Welcome to the brand new Zach Lowe show. That's right. I'm back to have the same in-depth NBA conversations you're used to. We're going to talk about the games, the X's and O's, the drama. The playoffs are coming up. And now you get to see every episode in full on video on Spotify and on my own YouTube channel. Episodes drop every Monday and Thursday with a collection of guests you're going to love. So make sure you.
follow and subscribe to the brand new Zach Lowe show on Spotify or wherever you watch or listen to your podcasts. Let's go. Cold open question of the week, Kaz. What up, shoes? It was reported briefly until debunked by TMZ that Hulk Hogan was on his deathbed. Now, it turns out he was not on his deathbed, so now we can joke about it. if Hulk Hogan had passed away because of some routine surgery, something really boring and unexciting. But...
Hulk Hogan could describe his own death in the afterlife. What lie would he tell about the way that he went on to heaven? Well, you know something, David Shoemaker. I think what clearly would happen was he would get to the pearly gates. He would see St. Peter. St. Peter would tell him, you know, you live the life. It's been great for you. And Hulk Hogan's going to say, definitely.
Doesn't work for me, brother. Turns right back around. And they just let him back. I didn't know. No, I thought you were going to be like, I didn't know if St. Peter was going to do the job until we locked up. He's like, I didn't know, brother. I lifted St. Peter. above my head. We had a bunch of enforcers outside. We had to make sure it was getting real tough in there, brother.
you know i don't think the hogan hogan no-selling death is so hulk hogan man like that is i was talking about okay this isn't exactly the question i asked but this is way better yeah hulk hogan versus saint peter Resumania Infinity in front of... There were nine trillion angels watching us crammed into the seats.
He finally gets to perform in front of Elvis, the lie that he's told for so long. There you go. My old friend Elvis Presley watched me perform down at Memphis was there. Hulk Hogan passing away one day is going to feel like... like when mf doom passed away right like not to make light of his death but like he was dead for like a month and some change and nobody knew because there was so many mf dooms and they couldn't really confirm or deny
So I kind of, Hulk just telling folktales about all that stuff could definitely, it could definitely. I don't know how much Bubba the Love Sponge and Hulk Hogan are tight anymore, but him no-selling whether he was dying or not, typical Hulk. Typical Hulk. Oh, God. it absolutely is and just using the death as a PR stunt for real American beer or whatever the hell he was doing
Oh, geez. We're going to talk about it again. We got a lot of weird stuff to talk about today. It is a Friday episode of the Masked Man Show. Let's get it going. Masked Man Show I'm doing good. We're here on a Friday. It always gets weird here on Fridays. We were off yesterday for Juneteenth. and celebrating along with such Juneteenth stalwarts as Sami Zayn and John Bradshaw Layfield. It is kind of weird that WWE didn't put out
a Juneteenth message or any Black History Month content this year. It was something worth pointing out. Was there no Black History Month content? There was no Black History Month content, if you notice, from WWE. And it's noticeable. Well, now Vince is gone. Hey, man, listen, I'll tell you. You can say a lot about that dude. That dude.
Always made sure Martin Luther King Day was important. Always made sure. He loves Martin Luther King. God, this is going to sound horrible. I think we're romanticizing Vince. Anybody who's ever had a conversation with Vince will tell you Martin Luther King is his hero. And he will give you long examples on to which, why, and...
And remember, and the key part is here, none of it has to do with race. When it comes to why Vince loves Martin Luther King, it's all about like, oh, God, he was so captivating. How he, people, it's like so inspiring. So say what you want about the guy. He at least would throw a mention.
Say what you want about the guy is not where I expected this to go. He would at least throw a mention to Black History Month and Martin Luther King Day. It wouldn't surprise me. I mean, I'm sure it became like a real deal official holiday after, you know. was out of power, but I don't know. It was just something that I noticed yesterday. I was like, all right, no, nothing. Not even a little teeny tiny graphic. I'm like, all right, cool. Okay. Noted. No.
Some people are still adapting to Juneteenth, our president being one of them. Anyway, we've got a lot of weird stuff to talk about today. We've got Raw, NXT, Grand Slam, Mexico. I still have a hard time adjusting to... Dynamite just being called different things all the time? It shouldn't. My brain should be big enough for this. It should be. It is big enough. Yeah. I think that it's called AEW Dynamite.
And then it also has another name, right? I mean, NXT does this too, where they'll put on big shows on their thing. But like, I don't know, man. It's like, maybe just call it AEW. And then it's dynamite some weeks and something. I don't know. It just didn't bother me that much. It did feel like an elevated dynamite. I should be over this by now because the same thing with beach blasts and whatever. All that stuff. Yeah. Fighter. Fighter. Yeah.
But anyway. I guess we grew up in the Clash of the Champions in your house era. We should be able to, you know. In your house was on the weekend. In your house was a separate thing. Yeah, that's true. In your house was a $10 pay-per-view. Listen, we got a lot of weird news and notes today. So, Kaz, thank you, Kaz. Yes. Made a wheel. We're doing spin the wheel, make the deal. Yes. The traditional.
spin the wheel, make the deal format where Kaz has just made a Wheel of Fortune wheel with all the different weird things to talk about this week. Some of them are big. Some of them are little. We couldn't even put together... an order of operations here. So we're just spinning. We're going to let it be a surprise to the readers and a surprise to us what we're going to talk about. Should I mention the rundown first before I spin the wheel just so we have an idea of where we're going today?
Yeah. yeah and then we're gonna forget things and put them in along the way too but go yeah go ahead and give the rundown because that'll make people stick around if all the if what they want to hear about is you know it's the only mercedes mercedes monet dating the beast mortos that we will be covering that on today's spin the wheel. Lethal Lotto show. All right, here we go. So we're topping it off with bilingual hangman, Jey Uso versus Cody Rhodes next week in the King of the Ring tournament.
Blake Monroe signs her NXT contract. A... General Monday Night Raw review. General AEW Mexico review. Vince McMahon reportedly back in the combat business. WWE rumored for sale from some Yahoo. screen grab that didn't really have a link, but we all ran with it anyway. Hulk Hogan on his deathbed, rumors. Ricky Saints and Ethan Page possibly joining Seth's still unnamed faction.
Liv Morgan's injury and how that affects evolution. MJF getting real deal fan heat back in Mexico. And of course, Mercedes Monet and the Beast Mortals now an item. So. David, I'll let you spin the wheel. Just say one. Wait, how do I do it? You have control of the wheel. Okay, say go. Spin now. Here we go. I hope you can hear it through the... Kyle, Brian Waters out today.
Producer, we have Kyle sitting in four, but Kyle, if we can have that noise of the spinning, it would be ideal. There we go. And the applause. There we go. All right. Oh, the applause. Okay. We have a winner. The first topic to discuss. Jey Uso won the Fatal 4-Way on Monday Night Raw, and now he will face off against Cody Rhodes in the semifinals of the King of the Ring tournament.
Where are we going? This was really well done. I'm surprised we didn't get here on Monday when we realized Jay was going to be in the King of the Ring. This is... I think it's actually a really if the if the if the if the goal here is getting is getting to Cody versus Cena at SummerSlam. And again, I'm not I don't think that's anywhere nearly a sure thing. But if that's the goal, this is an excellent.
little bonus piece of business to throw in because it gets you invested in Cody Rhodes. This isn't like, like when Cody won the Royal Rumble. It felt so preordained that like we needed the tension of Sami Zayn. Even though this is not a direct parallel, to get us to really getting behind Cody Rhodes. We needed a reason to be rooting for Cody, even if it was at the expense of Sami Zayn or somebody else. Right, right.
If Cody is just going to march right to SummerSlam, then I think that's when you risk the fans sort of getting bored of Cody. But now we have to decide, who do I want more, Cody or Jey Uso? Right. These are two of my favorites. I got to cheer for somebody. This is going to be there's tension. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And on top of that, I think the big elephant in the room is why Seth and Cody don't fight.
