INTERVIEW CLASSIC: DDP talks to Keller about his WWE Performance Center visit including Cain Velasquez, Shawn Michaels, William Regal, more

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Killer interviews one of pro wrestling's newsmakers. Today, we jump back five years to my interview with diamon Dallas Page from July twenty seven, twenty eighteen. We talked about his visit to the WWWE Performance Center of the prior week, including observing Kane Velasquez, Boy That Didn't Last Long, Shawn Michael's, William

Regal, and more. He also compares the Performance Center to the nineteen nineties ws W Power Plant, where he spent a lot of time, and how young wrestlers today are different and similar to young wrestlers in the nineteen nineties. Of course, we've covered a lot more in this hour and a half and it is today's Weight Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast Interview Classic four Friday, August fourth, twenty twenty three. Let's get right to it now, PW Torchen Spreaker

bring you the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast. It's time for Wade's interview with one of pro wrestling's newsmakers. All right, I'm not joined by Domon Dallas, Page No. One to some as ddp DP. Welcome to the Waight Keller Progress and Podcast again. I'm good to be back man. How many appearances have I had with you over the years? Oh? Many, idea I would I would say around eleven. What do you think it's around there? Yeah, Scott had on that much that we're of the boys. I'm

sure if you're sure you have your regular guys that come on. But if the guys you've had to come up an interview, I'm Scott Hall or you know he's got some serious time too. Yeah, like if we clock it, you're right up there. Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, John Waltman, uh, Mick Foley, if we uh go away back. Yeah, Paul Hayman with Jim Ross. It's up there and m guys that can talk guys

about fun stories. Yeah yeah. Matter of fact, I was just down and I'm sure you heard about it was time to um the WWE Performance Center. And it was funny because I forgot I was bringing down T shirts to do a you know, a contest. Uh you know, I was going to do five second pushups for the ladies and ten second push ups for the guys. I had a bunch of T shirts. I left them on the on the uh you know you check in downstairs with the bell cap and I realized, Ah, I forgot him. So I went back and as I

was, I wasn't paying at touch. I'm just trying to get to see hopefully I didn't lose my T shirts. And I hear a Dali and I'm like, I know that boy. So I turned around into Scott Hall and I was like, dude, what you know we're both at the airport. I'm like, where are you heading? He goes, I'm heading down to

Orlando did the performance Center? I go saw him. I so, as it turns out, he was going down there to get in a few skull sessions with the boys and the girls down there, and uh, you know, give him some of his Scott Home wisdoms, which you know, he helped me out a lot, you know, go you know, growing up

in the business, Scott was around there. You know, I just missed him in the AWA and then we were both with Dusty and Florida Championship Wrestling, and that's where I came up with the idea of the Diamonds and I was just talking to him about it. I wasn't talking about it for him.

And then later on about a year or two later after you know, I had already been in WCW for about a couple of months, and he called me up about you know, about doing the diamond stud gimmick, and you know, me managing him, and uh so, I mean our history goes that far back, and that was like nineteen eighty nine. Maybe WCW

is probably ninety about ninety nineteen ninety, so twenty eight years ago. And uh, you know, when you look at the resurrection, the resurrection of Jacob Snake, Scott Hall coming in had a lot to do with, you know, our beginning when I helped him, you know, change his gimmick into the Diamond Stud which would become Razor Ramone, because before there was Razor Ramone. You know, that character was being born as a Diamond Stud. Then Scott went up to Joe WW became a huge stars Razor and then came

back to WCW. And then when it came time to give me my big break. It was super instrumental of him and Kevin Nash when I said no to the nWo, which was my idea, and I brought it to Scott and keV and they were like, we love it. Go tell Bishoffs. I'm like, I'm not telling Bishoffs that I'm gonna drop the nWo. No, you like the idea, you tell him so Kevin Nash. Actually, you know we all sat around at the bar because it was great about Nitro in those days, or even Thunder too. You could be in the show,

be part of the show. Then it played all over again because it was going to be on the West coast, so you got to go. You got to go to the bar and watch your stoff. You know.

I remember after the first Nitro at Mall of American pluving to Minnesota, attending it and then being at the Marriott Bar afterwards, and Bishop was sitting at the bar watching back the replay of Nitro, and I mean it was like a proud papa looking at this product that he had spent so many months, you know, building and creating and imagining, and it was so cool, like seeing Kevin Sullivan was next to him at the bar of the Booker at

the time, and the guys are getting you're talking. It's totally true. The West Coast feed when Nitro, allot of people who are on Nitro actually see the playback, even if the day were at the bar afterwards, and that was a really cool part and a lot of business was done there and that first Nitro. The really cool thing about that first Nitro was the big surprise and that was you remember what the big surprise was, right, I was like ten feet away from him when he walked up, right right when

Lex walked back on to our TV. Now, you know, I don't know if you know this. I'm sure you do, but the fans, a lot of people who are listening probably don't know this. But Lex was on TV scheduled for TV with a WWE and I know it was a WWF back then, but everything's WW So they got me programmed, just like I'm trying to program everybody from calling it DDP yoga to calling it DDP why now? Why? Because I want people to stop fucking calling it yoga, That's

why, you know. But you know, it's all about branding and programming, and you know, so the WWE Lex was on the TV, like like what happens when you go to TV, whether it's you know and now it's SmackDown, Nitro, raw Thunder, whatever it was, there's a shoot

up there. It's written up like all of the matches, so you know, who's the opening interview, who's the opening matches, This match comes after this match, and then there's this interview and then this match, so you know, it's like it's posting around, so you know, when you're coming up, there's no reason you shouldn't be at the guerrilla position, you know,

and ready to go because it's all up there. And Lex is on that sheet for the WWE when he's in Minneapolis getting ready to figuring walk on to the very first night tro that was a gun shot heard around the world. Yes it was, and it's got to be the main reason that Lex is still not in the Hall of Fame because Lex Luger deserves to be in the damn Hall of Fame, you know. And he had a great run

in WWE, but he had an unbelievable run in WCW unbelievable. He was inducted in the progressing Hall of Fame in water to the Iowa where I'm headed this weekend. He was awesome and it should be. He was scheduled to appear and do an acceptance speech, but he got a better offer and bailed out on the ceremony, which was kind of a bummer, but he sent it a video. Ah yeah, Well, you know that's where I started to My first induction was in Waterloo, was you know, was for that

the Hall of Fame there, which was a huge honor. And then my next one was was being the first guy to get like two awards at the Coulin Flower Alley, you know, in the Ring of Honored Bear, and to get it for the Humanitarian and for the Wrestling Award, which was huge to me, which was huge. And then to finally go in WW All right, I'm gonna jump in here and talk about a sponsor of this program that can help you brush your teeth better. Thank you for subscribing to the

weight Keller Pro Wrestling podcast and weight Keller Pro Wrestling post shows. Don't forget we got a whole lineup of other shows. It's called the PW Torch Daily Casts. It's free. Just search pw torch in your podcast stapp a different show on a different topic throughout the week, including shows dedicated to a ew n x T, MMA, Ring of Honor and more. Just search PW torch in your podcast app or check out links to the latest shows at our

main website, pwtorch dot com. All right, we're back. I have been interviewing DDP long enough to know that there are no pauses in a DDP interview, So we will go back to DDP, who has a question for me as we continue the conversation here on Interview Friday on the Waite Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast. Did you see the show U the other night or Monday night? The just last I guess it just last Monday where they came out there and they really put over the women wrestling. That was awesome, man.

I mean WWS to me is I love it there and I love what you know, what they're doing you're getting to spend time with these young kids down there. These kids are they're they're super tight man, and I was really happy to see that. You know, at the fans have reached out because the women wrestling is just spectacular today. And you know, I always talking to mcducy. The other day. You finally has her first action figure coming out. Oh and yeah, one of my friends sent it to me a

picture of it. Who was there and saw it, and I called her because she she's plump. Believe, I still don't have an action figure after Hall of Famer a whole deal, and I don't have an action figure. And we're doing this. Uh did you see the thing we did at Christmas where it was like this animated series? Yeah, yeah, and we're doing another one. We've got a couple other ones in the can that we're you know, we haven't mapped it all out yet, but they're pretty fun.

