Antonio Inoki - Pro Wrestling legend RIP

the Dynamite line up for this coming Wednesday. We've got notes on Max Duprix, SmackDown Rampage, tons of news to get into here today. But if you have not heard, and I don't know how you would not if you're wrestling fan. Antonio and Oki, the founder of New Japan Pro Wrestling became one of the biggest pro wrestling stars in the history of Japan, has passed away. Yahoo News

Japan confirmed he passed away Saturday morning in Japan. And Oki, seventy nine, had been battling health problems in recent years, have been confined to a wheel chair. Michael Cole Corey Graves on SmackDown took time to speak on his death. You know. He started wrestling in nineteen sixty training under Ricky Dozen, one of the first popular pro wrestling figures

in Japan. Later in the decade, he formed a tag team with Giant Baba and the j w A, with the team winning the n w A International Tag Team titles four times. Bab would later form All Japan Pro Wrestling in nineteen seventy two, becoming a direct competitor against Anoki's New Japan at Pro Wrestling. It's a founder of New Japan at Pro Wrestling. After being fired from j w A N one for planning a takeover, he formed

New Japan. One of his most famous bout during this year, of course, mixed martial arts match in nineteen seventy six against himself and Muhammad Ali, which ended in a draw. Headline one of the highest attended shows in pro wresting history, Pyongyang, North Korea, defeated Rick Flair on the second night of

a two day event. The announced crowds for those shows hundred sixty five thousand and a dared in ninety thousand, respectively, although essentially everybody was commanded to be at the show, so it's not like they sold those tickets, but still and Oki retired nineteen final match of victory over Don Fry continue to run New Japan until two thousand and five, when Yukes bought out an Oke's controlling stock with the company.

Later Faturday, New Promotion at ok Genome Federation inducted into the Hall of Fame in We'll talk more about an Oke and all the news after the breakups, we were alive than working the show. Bran Overa is here Wrestling Observer Live, Mikes and for viv also Wrestling Observer dot Com. I know Mike's got a lot to say about an

Ok Can I can I say a few things first? Mike, you sure, Cam I'm gonna try and not just be totally scattered because a lot of a lot of this, I mean, we can go back well over a hundred years to look at like this whole Antonio and Oki story. Because I am, in fact, as some of you may know, because I've said it a thousand times, I'm a black belt in grazy jiu jitsu. Do you wear that? Mike?

I am? I am, and I've always been interested in like the history of jiu jitsu and pro wrestling and mixed martial arts and how all of this ties together, and no one will really know everything, and people will argue about this or that. But if you go back a hundred years, hundred and twenty years and you look at the jiu jitsu scene in Brazil, I mean, most people will tell you, and it's probably true that Elio Gracie never was involved in any sort of worked matches

because he hated it. But the scene, m I find it impossible to believe that they did not do pro wrestling and pro wrestling style programs because if you go back and you look at how often people had these big fights and and really the storylines. I mean, I'm not saying that, you know, I don't want to be

conspiracy theorist, but let's let's be real. In both pro wrestling and I'm sure jiu jitsu in Brazil and around the world, there were a lot of worked fights to create programs, to draw money, to make people money, etcetera, etcetera. I mean, this is not something that was just exclusive

to progressing. So the founder of Gracie Jujitsu, Elio Gracie, had a very famous match in the fifties against Kama, and this was in Japan and essentially what happened, there's of course the gracy side of the story and then actual would happen, and uh, you know, he got beaten. Elio Gracie got beaten. He was beaten with the camera and the Camura is named the Kamura because of Kamara and the fact that he beat a Leo Gracie with

this camara, So Camura Masako Kamura. He also did some pro wrestling in Japan and one of his pro wrestling matches there was a I believe there's a tag team match and on the other side was Ricky Doz and it was a Japanese professional wrestler. And Ricky Dozen is an all time, all time legend, not just of Japanese pro wrestling, but of pro wrestling. And one of the reasons that happened was because in a match with the famous Kimura, he essentially beat the hell out of him.

He shot on him and beat him up. And that combined with the fact that you know, Japan had lost World War two and they were looking for a hero and Ricky Dozan was that hero, and they would bring in large Americans and Ricky Dozen coming off, you know, destroying Kamura and then beating all of these Americans. He became an all time legend and he was eventually murdered.