Like, this is the second week in a row that Seth has come out ready to, you know, do battle. And then Cody sort of comes in and steps to him. And there's just like this quiet conversation between the two that we don't really know what's going on. But Seth is clearly holding back from attacking Cody for some reason. Oh, they were doing the thing where Cody and Jay were not standing parallel. They were on different planes in both directions. I think there were there were.
where I thought both of these dudes were going to attack the other dude on Monday night but there was a I think judging from the reaction online there was a widespread suspicion that Cody was about to join Seth's crew. Right, right. I think that's what they're trying to tease a little bit. Right. But I don't know if that's going to really happen. Nah, I mean, it doesn't feel like a real thing, but... I don't think that's, the tension is more what matters, right? Yes, yes, yes.
And I think they're doing a really good job with it. Like I said, I mean, it's just you got to keep things. You got to keep some question marks in there. You got to keep things interesting because otherwise it's, you know, the death march of Cody Rhodes, the top is not. it will leave something to be desired yeah i'll just say that and they're doing a really good job of keeping the tension going yeah i agree um it feels like uh It feels like this Seth group needs something.
And I think this Cody Rhodes tension is the thing it kind of needs because I don't know about you, Dave. Is it giving for you? Is it giving, as the kids say? What is giving? I don't even know what the kids mean. When the kids say it's giving, that means it's like, is it inspiring you? Are you into this? Are you like that? It's not giving to me. I don't know if it's giving right now. It's funny. The Seth group is more of like.
I mean, there are some dangerous alliance parallels here. The fact that they still don't have a name doesn't trouble us a little bit. The fact that, you know, Seth and Paul Heyman's chemistry is still... not it's definitely not in the same level of punk and rome punk roman and brock clearly like those are the with hayman like the the seth hayman chemistry still has to kind of figure itself out
But Cody being added into this mix, I think, gives it a little bit of intrigue or the intrigue we kind of need. Because, you know, as of right now, I mean, it's... they haven't really made an impact. I don't say, I mean, yeah, they got the money in the bank briefcase and they sort of, you know, and every week it's nice to see.
Brom Breakers sliced someone in half with an insane spear here and there. Yeah, I was going to say, they got some stuff happening. They got some stuff, but I still am not terribly sure and clear of... what like what's their mission statement right like when the bloodline was a thing We knew what the mission statement was. The mission statement was roaming at the top by any means necessary and then get the family on top and...
It's easier to tell that story because they're all family. There's real blood. There's real stake in those claims, right? But with this alliance, you know... Bronson really tried to kill Seth Rollins just a few months ago. And Brom Breaker... you could argue was hotter without them you know what i mean like you could argue that when he was rolling on his own even though the barks is still barking and all that stuff you could argue that brawn breaker was probably on a better trajectory on his own
So the Cody thing gives it a little bit of interest and entry because there's a story to tell at least now. And I just don't think there's, I just think outside of the day after mania, that it's been a real lack of story with, with those guys. It's just been. future and control. What does all that mean? I don't get it. This is about the future of pro wrestling. Come on. What does that even mean? The future of pro wrestling? I don't get it. I still don't.
i'm still i'm still it's not giving to me no no you're you're not giving you're not you're not wrong you're not wrong but but i think that the lack of a name is it kind of tells you everything you need to know For better or worse, they're taking a bloodline pace with this story.
Right. They're going to take their time. There were so many times in the first year of the bloodline we were like, well, why don't they just, when is he going to turn? When is he going to, like, when are we getting to end game here? And the answer was, we're just taking our time. This is slow cooking. now you know and i think that that's i think that whether or not it's just they can't pick a name i think they're signaling like we got plenty of time right
There's still a lot of table setting there, a lot of foundation building, which I can understand. So I think that's why the Cody thing is like, all right, something's got to get us there until August. yes absolutely well at least the Cody thing I think the most powerful thing about the Cody thing is we don't even know if this is a story they're meaning to tell
Right. It's the uncertainty. You know, this is like, it's just the question. This is old school. Like this is like watching wrestling when you're a kid and you don't get all this stuff. By the way, I found a. Reddit thread that must have been but it was from like the WWE Reddit so it's like kids that are posting on here but like it was somebody made posted an ironic thing about about Corey Graves being El Grande Americano. 95% of the responses were...
like totally in good faith, like making their guesses. Like, I think Ludwig Kaiser is El Grande Americano. Yeah, I was about to say, like, somebody was like, have you noticed that ever since El Grande Americano debuted, we haven't seen Ludwig Kaiser? I'm like, ah, plausible. plausible yes yeah yeah exactly so i mean i'm just saying to get some of that wonder back that wonderment from when you were a kid it's kind of great you know that's it you know um
But I think the Cody tension is great. And I think with Cody, too, it's just you've got to just keep putting him in uncomfortable situations. Because Cody is a white meat babyface and there's nothing that we fans traditionally hate more than white meat babyfaces having the red carpet rolled out for them. Right, right, right. Right?
And so there has to be a second level of storytelling going on with Cody all the time. And the Jay thing is good. The Seth thing is good. There's just a lot of... It's all very... effective, if nothing else, it's effective misdirection. If this is a slow march towards Cody beating Cena at SummerSlam...
I think we're going to be more invested in it because we're not sure where Cody's allegiances lie because we're not sure if we have to decide, like I said at the top, do we prefer him to Jey Uso? Or our truth. Or R-Truth. Or CM Punk. Yeah, that's the other thing. We don't know. Well, that's another good way. CM Punk. I mean, CM Punk is using R-Truth as like his secret weapon, you know, through all this. Like, yeah, we have to make these decisions. Who do we want?
to dethrone John Cena. I think at the end of the day, it's going to help Cody Rhodes. I mean, if Cody's the choice, they got to do whatever they can, you know? and then we have Cody punk tension coming out of this or whatever it is you know so
Yeah, I think good stuff. That's probably enough on this subject because we're going to come back to all these points. But in general, we have Cody versus Jey Uso. That was the subject on Monday Night Raw next week. Who do you think is going to win? I think, man. it would kind of make sense for Jey Uso to win this, right? Like, it feels like... I could totally see the Dangerous Alliance and Braun and Braun Security costing Cody.
Or Kostin J. i don't know because they've beaten jay up but they haven't beaten up cody so like i don't know if there's some sort like something's got to give there it's like i think wherever the thing lies wherever the the allegiances lie with with seth and why the hell
He's refused to attack Cody or if he's biding his time or something like that. Like, I think that's going to tell who wins this tournament. Like, I could totally see Jey Uso winning King of the Ring, King Uso, King Yeet, whatever. And, you know. Getting back to SummerSlam and running it back with Gunther once again. I can see that. I can't necessarily say King Cody. You know what I mean? Like, King Cody feels...
Well, if it's King Cody, it's going to be like Gunther. He's not going to walk around with a crown. Yeah, he'll acknowledge it and then be like, all right, this is great. Thank you. I'm out. But... Although King Cody would be kind of cool if there ever were a heel turn. Is that like the start of like his, you know, getting drunk with power sort of thing of like people start calling him king and it goes to his head. I don't know. Cody seems like the type who's not.
gonna turn babyface just to give i mean not gonna turn heel just to give the show like a boost like i think the cody business the american nightmare business is heavily reliant on him being like a super duper uber good guy babyface right now. I could... I couldn't really see him. If they didn't turn him for WrestleMania, they're not going to turn him for SummerSlam. I'll put it like that. So if I had to guess. Well, okay. I don't disagree with you, but I will just say this devil's advocate here.
Everything that we've heard is that the idea of him turning at WrestleMania was the Rocks pitch, right? And we all know how the Rocks pitch is of war lately. But maybe the reluctance by Cody, by Triple H. had something to do with the fact that like we've already got this shit planned and you're just gonna be like you're gonna be like like cutting the legs out from under the plan that we have okay you know what i mean i see that
I could totally see a world in which they plan for a Cody heel turn at SummerSlam. I'm not saying that there's a real indication that we're headed that way. I'm just saying, let's just say that Cody and Triple H had figured this whole thing out. No, people are going to think it seems...
but then i'm gonna be the real heel and then the rock comes in he's like i got an idea let's turn cody heel yeah your reaction is gonna be like no dude this we have we we got this you know like don't like you don't have to be make you don't have to be fantasy booking shit we've already taken care of all the But we'll see. We'll see. I don't think we're necessarily headed that way.
