolution and Speedball and Ricochet at Dynasty, Anarchy in the Arena that he was

a part of Okada at all in Texas. You know, he's been more downplayed and hasn't had a lot of big singles matches in recent months. But you know, his return at wrestled Dynasty was a big deal after being gone for so long. We had Monday Night Raw this year, premiering on Netflix. Right, that was the big what was it five billion dollar deal? Five billion, ten billion? What's another five billion? I think it was five billion. But we had the premiere on Netflix, which was the start

of a new era for this show. Right. It had been on cable television ever since the show premiered in nineteen ninety three, and for the first time now it was on a streaming service. It's very different, right, the world is changing. But on that night we had the return of the Rock, who really wasn't the Rock. It was more Dwayne the board member, and he was praising and putting over Cody Rhodes, the man that he was feuding with the year before that was weird sharing tequila

with him. Hulk Hogan came out that night. He got booed by the crowd, even though he was there to promote his beer and he he was, you know, out there with Jimmy Hart waving the flag around, and man, he got booed out of the building. And how sad it is that will be the final appearance that people remember him for on WWE television. Why they even thought trotting him out there would be a good idea, I will never know, but that probably was the most memorable

moment from that Raw premiere on Netflix. We had the debut of Penta debuted on Raw January thirteenth against Chad Gable and he got off to a hot start. I feel like in recent months they've definitely lost their way with Penta, but you know, he's still in a place where I think twenty twenty six, he should do better, right, It's kind of hard for me to believe that they won't find something worthy for Penta to do, or put a championship on him at some point next year. He's

super popular. The way he got over almost instantly with the WWE audience was very cool to see and hopefully they have bigger things in my for him in twenty twenty six. I feel like he I forget the injury recently. I feel like he's definitely been you know, phased down in recent months to a level where he should be a little higher up on the card. There was some announcer drama earlier this year, if you remember, with Corey Graves,

after he was demoted to NXT. He did not really react very well to that, and then he disappeared for a little bit. But in the end everything got smoothed over. And I just heard him last night on the Triple A show that was streaming on YouTube. He's doing that, He's doing you know, the stuff with Michael Cole working together again. So Corey is great. I'm glad everything got smoothed over. We had the announcement January sixteenth, WWE and TNA forming a multi year partnership. We got a press

release and everything just to make it official. And boy has that been a big deal for TNA, more so TNA than for WWE. Although WWE has benefited from this arrangement as well. This is something that even a few years ago, let alone ten or fifteen years ago, when Vince McMahon was in charge, would have been unthinkable, like absolutely unthinkable. I remember that dumb match they did on RAW. I don't know what year it was, but it was like they had a fake Trump and a fake Rosie

O'Donnell having some dumb match on Raw. Vince McMahon was sitting at ringside and the crowd is chanting TNA. And I remember reading about how like angry Vince was, and I'm like, good, because when you put out shit, that's the sort of thing that they should be be giving back to you. But there was a period of time where you know, you would hear those initials occasionally chanting right,

and people backstage would not respond. Well. It would be the equivalent if like a WWE crowd suddenly broke out in an aw chen. Right, I'm sure Triple H would be back there smarting about it. Right. They were not on friendly terms with TNA, is the point I'm making. And so the idea that now not only are they working together and they have a talent exchange, but they

have formalized it. They had a press release out for it, and there's a multi year partnership between these two companies, and we have TNA talents on fucking WrestleMania, you know, I mean it's it's and with their championships, and it's really been kind of lopsided in terms of the talents WWE has been able to feature. It's not like TNA's getting a lot of kind of upper level elite WWE names pop it up in wrestling matches on their shows.

The closest thing they got was aj Styles, who just did a quick you know, a quick dip in and a quick dip out back at Slammiversary. But again, something that would have been absolutely unthinkable just a few years ago actually became a reality here in twenty twenty five. Joe Hendry appearing as the TNA World Champion in the Royal Rumble match this year on February first, Case in Point, Jay Usso winning the Men's Royal Rumble a very polarizing decision, but boy, it led to a lot of other shit

in the months that followed. When it came to Jay in the World Heavyweight Championship. Some may like it, some may not, but that was one of the big stories of this year, was the Jay Usso push. We had Ricky Starks now Ricky Saints making his surprise debut on the February eleventh episode of NXT. The only surprise about it was how quickly it happened, because we had only

learned it was only reported the day before. I think that he had gotten an early release from Tony Kahn, and then boom, He's on NXT the very next night. And now, of course he's a former NXT champion in the upper mix for that title, and I have every expectation that we will see him on Raw or Smacked

Down by the middle of twenty twenty six. Hiroki Goto finally winning the IWGP Championships, something I don't think a lot of people ever expected to happen at nearly forty six years of age, beating Zach Saber Junior back on February eleventh. He held that title for one hundred and thirty eight days. And now look at him. He's playing I Honda in the New Street Fighter movie coming out next year. You got Cody Rhodes in the movie, you got Roman Reigns in the movie, and now you got

Hiroki Goto. The Rock was brought back to television. Remember when The Rock was on SmackDown on February twenty first, they were in New Orleans that night and they brought the Rock back to make the big announcement that Wresselmania forty two is coming back to New Orleans. And that was the same night where he said he also wanted

Cody Soul and that whole fiasco again. But yes, they trotted the Rock out there to announce that they were bringing WrestleMania next year to the Big Easy, only to turn around what was it, two months, three months later, whatever it was, and say, psich, not so fast, New Orleans, We're coming back to Vegas. Unbelievable. And then, like I said, the Cody Sole nonsense. We had the elimination Chamber on

March first. John Cena not only wins the chamber, but he does the unthinkable and turns heel in his retirement year. Years after people wanted to see him turn heel. They had accepted him. It had been years since he was being booed by the crowds and we were hearing let's go seea Sena sucks. Now they turn him heel and he sells his soul to the Rock after he had already won the chamber and guaranteed himself a World Championship match of WrestleMania. So you could also look at that

and go, well, that doesn't really make sense. He already got his title shot. It would have actually hit a lot better if they would have waited, if they insisted on doing the heel turn to incorporate it into the finish of the match at WrestleMania right, very much like

what they did with Austin and WrestleMania seventeen. It's not like they had It would be the equivalent of Steve Austin outlasting twenty nine other men and winning the Royal Rumble that year and then turning heel and then going to WrestleMania to wrestle the Rockets, Like, dude, you won the Rumble, you got your shot. You know, you didn't

have to do the heel turn beforehand. Now they did it at the end of the match, and in hindsight, it was an absolutely terrible business decision, which Austin admits to this very day. He made a mistake. I mean, there's a lot of things along this, said John Cena tour that week and look at and say it was