And one of them is where we're saving the world. And I wanted to have a woman and uh, I wanted Duce to do it, but she didn't have an Action figure, so down and she does, we can do it with her. I'm excited for that to come out, so we can

do that. But um back over you to WW and what they're doing with women and now that you know these matches are just amazing, Like when I was down WW, these one that are man they are working so hillaciously hard um in the ring when there's down on TV, when they're at the Performance Center, they're they're working in for to be the first all women's pay per

view. Kimm is huge. Well, so let me let me ask you this, Seve, because you you had the experience and let's set kind of set the framework for people who don't know you were at the performance center for how long earlier this month? How many days I was different? Four days I was gonna. I thought I was just gonna go down for one like I did last time. And Matt bloom Better you know, better known as Albert m he uh, you know, one of the top guys in WWE

for years. He runs the Performance center there and he was like, listen, day, if you really want to have an impact, come for the week. You know we have TV on this day. You know we have you know, we have opened schedule here And he was like, you know, when do you want to come? And I say, okay, let's do this day he goes, let's mark it down right now. So we marked it down, which was, you know, not this week, but last week. And I went down there and uh, everybody. First two

workouts, everybody was there. And after the second one, I did an afternoon workout, then I did through second day and then won the last day. And it was never of the seventies sum you know boys and down there, um the uh, there's never never less than twenty five thirty of the seventy that were there. And what was Shana Basler? Who is what a badass? I mean, she's she's great in the ring, especially when you think about the limited amount of time, but she's had in the ring,

uh you know, actually in the business. But she is such an amazing natural all the way around. It has that same insane workout deck. But there's a lot of other ladies down there that are really talented. And one that I was working with, Lacy. Are you familiar with her? Yeah? Yeah, very counted marine, like four years was a marine. Fifth

girls got crazy work outhic, so many of them do down there. But the reason I brought up Shana and Lacy is because I had a five second DDPY push up challenge and those of you who don't know what that means. You lower for five seconds and then you stop and hold your body there three inches off the ground for five seconds. Then you come up like a hydraulic shift for five seconds, back up to applying position, and then you start your second one. Now you know how hard the five second push ups are,

bro how many do you think that these ladies did? Like five is a lot? Right? And can you do five five second push ups? Pro? No? Ok? Right? And anybody who's listening, if you

don't think five is a lot, try three. Just lower for five seconds, hold three inches up the ground for five seconds, and come up for a legitimate five, four, three, two one out of And I didn't do it on the second day when we had the big crowd because I forgot So this day I started at the beginning of the workout, which was the third day, and we had about thirty thirty five people there, and out of the women, all of them started and every one of them made four

five second push ups, all of them. And then they started to fall at five and six and seven five second pushups, and then it got to an elite group who got to ten and then eleven and then twelve, and then thirteen. This is the women, and then it got to fourteen five second pushups and there's two remaining, Lacy and Shame up. And then they did fifteen and I stopped it because they either one of them, we're going to quit, and I don't know where they could have gone, you know,

but they literally got twelve or fifteen five second pushups. So both of those like and all I can say, all of them were just unbelievable. But that's why just coming off of that this week, coming off of that this week and they hear that they're doing all women's pay per view, I was like, super pump. You'll probably see a few of those girls popping up for that, which will be interesting. How I got night with Lacy. She had come up to me after the workout and she was telling me

how much she hated yoga, like regular yoga out. She was went off on a rat about it. And she was a swat team, you know, she's a swat yo chick who was in the military, was part of the swat team in the Marines. So she didn't like the closing in the eyes, she didn't like the meditation and all that. She wasn't into it at all, and I go, well, that's not what I do. She goes, I know, and I love it. Okay, so you get it. She's like, oh yeah, I get It's had a great

conversation. I started to watch her work in the ring and what they do, like that kind of work. I think that, you know, the people who really had that workout when they're in the ring, when they're outside of it, when they're always doing something. So I really you know, there's a lot of great women out there, a lot of great women down there with a lot of talent, and I really look forward to watch him growing. I'm gonna you know, I just talked to Matt about coming back

in October. The guys down there, the guys, and like I said, it wasn't the biggest, just wasn't the big crowd. But out of the guys who were there, now we're doing ten second pushups and the two guys who made it to the end, one was one of the reps and one is one was one of the uh the new kids that are coming up

there. And these two studs got twelve ten second pushups. Wow. The last the last time I was there, Jason Jordan One having this kid Alex did um they did uh ten ten second pushups and they might have been able to go farther, I don't know, but we stopped them there. But uh, you know, work epic down there's insane and they've got a lot of great, you know, great teachers down there. Norman Smiley, you

know, was in the ring with Kane Lasquez. Kane made k Valasquez made four out of my six workouts and really got it, which was really cool to him because, oh yeah, talk to him in detail. What can you share about his aspiration? You know, I felt like he was trying it out for the week, but he's the kind of guy when he's trying

it out, he's all in, like like he was the best. And I'm sure, you know, Angle, I'm sure that brock Lessner had this same innate ability, you know, on those first couple of days down there, because so trained on so many levels. Of course, came being much older than them when he started, so I mean he's only thirty five, um, but his fluidity and the ring was was a maze. Um and Dorby and I it was a couple of times we just looked at each other

kind of shook her head like that's a natural. And you know, when it comes to being believable, Who's who's gonna be? Who's more Ruby Kay Glaska right around? I don't know. I mean they're right there. Ah there you go, She's she's right there, you know. UM and I love the affiliation with uh, you know, the WWE and UM the UFC right now because you know, this is the first time this has happened.

You know, it goes back to Shamrock, but it goes back all the way back to Dann Separate, you know, Dann Separate, uf UFC Hall of Famer, Yah, you know Uh. And and a great work on his own, Uh Barnett, Josh Barnett. It works all over in Japan, yep, you know. And UH and now want to be uh played by play guys for UH for the New Japan when they come over here, which is great because he's awesome, you know, on the stick. And

so this is you know, this is nothing new. It's just you know, just has more of a because the guy being a two time world champion. Uh. And the angle with Brock is so built in and he'd stand in that flame I saw on a tweet where he wrote, you know, I'm I'm really enjoying myself and I'd love to come back and take another World

championship for Brock Wessner. You know, uh, Brock, I'm sure loved it too, because Brock's all about money and you know, and drawing money not about so much big but drawing the big money, which he draws in UFC and he draws in WW That's why I gets paid the big money. And you know where where Brock really, to me took himself to a different level is what he did for Goldberg. You know, I mean he may a Goldberg coming around. And it was it was a great five or six

whatever it was. Whatever match they had at WrestleMania, they delivered. You know, they had a hell They were all over the place, all over to Florida. You saw it. Everybody saw it. It was. It was a great match, you know, was it? You know aj Styles and Nakamora. No, it's not supposed to be. You know, it's two behemoths, you know, icons of their eras, and they did a hell of a job. You know what they say about underwear drawers, right that if it's a complete mess, your life is a complete mess. So

let's fix this. Let's get your life in order. Let's talk about underwear. You don't have to wait for the Weight Killer Pro Wrestling post show to find out what I thought of Monday Night Raw and SmackDown. Each week, you can check out my reports that are updated live throughout Raw and SmackDown at pwtorch dot com. My written report will tell you what's happening in detail in case you missed the show, and it will also analyze key segments and give

my random thoughts end quips on what I'm watching as it airs. So check it out every Monday night and Tuesday night at pewtorch dot com. That also applies to WWE pay per views. I covered those live at pwtorch dot com with a detailed written report with star ratings, and of course you can find other TV reports from other contributors to pwtorch such as nxt ROH, Impact Wrestling and more. Check it out pwtorch dot com your first stop for TV and

pay per view written reports. I know you were part of the power Plant in WCW and hung out there. Obviously it's a world of difference and it was decades ago, but not not just the bells and whistles and the facility being so much of an improvement, but talk about the approach to training and the differences today versus then, and also, by the way, some of the timeless similarities. Well, you know, if you go back to that group of guys where I was down there, Paul Lavec aka Triple H was

right there with me when he wasn't on the road. He was down to power Counts. So was Steve and Regal, you know, and working there. It's funny is one of the trainers down there, Robbie, who's really good friends of Steve, who wrestled for decades over in the UK, is one of the trainers down there, and he's really great, great worker.

