Finn Balor is Going to be OK

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Question of the week, Kaz. What up, shoes? After last night's episode of Raw, is Finn Balor okay? Yes. First off, he did the thing, which is Literally the genesis of Finn Balor is gonna be okay. All right. Like we started it on the show and then he teased the thing. And then we saw him at WrestleMania and we talked about the thing. And he didn't tease it again until he was back in our

Mm-hmm. And boy, did we miss the thing. He missed so much he even missed his cue when he first uh tried to do it. But uh uh dare I say A Finn Balor Redemption Arc in 2026 might be all right. A finissance is happening. uh uh a Balar Sans? I don't know. I mean there's there's certain times where a guy could lose a match and still come out looking great. That's as good as you can look and look in losing a match and man, did did Did it feel good to see him in a match that had

Some meaning. That mattered, yeah. Yeah, that mattered. So gosh, that is the guy, that is the effing guy that we were all like, he's gonna be the face of this company ten years ago. I I actually couldn't agree more. Um I just wanted to get that out of the way as we start the show. I'm gonna say I have a lot more thoughts on that match and on everything that happened on Raw. Uh that's why we're recording on a Tuesday. Let's start the show.

With Kaz. How you doing, buddy? I'm doing good, shoes. How about yourself, man? I'm doing great. You got a hot ninety seven logo in the background? Yes. You got something you want to announce here? Oh, yes. So uh thank you guys so much. Um pleased to announce I'm now uh co-hosting Merrow uh Mornings with Merrow here on Hot 97 uh in New York City and really worldwide.

Uh, but man, uh hosting a morning show on a station I listen to my entire life, being in this station while I'm recording a wrestling podcast is uh one of those things where I'm just like, Yeah, little Kaz. You're doing good. You're doing good. Like if I could see'em

I could tell little Kaz like, yo, whatever path you're on right now, keep going. Would Kaz be more would little Caz be more stoked that you're working at hot ninety seven or doing a wrestling podcast? I don't know. And I think that's the cool part. I feel like I feel like little Caz will be so stoked because like both of them are just equally cool. I think I think the fact that I'm recording this podcast in hot ninety seven.

That's every little kid's dream. It's come on, man. Every little Mark stream. I would say it's uh it's it's an incredible experience for me to be Doing a podcast for the hot ninety seven morning show host. But I've been there done that. Like I feel like you've done this before. Yeah. But shout you, but you know what though? I do want to say on this podcast specifically, shout out to Peter Rosenberg.

Uh when he heard through the grapevine that like this was happening, he called me immediately. Um I didn't want to call him until like ink was actually dry. Uh because, you know, I believe in Murphy's law and like having things before it's official. Like scares the hell out of me. But nobody has been more um

nice and and and becoming and just wonderful about this entire experience than he has. And you know, we had a long conversation just about everything and just life and just you know, the the situation I'm stepping into and he has Done so much for this place and for just radio in general, that I I know I'm stepping into some very big shoes and

He is a guy who has handled that with such class and grace over the years. I don't think enough people give him enough credit, especially given uh what's what's uh uh, you know, since he left the station. So, um, man, just shout out to him and, you know, It feels like a lot of times people could be like really weird about this and he was not at all. Um, so Love Pete. That's my guy. Uh so Dave, thank you for being the only person to have a wrestling podcast with two uh morning shows. Hell yeah.

Um yeah. I meet you back here in five years for uh the rusty turnbuckle with Shoemaker and Ebro. It's gonna be great. Uh You know what's coming. You know what's coming. Hey, Juanito's a big wrestling guy too. So maybe he might he might pull up in here eventually and uh uh take take B. Waters' place. Who knows? What damn? Just joking, Brian. Yeah, that's how you get'em on Mike. That's how you get'em to turn the microphone off. Oh, man. I we got a lot of wrestling to talk about, man. Let's let's

Let's do what we came to do, man. Ain't nothing's changed. I'll still be here twice a week in the Ringer Wrestling Show, Mask Match Show. Nothing's changed. Uh big news. Uh what we're raw yesterday was was it the final, the final show of the European tour or is SmackDown still over there too? So Tactically. Uh so so I think they're in Montreal.

Oh, that's right. So you can go this is the the last one. No, Montreal's not officially part of Europe, but yes. There you go. Yeah, they're still they're still out in these cool, great non American countries getting these cool, great crowd reactions. So

Enjoy that for two more shows, buddy. Montreal Friday and Toronto Monday. See, this is where I say when peop when when you when people are like, Oh, they you know, it's a big deal. They're gonna have we're we get to see

Dom Mysterio in his hometown. I'm like, that doesn't matter. Like even if it matters like in American terms, it's like five percent compared to anything anywhere else. If people got into their hometown heroes in the US, the way that they do all around the world and it would be a much it would be a much cooler thing, you know?

Uh CM Punk is listening to this like I don't have any. CM Punk's good. CM Punk's good. CM Punk's good. But CM Punk doesn't even need the hometown reaction anymore. It's great when I'm just saying, of course it's awesome when he gets it. Uh we'd have it no other way. I'm just saying CM Punk is is is already gonna get a huge reaction anywhere he goes. So

Um yeah, yeah. We gotta or maybe the wrestlers need to get out there cultivating their local fan bases a little bit more too. I don't really. Maybe they gotta get some of that. You see, the reason why overseas fans are so great It's because they're soccer fans, really. They're football fans. So, like they're super passionate. They they chant, they sing, they do all these type of things. Until football is great in America, I don't think we'll get really great American crowds.

I don't think we will. We got foot we have American football, we got basketball. Uh baseball is never gonna be a rarity sport. Uh but The World Cup is key, Dave. If Americans do great in the World Cup this year, which takes place And they actually show out like real football fans. I really do think that could be a ground swell to a much better American wrestling crowd experience. I just feel like we build our arena. American medals.

They got a medal. They get the if they get at least a bronze medal in the World Cup. Yeah. New York, Chicago, LA, all these great American cities will start to rival that of Paris, of Ireland, of I mean Belfast, of All these other places. I truly believe that. I hope so. I hope so. I just feel like the way that we build our stadiums is so big. I mean, obviously with American football, same with soccer, obviously.

These open air stadiums that it's so hard to get any unification going, you know? It's just like these big ones, you know. You go up to like Ann Arbor, you know, Ohio State, you know, the gigantic stadiums. It's like

Texas, it's like, you know, how many people they put in those places. It's like ninety thousand, forty thousand. Oh yeah. At Ann Arbor it's like eighty or something like that. Yeah. And just so many people. And there's no roof on the place. So it's like even if everybody says like, you know

like go team at the same time, it's just sort of f fades into the atmosphere, it feels like. I don't know. Anyway We're just we're not, you know, everybody talks shit about Japanese wrestling audiences that just like not sh t talk shit but talk makes jokes about the Japanese wrestling audiences that just sit politely.

And you know, are quiet through most of the events and and don't get out of their seats or whatever else. But it we're closer to that than we are the the European footballers. You know, like it's it's just kind of funny. Anyway. Where I was yesterday. I wanna get to the most important thing that happened on the show.