But I don't think that the lack of turn at WrestleMania, I mean, WrestleMania was supposed to be the moment that John Cena turned to you, right? So that, you know, they're taking this piece by piece. That's true. Okay. All right. But I don't, but I agree with you in principle.
i think the cody business much like the john cena business before it is you know i mean i don't think like wheatley vodka and the I don't know the Wheatley vodka would care, but like, you know, the, the, the podcast empire, everything that they're doing is, is, is based on him being a good guy.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Before we head back to the, to the wheel of topics, is there anything we want to add to the wheel? Now Jay and Cody is out. Is there anything you want to add? I think we're good for now. I think we're good for now. Yeah. By the way, I think. If you would say Cody, I would have said Jay for this match on Monday. I think Cody wins. I think it has something to do with Seth. I think Cody marches onward. I think this is going to...
be chalk and we'll, you know, but they're going to give us a lot of reasons to doubt it along the way. We also got Sami Zayn versus Randy Orton on the other side. I don't know which one makes more sense. If it's going to be Cody, I think him having to overcome another compatriot in Sami Zayn would be great. But also just we could just go right into the Randy Orton thing. So I don't really know. It would make a lot more sense for Sammy to lose and then have to deal with Karrion Kross.
And there's obviously something cooking there. But I don't know. I mean, it's Saudi Arabia, so I think we're all kind of assuming Sami Zayn's going to win. I don't know if Sami makes more sense in Saudi. On both sides of the coin, though. could have jay versus sammy for the crown and you could have cody versus randy for the crown which i think are both interesting matchups especially given uh where it's taking place you know what i mean so
It's definitely interesting. It's definitely interesting how they're going to put that. All right. Spin the wheel. Let's move on to another topic. And we've got bilingual hangman. Yeah. All right. Great, great topic. Okay.
Let's start this off. In case you missed it, and I'm assuming you did not, at AEW's on Dynamite this week, or sorry, Grand Slam Mexico this week, the show was opened by Hangman Adam Page. Speaking in... borderline fluid jace espanol uh he grew up on a farm his family farm and they had uh uh annual workers from mexico and he learned spanish from them and it was like a heart
Felt story, but it was also just like a shot of appreciation in the fans. According to Brian Alvarez, not only did it go over, but like, you know, they're begging for more hangman in Mexico now because, you know. And the only cure for it is more hangman, more bilingual hangman. That's what it is. Yeah. Yeah, no, it was great. I love the promo. It reminded me very much of...
the non-native Spanish speakers in Texas where I, when I was growing up, it had that great Southern twang accompanying the, uh, the, the, the, you know, functional Spanish. Um,
And it was a great look for them. I can't tell you, not only was this a big deal when it happened, but I feel like every day there's been more... AEW just released the subtitled version of this. I don't think they realized how big... of a deal this was going to be on social media and just in wrestling news in general well why was it such a big deal i'll say i'll say this i mean i think you can't ignore that the climate of the country and what's going on with you know immigration especially
for mexicans in this country like it was one of those moments that seemed genuine and and felt heartfelt and it's like You know, add to the fact like Brody King comes out a few moments later with an Abolish Ice t-shirt. It's like, that's... That's what America is supposed to be like, right? Like, it's when we work together and we, you know, a dude from, where is he, Virginia? A Virginia cowboy who was raised on a farm around Mexicans and, like, is now embraced by the culture.
he embraced it as a child and you know it's hearing him speak you know We've heard some great Spanglish over the years for some athletes that have to go and address the crowd. I think Blake Griffin famously came out during a preseason game with Luka Doncic. spoken fluent Spanish and Blake Griffin was like si, si and walked out so um
Not only having the ability to do that, but the position that he's in right now as the number one contender for the AEW World Championship. It's like, you look at that and it's like... That's the kind of guy you want as the face of your franchise, man. It was really dope. What he said, obviously, I went back and...
He spoke the Spanish so slowly that I could make out, I could translate what he was saying as he was saying it. But after I went back and like read the transcript and just saw just his real life story, how he implemented it and how much he embraced being in Mexico right there. I was like, that is a franchise player right there, man. And the timing of it couldn't have been any better. So kudos to Hangman, man. I thought that was really, really dope. Yeah, I mean, I think there's also an element.
justified or know where like you know in the in the pro in the internet wrestling community there's a vibe that wwe maybe doesn't have as much respect for the uh the lucha libre uh culture for this and this company they've just bought in AAA and that this is just like a real other side of the coin sort of situation you know I think that you're absolutely right about the politics of the whole thing as well but yeah man
It was a show. It was really like a traditional show closer. Right. This is like after the camera is the kind of thing you're used to hearing after the cameras go off. Right. Where like somebody comes out and they're like, yeah, well, you know, Cody Rhodes out there like, oh, yeah, I didn't get to wrestle tonight, but we're going to give you.
a little something here like well here's the dark match you know and just thanking everybody for being there but it was but it opened the show and I think that was really significant you know I think it was really smart I think it was really smart because like the star of the AEW this week was that crowd and the crowd eating it up being able to so great
it could have went left really bad if you put somebody out there that was like struggling with their spanish and like you put them out there in front of a mexican crowd and it could have went left like but you could tell even if you didn't understand exactly what he was saying he had that entire crowd like Activated and like cheering for him and going nuts at every single thing that he said that was big enough
you know, the Mexican crowd. So, yeah, that was good business, man. Shout out to Paige. That was dope. It was. Dope is the right word. How do you say dope in Spanish? El dope. Okay. Is that it? That might be it. Can you cut a promo in Spanish? Can you cut a promo in any language besides English?
uh no i don't think i could i mean my yoruba is a little a little come see come saw you know i mean i got some french in there my spanish is here's the thing I'm really good at detecting languages and hearing it and knowing what you're talking about, but asking me to say it back to you, not the best.
Not the best. I'm really good with my pronouns and context clues on the words. So I can make out the gist of what somebody is saying to me in French, Spanish, or Yoruba. But asking me to say it back? Mm-mm. Not great. Not my thing. Not my thing. Yeah, no. And that just made, like, yeah, the degree of difficulty there for Hangman, just incredible stuff for all of you. People like us who are not equipped to cut foreign language promos. All right. Want to spin the wheel? Let's spin the wheel.
Here we go. I love how it slows down real fortune shit. Real dramatically. Oh, rumors of WWE for sale by TKO. I don't know. First of all.
I didn't even see this rumor, and we should establish right up front that it's not true. It's not true, but there was definitely lots of rumors that was picked up by tons of... wrestling sites because all i saw was like a screen grab of a yahoo finance article that said you know TKO looking to unload WWE and I was like usually that would come with a link or a real story but Let's see. I'm on cultaholic.com and I'll just read it.
Right here. Rumors about WWE's future as part of TKO group holding have swirled over the past several weeks ever since it was claimed by former WWE commentator Jonathan Coachman.
That Vince McMahon was interested in buying back WWE. Although it quickly emerged that McMahon would almost certainly not have the financial means to buy WWE from TKO, further rumors were fueled on January 18th after a Yahoo Finance story about all... elite wrestling and the upcoming warner brothers discovery split stated
Quote, in September 2023, Endeavor completed a $21 billion merger between WWE and UFC, forming TKO Group. Netflix began exclusively streaming WWE's flagship Raw on show January as part of the $5 billion 10-year rights deal. Speculation has surfaced that TKO group may look to unload WWE. Dave Meltzer reported that it's been denied by TKO, saying, quote, the stories have been somehow buying WWE, even if I saw a lot in the story.
about how TKO is looking to sell WWE. And it's like, aside from that being denied all day, TKO has just saved between $100 million and $150 million by essentially removing so many jobs and things like that because they could operate UFC and WWE within the same. Yeah, they haven't even started...
dipping into the sort of synchronicity that we all were talking about when the sale was initially announced. Right. I mean, there's so many opportunities to make money here. It would be gross negligence for them to just cut bait so quickly. You know, even if I mean, it would have to be real dire.
financial straits and i don't see that they just uh you know they they're they they they're they're selling, they're doing UFC pre-sales with a UFC WWE like offer code, you know, like this is obviously that's not saying a lot, but you know, they, they, this would be ridiculous it would be absolutely ridiculous like you don't
You don't make this kind of financial stake just to roll over, you know, because things are not going badly. How much money are they making from WWE's TV deal? It's just sort of ridiculous. I just wrote it off as a silly rumor immediately. Anything from the coach and bro podcast is just trying to get your ire up. That's it. We don't need to deal with that. There is another Vince McMahon story, which we have separately on the wheel.
but we can talk about it here, that he tried to buy the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship. It's just called by Conor McGregor, right? Oh, is it? Yeah, Bare Knuckle Fighting, yeah. Yeah, so, and I think the owner said something like, hey, we like, you know, Vince is a really impressive dude and his team was great, but it just wasn't the right time.