a mistake. This was one of them. But in the moment It was one of the greatest things that they had ever done, right in and of itself, in a vacuum, the second best heel turn as a turn in wrestling history. Hogan will always be number one. Hogan the Red and Yellow going to the dark Side, joining and forming the nWo. That will always be number one. But they had it, they had something special. They had people buzzing in a way that people had not been buzzing in years, and

it all got pissed away. We also had the announcement on April nineteenth that WWE was acquiring Triple A Wrestling in Mexico, a product that was already trying very hard to be like WWE for many years. All the Lucha Libre traditionalists who have talked about how worried they are about how WWE might change the product into more of a WWE type of product. The people that watch Triple A and No Triple A have said that they basically

have been trying to be like WWE for decades. What WWE was able to do coming in right, they have upped the production values. It has provided more exposure for Triple A talents Mister Iguana on WWE shows, but also exposure for WWE and NXT talents in Triple A like Dominic Mysterio who headlined last night's show, El Grande Americano who headlined last night's show, Javon Evans Ethan Page right Lolavice who basically is on excursion down there. So those

have all been positives. Now there are other changes that I'm sure could potentially be made or have been made, maybe behind the scenes, and maybe little minor things that change the product that go against the culture or something that people don't like. They were always going to come in and make certain changes. The question is, like, in the long run, what does this look like. It's still

too early to know. We're not even out of the year yet, Like, is this effectively five years from now going to just be you know, NXT Mexico or are they truly going to try to keep it as independent as possible and continue running it the way they're running

it now. We don't know the answer to that. What we do know is that WWE recently secured a Tell Division deal with Fox to air Triple A events, including Triple Mania, on Fox in Mexico, and there is talk that they may be closed to making an announcement about a TV deal for Triple A here in the US. Now, this stuff with Triple A has not in any way affected the year that CMLL has had. They just sold their one millionth ticket to Arena Mexico this year alone.

You know, WWE may make more money this year than any other promotion in the world, but the hottest pro wrestling company in the world this year may well have been CMLL. When you can put fifteen or sixteen thousand people in the same venue every Friday night, week after week, and you're pulling in foreigners too, not just Mexican wrestling fans who show up to these shows, and they run three times a week in that building, just that one building.

Not that they don't run other places. I'm just saying in that one building alone, they're running multiple sh shows a week and they're still putting all of these people in their week after week. They keep coming back. It's pretty incredible the run that they've been on this year. We have Paul Hayman betraying cmpunk and Roman Reigns to align with seth Rollins or WrestleMania that was on April nineteenth.

Paul Hayman is not someone to be trusted I mean, that's the one thing we've learned about him over the years. He's turned on more people than Pamela Anderson did back in the nineties. And I don't know why these wrestlers haven't figured that out yet. Seth Rolins just found out right a couple months ago. But Paul Hayman turning on his best friend and turning on his tribal chief to align with Seth Rollins. And this was the beginning of

the vision. And I can't say that this has been any great shakes, but that was the big storyline development coming out of WrestleMania. We had John Cena at that same WrestleMania the very next night, April twentieth, winning his record breaking seventeenth world championship in the world worst possible way.

I don't think if you would pull fifty different wrestling fans going back six months, not six months, but like a year, two years, three years, and said, hey, you had the ability, you had the pen, You're gonna script out. John seen his big seventeenth record breaking world title wing at WrestleMania. How does it look, how does it go down? How do you build to it? What's the story you tell? I don't know that any of those fifty people would

have done it the way the WWE did. It's like they did it in the worst possible way, Like even if you take Travis Scott out of it, and that was bad enough having him out there, even remove him from the equation to turn seeing a heel and have him win the seventeenth World Championship with a kick to the dick in a belt shot. I mean, could they

have botched this any worse than they did? On May second, there was a wave of talent releases seventeen in total from the WWE and n T rosters, including names like Braun Stroman, Dakota Kai, Shana Basler, Kora, jade Gg Dolan, Jakara Jackson who's now marishad Day in TNA, and others as well. Trick Williams, he beat Joe Hendry to become the first WWE star to ever win a TNA title. That was on May twenty fifth. Trick Williams, by the way, get ready, he's main roster bound. I don't know what

brand it'll be. I'm sure it'll be smacked down because that's where lash legend is. But he is going to be on the main roster. Starting at the beginning of twenty twenty six, we had WWE choosing not to renew Our Truth's contract, only to then bring him right back weeks later after the backlash not just from fans but also apparently from talent. Behind the scenes, they were very unhappy. Our Truth was like, he was an institution in this company, and I know, you watch him on television, he looks

like he belongs in an institution. But he was an institution there for so long and so well life, just maybe the most well like member of that locker room. And it blindsided a lot of people when they saw that his name had been cut, because people thought man, not Truth. But yeah, now some people believe that it was never really you know, a reality, that he was actually released and it was something that they were just filming for WWE Unreal. I believe it is going to

be a part of the Unreal season that's debuting. I think on January twentieth, I believe the new season drops on Netflix. I think it was absolutely real. I don't think that it was something that was manufactured just for Unreal. I think it's a real situation that happened. And of course now they're going to do an entire episode on it. But that happened in May, right, that had to be in May, and then it was only God maybe it

wasn't even a matter of weeks. It was very soon thereafter, because I think when he showed up it was money in the bank. I believe when he ran into the ring, he was dressed up as the mystery man, pulled the mask off. Everybody cheered. We had Mariah May making her debut on NXT as Blake Monroe. It was on June third. I'm a big Mariah May fan. I don't know that she really needs to spend much more time down in NXT. She could definitely make some waves on the main roster

right now. SmackDown can certainly use her. I don't know if I would have her on the same roster with Tiffany Stratton. I might want to separate those two out knowing them, they'll make them a tag team. But Mariah May is going to do big things in WWE. I think she's fantastic. Goldberg return to challenge Gunther in his retirement match at Saturday Night's main event. This was the

same weekend as all in Texas. It was like the battle between WWE and AW on the same night, and Goldberg went out there, and you know what, it was not a quick, like three minute thing. I think it was like a thirteen or fourteen minute match. It was not a bad match, certainly, not by Goldberg standards. By Gunther standards. Yes, it was probably one of the worst matches he had all year, but it was still a

good match. And Goldberg he did the honors on his way out, and then he was going to cut this heartfelt speech which was actually a good speech, but we only got to see maybe ten seconds of it before NBC cut the feed, and Goldberg was not happy about that. Goldberg was not happy about any of this. And you know, he did that podcast interview where it might have been with Ariel Helwani and teased that, you know, in two

weeks I'll be able to say more. And two weeks went by and we never heard from Goldberg, And in fact, that was a hell of a lot longer than two weeks ago, and he's been silent on that ever since. I think he might have been gotten to by somebody. Ciampunk wrestled John Cena in Saudi Arabia and apologized to the fans in Saudi for comments that he had made years before. This is what John Cena has cited as his favorite all time wrestling moment CM Punk apologizing to

the Saudi fans. On the pre show, Adam cole vacated the TNT Championship and delivered what may well end up being his retirement speech at all in Texas. His situation is very sad. He has just been plagued by injuries these last few years that have really derailed his career.