Um right off the top. And that is uh Michael Cole confusing Javon Evans and Kofi Kingston. Uh on Martin Luther King Day. Yeah. On Martin Luther King Day. Are you serious? Like it's so totally a thing. I can't believe he's like pe not he, like, but like announcers don't do that more. For me, like I go off of like

as people who listen to the show know well, I speak off of like vibes ninety percent of the time. Like I'm just like like I see I I see like a thinking of a wrestler vague jim image in my head, word comes to mind. I just talk, you know, like I get the names wrong a lot or just stumble over them. Uh maybe they don't know. Maybe Brian H. Waters edits this better than I realize. But uh but but man, what a hilarious flub. Hilarious flub. And then and then

He tried to cover it up, right? He was like I was saying Kovi Kingston, of course, we saw earlier in the night, uh, backstage demanding their title shot and then Cole, I mean, and then Corey tried to, you know, help him out and just be like, I don't think that's a comparison that Corey's in with it's funny. It's funny too, because though I will say The first time through, I wasn't paying super strict attention, and I didn't realize what had happened until Corey started trying to cover for it.

Like it was only at that point where I was like, Why are we even talking about Kovey Kingston for a minute? Like we're like what's going on? And then'cause nothing gets past Corey Graves. He is the best He's the best American wrestling commentator we have. Right now. So would it have been better if he had just been gone like whoops? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. If they would have just acknowledged it and laughed it off, it probably would have been twenty times better, but we can't do that.

My my sense of humor would've would have went for it, but I'm sure there'd be lots of angry. Lots of lots of angry letters written. Do people still write angry let lots of angry tweets sent? Yeah, to to WWE. I just can't Yeah, the MLK Day to do it on Vince McMahon's favorite holiday really ices it.

It really is Mystic Man's favorite holiday. I say this every Martin Luther King Day when we do this show. One of the most Hilarious but eye-opening moments working at WWE was realizing how much Bitzigman. truly love Simpson Martin Luther King Jr. Like those packages that that they show on TV when we're doing the creative writing and doing like the production of the show, we always watch them before we go through the show. And there's only two times that Mystic Man demands a standing ovation.

for the uh uh uh the video package. And it's well if it falls on the fourth of July, some very patriotic holiday, which we dub patriotic vents. Mm-hmm. Everybody stand up, goddammit, and his hands like he It's it's hilarious to watch in real time, but like it's legit. It's it i it comes from a from I guess from my point of view, it seems to have come from a genuine

place of admiration for Dr. King. So why is there not I know they've we've had some, you know, the New Day when they started out. There've been some, you know, black evangelical inspired wrestlers, but why do you think there's never been like an MLK? Total ripoff single star.

You mean to tell me why there hasn't been a a Martin Luther King A civil rights wrestler is what you're asking? Like a civil rights wrestler. Well I'm more the aesthetic. You know? Like how would you book it if they came to you, if if Triple H called you up and he's like, I need you on a special assignment, Kaz? By next year at this time, we want to celebrate MLK Day with A professional wrestler. I don't even know where to go from here. His name is Blunt Martin Luther Ring.

Oh God. Yeah. No. I'd be like, you know what, Hunter? I just uh Yeah, this is my this is my two weeks notice. I don't know if I'll be able to pull this off. I'm sorry guys. I'm sorry. Uh a civil rights for wrestler. But have a very tough time making it in the world of professional wrestling. I will say that. Okay, how about this? Instead of civil rights, he's a cons an online conspiracy theorist, which will really work with all the boys in the back, and we'll call him Martin Truther King.

You know what? I feel like that works a little better. Anyway, main event. Monday night raw. Yes.

Um CM Punk versus the one and only Finn Balor. Amen. I I know we've heard the stat a million times. I was a little bit shook. When he when the match was getting set up to realize how long ago Finn's champion were WWE Universal Championship win was? Ten years ago. And also low key for a guy that keeps himself in better shape than any human being ever has.

A little bit shook about how different Finn looked to see them. I watch old Finn matches with some regularity, but to see them side by side, you know, like he looks It's the pants, bro. But no, it's not just pants. His his body is different, you know, he's just like he was a little bit He was a little bit he just looked younger then. He wasn't quite as chiseled. He was still, you know, it says had all the definition, but we wasn't quite as like just.

completely chiseled because he was. He's looks a little more like water deprived now and he's a little bit thinner and w more wiry. Um hair is different obviously. But yeah, it's been a long time. And I remember how excited I was in that moment. That felt like such a crazy moment of hope. in what was otherwise a pretty lame period. Of course they pivoted to KO after that, which wasn't a bad idea, you know, which which didn't hurt. Um

But uh but yeah, it th that it's been a long time. So I guess uh setting the stage for that match last night. Besides all that crazy backstory. Looming over us, of course, was the fact that Drew McIntyre had defeated Cody Rhodes on the previous SmackDown to be the new um. The the WWE undisputed championship. I mean undisputed championship, sorry. Yes. And uh and he had just won so a and and and part of what came with that was this sort of

you know, weird news cycle of hey WWE's decided they're gonna try some new things. They're gonna like mix things up between now and WrestleMania. So now I'm thinking we're all thinking, well, maybe Finn Balor's a part of those plans too, you know, whatever. And I guess my question for you is Did Drew winning the title make the Finn Punk match more compelling because of what I just described? Or more of a disappointment because now your hopes were up?

Definitely more compelling. Um the Drew Championship win. seemed more inevitable because it felt like, man, if this guy loses one more championship, he's he's done. And who's the last person we said that about a lot? Probably Finn Balor, right? Like it was one of those things like, man, yeah. If he doesn't win this match, like it it might be up for and and and it was. So it's like You think of Dominic being hurt, you think of them being in Ireland, you think of a lot of

opportunities where, you know, hey, they might do it. These are two heel champions that are gonna get cheered like crazy in their home country. And the moment they get back to the States, they're probably gonna get booed like crazy. Maybe not so much Finn, but definitely Drew.

gonna get booed like crazy when he comes back. So I think it definitely made it more compelling and I think I I if you had to if I had to like put a wager before I knew what was gonna happen that these are gonna be the title matches going into the end of the European tour of WWE.

I probably think Finn Balor would have been more likely to win the title off of Punk than Cody would off of than Drew would off of Cody. Yeah. Like Punk seems like more of a ball knower. Punk seems like the type of guy that would be like, yeah, like I'm like If Drew not winning the title doesn't mean he's not a made guy. In some instances, as much as also Finn is such a so much of bigger pop in a certain way because Drew. Drew felt inevitable, but Finn feels like man, it's

It's almost like righting or wrong in some ways if he ever won the world championship again. Cause nobody likes seeing anybody relinquish the title uh after being hurt. And within Gosh, like it seems like the most unfortunately timed injury. I can't think of a more unfortunately timed injury in the history of WWE because it seems like anybody who got hurt in that sort of sense.

eventually got their win back or eventually like got back to the top like Finn never he never got it back. Never got it back. And that's become his story. Like, yeah, he's awesome and Judgment Day is awesome. And He's on the shortlist of real life very, very cool wrestlers, right? Like just guys that are just cool dudes. But he never got that look back. And everybody does it. Everybody got it back. Um, except him. So the way that it ended, as as as clean as it ended, but as close as it was.

It at least left you with a little hope, especially after Punk kind of congratulated Finn and raised his hand and hugged him. That this isn't the end. That's the thing. I was I kept waiting for another shoe to drop because if I guess if I have any complaint about the mat. I don't fault them for having punk retain. I don't think Finn was frankly there in this in storytelling you know, for storytelling purposes either. He's basically one week into this storyline, you know?

But my only complaint was He's one week and and ten years into this story. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But they reheated it so quickly, you know? Mm-hmm. If I had any complaint, it was that nothing else really happened. Right? It's like pi fin Finn didn't need to win. And I think you can make the you could argue certainly that enough happened, just in the sense that like Finn could hold his own. Finn looked great, Finn, whatever. But it would have been nice to see Something. Not necessarily a thin

like Finn just like, you know, beating up Punk after the match or just you know, just something. So some some I mean, I I I hesitate to say some judgment day shenanigans something, but but maybe just nothing. Maybe holding serve. Maybe nothing happening was the most interesting thing that could happen. There's no judgment day. There's no heel turn. You know, he's already a heel, obviously, um, for practical purposes.