You could read that any number of ways. I don't think anybody is like really probably super eager to give Insight Man involved, although he certainly brings his own set of positive attributes. I think if he gets into any other combat sport.
or wrestling adjacent property that's not pro wrestling. Like, listen, I think if you started a pro wrestling promotion, it would fail. But I think if he tried to take his Vince McMahon mindset to any other, anything else, it would fail dramatically. Like we actually have proof of this. I don't think the market... I don't think we have the... I think for the former, I don't think... We don't have the... I don't think the market has space for another pro wrestling promotion and...
I'm not sure that even if it did, the Vince McMahon version is what, unless he hired away everybody that he used to work with in WWE, I just don't know how it would go off. It just seems like a recipe for disaster. Which you would cover just out of just pure... just pure like car wreck staring kind of like ogling stuff. But anyway, but we've seen the WBF, the World Bodybuilding Federation. We've seen him try to take the pro wrestling sensibility into other arenas and it just, it doesn't work.
He's not the guy to do it. I mean, clearly they took a lot of the pro wrestling sensibility when they made UFC into the big enterprise that it is today, but... I've just never felt like Vince is self-aware enough about what works and what doesn't work and what he's been successful at. I don't think that it would ever work.
I just don't think there's any reason to believe he would be successful at it. Aside from throwing a shit ton of money at it. And even that, like it said in that piece, like he doesn't have the money to buy back WWE. He's got like billions of dollars. I mean, you know, settlements. uh, exempted that he could, he conceivably be spending on this, but I just don't, he's not going to want to spend his own money. And I don't know.
I just don't think. I just don't see it, man. I just don't see it. I think he's going to stay on the periphery for the rest of time, and then he'll never really get back in the game. Man, I don't know. That is a cunning, like, like the whole Vince McMahon story is like how many times he's been like counted out a certain shit. So like as much as I.
I'm almost certain with age and everything that's happened with his personal life that he'd probably just kind of like fade into the background. Man, that dude. Does not know how to fade into the back. There were so many times. That's true. There's so many times I'd watch this dude operate and the way he operated to like before all the crazy shit and just be like, man, like.
At what point do you just want to go and enjoy life? Do you really want to spend your twilight years as a billionaire thinking of pretty deadly promos on Friday night? That's what he was doing. No, no, no. I mean, listen, I spent a lot of time in the same room as him. when we did the documentary, there's no part of him that understands retirement. Maybe he's come to some of that in this forced retirement. Maybe he's found some inner peace and whatever else. But what you said is totally correct.
I just think it takes a lot more to get a wrestling company off the ground, to get any kind of company off the ground now than it might once have. Low-key, I think that WWE's kind of flood the zone strategy to be on every network and to try to whatever. I mean... That is, we always read that as being a sort of anti-AEW, sort of anti-competition in that direction sort of move, but no doubt.
whatever Vince McMahon would have done is being factored into because you know what? There's nowhere else. There's like, there's nowhere left for another company to go. You know, like what major network is going to get a pitch from Vince McMahon? And not already have a WWE or AEW deal. If there's anybody left, any streaming service, whatever, you know what's going to happen? Nick Khan's going to call him right up and just be like, hey, do you want WWE the...
Megazone will make a new show for you, you know? And they'll say, yeah, we'd rather have that, you know? And even the threat, like, hey, we were thinking about shopping our next TV deal to you. You don't want that? Because if you get in bed with Vince, it's not going to happen. There's just no way, man. I mean, WWE is too powerful to let another pro wrestling company show up.
or fighting company. UFC has been at the forefront of squashing the competition for its entire existence. You know, I just don't see it. I don't know. I'd say it. I'd say, but it's just like... There's just... No, I know. Saying it'll never happen. Yeah, like saying a never with Vince is like, man, like I don't I just I just don't know. I don't know. It sounds crazy until it happens. And like that dude is crazy enough to do it.
I don't know. It is what it is. I do think that he's got a huge vested interest in having his last act not be the one that just happened. Right? So it's not even about failure for him so much as just sort of rewriting the ending a little bit. And, and that's hard. That's difficult to quantify, you know, like how that would play out. Well, we'll see anyway.
So we've taken two off the board now. Sorry, we leapfrogged. Let's spin the wheel again. Okay. Spin it. Hopefully we get some AW topics. Sort of. Here we go. The debut of Blake Monroe. Yeah. Kez, you made so many listeners mad right now. Only you would count Blake Monroe and NXT as an AEW topic. I'm like, sort of. We can get it. We can get there because, all right, Blake Monroe, new name. She's been NXT-ified.
and PC-ified and therefore christened Blake Monroe for the first time. We talked a little bit about the name before. I'm not really mad at the name, although, I mean, about the name itself. It is a little bit weird that they didn't stick with what they had or... go with something a little bit closer but they must have made a really conscientious decision for whatever reason we don't want people googling to see what else she's done and
Finding the competition. And owning it. But there's been a lot of talk with the Blake Monroe presentation that it's a little Sabrina Carpenter. Oh, it's a lot, Sabrina Carpenter. A lot of Tony Storm. You know what I mean? Yeah. I feel like I'm too old to be talking about this because I seriously don't understand it and don't have the brain. I can't even talk right now. It shows you where the state my brain's at.
But Liv Morgan was doing some Sabrina Carpenter inspired stuff too. Apparently she's just the only artistic frame of reference for the current generation. I'm not exactly sure why. She's the white sexy red is what she is. She's the white, sexy red. She sings all the nice stuff. That also means nothing to me, but go ahead. I'll let you continue. She sings all these nice things, all these naughty things in nice ways.
as far as being blonde and cute and sort of, I don't even know the word I really want to use, but yeah. There's been lots of inspiration between Liv, between Sol Ruka, Blake Monroe, Tiffany Stratton. They've all used some sort of... Sabrina Carpenter inspired content in the past couple of weeks. But there's also been talk that, you know, she's taken a little bit of the Tony Storm.
uh character and sort of applied a little bit of it to this Blake Monroe uh character uh and and I'll know if it's about the straight up They don't do the old-timey videos. They do, like, the new-timey, like, you know, I Dream of Genie style.
uh you know oh yeah there's videos and stuff wasn't that all just wasn't that all just a sabrina carpenter swipe it was exactly all of that yeah like sabrina sabrina jacked it from my dream of genie and you know i dream of genie was probably like the og sort of like we're gonna implement some animation it's gonna be you know cutesy wootsy like Jetson style sort of cartoons and implement it into real life and the magic of it all like yeah yeah we've all we've seen it
But, you know, she's just thrown right into the top of the card as far as like the women's division is concerned. I know. Stephanie Vaqueror is just, am I? I mean, she just fully got called up. It's not even like a conversation about like, is she going to get another title shot? It's like, no, we're just moving on to a new era. And that's a thing you can do in NXT. I would complain about it if it wasn't.
nxt but i guess they're real tv shows so maybe i should complain about it um but yeah i think it's it's a it's a great setup with jc jane and fatal influence did i get that right yes Oh, my God. And and and, you know, to have them as the foils and more. Sorry, Blake Monroe. Was this just like newcomer baby face? I guess baby face. I mean.
I'm all about them just throwing whatever they have, just like trying things out. Because even as Mariah May, given that they're changing her name, I mean, listen, Mariah May was basically a made woman by the time she was done in AEW. No surprise she's here in WWE. But I do think that there's... I do think that there was some concern that walking her in...
And that maybe in the same way they did Ricky Sains is sort of, you know, like, you know who I am, but you don't know why I'm here. It maybe wouldn't have flown in the same way. I think they have to establish what makes her different in WWE. and what makes her special in the kind of vocabulary of WWE. And I think...