But him and Regal, this is a funny little side side note. Him and Regal would do like sixty minute Broadways, you know, just going to one of the three ways and just wrestled for an hour straight, right. And I didn't remember this, but I remember those guys doing that, you know occasionally, And Robbie says, you know that match that me and Steve had that you jumped in the ring and started refereeing. It is on YouTube. I was like what, And then I got pulled that he had he

got pulled, so I didn't really hear the whole time. I didn't understand.

I didn't remember repping. And then we were at TV on Wednesday, UM filming the next UM filming the next UM an XT that was going to be coming up, and the film four shows in a row, and you know, a lot of times, I'll sit in the auditorium where they got the big screens and you you know, can really see the match on a huge big screens, and everybody's eating or talking about what they're going to be doing or waiting to go on. But I wanted to be here the crowd,

so I will go to the gorilla position and sort of said I was sitting in the back with Triple H and and UH and Psay's and sitting back there watching but I couldn't really hear the crowd. So I got to the gorilla spot and watching the monitor and listening to the gorilla spot to be able to actually hear the pops, you know, of everything that was happening.

So going back to I'm standing there and Regal comes walking up and it's in between TVs and Triple H comes walking up and um and uh kazono kasa Cashius on No and I are talking and then Regal came up and the Triple HS came up, and Regal starts talking about that match again, and I'm like, dude, now he said I was repuget. He goes, oh it came someone was asking me about this match and I told them I don't know. He goes, it was me and Robbie were on some uh you know,

podcast somewhere and we were talking about it. It's like the lost tapes. Someone found it while they I guess they heard them on this interview and they put it up on YouTube and oh no pulls it up on YouTube. But we're sitting there and there I am. I jump in the match. We're twenty minutes into the forty minutes at last twenty minutes, I'm freaking sliding down and doing your doing counts, and you know, I become the referee of that match. So that's like twenty plus years ago, like twenty five

years ago, Like where the hell of that come from? But back to that spot, you know for you know that the power plant like it was the first of its kind. And again Triple H was there. He saw the going from one ring. By that time it were up at three rings, and eventually we built like four or five rings. But it was basically

that it was going different areas and having different trainers work with you. Now, when I went to see Triple H when I was doing the Resurrection of Jake the Snake, we were like two months in and I was filming the

very best of Nitro and I had a meeting step by to come. We were gonna go to lunch, but we couldn't make it, so I just came by for a meeting and I was like, and they had one in George at that time, and I said, you know, I was down there about a year ago teaching you guys my GDP yoga program, and you really need to bring me back down to start working with these young guys. And he said, just hold on, We're about to do a major move.

And he starts telling me about what the WWE Performance Center was going to be and how this was going to be the state of the art. This was going to be like what the NFL would do for one of their you know, their their performance centers, their combine areas, whatever you want to call it. And he he's telling me how it's going to have five rings and cameras everywhere, and you know how they're going to be able to have

a training center with strength coaches. Then they're going to have the facility for injuries. And when the guys get hurt on the road, this is where they'll come back to, and this is where they'll train out of, and this is how they'll get their you know, get the ring rust off because they'll have the performance center right there, and they'll have the ice tubs and

you know, all the things you need to rehabilitate your body. Now, remember, I'm the first guy professional wrestling to ice his body by a decade, you know, maybe not a decade, five years. I might on my knees, my shoulders, my back. No one's doing it. They're laughing at me. And then finally WCW was the person to do it, to bring in a trainer that would go on the road. First they came to TVs. Then eventually they'd go on the road with you and help you,

help you with injuries. And so you know this this performance center just doesn't have that. You know, it also has like a green screen room where you can go in and practice interviews and like practice learning how to speak. But to me, the most helpful thing, and it's a different level of helpfulness, it's if you go to Full Sale where they do TV.

It's like a mini Raw or Nitro or SmackDown or whatever. It's a mini like you know there it only holds a thousand people, but you never know is a thousand people the way they shoot it and the people are red hot, and you know you're getting Joe that. You know the entrances, you know the the effects of the screen. So when you get to finally get to Raw you know or smacked Out, and it's not so intimidating, like

it's intimidating no matter what. But you've already had a taste this. And if you've made it to the main roster of NXC and you get to do takeover, well you've already done it. And and their their takeover pay per views are huge, you know, and the talent is amazing, so you know, it's the greatest trading ground possible. And you know, like when I broke in, it was like a secret society trying to figure out how to get involved. Um today you know, you just gotta work your ass

off to figure it out. But how do you get WWE to notice you? And then they bring in for a tryout? And there there are kids from all over the world there, Like it was mind boggling to me. You know, from Egypt, in Japan and um, you know, Scotland in the UK and Ireland and Australia. I mean there there there's so many different dialogues from France, from from you know, I mean so many different countries. I mean, it really is the world Wrestling entertainment today India.

I mean, there was a number of people from different nationalities down there, all shapes and sizes, um and all talent levels. And you know, there's a lot of people that are getting the opportunity that would be almost not say it was not existent back you know when I was coming up, was Sean Michael's down there with you? Yes he was, And it was great because you know it was back to I'm segue back to this. So when I thought I lost my T shirts and I hear, hey, Dally,

it's Scott He's going to go to Orlando. Well he's coming down the same time I am. So he gives super validity to what I'm doing. But he's also you know, talking to the guys. And one of the skull sessions they had was Scott and Sean and it was the first ladder batch, you know, and in that room was from the top talent you know at NHT, from Adam Cole to petov a teen Dream to Tomaso Champa, I

mean, and it was great and I just slid into their back. They didn't even know I was there because I liked to hear or what it was really like for a worker, for a guy, would for a fan, they would have They just should have put a reality show camera there because I didn't put it on NXT. I should do NX on WW network because everything

to watch that, they've been a fly on the wall as there. You know, Sean's got control because he's doing this, he's heading up skull session and they're playing the match and giving their comments as to what's going on right there, and if it was a real pertinent point, Sean would stop rewind and say, okay, here's what's happening right here, you know, and then Scott might come in with some you know, really educational thing or is

something really smart ass you know, that was funny as hell. You know. That's you know, and and explaining the differences between the attitude era and what it is today, because it's not the same landscape. So you can do a lot of the same stuff, but you can't do everything. And there's a reason why that Fox spent two billion dollars, you know, two billion with a bee, you know, not to buy the company. Normally you hear a company solfer, you know, a billion, five or three

billion. They spent two billion for programming just to be on the show. So that's ridiculous and unbelievable as far as I'm been serving, it's amazing. But back in our day, we had way higher ratings, but we couldn't sell the time for probably a third of what these guys are selling it for. And what I mean by that is the commercials, you know, because back then you could get you can get heartily, you know, Kentucky from

Chicken. You can still get to you know, to buy your advertising, but you weren't getting some of the higher end stuff because it was raffling. Well now it's not raffling. It's sports entertainment. Isn't wrestling, absolutely, But the biggest star in the world is a wrestler, not a retired wrestler. A wrestler the rock, biggest star in the world, biggest money drawer in the world, who's one of the hottest coming actors right now, A

wrestler, John Cena. Did you see Cockwalkers? I did not. Oh my god, if you haven't seen it, if you hate Sena and I know the people who do, which to me is ridiculous because the guy busts his ass every time he goes in that ring. He always delivers a good match, most times a great match. He can promo his ass off.