So maybe that's it. You know, may maybe maybe enough happened. But I kept waiting for the biggest thing. In the back of my mind I was like, is Dom Mysterio about to get the monster pop to come in? save Finn and and and get him the championship. Like I thought that In the back of my mind I was like, Dom is about to be the most beloved man in Ireland if he comes out and calls CM Punk the the world heavyweight championship right now and just have them all standing victoriously.

with all three of those titles, which would have been crazy, but I still don't think it's the end though. I still don't think Finn's gonna go I think this is the beginning of something. Yes. I don't think Finn's going to the back of the line, is what I'm saying. Like I think you know, bringing the music back, even if it's for one night, like all that stuff, like the judgment day, kind of being a tweener stable now, you know? Like not so much like heels, but

Straight up tweeners. Um Yeah man, just I I don't know if he's gonna get the world heavyweight championship, but something tells me he's not going to the back of the line. I kind of feel like I mean he'd be a great champion, you know? Um But under the current construction, no. First of all, I like I you know, I'm I mean, I like his pants. Like I don't I don't even know what to say. Like I I c I like most of his new look. I think he should probably try to

switch up the hair beard situation a little bit at some point. Not that it's bad, but let's just see. I mean I love the just the sleekness of NXT what what was this the the um what do they call him when he had his return to NXT. What did they call him? Yeah, he had like a nickname. Brian, what was it? Oh um it's just like a fan name, I think. I mean, but like whatever. But like that era of him was just so cool. And that never really had a chance to succeed on the main roster.

Um so yeah, I think that's I mean, obviously there's a ton of potential with Finn. Yeah, just Prince, that's it. Yeah. Okay. It was just a they just kept going on the Prince. And he did Cody's podcast. That was another one. I was like, man. But Cody's podcast was huge. The greatest the greatest you the greatest thing to come out of the WWE podcast empire. It was a crazy good match, man. Finn got all his stuff in. Mm-hmm. He got to kick out of a GTS. Um, I mean Punk obviously looked great too.

I just thought it was it. Are we not giving CM Punk enough love for this world heavyweight championship Ronnie's having? This is what I think. I just was when I was saying punk doesn't even need the Chicago pop anymore. Punk's so great at this phase that it's like, what do you what are you gonna say? He is still one of the best wrestlers on planet Earth. And I think we take that For granted a little bit. I think we've become used to his excellence in the ring. That like

Man, I I we forget that he took like a decade off of this shit. And he kind of walked right back into WWE. a little bit disheveled from the AEW run and the way it ended. And and you know, it wasn't like he had a bad run in AEW, I think he had a great run in AEW, but like You could argue that his WWE run is like greater. And it's like the dude just continues to operate at a level that only very few before him ever has, man. Like that dude.

I uh just the the sheer look of exhaustion that he has at the end of these championship matches all the time. Yeah. Feels very Bret Hart like, you know, and I know that's his favorite wrestler. And I know that's a lot of people's favorite wrestlers, but Man, like he gives, he really makes you believe he is giving every last ounce of himself. To retain his championships. And he's he's been he's been awesome. He has been absolutely awesome. I said he was the wrestler of the year.

uh two years back w after his um feud with Drew and man is he not making a case for you know to bolster his all time case right now. He has been great. That was a great I couldn't agree more, but you know, I'm the the CM Punk mark of the cinch over here. Like, I mean I just love that love that dude. Um and I think what he well, I mean, I think more than anything We saw I mean we saw in the in the you know AEW era, but he's he is

He's not deteriorated as a wrestler to the degree the to the degree that you would expect. I guess I I shouldn't even like put that in as a slight because the compliment encompasses that. Mm-hmm. I don't think anybody in in American wrestling has Yeah. as CM Punk. That's not true. I mean I guess so you got your y uh uh uh Terry Funk certainly did.

Um, I wouldn't know if I can say Ric Flair did. Ric Flair aged, but I don't know if he got better with age. He didn't get like the way that like in K Fabe you would talk about like I've lost a step but I've gotten smarter. Right. Uh, the way that like an old, you know, quarterback, you hear them talk where it's just like I could you know, like you gotta find out. Tom Brady had a quote about that. He was like twenty-five, I was good, thirty-five, I was the best.

Forty five, I was a master of my craft. Yeah. And like that's it. CM Punk has become a master of his craft. He's sort of like up he he's maxed out every c every category that he can max out right now. Um it's one of those things when you max out all your attributes physically and the only thing you can max out after that is your mentality behind everything. You get smarter, you get more more cunning with how you use your body and

You kinda he's kind of learned how to use his detriments to his benefit. Like the fact that he's a step slower. The fact that he has to exhaust every bit of energy to get people up on his shoulders and all this type of stuff. Like it all works to his benefit. Like it's not yeah totally true every match. he can lose, but he but he finds a way out. And that's what makes the matches so good. Last night was another one, you know, it just adds to the collection of of incredible

World heavyweight title matches he's had this year. It's totally true, man. I love that guy. Um, and that and and listen, the one thing that WWE is in relatively short supply of, at least in terms of the mat the the type of matches they put on and the matches that they make.

But in comparison to AEW, the thing that they're in short supply on is wrestlers who you you say, I just want to see this match. When you hear it's announced, just like, oh, I can't wait to see this guy work the work this match. Right. Like you yeah, AEW you could be they they could announce. you know, Swerve versus like uh the guy who delivered catering tonight. And you'd be like, Hell yeah, I wanna see that. I just wanna see Swerve go, you know. Um

WWE it's more about the stories that they tell and more about the you know, the moments that th that that occur in the matches and stuff like that. But CM Punk is has turned himself into a guy that you just wanna see him in a lot of these matchups. You know, I wanna see what Punk versus Balor looks like.

It's the first time they've ever wrestled. They made a big deal about that last night, too. Yeah, I love that they're similar in height too, right? Like it's it's stupid, but it's like punk and fin. sort of occupy two different like wrestling fandom timelines of mine where it's like I've always favored the regular guy who wrestles and, you know, like even though I love me some big meaty men bumping meat, like there's something about like the average looking dude who is just

Man, when he comes out to music and he has boots and tights on, they turn into real deal superheroes. But you can literally see them. walking in your s in your supermarket and just not even think twice that that guy's like a world class athlete or or excellent in his chosen physical profession.

So when they stand face to face with one another, they they have this sort of pound for pound look about both of them, kinda like a great Walterwaite fight or a great like, you know, like Floyd versus like uh uh uh Pacquiao type of fight where it's like these guys are two smaller dudes, but boy, we're gonna see them the those styles make fights things really Um mean a lot. So And I'm glad they don't do it all the time. Punks uh punks uh punks significantly taller, but uh I'll give it to you.

Yeah, yeah. Seems like a good a great Walterweight world title. You know? Um so yeah, I mean they were great last night. They were fantastic. Uh really, really good stuff. Um there was some not as great stuff last night.

not a knock. Uh we had a really awkward segment that apparently resulted in an injury to this uh podcast's favorite wrestler. If it's not CM Punk from me, it's Javon Evans. And he got hurt. Was there a clip of that? I'm I'm a bad wrestling fan. So apparently it happened uh in between a commercial break. It did. I didn't know if if they put out if they if anyone like had a clip of it.