But Inoki was trained by Ricky Dozan and this link, you know, I believe that in Inoki's mind and this this was why, like throughout Inoki's life, he was all about showing that pro wrestling was the strongest, and he was. He was obsessed with, you know, showing how strong UH pro wrestlers were, and studying what eventually became mixed martial arts and shoot style and the whole shebang. I think

it dates all the way back. And the famous fight with with Muhammad Ali was it was an early mm A fight and because of the rules, it ended up being what it was, which was a fifteen minute boring match or you know, Anoki went down on his back and he led kicked Anoki, but they weren't going to go to the ground and they weren't going to do grappling on the ground or anything like that. And you know, it's a horrible match, but it is an absolutely famous match for a lot of reasons, and for those that

follow mixed martial arts. I mean, essentially it was not

the birth of mixed martial arts. But a lot of people will say it was the birth of mixed martial arts, and you know, he if it were he won, he beat Muhammad Ali, but because of the rules, it was a draw and most people didn't understand what happened in the fight, and therefore it did not hurt the sport of boxing or Muhammad Ali, although it may have hurt you know, Muhammad Ali physically in the sense of that you know, this could have been one of the things

that led to his decline was the abuse that he took to his legs in this match. But one way or the other, they had this match, and you know, of all people, I was reading the New York Times article and Connor McGregor noted that, man, there was a moment where they were on the ground and you know, Anochi moved to the mount and of course it was stopped and stood back up again. But if he had armbard or choked out Muhammad Ali, everything would have been different.

You know, if you're if you're older, if you're my age or older, I mean, you grew up in that era where what is fighting, Well, it's boxing, and then you know there's there's karate and nobody knew. I shouldn't say nobody knew, but that was like the idea. It's like nobody knew about concussion. Nobody knew what a real fight really looked like, because to everybody in this country, at least, a real fight was two dudes standing there

with giant gloves on and hitting each other. And the reality that that some people knew in in martial arts was that, man, you know, a great wrestler takes down a boxer. And they even talked about this a little bit on w w E television, like Guerrilla Monsoon had made this comment, you know, decades ago that you know, a good wrestler takes on Muhammad Ali and it's over. But you know, to most of of America, nobody believed that the heavyweight boxers the toughest man in the world.

And then of course this all led ultimately to the debut of UFC and people found out what an actual fight really was, and they had, you know, the boxer that winning with one glove and got killed on the ground by this skinny guy, Hoist Cracy, who actually was not small at all. He was like six ft tall. But they like to tell stories anyway, and so on

so on. So with an Okie he was always about, you know, he would bring in he would bring in fighters from other disciplines for pro wrestling matches and beat them because he wanted to prove that pro wrestling was the strongest, the greatest martial art and ultimately, to cut to the chase at the end of the day, he went too far, as we all learned in the early two thousands, where in fact he began bringing in fighters to actually fight his professional wrestlers, and uh, it was

a disaster, and this ultimately led to his ousting from New Japan. And we could talk about that and everything, But the one thing that I don't think Aoki realized at the end was fans didn't necessarily need to know that the pro wrestlers could win, legitimately win all these fights. It was enough for wrestling fans to believe that, hey, this may not be on the level, but these are some bad dudes, and they would suspend their disbelief as

as they would beat these real fighters. But I don't think they ever needed to actually see them beat real fighters. And then when they went in and lost to real fighters, well that hurt the aura of a Eugena god In, etcetera. And so really that's kind of the the story of of Anogi. I mean, he came up wanting to prove that these athletes were the toughest athletes in the sport, and for decades he was actually he It's what helped

make him a legend. But at the end of the day, he went too far and had been him in the ass. And that's the story of Antonio anok the short story. I mean, we could talk for decades, but that's kind of what I was thinking when I heard about the death of an Oki. An incredibly complex and complicated legacy. It really is, and you've set a mouthful there. An incredible butterfly effect with a lot of things when it

comes to Anochi. What if Anochi? We always hear about Jim Crockett Promotions and the selling of the WTPS time slot by WWF because Vince McMahon needed the money before Russell Many he had exhausted a lot of his his credit. Well, he makes a million dollar booking deal with Antonio Winoki. He ends up screwing over an Oki by taking Hogan and Andre away. Over the next two years, but that