It does feel like they're starting a little bit from scratch with the name change and everything else. And I mean, she could have gone straight to the main roster, you know? She still might be there pretty soon. I think they've sort of, you kind of get the feeling that they've sort of changed the philosophy.
call-ups right like they used to feel like sort of graduations like it's like all right the main event of the pay-per-view you drop the title to the new star like the guy in the crowd is now you know debuting you know like there's always sort of like a graduation feel to these call-ups now it just kind of feels like plug and play now it just feels like hey man our women's division needs needs to jump and we can do this you know like
Even the rumors, which is on this wheel, but I guess we'll touch on it a little bit. The rumors of Ricky Saints and Ethan Page being a part of the Seth faction. I think we kind of got to look at these call-ups differently now. It almost seems like NXT in specific. specifically the PC talent and the LFGs and all that type of stuff is used for those recruits and those new signings and sort of like getting them ready. And the guys out of the mainstays over there.
They sort of float between the main roster, TNA, and, you know, the top of the card at NXT. So, I don't know, man. Like, I think with Blake Monroe... It's, you know, the JC Jane of it all feels right, you know, especially as a first sort of feud and that crew that she has with Fatal Influence. But...
I still think there's a lot remains to be seen with Blake Monroe slash Mariah May. I think so, too. I think all the bells and whistles in the debut and all that stuff is great, but what really ties it all together is when we see her in the ring. and the confluence from the blonde, you know, bombshell Hollywood starlet look to like a person who will bleed from the mouth and like, you know, do like these extra, you know what I mean? That's the hard thing about reestablishing.
and not wanting people to Google Mariah May because really what sets her apart is the blood covered version. The violence is what sets her apart for sure. So do we get there in this J.C. Jane feud and we're like, wow, she's the glamour, but she's also the, you know, monster? You know? figuring out a way to establish that because that's harder that's not one note and that's what makes it super interesting but you can't really convey that in a
Sabrina Carpenter promo. I think it was just so cut and paste that I think there must be more coming really soon. Because it's really important, man. I mean, there was all those people that compared her to Tiffany Stratton when they were both sort of just like popping on the scene. And I think that was, besides them both being blonde and wearing pink, that was just really inaccurate. Lazy comparison. Yeah, it was lazy. But I do think in a more general sense, there is...
She has the sort of character that when she walks onto this, like if she debuted on raw, despite the fact that there's nobody else that's really doing a glamor gimmick. in the same way. There's something about that glamour gimmick that just kind of... feels a little bit diva Zara. It feels a little bit like, it feels a little bit like you've seen it before. And so immediately you're asking what sets her apart. And so by the time that she.
gets to the active roster, I think we have to be able to see immediately what sets her apart. So they have a little bit of rebuilding to do to get her to the super dynamic talent that made us all... go absolutely nuts when she was aew champ or or it shows just how much the chemistry she had with Toni Storm was just out of this world, right? Because, you know, they did do a lot of other stuff with her in AEW. She did have a couple of other feuds as the woman's.
world champion after you know beating tony in that long feud and none of them really connected You know what I mean? So it's like, she didn't do much. No, at the time we were saying, why is everything a placeholder? Yeah. I don't think it's as cut as dry and just be like, oh, like she'll just be as, just as good as she was, you know, when she gets to WWE and it's like, well, you know.
damn near 80% of the work she did in AEW was with Tony Storm you know what I mean so it's like whether as her lackey whether being in her as a rival like she's been like connected to this person from jump so now she's kind of got a float with no I'm not saying she can't, but, you know, she's kind of got to go out there with no floaties now and see if she can sink or swim, you know, without her. I'm sure she can. I'm sure she will.
But to the fan's eye, they're always going to see what she's done with Tony and see if it's up to snow. Justifiably so. That's what she's done so far. So, yeah. So we will soon see. We will soon see. My hopes are very high. Let's spin the wheel. Let's spin the wheel. We're almost done with all these topics, man. Let's see.
I think it's a Blake Monroe. I'm sorry. I'm going back. But it's the name Blake Monroe feels a little bit too much like they spun the wheel. Like it's a little bit of like a WWE name generator. But anyway. If you hear those applause, if you hear the spinning, we have landed on what I think is probably the most consequential news of the week, and that's Liv Morgan.
uh dislocating her shoulder on the raw against uh kairi sane and uh you know and uh it looked bad when it happened it looked bad immediately and it definitely is potentially six months off so there's a lot of there's a lot of Peace is coming off of this. First of all, get well soon. Live. It sucks. Second of all, Dominic Mysterio has got his way. Whenever he's ready.
To move on. Somehow the ladies he was with before just sort of get taken out of action. I'm not sure what happens. Maybe it's the Dom curse. If Roxanne Perez breaks her hand in six months right when... Right when her storyline with Dom is hitting its peak, you're going to know it's a dominant Mysterio curse. But Liv got hurt right at the crux of a number of storylines. One being...
the, you know, the, it's weird. The, her thing with, you know, Roxanne joining the judgment day, which is weird because it happens at like the exact same place in the story that, that Rhea got hurt when, when Liv was moving in on Dom. Maybe more importantly, I mean, this was like she opened the show on Monday Night Raw, setting up this feud with Nikki Bella, which everyone assumes it was going to be a giant match at Evolution. Now, what do we do with that?
you know, you could obviously just do a very, I mean, I think the most obvious thing would just be to give Roxanne Perez that match, although she, I mean, I think, and let her sort of take that glory and be part of the storyline. But, you know, obviously that's a huge hit for Liv, who was, I mean, maybe the most complete female talent on Monday Night Raw.
I mean, her past year has been absolutely nuts. Not to take anything away from Rhea Ripley or whatever, but she's just been such an important asset for them. Yeah, it sucks. You know, she's been, like you said, she's been indispensable for WWE in the past year, whether it's the Rhea. rivalry, whether it was the tag team titles, whether it was the judgment day stuff, like she's been not just like entertaining outside the ring, but like in the ring, she's come so far.
as an in-ring competitor, that, you know, an injury on something that simple and that, like, routine, like, has to suck, like, the absolute most. So... That being said, man, it all sort of seemed like this was going to be another summer of live, whether it was the movie she just did, whether it was the rivalry with... Nikki Bella, possibly a Bella Twins.
tag team match at evolution, which was, uh, rumored as well. Um, obviously the Bella twins really in play. I keep seeing that rumor and I'm just like, I'm just going to stop reading. There's no way that Brie Bella would be. Yeah, I mean, I don't know if it was in play, but like one could just only assume that, you know, you're the tag team champions.
she's won half of the tag team champions like one could assume that a bella twins tag team title match could have been in play but who knows maybe i'm maybe it's maybe it's wrong to assume that but um Yeah, the timing of it, you can imagine, throws a lot of plans in the summer out of whack a little bit. So especially when you got Roxanne Perez, who's been, you know.
definitely been tapped as like the next chosen one in the women's division right like every time she comes out they talk about how she's you know was the iron woman in the in the royal rumble and like she was the youngest to do this and the youngest to do that and it's like all right And now you're in a program with Liv Morgan, who is arguably probably top two or three stars in the women's division. It sucks. So I'm really interested to see how they sort of pivot.
from here and and fill in the holes that it looked like live was was supposed to plug in uh this this uh this summer coming up whether it has to do with summer slam like man summer slam was in her backyard right like Elwood Park New Jersey is a stolen store away from MetLife Stadium so like that on top of that that has to suck as well so um
I don't know, man. Again, injuries are part of the game, and especially in this industry, there's never a good time for them to happen. But this especially was a pretty tough time for... injuries to happen to live. So I don't know. I'm sure, though, they got more than enough talent to make up for it, but it just sucks for her and especially how the way it went down.
She's also been one of the most effective heels in the entire company over the past two years. Certainly the last year. Is the heel era of Liv Morgan over? It was almost over already, man. Like she gets baby face pops. There's no way she's coming.
There's no way she's coming back as a hero. Nah, nah. Like she was already getting baby face cheers when she came. What do you think? So how far? I mean, let's say she's back in six months. Do we walk right? I mean, are we going to see the Liv Morgan Rhea Ripley reunion? Like sooner rather than later? Are we just going to... I mean, because she's got to come... There's no way she doesn't come back to...