I don't know that we're ever going to see him back in the ring again, and the only thing I hope for his sake is that you know, he can because he's still dealing apparently with some pretty bad symptoms I guess of this concussion that he sustained, and he's had some bad ones before. I don't even think he can fly still, you know, and this was in July. So my hope is that he can recover enough to where he can live, you know, a normal, healthy life. If that means he never gets back in the ring again,

then so be it. You know, he doesn't have anything to prove to anybody, and I think, honestly, even if he never wrestles, again, He'll have a job for life with AW. They will find other things for him to do again. He is beloved, He's well liked by everybody. He's just the nicest guy. And there's any number of things that he could be doing beyond just training. If

he wanted to start training people. You can have him as an announcer, you can have him as some sort of figure on the show if you wanted him to be in that role. I just hope, you know, whatever it is that he does, I hope he can get back physically to as close to one hundred percent as he was before. But the whole situation is just incredibly sad Aj Styles returned to TNA for the first time since twenty thirteen at Slammiversary, which was very cool to see.

It would have been nicer to see him in a match. I don't know if that'll ever happen, but that was a big homecoming for him and big rub for Leon Slater. You know the way that Aj put him over on the mic. On July twenty fourth, Hulk Hogan Terry Bullay had passed away the age of seventy one. This ride here, in my opinion, as far as wrestling stories, of the year.

This was the biggest story. Hulk Hogan dying this year was the biggest story because Hogan will go down as obviously one of the biggest and most popular, well known professional wrestlers of all time. He will be number one on many people's lists. He's on all the Mount Rushmore's, well maybe not all of them, but I mean a lot of people will have him on the Mount Rushmore. They know and understand his place in history. You didn't

have to be a Hull Hogan fan growing up. In fact, you could have hated Hulk Hogan and wanted to see him lose, but you cannot deny his place and history and the impact and influence that he had on that company when they went national. He was the right guy in the right place at the right time, and him and Vince they made the perfect combo and it took Hogan in the heights that vern Ganja could never imagine.

And Hogan passing away was a surprise. It was major media headline news all over the world, and it was a very weird situation even to this day as far as exactly what happened and how it happened, and the surgery and the frantic nerve that we heard about being cut by accident and there might be a malpractice suit. We haven't heard anything about it since. But he was just getting started to be the figurehead, commissioner, the face of this new real American freestyle project that he and

Eric Bischoff were a part of. And now it's just Bischoff. But that was what Hogan was about to embark on before he passed away. We had the return to brock Lesner returning to WWE at SummerSlam, which was a surprise to a lot of people. As the Janelle Grant lawsuit is still, of course raging on. It has not been settled, it has been has not gone to trial. We don't even know if it's going to go to trial or

if it's going to go to arbitration. And again, he hasn't been accused of anything, but just his name being attached to it, and his name being attached to text messages in the suit that don't paint him in a very good light. That is the reason why WWE has had him on ice for two years now and with no movement really in the case. It was surprising that you know, there he is at the end of SummerSlam, They've decided to bring him back, and he gave John Cena an F five and then they went on to

have a completely pointless, terrible match. At Wressell Palooza, we had WWE announcing a deal to move their main roster pls from Peacock to ESPN, multi billion dollar deal. That was a big deal up pun intended, and that led into, of course Wressell Palooza being announced, and Wressell Palooza was programmed up against aw all Out, so Tony Kahn said, you know what, I'm going to move the start time up, and as a viewer, I'm great he did that, but

that was some big competition. That weekend. We had the moment I put this on my list because I just thought this was fantastic, just the visual of it. It didn't go anywhere, it didn't lead to anything in particular, but the visual of Omas and Microman from Triple Mania on August sixteenth, that to be I mean, that's pro wrestling is what that is. That is what that is.

We had Naomi, who had quite the comeback year in terms of her character and her persona, announcing that she was pregnant and therefore had to vacate the Women's World Championship that she successfully cashed in her money in the bank for at Evolution, it just felt like, man, she's finally really settling into this heel turn and this character and she's getting going. And then Jimmy just did not proceed with caution, and so now we're not going to

see Naomi for a while. But she was doing some of the best work of her career up until that point, but she announced her pregnancy and vacated the title back on August eighteenth. On August twenty third, Rajah Jackson, the son of Quentin Rampage Jackson, nearly beat Psycho Stu to death. That was at a Knox pro show. The fact that he is still out and about is a disgrace. But he has since been charged with one felony and one misdemeanor count of battery and he is facing potentially up

to seven years in prison. I don't know that he'll serve a single year, you know, Psycho Stu. There was talked that he may not want to cooperate with prosecutors, which could be no action is taken, although you would think they have plenty of video evidence, you know, how is this guy going to get off without any kind of punishment. But we're still waiting to find out how

this is all going to shake out. Aj Lee made her return to the ring after ten years in Chicago on SmackDown that was back on September fifth, something that I wasn't sure honestly was ever going to happen. That was a surprise even to me. Wressell Madia forty three was announced in twenty twenty seven for ri OD Saudi Arabia.