Uh they came back from break and he was just holding his shoulder on the outside of the ring and surrounded by Michael Cole made a really that was a great Michael Cole moment. Great the guy's unflappable. He was like Uh wait w how did he bring it back? He was like, Oh developing story here as you come back from the break and you're like what? And apparently that was just it. Uh he got it looks like he he was

had his arm on his his hand on his sort of shoulder collarbone area as he was walking out. If I had to guess I mean obviously that's Collar broken collarbone or rotator cuff situation. Mm-hmm. I mean obvious uh n nothing is good. Neither of those things is good. Broken collarbone I think is probably about the most manageable major thing that can happen there.

Well, the good news is that that, you know, reports are saying that he isn't seriously injured. Oh, okay, great. Great. I didn't even know there were reports. I guess they said um they were checking him for a concussion at one point and it sounds like there was no concussion there, but They also said, you know

Whatever fears that they had about significant injury has been like subsided. Well good on him for calling the match, I guess. But that's so strange that he would be. Can I say something? What? I love that they do that. I love that they just call the match instead. Like I there's been so many times that we've seen people get pushes because it's like, oh, this guy like tore his freaking, you know, rotator cuff, but he finished the match and dah dah dah dah da. And it's like,

Finn Balor, famous for trying I mean, he finished that match when he what did he he tried his rotator cuff? What did he do? Finn Finn uh messed up his arm or shoulder. Uh yeah, I think it was the rotator cuff Jesus Christ. Imagine the synchronicity there if that had happened on the Finn Balor anniversary show.

Right. Seth Rollins, I mean Bronx. But Finn but Finn Finn it was because it that was one of those one of those uh Seth uh uh I was gonna say bucket buckle bombs, but that was a what it was a wasn't that a a bomb onto the railing? And regardless of the thing. Yeah. And then um

And Finn finished that match. Like Finn Finn toughed it out and then they had to they had to pull it, you know, do it off screen. It would it it might have served his career better if they had crawled the match. You know, it's it's impossible to kind of like They did it for Pensa a few weeks ago as well and Penza's already back and you know, good.

And man, like I I think that's one of those things that, you know, the old the old school thought of wrestling is uh you you gotta finish the match and da da da da da. And it's like some things don't need to be old school. Like sometimes you could true err on the side of caution.

for the betterment of the long term. Now if it's a If it's a Seth Rollins situation where it's a big blow off match with Cody Rhodes and y you don't wanna call that match, you're just like, F it, I'm gonna finish it and you know, I'll just take the I'll just take the time off afterwards and it's a premium live event and you're in Riyadh already. I don't like it, but I get it, right? I'm more error on the side of like, man.

Oh, to start the match knowing that you're hurt. Yeah. Not even start the match. Like, you know, he did the he did the, you know, the Coast Code T on Cody Rhodes.

But you're talking specific yeah, getting rid of the I know I I can understand that too. If it serves the s I I think I think you sort of call the match at that point, regardless. But there's different ways to call the match. One is what they did on Raw, which I think is good most of the time. I do think that there's a plan B, which is like

We gotta like you you the old school thing is like you go for the quick pin if you acknowledge it, right? It's just like just end it, end it, r you know, whatever. Go to the finish. Um, and then there's like a plan C, which is, you know, opponent.

The person who's not hurt should like goes goes and get a steel chair and like just you know, gets themselves disqualified like injuring the person and putting them out. You know, the Chris Jericho where you just rough up the referee, be like, Ah, you idiot. Oh yeah, I forgot about that. That's a good one too. Yeah, that's a good one.

But yeah, I mean there's a lot of things you could do. I'm surprised they don't have more contingencies in place. I appreciate they're treat they do it like real for you know they treat it really. But like it's surprising to me that they don't have like a I'm not saying they should, but it's surprising to me in this day and age that they don't have like an alternate script. you know, that their AI program rights at all at all times. It just has what like like

what Adam Pierce should say in case of a mid match injury. Have him storm out there and be like, wait a second, you know, and then like have and just have it prepared for how he like stops the match and sends somebody home or whatever, you know.

Um but w regardless, it was great. Terrible for Javana. Hope that he's back. It is d I don't know. You've read the reports, I haven't. Is he gonna be back for the rumble? Uh I don't know the timetable, but it just seems like whatever serious injury they feared, uh, it is is is not uh found it. I think he's gonna be okay. So uh I would hope he's back for the Rumble. I mean it would suck if he's not in the Royal Rumble. Uh but if reports are reforms, it's a very good thing. Uh

his amazing spot where he avoids elimination. Oh wait, that's Kofi Kingston. Sorry, I got him confused. Um Yeah. Uh it w I know I mean uh he he's gonna be I mean he's such a he's they already have written him into the rumble as like the most impressive performer and it would be crazy if he's not there. But regardless, let's just hope him get hope he gets healthy and hope they

uh he gets to avenge this this this this D Q finish or this non whatever rough stoppage at the hands of El Grande Americano. By the way, Oh, great great work by Ryo and Pre uh and Primo or whatever their names are, Americano for the way that they What are their names? I don't know. I just thought of the colognes and Negro. Uh but but the way that they were jumping up and down at the end of the match celebrating the victory was just absolutely incredible. Um, did you see the uh um

Did you see the the Grande Americano Vikingo match or at least the I did circulating wildly of the lay off my neck? Like lay off my neck for Christ's sake and then he's you know. Said a couple choice words in Spanish to make sure he understood afterwards. Uh yeah. He told the ref to have him lay off his neck in English.

No, I'm I only point that out because I don't know what the language barrier situations are here. I assume that Grande would not be speaking in English if there was any question about whether or not the ref could get it. Um And then the ref says something to Vikingo, and then Vikingo uh uh goes and stomps on his neck.

Oh no, I or no, he goes and stomps on his neck and then he goes and says something to him and then he runs over and kicks him in the neck. Like it was the craziest thing in the world. Tell him to lay off my neck, lay off his neck, kick in the neck. Like it was just bonkers. And then yeah, he turned around and said some shit. Um really, really strange. Really strange turn of events.

We haven't really talked about it. A lot of folks I saw over there uh commenting that are, you know, lucha libre fanatics experts say like, yeah, man, like What that's what Vikingo. Yeah, I mean, not just Vikingo. I guess like something I saw a tweet that said something along the lines of Uh, wrestler safety always comes second to the most important thing, which is getting your shit in. Right. So I guess they were saying like that's kind of the

That's kinda the coach, not that they try to hurt you, but it's like Yeah. Let me get my shit in first and then we'll make sure you're okay, right? Oh almost like he heard Watch for the Neck and he was like, Oh shit, I better injure his neck in Keyfe before he goes out with a neck injury. Right, something, I don't know. But if that's if That's the culture. I don't know. Are you excited for big omas down there as the king goes back up?

Yeah. I mean big OMA. Do you think this is why they pulled Omas out of Japan? They were like, shit, we got a real good use for this guy. We're gonna have him do this exact same job in the new Mexican territory that we're operating. I do like that he's like this drifting giant that just kinda goes from place to place and just does stuff like, you know.

He was at Raw Underground. He's an XT for a hot second. He's in the main roster. He wrestles Brock Lesnar. He goes to Japan. He's in Mexico. Uh the drifting giant is is a is a nice. sort of thing. Uh I feel like Triple A is kind of outside of the luchas, has become sort of like this place where we could fit a lot of our oddball characters into Yeah, for sure. Guys that aren't getting a ton of burn in WWE. It's nuts. Like you could not get a ton of burn in WWE and you can like

Pop up in TNA, pop up in AAA, pop up in NXT, like NOAA. I mean, just lots of places you could really just like go and just like sharpen yourself up. So I'm not mad at Omas being in triple A. I'm just gosh, dude's like 712. Like you should find some use for him, you know? Like that's it. It's funny, they should have a ch you know, they used to have the T V championship, which was like uh famously in in Crockett that like you had to d defend it on television.