Dom sitting uncomfortably close on the couch to Roxanne Perez. Am I crazy? I could see Roxanne Perez filling in for live and becoming a tattoo like they can literally run back. The Jade, Bianca, Naomi story with a splash of the Liv, Rhea story. Have Roxanne and, you know... God, Raquel become the new tag team champions, have Roxanne and Dom, you know, take a liking to each other. And...
Yeah, you could print money with Rhea and Liv getting back together to finally destroy the monster that they both created and seeing the enemy of the enemy is my friend sort of type of thing going on there. We can see that. We can see that. But, you know, until then, there's a long ways away. Six months is a long time. That's damn near, I don't know, you're getting us damn near to the Royal Rumble again. tough tough tough maybe they don't keep her off of TV maybe she still shows up
Maybe she still has moments where she doesn't get physical because with a separated shoulder. Well, that's the other thing. I wondered that right at the moment that we started having this conversation, when she got hurt, she doesn't have to go anywhere, right? Just having her sit outside the ring, despondent. Maybe she's there to help Roxanne at Evolution, but then she, like, you know, works against her. There's a lot of ways you could go with this.
that's a good it's a good it's a good way it's a good reason why you play up the injury and don't act like it didn't happen you know what i mean like injury is a part of the game like as much as it sucks dude i actually missed it when it happened on raw
Like I would just like flipped away and I flipped back and they were discussing it. The announcers were discussing it. And the way that they were discussing it made me think it was a work because it was like, well, we're really just acknowledging this straight up. Yeah. You go straight to commercial. And like, that was it.
Yeah, that's a real... The announcers, by the way, were Michael Cole and Corey Graves. Corey Graves is back. Great to see him. He did a fantastic job. He was better than... I mean, he was out there like he's one of the best. well it shouldn't surprise people that he's great at this like he is yeah for sure um let's see
Well, but I mean, but listen, Liv Morgan's loss is a big deal for WWE. It's not going to be impossible to build an evolution card without her. It just sucks that she got hurt right at this moment in time. You know, I think it actually could be beneficial. Let me go back. It won't be impossible to build an evolution guard without her, although it sucks we're not going to get that match with Nikki Bella. And I think it could actually only help the Judgment Day piece of it.
But it just sucks. It just sucks timing wise. I mean, come on. It's never a good time to be hurt. I mean, especially when you're like out there doing yeoman's work. like opening the show you know like big promo off the top And then you're wrestling in a match too, which is like so unnecessary. It was just like, not unnecessary, like they shouldn't have done it. I'm just saying like, she's like a star for this show. She's a workhorse for this freaking thing.
It just sucks that she got hurt in just one of the most innocuous sort of ways. It sucks. It goes without saying, but if you think Kairi Sane bears any responsibility for the injury, you're a dodo. I mean, just a straight up... Dunderhead fool.
So we can skip on. Next subject? Let's click the wheel. We got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 spots. We could probably take off this Monday Night Raw thing. I think we've discussed the Raw pretty. Yeah, that's fine. That's pretty good. All right, let's spin the wheel. Here we go. Yeah, buddy. Colt Hogan on his deathbed. I know we started off with the cold open question of the week. So listen. Any other thoughts? There was a rumor. A rumor. Bubba the Love Sponge.
whose name you might recall from the Hulk Hogan sex tape escapade. What a lead. Sat on his show, which apparently still exists. That Hogan is in the hospital with heart issues and family members have been summoned to say their goodbyes. Almost immediately. TMZ reported that's not true. He has neck and back issues, which is why he's in the hospital. Great journalistic work by Bubba the Love Sponge there.
Probably this was all a work to get a little attention on Hulk Hogan or real American beer or whatever else. And yeah, Hulk Hogan can pretend he kicked out a certain death. I don't even know what else to say about it. I believed it was true, and I will say this. You can ask my wife. My immediate reaction was... I do not want to write this obituary. I was about to say, it's awkward for you because you are the dead wrestler guy. You are the man who is...
been made famous for eulogizing the greats who I've passed on. And everything said about Hulk Hogan, everything he's done in his life, like... That obituary is still going to be pretty heavy, man. Like, that's still one of the goats, as much as it pains me to say it. Like, I got to acknowledge everything he's sort of done for the industry. But, man, it's...
People are complicated, and especially wrestling people are complicated, and he's at the very top of the list of the complications that I think a lot of the audience has with him, a lot of other wrestlers have with him.
And at the same time, don't even have to argue it. It's almost a proven fact. A lot of this shit isn't here without him at the same time. So it's just kind of like... uh i'll never wish death upon anybody no matter how i feel about them personally that's just not my that's big of you going i know i know you can pat me on the back for that uh but you know uh I'm glad to hear that he's not on his deathbed. I'll say that. Glad he's not of his death. Yeah.
That dude's still, you know, people still care and love him. I'm glad I don't have to write that obituary. That's what I have to say. Let's spin the wheel again. Let's spin the wheel again. Yeah, let's just spin it. Let's go. We're down to about five segments. And... And... Oh! That's a buzzer! We talked about this a little bit again earlier in the show. I guess we'll touch on it again. Ricky Sates, Ethan Page, rumored to be joining Braun and Braun Security, a.k.a. the New Dangerous Alliance.
They could use some youth. And I'm not saying Ethan Page is the spring chicken here, but they could use some energy that kind of lends itself to the... future right like braun is one thing i know a fourth guy would kind of make this whole group feel a little complete
Would make it feel complete? It would feel complete with a fourth guy. I think it would. They feel a lot better now, obviously, with Bronson Reed. But I think the crux of this entire group is getting that Heyman and Rollins chemistry right. It's just not. there yet like they just you can tell like when Heyman was cutting promos with Lesnar and Punk and Roman not that he didn't care about these people but
you can tell that he cared about these people. Like he, like, yeah, you could tell, like, he was like, yeah, like they, They drive to work together. They have dinner. They sit next to each other in catering. And like he really and Heyman really does. At some point did act like a gopher for Roman. Like a lot of that stuff was a shoe. Like he did everything he could to make Roman's life easy. He's a real life manager, real life, you know? So, and that's what he's done. Most of his.
a good portion of his career has been looking after the, I don't know why you fought to family. Right. So like, um, you can't fake that sort of chemistry right like that's just not it just hasn't it just hasn't been there with sep yet and i'm sure it'll get there because the bloodline took what four four years of storytelling to really get, you know, everything told. And I think, you know, you could even make the argument that there's still some bloodline storyline happening here and there. But.
Man, it takes time to build chemistry and adding somebody to that group might help. But the main focus is Seth and Seth and Heyman, like getting that shit right. Yeah. Yeah, no, I think, I mean, I think just to take the original point, yeah, I think that adding somebody else, I mean, listen, the fear is that it would overcrowd, right? That people would lose, like, you know, Bronson Reed.
Bron Breaker, they lose screen time if Ricky Starks is there. And the last thing that Ricky Starks and even Ethan Page need, you know, is Paul Heyman talking for him. But... I think it could be a really good look. I think it could be a really good look. You have two big monsters, then you have the guy, the main guy in Seth Rollins, who you don't want being in the position to be eating pins a lot. I think that, listen.
somebody compared it to JD McDonough and they were like, do you really want Ricky saints to be JD McDonough? You know, the JD McDonough of the group, or do you really, you know, whatever. I think there's some validity to that question, but, but.
I don't, I mean, but look, listen, where would JD McDonough be without the judgment day? This is there. He's not the same person as Ricky saints, right? JD McDonough is in a great spot. And even if Ricky saints had to come up and eat some pins or whatever in these big time matches. That wouldn't be the end of the world for him. You can cover him. You can make it look... You can put some logic behind it. But I think this could be a huge platform for somebody like Ricky Sainz. And...
putting him around those other guys, I think could be really awesome, you know? And then at some point when this whole thing blows up, you have, you've made more stars. I don't know. I think it's smart. I think the dangerous Alliance. I think we look back at the Dangerous Alliance with some rose-colored glasses. There was a lot of... It wasn't exactly the new Four Horsemen, but it was incredibly cool. Mm-hmm.