They made that announcement back on September twelfth. We had Andrade debuting on AW Dynamite and attacking Kenny Omega back on October first, only to then find out that WWE was executing a twelve month noncompete that apparently he was under and didn't even realize it. So therefore, he has not been seen on AW television ever since he came in. He laid out one of their top stars and he left like a boss. But now it sounds like Androde may be on the road to some sort of resolution

with WWE. Hopefully that is the case, and I fully expect to see him back on television within the next few months. Kanelski Takeshta won the IWGP World Championship after winning the g One Climax. But he won the title. He said, I'm not waiting until the Tokyo dumb. I want my shot now, and he got it and he won the title. And that was back on October thirteenth. We had Mercedes Monet collecting even more champion chips and breaking Ultimo Dragon's record with eleven plus concurrent title reigns

this year. That was a record that stood since nineteen ninety seven and it fell this year. And now Mercedes is falling. She's the beginning of her downfall. We had John Cena winning the Intercontinental title for the very first time and getting the Grand Slam. That was on Raw from Boston on November tenth. We had the first ever women's blooding Guts match in aw That was on November twelfth. TNA announced a new television deal with AMC Network starting

in twenty twenty six. That announcement came down on December second, and honestly is the biggest announcement that company has made outside of the partnership with WWE. Their biggest announcement in years. It will be the first time they are on a real network that has actual viewers since the days of Spike TV, which was eleven years ago. So that will be a big, big way for TNA to kick off

the new year. And last, but not least, John Cena closing out his retirement tour in a loss to Gunther and tapping out in his final match on Saturday Night's main event on December thirteenth. It will be a decision as it has been since it happened, that will be debated and argued whether it was good or bad. At the end of the day, John Cena he thought it was great, So to him, that's all the matters. Everybody else they can quibble and debate about it, but it was the end of an era. It was the end

of one chapter in WWE. I do believe we will never again see John Cena back in the ring. And for all this talk about his retirement tour, that is how they closed it out with a loss to Gunther. Now, there were also a number of notable wrestling related deaths in twenty twenty five, and I wanted to make note of them here. The first one and this is not I'm sure I'm missing some names here, but these are some of the key names that I have kept track of throughout the year, the first was a name from

the Old Territory days. He also worked for both ww U and WCW. Black Bart died on January ninth, at the age of seventy six after battling stage four colon cancer that had spread to his liver. Mister Baseball Bob Yucker, a member of the WWE Hall of Fame, died on January sixteenth, ten days shy of his ninety first birthday, after battling lung cancer for the past couple of years. He won a World Series with the Saint Louis Cardinals

in nineteen sixty four. He spent fifty four seasons as the play by play radio voice for the Milwaukee Brewers, and he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in twenty ten after appearing in two different WrestleMania WrestleMania three as the guest ring announcer for the biggest match in WrestleMania history between Hulkogan and Andre the Giant, and again at WrestleMania four Colonel de Beers, who gained fame in the dying days of the AWA. He died on

January twenty second at the age of eighty. Grand Hamada passed away on February fifteenth at the age of seventy four. One of the first men to be trained at the new Japan Dojo and first on excursion, which is how he became very proficient in Lucha libre, which he then brought back to Japan. He may well have been the first to bring it there, and he also held the WWF Light Heavyweight title on two occasions. This was through

WWF's working relationship with the UWA. Paro Aguayo was actually the first champion, but I don't think WWE acknowledges him as the first champion. I think they considered Taka Michinoku the first when they brought the belt back in nineteen ninety seven. But he was also the first and only WWF Intercontinental tag team champion alongside Pero Aguayo in nineteen ninety one. I'll bet you didn't even know those existed. That was until WWF severed ties with the promotion a

few months later. I think the titles stuck around, but they no longer had the WWFA initials attached to them. Osamu Nishimura passed away on February twenty eighth, at just fifty three years old, after battling stage four aesophageal cancer for some time. Despite his cancer, he was still wrestling almost right up until the very end. He tagged with Dori Funk Junior last year in a double hell current Blast death match. Oh man's a little shiver going up

Tony Kahan's spine. He's he's writing this down. And also wrestled a no ropes, barbed wire and giant electric explosive bat match. Okay, now that one, I think I have to add as a new stipulation for our be the booker segment on the streams no robes, barbed wire and giant electric explosive bat match. Wow. And he did it while he was sick. He had a first sign waivers allowing him to wrest and he had doctors stationed at

ringside just in case. I guess you would have to though, whether you're sick or not, you'd have to have doctors somewhere in the vicinity if you're going to have a no robes, barbed wire, giant electric explosive batmtch Bill Mercer, the voice of World Class Championship Wrestling in the eighties. He made it all the way to the age of

ninety nine before he died on March twenty third. Legendary newscaster really all around, not just in wrestling, but he even covered the jfk assassination as a Dallas TV reporter. While he may not have been a wrestler or a celebrity like some of the other folks on this list, On April seventh, we lost a friend and a fellow podcaster in Kevin Scondado, better known as Kevin Castle of the Don Toni and Kevin Castle Show, among the other

shows that he did. That wasn't the only one, but he was only fifty six years old, and he had been dealing with health issues that were a lot more serious than a lot of people knew, myself included. I always enjoyed my interactions with keV and really wish that we could have met up, you know, once, just to shoot the shit in person, because I've had the chance to meet his brother John, and you know, DT and Mish and Joey and so many other people in this space.

But keV was always kind of an island une to himself, right, always working at the club. He was, you know, the one responsible for booking the bands, but his death was just a shock to everyone and truly one of the ogs of the podcasting space. He has still missed even today. Hissashi Shinma, the former president quote unquote of the World Wrestling Federation. He passed away on April twenty first at

the age of ninety. He was the on screen president of the company in the same vein as Jack Tunney and Guerrilla Mond soon after him, through part of the seventies and into the early eighties, so basically right before Tonny. More importantly, though, he was Antonio Minoki's right hand man behind the scenes in New Japan, and he was the booker there, and he was inducted into the WWE Hall

of Fame as a legacy inductee in twenty nineteen. The World lost Mango Steve Mongo McMichael on April twenty third, at sixty seven years old after a battle with als. He spent most of his football career with the Chicago Bears. He won a Super Bowl there, but he was also a member of the Four Horsemen in WCW and he even had a short run as the United States champion.

From Mongo to Ilyya Dragonov. At least the one thing they have in common is that they hit hard, because after that there ain't much else in common between those two. Saboo passed away on May eleventh at the age of sixty one. That's according to Rob van Dam, who would know better than probably anyone else, including Wikipedia. He was sixty one years old. One of the more influential wrestlers of all time, one of the greatest stars in ECW history.

He worked for every major promotion in the world ECWWCWWWEE, New Japan, All Japan, AWTNA, TRIPLEA, CMLL, I mean, you name it, he worked there. And he had just wrestled his last match over WrestleMania Weekend against Joey Janella, and what a disaster that was. Rick Darringer died on Memorial Day May twenty sixth at the age of seventy seven. Died on Memorial Day and was the man who co wrote Hulk Hogan's Real American theme, which was not even

originally intended for Hogan. He's also the man responsible for a Demolition's theme, two of the most iconic wrestling theme songs of the eighties. After that, it was WWE Hall of famer Ozzy Osbourne on July twenty second, who died at seventy six, the frontman for Black Sabbath for many years, who had just performed his farewell concert. Just three weeks before he died. He made an appearance of WrestleMania two.