But him in cog Walkers, Man, I laugh so hard, and then I'm telling my wife about it. We're coming back from Mexico, so we did the DP Yoga Retreat down in Mexico, and on the way back, you know, they got to the movies that you watch, so I said, you've got to watch Blockers, and so she pulls it up and she's laughing so hard. She's slapping her like I'm looking at her monitor that she

has on. I'm laughing because I can't even hear it, but I'm laughing because I know what they're doing, and the facials and just the whole cast is amazing, but Scena steals, he steals a show a ridiculous about at times the scenes like scene stealer and just putting the work in, having no humility, I mean, or should be an ultimate humility. You're having no shame, just going all in and he's hysterical. So Joe from brain Wreck on out now this and then you got the Quista who's all over the place

too. So yeah, it's Collywood now looks at us differently and we have everything to thank in the rock, you know, and now see him Batista, you know, for being those A list actors who are getting that spot in those guys who are the actors in the group, the miss and so on, they're going to have a really nice, really nice future in the

entertainment business. Let's talk again about Truecar, longtime sponsor of this programming Every Sunday night, catch Wrestling Night in America on PW Torch Dailycast dot Com, hosted by me PW Torch columnist Greg Parks. Each week, I'll welcome a co host from the Torch family to discuss the big shows in pro wrestling. Taking your calls and emails, you can listen live most week's beginning at eight pm Eastern on Sunday nights with a WWE or Impacts pay per view, we

go on the air at the conclusion of that pay per view. You can listen live, but of course, the full show is available for download on demand anytime shortly after it airs. Visit pwtrch dailycast dot com and click the live stream link to find the next scheduled live show link. Search pwtorch and Apple Podcasts or your podcast app to subscribe the Wrestling Night in America every Sunday

pwtrch dailycast dot com. Did you notice anything different in your time with the trainees at the performance Center compared to you the generation that you were around coming up, even whether it's at the power Plant or just young guys, What are the main differences in their attitudes and their approach and their their feelings about what it means to be a professional wrestler. You know, we had a lot of really close this with our groups of the power Plant, but I

don't think it was anything like this. Michael ps Hayes, who's been one of my brothers man, says I broke it in the a WA. He literally took me under his wing after a three hour car driver. We just became brothers. He gave me his phone number, he would call me back. I was nobody. He was Michael ps Hayes, the free bird Man, and we became brothers. And he is like, you know, Triple H's baby, but right under him is Michael ps Hayes and Michael Yo,

head writer. He's there for everything. He got everybody together and we're talking about a lot of people because a lot of new people. Everybody's there, but all the boys, all the girls, they're they're all there. He's like a hundred you know, for all the new people and everything. And he gave eight fifteen minute inspirational talk that rivaled anything you've heard out that cho do. And I'm talking about on any given sunday. I mean that kind

of inspirational talk for a man. I love that kind of shit. But he was nailing it on so many levels. And it was about the team and about you go up and down together, and you know, I mean it really there's a different level of closeness there, you know, because you see a lot of it. And if you look at a lot of these guys who came up together, you know, like the Robert Strong's and you know, um, you know Tomaso and war Machine and you know a lot

of these guys have all come together and been friends at different territories. You know, Adam Cole, whether it was Roh and a lot of them came through Roh, you know. And now about to make that next step, Like there's some talent down there who really was really cool. A lot of people have compared Adam Cole uh to Sean Michaels, and right down there, Sean is right there with him. I would say Sean's probably his biggest mentor

right now, you know. And Adam Cole of all the kids out there, and I personally love this kid, not just because he does my program, because he gets it, like he's been doing it for last couple of years. And I even put him up on stage with Lacy because Lacey got it, you know. So they had someone to look out besides me when I was walking around, so they could see when I said Superstar, they

knew where to be. And you know, you know, World War One they could see because you could look at Lace here you're looking at Adam Cole up there. But um, like this kid, like he really he's they're so nice to each other. There's a brotherhood and his sisterhood down there growing together that is super, super fucking inspiring to me, you know. And you know, we all had our little cliques. This is more of a group, you know, and it's like a team. And there's still little

groups I'm sure you know that really worked to help each other. But these guys coming up together, there's just so much talent there, and you know, it's gonna be a really it's gonna be a really interesting time to watch some of these kids come up, you know. And uh and the kids who work the hardest, you know, who love the most talent, but who worked the hardest or are gonna be the ones that are going to be rewarding, you know. So I just think it's a little bit like I

don't feel anyway. I didn't feel any cutthroat ship down there, like at all. Yeah, And you know, I and there that's part of the business, you know, because everybody wants to get up. But I always felt like I'm going to help as many people get up as I can. Ye know. There's a quote I heard zig Ziggler say when I was a kid, I believe I can get whatever I want, as long as I help enough people get what they want. I didn't say it exactly like that. I sort of made up my own, but that's what it is,

you know, And that's the feeling I had there, you know. And you know, people didn't believe in this when it started. You know, when Triple HS first came up with it, they let him run with it, but they didn't really believe in it. They sure as he'll do now, you know, and that's just time. How many people did did you run into it? The power plant? Who knew about DDP y DDP yoga? H y rg um? Yeah right, yeah? And what's the latest list of some of the younger guys who have tried it or are practicing it

on a regular basis? Um guide you if you go up to the main and roster, you know, always go back to Jericho, which everybody knows about because he tells everybody about it, and we talk about it whenever we talk. We talk about all the time. You know that I'm super thankful to him, and he's super thankful to me because I've helped the big billions

of dollars. But I'm super thankful to him because he kind of put us on the map, you know, and like AJ, there's no way AJ styles is doing it without hearing it from Chris and how what it did for him and when he blew his back out four years ago and we're right here in Georgia, that's where AJ's at, and h you know, he really helped put it on the map again with so many guys you know that we're

doing it up there. And you know when you when you hear someone, you hear an interview like AJ did with Men's Fitness, I guess about six months ago or so, and basically they're like, how the hell do you do it at forty years old? And He's like, I do my DDP yoga five days a week, you know, five mornings I'm up and that's

what I do. And that's really resonnated over to the future. Like I was on the phone last night with Drew McIntyre and now Drew when he got hurt, he's like, because he'd started and stopped a bunch of times, but he never stuck with it. But when he came back after this time of his injury, and he knows, you know, he's only thirty three. Hell, I even started wrestling yet, but he's also been wrestling sin

too with sixteen, so he knows he's got miles on him. So it's all about you know, And so I explained that everybody when I had my first TDPY session was as important as it is to try to get to the show. And I don't care if we're talking about the NFL, the MLBD, NHL, the NBA, the UFCAL, the WWE. Getting to the show is everything. You got two jobs when you get to the show. Being the best shape you can be, be the best performer, the best player you can be. Number one. Two, don't get hurt. You're

getta hurt. In the NFL, your career most likely is over. Unless you you know it wasn't a serious injury. Then you come back, but then most likely you're not as fast. You can't cut his blacks. Your game is off, so your stock is going to go down. The key is don't get hurt now. In a WW if you've already got a major name, well then you're pretty good because they're gonna come back and they're gonna

nurse you wall to you get there. If you don't, you better have something that really stood out for that you know, because you know they're going to give you a shot to come back. But are you that same guy? Are you that same girl? So the key is trying to be preventative maintenance and not get hurt. So at this point, Drew McIntyre, he gets that different level. Like I said earlier, Adam Cole got it two years ago. What was really cool, Bobby Fish, you know part of

the undisputed. When I got there, he pulled me aside. He'd been doing the app for so since his is torn ACL. He had an ACL replacement. So he's telling me how he started with my bed flex workout. When you start in bed, like because you can't walk, and if you're too old or too beat up, or you're coming off of ACL chair, you start in bed. When you're getting out of bed, you do the

bed flex workouts. He said that I went to your chair force where you're sitting in a chair, and he's telling me this and how this exercises strengthened his body so that he could get up and do the stand strong workouts where you're using a chair. He goes, I'm finally at a spot where I don't need to char anymore. He made all six workouts Alistair Black. He comes up to me after the second workout and he said, and that's when

the mass of people were there. Everybody was pretty much their seventies. I don't know, seventy five eighty. People don't know I'm over there, but it was packed. And he said to me, I'm all in. My back was killing me yesterday. Today I feel amazing. I have no back pain. I should turn around and tell that the people right now. And he did, you know, so you know we've talked since then, and you know um war Machine, you know Todd, you know Todd Raymond.