But I do think it's a good template. You can have a big team. I kind of liked it when it was just Braun and Seth. But if you're going to start growing, just keep growing. You know, that should be Seth's thing. You know, we had, we saw Seth's conversation with Sammy Zane right after he joined up with Heyman. It's like, he's not trying to limit this movement. This is a, this is a movement, you know? And if you find other people who you think are simpatico, then.
They can join up. I think it could be good. I think so. Right? I mean, I don't know. I don't know if it could be good. I think we want it to be good. I definitely think we want it to be good. But to just assume it's going to get great again, like. Man, I think a lot of us really got to stop disrespecting Roman Reigns and just assuming that, like, oh, yeah, you just do the stuff that we did with Roman and it'll be just as good. Like, it could be better.
Is it going to be as good as what Roman's done over the past several years, even with his absence? No, no one's disrespecting Roman. I don't know. I think it's my Knicks bias, right? Right? Follow me here. I think the Pacers, who are about to play Game 7 in the Oklahoma City Thunder for the NBA Finals, everyone is shocked that it's gone to a Game 7, only, in my opinion, only because...
They played the Knicks and no one respects the Knicks. Right. It's like even during that series, it was like, oh, well, the winner of this series is clearly going to get ran through.
by the oklahoma city thunder and i think that same sort of ideology you know refers to this alliance with hayman and roman reigns like oh we'll just we'll just do the same thing we've done with roman and you know it'll all work out i was like no no man like that's roman reigns like it's there's levels right like there's levels to this and I think it's being put the respect on his name. I think it's being shown that there truly is levels to this. Not saying Seth is.
is is whack at all but you'd be a blind man to see that the chemistry that he has had with his previous compadres and the chemistry they have to set up is night and day yeah yeah totally Anyway, let's spin it again. Let's spin it. I think that was enough. We got four more topics left. Three AEW topics, one WWE topic. You weighted the wheel, you WWE show.
Here we go. Funny enough, the one WWE topic left. Wait, Vince, we've already talked about Vince back in the combat business. We have already talked about this. We will remove it. All right. Three topics left. Bad wheel management. It really has. Shout out to wheelofnames.com. You have done a great job of continuing my shill business. Let's see. Let's talk about MJF and that fan. He is Mexico. So who's a porter? I could not believe on AEW Grand Slam Mexico.
I could not believe that MJF took off Mystico's mask. That was kind of crazy. I wouldn't be shocked that he pitched it. I wouldn't be shocked that like even maybe some, maybe Mystico thought it was a good idea. I am shocked that they went through with it because that's a lot of heat to put on a dude who's going to work one or two shows for you down in Mexico. You know, it's a really big deal. But before that, can we talk about that mystical entrance into our arena Mexico?
that that day man that was oh yeah that was one of the greatest wrestling entrances i've ever seen in my life in my life i'm like i have little to no knowledge of the mystical backstory outside of that. He used to be Sin Cara. All right. And him coming out in the Sin Cara mass to a hero's welcome and shout out to Justin, Justin Roberts.
called that entrance like his life depended on it like it was beautiful to watch it was it was goosebumps inducing watching him walk out and watch that entire crowd just sing that ballad You know, apparently, you know, Mystico was in the music video for this song that was very popular 20 years ago. And, you know, he takes off the Sin Cara mask, and he has the Mexican-colored, you know, Mystico Max on. And...
That was great. Mexican flag just sitting there in the crowd. He snatches it from somebody and puts it on. And I'm just like, yo, this is some cool shit. And MJF, man.
Got some real heat on it. So much so that it's been reported that when he was heading back to his hotel room, he had fans at the show. I don't know the exact. Let me find out the exact details of... of what happened to him in mexico but a fan went after now this is from cage side seats a fan quote went after mjf at the hotel after grand slam mexico the quote says uh according to fightful select
A fan went after MJF at the hotel connected to the airport tonight at the AEW CMLL Grand Slam. Let's go. He was fine and seemed proud that the heat was that good. Hell yeah. Hell yeah, it was good. I'm good. I love how I'm surprised he was shocked because it was a really, I mean, here's the thing. And this is sort of true of, you know.
kind of cocky American acts working in Mexico sort of in general but like MJF's whole gimmick is that like he's rubbing it in your face right like he like like he in character does not understand the significance of that mask he just knows it's gonna piss you off you know what i mean and that's all but that makes it tough to pull off because
because it's dangerous you know you have a guy who's not only taking the mask but looks like he doesn't care about it you know he doesn't like it he doesn't like he thinks it's nothing and it's hard to big heat man it's hard to not uh acknowledge what's happening in the world right like i think yeah i don't know if you guys have noticed or not
Not a lot of babyface heat with the United States of America right now around the world, especially in Mexico, right? So I'm just looking at this picture of MJF and Uncle Sam, Stars and Stripes, MVP. body suit and the mexican mask over his face flipping the bird i'm like Yeah, given the timing of what's going on in the world, that's going to garner some real heat to some people that it's still real to me, damn it.
All of it was great. I felt that was the best work outside of, you know, Hangman's promo and Mercedes, who I'm assuming we're going to get to as one of the last topics over here. uh that was great business like i i want to see mystical get some get back now like i want to see it back in america and get that entrance again and see if the american crowd sort of takes to mystical
as Mexico did. So that could be a really good thing, man. You can't just let MJF slide with that, yo. I would want some get back from this. Oh, no. He's going to get his comeuppance. For sure. 1000%. Yeah. You get fans going after you and wrestling, traditionally in wrestling, that's a great sign. That's the best sign. It was a bold move by all parties involved. I'll say that. All right. Next subject.
Did you just predict it? Let's go. Two subjects left. AW Mexico as a whole and the beast. Oh, we're just going to get into it. So we know the next subject. There we go. Let's spit it. Are we going to go wrestling or are we going to go TMZ? We're going to stick with the wrestling. We've already talked enough about AEW Mexico, right? We haven't talked about the whole card, but we're getting to everything.
organically we touched everything but we haven't spoken on on uh was it seven belts monet now seven belts mercedes like she's well good that that connects to the next subject i guess so anyway we could do where is mercedes on the ultimo dragon meter right now has she has she reached full ultimo dragon yet like let's let's count i'm gonna go and count the belts on ultimo she's got a lot of belts she's got a lot of mercedes monet
And her belts. Okay. Let's see. As of right now, I'm looking at this photo. Mercedes Monet has one, two, three, four, five, six. championships right now. She's now the CMLL women's champion after her match. At Grand Slam, Mexico. Peak Ultimo Dragon. And the photo that we've all seen that has gone, you know, that's lived in infamy ever since had one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.
10 titles at one point so mercedes could add to that collection at uh at all in and and get to the eight and still get 80% of the way of reaching full Ultimo Dragon status. I mean, we had all these conversations when Omega was doing the belt collector gimmick. And it's like the most difficult thing is like, how do you get the belts off of them? Yes. Because at some point, the first loss...
And this will be the same for Mercedes. The first loss is going to be such a big deal that it sort of is going to take up all the oxygen from the other belts. And then do you have to have like a contrivance in how she like gets rid of the other belts? Like does she just go on like a losing streak?
Does she just vacate all of them at once? Yeah, and then does the losing streak, I mean, do people really care about any part of the losing streak beyond the first big loss? I mean, I guess women's wrestling is certainly a different world. Yeah. And you can make big matches, you know, even after she's lost. Here's the thing about her, and this is similar for Kenny Omega. No matter what happens in storyline, she is the best.
wrestler in the world I mean she's in the conversation so you know you're gonna get a good match you know it's not like it's gonna be she doesn't have to carry the shtick to every other organization after she drops the title like she's heartbroken or whatever even if that's the sort of meta storyline but anyway she has all the belts now um
All in. I mean, her match against Tony Storm is going to be incredible. Who do you think is going to win that? What's your pick now? Mercedes. I think Mercedes is going to win. I think to go from somebody, you got to remember. The talk on Mercedes before signing to AEW was like she never really had long championship runs. And she was always sort of used to put over like the bigger quote unquote stars of the of the division. All right.