million dollars Vince needed that money. What if Antonio Anoki doesn't go all in on wanting pro wrestling to really truly still be strongest and for these pro wrestlers the facade to still be raised up. What if he doesn't do that when he comes to Eugene Nigata and then later on with Shinsky Nakamura. What if Hiroshi Tanahashi that had been approached for the leaving with Kgi Muto, with Kendall Kasen when they had enough of anocchism towards the end,

what if he leaves? There is so much to talk about with Antonio and Oki, and I'm not sure how much we're going to do today, but it is a fascinating story. Much like Rick a Dozen, much like Santo, He's on a par when it comes to culture in their countries at a little bit of a different level than almost anybody in this country could ever be. Well and to break back in a moment with more Wrestling Observer Live back in the show. Brian Elba is here

Wrestling Observer Live. Mike simper Viv also of Wrestling Observer dot Com. We can talk more about Anoki later in the show. It's gonna go over a little bit of the news here and then we can do questions or whatever. And of course Wrestling Observer Radio Friday with Garrett and last night with Dave and I a lot of talk hours on an Oki, and I'm sure there's more to come alright row to night, we have a contract signing for Biancan Bailey's Raw Women's Title Ladder Matching Extreme Rules.

Matt Riddle and seth Rawlins go face to face and they've announced that Daniel Cormier is going to be the referee of their Fight Pit match coming up Saturday at the pay per view. We have a Ray in a j versus The Judgment, Dave bron Stroman versus Chad Gable, Johnny Gargano versus Otis and Candice Lay and Dakota Kai. That's your lineup for ROT tonight and then Dynamite on Wednesday as Daniel Brian or Brian Danielson and Daniel Garcia

against Chris Jericho and Sammy Gavara, MGF versus Wheeler. You to Hangman Page versus rush Tony Stormathena and Willow Night and Gale versus Jamie Hayter, Serena Deep and Penelope Ford, Darby Ellen versus j Lethal Luca Source will be in action and who knows, maybe he'll be part of National Scissoring Day with the Acclaimed and Billy Gunn. I think we should celebrate National Scissoring Day here on this show

as well, But I don't really know how. You know what I'm saying your way over there, don't give me that face. And what's with the wind, dude? Well, holy smokes, these are the after effects of Hurricane Ian blowing up the the East coast and uh you, we really barely got anything at all. If that tells you what it was like if you're down in that hurricane in Florida. And I don't know how many people are swing right now because they're concerned their power is stole off. But

best wishes to everybody down there. Obviously affected wrestling all around the world. Last week, Jonah couldn't make his way to New Japan in London. Obviously there were a bunch of people that were off the a W and w W E shows that needed to be rewritten a little bit. So best wishes to everybody down there, because it had to be nasty already. A W no longer airing through broadcaster Space. A W is no longer on Space and

several countries including Mexico, South America, and Central America. So, as noted last night on the Observer radio show, what happened was their deal was coming do and they were not offered what they felt was a fair deal to continue, and so they pulled it. And now if you are in any of those places except Brazil, in in uh in uh Brazil, you can still sche it on Space, but everywhere else you have to subscribe to a W plus.

I guess they figured that they could make more money getting people to subscribe to a W plus and what they were offered for the Space deal, and the belief is that there may be some other options and that's why they didn't want to commit to a multi year deal with Space, because once you are committed to the deal, you're committed to the deal in theory of course. So that's the story there. And you know, we're not gonna

play gloom and doom here, but it's not always. You know, it's been this case for quite a while that every time a deal is up, people are offered significantly more money for it, and quite frankly, w W e will be offered significantly more money for their next deal. But

it's not like a guarantee. I mean, and you got to look at also with a w I mean, I'm not saying that if they if they got the same, if they were offered the same amount of money at their next television deal, that they like, pull it and go to fight. But you know, they have to take into account a lot of different things. They may not be offered less money, but they may not be offered much more money. And then their decisions that have to be made. Do we accept this offer, do we let

this expire? Do we start, you know, negotiating with other people so we shall see what happens when their deal comes to And deals like this are not wholly unusual to where Brazil is not part of that package. Why are you so quiet? What happened? I don't know? Why? Am I you're Can you hear me? No? You sound like you're on the telephone. What your tielines? Your cables all messed up? How about there we go? You gotta jam it into that thing. Don't you know anything about anything?