They should have like the opposite of that in WWE. Like they should have a world champion that only exists outside of WWE programming. You know, like I this belt can only be defended. In Mexico or in Japan or, you know, at a house show or something like that, and people would go crazy. Um, have something to carry around anyway. The world needs more belt.

Um so yeah, that was really cool. Uh Becky Lynch retained her IC championship with the I don't know if help is the right word, but after the interference.

On her behalf of Natalia, who who uh put her foot on the rope. And then Natalia, obviously that it's her turning on her dear friend and training buddy Maxine. They she beat her down after the match. Um If this whole thing was in service in a circular way of sort of getting Maxine over and then by proxy getting Natalia over, it's been like i I kind of my hat's off to WWE for this.

for this thoughtfulness, for this concept. I'm not sure that I care that much more about a Maxine Natalia feud than I would have if they just set it up as like, hey, look at these two friends, and then they're they fight. Um but It's sort of it's it's it's it was really well done. I'm very interested to see where they go from here.

Um Becky Lynch who uh you know, it'll be interested w interesting to see where Becky Lynch goes from here. I was kinda done with with with this feud. So I'm glad that we're I g this helps Becky move along. It was been it's been very good, don't get me wrong. Um But you know, it's it's it's time. Uh time to move ahead. Who do you want to see Becky feud with next? Oof, that's a good question. Um I mean if the Royal Rumble is an X Big P L E. Doesn't feel like Becky's gonna be in the rumble.

At least not in the way that she's been talking about, you know, the IC title is like th the most important belt in the company. Um I don't know, man. Maybe they reheat A maybe they reheat AJ Lee just for like WrestleMania season. I was about to say, like AJ Lee seems like a good choice. Um I I would have said Lyra Valkyria, but

Well the stuff they're doing with with Bailey. Mm-hmm. The tag team division teams really great. And she's officially entered herself in the Royal Rumble. Yeah, that's true. Early predictions. Who's your Royal Rumble winners? Men's and women's. Go.

My men's Royal Rumble winner. No. My women's Royal Rumble winner is Bianca Belair. Yeah, that feels good. That feels like a good a good call. My men's Royal Rumble winner. His Roman rights. I think if if d if Dominic Mysterio I think Dominic Mysterio is a year away. It's either I think I think Sammy's gonna win the Fatal Four W in Montreal. I mean the um mm-hmm. I think I think Sammy's gonna fight Drew for the title in Riyadh. Mm-hmm. And

It feels like Roman Reigns. Yeah, Sammy's got basically two hometown shows in a row. He's got Montreal Montreal and Riyadh. This seems like it should be a good uh, you know, path for him right now. This is just an annual tradition now. Get Sami Zayn's title match out of the way before WrestleMania so we don't the fans don't go nuts.

Right. Um I don't know, man. Like I feel like Roman Reigns is a safe choice and he's a guy who doesn't necessarily need to win a Royal Rumble to be in the title picture. Yeah. But I mean there's other folks out there, man. Like I If I if I had to guess, if I had to pick people that you didn't just pick, because I agree that you can't. Back to back to back. Um I think there's a non zero chance if it's not Bianca Belair, I might I would probably go

Just'cause of all the tag teams. I'm assuming the tag team feuds are still going. Mm-hmm. I would probably go young. I would either say Julia or a surprise NXT entrant. Let's fucking put You know. Opafemi? No, no, for the women's side. Oh. Hm. You know, soul Rucca wins or just whatever. We're just gonna hot shot somebody. Or let Julia do it, you know? Um again.

Not gonna make this a weekly segment. I can see Lyra Valkyria winning the Royal Rumble. She could be Sure, sure. She fits that mold. Yeah. She's my dark horse to win the Rumble. Uh she's had an incredible year. I think that's talked about enough. I think Eosky could be in there as well Yeah, the craziest thing about Lyra Valkyria is like uh like I feel like the the online fanboy community, fan girl commute fan community has just like amped up like crazy with her.

And I feel like maybe Because of Brian Danielson memes. Oh, I don't even know what that is. What is that? Oh, like there's a theory that like Lyra Baccaria is Brian Danielson's like real life wrestling daughter. And they're just like s side by side, splits and just them just doing like

The exact same thing. So it's like, yo, if the internet loves you is great. The internet loves you and they're comparing you to Brian Daniels. Well, listen, when she was when she was fresh, when she was new on on the main roster, they it was really they had a really hard time getting getting people to connect with her. And

You know, we were talking about it on the show. I mean, I f I remember talking about it time and time again. It's just like you think you're doing a thing, but you're not doing a thing. Nobody cares about this.

They tried to put wings on her as a sort of last resort. That didn't get over. And then you know what finally worked? Oh, Bird Lady got over, bro. Well, Bird Lady got over. If Bird Lady got over, it was not in the way that they intended. Two really important things happened. Number one was Becky Lynch. That feud was just absolutely magical and got everybody over. Yeah.

But two, they just started letting her be herself. Or I don't know if it's yourself. I've I've only met her once or twice or whatever and don't know her as a human being, but they they they l started putting her in like um uh like regular human being clothes. And just let her letting her ha let her they sort of letting her have like regular human be well, and so much. They let her talk like a like a like a regular person. Let her talk like a regular person.

That are kind of zany and she reacts like a human would. And what turned out from that is like Oh, she's a really good promo. She's a really good talker. Yeah. And like she just she just has a very easy-going relatability to her until she turns puts them wings on and becomes the bird lady, right? It's like, oh, it's like, yeah, Liar Vacaria is like a

I don't know. They there's very few people they let b behave like regular human beings and they'd let her do that. Yeah. And it's helped her a lot, I think. I know. Um, it certainly helped. I mean, she's just totally transformed. But I really think just having her look like like being feeling like human is like the biggest thing. It's the hardest thing to get people to connect with you.

And and also w what's what sig what would coincides with that is putting her in kayfabe situations in which her humanity can shine through. The whole thing with Becky Lynch and now everything with Bailey allow gives her opportunities to sort of be

an exasperated version of herself. Maybe she's just an exasperated person. Maybe they really honed you know, just honed in on it there. But it was um it's it's been very, very good. So yeah, she could win. She could definitely be the one. And she and Bailey set it up last night.

You know, she's gonna win and then Bailey's gonna beat her up and then you know, but they're still they're still friends and and weirdly enemies at the same time. They're not even frenemies. They are separately friends and enemies, sort of. It's a great great storyline. It would be really cool if she

did the thing where she triggers Bailey, you know, where she like makes the evil Baile bad Bailey come out and she makes she just has Bailey destroy everybody in the rumble and then she dumps Bailey. Like wouldn't that isn't that a good gimmick? That would be hilarious. Just like Unleashing the wild Royal Rumble winner version of Bailey. Yeah. And then once that's all done, just throw Bailey out the ring. Yeah. Exactly. That'd be hilarious. Okay, rebooked it. My pick for the men's Royal Rumble.

I don't know how I feel about Roman Rey. I feel a little bit off saying this. But I felt that about his last couple of big matches. So I'm just gonna lean into it. I think Gunther wins the Royal Rumble. Mm. Well

He does have a match at the Rumble, though. He's got a match. Well, he's he's already said he's pulling double duty. I think everybody can be assumed to be pulling double duty. And that match that he has the Royal Rumble is a match against AJ Styles with AJ's career on the line.