He guest hosted an episode of We're aw in two thousand and nine, and then two days later came the death of Hulk Hogan Terry Boleet. That was July twenty fourth, at the age of seventy one. As big a wrestling death as I have ever covered here on this show. One of the biggest names in the history of the business and the most famous pro wrestler of all time, you know, at least when you consider the amount of

news coverage that his death generated. I know, yeah, not taking anything away from El Santo, and you can look at Japan and Ricky. I mean, there's so many different legendary names that had huge mainstream followings and other parts of the world. But I just I can't think of another pro wrestler that has generated the kind of national and global headlines that his death did when he passed away.

Jerry Morrow passed away on July twenty eighth at the age of seventy five, a staple of Stampede Wrestling as well as New Japan and All Japan. Jonathan Ekivaria aka Jacka, as he was known on the independence scene for so many years, he passed away on September seventh, suffered a heart attack after a match. He was only thirty nine years old. On October nineteenth, it was Bobby Horn aka Mo of Men on a Mission who died at the age of fifty eight. Legendary announcer Bob Caudle, he died

on November sixteenth at the age of ninety five. And rounding out the list is Larry the Dog, who died sometime shortly before Survivor Series last month. Cmpunk and aj Lee. They rescued him eleven years ago and he became world famous, especially after the brawl out fiasco in aaw And I'll close with this my annual year end Awards. Now. I know that there was a lot of drama around Sports

Illustrated this week and their year end Awards. They had fourteen categories this year, with a panel of nine writers voting on the various categories, with an evaluation period of December sixteen, twenty twenty four to December thirteen, twenty twenty five. Last year, their awards heavily skewed in favor of WWE. Aw only took home two awards and WWE one for

Promotion of the Year. A lot of that had to do with Cody Rhodes finishing his story at WrestleMania and the Cmpunk Drew McIntyre feud that culminated in their Hell in a Cell match was it was well deserved. This year, their awards heavily skewed in favor of aw and of course it's gotten the expected reaction from various parts of the Internet and social media. And so for the people pissing and moaning about it, let's take this step by step and show you why it is not as ridiculous

as they make it out to be. So what I'm going to do here, I'm going to go category by category based on SI And let me just say that Sports Illustrated is but one outlet, right, I mean, there's a small paddle of people that work for the publication that put out these awards, and you're gonna have other websites and other publications and other podcasts that are gonna do the same thing. One does not have any more

weight than the other. If Melter does it in the Observer, it does not have any more weight to me than the next one after it. And the same goes for me and my thoughts and opinions on who I would give various awards to. And so people do not need to get upset about this. It is not worth getting upset over. I don't know why people will get upset over this, but it will make for an interesting discussion here. So let me go category by category per SI, and I will chime in with my own thoughts in my

own awards as we go along. Now, they had as the storyline of the year Hangman Adam Page's Redemption arc. Now they also listed as their runners up for this award, John seen Is retirement and the Downfall of the Death Writers. Okay, these are the runners up for best Stories of two twenty five, which shows you just how thin the stories

were this year. If you have got John Cena's retirement tour and the Fall of the Death Riders in the top three for stories of the year, I'm still waiting for the actual fall of the Death Riders, by the way, like the full on fall seen as retirement only wins for second place. If there are exactly two stories in all of wrestling for the entire year, then yes, John Cen's retirement could be the runner up. That's the only way that that wins. This was not a great year creatively,

especially for WWE. The stuff with Cody Rhoades and Kevin Owens that he was doing at the beginning of the year that was good, But that story really dates back to their first match of Bash and Berlin, and that was in August of last year. Right, the evaluation period would only cover the tail end of what they did. What other major stories did WWE tell this year that

would make them worthy of Storyline of the Year. John Cena should have won for Story of the Year had the heel turned never happened, and had they told the correct story with him. They didn't do that. John Cena's retirement tour wins the award for Biggest Blunder of twenty twenty five. But is it really that far fetch that Hangman's Redemption arc would win for best storyline in a year that wasn't so strong on them to begin with.

I honestly don't have an issue with them choosing that Hangman is the main character of aaw has been since day one. He went from being a crazed heel right spurred on by Swerve Strickland, back to being a babyface once he realized the error of his ways. And even if it wasn't Tony Kahn's first choice for Hangman to win the owen and get the shot at all in Texas, right, think about this, Daniel Bryan was not Vince McMahon's first choice to go to the main event of WrestleMania thirty

and win the world title. But that's what ended up happening. And you can't tell me that Brian overcoming the authority to win the championship at WrestleMania was not the story of the year that year. Of course, it was the fact that it wasn't the original plan does not take away from the end result. Jay Usso's journey to the world title is not the story of the year. John cens heel turned and return to redemption is not the

story of the year. There is no road to redemption when you push a button and in one night you flip the guy back to being a babyface because you realize you'd done fucked up. They could have told that story, but they didn't. The drama with Paul Hayman turning on multiple people and ending up with seth rollins, that is

not the story of the year. Riar Ripley and EO Sky against the Kabuki Warriors and all of the soap opera shit that's been playing out on television with them for months now, that is not the story of the year. This Cody and Drew stuff is not the story of the year. So please tell me what from WWE would you consider to be the story of the year. The Hangman pick is the correct one. He is a character

the fans are emotionally invested in. Their fans are. He went off the deep end coming out of the Swerve feud. He lost his way, but he found his way back in time to rescue the company and the championship from a group that had an iron grip on it for the entire year up to the point that Moxley tapped out and the belt finally came out of that briefcase. That match and I said this going into it, that

match is going to be their Avengers endgame match. The way that Cody and Roman was a WrestleMania forty with all the baby faces coming out to fight off the death Riders and to give Hangman a clear path to the title. Me personally, my close runner up would have been the heat between Takeshta and Okada, and it is nothing too deep, like we haven't even gotten a match

between them yet. We haven't had a single fucking match between takesha and Okada, right, we haven't gotten any cinema out of it, no long promos, and yet it's been a very simple star or a very simple storytelling, but it's been very effective in building interest in their eventual match, which hopefully we will get next weekend. In a year week on big stories, it's the one that I have had the most fun with, albeit in the second half of the year, but it's the one that I have

had the most fun with. So I'm fine with the Hangman pick. But if I wasn't going to go with that, I would go with Takeshia and Okada and the very simple story that they have been playing out between these two and callous and the heat between them, and then the segments where Okada will just make these comments or he'll turn the TV or whatever it might be if not the Hangman stuff, that would get my vote for Rivalry of the Year. They went with Hangman, Adam Page

and John Moxley. Now, last year was an easy choice with See I'm Punk and Drew McIntyre, it's a no brainer. This year, it's not as cut and dry. I don't think that there have been any rivalries in wrestling that have matched that one. It's been a down year for great rivalries, all right. Where where's the punkin Drew or the Hangman in Swerve of twenty twenty five? There is none? See I'm punkin Seth Rollins would be the closest thing, and that I can't say that excited me nearly as

much as those other ones did. Neither did the actual feud with the Hangman in Moxley. I would give the edge to Punkin Rollins in this category, although Hangman and Moxley it had the better payoff. He'll Turn of the Year they went with a Naomi She won the voting. Now, some people are gonna look at this and go, what the fuck heal Turn of the Year. How are you gonna have you gonna go with anything other than John Cena. I actually don't disagree with this pick, and I'm gonna

tell you why. If we are talking about the actual turn itself in the moment, the answer is John Cena unequivocally second best heel turn of all time if you just look at it for what it was on that night with the players involved. But if when you say heal turn, best heel turn of the year, and you include the story leading up to it, any character developments, what followed it, right, the evolution of the character by that criteria, then I believe yes, the answer is Naomi.