All right, go ahead, television deals. Maybe we'll find that you've only been scissoring, we wouldn't have this problem. That's we'll have to find that out during scissoring day. We gotta make sure we jam it in there to give the people what they need. But deals like this are not wholly unusual in South America. When Brazil is not part of the deal for obvious reasons, it's because well, they speak Portuguese there, so they end up having a separate deal for Spanish language. So a lot of people

were wondering about that. But it's not really all that unusual, and they need to get you a new cable will probably out sounding something's weird. He just jiggled it and it worked. Sometimes it's how that work. Just jostled it a little and all of a sudden you just slapping about a little bit. Alright, Well, next Dupre. You know I predicted this yesterday the Observer radio show. I can't

help but note that Dave was skeptical. Max Dupre will reportedly returning to the l A Night character as portrayed in n x T. He is back to being listed as l A Night on the internal roster. Meanwhile, muss, hey men, SWA and Maxine Dupri. We'll continue under the maximum so I like that. So he had he got a what is now apparently a fake name, but then he ended up with his sister with the same fake last name. But now he's going back to his other name,

but she's keeping the fake last name. That's going on. I just is Man Sar keeping? Is he keeping Man Swa when they go over to Saudi Arabia or do you even bring him over to Saudi Arabia? Why can't you bring him to the Saudi Arabia's men Swa that's his name. I don't know, do you do you really want to see Man Swa getting his ass kicked all over if he doesn't have to lose men walk and go over there and get a big win, he can really, of course he can. It's fake. Who do you have

him beat? Bro? Anybody? Otis? It doesn't matter. Come on, he can beat anybody. Chad Gable though maybe for the first match back in twelve years, Ricky Steamboat, we'll be teaming with Multipromotional Take Team Champions FTR had November's returned to the Dragon Show in Raleigh. This story is so weird to me because when they were they were talking

about Rick Flair's last match. Everybody was talking about how Ricky Steamboat maybe on the other side of a multiperson match, and you know, Ricky Steamboat did this big speech about how, you know, I don't want to come back. You know I my last matches. Everybody's gonna remember those, this whole thing about how he's just done. So they do the match, and then a month later, Hey, I'm on my way back. And granted he's teaming with FTR, but you know what

what worries me, well, the opponents. There's a mystery opponent, j Lethal, brock Anderson and a mystery opponent. Let me make this abundantly clear. I don't think it's Rick Flair. Oh no, I don't think it's Rick Flair. But if you want me to come on the air here and with a straight face tell you there's no chance it's Rick Flair, I ain't gonna do that. So I guess

we'll see. Well, the billing is arn Anderson's four Horsemen, including Jay Lethal as Black Machismo, who was her part of I don't you can't even tie that into the four Horsemen at all. But j Lethal is in the match along with Brocky Anderson. Alright, doubt we're going to get tests the Blanchard, So, you know, I guess there's

a possibility could be Rick Flair. But maybe there's a possibility that Ricky Steamboat maybe in the moment really didn't want to come back and do that match, and or maybe he saw what was going to take place and saw the scenario laid out and went no, I don't know if I want to do this. I don't know if I want to come back from my last match and have it be alongside ric Flair's last match, especially if you had some doubt about how Rick Flair would fare in that match. So with FTR, it's a six

man tag. He's got to stand on you know, the corner of the ring. He'll hit somebody with a chop. I don't know if we're going to see a full flying body press or not, but I guess if he can do it cool. I'm fine with him never doing a match. I'm fine with a lot of people never wrestling again. I was fine with Brian Danielson if that's all it was going to be. I'm fine with a lot of people not coming back. But if Ricky's seen both fields as though he can and he's cleared by

a doctor. Hey, I'm all for it. I guess listen to everybody. I'm not Rick Flair for sure, but I was a wrestler much like Flair. Here we go, Yeah, here's the deal everyone. I was satisfied with my performance in that match with Filthy, Okay, I was satisfied. So I was not impressed. I have no I have no desire in me to do it again. Okay, although after watching Stardom, you know if something eppisodes Zack Saber Jr. Anyway, Bro,

you ain't pulling no stumps there either. So but the thing with Flair is Flair, and listen, he shouldn't have done the match, and he's old and he's got whatever he's got inside him. But but he made a lot of mistakes that weekend. He didn't eat it all that day, he drank too much, he was dehydrated. It was a disaster, okay, And in his mind, if in his mind, he was like, you know what, man, I felt great training and man