So unless there's some shenanigans, Gunther kind of has to lose that match. This is my thinking. How do you get it how how do you sort of paper over him losing that match? Well, what if he wins Aura Rumble the same night? Ah, okay. I see what you're doing. I could see that. I can see that happening. Uh it definitely seems way too soon for this to be AJ Styles' last match, right? The first month of 2026. Yeah, of course. It's not it's not the last match.

And you kinda want to juice AJ Styles up a little more as he's getting ready to go. So How far away is the rumble? I think AJ, huh? How many weeks of the rumble? Oh, it's one week or two weeks. Thirty four years. Yeah. I'm thinking AJ beating Gunther. shoots him up is is not not that he needs any more credibility, but I think it shoots his credibility back to the stop to the top if he's the first person to take Gunther down.

after uh, you know, h him going on his career ending reign of terror, only for Gunther to like Dig-headedly, sneakishly, backhanded way, get his way into the rumble, win it, and then you know, you probably have AJ and Gunther again at Elimination Chamber to like out. Uh, you know what they should really do? It'd be great if they had a lot of people. You can have AJ beat Gunther be Gunther with his career on the line. Gunther be so pissed at AJ.

after he wins the Royal Rumble, but Stajay's still like you lost to me. Like, all right, I put my career in the line and I beat you. I'm not gonna ask you to put your career in the line. Just put your main event Royal Rumble ticket. So WrestleMania on the line. Yeah. And we're good. And we'll do it again.

And there you go. Or maybe they just let AJ just keep AJ in the back pocket for the first feud after WrestleMania. You know, like whatever. Now he now Gunther's a new champ and AJ can say I get first dip. You know? Can do. They always kind of go safe with that first thing. Gunther versus Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania doesn't wet your whistle a little bit? Gunther well, I Gunther versus Punk 2 doesn't neither of those really wet my whistle. So I don't really know what the move is.

I think that probably the way this is lining up is that if they do Cody Roman, it doesn't need the belt. I think you said that last week. Mm-hmm. I would say that Punk doesn't even need the belt, but Punk is I guarantee Punk needs the belt only to put someone else over. Like I think he needs the belt to Help make a guy, you know? Mm-hmm. Probably a brawn breaker. Maybe an Oba Femi. Maybe one of these guys.

Yeah. But I think you keep him hold you you have him hold the title. A Gunther? Can he put a Gunther over in the main event of WrestleMania? No. I don't want to see that. I don't think anybody wants to see that. Just saw it at SummerSlam. We're good. Well they have a history now and and since then Gunther has uh made Jun Cena tap like a little bitch, so Like a little bitch. Um he's a he's in a much different place. It's interesting. It'll be interesting to see where they go with it. Um

So yeah, I do think there's a possibility there. It would be cool if they had a couple more weeks before this match, before this AJ Styles might lose in his career match. So they could do a couple weeks of a fake retirement tour? Like wouldn't it be great if AJ Styles like f favorite opponents came back like on who wait, who even is AJ's best opponent that is still on the roster?

It would be it would be Shea McMahon. Shinsuke. Shinsuke Shinsuke is a good one. Uh it it would you know, obviously you talk about Cena, you'd talk about Samoa Joe, you know, Chris Daniels is not not in not in WWE, obviously, but Um Okada, you know, whatever. So Shinsuke's a good one. I guess like Finn is one he's had a you know a number of feuds with him. Maybe Kevin Owens would be healthy. Oh yeah. But it would be great if they just had ke if they if they had one big match.

It might be a good use of Finn too, because now Finn's in this we we don't know what's happening next. If Finn came out on Raw next week and he was just like, AJ, if this is your last match, your second to last match, I want it to be me. Yeah. Just like to make it make a show of.

Anyway, um you were talking about Unreal, Kaz. I gotta admit, I have not watched Unreal yet. Although I also have not watched Unreal, but I've been up since four AM. Uh been on the air here at seven from six to ten AM. And just by scrolling my Twitter wasting time. I feel like I've seen the entire Season two of Unreal.

Yeah, it's every like fans are putting clips out there. And bit the fuck up. Well WME's clipped a bunch too. I mean I was saying to you before we went on the air that the the the teaser or the whatever the the preview for the for the uh Ron Killings R Truth, you know, episode that they had last night or they that they had

Well, what was I well during the national championship game was um was just kind of felt like it answered all the questions I had, you know? So I don't really I got I'm sure I will definitely watch it. So everybody listening to this, call out to the fans. The friends, the supporters of this show, tweet at us uh um at Masked Man Show on Twitter, Instagram.

Uh blue sky, whatever. And tell us w if there's cer if there's an episode you really want us to discuss. I'm happy to talk in depth about our truth, but I want to go deep on one thing or one idea or something. I wanna have like a big, thoughtful conversation, and we'll do more than one. But if there's something that really gets you from the season.

Let us know because I I d I wanna be responsive in twenty twenty six to the listeners. I might tweet more. I might uh I might actually listen, like check mentions and emails and text messages. That's for you guys. That's for Brian and Kaz. I might I might respond on my phone once in a while. Um, so yeah, let's well it it it'll it's interesting. I guess w the one thing that I gleaned is that it was not entirely a gimmick for WWE Unreal.

Or at least it doesn't seem like it, but maybe it is. What do you think? What's your general take? We haven't watched it yet, but what percentage of Unreal is is is now being booked for Unreal as opposed to being real? It's weird. I feel like I don't know what to trust anymore. Like Star Truth's release wasn't really a release. Seth Rollins um injury we all know it wasn't a real injury, but it was the main from what I can gather.

Storyline of Unreal. Like it was it was like they concocted this entire storyline just to show us the behind the scenes of how they concocted this entire storyline. for WWE Unreal, right? Like so I think I mean listen, that's kind of the beauty of professional wrestling right now, right? It's like if you could still find ways to fool people, to to to make them believe, have that little shred of doubt left.

And oh, that was supposed to happen or that wasn't supposed to happen. More power to you. And if you could use the the the the muscle of Netflix and the muscle of TKO to and and R E Manual to pull these heavy things off by having like Seth Rollins be on like the Rich Eisen show and all these like legitimate you know, news sports entertainment shows selling at a a Kfabe wrestling injury.

Then you've just found a new way to get people to believe in this shit. And that is really what the whole thing of pro wrestling is all about. So it's it's kinda nuts. And At least have the decency to be uh so forward thinking enough to give us a damn documentary series to pull off just how nuts they are as far as like doing these uh these very convoluted storylines. So

I don't know man. I'm I'm kind of into it. I'm I'm kind of into seeing just how deep the rabbit hole goes. I am too. And part of me part of me thinks that like the CM Punk I mean it's not just them. CM Punk, Heyman, actually on Unreal says he hates Unreal. CM Punk goes on interviews and says he hates Unreal. Half the people that we talked to last year, uh, at WrestleMania time were talking about how much they they weren't sure if they're they weren't sure about it. Um

Part of me thinks that that's all part of the work too because the and again, we'll watch on real. We'll talk about it more in future in on Thursday and Monday. Um I think part of the thing with me at Unreal is like It seems like a weird place to plant your flag if you're a wrestler, because they really didn't go that much further than like WWE Docs already does.

Nope. They don't. It's just the NFL uh uh hard knocks voiceovers, you know, like what I it's a it's a big thing. And and the and the presentation of we're pulling the curtain back. But like There is nothing from Unreal that wasn't that w that went beyond like what the Cody Rhodes rock documentary did in terms of pulling back the curtain. You know, like it it's just it's whatever. We'll talk more about it when we have something to talk about. And you know what we haven't talked about yet?