You know I'd told me that in two thousand and twelve, and he came up to me just to thank me. He said, two thousand and twelve. I blew my back out, he said, Man, I was I thought they said my career was over. I started doing your program. I got the DVDs, I dropped forty pounds. I felt amazing, and then time got in the way and I kind of went off it. Then I went on and when I went off it, he goes, But it's what kept me in a ring, It's what got me here. And they there's

just the example of some of the guys. You know, she ain't a change of China. Baslor set me a tech that was super cool. Um, and I'm gonna just go read to you. It's it's simple. But what she said was so cool because here's a girl who's been a warrior, you know, her whole life, and she wrote me this is one of the things I did. Like, I didn't say, Okay, everybody, give me your name and number and I'm gonna set you up on the app. Blah blah blah. I was like, bullshit, here's the deal.

Here's my phone number. Okay, all of them, from the referees to the top, bringing twenty everybody. I mean, everybody, go get their phone or write down my number. I said, because you might not want to use it right now, but you might and you might want to use it when you get hurt, so you'll have it. You won't be able to tell me you don't have it. So I gave him all my number.

Go to the app, sign up, download it. I wouldn't let them pay for anything because my brothers and sisters I'm not gonna charge them. I'm going to get back to them. And what I said is send me the name and email you send up and I'll be ip you for life. And out of that seventy some people, there's over thirty five of them who I've signed up. Wow. So Shana writes to me, thank you so much. I was so glad you came because this is something I never would

have sought out to try on my own. It's definitely something I need. So super friggin cool. You know, like she got it, and she like, I put heart monitors on some of them, and you know, you can get your heart rate jacked up with this program if you do it right. Her heart rate was in the highest end of her fat burning zone or in the red zone the entire time. See, that's a girl who's really connected, you know, not just into her workout, but into her

ringwork and her work ethic in her promos. And you know, when she didn't make a clash, she was like, I just want you to know I couldn't make this class because like Shade, I'm here for you. I'm here to work around your schedule and that's why I'm doing two days on these days. And you do what you gotta do. Girl. You know she don't be a huge huge Jude Jude starred in the w W and like I

said, I look forward to going back there again. A lot of you know, a lot of kind, sweet people, super positive energy, and that's what I feed you off. You know, that's what That's a that's

a bums me up. You know. Well, I know that you've been sponsoring this show and you have made a special offer to listeners at the show to get seven days free to try out the DDPY app and they can get started at DDP yoga dot com slash Wade if you want to get that seven three days plus also twenty percent off of one your membership and twenty percent off old school DVDs. Exactly if you get DVDs, you still get to try

the app. So yeah, I know some people loved the DVDs. And the main thing I really want to push people, Uh go to DDP Yoga on Facebook and follow our we Can Rebuild You site. It's we Can Rebuild You as a program we started. And have you gotten to see anything with Jerry Wade? Yeah, Jerry disabled Dutch. Yeah yeah, they his stuff is so powerful. So you know, if you think you can't do something, watch Jerry and why this is a week to week progress of what we

put up there. It says if we would have had Arthur Bourban and every week we would have filmed them, you know, and just bringing it's Some people said, oh, you're doing like a reality show. I'm like, I don't do both shit reality shows. I do what I call real life reality, Like this is really happening in real time, and here's what's actually happening. And they are inspiring stories that uh, that show people that, you know, ordinary people can do extraordinary things, you know, and people

who are even disabled can do extraordinary thing. You just got to put the work in. So it's all at ddpyoga dot com. But don't ever listen to a word I got to say. Follow me at real DDP at DDP yoga or just go to you know, dpoga on Facebook, or read what people write. Can't make people will do that. There always a pleasure talking to your brother and appreciate your time. Man, Thank you DDP. Cool that you shared some stories from a really cool week last weekend. We'll I'll

talk to you down the line soon. You've got a brother. All right. That wraps up the DDP interview for today. But I do not want you to go anywhere yet because Wednesday night was a big episode of NXT. It was a first show on the new set of TV tapings, and it featured Alistair Black defending the NXT title against Tomasso Champa. If you haven't heard about what happened yet, then watch the show and come back to this. But if you want some analysis of that show, we're providing that for you

as bonus content here on the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling podcast. This is an excerpt of the eighty two minute NXT post show. Pwtorch dot com a website that I launched back in nineteen ninety nine, and i'dvite you to check it out today and every day. But first things first, Here we go with an extended excerpt of the current pw torch live cast covering the big main event on NXT's latest TV show. This is a sample of the PWT Talks NXT

edition of the pwu Torch lifcasts, available late Wednesday night every week. Here we go. One way that you can help us sustain our schedule of putting out podcasts throughout the week is by giving us a five star rating on Apple Podcasts. Just go to Apple podcast and look for our weight Killer Prosing Podcast and weight Killer Proosing Post show and give us a five star rating. We hope you think we've earned that score with our fast turnaround times and our quantity

and quality of wrestling analysis throughout the week. So take a moment out for us and do us favor and give us a five star rating. And Apple podcast that helps us on search returns and helps us grow. And if you want, you can add a few comments about what you like about the programs in the comments section. Thank you so much. Hello, ladies and journals. Welcome to PWT Talks NXT. The day is Wednesday, July twenty eighteen. My name is Harvey our Paget. I'm hosting this week because Kelly Wells

doesn't care about you. He just leaves. He winds you and dimes you, breaks your heart and abandons you. And now I know how Johnny Gardaneo feels. I'm joined by Justin James. Hi, I'm Justin James, Justin Underscore M Underscore James, and I spit in the eye of Kelly Wells and I feel no heartbreak, no shame, and no regrets. He blows his nose in his general direction. We're also thumb, I thumb my nose at the good sir, There you go, and Tom Stoup is here as well.

Yes, now that the Kelly Wells fairy tale is over, let me see if I remember how to do this. I am at tom Stout on Twitter, and I've been tweeting recently about some of the new mx T signees, as well as some rumors for some upcoming ones. There's some interesting stuff floating around, so you can follow me at tom Stout, but if you want, I don't know, maybe Kelly, you'll make a run in later

though, Oh let's hope not. We saw we saw in tonight's episode how disastrously a run in can go awry because we got ourselves a new champion, and and yes, we have ourselves a new champion. We'll get to that. Let's start off with Kelly Wells. He sent us a trivia question. I started this gimmick, and he's stealing my gimmick of when you're not in the show, you send it a trivia question. Kelly's trivia question. I'm

going to read it now. You listeners can moll over it all up so long and then we'll real the answer at the end of the show, and his question is before the Champa Gargano feud, what was the longest non title singles match at a takeover? Just off the bat? Justin tom Any quick guesses, Oh wow, See I had mulled this over and I totally read it wrong. I was thinking the longest non title singles feud Oo San Zame versus the title non title Thing's got to be one of them, maybe like

versus Cizaro or versus Jin's game. Maybe. Um. I think Cizaro had that three out of two out of three folds match with him, which was fairly lengthy, right, Um, Cizar and Regal had a one What was was? Let me ask you, this was the Bailey Sasha match that was for the the Ironed Woman match that was for the title. That was for the title. Yeah, because I remember like if they came up even at the end, it didn't matter because it was even she still retained. Um,