I just screwed everything up that day. And if I did it again, I'd eat, I wouldn't drink too much, I'd be hydrated, and man, I could have a way better last match, and I bet you, Belsion, I'll bet you anything that's going through his mind, right, I'm sure it is. I'm sure it is, and he'd be delusional for thinking that, the same way he was probably delusional the last time around. I know, I'll probably want to

prove something to myself until the day I die. I'm sure there's something out there that that I did not accomplish or I was close to and didn't finish that. I am going to drive myself nuts about that. I am going to want to make better or make good honor something like that. But at some point, at some point, you just gotta let it go. I think he see I am hoping he's just on those ropes for that match. I think Flair watched my last match and said, I can't let this alver Is kid have a better last

metch than sinks back in a moment Observer Live. Hey, well back here on the show. Bran Elber is here Wrestling Observer Live. My sumber BV also of Wrestling Observer dot Com. We had SmackDown and a rampage on Friday. Bro this rampage show. This was a good show. Like I liked watching it, but I think I was the only one who watched it. There might have been some others,

but this is not what you would call a Marquis show. Now, I did a big review of this yesterday with Vinnian Craig, and I should have opened with this, and that is that I answered this in the Q and A. People like, can we stop reviewing the Rampage and review SmackDown down? And I said no. And this is why. Let's not forget that this was taped on Wednesday, and there were a number of talents that were affected by the hurricane

and could not make it to the show. So I'm not saying that the whole reason this was a non Marquee edition of Rampage, but I would I would consider this an aberration. And we've got several weeks, I think, a full month of live Rampage shows, and the Battle of the Belts is also this coming Friday night, so I think that we should give this a month see

how it goes. But this certainly was not a show or when you looked at the lineup, it's a must see acclaimed Butcher and Blade and private Party for the tag titles. I mean, it was just fine, but claimed one of course, Lee Moriarty and Fuego del Soul. Lee Moriarty just meet him. Then Morrisey chokes slammed him. We set up on draw day and ten on this show. Oh, in the middle of nowhere, they announced and draw a versus ten Mask versus career. It seems a little dramatic.

We had Jamie Hayter being Willow Nightingale like the match was good match, but she won Jamie Hayter, And then we had a bunch of video packages and then the main event, I love him and I like to match a lot, but it was Ruche versus John Silver and they had a good match. Ruche killed him dead with the bulls horns in the corner and then that was

the end. And then they set up a match with excuse me Ruche and Hangman page for this week, and then on the front page our our reviewer here wrote an I quote, a perfectly fine but unremarkable show, and what more can you say about this? It was a perfectly fine but unremarkable show. And that was a rampage that sounds fair to me. Sounds fair. Now SmackDown, SmackDown, Sammy's Ane and solo Skoa beat Ricoche and Madcap twelve

minutes and man, you know you're in Canada. And even if you were in Canada, the Sammy's ane so over him and Solo beat Ricochet and Madcap and they bowed Ricochet and Madcap out of the building. And it wasn't even like Sammy's an and and and solosco worked baby Face. They were at heal and then the baby Face and made a come back and got booed out of the building, and of course, uh Solisco got the big win. And then they're they're going backstage two that in the locker

room and Juso stops Sammy. He says, I can see what you're I see right through you if you try to screw this family, And Sammy just points of the shirt and says maybe stuck to old Roman walks into the room. So he did not deny that he was going to screw the family. It's a very strange story line. I'm not sure where they're going here, but they're there.

Where they are now, they're making you the viewer think that Sammy's actually not a nice guy and he's got a plan to screw the bloodline and the bloodline is very popular, and in fact Juso is is in traditional storytelling. He's the baby face here. He sees this guy trying to screw his family. He doesn't like it. So we'll see where this goes. But it's, uh, this was an interesting little twist that they did right here. This is where fantastic shades of gray work. There's nobody in that

bloodline that's a good person. Again, this goes to the Reservoir Dogs concept of foocking. Nobody here is a good guy, but everybody here is really great at what they do. And this feels like it's got a lot of Paul Hayman all over it. It's got a lot of all him and all over it when smackdowns on and he's standing right there with everybody. But this whole thing is great. It's got a lot of little release valves in there and depending on what directions that you wanted to go.