The big debut of TNA on AMC. Okay. Okay. Just gonna leave that one open, man. You can take that if you want. I'll take it. Um Cheese the wheeze, man. Genesis was also this weekend. Let me just do this. I'll be honest. Genesis was good. Genesis was pretty good. The first TNA AMC show was not good. It was not TNA's best effort. at all. Um dude and I think that's okay to to say. Like I think, you know

Congratulates to Mike Santana. Happy that he got the title back. But just From the presentation down to Some of the storyline choices and special guests and lack of wrestling. The lack of actual wrestling on the show as well. Um, it was a tough first watch, not gonna lie. Uh, but I I I will say this, man. Um

J they they rebounded really well with Genesis. Um because hey, there was lots more wrestling on Genesis and uh uh a couple of the Things that you don't notice until you see things like a brand new show on a brand new channel. Some things like that happened a lot with AEW. A lot of my early criticisms with AEW, there's people that don't listen to this show right to this, to this day.

Because of my early AEW criticisms on production. Things that you don't even notice on WWE because they have been doing it for so well. They move like a well-oiled machine. Like certain things that I blocking just just the simplest shit that you don't even think about because they've done this so well for so long. It was glaring in the early days of AEW outside of the phenomenal wrestling. There was glaring production issues with AEW.

Same thing that's happened with TNA on AMC. Glaring production issues that you do not notice. When you're going to a shot of anybody in the crowd, right? You don't shoot the guys in the one area that there's no people behind them, right? I know. I texted you when that happened. I had the group chat and I was like, there is there anybody at the show? Because it looked like there was only like eight people there.

And and that's the thing, like you think like That was right when I started watching live. You know, I too I caught up on everything after that. He's like, Oh my god, there's nobody at the show. I was like, No, Dave, there's people at the show. They just decided for some odd reason to shoot their roster and the celebrities, and I'm l using that term as loosely as possible, uh, in the crowd in like the one bleacher shots that have nobody behind them. Like it it was just a

And that's just one of them. I'm not gonna say I'm not gonna use this as a piss on TNA uh segment, but yeah, nah, the first show wasn't good, but they rebounded really well with Genesis. And um I think They've Hopefully there's a lot more learning to be done between uh You know, uh TNA and AMC and that whole thing. I mean, like, you know, I feel I feel really good about TNA. I think they have an opportunity to to to to do something really special with this AMC deal. But man, just um

Not the best foot forward on your first show. I'll say that. Shouts to Zach McLarndan. Uh the guy from Blu from Dark Winds, one of my favorite actors, not even lying here. Uh who was there who was there in the front row. That's a Mill is a really weird place to be, to act like you're really excited to be at a T and A show on AMC for synchronicity purposes when there's like five other people around you cheering quietly.

Anyway, uh it turned out there were people there when they zoomed out. It was a bad show, man. It was just a bad, bad, bad, bad show. We knew ahead of time, I guess, that Leon Slater wasn't gonna be there because WWE asked if to use him on the European tour. Yeah. Two things here. One If I was WWE, frankly, I'd be pissed off at TNA for saying that they could afford to leave to let him go when it turns out they cannot.

You know, it's like you should have said out loud, we only can have three matches and none of them will be good if we're not allowed to use them. You know? Number two. We all know that the nature of this relationship is is um is Not on the level. There will never be a WWE untold episode about the true uh financial and c business relationship between WWE and TNA.

But if WWE can take like your literally like your top talent just to use because you're gonna be in Europe and you wanna get a quick pop for a open challenge match. Um And i d it's d I don't even know what to say. It's a little more than a crop. It was a great match. Like it was a phenomenal match between those two. And I think uh I don't know how much li time Leon Slater has uh in

But at least for the time being, there was a good look for TNA, being like, hey, you really like this guy? Is it a bigger deal that he was on SmackDown than he missed the debut of TNA on AMC and Genesis? Yep, one thousand percent. And I know people are gonna be upset about me for this, but it's like, nah, bro, like I don't care. If you even even if you're right, even if you're right, even if you can do that math. I think it was just ridiculous. Just ridiculous. Mm-hmm.

And m that and listen, if they had figured out a way to put on a better first episode of Genesis, like Jesus Christ, who is there for Dixie Carter? Like TNA diehards aren't there for Dixie Carter. Like it was one dumb thing after another. You know? Um struggling to finish the show. I'm not gonna lie. And I like TNA. I like the people in TNA, but it was just And even the Santana Kazarian match was was tough and and it was and the finish was kind of uh it's like they could They even botched the AJ

the AJ entrance in the beginning. Like in the beginning they had the video up with no music playing. So the the you lost the initial pop of the crowd. And they're like, oh AJ's coming. And then they finally ran it back and played his music. And it was just it was not good. It wasn't good. I think that's being generous. Mm-hmm. Um JDC retired. He lost in his final match against Eddie Edwards. Uh Johnny Curtis, aka Fandango. What a legend, man. What a legend.

Dango, good brother right there, man. Got to got to call a dirty Dango match a fourth rope. Um, and Six Flags, shout out to him, JDC, the system, those guys. Yeah. Uh good brother, man. Shout out JDC. Happy retirement, man. Yeah. I don't know.

I feel like like I like, you know, it's it might be time. If I was a wrestler, there'd probably a time, especially when you have stuff outside the ring like he does, like there's a time where you're like, Okay, it's time to hang'em up. But I feel like I'd probably still make myself available for WrestleMania weekend every year.

No, it's just like why not go hang out with my butt my boys and like work three shows for a bunch of money. That's true. Yeah. I mean I'm sure he's gonna get some offers to at least show up and dance to some music, but What if it was that J D C retired but Fandango did not and he is in the Royal Rumble? Gosh, don't put that. I mean, listen, I pop. I pop if they put on that. And Riyadh, you think Riyadh will go up for the dango?

They might. That might be about where they're where where they are in their like WWE viewing right now. Are they totally caught up yet? I don't know. I don't think they should be. By the way, speaking of Riyadh. A lot of Royal Rumble uh um promos are all around ESPN this weekend, which was uh a big football weekend obviously.

And if you're jarring, still jarring to be in the middle of a N C double championship game. And all of a sudden it's like, don't miss Saturday night, Saturday afternoon where the Stars of professional I'm just like, what? Royal Rumble, the first Royal Rumble outside the United States. It was an NFL playoff game. It was an NFL playoff game. Oh, yeah. That they were doing this on. And it's like, wow, look how far we've come. NFL playoffs.

College football championships. And if you're like us and watch you're, you know, watching ESPN when there's this I mean, this weekend in particular, when there's not other games on, it's just like there's WWE stuff in there too. It was bonkers. Yeah. Um It really really straight.

At least everybody's in on the sports washing stuff now. So it's not like WWE. It's like we've got ESPN to be a part of it. Come on, people. Bring it in. Um So yeah, I'm still sort of it's sort still sort of crazy that Rumble is not in the US, but whatever. It's not as bad as WrestleMania not being there. So

Yeah, WrestleMania th WrestleMania not being in in America is probably gonna hit a little harder by this time next year. Royal Rumble, I'm like, you know what? Cool. But mania when there's no four day weekend of stuff to do at some random city in America. It's definitely gonna hit. Like damn son. They should have a I might make the trip though. If I get Jesus Christ. I might I might do it. I might do it. Somebody give me the bag. Shoot.

Private jet don't look at me and insist on the private jet flight over there. Don't look at me now, bro. Everybody everybody took it around. If somebody wants to give us the bag, we will take the bag. I promise. We will do Mass Man Live in Riyon. Mm-hmm. What is the point of doing Mass Man live in Riyadh? What is the crowd gonna be? A lot of people say that I'm the Sami Zayn of podcasting in terms of Saudi Arabian support.