all right, No, we don't find out. I kind of like, I kind of like Zane versus cizarreth two A three folds. All right, we'll find out in an hour. In the meantime, there was a weekly TV show This week. As usual, we had a bunch of matches and the main event was the NXT Championship on the line. It's rare that we get the NXT title defended on weekly television. I would have to say it's even rarer that we get a title change hasn't happened before. I should

know this, but I don't. I want it was the last one when Biggie won it from Or. No, it would be when bow Dallas won it from Biggie yep ladder match. Um. Yeah, because Nevill versus Zane and Nevill versus Dallas, there were takeovers. That's when the takeover era had really begune. So yeah, we did get we got a Joe was it? Joe and Balor got a title change at like a live event in Japan, but on weekly NXTTV. Nothing's come to mind for me. Yea four

or five years. Yeah, Like I remember Balor challenging challenging Owens on weekly TV like he was. He may have been Owens's first or second title defense, but Owens won that. Are you going to count No? I guess we can't count the Balor versus Owens in Japan as weekly TV because that happened. That was like one of those four in the morning things, right, I believe. I believe the most recent one which was a successful defense was McIntyre Strong. Yeah, so we get it defended sparing me on TV.

That's how it. Changing hands almost never happens. And so before we get into discussing the actual match itself, which took up half of this week's episode, Champion made his entrance at the eight thirty mark by my account, so literally half the show was this match. But before we get into that, let's talk about a thing called spoilers. Tom was live in the arena when this match happened, so he knew what was going on. Justin were you

able to avoid knowing the results going into this match tonight? I'm one hundred percent Like the only time in the last the only time a match ever gets spoiled for me is because of the WWE app on my phone. It's spoiled. The spoiled the mustache maud in title win in UK for me a couple of weeks ago. But outside that was like the first time that but got spoiled from me in years. All I have to do is just disabled notifications.

This is a side effect of really not being mister Twitter. And none of my friends on Facebook, you know, sweet spoilers or posts or anything like that. So I'm really grateful I'm able to avoid spoilers, Yes, and I wish I could because I try my apparently not as hard as you. For me. First, it was one of the wrestling news sites had huge spoiler for this past week's TV tapings. Right away, my brain says, there's gotta be like the type champ of wins. I don't I don't

know what else would constitute huge at this time in NXT. And then we're resolving cracking walnuts with his teeth, he's his broken jaw somehow, he's in the ridge? Is he really? Yeah? He just had his first match back at a live event. He does he's wearing anything? Well, that's

very interesting. But yeah, there was that. And then a couple of days ago, I was checking Wikipedia to remind myself how many titles there are on the main roster because the context that the question was up about should the AD women's take titles? And I'm thinking, how many titles do they have on Ron SmackDown? So I'm schooling down and then NXT Champion to Musso Champa and I'm like you freaking like bastards. I'm not expecting this. It's my

fault, clearly, but anyway, my point is uh. Andrew Gamble, our number one listener, wrote in with the question sort of on this topic and question this week is do you ever see NXT going live instead of takings? I had tonight's main events spoil for me last week before I even knew I needed to avoid sportlers. I usually read the reports from the tapings because I can't always watch NXT where it airs, so I'm not too upset about it, but still like to hear your thoughts. Do you think they could

do a live episode and then a taped episode or something like that? So there's a question. I mean, I my guests, and I'm sure Tom will confirm this. The problem with NXT being live weekly is it's only a one hour show. Are you going to be able to fill a whole arena once a week for three matches forty minutes of television exactly? Sometimes when you know the match is going to be ConA Reeves versus Ray Will mendous Hey maybe made rolemendous w always gets his first twin. It's sign up for that,

I know. I know, I messed up his last name, and now I can't think of thensa thank you ans versus the world and quin and yeah, that that is part of the problem. I think the other problem and we've discussed possibly going live with certain live events here and there, although it

would become really really tricky. I think I want to say that Impact Wrestling has run into this issue a couple times, or at least have heard about it, haven't actually seen it myself, where they will do all these tapings and then do something from a completely different arena, and the continuity is just all over the place. So that becomes really really tricky, and you you introduce a bunch of variables on top of the length of the show that you're

talking about. I mean, granted, they could probably put a whole other live event around it and then only air the stuff, uh you know, only the hour that goes live is the stuff that they want to actually advance storylines. Perhaps. However, then you also have the issue that this to me implies that you're also going to take these shows on the road, because why wouldn't you Why you know, that would help draw the crowds. I mean, if they went live, even though I live so close to full

sale, I probably wouldn't be going out every single Wednesday. You know, once a month is more than enough for me personally, So then you weren't into I think, did I make my point, because I totally my mind just blanks. Well, I'm so good. I think the point you're making is that you wouldn't be bothered to get off your lazy tail to go to n X two weekly, and so nobody else will. Therefore it's a bad

idea. I think I just summarized what you were trying to say, right What if they packaged it for the network as NXT two or five live back to back take in front of the same audience, So then you got two hours of wrestling, your more reason for you to go out to these events, and that would be pretty reasonable in my mind. But then you still run into what I think would be the issue. Take smackdowns to our show. If you're paying to go to a SmackDown event, you're expecting to see

Styles and Brian and people like that. And that's one of the I feel advantages of NXT right now is they don't feel the need for Basler or Black to be on every single week right. I feel like they'd be pressured into that situation if you're doing in front of in front of live customers. Absolutely, and and thankfully I remembered my point. I must be such a joy to listen to for anybody who actually wants real information delivered in a in a

concise manner. You're also introducing so many expenses, you know, traveling sets, the live event sets are not as as complex as the taping sets. You need more crew there, and I mean, yeah, travel can be worked in, but the travel expense becomes an issue when you're constantly removing these people from this, like this little nucleus they have of the performance center only being a mile or two away from full sale and them going in for daily

training Monday through Friday. So you're disrupting that whole system. So with Gambele's question of ever, I mean, we'll see what changes, but right now they've got a pretty smooth system that's working. And things like this absolutely drive me crazy. Spoiler culture is just so hard to get around, you know that. That was one of the reasons why I remained so mum about anything

at all happening. Sometimes I feel like it's a spoiler just to suggest that I don't know something's going to happen, because that means that in the rest of the content that I sat through live, I didn't learn that information. So then I'm revealing that no further advancement was made. And you had I mean, you had Triple H tweeting, oh, you better tune in tonight.

You had other people going, oh, this is going to be crazy who don't usually comment on it. Actually, justin you said that you successfully avoided the spoiler. Did did your senses get perked up at all when you saw or if you saw people talking about spoilers that much more about this particular

episode? Whould I see talking about spoilers? I don't use Twitter like you, Well, that's very wise if you, yeah, seriously, like if you don't use Twitter, and like, when I go to wrestling sites, for one thing, I only go to pwtorch dot com, thank you very much. It's pwtorch dot com. And when I do go to pwtorch dot com is specifically to look up Raw and SmackDown taping results are event results, So I'll just you know, I just go to the menu, hit TV

reports Raw SmackDown and read the reports that I intend to read. So that keeps me like super free of spoilers. And the Torches site is really good about not how many boilers just blasting on their website in a fashion. You know, I've never been spoiled by that site before, so for me, I just don't have stuff spoiled for me. So I'm very grateful for that. Like this, this would not be nearly as fun for me knowing the results in advance. It's bad enough that I can put my book or hat

on and make fairly accurate predictions. Yeah, that was so at least that's fun. At least that's fun. You know. It's like I'm making a bet against myself and if I lose, I don't pay myself anything. Yeah, Like I didn't want to know who won tonight. It definitely ruined the match for me. I mean, granted my want, this was fantastic match,

Let's get that out of the way. This was a hell of a match, but I definitely spent The one thing that definitely hurt it for me was I spent almost the entire match waiting for a very honor to show up. Well, we all did, because we knew that was going to happen. Yeah, and so as great as a lot of the near falls were. And I loved that they were able to get me invested in like a near fall off a German suplex and make that look believable. I loved that.