But Solo Sakoa is the thing that's forgotten about in this because he's come up and immediately he is a believable presence as a guy who kicks ass as a member of that roster. So as far as a guy making a debut up from n x D. Sure he's in a great position, but he's lived up to his end of the deal so far. We had the Drew MCTI Austin Theory match which went whopping two minutes to a horrible run in d Q, but it led to

a six man later, so that was that. We had a bunch of segments with Max dupri and Maximum Male Models that led to him quitting, throwing all of his stuff down. He's no longer part of this group. Going back to old l A Night, which was also a horrible name. L A Night hit Row the Los Lotharios, it was fine, another two minute match. Then we had Rhonda Rousey versus in Italia and I mean it was It was fun enough. Walt lasted. It wasn't perfect, but Rhonda gets the ankle lock and then call Lee. They

just love this angle. So outcomes Live Morrigan. Rhonda's head to the back and her path is blocked by Live Morrigan. Live Morgan has a bat, Rhonda Rousey is unarmed. Live Morrigan goes to swing the bat and Rhonda Rousy avoids it and beats her ass. Beat her ass so bad.

Mike just was painfully dehydrated, so she beats her, and she beats her, and finally they give Live a little something, and then Rhonda beats her ass again, and then security comes out and Security is dragging away Rhonda Rousey and Live Morgan leaps in and attacks Rhonda Rousey from behind, and they're pulled off again. And I just watched this thing and I thought, I thought the other guy was horrible at making baby faces. You're not doing Live any

favors here. She had a baseball bat, Rhonda Rousey was unarmed, and Rhonda Rousey still beat her ass. And I'm spos believe. I could not believe this segment. This sucked. At an Imperium promo, Shamus came out, they attacked Shamus, he fought back, they attacked him again, they laid him out. This sets up Shamus versus Gunter for the Intercontinental title coming up on Friday, a match. I believe that Shamus is likely

going to win. But we'll see Bailey beat Shot. See match was all right, and then afterwards she's attacking Shots. So Bianca ran down to make the save Bailey. At first, bail that attacked her from behind, Bianca's still grabbed her, was gonna hit the ko d on the ladder, but Bailey grabbed the up rope and fled, and uh yeah, we'll see what happens in their ladder match. I'm a little worried about this ladder match as a result of

the injury to Bailey in her recovery. Then they made a bed Drew McNair, Jenny Gargano, Kevin Owens, Verzasin, Theory and Alpha Academy and maybe faces one. McIntyre hit the claymore on Theory, a lot of good action, the fans were into it. Good match. Mctyre grabbed the strap and whip the hell out of Theory to end the show. You know, Vince had some things that he did and he's gone now so they don't do it anymore. But he had some other things that they did that man,

they just they still do. One of them is making your baby faces look like geeks. You know, it doesn't happen a lot, but every now and then, like the Live Morgan segment, she's a geek. Now, the rest of the baby face on the show they did they did fine with, but man, she was a geek. And then the other one they love to do is this awesome theory. He's got that money in the bank briefcase, and so they are not afraid to just beat and humiliate this guy.

And in theory, he should either be the next champion or he's gonna cash in and failure. Whatever. Man, they give this guy nothing. It's like when you used to win a title and all they do was just beat you like a drum right and left. So you know, they they've changed a lot of things for the better. But you know, Hunter isn't diametrically opposed Vincent every way. There were things that those two guys agreed on, and

apparently this is one of those things. Well, thankfully both Austin theory and uh Live Morgan or geeks, they really are. Live Morgan has been a geek the entire time. She's been a dumb friend the entire time. She's been a weak person that is always going to but she's strong inside because she lost, but I'm gonna come back. They have done such damage to her and she seemed like somebody they got over organically with the crowds and they've

messed it up. And if this is going to lead to her being a heel, because fans are naturally down the line of a Cheranda because she's kicking ass and that's how from Charlotte Returns or whatever you do. I'm actually all for that. I don't know if Live Morgan baby face underdog unless she's going to be somebody that's certainly slotted a lot lower on the card and never a threat. Okay, if that's what she's gonna be, fine,

but otherwise turn her heel. When it comes to Austin theory, he was a geek anyway, he was introduced as a geek, a smiling moron standing next to Vince McMahon and frankly, I kind of like what they've done with him getting punched out, always getting tripped up, making to be made to look like a fool, because I think you needed to tear their character back down to build him back up again. Now at some point you're going to have

to build him back up again. But I don't think he's a character that they're all of a sudden going to give up on either. So I think everything is fine for right now. But they are geeks. I mean they are being treated in storyline how they are because that's what they are. This uh, this fellow here said baby faces in pro wrestling have always been kind of stupid. Hold on a minute, Yeah, hold on, there's a big difference between being stupid and being for example, brave. Okay,