So it really all depends on your definition of heal turn of the year. We're talking about a single moment where this person turned heel or are we talking about sort of the entire body of work that led up to it and what came out of it. Because what came out of the John Cena turn was absolute fucking garbage and there was nothing that led up to it. Nothing. It was a moment. As John Cena himself said in the interview with Cody Rhodes, they did it for a moment.

There was no story involved, there was no hint of anything. There was nothing. There was a phone call from the head of Endeavor to the rock saying save us, we need help for the elimination chamber. But Naomi, she really did. She evolved that character, and they were playing stuff out on TV where it was kind of like, she looks like she's probably gonna turn, but I don't know, maybe she won't, maybe they'll swerve us and go with somebody else. But then she did, and it was again the best

thing that could have happened to her. And I think she would have gone on this great run had she not have had to vacate the championship when she did. I think her best work was yet to come. But what we did get of it, I don't argue with this. I would say, yes, he'll turn to the year. I'll give it to Naomi Best on the Mic. They gave the award to timeless Tony Storm. I disagree. I like Tony Storm. I think Tony she's very quick witted. She's certainly great on the microphone. I got to give this

to CM Punk. I give this Best on the Mic award to Punk from the bald Fraud rant after WrestleMania, to his promo in the ring with John Cena, to the angry Punk that we got in the ring last Monday talking about bron Breaker. When Punk is especially when we get angry Punk on the mic, there is still nobody better with a live mic in wrestling, with a

live mic in their hand than CM Punk. And we may not get that version of Punk on television every single week, but we're not exactly getting you know, legendary Tony Storm promos weekly either. Right, she has her moments, Punk has his. I think Punk's moments were stronger than hers. I give him the award Best in the Ring. They gave it to will Osprey. I certainly have voted similarly in the past. For me, it's close. I would give

this to Kenoski Takeshda. I think Takeshta just clears him this year, in part because of the injury and so Osprey has missed a lot of time this year that Takeshta has only gotten stronger. Right, he won the g One, he won the IWGP title, He's got this stuff going on with Okada, He's having these weekly matches in the Continental Classic that are very good his body of work. I just think overall this year will end up being

stronger and you can't go wrong with will Osprey. But I got to give the to catch Don this breakout Wrestler of the Year, Sports Illustrated went with Kyle Fletcher. I'm not going to argue it. This absolutely has been a breakout year for Kyle Fletcher. He even got his first pay per view main events, you know, a shot

at the World Championship. He won the TNT Championship. He is one of the one of the crown jewels of that Don Kallis family, and he is someone who in the next few years should be an AW World champion and they could absolutely build around him as part of

their core. We used to talk or hear talk about the pillars of AAW for so many years, right Darby and MJF and Jungle Boy and Sammy Gavara, and I feel like the pillars have changed over the years, but I could see Kyle Fletcher, if you want to use that term, if he isn't already being one of those pillars for them in the future, you know where the company sort of relies on him as one of their biggest stars and I think eventually one of their biggest

baby faces. But this is the year they we will look back on and say, Okay, this is where he became that guy that you could see being in that role. This is where he took that one giant leap forward. And the matches that he has had this year on top of all of that have been phenomenal, Even in this tournament, even in this Continental Classic, it's been fantastic. I would go with a close second. I would go with Javon Evans of NXT. I think this has absolutely

been a huge breakout year for Javon. He's all over the place. I mean, Javon is not just in NXT, but he's on Raw, he's on SmackDown. They've got him in Triple A, they had him in TNA against Leon Slay. I mean, he is everywhere and still very very young. But as good as he already is, imagine how much better he'll be, you know, a few years from now. It's scary. Which is not to say that he can't be on the main roster right now. You know, he

absolutely can be. I would put the NXT Championship on him, give him a run with it first before we elevate him, you know, to that level on a permanent basis. But yeah, I have a Gavan as a close second to Kyle Fletcher. Then we have Comeback Performer of the Year, and the Sports Illustrated voting gave it to Ilya Dragonov. I am going to go a different way with this and I'm

going to give this to Bandido and so Dragonov. You know, he missed thirteen months with an ACL tear and he's been on a tear ever since he came back, right, but he's only been back since October. He hasn't been back for that long. He won the United States Championship his first night back from Sammy's Ain. He has had good to great matches almost every single week ever since. But it is still a limited body of wargo. I mean,

what are we really talking about here? Ten matches and it just cannot compare to the body of work that Bandido has put together since returning. And it was a tough comeback for Bandido. You know, he suffered a broken wrist and this is going back maybe a couple of years now. Broke his wrist, had surgery, it didn't heal properly,

he needed a second surgery. Then he finally comes back at the very end of last year, and what happens his first night back on a Ring of honor, right coming out to attack Jericho and the Learning Tree and whatever, and he suffers a concussion landed on the back of his own head coming off the top rope, and he

concussed himself and that was his first night back. But since then he has been tearing it up in the ring Ring of Honor World Champion, an unexpectedly great tag team run with Brody King where they won the tag team titles, and honestly, he may genuinely be the most fun performer to watch in the ring in all of wrestling. So I'm going with Bendito for the comeback story of the Year. Kenny Omega would be my runner up, just for a match with Gabe Kid alone at Wressell Dynasty.