Listen, my name is Kazim. I'll be over. I'll be over like Rover and That's true. Let's go. Um Yeah. It's that's weird. But anyway, the Royal Rumble is uh is there, so That'll be exciting to watch. Um Yeah, uh what else? Oh yeah, the sa I just one more night. Santana is still your TNA champion. They've obviously been leading here for now two months or much longer, but ever since he dropped the title, now he's been on the path to get it back.

He won the title back on AMC, retained it in the deathmatch on Genesis. Hopefully we can move on now and sort of reset these things. Um I don't know, man. I don't know. Again, be honest. Like, I'm not watching every second of every TNA show every week. Now I probably will watch more since it's on AMC. And

It's just one of those shows that does better in the clip format. You know? Maybe maybe it is. Maybe it's just more of a show that you just watch the highlights and you get excited about a funny thing that happened or whatever. I'm gonna like offend a lot of people by saying this ECW in its A Day was like that. ECW worked way better on compilation tapes than it did of the actual weekly show. Like there's a lot of that show that was just like, why am I watching this rate?

Um although a ECW as a product was a billion times better than what we're seeing from TNA. Anyway, well they got plenty more time to to uh to figure that thing out. Um Uh what else? What what are we missing? What have we not talked about? One last thing. Uh the Rascals, the Trey Miguel situation. No, we haven't talked about. Our friends it's at uh AEW. Yes. So the Rascals made their debut on AEW Collision last week.

Would you believe would you believe that they had the comedic chops to come out of a smoked filled dressing room and act high? I mean, that's that's pushing the boundaries, if you know what I'm saying. Not many people are smoking weed in twenty twenty six. It makes them pretty unique. Yeah, I guess you know, in 2026 it kind of takes a little bit of the edge off of it now, you know? Like, yeah. I go pick up my weed with my groceries. It's not that it's not that

Rebellious anymore, man. Like I'll just Yeah, and if somebody's got like a big giant cloud of smoke coming out of their room, you're like, dude, open a window. Like you're not getting arrested for this. What's the Yeah, it's like really weird. Don't you know how ventilation works? Like is it? The hot box? I get it. You know, shoot. Be a gentleman, man. Smoke outside. Yeah, exactly. Freeze like a real man.

So anyway, they made their debut. I'll let you take it. Yeah, but uh, you know, Trey Miguel, not a part of the debut. Um And from reports, it is saying that it came from a high He's not there. He's not there. Not only was he not there, but he like retired from wrestling on Twitter. They they released him from this contract. And

Some people now there's been conflicting stories on to who to believe and what to believe when it comes to this. There is people comparing it to the Jay Briscoe situation where it was like, yeah, this guy has said and done and all said. probably inflammatory things about certain groups of people that they just can't really stand behind and there's people who believe that. There's also another story floating around that uh, you know Allegedly, um, Trey Miguel

uh used to date the current uh Mrs. uh Maxwell Jacob Friedman, Alicia Toute. Mm-hmm. And apparently there's uh some big time and that must have went on on some like, yeah, no, not him type of thing. I'm not here to confirm or deny any of those reports. Those are just the stuff that I've been seeing floating around about what happened. uh with him, but um it does suck because I do like Trey as a guy. He's uh he's a very talented dude.

Um, and that's just a shitty situation to be in where it's like, Yeah, all your friends are signed except you and here's why. Yeah. And it doesn't seem like it's because of anything that's happened recently. I think that's what really Makes it suck even harder. Uh, but uh it doesn't seem like he was retiring from wrestling, seems like he was taking a little bit of a break. And he is released from his AEW contract, so I mean, hey, maybe he has an opportunity to go elsewhere, maybe NXT, WC.

T and A, you know, like uh they absolutely could use them right now. But um it's it's tough, man. I feel for him. I really do feel for him because I do think he's he's a lot of people. He tweeted yesterday after all this stuff broke. He said, I made a lot of mistakes in my time. I've always apologized and did my best to put a better foot forward after. I don't preach hate. And I don't take any pride in being hateful.

Um, sounds like he's kind of confirming that it was about the past comments as opposed to maybe the MJF conspiracy theories. Um But, you know, maybe it was the MJF conspiracy theory and the cover story they used was the past comments. Mm-hmm. The the story that, you know, everybody was saying is this I mean, there's there's no true the uh everything that's out there is a rumor. We had uh

Meltzer and others saying there's no real word, but they they've heard that it's come fr it came from above Tony Khan, which would obviously like you said, be mean it's a Warner Brothers or discovery whatever decision. We don't want him on. on TNT or TBS or whatever. Um, you know, if that's the my only thing is like if that's the story, it's like you're being pretty arbitrary about your rules enforcement. You know, like I'm not sure that it matters a whole lot. But

I don't think anybody should say that stuff. I think you should be punished for that stuff. I don't think you should be like punished for that stuff if you've changed and it's many years later and now and and you're punishing him without context. That seems kinda weird. But that's that said, that's why you don't go be an asshole on on the internet, um, because it's uh all that stuff will always come back to bite you. Or spend the eight dollars, people, go to tweetthe leader.net.

Spend eight dollars and they will take out every single even remotely offensive piece of social media content you've ever put out there. They decide what's a pro what's problematic? Yes, there is a filth filter where even the word damn gets taken out of a tweet and automatically deleted. Trust me, I've sworn by it. I've saved countless careers by telling them to use this website.

Go use it. Go use it. If you're getting hired somewhere, if you're about to do something important, spend eight dollars. I know nobody wants to go through every single one of your tweets. They will do it for you. I'm not even being paid to use this damn thing, all right? To tell you about this. This is just me being a friend to you, the listener. Protect.

Your 20-year-old self that was saying stupid shit on the internet just like everybody else. And just wipe it. Just fucking wipe it. Don't even leave it to chance. Yeah. You're better off. So well anyway, everybody should probably do that. That's true. Everybody. Uh but knowing those rascals, maybe he was meant to do it and he just got high instead. You know? They should come out to that song. I'm gonna claim my tweets. Oh, that's a great song. Um

Anyway, well that was exciting. That was exciting. Oh whoa! The Don Cows family and the and the Death Riders are feuding now. Oh, great. No, I'm actually very excited about this. There's something very weird about the way that Tony Khan will will will set up the chessboard so that when something like this comes to fruition, it's usually a time where they have one of these Anarchy in the arena matches or something. When there's a big f you know, team up feud.

And then you go back and you realize how long he's been setting this up. It's like, oh yeah, they needed Garcia and the death writers to make this work. Like, you know, what are you like? And you sort of see the pieces getting put together. It's kind of impressive and also sort of weirdly like Yeah, I don't know, it feels like I'm watching the curtain get pulled back. Like they showed me the script a little bit and I don't and I didn't want to see it, but regardless.

I'm very excited about this feud. The Cows family is way too big, way too powerful right now, and the Death Riders um this is a fun new look for them. So I think it'll be cool. I'm very I'm I'm I'm definitely down for this. Definitely down for this. The Don Callis John Moxley promo battle will be exciting too. Um anyway, have we covered everything, Brian?

Yep. Let's do this. We're gonna be back here on Thursday. Um previewing. Saturday night's main event. Pretty exciting. Guys wanna get some plugs in as we say goodbye. Yes, you can. You can now listen to me every Monday through Friday, six to ten AM on Hot Ninety Seven in the mornings, Mur uh Mornings Remero, uh download the app or listen to New York or watch us on YouTube. Any of that's up.

New episode of 7 p.m. in Brooklyn is out live with special guest, the Queen of Hip Hop Soul, Miss Mary J. Blige. Go check that out. It's an incredible conversation. I think that's all I got Go away.