Shamus came out. Shamus came out and he's like, you know what, my my friends they're stuck in Florida. They couldn't be here tonight, you know what, I'm here. And he goes to the ring and yeah, he got he got beaten up, but it's not like he his friends couldn't make it. That's different than I don't need no friends. I'm gonna take you guys on by myself. That that's that's stupid. The other's brave. He's he's in a war and he's lost everybody. Well I'm gonna fight to the end. Okay,

Well that's situation too. That's not always on the person that that's my but that's my point. Like, you know, there's there's a difference between being brave and when you talk about bravery. Yeah, there's always there's always, arguably a little bit of stupidity involved with a lot of bravery, not all of it, but sometimes. And but that's different

than just being stupid. And you also, if you're a baby face, you know, you can be a goodhearted character that maybe sometimes is a little too trusting and you get screwed by bad people. That's different than being stupid, and oftentimes in w w E more so with vinc than anybody else. Your your stupid or the other. The other word that's often used is uh, you know, probably not the right word, especially with National scissoring Day coming up. But impotent. Okay, And of course a word like that

usually doesn't work for a female. But Live Morgan was impotent. She had a base ball bat. Okay, she had a baseball bat. She was square ring up against an unarmed opponent. She goes to swing said bat and she gets booted in the stomach and her ass kicked. Okay, that is an impotent baby face. You can't do it all perfectly in pro wrestling, but you know you can try harder than that. That did Live zero favors. No, No, Sometimes it's a cold and dry in the valley, I guess

you could say, and that can happen. But yeah, you know, baby faces, they make bad emotional decisions sometimes. Doesn't mean that they're weak, doesn't mean that they're pathetic, And unfortunately, with Austin theory and Live. We've had that way too often. I got a moment of Zerver Live alright in one hour here Filthy fort Daily myself and Filthy Tom Lawler and uh No Gimmickree. Today we got a lot to

talk about. We got SmackDown, we got New Japan Strong, we have the semifinals and finals from the Stardom pay per views past weekend. Tom watched ten Antonio Anoki matches and uh yeah, we gotta get through all of that in an hour. So if you're interested in those topics, Filthy for Daily Video dot ft W online dot com you can watch live at two Pacific five Eastern. Oh, I gotta hope you watch the Island match with I should watch that before the show, take him two hours

to talk about it. And then Wrestling Observer it's like a forty minute matcher hour and forty minutes or something. I don't have time to watch that one. And then if Wrestling Observer dot com you can listen all the shows as well. Because Wrestling Observer dot com has every show we've ever done archive dating back to two thousand five,

we are now over thousand shows. I remember when I was a kid, one of the Smithsonian suite, and they said, you know, if you if you wanted to look at every exhibit in the Smithsonian, you couldn't do it in your lifetime. And I was like, that's bs, it's like five buildings. I mean, I could probably do it in a week. I couldn't spend a lot of time on everything,

but you know, at worst a year. But you're telling me, you're telling me if I lived to eight, five, five years old or whatever, I couldn't look at everything in this Smiths. I find that impossible, topecially if we moved to Dyeah. Really, now, if you're counting like we got a whole bunch of books there and you'd have to we're counting you reading every book cover to cover. That's fine. But you know, when I look at fourteen thousand archive podcasts, you could do it in your lifetime, but you could

probably be better served doing something else. But you know what they're there. If you want to go back and listen to this show or that, listen all the Brian of vide shows from start to finish, starting like twenty nineteen will be my recommendation. But there's a lot of stuff there, so check it out. Wrestling him over dotcom. And that is it, everybody. We're out of time. Next Mike has always callers and listeners ever to the studio.

We'll talk to you next time. Wrestling Observe alive you have been listening to the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast on the eight Side Network