I mean, this man missed over a year of action, almost fucking died, and in his first match back he goes out there and does that with Gabe Kid. Are you kidding me? After that, you know, you got the match with Takeshta a Revolution, the match with Okada and Texas, I mean those were just gravy. After that, I just wish he was healthy enough to have bigger singles matches since then, because since then you could tell they've kept him very limited. So that's what I would do. I'd

give the award to Bandido. I'd have Omega as my runner up, and then after Omega, I would have Ilia Dragonov. I would have him third. On the list Tag Team of the Year, Sports Illustrated gave it to FTR. I think that was a mistake. FTR obviously is a great tag team and they are the tag team champions right now. They were not the Tag team of the Year. I

believe Brodido was the tag team of the Year. Brody King Bandido a makeshift team that got put together legitimately because Tony Khan saw them do their gunfinger handshake backstage. That is how Brodido became a thing. And they were a revelation to team. There's so much fun to watch, great chemistry, great matches, and they got a tag team title run out of it for a few months. And so right behind Brodido, I'm actually gonna go with Matt

and Jeff Hardy. And here's why. Not only did they win tag team titles across multiple promotions including NXT and TNA, but I think they were central to TNA getting a television deal with AMC. They are arguably the biggest stars in the entire promotion, and TNA has featured them. If you'll notice, not only has TNA featured them all year long without the Hardys. I don't think that they get that deal right. They have the WWE partnership, so it

may have happened anyway. But even if you watch the commercials that have been airing on AMC four where they're previewing January fifteenth, right impact comes to AMC. Look who's in the commercials. Look who is all over the ad for the show. It's the Hardys. So they have been more important to their home promotion than Brodida. I've just had more fun watching Brodido come out of nowhere and do what they've been able to do over the past several months, and in ring, their body of work is

much stronger. So I would go Brodido, and then the runner up for me would be the Hardys. Match of the Year. Sports Illustrated had it as Eo Sky, Rhea Ripley and Bianca bel Air at WrestleMania forty one. I'm going to reserve my pick for when I do my Top Matches of the Year countdown, probably next week, but I have absolutely no problem whatsoever with this choice. I might have been willing to give it to Javon Evans and Leon Slater a TNA bound for glory, had they

not monumentally fucked up the finish. That match was on its way to being an all timer. But I have no issue with them picking that as their choice show of the year. Sports Illustrated shows aw Double or Nothing back in May, I agree with this pick. I would go with Double or Nothing top to bottom as the best show of the year. For me, it's between Double

or Nothing and Elimination Chamber. As great as Elimination Chamber was, with the heel turn at the end, which again in a vacuum, all time great heel turn right number two all time, the best women's elimination Chamber match that I think they've ever done, a very good men's chamber, and it had an excellent Kevin Ohen Sammy's Aim match right that non sanction match. At the end of the day,

it's still a four match show. Four match pes are just not going to be able to measure up when you put them up against a pay per view with say six or seven five star quality wrestling matches, and then also a few others that are at least good. I just wish the shows weren't so damn long. I

wish there was more of a happy medium, right. The happy medium actually would be Evolution in July, which was one of the best shows all year, but quality wise, I don't think it measures up to the best that Double or Nothing had to offer, or even Revolution, right, but that main event ruined it for me with Moxley and Copeland. Revolution was a great show until we got to the main event. So Elimination Chamber would be my WWE show of the year with Evolution right behind it

nipping at its heels. You know what. For me, it's like one A and one B honestly, and for aw Double or Nothing would be tops, followed by All in Texas and then probably Revolution even with the dog shit ending Female Wrestler of the Year, Sports Illustrated went with Mercedes Monette. Mercedes had an excellent year with her match out put forty eight matches across multiple promotions, not just aw Eosky, who I think is just the best. She

had had a little bit less. She had thirty five matches, one of which came against Mayu Ewatani and Marigold, and I did watch that, and that was excellent. EO to me is just on another level from everyone else in ring. And this was her breakout year in WWE, which sounds so silly because she's worked there for seven years, but it really was. It really felt like a breakout year for her. But you need to account for more than just who you think is the best in ring talent

at any given moment. And I set this a few weeks ago when the PWI rankings came out with their top two hundred and fifty women's wrestlers in the world, they had Mercedes in number one, and there's a lot of KFE mixed in there with that, but she had an impressive year. I don't care so much about which

title she has. That's kind of irrelevant to me, but I can tell you when she's out there challenging for or going back and defending those other belts on the independent scene, it makes a difference to those promotions, Like she moves toickets. You could argue whether or not she does an AW, but she moves tickets that cannot be understated. You know, her shit goes up after the fact on YouTube or whatever, and it's got you know, a couple one hundred thousand views within five or six days. It

cannot be understated. And the story, then, there's the story in aw of her not being able to win the Big One, because there is a story there. And I was telling you as we were going into the match with her and Statlander especially, like, Okay, this is what I think the story is, and this is where I think it is going. She's gonna win all of these other championships, and she's gonna gloat, and she's gonna drink champagne and have celebrations and eat cavir and all this

other stuff. But at the end of the day, she's overcompensating because she cannot win the big One. She failed twice this year alone trying to go after that World championship. So if you pay attention, there is a story there. Now, as far as promos, EO's promos are not great, but frankly, neither are the ones we've gotten from Mercedes, So for me, it's a wash. But when I look at their body of work this year, EO had two of the best matches anywhere this entire year, but her run coming out

of WrestleMania really hurt her. She didn't do much the booking hurt her in that top two fifty ranking. They had EO too low, they had her at number six. I will concede when you look at her overall body of work for the year across multiple promotions, I think Mercedes at number one is the correct choice. But I could go either way. I could go with her, I

could go with EO. I would not have any issue with somebody saying EO Sky should be number one, But I don't see the problem with them having Mercedes at number one. Now as far as runners up, Timeless Tony Storm and the stuff that she did with Mariah May earlier this year, that alone puts her near the top.

And then Becky Lynch. I was surprised she didn't get a mention here, but Becky Lynch did more for that Women's Intercontinental title this year then WWE has done for the women's United States Championship since the day it was conceived, so she at least deserves an honorable mention. She's also up there in that top three or four as far as the women go for the entire year. Men's Wrestler of the Year Sports Illustrated had it as Hangman Adam page. If you base it on business and in ring output.

The answer is probably missed it go for all that he has done with CMLL. But I just have not seen enough of his work this year outside of a handful of matches to just and I don't watch CMLL weeks a week or anything. I cannot sit here and justify making him my Men's Wrestler of the year. When I look at character and I look at in ring taken together, I can't really disagree with the hangman pick. I really can't know there was an argument to be made.