Now she gets paid a buttload of money to never lose and win all titles from every promotion she wrestles for, even if it's once or twice. Gotta say. good work if you made the right call like great work if you can get it man like you're not losing you're going over all the time you're covered in titles you're rich as hell like
Can't be mad at that decision. And anybody who says they would... choose something different in the same situation as lying to themselves right like before she even collected these belts i always thought sasha banks was one of the best women's wrestlers of all time and
Anytime people would say that, you would say it was hyperbole or, you know, it was a little too much, a little overhyped. Like, this run has... confirmed what people have thought about Sasha Banks since NXT, since the first time I saw her live at NXT TakeOver in Brooklyn against Bayley, which I...
to this day say that was the wrestling match that changed my fandom as an adult like that was the first match I was like yo this is different like this is breathtaking to watch like i was at the edge of my seat every single time and she's only grown into what people saw all that time back then like this is somebody who was an all-time great and yeah without the titles the titles are just are meaningless like it is just
To beat you over the head to let you know how talented this person is and how important she's been. Well, I think it's a similar thing with her and Kenny Omega in that the belt collector gimmick kind of only works if you are the best, one of the best. small handful of wrestlers in the world and I mean like mechanically it only works because all these other companies aren't going to just hand their titles over to somebody who can't work you know um
It's got to be a match. You got to be somebody who people look forward to your matches every single time. and she's really become, I mean, I think the only, you talk about the knocks on her, and there were, I mean, obviously a lot of that was WWE's doing, and I think, you know, don't forget that when she was on her first world tour, she was getting injured, her first couple of matches.
and AEW were not great. And there was, I think, some reasonable question as if she had just sort of lost it, you know, like not fully, but whether or not she was still the same person who he said was the best wrestler in the world. And... Man, she has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that she absolutely still is. Anyway. Big news, though, you don't even have to spin the wheel. The biggest Mercedes-Benz related news of the week is that apparently she's dating the Beast Mortos.
Shout out to the Beast Mortos. Who are we more excited for here? Beast Mortos or Mercedes Monad? Well, it wasn't lost on me that also the Beast Mortos wrestled in Arena Mexico for the first time. Like 15 years after that, I think Cash Wheeler had some travel issues.
He got sort of slotted into that, you know, superstar tag team. Apparently Tony Khan, you know, made a personal plea on Beast Mortos' behalf. It sounds so ridiculous. So why couldn't he wrestle in Arena Mexico? Did something happen? I have no idea. It was just, I think it's just AAA.
CMLO. Ah, beef. Gotcha. Interesting. But I could be totally wrong about that. Gotcha. But, you know, it's just a minor political issue. And then it got fixed. He got to wrestle. He got a big response. And more importantly, he's...
Dating the greatest wrestler in the world. Hey, all you could say. And he's a lawyer. And he's a lawyer. And he's a lawyer. It just came out that he's been, like, studying his first law degree this whole time. You know what? Good for him, man. Good for him. All you could say. I don't like to. kiki and chatty patty about people's personal relationships and you know what they do behind closed doors but to the beast mortals all i can say is nice
Nice. Nice. That's it. I think they're... I actually didn't look... Hold on a second. Have you ever seen the Beast Mortals unmasked? Yeah, you can see there are pictures of him online without his mask on. My impression is that he looks just like Roman Reigns. Right. I was about to say, he looks like Lucha Roman Reigns. Yeah.
I actually haven't re-Googled it since all this stuff came out. But yeah, I think he's secretly a really good looking guy. Not what you would expect from someone who goes around as the Beast Mortals. Good for him, man. I don't know what to say. Good for him. He's schmanging one of the best wrestlers in the world, I guess. I don't know. Congratulations on the schmanging. I don't know how to address this. Good show.
Yeah, he's been, I think, everybody's favorite. One of everybody's favorite wrestlers over the past couple of years. And yeah, he's a lawyer. Can they make Beast Mortos into a lawyer character? Would that be funny if he was like reviewing contracts for people with the mask on? That would be hilarious. I see this photo right here.
Hold on, let me see if I can... I don't know, you get to work, Arena Mexico, get the crowd, your home country crowd going nuts for you, you get your law degree, and you get Mercedes Monet. There's very few people that have all factors of life clicking at the same time. We got to give it up to Beast Mortos. He is the hero of this podcast. He's the hero of everybody.
I hope you see this right here, this tab. Hold on. What? Is it business cards? Yes, yes. Did you see this? Frank Mortals, attorney at law. Yeah. Here we go. Look at that. that's great frank mortos oh that's great all right oh man uh I think that's everything. I'm positive that's everything for sure.
We went through the wheel, man. Who knows? Did it make the wheel? It wasn't important enough. No, there's something that didn't make the wheel. What didn't make it? We talked about Goldberg and Hickaleo on Monday, right? How did we forget Goldberg? Oh, I just want to say one thing. We talked about Goldberg, right? Or was that on Monday? It was on Monday, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, so we haven't even talked about it.
Well, now it's official. Goldberg came out. By the way, Gunther, I'm excited to see Gunther versus Goldberg. I want to say before we get too deep into it, Gunther had that one line on Monday night where he said, Talking about Jey Uso, he was the better man for one night, but every other single night I am untouchable. That is the best thing that he's ever said. That is the most poignant thing, the most perfect distillation of what this character should be.
He's not undefeatable. He just knows that he puts in the work and he's the best when he, you know, more times than not. So, yeah, then he said he teased the Goldberg thing and he said, no, not that guy. And he moved on to talking about Jey Uso. And then, of course, Goldberg comes out. Crowd goes wild. Gunther's next. He's next on Saturday night's main event. Here we go. It's going to be a fun one. I'm always on time for a Goldberg spectacle.
The entrance, the pyro, the hitting himself in the face, the three-minute match, I'm all for it. You know that you got... That's all in. Same night. We already talked about this. Yeah, I can spare four minutes. Which match you're going to pick. I can spare a good four minutes for sure. Like Gunther said. Hell yeah. Let's do it.
It's going to be fun. Oh, yeah. You think four minutes? What's the over-under? Four. I'm going four minutes. We should put Best down. I'll take the over. I'll take the over. I think Gunther's going to try to get a good match out of him. We're talking actual... Ring time, right? Entrances don't count. Entrances don't count. Four. Four minutes tops. All right.
but we'll see but i don't know i think something tells me they're like yeah i think it's gonna be something tells me they're trying to like pull the wool over our eyes i think we're gonna get like a 20 minute goldberg match with like leg locks and wrist holds and you know
Oh, really? Real Greco-Roman style. Yeah, no, I think it's going to be a real match. I think they're going to really do it up. Yeah, I think so. I mean, I don't think it's going to be 12 minutes, but I think it might be like nine. I think Gunther being the artist that he is and how... well how much he takes his crap seriously I think I think no match would mean more to him than getting like a great match out of a 58 year old Bill Goldberg
If he can get a great match out of a 58-year-old Bill Goldberg, he's already one of the best wrestlers on the planet. If he does this, I don't think it's a question. I do not think it's a question of the best wrestler on earth. If he could get a 15 to 20 minute, oh my God, I can't believe Goldberg is having this match. Oh my God, Goldberg might actually win this match type of match out of him.
That solidifies him. He's stamped. Yeah. Yeah. That would be great. I think it could be huge for that resume. Absolutely. All right. I think we covered everything. Happy Juneteenth. Happy summer vacation. The kids are out of school. I'm going to the beach next week. You're going to Paris next week. Ben and Brian are going to sit in for us on Monday, but we will be back on Thursday for your Night of Champions preview.
Thank you. Kaz, you want to get some plugs in? Yeah, man. New episode of 7 p.m. in Brooklyn drops today. Special episodes since we didn't drop yesterday with... the greatest young jizzle from the bottom of the map young jizzy is with me and mellow so we'll check that out uh right after this podcast listen to this first and then go listen to 7 p.m in brooklyn and all that all that jazz get all the kaz you want and i'll be after that
I'd expect this weekend, too, man. So if anybody's out there and wants to run in, say what's up, I'll be hanging and banging around that entire Jacob Javits Center in New York City. So come say what's up, man. I'll be out there. No panels this year, but, you know. I'll be in the streets mobbing with everybody. So come say what's up. Should be a fun time. Yeah, it'll be good. Thank you, Kaz.
Thank you to our producer, Kyle Williams. Thank you to our EP, Ben Cruz. Thank you all for listening. Finn Balor is going to be okay. We'll see you back here next week, humanoids.