But I still spent the whole time going, it's not gonna end until Johnny shows up. When's john You're going to show up sort of thing. And as soon as I heard the spoiler and New Champa went one right away, my brain said, oh, so Johnny tries to interfere and scows up by accident and that's how it ends, And sure enough it did, which that's a bummer. I don't know. Longing for some nostalgia or maybe you want to learn some wrestling history, don't miss the nineties Pass cast every Friday

on the PW Torch Daily Cast Feed. Alex and Patrick will transport you thirty years into the past by taking you through the Torch issue from that very week, follow news from the WWF and WCW, and all the happenings from across the wrestling industry in real time as The Torch reported it thirty years ago. That's the nineties passcasts every Friday for the PW Torch Daily Cast feed. Tom, you were there live in the arena. Obviously nothing could be spoiled for

you, So what do you think? Right? And I can't remember whether it was a conversation we had or if I was talking with someone else, but this was something that myself and perhaps you guys as well, agreed was a probable outcome. Was exactly what occurred, Johnny trying to I mean, this is what they've been building up to. They've been very, very calculated

with this whole long storyline. That's why, no matter how many times we think it should end, well, I guess, speaking for myself, no matter how many times I think it should end, I keep getting wrapped back up into it because they're doing such a good job with the narrative. And that's what that's the trajectory Johnny has been on since his most recent takeover loss

is just seeing Red and not being himself and making mistakes. And it really seemed like he was just going to become so consumed with preventing Champa from winning the championship that he was going to fail in that and cause him to win the championship in the process. And maybe that's the reality jog that that Gargano needs to become our Gargano again, and so that all that considered added to the fact that not only did I want the Black title reign to end.

I'm not sure if I ever mentioned this on the podcast. It almost felt like a token that, you know, Alister Black was the thirteenth n XT champion. I didn't even notice that they mentioned. I feel like they mentioned it at one point, and they definitely made a point of mentioning Champa being

the fourteenth tonight, which reminded me of it. That's yeah, and we've we've been well documented in our criticisms of Black's title run, but also we've been talking about how we thought that Gargano Champa, which clearly is still continuing in some form, if not needed, at least could use a title to become that much more interesting. And it's definitely been the a story going on

in NXT. So this was absolutely the result that I predicted and wanted, and having the luxury of watching it live and not knowing what was going to happen for sure before before it did, I was very satisfied and seeing it

play out exactly how I felt it should. Um it just it just I mean, it's probably just because I was thinking, you know, these were the ideas that I was thinking in my own head, that seeing them play out was almost validating, like, yes, oh good, somebody else thought that was a good idea too, somebody who actually knows what they're doing back there. So yeah, that was It was a very satisfying Honestly, it was probably probably one of the best, if not the best matches that I've

seen live at NXT, probably live period. You know, you you become so invested in it and and just personally seeing even taking the character out of it, just seeing how far Tomasso Champa has come. It was just really really rewarding, and it was just, yeah, just absolutely an easy Match of the Year contender for so many reasons. For me, it often comes down to the little things, and there are a couple things in this match

that really that really made it for me that I really enjoyed. So many times we see a ref bump and it's like, you know, the referee gets jostled in the ring and he's outcold for five minutes. He gets takes one punch and he's dead to the world. That was in the case here, Drake Wirtz took a full back bump off the apron onto the concrete and he wasn't out cold or anything. He was just lying there on the ground

hurt because he felt on a concrete. You know, this is now the second time then the match that involved Tamasa Chiampa involved Drake Wirtz getting ref bumped and screwing up the match finish as a result. Oh you small conspiracy. No, not conspiracy. I'm just saying that this is at the same time it's happened, so it's not officially overdone. Are we gonna see a video over Yeah? Are we gonna see a video of like words shaking black saying like I sawry man, I really screwed up again. I don't know why

they let me keep refereading the main results. We're just gonna have thought that that that other referee, justicacar referee, and nobody knows her name except for Tom Stoupe. Right. Oh and Aubrey Edwards is the name of the new female referee that they're uh that they brought in. Now I learned that stalker. Oh well, yeah, gotta find out. I'm sure she'll be involved in the may On classic, Yeah she did for Sorry, we're just talking about I'm speaking to you too, but we have an audience right now.

Aubrey Edwards referee to the dark match before the tapings, which if anybody's interested, I'll pull up in the meantime, but go ahead and continue the conversation. The big thing is like with regards to the main question here, you know, spores aside and stuff. Do I see NXT going live? I don't think so quite yet. I would not mind seeing like they could even keep the current format and doing one live episode a night, but one live

episode for taping. But you know, as we've as we've heard from tom Um, there's a lot of times where something happens in the live setting where you know there's a botch or something, and then when they actually show the show, it's edited out, and you knows NXT still is, believe it or not. You know, training grounds for people who've never wrestled before, you know, people the people who are less experienced and so on. I don't mind it if they edit a botch out, you know, and I

think there is value to that. You know, they're not going to put you know, a Lacy Evans from six months ago on a Takeover live for a reason. But they can trust her to be on TV knowing that if she botches something, they can just edit it out. So it's the safe space for someone like a ConA reeves to learn in front of a live TV

audience without worrying about looking terrible forever to it fair enough? But yeah, so Champion Gargano, Champion Black and now Black and Organo Black have officially has two losses in NXT, the first being pinned by Johnny Gargano in a fight of four right, the second being hit in the head with the title belt by Johnny Gargano. So we are still thinking trip with threat at Brooklyn. I am for sure. I mean the way this ended, there's no way

Black's going to accept that. And then that I don't be blacks rematch, and then what rower SmackDown the week after summer saying one would imagine two o five, No, he's two fifteen. Yeah, which one? Though rare

SmackDown seems like his gimmick seems like a raw gimmick. You know, I was thinking about this this week because we've we've agreed since we started talking about it before WrestleMania that he would fit right in on Raw, but SmackDown really has a baby face problem right now, so true, he could actually freshen up what they've got going on on SmackDown right now, So that could be a fit for the time being. Is he gonna be the champ that runs

the camp? They're already printing the T shirts justin Do you have any other thoughts about the match itself? The other thing I'll will be enjoy right aside from the ref bump you really plausible, was when Gargano got involved. Because this is another one of these situations where somebody will come out an interfere in a match right at the end, and you're thinking, well, why didn't he come out fifteen minutes ago? Match? Could I always have that thought?

I always have that thought this one it was good. He only came out. He was willing to let Black settle the score himself. He only came out when the title belf got involved and the referee was down. Where was he hiding? Where was he hiding? How do you know this watching from the crowd, watching from behind the curtains. People actually do that.