I think maybe for Seth Rollins in terms of again his in ring work and you know, forming the vision and leading the top heel stable on raw. Then he got hurt, so it's like, all right, well he got hurt at a bad time, and he got hurt closer to the end of the year, but he still got hurt and he's missing the last couple of months of the year. So I look at someone like Rollins and I think he's up there. I don't want to say he's my number two necessarily, but you know he deserves

at least, you know, a mention here. But again, is it really out that outlandish that they would go with Hangman Adam Page as the Male Wrestler of the Year. When you take all of these other things, not just the in ring, but the inn ring and the story, the character, all that stuff, and what they had him doing this year into consideration, I know that once he won the championship, it kind of fizzled out after that because it was almost like it was about the chase, right,

It's like the dog catching the car. It's like, oh, now what. But again, I don't really have an issue with them going with Hangman as Male Wrestler of the Year. I don't think it's necessarily cut and dry for any one person slammed dunk. Oh yeah, absolutely, it's this guy. I don't think so. So I don't have a problem with that. And then last, but not least, promotion of the year. This is the one that I'm sure made

some people's heads explode. It's actually kind of funny. Last year they went with WWE as the promotion of the year, and I thought that was well deserved. This year they went with All Elite Wrestling as the promotion of the year. Here's what I'll say about this. What is even the

criteria for this? You're gonna have people that look at this and go, how can you say that AW was the promotion of the year when they are still barely filling buildings for some of their weekly television or they're filling buildings, but they're running buildings that fit like a thousand people. Where are the days of Dynamite when they would run bigger venues or NBA venues and they could put five or six or seven thousand people any given

week into building for Dynamite. That is still very much a problem for AW heading into twenty twenty six, because if they felt confident that they could put that many people in a building for an episode of Dynamite, guess what they'd be doing it. Clearly they don't have the confidence to do so that's an issue. Dynamite used to be in a different place than it is now. Forget the N Ring stuff. I'm sure everybody would say, oh

my god, the N Ring is so great. True, but if you're looking at it from like a business perspective, like do you factor that into your decision? Do you just look at it as what promotion gave me the best matches and the best stories, right, or do you incorporate all these other things? How much money did they make? How many tickets did they sell? Right? By that criteria

I mentioned CMLL before. I don't know that there was any other promotion that had the kind of year that CML had where they moved over a million tickets in one fucking venue for the entire year. Like that is unheard of business wise. It would almost have to be WWE, or you can make the case for CMLL. But like when you take into account all of these other awards that I just went through, right, and the majority of them from SI went to AW and I think the majority of the ones I just gave out went to

AW as well. When they win that many awards for Best Wrestler or the Best Story or whatever whatever I just went through here, then yes, the answer would be AW. If the majority of the answers came from AW, then that would make aw your promotion of the year. If most of your awards went to WWE, then your promotion

of the year would be WWA. If you watch CMLL and all you watch is that or Lucha Libra, and you know you Mystico is going to be the biggest star of the world, and CMLL is in a hot period right now, and they would be your promotion of the year. It is such a subjective thing, no set list of criteria, that it's almost impossible to give an answer.

It's all subjective anyway, of course, But in this case, just looking at all the awards that I just doled out, yeah, you know what, I'd have to go with aw And I'll tell you the other reason why, because this has absolutely I will not sit here and tell you that WWE, Oh my god, we're back to the bad old days, right, I know what the bad old days are like, We're not in the bad old days. But this was by no means triple h or WWE's strongest year in the last five years. Okay, I don't care what how many

tickets they sold, how much fucking money they made. I watched these shows week to week. As I was sitting here going through these different categories, it was a struggle to come up with like rock solid WWE choices for every category that would win each category. There is a reason why a lot of them did not win. This was not their strongest year. So if I'm looking at WWE and I am struggling to come up with different categories to say like, oh yeah, WWE blew them away

and blew them up. There's obvious winner here, obvious winter there. How the fuck can I sit here with confidence and tell you that the promotion of the Year is WWE when my overall feeling towards this company and the stories they've told throughout the entire year and the John Cena run and everything in between has largely been apathy. And there was a lot of that also with AW this year.

Believe me, Oh, believe me, there was. But there is nothing about this year that WWE had as a fan, as a viewer of the show weeks a week that makes me go, hey, promotion of the year. I'll sit here and give AW Promotion of the Year honors, but I won't exactly be sitting here doing it with a whole ton of enthusiasm. Frankly, it had more to do with just how bad of a year creatively WWE had

than anything else. But all this nonsense about you know, conspiracy theories and Tony you know the check clear the checks and the mail and all this other nonsense. You know what, at the end today I see all these people on social media. It's just a lot of people who just cannot accept opinions from other people, and it just blows their minds so much that they have to justify it and the most ridiculous, insane ways. Well, this

simply cannot be possible. There's only one explanation for it. Clearly, Tony Kahan is grease in some palms here, and people take this shit seriously and it's fucking sad. Again. It's all subjective. Your awards and your opinions on these are probably going to be very different than mine. Mine are going to be different from yours, and the next person to the next person. I don't see anything on this list that is egregiously bad. I told you the ones

I disagree with. Some of them are different, a lot of them I agree with. I don't see anything egregiously bad or like, oh my god, what were they thinking on this list? But next week we'll talk about what the best matches were of twenty twenty five, in addition to all of the news of the week. We'll save that for next week, probably do the predictions for the new year in a couple of weeks. You got to spread it out, you got to spread out the love.

We've already gone almost three hours here on the show, well, look, hopefully you enjoyed it. You don't have to agree with all of the picks and all of the opinions and choices here, but hopefully you can at least you look at what I've laid out here. I at least try to explain where I'm coming from on this and accept that, Okay, you know what, that's where you're coming from on it. That's his perspective on things, and at least respect it that it ain't bought and paid for. It's coming from

me and me alone, the way it always is. Email me the soolomn Monster at gmail dot com. You can follow me on x at solo Monster. Of course, you could also subscribe and follow along on the YouTube channel. I will be live Monday night, Wednesday night, and Friday night this week. Even though there's a lot of taped shows, I am still planning on being live if my voice survives. I have a very sore throat today. I'm a little worried, but hopefully it's just because I've been talking too much.

We'll see what happens there, but I'll be back next week. That'll be episode nine four, the final sound off of the year. That'll be next Sunday. Until then, be well, stay safe, have yourselves a great rest of your week. For those of you celebrating, I wish you all and your family a very merry Christmas. Come on back. We'll do it one more time this year next Sunday. Until then, take care, guys. The Solemn Monster Sounds Off. Lakers Pats, did you cry during Shawn Michaels tell me a live video?

I didn't, But you want to know what I don't want to say. It's a little embarrassing, but I didn't cry during that video. But I did cry a little bit during the Macho Man and Elizabeth wedding song came into the large. Oh my God together, I Love Forever. The Solo Monster Sounds Off, bringing you the good, the bad, and the ugly. Check out the weekly live streams bonus content for subscribers, and follow The Solo Monster on Facebook, Instagram, and x. The Solo Monster