But where did he come out from? So like everybody, everybody heard him cheering, but they didn't show him right now, you knew he was there because he heard everybody cheering, and so like you know, putting on my book or hat. I know that Gargano is there because I hear him cheering him. I expected I hear Hione cheering. I expect him get involved the match. Where'd he come from? Tom? Where did he come from? Um? If you're looking through the hard cam, he came from the left,

which is the the ram that all the fans come through. The right was on the opposite. Okay, so he's only so he's only appeared from a the concession area or the bathroom or something. He's sitting in the toilet, hiding and watching on his cell phone. I mean, where was How did he notice? Like that stuff? It always feels so forced and so

stage. It's it's like to me, it running's okay if they're coming from down from the you know, from Gorilla or something, where he'd be like, okay, yeah, I get where this guy, how he saw and how he knew, like this is the moment. But even then it takes so long to run down there. You're like, okay, so we had to make that decision. Run down there. That's a job. Get in the rain stand, back up, and then you come on, dude, like if he got all that time to do you running, Alister Black is

either up or is not. I Alister Black told him to stay out of his business. Alister Black was in no way. It's like, what's the worst that would happen? He would he got knocked with the belt and Champa

would have gotten dcted. I mean whatever. I know that, I know that words was out cold, but the whole thing just felt so forced and dumb, like maybe why they showed him in the in the stands or something that would have been okay, and they showed him like jumping the barrier Randa Rousey style, it would have been okay, but nobody John's a barrier like RANDI. I just assumed he was watching on the monitor in the locker room and when at the second the ref went down, he started heading to the

ring. And so as he's making his way to the ring, shamp is getting the title and wrestling with Black for the title and full sales not that big. I gotta imagine they're entially here in there. It's it's a rats, it's a rats. Warn there's like a thousand places for Easy three to meet his fans, and and over where hardcam is there there are you can sort of see them. There are a couple of rows of fans in front of hardcam, but behind that it's all tech. Um, so there's there's

no other fans over there. So Johnny probably, um, if we're thinking about it practically here probably walked through where all that tech and camera work is like back where the triple H and Sean, Michael Sitton and Jeremy Borash actually actually sorry, weird side note, I'm full of these of the week after the taping. H Jeremy Borash was at ringside for this match, but not doing the um looking for the loudest fan thing. They actually didn't do that

at this taping. And I'm wondering if it's a if that's a direct uh response to how distracting it became? Was it? George response to our podcast, No doubt. I'm sure that, Jeremy, I'm sure that. I'm sure that trips in an HPK said Jeremy, like, we get it, dude, we appreciate your enthusiasms with the product. But Tom, Justin and Kelly called ye out on stopped the junk, but and just self emerging us.

Uh, if the the quote unquote camera guy that got knocked out of the way before Champa pulled up for the mat right such a stage, that was the dumbest garbage they've done. Some they've done some like crowd and crew plants with with Champa's matches recently, his bigger matches that either work really well

or they just look totally planned out and they're they're pretty cheesy. But right where that camera guy was, if the if the shot just moved up a little bit, you would have seen Jeremy Borash right there behind the barricade. And I have no idea what he was doing. He had this skinny little tripod and it looked like he had maybe his phone set up on it.

It looked like he was just personally filming the goings on himself. Um. I didn't read WWE's spoiler article about this, which actually they didn't put out with the headline of title chains. They said major News, which was at least a little bit of improvement. If they absolutely, if they absolutely have to beat the quote uncooked or cheats. But I don't know, if maybe he was filming something specifically for that, but it was I don't I don't know what he was doing. It was just an odd site. It was

just periscoping for Champa's wife. So Parisco, Sure, thanks for downloading today's show. Take it to the next level with a VIP membership. Get shows like this the Wait Killer Prosing podcast, Wait Killer Prosing post show, and the pw Torch daily casts on our pw Torch VIP podcast feed with ads and

plugs removed from the shows for a streamlined listening experience. And also here the VIP exclusive shows that I host with Rich Fan and Todd Martin, Everything with Rich Fan and The Fix with Todd Martin signature v IP series that you're missing out without a VIP membership, So go vi ip here in twenty twenty two and enjoy all the benefits, all the bonus content and the ad free listening

experience. Pwtorch dot com slash go vi ip. Second email of the show, Steve Lanham from Maryland sent us a rather lengthy email, and we're already running a bit short on time because Justin James is here, so I'm going to skim through Steve's email instead and kind of pull out a little bit. One of his big questions in the email is what do you think about how long champas title lan will be? Steve thinks Gargano beats Champa for the title

at Takeover during WrestleMania weekend, which is a little far away. But yeah, the question of how long Champa will hold on to the title, that's always a big question mark in this day and age is how long these guys are champions for tom What do you think? I think that this is going to be an Anomalee championship that will last no longer than these tapings and Takeover. And I do think that Gargano is finally going to work his way into

this match somehow. There I go, possibly saying something I shouldn't, And I think that this will finally be the redeeming moment for him. I think that he finally realized the error of his ways and his mind is clear now and the fans will finally get their feel good moment and Champa's reign of terror will not be able to leave the uh the launching pad, although again I certainly would not a story sorry, oh yeah, well, yeah, you know, yeah, I was kind of thinking of it as as a little

bit of a mirror of that myself. Yeah, although I think I want to say Sammy's lasted a little bit longer than that. Um, yeah, it definitely did a little bit, a very little bit. But WrestleMania Weekend definitely seems like it's going to be too too long of a stretch for this.

But like I said earlier, this storyline keeps drawing me back in and it's so heated between these two guys still at this point that h it's not outside the realm possibility for this to continue, for Champa to retain, and for something to continue that would keep us invested in the storyline that that you know, find some new um, some new level for them to go to that keeps it fresh. Justin how long does Champa hold the title for and does Gargano take it from him? Oh jeez, I this is some good

TV. Don't get me wrong, Like this is good TV. Like every every every episode with these two and now these three on it individually is good TV. I am so worn out on Gargano Champa. I am so worn out by this. And I know we've mentioned this before, but my fatigue has hit a new level tonight. With these like, I'm not sure how many more twenty to thirty minute matches I can watch of this, you know

these guys. I feel like they would give these guys an hour and it would be a great hour match if they if they went triple threat fatile. But I'm like, I'm so burnt out. I'm like, can chompa just like Knockamura Gargano and end this thing real quicker as I awn blow blow before the bell and Pinham, just make it quick. I'm burnout. Yeah, I'm asked whether Greganno takes the title from him. I wasn't. I don't

even care anymore. I don't even care, Like my brain can't even fantasy book anymore, because like I'm all out of fantasy and I'm now dealing with the cold hard reality that like everything I like about this show is is now being like hijacked to become the never end. Like even Shana Basler is now preferably involved by telling Cannas to go home and be a family woman to miss quote guile from Street Fighter Too, And you know, like even Shana Basler

is being sucked into this somehow. Just stop give me my Shana back. My thing is this tonight's episode was Johnny Gargano's eighty first NXT appearance, ty and Scott Dawson. In the history of NXT, only six wrestlers have appeared on more episodes, and one of them is Casha Sono, Big Cass, Sasha Banks, Neville, Sammy Zane, Tyler Breeze, and Bailey Kysh No Cashes. So only six people in the history of NXT have made more NXT

appearances than Gargano. At this rate, he'll likely pass big Casts record by Brooklyn, which would put him in in the number six spot on that list. So it would be very surprising for Gargano to be still on the roster come spring. That would be a long long He'd pass Bailey and Breeze for the new record for sure. That seems like a long way to scratch this

thing out. I don't know, I don't I don't know how Gargana Champa as you think the hero has to beat the villain, take the title back, and then Champa goes up somewhere and then Gargain, But then who does gargainall use the title too? At that point it becomes they're so involved in each other it doesn't make sense for either of the storylines and up in individually from each other. I don't know. I don't know where it goes from

here. Maybe that's a good thing, maybe it's a question mark. But WrestleMania Weekend, I mean, the way that wrestling and NXT works, the speed at which things develop. By the time we have to take over WrestleMania, I mean, it'll probably be Matt Reddo versus Kenny Omega for the title, right, Gargana Champa will be a distant memory. Oh man, I hope that Matt Riddle rumors are true. Is that going to be takeover Brooklyn

again? Due to the area of the country that WrestleMania is in, be just be like, take takeover Queens, take over NYC, something one of the others. Take over us for you there you go, Yeah, takeover I don't know what any of yet. Take it over Criminal event. So I don't know. Have we talked have we talked his match to death champon Black? Are we ready to move on? I think so. I'm even burnt out on this podcast. You burnt me out, guys, Well,

let's move on to something else. Then we had a contract signers to night, the first official match for Takeover Brooklyn. All right, well fade out there. If you want to hear the rest of the eighty plus minute PWT Talks n XT podcast from Wednesday night this week, go download it by subscribing to the live cast. Just search p W Torch and click subscribe on the PW Torch live cast. That will do it for me for today. Until next time. This is Wade Keller, thanking you for your support and signing

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